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If you would turn to Revelation, we continue in our series through the book of Revelation this morning. We read in verses 14 to 22, the seventh letter in the series of seven, the letter to the church of Laodicea. Revelation 3 starting verse 14, before we hear the word preached and read, let us ask the Lord’s blessing upon it.

Let’s pray. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we do thank you again that you have come to us, that you’ve come to us in the power of your spirit, and enabled us to praise you and to give ourselves to you. We do pray, Lord, that you would help us at this time to drive out all those things that would harass and distract us from focusing on you at this time, and that we would hear the voice of our Savior through his word to us, and that it would change us. Have your way with us, Lord, we pray. And at the end of it all, you would be glorified and then we would know for certain that you are our God and that you are for us and that we, for certain, are your people. Be with us, we pray, and we ask all this for His glory and for our good.

In Jesus’ name, and all God’s people said together, amen, amen. Revelation 3, starting in verse 22, please give your full attention. This is the word of God. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write, the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.

I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich. I have prospered. And I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself. And the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” So for the reading of God’s Word, may He add His blessing upon it at this time. Well, today we come to that last, as I said, of the seven letters to of Christ to his churches, to Laodicea.

The church in Laodicea, as we heard, thinks itself well-off, wealthy, without any needs. But as we also read, that’s not the case in reality. Their condition is actually quite different. They might have an elevated view of themselves, but the Lord, Jesus, describes this church in an entirely different way. He says they are poor, pitiful, wretched, and naked.

This is the lukewarm church. and is about to be spit out of the mouth of Christ. The church in Laodicea joins the church in Sardis with these words of rebuke. They are the only two congregations of the seven that Christ addresses who receive no word of praise. Instead, these two churches, these two congregations receive only rebuke and a command to repent with a warning of Christ’s judgment if they do not repent.

As I mentioned, it’s the seventh letter, the final letter addressed by Jesus Christ to these churches in Asia Minor, the letter to the church of Laodicea. And with this letter comes the end of John’s opening vision of the resurrected Christ that began in chapter 1, verse 12 and ends with chapter 3, the words of Jesus. and their encouragement, admonition, and rebuke to those congregations struggling to remain faithful in the face of challenges before them. Paganism, persecution from the state, persecution from the Jews in some of those cities.

And what of Laodicea? What of Laodicea? A few things about this city will help us to understand what it is that Jesus tells them. Laodicea was a long established city. It was established long before the rise of the Roman Empire. It was known historically as the city of Zeus. In approximately 250 BC, the city was renamed by a ruler in honor of his wife, Laodicea. And years later, when the Romans came, 100 years later, Laodicea became a significant crossroad as well as the seat of local government.

It was an important center of commerce and widely known for its black wool from the sheep there. It was also known for the medical school that was present in that city. That medical school was famous for a salve or an ointment for the eyes that was so effective that it was in high demand throughout all of the Roman world. At this time in history, there weren’t many effective treatments for things, as you could imagine, but this salve was one of those few treatments used for a number of eye ailments that actually worked. It was actually effective.

In AD 17, there was a powerful earthquake that devastated cities in the area. Philadelphia was devastated. It also hit Laodicea fairly hard. But Laodicea received only a small amount of financial aid from the government because it was wealthy enough to meet its own needs. And in fact, it generously gave to help other cities, other of its neighbor cities around them, to help rebuild them. A wealthy city.

After the Jewish captivity in Babylon, large numbers of Jews sought to return to their homeland. And a historical figure, Antiochus the Great, convinced thousands of Jewish families to move into this area, Laodicea, in Western Asia, minor, about 250 BC.

But notice when we look at this letter, there’s no mention of opposition from the Jews who were there, or from the Gentiles by way of persecution from the state. Nor do we read of any problems regarding false teachers amongst them. So we’re left wondering, right, if the church in Laodicea had stopped preaching the gospel entirely. The fact that this church actually thrived in a place dominated by the Jews, by paganism.

