Quite often, the brightest light
in a believer's life comes to him as his shepherd is leading
him through the darkest of valleys. And when the light comes to him
like that, he may not even see it as light, or if he sees it
he may not be able to appreciate just how bright the light is.
Though sometimes the very darkness of our situation does enable
us to see just how bright God's blessings are even in the most
difficult times. I would imagine that anyone here
who is a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ knows something
of what I'm speaking about. In verse 1, Job expresses a reality
that we do not like, but we all know. Man born of a woman is
a few days and full of trouble. Now, we sometimes think, you
know, well, so-and-so lived a long time. But in truth, no matter how long
a person lives, even if it's Methuselah who lived 969 years,
in comparison to eternity, That's nothing. It's nothing
at all. The scriptures say our days pass
as a weaver's shuttle. You know, they weave cloth. They
have the two sets of strings that go up and down, but when
it's this way, then that weaver's beam would go through real quick,
and then they change it, and another one goes that way, and
our lives just And then these lives are full
of trouble. Now, we live in what is, without
a doubt, the most blessed nation that has ever lived in terms
of prosperity. And at one time, even in terms
of spiritual light among the people. Not even the Jews, who
were God's chosen nation for that time from Mount Sinai up
until the coming of Christ, not even they ever lived as well
as you and I do. And we live better, statistically
speaking, as far as I know, than we live better than anyone else
on earth. Now there are some nations who
by their way of government. Maybe they
don't have people that are as poor as some of our poor are.
They likewise don't have people as rich as our rich are. Our
remaining freedom allows people to pretty much determine how they're
going to live and suffer the benefits or the ill consequences
of it. So you see a greater disparity,
but still, in the United States of America, we've got it good.
And we may wonder at a man like Job saying, our lives are full
of trouble. Well, one of the reasons that
we don't recognize that reality, even in our existence here as
citizens of the United States of America, is we've never seen
what it's like to be without trouble. Our best days are nothing compared to, shall we say, the worst day
in heaven. Of course, there are no bad days
in heaven, but you know what I mean. To be in the presence
of Christ, behold His glory, to be without sin, and without
any of the consequences of sin. That's something we've never
experienced. But the moment we do, I'm sure we will say, wow,
best day I ever had can't be compared to this. And so our days are full of trouble. of one sort or another. Now,
of course, Job is speaking because his days at that moment were
particularly full of trouble. There are days that we experience
which are worse than other days, but there are no days without
trouble. And sometimes they are so full
of trouble, we wonder if it's worth the bother to live them. But in verse 14, he asked the question that I
want to focus on this morning. If a man dies, will he live again? If a man dies, will he live again?
Now, there is no if about whether we shall die. And so, and Joe, we didn't put
a question mark on that. I suppose there'll be one generation
of believers who will never die, who like Enoch and Elijah, shall
leave this life without going through natural death. But unless the Lord returns within
the span of our lives, We will die. If a man dies, will he live? Now, if you try to answer that
question based on what you can detect
with your natural senses, your answer is going to have to be
no. We've seen some people die, haven't
we? We've buried friends and family. We've made the trip out there,
said our final goodbyes, and they have lowered the coffin
into the ground, covered it up with dirt, but not one of us
has ever seen a single one of them live again. And there are many people who
mock the concept of the resurrection simply because they've never
seen one. And they figure, well, if I haven't seen it, it must
be that it cannot be. But Job says, if a man dies,
will he live again? Now, there was a certain part
of Job that wishes he could die. When his troubles came upon him,
and he lost everything he had, and then all his children were
killed, And his wife said, why don't you just curse God and
die? And I imagine there was a certain
part of Job at that point thought, well, I'm not gonna curse God.
But yeah, dying, right now I wouldn't mind that, because I can't think
of any reason to live. And he says here in verse 13,
if only you would hide me in a grave, and conceal me till
your anger has passed." He's thinking, Lord, I know you've
sent this. Nothing happens except you ordain
it, you purpose it, you bring it to pass. But would you do
me a favor? Would you kill me and let me
lie in the grave until all of this is over with? And then he
goes, if only you would set a time and then remember me. Put me
under the ground, forget about me. Forget about me, whatever
it was that prompted you to treat me as you have, but then set
a date when you will remember me. And of course, his idea there
is remember me and bring me back out of the grave. But if a man
dies, will he live again? Well, Job believed so. He said
in another place, talking about his troubles, lost
all that, even got some kind of sickness, said he sat in ashes
and scraped his boils. This man was miserable. And he
says, however, I know. that my Redeemer lives. And though with respect to this
body, worms shall eat my flesh, yet in my flesh I will see God. Not by the eyes of another, with
my own eyes I'll see Him. Now this is a hope and what our
brother read there. I mean, it really applies here.
