in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes 7 as we continue through our study in Ecclesiastes of the vanity of life under the sun when it means to be an image-bearer of God. Please hear the word of the Lord. Starting in verse 15. In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evil doing. Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, and neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand. For the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest your ear hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. All this I have tested by wisdom. I said I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which has been far off, deep, very deep, who can find it out? This is the Word of the Lord. Please bow your head with me. Let's pray for our time of teaching together. Heavenly Father, please help me faithfully exposit your Word and encourage and equip, rebuke, exhort, correct, and build up the godly man and woman in Christ today. Lord, help me as I work through this, bring to remembrance the text that you would like me to convey Lord, to come to remember that You alone are the One who convicts of sin and unrighteousness by virtue of Your Spirit present within us. You alone are the One who calls those to Yourself. The One who circumcises the heart without hands. Who writes His law upon our hearts. Who makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. And it is by Your Word that when we hear it, we're renewed and we're saved. I pray that this Word would save some today. Save some from themselves, Lord. Whether they be among the righteous, those falsely so-called, who believe that they're doing the right thing, yet are the furthest away from the kingdom they could be, and are missing out on what it means to walk in the mercy and grace of You, Christ. And also for those who are just desperately wicked, who revel in their wickedness, who love their wickedness in their rebellion of You, who deny the truth and reject it and oppress it and suppress it. They could care less whether or not they were in Christ because they love their sin. Lord, I pray that You would use this text today to jolt them out of that and to recognize and acknowledge that they need to be obedient to You, the Lord Jesus Christ, and walk humbly with You. In Jesus' name, So today's sermon title is, Why Should You Be Destroyed? And the reason I came up with that title is as you notice in the text here, Solomon asks a question at the end of verse 16. Why should you destroy yourself? And it stood out to me. I'm thinking this is a really interesting question as it relates to what he's driving at. Let's start with verse 15. He says, In my vain life I have seen everything. There's a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there's a wicked man who prolongs his life in evildoing. Now, this could be looked at as one of two ways, I think. And when we think about the righteous man, you think about a person who walks with God, loves God, adores him, follows in his word, is obedient to him, lives a life. There are few people all throughout the scriptural witness who are referenced this way. Job comes to mind, Abraham comes to mind, and Moses and many others, but very few. David is another good example of that. This is a righteous man, right? I don't think that that's the kind of person that that Solomon's talking about here. And the reason why is I think the context will help us unfold and better understand that. There is a righteous person who will die. They'll die in their sins. There's a wicked man who will die in their sins. And you're like, wait a second, let's continue on. Allow me to kind of develop this, I believe, the way that Solomon's trying to get across to us. Note that he says in the following verse, be not overly righteous. And that word overly really is trying to press the idea that this is a great degree of righteousness or a great extent. This is something far and above and beyond what would be expected. And then he says, do not make yourself too or excessively or see yourself in a superiority wise. Like this, you're exalting yourself above others. You're so wise and your pursuit of wisdom is so great. And that will destroy you. It's these two things that will destroy you. Think about it. Why would righteousness destroy someone? What is the possibility of becoming overly righteous? Think about it. That's a good thing. Being a righteous person is a good thing, right? What's the danger in becoming two wives? I mean, wisdom is something that we're called to pursue. Just think about Proverbs 8, right? I quote it often. Lady Wisdom calls us to pursue her with everything within us, right? And says that if we fail to find her, we fail to find life. If we hate her, we love death. Well, then what the heck is Solomon talking about here? What is he trying to drive at? Think of this idea of righteousness as a just, lawful, law follower, right? It's a moral and forensic sense that he's talking about. So it's someone who's like highly moral, very lawful person, very concerned about doing the right thing. That's not a bad thing. However, I think, you know, we talked about great intentions yesterday, Andrew and I hung out. And by the way, that was awesome. I got to spend quite a bit of time with Andrew just dialoguing about what I wanted to preach on today. And it was very helpful, what is it says, that a lot of people go to hell with great intentions or what, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? Great intentions, you think about it, we talked about the Pharisees and the history of the Pharisees, right? The history of the Pharisees, right, during the second, the building, the restoration of the second temple period, which was really the restoration of Israel. And that sect was developed around men who would be incredible examples walking with God, right? You could look to them and say, OK, there's a man of God. There's a man who is righteous. And what do we find out about those men later when Jesus is confronting them? We find that they've gone astray in their righteousness. And I believe that that over righteousness would be the Pharisees would be a key example of that overly righteous attitude and behavior. Because think about it, is it possible to become overly just and lawful in God's eyes? No, because Christ was perfect. He fulfilled all righteousness. He was the perfect man. We should be striving for that in the end. That should be our goal. And if that were true, he'd be contradicting a biblical mandate to be holy as God is holy. Think about what Peter says in 1 Peter 1.14-16 as he's quoting Leviticus 11.44. He says this, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all of your conduct, since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. We're called to be holy. So Solomon couldn't possibly be contradicting the very thing God had commanded the Israelites, and by virtue of us in Christ, as Peter's reiterating that, right? We are to be holy as God is holy. That's just not an option. What about being too wise? Is Solomon encouraging us to limit our pursuit of wisdom? I would say absolutely not, again. He'd be contradicting the biblical mandate to continually grow in the knowledge of our Lord. Isn't that what the Proverbs are all about? Isn't that what the wisdom literature was conveyed to us for? Isn't that what it exhorts us to consider? Isn't one of the key words throughout all of the scripture, remember, remember, remember. And all the times throughout all of Israel's history, they failed to remember the Lord and all of his promises and all of his great acts and whatnot. Why? Because they neglected the word of God. So is he saying that we should be like, here's a wise man, the wisest of all men, the one who prayed, Lord, help me be wise so that I can appropriately lead your people. Is he saying, don't do that. Don't be overly wise. Don't be like me. I don't think he's saying that. Consider what Paul has to say, or excuse me, 2 Peter. In 2 Peter, what Peter says again, quoting Peter a lot today. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Speaking of Christ. Through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped, listen, escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. This knowledge helps you escape the corruption that's in the world. It helps you curb and put into check your sinful desires. This knowledge is a very good thing. He goes on, right? For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue. Here is a moral imperative. Virtue is a moral imperative. It's a good thing. Be a virtuous person, right? And with this virtue, knowledge and knowledge self-controlled. Notice how knowledge is always bookending these things. It's important to have this knowledge. Be wise, right? Self-control with steadfastness. Based on this self-control, you're going to maintain and sustain this escape from the world and its sinful desires. Godliness will be a result of your steadfastness and godliness with brotherly affection. Notice how immediately it goes from your personal individual walk with the Lord and honoring and being led by his word, by this knowledge that helps you escape the sinful world and your sinful desires curb them, then it immediately gives you this outflowing of brotherly affection. That should be the natural result of your knowledge in Christ, right? You should start loving people, especially your brothers and sisters in Christ. And isn't it interesting, that is exactly the result. Notice the text that we use for our scripture reading today in Colossians. That's what Paul says the result should be, love and brotherly affection. And with this brotherly affection, love. For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's like a perpetual system. Think about that. This very knowledge is what helps you build up all these things, all these wonderful attributes that we're required to have for those who are in Christ. And it keeps you ineffective and growing in the knowledge of the Lord. It's like it's a perpetual thing. There's one I would call a virtuous cycle unto godliness. Right. And then there's another cycle, a vicious cycle into ungodliness. Quite literally, we're only going like one or two ways. And maybe we got caught in the turbulence of it. You know, we call that sanctification. I digress. Let's continue on. Remember, lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind. Having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins, I want you to remember that as we go through our text today. You need to remember that you were cleansed from your sins. That should produce some change in your life, some radical, drastic change. That should change your attitude, right? That should help you with virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. That you were cleansed from your former sins. Don't forget that. Don't be blinded to that. Therefore, brothers, with all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, For if you practice these qualities, you'll never fall. For in this way you'll be richly provided for you an inheritance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." So then what sort of wisdom and righteousness is Solomon suggesting can destroy us? I believe that's a self-defined value. It's something that abandons Scripture. It is something that walks away from the law of God. It's what seems like it's right in our own eyes for the moment, and it gets warped and blown out of proportion by what personal and culturally defined scruples What's a scruple? Well, Webster's Dictionary says it's an ethical consideration. I like that idea. It's an ethical consideration. You're thinking about it. You're considering it. You're pondering it, right? And it's a principled, think about that, it's a principled ethical consideration that inhibits actions. It stops you from doing certain things. It's a mental reservation based on those principles. So why do I use the term cultural? Let me say this, guys. Let me first by saying this as your pastor, I love all of you guys. I love you all. I'm gonna look you in the eye. Make sure I make contact with all of you. I love you, especially my family here. Love you, love all of you. Okay, I love you guys, okay? And as I've said often, you know, think about us. Think about this cute little group that we are called Emmaus Road, okay? Lot of different people in this room coming from a lot of different backgrounds from a lot of different places and a lot of different points in their life okay, there are some in this room who grow up as Christians and Wonderful loving Christian households. Let me say I am incredibly envious and jealous of you. I did not And there are some in this room who live some pretty nasty and Gross, detestable lives prior to coming to Christ. They didn't come to Christ until much later in their lives. Some today in this room still aren't with Christ. And they think they are. Some in this room are still not with Christ and don't want to be. There's a lot of different people in this room right now. And one thing that's interesting about what it means to be a believer, and if you notice that brotherly love connection, right, is that we are commanded, and I say this often as well, Francis Schaeffer said, the greatest apologetic, meaning our greatest defense for the faith of Christianity, is our love for one another. Why? Because the world is not a very loving place, is it? No, it's gross, it's detestable, it's wicked. Just look at the perversity that we're surrounded by, and the things that we are tempted into engaging in, the things that we are tempted into promoting, the things that we are tempted to capitulate to, right? Just think about it, all the things that surround us. And then we gather on a Sunday, or maybe throughout the week with one another, oddball groups of one another that come from different backgrounds, different walks of life, different experiences, and we love each other. I know you've experienced this. You've probably gone to a place somewhere maybe in the world where you've never been before, or another town or another city you visited, and you go to a church or maybe you meet someone in the coffee shop or something, and you sit down with them, you discover, you find out this person's a believer in Christ, right? And it's almost immediately, you're like, there's this kindred spirit. You have fellowship, you have something to talk about, you have a common thing. It's called redemption in Christ. And you can revel in it, right? And you can share. I remember when I first met Greg, when Greg and Jahira moved to Colorado, I'm busy brewing beer at Trinity. A mutual friend of ours connected us and he was gonna meet me there at the brewery and we get there and man, we're immediately hitting off and he's like, you know Greg, he goes, you like Greg Bonson, huh? Greg Bonson's your, he knew immediately, because I'm just like, you know, just typical me, just rattling off all this stuff. And we had this mutual connection. We had a mutual bond in Christ immediately, right? You experienced that. I know many of you guys in this room have experienced those things. But there's something that creates a wall in that that destroys that it ruins it I'm talking like walls bigger than Trump could ever build and he builds the best walls only the best walls You're welcome There's something that destroys that fellowship. There's something that ruins and gets in the middle of it and But before I go into that, I want to talk about the root of this wall. I want to talk about the root of the destruction that comes in between this ethical consideration and principle that inhibits action, that causes mental reservation based on our personal experiences and based on our cultural upbringings and backgrounds, based on our individual experiences in that area. Let's start out what I believe is the simple and most profound problem. This destructive behavior and this great temptation that we all face goes back to man's earliest memories. All the way back to the garden. Let's go to Genesis chapter 3. I want to point something out to