Filled

Let's get into the word tonight.

I wanted to talk to you tonight on the subject of my title of my message is just simply filled, filled.

You know, the devil wants us to be empty, he wants to suck us dry of the presence of God.

But God wants us to be filled.

And so, if you want to turn with me to Ephesians 3 right now, I'm going to start reading in verse 18.

And the apostle Paul actually 17, the apostle Paul is is praying this prayer over the Ephesian church and we pray it over you guys all the time, and you may be praying for yourself that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled you may say filled, filled with all the fullness of God, and that comes by knowing his love.

His love is that we have a relationship with God.

You know, I saw somebody say this week that you know a lot of people.

They tried religion and they went to church and they got hurt and then they said well, and then they gave up on God and said well, the church hurt me, I just won't serve God.

No, you didn't serve God, you didn't find the Lord.

You found religion.

And when you find a loving relationship with God, you will never, ever leave him.

You will never give up on him.

To know him as to love him and to love him is to truly be filled with all his fullness.

That's what God wants for you.

He wants you to be filled.

Years ago I saw a woman of God minister about on the meniscus, and so bear with me for a minute.

You know, when James fills up my water glass at home, he does this thing.

He likes to mess with me.

But he will take my glass and he will fill it to the tippy top and then he'll put little drops of water, one drop at a time, until he'll get it like to that little extra level where it's hate, like the water is like piled up over the edge of the glass, and that is how he will serve me my water at the table, because he just likes to see me make a mess.

And then him and all the kids will laugh at me.

But that's their thing, they like that and that meniscus built up.

But that's a picture of what God he wants you to live off, of that top layer, that meniscus, he wants you always in a state of just filling out and overflowing with goodness and not with badness, amen.

And so we're going to talk about that concept tonight of being filled.

I just did a simple word study and sometimes you got to do that when there's a word, just a word that just interests you, maybe you're reading along and you can look that up and just see where was it, where did we use it in the Bible?

So I mostly focused in the New Testament tonight and I'm going to talk just scriptures that use the word filled.

And first of all, you're made to be filled.

God wants to fill you.

He wants to fill your house because he filled all the house where they were seated in Acts 2.

He wants to fill your house.

He also filled all the house of Mary Bethany when she broke her alabaster box.

That anointing oil and the fragrance of that oil filled the house.

It's a picture of our worship and then God's response to that filling our house, filling our heart, filling our church, filling your house at home when you worship God.

He wants to fill you, he wants to fill the whole earth.

Actually, he wants to fill the whole earth.

You know, in Genesis it talked about how the earth in the days of Noah was filled with violence or lawlessness, and then we know that it was filled with just debauchery in the days of Lot.

And yet Habakkuk 2.14 says the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

God wants to not just fill you, he wants to fill your neighbor, he wants to fill your workplace, he wants to fill your family.

He wants to fill the city of Houston and Tom Ball and Magnolia and wherever you live.

He wants to fill Texas, the United States, the whole world he wants to fill.

So let's be a vessel for Him.

Let's be a full and overflowing vessel and not a dried up, empty one.

Amen and so.

But you're made to be filled with something, and if you're not filled with something good, if you're not continually seeking the Lord, then it's easy to get dried out and emptied out, and then we start.

That's when we start craving the wrong things and that's when the devil can enter in.

So I'm going to direct you now to Matthew, chapter 12, verse 43.

Matthew 12:43

This is Jesus talking.

He said when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finding none.

How many of you have been delivered?

I mean, you've been delivered from some demonic mess in your life or just some wrong thoughts that God set you free of?

I know I have been, and so when that leaves you, then it says that spirit says, well, I'll return to my house, from which I came.

See, the devil thinks that your mind is just his playground or his house where he can just come and squat.

And when he comes he finds it empty.

Everybody say empty, swept and put in order.

And then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself.

And you know what happens.

They come and then it's hard to get him to leave, right, and that's what Jesus said would happen.

So we've got to not let ourselves get emptied out.

