This morning I showed you that
public worship is the singular most important aspect of every
believer's life. Now, having made that statement
and shown it to you from the scriptures, I think it stands
to reason that we should look into the Word of God to see what
is involved in public worship, how it is that we're to conduct
ourselves in the worship of our God. Now to this end, the Apostle
Paul wrote three epistles, first and second Timothy and the book
of Titus. These were epistles written to
pastors. They were written to Timothy
and to Titus, men over whom God had placed, men to whom God has
given the responsibility as pastors over his churches. And these
epistles, what we call the pastoral epistles, are full of instruction.
with regard to the government and with regard to the function
of the local assembly in public worship. Let's look this evening
at 1 Timothy 3 and verse 14. 1 Timothy 3 and verse 14. What Paul says in these three
verses, while it has an immediate reference to what he has written
in 1 Timothy, may also be said concerning everything that he
has written in 1 Timothy 2nd Timothy, and in Titus. These
things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long, that thou
mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house
of God, that is, in the assembly of God's saints, which is the
church of the living God, this assembly, this body of believers
right here, you men and women, myself included, we are the church
of the living God. We are the assembly of God's
redeemed ones, his called ones, called together by the power
of his grace into the fellowship of his spirit. And this church
of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. That is, it is the supporting
buttress, and it is itself the mainstay or the undergirding
of the truth of God. Principally, the church of God
is the library of divine truth. The church of God is that congregation
of living men and women in whom the truth of God resides. And
it is our responsibility both to maintain the truth and to
proclaim the truth and to pass along the truth of God contained
in Holy Scripture, but the truth of God expounded from the Holy
Scripture from one generation to the next. We have each of
us benefited by the writings of men and the preaching of men
in generations gone by. We have had nothing added to
the Word of God. Don't misunderstand me. And we
dare not add anything to the Word of God. But one generation
has light and another generation builds upon that light and another
generation upon that light. And it's our responsibility to
take the truth of God and to focus the whole light that God
has given us upon divine truth and cause it to shine in the
world about us. so that the generation succeeding
us may have better knowledge, better understanding in the truth
of God as the result of our ministry in this age. What is that truth? Paul deals with it particularly
in verse 16. And without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness, the essence of divine truth,
is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the mystery of godliness. That is, that God was manifest
in the flesh. Jesus Christ is himself God come
to save. He is God in human flesh. He is God over all, blessed forever,
but nevertheless, he is a real man. In the fullness of time,
he was made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law. And he was manifest in the flesh
for the purpose of redeeming his elect people. This God, manifest
in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit. That is, the Spirit
of God bore witness to him in his life, in his ministry, in
his word. He doesn't care a thing on earth
for all the sacrifices you make all your life long if there's
no heart in it. God pays no attention. Yes, he
does pay attention. to all your church attendance
if there's no heart in it, and he pays this attention, it's
an abomination to God. It's an abomination to God. Man
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on a heart.
The broken and contrite heart, that's the sacrifice with which
God is well pleased. That's the sacrifice which God
will not despise. And true worship, must be reverent
worship. Turn over to the book of Ecclesiastes,
Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Now, I'm thankful that to great
measure what I'm about to say has been settled here a long
time ago, ever since we've been in this building. But I will
reiterate it for the young ones coming on and for the older ones
who may have In this place, we've come to
hear the word of God, to hear from God himself. We've come
to worship the living God, and we must come before him with
reverence, with reverence. Look here in Ecclesiastes 5 in
verse 1. Keep thy foot when thou goest
to the house of God. Be careful. Be careful. Don't come here presumptuously.
Be careful. And be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools. You know what the sacrifice of
fools is? I think. This is what I believe. It's a sacrifice of fools. Be ready to hear what God says.
