If you would, please open in your Bibles to the two texts that are listed there in your bulletin to Isaiah 53. You don't need to open there because you've already memorized it. And then from there, we will turn to Acts chapter 8. To do that, I'd like to express my thankfulness to be here once again. I look forward to the day when I can say greetings from your sister church in Daytona Beach, but that day is not yet. However, by God's grace, we did begin our first Bible study two weeks ago and had about 25 people there, several of which were certainly non-Christians that were at least willing to come and see what we are doing. And I would love to show them what the Lord is doing. So pray with me for a harvest of souls in Daytona Beach. And now let's direct our attention to the word of the living God. This evening, we will hear together from Isaiah 53, beginning at verse 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we were healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Now please turn over to Acts chapter 8, where we will find these words quoted. Acts chapter 8, beginning at verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you were reading? And he said, how can I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, like a sheep that was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation, for his life is taken away from the earth? And the eunuch said to Philip, "'About whom,' I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else?' Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with a scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "'See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized?' And he commanded the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Thus far the reading of the word of God. Let's pray together. Our great God in heaven, we thank you for your life-giving word. We believe that by the power of the Holy Spirit, these words were inspired in their original intent. We believe that by the power of the Spirit, they've been preserved in their integrity down to this day. And finally, we believe that it is the particular intention of the Holy Spirit to bless the reading and especially the preaching of the word of God that sinners would be converted to saints. and that the people of God will be built up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation. Bless us now we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. You may remember I've mentioned before that when I was in California pastoring, I had begun to preach through the book of Acts, did not complete it. One of the interesting things that we noted together in the book of Acts is sometimes where you see the language like you see here in our text about someone telling someone else about the gospel, that vocabulary for telling is very similar to the language of gossiping. And it has, for others, created this kind of interesting little phrase about gossiping the good news. Gossip is sinful, but gossiping the gospel is a good and godly thing. Today we see that in our text. One of the more striking examples of good gossip, if we can say such a thing, is in the little book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where four befuddled children in a cold, wintry wood run into, of all creatures, a beaver. And the beaver begins to interact with them and then asks the question, haven't you heard? Aslan is on the move. And in many ways, when you look at the book of Acts and even a chapter like we have here in chapter eight in this kind of unique story, that's what we see. Aslan, or if you will, the spirit of God, the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, is on the move. And we're gonna see that movement as the spirit works in Philip, then the spirits work in Isaiah, and finally the spirits work in the Ethiopian eunuch. about a month or so ago, I had the privilege of preaching here, and one of the phrases I suggested that we could use to help think about what the Book of Acts is, is the Book of Acts is the biography of the Holy Spirit in many ways. The Book of Acts tells us much about the person of the Holy Spirit, but also a lot about the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit constantly at work in the lives of people in the book of Acts, giving life to those that are spiritually dead. That's what we see here today. And in a certain sense, you might describe Acts chapter eight as the story of the Holy Spirit's first mission trip to Africa. because this is where the gospel now begins to find its way down to Africa, and it does so in the life of an unsuspecting Ethiopian eunuch. In many ways, this story, focusing on Philip at first, it sounds a little bit like the story of Jonah, just everything is the opposite. Philip is told, just like Jonah is, arise and go down, stand up and go down to where you were supposed to go, But whereas Jonah is the reluctant missionary to the Gentiles, Philip is a very willing and enthusiastic one. When he is told to arise and go down, he does exactly that. Jonah ran away from his mission, Philip literally runs to it. He doesn't