Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Well, good morning.
[00:00:02] June 26th. Anybody remember what they were doing?
[00:00:07] Like, wait a minute, wait, not June 26th. What am I thinking? April 26th. April 26th. Sorry, April 26th. That was 50 days ago.
[00:00:16] Right? It may seem like a long time in our text then what we find out is that the. The timestamp that we get in the setting is that it's been 50 days since Israel left Egypt, since this incredible moment where they saw the Red Sea ported and they walked through on dry ground where God moved in a incredibly powerful way. And yet over the last few weeks, what we've seen is that life has looked like this in those last 50 days. And maybe some of you are like, my last 50 days can compete, right? That it's like man, mountaintop highs of like seeing God do incredible things. And then it's like grumbling and complaining and doubt and fear and all these different things. And life is just ups and downs and ups and downs. And so we get to this place in Exodus 19, and it's this really incredible passage. The New Testament actually references it a ton. Hebrews and Peter, they reference it. We're gonna look at those later in the service. But.
[00:01:18] But what we see here is that God goes back and reminds his people of a covenant. And so we're gonna see this covenant language that is gonna come out in the text that this is not something new, but this is a continuation of what God has promised. God made a promise to Abraham. I'm going to make you into a great nation. I'm gonna bring you into a land, and I'm gonna make you a blessing to the nations. And. And so what we see in this is really a fulfillment, a potential fulfillment of that covenant that God has made. That God made a promise to his people and he's going to keep it.
[00:01:57] And yet to move through that, we get to see the character of God and the response of man, of what we should respond, what God calls us to. And so let's just be by reading just this beginning part of our text. I just wanted to give us the setting as we jump into chapter 19, verse 1. It says this. On the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they set out from Rephidim, and they came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness there. Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God. I want to stop just right there as we just get this setting that this is A return for Moses. Moses has been in this exact place before, that Moses has now returned. And we see in Exodus chapter three that God said, moses, as a sign for you, I'm going to bring you back here and you're going to worship me on this mountain.
[00:03:02] And so from chapter three, we've seen this journey. God sent Moses into Egypt to go head to head. That God was going to fight for his people. He had heard their cries. He was going to rescue them. And he was going to use Moses as his mouthpiece.
[00:03:18] Moses, initially the shepherd that is walking along. And he sees on this mountain a bush burning.
[00:03:27] That out of the bush comes a voice from God that God calls him into action, into his mission of what he's going to do. And then over the last 50 days, we've seen that journey of how God is bringing them back to this very place. The very mountain where God commissioned Moses and sent him out. And now he's bringing him back. And so as he comes back, God's going to remind him what it looks like to go forward. And so would you just pray with me this morning as we jump into our text, Lord, as you bring us back to a place of remembering your grace, of remembering your character, of remembering who you are, of remembering our identity and your mission, Lord, I pray that you might work in our hearts to compel us from this place, to send us from this place reminded of your mission, Lord, fueled by our identity of who we are in Christ, because of what Christ has done in salvation for us, Lord, that you might compel us to obedience to what you've called us to.
[00:04:42] But Lord, we need your spirit to work in our heart and in our mind, in our ears, Lord, that we might hear from you, that we might act according to your will. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
[00:04:56] Here's how this breaks down. I want to just look at this first section, which is going to be verses one through six. And I want us just to see the grace of God. I think it's really important for us that in this text, where it starts is the place where we all need to start. And so let's just pick up here in verse three.
[00:05:16] And we're going to see the grace of God, that God is moving them to encamp in this place. And it says that the Lord called to him, called to Moses out of the mountain, saying, thus you shall say to the house of Jacob. So he's saying, this is my message for you to give to all of the Israelite people who I've brought out of Egypt. Here's what he says, tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on the eagle's wings and. And I brought you to myself.
