Latest / HBCWestminster / 5.30.21 Luke 15:11-32 Pastor Danny Gardner

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5.30.21 Luke 15:11-32 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Well, good morning, church. And if you have your Bibles, we're going to jump right in to Luke chapter 15, verses 11 to 32, perhaps the most famous parable ever told, the parable of the prodigal son. As you're turning there to Luke chapter 15 and verse 11, I just want to address quickly a question. Why the Word of God? I mean, why do we devote so much time to it? Why such a large portion of our worship service?
• 0:25
  Even the majority of our worship service online and in person is given to the study of God's word. And I'll just answer that with a quick analogy. A group of men showed up at a park to play football. One of them realized they didn't have a ball, to which his friend replied, well, forget the ball. Let's get on with the game. I've been questioned.
• 0:49
  about leaning too heavily upon the Bible for my preaching. And honestly, church, that makes no sense to me at all. It'd be like saying, you know, that quarterback of the football team is just obsessed with the football. And too many pastors of too many churches have shrugged their shoulders and said, forget the ball. Let's get on with the game. I've noticed in many church services, the Bible is used tangentially at best, but here it will be our focus.
• 1:15
  And so with your Bibles open, allow me to read our text, Luke chapter 15, verses 11 to 32. If you're able to stand in honor of God's word as I read, I would ask you to do that. And it says in verse 11, and he said, There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of my property that is coming to me. And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.
• 1:46
  And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.
• 2:11
  I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.
• 2:33
  But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found and they began to celebrate. Now his older son was in the field.
• 2:54
  And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, look, these many years I have served you and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends.
• 3:19
  But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him? And he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this. Your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found. And Lord, I pray a blessing over the hearing and preaching of your word. Lord, may we not be like the younger son who makes demands on you and then frivolously
• 3:51
  gives away what is yours. May we not be like the older son who lives in self-righteousness and arrogance. But Lord, may we just lean on you wholly for our salvation and for our life. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Church, you can be seated. We left two Sundays ago with the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. And you'll recall that rejoicing that took place when the shepherd found his lost sheep, when the woman found her lost coin.
• 4:20
  In fact, verses 7 and 10 of Luke chapter 15 say explicitly that heaven rejoices every time a sinner is saved. Every time a soul is rescued, heaven erupts in joy. And we said it this way two Sundays ago, that every time the blood of Jesus works for the salvation of another person's sins, the angels and God himself being in their midst rejoice. And in case you believe heaven to be a groggy and misty and somber place,
• 4:48
  with Gregorian chanting in the far off distance, allow scripture to enlighten your understanding. Imagine how many people give their lives to Christ every day. Imagine how many repent from sin. Imagine how many times the good news is preached. Heaven indeed must be in a constant state of rejoicing. And you will recall that the entirety of Luke chapter 15 is three parables told by Jesus in response to verses one and two.
• 5:17
  This morning's text, Jesus fixes the crosshairs squarely on those religious leaders who we find in verse 2 were grumbling. You'll recall they were grumbling that Jesus received sinners and ate with them. They murmured. They gossiped. They were angry. They grumbled and complained that Jesus was willing to receive.
• 5:39
  sinners, and he reminded them that they would go to a party for a found sheep, they would go to a party for a found coin, but now they would refuse to go to a party over a found son. It has often been called the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the lost son, but as we shall see, this is somewhat a misnomer since there were actually two lost sons, not one.
• 6:04
  One pastor has called this text the tale of two sons, and we're going to study each of these two sons, comparing them with each other, and then comparing them with ourselves. And one thing to note about the parables of Jesus is that they are almost always about salvation. This morning, we find a younger brother who needed to be saved from his sin, but we also see an older brother who needed to be saved from his assumption that he did not sin. And so let's look first.
• 6:31
  at the younger son who needed to get found. In verse 11, there was a man who had two sons. Now, this man would have been considered wealthy, not only because of his bank account, because of his estate, but because he actually had two heirs. The fact that he had two sons meant that he was a wealthy man. The father would have been revered by Jesus' hearers. But then we see immediately that shame
• 6:56
  was brought upon him when in verse 12, the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me. This younger son was out of rank and he was out of line. This request was doubly shameful because he was in essence telling his dad that he wished he was dead. He only cared about his father's money. He did not care about his father.
