Amen. All right, well, good morning. It's great to be in the East region this morning, to be amongst family and friends. For those of you who don't know, like Ryan mentioned, I've known him for over 25 years. My wife and I, we get a chance to serve in the West region, but for those of you who don't know, we spent over 10 years living here in the East. So, I have more time here than I do in the West, but I don't have a preference or believe who is the best or anything like that. Just so there's no confusion or anything like that.
But we do get a chance to continue in our series here on Nehemiah. I get excited about the idea of what it means for God's people to go to work. But I also get excited when I think about the hearts that it takes of those who put in the time. What I'd like to do is pray. That song, 'God, I Need You Now,' that's how I feel this morning. My heart is a little heavy. I was debating whether or not I was going to say anything, but my mom went back into the hospital last night. For those of you who don't know, she thought she had pneumonia, now they're thinking it's something more serious. So, my heart is heavy.
I want to pray, so the Holy Spirit will come in here, and we can work together. Father, thank you so much that I get a chance to preach your word. That I get a chance to stand before you humbly. And God, I just ask right now that you guide this time for us together. Father, I pray that your spirit moves in a way that calls us higher. That we don't shrink back as we read your scriptures, but move forward because we know that you are working. God, I lift up my mom to you right now. And God, I know there are so many other health issues, but God, I pray for right now, a time of focus. A time of intimacy between all of us right now as we love you, as we honor you, as we worship you. Father, I thank you for this time. It's in Jesus' name, amen.
You know, I thought Ryan did a dynamite job last week, kicking off the series. Nehemiah, really, Holy Spirit moving. I'm still wrestling with the question he asked, 'If someone did a Nehemiah tour through your life, what would they see?' I don't know if you had time to reflect on that. I'm not going to answer that question right now, but it was very humbling to think, 'Okay, what do people see when they look through my life as they watch me?'
Last week, we talked about Nehemiah, and obviously, he had it. We talked about ruins. Are there ruins in your life? Nehemiah 1:4 says, 'When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days, I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.' We understand that there's this time of between the time he started to before he left on his adventures in chapter two or talked to King Artaxerxes. It's about four months. So, you get this foundation of prayer. You see Nehemiah work.
As you get into chapter 2, we didn't talk about it last week, but hopefully, maybe in your midweeks, you meditated on it. He lets the king know the burden that's on his heart. The heart for Jerusalem. It lies in ruins, its gates have been destroyed by fire. Nehemiah, the king asks him the question, and Nehemiah steps into the moment. He says, 'I need to take a leave of absence for 12 years. Let me go.' He says, 'I also need you to refund the building for Jerusalem.' And then, 'while you're at it, I need a letter of protection to protect me as I go.' God moves in Artaxerxes' heart and grants Nehemiah's request.
Nehemiah gets to Jerusalem, and he's there. I just want to paint a picture for you. He doesn't just walk into town and say, 'Okay, this is what God put on my heart, now let's just get to work.' He doesn't do that. He takes time to survey the situation. To look around and say, 'Okay, what's going on?' He talks about the part where he gets off his horse and he's just getting closer to the wall and checking things out. But after that, he casts a vision for his people.
I love this quote, I don't know who said it, but I love it, 'If you're going to make a difference for God, you just don't need a burden, you need a vision. You need a concrete picture of what could be, filled by the conviction that it should be.' Think about that for a second. To have a picture of what it could be but filled by the conviction that it should be. When we come in this morning, what should it be before God? What should it be when we think about our church? Is it filled by your conviction? When you think about your family, what should it be before God? When you think about just the different aspects of your life, is it fueled before God?
Over the years, the citizens have become comfortable with the mess they were living in. Hopefully, nobody's comfortable with the mess. They're comfortable with the status quo. Are you okay with the status quo? Nehemiah read on the scene, and he challenged them to rebuild the city to the glory of God. And that's what it is, and that's why we're talking about rebuilding. It was all for the glory of God, not about Nehemiah, but about God.