[00:05:51] Let's just spend a minute there and see, pull out these things, that there's actually an order to this text. Let me give it to you that the order is salvation, obedience, blessing. This is the order that we see all throughout the scripture. Anytime you look at this, there's salvation, and then there's a call to obey, and then there's an experience of blessing, salvation, obedience, blessing. That in this order, what we see here, verse four, is that God tells the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians. What did God do to the Egyptians? God rescued his people from the Egyptians by conquering them. That's what God did. He provided salvation. He provided redemption. He provided freedom from slavery.
[00:06:37] He set them free. He saved them.
[00:06:41] And God says, you yourselves have seen it.
[00:06:44] Like you witnessed this.
[00:06:46] You saw the plagues, you saw the darkness and the storm.
[00:06:52] You saw the waters part as you came through on dry ground. You saw the waters come back over the Egyptians. You saw the salvation that I provided for you.
[00:07:06] Now again, notice in this that there's nothing in this text or in the text before that say anything about the reason for God's salvation was connected to that they had obeyed him. No, it's actually. What we've been seeing is it's actually the opposite, that the people have not been obeying, they've not been doing what God said. They've been grumbling, they've been complaining, they've doubted, they've feared. And yet God rescued them.
[00:07:33] He provided salvation.
[00:07:35] And so God says, tell them that you have seen what I did to the Egyptians. But look at this next part. How I bore you up on eagle's wings, how I lifted you from slavery, how I lifted you from captivity into freedom.
[00:07:53] Nobody sees an eagle soaring and goes, man, that looks like captivity.
[00:07:58] That's freedom.
[00:08:01] Like there's nothing more free than to see just these circles. That this eagle can go anywhere he wants.
[00:08:08] That God bore you up out of captivity, out of bondage, into freedom.
[00:08:15] But look at what this freedom, it wasn't just so that you could go do whatever you wanted. It was freedom that I brought you to myself.
[00:08:24] I bore you up on eagle's wings, and I brought you to myself.
[00:08:31] That I dwelt with you, I'm in relationship with you.
[00:08:38] That we see in this, that this salvation is that God acted in such a way in order to bring the people to himself.
[00:08:48] This is very personal in salvation.
[00:08:51] That God didn't just go, well, stop complaining, I'll get you out of this trouble. No, now go do your own thing again.
[00:08:59] No. He said, I'm gonna rescue you from this trouble so that you can be with me.
[00:09:05] It's incredible. It's personal that God wants to be with you in salvation, that he doesn't want to just save you so that then you can be your own God again so that you can do your own thing.
[00:09:23] He wants to save you so that he can be with you personal.
[00:09:28] But then where he goes from here is that we see this salvation and then we see what he does next. Verse five, he says, now, therefore, if you will indeed obey. So we move from salvation to now, obedience.
[00:09:43] This is really important that we get this order, because if we put the obedience before salvation, that's what we call legalism, the that we think that we can obey so God will love me. We think that we have to obey in order to earn God's favor. And that's not at all what the scriptures say.
[00:10:01] You can't earn God's favor. You can't be good enough. You can't do enough good things to make him love you. He loves you because he created you.
[00:10:12] And so we obey because of the salvation he has offered. Look at this that his he says, now, therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, keep my promise with you, then look at what he says. You shall be my treasured possession among all the peoples, for the earth is mine. This idea right here speaks to identity that we see that this salvation is personal, that God wants to be with us. But then it speaks to our identity. He says, you shall be my treasured possession. The word there is is actually the word that was used of a king's treasured personal treasure.
[00:10:51] So a king would have owned everything. And we see that pictured here, that he says, the whole earth is mine. But he says, but within that treasure that I have, a king would have had his own personal treasure, which he would have kept with him.
[00:11:05] Crown jewel, right? That this was different, this was supreme, that it was lifted up, that he says, if you keep my covenant, you'll be my personal treasured possession. Now, some commentators, I think, helpfully point out the fact that Israel is experiencing some of what is an already and a not yet, that they are already his treasured possession. That's why he's made a covenant with them. That's why he's already rescued them. That's why he's already saved them.