There’s this huge temple, of course, there dedicated to worship of Caesar. This is good evidence that this church had ceased being an offense or a threat to those outside the church. And so given the reference to its material wealth and prosperity, it’s highly likely that this church had grown contented, self-reliant, right? And by worldly standards, the church was very successful. It was probably well attended, probably had a huge budget. But by Christ’s standards, this church is totally impoverished, miserable, and wretched, he says. It had lost interest in the gospel and in Christ, right?

That is never good. Laodicea thought it had everything it needed without the gospel, without Christ, without the offense of the gospel, which means in actuality it had nothing. And then significantly, regarding Laodicea, Laodicea had no water supply of its own. It had no local water to drink.

And so the river that ran across the city, the Lycus River, is described in history as thick, cloudy, with white mud, nauseating, and undrinkable. The neighboring cities, such as Colossi to the east, was watered by a cold mountain stream. And to the north, Hierapolis sat on a natural hot spring, which was thought to have medicinal properties. But Laodicea got its water by way of an aqueduct running from the scolding hot springs five miles to the south, which was filled with calcium. And so when that water went those five miles down, it arrived in the city. It was lukewarm, barely drinkable, thought to be poisonous. The history records, it mentions this, even back to ancient times, earliest times, that Laodicea’s growth and prosperity was truly hindered by its lack of drinking water.

This, of course, would have been a reality that all of the Laodicean’s residents would have been intimately familiar with. This is the background of this city to which our Lord addresses this letter. And in this letter, we find a now familiar pattern. We’ve seen so far that these letters are written, yes, to specific congregations in specific areas, but they’re describing things that all of Christ’s churches face in every location, in every time down throughout history. The errors and failings of the Laodicean church are errors and failings that even we must be aware of and about which to be cautious. And we, like they, need to be aware of the dangers of comfort and complacency and self-reliance and ineffectiveness and lukewarmness And so for this lukewarm church, and every lukewarm church, and the lukewarm-y errors and characteristics that threaten them, we must hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So what does Jesus, the Lord of His church, what is His diagnosis and prescription and His promise, what does He give them? He gives them His identity again, He gives them His warning, and then He gives them His promise. First, again, as we’ve seen in each of these letters, he identifies himself. He gives him his identification.

In verse 14, he says, the angel of the church in Laodicea, these are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation, right? And so this makes it clear that Jesus is the Lord of his church again, and he possesses full authority over these individual congregations of his. And so when he speaks to his churches, he does so in this capacity. And notice, too, it’s significant that Christ speaks of himself as the Amen, the faithful and true witness, especially when this congregation has such a false view of their standing before God and a false sense of their security before God. Each of these terms overlaps, right, to remind those who hear that Jesus is God’s word of Amen and the faithful witness, the one who alone testifies about the true condition of things on earth before his father in heaven.

And the point is that just as Jesus was the faithful witness to Israel when testifying about his father on earth, now, even after the resurrection from the dead, Jesus is a faithful witness to his heavenly father when he testifies about the state of this church.

He sees Laodicea in a way that they do not see. And the verse goes on, he’s the beginning of God’s creation. And this is a phrase, of course, we need to see in light of Revelation 1-5, where Jesus is described as the firstborn from the dead. And this idea is this, that in Christ’s resurrection from the dead, a new creation has dawned. It’s already begun. And through Christ’s conquest of the grave, even now, God is removing the curse, undoing the curse, and breaking the power of sin and death throughout his sacrificial death and his triumphal resurrection. to a church like this one in Laodicea, which trusts in itself, in its money, in its success, Jesus is confronting them with the truth that He alone can bring true spiritual renewal and the new creation. that has dawned with his coming. He alone can undo the effects of sin, and he alone will raise the dead. So the Laodiceans must look to him, look to this one, this Lord, this Jesus, in whom creation is renewed, rather than rely upon finite, temporal, worldly things like they have been doing.

