(The Foundation and the Building) a Concern for God's Name — Zac Poonen

The Three Directions of a Balanced Christian Life

Looks in three directions, and if he looks in all three directions, he is a balanced Christian. It is good for us to always examine ourselves and see whether we are looking in three directions. The first direction is, of course, upward, where we look at the Lord in worship, and the second is, as a result of that, inward, where we see our own need.

In Isaiah chapter six, you see that very clearly. When God gave Isaiah a vision of the throne, he looked up and he saw the Lord, lofty, exalted, and he entered into that spirit of worship. And that's what we seek to do when we begin every meeting.

If it's not going to be a ritual, it should be a time of worship. All may give thanks and praise in the meeting, but only few among those who are praising the Lord may be worshiping, because that's a matter of the spirit.

And as soon as Isaiah looked up and saw there, he looked within, because he saw his need. And that's always what happens when we see the glory of the Lord. Verse five, he said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips.

I live in the midst of people of unclean lips, because mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. So there he says that he suddenly was aware of sin in the way he was using his tongue, his lips, his speech, which he was not aware of before.

Now, generally speaking, I would say most of us are not aware of the sins of speech that we are committing probably regularly every day. It needs a revelation from the Lord to be able to see that, not just a message from the pulpit.

Isaiah probably heard lots of messages from the pulpit, but when he saw the Lord, that's what happened to Job, you know, he said in Job 42, he says, I've heard of you, so many messages, Lord, so many preachers, but now I see you, and I repent in dust and ashes.

How do we know whether we have seen the Lord or not? We're just saying, I want to see you. If you really see him, then immediately you will be aware of your sin. And when we are not aware of our sin, that means we have not seen him.

We've heard about him, Job heard about him, and he was not convicted. In fact, Job heard four preachers preach to him, and he used to just argue back and argue back. And I've seen people, even when you point out their sin, they're not willing to accept it.

People who are not born again, you tell them they're not born again, they won't accept it. You tell them you're not spiritually minded, you're downright carnal, they won't accept it. How many of you sitting here would accept if some brother came and told you, brother, I think you're pretty carnal?

No, we don't like to accept it. Job didn't. A lot of preachers preached to him. But one day Job saw the Lord, and he realized his real condition. One day Isaiah saw the Lord, and he realized his real condition.

Worship That Brings Conviction and Spiritual Light

So when we look up, if we have really worshipped, and we've really seen the Lord, and not just clapped our hands and had a good time. They have a good time in the worldly sing-song sessions too. Exciting time, emotions are stirred.

Rock groups, they're really excited when they have a one-hour rock concert. But at the end of it, they're not convicted of sin. Nothing has happened. I think that's true of a lot of Christians too. They come, they go through the motions of praise and worship, but they're never convicted of their sin.

So that's something we must always examine ourselves by, otherwise we can fool ourselves. Oh, you've seen the Lord, we are worshipping him, and all that type of stuff. Are you getting light on things that you didn't have light on earlier?

That's a pretty good test. I believe that one of the greatest marks of the Lord's blessing upon our life is that he gives us light on things which I never had light on before. In fact, if I stop getting light any time in my life, I'm disturbed.

I'm just as disturbed as if suddenly my hand became numb, or I don't have any sensation now, something's wrong. We should feel like that. When we don't have a sensation, is it possible that I'm living for so many days without sin?

Or is it possible that I'm not getting light? I think it's more possible that we're not getting light. So we're not really seeing the Lord despite all our songs of, I want to see him, and all that type of stuff.

So that's the second direction a spiritual man looks inside. But then, some of us may be doing it, maybe we hear a message after the time of praise and worship, and then we see inside. Now that's second best.

The best is if you see the Lord, and you get light on yourself. Second best is you hear a message. Well, in a message too, you can see the Lord. That's also possible. So if you see the Lord in the message, and see yourself, that's good.

But it's possible that some people just hear a message and get convicted. That won't last. And that's the reason why many people make a lot of decisions in messages, and they've got to keep repeating it year after year after year after year.

They're very sincere, but they never got through to the Lord. They came up to the message and stopped there. Well, the third thing a spiritual man, he looks up and he looks in, and he looks outward to other people.