Job did not have anything like what he hoped for. He couldn't
see it. Didn't keep him from hoping in
it. Didn't keep him from being confident that in his flesh he
would see God. He says, you think it's bad now?
I'm poor, I'm childless. And I've got these boils coming
up. I'm miserable. But I know that my Redeemer lives. And in the latter day, He'll
stand on the earth. When all's said and done, my Redeemer is
going to be shown as the triumphant one. And even if What is happening to me right
now, he says, results in me dying, being buried, and the worms making
a meal out of me to get in my flesh. I'll see God. I won't just be hearing about
him. I won't have to take the word of those who have seen Him,
and all they could do is tell me what they saw. I'll see it
for myself. It didn't keep him from being
miserable, but it gave him hope in the midst of his misery. If
a man dies, will he live again? He makes three statements. Verse 14, all my days, all the
days of my hard service, I will wait for my renewal to come. Now he speaks of hard service
there, what he's talking about is life. Life, difficulties, struggles, that which Earlier, in verse
1, he said, you know, we were born to trouble. Adam and Eve had it good in the
garden, but the devil told them they could have it even better.
And when they believed him instead of believing God, they lost everything
that was good. Before then, all they had to
do, they could be, you know, hunter, well, hunter-gatherers.
I mean, it was all there. He said, I give to you all the
plants of the field. I give to you all the fruit on
the tree, just not this one tree here, but the rest of it. And
it just grew. And all they had to do was reach
out, grab some and eat it. Doesn't work that way anymore,
does it? It's hard toil. It's work. You have to apply
yourself. You have to do something in order
to eat. And often, you do something with
that in mind, and then it doesn't even work out. Just like when
he cursed Adam, he says, no longer shall the ground bring you the
fruit you're looking for. Instead, it's going to bring
thistles. You know, every spring, my wife
plants a garden. And I don't know what's going
on in her mind. I do know what's going on in
mine. I've got this vision of this beautiful garden, the kind
you see on the gardening shows. You know, everything in its place,
every plant looking just wonderful, no disease, no wilt, and no weeds. That's not the way it works,
is it? Now, I'm not complaining because I'm not the one that
does the weeding. I just know that that goes on. We don't get the fruit of our
labors. It's hard service. And there's
no service that's harder than service that brings nothing. But he said, when it's done,
when my hard service is over, also shall we call it the hard
service of death. Now, I don't know what Job understood. in terms of what happens immediately
upon the death of a believer. But here's what he could see.
People are born, they live a difficult life, they die, they get buried
in the tomb, and there they are, and there they're gonna stay
until the day of resurrection. And so he says, all the days
of my hard service, I will wait for my renewal. As much misery as this man was
going through, he did believe there was going to be an end
to it. And even though man is born of woman, is of few days
and full of trouble, he believed the day would come when he would
be born of God, and his days would be full of blessing, and
they would be many, yea, eternal. So what did he say? He said,
I'm going to do all I can to get there. He said, I'll wait. I'll wait. You know, I don't know about
you, but the hardest thing for me is waiting. I'm only now getting
accustomed to ordering things online, because when I think
that I want them, I want them now. And I'm willing to go to
a store. I'm willing to drive all the
way to Sioux Falls if I can get it today, even if I've got to
pay more for it. Instead of, you know, taking it about as
easy as you can and sitting there with your laptop in your lap
and click. Because I don't want to wait
for it to get here in, you know, seven to ten business days or
whatever they say. God's made us promises. He said
they're coming and we get troubles and we get borne down by them.
And what we think is I want this to be over. I want my hard service
to be done. Be renewed. I don't want to struggle
with life. I don't want to struggle with
sin. I don't want to struggle with disappointment and frustration.