And again, Jesus reminds his congregation that as a faithful witness, he knows their true condition. And so he gives them his identification. Then he gives them his warning. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot, and would that you were either cold or hot. And again, anyone living in Laodicea who is familiar with the water, the lukewarm water, which came through to the city’s aqueducts, would have immediately understood what Jesus was saying.

Jesus knows the true state of this church. The Laodiceans may think themselves wealthy and without need, Which, by the way, up in Revelation 18, these are the same adjectives echoed by the harlot who has enriched the world’s merchants by her wealth, all the while seducing them into unbelief. Jesus knows their true state. And in truth the church is just like that.

Lukewarm and bitter water the people of Laodicea were forced to drink on a daily basis. And this certainly explains why Jesus warns them about its lukewarm condition. Poisonous and gross and disgusting. As well as why he tells them so deliberately that he would be better off if they were either hot or cold. If the church becomes cold, it would see the gospel as a kind of refreshing spring, like that watered by their neighboring city, Colossae, to the east. If the church would become hot, it would see the gospel as having value, healing, medicinal value, like the springs to the north. And so to remain lukewarm is a metaphor for continuing compromise with the spirit of the age, to stay comfortable, to attain material success rather than seeking to please God Almighty by remaining faithful to the gospel, which is to be hot or cold. And this is why he goes on in verse 16. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Right?

The complacency regarding the things of God are the priority in worldly things. It has left this church totally bitter and gross in the mouth of our Lord. And so unless the church repents, the Lord will spit them from his mouth. How can a congregation like this be an effective witness to those around them? They cannot. They’re so compromised that they no longer offend anyone. And oh, what a gross and sad and tragic condition, churches that are like this. And don’t we see this tragically and terribly in so many churches even in our day?

So compromised with the culture and the world and the world’s standards and the world’s morals that the gospel and the gospel’s offense has been completely excised from the church and the mission of the church. God’s word in many of these churches is ignored and abandoned, because his word is crystal clear about things like human sexuality and purity and the created reality of men and women. But the world violently demands the exact opposite of God’s word on these very matters, and what do these churches do? For many of them, what they do is abandon God’s word on which they are founded, on which they exist, and celebrate the perversity of the world’s backward and wicked stance on so many things. They’re rendered ineffective, compromised, content, unmolested, friends of the devil. It’s truly sad and tragic and an abomination to the Lord of glory, those who abandon his word for the delights of the world.

And the same is true regarding many, many, many topics, right? Promiscuity, adultery, infanticide, mutilating children, supporting the devil-driven wicked world nations and politicians who are death-possessed, blood-lusting, bent on always destroying and everywhere destroying lives. There’s no shortage of evil and wickedness in the issues which the world is so obsessed that so many churches are giddy to adopt and champion and then be celebrated by the same wicked culture for doing so. Christ will spit them out of his mouth and he will destroy that evil.

But the lukewarm churches, standing for nothing, declaring living for nothing, but complacency, content to yawning ineffectiveness in a difference, are also and still vile in the mouth of Christ. Sadly, they have become an offense to the Lord of the church. Churches like this, lukewarm, Laodicean, they may be a success in the world’s eyes, but they are a failure in the eyes of Christ, in the service of the gospel.

Completely self-deceived, entirely complacent, lazy because of their wealth and success. And Jesus describes this church in this view of itself, and then he tells them very hard reality of their situation. Verse 17, for you say I am rich, I have prospered, I need nothing, not realizing that you are what, wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. And from this description of their true condition, it’s plain that because of their wealth and prosperity, this church thinks it has no needs.

Its members have equated material blessings with God’s favor. And since they have great wealth and seemingly no material want, they think that they’re pleasing God with who they are and how they are. In this statement of Jesus about thinking themselves rich, when in reality they are poor, this echoes themes that we see in passages that we read about in the Old Testament. In particular, a passage about Israel believing that their material success was evidence of its healthy spiritual condition. More than once in the Old Testament, we read about the Jews mistakenly assuming material prosperity as proof of their fidelity of the covenant. Even though this material prosperity was seen at the same time as human accomplishment instead of blessing from God, the truth differed greatly from the appearance.

