Principles of Position Lesson 14
Mike Doyle · Jul 24, 2016
Principles of Position, No. 29
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926536471706

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

So we are in lesson 14. So we're talking about, and we'll have a couple of classes on this, the issue of sin and what the chapter that we're reading says a purged conscience. So we talked last time, we started into this, and we talked about what a conscience is.

What is it? It's an inner witness. That's pretty good. I like that. What else? Somebody else? Awareness of good and evil in yourself. Awareness of good and evil in yourself. Okay. It's subjective awareness of good and evil in yourself. You've got to add that word. Because as we discovered, well we'll get to that in a minute.

I said it's the faculty of the soul which distinguishes between right and wrong. and prompts one to choose the former and avoid the latter. Where did humanity or human beings get a conscience? Where did it come from? Maybe a better question, did Adam have a conscience? Before he fell? He didn't, did he? He didn't need it. He's innocent.

But one of the bennies of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a conscience. Now there's a contrast going on between good and evil. and it's part of the fall. So the second thing we talked about was the natural man. What's a natural man? The Bible talks about the natural man. Who is this guy? What's that?

He's an unbeliever, which means he's spiritually dead to God. physically alive. But as Corinthians talks about the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned. He's not spiritually alive and he can't know them. It doesn't matter whether he wants to or not. He can't. He doesn't have the capacity to know them.

So the natural man has a conscience. Is his conscience reliable? No. Why not? Because we have a sinful nature and we weigh things and then we say to ourselves... You get the star, Monique. That's really right. The whole reason is because you have a sin nature. You have a sin nature. Turn this up a little louder. The whole reason your conscience isn't reliable is because of the sinful condition that a natural man lives in.

Okay? He cannot... There are a lot of good people that you meet in your life that aren't believers. They seem to make good decisions. They seem to have a decent conscience. They seem to have maybe a hereditary factor that From a cultural standpoint, they seem to do well. They may even have social and religious training. If you come from the background I come from, there's a lot of really good Catholics around who are natural men. Your environment. But the natural man's conscience is erratic. And the reason it's erratic is because it's dominated by the sin nature because the sin nature dominates the natural man.

Is there anybody here that believes or doesn't believe that before you're saved you're a slave to sin? Or did you really think you were sort of dancing up and down the yellow line and you could go left or right and everything was cool? I think most unbelievers believe that. I never thought I was a slave to sin before I was saved. Yeah, but even if you're saved you still have that But the point is that I'm a slave to that nature before I'm saved. So what kind of perception of spiritual reality do I have? I don't have one. It's all sin.

The guy that led me to the Lord was kind of a crude example, but he said the natural man lives in a cesspool. You know what I mean by a cesspool? And he gets to exercise his free will between one piece of matter floating in the cesspool and another piece of matter floating in the cesspool, but he never gets to choose what's outside the cesspool. And someday the Holy Spirit comes and opens up the top and the light comes in, and he didn't even know there was such a thing as light. Didn't know. See?

So, how do I say this? You hear a lot of things where they're a good person. The question is, are they natural or spiritual? Are they in Christ or not? That's the real question. So the natural man's conscience is totally, unequivocally unreliable. Because the natural man, it goes back to what we've been talking about, source is so important. What's the source of the natural man? Sin nature. That's the source. So sin is not reliable. So we made it down to question three.

And question three was, describe a carnal Christian. What's a carnal Christian? Don't point any fingers. What is a carnal Christian? One just walked in the room. Is carnal sexual addiction? What's the word carnal mean? Fleshly. What is it? Fleshly. Okay. It can just be fleshly. So the carnality part of a Christian is fleshly. So what is a carnal Christian?

He's positioned where? No, no, he's positioned where? In Christ. Where is he walking? In the flesh. So hence the description of a carnal Christian. I wrote down, the carnal man is a person who is a believer in Christ. His position in him, however, his behavior is that of a natural man. and he functions as though he is not positioned in Christ. Now nobody in this room has ever been guilty of that, right? I see Bob looked away real quick. We all act like that sometimes, but what's more important? How you function or what your position is? What is more important? Your position is important because it's what? Reality. That's what your reality is.

Is it possible for a believer who's anchored in Christ, who doesn't understand position, is it possible for him to live and function positionally? I see some going like this, some are sort of... Is it possible for a believer who's positioned in Christ, but doesn't know what his position is, to function and live spiritually?

