Acts 27:14-26

[0:00] We'll be in the New Testament this evening in the book of Acts, chapter 27. We got home from service this afternoon and I told Missy, I said, well considering what! Brother Mike preached this morning, I may not preach what I was planning on preaching.

[0:19] And so I spent about the first hour of my afternoon after lunch trying to find something else to preach and that didn't happen. So this is what I've been chewing on and studying for and so this is what we're going to preach. Brother Mike talked a lot about storms this morning and how, you know, we're all subject to those. Whether they be, you know, physical storms, tornadoes and hurricanes and typhoons and thunderstorms and all that good stuff or where they be spiritual storms or mental storms for that matter. We're all subject to those.

[0:59] Chapter 27 is a good account in the scripture of a particular storm. It begins with Brother Paul on his way to Italy and they set sail and he's given over into the hands of a man named Julius who was a centurion of the band of Augustus and they go several different places and they dock and set forth again. And anyway, we go through all this. Well, Paul in verse 10 gives warning before they set sail another time. He says, I don't think it's a good idea in layman's terms or paraphrasing it. He says, you know, if we do this, there's going to be damage, much damage, much hurt.

[1:48] But it says that they paid more attention to the owner of the ship and the ship's captain than they did Paul. And then we find in verse 13 where they set sail once again and they sail close by an island called Crete.

[2:05] And that's a real condensed nutshell of what's happened thus far in chapter 27. We're going to pick up our reading in verse 14 of Acts in chapter 27.

[2:16] So Acts 27 verse 14 says, But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Euroclodon. And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive.

[2:30] And running under a certain island, which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat, which when they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand, straight sail, and so were driven. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship. And the third day we cast out with our own hands, the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar. And lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island. Back to verse 14 in Acts chapter 27. But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Eurachlodon. Now in the first verses of this chapter, I understand that we didn't read it, but in the first 13 verses of this chapter, as I said, we read about them setting sail and going to a certain place, setting sail, going to a certain place. And we see this happen a few times over in the first 13 verses of the chapter. But I read nothing about the weather beginning to act up. I read nothing about a storm brewing up in the distance. I read nothing about the wind picking up. I read nothing about the first drop of rain or anything along those lines in those first 13 verses. But in verse 14, it says, but not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind called Eurachlodon.

[4:49] Eurachlodon is just a hodgepodge of a little bit of Greek and a little bit of Latin. And it simply means a wind from the northeast or what we would commonly refer to nowadays as a nor'easter.

[5:00] But folks, this storm, this wind, it had a specific name. It was a proper noun according to the scriptures here. Something called Eurachlodon. But it came up out of nowhere. And folks, it is no different in yours and mine's life, whether we're out on a lake, out on a river, out on the ocean, out in a gulf, whether we're at home, no matter where we're at, whether we're talking physical or whether we're talking spiritual here. It can happen in just a very short moment. It can happen in little to no time at all that something can come and it can and it can completely turn our world upside down to completely turn everything in a complete 180. We can be peaceful. We can be enjoying our peace and our prosperity one moment and our lives be shaken to the very core in the very next moment. It doesn't take very much time at all for this to happen. And that's exactly what happened with these men on this ship here. Those at whom Paul was part of the party here. This storm called

[6:02] Eurachlodon had come up out of nowhere. It began to blow the ship here. It began to blow the ship there. And these men had no idea what to do. They weren't sure exactly where this storm come from or how long it was going to last or any of these things. All they knew was that they were in trouble. And many times in our spiritual life, we will try and let these men be here. We will try to throw out the tackling. We'll try and land on this island of Cauda. We'll try and take the matters in to our own hands. We'll try to guard the ownership of the boat ourselves. But folks, sooner or later, God will show us that our own efforts and our own abilities are futile in some situations.

[6:45] But Almighty God, His efforts are never futile. His efforts are never for naught. His efforts are good. They're for your good. They're to draw us closer to Him. They're to pull us into His arms and cause us to cry unto Him. Hallelujah! We find ourselves in very similar situations that these men here did.