For Israel and for the church in Laodicea, and any church like it, in our Old Testament reading was a place that we hear just this, Hosea 12. In that passage, Ephraim becomes overconfident because of Israel’s wealth. And according to Hosea’s prophecy, we read again to summarize, Manasseh’s brother, Ephraim. But in Hosea’s prophecy, it symbolizes Israel as a whole, the whole nation.

And it said that, it feeds on the wind. He pursues the east wind all the day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt. The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel. As a man he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and overcame him. He wept and begged for his favor. He found him in Bethel and talked with him there. The Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name over noun. But you must return to your God, maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.

The merchant uses dishonest scales. He loves to defraud. And then just like the church in Laodicea, Ephraim boasts, I am rich. I have become wealthy. With all of my wealth, they will not find in me any iniquity or sin. But Ephraim has bitterly provoked him to anger. His Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed and will pay him for his contempt.”

This is the exact situation that’s going on to which Christ is describing and writing this church. As Israel became a merchant with no problem, with dishonest gain, while defrauding its neighbors to earn greater and greater profit, so also the church in Laodicea boasts in its wealth, thinking its money will cover up its sins. Jesus, however, exposes the truth of the matter. The church is not rich and without need.

In fact, it is wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. And what’s worse is the fact that its members are clueless about their true condition. These people have compromised with the spirit of the age to the extent that they are blind to their true condition. Surely, in the eyes of the world, they were greatly prosperous. But the compromise, this economic well-being brought obscured the fact that was lost in all of it. And that’s that they were actually what was priceless and valuable lost, the gospel. And in the eyes of the Lord Jesus, the Lord of the church, the absence of the gospel means the church has nothing.

It is only wretched. And so he says in verse 18, he tells them what needs to be done. I counsel you to buy for me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. being wretched, pitiful, poor, and naked. Christ’s prescription for this church is what it surely shocks them. They must wake up and abandon their trust in material prosperity, which Christ says is ultimately of no value.

They must look to Christ, whose power to provide them what they truly need is without limit. And this is true prosperity of the messianic age. And it’s shown to us by the prophet Isaiah as well. You know, Isaiah 55, chapter 1, this beautiful passage we’re all familiar with. But listen to what it says. Isaiah 55. Come all you who are thirsty. Come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. All of the riches and treasures of heaven are found in Christ. And all the riches and treasures are freely offered to us if we humbly receive them with the empty hand of faith.

That which the Laodiceans truly needed was to participate in the new creation through faith in Christ’s victory over death. And what they desperately and truly need is the righteousness of Christ, which He alone has earned for them in the refiner’s fire on the cross and the empty tomb. and His righteousness which covers the shameful nakedness, their unrighteousness of the church. We’ve completely forgotten about the very true riches which Christ is talking about.

But the imagery of the refining fire, refined by fire, also suggests something else. And that’s that the Laodiceans must be purified themselves regarding eradicating the influences they must have, the things they’ve taken on, the compromise that they’ve made, the stances against the Lord and for paganism that they have made, all of it from their midst, those things that have led to their complacency and their comfort in a wicked and dying world. And they therefore must do what? clothe themselves with Christ, purify themselves from the corrupting influences of the spirit of the age, and also, he says, they need the salve of the law and the gospel, to open their eyes, to see their true condition, what it actually is, an honest assessment of themselves, and that they are not actually rich, they are wretched, and to wake up and repent before it’s too late. Christ truly is the Lord of His church, and He will punish all those who do not repent, But this does not mean he is cruel or unloving. In fact, this grace and mercy and reminder and warning and admonition is a gracious and loving thing.

He says, to those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. He loves them. He loves them and he wants them back and he wants them to stop. He says, I will come to them in judgment. No final word of warning after. And so what did Paul say? He says that it’s God’s kindness which leads sinners to repentance. And because Jesus loves his people, he rebukes them and he disciplines them. That’s why he tells this disobedient and lazy church, be zealous and repent, or judgment is coming. And these are the words from the Lord of the church who loves the church.

