And I Sought for a Man — Carter Conlon

I have a word, though, from the Lord this morning. I shared this at the school on Thursday night, and God came in a profound way among the students and those that were visiting from the community, and the Lord gave me permission to share it this morning with you as well.

The Call to Stand in the Gap

It's a message that's simply called, And I Sought for a Man, from Ezekiel chapter 22, please, if you'll turn there, the book of Ezekiel chapter 22. Father, I thank you, God Almighty, for the anointing of your Holy Spirit.

I thank you, Lord, for your strength and for your power. I thank you, God, for faith that you plant in our hearts as we hear and respond to your word. You have the power, your spoken word has the power to create life, and so, God, we ask you to create life in us.

Give us courage to go forward. Give us faith to face the day in which we live. God, Almighty, give me the grace to speak this today, and give us all the grace to hear it. Lord, we thank you for it. Jesus, keep us.

We thank you in your precious name, amen. And I sought for a man, Ezekiel chapter 22, beginning at verse 23. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

There's a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things, and they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.

Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things. They put no difference between the holy and profane, and neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls and to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord, when the Lord has not spoken.

The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy, yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.

Therefore have I poured out mine indictation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God. Now this was an hour of declension in the nation of Israel, a people who had laid claim to walking with God.

They laid claim to knowing God and understanding the ways of God. But they had fallen far, far away from the pattern that was set for them by God himself in the testimony of scripture that had been given to them and the testimony of history as well.

And it's amazing, the land had come to a place where, you know, there's an Old Testament scripture that says when sin reaches a certain proportion, the land itself will spew the people out. The land cannot sustain, cannot hold the people any longer.

And especially those who claim to have known God, when sin reaches a certain point, God just releases his hand, just takes his hand of protection away and the nation will consume itself by virtue of its own behavior and its own standards it has begun to live by.

And you look at the verses that I just read to you and it says, there's a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion, ravening the prey, devouring souls, taking away the treasure and precious thing and making her many widows in the midst thereof.

Now the true prophetic call in the Old Testament was voices that God would raise to call the nation back to right living in the sight of God. When a nation is beginning to stray, when the people are turning away from righteous living, the voice of the prophet will be raised up to warn the people of what's coming, the succession of events that will unfold and what it will lead to if there's not a turning back to God again.

And the voice of the prophets had become compromised, taking away their precious things. In other words, the strength that could have belonged to the people, the treasure of God that was available for that generation and making her many widows means that the strength of the nation was being lost.

Family was beginning to break apart because the voice of God was no longer being clearly heard in many of the pulpits in the nation anymore. Her priests, those who stand in pulpits across the nation have violated my law.

They've profaned the holy things and they put no difference between the holy and profane. They've not showed the difference between that which is unclean and clean. They've hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I'm profaned among them.

A lightness had gotten into the ministry. There was no longer a clear line of demarcation between that which was of God and that which is not of God, that which leads to godliness and strength and that which leads away from God and brings weakness into the heart.

And there was this lightness. The prophets are not warning the nation. The priests have become light and profane in the pulpits. Verse 27, it says, Their princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey to shed blood, destroy souls and get dishonest gain.

Prophetic Compromise and National Decline

These are the leaders. These are the secular government leaders of the nation now. Everyone's in it for himself. There's no statesman anymore. Everyone is there for his own advantage. It's all about staying in power now at any cost.

And then there's a religion around this political movement that has largely lost the heart of God and the heart for the nation. It says, Their prophets have dobbed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies.

You'll see that repeatedly through history in Israel. When the nation is starting to move away, there'll be a ministry that lusts for power in many cases. And they will gather round about the throne and will tell secular leaders anything they want to hear as long as they can stand close to power.

They don't really care what it is. They don't care if it's truth saying to them, thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord has not spoken. And because of all these things, now you see the people are starting to break out.

The scripture says when there's no vision, the people perish. And that means there's no revelation of God, of the character of God. The people cast off restraint and sorely by now we must all recognize that in this nation we have cast off restraint.