Thank God for his freedom that he gives us, but we need to hold on to it by continually being filled with the Holy Spirit, with the presence of God, with the good things that God has for us.

And you might say well, claire, you know I'm a believer.

I can't be filled with the devil.

I could never be filled and I don't want to split hairs here, there's a lot of semantics I mean, obviously, when we're really born again, we're the temple of the Holy Ghost.

We're the temple he's supposed to fill our temple every day.

But yeah, you know, there are examples in the New Testament of Christian people.

Ananias and Sapphira were Christian people.

They were givers in the early church, but they lied about their offering.

They exaggerated it and they lied about it.

And Peter told them why has Satan filled your heart?

Satan filled their heart to lie to the Holy Spirit.

So we just need to.

We want to be filled, not with bad stuff, but with good stuff, and we want to be hungry.

So there's this dichotomy, obviously, like when we're filled, we can't be filled in a prideful way where we just don't need any more of God.

We want to stay hungry for him.

And how do we hit that balance?

And I would challenge you to say we hit that balance because when we're full of God that we're always pouring out, we have other.

We have other people we can give to.

We have other people we can just speak to and encourage.

We have other other people.

So when we're always pouring out, then we can hunger and thirst.

We can actually do.

Matthew, five, six.

Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

And so we've got to stir up our hungry, our hunger for him.

Are we hungry?

Are we hungry for the right things, are we hungry for what is good?

And so we just need to stir up that hunger on the inside and then, when we do listen to all the different things, we can be filled with.

Paul prayed for the Philippian church.

He said he prayed that their love would abound in knowledge and in all discernment.

I just recently prayed this over my, a lot of my volunteers that I work with.

I prayed this, I just God.

He came on me to pray this and meditate on this scripture for them and during the week, and then I got to see it play out in a in, in their relationships to each other and the in a situation that that we had in the in the church, and it was so awesome that their love may abound in knowledge and all discernment that they would approve the things that are excellent, they would be sincere and without offense until the day of Jesus, and that they would be filled Everybody say filled, filled with all the fruits of right, of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ.

So they, god, wants to fill you.

Are you in his church today?

Are you a member of the body of Christ?

Then he wants to fill you with fruits of righteousness and he wants to fill you with wisdom and knowledge.

Listen to Colossians one nine.

This is another prayer of Paul.

He prays that that and asked that you would be filled with the knowledge of his will in all.

Everybody say all wisdom, all wisdom, not just partial wisdom.

God wants you to know what he knows and but you're going to be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.

God wants to fill you with wisdom, his wisdom, and what an awesome thought, you know.

When we're filled with, when we're filled and we're not emptied out well, but we take time to fill ourselves with God's wisdom and God's mindset on things, then we may we make better decisions, don't we?

Then we make good decisions.

When we're filled.

I can look back on certain things that God motivated us to do.

I remember when pastor decided to open the church during COVID.

I remember now that wasn't my decision to make, but God came.

I was filled up that week.

I was reading the word.

That week, I was in my daily reading and God came and sat on me and the fear of God came on me and raised the hairs on the back of my neck as I read the word that day and he, he told me it was our day of visitation and hit to be careful not to miss it.

And so then I knew, when pastor decided we're going to open our doors again on Palm Sunday of 2019, when everybody else was shutting down, I knew we were right in the right thing because I was filled.

God had already given me information about what was about to happen and so I could be at peace with all of the firestorm that happened after that.

Y'all were many of you walked through it with us, right, and it was.

It was.

There was some controversy, there was, there were some uh, there were some things that were hard and bad things were said about us, you know.

But I knew we were in the right place because God had.

He had helped me, he had shown me and he will show you If you're just faithful.

Just you know it wasn't any different special day.

I did not.

I didn't even kneel down, I didn't even have any scabs, you know, from just on my face, from laying before the Lord.

I was just reading my Bible, just normal, like you.

You know, sometimes I fall asleep a little bit or whatever, and I wake up and I have just I'm just.

