No Turning Back

[00:00:00] Hey, Church, how you doing? [00:00:04] That was weak. [00:00:07] I need the energy today. I am so excited to be with you. And I was just singing that song. And don't ever want to take for granted that we have a God who found us, that we have a God who has called us by name. [00:00:26] I never want to lose the passion of my soul that says I'm going to take the easy way out. [00:00:36] I want to take the road less traveled, Church. [00:00:41] I want to take the road that says I was made for more. [00:00:47] And we can't do any of this without Jesus. So let's pray. [00:00:53] Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you. I thank you for who you are. [00:00:59] I thank you that with outstretched hands, you said, this is how much I love you. [00:01:06] And you took our shame, you took our misery, you took our sin, and you gave us something so much more beautiful. [00:01:20] You gave us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. [00:01:24] I pray that there is no turning back. [00:01:29] That where our minds and hearts hit the hard spots, Father, that we will lean all the more on you. [00:01:39] In your son's most perfect and beautiful name, we pray. Amen. [00:01:44] Years ago, Jacob and I saved up to take our kids on the dream trip to Hawaii. [00:01:51] And part of our thinking was we are. We're going to save. We'll skimp on the hotel because we're in Hawaii. Who wants to be in the hotel? You know what I'm saying? We're going to be out on the adventure. And so I am a very type B personality, but I turned type A and I said, we are making a bucket list for this trip, because I knew it'd probably be the only time we ever went. [00:02:13] And so I started doing all the Pinterest research, you know, like what. [00:02:19] What's in Maui? What are the sights that we can see? [00:02:23] What are the things we want to do? And so we had heard of a place where you could go Haleakala, where you would take this drive early in the morning before the sunrise came. And above the clouds, you would see the sunrise, and the clouds would be the most gorgeous colors. We bought the cheap snorkel kit. So, like, out back in our backyard, you know, in Hawaii, we could just go snorkel, and we could see the turtles and the sea life. And we booked an excursion where we would go to, like, a dormant volcano, and they take you, and you just see the sea life like you've never seen before. [00:02:59] Well, one of the biggest adventures we wanted to do is called the Road to Hana. Has anyone been there or heard of it? [00:03:06] Okay, okay. So Hana has a reputation about it because it is some of the most beautiful places you will ever see in your life. [00:03:15] The problem is the road. [00:03:19] The road is honestly like nothing I've ever seen before. [00:03:25] It is. [00:03:26] I think we've got some pictures. It's got cliffs like this with no guardrail. [00:03:33] You are going to take a turn here that you can't see what's coming. It's one lane. [00:03:40] Can you zoom out to that other picture? [00:03:42] And a lot of it looks like this. It's these hairpin turns that you don't know who's coming. You've got to take it slow. And so we saw the most beautiful things we ever saw. And Jake got this cool app that it would say, skip this, this is a Touristy and in 100ft you're going to want to pull off to the right and there's a place that the locals go to and you can go cliff jumping. And so you better believe we went off to the right and we went cliff jumping and we just saw beaches with black sand and we just. It was most beautiful trip. [00:04:17] But this was exhausting, this was stressful. And every time we got back into the car it was like white knuckling it to the next spot. [00:04:29] And in fact, I looked it up. Most people only make it halfway because they get this road fatigue, this road to Hana fatigue, because the twists and turns and everything that's happening is just too stressful and you are exhausted by the time you get home. [00:04:50] And isn't it true that in our life we're all driving down the road, we have an adventure ahead of us and we don't know which way the road's going to take us. [00:05:02] Isn't it true that there is a lot of beautiful things along the way to see, but there's also the surprises that you don't know what's around the next corner. [00:05:13] There's also the surprises where you're on the one lane road and you're feeling alone and like you don't know what's going to happen next. [00:05:24] Isn't it true that when we are living life, there are moments of overwhelming fatigue that can make us want to turn back? [00:05:36] There are moments that we did not expect, we did not plan for, we would have never wished upon ourselves. [00:05:45] And if our hearts aren't rooted in Jesus Christ, it's easy to turn back, to fall back into habits that we have no business. [00:05:58] I want to say a huge thank you to Jason because one, it's very vulnerable to be able to get up there and share your story, but Two, the way he is giving his life away to