Evil is now good and good is rapidly becoming evil. The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery. There's no sense of obligation socially or dutifully even to family now anymore. They've stolen the strength from others.

They vexed the poor and needy and they've oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And so here we see a break, a breakdown of a nation, a complete otter, social, spiritual, moral breakdown of a people. And the nation is about to come under judgment just by virtue of its behavior.

It's going to destroy itself. In our time that we're living in the, we look at the very basic unit of the family being destroyed right before our eyes. And we know historically, anybody who's ever studied anthropology, for example, or sociology knows that a society, when the family structure is lost, the society is going to unravel.

That's a historical fact that's not even open for debate anymore. Anybody who studied it knows this. Now God is just in judging the people who claim to know him and have allowed this kind of debauchery at every level in society to begin to govern them.

But look at the response. He said, I sought for a man among them to make up the head, stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it. But I found none. Therefore I poured out my indignation upon them.

I've consumed them in the fire of my wrath in their own way of recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God. And I see this simply as God just removes his hand and lets the society go where it wants to go.

Believing in Mercy Despite Judgment

I sought for a man. It's an amazing thought. God said, I just, I scoured the nation and I look for one person to stand in the gap. I look for one person to stand between the nation and God technically moving his hand away from the nation.

And it's an amazing thing because when you look at Israel, for example, the temple, there'd be all kinds of people going to religious services. They'd be all kinds of people studying the scriptures. There'd be people in that time that wanted to live moral lives.

They would at least be giving a marginal amount of trying to live morally and good spiritual lives. And so why is it that God couldn't find anybody? You'd think if his eyes are looking to and fro throughout the land to show himself strong on behalf of somebody whose heart is right towards him.

And I wonder, I can't help but wonder, is it possible he couldn't find anybody because it's not that they didn't study the scriptures or know the scriptures, but nobody believed anymore that he would show mercy.

It's possible to get into a mindset, even as the people of God, and so be gripped by the sense of judgment, the righteousness of judgment. We deserve judgment that we forget that mercy triumphs over judgment.

We forget that God is willing to be merciful. We look out in our streets and see what's on our media and just even the, I can't even stand listening to the news anymore. And we look at all of it and say, surely you're going to judge this.

And it becomes easy to agree with judgment when the evidence is before our eyes. But you see, if you don't know the heart of God, if we don't know the heart of God, we can get to a point where we don't believe anymore that God wants to show mercy.

And is it possible he couldn't find anybody who would still believe that he could use them for this purpose, despite all the natural odds being to the contrary. Every man, every woman, more or less looking towards their own resources and coming to the conclusion, well, God, I suppose could be merciful, but never through me.

Can you imagine if, if that moment of mercy had come to Gideon and he had, he had formed a wrong conclusion. God spoke to Gideon, called him a mighty man of valor. The nation is being swallowed literally by 135 ,000 Midianites have essentially come in at will and just take everything from the nation that people are trying to build.

And Gideon said to the messenger of God, he said, are you speaking to me? I'm the least, my father's house, my father's tribe is the least of the tribes of Israel. My father is the least of his tribe, and I'm the least in my father's house.

And in case you didn't notice, my father has an altar to a heathen God in the backyard. Are you sure you've got the right address? It's so easy to get to the point. What if God had come to Moses and Moses said, have you forgotten?

My call was 40 years ago. I'm 80 years old now. I don't have a sword. I've got no connections. Nobody in Egypt's even going to remember who I am anymore. And you're saying, you're telling me you're sending me into a nation to bring 3 million people out of bondage and into freedom.

Can you imagine if that, that moment of mercy had somehow passed him by? If God had sought for a man, but he couldn't find Gideon, couldn't find Esther willing to go into the king, even though she had no lineage, no parentage, no, no strength, no real influence at that moment.

