Have Faith in God — Carter Conlon

Praise God. Thank you, Lord. This is the first time I've had an opportunity to attend the Tuesday night. I missed last Tuesday because I was in Colorado at a pastor's conference, but what a sweet presence of the Lord.

We were pastors. We were here at 5 .30 on the platform, 5 .30-ish, and we read scripture together. We sang without music, and we sang with music. We prayed, and by the time 10 to 7 came around, I had already had church.

I was ready to get up and dance in the presence of God. And so those who are able on Tuesday evening to come in, the doors do open at 5 o 'clock, as they always have. I do apologize for that. It was my fault last week that they opened at 5 .30 by mistake, but 5 o 'clock is when we open the doors to the church, and at 5 .30, usually the pastors will be, or some of us will be here on the platform.

It is an opportunity to come in and to prepare our hearts, to pray, to read scripture, to just trust, just to be brought into a place where we're able to trust God and believe Him for what we need in each of our lives.

I do hope some of you have your prayer cards tonight with you. Thank God. There's 10 ,000 of these things went out from here, so somebody must have one tonight for sure. And there's more being printed.

If they're not here yet, they will be shortly, but the prayer cards that Pastor Patrick's been talking to you about. And these are not cards for you and I to go to somebody and fill in ourselves. These are not the generic prayer requests.

This is a prayer card that we're asking you to give to a person. And what it does is it makes everyone in this church an evangelist, to go to your neighbor, to go to somebody in your workplace and say, I'm going to a prayer meeting on Tuesday night.

Would you like me to pray for you? Is there anything I can pray for? And on the back of the card, there are some boxes that people can check off and others might decide just to write things in. If they can't write, you can write for them, but it's a person to person prayer request.

And you bring it here on Tuesday night, a little later in the service, we'll be asking those who have a prayer request to stand and hold it up in the air. And then those who don't, please gather around.

Then you have an opportunity to tell the people who that is. Now you don't necessarily use name and address, but say, this is a friend of mine called John and John's suffering with depression, or he's got a child on drugs or whatever the situation is, or an Alice, a coworker who's afraid to lose her job or suffering with some kind of a condition.

And it's real people we're going to pray for. And then you hang on to that card until God answers that prayer and stay in touch with that person and say, I'm still praying for you. How's it going with your child?

How's it going with that situation? I'm still praying for you. And when the Lord answers that prayer, attach a little recipe card or something to it. Tell us how that was answered and when, and there is a box I understand in the lobby that you can put that in when you come in.

And we will have a chance to look at that. And if it's an opportunity for you to share or for us to share it from the pulpit, we will. But this is a generation where I believe that God wants to answer prayer in a way perhaps that we've not seen in our time.

Having Faith in God Through Answered Prayer

And I thank God for that. That's why I'm here to talk to you tonight about having faith in God. Have faith in God. We're not talking about genetic prayer that goes nowhere. I honestly believe that God's going to answer my prayer.

He has over the years, and I see no reason to stop now. He set me free from my first prayer that I prayed. I was walking the beat as a police officer, and I prayed this kind of a prayer. I said, Lord, God, if you're really out there and you're not some kind of an intangible, unreachable thing, religious thing that people do, I wouldn't mind knowing who you are.

Now, not much of a prayer. It wouldn't make it to Hebrews 11, hall of faith, but God answered it. How do you think a Christian police officer ends up at my door? Not that I was troubled in my home or anything.

It was just because I had filled a cart out in a church. How does that happen? Him not knowing that I was a cop and sitting and listening and reading the gospel of John myself, and then pulling over in the side of the road on the way to work one day and praying, Lord, if this is true, if what my friend has told me is the truth, if, you know, there was an if in my prayer, but it was sincere.

It was an honest prayer. God heard it, and he answered me. As I shared often in this church, I went to work. I prayed, if it's true, I open my heart, and I invite you into my life to be my Lord and Savior.

In other words, if it is true, then please come and save me and live inside of me, and I didn't feel any different that night. I worked my whole shift. I went home, didn't feel any different, but I'm telling you, the next morning, as God is alive today, I woke up, and when my feet touched the floor, I knew something had happened to me.

