Spiritual Progress - Evangelism — Tim Conway

Evangelism and Spiritual Progress

So, I do want us this morning to give our attention to the topic of evangelism as we think about our Christian life and making more progress. Just think about reaching the lost for these next few minutes.

Let's pray. Father, I can remember and think about my own heart being stirred reading the biography of George Whitefield, imagining him preaching up and down this East Coast to great crowds and people converted.

Men and women filling the churches in those days. We look at New England and it seems to be a barren place. But Lord, if You but speak the Word, just as it is in the desert when the rains come, You send those rains and the flowers break forth.

You can cause life. And we ask You, Lord, please, life, spiritual life, conversions. Lord, we pray that this land may live again. That the churches may be filled again. That they may be praising the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ again.

Again, we ask You to have mercy upon our land. But I pray, Father, that You'd have mercy upon Your people. May we once again have the fire, the zeal to take the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the dying and to the perishing.

Lord, I pray that in some way You would use the words that are about to be said to kindle a fire in my own heart. My brothers and sisters in this place, I ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Paul’s Servanthood and Winning Souls

Well, if you have your Bible, I think one of the classic texts on evangelism that we find in our Bibles is in 1 Corinthians 9. If you have your Bible, turn there. 1 Corinthians 9. 1 Corinthians 9 .19.

The Apostle Paul says this, for though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. He that winneth souls is wise. This is not carnal language to talk this way.

This is not Arminian language to talk this way. Winning souls. Don't ever let your understanding of the sovereignty of God remove that kind of verbiage from your language. We can win souls. Being soul winners.

Paul, he made himself a servant to all that he might win. Winning. Isn't that a strange word to apply to going after souls? It can become such common language maybe you don't even think about it. We talk about winning like a race.

Winning in sports. To win a soul over against what? What's the opposite of winning? If you don't win, you lose. We lose people. To the Jews, I became as a Jew in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law.

Though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I became as one outside the law, not being outside the law of God, but under the law of Christ. That I might win those outside the law.

To the weak, I became weak, that I might win the week. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. And I do it all for the sake of the Gospel. Last night, Brother Mack brought up C .T. Studd.

C. T. Studd’s Call to Reach the Lost

I remember several years ago, Andy Hamilton speaking about C .T. Studd. He said, and I saw this, I think Dan Sim loaned me C .T. Studd's biography back when Dan was still in the States. And Andy was referring to this, that in the front part of the book, you can find a picture of C .T. Studd with all of his athletic friends and his rich friends.

And you go to the end of the book and you find C .T. Studd sitting around his hut in Africa with all these converted pygmies. I don't remember. C .T. Studd, he had a way with words. I want to give you a quote.

He was strong. Sometimes caustic. Sometimes undoubtedly offensive. I think I chose some words that are strong. C .T. Studd said this, Christ's call is to feed the hungry, not the full. To save the lost, not the stiff-necked.

Not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance. Not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances.

But to raise living churches of souls among the destitute. To capture men from the devil's clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell. To enlist and train men and women for Jesus and make them into an almighty army of God.

But this can only be accomplished by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered, holy ghost religion where neither church nor state, neither man nor traditions are worshipped or preached, but only Christ and Him crucified.

He says this, nail the colors to the mast. That is the right thing to do, and therefore that is what we must do. And do it now. Now, what colors? The colors of Christ. The work He has given us to do, the evangelization of the unevangelized.

Christ wants not nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible by faith in the omnipotence, fidelity, and wisdom of the Almighty Savior who gave the command. Is there a wall in our path? By our God, we'll leap over it.

Are there lions and scorpions in our way? We will trample them under our feet. Does a mountain bar our progress? Saying, be thou removed and cast into the sea, we will march on. Soldiers of Jesus, never surrender.

Nail the colors to the mast. Our churches should be armies of evangelists, soul winners. But why does it tend not to be? I want to talk right here just by way of introduction to this message. What are some of the reasons that evangelism is not a priority in many churches today?

