Temptations of Jesus: The Spiritual

Well, Father God, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today and worship you.

And Lord, we are very aware of that.

Our worship of you today is not just the only time we should be doing that, but Lord, it's

the worship of you that takes place Monday through Saturday that determines a lot of what

today is going to be like.

So, Father, as we join together, Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be in this place

and that you would speak to our hearts, and Lord, that we would be open and receptive to

you.

Lord, it's not always easy to be taught.

It's not always easy to have things in our lives revealed to us that need to change, or

maybe we're not doing the right way, but Lord, learning is something that is beneficial for

us and all the people around us.

Lord, you have called us to yourself so that we can grow, not so that we can just be the

same or maintain anything.

So Lord, I pray this morning that we would commit ourselves to knowing you more, to

learning and growing in you, and Lord, that we would be humble and submissive and allow

you to change us in any way that you need to do that.

And Father, as we ask for your spirit to be here this morning, we pray that your spirit

would also be with all of our shut-ins and people who are having different medical issues

and things that they're just not able to be here today.

And so Lord, we just pray that you touch them.

And Lord, I pray for Ms. Joan as she's recovering from surgery this morning.

Lord, we pray for Ms. Kathy and her family, with her sister's health and God that you

just touch them and be with them today.

Lord, there's so many others, there's so many people in this room who have things

on their hearts and minds that we haven't even told anyone, but I'm so thankful that

you know what they are.

So Lord, this morning we believe that you are more than able, you are more than able

to work and move in these situations in our lives.

So Father, we trust in you today to do what only you can do.

Lord, we love you, we thank you and we ask all this in Jesus' precious and holy name,

all God's people said, amen.

The drugs, you know, you've got to testify on when, but what I have found is the closer

and the tighter my relationship to the Lord is, the more I see Him, He reveals things to

me during the week.

So no matter what I say, it's not about me, it's about what Christ is doing in my heart,

which is pounding her.

I'm ready for my girls to be home, they've been gone all week, but I had something

happen to me on Wednesday that kind of puzzled me for a minute.

I had an incident at my house, I hit my head, I took it off the machine,

lay on the ground, couldn't feel my left arm, managed to get myself up, arms swung out

and I had no feeling of it.

Well, it's pouring down my face.

Kate was there working at the barn, so I'm not an ER guy, but I knew something went

properly.

My dad was following me.

I thought I missed my spinal cord, went to the ER.

They said we need to do a CT scan.

It's okay.

So they wrote me into the CT machine, a minute or so, they pulled me out,

and the tech comes to me and says, Mr. Boy, have you ever had a stroke?

That's it.

Now probably three or four years ago, that freaked me out, but I've been through

a lot since then.

They put me back in the machine, five minutes goes by, they get me back out,

and I asked the nurse, she's taking me back to the room to get some staples

available, and I said, what's the story about the stroke?

And she says, there's something on her brain that ain't supposed to be there.

She takes me into the room, and I'm sitting in the dark by myself,

and I'm praying to the Lord.

I'm praying that I've never really truly felt before.

I said, Lord, there's something wrong with me, and it's going to work by you.

Okay.

Complete peace.

Yes.

Never fear.

Amen.

My wife called, and the nurse was there, and I just told her, I said,

babe, it's going to be okay.

The Lord's going to do what He wants.

They said it was going to take about 20 minutes for them to get somebody there to read it.

She comes back in, and the nurse says, well, the Lord does execute His prayers.

It's from a previous injury.

Nothing to worry about.

I'm thankful.

I've got that relationship with Him.

We all got the same testimony when you pull it all down.

We all sinners.

That's what He's done on the cross.

Holy, holy, holy.

I love Him.

Well, if you feel led to say something, as always, you have the freedom to do so.

I just want to say thank you for allowing me and my family to get away on vacation this past week.

Didn't spend some time together.

Very grateful for that.

Very glad to be home, but thankful for the opportunity to get away.

And thankful for the staff and the people who ran everything when I was gone.

There was a lot of people picking up my part of the job whenever I was gone,

so I'm very thankful for those people and all that they did this past week.

We're starting a new series today on the temptations of Christ.

This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.

