Living in the Kingdom of God

Those of you who have been in small groups on Sunday morning have been thinking for the last three months about the Kingdom of God. Actually the Bible, from the very beginning to the end, is the story of the Kingdom of God. It's a central focus of what the Bible is talking about. It's the most important issue that you'll see in the Scriptures. It starts in the very beginning with God as the King. He creates the world. He creates Adam and Eve. He gives them a place to live. He's in charge. He's the King. He's in control. He tells them what they can do and what they shouldn't do. He tells them the consequences of both. That's what the King does. He rules. Every day he came and talked to them. They're in the garden, person to person. In the middle of all that, they said, we don't want somebody to tell us what to do. It sounds like teenagers. Maybe they were. We're going to do what we want to do. And they did. And God kicked them out of the Kingdom because he was no longer their King. They had made themselves the King. And because of that, they could no longer have a place in the Kingdom God had set up for them. But God wasn't through trying to develop his Kingdom. He looked out across the world to be able to find someone who would listen to him and obey him. He found Abraham and his son Isaac and Jacob. And he said to Abraham, I'm going to make you a powerful influence in all the world because you will trust me. And I've seen this faith in you. You listen to me and you do what I tell you to do. God then found Abraham's descendants in Egypt and he began to lead them out, to lead them to a planned land where he wanted them to grow. This land was possessed by people already, but they had violated God's instructions. And so he said to the people of Israel, when you get there, I want you to kill everyone there, so there will be no negative spiritual influence on your life. And there I'm going to teach you how to follow me. I'm going to develop my Kingdom right there in that piece of ground with you. They made the trip okay, but when they got there, they did exactly what God told them the first time. But then they began to compromise. Well, if we do everything God tells us, it doesn't feel quite right. So they began to do part of what God said and ignore part of what he said until finally he gave up on them and said, I know that you're not going to do this, so I'm going to let you do whatever you want and suffer the consequences. That story is told in the book of Judges and it's a disastrous story. They finally said, the thing is, we need a king, somebody to tell us exactly what to do so we can hear it with our ears. God said, okay, but I'm going to pick the king, and he picked the king, godly people. And they obeyed God a little bit, but they still failed him. They rebelled against him. Even the best of them rebelled against God. Finally he said, this is not working. He took all the people of Israel out of the land that he had given them, destroyed the temple in the city of Jerusalem where they were, and said, I've got another plan. He said, there's going to be a time when I'm going to send you a new king, a king you can look at, a king you can listen to, a king who you will know. He'll not only be the king for you, but he's going to live in your world and let me be the king of his life so you will see exactly what it means to live under me, your king. So Jesus comes. He announces that the kingdom of God is at hand. He's saying to them, I want to show you exactly what the kingdom of God is really like. But the kingdom of God is so different than the world in which we live in that it was shocking. He said to them in the beginning of his first sermon that's recorded in Matthew chapter 5, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed to be poor in spirit, that's what the kingdom is about. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Blessed are those who insult you and persecute you. Blessed whenever you're falsely accused of something. This is entirely the wrong kind of instruction you give to people. Who is it that wants to be cursed? Who is it that wants to be insulted? Who is it that wants to be hurt? The kingdom that Jesus came talking about was very opposite of the kingdom of human nature. In our world, if somebody insults you, what do you do back? Well, if it's on a scale of one to ten, they insult you to three, you try to go to a four, and then they try to go to a five, and then they try to go to a six, until you get to ten, and then you either turn around and walk off, or you hit each other. That's the way it works in the world. And Jesus said, in the kingdom of God, it's different. When you're insulted, you're blessed. What did Jesus mean by this strange discussion? He meant that in the kingdom of God, we operate differently. We don't get even with people, because as your king, I'm going to tell you what to do. Whenever somebody insults you, you return good for evil. So when someone insults you, you compliment them, or you do something nice for them. That is really weird, isn't it? It's so strange that people found the kingdom of God odd. But if you look at the life of Jesus, this is exactly the way he lived. He lived that way. And if you look around the world, you'll see that Jesus is one of the most noted and significant