The Confrontational Cost of Evangelism

And I'm talking especially reformed churches. Especially churches that lift up books by Martin Lloyd-Jones. That lift up books by John G. Payton or about him. Why are some of the reasons? And I'm not saying that everybody here is un-evangelistic.

And I'm not saying that all of our churches are un-evangelistic. But I'm just saying that throughout those churches that would say they hold to this reformed faith or identify with Calvinistic doctrine, the truth is that many of the churches in the reformed movement are not very evangelistic.

And I just want us to consider some of the reasons why. Number one, evangelism. Think about it. If I said, okay, we're breaking up the service right now. We're all heading out this door. And we're going to evangelize.

How are we going to do it? We're going to stop people on the street out here and we're going to talk to them about the Lord. Immediately, some of you would feel traumatized by that reality. There is a confrontational sense to evangelism.

You have to break into people's private space. You have to confront people by a truth. But quite honestly, a lot of people don't want to hear. They find offensive. There tends to be persecution. People look at you.

People laugh at you. People will walk away from you. People will argue with you. There is a confrontational nature to evangelism. This man here who said that he uses all these means that he might save some, if you follow his path through the book of Acts, you'll find that they bounce stones off of his head.

Why? Because he went places proclaiming Christ. If you proclaim Christ, Jesus said this, they are going to hate you. If you're not of the world, if you're not one of their own, they're going to hate you.

And he said, they hated me and they're going to hate you too. And that makes evangelism right from the start somewhat intimidating to know. If you are a sheep, if you are a lamb, and you go out into the midst of wolves, you just take a lamb and you throw it in the midst of wolves, you know what happens.

There is something that to our carnal self and to our fleshly self, we recoil from that. Right? I mean, who likes to be like a lamb and just jump in the midst of wolves? You don't like that. That is not natural to like that.

And so there is that reality. We don't like to make others feel uncomfortable. But here's the problem. I mean, if you get a feeling for C .T. Studd, there is something to be accomplished. There is something the Lord wants us to do.

God is on our side. We can go do this. And in the face of these things, we need boldness. You know what courage is? Courage doesn't mean that you're never afraid, but it means you press on in the face of that fear.

We need courage, because God is on our side. And Jesus said this. We know this. Jesus said that whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

One of the things about living in 21st century America is that we have to admit it. We tend to be affluent, and that affluency makes us soft. And soft people don't endure hardship well. And the truth is, there are certain hardships.

Yes, there are times you can sit down with people. There are times I have sat down with my lost friends, my lost family members, my lost co-workers, or even people that door-to-door ministry or stopping somebody on the street, and they are not antagonistic.

They don't want to argue. They're very open, receptive, and even grateful and thankful. That happens sometimes. But there are other times it does not happen. There are times the door will be slammed in your face.

There are times there will be persecution. There are times, no, not in this country, they're not going to put us to death. But that softness in our life can make it difficult to put ourselves in difficult positions.

Inadequacy Does Not Excuse Silence

So that's one thing to think about. We don't like this confrontational nature of evangelism. A second thing we feel inadequate. That maybe is not a bad thing to feel, but it's not a reason not to go. It's not a reason to stay silent.

Inadequacy. You know, if ever there was a guy that was inadequate to speak the Gospel to people, I would say a guy that yesterday didn't have any clothes on, running around naked, out in the midst of the tombs.

If we brought a guy in here who yesterday was running around in the cemetery down the street with no clothes on, and he was able to break out of jail and bust handcuffs all the time, and he came in here today and he was wonderfully converted and sitting here clothed and in his right mind, you might say, well, you know, if ever there's anybody a novice who probably shouldn't be out there talking to people, it would be this guy.

And yet, it's exactly that kind of guy that Jesus said, no, you can't get in the boat with Me. You know what I want you to do? I want you to go back home and you tell those people what great things the Lord has done for you.

We ought not to feel that our inadequacy should keep us from doing it. Yes, there is an inadequacy. Paul himself said, the one who said that he used all these means to win some, he himself said, who is sufficient for these things?

