Book of Genesis - Ch. 25, Vs. 1-34 (12/17/2000)

Park Meadows Church

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All right, we're going to get back to our book of Genesis. Chapter 25.

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Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. This was after Sarah had died.

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And Shabarion, Zimran, Jokan, Shan, Medan, Median, Ishbok, Ishmael.

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That's not right. Yeshua. Where did I get Ishmael? I'm not going to pronounce all of those names.

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But we go through all of them down to verse 5.

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And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. This is talking about his real estate, his unreal estate, everything.

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Isaac typified the Son of God, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.

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But unto the sons of the concubines which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived eastward into the east country.

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Abraham knows that there will be confusion, argument, lots of things come up, so he disperses his property while he's yet alive.

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And these are the days of the years of Abraham, which he lived, and a hundred and three score and fifteen years is how long?

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A hundred and seventy -five years. Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of his years and was gathered to his people.

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That's all it says. Abraham died. After all that God had made of him, he says he died.

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Well, he disperses his property while he's yet alive. It would not have been done or not done so well if he had waited.

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In many cases it's wisdom for men to make their own hands, their own executors, and what they find to do, to do while they are yet alive.

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I think this is a good idea. And the sons of Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Mephilah in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar, the

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Hittite, which is before Mamre. He is buried in the same place that his wife

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Sarah. And the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth, there was

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Abraham buried and Sarah his wife. It came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed the sons of Isaac, and Isaac dwelled by the well of Lehorah.

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Now these are the generations of Ishmael, and we go all through the linealogy of Ishmael, and we come down to verse 17.

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And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred thirty and seven years, and he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered unto his people.

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He lived a full life, and he died. No more is said about him than about Abraham.

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There's lots of references to Abraham throughout the Bible. And they dwelt from Mephilah unto

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Shur, that is, before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria.

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And he died in the presence of all of his brethren. And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son,

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Isaac. And Abraham begat Isaac.

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Now we're starting on the lineage of Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took

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Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Paddanuram, the sister to Laban, the

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Syrian. They were not Jews. The Jewish race has grown into the

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Jewish nation, but the beginning of it was Syrian. And Isaac entreated the

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Lord for his wife, because she was barren. She could not bear a child.

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And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together.

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So when did the—well, it started with Ishmael and Isaac, but here we see the battle continuing even before they're born.

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And the children struggled together within her, and she said, If it be so, why am

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I thus? Then she went to inquire of the Lord. Evidently there had not been twins born in recent years, and she wondered why she's thus.

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And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of children.

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People shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other, and the eldest shall serve the younger.

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Now, I would have you notice, before they're born, that she's told who's going to serve who, and it's the younger that is going to serve.

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And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in the womb.

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One was stronger than the other, and the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment, and they called his name

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Esau. And after that came out his brother, and he took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was called

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Jacob. Isaac was three years old when she bared them.

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And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

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Let me get your input as to the character or description of these two men.

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That's good. Anybody want to add? If I had been choosing the boys,

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I would have chosen Esau. Jacob just wasn't desirable.

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He was using cunning. He was a trickster all of his life, until the

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Lord changes it, and that's pretty late in his life. And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

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And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved

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Jacob. Can you see any problem coming? We're told pretty well as to what it is.

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Isaac apparently didn't love him. He just reacted to the one that he was most comfortable with.

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Is that going to be fair? Yes. We do not have any record, but I would say that it is a fair assumption.

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Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved

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Jacob. We discover here two problems.

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The difference between the one seems stronger than the other.

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It was stronger for Isaac to love Jacob, stronger for Rebecca to love, did

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I say Jacob? Isaac to love Esau, and Rebecca to love

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Jacob. That can do nothing but create a problem. The other hunted, and the other one seems to hunt, and the other washes dishes.

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Well, anytime you find a young man washing dishes before he's married.

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Now, Jacob sawed pottage, and Esau came in from the field.

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Sawed means what? Boiled. He boiled pottage.

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Now, Esau came in from the field and he was faint. What was this pottage? It was beans.

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And anybody who doesn't like beans, there's something wrong with them. It was just a bowl of beans.

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They may have had something else in it, but basically it was beans. Esau said to Jacob, Feed me,

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I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called

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Edom. Now, he comes in from the field, Richard. He's hungry.

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He hasn't killed anything. And he says, give me a bowl of beans.

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Well, Jacob would have given him some. But Jacob saw an opportunity.

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He saw just how hungry Esau was. And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright.

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He didn't beat around the bush. He didn't sneak up on it. He just says, sell me your birthright and I'll give you a pot of beans.

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Well, Esau said, behold, I am at the point of death, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?

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If he saw the reason or all of the ramifications of the birthright, he considered it nothing.

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This has always been a little bit hard for me to understand. When the firstborn had, well it varied over the years, but double portion, and he got everything.

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But here he says, I'll trade it to you for a bowl of beans.

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Now, that could be nothing much lower than that.

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What do you think of that, Joy? He wanted it for money.

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Can you think of any other reason? Purge? Any other example?

