In our world today…. full of fake relationships…. and crazy facts that really aren’t… facts at all….……
It becomes pretty easy to end up treating God as a commodity……
Something that we can have whenever we want it…….. without really knowing who he really is…….….
We learn certain little tid bits of information about Him…. and we end up calling that….…
“knowing God.”……. Right????…..
But I gotta ask you……….
Do we really…… KNOW… God….. or do we just know about him…….
Our scripture this morning will be from Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 23 and 24……
but first I wanna tell you about a man you may or… may not have ever heard of… His name is Dennis Wise…….
And you could say that Dennis… is a pretty big fan …. of Elvis Presley…..
Not long after Elvis died in 1977… Dennis had plastic surgery…. in order to make himself look…. almost identical…… to Elvis…..
After this was done……
He began a career of impersonating Elvis…… and became the most popular Elvis impersonator ever…
When he was asked what motivated him to shape his life around Elvis Presley…. Dennis said…..
Elvis had been his role model …… actually his idol ….. his entire life……
Now……
Heres what Dennis said to the Boston Globe during an interview they had with him……
Dennis said….
“Yes,, Presley’s been an idol of mine ever since I was five years old…..
I have 2 of every record he ever made…
I have Pictures in the thousands….. books…. magazines…. pillows…. Pretty much anything I could buy… that had Elvis on it…
I even have leaves off the tree….. in front of his house……
Although… I never saw Elvis Presley in person….. I saw him on stage and in the movies….
Once I stood up on the wall of the Presley mansion for 12 hours…. just trying to get a glimpse of him…………..
But he had so many people surrounding him that I just never could get a good view….
Yeah see….
It would be pretty safe to say that…… Dennis worshipped Elvis Presley……
but he never actually met the object of his worship…..
Dennis knew a lot about Elvis…. but he didn’t know …. Elvis……
He knew all the hit songs…. all the movie that he was ever in…..…. all the concert appearances that he had……
He knew….. all of Elvis’ personal preferences for food…..His clothes….. and cars …
But none of that…… is the same as actually KNOWING…. Elvis himself………
And see that right there should be a valuable lesson for pretty much anyone…..………..
knowing about God……..
the object of our worship………
Is not the same thing as……. knowing God Himself.
Yeah See…… Many Christians know a lot ……about God….
They’ve read books…… And maybe even read the Bible a couple times…..
Maybe they’ve attended church for years……and years… and years…..
And don’t get me wrong……I’am all about all those things……. right….
But once you spend a few minutes with these people….. you quickly find out…. they don’t really…. KNOW GOD….
And a lot of these people honestly…. give Christians a pretty bad wrap……
See….. Gathering accurate information about God… is really just the beginning of our relationship with him………
Key word here….. beginning……. Ok….……..
Where are you this morning…. have you never jumped off the starting line yet????
See…… if our relationship never moves to the place of spiritual worship …
And actually knowing the Object of our worship……
if we remain a repository of all these little christian facts and figures right??? ……..
then sadly we just end up living out our lives as …….
academic Christians… and not actual Christians….
And an academic christian… can be a very dangerous person…….
The heart of the Christian experience…… is literally the worship of our Creator.……..
Is your entire Christian life made up of just knowing some facts that ….maybe somebody else might have told you…… ABOUT God……
or do you really…. really….. deep down..…. KNOW… him…..
I wanna make sure you fully understand…. that me… and pretty much anyone else you ever hear preach……
We all make mistakes……… Im going to mess up sometimes……….
Don’t ever take my word as Gospel…….
Im not GOD……… never claim to be……..
My job .. is to make scripture so enjoyable to you… that you want to go home and read it for yourself….
That you want to make sure .. that what I just told you is true……..
And I gotta tell yah…..
Knowing the God You Worship….. is drastically important…….
We must learn to worship God with our whole heart……
Our Love for God… is totally and completely based….. on the Bible……..
Hebrews 4:12 says that the Bible is …… a living book ……..
In the pages of which you will encounter the ……..living and true God…… who will reveal Himself to you for … What???….
