…Homerun Derby, an annual competition. A player by the name of Josh Hamilton, who used to play for the Cincinnati Reds…but they traded him away (as they often do with their best players) to the Texas Rangers (Laughter)…and so Josh Hamilton steps up to the plate, but the path to get to that plate had been pretty bumpy. Nine years earlier he had been the number one draft pick and was living the dream: (he was a) multimillionaire overnight, he was an instant sport celebrity, he was the picture of success. But he and his mom were driving in a car not long after that and a dump truck ran a red light and struck the car. Josh would spend a month out of baseball recovering from those injuries. During that month he passed the time by hanging out at a tattoo parlor, and it was at this tattoo parlor that he was introduced to cocaine for the very first time. With plenty of time and plenty of money, it didn’t take long for that to become a very strong addiction. Things spiraled down from there. Twenty-six tattoos, numerous stints in rehab—but nothing could defeat this god that was winning the war within him. Eventually Major League Baseball stepped in. They suspended him from the sport for three years, which is the kiss of death. Everyone assumed they would never hear from him again.
During those three years he hit rock bottom. It came one night when he woke up from a coke binge in a trailer surrounded by people he didn’t know. He stumbled out of the trailer. He made his way to his grandmother’s house. He had lost everything. He fell asleep at her house and that night he had a dream. He says in the dream he had a large stick, or a baseball bat, and he was beating this ugly looking creature again and again. He identified the creature in the dream as the devil. He would hit him, and the devil would fall and come right back at him and just bounce back. He would hit him and he’d bounce back. He’d hit him and he’d bounce back. Josh says he woke up from the dream. He was sweating and he was exhausted and he was defeated.
So he continued in this way of life, and seven months later he had the same dream…except this time with a little different ending. He was beating the devil with the bat and the devil kept bouncing back. But this time when he started to feel tired, when he felt like he was ready to quit, he sensed a presence beside him. He looked over and in his dream he identifies the person as Jesus. And he realized that Jesus is fighting beside him and he is filled with strength. Here is what Josh Hamilton said about the dream. He said, “We keep fighting and I am filled with strength. The devil didn’t stand a chance. To me the lesson was obvious: Alone I couldn’t win the battle but with Jesus I couldn’t lose.” Josh says that he has been clean ever since.
So, a little more than a week ago, on July 14th he steps up to the plate at Yankee Stadium, and he sets an all-time single round record for most homeruns in a Homerun Derby. He hit 28 homeruns. It was an incredible accomplishment.
Afterwards, Erin Andrews, a reporter for ESPN, was interviewing Josh, and Josh said, “I can’t believe what God has done in my life and how quickly he has done it.” And he went on to give glory to God. After his testimony one of the baseball commentators said, “It’s a bad day to be an atheist.” (Audience clapping)
And you know, what Josh Hamilton experienced is exactly what we talked about last week. That is an expulsive power of a new affection, an expulsive power of a new affection. When Jesus became his primary affection, it had an expelling power on these gods that were at war within him. What could not be defeated by mental determination, what could not be defeated by physical strength, what could not be defeated by natural consequences—he had everything taken from him—could only ultimately be defeated or replaced by the affection of Jesus Christ.
That is what we are talking about as we study the idols and the gods in our lives. Until we understand who or what is sitting on the throne of our hearts, we will not experience victory. Instead we will continue to experience frustration and we will continue to experience defeat.
Now we hear the story of someone like Josh and we think, “Well, you know, at least cocaine isn’t the god that sits on the throne of my heart.” Maybe you say, “At least it is not alcohol, drugs, pornography or sex. At least it is not some blatant sin that I am bowing down to.” But we have to understand that our gods can be just as dangerous, even more destructive, because they are often scarcely recognizable as gods. We take the very good things that God has given us and we turn them into false gods…but we don’t even realize that’s what they are. We don’t realize that they have replaced the Lord God on the throne of our hearts, because they seem fine and they seem good. We are constantly displacing one god with another in our lives.
