In Exodus 17, the last part of
the chapter there where we read, in order to understand the spiritual
significance of this passage, we have to look again at the
big picture here. God has delivered Israel from
the Egyptians, miraculously, gloriously, without the Israelites
ever lifting a sword. They never never brandished a
weapon. Moses said, stand still and see
God save you. And that's what they did. And this is spiritual salvation
from sin. We're spectators. We experience
it. We receive it. We don't accomplish
it. We don't contribute to it. We
don't cooperate with it. We stand still and God saves
us. That's simple truth, isn't it?
We just see what God has done. We only see it by faith that
He gives. That's not of ourselves. That's
the gift of God. And being saved by the miraculous,
glorious power of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
and His all-sufficient, effectual, victorious, vicarious, sin-atoning
sacrifice. For us, being saved by him, through
him, we are promised an inheritance. As heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ, as sons of God, behold what manner of love
the Father hath bestowed upon us that we're his sons by his
grace. We have an inheritance, an incorruptible
inheritance reserved in heaven for us. us who are kept by God's power
unto salvation. That inheritance is reserved
for us. This is pictured by God promising the Israelites the
land of Canaan. He saved them. He promised them
an inheritance. He said in Exodus 3, 8, I've
come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, a large
a land flowing with milk and honey, the place of the Canaanites
and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites
and the Jebusites. So out of Egypt, saved by grace
without lifting a hand, on the way to Canaan, but not there
yet. Not there yet. Where are they
now? They're in the wilderness of sin. Our sins are forgiven. We're saved from the dominating
power of sin. Paul said, sin shall not have
dominion over you. For you're not under the law,
but under grace. Romans 6 14. So we're saved from
the dominating power of sin. Sin still has power in us. Paul
said, I can't do the things that I would because of my sin. So there's power there, but not,
not dominion. Not like it was. And we're saved
from the penalty of sin. You know what verse I want to
quote for that? You don't because it could just about be anything
in the Bible. We're saved from the penalty.
He's redeemed us by his precious blood. But the first verse that
come to my mind when I thought about that is there is therefore
now no condemnation. To who? them which are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. He saved us
from the penalty of sin, from the wrath of God. To them which are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. But Paul,
right before he wrote Romans 8-1, in Romans 7, he elaborates
upon the truth that we are not yet saved from the presence of
sin. We're saved from power, the dominating
power of sin. We're saved from the penalty
of sin, but we're not saved yet from the presence of sin. In
Romans 7, 21, he said, I find then a law that when I would
do good, evil is what? Present with me. We're not saved yet from the
presence of sin. It's present with us always. Always. We're not perfectly holy
sometimes and then evil sometimes. We're always evil because evil
is always present with us. Always. Now before we go any
further, I want to show also from Romans 7 that this evil
Paul spoke of. He said, evil is present with
me. But this is not some abstract thing. Oh, I'd be fine if it
wasn't for evil over there. And Paul doesn't present the
matter as though we are good, but unfortunately, we have to
fight this separate enemy called evil. No, we are the evil. In verse 16, he said, I do that
that I would not do. Because of God's grace, I wouldn't
do it, but I do it. It's not evil doing it, it's
me doing it. So he's not excusing his sin. But we, like the Israelites,
are now in the wilderness of sin. But also, we, like them,
are full of sin ourselves. Our problem is not our environment.
Our problem is our nature. We need to understand that. Oh,
if I could just escape this old wicked world. You are this old
wicked world. And your heart is your problem,
your enemy. Amalek is us. And Israel is us. We fighting ourselves? Read Romans
7. That's exactly what we're doing. The flesh, the old us. And also
we are surrounded by enemies of God who also hate us. But
our primary enemy, the one with which we are at perpetual war
is our own flesh. Every believer knows this, not
only from the word of God, which primarily, we don't know anything
really without the word of God, but we've experienced what God
says about this. We've experienced it. Paul said
in Galatians 5.17, the flesh lusteth against the spirit. That
word lust is defined by a hot, boiling anger. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary
the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that
you would. The spirit me is at war with
the flesh me every day and vice versa. Amalek was Esau's grandson of
the family of Esau and we remember what Esau represents, because
we studied this recently. Esau represents the appeasement
and satisfaction of the flesh with utter disregard for the
blessing and favor of God. He sold his birthright to satisfy
his own flesh. God's blessing didn't mean anything
to him. The only thing that meant anything to Esau was Esau. That's
us. By nature. That's our nature.