Imagine if these moments of mercy, as I call them, had come and nobody could have been found how biblical history would be so different. We don't know what would have happened to God's people in Egypt or what would have happened in Gideon's dare or the numbers that would have been lost in the day when Esther had an opportunity to go in and petition for their future before the king.

Awakening and the Present Moment of Mercy

There are moments in history that I like to call an awakening, a spiritual awakening. It's where somebody somewhere, and at times many wake up, they just suddenly become aware of God's willingness to restore and to heal his willingness to show himself strong, his willingness in the midst of our poverty to release his riches once again, his willingness to take us not in our strength, but in our weakness.

Didn't the book of Hebrews say, it doesn't say come into the throne of God when you're strong. No, come in when you're weak to find help in your time of need. I think it's somewhat like an auctioneer who at unexpected and unannounced times throughout history pulls back the curtain and makes available an incredible treasure of mercy and power.

It's called a moment of awakening where the Lord begins to speak and says, I know your land is desolate. I know your prophets are not speaking for me. I know your priests are leading the people into powerlessness.

Your princes, every man is in it for himself now, and every woman, and there's this religion system around them just helping prop up their error. I know the people of the land have used oppression, exercised robbery.

They've vexed the poor and the needy, but I am willing one more time to be merciful. I'm willing to show my power and my mercy, and suddenly the curtain pulls back, and this incredible treasure that's only available, some people never see it in their lifetime.

Some people never get to know a moment like I believe has come upon us. The whole life, they never know this. All they can do is read about it. They can read about the Welsh revival, 1904, the prayer revival in New York City, 1857.

They can read about all these things, but they never get to see it in their lifetime. But I happen to personally believe that we are in a moment of mercy as a people. Whether you choose to believe it or not, I believe it with all my heart.

This is a moment of mercy. I believe that God has schooled my heart all of my life for this moment. I've been to Burundi, Nigeria, Jamaica. I've seen the miraculous happen. I've been to Argentina. I've watched what God can do all for this moment in history right now.

So God unveils the treasure one more time. The treasure of power. The treasure, when he said to Gideon, go forth, mighty man of great resources. That was actually the call he gave to him. That's why Gideon said, mighty man of great resources.

Are you sure you've got the right person? All I look at, I just see small, small, small, small, small. Every time I look at myself, that's all I see. My lineage, my parentage, my family, my history. You noticed I've got no certificates on the wall.

Have you noticed that I just hide in the backyard trying to gather up enough wheat just to feed my family? And you're calling me a man of mighty resources. And God says to him, yes, I am because I've given you a word.

I've sent my word to you. And all you need is the word of God to be a mighty man or woman of God. And so the treasure is unlocked one more time. And it's like an auctioneer that stands before the people and says, here stands behind you an invaluable treasure.

It's only revealed from season to season, unexpectedly and unannounced. And who will give me a hundred dollars? Who will give me 50? Silence. Who will give me 25, 10, five? Who will give me a dollar for the treasure?

Elijah, False Religion, and the Need for Decision

First Kings chapter 18, verse 21, Elijah built an altar. Now the prophets of Baal, which were godless religious leaders, whose really focus was on the cupboard in the field. It was all on provision. As long as provision was there, everybody was happy.

And there's hundreds of them. And they've built their altar and they're making their noise. Elijah builds another altar. The people's hearts are captivated by a religious falseness. It's not the religion that brings people to power and changes a nation.

And Elijah stands before the people having rebuilt the altar of God. And he says, if the Lord be God, follow him. And the people answered him not a word. They didn't know what to say. And they're looking at Elijah.

He's only one man. They're looking at his altar and there's nothing at the moment happening there. And they're looking at these other men who are making all the noise. They have access to the king. They have access to the king's court, all power.

And everything seems to be in their hand. But there's an inner knowledge that this religious system has fallen short of the glory of God. But yet still, they haven't got the courage to bring themselves to a position of answering.

And finally, as the people remain silent, so many filled with unbelief that the treasure could actually be theirs. Nobody steps forward. You see, he said, I sought for a man among them. There had to be whispers.

