SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit GrantProquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.
SPEAKER_01: That according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
SPEAKER_01: That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: You may be filled with all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_01: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, that's uh you you went on record as saying this is your intent.
SPEAKER_01: You want us to grasp, you want us to know this love which surpasses knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we got to ask ourselves, how can we know something that surpasses knowledge?
SPEAKER_01: We can't.
SPEAKER_01: It's got to be revealed to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we pray for revelation today.
SPEAKER_01: Illumination.
SPEAKER_01: God, make the scripture come to life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not uh just uh an old history book, God.
SPEAKER_01: Uh this is words of life.
SPEAKER_01: And where else are we gonna go to get the words of life?
SPEAKER_01: And our response to that, our understanding of that is nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, speak words of life today into our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be the hearts that hold on because there's a light that is coming.
SPEAKER_01: Advent is right around the corner, and it's a great time for us to remind ourselves that there's a light that is coming for the heart that holds on.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, give us truth from your word that's gonna cause our heart to get traction and hold on, regardless of what's going on around us.
SPEAKER_01: That's our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience, we pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat if you have a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take it and open it up to Romans chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your road there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 946.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're our guest today, we're preaching through the book of Romans.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we have been for a while.
SPEAKER_01: We took a break this summer and did a series on the miracles of Jesus, and then we pick back up in Romans uh in October, November.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we start Romans chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I just want to begin with a confession.
SPEAKER_01: But let me say this first of all.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about how to keep believing the gospel, how to keep believing when it seems that nobody else wants to, how to keep believing when it seems that nobody else wants to, because there are gonna be periods in your life where you kind of look around.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, somebody asked me what happened to this projector.
SPEAKER_01: We had a little problem.
SPEAKER_01: We sent it off to get it repaired.
SPEAKER_01: It should be back hopefully by next week.
SPEAKER_01: So we're we're we're the one-eyed Jack today.
SPEAKER_01: You gonna be okay with that?
SPEAKER_01: I think we'll be fine, don't you?
SPEAKER_01: All right, all right.
SPEAKER_01: Uh anyway, uh, and so uh there's gonna be periods where you're gonna kind of look around, you're gonna think, no one seems to care anything about the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then this little voice in your head is gonna say, So why do you care?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if everyone's doing it and not doing it, why don't you just quit doing it and just give in and just give in and get along and all that kind of stuff?
SPEAKER_01: Or you're gonna look in the mirror at yourself and be so disappointed with your inconsistency and your contrary lifestyle, you're just gonna go, you know what, this God thing isn't working for anymore.
SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna post it on Facebook and announce to the world, this God thing's not working for anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm out of here.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to just say, hey, the Bible wants to speak to us this morning about how do we keep believing when it seems that no one else wants to or is going to.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, preachers have moments like that, not necessarily where we want to quit, we don't want to believe anymore, but like when I was getting ready to start, we get ready to start back into Romans, and a preacher friend of mine called me and he said, Hey, well, what are you doing next?
SPEAKER_01: I know y'all did the gospels, I mean the miracles.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, we're gonna do our core values in September, then in October, November, we're gonna get back in Romans.
SPEAKER_01: And he said this, he said, Isn't your church growing?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Despite my leadership, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Aren't y'all getting ready to build a children's bidder?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, we've got to make room because we got we got kids coming everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Man, you gotta be careful.
SPEAKER_01: You probably should just do some topical stuff about embracing change and making a friend of change and about parenting and about marriage.
SPEAKER_01: That's what people want to hear about these days.
SPEAKER_01: If, quote, if you preach the Bible, they might get mad and leave.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Well, and and I heard this and it was kind of humorous, and I was on the phone, and he said, Yeah, because the churches that are really doing it, the ones that are really exploding, it's real topical, not a very long series, three or four weeks, and go to a different topic, and you're just in Romans, how long are you gonna be in Romans?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're gonna do Romans 9, 10, and 11, and then in December we'll do Advent.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Advent, I don't know about that either.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got off the phone thinking, I'm an idiot.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in my right mind, I know that's not the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if you're visiting today, these people, I've got the best job in the world.
SPEAKER_01: I get to get up every day and just tell people what the Bible really means in plain language.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, thank you for that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's some Sundays they're like, I got questions about that, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing the gospel does is it engages our mind.
SPEAKER_01: But I I got off the phone and I was like, a couple days later, you know that little voice kind of comes up on you?
SPEAKER_01: That little voice kind of came up and said, Hey, you you you you don't want to get too crazy about this whole Bible thing.
