The power of God; gifts — Gaius Goff

In connection with the things of God in a dark day, we are and will, for our lifetime until the Lord comes or we die, will be living in dark days that get darker. And that's not something that we have to fear.

Actually, it should challenge us because, you know, once the Lord comes, we'll never have the privilege of serving God under adverse conditions in the future. And it's in these problems that we have in life where we become what we really are.

Smooth sailing doesn't make character. Takes these times, like you and I are here, to get our character developed. And God knew that, and that's why you're here, and that's why I'm here. My mother called me one day on the phone when she was 95, and she said, I can't figure out why the Lord's left me here.

She said, I'm no good to anybody. And she was a bit fussed up, and she was looking for me to give her an answer why the Lord hadn't come, or why he hadn't taken her to heaven. Well, I said, Mom, I really can't help you on that.

Oh, she said, you're supposed to be a preacher. Why can't you do that? But two weeks later, she called again, and she said, I got the answer. I didn't know what she was talking about. She says, you know, why the Lord hasn't taken me.

I said, what's the answer? She said, he wouldn't know what to do with me up in heaven yet. But he found the time and the place for her to be filled in, and he'll do it with you. As long as you're here, you and I need to remember, it is no accident that you are where you are, doing what you're doing, and this is the will of God for us in these dark days.

Stirring Up the Gift of God in Dark Days

And it's a good thing, not a bad thing, to be a Christian under pressure. Read with me in Timothy, 2nd Timothy, verse 6 of chapter 1. Wherefore, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hand.

So we're going to talk today about another one of the things of God, and this is the gift of God. Now notice verse 8. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.

And so we will hopefully be speaking about that. I'm going to try and move a little faster than I did this morning. I want to read one more verse in the next chapter, chapter 2, verse 9. Wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.

Now we may get to the place where we can speak of all those three in this little time, but I don't get boxed in too much. You know when God saved you, he had in mind that you and I would be able to serve him, and he equipped us, not just with a call to serve, which is the will of God, he intends us all to be involved in that, but he also equipped us with the ability to serve.

That's what the gift is all about here. There is the gift of God, which of course is eternal life, but I want to speak to you about that unique spiritual enablement, a God-given capacity given to you to do what God intends you to do in this dark day.

We're not left to be helpless people without some kind of guidance. God in his own great wisdom, the Father gave us the gifts, you can read about that in Romans. The Spirit gave us gifts, you can read about that in 1st Corinthians.

The Lord Jesus gave us gifts, and you can read about that in Ephesians chapter 4. They were all involved in preparing you and me for what God has in mind up ahead tomorrow, and the next day, and all these days through your life.

There are God-given capacities to do God's will in this day in which we live. In these dark times, we need to commit ourselves to be loyal to God by using the gifts that God has given to you. Now, gifts aren't fuzzy feelings, and they're not something that you have to have handwriting on the wall or anything to assure you of, but these Corinthians, if we were to read in the book of 1st Corinthians, we would find that they made a wrong emphasis on gifts and made it totally misunderstood, not totally, but misunderstood by a lot of Christians in the world that when you say something like, that's spiritual, but that's only nonsense.

That is not a gift. We have to understand that God-given gifts are reasonable, knowledgeable, useful, purposeful, they have a goal, and you and I are responsible to use what God has given to us as an ability to serve.

So we read the final words of Paul as he was talking to Timothy in 2nd Timothy, there he said, stir up the gift. Now I want you to turn back to chapter 4 of 1st Timothy, 1st Timothy chapter 4. Now this night I direct to some of those of you who are wondering, what can I do?

Timothy as a Model for Developing Spiritual Gifts

First Timothy, here's what had happened. Paul and his men had been at Ephesus and there had been a work started and an assembly was functioning, but there was a few things that Paul knew they needed help with, and so Paul couldn't get there.

He had to go over to Macedonia and he had to stay there. But he said, Timothy, I'm leaving you in Ephesus because there's some things there that those people of the Lord need help with. Do you think people in your assembly need your help?