So maybe a young person has the god of a gaming system in their life. I mean, practically speaking, that is what is most important to them. Then that god is displaced by the god of a car. Then that god is displaced by a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Then it is college. Then it is the god of career. Then it is the god of a husband or a wife. Then it is the god of your home. Then it is the god of your children. Then it is the god of financial status. Then it is the god of retirement. Then it is the god of grandchildren. And we are constantly filling this throne in our hearts with different gods. John Calvin put it this way. He says, “The human heart is a factory of idols.” We are always creating these different things. We are always putting people in our place of worship. And until we identify those and remove them from the throne of our hearts, we will miss out on the life that God wants us to live.
So, like Josh, we must experience the expulsive power of a new affection; because what cannot be defeated can be dispossessed. What cannot simply be resisted must be replaced. So we replace our false gods with an affection for the one true God, (and) they begin to lose their grip on our hearts.
So there is this choosing that must happen in our lives. Often in church we focus on a choice that is made on the day of your salvation, but truly being a Christian is much more than a choice; it is a continual choosing. It is not just once a day; it is many times a day where you are choosing who or what you will worship. Many times a day you have a choice where you will worship the Lord God or you will worship something else. Will you worship the Lord God or will you worship your spouse? Will you worship the Lord God or will you worship food? Or will you worship sex or some physical pleasure? Will you worship the Lord God or will you worship your career or what other people think of you? The list is long, but every day we have this choice. And when we start to see life through that lens of, “Will I worship the Lord or will I worship something else?” then things just become very clear.
If you have your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter 18. In the next few minutes we are going to study a man who faces this choice in a very direct and a very specific way. Luke chapter 18. There are three words in the Bible used to describe this man: “the rich young ruler”…two adjectives and a noun, all of which point to the fact that he was a successful person. What God is going to do in this story…what Jesus is going to do…is put Himself in direct competition with what this man loves so much, and He is going to say to the man, “You choose.” And in doing so, I think all of us will be challenged. This man had accumulated; he had achieved; he had accomplished. If he were to worship with us this morning, I think he would fit in quite nicely. And he was worshiping the gods of success. Luke chapter 18—we’re going to start in verse 18. It says, “A certain ruler…” “A certain ruler…”
Now Matthew’s account—Matthew also tells this story—points out that he was a young ruler, a young ruler. Now in the Bible “young” means forty and under, okay? And I understand that some of you who are forty and over like to call yourself young and think of yourself as young, and while that is sweet, it’s not biblical, all right? (Laughter) It’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches forty and under. We know this man was at least under forty. He was a young ruler.
We also read later that he had great wealth. So what do we know about him already? Well, we know that he is a person who is driven. We know that he is a person who wants to be at the top, who wants to succeed.
It says, “A certain ruler…” The Greek word for ruler is basically “a recognized official.” He would have been recognized as a person of authority in the culture.
He asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Now you’ve got to give him credit for this, because if you have one question to ask Jesus—right?—this is the question. What must I do to live forever? But even the way he asks the question reveals the god that he worships, because how does he phrase the question? “What must I do?” Those of us who struggle with the gods of success are continually wanting to be the source of our own salvation. Then the word he uses here for inherit could just as easily be translated as “acquire” or “to earn.” This is one of the reasons we’re drawn to the gods of success because it allows us to put hope in our own accomplishments, to put hope in our own achievements, (to think) that we can somehow earn salvation. So we can make succeeding—even spiritual success—a savior for us, and Jesus doesn’t seem necessary because, “Look at everything we’ve been able to accomplish.”
This is one of the reasons why the most successful people are some of the hardest to reach with the gospel. In order for them to respond to Christ and to become a Christian, they have to take the god off the throne of their heart; but the god that sits on the throne of their heart is, in fact, themselves. It’s very hard to take yourself off the throne of your heart. It’s hard to admit weakness. It is hard to admit that you’re unable, especially for a highly driven, successful person.
This is why TV personality, Bill Maher, when he was talking about the crucifixion said, “I just don’t get the thought of someone else cleansing me of my sins. It’s ridiculous. I don’t need anyone to cleanse me. I can cleanse myself.” I can earn it.
That is why when Warren Buffet donated 85% of his $44 billion fortune to charity he said, “There are a lot of ways to get to heaven, but this is a pretty great way.” What is he saying? I can do it. I am successful enough. I can earn it on my own.