figures in world history. His life of consistently doing what the Father told him to do, marked him as such an unusual person that all over the world, people recognize who he is, honor and respect him, even if they don't follow him. This is what the kingdom of God is like. I want millions of Jesus in the world. So the word Christian means a little Christ. All of us who are Christian should be a little like Christ, growing in that relationship. And here's why it's blessed. Because in this world where people get even with each other, it leads to fighting and quarrel and hurting and murder and all these kinds of things. Don't you see in the paper all the time, a husband and wife are having marital difficulties and one of them shoots the other one, and I saw in the paper they shot their children. What God says is that's the way this world operates. What I want you to do is I want you to live right next to the people who live like that. And then I want you to do something entirely different. When you're insulted like your neighbor is insulted, I want you instead to pray for that person to return good for evil and to do something wonderful and nice for them. And they will say, what is going on with you? Why do you act that way? And you can say, because the King, my Lord, told me this was the best way to handle this circumstance. And everyone will see then what my kingdom is really like. It's a kingdom of peace and good relationships instead of fighting, quarreling and murdering each other. So you are blessed when you have the opportunity to do something that magnifies the nature and character of God. And the way you get that is not when someone comes up and says, nice to see you brother, I love you and care for you and I pray for you. But whenever somebody chews you out, says nasty things about you or hurts your feelings, you have the wonderful opportunity to live the kingdom life and explain to the world the nature and character of God. So blessed are you whenever you are cursed and insulted because the opportunity to do what you are placed here to do is open to you. The kingdom of God is an opposite of the way our human nature normally works. For human nature is influenced by the power of Satan and the way he does things, causes, creates conflict and anger, resentment and bitterness. Anywhere in the world where you see anger, resentment, bitterness, you know that Satan is at work and he has been successful. Anywhere you see forgiveness, anywhere you see patience, anywhere you see returning good for evil, you know the Holy Spirit is at work in that part of the world. That is the kingdom of God that Jesus said is coming near to you. Don't you find it hard to do that all the time? Because we live in a world where there are such powerful influences to do it. You tell someone that somebody said something bad to you and they say, I'll tell you what I'd do. You have all this pressure because people around you expect you to do something to get even. Do something to make that other person feel the same pain you feel. Well in the same time the Holy Spirit of God is saying, do something good for them, return good for evil, turn the other cheek. So you are in a constant struggle in this world, living in the kingdom of God in a foreign culture, a world that is not really our home. So living in the kingdom of God, all the way through the Bible, you see how this is shaped up. All the way through the Bible the great difficulty is doing exactly what God wants us and letting the king rule our lives, letting him rule everything about us. And then we get to the end of this and it begins to project as to what is going to happen whenever this life is over. The kingdom of God living here in this world is not complete and fulfilled. It is yet to come. You enter the kingdom of God here in this world, it's true, but you don't experience the fullness of the kingdom of God until this life is over. And then you enter that place where God is prepared for those who belong to him, citizens of his kingdom. It is there that the fullness of everything God planned for us comes to pass. For one thing, when you get into the kingdom of heaven, you're going to find that the only people who are living there are people who have surrendered themselves completely to the authority of Jesus as king and Lord of their life. When Jesus was describing to his disciples what this all was about, he said, narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life, very narrow, unless you accept me as the Lord of your life, then you can't enter the kingdom of God. He meant by that that whenever you say to God, I give you my life, he says, okay, here's my deal. I'll tell you what to do with your money. You sit down and consult me about it. I'll tell you what to do with your time. You sit down and consult me before you fill your calendar up. I'll tell you what to do with the people around you. So whenever somebody is nasty to you, I want you to stop and say, what should I do about this God? Don't let your emotions get control of you. Don't respond in that kind of way. Whenever you get in financial trouble, I want you to say, God, what should I do? Whenever you have decisions to make about raising your children or relationships with the people around you, I want you to stop and say, what should I do? And I will tell you what to