In the sermon 'The Blessings of Transformation' by Scott Brown, the focus is on Romans 12:1-2, which discusses the transition from the indicatives of Christian life, found in the first 11 chapters of Romans, to the imperatives in chapters 12 through 16. This transition highlights what believers should do after being justified by faith. The sermon emphasizes that believers are called to present their bodies as living sacrifices and to be transformed by the renewing of their minds rather than conforming to the world. This transformation is described as a process of sanctification where believers are progressively changed into the likeness of Christ, with the renewing of the mind being central to this process. The speaker also discusses the pressures of conformity to the world and how Christians are called to resist these pressures by embracing the will of God, which is good, acceptable, and perfect. Examples from both the Bible and history are used to illustrate the transformative power of the Gospel, such as the conversions of figures like John Newton and the Apostle Paul. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to seek transformation through the Word of God and to live in the fullness of God's kingdom.

It would have been a more perfect song to introduce the things I'd like to share today. Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 12. We'll be reading the first two verses in Romans chapter 12. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey word of God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Oh Lord, I pray you would come and apply your word to our hearts that you would feed the sheep with your word and that you would help us understand even more the greatness of your mercy and your loving kindness toward us in the exercising of your will in our lives. Amen.

Please be seated. Well we are in the book of Romans in the first two verses. It's interesting, you know, the different books of the Bible teach us about different things. Psalms, they teach us how to worship. Proverbs teaches us how to behave.

Job teaches us how to suffer. The Song of Solomon teaches us how to love. And when we get to the book of Romans, there are actually two messages for this church in Rome. And the first is how to be saved. That's the first 11 chapters.

And what you find in the first 11 chapters is the predicament that mankind is in. He's trapped in sin, unable to get out without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So the first part of it speaks of the reality of man's sin and the remedy for man's sin. It's a section that just speaks about the truth about man and the truth about salvation. Theologians have called them the indicatives of the Christian life, the truths about the Christian life.

Now, when you get to chapter 12, you enter into the imperatives of the Christian life. Here's what you do about it. Here's, here's how you operate because you've been justified by faith. You've been forgiven of all of your sins. The guilt has been taken off your shoulders, you're free, and now what?

And that's what Romans 12 through 16 is all about. While the first part of Romans is about how to be saved, the second part of Romans is how a saved person lives. And we've already talked at some length about this matter of presenting your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, that God desires his church to be this kind of people. When they open their eyes in the morning, they say, oh Lord, take my life. I dedicate my body to you.

My mind, my hands, my feet, everything is yours. You are my authority in this world. And so we've covered that. Now I want to just say again that I said at the very beginning of our studies in Romans and that is just to recognize as we go through this book how full Paul is of encouragement. There's a message of hope everywhere in this book.

There's a message of encouragement and realism as well for sure, but the fact that the power of sin has been broken should be so encouraging to the people of God. They have a new life and you know we sing that song that Martin Luther wrote, My chains fell off and my heart was free. That's what's happened. Now also, in Romans 12 through 16, we're calling it practical Christianity because it actually gives the shoe level and the street level wisdom for how to walk through this world. So it is very practical.

Now, the message in this verse, in verse two, is that something is and has been shaping you. And that is actually a set next to the will of God because God has designed that his people would be shaped by the will of God which is revealed in the Word of God. But you might just ask, what is shaping you? All of us are being shaped one way or another. Your family shapes you.

Your friends shape you. Your fears shape you. What people might think of you shapes you. Your dreams shape you. And even what you wish people thought of you shapes you.

There's so many forces in the world. Now, in this passage you have two issues. One, being conformed to this world, and second, being transformed by the renewing of your mind. These are two paths of life these are two ways of living out your life either conform to the world or transformed by the renewing of your mind and What's so thrilling about this and I've been thinking about this for a long time. It really speaks of what it means to be transferred into the kingdom of God.

What does it mean to be forgiven? What does it mean to be born again and to have a new life, to have new wine in new wine skins, too. You know, what does it mean to be adopted and to have a new father and have the Spirit of God working in your life and that the power of sin has been broken. Well, what it is is that you've been you've entered into the will of God, this perfect will of God that is stated at the end of this verse. And so What you have here in this verse are three sections.