So this is very difficult. The only way to have victory over this god is to admit defeat but it is this god, the god of success, that keeps you from admitting defeat. So these gods are at war within us.
Verse 19, Jesus goes right to what this man’s question is. He says, “Why do you call me good?” “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone.” Verse 20, “You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony (don’t lie), honor your father and mother.’”
And in verse 21 here is how the man responds. Jesus says, “No one is good but God alone. You’ve got to follow all these commands,” and the man says, “All these I have kept since I was a boy.” You see, Jesus tries to help him with the appropriate response. The man should’ve said, “I’m not good. I haven’t kept all those commands. I can’t do it.” He doesn’t say that. Instead he says, “Oh yeah, I have done all those things since I was a boy.”
What he is doing is what many of us in the church can get caught up in—especially for those of us who have grown up in the church. While success for you may not be something you feel too caught up in—in that you’re not worried about job titles, and you’re not worried about financial status—it is very possible for you to make spiritual success a false god. Like the man in our text, when you keep all the religious rules it makes it very difficult to see that you are, in fact, in need of a Savior. So you can make your religious rule keeping a functional savior where you say, “Look, I can be so spiritually successful that this is where my confidence is. This is where my security is found. This is my savior.”
So maybe you keep all the rules. You are at church every time the doors are open. You read your Bible and memorize Scripture and you pray and you fast. And you’ve even come up with your own set of rules. You don’t go to the movie theatre, you don’t listen to secular music, and you don’t just give ten percent; you give fifteen percent. And you’re doing all these things, which are all well and good until they become your god, until somehow they have replaced Jesus as your security and as the source of your salvation.
So this man has great confidence in his spiritual success. “I have kept all these since I was a boy.” Verse 22, Jesus takes aim at the god, the primary god that sits on the throne of this man’s heart. “When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.”
Now the adjective that is used here to describe this man’s wealth would have put him above pretty much everyone else at that time and in that geographical area. He was towards the very top. As you read the story, here is what often is done. This is how we often read this story. We see this as a story about money. This is not a story about money; this is a story about idolatry. The problem with this man is not that he had a lot of money; the problem is that the money had him. The Bible does not say that money is the root of all kinds of evil. It says, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” And you may be rich or you may be poor—that is really not the issue. It is not about whether or not you have money; it’s whether or not money has you. He has turned it into a false god. The reason Jesus talks so much about money in Scripture is because money has for us the most potential, I think, of any false god to become a God-substitute. So Jesus talked more about money than He talked about heaven and hell, than he talked about sin and judgment. He talked more about money than he talked about prayer. In the Sermon on the Mount he mentions idolatry only briefly, but when He speaks of idolatry the only application He gives is that of money. Listen to what He says in Matthew 6:24. Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” So money in the Bible is consistently portrayed as God’s chief competition.
Now here is why. (And this was very helpful to me personally when I understood this.) The things in our life that have the most ability, the most potential to become a false god are the things that promise to do for us what only God can do. The things that have the most potential to become a false god are the things that carry with them a false promise that they can do for us what only God can do.
In her recent memoire, bestselling author Darcey Steinke, recounts how she was the daughter of a Lutheran minister but she left her Christian heritage. She went to New York City and she became involved with a life of sexual obsession and club hopping. She wrote several bestselling books, and so she became well-off and she became well-known. She was writing these memoires of her life, and she comes to the point near the middle of the book where she quotes a woman by the name of Simone Weill, and she says this was the issue for her in her life. “One has only the choice between God and idolatry. (It’s your only choice.) If one denies God, one is worshiping some things of this world and the belief that one sees them only as such.” You’re worshiping these things thinking, “These are just things.” I’m worshiping the things of this world thinking, “They are just the things of this world.” “But in fact,” she says, “though unknown to oneself (though you don’t even realize it) you are, in fact, imagining the attributes of divinity in them.” You are imagining the attributes of divinity in them. You are ascribing to them things that are only true of God.
Now think how we do this when it comes to money. What do we say about money? Well, one thing we say is that money will satisfy me. We give money this divine attribute that it has the power to satisfy our souls, and in doing so, we make it a god in our lives.