This is a weighty thing. We're a fragrance of life to some, a fragrance to death to the others. But listen, yes, we feel inadequate. But inadequacy didn't keep Jesus from telling the converted demoniac to go back to his hometown and tell all the people.

Persevering When Results Are Delayed

Certainly, if the demoniac was charged by the Lord to do that, then every one of us should be in the same place to do the same. How about a third reason we're not more involved, more committed to this evangelistic endeavor?

We can get discouraged by an apparent lack of results. I was just talking to a couple of brothers last night. We're going to go down to New York later today. And I know there's a group of brethren down there.

They've been going at it. Trying to plant a church for four years. Perhaps there isn't much seeing of fruit. Let me tell you something, when our church started, we went 16 months. No additions to the church.

In fact, we had subtractions to the church. You know what happened when William Carey went over to India? He preached. And he preached. And he set forth the truth. And he began to acquire languages. And he set up some indigo... is that the right word?

He was trying to produce income so that the churches back in England didn't have to support him. And he sought to be self-supporting. And he was getting the Gospel out. And you know, it was seven years before he had one convert.

If you've ever read the biography, one man. I've been at that location there on the Brahmaputra of the Ganges River down there at Calcutta. I've been there at the place on the river where he baptized that guy.

Seven years. Seven years. I love... I preached right in front of that baptismal where Adeniram Judson was baptized. I think William Marshman baptized him there. Adeniram Judson. Six to seven years of laboring in Burma.

He left Calcutta. He went over to Burma. Providential events. He landed there. Years. You're in New England. It can feel like it's burnt over here. The Gospel was preached. But you remember this, there wasn't just a first great awakening.

There was a second great awakening. There were revivals in the 1850's. What am I saying here? There's a cycle. Just because the Gospel flourished here once and now it may not be, does not mean that it may not again.

And even if it doesn't again, you can look around the world and you can find local places where God moves. And you remember this, that when they walked in there to Samaria, and all those Samaritans were coming out, Jesus turned to His disciples and said, look, you're reaping a harvest right here where others labored.

It may be that in our day we labor. It may be in our day we lay out the Gospel seed. And it may be that in our lifetime, we don't see it bring forth a harvest, but it may in the next generation. We may take part.

There are those that sow. There are those that reap. Look, it's a big picture. It's a big package. But I can tell you this, that after 16 months, we began to see people added. And we began to see people converted.

In fact, when Charles Leiter came down, I remember him saying that speaking to people in our church, he said most of these people have been saved in the last three years. The Lord began bringing us a bunch.

I'm not saying it was all necessarily an outworking of our evangelism. It was just God was saving. I'll tell you quite honestly, Paul Washer's shocking youth message seemed to save so many people across this United States of ours and around the world that churches were springing up in different places.

And continued to through the Internet ministry. And you can say I'm not a Paul Washer. Well, no, neither am I. But that's okay. Neither was the demoniac. Well, I don't know. Maybe he was. But brethren, I know this.

Jesus said, I've got these sheep here, but I've got other sheep. And I need to bring them too. And you can be sure of this, God has an elect people. They're going to get saved. And I'll tell you how they get saved.

They get saved through the preaching of the Gospel. Jesus said He's bringing them in. He's going to gather them. You know, Isaiah came along. He says, who's believed our report? It's true, there are times we wonder, Lord, is anybody saved?

Is anybody getting saved? There can be dry periods. But you know, when Jesus wanted to give a lesson on evangelism, you know what He did? He said, hey guys, throw that net over the side of the boat. And Peter's like, Lord, we fished all night.

There was no catch. Lord, we're fishermen. We fished last night. That's when you fish. You're telling us to throw it out here? You're a carpenter? Anyway, they knew He was the Lord. They did it. And they pulled in such a catch.

And Jesus was not doing that simply to give them some extra cash in their pocket. He was doing that as a lesson. I am going to make you fishers of men. And the truth is that in the very place on the very Sea of Galilee where there was apparently little success, no success the night before, that day there was lots of success.

You know what we don't know? We don't know from one day to the next when God is going to break forth. And we know this, that the way He breaks forth is through the proclamation of the truth. You go back to the day of Pentecost.

