Sermon Transcript
Church, we are in the book of Isaiah. So go ahead and turn over to chapter 7.
When God makes a promise, sometimes He blesses us with the beauty of giving us a sign to guarantee that that promise will come true, that He will keep His word. He did this with Gideon when He promised to Gideon that He would defeat the Midianites. And then He performed a really cool sign—actually two—for him to guarantee that Gideon was hearing from the Lord.
As creatures that are living in a fallen world, it’s very easy sometimes to know exactly what God is promising, but to doubt whether it will come true. The doubts can sneak in when we see all kinds of evil plaguing the world. But God is gracious.
There was a time in my life when I was, what, 20 years old, 21 maybe, and there was a very small church about an hour and a half outside of where I was going to college, and they needed a preacher to fill in for them. And so I preached at this church for maybe 11 to 12 months, and it was a church of four people. And things were going well. It was beautiful. It was out in Cajun country.
And just when things finally got good at the church, I’m in my study one day, and I hear a voice tell me, “It’s time to leave.” It didn’t make sense. I said, “Lord, if I’m hearing from You, will You please give me a sign?” And I heard, “I want you to go to the coffee shop, Tamp and Grind, and you’re going to see the pastor, Glenn Whatley, sitting in the window. Go talk to him, and he will offer to use you to plant churches.” That’s pretty crazy.
So I went to the coffee shop. Glenn Whatley was sitting in the window. I sat down with Glenn Whatley, and we chatted. We talked a few times. We were just acquaintances. And he asked me, “How’s that church?” And I didn’t want to say anything out loud much, you know, because I didn’t want to lead on. I wanted to make sure I was really hearing from the Lord. And so I just said, “Well, things are going well, I think, you know. I wish it would grow. It’s only four people. It’s an hour and a half away.” And he said to me, “Well, we’re actually trying to plant a church in that area. And, you know, if things don’t work out, you should keep us in mind, because I think we might be able to use you to help plant a church in that area.”
I went back to my church and I said, “I got to tell you guys, this is what happened to me this week. What do you think is the right response?” And they just started crying because they knew that this was from the Lord. The Lord had given a sign and He was calling me to leave the church and use me in other ways.
Today we read a story about how God is offering a sign. And just like Gideon, this sign is a guarantee that God is going to keep His word. Today, we see that Jesus’ birth is a sign that He is going to return to earth and fulfill every other prophecy in Scripture.
So the main point of today’s sermon is that the hope of Christmas is that Jesus will finish the job.
So Church, rise with me as we read from Isaiah 7:10–17.
Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz: “Ask for a sign from the LORD your God—it can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.” But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the LORD.” Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel. By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating curds and honey. For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. The LORD will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah: He will bring the king of Assyria.” (CSB)
This is the Word of the Lord. You may be seated.
Father, I come to You right now in the name of Jesus, and I ask that You would rain down all the blessings of heaven. Will You please help this servant take a back seat? I pray that You own this service, that You alone would be seen and glorified. I pray that there would be nothing in this service that is not of Your will. I pray, Father, that we would have our minds catapulted to the heavens, that we can see how small our earthly problems are in comparison to the grand metanarrative where You are moving all of history, where You are moving all the nations, all geopolitical events, every bit of suffering and joy is all being brought to the culmination of everything we see in Scripture. I ask right now that this service would be Yours and that we would see and hear from You. Fill this room with the Holy Spirit now as we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.
1. Before the joy of Christmas comes judgment
If I were to ask you, how would you describe Christmas with one word? Give me some words, Church. Peace, good. Hope, good. Love, good. I did not hear Santa. I did not hear gifts. I didn’t hear bounty or food. So our Church is doing pretty good, I think.
But oftentimes these are the words that we hear when you ask somebody, “What do you think about Christmas?” And that means that we easily forget that before the hope of Christmas came, first there was judgment.
The hope of Christmas is seen in our passage in Isaiah 7. He offers a sign to the house of David, and that sign is that there will be a child born of a virgin.
I want you, Church, to keep in mind, if you didn’t know, the book of Isaiah is written 700 years before Christ came. When we discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s, the book of Isaiah was the largest book fully complete discovered, and that copy of the book of Isaiah was written 200 years before Jesus came. So this is a book of all books. This was the book the early Church would tell new converts, “Soak it up, read it and reread it and reread it.” This book screams the majesty of our Messiah. And today, we get the beautiful task of seeing how that is the case. And it mentions the hope of Christmas. And the hope of Christmas is the sign of the child being born of a virgin.
But before that happened, first there was judgment. Specifically, there was judgment for King Ahaz, who was king of Judah.