You know, we read the Word and we put it, but then there are times when it really comes alive, right, and so he wants to fill you with His wisdom and knowledge.

He wants to fill you with, with abundance and with he wants to bless your business and your career and your work.

Listen to Exodus 35, 31.

This is not one of my few Old Testament examples, but there was an artisan in the temple named Bezalel and it says that he was God has filled Him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding and knowledge and in all manner of workmanship.

I mean, that guy was really good at what he did when he was building the tabernacle for Moses and the people of Israel would have a place to worship God that was mobile, that could travel with them as they traveled to the Promised Land, but they had the finest artisans and craftsmen.

What if the church today had the finest artists and craftsmen?

I mean because art is kind of the culture and language of this world and man to be able to speak.

That that tabernacle was.

It was all luxury and finery, it was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever seen, and I just believe God has those secrets reserved for the church in the last days.

But anyway, we're supposed to be filled.

This was this man's livelihood and his career to build the tabernacle.

And so we can believe God to have knowledge of those things in our career and listen to the career of the fishermen that served Jesus.

That were the disciples and Luke 5.7,.

Do you remember when Jesus came?

They had fished and fished and hadn't caught anything.

And then Jesus came and he filled everybody say filled.

He filled their boats.

Luke 5.7 came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

So he filled them with fish.

He gave them that ability to get wealth and he's going to give you the ability to get wealth.

Amen, he wants to fill you with awe and wonder.

There was a time when Jesus in Luke 5.26, remember when the four crazy friends of the paralytic came and they saw that Jesus was in a crowded house and they couldn't get in there to have their friend be prayed for by Jesus, so they broke a hole in the roof.

Remember that story.

It's in Luke 5, you can read it.

And they broke a hole in the roof and they lowered down their friend and Jesus forgave his sin and then healed him and said take up your bed and walk.

Remember that.

And after that it says in verse 26, they were all amazed, everyone in that crowded room.

They were all amazed and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying we have seen strange things today.

Man, I want to come to church and be filled with fear of God.

I want to see with my eyes the spirit of God moving.

We've seen that and we'll see it more in the last days.

In Acts 3.10, the man at the gate, beautiful after he was healed.

It says they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

They were filled with wonder and amazement.

The power of God, the presence of God is so real and it's more real to us than the things of this world.

And so he wants to fill you fill, I mean, think about that, not just a little bit, but he wants that to happen more and more.

Paul uses that word filled again in 2 Timothy 1.4 when he says Timothy, I'm greatly desiring to see you being mindful of your tears.

You know, because they had had a separation.

I mean, paul was in prison.

Timothy was really concerned about him.

But he says, paul says, I want to see you that I may be filled with joy.

So I just marked that up to.

There's joy in Christian fellowship, in true partnership, in kingdom work.

There is a joy and fulfillment that surpasses regular other relationships.

I mean when you can get and find a church and get plugged in and really put down roots and find that thing and find your people, find your people to believe what you.

They have like precious faith with you and you can knit yourself together with them and get shoulder to shoulder and do work for the kingdom of God.

I'm telling you there is nothing more fulfilling than that and it gave Paul a lot of joy.

So, and you know all of these things, I have not even mentioned being filled with the Holy Spirit and I'm about to get to that.

Y'all are wondering Lord, what is clear when she going to talk about being filled with the spirit.

I will in just a minute.

First I want to contrast that with the bad, the bad things we can be filled with, and that way we can guard against those.

In John 16-6,.

You know, jesus, this was the last supper and he sat down with his disciples.

He said I'm about to go away, I'm going to be separated from you for a minute and some bad things are going to happen.

And he says in verse 6, because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

And when we are, when we feel separated from God in any way, then it can let sorrow.

It can let it can there's a break in our fellowship with the Lord.

Don't let that happen.

You have the Holy Spirit.

They didn't have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them yet, and we do.

So we don't ever have to feel separated from God.

If we sin, we can get.

We can get it covered under the blood by just confessing it right away, but don't let yourself get separated from the presence of God.

