How to Build a Church — Denny Kenaston

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Greetings. In the name of the Lord Jesus, this evening, it's been a joy to be here already.

My heart has been stirred by the singing, the worship of God. That does that, you know. Worship inflames the heart to want to serve God. And so I get to preach tonight after all that wonderful singing.

And I want to thank you this evening for singing with all of your heart. It's all part of the service of God, isn't it? And we all have a part in that, every one of us. So God bless you if you came with a heart that was in tune to sing God's praise.

God bless you for that. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to share the Word of God tonight. I'd like us to begin this evening with a text that we will probably look at, at least briefly, in every session.

Christ’s Revelation and the Foundation of the Church

Unless the Lord leads a little differently, but I'd like us to begin in Matthew chapter 16. Matthew chapter 16. The title of my message this evening is a very simple one. How to build a church. How to build a church.

Now, if you've been to the Christian bookstores, you know there's probably about ten books like that on the shelf. It seems like everybody has a new way to build a church. I'm not sure if this sermon tonight will fit in there on the bookshelf with the rest of those books.

But I do believe it will fit in on God's bookshelf. How to build a church. I believe it was announced, you know, in the little flyers that were sent out that we planned to speak about church through these meetings this weekend.

And so I'm going to follow that theme a little bit here through the weekend. That's not hard to do, by the way. You could easily preach twenty sermons and you wouldn't get done on that if you spoke about the church twenty times.

It is one of the clearest and fullest revelations of God's heart in the New Testament. The church. So it behooves us this evening that we get God's heart on how to build that thing called the church. Amen?

Since God has so much to say about it, we better make sure that we're doing it the right way. How to build a church. Reading from the text here in Matthew chapter sixteen, starting in verse thirteen. When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist. That's an honorable name to be given. Some, Elias, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom, but whom say ye that I am?

Good question, Lord Jesus. Who do you say that I, the Son of Man, am? You know, that question could be asked today, couldn't it? That could be asked in this modern day Christianity that we have here in the United States of America.

Whom say ye that I, the Son of Man, am? And I believe that every one of us needs to answer that question in our hearts, even this evening as we sit here. What think ye of Christ? Whom say ye that I, the Son of Man, am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, there are many, many verses in the Bible that are beautiful verses, and I have many favorite verses in the Bible.

And if you look at my Bible sometime, you'll see them. I've got them all marked up and circled and outlined in notes written beside them. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Peter's words, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

What was Peter saying when he said those words? What a revelation, quite a revelation that came out of that man's mouth. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. What Peter was saying is, You are the one that we've been looking for.

You are the Messiah. You are the anointed one. You are the blessed one. You are the one we've been dreaming about. You are the one we've been waiting for. You are the one that all the prophets spoke about.

You are the one we've been waiting for. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Hallelujah. And Jesus blessed Peter for saying those words and reminded Peter in the words to follow. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Now, Jesus was reminding Peter that that wasn't just some good idea that he got. That wasn't some word that he picked up along the way, but that came as a fresh revelation from his Father in heaven into the heart of Peter.

And he said to Peter, Oh Peter, you, inside your heart, you can say words like that. And oh, let me tell you something, brothers and sisters tonight, it's no difference whether it's you or I or it's Peter tonight.

If that is in the depths of your soul this evening, if your heart can say he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, hallelujah, then blessed art thou also tonight, for flesh and blood did not reveal it unto thee, but our Father which is in heaven revealed that saying to your heart.

Brothers and sisters, there are millions, multiplied millions and even billions of people who do not know that, who cannot say those words. And you and I can say them tonight if we've been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Praise God! That's worth shouting about, isn't it? That's worth being glad about, Brother Kenny. Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee as you sit here this evening, my friend. And sometimes I think we take that revelation far, far too much for granted.

That that is setting inside of us that God has deposited such a revelation inside of my soul is an awesome thing. And I think sometimes, you know, we just, you know, man, it's nice to be a Christian and God's been good to me.

