Dependence, Defiance and Deliverance February 26, 2017 Pastor Rick Buck

Transcription

1 February 26, 2017 Pastor Rick Buck I'm going to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Daniel 6, if you would. We're coming to the end of the first half of the book of Daniel. Interesting sad story but unbelievable story. In 2006, so over ten years ago, a newspaper, The St. Petersburg Times in Russia, reported the death of a Ukrainian man who was mauled by a lioness at the Kiev Zoo. This is a true story. He encountered the animal on purpose, believing that God would protect him. A zoo official said the man lowered himself by rope into a concrete enclosure holding four lions, shouting, "God will save me if He exists." The man took off his shoes and strode toward the animals. One lioness came to meet him. She knocked him immediately to the ground and quickly severed his carotid artery. Zoo officials stated that the incident, which occurred in front of a large crowd, was the first of its kind. This is how not to interpret Daniel 6, okay? Seriously, though, this text is not here to tell us yes, it is about a great deliverance of God, but it's not an invitation to test God. Daniel never wanted to test God. Neither was it a guarantee that people of faith can walk among the lions and they will always be rescued from imminent danger. That's not the message of Daniel 6. So what is the message of this well known story of the Bible? This is a story of godly, if I can say it this way, dependence, defiance and deliverance. It's a story of depending totally on God in the face of deep betrayal and persecution. It's a story of defiance of man in order to be loyal to God. And it's a story of God's divine deliverance when all seems lost. It's a story reminding us that with God, we are on the winning side. He will finally rescue us if we trust Him completely. That is the message. Not necessarily simply temporally. It's a real life story reminding us of our need for faith, faith in God's faithfulness. It isn't really a story about a great man as much as it is a story about an extraordinary God working through an ordinary man who has a great trust in a great God. It's about God. Ultimately that's the story. Daniel 6. Again, a long chapter. We can't read the entire chapter, but I'll read the first ten verses that will orient us to the story this morning. It pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps These were like provincial governors to rule throughout the kingdom, 2 with three administrators over them, one of whom was Daniel. The satraps were made accountable to them so that the king might not suffer loss. 3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the

2 Page 2 administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God." 6 So the administrators and the satraps went as a group to the king and said: "O King Darius, live forever! 7 The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed Is that true? No that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or man during the next thirty days, except to you, O king, shall be thrown into the lions' den. 8 Now, O king, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered in accordance with the laws of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed." 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing. And really the heart of the story, this is the pivot point of the entire story: Let's pray. 10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Father, thank you for this passage and this text and the example of Daniel, a courageous man of faith. Lord, we want to see his incredible dependence upon You, his defiance of man to be loyal to You and the deliverance that You brought to him. Lord, help us as we think about these to think about our own lives and what this means for us, how to live these truths out. So, be honoured, be glorified, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Daniel 5, remember, ends with the Babylonian kingdom being handed over to the Medes and the Persians. We talked about that last week. And Darius the Mede becomes the new ruler of Babylon. Now, who was this Darius? The truth is we aren't really sure. We don't actually know. Some believe Darius was an official title for King Cyrus himself, who was the king of the Persian