For …who… He is……
a holy……. faithful……. eternal……. changeless…….. powerful…… good……. all-knowing…… sovereign….. ever-present….. and loving God……
THAT……….
Thats who God is…..
Is that how you know him????? Or is it just something that someone like me has told you about him????
Think about it….. have you ever felt….
ALL of that…..
in your life……????
You may already know a lot about God…….. and yeah….. You may even know Him personally…..
But Its my hope that during the next couple months while we go over this study of Knowing the GOD that we worship……
That we Meet Him again…….
That we know Him again……..
That we love Him again……
and that we worship Him…. all over again….
fresh and new………. for who He really is…….
So Lets open here with Prayer…. and then get to work…..…….
While spending time studying and being with God this week…..
I began to think about the question of what it really means……… to know God…….
Not to know about God…….. Thats really something totally different…….
but to really know Him……. What does that really mean????
What does knowing GOD personally…. really look like…????
How do we get to a place in our life… where we really… know God……
Yeah know… I ave problems with this just like anyone… Im only human…..
There are times when I wonder myself… do I really know GOD… or do I just know about him…..
If you sit there and tell me Tom… I have never felt that way… I have never wondered that….
Im gonna tell you your lying to me………
I guarantee…. that every person in this room has faced a problem in their life at one point or another….
where they wonder if God even knows if they exists….
Because if you ever have had that feeling before….. then your asking the very same question….
Do I really know GOD………
Because if you did…. you would never have ever had that doubt………
I think that…… most Christians…. feel a certain distance from God…
And like i said…… I know I do sometimes……..
Something that we just can’t really explain……
Most people want to treat him more like a 1 dimensional… black and white… words in a book… kind of thing….
You know like something they could put on a shelf or in a bookcase and forget about until the next time they might need him….
Instead of the true to life….. ever loving father… that he truly is……
And heres why I personally feel that people usually fall short…..…. on knowing God…..
Yeah see……
We can only worship someone we love………. and we can only love someone we know……
Real Worship………… begins with the heart……
A heart……. that has literally touched… the heart of God……
a heart….. that truly knows…… the one we worship…….
If we come to ….know Him…. as He wants to be known……. There is absolutely no way we can….. Not…. love Him……..
And if we love Him………. worship will not be something that we “do” on Sunday morning……… Right????
But instead….. it will just completely flow from within us…. naturally….
from a heart filled with the knowledge of…….. and the love for…….. God……..
Just like the water flows continually from a spring on the side of a mountain….
No matter how hard we try… we can’t stop the flow……….
And once we KNOW…. GOD…. our love for him will flow…… just like that spring…..
non stop from within our hearts….. And trust me… people will notice….
You simply can’t stop an uncontrollable love like that……
Worship is an ……….uncontrolled release of expression………. from a heart that can’t contain its love for God…….
Consider for a second our own personal relationships…with people that we love…….
A spouse…. a child….. a grandchild…… or maybe just a very very close friend………
If the extent of that relationship was only the exchange of a simple gift on a special day……..,
but no actual personal communication to go along with it….
what kind of relationship would that be…….
Yeah see……
No relationship will ever prosper…… if it is based solely on gifts……
without Any communication… or love…. that needs to go along with those gifts……….
But is that how we treat God……. We bring Him gifts once a week in the form of our tithes and offerings… or our simple presence at church….
Hey… I came to church God….. so Im all good……. you know I love yah……….
And then we wonder why our relationship with Him doesn’t actually grow……
If that’s how we’re looking to create a relationship with God…….. some serious problems are gonna begin to show their ugly faces….……
First off, if we don’t really know the true God…….. we’re gonna be tempted to create a God….
You know… one that’s convenient for us……..
one who doesn’t infringe on …our ideas… of what … Our Christian life should be like…….
Yah know….. God would want me to do this… or God would want me to have this…….
When we know deep down it has absolutely nothing to do with God….
Its our own desires……. not his…..
And then next…… if we don’t know the true God for who he really is….
we end up becoming vulnerable…. to someone else telling us who God is…. And that is dangerous……
It literally drives me crazy when someone says something like…. yah know… my pastor told me xy and z about this or that….
And then when you ask … Really…… where does it say that….
