12/22/2024: Isaiah 61:1-3 “Hope Revealed”

Ever misheard song lyrics and had a family laugh about it on a road trip? That funny moment can remind us of something profound: the importance of truly understanding Jesus’ words to grasp His mission and salvation. We explore this through the lens of Isaiah 61, diving into themes of hope, forgiveness, and the compassionate mission of Christ, especially during the challenges of the Christmas season. As we pray for those feeling isolated or grieving, we consider the incredible hope and liberation Jesus offers—a hope rooted not in uncertainty, but in the confident expectation of His promises.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:20

There you go. Good morning church again. If you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to turn with me to the book of Isaiah. Today we're in Isaiah 61. Isaiah 61. And as you're turning there, I'll pray for our time, amen. And as you're turning there, I'll pray for our time.

Speaker 1 0:49

Our great God, we bow before you today. You are the God of all goodness and mercy and grace and forgiveness. We ask that you would help us to understand forgiveness. It's alien to our nature in so many ways and we don't like to admit our need of it. We're stingy in giving it to those who need it. So teach us to understand it and, by your grace, to flee to you and to get it and, by your mercy, to show it to others. Help us today as we see hope through forgiveness and Jesus through hope. Help us to understand the message of the Christ. In our message and this morning, we ask especially for all those alone at Christmas, whether those who have faced loss or those who are facing isolation. May your Spirit truly bind up their hearts and draw them closer to you. May those who know family and fellowship give you praise and honor for all that you provide, and we ask all this through our Savior. Amen. Isaiah, chapter 61.

Speaker 1 2:01

I'm going to read verses 1 through 3. The Spirit of the Lord, god, is upon me. I'm going to read verses 1-3. The year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn. To grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness. The planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. This is God's Word.

Speaker 1 2:48

Well, quite often and this might be your experience as well quite often on our family road trips we make a big shared playlist on Spotify that everyone can add music to. The songs that I add are always good my progeny, the ones that they add. 75% of the time they're okay. And we sing in the car. We sing loud Like Darius Rucker Wagon Wheel. Anyone familiar with that song? That song comes on, forget it. I'm singing the whole thing and I'm going to lose my voice.

Speaker 1 3:21

Sometimes I don't really know the words to songs when I sing, but it doesn't stop me and so I make them up as we go along and they get mad, but it's not uncommon for someone to start singing along with a song and only to find out later that one of the lyrics that they were belting out isn't exactly what they thought it was. I'm sure I'm not alone here. Sometimes it's the way artists articulate their words. It can change the way we hear it because they're singing. At least that's what I tell people in the car with me. I didn't understand.

Speaker 1 3:59

I like Luke Combs, for instance, but I really can't understand half of the stuff that he sings. He has a great song called she Got the Best of Me. Anyone ever heard of that song? She Got the Best of Me, he sings. She broke my heart and now all that's left of me is beaten in this guitar. And then I thought Combs said every night I tip my hat and she follows me around. And so there I am in the car singing this out loud and proud, and these two are in the back seat laughing. And then all of a sudden, google comes out and they're like no, it's not I tip my hat, it's every night a different town, not every night I tip my hat. I like my version better, so I'm just going to keep singing it the way I think he should be singing it Now.

Speaker 1 4:51

Of course, messing up lyrics is perfectly fine, but we need to use caution that we don't misunderstand the words of Jesus. If we misunderstand His words, we misunderstand His mission, his salvation and, of course, then our mission. Sometimes believers misunderstand who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish. That's why I love the book of Isaiah. I mean Isaiah's purpose to the nation, and certainly his purpose today, is to correct the flagrant wrongs among God's people and to comfort them with astonishing hope that's far beyond what they could ever deserve, all by His grace and His grace alone. And so, by using our passage in Isaiah, I want to consider this under three big pieces today, all related to Jesus, all related to our hope in Jesus. Let's start with that fact that Jesus is our hope. Verse 1, the Spirit of the Lord, god, is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