I want to be done with that. So do I. Wait. All to learn to wait. You and
I quite logically think that an end to our present difficulties
right now would be the best thing. But our Father disagrees with
us. He says, you need more. You need more. Again, what John read, Paul said,
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed
in us. Now he compares the suffering
to glory, and why would he, or he contrasts them. And the reason he did, the glory
to be revealed in us is what puts us out of reach of all suffering. We'll be made like unto the Son
of God. Right now we have suffering,
why? Because there isn't any glory. We've not been glorified. We've not been made like him.
We are made like our father Adam. And by his sin, suffering, and
suffering even unto death, it passed upon all of us. And said,
if the Lord waits long enough before he comes back, that's
the road every one of us will take. And there's suffering associated
with that, whether you're a believer or not. You know, I don't know that he
was particularly speaking there of the suffering that believers
endure in this world because of their particular, you know,
hatred of the things of the world, coupled with the fact that they,
in their flesh, still love the things of the world. I don't
think he was speaking specifically of their persecutions, just the
suffering that happens because you live in a world that's been
cursed by God. And it can be tough. I don't
want to act like I, you know, I know it's tough because I've
had it so tough. We were talking the other night
in our midweek meeting, talking, I think that's when it was. I
was with some of the brethren anyway. I'm not sure just where
or when, but we were talking, people were talking about the,
things they're suffering at the present time, mostly medical
things. I've noticed the older I get,
the more me and my friends talk about going to the doctor and
what medicine we're taking and things like that. And the things
some people were telling me and telling me about others, and
I was sitting there listening. Finally, I said, I'm just gonna
have to quit complaining. I've got nothing to complain
about, really. but the suffering, whatever level
we experience it. Not worthy to be compared, because
a renewal is coming. And not a renewal where we raise
again to this situation, as though he just tags on some more years
or even endless years of us living like we are now, when he comes,
when he returns and raises us from the dead. That which comes out of the grave
is going to be different from what went into it. It will be
changed. And even those of our brothers
and sisters who happen to be among that blessed group who
are alive when the Lord shall come, it says they will be changed. Why? They need to be. They need
to be. And it will take no less power,
no less grace, no less a work of God to change those who are
living into the glory, into the likeness of the glorious Son
of God, take no less to change them than it will for God to
gather together a bunch of rich compost of dirt lying in the
ground and make a perfect human out of it again. Now we can't make it happen,
so what do we do? We wait. We wait. Oh, if I could just
get through this. Well, do that. And if you do, there's more to
come. Just keep waiting. Know that our Lord shall return.
I will wait for my renewal to come. Verse 15, you will call
and I will answer you. You will long for the creature
your hands have made. Now, the word creature there,
you can cross that out if you want. They thought, our translators
thought it would be a good word to put in there, but really all
it says is you will long for what your hands have made. They says you will call. Paul
describes it this way. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout. with the voice of the archangel
and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
to the coming of the Lord, then we'll be caught up with them
to be with Christ. He says, you will call, and I
will answer. Now, how's a dead man answer? Well, the call of the Lord makes
him alive. He says, come up! And we say hallelujah. People use that word hallelujah
for the most trifling things. It's a word that simply means,
praise Jehovah. It's written in the form of a
command. Do this, praise Jehovah. And you'll find it wherever it's
used. In the King James, they would translate it, praise ye
the Lord. You usually, I don't know if there's any place in
the Old Testament that you'll, that is in your English translations,
that you'll actually find the word hallelujah. You'll find
it some in the New Testament, but that hallel, is a command
to praise, and yah is a shortened version of God's name. And people, you know, a little
something goes their way and they say hallelujah. I suppose
we can praise God for anything we want, but it seems to me when
the scriptures use that word, they're talking about something
a whole lot bigger than making a little more money than we made
last year. talking about something even
more important than getting over the troubles, the sicknesses,
even what would otherwise be a terminal illness in this world. You know, you go to the doctor,
and the doctor, his brow gets creased. He said, we got to do
some more checking. You might say, you know, I'm feeling something
there, and I'm not sure what it is. We better get some pictures
taken. And you get worried. Oh, my,
what have I got? Maybe I've got cancer. If you're like me, you know,
as soon as you think that, you think, man, I'm going to be dead
in a year. I mean, I just automatically go to the far end of everything.