No. Why not? Because he doesn't know it. Well, I would say yes. I mean, how many people even know about being in a position? A position in Christ? A position in Christ. Believers, you mean? How many believers know? How many believers know that? What do you think? How many believers know that? Not that many. Less than 1%. I don't think there are many. No. Joe's up here.

It seems like you have an understanding of it without the verbiage. Oh, that's a great point. Did everybody hear what she said? Is it possible to maybe have an understanding of it, but not understand the verbiage that we use here? Did I say that right? The terms that we use may be Holly Hill speak, but that may be some other explanation. What do you think about that? Is that possible? How about the principle from understanding what position is from a biblical standpoint?

I had a long conversation last night with my niece, who's just a dear girl, and we were talking about positional truth, and she doesn't know the concept of positional truth. She's a godly woman, don't you think? Her eyes were like this. I said to her, it's pretty simple.

If you spend any time in Paul's epistles, you're going to see information in there that makes statements about who you are, what's happened to you, where you are, and what you have as a believer. And most of that stuff, when you first see it, you think, well, is that really true?

That's what we would say is positional truth. And you have to, like Monique says, you have to kind of know what they are. I was just thinking through your process that even becoming a believer requires that you at least know I was positionally an Adam and now I'm positionally a Christ. So you at least know two positional truths even if you don't fall in that. You were once in one life and now in a new life. it's not your perfection, you're placed into the perfection of Christ. So whether the words atonement and justification and all those things are fully understood, if one is a believer, they have at least those two positional truths to begin operating from, which means they can walk spiritually in the light of what they have. For what they have. Right.

Brethren used to call it, they didn't call it position, they called it standing. you know, come up with another word. And they didn't call it condition, they called it state. I think one thing that gets in the way of, one may know about position, but understanding it, one of the things that has come across me is the difference between a new creation and a new creature. A lot of people have taught a new creature. Well, a butterfly is a new creature, but it's not a new creature.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah. So I think you spend a lot more time trying to improve, fix up the old man, act like a Christian. Right. And now that you're a Christian, you need to act like one. You know, I mean, that's kind of a self thing rather than understanding who that new creation is. Sure, sure. While people are talking, I'm trying to think of another word for position. The only other word I can come up with is truth. God says something in his word about me. We were talking last night. I said, well, let's try a couple of them.

I said, Colossians 3.1 says, sin shall be risen with Christ. Is that true? Remember that? Remember when that happened? What was that experience like? It has nothing to do with experience.

Since you're risen with Christ, since that's true, so how do you identify that? Well, it's a position, it's a truth, something true about me that whether I experience it or not, it's still true. And if I'm risen with Christ, I'm supposed to seek those things which are above. Where Christ sits at the right hand of God, I'm to set my affections and my mind on things above and not on things of the earth. And I say, here comes another one. And it gives you the reason why. And the reason why is, is because you died and your life is hid with Christ and God.

Well, I don't remember dying. When did I die? How do you describe that truth that I died? When you died was when you first believed, right? Yeah, and did you really die? Did you really get separated? Or however you want to define the term death. Because I don't remember that one either. I don't remember being on the cross, do you? No. But it's a statement of fact that the Word of God says this happened to you.

So I put a label on it. We put the label position. And I think you're right. I think you can sit down with believers and show them, like Colossians 3, and say, this is true of you. I don't care what you call it. Do you believe that it's true of you? And if they do, then there's an appropriation that takes place there and the Spirit of God will begin to solidify in their understanding that this really is true.

If they reject it because of feeling or emotion or, gee, I don't remember that experience, or it's got to be an experience, then what happens? Things go into neutral. Not that the spirit stops working, because he's working all the time, but I only have one responsibility before the Lord, and that's to believe him. That's it.

And he comes at us so overwhelmingly with positional truth, there's more to believe in. I have the capacity to get under my arms. The grace is so astounding that it's one right after another right after another. On Wednesday night we're studying Colossians and we're just getting through chapter one. Go through the first chapter of Colossians, look at the positional truth is there and see if you buy it all. And I mean, I'm solid on that. No, I'm not.