I don't know about you guys, but I've been saved for about 26 years now,

and I've been in ministry about 22 of those years,

and I still deal with temptations pretty regularly.

It gives me a lot of hope to know that Jesus, the Son of God,

went through this life, came into this world in physical body

and endured and faced temptations just like you and I do.

And yet, in the midst of facing those temptations,

remained perfect, remained pure, remained spotless

to be the Son of God, the perfect Lamb,

to down the cross for our sins and maintain His perfection

even in the midst of temptation.

So this morning, as we talk about this,

this should give all of us a lot of hope this morning

because, like I said, I still face a lot of temptations.

There's still a lot of things in this world that calls out to me

and draws me to it for whatever reason.

And to know that Jesus Christ faced temptations

and yet was able to remain sinful gives us a lot of hope this morning

to know that we don't have to feel guilt or feel dirty

because of something that comes across of our plate that may be tempting.

I don't know about you guys, but when I think about tempting,

it's really important to understand there was something in it

that drew Christ and His physical body to want or desire those things.

That's what temptation is.

So it's like you put broccoli on my plate, I'm not tempted, right?

But you put ice cream on my plate, I'm tempted.

Even if I've already eaten more than enough and I feel sick

and you put ice cream on my plate, it's probably still going to be eaten.

There's a difference there.

And there was things that Jesus faced,

and we're not necessarily even going to talk about the temptations

that He faced today.

We're going to do those in the weeks to come,

but we're just going to talk about some things leading up to those temptations.

But I do think it's really important that we understand that He was tempted

and yet He remains sinless,

that you and I are going to face temptations in our life.

There are going to be things for whatever reason in your life

that wants to draw you and pull you away from your relationship with Christ.

And for me, it might be ice cream.

And for some of you, it might be pizza.

Or it might be a stick of celery.

I don't know, you might be weird and won't celery.

I don't.

We all have different temptations.

The other reason it gives me hope is because it gives us revelation

and it reminds us that Satan comes to tempt those who don't belong to him.

I think that's really important, too,

to know that you may be in this season of life

where you're dealing with some type of temptation.

There's something in your life that you are dealing with,

that you are struggling with, and that you are battling on.

And your spirit very much does not want to do that thing,

but your flesh, for whatever reason, is crying out for it.

And in the midst of that battle, when it's so frustrating

and we just wish that God would take it away,

it is a good reminder for us in those moments

that if we are facing temptations, we do not belong to the enemy

because Satan does not have to tempt somebody that already is his.

And this morning, if you're going through this life,

he was like, well, I don't really know of anything that I'm really tempted with.

That's not a good indication as to who you belong to.

The fact that you're not aware that your flesh and your spirit is battling one another,

that's a pretty good indication that you're kind of living a fleshly life

because you're giving into it,

and also to understand that your conscience isn't even really bothered by it,

that there's no guilt, no shame in the midst of that.

That's a pretty bad indication.

And so this morning, if you're fighting and you're battling that,

do not be discouraged, but be encouraged

because Satan is trying to pull you away from who you truly belong to.

Now, Paul wrote in Galatians 5, verses 16 through 17,

Galatians 5:16–17

and he wrote to the church of Galatians,

so I say, walk by the Spirit,

and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit,

and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

This is why whenever we're facing temptation

and you're in the moments of making those decisions,

it is so incredibly hard

because there's something inside of you that's whispering,

this is not good, this is not for you,

this is not what God wants for you,

and yet your flesh is sitting there saying,

but I really want this, this will make me feel good,

this will gratify me in this moment,

this will satisfy my desire for this moment,

and I don't know how I'm going to say no

because there's always this battle that's going on.

And Paul finishes up and says,

they are in conflict with each other

so you are not to do whatever you want.

If you claim to be a believer in Jesus Christ this morning,

there's a calling on your life

not to satisfy the desires of the flesh,

but to satisfy the desires of the Spirit.

And you can't do both.

You can't feed them both.

One of those dogs is going to die.

You don't have enough food for both of them.

If you feed your flesh, the Spirit dies.

If you feed your spirit, the flesh dies.

And that is just the world that we live in

and the way that God has created us to be.

He's called us to die to the flesh,

to live according to the Spirit,

and it's a good thing this morning if you are battling it out.