you guys. And some of you are thinking, dude, Jeremy does this every time. It's always Genesis. Right? Because it's the beginning. It's Genesis. I think we're supposed to be here a lot. Okay. Chapter 1, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast in the field that the Lord God has made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of the tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, well, we can eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, and neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, and with her they ate. And then their eyes were both open and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. Now, why am I going here? Well, the fall impacted mankind in some way. Eve was tempted to have the knowledge of God. Think of that. It says right here, it says that it was good for food, it was a delight to the eyes, so it was attractive, there was a temptation there, and it was a desire to make one wise, and then there's a little note, some of you might have a little note there, to give one insight. There was a greater depth of knowledge that was available there in this fruit to give one more insight. And we're always like, think about how curious we are. We're curious creatures, our kids are curious, We want to go, well, what does he mean by that? There's more insight. There's something there to be learned and know that's something I don't know. What is God keeping from me, right? And that was the trick of the serpent. God's keeping something from you. And it's going to open your eyes, meaning it's going to give you a broader understanding of reality than you have right now. And it's going to be insightful. It's going to help you. And God doesn't want you to have that because God doesn't want you to be like him. When she did that, and I don't think a lot of people put their finger on this, because when you talk to people about sin in the fall, they just say, well, everybody, Adam and Eve sinned, and the problem of evil came into the world, and Christ redeemed us. Well, we need to understand, and this is something that Andrew's done an excellent job of the last few weeks, and I would say over the course and time that he's gone through the confession with us, to better understand what this meant. What was the fall? Because to understand the fall is to know our problem, is to know what we face, to know where our temptations lie, and to also understand what we've been redeemed from. It was the moment she thought that the ability to discern between good and evil, other than taking the command of God at face value, was more important. It was that thought. Let me say that again. The moment that she decided to discern between good and evil, instead of take God's Word at face value, and determine what good and evil was for herself, this idea of mental reservation, ethical consideration, something that prohibits some action, when she decided to do that, she went, you know what God, I love how Greg Bonson describes this, he says, Serpent, you have a proposal. God has a proposal. Let me be the one that determines what's right and what's wrong. Guys, the moment she did that, that's where the problem of evil entered into the world. And then they, of course, followed through with that and partook. Why? Because she really wanted to be able to know. She wanted to be the one that made that decision, not take God at face value. Hey, don't eat the tree. You'll die, right? Serpent's like, you won't die. Your eyes will be open, and then God just doesn't want you to be like him. You're going to have insight into something that he doesn't want you to have insight in. He doesn't want you to be like him. Become a god, right, in a sense. That today, by the way, I believe, simply, as simple as it is, and as profound as it is, is our problem. This is the issue. We face it every day. We all face this temptation to define good and evil on our own. Why? Because how much of us spend time memorizing this word? And then living according to it. You know, I often know what we do is we go, I feel this way. When you said that to me, I feel like this is the way you were coming across to me. We start measuring motives in our feelings. Our feelings become that which dictates reality. It becomes the authority by which we measure all things. I feel like this is the way you're treating me right now. I feel like when you did that, this is what you meant. I feel like doing this. I feel like moving on. I feel like I should pray a little bit more about this because my feelings are being dictated and guided, what I call the Holy Spirit, but it's really my feelings. That becomes the ultimate authority that governs our life. And then we go, yeah, I feel that. And then we start using theological Christianese to back that up, which is super dangerous, by the way. Think about this. The moment Eve doubted, she started questioning God's motive, questioning whether or not He had her or Adam's best interest in mind. You know, I feel like maybe the serpent might be right. Serpent's onto something. Then she was persuaded to figure it out herself. She would be the one that decides whether or not God's command was reasonable. The fall ultimately was a doubt of God's word, a result in a failure to take Him at His word. His word is the law of the created order. And turning away from God's law word is, as John says, lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. It's a making up of one's own law, doing what's right in one's own eyes, being dictated by their feelings and emotions and imaginations. That's what being lawless is in God's created order. That's what unbelievers do, and that's what you're saved from. And guys, sadly, we all fall into this trap. We start making up what we think God's law is. We do it all the time. Think about it. We see it in children, right? We see it, why? Because what does God say about children? He said, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. This is Genesis 6, right before the flood. That every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And he goes on, in the conclusion of After Post-Flood, he says, And I will never again curse the ground because of man. For the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. It's a pretty desperate situation, right? Think about it. From the moment children are born, our children, they're our babies and they're utterly dependent. They demand our constant attention, right? We created them, and we care for them, and we nurture them. Some of you are pregnant. We're going to celebrate that today, right? The gift of a new life, the creation of a new life. That's what beautiful baby showers are for. But think about it. Hopefully, as good parents, we're going to do our best to instruct them in the way that they ought to go. When they rise up, when they walk by the way, and when they lie down, teaching them Koram Deo, which is how they should live their life before the living God, in his created order. That's what it means to raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. You're admonishing them to follow God's word. This is what it means to live, as we're instructing them, to live a blessed life before their creator in his world, as Solomon would say, under the sun. Now, here's what's interesting. Before they can talk, they throw tantrums, don't they? Any parents in the room know we're good, we're glazed over, not enough coffee this morning, we're falling asleep because of our kids keeping us up all night? No, they throw tantrums, don't they? They throw tantrums when what happens, and they don't get their way. They want what they want, when they want it, how they want it. You know what I'm saying? And they're gonna get it. And if you don't give it to them, they're gonna lose their minds on you. Red face, screaming and all. In some cases, before they can even speak, they fiercely rear their heads back in defiance when they're little ones, right? You guys have that yet? Where, you know, you're holding a little toddler or a little, you know, tiny little