Great Doctrines of Salvation
Courtney Hemenway · Sep 26, 2010
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 39
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926215521608

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

So we finished what is meant by position or positional truth. The key there is source and that all men are born in their position of Adam, their source. And they are positionally exactly like him in body, soul, and spirit. And you can look at 1 Corinthians 15, 22, in Adam all die. Ephesians 2, 3, we are by nature children of wrath. And John 3, 6, that which is born of flesh is flesh. Again, that like begets like. Alright, so question four, lesson three. Is positional truth reality? We have to limit that with respect to our position in Adam. Is that a reality?

You know I'm going to get on it. Bruce whispers to Monique so she can say things. No Bruce, I'm not letting you get away with that. If I see you whispering in Monique's ear, I'm going to call on you. He has to do that always. Last week he was doing a lot. I caught him in that one. Maybe because I was stumped.

So is that a reality? The position we have in Adam? before we change our new position. Is that a reality? Yes. In our human birth, we are a product of our position. We are born in Adam. That's the reality. Our position is what we are and how God views us. That's the reality. So when we're in Adam, We are positioned in him. He is our federal head. Remember when we were talking about the federal head? So, the question I have is, do positions in themselves ever change? Does this sound loud again?

Yeah. I know. He came down and, Roy, Roy. Nick. Let me see. Is that down anymore? Okay, hopefully that's... I didn't mess up the entire taping system. Probably took down something. Do positions in themselves ever change? Yes. Yes. Do the positions change? The positions don't change, but what position you possess changes. Thank you. That was a trick question. Do positions ever, do the positions themselves ever change? No, no, they don't. You good with that Holly? Okay. Is that a good thing or a bad thing in your eyes? Good? Bad? You can rest on it. Rest on it? I think I got it, Nick. It was high, so I messed with the sound system, which you love me doing.

So, is it a good thing? Anybody a bad thing? No bads? All good? Well, in Adam, that's a bad thing. But in Christ, it's a great thing. That position will never change and that's a good thing. If you think about it in Adam, that's not a great thing if you're in Adam because what happens then?

Death. Condemned. Because it causes you to only fight your head up against the wall and look to Christ for the answer. I wish that were true in all cases, but no, no it is not. Your position in Adam is not a good thing. You have been condemned at that point. So if you're in that position in flesh, flesh begets flesh, your flesh, that's been condemned. But, the flip side, the good side is, your position in Christ, once you're in Christ, that position can never change. And that's a good thing. Okay? Alright, define what is meant by condition. So let's try and limit it again since we're kind of on the Adam side. What does condition in Adam mean? What is meant by your condition in Adam?

Separated from God. What else? Slave to sin. Yeah, but reading beyond that, you will be, you sin, you sin, you're separated so that, I mean, that's a positional one, but what does that mean? You're away from God, not, I'm taking this. One's a verb, one's a noun, I think. I'm an engineer, that's a horrible thing, I don't know. Yes?

Is it more circumstances or the condition is more circumstances that you're in? They're changing? Yeah, the key between position and condition is position is what we just talked about. Nothing changes. You can't change from that position. But condition is something that changes moment by moment. It is not something that is always true about you. You will change moment by moment in condition. Our condition is variable.

It's based on human knowledge, appearances, speculations, feelings. The man in Adam has no ability to comprehend outside of his position. So that's what we were talking about. We talked about that last week a little bit and I want to go back to that. You know, when you do a good... If you're an Adam, the only thing you can do is what? Sin. So what about these altruistic people who do wonderful things? Did you guys think about that more? Wrong motive. What? What? Wrong motive? Wrong motive.

Even though the child is falling out of the tree and you automatically run and try and catch the kid? Who brought that up? Somebody brought that up. Something like that. Well, you're still sinning, though. Well, no, we brought that up last week, and I've been thinking about that a little bit more. So isn't that one of the...

So is your motive wrong at that point when you're running to capture the kid? Are we talking about someone, a child with drowning? Drowning. Oh, is that what it was? I'm out of a team. That's right. I shorten the story, I don't know. Yeah. I don't know.