All right? It's a good thing.

So don't be discouraged.

Matthew 4, verses 1-11,

Matthew 4:1–11

this is where we're going to be for the next several weeks

so you can mark this one in your Bible,

and we're going to be reading from this passage

every week through June.

Now, it says in verse 1,

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted there by the devil.

For 40 days and 40 nights he fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came and said to him,

If you are the Son of God,

tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus told him,

No, the Scriptures say people do not live by bread alone,

but by the very word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city Jerusalem

to the highest point of the temple and said,

If you are the Son of God,

jump off what the Scriptures say.

He will order his angels to protect you

and they will hold you up with their hands,

so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.

Jesus responded,

The Scriptures say you must not test the Lord your God.

And next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain

and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

I will give it all to you, he said,

if you will kneel down and work with me.

You have to hear Satan.

Jesus told him,

For the Scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God

and serve only him.

And then the devil went away

and angels came and took care of him.

Now, I cannot wait to talk about the things that he was tempted by.

And the surprising aspect of some of that stuff.

But today, I think it's really important.

We talk about some of the things leading up to these moments of temptation.

And point number one that I want you to see is that the Spirit leads.

Point number one, the Spirit leads.

Now, this is kind of contrary to what we may think,

because it's very hard for us to understand

why the Spirit would lead us into temptation,

why the Spirit would take Christ immediately after he's baptized.

He's filled with the Holy Spirit

and the Spirit leads him to the wilderness to be tempted.

That's really hard for us to understand.

But the truth is that the Spirit doesn't always lead us

to good, fun, holistic places.

Like we like to think that if we follow God,

all of a sudden everything's going to be fixed.

Life's going to be worry free.

We're not going to have any problems.

Everything's going to go smooth.

Life's going to be easy.

Apple pie, ice cream, it's all good.

And that's not true.

Because when you look at the own Son of God,

as soon as the Holy Spirit filled him

and the Spirit begins to lead him,

the first place it leads him is to the wilderness

where he is going to face temptation.

And I want to tell you this morning,

you may be sitting here

and you may be dealing with temptations in your life

and you may be struggling it out

and you feel like there's no way I can overcome this.

And the truth is no,

there is absolutely no way that you can overcome it.

You don't have the strength

to overcome temptation on your own.

So if you're fighting the battle on your own,

you and you on the struggle bus.

First name's Stu, last name's Rugle. Stu Rugle.

Some of you got it, some of you didn't.

You'll get it later.

You're going to suffer.

But if we are being led by the Spirit

and we allow the Spirit to lead us,

it may lead us to these points where God wants us to see certain things.

He wants us to endure certain things.

And in these moments, God wants to show us.

He wants to show you who you belong to.

Sometimes we need to face temptation

just to remind ourselves who we belong to.

We need to know and experience the power of God in our lives

to help us overcome these things.

We need to see and experience that from a personal level.

The other thing is we need to see

and experience God's provisions in those moments.

Now, we're going to talk about Jesus not turning the stones into bread,

but you know there's this temptation of providing for yourself

rather than waiting on God to provide it for you.

So God has provisions for us,

but sometimes we have to go through the trenches

and battle it out and endure those temptations

and get on the other side to see the provisions

that God has for us in those moments.

But the Spirit will lead us.

And think about this, when Jesus is led out into the wilderness,

for 40 days and 40 nights he fasted and he became very hungry.

He was probably brought to the point where he was broken physically.

Like when you think about somebody who's literally starving,

who has not eaten for 40 days and 40 nights, that's pretty brutal.

Anybody ever watch the show alone?

Great show. Great show on TV.

And all it is is these people who are self-proclaimed survival experts,

and they get on this show, and they take them to the harshest conditions in the world,

and they turn them out on their own.

They're miles away from anybody who can help them.

They have a satellite phone, and they're just out there,

and they survive on their own.

Whoever can make it the longest, and you have no idea who's still in it,

you're just out there until they come get you and tell you you won,

or they come get you and pull you out

because your body is literally starting to shut down

because you're starving to death.

But on that show, the average tap-out time for most contestants

is somewhere between 37 and 40 days.

37 to 40 days.

And none of them are starving yet.

