Christian Work Ethic

Christian Work Ethic and the Purpose of Work

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your substitutionary atonement for your amazing grace That we gathered together today on the Lord's Day to celebrate your resurrection and your ascension. We thank you for the privilege to call each other brothers and sisters in Christ and Lord to be forgiven as we look at this topic from Ephesians on work.

Help us to honor you by the work we do. Help us to honor you. Through remembering the gospel remembering our forgiveness and being grateful joyful workers. Please bless those who are traveling be with the other ministries in the nurse in the nurseries and another Sunday schools.

Would your name be glorified? Would you be with the teachers to be bold and to be humble and would you save as many as you choose? In Christ's name I pray. Amen. I know Andrew has been doing the order of salvation.

He'll be back with you guys next week to do part four of ordo salutis. I will be talking today about a Christian work ethic. How do you define work? I didn't. I looked at Miriam Webster and a bunch of other dictionaries, but I didn't quite like their definitions that they weren't Clear enough cogent enough.

So I came up with my own. Work is the action or set of actions that enable the transformation of entities around the world. How do you transform? Sorry, I know Becky you looked at me as like what? It's it's it's what you do to transform something physical from one form to the other.

It can be cooking homework studying. Housework lawn mowing all kinds of employment fall under work. Employment could be as a country's leader. You could be a CEO. You could be a janitor. You could be a housewife you could be a scientist.

All of these categories fall under work. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 1 verses 28 and 29. Actually, you can look at me from 26 to 29. I will just read 27 28 and 29 Genesis chapter 1. This is after God created All of all animals and all of Creation.

Now he comes to man. Then God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and Over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image in the image of God. He created him male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and Have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the over every living thing that moves on the earth.

From the very first book and chapter in The Bible we see two things. One is God created us with the purpose to bring order to creation. Order to the earth and When we do that, we bring him great glory.

Now this subduing this dominion is through work. And that was the definition right through the work that transforms entities from one form to the other. Now what you see from this is this kind of transformation and work can only be done by those created in the Image of God.

It's it's a privilege that only man can do. This work in transformation brings about order. It makes the earth a more habitable and more livable place. Have you guys been to parts of Africa? Where people refuse to work?

Anybody ever been to those places. Anybody know about those places? They refuse to more if you take care of the land refuse to take care of the resources. What what what goes on there? What's the what's the political?

Landscape of most of those places particularly Africa. Steve. Dictatorship mass corruption of all kinds. Impossible to literally live there because people refuse to work people refuse to take care of their children their homes their lands.

It's mass dictatorship horrific corruption. It's not livable. But This work that we see from Genesis 1 and then the New Testament in Ephesians involves all people of all kinds and all vocations by working a man or woman models the Creator.

As pastor Mike's preached on Hebrews 1 3. What is the Son of God do he upholds? The universe by the word of his power he sustains it. As he chooses by by his own will by work. Now some people say that is this work any good?

Well, when we look at Ephesians 6 today, we'll see that all work is assigned by God. Therefore it is good but along with subduing and having dominion and bringing and making the earth more habitable a Lot of scholars say that Paul's focus on in Ephesians 6 and infer and even in 2nd Corinthians 5 is that work can have evangelistic purposes.

The transformed heart Depicted through the diligent and honest and diligent and honest labor shows the power of the gospel. I'm not saying that work alone can have evangelistic Effect. A lot of some people say that my by living a good example people around me will get saved and They just leave it at that.

That's not what I'm saying. Nothing equals the sharing of the gospel sharing of the scripture as it is written. But it is important That after you've preached the gospel that at least to some extent that people see that the gospel is transforming power, isn't it?

But here's what I hear from most people. When I talk about work with most people Christians alike, the first thing that people tell me especially if it's a Friday is The most famous term we even have a restaurant here called thank God.

It's Friday by the way horrific restaurant. And then they say hey, it's Thursday only two more days to go. There's a lot of complaining no matter what the vocation is and. Then you ask them how's work it pays the bills.

That's like scratching the whiteboard for me and then other than the other people when you ask them to say I hate my boss. I hate him. There's a lot of lack of focus at work. There's a lack of joy around the conversation about work.

