I know he sang that before. I want to sing, “Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It.” But praise the Lord.
Many months ago, when we were in Hebrews in our old, wonderful group, we came across a section of Scripture in Hebrews 9. That is not what we are going to be looking at; this is my way of introduction.
Some of us were wondering what hyssop meant in the Old Testament. Back at that time, I started considering what hyssop was used for. Then we went to Hebrews 11, where Moses sprinkled the blood, and I started considering Exodus.
Then, when the new groups came to 1 Corinthians, about Christ our Passover, I said, “Lord, I want to go back and just look over Exodus 1 through 12 and meditate in it.” So I have been meditating in Exodus 1 through 12 for a long time, and I want to share on that today.
I want to share in a little different light. I want to share on the sons of Israel—their journey to freedom. The more I took their side of the picture, considering what they were going through, I really started to identify with them. I said, “Lord, I am just like a son of Israel.”
As I went through each step, I started seeing great lessons for me, and I want to share them with you. They are simple. It is not profound, but there are wonderful things about our Lord and His relationship with us, and our relationship with Him, as we journey on this road to freedom.
I want you to notice, just right off, before I pray, my purpose is to show the change: how they started and how they ended up. At each step of the way, we can praise God, for we can see what He is doing in our lives too.
Lord, I do pray this morning that these simple truths, Lord, would really ring in our hearts and really cause us to worship and praise You. Lord, we are a needy people, just like the children of Israel, and I pray that You would speak to each one of us where we are. Lord, bless this morning, I pray. In Your name I pray, Jesus. Amen.
Let us turn to Exodus 1. How many of you have your Bibles? Most of you? Let us just use our Bibles for a little bit, okay, Josh? Every now and then we might use the overhead. Does anybody need the overhead?
It is a little bit of a downer when we first start with these sons of Israel. I will call them the SOIs—the sons of Israel. You know, like the consumer: they are just a blob, the son of Israel. But I want us to pretend we are talking about a little family: father, mother, children, a little household.
This is where they are starting out. So, when I say “sons of Israel,” I really mean a household, a little small household. Let us consider their condition. It is not a good one.
Let us begin with Exodus 1:8-14.
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.
He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are more and mightier than we.
Come, let us deal wisely with them, or else they will multiply, and in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land.”
So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied.
And the Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor vigorously.
Deuteronomy 7:8, when it recounts this, says—or Moses says in Deuteronomy—they were in the house of slavery.
So this little household of the SOIs, this little household of Israel, found themselves in a house of slavery. It had been that way for generations, but they found themselves afflicted. Life was bitter and hard, and they were in the house of slavery under oppression.
Brothers and sisters, this is such a picture of the world, is it not? The world is such a taskmaster. If you are not here and you do not know the Lord, life is bitter and hard. Without Jesus, you are not going to make it. You will be crushed by Pharaoh.
But brothers and sisters, even we as believers feel that constant pressure of the world. If we do not walk with the Lord, the minute you stop walking with the Lord, you sense this great oppression.
Romans 7:14 says:
But I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
Romans 12 talks about being pressed in by the world. Ephesians says, “Resist the evil one,” implying that there is great pressure from the evil one upon you.
I was talking to a brother the other day—actually, my physical brother—about this subject, and how we as believers often just find ourselves under great oppression. You do not know how you got there, but all of a sudden you find yourself under oppression, under great stress and distress. Life in general can be tough, even as a believer.
So this whole section is going to apply to us. Many years ago, I was under great oppression here in worship time. I think I have shared this before. I could not speak. I could not raise my voice and praise the Lord. There was something oppressing me, holding me back.
A believer? Yes. One who loved the Lord? Yes. But still, my mouth was closed under oppression. I could not speak. It was strange. It had gone on for years, and finally the Lord broke it.
But brothers and sisters, we can be under oppression. We do not have to be. We will see how we do not have to be, but without the Lord, we can be under oppression.
Now we come to a section where we get into the good stuff. When I was reading through Exodus, these passages just resonated with me. Let us look at Exodus 2:23-25 and Exodus 3:7-9.
Now it came about in the course of these many days that the king of Egypt died.
And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.
So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them.
The Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.
So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land.”
“Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them.”
