You're listening to audio from Ascend Church. For more information about Ascend or to access more gospel-centered tools to grow as a disciple of Christ, visit ascendkc.org. Let's grab our Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 2. We're gonna invite our ushers to come down the aisles. If you do not have a Bible this morning, just let them know you would like one. They will put one in your hands. You can find Acts chapter 2. If you find the New Testament, and you can find Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you're almost there. Just keep going past Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you'll find the book of Acts. It is a story of the account of the history of the beginning foundations of what we call the New Testament church. It is a fascinating book that we studied several years ago, and we're just going to anchor in Acts 2 as we bring the series, Who Are We?, to a close. I've heard some feedback about this series, and I've heard some positive feedback. I've heard some criticism. And listen, I welcome both, because I'm always looking for an opportunity to be a more effective preacher of God's Word. I've heard some people say that this series isn't what they hoped it would be. They hoped that it would be this kind of rah-rah, let's get pumped up for our new place, and kind of share some new initiatives and some new ministries. And it for sure has not been that. And so I can understand why there would be disappointment. What I sense the Holy Spirit laid on my heart for this particular series is that it would remind us what the foundation and the core is that we are to be about. I've talked to several pastors in our collective, in the Great Commission Collective, and several of them that have been through building programs have said almost to the word this exact same thing. And that is, Jeff, listen, after you get into your new church, the church will never look the same. I have to be honest with you, when I heard that, I kind of cringed. Because I kind of like the way our church looks right now. I like how we're interacting with one another. I like how we're serving. But what they said is that when you get to a new location, you will have new visibility. When you get to a new building, you'll have new ministry opportunities, new people will come, and the church will look different after you get into your new place. And so when I've heard these pastors share this from experience, what I sense that the Holy Spirit was impressing upon me is that we need to make sure that we understand that as our church looks different, that we don't change the core of who we are. And the core of who we are is not handed off to us from another organization. It's not actually established by even the elders of our church. The core of who we are to be as a sin church is defined by what the New Testament says. And so that's why over the last 10 weeks we have been anchoring ourselves on what the New Testament says the church is to be. And so I've intended to lay a foundation, and we find ourselves at the end of that foundation. And that is the topic that I want to rally around as we finish this series, and that is being devoted. We need to be a church that is devoted, and you would obviously ask the question, to what? And that is what this passage will answer in five brief sentences. Look at the big idea in your notes. And that is that Ascend Church is to be ambassadors for Christ. We are to be ambassadors for Christ. And when we are devoted to the New Testament prescription, we will encourage and equip one another and evangelize everyone to whom God gives us access in and outside of the walls of our church. That is who we are. And so Acts chapter 2 is the passage that we'll be looking at this morning. The first devotion I want us to see is that devotion is personal. Devotion is personal. This is the end of Peter's very famous Pentecost message. And there's so much rich background that I could unpack, but time does not allow. But suffice it to say, Peter was preaching a sermon on the foundation of the church. He doesn't really get into what the initiatives and what the ministry will look like. What he's getting into is what the foundation of the church must be, and that is centered on Christ. His message is centered on Christ. And it's when he gets to the impact that the crowd who is listening has had on Christ himself that the people respond. Look at what he says in verse 36. That's not a seeker-friendly statement, is it? I mean, Peter comes to the end of his message and he says, look, y'all crucified him. They crucified Jesus by rejecting his message. The Jews corporately did that as a nation, but their representatives were the religious leaders. And so Peter gets to a point where he says, look, Christ must be engaged with. And so the people and the crowd respond by understanding what's expected when Jesus is preached. Look at verse 37. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. That means they were pierced. That means they were convicted. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles brothers, what shall we do? Listen, you can underline that sentence and that question because that's what you should be asking every time you hear the word of God preached. The word of God is not preached for the purpose of simply educating you with information. The Word of God is not simply preached so that you can learn some new golden nuggets of what this ancient book actually means. The Word of God is preached with the expectation that you ask the question, what should I do? And Peter responds. It says in verse 38, Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, let's just pause right here and dive in a little bit deeper. These two commands have been often used by certain denominations to argue that salvation is the result of both repentance and baptism. And yet there's an embedded grammatical argument here that actually proves that that's not what Peter is saying. The text does not really communicate this in the English, but in the original language, it communicates it brilliantly. Listen to this. The command to repent is plural. The command to be baptized is singular. You may say, Pastor, I didn't know I was coming to an English class. Let me explain to you what that means. It's that the invitation, the command to repent, is given to the crowd. Everyone present there was given the same command to repent. What does the word repent mean? It means to change directions. I'm walking this way, talking to this section, and repent means to turn this way and talk to this section. That's the last, I'm now talking to everybody. But that's the illustration. Repentance means to turn in the opposite direction, to change directions. And it's not just talking about physical direction. It's talking about the mind, the will, the soul, the entire person. When God's word says to repent, it means you are all in. I've heard people say, well, I gave my life to Christ years ago, but now I'm all in. No, what that means is that now you've given your life to Christ. We don't give our lives to Christ with a simple prayer hoping to receive the benefits and then someday in the future say, okay, guess what? Now I'm all in. No, salvation, repentance equals I'm all in. It means I'm completely turning. I was this and now I am this. That is repentance. That is the instruction and the command to the entire crowd. But why then does Peter say in the singular, baptized? Because what he is saying is that the only people who can truly be baptized are the ones who have already repented. You see, the command goes to everyone. The command goes to the congregation right now, everyone present, repent. And if you respond to that imperative, then you can receive the instruction to be baptized. You are baptized as a public outward profession of what has already taken place in your heart. But beloved, listen, it is personal. The crowd is given the instruction to repent, but you as an individual are responsible to do it. Listen, when Jesus is preached, there are typically three responses, and I would encourage you to write this down. One of the responses to the preaching of Jesus Christ is damning. One of them is a blessing, and one of them is extremely dangerous. The damning response to the preaching of Jesus is, I reject it. Will the pastor get done with this message? I'm ready to watch Chiefs football. That is a damning response. What that means is that you've heard the presentation of the gospel and yet you're not interested. You're moving on with your life. That's religion that I'm not interested in. And what that means is you will continue on with your current trajectory which will end up being hell in eternity if you do not respond. Rejecting Jesus Christ and the command to repent is damning. The other response is a blessed one, and that is the response of surrender. of yes, I get it, yes, I believe what God's word says about God, about me. I believe about what Jesus accomplished in his life, death and resurrection. I believe that and so I'm going to turn from my sins. I'm now going to stop living for myself and I'm now going to live for Christ and my thinking and my speaking and my behavior. And when you respond in that fashion, look at the benefits that Peter says you receive in verse 38. It says you will receive the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That's an amazing phrase in and of itself. The gift of the Holy Spirit? Do you understand that Jesus said back in the Gospel of John to his disciples, it's actually to your benefit that I leave you. The disciples, you can see in their response, were confused. Wait a minute, anytime we've had questions, anytime we've been weak, anytime we've needed strengthening, who do they go to? They went to Jesus, their rabbi, their master, and Jesus is saying, now it's to your benefit that I leave. Why? Because he's giving to them the Holy Spirit who would be able to be with them always and forever to instruct, to equip, to strengthen, to convict. That's the gift of the Holy Spirit. And you receive that individually when you surrender to Jesus Christ. What a gift this is, what a blessing this is, and then you are guaranteed eternity in heaven, but experiencing the benefits of that now. The third response from an individual when Jesus Christ is preached is a very dangerous one, but understandable. And that is the individual who says, I hear what you're saying, But I just don't understand it. I need more time. I completely understand this. All of us can understand that. The gospel, unless the Holy Spirit is working on your heart, is not something that just immediately is logical and you just give your life and you surrender to it. That's understandable that people would say, I need time. But listen, you are not guaranteed another breath. You walk out of here, we were at the church this last week, and all of a sudden there were sirens everywhere, and there was a really bad accident right out at our corner. And usually I think of bad accidents as out on the interstate, but this was right here at 159th and Ridgeview, and you never know what's gonna happen. But beloved, listen, when Jesus Christ is preached, it is a personal message with a personal response. It's not for the person next to you. It's not for the person in the other section. The message is for you individually. And Peter's response to the crowd was that it is for you to respond because devotion is personal. But devotion is also public. This gives us an opportunity to drill into baptism a little bit. Devotion is public. Look at verse 39. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. Now let's just stop right there. Again, when we're here at Ascend, we study God's word in context. So it's not just asking the question of the Bible, what does it mean to me? Where do I find myself in the text? We ask the question, what did it mean to the original audience? What did the original author intend? And so this phrase is a window from Luke, from Dr. Luke, to let us know what was going on in the first century and what was happening as a transition. There was a transition from God focusing on an ethnic people, Israel, to a spiritual people, the church. And that's what Peter is actually explaining here when he talks about the promise. Verse 39, the promise is for you, crowd, Israel, and for your children, your nation. That's what that phrase means. And then he says, and for all who are far off. Paul actually uses that same phrase in Ephesians 2 in verse 13. The people who are far off are the nations, the Gentiles. And for this original audience, as well as even the apostle who was preaching this, this was not on their radar. You're going to see, as the book of Acts unfolds, that the apostles struggle with understanding what this very phrase means. But the Holy Spirit intended for Peter to say it because it's setting up what the New Testament church would look like. The promise is not just for that crowd present, it's not just for the ethnicity of the Jews, it's also for every person from every tribe who, look at the end of verse 39, the Lord our God calls to himself. What does that mean? It means everyone who responds to the imperative to repent. Those are the individuals to whom the promise is given. And so this is offered to everyone, but it only is given to those who respond. And so look at verse 40. With many other words, he, Peter, bore witness. What does that mean? A bold proclamation. That's what bearing witness means. It means you know the truth and you're boldly declaring it, but then look at the interest and compassion that he has in the next phrase, and continued to exhort them. Oh man, this is rich from the original language. And the ESV does a great job translating this in the English because what it means is that Peter was pleading with them. He knew that there were many present in that crowd whom he would never see again. And listen, beloved, I'm looking out on this congregation, and there are people who I hope to see next week. I'm glad that you guys are here after last week's message. But there's some of you who are visiting, and I don't know if I'll ever see you again. And so I'm wanting to do for you what Peter was doing for that crowd, and that is plead with you. Respond to Christ. This is not just a religious add-on to your life. This is essential for your eternity. This is essential for your well-being. This is essential for true hope in your life. I'm pleading with you, respond to Christ. That's what Peter was doing. And look what is the summary of what this ongoing exhortation was. He says, save yourselves from this crooked generation. The word crooked in the Greek is skoleos. That's where we get the term scoliosis. Something is broken or bending that should be straight. And he's describing their generation as that. And guess what, beloved? Every generation, including ours, is scoliosis. And the only hope that we have is a spiritual surgery. I've got a niece who has really bad scoliosis. And her parents have been praying for her and trying to follow medical details and figure out information. And it looks like they're heading toward a surgery. They've tried exercises. They've tried a brace. And the only thing that sounds like will fix her and make her straight is a surgery. And beloved, that illustration is spiritually what Peter is talking about. He said, we are bent, we are crooked, and the only thing that will straighten us is Christ. And so he says, save yourself from this crooked generation, and then look at the response of the people. So those, listen to this phrase, who received his word, that's repentance. The word receive means to accept, and would you just allow me to just spend a minute or two on this? I don't like it when people say, I accepted Jesus as my personal savior. Just being honest. The reason for that is because how we talk about acceptance in our culture is not the same way that this word communicates acceptance. See, oftentimes what we do is I say, I accept what you're saying, but I don't like it. Or we say, I accept your gift, but then it ends up going in a box somewhere and we never use it. Or we say, I accept that what you're saying is true because now I'm convinced and as the Supreme Court justice on all things that are true, I now pronounce it true. But when we see this word in the context in the New Testament, when you accepted something, here's what it means, is my appetite changes. Now it's not arms folded and saying I accept what you say is true, it's now saying I'm all in with that, I accept it, that's what I'm all about. When we accept from a New Testament standpoint, the gospel of Jesus Christ, it does not go in a box, it becomes everything that we're about. We're using it all the time, we can't live without it. And when we accept in a New Testament sense the truth of God's word, it is because it is the final Supreme Court judge, not us. And all we've done is discover something that has always been true. Now, beloved, if you mean that when you say you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, then by all means use it. They received the word. That's how you are saved. That is the inward, private response to the gospel that results in your