There's definitely a lot of stealing. It's very unproductive for a lot of people. And I'm not just talking about nine to five jobs anything from mowing the lawn to cooking. Is often looked at as a chore,.

I don't know if I share these statistics with you and I did. Digital how to live in and how to be pure and live in a digital world. But here are some statistics in the United States Department of Labor.

30 to 40 percent of internet use is not related to business during work hours. Seventy percent of all internet pornography traffic happens between 9 a .m. And 5 p .m. Monday through Friday. 70 percent 37 percent of surveyed office workers admit they surf constantly during the workday.

37 percent. 24 of American workers admit to shopping online while at work. 30 percent of American workers watch sports online while at work. And. Those of you investors by the way, I love investing and do it a lot.

Check this number out. 92 of online stock trading occurs from the workplace during work hours. Nothing wrong with being faithful with your money and hoping it multiplies but if that's what you're doing when you're supposed to be working that is.

That is that is questionable. Do those numbers surprise you? And in any number surprises you there are a few there that really shocked me. Now for your Facebook enthusiasts, by the way, I am on we're on Facebook.

So I'm not saying anything is anything wrong, but look what? Mike Fahey who's a data analyst at CNBC? Facebook users spend an aggregate of 10 .5 billion minutes per day on the platform. Now that was in 2012 in 2016 that number is close to 25 billion.

The average user spends 20 minutes of his workday on Facebook. Now 20 minutes does not sound like a lot does it? But let's put some math into it. If users spend just that time 20 minutes working on minimum wage instead of liking and poking each other.

Each would pull in about nine eight hundred and eighty dollars a year. Which is equal to nine hundred billion. So what Fahey is saying is this. If people stop wasting time on Facebook during work hours.

The United States would have added nine hundred billion dollars to the economy last year. By the way, I don't know if you heard me. I said minimum wage. Most of his most of us make much more than that.

So we're looking at well in excess of four to five. Four to five trillion dollars here again. Do those numbers surprise you? They do surprise me. That's a huge amount of money, isn't it? Now, what is how does this matter to the Christian?

We looked briefly at Genesis. That's not my main text for today. We looked at how we are supposed to model our Creator in joy. We are to bring him glory by our work no matter what we do. We're supposed to have subdue and have dominion.

But what is the Apostle Paul have to say. I Looked at Ephesians. We've been on if I've been teaching Ephesians 6 quite a bit and during Sunday school. But let's quickly go to Ephesians 6 reminding ourselves of the context.

The Apostle writing this is Paul. He's in prison. He's primarily talking to whom the Ephesian Church in The first three chapters he describes who the Christian is and who Christ is. He says in Ephesians 2 1 to 10.

That you were once dead in your trespasses, but now you've been made alive. How why. Because of God's mercy love and sovereign will. That you've been forgiven that you've been granted eternal life. That even though you were once dead you're now alive and.

Then in Ephesians 4 17 onwards Paul changes his tone a little bit now he wants to talk To the Ephesian Church about hey, here's the truth. I want you to live in light of being forgiven. How do I want you to live in in light of being forgiven?

He paints a trap a vivid picture of how a transformed life should look. He tells him that the gospel is the foundation of this transformed life and He tells him about the role and the power of the Holy Spirit.

So what's the first thing that we see in chapter 5? Who is who does he what relationship is he addressing in Ephesians chapter 5 the first one? How believers are to love one another? Why in light of the gospel.

Then he goes to husbands and wives how they are to model Christ and the church. In chapter 6 he talks about children and parents how they are to behave in light of salvation and then he talks about slaves and masters, which is what we'll be on today and how they should behave in light of what in light of redemptive grace and.

And finally the importance of putting on the whole armor armor of God. We did we spoke about this for three weeks. So I won't touch about the on the armor of God again. Could someone read Ephesians 6 5 to 9, please?

Ephesians 6 5 to 9. Thank you Vincent what version is that? That's ESV. Yes. No, no. Hmm okay. I thought ESV had bond servants in there. Oh, they changed it from bond servants to slaves. Okay, okay. Okay.

Okay. So my wife was saying too. I thought she was wrong. Okay. So slaves is a very good translation. So look what Paul does in the in the very first go he differentiates between the earthly and the heavenly master he says that yes, you have an earthly master and how ought you treat him like your heavenly master and.