I want you to notice a progression here. They cried out. God heard. Then God remembered His covenant. Then it says God saw, and God came down to deliver.
First of all, they cried out. They cried out to God, and the Word says God heard their cry. Then God remembered His covenant. Then God turns His eyes down and says, “I see you, and I am going to deliver you.” That is a progression I want to look at, and this really blessed me.
First of all, brothers and sisters, they cried out. Just crying out was a groaning. It was a sigh. It was a deep groaning from deep inside.
Ezekiel 21:6 gave me a wonderful way of portraying what this groaning was. It is a very short verse:
As for you, son of man, groan with breaking heart and bitter grief; groan in their sight.
Brothers and sisters, you know what? We also need to cry out. We need to cry out. And what was their message? Did they preach to the Lord? Did they even go back and say, “Lord, here is Your covenant. You need to listen and do what Your covenant says”?
Nehemiah did that; other people did that. But these people—this little household, this father and mother and children—they just cried out, and they said, “Help.” That was the message. That was the one thing they cried out: “Help.”
They were so under it that all they could do was cry out for help. Not very spiritual—just, “Help.”
As I was going through this message, wondering what to say, I was going around saying, “Lord, help,” you know? But in the serious things of life, sometimes the greatest prayer that comes from the deepest part of you is just, “Help.” It is like, “Lord, I do not know what to do. Help.”
It is a simple cry for help, and yet this prayer was very spiritual. Why? Because God heard. That is what a prayer should be, is it not? God heard your cry.
Exodus 2:23 says this very wonderful, simple prayer:
Their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God.
Exodus 3:9 says:
Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me.
It is like I could sit down now. Brothers and sisters, when you feel oppression and all you can do is cry out for help, God hears. God wants us to cry out for help.
Crying out for help has been done for ages. Some of the great men of Scripture cried out for help. Not the weak, not just those who are down and out, but the very spiritual men of God cried out for help. It is all in the Psalms, is it not?
Psalm 22:5 says:
To You they cried out and were delivered;
In You they trusted and were not disappointed.
Psalm 86:1 and Psalm 86:3 say:
Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer me;
For I am afflicted and needy.
Be gracious to me, O Lord,
For to You I cry out all day long.
Remember, these are men upon whom the Holy Spirit came to write these words. The Holy Spirit came on them, and yet they are saying, “I am afflicted and needy.”
The Lord almost stopped me here. I said, “Roger, even when you know the Lord deeply, like these men did, sometimes you are afflicted and needy, and you are crying out for help.”
Psalm 88 says:
O Lord, the God of my salvation,
I have cried out by day and in the night before You.
Let my prayer come before You;
Incline Your ear to my cry,
For my soul has had enough troubles.
But I, O Lord, have cried out to You for help.
There are many lessons here, but just a few. There is often a crying out to God before deliverance comes. Before God moves, we cry out. How often has that been in your life?
And this one strikes me: do not be silent. Do not be silent. Cry out, “Help.” If all you can do is cry out, “Help,” cry out, “Help.” You will join the greatest of saints with that simple prayer.
Do not let pride and arrogance—do not let anything else—keep you silent. Cry out in distress and under oppression, as well as in praise and worship. Cry out to the Lord.
A wonderful thing: it says next that the Lord heard their cry. The Lord heard their cry.
Psalm 116:1-2 says:
I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live.
Can we say with the psalmist, “Lord, I love You. You hear me. You hear me”? What a wonderful thing, brothers and sisters, that the Lord our God hears us. Very simple, very fundamental, but He hears us.
All the way through Scripture, the Lord says, “Listen, I hear you. I have ears. I can hear. I can talk. I can speak. Listen. I hear you.” He wants to be known as a God who hears.
We need to know that. God never stops hearing our cry.
The enemy attacks these simple truths, especially this one. He wants you to think God does not hear you. You are in deep distress, deep trouble, oppression; you do not know why you are there. The enemy wants to say, “God has ignored you. Your cries are not even going up to the ceiling.”
But brothers and sisters, I know you know this, but are you not glad that our prayers rise up to heaven and He hears us? Even our cry for help. I find this to be very wonderful.
Let us turn to Psalm 27:7-8. I am sure this is a favorite psalm of many.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice,
And be gracious to me and answer me.
