Those Shown Grace, Give Grace (James 2:6-13) [2025-11-9]

All right, good morning, church family.

If you would find your seat, and as you find your seat, let

me invite you all to open your Bibles or type in your devices.

The Book of James, chapter 2. This morning we're going to be

James 2 · chapter mention

in verses 6 to 13. I want to once again thank Fred

for preaching last week a message from Book of Acts about

Antioch and being ascending church.

And this morning we're going to resume our study in the book of

James. So James chapter 2, verses 6 to

James 2:6–13

13, if you'll follow along and your copy of God's word, James

26 but you have dishonored the poor man.

Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who

drag you into court? Are they not the ones who

blasphemy the honorable name by what you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture,

you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You are doing well. But if you show partiality, you

are committing sin and are convicted by the law as

transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law

but fails and one point has become accountable for all of

it. For he who said do not commit

adultery also said do not murder.

If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a

transgressor of the law, so speak and so act as those who

are to be judged under the law of liberty.

For judgment is without mercy. To the one who has shown no

mercy, mercy triumphs over judgment.

You pray with me, Lord, this morning we pray, we plead that

you would have mercy on us. For God, we are keenly reminded

and aware that we stand before US sinners who are in desperate

need of mercy. As the Lord, as we come to you

and as we receive that mercy, Lord, I pray that you would then

help us to go and show mercy to others, Lord, that we would be

quick to be merciful, that we would not be like the the

servant who was forgiven 10,000 talents and yet wouldn't forgive

100 denarii. God help us to be a people who

show mercy the way that you show mercy.

Lord, help us to be a people who know all too well that we've

been shown grace and therefore we show grace.

I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Richard Baxter, in his book The Reformed Pastor, writes this.

Oh, then let us hear these arguments of Christ, whenever we

feel ourselves grow dull and careless.

Did I die for these souls, and wilt not thou look after them?

Were they worth my blood, and are they not worth thy labor?

Did I come down from heaven to earth to seek and to save that

which was lost? And wilt thou not go to the next

door, or street, or village to seek them?

How small is thy condescension and labor compared to mine?

I debased myself to this, but it is thy honor to be so employed.

Have I done and suffered so much for their salvation?

And was I willing to make the a fellow worker with me?

And wilt thou refuse to do that little which lieth upon thy

hands? End Quote.

Christ died not only because he loves our neighbor.

He also died to give us, give us the ability to love our

neighbor. It is only by Him that we are

able to do this. Those who have been shown grace,

give grace. This morning we're going to

start with the exhibition of the text.

I'll go through it verse by verse and then I'll give you 7

points of application. So if you will start with me in

verse 6, where James verses six to seven, where James writes

this, but you have dishonored the poor man.

Are not the rich ones the rich, the ones who oppressed you and

the ones who drag you into court?

Are they not the ones who blasphemy the honourable name by

which you were called? Now 2 weeks ago we looked at

this command from James where he said my brothers show no

partiality, in other words, show no favoritism.

And James gives an example of this that might be hypothetical

or could be real in the church. Suppose two men walk into a

church. One of them is rich and one of

them is poor. And the church has two different

responses to these two men. To the rich man they offer him a

good seat, but to the poor man they offer him the floor.

And James says that such behavior of Christians is evil.

And then he gives 3 reasons why the church should not do this.

We looked at the first reason 2 weeks ago.

The first reason being, has not God chosen those who are poor in

the world? And this morning we're going to

get to the second and the third reason.

So the second reason that James gives is this.

You have dishonored the poor man.

James's point is that in the church's attempt to honor the

rich man, what they've actually done is dishonored the poor man.

They have shamed him. Imagine how this poor man must

feel to be told by a church, by Christians, that he is only

worthy to sit on the floor. The third reason that James

gives is that he says you are trying to honor the

dishonorable. James describes the rich with

reactions, all of which are dishonorable.

A They oppress you. That word oppressed there can

also mean exploit. They exploit you or they

dominate you. Douglas Moo writes this.

A small group of wealthy land owners and merchants accumulated

more and more power while large numbers of people were forced

from their land and grew even poorer.

Now we know historically this happens.

