Deuteronomy 4:44-5:7, The First Commandment

Deuteronomy 4:44-5:5 and the Covenant Setting of the Ten Commandments

Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses first starting in verse 44. Hear the word of the Lord. This is the law that Moses set before the people of Israel. These are the testimonies the statutes and the rules which Moses spoke to the people of Israel.

When they came out of Egypt beyond the Jordan in the valley opposite Beth Peor in the land of Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon who Moses and the people of Israel Defeated when they came out of Egypt and they took possession of his land and the land of Og the king of Bashan.

The two kings the Amorites who lived to the east beyond the Jordan from our or which is on the edge of the valley Of the Arnon as far as Mount Syrian that is Hermon together with all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan as far as the sea of the Arabah under the slope of Pisgah and Moses summoned all Israel had said to them hero Israel the statutes and the rules that I speak and you're hearing today.

And you shall learn them and be careful to do them. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb not with our fathers. Did the Lord make this covenant but with us? Who are all of us here alive today the Lord spoke with you face-to-face at the mountain out of the midst of the fire.

While I stood between the Lord and you at that time. To declare to you the word of the Lord for you were afraid because of the fire and you did not go up into the mountain he said I Am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery.

You shall have no other gods before me. And the Lord had his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word. You shall not obey the Ten Commandments. Do you think some anti-christian atheist said that some got Christopher Hitchens kind of character?

You shall not obey the Ten Commandments. It's not from some liberal theologian, you know likes to spout politics and same-sex marriage, you know someone of that Kind is it a pronouncement of the ACLU?

Would you be surprised to learn that a pastor said it a supposedly evangelical pastor. Andy Stanley pastor of a megachurch about 32 ,000 people actually several churches around Atlanta, Georgia with. He preached that very recently like a month ago that we need to unhitch the Old Testament from our faith.

And so he says he said that he believes he believes the Old Testament wasn't inspired. But he says it's like it's the back story. He calls it, you know, like the movie anyone go see the movie solo. No, no, you're not that kind.

I am say I was ready you Star Wars. You got to see it and I kind of go as a duty. Yes, you know in my youth. That was the thing to see Star Wars now I keep going just because like I feel like I have to but anyway solo is it's the backstory to the main Star Wars films.

And you know and if you're if you're really into knowing Where the character came from so. From Stanley's point of view. The Old Testament is sort of the back story to the New Testament. I mean if you're really interested in knowing the history the background of the New Testament if you're not it's alright.

Because it should not the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments should not quote should not be. He said the go-to source regarding any behavior in the church. That's just an amazing statement. It's not for us he says put bluntly that means he said quote exact quote.

Actually, he said thou shalt not obey the Ten Commandments put it nice King James English. So you would really make an impact now put so bluntly a lot of Christians were offended. Articles and YouTube videos popped up almost immediately, but I think we should thank him for saying out loud what a lot of Christians fuzzily think.

They take verses like Romans chapter 10 verse 14 that Christ is the end of the law and think that means the The end means it's over that is the termination. Like it's canceled. This is promoted by the idea common now that there was a quote Dispensation of law during the Old Testament and with them back in those days people got saved by keeping the law and now we're in a New dispensation and so the old rules don't apply anymore.

It's like the USA or just America used to be under British law, but it's rule. But now we're you know, well, we're free. So, you know if you want to study what it was like to live under British law during the colonial days.

Well, you can do that if you're interested into that kind of thing if you're a history buff. It's the backstory to our country, but it's not the go-to source for our behavior today. Is it here in the US?

It's the backstory we need but we need to unhitch it from our lives. That's his point of view for the whole Old Testament for the Ten Commandments. This is Stanley man. It's it that comes from what he's saying.

What is he's expressing comes from a theology known as dispensationalism, which a lot of Christians believe many Christians believe today. But but they probably don't know that that's what they believe or the name for it and they don't usually take it to its logical Conclusion.

We did a Sunday school series on it last year. And so our and we did it so that our people would be equipped to to discern it you know realize what's where that's coming from and Hopefully to think better than that and see the Bible better than that and understand why that's wrong.

And I guess I'm trying to remember I guess he didn't. Andy missed the lessons. I guess that he did. I don't remember him being here. That must be the problem. That's that was it. Stanley is following Consistently what a lot of Christians today believe deep down because they've been taught these core ideas even take it into its logical conclusion yet, but They still kind of believe it.