I think it's real hard to even say, because human good is sometimes so good, I mean, so beneficial to others, like at Craig Hospital. And I mean, it's a marvelous thing. But so how do we say that that's still sinning? I think that we have to say something different than that, and maybe to say that human good, good is a magnificent human good, even is still from the source of darkness. The source is what's wrong. And it's energized by the flesh, which is totally in darkness. Right. I think that's good. And human goodness, I think. And I go back, when I was looking back in the Genesis, what happened?

We're in the tree of what? Good and evil. So we have to get out of that tree. And that good, human good, And that's where I think the hardest thing to uproot is the fact that if we're doing something good, humanly good or whatever, that somehow God thinks a little bit more of us or that will justify us or anything like that. And it doesn't. Again, we've just climbed from one branch over to the other.

We're still in the tree of good and evil. And that's where I think we really struggle is those good acts from a sinful nature You're still separated and it's the human good, not anything, it's still short of the mark. And I think that's what we have to really point to, is that as a sinner you can only do sin, you do human good, but you're still in that tree that was condemned. Would you say human good is sinful? It's short of God's mark, yes. It is, and that's why I say, I think that's good, human good, you know, but it's falling short of the mark of God because it's coming from a sinful nature.

Yeah, I remember now, we were talking about that last week. Yeah, yeah. And that's the motive aspect of it. But the question I think was leading to that instantaneous, in the river, was that it? I'm going to yank the person out of the river or whatever it was. That instantaneous thought that you don't think, you just do. It's still coming from a sinful position.

And again, it's the human good. It's still short of the mark of God. Let's define what sin is. Okay, what is sin? I just said it. Missing the mark. So what's the mark? God's righteousness. God is holy and infinite. We're finite beings, therefore we can't save ourselves. Correct. The reason the cross worked was that God was doing it. Yes, well that's where, yes, God does it all. The blood being sacrificed, it was an infinite process.

And that's the only thing, the infinite process is the only thing that can achieve your oneness with God or your ticket to heaven. You can't do it on anything less than infinity. Infinite being. I don't know about the infinite part of that. It's the cross that is the difference. But the deal there was between God the Father and God the Son on the sin. He paid all the price. He was a propitiation for it. What the key is, is a co-crucifixion.

And why we're spending a lot of time on position in Adam is because there's nothing good in Adam. And positions are unchanging. So if we're in Adam, there's no amount of makeup, good push-ups, whatever, to make that Adamic life good. or to be able to be justified. There's no amount that you can do. No matter how many good acts you do, no matter how much you do, your position in Adam is fixed and it's condemned.

The cross is the one that allows us to go from our position in Adam, death, separated from him, and positioned now in the risen Lord. And that's, you know, whether that's infinite or whatever, that's the act that allows us out of our position in Adam to our position in Christ.

And that's the whole deal right there. And that's why we spend a lot of time on trying to figure out what Adam is, because no matter what you do, it's a sinful nature. And so we have to get out of that. We have to get out of that position and into a new position. And that's where the Romans 6 and the transfer out of are death from Adam, separated from him, and positioned in Christ.

My old buddy Strong had a good illustration of it. He used to say that people spend their time jumping back and forth in the branches of good and evil, instead of getting out of that tree and going over into the tree of life. See, and I thought about that. That's where I was bringing that up. And that's the hardest thing. That's why I think we spend a lot of time trying to identify the Adamic nature.

Because no matter how much good you do, you're still in the tree. You're just climbing around in the tree of good and evil. And getting out of that is the key, and that's the separation and getting out of place in Christ. And that's why I think we spend a lot of time on this, because your old nature wants you to do something. And this gets us into the point of grace, and grace we'll get into. But the Adamic man cannot function in grace because he wants to do something. And in grace, can you do anything in grace other than what? Say thank you.

So we spend a lot of time because your old man always wants to do something. That's why there are these programs, these manuals, books, countless books. You go into a bookstore and it's all the things you do to polish up the old Adam. But you're still the same. So now you believe. Praise. But your nature is still the same. No, you have two now.

