Good morning. The Great Commission says to disciple by teaching them to observe (or to do) all
that I've commanded you. Our mission at GraceWay is disciples making disciples. That's why we
have two events next weekend. I want you to know about those. They're not just events that are
placed on the calendar for fun, but they're part of our mission.
We have a men's meeting next Saturday morning at 8:30. I’d encourage you men to come out.
It's about learning how to be disciples. We do that every month. But this is the Saturday. So men,
put that on your calendar for the Saturday at 8:30. And then the women are doing a planning
meeting for a number of events they're going to do. That meeting (the Hearts, Hats & Hellos)
meeting is next Sunday at 3:00. So I encourage you women to be a part of that so that you can
help plan some of the discipleship activities that will take place over the next year. Two
important events that are going to happen at GraceWay. Part of our mission for discipleship to
move us to be the people that God wants us to be.
How many of you received the email that I sent out this week called The Pass It On email? How
many didn't receive the email that I sent this week? Raise your hand. Okay. Would you please
stop at the information table outside and make sure we have your email address correct. Because
we want to make sure you get that email. It is an email that shares the information about last
week's sermon so that you can pass it on to others. Maybe you know someone with broken down
walls or someone who's struggling in their lives, and they would benefit from that sermon from
last week about a mission-oriented view of life. So get on that email list and then take time to
think about who might benefit from this message that I heard last Sunday. Or maybe you didn't
hear the message. You can listen to it yourself.
Let's pray together.
[PRAYER] Heavenly Father, we come before you now with anticipation, knowing that you're
the one who speaks to us and you lead us. We are opening your word, recognizing that you are
going to speak to us today. We don't know whether it's something big or something small, Lord,
but we know that you're going to speak as we look at your word. We thank you for the privilege
that we have to have the written scriptures in our own language. And we don't take that lightly.
When we open your word we recognize that you're speaking in a way that will change our lives.
We ask for your grace now as we do just that. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Today I want to talk about real life. In fact, I want to talk about faith in real life. I want to talk
about faith that isn't just a Sunday faith, but a faith that we take into Mondays. In fact, I thought
about calling this Monday Morning Christianity as the title of the sermon. I didn't choose that. I
chose a statement later on in the passage for the title for this sermon. But the point is, we need to
learn how to take Jesus home. We need to learn how to take Jesus into our lives every day.
Because the reality is that the things we talk about today among Christians and the people that
we enjoy spending time with is a challenge when we take this home into our homes where there
are people that are difficult to live with, or at work where people are challenging at least, or
neighbors that are hard to get along with. What do we do with our faith in those moments? How
do we respond? How do we respond to people who seem to have issues in their lives and
somehow we're affected by those? We didn't do anything wrong. We're just trying to do the right
thing. But other people have issues and it creates tension in the whole dynamic. That's what
we're going to look at today.
See, I think sometimes people have a belief in their heart that if you become a Christian,
everything's going to be better, you're not going to have any problems. But we know that when
you become a Christian, that doesn't remove all of the problems. It does give you a huge resource
library, a huge power source to address challenges in your life. So we're very grateful for what
God does when we become a Christian. I like to ask young people when I'm working with them,
are you a Christian? And many of them will say, “Yes,” and I say, “Oh good because now we
have so many more resources that we can use to bring about change and help you to be strong in
your life.”
That's what we're going to see today as we look at Nehemiah as he takes life into the real world.
It’s one thing to have an idea in the palace of what you want to do, but when you get down to
Monday mornings at work, what are you going to do? How are you going to handle the
challenges that you face? Let's look at Nehemiah 2:9-20 (the end of the chapter).
Would you stand with me in honor of God's word as I read this passage to you together? Open
your Bibles. You can read it there. Your online Bibles if you've got your iPad or your phone or
whatever, or your little workbooks you're working on, or your Bible that you're going to write in,
or you can look on the screen if you'd like.
