Lesson 35b
Romans 8:26-27 · Mike Doyle · Jul 7, 2019
Romans (2018-21), No. 72
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261915285667

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we're studying prayer, actually. We're in Lesson 35. And we finished up, I think, with Question 6, which was, what kind of weakness do we have here? And I remember somebody saying to me one time, that's really kind of a moot question, because all we have is weakness. We don't have anything other than weakness. And it takes a while for us, I think, for us to realize that. In my case, 40 years. But the focus of this weakness is the fact that we have an inability to know what to pray for. So the next question is, what is it that we don't know about prayer? What don't we know about prayer? We all do it, right? Because we're supposed to. Right? We're supposed to do that.

What is it that we don't know about prayer? We know, I think, pretty much in general, we can pray for situations. Like we just prayed for people that are in the earthquake zone in Southern California. But what about the specifics? You know, there's got to be some specificity about the praying.

And that's where we lack understanding. You know, this experience with my son and his girlfriend and his girlfriend coming home and finding her roommate had committed suicide in their apartment. I mean, it's like every time you tell somebody that they go, what? You know?

So how do you pray about that? specifically, you know? You know that it's going to have an incredible effect on all those that are around and know there were 350, 400 people at this memorial service yesterday, and a lot of them, probably 70% of the people that were there were young, in their 20s, who were friends and acquaintances and that kind of thing. Well, how would you pray specifically for that circumstance? Well, don't you pour your heart out to God? You can tell him anything. And while you're doing dishes, you could pray. And isn't that what he wants? Pray without ceasing.

That's true. But these verses here have to do with our inability to understand what to pray for. Because this verse says, there's a definite article in front of The translation should be, we do not know the what we should pray for, the particulars as we ought. That's the verse.

So how do you know? In general, what I find, the first thing that happens when a circumstance comes up is that I'm praying from a human standpoint. I just naturally do that. If you've got a toothache, I'm going to pray that the pain goes away. Well, what's specific about that? I can remember years ago, my first sort of experience of this, within our family, one of the girls was pregnant and she was in the hospital with blood clots in her legs, and so the family prayer chain went, we've got to pray for so and so so that the blood clots dissipate. Is that normal? Sounds right.

Except when I started to pray, I sort of felt checked about that. And it got real clear to me, don't pray that way. Pray that I keep those, Lord, pray that I keep those blood clots in place until she learns what I've got for her. I didn't tell anybody that for probably 10 years.

Because I couldn't think about, well, that's not the way you're supposed to pray, right? Oh yeah, it is. So what does that tell us? If you don't know, here comes the circumstance, right? That you don't know precisely what you should pray for. Is that okay?

Or should you just ramble on anyway? Well, it seems like it says the Holy Spirit. He transforms those words into what's really needed to be said. Don't even say, cannot be uttered. So do you start making noises? Unintelligible noises? What happens? Pray in the Spirit, yeah. That's what you do. Do you? Yeah, you use tongues. I have a class for that coming up.

I think that the Lord would have us pray specifically, don't you? He would have us pray specifically about circumstances. So who's the one that's in the dark? Is it God that's in the dark and the Holy Spirit's got to inform him about what's going on with you, or is it you that's in the dark? I'm the one that's in the dark, right? So is it proper that before you pray you should solicit the Lord and say, how would you have me pray about this?

Well, the Holy Spirit is a nation. He knows. He knows exactly. So who's the one that's uninformed? I am. But what this verse is saying is that you're not going to be uninformed for long, because the Spirit of God is within each one of us, and He is in the process of informing us, maybe even with words that can't be uttered, as to how specifically He would have us pray about a circumstance. Okay? You alright with that? You sure? Come on, challenge me. I guess I would just say, we're in the dark but we're not alone, and that's a critical point. That's right. We may not know, but we're not alone in that.

Would you think that the Spirit does, in fact, we're not supposed to pray amidst And we can't expect to have our prayers answered if we're just rambling on about something that we want or some direction we want to go. It's got to be according to God's will, doesn't it? Or what if you don't know? That's the question. I think what this verse is teaching us is that it's okay that you don't know, but we have a solution.

And the solution is the Spirit of God who is recognizing a weakness and is in the process to inform us specifically what to pray about. Have any of you, you know what I'm talking about, or is it just some sort of a new concept? You know, like, I guess the fear is that we get too regimented in what we have to pray specifically.