It still happens today sometimes in other countries, but we we

know historically that people would be forced from their land

by the wealthy land owners and they would become poor and poor

B, They drag you into court again.

Douglas Moo writes practices familiar in every age, such as

forcing people to forfeit their land for late payment of

mortgages or insisting on ruinous interest rates for any

monetary help. Again, this still goes on today.

And we know historically this happened and see, they blasphemy

the name of Jesus. And so James's point that he's

telling the church is church, these are not your friends.

They oppress you, they sue you, they blasphemy you.

Why are you trying to honor them?

Why are you trying to impress them?

These are not your friends. Look at verse 8.

If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture,

you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You are doing well. Now 2 questions emerge from this

verse. The first question being what

does James mean fulfill the law? The Greek word for fulfill.

It's a very broad term. It's translated some 11

different ways in the New Testament.

Here it has the nuance of keeping or obeying.

If you really obey the law, if you keep the law.

Paul writes in Romans 1310 that love is the fulfilling of the

law. He writes in Galatians 514 that

the whole law is fulfilled in one word, love your neighbor as

yourself. Second question is, is what is

the royal law? It says if you really fulfill

the royal law, what is that? This is the only place that this

phrase is used in Scripture. It's not used anywhere else.

The Greek word for royal means pertaining to a king.

And so you could read this as if you fulfill the King's law.

Now, this is not only the Old Testament law.

This is the Old Testament law plus the law of Christ.

So really all of Scripture, this is everything that God is

commanded to us, James writes, if you fulfill the royal law

according to the Scripture, reminding us all that what

dictates our practices and church is not culture, it is not

custom, it is not a choice, but scripture.

And so James is challenging the church.

He says, church. What did the Scripture say?

Here's what it said. Love your neighbor as yourself.

This goes all the way back to the Leviticus 1918.

It's repeated five times in the Gospels, twice in Paul.

Jesus said this was the second greatest commandment only after

loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul

and strength. And James says that if you do

this, if you love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.

One of the ways that we can gauge how are we doing

spiritually? It's not the only way, but one

of the ways is, are you loving your neighbor as yourself?

Because if you are, you're doing well.

Look at verse 9. But if you show partiality, you

are committing sin or convicted by the law as transgressors.

James is kind of drawn a contrast here.

He's drawn a contrast between loving our neighbors as

ourselves and showing partiality.

In other words, if we show partiality or favoritism, by

definition we cannot be loving our neighbors as ourselves.

I think that's the contrast he's saying and James just comes

right out and he says, look, if you show partiality, you are

committing sin and you are convicted, literally exposed or

rebuked by the law as transgressors that were

transgressors can also be translated as violators.

You are convicted, you're exposed, rebuked as a violator

of the law. Now this goes back to the

argument I was making two weeks ago where I was where I said

that favoritism, it's not a matter of culture, it's not a

personality trait, it's not a personal preference.

Favoritism is sin. It makes us transgressors of the

law. Look at verse 10 for whoever

keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable

for all of it or is guilty of all of it.

This is a pivotal verse. It's a pivotal verse and

understanding why Jesus is so necessary.

One of the questions that will sometimes get asked is this.

If a man or a woman only committed one sin in their life,

suppose they lived a perfect life for 80 years and they only

did one wrong thing, would Jesus still have to die on the cross

for them? And the answer is yes.

Why? Why?

Because whether we commit 10,000 sins or only one sin, we're

guilty of the entire law. Now you may be wondering, how

does that make sense? How is committing one sin make

you guilty of all of it? Imagine if you are hanging off a

very tall Cliff by a chain link. You're you're there's a very

tall Cliff. You're somewhere, you know, 300

feet above the ground. You're hanging on to this chain

link. How many of those links need to

break for you to die? How many 1 Only one link needs

to break for you to fall to your death.

The same is true with the law, Paul writes in Galatians 310.

Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in

the book of the law and do them. So yes, if you only break one,

you're under a curse because cursed be everyone who does not

abide by all of it. Look at verse 11.

For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not

murder. If you do not commit adultery

but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

James's point is that Moses brought down the mountain 10

commandments, not one. We don't call it the one

commandment. We call them the 10

commandments. Some might think that they are

righteous because they have never committed adultery.

I have never been unfaithful to my wife.