3 ,000 people are saved. But you know what? If those disciples would have sat in the upper room, it wouldn't have happened. Why? Because God is a God of means. The women had to come down. The 120 needed to come down from the upper room and do what?

Right Doctrine Must Produce Evangelistic Mercy

Proclaim Christ. Proclaim His death and His resurrection. And through that, God brought in a great harvest. Or how about another reason? I'm afraid that this is a big one. We incorrectly assume that because we hold to the doctrines of grace, and because we can almost... maybe not almost, maybe over the top, we can pride ourselves.

Well, we hold to the doctrine of Spurgeon, Calvin, Luther, and sometimes we can think that because we have the right doctrine, that automatically guarantees success. But look, we need to have the right doctrine.

Undoubtedly, we need to have the right. You know what Scripture says. We're to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. We certainly don't want to depart. We don't want to go off into error.

We don't want to minimize the importance of having the truth. But this Gospel that we are perfecting, these doctrines of justification that we want to work out to perfection and sanctification and propitiation and regeneration, and we want to be able to articulate all the doctrines right.

Listen, if we just pride ourselves and carry around our big stack of books all the time, and we don't go out the door, I guarantee we will not see success. Our churches will end up dying. Now I know today, we can reach people other ways than by going on our feet out the door.

And of course, we can write books. And books can reach people. But you know what the reality is? The people that are over across the street in that bar right now, they are not going to grab C .T. Studd, Peyton, or Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

They're not going to come over here and buy the books off that table. Maybe on the internet. The internet is an incredibly useful tool. They search. They come across things. A lot of people were looking for what they didn't expect to find when they came across that shocking youth message on the internet.

Or they're looking for other things. Or they're feeling an emptiness in their soul. Or there's enough stuff on the internet about sexual immorality and the sin of it, and people stumble across that. But we don't want to assume.

Brethren, we don't want to assume. You know, we can get to the place where we're kind of like John and James. Lord, we saw somebody out there and they weren't one of us. They were casting out demons. We try to forbid them.

We don't want them doing that. They're not one of us. They're not in our inner circles. We don't want to think like that. You remember, it's not having the right books on your shelf that's the real issue.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the spiritual elites in His day, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Just remember that. We need the right doctrine, but if that right doctrine is separated from showing mercy, it's a mercy to take the Gospel out that door.

And He desires mercy. He went out that door. And you remember when He spoke that He was eating with the tax collectors and the sinners. He desires mercy. How about another reason that we're sometimes slow to take up the evangelistic endeavor?

Hyper-Calvinism and the Heart of Paul

Hyper-Calvinism. That's one of the dangers embracing the truths. You know, we can distort the truths of Scripture to where we come up with conclusions that we should never come up with. We can grab hold of the doctrine of election and end up where God never intended us to end up.

Listen, Romans 9. We often go to Romans 9. We say, see, God loves who He's going to love and He hates who He's going to hate. He has compassion upon whom He's going to have compassion. And He hardened Pharaoh.

He showed mercy to Moses. Isn't that what Scripture teaches? I trust. Do we not believe that God is altogether in control and sovereign? Do we not believe that? I hope you believe that. But do you know, in one of the most sovereignty-emphasized, sovereignty-rich portions of Scripture, have you ever really listened to the heart of Paul there?

He said, when it comes to my brethren according to the flesh, he said I could wish myself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren according to the flesh. When you get over to the beginning of chapter 10, he says my prayer for them is they'd be saved.

Did he look at the sovereignty of God and say, well, God's going to do what God's going to do, and you know, if these guys aren't elect, well, God's just going to damn them and so be it, and just cold and calloused and hyper-Calvinistic.

That's not what you find. You find his heart gushed for these. Did he recognize God was sovereign? He did. But his desire was, oh, that they might be saved. I pray that they might be saved. If I could be cut off from Christ for them, I would do that.

Christ’s Approachability Among Sinners

Before we preach the doctrines that Paul preached, it's important that we have the heart that Paul had. Another reason. Doesn't God say come out from among them? He does. He does, and the problem is that what can happen is we step back from the world, we homeschool our kids.