None of them are to the point where they're physically breaking.

You know why they tap out?

Because they're alone.

Most of the contestants cannot take.

They completely underestimate what happens to them

from a mental and spiritual perspective whenever they're out there,

and the only thing that they have to do is think about things

and deal with things.

And the whole mental aspect of it completely starts tearing them apart,

and most of them end up tapping out within 37 to 40 days

just off of the simple aspect of they cannot stand being alone.

And Jesus was alone.

By himself.

No satellite phone to call and tap out.

No emergency crew waiting to go pick him up

if he cuts himself, stabs himself with an arrow

because people does that on the show.

It's pretty cool. You should watch it.

Nothing.

He is by himself.

From a mental perspective and from a physical perspective

because literally by this point,

I don't know if you've ever fasted before.

We're going to talk about that a little bit here in a second,

but even fast 24 hours, like in the last six hours,

like everything starts looking good.

You know, it's like broccoli starts getting tempting

in the last six hours.

Like if you ever fasted for 24 hours, it gets tough.

And so for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus is broken physically.

He's probably broken mentally

from dealing with this aspect of just being alone

and completely like at the hands of his enemy

in this moment being led by the Spirit

in a brutal season of his life.

And that should give us great hope this morning

to know that God even allowed his Son

to go through and endure a season of starvation,

something that you and I will probably never have to experience

in our life, Jesus experience.

There's nothing in this life that any of us have ever experienced

that Christ did not experience for himself,

that he did not go through first.

And so he is led by the Spirit into these harsh conditions.

And he's walking with the Lord, and he's doing it in perfection.

And yet in these moments, he is suffering.

Like he's suffering to the point where he begins to look at rocks

and the idea of changing a rock into food

begins to look good to him.

That's a feeling you and I probably never experienced.

But you had your own wilderness.

You have your own hunger.

You have your own needs.

And know this morning that if you're walking through a season of life

that is extremely difficult and challenging,

know that it doesn't necessarily mean that you're doing anything wrong.

The Spirit could have you exactly where he wants you to be,

teaching you exactly what he wants you to learn,

changing in you exactly what he wants to change.

And if you're in a season of life right now

that you know that you made some bad decisions

that brought you into this season right now,

know this morning you're exactly where God wanted you to be.

Because he created the consequence to those choices

to bring you in this moment to change everything you need to change,

to teach you everything he wants to teach you,

to show you everything he wants to show you.

Don't be frustrated and don't be willing to tap out and give up

and call it quits because it's hard.

Know that your own Lord and Savior will walk through a season in his life

led by the Spirit to suffer in agony,

to prepare himself for his ministry

and for the calling that God had on him.

And we're crazy this morning to think that if he did it to Jesus,

why would he not do it to us?

Do we not need to be cleansed and purified more than Christ did?

Do we not need to be changed more than he needed to be changed?

In Romans chapter 8 verse 28,

Romans 8:28

it says,

And we know that God causes everything to work together

for the good of those who love God

and are called according to his purpose for them.

God loves us.

He cares for us.

And if he's called you by name and you belong to him,

there's nothing that you're going through or dealing with

that he doesn't know about that he is not ordained

and is using for your good and his glory.

And we can have faith in that.

Point number two, fasting prepares.

Now, Jesus understood something was coming

and he was willing to cut his body off

from the physical things that he could have

in order to prepare for the spiritual things

that he needed to prepare for.

And guys, as we talk about this,

today, I think it's really important

to know that you cannot understand

the power of fasting

until you do it and experience it for yourself.

A pastor can stand up in front of you

and say, you need to read your Bible.

And you cannot understand the power in that

until you literally sit down

and you start reading Scripture for yourself.

And we can talk about prayer

and how much you need to pray.

And you literally cannot understand the power in prayer

until you take the time to devote yourself to prayer

and do it and experience the power of that in your own life.

And attending church and being around other people

and fellowshipping and all the things that we read

and talk about in Scripture

and fasting is one of those things

that you cannot understand the power

of cutting yourself off from physical things

to focus on spiritual things

and why God would call us to do that as believers.

It's a calling in Scripture for all of us to do this.

