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So I want to welcome all those who are joining us literally from all over the world. It is amazing not to mention all of those who are joining us at all of our Atlanta area churches and all over the country. It's so great to be a part of a growing number of Christians who understand our responsibility to not simply believe things, but to do things. And to the degree that we do things, we make the world a better place. We're going to talk a little bit about that today. However, I would like to begin with a parable. Now, as you probably know, if you've read any of the New Testament, Jesus taught and taught parables and a parable is a made up story. He would just make up a story that would illustrate something true. So in my case with my parable, this is actually a true story that illustrates something important and borrowing from Jesus approach to how he introduced parables. I would like to begin like this. The Kingdom of God is like a five year old little girl whose parents signed her up for swim team and she absolutely loved it. In fact, at her pool she was known as the friendly swimmer because she would swim with her head out of the water and grin the entire time. However, she lost every race, which was so odd because she was taller than most of the kids, she was stronger, she was leaning. And this went on for the entire season. And at the end of the season, her parents said, do you want to do that again? And she said, yes, she was looking forward to season two. So season two came along and now she's six years old and once again, same outcome, smiled and lost every race. And then about halfway through season two, her mother was putting her events on her wrist with a sharpie and she looked at her daughter and she said, okay, honey, get out there and win this race. Startled, the little girl looked at her mother and said, it's a race. I thought we were here to meet people. But of course she did. What else would you do at a swimming meet? She was competing. She was competing in a different race for a different prize and nobody knew. And so they judged her on her performance based on a set of rules that she never subscribed to to begin with. And they said she lost. But in fact, in the competition she was engaged in, she won. She won every time she met someone new. Now if I were Jesus, I would just drop my mic and walk off because that's what she, that's what he would do. And everybody's like, and his disciples are like, wait, you got. What were you. He'll be right back. What are you talking about? And then Jesus just walks on and they just follow him. And every once in a while he'd stop and say, okay, okay, here's what I meant. But a lot of times you just walk off. The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of heaven is like. The kingdom of God is like. It's like, wait, you keep telling us these stories. What do they mean? So today I'm going to tell you what I mean with my parable. Today is part four of our series, the Last Kingdom. If you have not been following along, you really, really need to go back and at least watch the first in this series if you're joining us for the first time or, or maybe the first time in a long time, because we have a very unique goal in this series. Our goal, or I should say my goal in this series, is I want all of us and all of you to accept Jesus, but not as your Savior. Hopefully you've already done that. I want all of us, in fact, I wish all of Christendom would accept Jesus or accept Jesus and recognize Jesus for who his closest friends, his closest first century friends recognize him to be and acknowledge him to be, and who his enemies, in fact his fiercest enemies, feared that he in fact might be. And the reason that's my goal is that my hope is that every single time you open up the New Testament or every time you read a devotional book that's taken from the New Testament, but every time you open up the New Testament, you would see what has been there all along that many of us weren't able to see and have never seen before. And it's not your fault that you didn't see it. It's the fault of people who do what I do. So I decided we just need to put it out there and talk about it. Every time you hear or every time you read the word Christ for the rest of your life, I want you to think in terms of not Jesus name or Jesus last name, or even to initially think sin forgiver or ticket to heaven, heaven promiser, but for the rest of your life that whenever you see or read or hear the word Christ, you would think Messiah anointed one, God's final king, who did not come into this world primarily. Again, read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, who did not come into this world primarily to provide a safe way for us out of this world, but who came to establish the kingdom of God, the last kingdom in this world for this world. And the thing is, when you read the Gospels through this lens, you realize quickly his first century followers, as they begin to follow Jesus and especially after the resurrection, they were not confused. They were not confused because Jesus dropped little bread crumbs all along the way. They were not confused because most of his parables were about the kingdom of God that is right here on planet Earth. And then they discovered toward the end, he really was, he really was the king. And they took him seriously when he said, look, I want to teach you how to pray. And of course, that was offensive to these Jewish boys. They'd been praying their whole life. And Jesus is like, yeah, those prayers are fine, but I want to raise the bar. I want to teach you how to pray. When you pray, after you've asked God for anything you want to ask God for, make sure boys when you pray. And then he would broaden this message out to anyone following him. When you pray, make sure you pray in accordance with, with why I'm here. You are to pray your kingdom come, meaning your will be done because you are. Or Jesus would say, I am the king. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And they began to pray that prayer because they realized that Jesus was not simply a heaven promiser or a ticket out of this world, but he was a king who came to establish his kingdom on earth, planet Earth. And they had been given the responsibility to participate in it. And here's the invitation for everybody. Everybody in the world is invited to participate in the kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish because he in fact, is a king. And it worked. And it worked because that first century group of followers and the second century group of followers and the third century group of followers, they began to submit to Jesus not as a ticket out of here. They begin to submit to Jesus as the ultimate authority in their life. 300 and something years before their Bible was ever put together, they recognized their authority was in fact the person of Jesus, who was the son of God, who God sent as his final, his last king. That they weren't sent into the world to escape the world, but they were sent into the world. And Jesus had come into the world to transform the world. So they devoted themselves to his all encompassing edict, his final command as king. We talk about it all the time. When he gathered the 12 disciples right before he was arrested, he said, as your king, I'm gonna give you a new command. They didn't need a new command. He's like, yeah, but this one's from me. You've had all the commands Moses gave you. Moses was your Guy. They understood this. Now I'm your guy. And here's your command. You are to love one another the way that I have loved you. They devoted themselves to this all encompassing command. Command to love like their king. And in addition to that, as we're going to talk about today, they also devoted themselves to fight like their king. You followed them through the first century in the church of the second and third century, and you discovered that the Jesus followers refused. This is going to be hard for some of us. Refused the tactics and the strategies of the kingdoms of men. And it worked that ultimately, as we say all the time, the empire that crucified Jesus capitulated and acknowledged Jesus as their heavenly king. They acknowledged Jesus as a God. Then nobody saw that coming. That was in the first century. Absolutely impossible. Caesar was the king. King. And whoever followed Caesar would be king. Rome was eternal. It wasn't going anywhere. In this little knockoff Jewish religion, this Nazarene sect that they would call it, this cult that emanated out of Judea and Galilee, it would eventually go the way of all cults and all movements because Rome was here forever. But this group of Jesus followers who acknowledged Jesus as a king, who came to establish his kingdom on earth and that everyone was invited to participate in it, they literally, over the course of three centuries, they changed the world. And the world has never recovered from it and the world never will. More on that next time. But here's the question I want us to ask. What did this unusual subversive resistance to empire, resistance to empty Caesar, resistance to the temple? What did this subversive, this under the radar? What did this resistance look like? How did the early Christians fight? And it's an important. I mean, I should say it's. Well, it's important, but it's also an appropriate question to ask because in fact, the greatest missionary who ever lived, the Apostle Paul, who took it on the responsibility personally to take the message of Jesus to the entire Mediterranean basin. He basically said to Jesus disciples, you guys take Jerusalem and Galilee and Samaria, I'm going to take the rest of the world. And he did. The apostle Paul is the one who, in a letter to his protege Timothy wrote these words. He said, I have fought the good fight. So there's a fight to fight. There's a type of fight that he fought that we all need to fight. So that to ask the question, what kind of fight should we fight? And is there a fight? Absolutely. And the Apostle Paul said, I have fought the good fight because I have fought like my king. And this is where the church and this is where oftentimes individual Christians, at some level, probably all of us have dipped into this or fallen into this, and perhaps this is your posture even today. This is where the church and Christians often get it wrong. When the church employs. And I understand why this happens. When the church or church leaders employ and leverage the kingdoms of this world, tactics and strategies and tools in an attempt to. To further the kingdom of God. When church leaders employ and leverage the kingdoms of men, tactics and strategies in an effort to further the kingdom of God, it never works. Things go bad. In fact, things don't go bad. Things always go backwards. Every. In fact, every embarrassing chapter, every embarrassing chapter of church