The last time that we were in
the book of Judges, we read of the great success of Deborah
and Barak going up against the enemy. And then we noticed there,
though, that the one enemy that eluded them was taken care of
by someone else. And that truly speaks about how
God takes care of our sin. Though it may chafe us, it may
deal with us, it may be in our life, the only one that can take
care of it is the Lord Jesus Christ. They overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb. So our sins are put under the
blood, taken away. And now we have one of two of
the great songs that is mentioned, particularly here in the Old
Testament. This one is the song of Deborah and Barak, and it's
31 verses long. It shares with us a great deal
about our God and about the victories that we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we're going to spend some
time on that. It tells us here, Then sang Deborah and Barak,
the son of Abinium, on that day, saying, Praise ye the Lord for
the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered
themselves. Hear, O ye kings, give ear, O
ye princes, I even I will sing unto the Lord. I will sing praise
to the Lord God of Israel. Well, let's stop right there
and we'll just spend a little time on some of the things that
are going on here and looking at what the Lord instructs us
even in our church to do in our in our person. We I would like
to take you over to the book of Exodus chapter 15 Exodus chapter
15 and it is in that chapter that we find the song of Moses
and of his sister Miriam. In Exodus chapter 15, now this
too was at a time of great revival, great blessings. God had taken
in hand the enemy. God had completely destroyed
them without anybody's help. He took care of them and we have
here in Exodus chapter 15 and verse 1, then sang Moses and
the children of Israel this song unto the Lord. And Spake saying,
I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. And this is a song that we find
after all those, the army of Egypt was drowned in the Red
Sea. not going to bother them anymore. They're not going to
have to watch the back any longer. They're not going to have to
look over their shoulders any longer because it's taken care
of. And it tells us there in verse three, the Lord is a man
of war. The Lord is his name. And I love
that thought because this is the Lord that takes care of the
salvation of his people. He is not stopped by any man. There's nothing, no one, no rain
or thunder or cloud can stop God. And so we have that the
Lord is a man of war. And then in verse four, Pharaoh's
chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea. His chosen
captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. No more ever to
be seen. What a picture we have here of
God dealing with the enemy of the church, the enemies of the
church. He completely shows with us in
this passage of scripture how he deals with it. Now, they had
that song. And if you follow this through,
we find that there's quite a number of verses there in this song
again, chapter in Exodus 15, down through verse 21, as the
song continues. And so there's more than one
verse to this song. There's 21 verses to this song.
And they chanted it or sang it or however they did. And we find
that we too are encouraged to do this. It appears that Deborah
and Barak sang this song the same day the enemy was defeated. Now the church has been always
been encouraged to be involved with songs. There's a reason,
there's 150 Psalms. They are great hymns of the faith. They are the word of God and
their psalms And in early days, the Israelites, they chanted
them. And I think there have been two
or three wonderful authors that have taken the Psalms and put
them to music and they, we call it a Psalter. And really it's
just words of those Psalms that are used. And we find, turn with
me to the book of Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. In Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5, I'd like
to read verses 1 and 2, and then drop down there in that. The
church has been encouraged to be involved in songs. We have
been called on to be involved in songs. And there's quite a
few Old Testament books that were written in verse that are
summed up in the small case p, Psalms, that the Lord shares
with us that he revealed himself in. So if you'll turn with me
here to the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, we
read these wonderful words. Chapter 5 of Ephesians, verses
1 and 2, the scriptures say, let me back up one. It says, be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children. I have the promise of God. My
sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Now I claim that promise
every day. Lord, give me grace to follow
you. But he is going to make sure
I do. It's not a wrestling match. He's already won that. So my
sheep hear my voice. So be therefore followers of
God as dear children. Verse two, and walk in love as
Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us. Now we find the Apostle Paul
teaching that I do not need to teach you how to love one another.
God does that. Now we remind ourselves from
time to time, but that love that God has given to us for one another,
believers, is God-given, and it's there by inheritance in
our salvation. So I don't have to stand in the
pulpit and say, folks, you gotta love each other. That's gonna
happen. God's people are going to love
each other. Now, we're going to overlook some of our idiosyncrasies, issues that could
be issues. We're just going to say, I will
never forget Brother Dwayne instructed me. He said, Norm, if I say something
and it looks like it's just a little shaded, please don't take it
that way because it wasn't meant that way. Take it the best you
possibly can. Good advice. It's been great
advice for me through the years. Take it the best you can, because
they probably didn't mean it to be on the dark side. They were just, you know, sometimes
we get our tongue tied around our eye tooth and don't know
what we're saying. Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us
and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling savor. All right, drop down to verse
17 of that same chapter, verse 17. Wherefore be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Wanna know? Read. He's not gonna reveal to
us anything outside of this book. We're not gonna have some special
experience that's gonna be special leadership and wisdom and will
of God to us. God's gonna give his will to
every member of the church. Every elect person knows the
will of God because that's what he reveals to us. And it's based
upon his word. Now, as I'm going through the
book of Acts, I find out how blessed we are to have the New
Testament. Now the Holy Spirit led them
in the truths of the New Testament, but how blessed we are, we have
the Holy Spirit and the New Testament. So we can refer to that. Be not
drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit.