I mean, it's so overwhelming who the Lord Jesus is and what he's done and who we are. It's like, really? Don't you think that a lot of, when we talk about percentages or whether people understand positionals, it's true. Don't you think a lot of Christians, believers, believe in what Christ did on the cross as far as the forgiveness of their sins?

Yes. And then they believe that. Yes. And then that's as far as it goes. And they're safe. Yeah, they're good. Fire insurance is paid. That's right. And then what they get is that now that you're a believer, you've got to start acting like one and here are the rules. And the rules are different in every church. They really are. Other than the one obligation that a believer has, and that is to believe.

And if you don't keep the rules, then you're constantly seeking reassurance of your salvation. If you don't keep the rules, what happens to your conscience? It accuses you, doesn't it? You think, oh, am I really saved? I don't feel saved. I'm not keeping the rules.

And the whole operation of salvation and spiritual growth is in this arena or operating system of grace. We've got to learn what grace is. We don't know what it is when we're saved. We have no idea. Go talk to somebody who's not a believer and say, can you define grace for me? What are you going to get? The best you're going to get is I get from God what I don't deserve. Pretty lame.

Can you grow if you're looking at yourself? What do you think? Well, how can you grow otherwise? Can you grow if you're looking at yourself all the time? If you look at yourself, you have to know that this is hopeless. I have a question that goes, how would the spirit deal with me if I spent all my time checking to see how I'm doing spiritually? I'm watching myself. What would he do? he would show me how useless myself is.

Doesn't the Holy Spirit teach us who we are in Christ? I think he does, through the word. In this sense, he shows us Christ and in the process, who we are in relation to him. So in that sense, we are looking at ourselves, but we're looking at ourselves as he sees us. So we're resting in the facts. that he teaches us about ourselves that are in direct opposition to what we've learned all our lives as the Old Sage. I think as you're talking... The focus is on him, but in the process we learn about ourselves. Yeah, let's talk about that.

Who's the one that ultimately takes the responsibility to get you focused on Christ? It's the Spirit who does it. But he's right, at the same time you get an increased revelation of who you are in the flesh. You have to know who you are in Christ before you can even hope to understand what you are in the flesh. One guy says that Christians need to be good haters. I think the Spirit of God does show you yourself But I think he begins to anchor you in Christ in terms of your position and grace so that you're qualified to see yourself without it blowing you up.

And it results in a, like Paul said, in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. And I think that's a growing thing, that you become aware of the fact, and not that you're going around under a cloud, you're going around resting and excited because along with that you discover, I'm free. I'm free from all of that. I'm now in Christ. And I, oh yeah, I'm free to focus in on Him. I don't have to see how the old flesh is doing because I've been separated from it.

Yeah. I think you asked the question, is it possible to grow basically in a carnal believer scenario? How are we started with that? That was Donna's question, yeah. And I think Paula mentioned that so you're learning something, you're learning about if you're learning about the man who has no capability to produce the very things that you're told that he now can through in Christ.

And so, is it growth? No. Is it preparation? Is it the time factor? The prepping the soil factor? You know, very much so that that growth won't take place until you utterly do not look for the capability in yourself to do things. Is it an essential part of growth? Yes, it is. Exactly right. It's an essential part of growth because what's the Spirit got to teach you?

Not to rely on it. Not to trust it. Paul is probably as soft as he can say it, in his flesh dwells no good thing. How did he find that out? The Spirit showed him. If you take a look at Romans 7, he's really trying awfully hard to get the flesh to function as a believer. He's using his will and his energy and everything he can come up with. And finally he says, who, right question, who will deliver me? And then he finds out, oh wait a minute, I already am. And you won't even desire to be free conditionally until he shows you what a wonderful person you are in the flesh. Don't call me when you find out.

So a carnal Christian, we talked about that, question four, is a carnal Christian's conscience reliable? And if so or not so, why? Kind of the same question you're asking, Donna. Is the conscience of a carnal Christian a reliable barometer? No, you said it was erratic. It's erratic. That's right. So the carnal Christian's conscience is no better than the natural man's conscience. It's totally unreliable. Yeah.

The blemish of self-effort to produce some good works for God and the blinded realization of comparing himself with supposedly weaker Christians, he is able sporadically to maintain some semblance of a good conscience. The verse that I absolutely love is 2 Corinthians 10-12. I'm reading it out of the Amplified. When they measure themselves with themselves and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding and behave unwisely.

