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In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number one, four, seven. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. In number two, zero, zero. For he is a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin but Jesus did me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. The earth is always near to comfort you. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He forgives my sins because we ever do. He's a wonderful Savior to me. For he is a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin but Jesus did me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. The last bitter close-up of Jesus every day. He's a wonderful Savior to me. He there is his grace but twice he's gone blue. He's a wonderful Savior to me. For he is a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. I was lost in sin but Jesus did me. He's a wonderful Savior to me. Amen. Alright, good morning everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Let us go through a couple of things in our announcements real quickly. First, let's count up any salvation that we have to report. Let's start with the back there. Any salvations this past week? Seven? Alright, two. Alright, so nine salvations. Nineteen, two. Alright, so let me write this down. Nine, twenty-one, anybody else? One, alright. How about in this section, anybody? Any salvations? Alright, well great job everybody. We do have soul winning of course this afternoon at 2.15 p.m. The only other things I want to make mention of is we do have choir practice later today after soul winning. The Pampanga three year anniversary is this coming Saturday. And so the plan is for the vehicles to leave at 7.30. I'm going to send more information later on this week with more specific details to be prepared for that. And also we do have a sign up sheet for the potential missions trip. As I said, it's not a guarantee. We're trying to get a survey of people that might be interested. One of the possible locations would be Baguio, probably around March. But you can sign up for it and then change your mind because we'll get kind of a more specific later on and try to get how many people there are going to be. So if you just have any sort of interest, it's kind of like a survey, just write your name. And we would provide the transportation there, but you would have to provide money for your lodging and your food. So anyways, that's it for announcements. We'll have Brother Rafi lead us in another song. Last night's upload live. Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, Amen. For scripture reading, please open your Bibles to the book of First Kings. First Kings chapter 19. First Kings chapter 19. The other book of Judges. Ruth, First Second Samuel, First Kings chapter 19. And as our custom, we will be reading the entire chapter. First Kings chapter 19. Please say Amen if you are there. Amen. Amen. Amen. First Kings chapter 19 verse 1. And I have told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with a sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger into Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belonged to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under the juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake, bacon, and the coals, and a cruise of water at his head, and he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. And he came thither into a cave, and lodged there, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been there jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life, and to take it away. And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire a still, small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering inn of the cave, and behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been there jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life, and to take it away. And the Lord said unto him, Go return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Assyria. And Jehu the son of Nimshai, shall thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphath of Abel-Meholah, shall thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escaped with the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escaped with the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which had not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphath, who was flying with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelve. And Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again, for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen, and slew them, and bowled their flesh with instruments of the oxen, and gave them to the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. Blessed be God's word, let us pray. Lord God in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for this day that you have given to us. I pray that you would please bless us, Lord, this day, with good weather, for our soul winning, and our fellowship later on. I pray that you would bless the preaching, and the preaching of your word, Lord, this day. We love you, in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. All right, we're here in 1 Kings 19, and as I mentioned during the announcements, I decided to skip Ezra, I decided to preach something different. We might pick up Ezra after our anniversary here, I'm not yet sure. But we're here in 1 Kings 19, I want to look at Elijah here in the Bible. The name of this sermon is Elijah's Downward Spiral. Now, I don't know about you, but when I get to the section of Elijah in the Bible, I get really excited, because Elijah's part of some of the great, great, great events, I mean, everything from chapter 17, 18, 19, and then the way he ends in 2 Kings 2. I mean, it's pretty cool. Elijah's one of the best characters in the Bible. And if you're familiar with the stories, 1 Kings 18 is one of the most exciting chapters in the Bible. And you've got Elijah that stands up against all the false prophets of Baal. And you know what, when you read 1 Kings 18 after reading chapter 17, it almost seems like Elijah's Superman. It seems like nothing can stop him. It seems like he's perfect and nothing could ever stop him at all. Then you get to 1 Kings 19 and you see the humanity in Elijah, and that he's no different than us. He's a sinner saved by grace, just like you and me are as well. And I want to show you in 1 Kings 19, Elijah's Downward Spiral. Verse number 1, the Bible reads, And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And the first thing we see in this chapter is that Elijah goes through difficulties. Elijah goes through difficulties. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. Now the specific form of difficulty that Elijah goes through is persecution. And we see another verse here in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that speaks about persecution. And it says in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 10, But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. So everywhere Paul went, whether it was Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Look, I wish I could tell you that your life is going to be perfect, that you would never experience any problems, but that's not reality. The Bible says everyone that's going to be godly is going to suffer some persecution. I mean, do you want to be godly? You're going to go through persecution. That's what the Bible says. Many people in this room would testify that, you know what, a lot of their family doesn't really like to talk to them because of what you believe, right? They're Catholic and you're not. And they disagree with what you believe. They disagree with what you stand for. Maybe coworkers that disagree, they don't like this church or whatever. And look, if you're going to be godly, you're going to suffer some persecution in your life. There is no way to avoid that. And it doesn't matter where you go, whether it's Antioch, whether it's Iconium, or Lystra. It's not just you will be persecuted. It's wherever you go living godly, you're going to be persecuted. Go to Ecclesiastes 7. Ecclesiastes 7. Now, that is the specific difficulty that Elijah goes through. But you know, that's not the only difficulty that you can go through in life. If you're going to live godly, you will be persecuted. But you know, it's not just persecution. You will go through difficulties and storms of life and problems in your life. One example is just having too many burdens. Notice what it says in Ecclesiastes 7, verse 16. The Bible reads, Be not righteous over much, neither make thyself over wise. Why shouldest thou destroy thyself? You say, and this seems like a bit of a cryptic verse, like what is the Bible saying, be not righteous over much? What it's basically saying is don't put too many responsibilities upon yourself. And the specific example is spiritual responsibilities. Otherwise, you might end up destroying yourself. The idea is you can only do so much as one person. And if you try to do too many things, it could end up just being too much, and the burdens become overwhelming, and then you destroy yourself. Right? Go to 1 Kings chapter 19. Now, I can say this as a church leader, you know, I'm always happy when people volunteer for various things because there's a lot of stuff to do at a local church. And one thing I've found is a lot of people that will love God will take on a lot of responsibilities. And what sometimes I'm guilty of, and I think every pastor or church leader is guilty of, is of course you give some people a lot of responsibilities, and sometimes, honestly, it can be a bit overwhelming. It can be too much. Now, one thing we can all do to help on that is, you know, volunteer. Say, Brother Stuckey, I'm willing to help out if there's any area that I can help out. Because if you have too many burdens and too many responsibilities, sometimes it can get to be overwhelming. Right? You know, I don't have a goal in my life of just, I've got to outdo every pastor or preacher that's out there. I've got to make sure I read the Bible more than anybody else, or memorize the Bible more than anyone else, or go so many more than anybody else. That is not something that I'm striving for. I am sure there's plenty of preachers that read the Bible more than me, that memorize more than me, and you know what? That's fine because I'm not competing with them. I know what I am capable of doing, and I know that if I try to do too much, I'm going to destroy myself. Right? And everybody's aware of how much they can personally do. And so the idea is, with difficulties, they can come in different forms. You can have health problems in your life. You can have financial problems in your life. I mean, every single person is going to go through various difficulties. My difficulties might not be the same as yours, but one thing I can guarantee is we're both going to go through difficulties. All of us are going to go through difficulties in our life. For Elijah, his difficulty is persecution. Now, of course, if you read 1 Kings 18, you think, this is nothing. I mean, you stood up against every false prophet there was. It's like you line them up, and you win the battle against all these false prophets. It's just one woman who's threatening your life. But what you see from this is godly people will sometimes be able to fight through difficulties, and sometimes they won't. And here's what I would say. Elijah is a better person than I will probably ever be. And not to be mean, but Elijah's probably a better person than you're ever going to be. And if Elijah was not always able to handle the difficulties of life, none of us will always be able to handle the difficulties of life. Which means that if somebody else is going through major difficulties and struggling, there's no reason to look down on them, because you know what? All of us will from time to time. We're not perfect. We're sinners, and you know what? It's hard sometimes when you're going through problems. And in 1 Kings 19, notice what it says in verse 3. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah. Now, Elijah's a man who fought through a lot of difficulties, but here in verse 3, when he goes through this difficulty, what we see is a departure. He went for his life. He departed. He left because he was worried about his life. I mean, he was at a moment where his faith was not as strong as it was before. What this also kind of shows you is, your faith can be very strong and overnight, very low, from one end to the other. Because in 1 Kings 18, right before this, I mean, he's on fire. Then right afterwards, he's at a low moment. And he departs as a result of the difficulty. Go to Luke chapter 22. Luke 22. Luke 22. You say, Brother Stuckey, that's just Elijah. It's not just Elijah. In fact, all the godly characters in the Bible, you see the same sorts of things from them as well. Here's an example with a man by the name of Peter. Peter, one of the great characters in the Bible, and it says here in Luke 22, verse 54, this is when Jesus is basically, you know, being set up to be killed. And it says in verse 54, Then took they him and led him and brought him into the high priest's house. And Peter followed afar off. Now, it's referring to physically, he was far off from Jesus. But the application is very obvious that spiritually, he's far away from Jesus at this moment. Now, I would say this, that if you're going through a difficulty, it's better to follow from afar off than just not follow at all. But he's not as close to Jesus as he once was. And then we see this in verse 55. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall and were set down together, Peter sat down among them. But a certain maid beheld him as he sat by the fire and earnestly looked upon him and said, This man was also with him, and he denied him, saying, Woman, I know him not. This is the man that said he was willing to die for Christ. This is a man who literally has already put his life on the line for Jesus Christ, and then all of a sudden, he goes through this difficulty, and he just gets worried, and he departs from Christ, and then he denies knowing Jesus Christ. Now, of course, when you read this story, and when I read this story, of course we would never do this. Right? Isn't that what we think? I would have never denied Christ. I mean, all of the apostles, except Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him, denied him. Right? It's just like if all of them are basically drifting away, I think I would, too, if I was in that situation. Right? I mean, they're in that situation. They're going through major difficulties, and they all end up drifting away during that moment. And look, if it could happen to Peter and the other ones out of the 12, and then it could happen to Elijah, it could happen to any one of us that when we go through some difficulties, we're going to struggle. We're not always going to stand firm. There's going to be times where, you know what, we depart a little bit. It says in verse number 55, And after a little while, another psalmist said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. And about the space of one hour after, another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth, this fellow also was with him, for he is a Galilean. And Peter said, Man, I know not what thou sayest. And immediately while he had spake the cock crew, and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him before the cock crow, Thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. You can see that Peter loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? I mean, he weeps because he feels so bad that he did exactly what he was told he was going to do when he went through a little moment. And look, all of us are going to have moments like this in our lives. I've had times where, you know, I'm at my office, at work, you know, at my old jobs that I've had before. And you know what? I don't stand firm on the things that I believe. I allow people to, you know, I don't say anything, or somebody makes a joke that's inappropriate or whatever. And you know, I feel guilty because I should have said, Hey, you know what? Don't use the Lord's name in vain around me. Right? Or whatever the situation is. We don't always handle things perfectly, and neither does Elijah. Neither does Peter. Neither do any of them. Elijah goes through a difficulty, and we see him depart. Now go to 1 Kings 19, 1 Kings 19. Now, here's the thing. Difficulties are going to come. You can't avoid them. And in 1 Kings 19, we see that Elijah has a bit of a departure, and you know, of course, we can stand firm through situations, but the thing is, all of us are going to depart from time to time. But the big problem in 1 Kings 19 is what you see after the departure. Notice what it says in 1 Kings 19, verse 3. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and notice this, and left his servant there. You see, Elijah goes through a difficulty, and during that difficulty, this is a specific time where, you know what, he doesn't stand firm through it, and he departs. But then the big problem is he detaches or isolates from other people. Now, of course, this makes sense, because the natural reaction from all of us when we're going through problems is, I just want to be alone. Is that not true? When you're going through problems, when you're going through difficulties, all of us, myself and all of us, sometimes are like, man, I just want to be away from everybody right now. We feel like that's going to make us feel so much better. But here's the thing. We don't have to just guess how things are going to turn out. We can see what the Bible says. And the Bible gives us wisdom on this situation. And here's Elijah. He goes through a difficulty, can't do anything about that. He got persecuted for the cause of Christ. He departs. It's like, you know what, it's not the end of the world, because all of us from time to time are going to be more zealous or less zealous. It happens. The big problem is when he leaves his servant there. He detaches from other people. He isolates himself. This is the natural reaction of everybody when they go through major problems. And here's the thing. When somebody walks into church, they walk in with a smile upon their face. Somebody says, how are you doing? You know what? The answer is always, I'm doing great. I'm doing good. Right? You're never going to say, well, you have 20 minutes? Can you sit down? I've got to talk to you. No, I mean, everyone's going to basically say they're doing well. The reality is at our church, I believe we have 70 people here today, there are people that are not doing well right now. Now, I don't know specifically who it is because you all have a smile on your face. I can't tell when I look at people whether they're doing well or not doing well. The reality is all of us are going to have moments when we're not. I've come to this church before, put a smile on my face, preached the sermon, and I'm not really doing all that well. Right? All of us are going to have times where we're just not doing the best, and when we're in that moment, the temptation in our flesh is to detach from other people. Is that not true? Point number one, we see the difficulties Elijah goes through. Point number two, we see the departure. He went for his life. He went to save his life. But point three, we see the detachment as he leaves his servant there, and he isolates from all people. What do we see after that? Verse four, we see depression. After he detaches, it doesn't make things better. It makes things far worse. We see major depression that comes. Verse four, But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my father's. Now, when I read this, part of this is humorous to me because in verse three, he went for his life. He went to save his life. Then in verse four, I want to die. It's like you could have been martyred. Right? If you really thought you were going to die, it's like instead of just let yourself be martyred. Right? I mean, he went to save his life because he's worried. And look, that's going to happen. Of course, God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but don't we all fear from time to time? All of us are going to from time to time. And then he's fearful, and of course we understand it. We get it. That would probably happen to all of us. He's fearful. He goes for his life, but then all of a sudden, he wants to die in verse four. You say, How did that take place? Well, the reason why it took place is because he left his servant there, because he detached from everybody. Look, your temptation when you're going through major problems is, You know what? I just want to be alone. I just need time to gather my thoughts. That is the worst thing for you to do when you're going through problems. Sometimes people have this idea that, You know what? Because of church, that's why I have problems. No, no, no. You're going to have difficulties no matter what. Church can help you manage your problems. It's not going to get rid of them because we all have difficulties. And