one, an infant, and they're just like, you know, they're just, you're like, no, dude, man, you can't, he's like trying to hold on to him, and they're just doing this, right? They're so mad at you, they yell at you. Sometimes they throw themselves off the bed or the kitchen table. Pierce did that. He threw himself off the bed. Mommy set up boundaries and he just rolled right off. I don't want to be on these boundaries. Jayce, in his defiance, threw himself right off our kitchen table. Smacked his head. That's probably what's the matter with you. Anyway. Smacked sense into him. Tell you that right now. We were worried he had a little flat spot on the back of his head. Doctor's like, he's fine. Mom's like, no, it's good. He's a little baby. They grow back. But think about that. In defiance, like, you know, think about that. Like, I want my way. And they just throw themselves. You're like, no, you're going to kill yourself, right? I'll never forget my poor wife crying when Pierce threw himself off the bed, you know. So glad he didn't break his neck. But think about what they're doing when they do that. Even as a little child, they're defying the boundaries that you've set for them, and in a lot of ways, questioning whether or not you have their best intention in mind. They're not saying that. They can't articulate that, but that's what they're doing. They want to do their thing, no matter how many boundaries you set for them and no matter what you say for them, no matter how you raise them. As they learn to speak, think of this, guys, this is hilarious, right? As they learn to speak, what's some of the first words that fall out of these little people's lives, their mouths? What is what? No! That's the first word I have. No. You're like, whoa, whoa, bro. You don't get to say no to me, right? You don't think about that. And then what's the next one? Mine. All right? No, mine. Not mommy, not daddy and I love you. It's no, mine, you know, right? And those things fall effortlessly from their lips. The older they get, the more challenged the good commandments that we give them, right? You know, they get into the challenging ages, I would say, from like fixing up. We could just put it in that category, right? They start to get to those teenage years. I have a few of those now. They challenge your good commands. And those good commands are designed to preserve them and protect them, and to care for them and to nurture them, right? You're doing what's in their best interest. We tell them, hey, don't eat, don't partake of that. And then more often than not, invariably, they challenge with this other word that they learned from a very young age. Anybody want to take a stab at it? Why? You're like, dude. No, mine. Why? I mean, think about that. Those are the common words that you hear from your children most of their lives. Really? Right? I get an amen from babies. That's right. Okay, good. They know what's up. They do that. Why? But that why is not necessarily a bad thing. It's just the way they say it. They're very disrespectful. But for the most part, it's why because they really want to understand the logic behind it. But think about it. In essence, Eve took the serpent's temptation and she asked God, why? And he's like, well, if you really want to know, check it out. Just get the fruits, and you'll know why. Your eyes will be open, and you'll get it. You'll have this insight into what God's hiding from you, because he doesn't want you to know, because he doesn't want you to be like him. And that comes as a result of wanting this other thing that childs, as they grow up, which are good things, it's a good thing, but they want this thing really bad. It's called independence. I want my own life, my own thing. Stop bothering me. Let me do my thing, right? I mean, kids say that, bro. And some kids don't say that in the words, but they say that with their actions, don't they? It's like when I told my oldest son, hey, bro, we don't want you walking out on the edge of the neighborhood. We're trying to preserve and protect you. We love you. We care about you. He's smiling right now. What does this fool do? Mommy checks his phone to see where his location is. He goes, he's going right to the edge of the neighborhood, just like we asked him not to do it, right? And it's like, why? Because he wants to do his thing. He wants to be independent. He thinks he could take on whoever. He can care for himself until he gets, never mind, I don't even want to think about what happens out on the edge of those streets, right? Something horrible happens. And then we go, see? And what do parents always say? I told you not to do that. Right? He repented just so we're all clear. Now think about it. Think about parents saying that. That's what the Lord says. I told you not to do that. We think in some way, shape or form that God's Word is there to spoil our fun, our adventure, our independence. our ability to think, because we love that idea of free thinking, right? That independent thinking kind of type. Just let me get this straight here. You heard it here today, that free will is what caused the fall of man. Are we all good? Free will, this idea of free thinking, independent thinking, where we ask all the hard questions to God, why? I want mine, independence. Go out and do my own thing. I'll decide whether or not this is right for me, God, was the reason we fell. It was the reason we were destroyed. And then you know what it did? It enslaved our minds. Oftentimes our Armenian homies forget that part. We are enslaved to do the will of our enemy. We need to be delivered from the bondage of that. So, think about it. We really never have to teach our children what evil is. It's innate. It needs to be checked and constantly weeded out. I've never taught my kids how to lie. I've never taught my kids how to steal things. I've never taught my kids how to just be the worst pills, throw tantrums when they don't get their way. I try to constantly check that, right? That's something that's constantly in us. It roots up within us all the time. And it's something, it doesn't matter how old we get, Over time, those things come out of us, those temptations. And that basic temptation is, my will be done, not thine. That's it. That's really it. Now, what would it be like if everyone in the world rejected God's universal law and did what was right in their own eyes? How would the world look? It would be pretty chaotic, pretty hectic, pretty scary. It would be a terrifying place, right? The Scripture is clear on this matter. It says a rejection of the biblical wisdom always ends in destruction, you guys, in one way, shape, or form. Rejection of the biblical wisdom always into destruction, like when a kid throws himself out of the seat. An unfettered wickedness that introduces chaos into God's very good created order. I'm going to repeat that. Think about this. It's an unfettered wickedness that introduces chaos into God's very good created order. So the moment we start to veer away and we start to do what's right in our own eyes, we start to come up with our own ideas of what good and evil is, We are introducing wickedness into God's very good created order. We are a part of the destructive process. It is a destroyer of shalom, a principle of peace and harmony. It all starts with a choice to listen and obey God's law or to reject it, being a law to oneself. So think about it, will the wicked in their wickedness and in their rejection and their rebellion have any sort of security at all? We would say absolutely not. They may die even before their time. I like that term, right? Why would you be so foolish that you would die before your time? You would reject the living God so much, you would go after your own way and do your own thing so much that you would die before your time, meaning you would die at a young age. You would die before you lived a full life, before you lived a blessed life. And knowing at the very end, and this is of course the point of our text in Ecclesiastes, the full scope of it is