How exactly is that? He doesn't just say you ought to behave or you ought to Submit to your earthly master as your heavenly master and not give you any information. What does he say? What are the two ways in which according to this text?

You serve your heavenly master do things. What do you see in Ephesians 6 right in the first verse? Sorry? Okay, what what is the text say though good you guys are going a little too far ahead. If you go back, sorry verse 5.

Fear and trembling. Fear and trembling and with a sincere heart. That's the way that is the man in which you serve the Lord. That's a man in which you worship him. Now Paul is the only one who uses fear and trembling in the New Testament, do you know any other place where He uses that he uses that in Three different place.

I have three references. There may be more. I have three references here. Do we know where else he uses it? Perfect. Yes, I have that. Philippians 2 12 to 13. Philippians 2 12 to 13. Therefore my beloved as you've always obeyed so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Peter O 'Brien in this commentary says this but actually before I say that We know what fear and trembling is, but can somebody define it for me in the New Testament?

What is it? What does it mean if you're a believer? If you're an unbeliever, you ought to be very very fearful of the judgment of God. But what is the fear and trembling? Especially that Paul uses it throughout the New Testament.

Steve yes. Yes reverential are a godly fear. Because of his mighty works right because you see how awesome he is. You see the works that he's done. Especially in the at the cross, especially in light of redemption and you're standing in awe of him.

It's a reverential awe and that's the implication. That's the definition that Paul uses there as well. So that's the way you ought to serve Christ with awe and That's the first Way you serve even your earthly masters.

And then he talks about the importance of a sincere heart. Not one that is divided or deceptive so we see. Serve with fear and trembling serve with a sincere heart. How does one serve Christ? Does he serve?

Christ and money Christ and job Christ and something else. How do you serve Christ? The undivided heart. With one focus right one God one Lord. Agreed disagreed. Maybe not. No. How do you serve God? What is it called if you serve Christ and X Christ and Y what is that called?

Somebody said it Idolatry. Thank you. Yes, that's what it's called. It's called idolatry when you serve multiple gods. That's not the way you serve God that's not the way you serve Christ. A Divided heart shows the lack of submission to the Lordship and authority and exclusivity of Christ and Paul is saying The way you serve your earthly masters.

It was an undivided heart sincere single-minded. You may have multiple jobs. That's not what he's saying. That's not he's not saying you can't have multiple jobs. What he's saying is when you serve that earthly master you serve him faithfully as if He is your faithfully and diligently but single focus.

Now how many employ how many employers do you think the average American has or will have let me take that back? 50 years ago. How many employers or how many companies that in the span of a career a person work for?

Yes one my dad worked for his company for 40 years. One. Okay. How about now? Five five is a good number. What's the average though? Does anybody know the average? Twelve's a higher and a much better number close to 20 before the end of the career.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with that if unless you're jumping for the wrong reasons. Okay, there's nothing wrong with that. You may have several employers in your career, but you can only have one Lord one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can only have one employer. Well, you can have multiple employers at a time, but you can only have one Lord. That's my point. You can only have one master. Even if you have several employers several earthly masters, you can only have one Lord and one true master.

Tim Charlie says this to say about this text. He says whenever Paul talks about authority He connects it to the authority of Christ. Whenever he talks about obedience He makes it a lesser form of the greater obedience to Christ.

He does that here in Ephesians 6 5 to 9. Employees you need to obey your manager our your employer in the same way you would obey Christ. These are not two different things the way you understand the employee employer relationship flows right out of the way you understand Your relationship with Jesus Christ if you want to obey Christ, you need to obey your boss.

In fact, you need to obey your boss in the way you obey Christ. Paul goes on to talk about I service not by the way of I service as people pleases. But as bond servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.

Some of these slaves now if Paul is mentioning this there is this particular problem. Is there in the community there and some of the slaves were only doing work to get immediate attention from their masters?

They're not doing it completely fully they were doing it even some more Deceptively and they were only doing it to get some kind of attention from the earthly masters. Paul is telling the Christian slaves.