history, every embarrassing chapter of church history, and there are many. Every embarrassing chapter of church history can be traced back to church leaders attempting to advance the kingdom of God with the tactics of the kingdom, Kingdoms of men, by force, by mandates, by defeating an enemy, by defeating a group of people that they've identified as an enemy. And it never works, and it never will work. And here's why. Because the king doesn't participate. He sits it out and he waits. Is there a war to wage? Yes. Is there a fight to fight? Yes. Are we invited into that fight? Absolutely. But the fight that we're invited into as Jesus followers is so counterintuitive. It's so difficult to catch onto. It's so not the kingdoms of men. And the problem is the only thing we ever see modeled, the only thing we ever see modeled, the thing, the only thing we're convinced will work because of what we've seen modeled, is the kingdoms of men. It's so easy to miss, and it's so easy to dismiss. In fact, my fear or trepidation, even in bringing this message is that for many of. Perhaps you or perhaps people who are outside our collective church community will listen to this, and your response to this, I get it, is, okay, Andy, I don't know what world you live in, but that is so weak, and that is so passive, and that is so ineffective, and it's so irrelevant, and it's not gonna work, and it's not gonna get traction, and you can't get anything done, and it's not gonna bring about change, and you've spent too much time in church, and I realize you're a pastor, and they probably just wind you up on the weekends and bring you out, then put you back in the closet. But you. You can't tell me you think seriously that this is the way forward for any kind of movement. It's certainly not the way forward for the church. But the way of our king is not passive. And the way of our king is not ineffective. It's the way of God. It's the way of our king. Our king, don't forget this, who proved to be tougher than Roman nails and harder than Roman steel. His way is easy to dismiss because it feels like. And from the outside looking in, it looks like losing. Now, honey, get out there and win this race. She was, she was just in a different race. And so it is with the kingdom of God. By kingdoms of this world standards, by the standards of the kingdoms of men. It often appears as if the church is losing. But. And here's the challenge. If you push back and I get the pushback, here's the challenge. Just open your New Testament and follow Jesus from the Jordan River Valley. When John the Baptist said it has started, it is here. The kingdom of God is beginning today because the king has arrived. Follow Jesus from his interaction with John the Baptist through his temptations. The last temptation being Satan saying to Jesus, hey, we can shortcut this whole thing. I will give you, I will give you the kingdoms of this world. And Jesus said, don't want them. Because my kingdom that I've come to establish is nothing like the kingdoms of. Just follow Jesus from the Jordan river valley to Jerusalem to the cross. Then open the book of Acts and follow the Apostle Paul who Jesus intersects on the road to Damascus on his way to shut down the church. And King Jesus shows up and says, not only are you not going to shut it down, I'm going to put you in charge of a major segment. You are going to be my mouthpiece to the non Jewish people. You're going to be my mouthpiece outside of Judea and Galilee and Samaria. You're going to be my mouthpiece to the rest of the world. And nobody, nobody emphasizes the royalty and the kingship of Jesus more than the Apostle Paul. Just open the book of Acts and follow the Apostle Paul all around the Mediterranean Rim and then all the way back to Rome where he's eventually arrested and executed. And then ask yourself this question. Who won? Here's a clue. Who are we still talking about? Who are we still quoting? Who is worship currently in every single nation in the world? And if you want to get real granular, what is the best selling book of all time? Did they lose? No, they won. How did that happen? How does something like that happen? Can it still happen? What if that is what we have all been invited into? It is what we have all been invited into. But how do we advance and participate in. Don't miss this. How do we advance and participate in the ever advancing kingdom of God? I think the contrast. You may disagree. I think the contrast between kingdoms was never any clearer than when Jesus was arrested and brought before Pilate. Because Pilate represents Rome. Pilate represents the empire. But Pilate represents everything that's powerful and mighty and winning in the world. And now he's confronted with a Jewish rabbi who's been rejected by his own people. And he's already been up all night, and he's already been beaten several times. And the temple leaders finally bring Jesus to Pilate, and they say, look, we don't need to have a trial. Just trust us. This man must die. We just need you to give us that to give him a death sentence. Look, we don't want to bother you with the details. Pilate invites him in, and the hypocrisy is unbelievable. They're like, no, no, no, no, no. It's the season of Passover. We have to remain ceremonially clean. We can't step inside a gentile's home. So you'll need to come out to us and. And make this decision. And Pilate's. Why? Why, why did. What has he done that he's need. Needs to die? Look, he