So I'm only instead of you know, I've read last week and the week before I read the whole of The the prayer but let's just go to verse 5 today Because verses 1 through 5 really set it up And today offers a little bit more explanation as to verse two. It supports it. Yes, exactly. Thank you for that witness, young man. Verse one, John chapter 17. Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you. as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you Before the world was Well, that is the word of the Lord what a blessing it is As we look at it and notice that in verses 4 and 5 where he actually uses I and he's speaking in the third person and we'll cover that today I believe we're covering how he noticed the verse three, which is our concentration verse today. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. He speaks of himself in third person here. And I think that's an important indication for us to understand some of the things that have been said for our grasp, for our understanding, and also for Christ, most especially for Christ's glorification. If I were to title this particular Bible study, I'd call it, Who is Eternal Life? Who is Eternal Life? John 17, you know, I've been bringing up quotes concerning John 17, and Philip Melanchthon, who is a German reformer, he was a co-reformer along with Martin Luther. He lived from 1497 to 1560. He said this, he had this quote to say about John chapter 17, no more noble, no more holy, no more salutary, no more lofty voice has ever been heard in heaven or earth than this very prayer of the Son of God, end quote. And I mentioned before, you've heard me say that I'm not a Calvinist, and I said this on Wednesday, so at the risk of repeating myself from the Department of Redundancy Department, I mentioned Wednesday night, and I repeat it again tonight, I'm also not an Arminian. either. In the words of John Bunyan from his last sermon preached in August 1688, he said, quote, I am not a free willer. I do abhor it, end quote. That was what he preached in his last sermon in August 1688. pleads with those to be born again. He pleads for those in that sermon. He pleads for them to receive Christ, but he is not one who believes in the free will to grasp salvation. If every man is a sinner, they cannot grasp salvation on their own free will. It doesn't mean the man doesn't have free will. Man has free will, but he's only free to follow the will that he has. And if we're depraved, We can't do anything good. We can do good things, but we cannot do the highest good. That requires the power of God in order to grasp the gospel. And that's what it means when he's talking about, I'm not a free willer. Unless the sovereignty of God changes us and awakens us to the gospel, we cannot receive the gospel. That's what the Bible declares. Because none seek after God. That's what the scriptures claim. None seek after God. None do it. No one does good. No not one. We like that song singing that, right? No not one. Right, Nick? This verse in the English Standard Version, John 17, verse three says, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Verse three explains the eternal life of verse two. And again, verse two is, as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So the first thing that we're confronted with is that they may know you, and he's praying to the Heavenly Father so that we may know the Father. Jesus actually said this in the middle of his ministry, in the middle of his earthly ministry in Matthew 11, verse 27. He said, all things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." So, the Father can't be known unless the Son reveals the Father. But also, the Son can't be known unless the Father reveals the Son. So that requires a supernatural power, because we wouldn't know Him otherwise. We didn't just wake up one day and say, oh, let's be Christians. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't mean that someone couldn't be saved that way. In two weeks, I'll be preaching a message concerning children who die in childbirth, concerning that. That they're saved the same way as you and I are, who have received the gospel by God's grace. Brother Mike. Well, I just, I was thinking about this issue of free will. And, you know, when Bunyan said that, you know, I'm thinking, he meant, well, he may have meant that he did not agree with the way in which the free willers interpreted the will. In other words, he didn't agree with this group of people. It's not really very clear unless you know exactly what the free willers If you in the back didn't get what Brother Mike was saying, in 1688, there was a group of people that they didn't call themselves, they weren't recognized by themselves as those that called themselves Arminians. They were called Free Willers. And we have them today. Free Will Baptist churches are among that ilk, but they were called Free Willers. And what Brother Mike was saying was that he was not identifying the gospel with what those who called themselves Free Willers were, that God couldn't save anyone apart from their free will decision. And in one sense, just by that sentence itself, that is true, but efficacious grace, it makes us willing. We