You're 18 or 19 or 20, do you think they need your help? Or 25? You know, you're not going to be a leader, not as our brother mentioned, we're not talking leadership, we're talking people who are participating in the life of the assembly with meaningful things.

And brethren, give those young ones some meaningful work, that's just a little aside. But notice what he says here in 1st Timothy, he says at verse 11, these things command, at chapter 4 verse 11, these things command and teach, let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Till I come, give attendance to the way you read the Bible in public. Give attendance to reading. Learn how to read the Bible good. If they ask you to read in a Bible reading, don't stand up and say, give attendance to reading, exhortation, doctrine, neglect, don't do it like that.

Give attendance because you are reading what God has written to us by the Holy Spirit. And when we hold this blessed book in our hands, we are reading the words of the God who made this world with a word.

Now do a good job when you publicly read the Bible. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, neglect, not the gift that is in thee, not one that you asked for. So don't let anybody fool you by saying, well, you know, you got to press through or press on or, you know, pray and ask God to give you a gift.

No, no, those are already there. You got eternal life when you got saved, you got all that, you got the Holy Spirit when you got saved, and you got all that you need to do what God intends you to do that came when you got saved.

So you got to develop that. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all.

Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.". What had happened, as we have heard already today, that the young man Timothy was saved by God's grace through the preaching of the Apostle Paul, and he had watched his parents, or his mother and grandmother, pardon me, not the father, live for God lives of faith, and so he understood that a genuine article Christian that's going to be used by God is not going to try and fake it.

Unfeigned faith. And don't fake it with yourself or anybody else. It's unfeigned faith. These people in Corinth had put the wrong emphasis on gifts, but what God had in mind is that there would be a way in this dark world that you and I live in where people who look on would be able to see the way a spiritual body functions.

They can't see it in the body of Christ, because that's most of all already in heaven. And they can't see it in the churches in the world because they pay a guy to do that. I was in a place one time and a young man came, he's a Christian, came to our tent meetings and he came with his spiritual advisor and to listen to our gospel preaching, which was alright, but he had gone through university and seminary and finished his course and now he's looking for a job as a preacher.

And they offered him a big one down in Texas at Fort Worth with the Willow Creek churches. And so they flew him down there and gave him this offer of good salary, a good house, good retirement. He came back and told us all about this and when he came back he had asked us what we thought about that and I said, I'm not the Holy Spirit, you and I have to be guided by the Spirit of God and he gives gifts and God gives gifts, so I'm not telling you what to do, but when he came back he wanted to have another talk.

What's the problem? Well he said they had, he told me that they had all these good things, he said there's only a couple things that I couldn't quite know what to do. I said, what's that? He said they wanted me to sign a paper and I wouldn't preach about sin, I wouldn't use the word sin and I wouldn't use the word hell.

And I did that, silent, and kind of made him antsy, like he's making you itchy. Silence is a tough thing, isn't it? I didn't say anything. He said, well? I said, well, what? Well, he said, what do you think?

Well, I said, you got a bigger job than going down there to Texas. I said, you got to start with a new Bible. There isn't anything in the world like the one you got to use. You got to come up with a new version of the Bible where you can say exactly what God means when he talks about sin and you can say exactly what God means when he talks about hell without saying sin and hell.

Now, I said, I'm not sure how you can get at that. So he didn't, he, honestly, the guy didn't take the job. I hope we understand that when God gives us gifts, those gifts will coordinate with what I've got here in my hand and what you've got in yours.

And the Spirit of God is in here, and the Father in heaven is there, and our Savior is there, and all of them are involved in us doing now, in the assembly that you are in, for the benefit of others, not yourself, the use of spiritual gifts.

Recognizing and Using Gifts in the Assembly

So how does that work? How do you know? And people oftentimes will say, how do you know your gift? Well, don't sweat it. Let somebody else tell you. You say, you don't have to go after it? Hey, it's, let somebody else tell you, and they will tell you when they see what you actually do.