If you ask most people, “What is the definition of success for you?” the word happiness would show up. Aristotle called happiness “the chief good.” The ultimate purpose, he would say, for existence is to be happy. And when you talk to people about, “Well, what’s it going to take to be happy for you?” it doesn’t take long for them to start speaking in terms of dollars and cents. Eventually, money becomes the symbol for our happiness.
So when we see money as something that has the ability to satisfy us, we are giving it a divine attribute. Yet we’ve seen over and over again the evidence says otherwise. Forbes Magazine, when they put out their 75th anniversary issue—it was 570 pages long, and the majority of it went to unpacking this theme: “Why do we in America feel so bad if we have it so good?” They asked eleven of their best writers to probe this question. Well, you can read through the whole thing; it really comes down to a very simple equation: Money does not equal happiness.
Yet we want to believe that it would satisfy. Satisfaction is not something that you can take off the rack, order off the internet or drive off a lot. We think we can do that. We think, “If I could drive this car, I would be satisfied.” And every time we see someone else driving that car, we think, “If only I could drive that car.” We go through the Homearama homes, and we think, “If only I lived in this home, then I would be satisfied.” But what are we doing? We are giving money, wealth and possessions a divine attribute. We are saying that it has the power to do for us what only God can do.
Another thing we say about money is, “Money can make me significant.” And when we talk about people’s worth, we almost always talk about their net worth. We start to determine someone’s value by their valuables, and when we do that, we are ascribing to money a divine attribute. You see, God wants to be the person who gives us significance. He wants to be the person to give us worth. But when we look to money to do that, which we often do, we are making that a god in our lives. I mean, I don’t know if you are like me, but I can do that. Like, if I am driving a…and I’ve driven a number of rundown, trashy cars in my life. And when I am driving one of those cars, do you know how I feel about myself? I don’t feel very good. I put the mirror flap down and I put the seat back and I try not to be seen. Why? Because we start to determine our value by our valuables, and when we do that we are making it a god.
Another thing we say about money is that money will bring us security. That is a belief that we have. God wants to be our security, and when we look to money for security we are making that our god. We are giving it a divine attribute saying, “Oh, you can make me secure.” Whatever you put your security in is ultimately your god. Most of us have come to believe that comfort and security is something that has a price tag, that with enough money we can be comfortable and we can find security. “If I just had enough money then I could have health insurance and it wouldn’t really matter if I got sick. The hospital bills would be paid for.” “If I had enough money…life insurance and my family would be taken care of.” “If I could just save enough they would have that nest egg.” “If I had enough money then…” and all of a sudden, God doesn’t become who we are dependent on for provision in our lives.
Do you see how this works? We ascribe to money these divine attributes. We make it god. And God is jealous, because we are looking to money for security, for significance and for these things. And God says, “I want to do that. I want to be your source of satisfaction. I want to be your source of significance. I want to be your source of security.”
So I want you to think about the questions we asked the first week where we tried to identify, “What are the gods at war within us?” I just want to ask you a few of them. Because, when I started preparing for this message, I wouldn’t have said that money is a false god in my life. Certainly it is at war within me, but I wouldn’t have said it sat on the throne. And I started asking myself these difficult questions and I began to be convicted in other ways.
Question #1: What do you complain the most about? Remember that question. What do you complain the most about? Do you complain about your financial status, the car you drive, the house you live in? That reveals a false god.
Question #2: What do you sacrifice your time for? Are you mostly giving your time to making money?
What do you worry about? Are most of your worries and fears revolving around finances? Gas prices, the retirement fund, the house payments?
What do you dream of? What brings you the most joy? For many people, when they dream of things it is things that can be bought.
And what about this question? What controls you? What controls you? I know of some people in the church who have told me that they really feel called by God to leave their job in the secular workplace and to be involved in full-time Christian service in some way. They feel like that is what God wants them to do. They haven’t done it because money says it doesn’t make sense. Money says, “You can’t afford it.” So if God is saying, “This is what you should do,” and money is saying, “You can’t do it,” what you decide to do reveals your god.
I have talked to moms who really feel called by God to quit their jobs to stay at home with their kids. They feel like this is what God wants them to do, but they have to downsize and they don’t see how the numbers can work. So they have God saying, “This is what you should do. This is what I want you to do,” and money saying, “You can’t do it.” What they decide to do determines who their god is.