do. Narrow is the gate. He means by that that you can't enter the kingdom of heaven if you say, okay, God, here's my deal with you. I'll go to heaven, but in this world, I'm going to be in charge of my time. I'm going to be in charge of my money. I'm going to be in charge of the things in my life, and I'll give you what I feel like you deserve or what I have time to give you after I've done what I want. If you start that, the kingdom of God, the door slams just like that. You don't get in. Narrow is the gate. It belongs to people who say, my life belongs to God. And everything that he tells me in the Bible to do, I will do. Everything he puts in my mind that I know from him becomes a command to me. Now you won't keep all of these things in the kingdom of God. But what you have is a passion to do that. Just like anybody in any field, you may not be perfect in what you do, but you really want to do the best job possible. That's what God wants, a passion for obedience to him. That opens the door to the kingdom of God. That passion allows us to keep focused on what he wants, and it allows us whenever we stumble and we do the wrong thing to stop and say, that wasn't what I wanted to do. God forgive me for this. I see now what happened. I lost my temper, I lost my thought, I was thinking of something else when I did this. Forgive me for that. Forgive me. He does. And then we start over again. You have to do it every day, because every day you slip up on something that you know you were supposed to do or didn't do, and you have to stop and say, okay God, I want you to control my life, but I just am not mature enough, I'm not strong enough, I don't do the things that I really know I should do. Forgive me for that, but I really want to do it. That means that you're subject to the king and you want to live. Only those people enter the kingdom of heaven. Now when the Bible talks about what happens in this world after this life on here is over, he describes the kingdom of God as a glorious place. Not everybody is going to like the kingdom of God in heaven. Not everybody. Because it's focused around submission to Jesus Christ. And if you don't like that here in this world, you're not going to like it over there either. But if your great passion in life is to be obedient to Christ, then you're going to love heaven, because it's in that place that we're able to live the life that in this world we passionately really want to live. We're going to be able to be free from the sin that has so powerfully held our lives. We're going to be able to enjoy the things that God wants us to experience. In the book of Revelation, he describes many of these things that are a part of this great kingdom that he has prepared for his children. He describes it as a place where only the people who belong to him and have entered this narrow gate will actually live. In chapter 20 of the book of Revelation, I want to read verse 15. In this passage he's talking about what's going to be, chapter 20 verse 15, he's talking about who is going to be found there. He says, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. So every person who has not surrendered himself to the authority of Christ and his name is not recorded as one of those surrendering to him will be expelled and never make it into the kingdom of heaven, but instead be thrown into the pit of fire. In chapter 21 of Revelation, verse 8, he says, he who overcomes will inherit all this and I will be his God and he will be my son, but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, all liars, their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death. The world will be different for people, for removed from our source, our presence, will be those who do such things. The vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who are liars and idolaters. If you find that an attractive part of your life and you don't want to give it up, you won't find heaven a very comfortable place for you to live. In chapter 21, verse 27, the Bible says, nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. You can leave your keys in your car. You don't have to lock your house. You don't have to count your money twice. You don't have to wonder if somebody is going to attack you. You don't have to wonder what's going to happen when you talk to someone, because everyone there will be people guided by Jesus Christ the Lord. Never once will you have to look at another person and say, can I trust them? What a world that will be, different than anything we've ever experienced. So finally there will be a place where the temptations of others around us do not cause us to question the authority of God or to do something different than what he wanted. There we will find a place free from that influence. Also the Bible describes this place that God has provided for us is so wonderful because he removes all the obstacles for us being able to obey him. What happens to us is we get caught because of powerful temptations that are all around us. In chapter 19 of the book of Revelation, it says, chapter 1, after this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God. For true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants. The passage tells us something really important about what God is going to do. You know, whenever you're looking at something and bad thoughts