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David? He couldn't see.

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He couldn't understand. Well, he sells the beans. Do you really believe he didn't sell the beans?

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He sold it for a bowl of beans. Do you really believe that he understood,

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Bill? He understood what he was getting, the bowl of beans.

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What he didn't understand was what he was getting out of it. He had no concept of what he was getting out of it.

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And he thought that was nothing except a title. And he didn't need a title because he was, after all, he was soft.

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He could do all things himself. Okay, Diane? I think he made light of that which he had, and figured,

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I'm hungry. He took that which he saw for that moment. But in him saying that, speaking those words, he in essence gave it up.

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Who said that? Okay. That's what

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I meant by made light of. We come in and we stand starving to death. And I'll give you this, the situation is.

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I think that he just made light of it. For those impossible, he didn't think he was going to hold it to him.

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In other words, he said that. It's impossible that he thought he would just make a conversation if he didn't really think he was giving the birthrights up.

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I think that's right. What did you call it back there? What's her name? Brenda.

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It's so far back there I can't see. What did you want to say? Me? Yes.

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All right, Russ? Dealing with a lot of actors, the people who have the talent are really mad at them.

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And their senses are beyond normal. And they're usually spoiled rotten little rats.

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And I think you can see the emotion. You see the emotion. I mean, I don't want to take the starving to death.

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We're talking about wheat, right? And he's basically going into a tantrum. And acting like a really spoiled child.

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Which, later on, he might take it for granted. Because he's in an emotion. All right, we have him coming out of the field.

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In fact, he was coming out of the field, proved that he wasn't about to die. Put up your hand.

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All right. That he knew that he was his father's favorite.

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And that his father would ultimately give the birthright. Pass it down. And that he could skip over this whole deal.

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Yes. So, we see lots of short -term reasons. And Esau said,

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Behold, I'm at the point to die. And what prophets shall this birthright do to me?

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And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he's swearing to him.

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And he sold him his birthright. Now, this was unknown to anybody.

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Except Esau and Isaac.

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Jacob. Birthright unto

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Jacob. He sold his birthright. All that went with it. Now, he did not consider all that went with it.

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Then Jacob gave Esau bread and potage of lentils. And he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way.

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It seems so insignificant. That Esau, I want to be sure

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I got the name right. Esau simply ate his beans and went on his way.

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He forgot about it. He knew that he was first born. He couldn't change that.

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He knew that his father didn't know anything about this agreement. He knew that his father would override it.

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He just knew. Thus, Esau despised his birthright.

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So, Esau sold his birthright. Little did he know what he was doing. But, in all of this, was

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God controlling? It seems a shame, and I don't understand it, how

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God can control a situation that seems, on the surface, to be wrong to us.

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It was wrong for Jacob to do what he did. Yet, God controlled it. It was wrong for Esau to do what he did.

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But, God controlled it. They didn't know that. How many things do we do without realizing

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God's controlling it? You'll have to raise your hand.

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All right. We all do it.

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There's a time coming when, well, now

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I look back, and I can see how God controlled everything.

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I can see it closer to the time that I do it.

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But, I wonder if we could see it ahead of time. There's nothing to prevent it, that God does control everything.

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I just wonder. Yet, we can all look back at a different time scale, a different way, a different...

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I've got to quit. I'm losing my concentration. Is there anything from anybody?

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Anything about the lesson you want to bring up? Yes. Yes.

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All right. We can see everything back. At least, I hope we can. We cannot see immediately in the future.

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We can see way out here in the future that he's going to control it all. But, immediately in the future, a day or two or a week in front of us, we can't see that.

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He realizes that his father is not going to give him that birthright. And then, later on, before his father dies, he is feeble and can't see.

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And so, he has to treat his father, whether he made the deal with his brother or not, he did not know, other than he saw selling the birthright.

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Yeah. So, the selling of the birthright really didn't have anything to do, except it made it legal.

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Russ? There's two different things in the birthright. The other is the blessing.

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And they're both huge inheritance. And while he sold the birthright, which meant he sold the right to be boss over the entire claim, he didn't sell the blessing.

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And they're two separate things, and they're two very powerful things. So, he thought he was still going to have the blessing, even though he sold the right to leadership.

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That's right. All right. The small area that he leaves for us is the area of faith.

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Yes. And so, without that area, we can't operate in faith and we can't live in God.

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And that's the area that we're reaching all the time. Yes. That's the greatest part of his blessing, the space.

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Yeah. Because it is true. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. That's true.

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He's made it so that we live by faith. We have to. Anything else?

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Let's stand and we'll be dismissed. Charlie, dismiss us, please.

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What you would want us to think about, Lord, we just pray, Lord, that you would grow each one of us to a point to where you can reveal more things to us,

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Lord, thereby we can be more of a tool for you through the week when we go out to minister to the world,

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Lord. We just pray, Lord, that you would continue to grow in your word.

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We just pray, Lord, for all those who want to see fit not to come learn your word,

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Lord, send us out there and get us ministered to, Lord, and we ask you in the precious name of Jesus Christ.