In the fight to deliver you from Egypt. Now listen to me. You
had no part in that. We stood still and we saw by
God's grace, God's salvation. But in between Egypt and Canaan,
it says in verse eight of our text, then came the Amalekites. And in this fight, you're going
to get bloody. you're going to get bloody. If
you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you're sitting there bloody,
and you're going to get bloody more tonight, tomorrow, as long
as you live in this world. This is a fight in which we're
fully engaged, but we're not alone. Now let's learn something
very interesting, and I pray some profitable truths concerning
our warfare in this world as believers. We live in this every
day. We're fighting Amalek every day. In 2 Timothy 2.3, Paul said,
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Are we listening to that? No man that woreth entangleth
himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him
who has chosen him to be a soldier. If the Lord's chosen you to be
a soldier, endure hardness as a good soldier, be a good one. That's what Paul's saying here.
Now, notice in verse eight again in our text, and I can refer
to it, you don't, you'll remember, he said, then, Then came Amalek. Then came the Amalekites. When? Well, once they had drunk from
the smitten rock. From that time on, it was on. As soon as a believer receives
life from Christ, the smitten rock, the crucified redeemer,
the warfare begins. Does it not? The fight with the
flesh. As soon as there is spirit and
flesh, they're lusting against one another. They're boiling
with anger against one another. Have you ever just been mad at
yourself? That's good. That's a good sign. Religion would have you believe
that Christians just kind of float through life on calm seas. That it's fun to be a Christian.
What Bible are they reading? What life are they living? What
planet are they on? Paul told a much different story. Paul desired to be delivered
from this war. He said, I fall. Who's going
to take me out of it? Let's turn and read. We can't
talk about this without looking at the one place, I suppose,
in the Word of God where it's most clearly set forth and most
thoroughly in Romans chapter seven. Let's look at more of
that in verse 14, Romans 7, 14. Paul said, we know that the law
is spiritual, God's truth. Now that's not just the 10 commandments
or the Mosaic law, the word, the gospel, the things of God
are spiritual, but I'm carnal. I'm carnal, sold under sin. In
my natural state, I'm a slave to sin. For that which I do,
I allow not. I don't approve of it. Do you? Do you approve of the things
that you do? For what I would, that I do not.
But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would
not, I can sin unto the law that it's good. God is good and true. His word is right. His word is
to be obeyed. His gospel is to be obeyed. The problem is me. Now then,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. It's
not the new me that does it. It's the old, the sinful, vile,
wretched, natural me. For I know that in me, that is,
in my flesh, dwells no good thing. No ability to obey God, no ability
to believe God, no ability to do anything spiritual. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Except
you be born again, you can't even see the kingdom of God,
much less enter into the kingdom of God. No good. All evil. only evil continually is what
God saw for to will is present with me
by God's grace the spirit is willing that's what the Lord
said to Peter in the garden of Gethsemane the spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak how to perform that which is good can
you watch with him for one hour Peter couldn't We can't either in our flesh.
We can do all things through Christ which strengthens us. The Lord said without me you
can do nothing. I find not for the good that
I would I do not but the evil which I would not that that's
what I do. Now, if I do that, I would not.
It is no more I. It's not the new me. It's not
the spirit, but the flesh, the sin that dwelleth in me. I found
in a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me.
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But, don't
you? But, I see another law in my members.
Doing what? There's Amalek right there. That's the Amalekites. Warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members. And Paul said, oh, wretched
man. Does it sound like he's having
fun being a Christian? Doesn't sound much like it, does
it? He must not have known what some of these religious idiots
in our generation know. And I don't know it either. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God. I will be delivered. I am delivered. And I will be. I'm delivered
from Egypt and I'm going to be delivered from the Amalekites
too. How? through Jesus Christ our Lord. But in the meantime,
with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the
flesh, the law of sin. That's the way it's going to
be in this world now. You're not going to get any better.
You're just not. You grow in grace, by His grace,
but you're not going to get any better. That word warring in verse 23,
of course, is key. Then came Amalek. Remember when now? As soon as
they had drunk from the rock. As soon as there is such a thing
as spirit and flesh, they're at war. If you read the first
part of Romans 7, you'll see that it was as soon as God revealed
his truth, his law, his truth, his gospel to Paul, And he died
to self and was made alive in Christ. That's when the warfare
started. And the second thing is this,
the fight, it's not a physical fight. It's a spiritual fight.
It may affect you physically and there's physical aspects
to it. It'll manifest itself in some
physical things, won't it? But it's a spiritual war. And
we need to remember that now. Ephesians 611, put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. It's not flesh and blood. It's
not earthly thing. It's not the world that we can
see. Now, That passage there in Ephesians 6, it sounds like
it's us against Satan and his devils. And that's true, it is. But remember Satan's tactics.