They're just inconsistent people have at their core. I believe a single simple principle a commitment. That guides them life is about they think maybe looking out for number one Me our sex drugs and rock and roll.

Pleasure fun. Philosophically is called hedonism. Or maybe it's about money. You got to serve the money God. So you can't make it to church on Sunday morning because you've got to work to make more money or maybe life is about ego.

I've got to look good above all else. Maybe it's about family. La familia is todo in Spanish means the family is everything from breaking bad. Family ism, which is the central Chinese faith that the other three religions revolve around.

Maybe for some life is about Christ. People have deep down a single simple principle. They are committed to but many people are Inconsistent and how they live that out. They they're really about themselves or they're really about getting more cash.

But you can get them to go to church. Some you can get them to read the Bible some if you you know, if you nag them enough. You can get them even to give a little if they have spare dollars in their pocket.

But they're still about Themselves or their money. They're just they're just inconsistent. You can get them to be inconsistent. Sometimes that doesn't mean that you save them. You maybe they're really about family, but you can get them to spare a little family time to do something religious.

Because they're inconsistent. Educated people like Stanley tend to become more Consistent remember people have one core commitment, but that they are often inconsistent in practice now when you people get more educated they tend to become more consistent and the way they think about from their core out and The way they live it out.

They have that, you know, they have this the spare time to think through the implications of what What they really believe deep down and then to put that into practice. That's why so many formerly Conservative evangelical students go to universities or seminaries and they often come out liberals.

That the idea that right and wrong and truth and falsehood is based on what they feel. Well what they can see. Because that's what they really believed all along they were just kind of inconsistent liberals before.

Sometimes they're sometimes maybe they sounded like they believe the Bible they were that they were Bible believers. But deep down they always kind of felt that truth and rightness was based on how they felt on me.

Well on what made me feel good. That's why some of the most militant. We've been talking about Islam some in Sunday school some of the most militant violent Muslims are the educated ones. Not not that vast majority of uneducated people.

Usually they're the ones that are nice and easy to get along with but some of the most militant violent ones are the educated ones because they've begun to think through the Implications of their faith and become more consistent.

Dispensationalism teaches that the Old Testament is for a bygone era. And so so many Christians believe that and so if they were consistent They would see it as all irrelevant. So what Stanley said was consistently based on what he believed and I want many other supposedly Christian people believe.

What about you? If you were consistent Would you conclude you need to unhitch our faith from the Old Testament that the Ten Commandments? aren't for you deep down. What do you really believe? What do you believe is the fundamental conviction.

What what is the fundamental conviction at the bedrock of your heart. If you've laid a bad bad foundation. Whatever else you build on it will collapse. Well, here it is. Here's the foundation or at least what should be the foundation the first commandment first.

The First Commandment Is for God's Covenant People and for Exposing Sin

Who is it for? Second what is what does it tell us to do. And third? How is it obeyed? Well first who is it for many people assume that it is for everyone. And there's a fight whether you know put it up on our courtroom walls.

Christians argue that these commands are the basis for our laws for our system of justice and historically that's kind of true. But it doesn't tell us who God originally intended for his commands to apply to.

Did God intend for his commands to be given to everyone? But when he when this passage here, we just read when he was speaking here. Did he have in mind that these laws were for all people everywhere to teach them how to live to be the go-to guide for behavior in 21st century society.

One since yes. These are expressions on God's will how to live but I hope you'll see that I'm not splitting it. I'm not it's not an irrelevant hair when I point out here that clearly. In here beginning of Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 44.

The audience is a specific group of people. The people of Israel in verse 44 notice and then into verse Chapter 5 Deuteronomy 5 Moses makes especially clear who the covenant is given to in verse 3. He says not with our fathers.

Did the Lord make this covenant? That's the Sinai Covenant. But with us who are all of us here alive today. These ten commandments were not just given to to anyone. They are not some kind of tin rung moral ladder that anyone can climb to God on.

They were part of a covenant. That God made with his people a specific people. That's what covenants do. They bind specific people together our parties together your God in Israel. Literally it is in is and here it literally it is Israel.