3 Page 3 Empire. Kind of like the term Caesar or Pharaoh as it was used in Rome or in Egypt, kind of an official title in that sense. Possible. That's very possible. Others believe that it was a title given to the person whom King Cyrus actually appointed to be the ruler of the city of Babylon. There were a couple individuals that people wonder about. Ugbaru was the guy who defeated Babylon. You remember we read that and talked about that last week. And then there was someone who came after him whose name was Gubaru. There's lots of ideas, lots of concepts presented. Some have questioned, though, the historicity of Daniel because we don't know exactly who this person was. They say this isn't a real story, it didn't really happen, because we don't know who this Darius is. My only response is, as the theologians and commentators mention, we didn't know who Belshazzar was until recent archeological discoveries discovered that he was a real, historical person and we could put all those pieces together. Maybe the same is true here. We'll never know who Darius is until maybe there is an archeological discovery like for Chapter 5. The point is that the city is under new ownership, and Daniel serves under a new boss, Darius the Persian. Dependence is the first scene I'm going to bring to you. Notice verses 1 through 9. When the Babylonian kingdom was taken over by the Persians, the new ruler, Darius, decided to appoint 120 of these provincial governors over the different regions. The Persian Empire was much larger than the Babylonian Empire, and that's why you have all these many different provincial governors. And then it says then there were three if you will VPs of administration that were appointed over these provincial governors, and then the text says Daniel was one of those, verse 2. The reason for these VPs, according to the text, is that the king wanted to prevent loss of his resources. He knew something called political corruption. Now, that never happens today, right? We don't have to worry about that, political waste or political corruption. None of that ever happens in our part of the world, but in this part of the world it did happen and was going on. And so, the king knows of that potential, and he knows that these provincial governors need to be supervised well in order to protect from loss through corruption and negligence. And so, Daniel interesting enough, he had just been appointed by the Babylonian Belshazzar he has a reputation that precedes him, and he's chosen as one of three administrative individuals who will oversee the affairs. And then it says he so excelled, he was so head and shoulders above the other leaders, that the king decided that he should be kind of the CEO of all of them. The reason was look at verse 3, look at what the text says,

4 Page 4 3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. That phrase there in the Hebrew is literally the idea of an extraordinary spirit or an excellent spirit. It's not simply and primarily talking about his competency as it is talking about his attitude. What made him unique, what made Daniel unique, wasn't simply that he was a highly skilled administrator; it was he had this amazing integrity that came from his heart. It was his character, not simply his competency, that made him so attractive to the king. That is an interesting part. Many times people won't want our faith or anything to do with it, but sometimes out of the context of what God does in people's lives and the changes He makes and the character He develops, people want that today. They want that. And they wanted Daniel's character. Daniel was unique. He didn't punch the clock. He was the first to show up, the last to leave. He couldn't be bought. He served with excellence, with an amazing attitude in his work. He gave his best. He went above and beyond what was expected. Why? Because the king deserved it? Because the Babylonians deserved it? Because the Persians deserved it? Not at all. Because the King of kings deserved it. He served the God of the universe, and everything he put his hand to he understood he was first and foremost doing it as unto God. And because of that, he gave his first and his best. He strove for excellence in all that he did. I love the verse in 1 Corinthians 10 where it talks about whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, it doesn't matter whether it's menial or big, you do it to the glory of God, to the pleasure of God. Recognize everything is from grace and God has stewarded you with all that you have physically, spiritually, emotionally. All your resources are a gift from Him, and He wants you to take that and manage that as unto Him. Recognize it's from Him. Daniel did. He understood grace, and he gave his best, his first. You know, typically when we think of excellence in our culture, we think of surpassing the norm in terms of performance, superiority. We think of competition and being better than others. Soand so was good, but so and so was excellent. But the biblical definition is very much different than this. A fellow by the name of Brian Harbour puts it this way. He said, Success means being the best. Excellence means being your best. Success, to many, means being better than everyone else. Excellence means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday. Success means exceeding the achievements of other people. Excellence means matching your practice with your potential. You see, the essence of excellence is faithfulness. It's about character. Excellence is about character. It's about taking whatever has been given into your hands and being a great steward, being a faithful steward, with whatever you have been given.