[00:11:37] And yet there's a not yet that they haven't fully obeyed. They aren't completely obeying him. They haven't been lifted up.
[00:11:48] And so there's an already aspect and a not yet aspect to being his treasured possession.
[00:11:57] But there's something else that speaks to the identity here. That in this treasured possession, which is for himself to himself, that. That he enjoys with us.
[00:12:08] That he enjoys us.
[00:12:11] That then we see these two little descriptors.
[00:12:15] How are we his treasured possession? Verse 6.
[00:12:20] And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests. This is one of the descriptors. What does it look like to be a treasured possession? It's that you are a kingdom of priests. Now notice this. This isn't a kingdom with priests. This is a kingdom of priests. Now what is the job of a priest?
[00:12:39] A priest goes two ways.
[00:12:43] They go from God to man and they go from man to God.
[00:12:49] They're a representative in both directions. That's what a priest does, is it? That they would go in and offer sacrifices for from man to God. But then they would also come out to the people. And they say, thus saith the Lord that they would represent God to the people.
[00:13:08] And so a priest has this job of being a mediator between God and man. And so he says, as my treasured possession, your identity that you are my treasured possession, you now have a mission.
[00:13:27] That you will represent me to mankind.
[00:13:30] And you will represent mankind to me.
[00:13:35] That you will say, this is what the Lord says.
[00:13:39] But you would also bring your friends and your family and the nations and say, God, be gracious and show yourself to them. God forgive them for their sins.
[00:13:51] That you would pray and represent the people to God.
[00:13:57] And yet then you would proclaim God's commands and God's decrees to the people that you will be a kingdom of priests.
[00:14:07] The second aspect to this mission, we see that his salvation is personal. We see that he gives us this identity as a treasured possession. Then he calls us a kingdom of priests and gives us mission. But then look at this last part, this other descriptor. And you will be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. This holy aspect is to be set apart. That you will be a set apart nation. You will not look like the other nations because you're not like the other nations.
[00:14:38] You're my treasured possession. You're my people.
[00:14:42] There's nothing more confusing than than hypocrites, right? That we would Say one thing, and yet then it would look totally different. It's like they say this, but their life doesn't reflect that. There's nothing more confusing than that. And so God says, you'll be my holy nation. You will be a set apart people to demonstrate my character to the nations.
[00:15:08] That you'll be set apart for God's purposes, not for your own purposes.
[00:15:13] That you'll be holy as God is holy. That you won't look like everybody else. Listen, there's all sorts of applications we can draw from that, right?
[00:15:22] As we just begin to think of how does that apply to us in Christ? That in Christ we are God's treasured people, that we are a kingdom of priests, that he makes us holy and gives us a mission and an identity.
[00:15:43] But again, we've got to camp out here for just a minute because if we let this idea creep in that, well, I have to obey in order to be loved, I have to obey in order to be accepted. I have to obey in order.
[00:16:01] Then it flips everything around.
[00:16:03] The obedience is in response to what God has done.
[00:16:09] Several commentators talk about this in different ways that the scripture is. It's not obey and then I'll save you, it's I saved you, now therefore obey.
[00:16:21] Because that's the response of salvation.
[00:16:26] You got these two sides. You've got legalism, which is, I have to obey in order to be good enough. I have to obey in order to be saved.
[00:16:33] Many people camp out there.
[00:16:35] We try to do more good than bad. Maybe you've heard that in culture, like, I'm just trying to be a good person.
[00:16:41] The problem is that we can't be good enough to climb up the mountain to get to God.
[00:16:46] But oftentimes you get people that are there in this legalism camp trying to earn their way to be good enough for God to be lovable.
[00:16:55] But then once you get frustrated with that and you find the reality that as much as I've tried and I can't do it, then you actually flip over to this other side. And it's a theological term, antinomianism, that goes, well, it doesn't matter if you obey, like it doesn't matter. You don't have to obey.