SPEAKER_01: You it could be you and ten people in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And then one of the moms dropped by, it's probably three weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the first sermon I preached in Romans 9?
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, I wish I could be accursed for the sake of my kinsmen for the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, He basically Paul's saying, Oh, I would go to hell so the Jews could go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Who would you go to hell?
SPEAKER_01: Who do you care about so much you'd go to hell for?
SPEAKER_01: His mom walked in with this copy of a letter she's found on her son's desk in his room.
SPEAKER_01: He's seven.
SPEAKER_01: And he wrote this to one of his little buddies, Bo, this is for you.
SPEAKER_01: When I die, you will always mean something to me.
SPEAKER_01: I will go to hell for you to go to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Love Sam.
SPEAKER_01: And she just dropped on my desk and she said, By the way, I just want you to know they're listening.
SPEAKER_01: He's seven.
SPEAKER_01: And what she doesn't know is when she left, I put my shade up on my window, my door, which means I'm studying, don't disturb me.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't studying, I was on the desk, just going to the ugly crack.
SPEAKER_01: And so I called my friend up and said, You can go to hell with all your advice.
SPEAKER_01: I will not go to hell for you, I'll tell you that, buddy.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's my point.
SPEAKER_01: There are gonna be periods where you're gonna look around and you're gonna think, hey man, am I the only one that cares about the things of God?
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep believing in the midst of that?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible speaks to that in Romans chapter 11, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, I ask then, has God rejected his people?
SPEAKER_01: By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, they've killed your prophets, they've demolished your altars, and I alone and left, and they seek my life.
SPEAKER_01: But what is God's reply to him?
SPEAKER_01: I've kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
SPEAKER_01: So too at the present time there's a remnant chosen by grace.
SPEAKER_01: But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
SPEAKER_01: What then?
SPEAKER_01: Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.
SPEAKER_01: The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see, and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.
SPEAKER_01: As David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
SPEAKER_01: Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been so mad at somebody?
SPEAKER_01: You had those thoughts about them?
SPEAKER_01: You're kind of like, Well, yeah, just yesterday, my husband, uh.
SPEAKER_01: That's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: And David's saying, Hey God, I these is the way I feel about my enemies, and I'm assuming you feel that way about people that don't agree with you, right?
SPEAKER_01: Not so fast.
SPEAKER_01: To quote that great theologian Lee Corso from College Game Day, not so fast, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: Not so fast.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep believing when it seems nobody else wants to?
SPEAKER_01: Four things the text says.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, remember your story.
SPEAKER_01: Remember your story.
SPEAKER_01: Look in verse 1 of Romans 11.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, I ask, and has God rejected his people?
SPEAKER_01: Has God given up on the Jews?
SPEAKER_01: Has God got so put out with him, he's just like, just I don't want to hear from you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says with an exclamation point.
SPEAKER_01: By no means.
SPEAKER_01: And the first evidence that he cites, he says, For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the most credible piece of evidence for the reality and the existence of God that anybody is going to ever know is your life.
SPEAKER_01: And that don't let that put pressure on you.
SPEAKER_01: But let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes the Bible's true, God's real, the church is real.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we all work with people, or you're friends with people, like, oh, churches all they will do is want money.
SPEAKER_01: Church is full of hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: Religion is the cause of all the problems in the world.
SPEAKER_01: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible was written by men.
SPEAKER_01: It's flawed.
SPEAKER_01: How can we know that it's really true?
SPEAKER_01: You got the Quran, you got all these other things.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, can anybody be right?
SPEAKER_01: No one is all right, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And that to that person, your life and my life, your story, is the most tangible, credible testimony to the reality of God that they'll ever know.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, Hey, has God given up on his people?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, No.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know?
SPEAKER_01: Because I know my own story.
SPEAKER_01: He says three things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, I'm an Israelite.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a Jew.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, if God's given up on his people, I wouldn't be a Christ follower.
SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, he says, I'm a descendant of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been here for this series, you understand that the Jews, the way they get out of every religious conversation is they say, We have Abraham as our father.
SPEAKER_01: Bam! Wink.
SPEAKER_01: Conversation over.
SPEAKER_01: It's like when someone starts in on you with a religious conversation, you're like, I'm Catholic, or I'm Baptist, or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they would say.
SPEAKER_01: We have Abraham as our father.
SPEAKER_01: See ya.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said, I have Abraham as my father.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this thing that doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_01: He says, and I'm a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask it this way.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes we hear things like that, and it's like, that's so who would say that?
SPEAKER_01: Paul would.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you ever in this room have ever been to a club before in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Can I see your hand?