5 Page 5 Because here's the truth: We all have different skill levels. We've all been given different gifts. We have all got different competencies. So the issue isn't, hey, my package of skills and competencies is better than somebody else's. That's the way our world thinks, but this is not the way the Bible thinks. The way the Bible thinks is, listen, have you been given something from God? And the answer is what? Yes. A gift, every breath is a gift. Everything that I have is a gift. Take what God has given you and be a faithful steward with what God has given you, for that is what you'll be assessed on by God, not the other gifts of other people or the other resources. What God has given to you, be faithful with it. And the pursuit is not about perfection. I have a great quote I have in my prayer journal. It says, "The pursuit of excellence is gratifying and healthy. The pursuit of perfection is frustrating, neurotic and a terrible waste of time." Perfection is a waste of time this side of heaven. You'll never get there. And you say, "Well, how do I know? How do I know when I'm going for perfection versus excellence?" You know because when you've given your best, you can't let go when you're a perfectionist. It's not enough. But when you've given your best and you're faithful to the Lord with what He's given into your hands by His grace through His strength, you let go. You lay it down, and you say, "Here it is, Lord. Here's what I've tried to do by Your grace." Daniel was faithful. He had an extraordinary, excellent spirit, attitude. Verse 4 really gets at the essence of what this spirit looked like practically. It says in verse 4 he was trustworthy. Daniel had integrity; he was consistently reliable in his words and actions. Two, he wasn't corrupt. That is, he was honest. He wasn't about using his political influence for personal gain. Number three, we are told he was not negligent. He followed through. He finished what he started. He paid attention to details. You know, an interesting part is I learned a lot about the integrity of works and trustworthiness from my father before he was ever a believer. My father didn't come to faith till later. He owned a company. He ran a company. I watched my dad. I watched his hard work, and I watched the way when he said something, he kept his word. He did what he said he was going to do. A great example. He was trustworthy. And this is what Daniel was about. He was this kind of example, and everyone knew this about him. But godly character doesn't make everyone happy, does it? So here some are jealous, some are threatened, when blessing and influence comes to those who put God first. That happened for Daniel. It may sometimes even come from those closest to you. In fact, many times it does. Often it does. The other two administrative VPs caught wind of Daniel's imminent promotion, and they plotted together with the managers, the provincial governors, to bring Daniel down. They were

6 Page 6 threatened by Daniel's integrity. Why? Because they were used to siphoning off. They were used to political corruption. That's how they lived. That's how they advanced themselves. Daniel was putting a wrinkle in that plan, so Plan A was to try to find a chink in Daniel's armour. But notice verse 4. It says it very clearly: The administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges, but they were unable to do so. They couldn't find any. So because of his predictability, because of his consistency, they came up with another plan, Plan B. One thing they knew about him was his consistency and his commitment to being loyal to God, to being dependent on God for everything. That's how he lived his life, his whole life. That was his M.O. That was his history. So they said, "We will bring him, Plan B, into conflict with that commitment." Notice that Daniel's faith wasn't private. It was public. People knew what he was about. He didn't live in a corner. It touched everything he did. He didn't force it on people, but he lived it out. He was consistent. He was consistent through changing governments, through changing geography, through changing circumstances, through changing seasons of life, through changing jobs. He was consistent. The only solution, then, for his enemies was to bring his loyalty to God into conflict with some other commitment, and that's what it says in verse 5. You know, I wondered about this, and I thought, okay, if someone did an investigation, a sort of CIA undercover on my life, would they come up with what Daniel experienced? Is my life so predictably and consistently dependent on God and focused on God that they would say, "Hey, the one thing you can count on with Rick is he's loyal to God, he wants to honour God"? This brings out one of the key principles we need to learn from this passage. One of the qualities of genuine faith, integrity of faith, is that we choose godly character when no one is looking and when everyone is compromising. Why? Because the most important person in the room is God, and He's always, always in the room. He never leaves the room. Even when I'm all alone and nobody can see, He's there. And when everybody's compromising, He's watching me and asking, "Rick, what will you do? Will you be loyal to Me?" Friends, it is our first commitment to obey and trust God when we're all alone and when we're called to stand alone, when no one will pat us on the back and even if someone stabs us in the back. This is the key to people of faith who really love God. God, help me to be like Daniel. Help me to be that kind of a person. Is this the goal of my life? Is that the goal of your life? For Daniel's enemies, they just knew him inside and out, and so they went to Plan B: Use his faithful character against him. And so, they went to the king, verses 6 through 9, and suggested that he make a temporary law with consequences of death for disobedience, that all citizens would pray only to the king for the next 30 days.