You see, after King David had united the nation of Israel and things were going well, he passed the throne over to his son Solomon (1 Kings 1:28–40). And Solomon, he enjoys the frivolous things of life (1 Kings 10:14–11:8). And he incurs upon Israel a judgment, which ultimately leads the nation to split into two nations (1 Kings 11:9–13, 29–39). So now we’ve got Israel in the north and Judah in the south. By the time Isaiah is written, the northern kingdom is frequently referred to as Ephraim (a common prophetic synonym for the northern tribes). And in the south, you have Judah.
When Isaiah comes on the scene, Isaiah is the prophet for the nation of Judah. And when he opens up his book, he makes very clear how God feels about Judah. In Isaiah 1:10 he writes:
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah! (Isaiah 1:10, CSB)
Judah had become a nation like Sodom and Gomorrah. The place where we were supposed to get the blessed birth of Christ Jesus was now like the city that God had smitten with flaming balls of sulfur for their sexual immorality.
Worse yet, they have rejected the God that loves them. In Isaiah 5:1–2 he writes:
I will sing about the one I love,
a song about my loved one’s vineyard:
The one I love had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones,
and planted it with the finest vines.
He built a tower in the middle of it
and even dug out a winepress there.
He expected it to yield good grapes,
but it yielded worthless grapes.
(Isaiah 5:1–2, CSB)
This vineyard was Israel, and God was her husband. And there was much love between these two, but it was short-lived, and they turned and started worshiping idols. And now Judah is full of debauchery.
Isaiah 1:17 says it’s full of evil and injustice. He says:
Learn to do what is good.
Pursue justice.
Correct the oppressor.
Defend the rights of the fatherless.
Plead the widow’s cause.
(Isaiah 1:17, CSB)
So widows and orphans are being destroyed, and they’re being oppressed. And there is no one who is just enough to give them their restitution.
In Isaiah 1:23 we see this further:
Your rulers are rebels,
friends of thieves.
They all love graft
and chase after bribes.
They do not defend the rights of the fatherless,
and the widow’s case never comes before them.
(Isaiah 1:23, CSB)
Judah is a land of thieves (Isa 1:23), murderers (Isa 1:21; 59:3), sexual idolaters (Isa 57:3–10), oppressors and bribe takers (Isa 1:23; 3:14–15; 5:7–8, 23). It is a dark nation (Isa 5:20, 30; 8:22; 59:9–10). The nation where a light is supposed to be born (Isa 9:2; 42:6–7; 60:1–3; cf. Matt 4:16).
Before the hope of Christmas was to come, we must remember that Christmas was clouded with condemnation. And Isaiah is very clear that every king has failed to meet God’s expectations.
And Church, I’m here to tell you that America is no different. Every leader you could ever have, they might be nice for a few minutes, but they will all let you down. Our hope is never to be placed in anything in this world. Forget about your 401k. Forget about all of the things that you put your comfort in, your house, the FDIC guarantees that you have on your bank account. Forget about it. Forget about President Trump. Forget about your party. Forget about everything you think offers you security. It will all fail you.
And Isaiah is telling Judah the same thing. Ahaz was a wicked king. He was a king that was supposed to be part of the birth line where the Messiah would come. And he is so wicked, he sacrificed his son to a false idol ( 2 Kings 16:3). How’s that for a winner?
And now at this point, Isaiah is opening up his letter, his prophetic book. He’s opening it up, recognizing that they are now under attack. You see, Judah is under attack from all sides. He opens up his book in Isaiah 1:7:
Your land is desolate,
your cities burned down;
foreigners devour your fields
right in front of you—
a desolation, like a place demolished by foreigners.
(Isaiah 1:7, CSB)
Judah has already been attacked by the time Isaiah’s book starts (Isa 1:7–8). They have been attacked by their brothers in the north—the northern kingdom of Israel (also called Ephraim) under King Pekah, allied with Rezin king of Aram/Syria (Isa 7:1–2, 4–6; 2 Kgs 16:5; 2 Chr 28:5–8). The nation of Israel is now attacking them—their brothers that they were once one nation with under King David (1 Kgs 12:16–20)—they are now attacking them. And not just them, but also Aram or Syria. They are also attacking them (Isa 7:1, 8; 9:11–12).
And now King Ahaz is seeing this, and he is sweating cannonballs. Because not only have they already attacked him, but they never made it to the capital. They never made it to Jerusalem. And he knows that they will be back for more. And he is sweating that.