help people, people who have hit those bumps in those roads, who have fallen back at church, we need the resources. So can we just give a huge round of applause to Jason Augustine? [00:06:30] You know, it's often that we read scripture and it's. [00:06:33] It's sometimes hard to understand or what are we reading? And so I want to set the scene for the Book of Hebrews, because today we're going to be in Hebrews 10. [00:06:44] And it's often to look at the Bible as, like a story or, you know, find one or two verses that might hit you. But I want to set the scene, the context, because what's happening helps us understand what God meant for us in our life. [00:06:59] And so I've been studying Hebrews, and most scholars believe that the Book of Hebrews is written to the Jewish Christians. [00:07:09] Now, the idea is that they were people who were deeply rooted in the Old Testament faith. They were deeply rooted in the Jewish religion. And so something happened where they heard about Jesus. [00:07:25] In the first century, Jesus was spreading like wildfire. [00:07:30] Not flower, fire. [00:07:32] Fire. [00:07:34] And his name was becoming known. And these people who had followed one way, they heard and their hearts were captivated by something of the dignity and the freedom and the grace that Jesus Christ offered. [00:07:49] And so they were turning from an Old Testament faith and seeing that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of that faith. [00:07:59] But it was hard. [00:08:00] Persecution was happening. This book is probably dated somewhere between 64 and 68. Somewhere in there, we know it happened before the destruction of the temple, because it talks about the temple in here. And we know that Christian persecution was happening. So it was like early persecution was happening. And. And we see that their homes were being plundered and. And they were being abused in different ways. And. [00:08:27] And it's a critical moment because life in Christ was not what they expected. [00:08:37] You see, I truly believe they thought there was an outcome. [00:08:44] We're following Jesus now. We're putting our faith in Him. [00:08:49] Life should get better. [00:08:52] But persecution was happening. [00:08:54] And so their instinct was to want to fall back into what they knew. [00:09:00] Their instinct was to fall back to what was comfortable. And they were going to fall back into their Jewish religion, the tradition. [00:09:09] And this author is saying at every step of the way, I want you to know why Jesus Christ is superior than every other option. [00:09:20] I want you to know why Jesus Christ is superior than all these Old Testament traditions that you've hung your life on. I want you to know that he is better in every way. And so you have to imagine these Jewish Christians who are struggling with persecution, their life is being challenged. [00:09:39] They've seen things. Some people think Paul might have even been gone at this time, depending on the date from the persecution in Nero, the church persecution, the Christian persecution that was happening in Rome. [00:09:52] And, and so you're, you're. There's a possibility that the, the, the mentor, the person who has started it, he's gone. [00:10:01] And I don't know if that's true or not because we don't really know how to date the book. But there's a possibility. There's just your, your Jewish families would have been so confused on why you would be switching faith. There would just be a lot going on and the easier route would have just been to forget it. [00:10:20] But then the author of Hebrews writes this letter and it starts circulating and it gets into the hearts of the weary and tired men and women who are trying to stay rooted but on the verge of slipping back. [00:10:45] And we're going to pick up in Hebrews 10 we're going to look at verse 35 and 36. [00:10:51] Can we pop that up on the screen? [00:10:54] Here's what it says. [00:10:56] The author is, he's, he's challenging them to persevere. He's calling them to not throw away their confident trust. So here it says, do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. [00:11:09] Remember the great reward it brings you. [00:11:12] Patient endurance is what you need now so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised you. [00:11:23] As I was looking at verse 35, so do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. I was thinking about their lives and you can't throw away something you don't have. [00:11:34] There was a belief, there was a hope, there was something inside of them that was stirring. There was something inside of them that they did decide to say yes to. [00:11:47] But then it got hard. Church, are there any amens in this room? Does anyone know the feeling? [00:11:54] It got hard and they were struggling and this author's looking and he's saying, don't throw away your confident trust. [00:12:04] And I loved. I was reading a sermon from Spurgeon this week and the way he looked at trust gave me new insight that I want to share with