I was a changed man inside. Now, the change is not overnight. For anybody who comes to Christ, the old things are passed away, but not in a day. It's like a tree, in a sense. It's bearing rotten fruit.

The roots are cut by this incredible hatchet of God that comes down, and yet it's still on the tree, and it takes a while for it to fall off, but it is killed. The life source of it is gone, and line by line, step by step, little by little, I kept praying, and God kept answering.

Transformation Through Scripture and Persistent Prayer

I prayed. I remember the first time I ever read in Ephesians 5, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. The first time I read it, I said, oh, right. Oh, yeah, right. Love your wives as Christ loves the church.

How in the world am I supposed to do that? I felt the Lord say, it's not in the world. You won't find it in the world, but I will show you how much I love you, and I will tenderize your heart, and then I will give you the desire, because I'll create it in you, to be a different kind of a man than the man that you are right now.

I was selfish. I was not very charitable in my marriage, and I believe that my wife could testify that God has changed me and made me a fairly reasonable husband, at least, anyway, and I remember praying, God, you got to help me to be a father.

I wasn't raised in a home where there was lots of affection. The first time I ever heard anybody tell me they loved me was my father, shortly before I led him to Christ, in the last days of his life, and so I'd never heard those words.

I didn't grow up with them, and I remember laying in my bed one day at home, and I was crying, and my wife said, why are you crying? And I said, well, I'm reading about the love of God, but I don't have a clue what that feels like.

I don't know how to receive it, and I don't know how to give it, and to me, it's like a foreign word. I don't get it. I was hard, folks. I was hard. You know, they talk about police officers that a lot of police officers drink and do drugs and deal with anger and such like a depression because of the things that we see.

I saw a lot of death, and I have to be honest with you, nothing except children that would suffer or die. Nothing really bothered me. I could see death all over the place and eat my lunch. I was stone cold inside, but I started reading in the Bible about love, and so I did really what I knew to do.

I asked God to help me, and help me, Jesus, has been one of my best prayers I've prayed all my life. Jesus, help me, actually, and I say it a lot of different ways. Sometimes it's Jesus, help me, or Jesus, help me, or Jesus, help me, but I used to go jogging.

I used to love to jog a couple miles every day, and the whole time, I'd just be praying, Jesus, help me, Jesus, help me, Jesus, please help me, help me, Jesus, and because it was so impossible to get through some of the things I had to face and to find out that that prayer was received by Him because somehow in my heart, I believed He would answer me, and He did answer me, and line by line, and little by little, and step by step, and journey by journey, it's been a miraculous journey.

It's been an incredible journey, and it brings me back to this scripture in Mark chapter 11. Please, if you have your Bibles, I want to read it to you. Mark chapter 11 from verses 20 to 24, simply called, Have Faith in God.

Jesus' Teaching on Faith and Prayer

Lord, thank you for this time of sharing. Thank you. I'm believing for the miraculous. Lord, I'm believing for the miraculous in my life, in the lives of my brothers and sisters. I'm believing for the miraculous in New York City.

You are the same God that helped me, and when I ask you, Lord, you will help others. The doors you open for me, you will open for others, and I happen to believe that all things are possible with God.

I trust you, Lord Jesus Christ. You wouldn't burden me to pray and then not answer. Lord, you will answer. It's on your heart. I see it in the scriptures clearly, and I ask you to give me the wisdom to speak this in truth, and I ask it in Jesus' name.

Have faith in God. Verse 20, and in the morning as they passed by, of Mark chapter 11, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots, and Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away.

And Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God, for verily or truly I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says.

Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. Now we have to counterbalance as it is this portion of scripture with that from James that says if you ask for something to consume it on your own lust, you'll not receive it.

The reason we ask is that the kingdom of God be advanced, the people's lives be touched, and the name of Jesus be glorified in the earth. That is the prime reason for you and I asking for anything from God to be done in our lives.

The Fruitless Fig Tree and Religious Emptiness

Now the scripture tells us that Jesus went into Jerusalem, he surveyed the temple, and when he saw what was in the temple he just he left and went back to where he was staying outside the city in Bethany.