They herald a final word of warning before he brings judgment upon this congregation. And we know this is so from the next verse, right? There’s the warning to repent followed by this amazing invitation to those who do. Verse 20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. This is truly an act of grace by the Lord Jesus to invite the members of this church to renew their fellowship with him, which they claim to enjoy, but actually is just about completely gone.

This verse, of course, as you probably know, is frequently misquoted. It’s frequently used in an evangelistic context, right? It’s often used out of Plutarch’s context. It says, Jesus stands outside the door of the human heart, waiting for the person to open the door of their heart to him. And if only they would accept him in as their personal savior. That’s how this verse is commonly used. That’s not the context of the verse.

The fact of the matter is that this letter is written to Christians in Laodicea. this church who needed to be reminded of their relationship already with Christ, that it must be renewed, or the judgment of Christ will come. And what is pictured here is what is found in that we read about in ancient songs regarding marriage songs and marriage canticles, where the bridegroom, standing at the door of the bedchamber, knocking, waiting for his wife to admit him in.

It’s the same way Christ is asking the church to invite him in so that his relationship with his church might be renewed to its fullness and integrity and truth and gloriously. On acceptance of Christ’s gracious invitation, he will dine with his people. He will dine with his people. This is the most certainly a reference to true fellowship of the Savior with his people in the supper and what it points to.

But this invitation must be heeded. It must be heeded immediately. It’s a dire warning because Christ is even now standing at the door of this church, knocking, waiting for his people to repent and invite him in to renew their fellowship with him and be cleansed and cleansed and taste the refreshing waters once again.

And so let us, brothers and sisters, have sensitive hearts, right? Sensitive hearts, beating hearts of flesh. spirits that are awake to the allure and attraction of comfort and complacency or being troubled with the gospel’s offense to the wicked world around us. And let us hold fast to the truth. And let us remember the words of Paul, let God be true though every man a liar.

And let us heed this warning and be repulsed by lukewarmness and assimilation to this fallen world and the spirit of this age. That’s so alluring and so corrupting. For the Laodicean church and for us, Christ tells us who he is. He gives us his warning, and Christ gives them and us his promise. And as in each of these seven letters, to those who repent, to those who repent and heed Christ’s warnings and hold fast to the gospel, Jesus promises that they will, what?

Overcome. They will overcome. Verse 21, the one who overcomes, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. Those who acknowledge Christ and are faithful witnesses to him and that his testimony of this congregation’s spiritual condition is actually true, Jesus will grant to them the right to rule in his kingdom, the kingdom which is dawned at his first coming. continues to defeat unbelief as it goes forward, even despite all the opposition of the beast, and the kingdom which will be fully realized at the end of the age, when Jesus returns to judge the world and raise the dead and make all things new, that kingdom, from inauguration to consummation, that is the promise of to these believers, brothers and sisters, and to you and I. So from this passage, may we recognize and accept that success of a church cannot be measured by its size or its budget or its buildings. It must be measured by its faithfulness to the gospel. May we recognize and take the warning seriously that though the world sees success in numbers, in property, in wealth, Things like these frequently cause comfort and complacency and compromise.

This lukewarm church in Laodicea did what so many churches do, who’ve abandoned the gospel and taken their marching orders from a fallen, black, sin-saturated world, whether theologically liberal churches or churches who fear to offend the sinner rather than fear offending the God who created them and gave them life, or who just want to tell people what they want to hear to maximize their giving.

And they often, just like Laodicea did, are able to obtain wealth only by compromising that which is most valuable and powerful and supremely important, the message of the gospel itself. The gospel, it proclaimed, was corrupted so that they could make peace with the prosperous unbelievers around them. And only then did the Church of Laodicea prosper. But it was not true prosperity. It was nothing but false success, pseudo-success, and it led them into their lukewarm, pitiful condition.

