The Key to Everything

Stay strong and carry on is our current series. Before we get into today's message, a couple things. First of all, hello and good morning. Good morning. Good morning balcony. Thank you. My name is Mark, one of the pastors, and I'm so glad and grateful to be here with you here in this auditorium and all of you joining us on our live stream. We welcome each and every one of you.

And then also, I think we literally heard about a thousand voices singing a thousand hallelujahs. That was amazing. What a gift. That was just stirring. I was actually back behind that wall for a second and your voice is reverberating through that. I had to get out here and I didn't want to miss out on that moment at all. So thank you for blessing me.

And then also Kyle mentioned the Hope Center a few minutes ago. I'm very involved with that project and so I just wanted to add my own voice to this in particular, kind of show you some details you may not have seen yet. First of all, you've seen kind of these outdoor renderings of the building. This outdoor patio area with this trellis structure above it, this is on the south side of the building. So this would be the side that faces our office or faces towards the beach, whatever works for you.

I want you to hold on to that so you have a reference point when we go inside the building so we can look at the floor plan. So let's go to the lower level. That patio access is right over here. So that trellis area would be right there off the left hand of the screen there. There's a double door entrance way so that we can go inside into that room if we're having some sort of event where people want to move inside, outside, there's food, whatever. It's kind of free flowing as well.

It can be one large room or because it's got retractable walls we can turn it into three separate rooms or some variation thereof for again groups like recovery or grief share groups, small groups meeting for other purposes, Sunday school classes, you name it. We kind of fit that however the need arises. And then on the other side of the building, which would be the north side of the building towards Cabrillo, a new space for people's pantry and yes we're in the need of new space for people's pantry, a much bigger space, a space that allows for cold storage with a walk-in freezer and commercial refrigerators, tons of space for them to organize and store food.

And then on the north side of it you saw that covered kind of awning roof if you will. That's where the deliveries are made and it's at the level of the parking lot so things can just roll right in when they're delivered and roll right out on carts through big double doors like we have on a loft that will go up. And because it's covered when it's pouring rain, which seems to always happen on pantry days, our wonderful, lovely volunteers will not get soaked to the bone or have to store stuff under the overhang of Munski Hall, which would be right here in terms of reference.

So the sidewalk on Munski that's between the building and the modulars is right there and that's where the entrances would be because there's parking lots over here and there. So entrances on this side, this side, hallway, bathroom, elevator, which then brings us up to the next floor. Very similar in terms of layout. I should mention these corner rooms. These can be either for like a kitchenette and provide the classes. Everyone wants to have coffee and stuff like that. They don't have to go to another building. They can just do it all there.

Over here we're looking at turning this into a place so we can create video content for Devos and interviews and face stories and all that kind of stuff. We kind of do that run and gun, which is fine, but sometimes it would be nice just to have a dedicated space that we can do that that's conveniently located. And then above the pantry, again, some large meeting areas, other areas that again we can divide up with retractable walls.

And so when you think about the ministries that are already going, we're going to be able to capture that and then also add a little bit more space for, again, Sunday school groups or other groups that are still looking for places to meet. Especially Wednesday night, we have people spread out all over the place. And so this is really going to give such a better space for these ministries.

And so if you call Twin Lakes your home, if you're visiting with us here today, this might be of interest to you, but really focusing on those of us who call Twin Lakes home, we are asking for you to prayerfully consider being a part of this in terms of what would the Lord lead and enable you to give over the course of a four year period. So you spread it out, it allows us all to give more than we could if we were going to just give it one time.

And you can get more information about that and the building. There's this booklet that you can get out in the lobby like Kyle said, or you can go to tlc.org/hope and get more of the same information. And we're just really excited to see what the Lord's going to do. We'll be receiving pledges up to and through Palm Sunday, which is the weekend before Easter, of course, and then after Easter, the weekend after Easter, we will see how the Lord has moved within our midst and that will inform how we go forward. And it's as simple as that.