don't just all of a sudden say, well, for example, this is what is often preached. that God has done everything he can to save you, now it's up to you, as if your decision makes the gospel the gospel. That's not true. The Bible declares it's not true. that it must be God and he does it for his sake to regenerate a soul to awaken us to be able to make that decision for himself because we have to go right back to what I said last week that we all deserve death eternally for the sins we committed against God if he sent us all to hell he's justified in doing so and there wouldn't be a problem with it whatsoever in the justice of God and the character of God. However, Spurgeon said this, that God is more justified. He used the word vindicated. Young people vindicate means justified. Another word for justified. But God is more vindicated by the death of the son of man than if he had sent every single person to hell or to condemnation. He is justified. In other words, justice is served. When I say justified, He's vindicated. So, that you may know, or that they may know you. This is what eternal life is, that they may know you. Who is He talking about? He's talking about the Father. You as the Heavenly Father. They, who is the they? It's those to whom the Son has given eternal life in verse 2. For as many as have been given by the Father, Jesus has given them eternal life. And then know, that's the Greek word gnosko, to know. From Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, it says, a prolonged form of a primary verb, to know, absolutely, in a great variety of applications and with many implications, as shown with others not thus clearly expressed. Although, allow, it means allow, be aware of, feel, have knowledge of, to know or be known, perceive, be resolved, can speak, be sure, or understand. That's the word gnosko in the Greek from the Strong's Exhausted Concordance. But consider this, that this is eternal life in this first part of it where Jesus says that they may know you. This is eternal life. All ideas of God that fall short of whom Christ has revealed as the Father are not the only true God. And I got to say that again because I don't even understand what I said. Any ideas about who the Father is Oh, excuse me, Christ reveals who the Father is. But any ideas that fall short of who Christ says is the Father, if it doesn't meet up to what Christ says is the Father, then that is not the true and living God. You know, as he says in verse three, then this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God. So our definition of the father, the first person of the Trinity must come by the son, which kind of makes sense because the son defines who the father is and the father defines who the son is because of the relationship, father and son. Before it was just like as in the beginning, God Almighty, El Shaddai. as Brother Mike was saying during worship there, one of the names of Jesus. But any idea that doesn't come from Jesus who the Father is, if we just kind of come, well, I'm gonna say that the Father is kind of like my earthly father who used to get drunk every night and beat me. Well, that would fall short of what Jesus didn't describe a father like that, a heavenly father like that. Those should be cast away and we should be left with only those definitions in which the Son has defined the Father. The son, number two, the son has not merely revealed the father by his teaching. In other words, the son has not merely revealed the father by teaching us about the father, but he has shown us his very character and work. Remember right here, just a few pages away in John chapter 14 and verse nine, that, Oops, John chapter 14 and there it is, 14 and verse 9. When Philip says in verse 8, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us. And Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? In other words, their whole time, the three and a half years that Jesus was on fulfilling His earthly ministry, while they followed Him, they were seeing the character and personage of the first person of the Trinity through the second person of the Trinity. Because Jesus defined him in John chapter four, God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. So the father doesn't have a body like Jesus does, he is spirit. And so he is, In bodily form, as Colossians tells us, he is the fullness of Godhead bodily, the fullness of deity bodily. Hebrews 1 verse 3 says, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of majesty on high. So there we see that he's not just revealed as he teaches us the Father, but the person of Christ too reveals to us who the Father is. Everything that Jesus did would not contradict what the Father does. And we saw that earlier. Sister Vicki. I'm so glad you asked. I'd love to answer that question in point number three. No, you didn't get ahead of me. That was perfect timing. I love it, sister. It's one of those Holy Ghost moments. Yeah, so it's more than just a head knowledge because of the doctrine that Jesus teaches. And it's more than just a visual learning experience because we see by the example who Jesus is in his character. But it is also an intimacy that ties everything