• 7:25
  The younger son, in fact, was doing the exact opposite of the fourth of the Ten Commandments, which says to honor your parents. And it says, if you do, you'll have a long and happy life. And I love those Bible verses, which make things so simple. If you want to have a long and happy life, you know, I don't know anybody who doesn't want to have a long and happy life. I've never met anybody who says, now I want my life to be short and miserable. Nobody ever says that. If you walk up to somebody on the street, you want to have a long and happy life? Of course they do. How do you do it? The Bible says how to do it.
• 7:55
  Commandment number four of the Ten Commandments, honor your parents and you will have a long and happy life. You know, I was eating a cheeseburger this week with my son Chase, who was 11 years old. He looked under his cup of his fountain drink, looked under his cup and written in small text was Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Another one of these verses, which just makes things so simple. He said, Dad, there's a Bible verse on the bottom of my cup, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. And I said, Chase, do you know what that verse says? And he said, no. And I said, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
• 8:24
  And don't lean on your own understanding, but in all of your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. He will direct the path of your life. And what a promise that is. Just trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't try to figure things out on your own. There are some things that just don't make any sense, but trust the Lord and he will make your path straight. And rather than honoring his father, this young son brought shame upon him. This would have been a cultural slap in the face.
• 8:54
  Jesus' original audience would have been horrified at the younger son's request. He wanted his father's money, but he didn't want his father. He wished his father was dead. And perhaps the only more jarring thing than the son's request was the father's response in verse 12 when it says, and he divided his property between them. He actually gave his inheritance to the son.
• 9:21
  A cultural expectation would have been to reject that rebellious son, maybe even to cut him off, to throw him out of the house, maybe even to beat him on his way out the door. But this father acquiesced to his son's demand. And interesting to note that the word for property, when verse 12 says that he divided his property between them, that word for property is the Greek word bios, bios. It's the word for life.
• 9:50
  It's where we get the word biography from, right? A written life, a life, a book about a life. Biology, the study of life. This man divided. It wasn't just his estate. He divided his very life. The father's wealth would have been tied to his land, to his real estate.
• 10:12
  A man's wealth at the time, his social standing, his respect were all garnered from his property. And in order for him to divide it, he had to sell it and split the money, which means that not only did the father lose his social standing, but he also would have lost his livelihood. That's where we get that word life. Would have lost his ability to make his money back. The younger son was literally demanding that the father tear his own life apart for his own sake. And that's exactly what...
• 10:39
  The father did. Now, this would be a good time to point out that this parable is not a lesson on parenting. There are nevertheless some parenting principles we can draw. You can almost hear the voice of your own sons and daughters. Dad, my friends and I are going to Vegas. You know how I've got an inheritance coming when you're dead? Can we just skip ahead to that part? Can you imagine one of your kids coming and saying that to you?
• 11:05
  Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't love our precious and naive child in this instance, but do not read the parable of the prodigal son and then inappropriately apply this text by funding your son's or daughter's trip to Las Vegas. That is not what you should do. Well, I read the parable of the prodigal son, and the father denied his life and gave the inheritance to his son, and so therefore I had that. That's not the point of the parable.
• 11:31
  I have heard parents tell me that they don't believe in tough love, that they'd be willing to do something like that for their kids. And in that instance, I would reply with, well, then you don't believe in love at all. Because love is tough. In fact, the easiest type of parenting is also the least loving, the kindest and most loving thing we can tell our kids is no. And for you who may be listening who are young,
• 12:01
  junior high, high school, college age, young adult age, your parents' warnings might not always make sense, but trust them. They know what they're talking about. It was Mark Twain who famously said, when I was a boy of 14 years, my father was so ignorant. He said, I could hardly stand having the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in so short a time.
• 12:32
  When I was 14, Mark Twain says, when I was 14, I thought my father was so ignorant, I could hardly even be around the guy. What he said just didn't make any sense. Seven years later, when I was 21, I began to realize, man, my father has sure figured a lot of things out in that short of time. You understand his point, right? His father wasn't the one who figured things out. Mark Twain was the one who figured things out. By the time he was 21, he looked back and realized his father was right. And listen, if you're one of these young ones listening today, your parents know what they're talking about.
• 13:02
  In fact, they probably walk down some of the same roads you are tempted by. And so listen to them. Don't roll your eyes and shrug off their advice. But I digress. You pick up in verse 13, not many days later. I love that phrase and pay attention to that phrase, not many days later. It did not take long for reality to set in. Not many days later, this young son, gather all he had.
• 13:29
  He took a journey into a far country and he squandered his property in reckless living. What a foolish boy this was. Not many days later, it did not take long for this foolish son to go from riches to rags.
