Jonah Obeys

Book of Jonah. We're going to read just a few verses from chapter one here in just a moment, titled the message Jonah obeys or I've also given it the another title and that is take two. Take one didn't go so well with Jonah, as we'll see. This is chance number two to get it right for Jonah. We have a God, a merciful God, a compassionate God, a patient, long suffering God as we looked at in the verse second Peter three nine just a few minutes ago.

He is the God of the second chance and and the third chance, and the fourth chance in many times. When you look through script scripture, you see over and over again a merciful God who is the God of the second chance. One of the first places we come to is Abel and Cain in scripture and Cain brought the wrong sacrifice and what did God say to Cain? He said, you dummy, why did you bring the wrong thing? Why did you rebel?

What were you thinking? You're done for, it's over. No, it's not what he said. He said to Cain, when he brought the wrong sacrifice and I believe very well Cain knew exactly what he was supposed to bring and he didn't and God said to Cain, don't be angry, don't get despondent, just go get the right sacrifice and all will be well. But Cain didn't take that opportunity.

I see Abraham Abraham. Now, we think of Abraham as this great man of faith. God told Abraham, leave his his homeland and he would make of him of a great nation. He was already up in years and so was his wife and several years later, he was up further in years and she was long beyond childbearing days and so, she suggested that he take her handmaid, Hagar, and have a child by her. That that must be the way it's supposed to be done.

Well, Abraham knew better but he did it anyway. He sinned against God. He sinned against his wife. But God gave him another what? Another chance.

Jacob. Jacob's name means deceiver or supplanter. He he wasn't as a young man a great hero of the faith, he was anything but. He was mischievous, he was a conniver, trying to figure out how to get what he thought he deserved his way, rather than waiting on God to do it God's way. But God gave Jacob a second chance.

He gave Lot a second chance and a third chance and a fourth chance to get it right. As we looked at Lot a few weeks ago. Sadly, Lot turned down those chances. He gave Joseph's brothers another chance. We look at the story of Joseph and we see how Joseph forgave his brothers but Joseph is a type of Christ and and it's not Joseph so much that's giving Jacob's other sons a second chance.

It's God through Joseph who forgives them. Even a terrible tyrant like Nebuchadnezzar. God told him through Daniel that he was the sovereign one and not Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuchadnezzar got the big head anyway. God sent him off to live like an animal for seven years but after seven years, God restored him to the throne. Nebuchadnezzar gave praise and glory to God who was the God of the second chance.

He gave a second chance to Israel. He's given a second chance to all of mankind. By sending his son to die on the cross for our sins that we might be saved through faith in him. You have another chance. In Adam all die but in Christ shall all be made alive.

You have another chance. To come to God. We see that in Jonah's life in the story today. We also see that in the lives of the people who inhabit the city of Nineveh today as well. The God of the second chance.

First of all, we looked at this couple weeks ago on Sunday night from Jonah chapter one, we saw that Jonah runs from God. Now, the word of the Lord, Jonah one one, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai saying, arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry against it. For their wickedness has come up before me, but Jonah rose up to flee into Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare thereof and he went down into it to go with them on the Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So, God came to his prophet, Jonah.

Now, this wasn't his first message, I don't think. He is a prophet. He had probably already been sent by God to other places, to other places probably mainly in Israel to give bring messages and now God sending him to Nineveh to tell them that God is going to bring judgement upon that that city, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Jonah's enemies as he saw them. God told him, you go and you tell them, you warn them, you tell them judgments coming and what does Jonah do?

He immediately finds a ship and he goes to Tarshish. Now, we don't know exactly where Tarshish was for sure but it was across the Mediterranean. Assyria is the other way across the desert. He is running in the opposite direction and it says very specifically in verse three, at the end, he says, to run from the presence of the Lord. Now, what made Jonah think?

For one moment, that he could run from the presence of God. We know that's not possible. Numbers thirty two twenty three up here on the screen but if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out. We may think that God isn't going to discover us, that we're going to slide by somehow, that God's not going to catch up with us and we aren't going to be accountable to him. The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die but after this the what?

Judgement. Judgement is coming. God sees and God knows and there's nowhere we can run from his presence. Second verse up here, Psalm fifteen three. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

The eyes of the Lord are everywhere. You're not going to escape them. You're not going to run, escape his presence. David said in Psalm one thirty nine, the no matter where he went, God was there. The darkness couldn't even hide him from God.

God knows. God sees and Jonah learned the hard way that you can't run from God because God caught up with him, sent the storm. Jonah was cast overboard and swallowed by the fish. So, that brings us to the second part here. Number one, Jonah runs and then from Jonah chapter two, we see that Jonah repents.