Nehemiah 2:9-20. Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them
the king's letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when
Sanballat the Horonite (that’s one of our guys, challenging guys) and Tobiah the Ammonite (he’s
the second guy that we have a challenge with) servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that
someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. Just trying to do the right thing,
something good.
So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with
me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no
animal with me but the one on which I rode (probably a horse). I went out by night by the Valley
Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that
were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain
Gate and to the King's Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass.
Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered
by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I
was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who
were to do the work.
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates
burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” That
word derision is the same word shame that we saw in Nehemiah 1:3. And I told them of the hand
of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to
me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good
work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and this other guy
now, Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing
that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Then I replied to them, “The God of
heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion
or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
You may be seated.
There are two guys mentioned you see right away in verse 10. These two guys are opposing
Nehemiah. They’ve got some problems. I want to talk about these guys because I think you have
some of these guys in your life. I'm just guessing. They might be a neighbor, they might be
someone in your family (maybe, I hope not, but maybe that's possible), and they might be
someone that you see at work, in your neighborhood. These are the challenging people of life.
Let's look at these guys for a minute so you know a little bit more who Sanballat the Horonite is
and Tobiah the Ammonite servant is. Let me show you a graphic picture of these guys. These are
tension-producing guys. Just think about your life tension-producing people. That's what they're
doing.
In particular, notice each of these guys have these…I want to call them little kingdoms. I mean,
they're part of the Persian Empire. But the Persian Empire allowed each of the city-states we’ll
call them to function with their own leadership. And so they had their own little kingdom. I view
these guys, particularly Sanballat (we’ll focus on him), as protecting the status quo. He doesn't
want any change. He wants to protect what he has. I'm sure you know some people like that. You
go into new job and there's a person working in the place where they have the resources and
they've got their territory – “don't touch my desk” and “stay away from this area.” It's those kinds
of guys that are Sanballat kind of people. The people are saying, “I want to protect what I have.”
And now Nehemiah is coming and he's rebuilding the walls. This is going to be a significant
influence in the area. They're feeling a threat, this jealousy, in essence, this over-protection that's
not helpful for them.
I have to say that although we're looking at other people and their problems, I think we need to
examine our own hearts at times to see if there's any Sanballat in our own hearts. Because
sometimes we ourselves become over-protective, self-focused, even selfish. It's because we all
have a sin nature and that sin nature really reveals its selfishness in different ways. Sometimes
it's all about protection. Even in a marriage relationship, sometimes “don't touch my stuff,” or
“that's my thing,” or “I want it this way.” That's who Sanballat is. He's that kind of a guy. I mean
one five-year-old boy says to his brother who's three years old, “All these toys in this house are
mine. I was in this family first.” And I think that's how some of us respond to life. We become
protectionist. We become focused on the present. We want to protect the status quo. That’s
Sanballat. We've got to be concerned about that in our own hearts. But certainly we see that in
other people, neighbors, you know “this is my line here, don't cross it” kind of experience.
The second guy we see there in our scripture in verse 10 is Tobiah the Ammonite servant. He's a
different kind of a guy. If we do some study in the Bible, we find his name in another place in
the book of Ezra. Now we're studying the book of Ezra on Sunday evenings under Pastor Don. I
want to take you back to Ezra 2 because in Ezra 2 we have his name mentioned. So go with me
on a tangent here for a moment, if you will, because sometimes a Tobiah kind of person has
some baggage from the past that really doesn't affect us. But we need to go back and look and
see what's going on in Tobiah’s life. Let's see what is happening in Ezra 2.
It says this: The following were those who came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addan,
and Immer, though they could not prove their fathers' houses or their descent, whether they
belonged to Israel. You see, what was happening is Ezra’s organizing the people, organizing the
food, he’s giving people jobs to do. But it's very important their genealogies. What happens in
the genealogy is very significant because they want a pure line of the priest. Now I know
sometimes you look at the genealogies and you say, “Whoops, skip that page,” and go right on.
