I invite you please to take your Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 23. And when you have found that, to also find another passage and keep your Bible marked in that second passage, which will be 2 Timothy chapter 4, and we'll be looking at verses 16 and 17. So Acts chapter 23, we'll be looking at one verse there, verse 11, Acts 23, 11. And 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 16 to 17. I just put my Bible ribbon in 2 Timothy chapter 4 so I can just flip right over to it. If you've got a Bible ribbon, that would help you as well. I don't know if you've seen the title. If you get the bulletin via email, you would have seen that the title this morning is kind of an interesting one. It's violent days, but a good night's sleep. Violent days, but a good night's sleep. And here in Acts 23, right here in verse 11, we see Paul's troubled condition and how he got over it. Anybody ever tell you just get over it? This is how he got over it. We're gonna see that. Obviously, we've been in 23 for a couple of weeks and this is where Paul, Having given his defense in chapter 22 in front of a Jewish mob, they want to kill him. In chapter 23, verses 1 through 5, he's before the Sanhedrin and he defends himself in verse 1 by saying, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And then in verses 6 through 10, When he saw the composition of this council, what we know as the Sanhedrin, he turns them against each other, but he takes this opportunity to introduce the real issue as to why he's being held. And he gives it in the last part of verse six. Of the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am called in question. That's why I am here. I am being judged for the hope and the resurrection of the dead. And of course that starts this tremendous tension right there in this council of 71 men and in verse 9 it's as if one of them, the Pharisees grabbed him on one side and the Sadducees grabbed him on the other and they were pulling him. It literally says there was a great dissension and the chief captain, the Roman chief captain, the Ciliarch, fearing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, take him by force from among them and bring him into the castle. So when you get to verse 11, we find him in the castle, the headquarters. And in verse 11, we read something that I really wanna spend our time in this morning, obviously, and the night following, the Lord stood by him. And said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. Now he has been through two horrible days, tremendous trouble, tremendous pressure. In the first day, the Jewish mob tried to kill him. They're beating him. When the soldiers came and rescued him, The day before, he's being pulled apart by these in the council. These two days, in addition to having been on three missionary journeys where he's been stoned, left for dead, and you read Acts chapter 13 through this chapter, and it almost leaves you tired, worn out just reading it. When you think of what this man has been through, But just in the last two days, he's been the target of violence. Chapter 31, 21 and 31 describes it this way. All Jerusalem was in an uproar. It was violent. Do we live in days like that right now? Have you faced a week, I know none of you this bad, but have you faced pressures and troubles and all kinds of things that you just want to faint from? I believe we can make some application from this today with everything that's happening in the world around us and to believers. Stress, concerns, threats, troubled circumstances. And sometimes it's hard to sleep at night. I believe Paul was ready for a sleep that night in this castle in the headquarters. By the way, he's in confinement. He's not free to do what he wants to do. There's soldiers watching him. And I believe we're going to see three things about his condition. I'm going to tell you those in just a minute that I get from this passage. But I want to first address something about our misconceptions. When you think of the apostles, what do you think of? Here's what we think of. We think of all the miracles they performed and the power of the Holy Spirit, the crowds that would gather to hear them preach. But we tend to avoid all of the difficulties they went through. And we tend to look at the apostles as super saints. Sometimes people look at pastors that way, as some kind of a super saint. Sometimes you look at your Sunday school teacher as a super saint, or you look at somebody like your mom and your dad, and you look at them as super saints, or some other believer, you go, wow, he's a super saint. Don't ever think that somebody is a super saint. Even a fervent godly prophet like Elijah is described in James chapter five as a man subject to like passions as we are. And he got discouraged. Remember, Elijah told the Lord, just take me. He's running from those who are chasing him. from Jezebel after he had seen the 450 prophets of Baal destroyed. And here I just wanna describe upfront Paul's condition. And we get it from verse 11 of chapter 23. Number one, he was deserted. He was all alone, he was deserted. Number two, he