Good morning. I thought about hiding this morning, hiding somewhere amongst you all, and then everybody going into a panic at this point, and then kind of getting up and making the point that we are about to enter one of the best sections in all of Scripture, the lost parables, but I thought that was a little too corny. So instead, I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15.
I have been excited at the prospect of being able to go through this section of Scripture with you, the people of Trinity Church. This is a special passage. Here are some of the most familiar stories in all of the canon. Here are some of the sweetest messages, the images that we insist on sharing with the smallest of children and yet comforting also the oldest saints with. Because here, arguably, more than any other section of Scripture, the kindness and the compassion and the interest of our Savior and His people is so clearly seen. So, I'm so excited we're in this particular section. Now, there is a lot that is going on in this scene as we enter it. So, we're going to read this section in a moment, but as you prepare to read the text, I want to talk to you for a couple of seconds about a term that I found, kind of stumbled across, affinity bias. I don't know if you've ever heard of affinity bias.
It's a tendency that people have to be drawn to those that are most like them. Our brains are constantly being bombarded with information. Some reckon 11 million pieces of information in any given moment, and yet, if your mind's anything like mine, we can't handle all of that. We can only handle about 40 pieces at a time. And so, what we tend to do is we have these ways of navigating the world around us to make it simpler. And one of the main ways we do that is with an affinity bias. We are most drawn to people who appear to be most like us. When we meet new people, we quickly start to assess them and try and work out what they believe, what they value, what they think, what they look like, all of those things to try and work out points of commonality because that is so much easier for us to navigate.
At work, that often leads to assumptions. Because somebody may dress or look a certain way, we assume they have certain capabilities or don't have certain capabilities. We make assumptions about their character based on the way that they sound. It obviously shapes the social circles that we mix in. Yet when you look at Jesus, and especially as you watch how He mixes with all sorts of people in the gospel, again, we are reminded of how unlike us He is. He truly was one who loved His neighbor as himself. In fact, when you read the gospels, the people he spends most his time with are those who were obviously not like Him. In fact, the enemies of Jesus, the Pharisees, they had a nickname for Him, a derogatory term that they used to throw out all the time in their mind to put Him down, but it really was fitting. They called him the friend of sinners, the friend of sinners, and that He was.
Would you stand, please, as we read from Luke chapter 15 and verse 1. Luke chapter 15 and verse 1. “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” He told them this parable. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost. Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.” Let's pray.
[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we love this story. We love this particular parable. And yet, Lord, we ask for the grace to see it with fresh eyes. and to ponder the words with soft hearts, that you would cause us to recognize more of who our Savior is, that we would worship Him in spirit and in truth. We thank you for this time. We thank you that this is a moment where the Holy Spirit is busy amongst His people, pressing the word upon the heart and renewing the mind. And so, Lord, we pray to that end. May I also ask, Lord, for those who as yet are dead in their sins and transgressions, may you use these words to grant life, to cause them to see for the first time the saving nature of Jesus Christ our Lord. For it's in his name we pray. Amen. [End]
Have a seat.
Well, I know we want to get to the story, but before we get to the parable that Jesus told, and it is so familiar to us, I want you, first of all, to notice the context. There are two responses being made to Jesus, and that's important if we're going to understand why Jesus tells this particular story. You see two different responses to Jesus in verses 1 and 2. Now, we quickly want to isolate our thoughts on the story of a lost sheep, but this context is important. It shows us in particular that there was an affinity bias that marked the Pharisees. They had disregard for certain people, and because of that, they had disregard of Jesus. And part of why Jesus tells this incredible story is to correct that broken mentality. He wants to show that because God Himself is generous, our God is one who has a compassionate heart that reaches out with wideness in its mercy. So too, He and Jesus and His followers should be marked by care for the broken. For the hurting and for the lost.
He does this by making clear the context in which he speaks. There are two groups that are spoken of here, and in these two groups you see the two predominant ways people respond to the teaching of Jesus. When the words of Christ are proclaimed, whenever God's Word is opened up and heralded from pulpits all around our world, this particular Sunday morning, there will be two ways people respond to that truth.