7 Page 7 The temporary nature of it was quite strategic. "We're not asking you to be the permanent sovereign god; we're just asking you to be recognized for 30 days." This law was according to the tradition of the Medes and Persians. Now, you need to understand that in the Babylonian Empire, the king was completely sovereign even over the law, but in the Persian Empire, when a king made a law even the king could not change that law. It was binding upon the king. So they were quite shrewd. They knew what they were doing. They understood that once the king made this law, he himself would have to be obedient. He couldn't change that. It made sense at one level. It was kind of a savvy political move to establish this new kingdom, build unity into it. There were all the Babylonians, and now the Persians were overseeing them. "We can unify things, bring solidarity to your kingdom. Just have everyone recognize your power and authority for 30 days. Pray to you alone, king." And, man, talk about flattery, right? "Wow, look at the incredible loyalty of my people. They look up to me." His pride, I'm sure, was fueling some of this. It seemed to demonstrate their loyalty to him. You know, friends, we can be guaranteed that when we attempt to live for God, to live for Jesus Christ and put Him first in our lives, there will be those who will not like it, and they will oppose this for a variety of different motives. They will oppose this. In fact, the Bible's very clear on this, to expect persecution, to expect opposition. As Jesus was opposed, Jesus said, "Be sure, you too will be opposed." Everyone, the Bible says, who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted at some level. If everyone likes you, it's not a good sign. The truth is the early Christians expected opposition. They expected persecution. Notice Daniel here; he doesn't get in some kind of big protest. It's almost like he understands, he gets and understands and has this expectation that he's not going to be liked by everybody and his faith is not going to be respected by all. So he gets into the situation, and he just accepts the consequence. It's amazing. Actually, you maybe never picked that up in the story, but that's exactly the way Daniel responds. There's no placards. There's no going to the king, saying, "Wait a second, this is injustice how I'm being treated. I've gotten a raw deal." He just accepts it. Someone said as Christians we are called by God to live our lives above reproach but to expect it anyway. Expect you'll be reproached. And now we come to Scene 2, the defiance, really which gets to the heart of the story. We now see Daniel's true character here in this text. Look at verse 10, 10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

8 Page 8 Circle that. Underline that. That is such an important observation in the text. For Daniel, there's no real choice. God must be first. Daniel's name means "God is my judge." God is my judge. "God is my assessor. Man is not my assessor; God is my assessor. God comes first in everything. If I have to make a choice, it's always God before man, and I will defy man if it requires me being loyal to God. As much as possible, I want to please God and man" remember Chapter 1 and our study there? That's how he wants to live. He wants to bless the people around him, but if he's forced into a fork in the road and he must choose between God and man, he will always choose God. The text says that "when Daniel learned." That is, he knew. He knew he'd been shafted. He knew what had happened. He didn't miss a beat, but he continued with his daily discipline of grateful prayer to God. He didn't compromise. You say, "But why didn't he compromise?" I mean, if there ever was a time for some compromise, some shrewd compromise, this should have been it, right? I mean, think about it. Think about why couldn't he just suspend his prayer life for one month? Why couldn't he just pray silently, sort of within himself, never verbally or publicly in any way? Just, "Lord, you can hear me but they can't, ha ha ha." If ever there was a time to be pragmatically shrewd, this was it, wasn't it? After all, God knew his heart, and he'd be of much greater value to God alive than dead. Certainly if anyone would understand, God would get it, God would know. We don't know exactly what went on in Daniel's mind, but we do know that he didn't hesitate. He did not hesitate. The text says he went and he did what he always did, and he prayed. And that's exactly what his enemies were counting on. They were counting on that consistency of his character, of his integrity, of his faith, on that reliability of his loyalty to God, of his dependence on God. Interesting, if you think about it, if ever there was a time for Daniel to pray, when was it? Right now. Sure enough, he knew he had no option. Not only to be loyal to God was first, but he knew the most important thing in his life right now in this incredibly vulnerable place was to pray and cry out to his God, "God, You see. You see it all, and You're the sovereign God. I get it. I trust You. I give thanks to You." And the text stresses that he was giving thanks to God as he was praying. Was he petitioning God? Sure, he was, but he had a grateful spirit about it. How do you be grateful when you've just been shafted by all your co workers and you're about to go to the lions' den? That's just the point. Daniel gets it. All of his life is about grace. He's in God's hands. He will be loyal to God no matter what, just like his three friends. "God can save me, King, but if He doesn't, that will not change anything. It will not change anything." Daniel lived with this consciousness of God's presence. Prayer was the key to his faithfulness. The reason he was able to be faithful in this moment and throughout his life is because he was a man of prayer, because he was a man of dependence on God. He was trusting God, and so he knew the moment to take a stand and to really say, "I have to defy man here instead of obeying."