Come on! Let's wake up a bit! Don't you realize what God has deposited inside of you? He's the Christ, the Son of the Living God! Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord Jesus. And then, Jesus goes on from there.

This is somewhat of our text this evening. He said, And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, little rock, Peter, a stone. Thou art Peter, a stone. And upon this rock, a big rock. And they're different words.

You know, some people say, oh, the church was built on Peter. You know, Catholics say the church was built on Peter. The church was not built on Peter! There's a difference between Peter and Christ, even though, blessed be Peter, he's a wonderful apostle.

The church was not built on Peter. Thou art Peter, a stone. Amen! A stone, rock, strong, all that. And upon this rock, a huge rock like the rock of Gibraltar. That's the difference in those two words.

Jesus said, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now, I believe what Jesus was saying there is this. That confession that you just made, Peter. That revelation that flowed out of your heart, that was deposited in your heart by the Father.

On that revelation, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's what Jesus was saying. He was speaking prophetically in these words. Jesus was a prophet, you know.

A priest and a king. But here he is prophesying. He's speaking forth the mind and will of God into the future. And he's saying, there's coming a day when I'm going to build a church. And I'm going to build my church upon that revelation that you just got, Peter.

That just came out of your mouth. And when I build a church on that revelation, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And I'm here to tell you tonight that if you were to open up a church history book and look down through the annals of history for the last two thousand years, you would find example after example of men and women who put these verses to the test.

And Jesus has proved himself time and time again to be just like he was right there. The master builder of the most powerful assembly that the gates of hell cannot prevail against. That's what Jesus promised he would do.

Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Upon this rock. What does he mean upon this rock? I believe he means upon the doctrine of Christ. That is the good news of a transformed life by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Upon this rock, meaning the life of Christ. We have an example of a spirit filled man that we can watch and see how God through his spirit worked in the life of Jesus. And know that God through the same spirit will work the same kind of a life in you and I.

Hallelujah. We have an example upon this rock. What does that rock mean? It's speaking about the doctrines of Christ, the teachings of Christ all the way through the New Testament. We'll say more about it later.

And lastly, it's speaking about the reality of the Christ life. You see, brothers and sisters, it is by the life of Christ in you and I that church gets built upon this earth. There's no other way. It's not by might and it's not by power.

It's by my spirit, saith the Lord. God said that to Zachariah and to the children of Israel in the Old Testament. But that is not just an Old Testament prophecy. That is a New Testament reality. It is not by might and it's not by power.

It's not by your money. It's not by your big building. It's not by your new innovative ways to motivate people to come to church. It's not by building the biggest gymnasium that anybody ever saw in this state.

It's by my spirit, saith the Lord. That's the only way that Jesus' church gets built. It hasn't changed. His methods haven't changed. Not in two thousand years they haven't changed, brothers and sisters.

How to build a church? Is a good, good question to be answered in this day that we live in. How do you build a church with all the innovations, in quotes, that we have around today? So tonight we want to start with first things first.

We know that Jesus Christ is the foundation of the church. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Any other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. And in another place it speaks about Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone of the church.

Think about that for a moment, brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ Himself, He's the chief cornerstone of the church. Not His name. Not His teachings. Not the doctrine, although all those things are good and right and beautiful.

But it's not His teachings and it's not His name and it's not the doctrine. It's Jesus Christ Himself. He is the chief cornerstone of the church. And so if we're going to start with first things first, we've got to get that major foundation clearly laid here this evening.

I believe what Jesus is saying here in Matthew chapter 16 is simply this. You build your life on Me and I will build a church. That sounds like real simple theology and real simple methodology, doesn't it?

Only thing is, it's maybe not as simple as you might think. It means everything. It means it'll cost you everything. Everything, every moment of every day from here on out. And if you'll follow that very principle, I promise you a church.