Now nobody in this room has ever compared their Christianity with the guy sitting next to them, right? Not you. Sure you do. You know, it's the old ladder syndrome that, you know, here's the ladder and I'm somewhere way up here towards the top in my Christian walk, and most of the other believers are below me. Actually, the ladder is like this. You're either in Christ or not. You're either at the pinnacle or you're not. I think J.D. showed a month or so ago about spirituality, either 100% or not, but then there's a growth line in the middle of it. Mike, where did it say that? You said 2 Corinthians? 2 Corinthians 10-12. Thank you.

So when a carnal Christian's conscience is bad, he seeks to hide from God. No kidding. Even attempts to place the blame of his sinfulness upon others. I've never done that. Who did Adam blame? He blamed God. You know that woman you gave me? Why are so many Christians today spiritually ill as well as mentally and physically? Why are so many Christians today spiritually ill? Because they say that they're Christians, but they're really not. No, they are Christians.

Okay, they say it, but do they read the Bible? Do they get into the Word? You just put the law on them. Huh? You just put the law on them. In other words, if they really are believers, why are they so spiritually ill? We're assuming they are believers. They aren't recognizing who they are. That's one of them. They don't recognize who they are. Why don't they recognize that? Because they're not being taught what's in the epistles. They're not being taught what's in the epistles. Maybe they're not reading them. And if you're not taught to think carefully about what you read, the epistles are hard to read.

You come away from it feeling like you have to. the things that it says we have. Okay. So when you come away from it with that attitude, how does that play into your conscience? It makes you feel guilty. So you walk around under a rock all the time, a cloud all the time.

Gee, I'm just not measuring up. I'm really trying and I'm either going to stop studying positional truth or I'm going to stay away from the Bible. I'm going to go find some place where they make me feel good But, you know, I can't live this Christian life and my conscience is just accusing me all the time. So you haunt the Christian bookstore. Yeah, and what do you get? I went there yesterday for the first time in, I don't know how long, just to browse.

And it's interesting how many of the promises, like on the wall decor and all that, they're out of the Psalms. There's very little from the epistles. Well, look around. How many churches, how many, any sort of Christian information are strictly based in the epistles? Not many. Old Testament Gospels, we're going for. I mean, imagine publishing a book that's a big seller that's the Psalms and the New Testament.

Like they go together? Come on. Here's the deal. Laboring under the burden of the unrighteous condition, like we're describing. If you're laboring under a burden of an unrighteous condition, rather than resting in the liberty of your righteous position. You see that? If you're laboring because your focus is on how you're doing, and you're being taught, here's how it's done, or here's how you ought to feel about it, You're laboring under a focus on yourself and your inability to produce, rather than resting in the liberty with which your position affords you. If you begin to understand your position, which is what God has done, not what he's going to do, what he's already done, And you trust him.

You believe him. There's rest associated with that. It's not a parade. It's not hats and horns. It's rest. And rest is really, really cool. I think that's where a lot of people get stuck. Right there. They see the positional truth. Maybe they don't have that term, but they see that term and begin to try to understand it. But then... Or implement it. Right. Yeah. And they're like, well, like you said, they try to carry it out and live it out in their life instead of just resting. Right. I had a guy one day, we were going someplace, a Christian guy came by. I said, how's it going? He said, oh, not bad. I'm really working on dying to myself. And I said, but you're already dead. Why are you working on it?

Do you see the difference? So to answer the question why so many Christians are spiritually ill is because their focus is on their condition rather than resting in their position. That's really the reason. And I agree with you that there can be another term There can be kind of a different way that you would describe it, but the issue is, what's already true of you in Christ? Already done.

Where are you seated today, right now? What do you have as a believer? What's already your position, your possessions? Call it what you want. In Christ, in the heavens. I heard somebody say this on TV. I won't tell you who it was, because I'm sure you wouldn't believe it. But anyway, she said, well I don't know about all the rest of you, but I am seated in the heavenlies, and I am at rest. Yeah, put whatever term you want on it. If Ephesians says, you know, I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, is that just a pie in the sky sort of declaration to make you feel good?

Or is it just an absolute objective truth? Is it true or isn't it? The answer is, it's true. It's absolutely true. And you can't go to God and say, well, I'm not really going to buy it until I feel it. You just believe him, trust him. The faith is the thing that sort of appropriates the truth into you.

