God Is Always Looking for People Who Are Serious

Turn with me to Genesis chapter 28, verses 18 through 22, to a moment in the life of the patriarch Jacob. At the beginning of the year we were talking about Bethel, the place where God originally appeared to Abraham; later He appeared to Jacob as well, and throughout the Bible we see that Bethel, “House of God” in English, played an important role in the lives of the patriarchs and also has a symbolic purpose in our lives.

It is the place where covenants are established, the place where covenants are renewed, the place of personal encounters with God. It is the place where God speaks to men like Jacob and Abraham about His purposes, promises to bless them, and calls them to make a firm commitment to Him. It is a sacred and holy place.

And Jacob found himself there, in that mysterious place, one night as he fled from his brother Esau, who wanted to kill him because Jacob had stolen his birthright. Esau was a weak and inconsistent man who did not appreciate the privilege he had as the older brother, as the firstborn, of bearing his family’s inheritance—the spiritual inheritance as the father of his family. Esau did not appreciate the privilege he had and traded it for a plate of food when he was hungry and returning from a day of hunting. Jacob valued and desired that spiritual leadership.

And he used a means that was not very legitimate, not very good, to take possession of the birthright himself, and in a sense he trapped his brother Esau into making a deal with him and handing the birthright over to him. He disguised himself and, in a sense, enticed him into giving it to him. And when Esau came to his senses and realized what had happened and what he had lost, and discovered that his brother had deceived him in that way, he wanted to kill him, and Jacob had to flee from home and take refuge in another land with his mother’s family.

And along the way he stopped at this place—or God stopped him there—because it is a mysterious place, a place where somehow God was present, and God appeared to him and spoke to him. And so we pick up the account here in verse 18, which says: “And Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head.” Since he was sleeping out in the open, he had no pillow, so he took a stone and lay down on it; I can imagine the neck pain he had the next day.

But nevertheless: “He took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.” How beautiful rituals are; how beautiful symbols are. God’s people have sometimes learned the significance and importance of symbols. We evangelicals are sometimes very dry in the way we worship the Lord. I love them, and every day I gain a greater appreciation for symbolic acts and for the things that symbolize the dealings and the things we do with God.

And he took that stone. I imagine that, in a sense, he had been sleeping on that stone, as though perhaps his intimacy had rested there upon that stone all night; God appeared to him in a kind of dream. And he took that stone and poured oil on it as a sign of consecration, as a way of setting this stone apart, of making this stone no longer something inert, dead, and meaningless there; by pouring oil on it, he consecrated it and gave it spiritual life, and made it into a sign, a banner. It was his way of signing and marking the sacred nature of what he was about to do at that moment.

How important it is, brothers and sisters, when we make a commitment to God, that we take a moment to seal it, to be conscious of what we are doing. We must not do things lightly or be careless; we must be sober and solemn about the things we do, and remember them, mark them. That is why it is so important.

People say, “Well, I don’t have to go to the front to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior.” That is true; you do not have to do it. But the truth is that great gestures need something by which to remember them, something that marks the energy one is investing in them, because otherwise one easily forgets. That is why, when people are going to get married, they invite their friends, invite the pastor, hold a ceremony before witnesses, and sometimes even publish the matter in the newspapers, and they have a big celebration to testify to and remember what has been done, so that the whole community will know, “We are making a commitment,” and so that they themselves will also mark the importance of what they are doing. God likes such things. God has not changed His way of being; He likes to mark the agreements He makes with us.

So he poured oil on top of the stone and even gave that place a name. It says that he called that place Bethel, although Luz had formerly been the original name of that city. Then verse 20 says: “Jacob made a vow.” A vow means a promise, a weighty spiritual agreement, “saying, ‘If God will be with me and keep me on this journey that I am taking, and give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return in peace to my father’s house’”—look, here is what—this is the covenant he makes: “‘Jehovah shall be my God.’”

By saying this, he was indicating something: he lived in an idolatrous context where there were many different gods, and the very God he worshiped, Jehovah, was not well known. In fact, I believe that Jacob himself did not understand very well who Jehovah was because Jehovah had only recently appeared to his grandfather—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and God had not yet been explored, so to speak, nor had He revealed Himself in the detail with which He would progressively reveal Himself. At this point Jacob has an instinctive understanding of God.