up, including emotions, because the Hebrew concept of knowledge is more than information and understanding. It comes from the Hebrew word yadah, and yadah means to know intimately, but not necessarily, it may not necessarily be used in a intimate physical relationship. However, it would include all those things within an intimate physical relationship, as we would see in, say, Genesis chapter four, verse one. And Adam knew his wife, Eve and she conceived and bear Cain in Genesis 4 verse 1. It uses the Hebrew word yadah for knowing. That was a physical intimacy. However, that word in Hebrew throughout the entire Old Testament scriptures is used in a way that we understand that that it's in the spiritual sense, also in the emotional sense, in the intellectual sense, because you can learn things, but somebody might learn, be in the same classroom, same age group as you, as homeschoolers, be in the same class with somebody in college, you're all learning the same subject in school, but you might not be intellectually connected. Yadah, the knowing, makes you intellectually connected. You almost finish each other's sentences in the subject. Brother Mike. Well, you know, I'm sure you've had occasions where you prayed and the events that followed, you know, you went, God, you did that. You could have said, you did that. Brother Mike is talking about the providence of God in that where events followed you and you recognize that as they fall in place, you have an awakening, you have a knowledge of that, that, oh God, you did that. That would be the Yadah Hebrew to know. We have a picture of it in the Gospel of John in chapter one, and I've quoted it. son, who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him, but being in the bosom of the father, being, you know, intimately close to the father, he has declared him, but being in the bosom of the father, being, you know, intimately close to the father, he has declared him. Connected with the father being in this very bosom one in the same One in the other this union that they have and that's what that knowing also expresses as Christ knows the father and is the express image of the father's person and he's revealed Jesus has revealed him through information. He's taught about him through intimate relation because of their relationship, father to son and son to father, and imitation, because Jesus does exactly what the father would do. If the father were on earth, this is what he would do. So the son is the express image of his person. In other words, he does exactly what the father does on earth. So in those three ways, information, intimate relation, and by imitation, Jesus has given us a picture of the father. And so, we go to the second part of verse three, and the Greek word chi, which joins, it says, let me read verse three, and this is eternal life. You could almost put a colon in there. This is a eternal life colon, and now the definition, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, To know the father without the son Let me say it this way Well before we get into that notice that the Lord is praying I've mentioned that I said the Lord is praying of himself in third person The reason why he's doing that, he says, and in fact, he mentions, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, this is the only time John has ever written Jesus Christ, Iasu Christos in Greek. This is the first time that he's ever written it like this. and he's done it right here, and he does it as in Jesus Christ speaking in third person. One of the reasons why he does so, I believe, is because it is showing in this prayer how he humbles himself, which further supports the authority and submission he was talking about in verse 2 last week. He's separating himself by speaking in third person, whom you have sent, the authority and submission role of the gospel. And see, this is that humility. Remember that in Philippians chapter two, that he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross. The purpose of Christ's coming was to be under complete submission to the authority of the Father while he was on earth. And so this brings us a great gospel truth. A gospel life that is not a humble life is not a holy life. A gospel life that is not a humble life is not a holy life. And moreover, our Lord speaks from an eternal vantage, which we'll see next week in verse four. I'm not gonna cover it now because that'll cause us to get into sidetracks and we won't cover what we're covering. But verse four will speak of, this is why he speaks in third person, though in verse four he switches where he uses the first person, uses I. But verse four and verse five explain this eternal vantage point that he is giving us. He's giving, by speaking in third person, he allows us to actually, in a sense, step into the heavenlies with his prayer. So this last part, to know Jesus Christ, whom the Father has sent. To know the Father apart from the Son is unthinkable, and to know the Son apart from the Father is impossible. The revelation of who the Son is comes back to us, because in Matthew chapter 16, and I mentioned it in the morning worship this morning, that when, remember that Jesus asked, well, who do men