Speaker 1 6:04

Well, in the first of our Advent series a few weeks ago, we defined hope, and to summarize that point, is that ordinarily hope? When we say hope, we're expressing uncertainty. But that's not the biblical meaning of hope, the ordinary use of hope. We might say well, I hope it doesn't rain, or I hope it warms up, or I hope you feel better, I hope this thing happens or something else happens just this way. It's a desire for good, but it's a desire with uncertainty. Biblical hope, our hope in Jesus, is a desire for something good. But it's more than that. It is a confident expectation that everything Jesus said will take place. Our hope is sure, because Jesus is our hope. It will happen. There's a moral certainty that the good we expect through Jesus will happen. So not only do we have hope in Jesus, jesus is our very hope. And here we see, the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him. He's set apart by God for the purpose of our hope.

Speaker 1 7:15

See, the Gospels give us very little information about how Jesus lived and spoke within His hometown of Nazareth. I mean His upbringing there is mentioned, but it's not really described to us. He scarcely performs miracles there when he returns there. In fact, he's spurned and rejected in Nazareth. But Jesus chose to make Nazareth the site of probably one of the most significant and enigmatic declarations of His ministry. This passage in Isaiah should sound familiar to us because Jesus, with the gathered crowd in the Nazareth synagogue, took down the scroll of Isaiah. The Bible says and this is from Luke and he reads it, and he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He was reading from Isaiah and the first readers of Luke would not have missed that Jesus' title, christ, is explained here. The Lord has anointed Jesus.

Speaker 1 8:15

Now, various branches of Judaism in the first century would have expected a Messiah, an anointed one. The term would not have had a clear meaning to Luke's Gentile audience. Here it would begin to make sense. Whatever it means to say that Jesus is anointed, we know that it means he is set apart by God with a very specific power, for a very specific purpose, and so Jesus is his name, christ is his title. The Greek word is the Hebrew word is Messiah, which means anointed. The Greek would translate it as Christos and then in Latin it would be Christos, and so if you say the word Messiah or Christ, you are using the same word, which means anointed Jesus is the anointed of God.

Speaker 1 9:08

So as the congregation eagerly looked to Jesus for some comment on what he was reading, he said to them today this Scripture has been fulfilled. In your hearing what you've read, everything that you know is happening right now, and it's being fulfilled in me, said Jesus. Unlike in Matthew, the explicit fulfillment of Scripture is really mentioned in Luke, and this is the only time I believe that it's commented on before Jesus is in Jerusalem for the final week of His earthly ministry. So this passage then provides scriptural background for all that Jesus does and fulfills in the gospel. So his ministry in Galilee then becomes this outworking of what a particular passage from Isaiah says about him, as we learned last time. So Isaiah's prophecy speaks of a coming anointed, one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests.

Speaker 1 10:05

Now, while we may be used to the Holy Spirit language in the New Testament, particularly in the letters of Paul, referring to the Holy Spirit working within a person, this is not what we have here in Isaiah. In fact, there's a very distinct Old Testament theme that is being developed here, at one which long preceded Isaiah. Here, at one which long preceded Isaiah, the phrase the Spirit of the Lord. It happens we read it at least 20 times in the Old Testament and there's always three different contexts in which it's used. That is the power to judge. So we read it in the book of Judges that the Spirit of the Lord was upon the judge, or the power to rule. So we see the Spirit of the Lord rested upon the kings of Israel, or the power to prophesy, and so the Spirit of the Lord would fall upon the prophets. So when Jesus opens the scroll of Isaiah and declares that he is the one in whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, he is telling His hearers and Luke's readers and us, that the deliverer of Isaiah, the perfect judge, the perfect judge, the perfect king, the perfect prophet, is me, and I am here.