What does Satan appeal to? What does Satan exploit? The
flesh. The enemies on the inside, you
see. If Satan didn't have anything in us, he couldn't do anything
to us. He still can't do anything to
us. or cause us to do anything without God's permission as believers
but he exploits the flesh remember our Lord said in John 1430 he
said hereafter I won't talk much with you for the prince of this
world cometh and hath nothing in me he hath nothing in me Satan
was allowed to do much to Christ he bruised his heel as the Lord
foretold but he has nothing in Christ. The reason our warfare
is at times so grievous and that we're so susceptible to the wiles
of the devil is that there is much in us that Satan can exploit
if he be allowed to do so by God, not by us. It's not, it's
not, well I'm not going to let the devil get me today. You ain't going to do anything
about it. You're not going to stop him. You're just not. The Lord's going
to have to fight. We don't see that in our text
now. We're talking about a fight that
we're engaged in. We're going to say it's not our
fight. We're engaged in it, but it's his fight. His victory. His power. Turn to Matthew chapter
26. Let's see some examples of what
we're talking about here now. Matthew 26, 39. This is what we quoted a while
ago, but I want us to see the context a little bit and see
this example. The Lord Jesus, verse 39, in
the garden of Gethsemane. spoke to his disciples and it
said in verse 39 he went a little farther and fell on his face
and prayed saying oh my father if it be possible let this cup
pass from me nevertheless not as i will but as thou wilt and
he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep he told
them now watch and pray but they're falling asleep and saith unto
peter what could you not watch with me one hour Watch and pray now. And this,
the significance of this is we know what's going to happen later.
Peter's going to deny his Lord. The Lord Jesus warned him that
he would. And here he is. He's not obeyed the Lord. He's
not been able to watch and pray. Couldn't you just watch with
me for one hour? And the Lord said, look, watch and pray that
you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing.
But the flesh is weak. You see the significance of him
saying this to Peter right now? Because Peter is fixing to deny
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's going to bust him up.
It's going to break his heart. He's going to weep bitterly over
it. But the Lord told him before, watch now, pray. The Spirit's willing now. You
said you'd never deny me. You said you'd die with me before
you deny me. The Spirit's willing. But Peter,
watch out for the flesh now. Watch and pray. The flesh is
weak. And there can be no doubt that
Satan is at work there too, isn't he? This is part of Satan bruising
the heel of the Son of Man. When the shepherd was smitten,
the sheep scattered. Where was Peter's sword then? Peter's the instrument here.
Satan is bruising the heel of our Lord Our Lord warned Peter
concerning his flesh. That's Peter's enemy in this
fight. Not just Satan Can't blame our our sin on Satan There are physical aspects to
the fight as we see here But the war is raging on the inside
And it's a spiritual war That's a good example of it right there.
And in this fight, thirdly, there can be no compromise. No compromise
with the flesh. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 15.
1 Samuel chapter 15. This whole
chapter pertains to what we're talking about, and I'll just
read a few verses and then refer to it some. Look at verse 1,
1 Samuel 15, 1. Samuel also said unto Saul, the
Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over
Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words
of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts.
I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid weight
for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Our text, Amalek
laid weight. And the Lord delivered his people
from Egypt. He's taking them to Canaan. And there's the Amalekites
waiting for him. They ambushed him. Now go and
smite Amalek. This was hundreds of years ago.
And the Lord said, I haven't forgotten it. Go and smite Amalek and utterly
destroy all that they have and spare them not. But slay both
man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. And in this chapter, God told
Saul, through his prophet Samuel, to
destroy them completely and everything that pertained to them. And Saul
disobeyed him. In verse 9, it says, Saul and
the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the
oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good,
and would not. There's the will right there.
the will of the flesh. They would not do what God said
to do. Utterly destroy them and everything
that was vile and refuse that they destroyed. Utterly Saul
disobeyed. He spared Agag. Agag was the
king of the Amalekites. And what a picture that is of
how that Saul could not destroy the dominion of the flesh. Agag
pictures the king, he's the king of the flesh, the dominion of
the flesh. And Paul could not overcome.
And eventually, or Saul, and eventually Saul was killed by
an Amalekite. The very ones that he spared.