Listen, listen. For they consider not that they
do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and
let thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou
upon the earth. Therefore let thy words be few. I'd like to read that in some
churches. Let thy words be few. That'll take the whoopee out
of your religion. How do you take it out? Fellas want to shout
and jump up and down and holler and scream. They like a lot of
emotion, you know. Let's have a good time in the
Lord. If you're in God's presence,
you'll know it, and your words will be few. They'll be few. For a dream cometh through the
multitude of business, and the fool's voice is known by the
multitude of words. Listen to this. God is greatly
to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in
reverence of all them that are about him. You ever notice in
the scriptures, any time a man was conscious that he was in
the presence of God, he didn't shout, he didn't jump up and
down, he didn't clap his hands, he covered his mouth. He fell
on the ground. He was in dead silence. He fell
at his feet as one who was dead. God was near. God was near. God's to be had in reverence
of them that are about him. If we would worship God acceptably,
we must worship him with reverence and with godly fear. God detests
profaneness, carelessness, and indifference in his presence.
Most people show more respect to guests in their homes than
they do for God in his house. That's just fact. Suppose President
Reagan were going to be in Sioux Falls, South Dakota over on Bennett
Street to visit with the Rose Bones. I bet you'd be at home. You wouldn't be late to the door,
would you? Huh? You wouldn't be late to the...
President's coming to see me. Boy, let's get things spruced
up around here. Man, that pew over there is a
little dusty. Let's not let President see that. Let's come into the
house and get everything squared up and let's be in our finest
attire and let's greet him with warmth and with enthusiasm and
read up about him a little bit and find out something about
his life so we'll know how to talk to him. Come to the house
of God, well, let's see, we can watch one more inning of ballgame.
We can still get there by 629. Now, come on. Come on. Let's come to God's house with
reverence. Huh? With reverence. You young
people. We're going to have conference
coming up. More than likely, you'll see
some of the kids get up and move around. If I see them, I'll call
it down. But if you see it, don't you follow? We don't get up and
go in and out of this place when the word of God is being preached.
We reverence the word. So I've got to go to the bathroom.
Go before you come in. Go before you come in. If your
bladder's no bigger than a thimble, it'll last that long. Go before
you come in. And reverence the Word. Pay attention
to what's going on. It might just be God might speak
to you. Somebody singing, Ruth, Judy,
David, whoever it is, don't get up and go in and out that door.
How rude could you possibly be? We're not in a ballgame. We're
not in a stadium. This is the house of God. We've
come here to worship the living God. Somebody said one time,
I don't remember where I was, got upset because a fellow standing
back there at the back wouldn't let a fellow come in while somebody
was reading the scriptures. Don't expect to come in here
while the Word of God's being read. Even when it gets done,
you ought to be here on time anyhow. But don't disturb the
service. Don't disturb it. Telephone rings. I've been places preaching. I've
been places preaching, fella get up two and three times while
I'm preaching, go answer telephone. My soul, I jerk that thing out
of the wall. I don't care if the world had
come on fire. But no, what business is that? We're here to worship God, to
worship the living God. Let there be no disturbance. I say we ought to earnestly consider
what we're doing. Come prepared. Come prepared
to worship God. Prepare your heart. Take time.
Take time to do so. Whatever it takes to be sure
your mind is diligent and alert and aware, prepare your heart
to meet with God. Come promptly and come prayerfully
seeking a word from God. Don't forget to pray for your
pastor. I'm coming here to speak to you,
Bobby. Ask God to let me speak to you. Pray for men who come. Lord God, let this man hear the
word. There's a sister. She's got a
heavy burden. Cause the word to be profitable
to her. Come praying for God's blessings. Secondly, in public worship,
certain things are essential. Now, the word of God does not
lay down hard, fast rules, giving us a distinct order of services.
It's all right to preach first, then receive your offering, and
then sing your songs. That'd be okay. It's all right
to sing and then preach. It's all right to do things in
various orders. But it's very clear, as you read through the
New Testament, that five things must be maintained in public
worship. Five things. In the public worship
of God, we come together for public prayer. In 1 Timothy 2,
in verse 1, Paul says, I will that prayers be made for all
men. Come to the house of God. It's
the house of prayer. House of prayer. And when a man leads the congregation
in prayer, whether it's me or another. Listen to what he's
saying. He's leading the congregation
in prayer. He's leading you to the throne of God. And you men
who are called upon to lead the church of God in prayer, speak
loudly, clearly and distinctly. I get frustrated trying to listen
to a fellow lead me in prayer, and I can't hear him and I'm
standing beside him. Don't mumble. We have a responsibility. Now,
I know that this is this is touchy. I know that. But if you don't
hear it, you won't know. When I or Lindsay or somebody
calls on you to lead the congregation in reading the word in prayer,
speak so that everybody hears every word you say. I'm standing
up here to preach to you tonight. It wouldn't do me much good.