He cast a vision to the small remnant of people. Not only does he build to cast a vision, he tells them in Nehemiah 2:18, 'Look, I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me, what the King has said to me.' They replied, 'Let us start rebuilding.' So they began this good work. I love it in the ESV, it says, 'And I told them of the hand my God that had been upon me for good, and also the words that the king had spoken to me.' Then they said, 'Let us rise up and build.' So they strengthened their hands for the good work.
Nehemiah's not just simply following his passion. It's not about leadership skills and all that kind of stuff. It was about a people of God doing the work for God. He helped them in their faith towards God, not towards him. It wasn't about Nehemiah, it was about God. Not only that, he's pointing to something bigger. It's challenging when we read through the book of Nehemiah because it's tucked in the middle of the Old Testament, actually at the end of it. So, you see this bigger picture, and they have this vision of Jerusalem. Even in Isaiah 26, when they think about Jerusalem, it says, 'In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter.' But right now, they weren't singing songs. They didn't see a strong city. They were dreaming about the Messiah. When you look at the walls of Jerusalem, I don't think the Messiah is showing up in their minds.
Jerusalem was a sign of something bigger, something great. Like I said, it's pointing along the big narrative story. It's not just a book for one moment, but it's pointing as we get to the intertestamental period and then to the time of Jesus. Nehemiah's plucked right there. And in Acts 1:8, we know this, 'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' Right now, that's not what Jerusalem is. It's not a waiting place. It's actually an unsafe place in the eyes of the Jews.
As we pick up here in chapter 3, I'm going to spare you because this is the part that strikes fear in the hearts of most preachers. I'm not going to read Nehemiah chapter 3 in its entirety. But you have the map, and it starts at the Sheep Gate and goes counterclockwise as you work through, like the Hebrew phone book of names, telling you all the different places that these guys fill in, their names, the cities they were from, the parts they built. And like I said, I'll spare you some of my linguistic skills, but we just know that it works counterclockwise, and they're filling in.
But if you read through Nehemiah chapter 3, and I want to encourage everybody to do that, you think about the many important labors. Each worker that was named, but some of them were anonymous. They were all assigned a place and a task to work. What's more impressive, as you look through and dig in, you have men, women, clergy, laity working. You have groups from different towns, classes, trades. Goldsmiths, merchants, perfumers. Every single part of society is represented.
When you look around our room, in our church, that's what we have. We have representatives from every part. And as you go through more, you see the phrase 'next to them' and 'next to him.' It's not so much about the people, it's about the group that is starting to move. As you get to the times of Nehemiah, what you recognize is that clergy couldn't do it by themselves. Everyone needed to work. Everyone is going to work.
The ministry of rebuilding must be done by all the people of God. Everybody must do it. When you look at the task, you look at the map, that's not a solo mission. That's a group working together to accomplish something great for God. And every single person has a role in that. They're building together. One of my big words is 'together.' We say it a lot in the West - together, together, together. But it makes sense because we understand that we can't do it by ourselves. And actually, it's arrogant to think that we can.
Every person's work is important. Some worked on gates, others built walls for protection and security for Jerusalem. Each person, family, or individual had their responsibilities for the work they were going to do. We know the saying, 'It's all hands on deck.' The question becomes, will our hands be a part of that? Will we use our gifts? Will we use our challenges? You're not here by accident. How many times have you heard that before? But do you believe that you're here for a reason? If not, they couldn't rebuild.
I understand that God is bigger than the people in this room, but God has put you here for a reason. Israel would become a nation; Jerusalem would still lay in ruins. Imagine if they just would have said, 'You know what, man, Nehemiah, good luck buddy, keep going.' But sometimes, we say that in our hearts, 'Good luck buddy, keep going.' I'm not just saying to lead us. We just say that in our hearts. We're like, 'You know what, you just go ahead and build on your own. I'm going to go ahead and do something else.'