Now notice verse 19, speak unto yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs. As we go back to the book of
Judges, we find that there was a great song that was sung at
the defeat of that enemy of Israel. Deborah and Barak was significantly
used by Almighty God, raised up by God to lead those people. And then we have the thousands
that were brought up of their own voluntary will. They were
not drafted. They were willing in the day
of his power. So speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus, submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God. So we are called
on to have this. Now speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and making melody in our
heart, In reality, that kind of song is what we do when we
get together and we say, have you read Romans 9? And someone said, yeah, I have. We're really singing and making
melody in our heart unto God about the great grace that God
has given us in Christ Jesus. It's passing back and forth the
word of God. Now, Amazing Grace is a wonderful
song. I love it. And others that we
sing are too. They're not inspired. Now, the
original that they are based on is, but those authors were
not inspired. We may say they're inspired writers.
No, they're not. They're not like we find in the
New Testament or the Old Testament, but we find when we sit and visit
over the gospel, when we sit and visit over the Word of God,
when someone brings up something that they've seen. I was listening
to Brother Henry in an old tape, an old on YouTube. Go to YouTube. You can find lots of his messages.
And Brother Scott Richardson called him up and says, Brother
Henry, what are you doing? He says, I found a verse and
I'm preaching it to my wife. I don't think any of us has not
done that. Wow, did you see this verse of
scripture? It just, it blew my doors off.
So we do that, that's what it is, really to sing what it says
there, speaking to yourselves in Psalms, back and forth, not
bantering, not bantering. I went, Brother Wayne has a real
ministry at the McDonald's. Now, the town he lives in is
about 2,100 people and they shouldn't have a McDonald's, but they have
a McDonald's. And he goes over there, and there's
a bunch of old men and women that sit around and banter each
other. And he has a real ministry among
them, bringing them the gospel. Now, they hate him. And I was
called a worker of the devil. And it just went like rain on
a duck's back. I didn't care. I know where he's
coming from. When he brings that word of truth, he is singing
and making melody in his heart, and he is concerned about those
old people, about their soul. They're all religious to the
core. So speaking to yourselves in
psalms and hymns, One translation put it this way, then you will
recite to one another psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. You'll recite them back and forth.
And we do that all the time. Did you see that? Yeah, I did. Ain't it great? In the Old Testament,
the Jews divided up about one-third of the Old Testament, and they
called it a name. I tried to learn how to say it,
but it's a hyggographa, and it includes psalms. These books, in their original
form, were written in verse. They were songs and hymns and
spiritual songs. Now of all of the songs in the
Old Testament, there is one called the Song of Songs. That's the Song of Solomon. The
Song of Songs. So, since the Lord led us to
that, then we put the Psalms, 150 of them, under that because
that's number one. That's the relationship of Christ
and His Church. Well, we read in the Psalms the
same kind of things. We have the Psalms, Proverbs,
Job. Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations,
Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Chronicles
were written in verse. So they're in this group, and
that's the group that Jesus said to his disciples in the Psalms,
he declared himself. in this group of books of the
Old Testament. So sometimes it doesn't look
like verse to us, and we think it's like Romans and so forth,
but it can still be used in our conversation as psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs. Turn with me to the book of Colossians,
if you would, chapter three, Colossians chapter three. As
we think of those people singing a song at the victory of God
Almighty over that enemy, had kept them in check for all those
years and extracted all of that taxation and brought in those
900 chariots of iron and kept them down, kept them down, kept
them down. And finally, we find they pled
into the Lord. He raised up Deborah. She called
on him, Barak, and said, get over here. The Lord has called
you to do something. And he must recognize that because
he got busy doing it and got all those folks in, in an instant,
in a day. The enemy is defeated, and they
don't have to worry about that anymore. And now we get to sing
about it. Colossians chapter 3, the book of Colossians chapter
3, there in verse 16, we read these words. It says, let the