But in Galatians chapter 6 and other places in the New Testament We see that Christians the church is the true Israel of God so even here the true Israel is those who came out of Egypt in verse 45 called out of slavery and Inter-worship.

Moses told Pharaoh to let God's people go that they might Worship the Lord. That's the purpose of their leaving Egypt. The true Israel the true people of God are worshipers. As Jesus said God is looking.

Remember what he said he is seeking worshipers and This laws for those who are made Like Israel here worshipers who worship the Father and Spirit in the truth and it's with them that God made this Covenant and we see this idea.

We saw this idea last week what this is it's institution covenant name of the church earlier in chapter 4 in verse 13 Moses says that the Lord had declared to them this covenant which they are commanded to perform.

To do we saw that there were parts of a covenant. This is a this is a typical Institution a typical practice and their day and there were typical parts of it that they expected. They're like Like treaties that a great king would make with a small nation here of the Lord Himself is the great king.

He's like the Emperor of a huge Empire and and Israel is the small nation that he is making this Covenant this treaty with and those parts of the covenant include first a preamble. Which introduced the parties to the covenant who is who?

So when so is the great king and you are the vassal you're this and their history together. What brought them together the stipulations what is required of the parties? What you were to do? You do thus and so in verse 13 the Ten Commandments are are the stipulations.

They're called these stipulations and then the witnesses as witnesses to the covenant. Remember Moses called heaven and earth to witness and then there's blessings and curses. Rewards and penalties. In verse 23, they are reminded to take care to not forget the covenant.

Don't forget what you've agreed to do now Stanley and really many others. Say we're not really in a covenant with God or at least we're not in why our covenant doesn't have stipulations, I guess. You know, you just got to say you believe and you're you're in and there's nothing you got to do.

No rules. Just relationship or just right right like outback. Stanley took that to his logical conclusion and said then we don't have to keep the Ten Commandments that is for it. That the Ten Commandments that's for a different covenant.

That's not ours. We need to unhitch it from our faith. We are in a covenant. But the fact is we are in a covenant. He says we're not but we are and the new covenant we are in is the fulfillment. Paul says it's Christ is the end.

He means that he means the fulfillment not the cancellation of the Sinai Covenant. Our covenant is the end as in the goal. Not the termination of the Old Covenant. That's why the Lord Jesus said. Something that Stanley should take to heart.

That whoever relaxes any of these commandments. That whoever says we don't have to keep the Ten Commandments will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But are the Ten Commandments for everyone? Well, that's the question some say they're for everyone.

Stanley says they're for no one. We've seen there at least for Israel and we are Israel. If they are for everyone then well then post them on public places. But the commandments are not made for courtrooms or school buildings or public parks.

They're first made for us. If we are among those who know that our God is a consuming fire. Who worship him with reverence and awe who have heard his voice as in Deuteronomy 4 and and tremble at his word?

Like they're recounted there and they are first for us because you see this is a covenant. This is it's a covenant that God is entering into with his people the people he has called. He saved them he defines them he says who they are he brings them out for worship.

The covenant is unveiled starting in verse chapter 5 verse 6. That's where it begins. Where's it? He says and. Then begins the preamble but first. There's this elaborate reintroduction. And from from chapter 4 verse 44 to chapter 5 verse 5 much of it.

Maybe as we read through it, you may remember. Hey, we've we've heard all this before. This is not new. This is recapitulating how Deuteronomy began all the way in chapter 1. But you know, but this is really what people do when they're gearing up for something big.

They're about to introducing something big, you know, if we had the president whatever past or present here. We wouldn't just say, huh? Come on. You'd have an introduction you'd have some gala you'd have.

Somebody making a flowery, you know saying thus and thus and so when the NFL starts the Super Bowl it introduces the teams. All the starters, you know one by one and then it's not good enough just to sing the national anthem.

They got to have some star sing it and there's a huge flag in the field and the jet planes flying overhead. And maybe they got to sing America the beautiful to just a little extra there. They can't just flip a coin.

They got to have some celebrity flip the coin and it's got to be a special made coin. You know, they got a show yet what the coin looks like and they go through all this rigmarole. Why. Because that's what people do and something big is about to begin.

They don't just start it. Here it is. They they you know drumroll, please and then tada. Here it is here. That's what all this is from chapter 4 verse 44 to chapter 5 verse 5. We're retold how they took the land each of the Jordan other this is building up the crescendo see Han and Og remember them.

