Good evening. Welcome to Trinity Reformed Baptist Church, Jackson, Georgia. It's June 26, 2011. Join us now as Elder Barry Sewell brings us a message from the Word. In 1988, a controversial film came out titled The Last Temptation of Christ. Anybody remember that? Some of you old people like me. I'm 47 today, so I do remember a little bit what went on in 1988. But this movie was based on a book by the same name where the author sought to get into the mind of Christ and describe temptations he may have experienced even while being crucified on the cross. While many of these temptations made by the author and the film writers were made up perhaps to promote controversy and along with it greater film attendance, it is clear that Christ did in his lifetime endure temptations. And there's no greater place in the scriptures that we read about this than in the Gospels that record the direct temptation of Christ by Satan himself. Now, while we've experienced temptations in our own life, I don't know if I can say that I've ever been directly tempted by the one we call Satan, you know, as an individual temptation. But Christ was. So I would like to look in your Bibles into Matthew's three And we will not go as far as I read. We will go down to verse four, four and deal with the first temptation that Christ faced from Satan. We're going to have four main points. So hopefully you'll be able to follow these points. And then after those points, I want to look at some practical issues and some things that we can take with us in our daily lives. First part, we want to look at the precursor of temptation. Matthew 3, 13 through 17. We can see in these passages, this is the beginning of Christ's ministry. It is the time where he came to John to be baptized. It is the time of activity in John's ministry, which is probably at its peak, at his fullness. He has experienced a time of great attendance from people coming to the Jordan River to be baptized and hear his message. And this was the time that Jesus chose to launch his own ministry. Up until this time, Jesus had been relatively a minor, quiet figure that nobody had ever heard about, except for Herod when he was born. But he'd spent 30 years growing up, preparing for this time, and it was about to begin. You know, it's interesting that when Jesus comes to John in verse 15, he says, Well, John, in verse fourteen, says, I need to be baptized by you. And do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, let it be so now for this. It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Now, it's clear that from the scriptures that Jesus did not need to be baptized as a baptism of repentance, that baptism that we go through. And some people question, well, why? Why did Jesus go through this baptism? I think many commentators would say that perhaps this was simply an inauguration of Jesus' ministry, where he was baptized to sort of kick off his ministry. And also he wanted to, I think, show the people that John was not crazy, that he was a man that was fulfilling God's mission for him and carrying out the ministry God had given him. And also he was probably seeking to endorse John's ministry and begin his own public ministry as well. So it was a time of great joy, I think, in the lives of Christ as well as the life of those who were following him. You know, Matthew describes the scene as we look about as Jesus comes out of the water and behold the Spirit of God ascending upon him like a dove and comes to rest on him and behold a voice from heaven He says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. So we see all the members of the Trinity involved in this event. Christ is baptized. The Spirit, in effect, anoints him for the ministry he is about to undertake. And the Father gives his verbal declaration that this is his son and it is one whom he is well pleased. So we see this time of great joy in the life of Christ and preparation for the ministry. Jesus, as the God-man, the second person of the Trinity, had both a divine and human nature. It's obvious that his divine nature did not need strengthening for the tasks that lay before him. in the redemption of his people, but it's also just as clear that his human nature did need the strengthening seen here as the Holy Spirit again anointed him and he received the public acknowledgement and approval of his father for this task. I think sometimes we tend to overlook the human nature of Christ. It's a mystery in itself, being both fully divine and fully human. But Christ went through, and these temptations will show that he experienced some of the same temptations and difficulties of the flesh that we do. The acceptance of this task by Jesus is seen in his father's calling him his beloved son and expressing his pleasure in this verbal declaration that Jesus had willingly, from eternity past, accepted this task. to redeem the people that had been given to him so that he could present them back to God the Father. As witnessed by his disciples, Christ enters into this work with joy and power, strengthened by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps a wonderful event, a marker in his life. Oftentimes an event of great joy or prosperity is followed by a time of testing or even temptation The Bible gives us several examples of