There's no gift that's not important. And God has designed us, brought us here. Paul said it over and over again that we all have gifts and every gift has its part. And here's what you're thinking right now, 'What is he going to ask us to do?' I know some of you are thinking that. But it's not that I'm going ask you to do something. What you need to understand is that we all have something that we need to do for the glory of God. It's not an issue might got to ask and the issue is why aren't we if we're not.
God has designed us. You are so beautifully and wonderfully made. You're crafted by the uncreated Creator. To be his people, to be his church. You're not here by accident. You have certain hands that only can hold hands of other people. Your touch means something that others doesn't. Your hugs and fellowship mean something different to different people. Your experiences are experiences that most people may not have. And even if you think they're similar, they're not. You have certain hearts that you can reach.
I watch certain people in different situations, and I think, 'Man, that was amazing what you did.' And I think to myself, 'Man, I couldn't have done that.' Certain people that you can encourage. There are certain people that just put an extra smile on your face when you see them. When I see Irene at a Sunday service, she's a special encouragement each time I see her. When I see different people in the fellowship, they just have a special encouragement to them.
There are certain people that you can admonish. Only certain people allow you to correct them. You ever think about that? That only certain people allow you to correct them. That you have that, that I know that we're supposed to be humble, we're supposed to let everybody correct us, I get that. But certain people have special powers in correcting us. They just do. They just touch your hand, brother, sister, let me tell you about something here, and you just respond a certain way because they're like, 'Okay, I'm sorry.' That's just it. Certain people that you love. There's a certain way that you build up the body that others can't do. We're here for that very part.
It says 'repairs,' and you see it over and over again, over 35 times. But it comes with the idea that people come together, as Christians, to strengthen, to encourage, to make strong again. And that's what our fellowship is. We're here to strengthen, to encourage, to make strong again because there are times where we feel weakness.
I'd be remissed if I didn't mention these guys right here, the guys of Tekoa. These guys did work. They did it twice, even as you read through it. But they had these noble guys that did not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisor. Now, I'm not going to get into the supervisor piece. They may have some feelings with that, they may have some reasons. The supervisor wasn't worth following, I don't know. They wouldn't submit to him.
But I do think that sometimes there are things that hold us back from serving God's kingdom. And I ask us to think about what it is. If it's for you, are there things that hold you back from serving God's kingdom? Because it's not about the leader. If we make it about the leader, then we're missing the point that we came to serve God. Please do not hold back from serving God because I am a knucklehead. My relationship with God does not determine how you serve in God's kingdom.
I understand that we go through different challenges, and I get that, but we need to figure those things out. We need to talk about those things that hold us back. Like I said, it's beyond leaders. There are just things that go on in our lives that hold us back from serving the way God has intended and wants to use us to glorify Him.
One of the biggest things we have to answer ourselves is this question: 'Do I make myself available to be used for the glory of God?' That's it for all of us, myself included. Do I make myself available to be used? It's a matter sometimes just to show up. And it's beyond just midweeks and Sunday service, although those things are good. But it's the time with the family. Do I make myself to be used in that time? Is it the time at work? Am I making myself available because God wants to use you in different ways?
I want us to get excited about that, to have a vision for that. That God wants to use us in everything. And I know we get tired, but God wants to use you. I think about the wall and the different people, and sometimes, like I said, we get caught up in the gifts. The room is talented, it's beautiful, it's all that kind of stuff. There are so many talents in the room. But I think about the individual person who comes to serve.
And I thought about these two guys, Meshezabel and Hananiah. Think about the individual, and their names mean 'devoted' or 'friend.' And I think about those names having meaning, having power. You think about your name in God's Church, in God's kingdom. It has power. When you look around the room, you think about the people that are next to you. Each name has power that exudes from it. But do we see it? It gave me fire when I started to think about the people that we serve with.
