We'll turn to Luke's Gospel, chapter 1 again. Luke's Gospel, chapter 1. We'll read some verses that we read last Lord's Day, just to refresh your memory. We have been, over the summer months, been speaking about the personality of John the Baptist, and what an interesting study it has been, what a challenge it has been. And so we're turning to Luke, chapter 1, and we're reading from the verse 57. Verse 57. Now Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy unto her, and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child. And they called him Zacharias after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, not so, but he shall be called John. And they said unto her, there is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father that he would have them, or how he would have him called. And he asked for a writing table and wrote, saying, his name is John. And they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed and spake, and praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about them, and all these saints were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was with him. And then verse 80, And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts to the day of his showing unto Israel. Amen. And we'll end the reading there. Let's seek the Lord in prayer. Our loving Father, we come, God, now to the central act of this worship service, for the preaching of thy word. We thank thee for the record, that true witness from heaven given to us by the Holy Spirit. Rejoice, O God, in the infallible truth of thy word, and we pray that we might glean truths from it today, may be put into practice within our lives and within our homes. Grant, O God, thy servant the infilling of thy spirit with wisdom and power. Grant all of thy redeemed ones to know again the infilling of thy spirit, that they might hear aright. Lord, grant heavenly Father words, O God, from heaven, to be administered to this congregation words that will be applied by the Spirit and will not leave us for the rest of our days. Lord, that they might be used in order, O God, to guide and to help us in how to order the child and how to run and to govern our homes and how to regulate our lives as believers. And so grant, O God, the help of thy Spirit. We pray this in and through Jesus' precious and holy and wonderful name. Amen. Back to school. I'm sure a collective groan comes from all those children and young people of school age when they hear those three words, back to school. A sense of dread always filled my mind when I saw those three words erected on signs and shops during my summer holidays, for they were a reminder to me that school days were looming on the near horizon. I suppose in life we are always being schooled. In infancy, we're found enrolled in the school of the home. In childhood, we're schooled in a primary school or by means of homeschooling. In our years of adolescence, we are schooled in a secondary or a grammar school. And by the time we reach our late teens and into our early 20s, we're found maybe schooled in a university or in a further education college. And then the rest of our days, whenever we get out of those schools, we're found enrolled in that great school, the school of life. Whatever our age, we are always being schooled. We're always at school. Today, we want to look at the schools that John the Baptist was enrolled into and what lessons he came to learn while he was there. in those particular schools. And so I want to do that today in a message that I've entitled John the Baptist Schooling. John the Baptist Schooling. There were three schools that John the Baptist was enrolled into within his life. The first school that John found himself in was the school of home. the school of home. Now what I will say under this heading may be a little repetitive, truths that I have already preached and presented within this series of messages, but for emphasis sake I want to drive home a number of points in relation to the schooling of John the Baptist, that schooling that he received within that blessed home that he was born into. You see, John the Baptist was blessed by having pardoned and praying parents. He was blessed by having pardoned and praying parents. Pardoned in the sense that they were both, as verse 6 puts it, righteous before God. That can only take place by a righteousness outside of an individual being granted, imputed to that individual. and causing that person to be declared righteous before God and in the sight of God. They were pardoned, redeemed. They were trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His perfect righteousness. Not only were they pardoned, but they were praying. And he was born into a praying home in the sense that his arrival into the home was an answer to the prayers of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Well, at least on the part of Zacharias we are told that his prayer had been heard, and I'm sure Elizabeth was also involved in praying for her son. Father and mother pardoned and praying parents. I wonder, have you got such parents? Have you got parents that have been pardoned, redeemed, saved by God's grace? Have you got parents that are praying parents? If you have, then you're blessed beyond all measure. You're blessed by a blessing that cannot come from anything in this world, but it comes from God himself. Now, father and mother, you may not be able to give your children the latest designer clothes. You may not be able to give them the expensive shoes or trainers that they want. You may not be able to purchase for them the latest mobile phone or the newest