So please be in prayer. We're so excited to see what the Lord is going to do. Now, with all that ahead of us and with an opportunity to hear from His Word today, let's take a moment to pray. Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, would You please guide and direct us as we seek Your will. And Lord, we look forward to whatever that is with the Hope Center and everything You do here at Twin Lakes Church. And Lord, this morning we pray that You would speak to us. You would meet our needs and inspire us to seek You all the more in our daily lives. And I pray this in Jesus' name and all His people said, Amen.

Now, stay strong and carry on. Because no matter what your circumstances are right now in your life, your Heavenly Father wants you to flourish, to thrive. He wants you to experience His best in your life. And, I mean, what parent, what loving parent wouldn't want the best for their kids?

Last fall, we took our youngest child, our daughter, off to college. And those transitions can be hard on the student and hard on the parents if you've ever experienced that. We had a little bit of practice with the boys, but this is my baby girl. So with her older brothers, it's like, "Okay, looks like we got your stuff unloaded. We'll see at Thanksgiving." With my little girl, we had planned to spend a nice full weekend providing all the emotional support that she might need.

And yet, by first thing Sunday morning, she's like, "Yeah, I think I'm good. You guys can go." "Wait, wait, what do you mean? What do you... You need lunch and dinner and we can hang out over dessert and your mother could tuck you in." She's like, "No, really, you guys can go." I'm like, "Well, what was going on?" What was going on is that she became just fast friends with her two roommates who love her and love Jesus. In fact, on Saturday night, she said of one of them, "I think we're the same person." And so she's just connecting.

And then she was... She could not be more thrilled with her major, with her professors, with the opportunities that she has, with the college group that she attends down next by her school. She says the pastor reminds her of Kyle, and so she really likes that pastor. She's even taken up kickboxing. Yeah. So think about it. She's connected. She's happy. And she's learning to deliver a devastating roundhouse kick. So, man, we're good. Her mom and dad could not be more grateful.

And so when people ask us how she's doing, we simply say, "You know what? She's living her best life." She's living her best life. And that's what we would hope for all of us, especially those who we dearly love. And you may have noticed there's actually a few books on this subject. There are, for example, there's a book, "Your Best Life." And there's "Creating Your Best Life." And there's, you know, "Live Your Best Life." They're all playing on the same thing. You know, if you don't know how, well, there's a book for that, "How to Live Your Best Life." And if it's a struggle, well, then you can fight for your best life, because you've got to fight for it.

There are even Christian best life books that abound as well. But into all of this, Jesus makes the bold claim in John's Gospel, chapter 10, verse 10, "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full." He's saying this, "Your best life is the life you find in me." That's Jesus making a very bold claim. But you want to live your best life? He's saying, "You will find it in me." And we've been talking about what it means to live Jesusly this year, right? Our culture is desperate for people who don't just believe certain things about Jesus or adorn themselves with Christian symbolism, but who actually resemble Jesus in their character and in their love for others. That's what it means to live your best life.

And so here's today's message in a nutshell. The key to living like Jesus is abiding in Jesus. Abiding. That's kind of an old-fashioned word, but it means to dwell, to remain, to continue, to stay. And just recently, a lot of us were abiding in a thing called the Super Bowl, right? Talk radio, social media, TV, you know, chit-chat with co-workers, friends, neighbors, family. We all know how to abide. In abide we did. But for many of us, it did not lead to our best life. No. No, no, no. More like bitter disappointment, right? I mean, where there was once hope among the faithful. Now there's just a hole in our hearts, as we console ourselves. Maybe next year. I don't know.

Okay, where was I? You want to win, you want to live your best life. You want to experience love, joy, meaning, to fulfill God's good purposes in your life, then lean in to what it means to abide in Jesus. Our text today is John 15:1–11. And I want to give you some context, because John kind of presupposes we understand some of the same things that the disciples would have understood. It was nighttime, and Jesus and the disciples had just finished eating the last meal that they would before His crucifixion.

And so after supper, Jesus has them rise from the table, and He starts leading them down the hillside towards the Garden of Gethsemane, where He will be arrested. In fact, by 9 a.m. the next morning, He will be nailed to the cross. The world of the disciples is just about to blow up. And this movement that Jesus has started, it is going to crumble unless, unless His disciples abide in Him.