That's why you probably want to come tonight because Pastor Don is going to tell us about the
value of genealogies in the scriptures, particularly the ones we're looking at in Ezra in our study
tonight. But these people were coming and they want to be priests. But their names weren't in the
genealogy. They couldn't find the paperwork in order to have the job. That's the problem here.
Notice their names. It says in the next verse – The sons of Delilah, the sons of Tobiah (there's our
guy), and the sons of Nekoda. Hmm, interesting. So Tobiah wants this job, doesn't have the
paperwork, at least his sons do.
Verse 62 – These sought their registration among those enrolled in the genealogies, but they
were not found there, and so they were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. So they applied
for the job, they were passed over for the job, they didn't get the job. And so now they have
issues in their hearts. I know if you've ever applied for the job and have been rejected, then you
know that feeling of rejection that you have. It may be that Tobiah held on to that. And so now
he's coming with his baggage into this situation with Nehemiah and he's got an axe to grind. But
it doesn't have anything really to do with Nehemiah. Doesn't that happen in life sometimes? We
bring baggage from the past into a situation.
It happens in marriage relationships. You know, you're trying to live with two people together in
a home, married. There's these triggers from your past where you lived in a home and you think,
“Oh, I lived in a home…” and so you're bringing baggage into the situation you unleash on
somebody. Maybe at work. You know, there's somebody who comes at you and you go, “What's
the problem here?” and they probably had a problem with somebody else who had red hair and
now you have red hair, and so that's a trigger and so they're saying, you know, “I'm upset with
you.” That's the kind of problem that I think we may be seeing sometimes when we find people
that are opposing us, creating tension. People have got their own baggage, just bringing it into
this situation. It's a real challenge.
So these guys now are creating tension. These are the people that bring up the tension in our
lives and we have to know how to respond to them.
I view Sanballat as this kind of guy that's protecting the present. Tobiah is this guy that has past
stuff that he's dealing with. And Nehemiah is a different kind of a guy.
I would suggest that because we're Christians, we're different. Yes, we have baggage from the
past. Yes, we have issues going on in the present. But we're different. Because we have the
power of Christ, the gospel message is at work in our lives. We have Jesus Christ living in our
hearts and moving us forward so that we don't succumb to the same kind of problems that others
might succumb to, or at least we have the power to overcome those things.
I think that's what Paul is referring to in Ephesians 4 when he says these words: Let no
corrupting talk come out of your mouth. Because it often comes out of your mouth. That's where
it starts, right? But only such as is good for building up. Both of those words good and build up
are used in our passage in their Hebrew form today. As fits the occasion, that it may give grace to
those who hear. We are grace dispensers. If we don't have some grace to dispense, then we
probably shouldn't be saying anything. That's the idea here. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness… Now this is the first of six words. Let me just tell you what these are in case
these ring a bell for you either in yourself or with others. Bitterness is accumulated anger. So
that's the first word. Wrath is rage, anger out of control. Anger is the result of frustration with a
blocked goal or violated right of some kind. Clamor – that's like a bell. Clamor. It's a person who
creates tension because of their anger and everybody else feels that around them. Slander is
using truth or not truth or untruth to ruin someone else's reputation or damage the reputation. Be
put away from you along with all malice. Now malice is planning evil.
One seven-year-old boy was told “no” by his dad. Dad said, “No, we're not going to do this.” He
was so mad. Mom says, “You need to go take a break. You need to settle down, change your
heart, come back and see me when you're ready.” So he stomps off. And he’s seething there. He
says to Mom, “I'm going to get back at Dad.” And a little bit later he derailed Dad's bike chain as
a way of getting back at him. And Mom knew she had a bigger problem than just this one
incident, not being able to accept no as an answer. Here's a boy who's planning evil. We got to be
careful with this idea of malice. It's just part of that baggage we bring from the past that can
create problems in our lives.
