Seek the Lord — Michael L. Brown

You're listening to the podcast from Grace World Outreach Church.

Praise God. Thank you so much. Well, it is a joy to be with you. We've followed Daniel's ministry with interest for many years now. Of course, he worked closely with my dear friend Steve Hill. So when we got the invitation to come, I actually didn't pray about it.

I said, of course, in a heartbeat. So so glad to be with you and another grad Mindy and family. Great to be with all of you. And above all, great to be in the presence of God. Amen. Just nice to enjoy his presence and worship and step back and see what God is doing.

So many times over the years as I would travel out, I would do series of meetings and that shifted over time. Many, many churches got away from doing that. And then you'd be coming in just for one service.

So when you're here for one service, I'm not here just to preach a message or give you the hot sermon. So I'm just pacing my hotel room last night saying, okay, God, I'm here one time, one service, and I want to make a deposit by God's grace that will have a lasting impact.

You know, during the revival, it was thrilling to see what God was doing in the moment. It was overwhelming. It was intense. The crowds, the hunger, the weeping at the altar, the people being set free, the joy in his presence.

It's extraordinary to see. But all we burned for and longed for was lasting fruit. That was our whole issue. Five years from now, ten years from now, what's the fruit going to be? And I would tell people week in, week out.

It doesn't matter if you fall or shake. The question is, how do you walk out of here? And how are you living a year from now? So the same way being here with you this morning, I'm really asking God to help me to bring a message that will make a lasting impact.

Something you can take with you in the days and months and years ahead. Amen? One thing really quickly before we open the scriptures. You were told to turn watches and phones off. I'm not gonna be preaching for hours and hours.

I got a plane to catch, so you can... My plane's like at nine this evening, so we got a limited time. No, I'm kidding. Just joking. But grab your phones. Just do this one thing real quick, okay? And if you're online, just grab your phones.

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All right, everybody got it? Good. Let's pray. Father, I ask you to give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. I ask you to give us a heart to respond. To speak something to us. To give us spiritual focus today.

Seeking the Lord for Lasting Fruit

To touch us in such a way that by your grace, we can go and touch this generation. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 34. Psalm 34. The message title, Seek the Lord. Psalm 34, Seek the Lord. This is a Psalm of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.

I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me.

He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called, and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

We'll stop there. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. As I prayed last night, I said, Lord, I do not want to bring a message as to what people want to hear, what the pastor wants to hear.

I want to share your heart. Is there a message for the church? This was stirring on me before I heard Pastor Daniel talk about harvest, but I heard the Spirit say to me, and I know it's not just for here.

I know something's happening around America, but it's also very specifically for here. I heard clearly, prepare for harvest. Prepare for harvest. There is a mindset when you are preparing for an influx of souls.

There is a mindset. There is an attitude when you are hungry and thirsting for God to move. And I want to help bring you to the tip of the spear, the tip of the arrow, the central thing that must happen if we are to see the breakthroughs that we desire to see.

Seeking God With Wholehearted Hunger

There must be a seeking of God on a deeper level, personally and corporately. There must be a determination to go after him for breakthroughs as if there was no tomorrow. To the degree of our hunger, to the degree of our thirst, to the degree of our desperation, to that degree, will God move and will God meet us?

You know, there are promises in Scripture to the Jewish people scattered around the world. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 29. If from there you will seek the Lord, if from there, he says, you will seek me, you will find me when you search for me with all your heart and soul.

Deuteronomy 4, 29. The same thing spoken to exiles in Babylon, Jewish exiles in Babylon in Jeremiah 29, 13. You'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Same thing repeated in the New Testament, in Hebrews, the 11th chapter, that without faith it's impossible to please God because the one who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him, a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

We can talk about it. We can sing about it. But to actually do it, to go after God with heart and soul is something that we rarely do. To really seek him as if our life depended on it. To earnestly pursue God, to have a determination in our heart that we know that there are certain breakthroughs that we must experience.

There are things we must see God do in our midst. And we get to that point where it's not optional. We get to that point where it's not a nice little add-in. We get to that point where it's either God moves and God meets us or it's over.

