Turn to the book of Ephesians 5 if you will, Ephesians 5 while you're turning there. I want to talk to you about something that none of us value enough. We all say we wish we had more of it. We all say we don't have enough of it.
We all say there's not enough of it in a day. We say we would volunteer if we had more of it. We say we would love to help if we had more of it. But we just don't have enough.
How many wish you had more time? Ephesians 5, beginning verse number 15. See then that you work circumspectly not as fools, but as wise. We're talking about two different types of individuals.
We're talking about those who are wise and those who are foolish. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever made a wise decision? Well, that's alarming.
It's about 12 of you. How many of you have made a wise decision? All right. How many of you have made a foolish decision?
Yes. We have all made at times wise choices, wise decisions, and we have at times made foolish ones. We're admonished here in the book of Ephesians that we walk a certain way not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. The scripture says that Satan knows his time is short.
And when he knows and understands his time is short, he comes with great wrath, with great wrath, because he knows his time is short. How many of you really hustle around to get something completed because you know time is running out. You know you have to leave the house at a certain time, but you slip in. You hit the snooze button.
You sat around the little too much longer than you should have you, scrolled a little longer than you thought you should have. And all of a sudden you realize, oh, I should have left 10 minutes ago. And now we're hustling. And we're getting dressed and we're brushing our hair.
And we're doing everything that we need to do to get out of the house because we're running late. And then we get in the car. And then we go faster than we should go because we're running late. And it's not because we don't have enough time.
It's because we've not used our time wisely. Come on church. Don't get mad at me. I'm just the messenger.
And you know what I'm telling you is right. We've got enough time. It's not time. That's the problem.
It is what we do with the time. And we all, we all at times misuse the time that we've been given every single day of our lives. The scripture says, walk wisely. Use that time wisely.
Understand that time and how that works in your life because the days are evil. In other words, that we should be living in such a way that we are ministering, that we are speaking life. We are telling people about Christ Jesus. We are telling people about salvation because the days are short, the days are evil.
And the return of Christ is coming. And we've got to be sharing the love of Christ and salvation with every one we can. It's no time to be timid. It's time to be bold church.
It's no time to be silent. It's time to be loud. It's no time to be sitting. It's time to stand.
Amen. It is time that we declare that we are children of the most high God, that his blood was shed for us and his body was broken for us. And he was nailed on a cross for us. And he redeemed us so that we could have eternal life.
Amen. And we've got to share the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and not be timid with that, not be intimidated by that. Our main mission and our main goal in life should be sharing and spreading the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And everything else should be secondary.
Hear me now. Everything else should be secondary. Yes, we have homes and families. Yes, we have jobs.
Yes, we have all the things that life brings our way and things we get involved in. Yes, we have all of that stuff. And in and of itself, I'm not saying that necessarily any of those things are bad. But when they are out of order and they are out of place, and we are not doing first things first, we are not prioritizing what should be prioritized.
We are wasting our time. We are agents and ambassadors for the most high God. We are representatives of the kingdom of God. That should be first and foremost our top priority, knowing and understanding because of wisdom that the days are short, meaning we spend so much time on these other things that are meaningless, that we let the thing that is the most important go by undone.
Come on, Church. Therefore, do not be unwise. How many God of this morning in the pray, God, please, please let me be the most unwise man today. Please Father, let me be the most unwise woman today on the planet.
Let me make every bad decision and every bad choice possible. No, we don't. We don't even have to say that. But if we're not careful, come on, we will make unwise choices and unwise decisions.
Not being in the house of God is unwise. Not sharing the good news of the gospel is unwise. Not being a good steward of the things that God has placed within our in our care is being unwise, not being fruitful with what God has given us as being unwise. That's what your Bible says.
Do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. I'm gonna read this to you out of the English standard version as well, it says look carefully. Look carefully then how you should walk. In other words, we would say it maybe like this, pay attention.
How many times has somebody ever said you pay attention? Well, if I have a thousand dollars for every time, somebody told me to pay attention in my life, huh? When you're in school, pay attention. You know it was a staple in my life.
From the time I went to school, this was a staple in my life. From the time I went to school, right? This was it. I'm just seeing who I can slap.