[00:17:14] Well, and that's not what the scripture says, obviously, because God's calling them to obedience. He says, you must obey because that's your identity of who you are. It's the response to what I've done to being saved is to obey and please the Father. We understand this in a relationship of love, in A godly marriage, then it's not, I do everything my wife says so that she will love me.
[00:17:42] Hopefully there's plenty of jokes there. I'm going to refrain.
[00:17:49] I know what my wife enjoys.
[00:17:53] I know her heart.
[00:17:55] And I do those things not in order to earn her love, but because of her love. That because she loves me and I love her. Then I do her will that you do the will of the beloved because of the love, not in order to get the love.
[00:18:14] That it's a response rather than an earning.
[00:18:18] This is so important for us. This is the gospel. We could maybe say it this way the. That the gospel always precedes law.
[00:18:27] That in the Scriptures, salvation comes before obedience, not obey in order to be saved.
[00:18:37] Obey as a response of salvation.
[00:18:41] He moves us beyond this. After he talks about this covenant with his people, that then we get a glimpse of a response to this covenant. That in response to what God has called us to. How do the people respond? Look at verse seven.
[00:18:56] This is seven through 20.
[00:18:58] It says, so Moses came and he called the elders of the people, and he set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. So we see Moses as this mediator, as this go between, as this priest, and so verse 8. So all the people answered together and said, all right, so let's just get the context. God speaks to Moses and says, the people need to obey all that I've commanded.
[00:19:22] Moses takes that to the people and he says, you guys know what God has commanded and he wants you to obey. And if you do that, if you obey as a response to what God has done, then you will be this treasured possession. You'll be a kingdom of priests. You'll be a holy nation. You'll be an example to all the nations watching. And the people respond in this way. Verse 8. The people all answered together and they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.
[00:19:48] Now if you're a Bible reader, you're like, like, maybe you've been there. Like this has all the sincerity in the world to it.
[00:19:59] And maybe you've felt that, like, yes, I want to obey God. I'm going to obey God. I want to please the Lord. I'm going to please the Lord. I want to do everything that he's called me to. I want to do it. Especially maybe coming off of camp or kids camp, and you're like, yes, so where do we go from here?
[00:20:22] Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. So Moses has come down, told them that now he's going back up Moses goes up and down this mountain three times in this chapter. He's gonna go up and down this mountain seven times in the book of Exodus that he's climbing this mountain. He's pretty fit, right? That he keeps going back and forth because he's coming down to the people, telling them. Then he goes back to God, tells God, God comes down. He now God knows what's he doing.
[00:20:49] He's making it known to us, right, that the people are accountable. And look at what happens then. Moses hears from the God, verse 9. And the Lord says to Moses, behold, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever. So God is making sure that the people see that he is speaking to Moses and that the people know God is speaking, speaking with Moses, that it's going to be visualized, keep going. When Moses told the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to Moses, go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day.
[00:21:35] For on the third day, the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.
[00:21:42] That there's a moment here where God is coming down and he says, are the people ready?
[00:21:51] This is a great question.
[00:21:55] Are you ready to meet with the Lord?
[00:21:58] It's a great question to ask every day as you wake up. Am I ready to meet with the Lord?
[00:22:04] Am I ready to be in his presence?
[00:22:07] See, his presence is then gonna be defined for us. And it's something that I think is really helpful for us because we oftentimes make God's presence too callous, right? Like we become too casual with the presence of God. Look at this. That they needed to prepare themselves not just five minutes, but it took them days to prepare themselves to meet with the Lord. Verse 12.
[00:22:33] And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, take care and do not go into the mountain or touch the edge of it. For whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.
[00:22:42] And no hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot. Whether it's a beast or a man, he shall not live.
[00:22:52] That God's presence draws us in. And yet, because of the holiness and the awe of God, then it repels us. And it's terrifying.
[00:23:01] Look at this.
[00:23:02] When the trumpet sounds a long blast, then they shall come up to the mountain.