I promise you a church. Christ's methodology. You build your life on Me and I, Jesus, the master builder, I will build my church, He said. Now, I'd like us to turn at this time over to the book of First John.

Building the Christian Life on Christ

There are many places where we could define what Jesus means by building our lives upon Him. But I've chosen First John chapter one to do that this evening. You build your lives on Me and I will build my church.

We're going to look to the Apostle John to give us a bit of a definition of what it means to build our lives on the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many ways that we could approach this chapter. We could put a title in the top of this chapter.

What is a true Christian? And we could go down through every one of these points. We could change the title and say, what is a true Christian experience? And we could go right down through this chapter here in First John chapter one.

What is true Christianity? There are many ways that we could do it. But this evening, what I'd like to do is use this chapter in First John one to define what it means to build your lives on the Lord Jesus.

And I think when we get done looking at this chapter, you will be thoroughly convinced that anywhere where there's a group of people who will build their lives on Christ like this, a church will just grow.

It will grow. And it's very important when we think and consider the subject of church and of having a church and desiring there to be a church, it's very important that we understand God's methodology for building that church.

See, there's lots of ways. I mean, people get a crowd together. I mean, they do ice cream socials. They've got, what is it? I don't know the name. They have a coffee shop out there in the front. That's in the vestibule of the church.

You have to have a coffee shop. And there's a youth rock band going on over here. And they get all the people together. And hey, you can get 5 ,000, 10 ,000, 20 ,000 people together in a place like that.

But that's not building the church of Jesus Christ. I guarantee it. Listen, the day's going to come when God's going to pull back the facade on all of that nonsense and the truth will be revealed. But for now, they go happily on their way singing, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, I love you.

Drinking their, whatever kind of coffee it is. Listening to their rock bands. Doing everything they can. Building their biggest gymnasiums. And seeker-friendly churches. What a statement. A seeker-friendly church.

You know what that means? Lower the temperature down so much that all the sinners feel at home in your midst. Wow. Guess what you're going to get. Go and look. Go and look. So, we want to just go down through this chapter here, 1 John, as we look at what it means to build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ.

John begins by saying these words. And by the way, John is giving this very definition in a day and an age when it was needed. It's about 90 A .D. when John is writing this. 90 A .D. That's 60 years since the resurrection and Pentecost and Christ going back to the Father.

It's been 60 years and John is now about 90 years old. He's been walking with Jesus, not with the eyes in his head, but with the eyes in his heart. He's been walking with Jesus for 60 years. And he's going to define to these struggling Christians upon whom false teachings are creeping in among them.

He's going to define to them what it really means to be a Christian. What it means to build your life on the Lord Jesus. You see, we live in a day and an age and in a country where everybody loves Jesus today.

You know, 60 million. I just read it two days ago. There are now, quote, 60 million born-againers in America. If we had 60 million born-againers like what John is talking about here in this chapter, I guarantee you they would have shaken this country long ago.

We don't have 60 million truly born-again Christians in America. I'm sorry. Throw stones at me if they want. There are not 60 million born-again Christians in America. John, let's hear what he has to say.

He's been walking with this Jesus for 60 years. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life.

For the life was manifested and we have seen it. John, in these opening verses here in this chapter, is speaking about Jesus. That, my dear friend, is what it means to build your life on the Lord Jesus.

If you do, your life will be all wrapped up in Jesus. Jesus will not be a name that you use on Sunday morning when you go to church and sing the songs and say the right words. Jesus will be your all in all.

Remember when you got born again? Remember when you first knew the Lord? Remember the sweet fragrance of that beautiful name? Remember how it was? You know that God never planned for that sweet fragrance to leave you ever.

God never planned for that. It seems very evident to me that that sweet fragrance has not left the Apostle John. John is excited about Jesus Christ. That is what it means to build your life on the Lord Jesus.

Oh, my dear people, if we could just grasp it. There are many, many things in our Christian life. And they are right and we believe in them. And I agree with my brother Emmanuel. Holiness, that is what God is after.