[7:07] Verse 15, when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. When it was caught up, when the ship was caught up and bashed about and strown about by the wind, it says we let her drive. Folks, they lost control over the ship here. The wind was stronger than these men were. The wind was stronger than the will of these men were here. And folks, many times, storms will come in our lives.

[7:33] Problems will come in our lives. Whether it be money. Whether it be sickness. Whether it be death. Whether it be relationship problems. No matter what it is He saw, will come up and they will get out of control as far as the human mind and as far as our finite mind is concerned. But it is never out of control for Almighty God. This account here that we read in the Scripture this evening, it shows the sovereignty of Almighty God. All hope was lost for these sailors here on the water. But God, the God who sits above the circle of the earth according to the book of Isaiah, He is in control. He is in control of the hell. He's in control of the wind. He's in control of the ship. He is in control of all.

[8:19] Praise God. He's in control of my life and I praise God for that. But how many times have I been guilty? How many times have I been guilty of trying to take matters into my own hands? Of trying to fix the problem myself? Instead of crying out to God too many times in my Christian walk, God has become a last resort. I'll go to friends. I'll go to neighbors. I'll go to co-workers. I'll look within myself.

[8:43] I'll look everywhere before I look to the Word of God and before I cry out to God for help. And shame on me for doing that. But the more frequently that has happened in my past Christian walk, praise God, the more it shows me. Go to God first. So it's becoming less and less that I do that. But I'm still guilty of it. And if you're honest with yourself, you're just as guilty of it as I am.

[9:07] Don't look at me like I've got three heads. I know we're all guilty of it. Every one of us have done this thing. It says here in verse 16, and running under a certain island, which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat. Let's go ahead and read verse 17, which when they had taken up, they used helps, ungirding the ship and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand straight sail. And so we're driven. So these men came to this island called Clauda. Folks, this island was a little bit of a reprieve for these men. This place that they landed here, it was a place where they could catch just a little bit of rest. But instead of resting, what did they do? I've already said that they tried to take matters into their own hands. It says that they used the ship's helps.

[9:51] They actually took rope. It doesn't expressly say that in the scripture, but we're talking about undergirding the underside of the boat. They tried to wrap the boat in rope or some other material to try and hold it together while it was out there on the water. Folks, I'm telling you now that if it is in God's sovereign plan for your life to fall apart, and it may just be that because you're depending too much upon man and too much upon man's inventions, too much upon yourself, too much upon this and too much upon that, God may just let your life fall completely in shambles so that all you have left is to look straight up into the heavens to Him. These men here, they were trying to take care of it all themselves. They landed at this place called Clawda. It said, we have much work to come by the boat. I love this account here in Acts. And you find several other accounts like this where it says we and us. And it amazes me, the people, this is just a little side note, I guess. It amazes me, the people out there in the world that will put stock into what a man born in 1950 said happened three million years ago.

[11:07] But they can't take a first-hand account, us and we. They can't take a first-hand account from someone that was actually on a boat and believe it. They can't believe that these things happen here in the book of Acts. Folks, I believe this book, Genesis to Revelation, I believe that God parted the waters for the Israelites. I believe that He spoke the entire universe into existence.

[11:30] I believe every miracle that is in the Scripture. I believe that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, came and suffered and bled and died on my behalf that I could have life and have it more abundantly. I believe that He was put in the tomb. He remained there three days, but on that third day, He was resurrected. He has ascended to the Father since then, and He forever sits in His right hand to make intercession on behalf of all of those that have repented their sin and believed the Gospel.

[11:57] And these are all things that were written just not too long ago, but people will believe. Somebody born less than a century wrote happened three or five or ten million years ago.

