Family Matters

Well, family, God's got a word for us, so if you've got your Bibles, meet me in Matthew 19. That verses will be provided on screen for you as well. I figure today, as we open up God's word, we ought to talk about children's sports. No, I'm not, I'm gonna talk about marriage, and we're gonna talk about divorce, because that's the beauty of God's word. It speaks to every avenue of our lives to give us clarity and hope and resolve for how we move forward in Jesus Christ. I wanna talk about what is gonna be for some a hard subject, but a helpful subject as well. What does Jesus have to say about marriage and divorce? The statistics tell us that half of you watching right now have dealt with this on some level, and the other half have dealt with it vicariously through people that you know and love. Some of us watching right now have been divorced ourselves. Some of us have married someone who was divorced. Some of us went through divorce as children when that went down with our parents. And truth be told, keeping it real, some of us who are married right now, things are not as ideal as you would like them to be. The reality is is that if God doesn't show up for you soon, you may be inching towards that reality. So the question I wanna bring an answer to today is what does Jesus have to say to you and I about marriage and divorce?

Let me give a little disclaimer here. No guilt, no shame in the house of God. That this is gonna be one of those sermons, y'all, that's just gonna be something that's more vitamin and supplement than orange cream cheesecake. Can I get a witness right there? That some of those sermons are just like great sermons, like, oh my gosh, it's the best sermon I ever heard. It came off like a delectable meal. It was a 32-ounce USDA Prime tomahawk ribeye. It has been in a brine salt for 24 hours over a mesquite grill, low in smoke, at a cool 185 degrees. It is now up to a perfect 100-degree temperature. You take it out and put it in something called a cast iron skillet. You sear it on both sides with shallots, garlic, thyme, and rosemary until it's a perfect golden brown. You cook it to a perfect medium-rare temperature because any other temperature is not of God. And you couple it next to a loaded baked potato with cured bacon and cheddar cheese and sour cream and chives. And just to make sure something's green, you put a sprig of parsley right next to it. Some sermons are like that. That ain't this sermon. That ain't this sermon. This sermon here, y'all, this is broccoli. It ain't even cooked, it's raw broccoli. Low-key, we didn't even wash this broccoli, okay?

But your doctor will tell you that broccoli's what makes you strong. So regardless of where you sit in marriage and singleness and divorce and the weight of blended families, God loves you enough to give you some broccoli today to make you strong. Jesus has just preached on forgiveness and now he's healing the crowds. But then religious folks show up. And Jesus has to give them the truth. Matthew has captured the episode for us. He writes to us these words. In other words, of Almighty God, Matthew writes, now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. And large crowds followed him and he healed them there. And Pharisees, now Sun Valley, when you hear Pharisees think religious fuddy-duddies, okay? Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? He answered, have you not read that he who created them, key phrase, from the beginning made them male and female? And said, therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate, stay with me. They said to him, why then did Moses command one

to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? Look at Jesus' response, verse eight. He said to him, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery. Now the disciples said to him, if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry. But he said to them, not everyone can receive this thing, but only to whom it is given, but only those to whom it is given. Now, Sun Valley, you're gonna see this word called eunuch for all intents and purposes. When you hear eunuch, think people that God has called to be single. Read it through that lens. Look at it now. But he said to them, not everyone can receive this. Verse 12, for there are eunuchs who have been so from birth. There are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men. There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it. Matthew chapter 19, verses one through 12. Friends, I've read from the greatest book ever written,

and I bear witness to you this day. All of God's word, it is true. Amen? And amen. I started to name this sermon, what do you do when life starts lifing? What do you do when the plan you made is not shaping out to be the plan that's happening? Well, first things first, Sun Valley, and I pray that this one statement is just thread through our entire time together in your hearts. What you and I do when life starts lifing, if you don't hear nothing else, hear this, we run to God's word. We run to the Bible. The Bible speaks to every aspect of human endeavor. No wonder David said that his word is a lamp to our feet, a light to our paths. Jesus said that heaven and earth passes away. His word endures forever. So believer, if you don't hear anything else, when life starts lifing, run to the word of God. Hit reset and go to the word. Parenthetically, I've been watching the World Cup, which I've been having a lot of fun with, and it's just amazing. I wanna say here on behalf of the United States soccer team, Belgium, we're gonna get you back. We're gonna get you back.