That's when we have the breakthroughs. You know, in the midst of our American society, before COVID, before some of the tough times we've been through, it was pretty easy to be a casual Christian in America.

I mean, we have a little opposition to our faith here and there, but in terms of compared to the rest of the world, we have a ton of freedom. Yes, we have problems and issues. Everybody does in life, but we're not in the midst of a war where houses and neighborhoods are being bombed.

We're not on the street begging bread. Most of us, you know, we have a living. We have a roof over our house, over our homes. There's often not desperation because we're kind of in a complacent setting.

And, hey, we had a good church service. Praise the Lord. And, hey, my kids are reading the Bible daily. Praise the Lord. And, hey, I got a raise in my job. Praise the Lord. Well, yes, praise God for all those things, but there is more.

God's heart is always beating for a dying world. God's heart is always beating for a backslidden church. And the closer we get to God, the more our heart is joined with His heart. And in the years before revival, I knew there was more.

I was convinced there was more based on what was written in Scripture. Surely, if God's witness here was true, surely if the promises were true, then there must be more to our experience, must be more to our encounter with God, must be more to the demonstration of His Spirit and power.

And then reading church history and reading about revival, I was convinced there must be more. And then being in and outpouring myself some years before Brownsville in 82, 83, where God got a hold of me dramatically and dramatically touched the church where I was serving as an elder, I knew there was more.

And then as I traveled to different nations and saw what God was doing and the depth of the outpouring and the hunger of the believers and the dedication of the believers and their willingness to die for Jesus, I knew there was more.

And everything that I believed, everything that I held to was confirmed in those years in Brownsville. I saw the more. I saw so much of that demonstration. I saw the reality that if we would go after Him, heart and soul, He would come.

That if we would preach Jesus without compromise and reach out to a dying world and let the Holy Spirit move, that people would come. We didn't need the hype, we didn't need the celebrities. I mean, people in the revival, sure, we got to be known, but it's not like God used all these superstars to start it.

That revival confirmed to me that there is more, and ever since I've known there must be more. I've experienced it, but I haven't experienced all of it. Because as I meet with God and I read the Word, I'm convinced that there's something deeper God wants to bring us into.

And friends, I'm not just talking corporately, I'm talking individually. Young people, individually. How deep is your encounter with God? Older generation, how present is your encounter with God? You know, it's interesting.

Personal Encounters With God and the Need for Revival

I started doing a show for a new TV network called Awakening, A-W-K-N-G. It's brand new and news will be getting out a lot more in the months ahead. But I'm doing a show for them called That's Debatable.

And we filmed eight debates in a couple of days. Debated a Muslim, gay pastor, transgender pastor, former charismatic, now agnostic, former evangelical, now hostile atheist. And I asked both of those former believers a question.

I asked them when they did say that they were believers in following Jesus, and in their mind they were completely given over to the Lord and solid believers. I said, did you have an experience, something between you and God, an answer to prayer, something that was so miraculous that looking back at it, it's hard to explain now.

And if I ask most believers that question, if you've really been walking with the Lord, of course. The way he led you, the way he spoke to you, the way he saved you, the way he did things in your life.

And some of us could give hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of examples. But I asked those two men. And then another man, a very sincere man, a professor, a scholar that lost his faith over his studies.

I asked him the same question. And all three, the same answer. They all said no. In their days when they were believers, that there was nothing that happened that was so supernatural, such a clear answer, such a clear demonstration of God's power, that it's difficult to explain now.

And I'm thinking, that could be three quarters of the problem right there. Leonard Gravenel used to say, a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. Our experience in God needs to go deeper.

And I don't take this as a rebuke, but an invitation. I take it as God saying, there's more I want to reveal of myself. You know, especially the generation growing up today, they're bombarded like no generation in history.

There's more pressure on them. There's more temptation. There are more challenges. And then the church has not been at its best in so many ways. We've had so many scandals and so many things have gone wrong.

And so many young people have dropped out. But I believe that there's a sincerity and a hunger and a thirst. If they could really encounter God, they'll be as on fire as anybody. Seek the Lord. You think of Jacob.