9 Page 9 This reveals another powerful lesson to us about what genuine faith and true godly success looks like, and that is that we make the right choice even when it is hard. Daniel had made the right choice when it was easy in the midst of blessing, in the midst of prosperity. Why would he change now? If it was right then, it's still right now. But his life is on the line. Would he continue to do the right thing? Would he fear man more than God? Not a chance. Not a flinch. The reflex of obedience and I want you to see this, because really this chapter happens because of Chapter 1. This big moment for Daniel started back in Chapter 1 when he was a teenager and he said, "God, you are going to be first in my life. I want to honour you above all things, and I will do it in the little things," and when you get to the big things, he's ready to be obedient there, too. His reflex of obedience had been shaped over decades. He's an old man now, but he lived a lifetime of loyalty to God. And that's where this was coming from. Yes, there was the king and, yes, there was the threat of death, but there was the King of kings, and that was the most important thing. I think it was Henry Wingblade who used to say that "Christian character is hidden deep inside us; it's unseen, like the soup carried in a covered bowl high over a waiter's head. No one knows what's inside unless the waiter is bumped and trips." Even so, people don't know what's inside us until we've been bumped. But if Christ is living inside, what spills out is the fruit of the Spirit. It's here that we have a powerful witness for God. It's here that Daniel had a powerful witness. He didn't go around angry at everybody. He just obeyed God. Be very careful, friends: Sometimes we suffer for our own hobby horses. We need to know with clarity when and where to take a stand, when it's really about God. You know, I hope my mother in law she's in the service today doesn't mind me saying this, but I have had a huge respect for my father in law, Ross Thompson. From the day I met him, I could see he was a man of integrity, an amazing, godly man. Quiet man. Very different than me in personality. But a businessman, and he went through the ups and downs of the business world and he made wealth and he lost wealth. And near the end of his retiring age, the economy during that time took a real massive dip and he had to restructure everything. I watched my father in law through all of that, and he held everything kind of with an open hand. He made sure all of his commitments were taken care of, but Mom and Dad felt the pain of that. But such a man of consistent character through the hard time. He didn't change one iota in terms of who he was, his love for his family, for God. He was the same person in the sunshine as he was in the storm. I just remember marveling at that, and it all came from his quiet devotion and commitment to God. That's what Daniel was doing here. This is where we really live, friends, where real life happens. Dependence, defiance and ultimately deliverance. That's the third scene.