And so continuing toward Gethsemane, it's very likely that they would have passed by a number of the many vineyards that dotted the countryside. And so Jesus seizes on this, you might say, and He says, "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower." He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes to make it bear more fruit.

Now the word for prunes here means also to clean. And so He adds, "You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you." So abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." Abide, abide, abide, abide. It keeps going, abide, abide. Ten times in 11 verses, Jesus uses the word abide. And so it's clear where His emphasis is. First and foremost, we are called to abide in Jesus.

You might want to write that down. Abide in the person of Jesus to be specific. Because while Jesus is the object of our faith, He's not merely an object, He's not just an idea, He's a person. And invites us into this relationship with Him that's so close, so fundamental to our faith. But of course, He's not just any person, is He? Watch this. When Jesus says right at the beginning, "I am the true vine," now for most of us, that just kind of goes right over our head. But not the disciples. Because they really, really knew their Old Testament Scriptures. And they knew their history. And so they know that the vine, when it's referenced in the Old Testament, is Israel.

Whenever you see the vine, it refers to Israel because the vine is the source of God's intended blessing for the rest of the world. But pretty much every single time this is brought up, you'll see it in Psalm 80, you'll see it in Isaiah 5, it is in the context of failure and judgment. Because over and over again, the nation proved that it could not live up to its high calling. And so when Jesus says, "I am the true vine," He's saying, "I'm the true Israel. I am the one, the source, who is going to fulfill God's intention to bless the entire planet. Every tribe, nation, and tongue will be blessed through Me." And the disciples knew from their past, from their own experience, they had no power to do this.

They couldn't live up to their own calling. And we're no different. I mean, I don't know about you, but I can't live up to my own standards, let alone God's. Any of you with me on that one? Amen. I mean, you might try to, but you can't, any more than they could. But Jesus is saying here, "I can do in and through you what you could never do for yourself." So He says, "Abide in Me. No branch will bear fruit unless it abides." And you know what? Jesus wasn't just kind of, you know, improvising on the spot. This has been God's plan since the very beginning, that humankind would flourish and represent His good purposes in His good creation.

And it's not like God stands off to the side and says, "Well, we'll just see how this works out." No, He rolls up His sleeves and He is actively involved. Because while we, the branches, are connected to the vine, Jesus says, "My Father is the vine grower, the vine dresser," you might say. And He is actively keeping the vine and the branches healthy and fruitful. Now in order to do that, a vine grower has to do two things. First, He removes the vines that do not bear fruit. And then He prunes the vines that do bear fruit.

I was like, "Okay, what does that mean?" Well, again, one of the things that's going on all through John's gospel, if you pay attention, you'll see it, is that there are people at one point who are called believers, and then later on they are no longer believers. There are people who are called disciples who then desert Jesus, never to come back. And there's several examples in His gospel, but perhaps the most familiar one is that it follows on the heels of the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus does this amazing miracle, and then even that He walks on the water, news of that spread. And so He's a rock star. I mean, His numbers just go way up sky high. Tons of people are saying, "I'm a believer in Jesus. I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm a disciple of Jesus."

And then Jesus decides to give a little message about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. Now we know metaphorically He's talking about how we almost receive what He did for us on the cross, and we commemorate that through communion, the bread, His body, the cup, His blood. But they were... there was a bit of confusion. You could say His talk didn't exactly land that day with the crowd. And so their response, John says, "From this time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him." It didn't end there. The most infamous example is Judas Iscariot. And even before He would betray Jesus, Jesus turns to His closest disciples, and He says this, "Have I not chosen you, the twelve, yet one of you is a devil?" Predicting that Judas would betray Him.

And so in chapter 15, this is after the fact, and Jesus is kind of recapping all of this. Some branches, some of those believers, those disciples who just bailed, and Judas himself, they had been removed. Not apart from their own choices, by the way, but even so, the Father was removing those branches from the vine because He's committed to the health and the fruitfulness of it. Now, be clear on this. Jesus knows who truly belongs to Him. And He says this as clear as He can in John 10 when He says, "My sheep," listen to my voice, "I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of My hand." So these aren't words intended to make you anxious. These are words intended to encourage us to just abide. Just abide.