was discouraged. He was discouraged. Three, he was despondent. You say you can see that in verse 11? You would too, if you really had the time or took the time to study it. Because what the Lord, by showing up, tells him, that implies the condition he is in, and it's a troubled condition. He is not a super saint, folks, and neither are you and neither am I. Let's look first of all at the fact that he was deserted. He was all alone. And increasingly, fundamental Bible-believing Christians, that is non-woke believers, are all alone in this world. You have an option. You can compromise to be with the crowd and get along with the crowd, or you can continue to take a stand and get over the fact that you're all alone. But in the end, you are not alone. Somebody once said that you and God make a majority. I and God make a majority, no matter what I am up against, how many or how great the crowd is, the opposition is, if God is with you, you're in the majority. I was all alone in high school as a Christian. And there were times it was hard. Because I was raised in such a way, I was saved at the age of eight. I got hit. Even as a Christian, I'm being persecuted. But when you look at the Bible, I really wasn't persecuted. I remember sitting in music class. And you know, there I am in class, and all of a sudden, I felt this sharp pain on my head. It was, I almost fainted. And the guy behind me, this was popular in this day, this is in the late 70s, excuse me, mid 70s, dating myself. And this guy behind me had taken his ring, had this big old bubble on the top, big stone, he turned it over and took it and just smashed me on the back of my head when the teacher wasn't looking. just because he hated me. And there was a reason. I was the only guy in high school at that time who didn't have long hair. Because as a Christian, I didn't think it was right. In the workplace, you may feel like you're the only one, you're all alone. More and more in the ministry, I feel like I'm almost all alone. Not from you, I'm talking about other ministries and what's happening in this world, what's happening in churches. I feel like we folks are all alone. By the way, we're not. And that's why we need to fellowship with other churches, good fundamental Bible preaching churches. We are not alone. But at times you feel like it. Two things that I thought of when I was reading verse 11 and the fact that the Lord stood by him. You see that in verse 11, the night following that night, the Lord stood by him. Now this is literally, this is literally the Lord Jesus Christ standing by him. Some commentators say it was an angel. It's not what it says. It says the Lord stood by him. So I asked myself, well, who could have stood by him? Number one, to be with him. Who could have stood by him to be with him? What city is this taking place in? Jerusalem. Is there a good church in Jerusalem? Folks, answer me. There's a fantastic church in Jerusalem. This is where the church began. 3,000 people saved on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. The people in this church were taught by the apostles, Acts 2.42. They had wonderful deacons in this church, Acts chapter 6, including a man by the name of Stephen. This church was flourishing to such an extent that when Saul, who is now Paul, that we're looking at, when he, before he was saved, was persecuting the church, the church at Jerusalem, many of the people were scattered, Acts chapter 8. The Jerusalem council that would meet in order to decide some Bible doctrine was the church of Jerusalem, Acts chapter 15. This is a great church. Now I've alluded to this before, but I'm wondering what was the condition of this church at this time? Because no one, no one, no one came to meet with Paul. No encouragement from this church. How many are in this church now? You would think, oh, it's just the church that has already died out. Not so. Go back to chapter 21, just a couple of days before this. Acts chapter 21. Note what it says in verse 20. These are those who met Paul when he came to Jerusalem, and when they heard it, they glorified the Lord and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe. Many thousands of Jews composed this church, and yet none of the brethren, look at verse 17 of chapter 21, none of the brethren who had gladly greeted him when he came to Jerusalem, none of them came to be with him. Not even the pastor, James, comes to visit him. None of the elders mentioned in chapter 21 verse 18 come to visit him. No deacons come to visit him. None of the apostles come to visit him. Now, full disclosure here, I believe the apostles weren't in Jerusalem at this time. I believe they were out preaching the gospel elsewhere. But something was happening with this church. It might be the fact that there were many thousands of Jews who were fervent about the law who didn't like Paul. The point is, who could have stood by him, to be with him? The people in that church could have. You know, many believers choose to be alone because they're so preoccupied with themselves. We as believers are becoming like the world when it comes to self-preoccupation. You can