And oh, my dear people, true holiness only comes. That is the only way you will ever get the holiness that God is after. It must flow out of Christ. John was in love with Jesus. I think about John and, you know, I get a little jealous when I think about John.

You know, he is speaking from his own personal experiences. That which was from the beginning, you know. John, he knew this. Just like he said in John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God.

And the Word was God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made. John knew. This is He who was from the beginning. Wow. And then he goes on to say, I heard Him. Wouldn't you like to be able to say that?

I heard Him. I listened to His sermons. I sat at His feet. I saw Him. I watched Him when He laid His hands upon that man whose eyes were blind. I saw that man open up his eyes and jump around. I saw that man with a withered hand.

I was there that day when Jesus said, Stretch forth thine hand. And the man with his struggling faith stretched forth his withered hand. And it became whole again. John said, I was there. I saw Him. And not only that, he says, My hands handled Him.

In fact, if he could go on further, he would say, I laid my head on His breast. Bless God. Jesus. Precious Jesus. Oh, dear people. That's what it's all about. You want a church? It's about Jesus. It's not about us.

It's not about you. It's not about great preaching. It's not about great leaders. It's about Jesus. Jesus. Only Jesus. And I know. I understand. Everybody's talking about Jesus in America today. I know that.

But we can't overreact to that, my dear people. It's not a lifestyle. It's Jesus. It's a personal relationship with Jesus. And I know they throw those words around everywhere in this land of ours. But, dear people, it's still in the Bible.

That's how a church gets built. It's through Jesus. That's what it's all about. And I wonder this evening where you're at with Him. I know you're here. I know you sang the songs. Maybe you even said amen.

But I wonder where you're at with Him. See? Do the heart strings in your heart still ring with love for Jesus? Or is there something between my soul and the Savior tonight? See? We have to ask ourselves that.

Jesus. Precious Jesus. Is He your altogether lovely one? Is He your lily of the valley? Bright and morning star. All I want to do is meet with Him. All I want to do is have fellowship. I can't wait to get up in the morning to get along with Jesus.

That's the way it was with John. And he hasn't got tired of Him yet. And he's sixty years doing this. Sixty years. Well, let's go on a little bit further and find out what it means to build our lives on the Lord Jesus.

Confessing Christ and Sharing Fellowship

It's important for us to know that because Jesus promised He'll build a church. We'll build our lives upon Him. So the second point I'd like us to look at is in the second part of verse two. John goes on and says, For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us.

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. What does it mean to build your life on the Lord Jesus? It means confessing Jesus. See? You know, I studied that. A little bit further in first John, he speaks again about confessing Jesus.

And I studied that, you know, because, you know, again, everybody will say, Yeah, I believe in Jesus. That's not what confessing Jesus means. Confessing Jesus means I'm confessing Him and confessing Him and I'm confessing Him again and I'm confessing Him in the grocery store and I'm confessing Him at the barber shop and I'm confessing Him when I'm at the sale and I'm confessing Him when I'm getting my gasoline.

I'm confessing Jesus. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, John says. You see what I'm saying? That is built on Jesus Christ. It's a life that is speaking about Him. Ooh, that's pretty strong.

Do you know that in the days of revival in South Korea, there were some churches that you could not join the church until you had led a soul to Jesus Christ. Did you know that? They put a question mark on your salvation experience unless they saw that you were reproducing yourself in somebody else.

Wow. I wonder what that'd do to the communion tables. No soul in the last five years? No communion for you, my friend. You know, we smile at that, but hey, that's kind of sad when you think about it. I'll never forget the meeting that I was in a few years ago where a brother stood up at the end of the meeting after a message was preached about evangelism and he stood up to make a confession, but he couldn't talk.

They gave him a microphone and he went to talk, but he couldn't talk. And he tried to talk and he just wept. And he got control of himself and then he tried again and he just wept. And he did this like three or four times.