word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. Isn't that good? Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly. I made a comment to Brother Wayne,
don't ever tell me what I need to do. Tell me what Christ has
done for me. I know what I need to do. But
I want to hear what Christ has done for me. That's much better,
much more glorious. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. So these songs represent the
great grace of God, and we get that liberality to sing those
songs. As we sit down, as we visit,
we come up and say, my, have you read Ecclesiastes chapter
3 and verse 11 recently? Have you seen how faithful he
is? We're going to take that to the
bank. We're going to take that to the bank. So how glorious
it is to sit down and talk and teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And then if
you look with me to the book of James, book of James, we have
this Similar thought brought up here in the book of James
chapter 5 James chapter 5 and verse 13 Oh to sing and make
melody in our heart to share the Word of God to be just delighting
in it I Have to tell the story that my impression brother Mike
when he used to read for us Where he used to go he couldn't
here he was given liberty and And he just read and read and
read and read those verses of scripture that he had all bottled
up inside of him. And we just said, amen. Hallelujah. Find another one. So that's just
the way it is. All right. Here in the book of
James chapter five, if any among you afflicted, is any among you
afflicted? Let him pray. We got instructions. Is any merry? Let them sing psalms. Got the instructions. Don't need
to be told what to do. Got them. So is any afflicted? Yeah. Lord, we do pray. Lord,
we pray. We have been afflicted. We shall
be afflicted and we will be afflicted. But I'm gonna have that time
when I'm married, I'm gonna sing songs. Now, if you'll turn with
me to this verse we've been about to wear out, it's still full
letters on my page yet. As often as I've read it. In
the book of Luke, chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. In Luke chapter
24, and there in verse 44, we read these words. Luke chapter
24 and verse 44. Now, when we are singing and
making melody in our heart, when we're reciting the word of God
to one another, when we're bringing it up, wherever we are, just,
oh my goodness, did you, have you, you know how it is, how
joyous it makes us? Well, we find exactly what we
will find in all of that reading, because the Lord brings it up
here. These are the words, Luke 24, 44. And he said unto them,
these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with
you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written
in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning
me. Small s, excuse me, small p. All of those books that are in
verse, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, the Psalms themselves,
we look, we find. Do you see who we will run into
in all of these? We're going to run smack doodly
dab right into the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he said to
his disciples. He encouraged them in that way.
And so here we have the psalm, the song of Barak, the psalm
of Deborah and Barak. Let's go back over there to the
book of Judges chapter chapter 5, if you would. Judges chapter
5, as we look at this again. Judges chapter 5, as we hear
their singing, they sing the psalm, the song. It has so much in it. The glorifying
God. Glorifying God overcoming the
enemy. Glorifying God for setting them
free. There is even a term in here
that I want to deal with next time. Beric is called to lead
captivity captive. Now, isn't that an interesting
place to find that same thing that we read over in the book
of Ephesians about the Lord. He led captivity captive. All right, here in the book of
Judges, chapter five, it says, then sang Deborah and Beric,
then sang. Son of Abimelem, and that day
saying, Praise ye the Lord. That word, praise, is almost
like hallelujah. Hallelujah, what a Savior. For
avenging Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves. Now, I don't have to use this
as often as I did. I don't have to say to everybody,
now keep your finger right there. But would you do that? Keep your
finger right there and join me in the book of the Psalms. Psalm
135, Psalm 135. As we are called on to worship
God, worship the Lord, Psalm 135. And beginning with verse
one, it says, praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord. Praise Him. O ye servants of
the Lord, ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts
of the house of our God, praise the Lord. For the Lord is good,
sing praises unto His name, for it is pleasant. It's not brutal,
it is pleasant. Praise the Lord, for the Lord
is good. Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant. For
the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself. Hallelujah. We find
out God had chosen a people before the foundation of the world.