say that I, the Son of Man am? And they came up with a lot of answers of what other people were saying. But who do you say that I am? Peter was the only one that that gave Jesus an answer. You're the Christ the son of the Living God and he says blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for flesh and blood has not Revealed the son to you, but my father which is in heaven And so we see the work of the father the father reveals the son as the son also reveals the father so we have them it's kind of a It's contained within itself, which tells us that we can't logically come to that. It is the glory of God to reveal this truth to us, and He must do it by His grace. I know it's a tough concept to wrap our minds around, but we believe it by faith, that both of them are revealed, one reveals the other and the other, they are revealed to each other. They reveal each other to us. The Father reveals the Son to us, the Son reveals the Father to us. And we're just subjects, we're just subjects to this great truth that the Spirit brings to us. To know Jesus Christ was the Apostle Paul's passion and paramount goal. Philippians chapter 3 verse 10 begins this way, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, that I may be made conformable to his death. But the very part of this, this is, he's writing, Paul is writing from his first Roman imprisonment somewhere around 62 AD and he is writing to this church in Philippi whom he loves, and he has known the Lord Jesus Christ for some possibly 30 years at this particular point. He is an apostle who has seen the risen Savior, who receives revelation because he's an apostle, an apostle to the Gentiles, and a teacher, and a preacher, and yet he says that I may know him. That that is, well see, since Christ is infinite, that we may know this infinite Christ. He can never come to the end of it, and I believe that part of heaven is that joy of chasing around the truth of who Christ is in his person and his work for all of eternity. And I may know him. To know Jesus Christ is to have Christ is to know Jesus Christ. The third point here is to know Jesus Christ is to have Christ. And it's what the Puritans called in the 1600s was to own him. not to own him as if he was a slave. And I know a lot of people think like that. Well, I'll just pray that Jesus gives me this, or Jesus gives me that. There are television evangelists that do that, but that's not what they were talking about, as you know. Christ, in other words, young people, when it says, when we say we're taking ownership, owner we own Christ to have Christ in other words it means to be a good steward of this relationship with Christ we received by God's grace we own it now it is a gift that has been given to us in ownership not something that we bought it is a gift that we have been given by God Jesus Christ he is living in us as a gift And now as we own it, because it's given to us as a gift, we are responsible as good stewards of it to treat it as the treasure it was intended to be. Owning up. Owning up is a more modern term of it. We own up to it. This is what we've been given. Now we own it and cherish it and treasure it. It is mine. to be able to have and to hold and to cherish. Wow, sounds like marriage, which is what it is. A marriage unto Christ. 1 John 5, verse 12 says, he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. And that having that assurance of salvation, which this verse is often pointed to, he who has the Son has life, he who does not have the Son. But it is that ownership, that responsibility of stewardship for something that is our precious, treasured possession. That's what it means, that's the third thing for what it means to know Christ. The fourth thing it means, I have seven things here, so bear with me. So I can close this out, I know I've been here for a while. Like the Father, to know Christ is to know him intimately. That's where Genesis 4 verse 1 is. It says that, you know, Adam knew his wife and she conceived and bare them a son and she named him Cain. But it means spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, thoroughly, sacrificially, in other words, lovingly. That agape love that we see in the Greek New Testament. So to know the Father is to know him intimately. The fifth thing we see in knowing Christ is to know Christ is to have life abundantly John chapter 10 verse 10 You know as the thief comes in to kill and destroy Jesus says I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more Abundantly that life may abound because we know Christ to know Christ is to abound in life It's abundant life The sixth thing to know Christ is, and this isn't a complete list, I just have seven things here. The sixth thing to know Christ is not a path to better life. Jesus is not a path to better life. Young people, say this with me. Jesus is not a path to better life. Jesus is eternal life. See, he's not a path to get to some place better. He is eternal life. He is the destination. He is the goal. When we go to heaven, it's because we want to be with Jesus. That's what heaven is. Which brings us to number seven. To know the Lord Jesus Christ is to know joy unspeakable and to one day inherit