these, where the joy expressed is often turned to fear. We can see this in the people of Israel, you know, upon leaving Egypt, celebrating and praising God for the redemption that God had given them from this slavery in Egypt. Yet when they reach the sea and the Egyptian armies are close behind them, that joy probably quickly turned to fear and to doubt. We also can see this in the life of David, who after his anointing as king and great success as a warrior, is forced into hiding and preserving his life and running from the very king, King Saul, whom he was a loyal servant to. We can also see this in the life of Paul, The Bible says, was caught up into the third heavens and experiencing the surpassing greatness of revelation. You know, a marvelous event. I don't know of anybody who's ever experienced that. But it says soon after that, he received a messenger from Satan, a thorn in the flesh, who was harassing him and appears to have remained with him throughout his life by God's design. You know, I myself can look back in my life and see times of great temptation and seasons of temptations in the middle of or just after great seasons of spiritual prosperity. And you often wonder why is that so? But just as we see this in the Bible, in people's lives and in our own lives, we can also see this in the life of Christ, where a time of great joy is followed by a time of testing, and especially in this case, a great testing, a temptation from Satan himself. This leads us to our second point, the season of temptation, as we move into chapter four. Immediately following this time of joy and public anticipation of Christ, we read that this very same spirit that had just fallen upon Christ at his baptism and had just anointed him for this ministry led him into the wilderness. We do not read that this wilderness time was a time of prayer or meditation. of Christ for the tasks that lay ahead of him, though I'm sure that he did those things during this time. We read in verse 1 that this was specifically for the purpose of being tempted by the devil. Just as the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness for forty years, Jesus now enters into a fast for forty years. and forty nights, facing the same or similar temptations that these Israelites had faced over fifteen hundred years earlier. There's a lot of that kind of typology in this passage, and I think it's interesting when you relate this time of temptation of Christ with the life of the Israelites and their wilderness wanderings. Fasting was a common practice in the Old Testament, and it was even a subject that Jesus discussed in his own teachings. We have no indication in the text of why Jesus fasted for 40 days. It's also interesting this was the same time period in which Moses and Elijah had also previously fasted. Perhaps this fast was to focus his attention on the task ahead. Some will argue that this was an unintentional fast, that Jesus simply went out without food because there was no food there to eat. But more than likely, this was an intentional refraining from food that Jesus voluntarily went through. You know, for I think if we look at the very definition of the word fast, it sort of lends itself to a voluntary retraining from food. Matthew emphasizes, I think, sort of one of those points in the scriptures where you want to say, You know, he says, after Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And I think that's quite an obvious statement here. You know, have you ever gone without food for a day? Anybody want to volunteer? Has anybody ever fasted for a day? How about 40 days? I think most of us would say, you know, it'd be a hard thing to do. You know, it seems like for myself, even after a day of work, even after a day of work where I had a good lunch, I still return home and my stomach growls, reminding me that it needs nourishment. It needs sustenance to continue. You know, I have fasted for 24 hours at certain periods, but I cannot comprehend going without food for 40 days. And I can only imagine Christ's body. crying out with hunger and his mind suffering as well. Doctors tell us that the body reacts to the lack of nourishment. When that occurs, it takes action and the body begins to convert stored glycogen resources in the liver into needed glucose and energy to compensate. This is what doctors would call the initial stages of the body's starvation response. My understanding is this takes place not very long after you go without food, so perhaps within 24 or 48 hours, you would begin this, the body would begin to transfer. It says, I need energy, I need something to make energy so you can survive, so your organs can do what they're supposed to do, your muscles can continue to work. If this lack of nourishment continues, Then the body turns to glycogen stored in the muscles, and after that to fat reserves, and then finally the body begins to break down proteins for energy, which is what they would call the official starvation stage. So it's somewhere in one of these stages of starvation, either pre-starvation or even the beginnings of starvation itself, when Jesus was physically, mentally, and emotionally at his weakest, that the tempter came to him. In fact, we read in verse 11 that Jesus was so weak that after this season of temptation, angels