Isaiah’s Call to Outward Witness

That's what we see here thirdly in Isaiah. I heard the voice of the Lord, verse 8, saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? He said, Lord, here am I. Send me. Then he said, Go to these people and give them this message.

So we find the upward look, and then the inward look, and then the outward look. And it's likely that with most of us, even if we've got as far as the inward look, and we've seen ourselves, our need, we may not have continued on to see what the Lord wants us to do for others.

And that is not something we do in the meeting. In the meeting, we can look up and look in. Stop, full stop. The looking outward is the rest of the week, till we come back again. And how much we are doing it, how much we are concerned, how much we are burdened, you know and God knows.

But that's an area where we may be lacking sadly, and that may be the reason for a lot of our imbalance, and a lot of our spiritual problems. You know, in the Christian world, we can say that in a lot of Christianity today, they're only looking outward.

They're not looking up, they're not looking in. Or if they are looking up, they're certainly not looking in. They're always looking outward, there's a need here, there's a need there, we've got to reach these people, we've got to reach this group and that.

It's all very good. But the whole thing is so shallow, because they don't go the way Isaiah went, to first looking up and looking in and then going out. They just go out. Or maybe they look up and go out.

And so, many of us have seen that. We can react against that, this pendulumitis, and say, well the main thing is to look in. So we spent 20 years looking inside, and we have a lot of problems. You know why the problems are?

Because we're not balanced. And we listen to a message and say, boy, that's it. God really spoke to me that day. But as we look at our life in the subsequent weeks and months, we don't seem to see much change.

Because looking up and looking in is relatively easy. The test is when we look out, when we seek to make our Christian witness manifest to other people. I'm sure many of us have acknowledged our failure in worship.

Lord, we're not worshipping you enough. We probably acknowledge our failure in not seeing ourselves as God sees us sufficiently. But I wonder how many of us have been concerned about our failure to be witnesses for Christ as he wants us to be.

In fact, the whole purpose of being filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus said in Acts 1 .8, is to receive power, to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth. Now that can come only if we first have a burden.

What God gave Isaiah was a burden. He said, I want to send somebody. Isaiah said, here am I. Send me. Then the Lord said, okay, I'll give you a message. Go and tell these people this. Isaiah chapter 6 is a wonderful chapter.

You read it, you'll get a picture of a balanced Christian life. What is the thing that we should be concerned about most? I'm not saying that we should all now go out knocking at people's doors and giving them tracts.

I know people do that and those who have a burden should do it. I've not had a burden for that myself. I don't think Jesus went to every house in Galilee and knocked on the door and said, I don't see him doing that.

I don't see Paul doing that. That's why I don't do it. But some people have a burden for it and I think they should do it if they have a burden. But it was the... Jesus was a very powerful witness on earth, you know.

He said, I'm the light of the world into a dark world. He came as a light. And you know how it is in a dark street. If you see one house lit up with a generator, you know it's different. It stands out in all the other houses that don't have a generator when the power cut is on.

It's something like that. How Jesus stood out in a dark world. I mean, maybe in one tiny little house. But it was such a powerful light that, you know, when a world full of darkness could make out, stands different.

Jesus was like that. And the apostles were like that. And that's the meaning of being a witness. To me, the incident of the burning bush is really a picture of what it means to be a witness. Among all the bushes, one burned and it made Moses stop.

The Holy Spirit Manifesting Christ Through Believers

And that's the first dwelling place of God that we read in the Bible. And from there, God could speak. There's a picture of Jesus. God tabernacled in the bush. God tabernacled in Jesus. And God wants to tabernacle or dwell in us.

And that's the whole purpose of the coming of the Holy Spirit. That God may manifest himself through us. That his glory will be radiated through us. And that's why you probably heard me say very often that I have a question about a lot of the so-called baptisms in the spirit that people seem to receive nowadays.

And I don't find many people having that type of question. They say, well, it's just baptizing the Holy Spirit. Well, I hope so. And then they say, oh, he's spoken in tongues. And you've often heard me say, well, speaking in tongues doesn't prove that you're baptized in the Holy Spirit.