joy unimaginable. I wrote a devotion yesterday in the e-devotionals based on Revelation chapter 21, verse 4. And I'm going to ask you to turn to Revelation 21, verse 4. Revelation chapter 21, last book of the Bible, second to the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21. And in verse 4, I wrote a devotion. And I actually want to read you the devotion. And some of you have read it from yesterday that I send it out. But for those of you that don't have it, don't get it, like some of you young people, I know you don't have email. I wanna read to you some things here. If you're there, say amen. Amen. If you're not, say amen. Revelation, last book of the Bible, second to the last, chapter 21 is second to the last chapter of the Bible. And in verse four it says, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain for the former things that passed away. And in the devotional I wrote this. I've been asked a few times over the years, if there will be no more crying in heaven, what tears will Christ Jesus wipe from our eyes? Now, I've heard taught by one once that these are tears of missed opportunities, of witnessing for Christ. Well, that didn't make sense to me. And if there would be no more death, mourning, or even pain, which would include emotional pain of sorrow. Well those former things which are nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble in the eternal scheme of Christ's kingdom will be consumed by the fire of Christ's glory in that day. All that will remain are the gospely good things of Christ. Eternal and spiritual gold, silver, and precious gems according to 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verses 12 to 15. The tears our precious Lord Jesus Christ will wipe away will be the fountain of joyful tears springing forth from eternal praise and gratitude in his blessed and forever presence. Yes and amen. For, quote, we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is, end quote. That's from first John chapter three in verse two. There will be no more sea to separate the gospel promise from promise. Verse one says in Revelation 21, now I saw a new heaven and new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea. And the sea, which like the sea of glass, which represents the gospel in front of the throne of Christ, the sea separates land from land. And as the land is the promise given unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, There'll be no more sea to separate promise from promise because Jesus's presence will be a continual fulfillment of every promise and every inheritance he has made. I continue to write this, there will be no more temples made with stone, neither living temples from fallen flesh and dusty bone. For Christ Jesus will be the temple of his redeemed according to verse 22 of chapter 21. Verse 22 says, but I saw no temple in it For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And His grace and glory will be our sun, moon, and stars. As it says in verse 23, the city had no need of the sun or the moon to shine in it. For the glory of God illuminated it, the Lamb is its light. This is heaven indeed. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, his eternal presence in that day, is love unimaginable, joy inconceivable, and peace indescribable and unutterable. 2 Corinthians 12 verses 3 and 4. That's the devotion that I had written yesterday and even now it still makes me a little emotional considering that's what we have to look forward to. Who Christ Jesus is and what he has done is eternal life. It reminds me of a story, you know, I don't care much more, I don't care very much after 36 years of walking with the Lord. I really don't care too much what people think of me. I want to be as good a witness as I am, but I also want to be true to who I am. That's actually more holy to be transparent in who I am as a goof. Even turning my back to the congregation when I'm preaching, showing you my bald spot to make an illustrative point. It sounds goofy, but it doesn't matter who I am because it only matters who Christ is. There's a story of George Mueller. It's not put in any of Moody's biographies that I know of, but it's put in George Mueller's biography that there was an evangelist named Dwight Lyman Moody. And he came to England and he wanted to see some of these people who were very well known at the time. Charles Spurgeon, he visited Spurgeon and he visited the orphanages of a guy named George Mueller who asked God for everything. He didn't ask anybody for money to feed the orphans. He asked God for everything. And Sister Vicki's dad lived by that particular principle and knew the autobiography of George Mueller, which I believe that's the book that it was in. He knew the autobiography of George Mueller, The power of prayer to seek God in everything and that had been Lisa's in my Determination in ministry that we would ask the Lord for things and if they came by the hands of those that we loved and Then that's how they came, but we'd always ask him first and with very few exceptions We almost didn't have to ask anyone else But when Dwight Moody came to George Mueller and wanted to see how his orphanages are run, George Mueller