And they have absolutely no idea…..
Instead of allowing GOD to form their ideas…….. They just take on the ideas of someone else…….
They don’t KNOW God….. they know their pastor……….
They live their lives completely on what someone else told them… and they never researched it for themselves….…..
And like i said a few minutes ago…..…. Im just a man….. I can and most likely will be wrong about some things……
My only purpose up here is to open your minds and make you want to research things for yourself….
I didn’t write the Bible ok………….
Im just up here sharing with you what he has reveled to me……..
And trust me.. he may take the very same scripture… and revel something totally different to you…….
The Bible that you hold in your hand….
Yeah see… thats the Gospel……..
Thats the good news……..
Thats all Jesus… right there………
Thats what you need to be paying more attention to…
Not me… Im just the vessel….
Don’t ever take someone else’s word…… Over what it says in the bible…….
Im most likely going to interpret things…… differently than you might interpret them…….
Im sorry…. this is a fact of being a christian that just drives me crazy…………..
Don’t take something that someone else tells you about GOD… to be law……
Until you see it…. and read it… for yourself….
Yeah see….
GOD wants a relationship with each and every person on earth…..
And the only way your going to have that relationship… is when you read it yourself…..
And Allow GOD to speak to you personally about the matter……..
Now.. Im gonna be harsh here……
Don’t make the mistake of taking every single word that a… Simple MAN ….. that stands in this pulpit tells you to heart……
Read it for yourself…..Ok……
Thats the most important thing that you… as one of GODS children can possibly do……
Spend time with your father… and allow HIM to guide you down the right path…. not me……
Im only here as a sign post .. to point you in the right direction….
Ultimately its up to you weither you follow him or not……
Now….. while all of those things that we just spoke about are all very real dangers……
I believe there are 4 powerful things that happen when we actually come to know God……. in an intimate way…..
And I hope that as we get into these four positive benefits…..
That they will encourage you to truly know…… the God that you worship…..
Our first scripture this morning should give you a full sense of….. PRIDE…… in knowing God……
We should literally be proud that we know… who he is…….
Jeremiah 9:23–24 says,
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories ……glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
Man thats powerful…. right…?????
That I am the Lord, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment and
righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord.
So what do you find yourself boasting…. or bragging about the most….
Money? Intelligence? Popularity? Wisdom? Accomplishments maybe?????…..
I dunno…. but whatever it is…….
Jeremiah says…. Don’t boast or brag about any of those things…….
Boasting’s not wrong….. as long as we are boasting about the right thing………
And that … right thing is……
That we …. Understand….. and know…. GOD……..
And when we search throughout the bible we find more than One person boasting about …. knowing him…..
According to Galatians 6:14…… Paul stated this…..
That he would boast in nothing…..
except “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” …..
And then in Hosea 6:6 …. Hosea the prophet wrote that….. God delights more in people knowing Him…. than in making sacrifices to Him……
WOW…. that can be a game changer can’t it…….
God cares more about you … knowing him… and having a relationship with him….
than he cares about you coming to church……. and paying your tithes on time………….
Now don’t get me wrong… all of thats important….. but he cares more about you……… and spending time with you….
than ANYTHING ELSE…….
but yet people put more enphises on those 2 things…. than … knowing GOD….
Ask someone if they know Jesus…….. the answer is usually…. yeah I go to church……
Thats all great and all but… I didn’t ask you if you went to church…. I asked you if you .. knew Jesus…….
Yeah see…… it says right there that…
God delights more in people KNOWING him…. than making sacrifices to him…..
Do you get more out of what you do for GOD….
Or … do you get more out of what you tell people you do for GOD…..
If you come to the church… and plant some new flowers….
Do you make it a point to make sure you tell somebody…
Or do you just do it.. because you love GOD… and he knows what you did…. and why you did it….
and you know what…. thats good enough for you….
God delights more in people… knowing him…. than in making sacrifices to him……
Kinda nix’s that … Hey I go to church GOD…. so I must love you idea… huh…….
Yah see……. Worship is an important part of a christian life…..…..
but actually knowing God…. is the most important thing of all….. Because you can’t truly worship him… If you don’t know him….