• 13:51
  And the truth is, church, if we were allowed to follow the natural bent of our own hearts, we would only ever end in poverty, both physically and spiritually. He left his father's house and squandered away his property in reckless living. And we see the younger son leaving his kind and merciful father.
• 14:18
  undoubtedly because he did not want the accountability and the guilt that would come from sinning openly in his father's presence. One pastor has said it this way, freedom of the sinner's will is the most horrible bondage. Okay, imagine, consider the profundity of that statement for a moment. Freedom, he says, of the sinner's will is actually the most horrible bondage. Sin always looks for fulfillment outside and away from God, but it never finds it.
• 14:48
  Sin leaves the sinner exhausted. The rebel will always be empty, poor, hungry, and hopeless. I love the way he words that. And church, honestly, the same is true of each of us to some degree. We flee the presence of the Lord in our pride. Like sheep, we go astray, each according to our own way. We often erroneously define restraint as bondage. And we will often try to
• 15:14
  We chafe against the Lord's correction. We chafe against the Lord's discipline. But the Lord only disciplines those whom he loves, legitimate sons. And so we run away from the presence of the Lord thinking that the restraints that he puts on us are bondage. But restraint is not bondage, church. Restraint is freedom. And for the prodigal to leave his father was to remove his God-given restraint and therefore to remove his freedom.
• 15:42
  That young son ended up impoverished, enslaved, and starved because sin is a hard master. Continue in verse 14, when he'd spent everything. So he's poor. A severe famine arose in that country. So now he's hungry and he began to be in need. And so he went and hired himself out. Literal phrasing there is joined himself to. In other words, he became a slave. He sold himself as a slave.
• 16:08
  to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs, and he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. Sin, we find, is a hard master. And I've heard it said that sin always keeps you longer than you want it to stay, and it costs you more than you want it to pay. And this is what happens when we choose to throw off our God-given protection and to go our own way.
• 16:39
  For those who maybe have not yet lived long enough to see the danger of sin, who have not yet lived long enough to see the danger of living in the shadows, this truth behind the lie that sin will somehow satisfy you more greatly than the righteous. Can I just encourage you, there is power behind the fact that the prodigal was also the younger son.
• 17:10
  If you close your eyes for a moment and imagine his age, right? Imagine the age of the prodigal son. Are you imagining a 55-year-old? Probably not. More like a 20-year-old, right? I mean, everybody assumes, right, that we assume he's young. He's not just because it says he was younger, all right? I don't think he's talking about a 55-year-old. I think he's probably talking about a 20-year-old. And to the 20-year-olds, I would say, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
• 17:39
  then lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Don't cast off, don't chafe against the restraints that the Lord has put in your life. Freedom of the sinner's will, as that pastor has so eloquently put it, freedom of the sinner's will is the most horrible bondage.
• 18:00
  Pick up in verse 17. It says, but when he came to himself, when he came to himself, so he is in the lowest of the low of places. He is living with pigs. He's feeding with pigs, but the pigs are eating better than he is. He is in the lowest possible place when he came to himself and how kind of our heavenly father to give us moments of clarity, even in the midst.
• 18:20
  of misery. That's exactly what happens. It says, when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. And so treat me as one of your hired servants. Now I disagree with the father's willingness to fund his own son's debauchery and ruin, right? I just said that I would not recommend.
• 18:49
  If your son or daughter is determined to go off and live a life of debauchery and sin, do not fund their way. We're not going to enable that. I disagree with that. But one thing the father did well was to make sure his son knew where to return. I will never understand parents, and I want to tread lightly here, and I say this with all humility. Please make sure you hear that. But I will never understand parents who in their pride refuse a relationship with their own kids.
• 19:16
  that their kids desire a relationship, and they would turn their kids away. And honestly, it doesn't matter to me how badly my sons hurt me or reject me. I will never turn my back on my boys. Make sure you hear that we must never enable our kids to live in sin and rebellion against the Lord, but we must also be willing to be used by God in the process of their restoration, whatever the personal cost. And that's exactly...
• 19:45
  what this father had instilled in his son. When his son reached the lowest possible place, his son knew where to return. In verse 20, and he arose and came to his father and praised God. That young son did not stop short, but he followed through on that moment of clarity. How many, church, make a decision for Christ?
• 20:09
  but then never truly repent how many say the prayer but then never arise and go to the father and i would say don't stop short in your convictions do as this younger son had done arise and go to the father verse 20 he arose and came to his father but while he was still a long way off his father saw him
• 20:29
  and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fattened calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate. And the father's reception of his son is a lesson in grace and forgiveness.