And here’s what we must understand. We must understand that if King Ahaz’s life is in peril, then so are the promises that God gave to David. Because the promise that He gave to David in 2 Samuel 7 He says:
When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals. But my faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”
(2 Samuel 7:12–16, CSB)
You were supposed to get a Messiah King who will never let the world down. And now King Ahaz is staring down, not just Aram or Syria and Israel, but you also have Philistia on the left, and you have Edom on the bottom east. The promise given to David for the Messiah is under threat.
This is not just something that Ahaz is sweating, but every nation who has ever heard of the promises given to Jacob, Abraham, Isaac—they’re all in peril.
God has told the nations that when He called Abraham out of Ur (Gen 11:31–12:3; Acts 7:2–4), He gave him a promise: through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Gen 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; cf. Gal 3:8, 16). Why was that relevant? Because Church, our great ancestors in the Garden of Eden—we were there in Adam and we were present with God (Gen 2:8–9, 15–17). We were in the garden and we dwelled with God in peace. We ate from His hands (Gen 2:16). He walked in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8), and there was this slimy, sneaky serpent—who is this ancient enemy of God, the dragon, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan (Rev 12:9; 20:2)—and he had already been cast out of heaven for his rebellion (Isa 14:12–15; Ezek 28:12–17; Luke 10:18). And to get back at God in an act of vengeance, he seduced the woman (Gen 3:1–5; 2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:14) and told her, “God does not have your best interest in mind. He does not truly love you. He is merely trying to keep you from being like Him. He knows that if you eat the forbidden fruit, you will know good and evil and be like God” (Gen 3:5, paraphrased).
And Eve saw that the fruit was good for that kind of wisdom (Gen 3:6). And Eve bought the lie that she could be her own God (Gen 3:5—“you will be like God”). And this was not the first time that humanity rejected God as its King. You see, in the book of Samuel we get this plea where they cried, “No! Give us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam 8:5, 19–20). And Samuel warned them, but the LORD told Samuel, “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them” (1 Sam 8:7; 10:19; 12:12, 17, 19). “You already have a King. His name is Yahweh, the King of heaven and earth, the Maker of the entire universe” (cf. Exod 15:18; Ps 10:16; 47:7–8; 93:1; 96:10). And in an act of severe stupidity they say, “No, we want an earthly one” (1 Sam 8:19–20).
And we laugh now because we’re looking at this from the perspective of God’s throne. But humanity has constantly rejected God as its King. And now, God, in all of His mercy and His grace and His love for us, He has repeatedly said, “The day is coming when I will be your King again. The day is coming when peace will be on earth. There will be hope and it will reign and it will never end. Tears will disappear. Devastation, death, destruction, decay—it will all be wiped away and I will reign with you again and it will be a place of righteousness, justice, and peace.”
Yes, give us that. But it’s going to come through the line of David and I’m looking at King Ahaz, the line of David, and three kings are staring him down. The hope of humanity is now in peril.
Except our gracious God, He offers a sign to King Ahaz back in chapter 7.
2. The benefit of Christmas requires faith and points to the “last days”
God sends Isaiah, the prophet, to go speak to King Ahaz, this foolish, child-sacrificing idolater, this God-hating, faithless of a man-king, and He says to Isaiah, “Go tell Ahaz, say to him” (v 4):
Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah. (Isaiah 7:4, CSB)
Sometimes that’s how God needs to speak to us. “Sit down and shut up, boy, I’m talking.” He says, “Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, the son of Remaliah.” These are the kings of Israel and Syria. “Don’t be afraid of them.”
Now, they are saying in verse 6, “Let’s go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it.” We don’t know who Tabeel is. He’s never mentioned anywhere else. It’s not the point. The point is these men are plotting to take over Judah and to dethrone Ahaz and to install their own king, and God is telling Isaiah, “Go tell that foolish man you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
And in God’s grace, He tells him, “Ask Me for a sign.” And Church, if you’re following along in the bulletin, this is where I want you to write the benefit of Christmas requires faith and it points to the last days.
Now let’s see how that is relevant in this passage. How do we get that from this passage? Where do we see faith as a requirement and where do we see the last days being relevant to our passage?
So before He gives a sign to Emmanuel, He gives Ahaz a sign. He just told Ahaz, “Tell that man, do not be afraid.” And now He says in verse 11, “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; it can be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
Folks, we serve such a gracious God that the man who sacrificed his son to a false god is being granted the sweet mercy of asking God for any sign to guarantee that He’s going to keep His promise, that Pekah and Rezin, the kings of Israel and Aram, they will not threaten Judah or threaten Ahaz. You see, this is very, very gracious. The Lord could have said, “Here is the sign I’m going to give you,” but He’s letting this wicked sinner pick the sign. And it could be as miraculous as raising someone from Sheol, a resurrection, or asking angels to descend from heaven. This is one of—God’s mercy peaks at the cross of Christ, but this is up there. This man is absolutely wicked, and God is giving Ahaz the pick of the litter. It’s incredible.