Thanks a lot, you'll be alright. Pay attention. How many do you know what I'm talking about? Jerry, do you ever get?
Pay attention. No? Okay, well, there, you just got it. Pay attention.
How many have ever been told pay attention? Why? Because what's happening is what? Important, what's happening?
Can't have transformational power in your life. What's being said to you can make a difference. Look carefully then how you walk. We put cones outside the side door and I promise you.
At some point, I know it's only been since April, but those steps are going to get poured out there. The guy keeps telling us he's coming. At some point he's probably going to show up and pour those steps, but until that happens, we have orange cones out there saying what? Be careful where you walk.
Cause you don't want to step out that door. I know, some of you have told me when I get on the edge of that platform, it makes you nervous. We put the cones to say watch where you walk. Because if you walk out that door and don't realize that there's no steps, boom, over you go.
Not only we're going to pour those new steps there, but we're supposed to be getting some new light poles poured too, so we put new lighting on this side of the parking lot and there's going to be another new light over there. We got great plans if we can just keep people to get people to follow through with what they're supposed to do. You know, even today it's hard to pay people to get things done. Cause everybody's so busy.
My wife and I were at a red light the other day and there was four cars in front of us and the car in front of us, the car in front of us sat halfway through the green light. I like my iPhone, I do. And those of you think I'm such a great monster because I have an iPhone or whatever. It's a great tool.
It can be used for a great tool. But some people are just, I'm having problems with my eyes. Yeah, no kidding. Our eyes were never intended to be, you know the funny thing is we buy these big TVs, we have big TVs like this in our houses and we sit in our cultures and recliners and we look at little screens.
And we got big ones. We're funny people, aren't we? We really are. They make them smaller and we go, oh boy, that's great.
I can carry it. Nobody even know I have it. And then they make it bigger and we go, oh boy, that's great. I can watch football on it.
And they're great tools, but we spend a lot of time. We spend a lot of time. Time is our most valuable resource. If you haven't realized that, the most valuable thing you have is time.
And if you don't believe that, you need to go to a nursing home and walk around for a few hours and sit and talk to some people. If you don't realize the value of time. My mother said to me the other day, where did time go? That was after she asked me who I was and what I was doing taking care of her.
Am I your mother? I said yes. She said, where's your father? I said, mommy, he passed 10 years ago and she said, why didn't you tell me?
And I said, well, mom, you know, you didn't know. I said, at 93 sometimes she get, 93. How old are you? I said, 62, she said it's not possible.
I said, I know, I think the same thing. But what I'm trying to tell you is through natural stories and experiences that someday you're going to sit back and say to yourself, where did it go? Value, what you have. And use it wisely.
It's your most valuable resources. You know, they say the average person. I know this may not be everybody. But these are national statistics.
And the average person, they say, spends two hours and 24 minutes on social media every day. I would say that's the light side. I would say that's pretty much the light side. You know, you can actually go to a setting in your phone and look at how much screen time.
Maybe sometime today you ought to check that out, because you may even be surprised how much screen. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with necessarily that. But when you don't have time for what's most important, then that's a problem. Come on, do you understand what I'm saying?
How many think point I wish I didn't come today? The average person spends two hours and 24 minutes. And I think that's light. And it even said in the survey, that's light.
The average American checks their mobile device. This one blew my mind. 159 times a day. The average person checks their mobile device 100.
And you know the ones that go, oh no, you're the one. Yes, and they say the ones that don't realize it are the ones that do because they don't realize how many times they do it. It's true. It's true.
My wife said to me not long ago, she said, you just have to stop saying you know. She said, you say you know a lot. I said, you know? And she said, see, you just did it.
It's that whole day all I did was say, hey, you know? Hey, you know? Sometimes we don't realize until someone shares it or brings it to our attention. 159 times, OK, I'll stop looking at Susan now.
Look up here. I'll say something everybody's looking at her to see her expression. 159 times a day. That's an excessive amount of times when you think.
The average person in the US watches, ready? And I think this is light too. They say the average person watches between four and five hours of TV per day. Now remember, they average that out by month.
So you know, you've been binge watched three football games. You've watched a lot. And I have. I have.
How about you? Come on, some of you in your Hallmark channel. They started Christmas movies. And you're warm fuzzy blanket and you're bullpopcorn and you're hot tea.
