And good morning, everyone. We're glad that you are here and glad to have Madison's parents, Bruce and Myra, will have formal introductions later. How's that? But we come on a beautiful morning. Supposed to be like 80 deg today or something like that. I told Chelsea yesterday this will probably end up being the hottest day of the summer. It will be winter starting June going on. We'll see. But anyway, here for Bible study, let's have a word of prayer. And we'll begin with the book of Philippians. Heavenly Father always grateful to be able to come to this place and to be able to serve the Lord here and to open up the word we're grateful for not only the rescues, but others who join us from all across the nation and right here in our town as well. And just pray that you would give us some encouragement and insight as always, as we come into the word of God this morning and help us to rightly divide the word of truth, we pray in Jesus name, Amen. And Philippians, the 10th time we've come to the Book of Philippians at Madison's request to study the book of Philippians while she was here. And it worked well because I'm working through the Pauline Epistles anyway. And so Philippians, chapter two, we're going to begin down at verse 19. Let me take all my notes off there so you don't have to deal with that. Here we go. And then let me move from third John to Philippians two and 119. There we're at it. Let's see, we had been looking at Paul's kind of personal word to the Philippians here as he asked them to be holding forth the word of life. And then last week that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. If I be offered upon the sacrifice of your service and faith, I joy I rejoice with you all. That is, if your service causes me problems with the authorities, so be it. I'm glad you're serving for the same cause. Also do Ye joy and rejoice in me. And then we pick up here in verse 19, a section going down to verse 30. But I don't think I'll make it to verse 30 and I am sucking on a cough drop as I talk. So you have the choice between that kind of talk or coughing. So we're going with the cough drop this morning. But anyway, he has a section beginning in 19 and going down to verse 30. That is kind of, I guess, a personal word to the Philippians. And about, first of all, Timothy. And then I put a paphrus on there, but I believe it's Aphroditis. We'll see when we get down there later. But I noticed your outline said the paprius. I think it's the paproditis there because it's a personal word to them. That's why I left it not in blue letter or green letter, left it in black letter. And that is stuff that we couldn't really take and build any kind of doctrine out of it for our Christian living. But at the same time, you kind of think now this will all be a per personal word. I wish I could send Timothy. I can't send Timothy. And so I'm going to send a paparditis. And you kind of wonder, why did that have to be included in the scripture? That's not anything that we can do anything with. This is a little speculation, but I think that these are letters that were inspired and letters have that kind of stuff. And they put some historicity into it, some real life into it. They sometimes give us insight into other individuals that we might run across somewhere else. They also, as we'll see, especially in the last verse here, up to verse 27. I think that's the last verse we're going to cover today anyway, up to verse 27. It really is almost I want to use the word rudimentary, but I hate to do that, but it's kind of rudimentary this that the other. But even in that we find when we get to verse 27, there's these things that give, hey, that's a little theological insight that I wouldn't have picked up had it not just been sort of overhearing a conversation that takes place. Now, speaking of overhearing a conversation, I would suspect that there are some people in your life, and I would say especially people who you don't know very well, but you know of them, we all put our pants on the same way one leg at a time, especially people who are of a social standing that maybe you're not in their mix all the time, but you go somewhere like down to the Waffle House, and there they are over there eating their pancakes and you overhear them. And then you go away and you say, well, he likes double cream in his coffee. And that sort of gives you a little connection with them in a strange kind of way. So I kind of think that's a little bit about why some of this was included. Besides that. It would be I don't know, would you say two sanitary if it was nothing but one doctrinal verse after another? You could almost have this bullet list of doctrines, and our life is not that way and relationships are not that way. And this is a real life kind of document. So it includes things like this. So now with that lengthy introduction, we come into verse 19. As Paul says to the Church of Philippi, I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you