Jonah runs and now, praise the Lord in chapter two. We see that Jonah repents. Jonah two verses one and two. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell, cried I and thou heardest my voice.

So, Jonas said here in chapter two verse one, that he prayed unto the Lord. He cried out unto the Lord and as we followed through the chapter last week, we saw a heart of repentance expressed in Jonah's cry before the Lord. Recognizing his sin and running from God and disobeying him and not fulfilling that which God had called him to do and indeed, God heard his cry of repentance. And God delivered him out of the belly of the whale, the fish. Verse 10, the Lord spake unto the fish and the fish vomited out Jonah upon dry land.

Second Chronicles seven fourteen says, my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Why did God say to the children of Israel here in this verse? He says to them, they had been sinning. They had been turning to idols but yet God said to them, if you will humble yourselves and pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways, that's repentance. Then, will I hear from heaven.

Forgive your sin and will heal your land. It's hard to imagine God being so willing to forgive. A nation of people who had trampled upon his word and trampled upon his name and trampled upon his law and turned to worship vain idols again and again and again and yet, just before judgement is to come, God says to them once more, if you will repent, I will still what? I will still forgive you. What a forgiving God, a merciful God.

They had. What a merciful God. We have. Because he saved us from our sins and from our just punishment in hell and he forgives us and cleanses us every day from the sins as his children. We still commit.

What a merciful and loving God we do have. So, we see Jonah runs and then we see Jonah repents and this morning, praise God. We see Jonah what? Jonah finally obeys. How wonderful it would have been for Jonah.

Had Jonah obeyed the first time. Now, God is still going to get the job done and he is still going to use Jonah and the people of Nineveh are still going to be saved from his wrath upon their city as we'll see today but it would have been probably at least more comfortable for Jonah for sure if he had obeyed God the first time. You know, God isn't giving up on you as he isn't giving up on me. But it's so much better for us. And it is right.

For us to love and obey our God the first time and not wait till his chastising hand brings us back. In the line. But sometimes that has to happen. Sometimes, we're stubborn like Jonah. Sometimes, we just won't listen and so God has to reach down and chasing us.

Has to help us to learn the hard way deal with the consequences of our actions, And then bring us back to the point to where we can get back to doing what he has called us to do. This morning, we see Jonah's obedience. Let's read verses one through four of Jonah three and the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time saying, arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So, Jonah rose and went unto the Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days journey, and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

So, God had the fish, coughed Jonah back up, spit Jonah back up on the land, Pretty much probably around the same area where Jonah initially ran from and said, okay, Jonah, let's try this again. Now, go to Nineveh and you speak to them, you say, you preach, you proclaim what I tell you. God's will had not changed despite Jonah's rebellious heart. God's will hadn't changed. Man can try as he likes to change God's will.

You're not going to do it. You're not going to change God's will. God will change our will as often he must do but we're not going to change what he wills, what he desires. We just best be obedient. In Proverbs sixteen nine, it says, a man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.

We make plans. God often changes those plans. Sometimes, we make plans, believing those plans to be in step with his will, and innocently and we find out that no, God has a slightly different path for us to take. Sometimes, we devise plans that we know are not God's will, and God has to bring chastening and trials into our life. A man's heart devises his ways, but the Lord directeth his steps.

He is God, we are not. That sets us apart from so much of humanity today. We are Christians. We believe in the authority, the sovereignty, and the love of God. For all humanity, of his sacrifice on Calvary and his desire for all men to be saved if they will come to Jesus Christ.

We are not humanists that believe that we make the rules. We are not humanists that believe that that man is going to create his utopia. No, God is on the throne. God's will hasn't changed just because man refuses to acknowledge and obey it. God's will had not changed nor had God's command changed.

When Jonah was brought back and spit back up on the land, the same directive was given as it was at the beginning of chapter one. Nothing Jonah had done had changed God's will nor had altered God's command. It was the same as it was before. Go, do as I have told you. Sometimes, we think, well, you know, I've I've done this and I've done that and I've rebelled here and and and so, it's hopeless.

God isn't commanding me to do that anymore. I'm beyond that. I'm beyond hope. You're not. God still has a will for you, his child.

Even though you may have been fighting and running. His command hasn't changed to bring glory to his name. His command has not changed to proclaim his word. His command has not changed. For you to be a light that others will see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.

Where do we find God's will? God's commands for us. When we find them in his word, he hasn't left us wondering, what am I supposed to do? Most of what we are supposed to do, we find clearly written in the pages of his word. If we're willing to look there, if we truly desire to know.