that you will ultimately in the end give an account for every action before the living God. You will give an account of your life. You will not be able to escape God's judgment. You will not be able to escape the reality of having to face Him at some point in the end of your life. So let's get to the overly righteous and overly wise. Let's look at some things that possibly might be stuck in our blinders, causing blind spots, or in them, we're just not aware of them. And we need to ask ourself the hard question, how will that destroy us? Think about this, when you first came to the faith, I know this is true of me, when I first came to the faith, like I said, I came out of just debauchery, okay? The Lord grabs ahold of my life, saves me radically, I'm born again. What did I become? I became an extremist, man. I was a straight extremist. I was overly righteous. I was just as extreme in my righteousness as I was in my wickedness. I'm just blasting everybody by the living sword of God. They're getting wrecked right now. I mean, it was just the biggest sword ever, like the one I shared with Brian just recently, the one that's like a Nephilim sword. And I'm just like... Just everybody's going down, right? I went straight from wickedness to cage stage. And then what ends up happening? Just think about this. When we're born again, right? We come out of this life of debauchery, this life of wickedness. We know what that former pattern of life is like. We end up creating all sorts of boundaries that keep us protected, scare quotes, from those evil things, those tendencies, those perversities of the old man. Now we need to be wise, right? And we do all things in the name of wisdom. Don't taste or even touch that stuff, right? We don't want to be guilty by association. And one common thing is alcohol. We've talked about alcohol a lot. We need to find that thing you did on what would Jesus brew. And the reason why we did that, I love that title, by the way. We did that in order to, we wanted to start introducing wine into our communion, and we knew that there were certain objections and obstacles that we had to overcome. I mean, it was a pretty amazing study. Jonathan came over to our house, we had all the guys there, and Jonathan lays out this butcher block paper and says, okay, as we're having a beer, by the way, okay, Any objections that you could think in scripture, and we just started going down through them, right? Any objections you could think, see, people could bring that are outside of scripture, and we started going down. And then what are the different views of scripture on alcohol? Just started busting out, right? And then Jonathan came up with this wonderful series that we can't find, I need to track that down somewhere, that really helped overcome those obstacles. What we found as we were addressing this issue, There was some associational scruple to the old man that came up. And in the name of wisdom, we should avoid it altogether. Don't do what is unwise. And then when the challenge pushed back, you came to biblical challenge, right? It's funny. The biblical challenge comes back like, what do you mean by wisdom? Define that, please. Help us understand what you mean by wisdom. You know what we found in the end of it? Strangely enough, we found an ethical consideration or a principle that inhibited an action based on some mental reservation that was a result of the old lifestyle. Right? It was some old lifestyle, right? We're looking at it and we're like, that was the old man. We're not associated with that stuff anymore. R.C. Sproul, I can't remember if it was a bottle or a glass. He's sitting at a table to have dinner with a group of, it was a bottle, okay, thank you. Where he sits down with this group of people, right? And the server came up and asked him, you know, would you guys like anything to drink? Ask him if they'd like some, you know, alcoholic beverage, adult beverage, right? And they're all kind of like, oh no, we're Christian, dude, we don't do that, right? And R.C. Sproul goes, I'll have a bottle, right? What were they doing? They were saying, we're afraid of our witness as Christians that you're gonna think something about us that you shouldn't think just because we're having alcohol. So it's wise better not to have alcohol. And R.C. Sproul's like, I'll have a bottle. Poured himself a glass, you know? Why did he do that? What point was R.C. Sproul making? Actually, your witness, Christians, is that you're entirely missing the point. You're entirely missing the point. You're so concerned about the way you're perceived, and I'm not saying all perceptions are a bad thing, but you're so concerned about the way you're perceived, you think that it's gonna be a bad witness, you've heard that before, to have a drink of alcohol in a public setting because people know you're a Christian. You're missing the point. That couldn't be further from the truth or else Jesus would have never turned water into wine at a wedding after people were already well drunk. He had challenges based on the consumption of alcohol. I recently, there was a dude who came to our church a few years ago who was promptly, swiftly asked to leave, who I keep in contact with on Facebook just to kind of see what's up with this guy, you know? See if maybe he'll turn a corner. And he got into a conversation with me, because he knows I'm a professional brewer by trade. And he says, how many times do you think you have beers per year? And I'm like, why do you ask? I mean, a lot. I have a lot of beers. I'm a brewer. I drink beer. I like beer, it's okay. And, oh, well, how many times? Like, more than half a year, half a year, whole year? I'm like, why does that matter to you? How many beers would you say you have per week? I'm like, why does that matter? Think about that. Why does that matter to you? Well, you're having a lot of beers, you're a slave. Hang on a second, timeout, timeout. Is frequency and quantity a matter of issue, or is it the pattern of one's life? So if I'm a pastor, I say to them, I would never really be that concerned about frequency and quantity unless it was leading to this particular pattern where it was a master over their life and destroying them. So I would examine them and say, hey, is this thing like destroying your life right now? Are you turning to that like you should be turning to Christ when you're in a crisis, when you're having a problem? Is this something that you have to have all the time? That's the kind of questions that I would ask as a pastor. It's a lot easier to get down to the bottom line, the struggle, right? Verse is saying, let's say, is it two or three that you have per day? Whoa, man, so can I drink two per day and still be in Christ, bro, and not worried about my salvation? Or is it three a day and that's it, bro, you're destined to destruction? His attitude and answer was, yeah, well, you're obviously a slave to it. You may as well be no different than the town drunk. You're obviously a slave. Is that right? Okay. Weird. Last time I checked, man, I'm like providing for my family. I love the Lord. I love his word. It's not overriding my life. I'm not like dying on the inside. You know what I mean? Like this isn't ruining my life. And I'm a professional brewer. This is what I do for a trade. Like I sip it as we go to make sure the product turns out right. I'm not getting hammered every day. And by the way, when I do drink a beer, I'm not doing it to intentionally get smashed. Andrew and I had a couple yesterday. It was great. Fantastic. Right? I'm not going out of my way to avoid my life and my problems and facing my problems in my life from alcohol. Now, some people go, bro, just in the name of wisdom so that you don't get associated with those kind of things, because we do love you, we believe that about you, it's better not to. Is that true? So as a pastor, if I say to people, like I know some pastors, I won't mention names here, who would say, very famous pastors, it's bisbet or not to you guys. Just don't be associated