Answering Faith's Questions (Part 2) | With Dr. Sean McDowell

What up, Crossing family? I am so glad you guys are here.

I want to welcome all of our different campuses, those of you

watching online and inside, and I want to wish a special welcome

to those of you who are here for the first time or the first time

in a long time. I really believe that today

could be a significant moment in your spiritual journey.

Before we jump all the way into that, though, I want to make you

aware of a couple of things. One, camp registration is open

and available today. Yeah, yeah.

So if you open up your app, go to the For You section, you'll

find all the details about that. I want to encourage you to sign

up early and safe. And coming alongside of that, we

try to make sure that we do everything we can to help every

kid who wants to go to camp be able to go to camp.

Our In Your Corner golf outing, which provides scholarship funds

for kids who are wanting to go to camp.

You can sign up for that in the app.

It is a wonderful time. Those 4G outings provide funding

for kids who want to attend but not might not be able to afford

it. And your participation will make

a difference. And for those of you who are

going, I love kids, I love Jesus, but I don't like golf.

You can just provide a camp scholarship and every single bit

helps and everything you give will go to making camp as

affordable for every single kid that wants to go.

Our goal is simple, if a kid wants to go to camp, we want to

make it happen. And for those of you who are

looking for a stretch goal, Jennifer and me, our goal this

year is to send one or pay for one kid to be able to go to

every single one of the camps. And we have 9 camps because our

church keeps growing, which is a good thing.

Which means that if you're wanting to try and send one kid

to every single camp, it would be $18190.00.

But you can give whatever you can and it will be great.

You can find more information about that in the app as well,

just go to the For You section. But in my years of ministry,

sitting across the table from hundreds of you, there is almost

always a question of faith before a step of obedience.

That is why I am so glad that you are here today, because

we've been talking about taking steps of faith.

And I want you to hear me say this.

God is not afraid of your questions, and neither are we.

In fact, I believe that God and His Word not only welcome every

question, but they have the answers to every major question

about life and about faith. Now, to give you some context,

every single one of our weekend services is going to be unique.

So we're not asking the same questions at every single

service. So if you're going, hey,

question I had didn't get answered, feel free to catch up

on the online when we post that. But to help you take your next

step, we have partnered with Doctor Sean McDowell with us

this weekend. Doctor Sean McDowell has devoted

his career to help bring truth to the next generation.

As a college professor, as a high school teacher, and as a

prolific author. He has exceptional insights into

prevailing culture, and he imparts his observations to

fellow educators, pastors, parents, and to students.

He is currently an Associate Professor of Christian

Apologetics at Biola University, which is the largest and top

ranked graduate program of its kind in the world.

As a part time high school teacher, Sean was awarded

Educator of the Year in his hometown.

He is a highly sought after speaker here and we were

incredibly grateful that he was willing to come and be with us.

He's spoken at various camps, churches, universities worldwide

and is a frequent guest on radio and television shows.

He's a best selling author and has written or Co written over

20 bucks. This guy doesn't sleep folks.

He has a Master's degree in Theology and Philosophy and APHD

in apologetics and worldview studies.

He is also the Co host of the Think Biblically podcast.

All he's done while he's been here is just sleep.

Most noteworthy, he is a dedicated husband and father.

He has been married to his high school.

Sweet Stephanie, since 2000, he lives in beautiful Southern

California, which is where we're going to be opening another one

of our campuses to get out of this place.

Crossing family, would you please put a great crossing?

Welcome together to have Sean McDowell comes on the stage.

God bless you man. Thanks my man.

So this is a cool moment for me. When I went to Bible college, I

felt like God had called me into ministry.

But I went to Bible college with a lot of questions, and there

was questions of faith that I was going to, I've got to get

this figured out because I want to make sure I get it right.

And I'm going to build not just my eternity on this, but my life

for however long God lets me breathe on this.

And so I signed up for classes that answered questions about

faith. And one of the very first books

that I got was a book called More Than a Carpenter.

And that book was written by his father and he's actually

rewritten it alongside of your dad.

So that's a little bit of my journey of faith.

So if you're a person who has questions, I want you to know I

had questions. I still have questions.

