Philippians chapter 1, and I want to read verses 27 down through chapter 2 and verse 5. Philippians 1, 27 down to 2, 5. The title of tonight's message is Thinking Like Jesus. Thinking Like Jesus. Philippians 1 and verse 27. Paul says, "...only let your conversation be as it becomes the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel." and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same conflict that you saw in me and now hear to be in me. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves, Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." So our main thought tonight is thinking like Jesus. That's what he's teaching us here in this passage, how to think like Jesus. Let's pray. Father, again, we ask for your help as we come to your word. May Christ be exalted. May we learn to think like him. And when we do, when we become more like Christ, Lord, I know as a church body, Lord, they will draw closer to one another. Help us to see that tonight. In Jesus' name, and amen. In this portion of the letter, Paul is seeking to give instruction to the people at Philippi as to how they were to respond to those who oppose them and that seek to make them suffer. That's part of what he's talking about there in our first few verses. In verses 27 on, they are dealing with persecution, and so part of what Paul is teaching them is how to respond to persecution. Paul encourages them to let their conversation be as it becomes of the gospel of Christ. He was wanting them to show forth Christ to their persecutors, so that whenever their persecutors came at them, that they would see Jesus, they would see the gospel at work. Now that phrase, as it becomes the gospel of Christ, is a phrase He uses is a phrase that speaks, when you look it up, of having such a behavior that shows themselves as those who belong to Christ and are actually a citizen of another country. That's what that phrase speaks of. So He wanted them to face their enemies in a manner that reflected the Gospel of Christ and showed forth the Lord Jesus. It was important for them to respond to persecution in a manner like Christ. So how can we behave like Jesus? How can we act like Jesus when people are breathing down our neck or persecution is upon us? How do we act like Jesus? Now, He gives them Now we'll get to that in a moment. He gives them the example of Christ in verses 6 through 8 in chapter 2. He talks about Christ, who being in the form of God, thought not robbery could be equal with God. In verse 7 through 8, we see that He made Himself of no reputation, took upon Himself the form of a servant, was made like in the likeness of men, and he humbled himself, became obedient in the death, in the death of the cross, and so he gives them the example of Christ there. Now, one of the reasons he gives for why it was important for them to respond in accordance to the Gospel of Christ was because it would serve as a token of perdition unto the persecutors. He says that in chapter 1 there in verse 28. He says, "...and in nothing be terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition." When their behavior was like that of Christ in the face of persecution, it would be used to strike the conscience of some of the persecutors. Now who better to speak about that than Paul? He himself was one whose conscience was pierced because of one that he condoned the stoning of, which was Stephen. He heard Stephen as the Lord was with him, and he heard him cry out, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Paul heard that. I have no doubt that that Christ-like response of Stephen echoed in the mind of Paul for years to come. Even after he was saved, he would still have to think back to that time when he consented to Stephen's death, and yet Stephen cried out, lay not this sin to their charge. No doubt that was partially used by God to work in the mind and heart of Paul. Now, not all who are pricked by the testimony of the witness of God's people, not all will be saved, not all respond the right way, not all come to Christ. See, a good example of that, and I want to say this because I think it's important. Sometimes we think if we are just like Jesus, if we are like Christ enough, then more people will be saved. Now God uses a godly example, but it's not on you to save people. I mean, who else can be like Jesus any more than Jesus? There were a lot of people around Him that died and went to hell. Well, he had one walk with him for some time, right? And he was actually called the son of perdition. I mean, he died lost, so it's not... sometimes Christianity churches can place so much emphasis upon the exterior parts of religion to a point that says, you know, boy, you've got to live just right, or you know what, people won't be saved. I mean, that's hogwash. I can say hogwash in the South, can't I? My people don't even understand what that means. when he says stuff like that. But the testimony is important. And I believe he's making a point in that when he tells them it's an evident token of perdition. He's saying God can use that. Now, we need to move on here. Paul also did not want the people to be afraid to face their enemy. We see that also in verse 28. "...and in nothing terrified by your adversaries." No matter what happens to us, because we are