When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”
Brothers and sisters, before we move on, consider the importance of dialoguing with God—speaking to Him and knowing that He hears you. What a way to walk with the Lord. In times of trouble, in times of blessing, cry out in praise and prayer.
So they cried out, and God heard, and then it says God remembered His covenant. God remembered His covenant.
Turn to Genesis 15:13-14. This is the covenant referred to here, I believe—mainly because Acts 7:17 says it is. I will read Genesis 15:13-14.
God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.
But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out.”
You do not have to turn to Acts, but it says, talking about this time, “The time of promise was approaching.” The time of promise was approaching.
In some wonderful way, this first cry of help, God was using to bring about the Passover lamb—the picture of the Passover. They were crying out for help, and yet God was going to deliver them into freedom and show the whole world something about the Son that was wonderful and amazing.
But it all started out with a cry of help and God hearing.
The next thing it says is that God saw them. Exodus 2:25 says, “God saw the sons of Israel. God took notice of them.” Exodus 3:7 says:
I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings.
Remember, I want to look at this through that little household. They had a God who looked into their household and their situation, understood it, and knew it.
Brothers and sisters, this is so true of you and me. The Lord looks down into our situation, and He understands us and He knows us. He knows what we are going through, the troubles that we are in. We need to remember that and believe that our God, after seeing us, knows us and loves us.
Again, the enemy wants you to think, “God does not notice me. God does not give heed to my cry.” But that is a lie. Our Lord loves us and does give heed to our cry.
After they cried out, the Lord heard, and the Lord remembered His covenant. The Lord saw their condition, and He purposed to deliver them.
Look at Exodus 6:1-9. Let us read it together.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land.”
God spoke further to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord; and I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, Lord, I did not make Myself known to them.
I also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned.
Furthermore I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant.
Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage.
I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the Lord.’”
So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage.
God was answering their cry for help. He says, “I will bring you out. I will deliver you. I will redeem you. I will take you for My people. I will be your God, and I will bring you to the land. I will give it to you for a possession.”
That husband and wife, those children—they heard that. Well, not really. What happened? They did not listen. But why?
This little household had been crushed for so long. After these great and precious promises that God had told them through Moses, they could not listen because of despondency and cruel bondage.
These dear people were still under it. After God said all these great and wonderful, precious things to them—it is getting better, brothers and sisters, it will get better—they could not hear because they were still under oppression.
How many times have you heard the great promises of the Lord, and it is like, “Things in life are so hard. I cannot hear what God is saying”?
Because I believe the Lord had me look at this through their eyes, I noticed the Lord does not jump on them right here. He did not blast them and say, “What is wrong with you?” No, because He understood. He had looked down in His loving-kindness; He had seen their situation.
He says, “I am going to deliver you whether you know it or not. I am going to do a work. I am going to do these things for you even if you are not listening, even if you do not really understand what is going to happen. I am going to do it for you.”
What a wonderful God we have. We cry out for help, and He is sending help, and we are still crying out. While we are still crying out, He is sending our help. He is sending our help. What a wonderful thing.
This next section is the plagues. I really struggled before the Lord, saying, “What does this have to do with the SOIs?” I know this is Moses and Pharaoh, and they are battling it out. God is battling against the gods of Egypt. But what were the SOIs doing? Why did You do this? Were You doing it for them?
But I noticed—this was just yesterday—that something drastically changed from Exodus 6 to Exodus 12. In Exodus 12, they were ready to do the Passover with willing hearts.
Something happened between all those great promises, when they were still full of despondency, and the end. That is this middle section of time. I believe that as they saw and heard what God was doing, their hearts changed.
Let us read Exodus 9:13-16.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.
For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.
For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth.
But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.”’”
This is what I believe the children of Israel saw for the first time: the power of God, displayed in order to proclaim His name through all the earth.
Somehow, they began to see and worship their God, who was doing all this. If you notice, it says, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” I believe that the children of Israel began to know that their God was fighting for them and was actually going to do what He said He was going to do way back in Exodus 6.
I believe faith was growing in their hearts.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 is a wonderful Scripture:
The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,
But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers.
I believe that little household, when the husband came back every night and talked to his wife—having been beaten that day, still under great oppression—would tell his wife, “You will not believe what happened today.”