Don't do this. Don't do this. You are to work as you work unto the Lord. How do we work? Can we work like that here? What does it mean? Let's let's be more specific. How can you or I work? Just to please our bosses just as I service.

I've got a number of examples here, but I like the word shortcut. Thank you. I like the word you take shortcuts to do the job as quickly and as as Lazily as you can good anymore. Excellent so you only do what's either asked of you or you only volunteer when you're expected to More I service.

Excellent. I I really like that. That's one of the biggest example I had here. So take this scenario you not everybody has a job in front of a computer. But take this scenario right especially if multiple desktops if you Swipe in a Mac or you even click with your mouse you can change your desktop on the same screen, right?

What's very popular today is you browsing the web lazily? On Facebook. Liking and poking each other and then You hear your boss coming and you swipe the screen and it's the spreadsheet. Oh. You look so busy.

Ah Linton. You've been working for eight hours in a row. Ah, I'm giving you a promotion next week. What's wrong with this kind of attitude? Sorry. It's half-hearted. Yes, I like that it's not committed fully because Paul talks about that even in the next verse.

You're not committed fully pretty. Excellent. So you're deceiving your aren't you aren't you deceiving your boss by appearing to do really good work, but. But you're not. Paul says Christian slaves ought not to behave like this.

Yes, I don't know if you miss you miss my statistics probably when I came here the 30 to 40 percent of American employees. Watch sports online while they're supposed to work. So I'm not. I'm not surprised but in today's world.

There's a lot of ways you can deceive and. Do you want to be people pleasers when we do these things we show that the gospel has no transforming power. Our work never saves us. But when you work like this, you're showing that yes, I'm reformed.

I'm five-point. I I believe in all of these things, but the the Holy Spirit and the work of Christ has no real transforming power. And that's that's my main message for today. Yes absolutely absolutely.

Deception and theft stealing absolutely, and and that's one of my that's one of my main points here, which I was going to speak about during the conclusion, but. Whether you like it or not, it affects your evangelistic goal, right?

And why would my boss listen to me if I'm a bad worker? Steal deceive. Just do. Eventually your boss will find out whether you like it or not bad work will eventually surface up and you'll see it. But or maybe maybe it might not but it will affect your evangelism.

Why would he listen to you if you're such a worker if you're doing bad lousy work? So how ought you to work? Bond servants of Christ. Next verse. Doing the will of God from the heart. Rendering service with a goodwill as to the Lord and not to man.

So Becky you mentioned wholeheartedly before. That's what this is. Completely thoroughly. You don't just leave it halfway. Why. Because you love Christ because that's the way you serve Christ that's the way you worship him.

So you're doing the same for your boss. You're doing the same. At your workplaces at home as a housewife when you're mowing the lawn everything faithfully joyfully unto the Lord. Again Peter O 'Brien uses these three words to Summarize what Paul is saying in these verses.

He's saying how do you work with zeal with eagerness with wholeheartedness? That's my problem with thank God. It's Friday. I Think I was joking with a college and career group a few months ago. So I took a TGIF Plaque and I put M on it.

Thank God it's Monday and I put on. I'm walking around my Campus at work. I mean even in my office stating. Thank you. Thank God. It's Friday. I said, thank God. It's Monday. Because it's it's excited to be work.

Nobody agreed with me. It's not that I was not trying to get attention. It was just really concerned about this whole idea of horrific work. And going back to even Charlie's point your attitude towards your employer your work Reflects your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But here's the thing. He Paul gives you one more impetus. He goes on to say knowing that whatever good anyone does this he will receive back from the Lord whether he is a bond servant Or is free. Notice he doesn't say whatever anyone does.

Paul says whatever good anyone does. So Paul is telling the Ephesian Church to have the right perspective to look to the future promise. Christ guarantees a reward to the believer when he returns. Do we have any other references in the Bible that especially in 2nd Corinthians that talks about?

What God will repay good or evil and you do When he returns around even on the judgments that I mean 2nd Corinthians 510, let's go to that I was gonna ask you for the worse, but 2nd Corinthians 510. Could somebody read that out loud for me?

Thank you. You ought to work in a manner that glorifies God you ought to work in a in a manner out of love and gratitude for God and We see several instances where there is future reward there is Something to be given.