that I may also be of good comfort when I know your state. I've mentioned before, but the difference between Timothyus and Timothy is spelling that's it in 1611. They put things different ways, but even at that, we still somewhat due today. If we talked about John Smedley or John Robert, we would all know who we were talking about different times, different places. So I wouldn't make too much of that. So I trust we're going to come across this word trust later. But it is the word helps will get it here Elpes, which is the word for hope. So I have a hope. I have a trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you that I may also be of good comfort when I know your state. So the reason he wants to send Timothy is so that Timothy can come back and give a report and he wants to know your state. That is a translation of the words know how things go with you. It's just summarized in Know your state. Now, Paul first met Timothy about we're going to call it 52 Ad. And this is about 60. What did I say? 64, I believe. Yeah, 64 Ad. So you got a dozen years that Paul has known Timothy and walked with Timothy and worked with Timothy and been companions with Timothy. So Timothy, I think we're going to see at this when we continue on. Timothy was kind of his right hand man, his go to guy. Timothy was the one that he didn't have to give much detail. Timothy knew what he wanted and he knew what Timothy wanted and all that kind of stuff. So he wanted to send Timothy to give a report of the Philippians so that I may know your state. For I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. Now, I think we have to be careful with this. Paul did not say that nobody else could do the job. What he said. I think that the emphasis is on the eye and the naturally, I have no one who can as naturally do this job as Timothy can. If we read this, there's not anybody else, then we have a problem in just a moment because he's going to send a pafred digest. In fact, if you were to look into Greek, the emphasis, if you will, is on I and Greek emphasizes things by what order they put them in. It's on. I have actually. So I have there are other people out there, but I don't have them. They're not right here with me. Apathhroditis appears then to be, I don't know, shall we say, a step removed from Paul. And Paul is certainly able to ask him to do something. He's able to get in touch with him, all that kind of stuff. But he's not right there in Paul's inner circle. And he would rather send Timothy. Timothy is the one who can naturally care for your estate. That is to say that they're not only in the relationship that Paul has with Timothy, but in somehow the relationship that Timothy has with Philippi. It would be the most natural thing that he could just step right in and he could do it. And so he would like to shortly send Timothy, but he can't send Timothy now, as we're going to see, and we go on to verse 21, which I made green, which means it's still directed to them. But this is something that we could make a general connection with, if you will, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. As you read that just these two verses here. I have no one else. Everybody seeks their own. Nobody seeks after the things that Jesus Christ looks kind of like everybody's being thrown under the bus. Right. And what gets interesting is he goes on again, when you get down in verse 25, I suppose it's necessary to send a papadditis if you're not careful. You'll read this as I wanted to send Timothy. He's the best one. Everybody else serves themselves like a path orditis who am I going to have to send to you? Because I can't get anybody better. And I don't think that that's the tone of this at all. But all seek their own, not the things which are of Jesus Christ. It comes to, I suppose, again, in this inner circle here, I have no one. The inner circle that I have had, they've all abandoned me. This is roughly about the same time. See if I put a date on here. I didn't. But 64 for the book of Philippians, let's say 65 or 66 for second Timothy, maybe as late as 68. So this is about the same time, roughly the same within a few years, at the same time that Paul says to Timothy, all who are in Asia have abandoned me, they've all turned away. So I think the emphasis on all seek their own is whoever the inner circle was with him was abandoning him. He was getting his little group of disciples down to a very manageable size. And really right then it had come down to Timothy. Timothy is the only one that is right here with me that I could send to you who could naturally care for your estate. The others. And I suppose that in Philippi they would know who exactly he's talking about. Is it Faijellice and Hymanie's that he mentions in another place? I may have those names off a little bit, or Alexander the Copper Smith, or some of these others that seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ, they abandon. Now, later on, when we