I go back to the Abba Father. He wants intimacy, so we can talk to him any way, any how, about it, and the request is, you know, we don't know, How can I be used? Let your will be done. We shouldn't be afraid to come to Him in any way, shape, or form. And this to me tells me that even if I do come into weakness, the Spirit isn't one who intercedes. And He will intercede and work on my heart to make me aware, make me how to be used, all those different things.

I think it's dangerous to say that we shouldn't pray. I don't know, misguided if we pray and it's wrong. I think we can pray and he will show us we're wrong. You know what I mean? Because otherwise, I guess if I went to my father and I didn't say it in the right way, you know, and he kicked me out, what kind of relationship is that? It isn't.

So I get cautious about, you know, that we have a certain way we have to pray or a certain, you know. It's saying we have weakness. And even though we have that weakness, it's the Spirit that intercedes for us. Yeah, but I don't think the Spirit leaves us out of the loop. That's my point. He puts us in the loop so we pray specifically.

We know, we understand. But that's not, I mean, we can come, but the Spirit will will work on us to focus on what we're supposed to do or how, you know, but we shouldn't be afraid ever to come before him. I know. Oh, no, no, no. I mean, there's no fear here at all. Yeah.

I mean that we have to pray in a certain way or pray that we have the exact knowledge of how we're going to come before him. I think, you know, we come before him anytime, anyplace, anywhere. And intimately. I agree. Can I tell him the story about Cornelia and Autumn? Sure. It's a great story.

Everybody knows who Cornelia Stanford is, Miles Stanford's widow. Well, when Miles went home to be with the Lord, my niece Autumn had an internship in Colorado Springs for the summer at some engineering firm down there. And Cornelia said, well, why don't you come stay with me? Well, Autumn did, but Autumn was a bit of a college student, so she was out at night a few times. Donna and I were having dinner with Cornelia one time. We said, well, how'd it go with Autumn?

And she said, oh, she's a great girl. I just pray that when God starts to grow her up, he does it gently. Talk about specific. OK, I get it. So that's what I mean. I have a great aunt that passed here at 94. She remained single her whole life, and her ministry was prayer, and you never knew what she was praying for. But I remember at my grandmother's funeral, she was in the back of the car, and my brother had just gotten out of the car and walked up for the service, and she said, how's Joe doing? And I said, things have been really good because of this circumstance.

And I remember her just looking at me and saying, the prayers are being answered. She knew how to pray over time. It's learned, right? Yes, it is. It's a gentle, very intimate process that you know when somebody knows how to pray. Sure you do. When they talk to you and they ask you questions, they're asking for specificity so that they can know how to better pray for you. It's a maturity thing in the Lord. And the Lord puts it on somebody's heart to pray for. I've had people walk up to me and say, well, I've been praying for you to them. I'm like, what? What are you talking about?

But they know. They know what they need to pray for you. Well, you don't, but others do. But, you know, and we do that. I think we all do that. I mean, I find myself praying for different people in the body for different reasons. And I don't know, it sounds like what the Lord's doing in their life, and I'm praying that way, and I may not even know Him very well, you know?

So, yeah. Would you say this passage is a comfort passage? In a sense? It is in the sense that I think there comes a time in every growing believer's life when he looks at the Lord and says, well, what does it deal with prayer? That Doyle, he's always saying the same thing, you know, or he's too much of a Catholic. Can't he pray specifically? So, prayer would be just hanging out with the Lord and talking with Him?

You know, there's a lot of truth in that statement, I think, and I really think that it's the Spirit of God who's doing the work here within each believer. It's him that does it. And we think, oh gee, the light went on one day. No, it was the Spirit of God talking to you about, persuading you about what direction he would have you go when it comes to praying for somebody. It's interesting also, you talk a lot about, there's probably a thousand books in the Christian bookstore on the power of prayer, right? Yeah. But where does this put us in relationship to that power? Warriors. Curable, yes. All the things, but where does this passage put us? Closer to God, wouldn't it? And dependent. Dependent. Who said that? Dependent. Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly where we're supposed to be. It's the perfect story. Where's our focus? Yeah.

It's not on our power. No. But I think you can get to that point. I mean, if you don't understand this, you know, what Paul's saying here, I've got a power in prayer. No. No. No. And that's a good thing. It's a great thing. To be dependent, right? Yeah. I mean, I think the sign of spiritual maturity is dependence. That's the number one thing, you know.

