Great Sin and Great Grace

Psalm 51, Psalm 51. Last week we spoke about Saul, the king who would not or could not repent. And I said that we're going to compare Saul with David. What Saul did was relatively minor in comparison to what David did. And yet Saul loses his kingdom and loses his relationship with God. David does far worse than Saul did and yet his kingdom is established and David remains a friend of God. And so we need to look at the difference between these two. The problem here is that we live in a time when cheap grace—cheap grace is an idea that was formulated by a man called Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a Lutheran pastor in the Second World War—the cheap grace has become the gospel today, which simply means that grace covers everything. And of course grace does cover everything, but grace is not cheap. Grace is free, but at the same time it costs the Lord Jesus to die for us at the cross. The problem is not just that we have cheapened grace. In other words, we can just continue to sin, we can do whatever we like, there's no need to repent, and of course the whole attack against the idea of repentance today, but also it minimizes the severity of sin, so that sin becomes nothing. It just becomes something that, yeah, you know, I did that, it's no problem, let's just move on. And so I believe it's important for us to understand what happened with David and to see God's grace in David's life, but also to see David's repentance. Now we're going to focus on Psalm 51, but I'm going to need to do a long introduction to give you the background of the story. I'm not sure how far we'll get this morning. We probably need to continue next week. This is the first time I've ever preached on Psalm 51, even though I've made reference to it many times. So let's read Psalm 51, verses 1 through 17. Psalm 51, reading verses 1 through 17. To the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you and you alone have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my inequities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise. For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. These are God you will not despise." So, I think we know the story well, but we need to be reminded of the details. Maybe some don't remember the details, but David, and this is all recorded in the second book of Samuel, David doesn't go to war when he is supposed to go to war. That's where the problem began. It was what the Bible calls war season. It was the time, it says, when kings go to war in springtime. David sends his generals to war, and David stays behind in the palace. At those days, it was required of the king to lead the army. And so David stays behind. First mistake, second mistake is he sleeps all day, literally. He wakes up in the evening, and he decides to take a walk on the roof of his palace. And as he walks around, he sees a woman called Bathsheba, and Bathsheba is taking a bath. And I'm not, there's meaning to that, I'm not going to get into that. And so David calls one of his servants, or some of his servants, it seems more than one, and he says, that woman, get her for me. And so the servants say, well, you know that that is the wife of Uriah, the Hittite. Uriah is one of David's brave men. He is one of David's valiant soldiers. It doesn't seem that he has command in the army, but he is certainly one of the leading men. And so David ignores that, and they bring Bathsheba. He sleeps with her, and she's pregnant. And now David has a problem, as we all have when we sin. We have to somehow cover it up. And so David says, well, what I'll do is I'll call Uriah from the front. And so he sends a messenger out, and he says to the general, send Uriah to me. And so Uriah comes from the battle front, and David says to him, how's the battle going? And he says, so and so. And David says, okay, good. Go home and sleep at home tonight. And he sends a whole bunch, a whole package of food and wine and all sorts of stuff to Uriah's house. David hadn't reckoned on the fact that Uriah at that point was more honorable than David was. So Uriah doesn't go home. Uriah sleeps at the gate with the other servants in the courtyard, if you will, of the king's palace. And the next morning the message comes, and obviously we know what David was planning. He was hoping that Uriah would sleep with his wife, and then when she, you know, when it becomes evident that she's pregnant, well, you know, it's Uriah's baby. But Uriah doesn't go home. And the next morning David calls him, and he says to him, why didn't you go home? And Uriah says, it's not right for me to go and sleep with my wife when the rest of the army, remember David should have been with the army, David's in the palace. It's not right for me to be with my wife when the rest of the army are sleeping in the field. And so I will not go and enjoy that which the rest of the army is not able to enjoy. And so he stays another couple of days, and David calls him in again. David makes him drunk, hoping that he would be able to, that he would convince him to go home. He doesn't go home. Eventually David now realizes that that plan's not going to work, so he makes another plan. This plan, of course, involves murder. And so he sends Uriah back, and I find it just so ironic, with a letter. Obviously it's sealed, so Uriah can't open it, to Josiah the general. And the very letter which he carries is his death sentence, because the letter says to the general, put him in the hottest part of the battle, and when the battle is on its fiercest, retire from him, withdraw, and leave him exposed. And that's exactly what they did. They attacked the city, the archers were on the wall, and instead of withdrawing to a safe distance, they leave Uriah, and Uriah is killed. Now, Nathan is the prophet. Samuel had died. Remember, Samuel had been the prophet who spoke to Saul, the previous king. Nathan is now the prophet. Nathan comes to David, and he tells him a parable. And we know the parable, I think. The parable is that there are two men in the city. The one man is very wealthy, has