model of car. But none of those things that I have mentioned have any eternal value attached to them. If you want your child to have the best start in life begin with being saved yourself. And in having been saved, then erect a family altar within the home where prayer is offered on a daily basis and where the need of personal faith in God is impressed upon the hearts of all those who are under your care for whom you will be accountable for on the day of judgment. Now whenever you think that John the Baptist was born into a home where prayer was natural and most probably a daily experience and employed on a regular basis, whenever you think of that, then it is little wonder that John the Baptist became a praying man himself. As he heard his father, as he heard his mother pray, whether that was at a family devotion, Whether that was around a meal table, whether that was before putting the child to bed, or whether that was through his bedroom wall, John, through Zacharias and Elizabeth, was schooled in how to pray. How do I know that John the Baptist was a praying man? Well, if you turn to Luke chapter 11, it makes it very clear that the Baptist was a man of prayer. opening verse of that chapter we read these words and it came to pass Luke 11 verse 1 and it came to pass that as he speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ was praying in a certain place when he ceased one of his disciples said unto him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his his disciples. Now it is that statement, a statement that we could very easily miss as we rush ahead to that prototype prayer that Christ gave his disciples for them to pray. We could very easily miss that closing statement of the opening verse that reveals to us that John the Baptist was a man of prayer. Teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. Now the question that should come to your mind is this, where and from whom did John learn how to pray? Now it's obvious from the request here of the disciples that John's praying was not like the praying of the Pharisees and the scribes. John's praying was not some kind of cold, dead, ritualistic, mechanical, repetitive type of praying. There is something different. There is something unique about John's praying and about the praying of John's disciples that causes the Savior's disciples to ask this question, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples how to pray. Could I suggest to you that the prayers that John learnt in his home from the lips of his praying father and mother played a part, maybe not the whole, but at least they played, I believe, a part in making John the praying man that he grew up to be. I believe that it was at home that John learnt pray. You see the activity of praying was instilled into the life of John the Baptist from and in his informative years. I know that there are Christian parents here today And you would want your children to grow up to be praying men and praying women. And I have no doubt that God can make that happen without any input or without any effort from you. God is sovereign in all of these things. But it is more probable, it is more likely, brother, sister, it is more probable that your desire will be realized if you are a praying mother. And if you are a praying father yourself, and your child hears you pray, the command of God to parents is to train up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he shall not depart from it. And I believe that prayer is one of the ways in which we can train up a child. I trust dad and mom I trust you're a praying man. I trust you're a praying woman. I trust, mum and dad, that you pray with your children. I trust that you pray with them at the meal table, not only inside your home but also outside your home, when you're found in some public arena and you're found in some restaurant. I trust that you publicly own God as your own. and bow head and heart before Him and thank God for the blessings that you're about to receive. I trust that you pray as a family. I trust that you pray as a family around the open Word of God each day. I pray that you have a family altar. I trust that before you put that child of yours or those children of yours to bed, that at least one of you is fine praying with that child or with those children. I trust that you're a praying mother and father. You know, don't expect your child to pray. Don't expect them to even have a desire to pray if they look over at you at eight o'clock on a Wednesday evening and see you sitting in the armchair watching the latest filth from some soap opera or watching the great British big off. Don't expect your child to have a desire for prayer if you don't have a desire for prayer. Now I know that it's all, that we all walk with God separately, but we, we follow example. Does your child follow you into the prayer meeting? whether it be before the services, whether it be on a Wednesday night. Yes, the record's on again, folks. That old record that the preacher plays over and over and over again, and he'll do so until the Spirit of God takes the Word and takes the challenge off the Word of God and applies it into your soul, and you're found as a praying man or woman at the place of prayer. Don't expect your children to become men and women of prayer if you yourself are not a man or woman of prayer. John the Baptist learnt how to pray from his praying parents, I believe it. Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples to pray. For the sake of your children, for the sake of their souls, for the sake of this church, for the sake of this nation, brother, sister, get on to praying ground. Get on to praying ground. He was bathed in prayer. The home was fragranced with prayer. Oh, that our homes would be places where prayer is rendered to God, and we find delight in prayer, not the drudgery of it, but oh, the delight that we find as we kneel before God in prayer. As we learned from previous studies, we learned that John's father was a priest. so I believe that John's earliest recollection of his father would have been him serving the Lord, not serving himself, but serving the Lord. He would have recalled how his father two occasions throughout the year would have left his home and made his way to Jerusalem to fulfill his course or to fill that allotted space of service within the temple. I can imagine that little boy John with wide eyes looking out, out through the window of his home waiting for dad to return from Jerusalem. Wanting to hear all that had happened and all that had transpired within the holy city and in the temple. John would have listen to his father recount how the lamb was taken and how the lamb was slain every morning and every night and how the blood shedding was required whereby sin could be put away. I can hear him as he speaks to his son. and reminds his son that all of those sacrificial lambs and all of those offerings that he was involved in bringing before God, all of those sacrifices was pointing to one great sacrifice, a once and for all sacrifice that was going to be offered for sin by the Messiah as he came into the world. Here's a boy, and he's steeped in the truths of the gospel from his earliest days. And being steeped in those truths about the slain of the Lamb and the need for the Lamb, is it then any wonder that John was able to look to the approaching Christ and point to Him and say to the gathered masses, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. See, it was from his earliest days that John's young and impressionable mind was saturated with the thoughts for the need of a slain lamb and for the blood sacrifice. He heard it from his father. You know, father, mother, it's never too early to get your child acquainted with the gospel. Never too early. And that gospel, it centers on one message. It centers on the message that the blood, it is the blood that maketh the atonement for the soul. It is the blood that brings us nigh to God. It is the blood that washes away the sinner's stain. Ah, the blood sacrifice on the cross of Calvary is the central truth around all which the gospel revolves around, the atonement, redemption. It's never too soon in a child's life to get them under the influence of the gospel. Can I say that there will always be an excuse to keep your child and your children away from the gospel meeting? There will always be an excuse. You may say, preacher, the service falls on their sleeping time. You may say, preacher, the children are teething. You may say, preacher, we're weaning the child at this particular moment of time. We would love to have them out at the gospel meeting. Ah, they need to go to bed because, you know, preacher, they're starting nursery this year. preacher we would love to get them out to God's house but they're heading to primary school and they need their sleep on a Sunday evening and before long they're eight or they're nine or they're ten years of age and they've never got into the habit of coming to God's house on a Sunday evening. I understand that there are times when it is not possible to bring a child to the house of God but those times ought to be rare. Not normal. There will always be something, the devil will furnish you with some excuse not to have your children under the sign of the word of the living God. But let me say that John from his earliest days heard about the lamb, heard about the blood, heard about the only way whereby a sinner could be reconciled to God, and that truth got a hold of his soul. That truth saved him by grace. He became a preacher of God's gospel. You know the Jesuits, they used to say, give us a child till he's seven and we'll have him for life. We're to God that God's people saw the importance of the early informative years when it comes to the gospel. The gospel. By being raised in a priest's home meant that the scriptures The scriptures would have been read and, I believe, committed to memory. I can see Zacharias as he takes down the scroll of Isaiah, the prophet, and he turns to the words, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for a God. And then I can see that old man as he looks to his son and he says, John, those words are all about you. Zacharias, as a priest within the home and a priest within the nation, took very seriously the responsibility of getting the Word of God into the heart and the mind of his only son. That's what he concerned about. He did not overly concern himself about getting algebra into the mind of his children. or nouns and pronouns of the English language, or his spellings into his mind, but he took seriously responsibility of getting God's word into his soul and into his heart. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against thee. He took his responsibility as a father to instruct his child in the word of God and in the things of God. In the church of Jesus Christ there is the shirking of our responsibilities. We leave that responsibility of teaching the scriptures, who to? To the Sunday school teacher and thank God for them. Or we leave it to the children's median worker. Thank God for them. And yet can I say that these must only, these helps must only be seen as helps to reinforce and to reemphasize what you as a parent have instilled into the mind and the heart of your child at home. At home. And so I would exhort every parent to at least read the scriptures with your child. and then encourage them to memorize the word of God. And yes, let me say, parents, mother, father, take an interest, take an interest in their Sunday school lessons. And it will give them a good foundation upon which they will build their lives. However, the scriptures were not only read and memorized, but they were obeyed within this home. Verse six tells us that father and mother walked in all the commandments and the ordinances of the Lord blameless. Here's a man as he grows up, as he grows up within this home, he sees parents that he sees they just want to do what's right. He says, I believe in his mind, mom and dad just want to please the Lord. They just want to please the Lord. And so by example, they obey the word. Just read it, not just have it in our mind intellectually, but actually to live it out within their lives. What an example John had left for him to follow. By parents who just walk with God. who in all the commandments and the ordinances of the Lord, they were blameless, above reproach, at least to the outside world. What example are you leaving your children to follow? Maybe you have no children, but what example are you leaving to neighbors, nephews, nieces to follow? And I say that an example seen is far superior to an example heard. As I thought of that, I thought about a little poem, the opening words of which are as follows. I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way, because the eye is a better pupil, more willing than the ear. I find counsel is confusing. But example is always clear. Let me give you this lengthy but useful quotation, I believe, from F.B. Meyer. He said, how indelible are the impressions of the home, what the father is when he comes back at night from his toils, and what the mother is all day. what may be the staple of conversation in the home, whether the father is willing to be the companion of the child, answering his questions and superintending the gradual unfolding of his mind, how often the Bible is opened and explained, how the weekly Sabbath is spent, the attitude of home towards strong drink in every shape and form, and all else that might injure the young life, all these are vital to the right nurture and direction of boys and girls who can only wax strong in spirit when all the early influences combine in the same direction. The home. We need the home to be right if the church is to be right, if the world is to be right. May God give us homes, like the Baptist's home. The child did not do what he wanted around the home. The child was schooled, trained in prayer, in the scriptures, and in the things of God, so that when he left home, they never left him. May our homes be the school from which great men and women of God graduate from. But the second school that John was enrolled into was the school of God. The school of God. Notice with me the last sentence in verse 66, a sentence that refers to John the Baptist. We read there, and the hand, the hand of the Lord was with him. That statement is used by the Holy Spirit or a statement similar to it in relation to the other prophets of God. Remember that John the Baptist was the prophet of the highest? For example, we read in 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 46 concerning the prophet Elijah, And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab into the entrance of Jezreel. We find the man who took over from Elijah concerning Elisha, these words in 2 Kings 3 verse 15, "...bring me now a minstrel." And it came to pass when the minstrel prayed that the hand of the Lord came upon him. We read of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 1 verse 3, "...the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest." the son of Buzi in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chibar, and the hand of the Lord was there upon him." In actual fact, six other times in that very book of Ezekiel, that phrase, the hand of the Lord was upon him, or something akin to it, or in the same vein, is found concerning the prophet Ezekiel. The hand of the Lord. And when we think of that phrase, the hand, and we think of that very word itself, it denotes the thought of aid or protection or favor. And so we find here that God was aiding the development of John the Baptist. He was protecting him from the sins and the snares of the world. He was putting divine favor on his life as a young boy and going into adolescence and then into young adulthood. It is from that detail that we note and we can see that John the Baptist required from the very beginning of his life divine assistance. His task was too great. And his task was too important for him to accomplish it in his own strength. His foes were too many and too strong, for he would have been overcome by them. The task that was assigned to John could only be accomplished by the hand of God being on God's servant. We need to pray that God's hand will be on our children, protecting them, shielding them from the world, Oh, that it was Jabez who spoke about the blessing of the Lord, that he would have his coasts enlarged, that thy hand might be with me, he said, to protect me, to shield me, to guide me. And how we need to pray that for our children as they go into the world, that God's hand will be on them, that God's hand, that kneel-scarred hand, would be on their lives. Because the hand shapes, the hand molds like the potter on the potter's wheel. How God needs to shape and mold those whom we love. I in God's hand