They got the land east of the Jordan. They're kind of in the promised land already then in chapter 5 verse 5 how Moses summoned them chapter 5 verse 1 how Moses summoned Them all together. He calls them.

He says here. In other words not just listen, but obey pay attention here Oh Israel the statutes and the rules the stipulations of the covenant starting verse 1 and then again be careful to do them. That was so much of the theme earlier in chapter 4 the Lord made a covenant with him at Sinai.

It wasn't for everybody. It wasn't even for our fathers. He says this is the Sinai Covenant was made with us at verse 3. The Lord spoke spoke to that spoke to us face to face. He says in verse 4 that doesn't mean they saw God but they were in God's presence the covenant was made personally.

With them face to face. It's personal and Moses says in verse 5 that the Lord spoke to them while I stood between the Lord and you. You know when high on Sinai's mount he stood receiving them for our good the Commandments.

They they were afraid they trembled at God's Word because they saw God's works and they knew he was a consuming fire. So that's all the setup. It's the drumroll. It's getting ready. But now comes the covenant then it just says he says The the curtain flies open in verse 6.

There's the preamble. Who is the one making the covenant and who are the people it is for? Well, he is the Lord. It's all capitals there. If you're reading the Bible that means it means Yahweh the I am and he is your God.

I am the Lord. I'm Yahweh. I am the I am your God. He is the one that saved them who did a miracle to rescue them already. So he is giving these commandments to these people to save people. People are already brought out of slavery for worship.

This covenant is not just open to everyone. You cannot win your way into being in a covenant with God by obeying the Ten Commandments. Instead the Ten Commandments are given to those people who are already redeemed who are already rescued already saved by God.

First God brings his people out of slavery and then he gives them these commandments. Who are the commandments for? Well, if you are not one of his. You know imagine that there was some Canaanite just happened to be or some Egyptian happened to be traveling through Israel at that time on the way home and In hearing all this were they for him?

No. If they're if you're not one of his. Don't worry about them too much. In fact, feel free to disobey them if you thinking if you think you can get away with it. If if you have not been saved out of slavery to sin and self for worship.

Then keeping the Ten Commandments won't help you that much. Oh it might save your marriage and it might keep you out of jail and it might make you more psychologically healthy and have a lot of Other little friends benefits in your life, but it won't keep you out of hell.

So don't worry about them too much if you're not saved out of slavery. You know Stanley is right. For you if if you're not saved after all people in our culture have been whittling down the Ten Commandments one by one anyway.

Might as well get rid of them all like he's done. Surely we all admit that people today in our culture hardly take the first tablet with God the first half of the Commandments. Seriously anymore. We actually think it's a good thing in our culture.

That some people freely violate the first commandment. They openly have other gods. We call it diversity. Today, we even have Christians saying you can worship God any way you choose. It's about how God said to be worship you just do it your way.

We know people celebrate the freedom to use the Lord's name in vain. It's called free speech. Many even many churches today don't take the Sabbath seriously anymore and you're treating as though, you know, you miss worship.

Worshipping the Lord week after week on what's the big deal and and for honoring father and mother a lot of very educated people think It is perfectly appropriate to blame all our problems on our mom and dad.

They're the ones that made me like this. So we're ignoring many of the Ten Commandments already. We say half of them aren't for anyone and then we're amazed when Stanley says that they aren't the go-to source for any morals anymore or When we take them from courtroom walls or are out of schools and parks.

Why are we amazed at that? Shouldn't be surprising at all. So if you're not one of God's people don't worry too much about the Ten Commandments. They're really not for you. Stanley is right. You don't have to keep the Ten Commandments for unbelievers.

That is there are no laws that you can keep. That by obeying them to please God and then earn something from God get him under contract to you. Get him in a covenant with you so you can get some of those blessings.

No, it doesn't work that way. If you don't get the foundation, right if you don't have at the core of your being the one overwhelming clear commitment. Even even if you're sometimes inconsistent about living it out.

But if you don't have that commitment deep down that the Lord It's your God he announces himself. I'm the Lord your God and if you don't say back. Yes, Lord, you are the Lord my God. Then you can get everything else, right.

You can keep all the rest of the commandments you can have them be your go-to guide for behavior, but it won't do you any good. Like I say it might save your marriage and keep you out of jail and make you more psychologically healthy.