But look at verse 9. At the end of verse 9 He says, “If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all.” So, absolutely, already, as the sign is being offered to Ahaz, God has fully established, you want to hear from Me, you want to receive My blessings, you must understand that when Satan is bearing you down, if you want to survive in the fight by My strength and My protection, you must embrace My promises with faith. That’s why I said the benefit of Christmas requires faith.
Now, let’s keep going so that we can see how Christmas is in view.
So, Ahaz says that he will not ask the Lord for a sign, because he doesn’t want to test the Lord. Here’s what we need to recognize. This was a command from the Lord. The command was, “Ask for a sign.” A man of faith would be obedient to the Lord’s command. Here, he rejects the Lord by not asking for a sign. When he says, “I don’t want to test the Lord,” that’s really a false piety. Do not believe for a second that Ahaz is a righteous man. He is rejecting the Lord and he is refusing to exercise faith.
And so at that point, God switches. He doesn’t offer the sign any more to Ahaz. He now offers it to the house of David. And when He offers it to the house of David, there is a very good reason why He uses this phrase, “house of David.” It is because He has in mind the promises given to David in the Davidic covenant, which we already read, that there would be a Messiah who will come from the line of David and He will reign on earth forever.
So now, God is offering the people who are to be related to this Messiah a sign that guarantees that God will fulfill His promise to David. That needs to sink in. The line of David is now being threatened from all sides. Aram, Israel, Edom, and Philistia are all bearing down and threatening the promise of David’s seed. And here, God is offering hope.
And the hope, the sign, is that the woman who is a virgin will give birth to a son and Church, what is His name? Immanuel.
And it’s very important that you understand the meaning of this name, Immanuel. If you’ve read the Gospel of Matthew, you know, because Matthew translates it for us. He says, “Immanuel” means God with us (Matt 1:23).
Church, I so far have taken you through Isaiah 1–6, and I’ve given you some very general themes that Isaiah has opened up. And the biggest theme so far in Isaiah 1–6 is that there is no justice on earth. Justice is not present. And so what does God say? Does God now point to a time where He’s going to put another king who will hopefully not let them down? What will He do? Not at all. He’s not going to install another mere human sinner to fix the problem of injustice.
Look at Isaiah 2:22:
Put no more trust in a mere human,
who has only the breath in his nostrils.
What is he really worth? (Isaiah 2:22, CSB)
The Lord God of armies is about to remove from Jerusalem and from Judah every kind of security. Why? It is all because the Lord is trying to get people to trust Him and nothing in this world.
And we get to see where that leads. Look at Isaiah 2:2:
In the last days
the mountain of the LORD’s house will be established
at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
All nations will stream to it (Isaiah 2:2, CSB)
Isaiah is not just writing to Judah, folks. He is writing to the entire world and He is offering the entire world a promise. The day is coming when God Himself will reign on His holy mountain and every nation is going to go to God. And go to God for what? Verse 3:
And many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about his ways
so that we may walk in his paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:3, CSB)
And what’s the result of the Lord being the judge on the earth?
He will settle disputes among the nations
and provide arbitration for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nation will not take up the sword against nation,
and they will never again train for war. (Isaiah 2:4, CSB)
Folks, there will be no more weapons on the earth. They will be used for agriculture. Wars will cease finally and completely because the Lord in the last days reigns on earth.
3. The “sign” of Immanuel guarantees a joyous ending
So what is the sign of Immanuel for? The sign of Immanuel guarantees a joyous ending. Just like with Gideon, the sign points to God guaranteeing He will keep His promise.
So now the sign of Immanuel—this is the sign that God is guaranteeing Isaiah 2. God is coming back to earth and He is going to reign as our judge on earth, reign supreme.
And in Isaiah 9, we get to see more about who this Immanuel is. In Isaiah 9 He is the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counselor. He is Almighty God. Already in Isaiah 7, you have this promise that God would be born of a virgin. You cannot shake that. You cannot dance around the reality that Jesus being the Messiah is incontrovertibly true. 100%.
So in verse 14 He opens up with, “Behold.” And this is a sign that something miraculous is at hand. And the sign is that God is going to keep His promise with David. And He is also going to fulfill His promise that He is coming.