Everything's protected. We do our things in this sterilized Christian culture. We step back from the world. It says be separate from them, but you remember this, brothers and sisters, what did they accuse Jesus of being?

A friend of who? Tax collectors and sinners. Do you know, Luke 15, Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon called The Approachableness of Christ from Luke 15, verse 1. You know what it says there? It says that these tax collectors and these sinners were coming to Christ.

They found Christ approachable. And He was glad to be with them. You say, what would that be like to go to a party at Matthew's house with a bunch of sinners? Real red-blooded sinners? You think they might have slipped some of them and spoken profanity?

Probably. But I also think that being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, that had a profound impact on people. But He was there. He was there. Did He enter into their sin? No. But He entered into where sinners were.

The Horror of Judgment and the Urgency of Mercy

He rubbed shoulders with them. He was a friend of sinners. He didn't become sinful by their sinful practices, but He definitely was in their midst. How about this one? My brothers and sisters, we can forget about the absolute seriousness.

We can forget about the severity of God's wrath, of God's judgment. A very well-known quote from Spurgeon. You probably all have heard this. If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.

If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees imploring them to stay. Have you ever read, He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty? Have you ever read things like that?

This is true. Jesus telling sinners, depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. That's reality. Reality. We have to think like that. When you see people, they're not just part of the scenery. Oh, well, here we are in Portland, Maine.

People are vacationing. Well, it's part of the picture. People walking by in shorts. People walking by in their vacation casual attire. They've got their sandals on and their Hawaiian shirt. You know, it's part of the picture.

There they are at the lighthouse. It's part of the picture. These are souls who in very short years from now, they're going to be in flames. They know not the Lord Jesus Christ. They have not sought salvation in Him.

They're going to perish. And you know what the vast majority do not know the Gospel that you know. The vast majority of those people have not heard what you've heard and rejected it. Some have, but the most haven't.

The most haven't heard. They don't know. Nobody's told them. They don't have anybody in their family who's a Christian. They don't know. And hell is real. We forget the severity of God's wrath. It's eternal.

Love for the Lost and the Glory of God

How about this? Jesus said that the love of many will grow cold. Sometimes that's the issue. Our love is cold. Do you know, when you're reading the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord said this, if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

He said, do not even the tax collectors do the same? Think about that. We do love our children. We do love our parents. We do love our close friends. We love our husbands, our wives. That's normal. The lost do that.

The tax collectors do that. Our love as Christians, we're to love our enemies. We're to love the souls of the people around us. If anybody is to be a lover of mankind, it's the disciples of Jesus Christ.

He has saved us to love. The first aspect, the first characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit of God is love. It is a loving thing to take the Gospel to people. To give them that one message, that one remedy that would deliver their souls from the wrath of Almighty God.

Don't let your love grow cold. One of the best ways to keep that love hot and keep that love fervent is to stay close to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because as we behold Him, we become like Him. From one degree of glory to the next.

That glory. He had a love for sinners. He came to seek and save the lost. When you're around Jesus, you're around Him who is love. You're around Him who loved sinners and gave Himself for sinners. And you spend lots of time beholding Him and in His presence.

And that will begin to affect you and permeate your own person. How about a low esteem for the glory of God? I read somewhere like in Romans 15 that Jesus became a servant. Why? To gather in the Gentiles for the glory of God.

You remember the Moravian cry? May the Lamb who was slain receive the reward of His suffering. Do you know Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay His life's blood for a people? Those people are out here.

Those elect people are out here. And we don't know where they are. There's no brand on their forehead. It could be any of them. But I'll tell you this, as elect as they may be and as much as Christ may have spilled His blood for them, they will not be brought until they hear of a proclaimed Christ.

God’s Means of Salvation and the Great Commission

That's just a reality. And if you don't do it, then He'll use somebody else to do it. And that brings me to my next point. We forget about God's method of salvation. Yes, we preach in the church. But have you ever read, the primary reason that we preach in the church is for what?

