Just to show you how quickly
forgetful I am, did we pray? Okay. It doesn't take long, whatever,
you know, my mind is on the next step and I forget these things.
Let's, let's seek the Lord. Oh, gracious father, what a privilege
it is to be called your children, your sons, We are heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ Jesus. None of this because of what
we have done, but altogether because of what our elder brother,
the Lord Jesus, has done. Our Father, we thank you that
you spared not your own son, but delivered him up for us.
We thank you that because you didn't spare him, you have spared
us. And all those things that fell
on him will never fall on us. Lord, we say those words, but
we also acknowledge that we don't thank you as we should for that.
We don't have near the level of gratitude as we should for
that. And one of the reasons is, is that we don't yet understand
how wonderful that is. None of us has ever experienced
your wrath and none of us have ever experienced the glory that
awaits your people. But Lord, we know from your word
that your wrath is unspeakably horrible. And the glory that
shall be revealed in your people is unspeakably glorious. So as
much as we can understand what you've done for us by comparison
of those things, Lord, we give you thanks. We thank you for
this congregation and your preservation of it over the years. You began
it and you have led it. You've preserved it. You have
allowed us to see your works of grace in the hearts of some
who have joined with us, some who were children when they came
here, and some even that have been born within this congregation
and have been given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
these things are not our doing, they are yours, and we give you
thanks. We pray, Lord, that you would
work in us to unite us in spirit, to give to each of us a greater
zeal for the things of God, protect us from the evil one, be with
those who are in trials of health and circumstances and whatever,
Lord, bless them. Heal the ones for whom healing
would be a good thing. Relieve from difficult circumstances
those for whom relief would be good. For we know, Lord, that
everything you send in our life has a purpose. And it will come
when it's time and it will leave when it has served its purpose.
But Lord, as those of your people to whom you've sent difficulty,
as they go through their difficulties, send with the difficulty grace,
added grace. Testify to them that this is
not a demonstration that you have abandoned them. It is not
a declaration of your disfavor, but it is a work of your love
as much as anything else you've done for them. Lord, be merciful to our nation,
for nothing less than your mercy will preserve us. Bless the church, the ministry
of this church, and may we have more opportunities to make your
gospel known. Bless the other churches, Lord,
as well, and such men as Sergei Makalov, as he's now able to
get out and about preaching in other churches again. We pray
for Miles McKee. We pray for Brother Walter Groover,
still in Mexico. Pray for Lance Heller. We pray
for the pastors, Lord, that we know and the pastors that we
don't. Any of them, Lord, that declare your name, our heart
is with them, and we know that your heart is with them also.
Give them boldness mixed with love and compassion. May they
preach with plainness. And may your people hear your
word. And those who are yet dead in
their trespasses and sins, Lord, make them alive by your word.
Make them one with you. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, 1 Corinthians chapter
five. 1 Corinthians chapter five. Verse seven, get rid of the old yeast that
you may be a new batch without yeast as you really are for Christ
Our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us keep the festival,
not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but
with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. Now, today is one of the days
we will observe the Lord's table. We try to do that about once
a month. And anytime we mention the Lord's table, we should be
reminded of two historical events recorded in the Bible. That is
the first Passover and the last Passover. because there are no
more Passovers. That is, the Jewish festival
of the Passover, I'm sure that there are Jews who take note
of it and observe it in their own way. Nobody that I know of
is observing it the way the Jews were commanded to do, but even
if they did, it would not be a thing honoring to the Lord.