But we're thinking that, but then they go in and they take
some pictures and they say, no, that's not what it is. Nothing
to worry about. And we tend to think, woo, hallelujah.
Still, we have not understood what wondrous blessings are worthy
of the word hallelujah. To be brought alive from the
dead, to have our sins forgiven and put
away, to be made like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's something
worthy of a hallelujah. And when he calls, I feel certain
our answer will be hallelujah. Hallelujah, thank God. You will call, I will answer.
And then you will long for what your hands have made. The scriptures say, it is he
that has made us and not we ourselves. Now that was written by a Jewish
man, and he was speaking with regard to the Jewish nation and
their privileged status. And what he's saying of them
is, God's the one that made us his nation. We didn't make us
into a people blessed by the Lord. He did that. Whatever we
are under the hands of God's blessing is the work of God. And of course, we know to take
such Old Testament utterances, and I think the people that wrote
it knew to take them this way, that really doesn't apply so
much to that natural people Israel. It applies to all those people
from all ages who have been believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and
are heirs according to the promise. Now, God makes something of them. He begins the work during our
passage through this life. Now you came into this life dead
in trespasses and sins. And it didn't matter what anybody
did to you or did for you. It didn't matter what anybody
taught you. It doesn't matter how often you went to church. It doesn't matter how much of
your Sunday school or catechism instruction you learned. It doesn't
matter how many verses you memorized. You were still dead, spiritually
dead. But there came a day when God
began this work of renewal. When through the preaching of
the gospel and the power of his spirit, he made you alive. You didn't have anything to do
with it. Your parents didn't have anything to do with it.
The preacher, he just got swept up into the current of it. He
wasn't the power behind it. I can't make you alive. I came
here, you know, many years ago, well, many as we count years,
hoping God would make some people alive, but I've never made anybody
alive. And that was his work, wasn't
it? All you here who believe, God
began a good work in you. And you know what? He likes his
work. He likes it. He wants to see
the perfection of it. And he's going to. And he's not
going to leave any of that work undone. For it's written, he
that began a good work in you is gonna keep right on doing
it until it reaches perfection upon the day of Christ. He longs for the work or for
what his hands have made. That means that our Lord, if
we go to the grave, and likely we will, we go to the grave,
He's not gonna forget what He put there. He's not gonna say, oh man, where'd
I leave that? He knows where it is, and He's gonna bring it out of
the grave. and finish the work he began by making it perfect. He longs for, he reaches for
the work of his hands. Even now there is a work in us
which pleases God. There is within the believer
faith. It's not just that he took that
natural faith that he had before God revealed the scriptures to
him, took that natural faith and just aimed it at Jesus. No,
that's not what faith is, not saving faith. Saving faith arises
from a life that you don't have naturally. It arises from spiritual
life which is given to us, therefore our faith, just like the life
we have, our faith is called the gift of God. It's something
God worked in us. Therefore, God longs for it.
He's protective of it. What else? Righteousness. He has credited us with righteousness,
and he has made within us a spirit who never sins. In 1 John it says, he that is
born of God does not sin. Wait a minute then, I don't know
anybody born of God. Well, that's, when you understand the nature
of languages and whatnot, that could be translated as well,
that which is born of God never sins. Now, here we are, and we think,
well, everything I do has got sin in it. Yeah, because everything
you do involves your flesh as well as your spirit. But that
which the spirit contributes does not arise from a corrupt
spirit. I mean, that revived spirit is
a work of God. And there's no such thing as
a work of God that has flaws in it. We are spiritually alive. And so we have one nature, a
spiritual nature, which always desires and does the will of
God. And we have this fleshly nature
that never desires and never does the will of God. And both
of them are in our consciousness. We don't feel like we're two
people, but we kind of act like it. That's why Paul said, I don't
understand what I do. I'm not doing what I want to
do. The very things I don't want to do, that's what I end up doing.
Why is it this way? Well, it's because God's begun
a work. He just hasn't finished it yet.