And if he'd not been involved in that, we would not be here. We would have no interest in
God whatsoever. We could care less about singing
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Other songs would take
our time. And then he says, for I know
that the Lord is great, that our Lord is above all gods. Now, when we read that and go
over to the book of Judges and find out how often those people
bent themselves on going after other gods, we have the Psalm
telling us that our Lord is above all gods. There's no reason except
total depravity leads us in that direction. Whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did he in heaven, and in the earth, and in the
seas, and all the deep places. We find him selling Israel into
the hands of those folks. We find him defeating those folks
that took them captive and making a mockery. Whatsoever the Lord,
and then verse seven, he causeth the vapors to ascend from the
ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the
rain. He bringeth the wind out of her treasuries. Who smote
the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast? Who sent tokens
and wonders in the midst of the old Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon
all his servants? Who smote great nations and slew
mighty kings? Sihon, king of the Amorites,
Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan. and gave
their land for an inheritance and heritage unto Israel his
people. Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever,
and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. For the Lord
will judge his people and he will repent himself concerning
his servants. Oh, as we follow this through,
we find this whole Psalm is dedicated to what we find that song of
Deborah and Beric and the Psalm of Moses is dedicated to praising
God for all the work he's performed on behalf of his people. The
praise you the Lord for avenging Israel. when the people willingly
offered themselves. That's what we read over there
in the book of Judges chapter five and verse two. Praise the
Lord for the Lord avenging Israel. What a blessing it is mentioned
here in these verses that Israel had leaders and followers at
this time. You know, under all of that oppression
that that king, all those people that came into Israel had over
those people, what a blessing it is to find that there was
a leader. or leaders raised up in Israel. And there were followers of those
leaders raised up in Israel, and not just two or three. You
know, it's a blessing when we read over there that there was
one old preacher just down in the dumps, the mully grubs, and
I'm the last one. And they're after me, Lord. And
God shared with him, I have reserved, preserved 7,000. in Israel that have not bowed
the knee to Baal. Now, we may find out that there
was 7 million of people and 7,000 that had not bowed the knee to
Baal, but we always find in the Scriptures that there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. It is no mistake that
there was 7,000. It is a remnant according to
the election of grace. And let's go back over there
to the book of Judges 5. Judges 5 and look at this goings
on that are here. It says in verse 2, Judges chapter
5 and verse 2 praise ye Jehovah for avenging Israel when the
people willingly offered themselves The people were appointed by
God to lead the folks there was people Divinely appointed We
have Deborah, you know, and there's been a lot of flack about her
being a woman doing what she's doing well God called on her. She answered the call. She came.
She did. Barak was involved in that. There
are people appointed by God to lead the folks, and they were
Deborah and Barak, and we have a flock that was willing and
they offered themselves. Turn with me to the book of Psalms
again, Psalm 23. This is a very familiar psalm. Probably
heard it at funerals more times than anywhere else. But it's
an everyday song. It's one of those we can sing
and make a melody in our heart over. In this passage of scripture,
we find that Jesus is our great high priest is also known as
the good shepherd. He is the appointed leader of
his people. He is the leader of his sheep.
He leads besides still waters as it says, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Now, what would Beric and Deborah
be called? They were shepherds. They shepherded
the flock. In fact, Deborah is going to
say, as God called her, mother in Israel. She was a mother in
Israel. Now, she was not an oppressive
mother in Israel. She had a care for the children
of Israel, like a mom has for her children. And she wanted
them to know the truth of the matter. Like a mother needs to
share with her children. So we'll get to that in just
a moment. The Lord is my shepherd. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leadeth me. Now those leaders
led those people but they were willing in the day of God's power
and they went and defeated the enemy. He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in the paths of righteousness for my name's sake. And I haven't
counted, but there's a number of times the word capital HE
is used there, making reference to God, making reference to the
Good Shepherd, making reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is what he does and the church says thank you Lord because the
sheep I love what it says my sheep hear my voice and they
follow me and I know them and Why do the sheep hear his voice? Because the Lord said I am the
good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep
Therefore my sheep hear my voice and they follow me That's either
the truth or it's not It is the truth Take it to the
bank. Turn with me if you would over
here to the book of Exodus chapter 35. Exodus chapter 35. As we think
about those who are willing to go into battle, He made them
willing in the day of His great power. Here in the book of Exodus,
in this song, we read about those, as it says there, praise the
Lord for the avenging of Israel when the people willingly offered
themselves. I was down in El Paso when I
was teaching. The United States Army took me,
I think, three trips to Army bases to show how they were instructing
their folks that went into the Army.
I think at one time I had about forty-five students in the military.
All of them got to come But I was down there and it was just after
the Gulf War started and they had a bunch of newbies and they
took them all into a room and they said, now how many in here
believed when you signed your name on that piece of paper,
it only meant that you would get a good education and that
you would never be put in the harm's way and that you didn't
have to fight for your country. And about 50 of them raised their
hand. And the guy in charge says, now
we knew who we had to watch. And they took them off. And the
rest of them said, I want a good education, and I want all the
benefits, but I signed up to fight for my country if necessary.
