Sermon
How Can I Know That I Know Him?
August 12-13, 2000
Pastor Leigh Bishop

How can I know that I know Him? Go with me please in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 2. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for hours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. And you might circle that verse because that pretty well summarizes what we're going to talk about today, not all of it, but some of it. It's the key. How do I know that I know Him? Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Father, we thank you for Your word. We thank you for the truths Your word conveys to our hearts and souls, and I pray today as we share from this portion of Scripture the Holy Spirit will apply to each of our hearts that which is needed so that we can become more like You. Lord we recognize from the very beginning that we have a need and that need is to know You on a more intimate and real level, and that we have a desire, and that desire is to live the kind of life that brings honor and glory to Your name. May You use this message today to help us achieve those goals. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.

As John is writing this letter, in the first chapter he deals with the essentials of our fellowship with God. He talks about the two things that are so critically important in relationship. The first is our love of God and the second is our love for one another. He basically establishes the fact that these are essential to the Christian walk. In fact, Jesus said, by this shall all men know that you are My disciples, by your love one for another; that ability to relate and interrelate, and to have that expression of love there. And, of course, he also said that we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And so 1 John deals with that issue of the essential relationships that are so important. He also talks about how that fellowship can be weakened when we ignore the light. When God's light shines on our lives and we tend to turn the other way or not pay attention to what it's trying to expose. We also find our fellowship is weakened when we deny sin, or more often the case, rationalize sin. Have you ever tried to explain to God why you were doing something He told you not to do? and trying to convince Him why it was okay? as though we could change God's mind on the subject. But somehow in the process of rationalizing with God, we find ways to excuse ourselves which injures our relationship with Him, as we become less aware of that which is going on in our lives.

But in chapter 2 he deals with the issue that we want to attack today and that is, the evidence of our fellowship with God. How do we know that we know Him? And this was critical at this time because John was dealing with a problem in the church. In his old age he could see this invasion into the church of people with false ideas and attitudes that were causing Christians to go astray. There were a large group of people known as Gnostics, who claimed to have a relationship with God and they felt that everything had to be on a spiritual plane, and the very word Gnostic means knowledge. And so they believed they had a greater knowledge of God because they denied the flesh and the reality of things that could be touched and felt. They did not really exist. They were merely part of our imagination. Everything that existed was on a spiritual plane, and anything that happened in the body meant nothing. And so, in other words, you could do anything you wanted in your body so long as in your mind and your spirit realm you were being true to God. They were pulling people away with this concept and idea, and John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said wait a minute people, you can know God on this level. You can know that you know Him in the world in which we live, and in the flesh in which you abide. And there are certain ways that you can do that. And he hit on two points that he felt very important about in letting us know that we know Him; and the first one is obedience. By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He's very simply saying, if you do the things I told you to do then you know Me.

Now, John is not saying we can know God by attempting to keep His commandments. There are some people who believe that if I obey all the commandments of God and do that which is right, then everything is going to be okay and I will the right with God. It's a salvation of works; what I can do to achieve relationship and standing with God. And throughout Scripture that concept is totally denied because the Bible tells us salvation is by grace alone. For by grace are you saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. And so he is trying to convey the idea to us that we don't do things to be saved, but because we are saved and love Jesus we do good things. And there is a huge difference between the two. One person is trying to earn God's favor, the other person loves the Lord and simply in response to that love is doing that which they can to please Him. On which side of the fence are you? Do you find yourself trying to earn God's favor by doing as many good things as you can, and somehow that's going to equate with points with God? Or are you motivated by love? and the reason you do the things you do is because of your love for God? It's very important to understand the issue.

When I first came into the church as a young man, I grew up in a Pentecostal church which had very fervent rules; a list of dos and don'ts, and sometimes it was even in writing. I remember in our youth group we had a youth pledge thing where you had to sign a card which said 'I will not do this, I will not go here' you know. And we had to commit ourselves to not doing those things or we couldn't belong to the youth group. And of course included in the no-nos was dancing, movies, and bowling (congregation laughs). I never quite understood the last one, but it was there. And what they were trying to do was to help us to live holy lives, but they were trying to do it with rules, and unless the Holy Spirit makes the change in your life, it's not going to make a change. And so what happened was as these rules became more and more intense, and as we move towards a looser and looser society, the next generations begin to challenge these rules and say, well they're not for us. God loves us no matter what we do, and they went to the other extreme of basically living whatever way they wanted to live and doing whatever they wanted to do, and on church telling Jesus how much they loved Him. And both were wrong. He said unless the Holy Spirit convicts us, no man can. But if we don't allow the Holy Spirit to convict us, we are in danger of losing our relationship with Him. And we see in this day and age a value that is somewhat changed in the Christian realm. If your grandparents were to walk into most churches today that claim to be Pentecostal, they would be shocked at what some of us do. And I have never and never will say what you can or can't do from the pulpit, because that's the Holy Spirit's job, but my challenge to you and the challenge to me is, do I let the Holy Spirit still convict me? Or have I so hardened myself to what I want to do, I just don't listen any more? That's why it's so important we fall in love with Jesus all over again so He can reveal those things. But he's not saying we do it by keeping His commandments, it's by love that we do it.