You have an outline in front of you that has some typos on it. But the outline makes it very clear that there are, that there's a negative and a positive and a result. The negative is do not be conformed to this world. Yes there's a negative. The Bible can be negative on things that ought to be negated.

And then second the positive but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and then the result of it all and And this is this is so encouraging helpful that you may prove What is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. In other words, there is a will of God for your life and it's good and it's acceptable and it's perfect. You know, the Apostle Paul was teaching the church in Thessalonica and it seems like they were asking well what is the will of God for my life and he says your sanctification that's the will of God for your life. In other words, God wants to change you. He actually wants to heal you.

He wants to make you a new person. That's what sanctification is. And You know, in Ephesians, that church was told about the quality of the will of God, that there is the kind intention of his will. There are kind intentions for you and your family and your church in the world in God's will. So this all has to do with a person that has been swept up into the will of God because of the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

Now just to say a little bit more about that when God redeems a man, He redeems the whole man. He turns that man away from the things that was shaping him and to a new shaping force in his life. And that has to do with the will of God revealed in the Word of God. And what has happened is that he has saved us out of a degrading kingdom, the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of renewal. It's the kingdom of his marvelous light.

This is what's so encouraging about this. And what God does is he redeems man, he breaks the power of sin, and then he renews him by degrees his whole life long. He keeps buying back that man from sin and it's a progressive thing and it it's characterized here in this verse by the renewing of your mind. God is doing something in your mind. He's changing your mind about things.

If you're a believer, here's a promise. He who began a good work in you will complete it in the day of Christ Jesus. He will. He will. He'll complete it.

And this verse says you can actually please God by doing the will of God So that's what I've been thinking about for the last couple of months about this passage You know God loves his children so much That he refuses to let them stay in the state in which he found them He takes them out of a pit David called it out of the miry clay You and set and he says you took me out of the miry clay and you set my feet upon a rock and you put a new song in my heart." That's what God does and I hope you see that here. Now you remember how this began, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God. So he's pleading with us. He's not commanding us. He's pleading with us.

And he's this, I beseech you is a word made up of two words. Para and Kaleo. One called alongside. Called and alongside. So what the Apostle is doing saying I'm coming alongside you.

I Want to help you to be delivered from the shaping Forces that have shaped you all your life long The corrupt ideas that you have embraced to cleanse your mind, to help you think rightly, to set your mind to right. You remember the Gaterine demoniac? Remember what happened to him? Jesus healed him and he was clothed and in his right mind. That's what God does with his people.

And that's what he's doing with us. He's clothed us and he's putting us back in our right mind. Unfortunately, it takes some time, doesn't it? Okay, so let's start with the negative. Do not be conformed to this world.

This is a danger to be avoided. There's a danger of every person in the world. This conforming is something that happens to you. In other words, there's something pressing upon you. The world has its form and its form is trying to form you into its image.

And of course at the same time Jesus Christ is remaking you in his image. So that's the contrast that you have. And the world and its form is created in its history, in its culture, in its fads, in its practices, and in its philosophies of life, you know, in its use of time. You know, I don't know if you've seen just the tragic scenes that are going on in Myanmar and in Southeast Asia. You know, buildings falling down, temples crumbling to the ground, and many of those temples are being brought down actually by God.

And this is, there is an aura in the world. It's the worldliness of the world. And the world is seeking to press you into its mold and there's pressure. There's pressure everywhere. He's speaking of this era, the spirit of the age.

There's always sort of a spirit of the age and nations have different spirits of their age at their time and our country is no different. And what Paul is saying is that there are two kinds of people in this world those who are being conformed relentlessly conformed to this world and those at the on the other hand who have been converted and they are being transformed by the renewing of their minds. I like the way that Leonard Ravenhill said it. He said there are those that are dead in sin and there are those that are dead to sin. To be transformed is to have the power of God being deadened to sin even though you have this progressive process.

John tells us that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. That's the pressure that we have. And what he's saying here is that a Christian by definition is a non-conformist. He's not conforming himself to the world. He said he doesn't care about the world like he did before and this causes all kinds of difficulty.

You know remember when we went through 1st John, the Apostle John he says, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, It is not of the Father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it But he who does the will of God abides forever this is this is the the pressure of conformity that we all face. That's why Paul told the Ephesian church in Ephesians 4, 17, he said that you should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 10, he says the same thing.