Before you believe, you only have one. You can only do one thing. But what does Romans 6 say? Consider or reckon yourselves what? Dead unto sin. Okay? Which now you have You're not a slave to sin anymore. You don't have to do it. Before, you only could do that. That's the only thing you could do. But now, you're not a slave to it.

That's why I think a lot of times, we're trying to eradicate the old man and your reliance back on the old man. That's why I think everybody tries to do things. It's the old man that is saying, You really need to do something. You have to read your Bible three times a week. You have to come on Sundays. You have to memorize 59 things.

That's what you have to do. Is that what you have to do? That may be a part of it, but is that what you have to do? I mean, you may do that, but what is the motive? Okay, so you don't do that. But at the same time, you're still sinning. I mean, okay, so now you think about it. Now you believe you have grace, all that stuff. All that stuff. You know, you say, no, I shouldn't do that. Now you don't go into that area where you screwed up morally. See, I think the thing, this is... It's still the same as a person, though. I just don't get it.

No, and that's where I think spiritual maturity and growth, And how do you do that? By knowing Him. By spending time with Him. As you do that, as your focus is on Him, are all these other distractions going to be there? No. You're going to be less and less. If you're focused on Him and the intimate knowledge with Him, you're not going to do that as much. They're not going to be as appealing to you because you're focused on Him.

That's the spiritual maturity and growth. You're less apt to look over and rely upon the old man. I'm looking at Christ in that intimacy that conforming to the image of Christ happens. That's the growth. That's the spiritual maturity. And as you do that, the old man becomes less and less. And you become more focused on the Lord. That intimacy with Him becomes your heart's desire. And so these other things become less and less of a distraction. So it's the spiritual maturity that you start getting away from relying on the old man.

The old man and his condition lives based on circumstances, feelings and emotions. The new man is to live by faith. And so the transition from just believing what God has told us, this new Christian Christ, was to live by faith. The old man doesn't live by faith. He generates faith in certain things, but it's usually himself. But the sole motus operandi of the new man in Christ is to function and live by faith alone. And that's why it's so hard because we think faith doesn't seem like doing to us.

That's where we get into the doing. This feeling of apathy. I've got to do something. Well, who wants to do something? Is that the old man or the new man? It's the old man. Okay, so now we're all in the other tree. We've jumped from one tree to the other tree, right? Yeah, true. First we're now in this tree. Even though I may not know everything, I'm in the new tree. Right.

And that's where you grow, 2 Peter 3.18, growing the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. You're growing. It's a growing process. And he uses all these circumstances to grow you. in the knowledge of Him and in His grace. All these circumstances that come through are meant...

That was my going crazy last weekend, not being able to sleep. I went through this and I feel like I'm a hyper kid. spouting off, and I forget who was there, and finally Mike said, just slow down. There's so many things that as you realize what goes on in our transfer, and it all stems upon this identification.

That's another thing, on Tuesday we were talking about that, the terms. We use identification, truths, we have position, condition, and all those things. In and of themselves, somebody brought up on Tuesday the terminology. We use identification truths.

I don't care if you know the term. You need to know what the scripture says. And that's a good point. If you don't know the identification, well, the term isn't the key. It's the concept behind it. And that's where if you know your position in Adam, and that you have to get out of that position. And how do you get out of that position? Death is separation. So you have to die.

So that's our co-crucifixion with Christ. You read Romans 6, and what we do, and when you do that, you're placed in Him. And that's the key. And when we look at that, and I'll get into that, the in Hims, you know, in Him, 160 some odd times, in Him, and what that means, we're placed into Him. Well, now we have that position. Well, if you're in Christ, is there anything that's How can you get out of that? You can't. What does all that mean?

Read John 17, that intimacy that you have with him. If you have that intimacy, you'll grow. In those distractions, the old man becomes less and less. Your focus is on him. Your intimacy is with him. You're conforming to his image. As you do that, you have peace, you have rest. Everything that happens to you, all those circumstances that he uses to do that, It may be something that happens in your life with family and all these different things. He uses those to draw you to him.