But he says, “You know what? If God accompanies me, goes with me, and gets me out of this mess I am in right now, I am going to make Him my God. I am going to live my life in relationship with Him, with His commandments, with His universe, His world, His realm. ‘Jehovah shall be my God, and this stone that I have set up as a pillar shall be God’s house. And of everything You give me, I will set apart a tenth for You.’”

How interesting that is. Later, perhaps, if I have a moment, I can talk about how the final sign of his entire commitment was this: “And of everything You give me, I will set apart a tenth for You.” There was also a mindset there, a thought, a way in which he viewed God and His authority, and other things.

But what I want to speak to you about this morning, brothers and sisters—what I want you to engrave upon your hearts—is a God of covenants, a God of covenants. And I am going to tell you the initial thought that served as the foundation for my choosing this subject for our message this morning; and if I accomplish nothing else, leave with this thought. It is that God likes people who make covenants with Him. God likes people who take Him seriously and who take themselves seriously as well, and who come before God with complete seriousness, intentionality, and deliberation, make a firm agreement and commitment with Him, do not look back, and follow Him no matter what. God likes to deal with people like that—serious people, people of integrity, people of their word—and that is what I want you to take away.

Because what I sensed within myself as I thought about this was that God is always looking for serious people, people who take Him seriously, people who carefully consider what they are doing when they approach Him, and who are people of one word, who do not look back when they make a commitment to the Lord. Those are the people He wants to bless, the people God wants to deal with, the people to whom God commits Himself, for whom He fights, and whom He blesses.

And that kind of person makes serious covenants with God and signs those covenants with the seriousness Jacob displayed. As he poured that oil over that stone, he was saying: “There is no turning back. Today I make a covenant with the Lord, and this will be my covenant: I will serve Him all the days of my life.”

Why do I also say that? Because I believe, brothers and sisters, that in the evangelical world—and throughout Christianity—there are many double-minded people. There are many people who do not understand the seriousness of walking in the ways of the Lord. Many people come to church but have no personal sense of what it is they are involved in, what universe they have entered, the seriousness of serving God, the importance of having integrity with the Lord and of being careful with the holiness and magnificence of God—of taking God seriously.

I believe that, in rightly preaching about the God of grace, mercy, and love, who grieves and has compassion for us and who is a God who treats us as children—all of that is very important—we have sometimes lost a great deal in the evangelical world by failing to emphasize the other side of the matter: the holiness of God, His magnificence, His majesty, and how we must serve Him with tremendous scrupulousness and tremendous care.

And there are many people today who therefore view God in a very casual way and take all kinds of liberties with God, not knowing that God has never changed His way of being. God takes Himself very seriously and is highly conscious of His holiness, His magnificence, and His greatness. He greatly appreciates being taken seriously, and that people do not play games with Him. He likes those people who always know that everything they experience, everything they do, everything they say, and everything they think lies fully exposed before the eyes of God, who always sees it all; and they walk with this awareness: “God is witnessing what I am doing, saying, and thinking right now.” They walk with that awareness, always wanting to please God in everything and always seeking God’s glory.

I have been thinking in recent days—and in fact I shared it with the church’s pastoral staff this week—about a verse in Jeremiah, I believe it is Jeremiah chapter 9, where it says: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor let the mighty man glory in his might, nor the rich man in his riches, says the Lord. But let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am Jehovah, who exercises mercy, judgment, and righteousness on the earth; for in these things I delight, says Jehovah.”

See how seriously God takes Himself. He says, “Look, if anyone must glory—people glory in being rich, in being mighty, in being wise—but you know what? That is garbage. If anyone must glory—frankly, no one should glory, He says—but if you cannot keep yourselves from glorying, glory in this: in understanding and knowing Me, because that is what truly counts.” Look who says it: God Himself says it. In other words, God takes Himself seriously—very seriously.

God is not modest in the sense that He somehow tries to hide His glory, is He? God is simply exactly as He must be. There is nothing greater than He is, and He can quite rightly tell people, “Look, the most important thing is for you to understand Me and know Me.” In other words, see how seriously God takes Himself.