had to come to minister unto him. I just want you to somehow picture that in your human body, the hunger that you've ever experienced. We live in a prosperous land, by and large. rarely go a day voluntarily or involuntarily without something to eat. So here Jesus went through a 40 day, 40 night fast and his body has got to be suffering. So try to keep that in mind as we continue through this passage. You know, the wilderness it mentions here is something perhaps when we mention wilderness in the United States, you would instantly think of a wooded area, swamps or Louisiana or the mountains of the West or wherever, some area where there's not a lot of people. Wilderness, sometimes we think of here, your version might say desert. Of course, this area is not something that we would understand as a desert either, where we would just see miles and miles of sand. This area was probably an area between Jericho and Jerusalem and was an uninhabitable land. It was a wasted, rocky and sandy land which experienced minimal rainfall on a yearly basis. And it is full of stones. These stones that are all around Christ are the source of this first temptation that Jesus goes through. It brings us to our third point, the enticement of temptation. We've seen the precursor to temptation, the season of temptation, and now the enticement of this temptation. Some will ask, and I'm sure perhaps you've heard people that you've talked to ask questions. They always seek to trip you up and get you confused. But they'll ask, could Jesus as God have sinned? Could he, being God, have sinned? The Bible clearly answers this with the definite no. Jesus as God was without sin and was unable to sin. God is holy and perfect. Jesus as God knew no sin and could not by his nature commit sin. In himself, there was no way Jesus could sin. And usually when you answer that question with a no, the next question is almost always, if he was unable to sin, was the temptation real? I think it's a valid question. Jesus as man was subjected to the weaknesses of man. I just presented to you the effects of starvation on the human body. Jesus had fasted for 40 days, and I'm sure his body felt the weaknesses of being human, and it cried out to him to satisfy this craving. It was a real temptation, for it focused on the weaknesses that a human can have and be tempted with. Satan, the accuser, came to Christ and immediately threw doubt on the words he had heard earlier from his father, acknowledging him as the Father's beloved son. Satan questions Jesus if you are the Son of God. Jesus had earlier heard the words of his father, yet here in his weakened body there is doubt thrown upon these words. Though Satan knew who Jesus was, We can hear the mockery in his words as he tells Jesus that since his father had declared him to be his son, he should prove it by turning the stones around him into bread. I want you to think, could there be any better temptation at this point? An outward source or suggestion of temptation focusing on an inward weakness or need of the flesh, in this case being severe hunger. These stones were probably surrounding Jesus, and for the one who could control the elements of nature and turn a few loaves of bread into many loaves, it would have been no problem for him to accomplish this command of Satan. His body cried for the nourishment of this bread. No one was around him who would see him, and he had it in his power to do this. So what a perfect temptation that came upon Christ. I still want you to get in your minds, this temptation comes, the desperate need of hunger that Christ has. His human body is crying out for this nourishment. The body tells us when we need something. When we're thirsty, it tells us you need water. When we're hungry, it tells us you need food. And that was the source that Satan went after. And imagine yourself in that situation. We see, you know, I haven't read a lot, but you see sometimes the prisoners of war or the Holocaust survivors in the desperate state or even in the Civil War, many prisoners of war were basically starved in these prison camps. And the opportunity comes to eat. I can't imagine that they would not jump upon that. You know, as we look at this temptation, it's not a new one. It's very interesting that this temptation has occurred throughout scriptures, and it's often centered around the desire of hunger and of food itself. You know, it's the same one given to Eve when she reasoned that the fruit on the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the fruit was desired to make her wise. She took of it and she ate it. And she also gave some to her husband, who ate it as well. It's also the same temptation that came to Esau as Brandon has been bringing us through Genesis. When he returned from a hunting trip, hungry and exhausted to the smell of a delicious red stew cooked by Jacob. Jacob offered him some food in exchange for his birthright. Esau cried out, I am about to die. What use do I have with a birthright? So he gave it to Jacob to satisfy his hunger, and the Bible tells us he left despising it as soon as his stomach started the digestion process of his food. He left despising his birthright. It's also the same temptation of the rescued Israelites who were recently freed from the slavery of Egypt, who cried