come to your mind, you know those are not from God. If you think about something and you think you might want to steal it or you're thinking about something and you know you've thought the wrong things, that's the great tempter who spiritually is talking to you in your mind. In heaven, here she's called the adulteress, the prostitute. In heaven, Satan will be gone. You won't have to wonder and worry any day about getting up and being tempted to do anything that is evil or wrong. The thought will not be there because Satan is not there. His power and his presence are gone. No longer does he exercise authority or control over what we do or what we think. Chapter 19, Revelation 11-16, I saw the heavens standing open and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one but he himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood. His name is the word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. With just one word from his mouth a nation can be destroyed, a people group. He rules them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is God with Jesus Christ destroying the power and authority of the devil wherever he might be. God has made sure that the enemy no longer is there. In chapter 21, verses 4 and 5, he describes what is going to take place. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. Everything will be new. You can start over. Life will be different. It's not like you just say, okay, I'm tied down to the things that have been in my past and hold me back. Everything starts over again. Not as a baby does this happen to you, but it happens to you as a grown adult, but the power of your past is overwhelmed. It's erased. No longer do you have this past that causes you to act in ways that you didn't want to. Don't you find yourself, as you've grown up, acting more and more like maybe the bad characteristics that your own parents had? You think, gosh, I'm acting like my dad here. What am I doing with this? But I did anyway. It won't happen there. It's been erased. Everything starts over again. You see, the kingdom of heaven for those who have a passion to obey God will be a paradise, because all of a sudden the evil temptations of Satan are removed and you can do this easily. Why didn't he do it here? When you become a Christian, no longer do you have any temptations. I'll tell you why I think. I think he wants you to learn the importance of struggling to submit to him. You know, if you're in a place where you can't do anything bad, if we locked you up in a room and we had the key to the door, you couldn't steal anything because you were locked in a room. If we didn't go around you and no one came there, you couldn't say anything bad to anybody because nobody's there to say anything bad to. Your whole life could be controlled, but when we're loose in this world to walk around, we have all kinds of opportunities. But when you have a passion for obedience to God all of your life, then God knows that you really, really want him to control your life. And so he has a place where you can do what you finally want to do exactly as God directs you. Heaven is the place where you're free to do it. Satan is destroyed. The temptations that have held your life are destroyed. The past influences in your life have now been erased. And only you and God are there. Heaven is a place where the fulfillment of your life is really what you want it to be. When Jesus walked on the face of the earth, and whenever Adam and Eve were in the garden, they had something you and I don't have. They could look at God, Adam and Eve could, and see him and hear his voice. When the disciples walked with Jesus, they could look at him with their eyes and they could hear his voice with their ears. We don't have that. The Bible describes that the final great thing in heaven about the kingdom of God is that we will have a relationship with God that is personal and intimate. He describes it in the most powerful ways, describing this event with God. Chapter 19, verse 6, I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing water, like the loud peal of thunder, shouting, Hallelujah for our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright, clean, was given her to wear. In parenthesis, fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. He describes our coming to heaven and our relationship with God in the most powerful and intimate of all human relationships, a husband and a wife. There's no more intimate relationship in the world than a husband and a wife. For you know each other in ways that no one else in the world knows you. They see you in ways that no one else in the world sees you. And so he describes when we get there, this relationship that is so powerful and intimate. Paul was writing in 1 Corinthians about love, at the end of it he says, in this world we see things like a dark glass, like a mirror that doesn't show things exactly right. Now we think of a mirror, we think of going to the bathroom, there's a great mirror and it looks just like you. And if you go in the bathroom and you look at the mirror and you don't think it looks like you, you've deceived yourself, that's really you in the mirror. But in the Bible days, they would take a piece of metal and try to polish it as best they could and that was their mirror, it wasn't very good. You could see, sort