get to verse 27, we're going to come back to this thought here just a little bit. But it looks like even at the time that Paul is writing the Book of Philippians, if we're taking these two verses here as kind of overhearing a conversation and connecting some dots, and hopefully we're not connecting dots that shouldn't be connected. But as we're overlooking, it looks like by the time he's writing the Book of Philippians that Pauline theology is already out of favor. And Paul, along with it, is out of favor that maybe the Judaizers have won the battle for the mind. And people are starting to say, no, that Paul, he's a Kook. He's not a real Christian. And all the things that they say about Paul today, they really begin to think about it. So this is what I think. Now, there is some degree of truth in which we could all seek out their own. All seek their own, not the things which are of Jesus Christ. We could look at that Incidentally and say, this is kind of the default of the human life, is we go to seek our own things, we work for that which we desire. It's a little bit of a default behavior for life in general. There going on in verse 22. But you know the proof of him, that is Timothy, that as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel. And again, a pretty plain, simple, easy to understand verse. I wanted to send Timothy. He's the one I have. He's the one that naturally could take care of your needs. You have seen him work, you know the proof of him. And probably this part right here. You know the proof of him. That's why he's a better candidate than anybody else, is because he doesn't have to come in and prove himself, introduce himself and show that he really is loyal to Paul, just like they're loyal to Paul. They already know that, that he has served like a son to a father and has served with me in the gospel. And there it is, just Incidentally, I didn't make this green. But Incidentally, I think that we ought to as it relates to following Paul as he instructed us to. Do you follow me? I'll follow Christ. We ought to say, I hope that people recognize that I have served with Paul in the Gospel, that I am one of his as a son to a father, and sort of make that there. Paul said, Two Timothy, chapter three, verse ten, speaking to Timothy, and he says, Thou hast known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience. Okay, sort of an example there. As a son, do the father. Timothy knows again, II Timothy 310. In fact, let's just go ahead and look that up. Timothy knows Pauline doctrine. Okay. What better person to send than the one who knows my doctrine? Timothy knows Paul's manner of life. What better person to represent Paul than someone who knows Paul's mannerisms? I guess you could say Timothy knows Paul's purpose. Timothy knows Paul's faith. He knows Paul's long suffering. He knows Paul's charity, knows Paul's patience. Now, it goes on in a part that I didn't quote. It goes on to say, okay, you also know my persecutions, my afflictions, all those things that are there so backing up here, then it makes sense. It's so clear to say there's no one like minded who will naturally care for your state. Really, Timothy new Paul better than anybody else knew Paul. And I think that even if we perhaps never stated that Timothy new Paul better than anyone else knew Paul, we knew that already because we've read enough of Paul to say, hey, this guy Timothy, from the time they meet out of Derby until now, he's the guy and he has served as a son with the father in the gospel. And it goes on. In fact, that word right there, you know, the proof of him as a son with the father, he has served me in the gospel. I wonder if and I didn't investigate my wanderings, but I wonder if this is the greatest word of commendation that Paul has given to anyone that does he say of anyone else, you are my son, I'm your father. Does he say of anyone else, you have faithfully served me in the gospel all the way? Does he say, if anyone else say, the proof of him, the proof is in the pudding. You have seen his work. It really is. When you put all these three verses together, it really is this pretty spectacular kind of commendation of Timothy, which in a sense and Unfortunately, I don't think we can pursue our desires much here. But in a sense it makes us say, I'd like to get to know Timothy a little more. We can read first and second Timothy, but that's Paul's letters to Timothy. I would like to read Timothy's book and see Timothy's Ministry. But the truth is we don't really even know that much about Timothy. Did Timothy ever write anything? Well, if he did, we don't have a preserved for us. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some, what do you call it, Sue Gracia? Somebody out there who has taken a book and written it as if it was Timothy. You could probably find one somewhere. But we don't really even know Timothy's work. He was pastor at Ephesus is the tradition. But that kind of goes against all who are in Asia have left me because Ephesus was in Asia. I kind of wonder. I like to take traditions. That's the guy to beat. He's there. He's King of the mountain. Unless we can find some reason not to. But here, I just don't see a lot of reason to support the idea of Timothy at Ephesus and the things we see. So the point is, here's the guy that Paul commends more than anybody else, and I don't know anything about him. It wasn't married. Was the pastor at the first right dividing Church of Ephesus, or did he go to Philippi and pastor there Philippi later? Or you know what, he seems to be with Paul here because Paul's going to send him and it implies doesn't require, but it implies it's kind of there close by. So you know the proof of him, verse 23, him, therefore, I hope to send presently so soon as I shall see how it shall go with me. Now, again, I suppose if you wanted, you could read that selfishly Paul, who says everybody who seeks their own, not the things of Jesus Christ. Then 2 seconds later says I'll send them after I'm done with them. Well, I think that you are reading an attitude into the text that's not there. Paul is explaining, I would love to send him again. We don't know the circumstances. Why can't Timothy be sent? We don't really even know too much about what kind of imprisonment he's in, what kind of care he has to have. There were many kinds of imprisonment in the Roman world in which you were imprisoned, but you weren't cared for. Your family or friends had to come and take care of you. And it very likely could have been that Timothy was carrying out that. So, Kim, I hope that is the same word that we started out in verse 19. I trust it was a translated trust. There hope down here in verse 23. I hope to send presently so as soon as I shall see how it go with me. But I trust this trust is a different word for trust, but awfully. They're so close that I wouldn't make too much of a big deal out of it. Really, I have a confidence, I suppose you could say here, excuse me, the particular word was only used one other time, Galatians 510. And there it's confidence. So I have a confidence. I trust in the Lord that I myself shall come shortly. Now again, we don't know much about what kind of imprisonment that he was in. We don't know if he ever got out of it. We don't know if he ever made it to Philippi. I trust in the Lord that I myself shall come shortly. Was his trust misplaced? I don't think so. Was his confidence higher than it should be? I don't know. I can't tell you because I don't know how the story ended, but there's really not much reason to believe that he didn't eventually come to the point of being able to travel again and make it again. If you want to err on the side of tradition, tradition says that he did actually get out and went as far as Spain as he had in another place said, I want to go to Spain. I desire to go to Spain. So did he come? You can go back, by the way, if you want, in your notes, Philippians, chapter one, verse ten. I commented a little more about this back in who knows what session that was, but if you want to go back to 110, it has some complimentary stuff to this verse right here. So I trust in the Lord, I myself shall come shortly. Yet verse 25, I supposed it necessary to send to you epaphroditis. So on your outline where it says Timothy and epaphrous, scratch that out and put Apophroditis, I suppose it's necessary to send to you Apophroditis, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier. But your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants. Okay, this guy, Aphroditus, is introduced in verse 25. A little shift of focus. He refers to him as a pathhoditis, my brother. Now, I am always one that says, let's take it literally, first of all. So then, of course, my question is, hey, did Paul have a brother named Apathhroditis? I can't find anything that would support the idea. So I think that he speaks figuratively, his Christian brother. Here, I sent you a paphaditis, my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier. So, again, that's a pretty decent commendation right there that he gives to Aphrodites, brother, companion in labor and fellow soldier. But your messenger. Now, I take from this that epiphroditis was from Philippi and Philippi when they provided for Paul, as they had done. And we'll see that more when we get into chapter four, as they provided some of the necessary finances and whatnot for Paul, they were not able to use PayPal for some reason, they hadn't set it up yet or something, so they had to send it some other way. Well, they chose, it looks like, to take Aphrodites one of their own and say, okay, here's the offering. You get it to Paul. And so he is your messenger, the messenger from Philippi. And so, again, this is a little speculation. It looks to me like a paprodita shows up and says, hey, blessings from Philippi. Here, we brought you a care package. There it is. And Paul is, of course, touched by that. And he