You know, James, my husband proposed to me gosh.

It's been almost 20 years ago now, that more than 20 years because we've been married.

It'll be 20 next year, anyway.

But we there was this big, big tree on the church property and some would say it was the largest tree in Harris County, but we were never able to quite get it certified.

But it was so big and it had the branches that spread and hit and came back down and hit the ground and then and then sprung back up again and it was just it's a beautiful tree and it's still right over there and but it has on it something called the resurrection fern.

Resurrection fern it looks like brown and crusty and it's all dried out and it just collects on all the branches of this tree, kind of stemming out from the trunk, and it just doesn't look beautiful at all, it looks dead.

But then it's called resurrection fern, right?

Something good happens Every time it rains.

Every time it rains, the leaves just take in the water and they get completely rehydrated and it just sprouts into the most brilliant green-colored fern and it's gorgeous and it just you can see where it is, all over the tree and and.

But it only lasts for about two weeks.

Two weeks it can stay bright and green and then it'll start to dry out again and I don't think I could last two weeks without the presence of God in my life.

Don't test it, just go ahead and get filled up every day with the Lord.

Amen, okay.

And then Jesus.

The confrontation of, of people who rejected Jesus went.

That it caused a lot of.

It caused a lot of feeling with emotion.

Okay, luke 6, 11, the Pharisees were filled with rage and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.

I mean, jesus brings people to a point of decision and if they don't handle it right, you might see rage, you might see indignation.

In Acts 5, 17, it says that the high priest rose up and after the apostles were freed from prison for preaching the gospel, these high, the high priests and the Sadducees with them, were filled with indignation.

How dare these people preach in the name of Jesus?

How dare they compete with our special religion?

They are preaching heresy.

And so there was indignation, there was rage, there was confusion.

In Acts 19, people were filled.

The whole city was filled, filled with confusion.

I don't wanna be filled with rage.

Confusion.

In Acts 13, 45, they were filled with envy over Jesus.

They could not handle hearing the gospel that anyone else would preach anything besides their dead religion, and it caused them to be filled with envy.

I'm telling you that devil, when he sees the real relationship you have with the Lord, there will be people in your life that will so envy you and it will come out in ways that look like anger, rage, wrath.

It says they were filled with envy, contradicting and blaspheming as they opposed the things spoken by Paul.

So these are reactions that people have when they're unredeemed and they see the relationship, the lively relationships we have with the Lord, then these are things that we can expect, and yet they're not gonna phase us.

They're not gonna phase us cause we're filled.

We're filled with joy, we're filled with love and peace.

And then the main reason and so I just wanted I could not pass this up Romans one.

Paul used the word filled for people who were filled with unrighteousness, filled with unrighteousness.

And if you read Romans one, it is an absolute mirror image of what we see in our society right now.

I mean right now, on this day that the Senate just passed a bill codifying the Defense of Marriage Act, which is really the spit in God's eye act, the make everyone bow and genuflect to bail of the rainbow jihad people.

And so that is not so in our country today, when we exalt and honor things that are unrighteous.

So let's just turn to Romans one, because I think it's so instructive.

It's instructive for your kids to know, if they're old enough to understand the spirit of this age that we're dealing with, and so I'm just gonna contrast that with we're filled with the spirit.

This is what it's like to be filled with unrighteousness.

So I'm gonna back up a little bit, from birth 18, and I'm gonna say I just looked at the wrong thing.

Okay, it's nice.

Romans one 29,.

That's why I'm not finding it Okay.

So verse 26,.

For this reason, god gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

Does that sound familiar?

Likewise, also, men leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in lust for one another.

Men with men committing what is shameful and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error, which was due.

I mean, god knew that this behavior existed way back then, and he has the code for what makes people truly fulfilled.

He is trying to give us a warning do not go down this path, because there is no fulfillment there.

There, your purpose is for something much higher and better, and God loves you and he does not want you to do the wrong thing.

He wants your body to honor him.

And so here is just a real clear picture.