First things first, how in the world do we lose to a country whose best attribute is that they make chocolate? What was that? Anyway, I love watching soccer. These dudes are ripped six feet under. They're ripped six-pack abs. They're quick. They got muscles everywhere, big calves, supremely athletic. They really remind me of myself. But anyways, I just love it, but I didn't know a lot about soccer, but I've been watching it, and I've noticed this mechanism that the referees use called the drop ball. The drop ball is what happens when the game kind of goes awry. So when the game is stopped for some unusual reason, the player gets hurt, the ball hits some foreign object, something happens where it's neither side's fault, what a referee does is he gets in the middle of the problem and he takes the ball to another location and he drops the ball. One soccer player called it soccer's built-in reset. And he places and drops the ball at a neutral starting point where everyone can start over. So the idea of a drop ball is this. The whole notion is that when the game gets too chaotic

and there's no plausible way to move forward, they hit reset and start anew. In our passage, there's chaos swirling around this concept of marriage and divorce. So Jesus, the better referee, grabs the ball and hits reset and drops the ball square in the center of God's word. And regardless of where you find yourself in this subject matter today, Jesus says, I love you. And I realize that the game of your relationship has gotten chaotic. So I'm gonna drop this ball back in God's word. And in so doing, he brings distillation to these three movements, table of contents for our time. Jesus is going to help us by teaching us what marriage is, what happens when it breaks, and some encouraging applications for us before we go home. What to remember regardless of the situation we find ourselves in. Let me put a tag on this text. I wanna call this Marriage, Divorce, and Jesus. Let's pray. Jesus, you know our hearts and you know where we're at. So do it only, you can speak to us and fix, Lord Jesus, what needs to be fixed, add what needs to be added, and speak to what needs to be spoken to. Lord, I pray longer, but this church, every time I come, only gives me a 35 minute time limit. So I pray this in Jesus' name, amen, amen. So now let's have a few minutes of church.

And I think one of the things as we bring distillation to a lot that's going on here in this passage is that essentially what Jesus is doing is reminding us what marriage is. He's reminding us what marriage is. I do a lot of weddings and I've got this homily that I use every time because, you know, why not? And one of the things I say throughout that entire wedding ceremony is this potent statement, here it is. Marriage is a beautiful, a holy, and a sacred thing. Can I say that again? What Jesus is doing here. Is he's establishing that truth that marriage is a beautiful a holy and a sacred thing hold on to that thought for now We'll come back to it later Matthew chapter 19 Jesus has just taught a lesson on forgiveness famous chapter of Matthew chapter 18 Matthew tells us he transitions from Galilee up north Treks down to Judea down south where ultimately he's gonna give his life on the cross Plausibly just a few weeks from here. He's healing people Okay And so Jesus is doing that Jesus stuff in a wheelchair couldn't remain a wheelchair around Jesus and blind couldn't stay blind around Jesus and Jesus just doing his thing and healing people But then the plot Twists as the Pharisees come up the Bible says verse 3 that they come to test Jesus Now that word test is the same word for the word temptation Translation they come up to Jesus instead of saying hey, dude, how do you do those miracles? And hey, where'd you get that robe? They say hey, is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any reason meaning they bring up to Jesus what was for them an even more contentious subject matter for them that it is even for us now