But you know your life will collapse like a house found it on sand if you don't get the first one, right. So Hopefully, I'm not really speaking to anyone here but just in case if you're a decent moral person, but you know.

You're decent. You're moral. You're nice. You're great to get along with you're a terrific neighbor. You do you keep the laws? But deep in your heart, you know, you haven't really decided to follow Jesus that you haven't really told the Lord Take my life and let it be Consecrated Lord to thee if you haven't really surrendered all to him.

You might as well give give up. Keeping the rest of the Ten Commandments without getting this one. Simple one right at the beginning the foundational commitment. Won't do you that much good? It will just make you a Inconsistent sinner.

But they do have something to show you. Not really how to live because that living by the Ten Commandments won't do you that much good if you are not one of God's People. What? Oh, yeah, they do keep you out of jail and keep your marriage intact and and keep you psychologically healthy all that.

Yeah, but they won't keep you out of hell. But what they can do for you what they can do for you that is very important. What Stanley misses and he is so wrong about is to show you what they do is. They show you that you need saving.

See if you unhitch. Like he says you unhitch the law from the gospel. You have no way of seeing that you need the gospel. That you're not like you have no way to tell that you're not like these people here that you're not on the verge of the Promised Land, but you are still in the iron furnace of sin.

The Ten Commandments continue to serve that purpose today. So get used to singing. Singing it for the next ten weeks. We have this law to see therein that we have not been free from sin. It is there the loss this Ten Commandments.

Not for some people to get smug maybe not for us to get smug and imagine where I'm law-abiding. I've been keeping. I've been going by the rules. I'm a moral person but to bring us to our knees. The first thing we discover in the Commandments is not that we are potentially righteous.

If we keep them, but that we are presently sinners. The Commandments are not the beginning of a of a long road to religious self-discipline they are instead the end of Ourselves. They are the end of our thinking that we can buy off God's approval.

With just a little religion just a bit of morality like keeping the rules. So the first and main purpose of the Commandments, especially this first commandment is as strange as it may sound. Not that we may obey them.

But to realize that we haven't. So we reach the end of ourselves and we reach out to him and cry out To the Lord for mercy. That's why every stanza of that Luther Ten Commandments song ends with. Have mercy Lord.

Who are the Ten Commandments for? There for you if you are one of God's people saved out of slavery for worship and There for you if you're not yet one of God's people to show you that fact. That you're not yet one of his they're for you.

No matter who you are all ten of them. Well second, what does it tell us to do? The commands given to us as his people show us how to please him. God's true people desperately want to please him. Let's get comes with a new heart when God gives you a new heart.

His laws written on your heart. I mean it comes out of you now and I'd be imposed on you by rules or someone scolding you comes out from your heart. We want to please him. We want to know how to live for him.

So those who are his people who love him to them. It's not some burden that's placed on us that keeps us from from doing man what I really want to do. That other stuff that stuff I'm commanded not to do.

No, it's instead a great gift to be told how we can please God. It's not a way to God. It's God's way. Given to us now think about it. God did not give them the Ten Commandments while they were in Egypt.

Did he? Sometimes we miss this. Sometimes this is the obvious facts. We just miss. He didn't give him the Ten Commandments Moses. You got could have couldn't he the burning bush go to go to Israel Moses.

Here's Ten Commandments go tell these people that if you keep these Ten Commandments for a certain amount of time then and only then I'll bring them out of Egypt and it happened that way. No, the rescue came first.

The saving was first then the Commandments the Commandments are given to saved people. To tell them how to then live that means that if you consider yourself a saved person one of God's people. You believe you've been saved out of slavery by him now for worship and these commands are for you.

You will love them because they they answer a cry because God's written his law in your heart and you cry out. How shall I then live well obedience to God's commands is not some optional path, you know, maybe that's what the really devout Christians do you know kind of like the really?

Hardcore soldiers they try to be special forces, but I'm just a regular run-of-the-mill enlisted man. No, it is the way we live for God out of love. Let's say people for the one who saved us. You see just as in the Exodus.

So with our Christian lives the Exodus was not just a liberation was it? As though God struck that great superpower with the ten plagues led Israel through the Red Sea crushed Pharaoh's army underneath the water.