So that's why we need this last part of the verse in verse 32, which says – Be kind. This was
Everett's Bible verse that he shared last Sunday night. He came up and he said, “Be kind.” Well,
those are the words. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in
Christ forgave you.
We as Christians are different. We have the ability to work through some of these challenges. It's
a challenge for us to do that sometimes. If you got stuff from the past that you're seeing is
affecting the present, or you're in the present and you're trying to protect things and God wants to
grow you out of your comfort zone into something new, those can be challenging experiences for
any of us. We need to be careful of the Tobiahs, the Sanballats in our lives, in ourself.
Nehemiah is different. Let's look at Nehemiah now. We're just continuing on in the verse there. I
found this very interesting. Don't you see this interesting there? Verse 11. He says – So I went to
Jerusalem and was there three days. If it were me, I'd arrive on the scene and before I go to bed
I'd want to check things out, have a meeting with people, find out who the important guys are.
You know I'd be moving right away. Not Nehemiah. He takes three days before he does
anything. What is he doing for three days? I think he's resting. After all, he just came off this
heavy trip, right? 850-1000 miles away, depending on the Google Maps choice that he makes.
Three months of traveling, depending on the traffic to get where he is now. So he takes three
days to rest. Or he takes three days. I suppose he's resting during those times. I think, wow, what
an interesting thing. Because I don't know if you're like me, but I think sometimes my ability to
handle life well decreases when I'm tired. And if I get some more rest then I can handle life in a
more effective way.
So I'm going to point out four things here that I think that Nehemiah did right out of the passage
here. Because I think these are the things we want to think about as we're trying to move
forward. You might circle the three days in your notebook as an example and just put aside the
rest as what he was doing during that time.
I like what Alistair Begg (he's a pastor in Ohio) said. Here's six things you shouldn't do when
tired. One: Avoid making important decisions. Number two: Avoid writing important letters. I
would put in there also emails, you know. Some people, I don't know why they do this, but they
use email as therapy. They'll write a flaming email at somebody that they don't intend to send,
but it feels good to just write the email and not hit send. But every once in a while accidentally
you hit send if you're tired. You go, “Ah! I shouldn't have sent that,” and you go, “Oh no.” Be
careful when you're tired because you can make mistakes along those lines. Avoid launching a
new project. Avoid the temptation to quit. I like these last two. Avoid assessing your spiritual
condition when you're tired. Avoid assessing the spiritual condition of others. Let's just be
careful about the conclusions we make about ourselves and others when we're tired.
Nehemiah takes time to rest. It's a valuable thing. I know it's really hard, especially for moms
who are working 24/7. It's difficult for them to rest sometimes. My heart goes out to single
parents who don't seem to get a break. My heart goes out to parents of kids with special needs
who just need continual care. Or for people who are in chronic pain. I would hope that as a
church we can come along side of people who are experiencing that overwhelmed condition.
Hey, can I come along and help you somehow so you can get some rest or you can go out and do
some shopping without the kids or something? That we're providing this rest because it's so
important in order for us to be able to move forward, I would suggest. In fact, I believe that in
the same way that Tobiah was kind of preoccupied maybe with the past and Sanballat was trying
to protect the present, I would suggest that Nehemiah is moving forward here. We want to be the
moving forward people in our lives.
One thing that Nehemiah does is he rests. The second thing we see that he examines the
situation. Let me point out, we read this already, but let me point out the landmarks. It says there
that the Valley Gate, the Dragon Spring, the Dung Gate. Do you see the word inspected? It's
underlined in white here on the slide. But I would encourage you to circle that word. Just like
you circled three days and marked rest, I would suggest you circle the word there inspected in
verse 13. And notice it's also in verse 15. Circle that word inspected the examined life. Notice he
goes by the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool. And then in the next verse, verse 15, there's the
inspected, and then the Valley Gate. Those are the landmarks.