And if you do that, it's not meant by any malicious thing. When you look, can you ever be separated from his love? No. And if you're in him, how does the father look at the son? Does he ever look at Him other than in great love and joy and just the intimacy? Well, if you're placed into Him, you have that same intimacy with God. So all these circumstances are not malicious. They're in love and they're meant to what? Draw you to that intimacy that you have with Christ. You put all the pieces together, it's an incredible thing that we are in, in Christ.

Yeah, Adam was like our, harder to say because like Adam was our great, great, great, great, great, great, great. Yeah, so it's like our... genetic, everything sort of history. And so you look, it's probably like people who are into genealogy go back and go like, oh, my grandpa was a mass murderer. And you kind of like feel like you have that in you. your genealogy is Christ. So it's like, oh, you know, after mass murder, it's a... No. Yeah.

And that's the thing. When you realize you're placed in Him, then all those, like in Ephesians, the predestined known... Again, that doorway concept. I go through the doorway, then when I believe in the Lord, and I'm born into Him, and I look back, and now my history is His history, so I'm back to eternity. So that's why this predestined I've known you since time. That's because I'm suddenly in him. My history is his history. It all fits together. It is the greatest living book you'll ever want. I mean, you can't explain it to people. In fact, perfect. The man's wisdom. Looking at 1 Corinthians 1, 20-25. This kind of frames it.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed, Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To Jews a stumbling block, to Gentiles foolishness. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." So, the wisdom of man?

Pfft. And then, if we look at 1 Corinthians 2, 14, But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for what they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. You know, your old man cannot figure this out. You know, the old man still wants to do something, still wants to, you know, do whatever I can, do the spiritual push-ups, wants to go out and do great things, you know.

But what is grace? Unmerited. Nothing you can do. Rest. Rest in that. It's not that you just sit in a room and go... But you work from a position of rest. You operate from a position of rest. And once you do that, the God will use you in many different ways.

The old man thinks you have to do something. So a lot of people, when you hear of these things, the position and condition and identification truths, and grace in particular, grace, everybody fights grace because it's not, what do you mean I don't do anything? What do you mean I don't have to do this program or do that or do this or do that? That's the old man asking that. And that's why we spend a lot of time identifying who the old man is, so you can grow, you can move on in your new creature in Christ. That's the one you want to be ruling and being the one who is your walk.

Number six, when Adam sinned, did he die positionally or conditionally? Trick question. First answer, why did Adam die? Sinned. Genesis 2, 16 and 17. The Lord God commanded the man saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for what in that day you eat, from it you will surely die. So, now, did Adam die positionally or conditionally? Good. Yes.

So the minute he sinned, what happened? So he died what? Positionally. The minute he sinned, position changed. He put himself in a position of being separated from God. It took another 930 years for him to conditionally die. So he died positionally. The instant he sinned, And then he died conditionally 930 years later. Okay? Alright, number seven. Blazing along here.

Why are all men condemned? And I think the two verses are 1 Corinthians 15, 22 and Ephesians 2, 3. Somebody want to read 1 Corinthians 15, 22? For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Okay. And then Ephesians 2, 3. Somebody want to read that? Among them, we too, all formerly led to the lust of the flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and whereby nature, killing of rats, demons, and the rest. Okay. And then I'll add in a couple others.

Romans 5, 5-12. Therefore, just as one man's sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. And then also, I think I added Hebrews 9, 27. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, after this comes judgment. Okay? So what do all these verses say with respect to why men are condemned? There and Adam. And, therefore, they have all sinned.

So, the minute you were born, were you able to sin? Did you sin? So, if the Lord took somebody home the minute they were born, would they be okay because they hadn't had a chance to sin yet? I knew this was... I guess it's because we all come from Adam, so we inherited the sign of sin. Right? We inherited it, so therefore we are sinners. The minute he sinned, you sinned. It's hard when you try and understand that. You know, a lot of parents who have their first child...