What's a little bit? Tell us a little bit about your

faith journey. Yeah, so grew up in a Christian

home, as you can imagine, with a father who's an apologist

defending the faith. In the mid 90s I went to college

and we had this new technology, maybe you've heard of it, called

the Internet. Yeah, well, I'm fishing around

at that point on learning what, like, blogs and websites are,

and I come along this site dedicated to debunking

Christianity. In fact, they took my dad's

books chapter by chapter, doctors, lawyers, historians

responding. I read this and my heart sank,

Clayton for the first time. I was like, whoa, I don't know

how to answer this. And so I went to my dad.

We're up in in the mountains of Breckenridge, Co, on vacation.

And I remember, look at my dad in the eyes.

I'm probably 19. I said, dad, I want to know it's

true, but I don't know that I'm convinced Christianity is true.

Now, if you're a Christian, how would you respond if one of your

kids or grandkids said that to you?

My dad looked at me. He goes, son, I think that's

great. And I said, did you hear

anything? I just said he goes, you can't

live on my faith. You've got to seek after truth.

And if you seek after truth, I'm confident you'll fall Jesus

because Jesus is the truth and I love you no matter what.

And so God can take our questions.

Jesus said love God with your heart and with your soul and

with your mind. God says to Isaiah, come, let us

reason together. And Christianity can take

questions because it's actually true.

Come on. So let's get into it right now.

There is a bunch of people who will say a whole bunch of things

about the origin of the universe, the existence of

mankind. And so I want to kind of frame

up the question this way. Is creation a product of God or

a result of random chance? And let's kind of look at it

through the lens of of intelligent design and the

complex creation alludes to, well, you know what alludes to.

Yeah. So this question matters because

the Bible starts with, in the beginning, God.

Created. Before we learn God is holy or

loving and just, the first thing we're told is that God is a

creator. This is a purposeful universe

and you are not an accident. Well, how do we know this is

true? Well, you can look at a rate,

you can look at the beginning of the universe pointing towards

the beginner. We can look at the fine tune of

the laws of physics. But let's narrow down into the

micro, into what was discovered in 1953, DNA.

Now, if you've you've seen pictures of DNA, it's like a

ladder that's kind of twisted and on the base of it are

letters that are a part of the genetic code.

Now let me put in context how incredible DNA is in the average

adult human body, which by the way, is me, not you.

Just for the record, I'm. I'm the, I'm the plus.

Size version. That was a compliment.

I always wanted to be 6/6. So the average general human

body. I'm 59150.

I'm probably about as average as you'll find.

There's 30 trillion cells. Now the DNA each cell, if you

took it out, would be about 6 feet in length.

That means the DNA in the average adult human body would

go from here to the sun and back about 200 * 200 times.

Now, how much information? According to one estimate, the

DNA in one cell in your body has an equipment of 8000 books, 8000

books. Now, when this was discovered,

it raises an interesting question.

Where did this come from? What accounts for this

information? Now, whenever we see information

and trace it to its source, we find an information giver.

If your shirt has information, there's a maker of the shirt.

If you get a text and it's legible, it comes from a texter,

A blog from Blogger, a book from an author.

In fact, if we walk outside and in the clouds, that says drink

Coke and I'm from Southern California.

So I say, what is that? None of you would say, oh, that

happens here naturally when a storm is coming down from Iowa.

You wouldn't say that. We know that information traces

to a mind when we look inside DNA, and we see more

sophisticated information than the most complex things humans

can create. I don't have enough faith to

believe that happened by accident.

I think the best explanation is that points beyond itself to a

mind. So in some information points

towards an information giver. DNA, I would argue, is like a

fingerprint of the divine for those with eyes to see and ears

to hear. Man, that is so good because

what we get pushed a lot of times is random chance and we

get all, you know, time is God in the atheistic worldview.

And for us to realize that everything about you screams

because you said, oh, let's actually we got time punch into

this. You talked about it being a

language, and that means that there is a God who's

communicating. So there's a God who is

revealing himself to us. Next one.

OK, we'll do this one. Let's do it.

All right, Doctor Sean, I agree. God exists, but I'm not a big

fan of him because if he is all powerful and he can do all these

good things, why doesn't he stop all the suffering in the world?

Friends, this is the big question.

It's a question atheists ask from the outside.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, you've asked this

question too. Habakkuk says, God, why do I see

violence and you don't stop it? So first thing I would say is if

you suffer, I am so sorry and my heart is broken for you.