I have never been unfaithful to my husband.

But, James writes, there are nine other commandments and one

of them is do not murder. So you're not an adulterer, but

are you a murderer? Because if you are a murderer,

you have broken the law. Now, James is using extreme

sense here to make a point. In other words, if this is true

of adultery and it's true of murder, it's also true of

favoritism. What he's getting at is that if

a person says, well, I have never murdered someone before,

well, have you ever shown favoritism to somebody?

James's point is that God does not give us a pass on our

favoritism simply because we have not murdered someone.

The verse 12 so speak and so act as those who are to be judged

under the law of liberty. James exhorts the church to both

speak and act as those who will be judged.

In other words, it's not as though only the lost world would

be judged. Christians will be judged as

well. We will all stand before the

judgment and we will all be judged first.

Peter 417 for his time for judgment to begin at the

household of God. It begins with us, but when we

are judged, we are not judged in the same way that the lost world

is judged. We are judged under the law of

liberty. What is that?

This is the same phrase that James used earlier that we

looked at a few weeks ago. I think James's point here is

that typically when someone is judged by a law, that law

enslaves them, right? If, if you break the law, if I,

if I murder someone, I broke the law and I stand before the

judge. The judge says you broke the

law, you've got to go to jail. That's how it works.

The law typically enslaves us. As a law breaker, you're

punished and you're locked up. But the law by which Christ

judges us is the law of liberty, a law of freedom, a law of

grace. When we are judged, we are

disciplined, but we are not condemned.

We have been set free from condemnation.

And James's point is that when you realize this, this reality

should inform how we speak to others and how we act towards

others. We should act and speak as men

and women who have been graciously set free, guilty men

and women who have been graciously set free.

Look at verse 13, for judgment is without mercy.

To the one who has shown no mercy, Mercy triumphs over

judgment. James here makes a terrifying

statement. It is a statement that is meant

to convict us all when we stand before the judgment throne of

God and God judges us. He will show no mercy if we have

shown no mercy. This truth is well attested by

Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 615, If

you do not forgive others the trespasses, neither will your

Father forgive you. This does not mean that we earn

our mercy by showing mercy, nor does it mean that we forfeit our

mercy by showing no mercy. Doesn't mean that at all.

Here's what it means. It means that a person who has

truly been shown mercy. Do you want to know how you can

know if God has truly shown you mercy?

You will necessarily and certainly show mercy to others.

You will. It will define you.

And James concludes with his powerful statement, Mercy

triumphs over judgment. Literally, mercy boast against

or mercy exults over. That's you translate it that

way. Judgment.

Now what does this mean? Douglas Moo writes this.

The believer in himself will always deserve God's judgment.

Conformity to the royal law is never perfect, as it must be,

but our merciful attitude and actions will count as evidence

of the presence of Christ within us.

In other words, when we stand before the judgment throne and

God judges us, God should judge us for not keeping His royal

law. God will look at us and He will

say you did not love your neighbor as yourself.

I mean, you did sometimes, but not that much.

That's what he should say. But here's what God will say.

The mercy that you have shown to others testifies to the mercy

that I will show you. I should show you judgment, but

mercy triumphs over judgment. We'll stop their exposition.

Application of the text. I have 7 points of application

number one. Number one is a question, Why

would we ever try to impress or win the approval of the lost

world? Why would we ever try to impress

or win the approval of the lost world?

You know, one thing I've learned about human nature is that so

often we try to impress and win the approval of the wrong

people. Isn't that true?

So often the people that we want to press so dearly, the people

that we want to win the approval of so dearly, are the wrong

people. We don't know this example that

James Gibbs is real or hypothetical.

But let's suppose for a minute that it was real.

Let's just suppose it was real. Here are these Christians in the

church who are trying to gain the approval of the rich.

The rich man walks into the assembly.

They immediately pay attention to him.

They offer him a good seat. Why?

Because they want his favor. They want his approval.

And James question to the church is why?

Why are you favoring the rich? Isn't it the rich who are

oppressing you? Isn't it the rich who drag you

into court? Isn't it the rich who blasphemy

the name of Christ? Why are you trying to win their

approval? And this got me thinking.