see it when people are just on their phones all the time. They are so, in their own little world, preoccupied with themselves. And those kind of people will not reach out to others. I was reading an article that said if you want America to come back to life, get yourself and your friends back to church. And the author of that said, is it any wonder that the unraveling of civility and our social fabric started to occur when attending weekly services became a kind of cafeteria option rather than a priority? Is there any wonder that our society is falling apart? Because believers aren't gathering anymore. Who could have stood by him to be with him? This church. Secondly, who could have stood by him to pray for him? Even if they couldn't come to see him, and maybe that's why they couldn't go. Maybe nobody was allowed to get into the castle. But they could have at least prayed for him. But there's no record. You say, well, that's just an argument from silence. And yet you go back to chapter 12, and there's another apostle in prison by the name of Peter. And what do you find the church in Acts chapter 12 doing? They're having a midnight prayer meeting for Peter. You know, that's the story where Peter's released, and he comes out of prison, and he goes to the home where he knows they're praying for him, and he knocks on the door, and Rhoda, the little girl, servant girl, comes to the gate, and she sees him, and she runs back in and says, Peter's at the gate! And they're basically saying, be quiet, girl, we're praying for him to get out of prison. He keeps knocking. Finally, somebody goes to the door and says, it is Peter! The one for whom they had been praying. The point is, the church had been praying for him. There's no record of the church in Jerusalem praying for Paul. He was deserted. Perhaps prayer meetings in the Jerusalem church were no longer attended. And I think most believers do want to be prayed for today, but they choose not to pray for one another. Because you don't find them gathering together. to pray. Who could have stood by him? Is the first question, but here's the second question. Who did? Who did stand by him? The Lord stood by him, it says. The Lord stood by him. There were times previously like this when the Lord would appear to Paul. You'll find it in chapter 22, verses seven to 10. When he records what happened when the Lord arrested him on the way to Damascus as he was persecuting Christians, you see it again. In verse 18 and 21, where the Lord talked to him at least and said to him, in verse 18 of chapter 22, get out of Jerusalem. This is years before when he's just newly saved. You go back to chapter 18, the Lord appears to him or at least talks to him when he's in Corinth and says, Paul, don't be afraid. I have many people in this city. Stay here and minister. And he stays for a while because the Lord appeared to him and told him so. Again, you're going to see in chapter 27 and 23, he's on a ship and the ship is about to wreck and an angel of the Lord appears to him and says to him, literally, be of good cheer, Paul. You're not going to lose your life and neither are any of the men in the ship going to lose their life. There were times when the Lord would appear to him or talk to him. But mostly, it was other believers who would encourage him. Go to the last chapter of the book of Acts and find one of those instances. In Acts chapter 28, notice what takes place in verse 15, when he finally gets to Rome. 28, 15, and from thence when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appi Forum and the three taverns, whom when Paul saw, he thanked God. And what? He took courage. He took courage. But you know, when other believers fail you, including myself, if I fail you as a pastor, if a deacon fails you, and if another Christian fails you, there's always the Lord who stands by you. I call it the ministry of showing up. You have a ministry just by showing up. We'll be talking about that this afternoon. We often think of our ministry as being out there. It is. But folks, it is also in here. Ministering to one another. And perhaps one of the reasons Christians aren't faithful in witnessing out there is because they are not having their spiritual batteries charged in here. The world understands the importance of gathering together, do they not? If they have a particular team, nobody ever shows up at the Broncos games, do they? No one. No, what is it? You know what? That's my team, we're gonna get, and boy, they get behind their team, and they get behind the Rockies for some reason or another. People gather together to support their team. People practicing the act of getting together for supporting But when it comes to the church, why not? You can go to some political rally because they're gonna have some celebrity there, or you're gonna go to some political rally because there's somebody there you actually wanna see and support. And people understand the importance of gathering together and having a rally. Paul writes about this experience he has in the headquarters. He writes about this. In the last book he writes, the last letter he writes, 2 Timothy chapter four. Go to 2 Timothy chapter four. So this is 10 years later, 2 Timothy four, 10 years after what we see in Acts 23, 11. About 10 years later, His last letter, the end of the last chapter in verses 16 and 17 is looking back. He is looking back. And he says this in verse 16, at my first answer, the word answer. is the Greek word apologia, at my first defense. Where did you read about his defense? Go back to chapter 22 and look at verse one. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense. And he says in 4.16 of 2 Timothy, at my first defense, no man stood with me. But all men, what? Forsook me, literally, they deserted me. I pray God that it may not be late to their charge. He wasn't bitter about it, but he says, no one stood with me. Who did stand by him? The Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. You feel alone? At times you feel deserted as a Christian? There's the promise, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee by the Lord himself. So he was deserted. But secondly, you too will be what he was. Secondly, he was discouraged. He was discouraged. You say, how do you know he was discouraged? The fact that he needed to be told what? Be of good cheer, Paul. The fact that he had to be told that means he was discouraged. Now both the word discouraged and the word encouraged have the same, another word within them that's the same. Discourage, encourage. Discourage with that prefix dis means to deprive one of courage. The word encouraged is courage with the prefix n and that is to inspire with courage and that's what he needs right now. And so I see here the return of his encouragement. Because Paul was not somebody who got discouraged a lot, but he is here. For some reason, he is discouraged here. You say, for some reason? He's been violently targeted the last two days. He almost lost his life. And he literally wonders if this isn't it. Where had he been warned not to go, folks? Don't go to Jerusalem. Lord, or Paul, the Lord told us, the Spirit told us, don't go to Jerusalem. Remember how he had responded to their, the Holy Spirit told us? What mean ye to discourage me from going? I am not only ready to go to Jerusalem, but I'm ready to die there. Now it's coming to pass. Now he's going, oh, wow. When you think of the word cheer, when it says be of good cheer, Paul, when you think of the word cheer, what do you think of? Cheer up, folks. You ever had somebody when you're just down in the mouth who just comes along and says, hey, cheer up, buddy, just cheer up? It's like, you don't even know what I've been through. Cheer up? And the word cheer has that idea of likeness of spirit, gaiety. And that is how it's used in Acts chapter 27, the word cheer, to be light of spirit. When the angel of the Lord comes to Paul on the ship, he says, tell the others on the boat to cheer up because they're not going to drown. And when you read Acts chapter 27, that we're gonna get to sometime in the future, when you get there, when you see that, They cheer up. They had that lightness of spirit and they started eating on the boat. That's not the same word cheer that you see here in Acts 23 11. Different word in the original. The word cheer here means to have courage. Let me read it to you again that way. In the night following the Lord stood by him and said, have courage, Paul. Have courage. In other words, he had lost it. He was discouraged. That word is used in Matthew chapter 9 verse 2 by the Lord Jesus himself when he healed the man with palsy and he said this to him, this is Matthew 9 to you. Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. Again, the word cheer there means have courage. Same chapter, Matthew 9, verse 22, when the woman had the issue of blood and she said, if I could just touch his garment, I would be healed of this issue. And after she did, Jesus said to her daughter, be of good comfort. Same word. Daughter, have courage. Thy faith hath made thee whole. And then, of course, you remember that night when the apostles and the disciples were out on the Sea of Galilee and that storm came up, and they saw this This being, this ghost, they thought, this spirit walking on the water by them, remember this? And they're scared to death. There is somebody walking on the water in a storm. And it was Jesus himself and he comes up beside them and he says, be of good cheer. It is I, be not afraid. Again, he's not saying be lighthearted, he's saying have courage. So much so that Peter is in the boat and says this, Lord, if it is you, command me to come out and walk to you. And the Lord gives him permission and he steps out and he's walking on the water. Until he too lost that courage and began to seek. That's this word, cheer, be of good courage. G. Campbell Morgan, great expositor of the Bible, preached a sermon on this same passage in the early 1900s. And he said, the actual word of which our Lord made use described the cause and left us to discover the result. Cheerfulness will be the outcome of what Christ commanded, but he did not command men to be cheerful. He never dealt with the surface of things. He never told men to smile