with those things. Don't be around that stuff, especially if you're a pastor. Don't be around it. Because it might be associated with his drunkenness, you know, debauchery, stuff like that, just don't do it, right? As our beloved brother Hajo used to say, you know, you go to a bar, you order a beer, AIDS. You know, it's like over the top, right? I'm not kidding you. He really said that. Everybody does that. I'm like, that's hilarious, bro. That went downhill real quick. That person was zero to a million, right? He's like, yeah, you go to a bar. Next thing you know, you order a beer, and then AIDS. Oh, OK. Is that how it goes? And his point was, it's like, it's not wise. Just be careful with that. And so we're like, OK, I understand that. I totally get that. And we love Hyle. He's an amazing brother. We miss him dearly. That's the argument, so we need to be careful and guard ourselves, set up these boundaries so that we never get associated with it and that we don't push it too far, okay? We don't want to drink, we don't want to chew, and we don't want to go with girls who do. We want to set up possible boundaries where we're never associated with these things because that was the old man and this is the new, right? And just in the name of wisdom, which by the way is an ethical choice, in the name of wisdom, we're going to avoid those things. We love things also ordered to our comforts and liking. So we make good rules that encourage such. I'm going to read this again. There's a second group of people that I was thinking of when I was putting this together. They love things ordered. We love things ordered in this particular way. We want things set up in its right place, okay? And we love it, and that's what makes us comfortable. Anything outside of that, we start losing it a little bit, okay? So what we do is we establish good rules to maintain that and encourage it, okay? And this kind of attitude, this kind of approach ends up impacting the way we define the good life and religion. It affects who we associate with and spend our time with. We want those solid, like-minded folks around us, right? What that ends up doing is creating this barrier between one group of people and another. It causes division, right? And those solid like-minded people end up becoming very much of an echo chamber in your life. You're never branching out. And then it creates what we call a status and preference distinction. It's the very thing when we read Colossians, right? There's a breakdown. There's no longer Jew or Gentile, barbarian or Scythian, right? Slave nor free, but all are one in Christ. You know, it's crazy, like even in the communion text that we read, a big part of that communion text was on this very issue. You guys are getting smashed in communion because you're making preference of yourself over other people who are taking it. You're getting drunk on communion wine. 1 Corinthians 11, read it, check it out. Because why? You're making preferences over others. You're drinking it more than, you're not even giving it to these other people who deserve it just as much as you do because of these preferences that you're making. You're exalting people to certain status they don't belong to. These are solid like-minded folks that we like to be around. They're like us, they have a similar income, they're in a similar status in life, drive the same kind of sweet cars, right? That kind of stuff. They talk like us and everything. They look like us. We even get down to how our house is ordered, okay? In terms of how we approach hospitality, right? And if you don't have a house, that's okay, you can still be hospitable. But this is just an example. That preference and the way the house is ordered becomes so sterile, it becomes inhospitable. You know what I'm saying? It gets so crazy that you want this thing so ordered and so well, you're never hospitable. Because you just can't have anybody over. You can't bear the thought of one thing being out of order. That is dead wrong. That is where overly righteousness is crazy. I need everything perfect and ordered to the point where, okay, nevermind, I just don't want, it's so exhausting, I don't want to invite anybody over. Or when you do invite someone over, everybody's terrified to do anything or touch anything, you know? You guys know what I'm talking about. I got the covers over the couch. Everything's being highly protected. Everything's in the right place. You bump something, they're like, whoa. You're just like, never mind, bro. I'm just going to leave. They're watching you the whole time. It goes down to how we select a church. Think of this. We base it off what we call a worship service. And we decide what a good pastor looks like. Good. Scare quotes. The cymbals and the drums. I'm so happy they were up here today, right? In their mind, they go, RPW, RPW, RPW. The regulative principle of worship. They're just hard on that thing, man. They're so hard that this could possibly cause someone to stumble and fall. Oh my goodness, we got rock and roll up in here. And you guys know what that did to people in the 50s and 60s. I'm not kidding you, we've had that. People have left, they visited, they saw this action up here, and they were like, whoa, you guys are crazy. RPW, I'm out. They didn't come back because of the drum. And you're the devil, Daniel, for playing it. Think about that. Exclusive solemnity. Oh, don't go beyond what's inspired, even though we read in Colossians today, right? Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, sing those things, be creative, use this creative, you know, beauty and wonder that I've given you, God says, right? Do this. And they're like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Never go beyond what's inspired. RPW, RPW, RPW, the short circuit and can't get out. He made a joke. during announcements rpw rpw rpw right they're just freaking out and you're like guys rpw starts when we do a call to worship where you call you to worship you know that's when the worship service begins i'm sorry i just can't handle this you guys just don't take anything serious your kids are running around and the pastor's wearing vans and has a beard and he says dude bro a lot that's offensive I'm not kidding, and I wish I was, but that scruple made this person so miserable they couldn't be around it anymore. They left. That's ridiculous. That's over-righteousness. What we believe is fellowship and discipleship. We harp on this a lot. We were just talking about this the other day. Fellowship and discipleship. Fellowship doesn't have to be this structured event, guys. Have people over to your house when, you know, a baby shower gets canceled and spend six hours with them, lunch and dinner. Hang out. Have a few beers. Enjoy each other's company. Amen? Dude, we ate whole, like, the kids ate a whole thing of cookies, dude. Like, box, crackers gone. We're like, dude, we're partying. We're having a great time. It's great. It's gonna be a good time. Discipleship doesn't have to go through this. Okay, when we go through this book, we're gonna go through this organized thing. I'm gonna monologue about this for an hour and a half, right? And then we're gonna do our five-point questions at the end of it. And then we did discipleship. No, discipleship can look like help someone make dinner one night and eat dinner with them. Spend time with them. Act like you like them. You know, like you're really interested in wanting to get to know them a little better. Come have a cigar with us. We're still figuring that out, Daniel. We're going to figure that out. Have a cigar. It's been freezing. We do the outside thing. We don't have, we're not rich. We don't have cigar rooms. We need one though. We need to find one. Figure it out. Come enjoy each other's company. We did this thing called the, We did the Puritan theological study, studying Puritan theology. It was this massive tome and it took us years to go through. We just made it an excuse to hang out, sip some bourbon and smoke a cigar together and enjoy