justification, that results in your salvation. That is your personal response. But look at the public response. Look at what it says. They were baptized. I don't have time to get into all of this because I spent that last week. But baptism is given by Christ to his church to be the most vivid, public, visible demonstration of what has already taken place privately in our hearts. And so the people had already given their life to Christ, and now publicly, unashamedly, to the New Jerusalem church, they are publicly proclaiming that they are followers of Jesus Christ. Now, interestingly enough, that's not where Peter or where Luke stops. Look what it says. There were added that day about 3,000 souls. How did they know that? Did they just look at the crowd and say, what do you think? I don't know. It's about 2,000. No, I think it's more like three. You agree with three? Look, it's three. No, they numbered them. Beloved, listen, that phrase equals membership. This is the Jerusalem church receiving Christians into membership after their baptism so that they would publicly be identifying themselves with the local church. Beloved, listen, devotion to Christ is personal. It is private, but it is also public. It is with one another. It is not just a personal salvation that we carry in our pocket or on our phone. It is public, and we demonstrate that through baptism. We demonstrate that through ongoing healthy membership. Devotion is personal. Devotion is public. Number three, devotion is also particular. The word particular means that details are important. And where do I get that? This is where I get the whole devoted thing. I wasn't just making this up. Look at verse 42. And they devoted themselves. The word devote means to be intensely or intentionally in an ongoing manner committed to an activity. But what's also interesting is the second part of that definition, and that is with the implication that it's also through difficulty. In other words, that you're committed to something that you know will produce difficulty in your life, and yet you're gonna still stay committed. That's what this word means. You ever experience difficulty in the local church? Hopefully that wasn't a mm-hmm because of a sin, but it might be. I was listening to John MacArthur yesterday. Sometimes I just need me some little John. He was preaching about how if you look at all the epistles of the New Testament, he's writing to correct something. You messed up here. You messed up there. You got off on this track. You derailed here, except for the Church of Thessalonica. And he says he's just grateful for them. Beloved, listen, the church, because it's made up of sinners and it's led by sinners, is going to be messed up. So we know, if you become a member of this church, you know there's going to be difficulty. But will you be devoted? Now, the moment that we derail from Scripture and that's confronted before us and we refuse to correct, you shouldn't be part of this church. But where there are preferences, where there are different convictions, where there are things that we acknowledge we need to grow in and there's progress, not perfection, then let's be devoted and committed despite the fact that there will be difficulties. And so to what were these early believers devoted to? Well, look what it says. The apostles' teaching. Well, let's just stop right there. There's a three-letter word that is so important in the grammar. And again, we're going back to English grammar 101, but this is important. Look what it says. It says, the apostles teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of the bread and the prayers. What that means is that it's differentiating from the general to the specific. If I say that I had a pizza, you might say, well, that could have been any pizza. It could have been Papa Murphy's. It could have been Papa John's. It could have been, you know, Lou Malnati's. But if I say the pizza, you know that I mean Topper's. I'm just kidding. We have a Topper's family in the church. It differentiates between the general and the specific. That's what Peter was doing here, or Luke was doing, is he's saying, look, these individuals were devoting themselves to specific activities. What were they? Let's just cover them quickly. The apostles' teaching. This is the standing up in the temple, corporately gathering people to preach and proclaim the word of God. What is the fellowship? Well, this is more than just getting together and watching Chiefs games, more than just getting together and enjoying each other's company. This is getting together for the purpose of discipleship. of talking about the Word of God, of teaching the Word of God to one another, of applying the Word of God to one another. This is discipleship going on. And then it says, the breaking of the bread and the prayers. Now what does this mean? There's debate about this, I'll acknowledge that. And again, if it's not an essential of the three things that we've identified as the essentials of orthodoxy, we will have our convictions, but we will allow with charity for different positions. But where I'm landing is that because it says the breaking of the bread, that this is referring to the Lord's table. When it says the prayers, it's referring to probably in Peter's day, prayers that were actually prescribed for the local church. And so what this means is that we are actually recognizing that they were devoted to the local church through ongoing accountability with each other, through ongoing worship with each other. And there's actually a progression here, isn't there? The foundation of what they were devoted to was the corporate teaching of God's word. That has always throughout church history been at the centerpiece and the foundation of what