SPEAKER_01: Club, like not a country club, like a club where music plays and that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hand up.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, put your hand down.
SPEAKER_01: And at this club you went to, were they serving adult beverages?
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hand up.
SPEAKER_01: Not that you were partaking, they were just serving.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're all bad.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hand up, you whiskey drinkers.
SPEAKER_01: That's how you get white people on the dance floor.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta have some.
SPEAKER_01: And so you go to a club and your friends are all like, hey, why don't you ask that girl, man?
SPEAKER_01: She's kind of checking you out.
SPEAKER_01: And you go over and you go, You want to dance?
SPEAKER_01: And you get on the dance floor and you're doing your me.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, if you don't move your feet, it's not dancing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, and everyone, and she starts talking to you on the dance floor because she thinks you can hear, and you're screaming, what's your name?
SPEAKER_01: And she's telling you, and Paul's interviewing.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm an Israelite, I'm a descendant of Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, and I'm a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing just like the music stops, somebody scratches their head.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Why does he say that?
SPEAKER_01: Three simple reasons why Paul says that.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to write these down.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just let me just give them to you because, by the way, there's a reason the Bible says what it says.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible speaks of this amazing peace and loud authority.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Benjamin, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Benjamin was the only son of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, there were 12 tribes, and they were the sons of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Benjamin was the only son of Jacob that was born in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing, second reason this matters.
SPEAKER_01: See, you've got to figure out what matters to the people you're talking to.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, you're just some religious goofball.
SPEAKER_01: It's called cultural contextualization.
SPEAKER_01: Bam.
SPEAKER_01: Write that down and we'll stand for the benediction right now.
SPEAKER_01: What did you talk about a church?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, we talked about cultural contextualization.
SPEAKER_01: Memo to self, our pastor's a moron.
SPEAKER_01: No, you got to put it in a language people can understand.
SPEAKER_01: He said, so he, secondly, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was in Benjamin's territory.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the third reason I kind of put a star by.
SPEAKER_01: And my mind, if you're wondering, what does our pastor do all week?
SPEAKER_01: I study random things like this.
SPEAKER_01: And I try to try to think, what no, oh, okay, here's why that matters.
SPEAKER_01: Benjamin, remember there were 12 tribes and they had a civil war.
SPEAKER_01: Ten tribes went up to the north, and two tribes went to the south.
SPEAKER_01: And so the tribes went to the north.
SPEAKER_01: They looked around and said, Hey, we don't want to offend anybody.
SPEAKER_01: You worship that God, I tell you what, you bring that God into worshiping our God, and they had this synchristic mix where they just said culture over Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so everybody came in, all roads lead to the same place.
SPEAKER_01: Oprah was kind of their pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I lost some of you there.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, don't you talk about Oprah?
SPEAKER_01: How's that network working out there, Oprah?
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, uh because here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: When you dilute the gospel, when you add anything to God, it ceases to be God.
SPEAKER_01: He's just here, oh Israel, the Lord our God is one.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord our God is one God.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't need and so what's what they did?
SPEAKER_01: They sold out because they wanted to give in to get along.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you got to give a little to give a little, blah, blah, blah, whatever they tell you at work.
SPEAKER_01: But meanwhile, two tribes stayed in the south and they were faithful.
SPEAKER_01: One of them was Judah, the other one was Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what Paul's saying when he says, I'm a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, I come from a long line of faithful people.
SPEAKER_01: And so you start with your story.
SPEAKER_01: How do you keep believing when it seems you remember your story?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, there's parts of my story I'd like to forget.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone relate to that?
SPEAKER_01: Put your hand up.
SPEAKER_01: Don't just say, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You bunch of Baptists.
SPEAKER_01: Put your hands down.
SPEAKER_01: You see, because you say, here's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: We say, remember your story.
SPEAKER_01: Start with your story.
SPEAKER_01: You start just automatically editing.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying to you, don't edit.
SPEAKER_01: Don't edit.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because your story's not one of perfection.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what the Bible calls us to, because it knows better and we know better.
SPEAKER_01: So what is your story?
SPEAKER_01: Your story's one of resurrection and redemption and restoration.
SPEAKER_01: And let me give you another R word, reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, Paul says, hey, and God was reconciled in the world to himself.
SPEAKER_01: And then once he's reconciled us, once he's wooed us and won us, once he said, Red Rover, Red Rover, let Danny come over.
SPEAKER_01: And he's reconciled Danny to himself.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that he's committed to us, the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a word we use a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Bible kind of makes it even more clear and says, He's committed to us, the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, it's as if God is making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: That means that this week that God is saying something to all your co-workers through your life.