just walk, he doesn't rent an Uber, he literally stands up and he takes off running. not from his mission trip, but straight into it. And where Philip goes is actually somewhat interesting. If you were to look at the place that Philip is sent to on a modern map today, Philip was sent to the Gaza Strip. very interesting and controversial piece of real estate. At this time, the Gaza Strip in Philip's day was a road going from Jerusalem down through Gaza, headed towards Ethiopia, but at this particular moment, it was largely barren. It was something of a burnt-over district a barren wasteland, and the reason for that is Alexander the Not-So-Great, that's the title I'm giving him, had destroyed this area, ravaged it, and pretty much razed it down to the ground. A once inhabited city is now something like you'd see in one of those post-apocalyptic zombie movies. No one's there. Largely lifeless and bleak. But what a great place for the Holy Spirit to send a missionary. And so often, this is exactly what we see in the Bible, is that God often sends this life-giving gospel to burnt-over districts, to barren waste plans, places once teeming with life, now deserted and abandoned. And the point is, God will do what only God can do. God will bring life to the desert. God will revive that which has died. And that's exactly what he does here. He does it through Philip. Philip is commanded directly to go. And I want to, I want to make a point more than once, and it'll tie in just a little bit, a little bit of overlap with the point that your pastor made this morning. And the point is simply this, when the Holy Spirit decided to go on mission trip to Africa, he didn't go alone. In fact, he didn't simply just send an angel or a bolt of lightning, he sent a guy. And don't overstate the significance of a guy, just a guy. That was the Holy Spirit's plan. So an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, but very importantly, that angel himself could have gone himself. Well, the spirit could have said to the angel, you go down, I have work for you to do. But rather, through this angel, the spirit sends Philip down to what we now know as the Gaza Strip, the beginning of a mission trip to Africa. And this is how God works all throughout the book of Acts. He works through men, frail, imperfect, clay-footed. Did I mention imperfect? Men. It becomes the norm that God works through means He sends preachers, He raises up preachers, and because I'm completely convinced God has a sense of humor, He even makes them run. So Philip goes running down, and there he finds this Ethiopian eunuch. I have to talk a little bit about what it means to be an Ethiopian eunuch, though I grant it's something of an uncomfortable subject, as these were males that were castrated in order to serve in a king's station. This one in particular is described as a high-ranking official, and often these eunuchs were put in charge of the king's harem or the king's family. This particular eunuch from Ethiopia, we are told belongs in the service as a court official of Candace. Now you may be tempted to think of Candace as a proper name, like Betty or Linda or something like that, but Candace is actually a title. It's kind of like the female version of Caesar. There were many Candaces, and they all had different names, just as there were many Caesars, and they all had different names. And so the point is, Candace is a very high-ranking person in Ethiopia, arguably the wife of the king. Kings themselves were almost elevated to the level of divinity. They were treated like gods, and this is almost kind of comical, but they were considered in some ways too holy to deal with the material things of the kingdom, to run the spreadsheets, to keep track of the stuff of the kingdom. So as one author put it, they reigned, but they often did not rule. And so the king would have his Candace, who would be the queen mother over the lamb who handled many of the affairs of the kingdom. Eunuchs would be appointed in the service of the queen, i.e., the Candace, to help her in her work and to protect her in her travels. This is arguably what the Ethiopian eunuch would have been doing, and we're told he was in charge of the royal treasure. So this is a man with really high ranking status in Ethiopia. And remarkable about that is that he's in Jerusalem to worship. a Gentile proselyte, if you will, one who has come with some intrigue with the worship of Yahweh and what is taking place in Jerusalem. We're not told an awful lot of details about him, actually, like exactly where he was while he was in Jerusalem or who was with him. The main thing is the main thing, and that's he was there to worship. But as we meet him, he is seated in a chariot. likely drawn by horses and reading. This is something of, at least to me, a little bit of a comedy. If you imagine a man sitting in a horse-drawn chariot, he's reading, the road is bumpy, and all of a sudden he looks out the side of his window and there's a guy running at the speed of a horse-drawn chariot. Now, I don't know how fast his horses were