of, but not really the whole thing, not clear. And Paul said, now we see partly, but then we shall see clearly. You'll be able to look in the face of God. You'll be able to look in the face of Jesus. You'll be able to hear with your ears their voice. You will know exactly what they're saying to you. Like Adam and Eve walking in the garden with God in the Garden of Eden, you'll be walking with God there, each one of us individually, because it's a spiritual world where he can be with each of us. And you will have the relationship with God like he was the person most close to you in all the world. The Bible repeatedly describes this relationship based on the idea of marriage. In chapter 21, verses 1 through 3, John writes, when I saw a new heaven and a new earth, the first heaven and earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea, I saw the holy city and the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, now the dwelling of God is with men, he will live with them, they will be his people, God himself will be with them and they will be his God, he will wipe every tear from their eyes, there will be no more death, no mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. We no longer will have to say, I wonder what God thinks, and pray and say, I think this is what God wants me to do. We will turn to God and say, what do you want me to do? He will say, shut up and don't say anything. I say, okay, I heard it with my ears, I know what it is, I don't have to say I wonder anymore. The relationship you have with God in that day will be closer than any human being with whom you've ever been related. The kingdom of God in all of its fullness you don't experience here in this world. You experience a part of it. You surrender to the authority of God, you try to follow him as best you know how, but all the difficulties. There's Satan always talking to you, telling you things that sound good, but maybe not quite what God wants you to do, and you don't sometimes know the difference. There you'll know the difference. You'll be able to know the voice of God just like that. Here you're surrounded with temptations, temptations that distract you, and there they'll all be gone. Most of all, if you wonder what God wants to say to you, all you have to do is say, what do you want to say to me, God? And he'll say it. It will be as clear to your ear as the voice of a human in this world. And so you will know exactly what he wants you to do. If you love God, and you want to obey him with all of your heart, this will be heaven. If you'd like to be religious, but you'd like to still do the things you want to do when you want to do them the way you want to do them, you'll have no place to hide. You'll have no excuse. He will be as close to you or closer than the closest person in this world. He'll know your thoughts, he'll know what you're doing, and he can look right at you and say, wait a minute, so you won't like that. He won't subject you to it. If you want to live the way you want to live, he'll let you, but he'll just say to you, heaven is not the place for you. So you have a chance in this world to begin to prepare for this wonderful place God has for you. And it is, as Jesus said, the way is narrow. There's no other way other than to say, I want Jesus Christ to control my life. I will ask him what to do about my time, I'll ask him what to do about my money, I'll ask him what to do about the situations and relationships I'm in, I'll ask him what to do about my job, how to raise my children, how to treat my neighbors, all those things, I want him to tell me what to do. And when I know, I will try my best to do that, because he is my Lord. That opens the door to the eternal kingdom of heaven, and you'll begin to live it in this world. You'll make a lot of mistakes, but when you do, God will say, wait a minute, that wasn't the right thing, and you'll feel the guilt. You stop and say, okay God, I didn't listen to you, I did listen to you, but I didn't do what you said, I apologize, forgive me. Help me learn from this experience, because I want to obey you with all my heart. He'll forgive you, and you'll start over, growing, learning, to become more and more submissive to him. And then that final time will come, when you won't go through that struggle, because you'll be with him, and Satan will be removed from your power, from your mind, and the power of your past will no longer control you. And you can turn to him and say, what do you want? And he can tell you, and you can do it. But you can't wait until the last day. People say, well I'm going to wait until I get old and ready to die, and then I'll say, okay Jesus, save me. Well, you see, someone that does that doesn't want to obey God, they just want to avoid hell. God knows the difference. You can't trick him. He knows what's in your mind, and he knows what's in your heart. And whenever you say, well I want to do that someday, but I want to do everything else I want first, he simply says, that person does not want me to control their life. That's the end of it. But if you believe that God really is the ruler of this world, and you think his way of life is really the best way of life, he's always ready to listen to you say, Lord, take my life. I submit myself to you. I want you to tell me how to live, how to make the choices