Q. How does the concept of stewardship fit in with your position? Yeah, I think it is. What kind of stewardship are you talking about? Responsibility, I guess, here. You have responsibilities to your family. You have responsibilities to government and all those things. Sure. So who's your first responsibility to? What's the first one? is to God, right? And what does He require of you?

Belief. That's it. Nothing else. Just to believe Him. But if you don't believe Him, how can you love Him? No. I mean people. Okay. So now I've fulfilled my one responsibility, which is to believe God. And in order to believe Him, I've got to find out what to believe, right? So that sort of prompts me to maybe get in the word and find, well what am I supposed to believe? And so I find out and I start believing.

Does that have a residual effect down the line to my family, to my employer, to my fellow believers? Absolutely it does. Because who's the source? It's the Lord Jesus Christ himself and it's his life. And I have a stewardship. To do what? To believe in it.

Elders have a stewardship to present the truth, and you can find it out in seminary, but more than likely you find it out just learning and growing depending on the Spirit, and reading the Word, spending time in the Word, you start to find it out. And you have an obligation But it's a stewardship. What is a stewardship? What are you doing as a steward?

Let's say God gave you $45 million and said you're a steward of that $45 million. What's the deal with that? What do you get to do with that $45 million? Buy a Mercedes. Do you? That's my question. Do you get to buy a Mercedes? If you're the steward, who decides what you buy? He does. If I'm a steward of the Word of God, do I get to decide how it's presented? How I feel about it? I don't. I don't. I better go in there and find out what he really means, depending on the Spirit of God and depending on him to deliver it the way he wants it. a steward of the mysteries of God.

Stewardship is a very interesting word when you think about it, because it isn't that believers walk around and say, I have no responsibility. You have a lot of responsibility. And as you grow in understanding positional truth, the stewardship grows with it. And as God brings people into your life, what do you do? You walk beside And you're a steward of the truth, because you know that the truth is this thing that will free them. Because they're all in bondage. They are. They just are. If they're condition-centered, they're in bondage. They just are. Well, what about, and now my memory is getting bad, but like that there's a certain amount Tithing? Thank you. Tithing. Yeah. And I know that you... And how come you haven't been holding up your end? Well, I was until you told me that... Giving has gone down since then, you know.

Well, fortunately it has a little bit. Well, if you were a Jew in the Old Testament time, you were a tither, which pretty much was 10% of whatever your Now that you're a believer and a steward, is it your money? You're the steward of it. So God says, he eliminates the percentage, and what does he say? Do you really like a cheerful giver? Yes. That's what I go by. What God will cause you to give, you give.

It might be nothing. It might not be money. It might be just your time. It might be, you know, and you can't write a check for 10% and go to God and say, how terrific am I? So he says, oh, the other 90% is yours? No, it's all his. And you're the steward. So if he prompts you to help somebody, you help him. It's his money. Okay, here we go. Describe what a spiritual Christian is. I would think this would be a really easy question for you. What is a spiritual Christian?

Number one, somebody who rests in their position rather than in their condition. That's the first thing. He who abides in his risen Lord in the presence of the Father and is growing spiritually. Two, he is fully assured that Christ has also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. The sin issue is resolved. It's done. By simple faith in the facts, he acknowledges his place in Christ, who is his life.

I absolutely love this verse. When he had by himself purged our sins, what did he do? He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. What a great verse that is. He took care of the sin issue between man and God, all sin, and when he was done, what did he do?

He sat down. Why? Nothing left to do. Work's done. And you know, if you study the temple, you know what was lacking in the holy place and the holy of holies? You know what wasn't in there? A chair. Why? Work was never done. But now it is. So, a spiritual Christian rests in his position. Sin issue resolved. Right? And it's all been done by the Lord Jesus Christ. A lot of freedom in that, isn't it?

So what are you thinking when you say that, when somebody stands up in front of you and says that? I know in the back of your mind you're saying, yeah, I wonder. When I first became a Christian, every once in a while the thought would go through my mind, you know, you were a pretty bad guy before. Do you think he really forgave you about that?