Why would we ever try to impress or win the approval of the lost

World? Whether it's at work or at

school or in our families or on the sports field or at our

children's school or in our communities, why would we ever

feel the need to impress the lost world?

Why would we ever feel the need to win the approval of the lost

world? Now, let me be very clear.

James is not suggesting that the church should neglect the rich

man. He's not saying that at all.

Or worse, he's not saying that we they should dishonor the rich

man, give the good seat to the poor man in the the floor to the

rich man. He's not saying that at all.

He is clearly challenging than their motivations for why are

you trying to honor the rich man above the poor man?

Why are you doing this church family, how much of what you do

in your life, how much I asked this question to myself, how

much of what you do in your life is rooted and a desire to

impress or win the approval of the lost world?

I want, I want you to stop and ask yourself that question.

How much of what you do in your life is rooted and a desire to

impress or win the approval of the lost world, which includes

your lost family, your lost friends, your lost Co workers,

your lost classmates. I was listening to a talk by

this former Navy SEAL who was a Christian, and he was talking

about sharing the gospel with the lost world.

I like listening to Navy Seals. I, I, I'm like, I, I think I was

meant to be a Navy SEAL, but I, I would never pass buds.

We all know that one of the reasons that we struggle to

share the gospel with the lost world is that we're either

intimidated by them or we fear the disapproval in that true.

One of the reasons that we don't share the gospel, we're either

intimidated by them or we fear their disapproval.

And he said something so simple. I mean, just so simple.

And this is this is what he said.

Why would we ever be intimidated by the lost world?

Why would we ever want the approval of the lost world?

They have nothing to offer us and we have everything to offer

them. And I was like, man, that's

right. They have nothing to offer us.

We have everything to offer them.

Why do I care what you think about me #2 The king has given

us instructions not only how to form a church, but also how to

act in it. The king has given us

instructions not only how to form a church, but also how to

act in it. When I think about this example

of favoritism and James, the lingering question that keeps

hanging over my mind is this, how does the church get there?

How does a church get there? How does the church get to a

place where they are actually honoring a rich man over a poor

man? I I thought about me like, what

if our, our church would never do this?

By God's grace, I don't think we would ever do this.

But I'm just thinking like, what if we did?

How did we get there? If somebody rich walk through

those doors, we would offer them a good seat.

And if somebody, you know, or we, you know, we'd offer them, I

don't know, the, the, the blueberry strudel back there,

whatever that is. And, and then if a poor man

walked in, you know, we would be like, there's a water fountain

back there. Like, like how, how, how would a

church get there? How does the church grow this

dysfunctional? And I realize, well, how does

any church grow dysfunctional? How does it happen?

How does any church get dysfunctional?

It's not as though these churches that James is writing

to are the only dysfunctional churches.

Good grief. Just read the book of First

Corinthians. Corinth wrote the book on

dysfunctional church. You got a man sleeping with his

step mom. They're getting drunk at the

Lord's Supper. There are divisions in the

church and they're not alone. The Galatians are trying to

force people to get circumcised. The Ephesians have lost their

first love and revelation in the Philippian church.

Women are fighting with each other at Thessalonica.

People are refusing to work. How does this happen?

It happens because the church forgets that the king has given

us instructions, James writes. If you really fulfill the royal

law, according to the Scripture, the law is royal because the

King gave it to us. We're in the process of forming

a new church right now. If you're visiting, I know you,

that's new to you, but we are in the process of forming a new

church. And one thing that we must never

forget is this. The King has given us

instructions not only on how to form a church, but also how to

act in it. We must never let culture,

tradition, preference, precedent dictate how we act in the

church. We're actually in the process of

writing our bylaws, but let us never forget that the King has

written the original bylaws and they're not able to be revised.

There's no 3/4 vote to revise these.

The King has given us instructions for what we are to

do in our new church #3 love is showing favoritism to every

neighbor. Love is showing favoritism to

every neighbor. I've been thinking about this

command. You shall love your neighbor as

yourself. I've been thinking about all

week. It's impossible, isn't it?

I mean, we, we say this, you know, we teach into kids classes

and we grow up. It's on T-shirts, it's on

billboards. We throw it out there.

Have you ever stopped and actually thought about this?