the local church is. The uncompromising preaching of the word. It's not just preaching of information or motivational speaking or what's going on in the culture. It is the preaching of the word of God. That's where it starts. But then it doesn't stop there. We don't just go out and say, wow, we learned a lot. It moves to ongoing discipleship. That's what the fellowship is. And then it is manifesting itself in an ongoing accountability through the Lord's table and through the prayers that are described here. This is specific. This is devotion. This is particular. The individuals that were Christians attached themselves to one another in the context of the local church despite difficulty. This is particular, beloved, and devotion is particular. But it moves to number four. Devotion is also practiced. Devotion is practice. Look at verse 43. And awe came upon every soul. Many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. That phrase is important. I don't have time to dig into it. But look at who was doing the signs and wonders. Let me just explain to you why this is important without getting too deep into it. Peter was preaching at Pentecost. Pentecost was one of the major festivals of the Jews where every able Jewish man was expected to return to Jerusalem. So the population of Jerusalem at this time was a massive population. It was already a big city, but now it was even bigger and it was busting at the seams. And so now you have these 12 individuals who, when you look at Acts chapter 2, are recognized as Galileans, which implies that they were not highly educated, and so these people are preaching with authority and with wisdom, and they're preaching a message that is slightly different than the generations before. And so you can imagine all of these pilgrims and the people in Jerusalem are wondering, is this really true? Is this really true? And what's important to be able to know and to be able to answer that question is, what do we measure the truth against? See, what I'm preaching right now, and what any preacher is preaching in our day, should be asked, is that true? But you have something to measure and evaluate that by, and that's this book. But back in this time, there was not a completed canon of scripture, and so there needed to be something that affirmed the accuracy and the authenticity of these messengers and the message. Guess what that was? Signs and wonders. And so that's why the apostles were enabled by the Holy Spirit to do signs and wonders, to authenticate the message and the messenger. And look at verse 44, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. This is not communism. Here's what this means, and we'll see that play out in the next three chapters of Acts. What that means is they did not view their possessions as their identity. They did not even view their possessions as their own. Their possessions did not define them. Their possessions were simply gifts from God to be stewarded, and in the case that there were needs, to be let go. Look at what it says in verse 45, and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing to the proceeds to all as any had need. Again, Pentecost, people came from all over the known world. They're away from home, and now they're joining this local church, and they're deciding, hey, you know what? We're probably gonna wanna set up anchor here, and we don't have anything. We didn't even bring our toothbrush. And the disciples in Jerusalem are saying, hey, look, we have extra toothbrushes. Let's meet the needs. That's what was going on in this early church. Verse 46, and day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts. I love this. There's a lot of activity that is bearing fruit of true gospel transformation, isn't there? But beloved, the foundation of the practicing of devotion is actually a phrase that I read very quickly that you probably didn't notice because I didn't when I read it for the first time. Look at verse 44. It says, all who believed. Would you underline that? The foundation of practice is doctrine. The foundation of practice is God's principles. Here's a sentence I would encourage you to write down. When God's people practice God's principles, people are truly healthy. When God's people practice God's principles, then people are truly healthy. Does that mean that you will never be sick? No. Does that mean that you will never be out of a job? No. Does that mean you will, as a single person who longs to be married, that someday you'll get married? No. Does it mean that as a married couple who longs to have kids, that you will someday have kids because God wants you to be healthy? No. It means that true health will be experienced when God's people practice God's principles. And the only way you'll be able to understand that is when you are in this category of verse 44 as those who believe. But listen, the original language actually communicates something different. Because in the English Standard Version, verse 44 sounds like, well, all who believe. Those are people who repented and they just believed. And that was an event where they prayed the prayer, right? But in the original language, what it says, and then all the believing ones, That means they are characterized by their belief, not by what they did. Their identity was in their doctrine. Their identity was in their belief. Their identity was in their understanding and then application of God's word. I was actually talking to our staff about this this last week, that God's imperatives in the Bible most oftentimes flow out of the indicatives. Let me just explain what that means. Indicatives are statements, imperatives are commands. Most oftentimes the commands of God's word flow out of the statements. Meaning the Bible