That's how you know whether you're gifted. You've got to do something before anybody knows whether you've got the gift that God has given to you to function with. You say, how does that work? I was received in the assembly when I was young, fairly young, teens.

They finally took me into fellowship after they had said no on baptism, but later on they welcomed me gladly, and I was glad to be there. One Wednesday night, I'm in the prayer meeting. Of course, if you don't go to prayer meetings, this probably will never happen to you.

But one Wednesday night, I'm in this prayer meeting, and I'm reading the Believer's Hymn book, reading a hymn. There was about 50 there, and I'm reading this hymn. I hear the voice, a hymn. Nobody gave out a hymn.

And then the voice came again, Gaius, give out that hymn you're reading. I said, you know, I didn't mind talking in high school in front of kids, but he said, stand up, read two verses of the hymn so we know where you're, we're gonna sing, and then say the verse, the number again, and sit down, and then we'll sing the hymn.

Give out the hymn. Now, was that the Holy Spirit? You see, sometimes people don't, that was an old man who had one of those big mustaches, and no hair on the top, and white hair, and he'd been over the road, and he knew he was a gifted man in administration, and he poked at others who he figured might have a gift to try and use it.

Now, I've tried it once or twice. Somebody said, I don't think that's the Spirit of God. Well, I said, I'm not the devil, you know. But sometimes if somebody probes you a little bit and says, you know, brother, I think we would like to hear you give a word in the gospel, then you don't really have the right to say no, unless you're not saved.

If somebody older and mature who knows you is probing you to use what God has given to you, then be grateful. Or you young sisters, if some lady comes alongside of you sometime and says, now, I have some people that I go to visit, some ladies, they're older, and I want you to come along with me, then you go, even if you've got an exam next week, because they're trying to help you develop your gift.

But God has given gifts for the benefit of God's people, and one of the challenges in our days that makes assemblies unique and different, even though we might not be the biggest thing in the world, is that we believe not only in the public practice of the priesthood of believers, but we believe in the use of spiritual gifts, not for pride's sake, but for the sake of other people.

If you have it, God intends you to use it. Now, you say, how do you know? Don't worry about trying to figure out how you know. Just do what's in front of you, and you will be filling the role that God has.

You don't have to have a whole lifetime spread out in front of you, just take the next step that you know is right, and your gift will find a place in some assembly where you are, or in some work that God has for you.

So I see Paul go down to Lystra one time, Derby, and he says to the brother, and he said, how's Tim doing? Boy, he's a good young fella, you know, he's been saved since he was young, but he's pretty good.

And he drops over to Lystra, and what do you know about Timothy? Well, boy, I wish we had some more young fellows like him. Well, I would like him to go along with me. Would you be willing for that? Well, he's a bit sickly, you know, well, God can take care of that.

And he's a bit shy, God can take care of that. I've got a few other men that he'll be working with, I mean, Lucas is here, and Titus, and a few others, but I'd like him to come along. So he starts to learn how to develop that gift.

And now he gets here, and he writes this letter to Timothy, stir up the gift that is in me. That's his last word to him. And here in chapter 4 of 1 Timothy, he says, now don't neglect that. In other words, once you serve God and are willing to serve him, don't leave it, don't walk away from the place where you can use it.

There's not a whole lot of evangelical churches in the world you can go to where you can use your gift. But the assemblies of Christians who gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ according to the scriptures of truth, there is room for you, and there's room for you to be using your gift.

We were just recently over in India, Nepal. All first-generation Christians, all of them have come out either Hinduism or Islam, or some of them from Buddhism. Now I couldn't hear a word, I could hear all the words, but I didn't know what they were saying.

And they didn't have hymns. I've told you if you're from Stout, you have heard this before, but they don't have hymns. They had a few of the ones that we sing, but you know, we don't sing Oriental type music.

We sing kind of English type music, so they have half notes, and it doesn't even sound the same when you sing in Oriental music. And so here's all these young people who God has saved since the late 90s and through 2000, and they're at a place like this, a conference about the size of this, and they're singing the same hymn, and then they sing the same one again.