says, wow, I would love to send Timothy back with you. You all could travel back together, and then Timothy could return and give me a direct report. This would be all wonderful, but I can't send Timothy right now. So, Papadius, I'm just going to write a letter and send it back with you. And he writes the book of Philippians, the letter of Philippians, and sends it back with Aphroditis. I don't know, just again, Rudimentary explaining, I wish I could have sent Timothy on with you. That would have been real nice. Here's my care package to you. I'm sending Timothy. You sent me $100, and I'm sending you Timothy, whatever it is and the blessing that is here. So, again, overhearing this conversation that we don't build a lot of doctrine out of, but it gives us some ability to get a foggy glimpse of the situation on the ground and to figure that out. So your fellow messenger, he ministered to my once. Now, I intended and I did not do it, but I intended to look up the word once in the Oxford English Dictionary. When we use the word once, it's used in a little different manner than needs. We talked to our kids. I need a cookie. Well, do you need a cookie or you want a cookie. And we sort of divide these things out between wants and needs. I suspect if you were to look in the Oxford English Dictionary and someone can confirm this for me, perhaps at some time, but you have to pay $100 a year for the subscription. But I suspect that's the reason I didn't look up is because my subscription expired, so I got to renew it. But anyway, I suspect in 1611, wants and needs were not separated out like that. The word really was the same thing. One of the reasons I say that is because this particular word, the particular Greek word for once, is translated, well, I don't know if you can see that right there, but it says need or necessary. And in fact, let's see if we can just pull up here. There's the 49 times that the word is used. Look, need, it's needful. So I really kind of think that I think that the King James translators didn't make a mistake and they accidentally put once where they should have put needs. I think that once means needs in this context. So they ministered to my wants. That is, I was wanting for that is, I had a lack I had a need for here's the section. And so he ministered to my wants. So he was a messenger. He brought what you brought and maybe even more on a personal matter. He ministered to my once that he didn't just drop it off at the door and say, hey, there it is from Philippi. I got to go now. See you. But he stuck around. He ministered to my once, verse 26, for he longed after you all and was full of heaviness because that Ye had heard that he had been sick. Okay, he's there and was full of heaviness because you heard that he had been sick. Now that's kind of interesting. He's not full of heaviness because he had been sick. He's full of heaviness because you heard he had been sick. I think that we have this situation here in which you'll have to remember back to the olden days, except for you young people who weren't born yet. But back in the olden days, we didn't have that constant communication with someone who was out there. Now in our lifetime, it wasn't bad, right? I mean, I remember used to always when you left, call us when you get there now, call us at the next town and talk all the way. But used to call when you get there. I remember a number of times we went down to Honduras back in the early days on a men's mission trip. And I would always tell Shelley I'll call you if I'm dead. If you don't hear from me, then all is good. It's too expensive to call back. Just, hey, trust me, if something bad happens, you'll hear about it. No word is a good word. And so we'd be gone seven to ten days or whatever and not have any word. It's almost unheard of today that there's some kind of almost constant communication that goes on. Well, you take in fact, I remember my dear bride when we were just engaged, it was too expensive to call each other every day. Remember that when you had to wait until after 11:00 to have the affordable hour. And even at that, it would add up pretty quick. If you were in love, we had this deal with each other that we would just call and let the line ring once. And that just said, I'm thinking about you, I love you. Isn't that romantic? And then sometimes if we really wanted to talk, we would answer that real quick. But anyway, this is the kind of world in which he gets there. He does get sick, as we'll see in the next verse. He gets there, he gets sick. But you can't really send word back and forth. And so it appears the Philippians got some kind of rumor somehow they heard that he was sick, but probably some traveler comes back and, hey, we were expecting a pathhoditis on this boat. Have you seen him? No, I think he's sick. Oh, man, he was bad. What did happen? I don't know. Was he better? I don't know. Well, is it dying? I don't know. So all they have is that little glimpse of