needs to be on all that we attempt to do for him. Because you know folks, there are times when we read in the Bible that God's hand was against his people. We don't want God's hand to be against this work. We want God's hand to be on the work. What happened? Whenever the priest stood to bless the people, he raised his hands toward heaven. Solomon, in prayer, raised his hands towards heaven. It is the conferring of a blessing. Oh, to have God's blessing. What did Christ do when the children were brought to him? He didn't baptize them. He put his hand on them and he blessed them. God's hand was on those children. And know that God's hand will be upon our children and upon the work of God here in Portland alone and across the province and across the world. Because if it is child of God, it will mean greater success than what we are presently experiencing. Oh, is God's hand against us? Is God's hand against us? God's hand needs to be with us. God, a hand that will guide us, that will restrain us, a hand that restrains us, a hand that protects us, a hand, thank God, that chastens us. That's what it means to have God's hand with you. Oh, there are many and they think, well, if God's hand is with me, nothing but health, wealth, and prosperity. Ah, child of God, if God's hand is with you, he may also chasten you with that hand, for you're wandering away. You're in a state of backsliding. God will lift his hand to chasten you if you are his child. We don't have God's hand with us, and so this is a statement that we believe that reveals to us that John was in God's school. But another statement is found in the closing words of the chapter, the verse number 80. The verse number 80 of the chapter we read, and the child grew and waxed strong in spirit. Now, I believe that initially those words they refer to the child grew, speaking of his physical development. But the second statement speaks, I believe, of his spiritual development. He waxed strong in spirit. As you would expect, the words waxed strong simply mean that. There's no hidden meaning in those words. It just simply means that John increased in power and vigor. But that increase of power was felt not physically, but spiritually. He was strong where? In what realm? In his spirit, in the inner man. John's understanding, I believe, of spiritual things increased as he came. And that came about by the work of God within the soul. We are reminded by the scriptures that the spiritual things of God cannot be discerned by the natural man, but rather they are spiritually discerned. And that can only come about by God working within the soul. Yes, parent, you can do so much for your child. You can catechize them, you can bring them up in the things of God, but if they do not meet with God, if they do not have an encounter with the living God, if they're not saved by God's grace, that child will be a child of the devil and will go to hell. God's hand needs to be on them. And that requires God working within the soul. He was, he waxed strong in the spirit. I wonder, are you, am I a teachable pupil in God's school? Do you, like Mary, delight to sit at the master's feet and hear his word? Have you taken Christ's yoke upon you and learnt of him? Are you one of his children who has been taught of the Lord, as Isaiah 54 verse 13 states, that all of God's children would be all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. Is John's testimony your testimony? Are you waxing strong in the Spirit? Are you advancing in your spiritual life? Are you growing in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? Or is it the case that you are a truant student, one who is missing from God's house when God would teach you from His truth? through the preaching and through the exposition of the word of God. Are you a rebellious pupil? We all knew pupils like that in our own school. Maybe you were one. Maybe someone tried to teach you something and you thought you knew better, but whenever you came to your examinations, you realized that the teacher was right and you were wrong. But are you a rebellious pupil? You hear God's Word preached here week after week, maybe not in the greatest ability, but in the ability that God has given God's servant here. But do you throw it behind your back? Criticize the preacher whenever you go home and say, that's not for me because you just received the Word of God as if it was from a mere man. Matthew Henry said, we must come to Christ as our teacher. set ourselves to learn of him. Christ has erected a great school and has invited us to be his scholars. We must enter ourselves associate with his scholars and attend daily the instruction he gives by his word and his spirit. John was in the school of God. There is a final school that John was enrolled into and that was the school of the desert. the school of the desert. Luke 1 verse 80, it states that John the Baptist was in the deserts till the day of his showing on to Israel. We're not told the age that John went to live in the deserts. Some suggest that it was on the death of Zacharias and Elizabeth. Remember that by the time he comes, he's born into their home, that there are They are already well stricken in years. Zacharias intimates that, so he does, throughout his intercourse and his communication with the people of God. They are already aged individuals. We can't say what age he went, but what we can say about the desert is this. It would have been a very lonely place. Yet it would be in the lonely place that God was going to make John the man he needed to be. You know, we live, men and women, we live in a world where solitude