They didn't have a hymn book. So one of the men was there who was translating, and he said to us, he said, you know, we don't, English type of hymns don't go to our music. So he said, we tried it anyway, he said, we're writing our own hymns.

I said, would you mind telling me some of the words that you've written in your hymns? And he began to translate some of those words, and I thought, these young people have learned how to worship! And they sang it, you know, they put their eyes back, same as you do when you sing, and when you really get into it, you generally close your eyes and put your head back or down, and you let it come out, right?

Let it come out. And I watched, I said to those people, I said, I'm not gonna try and sing it to you, but I'm gonna watch your faces. And I turned my chair around so I could watch their faces, and they knew we were looking.

I said, because you know, when you do what God wants, not only is God delighted, and the people around you edified, but that's why we sing in our public meetings, because we edify each other, and we edify ourselves.

I said, you are enjoying it, and so are all the people around it, and I said, I don't even know the words, but I'm enjoying what you're saying, and I'm kind of putting my own words in it, because to me, gift shows itself in public meetings.

And you start using it, don't neglect that. Sometimes you might have to study them to find out what they are. You know, there's special abilities. Don't compare yourself with somebody else, but by use of these gifts that you have in these days in which we are living, we will get past what we don't like about, or may like about our government, or what we don't like, or may not like about the weather.

We can get past all of that to where we're up high enough that those things are pretty, pretty small. I mean, I don't like the idea of having to pay more taxes, but I'm not starving yet, obviously, 240 pounds, and I don't like to have to pay five dollars for a gallon of gas, but you go up to Kent, to Newfoundland, and you're paying a dollar fifty one or two a liter, so that's about six dollars a gallon.

But they still drive their cars. They can go anywhere they want. They go to the beach, they go down, but funny thing, people have said, I can't go to conferences because it costs too much money. You just keep using your gift, and you will find more open doors.

Than you would ever dream of, that God will open a door for you. Now that young couple that were over there in Gangtok in Sikkim, that's a northern province of India, they were just down here in Toronto.

They came over, he's, the workers over in that part of the world are in their 30s, and there's refugees from the Nepali country, or those that speak Nepal, Nepali, in Bhutan, out in Connecticut. Believe it or not, they're over in Connecticut.

And here, two women, Patty and Katie, I'm not going to mention their name, but two women are over there, and they're helping those people. And a couple of weeks ago, for two weeks, G -1 and Rachel were there in Connecticut, in that Newington assembly, having gospel meetings, 30, 40, 50 people in that hall, not saved.

God is bringing to us the mission field. We might not all go to the mission field, but God is bringing one to us. So get out there and learn Spanish, and get out there and learn Chinese, and get out there and start preparing yourself, and God can use that gift that he's given to further the work that you and I are involved in in these dark days.

And they're getting darker, but one day, after the, you know, after you pass 15 ,000 and some on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as you know, it's going to come down with a nosedive. And when it comes down far enough, you'll find people are going to look to God and look for somebody who can talk about God in a sensible way.

The Gospel as the Power of God

Use the gift, and you'll find that God will use you. Give you lots of places to use. Notice, I'm going to read another portion, and this is about the power of God. That's in the book of Romans, chapter 1, and I want to speak to you a little bit about the power of God, because this is another one of the things of God that is showing itself, and will greatly and continue to show itself more and more in these dark days.

We don't need to be afraid of the dark. That's for little people that don't know God, and they don't know the way, but we who are Christians don't need to be afraid of the dark, because we have the things of God on our side, the will of God, and the gift of God, and now we got the power of God.

Notice Romans chapter 1, and this is a verse that comes to you probably right away, and verse 15. So as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are Rome also, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

You ever get embarrassed about the gospel? You ever get embarrassed by being a Christian? You wonder, it doesn't seem to fit right here. Well, I got my first taste of that the day after I got saved, so if you haven't, it's gonna come.

I'm on a school bus going to high school, and I was enjoying being saved, but I knew people knew me around town and around our part of the world, and I figured, boy, this is great, until I'm about halfway there, and I'm thinking, oh boy, time I get down to that big high school, in front of those big glass doors, there's gonna be people out looking in there saying, he's coming!