each other's company. That's discipleship. That's discipleship. It doesn't always have to be a strict structure. And I would say, if you're caught in this overly righteousness, you're always going to make it that. And you're going to be miserable doing it, by the way. You're going to miss out on the blessing of what discipleship looks like. How we raise and teach our children. It's like, they're not homeschoolers. You guys know who you are, bro. They are homeschoolers. You know who you are, too. Stop punking each other. Who cares? Let them teach their kids how they want to teach their kids. The point is, are they teaching their kids? Are they raising them up in a biblical worldview? Our kids go to this school because quite honestly, guys, we couldn't handle teaching our four kids at home anymore. It was over the top. I remember doing the interview with the principal going, I'm always trying to learn like fourth grade math and figure out seventh grade math at the same time. And this kid needs a lot of help. This kid needs a lot of help. I'm overwhelmed. I'm tapped out. My kids are getting a horrible education because we can't handle it. My kids need help. And so we put them in here and I'm working an extra job just to do that. Is that okay? Yes, of course it's okay. Is it okay that people do homeschool and write books about it? Yes! Christy, Christy, right? Christy, good gosh. I always say Kristen, Christy. Sorry, Christy, Randall, you're watching. I'm sorry. She wrote an awesome book that we want to put into more people's hands because we see the value of homeschooling. Homeschooling is awesome. But if you're that over-the-top, overly righteous, this has to be this way. And if it isn't, you're in sin. Bro, you are, you're sinning if you're treating your fellow brother or sister in Christ, treating them that way. Let them, let each one do what's right in their mind, have a clear conscience before the living God in the way they teach and educate their children. What kind of work do we do? There's a secular-sacred divide. This is why we went through The World is Christ, right, by Willem Oweniel. This is really important. People sometimes see their job, this overly righteous, pietistic person sees their secular job as, well, not really that, not helping the kingdom in any way. And then they look at what we do, and they put us on a pedestal unnecessarily, and look for any opportunity. Man, I hope, you know, the second they fail me, I'm out. One foot in, one foot out, right? The second they make a mistake, well, I'm out. Because why? This is some holy, secular, sacred position that if I make one mistake, or Jonathan makes one mistake, or anybody in this room, leadership, Greg, and anybody else makes one mistake, they don't do something right, fit that perfect model, I'm out. Right? And they get to go work their secular job and they get to hold the pulpit hostage with their ties. Because all they're doing is secular, right? That's not really that big of a deal. And there's really not much... No, no. Let me destroy that. That pietism is an overly righteous attitude towards your work. You're missing out, actually. You're extending the kingdom by virtue of cleaning homes and doing the work that you're doing. Electrician, right? Selling insurance. All this wonderful stuff that you guys are doing. Think about all the jobs you're doing. Some military folks in here. I would question the military, but let's just say they're doing great work. Sorry guys, I love the military guys. Some of it. But think about it. What you're doing is you're actively, God has you providentially in that place. learning a trade or doing a job. And he has you surrounded by people. And that's really important. That's critical. You're part of the advancement of the kingdom. And the kind of work that you're doing now should be leading to a blessing to an inheritance. And if you guys need to work on that, ask Andrew. He's going to help. He's trying to start a new business right now. Boom. Shameless plug. In terms of wealth management and building wealth that you want to be able to hand off to your kids and your kids' kids, your grandchildren, talk to Andrew. He'll help you with that. That's what we should be looking at our work. Everything that we do is some way, shape or form contributing to the, it should be, contributing to the advancement of kingdom. A janitor is just as important as a CEO, okay, in this world. They have two critically different jobs. They're doing different things. However, their witness and their provision and their ability to provide for themselves and their family members is what's critical. It's their attitude towards their work and seeing it, that that is where the Lord has providentially placed them. What sort of higher education we pursue? Now, that's easy. You start looking down your nose at people because they're not quite as educated as you are. This overly righteous, I went to seminary. Dude, Bunyan didn't go to anything and was one of the most powerful preachers of all time to the extent that John Owen, who is this brilliant man, said, man, I'd give up all that if I could just preach the word and know the word like Bunyan. Love God and love his word. Stop looking down your nose if you know Greek better than other people. I'm not saying that about you. The point is, it doesn't matter. That really doesn't matter to the Lord. How awesome you know Greek, because you might be sinning in your knowledge of Greek because you're holding that over other people's heads because they just can't understand the Bible like you can. You're so much better at it. Oh, I'm glad I'm not a sinner like them kind of person. I'm way more educated than they are. I know the Bible better. Yeah, but you're missing the whole thing. The Lord hates that and would spew you out of his mouth. Who cares how well you know those things? The point is, do you love people? Do you love Christ? Do you love his word? Do you love people? Right? And if that thing is causing you to hate people, despise people, be condescending towards people and looking down your nose at people, you're missing it. You need to check yourself and think about it twice. Indications, just closing up here. Indications that you might be defining or we might be defining the good life and religion beyond God's Word. Here's some internal indications that you can begin to check yourself on. Okay? Are you into Christian perfectionism? That is like, I like what Charles Bridges says, monkery. Monkery. Monkery is this isolationist attitude and oversimplification of all things, right? That somehow this isolationist oversimplification makes you more spiritual or righteous. Celibacy. I'm living the single life unto the Lord because that's more holy. Get out of here with that. No, God made marriage good. It was not good for man to be alone. I rest my case. Genesis 2. See, they're all there in Genesis. Self-imposed austerities. I'm just going to remove myself from everything. I'm going to always be this austere person because I'm so holy. Asceticism, we brought that up earlier, beating myself to death, trying to mortify sin by just ruining and destroying my body. Always fasting, never-ending fasting, whipping, beating, self-loathing. Maybe if I loathe myself a little bit more, right? Always burdened by my sin. Oh God, holy God, I'm just so desperate, can't ever walk with you kind of attitude. I came out of that kind of world, I know what that's like. Think about prudishness. You suffer from prudishness. It's a suffering. Trust me, it's a disease. Are you prude? Overly prude. A prude that the Bible never encourages. A prudeness. Snobbery. Smuggishness. Condescension. Bitterness. Oh, there it is. Don't let me skip over that one. Are you a bitter person? Do you wrestle with that? Do you struggle, like, just constantly fighting bitterness towards other people? Particularly here, maybe elsewhere. Are you wrestling with that? If that's in your heart, there's something dramatically wrong with your understanding of Christianity. Dramatically