Why? Well, the one whom the Passover
pointed to has come. Christ, our Passover, has been
sacrificed. That means no more sacrificing
of lambs, which were just pictures of Christ. That day and age is
over. The day of God's covenant with
Israel is done. It's finished. The new covenant has been ratified
by Jesus Christ and the shedding of his blood. And the new covenant
is not just a rearrangement of the old. The book of Hebrews
says, when that which is new is come, that which is old passes
away. So, there was a last Passover. Now,
the reason that the Lord's table reminds us of the first Passover
is the fact that our, that the Lord's table teaches
us everything that was taught by God in that first Passover. Now that first Passover was not
just about Jews escaping bondage in Egypt. It had something to
teach the believing person. And the Lord's table teaches
us everything that the Passover taught us. were taught to Jews. And then the reason that we're
reminded of the last supper is the fact that the, excuse me,
the last Passover, it's the fact that the last Passover was used
by our Lord to set up what we call the Lord's table or the
Lord's supper or communion, there's different words for it. But the
very last time that the Passover was observed with God's approval
was on that night when our Lord gathered with his disciples the
night before he was crucified. That was the last time. Every
Passover after that has been a denial of the gospel of Christ. When you go back to the shadows,
you're denying the reality. And, you know, At that last observance
of the Passover, here's what our Lord said to them. He said,
with great desire, have I desired to eat this Passover with you. Why? Well, for one thing, it
was the last one. And as much as what lay ahead
of him in the next few hours, was horrifying to his soul. It's
what he came to do. And he was glad to get it done. You ever have something that
needs doing, but you don't wanna do it? Like you gotta get surgery. Doctor
said, all right, in three weeks, we're gonna have surgery. Well,
man, when you finally get there, all right, I'm glad to be here. Not
because you're looking forward to the surgery, you're looking
forward to getting it over with, aren't you? Well, our Lord is
about to go through suffering such as no man has ever suffered
before. And it was done at the time of
Passover that it might be obvious to anyone who had an honest heart
that this was the fulfillment of the Passover. So the Lord
says, with great desire, have I desired to eat this Passover? Because this Passover is the
last one. because I'm about to be the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world, the real Passover Lamb. So any instruction about the
Lord's Table must begin with an understanding of the Passover,
both the real event that took place in Egypt roughly 1,500
years before Christ and an understanding of the Jews'
continual observance of it. Now, when the Passover was set
up in Exodus chapter 11, God told the people that they must
instruct their children about the meaning of the Passover.
You know, ceremonies without meaning, or ceremonies without
understanding what the ceremony's about is just a useless ceremony. There has never been a ceremony
ordained by God that actually accomplished anything. That is
anything eternal, anything spiritual. You know, they had the day of
atonement and the Passover. But the day of atonement, when
the sacrifice was offered in the most holy place, that never
took away sin. The blood of bulls and calves,
And the ashes of a heifer, says the scriptures, they can't cleanse
the conscience. Not all those beasts on Jewish
altars slain could cleanse the guilty conscience or take away
the stain. And the Lord's table and baptism,
Now these are ceremonies commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ, yet
the doing of them does not accomplish a spiritual thing unless there's
an understanding about what's being done, about why it's being
done. Being immersed in water, the
only thing that it actually does is get you wet. drinking a thimble
full of wine and a little bit of leavened bread, all that does
is give you a little bit of wine and a little bit of bread. That's
all that it does, shall we say, in the natural world. And none
of these things touch your spirit unless you understand what they
mean and enter into the meaning. And so that's why he told the,
You're supposed to explain this to your children, because every
year you're going to be observing this, and they should understand
why it's being done. And it says in Exodus 12, beginning
at verse 25, when you come into the land that the Lord will give
you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And
when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service?
You shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. For he
passed over the houses of the people of Israel and Egypt when
he struck the Egyptians, but spared our houses. And you know, what the Jews were told to do
for their children, we ought to do for ours. So children,
if you'll listen to me for just a minute, I want to explain to
you why we observe the Lord's table. You see us do it about
once a month. And generally speaking, the bread
and the wine come and your parents take some, you don't take any.
And maybe you don't know why. Maybe you don't know why your
parents take some and maybe you don't know why you don't take
any. Well, let me explain to you what
this is about. As I said, it's based on what
God did for the Jews. 3,500 years ago in the land of Egypt,
they had been slaves in Egypt for about 400 years. And they
weren't allowed to leave Egypt. They weren't allowed to keep,
to make money. That is like, you know, when
your parents go to work, they get paid and that money's theirs
and they can do what they want. No, they were slaves. They did
what they were told and they got whatever their masters were
pleased to give them. And it didn't matter how hard
they worked, it was never enough. And if they ever complained that
the labors were too hard for them, they added more labors
to them. It's a horrible existence. But God sent them a deliverer
in the person of Moses. You know what a deliverer is,
a savior, a rescuer. He sent Moses there to deliver
them, to free them. from Egypt and their bondage
there. Now the one that was holding
them in bondage was the king of Egypt, which they didn't call
the king a king, they called him a pharaoh. That's not a name,
that's a title. And we don't know for sure which
of the pharaohs was the pharaoh at the time of the Jews leaving
Egypt, but whichever one it was, he got taught a pretty serious
lesson. Because Moses went to the Pharaoh and he says, this
is what Jehovah God says. Now Jehovah is the name of the
God we worship. And he says, here's what our
God Jehovah says to you, Pharaoh, let my people go that they may
worship me. And you know what Pharaoh said?