going. I know how fast I can't go. And I'm impressed at what this man must see as he looks outside the window and finds a man running alongside him. The practice of the day was often when a person who could read, which was very few, when they were reading, to do so aloud. So he's likely reading aloud from the book of Isaiah in this horse-drawn chariot, and Philip not only sees him reading, but hears what he is reading. Makes you wonder if Philip was actually pretty quick not just quick to obey, but quick on his feet. There are young men in here in this church who are quick. Some of us remember the days when we were at least a little bit faster, not so much struggling being a middle-aged man with asthma who could not only not keep up with horse-drawn chariots, but hold conversation while running this fast. It's at least a little bit impressive. Philip asked the eunuch if he understands what he is reading, and the answer is really great. It's a remarkably humble, accurate answer. How can I implicitly understand unless someone guides me? How can I understand the Word of God unless someone guides me? Even a high-ranking official like this Ethiopian eunuch is brought low by the Word of God. And there's a great lesson there. When the humble take up the Word of God, the Word really does draw near. When our posture is not one of overstanding, putting ourselves above the Word, but understanding that the word might be above us, it is always fruitful. The eunuch asked for understanding, and Philip offers to help, jumping up in this horse-drawn chariot. This takes us to our second point, the Spirit's work in Isaiah, the text that they are discussing. I want to ask again the question, how does the Spirit of God work? How does the Holy Spirit speak? Often I find myself talking with people about things of the faith, and it's not too uncommon to hear someone say, you know, I don't want to go to church. I just want God to speak directly to me. And I get it. That'd be convenient. And we all have this craving for the extraordinary. But so often what God does, even in a remarkable, extraordinary book like Acts, is something very ordinary. He speaks through means. God works through means. This eunuch may be reading the prophet Isaiah, but it's not an angel that God sends to jump up in the chariot. It's not a voice from heaven that comes directly down the voice of God. God could have done it any way he wanted to do it, and this is how he chose to do it in this very ordinary manner. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. In the Ethiopian eunuch, is reading out loud from Isaiah 53. But even that, I don't want you to jump over too quickly. A little while ago, your pastor said, take out your Bibles and let's read from someplace. And you know what the amazing thing is? You had one to take out. But don't overlook the fact that holding a printed Bible, as all of us in this room are able to do, I mean, that's as recent as the last couple hundred years. 300 years ago, people didn't have Bibles in their houses. If you wanted to hear the word of God, do you know where you went? You went to church. And you heard the man of God preach the word of God to the people of God. But people didn't just have Bibles. Don't overlook the fact that this is a big deal. In fact, some suggest that the only reason he has this is that he's just gone to Jerusalem in the service of his queen. He's not only a high-ranking official in her court, he was in charge of her treasure, and this has likely been given as a gift to Candace. This is a treasure among treasures. He's in charge of the treasure, and yet here he is now holding this great treasure, the word of God itself, at a time when there were no Bibles, and all that existed was the Tanakh, the law, the prophet, and the writings that would often be written on really big books, and I just happen to have this pulpit Bible up here. It's like half the size of me. And then this eunuch's day, they would be almost twice that side with all the words jumbled in, in a very difficult to read format. It'd be tight. And those books would be rare, often hidden, not simply at a temple, but in the synagogue. And such a large book. Heavy to hold with print that was small and difficult to read would be even harder to read on a bumpy road in a horse-drawn chariot. But this is where God is pleased to meet this man. The eunuch had gone to church, if you will, and taken his Bible home. Now he is reading on the way home. And this is where he meets not simply Philip, but ultimately the Savior. And it's beautiful the way it happens. The eunuch is reading, Philip is running, Philip hears him reading, the eunuch invites him up in, and the evangelistic Bible study begins, looking at Isaiah 53, verses seven and eight. Text that you've now heard multiple times today. You've sung it, you've read it, you've heard it read, and what does it describe? As this eunuch is reading, but our great high priest and Savior came to lay down His life, the Lord of heaven and earth, The shepherd of Israel has become like a lamb and the servant of sinners. And