gives us the statements that we need and typically the statements are about God and about who we genuinely are according to God's word. And once we've established that, then we get to the commands. And listen, beloved, that's where we need to get as Christians. Before we get to the sharing of needs, before we get to the having all things in common, before we get to the breaking of the bread, here it's speaking of fellowship within homes, just relational fellowship. Before we get to the interaction of believers, just what we would expect of Christians, before we get to all of that, we must own the statements. about who God is, about who we are, about what the gospel is. And listen, if we can get to that place, then we get to a place where we're like, okay, of course we would fulfill the commands. It says in verse 46 that they had glad and generous hearts. It's not because they just figured out this is a way we can help one another and now we can help the poor. They had glad and generous hearts because of the statements they believed. Beloved, this is what we want to be as a sinner. We want to be the believing ones, the ones who are anchored in God's Word, the ones who understand God for who His Word says that He is, not who we want to wrap our human minds around. We understand that we are depraved sinners, that we are not good and smart and beautiful, that we're actually depraved sinners. That's what the Bible says. And once we get to that place, then we can own the gospel and realize that it's because of Christ and His righteousness that we can have hope. It's because of Christ and the gospel that our sins can be washed and that we can surrender to Him and become new from the inside out. And when we get to a place where we acknowledge all that He's done for us, then living out the commands is just, yes, please! Devotion is practice, but then finally, devotion leads to praise. Devotion leads to praise, verse 47. I think this is interesting. It says that the people praised God, and they had favor with all the people. Beloved, the praise that we hope to elicit when we are devoted is not praise that is directed to us. not praise that is directed to us as individuals or us as a church. May the praise that is directed to us be to Christ. It says that the people were praising God because they understand this is God's work. This isn't our work. And it says they had favor with all the people. That phrase, the people, when you look throughout the New Testament, especially Luke, go back to Luke chapter two, and I believe it's verse 10 or right around there. Yes, it is verse 10. It says that Christ had come for all the people, and that was referring specifically to the Jews. And then the angels unpacked that a little bit more and said, this is going to actually be for the Gentiles also. But whenever this phrase, the people, occurs in the New Testament, more often than not, it's a technical usage to describe Israel. And so it says that there is favor with all the people, interestingly enough. In just a few verses, the people are going to turn on them. But for the moment, there's this excitement, there's this enthusiasm where the people are glorifying the God of Israel because of the way that these people are living, which is not normal. It's not natural. And then it says in verse 47, And the Lord was pleased. He added to their number. Again, they're keeping track. There's a membership going on here. Day by day, those who were being saved. Beloved, my longing as your pastor is that Ascend Church extends far beyond my generation. Y'all can change the name when I'm gone, that's fine. But that this church and what we stand for goes to generation after generation after generation, and that the testimony of our church is that God is pleased and that he adds to our number those who are being saved. Now, listen to this. That's not just new conversions. It's also people who are maturing. It's also mature people who are not going out to pasture. Not saying, look, I've done my time. Been there, done that. It's people who are saying, no, no, no. Now that I have an understanding of God's word, I'm going to actually start pouring into people. You know what? There's no opportunity for Sunday school here. I'm going to teach the kids. I'm going to sweep the floors and look for opportunities to have conversations with people to pass on the godly information and experience that I have had. As a mature people, I want to multiply that maturity. Beloved, when our church is investing in lost people being saved and saved people being matured and mature people multiplying, the glory of God will be achieved, and we will be a generational church. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? We are going to be moving into a new building in just a few weeks. As a staff, we've already been able to be in there and be able to begin to enjoy it, and some of you have come by and gotten tours, and it is a beautiful place. It is a place that will afford new opportunities. New people will come. They will. How will we respond? You know, what's funny is my baseball years taught me something, and that is that if you get to the championship game, there's a reason for it. You got to the championship game because you did something right. And what often happens in the championship game is teams often change who they are. They think that they need to do something different because now we're in a new context. Now what we've been doing in the core of what we're about needs to change. And listen, beloved, this series has been arguing and reminding ourselves that we don't need to change the core of who we are. The core of who we are is what the New Testament has prescribed. That, beloved, is something we need to be devoted to.