Speaker 1 11:11

Much of what Jesus did, he did as a man. Of course, the incarnation, an event which Luke spends more time on than any of the other Gospels. It's not incidental. Luke makes it clear that Jesus was truly human. Jesus grew up and learned like any other human. Jesus slept, jesus got hungry, he had the same ablutions as any other human. Now, while in the life of Jesus we see the life of the Son of God, what we see in the life of the Son of God made human for us. And just as God sent humans to judge and to rule and to prophesy throughout the Old Testament, he sends one human to be the ultimate deliverer. That's why John says of Jesus, right in John 1, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus is a perfect man who perfectly relied on God.

Speaker 1 12:13

Many of the things that Jesus did during His ministry were not of His own strength. However, is with the strength God supplied through the Spirit. By the Spirit, we read, he faced and returned from temptation. By the Spirit, we read, he faced and returned from temptation. By the Spirit, he conducted His ministry in Galilee. By the Spirit, he declared who he was the anointed of God to proclaim the good news to the poor. So who was Jesus? He's God's chosen Savior and Judge, and King and Prophet all in one. Everything that you read from Genesis to Malachi is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not waiting for anything else to happen from the Old Testament. We are waiting for Jesus Period.

Speaker 1 13:00

What did Jesus come to do? He was sent to redeem God's people and establish God's kingdom. And how would he do it? With the supernatural power that God provides through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our hope.

Speaker 1 13:16

Secondly, the Gospel is our hope, verse 1 again, the Spirit of the Lord, god, is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. And so now we notice that Jesus is anointed, he's set apart, he's the Messiah, the Christ, and he has a message. Jesus has a message. Now that we know why he came, we need to know what he said. And if there's any confusion in our world today about what Jesus said, and if there's any confusion in our world today, it's about what Jesus said, isn't it? Jesus didn't come to be a Mr Rogers and tell us, just be nice to people, because Christians, we're not even that nice to people. He came with a message of salvation by faith. Our hope is only redeemed in the gospel and our response to it.

Speaker 1 14:08

Jesus is our hope and Jesus embodies the message, doesn't he? It is so critical for this. We need to understand this. The good news is that God is our Creator. That's where everything starts. Everything that we understand about Jesus starts in Genesis 1. And, friends, if you ever get tired of me sharing the Gospel from this spot, buckle up, because it's the only message I got that's worth anything. I believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

Speaker 1 14:45

God is Creator. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God created the world, god created man and put man in the garden to keep the garden. And God gave man one command. He held that man to perfect perpetual obedience to that one command and he promised him life if he kept it and death if he did not do not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's it, just one command. And he did. He didn't keep it and then he ate.

The Meaning of the Gospel

Speaker 1 15:18

And because he ate because of that one man, the bible says sin entered the world and death through sin. And then, of course, everyone who is born through that man, through ordinary means of human reproduction, inherits that sin nature. So that means if your parents were human, you inherited this sin nature from Adam. So if you tell me you're the exception to this, you probably have a pretty interesting story. But because of that sin nature, sin proceeds from it and our world is broken because of that sin. We stand guilty before a holy and righteous God, and we know that he's holy and we know that he's righteous, and we know that the world is broken. We know the world is broken because we crave justice. Our world is so desperately broken, isn't it? But the brokenness of our world emanates from right here, the human heart. The majority of the evil in the world emanates from the heart of humanity. So, if God gives us real justice, we all die. Merry Christmas. But that's why we celebrate Christmas, isn't it?

Speaker 1 16:31

God, in His goodness and in His mercy, sent forth His Son, who was not born through ordinary human reproduction, he was born of a virgin. That is why the virgin birth matters. So if you are a Christian and you are a skeptic of the virgin birth, I would tell you you do not believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because without the virgin birth the Gospel is meaningless. Because if he was born like us, then he's a sinner like us. But he was not born like us and he is clean of sin, his record is clear and he keeps His record clear and he obeys God's law. And because he is fully God and fully man, he obeys God's law on behalf in this act of obedience. And God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us All. We, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us had turned to his own way, but God laid on Him the iniquity of us all and Jesus died for sin once for all, the just, for the unjust, and God punishes our sinfulness in Him, and as if Jesus had done it Himself, and he nails our sinfulness to the tree and Jesus dies and he rises again on the third day. And then God takes the perfection of Jesus and he gives it to the imperfect, to the sinner, as if we lived perfect like Jesus. You see, I call this the. I don't call it this, but it's called the great exchange.