And so we must take Him seriously, and that is why we must walk before the Lord with the utmost fear and in a very scrupulous manner. And that is why I believe the day must come for each one of us—if you have not done it, I ask you, please—we must all make a firm covenant with God: “Lord, at this moment I commit myself to You, come rain, thunder, or wind. I will serve You, walk with You, obey You, and be exceedingly careful regarding Your glory and Your attributes.” And when God sees a person like that, God always falls in love with that person and commits Himself to them, come rain, thunder, or wind, no matter what—the person who loves the Lord and is steadfast with the Lord.

And I do not say this as a complaint, because I understand that sometimes these things happen. But do you know which Sunday has the lowest attendance of the entire year in the United States? Which Sunday has the lowest attendance? The Sunday after Easter Sunday, and right now we can see that, although, of course, we now have the English service over there as well, and that would fill things out a little more.

But what I mean is that one understands. And why is it like that? Because sometimes people invest so much during that week in so many different things—in parties, outings, and new clothes—and they come to the house of the Lord, and the glory of God is there; it is packed for an event, with special musical numbers and all of this. Then the nervous system gets a little tired, and one secretly says to oneself, “Well, you know what? It is time for me to take a little break. I am going to rest; I am going to stay quietly at home.”

And that may be the case, that may be it; you know, I do not want to criticize anyone unnecessarily. There are reasons; things happen. But I like people who, look, even if they have to drag themselves there, come to the house of the Lord no matter what and serve God, and say, “You know what? I am not going to let myself be governed by my emotions. We must give glory and honor to the Lord, support our congregation, and be there.” Do you understand what I mean?

They are not sinning by not coming, but sometimes my desire, my longing, is that we would always have an upright, dependable congregation, made up of people committed to the Lord no matter what. People who are attentive to every detail with God. People who, when there is something to be done, say: I am here; that we would not be like a leaf in the wind that goes wherever the wind carries it. People who look at the culture and say: oh look, it seems that so-and-so has just said that this should be this way, and that he changed his mind, and now he sees the Bible differently; oh well then, let's go—if so-and-so says it, I am going to go with him too. Instead of saying: no, what does the Word of God say? And they stand firm, with anguish and struggle in their hearts, but they stand firm in what the Word of the Lord says and press on.

God blesses that kind of person, God stands behind them, God prospers them because they have made a covenant with God; they have committed themselves in their hearts. Unlike people who come to church simply because others come, because it is customary, because my grandmother did it, because my mother did it, and they simply like the church; they see a new place.

Sometimes people come out of curiosity. A new place, more comfortable chairs—they are still a little hard, but once they get softer, they will no longer come to church—because the world is full of that; Christianity is full of that. I would say that, unfortunately, most people very often do things that way, out of emotion.

That is why I do not get carried away: oh, our church is full! and what do I know, however many people, no; I always look at what happens in the end, I always look at the end. Perhaps people say that I have little faith, but no, I have already learned what human nature is like. And what I ask is that you and I be people of commitment, people of covenant toward God; that we be straightforward with the Lord, that we be steadfast, that we make a covenant as Jacob did, because God is a God who is steadfast in His Word and His purpose.

When God commits Himself to something, He fulfills it because God is a God of integrity. God takes Himself seriously, and He takes us seriously; that is why God can make covenants with us, because He takes us seriously. If God did not take us seriously and did not regard us as an entity worthy of consideration, He would not make a covenant with us; He would treat us as mere objects.

I am always overwhelmed when I think about how seriously God takes me and the power I have to affect the Kingdom of God through my actions, my decisions, my words, and everything else. And it should be the same with you: you must take yourself seriously because you have an impact. Your family, your marriage, your children, your community, your church—what you do carries weight; it affects your surroundings, and God knows this, and that is why God takes you very seriously. Because God takes us seriously, God makes covenants with us, because He takes Himself seriously and also sees us as an entity worthy of making a covenant with.

When God moves in something, He does it deliberately; He does it with great seriousness and great weight, and that is why God expects us to act that way toward Him as well. And I believe that the seriousness God assigns to His dealings with us also has something to do with the dignity He assigns to Himself, the glory, the magnificence, the care He has for Himself. God likes those people who possess that quality of integrity and seriousness that He has, and He likes dealing with them.