And I dare to say that if we wanted to raise our hands,

I'm not going to call you out

and ask you to raise your hand,

but I would say it would be a pretty safe bet.

I would bet a lot of money on it this morning

that probably more than half the people in here

have never fasted for 24 hours.

You never said, I'm going to take 24 hours

and I'm going to fast

and I'm not going to eat anything for 24 hours.

Most of us have probably never done that.

And that's okay.

If you don't know, you don't know.

But now you know.

And you can't say, I didn't tell you.

You can't say Scripture didn't tell you because it's there.

But the power of fasting prepares us for spiritual things.

And we're talking about temptation this morning.

So if you have temptations in your life

and you find yourself really struggling saying no

to the things that your flesh desires

and choosing the spiritual things

because your flesh is constantly battling your spirit,

how in the world do you expect to be able to conquer

fleshly things in the moment if we are not committed

and do not take the time to say,

okay, God, I'm going to cut off something as simple as food

for 24 hours.

And that's just 24 hours.

That's just like one type way of fasting.

If I can't cut off physical food for 24 hours

to focus on you and pray for you

and deny myself of this fleshly thing,

to focus on the spirit,

how in the world am I going to choose the spirit

when I'm faced with temptations in a moment?

Because it doesn't translate.

If we're not practiced and prepared,

we're not going to be ready.

And when you look at Jesus, he's led by the spirit.

He has submitted himself to be led by the spirit

to the wilderness,

and he has denied himself of the physical things

so that he can be ready for the spiritual battle that's coming.

And this morning, if we are not denying ourself

of worldly things on purpose,

we're never going to do it in a moment's notice

whenever temptation comes our way.

And I can say this as a human being,

that if I'm not prepared when that guy cuts me off on the road,

I'm not going to respond the way that I should respond

and my wife can testify.

Whenever we argue, I'm not going to respond

in the way that I should respond

whenever something gets heated quickly.

Whenever someone walks by and I shouldn't look,

I'm not going to respond in that moment

the way that I should.

If I'm not prepared for that moment beforehand,

it doesn't translate.

And when you look at Jesus, your Lord and Savior,

whom we're called to motto ourselves after,

he's led by the spirit,

and he's fasting and praying.

And when he faces temptation,

he endures it perfectly because he is prepared.

If you're not prepared,

you're not going to be victorious.

You can't expect to overcome temptations.

It's just going to come up throughout the week

in many different situations and circumstances.

You're not going to be prepared.

In Joel chapter 2 verse 12,

Joel 2:12

Joel writes, This is why the Lord says,

Turn to me while there is still time.

Give me your hearts.

Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.

There's a calling on our lives as believers

to come to our Heavenly Father,

not just come boldly before His throne,

not just focusing on all the good things

and talking about the grace and the freedom

and the generosity of Jesus Christ,

but to understand that there's a calling in our lives

to be humble, to have humility,

to come to Him with weeping and mourning

like there's a time for all of those things.

And we don't necessarily have to fast constantly,

but we should be fasting pretty regularly in our lives.

And point number three this morning is,

the enemy lies waiting.

The reason why you need to be prepared today

is because you have an enemy

who does not like the fact

that you are walking with the Lord.

I didn't include this in our notes for today.

First Peter 5.8 says,

Beware because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion,

sinking whom he may devour.

I don't know if you've ever watched a documentary before.

Hannah and I are documentary people.

We love watching documentaries.

But have you ever seen a lion actually eating someone

or eating an animal?

Like whenever they go and they attack it

and they sit there and they start rallying

around this animal and they start eating it,

the animal's not dead.

They don't kill the animal before they start eating it.

You can watch the video

and see the animals moving and kicking

and twitching and breathing

and they just go into shock

and eventually they're still alive

and they're still breathing

but they're not moving anymore.

And every bite and every claw

and every pull of meat that comes away,

the animal is still alive

until it eventually bleeds out and dies.

And scripture takes your enemy

and compares him to a lion to say,

He is lying and waiting, looking to pounce on you.

And he's not going to come

and he's not going to rip your head off

and take you out with one shot.

No, he's going to wait for the opportunity

to pull you away to get you down

and he's going to start taking you out

one bite at a time.

And you may not bleed out initially

but eventually you will

because he is looking to devour us.