And not to mix metaphors, but just as sheep need to be sheared, branches need to be pruned. And if you don't, branch is not pruned, it ends up looking like this, tangled, neglected, unfruitful. But when a branch is pruned, you get this, beautiful fruit and vitality. Paul describes what's going on, kind of amplifies this when he writes in Galatians 5:22–23, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Talk about living Jesusly. It's all right here. And this is the fruit that God is determined to produce in our lives. And yeah, it involves pruning.

In fact, the disciples are about to be pruned from the arrest of Jesus for the next several days. It's going to be tough sledding, isn't it? It's going to be excruciatingly hard. And yet, the fruit that God produced in their lives, we're sitting here today because of the fruit that God produced in those first disciples. And the fruit He produced in the generation after them, and then the next generation, and the next generation, continuing to bear fruit, the branches of the vine, extending all the way to you and I today. And now, this is our time. This is the one life that we have, and God intends to bear much fruit in and through us, which means take heart, take heart.

Because I know some of you, you're going through a season of pruning or you feel kind of cut back. You're experiencing a loss, difficulty, but take heart because God is going to produce fruit in you. He will not allow your pain to go to waste. You can be assured of that as you abide in Him. In fact, if I were to ask you, at what times in your life did God produce the most maturity, the most depth, the most spiritual character in your life, you're probably not going to say, "Oh, it was that perfect day on the beach when everything was just coming up roses." No, you're going to point to tough times. You're going to point to times when you had to draw upon the nourishment of the vine, and as you did, as you abided in Him, He bore fruit, fruit that lasts to this day.

So abide in the person of Jesus. And as you do that, you'll really already be doing this second thing, which is to abide in the power of Jesus, the power. You know, sometimes the takeaway from a sermon or the takeaway from reading a particular passage, we kind of go, "I guess what's this means is I have to try harder." Because God's standards up here, "I'm kind of down here. I guess I got to try harder." You know, just kind of focus more. And yet, that's not at all what Jesus is saying.

I mean, it would be like... Let me... Got a little object lesson for you here. It would be like this little branch who has no fruit, no leaves for me to just say, "You know, I really, really want you to bear fruit." So try harder. Come on, little branch. You can do it. Think more positively or do whatever it is, you know. Try harder. It's not going to happen. In fact, Jesus says, "I'm the vine. You are the branches. Those who abide in Me and I in them, they bear much fruit because apart from Me, you can do nothing." You know what nothing means in the Greek? Nothing. Not a zilch. It won't happen.

I mean, let me ask you, in other words, where do you find the power to love people who you find unlovely? Where do you find the power to love your enemies? The power to forgive them, yourself? Where do you find the power to go into a situation and the Spirit inside you is able to minister to someone who needs comfort, who needs healing? They need to know that God is there and yet there's a connection that's made through the power of the Spirit. Does that come from you? No. It can only come through the power of Jesus in you.

How about the power to recover from your addictions or your sinful habits? We all know it ain't in us, but it is in the power of Jesus. I mentioned the Hope Center earlier and we chose to call it that because of the hope that comes out of each and every recovery group that meets there, each and every grief support group, each and every mental health support group. When hope is expressed tangibly and received gratefully by people in our pantry. When hope is instilled in our lives as we gather together in various groups, whether Sunday school, Wednesday night, whenever.

The ministries that are already happening there and that we envision will happen even all the more and happening across this campus and beyond in the community of faith that exists here. This is the fruit that God is bearing in and through us as a church as we abide in His power. Now on the other hand, again, Jesus says, "Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned." Now before you get freaked out about this, again, we need a little context.

First of all, the word abide here in grammatically this verb is in a tense called the present active tense which indicates ongoing action. It's ongoing. And so He's saying, "Whoever is not abiding, not abiding, not abiding, not abiding, not abiding, eventually never abiding." There's no power. There's no fruit. And then Jesus uses imagery from Ezekiel 15. You can read it yourself. And it's describing, this is in the Old Testament, describing the fall of Jerusalem that's about to happen when Babylon will come and conquer it. And why did God allow that to happen? It's because Jerusalem had become so wicked that the capital of the vine was useless when it came to God's purposes. It was in fact diametrically opposed to it.