Another interesting thing: when God makes a covenant with someone, that covenant is made firm, and God keeps it for several generations; that covenant affects your children and your children's children as well, and it affects everything over which you have authority. Your grandchildren are blessed, your great-grandchildren are blessed, when a man or a woman makes a serious covenant with God and commits to serving the Lord and being faithful to the Lord.

This morning I was reading the God Speaks Today devotional, that message we send through the website—which, by the way, I encourage you to sign up for—and it is a famous piece by Charles Spurgeon, the famous nineteenth-century preacher. And Charles Spurgeon says the following, which to me somewhat affirms that idea of the God who makes a covenant with a man or a woman and then keeps it, and through that covenant blesses the generations that follow.

Look at what Charles Spurgeon says. He says: “Concern for our family is natural, but we would be wise if we turned it into concern for our own character. If we walk before the Lord in integrity, we will do more to bless our descendants than if we bequeathed property to them. The holy life of a father is a rich legacy for his children.” A father or a mother—and I can say that my mother has blessed us and her subsequent generations in a precious way. A woman who is serious before God, filled with the Holy Spirit, committed to God, blesses her family. This is not only for men, but for every father and mother who takes God seriously.

“The holy life of a father and a mother is a rich legacy for their children. The upright man leaves his heirs his example, and this in itself is a mine of true wealth. How many men”—I would say women—“can attribute their success in life to the example of their parents? He also leaves them his good name”—that is, the father leaves his spiritual reputation and his reputation for integrity to his children—“people think better of us as the children of a man who was trustworthy or the successors of a merchant with an excellent reputation. Oh, that all young people were eager to safeguard the family name!

Above all, he leaves his children his prayers and the blessing of a God who hears prayers, and these prayers cause our offspring”—that is, our children, our descendants—“to be favored among the children of men. God will save them even after we have died; oh, that they would be saved immediately! Our integrity may be God's instrument for saving our sons and our daughters.

If they see the truth of our faith demonstrated by our lives, perhaps they will believe in Jesus for themselves. Lord, fulfill this Word for my family.” Blessed be the Lord. Is that true or not? Amen. The Word of God spoken by a man who lived and served the Lord with integrity.

So it is important for you to understand: your life, your relationship with God, your seriousness toward God, the way you walk with God—the seriousness, the steadfastness with which you keep the covenant you have made with the Lord—will have a tremendously important effect on your entire family, your descendants, your finances, everything. Listen to me, if men took that seriously—and women too. I say men because we men sometimes, truly: we need brothers who are men as never before, in our time as never before; men who embrace their children as my brother here is embracing his son, who cover them like that, who fight for their children like lions, not only women. Men who take seriously the legacy they leave their children, who take time to give their children warmth, to leave their children an example.

All the time you hear about men who leave their children because they fell in love with some other little woman somewhere and abandon their legacy; like Esau, they sacrifice their birthright for an animal appetite. May God rebuke the devil, honestly; and they do not know the harm they are doing, stabbing their children, while they themselves wallow in vileness, in the greatest filth of all.

By the way: marriage is a covenant. Marriage is not a contract; I do not see it as a contract—perhaps a contract at the civil level. Marriage is a covenant, a covenant that a woman and a man make, giving themselves mutually to one another, a promise. I am going to love you, I am going to serve you, I am going to be with you until I die or you die, and you can count on me. Even if I become ugly, or you do, or whatever; or if I get sick or have no money, she says to him: I am going to be with you, old man; and he says the same thing to her as well. And that woman feels secure, you know?

She knows that when she reaches 50 or 60 years of age, he is not simply going to leave her, because he gave her his word; he made a commitment to her. His heart, his life, his dignity, his integrity as a man are committed to keeping that word, no matter what. That is security; that is what has been lost today. That is what people do not understand, and I could launch into another harangue there about marriage today, about how it is being threatened and all that, and this is why: because nowadays people no longer see marriage for what it really is. It is something sacred, intimate, personal, involving the innermost part of a human being, and that does not answer to cultural changes or strange definitions. It is something God has established—that commitment, that seriousness, that self-giving—and we have to preserve that and be people of covenant, people of our word, people of integrity.