You couldn't hardly understand anything I was saying, you know.
And that's the way most people pray when they call on God in
prayer. You follow me? Just wouldn't do much good. Just
wouldn't do much good. You're called to lead the assembly
in prayer. See to it that you don't use
vain repetitions. See to it that you don't just
get up and speak words. Ask God to give you a heart to
pray and give you an understanding of the needs of the hour and
pray. Pray. Call upon the living God. In public worship, there must
always be, and I insist on this, There must always be the regular
public reading of Holy Scripture. The Apostle Paul said to Timothy,
till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and
to doctrine. And Lindsay, I'm confident he's
talking about doing just what we do here at every service,
reading the Word of God publicly. Reading it publicly. What I say
about the book is not inspired. I hope it is of God. If I didn't
believe it was, I wouldn't speak it. I don't stand up here and
bring debatable issues to you. But what I say is not inspired.
This book's inspired. And it needs to be read, read
clearly and distinctly. I call upon you men to read here.
Lindsay arranges somebody to read in the office when it's
your time to read. Select the passage, go over it
so that you understand it and read it deliberately, carefully,
clearly, so that everybody who reads with you knows exactly
what you're reading. Read the word. And as we read
the word, remember, this is the word of God. This is the word
of God. The apostles tell us repeatedly
of how that in the scriptures, there was much reading of the
word in the public assembly. In the Jewish synagogue, you
will remember when our Lord came to the synagogue, after they
had finished reading the scriptures, they sat down to preach. They
stood up to read, they sat down to preach. Not a bad idea. And
then the Apostle Paul, in the book of Acts, spoke of them having
read the scriptures, and then he sat down and began to preach.
The Apostle John tells us, blessed are they that hear, are they
that read, and they that hear, and they that understand the
words of the prophecy of this book. We read the word because
this word is our daily bread given to us from God our Father. We read the word. A substantial
portion of the word ought to be read in every public worship
service. And there must also be united
public praise. We won't turn to the text, but
if you want to read them, Ephesians chapter 5 verse 19 and Colossians
3 and verse 16. Congregational singing, you're
getting better and better at it all the time. I encourage
you as you sing to lift up your voices in praise to God. Pay
no attention, honestly, honestly now, pay no attention to whether
or not you're gifted with talents to sing a solo. If you are, somebody
will detect it and will ask you to do so. But as far as congregational
singing is concerned, I sing loud enough everybody here knows
I couldn't hit a key. If you was to mark it out for
me and set my tongue on it, I couldn't hit it. But we sing the praises
of God with joy, with gratitude, with enthusiasm. speaking to
yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord. I'm thankful for
the gifted musicians God has given us. I like that special
music at every service. It kindly prepares my heart to
preach, and I hope it prepares yours to worship God. These folks
select good, clear, doctrinal, true songs, songs of praise to
God, not songs of sentiment and emotion, but songs of praise
to God for his great and glorious work of grace. But we do not
worship God by prophecy. You can't depend on Judy or David
or Ruth. to sing your praises to God.