Finally, he got a hold of himself and got the words out. He knew what the words were. Here are the words. I've been a Christian for ten years and I've never led a soul to Jesus. And he just wept again and sat down.

And you see, I honor that brother for that kind of a burden over his own heart. I've been a Christian for ten years and I've never led a soul to Jesus. It ought to bother us. If there's no more fire in our bones than that, if there's no more compassion, if there's no more of a clear vision of the lostness of humanity that in ten years we haven't led a soul to Christ.

It's about Him, my friend. It's about Him. Number three. In the last part of verse three, we find the third point of what it means to build your life on the Lord Jesus. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you.

Why, John? That ye also may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. He's talking about having fellowship with God. He's talking about a motivation in his own heart.

A motivation to tell others about Christ that many of us have never known. And that is, my sweet fellowship with Christ motivates me to want to bring you into the same fellowship that I'm having. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

Fellowship. Christianity is relationship, brothers and sisters. It is first and foremost relationship. Now it is many other things. There are many things we do because we're Christians. And there are many things we don't do because we're Christians.

But it's not about that first. It's about fellowship with God. If you could just, you know, turn the clock back a ways and remember again when you first met the Lord, as you repented before God, there were still things in your life that God needed to deal with.

I mean, I remember when I got converted, you know, it was about two months before I got rid of my long hair. But you know what kept moving me forward day after day after day? It was this fellowship. This fellowship that I found with the living God.

And it is word. I couldn't stop reading the Bible. That's the way it was in my heart. I can remember reading the Bible two and three hours a day. There were times when I read the Bible so long that my heart literally burned on the inside.

I wondered, what is this fire that's burning in my breast? Realizing this comes from reading the Word of God. Have you ever read the Bible till the fire burned your breast? That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you.

Why, John? That you may have fellowship with us. We want to bring you in. Oh, and listen, John is not just speaking about himself. He's speaking about the church. The church is a place where fellowship with Christ is real.

It's reality. It's active. It's sweet. It's powerful. It's life-changing. And then the church says, Oh, let's go and get some others and bring them into this sweet fellowship, this life-changing fellowship, this fellowship that puts a spring in your step every day.

Let's bring some others into the fellowship of the Father and the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ. Think about it, my friends. That's what Christianity is. I don't know how you look at it. Maybe you look at it differently.

Maybe you're one of those who said, Oh, okay, I'm 15 years old and it's time to join the church, you know. And so you listen and they gave you some instructions and you said okay and yes and yeah, I agree with that and yes, I believe that and they baptized you and you joined the church.

But there's no reality in your heart. If there's no reality of Christ, if you don't know what it is to have fellowship with the living God, then that's not Christianity. It's just religion. Just religion.

People do it all the time. I'll tell you who really does it many times. Children who grow up in a Christian home. And so they start thinking, Hey, I know what Christianity is, you know. I've learned it all my life.

I've heard it. I've heard all the sermons. I've been going to church all my life. Christianity is this, you know. And I'm willing to do it. And I'll do this and I'll do this and I'll do that. And I'll teach the Sunday school class.

And who knows what else you may put on your list. And you jump in there and you go with that. Only one problem. Nothing on the inside. Nothing on the inside. Like one man said recently, Brother Denny, nobody knows how it really is with me, he said.

Nobody knows. He said, I've got all my clothes straight. I've got all my doctrines straight. I can teach the Sunday school class. I can please all the preachers by the way that I act. But, Brother Denny, there's nothing on the inside.

What's wrong with me, Brother Denny? What do you think I should have told him? I told him, you need to get born again. That's what you need. Praise God that you have your theology right. And praise God you ought to if you grew up in a Christian home.

But it's not theology, my friend. It's the reality of the life of Christ. And in the believer, it's that fellowship with God. Listen, the blood of Jesus Christ is there. It interposes between God and man.