They knew the word would have got around town, Gaius got saved last night. Sure enough, and I'm on this bus, and I'm thinking about this, and I'm getting embarrassed, and I thought, oh maybe I'm not even saved, because I didn't think a Christian should ever be embarrassed or ashamed of the Lord Jesus, and sure enough, they were there, 30 of them, guys and girls, and as soon as the school bus I was on came along to a stop, the glass doors opened and they came out, some got down on their knees, and they put their hands in a prayerful attitude, said, bless me, Father, for I've sinned, and pray for me, Padre, and put your hand on me so I can be healed, you know, they're going all this nonsense, and here am I getting smaller and smaller.

I needed some power, I needed the power of God. I was that nervous, I gave the shortest testimony I've ever had in my life, and probably the shortest speech I ever gave, about 45 seconds, I could tell them the whole thing, how I saw through the shed blood of the Lamb on the doors down in Egypt, that God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you, and instead of the Lamb's blood, it was Jesus' blood that was shed for me, and I put my trust in him who died and shed, gave his life for me, and somebody started to laugh, and we had a fella there, I had to tell you a story because this is in the afternoon, I know you're getting tired a little bit, and so one guy was big, and he reached over to this mocker, and he said, look, he picked up by the back of the shirt, he says, look, you be quiet, you asked him to tell you, so let him speak, go on, go off, he said, keep preaching.

Well, that kind of helped me a little bit, but when I went through the door of that school, a fella followed me in, and he said to me, he said, you know, I want that, I want that very same thing, and he was at the meeting that night, and God saved him that night, and in our assembly, he's still there, the only one who can actually participate, 50, almost 62 years that that happened.

There's power in the gospel that you and I preach, there's power to change people's lives, and we've got good news about God's Son, this is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

Grace, the Word, the Spirit, and Prayer

Before I close here, I want to just give you a few verses, and I'll have you turn with me. First of all, to the book of Acts chapter 4, and we're going to look at some of those spiritual powers that we have today available to us.

Chapter 4 of the book of Acts, and I want to read verse 33, and with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. So we are not left helpless.

One of the things of God that we have in these days to use is the power of God, and what do we have here? The power of God's grace, great power. We'll speak about that in a minute. Turn over to chapter 19, Acts 19, and we'll read here just verse number 20.

So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed. So what power do we have in relation to the power of God? We have the power of God's grace, we got the power of God's Word. Go back to Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 1, and reading verse 8.

But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. So spiritual powers available to us as we present and use the power of God is God's grace, God's Word, and we have God's Spirit.

We have that. One more just in chapter 4 again. Back to chapter 4, Acts chapter 4, and I want to read verse 29. And now Lord behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word.

What were they doing? Praying. So he hasn't given us the challenge of the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, without enabling us to do it. He has, we know his will, he would have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

He has given us gifts so we have the ability to serve, but we also have the power to serve God. We are not left helpless babes like a kitten on a rock in the middle of a pond. With great power. You know, there's a verse tells us that we're sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

So don't you worry about how tough it might be in furthering the gospel. We have missionaries here and we pray for you. I think the ones that are here we probably pray for by name most every day. My wife and I have a fashion since our children went away from home to pray out loud twice a day together.

A guy thing is that we pray about things and a woman thing is they pray about people. It kind of goes pretty good together. I mean she she's good at the people thing and I kind of know the situations and so we we do that and it's one of the high spots of our life.

We do it in the morning and we do it at night. The reason I mentioned that is because this world is being visited by God in places that used to be right here in Iowa years ago. My great-grandfather had a man to work for him up in North Dakota years ago and that man got saved.

Those days they were a little rougher on their texts and the walls in their houses. He had a big big text way across the wall over where all the hired men washed and says the wicked shall be turned into hell and all nations that forget God and so everybody that washed their face and hands before dinner saw that text.