If he had done what God said, there wouldn't have been any
Amalekites. And as we know, God rejected Saul as king over Israel. But Samuel in verse 33 shows
how the flesh must be confronted and dealt with. Samuel said,
as thy sword hath made women childless, he's talking to Agag,
the king of the Amalekites, so shall thy mother be childless
among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces
before the Lord. in Gilgal. Paul said in Romans 1311, he
said, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake
out of sleep. And not time to sleep, it's time
to fight. For now is our salvation nearer
than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day
is at hand. Let us therefore Cast off the
works of darkness and let us put on our armor. Wake up and
put your armor on, Paul said. The armor of light. Let us walk
honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not
in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our armor. And make not provision for the
flesh. Make not provision for the flesh. Don't spare Agag. Don't spare
Agag's animals. Don't spare anything in Amalek. Make no provision for the flesh
to fulfill the lusts thereof. In Galatians 5.24, Paul said,
They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and the lusts. We've nailed ourselves to a cross. That's what that is. The flesh
is me. That's me. What did our Lord say? If your
right hand offends you, cut it off. Don't spare it. Make no provision for the flesh. Now how in the world are we going
to do that? How's that going for you? It's a constant fight, isn't
it? And it'd be a losing fight if it wasn't for the Lord Jesus
Christ. Martin Luther wrote, we're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ
Jesus. It is he. Oh, I like that song. Without me, Christ said, you
can do nothing. I find that to be true now. I
find it to be true every day. How did the Israelites prevail
against the Amalekites in our text? The rod of God. Moses held up that rod. What's
that rod? It symbolized the power of God
to save. When they were in Egypt, All
of the plagues, all of the power of God was displayed how? By
that rod. Moses held that rod in his hand.
God said, you take my rod in your hand and go tell Pharaoh,
let my people go. And when he refuses, I'm going
to show him my power to save my people. How are you going
to do it by that rod? It was by that rod that the Red
Sea was parted. so that the people of Israel
could escape on dry land. In other words, it is by the
same power that saved you that you will overcome your enemy,
the flesh in this world. The same power that saved you. The power of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ was lifted up, Israel
prevailed. The very same truth is taught
in Matthew 1430 in a completely different context. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
Peter, come, come to me on the water. Peter said, Lord, bid
me come. I'll come. And he said, come. And Peter's walking on the water
to the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as his eyes were on Christ,
he prevailed. But then he began to notice the
waves and the winds, that they were boisterous. And he began
to sink. Same exact truth taught there.
When Christ is exalted in our eyes, in our hearts, in our estimation,
when we're looking at him, by his power we prevail, but when
we start to lean on the flesh, when we start thinking, the winds,
the waves are too much for me, of course they're too much for
you. You never would have made it one step if it hadn't been
the Lord Jesus that said, come to you. The same power that saves
you is the power by which we make it all the way to him. And when we begin to rely upon
the flesh, we're going to fail. We're going to fall. We're going
to be discouraged. Well, okay, good. You know, we
know the secret now. We'll just always look to Christ
and all be well. Look at verse 12. And back in
Exodus. It's simple, isn't it? We'll
just keep the rod in the air. We'll rely on God's power. We'll
exalt Christ and have no confidence in the flesh. Oh, but Moses'
hands were heavy. How about yours? How about yours? We know in our head what needs
to happen, don't we? We need to never look at this
flesh for any confidence or hope or peace, and yet our hands are heavy. Our Lord said to Peter, couldn't
you watch for one hour? His eyelids were heavy, weren't
they? Do you remember why he couldn't
watch with one hour? Same reason you can't. The flesh
is weak. Your hands are heavy. You can
hold them up for a while. But what's the solution? Well,
they set a rock down there and said, Moses, sit down on the
rock. That's what you need to do to
rest on Christ. Sit down. Quit trying to prevail
in your own strength. Your hands are heavy. You can't
get it done. Sit down on the rock. Rest in
him. They put a stone under him, and
he sat down on it. And they held his hands up. Two
men held his hands up. Now, it's good to have brothers
in this war. We're a band of brothers, aren't
we? And the sisters, we are included in that, of course, too. And
it's good to have brothers. In 2 Corinthians 7, 5, listen
to Paul. I saw an example of this in the
scripture of how the Lord uses our brothers, our brothers at
arms to help us in this fight. Paul said, when we were coming
to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on
every side. Without, we're fighting. And
within were fears. Paul's in the trenches now. Have
you ever been there? He's in the trench. He's battling
weary and fully engaged. He said, there's fighting outside
and fear on the inside and I'm troubled on every side. Nevertheless,
God that comforted those that are cast down comforted us. How
did he do it, Paul? By the coming of Titus. He said, God comforted me. But he did it by means of a brother
in Christ. I've been there. I've been there. But Moses' hands being held up