So may we, brothers and sisters, may all of us, and maybe we as a church, following our Lord and grounded in His Word, not seek the success as the world defines it, but may we seek success to be faithful to the gospel that he has entrusted us, the gospel of life.

God may indeed choose to bless certain churches with great prosperity that are faithful to the gospel. Praise God, he does. All good things come to his people by his sovereign hand, but let us never mistakenly assume that mere wealth itself is a sign of a church’s faithfulness to the will of God, because more often than not, sadly, it’s a sign of its apostasy. Faithfulness rather what? It has to be measured by the things that these seven letters speak of to all churches in all ages. Whether or not a church preaches the gospel in its integrity and purity, whether it drives out false teachers, whether it loves the brethren, not forsaking loving the brethren as it did it at first, or whether or not its members will refuse to take, as we go on, the mark of the beast, which is acknowledging anyone other than Christ as Lord. even at the expense of our lives and our occupations.

This is what Christ expects of his churches, even us, dear Christians. This is what he calls us to, the glorious life of those who’ve been given that life and eternal life by this one who died and rose for us. And he walks in our midst. And as we seek to be a witness to the gospel, to people all around us, May you as individuals and us together as his body, the church, do these very things for his glory and for the spread of the gospel of life, unpolluted by the rot and corruption of the world. Because if and when we do those things, we will overcome and receive all of those glorious things that Christ has promised his people in these letters. And that is why, brothers and sisters, every Lord’s Day, And on this Lord’s Day, we once again open the door and invite our Savior into our midst through word and through sacrament so that we can sup with Him again and renew our fellowship again with Him as He makes us pure. We hear the forgiveness of our sins.

We hear our right standing before our Father in heaven that we need. renew our fellowship with the Lord of this church. So believe afresh today, brothers and sisters, remember and trust and accept the truth and the certainty of his promise to all those who call on his name for the very lives in this world and the next.

And remember, it is not glorious and amazing merely and beyond our ability to grasp that there is merely a God out there who entered into this creation, suffered and died and rose again to save some people out there. It is altogether glorious and amazing and beyond our comprehension that there is a God who did all of these things for you and for me personally and rescued you from the pit and gave you a new heart and a home for certain in glory with Him forever. No more tears, no more crying, no more sin, no more pain or sorrow ever. That is glorious and that should truly blow all of our minds.

Believe that, brothers and sisters. Trust in Christ for you. and pray for His body, this very church, the purity of the preaching of the gospel for His glory and forever. Amen. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Praise God all to His glory. Let’s pray.

Father, we praise You and we thank You. that you’ve given us your word, Lord, that you direct us through our lives, that you’ve established and grounded and filled us with the truth, that you’ve not left us to compromise with the world, to seek our direction and our identity from the world. Nevertheless, our mission, Lord, that you’ve told us the truth of who you are and who we are, the real status of things, Lord, and we pray that we, as we follow our Savior and we seek the purity that the preaching and the teaching of the gospel and we seek to live faithful lives to the gospel and the life that we profess to believe that you would strengthen us, that you would increase our unbelief, that you would help us as we stammer and fall throughout this world and then we would once again and again and again remember the gospel, embrace the truth of what is promised therein and be refreshed and live our lives whole sold for our Savior, for your glory. Lord, help us to know sustenance in plenty and in want. Lord, help us to know Christ’s presence and his love as your beloved children in all that we do.

Lord, bless this church, we pray. Continue to direct us. Continue to guard us and protect us. And we pray for all the individual wants and sufferings and needs of these people whom you love. Lord, help us to know that through your spirit we can truly rejoice in the sufferings we go through. Help us to praise you, that even when we are so despondent, that you pray for us. Lord, help us to know that you are our glory and our protection, our shield, and you are a God who lifts our heads once again reminds us of who we are in the promise that one day we will reign in glory without suffering, without fault, without difficulty in all of it. We praise you and we thank you, Lord, for all of this and so much more. Be with us for the remainder of this worship for our good and for your glory. We ask this all in Christ’s name. Amen.