But this man got saved and he came right down here to Gutenberg one time in the fall of the year after the farming was over and he wanted to tell his family how he had gotten saved and they gave his testimony and lo and behold if there wasn't a man from over in Waterloo was over in Gutenberg visiting the family and his name was Hermans and and the Lord saved Mr. Hermans and Mr. Hermans heads back on home to near Waterloo and lo and behold who lives next to him Oliver Smith and through Mr. Hermans Oliver Smith gets saved and where does all that start?

God. The strings are attached all over this world. God is at work. We've had times of visitation in Newfoundland where we've preached for 53 years, getting older, but there were times of visitation when there's moves all across that province.

It's faded away a bit but it doesn't change the need and the value of those assemblies that present the gospel. Now you fellas that are working down in Mexico keep pushing on that gospel work. God has got times of visitation, they come and go.

The same is happening down in El Salvador where brother is from and his sister are from. Or over in the northern part of India there have been assemblies in India for 150 years almost but the Nepali people right across the top have never got the gospel until the last 20 years or less.

But God is working and he's working by his grace. You know not only is the gospel of the grace of God but you and I need grace when it comes to the working of the power of God. We need grace and we can get it.

We're not left to flounder. We need grace to preach the gospel. We need grace to come across to people so they'll listen, and you can get it in several ways. One of them is, according to 2nd Peter, grace and peace is multiplied through the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.

So that means you've got to keep reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John if you're going to get a knowledge of the Lord. Read it over and over and over until you know how he talked to sinners and you know how he talked to sick people and you know how he talked to the grieving people.

We need grace to be able to connect with the power of the gospel and you can get it by being humble. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble so you get it as a gift, free. But you've got to be humble.

That's the catch. But then we also can go to the throne of grace. We can go and ask for it. And we need mercy so we go and ask for mercy and then we ask for grace to help in time of need. And then another thing that happens in times like this is we minister grace to each other.

So we're not left powerless because one of the spiritual powers that is available to us today in the gospel is God's grace has not diminished in any way at all. But the Lord was here full of grace and truth and just before he left he said to his disciples, now as the Father sent me, so send I you.

How did he come? Full of grace and truth in the flesh, in a body. Now that's what this world wants to see is grace and truth and you and me in the body, full of it. So that then there will be power in our work for God, the power of God.

But not only do we have God's grace but we've got God's Word. I was going to... I only got two minutes. I'll just mention this. When you pass on truth, keep it biblical, keep it timely, and be compassionate.

Let people know you feel what you believe. Don't be tough and hard-nosed and cut-and-dried. People are looking for somebody who cares. So when you speak for God, whether you're teaching a Sunday school class or whether you're teaching preaching the gospel or reaching over in Postville or wherever it is that you might be working, keep it biblical, keep it timely, and let your emotions show from time to time.

You ever think what it's like to be in hell five minutes after you died? The night before I got saved, before I went to bed, Mother had this little paper and she said, I want you to do something for me tonight.

I said, sure, Mom. I'm a teenager, you know. Yeah, Mom, sure, whatever. You know I will love you. I'll do whatever you want, Mom. Oh, promise me though. Look me here and promise. I said, Mom, have I ever let you down?

Now she said, don't be smart with me. Promise. I said, yes, Mother. She said, read this before you sleep. 48 hours in hell. Boy, you talk about taking the pins up from under you. I probably was awake half the night thinking about what the first 48 hours in hell would be like, but there's power in the gospel, whatever.

I knew she was grieving and anxious for me. There was power in the simple word you promised. Read this, please, before you sleep. Then we have another. We have God's Spirit, and we need to make sure that there is nothing ever allowed in our lives that will grieve or quench the Holy Spirit, and we need to nurture spiritual freshness in us all the time.

Prevailing Prayer and Faithful Service

And finally, for the power of God at work in us, prevailing prayer. You find somebody that you can pray with. I would strongly suggest you young people find a praying partner. And when you get in your car and you're going to go off somewhere to a conference someplace, you don't just need to pray for safety, but you're going to have pressures come up.