And the following morning he came back into the city, and in between where he was and the temple of God was, was this fig tree. And this fig tree gave an appearance as it is of that which satisfies. But when you got close to it, you realize that there's no fruit on it.

And suddenly Jesus speaks and curses that fig tree and says, no man eat of you from this. In other words, you will no longer deceive the sincere person who's coming from wherever they're coming from and heading into the temple of God.

You are a false tree, and it's a type I believe of that which happened in the garden of Eden. There was a real tree of life, but there was a false tree of life that was presented to Adam and Eve and to the human race through Satan himself.

In other words, he presented another tree. There was only one tree that promised life, but Satan promised another tree. And the other tree is simply an illusion of life. And it's a tree that stands between everything that God is and all that God has for his people.

It's a tree that is sort of where God is. It's partway between Bethany, where Jesus is coming from, and the temple where God is. And where we know from the Old Testament that God always desired to answer prayer, that his name might be brought to glory.

People were to come into that temple weak and be made strong, confused and be given clear thinking, overpowered and be given the power to overcome their enemies. You look at it all through the testimony that was given by God in the day that Solomon built the temple.

Now that temple has become more or less a prayerless place, which really angered the heart of the Son of God. And in between the temple and people moving to the temple is a false tree. And many of us bit into that tree and ate of that fruit from the moment we were born.

That nature was in us. It offered us a fruitless version of life. Now how many here tonight can say, I bought into a fruitless version of life. I embraced a tree that I met somewhere between where I am and the house of God that offered me happiness, that offered me life, and I partook of it.

I thought that this relationship was going to make me have this career, this destination for my life that I conjured up in my own heart. I believed that this was going to take me into everything that my life had been destined to be, only to find out that it is fruitless.

And not only is it fruitless as far as giving me the life that I felt that God promised me or that I felt my life should be, but it became a mountain in my life. Like Paul said, one of the psalmists said in Psalm 38, I'm groaning literally all day.

But this is what he said, I go around groaning because inside of me is a loathsome disease that I don't know how to get. It found a root in me and it grew inside of me and it seems to be encompassing my whole inner being.

And I don't know how to get free from this. Paul said in Romans 7, I know what to do with my mind, but my body is now, there's a mountain on me or in me. It seems to have grown inside of me to the point where I know what to do, but I can't find the strength to do it.

And if I set out to try to do it, I have embraced something. I let something come to life inside of me that seems to have a greater power than even my will to do good or to do right. And then he says these incredible words, who will deliver me from this body of death?

I've allowed this sin in me to become a mountain. And in the morning, as they're coming back the following day, Peter saw the tree that Jesus cursed. It was dried up from the roots, not the top down, but the bottom up actually.

Its very life source died first and it was dead. And do you know that when you came to Christ, if you are a sincere believer, your old nature received a death sentence from the roots up. No matter what you embraced, what you did, what kind of oppression you allowed into your life or what kind of a person you became, no matter who tries to tell you it will never change.

You bit into it and too bad for you, that's the way it is and that's the way it's going to be. But Jesus cursed that thing and the roots of it died first. In other words, it had no more life source. And Peter saw it and said, Lord, that fig tree that you cursed has dried up from the roots all the way up.

And he was astonished at it. When Jesus stood in the temple in Luke chapter 4 verse 18, he made a bold declaration. He said, I've come. I've come to open prison doors you can't open and heal wounds in your heart that you can't heal and release you from captivity that you can't get out of and open to you a treasure of real life that is outside of your present reach.

I've come to give you spiritual sight and show you where life is and where power is and what you were created and born to be. That's why he said, I came to give sight to the blind. Peter said, look at that tree, that one tree.

Faith in God for Deliverance and New Creation

And Jesus says, these words have faith in God. For truly, I tell you that whoever says to this mountain, be thou removed. This mountain, not just the tree, not just your sin nature, not just wrong choices and wrong decisions and wrong pursuits and wrong thinking, but the whole mountain that produced inside of you, the soil that's given life to all these practices that look like they had so much promise, but all they are doing is ruining your life.