Ephesians 4. Why were pastors, teachers given to the church? To equip the saints for the work of the ministry. You know what? People do come into churches and they do get saved. People do get saved within the walls of churches.

But, that is not what Jesus Christ told us in the Great Commission. He didn't say stay within the confines of your church building walls, your meeting place, the chapel, and preach the Gospel forever and always right there in that context.

He did not say that. He said go. Is that not what the parable says? Go into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in. It's not wait for them to come in. Because listen, the reality is, we were just up at that lighthouse yesterday.

I have that imagery in my mind. There was a race. There was all sorts of people. They're moving all around there. All sorts of people, by and large, the majority of which do not know the Lord. Are they going to come in here?

You know the reality. 90 of the people in Portland, Maine will not come into a church. And 99 .9 would never come into a church like this. We are supposed to go to the nations and make disciples. That's our calling.

Remember, go. Go to them. Go find them out. Don't simply wait for them to come to you. That's great when people do come to us. And you should pray that people will come to it. You should pray for opportunities.

You should pray that people will come and sit next to you on the airplane or sit next to you on the bus or be next to you in the line in the supermarket. You can pray for opportunities like that. But the reality is, we are to go.

It just occurs to me as I think about it. Listen, we are told to visit the widow. But you know what? If you don't visit the widow, there's maybe some social program here in Portland that would send some assistance to them.

You may not visit the orphan, but the state's got a system set up that deals with orphans. That's a reality. If you don't feed the poor, well, some soup kitchen, it might be secular. Down the street may do that.

But I'll tell you this, if you don't preach the Gospel, let me ask you this, who is going to? Who is going to preach the Gospel? What, are you going to wait for the Arminians? You say, well, we don't believe they have all the truth.

We don't believe they have the right truth. You think the Catholics? Well, we don't believe they have the truth. Are you going to let the JWs do it? That's anathema. We don't want them coming to our door.

You see, the Mormons will run the streets. The JWs will run the streets. And we sit in here and we say, we've got the right stack of books. We've got the right theology on our shelf. And then what? Are we going to sit tight?

We're going to let the Mormons do it. The JWs do it. We're going to let them run up and down the streets. But then what? We're going to sit here and curse the darkness, but we'll stay put. And if some lost person ventures into our church, we all get excited and we all key in on them.

Well, it's good if somebody comes in like that and you key in on them. But you know what? We are to preach here to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Whatever ministry. Now look, I'm not saying that everybody's ministry is necessarily and particularly and specifically to go out and go up and down the streets and do door-to-door ministry.

There's many ways to evangelize. There's many ways to reach people. You may feel very comfortable in a prison. Some will not feel comfortable. You may feel more comfortable in the nursing home. Some people, that's not where they want to go.

The Blood of Those Who Have Not Heard

Maybe as a teacher. Mothers, you can pour yourself into your neighbors, into your own children, into your family members. There's all manner of ways. We've got a world all around us. How about this? We fail to realize our neighbor's blood is seriously our own concern.

Now listen, Paul said this twice in the book of Acts. He said, when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. Listen to what he said. I am innocent.

From now on, I'll go to the Gentiles. You need to stop and hear those words. I am innocent. What is he saying? I'll tell you what he's saying. That if I would not have proclaimed the Gospel to them, I would not be innocent.

Their blood is on their heads because I preached the Gospel to them. I'm innocent. Their blood's on their own head. You know what he's saying? If I wouldn't have preached the Gospel to them, I would not be innocent and their blood would be on me.

Listen to this. Therefore, I testify to you this day, I'm innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. That he said to the Ephesian elders.

What Paul is saying, Paul walked around with this sense that if I don't proclaim the whole counsel of God to people, their blood is on me. Can you imagine? You have the truth. You live in a neighborhood or you live in a city.

Your neighbors don't even know you're a Christian. If you take verses like this seriously, you have to start to believe that if you live your life and you don't touch those around you with the truth, you're not innocent.

Let us be innocent in this. We've been talking about prayer. Isaiah said this, when you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you, even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.