And Jacob was one of those guys that's like a lot of us. He had faith and he had the arm of the flesh. He believed and if God was going to come through, he'd work it out. He'd make it happen. And of course, he got into big trouble because of his lying, because of his deception.

But here he is. He has not seen his brother Esau in years. He defrauded him out of his birthright. The last that he heard his brother Esau say was, when our father dies, when Isaac dies, I'm going to kill my brother Jacob.

Now he has to pass through Esau's territory. He's got his wives with him. He's got all of his sons with him. It's a massive group of people coming back, all kinds of flocks, herds. And he's got to go through Esau's territory.

And he gets a message. Esau is coming to meet you with 400 men. What's he thinking? This is it. It could be over. So he hatches a plan. Okay, we'll send them with the older children and the younger children down to the very youngest, first with gifts and all kinds of livestock.

And just to pacify him. But he must have known somehow that's not going to be enough. He must have thought, okay, I've always hatched a plan. I've always pulled the rabbit out of the hat. I've always figured something out, but not this time.

And what does he do? He's alone. He's alone and he wrestles with a man through the night. Obviously the angel of the Lord or Jesus himself incarnate. And you know the story. This man says to him, it's almost dawn.

Let me go. Your light's coming. And what does Jacob say? I won't let you go until you bless me. See, it wasn't an option. There was no choice. In Jacob's mind, either he was helped by heaven or his family was going to die.

It was God or else. It was a miracle or else. He said, I won't let you go until you bless me because he couldn't let go. You know, the question has been asked for generations. Why is it that we don't see more revival?

And the answer is always the same. It's because we're willing to live without it. Because other things are more important. Other things have our attention. You know, think of in the early days of COVID and sports shuts down and so many things shut down.

And so many of your lives shut down and so many inconveniences. And you realize, wow, there are a whole lot of distractions that I had that I don't have right now. It could be maddening or it can get you on your knees saying, God, I need you.

I don't need things and stuff and you have friends and all that. That's all important. That's wonderful. But God, we need you. It says in Colossians 2, in Jesus, in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I've been saved almost 50 years now. End of 1971 is when God wonderfully saved me as a heroine shooting LSD using hippie rock drummer. Full of rebellion, full of anger, full of sin. Almost 50 years. And preaching since 1973, had all the normal pressures of life and challenges of ministry that you'd expect over this time.

And I can shout more loudly than ever, everything you need is found in him. Everything. And if you can make that right connection with him, if you can make that determination, I've got to see a breakthrough.

If you will seek him until, then the blessing will come. And the things that are needed, the practical things, the things of this world, what does Jesus say? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

A Testimony of Seeking God for a Jewish Friend

Some years back, must have been late 80s. No, actually it was the very early 90s. I was asked, we lived in Maryland. There was a new believer, a Russian messianic Jew, very intellectual, brand new believer.

And he really wanted to see if a rabbi or a messianic Jew would do better in an unscheduled debate. The whole intellectual thing was very important to him and he's brand new. And he was so new he had no problem lying.

So he asked me, when I come over to his house, three rabbis from Baltimore, which is maybe an hour from us. Three rabbis from Baltimore agreed to do a debate with me in his house on who is the Messiah according to the book of Isaiah.

I said, are you serious? He said, yeah. I said, okay, you bet. I'll be there. But he was lying to me. I get there and there are these rabbis and counter missionaries that have come in from Brooklyn and Philadelphia.

Driven for hours to be there. And he gave some lie to them to get them there. And then he hands out this program. There are about 20 people there and they've got their recorders, little recording devices, days before cell phones.

And he's got this whole program like a three hour debate program. With me and this leading counter missionary. At least he had notes with him and we're going to go through these issues. Sin, atonement, messianic prophecy.

It was just really important for him to see who could do better intellectually without preparation. For whatever reason. And there was a young woman there. Came up to me to talk afterwards. Very serious.

Orthodox Jewish woman. Had traveled with these folks from Brooklyn. Had done work with them. Counter missionary work. In other words trying to pull Jewish believers away from Jesus. Work against what we were doing.