followers of Christ, no matter what may happen, let us not fear and let us always respond in a way that says we are believers and followers of Jesus Christ. Now, we here at the moment where we're at, we may not be experiencing physical persecution, but listen, the enemy is still at work. What I want to do is see three main things that Paul addresses in how we are to behave and think. Now, in considering these three things, we not only understand how we are to walk like Christ, we will also understand a little bit about the plan or desire of the enemy. Understanding our walk, we are to have, will help us to see the strategy of the enemy. Now there's, however, one main thought. I like to read this and take a step back and look at the theme. Look at what is one of the big pictures that Paul is teaching in this passage. And we're going to get our first thought here, and we want to drive home, hopefully, in this message. I want you to see unity. Unity. There's one main thought that he's driving, because he wanted the people that he's writing to, to all think alike. He wanted them to, no matter what they faced, that they all thought alike. And he was teaching them how to think. He wanted them to think like Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ. So let's look at this unity. Look at the many references in the short passage that we read. Look at verse 27. He says, "...stand fast in one spirit." Right? Look at one mind in verse 27. Striving what? Together. Together for the faith of the Gospel. It's obviously wanting them to think alike, so that they would become unified, so that they would be able to face their enemy together. You guys need to think alike. You guys need to be one spirit and one mind, because you have an enemy. Now, in this, we're going to see at least two main thoughts for the moment tonight. One, we realize that one of the goals of the enemy of this church, and I'm going to apply it to you, one of the goals of the enemy of this church, of the Lord Jesus Christ here, is to divide. Divide. That's always the goal of Satan. Now here, they were facing physical persecution. He wanted them to respond the right way, to be united in facing that persecution, but make no doubt about it, that the enemy's main goal here at this church is to divide the church. It is his mission. You know what your mission is, hopefully. And the Great Commission, that's your mission. Listen, the devil's mission is to divide you so you will not do God's mission. And he'll use whatever he can to hopefully accomplish that. Now though he may not be able yet to bring about physical persecution, in order to accomplish that, do not be deceived because he is still at work. Satan's tactic is to get you as divided as possible, to cause division among the people of God. And listen, and he goes about that in several ways. Listen, the devil does not want you to be close. He does not want you to be connected to the church. Spurgeon wisely said this, he said, Satan always hates Christian fellowship. It is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another, he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation." We must understand this method of the devil. He wants to separate you from the rest of the body of Christ here. Now whatever he needs to do to accomplish that, he doesn't care. Okay? Whatever it is. He wants to separate you from the rest of this flock. And He, I've been in the ministry long enough to see, He will even give people very justifiable reasons in their own mind, such as the faults of others. Well, some are just hypocritical in the church. Or maybe even the opposite extreme. Your own lack to feel like you measure up to the rest of the church. I've lost people in the church, if you would, for both of those reasons. I've had people say, those people are nothing but hypocrites, and so they leave. Well, the devil got exactly what he wanted, right? I've had people say, you know what, I just don't feel like I'm good enough for that church. Really? We didn't tell you that, you know. But see, it doesn't matter whether it's one end of the pendulum or the other, His design is to separate unforgiveness, bitterness, busyness, work. family, entertainment, school. Listen, Satan does not mind what kind of excuses we may have for trying to connect with the body of Christ so long as we don't. He doesn't care. And you can feel so confident about your choice to distance yourself a little bit and feel so right about it. And he doesn't mind that either, so long as you're not close to the body of Christ. We can feel alright, just, and spiritual in our endeavor. He does not mind at all. Paul was teaching unity so that they could face the enemy that they could see coming at them, because they had physical persecution all around them. As I thought about that, sometimes the call to unity and to come together in the name of Christ seems to carry more weight when we can see the enemy coming. Okay, I mean, imagine if you're in a battle, you're around a camp, I mean, let's say there's war going on, and put yourself back a few years, and all of a sudden there's a call, somebody sees the enemy, you see the enemy surrounding you, all of a sudden there's a call, well, we need to fight, well, people come together, they grab their arms, I