If you're not, you're not going to be attuned to whatever God's attuned to. Say that again. If you're just going your own way and you aren't dependent, God is not going to be on the same page you're on. You're not going to be on his page. Oh, I understand what you're saying. I think that's true. And I think that the work of the Spirit is to get us on the page, not to get him on your page.

You know, as an example, yesterday at this service, the priest is up there saying, a petition, and the whole audience would say, Lord, hear our prayer. And another petition, and the whole audience would say, Lord, hear our prayer. And about the fourth one, I thought, this is ridiculous. And here's the other part of this that drives me nuts. If I get more people to pray, God's going to listen. You know, I've got 12 now, I'm working on 24, and if I get the crowd going, boy, I'm telling you God will have to pay attention. There's power there. Oh yeah, He will, huh? No, He doesn't.

And so why would we have a prayer chain? Why would we call up What's her name, and say, hey, would you have everybody in the body pray? What would pray for Ruthie in her surgery? I think it brings comfort for the person who wants to pray. Yeah. And brings comfort to the person you're praying for? It may not make a will of difference to God. Oh, I think it does. As far as what he's going to do. You know, not that my personal experience verifies of truth or not, but I can tell you that when I was in that pre-op room, And just getting ready to go into the surgery, I could tell you were praying for me.

I knew it. It was crazy. Mike, I also think the prayer is also to get us to be in the relationship. I agree with that. It's to draw us to Him. Sure. It's not that, you know, it's the power or anything. No. It's to draw us to that intimate relationship with Him. Right. We're talking with Him all the time. All the time.

It's not that we have a hundred people praying. Well, a hundred people are now in a relationship with God. It's drawing us to God. Although it's not that we have a hundred people letting me, that's better than twenty-five people praying. But a hundred people are now intimately talking with God. With the Lord. And intimately drawn to the Lord.

And then also the comfort. I think it is comfort. I've known that through surgeries too. I feel perfectly comfortable. Perfectly comfortable. So there is comfort to the person being prayed, because I know there are a lot of people praying, but I think it's important that we're drawn to that. All those people around the prayer chain are being drawn to the Lord.

Right. As far as a chain, I don't know where that fits in my mind, but the body functioning in all unique ways that the body is built, working together through their weakness and the Holy Spirit. It just, it has a number of dependencies that are not just individual, but there's a unity in when the body joins together on purpose, right? I agree.

Would it be, on our side, knowing His rest and peace about the situation? Well, I think, I would say rest and peace are results of The issue, which is the next question, is the direction of the Holy Spirit's intercession, God-ward or man-ward? And the issue is the Spirit does make intercession. He makes intercession to intercede for one. Who is it? Who is He interceding for? For us. For us? Okay.

One of the commentators said, it's a picturesque word of rescue by one who happens on, one who is in trouble and on behalf of, and pleads with unuttered groanings or with sighs that baffle words. Kind of interesting, right? So another guy says, although we have no very definite conception of what we desire, we cannot state it in fit language as we should in our prayer, but only disclose it by inarticulate groanings. Yet God receives these groanings as acceptable prayers inasmuch as they come from a soul full of the Holy Spirit.

So, what direction is that guy saying we're going? Godward. Godward, from us to God. Another guy says, the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us, knowing our wants and needs better than we, himself pleads in our prayers, raising us to higher and holier desires than we can express in words, which can only find utterance in sighings and aspirations. What direction is that guy going in?

Yeah, so what's interesting is We're the ones that have needs, and we're the ones that are ignorant, and we're the ones that have inability, right? And this verse talks about intercession according to my will or God's will. It's God's will. So how do you find out God's will? It's the Spirit of God that makes that known to you. So I'm thinking what happens is, I'm a pray and petition the Lord about something and in the process have him change my mind. Paul went to him three times and said, look, you know, this thorn in the flesh is not comfortable, we need to get rid of it. And by the time the third time was up, what did he say? His whole focus had changed, right? His whole focus had changed.

So we instinctively operate on if it's painful I'm going to avoid it, if it's pleasurable I'm going to stay with it, right? So when something painful comes in our life, we instinctively pray, oh, we've got to get rid of this. It's part of us, human nature, focused in on our Adamic nature that we don't like pain. But at the end of the day, Paul says, I'd rather glory in my weakness. Why? so that the power of God can manifest. There you go. See, so sometimes to have the mindset that I'm willing to be weak and glory in my weakness for the express purpose that God's glory can be manifested, I'm in.