• 20:58
  The father didn't lord it over his son. He didn't hit him with, you stupid boy, or I told you so. I mean, he could have said those things. Rather, it says he ran to him, he embraced him, he kissed him, and he rejoiced. And this is where the parable should have ended, is it not? We have three parables in Luke chapter 15. There was the parable of the lost sheep. The sheep was found, right? The village rejoiced.
• 21:29
  Then we had the parable of the lost coin. The coin was found. The woman and her neighbors rejoiced. Now we have the parable of the lost son. The son was found and the whole house rejoiced. This is where it should have ended. Most of us perhaps get a little teary-eyed over this parable. We feel a sense of nostalgia. If we're honest, most of us probably assume that the prodigal son is either about us or about someone we love, a child or a grandchild.
• 21:59
  Rarely does anyone, if ever, think of the second act of Christ's parable. In fact, many who have heard this parable many times probably have never even heard that there was a second act, an older brother. Jesus purposely continues the parable here. And if you recall the context, it makes sense why. Remember to whom Christ addressed these parables. You will quickly see.
• 22:24
  that his original hearers did not get all gushy with sentimentality over the parable of the prodigal son the way that we often do. Why? Because those original hearers did not assume that they had ever gone astray. And so when they look back at their lives, they're like, well, I've never done that. Rather, Christ follows up now with the story of this older brother, the supposedly sinless one. We often assume.
• 22:51
  The way that maybe his original hearers did, that there are prodigals who need the Lord. Then there are those who never stray, and so therefore maybe do not need the Lord. It is to those older sons now that Christ hits square between the eyes with this second half. And so let's direct our attention now to the older son who needed to get lost. There was a younger son who needed to get found, but now we see the older son.
• 23:21
  who needed to get lost, who needed to recognize his own sin. Look at verse 25. His older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he wasn't there when the younger son returned. He didn't know why all of this was going on. He called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, your brother has come. Your father has killed the fattened calf because he has received him back safe and sound. But he was angry.
• 23:49
  and refused to go in. And so now it was the older brother's turn to bring reproach on his father, to launch an assault against his family. His anger stirred within him as he considered the grace and kindness of his father in restoring his younger brother. The older brother refused to even enter his father's house. And you begin to see some parallels here in these two brothers' lives.
• 24:15
  Right? The younger brother left the house. The father ran out to meet him. The older brother refused to go into the house. And here again, we see his father came out and entreated him. The father had gone after the younger son. Now he has to go after the older. And look what he says. He answered his father, look.
• 24:33
  These many years I have served you, I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat that I might celebrate with my friends. So in other words, a goat in terms of the food chain of command, the goat would have been much further down. The fattened calf would have been reserved for the most auspicious, most special, sanctimonious occasions. I mean, that would have been the top. And so the father is sparing no expense here for the return of his son. The older son is indignant.
• 25:03
  Rather than rejoicing in his younger brother's return, he's angry about it saying, you've never even given me a young goat to celebrate with my friends. Verse 30, but when this son of yours came who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him. Now it turns out, church, that all this time it was about money. The younger son didn't care for his father. He just wanted his father's stuff.
• 25:34
  But the older son also did not care about his father. He just wanted his father's stuff. In the older brother's mind, the younger brother has squandered a portion of the inheritance that was due to him. Right? My younger brother left. We had to sell our estate. He took a bunch of it. Those were things that should have been mine. And now, in his mind, his father had done the same.
• 26:03
  And people of those days did not often eat meat during meals because of how expensive it was. And so to kill an animal, and not just an animal, but the most expensive one, would have been offensive. I mean, this older brother was offended by it all he could see. The father was once again using his inheritance, money that was due to him, in ways he didn't approve of. And just like his younger brother, the older brother didn't care about his dad. He just cared about his dad's stuff. And so look at what the father says.
• 26:31
  Verse 31, and he said to him, son, you're always with me. All that is mine is yours. Now this was the literal truth. Everything the father had given the younger brother had already been given, right? So everything that was left, his entire inheritance had already been given. So everything that was now left was for the older brother. He's now the only heir. And yet all he could see in his share was his share diminishing because of his younger brother's.
• 27:01
  return there was no joy in it and the father rebukes him by saying it was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this your brother was dead and is now alive he was lost and is found but the older brother would not rejoice the jewish leaders of jesus's time those who were as we've said the original hearers of this parable could not bear the thought of their gentile younger brothers sharing in their inheritance they couldn't bear it it caused them to become indignant
• 27:32
  The beauty that we enjoy from Ephesians 2, that the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile has been torn down by the shed blood of Jesus, they rejected out of hand. And this is the reflection that we see in this older brother's anger toward the younger brother. No joy in his return, no rejoicing in his restoration, just indignance over a shared inheritance.