He's also not saying we'll never struggle with disobedience or sin again. Some people think when they come and give their life to Jesus that there's some kind of aura that comes over them and they'll never be tempted again. Oh, are they wrong. Aren't they? Because we are tempted all the time. And the fact that we are tempted to sin and that sometimes we fall and fail does not negate our relationship with God. It's the fact that we desire not to fail, that we have a deep sense of wanting to serve Him, and when we sin we feel bad. Can I tell you that if you can sin without feeling bad about it afterwards, you have a problem in your spiritual walk? Some people say, well if you sin you have a problem in your spiritual walk. That's true to a point, but the thing is temptations are there. We're always going to stumble on one occasion or another. That's why Jesus said, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. John was writing this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We deceive ourselves. The truth isn't in us. You walk up to somebody and they say, hey man, I haven't sinned since I got saved. Liar. The Bible says he's a liar. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know a lot of people use that verse in their salvation four spiritual laws, or whatever, and it was never designed for that. That verse was never written to sinners. It was written to saints, because a sinner is never asked to confess their sins. You stop and think about it. If when you gave your heart to Jesus you had to confess every single sin you ever did, can you imagine how long you'd be at the altar? Some of you would still be there. (Congregation laughs) Okay?

The sinner confesses he's a sinner, period, and receives the grace of God. It's after we come to know Christ that when we sin we confess that sin so it doesn't stay on our heart and in our life, and that we repent of it so that He can cleanse us and keep us pure, and it's a necessary part of our walk with God. And so, no, we will not live a perfect life, but it's a desire to honor Him. The struggle becomes less intense when we settled two issues. The first is the Lordship issue. Who's boss? Who's running my life? There used to be a poem that I used to read when I was in high school, and I really it. It was called Invictus. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. This idea that no matter what happens to me by my bootstraps I'm going to pull myself up, and I'm going to get it done. The only problem with that poem was it put everything on the person and nothing on God, and my Bible tells me without Him I can do nothing. With Him all things are possible. And so when I am trying to live the Christian life and do all of the things that He tells me to do, by my strength and my power I miserably fail because I am trying to be God and Lord in my life. But when I make Him Lord and recognize that He's the boss, then it's an easier concept because then he can speak to my heart and He can direct my path, and the Bible says the paths of a good man are ordered of the Lord.

We also need to settle the love issue. Who do you love the most? This is a tough one. The Lordship issue is difficult, but so is the love issue because Jesus demands first place. Years ago when I was a teenager I had all kinds of plans of what I was going to do with my life. In fact I had a half scholarship. They were going to pay for half of my education for four years at WSU if I follow this direction that I felt God was leading me in. And then one day at a church service I'm praying and the Holy Spirit says I want you to go into the gospel ministry. I want you to be a preacher. And I fought that for several months. I'd go down to the altar and I'd say, oh Lord I thank you that You want me to be, and I'd say what I wanted to be. I was a hypocrite. I was having a terrible time because when I prayed like that it was like going nowhere, and the Holy Spirit said I want you to go into ministry. Finally I surrendered and said, Lord, I'll go into ministry. I went home and told my parents. They weren't Christians, and they did not like the idea of me giving up my future. How could I be so stupid? How could I make a decision like that? Didn't I have any sense? So I went to my pastor and I said, what do I do? My parents say they don't want me to do this, God says He wants me to do this, what do I do? And he opened up his Bible to a portion of Scripture and says, if you hate not your father and mother, you cannot be My disciple. And I went, that's in the Bible? He said not only is it in the Bible, Jesus said it. He said if you hate not your wife and children, brothers and sisters, you cannot be My disciple. I said, well I can't hate my parents! He said, the word is a little strong there, it means to love less. But what he's simply saying there is Jesus has to be before Mom and Dad. Jesus has to be before your wife or your husband. Jesus has to be before your children, or your brothers, or your sisters. Jesus has to be first or you can't be His disciple! And I realized right then that I had to make the decision, and I went home and I told my parents. I said, I know you don't understand, and I love you, but I love Jesus more. And I was in tears as I went to bed that night. The next morning my dad came downstairs and said, son, we don't agree with what you're doing, but you're our son, you do it; which was neat to have that happen, but I was going to do it because God called me and He's first.