SPEAKER_01: You better get ready for that.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just invite them to church and go, you need to hear my pastor.
SPEAKER_01: He talks about going to the club.
SPEAKER_01: I only go because my wife likes to go.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying your story has two parts to it.
SPEAKER_01: My story has two parts to it.
SPEAKER_01: The first one is reconciliation, the second one is comfort, because in that same book in the Bible, 2 Corinthians, we're chapter 5, where he says, hey, it's as if God is making his appeal through you.
SPEAKER_01: Back in chapter 1, he says that, hey, we comfort others.
SPEAKER_01: You ever get in a situation with people and a spiritual conversation starts up or a religious conversation and you think, I don't know what to say.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to know a bunch of things about the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Start, remember your story.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because Paul says in two, I mean 2 Corinthians 1, he says, we comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
SPEAKER_01: That word comfort is the Greek word parakalego, and it means to call alongside of.
SPEAKER_01: That means at a point in your life when you were far from God, when you were not comfortable with God, God called you to Himself and you didn't get condemnation, you got comfort.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Hey, tell them what I told you.
SPEAKER_01: Give them what I gave you when you knew you deserved something else and you got something better.
SPEAKER_01: That's comfort.
SPEAKER_01: So the story that you and I have to tell revolves around two things reconciliation and comfort.
SPEAKER_01: And I got a question for you.
SPEAKER_01: Who doesn't want to hear a story like that?
SPEAKER_01: See, how do I keep believing when nobody else wants to?
SPEAKER_01: First of all, remember your story.
SPEAKER_01: Second of all, don't limit God to your experience of Him.
SPEAKER_01: Don't limit God to your experience of Him.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 2 of Romans 11.
SPEAKER_01: He says, God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah?
SPEAKER_01: One of the things that's going to get you through the hard times is to remember what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Don't poll your Facebook friends.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go look at pictures on Instagram.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now I don't have time to go into this, but let me just notice this.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah is going to God and he's appealing to God against Israel.
SPEAKER_01: That's like someone, that's like me coming to you after church today and saying, Hey, let me tell you about your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Because I want you to take my side against your kids.
SPEAKER_01: Now you can tell me, I have two daughters, one's 16, one's 10.
SPEAKER_01: I tell them this all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, there's nothing you could ever do is going to change your dad's mind about you, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And they go, I know, dad, I know.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know why you're in my house, but when you go off to college, there's nothing you could ever do.
SPEAKER_01: You have to be afraid to pick up the phone and call and say, hey, dad, listen, I've done something, I've made some poor choices.
SPEAKER_01: It's nothing gonna change my mind about you.
SPEAKER_01: You can't change my mind, my mind about my kids.
SPEAKER_01: And that means I approve of or agree with their behavior.
SPEAKER_01: Not all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And they understand that when that happens.
SPEAKER_01: But my heart doesn't change towards them.
SPEAKER_01: Why you tell us that?
SPEAKER_01: Because Elijah is appealing to God against Israel.
SPEAKER_01: That's like me trying to convince you to give up on your own kids.
SPEAKER_01: Who's gonna do that?
SPEAKER_01: God says, I'm not gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01: But he let Elijah, he lets Elijah talk because he wants to make a point to Elijah, but he also wants to make a point to us.
SPEAKER_01: And the point he's making is don't limit who I am to your experience of me.
SPEAKER_01: Because Elijah had this great victory, and then he got kind of depressed.
SPEAKER_01: So depressed he wanted to take his own life.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, depression kind of preys on people who struggle with two thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, all this depends on me.
SPEAKER_01: All of this depends on me.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, all of this is my fault.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you grew up in a home where when you were a little kid, someone looked at you and said, I hope you're happy because this is all your fault.
SPEAKER_01: And you can see that person's face in your head right now.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to say to you, in the name of Jesus, that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: That's not true.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I'm not making light of those people.
SPEAKER_01: There are things my stepmom said to me when I was eight years old that I remember as clearly as I'm standing here before you.
SPEAKER_01: Because she was always blaming me and my brothers for whatever was wrong with the world.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you're proud of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Look what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: When I was about, you say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: When I was nine, my dad was working on the front left tire of our Cadillac.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't like a styling Cadillac, it was like 47 feet of pure driving pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: And my dad was working, I walked over and I said, Where's Mitch?
SPEAKER_01: That's my brother.
SPEAKER_01: It's a year older than me, so he's in the back seat, but don't get in there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm working on the car.
SPEAKER_01: So I just opened the door and climbed in, looked in the back seat.
SPEAKER_01: My brother was reading a book, climbed over the seat and kicked the car out of gear on my way over.