said, this is just. He's broken your rules, so you deal with them. He hasn't broken any rules of Rome. You deal with it. We. No, no, no. We can't execute a man. Only Rome has the authority to execute someone. And this man must be executed. Pilate is like, what in the world could he have done? And listen to what they say. And as you think about the first part of the series and the second and third part of the series, listen carefully to these words because here it is again. They said, this is amazing. They said, look, Pilate, we found this man misleading our nation. In other words, this is not a religious issue. This is a political issue. This is a national issue. This has to do with the populace and the citizenship. He's misleading our whole nation, and he's forbidding us. Pilate, pay attention to pay taxes to Caesar. Hey, what he's doing and what he said, it is conflicting with empire. It's conflicting with your emperor. You need to pay attention. He's not just breaking our rules. He is a threat to the empire. And if that wasn't enough, Caesar, he's saying that he himself is Christ. Pilate's like, see, that's your thing. What's a Christ. What's a messiah that has nothing. No, no, no, no, no. He's claiming to be a king because that is what that insinuates. Christ anointed one of God. He is claiming to be the Christ, God's final king, Pilate. This is political. You better pay attention. And he deserves to die. Pilate's, like, right here. Pilate didn't even like to go to Jerusalem. Pilate lived out on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is beautiful palace. You can actually visit it today. But during Passover, there was such contention. It was so political for Jewish people, especially in Judea, because Passover reminded them of the fact that once upon a time, God had delivered the nation from the oppressor. So he's there, and the city's full of soldiers, and he's like, all right, bring him in. But you guys, you know, I know you're not coming in. You're just ceremonially clean, you know, trying to get me to execute an innocent man. Whatever. You stay out. He brings Jesus inside, and he doesn't have time for this. So he just says, are you. Come on, let's just get it out there. Are you the king of the Jews? They're claiming that you claim to be the king. Are you the King of the Jews? And, of course, Jesus never said this specifically, but, you know, Pilate's thinking, well, what else could he be the king of? Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus has been up all night. He's been beaten, mocked. Still he has the presence of mind to kind of tease Pilate. Is that your own idea, he said? Or did others talk to you? In other words, have you done your own research? Or is this just what you. Is this just hearsay that I've said something like. And Pilate's like, okay, okay, we're not doing this. No more word games. I don't understand your customs. I don't understand your people. I can't wait for this to be over and to get back to my lake house, you know, my Oceanside villa. Okay, this is just too much. Okay, just tell me, what have you done to cause so much trouble? What have you done to stir up the people? What is it that you've done that's so bad that they think you deserve a death sentence? Jesus says, pilate, my kingdom is not of. Or you can say, not from, doesn't represent and doesn't reflect anything of the kingdoms of this world. Pilate, if my kingdom was like your kingdom, or he says, if it were. Come on, Pilate. You know how this works. Kingdoms clash, kings go to war, and they fight to the bitter, bloody end. And then at the end, the losing king is surrounded by his loyal men, his bodyguard. And the bodyguard fights to the death to defend their king, King Pilate. Do you see any of that? My kingdom's nothing like your kingdom. My kingdom's nothing like yours. If my kingdom was like yours, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest. Do you see that, Pilate? Now, my kingdom is from another place. And Pilate's like, well, now we're getting somewhere. So you are a king. You are a king, Pilate says. And then he thinks to himself, you are a very odd king. You don't fight back. Your people don't defend you. They don't rally around you. And he's thinking, if you're a king, your kingdom will never get off the ground. And Jesus is thinking, I'm not trying to get it off the ground. I brought it from heaven to transform the ground. Now, if he'd wanted to, and if Jesus was a little more snarky, or if, you know, you and I have been writing the script, or have I been writing the script, he could have said, hey, Governor Pilate, let me just fill you in. One day, your fabulous kingdom will be reduced to history books. Your gods will be reduced to the names of planets. A future Roman Emperor, a future Roman emperor will actually declare me to be God. So, yes, I am a king. In fact, Pilate, I am your king. And one day, I will be your judge. But fear not, Pilate. Fear not, Pilate. Your name will be remembered forever, spoken of in centuries to come. As a footnote in my story, the story of God's final king who reigns over the last kingdom. That's what happened. That part is undeniable. What Jesus launched, what you have been invited into is epic, and nothing is going to stop it. And we have been invited to participate in it. But here's my point. When you get this right at home and at work and in the community, and when I get this right at home and at work and in the community, and