told him, he says, you know, and I'm paraphrasing here, he says, I hear a lot about what Dwight Moody is doing for Christ. But what I want to know is what has Christ done for Dwight Moody? That's a really interesting thing. What has Christ done for Dwight Moody? But what has Christ done for you? What has Christ done for John Cardwell? That has stuck with me, and see, the thing is that my entire purpose as your pastor, my primary focus and my prioritized passion is to point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. When we are looking to Him, I know that my purpose, my calling is fulfilled because we get hung up and it's so easy for us to look at ourselves and to look at others. But when our eyes are on Christ, that's everything. It is the answer for all things. And often, even these days, I get really discouraged sometimes when how ministers are looking at how many baptisms or how many numbers that are in church, when all they need to do is talk about Christ and point you, or their people, point their people in their congregations to the Lord Jesus Christ always. And if I have been able to do that here, which I hopefully, Lord willing, I have been doing that along the way, because that's been my determined goal ever since the Lord called me in the pastoral ministry, then I've been faithful to what I've been called to. And that's what is, I believe, most helpful for all of you. The practical, maybe practical application will come with that. But as long as Christ is exalted, every practical application is so that you could look in the scriptures and look at everyone else to see Christ exalted. And that's what this is here. That's what eternal life is, to know the Father and to know the Son, to know them intimately. And therein God is glorified because Christ is exalted. In my devotional, I wrote this little prayer, little four, I guess, I wrote this little poem, which I have a habit of writing in many of the devotionals at the end. It says this, Lord Jesus, though I sorrow now, enduring trials and strife, but one day tears of joy will flow for your eternal life. He's eternal life. Jesus is eternal life. Young people, say with me, Jesus is eternal life. That is today's study. That's all I have for today's notes. I could go on and on about that, but... I said it with you. Is that all right? You're a child of God, brother, so that's quite all right. Jesus is eternal life. Any questions or comments on John chapter 17, verse 3? Or on anything. Sister Vicki. I read that devotional yesterday. Vivian and my garden were meditating on this. And I thought of my mom, because I never saw my mom cry very much. There are a lot of women who cry frequently. We forced her to sit down and watch a movie, and it was a sad movie, like Old Yeller. Oh, sure. When Old Yeller dies at the end, I don't think anybody didn't cry on that one. I know she's cried. Those tears, yeah. And the tears of joy, I believe, if Jesus is wiping away tears, it's those tears. Then when we see Jesus for as He is in 1 John 3, verse 2, that we shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him. Now we'll see why He's the weeping prophet. Some of the tears that He wept were probably tears of joy in the intimate relationship He had with the Father. Many of them were tears of sorrow. He had joy in the midst of sorrow. But now in that, when everything is said and done, and there's a new heaven and a new earth, all will be left with will be tears of joy. And what a joy it will be when Jesus wipes away our tears, tears of joy that we could shed. You know why he wipes them away, young people? Why he will wipe them away is because then we'll have room for more tears because of joy, of joy in Christ. He wipes them away and there'll be more tears because Jesus is that good. Jesus is good. The thought of heaven and Christ is so overwhelming that as you grow, you see some things, young people especially, and I address this to young people and I don't mean that I'm neglecting all of you, I think that you all know that. But when they're so young, they don't see how much precious Jesus is as you've been walking with them for years and years. Right now, many things of God's creation are so exciting to you. They are. Some of them are still exciting to me. You should have seen four old men that are over 60 years old sitting on the beach in the Nilchik and just clapping every time Every time a salmon hit the net, yay! We're just excited about that. And you are excited about those things. But see, those excitements don't even come close to what Jesus is and who he is and who he will be for us in that day. Let me close it in prayer and get you all home. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you, Lord, for the blessed truths that you have given us in the Gospel of John, and especially in this prayer that our Lord has prayed, and the truth that so Pours out from the from each verse we ask you father that you'll make The that you'll make the lofty low so that we can understand it, but you'll make those simple things Exalted so that Jesus Christ is high and lifted up and the Heavenly Father that you're glorified We love you and thank you in Jesus name and forsake. Amen