A Christian response in Romans 12/15 says be happy with those

who are happy, be sad with those who are sad.

If you're suffering, I mourn with you and I hurt with you.

Second, realize God is big enough for your pain and your

suffering and for you to express your emotions to him.

So Psalms, there's 150 chapters and they're Psalms.

One of the most common psalms is what we call a complaint Psalm.

People going to God like David saying, God, you've abandoned

me, God, where are you? God, what happened now?

The Psalms are rooted in hopefulness, but if you're

hurting or see somebody hurting, it's not sinful to take that

emotions to God. God can take it.

He's there to be our comforter. Third thing I would say is let

me share a story that might, might help.

In the 1800s, there was a priest by the name of Father Damien and

he went to be a priest to care for lepers on the island of

Molokai in the Hawaiian chain. He showed up and he would pray

for them, he would preach to them, he would counsel them.

He just loved them. After 12 years, something

radically changed. He stood in front of him and he

said 2 words that changed everything.

This priest stood in front of the leper colony, opened up his

robe, showed the first signs of leprosy and said, we lepers,

Father Damien had become a leper.

No, Nesh, a few questions. Did they know that he cared for

them before he got leprosy? Of course, What changed on that

day? He was no longer an outsider.

He was somebody who stepped into their suffering, experienced it

first hand and literally laid down his life for them.

Next question, who is Jesus? More like Father Damien before

he got leprosy or after. And you know the answer, don't

you? In Christianity, God didn't just

send a prophet. He didn't just speak in

creation. And you're right, it's a

language. He didn't doesn't just speak in

dreams or send a holy book. As important and powerful as the

Bible is, it is only in Christianity that says God steps

into our suffering and experiences and knows it.

That's why Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 4 say we have a high priest who

understands. So if you're suffering because

your family's betrayed you, you can't say Jesus, you don't

understand. He's like, yeah, I was betrayed

by my family and one of my disciples.

If you're physically suffering, you can't say Jesus, you don't

understand. He's kind of like, you know, I

was crucified. I get it so many ways.

When we ask where is God in our suffering, the answer is it's

only in Christianity that says God is right there suffering

with us now. He doesn't leave us there.

God promises to redeem our suffering for good and to

conquer it one day. That's why one of the most

powerful teachings in the Bible is Jesus, who's God in human

flesh. He's God in human flesh.

John chapter 1 experiences the weight and suffering and

John 1 · chapter mention

temptation that we do stands before Pilate and Pilates.

Like what am I going to do with you?

Because I have power over life and death, and Jesus says you

have no power over me. I lay down my life and I pick it

up again. That's where our hope comes

from, the resurrection of Jesus. Sin has already been defeated.

Our suffering is going to end and God is going to redeem it

for good. Knowing and believing that truth

doesn't mean we escape suffering, but it means God is

with us and gives us a hope amidst our suffering.

That is so good and I want to, I want you guys to like take that

all the way in because he's saying that God brings purpose

out of your pain. Amen.

So functionally, God does sometimes through a miraculous

intervention, bring suffering to an end.

Some of you have been around and you've experienced that every

time God brings purpose out of the pain.

And the perfect example of that is Jesus on the cross.

The other part is part of the reason why God allows suffering

in this world is because we're sinners who have free choice.

If you wanted to stop the suffering in your house, you'd

kick out all of the teenagers that live in your house, right?

But because you're a loving parent, you tolerate a certain

amount of suffering in your home because you love them and you

want to guide them out of the situation and the circumstances

that they're in. All right, let's do, let's do

this one. We live in a world of relative

truth. We live in a world of my truth.

We are against exclusivity, but Jesus makes an exclusive claim.

He says that the only way to the Father is through him.

Isn't that too exclusive for Jesus to say that he's the only

way to get to God, the only way to get to heaven?

OK so First off every belief system is exclusive.

If you claim that A is true, it means you think B through Z is

not true. Islam is exclusivistic, Judaism

is exclusivistic, Buddhism is exclusivistic.

You say, well what about Hinduism?

I was talking with the Hindu and he said, oh, I think

Christianity is true, your belief system is true.

I said, OK, wait a minute, you bring Christianity within

Hinduism and my beliefs fit within yours.