So Church, when there is injustice in the world, when I have a cousin that was murdered in the early 90s, she was kidnapped in college. And it took them many years before they could even get this guy to confess. There was no evidence. They never found the body. And all of this darkness still looms over our family. My uncle, he doesn’t even like to celebrate holidays. He doesn’t go to weddings. He doesn’t go to funerals because the darkness of losing his daughter just shakes him to his core. It is difficult for him to feel joy.
Because the world is filled with injustice, but the hope of Christmas is that we are getting a King who will reign supreme and He is going to give justice for everyone who has been plagued by murder, thievery, adultery—every kind of corruption you can imagine, it is going to be fixed in Jesus.
And when we look at the evils in the world and the pain of all things, human trafficking, prostitution, drug use, homosexuality, brokenness in marriages, divorce, all of the things that hurt us. And we go, “Jesus, when will You fix this?” You look at Christmas and you see Jesus born in Bethlehem and you remember that Isaiah told you when Jesus was born, that was the guarantee that justice is coming.
Christmas is our hope because it is a down payment on the new heavens and the new earth. How beautiful is that? And somehow we have let a man named Santa Claus overshadow that beautiful mystery.
Now, ultimately, the birth of Christ is a down payment, a guarantee that the rest of the job is going to be completed. What is that rest of that job?
Church, I have been counseling and encouraging you by the power of the Spirit through His word to be praying the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer first sets you up in the first three petitions. It brings your mind to the heavens. You must live in the heavens if you are to be any earthly good.
“Father, make Yourself known by helping us do good works and being a charitable people, telling people about You and spreading Your kingdom by making disciples on earth and come and fulfill all Scripture.” That is what we mean when we say, “Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
The first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer catapults your mind to the heavens. You must live there. Every morning when I wake up now, I pray the Lord’s Prayer in the bathroom. I get up before I do anything and I’m in there and I’m saying this because I know that if I try to accomplish anything in my day without first bringing my mind to heaven’s throne, I will be no earthly good.
So I want to bring your mind to the heavens right now as we close in this sermon. And I want to remind you of what Jesus is the down payment for. Why His birth is a beautiful guarantee of a greater promise. What is that greater promise?
Church, turn over to Isaiah 65. Love the sound of rustling Bible pages. Isaiah 65:17–25.
“For I will create new heavens and a new earth;
the past events will not be remembered or come to mind.
All of your heartbreak will be forgotten.
Then be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight.
If you’re a Gentile, I want to remind you. In Isaiah 2, the Gentiles, the non-Jews, are flocking to Jerusalem. So in verse 18, when he says, Jerusalem will be a delight. It is not just for Jews. It is for all of us who are in Christ Jesus.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people.
The sound of weeping and crying
will no longer be heard in her.
In her, a nursing infant will no longer live
only a few days,
All of you who have suffered the painful experience of a stillborn birth, that will never happen again.
or an old man not live out his days.
Indeed, the one who dies at a hundred years old will be mourned as a young man,
Why? Because people live so long that even the old are seen as young people.
and the one who misses a hundred years will be considered cursed.
People will build houses and live in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
The new heavens and the new earth will be a place where we are still tilling the garden. We are still cooking meals. We are still being creative. We are still building houses. We are still working to the glory of the Lord. It is just no longer by the sweat of our brow.
They will not build and others live in them;
they will not plant and others eat.
For my people’s lives will be
like the lifetime of a tree.
My chosen ones will fully enjoy
the work of their hands.
They will not labor without success
or bear children destined for disaster,
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD
along with their descendants.
Even before they call, I will answer;
while they are still speaking, I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like cattle,
but the serpent’s food will be dust!
They will not do what is evil or destroy
on my entire holy mountain,”
says the LORD. (Isaiah 65:17–25, CSB)
Church, this is a world of justice and true love. And we will dwell with God for eternity.
That’s why we say Christmas offers hope. Because Jesus being born in a miraculous way is the guarantee that Isaiah 65 is going to happen.
So when you feel like the world is dark, when you feel like there’s no hope in sight, you remember that a virgin gave birth to a boy named “God who is with us.” And that will catapult you to embrace the hope that God is going to finish the job.
Let’s go to the Lord.
Father, thank You so much for the joy and the hope of Christmas. That we can have full confidence, full faith that You’re going to finish the job. I pray that You help us to worship You this Christmas. To live in a place of hope and peace. Knowing that the God of peace is with us. The God who loves us. The God who oversaw all of the judgment that was incurred on humanity 700 years before Christ. And yet He spared by His grace and mercy that bloodline so that You could keep Your promises. Help us to live in that hope today. And for the rest of the year, we love You, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.