Do you love Him above everything else? You see, Jesus recognized this problem when He was writing to the churches in Revelation. There was this one church that had everything going for it. I mean if you were to walk into that church you would say this is a going concern. They were doing everything right, impacting their community for Christ, just having a wonderful time. It was the place to be. And Jesus complemented them for all the wonderful things they were doing, and then He paused and said, but I have one thing against you. You've left your first love. You're doing all these wonderful things for Me, but you don't love Me anymore. You're doing what you're supposed to be doing, but you're not motivated by love for Me. You've left your first love. It's critical that we love Him. Jesus says don't say I love You, live it out in honoring Him.

Charles Spurgeon wrote these words and they're powerful. He said an unchanged life is the sign of an uncleansed heart. Start doing what He tells you. We are educated way beyond our obedience. We already know what to do. It's not an issue of knowledge; it's an issue of action. Obey what He says to do. So the first key to knowing Him is obeying Him. The second key to knowing Him - how do I know that I know Him? - He says is our love one for another. John is known as the disciple of love, and he speaks about loving each other and he gives it to us on two levels. First He says we need to love our neighbor as ourselves. Well we ask like they asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? And He gave the story of the Good Samaritan. Now Samaritans and Jews did not get along. In fact, there was a deep hatred between them. And one day this Samaritan is going along, and just so you know, he had no way of knowing that a priest had already walked by. He had no way of knowing that a Sadducee or Pharisee had already walked by. All he knew was that when he was walking by here was this Jewish man stripped naked, beaten, and near death. And if he would have been a typical Samaritan he would have said, ha, good one less Jew to worry about. Kind of like the only good Jew, it is a dead Jew. But he didn't walk by with that attitude. He saw that person as a child of God. And though there was enmity between them as far as their race and their relation, he didn't let that stop him. He loved him in spite of that. And he took him, put him on his animal, or carried him and brought him to a place where he could be taking care of, and paid the whole cost. He said whatever it costs, I'll cover it. And everybody was aghast. That's my neighbor? That person I can't stand is my neighbor and I have to love them? Yes, He didn't say it would be easy. That guy that throws garbage in my yard? The person that lets their dog do its thing in my yard? I'm supposed to love those people that screech their tires as they drive by? You've got to be kidding me? No. You need to love them.

But then He goes a step further. He says not only do you have to love your neighbor as you love yourself, you have to love them as Christ does. Whoa, how does Christ love? Well we all know that Christ loves conditionally. If we're good He loves us, and if we're bad He doesn't love us anymore. Right? Some people think that. I've had people who did something wrong and said, well God just doesn't love me anymore because I've been so bad. Where did you get that? What book have you been reading? It isn't the Bible. God's love is unconditional. That means there's nothing I can do to earn it. There's nothing I can do to lose it. It's mine and it's complete. He doesn't love me any more. He doesn't love me any less. You see we have a problem with that because we have levels of love, and there are some people we love more than we love other people. You know, I love my wife a whole bunch more than I love some of you guys because it's a different level of love. You understand that, don't you? You wouldn't want me to love your wife as much as I love my wife, would you? (Congregation laughs) We'd get in all kinds of trouble doing that. No, there are levels of love and so we somehow equate that with God. Well God must love me more now because I'm a Christian, because I have greater love and less love and so God has to have greater love and less love. Oh people, He is God! He's not mess up like we are. Okay? He has no levels of love. He has perfect love, and it's always the same. There's nothing you can do to change God's love for you. What you do this change your love for Him as it grows in relationship.