Let me show you. You have in your bulletin today, if you open it up, you'll see on the backside
of the page an image of the Old City of Jerusalem. This is a model of the Old City of Jerusalem
with the walls already built in the time of Nehemiah. So you get the idea of what it looked like
basically. Let me show you a side version of it. That side version just gives you a picture of what
it's like. So that's what we're talking about.
Now he's going to ride his horse or his donkey or whatever it is. In just a moment we're going to
see that take place for him. In fact, let's look at a model. Let's see if we can talk about this model
here. He says he comes out of the Valley Gate there. See that there? He comes out of the Valley
Gate and he goes by this Dragon Spring, and he comes down here to the Dung Gate. And then he
goes over by this Fountain Gate and then he gets stuck because his animal (his horse probably)
can't get through. So it says there he goes in then the Valley Gate. So I don't know whether he
comes all the way back up over here and comes in the Valley Gate or if he just turns around and
goes back the other way into the Valley Gate. We're not very sure. But that's what's taking place
as he's examining what's going on.
Now the examining I think is important because the examined life is a valuable thing. That's why
you remember when we celebrated communion last week, one of the things we do is we examine
ourselves. We need to examine ourselves regularly. It's the Christian calling that we have.
Because there's a tendency for us to accumulate stuff, spiritual stuff, in our hearts. And so if
we’re regularly examining, we're seeing are there any broken walls where Satan can get into my
life? Are there things that need to be changed in my heart so that I can be on track? The regularly
examining ourselves is strategic for moving forward. So we're looking at those things in our lives
in order to make sure that we're examining our hearts in the right way.
This is discipleship. This is what God calls us to. Do you remember when Jesus called the
disciples He said to them, “Leave your nets and follow me.” Now I believe that every time when
we are called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we have to leave something. I don't know what it is
for you or me, but every disciple of Christ must leave something. And notice the nets aren’t bad
things. I'm not saying leave evil, we all know that. We leave evil. I'm talking about sometimes
we leave good things. Because we have different priorities. We're focusing on Christ and we
want to honor Him. That's part of what it means, the examined life. Jesus calls us to be disciples
and to count the cost.
In fact, let me read that passage for you. In Luke 14 it says – Whoever does not bear his own
cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does
not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he
has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This
man began to build and was not able to finish.”
We must examine our lives. We are disciples of Jesus Christ. And disciples of Jesus Christ as
part of what they do examine themselves. We open our hearts before the Lord. So we can allow
the gospel message to touch us. The Holy Spirit says, “There's a sin there. You want to work on
it.” Oh yeah. Okay. And so we're examining. There needs to be a time in our lives where
examining becomes part of who we are and what we're doing as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Well Nehemiah is examining the wall to see where the broken parts are. But now he's going to
come and take the things he's learned and he's going to communicate them. Let's look at these
next words. And I just want you to see down in verse 17 that the word we and us is used three
times. I just like the way he communicates. He's inspiring the people here. He doesn't say you,
you, you, you, you. He says we.
Well let me read it. He says – Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how
Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem (he’s
calling them to something – let’s build together), that we may no longer suffer derision or
shame.” And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good. Do you
remember we talked about that last week? The good hand of God. That thing we all want in our
lives. It becomes our testimony that we can share with others. The good of hand of God. And
also of the words that the king had spoken to me. And they said…and we’ll come to the and they
said in just a moment. But you see he's communicating.
Do you remember back in Ephesians 4 that I just read in that passage it says – Don't let any
corrupting words come out of your mouth. Jesus is the one who said it's out of the heart that the
mouth speaks. So if you really want to know what's in your heart, well it will come out your
words. So if your words are tear-down words, then we got a problem. And he's saying in that
passage in Ephesians 4 our words need to be build-up words. I like to use that idea with kids. Are
your words tear-down words or are they build-up words. We want our words to be build-up
words. It's the grace we're dispensing to others.
So Nehemiah is communicating. And we need to evaluate our own communication because it
says something about who we are. Nehemiah is doing that as Nehemiah is focused on moving
forward. Great lesson for us to learn here. And lastly, he's moving forward.