And she handed me a letter. She said she tried to send it to me previously. She'd heard some things I was saying on a radio broadcast and it raised some questions to her. But the mail was sent back. It was the wrong address.

And that night really shook her. God had been working in her heart. But that night shook her. The fellow I was debating did not do that well. We were able to present the truth well. And it really shook her up deeply.

She gave me that letter asking further questions. And now they were stirred up even more deeply by this. So we began to talk on the phone. And it turned out she was raised in a somewhat liberal Jewish home.

Was not that religious. And then became a believer. Didn't have the strongest foundations but she was a believer. Folks in her church knew this Orthodox Jewish man. And they said, hey, why don't you talk to him?

You're Jewish. It ended up that his foundations were stronger than hers. And he pulled her away from Jesus. And she became a very devoted Orthodox Jew to the point of actually doing counter-missionary work.

Going to Bible studies with Messianic Jews and trying to raise questions and pull them away from the faith. And she was living as an ultra-Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn for years. And quite set in her ways.

God began to stir some things. Raise some questions. Then that debate that night really shook her. So we would talk by phone. I'd be in the kitchen in our home. And Nancy would hear me talking to her.

And she'd have endless questions about Jewish tradition and scripture. And we'd go back and forth and back and forth. And it was in the days before I had written five volumes on answering Jewish objections to Jesus.

But had some cassette tapes to send her and different things like that. Or, hey, why don't you read this? So hours and hours and hours of talk. So I'm going to be speaking on Long Island. About an hour and a half out from Brooklyn.

And she says, look, you're the only one I can trust right now. I feel like you're the only one I can really talk to that can help me sort these things out. And can I come and talk to you after one of the services when you're speaking there?

I said, absolutely. Absolutely. As I'm getting ready to go on the trip, Nancy says to me, I don't think you should talk to her. I said, why? She said, her whole problem is she's putting her trust in people.

Just tell her to seek God. And I said, well, I don't have a way to reach her before that. She's going to make this whole trip out. It's a three-hour round trip. Only for me to tell her, I can't meet with you.

You just have to seek God. But I knew Nancy well enough. And she felt so sure. And it made sense to me what she was saying. So I agreed. So I remember, you know, the whole preach goes through the whole service.

And Joanne, that's the gal. She's sitting there through the whole service. And I come up to her afterwards. And she's like, finally, you're the only one that can answer these questions. I'm just struggling.

I said, listen, I can't meet with you. You just need to seek God. And she was just crestfallen. I said, I'm sorry. I can't meet with you. You just need to seek God. Sometime after that, she calls me. She goes, hey, look.

We don't need to talk anymore. I know Orthodox Judaism is right. This is my life. This is what I believe. And I said, can I still send you stuff? She goes, yeah, but I'm convinced. And I'm thinking, oh, yeah, a lot of good Nancy's counsel did.

A lot of good it did. Seek God, and here's where we end up. Months go by. And I get another call from her. And she says, no more questions. She said, it's all clear. She said, I believe Yeshua is the Messiah.

I know it. I profess faith publicly. I'm following him. So I was thrilled, rejoicing with her. So we're talking at some length. I said, hey, we had a lot of conversations. I sent you a lot of material.

I mean, hours and hours and hours trying to help her. I said, was there any one thing I said to you that was key? Any one argument. Any one thing I presented from the scriptures. Any one brilliant thing I had to say.

She said, yeah, just those two words that I needed to seek God. That was everything. That was everything. She's been a missionary in Nigeria working with the poorest of the poor. I mean, you talk about a courageous hero.

For years, I mean, not far from Boko Haram, she'll email and say, hey, pray, one of our coworkers was just kidnapped and they're demanding ransom, et cetera. And then a few days later, she goes, praise God, he's back, he's only missing a couple of fingers and only a gash in his head.

Praise God, he's okay. This is the world she lives in. Send regular emails, pray, they're kidnapping a lot of kids now, and then they kill them and they use body parts for the witch doctors, for special spells, I mean, it's a really rough world she lives in, and she's living for those people.