But the work he's begun, he's jealous of it. He holds it in his hand, and
he's not going to let it fail. He says, you will call and I
will answer you, and that will be completely fulfilled at the
resurrection, 16. Surely then you will count my
steps, but not keep track of my sin. What does he mean you
will count my steps? You will take stock. of what I've done
and how I've lived. The Bible says the steps of a
righteous man are ordered by the Lord. It says you'll take
account of them, you'll take stock of them. I don't want that. I don't want
the Lord taking stock of what I've done. I thought salvation
delivered me from that because if he takes stock of what I've
done, He's gonna see sin. And if he sees sin, there will
be no blessing for me. Well, that's not all Job said,
aren't you glad? He says, you will count my steps,
but you won't keep track of my sin. Blessed is the man whose
sins are forgiven. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord does not impute iniquity. Then he will take account, take
stock of my steps. But he ain't gonna count any
of my missteps. Which means he's not really going
to count anything I ever did. Because missteps is the only
steps I've ever taken. What does he see? He doesn't
take stock of my sin. He will not count my sins against
me because my sins, my missteps have been removed from me and
rather now the record speaks of one who did always those things
that pleased the Father. Of one who says it's my very
food to do the will of Him who sent me, of whom it is written,
He knew no sin, there is no sin in Him. Now I say this, Boldly,
but I say it understanding how it goes against our nature. But
brethren, that is the record of every believer. Never a single
sin. And when he counts my steps, he will not count my sins because
they were taken out of the picture a long time ago. Say, oh, I fear judgment. Why? Well, I've done some bad things.
Yes, but is your hope in Christ? Well, yeah, I trust Christ. Well,
no doubt you've done a lot of bad things, but not a one of
them is laid to your charge. Not a one of them is in God's
record book under your name. They were put under the name
of Jesus Christ long ago as He laid our sins upon Him. And Jesus
Christ bore the burden of them, bore having all those missteps
counted against Him. God dealt with them there, and
they are gone. Verse 17, my offenses will be
sealed up in a bag. You will cover my sin. Once heard some people, some
fellows arguing over things about theology and trying to get smart
for their own good. They tried to say, you know,
in the Old Testament, there was just a covering for sin. But in the
New Testament, they're completely taken away. I said, what? He said, oh yeah, you know, anything
that's just covered might be uncovered later. And I responded,
it depends on what it is that covered them. Our sins have been
covered by the blood of Christ. Almost said ain't anybody. I'm
getting wrapped up enough in this, I'm starting to talk West
Virginian again. Ain't nobody seized through the blood of Christ.
not even God himself. Now if you're covered up in some
charitable works you did or some religious works you did, God
will be able to see through that and see your sin. If your sins
have been covered by the rituals of some ecclesiastical authority,
God's gonna see right through that and he'll see your sin.
If your sin's been covered in the blood, not even God sees
through that. sealed up, covered over, never
to be mentioned again. Now we have applied these things
to us. Let's take a few minutes and see that they specifically
apply to one man, even our Lord Jesus. If a man dies, will he
live again? The man Christ Jesus died. Three days later, he came out
of the tomb. There's Job's answer. And the
only reason you and I have any hope that having died, we shall
live again is because that man died and now he lives again. All the days of my hard service,
I will await for my renewal to come. Our Lord Jesus went through
this life, and He knew what hard service He was bearing, because
He knew what it was like to be perfect. He knew what it was
like to live in a perfect existence, one with the Father. And He came into this mess that
you and I call life, and He lived here, and He labored. labored
with natural work, labored as one who was under the law and
under all of its obligations, and it weighed as heavy on him
as it would on you and me. But he performed it. But that
wasn't the end of his work, having done that. Then he took upon
himself the burden of bearing our sin. As he hung there on Calvary's
tree. At any moment, he could have said, father, this is it,
I'm done, I'm done, I'm out of here. And the father would have
sent a legion of angels, six legions of angels, and would
have delivered him. But he waited. Under the hardest service any
man has ever rendered, he waited. while God beat him from head
to toe, inside and outside, and thrashed him because of the sins
that he bore. He waited. And they put his body in the
tomb. This is the living God we're talking about. He could
have come out of there any time he wanted to. I don't know why God made him
wait three days. I know that he was in paradise
for that time, because he told that thief, today you'll be with
me in paradise. Nonetheless, his body there in
that tomb, the hard service of being dead. And he waited. And at the appointed hour, his renewal came. You will call, says our Lord
Jesus to his father. He said, into your hands I commend
my spirit. With this knowledge, the time would come when the
father would call him. He says, and I will answer. Come out. Our Lord had said this to Lazarus.