But I better have my mind changed about that because I'm not going in that way when I'm sure, you know, as we pray for Ruthie, what do we say? you know, or I prayed for my, that woman I prayed for that she, she, God not take the blood clots away from her for pretty quickly because God had something to teach her. You know, make sure the next time you do that, you call it the person say, Hey, guess what I prayed for you and you're not going to get that.

So you said, As we are comforted, we know how to comfort them. Say that again. 2 Corinthians 1-3, that we know how to comfort others because... By the same comfort that we receive. Sure. So if God said, if God answered all of the prayers that take the pain away, then you never learn the comfort. And comfort is a lot more important. It would be very easy for God to say, okay, no more pain.

But boy, what do you miss in that? What you miss in that is the comfort that God gives you in the midst of the circumstance without taking the circumstance away. For what reason? Well, you grow from it, but now you're being prepared for the next person that's coming down the road, and you can walk beside them because you understand. And that education is a lot more valuable than just having the pain taken away, or the uncomfort of whatever it is. It's way more valuable.

What's the groaning here? With groanings, it can't be uttered. By the way, I asked a question last week. Is Groening complaining? Remember what our answer was? I don't think so. No, it's not. Is it English? Groening's not complaining. I've groaned for you a lot, and I know it's not complaining. I'm just wondering if it gets translated into English. What's that? You think it's English? English, Groening? Or is it... It's a universal language. It's a universal language? I think it has a lot to do with the vastness of our needs and our ignorance and inability to understand what the Spirit's doing.

Q. It's kind of a frustration about you just don't know what to say.

A. A frustration, yeah. And it's interesting that the Spirit of God is doing the groaning. We've already discovered that the creation is groaning. that we're groaning with anticipation for some things, the revealing of the sons of God so that the creation can be released from the vanity it's been subjected to. There's a lot of groaning that goes on, even our rocks are groaning. In the groaning, we may end up with the same circumstances. Could be. So we can comfort others.

So the one that searches our heart, the one that searches our hearts, who is that? Holy Spirit. It says that he knows what is the mind, let's back up, it's not the Holy Spirit, it's God who searches our hearts. And he says he knows what is the mind or the intent or the bent or the hidden of the groanings or sighs of the Spirit.

You know, how cool is it to understand that the Father is searching your heart? You thought you were an independent free agent, sorry. It's the Father who searches your heart, and who does he run into there? The old man? No, he runs into the Spirit. Oh. See, so, and he knows, and they know what the mind of the Father is about you.

It's comforting to realize that God takes that much, pays that close attention to who each one of us are individually, as his sons. So, God the Father searches the hearts of his saints. He understands the intent or the bent of the unutterable prayers. Unutterable because they don't know the particular things we should pray for in connection with certain circumstances. That's really true. for he knows the mind of the Holy Spirit praying for us and instead in our prayers, in the case of the above mentioned items for prayer, the Holy Spirit praying according to the plan of God for our lives.

I think that that's really critical here, that we have a direction that we're going to go in and that we want to do and that God has another idea, I shouldn't term it idea, he's got another direction that He's going to take us in, but he's going to get us on board, just like he did with Paul and the thorn in the flesh.

He got Paul on board, didn't he? And again, it wasn't inappropriate or inaccurate or wrong for Paul to pray for that. No, it wasn't at all. Because it took him three times before the Lord, through the Spirit, convicted him of, hey, this is good. So again, the thought that you can come before, even though you don't understand it, this spirit will work on you to get God's will for whatever that situation is. Sure, you get an understanding. You get an understanding. It may take three times, it may take a hundred times.

Yeah, the Lord is so faithful. The thing about Paul, we have a tendency to put him up on a pedestal and say he's this really tough guy. He's not. He's a dependent guy. He's in Caesarea, right, for a couple of years, and the Lord had told him he was going to go to Rome, and he's thinking, Circumstances don't look like I'm going to make it to Rome. And the Lord comes to him at night and says, don't worry, you're going. He had to encourage him. There's nothing wrong with going to the Lord and saying, well, is this really going to happen?

Yeah, it's going to happen. And you know, because the Spirit of God was, this whole process was going on within the hearts of believers. Yeah. Is that taking us through principles like faith, acceptance... My wife needs the keys to my car. I don't know what I did with them. Say that again, Mike. Isn't that God taking us to principles for our own understanding? It is. Partially, sure. I mean, when we come to the Lord as a believer, we have no idea how this Christian life goes and what the principles are that it functions under.