you. [00:12:14] He said, trust is a full leaning of your weight and your life on Jesus Christ. [00:12:21] It's a full reliance that he is the one that carries you. It's a full assurance that he is the one who lifts you. Jerk. [00:12:32] So yesterday my boys and I were. This is my son in law, Jeremiah. [00:12:39] We're about to do something so stupid. Thank you. [00:12:43] I just. I wanted to give us a visual because you know what I was thinking? [00:12:47] I was thinking about, what does it look like to really trust in God in the kind of way where you bear your full wait on Jesus Christ? [00:12:59] And do you know the first thing that came to my mind? [00:13:02] Trust fall. [00:13:03] I literally. My mind went back to being a little girl and us doing trust falls in the backyard or us doing trust falls in the youth group. But I was practicing with Jerry yesterday, and he stood back way too far. You know what I'm saying? [00:13:19] I picked him because he's strong, but I have trust issues. [00:13:27] Anyone else? [00:13:29] I have trust issues. [00:13:31] Life has hurt along the way. [00:13:34] People have betrayed along the way. [00:13:37] I look at social media and I see bunnies hopping on a trampoline, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, that is so cute, AI. [00:13:44] You can't even trust your own eyes anymore. [00:13:49] I have trust issues. So we were practicing, And this is what I was doing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. [00:14:01] And I was. I was. I couldn't even. He's like, I am not going to let you fall. He actually said, I did this with Jovan. I've got you. [00:14:13] Jovan's very muscular, very strong. [00:14:16] Okay. [00:14:19] But this is what it feels like. [00:14:21] It feels like I have trust issues in my life. [00:14:25] And it feels like I have more faith in what I can hold and what I can do on my own than what Jesus Christ can do for me. [00:14:34] And so, time after time after time, I depend on my own strength. [00:14:40] Time after time after time, I put my foot down and I stopped the fall. [00:14:45] And I say, I'm going to try a little bit harder. I'm going to do something a little bit different instead of closing my eyes and trusting. [00:14:56] I love you. Thank you. [00:15:00] I wanted you to get that visual, even though it's a dumb example. But here's the visual. I'm putting my full trust in God. [00:15:09] And when I'm falling back, there's moments where it feels like I absolutely can't. The fear creeps in. [00:15:17] The struggle creeps in. Of control. [00:15:23] The comfort of no, thank you. [00:15:26] I don't want to feel that way. Creeps in. [00:15:29] But what this author is saying is, don't throw away your confident trust. [00:15:35] There is a confidence that is not on you. There is a confidence that does not come from your own strength. There's a confidence that does not come from how much you can carry in life and how burnt out you are because you're trying all the things. There is a confidence when we put the weight in the right place, when we take our eyes off of ourself and we shift it and we say, my confidence is not in my strength. My confidence is in the strength of Jesus Christ. [00:16:06] My trust is I'm going to put my full weight not on something that I can't trust, not on something that will fail, not on something that will break. But I'm putting my full weight of my life and my center of my core into Jesus Christ because he is faithful, he is trustworthy. And we're so stuck on the outcomes in what we see and what we can touch that we miss the intangible. We miss the. The things that are right there. We miss this. This moment of patiently persevering. [00:16:41] Jacob and I have been super honest. We struggled a lot when we were young. We did everything backwards. [00:16:47] Any other sinners in the room? [00:16:50] We did everything backwards. [00:16:52] But the one thing we did right was we trusted Jesus along the way. [00:16:57] And there would be times where it never felt like it was moving. [00:17:03] It felt like times where we both wanted to leave and call it quits. [00:17:08] And Tay and I, my daughter, we were talking about what this patient perseverance looks like. [00:17:14] Patient perseverance, where you're saying, often we don't get this big God answered prayer that changes everything overnight. And God bless you if you do, because man do I love those moments. [00:17:27] Often it looks like a day after day trust in God. [00:17:31] Often it looks like what I sought God for yesterday isn't enough for today. And so I have to come back and I have to ask him for help and I have to not give up. [00:17:45] I have to persevere because there is a reward at the end. [00:17:50] I sat with my family on Friday and we sat on something we're so excited about, just like this future promise and we made this fire and we were just thanking God. [00:18:04] And I was looking around at the family that God gave me. [00:18:09] I was looking around at the granddaughter that I have, and all I could do was say thank