mean, the enemy's upon them, they come together and they fight together. Because they can see the enemy. Our enemy is not seen. But I assure you, He is there. And He is fighting against you. He's fighting against your pastor. He's fighting against your church. And He will do whatever He can to divide us. Satan desires to divide you from this church. But he is an enemy that is spiritual, he's subtle, and he's like a serpent. And you may not always see him as you ought. And if you're not careful, you may even be influenced by him to hinder the work of Christ. Oh, Peter did, right? I mean, Jesus alone could actually look at Peter and say, get behind me, Satan. No, he was doing Satan's work. Why? Because he was trying to stop the work of Jesus going to the cross. And listen, that's the purpose of the devil is to divide us. He wants to hinder the work of Christ. George Swinnock said this, Satan watches for those vessels that sail without a convoy. And He does. We have an isolation type of Christianity today. There's a, I don't need anybody. The spirit of independence prevails sometimes in independent Baptist churches. And we isolate ourselves from one another. And you know what? You look up independence and what the word actually means, and you'll find that you should not be saying that you are an independent person. As it says, I don't need anybody. You know, we need each other. And the devil wants us to think we're independent, because when we think we're just so independent, we are self-sufficient. And so, we don't need the foot, and we don't need the hand, we don't need the ear, and we don't need the eye in the church. Self-sufficient. We are the body of Christ. And some people think like that. They are the church, you know. Satan is a roaring lion who waits for the moment that an animal is apart from the herd. I'm sure that you have seen videos of a lion. And a lion, what it likes to do, is it likes to find the animal that is kind of isolated from the rest of the herd. Because there's less eyes to see him getting close. and there's less eyes to see the lion getting close, then the lion gets closer to its prey before it sees him and does not have as much time to take off. That's exactly what happens when you start thinking, I don't need the church, I can separate from the church. You start separating yourself from the rest of the flock. Let me tell you what, you are becoming easy prey for the devil. That's exactly what he wants you to do. There's many ways in which we can cause division, and we'll get into a little bit of that. The whisper, we're told in Proverbs, separates chief friends. Satan may use a sword to physically divide us, or he may even use the tongue that ever so softly speaks evil of his brother or sister. Paul told the church at Corinth that he was afraid that he would find these things among them in 2 Corinthians 12. He was afraid that he would find, I'm going to list them off for you, you can look them up, 2 Corinthians 12. He said he would find quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. See, those kind of things will cause damage to the body of Christ, more than a thousand armies girded with swords. Our greatest danger today is not physical persecution on the horizon. And we act like, boy, that's one of the worst things that could possibly happen to us. And I'm not saying it would be a great thing, we'd enjoy it. But I'm telling you, there's persecution, there's troubles within churches, there's troubles in Christianity all around us. And it comes in forms like this of jealousy and anger and bitterness and hostility and conceit and pride and arrogance. It's in churches. It's in people. And these things divide churches far more than a thousand armies with swords. And we have to understand that. I know your pastor well enough to know this, that he wants for you, what Paul wanted for them in this passage. When Paul says this, that they would be of like-minded, having the same love, that's what your pastor wants. Now there are two main things that we see in this passage that will help us to think like Jesus and will in turn make us closer and make you a stronger body of Christ. So we need unity. There's two main things right here that we need to help that unity and to be stronger as a body of Christ. Number one is the love of Christ. Look at what He says here. Look in chapter 2, verse 1 and 2. If any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, Verse 2, "...fulfill you my joy." I mean, this is the pastor's heart. Right here is that the people that pastor will be like-minded. Look next, "...having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind." When we love the same person, when we love the same things, we become of the same mind. We become unified and we become a stronger body that cannot be divided. It's not hard to see the importance of love when it comes to promoting the spirit of unity. People are drawn closer together that have a desire for the same things. I mean, sometimes you can get in a group of guys and it doesn't take long for a couple guys that kind of love the same thing to feel a connection and start talking about that thing. I like to hunt and fish and so, you know, if I'm around a group of guys, it just seems like we just kind of gravitate towards each other sometimes. You start talking about hunting and fishing. You have guys that like golf, you know, they wear those silly looking shirts all the time. And so they can see each other right off the bat, you know, and they start connecting and start talking. And you have your race car drivers, they like to talk about that or whatever, you know, but why? enjoy something, you desire something, you like being a part of something, you like talking about it. And boy, you get two guys and they become close friends and such, all because they both like to do the same things. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. But when we have a deep, pervading desire for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, And we are able to talk about that as intensely as we do about everything else. I'm telling you what, that's a church that's going to be close. That's a desire, a love that can unite you far more than any kind of worldly desire or passion. When we love Christ as individuals in the body of Christ, then the body of Christ will be close. Bottom line, if the church is divided, somebody ain't loving Jesus. Right? I mean, that's it. Because if we're all loving Jesus, like we ought to love Jesus. then we are going to be close to Jesus and close to each other. That's a good thing to remember, isn't it? When a church is divided, just say to yourself, somebody ain't loving Jesus. And then you need to check yourself and make sure it's not you, you know? If we are going to love Christ, if you're going to love Christ, that means to love one another. You can't separate those two. Those are two inseparable commands. First and second commandment. You can't separate that. You cannot say, oh how I love Jesus and oh how I don't like my brother so well. That doesn't even seem good. That does not go together. When Satan uses the lack of love, listen, think about this. I'm sure Tom's been a minister long enough, he's heard this. When Satan uses the lack of love in others as an excuse for us to distance ourselves from the body, we are part of the cause of that division. To love like Christ, It means to love one another unconditionally, sacrificially, and continually. Christ loved us, so He came to us. He came where we are. Love for others will take you where they're at, not drive you away. Now we need to look at something else that complements this passage so well. Turn to Ephesians 4. We're not really dividing up each verse here in Philippians, but I really want you to see the bigger picture there of what he's talking to them about. But look in Ephesians chapter 4 if you would. Ephesians 4, let's start with verse 11. Paul says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Why do we have those? He tells us why. For the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. For the edifying of the body of Christ. Why do you have a pastor? Why do churches have pastors? Well, to help the saints grow, to mature, so that they can do the work of the ministry. So that they can also edify the body of Christ. This isn't just talking about the work of the pastors, and I'll prove that here in just a moment. Let's read on down, verse 13. come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man." What's he talking about? He's talking about growing up in the faith. He's talking about being like Jesus, right? "...unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." What's he talking about? Growing up in the Christ. that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ, from whom The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies. That's you as members of this church. According to the effectual working in the measure of every part, every member has a part of the ministry of the work of this church. Notice, makes increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. You have a mission within this church that is to love one another, to build one another up, that you as an individual and you as a church would grow up in the Jesus Christ as an individual and as a body of Christ as a whole. The members of the body. cannot be used to increase the body and help it to grow if it's separated from the body. You can't do that. See, part of what you are called to do in this church is to unify, to be in the body of Christ, to love the body of Christ. And you can't do that if you're separated. Look at verse 16. He says, The whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies. A wall of loose bricks will fall apart if not cemented together. If we are not compact and joined together, then we cannot supply to the body what it needs. Which is, when you look at all that, how many times did he mention love? to the edifying of itself in love, speaking the truth in love. Sometimes people start thinking, well, I'm just going to distance myself because they are not very loving. You're part of the problem. If a church isn't very loving, then it needs to grow in that love. And if you want that to grow, then you get closer to it. And you love the body like you're supposed to. If we want to promote unity. Say, I want our church to be closer. And then they don't show up for church. What? There's just no unity in the body of Christ here. And then they come once a month. Okay, alright. You're part of the problem. You understand