actually, not being in church is going to make it worse for you. It's not going to be better. You say, Well, how can you say that? How do you know that? Because thus sayeth the Lord in 1 Kings 19. When you leave your servant there, when you detach, it makes things worse. It doesn't make things better. Right? Go to Genesis 2. Genesis chapter 2. The other thing that's interesting about Elijah is he makes a statement, For I am not better than my fathers. And you can read over that and not think about it. And honestly, I never really fully got it until I heard Pastor Menes preach on it. But he makes a statement where he's implying, I used to think I was better than my fathers. He's saying, I used to think I was better than Moses and all of those other people. He's being very truthful. You say, What exactly is he saying? What he's saying is, in 1 Kings 18, when he was on the top of the world, he felt like nothing could bring him down. And I get it because I would too. Right? I mean, you're literally causing it to rain on earth and causing it not to rain on earth. You stand up against all the false prophets. I would think, Man, I can do anything. And then all of a sudden, 1 Kings 19 comes, and he realizes, actually, I'm not better than my fathers. I'm just like every single other person. Be very careful inside yourself getting this lifted up idea that, You know what? I could handle things better. I would have never denied Christ. I would have never had these problems. I would have been able to stand fast. It's like, You know what? All of us, there hath no temptation taking you, but such is as common to man. And if it could happen to Elijah, it could happen to me. It could happen to you. Right? Elijah goes through a difficulty, and he departs, but the big problem he makes is, then he detaches. Look, whenever you're in this situation, and you're going through major problems, don't detach from other people. You need to be around godly people. Otherwise, what's going to take place afterwards? Well, detaching makes it worse in verse 4. He ends up having major depression in his life. It doesn't make him feel better. Go to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis 2. Did you realize that we are designed to be around other people? You say, Prove that to me. Genesis 2, verse 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. Now, I mean, you know what? If you're like me, in my natural flesh, I'm not the most outgoing person. You know, I always, when I was in college, I was like, hey, you know, I'm going to get my career and have my job. I'm going to work my job, and then just basically go home and just be away from everybody. Right? You know, there's that dream, that house on the top of the mountain where there's no people. It's so beautiful. You get away from everybody. I mean, it's going to make things great. I mean, it looks awesome. Right? Well, I mean, this is literally what Adam has. I mean, there's no man, there's no buildings that have been created. I mean, and yet God says it's not good for him to be alone. We actually need to be around other people. Right? And you know, I've been able to visit some nice places in my life, some very beautiful places, various vacation spots, and you're around them, and it's great, but if you're away from people for too long, you start actually missing being around other people. Why? God created you with the need to be around people. Of course, the primary application in Genesis 2 is marriage, but in general, it's just not good to be alone. It's good to be around other people, and if you're not, it's going to cause you more problems. We're designed to be around other people. Go to 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1. You know, in America, you know, it's kind of changed recently, but generally retirement age is kind of your mid 60s is when people retire, and you know, most people in America, you know, they work their job 40, 50 hours a week, and you know what? They complain about it, and they hate it every week. I can't wait till I retire. I can't wait till I'm done, and years go by, complaining, complaining, complaining. This is reality for most people in the U.S. Finally get to retirement, and now they get to have this amazing life of watching TV for 10 hours a day. Now at their office, they're around people all the time, but now it's like they, and you know what ends up taking place? They end up being very depressed because they're not around people, and you know what? The difference is, when you have a church family, you're around people on a regular basis, right, but I've seen this so many times as people get older, and they're so depressed, and it's just like, you know, you try to encourage them, hey, you should have a hobby, right, because what's going to end up taking place is as you're not around people, you end up finding yourself very depressed. We're designed to be around people. Now when you have the local church, you know, you're around our like-minded brethren, and you know what? You're around people. When people get older, if they don't have a church that they're devoted to, it's very sad because it's like they don't have anything to do. They don't know what to do. They'll go to vacation here or there, but it's like they're not happy, and it's like you're like, man, you need a church. You need to be around people, right, and we see that with Elijah when he's not around people, what takes place? Well, he ends up having more depression. Now I'm going to spend the last half of the sermon giving you a conclusion because I kind of quickly went through the points with Elijah. We see him go through difficulties. As a result of difficulties, he goes through a departure. Then he detaches from other people. Then he has major depression afterwards. The question is, you say, Brother Stuckey, I'm not going through this right now, but how can I help other people that are going through these things? Well, part of this answer depends on what stage they're at because difficulties are a lot different than detachment, right? So let's say that there's somebody going through difficulties. You know, your fellow brother or sister in Christ, they're going through the storms of life. They're going through problems. What can you do to help? 2 Corinthians 1, the Bible says in verse 3, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. The Bible says God is the God of all comfort. Now, the best comforter you can have through any situation is God. You say, what do you mean, Brother Stuckey? I mean, take it to the Lord in prayer. I mean, I must tell Jesus all of my trials. I cannot bear these burdens alone. These are not mere words that we sing. Think about those words. I mean, the hymns can really help you through difficult times in your life. You know, I can think of times when I went through difficult times and I would just go to YouTube and just type in Christian hymns and just listen to hymns and sing along as I was going through a various burden, and it helps you get through it. Right? You