Come on. They say four to five hours per day watching television. Is watching television in and of itself necessarily bad? No.
But when we say, well, I don't have time to be a blessing. I don't have time to be a help. I don't have time to serve. I don't have time to volunteer.
I don't have time to help others that may have need. Then the four to five hours is a problem. Would you agree or disagree with me? No one bold enough to say that this is great.
Time is the one resource. Every person, every one of us, has an equal measure of. None of you have more than me. And I don't have more than you.
We all have the same amount. We have seven days in a week and we have 24 hours in every day, right? Unlike money, time cannot be earned, can't be saved and it can't be replaced. Once a moment is gone, hear me.
It is gone forever. Once it's gone, it's gone forever. Benjamin Franklin once said this, does not love life? Then do not swander time.
For that is the stuff life is made of. Psalm 90 verse 12 says this. Teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. As Christians, how we use our time reveals what we truly value.
What we really value is determined by how we spend our time. And the real question isn't, do I have enough? But the real question is, am I using the time has given me, the time God has given me for his glory. And here's the truth.
Here's the truth. If you and I better understand this. It says in James chapter four verse 14. For what is your life?
We gotta understand this. We better understand this. We better know this. What is your life?
James says it's here for a moment and then it vanishes away because it's like a little vapor. Too many people live as though life is endless. Too many live like there's no expiration date. Too many people live as if it's just gonna continue always.
And then that moment and the fire breaks out and everything that once was is gone. And then in a split moment, in a second, we realize how fragile life can time can really be. Yet every tick of the clock. We have a big clock above our fireplace in our family room.
And I don't hear that clock until everything else is shut off. And then that thing sounds like a time bomb. And I've often thought to myself, isn't it amazing? I said the closest to that.
And if the TV's on and people are talking, you can't hear, you shut that thing off. I was like, I can be in my bedroom sometimes. And I think I hear that thing tick, tick, tick. It's like dripping water.
I don't even know what I'm talking about. You just hear it. Every tick of that clock moves me closer to eternity. Every tick of that clock.
And as I'm getting older, I begin to understand that in ways that I never understood it before. Do you understand? Every breath is a gift from God. Every day is one step closer to standing in his presence.
How many of you've ever lit a match? You know, when you strike that match, what happens? The flame bursts up and it's very bright, only four. But a moment.
And then it disappears. Really, church, according to James, that's your life. And that's my life. It's like that match.
Strike. And it lights. And it flames. And then it burns out real.
How many of you ever liked a match and whatever you wanted to light the match on out before you lit it? How many of you thank God for them, the striker things, when they work, right? They made them childproof. They made them adult proof, too.
Some of them are hard to hard to those clickers. You know, they're hard to. But there have been times I've wanted to light maybe it was just like birthday candles. And you strike that match.
And before you know it, it's burning your finger and it's out. And how many of you know those candles don't light real fast? And you're, you better have a half a dozen packs of matches to light a handful of candles. Because they, and then they piss off church.
That's just like life. Moses, who lived 120 years, prayed, teach us to number our days. He lived 120 years. And he said, Father, teach us to number our days.
Why? Because even the longest life is short compared to eternity. Even the longest life is short in comparison to eternity. What we start out is newborns and toddlers and adolescents and teenagers and young adults in middle age.
And then seniors. And we wonder, where did it all go? Remember when it wasn't, remember when it wasn't hard to get in the car? Remember when it wasn't hard to get out of the car?
For some, it's very difficult to get in and out of a car now. How many of you remember when it used to be easy to sit down in a chair and you just sat down and you just got right back up, look at that. You don't have to hold on, you just get right back up. And now you get to the next, certain age.
And some of you are like, you just some way. You just way, it's gonna happen to you. You can't get me too. Hold on a second, give me a second.
It's the king in the back. Oh, okay, there it is. Wait a minute, it's the hip. There it is.
Wait, the knee. There it is. Oh, the other knee. There it is.
How many know what I'm talking about? When you were a newborn and you're wailing your arms and kicking your legs, newborns aren't, oh my, yep. But as we get older and sometimes just because of the abuse of our bodies or however it happens just old age, some things don't work the way they used to. But we go from newborns and it's so exciting.