There had to be whispers as people went into the synagogue. There had to be whispers as people opened the text of scripture. God is not like he's just standing, he's speaking. And he's urging and he's talking to men and women that he wants to use for his glory.

But nobody steps forward. And one more time, the treasure is forfeited and hidden away until some undisclosed future time and people who could have been spared are lost. It's such a tragedy when God seeks for somebody in a season like you and I are living in now to show mercy to the nation.

Doesn't mean the nation will exist as it does now, 10 years from now. It's not about sandcastles and buildings anyway. It's about people. He wants to show mercy to people and he searches for somebody but couldn't find anybody who would believe that he could be merciful or they could be used for this purpose.

And therefore, the hand of God is lifted and the way of the people is recompensed as the scripture says on their own heads. And Ezekiel speaks of a generation that missed an opportunity for an incredible miracle.

Faith That Steps Forward

When you and I get to the throne of God one day and we get to understand the numbers of times throughout history that God was speaking, the numbers of places, the numbers of nations, the numbers of cities, where God was looking for somebody and you know, you and I know historically it doesn't take a lot of people to change the nation.

Just a few that believe that God is able and he's willing. That's all it takes. Doesn't take a hundred people to change your neighborhood. It only takes you if you believe that God is willing to show mercy.

But there's a problem that humanity always faces. Remember when the people of Israel came out of Egypt and for a season Moses went up into the mountain to commune with God. So they were left in a sense without a tangible voice from God just for a moment in history.

And when they were left not clearly hearing they built a God, a golden calf. And that's the problem of humanity. We always want a tangible, touchable, easy to understand relationship with God. One that offers security, asks of us nothing and poses no personal risk and requires little or no faith to follow.

But those who would be used of God to push back the self-destruction of this present moment in our time must not be of those who draw back in unbelief. But you and I must step forward in faith now for the glory of God and for the souls of men we must do it folks.

We don't have much time left now to get this right ahead of us. We must step forward in faith. We must believe God. We must have that same heart that David had as a teenager, King David, when he walked into the camp and he heard this mockery of God and the people of God and the army of God and something came into his spirit.

And he was offended that the name of God could be so brought into disrepute among God's own people that he went around the army as a teenager and said, why is nobody fighting with this? Why is everybody just standing still as if you don't have a God anymore?

Of course, the scripture says they were offended at him. But then he said, don't let any man's heart faint. I'll go fight this giant. And a teenager with a stone one more time, somebody who believed that God was willing to be merciful, somebody who believed that God could take the little he had and multiply it and use it for the glory of the kingdom of God.

He went into that valley, faced a giant and defeated him and brought the kingdom of the people of God back into faith again for that season. They come out of the holes where they were hiding. They come out of the caves.

Faith, Creation, and God's Word

They picked up their weaponry, began to fight. And the scripture says a great, great victory was won for the kingdom of God that day. Hebrews chapter 11. Tells us what faith is. Faith is a substance. Verse one of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.

For by it, the elders obtained a good report. And through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

That's the essence of faith. The essence of faith believes that the spoken word to my heart is all I need. God created the universe out of nothing. And so I don't have to have something. I just have to have a heart that can hear the word of God.

God spoke and said, let there be light. And there was light. God said, let there be birds. And there were birds. Let there be cattle. There were cattle. Let there be water. There was water. He speaks and out of nothing, something is created.

That's the essence of faith. It's the substance of what we believe for in our lives. It is the evidence of things that we don't see yet. It's by faith that the elders, those that have gone before us obtained a good report.

And through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Oh, thank God. Faith, faith, faith means we look away from the mirror.

We look, we turn away from what others have told us about ourselves. We turn away from what we believe about ourselves. Every voice that's ever spoken or condemned or told us you can only go this far and no farther, we put it all away.

And faith says, you speak, God, and I will go forward. And I will believe that you will give me the power to be everything you've called me to be and to do everything you've called me to do. I believe that with all my heart.