Now conditional love is different. Conditional love kind of says well, I like that person because they have the right tie or they have the right dress, you know? Or they have the blond hair or the red hair, or whatever, I love them for reasons. Oh I love that guy because he has a brand new car. Or I love that guy because he has a swimming pool in his backyard, and our love is based on conditions and so if the conditions change... Let me give you a story of conditional love or a poem. This is conditional love. Steve's girl is rich and haughty, my girl is poor as clay. Steve's girl is young and pretty, and my girl looks like a bale of hay. Steve's girl is smart and clever, and my girl is dumb but good. But would I trade my girl for Steve's? You bet your life I would. (Congregation laughs) That's conditional love. Okay? Do you understand? It's based on what we see. Now I want to share with you a story of unconditional love. It's a story of Teddy Stallard, who by his own admission was an unattractive, unmotivated little boy. He was difficult to like, especially for his schoolteacher who all day long faced his deadpan, expressionless, unfocused stare. Although the teacher said she loved all of her students, Miss Thompson had to admit deep down she really wasn't honest. She didn't like him, and even received a certain perverse pleasure in marking his papers with the red ink and writing 'Fs' with flair. As the teacher she had his records, and knew more than she was willing to admit. For example, for first grade here's his report; Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but has a poor home situation. Second grade; Teddy could do better. His mother is seriously ill. He receives very little help at home. Third grade; Teddy is a good boy but too serious. He's slow in learning. His mother died this year. Fourth grade; Teddy is very slow but well-behaved. His father shows no interest in him. At Christmas her class brought presents in pretty wrappings and gathered around to watch her open them. She was surprised when she received a gift from Teddy. It was crudely wrapped in brown paper barely held together by tape. When she opened it out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with half the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume. The children began to giggle, but she had enough sense to put the bracelet on and apply some perfume to her wrist, and she asked the class, doesn't it smell lovely? When school was over the children left, but Teddy lingered behind. He slowly came over to her desk and said softly, Miss Thompson, you smell like my mother, and her bracelet looks really pretty on you. I'm glad to like my presents. When Teddy left Miss Thompson got down on her knees and asked God to forgive her. The next day when the children came to school they were welcomed by a new teacher. Miss Thompson had become a new person. She was no longer just a teacher who had become an agent, but she had become an agent of God. She was committed to loving her children and doing things for them that would live on after her. By the end of the school year Teddy had caught up with almost all of the students as he showed dramatic improvement. She did not hear from Teddy for longtime then one day she received a note. Dear Miss Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know that I am graduating from high school second in my class. Love Teddy. For years later she received another note. Dear Miss Thompson, they just told me that I am graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. The university work hasn't been easy but I liked it. Love Teddy. Finally, she received another note. Dear Miss Thompson, as of today I am Theodore Stallard M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I'm getting married next month and I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You're the only family I have now. Dad died last year. Love Teddy. Miss Thompson went to the wedding and sat where the mother would have sat wearing a rhinestone bracelet and cheap perfume. She had earned the right because she had done something for Teddy that he could not forget; she had loved him unconditionally.

That's what it takes sometimes if we're going to change the lives of people, because so many times people get put in a box and that's who they are. And each year as they progress through life the person who they're passed on to is told; this is the box this person fits in. Keep them there. And then comes along a person with a vision, an unconditional love and says that box is too small. Let's expand your horizons. Let's see what God can do. Maybe there someone in your life that you can invest yourself in with unconditional love and see God do in their lives miracles because you love them. And then John challenges us with a word of assurance as he speaks to us at different levels. He speaks to us as children. He says you've been forgiven. When we first come to know Christ as our Savior, the most important thing that we know is that our sins are forgiven. Nothing else matters. Nothing else matters. We've been forgiven. We testify. We joy. We celebrate. We hug. We do whatever it is as babes in Christ who have been forgiven. That's the message. Praise God, He forgave my sins!

John says as fathers you've come to experience an intimate relationship with God. You have known Him who is from the beginning. You know God in a way that is far deeper than you ever thought you could because you've allowed His word to become a part of your life, and you've grown in relationship with Him, and you know Him. And as young men he talks about knowing the power of God. You have overcome the wicked one. You know God's glory and God's power, and how He can move mountains, and oh, the glory. And I can remember early in my ministry after I got past the joy of being forgiven, not passed it but where that was just a part of the joy of serving Christ, that I reached that place where the power of God was the thing and I'd pray for God's power in my life. Pray for God to display His glory in my life, and oh man, that was it. But you know as the years have gone on, I'm not so interested in His power as I am in knowing Him in an intimate way. The power will take care of itself. God's glory never changes, but I want to know Him and know that I know Him beyond a shadow of a doubt. I want that intimate relationship with God, and so he gives us the two keys to knowing Him. How can I know that I know Him? By obeying, and by loving. Now loving is an issue again that we have to understand is not easy, and it can only be accomplished in Christ because not everybody is lovable, and it's only in Jesus that we can love. And then he tells us the enemy of our fellowship. You thought it was going to be easy, didn't you? But he says there's something out there that's fighting against us all the time, that wants to keep us from serving God and knowing Him as we ought to know Him. That enemy can be summed up in a wonderful word, it's called the world. You thought I was going to say the devil. He's bad too, but the enemy that John describes is the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for all that is in the world - then he lists them - the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father but it's of the world. And the world passes away and the lust thereof, but he who does the will of God abides forever. And we need to make choices. The lust of the flesh is our sinful nature that still lives within us. You know God did not kill our sinful nature. He just gave us a new nature, and so now we have a Civil War going on, and it's only as we walk in relationship with Him that our new nature can have predominance over the old. But the old nature is there always pulling at us, always saying this would be so much fun. Don't be such a deadbeat. In joy life! Everybody thinks you're such a narrow guy. Get out and have fun. And of course the world's definition of fun is anything that God doesn't want you to do. Right? Think about it. Do you think the world's going to ask you to do something God wants you to do? The world hates God. Now we're talking about a philosophy. The world hates God, and so when the world's allures pull at us it's not to bring us into a place of honoring God, it's to pull us away from that.