out in unbelief every time their bodies yearned for something they didn't have. And because of this unbelief, many of them failed to enter the promised land. We read the manna fell from heaven. They didn't like that, so they cried out for meat. God sent them quail. He said, I'm going to send you so much quail, it's going to come out of your nose when you eat it. And they still complained. Over and over again, we see this temptation throughout the scriptures. It's the same temptation that we face when James writes, but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Yes, Jesus' desire as a human being to satisfy his hunger was real, and it was here that Satan, the one who knows the weaknesses of mankind, threw the weight of this first temptation. Jesus was called upon to doubt who he was and to doubt his father's goodness and provision in order to satisfy his yearning hunger. He was asked to act in independence from his father instead of depending on his father in all things. That leads us to our fourth point, the answer to temptation. How did Jesus respond? I think it's a great thing throughout the Gospels as we read how Jesus deals with things. He almost always quotes Scripture. Of course, the Scripture they had is the Old Testament. And here, Jesus quotes a passage from Deuteronomy 8. He says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. I think it's interesting to note that Jesus does not deny that man does indeed need bread to live. but he does deny that man needs only bread to live. God gives us good desires when he created us, such as the desire for food, but when we take these desires beyond his intention and abuse them outside of his revealed will, they become sin. I think Eric sort of touched on that this morning in his sermon. The things sometimes that we have and desire God created them. They're good things. We don't need to shrink away from that. But when we take them and we seek to abuse them and treat them in ways that we think are right, that's when they become sin. So that's the, you know, the thing Jesus doesn't deny is that you do need bread to live, but you also need every word that comes from the mouth of God. Every word that comes from God's mouth gives us instruction on how to live. You know, the source of this quotation is from Deuteronomy 8, and I'd like us to look for a few moments at Deuteronomy 8, because I think it will give us an idea on why Jesus quoted it when he faced this temptation. So if you turn to Deuteronomy 8, I'm going to read verses 1 through 11. The whole commandment that I command you today you should be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna. which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity and in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper and you shall eat and be full. And you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which I command you today." So we see here that Moses is talking to the remnant, the people that have made it through this forty year wanderings. Almost all of these people he's talking to were born during the wanderings. And just as these people have gone through a wilderness wandering, Jesus now is also in the wilderness, and he's facing the same temptation to doubt and question his Father's plan and provision, just like the Israelites faced when they wandered through the wilderness with Moses. We see here that God says in Deuteronomy 8, this was a time of testing for these people to make sure that they were ready to enter the promised land and to be faithful to his commandments and to trust him and depend completely on him. And Jesus now is facing that same temptation. And it's interesting that he responds with what Moses said, you shall live not by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Moses was reminding these people that they had made it through these forty years of wilderness wanderings, and the fact that God in his providence taught them to rely on his promises. While he's been spoken to in Deuteronomy 8 and made it through these wanderings, there were many who had not and had died in the wilderness. And these that were hearing Moses speak were now preparing to enter the land. and those who had not had responded earlier in unbelief. Jesus now faces the same temptation, but he responds differently from those who had perished in the wilderness. They had responded in a view of unbelief, a lack of trust in God, and they had failed in their wilderness wanderings. For most who had come out of Egypt came to a death in the wilderness. Even Moses, their leader, as we look at him, even Moses failed when he struck the stone to bring water instead of only speaking to it as God had instructed him. Yet we can be confident that unlike Israel as a nation or Moses as a leader, Jesus did not fail. Satan had tempted Christ to doubt his Father's care and plan for him that included suffering. Satan wanted him to use his power to gratify the cries of his human body, therefore bypassing the suffering. Just as the daily manna God supplied the wandering Israelites should have reminded them that they should trust wholly in God's promises and that they were in essence totally dependent upon him, Jesus uses the very words Moses spoke to these people to rebuke Satan, that he would trust in God's promises and