God has spelled out the vast majority of it for us. Psalm one nineteen one zero five, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. What does that mean? Well, that means this, when I was a teenager, I used to go to camp in West Virginia. White Sulphur Springs, guess what it smelled like there the whole time?

Sulphur, rotten eggs. We had a campfire several nights of the week back in the woods. It was oh I don't know. Couple 100 yards, maybe a quarter of a mile back into the woods from the main campsite and it was a lot of trees, a lot of roots, they had a little path that snug through the woods back to the big campfire they had back there and they told us when we came to camp that we probably would want to bring a flashlight because you needed the flashlight in order to see the path that pointed your way to get to the campfire. God's word is the flashlight that God has given to us as his children.

That we might know his will, that we might see the path that he has laid out before us. That we don't have to go wandering all about in the woods. God has given us his word, his path, and his light to show us. His spirit he has given to us to help us to understand it and apply it to our lives. So, that we might know his will, his commands.

For God's will did not change, God's command to Jonah hadn't changed and God's willingness to use Jonah hadn't changed. I think of I've got several list listed here, but I think of David. David was at some point in his life called the man after God's own heart. But David committed terrible sin in his life. And yet God still was willing to use this man after he repented.

That's the mercy of God. That's the grace of God that sometimes is beyond our understanding but he has the same grace and mercy is active in our lives, in our world today. God was willing to still use David despite whatever has happened in your past, God is still willing to use you. He's willing to save you if you're not saved and if you're a Christian, he's willing to use you If you're willing to be used. I think of Peter.

Peter said to Christ, he said, they might forsake you, but not me. Nope. I will stick with you to the end. If need be, I will put my life on the line. I will not deny you.

He just said to Peter, oh yes, you will. Oh, yes, you will. Peter thought a little too much of himself and not yet enough of the Lord to realize that we can do nothing without Christ but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us and he found out the hard way when later that night, somebody said, well, aren't you one of those disciples of his? And Peter said, no. And he denied Christ three times.

Just as Jesus said he would. And he went away, went away and he cried sorrowfully. Christ came to him later and and he he was unsure, I think. Jesus said, feed my sheep, Peter. God still was willing to use Peter, and then he's still willing to use you as he was Jonah.

So, we see God's will hadn't changed, God's command hadn't changed, since God's willingness to use Jonah hadn't changed. And then, we see Jonah's response in this passage. Jonah responded differently than he did the first time. He had at least in part learned his learned his lesson. Verse three, so Jonah rose and went on to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

Verse four, and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, he cried and said, yet forty days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. Psalm thirty seven twenty three and twenty four. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighted that his God delighted in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. Jonah fell.

Before the Lord. He didn't obey. He ran. He got in trouble, there are consequences for sin, but he repented and God picked him back up and God said, here we go, Jonah. Now, Jonah wasn't a good man because he was better than everybody else.

He was made out of the stunned stuff as we are. He made a decision that some of us might have made as well, if we're willing to admit it. But God justified Jonah by his grace through faith. The way more same way he has justified us through faith in his son and given to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. There is none good but who?

God, as Jesus pointed out. But as we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus our savior, we too become righteous before him. And the Lord will direct our steps. And though we fall and we probably will, we shall not be what? Utterly cast down.

Why? Because we're so strong? No. Because the Lord what? Upholded him with his hand.

And he picked Jonah up and he dusted Jonah off and he said, okay Jonah, here we go. And Jonah by God's grace went and he went to that city and he did as proclaim as the Lord bade him, as the Lord told him. He didn't say what he wanted to say. He said what God wanted him to say. He didn't say as he believed or as he contrived in his heart or reasoned in his mind.

He preached and proclaimed God's message. Sad to say today, there are a lot of preachers standing in pulpits across our country that aren't proclaiming God's word. They're proclaiming their word. You'll notice when I preach, maybe to a fault. There's a lot of scripture not quite as many stories as maybe some.

Now, stories have a purpose and stories have a place but this isn't about stories and this isn't about my opinions. We're here to worship and learn from God's word. What he desires for us. And it's not about me. It's about him.

It's about his word. And so, Jonah did what he should have done the first time and he went and he spoke the words of God, for he was chosen to be the mouthpiece of God to the people of Nineveh, To warn them of judgement. They were given forty days. Forty days, they were told and God was going to destroy and bring judgement upon their city. Forty days.

Forty days is an interesting time period. It actually comes up in scripture quite often. It's commonly a time of testing, humiliation, and cleansing. Sometimes, associated with fasting as it is here. Forty days and forty nights, it rained.