and where privacy and being alone are undervalued. Is it not the case that young people get annoyed when they don't get so many likes concerning something that they've shared on social media? Teenagers almost become paranoid when someone refuses to accept their invitation to be their friend or they make no comment upon something that they have posted on Facebook. Young adults even get frustrated when they find themselves sitting at home on a Friday night whenever everyone else seems to be out socializing. Can I say this preacher knows how you feel? I know what it's like to sit in on a Friday night. and see, as it were, the world passing you by. I know what it's like to have siblings, to head out from the home place, and for me to be left at home alone. But believe you me, there's gonna come a time when you feel that a Friday night in the house is the greatest thing that could ever happen to you. You'll get beyond that. And I learned something in those lonely years. and they were lonely years, I started to learn the benefit of the place of solitude, the place of privacy, because it was there that I was going to meet with God, and God was going to meet with me. As I read the record of Scripture, I see that it is in the lonely place, the hidden place, God often shapes and molds and fashions his servants for future days. Moses spent 40 years in the desert, Elijah camped privately for a time by the brook Cherith, the Apostle Paul at his time in Arabia three days. Three times a day Daniel took time to get alone with God. Christ had times even in his earthly ministry when he would get away from the crowds and just seek his Father. We all need times of solitude, that we might hear the still small voice. Now I'm not saying that we become hermits. I'm not saying that we enroll ourselves in some convent or some monastery. I'm not saying that we become anti-social. What I am saying is that we need to have times when we get alone with God. For it is in the place of loneliness, the desert, the place of solitude that God often does his greatest work in our lives. William Clarkson said, we should do well to be in the desert more than we are, to seek the solitary place where we are alone with God and with ourselves more than we do. The world is too much with us. We cannot hear the stiller and deeper voices that speak to us, for its perpetual sound is in our ear. John Butler made this comment, we will not serve God well if we have not learned the practice of being alone with God. Running with the crowd does not help the soul ready itself for divine service. And finally, R.M. Edgar remarked, it may be safely said that no one has ever done much for God who has not been much alone with him. It is the communion of the lowly spirit with the supreme which fits it for high service. If you, if I want to be used by God, then we'll have to learn to be alone with God. And that might mean for you to be in the house on a Friday night, just so you can get alone with God. The school of the desert. And it was from each of these schools, the school of home, the school of God, and the school of the desert, that John was going to graduate from. Because you're not always in those schools, yes, I suppose we are always in the school of God, always learning from him, but we're never always in the school of home. We leave home and we set up our own family. We're not always in the desert. But John graduated from these schools when he had come to learn all that God wanted him to learn, in each of them. And so whatever school you're in today, May you be found a good pupil, because God's preparing you for some future service, some future usefulness in his work. God is preparing you, but we always have to go back to school. Maybe you're not a Christian here today, And this will be the last time that I address you for a number of weeks. I trust that's not the case because I trust that you'll be here at the service tonight. But if you're not a Christian, what will it be if I on holidays hear of your passing away and I know that you have died in your sin, a rebel against God and a stranger to his grace? I plead with you to come to Christ, receive his free offer of mercy and grace, repent of your sin and believe the gospel. It'll make heaven rejoice. It'll make this church family rejoice. It'll make your own heart rejoice to know that your sins have been washed away and you're a child of the Most High God. May God save you by his grace, and may God help us to stay in the desert until the day of God's revelation or God's showing of us even to this community and in the Church of Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our loving Father, we seek thee. We seek Thee, O God, as parents, as aunts, as uncles. We seek Thee as individuals whose lives tell for God, whose example is followed by those within the congregation. O God, we cry to Thee that Thou wilt help us in our homes. Help us, dear Father, to have a home like the Baptist's home. And Lord, let us learn from Thee in the schoolhouse. And Lord, in the quiet place, the lonely place, the place where it seems to be that we've got no friends and no companions, may we find Him who is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. May we delight in his company. And may that company be the thrilling of our souls and the enthralling of our hearts. Take thy word, apply it where it needs to be applied in my life and in my home. in the homes of my brethren and sisters, and may we not only be hearers of the word, but may we be doers of it as well. For we pray this in and through Jesus, precious and holy name. Amen and amen. Thank you.