He said, have faith in God, not just the tree, the roots, but the whole mountain. The whole nature of man is changed by the presence of God. Your whole being, your whole inability to walk, to see, to think, to talk, to do.

Everything the devil made you is canceled at Calvary. How do I change? You say, how do I become the, I see this stuff in scripture. If anyone being Christ is a new creation, all things pass away. How?

I had young ministers one time in Texas. I just finished a conference and they met me in the hall and they were all excited. And they said, pastor, how do we get from where we are to where you are? We, we, we hear something, we see something it's, it's admirable.

It's attractive. And you seem to really have enjoyed this life. How do we get from where we are? And I think they were expecting to me to say, well, you know, turn on the PowerPoints, please, if you will, on the screen.

No, you know what I told them? Ask. That's what I did. Ask, ask, ask in faith, ask, believing, ask, ask as if you're standing before the cross and realize that that blood didn't drip into the ground for no reason.

The life of the son of God wasn't given just for some display that we could talk about from now until he returns for us. Oh no. The curse of sin was broken. The power of death was broken. The penalty of hell was broken.

The victimization of the human race was canceled and God came to dwell inside these earthen temples. Have faith in God. Have faith. That's all that's ever been missing in any generation is faith. Have faith in God.

Faith in God that when I stand in my prayer closet and I don't know how to get out and I don't know how to change, and I don't know in my own strength where the victory is going to come from. So I take off this old garment and throw it away and say, I have faith in God.

I have faith in the Christ who went to a cross for me and rose from the dead. I have faith in the word of God that tells me that if Christ is in me, the same spirit that raised him from the dead will quicken my mortal body.

If you don't doubt in your heart, it's funny, I don't think I'm a man of astounding faith. I don't know. It's just that I've always believed him. I just, I was perhaps spared being ruined by theologians.

I just believed him. I was just so far behind. I had no other choice, but believe him. When he whispered into my heart, I didn't see it as impossible, but I embraced it. I said, God, one more time, if, if this is your voice, I embrace it.

Lord, take me. And the only thing I ask is, is that your name be glorified and that people be saved. If he shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things, which he says should come to pass, which he says, which he says, not what somebody else says, praying for me, but with, that's why I said tonight, open your mouth.

If you're being prayed for and start to believe God, because either we do believe that we're free or we don't. I was talking to a man who was struggling just this week. And, and he said to me, well, what's the more or less the bottom line of my condition?

I said, well, here it is. The cage is already open, but you've chosen to stay in it. But the door is open. And if you choose to, you can walk out. He says, you know, I think you're right. Amazing. What things, whoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them.

Faith-Filled Prayer and the Communion Table

I am not interested in a prayer meeting on Tuesday night in this church, where we just come and shout into this cosmos. I'm interested in a meeting of faith. And I believe in a meeting of faith. Ministries will be born.

People will be set free. A testimony will be raised. I believe that people here tonight who are not sharing Christ, you'll suddenly, you'll have no choice. You'll have, you'll have to speak. People will be asking you, what happened to you?

You seem so different and it's, it's not going to be difficult to share. You're going to have something to bring to this generation. Now we're going to come to the communion table tonight. And as we do, and as you receive the juice and the bread, which represents the total, the total forgiveness that is in Christ and the promise of new life.

When these things touch your lips, I challenge you tonight to believe God. And to say, I am not stopping at a tree and I'm not going to stop at a place of vain and empty religious significance. Jesus died for the penalty of my sin.

And he gave me these promises. The juice represents his death and the bread represents his, his life, his promises. And I'm not stopping short of Jerusalem. I'm not stopping and partaking of a fruitless tree.

I'm not living in delusion when God has a life for me. And I'm going to lay hold of that life by the grace of God. I'm going to walk in that life, have faith in God. When that juice touches your lips, receive your cleansing, get out of the cage of condemnation.

There is no condemnation to those who belong to Christ. When that bread touches your lips, say, God, if you provided this for me, then I'm not, I'm not settling for anything else, but the life that you have for me.