Our yes must be yes and our no must be no, says the Word of the Lord. All Christians must be known as people of covenant. When you tell someone something, you keep your word. If you are an employee of a company or whatever it may be, you give eight hours of work for eight hours of pay, and you are not off somewhere wasting time in the bathroom texting someone, grumbling, and gossiping. No, I am being paid, and I have to do my job. Do you understand?

You respect the laws; you pay what you owe. Do not get me started there because, brothers, I am still waiting for Christians to whom I lent money to pay me back. I honestly tell you, brothers, how sad. Very often it is easier to expect a non-Christian to pay what they owe you than a Christian—terrible. Because no, it is not there; people—where is their word? If you owe something, pay it, you know? The Bible says: Owe no one anything; to whom glory is due, glory; to whom honor, honor; to whom money, money—but pay them. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's; always remember that.

You owe your children integrity, seriousness, protection, steadfastness, care, teaching—pay your children what you owe them. You owe your wife or your husband loyalty, love, care—pay them. You owe your church consistency, support, backing—pay it. You owe God praise, glory, honor, soul, life, body, everything—pay God. People of covenant, people of seriousness, people of commitment—and the Lord likes that.

Brother, we can make—listen to this; it is very important—we can make covenants with God. At times I have heard, and from time to time I have read, theologians who say no, that covenants must always be initiated by God, and that man cannot make covenants with God, but that it has to be God; that what they see in the Bible, according to them, is simply God initiating covenants with men. I do not believe that. I do not see it that way in the Bible. Whoever says that is contradicting what is seen in Scripture.

First of all, God takes us very seriously, and He is willing. Now, if you make some crazy covenant: Lord, I will serve You if You give me a mansion in Bel Air over there in California and four cars or whatever—that is something vulgar. No, covenants are serious; they have to be within the laws. But when a man—a man can come before God and make covenants.

King Josiah, for example, made a covenant with God; you can find this later on—we read it some time ago. Second Chronicles 29, so that you may understand, because this is something I have heard many times, and it seemed a little strange to me, and I made sure to look it up in the Bible: that one cannot make covenants with God, initiating one oneself.

And look at Second Chronicles 29:10, Second Chronicles 29:10. Josiah says—and we studied this a couple of weeks ago, not specifically in this way, but it says: “Now therefore, I have determined to make a covenant with Jehovah, the God of Israel, that He may turn away from us the fierceness of His wrath. My sons, do not deceive yourselves now, for Jehovah has chosen you to stand before Him, and to serve Him, and to be His ministers, and to burn incense to Him.” I like that word from Josiah: “I have determined today to make a covenant with Jehovah, the God of Israel.” God wants to make a covenant, and He likes willing people who are willing to make a covenant with Him.

And there are other passages that likewise speak clearly. Jacob made that covenant: I make a covenant with You today; this is my agreement with You. I am going to serve You all the days of my life; I expect Your protection, Your care, just as one expects any king to cover one with his protection and his provision. Jacob made a covenant with God. David says in one passage: “And who wants to make a covenant with God today?” I believe it was when he set aside money for the new temple, the temple that was going to be built.

He says: “I have set aside some of my wealth.” He says: “I have set aside gold, silver, bronze, and wood for the construction of the temple.” He says: “And from my own money, from my own possessions, I have also set something aside.” He was not content with only national funds, but says, “From my own estate I set aside money for the construction of the temple; and who now wants to make a covenant with God as well?” In other words, people who make a covenant with God can also challenge others to make a covenant with the Lord. God always loved David for that care he showed for His Glory.

And so God likes serious people who are willing to make covenants with Him, and God has already made a covenant with all humanity through His Son Jesus Christ. Christ died on the cross so that everyone might be saved. In one sense, the whole world is now under God’s new covenant, so what God wants now is people who will sign the covenant God has made and say: No, I want to make a covenant with God within that covenant; I am going to serve the Lord under the banner of Christ Jesus. I say amen to Your covenant, Lord; I establish a covenant with You now, and I am going to serve You and follow You. The only thing we have to do now is ratify that covenant for ourselves and our children; we have to enter into the covenant.

Now, I would say that within the covenant God has already initiated and that I now ratify with my word and my signature, even within that greater covenant there are lesser covenants that you can make with God in your life. I encourage you to be a man, a woman of covenant, to say: You know what? I am not going to be just any Christian; I am not going to be content simply with saying, well, now my passport has been stamped and I am going to heaven. I already know that even if I am careless and mediocre in the way I serve the Lord, God is going to save me because it is not by works but by grace. There are many people like that, and God sees those people’s hearts.