So you don't actually think Jesus is the eternal, only God,

the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and salvation is by faith alone.

So really, Hinduism is exclusivistic.

Now, if I were to stand up here and say, yeah, Jesus is the only

way, take my word for it, you'd rightly be like, yeah, why

should I trust you? Sure, you got a little bit of

education, but we're talking about pretty important things

here. Who claimed to be the way, the

truth and the life and that no one gets the Father but by him

it's Jesus. So the question is, is this too

exclusivistic? Why should I listen to him?

One of the things that makes Jesus unique amongst religious

leaders is he didn't just say here's how you get to truth.

He didn't say here's how you experience salvation.

He didn't say here's how you find God.

He said I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one gets the Father but by me and then he backed it up.

He was the virgin born, miracle working, sinless risen Savior.

That guy has a right to claim every other religious leader is

still in the grave. Jesus is the only one who said

ahead of time. Again, we see this in John 2.

We see it in John 10. I lay down my life and I take it

up again. We see in the beginning of Acts

that it was prophesied the Messiah would suffer.

Psalm 1610 tells us distinctly death does not have power over

His chosen one. Jesus claims to be God and He

backs it up in a way no other religious figure did.

I'm going with that guy. Come on.

Definitely going with that guy. Yeah, the the answer to that is

Jesus is the only one who and then you start filling in the

blank. Why does Jesus make the

exclusive claim that he's the only one or only way to get to

the Father? It's because he's the only one

who can make those exclusive claims.

He's the only one who was before the foundations of the world.

He's the only one who spoke the universe into existence.

He's the only one who holds it all together, as it says in

Colossians. He's the only one who came and

lived a sinless life. He's the only one who died on

behalf of our sin. He's the only one who was

crucified and then three days later rose again like he's the

only one who, and when you're the only one who you get to make

the exclusive claims. I am the only one who is married

to Jennifer. That is an exclusive claim.

And I've got all the receipts to back it up.

Literally thousands upon thousands of receipts to back it

up. She doesn't send the bill to

anybody else. Now listen, that is not a

hurtful claim. That's a truthful claim.

When Jesus saying he's the only way, he is not making a hurtful

claim. He's making a loving.

Claim. Amen.

Because if you want to get to God, He has made a way.

Now this ties into the next question.

By the way, really quickly, Christianity is not an exclusive

faith, it's an inclusive faith, meaning Jesus died for everyone

and invites everyone to repentance.

Buddhism mostly limited to China.

Hinduism mostly limited to India.

Islam mostly limited to the Middle East.

There are Christians following Jesus in every faith and

language and background in the world.

It truly is the most inclusive faith.

Come on now. So we're talking about faith.

OK, This is a a question that I remember wrestling with in my

early years of ministry. So graduated from college and

you're going to go Clayton. You must not have been doing as

good of a job in class as you should have.

So I'm going to if God or why doesn't God make himself more

obvious? Because if this is where we're

putting ourselves in, which is a dangerous place.

So let's acknowledge it. If I was God, I would park,

disguise speaking this, you know, I'm God, pay attention to

me. And everybody would go, hey, I

think this is real. We probably ought to get this

figured out. Why doesn't God do that?

Totally fair question all of us at some point have been like God

answer this prayer God make yourself more clear and then I

would believe I get it but Romans one tells us that God has

made himself sufficiently clear. We know this.

It's obvious because it's written into creation.

So God has made himself sufficiently known through

creation, but we suppress it in unrighteousness for other

reasons. I think we also know God exists.

Romans 2 through conscience. There's a moral law.

We know there's right and wrong, and we know we've fallen short

of it. But that only makes sense.

There's a moral law if there's a moral law giver.

So I think God has made himself sufficiently clear.

Nonetheless, we say, why does God make himself more obvious?

Well, here's the trade off is that the more obvious God makes

us, the more he kind of squelches our freedom.

So we're kind of forced to believe in God rather than

choose to believe in him. Out of relationship, he'd say,

yeah, but God, if he just did more obvious miracles, people

would believe. And I'd say maybe, maybe let me

give you 2 examples from the Bible.

Only in the Gospel, John, do we have the raising of Lazarus from

the dead on the 4th day. By the way, there were people

watching this. Jesus shows up and they laugh at

him, saying you're going to rise him from the dead.