And I thought about this, the 'next to you.' You have Georgi Stratton, who serves with all her heart. Next to her, you have Anthony and Kim Santa Cruz, who persevere through trials. Next to them, you have Sarah Langhans, who's rooted in Jesus. Next to her, you have Mike and Cindy Hrnicek who loves deeply. Next to them, you have Glenn Hodge, humble before the cross of Jesus. Next to him, you have the sons of thunder, Ed and Jerry Simental, adventurers for God's kingdom. Next to them, you have Sheri Thompson, transformed by Jesus. Next to her, you have Mark Van Meter, joyful through affliction. Next to him, you have Adam and Jenna Ervin, all things to all people. Next to them, you have our teens and campus ministry, the light on a hill.
What do you think about the people that are next to you? It's so much deeper than just the work; it's the power of who they are and what they bring. It pleases God to see His people working together in one accord, with one heart, with one mind.
God will put us in a situation where we must work together. I believe that this is one of those times where we must work together. Last year was one of those times. What I'm saying is that it doesn't stop. We got to learn how to lead, we got to learn how to follow, we got to learn how to work together with one heart and one mind. Because here's the challenge of it all, and some of this could seem a little doom and gloom, but we'll get to the positive towards the end. It's always going to be tested. Our work together will be tested. When we stand up and serve God with all of our hearts, that moment we begin to get out of that comfortable lifestyle, to say, 'You know what, the status quo isn't good anymore.' Now, the moment when we say that I want to live my life for God, you will face opposition.
In Nehemiah 4:16, it says, 'When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble burned as they are?"' Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, 'What they are building—even a fox climbing on it would break down their wall of stones!' 'Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their heads. In fact, actually, you're not supposed to pray this prayer, just for reference. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.' So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
Sanballat and Tobiah, they were much disturbed in Nehemiah 2:1 when they heard that they wanted to help the people of Jerusalem, and then they mocked and ridiculed them. In Nehemiah 2:19, 'Now that the work had begun, they were angry and greatly incensed.' This right here makes me think often, go back one, there we go. 'God had one son without sin, but he never had a son without trial.' Each of us is going to go through times of challenge, each of us is going to go through times of ridicule. I tell the teens all the time, you're going to face challenges, you're going to face trials. The question you have to ask is, am I going to do it with or without God? That's the thing we have to think about.
See, because it wasn't unusual for God's people to face insults from the enemy. David faced the insults with Goliath when he looked at him with his little slingshot and all that kind of stuff in his hand, he mocked him. When you think about Jesus being on trial, the soldiers mocked him. And some of the people, the crowd, got behind him. And as he was hanging on the cross, some of the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11, they endured mocking themselves. The question just becomes, do we understand that we're going to face trials no matter what? You're going to face opposition no matter what. The question is, will you do it with or without God?
It says they continued to rebuild, until it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. And that's what God is calling us to do. He's like, '
You know what, just continue with your heart because it's going to be challenging. I need you with me.' And then, as it continued on in Nehemiah 4:7, it says, 'But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the people of Ashdod heard that the repairs of Jerusalem's wall had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry. They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it.' But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat.
As they're coming in, they get surrounded. Do you ever feel like pressure is surrounding you? They have Sanballat in the north, the Arabs in the South, the Ammonites in the East, and the Ashdodites in the West. The threat was real. They had already forgotten about the letter from the King. Sometimes we feel this pressure as though things are coming in, the enemy is getting ready to attack, and they attacked. It says they posted guards, they prayed. 'Because of them, we posted a guard day and night.' Nothing made them stop depending on God. They continued on. They could have just said, 'God, why aren't you coming in and just sweeping us all away? I'm fighting for you, I'm doing the things for you. God, I want you to make my life easier.'
Do you ever feel that way? 'God, just make my life easier. Just a smidge easier.' Melissa and I, we joke sometimes, 'God, just give us 24 hours, if that's not too much. I'll take ten.' You know, we negotiate. But God allowed it to continue. God was doing his perfect work both in building up the walls and working in his people during this time. He allowed them to post guard. Sometimes we want God to stop allowing the attacks to happen, but often, in those moments, prayerfully, it's drawing us closer together. When the attacks happen, do you come closer together, or do you go further apart?