[12:09] I'm a young growth guy myself, but that's a whole other sermon. We won't get into that. Which wind they had taken up, they used helps undergirding the ship and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksand straight sail. And so we're driven. They straight sail. In other words, they lowered their sail. This has two different meanings and maritime definitions, I guess you could say. It's a straight sail. It all means to lower sail, but it's for two separate purposes. One is so that the wind's not catching the sails because the boat's going to be turned this way or that way, but another is for surrender. And I really have to wonder which way this wind. I really have to wonder why. I'm sure these men done it so that the wind would quit catching the sails. We've already read that they lost control of the ship. But Paul, the writer of the book of Acts, Luke, he was able to write to us and we, he said that they landed on this island called us. So he still knew where they were at that point. But it says they straight sailed. They lowered their sails. And I said that they'd done that for one of two purposes. I believe that physically these men would have done this so that the wind would quit catching the sails and driving their boat this way or that. Maybe possibly they were trying to steer the ship with oars or were they rather aware of the case was. I don't know.

[13:34] But in the spiritual sense, folks, there was a, there was a sense of surrender here, but it wasn't true surrender because they had, they had spent this time in this, in this place of reprieve, trying to fix the boat themselves, trying to repair the boat, trying to get it to where it could cross the water and go just a little bit further. So the surrender would not have been complete. Verse 18. And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest the next day, they lightened the ship. And the third day we cast out with our own hands, the tackling of the ship. I've never understood this verse. I'm not a sailor though. Maybe that's got something to do with it. But I don't understand why anybody would want to lighten the ship. You would think the more weight that was in the ship, the more in the water it would stay and the less it would be rocking back and forth. Maybe that's just my, my common sense. And it don't, sometimes I don't make a whole lot of sense, but this don't make sense to me. But regardless, they've done it. Folks, what does the book of Hebrews teach us about this? To set aside every sin which does so easily beset us. I'm not saying that the tackling on the ship was sin or that it was sinful to have that. But if we apply this in a spiritual sense, it may, it applies very well.

[14:45] He says, and we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest the next day, lightened the ship. And the third day we cast out with our own hands, the tackling of the ship. They were, they were throwing out everything on the ship. They were throwing out ropes. They were throwing out any type of cargo that they had. They were throwing their food off to the sides. They were getting rid of it all. And sometimes folks, we have to do that. Yeah. The most thing to get rid of, the most important thing though for us to get rid of is our pride and our self-reliance. Yeah.

[15:17] Speaking of this in a spiritual sense, because as long as we're relying on self, folks, I'm not saying that anything is difficult for God to do, but it's difficult for us to see the hand of God when we're relying on self. It's difficult for us to see His work. It's difficult for us to hear His call. It's difficult for us to do any of these things when we are relying upon ourselves or when we're relying upon the world or relying upon worldly things.

[15:47] Or whatever the case is, our reliance needs to be 100% completely and totally in Almighty God. Regardless of if it's in a doctor or a nurse. Regardless of if it's in some kind of research or whatever the case is, God give every one of those people the wisdom that they have.

[16:07] And we need to rely upon Him instead of them. We being exceedingly tossed with the tempest, the next day they lighten the ship. And the third day, we cast out our own hands to tackle the ship.

[16:18] So we're three days into this storm. One storm, three days long. We read in verse 20, And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.

[16:35] And it's easy to read this verse here and think, well, it was dark. It was dark. Big deal. It gets dark in storms. Folks, it goes much deeper than that. It goes so much deeper than that.

[16:47] And when sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us. In other words, it was a large tempest that laid on us. He says, no small tempest.

[16:58] All hope that we should be saved was then taken away. Folks, He's not just talking about the darkness. We all know from our own personal experience that when the storm clouds move in, there's still just a little bit of light out there that we can see.

[17:11] It may be blocking out the direct rays of the sun. It may darken up just a little bit. But folks, this is the way that these men navigated. They didn't have compasses like we do now. They didn't have anything along those lines.

[17:23] They have depended upon the sun. They depended upon the stars to know where they were. And not only where they were, but where they were going. In other words, the Scripture here is telling me in this darkness and in this desperation, these men knew that they were 100% lost.