And as Ezekiel goes on and as Jesus kind of recaps, he raises the question, "Well, what do you do with the branch once it's been cut off?" Great branches are just small and flimsy and bendy. You can't make a chair out of them. You can't, you know, make a table. You can't build a house. What do you do with this? Well, what they did with this is they used it for kindling because that's pretty much all they could do. And so the disciples, this is how they would have understood what Jesus was saying in this passage. It's about the ability to fulfill God's original purposes for human flourishing because God has always wanted that.

And of course, one of the ways that we do this is through what Jesus is going to mention next. But again, the theme is abiding in His power to do what we could not do. And thank you, Kyle, for giving that before we don't get that out of the way for now. But he says, verses 7 and 8, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples." And of course, one of the ways that we abide in Jesus is through prayer, right? Talking to Him.

And by the way, when we say in Jesus' name as we do because that's how we're told to pray, that's not like we've just kind of invoked some spell. Like, "I said the magic words in Jesus' name, so now God has to say yes." We all know that doesn't work that way. So what's He saying? He's saying, "When you are praying for what I stand for, when you're praying for the things that are according to my purpose, the Father's going to say yes to that." In fact, the late Tim Keller, when he comments on this passage, he kind of narrows it down to, "When we pray to bear fruits, the answer is going to be yes." Now, I don't know that I would limit it just to that, but can you imagine praying for more love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, and the Father going, "Nah, I don't think so." Of course He's going to say yes because He is glorified when we bear that kind of fruit. He delights in these prayers and so abide in the person of Jesus, abide in the power of Jesus, and then your prayers will be met with His power.

And finally, so that we don't miss His heart throughout all of this, third thing He tells us to do is abide in the love of Jesus, in His love. This next verse is staggering. Verse 9, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, abide in my love." Wait a minute, this may be familiar to you, but look what He just says, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you." You mean to say that you love us, Jesus, as much as your Father loves you? How do you even begin to wrap your mind around that, to even measure that? That He would love us that much. Wow, wow. Just rest in that, remain in that, abide in that.

And if you don't, you may miss what He's saying here, right near the end. In fact, this next verse, we often read it backwards, verse 10, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love." Now here's what He's not saying. He's not saying, "If you keep my commandments, you will prove that you love me." That's not what He's saying. In fact, there was a group called the Pharisees. They were really good at keeping the commandments, way better than we are, and yet they were seriously lacking when it came to love, or thing. What Jesus is getting at is this. It's that we don't obey to be loved. We obey because we are loved.

It's within the context of this abiding and this love that joins us to Christ, that it gives us the desire to obey. For example, if I say to my wife, Laura, "Honey, your wish is my command," which I say to her every morning, and I just lied in church. But, but think about it. Because I love her and she loves me, it gives me the desire to want to please her, to want to do the things that are in accordance with what she wants. That's how love relationships work. And it's the same thing Jesus is saying here, that the more that we abide in His love, the more our heart's desire will be aligned with His heart, with His will and His desires.

And a really big part of His will, according to this passage right here, comes in this next verse when He says, "I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." That's why He's saying this. He wants us to be full of the joy that He has. He doesn't want us to miss one little bit of it. He doesn't say, "Read this and now feel like you got to go work harder or be anxious about, you know, what kind of branch I am or anything like that." He said, "No, I want you to experience joy in everything God has for you, to live it out in the fullness of what God intends and empowers for our lives." And you know what that's called? That's called living your best life. Absolutely.

So let's bring this in for a landing. The bottom line is this. Where I am abiding impacts who I am becoming. You know what I'm saying? Where we abide, we often become, if I'm always, you know, doing, checking out stuff about cars and all this kind of stuff and working on my car and getting stuff for my car, well, I become kind of a car buff, right? I might even join a car club or something like that. Or if I'm always kind of checking when the next swell is and when I might be able to go surf next, I might be like become Kyle Pitchford or something like that, all right? A surfer.