There's a part of this that, yes, we need to draw closer together because we do need to post guard. We need to be there for each other. We need to protect one another. There's a part that we pray is all up to God, but we post guard is all up to us. We work. God is working through us in both situations. Our prayers don't replace our actions. Our actions actually make it more effective for God to work.
Because it's going to get tougher. When we start doing God's work and we start going through life, there are going to be moments of discouragement. You might think, 'Okay, this is enough right here,' but it actually gets a little bit more challenging. In verse 10, it says, 'Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, "The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there's so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall."' Here they are, rebuilding, and they face an attack, but now the rebuilding work was at a halfway point, and the wall was continuous. But this challenge arises as they're going through.
You think about the halfway point. The halfway point is a good place to be, but it also reminds us that there's still much work to be done. When we think about our kingdom, there are so many things that we think, 'Man, are we almost there yet? Are we there yet?' But God says, 'You know what, maybe you're just at the halfway point.' And it's tough because sometimes we can feel fatigued. How many people feel fatigued at different times? We get fatigued, not just in the work that we've done, but we think to ourselves, 'Man, there
's still much more work to do.' And it's challenging because a lot of teams, I've watched, I played football in college, and you can have a great first half of sports. You could be amazing in the first half, and then you turn back on the TV, and you're like, 'How did they lose? What happened?' You had such a great first half. Sometimes, it's fatigue that kicks in, or we think we have it, or we think we're done, and God is asking us to keep going.
But the question just becomes, what do you need to do to recharge? What is it you need to do to refresh? It wasn't all just about the construction; it was hauling away the rubbish. Some of the things, like I said, I'm a sports guy, but we start calling bad plays in life, and the rubbish kicks in. That's why I appreciated Ryan's message last week about the ruins and the things like that. Sometimes, there's rubbish that's there. It's because we start calling bad plays, or we start making bad decisions. The first half everything was good, I lived my life for God, and then the second half, like, 'Man, well, I can probably kind of skate through. I could kind of make my way through, kind of like the halfway point. I already know enough.' Now, that's the worst place to be when you think you know enough that you can kind of coast the second half of life, but often we try to do that.
Clearing away the rubbish is the hard work. It's not an option, but it is the hard work. It's a lot more fun to build, if I'm being honest. It's easier just to say, 'You know what, let's just start building. It's just a clean slate. It's flat, like the stage.' It's another thing when you're stepping over rocks, you're stepping over the jagged edges. But for some, at different times, we got to figure out, how do we clear that rubbish out of our life? How do we clear away the things that are holding us back? The sweet way to do some real excavation work. It's a lot of work, but we need to dig in.
Maybe there's things that you've been holding on to, or you've been stepping over the piles for too long, but now it's time to clean up that work, clean up that rubbish. Because we hear lessons week after week, but do we change those things that we need to change?
Now, I know it's not possible to change everything at once, but there are areas of our lives at different times where God is calling us to grow. He's calling to sweep it away, to dig deep. Are you digging deep? I think about our church, and I think about how it was so much easier to be a Christian 20 years ago. It just was, especially for the campus and the teens. I'm sorry, it just was. Life was different. And it's not because of social media. Social media is not the issue. Don't curse the darkness; light a candle. It's not cursing social media, but it's conviction. It's our desire, the ability to stand and understand. We have different life stages, but it's our conviction to really put behind, to say, 'You know what, God, I want to put you first, no matter what.'
In verse 11, he says, 'Also, our enemies said, "Before they know it or see us, we will be right there among them and will kill them and put an end to the work."' Then the Jews who lived near them came and told us ten times over, 'Wherever you turn, they will attack us.' Therefore, I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall, at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears, and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials, and the rest of the people, 'Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your families, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.'