That's the reason for congregational singing. We lift up our hearts
in united praise, and by lifting our hearts in united praise,
we encourage one another in the worship of God. And there must
be in every worship service, in every worship service, this
is preeminent. This is predominant. This is
chief. There must be the preaching of
the gospel, the plain, clear, expositional, biblical declaration
of the gospel of Jesus Christ in every worship service. If there's not that preaching,
there's no worship. I know the tendency of the day
is we're going to have dialogue. Sounds so pious, doesn't it? Now, Brother Fortner is going
to give us his opinion. And he gives his opinion. Now,
Brother Dougherty, what is your opinion about this? And he gives
his opinion. Well, now, we have discussed
and we have decided fully on what you've discussed. I'm not
even interested. I'm not even interested. And
I guarantee you God's not interested and it's of no benefit to the
souls of men. It's a mere mockery, a show of
religion, will worship, nothing more, nothing more. Preacher,
we draw things so clear. I hope I'm so clear you can't
possibly mistake it. I read an article in Time Magazine
10 years ago, and I was messed up then. They had interviewed
some fellow who was a professor of homiletics at Chicago Seminary. I don't know what seminary it
is. Wasn't much of one if he was professor. But anyway, it
was Chicago Seminary, Chicago Divinity School. He was professor
of homiletics. And he said, now sermon must
not ever exceed 15 minutes. I read longer than that. 15 minutes. For how long service
normally last? Hour and a half. What do you
do the rest of the time? Well, we got degrees. We got
a list of announcements in the bulletins. Merle gave me a bulletin
one time, one of the Baptist churches down in Harrodsburg.
Man, I looked at that thing. He had this side of announcements
and this side of announcements and this side over here with
opportunities. I can imagine what they did the rest of the
time. Take the rest of the time to read all the opportunities
of the week. It's foolishness. It's foolishness. It's foolishness. It's a mockery. God's not in
that kind of mess. God honors the faithful preaching
of the gospel. That's it. That's it. Well, preaching
looks to me like we kind of got to go with the times. Everybody
else can if they want to. I'm determined to do what I can
in this generation to exalt again and magnify this blessed, sacred
office and ordinance of gospel preaching. Paul said, I charge
thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus, who shall judge
the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach
the word, be instant, in season and out of season, rebuke, reprove,
exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine, for the time will
come. Paul, you're right, it's come. When they will not endure sound
doctrine, but after their own lust, shall they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears, And they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. Preaching. Churches in England didn't have
much that I liked, as most of you know. They had one thing
I kindly liked. Man, to get in the pulpit, you
got to take a hike. I don't care how small the building
was, that pulpit was up there somewhere. I couldn't hardly
climb the stairs, I was afraid the old rickety thing would fall
down, but that's a good place for a pulpit. If anything ought
to be exalted in the kingdom of God, in the house of God,
it's the pulpit. It's the pulpit. The center of
everything, the center of everything is not the man who preaches,
but the preaching, the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's that around which everything else must be built. But we have
acquired. I'd get rid of the choir and
preach, but we have certain ceremonies we go through. Used to do that
when I was at lookout. It didn't take me long getting
into that. Had a little church box, you know, a little box sitting
down on the communion table. Didn't have communion, but once
every three, four, six months, sometimes not that often, but
every Sunday morning Michael Campbell had a birthday. Let's
come down and put your little 16 pennies in and sing happy
birthday to Michael. God loves you and we do too. That grates at me. It grates
at God Almighty. More than just grates at it.
Everything, everything about religion this day is totally
contrary to the Word of God. Not only is it not founded upon
the Word, it's totally contrary to the Word of God. In this place,
God helping us, we'll have none of it, none of it. And fifthly,
there must be the public observance of the ordinances. No, we do
not observe the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
at every worship service, but they are an essential part of
true worship. This morning we had the privilege
of celebrating with a dear sister her confession of faith in Jesus
Christ the Lord. In a little bit, Ellen is going
to come down here after our service tonight and you can greet her
and receive her warmly into the fellowship of this assembly.
That baptism is the confession of the believer's faith. Every
Sunday evening we observe the Lord's Table. Now, we have no
commandment saying it must be done every Lord's Day, but that's
the way it was done in the New Testament. Since that's the way
they did it, I think it's all right for us to do it that way.
We observe the Lord's Table every Sunday evening in remembrance
of our Savior, in celebration of our redemption. Thirdly, there
are some things which we must carefully, studiously avoid in
public worship. Now, there are many things going
on in churches all across this country, even in some places
where men claim to preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace. Things that must not be tolerated,
and God helping us, we will not have it here. We will not have
it here. You're not going to have it as
long as I'm pastor, and I hope you'll never have it when I'm
gone. After I'm dead and gone, I hope you've got enough sense
to call somebody who's got some backbone, who's willing to stand
against the tide of modern religion and contend for the truth of
God. In this place, we will have no entertainment. It ain't going
to happen. It ain't going to happen. That's
all there is to it. I already mentioned the singings.