And the first way that some will respond to that truth is they will draw near to hear. they will draw near to hear. You see that immediately in the text. Now, remember the context of what we're talking about. Remember what comes before. If you remember the end of chapter 14, verses 25, really through to the end, verse 35, what has happened is the cost of discipleship has been spelled out. That if you are to follow Jesus, you need to understand there is a significant cost that accompanies that. It is not a simple thing. There is denial, self-denial. There is a re-prioritizing, Christ must be first, even over those things that all of society would say is important. And then at the end of verse 35, at the end of that incredible challenge, look at what the text says. Chapter 14, verse 35. Talking about the salt that has lost its saltiness, it says, “it is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away.” And then Jesus proclaims a challenge. “He who has ears to hear, let him Hear.” “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Now, our chapter divisions are helpful because a few moments ago I said, can everybody open their Bibles to Luke chapter 15, verse 1. But they are not inspired. And sometimes when you see those big numbers on the page in bold, what it causes you to do is to, in your mind, also turn the page. And to forget what has just been said. Look at the context. Chapter 14, verse 35, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear” and then immediately, now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him. Do you see the deliberate echo in the text? Look who's listening. Look who's got ears to hear. Who are they? Well, the tax collectors and sinners. They're the ones with the ears to hear. So, we need to understand, before we even get into everything else, that yes, there is a high cost to following Jesus. Don't want anything that I say to take away from that. That is true. But here's the important thing. There is a high cost that comes with following Jesus, but it is a cost that even the vilest sinner who truly believes can pay. That's the reality. There is nobody disbarred from the gospel. And Jesus is talking into a context where in the group in front of Him you have these vile sinners, but who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. And they're hanging on every word Jesus speaks because He has done a regenerative work in them. But there's others in the group, and they're totally different. They have a very different disposition. You see them described in verse 2. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled. saying, “this man receives sinners and eats with them.”
There are those who hear the words of Jesus and with hunger draw near. They long for those life-giving words. But there is another group that when they are presented with the honest teaching of Jesus, though they are religious, they grumble. They grumble. Luke will use that same word again in one other place. It appears in Luke chapter 19 in verse 7. The story of Zacchaeus, the small in stature man that climbed a tree. But he was a notorious tax collector, a notorious sinner. And we read in chapter 19 verse 7, all the people saw this, they saw Jesus going to Zacchaeus' house for a meal. It says, “all the people saw this and began to mutter. He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” Their grumbling, their complaining was against no other than the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now this is an important word.
This is a word that you find throughout the Old Testament. In fact, if you have your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 16. The people that have been redeemed from Egypt the people that were redeemed through those 10 signs and wonders that the Lord Almighty performed and then were brought across the Red Sea. The most powerful army in the world was decimated in front of their eyes in order to preserve their safety. And then they go out and the Lord provides water for them. And immediately in the next chapter we read, if you look at chapter 16 and verse 2, “and the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.” In fact, let me read from verse one so you see just how weird their grumbling was. They set out from Elam and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of sin which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. They'd been in Elam. That oasis, that place of water, that place of refreshment. And then at the very next verse, we read about their grumbling. Look on down to verse 7. “And in the morning, you shall see the glory of the Lord, because He has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we that you grumble against us?” Verse 8, “Then Moses said, when the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling, that you grumbled against him. Who are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but against the Lord.” Throughout Israel's history, they had been a grumbling people. The majority of the nation in the very clear evidence of God's caring protection towards them were marked by a grumbling disposition.