you. [00:18:17] Thank you. [00:18:19] What I couldn't see in the moment, you gave me strength for day after day, what I so longed for and I thought was never gonna happen. I'm sitting around this campfire and I'm seeing this fulfillment of this God's faithfulness and his faithfulness alone. Jacob and I will tell you we did everything we could to screw it up. [00:18:38] But the faithfulness of God and his whisper to persevere, that was the only word I heard. Persevere, Persevere persevere. And so day after day, I would seek him and it didn't feel. [00:18:50] And I would seek him and it would feel good. We'd have a good day, and then I'd seek Him and it wouldn't feel better. [00:18:56] The road was winding. Church. [00:18:59] The road looked different at different times. [00:19:04] But this patient perseverance, because here's the truth. [00:19:08] Most of the suffering that happens in life or most of the things that we're trying to accomplish and do, it's not quick. [00:19:17] It takes time to cultivate something beautiful. I'll be honest with you. The more I study theology and who God is, the more I say I have no idea of anything because there's so much to learn. [00:19:34] It feels like the more I know, the less I know. [00:19:37] And I've been seeking God because here was what happening to me. [00:19:43] I never want to lose a love for learning about Him. [00:19:48] I never want the outcome of ordination or the outcome of being able to hold my own in a conversation to be the goal I want the goal to be. I fall more in love with God because the more I know, the more faithful I see that he is. The more understanding I get, the more trustworthy I believe he is, is the more I seek him and I grab these footholds of my life. The more I want to seek him and the more I want to follow Him. [00:20:16] He is everything, and it has to be a formula that is different than we've done in the past. Babe, would you mind grabbing me this? [00:20:27] There's a pastor in Texas, his name is Robert Madue, and he showed this illustration, and I want to show it to you guys because I thought it was awesome, but I want to give him credit. [00:20:42] He was talking about the story of Job, but he said, so often in our Christian faith, we think of, like, a formula to our faith. [00:20:56] It feels transactional. [00:20:59] And he said, what we often do is A plus B equals C. Our action plus our behavior equals the consequence. [00:21:21] And church. Hear me. [00:21:23] As much as I wish I didn't, I still struggle with this equation. [00:21:29] I still struggle that I have moments of this transactional relationship with Jesus where if I can just act right, if I can just get my behaviors in the right place, then there will be good outcomes. [00:21:43] And I do it in little things, like in my job and the growth of the church. Is the church growing? Well, maybe it's because I'm trying really, really hard, and it's as if the power has anything to do with me. [00:21:57] But time and time and time again, we fall back to this Formula. We fall back to the idea of if God was good, then this wouldn't happen. [00:22:08] We fall back to the wrong formula where you're a dad and you're providing and there's pressure all around you and you get home and we can be needy. And now everywhere you look, there's pressure arising and it's just. It's not. You're trying your hardest, but the. The outcome, the consequence is not what you thought it would be. [00:22:32] Maybe you're a college student and you're trying so hard to go to school, but it gets hard. [00:22:39] I give you college students the biggest shout out and you want to turn back, you want to go back to the old way, because guess what? It's not what you expected. [00:22:52] Moms, you've dreamed and you've prayed and you've hoped for babies, and now your baby has a whole personality and attitude that is not what you dreamed, prayed, or hoped for. [00:23:03] Not me, guys, them. [00:23:08] And you're saying, I prayed for this, but it's not what I thought it would be. [00:23:15] Some of us, you decided to trust in God. [00:23:21] You decided to put your hope in him, and you prayed and you sought him, but you didn't see the outcome that you wanted. [00:23:34] Some of you have lived healthy lifestyles and you worked out and you did all the right things, but you got the diagnosis anyways. [00:23:41] And when we have a formula that looks like this, I understand why we walk away from God when we're constantly looking at the outcome instead of the character of Jesus Christ. [00:23:55] We will always feel let down. [00:24:00] We will always feel like, this isn't mathing, the math is not mathing. This is not what I had hoped for. [00:24:08] And so we have to find a new equation. We have to find a new formula that we can stand on, a new way of thinking that says, even when life is not going the way I thought, I will not have a chance transactional relationship with Jesus Christ, but I will have a hope and a trust based on him and his character alone. [00:24:32] In the dad and I did a Q and