bad news and they don't know anything. So he was full of heaviness because they were worried about him and he couldn't get word to them saying, hey, it's all good. In fact, some of that time it wasn't good. Verse 27, where we'll stop for indeed he was sick nigh unto death. But God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. Here I am. You're taking care of me because I have needs and wants and I'm stuck here. And what an agony it would be if the guy who comes to help me dies while he's here. How I would feel through that. Okay, he was sick. He was dying to death. God had mercy on him. Now, all well and good in a sense. But what I want to say is, wait a minute. Remember Acts, chapter 19, verses eleven and twelve? I got it on your outline here where it says, God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought under the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them. Well, Aphrodites doesn't need somebody to send Paul's hanky their way. He's right there with him. And Paul appears powerless to do anything other than pray to God. And there's no indication whatsoever of any kind of miracle that took place here. If Paul did perform a miracle on a pathhodites, he certainly concealed it well. Okay. I don't see any indication that there was a miracle here he was nigh and to death, but God had mercy on him. So, yeah, I prayed for him. We prayed for him. God had mercy on him. He didn't die, had mercy on all of us. But I just wonder why is Paul not performing some kind of miracle? Why doesn't it say, yeah, he was sick, but I laid hands upon him and he was made whole. That's more what I would expect to Paul, right? I mean, when you read especially Acts 1911 and twelve, what you've got is that Acts 19 is about 56 Ad. And here we are again at 64 Ad. Which what's that nine years. Eight years. Yeah, eight years later. Well, it's not all that long. It's a little sprint, but it's not all that long eight years later. But it looks to me like in that eight years, Kingdom manifestations, like healing, the gift of healing had gone away, that they were no longer there. Now I say Kingdom manifestation because I think those miraculous sign gifts were manifestations showing Israel that God is offering you the Kingdom because the Kingdom was overcoming the demonic, overcoming nature, overcoming illness, overcoming death, all those kinds of things. And so all of those things were there's a little song we sing. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. And I think this is the same song. My cough drop ran out in it it says, mercy drops around us are falling, but for the showers we plead. Maybe that's a different song. Showers are blessings anyway. Mercy drops around us are falling, but for the showers we plead. Now I think those things with Paul's handkerchief and his aprons and all of the spectacular miracles that took place early on in act were mercy drops. They were a showing to Israel of the power of the Kingdom which could be theirs. And yet they rejected it. And when they rejected it, God not only did not give them the showers a blessing, but he pulled back the mercy drops even. And we transitioned. And it was not one day, here's the switch, but it transitioned over time, away from this focus on Israel and offering the Kingdom and these Kingdom manifestations to this Pauline message in which there is, as we call it sometimes before, with Sir Robert Anderson help the Silence of God. And it looks to me like here we're pretty much in that silence of God state. I wish every time somebody was sick, maybe with a cough or something, I wish that excuse me, trying to get a show and tell. I wish that I could pull my hanky. There we go. I wish I could pull my hanky and say, well, send it on to them and it'll heal them. The Kleenex might do them some good. It's not going to do anything but relieve some symptoms and help them out a little bit. So a couple of observations here and I'll close. Maybe one of the reasons and maybe even the chief reason that, as he said back in was it 20, I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. They all seek out for their own things. Maybe when we get down here to verse 27, we see why he had no man like minded. Add that to all who are in Asia have left me. When you can perform spectacular miracles, my hunch is you get a decent following. But what happens when that goes away? You can't do that anymore. I even remember when I was a young man, and this is maybe the only good thing I learned from seminary. I don't know. But I do remember learning in seminary. They would teach us preacher boys about be careful about putting on a dog and pony show, because next week you got to have a bigger dog and a better pony, and eventually you run out of good dogs and pretty ponies and you're stuck. You have nothing to do. A lot of people didn't listen to the advice, but nonetheless, because so much of Christianity today is a dog and pony show. But anyway, what you've got here is that maybe these mercy drops are gone and there really is something about mankind that says, I want the miraculous. I'll go where the miraculous is. I wonder if this is not one of the reasons, by the way, why Pauline dispensationalism is not more readily accepted. You and I accept it. And it seems like, yeah, that's just the most plain thing. I mean, it's right there in scripture. It's just taken scripture literally and we go for it, but we're baffled. Why do so many people come in and they hear it? I've seen it 100 times, maybe 1000. They hear it the first time they hear it. Whoa, this is wonderful. I understood the word of God and then they come back a few weeks. What do you mean? Jeremiah 20? 