sing these songs, or you take it to the Lord in prayer, you pray to Him, and you basically allow God to take that burden from you. Now, I'm not saying it's going to completely remove your difficulties or problems because we all go through them, but it certainly can help because God is the God of all comfort. And then it says here in verse 4, Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. See, the Bible says we can comfort other people by the comfort we receive from God. You say, what are you saying? Here's what I'm saying. If somebody's going through a situation and you've been through something very similar, you can comfort them in the way that you receive comfort from God. You can help them through that trial. Now, here's the thing. You might not be able to relate to what somebody's going through. I mean, if somebody comes to you through this trial in my life, you know, I'm just trying to think of an example. You know, I lost my job. I got fired. You know, as far as I can remember, I haven't been fired from a job if I said, hey, I know what you're going through. It's like, well, I don't. Right? So that would be lying. So you say, what can you do for that person? Well, if you don't know what you're going through, what you can say is, hey, you know what? I'm praying for you. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Right? I mean, if you can't fully relate, that's understandable. You're not always going to be able to relate to the difficulties other people are going through because people go through different things. What you can do is tell them you're praying for them and you're there if they need to talk to someone or if they need anything. But here's the thing. If you've been through something very similar, you can actually comfort in the way that you receive comfort during that situation. Right? I can think of various trials I've been through in my life and other people that were through something similar helped me through that situation. And the Bible says this here in verse 4. You comfort as you have been comforted by God. Verse 5. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. So you think of the word consolation. You console somebody through a difficulty that they are going through. Let's go to Matthew 11. Matthew 11. So what can you do if somebody's going through the storms of life? Well, you can tell people that you're praying for them and you're there for them if they need anything. And you can also actually pray for them because sometimes we as Christians have a tendency. Somebody says, Can you pray for something? Yeah, I'll pray for you. And then at the end of the day, I say, Oh, I didn't pray for them. It's like, Well, how do you fix that? Well, just pray for them immediately. Right? At this moment, you just pray for them so you make sure you don't forget it. And if it's something major, keep it as something to keep praying for because I believe prayer works. I don't believe it's just a vain thing that we do. Prayer can actually work, and we should pray for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, at our church, we do a monthly prayer list where you're divided into a group, and if somebody has major things they want prayer for, pray for them. Right? But let's say the stage is not difficulty. Somebody's going through departure or detachment or the inevitable depression that takes place. Now, you say, Well, what do you do in those situations? Well, Matthew 11, we get an idea of this. We're going to look at several places that give an answer, but in our natural flesh, you might think, Hey, you know what? I'm going to rebuke them. I'm going to tell them, Get right with God. Now, that might be what people think. Right? You know, at our church, you know, people would label us as a hellfire and brimstone preaching church. I don't have a problem with that label because I'm not afraid to preach what the Bible says, but it's not like when I leave the pulpit, I talk to people, and they say, Hey, Brother Sucky, I'm struggling with listening to this type of music. Well, thus saith the Lord, Get right with God. Right? That's not the proper way to deal or talk with people, and actually the Bible gives us the wisdom on what do you do when someone's actually going through the storms of life. What do you do when they're going through this detachment or depression or these major things in their life? Well, Matthew 11 is one example. Notice what it says in verse 4. And this is after John the Baptist has come to Jesus and said, Are you the one, or should we look for another? Verse 4, Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which you do here and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the poor of the gospel preach to them. Now, John the Baptist went through difficulties, and quite honestly, in his specific case, he did not depart or detach by his own choice. He was arrested. But he happened to be in a situation where he was detached from everybody, and it wasn't his fault. But the reality is, whether it's something that you chose to do or whether or not it was forced upon you, the same thing results. All of a sudden, John the Baptist starts questioning things. Now, here's the thing. Does Jesus say, Say this to John. How dare you question I'm the Savior? Is that what he says? Now he says, just remind him of the great things that have been done. He exhorts him would be the word that we give. You say, what do you do with someone in this situation to try to help you exhort them? That's what we see here in Matthew 11. Go in your Bible to John 21. John 21. John 21. Now, look, analogies are not perfect, and they can be taken in different ways, but I'm going to give you an analogy to help you understand what I'm saying. We use the expression someone's going through the storms of life, right? And all of us go through storms of life sometimes. If somebody's going through a storm and they're trying to, like, fight through that water, they're trying to hold their head above water, they're drowning in that storm, you know what they don't need? They don't need you to take your foot and shove it on the top of their head and make it harder to get up out of the water. You know what they need? They need you to give them your hand and lift them out. And look, I get it. Analogies, someone can say, oh, you're just like Joel Osteen, right? And maybe he did give that analogy. I don't know. It's a good analogy, right? It's like there's a time and a place for everything. What I'm saying is someone going through storms of life, they're not intentionally choosing to just commit sins. They are just struggling. They just need someone because here's the thing. When people are going through the storms of life, let's say that they are departing a bit. Let's say they aren't reading their Bible now. They already know that they're not reading their Bible. They don't need you to tell them that. I mean, if they're not going soul winning, they already know that. They don't need you to tell them they're not going soul winning, and