that? You can't cry against unity and not be a part. You can't cry against the love that's not there and then you not love your pastor or not love the other members of the church and don't do those things. We want the church to be closer. How do we do that? You think like Jesus. You love like Jesus. You love one another as Christ has loved. You forgive one another as Christ has forgiven. So when we love Christ, we love like Christ. You got that? When you love Jesus, then you will love like Jesus. When you get close to Jesus, you'll be like Jesus. When you learn to think upon Jesus, you'll learn to think like Jesus. And when we do that, as individuals in each body of Christ, we will find unity, togetherness, like-mindedness, one accord. And boy, when you get people doing that, you've got a strong body of believers. And let me tell you what, we need to think like that because Satan's going to try to divide us. So then know this. If we're taught here to have unity, then we know that Satan's desire is to divide, right? We're taught here to love Christ, so now what does Satan want? He wants your affections, right? He wants your affections. He wants your affections not to be upon Christ. He wants us to disobey the first command, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is another angle Satan seeks to attack. He gives us other things to love more than Christ. What's he saying there in Philippians? He's talking about being like-minded. If you have what? The same love. If all of us love Jesus, we'll be like-minded. You can't separate that. If we love Christ, we'll think like Christ. So He wants us to set our affections on different things so that we will think differently. Sometimes I see people making decisions. I start asking myself, what made them think like that? They have to go back a little further and realize that their affections were in their own place. Then they started to think a certain way. Then they started making the decisions that they began to make. Satan wants us to set our affections on things of the earth and not on things above. The more we love money, pleasure, entertainment, self-fulfillment, etc., the less time we will have to love one another and to be close to the body of Christ. So what divides us? A lack of love. a lack of love for Christ, and a lack of love for one another. We love things, we love stuff, we love self, we love entertainment, pleasure, money more than Christ, and the house becomes divided. When we learn to think like Jesus, we'll become closer, unified. When we learn to love like Christ, we're drawn closer together. Now back to Philippians there, and we need to look on the next main thought here. On the humility of Christ. Love and humility are the two strongest virtues to promote unity in the body of Christ. Love and humility. That's the two things he deals with here. Paul was wanting them to face their enemies, to think like Jesus. So he wanted them to be of the same love and wanted them to be humble. Be humble. In Philippians 2, 3-5, we read that. how we are to be humble and look every man on the other things, not on his own things, and think like Jesus, and be like Jesus in verse 7 and verse 8, etc. If they were going to be strong together, they needed to be humble. Humility will bring strength, unity, and power to the body of Christ. Pride will divide. Pride will divide. Pride will bring division and take our strength away. Andrew Murray said, just as water seeks to fill the lowest places, so God fills you with His glory and power when He finds you empty and abased. Humility brings glory and power as can be seen in the person of Christ. I've seen times in which churches and preachers were just so proud and arrogant about who they were, what they stood for, they were this and they were that, and so to God be the glory here. Okay. No. God gets no glory where there's pride and arrogance. None. Jesus Christ humbled Himself. Who are we to think higher of ourselves? Do you understand? This is one of the most amazing passages I think in all the Word of God. Jesus Christ, God manifested in the flesh. He tells us there in verse 3, "...let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves." Esteem others better than themselves. I don't understand this, okay? When it gets to what he says up here in verse 5. Let this mind, what? This mind that says, they're better than me. Literally, I mean, you really think like that. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. I can't wrap my mind around that. That's humility right there. And who am I as a preacher? Who am I as a Christian? Who are we as a church or any other church should ever look down our noses and think we're better than anybody? None of us should think like that. Humility. Church, members of this body, pride will divide you. Pride comes in a lot of different forms, which we can't get into tonight. But I promise you that where there is humility, there is glory. Notice in the following passage in verse 7 on down, in verse 9, where God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. See, we see the humility of Christ, then we see the exaltation of Christ. We are not to pick ourselves up. We let God do that. Okay? We let God do that. Where the Gospel reigns in the hearts of the people of God, there