And so, it shouldn't surprise us. That in the midst, in fact, the leaders of the religious movement in Jesus' day amongst Israel, they too were marked by a grumbling disposition. A grumbling disposition that, like before, rejected God's messenger due to their selfish attitudes. Now, this particular grumbling isn't just general grumbling because they're grumpy. It has a particular focus. Look at verse 2 again. What are they grumbling about? Well, the scribes grumbled saying, “this man receives sinners and eats with them.” Their complaint is a very simple one. That their complaint is that Jesus didn't separate Himself from sinners. He didn't disassociate from the dregs of society. You see, the Pharisees thought strongly that that's what the good do. You disassociate. Your bad company corrupts good morals. You don't have anything to do with those sorts of people. And it was the common practice by rabbis of that day to do just that. It was an exclusive ministry. Those who looked like them, they could sit close and listen. But those on the outside wouldn't get a space in the room. They were thrown out. Purity was to be preserved. That was the mentality of the Pharisees, and they believed that with sureness. It seemed obvious to them.
You know the way today in Christian circles, it's very easy to make the claim that God has designed marriage to life, to last for life. You know, I don't really have to make a case for that. Yes, there's sin, and yes, because of sin, there are certain circumstances where divorce is permissible, but we all understand by God's design, it's a lifelong union. I don't have to argue that. You get that.
Well, the Pharisees and the scribes had the same confidence with the idea that you don't associate with sinners. You don't mix with them. They thought of that as an obvious moral. It was so ingrained into Jewish thought. In fact, it's so ingrained into Jewish thought, you see in the book of Acts, God having to take significant action amongst His regenerate apostles to correct that mentality.
Do you remember in Acts chapter 10? You have the story of Cornelius, the Gentile convert. God has to first do a transformative thinking work in the mind of Peter to get him to a place where he understands that it must be the will of God to go to a Gentile's house and to teach and to pray and to eat with them. God had to directly intervene in the early church to correct this broken type of thinking because it was so prevalent in Jewish thought.
In fact, with Jesus, it wasn't just that he talked to these sinners. It wasn't just that he occasionally said hello to them. In verse two, we're told it was more than that. He ate with them. He ate with them. Eating in that particular culture, it was more than just a point of nourishment. It was a statement of fellowship. You gathered around the table. You conversed around the table. You shared your life around the dinner table. And so, it was a place of sincere relationship. To eat with someone was a statement of being in community with them in fellowship with them.
So, for these scribes and Pharisees, please understand, they are not just grumbling with one. They are emblazoned. The reason it says they are grumbling is because they're so dumbfounded by the situation in front of them, they can't get words out their mouth. They want to shout and holler, but they can't. The whole thing is so wild to them, all they can do is grumble.
But that's the context. And we need to see that because here Jesus is going to do something unorthodox. He is already breaking traditions. He's doing what many in his day even considered sinful. Now, He sinned in no way, but they wrongly considered it sinful. And Jesus is going to make clear in what follows in these three incredible stories. He's going to make clear something about the compassionate heart of God.
Why would Jesus behave this way? Well, because God's heart is this way. It's rich in compassion and mercy. He's so kind. God is so kind. And Jesus tells the story to highlight that, that these broken, narrow-minded, rejecters of people would see how unlike the nature of God, their heart actually is. You can imagine Jesus today standing up in a very strict, fundamentalist Bible church with jeans on and a new living translation under His arm. You know, the people in the pew aren't coping. This doesn't fit with what is meant to happen. Well, Jesus is shocking them in this context in a very similar way. He has shocked the religious community so much so they can't get words out. All they can do is grumble.
It reminds us, doesn't it, of that danger we've seen so many times in the Gospels, that danger that the religious can fall into of becoming an exclusive club That because we do care about purity, because we do care about the commands of God, it can affect us in a way that we disregard others. We cut ourselves off from others. Our Lord seeks and saves the lost, but we'll never get involved in that process because we want to stay in house. That's a broken way of thinking. That's a religion that will not work. For true religion is that of, first one, being drawn to the life-giving words of Jesus. So, who are you? Are you one who is drawn to the words of Jesus? Are you one who is trapped in a club that has cut society off?