And I never, never saw or read any Pentecostal or Charismatic. I mention them because they're the ones who preach baptism in the Holy Spirit. Book or tape or anyone saying what I was saying. Till last week, I read something by a man who died in 1935.

And he had lived more than 40 years as a spirit or 35 years. I think he was filled with the Holy Spirit in 1900. And he died in 1935 as a 65-year-old man. And he had a tremendous ministry who brought many thousands of people to Christ.

And many were healed through his prayers. And he said somewhere in 1920, about 20 years after the first great Pentecostal revival in the United States. His brother was in the United States. He wrote this in the 1920 or so.

He said, the baptisms in the spirit that I see nowadays are not at all like the ones I saw in the early days. Those brought power. These folks don't seem to have it. And then he said that by making them convinced or by making them speak in tongues and forcing them to speak in tongues.

What happens is, you've made them content with something they haven't got or which they think they've got. I never found anybody say anything like that. It thrilled my heart. And at last I found somebody who agreed with me.

And he wrote that over 80 years ago. Can you imagine how much things have declined since those, in these 80 years? And he said he would never be satisfied with that type of baptism in the Holy Spirit.

And I myself have been challenged. You know, the apostles had a power which made them real bold witnesses for Christ. And Jesus, in relation to the power of the Holy Spirit, he said we've got to seek.

We've got to thirst. I want to show you two passages in relation to the Holy Spirit where he used these words. One is John 7. You know this passage. In John 7 he said that if any man thirsts in relation to the power of the Holy Spirit.

In John 7 verse 37 to 39 he used the word thirst. And you know what thirst is. It's such a tremendous longing for water. It's not the type of thirst all of us may have right now. We may drink a little water.

Not that type of thirst. It's a sort of a desperate thirst. Man's been without water in a desert for three days. And he's about to die. They say that you can't really live more than three days without water in a really dry area.

Three days is about the maximum. Without a drop of any liquid. Thirst is a very powerful thing. More than hunger. A man can fast from food for 40 days but not from water for more than three days. It drains you, especially if you're in a hot desert place.

That's thirst. And Jesus said if anyone's thirsty like that, come to me and drink. And out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. It's God's will. Because the Spirit was not yet given like that because Jesus was not glorified.

Asking, Seeking, and Knocking for the Holy Spirit

And the other passage is Luke chapter 11. Where also Jesus speaks about the Father giving the Holy Spirit in verse 13. He said if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

And in this connection also He told us how to ask. You know this desperate verses 5 to 8. This chap knocking at his neighbor's door and saying give me some bread for my visitor. And Jesus said in verse 9, ask, seek, knock.

Because everyone who asks like this will receive. Everyone who seeks like this will find. And everyone who knocks like this will be, it will be open. What about all those people who don't ask like this?

Just occasionally ask. Or just ask and say Lord I believe I've got it. Well, suppose they don't get anything. Or those who don't seek like this because they're too lazy. Or those who don't knock like this because they got tired after knocking two or three times.

Now if the fullness of the Spirit was something which you know you once get and that's it for life. Like marriage. You know you can't be married today and unmarried twenty years later. It's not possible.

You can be divorced but you can't be unmarried. Once you're married it's for life. But baptism in the Holy Spirit or even being born again is not like that. You can lose your salvation and definitely you can lose the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

There are thousands of cases all around us. So it's something that we need to, actually the apostles themselves we read of the apostles being filled with the Spirit again and again. Now if the secret of this is a constant hunger, a constant asking, a constant seeking, a constant knocking.

We can ask ourselves how to create this desire within us. Do we always have to come to a meeting to get stirred up and challenged and it doesn't seem to last. Don't you remember the number of times you've come to a meeting here and got all stirred up and you thought this is it.

And it wasn't it. I mean you did get stirred up there's no doubt about it but it didn't seem to last. It's worn out. Well I want to suggest something to you today. If you take it seriously, I believe it could really help you in this area.

And that's related to the first prayer that Jesus taught us to pray in this Luke 11 itself. In Luke 11, before he came to asking for the Holy Spirit, he said, When you pray, verse 2, first of all say, Father, hallowed be thy name.

A Burden for God’s Name to Be Hallowed

So let's start there. Do you know that except for maybe Anglicans and others who repeat that prayer every day, or Jacobites and others who repeat that prayer every day, most Christians almost never pray, hallowed be thy name.