I will not stand here in unbelief when the God of this universe who created me in this image is speaking to my heart. I am going to get up and I'm going to go forward. I'm going to go forward in faith and I'm going to believe God for the miraculous to happen through my life.

I'm going to believe that the name of God will be glorified through my life and that people will be saved. They'll be brought out of prisons, out of bondage, out of pain, out of addiction. They're going to be brought out of hopelessness and they're going to be brought into the life that God won for them through his son on the cross of Calvary.

I believe that with all my heart. After all of our learning and all of our study and 2 ,000 years of books and tapes and testimonies, if we've gotten to the place in history where we don't believe that who Jesus Christ was still is today, what he has done he can still do today, then we are a people to be pitied of all people.

All of our learning is just going to be a bunch of knowledge without power. But I don't know about you but I'm not willing to stay there. I'm getting up and I'm going into what God has for my life. Hebrews 11, 6 says, It's impossible to please God without faith.

You will not please him by church attendance or Bible study or even prayer. Those things are good in themselves but without faith, it's impossible to please God. At some point, all of these things have got to produce something in my heart and in your heart that says, God, I give you my life.

I give you my home, my future. I give you everything I've got. Oh, Jesus, you open the door and I'm going to go through it. Faith adopts the plan of God even though it makes no sense to the natural mind.

Faith That Obeys the Impossible

By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as of yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

This man built a boat on dry land with no launching mechanism in a place where it hadn't rained for 100 years but he had a word from God and that's what faith is. Faith says, look, God, you have a plan.

It makes no sense to the natural mind but I'm going to follow the plan you lay out before me and I'm going to believe, God, that this is going to bring honor to your name and salvation to people who become part of what it is that you desire to do.

Verse 8 tells us that faith leaves the familiar to obtain the impossible. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed and went out not knowing whether he went.

Faith leaves the familiar. I know this only too well. I remember when I was a young Christian and I began to preach the gospel and out of preaching the gospel was born a church in the wilderness, really, just a small group of people out in a small little town and the Lord began to speak to my heart to pastor them, to leave my employment where I was successful at what I was doing and it had all of the things that go with it, the pension plan and the dental plan, all the rest of the plans that go with it, and God says, leave it all and go and pastor this group of people.

In this meeting in a hotel in a little wee town, it was dominated by a religion that really wasn't one that knew God and it was so strange because the most opposition I got to this leading was from Christians and people tried to say, what about your kids?

What about your retirement plan? What about your dental plan? Don't you see this as insanity? And I remember speaking, these were older Christians, many of them that I worked with and I remember telling them, but I feel God calling me.

You know, it's strange. How do we get to the point in the Christian church where God calling somebody is an odd thing to people? Everybody settles for just going to church, reading the Bible and somehow somebody's going I had one guy who was a Christian saying, you've been such a vocal Christian here, who's going to witness for Christ when you're gone?

And it was a Christian talking to me. I thought, what an odd statement. What about you? Faith leaves the familiar to obtain the impossible. There's a point where God will call and we have a tendency to restrict him in a sense to, I'll let you call me as long as it's between these two bookends here, as long as I keep my nine to five, as long as I don't lose my four, three B and everything else.

As long as it's in this context, you can call me. Folks, if that were the case, then there'd be nothing in Hebrews chapter 11. Everybody would have just, Abraham would have stayed and believe God to do something in his family.

Noah would search for a lake. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 11 to 12 tells us that faith believes for the ability to accomplish what God has promised. Through faith, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised and therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead.

So many as the stars of the sky and multitude and the sand, which is by the seashore innumerable. So faith adopts the plan of God, even if it makes no sense to the natural mind. Faith leaves the familiar to obtain the impossible and faith believes God for the ability to accomplish what God has promised.

And folks, I've lived through this and I know this to be true. And without faith, it's impossible to please God. Isaiah chapter 59, verse 19 says, when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

Returning to the Cross as God's Standard

You know, a standard was a banner and the enemy had come in like a flood. When the enemy would come into the nation like a flood, the people of God would quite often be disorganized. They wouldn't know how to fight back.