So they willingly gave themselves. All right. So we keep that in
mind as we look here. And it tells us here in the book
of Exodus chapter 35, Exodus 35 and verse Let's see. Verse 4, And Moses spake unto all the
congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the
thing which the LORD commanded, saying, Take ye from among you
an offering unto the LORD, whosoever is of a willing heart, let him
bring it an offering of the Lord, gold, and silver, and brass,
and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and so forth and so on. Did you
see that? Whosoever is of a willing heart.
I'll never forget Brother Henry. Sherry was a pastor friend of
his. Brother Henry had this man come into his church. He says,
Brother Henry, I just can't get anybody to give in my church.
And Brother Henry's answer was, when they're saved, they will. And you won't have to rag on
them. About 10 years ago, I was reminded
in my office, Norm, I've been here for three years now, and
I've never heard a message on giving. Don't you think it's
about time? And then he laughed. Thank God for willing hearts. That's the army that Barak had,
was willing hearts, willing people. Let's look at verse 21 of this
same chapter. It says, And they came, everyone
whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made
willing. Who's doing this? This is the Lord's work and it's
marvelous in our eyes how he stirs them up, how he makes them
willing in the day of his power. And they brought the Lord's offering
to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation for all his
service and for the holy garments. The Lord stirred him, the Lord
made him willing that they brought. You know what Moses had to do?
He had to tell him, stop. We have enough. All right. Turn with me to verse 29 of the
same chapter, and we read this, as the Lord was mentioned there,
thank you, Lord, for avenging Israel and making people willing
to go into battle. Here it says in verse 29 of this
chapter, the children of Israel brought a willing offering unto
the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing
to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded
to be made by the hand of Moses. He commanded it, he'll work it
out. And that's what he did. In the book of First Chronicles.
Turn with me to the book of First Chronicles. First Chronicles
chapter 29. We read this. How God marvelously
works in the hearts of his people. How he marvelously lays upon
their minds and their hearts to the work. Be willing to do. And here, and be willing to sing
and make melody in our heart when we get together, I got a
verse of scripture I want to share with you. Here in the book
of First Chronicles, excuse me, First Chronicles chapter 29,
chapter 29 and verse 9, it says, Then the people rejoiced that
they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered
willingly to the Lord. Who gave them a perfect heart?
What a blessing that God stirred in the thousands of soldiers
that went into battle. And you know, as far as I know,
there wasn't one of them lost in that battle. They took care of business and
the other side lost. I like what Patton said, don't
you die for your country, you make someone else die for their
country. In the book of 1 Chronicles 29,
verse 10 it says, Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the
congregation, and David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of
Israel, our Father, for ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the
greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the
majesty For all that is in heaven and in earth is thine, thine
is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted head above all. Both
riches and honor come of thee, thou reignest over all, and in
thy hand is power and might, in thy hand it is to make great
and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank
thee and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what
is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly
after this sort? For all things come of thee,
and of thine own have we given thee. That's so, we're just moons. We have nothing of our own. He
gives us everything. And we are privileged to give
willingly. All right. And then chapter 2
Chronicles 17 and verse 16. 2 Chronicles 17 and verse 16. God moves in glorious ways to
perform His purpose and will. No mistakes have ever been. He's always had the lead. He's always doing righteousness. And next him, this whole chapter,
just a wonderful chapter about the leaders, the men under David. And next him was Amaziah, the
son of Zechariah, who willingly offered himself unto the Lord
and with him 200,000 mighty men of valor. He willingly offered himself
and he had 200,000 soldiers with him. The Lord moved graciously. And then going back to the Judges
in closing. Judges chapter 5. Judges chapter
5. It tells us there in verse 3. It says, Hear, O ye kings, give
ear, O ye princes. I, even I, will sing unto the
Lord. I will sing praise unto the Lord God of Israel. The Lord,
when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchest out of the
field of Edom, The earth trembled, the heavens dropped, the clouds
also dropped water, the mountains melted before the Lord, even
that Sinai from before the Lord, God of Israel. In the days of
Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways
were unoccupied, travelers walked through byways, and the inhabitants
of the villages ceased, and they ceased in Israel until that I,
Deborah, arose. That I arose a mother in Israel. A mother in Israel, it pleased
God to raise her up. It pleased God to give her the
gifts that she needed. It pleased God to give her a
mother's love for Israel. It pleased God to teach and to
instruct them in the will of God. It pleased God for her to
administer justice. It pleased God to protect and
defend Israel. And it pleased God that she had
an affectionate concern for Israel as her children. That's what
it is to be a mother in Israel, to have concern, God-given concern. for God's people. And so she
arose a mother in Israel. And for tonight, we will stop
there and pick this up. Lord willing, next time we meet
on Wednesday.