They pray for a thousand things but not hallowed be thy name. Because they say we're not supposed to repeat the Lord's Prayer, I agree. I'm not saying the people who repeat the Lord's Prayer mean it either.

I'm just saying it is apparent and it's worthless. But Jesus taught us, if you really want to pray, start with praying, God, Father, I want your name to be glorified in my life, in Bangalore, in India.

And then I look around and see it's not being glorified in my life. The name of Jesus is not being glorified in Bangalore. Who cares for Jesus in Bangalore? Many times when I travel in a train or anything, I look at the multitudes of people on a railway platform or in a train and I say, how many of these people know Jesus?

Even those who call themselves Christians. There's such a tremendous ignorance of Jesus Christ. And here I am, God's placed me, I'm supposed to be a spiritual Christian. What am I? Is the light shining?

Do these people see something? Do they see something different in my life? In my words, my behavior, in my home? And that really brings us to need. Lord, your name is blasphemed among the heathen. You know, it's one of the charges that the Lord made against Israel, which is quoted in Romans chapter 2, verse 24.

The name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you. I'll never forget the words of the second president of India. You've probably heard me quote that before. President Radhakrishnan was a Hindu man who had a great respect for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Very observant man, he had spent many years observing Christians in all that they preach, read the Bible. And he said to the Christians once, you Christians make such extraordinary claims, but you live such ordinary lives.

You make such extraordinary claims, but you live such ordinary lives. I have never forgotten that. I have taken it as a personal challenge to myself. Am I one of those who's making extraordinary claims?

You know, the tremendous promises in scripture. This, this, this, this, this, you know, whatever you ask in my name, I'm going to get it, this, that and the other. And then when it comes to sin shall not have dominion over me, Satan's crushed under my feet, you know, fantastic claims.

And then our God rules the universe, and all authority in heaven and earth belongs to Christ, and all these tremendous things we say, and then we look at our life and the way we live at home, and it's just very, very ordinary, just like any other atheist.

Maybe a little decent and upright, like some decent atheist, let's say. God's name's not being glorified. And then you look at Bangalore, God's name's certainly not, Jesus' name's certainly not glorified in Bangalore.

I mean, we don't have any doubt about that. Jesus' name's certainly not glorified in India. Look at the bad names so many preachers bring upon Jesus, by the way they live, their attitude to money, the covetousness, the false reports, and all types of things.

I want to ask you, do these things concern us? Do these things burden us? These things have burdened me for 25 years, and they bring me to need. Lord, I want your name to be glorified in this land, I want your name to be glorified in this city, I want your name to be glorified in our church, and I want your name to be glorified in me, and in my home, my children.

Hallowed be thy name. Try beginning to pray that prayer. Just one prayer. Lord, I want your name to be glorified. It's a tremendous prayer. I'll tell you, 1 of Christians maybe pray it, 99 do not.

Check your own life. Let me turn you to a psalm. Psalm 115. I don't know whether you've ever read this psalm. I'm sure you've read it in your routine Bible reading, but taking it seriously, I read it again today, and it really blessed my heart.

It's as though I had noticed some things here. Glorify your name, not ours, O Lord. It's the Living Bible. Psalm 115, verse 1. Not to us, O Lord. Not to us. But to thy name give glory. Hallowed be thy name.

It's Old Testament. The psalmist was also concerned that God's name should be glorified. And, let me read in the Living Bible. Cause everyone to praise your loving kindness and your truth. Why should the nations say, why should the people say, where is their God?

Where is their God? These Christians who make such extraordinary claims that their God can do this, that, and the other. Where is their God? They seem to live such ordinary lives. But our God, here is a contrast between our God.

Verse 3. He's in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. That's an extraordinary claim. And we compare our God with idols. The idols are silver and gold. The work of man's hands. Those idols have mouth but they cannot speak.

Those idols have eyes but they cannot see. Those idols have ears, but they cannot hear. Those idols have noses, but they cannot smell. Those idols have hands, but they cannot feel. Those idols have feet, but they cannot walk.

Quite picturesque, the way the psalmist describes idols and people who worship them. They cannot make a sound with their throat, and then he says, those who make them become like them, powerless and paralyzed.