Their ranks are more or less depleted and the suddenness of what they're facing has come upon them and they're not sure what to do. And so the Lord would raise up a banner, a flag literally before them.

It would be a gathering point generally on a higher place, a higher portion of land, and the people could gather there. And in that place, they could receive instruction. In that place, the character of God would again be revealed to them that the courage of Christ would, God would come into their heart one more time and the spirit of the Lord would raise up a standard.

And I feel in this generation, God's calling his church again, back to the cross. That's the standard in our generation, every generation. That's where the power of God is. That's where the understanding of God is.

That's where the humility of God is found. That's where the power of God is. That's where the purpose of God is laid hold of. That's where the courage of God is found. It's all found at the cross on Calvary's hill where Christ died and Christ paid the price for sin and Christ broke the bondage of hell.

Christ was in the grave for three days and Christ by God's power was raised from the dead. That's where the standard of God is. The same spirit, if Christ is in us, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies.

In him we live, Paul said, we move and we have our being. God will take us from image to image and glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. When we come back to the cross, the power of God becomes evident again in our lives.

Prison doors start opening, blinded eyes start seeing. The wounds of the past no longer have the power to keep us paralyzed. No, we stand up in the strength of our God and we begin to declare that he is able to save.

He's able to free. He's able to heal. He's able to give sight. He's able to give courage. He's able to take us in our weakness and make us strong and it becomes our message. It becomes our weaponry. It becomes our courage.

It becomes who we are as a people and we begin to stand up, not with a confused message, but with a clear message from the heart of God. What God has done for me, God will do for you through Jesus Christ, his son.

A Personal Call to Bid for God's Treasure

I sought for a man, the Lord said. I sought for somebody who would believe that I'd be merciful. I sought for somebody who believed that I could still use them and do the miraculous through their lives.

I sought for somebody and I do believe I hear that call in this generation again. I am determined today in my own time and in your time that the history of Ezekiel's day will not repeat itself, that we will not be a people who simply go down into judgment as a nation without a season of mercy.

I am convinced, I'm determined that that season of mercy is going to happen in the United States of America and in other nations throughout the world. The question is who will rise up and say the treasure of knowing the power and mercy of God for the sake of others will be mine.

Who will rise up? Who will say all I have is a dollar, but God, I bid it for the treasure of Christ. Years ago, years ago, years ago, I was in a church service similar to this and I don't even remember the message, but I was a new Christian and it was a church service.

Fairly large church made for Canada, maybe somewhere between 600 and a thousand people, I guess. And I was sitting in the center section near the back and I remember the Holy Spirit was just speaking to my heart about giving my life fully to Christ.

And folks, I felt so disadvantaged. I was still fighting with a bad temper. I just, there was a lot of stuff still in my life. I was, I was a new Christian, but there's still stuff. It passes away, but it takes a while.

My life was like somebody who's gunned, you know, those old Western movies where the guy gets shot and he goes over the table and climbs the stairway and falls over the banister. And that's kind of like what my life was like, you know, this is all things were already shot, but it just took them forever to fall and die.

And, but I got out of my seat and I came down and I knelt at the altar and, and I felt, I felt like I had less than the little boy who gave his lunch of five loaves and two fishes to feed 10 ,000 or so people.

But I came to the altar and I got on my knees and I began to weep. And I said, God, I don't feel like I have anything, you know, I'm, I'm shy to speak publicly and I can't speak. I don't know how, and I've got a lot of struggles in my own life that I'm believing for victory for, I got a long way to go.

And I feel like in this church, in the church, everybody, they had such knowledge, you know, I'm brand new, I'm a new Christian. And they had knowledge. They'd be people who've been studying for years.

A lot of them are much older and wiser than I am. But I got on my knees and I said, God, I just, the little that I am and have, I give it to you and ask you to just, if you can take it, take it. And if you can use it for your glory, God, use it for your glory.