Well, let's look at how Jesus speaks to that broken mentality. I want us to see in the parable primarily what it reveals about the nature of our Savior, what it reveals about the nature of the God-man. Look at verse 3. So, He told them this parable. Again, He's speaking to why His thinking is different. And what He does to illustrate that is He tells a glorious story, a story about a shepherd, a shepherd that reminds us of the nature of Jesus, that he is one who looks out, that he is one who insists on going after the lost sheep, the lost individual, that he works hard and takes great effort to bring that individual all the way home. And indeed, he rejoices over it. He takes great joy in that process of restoration.
And in the story, there's also the sheep, those sinners that he saves. Again, those pictured in verse 1, who are drawing near to hear. He's talking about sheep. If you've grown up in the city, you think of sheep as something cute and cuddly. You know, you go to a petting farm with your children to see the well-groomed sheep. Well, that's not how they actually are. That's a deception, city folk. Okay? I'm from Ireland. I know sheep. They're filthy animals. And they're not smart animals. They follow each other into the worst sorts of situations. They often find themselves in trouble. They get diseased so easily. The farmer constantly is having to navigate different bugs and issues and getting caught in fences and the silliest of situations in order just to keep this thing alive.
The picture of His people as those who are like sheep, that's not a flattering picture. But what it does remind us of is like sheep need a good shepherd, we need a good shepherd. And so, He's to be the focus as we analyze the story. I want you to see the nature of Jesus and the picture He presents. First of all, I want you to see that our good shepherd's commitment is a personal commitment. It's a personal commitment. Look at verse 4. “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?”
Now, if you're into economics, in this particular world, things weren't that different. One out of a hundred is not bad. To only lose one in a hundred, that's pretty good. Especially when we're talking about sheep, again, so prone to accident, to wandering, to injury. Human logic normally would have cut your losses. If you still got 99 healthy sheep alive, care for them. That would be the way most would think. But this shepherd in the story is personally committed. And he cannot rest until the one is brought home. He goes out. He goes into the place of danger. He goes out at nighttime when everything is more intense, when everything is harder for the sake of the one.
Jesus is making clear here, He is not committed to His people generally. Sometimes we talk about that, don't we? Jesus loves the church. He does. Jesus loves the Christian community. He does. Jesus loves the church universal. He does. But in this particular story, we are having underlined to us that Jesus loves the Christian singular. We're having expressed to us something of His personal commitment to each of us. He's not committed to His people generally. The image is stressing that he cares for you, individual Christian. If I knew you all well enough, I would use your name right now.
Jesus is committed to your name, to your person, Christian. He goes after, not 99, He goes after the one. the specific. It's the specific that He is committed to. You're not lost in the crowd. I think there's so often that great temptation that Satan can leverage of causing Christians great despair because maybe they don't know how to serve in the church. They don't know what they're good at. They don't know what they bring to the table. They kind of feel lost in the crowd. Well, here is a text for those who may feel that way. Here is a story where our Savior makes clear that the individual is both seen and sought by Him because He has a personal commitment for the lost individual.
Secondly, that commitment is one that seeks. It's one that seeks. If you look at the end of verse 4, it states that the shepherd will keep looking, keep seeking until he finds it. “Until he finds it.” There is a radical resolve in the heart of this shepherd to go into the countryside at night where there are wolves and there are many dangers. The rabbis in Jesus' day, they did agree that God would welcome the penitent sinner. If someone truly sought forgiveness, yes, God could grant it. But what is new to them is the idea that God Himself went out. The idea that God sought out the broken sinner. That they thought of, yes, if you come and you say sorry, He'll bring you in. But they did not have a concept for a God who was so committed to lost individuals that He did the looking. That He did the seeking. That He would take the initiative. But that is Christ. He does the work. We could go to many parts of Scripture to see this. He is the one who finds.
I have a good friend, and I was listening to him preach one day, and he shared this particular illustration. He was talking about dead corpses floating in the water. After a shipwreck, these bodies just bobbing. You could throw a hundred life rings to them, and it would make no difference. Why? Because they're dead. They can't help themselves. If any change is to be brought, they first must be made alive. It's hopeless apart from life. But that's what God does. He seeks and grants life to the one dead in their sins and transgressions. Jesus is the great seeker. He's done all the work necessary for forgiveness, but he also seeks the lost. He is committed to seeking out lost men and women. So, it's a personal commitment. It's a commitment that seeks.