Churches have a singing. This church uptown spent $600,000
for an organ. And every time I say that, I
nearly choke. $600,000. What I couldn't do
for some missionaries across the world was $600,000. And we're
going to sit over here and play holy, holy, holy on the chimes. We're going to have some concerts.
Begin November 15th. And if you want to go, go ahead. Go ahead. No, there's no place
for entertainment. Well, but we have our little
Christmas play every year. One of the churches in town,
maybe a bunch of them. That one out in Lynchburg has
it every year. Gonna have a living Christmas tree. Ain't it sweet? Everybody hold a little candle
for Jesus. Sweet little Jesus. so impressive,
had to sell tickets to it this year, going to have five showings
of it so everybody can get in. What about having some movies,
some puppet shows? How about some ball teams? How
about just having us A few extracurricular programs. We can have something
for the senior citizens, something for the young citizens, something
for the toddlers and something for the teens. We'll have something
for family night and something for men's night and something
for ladies night. No, no, sir, not here, not here. We have one thing. Worship. God's helping us. We can't do
that. We won't do anything. Bob Ponce, we're going to worship
God in this place, nothing else. And we must carefully, studiously
avoid idolatry. It's like, Preacher, we don't have
any idols in here. Well, I've been getting in trouble for denouncing
it, but I'm going to go ahead and keep it up. If you got any
crosses, burn them, throw them away, discharge them, get rid
of them. Stained glass windows? No, we're
not going to have it. Pictures of Jesus? Throw them
in the trash can. Throw them in the trash can.
Just idolatry. Base pagan idolatry. Nothing else. Nothing else. Got to have us a little steeple
on the church building. Got to make it look like a church.
It's nothing but idolatry. Nothing else. And all those things are so impressive.
This place doesn't look much like a church, does it? I hope
it doesn't look much like one compared with most I've been
in. I just hope it doesn't. No, we don't have any crosses.
No, we don't. Little angels. Make little angels
to hang on your Christmas tree. What's wrong with that? God said
don't do it. That's what's wrong with it.
That's what's wrong with it. Just base idolatry. Ritualism. just going through
things meaninglessly. You don't have to have much knowledge
to go through a ritual. And we must avoid it. We must
avoid allowing the sacred ordinances just to become rituals. And we
must carefully, studiously avoid intellectualism. Before I got
up here to preach, I wrote this down. Lord, let me not merely
instruct this assembly in truth. Enable me to preach the truth
by the gospel and the power of your spirit so that it may be
indeed a word of life from the living God to the hearts of living
men. That's the difference between
intellectualism and preaching. I'm not here just to instruct,
I'm here to convey living truth to living men that will affect
our relationship and our lives before God. And I'm sorry to
have to say this, but perhaps this is the most
difficult area for us. We must carefully and studiously
avoid showmanship, sensationalism, and emotionalism, empty emotionalism. It's flighty, it's giddy, it
feels good for a little while and when you go away, nobody
remembers what the preacher said or what the singer sang or what
the reader read. We just had a good time in the
Lord. Boy, the Spirit of God was there
tonight. What did the preacher preach
on? I don't know, but boy, the Spirit was there. You better
watch out. Lindsay Campbell, God's not in
that mess. God's not in that mess. No, sir. God's not in it. I've been places where folks
are shouting so loud you can't hardly hear the preacher. Man,
if you can't hear me, they're shouting loud. They carry on
a bunch of foolishness. Just a bunch of foolishness.