And they are going to be saved because, again, salvation is not by works. But listen to me: Do you know whom God loves and prefers, and in whom He takes delight? The man and the woman who say: You know what, Lord? I am not going to be content with simply going to heaven; I am going to serve You with all my heart, with all my mind, and with all my strength. I am going to love You above all things; I am going to prefer You above all gods. Everything I have will be Yours—everything I am, everything I know, everything I attain is for Your Glory—and I will live for You scrupulously every day of my life. God sees that person and says: I want to have dealings with that man, with that woman. I am going to bless him; I am going to fight with him and for him; I am going to deliver him from all his troubles.

When he fails Me, I will forgive him if he repents, and I will bless him, and I will bless his sons and his daughters, and I will lift him up, and I will make him influential in the community, and I will give him the joy of My salvation, and I will accompany him in his illnesses, in his struggles, in his sorrows, his tribulations, his trials, and his absences, and I will comfort him at night when he is sad and anxious because he loves Me, prefers Me, and is attentive to My Glory and My Person. God wants to bless such people.

That is to say, even within the greater covenant God has established through Christ Jesus, God calls you and me this morning to make a covenant with Him personally. People do not know what they are missing when they live carelessly before God within a generic covenant, like those general contracts lawyers draw up, you know, those boilerplate contracts, as they call them, that you buy there at Walgreens or Staples. No, no, God wants a specific covenant with you. Within the greater covenant He has established through His Son Jesus Christ, He wants you to walk seriously with Him. Those are the people you want to have around you, you know?

Do you know the people who move my heart? The people whom I see are bulletproof. Come rain, thunder, or wind, I can trust them; I can depend on them. You know who is simply going around spouting vain rhetoric and empty words. There are men and women who carry weight; when they speak to you and tell you something, you know you can take that word to the bank. Those are the people you want to have around you. There are others who are fair-weather sailors. Do not be like that in your life; be a serious person, a person of integrity.

If a mere man sees that and is moved, how much more is God moved when you prefer Him? There are many additional passages I could share with you and other thoughts, but we are going to leave it there. The Bible is full of examples of men and women who had integrity with God and preferred Him above all things. They performed feats, did mighty deeds, risked their lives, fought giants, and were martyred, but they did not yield; they did not go back on their word or betray their commitment. They were brought before kings; they were sawn apart, quartered, and burned, but they did not go back on their word.

May the Lord allow you to be one of those people—and me as well, as I preach this message—people of covenant. In the Name of the Lord, receive that Word. Bow your head for a moment and meditate on this Word. I want to share it with you in this way, in your heart. Believe it, receive it right now, and say: Lord, today I make a covenant with You. I am going to be a man, a woman of integrity; I am going to walk seriously with You. I am going to be a person whose word is unwavering, because I know that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways; let no one who does these things think that he will receive anything from the Lord.

Oh God, we commit ourselves to You to be people of covenant, conscientious people, responsible people. Father, may this Church, our Church, Lord, be composed of souls who can do and say the same—meticulous people, Father, people who are careful about Your Glory, Lord. Forgive me, because every one of us fails in this; I am the first, Father. I need to be more careful, but help us today, Father. We present this Church before You, Lord.

We know that we cannot deceive You with vain words and empty rituals, Father; You see the heart, Lord. We want to have a heart that is perfect toward You; help us, Father. Form for Yourself a people, Lord, in whom You can take pleasure. Your heart is wounded, Lord, and You need children who prefer You above all things, and we want to be that kind of children, that kind of men and women, Lord. Raise up a congregation of integrity, Father, a congregation pleasing before You. May it not look to other gods; may it not make covenants with other nations except those who love You and respect Your Glory and respect Your Name. We want to be like that, Father, and that is why we commit ourselves to You this morning. May Your Name be glorified, Lord. Thank You, thank You, Lord. We worship You; we bless You. Hallelujah. Stand up, brothers and sisters; let us give the Lord one final praise. I believe they are playing “God of Covenants.” Let us declare that this morning, and may that be the feeling of our hearts, amen? God bless you, my brothers and sisters.