Just just so what was all that for? Just so they could go out and do their own thing eat drink and you know say and do whatever they want to do. No, of course not. God led them out of slavery and for for worship and If you are saved He's done the same with you.

He did not send his son to suffer the wounds our sins deserve. Have him brutally murdered on a cross just so then well We can go out and eat drink and be married do whatever we feel like party it up. He did it to lead us out of bondage to sin out of the bondage to the sins that We always feel like following.

Left to ourselves out of our slavery and into worship. Their Exodus and ours. It's not about mere liberation. It's about salvation in an exchange of masters the faults for the true and The true master tells us to serve no other.

What are the commandments for? Well, they're for us if we are God's people if we are saved. What does it tell us to do? It tells us to live for and cling to no other. Well, finally, then how is it obey?

No Other Gods Before the Lord

Well, it's very simple it sounds like doesn't it by having no other gods before the Lord. Now one trick we can kind of play on ourselves is define this so narrowly. That will never disobey it unless we convert to another religion and we literally bow down to another God.

We think well, I'm not gonna do that. So I'm I'm free and again and that's unlikely to happen here in America. And so we think we're safe, but we're not this root. Foundational commitment is about a lot more than just, you know and converting to another religion.

It's against anything that would vie for our hearts in place of God. Martin Luther said that to which your heart clings and entrust itself is I say Really your God. That's a great quote. I'll say that again that to which your heart clings and entrust itself is I say really your God.

Whatever your heart clings to anything our feelings our mind our spending our attention gives worth to instead of God in his place what we trust our satisfaction our happiness to The God who rescued us a bondage and For for freedom to worship him.

What what do we put in his place to give worth to? That could be a lot of things to be sports. That's that just thrill of having our team win the championship. It's just that's what we live for could be exercise to be food.

It could be giving our body worth over the over the Lord whether I'm obsessively serving it by making it stronger or serving it by Just giving it to its every craving is the way everything it wants is worth having our stomach could be our God.

I think I think every Christian on a fast. At least for a day at least once in their life to make a statement. My belly is not my God. Money can be our God. Lord Jesus singled this one out especially because this is so common to make up make our wealth whether large or small.

Into something that we we cling to and we trust in. He said you cannot serve both God and money. To make your choice. You gotta let go one or the other if you cling to your cash. You trust it to keep you safe.

Then you have violated the first the foundational commandment. That's why Christians should be generous and Churches ought to be bold in investing their money to the spread of the gospel the extension of God's kingdom.

We need to live as if we did not trust in our bank account but in the Lord. Romance can be our God. Clinging to the hope that that one right one that one sweetheart. Will be the ultimate answer to our quest for happiness.

Our family can be our God clinging to our family so tightly and trusting our happiness to it. So completely that we can't imagine that the Lord Jesus really meant what he said when we when he said that if you're to follow him you must remember the word hate.

Your own family we hear those words. We think we're so intent on on dodging them or watering them down that we forget to listen to what he's saying. That if you love your family more than him, that's what your heart clings to and entrust itself to.

If you if you will turn away from his word in his worship for the sake of another person if You're more true to your marriage covenant than you are to your covenant with the Lord. Then you don't really love the Lord at all.

If you can't do that, then you can't be in covenant with him so you might as well. As we'll not even try to obey any of these commandments. You'll get no credit with God if you honor your wedding vows.

Cherish your family or be a good friend if you forget the first commandment. You know the Chinese people understood that when the missionaries first came to China. They understood that Christianity was what they call quote the ancestor denying religion.

They knew that once a person embraced Christ the supremacy of family of ancestry is broken. In Singapore at the first day of Chinese New Year falls on a Sunday. Christians first go to church before fulfilling the obligations of going visiting their parents and other relatives.

Which is a shocking thing in their culture, but it's something that says we will have no other gods before him. I Know one of Mary's friends almost called up her wedding. Within a week of it being held weddings coming up in a week because her future mother-in-law was insisting that she bow.

Before her before the mother-in-law is a traditional sign of family devotion. She the bride refused because she's because as a Christian she would have no other gods before the Lord. The wedding only went forward because.

The mother-in-law had a stroke in that week. I Was the preacher at that wedding and I and I I made a strong theme and a preacher I mean actually gave a sermon. They have sermons in the in the weddings there.