Are you kidding me? This angel, this perfect child. It can't be a sinner. Wait until they're two. Actually, it's kind of fun with our grandson Ryland right now. It's funny when we call up to Ingrid, she's in Alaska, and it's funny. We're talking, and all of a sudden, it's, no, no, Ryland, no, no, no, Ryland, no. I'm listening to sin nature at two. interrupting our phone call about every two minutes or whatever. No, don't climb up. No, no. And back to our conversation.

It's very hard, but the minute Adam sinned, we sinned. So we didn't have to wait to sin. We already have that inherent in our nature, our position. That's a tough thing when you have a brand new baby and you're looking at this going, this can't be a sinful baby. Guess what? It is. So when we're there, we're acting just as our federal head. So when he sinned, we sinned. Number eight. When man believes on the person and work of Christ, does his position change?

And we have Romans 8.1, 2 Corinthians 5.17, and Galatians 6.15.

So somebody, Romans 8.1? I'll be able to memorize. Therefore, there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Yes. You know, this is very important. So, you know, and I point this out a lot. We'll get to the other verses. We now are what? What does this verse say, which I think is important? What does it say? Therefore, there is no condemnation in what? In Christ. That's a key. There's no condemnation and we have been placed in to Christ.

And again, that's 164 times in the New Testament. So how did we get there? When I say in Christ, it's an important concept. Anybody have any scriptures that would back that up? How we get into Christ? You need to come up with a scripture. springing questions on you. How do you get in Him? We talk about in Christ. How do you get in Him?

Believe. I guess that's the generic answer. Believe in what? I can believe in the tooth fairy. His work. His work. And what is His work? This is like... Okay, which is? Okay, good. Yes, good ones. Yours is more what he did. It's how we get in there, and that's baptized into it. Also, any other verses? I've seen that at a football game. Yeah. Any others?

Galatians 2.20, which is? I've been crucified with Christ. Therefore, as I live, the life I now live, in this body that was by the faith of the Son of God, I will love him and be faithful to him. Excellent one. Yes, tentative hand. I don't know if this fits real well, but I'll go for it.

Ephesians 2.13, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. Yeah, that's explaining our position a little bit. How did you get there? That's all right. I like that verse. I like it. I like it. Yeah. John 17. Which one, 17? Yeah, John 17. I'm going to make sure that's the right verse. I think it's verse 11.

Now I am no more in the world, but even in the world, my country is always by thy name. Those who die with me. Yeah, given that. That's on the periphery, but that's okay. That's true. Any others? I had in Romans 6, 8 through 11, now if we have died with Christ, that's the transaction. Remember what has to happen. We have to be separated from Adam. We've died with Christ. We believe that we shall also live with him.

Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be what? Dead to sin, but alive to God, what? In Christ Jesus. So, death, separation, we've died with Christ, and now we're alive to God, what? In Christ Jesus. We've been placed. We were separated in the co-crucifixion, and we're placed into Christ at that point.

I used also Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So it's again, the death, the separation, getting us out of Adam, What? Raised with Christ in Him. Yeah, for us. That's the benefit of our position now.

Death doesn't have a sting. We've had a lot of issues in health and different things. I go with Hal and a lot of these ones. If you know the Lord, death doesn't have its sting. It's actually a joyous thing. Our Sharm Sherman, Sharm was ready. He wasn't holding back saying, please Lord, give me six more years here. Let me struggle for six more years. It's either that or face to face with the Lord. Come on. He was ready for his change of assignment or change of location. With that, death has no sting if you're in Christ. It's a wonderful thing. We shirk these skeletons and face-to-face with the Lord.

A couple other ones that I like in this one which I think are very appropriate is 2 Corinthians 5.17. It's one of those ones that I think is really one of those prime identification truths. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, new in kind.

The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. That's a key one because it's for those people who think that now through salvation, Adam is able to fulfill the law, to be able to do all those things, and to be able to do great things because in Adam we can do all these things. It is not. We are new creatures in Christ. Totally new. New and kind. The Greek word is new and kind.