here does not picture us holding each other up. I'm grateful that
the Lord uses my brothers to comfort and to strengthen, to
exhort. But that's not what's pictured
here. Who held up Moses' hands? Aaron did. Who's Aaron? He's the high priest. In Hebrews chapter 7, let me
read it to you. You can turn there if you'd like
to. Paul in the book of Hebrews after speaking so eloquently
and so descriptively and so beautifully concerning how that all that
pertains All of the things that pertain to the law pertain to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He talked about how Christ is
our high priest. Christ is the sacrifice. Christ
is the tabernacle. Christ is the mercy seat. Christ
is all. And he said, of all the things
that I've spoken, here's the song. We have a high priest. Who's holding your hands up? Hebrews 7, verse 24. But this man, because he continueth
forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wherefore, he is able to save them to the uttermost, to save
them evermore, all the way. We're not going to fall in the
wilderness. He's going to take us all the
way from Egypt to the promised land. How is he going to do that? Why can he do that? Seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then
for the people's. For he accomplished our redemption. He accomplished and fulfilled
his office as our high priest. How? When he once offered up
himself, not many times, not daily, with one sacrifice for
sins, he has perfected forever those that he sanctified. There's
our strength. There's our power. There's our
ability to overcome. There's how we're kept by God's
power unto salvation. Why will I be saved to the uttermost? Why will I overcome every enemy? My high priest is holding up
my hand. That's how. The one who entered
into the holy of holies, not made with hands. into the very
presence of God, his father, and offered his own precious
blood for my sins. That's how I'm held up. He'll never let me fall. I can't
hold my hands up, but he can. Who's holding up Moses' other
hand? Her, H-U-R. His name means white. We've seen that a lot lately,
haven't we? In the word of God. We see the offering of his precious
blood. That's the high prayer. What
was Aaron's business? To offer blood to God on behalf
of the people. To offer an acceptable offering
for sin to God on behalf of the people. And her was white. Holiness. Righteousness and blood. Holiness
and blood. Isaiah said in 41 10 of Isaiah
listen to this fear thou not he's speaking to you now if you're
his don't be afraid for I'm with you is Amalek strong against
you are you in a are you in a part of the battle that's that's raging
hot and you feel like you're not up to it you're gonna you're
gonna fall in the wilderness Don't be dismayed, for I'm your
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. By the righteousness and shed
blood of Christ, I'll prevail. The people are down there fighting
for their lives. They're bloody, they're weary,
and many of them are wounded. There were times that Amalek
seemed to prevail. But up on the hill, the rod of
God is lifted up. And because of his power to save,
God's people shall ultimately prevail. Because we have a high priest
and he's white. Solomon said, my beloved is white
and ruddy. He's holy and he's red too. Because of the righteousness
and blood of my Lord Jesus Christ, I shall not fail. I shall not be moved. Amalek's
days are numbered. God said he won't even be remembered.
There's going to be a time we don't even remember. We're fighting
now. Meanwhile, we know we're going
to prevail, don't we? We're not worried about the outcome, because that's in God's hands. But meanwhile, like Paul, we
have wounds, don't we? You got any wounds in this war?
You remember when Paul said that he had that thorn in the flesh
that he prayed three times that the Lord would take it away?
I looked that up. That word thorn means a sharp
piece of wood, like a stake. It's not just a little bee stinger
or a rose thorn. He was wounded. He had a spear
in him somewhere. And he begged God to take it
out of him. That thing was festering and sore. Do you go through life
sometimes and you feel that spiritually now? That's not a physical fact. We're wounded. But the reason
I bring this up is when Paul desired the Lord that he'd pull
that spear out of his flesh. Do you remember what the Lord
said? I want you to remember it. if you don't already, because it'll help you. The Lord, instead of taking that
sharp piece of wood out of Paul's flesh, he said, Paul, my grace
is sufficient for you. Just keep fighting. Keep fighting. And so we do. And we call upon the name As
there in our text in Exodus 17, they named that place Jehovah
Nissi, the Lord, our banner. This is his fight. We fight for
our country. It's not personal. It's not my
fight only in the sense that it's our country. It's our country
and we're fighting for our country, right? We're fighting under the
Lord, our banner. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
Lord of hosts. He's the captain of the army
of the Lord. The fight is His. We're just
privileged to be in it. It is an honor, isn't it? It's
an honor. You hear these men that fight
for our country and come back without as many limbs as they
left with. And they say, I wouldn't do anything different. It's an
honor to have fought for my country. And if I could, I'd go back.
That's kind of inspiring, isn't it? That's just fleshly courage
and honor. We're fighting for the Lord Jesus
Christ, for his honor and glory. Got a thorn in my flesh. His
grace is sufficient. He'll hold your hands up. Keep
fighting. And let's help one another. The
Lord uses us to help one another, doesn't he? He teaches us that
all through the book. To lift up one another. Lift
up the hands that hang down. May he make us able, by his grace,
to be of help. Let's bow in prayer.