I want to look at this next part of the verse I underlined it here. It says – Let us rise up and build.
This is the title for this message. I just take it right out of the passage. Let us rise up and build.
It's made of two Hebrew words. The words rise up is a common word in Hebrew. It's used
hundreds of times in the Old Testament. All it means is get up. You're sitting down, it's
commonly used this way: And he got up and went. It's just the got up part, the arise. That's the
word. In this passage, the people are saying let us rise up and build. They're not saying let us
stand up because we're sitting down. They're saying let us get together, let's put it together, let's
put our mind in a direction so we're going in a particular way. Let's do that. Let's make a decision
to take some action.
I think some of us need to get up, rise up, and then build. So it's rise up and build. What a
beautiful combination of words used there. Because that's really our mission, isn't it in the
Christian life? Our mission is to go forward and rise up and build. God has called us to do that.
He's given us the message of His gospel to share with people who have broken walls all around.
That's what we do. We rise up and build.
But maybe God is saying to you in your life, you know, I’ve got some broken walls in my own
heart. I need to rise up and build, rebuild, or allow God to rebuild some things in my own heart
that are broken down. Very important for us to take action. That's the point. It's an application
here. I'm going to do something about it. I'm not just going to sit around. I'm going to get up and
do something about it. I'm being part of the solution here and move forward.
So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But… Here's our Monday morning
Christianity, here's the guys who are opposing us. Here's the challenge in relationships that we
find. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab
heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing?
Are you rebelling against the king?” Notice what Nehemiah says. I think there's a good
application here because Nehemiah is not going to get embroiled in all of this. He's going to
make a statement and go on. He says – Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us
prosper. I’m going to entrust this to God and I’m going to allow Him to work in our lives. He’s
the one who’s going to make us prosper. And we his servants will arise and build.” Those are the
same two words again. We're going to get up and we're going to build. We're going to do this.
We're not sitting here by ourselves. We're going to move forward. I really like the movement in
this passage. “But you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
The idea here, I'm convinced, in this passage is that that Nehemiah is saying we've got a job to
do. You know when you see the brokenness in our world, when you see the challenges all around
us, in your world, wherever you are, and you realize there's so much out there, so much damage
that has been done in people's lives. Sometimes we cower and say, “Oh this is so terrible.” But I
would suggest that God wants us to rise up and build. He wants us to move forward, even in the
darkest times. That's when leadership is needed most.
Twenty-five times in the Bible it says be strong and courageous. Over eighty times in the Bible
it says do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. Why is that? Could it be that during the most
difficult times that leadership is needed to move forward and we don't want to be afraid. We
want to take courage. We want to go forward, forward in our families, forward in our
neighborhood, forward in our church, forward in our community, forward in our workplaces.
That we're going forward. We have a mission that God has given us. How are we going to
implement that? I don't know. For you it's going to be different than me. We're all trying to do
that.
But one of the beautiful things is that in our neighborhood, in our community there are broken
down walls. And we as a church come together to serve Christ, that we rise up and we build.
That we're on a mission and that mission is not just to make everybody feel good. The mission is
to go out there and do the work that God has called us to do. That we're building together. Wow.
I just think that's so powerful for all of us as we're trying to serve the Lord.
Let's pray together.
[PRAYER] Heavenly Father, I thank you for Nehemiah. What a model of someone who's
rallying the troops. And then all these people coming together and working together. I just feel
such a camaraderie with other churches, with other Christians, with our missionaries, with so
many people. That we're on a mission to rise up and build. We want to serve you, Lord, in every
area of our lives. But we know that there are some times when we just need to look at our own
hearts and see if there's any brokenness that needs to be corrected. So Lord, I ask that you would
do that right now in our lives. You point out areas where we need to make some corrections. As
we examine our hearts, we ask you to speak. Do that deeper work in our lives. Empower us with
your strength and your abilities in our lives. We ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.