SPEAKER_01: Rolled across my dad's chest, broke six ribs and two vertebrates in my dad's back.
SPEAKER_01: I felt the car lunch forward.
SPEAKER_01: My brother said, What'd you do?
SPEAKER_01: And like all kids, nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: You did it, you did it.
SPEAKER_01: And we got out, and my dad was running to the house going, huh?
SPEAKER_01: And my stepmom, who's the three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell, my dad is on his knees, and blood's coming out of his mouth, and she looks at me and goes, Look what you've done.
SPEAKER_01: You have killed your father.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you're proud of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, How about we not assign blame?
SPEAKER_01: How about we get my dad to the hospital?
SPEAKER_01: We live nine miles out in the country.
SPEAKER_01: My oldest brother was 13.
SPEAKER_01: He jumped in the truck and started driving.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Get out of the truck.
SPEAKER_01: Later that night, I just went to my room, just catatonic.
SPEAKER_01: My dad called that.
SPEAKER_01: We had a party line.
SPEAKER_01: You know what a party line phone was?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta be white trash from the country to have a party line.
SPEAKER_01: We had us a party line, Jack.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, word spread.
SPEAKER_01: No one was on the party line.
SPEAKER_01: The hospital called, and my stepmother, your dad wants to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Put on your church clothes.
SPEAKER_01: Remember church clothes?
SPEAKER_01: We had one set of church clothes.
SPEAKER_01: So I put on my little khaki pants and my shirt.
SPEAKER_01: My dad was in traction.
SPEAKER_01: They would flip him over every three hours.
SPEAKER_01: He had tubes all in him.
SPEAKER_01: My dad insisted that everybody else get out of the room.
SPEAKER_01: I'm 49.
SPEAKER_01: I remember walking in the hospital through the door.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I get through the door.
SPEAKER_01: I thought he's gonna get me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the mom over here.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't let your head down my chair.
SPEAKER_01: I just went to my father.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, this was an accident, and I love you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at you.
SPEAKER_01: That was so refreshing to me.
SPEAKER_01: I climbed up onto my dad and just laid out on top of him.
SPEAKER_01: The nurse came in and said, Son, what are you doing to that man?
SPEAKER_01: I'm bringing life into him, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be done in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, depression takes hold in people when you think, this all depends on me.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta be the superhero, or it's all my fault.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says neither one of those is true.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah's problems that he knew more about what people were doing.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God, they've torn down the altars.
SPEAKER_01: Then he knew about what God was doing.
SPEAKER_01: So what does God do?
SPEAKER_01: God reminds him of three things.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just listen briefly.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he gives Elijah a fresh vision of himself.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in the wind, he's not in the earthquake, he's not in the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when Paul uh read earlier from 1 Kings 19?
SPEAKER_01: That's the situation Paul's talking about.
SPEAKER_01: He says, remember when it was really bleak and Elijah thought, I'm the only one left?
SPEAKER_01: God said, Hey, you don't need to get me slotted and think I'm one way all the time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not in the earthquake, I'm not in the wind, I'm not in the fire.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in this still small voice.
SPEAKER_01: That's who I am.
SPEAKER_01: You can't pin me down to be in one thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm God, but I express myself in many splendid ways.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing he does is he gives him insight into what he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: What he's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: He told uh Elijah, he said, You go anoint these two kings, Hazael and Jehu.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, anoint this prophet Elisha because he's going to be your successor.
SPEAKER_01: How'd you like to get to work tomorrow?
SPEAKER_01: And your boss meets you at the door and says, This is Bill.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to succeed you when you're done here.
SPEAKER_01: You'd be like, Uh, what are you talking about, Willis?
SPEAKER_01: I knew I should have taken that other job.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he's saying, because here's Elijah's problem.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Elijah wanted God to do what Elijah would do if he were God.
SPEAKER_01: And we're the same way.
SPEAKER_01: We don't get our way and we think, hey God, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: You know, if I was up there running, if I had my finger on a button, I would be putting a beat down on some fools.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'd be doing.
SPEAKER_01: And God just smiles.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't God.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know some days you think you want to be, but no, you don't.
SPEAKER_01: He says, hey, let me just give you a little insight in what I'm going to do.
SPEAKER_01: You go on this king, this king, Hazael and Jehu and Elisha, and by the way, read your Old Testament history.
SPEAKER_01: Those three men formed a triumvirate that brought renewal and redemption to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: What are you saying?
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: More importantly, here's what God's saying.
SPEAKER_01: God's saying to Elijah, hey, when you're dead and gone, not only am I going to know what to do, I'm going to be doing it.