And I understand that different situations are not so cut and dry, and sometimes it can be more difficult to determine exactly what God wants. But at the end of the day, what is it that controls you?
You see, God wants the throne of your heart to Himself. He will not share the loveseat of your heart with money. He just won’t do it. And if you are putting your work, your success or your money ahead of God, then you are either experiencing, as we talked about last week, God’s active wrath or you are experiencing His passive wrath. You are experiencing His passive wrath in that perhaps He has just turned you over to these things and said, “Fine. If that’s what you want to worship, you go ahead and worship it, and one day you’ll realize it was a waste.” Or you’re experiencing God’s active wrath where He is taking some of these things away from you in an effort to turn you back towards Him.
Some very good friends in our church, Kyle and Pam Wolfe, gave me permission to share a story of what happened early on in their marriage. This is more than ten years ago, first year of marriage. Pam was the primary breadwinner in the family, and she was doing well for herself and she was finding identity in her money. Like many of us, (she was) worshiping the gods of our fathers, wealth. So she is finding her identity in this and this is the purpose for life. She is holding it over her husband Kyle’s head and it is taking a toll on their marriage. Things are not good at home. Then one day she is trading some stocks and she buys 2,000 shares of an IPO stock. With an IPO stock you don’t know how much it costs until after you buy it, and it came out to about $180,000 worth of stock for her. This was all of the money they had plus some. By the end of the day, her $180,000 worth of stock was worth $25,000 worth of stock. So she had lost everything. The family would have to take out a loan just to pay off the debt and she was devastated. She lost over $150,000. She calls her husband Kyle and tells him what has happened, and here is what Kyle says. He says, “It’s just money. We still have each other.” And God began to teach her some things. He began to teach her about what is most important. He began to teach her about what you can truly put your trust in. He began to teach her what true love really is. And if you talk to her today about it, you get the impression that the day she lost $150,000 was one of the best days of her life. You see, if that wouldn’t have happened, she’s not sure that she would’ve realized how much her husband loved her and maybe their marriage would’ve ended in divorce. If that wouldn’t have happened, then perhaps she would’ve continued to pursue this path of career and money and find her identity in those things instead of being a committed stay-at-home mom with her three beautiful kids. If that wouldn’t have happened, then maybe she wouldn’t have put her complete dependence in God. Maybe she wouldn’t have put her complete trust in Him. So nowadays that loan has long since been paid off…beautiful family, three kids. She’s an active Bible Study leader; Kyle is a deacon in our church. May you be so blessed. May you be so blessed that God pries your false god out of your white-knuckled hands rather than spend your life sacrificing and giving yourself to what is not real.
See, the problem with idolatry is that ultimately we are putting our trust in something other than Jesus. We are looking to something other than Jesus for our salvation. For many of us it is money. Maybe you are lonely, though, and you are looking to a relationship for salvation. Maybe you are empty and you are looking to possessions for salvation, or you are depressed and you are looking to food for salvation, or you feel rejected and you are looking to pornography for salvation. Maybe you are angry and you look to alcohol for salvation. Maybe you feel no purpose in life and you look to work for salvation. Maybe you are worried and anxious, so you are looking to money for salvation. So you’ve made these things your savior. You’ve said, “This is where I am going to look for salvation in my life.” And it is not a good trade. It’s not a good trade. It’s not the right choice.
I saw an experiment a couple of months ago that I thought I would try this morning. In my back pocket here is my wallet. This is my wallet. And I see one of my friends over here…and, Danny, here is my proposition for you. He has no idea I am doing this, by the way. Danny, would you trust me? Would you be willing to trade all the cash in your wallet for all the cash in my wallet? Would you be willing to do that? The right answer is yes. (Laughter) How can you not trust me? You’re an elder; I’m a pastor. Come on. (More laughter)
Danny: I’m with you, brother.
Kyle: Do you have a wallet? Okay, you’re carrying one. He’s not reaching for it. Okay. Buddy, there is nothing in here! (Laughter)
Danny: I’m an elder at this church.