10 Page 10 The final scene of this story tells of God's protection for those who trust Him absolutely. And we know this part of the story the best, right? Because this is the one we love and kids love to hear, so I'm not going to tell much of it because you've heard it a million times. I believe Daniel knew that God would help him, but his faith was not dependent on whether God helped him out of this jam. He knew that ultimately to side with God was always to be on the winning side, whether in this life or in the life to come. Verses 18 to 28 really fill out the rest of the story. Remember what happened? Of course, his comrades, they caught Daniel in the act of public prayer and presented his willful disloyalty to the king. The king felt he had no other option, and so Daniel goes into the lions' den. Whether God delivered him or not out of the furnace, it did not change the reality of who God is and his need to trust Him and to obey Him. Kind of like, again, Daniel's three friends. "Yes, God can deliver us, but if He does not, we will not change. We will be loyal to God." And, friends, here we need to remember that the miraculous deliverance of Daniel and his three friends is not the experience of all who are or have been faithful to God. If we read our whole Bible, it becomes very clear: Not everybody gets delivered from death. Some get delivered through death. Go to Hebrews 11 and read that hall of faith, and it talks about those who escape death, yes, because of their trust in God and then others who went through death and suffering and persecution and died for their faith because of their commitment to God. But they all trusted God. We should not presume that our faith means that God will always keep us from the pain of persecution, the hardship or even death. We should be confident, though, that God will ultimately deliver us whether in life or in death. God has the final word. I love Philippians 1:21, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." That's why I sometimes well, almost every time when we're with the staff together in the morning, we pray and I'll say, "It's a great day to be alive!" And, it's a great day to die as well. In Jesus Christ, I cannot lose. I win in life and I win in death. Because of Jesus and all that He has done, I cannot lose. It's a great day to be alive, and I'm going to make the most of it, but if I die, so be it, it's even better. It can't get worse. It only gets better. Do you believe that with all of your heart? Amazing what you can risk in terms of this life when you understand your security in God. Friends, God is looking for people who are God pleasers, not crowd pleasers. Someone has said that reputation is what people think you are; character is what you are when no one else is around and when everyone else is compromising. It's about living your life before God. God is looking for people who courageously take a stand for Him, even if it means standing alone. God is looking for people who stand in the furnace and take the heat, people who stand in the lions' den and take the roars. Obviously this isn't easy to live this out. This more than anything else is what God longs for: people who truly will look to

11 Page 11 Him, depend upon Him and defy man if it requires being loyal to Him. This is how God measures success. And I love it because it's the great equalizer. Character and attitude and faith is the great equalizer. Not everybody in the room has started in the same place, has been given the same resources, has the same capacity, same education, same upbringing, same whatever. We're all in different places. There's a different scale. Some of us are healthier than others. Some are sicker than others. And we're all in a different range and scale. But here's the cool part: All of us have the opportunity through Jesus Christ to have character. "I can do all things," Paul said, "through Christ." When I go on the roller coaster ride of life and I've been in the plenty and I've been in the dumps, I've gone without and I've been on the mountains and I've been in the valleys, I've been in all the rounds of life, I know I can be content. Why? Because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. By the power of the living Christ, I can choose an attitude. I can have faith and I can have character in the midst of whatever is going on in my life. Wow. That's so awesome. You see, friends, when you stand before God and I stand before God, He's not going to say, "Hey, did you make a lot of money? How did you do in the education thing? Did you get that Bachelor's degree and that Master's degree? Were you able to climb the ladder to get to the doctorate, post doctorate? What accolades did you accomplish? How many this and that?" No, He's not going to. He's going to say, "Look, did you do the best with what I gave you? Were you faithful? Were you faithful with what I gave into your hands?" God, please help me to be faithful by Your grace. "For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him." When we commit ourselves to the Lord, God wants to take ordinary people and do extraordinary things through their lives. He's just looking for available people who will say, "God, I'm going to take what you've given me, even if it's a few loaves and a few fishes, I'm just going to be faithful and offer it up. I'm going to trust You to do something extraordinary with my ordinary stuff." If you believe that with all your heart, God will, as He did with Daniel. Friends, Jesus is the model and the means by which we do this. He's the example. He was faithful to His calling. He said, "Father, Your will, not Mine. I don't like necessarily everything on My path, but Your will be done, not My will. I want to be faithful." And it's through His faithful obedience that you and I can be faithful, too. It's the only way. Let's stand together and pray. Father, thank you for this powerful example of Daniel. Help us, God, to be faithful, to understand that through the resources You have given us in Your Son, we can choose every time to be honouring to You. Now, we know that we don't, Lord, and we pray and thank you for Your forgiveness. This side of heaven, we

12 Page 12 know there's no perfection, and for that again we have Jesus. Thank you for Him who has lived the perfect life so that I don't have to face Your just judgment. Lord, I pray that every day each one of us who know You as Your children, we will walk with Jesus, abide in Him, draw upon His strength to help us be faithful in the good and the bad and the ugly. Whatever it may be that You allow to come into our lives and sovereignly plan in our lives, that we will be loyal to You and trust You, that we will be people of godly character. We ask this now in Jesus' name, amen.