Speaker 1 18:00

As soon as we put our faith in Jesus Christ, what happens? God takes all of the unrighteousness and all the filth and the guilt and the shame that we have and he puts it onto Jesus Christ. Christians, stop carrying around guilt and sin and shame. It's not yours anymore, is it? Amen, somebody. But not only that. He takes the perfection of Jesus and he puts it onto us. And so, if you are in Christ, god looks down and he sees the perfection of Jesus. That's the great exchange. And then, once we place our faith in Jesus, we begin to bear that family resemblance, because the very same Gospel that saves us is the Gospel that sustains us. So, christian.

Speaker 1 18:52

If you think the Gospel is just what we needed in the past to get saved, you need to go back to the Word. You need to go back to the Gospel because it will sustain you and your salvation until he calls you home. When one day we are glorified and saved from the very presence of sin, that's the Gospel we need, isn't it? That's the Gospel that's more than enough. That's the Gospel that will save you. That is the Gospel that Jesus shared. That is the Gospel that saved billions since the first century.

Speaker 1 19:22

And that is the real meaning of Christmas, isn't it? He took all of my need, all of my shame, all of my sin, and it was crucified with Him on the cross. He was raised to life for my justification. And so now we must never forget that, although we are sinners, we are blood-bought, redeemed sinners, walking with our Redeemer. And so, for the three that were in the water today that proclaimed their faith, it's the starting point of that new life in Christ. They are saved. And today it's like we made it public I'm saved. It's that outward proclamation of what has already happened inside.

Speaker 1 20:02

We must never forget what we are saved from, and we must never forget what we are saved from and we must never forget what we are saved for. We must stop believing our own propaganda and believe Jesus. We need to remember Jesus and if you are far from Christ, listen to Peter. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter brothers, what must shall we do? Peter said Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift to the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1 20:38

Let me say something for a moment. I want you all to give me some grace this morning because I'm going to insult some people. I've never asked for that permission, but I'm doing it now for some reason, especially to all of you and like me, who have been walking with Jesus for a long time. Many of you know I've been working in the jail now, so it's about a year and a half I've been working in the jail. There's a striking difference that I have seen between been working in the jail. There's a striking difference that I have seen between the Christian in the church and the Christian in the jail cell.

Speaker 1 21:14

The Christian in that jail cell right now does not need to be reminded that they're a sinner and that they sin, or that they're bought with a price, or that they're not worthy of His grace, or that they are servants not looking down on others, or that Jesus is everything. They don't need to be reminded of that, because it's very front of mind for them. They know and I've been doing this for a long time now Christians can be awful. Christians can be arrogant. Christians can be demanding. Christians are far too sure of their superiority over others, even if they're just sitting in front of them in the church.

Speaker 1 22:04

Don't come to me and say we need revival. Don't come to me and say we need revival. Don't come to me and say we need more people. Don't come to me and say we need to do this or this. If you, for one second, think you are more valuable to God than the man or the woman sitting in the jail cell right now, I want to take you all to jail. That's not a threat, that's an invitation. I want to take you all to jail. I want to take all the churches in Hopkinsville to jail. I want you to go and do a Bible study in the jail. I want you to go and pray and minister to the people in the jail. Just to see it. Just to see it firsthand, because every single one of us would have a deeper understanding of our own sin. Because every single one of us would have a deeper understanding of our own sin and, like our brothers and sisters in the jail cell, we would have such a great desire to ponder the greatness and the forgiveness that we have received. We don't often understand the depths of our own sin, and when we don't understand the depths of our own sin, we don't understand how amazing the grace of God is. We don't often understand how amazing God's grace is until we understand that we don't deserve it.