What he's saying is, if your God, I'm going to paraphrase this whole thing, if the God you worship cannot speak to you, cannot hear what you're saying, cannot do something for you, he cannot work on your behalf, after some time, you will become like that God.

You'll become spiritually blind, and deaf, and dumb, and powerless, but still you'll continue to make these extraordinary claims that our God is like that. You think that's a pretty accurate picture of a lot of Christians?

What do you think? Of course, none of us, we are okay, right? It's all those other people out there. We can always think the problem is with other people. That's exactly what the devil wants us to think.

Judgment must begin in the house of God, the Bible says. Must begin with us first. Those who make them will become like them. Everyone who trusts in them. O church, verse 9, trust in the Lord. He's our help and our shield.

Trust in the Lord. You who fear the Lord, verse 11, trust in the Lord, he's our help and shield. Lord has been mindful of us, he will bless us. What I was thinking of was, I've been thinking about this for quite some time.

The Resurrection as the Christian Witness

I say, Lord, in what way can I manifest to all these people of many religions around me in this city, or wherever I go, that the God I worship is a living God? You know, the most important witness that the apostles had was their witness to the resurrection of Jesus.

If you read the Acts of the Apostles, you'll never find them saying, we are witnesses of his crucifixion. They mention it, they immediately mention resurrection, immediately. They were witnesses of his resurrection.

The most important single truth, the most important single truth that the apostles gave witness to was not that they spoke in tongues, but that Jesus Christ was alive. We've got that written outside our church building now.

Jesus Christ is alive. But it takes more than words to prove that. That is an extraordinary claim. Jesus Christ is alive. How do I prove it? Just by writing a word, a verse? Supposing one of these heathen religions talk about their God and say, our God is alive.

And then some fellow from another religion, there are probably hundreds of religions, everybody says, our God is alive. It's something like the challenge that came to Elijah on Mount Carmel. Is Baal God or Jehovah God?

Who is the real God? And Elijah was so filled with the spirit, he challenged those prophets of Baal. I'll prove to you, fellas, who is the true God. Now, we may not be called to a ministry like Elijah, but we should have a burden.

You know, we look up, we look in, we don't stop there. We've got to look outward and say, Lord, what is our testimony to this city, to this country, to the people I work with? Would they know that I believe in someone, a God who came as a man and went into the grave, killed and rose up alive.

Therefore delivered me from all fear of death because the one I follow has conquered death. Not afraid of cancer, not afraid of martyrdom, not afraid of accidents or anything like that. Because the Lord I follow is one who went into the grave and came out.

And that's why I'd say everyone who's afraid of death is thereby proving that Jesus is not alive. It's a tremendous thing to be free from the fear of death. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15 says, it's a slavery when a man has got fear of death.

And Jesus came, it says, not only to deliver us from sin, but there it says to deliver us from the fear of death with which the devil kept so many people in slavery for thousands of years. They could not be free because nobody had conquered death.

Naturally you're afraid of something which nobody's been able to conquer. It's like these fairy tales of children, some great dragon or something like that, that nobody has been able to conquer and the whole village is terrified of this dragon until somebody goes and kills it.

Then the fear is gone. So that's what Jesus did. And they were witnesses of his resurrection. Jesus Christ is alive. I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, that we really examine ourselves and see whether our lifestyle, the way we live, the way we do things, that there is some indication that Jesus Christ is alive.

Or are we also followers of a dead religion, a dead religious leader, who taught a lot of good things like Buddha or some other person, but of course was dead and gone now. Mahatma Gandhi taught a lot of good things.

They're all dead and gone. This has been a burden on my own heart. Lord, we want not just to sing songs and listen to good messages, get stirred emotionally now and then. We want to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is alive.

I mean, how to do that, that's up to you. But I'm burdened about it. I'm not trying to tell God how to do it. I don't have to tell God how to do it. God knows how to do it. But I think God can't do anything in me until I have a burden.

You know, a burden is like conceiving a baby. You know, you can't have a baby unless you conceive it first. It takes some time, some months for the baby to come out. But you have to conceive it first.