Often, the adversary comes in attack. A lot of times, when the adversary gets us, it's because we're surprised. We shouldn't be surprised when Satan attacks; he is always looking for somebody to devour. When God's people are on guard, the enemy sees little victory. Not that the trials aren't there, but we don't give them a foothold. The only way they could get them to stop was to kill them. Unfortunately, that's not the same today. The devil doesn't have to kill us; he just has to discourage us, to get us to compromise, to distract us, to put crazy relationships in front of us, to frustrate us, to stop serving God.
In Nehemiah 6, Nehemiah faces more opposition. He deals with slander, with Shemaiah, who claimed to be a prophet and wanted Nehemiah to sin by going into the Temple to hide from Sanballat and Tobiah. He also dealt with other issues with the nobles connected with Tobiah. But in Nehemiah 6:1, it says, 'When the word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it, though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates, Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." But they were scheming to harm me.'
So I sent messengers to them with this reply: 'I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?' Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer. Sanballat and Tobiah tried to lure Nehemiah away from Jerusalem, away from his work. Nehemiah realized it was a trap to distract him from his priorities.
Satan does the same thing today to us. He wants to lure us away, distract us, and sets traps for us day and night. Are you allowing him to take you away? Are you allowing him to trap you? It's going to hurt, but there are different traps that happen in our lives that lure us away. The new car smell, it's a trap for some. If you can't afford the payment, don't get the car. The bigger house, the perfume smell of the coworker, the cologne smell, the person at campus that says they like you or enjoy your smile, these are different traps Satan sets for us each day. Don't take the bait.
The average American spends two and a half hours on social media a day, two and a half hours streaming videos. That's five hours a day spent wasting time. But the average Christian spends 15 hours a month reading their Bible. That's 150 hours a month on some type of internet, social media device. Who's winning in that? Is that God or Satan? Don't fall for the trap. Don't take the bait. We need to be people who don't fall for it, don't get lured away by those different things. Stand up for God.
Nehemiah could have panicked. He could have started thinking it was his job alone to defend against the attack. Instead, he wisely and calmly trusted God, trusted God in the midst of the storm. He commanded them to bring out the armor, to get ready to fight with every resource they had. 'Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome.'
Nehemiah put things in perspective. The challenge was great, but there was no reason for fear. 'Fight for your families, for your sons, for your daughters, for your wives, for your homes,' and we can add, 'for your brothers and sisters, for your coworkers, for the people in this room. Fight for your church.'
What we need to understand is that the real victory wasn't that the enemy said they couldn't stop them from doing what God had called them to do. When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. This was the victory. They got back to it, defending against attack. Satan couldn't hold them back. They got to where they saw the real victory and said, 'We're going to endure the things that Satan, our enemy, has put before us. We see the attack, but we're going to continue our progress.'
Our call, not just in 2024 but each and every day, is to make progress as a church. The church isn't ever going to be perfect, but we can make progress. We can endure. We can fight through the enemy's attacks. A few questions I leave with us today: Do I make myself available to be used for the glory of God? If there are things hindering that, let's get open about it. What do I need to do to recharge spiritually, to refresh? If fatigue is where it's coming from, where is that fatigue coming from? Is it because I've got to the wall, it's half built, and I'm just tired? Maybe there's a need to recharge in some way spiritually, to get fed in a new way, or just to get time away with God.
And I put 'Refresh' on there as well, because maybe it's the rubbish in your life that's holding you down. You need times of refreshing, times of repentance, things that are holding you back from really serving God the way that God desires.
The last part is about prayer. Like I said, the church doesn’t get solved in 24 hours. I don't want to paint a picture that the church is horrible either, but there are things that God wants to do. He wants to use you. I do believe that if we work together, God will do amazing things in His kingdom, not just day to day, tomorrow, but forever. It’s for our families that we fight for.
When I think about Nehemiah and the people that they fought for, that has an impact on our life today. When I think about my children and my grandchildren, I just get excited to think about what we build today, they will benefit from tomorrow. So let's rebuild, and let's rebuild together. Amen. Thank you.