Speaker 1 23:15

Yesterday I worked in the jail Yesterday eight or nine hours. This group called Christmas Behind Bars contacted me a few months ago and they backed up to the jail yesterday with a semi-truck 650 gift bags for every single inmate in the jail, big Christmas bags of cookies and candy and junk and stuff. And I spent several hours yesterday just handing out those bags to every single cell in that jail and these grown people were like little kids opening up their Christmas stocking on Christmas morning. There were not a lot of dry eyes. The whole mood of the jail shot way up and after we were done and I walked around the jail again. It was still like there was a Christmas party going on in the whole place.

Speaker 1 24:11

You don't realize how amazing a gift is until you have nothing. Amen, amen. Until we know that the grace of God is a gift and we have nothing, we will never cherish it, we will never adore it and we will assume upon it and we will demand it. We can't love much if we don't understand how much we've been forgiven. Now you may have never been to jail. But if you could see the reality of hell, if you could see the reality of what you've been forgiven Now, you may have never been to jail. But if you could see the reality of hell, if you could see the reality of what you've been saved from, if you could see the reality of what Jesus has actually done for you through the cross, you would say I bet you, our singing would get louder, our amens would get stronger and our church would be at capacity, because you would tell everyone you know about this Jesus that saved you from hell.

Speaker 1 25:10

Jesus did not come so that we could have nice, quaint little white churches on the corner in every town and everyone could look happy, plastic and smiley. He came to save you from hell and he has Repent of your sin and believe in Him. I pray that if your heart is so hard you cannot see this, that God softens it. And I pray that you fall on your knees before God and say, lord, forgive me for supposing upon your grace, because then we become set free from justifying ourselves, because some of you right now are mad and you're defensive of what I'm saying. Calm down, I still love you. We need to be grounded in the abundant forgiveness of Christ and we become free to forgive others.

Speaker 1 26:06

But that's not all. There's one last big piece here. This is our last heading. What is the result of all of this? This is hope's result.

Speaker 1 26:18

Again, verse 1, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Jesus heals the heart and through His proclamation of liberty to the captives, that is us. We are set free. The brokenhearted are people who are weakened and crushed and destroyed in spirit.

Speaker 1 26:48

The term describes those who feel bankrupt spiritually, or needy or helpless. They yearn for the Lord's help and comfort and salvation. Jesus binds up that heart, doesn't he? The actual word in the original language is like to inspire with confidence, to give hope and courage, to encourage, to bandage, to bind up so brokenhearted people, the spiritually ruined, are in the right condition to be met and saved by God. You see, the world has this opposite and I talk to people all the time. Usually, once they find out I'm a pastor, they stop cussing. But they'll say what do you do for a living? I say, oh, I'm a pastor. But I know, depending on their condition, that they're just not ready because everything in their life is perfect Good job, good money, good house, everything's good. But then there's others and I'm like, yeah, but then there's others and I'm like, yeah, it seems like your condition is right to be met and saved by God. I mean, it's not me to determine that, but I share the Gospel with everyone, but I just have it in the back of my mind okay, this person might not be ready.

Speaker 1 27:52

David says in Psalms 34, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. How does he do this? How does he bind up the brokenhearted? Well, peter explains it. He says he personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds you are healed. Jesus understands what it means to be brokenhearted I mean Isaiah would say of the Messiah, despised and rejected, suffered, familiar with pain, people would hide their faces from Him. He was despised. He took up our pain. He bore our suffering, pierced for our sins, crushed for our rebellion. The peace that we have with God is all because of the Lord Jesus Christ, because Jesus heals us with His wounds. And some of us are brokenhearted because we've fallen back into sin. We love the old patterns and so we return to them. Maybe you've compromised your stand. You've allowed your heart to grow cold. What better time of year to return to the living God than at Christmas? What better gift to receive than a renewed vigor for the Lord Jesus Christ? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Speaker 1 29:19

When you think about King David, the Bible says he was a man after God's own heart. What did he do? He took the guy's wife and then he took the guy's life and of course he would later feel broken and crushed and unclean and in need of renewal. So he wanted God to purge him. Create in me a clean heart, o God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation and make me willing to obey you. You see, only God's unfailing love and compassion could save David. The only thing that he had to offer God was a broken heart, and that's enough, isn't it? So don't think.