they're aware that you know that. And they're waiting for you oftentimes to basically condemn them so they can basically go back. What you need to do is just be compassionate. Be merciful. Show them love. Show them grace. Realize that you also in the future are going to go through the storms of life, and you're not always going to handle it the best. And when you're in those situations, what do you want? You want somebody to lift you up. Doesn't the Bible say about, in Ecclesiastes, two are better than one? It gives analogies. If one falls, he's got his brother to help him up, but if you don't have your brother to help you up, then what are you going to do? You're not going to end up getting up. Right? Sometimes we need our brother or sister in Christ to try to lift us up through a difficult time in our life. And look, I'm being completely sincere that I've had times where I just don't feel like going soul winning, and the reason why I do is because other people are going soul winning. It's just what we do. And it's like my brothers and sisters in Christ are helping lift me up. They're helping me through burdens. Right? All of us have highs and lows. It's reality. John 21's another example, and this is also in the story of Peter and also all of the apostles after Jesus has already been resurrected. And notice what it says in John 21. After these things, Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples of the Sea of Tiberius, and on this wise showed He Himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Canaan Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee and two other of His disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go of fishing. Now, is there anything inherently wrong with fishing? Well, obviously not. Right? I'm not a vegetarian. I'm not really a fisherman, but I'm certainly not a vegetarian. All right? There's nothing wrong with fishing. The problem is in this story, what it's showing is Simon Peter's going back to his old lifestyle. He was called by God to be full-time service for God, and he basically withdraws from that, and he basically just gives it up. Right? Not that he's choosing to commit wicked sins, but he's choosing to just fully depart from the things God has for him. He says, I go of fishing. They say unto him, we also go with thee. You know what this shows you in verse 3? The actions that you do affect other people. Now, I've preached this before in the book of Hebrews when it talks about church attendance. What's the number one reason it gives there to not forsake the assembly? To exhort one another. The number one reason you should be in church is not whether or not you want to go to church. It's because people at church want you at church. That's the reason why. Because with the Bible, teaches from cover to cover is our lives are not about ourselves. And that's a tough reality to get because from a young age, we're taught life is about ourselves. Right? And the Bible teaches the opposite. I mean, Christ did not come to be ministered onto. He came to minister and to give his life ransom for many, the Bible says. Our lives are not about us, but the reality is, none of us liveth to himself. Meaning that as Peter departs, what happens? Other people do, too. And the reality is, the choices you make in life will benefit people for the better or the worse. It's just reality. It is what it is. Then it says this. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night, they caught nothing. And what you see here in verse three is that, you know what? God does not bless them for the decision that they made. They caught nothing. Then it says in verse four, that they went forth Then it says in verse four, But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. So they cast the net, and they get this great multitude. You say, What is the Bible trying to teach? Well, think about how Jesus said, Follow me, and they don't realize it's Jesus, but they're going to realize right after this moment, they get reminded of all the great things that they've done in their lives. I mean, if you've been at our church, you know, for the last couple years, you've been part of soul-winning marathons. We've done some great things as a church. I mean, just recently, last week, you know, the big soul-winning marathon, I don't remember how many salvations, but a lot of salvations. It's like, man, some really mighty things. I mean, catching a multitude of fishes. Lots of people saved. I mean, people putting in real labor in real time and effort. I think back to my life being a part of exciting events with other people that, you know, I got to catch some fish, and as a group, we caught a lot of fish. Got a lot of people saved. I mean, it's exciting. And look, there's truly nothing more exciting in this world than being a soul-winner. There is nothing more exciting. I mean, this great joy you get when you see somebody get saved. You know what? Being someone who's been saved for 19 years now at this point, of course, I've had ups and downs, and I've gone through times where I'm going through a down and I'm backsliding a little bit as the wording we use, and, you know, I go out soul-winning, you know, kind of out of duty, but I don't really want to, but I see somebody get saved, and it's like you get reminded of that joy. It's like, man, this is what life's all about, and you feel foolish when you got drawn away with all these other things. You know, I think of the song, you know, I wonder, have I done my best for Jesus? I mean, every time we sing that song, I'm thinking, man, I feel guilty every time we sing that song because I feel like I'm so far away from what the standard of what God wants, but sometimes you drift away and you get back into it and then you see those salvations and the excitement it brings to your life, and you're like, there's nothing that compares to this, and this is not just mere words. This is reality. There's nothing that compares to it in this world, and they get reminded of this when they catch a multitude of fishes, but what you don't see in this story is Jesus rebuking them. I already rose again. Why aren't you doing what I said? What's wrong with you? You don't see that in this story. You know why? Because they're struggling. They're going through storms, and they haven't fully recovered, and what you see Jesus doing is exhorting them and reminding them and trying to get them back in the fight. You say, Brother Stuckey, what do I do to help someone who's sliding back? You exhort. You encourage. Now, our natural reaction might be to rebuke, and I'm not saying there's never a time for rebuke in the Christian life because sometimes, you know, Paul rebuked Peter. I get that. There are times, but in general, the best thing you can do is just give them a hand, encourage them, and maybe wait it out and wait to see them get through. They say, Hey, I'm there if you need anything, and if they see you be like that for a week, then maybe all of a sudden, it will really help them. That's what we see with the stories of John the Baptist. That's what we see with the 12 apostles, how Jesus handles them in those situations. Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loves sayeth unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girded Fisher's coat onto him, for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea. Now, I do want to say this on a side point because when I first started reading the Bible, I didn't understand what the word naked meant in the Bible. I was like, Is Peter not wearing any clothes? Right? But the Bible does not say that you have to be completely no clothes to be naked. The Bible defines from here to here as your nakedness on both sides. You could maybe make an argument that he's shirtless, but it's probably he's wearing shorts and he has part of his body exposed. Is that the biggest deal in the world? Well, no, but he feels ashamed because, you know what, when he was close to Christ, he had really strong standards and now he's slid back a bit and then all of a sudden he just jumps into the water. Right? He's trying to hide himself. He's like, Well, I mean, you know, Christ sees everything, so it's like you're not really hiding yourself, but that's what he does. Verse number 8, And the other disciples came in a little ship for they were not far from land, but as it were 200 cubits dragging the net with fishes. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes in 150 and three, and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine, and none of the disciples durst ask them, Who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord? That's where you get that song, Come and Dine, in our hymnal. Go to 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19. And you know what? Perhaps this brought back a lot of memories. Perhaps they were thinking about the great multitude where basically they just had a few fish. You know the miracle he does at least a couple times, two times specifically mentioned, and he turns just a few loaves of bread and a few fish into like food for thousands of people. And maybe they're being reminded that literally Christ can create fish out of nothing, right? But it reminds them back to this idea of soul winning and the joy found in soul winning. It's an exhortation to be reminded. You know, sometimes in life we just need to be reminded of things that maybe we kind of forgot about. That's how you help someone who's in that situation, but what do you do if you find yourself in this situation? Now you say, Brother Stuckey, I'm not in this situation, but you will be one day. You're certainly going to go through difficulties, and you're not always going to just stand firm perfectly no matter what. Sometimes you're going to depart at least a little bit. You know, if you were to look at our lives and think of like drawing close to God is like climbing a mountain is an analogy in the Bible. You're drawing night at God. It's not like this is your trajectory. Just, you know, linear, right? You got to use the math analogy. It's not a linear line. It's not, I mean, I don't know what you'd call it, but it's something like whoo, whoo, right? And you're going up and down, up and down, and you're hopefully slowly getting higher, but it's not just like every day, you know, you're just pressing forward, and every day you're closer to God than you were the day before. That's not reality. The reality is you go through seasons where you might go down, and you got to pick yourself back up, and a just man falls seven times and rises up again, the Bible says. All of us are going to have times where we kind of go down. We got to get back up. We go down, and this is why you need preaching to remind you of these things. I mean, we already know these things. We know we should read the Bible every day, but it's true that you need to be reminded of it, and then it kind of just gets you back into it, and our lives are not just linear, but they're like, you know, up and down, up and down, up and down, and hopefully you're getting closer, but there's going to be a lot of difficulties and low points along the way. So what do you do if you're in this situation? Well, number one, we see that you spend time with God. In 1 Kings 19, the Bible teaches us spend time with God in this situation. Verse 5, and as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him and said unto him, Get right with God, Elijah. Is that what the Bible says? Once again, you don't see a rebuke. Elijah knows that he's not as zealous as he was in 1 Kings 18. He doesn't need to be reminded of it. I mean, he's already aware of it. What does he say? He says, Arise and eat. Now, the physical application is literally arise and eat food. What's the symbolic application? Well, this is our bread of life. Right of esteem, the words of God more than my necessary food. Symbolically speaking, he's saying, Hey, you know what? You need to spend time with God and his word. If you're going through problems in life, the thing you need to do is spend time with God. Now, here's the thing. When you go through problems or you start to slide back a little bit, the last thing you want to do is read the Bible. But that's the first thing you should do. When you're not feeling as spiritual, you don't feel like spending time with God, but that's when you need God. You need to read God's word. You need to rise and eat. Right? What am I saying? I'm saying wake up in the morning, arise, and just say, You know what? I don't care about what's going on on social media. I don't care about all these problems. I just need to spend 30 minutes just eating the word of God. I need to get the word of God in my life because I'm at a down point right now. I need to rise and eat. Verse six. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake, bacon on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. About five years ago, I preached a sermon called Arise and Eat at Verdi Baptist in Sacramento. And I, of course, used this story. And what I talked about was the level with which you consume God's word determines the level of the journey you can go on for God. Meaning if you don't read the Bible much, you're not going to accomplish that much for God. The more you read God's word, the more time you spend with God, the more you can do for God. It's a direct relationship. The more time you read the Bible, the more time you pray, the more you memorize the Bible, the more you can accomplish. And what he says to Elijah is, Elijah, you're a great man. Your journey is too great just to eat a little bit. Now, look, all of us should try to consume God's word as much as is possible, but if you want to do great things for God, you better arise and eat. You say, brother Stuckey, I have a desire one day to be a pastor. You better arise up every single day and eat. You better spend some serious, serious time with God. I mean, it's not just, and look, you know, praise the Lord for everybody who reads through the Bible cover to cover on a yearly basis. And you know what, I know people's schedules are a