A last week based off of his sermon. [00:24:37] And in it he said, God does not change his mind about you when you fail. [00:24:44] You see others might. And so we bring that into play with our relationship with God. [00:24:50] But God does not change his mind about you. [00:24:54] He doesn't change his mind about you when you're. When you're working night and day to make things happen. And he doesn't change your mind about you when you're struggling. Because he is mighty in all his ways. He is Immutable. He doesn't change. So when he. When he. When you felt the call of God in your life to follow him, he already knew everything that would happen. [00:25:18] He is the eternal God. He knows the beginning from the end. And so therefore it's not. It's not, try harder, do better, do better. My action and my behavior is going to equal a better good. Things might be true sometimes, but listen, often it's not. [00:25:35] And so we have to change the formula. [00:25:39] It has to start with the consequence or the outcome of the cross. [00:25:49] What was the result of the cross? [00:25:53] Why. Why did Jesus take on everything for us? [00:25:58] What was the outcome? [00:26:01] You see? Don't you dare ever ask God if He loves you based on what you see or how people are treating you. [00:26:09] Don't you ever dare ask God if He loves you based on what's in your bank account or based on whatever you are struggling with. Our starting point is Jesus Christ and the result of what he did for us on the cross. Church. [00:26:22] The cross is the answer. We are. We're human beings, so we always. We want to start with us. We want to start with who we are. But it's an equation that will never get you where you want to go. We always start with Jesus Christ. [00:26:39] You see, when I'm thinking this is too much, this is too hard, this is not the outcome I thought the switch is my hope and the full weight of my life is trust in Jesus Christ. [00:26:52] You see, the consequence of the cross. Jesus Christ, he saw the pain and the ache in the human heart. [00:27:00] He saw the pain and the loneliness and the. [00:27:04] The depth of our sin. Church. [00:27:07] And that we were separated from Christ. And every other religion makes you earn it. Every other religion makes you get into these moments of whatever Jesus Christ said, I see and I am coming for you. It has always been the plan since the foundations of the earth that Jesus Christ would die for us. [00:27:26] He was always the plan that he would come and live the life we were supposed to live. [00:27:31] And then he died the death we were supposed to die. [00:27:35] And so when you say, well, how do you know if God loves me? You look and you see him with outstretched arms saying, I love you and I do this for you. [00:27:49] He takes what's ugliest about us, what is most miserable about us, and he took it on himself. [00:27:56] And then in his crazy, unimaginable mercy and grace, he gave us his righteousness. [00:28:07] So that when the Father sees us, he doesn't see the misery and the brokenness. He sees the beauty and the dignity of Jesus Christ. [00:28:17] So when I'm looking, I'm not going to start with me. I'm going to start with, I have a God who loved me. [00:28:24] I have a God who was for me. And so the result of the cross is always gonna equal my belief in him. [00:28:31] Do you believe in Him? [00:28:34] Do you trust that what he did was for you? [00:28:37] And we're broken. So some of us struggle with that. We struggle with being loved. We struggle with being accepted, especially because we know of who we really are. [00:28:48] And so the human condition, it struggles. And that's why we don't point to us. [00:28:55] We point to a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. [00:29:06] We don't. We don't point to our actions and our behavior modifications. We look at our heart and say, I want to be transformed from the inside out. [00:29:17] I want to be transformed in the kind of way where my life is changed when hard things come. I'm not. I'm not saying, oh, it's too much. I gotta go back. [00:29:28] I'm saying instead, God, I am putting my full weight and trust on you because you are faithful and you are trustworthy. And instead of worrying about the outcome and instead of worrying about what I can touch and what I can see, I lean in deeper to my understanding of who God is. [00:29:53] This is why it's so important that you know the character of God. [00:30:01] He is not an angry God. [00:30:04] I was listening to Tony Robbins, and he. [00:30:07] It was a clip, and he was basically saying, I think his son found God. [00:30:14] So Tony went and read the Bible for himself, and he read it in one weekend. [00:30:20] And then I heard him telling the interviewer how there were two different gods in the Bible. There was gone who was. Who was angry and mean and cruel. And then you get this picture of Jesus Christ. And he was trying to say, can you really fall on a faith that has two separate gods with two separate personalities? And it was