What Paul is saying is this even if your earthly masters do not always see the good you did. Or always reward you appropriately your heavenly master would. The blessings and rewards for the good you did and Good they did in terms of the slaves were guaranteed to be given when the Lord returns.

So no matter how much you may be appreciated here or not for the good works You've done for the glory of his name and even for the blessing of society. Will be rewarded. When the Lord returns is that good motivation because you might not get everything maybe you deserve.

I'm not saying I'm not telling us to be. Not telling us to be angry annoyed or act like we deserve everything that's not what I'm saying. But some of us are all of our work is based on just rewards alone, right.

And here Paul is saying. Maybe you maybe you like some people work better when they're given a reward even for the work They have done. What Paul is saying is you may not get a reward for all the hard work you've done.

But you will be blessed and the Lord returns. Excellent again, it's an evangelistic opportunity. What Joanie was saying it is they see you again. It's not the only means we don't just hope that they look at our lives.

And then repent and believe. No. We do preach the gospel when we can use the scripture because it's the only means by convicting right but your your work your attitude does matter and Why I'm preaching about this as our teeth not preaching.

I'm not preaching. I'm teaching why I'm teaching about this is. A lot of people complain about their work. Whether it's homework whether it's whether you're a barista and Starbucks whether you're. You know, you're whether you're a police officer whoever you are.

There's a lot of complaining about work and for me, it's it's it's it's very difficult to see that and especially when dear brothers and sisters in Christ do that as well and. Finally he has a very small section in the Masters if you're an employer if you're an em, you know.

If you have people working under you it any. This is just a very small Set of verses for you because he has five verses for. Here is a few more verses and a lot to say for the slaves. Verse 9 Ephesians 6.

Masters do the same to them. Same as in how the slaves ought to behave with their masters in submission to Christ. Masters do the same to them and stop your threatening. Knowing that he who is both your master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him.

Back in that time in the context masters were known to be very cruel. They were very harsh. Paul is telling them. Hey. You have the same master as your slave does. You're that's your brother in Christ.

You ought to treat him differently with gentleness with kindness and with love now. Can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any one of our work places are like this. Right, well can be compared to the way the the kind of the master-slave relationship that the Ephesian Church had.

So how much more should be thankfully and Joyfully love and care for the ones who are under us if you're a manager if you know if you're an employer. How do you have to treat them? Well, because you and that employee.

Have one God one master and look what Paul says because this God shows no favoritism. He shows no favoritism. In other words, he does not care if the believer is a slave. Or a master to sum up this and to conclude slaves.

How did slaves behave before they were saved? Dishonest lazy ill-will. Complaining. How did they behave after salvation or? Should be after salvation diligently with industry with joy. And very importantly with integrity.

How did the masters behave before salvation. They were very cruel they were very brutal. But here's Paul talking to his brothers and sisters and saying hey. After salvation, this is the way you ought to behave considerate loving.

You can't do any of these perfectly. That's not what Paul is talking about. He's already told you can be saved by yourself. He's already gone through that in one two, and three. He's already said you ought to serve your master.

You ought to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that same manner, that's the way you ought to serve your earthly master. Tim chalice Ends by talking about this. He gives this in his uh Little section he did a little article on this.

If you know chalice, he writes very small articles, but he tries to Get to the point. As quickly as he can he's not very he's not expository. That's not his goal. But this is what he has to say. When you claim to be a christian but deliver poor quality work laced with grumbling and complaining.

You make the gospel look bad as if it isn't transformative. As if it hasn't really changed you from the inside out. And that's the problem. Isn't it? That's that's the problem again in concluding I uh, I have another thing which is closely tied to this.

If our children and the youth in our community. Look at us. And see the way we work. What do they see? My experience with christian youth and teens is that they work the same way as unsaved. Teens and youth i'm not saying that about everybody.

I'm saying my experience is. They grumble as much. They complain as much. They sometimes most of the time they work as I as people pleasers as well they're demotivated and. And In some cases what i've seen is they don't have saved fathers and their fathers come home and immediately start complaining and grumbling against the boss and.

The father is only excited on fridays. And he hates mondays. So whether we like it or not the way we work has an impact on the youth an impact on our children impact on Others who may be looking at us.