lots of herds, and sheep, and cattle, and goats, and all sorts of things. And there's another man who is very poor, and he only has one little lamb, and this is his pet. It's not his, he's not, he doesn't farm with this, with the sheep. This is his pet. It sleeps with him in the house, it sits on his lap, all of those kinds of things. And so one day, a visitor comes to visit the rich man, and obviously the custom those days was to prepare a nice meal for the visitor. The rich man doesn't take one of his many sheep, but he takes the poor man's one and only sheep, and he kills it and sets it before his visitor. David listens to the parable, and he doesn't understand that it's a parable, he thought it was a real life story, and he is angry, justifiably so. And he says, tell me who that man is, and I'll sort him out. This is just not on, this is not right. And of course, Nathan stands in front of the king, and he points the finger at David, and he says, you're the man. You're the man. This is not about somebody else, this is about you. And of course, at that point, David has a choice. David can either do what Saul had done and excused his behavior. He could have found some kind of reason not to accept responsibility. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, Nathan concludes his message to David, and he says, why have you despised the commandment of the Lord? Remember what the problem with Saul was, he had not obeyed the commandment of the Lord. David does the same thing, and of course the commandment was, you shall not commit adultery and you shall not kill, two of the ten commandments. To do evil in his sight, you have killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword. So, Nathan is very specific about this. Uriah didn't happen to get killed in the battle, David killed him. You killed Uriah with a sword, and you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with a sword of the people of Ammon. Ammon was the enemy that they were fighting at that time. Now, David could have gone the route of Saul. David could have had many excuses. David could have said, well, the generals didn't force me to go to war. If they'd put pressure on me to go to war like I'm supposed to, then this wouldn't have happened. And, you know, it's not my fault that she exposed herself. She tempted me, and even when I brought her to the house, she didn't resist me. He could have found all sorts of excuses for doing what he did, but David finds no excuses. And this is the difference. You see, the problem is that when we sin, we can do one of two things. We can either accept responsibility, or we can deny culpability. Saul could never accept responsibility. It was always somebody else's fault. Now, I want you to see David's response. And, of course, his response is in Psalm 51. But in the story in Samuel, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. Those are, for some people, the hardest words to say. They are impossible for some to say. I have sinned. And yet, without that acknowledgment, there is no forgiveness. There is no forgiveness. If we confess our sins, John 1 verse 9, he is faithful and just to forgive us. If we confess our sins. In the years of ministry, I've come across a number of people who find it impossible, no matter how much they've sinned, no matter how blatant the sin is. Just to say those words, I have sinned. I once had to deal with a pastor who had sexually abused women for many years. Would not accept responsibility. Finally, he and other pastors in the area put pressure on me to restore him. I said, I cannot restore him. But what I can do is I can make it as easy for him as possible. And so I wrote a letter. I still have a copy of that letter. And I said, brother, just say these words. I have sinned. He could not say those words. He went to his grave without being able to say, I have sinned. Folks, I don't understand that. I don't understand why it's so hard. And I've heard many explanations and people have said, well, you know the man, you know he'll never say that. Well, what does that make it? How does that make it right? David just, you know, David doesn't say, but Bathsheba. Oh, but God, it's your fault. How can it be God's fault? Well, you remember Adam when he sinned, he said, it wasn't my fault. It was this woman you gave me. God, you made this woman Bathsheba because the scripture says she was beautiful. You made her beautiful and you put her in a place where I was tempted. It's amazing who we can find to blame, except to find, to accept responsibility for ourselves. I have sinned. And he says, I've sinned against the Lord. And we see that in Psalm 51. We'll come back to that. And Nathan says to David, the Lord has also put away your sin. You shall not die. The consequences, however, remained and I'm not going to get into that, but I want you to see how quickly the forgiveness came. And yet somehow David still writes Psalm 51 because the gravity of what he had done became real to him. The moment David confessed and he says, I've sinned. Nathan says, the Lord has put it away. That's how quick and how easy it is. There are people who will live in broken relationships with one another in marriages and in other relationships for years because they will not admit guilt. And yet it can be fixed so quickly by just saying, I'm sorry, I was wrong. And there are people who live out of a relationship with God. Yes, they fool themselves by saying, no, I'm fine. Everything is good because grace, but everything is not fine. And yet it can be fixed so quickly, so easily by accepting responsibility. So let's have a look at Psalm 51. And you'll notice that in the reading, and we do not believe that this is necessarily inspired scripture, the heading which says to the chief musician, the Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And yet I believe that that is a correct assessment of the Psalm, the occasion when the Psalm is written, and the purpose of the Psalm. So David begins and he says, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness. David could not make a sacrifice for his sin. And you'll see later on, he says, sacrifice an offering you don't want. The reason he could not make a sacrifice was because it was a willful sin. We've spoken about this in the book of Hebrews. Those who've been with us in our studies in Hebrews on Thursday nights, that the sin offerings in the Old Testament were there for sins that were committed in ignorance. Sins that were committed willfully, there was no sacrifice in the Old Testament. David had sinned willfully. This was not some remote instruction of God. These were the Ten Commandments. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not kill. Very clear, very specific commands. David knew those commands, and yet he willfully sinned. And so he cannot appeal to sacrifice. All he can appeal to is the mercy of God, is the mercy of God. He cannot appeal to his own goodness. Unfortunately, sometimes we say, well, and David had much to boast about. He could say, well, God, you know that I've been your friend. God called David his friend. He was a man after God's own heart. God, I've fought your battles. I've been a good king, and David was a good king. I've been just in my dealings with people. David had many good qualities, probably more good qualities than anyone else, because there was something about David that God really loved. And it wasn't really his qualities, it was his contriteness. But David doesn't say, Lord, just remember all my good things. He only has one appeal, Lord, be merciful upon me. Be merciful to me. You see, when our sin becomes real to us, it's no longer who did this, and what that one, and the other one, and what I did in the past, and my track record, or this or the other thing. Lord, there's nothing. that I can come to except your mercy. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to your cross I cling. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Appealing to God to wipe away the record. Now, I want you to see how multi-layered David's appeal to God is. And so, the first thing he asks for is mercy. And then he says, please, will you blot out, in modern language, delete my transgressions? Will you wipe them out of the record? And then he says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. The word wash me thoroughly here is the Hebrew word which deals with kneading. So, when you, when something is really soiled, and you're washing it by hand, you knead it, so that the soap and the suds will penetrate the fibers and wash it and clean it. When I was at Bible College, I financed some of my studies through doing laundry for the other students. We didn't have a washing machine, and so I would put them in the tub, in the bath, and put water in, and I would walk up and down studying Greek, learning my Greek language, up and down, just kneading the washing, trying the laundry, getting the dirt out. And so, he's saying, Lord, don't just blot it out. Cleanse me thoroughly, through and through. You see, because David understood that this was not just a surface thing. Sin is not a surface thing. Sin is endemic. Sin enters the fibers of our being, enters the very thoughts and intents of our hearts. And it's one thing just to wash it on the outside. Sometimes we, I make a mess on my shirt when I'm having lunch, and I'll just take a wet cloth and just wipe it off. No, David says, no, it's more than this. This thing needs to be laundered properly. And so, sometimes I think that we look at our sin, and we say, well, yeah, it's just a little spot. Let me just, no, it's gone deeper than that. It needs to be dealt with. And so, cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is always before me. I acknowledge my transgression. This is what David did from the very beginning, from the moment Nathan says to him, you're the man. He says, I've sinned. He acknowledges his transgression. Folks, as I said earlier, this is one of the hardest things for us to do, is to acknowledge. And yet, that's the essence of the word confess. The word confess in 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, is the word agree. In other words, we agree with God's assessment. We acknowledge that God is right. It's amazing how we can argue with the prophet, as Saul argued with Samuel. But we will even argue with God. Oh Lord, you know, it's not that bad. Lord, you don't understand my problems. You don't understand my upbringing. You don't understand, you don't, Lord, you know, you're expecting too much from me. We'll argue with God. Oh, but Lord, what I did is not so bad. It's not like somebody else. No, I acknowledge. Folks, here's the thing. There is nothing that God has to say that can even begin to describe the rottenness within every one of us. Now, I know you say, well, that's a very negative view. And I know that those who don't like this message will find every excuse to discredit it. And one of the things if you haven't thought of it already, here's one of the main things you can say is, oh, but this is Old Testament. This is not New Testament. But remember, Jesus said, this is the basis of the kingdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom. In other words, those who've come to understand their own bankruptcy, who've come to understand that we have nothing to offer God, that hymn writers, as I quoted a few moments ago, nothing in my hand I bring. I have nothing to claim. I have nothing. There is nothing good within me. It's only Jesus. It's only the blood. It's only God's grace. That's all we have. And folks, if we feel that we have, if you feel that you have an excuse, if you feel that you somehow can justify your behavior when it is not right, there's no hope. Because it's only when we acknowledge and we agree, yes, God, what you say is right. I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is always before me. But as human beings, we have an amazing ability to forget things that we don't want to remember, to forget our sin, to forget at the failure. And I suppose it's an important survival technique, and yet it doesn't help in our relationship with God. Now, folks, let me make this clear. I'm not suggesting that we live our lives carrying the burden of past sin. That's not what this is about, because we need that sin to be forgiven, as we saw in Hebrews on Thursday night. Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. There is grace. There is forgiveness. But it must be predicated on repentance, on accepting responsibility. And so we have one of two choices. The one choice is to deal with it and get it done with, get it forgiven, let's move on. Or the other is to live with it for the rest of your life, and then you have to play these games of trying to shut it out of you. But you know, when you try and shut it out of your mind, you're shutting down the Holy Spirit, who is the one who is convicting you. And here's the problem is that the moment we start doing that, we stop hearing God on every other level. God says, you need to deal with this thing. And I say, no, Lord, let's move on. And God says, well, if that's what you want, then I'm not going to speak to you anymore. And folk, I've seen that so many times. So many times I've seen Christians just stunted in their growth, not being able to move forward, because they won't deal with the issue. And so in the process, they push the problem away, instead of dealing with it, finding grace and finding forgiveness. But in the process, they silence the voice of God. My sin is always before me, against you, and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. There's two things going on here. The first is that all sin is against God. Yes, David sinned against Bathsheba. David sinned against Uriah. He, in fact, sinned against the nation, because he had failed the nation as their king. But David understands that his ultimate responsibility is before God. Now, David could have said, well, I'm the sovereign. David could not be taken to court. Unlike today, we know that there's a lot of debate as to whether a president can be had up for a crime. Well, those days, a king certainly could not. Who is going to prosecute him? Who's going to be the judge? He himself is the Supreme Court. He is the end of the line. So who's going to sue him? Who's going to take him to court? And who's going to judge? No, he's a sovereign. But David understands that he is accountable to God. There is one greater than he, and that is God. And it doesn't matter whether you think that you're sovereign. Unfortunately, many Christians find themselves in a place where they think that they're above discipline, that they're above authority, that they're a law unto themselves. Well, you can't escape God. He is still the boss. He is still the Supreme Court. He is still the king and the Lord. David says, I've sinned against you. Every sin that we commit is against the Lord. It doesn't matter how small it is. It doesn't matter against who we committed that sin, whether to our brother or sister, or whether to a spouse. At the end of the day, it's against the Lord. And I think that David, in understanding this, begins to understand the seriousness of sin. Because one of the ways in which we are able to discount the seriousness of our sin is by saying, well, yeah, it's just against him. He doesn't really count anyway, so it doesn't matter. No, it's against the Lord. You remember Paul as he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Jesus says to him, who are you, Lord? And Jesus says, I am Jesus that you are persecuting. When Paul was persecuting the church, he was persecuting Jesus. Whatever we do to anyone else, whether it's good or bad, anyone who gives a cup of water to the little child, Jesus says, you've done it to me. Against you I've sinned. And folk, we can get away, or think we can get away with not accepting responsibility because, oh, well, it's just my wife. It's just so and so. Just another person. No, our sin is ultimately against the Lord, no matter how big or small that sin is. And he says, I've done this evil in your sight. See, what David had forgotten, and that we often forget, is that God sees and knows everything. And unfortunately, many times we live our lives as though God doesn't see. God knows the thoughts we think. God knows everything we say, everything we do. There is nothing that is not hidden, that is hidden before him. And yet we do these things and we think, well, God doesn't know. God doesn't see. Now David says, I've done it before you. You've seen. You know exactly what I did. But when we understand that God knows, it takes away all excuses. Because, you know, we can deceive one another, and sadly we deceive ourselves. But we cannot deceive God, and he knows. He says, I've done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge. You see, one of the excuses that Saul could have had, and it's not there, but I think one of the excuses he could have had, because this is a very popular excuse, is Samuel, your judgment's not right. Who are you to judge me? How do you know what it was in my heart? I was going to sacrifice this stuff to the Lord. You can't judge my motive. Now Saul doesn't say that, but that's a popular excuse. But when we understand that God knows, and that God's judgment is righteous, God doesn't have a grudge to settle with us. God has no favorites, and God does not discriminate. And so when he finds us guilty, we're guilty. End of the story. I think that many times we have doubts about the judicial system, because every now and then we hear about somebody who's been incarcerated for many years, and then is found not guilty. And we wonder about whether the system is righteous, whether the system is just. We wonder whether the way people judge us, whether that is right or not. And generally we come to the conclusion it's not. It doesn't matter. God's the judge, and his judgment is righteous. Verse 5. Here David goes down to the very heart of the issue. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. This is a very important doctrinal statement, deals with the issue of original sin. I'm not going to get into that. But remember David acknowledges that his sin is very much part of who he is. He needs to be washed thoroughly. And here he understands that he is born a sinner. He is a sinner by nature. This is not a, this is not learned behavior. You see, here's the, here's exactly the problem. We say, we excuse our sin because we say, well, you know, my environment made me this way. People made me this way. It's my parents' fault because they did this or that or the other thing, and so that's why I am the way I am. I don't minimize the seriousness and the impacts that those things have on us. But at the end of the day, the problem is that I'm a sinner. I was born a sinner. And we say, well, that's very negative. Of course it's negative. But there's a solution. There's an answer, and the answer is in the blood of Jesus. I've spoken before about the idea of something being out of character. You say, well, that's out of character. They did something, and that's not who they really are. The problem is that most of the time that is who they really are. The rest of it is just really a sham. And David says, he says, Lord, I've been exposed for who I really am. I'm a sinner. I was conceived in sin. I was born in sin from the beginning. Let me finish with this verse and then try and bring some kind of positive conclusion before we close. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. Remember I spoke about the little spot that we try and just rinse off. Problems, I get into trouble with inner a lot because I have lots of little spots, and a little bit of a rag doesn't take it out because the fat gets into the fibers. And David recognizes that his sin is endemic. In other words, it's right inside of him. That's his nature. And he says, you desire truth in the inward parts. Remember the Pharisees were very good at putting on a show of being religious, of being holy, of being pious, of doing all the right things. And yet Jesus says, I've looked into your hearts, and you may look like beautiful tombs on the outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones. And David comes to understand and he, God's not looking for a show. He's not looking for some kind of outward appearance of holiness. He's looking for truth inside. Remember we've spoken about this word truth a number of times recently, particularly again in the book of Hebrews. Truth speaks of substance, of reality. Remember the truth we have in the New Testament against the shadows we have in the Old Testament. And I suppose that we could probably translate this verse into modern English by saying, God, you desire integrity. Integrity. Not just an outward veneer, gold plating on the outside, but inside is just cheap metal. No, you want truth right through. Every aspect, every part of me. And so David comes to understand that this is something that the sacrificial system cannot do. The sacrifices could only cover the sin for a while, as we've been saying in the book of Hebrews. But they couldn't change who the man is. They couldn't even deal with future sin. They couldn't deal with his nature. They could only deal with the externals. And that's why Jesus is so frustrated with the Pharisees, because all they're concerned about is the externals, when in fact Jesus had come to deal with the heart. Remember we saw again on Thursday night in Hebrews chapter 10, he says, I will write their laws not on tablets of stone, but I'll write it upon their hearts. He'll remove the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. David understands that there is something more than just forgiveness. I need to get real on the inside, and only Jesus can make me real inside. So I don't have to live this false life anymore. I don't have to live this hypocritical facade of being religious, but my heart is changed. And I believe that this is why God loves David, because David wants a right heart. We're going to see more of this as we go on, greater right spirit within me. I believe we need to deal with the sins. We need to deal with the issues that are outstanding in our relationship with God, that have not been dealt with. But at the end of the day, we need to deal with our hearts. We need to be changed. I know you say, well, Pastor, I'm a Christian. It's not the question. The question is, are you changed? Are you a new creature in a real sense? Or is that sin so ingrained in you that you can't help yourself? You desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. You will make me to know wisdom. But this is amazing because this is Old Testament, and yet David understands that there is hope for more than just forgiveness. There is hope for an inward change in the hidden part. You will make me to know wisdom. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the grace that is to be found in the Lord Jesus. Lord, I pray as we have talked about some really hard things today. Lord, that we may come to a right understanding of what sin is all about. Lord, that we may find grace to be repentant when we have sinned in our relationships with one another and in our relationship with you. But above all, Lord, that we may come to you who alone is able to change who we are, who is able to make us new, not just spray paint us on the outside, but make all things new. Lord, I pray that there may be a great desire in every one of us to be the true men and women of God, that you desire us to be changed into your image. Lord, I pray that we may go away from here not discouraged and yet at the same time convicted. Lord, that we may not be disheartened, but at the same time understand there is grace and there is forgiveness. But Lord, that we need to accept responsibility for our sin, not just before you, but before one another. Lord, we pray that you'd help us. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the New Testament. We thank you for the cross. We thank you for the blood. We thank you for the throne of grace to which we're able to come. We thank you, Lord, that there is abundant grace to those who will only come. Lord, we pray that you'd make these real to us. We pray that you'd go with us now, keep us, and protect us. Bring us together again safely on Thursday, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.