He's looking for the opportunity to overtake us

and we have to understand this morning

that either he already has you

or he wants you.

Like you have a savior who wants you,

who loves you, who bled for you,

he died for you,

he endured suffering and temptation

and hardships for you

and he wants you to come to him

so that he can rule over your life

and show you a better way

than this world has to offer.

He wants that.

But Satan either already has you

or he wants you.

And he's not going to be satisfied

until he gets you.

And if he's coming at you

and he's offering temptations to you,

he's looking for the opportunity

to gain control and dominion over your life.

You got to understand that this morning.

Every time you give into that temptation,

every time you say yes,

every time you fail whenever temptation arises

and every time you fail in that moment,

you're giving the enemy more dominion

over your life.

You're bleeding out.

You don't notice it.

You don't realize it in the moment,

but you're bleeding out spiritually

because you're giving into the flesh

rather than the spirit.

You're feeding the flesh

and you're not feeding the spirit.

In Romans chapter 8 verse 1,

Romans 8:1

it says,

So now there is no condemnation

for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

And because you belong to Him,

the power of the life-giving Spirit

has freed you from the power of sin

that leads to death.

Something we get to celebrate in this morning

is that even in the moments

when you're being tempted

and it's so hard,

and the struggle is real

and you don't feel like

you can say no

that in those moments,

if you are in Christ Jesus,

that has no power over you whatsoever.

It only has the power over you

that you give it.

If you surrender to it,

if you give into it,

if you say yes,

if you absorb it into your life,

you're giving it power and dominion over you.

But those who are in Christ Jesus

and they're living in the spirit,

there's no power of sin in their life.

There's nothing in you that says

you have to do that.

The spirit sets us free.

The spirit removes these things from our life

and there's no condemnation for those

who belong to Christ Jesus.

You know,

we get really scared

when we start talking about

letting the Holy Spirit lead our lives.

Like I don't know why.

We like Jesus.

We like the idea of salvation.

We like the idea of heaven.

But then whenever we start talking about

surrendering to the Spirit of God

to lead us,

to guide us,

to show us where He wants us to go,

we start wigging out about that.

We don't like the idea of feeling

like we're being controlled by something

or we don't have any say so in it.

But know this morning,

the enemy is coming for you either way.

He is not happy with where you are.

He's not happy with the commitments

that you've made to Christ.

He's not happy with your forgiveness of sin.

He's not happy with anything

and He will come for you.

He will come to pull you away

to regain that control and dominion

in your life.

And the question is,

is whether or not

you're going to be prepared

for those moments.

Are you just going to wing it?

Just go to life,

be all willy-nilly.

I love Jesus.

And when temptation comes,

I hope it goes well.

Are we going to be prepared?

Because when you look at Christ,

the one whom you and I are called

to follow and model our lives after,

He was led by the Spirit.

He was fasting and praying.

And whenever the time of temptation came,

we'll talk about this some more too

as the weeks come on is,

dude is throwing out scripture like rocks.

He had the Spirit of God in his life.

He was already denying himself

of worldly things.

He was denying his flesh

and that he was full of God's word

and knew exactly what it said.

The question is,

is will you be prepared?

Temptation's coming.

Hard seasons, struggles, hardships,

misfortunes, they're coming.

And Satan will use anything he can

to pull you away from your relationship with Christ.

He will use anything he can

to gain dominion back in your life.

The question is, is will you be prepared?

Because if we're prepared,

we don't have anything to fear.

If we're prepared,

we're already ready to say no,

we're already feeding the Spirit.

We're not feeding the flesh.

Spirit led, fasting,

and understand you got an enemy

who's waiting to get you.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you for this day.

Thank you for the opportunity

to come and read your word

and to know you.

And Lord, for every person in this room,

no matter how young or old,

no matter what walk of life they're from,

Lord, if we can't claim you

to be our Lord and Savior,

you have something so much better for us

than the desires of our flesh.

So Lord, this morning help us to be prepared.

We don't know what's coming this week,

but we do know that Satan is lying waiting.

He's looking for the opportunity.

And I pray, Lord, that we would not give him one.

Help us, Lord, to be ready in you.

We love you and we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.