And it says they did not retain God and their knowledge, and so he gave them over to a debased mind.

So once they did not acknowledge God in their thoughts, they turned away from him.

Now they have walked into a debased mind, and so they're filled.

Here it is filled, verse 29, filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness.

Have you covetous?

I could just covetousness.

This entire Marxist philosophy is based on what you have worked for.

I should have that, even though I have not worked for it.

It is covetousness, but it's codified into law in so many ways so, and it's of the darkness.

It's the spirit of unrighteousness, covetousness, maliciousness.

The murder rates in this in our city alone, or so I've never seen in this high, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness.

They are whisperers, backbiter, haters of God, violent, proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents Kids, you better obey your mom and dad.

That's a long list of bad stuff.

And then sprinkled in there as disobedience to your parents.

God takes it pretty seriously.

Undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who, knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not and listen to this not only do the same, but also approve those who—so in other words, god doesn't hold us guiltless if we—even if we don't do any of that stuff but we just approve of it.

God hates that.

He said it right there.

We are not to even approve of that.

That is the spirit of unrighteousness, and that's what people of this world are filled.

They are filled with that, and so that is our confrontation every day.

We are walking in this world but we're not of it and we've got it.

That's why they are filled with that.

Kent, do you think you stand a chance against the devil if you're half full, if you're about a quarter tank in and you're not really zealous for God that day, because you just took a vacation and you just checked out for a minute?

You are no match for this mob of people in front of Lot's house all around you right now that are filled with that spirit.

You've got to be filled.

You get to be—you get to be filled with the spirit.

And so if you're—so that's where I'm telling you God has that for you.

He said that—Jesus said you could have rivers of living water that would flow out of your belly Rivers, not just little drops, rivers.

And so what does it look like to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Well, first of all, it will change what comes out of your mouth.

You can always tell if you're filled today by what—what did you wake up singing?

Did you wake up—did you wake—I love it when I get stuck on a new worship song.

I'm telling you, our worship team does such a great job.

I love it when they give me a good earworm and, man, I can wake up singing.

And I don't have to wake up singing a bad ear.

How many of you have ever awakened and just the weirdest song from 20 years ago pops into your head and you're like, oh, I hate this song.

And then, anyway, yes, james likes to also sing those at home.

He'll sing them, and he'll sing like half of the phrase, and so then your mind has to naturally finish the phrase, and he just loves to do that.

I love him, though Did I mention he also overfills my—I mentioned that?

Okay, anyway, but the—we've got to be filled or we are no match and it will affect what comes out of our mouth.

So we'll be—listen to Acts 2, 4.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

Everybody who stayed and prayed, everybody who did what Jesus commanded to stay in Jerusalem.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, not some, and all of them were, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So they had a heavenly prayer language.

First, they yielded their tongue to the Lord in a way that made no sense to their brain.

If you've ever spoken in tongues, you understand there does.

Your brain does not understand it, and that is good.

That is God deprogramming you.

He is trying to, in many cases, get your brain out of the way.

So you will be yielded.

Yield your tongue.

Your tongue is a small member, but it guides your life and God knew he needed to have that.

He needed to have that yielded to him.

So you make that choice be filled with the Holy Spirit, speak in other tongues, and then it will affect your boldness.

Acts 4, 31,.

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled, filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.

So you know, a lot of the time we think of the disciples.

Oh, they spoke the Word of God with boldness.

That means they were a really good preacher.

So I'll just pray that for Pastor, that he'll speak the Word of God with boldness.

No, no, no.

Are you a disciple.

And so the Word of God is going to be in your mouth.

You have to.

You will speak the Word of God with boldness.

It's going to be awesome when you speak the Word of God into your situation, even if you are saying it to your own ears.

There is something so powerful about your human voice and your ears hearing your own voice.

Your body will listen, your finances will listen.

Your kids, your husband, your family will listen.

And so the Word of God don't say your own feelings, your own emotions.

Sometimes we need to learn when to cap those.