Like what it really would require to love your neighbor as

yourself? It's impossible when you think

about whatever require of me, whatever require of you.

I thought, who actually lives this way?

I've never met anybody who actually lives this way.

I know not one. And I thought about this command

and I realized there are two universal truths regarding this

command. Number one, we will fail at this

and #2 we must strive for this. We will fail at it.

We must strive for it. I think that James brings up

this command because it's clear that the church is not loving

the poor man as themselves. I think that's why he brings it

up. They're not loving the poor man

as themselves. They are loving the rich man as

themselves. They are not loving the poor man

as themselves. And it occurred to me that love

is showing favoritism to every neighbor.

You know that this probably doesn't get asked.

This guy asked more in the South.

I realized I, like you guys are not going to know what I'm

talking about here. This is a question that gets

asked in the South. This is a question that gets

asked in the South. People be like, hey now, now,

which son does dad favor? Which daughter does mom favor?

I never liked that question because the answer is all of

them. I favor all my sons.

I like them all. They're all my favorite.

James writes that favoritism is sin and the reason it is sin is

because it shows a lack of love for those we don't favor.

The other day when it was really windy, I don't know if you guys

remember, it was really windy this past week.

I was going to check the mail and I noticed that one of my

neighbour's trash can lids had blown open and trash and

recycling were all over the street.

This has happened multiple times in the past and the reason is is

he stacks his trash can too much and he doesn't close it

properly. Immediately after I checked the

mail I I see all the trash recycling immediately I see it

and in my flesh I thought not my problem not my problem.

He needs to learn to push his trash down or get a bigger trash

can. And as soon as I said that in my

head, it is as if the Holy Spirit literally said in my

head, love your neighbor as yourself.

I realized that if I had done this, if I had made this mistake

or even if my wife had made this mistake, I would go pick up the

trash. Why would I not do the same for

my neighbor? So I went and picked it all up,

pushed it down. I did wash my hands and I closed

his lid. We favor every neighbor because

we love every neighbor. 4 Jesus's death takes on a new

meaning when I realize I am guilty of all the law.

Jesus's death takes on a new meaning when I realize I am

guilty of all the law. Imagine if when we get to

heaven, somebody went around asking everybody how much sin

did they commit? They wanted to know who was the

worst Sinner that made it into heaven.

They're really curious, like how I really want to know who was

the worst Sinner that made it in here.

So they went around asking people, but they posed the

question like this. How much of the law did you

break? At the end of their survey, the

questioner was perplexed and confused because everybody gave

the exact same answer, all of it.

How much of the law did you break?

All of it, James writes. Whoever keeps the whole law but

fails and one point has become guilty of all of it.

And Jesus's death takes on a new meaning when I realize I am

guilty of all the law. My boys and I are watching the

TV show Lost right now. It's a 20 year old show,

something something older than probably some of y'all who are

here. It's still a good one though.

My favorite, maybe second favorite character is a guy

named John Locke. All these random people are on,

they crash on an island on a plane, and John is the only one

who realizes that this island is a special place.

He's the only one who realizes it.

He's the only one who believes in the special nature of this

island. Do you know why?

Because he got on the airplane as a paralyzed man and when he

crashed on the island he could walk.

You see the other people couldn't see it.

They couldn't see the wonder and amazement of this island.

They couldn't feel it. I find the same thing happens in

Christians lives. Christians will look back over

their life and they will think, I never murdered anybody, I

never raped anyone. I've never stolen anything major

in my life. I've never embezzled money, I've

never committed adultery. I've never even gotten a speedy

ticket in my life. Hey, praise God for all of that.

Here's the temptation. What did Jesus save you from?

What did Jesus save you from? The reason why some Christians

are not absolutely humbled and crushed at the thought of being

saved is because they failed to see that they are guilty of

breaking the entire law. Jesus didn't save us from being

an unkind person. He didn't save us from being an

unwise person. He didn't save us from being a

misguided person. He saved us as transgressors of

the entire law who deserve eternal punishment in hell.

How much of the law are you guilty of?

Am I guilty of all of it? All of it.

And until you realize that, until that sinks in, you won't

wonder at your salvation. You'll think Jesus saved you

from some bad choices in your life, from being directionless.