little bit different. You can be really busy, but the bottom line is if you're going to be a preacher of the word of God, you need to read the word a lot. Not just, well, you know, 10 minutes here, miss a couple days, 20 minutes. No, no, no, you need to spend a lot of time in God's word. Then you say, brother Stuckey, I don't have a desire to be a pastor, but do you have a desire to go on a great journey for God, a desire to get a lot of people saved, a desire to serve God your entire life, a desire to do great things for God? You better arise and eat and spend a lot of time with God. And he arose and did eat and drink and went in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights unto Horeb, the mount of God. And he arises and eats, and he can physically do this journey. The spiritual application is you can spiritually do great things for God if you're spending a lot of time with God. Look, when you're going through problems like Elijah, the angel kind of reminds him, hey, you know what, now is not the time to detach from God. You need to read the word. You need to spend time in prayer. You need to memorize the Bible, and it will remind you of those things you already know, right? But it's not just spend time with God that fixes Elijah because Elijah has put himself in basically a permanent situation. Remember, he left his servant there because nobody on their own is going to serve God zealously. You must have people around you. You say, Brother Stuckey, John the Baptist was one man preaching in the wilderness. Why did he have disciples if he was one man? Yeah, he's the one preaching with other people. Look, if I was preaching to an empty crowd every week, do you really think I'd be going soul winning every single Sunday? There's no way. You know why I go soul winning every Sunday? Because that's what we do. And I've got my brothers and sisters in Christ. We do it as a group. We encourage and edify one another. You're not going to do it by yourself. I mean, Elijah has put himself in a situation where he's away. Well, there's a problem there. And see, when you're going through a difficult time, what you need is to spend time with God's people. And we see that in the same chapter, verse 19. So he departed then, verse 19, and found Elisha, the son of Shaphath, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him and he with a 12. And Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again, for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slew them and boiled their flesh with the instruments of the oxen and gave unto the people and they did eat. Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him. And the rest of Elijah's life here on earth, you know, he is on fire and zealous for God. You say, what fixed that? Well, he got back to just spending time with God, but he also was around God's people. You know what? You can get the preaching by just going to YouTube and listening to the sermon. But what you cannot get is spending time with God's people. There are people that travel a long distance to come to this church. And look, you know what? I promise you, everyone in that situation, there's going to be a temptation from time to time. You know what? I'll just listen online. And of course, you know, people get sick and things come up. I'm not saying that there's never a time for that, but here's the thing. What you do not experience by listening online is fellowshiping with God's people, spending time with God's people. And Elijah is back with God's people. The rest of his life, he's on fire for God. Elijah went through difficulties in life. I wish I could stand up here and tell you that, you know what? You're never going to fight with God. You're never going to have any health problems. You're never going to have any problems with money. Everything in your life is going to be perfect. Isn't that what the health and wealth preachers preach? They preach that because it sounds good. I mean, I wish that were true. I wish you could just go with your life and no problems, no difficulties at all, but that's not reality. You're going to go through difficulties, and another reality is every great person in the Bible outside of the Lord Jesus Christ from time to time departs when they go through difficulties. And what that tells me is that all of us, including myself, will have times where we depart a little bit. And the temptation in our flesh during that time period is then to detach from everyone. You just want to be alone. I get it. When I've been through major difficulties, I just want to be alone. I just want to get away and just get alone, but that doesn't fix your problems. What you see in 1 Kings 19 is major depression after the detachment where he despairs even of life. Paul the Apostle spoke about in 2 Corinthians how the people that are closest to God in the Bible, how they despaired even of life. He's giving you an honest statement where it's like, I didn't even know if I wanted to go on anymore. You say, how do you get through those moments? You get through those moments when you got your brother in Christ to say, hey, let me help you out. Got your sister in Christ to say, hey, let me help you out. Realizing, and you know what you need is Job's friends. Right? I mean, there's the tactic. We'll just, you know, rebuke, I mean, it's like the man just lost 10 kids. He lost everything. And even if it was his fault, which it wasn't, it's like, why are you kicking someone when they're down? That's not what people need. They need a hand up. So how can you help your fellow brother or sister in Christ? You can try to exhort them, encourage, and be long-suffering and have compassion on them. You say, Brother Stuckey, what do I do when I go through that situation? Make sure you spend time with God, number one. Arise and eat. Read the Bible. Pray. Sing the hymns. Make sure you spend time with God's people. Every Elijah needs an Elisha. Even if you're the most zealous and greatest Christian in the world, which I doubt any of us are, but if you are, you know what, you still need Elisha. Elijah gave us an honest perspective when he said, you know what, I'm not better than my fathers. Basically, he said, I can't do this alone. I thought I was better, but I'm just like Moses who says, hey, I don't even want to live anymore. Right? All of us need our like-minded brethren to help us through those difficult times. Let's close with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and ask you to help us to apply 1 Kings 19 to our lives, help us to be able to fight through the storms of life and help us to pray for one another and have compassion in other people that are going through various problems, God. I ask you to help all of us, including myself in the future, when we go through these problems, God, help us to just rise back up and stay in the fight and realize that, you know what, it's gonna get better. And I ask you to help all of us with this and ask you to continue to bless our church. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.