It's not just a refurbished atom. It is a new creature in Christ. And then Galatians 6, 14, and 15. But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. So it doesn't matter anything you do, whatever, it's a new creation. New in kind.

If you look at Colossians 3.3, For you have died, and your life is what? Hidden with Christ in God. So what does death mean? Separation. Therefore through our co-crucifixion with Christ, we've been positionally separated from our old Adamic life, and we're placed into a new creature. And that new creature is in what?

In Christ. Man, just get a hold of that. How much does God love Christ? Just think of the intimacy that they have. You have that same intimacy. He loves you with the same Love that he loved Christ. Because you're what? In Christ. He sees you in Christ. He loves you. No matter what you're going through, God loves you. With the love that he loved his son. So whatever you're going through is only meant to draw you to him. To have that intimacy. Because he loves you the same as he loves his son.

Do you fully understand that? If you do, whatever is happening in this world, does it matter? He's using that all what? To draw you to Him. To what? More fellowship, more intimacy. Man, what better position can you be in? Alright, quickly, I can maybe get through this. Sure he can. And then question nine, is there a difference in your mind between what might be called the birth truce and the growth truce? Yes? No? Yes. No? Carol? Question 9.

Is there a difference in your mind between what might be called birth truths and growth truths? Okay, as far as I can tell, birth truths are the ones that are involved in salvation. They get you into the family. Okay, and growth truths are for understanding of what you have in the family.

All the gifts, position, power with God, everything. That's pretty good. It's your complete understanding. Yeah. I think that's really good. I think that was a good summary. Any others? Thank you. I had two words. One was the birth truths have to do with the doctrines of salvation. And then the growth truths have to do with the life lived by faith. Good. I like that too.

And again, I always go to 2 Peter 3.18. It's that you grow in what? In knowledge. You're growing. That's the growth. It says you're going to grow. Even though we have these positions, we're fully vested as adopted children of God. We have that position. But our life here is our condition growing into our position. And that's the growth. And that's understanding everything we have in the family.

Would you say that the growth truths are based on learning and believing what your position in Christ is? Well, I think it's more than just how you got it. I think it's everything that we have in Christ. We just finished studying the basic doctrines relating to salvation. Terrific. But not a one of them has anything to do with spiritual growth. Right. And that's what I think Carol says.

The birth truths are everything about salvation. We're understanding how that transaction, the free gift, all those things, where we get to our position in Christ. The growth throughs are everything that we have in Christ. What that means... Another way to look at it. The birth throughs are everything that God did for us, and the growth throughs are everything that God did to us. Have to think about that one. See I still think that's, I mean that's to me in the birth. That's the birth. But that wasn't part of it. You don't know that. See, I think, I think the growth, the birth, that's still all birth to me.

You know, it's, you know, the four and the two to get us to the position beyond that is, is, understanding what that means in our position, our growth in our position. Not only what he's doing to us, what He's done for us or to us, what He continues to do for us, and to draw us into that intimacy and the conforming to the image of Him. That to me almost sums up what the growth is, is our conforming to the image of Christ. That to me is growth. That's kind of a summary of what growth is.

It's everything to conform us to His image and to get to that intimacy that we can say, Abba Father. That's our heart's desire. Any other before we close? We'll see if we'll do this last one, the number 10. Oh yeah. Well, I have verses for those. I have lots of verses. I have lots of verses and lots of different things on that one. And no time. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you for any time we can just open up your word and just realize what our position is. And we thank you for the position that we have in Christ.

And as we realize through faith and believing what you have told us, what that means. how that becomes the desire of our heart as we realize in our position in Christ what that means and that we have that intimacy with you. We have that full-on love as you've demonstrated to your son. We receive that same love. And it is your desire to draw us into that fellowship, that intimacy with you.

And we just thank you for what you have in all that you've done through salvation and in growing us to conform us to the image of your son. Father, we just thank you again for this time. We pray for Vern as he gives us a message in the next hour. We just pray he'll open up our hearts to receive it. Father, we do all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.