And then thirdly, it's a commitment that carries. It's a commitment that carries. Look at verse five. “And when he has found it, He lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.” Notice it doesn't say, if he finds it. “When he finds it.” You know Jesus, He has a 100% track record here. He doesn't fall short. It's not just that he gets a good percentage, He gets 100%. All He has died for, He will find. He will find. But when He finds them, and this is what I want you to see here, He carries them on His shoulders. Whatever has happened here, the animal is sick. The animal is injured. Whatever, something has gone wrong that means that he has to carry the sheep on His shoulders.
Well, in the ancient world, that meant this sheep was no longer worth very much. You remember in the Old Testament sacrificial system; they would offer as a sacrifice those without spot or blemish. Well, this sheep now has blemishes. This sheep isn't healthy. This sheep is, at one level, deficient. It's lost its value in the world's eyes. But the shepherd, he loves this sheep, and he brings it upon his shoulders. And though maybe its legs are broken and it can't take a step forward, he insists on taking every step necessary to bring the sheep to where it should be. It's a beautiful image, isn't it?
The one who carries the loved all the way home. The individual that couldn't make that journey by themselves, they don't have to. He's doing the carrying. It's amazing, isn't it? Maybe you yourself, you're, again, prone to despair, prone to worry. You know all too well your weakness. But the Bible doesn't say you're not weak. You are. You probably have a very honest assessment of yourself. But the point is, it's not you that brings you home. He does the carrying. He paid that incredible cost, but He continues to do an incredible work all the way home. His commitment's personal. His commitment is one to seek, His commitment is one to carry, and His commitment is one that publicly rejoices. It insists on publicly rejoicing. Look at verse 6, “And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’”
Now, we'll see some aspect of this echoed in the other stories also. This is an important point, and I think the context that we saw at the beginning helps us to understand why Jesus insists in three stories in stressing this particular point. The shepherd himself isn't just happy. He is. He isn't just privately rejoicing. He is rejoicing inside. But the text is stressing that this particular rejoicing is done in a public manner. It's out in the open for all to see. Again, in verse 6, he insists on calling together his friends and his neighbors, anybody who would come. Anybody who would hear. And he proclaims to them, not, this sheep was awful, look at the hardship it caused, but rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep. It was lost. He's so public about it.
Now remember the context. Jesus is speaking. And in the crowd are those tax collectors and sinners who have drawn near to hear. And in the back of the room are the scribes and the Pharisees with their arms folded, I imagine, grumbling and tutting and stamping their foot. How could He engage with them? And what does Jesus do? He doesn't shy away. He stands up and he tells three stories, each one that proclaims, I'm happy about this. I'm rejoicing in this. I have incredible joy in what is taking place before your grumbling eyes. This isn't something to be embarrassed by. This is something I want you Pharisees to know. I am rejoicing. I am reveling in. He loves that these once notorious sinners are now His, belong to Him. Those that were once lost have been found.
Sadly, sometimes whenever an individual becomes a Christian and a genuine Christian, the place they find it hardest to move and operate is the church. Why? That should not be. Because of their past, because of the brokenness that sin has fostered in their life, they're treated in the Christian community like a leper. To be avoided. How unlike Jesus that attitude is. You think of the lady who has been divorced. Sometimes the church doesn't know what to do with that. Sometimes we hesitate. We maybe occasionally smile politely, but we don't really know how to fully engage. There's a hesitation. What Jesus is making clear, those who have a past, those who have created, even through their own sinful actions in the past, great heartache, through repentance and faith, they are loved by God and He rejoices in their in-gathering. He's personally committed to seek, to carry, and to rejoice publicly over the lost and the broken that He has found. What a Savior. How wonderful He is and how consistent He is.