[17:41] And that's very important when it comes to the Gospel. That's very important when it comes to whether we accept or reject the Gospel. Your life may be dark.

[17:52] Your life may be in despair. Your life may be a ton of different other things that can be described in a negative way. But do you realize that you are lost without the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

[18:04] Do you realize that there is no sun? Do you realize that there are no stars? Do you realize that there is no direction? Do you realize that all hope is gone? I tell you now, there is hope still there.

[18:16] That hope can be found in none other than Jesus Christ. That hope can be found in the only begotten Son of the Father. And He who is altogether lovely. That hope can be found on He who hung on a tree, suffered blood, and died for you.

[18:30] He that was mocked. He that was scourged. He that took your pain. He that bore your iniquity. He that took all of your transgressions. He that became sin. Who knew no sin.

[18:40] All hope is in Him. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. But you've got to realize you're in the dark. And you've got to realize that you're lost. No sun and no stars to give you direction.

[18:54] Hope those things are made by Almighty God. And they're made for a purpose. And the main purpose is the heavens declare the glory of God. But they give man direction in His way.

[19:05] But they're God made. We don't worship the creation. We worship the Creator. We don't depend upon the creation for salvation. We depend upon He who created the creation for salvation.

[19:18] He and He alone is able to provide that. All hope that we should be saved was then taken away. In other words, they're three days into this storm.

[19:29] They've already stopped in Clodda. They've already undergirded the ship. They've already straight sail. And they're already back out on the water. But they still had a glimmer of hope from what I'm reading here.

[19:41] But once the sun and the stars did not show themselves for three days, they realized they were lost.

[19:52] They realized it. Folks, we must realize our state, our spiritual state before we can be saved. Verse 21, But after long abstinence, Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and lost.

[20:09] Now, you can read this for yourselves. Over in verse 10 of chapter 27, Paul makes this statement. As I said, the introduction to this, he didn't think that they should set sail yet.

[20:21] He says, if we do so, there's going to be a lot of damage. There's going to be a lot of hurt. There's going to be this. There's going to be that. But here he says, sirs, you should have hearkened unto me. Paul is not being cocky here.

[20:32] And Paul is not being arrogant. Paul is telling them this to direct them toward God. He is telling them this thing so that he can point them toward the one who made the weather.

[20:43] He can point them to the one that made the trees, that provided the wood for the ship that they are on. He is telling them this to show them that this was a revelation sent unto him by Almighty God.

[20:55] Amen. Sometimes God will bring us to our very lowest. God has brought these men to a point where they had no hope. But here, Paul, the Scripture says after a long abstinence, in other words, Paul had kept his peace.

[21:11] He'd stayed shut up about the whole thing until now. Paul was a man of God. This thing had to have been revealed to Paul while he spake over in verse 10.

[21:22] It had to have been revealed to Paul by God. But Paul also knew when to hold his peace and he knew when to speak up. And this was the time to speak up. Too many times people will speak up before they really should.

[21:35] I've been guilty of that. Or I've been guilty of saying the wrong things. At a time when I should be saying point A, or I should have said point B, I'll say point A or vice versa.

[21:48] We've all been guilty of doing these things. But he says, Sirs, you should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer.

[22:00] How hard would this have been for these men to have done? And now I exhort you. I implore you. I encourage you. Even though we're in the midst of this storm.

[22:11] Even though our ship has been battered. Even though we've tried to do this thing ourselves. And even though we are 100% completely and totally lost. I encourage you to be of good cheer.

[22:23] I'm going to dare say Paul was the only one on that ship that was able to say that. And I'm going to dare say at that particular moment, he was the only one that was able to be of good cheer. Why is that? Because Paul knew the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[22:37] He knew the God that had saved his soul. He knew the God of the Gospels. He knew the Christ of the Gospels. And he knew that he was saved. That's why he could say that. And Christian, I exhort you to do the same.