he went quietly. He went passively. He laid down his life, though he was perfectly obedient. He was treated as the most vile offenders. And on the one hand, he is described in this beautiful song with high and exalted language, so much so it almost sounds like it's talking about God. And then at other points, he's described with the most demeaning of language, one who is oppressed, to whom justice was denied, upon whom the chastisement for our sins has fallen as though he himself were a criminal. He barely even sounds human. This is what the eunuch reads about. The savior who was silent and opened not his mouth. When C.S. Lewis describes Aslan the lion, which is a Christ figure in his book, one of the things that he does so remarkably is describe the event where Aslan is killed. And if you've ever watched it, let alone read it, you're almost angry the whole time wondering how does he lay so still? How does he lay so still? The lion with all the strength to rise up and maul them to death, to defeat his enemies. How does he lay so still? And the answer is, he was there in our place. The lion that lays so still, silent before his shearers. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. as went the Savior. So now has also gone his people. This is also Acts chapter 8. This story is against the backdrop of the death of Stephen, and Saul is now ravaging the church. This is news that would have been spread. This is a story the eunuch would now begin to hear about. And so this language, who can describe generation, a term of condemnation. The point is words cannot describe what was done to this man and it climaxes in his death, for his life was taken away from the earth, but as the song goes on, his death gave way to eternal life. The lion that came to die also came to live. Now you and I know this because we've read it so many times. Like you can imagine, this eunuch is pretty puzzled. This is a lot to take in. The Lord of heaven has become the servant of sinners. The shepherd of Israel died as a criminal. Death gives way to life. Who is he speaking about? Well, what happens next is fantastic and is also our third and final point. What the Spirit does. in this eunuch. Philip begins walking him through the scriptures, beginning here in Isaiah, that language again of him telling him the good news could playfully be translated gossiping of the good news, gossiping the good news about Jesus, this mystery, this secret that's now being broadly proclaimed and spread about the way that Luke, the author of Acts, described it is not simply somewhat poetic. It almost seems like he's self-reflecting because something very similar happened to him in his own life. In Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus, there he was in a desert place in between cities, walking alongside the resurrected Jesus, completely unbeknownst to him, as Jesus did for Luke, what Philip now does for the eunuch, begins walking him through all these scriptures that tell the story of the precious Savior. In their confusion, walking on a rope mode between towns, is it so often the case, beloved, that Jesus really does find his people in the desert, in the wasteland, standing on the edge of confusion. And yet there he makes all things new and all things clear. As Luke had received, so now also does the Ethiopian eunuch. And quite arguably, it is here that this eunuch is converted. And you can sense, even as he reads in Philip, explains, again, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And if the question was asked this morning, how shall they hear? This perfectly illustrates the answer. He was sent. Philip was sent. God didn't send a lightning bolt or an angel. He sent a guy. And that guy is gossiping the good news to the Ethiopian eunuch. And when the lights come on, he begins to understand this is about Jesus. And this is who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. Notice what happens to him. He's excited. You can sense just the narrative excitement. It's almost as though he wells up with excitement. He can't handle it, so to speak. He's full of joy. As the eunuch listened to Philip, Philip must have talked about not simply what Jesus had done, but the Great Commission, this promise that the gospel would go to the nations for this eunuch. a promise that the gospel would go to Ethiopia, into Africa. The gospel must go to the Gentiles. The good news of the gospel, beloved, must be gossiped among the nations. And it's begun. And this eunuch has the privilege of being the first, if you will, of his people to learn the name of Jesus. Africa must learn the name of Jesus. One of my favorite theologians comes from here, from North Africa, St. Augustine. And I continue to marvel how often people remain confused between Augustine and Augustine. It's very simple. St. Augustine is in heaven, and St. Augustine is right over there. The shepherd of Israel became the servant of sinners, that grace might abound not only to this eunuch, but to the nations, Acts really is the biography of the Holy Spirit. This really tells the story of the