provision alone. He too was dependent and would trust in his Heavenly Father to provide him with strength for the task ahead, a task that would include suffering. Instead of satisfying his hunger by gulping down miraculous bread alone in the wilderness, Christ was telling Satan that God is a faithful God who will provide for the needs of his children. God knows what is absolutely best for his children. God has declared Jesus to be his beloved Son, and Jesus knew his Father would provide a feast for him to satisfy all his hungers. Jesus remembered his ministry. The beginning of which was the cause for this very declaration of his father at his baptism to save a people unto himself. I think Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5.21 ring true. For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus overcame this, and he overcame all future temptations that he faced, for we can see in Matthew it says Satan left him until he had a better opportunity to come back. So I'm sure Jesus suffered these temptations throughout these next three years of his ministry and his life. But he was faithful and obedient, so this perfect obedience could be credited to the account of his people. who had no righteousness in which they could stand before this holy God. Jesus said no to this temptation so that he could save his people from their sins. I think those are the key points as we look at this passage from how Christ himself faced these temptations and how he overcame it. I think there are many practical issues and areas of application we can could look at in our own lives and how we face temptations on a daily basis. First of all, if you are an unbeliever tonight, Paul tells us in Romans that you are dead in your sins, a slave to sin, and you have no power in yourself to tell sin no when the temptations come. So when you are tempted, your Master tells you to sin. You will sin. Your only hope is to repent of your sins and turn to Christ, trusting in his sinless life and atoning death for you. He overcame the temptations of Satan for his people, and you must trust in his perfect obedience and not your filthy rags if you are to be a child of God. But as many of you tonight are professing Christians, there is also a great deal we can learn from this passage. I want to ask you, do you know the areas of weakness in your own life in which temptation will come? Christ, who had went through this mighty fast for forty days, obviously faced a time of great weakness in his flesh. But he was the God-man. And we are simply man, and we have many weaknesses in our fallen state. And even as believers, again, Eric brought out this morning, that the remnants of sin still remain that we battle with. I want you to think about yourself being in a desert or a wilderness or a deserted island in the Pacific. You are totally alone and you are given the opportunity and the means and the power to do anything without anyone ever finding out and without suffering any consequences. More than likely, the thing or things that enter your mind with that question is the thing which the evil forces will use to tempt you. It is your area of weakness. It is that thing that is your physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual weakness in your being that will be the source of the temptation. I think we also need to remember that just as Jesus was in a weakened state during this temptation, we are weak in ourselves each time that we face temptation. Paul tells us of this paradox in 1 Corinthians 12 that when we are weak, we are strong, for his grace is sufficient for us because his power is made perfect in weakness. Romans 6 is a wonderful passage. If you want to flip there real fast, we won't read it, but I do want to look at a number of points you might want to follow along. We can see throughout Romans 6, Paul tells us that in Christ We are no longer slaves to sin. I said earlier that if you are an unbeliever here tonight, if you've never trusted in Christ, never repented of your sins, then you are a slave to sin, as Paul writes in Romans and other places. But if you are a believer, he gives you another statement. You are no longer slaves to sin. And this is a fact that we need to remember when we face temptations. If you go throughout Romans 6, you'll see Paul uses the word know, K-N-O-W, or knowing, several times, depending on your translation. I think he does that to remind us that in battling sin, we are to remember something, we are to know something. And that is the fact that we are no longer slaves to sin, but we are free. We must know that if we are to walk in obedience by overcoming temptations, we must understand that truth. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 9.26, I think it's a great passage also, that he disciplines or subdues his body. Or literally, if you read it in the Greek, it says he gives his body a black eye. and makes his body his slave so that he won't be disqualified in his preaching of the gospel. Of course, he's not describing a self-flagellation of the body for the purpose of mortifying or atoning for sins, as we read of Martin Luther doing before his conversion, but he's describing the discipline of the body. So as opposed to doing what his body tells him to do, he makes his body his slave and tells his body what to do. You, Christian, are no longer a slave to sin. You must remember this. You must know this. And you must tell your flesh this when it seeks to take control over you again. The next time a temptation comes, the flesh comes, your former slave master comes and says, you must do this. You must remember that he is no longer your slave master. That you belong to another. And you must tell him no. In the power of the Spirit, use what Jesus said is necessary for life. And that was the Word of God, which we also read in Timothy's letters as the sword of the Spirit. And I believe I read in a John Piper book one time, use the sword of the Spirit to remove the sugar coating off of the poisonous temptation. Have you ever eaten one of those coated, sour, sweet drops where the outward candy is sweet, but when you bite into it, you get a sour taste? Well, that's what we use the Word of God for, the sword of the Spirit. The outside of temptation and sin is sweet and it tastes good, but when you get in, it's poison and it will kill you. So we must use the sword of the Spirit to remove that outer cover and see the poison for what it is. Again, Paul writes in Romans 6, verses 13 and 14, Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. So you have to remember. You have to know. that you are no longer a slave to sin. I think that's key. If we don't know that when temptation comes, it's so easy to give in. I speak tonight to myself and from practical experience. If you don't remember this truth, then giving in to temptation will be easier and easier as it comes to us. A song that I've been listening to a good bit in preparation of this sermon is a song by the Christian artist Stephen Curtis Chapman. And it's entitled Believe Me Now. And the words are spoken by God himself to his people. And I'd like to close as we look at these words, because I believe that this sort of hits on what we face in our temptations. Many of the illusions we've read about from the Israelites and their seasons of wandering are found in this song. So listen to these words as I read them. Now this is God speaking to his people. I watch you looking out across the raging water, so sure your only hope lies on the other side. You hear the enemy that's closing in around you, and I know that you don't have the strength to fight, but do you have the faith to stand? I am the one who waved my hand and split the ocean. I am the one who spoke the words and raised the dead, and I have loved you long before I set the world in motion. I know all the fears you are feeling now, but do you remember who I am? I am God, who never wastes a single hurt that you endure. My words are true, and all my promises are sure. So believe me now. Believe me here. Remember all the times I told you loud and clear, I am with you and I am for you. So believe me now. Believe it's true. I never have, I never will abandon you. And the God that I have always been, I will forever be. So believe me now. And I think his question here rings forth in our ears. Do we believe him? As temptation comes upon us, it's a matter of faith. Are we going to stand trusting that God knows what's best for us, trusting that he knows better and loves us more than we love ourselves? Are we going to take matters into our own hand and believe the lies of the temptation that comes upon us? That it promises pleasure, it promises happiness, it promises joy. And as Eric again said this morning, it may deliver that, but it is short-lived. Well, the promises of God are eternal, and the joy is eternal, and satisfaction and pleasures are forever at his right hand. So we must ask ourselves, will we believe him? Will we trust him? As Jesus trusted his Father when that temptation comes to end, we, too, are called to trust in God when temptation comes to us. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your word. It is a truth that reveals the life of Christ to us. It gives us how he lived his life, how he depended upon his Father. During great seasons of temptation and extended times of weakness, he depended upon you to provide for all his needs. And your word tells us, even as he quoted, that it is the very source of life that we are to go to. It is what will make us sufficient in all of life. It is the means by which we see the gospel. It is the means on which we are to use to live our daily lives. And of course, it is the means we use when we battle sin and temptation, Lord. We long for the day. We will not have to do that anymore, but we know in reality, as long as we live in this earth, we will constantly face temptation. Not necessarily from Satan himself, but we face it from our own flesh. As our old slave master comes time and time again and tells us to return, we must say no. We must remember that we are no longer under his control. We are the slaves of Christ, we are free from him, and we are free to live as Christ would have us. We thank you for your word and your promises you give us, and I ask you to help us to leave this place secure, help us to leave this place confident, Lord, that you will indeed never leave us, you will never forsake us, you will always be with us, and you will never allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear. We thank you for this time, and we pray in Christ's name, amen.