That's all he'll be. He'll be a savior.

He'll be not much better than Google Maps.

He gave me direction. 5 Be careful that we don't develop a

low view of our sin because we are not like tax collectors.

Be careful that we don't develop a low view of our sin because we

are not like tax collectors. The argument that James is

making in verses 10:50 is because it seems that the church

does not think that favoritism is that big of a deal.

It seems that they don't think that it's that big of a sin.

And to make his point James uses 2 extreme examples.

He says God commanded do not commit adultery and do not

murder. And his point is, is that

suppose a person never committed adultery, but they murdered

someone, does that make them a righteous person?

Or vice versa, suppose a person never murdered someone, but

committed adultery. Does that make them a righteous

person? I think James's point is that

favoritism. Listen, it may not be murder, it

may not be adultery, but if you show favoritism, you are still a

transgressor of the law. He's wanted the church to feel

this. When we think about the

seriousness of our sin, there are two extremes.

We can be on 2 extremes here. They are extreme.

A all sin is the same. Period.

All sin is the same period. So whether I am lusting or

committing adultery, they are the same, so it doesn't matter.

That's not true. That's not true.

Extreme B is all sin is not the same period.

All sin is not the same period. So my sin of covetousness or my

sin of anger, it's not good. I know, I know, I shouldn't do

this. It's not, you know, but you

know, I mean, that's not murder or adultery.

That's also not true. That's also not true.

And what James is addressing here is extreme B.

It is so easy to be like the Pharisee and the parable of the

Pharisee and the tax collector. God, I thank you that I am not

like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even this

tax collector. The apostle Paul murdered

Christians, who knows how many? 100, 1000 Even though I have

never murdered Christians, Jesus died the exact same death for me

and for you as he did for Paul. Everything about that.

Every whip, every thorn, every nail.

Was just as necessary for my sin as it was for Paul's.

Think about that. 6 Those who have been shown grace give

grace. Those who have been shown grace

give grace. James Wright speak and act as

those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.

My way of wording this is that those who have been shown grace

give grace. When we stand before the

judgment throne, God will not judge us based on merit or

reciprocity or performance or reputation or morals or

tradition or fairness or social status or wealth or

productivity. He judges us based on the law of

liberty, the law of grace. And James exhorts the church

church family speak and act in light of this reality.

Now, the church was not doing this.

If this is a real example, they were not doing this.

These two men walked into the church and immediately they were

brought into the courtroom of their minds and one was judged

worthy and the other was judged unworthy.

And James is making the point. Church family, imagine if that's

what happens when we get to heaven.

How many of us would be judged worthy?

Praise God that he shows no favoritism at the judgment.

Then we stand there. He doesn't look and say, you

know what, I always liked you, Matt.

Fred, not so much or vice versa. Fred, I always liked him.

I always had a heart for missionaries.

Pastors, not so much. Can't trust those pastors.

Imagine if God played favourites at the judgement throne.

Those who have been shown grace, they give grace, they do seven

last point, Mercy is not an optional add on, it is necessary

for entrance. Mercy is not an optional add on,

it is necessary for entrance. Have you ever noticed or have

you noticed that almost everything these days has

add-ons? I'm I'm so tired of them.

Everywhere you go there's an add on for something.

You book a plane ticket. Would you like a seat upgrade?

How about trip insurance? You book a hotel.

Would you like a late check out? How about a room upgrade for

only 2999? You can have spa access.

You go to Disneyland fast pass. Would you like a photo package?

How about a meal package? You go to a concert.

Would you like AVIP upgrade? There's backstage passes.

You go to a restaurant? Would you like added sauces for

an extra 299? Would you like guacamole on your

burrito that does cost extra? How about an appetizer or a

dessert? James writes that in

Christianity, mercy is not an optional add on.

I'll take a #1 combo. God, would you like to add mercy

to that? No thanks.

Mercy is necessary for entrance into the Kingdom.

Judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy,

meaning if we don't show mercy and grace and forgiveness to our

neighbors, we won't be admitted into the Kingdom.

But if we do show mercy, then mercy triumphs over judgment

because Jesus promised us. Blessed are the merciful, for

they shall receive mercy. Let's pray.