that I need to make. And I want to promise you this, if you tell me, I'll try my best to make them. That's all he needs. The doors to the kingdom are open, and you're in. He'll help you grow. He'll help you learn how to be better at listening to him, and better at obeying him, but you're in because your heart is surrendered to him, and you want to have him control your life. You have to get rid of the desire to live your life the way you want to. You have to lose confidence in the fact that you know best, and have confidence that God is the king, if you want to live in his kingdom. Could you bow your heads, please, for a moment? The great picture of what's going to happen at the end of this world, or whenever we die, is certainly appealing. But between here and there is a life of self-denial and sacrificial service to God. Where would you stand if you were to, suddenly today, have to stand in front of God? He'd look at you and say, I know that the most important thing in your life, in this world, was to do what I told you. Could you honestly say that? If not, then you're not ready to enter the kingdom. If you want to be that way, all you have to say to God is, I want to have that in my life. And today, as best I can, I say to you, take my life. As best I can, I'll try to obey you. And when I don't, and I realize it, I'll stop, I'll ask for forgiveness, and I'll try again. That's all he asks. And the doors to the kingdom will be open for you. This is the most important decision in your life you'll ever make. It will not only change your life on this earth, but it will change your life forever. God does not ask you to be better than you are. He just asks you to want him to control your life. He wants you to trust him that whatever he says to you is right, and for you to be passionate to try to obey. If you've never conversed with God in this way, I want to ask you today to do it. Just to say, I don't understand all this, God, but I want you to control my life. I want to be the kind of person Jesus was. Take my life, guide me, and as best I know how, I'll follow you. You can say these things in your own mind. In a moment we're going to have an invitation as the music's going to play, and you may feel a need to get up and come and say, today I've made that promise to God. This is God speaking to you, so it's the first time you have to obey him. Now what will happen is you'll think, what is everybody going to think, that's the devil. What will people say, that's the devil. I don't think I can do all that, that's the devil. All you focus on is, what do I think God wants, and you do it. So Lord, the picture you paint of the kingdom that you have planned for us is overwhelmingly wonderful. It's so overwhelmingly wonderful, it's hard even to imagine that you'd let us in. That your son Jesus died on the cross so that every sin in our life could be forgiven if we submitted ourselves to you. So I ask today, if there's any of us that you're talking to, that your voice would be as clear as possible. This is for you, so you'll know it, so each one of us will know it. Make clear your voice now, in the name of Christ we ask it, amen. I'd like you just to remain seated with your eyes closed and in prayer. Maybe God's told you something else, you've started out on this road and you know you've stumbled some, and you need to say to God, I need to start up with new forgiveness and a new promise to you. Maybe he's told you there's a job you should take, or maybe he's told you you should be a part of this church. If you have walked with God, you know his voice. While the music plays, if God is talking to you, this is your chance to say, okay God, I'll obey you. I'll obey you. I'll obey you. Would you stand please for a moment of benediction. We thank you Lord for talking to us. In our very human way, we hear you in our minds. Not as clearly as we'd like, but we know that whenever you place a thought in our mind and it's really from you, it's there today, later today, tomorrow, the next day. You do make yourself known to us. So I pray Father that we've heard you, and if we've acted on what you've wanted today, fill our life with the joy of obedience. There's still some things that you're working with us about, don't give up, for we trust you. Dismiss us in your mercy, and your grace, and your love, that because we are citizens of your kingdom, the world would see us differently than it sees the rest of the world. May we rejoice in the hard things that come, because they give us an opportunity to display your power in our lives. In the name of Jesus, we ask for this. Amen. I'd like to say something if I may. My wife of 60 years has put up with a lot during the years. And I feel... Somebody up here said amen. Who said amen? Right there. Okay. Well, maybe she should. But I feel real blessed by God to have been around as long as I have, and been married to one of the most beautiful women in the world. And I thank God immensely for taking care of me. She actually took care of me when I was going through chemotherapy, when I was diagnosed with cancer. I got a nurse over there, Joyce, that really helped take care of me too, when I was in the hospital. And I'm not going to make this very long. I see a sign here. But I do want to thank everyone for their prayers in the past, as well as recently for...