When persecution got really bad, they were afraid having an American there would be dangerous, they sent her out, then she couldn't get back in from COVID. She goes, I will never do that again. This is my home.

I mean, she is a solid, committed believer, but all my arguments, and they can't help. We've helped a lot of people with them. And we've helped a lot of people with their questions, but the bottom line was, seek God.

Changing Daily Habits to Pursue God

Seek God. Listen, friends, more of the same will only produce more of the same. Please hear me. We've gotta be realistic. I am a supreme optimist. I live every day of my life with the attitude today is good, tomorrow's gonna be better.

That's just the way I live, that's just the way I think. But in reality, unless I make changes in my daily habits, nothing will change. If you want to move from where you are spiritually, if you want to have a breakthrough, if you want to take hold of God in a deeper way, then you must do things differently.

You must make a determination. It's all through scripture. It's a relationship. We don't earn it. Jesus freely purchased our salvation and gives us all things by his grace, but it is a relationship, it is a partnership, it is a co-working.

And if we want to break through to a deeper place, something must change. It's that simple. There must be this fresh determination. Okay, I'm gonna go after God in a way I haven't before. You say, yeah, I've started before, and then I flake out.

Well, then get up and do it again. I remember teaching in a Bible school on Long Island in the 80s, and there was a gal, young gal, maybe 18, 19 years old, and she said she was gonna be fasting for X number of days.

And then she came in one day, and she said, I blew it, I had a meal, broke the fast. And she goes, well, I'm gonna just restart now. And I thought, I never do that. So I break a fast, I break it, I blow it, and that's that.

Like, never dawned on me, well, restart. That's what somebody, okay, every day you fall flat on your face, then restart. And soon enough, the determination that I have to break through, the determination that I have to seek God more earnestly, the determination that I have to set aside other things that are wasting my time, and earnestly seek God, that determination will prevail.

The hunger and desire of your heart will drive you. When we lived in Pensacola, the intensity of schedule could be 80 to 100 hours a week of ministry-related activity. And then sometimes not eating much until late in the day, and then eating very late at night, and then eating unhealthy meals.

And I'd been a lifelong chocoholic. So I started putting some weight on. Nancy came up to me one day, and she said, you know, it looks like you put a little weight on. And I said, no, you're absolutely right, I have.

I noticed as well, but I have a plan. She goes, oh, okay. Maybe six months later, she came to me again, she said, hon, I don't think you've lost any weight. I said, you're right, I checked it, you're absolutely right, but I have a plan.

Oh, okay. Six months, a year goes by, and she said, I think you've actually put on more weight. And I said, I have, but I have a plan. And she said, your plan is not working. That's the conclusion some of us need to come to.

My plan is not working, because I'm still where I don't want to be. What's gonna change that? Well, in my optimism, well, tomorrow will just change it. Tomorrow will be better. No, that's not how it works.

I mean, literally, I would eat and live the same way, and get on the scale the next day, and be stunned that I hadn't lost weight. That's how foolish blind optimism can be. And then finally, it was seven years ago this month.

My weight was much higher over those years, and I had high blood pressure at this point, and I was getting worn out, you know, heavy schedule still, and getting tired, worn out, not knowing how long I could keep up the pace I was running.

And it was August 23rd of 2014. I sat down with Nancy, and I used the code words. She knew exactly what it meant. I said, my plan is not working. And she knew. I was talking about a lifestyle change. And see, here is my problem.

My problem was that when it came to preaching the gospel, I was fearless. God knows I've risked my life preaching in certain settings. Literally, risked my life preaching in certain settings without second thoughts for the gospel, it's for Jesus.

But you present me broccoli or Brussels sprouts, man, I'd rather die for the gospel. I mean, I was a complete wimp when it came to foods. Complete wimp when it came to healthy eating. I remember I tried to eat Brussels sprouts once and almost choked on them.

And I would pray, God, give me the same desire for broccoli that I have for peanut M &Ms. And I would wait for it to happen, and nothing happened. It probably would have helped if I ate broccoli, but I just, I was waiting for something to happen.