when they were in agony. He dealt with the underlying agony and thus called men into such attitude of soul as made cheerfulness possible. The word employed indicates courage rather than cheerfulness. And yet when somebody does take courage, what's the result? Cheer. But he's commanding courage. There's the return of his encouragement. Then let's note the reason for his encouragement. Why would Paul have courage? Why would he even take what the Lord says? Why would he be encouraged? Because the reason for his encouragement is standing there. By him, the Lord having stood by him literally said. Folks, this is the dynamite. behind getting over it. This is the dynamite behind getting over your troubled condition. What is it? The Lord is with me. It's all you need. That's all you need. In fact, go to 4.17 now, Remember I told you to keep your Bible ribbon in 417 of 2 Timothy? I read verse 16. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Now look at verse 17. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. He endued me with strength. The word there strengthened has dynamite in it. It literally is the Greek word dynamite. The Lord endued me with dynamite. Same word is used in Philippians 4.13. You might know that verse. I can do. Who what? Strengthens me. Who? Induce me with dynamite. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The Lord Jesus stands between the assaulted soul and the assaulting foe. G. Campbell Morgan said. And you'll read this in the Old Testament. Have not I commanded thee? God says to Joshua when he takes over after Moses has died. God says, have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed. Why? For the Lord thy God is with thee, with you, whithersoever thou goest. And that night, Paul is not only in a secure place, the headquarters, he is in the presence of the Lord. The Lord actually stood by him. Folks, it matters not who or how many stand against you if the Lord stands by you. I would rather be all alone with the Lord than to even be with the world's elite forces without him. I need to say something here. Christians read this and they go, Lord, please come. Lord, please appear to me. Lord, please stand by me. Lord, please make your appearance to me. You did it with Paul. You did it with some of the other apostles. You stood by them. They saw you. Lord, please stand by me. Don't expect them to stand by you tonight as they did with the apostle. You have his completed word. And so he encourages you through his word. He is with me because who indwells in you? Before he left, he said this, I give you a promise. I will not leave you comfortless, but I will send to you the comforter. And you say, well, Paul had the comforter. He had the Holy Spirit within him too, but the Lord still appeared to him. But he did not have the completed revelation like you and I do. Folks, we have the word, and here's what Jesus had told all of his disciples before he left this earth. And here's where that word, be of good cheer, appears another time. Jesus said in John 16, 33, these things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. In the world, you're gonna have trouble. Now listen, but be of good cheer. Again. But have courage. I have overcome the world. Folks, in discouragement, remember one thing. He is with me. He is with me. By the way, when he told you to go out and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you, he ended up by saying, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age, Matthew 28, 19, and 20. So he was deserted, but the Lord was with him. He was discouraged. But he was told to have courage. Lastly, and thirdly, he was despondent. Despondent. You say, what's the difference between being despondent and being discouraged? Well, discouraged means loss of courage. Despondence means loss of hope. And what do you think he has lost hope about that the Lord now gives him encouragement about? Well, note it in the last part. For as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, Paul, you've been faithful, you've been witnessing to others, you got up in front of this crowd, standing on the steps of the castle, and all these Jewish, this Jewish mob that is ready to kill you, and you testified of me in front of them, just the same way you did that with them. Last part of verse 11. So must thou bear witness also at Rome. Now you read this and you go, I don't care about Rome. Folks, that is where Paul wants to go. That was his own desire. I think it was a God-given desire that he wanted to go to Rome. Why? We're gonna see that. The Lord gave him a message of commendation by what he says here. As I was saying earlier, perhaps Paul thought, this is it, I'm gonna die, this is the end. He had been warned multiple times, don't go to Jerusalem. Now what's he doing? Kicking himself? Doubting himself? I should have listened to them? You know how we are? You know when you have an opportunity to witness to somebody and you go, man, did I say the right thing? Man, every time I witness to somebody, I think of all the things I should have said later. And I'm sure Paul's sitting there going, man, I should have done