They raise him from the dead and everybody repents.

Actually, you know, that's exactly how the story didn't go.

They raised from that publicly. What do they want to do?

They want to kill Lazarus and run Jesus out of town.

It wasn't a lack of evidence, it was something else.

How about the Old Testament you mentioned?

Like why doesn't God part the Red Sea he did or part some sea

he did for the Israelites? They saw all the 10 plagues and

the miracles manna from heaven. And then you go along in the

story, what do they do? They go up the mountain and they

start worshipping a golden calf when Moses goes up the mountain.

So more evidence doesn't necessarily mean people will

follow and worship God, which is what God wants from us.

I struggled with this as well. My God, why don't you make

yourself more obvious? And I remember, I remember an

atheist on this website, now that I think about it, in the

90s, he said, if God really exists, why wouldn't he write on

the moon Jesus lives or why wouldn't he write on the cell

made by Yahweh after we're after all all our toys say like made

in China. Clayton, I studied DNA and I

stopped. I thought, you know what he did

with DNA. It's as if God has signed every

cell with evidence of His presence.

I understand the cry for more evidence.

It's human nature to do this. But don't let us miss how God

has made himself known in our moral conscience, in creation,

in miracles, in change lives, in the Scripture, in the church for

those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

God might not be as obvious as we would like, but he has

sufficiently made himself known. If you're there, I would say,

God, make yourself real to me. Reveal yourself.

Be willing to repent of sin, get into the scriptures and bring

your questions to God. God can take it.

That is so good and let me let me key in and put a couple more

things in your tool belt on this one.

One, we are saved by faith through grace.

So there is an element of us that has to believe.

I don't have to believe that Jennifer exists.

I can see her. I don't have to trust that she

exists. I can see her.

And God tells us that the way we please Him is by faith.

So there is an element of our walk with him that is sustained

and originates in the area of faith.

But watch this. God blesses that.

He looks at his followers who have seen him provide all kinds

of miracles. He says that you know you are

great. It's great that you guys

believe, but blessed are those who believe even though they

don't see. And what are we told that we

will get enjoy when we get to heaven?

Our faith will disappear because we will have sight.

God has made Himself clear to people who are willing to look,

and He has made Himself available to those who are not

obstinate to belief in Him. But if you have a hardened

heart, it doesn't matter how many miracles you see, you still

won't believe. In fact, in almost every big

atheist Christian debate, there comes that moment where

oftentimes the the the Christian apologist will say, if God

parted the sea and opened the doors right now and he said all

this stuff to you, what would you think?

And he goes, well, then I would believe he goes, you sure you

wouldn't think you were having a hallucination?

Because that is actually the claim that they put on all the

people who did see Jesus who had rose from the dead.

So even if you buy into their argument, they won't give it

over because their hearts are hard, they're rebellious,

they're wicked against the things of God.

All right, let me let me do this.

And would you guys give Sean a big round of applause?

Thank you so much. Thank.

You Jesus was with his disciples ancestry of Philippi.

It was like the Lake of the Ozarks for the Middle East.

It was where you went away to kind of have a good time with

your close friends. Not in a sinful way.

I don't want to paint that in a bad way, but because I know you

guys go to the lake and you lose your Jesus.

But Jesus is with his disciples ancestry of Philippi and he

asked them in Matthew chapter 16 verse 14, who do you say that I

Matthew 16:14

am? And their answer was, some say

John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others

Jeremiah or one of the prophets. A lot of people that you know,

they have a different view of Jesus than maybe you do,

depending on where you're watching or where you're reading

or what you're scrolling through.

You'll say, you'll see some people say that Jesus was a

fictional character. Some will say that he was a

prophet. There'll be some who will say he

was a really good teacher. There'll be some who will say he

was a charismatic leader. Others will say he was just a

mid, a misunderstood 1st century Jew.

And all of this is a bunch of hoopla about nothing.

But Jesus didn't end the conversation there.

The next verse, Matthew 16, verse 15, Jesus said, but what

Matthew 16:15

about you? Who do you say I am?

The question today is not what do others believe about Jesus,

but what do you believe about Jesus?