When Paul was in prison in Rome, writing to the church in Philippi…..
In Phillipians chapter 3… and verse 10…….
He said that the ultimate purpose of his life could be summarized like this….
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection…..
and the fellowship of His sufferings…..
being conformed ………..even to His death”…..
When you read Paul’s letters…. it’s really pretty easy to see that this ….one thing…
Knowing GOD for who he is…… was the focus of his entire life……
It wasn’t about bringing people to church…..
it was about teaching people to KNOW God….
because once they know him….. they’ll wanna to go to church……
They’ll wanna be part of his family…….
It was literally….. his passion and his reason for living………
Can you say without a doubt… that God is the passion and reason for your living today????
Do you find yourself boasting in everything that ………….God accomplishes for you…. and in your life……..
Or do you boast about all the stuff that you do for yourself???
And how many times you’ve read the bible….. and how many facts that you know…….
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
So as you see….. first off….. we should all have a sense of PRIDE….. in actually knowing God…….
And when we boast… we should boast .. or brag about that………. not all the other stuff……..
The Second thing that we need to know …. is that Knowing God…. should give us a sense of purpose…..
There’s a whole lot of christians that don’t have any purpose whatsoever…. except for themselves….
Flip over to 1 John….. chapter 2…….Verse 12-14
Paul here is describing stages of a persons spiritual growth and maturity that every believer goes thru……..
There are spiritual children…… young men…… and then fathers……. he says…… starting in verse 12…..
12 I write to you, little children,
Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
13 I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have known the Father.
14 I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.
he’s not talking about actual children… young men… and fathers here….
he’s talking about their spiritual growth………
Spiritual children are those whose “sins are forgiven.” ……..
They have come to realize… that GOD is the only one that can do that………
They are people who….. don’t know any more than that they are born again…. and that they have eternal life……
Sadly thought….… some people are spiritual children… their entire lives………..
Are you saved??? yeah I was born again………
Ok… anything else to add to that??? Nope I was born again…….
Ok ….. Your a spiritual child……….
Yeah see….
They don’t know anymore than they knew when they were first saved…
So.. lets be honest here…..
everyone that accepts christ…… is a spiritual child…..
But… GOD doesn’t expect us to stay that way……….
Oh… Im saved… and I’m going to heaven…..And thats all I care about….
Ok thats great………..
But our spiritual lives…… should …..someday…. begin to transition into the next phase…….
Sad thing is…. most of the time…. it never does……
You know… If I would have walked away from the church when one of my former paster’s told me I wasn’t good enough to come to his special class yet…..
Maybe next year is basically what he told me……
I may have never grew at all in my faith….I may … still today… be a spiritual child….….
Yah know… sometimes pastors make mistakes….. and I above anyone else understands that…….
But we should never let someone else mistake… stop our spiritual growth……
I wouldn’t have had the courage needed to continue my studies…..
but I wasn’t about to let his decision… stop me from knowing the GOD that I so desperately wanted to know……..
So many people allow someone else’s decision to stop them from knowing GOD more
Or even worse…. they allow someone else decision…. to send them to hell……
Don’t let what someone else says… or does… send you to hell…. or stop you from knowing GOD… personally…. .
And then…. Becoming a spiritual young man in the faith….. should follow being a child……
This is most likely the time when your faith begins to be tested….
and there are times when your gonna have to prove what you believe in……
You begin to learn truth’s about God…. and see it validated in your own experience’s…..
You begin building a testimony that GOD can use…. to shape other peoples lives….……..
When you begin to have the faith that you would have never had before…….
And then…… When you begin to …..win…… more spiritual battles than you lose…….
Thats when you become a spiritual adult, or a “father,”…….. because at that point…… “you end up truly ….. KNOWING GOD…….”
Because you rely on him…. for every single part of your life…….
There’s a big gap…… between being a spiritual child…… and a young man…..
but an even ….larger gap…. between being a young man….. and a father………
Being a spiritual adult….. means you move from knowing about God….. to actually knowing Him personally…..
Where do you think you might find yourself….. On Johns chart……
If all you know is that you’re saved….. you need to begin to move to the next level…….