when we get this right as a collective collection of Jesus followers, it may appear that we're losing, but we're not. And here's how we know. Because from the armpit of the Roman Empire, I know, I say that all the time. The armpit of the Roman Empire. Nobody wanted to be in Judea. Legionnaires, the legionnaires, the soldiers. Nobody. Nobody. That's no senator. Nobody wanted to be assigned to Judea. It was the worst assignment. From the armpit of the Roman Empire to every modern nation of the world, the name of Jesus is known and he's worshiped. Because slowly, relentlessly, slowly, relentlessly, the kingdom of God makes its way, spreads, leaves its mark and pulls people along in its wake. Not by mandates, not by forced conversions or force of arms. Because that's not the way of the king. That's not the way we fight. Our fight is different. Paul spells it out for us. Here's what he says. He wrote two letters, first and second Timothy to the same Timothy. A young man, he was developing into being to take his place and do what he did. And in the first one he says to the young Timothy, he says, okay, Timothy, this is what you gotta do. This is very important. If you haven't been paying attention, don't miss this. He says, timothy, you gotta fight the good fight. This is the most important part of the faith. This is how church leaders read this. Fight the good fight for the faith. Paul is very intentional. This isn't fighting for something, this is fighting a type of fight. And he's saying, timothy, make sure the fight you fight is the correct fight. It's the fight that is characterized by our fight. It's the fight that characterizes what Jesus did. Make sure you're in the right conflict with the right thing that you are to be in conflict with. Make sure you are fighting the fight that characterizes our faith. In other words, we're not fighting on behalf of our faith. This isn't about defending our faith. It's not about fighting something in order to gain something, to win in such a way that somebody else or another group of people loses. In fact, that's the differentiator. Ours is not, this is hard for us. Ours is not a win lose fight. Ours is not a conquer or be conquered conflict. If somebody has to lose so we can win, we are not fighting the fight of our faith. And you've heard me say this before, I'm going to keep saying it. When Christian leaders make a they the enemy, they have lost the plot line. And even if they win, they lose. And it is a setback for the church. It is not an advancement because like Jesus, we fight on behalf of others, not of ourselves. That's what Jesus modeled. That's what the Apostle Paul modeled. That is what got the attention of the world, that these crazy Christianis, these followers of the dead crucified king. They're so compassionate, they're so generous. They're not afraid of death and they're so others oriented. This doesn't make any sense. Why would you do something for someone who can't return the favor that doesn't make any sense? Especially in the first place, second and third century for some people, it still doesn't make any sense. In parts of our world today, that kind of generosity and compassion is like, that's foolish. Why would you give away something or why would you give yourself away to something or some cause that can't do anything for you? Because that's what our King did for us. We fight on behalf of other people, not ourselves. Paul's point is this is you got to Timothy, you got to fight the right fight, the right way. If you want to know what that looks like, you just follow Paul through the book of Acts. You see this lived out. You see him live this out under extraordinary circumstances. The good fight that we're called to fight, the good fight is the personal fight to live out the law of Christ, regardless. The good fight, the fight I'm to fight every day that you're to fight every day is the personal fight to live out the law of Christ. The law of Christ is when he said, you are to love as I have loved you. The good fight is the fight to maintain the posture and the tone and the approach of our king, regardless. You're like, andy, will that work? It's already worked. We are halfway around the world and look at us. We're halfway around the world and you don't even remember the first time you heard the name of Jesus. Of course it worked. The good fight is the fight to be Christlike. To return good for evil, to refuse to demonize any person or any group of people. In fact, to pray for the people that persecute us, to forgive. To forgive people who aren't even asking to be forgiven and don't really even care. The fight to be Christlike is to be the good Samaritan. When you get nothing in return. And you know the person you're helping would never do that for you. The fight to be Christlike is to refuse to be the older brother and the bearable, the prodigal son. In the good fight, in the good fight of faith, no one loses. When Jesus died, who lost? Nobody. Who won? You did. And you did. And you did. And you did and you did and you did. And I did. Everybody won. For us, this is important victory. I know this doesn't sound very American. I know we like competition and in some ways we like conflict. And everybody likes to win. I like to win. But for us the win, the victory for us. The win or the victory is the victory over our natural inclination to make this a win lose battle. Like the little girl in my parable. We are fighting a different fight for