And the burden that God puts in our heart is like that. A little burden. I want to encourage those who have years to hear this evening, to have a little burden. That the Lord's name will be hallowed in your life, in your home, in this city, in this country.

That we look a little more outward in the days to come. The need is so great. Tremendously great. Everywhere. All around us, so many religions proliferating and zealous propagators of cults and religions, all saying that they've got the real thing.

What is the difference here in this psalm between the God and the idols of other religions? It's this. Our God can hear, see, speak, feel. And their God cannot do any of those things. So, if by our life we demonstrate that our God doesn't do much for us, and He can't see what problems we are going through.

And, I don't know whether He hears us, we pray all right, but whether He hears us or not, I don't know. And speak to us. I mean, we hear men, powerful men speaking, but God, I don't know. I want to ask you, my brothers and sisters, is your Christianity really just an imaginary thing, which you have in your mind?

Maybe you were born in that faith. It's a good thing to have. It helps you to live a decent life. Good to be in a church where people care and love one another. And where we hear some good messages now once in a while, especially for our children.

We don't want our children to be drug addicts and drunkards, so it's good to bring them to Sunday school. Christianity becomes a sort of a moral improvement society to preserve our children and our family, so different from what it was for the apostles.

They were witnesses of the fact that Jesus Christ is alive. And God, the Lord shows us something, shows us that we can't attain to it, then makes us seek Him. You know, I believe that's the whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount Reveals Our Need

Matthew 5, 6 and 7 are some of the most challenging chapters in the whole Bible. I don't know if you ever found three chapters like that. I read them for 44 years and they still challenge me. And it's as if there is no answer given in those three chapters, how to get this life?

You know, it says so many wonderful things there. Blessed are the poor in spirit, but doesn't tell me how to be poor in spirit. Blessed are the pure in heart, how to be pure in heart. And you should never lust with your eyes, but how to do it.

And you shouldn't get angry, how to do it. Always speak the truth. Your yes must be yes, your no must be no. You mustn't love money. You mustn't do anything for human honor. It's absolutely fantastic.

You will never judge anybody. By the time you come to the end of the life, you're expecting an answer and the Lord says, anybody who does these things has built his house on the rock. Still no answer.

And that's the end of the... Is that the end? Amen. Hey, the thing I'm looking for is not here. How in the world to get this life? God left it like that, to see how many would be honest and say, Lord, such a life is possible, otherwise you would not have commanded it.

Second, I have not attained to such a life, but I want such a life. God, show me the way. He did not write down the way there because He wanted us to seek Him to experience that life. Not by an answer in a book, but by a living contact with God through the Holy Spirit.

That's why the Sermon on the Mount, you read through the whole thing. It never tells you how to attain that life. It's the most wonderful life described in the whole Bible, but never tells you how to get there.

And some people can read through the whole thing. You know what one group, I won't name them because you know that group, one good evangelical group in Christendom, widespread all over the world, preaches that Matthew 5, 6 and 7 is not for us, it's for the Jews.

At least they're honest. They say, we can't live this life, it's for the Jews. The bigger hypocrites are the people who say, it is for us, but don't live it. That's the thing. God has kept it there to see how many people, when they finish reading it, will be honest and say, God, I haven't got this.

I mean, you don't have to go even to Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Here and there, God places a few verses like that. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. God sees a lot of Christians reading it, maybe 1 or less, acknowledge that I don't have this life.

Lord, I'm not rejoicing always. Something's wrong. 99 read it and go to the next verse, and go to the next verse and say, I've finished my Bible reading for today. Tomorrow I go to Colossians chapter 1.

What should God do for such people? Exactly what they deserve, nothing. But some fellow gets stuck in Philippians 4, 4 for weeks.

He can't get past it. Because he says, God, this is something. Am I supposed to have this?

Or many other verses like that. Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph for the peace of God which passes all understanding. God, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Be anxious for nothing.

Don't be ever afraid. Imagine taking a verse like, don't be afraid. Somebody said it's written 52 times,.

Or is it 365 times? I don't know. 52 times throughout the Bible.

One for every week of the year. Fear not. Don't be afraid. Just imagine if you just took that verse and said, Lord, I want to take that seriously. I don't seem to be living there. I'm afraid of all types of things.