wrong. Because that causes division, that causes gossip, slander, and backbiting, and it is miserable. It is a miserable state to be in, because you constantly have to sustain it, right? You have to keep it up. You always find yourself just like, man, I'm miserable. I'm mad. I'm mad at everything all the time. I'm complaining. I have a complaining heart. I'm just upset. Oh, man, this person and that person, what they're doing and they're not doing, and what they should be doing and what they could be doing. Get out of here. That is miserable. And you're missing out on the freedom that you have in Christ, which let me conclude with. Charles Bridges says, Christian duties, in this case, are pressed beyond their due proportion, okay? They're interfering with immediate obligations, and they're making sins up. They're quite literally developing and creating sinfulness, like this is what a sin truly is, where God has not made them up to be that way. Their scrupulosity in matters indifferent takes the place of free obedience to the gospel. In the exercise of Christian graces, there may be a danger of extremes. So you can't float from one side of the tracks to the other. Well, we're all free in Christ. We know Paul says, shall we continue in sin that grace would abound? Certainly not, right? Boldness may verge into rashness, benevolence into indiscriminate waste, and candor into weakness. Many other details, the scriptural line seems to be passed. And the warning is justly applied. Be not overly righteous. or righteous over much. Let me conclude this. This came out of our conversation yesterday. This is great. We should do that more often. I'm going to produce a sermon. Let's just hang out and talk about this for hours. R.C. Sproul wrote an article about Martin Luther's discovery of faith alone. By grace alone and Romans 117 is what this is the passage guys when he was doing a study changed his life And I hope I hope today that as we heard these things and maybe you're doing some self-examination That you in a very similar way if you know anything about Martin Luther's life this man struggled with everything I just shared it was so bad Andrew told me which is hilarious that he would do our long hours and hours longs of confession and Confessing his sin because he's just unholy before this righteous God that he could never appease and these guys got so tired of hearing him They sent him to Rome on a pilgrimage. I didn't realize that fact. That's funny, right? But this man was overwhelmed with this sinfulness before a living God before the before God a holy God, right? Had no there was no relief and he was beating himself and some of them were really scared that he was gonna kill himself because of his asceticism like he wanted to truly mortify sin this guy took it to the nth degree and So if you know that about him, listen to what happened here in this article that R.C. Sproul writes. He says that here in the gospel, quoting him, This is a verse taken from the book of Habakkuk in the Old Testament that is cited three times in the New. As Luther would stop short and say, what does this mean? That there is this righteousness that is by faith and from faith to faith. What does it mean that the righteous shall live by faith? Which again, as I said, was the thematic verse for the whole exposition of the gospel that Paul sets forth here in the book of Romans. And so the lights came on for Luther. Listen to this. He began to understand what Paul was speaking of here was a righteousness that God in His grace was making available to those who would receive it passively. This is important. Not those who would achieve it actively. So it's a passive righteousness, not someone who had to work for it and achieve it, right? They would receive this by faith, but by which a person could be reconciled to a holy and righteous God. Now watch this. Now there was a linguistic trick that was going on here too. And it was this, that the Latin word for justification that was used at this time in church history was, and it's the word from which we get the English word justification, the Latin word justificare. Now I might not be saying that correctly, forgive me. And it came from the Roman judicial system. And the term justificare is made up of the word justice, which is justice or righteousness, and then the verb, the infinitive, ficare, which means to make. And so the Latin fathers understood the doctrine of justification is what happens when God, through the sacraments of the church and elsewhere, make an unrighteous people righteous. Something about this making, right? But Luther was looking now at a Greek word that was in the New Testament. Not the Latin word. The word dikaios, is that correct? Dikaios, okay. And then dikaiosune, dikaiosune, which is the two words for righteousness, okay, which didn't mean to make righteous, but rather to regard as righteous, to count as righteous, to declare as righteous. I get chills reading this. And this was the moment of the awakening for Luther. He said, you mean, this is Luther, he says, you mean here, Paul is not talking about the righteousness by which God himself is righteous, but a righteousness that God gives freely by his grace to people who don't have righteousness of their own. And so Luther said, whoa, I love that. Whoa, you mean the righteousness by which I will be saved is not mine? It's what he called justitia alienum, an alien righteousness, a righteousness that belongs properly to somebody else. It's a righteousness that is extra nos, outside of us, namely the righteousness of Christ. And Luther said, when I discovered that, I was born again of the Holy Ghost. And the doors of paradise swung open and I walked through. was part of one of the greatest movements in history, who beat himself practically to death, who confessed for hours, had to be sent away. People couldn't handle him anymore because he was overly righteous. And then he was like, well, that righteousness has nothing to do with me at all. It is not mine. It is completely and utterly given to me. And when he discovered that, this man was set free and changed the world. If you are burdened with the things that I'm sharing with you today, if you are in any way indicating, like, don't you dare for one minute go, I really hope he or she is listening to this message right now. You examine yourself. You think about it for a moment and go, hey, maybe there's something I need to examine that I'm not truly set free from. I want that freedom. I want to walk. into the kingdom like Luther did. I want to not deal with the misery of what it looks like to be overly righteous and too wise. I don't want to live in the perversity of my wickedness anymore. I want Christ. Heavenly Father, I pray for these dear people, that they would come to recognize the freedom that they have in You. That they come to grasp the reality that it's not their righteousness that gets them a seat before You. That not causes them to stand before You. but it's your Son's righteousness imputed to us. Christ, our righteousness. That in Him we are made new, we are new creatures, circumcised not with hands, but by your spirits, given a new heart, a new desire to walk in obedience, in the freedom and the liberty of what it means to be in you. This by no means is an excuse to just carry on into sin. that Your grace would abound. No, it's a beauty and ability to walk in the freedom knowing that we are not condemned by any man. We cannot be accused by the accuser any longer, but that we are set free and free indeed in Christ. And it's by Your Word that we know this truth, as You said, Lord, that if you're my disciples, you'll hear my Word and you'll be set free. You'll know the truth and it will set you free. And it's true freedom indeed. I pray that my brothers and sisters would experience this today. And for those who don't know you, the same. That they would bow the knee once and for all and confess their sin to you. And trust themselves in the hands of a God who loves to save people. In Jesus' name, Amen.