So where we abide, where we focus, where we dwell, it influences who we become. I almost said determined, but then I want to leave room for the grace of God because so often, if you're like me, you know, God is achieving His purposes in me despite me. And that's just His grace. But abiding does have its impact. And in the case of today, man, it's everything. So abide in Him.

I want you to think as we close, I want you to think about a couple ways that you can abide in Jesus this week. In fact, if you're not a regular note taker, I want you to grab those notes and just at least fill up the bottom part where it says, "Ways I can abide with Jesus this week." Because if you write it down, you're much more likely to do it. And you know, you might have some things that you do. You listen to worship music or you sing songs or whatever it is. There's a couple more that I'm just going to make some suggestions. You can come up with your own.

But first of all, just very basically, prayer is a way that we abide with Jesus. Because again, you know, Jesus calls us His friends. And what do friends do? They hang out. They talk. And so however that works best for you. For me, it's driving my car, man. That's my prayer closet. And I just talk to Him. And then the second thing you might consider doing, and it would be really a great step, is open your Bible. Because that's how Jesus talks to us. That's the normative way that He talks to us. We allow His Word to abide in us. And His Spirit applies it to our lives and our circumstances.

So prayer, Bible, and then one of the things that stirs my spiritual affections, and I know this is true for many of you, is just to be out in nature, you know. Be out in creation. And my goodness, how fortunate are we? We got the ocean on one side with no shortage of beaches and redwood forests all around us. We are so blessed. Take advantage of it. Or if you're living somewhere else, there's beauty where you're at. But allow yourself to just be inspired, to be nourished, to be out, you know, turn off the screen and let the real show begin. Where you just soak up the wonder of God's creation because after all, He created it for us to enjoy. So enjoy it.

Now, I'll close with this. This last week I wrote most of the message from home. And while I was doing that, God gave me kind of a picture, you might say, of what it looks like to abide, kind of a daily reminder as I was writing. And that reminder came in the form of this guy right here. Okay. This is my dog Boone. And I named him Boone right out of the gate because there was something about him I could tell he was going to become my Boone companion as far as, you know, friendship where the dog goes. And this is him the very day I was bringing him home.

And the whole time, he's just looking up at me like, "Hey, we're going to be pals, aren't we? Yeah, this is good, huh?" And then no sooner do we get him home, he, wherever I was, he just plopped down on the floor. He just wanted to be with me. Like, you know, some labs it's all about the ball. I'm the ball, okay? So to this day, I, well, let me get that. This is the other thing you do. If I stood in one place too long, he would come up and he would plop his head on my foot like it was a pillow. It was this happy place. I'd be like cutting carrots or something like that. And here he is down there with his head on my foot. He just wanted to be wherever I am.

And in fact, to this day, you know, I have no privacy in the bathroom because he follows me there. This morning, like he always does, I'm taking a shower. And you know that with a shower curtain, there's the fabric side and the kind of the plastic side. He gets in between the two, right against the tub. It's like, "All right, here we go." That's my thing. He just wants to abide and abide and abide, which, you know, gives me a lot of joy. And when I look at him, I go, "You know what? I'm pretty sure he's living his best life." So fellow followers of Jesus, abide, abide, abide. Amen? Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. What an amazing invitation that you love us so much. You just want to dwell with us. We were created for that purpose, to fellowship in deep relationship with you and to reflect you to the rest of the world, the rest of creation. And so thank you for not giving up on us, Lord, but coming to us in Jesus and redeeming us and restoring us to this beautiful, eternal relationship with you.

And so I pray, Lord, that we would just lean in to your invitation today and that we would lean in with a sense of expectation that you are doing stuff in and through us that brings glory to the Father and joy to our hearts and impact in our world. Lord, you have a purpose for each and every one of us here today. And so may we embrace that as we abide in you. And I just want to mention for anyone who is going through a season of pruning, Lord, would you give them comfort and strength, encourage them this morning, remind them that you are going to continue to bear much fruit, in fact, even more fruit through them as a result of even the difficult times, especially the difficult times, as they continue to abide in you. We pray this in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ and all God's people said, Amen, Amen.