will be the humility of Christ. Where Christ reigns in the hearts of His people, there is humility. Where there is genuine humility, there will be unity. Proverbs says this, I love this Proverbs. Proverbs 13.10 Only by pride comes contention. Only by pride comes contention. So when there's problems, there's divisions, and there's fighting, and there's quarreling, somebody isn't loving Jesus, and somebody is proud. Now sometimes it can be more than one, right? But there's always pride, and there's always a lack of love. but where we love and when we humble ourselves, there will be unity. Paul tells us to think of others better than ourselves. Now, we as the people of God, we are not beyond this evil sin of pride. Remember the disciples? There they were just moments before the cross of Christ. I mean, Jesus is about ready to take that walk of Calvary, walking with Jesus. And they start walking with Jesus, and boy, they start having this conversation among themselves. They become a strife among them. The Scriptures say in Luke 22, 24, and the strife was this, which of them should be accounted the greatest? Could you imagine? walking with Jesus, and a strife develops among them, who is the greatest? I hear a lot of Baptists arguing about that. And you know what it's done to our churches? It's divided them. It's divided them. That's what pride does. It divides us. Who is the greatest? I've been alive long enough to see preachers in the pulpit brag and boast about how they're in the Bride of Christ and go on and on and on about it and how other people aren't. I mean, oh boy. See, the disciples lost sight of the humility of Christ. And we can too. Paul tells him in verse 3, to not operate for the purpose of vain glory or self-conceit, but to serve through lowliness of mind or humility. To hold others higher than ourselves. To not think of what you need, but to think on the needs of others. See, it totally goes against that fleshly nature of ours to come unto the house of God, to be among the people of God, and to think, what do they need? And to think as a church as a whole, not about itself, about what do we need as a church, but to think about what do they need? The community. How many oftentimes find themselves divided from the body because they are self-consumed? They're more concerned about getting out of the church what they need, or their wants, their desires, their preferences, their traditions, than they are about giving to the church, what the members of the church, what they need, and encouraging unity as a body of Christ to find out how they can serve together their community in giving and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen, through Jesus Christ, when you each focus on Him, you can have unity. When you learn to think like Christ, when you learn to love like Christ, to be humble like Christ, when you begin that, Be on guard against the enemy. Because you know why? He hates Jesus. And he hates it when you think like Jesus. He hates it when you love Jesus. He hates it when you love like Jesus. And he hates it when you're humble like Jesus. He wants to divide and conquer you as a church. Be certain that where Jesus Christ rules and reigns, greater is He that is in us than He that is in the world. We shall prevail and you shall prevail as a church if you learn to think like Jesus. What love and humility has been displayed to us in the person of Christ, When you think about how He condescended, as this passage talks about, how Jesus Christ condescended to come and to be born of a virgin, to come in a form of a servant, to be made like men, to humble Himself, to be obedient even to the death of the cross. And yet we and our pride and our arrogance can rise up, think we're better than others, be full of pride, May the Lord help us. If we think like Jesus, you will be a church that will be living out the gospel in power for all the world to see. See, I want people to see Jesus and think like Jesus, walk like Jesus, be humble like Jesus, love like Jesus. You know, the people in the world already know you're not perfect. They already know that. We don't have to pretend before the world that we're perfect. They already know we're not. And so when they see a body of believers coming together, and they see that in spite of their imperfections and the things, quirks and faults and sins that they have, that they still love each other anyway, That's showing them the love of Christ. Unconditional, persevering love. That shows in Christ. It doesn't show people Christ when we're walking around like we think we're perfect. No. It shows in Christ when we walk around knowing that we're not perfect and we walk humbly and we love each other in spite of our imperfections. I tell you what, that's where the glory of God is at. The glory of God doesn't want to be here just because we've got all of our doctrines right. If we're not loving each other and we're not humble, the glory of God isn't there. It isn't there. But I trust it is here. You guys got a great group of people. Persevere in that. Let Christ be your focus. Draw close to Him, and you will be a close church that Satan cannot divide. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, I ask Your blessings on Your Word. And Lord, I pray that in a small way,