The last thing I want you to see in the text is then the summary. A heavenly perspective on repentant sinners. A heavenly perspective on repentant sinners. Again, the context. Jesus is really telling this parable to communicate to the Pharisees and the scribes; your thinking is wrong. These tax collectors and sinners who have drawn near to hear, they have been transformed through His gracious work, who are now hungry for the Word of God. Let me tell you how God in heaven views this situation. Let me give you a heavenly perspective. Let me underline the takeaway. The Pharisees, they rejoiced that sinners got burnt in the end. That's what they rejoiced in. Oh, justice will be served. Oh, they may be eating and feasting right now, but it's coming to them. That was the mentality of the Pharisees. How often do we too fall into that trap? We are quick to gnash our teeth, to discount not just the gross sin that individuals are engaged in, but we lose sight of the individual image bearer of God that needs to be called to repentance and faith. And so, to us, to them, but also to us, look at what Jesus says. Look at verse seven. “Just so I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Jesus says that heaven rejoices over just one sinner. Again, the focus on the individual, over one sinner being found. God's greatest joy is not one from justice, though it is a good thing that we have a just God. His greatest joy is expressed over repentance and redemption, not condemnation. Now, repentance is not the cause of God's love. It's the result of it. Because He first loved us, this whole thing takes place. It starts with God. All glory must go to God. But repentance is the fruit of that. Because God loves us, He insists on bringing the lost individual to a place of repentance. And every time that happens, He rejoices because His love was set upon that individual. “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son. That whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” He loved And so He brought about repentance, and finding, and in gathering. He does all this seeking, but He is also fully engaged in rejoicing, in rejoicing over the one who has been found. Heaven rejoices over repentant sinners.
Again, believer who struggles with low self-esteem, who struggles with understanding and glorying in the love that God has shown to you, this text is making clear God rejoices that you're in. God rejoices that He has done that work to bring you into the family. Heaven rejoices over repentant sinners. You don't need self-esteem, but you do need to esteem the work that God has done for you and in you. “All need to repent, for all are lost.” There is no one here who does not need to repent. And our only hope our only hope is in the compassionate commitment of God to the lost. That's why repentance works, because of the compassionate commitment of God towards the lost. His personal commitment, His personal seeking, His personal carrying, His personal rejoicing over you. Is that your hope this morning?
Now this is not simply an evangelistic passage, but it's designed to remind the believer, to remind those converted tax collectors and sinners just how precious they are in the sight of God. Christian, He sought you out when you were lost, when you were dead in iniquity. He set His love upon you, and that is why you have been drawn close. What dignity in realizing how much our Lord loved us, how clear and settled His commitment to have you in His family was. Jesus left heaven to come into the muck of this world to seek lost sheep that He could carry home. Is that your story this morning? And then as we come to the very end, remember the context. This parable is not primarily an invitation to come.
This parable was told as an accusation, do you remember? An accusation to those religiously judgmental people. It was told to highlight just how mean, how out of kilter they were with the heart of God. And so, the application in part has to be, if you are a follower of Jesus, don't write others off. Don't draw lines around you. Don't box off your social circle in a way that you refuse to meet and engage with others in this world. Like our Savior, we are to go and to seek the lost. Our Savior loves the lost. He seeks them out, and we're reminded here that His people ought to be the same. Let's pray that He would give us the strength to do so.
[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for Jesus Christ. We are so thankful for His commitment, knowing full well the sin that sits within each of us personally, the hardness of our hearts, the deadness of our condition, yet He sought us out. And even now, He is carrying us home. Lord, we pray and ask that You would cause us to worship Him and to be thankful for His compassionate heart this morning. And we pray that as our minds have been renewed and as our hearts have been conformed that little bit more to the image of our Savior, we ask, Lord, that You would cause us to leave this place with a renewed seal to seek after the lost while they may be found. We thank you that this is Your work, and ultimately there are none that Christ died for who will be lost, that will be missed, but make us fearful to live like our Savior, to be salt, to be light, to represent Him well, and to hold out the good news by which sinful men and women may be saved. For it's in Jesus' name we ask it, amen. [End]