So what if you're preaching the gospel you're teaching, you know, you have family devotions every day you're teaching them the gospel you're talking about christ. And all of these wonderful things and that's important and needed and that's lovely but perhaps.

You're not doing and you're not showing any of that submission as you see in ephesians 6 in the way you work. You're a bad worker. You're you refuse to work continuously work hard and you're always complaining about your boss.

What do you think about the testimony that you have? What do you think about the influence? That that may have in the children, right? I mean, we're we're affected by when we see grumbling co-workers.

What do you think the kids see or go through when they see grumbling parents and complaining parents? Does that make sense? Is it something that you need to be concerned about? Right. That's a scary truth that i've become more aware of in the last two years as I became a dad.

My daughter said what where did you get that from and my wife looks at me. So i'm i'm uh, while i'm I am sad to see people complaining about work and saying that is nothing more than paying the bills.

Um I I know that no amount of work can ever save you but you are saved through christ's life death and resurrection. We're forgiven. We're justified. There's no work that we can do to please him more.

But that work is is is powerful it's transformative and as we mature in the faith as we Listen to sermons more as we obey out of love and thanksgiving more and more. It seeps into everything we do including our work.

I know tomorrow's a holiday. So my desire is this that when you get to work on tuesday? Not that you wear thank god is tuesday badges, but that you will be enthusiastic flowing from What god has done in your life?

That as joanie said when people see you. They don't doubt they're not confused of the gospel. They're not confused. Okay, you're preaching about the gospel during lunchtime and then you're all just grumbling and complaining and horrible work on the other side.

But I hope you love going to work. I hope if you're a homemaker, I hope you enjoy what you do at home. I think if you're a janitor, I hope you enjoy what you do there. If you're the ceo it should go with enthusiasm and joy and gladness because of the finished work of jesus christ.

Shouldn't that the way we behave? I'm, not saying we would do it perfectly but That's what we ought to do. And if you are a believer and you may have struggled in this God is faithful to forgive our sins if we confess it.

So I hope you're convicted but I hope you don't leave here completely demoralized and refusing to go to work on tuesday. Because you don't have the right attitude. No, I hope you Repent, I hope you turn.

I hope you seek grace. We need his grace. Don't we we need to be praying about this? We can't do this without his his grace because naturally we like rewards and praise and We're especially as men. We prefer to take shortcuts no matter what your vocation is.

So we need god's grace we need to be in prayer about this. We need to know about what ephesians 6 and first peter 3 talks about and go and do a wonderful job at work any questions concerns. You guys are happy about being employed.

Yeah. All right, freddie. I will start with ephesians 6 5 where he talks about there's a future reward. I think that's very encouraging. It's one of the reasons why paul was even giving them because they were not getting rewarded.

They were not being treated. Well, even some of their masters were unsaved so they were even getting brutally treated. So paul was telling them no matter how they behave. You're saved you're forgiven.

You ought to behave with thanksgiving and just as you save just as you serve the lord. He doesn't say serve your master if he's a christian or if he's a believer. He's served them as unto the lord, even if they're not saved.

I think i would start there um I look at paul and I look at think about second thessalonians and even first thessalonians where um He gives that's also another good work, uh book, right? He's building tents.

Um in the night he's preaching he's going around preaching the word and he says i have every right not to work. I've every right not to do anything. Um, so paul is working despite the fact that he doesn't have to.

Despite the fact that even if you look at second thessalonians. Um, there are people who are misunderstanding the lord's return so they stopped working. And they're depending on the rest of the church.

So well, he he has some harsh words for those people. He sets some streets to stop being idle stop going and working but his his attitude there is. Despite that fact keep doing good. He said despite the fact that they're not working and they're not understanding the lord's return.

Keep working keep working in joy. Keep preaching the gospel and and uh, keep working. I think paul is a great example. Does anybody else have. I'm sure you do to what freddie is asking. Those are the two that come to my mind.

Does anybody else have? Any examples. Andrew excellent. Thank you. Hebrews talks about faith a lot, right which Warren veersby and some others describe as a confident obedience in the word of god despite the circumstances or in spite of the consequences, so we keep but uh, I know I should stop but i'll just just to.