Kyle: I guess you saw the offering go by or you filled up your car with gas on the way here…one or the other. There is nothing in your wallet. Last night I had Ty do this for me. Do you know how much money he had in his wallet? He had $400! And I told him, “This is not a sermon illustration. This is the real deal.” Well, here is…the good news is…I’ve got no money in my wallet either. Okay? So we’re even.
But here is what a lot of times we do. We have everything we’re carrying… got in our wallet…(and that) kind of represents our heart, represents who we are, and we trade everything we have for something that the world offers. We say, “Well, if I could just buy this, if I could just own this, if I could just drive that—then I would be satisfied.” So what we do is we trade everything we have. And it’s not just our money that we trade. It is ourselves; it is our life; it’s our jobs. We trade it all and then we find out there is nothing there. We find out that it is empty. The world promises that if we just have it we’ll be secure, we’ll be significant, we’ll be satisfied; but in the end there is nothing there.
This is what we read in Psalm 106. It reflects back on the Israelites worshipping a golden image while Moses is receiving the Ten Commandments. Here is what it says: “They (the people of God) made a calf at Mount Horeb, and they exchanged their glorious God for the image of an ox that eats grass.” This is not a good trade. Yet this is what we’ve done. We look at this and we think, “How ridiculous that they would trade their glorious God for an image of a golden calf.” Well, at least it is gold. I mean, some of us have traded our glorious God for a car that can handle the corners really well. Or we’ve traded our glorious God for a job that He hasn’t even called us to but it pays pretty good. We’ve traded our glorious God for a house that has a lot of upgrades. Or we’ve traded our glorious God for a more impressive portfolio. Don’t misunderstand me. I am not against these things. They are not wrong in and of themselves. But when good things become God things we are guilty of idolatry, and for many of us these are the things that have become too important in our lives. So I am wondering if for some of you your business has become your religion. The Wall Street Journal has become your Bible. You pay closer attention to economic growth than you do your own spiritual growth. These are not good trades.
I was reading the story this last week of Millard Fuller and his wife Linda. Millard tells about becoming a millionaire by the age of twenty-nine. He says at age twenty-nine he had bought everything for his wife that she could possibly want, but one day he came home from work to find a note announcing that she had left him. He went after her. He catches up to her on a Saturday night in a hotel in New York City. The two of them stay up talking into the wee hours of the morning, and she just expresses to him that the things that they have given their lives to, the things that our society says are so satisfying have left her cold. So her heart was empty; her spirit was burned out and she said she felt dead inside and wanted to live again. So the two of them knelt beside their bed in that hotel room, and Millard and Linda decided to sell everything they had and commit the rest of their lives to serving poor people. The next day was Sunday. They found the nearest Baptist church and went there to worship and thank God for their new beginning. They shared with the minister their decision and the minister told them that such a radical decision wasn’t necessary. Millard writes these words. He said, “The minister told us it was not necessary to give up everything. He just didn’t understand. We weren’t giving up money and the things that money could buy; we were giving up. We were giving up.” And Millard and Linda started an organization you may be familiar with, Habitat for Humanity.
It is tempting in teaching a passage like the one we’re studying from Luke 18 to say about Jesus when he speaks to the rich young ruler and says, “Sell everything you have,” it is tempting to say, “He didn’t really mean it. He’s just speaking metaphorically.” No, Jesus meant it. I wonder about this man. Did the rich young ruler just become a richer, older ruler? Or did he at some point realize what he should truly give his life to?
One of the strangest verses you’ll read in the Bible is in verses 22 and 23. It says, “He became very sad because he was a man of great wealth.” It just doesn’t make any sense. It is strange to read a sentence like that. He was sad because he wanted both God and money. He did not want to have to choose. Yet that was the only invitation Jesus offered. “It is all or nothing. I am either Lord of all or not at all.” That was His invitation, and so the man walked away sad.
The invitation has not changed. It is still the invitation. Will you make God the Lord of your life—not just parts of it but of your entire life—and let him have that throne on the seat of your heart? How you walk away today is up to you, but Jesus has patiently waited for that position of glory in your life. If you want to talk to someone about your relationship with Christ, or if you are ready to make this your church home, you can meet me down front over here. And we’re going to worship for a few minutes as we just give ourselves to God—not sing songs but as we just wholly give ourselves in surrender to Him. You can meet me down front over here as we stand together and as we worship.