The ways of the Gentiles are futility in other words they just don't work. He says do not learn the way of the Gentiles. This theme runs all through the Bible. You go all the way back to nearly the beginning of the Bible in Pentateuch in the first five books of Moses. In Deuteronomy 18, God tells his people that they're getting ready to go into a pagan land, into the land of Canaan.

And he says, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you You shall not learn to follow the abominations of the nations And so the Christian has to be very discerning about the culture that that Christian lives in. Well, you know, there are very powerful tools that are shaping us today. The algorithms that the masters of the universe are setting to shape you and make you buy things, make you say things. When you open your phone or your computer, the algorithms are chasing you down, and they're actually making money as they chase you down. So we live in an information society and and and the information is coming after you and they're always trying to squeeze you into its mold You just have to recognize what's going on in the world Now the problem is if you step out of formation You'll be despised by the world If a person actually does embrace the will of God for their life, they'll be marginalized.

This is what a Christian has to accept. That's why Jesus said the world will hate you. Because they because they hated me first they they will hate you as well. And that's sort of a problem you know for all of us because we do draw some hatred. But it's so easy to be you know entrapped by the world.

We all we all are in different ways and we all started out in worse ways than we are today. Remember I think it was Aristotle it might have been someone else that's what everybody says. Does the fish know it's wet? Because you don't even know how conformed you are to the world. A fish doesn't know what dry is.

And human beings are like that as well. We often don't know, but we need the Word of God to continue to reveal to us the things that are true to cleanse our minds. Now this is why there are you know there are churches that are desperately trying to fit into the world and try to appeal to the world because of conformity to the world. You know, when a person comes into a church they they should think wow, this is really different This is this is this is not like the pub. This is not like this is not like anything I've ever seen They might even think I don't even know if I belong here.

These people are worshiping God, they're reading the word of God, they're singing with all of their hearts, I don't know if I belong here. That's what an unbeliever would think. But God may change their hearts as well. J.C. Ryle said what's behind all this.

He said, Satan is not fighting churches, he's joining them. He does more harm by sowing tears than by pulling up the wheat. He accomplishes more by imitation than by outright opposition. Now the reason that people really reject Jesus pretty much is it interferes with the way that they think and the way that they live. But what this passage of Scripture is saying is the Christian desires the interference, the Christian no longer wants to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.

So there's so many things that are here to to shape us. I was reading an article last week and he was talking about how we are catechized by the media. He said television shows and movies are like sermons. They teach, they illustrate, they exhort, they persuade. The productions that possess a conviction Beyond profit have a truth they mean to impart an impulse an impulse they mean to cultivate a Reflex they mean to train and so you have these pressures this this this forcefulness of the world and the philosophies of life that rule and and reign and they they come in waves a lot of times hey you know what there's one I was speaking yesterday at a conference and I was talking to young people about getting married.

And what I was telling them is that, marriage is being dismissed by the younger generation right now, like never before. Marriage is being dismissed. And enormous percentage of people don't want to be married or they want to wait. Now when when I was 20, when I was 20 years old, almost everybody got married when they were 20 or 21. I realized that was a long time ago.

But today it's age 30. Something has changed. The forces of worldliness have pressed upon the world and they're actually very disastrous consequences as a result of that. It's really important that a church cultivates a culture of marriage and rejoicing in marriage and helping young people get married and encouraging them along the way. But you have various waves that come across a culture that are Manifestations of world as we could itemize them But you have you have values that are characterized by the isms hedonism secularism materialism Humanism these these are These are the values of the world and they express themselves in different ways.

But the Christian says, Lord I want to present my body to you. I want to present my mind to you, my whole being as a living sacrifice. So I don't really want to spend too much more time speaking about the worldliness of the world. I really wanna focus on the transformation, the will of God, the beautiful will of God, this kingdom that God wants to sweep you into and carry you all the way until you breathe your last breath and then enter into that kingdom because the true believer doesn't want to be conformed even though there's remaining worldliness. That person is making his way by degrees away from the worldliness of the world.

And that really is the great disturbance of the gospel where a person begins to think Christianly about everything and that's what what Christians ought to do. What does the Bible say about this? There is a Christian way to think about almost everything and believers, you know, really, they actually desire to embrace it. So to be transformed, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And this is what God desires to do.