The floods poured down upon the earth and brought judgement. As God cleansed the earth from wicked of humanity and saved the one he had justified by his grace, Noah. And his family. Forty years, Moses spent in the desert as a shepherd, having left the palace of pharaoh before God was ready to use him. Now, at the age of 80 to lead his children out of Israel.

We often think of Moses as this spry young man but he wasn't. He was at least 80 years old when God brought him back to lead Israel out. Forty days, Moses was up on Mount Sinai with the Lord, communing with him. Forty years, Israel wandered in the wilderness until God had cleansed them of that rebellious generation and brought the new generation in to the land that he had promised them. Forty days, Elijah fasted in the wilderness before God got a hold of him and sent him back to finish.

You see, we we look at Jonah and think, oh, nobody else did what Jonah did. Well, Elijah kind of did the same thing. He had a won a great battle for the Lord at Mount Carmel and then he turned tail and ran from God and the Lord had to bring him back around. Forty days, Jesus fasted near the city of Jericho. Was tested and tempted.

And won a great victory because he is the almighty, sinless Lord and savior. But in this, God showed and God shows his mercy and his patience toward us. As he did to the city of Nineveh once again. He sent a messenger to warn them so that they would have opportunity to repent. Not only did he send a messenger to warn them which he didn't have to do.

He didn't have to warn them. They knew in their heart what they were doing was wrong. Our world today, sinners today know in their heart that what they are doing is wrong. God says that humanity is without excuse. God has placed given us a conscience that tells us he's there and that we're accountable.

God has given us creation to see that he's there. He's our creator and we're accountable. But yet, God has given us his son and has given us his word and has sent those to come who told us and has sent us to others to tell them that there is a savior and there is another chance in Christ to escape the penalty of sin. Second Peter three nine, the Lord is not slack concerning his promises. Some man, some man count slackness but it's long suffering to us.

We're not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Yes, even the people of Nineveh. Now, are somebody if we say, just think for a moment in society who you think of that is the dregs of society. Wicked people. Okay, that's who the Ninevites were to the Jews.

The Ninevites were the most wicked people on the face of the earth in that day. They were wicked, vile idolaters. They were violent. They were conquerors who were taking over the known world, taking people captive, slaughtering millions. Those were the Ninevites.

And that's whom God sent Jonah to and as we'll see in chapter four next Sunday night, that was the main reason Jonah didn't want to go. It wasn't that he was scared of the Ninevites. It was that he just wanted God to go ahead and what? Destroy him. Destroy him.

They didn't want him to be spared. They didn't deserve it. They didn't. That's true but neither do we. For all sinners saved by grace.

We don't deserve it either. But God is long suffering to usward. Not winning that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and this, he sent Jonah and Jonah went. This time, he spoke God's word. He had minced words.

He didn't give his own words. He spoke God's word just like he was supposed to do. Now, we'll see in closing how Nineveh responded. Verse five of Jonah chapter three. So, the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

So, what we see is this, Jonah preached, the people of Nineveh believed. They believed. Why did they believe? Well, it is pretty clear from our context, they believed in the God of Jonah. They believed that he is God, as Jonah proclaimed and that he had the power to destroy their city.

So, they believed the message that they were about to be destroyed by the creator God of heaven. For their wickedness. They believed the message. They believed Jonah's God. And this is the key.

This is the key. You can't be saved by God from anything if you do not believe in him. In this case, the Ninevites city was saved from destruction. I hope many of their souls were saved as well but the focus is upon the judgment of their city. In the New Testament, God's focus is on the judgment of every human soul.

Is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the what? The judgment. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Some before a place of reward and others a place of condemnation in the lake of fire. But, we will all stand before God.

The key is, do you believe him? Do you believe he is God? Do you believe Jesus is God? That he is Lord. The bible says, Romans ten nine, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.

That means, if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God did raise him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For without faith, it says in Hebrews 11, it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to him must believe that he is and he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You must believe that Jesus is God, that Jesus is Lord, that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and that he is resurrected and sitting at the right hand of the father where he is waiting to answer your cry of faith and repentance and welcome you into his family and to justify you and forgive you of all your sins. You must believe the key is believing.

John three, he that believeth on him that is Jesus is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. The formula is simple. The message is clear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as savior and you shall be saved. Reject him and you will spend an eternity of destruction in hell.

Acts sixteen thirty one, Paul said of the Philippian jailer, asked him, sir, what must I do to be saved? He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. He didn't say, go get baptized, though he was baptized as a testimony to his faith in the Lord. He didn't say go to church. He didn't say go feed the poor.