There were many days they probably could not even go to work. The sky was dark. There were frogs all over the place. They were recounting these things in this little household.
They began to say to one another, “The Lord loves us. Our God is for us.” Their hearts began to change from despondency to having the courage that maybe our God was going to do what He said He was going to do.
They also saw something else. Turn to Psalm 78:49-50. This is an account of Exodus, and it tells us something about God—what our God was like. You see the results of this in Exodus, but you do not see this specifically. I believe the children of Israel felt it. I believe the Egyptians felt it.
He sent upon them His burning anger,
Fury and indignation and trouble,
A band of destroying angels.
He leveled a path for His anger;
He did not spare their soul from death,
But gave their life over to the plague.
I think every night that husband and wife were together with their children, they were saying, “You will not believe how strong and powerful our God is.”
All their lives they had heard how powerful Pharaoh was and how powerful his gods were. But all of a sudden they began to realize, “Our God is powerful and strong.”
Brothers and sisters, our God is this way too. When He is defending us, when He is defending His name, He is full of anger and fury and indignation, and His judgment is terrible.
As a side note, Jonathan Edwards said, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.” Angry God, right? Angry God. Not a very popular message today, but brothers and sisters, it was a fearful thing that was going on in Egypt.
All the SOIs—nothing was happening to them—and they would look over and see the terrible judgments of God. Their hearts were beginning to be full of faith.
Our God is the same way for us now. I think we have no idea how terrible our God is in His defense of us—His people, His church. In the heavenlies, it says He is seated at the right hand until His enemies are made His footstool.
There is a struggle going on now, a battle. In Exodus, God told Moses, “They are not going to let you go except under compulsion. I am going to have to force this to happen.” He hardened their heart, but He had to exert great power and great influence to get His people free.
Gradually, the children of Israel began to see, “Our God fights for us.” We need to know that our God also fights for us and is going to defend us.
So they saw God’s love because He called them His people. They finally figured it out: “Let My people go” means me. Let me go.
I love what Jerry Settle mentioned in Psalm 71:3. The Lord speaks commandments over us. Let me turn there.
You have given commandment to save me,
For You are my rock and my fortress.
As my brother Jerry was sharing, I think a couple of Sundays ago, I was studying this, and I realized our God is giving commandments over us to save us. Everything that is for our good and for our benefit, to save us, He is commanding day by day by day.
That is what He was doing in the plagues and the great judgments. He was commanding, “Let My people go.” I believe, brothers and sisters, we could put our names in there.
“Let Kenny go.” Our God commands it. “Let Jerry go.” Put your name in there. “Let Roger go. Free him.” He is free.
There is a command over us of freedom and liberty, and that is a great command. We need to know that our God is fighting for us and is commanding over us His freedom.
We saw the anger of God and the love of God. In Psalm 105, at the end, it says the Lord was full of joy because He was fulfilling His covenant to Abraham. He was full of joy when His people were brought out of the land.
So our God is full of joy, full of love for us. Before the enemy? Not so much. Not so much.
Now we come to the night of the Passover: Exodus 12. God had prepared His people for this time. The help for which they cried had come.
Exodus 12:28 says:
Then the people bowed low and worshiped.
Let us read Exodus 12:1-13.
Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.
Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.’”
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight.
Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.
For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord.
The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
Exodus 12:21-27 says:
Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families, and slay the Passover lamb.
You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts; and none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.
For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.”
And you shall say, “It is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord, Who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes.”
And the people bowed low and worshiped. Then the sons of Israel went and did so; just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so they did.
This little household, which started out with a great cry for help—they could do nothing but cry out—now, that husband and wife, that household, had the great honor of doing this Passover feast. What an amazing change: from despair to actually doing something for their freedom that God had commanded.
Can you see the change? I remembered reading this long ago, and I had my wife print this out for me yesterday. This is from Spurgeon, Christ Our Passover, and I want to read it because it perfectly says what I wanted to say about the households.
It is very descriptive, and the English is a little strange sometimes.
Let us turn to the land of Zoan. Do you think you behold the scene tonight? It is evening. The Egyptians are going homeward, little thinking of what is coming. But just as soon as the sun is set, a lamb is brought into every house.