Who is Jehovah that I should listen to him? That's how proud Pharaoh was.
He thought that Jehovah was nothing big. He thought that he himself
was more important than Jehovah God. Well, our God Jehovah showed
him who he is, and he brought seven They often call them plagues. They're judgments from God, things
God caused to happen that were harmful to Egypt. For instance,
he caused all the water in Egypt to turn to blood. Now imagine
that. How'd you like to get a drink
of water out of the Nile River when it's flowing with blood?
He caused the sand, and do you know how much sand there is in
Egypt? He caused it to turn into flies. Now, you all know what flies
are. We don't see them quite as badly as we used to. I remember
when I came here, the way they used to raise hogs, you know,
I mean, it's like, you know, you have a thousand hogs and
10 million flies. That's just the way the program
ran. And flies, that's nothing compared to what went on in Egypt. And then he caused a plague of
frogs, just frogs come up out of the Nile River and just all
over the place. And every time one of these would
happen, Pharaoh would say, okay, okay, I'll let you, you tell
God, I'll let the people go if he'll stop it. So the Lord would
stop it. But can you imagine the smell
of all those millions and millions of frogs that died? And this went on. He gave them
boils, painful things, because every time Pharaoh would say,
if God will remove the plague, I'll let the people go. God would
remove the plague, and then Pharaoh would change his mind. So another
plague, another plague, another plague. After nine plagues, God told
Moses, all right, I got one more, one more. And this one's going
to make him let you go. And here's what he told Moses.
He says, on such and such a night, I'm going to pass through Egypt
and I'm going to kill the firstborn son in every family, all the way from Pharaoh's house
down to the most insignificant person in Egypt. I'm going to
kill the firstborn of all the cattle. Every firstborn of everything
is going to die. That's kind of scary because
he didn't say, I'm going to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians.
He says, I'm going to kill the firstborn of everybody in Egypt. Who was in Egypt? The Jews. God's judgment was on them too.
But that wasn't the end of the story. He said, however, I'm
going to tell you more than the Jews will ever, or than the Egyptians
will ever know. Here's what you need to do. You
take a lamb on the 10th day of the month. You separate him from
all the other lambs you have. You pick out one that's in the
first year of life, the prime of life. You pick out one that
doesn't have any defects in it at all. And you set it aside for four
days. And that four days was probably used to make sure that
that lamb was good enough. It wasn't sick. It wasn't supposed
to be anything with a broken leg, nothing with a skin disease. Perfect lamb. And then on the
14th, as it got towards evening, they were to take that lamb and they were to cut its throat
and bleed it out. Now, not many of us see that.
You know, they do that in the slaughterhouse for us, so we
don't have to watch that. But that's not a pleasant sight. But they were to gather that
blood in a bowl. They weren't just let it spill
out on the ground. They gathered it, collected it in a bowl. And then they would, they were
to take a branch of a plant called hyssop. And they were to dip
it in that blood like a paintbrush. And they were supposed to put
kind of paint some of that blood on the top of their door and
on each side of the door. And then they were to roast that
lamb, all of it. Every last bit of it. They weren't
to dress it or anything, just roast it. And then they were
to take it inside, you know, inside the house and they were
to eat it and they were to eat all of it. Nothing left behind. I suppose
they meant all the flesh of it, not the bones. And if a family was so small
that they couldn't eat an entire lamb, they were supposed to join
with their neighbors, maybe two households together. But there
wasn't supposed to be any of that lamb left in the morning.