[22:48] As hard as that is, and as much as it may make me feel like a hypocrite to say so, when trouble comes your way, be of good cheer. Be of good cheer.

[22:58] There is a sovereign God. If you are a born-again child of God, there He is sovereign over your life. He directs your steps. The Bible says that all things work together for good.

[23:09] To them that love God. To them who are the call according to His purpose. It doesn't matter how bad your life gets. It doesn't matter what rocks are thrown at you. What insults are thrown at you.

[23:19] It is all for your good. And for God's holy, gloriful purpose. Hallelujah. It is all for good that these things happen. I exhort you to be a good cheer.

[23:30] For there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. I exhort you to be a good cheer. I encourage you. Be happy. Everybody is going to stay alive, but we are going to lose this ship.

[23:42] How hard would it have been for these men to have done that? It would have been hard for me. It would have been hard for me. And if you are honest with yourself, it would be hard for you.

[23:52] For there stood by me. But He tells them why. He gives them the what? Then He gives them the why. Verse 23. For there stood by me this night, the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve.

[24:05] He says there stood by me this night. Again, He is telling them this thing. He's not telling them, I told you so in the previous verse. When it says that He remained abstinent for a while.

[24:17] And then He says, Sirs, I told you this. He's not saying that to be arrogant. He's saying for this verse right here. For there stood by me this night, an angel of the Lord, whose I am, and whose I serve.

[24:30] Hey, folks, it wasn't just the angel of the Lord that we're talking about here. This is something that Paul is talking about. He's talking about his identity, and he's talking about his purpose. Whose I am?

[24:41] I am the Lord, and whom I serve. That's the purpose that Paul had. And if you're a born again, washed in the blood, child of God, that is your identity, and that is your purpose as well.

[24:53] You belong to God. We are bought with a price, according to what I can read in the Scripture. We are bought with the precious, shed blood of the slain Lamb of God. We are bought by His blood.

[25:05] We are kept by His blood and by His Spirit. We are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And we are sealed with redemption. We are sealed by the same blood.

[25:16] My salvation is signed and sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no demon in hell that can take that away from me. Satan himself can do nothing about it. Just like this account that we are reading about right now, it doesn't matter how bad the storm gets.

[25:30] It doesn't matter how strong the winds are. There is nothing that can overtake or overpower my sovereign God. Hallelujah. We've got to keep that in mind, folks.

[25:42] There stood by me this night the angel of God whose I am and whom I serve. He serves God and He is God.

[25:53] That's why He told them what He did in verse 21. Verse 24 saying, Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar. Again, we're talking about the sovereignty of God here. This angel of God appeared to Paul and says, Fear not, Paul, for thou must be brought before Caesar.

[26:11] Not, you may be brought before Caesar. Not, well, it was God's original plan that this happened, that this big storm's blown up now and you just might not make it.

[26:22] No! The angel said, you must be brought before Caesar. And folks, if God says that anything must happen, I can promise you with the authority of Almighty God's Word that it will come to pass.

[26:35] Hallelujah! We can put stock. We can bank on the Word of God. It's guaranteed He's not a God that He could lie or that He should lie. Hallelujah!

[26:46] Fear not, Paul. Thou must be brought before Caesar. And lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. My goodness, what a statement. Not only must you be brought before Caesar, but all those that are with you here.

[27:02] All these prisoners, the centurion, whatever guards were present. Everybody that is on this boat, you must bring with you. They're going to be, and they're going to come right along as well.

[27:13] This reminds me of another account in Acts, the Philippian jailer. When he asked the man, he said, what must I do to be saved? Paul didn't say, well, I think you should just, you should just do your absolute best.

[27:24] And hope real hard. And hopefully you'll make it to heaven. No! He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thou hast saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

[27:39] He says, not only are you going to make it, one righteous man, one righteous man on this boat full of people is the cause of many people being saved.