a clip. So Tony Robbins, he's never going to listen to this. [00:30:45] But. But what I'm saying is he based a judgment off of one weekend of reading, off of zero. Understanding. [00:30:58] Off of zero. [00:31:00] What are these books? How are they collated? Where did they come from? Why do we believe in it? [00:31:06] And he challenged his son's faith or seemingly challenged his son's faith. [00:31:14] But when you read scripture and you stop looking at you first and you turn and look at God, you see that a God from the very beginning has wanted you. [00:31:31] You see a God from the very beginning who has said, Be my people, and I will be your God. [00:31:42] And from the beginning, you see people rejecting him time and time and time again. [00:31:50] And so now when I read the Old Testament, I'm not saying there's two gods and one's angry. I'm seeing a God who has been there from the beginning saying, I am your God. [00:31:59] Be my people. [00:32:02] I am your God. Let me be your starting point. [00:32:07] I am your God. Don't fall back onto you because your strength will never hold it. Don't fall back on what you can see and touch, but trust that I can turn it around and make all things work together for your good. [00:32:23] Trust that I am a God who is for you. [00:32:29] And I hear this call of the Hebrews, and I want to look at 37 and. Or 37 through 39. [00:32:36] The author says, yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay. [00:32:45] There is a day that is coming where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. [00:32:57] There is a day, but my righteous one shall live by faith. [00:33:05] And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him. [00:33:09] But Church. I echo this call to you today in verse 39. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their soul. [00:33:26] When we switch the formula and we start with Jesus Christ and we. We believe in him and we trust him, guess what happens? Everything starts to change in us. Our attitude starts changing. [00:33:38] I don't remember how to spell attitude. [00:33:41] Our. Our behaviors start changing. Our. Our actions start changing. [00:33:46] And so C plus B equals A. [00:33:53] Because I love him. [00:33:57] Because I believe that he took on everything of mine, and I believe it with all my heart. [00:34:06] Stuff inside of me wants to start living different. [00:34:09] I don't want the circumstances of this world to dictate my heart, but I want my heart and my faith and my trust in God to dictate my circumstances. Church. [00:34:21] I want my faith and my trust and my belief in a God who is faithful and good to change the outlook of the bad around me. [00:34:31] I want to be the person that walks in the room and says, this looks hard, but let's start with Jesus Christ and let's pray together. [00:34:38] Let's trust and hope that maybe the turn right around the corner is not bad. Maybe it's good because that's who he is. [00:34:47] I want to change the temperature in the room when. When people are fighting or arguing. [00:34:55] I want to bring in a better perspective of hope. I want to bring in a better trust for my kids and my family, that even when you mess up, there is a God who holds you and he is trustworthy. So stop putting your weight on dumb things. [00:35:13] Stop putting your weight on drugs or alcohol or people or yourself or your bad thoughts and start turning them to Jesus Christ, believing that what he did for us, it was final. [00:35:33] That what he did for us was once and for all. [00:35:37] That is him who is the author and the perfecter of faith. [00:35:43] So therefore, Church, we are not of those who shrink back. [00:35:48] We are those of faith. [00:35:52] And so we will. We will. [00:35:55] We will put our confident trust in God. I will not throw it away. [00:36:00] I will patiently persevere. [00:36:04] I'll change the equation where I want to look at me and my beliefs and my actions and my behaviors and say, that's a terrible starting point. I start with you and you alone. [00:36:15] And you are worthy of everything. [00:36:18] You are worthy of praise. You are worthy of devotion. You are worthy of my life. And when it starts to get hard, you're worthy. [00:36:28] When it doesn't look like I thought it would, you're worthy. [00:36:32] We are not of those who shrink back. Amen. [00:36:37] Mighty God, our trust is in you. [00:36:42] Our hope is in you. [00:36:48] I pray for those of us who have made this a transactional relationship, Father, that you will turn our hearts and minds to you being our starting point. Point that once and for all times. You took the sin, you took the shame, you carried the guilt so that we might have freedom, so that we might have life in you and life abundantly. [00:37:21] Father, I pray that when the circumstances around us start making us question or turn back, I pray that the draw of our heart will to be to trust, to lean and put our full weight of our life on you and you alone. [00:37:43] In your mighty son's name, we pray. Amen.