Think about that as crazy as a subject and as difficult as such as marriage and divorce is it was even the more so For Jews in Jesus's day and it all hindered around the interpretation of the passage They repeat here Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 1 which reads this way when a man Takes a wife and marries her if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he's found some indecency in her and he writes her a certificate of divorce and Puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house. So that's like a yikes verse, right? Now stay with me in the classroom for a few minutes. I promise we are going to church now What you need to know is that there were two schools of thought in Judaism Surrounding the subject of divorce regarding 24 chapter 24 verse 1. There was a more liberal school of thought that said hey Okay, I'm single and ready to mingle you can get divorced for any reason and true story They took divorce as far as it could go. There's literal historical evidence where some guys would divorce their wives if she burnt their dinner and all the women said I Wish you would okay But there was this historical evidence of that There were some people who divorced their spouse because they found someone who was prettier Another sermon for another time So you get divorced for anything in that school of thought you get divorced that they burned your dinner You get divorced if you found somebody prettier you get divorced that the sons didn't make the playoffs right like all of this stuff But opposed to that or juxtapose that was a school a conservative school. They said no. No, no Moses was clear in the Ten Commandments. You can only get divorced for Adultery, so the question of the text and the question of our day is how does Jesus? Respond to this question stay with me in the classroom for a few more minutes. I promise we're going to church One of the things I want you to see Sun Valley is that peppered throughout this passage is this phraseology that Jesus? employs he says it over and over again from the beginning from the Beginning here's my point they bring up Deuteronomy 24 Translation what they want to do is jump into the middle of the conversation and untangle it there

Jesus says no no no no I'm not gonna meet you in the middle. I'm gonna meet you at the foundation I'm gonna jump back to Genesis and go back to God's heart and God's vision and God's Plan for what God was thinking when he created this institution called marriage And I think real quickly here that that's a lesson for us when we're in the middle of our situation God says don't don't don't start this thing in the middle No get out of the thick of what's going on and go back to the foundation So when chaos enters your world I want to encourage you by saying this don't focus solely on Where you're at in your situation rather go back to where God is at the foundation See when it comes to marriage, but I think what Jesus is saying here is That this thing called marriage and this thing called family and this thing called life the most Fundamental concept for you and I is to remember that this stuff ain't our idea It's God's idea Ricky what's that mean you and I didn't invent marriage God did and So the only way marriage is gonna work right is if we do it God's way The only way relationships are gonna work or do it God's way Wait, the only way blended families are gonna work right is if we do it God's way. We have to return to God's way of doing things. Let me put it this way. No one takes a broken iPhone to an Android store. No one calls a plumber to get their Wi-Fi fixed. Can I get a Ikea furniture witness? Like no one tries to put Ikea together without instructions, okay? They got 40,000 billion pieces in that box and you can't make it without the instructions. And if you do make something, whatever you make is not gonna stand. You have to go back to God's word

and that's what Jesus does in our passage. He goes back to God's instructions. So God says when your life has been broken to a million pieces, go back to his instructions and see his heart for your life. Couple of things here. Let me get nerdy, then we'll get preachy again. But I just want you to see how Jesus establishes marriage and upon what principles he establishes. First thing I want you to see, Sun Valley, is I want you to see the God-centeredness of marriage. Jesus says, therefore whatever God's put together, let nobody separate. Translation, the number one thing God was thinking when he invented marriage, okay? The number one excitement that Jesus had was not because you got butterflies every time he walked by. And it wasn't because she was fine as wine and it wasn't because y'all were romantic and it wasn't because y'all were into one another. That's a big part of it, but that was a distant second place to God's number one reason for putting you two together. God's hope was that as you two love one another faithfully and unconditionally, it will be an echoing reminder to the world around you that there is a God in heaven who loves all people faithfully and unconditionally. Here's the point.

Marriage was invented to show Jesus off. So that's the whole first concept that's happened here, okay? But at the end of the day, Jesus also helps us see the unity that marriage must involve. Jesus finds five different ways to call married folks to unity. He keeps saying, no longer two, but one. No longer two, but one. No longer two, but one. Meaning the most fundamental concept of our marriage is to have it centered on Jesus and then centered on unity with one another. One relationship, one marriage, one household, one family, one Netflix account, okay? Oneness is the order of our marriage. Now we gotta talk about divorce and keep it real, but let me just minister to some of you married folks and ask you to wrestle with that and to ask your marriage some serious questions. The first question being this, can I say right now that my marriage is God-centered? Is this thing built on Jesus or have we built it on something else and asked Jesus to come and bless it? The second question is this, can I say that my marriage is unified? Does it look like oneness or am I still trying to champion my rightness as opposed to our oneness?