He didn't say quit drinking. What he said was this, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. We see that here of the people of Nineveh. The first thing is mentioned that they did is that they believed God. They believed God.

Now, when they believed God, that resulted in actions fitting, befitting faith. If you look at Hebrews 11, it says, by faith Abraham did this, by faith Noah did this. The bible says, as we point out the last few weeks, for by grace are you saved through faith, it's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We're saved by grace through faith but a faith that evidences itself in a repentant heart and good works to the glory of our father in heaven. So, we see that they believed because it says it here and then they demonstrated a repentant heart by their fasting and their actions.

In Matthew twelve forty one, Jesus said this, he said, the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, that is the generation that rejected Jesus Christ their Messiah, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here. Jesus said to the cities of Capernaum and Chorazin and Bethsaida, he said, the Ninevites repented when Jonah brought God's message. They believed and they repented, but you haven't. And they will be your judge. They will stand in judgment against you.

They repented, Jesus said, the people of Nineveh. They expressed it by fasting, by tearing their clothes and putting on sackcloth and ashes. These are all common old testament symbols of humility and earnestness. They dropped everything they were doing to express in this forty days that they had left, repentance before God. Forty days and their lives were going to end and it seemed they really believed that.

So, they dropped everything they were doing. To express a heart of sorrow for their sin and belief in God. They were not saved by their actions. They were saved because of their faith, which did result in the deliverance of their city. James two eighteen, James writes, yea, a man may say thou hast faith and I have worked, show me thy faith without thy works, I will show thee my faith by my works.

Nor do we read anything about sacrifices here. They weren't saved by making sacrifices whether blood sacrifices of the Old Testament law of Moses or whether by sacrifices of wealth or fame or pleasure. That isn't the point. God does not hear us and deliver us because of our sacrifice. He delivers us because of his sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.

When we receive his gift of salvation by faith. But you must come to God in humility and faith. Psalm 51, David said, for thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God, wilt thou not despise.

I have learned as a pastor that there are times I can go to somebody's house or I can talk to a young person in particular and I can persuade them and I can prod them and I can get them to say a sinner's prayer. And they not really be saved because you see, I can't save anybody. True salvation only comes to those who are broken over their what? Over their sin. Recognize the just punishment of God upon it and bow before them in faith before him and say, Forgive me, Lord, and save me from my sin.

And he will. He is the God of the second chance. He is a God of mercy. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That is our God.

And indeed, he spared their city. Verse 10 it says, and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not. And he did it not. Now, I think God knew. I don't doubt for one minute what Nineveh, how Nineveh would respond.

It wasn't that they caught God by surprise. But God spared them the judgment that he had told them was coming. Because of their faith. And a repentant heart. The Bible says in Luke three thirteen three, I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

The Jews around Jesus thought, hey, well, we're better than those people. We're better than those people and Jesus said, no. You're the same. You're the same. The message goes out before all the world is the same today.

Unless you repent, unless you come to Christ with a broken heart over your sin and in faith believing him to be your savior and Lord. You will perish just as they. But if you come to Christ in faith as the people cried out, the city of Nineveh. He will forgive your sin. He will save your soul.

He never fails to keep his promises. And as we think about Jonah today, and you say, Pastor, I've saved, and I thank the Lord for that. I've been saved these many years. God still has a will for you. He still has a job for you to do.

Will you be willing to be used? Will you, after you fall, get back up and trust him to bring you through, to carry you through, and do as he says. It is our to our sorrow that we fail but it is our joy that we have another chance. The mercies of God are new every morning. Let's pray.

Dear God, we thank you Lord. The illustration of Jonah this morning. Lord, I pray that we wouldn't rebel and we wouldn't run, we wouldn't fall. When you come to us, Lord, us to represent you in a world in which we live, to live a holy life pleasing unto you, to proclaim the gospel to others, to grow through reading and studying your word, to be a light but Lord, if we do fall, we thank you Lord that there is mercy, forgiveness with you, and Lord, help us to get back up by your grace. Repent as Jonah did and get back on the right track.

Respond to your call the right way the second time and do as you command. There are souls hanging in the balance, Lord. They need to hear your word. Glorify us, glorify yourself, Lord, in us. Help us Lord to be that light here.

Forgive us of our failures. Forgive us of our sin. Help us to be willing to acknowledge our sins and failures before you. That you might use us tomorrow. To reach a soul, a sinner for Christ.

And Lord, we pray if there's anyone here today that's not safe and they're unsure. Lord, as we give this hymn of invitation that they would come. Lord, that we might be able to pray with them and show them from God's word how they might be saved today and knowing. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.