If you’re a spiritual adolescent…… you need to focus on moving from just knowing…. About GOD…. to actually … Knowing God…….
This is not a matter of pride…… but a matter of purpose that he gives us in our lives……..
so that we ultimately come to know God….. not just know about Him……
And then 3rd’ly…… Knowing GOD….. should give us….. a sense of Power……..
In Daniel 11:32 it says…… Those who know their God…. shall be strong, and carry out great exploits…..
Does this sound like you??? Are you strong in the faith and are you carrying out great exploits for God…???
I would say most of us probably aren’t………..
I try…. but theres a lot of times i don’t feel like i am…….
There are a lot of times that I feel like a failure……. but I don’t stop trusting GOD……
I continue… no matter how hard it may be… to try to grow……
See…. Daniel was an unwilling resident of Babylon when he wrote those words in chapter 11…..
He was taken there in the exile of the Jews from Jerusalem…..
He was in a setting…. where his faith was opposed by the culture around him…… But he found strength in his ……knowledge…. of God…..
He didn’t care about what was going on around him…..
He knew GOD…. and he knew it would all be ok…………
Daniel could have very well given up… and no-one would have thought any lesser of him… I mean he was just a kid……
But he didn’t………And thats what GOD wants us to do… he doesn’t want us to give up.. just because we can…..
Most of us probably know the story……
When Daniel first arrived in Babylon as a prisoner.. he was chosen to serve in the king’s court…..
When told he must eat from the king’s table…. which would literally violate his Jewish dietary standards…. he refused…..
Daniel ….knew… His God…. and he gained strength from his …..covenant commitment to honor God’s Word……
Daniel and his three friends were the …..only….. Jewish hostages mentioned as standing firm instead of violating God’s standard…..
And then…. Daniel’s three friends found themselves in another challenging spot…. when they refused to bow down before the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar…..
When the king heard about their refusal….. he was furious and threatened to throw them into the fiery furnace…..…..
Their answer to the king went like this…….
“Our God…. whom we serve….. is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace…… and He will deliver us from your hand O king……
But if not….. let it be known to you….. that we do not serve your gods…. nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up……
Whenever I read this account…… I am encouraged….. to know God better…..
because I want that kind of power in my own life…. Don’t you???
Christians are usually guilty of playing the role of victims……we live with a mentality of being the persecuted victims in the world……
But we aren’t victims at all are we???….. In reality….. we…… are the victors…….
And knowing God should give us the power to live like it……
Those young Hebrew boys in Babylon could stand up to the king…… because they ….knew God…..
They weren’t afraid of anything…. or anyone….. and were not about to lower their standards just to please someone else……..
Do you live your everyday life …. without fearing the fiery furnace ???
Maybe if we knew God as well as those boys did…..
we would live with that same fearless power in our lives when we end up having to face … the furnaces in our lives….
And then next……. Knowing God….. Gives us a sense of peace………
And trust me…. we all need a little peace don’t we……
It’s easy to read the paper and watch the news on TV and fall into a sense of ….despair…. about the conditions of our world……
We sometimes begin to wonder if God really is in control….……
We find out in Daniel that Nebuchadnezzar discovered ……who…… is really in charge of the affairs of this world…..
In Daniel chapter 4…. the king had a dream that he called on Daniel to interpret for him……
And The essence of the interpretation was that……. God…….. was going to get rid of the king for a period of seven years…….
during which time he would act like an animal….. grazing on the grass of the field…….
At the end of the seven years, Nebuchadnezzar made a statement about what he had ….learned….
In his crash course about ….who’s really in charge in the world….
he said in Daniel 4:34–35…..
“I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever……
For His dominion is an everlasting dominion….. and His kingdom is from generation to generation……
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing….. He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth…..
No one can restrain His hand….. or say to Him…… ‘What have You done?’ ” …….
Nebuchadnezzar, who had a pretty high opinion of himself……….
had finally come to understand who is truly in charge………
After being humbled by God for seven years………. there was no question in His mind…… about the….. power…. of God to work out His will……
He learned that ……..God is….. indeed in charge…… No matter what……
When we know who our God is……. and we transfer our knowledge…… to a level of trust that he is doing… exactly what he planned to do…….…….