Speaker 1 30:06

To come to God, you need to clean yourself up, get better, get a better job, act a little bit better. Stop cussing, stop chewing, stop smoking, stop drinking. You need to bring to God your broken heart. God's going to take care of all that other mess, isn't he? I don't go to people and say, hey, you know what, you're not really dressed. You're not really dressed the way you should be to receive Jesus. I shared something with my family this week. There was a church that was talking about women who were wearing leggings under their dresses and how that was satanic. And these ladies' dresses were down to the floor and they were starting to wear leggings underneath it and I said dude, you need to go home and try again. All we need to do to come to God is to have a broken heart and be willing for God to bind it up. Secondly, the result of our hope is that we are set free. Isaiah said the Messiah would proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound.

The Truth of the Gospel

Speaker 1 31:08

You see, the Bible is of course, made up of all these different genres of literature, but all those genres and pretty much everything in the Scripture can be placed into one of two categories Either the law or the Gospel. God's law tells us what God commands to do some things and not to do other things. God's law tells us what God commands to do some things and not to do other things. God's law is perfect, it's unchanging, and it's the standard that shows us His will for mankind. And the Bible tells us that breaking that law of God, even in the smallest way, leads to death. The wages of sin is death, and so what we've earned by our failure is to meet the law's demands. In an eternity in hell, there's only suffering in separation from God. In contrast, the law then points us to the Gospel.

Speaker 1 31:57

The Gospel is the story of rescue. It's the historical account of Jesus, god in the flesh, coming to obey the law in our place. You see, jesus never broke God's law, even once, even in the smallest way. His perfect obedience rendered Him the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of the world, and that's why he came. And so, understanding the truth about the law and the Gospel is the truth that sets us free. The truth that sets us free from thinking more of ourselves than we ought to think, which which causes us to sin against god. It keeps us from thinking that we are better than others, which is the source of so many of our sins against others. The law enables us to cease trying to justify ourselves before god, because it shows us that self-justification is impossible.

Speaker 1 32:45

We need to be rescued, and it is the truth of the Gospel that ultimately sets us free, isn't it? The truth of the law frees us to look for the Savior, but it's the Gospel that tells us the Savior can be found in Jesus, crucified for the forgiveness of sins. So, friends, let me try to wrap this up and end this way we need to understand that in Jesus Christ we find hope, we find our origin, as the Bible teaches us that he is eternal and that we're there with the Father and the Holy Spirit, where all things are created. In Jesus we find rest and peace in the present, because knowing that we are forgiven and absolved of our sins grants us peace even in the valley of the shadow of death. We're set free from guilt and shame and ignorance, meaninglessness and lies that kill. We can look to the future with hope, knowing that the story ends as it once began ignorance, meaninglessness and lies that kill. We can look to the future with hope, knowing that the story ends as it once began, in the love of Christ for us, because Jesus said I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And so, as we live in that truth of Jesus, the truth sets us free, and if the Son sets us free, we are free.

Speaker 1 34:05

Indeed, let's pray together, our Lord and our God. We acknowledge that we are sinners. We work hard to not acknowledge that, but because it's embarrassing, lord, it's humiliating, but we know it's the first step to glory, because it's only when we see our need that we can seek the remedy. Show us the need and show us the remedy is not in us. Show us the Savior, show us His perfection, show us His cross, show us His love and His promises and His call and His claims. Drive us to Him. Drive us to Him, draw us to Him and, when we're there, assure us of your pardon and make us into merciful giving people, because we believe in the forgiveness of sins, we believe in restoration, we believe in second and third and fourth chances and we offer this prayer fully in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.