What do you know about grace? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Your first exposure to grace is that you got saved. Up until that time, you don't know about grace. You know the word, but you have no idea what it means. principle of grace. God operates totally on the principle of grace. Most people think that's what you do at chow time.

Can I go back to those groanings? I may have missed it in what you were communicating there, but in 26 isn't the groanings referring to the Spirit's groanings? where as in 23 the groan is referring to ourselves, 22 the groaning is the creation's groaning, so there's different levels, but this one, so how would we know how the spirit communicates with God except in groanings which we have no concept of? Yeah, that's a good question.

In this case it is the spirit groaning, communicating with the Father about his will for me. But he's about the business of bringing me to my understanding because now I'm spiritually alive and I can understand spiritual things. Can I say that groaning is just, what this guy says, groaning is a can't be uttered, expresses at once the vastness of our need. our utter ignorance and inability and the infinite concern of the Blessed Holy Spirit for us. He says, groanings, what a word, and to be used of the Spirit of the Almighty Himself.

How shallow is our appreciation of what is done, both by Christ for us and by the Spirit within us. That's great, that came out of Newell's Romans, that's really good stuff. I don't think you can hang your hat on the fact that groanings might be some language that we don't understand. Because God is not in the business of keeping us in the dark.

You know, one of the things that we studied in Genesis on Wednesday night, the hook that Satan used to get Eve was this. There's something God is holding back. He knows that if you eat, then you're going to be like him. And he doesn't want you to be like him. That's the one thing he's holding back.

You know, this is after God spent six days creating an environment for them to live in, and they have everything they could possibly want. And it was formed just for them. And then he gives Adam, Eve, you know, we think, well, does groanings mean that the Spirit of God is holding something back? No, no, no, no. That isn't the way he operates. He wants us to know.

And Second Corinthians, that great verse, I'll paraphrase it, that it has never entered into the mind of man, the things that God has in store for those who love him. Most Christians put a period there and stop. You know what the next verse says? But God has revealed them unto us. Has revealed them unto us.

Not gonna. He has. So I would say it this way. He increases our capacity so that we can understand. Do you understand what I mean? He increases our spiritual capacity so we can understand Him because we are His sons and we're going to spend all eternity with Him and it's going to be an eternity of communication between Him and us. We're the ones that need expanding, not Him. No, He's expanding, always. Yeah, sure. So part of that process is understanding who we are as sons, and what it means to be a son. A son isn't in the dark. He knows what's going on with his father. And he's able to receive it and understand it.

Just to borrow your word, hook, I think that the hook to this verse is that word, help. We're talking about the groanings and how that works, but the situation is that And this word help, someone helping another carry a heavy load, is the picture. And I think that however that language is communicated, it helps. It helps the believer.

It carries a load that the believer can't carry in prayer. And it's that production of help that's this huge sense of comfort here. I think that's kind of the hook. And it's not a help where God takes the burden off of you so that you don't have it. No, He comes along and helps you so that you're in the game. And I think that's the picture of the Lord producing in us groanings that we can't understand. It produces that concept of, I'm carrying a heavy load, but I've got one bearing burdens that I can't.

He's right here with me. Yeah, yeah. tomorrow for a heavier load. And the recourse that we have is we know he's there. Okay. We'll go with this. Because we know. All right, last question. Why does the spirit do all this? For our growth? Just because he's bored and got nothing better to do? For his glory? For his glory? That's the ultimate answer to everything. It's like when we ask the kids in Sunday school, Jesus! God! No, Jesus! But it is. You're correct. Let me read what I found. I think it's kind of cool.

He then, "...our needs of ours, of which our minds know nothing, and which our speech could not utter if we could perceive those needs." So we're not aware of our needs. Really, to some degree we are. But it is part of God's great plan in our salvation that this effectual praying should have its place. Praying the very meaning of which we can't grasp.

Think about that. What is this thing praying anyway? Why does it, when I call you up on my cell phone, are we praying? Hey Russ, how's it going? Oh great Mike. Are we praying? were communicating. Men of God have testified to the spirit of prayer, prostrating them into deep and often long continued groanings.

We believe that such consciousness of the spirits praying within us is included in this verse, but the chief or principal part of the spirits groaning within us perhaps never reaches our spiritual consciousness. Do you believe that? But see, here's the thing. believers are constantly growing.