a better prize. Years later, Paul finds himself back in Rome for a second time. And this time he's not going to get out. His life story is just remarkable. He ends up back in Rome. He's been arrested again. This time he knows he's not leaving. And he pins a second letter to Timothy. We call it Second Timothy. Listen to what he says. He says, dear Timothy, this is about chapter four. I am already being poured out like a drink offering. You may know what this means. In the pagans, they have a goblet of wine and they would be outside somewhere and they would pour off the first inch as a sacrifice to the gods and it would just dissipate into the sand. In other words, this isn't for anybody. This is not. It was first and best. I'm going to give the gods my first, first sip goes to the gods, dissipates, disappears into the sand. He says, I'm like that first. I'm about to be poured out and there will be nothing left of me. I'm already being poured out like a drink offering. The time for my departure is near. In fact, by the time you get this, I may be gone. Listen to this. I have fought the good fight. Well, Paul, you didn't fight hard enough, okay? You're about to be executed. He's like, no, no, no, I insist. You didn't misread that. I really did fight the right fight. I didn't just fight. I fought the right fight. I fought the good fight. So you won? Yes. Well, who lost? Nobody. That's the point. Paul would say, that's how I know I won. I was whatever I needed to be and I was whoever I needed to be to everyone I met so that they could be introduced to and see in me an image, a reflection of my king. He would say, you know what? I won over my pride. I won over my envy. I won over my selfishness. I won over my desire for revenge. I won over my innate desire to do unto others as they had done unto me and so many people had mistreated the Apostle Paul. I fought the good fight. I finished the race. Timothy, it's not the race most people are running, but you and I know. And I got to the end of this race. I finished the race. I have kept. I did not depart from. I didn't water it down. I Have kept the faith. I've lived like, I've loved like, and I fought like my king. That's the win. If you forget everything else, don't forget this. The good fight is the fight to be Christ. Like, regardless, Andy, I don't think that'll make a difference. Just. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Just imagine if every single Christian in this community or your community or your state or my state or our nation or any nation decided that was the guidepost, the North Star, for their life. Things would change. Things would immediately get better. This is the way we were created to live. This is the way of our king to maintain the tone and posture and approach of our king in all things. Jesus modeled it. Paul modeled it. They both lost. They both won. Neither were cowards. Neither of them were passive. And the words of both of them literally. And I'm not trying to, you know, make this more than it is, but the words of both of those men will literally echo in eternity. So I don't know how this lands with you at home, at work, in the workplace, in the marketplace, and whatever season of life you're in at school, but would you at least consider fighting that fight? The good fight, the right fight. It's the most difficult fight to fight. That's why we just opt for kingdoms of men. Win, lose, power up, show them who's right, win the argument, talk them down, demonize them, make a case against them. It's just so much easier. And it leads nowhere. It just leads to more conflict between the kingdoms of men. And you have been invited to something better. In fact, we have been, as Christians, commanded to do something better. It's the more difficult fight to fight. It's the fight that may never be rewarded in this life. It's the fight that begins every morning in the mirror. It's the fight that begins every morning with renewed submission to our king. It's the fight that begins every morning with open hands that says, my life is yours. Take it. I want to follow you. And when I get it wrong, I'm going to be the first to admit it, because you are my king. It's a race. Yeah, it's a race, but it's a race most people aren't running. It's a race, unfortunately, that too many Christians aren't running. It's the race that matters most. This is undeniable. It is the race that changed the world, and it could change the world again. When Christians submit to bow to their king and decide to love like their king and fight like their king, and we will pick it up right there. Next time as we conclude our series the Last Kingdom, let's pray together. Heavenly father, please, please, please, please pry open our stubborn hearts, our win lose paradigms or somebody's got to pay. I deserve. I'm entitled. She was wrong. He was wrong. What's wrong with these people? You know, us, our hearts. I mean the, you know, the line between good and evil. It's true. It runs right through each of our hearts. Would you please raise up an army, a host, an assembly of your followers who are willing to embrace this 100% and do something in our communities and in our nation that we could never do any other way that would be an invitation to our king, to you to invade our communities because we've set the table, because we've bent our knee, because we've said thy kingdom come. Just give each of us wisdom to know what to do with what we just heard. In Jesus name, amen.