Lazarus, come out. And what did Lazarus do? Well,
I think about it. Can you have the disciples sing
a few verses of Just As I Am? Because I'm really not ready
to make that decision. The Bible says Jesus said, Lazarus
come out and he that was dead came forth, bound in grave clothes. Our Lord came forth, he did even
better than that. He left his grave clothes in the tomb. He
came out clothed with the glory of the only begotten one. You will long for that which
you have made. It's wonderful to think that
the Father desires us and that the Father, He has a desire and
He will fulfill this desire to complete the work that He has
begun. But can you imagine how the Father viewed the Lord Jesus
and the work that He had done through Him and by Him? And He
saw within the Lord Jesus the entirety of His church wrapped
up in one human being. He said, I want him back. That's
my son. That's my son. He called him out of the grave.
And 40 days later, he said, that's long enough, son. We've been
apart long enough. Come up here, sit at my right
hands while I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet. Surely then you will count my
steps, but not keep track of my sin. So wait a minute, how's
that apply to the Lord? Well, here's another thing that'll
knock your socks off. I haven't said that in a long
time. Some of you that were here from the beginning remember I
used to say that a lot. This is gonna knock your socks off. So get prepared
to go to Walmart and buy some new socks. So much did our Lord identify
himself with our sin. that he called them my sin. Now, I wouldn't do that. I'd
never look at our Lord and say he's burying his sin. He bore
my sin. That's the way I see it. But
our Lord Jesus Christ, when the Father, when God laid on him
the iniquity of all his people, God saw it, God the judge saw
those sins no longer as our sins, he saw them as his sins and Jesus
Christ owned them as his sins. I'll tell you it's one thing
to bear somebody else's punishment, it's another thing to bear their
guilt. It's one thing to hear a sentence pronounced upon a
criminal and then go into the court and say, I'll take his
punishment. It's another thing to stand in
the place of that criminal before the judge and when asked how
you plead, plead guilty of whatever it is that guy did. But that's
what our Lord did. He pled guilty to our sins. He says, then you will count
my steps. And all the steps of the Lord were perfect, weren't
they? But God doesn't keep track of
that sin which he called his own. Why? Because he paid for
them. They're gone. They were ours, he made them
his, and then he got rid of them. And God the judge says, once
again, there is no sin on him. Nothing for me to take account
of, because he that is dead is justified from all sin. And he
died, therefore he's justified. He's declared not guilty of any
sin. And we're in him, and we're not
guilty. Not in the sight of God. Job was a miserable man. I've
had some troubles, but I had nothing compared to what he did. But in the midst of that deep
trouble, oh, what light. In the midst of that darkness,
what a light God gave him. And even as he's uttering these
words, he is so bowed down with sorrow, he probably didn't even
understand what wondrous things he had just said. But there came a time when God
brought him through that. And no doubt he looked back upon
that experience and what he learned and what God enabled him to say.
And he said, thank you, God, that you put me in that valley.
Because what I learned there, I never could have learned anywhere
else. And when you go through your
troubles, remember, God brought you there for your good. And one more quick application
will be done. If there's anybody here that
is not a believer, whether you think you are or
not, but you hear things like this and you really can't identify
with it because you really don't see yourself that bad. You don't
understand the freeness and fullness of grace. You think there's something
still you've got to do. Well, here's what I hope for
you. I hope that God will plunge you into an abyss where you can't
see anything. I pray he takes your soul into
a darkness that you have never yet experienced. And then in
the midst of that darkness shines this light. Because I know this, nobody ever
learned this truth on the top of a mountain. They learned it in the valley
of Holy Spirit conviction when they've been stripped of everything
that they thought was good about them. and stood naked before
God without a covering, without a hope. And then God said, if
a man dies, will he live? Let me tell you about a man who
died and now lives, my son. And I put your sin on him. And
here, here's this beautiful robe of righteousness. all yours,
free of charge. And you'll say, thank you, God,
for the valley. Thank you for the difficulty
that you put me through to make me own up to my sinfulness, and
hope in your mercy. May God grant it to be so. Heavenly
Father, Bless your word as only you're able to do. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.