Spirit's first mission trip into Africa and the means by which he goes down, the means by which he carries out the Great Commission, not simply to the many, but even to the one. So that the Ethiopian eunuch could now say, not only with his knowledge of a psalm like Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, but a clearer understanding of Isaiah 53, the Lamb is my shepherd. crucified for me, died for me, buried for me, raised up and ascended into heaven for me, victorious for me, and sending His life-giving Spirit for me, and not only for me, but for the nation, the country of Africa, for the nations as well. You see, beloved, the point of the text is not that Aslan is on the move. The Spirit of God is on the move. It moved in the Ethiopian eunuch's heart. Has it moved in yours? Has he sought you and found you in that desert wasteland where no one would go but God? And no one could go but God and bring life in the place of death, light in the place of darkness. And as he moved in you in such a way as not only to create life, but joy, joy and excitement for the gospel that makes you want to not hide it under a basket, but gossip just the right way. There's a form of gossip that's all too easy and very unhelpful. There's a great version of gossiping the gospel that the people of God should be inclined to even more. The eunuch's response further proves not only the work of the Spirit, but again, God's sense of humor as it raises a couple of interesting questions. You probably wonder if I was gonna skip them and go home. What about this baptism? Isn't this an intriguing text? Ethiopian eunuch as they're riding down and he hears the story of what Isaiah 53 really means as Philip explains it to him. They're riding, they're bumping down the road and the eunuch looks out the side of the carriage and he sees water and he's so excited. He's so captured by this gospel and certainly some understanding of the Great Commission, the command to repent, to believe, to be baptized, that he's asked this great question. It's naive, it's innocent, it's childlike, it's right on. What prevents me from being baptized? It's a great question. In fact, there are a couple questions here, not only regarding his baptism, but even the fact that Philip, who does it, I don't know if you knew this, but he's actually a deacon. Even that is an interesting question. I'm not going to skip these things. We're going to talk about it. The Ethiopian eunuch does not go through a new members class, a catechism class, He doesn't make a profession of faith in front of a church, to my knowledge. I don't think he went anywhere other than right to that little creek side body of water. In the early church, including St. Augustine, in those days it was required that one go through a pretty extensive class before one could be baptized and make a profession. In fact, I've read St. Augustine's communicants It's really a book. It takes two years to go through it. It was literally designed that way. But New Testament scholar Oscar Coleman discovered also amongst the church fathers what was referred to, and I love this, a prevention clause taken from Acts chapter eight. regarding unusual circumstances that ought not to prevent a person from being baptized. And this would appear to be one of those unusual cases. Maybe it's not the norm, maybe we ought not to make a paradigm out of it, but surely Philip baptizes this Ethiopian eunuch upon his immediate request. And a related question comes down to even the mode of baptism. How deep was that water and how deep did Philip go? Were you wondering about any of that stuff? You know what's really gonna surprise you? Is John Calvin on this particular text, the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch, suggests it's quite likely that the eunuch was immersed. And goes on to say, while not arguing for immersion as the paradigm, that Christians ought to be charitable on whether or not we immerse. or dip, or sprinkle, and the Westminster Confession of Faith adopts Calvin's view when it says on baptism, while the dipping of the person into water is not required, baptism is rightly administered with pouring or sprinkling. Calvin wonders if he was immersed, but then argues for charity, and I think we could appreciate that. The point about charity. I appreciate Calvin's charity on this point, but what matters here is not the stuff we could speculate. How deep was the water? How far in did they go? Did the unit go all the way under? You could speculate, but you don't really know for sure. What matters is not the amount of water at work, beloved. What matters is the spirit of God is at work. That's what is center stage here in our text. The Spirit has just unambiguously converted an Ethiopian eunuch from North Africa, and this is a remarkable thing. This is literally the first fruits of the gospel in Africa. If Acts truly is a biography of the Holy Spirit, then this is the story of that mission work of the Holy Spirit going into Africa, and it doesn't end there, it begins here. Immediately afterwards, two things happen. The