[00:23:07] So Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and he consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. And he said to the people be ready for the third day and do not go near a woman. What's he mean by that? He was basically differentiating them from the cultural people who thought that sensuality was a part of obtaining God. And he says, no, no, no, no, we're different. Consecrate yourselves. Prepare yourselves for holiness to be in the presence of God.
[00:23:36] That the response to God's covenant is that the people would be ready.
[00:23:44] He keeps going. Verse 16. So the morning of the third day, the people get ready and there's thunder and there's lightning and there's a thick cloud on the mountain and there's a very loud trumpet blast. And so all the people in the camp, they tremble.
[00:24:01] It's terrifying for them. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. And on Mount Sinai it was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. And the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln. And the whole mountain trembled greatly. Like this is all of the senses, right? They're seeing flashes and darkness.
[00:24:24] They see this cloud come down.
[00:24:29] They hear these loud trumpet sounds and thunder.
[00:24:33] They can smell smoke where God's presence has consumed a consuming fire.
[00:24:40] Their feet are shaking because the whole mountain is shaking. That they are in the presence of an all sovereign, holy, moly, mighty God.
[00:24:55] And they're terrified.
[00:24:59] Why are they terrified?
[00:25:02] Because, as the text goes, then they're terrified because to be in God's presence and to not have a mediator, to be in God's presence and to stand before him based on our own actions and our own accord, we don't stand a chance.
[00:25:20] He says, you can't come to the mountain.
[00:25:27] John Newton, one commentator was talking about, says that no one ever learned that they were a sinner by being told they had to experience it. And to stand in front of a holy God and to be laid bare at his power, at his holiness, at his might, it undoes us.
[00:25:50] We see that throughout the rest of Scripture.
[00:25:52] Isaiah comes into the presence of God and he says, woe is me that he's undone in the presence of God.
[00:26:06] And I just wonder, do we see God that way or have we made him too casual?
[00:26:16] Does your sin bother you in the presence of God?
[00:26:22] Can you go about acting in ways and speaking in ways and thinking in ways that aren't in line with what God wants from us, and then walk in like nothing or open up your Bible that ought not to be like we ought to tremble at the awe of God, but he doesn't leave us there where he goes next as Moses comes down. And God speaks to Moses and he speaks to him. Then we get to verse 21 and we get this next section that a mediator comes down. Look at this.
[00:27:08] That the Lord said to Moses, Moses has gone up on the mountain.
[00:27:15] And the Lord speaks to Moses and he says, go down.
[00:27:19] I think this is really important.
[00:27:22] Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to look and many of them perish. Go down there and warn them. You can't come to God on your own terms.
[00:27:35] You come on his terms.
[00:27:39] Go down there and tell them lest they perish.
[00:27:43] Verse 22. And also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves so that the Lord breaks out against them. That the holy people, who are supposed to be the go betweens, they need to be holy.
[00:27:59] He says, and Moses said to the Lord, Lord, but the people, they cannot come up to the mountain of Sinai.
[00:28:07] They can't come up.
[00:28:09] They can't do it.
[00:28:11] They can't come up.
[00:28:13] For you yourselves warned us, saying, set limits around the mountain and consecrate it. Why? Because they would perish without a mediator.
[00:28:25] And the Lord said to him, go down and come up, bringing Aaron with you, but do not let the priests and the people break through to come to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and he told them, this ought to point us to the mediator who came down because we couldn't go up.
[00:28:45] That God sent Jesus the mediator to come down because we couldn't climb the mountain up.
[00:28:52] We couldn't go into God's presence with boldness on our own.
[00:29:00] Let me jump forward and give us a little bit of a summary. If you jump to Hebrews chapter 12, it's going to be on the screen here.
[00:29:09] The author of Hebrews picks up on this event in Exodus. And he says this starting in verse 18, he says, for you have not come to. To what may be touched. A blazing fire, darkness, gloom, tempest, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further message be spoken to them. This is talking about God speaking to the people on Mount Sinai. And the people said, we can't do it. We can't take it.
[00:29:41] But he says, you haven't come to that.