Let's keep on moving on, but if you hear nothing else, marriage is a beautiful, a holy, and a sacred thing. But what do you do when it's not? What do you do, Sun Valley, when marriage breaks? Say with me. Now the Pharisees pose then a second question in verse seven. Look at it. They say, so why did Moses, key word, command a certificate of divorce? Now friends, I wish I had more time to chew on this, but the way Jesus answers this question has been studied for millennia because it's nothing short of brilliance. His answer in verses eight and nine, Jesus said, he said to them, because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it wasn't so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. So what's Jesus doing here? This is what he's doing. He's giving them two corrections and one commandment. He's giving them two corrections and one commandment. The first correction that Jesus gives them is this. He corrects this notion that Moses commanded it. Jesus says, no, Moses didn't command. He allowed it, meaning what is Jesus doing? He's dismissing, stay with me, the notion of flippancy.

Surrounding divorce. In other words, divorce is never a decision that should be made quickly. It should be made cautiously and carefully, stay with me, and communally. In other words, you need to bring the church to bear upon that decision. And so he corrects this. I like what scholar N.T. Wright said when he said just as a car is made to drive safely on the road not to skid around colliding with other cars. So marriage was made to be a partnership of one woman and one man for life not something that could be split up and reassembled whenever one person wants it. Moses didn't say as it were when you drive your car this is how to have an accident rather when you drive a car take care not to have an accident but if tragically an accident occurs this is how to deal with it. Is everybody getting that? See in distilling Moses Jesus didn't say go wreck your car and go get a new one. No, Jesus is saying what Moses will say is I see all the car wrecks around me and my heart breaks for that. I want to provide regulations for the road when wrecks happen. This is Jesus's ultimate teaching on how you and I understand the decision of divorce. Second correction stay with me. Jesus says Moses allowed it because of hard heartedness. Now friends when y'all hear hard heartedness just think sin like the reason it is allowed because sin destroys. So in many ways yes Jesus called us to this wonderful standard and ideal but Jesus as Pastor Chad has said so many times called imperfect people to his perfect standard and I don't know what your testimony is but friends I still sin. Now everybody was supposed to say amen right there. I sin, you sin, all of God's children have sin and so the reality is that we we're still broken and we still fail and we still make mistakes so how do we deal with that to keep moving things forward. So in many ways I think what Jesus is saying as he speaks to the divorce is he's saying on the one hand yeah I've got my ideal will for you. I want this thing to last forever but I love you and I know we're all broken and so I've also got my allowed will where I offer grace for when cars get wrecked and figure out how to get you back on the road. That's essentially how Jesus is bringing this to bear. So those are the two corrections. Now here's his one command verse 9 Jesus says I say to you whoever divorces their spouse except for sexual

immorality and mares another they commit adultery. Now if you're anything like me when I first studied this passage years ago you got a thousand questions and here's your problem they only gave me 35 minutes. So let me just at least bring crystal clear clarity to the teaching of Jesus surrounding verse 9 and bring an answer to four questions before we go home with some encouragement. Question one is this what then is meant by sexual immorality? That phrase is the Greek word pornea. It's a word from which we derive our word pornography. Pornea means any sexual immorality. So what Jesus here is teaching is that a grounds for divorce is the idea of sexual intercourse or any sexual immorality that happens with someone else other than your spouse. Second question why is adultery the one exception? Here's the answer because friends adultery is such a visceral rebellion against the institution of marriage that it tears at that one fleshness that Jesus has called us to. Doesn't mean it's unforgivable doesn't mean we can't reconcile doesn't mean we can't move on but at the end of the day that's why because it tears the very fabric of what Jesus has invited or invented this institution to be. Third question is adultery the only exception? Well here's the answer well it is here but the apostle Paul who also writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit adds another exception in first Corinthians chapter 7 verse 15 and that passage reads this way if the unbelieving partner separates translation if they leave forsake the marriage the spouse is no longer enslaved. That's what that passage says. Now your New Testament is originally written in the language called Greek that word separates is the Greek word chorizo c-h-o-r-i-z-o that's how it's spelled chorizo which is also spelled like chorizo which makes me think of sausage but anyway that's the word it's the word chorizo which means to depart or to put asunder it means to depart or to put asunder So if your unbelieving spouse forsakes the gospel by departing or putting asunder the marriage, departing or put asundering the family, departing or put asundering their vows, Jesus says you may carefully and cautiously and communally separate and divorce. Now, last question before we go there. This is what we call in the church willful desertion.