And we go from toddlers and I was showing my wife this video the other day. This little precious little two, three year old girl. And she's sitting here talking to her dog and her dog's just sitting there looking at her. And she's pointing her finger in her dog's face.
And she says, you, Sonny, she said, you stop eating my treat. And the dog goes, and she goes, stop that, Sonny. You stop eating my treat, that's my treat. You eat your treats, Sonny.
And the dog goes, and she says, use your inside voice. Oh, to be a toddler again, huh? Sonny like, no, thank you. Oh, remember that when you get up and you're going.
Huh? We go from newborn to toddler to adolescence. And we act out and we want to do our own thing. And we become teenagers.
And we think we know everything that there is to know and our parents are the dumbest people in the world. And then we become young adults and we start trying to figure everything out. We don't know what we thought we knew. And we're not even sure if they know what they think they know.
And we're just trying to all figure it out. And then we become middle-aged. And we think we got it all figured out. And then we become seniors.
And then to read, we've got a new update came out. And my wife enlarged the text on my phone. It's revolutionized my wife. It's revolutionized my life.
I can read my text on my watch now because she was able to enlarge the letters. How many need the letters enlarged a little bit? It happens over time, doesn't it? And we spend some time wondering where it all went.
So let me ask you. So if this life is that short, then every day, every day, we should be careful of what we're doing with it. Let's not waste it on sin and bitterness or spiritual apathy. That's tragedy.
We've got to learn to make the most of the time that we've been given. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5, 16, redeem the time. To screemly, circumspectly means to discreetly, prudent, be careful. The word redeem means to buy backward, to make the most of every opportunity.
Why? Because time is precious. It's limited. And each one of us have a limited number of days.
And it can be lost so easily due to distractions. Boy, the distractions, huh? How many hours of your day has a distraction taken? You plan to do this, but you were distracted into that.
And before you knew it, time had the laughs, distractions. How about even just if we want to be honest, sometimes just being lazy. I just want to veg. I just want to chill.
I just want to hang out. I just don't want to do anything. I don't want to think about anything. I don't want to do anything.
I just want to sit here and do nothing. How does that sound good to anybody? Sometimes we want to do that, huh? But really, it's not the best thing for us to do.
We need to be redeeming the time. Sin will steal our time. Time is essential. How we use it.
We've been determined. Ready? Heavenly rewards. And when you think about it like this.
Think about it like this. What if today I gave you 86? I just gave you 86,400 dollars. How many of you thankful for that?
A couple of you will then, the rest of you, you aren't getting it. If I came to you and said I'm going to give you 86,400 dollars every morning. But here's the thing. Whatever you don't spend it on is lost every day at midnight.
I'm going to give you 86,400 dollars every morning. And you have to midnight. But what isn't spent goes away. Would you use every dollar knowing that it went and rolled over past midnight?
Would you? Sure you would. That's just like time. Every single day God gives us 86,400 seconds.
And once they're gone. They're gone forever. They're gone forever. Some of you are on your phone right now trying to see if that's right.
Wait a minute. I'm going to see if he really telling us what you're eating. Somebody text me. That's checking your phone every six minutes.
Well, thank you. Back to the amount of time. 86,400 seconds. Why don't we make prayer priority?
Not a left answer. I'm going to say that. I'm going to say that. I'm going to say that.
I'm going to say that. I'm going to say that. I'm going to say that. I'm going to say that.
I'm going to say that. Why don't we make prayer priority? Not a left over. Why don't we seeking God's voice, His word daily serving others instead of scrolling endlessly, telling others about Jesus while they're still at time.
How many times have you heard someone just say this phrase? What you doing? Killing time. What are you doing?
You just killing time. I don't know about you. But as I get older, I'm not into killing time anymore. I don't want to kill time.
There's a point in my life I would have, I'm killing some time. I'm just. I don't. Not anymore.
Because I realize those days are precious. I've got to the age where I realize those days are precious. those days are precious. I've got a little more wisdom to understand those moments are precious.
The moments we have together are precious. The opportunities we have together are precious to spend time together to grow together to learn together to share life with one another. Those moments are precious. We're not called to kill time but in best time in the things that are going to last for eternity.