[00:29:44] For they could not endure the order that was given.
[00:29:48] If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.
[00:29:52] Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with Fear.
[00:29:57] But you have come to Mount Zion. It's a different mountain. Mount Sinai, mountain of God's judgment. Mount Zion. A different mountain.
[00:30:08] To the city of a living God.
[00:30:11] To the heavenly Jerusalem.
[00:30:13] To the innumerable angels in festal gatherings, to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. And to God, the judge of all. Listen to this. And to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.
[00:30:29] Not the old one, this new one.
[00:30:34] And sprinkled with the blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Let me just give a little context to that. The blood of Abel. Abel was killed by Cain in Genesis.
[00:30:44] Abel's blood cried out from the ground for justice.
[00:30:51] And yet it cried out and said, that's unjust, that he would be murdered. And yet Jesus, blood speaks a better word because he cries, justice.
[00:31:03] And he says, it's paid for.
[00:31:06] They can come up because it's paid for.
[00:31:11] Abel's blood cried out. He can't come because he's not clean. Jesus blood cries out, they can come. They're clean.
[00:31:22] Listen.
[00:31:25] It's a better mediator than Moses.
[00:31:29] Peter then picks up on this.
[00:31:32] As we close, he points us to this grace of God that's seen salvation, obedience, blessing.
[00:31:44] Peter says this in 1st Peter 2, verse 9 through 12.
[00:31:52] He says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.
[00:31:58] Sound familiar?
[00:31:59] A holy nation, a people for his own possession. That's the salvation part. That through Jesus we are that in Christ.
[00:32:12] Look at this purpose clause.
[00:32:14] So that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light, so that you can proclaim and be a picture to the nations.
[00:32:28] Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people.
[00:32:31] Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy because of this salvation. Look at verse 11. Then he urges them. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable.
[00:32:48] Obey because you've been saved. Because it's who you are. It's your identity.
[00:32:54] You're his treasured possession. You're a kingdom of priests. You're a holy nation in order that you can image forth God's character to the nations, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they can see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
[00:33:12] That when God comes to them, they go, oh, I know the character of God. I'VE seen it in these people.
[00:33:20] Let me talk about purpose, waking up with purpose. Every day you get to image forth the character of God to your family every day that they would go, I know God because I've seen him in you.
[00:33:35] That as you go to work and your co workers, they would go. When God visits them, they would go, oh, I know the character of God because I've seen it in your life.
[00:33:45] The people that live around you, your neighbors who go, oh, I know the character of God.
[00:33:51] I've seen it in you.
[00:33:53] I know what God's like because I've seen you live it.
[00:33:57] You're different.
[00:33:58] You're set apart. Holy. A kingdom of priests that you go to God on their behalf, and then you go to them on behalf of God and say, obey, he's offered salvation.
[00:34:13] Respond to his salvation, and then live your life in obedience to that.
[00:34:18] Listen, this is what he's called us to.
[00:34:22] That we would be a nation, a people, God's people.
[00:34:28] That this Shreveport would be transformed because we live different.
[00:34:34] That people could see that we're different and they're drawn to him.
[00:34:39] Listen, that's the calling of this passage.
[00:34:43] That we would live the character of God not in order to earn his favor, not in order to be acceptable, but because of the salvation he has provided for us.
[00:34:56] Salvation, obedience, blessing. Would you pray with me, Lord? Just like the people cried out, we want to obey that. We want to do all that you have commanded us. And yet we know that we can't do that perfectly.
[00:35:19] We know that we will fail at that. And so, Lord, we need your grace.
[00:35:25] We're so thankful for the fact that you provided Jesus and that his blood sprinkles us clean in order that we can boldly come into your presence as a. As a kingdom of priests, that we can boldly approach your throne because of the grace that we've received in Christ.
[00:35:45] Lord, would you help us to image forth what you called us? To knowing our identity as your people who have experienced salvation, walking in obedience and being a blessing to those around us, Lord, we ask that you would do it through us. In Jesus name, amen.