When you stand before God, he's not going to give you a pop quiz

on what all of your friends and family and neighbors thought

about Jesus. He's going to say, what do you

believe about Jesus? Simon Peter raises his hand,

verse 16, and he answered, you are the Christ, the Son of the

living God. And Peter's answer was the right

one. He realized that Jesus was the

Christ, the anointed one, the promised Messiah, God in the

flesh, who was going to deliver people not just from the penalty

of their sin, but save them from their sins and bring them into a

right relationship with his heavenly Father.

And you might be thinking right now, easy for Peter.

He was there. He saw all of this take place.

I want you to hear me say this. Yeah, I know.

And do you know what he did? He died taking his eyewitness

testimony to the nation's. Hear me When we talk about

placing our faith in Jesus, I'm not discounting the fact that it

is a step of faith, but it is a reasoned faith.

When I say a reasoned faith, I'm saying there are reasons,

really, really good reasons to believe that Jesus is the

Christ. There are eyewitness accounts

not just of his life, but also of his death and resurrection.

In fact, Jesus appeared to over 500 people after his

resurrection. The biblical text, it can stand

up to critics and it can hold up to skeptics.

The evidence for the existence of God not only stands up to

scrutiny, but it delivers the very best and most reliable

answers. I believe the best answer for

the beginning of the universe is found in God.

The fine tuning of the universe, that answer is found in God.

How do we explain the laws of nature, the existence of

objective moral values? Those are all rooted and found

in God. And that is before you count the

countless lives that have been transformed, changed, redeemed

and repurposed, of which I'm 1. And so are you.

And you might be saying, but I don't know everything.

Yeah, I get it. You don't know everything.

But you know enough. Hear me?

How many of you fellas here help me out?

You know everything there is to know about women.

Raise your hand. Yeah.

Someone, someone just got saved here at 48th St.

Yeah. Nobody knows everything there is

to know about what? But raise your hand if you want

one or you're glad you have one. If you didn't raise your hand

there, that was a You're going to be buying some expensive

stuff before the day's over. OK.

You got to stay awake. I got Jennifer here.

I still to this day do not know everything there is to know

about her, but I knew enough about her to know that I wanted

to spend the rest of my life with her.

It makes sense to me that a God who created the world, set the

stars in place, wrote the laws of nature, moved the mountains

into place, is big enough to hold the waters of the ocean,

and the palm of His hands might be a little too big for me to

completely wrap my mind around. But I know enough to know that I

need Him. I know enough to know that I

want Him. And I know enough to know I

don't want to spend another day of my life without Him.

And if you're here today and you've never started that

relationship with Jesus Christ, it's time for you to think about

it. And if you're here today and

you're going, you know what? It's time for me to start living

my life in alignment with the faith that I actually profess.

I'm so glad you're here today. And that's why we're going into

this time of decision. And we're going to do, Yeah,

thank you guys. We're going to do something we

don't get to do all that often. And that is I'm getting to stay

live at all of our locations. And thank you so much for

staying connected with us. And let me just talk for just a

second to those of you gathering all across this region who have

never started an intimate personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. You see, God is not just great

and powerful and majestic and mighty, He is also good.

So good in fact, that He did not make us get right.

And then we could go to him and said He came down to make us

right so we could be with Him. Romans chapter 5 verse 8 says

Romans 5:8

this, but God demonstrates His own love for us and this that

while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In other words, salvation was His idea.

He did it before you drew your first breath, before you

committed your first sin, before you rejected His Son, abandoned

his purpose for you, and He still sent his Son to the cross

anyway to bring you back to Him. And in just a few moments, at

all of our locations, when the people stand and sing and people

come to the steps and pray. If you're here today and you've

never started an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus

Christ, your next move is to talk to somebody about that.

And at all of our locations next to the baptistry, there's going

to be a campus pastor or somebody who would love a chance

to talk with you, and I hope you'll do it.

And to those of you who do have a relationship with Jesus

Christ, my prayer for you is simple.

May your faith in God inspire you to greater devotion, to

greater obedience and greater participation in the mission of

God. May it strengthen you in your

prayers and guide you through your darkest valleys.

Would you guys stand with me? Heavenly Father, you know

exactly what every single one of us needs to do in this moment

right now, and I'm asking that You would lead us, guide us,

direct us, and empower us to take the steps that we

desperately need to take. In Your name, I pray.

Amen.