The reason that we should redeem time is this. Paul warns because the days are evil. Why do we redeem the time? Why do we most of it make the most of time?
Because the days are evil. We live in a culture that constantly pulls us away from eternal priorities, entertainment, materialism, destruction dominates our, or I should say, distraction. It dominates our schedules, don't it? Satan doesn't have to make you wicked to ruin your life.
He can just make you busy. Busy even doing good things that crowd out the best things. He's content if you never pray, never serve, never witness, as long as you stay too busy for the things of God. A pastor once asked his congregation this question, he said, if the devil can't make you bad, what will he make you?
The congregation was silent until a little boy in the congregation shouted, busy. And he was right. Busyness is often Satan's sliest weapon. The weapon we don't see coming busy.
How are you doing busy? What do you have to do? Busy. We should look at what fills our calendars.
If our schedules leave no time for God, family, worship, service, we're not managing time. It's managing us. There are so many people, their time is managing them, they're not managing their time. But church lets refuse to drift with the world's current and instead live intentionally, purposely for Christ.
And I can promise you, when we invest our time in God's purposes and in the things of God, it will bear eternal fruit. How many are glad for that? Matthew reminds us of Matthew 619-20. He says, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth, but lay up for yourself treasures where in heaven you can't take time with you.
But what you do with it matters. Church, we need to understand every act of kindness, every prayer, every moment spent serving, giving, tending to others. It all echoes in the corridors of heaven. You may think that it goes unnoticed.
You may think that the things that you do go unnoticed and people don't recognize what you do or see what you do. But I can promise you today, whatever you do for the kingdom of God never goes unnoticed. He sees, he knows. And when we stand before Christ, we won't regret the hours that we spend in prayer and worship and sharing and spending time with others and sharing his love.
We won't regret that. And I can promise you this. There will be some that will stand before him and regret the hours they wasted on things that didn't matter. Remember Ephesians 17-5-17 said, therefore, do not, do not be unwise.
But understand what the Lord's will is. The wise person understands the time is God's gift. And therefore, it must be used for the glory of God. If time is God's gift, then we should be using it for God's glory.
I want to ask yourself this question today. How much of my time this week has been given to the work or the kingdom of God? Ask yourself that. Just think that for a moment.
How much time this week did you spend doing things that would last for eternity? How many things, how many conversations, how many people's lives did you touch? How many times did you reach out and be a blessing to someone or encourage someone this week as opposed to just killing time or wasting time or scrolling time? Ask yourself this, am I using my time to strengthen my faith, bless my family or even reach the lost?
These are great questions that we should consider and ponder to ask ourselves. What do I do with all of this time that I'm given? Ask yourself this. If you really knew that Christ was going to return tomorrow, would you change how you spend your time today if you really knew he was coming back tomorrow?
Worship team, when you come back to the platform. I want to challenge you today, prioritize your spiritual life. Start your day with scripture, prayer, plan your schedule around the kingdom and God's priorities, not convenience. Protect your time from distractions and empty pursuits.
Participate in what God is doing in your church, in your family, in the lives of those he has placed in your life. One time, one moment, one day our time on this earth will be over. And the only thing that will matter truly is what we did for Christ. Can we live each moment with awareness that eternity is only one heartbeat away.
Eternity is only one heartbeat away. Let's redeem the time, not waste it. Let's live not for the clock but for the crown. Amen.
Time is short, church. In a sense, it has been failed in my spirit. The Lord directed me to say these things to you today because the time is short. And as the church, we have to understand that.
We need to become wise to that. And there are certain things in our lives that must be rearranged. There are some things that may need to change. And here's the thing, if God's asking you to change it, that's good.
Some folks look at it like if God's correcting them or asking them to change, they look at that as being a negative. If God's correcting you, that's good. If God is asking you to change something, that is good. It's never bad when God is trying to do something in your life.
That is always good. It is always good. Some of you are in new seasons in life. Some of you are in new places in life.
Some of you have stepped into new opportunities in life. Some of you are getting ready to enter new seasons in your life. New times, new moments, new opportunities. Don't waste the season that you've been given.
Each of us in this place today are different places and different seasons in our life. Let's redeem that time. Let's be mindful of those moments and those opportunities. Let's not be so quick to move by someone, so quick to walk away from a conversation or so quick to not get our hands involved in something.