And then they were supposed to stay in their houses with the
doors shut. And then the Lord said this,
and when I pass through Egypt, or as I pass through Egypt, when
I see the blood, what blood? Well, the blood that came out
of that lamb, and it was painted on the door, the doorpost and
the lintel, they call that piece across the top. And he says,
as I go through Egypt, and why is he going through Egypt? To
kill the firstborn. That's why God's going through
there. He's gonna kill every firstborn. When I go through
Egypt, as I go through Egypt, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And that's where the word Passover
comes from. So here comes God into Egypt
that night, bent, full of wrath, full of anger at the Egyptians
for what they did to his people, the Jews. And he's gonna punish
them. and he's gonna punish them with
death of the firstborn. In fact, he has pronounced death
on the firstborn of every family in Egypt, including the Jews,
and here he comes, bent on death. But he comes to a house, and
behold, there's the blood. What does he do? Does he say,
well, I know that Jew, and he's not really a nice guy at all.
No. He saw the blood. So he passed
right over that house and nobody died. He goes over and here's
a house with no blood. Firstborn dies. Another firstborn
dies. It says a whale went up from
Egypt. But it says where the Jews lived
and I guess they'd all obeyed and put that blood on the door.
He said not even a dog bothered to bark. Now, dogs will bark
at nothing. You ever seen a dog do that?
It'll be asleep and all it wants to wake up, woof, you know, like
something happened. I guess they had a dream or something,
you know. I said, not a dog barked that
night. There came no cry, no wailing. Why? That blood was on the door
and God passed over every one of the houses where there was
a blood and there was no death there. And you know why there
was no death in the house? Because the symbol of death was
on the outside of the house. That blood on the door said death
already came to this house. And you see God doesn't kill
twice. Justice that requires death It's not gonna require
it twice. So what do we see there? We see
that that lamb, that little innocent lamb became the substitute for
whoever was the firstborn in that house. Now I'm the youngest child in
my family, but I'm the firstborn son. And if I'd have been a Jew
in Egypt in that day, the threat would have been to me. When God
came through Israel, it wouldn't have been my father that was
in danger, wouldn't have been my mother or either of my two
sisters, it would have been me. But if there was blood on the
door, I would have been as safe as if God wasn't going through
Egypt at all. Now that's what that Passover
is. And later, the Lord Jesus, on the last time that those Jews
celebrated a festival to remember the real Passover, the last time.
He set up what we call the Lord's Table. And what it teaches us is this.
We are born in sin, in bondage and slavery to sin. Now, you
young children, you say, well, I'm not in bondage to sin. Sometimes
I do something good. If you knew God and how righteous,
how perfect He is, you would realize that everything you have
done is sin to Him. And God has pronounced judgment
on all of the world, every last person in it. He said, the soul
that sins, it will die. And he doesn't just mean the
dying that goes on, you know, somebody dies and they have a
funeral and bury him. It goes beyond that. It's a kind of spiritual
death. It's a death that goes on forever,
where you experience God's anger. And that judgment passed on everybody.
It passed on me. It passed on your moms and dads,
your grandmoms, your granddads. And it passed on you. Do I want to scare you? I don't
want to scare you just so you'll be scared. But the truth is kind
of scary. Everybody in the world, is under
a sentence. You know what I mean by a sentence?