And I love what scholar Douglas O'Donnell said that when we're talking about desertion, never run to that swiftly. Always run to that with the support of the church, the leadership of the church. The whole idea here is that the church has to use its head on every situation when we're talking about desertion. For instance, can desertion be applied to a couple for whom, yes, the spouse that is unbelieving did not cheat on them but perpetually abuses their partner and makes it unsafe. Can that also be applied to desertion when the church looks at that carefully and cautiously and communally? I would say to you, absolutely. But it has to be careful and cautious and communally. Everybody smelling what I'm stepping in? Last question, then we can go. Not really, I'm just making it seem like I'm finishing so I can, yeah, okay, okay. Question number four, does the sin of adultery or any other grave sin necessitate divorce? I wanna say humbly to you that absolutely not. Friends, God can overcome anything. And God does call all of us to forgiveness. Remember, Jesus just delivered a whole chapter on forgiveness. The scripture says, as much as possible, live peaceably with all men. So if there can be reconciliation, by all means,

as Christian believers, we are called to try. Let's take a breather right now. Because that was a lot. Sun Valley, next time y'all have me, I better be teaching on John 3, 16. What are your feelings? You're at church, so you get to have feelings. This is a safe place for you to process. What are you feeling right now in light of all that we have heard? Some of you are hearing this message and you're feeling sadness. You're feeling and processing feelings of lament, why? Because this happened to you. You were the one who was hurt. You were betrayed. You were victimized. You did your part, they didn't do theirs. Can I just say this to you? God loves you. God likes you. And he still has a future for you. Some of us are feeling shame and guilt and conviction. Why? We were the offender. They did their part, I didn't do mine. I betrayed, I hurt people. Oh, brother or sister, God loves you. God likes you and God still has a future for you. Some of us feel regret.

Yeah, I've moved on. I'm with my new family, I'm with my new spouse, but I have regret. I just wish I could replay it. Well, Jesus never holds you to your past. He pushes you towards your future. God loves you. God likes you and he still has a future for you. And can I just say it for those of us who have healed, we're on the other side of this thing. I got my new boo, okay? Everything is working out. I've got my new sons and my new daughters. With my sons and my daughters, we figured out visitation and we figured out the bills and we figured out who does what and who gets the house and all that kind of stuff. And here's your feeling. You are exhausted because it's real. God loves you. And I think I need to say this to someone. He sees you. And he still has a future for you. So what do we need to remember in light of whatever situation we're in as we round third and head home? I just wanna load us up with encouragement. I think the number one thing that we need to remember is this. Friend, never let one chapter of your life

be the sum total of your story. Can I say something to you Mississippi style? Honey, if God ain't holding you to your mistakes, why should you? Look, grace covers everything. Just be right with God and move on with your life. I wanna give us four things to remember in the two minutes and 12 seconds that I have left. Number one. Encouragement no matter what your situation surrounding marriage and divorce is just want to say remember God's Word That was a thread. We wanted woven throughout our time together You'll be amazed by how consistent connection in God's Word Will lighten the burden Soften your heart and ease your mind I Like I like what an old preacher used to say He used to say The only way you're gonna have a great relationship with God Is if you have a good relationship with your Bible Getting God's Word. I like what my mama used to say mama used to say show me a Bible that's fallen apart and I'll show you a life. That's not Remember God's Word number two remember the church Remember the church communal communal communal Never navigate these situations in these moments in isolation Be open and be vulnerable and bring your situation to bear upon godly people One scholar said that there are many things a person can do alone Christianity is not one of them Bring the small group in bring the men's group in bring the women's group in bring Godly people in to help bear your burdens and move you forward in your life The third thing is obvious remember forgiveness Some of us have heard this message and it brought back some stuff and maybe you notice at some point you still had a visceral