But let us ponder and consider how is it that we should be using this precious gift that God has given to us, that we can love and serve and give and be a part of the kingdom here on earth until that day he calls us to be with him. How many thankful today for your salvation? Come on, we're standing with me this morning. How many are thankful that he entrusted this hour 2025?
We're almost to the end of October, isn't that hard to believe? Almost the end of October of 2025. 2025. You know, there are some of you that doesn't seem like a strange thing to say 2025 at your age.
But there are some of you in this building to say the year 2025, you think to yourself, that seemed like something they talked about in the Jetsons, right? That seemed like a time way out in the future to some galaxy way 2025. Someone said to me, what year were you born? I said 1963.
They said 1963. I said, yeah. Well, you've seen a lot in your life, haven't you? I've seen a few things.
I've seen a few things. How many of you have seen a few things? But from 63 to 2025, how many remember the year 2000? And they all told you what?
Store up your water? How many still got water from 2000? How many still got some toilet paper? How many still got some COVID toilet?
Well, we're not going to talk about that. But it's good to be ready, right? It's good to have supplies. But my wife and I went to Niagara Falls in the year 2000 for New Year's Eve and took our kids.
We had people tell us we were absolutely nuts. I had a pastor who told me he built a three-card garage and filled that thing with water and everything else you could imagine. And he said at midnight, 1999, when the clock strikes 12, everything's going to shut down and the world's going to panic and go into chaos. He said, what are you doing to prepare?
I said, we're going to Niagara Falls. No, because I have hope. He's preparing with water. Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but I trust in the name of the Lord.
He said, you shouldn't go there, because all the gas pumps are going to be out. You're not going to be able to gas. You're not going to be able to get your family back across the border and you're going to be stuck in Canada and yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. I said, well, but the peace of God has not warmed me.
The peace of God has not cautioned me. And he said, well, but God's told me. And I said, okay, I said, well, when I come back, then we'll figure out who was right and who was wrong. And it wasn't a matter about who was right or who was wrong.
It was who was sensitive to the spirit and who wasn't. See, as Christians and followers of Jesus Christ, we don't operate in fear. Why? It's very simple.
It's false evidence appearing real. So I'd be afraid of something that isn't real. Jesus Christ is saying yesterday and forever and that's real. That's real.
Come on, bow your heads with me. Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you for the time that you've given us. Thank you for the moments and the opportunities you've given us that we don't live in fear. We don't live with hopelessness, but God, we live with hope every single day of our life, because greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.
Father, I thank you so much for your presence with us. I thank you for your leading and your guiding. Father, I thank you today that we can serve you and Lord, we can live for you and we can share with others of your goodness and your grace and your mercy. Lord, there is no one like you.
And I thank you today that as we go through the moments of this life, even as the family that we shared went through the loss and the great devastation Lord, their lives were spared. Things can be replaced. Homes can be rebuilt. Yes, it's difficult.
Yes, it's hard. Yes, there are moments of unknowing, but you have promised to be with us through it all. So help us to be mindful of the days and the times and the minutes and the seconds that's been entrusted to us. May we live them out in ways that would be honoring to the kingdom.
May we live those moments in those days and the time that you've given us in such a way that would draw others to you. May we be concerned more with lost souls than the latest posts. May we be more concerned with prayer than the latest train of gossip that comes down the road. Father, you said in your word to seek first the kingdom of God and everything we have need of will be added unto us.
Thank you for your faithfulness. Lord, as we leave here today, as we've prayed, we've worshiped, we've thrown ourselves at the mercy seat, we've confessed our sins, we've repented, we've asked you for forgiveness. We've received your body and your blood broken and spilled out for us. We've received your word, been challenged and encouraged by it.
We've had the opportunity to serve here today by giving into something greater than ourselves. Lord, we've had a full day so far today, but it's been good. And I pray when we leave here today, we'll be able to say it was good to be in the house of the Lord. So I pray Lord, in our rising and our sitting, in our coming in and our going.
Wherever our feet may trod and whatever our hands may touch, Father would be blessed of you. You are great and greatly to be praised and may our lives reflect the work that you've done and are doing in and through us. We give you glory. We give you praise.
In Jesus' name, amen.