SPEAKER_01: You're not as central to this process as you think.
SPEAKER_01: Now you think, oh, let me tell you who struggles that more than anybody.
SPEAKER_01: People in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I used to be a youth pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And when I left my church to go on the road and start speaking full-time, they had a little uh reception with a little money tree.
SPEAKER_01: It's more like a little money shrub.
SPEAKER_01: Never seen so many$1 bills in my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: We appreciate your service.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And we had cake.
SPEAKER_01: And then kids were crying.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, don't kid yourself.
SPEAKER_01: That felt good.
SPEAKER_01: My flesh was eating that up, but of course, out and I was saying, Oh, you'll be fine, you'll be fine.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone thinking this place is going to hell in a handbasket the minute I drive off the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: And then one of my kids walked over to me, Chris Leg, I'll never forget him.
SPEAKER_01: Redheaded sucker, suck his hand out and said, Hey, by the way, we'll be fine without you.
SPEAKER_01: And my thought, I'm not, I'm not making it.
SPEAKER_01: My thought was, what is your problem?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't have the problem.
SPEAKER_01: I had the problem.
SPEAKER_01: Because I was like Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I'm the only one that's doing this.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I tell you what, Lord, I mean, all these other people are compromising, selling hell, but I'm your man, God.
SPEAKER_01: You can count on me.
SPEAKER_01: Do you really want all this to hinge on you?
SPEAKER_01: And God says to Elijah, hey, by the way, I appreciate it, but this all counts on me.
SPEAKER_01: And you go anoint these two kings, and by the way, anoint Elijah because he's going to take your place when you're done.
SPEAKER_01: See, God gave him insight into what he was going to do.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, God gave him insight into what he was doing in the present.
SPEAKER_01: God said, I got 7,000 who haven't bowed the knee.
SPEAKER_01: Easy.
SPEAKER_01: Before you get all crazy, let's just, I, I, I'm, I'm working.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: That's what we mean when we say in this second point, how do you keep believing when no one else seems to?
SPEAKER_01: You don't limit God to your experience of him.
SPEAKER_01: You don't, you need to hear the uh the testimony of people like Lacey Strum, who when she was uh 10 years old, her little cousin was killed.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, as a 10-year-old, see, kids are capable of deeper thoughts than you might think.
SPEAKER_01: She said, when I was 10, I just said, if there's a God and He's all powerful, why couldn't He protect my little cousin?
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to believe in that God.
SPEAKER_01: And so she said I didn't.
SPEAKER_01: And she said I was miserable.
SPEAKER_01: My life just got worse and worse and worse and worse.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally I decided I'm gonna end my life.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I laid in bed every night and cried myself to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: And I made a plan, and that day I was gonna take my own life.
SPEAKER_01: I came home from school, and my grandmother was at my house, which was unusual, and my grandmother looked at me and said, Something's wrong with you.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to church with me tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, my grandmother screamed to the top of her lungs, Yes, you are.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, Oh, granny's gonna snap an artery.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Okay, I'll go to church.
SPEAKER_01: It ain't gonna matter, so I'll go.
SPEAKER_01: So she goes and she says, I hated everybody there, and I hated most of all the preacher.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, he was talking, and all of a sudden he said, There's a suicidal spirit in this room tonight.
SPEAKER_01: And she says, as a teenager, the hair on my neck stood up.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I got up to get out of there, and a gray-haired man, a white-haired man met me at the door.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you can't get old and just check it in and tour around the country and collect stamps for the back of your Winnebago.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you gotta stay involved in the church, old people.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't seen your adults.
SPEAKER_01: You're old, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I'm old.
SPEAKER_01: I had to get up this morning and lay on the floor and stretch my back so I could walk.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's like, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Shut up, give me some coffee, woman.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be fine.
SPEAKER_01: She said, This white-haired man stopped me at the door and said, The Lord wants me to pray for you because God knows that you've laid in bed and cried yourself to sleep so many nights.
SPEAKER_01: And God also knows that you want to take your life, but you don't have to.
SPEAKER_01: And she said in her own words, she said, It was as if the living God was standing in front of me, and I had two thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, he is holy and good, and secondly, I am not holy and not good.
SPEAKER_01: And that changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: See, because if you limit God to just what you're experiencing, some days that's gonna be awesome, and some days it's gonna be, what's the use?
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just I mean, God, nothing happens.
SPEAKER_01: God's doing more than you're experiencing right now.
SPEAKER_01: Are you aware of that?
SPEAKER_01: He's doing more than we can experience right now.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, in the Bible, he says, I can do more than you can ask or even imagine.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing, how do you keep believing?