It's the intercessor that comes in between God and man. And it's through the blood of Christ that God and man get back together again to have fellowship. That was the prime thing that God set out for all the way back in Genesis chapter 3.

When man lost his fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden, God set His paths on the track to bring redemption to man. And what is redemption to man? A ticket to heaven? No way! It's not a ticket to heaven.

It's bringing man back into a right relationship with a holy God so that God can fellowship with man like God said to the children of Israel, that you may be mine. That's what God wants. Are you ready for God to get possessive with you?

That you may be mine. All mine. Only mine. And nobody else's. Are you ready for God to get possessive with you like that? That's what God is after. That's why Jesus sent His Son into the world. He didn't send His Son into the world just so you could have a one-way ticket to heaven someday.

No way! God sent His Son into the world to transform our lives and turn us into holy creatures walking around in this unholy world having fellowship with a holy God. Hallelujah! That's good! That's what God wants.

That's what it means to build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you may say, Brother, you're pretty radical tonight. I'm telling you, you study your church history books and you'll find out this is how the church has always been built down through the centuries.

And it hasn't changed. See, we've been reading an American Bible way too long. We read everything in this book with American eyes. And I'll tell you what, us American Christians have eye disease. We have eye disease.

That's what John said to the church of Laodicea. Your eyes are sick. Anoint your eyes with eye salve so you can get them healed, so you can see again. We've got eye disease. And so we read the Bible as an American book, you know.

And oh, I don't want to get off on that. Keep on my subject here tonight. Fellowship. The reality of fellowship with a living God. That's Christianity. Amen? And number four. Then he goes on to say, These things write we unto you that your joy may be full.

Fullness of Joy in Fellowship with God

There's that word joy. Now look at what he's giving. He's giving his motivations. John is explaining his way down through the text. And what he's saying so far is, I've told you these things. Point one, point two, and point three of this message.

I've told you these things because I want your joy to be full. Full and running over. Joy that is full runs over. Amen? A cup that is half full usually doesn't. But joy that is full runs over. What does it mean to build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ?

It is a life of joy. Peter said, Joy unspeakable and full of glory. Hear those words? And you know, I studied this word joy many times. By the way, it's in the Bible I think four or five hundred times.

Do you think the Lord's trying to tell us something? I studied this word. It's a pretty deep word. You know, sometimes we kind of count it superficial joy. And you know, us Americans, we're good at laughing.

You know, I think America is laughing her way to hell personally. But everybody's good for jokes. Everybody's got lots of things to laugh about. And we think somehow that's joy. Or we think, well, joy is praising God.

So we say, praise God. Oh, I have joy. That's not what this word joy means. This word joy is a deep word. It is a deep word. It's like the verse there in the Psalms. In thy presence is fullness of joy.

And at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Boy, if that verse doesn't fit what John is saying here, I don't know what is. In thy presence, there's fellowship. There is fullness of joy. And at thy right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.

You know what God is talking about here? God is simply saying this. True Christianity has a joy that is deeper than a feeling. It's a joy. It's when man gets his joy and satisfaction out of God and God alone.

That's it. Out of God and God alone. Do you? Do I? Get my joy and my satisfaction out of God and God alone. Now, I believe as you study the book of Acts, and we'll be looking at the book of Acts before the weekend is out, but as you look in the book of Acts, I believe this is one of the magnets that caused the church to grow so fast there in the book of Acts.

The people were exuberantly full of joy. They were excited. They were overflowing with joy. And you know, when you're overflowing with joy, it's contagious, and it affects other people, and people notice it, and people look on longingly in the sadness of their own hearts.

They look on and say, That guy has something that I don't have. Joy. Joy that's deeper than a feeling. Joy that's so much deeper than the laughter and the humor of this American age that we live in. Joy.

Joy. Fullness of joy. Joy that's full runs over, doesn't it? To others. And that's what God has in mind. Number five. What does it mean to build your life on the Lord Jesus? And remember, we could have went many, many places to define this this evening.