And plus, I'm on the road all the time, and how can you, I was about to be overseas in this country, this country, and you're traveling 40 hours, and I had all the excuses. I had great excuses. In fact, I remember one day working out, because I still worked out, and there was a friend that was a trainer and said, hey, I got an hour free.

This slot, if some of you guys wanna work out together, you know, I'll train you. So we're doing these intensive workouts, and he said, hey, look, you know, 90%, it's the kitchen, it's what you eat. So I gave him all the reasons why I really couldn't eat certain things, or certain healthy, and I explained to him, these are great excuses.

Travel schedule, and various, just different things. Made perfect sense, it was great. The next time we work out, one of our grads is in there, and he proceeds to explain why he can't eat more healthily.

The busyness of life, and I thought, those are the wimpiest, weakest excuses I've ever heard in my life. At that moment, it's like, oh, how about your great excuses? But I got to that point where I knew, okay, I'm getting older, I'm getting heavier, I have high blood pressure, that's dangerous, called a silent killer, you don't play with that.

I'm getting worn out. This is not heading in the right direction. Something radical needs to happen. And I told Nancy, my plan is not working. And she said, okay, nothing passes through your lips without my approval.

You only eat what I give you. And started next day, August 24th of 2014. And listen, you can read the story in our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. I don't tell it specifically because I, well, it's always relevant, because food's tough, we struggle, right?

It's the world we live in. But Breaking the Stronghold of Food, we tell the whole story. But the short version, I went through three miserable days of withdrawal. You have to understand, I used to shoot heroin before I was saved.

I was addicted to the needle. It was far more difficult to give up chocolate than to give up heroin. I remember on the third night, it was miserable, on the third night, crying out in prayer. I said, God, Jesus, you were so real to me when I got saved, and so all I cared about was you, I didn't care about the drugs or anything.

I remember saying these words, surely the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than the power of glazed chocolate Dunkin' Donuts. Gotta be a victory here somehow. Resurrection of Jesus triumphs over peanut M &Ms, and it has to be.

Three days, and then that broke, and I had to renew my mind, because food was my reward. Food was the built-in reward. With ministry, the pressure of life, and hey, that you can have, you have that outlet.

So I had to renew my mind that food was the fuel for healthy life. And I went, in eight months, just eating super healthily, I went from 275 pounds to 180 pounds, and everything shifted dramatically. I mean, dramatically.

Blood pressure went from high to perfect, and cholesterol went from bad to wonderful. I mean, I used to have several headaches a week, basically seven years now without a headache. Used to have constant lower back pain, seven years, that's gone, just one thing after another.

My energy level, off the charts, you know, 66 now. My workout partner is a WWE superstar wrestler, professional wrestler, we work out together. I crush him, no, that's another story. We did a video, it's on our website, you can search for it, just type in wrestler.

We did a little workout video where he ends up chokeslamming me, but it's, anyway, you have to see it for yourself. The point is, listen, the point is, I had to get to that place of recognizing my plan was not working.

Persistent Prayer and Hunger Prepare the Way for Revival

There's no miracle rain that falls one day and everything changes, or one day you're in revival, or one day thousands of people are getting saved, or one day you're experiencing the power of God and it stays like that for years.

Something happens to precipitate that. Something happens to prepare the way for that. Something happens that the hunger, the desire, the desperation is such that it prepares the way for the coming of God.

And we begin to seek him earnestly. Suddenly, what seemed like everything fine in life, everything okay, and we wake up in the morning, it's like, there's gotta be more. You go to sleep at night, there's gotta be more.

You say, look, man, I don't have 10 hours a day to pray. I don't have unlimited time to just read the Bible. That'd be wonderful if I did. Hey, do you have time to worry? It's a question. Over the course of the day, if you're worried about something, do you have time to worry?

Or if you're sad, you're mourning, you've lost a friend, or there's someone really close to you that's hanging between life and death and ICU, you carry that all the time, don't you? Hey, the same way, there can be a constant prayer that goes up in your heart all through the day.

You can be driving to work in your car weeping. You can be sitting there doing what you do. You can be home changing diapers, but inside, God, that cry is rising. And then that'll drive you to turn off the things that are non-essential.