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, you let grace be grace.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 says, So, so too, at the present time there's a remnant chosen by grace.
SPEAKER_01: But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.
SPEAKER_01: I I just want to say three things about letting grace be grace.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to write this down.
SPEAKER_01: You you you can if you want to.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but let me just say this, because there's a part of our human nature that kind of says, hey, God didn't choose me.
SPEAKER_01: I chose him.
SPEAKER_01: I made up my mind.
SPEAKER_01: Ah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just saying, you don't want that to be the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel is that you and I were dead in our sins, incapable of doing anything.
SPEAKER_01: And God, who's rich in mercy, made us alive.
SPEAKER_01: He regenerated your heart, he resurrected you.
SPEAKER_01: And when he changed your heart, you you kind of could, then you could repent, and then you could confess faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, hey, let grace be grace.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Three things just to think about.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, we love to not just preach the Bible, but to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Not because we want to be eggheaded, but because we want to be men and women of the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Three things to help us grasp the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, when you refuse to let grace be grace, you actually make it harder for people to come to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I know you think you're helping them, and you're like, oh, no, no, no, all you got to do is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's the deal: they know themselves better than you know them.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you say, oh, you gotta do, they think, hey man, you don't, you got no idea how screwed up I am.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that depends on me, I can't trust.
SPEAKER_01: And so I know you think you're helping, but you're actually hurting because you're misrepresenting the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You obligate people to this works-based salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Let grace be grace.
SPEAKER_01: A second thing to think about under that is this the principle of works nullifies grace because it establishes a human claim upon God.
SPEAKER_01: The principle of works nullifies grace because it gives us a human claim, it gives us something to say.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, God chose me because of this.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just confess something to you.
SPEAKER_01: I've confessed many times.
SPEAKER_01: I, your pastor, am by nature so sinful and screwed up that the only way I could know God is for Jesus to die for me.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, God is so good and gracious that Jesus was glad to die for me.
SPEAKER_01: And the gospel is me having more faith in what Jesus has done on the cross in my place, then I have confidence in what I can do by reading the Bible and try to keep the rules.
SPEAKER_01: Because I can't keep the rules.
SPEAKER_01: If you think you can keep the rules, I got two words for you.
SPEAKER_01: Good luck.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing he says, let's grace be grace is this.
SPEAKER_01: If God's election were based on human beings, uh, on what human beings do, his freedom would be violated and he would no longer be acting in grace.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds all heady now.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just kind of break this down a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Said differently.
SPEAKER_01: It would no longer be according to grace because it'd be according to works, which begs the question, which breaks it down a little bit further.
SPEAKER_01: Do you really want God relating to you on the basis of what you've actually done?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean when I say the first thing the gospel does is it makes us think.
SPEAKER_01: If you say, I want to take credit for somehow choosing God, and I want credit for that, well, if you take credit for that, then you've got to take responsibility for all your other works.
SPEAKER_01: And beloved, you don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Paul says, hey, by the way, the remnant was chosen by grace, and the remainder, all these other Jews that are gonna come, they're gonna come by grace as well.
SPEAKER_01: Just like you and I came.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, people in our city need to know about grace.
SPEAKER_01: Had a conversation just this week with a guy.
SPEAKER_01: And by the people in Sugarland, right here, that believe things about God that aren't right.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, hey, hey, tell me your spiritual history.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't really go to church much.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I went to a fifth quarter and I was in high school, and the guy, the preacher was like screaming and all my buddies went forward.
SPEAKER_01: He looked out there and said, All you out there that don't believe in God, you're gonna bust hell wide open.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Everybody in the room went, Amen, and he slammed his Bible and walked off.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I walked out there and thought, well, if I'm gonna bust hell wide open, I'm gonna have a good time in the meantime.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, So that's how you lived?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Pretty much.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know that that's that's not the message of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, people that don't know Christ, they do go to hell, but but it's not like God's up there kind of going, oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I just never went back.
SPEAKER_01: I have lived with a limited amount of information.
SPEAKER_01: And so far it's worked for me.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, if there was more information, would you be open to hearing it?
SPEAKER_01: I don't go around hijacking conversations.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't pull a track out of my pocket and say, Have you come to the point in your life you know for sure if you died right now?
SPEAKER_01: I just said if there was more information, he goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: If there was more that was true about God, we'll get back to that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: You see, fourth thing Paul says is, How do I keep believing when it seems nobody else wants to?
SPEAKER_01: Simply this, don't conform God to your image.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: What then?
SPEAKER_01: Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.