[27:50] Now granted, we're talking about physical saving here. But one righteous man, folks, it was the same way with Moses. When Moses, hey, when the Israelites came to the edge of the Red Sea, all them Israelites were complaining.

[28:04] They were wilding. They were moaning. Hadn't even crossed the Red Sea yet. But you read in the book of Hebrews when it's given the account of Moses, God did not part the Red Sea on account of all the righteousness of the Israelites.

[28:16] He accounted on the right, or He parted because of the righteousness and because of the faith of one man. And that one man was Moses. Right. Because of one man's faith and one man's trust and one man's righteousness.

[28:29] Three million people crossed that sea. Approximately. Three million people crossed that sea. Because of one man here, an entire boatload of people is guaranteed by God, by a sovereign God to be saved because of the faith and the righteousness of one man.

[28:45] And Paul understood his righteousness didn't come from within. It didn't come from self. It didn't come from his keeping of the law. It didn't come from anything along those lines. His righteousness come from God through his faith in Jesus Christ.

[28:59] We can't be righteous enough to earn favor with God. It'll never happen. But Christ, Christ is righteous enough.

[29:09] Christ is sufficient. The Gospel is sufficient. And that's all we need to have favor with God is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your ways and receive salvation.

[29:22] Verse 25, Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer. Here, he exhorts them a second time. Encourages them a second time to be of good cheer. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer.

[29:33] For I believe God. Folks, that is what gets us in trouble. I don't care if you've been saved for one year, for five years, or for 50 years.

[29:43] He says, I believe God. And I've been guilty in my Christian walk of not believing God. I've seen His miracles worked in my life.

[29:55] I've seen His will worked in my life. I've seen Him do things that no one else would believe. I've seen Him do things for me, for my family, for others that I've prayed for, and still yet, Lord, help Thou my unbelief.

[30:08] As that Father in Mark 9 says, Lord, help Thou my unbelief. And we look down our nose at people in the Scriptures. We look down our pharisaical noses at people like Peter that denied the Lord three times.

[30:21] We look down our nose at that Father in Mark 9. We look down our nose at all kinds of people for doubting God and for doubting Christ. And we're guilty of it ourselves. We are guilty of it ourselves.

[30:33] Paul says, Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer. For I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me. He just told them what was told him of this angel of the Lord.

[30:45] He says, I believe God. He tells them, Be of good cheer. I believe God. And I believe everything that was told me by this angel from the Lord. He says, Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.

[30:58] That's where we stopped our reading earlier. That's where we'll stop it tonight. But this is just another real quick glimpse of the sovereignty of God. We must. We must be cast upon not just any island.

[31:12] It's not like God was letting them wander around. To them. To them, it was like they were just floating around with no direction whatsoever. In the human aspect of things, that's exactly what was going on.

[31:24] That God was in control of it all. It's no different than the ark. That ark had no sails. I don't read anything about a rudder on the ark. Anything along those lines over in Genesis 6.

[31:35] 6 through 8. I read nothing to give that ark direction. Why? Because Noah was a man of righteousness. He found favor in the sight of God. And he had faith and trust in Almighty God that God would not only allow him to be saved from the flood that was coming, but He would allow him to live on even further down the line.

[31:57] He wasn't trusting in Himself. He wasn't trusting in His sons. He wasn't trusting in sails. He wasn't trusting in a rudder. He was trusting in God. And God set that ark exactly where He wanted it in the mountains of Ararat according to the Scriptures.

[32:12] But here we read, how be it we must be cast upon a certain island. So it must happen. And it was a certain island that God was going to have them cast upon.

[32:25] It is all in the will of Almighty God, folks. And regardless of how negative it seems to us, regardless of how awful it seems to us, if it is in the will of God, it is for your good and it is for His glory.

[32:42] And that's hard for us to accept. That's hard for me to accept. But, that's the message for tonight. From Acts chapter 27.

[32:54] I appreciate y'all's attention. I appreciate another opportunity in this day. God bless you all. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.