Somebody asked me one time, said, don't you think that's just the
culture of some people? pagan idolatry and emotionalism,
the culture of Adam's fallen race. We're opposed to it. We're
opposed to it. And fourthly, there are certain
tests by which our worship of God should be tried. Now I'm going to stick my neck
out a little. True spiritual worship will affect
a man's heart and conscience. Oscar Bailey, if you and I come
into this place and worship God, it's going to affect us and it's
going to have a lasting effect on us. It'll affect the way man lives. False worship is kind of like
taking drugs. Or maybe kind of like getting
drunk. And I'm being plain, being plain
for a reason. Any of you fellows who have ever
experienced anything of drunkenness, intoxication with alcohol or
drugs, either one, you know that it has a gradually declining
effect upon you. Got to have more next time. Got
to have a little more next time. And it gradually loses its effect. You become immune to it. And
most people become immune to their religion because it's just
so much hoopla and no worship. has no effect on them. Secondly,
true spiritual worship draws men and women closer to Christ
in sweet communion, faith, love, and obedience. It'll always shut
you up to Christ. It'll always show you Christ.
It'll always leave you looking to Christ, looking to Him. Oh,
God, let me ever point men to the Savior. Thirdly, true spiritual
worship causes the believer to grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody asked me last week about
where he could train the ministry. I said, find you any pastor who
faithfully preaches the gospel, he'll train you right. Any pastor
who faithfully preaches the gospel. If I faithfully study and prepare
and preach the gospel, I will instruct you thoroughly in the
truth of God, and I'll instruct you in it with life, if indeed
I'm doing what I'm called of God to do. It's edified. True worship is. Men and women
come in, and they hear the word of God, and they go out, and
they've learned something. God's taught them something.
God's shown them something. God has solidified truth. God
causes them to grow in grace and in knowledge. And true spiritual
worship affects the life of a man. It affects his life at home.
And it affects his life on the job. Man comes in here and worships
God, he'll live in peace in his house. He'll do it. And if he
doesn't live in peace in his house, he ain't worship God.
That's just fact. Woman comes in here and worships
God, she's going to go home in peace. And she's going to be
peaceable to get along with. And if she's not peaceable, she's
not worshiping God. That's just all there is to it.
Well, preacher, now you're going to be meddling again. I'm telling
you the truth. God's people aren't contrarian,
mean, hard to get along with. They're just not. They're just
not. I know we have our ups and downs, and I know we have our
bad days and our good days, but I'm telling you the tenor and
character of the lives of God's people is peace and delight. They're a delight to be around. Mean-spirited people just don't
know God. Men who worship God walk with
God at home. and walk with God on the job,
and walk with God in their daily affairs. True spiritual worship,
fifthly, inspires, increases, and enlarges a man's submission,
consecration, and dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing sudden. Nothing spasmodic. Nothing, a
lot of flair, you know, to stay. I'll tell you what, I've got
a pretty good hunch. Somewhere along the way, we've been worshiping
God. I got a pretty good hunch. I'll
tell you why. The longer we go along the way,
the fuller these pews get. Used to be I'd come out here
and sit down on Sunday morning and look out on Sunday night
Where'd those folks go? And man, on Tuesday night, it's
kind of like trying to scratch together enough paper to even
light a fire. There's just nobody. Six, seven,
eight people. Anymore, you're here. And I don't
browbeat you. I don't threaten you. I don't
bribe you. I just preach to you. But gradually, I see an ever-increasing,
ever-enlarging commitment faithfulness. We have begun under God's blessings
to carry on a work of ministry around the world. And honestly,
everything we've ever started, I've looked and I know you men
have, you think, well, how on earth can we possibly do that?
We can't do that. We can't do that. Somehow God
makes the way just gradually increasing, gradually increasing. If we worship God, Darwin, that's
what it'll do for us. It'll increase continually our
dedication, our commitment, our submission, our consecration
to Christ. And true spiritual worship causes
a person to hope for and anxiously anticipate that blessed, endless
day of perfect worship. of the days coming. I hope, maybe in measure, today
has kindly helped to prepare you for it. The days coming when
we shall sit down with that choir in heaven and sing a song we've
been singing, we kindly sing it off key now. And we don't
understand the full implications of it now. But soon, children
of God, we shall sit down round the throne of the Lamb, and seeing
thou art worthy to take the book, to open the seals thereof, for
thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made
us unto our God-kings and priests on the earth. May God graciously then enable
us by his Spirit, not only to come to his house,
but in coming to his house, to worship at his holy throne for
Christ's sake. Amen.