911 is not for me. And they get mad because all of these spectacular things are taking away. He doesn't believe in miracles and they leave it and go back to that which holds nothing for them except a wing and a prayer that's not working. And maybe it's this issue right here that there has been this transition and so much of Christianity has, I started to say, has failed to recognize the transition. But maybe it's better just to say they rejected the transition. I mean, it's out there you can find and you learn about it, but they reject it. Second observation is that an insistence on the miraculous as the normative for the spiritual life should be considered both here and Second Timothy. It says Erastus aboded, Corinth, Trophamus. I have left at Militam sick. Okay, you left him there sick coming back here to verse 27. He didn't seem to have any here. Was Epaphroditis sick in the death. Paul doesn't do anything for Trophamus or Epaphroditis. And yet many times we come with this insistence that miracles are a normative part of the Christian life. If you don't have miracles happening in your life every day, it's because you're not a very good Christian. And I think that maybe we need to rethink that and maybe we need to say, hey, there really was a transition that had happened and that Paul, by Ad, 64 was no longer in that by 64, Israel had diminished. Israel had been set aside. And now being set aside, the only thing that was left was for the enemy to come in and clean up the mess which started at 66. Ad was when the revolt started. It ended up in the destruction of Jerusalem. So I'd say somewhere early 60s, God says, okay, I offered you the King. You rejected him. I offered you the Kingdom. You rejected it. I offered it to you some more, and you rejected. And you rejected. And you rejected. I'm going to pull the offer off the table. I'll bring it back in the end days when I regather Israel, I'll give it back to them then. But this generation is not going to happen for and with that came all those mercy drops. I think that's a better, more logical explanation of why we're not seeing all the miraculous today than one is the lies about the places where it is happening. And you all call it life. It's always totally unverifiable. Yeah. Back in the village in Madagascar, there was a whole group of people that were raised from the dead. We haven't put them on a plane to go talk to people yet, but nonetheless, anyway, those lies and the denial of it all, it's a sad thing that Christianity doesn't accept it. We just come up with other things. I'm out of time, but I can remember preaching in my very first Church there's. Fortunately, very few sermons I remember because some of them were pretty bad. And one of the bad ones that I remember was I was preaching through the gospel somewhere and looking at the miracles of Jesus. And I had this wonderful observation. Everywhere Jesus went, miracles happened. And so my sermon had to do something about, well, if Jesus was here, miracles would happen. And I sort of chastised ourselves, probably parenting things like American Christianity has gotten so far away from Jesus that we don't see miracles anymore. We only see it in a village in Madagascar and went with all that kind of stuff. The truth is, I didn't recognize oh, wait a minute. Jesus is not here right now, as a matter of fact, and he's at the right hand of the Father, and he's working a very different plan through all of this than we have now. But sadly, the big box seminary never did teach me that, but they did charge the tuition nonetheless. Anyway, with that time to quit, I better quit before I get myself in more trouble. Right. I'll leave you some prayer, heavenly Father, thanks for the kind of insight that is just incidental in a way to what this passage has to say. But we are grateful for your watch care over Paul and the way that he writes about it. Here the insight that it gives us. We pray that today we brightly divided the word of truth and we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Well, in a little bit we're going to there we go. Should Christians fast followed by potluck lunch? We'll take, I don't know, maybe a ten minute break here and we'll pick back up few minutes on the late side. God bless you all.