You know when somebody gets convicted of a crime, they're found guilty,
say, of murder? Well, then the judge pronounces
a sentence and he says something like, you're gonna go to jail
for life. That's the sentence. Well, God
has passed sentence on you and me for our sin. And we are in bondage to that. We can't stop sinning, and there's
no way we can get ourselves out of the trouble we're in. Thank God that's not the end
of the story. Jesus Christ, remember we read right here, Christ our
Passover. The Jews had their Passover lamb. And when this says Christ our
Passover, it means Christ our Passover lamb. Christ, a human being. God in
the form of a human. He became our Passover lamb. And he was killed. Say, who killed
him? Well, Romans and the Jews actually
carried out his physical crucifixion. But the Bible teaches us it was
God. passed judgment on him. Now,
why would God pass judgment on Jesus Christ? He never did anything
wrong. He's the only man that never
sinned. Why did God sacrifice Jesus Christ? Because he is our Passover lamb. He is the Passover lamb of all
that believe in him. And he took their place. He,
just like that lamb in Egypt, he endured the death that God
had pronounced on all the firstborn. And Jesus Christ experienced
the death that he, that God had passed on us. And so we observe
the Lord's table because it's just kind of a form of the Passover. Instead
of killing a lamb and having blood, we have that little cup
of wine as though it's blood. And that they were supposed to
eat unleavened bread with that meal when they ate that roasted
lamb. And we eat that little piece
of unleavened bread because that's what they ate. So here in a few minutes when
we observe this, we're not doing this just to fulfill a command. We're not doing this because
we think God's going to be mad at us if we don't. We're not
doing this because we think we're going to be more saved after
we did it than beforehand. We do it as a way to remember
our bondage to sin and death and to remember how our Lord
Jesus, by shedding his own blood, by dying in our place, experiencing
God's wrath for us, we have been set free. I told you Every one of us is
sinful. In fact, everything we do is
sin in the eyes of God. But I want to tell you something
absolutely amazing. There are some in this room that
when God looks at them, he doesn't see any sin. You say there's
something God can't see? That's right. He cannot see the sin of those
for whom Christ was the Passover lamb. One day he's coming through this
world in judgment. And where there's no blood of
Christ, eternal death. Where he sees the blood, eternal
life. So this ceremony that we do,
we're just doing a ceremony that reminds us of these things. Now, just a few things about the Lord's
Table and then we'll observe it. It's a perpetual ordinance. It says over here in 1 Corinthians
11, verse 26, For whenever you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."
When will we quit observing the Lord's table? Well, when we die
or when the Lord himself comes back. Until then, the church
will observe the Lord's table. Why? Because they are proclaiming
the death of Jesus Christ in place as a substitute for sinners. We're declaring his death. It's
kind of like a way of preaching. Now, I preach in words, but the
Lord's table is a sermon in symbols. And we're to keep doing that.
The early church did that in Acts 2, verse 41. It says that
those who believed continued what? Well, they continued in
the apostle's word, they continued in prayer, and in the breaking
of bread. That didn't mean they just got
together and had dinner. They were talking about the Lord's
table. It was important then, it's important
now. And over here in 1 Corinthians 10, it shows you something, the
importance of the Lord's Supper. In 1 Corinthians 10, verse 16, is not the cup of thanksgiving
for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ. Now,
I'll be honest, I don't like the way that our translation
handles that. This almost sounds like the Catholic version of
the Lord's Table, that they think when you drink that wine, you're
actually literally drinking in the blood of Christ and getting
some kind of grace out. That's not what he means at all.
The word translated participation is often translated fellowship
or communion. That's why the Lord's table is
sometimes called communion. What is he saying here? He says,
the cup of thanksgiving. Now, in the original Passover,
they didn't have that. You don't hear about a cup of
wine being drank, but that became one of the traditions of the
Passover over the years, and so our Lord, He passed that cup,
they called it the cup of thanksgiving, it was a cup of wine. They passed
it around, each one took a drink out of it. I guess in our modern
age, we don't really wanna drink out of the same cup somebody
else did, so we give everybody their own little cup. But here's
what Paul is saying here. In chapter 10, verse 16, this
cup of thanksgiving, which represents the blood of Christ, When we come together and we
drink out of it, and at one time it was all in one bottle, so
it was just split up before we drank it, but the idea is we
are all joined together in that blood. What unites the people
of God? The blood. What identified the Jews? on
the night of Passover, the blood. You see, the blood was on the
outside. You didn't identify the Jews
by looking inside the house and see the ones that look like Jews
instead of Egyptians. All you had to do, oh, there's
a Jew, there's a Jewish household, there's a Jew. The blood brought
them all together. And you and I, when we participate
in the Lord's table, and we understand what it means, and we drink that
little cup of wine, what that is saying is we are all united
in this one thing. The blood of Jesus Christ has
made us into one body, having forgiven us of all our sins. Do you see how important it is
that we do this? Our Lord never gave a useless
commandment. He told us to do this because it's good for us.
It reminds us of that. I say we don't pass the cup around,
but imagine if we did. Just how significant that would
be. We're all drinking out of the same cup. You know, family
members might drink out of the same cup. What's that indicate? Well, we're always together anyway.