this, I should have done that, I should have said this. Why did I say what I said to Ananias when I called him, you whited wall? Why did I do that? You know how you doubt yourself. I guess I'm not getting to Rome. Humanly speaking, his time in Jerusalem was a complete failure. Who got saved with him giving his testimony, folks? Who? No one. He just made him more angry. But God commends him for witnessing. Do you see that? For as thou hast testified of me, The Lord Jesus is not rebuking him for what he said. He is commending him for his testimony, his witness there. So there's the commendation. But then you also see the confirmation. Apparently, he thought that he would never make it to Rome, but the Lord assures him that he will make it to Rome. And this has been his ministry desire since chapter 19 and verse 21. Go back to 19 and 21. Months earlier, months earlier, Here's what the Bible records by Luke 19, 21. And after these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia to go to Jerusalem, saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome. That's been his desire all along. God says, you're going to Rome. So why does he want to go to Rome? Does he want to see the Colosseum? You're not a Christian. I'd rather not be. I'd like to see it from the outside. I don't want to be inside. But why is he going to Rome? Is this a sightseeing trip? No, folks, it's a saint-seeing trip. Get that. He's going there to see the saints. He had written this in Romans chapter one and verse 11. This he had written years before. What happens here? He had written, for I long to see you. Why? That I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end ye may be established. That's Romans 111. That's what he wrote to the Christians at Rome. I want to come see you. I'm not coming to see the sites, I'm coming to see the saints. And again in the last A couple of chapters of Romans, in Romans 15, 23, having a great desire these many years to come unto you, he writes to these Roman Christians. And in verse 29 of chapter 15, and I am sure that when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. You know what, when you go on vacation, folks, don't take a vacation from God too. If you're somewhere out there, go visit another Bible preaching church and encourage them. I tell you, this is an encouragement. This is such an encouragement. You're on vacation, man, what are you doing here? Doesn't this encourage you folks? Why don't you do the same thing when you go out somewhere on vacation? What are you doing sitting out on the beach and sunning yourself? Get to church. Go meet with some other God-fearing believers, Bible-believing Christians, just by you showing up, it encourages them. He's not on a sightseeing trip, he's on a saint-seeing trip. He had been assured, go back to chapter 22, and in verse 21, right after the riot, or excuse me, right after he was saved, God had told this to him in 22, 21, because he's recounting something in this verse. The Lord had said, the Lord Jesus had said, depart for I will send thee far hence unto the, Paul, I'm gonna send you a long ways off to the Gentiles. In 2311, he's assured he's gonna go to Rome, which is far hence. You still have your ribbon in 2 Timothy chapter four? I haven't finished verse 17. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear. And in the same way he had testified in Jerusalem facing violence and trouble, the same thing is gonna happen on the way and in Rome, on the way to Rome and in Rome. By the way, you look at the very next verse after verse 11 of chapter 23, and there's a conspiracy to kill him. Men make a vow, and they say, we will not eat or drink until we kill this man. What did God just told him? Paul, don't fear, you're going to Rome. And when he finds out about this conspiracy, he's probably going, okay, he says, Rome, they're saying they're gonna kill me, they're not gonna eat, drink wine, how's this gonna, doesn't have to do that. He just says, God gave me a promise, go ahead, guys. And yet he still has his nephew, he hears about this conspiracy, go tell the commander. And in 2 Timothy 4, 17, he says this, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. That wasn't a literal lion. He was not thrown to the lions in the Colosseum because he's Roman citizen. Roman citizens were never thrown to the lions. But there is someone who goes about as a roaring lion, is there not? Satan himself. In my devotions this morning, I read this in Psalm four and verse eight. I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." No doubt Paul had a wonderful night's sleep that night. How couldn't you? He was deserted but Not forsaken by the Lord. He was discouraged, but he was told, be courageous. He was despondent about his service for the Lord being hindered, but the confirmation comes that not only do I recognize your witness here in Jerusalem, but you're gonna do the same thing in Rome. And he could sleep. Now that's not why we serve the Lord, so that we can sleep at night, but it's just a title that I think Captures what is taking place here that he rested in the Lord and so should you and so should I?