I'm not stopping short of a place where I can go. I'm just going to brush aside this fruitless tree and I'm going into the temple because you said in that place, your eyes would be open and your ears would be listening for my prayer.

And you said you were going to deliver me, empower me. You're going to heal me. You're going to change me. You're going to use my life for your glory. So that's where I'm going. I'm not stopping short of what God has for my life.

Hallelujah. I don't know about you, but I say enough of powerless religion in our generation, enough of endless theories about God with no power, enough of this stuff, enough of the three rhyming words in church every Sunday and two hymns and, and the rest of this fruitless tree that's producing no life in our generation.

I say enough of it. Time to go into the house of God and say, Lord, here I am. And I'm asking you to take me and just do something that will bring glory to your name in this generation. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Communion, Promise, and the Outpouring of the Spirit

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Now, father, I thank you that as we come to this table, Lord God, it's you that's stirring us to believe not us. It's you Holy spirit that's doing this. And father, I believe with all my heart that you will do something that will astound this city and even beyond.

And I believe that you'll do it for your namesake, not for ours, but for yours. And Oh God, I look forward to the day when we can dance on Broadway and clap our hands and say, only God could have done this.

Only God could have done this. I thank you for it in Jesus name. Now, if you could hold on to the bread and the juice till everybody receives, we'll partake together. And Jesus answering said unto them, have faith in God for verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says are come to pass.

He shall have whatsoever he says, Lord, we thank you for your promises. This bread represents our hope to glorify your life in us on this earth. We receive this bread as we receive the promises of God.

And as we eat this bread and it finds a lodging place in our inner parts, we ask you for the grace to eat your word and believe and let your promises find root inside of us. And Lord, we thank you for this in Jesus name.

Amen. Therefore, I say unto you what things, whoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. Lord, your blood broke the curse. Every drop on the ground must have been like a thunder in hell.

You broke the curse. You broke the power. You broke the evil that Satan had sown into the human race. And you curse the whole mountain and all the fruit that he had borne into those created in the image of God.

And we were born again by the spirit of God. We rejoice Lord in the newness of our life. And all we ask is that you save the best wine for the last. We ask Lord that this last day church would bring glory to your name like none other in history.

We ask Lord that you give us an even greater anointing than the church in the book of Acts chapter two. We ask for an outpouring of your Holy Spirit because this is an evil generation. As much as our society has been baptized in filth, we ask you to baptize us a hundred fold in the Holy Spirit.

Give us boldness and vision and strength that can only come from what you bought for us with your blood. Ask for my own life Lord that you help me not to fall short of what you've called me to be and to do.

Lord Jesus Christ I want to put my feet in my bed on my last day and give a shout from my gut that will be heard in heaven. And Father I thank you for this. I thank you you will not forsake those who trust in you.

In Jesus name. Amen. Hallelujah. Folks because we believe he is.

Stronger. Because we believe that the curse of sin is broken and every power of the enemy is is broken. We're going to pray tonight for those uh who have uh who have brought in cards. We're going to pray for the people that are on the cards.

Corporate Prayer for Personal Needs

And so if you have a card tonight I want you to raise that card up tonight. If you have a prayer card tonight here on the main floor up in the balcony in the choir loft. Those who have cards tonight lift them up real high so those so everyone around you can see those cards tonight.

And uh and I want you to share what that particular need is. I've got a young woman I'm praying for and a man uh these folks are this guy he came to fix my boiler this past week. And uh and he came to fix my boiler last year.

And to service my boiler last year. And I offered to pray for him last year and he was so shocked. And so uh I told him I would pray and I prayed for his son. Prayed for his son for a year that God would bless his son.

And this time I asked him if I could pray for something. And he told me his wife uh his wife's health. She has MS. And uh he wanted me to pray for his wife his girlfriend. God would touch her. And he was amazed that I remembered.

And so tonight I want you to share the name of the person you're praying for with the group around you. And then uh and then you're those who don't have prayer cards. Um I want you to notice those who do.

And I want you to gather around those who do. So those who have prayer cards would you raise them up real high. So everyone around you can see them. And I want everybody to stand tonight. Would everyone stand please in the house.