Whatever it is. Yeah, he did. He certainly did. Because the sin issue was resolved between the father and the son. I'm the beneficiary. And that's why I can say, if he hasn't sold his house yet. Wayne says, if this guy sells his house, who am I going to talk about? But his sins have been paid for. The issue is resolved. But he still, if he doesn't come to Christ, he's going to die in his sins. Why? Because he's still attached to the sin nature and the sin nature is condemned.

But you, as a believer, not only are your sins paid for, but you've been separated positionally from the sin nature that's condemned. When you leave the planet, your sin nature goes to Arvada. How can the spiritual man be aware of sin in him and not have an evil conscience? Because he knows there's no sin on him, he's been taken care of. Yeah, and do you understand there's a difference between sin in you and sin on you? You don't get that part, right? You know what it means to have sin on you? What would that mean?

That's what an unbeliever has. An unbeliever has it, but you as a believer, you don't have sin on you. In other words, it isn't attached to you. But there is definitely a sin in me as a believer. A non-believer has sin in him and on him. He's identified with sin. Condemnation is part of it.

It sure is. Would you go through that again? This is very important to me. How can a spiritual man be aware of sin in him and not have an evil conscience? Right. That's the question. And the answer is... Okay. He doesn't have sin on him, but he still has sin in him. Right. So the question is... Are you identified with, united to, in league with your sin nature? Are you? I don't know. Oh, you're going to have to go to another class. Well, I mean, there are some days when I feel... Oh, feelings, I got it.

Isn't it that there's no sin on us because the sins were all put on Christ? There are two things there. One is that your sins, every sin that you have ever committed or will commit was future when Christ died, right? Did he pay for them all? Did he get them all? Didn't miss any? So the one you do day after tomorrow, he got that one too. So they're all paid for. So you're not going to have to pay for them.

So the second part of that is, how about this sin nature inside of you that is the producer of those sins? Did he take care of that? Called it sin nature? Answer my question. Did he take care? What did he do? What did he do with the sin nature? He condemned it.

But he separated you from that sin nature on the cross. So he does not see you, he sees you in Christ, separated from his sin nature. Now you look at yourself and you say, well, gee, sin is rocking all the time in me, and the temptation is there, and I must be identified with sin, but the Word of God says, no, you're not.

So who do you believe? Sure. And so here comes this information, that he that is dead is freed from the sin nature. Am I dead? He says I am. Am I dead meaning I'm separated from it? Yeah, I'm separated from it. It doesn't mean it isn't in me, active, but I'm not united to it anymore.

So when I go home to be with the Lord, the sin nature doesn't go with me. it stays here and all of my acts of sin have been paid for. So the spiritual believer understands that and rests in it and he's free. And so his conscience can't accuse him because he knows, one he knows the facts and two he believes them.

Well then why do we have to go before God and Confess your sins? Yes. Why do you think? When you commit a sin, what happens? What's the consequence? You lose fellowship. Do you lose your standing? No. Do you lose your position? No. But you lose fellowship.

So God says, here's the avenue back. If you confess your sins or say the same thing I do about you, then he forgives you your sins and he's faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. All of it. One thing that you mentioned, I think was mentioned a few weeks ago is...

First John 1.9, I think we oftentimes get into the confession of how we allow ourselves to be in bondage to something that we're free from. So we name those sins, we recognize those sins. But you mentioned the positional side of that is that confessing that that is not who I am and reckoning on who you are in Christ is just as important as recognizing the sins that caused it. That's right. Because if you're just in a state of confession about sins, you're not thinking about...

You're stopping there and you're like, okay, well now let's pull the trigger and make this happen from here on out. But it moves on from that to a place of confessing, meaning saying the same thing that God said about who you are in Christ. There you go. It's a positive aspect of that time.

Sure. I just think it's not commonly... It's not taught. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it does. It makes a lot of sense. Did the second buzzer go off? Yeah. You say yes. Yeah. Some of them said, no, they must be sleeping. All right. Well, we'll finish up with that. And then after that, it's 15. Everybody have the questions for 15. I sent them out and there there's copies of them back there. So let's close.

Father, how we thank you. I guess today we thank you for the position that you've provided for each one of us. As we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, who is our position, we begin to rest in Him and enjoy His fellowship and be able to behold His glory, Father, which conforms us more and more to His image. We're so thankful for all that you've done and all that you've provided and all that you are. And we pray in your Son's precious name. Amen.