SPEAKER_01: The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written.
SPEAKER_01: God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, down to this very day.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's a compilation of two pastors, one in Deuteronomy and one in Jeremiah.
SPEAKER_01: People said, Hey, I don't want to hear and I don't want to see.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Okay, you want to be that way?
SPEAKER_01: I'll let you be that way.
SPEAKER_01: But David, in verse 9, he says, and David says that he quotes Psalm 69, which is an imprecatory psalm.
SPEAKER_01: That's a word you want to use this week at work, imprecatory.
SPEAKER_01: Your friends will be like, What?
SPEAKER_01: How's your weekend?
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, it was an imprecatory weekend.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, don't talk to Bill on a county, he had an imprecatory weekend.
SPEAKER_01: An imprecatory psalm is this it's a psalm that invokes judgment, calamity, or curses upon one's enemies or those perceived as the enemies of God.
SPEAKER_01: When that guy cut you off and you had to hit your brakes, you thought an imprecatory psalm.
SPEAKER_01: When your wife told you this week, by the way, my mother's coming for Thanksgiving and stay until Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: You went in the garage and kicked stuff and thought an imprecatory psalm.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Don't conform God to your image.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how do you know you've conformed God to your image.
SPEAKER_01: He hates all the people you hate.
SPEAKER_01: And you convince yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are like, well, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you a great example.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you believe that God hates our president.
SPEAKER_01: And you're wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't vote for him.
SPEAKER_01: So don't roll up on me after the service and go, hey, are you really one of those?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, be careful.
SPEAKER_01: We don't conform God to our image, because that's where they found themselves.
SPEAKER_01: And look at what David said, and we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 9, he says, And David said, Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them, lest their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and bend their backs forever.
SPEAKER_01: How much do you have to hate somebody to feel that way about them?
SPEAKER_01: Let their table be a snare.
SPEAKER_01: What kind of sci-fi movie is that?
SPEAKER_01: And bend their backs forever.
SPEAKER_01: Basically, he says, God lay the wood to these people.
SPEAKER_01: Because David's quoting from Psalm 69, which that's what he's, that's an imprecatory Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying to God, hey, these people are trying to take my life.
SPEAKER_01: God, do this to them.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul says, some of you think that God feels this way about his enemies as well.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul's referencing this, not to say, hear me, hear me, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Not to say, Paul's not saying, and this is the way God feels, because David felt this way.
SPEAKER_01: David's talking, I mean, Paul's writing to the Jews, and he's saying, Some of you think God feels this way.
SPEAKER_01: And I and I want to look one verse forward and one verse back as I close this morning where we started.
SPEAKER_01: And just look one verse into next week.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 11 of Romans 11.
SPEAKER_01: So I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall?
SPEAKER_01: By no means.
SPEAKER_01: The guy that was told you're gonna bust hell wide open.
SPEAKER_01: I referenced this with him.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we ended on the we looked one verse forward.
SPEAKER_01: We look one verse back.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the last verse of chapter 10, Romans 10, 21.
SPEAKER_01: But of Israel, these these these people God's in love with.
SPEAKER_01: He says, All day long I've held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.
SPEAKER_01: I said to the old boy, hey, if there's more information, I mean, yeah, I mean, I yeah, I mean I'd be open.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I've been told my whole life.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you're gonna go you're gonna bust hell.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, the Bible says of God that all day long he's held out his arm to a disobedient and contrary people.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here in this room today and you you know that you're living in disobedience to the Bible, or you're just being contrary, you're just like, I know, but I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna do what I want.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to tell you that the Bible says that all day long God holds out his arms to you.
SPEAKER_01: And you say, Well, what's the purpose of that?
SPEAKER_01: You got your little kids, gay little grandkids?
SPEAKER_01: Just hold your arms out to them and see what they do.
SPEAKER_01: I could hold out my arms to my 16-year-old and she'd run jump in my in my arms.
SPEAKER_01: She's almost as tall as I am.
SPEAKER_01: Because when the fathers hold out their arms to their children, their children know that that's my safe place right there.
SPEAKER_01: And God says all day long.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're here and you're disobedient and you're contrary, you're just like I ain't doing that.
SPEAKER_01: No one's gonna try to make you.
SPEAKER_01: But I am gonna tell you that the God of the Bible, the only, he's the only God.
SPEAKER_01: There's not another one, holds out his arms and doesn't get tired all day long.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Your God has beat you to the punch when it comes to holding your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: He's had his arms outstretched to you since before the very foundation of the world, and he's not putting them down.
SPEAKER_01: So you better get in them and get to know your father.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, and the Son, the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.