But when we speak the Word of God, it's the anointed, powerful, living, awesome Word of God.

When we speak the Word of God, it has life in it and especially if we use it as a life giving, if we have the touch of the Holy Spirit on our lives and we speak it in love and not as a hammer to beat somebody into submission.

But when we speak it in love, they will listen, and it will.

But we can speak it boldly.

And then listen to Ephesians 5, 18.

I think we should actually go there because I just want you to see right there Ephesians 5, 18, do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, be filled with the Spirit, be continually, habitually, all the time, because it will leak out or you'll spill it on somebody, thank God.

But you need to keep it up.

Keep being filled with the Holy Spirit.

And what does that look like?

Speaking so again, your mouth is engaged, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

So we're singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord and we're always giving thanks to God and the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and submitting to one another in the fear of God.

So when we're filled with the Holy Spirit, we can submit to one another and we can.

And when we talk, we've got songs and hymns, spiritual songs.

We've got Thanksgiving coming out of our mouth.

It's much more pleasant to be around someone who's filled with the Holy Spirit when they're really walking in that, and then someone who's filled with bitterness and anger and resentment and envy and strife and confusion.

All of that.

We don't want that.

We don't want that and we want this.

We want singing, making melody in our hearts.

We can have that.

I'm telling you, we can have that, no matter what goes on in this world, because God is a never ending supply, he is a fountain springing up and well spring of salvation.

And notice how it contrasted that, like you don't need alcohol, don't be drunk with wine, don't be filled with that, because alcohol dulls your senses to the Lord.

It's a separator, it can be a deterrent, and you don't need that.

It says don't be drunk with wine.

That doesn't lead anywhere.

Good, but you don't need alcohol because you're filled with the Holy Spirit, and so you're just a little bit crazy anyway, and it just helps smooth out the edges.

Just smooth them out and you don't have to care that much about everything.

I mean, we'll care, we'll care to obey God, but that's all we have to care about.

His yoke is easy, his burden is light.

We'll learn to laugh instead of be so angry all the time being.

So God, he just lets us be filled with Him.

And so then, but one thing about I got to tell you I did find Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, and Luke 4.1 listen to what it says about Jesus.

When he was filled with the Holy Spirit, the very first thing he did, you know, remember he, the Spirit of God came like a dove and the voice came from heaven and said this is my beloved son, hear him remember.

And he was baptized by John the Baptist and the all that and the very first thing.

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted to the devil for 40 days and 40 nights.

So when we're so being filled with the Holy Spirit, we will be qualified.

God will qualify us for our call.

He will, he can.

Does he have permission to lead you where he needs to lead you, to qualify you for some things?

Does he have permission to do that?

And Jesus had to be qualified for something.

That was so that he was about to save the world.

But he had to.

He had to pass some tests and the Holy Spirit led him there.

He didn't lead him away from temptation.

He actually led them right, right right into it because he saw what was in him.

He saw that God, the Father, saw the Word of God living so richly in Jesus.

He saw that he would overcome.

And God sees you that you will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of your testimony when you speak the Word of God with boldness against that temptation, then God, the Holy Spirit, will partner with you and you will overcome that temptation and you will qualify and you will pass every test.

Amen, amen.

And finally, when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 1352, it says they were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

So finally, he wants to fill you with His joy.

You can always tell how filled are you today by can you step into joy?

I mean, maybe we're not laughing every minute of every day, but I mean, but can we step into that?

Can we easily man, can we just whoo, can we take a minute from the crazy around us and can we just focus on the Lord and can we step into His joy?

And if we can live in that, now we're living on the meniscus, we're living in the overflow, we are living like the resurrection burn that is continually green and just shining for Jesus, and and he wants us to be filled with joy.

So so be filled tonight, be filled with something good, always be filled, continually and habitually filled, and and it'll make your life rich and it'll make you more effective for the kingdom of God.

Amen, and that's what we want.

I mean, he put us at this time for such a time as this, so I hope that bless you tonight.