And gather around those who have prayer cards. Those who don't. And they're gonna share the name of the person. And what to pray for. And then you're gonna all go to prayer on behalf of that particular need tonight.

Let's go ahead and do that. Praise God. Once you know what the name is and the need is go to prayer and begin to storm heaven on behalf of these needs tonight. You can pray when you're ready. Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah.

Oh we bless you tonight. We praise you tonight. We call on your name. We magnify your name God. Lord we exalt your name over every circumstance of every difficulty. Over every life that we've prayed for tonight.

Because we believe that Lord you are still the same yesterday, today, and forever. We thank you God that you are on the throne. Lord that every demon, every devil, Lord every sickness, Lord every captivity, every lie of the enemy, every stronghold has to give way to the name of Jesus.

As we've sung tonight you are stronger. Sin is broken. God your kingdom is exalted. God we thank you Lord for what you're going to do. We look forward to the praise reports. God we look forward to what you're going to do in the name of Jesus.

We thank you that you're going to glorify your name. Lord by answering every one of our prayers tonight. Lord and opening a door for us to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our neighbors. God we thank you Lord and we look expectantly.

Lord we're going to continue to storm heaven. Lord we're going to continue to storm heaven. Lord and believe you for the miraculous God. Lord for the kingdom of God suffereth violence and the violent taken by force.

God we thank you. Hallelujah. We thank you Lord. We thank you Lord. You've got an army marching to the land. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We thank you that everything, Lord all of heaven's resources, that the anointing, Lord that answer prayer is ours.

We thank you that we will receive. We will find. Lord every door will be open for you said he who asks will receive. He who knocks the door will be open. He who seeks will find. God we thank you that you're going to give us bread at midnight for our neighbor.

You're giving us bread. You're going to give us bread. A word in season. A word in season. A word in season. For our neighbors. God we glorify and we honor you tonight. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on give them a shout of praise tonight.

Calling the Congregation to Believe for Miracles

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord you've opened the door. You've opened the door. We're going to continue to walk through it oh God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You said believing.

Asking believing. Believing. Hallelujah. And you shall have the petition that you ask of me. We believe. We walk through the door believing. We're looking forward to you Lord. Answering prayer is for your name's sake.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Now the choir is going to minister a song but if you're here tonight and you need a miracle. You need a miracle whether you're up in the balcony here on the main floor in the annex.

I want to invite you to get out of your seat and come to the front tonight and we're going to believe God for the miraculous in your life wherever you are whatever the situation tonight. We've heard the word.

Have faith in God. Trust God. We're going to trust him tonight. We're going to rely on him. We're going to cling to him tonight and believe God to work a miracle in our lives. Step out of your seat. Come to this altar tonight.

We're going to believe God as the choir ministers. What I'd like you to do tonight is for everybody who's not at.

This altar especially. This is a mountain. This is a mountain. This is the fruit of what Satan has tried to do to even children of God in this generation but he gave us a word tonight that we can say to this mountain.

Be removed. The life source. The mountain is the life source. The mountain is deeper than the roots. The mountain is what feeds this and we can say to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea of despair of suicidal thoughts of depression of habit of self-worthlessness whatever it is.

The devil got in the name of Jesus Christ the son of God we speak to this mountain and we tell you to be removed and be cast into the sea. Now folks begin to pray. Pray for those who are here. Those are at the altar begin to pray.

Enough of this. We have freedom in Christ. We have a new life in Christ. Let's begin to pray and let's trust God for freedom.

Speaking to Mountains Through the Promises of God

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh Jesus we believe you tonight. We put all of our faith in you oh God. We know that you are a covenant God.

A God who can be trusted tonight. We put our faith in you oh Jesus. Lord we speak to this mountain and we say be henceforth removed and cast into the sea. Lord we speak to this mountain according to your own word.

Lord you said if we have faith in you we can speak to every mountain. We can speak to every difficulty. We can speak to every hardship. We can speak to every challenge. We can speak to every kind of mockery that would speak against the name of Jesus.