We all got the same germs pretty much. We don't care. We're all
one. And that blood makes us all one. There are serious consequences
when you don't observe the Lord's table with the proper attitude.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 30, verse 29. For anyone who eats and drinks
without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment
on himself. That is why many of you are weak
and sick and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we
judge ourselves, we've not come under judgment. Now, a lot of
people think that and I've heard this practice before, when they
know they're gonna have the Lord's table, boy, the night before,
they quit doing all the things they shouldn't have been doing
all along, or at least they think they do. They say, well, we gotta
prepare ourselves for the Lord's table, you know, and get ready,
as though they're gonna somehow make themselves worthy to come
to the Lord's table. Well, the Lord's table is a testimony
that we're not worthy, because it took the broken body and the
shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to reconcile us to God
and set us free from our sins. So we're not proclaiming any
worthiness. What's he talking about here? When anyone eats
and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord. Now this
can be taken two ways, and I think both of them are very instructive.
One thing is, if you just come to this thing, it's a ceremony
we gotta do. Now here's a little wine, here's
a little bread. You are not approaching the Lord's
table with the right attitude. Rather, we look at those elements
and we recognize them as the symbols of the most holy and
wonderful thing that ever was. I've got this ring. I don't know
how much we—I lost the first one, so I had to buy another
one. I can't remember how much we paid for it, but not a whole
lot when it comes to jewelry. If we got poor and tried to take
it down to the pawn shop, they wouldn't give us much money. But what do you think Bonnie
would think if I took this off and just cast it aside? Ah, it's
just a ring. Yeah, it's just a ring. that symbolizes that we are married. And to treat that ring with contempt
would be to show contempt for the wedding or the marriage it
represents. And to treat the Lord's table
with contempt, to ignore its observance, to observe it without
your heart and spirit in it, it would be kind of like tossing
your wedding ring aside. and not caring about it. And it also could be taken this
way. As I said, that blood unites us, makes us one body. And one of the problems the Corinthians
were having is they'd come together, they'd worship, you know, they'd
have the regular kind of worship, you know, with him singing and
praying and preaching. And afterwards, they'd have what
came to be called the love feast, which we call a potluck dinner. And the Lord's table would kind
of be observed towards the end of that, almost as part of the
meal, but here's what would happen. The rich would bring their fancy
foods and lots of it, and they'd all sit together at one table,
and they'd all just eat themselves just stuffed like you do on Thanksgiving,
and they'd drink too much wine, And over here's poor people and
they ain't got anything. They're just sitting there. What were they doing? They weren't
recognizing the body of Christ, which is the church. They were fragmenting it. You
see the Lord's table. brings us all at the same level,
doesn't it? In Christ, there's neither rich
nor poor. There's not male or female. There's not Jew or Gentile. There's just a bunch of sinners
worshiping their Lord in a symbolic ceremony. Well, Just want to make one more point.
There's a lot of them I could make and don't have the time.
But seeing that the Lord's table is a kind of a Passover for the
church. How were the Jews taught, instructed
on that first Passover? They said, you eat it with your
shoes on, your day clothes on, your belt cinched, ready to go. Why? Because they were leaving. They were to eat that Passover
with expectation of deliverance. And brethren, as we participate
in this little bloodless reenactment of the Passover meal, Let us eat it in the knowledge
we go away from here free. Let us eat it with our spiritual
shoes on and our spiritual day clothes, our staff in our hand,
ready to march out of bondage, free from guilt, free from a
guilty conscience, and let us always eat it this way too. Someday
we're going to leave this place. Spiritually speaking, we're free,
but we're still in this body of flesh, this body of death,
aren't we? Oh, eat that and remember, someday I'm going to be free,
completely, absolutely free from every vestige You children know
what vestige means? The last little bit. There won't
even be the tiniest little bit of sin left. And we shall be
with our Lord in His promised land. And we
will live with Him always and forever. So this ceremony is just not
a little something we do, is it? It's a reenactment of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Let us do it with soberness of
heart. Let us do it worshiping our Lord. And once again, I didn't ask
anybody to help pass it out, so I'm going to draft it.