first is, again, mind-blowing. Philip disappears. This would be a really cool trick for pastors, and so convenient. He's in one place, and he's gone in another place. faster than you can send a text. Philip apparently disappears altogether. It's a straight up miracle. He vanishes from one location here at this Gaza Strip and he reappears a moment later in another location. Look at verse 40 in Azotos. And as soon as he appears in this new place, he begins to preach. What are you going to make of all this? It only happens a very rare few times in the Bible. It's never suggested as some sort of a norm. What does it prove? What's the point? Well, that's a meaningful question. The point is not this. The point is not that Philip is everywhere, but rather the gospel is going everywhere. Aslan really is on the move. So Philip's next stop is Azotthos, which you might know from the Old Testament as Ashdod, one of the five major Philistine cities. And as he heads back, it's like the spirit takes him like a rock in a slingshot and it fires him well south. And he begins to make his way back north towards Sazera. And he stops and preaches at all the five towns along the way. If that's what happens to Philip, what becomes of our eunuch? The Ethiopian eunuch. When Philip disappears, the eunuch keeps going. And what does he do? He goes to Africa rejoicing on his way. Do you know why? Because when the gospel penetrates our hearts, beloved, it brings joy. A joy that is otherworldly. A joy that is life-giving. A joy that comes not simply with the forgiveness of our sins, but the hope of heaven. A joy that is so transformative, it almost makes us want to gossip. The good news about Jesus. The Ethiopian eunuch may have read the Bible before, but he'll never read it the same way again. And so what is the point then of our text? The point is that the Holy Spirit is on the move. The point is the Holy Spirit has begun carrying out that work that was promised, that the gospel would go to the ends of the earth, that the gospel would go to Africa. It begins with an Ethiopian Munich, but is not in there. But if the gospel was going, and if the gospel is still going as it is, the question becomes how? Is Aslan no longer moving? Is the Holy Spirit's biography done being written? Or is there more to the story? Not simply more time, but more people. And of course, beloved, the Spirit is still on the move. Not through vanishing deacons who run at the speed of horse-drawn chariots, but through the ordinary means of grace. preaching of God's Word, the sacraments and prayer, that outward and ordinary means by which God has promised to convince and convert sinners and to build them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation, and the means that he used to proclaim his means are ordinary men, ordinary people, those who have been called by the Spirit of God to proclaim an extraordinary gospel. I was really, really heartened to hear this morning, although it's still a little bit of my thunder, he didn't know, your pastor, even nudged the young men of the church here a little bit to consider, maybe the Lord might be calling you. You know what a great thing would be? Is if some of you young men one day were standing in pulpits like this. I actually tried to give two teenagers my sermon notes to see if they'd preach for me tonight. It's not because I wanted to get out of the pulpit. It's because I'd love to see them get in. Young runners make great preachers. It's just the way that it works. And while we're at it, there are a lot of people still in that wasteland. We've just moved to Daytona Beach, which feels about as spiritually burnt over as it could be. And you live in a place full of darkness, full of darkness. But how many Ethiopian eunuchs are yet out there? How many bearers of the image of God are yet to receive the grace of God when they hear the gospel of God gossiped by the people of God? Aslan is on the move. And he moves in and through his church. He even uses us. Let us pray. Our great God in heaven, we rejoice in the fact that not only are you pleased to save people, we marvel at the fact that you use people. We know, Lord, that ultimately it is the Spirit's work in the life of this Ethiopian eunuch that caused him to have eyes to see and ears to hear the truth of your word. But we find great confidence in that. There was nothing special about Philip. He was just a guy. and yet he was called by you and used by you. And so we ask, O Lord, that you would cause us to contemplate the great things that you are doing in and through us, that you'd raise up another generation of faithful servants. There might be young men in this room who could be called to pulpit ministry. There could be young ladies in this room who are called to one aspect of the mission field or another. And we ask, O Lord, that you help us to remember that the power of the gospel is not found in the winsomeness the wisdom or the strength of men, but in the power of the one who once lay still and now is again on the move. It's in his name that we pray, even Jesus. Amen.