Then…. and only then…….. can we live in peace……..
We can sleep soundly at night and not worry about all the crazy stuff going on in the world…
When we honestly know…. He is in charge of it……..
But if we don’t know Him……..
If all we do is know…. about him…….
then the affairs of this world…… Will BOG us down…….. they will keep us in a constant state of fear and anxiety…..
And thats exactly where satan wants us…… Because when were scared…… we do stupid stuff……….
As we wind down here… and begin to close our service this morning……..
The prophet Daniel once told of a time when God will ……establish His kingdom on the earth….
and he will destroy all other earthly kingdoms in the process…..
We must rest assuredly that the future he talked about will indeed happen just like he said it would…….
Just as God knows the future…….. He also knows our current present as well…..…….
There is nothing you are experiencing… Right now… today….………. that He is not ……fully aware of…..
God is never taken by surprise……. and He never goes on vacation…….
There is no reason for you…… not to live……. in perfect peace…….. when you truly know God……
You know there are things that we face … daily that we can look at and go…..
You know what… God must not know what he’s doing…….
Yeah….. he does……….
So back to our question…. and the reason that we will be in this study for the next few months……
Do you know God……..
or do you just know about him…….
Your answer can be determined by the 4 things we discussed this morning…..…..
The sense of pride…. Are you proud of your heavenly father…. and do you show it in your everyday life……
The sense of purpose, Is your purpose in Knowing God like Paul’s…. are you continually growing in your faith in GOD every single day???
The sense of power, Do you have the same … Power that Daniel and his friends had…… where your not afraid to show how much you Love GOD……
No matter what it might mean …………
And then finally…..
the sense of peace that others are going to see in your life……. and then they….. will be transformed by it……
And this right here is the very key behind wanting to do a study about knowing GOD….
John chapter 17 verse 3 says…….
“And ….this…. is eternal life….
that they may know You…. the only true God…..
and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”
Do ….. YOU… know GOD…..???
Because he is …. the only way…..
THE…. ONLY…… WAY…….
I hope over the next few months we can all kinda …. grow in our knowledge and relationship with God together…..
As a church family……. Right????…..
I don’t want this to just be a place you….. come to on Sunday morning ….
Yeah know… come hear Tom preach another sermon……. no……..
I want this to be a place that you come…. and feel safe…….. And you feel loved……
As we hang out with our new family…..
And hear stories … Not from me……… But from our father……….. And grow in our Love for Jesus and each other…..
If you just don’t feel that close to him anymore…… but you want to……
Would you come this morning… and rededicate your life to seeking…. a better relationship with him……..
And then as we begin our invitation this morning….……..
maybe…. I dunno…. maybe………
you have never had a chance to actually meet GOD…
You might have heard about him from someone else……..
But you just don’t know where to find him………. You don’t really know Anything about him….….
After this message this morning….. maybe he’s peeked your interest…..…. and you would like to know more…
And if thats the case……
Then I beg of you this morning…..
Don’t leave this building without accepting him as your Lord and savior…..
This might be the last time that he ever pokes you in the side and says…. HEY… Im right here…..
And I can’t think of a better place…. with better people….Than where you are .. right now…..
To help intruduce you to him …….
Yeah see……
Thats the very first step……… In knowing Jesus…….
Jesus… gave up his life…. Freely…..…. and died on an old wooden cross……. and rose the third day……
And Reigns…. by his fathers side…. forever more…….
For you……. so that you can have the kind of personal relationship that we talked about today……
The personal relations ship that was always meant to be………..
Yeah see he bridges that empty gap… between us… and GOD…. so that we can actually have that relationship…..
He wants only good for you…….. and so if your having any troubles in any part of your life….. Look to him this morning……
Don’t go another day…. another minute… without realizing that Something in your life is missing…..
and that something…. Is Jesus………..
Would you come……
Would you come this morning..…. and accept the free gift of peace……. that he has to offer to you……
If you feel GOD tugging at your heart this morning….
This is your time……. Would you come as we sing……