• 28:00
  Now, the application of this parable is my favorite part. That's the parable. That's what it means. But the application is the best part. And I think Timothy Keller astutely observed in his book, Prodigal God, that in the first act, the story of the younger brother, we have a very traditional depiction of sin and salvation. There are insults, lustful and licentious behavior. There is filth, self-indulgence. But then there is repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. And that's the part of the story we know the best.
• 28:29
  But at the end of the second act, the story of the older brother, Jesus kind of turns the tables. We read about two sons, not one. One is good, one is bad, but both are alienated from their father. We begin to realize that they both wanted the father's things and not the father himself. They were both using the father for his stuff, one by being very bad, the other by being very good. About a decade ago, I saw two guys.
• 29:00
  At Disneyland, of all places, sitting next to each other on a bench. I had taken my young family to Disneyland maybe 10 years ago. Now, one of these two men sitting next to each other on this Disneyland bench was an Orthodox Jewish man. The other, sitting next to him, was a Gothic teenage kid. You guys remember when Goth was kind of the thing and those kids were all dressed that way and whatever?
• 29:25
  And so one was an Orthodox Jewish man, the other a teenage Gothic kid. And it struck me because this was the first time I'd ever seen representatives from these two groups in the same place sharing the same bench. I thought, man, what different worlds these men live in, right? But they're sitting next to each other. They were both dressed entirely in black. Both had unusual hair. They were both sitting cross-legged. They both had their cell phones out and were texting.
• 29:53
  And it occurred to me in that moment for the very first time how similar the two looked. Black shoes, black pants, black shirt. The Jewish man also had on a black trench coat and a black hat, beard. The Gothic kid had on a black long sleeve t-shirt, right? Black hair. I'm looking at these two guys. I'm like, they're from different worlds and yet they're exactly the same. My young son, Pearson, about eight years old at the time, simply asked dad, why do they dress like that?
• 30:19
  I wondered at the time whether he could even tell the difference between the two. Like, does he know? I don't think so, right? An eight-year-old third grader. He doesn't know these guys are different. He's looking at them saying they look exactly the same. And I told him, you know, one, because he thinks God will like him more, he dresses that way. The Orthodox Jewish man dresses that way because he thinks God will like him more. The other one, because he probably thinks God will like him less.
• 30:46
  Right? That's why he dresses that way. But what was interesting was they were dressed exactly the same. They probably thought they were worlds apart, but in reality, they were both wrong. As we consider the parable of the lost sons, we see that the way they treated their father was almost exactly the same, and yet they were both wrong.
• 31:08
  And so I would encourage us, by way of conclusion, not to miss the point of the most famous parable ever preached. The point is not that the Father will forgive you of even the most heinous sin. Now, that is true. It's just not the point of this parable. The point is that our desire, no matter who we are, our desire must be for the Father and not for the Father's stuff. It is true that some listening today may be the younger son.
• 31:37
  enticed by the world, tempted by the flesh, chafing against the Lord's restraints. And if that is you, consider the folly of the younger son, the pain, the poverty, and the misery that so quickly came upon him, all because of his determination to go his own way. And if you are the younger son, come to your senses, arise, and go to the father. But the reality is that many who are listening today probably more closely parallel the older brother.
• 32:08
  Perhaps you've grown up in the church. Perhaps you've always been around Christians. You've never really blown it too badly. Now you sing the songs. You hear the messages. You never stray too far from the flock. Therefore, you assume that the Father must be pleased with you. Perhaps even slightly more pleased with you than with others. And of course, we would never say it out loud, but we grumble when things don't go our way.
• 32:35
  We complain when we don't get the credit we think we deserve. Perhaps we even become embittered toward those who go astray because we think we never would. And if that is you, consider the self-righteous arrogance of the older son, the seeking of credit, the pompous attitude toward those who live in sin or are addicted to the flesh. And if you are the older son, then arise and go to the Father. And Lord, I pray.
• 33:05
  that our hearts would just be humble and we would see ourselves for who we truly are, sinners in need of a loving Heavenly Father. And God, I thank you for perhaps the greatest parable ever told. Lord, I pray that we would look at these two brothers and see ourselves in them, enticed by sin in need of forgiveness, but also, Lord, indignant and arrogant.
• 33:33
  in need of humility. And I pray, Lord, that we would just arise, arise and come to you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.