Reaction to some people in your life That's the Holy Spirit telling you that you need to let this go and forgive and move on. Can I get a frozen witness? Let it go Let it go. Some of us need to make the decision say Holy Spirit. Help me to forgive You see friends when you persist in unforgiveness What happens in your soul is that your soul presses pause on the future? Unforgiveness limits the potential for what God has for you in your life And so I want to encourage you don't hold on to unforgiveness Lean into the gospel and forget some of us need to forgive our ex Some of us need to forgive our spouse Some of us need to forgive our kids some of us need to forgive our parents and their decision for divorce years ago some of us Need to forgive ourselves And let it go Now a lot of you may be asking well Ricky this person betrayed me or this person this do I have to be their friend Well, let me encourage you their forgiveness Doesn't always mean fellowship If there's a person in your life who perpetually lies to you over and over again. God's not asking you to trust them If someone in your life perpetually abuses you God's not asking you to fellowship with them. God loves you and what God wants you safe I Just want you to forgive so you can honor him and move forward with your life. Let's go home on this Man, I just think somebody needs to hear this today Remember God's grace For too long in the church. We put a scarlet letter D on people to make something that God literally says There's a prescription for it and there's a path in it and yet we make it the unforgivable thing That is not what the Bible teaches and remember that God's grace covers all There's gonna be echoes from the evil one trying to get you to believe that you are not good enough and that you're left out Of God's providence and that there's not a plan for your life And I just want you to keep telling yourself this all this week. God's grace. God's grace. God's grace And if you didn't hear nothing else y'all let me preach the way I only know how Jesus paid it all

and Rejoice in his redemption for your life Because there's grace for you Can somebody um, can somebody play something emotional can Thanks brother, he's gonna play something emotional There's a story about a Woman a single mama who got pulled over for speeding ticket She Was broke and couldn't pay it eventually she shows up in court It's part that she'd had one speeding ticket too many. She's behind her a bill. She didn't have any money and she's in court The judge is there in his robe and it's the bench and it's the courtroom and he calls her to the front says ma'am He's got several tickets here. You got to pay a fine of at least a hundred dollars today Because you're so far behind if you don't pay this today, I got to throw you in jail Single mom says your honor. I'm so sorry. I Have three jobs. I've got these kids I got to move from park to park and I just got in all these parking tickets now I got the speeding ticket and it's just been crazy and your honor. I don't have it. I Don't have the money. I can't pay it and the judge responds to in a kind of a matter-of-fact way says ma'am The law is the law And I can't change it. You do the crime you do the The time, ma'am, you give us $100, I'm putting you in jail today. She burst into tears, says, your honor, I'm at my wit's end. I have nothing, I know it's my fault, I know it, I know I made the mistake, I know you can't change the law, but I don't have it. I can't not take care of my kids this weekend. Your honor, please, if you knew my story, if you knew what was going on, mercy, your honor.

And that's what had happened. The judge takes a deep breath. And methodically, he stands up at the bench and he unzips that black judge's robe and he puts it down and he goes over to the side of the court where his suit jacket he had worn that day had been hanging and he puts on his suit coat. And methodically, he steps down and comes right to the lady and he grabs her hand and he opens up his billfold and he pulls out a crisp $100 bill. And then he places it in her hand and closes the money in her hand. He walks back to the top of the bench and he takes off his suit coat and he puts back on his judge robe. And he says, ma'am, you owe the state $100 and I can't change the law and you gotta pay it right now. And the woman dries her tears. And she says, your honor, good news. Somebody has paid my price. So Valley, the gospel is this. 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ took off judge clothes and he put on human clothes. And on a cross called Calvary, he pulled out the wallet of grace and shed his blood and he paid your price. Meaning no one whose faith is found in Jesus has to leave here with sadness, guilt, or shame.

So Father, thank you for your word and your kindness to us for all of the ups and downs of this life. God, I pray that you would speak to us from the truth and give us right hearts and right minds because clear eyes and full hearts can't lose. Bless this great church. I pray, God, that the days ahead are even better than the days behind them. I pray, God, for my buddy, my friend, Pastor Chad, an absolute lion heart of a man. Comfort him and comfort this wonderful congregation. Be a blessing to his family and be a blessing to these families as they pursue you and make you famous. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen and amen. God bless you. Amen. Amen.