What is spiritual growth? Growing what? I put on five pounds last year. What am I growing? I'm growing in, I'm already in grace. So I'm growing in understanding this grace that I live in, because I don't have anything that came out of the world system that I was saved out of that would caused me to understand what grace is, and grace isn't a commodity sitting in a jar on a table someplace.

It's the operating principle in which believers live in. We live in grace, and as Chester McCauley, the great definer of grace, he said, grace is unlimited and unmerited. Those two words are critical. Unlimited and unmerited blessings from God. unlimited and unmerited based on the totally adequate work of Christ on the cross. Think about that.

I live in an environment and you live in an environment today where the operating principle is God unlimitedly showering grace on me that I never could merit anyway. And it's, it has no constraints from a power standpoint and no constraints from how much there is. That's the operating principle we live under. And we're always looking at God and saying, can't you give me a couple of rules here?

Tell me what to do and I'll do it. And he says, how about receive? Is that the first bell? Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, I can't call Courtney up here for five minutes. How about Tom? Knowing his affections. Really important. But you know what's critical about that? How do you know somebody has affections for you? They want to hang out with you. You know them by how they treat you. How they treat you. Number one, you've got to know them.

Right? I mean, I went to a boarding high school, right? And it was a really strict place. So we never got out. And so if you had a girlfriend, you communicated with her with letters, you know? So you'd write a couple a week and she'd write a couple to you. But she was back home. And you were trying to get to know this person better through trying to express on a piece of paper, you know, who you were. And to be honest, after about a month or two, it got pretty redundant because you weren't very creative in your writing. And you were borrowing phrases from other people. But there's no substitute for standing right in front of somebody, and hanging out with them, and spending time with them, doing anything, and just getting to know them.

I think Mike's right. I think that that is the purpose of the whole thing of prayer and the whole thing of spiritual growth. We are coming into a greater intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ through His Word. The Word reflects His glory. So that we're not dealing with a religion or a set of theological facts, as important as the Word is, but we're dealing with a person. We're hanging out with a person. We know. But you can't do that without the Word. You've got to have the Word. And you've got to spend time.

So if I and Alan, say, wanted to be buddies, well, we wouldn't become buddies because we saw each other twice a year. You open up your Bible twice a year. You're not going to have much of a relationship. And why do you read your Bible to start with? To know Him. That's right. You don't read your Bible and cram your head full of biblical facts. You do it to behold His glory and to learn of Him and hang out with Him. You know, one of the great things about being a teacher, and J.D. and Courtney, is the fact that we get to spend time with the Lord getting prepared. That's the coolest part of the whole thing.

Otherwise, I wouldn't do it. To be honest with you, I wouldn't do it. If I didn't have to show up here and get in front of you and talk and answer the questions and go through this process, I probably would be lazy and wouldn't do it. But I'm thankful that he does.

I really am, because that time spent, and Roger says to me all the time, oh boy, he said, I just love being alone with the Lord, but Vonnie doesn't like it as much as I do. I said, yeah, I understand that. But that's what it is. The fellowship of his sufferings. That's right. And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. All of that is part of the process. But what do you do? Because when you leave the planet to go home to be with the Lord, where do you end up? Outside something called a gate? Where do you end up?

Face to face. With who? Jesus. Well, you better know him before you get there. Oh yeah, I remember you. The theologians, you know, my theory is the theologians are going to have books under their arms, and they'll be walking down heaven, and they'll walk up to Christ and say, excuse me, and they'll walk right around him, because they didn't know him. That's the whole reason for God's Word, is that we can know Christ through that process, personally, intimately. Because this is just the beginning. Ephesians says that we're going to be before him, holy and blameless in love. Before him is really cool. What is before him?

Right here. Right here. With no impediments and no diminished capacity. We're adult sons. We've been equipped by God to be there. It's so cool. But that process starts right now. I'm done. Yeah. I was going to say, kind of a weird thought came to me. It happened, whatever. Basically, I was thinking, you know, like when I went through Macaulay's 125 Lessons on Romans, at the end I'm going, oh my gosh. I was going, wow, wow, wow, wow, and at the end it's like, wow, I'm just flooded with knowledge.

But I was thinking, when Peter spoke, if you thought were added to the body of Christ, Chester hadn't been born yet, and they were just fine. All this information is totally wonderful and you need to know it, but I'm just fine right this minute. That's right. You are fine. Let's close. Our dear Father, how we thank you for your word and we thank you for the time to be together and hang out with you and learn and grow in the knowledge of our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus. And we pray in his name. Amen.