The lust of the eyes; the temptations around us. There's not a day go by that we're not exposed to something that we see that we know is wrong. We have to deal with it. The pride of life. So involved with temporal things that we lose sight of eternal things. John makes two observations about those who love the world more than Christ. The first is, the love of the world and the love of the Father are incompatible. They can't live together. You cannot love God and love the world. Well who says? The Bible. It's not me saying that. It's the Bible saying that. Jesus said you cannot serve two masters. You can't do it. James said friendship with the world is enmity with God. Paul said men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The Bible makes it very clear, and powerfully fundamentally clear that if we love this world then we cannot love God. You say, but I like this world I live in. It's about the trees, and the mountains, and the prairies, and Yellowstone Park, and Yosemite. He's talking about a philosophy, a way of life that is contrary to God, that has so easily worked its way into our lives to where many people looking at Christians today see no difference between them and themselves. People will be in their workplace, they identify themselves as being Christian, and the people in the workplace say, oh, okay, if you say so. Because there's nothing different. We go to the same movies. We do the same things. We divorce our wives at the same rate. We're not different because we fallen love with the world and its system, and when you do that you fall out of love with Jesus. Because you can't do both, it's like having to girlfriends, to wives, let's make it even worse. Wives, it's like having to husbands. Which one are you going to love the most? Oh, I'm going to love them equally. Yeah? No. And when you try to do that with the world your love relationship with Jesus goes right down the tube, because He won't settle for it. He has to be first or He's not there.

Then the second thing that John observes about this is that the only way to receive the best God has is to let go. I found a poem by Martha Nicholson. It says: One by one God took them from me, all the things I valued most until I was empty-handed, and every glittering toy was lost. And I walked along earth's highway grieving in my rags and poverty till I heard His word inviting, lift those empty hands to Me. So I turned my hands toward heaven, and He filled them with His store of His own transcendent riches, until my hands could contain no more. And then at last I comprehended with my stupid mind and all that God could not pour out His riches into hands already full. What are you holding in your hands that's preventing God from pouring out His blessings on your life? What are you holding onto that keeps Him from pouring out the blessings of heaven? The moment we let go of the world and turn our empty hands to God He will fill them.

Corrie ten Boom, in holding everything loosely, spoke about people who try to hold on to the things of the world, and she put it this way, if we don't let go of the things of the world God will have to pry our fingers lose. It's kind of a sad picture, isn't it though? God I don't want to give that up. No Lord. He who loves us so much has to force us to give up that which is robbing us of our relationship with Him because we have somehow put a higher value on that which is temporal and only lasts briefly than that which is eternal. We live in a world that values things and possessions. And, you know, God does not have a problem with things and possessions, unless they create a relationship problem with Him. Then they are wrong, and only you can decide what's right and wrong for you as the Holy Spirit leads you, but if it's robbing you of relationship with Christ it's wrong. And you have to let go.

I want to tell you about a man of great success. His name was Jim Elliott. He went to the mission field to minister to the Auca Indians and they killed him, and he died for the cause of Christ. Before he died he wrote these words in his journal because there were people who were saying what a waste, he could have done so much more instead of just being a missionary. He had so much going for him. Why did he waste his life like that? Listen to his words. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Who had their values right? Do we have our values right? Do we put eternity ahead of earthly things? Do we put our love for Jesus before our love for anything else? Do we let the world know that we know Him by the life we live? The choice, as always, is individual and it's ours. Let's stand together. My desire when you leave this place today is that you can walk out of here saying I know that I know that I know Him, because I desire to obey Him, I desire to love others as He loves them, and a desire to live the kind of life that reflects Jesus. Father we thank you for our time together today. I pray that Your word has challenged us. I pray that it has spoken to our hearts, that it would not let pass easily the things the Holy Spirit is saying because He's talking to each one of us individually, dealing with us all on a different level and different plane. But He is striving to let His light expose in our life those things that we must surrender; empty our hands so He can fill them. Lord I pray that whatever I have in my hands that is not pleasing to You that You would help meet just to let them go so You can fill me with Your treasures. Pray that in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. God bless you (congregation claps). Go in His grace.