The Egyptian strangers pass by. “These Hebrews are about to keep a feast tonight,” and they retire to their homes utterly careless about it.
The father of the Hebrew house takes a lamb, and examining it once with anxiety and curiosity, he looks it over from head to foot to see if it has a blemish. He finds none.
“My son,” he says to one of them, “bring here the basin.” It is held. The father stabs the lamb, and the blood flows into the basin.
Do you not think you see the sire, as he commands his wife to roast the lamb before the fire? “Take heed,” he says, “that not a bone is broken.” Do you see her intense anxiety as she puts it down to roast, lest the bone should be broken?
“Now,” says the father, “bring a bunch of hyssop.” A child brings it. The father dips it in the blood. “Come here, my children. Come, my wife. Come all and see what I am about to do.”
He takes the hyssop in his hands, dips the hyssop in the blood, and sprinkles it across the lintel and the doorposts.
His children say, “What mean you by this ordinance?” He answers, “This night the Lord God will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when He sees the blood upon the lintel and on the two side-posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you.”
The thing is done. The lamb is cooked. The guests are set down to it. The father of the family has supplicated a blessing, and they are sitting down to feast upon it.
And mark how the old man carefully divides joint from joint, lest the bone be broken. He is particular that the smallest child of the family should have some of it to eat, for so the Lord has commanded.
Do you not think you see him as he tells them, “It is a solemn night. Make haste. In another hour, we shall all go out of Egypt”?
He looks at his hands. They are rough with labor. And clapping them, he cries, “I am not to be a slave any longer.”
His eldest son, perhaps, has been smarting under the lash, and he says, “Son, you have had the taskmaster’s lash upon you this afternoon, but it is the last time you shall feel it.”
He looks at them all with tears in his eyes. “This is the night the Lord God will deliver you.”
Do you not see them with their hats in their hands, their loins girded, and their staves in their hands? It is the dead of night. Suddenly they hear a shriek. The father says, “Keep within the doors, my children. You will know what it is in a moment.”
Now another shriek, and another shriek; shriek succeeds shriek. They hear perpetual wailing and lamentation. “Remain within,” he says. “The angel of death is flying abroad.”
A solemn silence is in the room, and they can almost hear the wings of the angel flap in the air as he passes their blood-marked door. “Be calm. That blood will save you.”
I could go on. I can see we are getting tired, so brothers and sisters, what a wonderful, wonderful thing it is.
Our God delivered this one little family along with six hundred thousand others. He allowed them to take the hyssop and put that blood on the door, knowing that the next day they would walk out in freedom and liberty.
That family, once in the slave house of Pharaoh—the house of slavery—was now in freedom, walking in freedom. Brothers and sisters, Christ is our Passover Lamb.
He has been slain for us, and the blood is sprinkled upon the doors of our hearts, the doors of our families, and I would say even the door of this house here.
The enemy has been defeated. He has been crushed. Under compulsion, he has been forced to let us go. You and I are free. We are free, just like this poor family.
We should have great courage today in proclaiming, “I am under the blood. I am free.” Think of all those years of slavery. Think of your crying out to God. Know that He hears you. Know that He sees your situation.
If you do not have the faith even to proclaim that you are under the blood, at least stand back and worship the Lord as you see what He is doing. Even when you come Sunday mornings and hear people worship, open your mouth and just praise Him and worship Him.
Then, I am telling you, soon there will be a faith that will grow up in your heart, and you will be able to declare, “I am under the blood. Praise the Lord. I am free and in liberty.”
You see, this Passover lamb is not about sin. The blood cleanses us from sin and washes us. This is about oppression. This is about slavery: being brought out from under the power of slavery.
Many times we are brought under oppression because of our sin, and the Lord—the precious blood—cleanses us from sin. But the blood of the Passover Lamb frees us from slavery and puts us in liberty.
Let us pray.
Lord, I pray You would help us. Lord, many, many are suffering. Many are going through tough times, Lord, and they cannot even share it.
Lord, many times in our own lives, each one of us has sensed the encroaching oppression. Lord, we have cried out to You and known Your great deliverance.
Lord, I pray that every man and woman and child in this room would, after today, know to declare that the blood of the Lamb, the Passover Lamb, is theirs. Bless You, Lord. Amen.