A very interesting word that the Apostle Paul uses, it's the word that we get our word metamorphosis to be changed. And what in the Gospel, in metamorphosis, there's a collapsing of the world order in your life. And you are being raised up in the goodness of the will of God. And to be transformed is to change form. And The changing of this form is a very powerful force.

We were in Bible study and one of the men reminded us that it was this force that overthrew the Roman Empire. It did, it overthrew the, it took three centuries and it overthrew the Roman Empire. The gospel did that. The gospel is an invading force that begins to transform you and Christ comes and he confronts your wrong ideas about love, about marriage, about work, about relationships, about money, he transforms your mind, he changes your mind about all those things. I was asking Deborah about this yesterday, I said, you know, tell me what you think it means to be transformed.

She said, well, how about 1 Corinthians 13? There's a way of the world and there's a way of the kingdom of God. You know, love is patient, Love is kind. Well, that's different than the ways of the world. So the Bible describes it as a work of the Holy Spirit.

When you're converted and you receive the gospel, you believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible says that you receive the Holy Spirit and it's a the transformation is a work of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 3 16 says that it causes us to be strengthened with might through his power in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. You have an indwelling. It's Jesus Christ who indwells you. Paul called it the spirit of adoption who's crying out, Oh, Father in your heart, you want to please your Father.

You know, it happens even though we're growing old and we're made new on the inside at the same time. And in 2 Corinthians 4 16, he says, even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day your body can be falling apart and yet the inward man can be renewed Some of you have things going on in your bodies and you're falling apart but the inward man is being renewed. In fact the Apostle in that same passage of Scripture he says that God uses difficulty to refine us. He says, for our light affliction is but for a moment, is working for us a far more and exceeding eternal weight of glory. It's an act of God and he does that in our hearts.

It has to do with walking away from our old conduct in Ephesians 4 22 that you put off concerning your former conduct. The old man, isn't that interesting? Calls it the old man. Get rid of the old man, which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you may put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. So it involves putting on new clothing.

It's the it's the righteousness of Jesus Christ his robes of righteousness You're clothing yourselves with new clothing you can think of it like a like the transformation the metamorphosis of a Caterpillar to a butterfly the caterpillar slowly changes within the chrysalis and then Step by step is transformed into this beautiful butterfly It's it's it's it's the right picture of what the scriptures are talking about You can think of it in so many different illustrations you can think of it in terms of growth of a tree it starts with a little seed and then it grows and Into a sapling and then after decades it becomes a towering tree. That's what the Christian life is like. Maybe it's like glacial movement. You know, glaciers, they move very slowly. They carve out valleys.

They reshape the landscapes. This is what it's like to be a Christian. There's a takeover, it's a slow takeover, but you can think of it in terms of personalities. Think about John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace. He was a slave trader and then God saved him and he became a wonderful resource to the people of God.

You can think of Ann Steele, an early female hymn writer. She was single her whole life. She suffered from chronic illness and just before she was gonna get married her fiance died. She writes some of those beautiful God exalting songs. You know think of so many people.

And it means that the cleansing process is an ongoing process. And he begins to probe deep within your heart and He convicts you of sin. Isn't it interesting? Now maybe this isn't with you like you but there are things there were things in my life in my teens and 20s that were sinful and I wasn't even aware of it And now I would never think of doing things like that because God, He progressively reveals sin to you. I think it's because if you knew all of your sin all at once, it would crush you and you would be despondent.

But Jesus Christ wants you to know that you've been forgiven of your sins. And so there's this surgical work going on in in our lives and in this church. And sometimes the surgery seems to happen without anesthetic, but it's a good surgery as well. You know, you think about, sometimes you get disappointed with people in the church, they sin, they go off the rails, and they come back, hopefully. But I was reading Sinclair Ferguson, he talked about being impatient with one another with our spots and our wrinkles in our church.

He said, I think a word to some of us who have become impatient with the spots and wrinkles in our own church family. He said remember the church is not your bride, she's Christ's bride and remember that his love for her means he wants to do the very best job in removing those spots and wrinkles. And its purpose, and it is his purpose to do that patiently. So you and I need to be patient and wait for the Lord to work in others. And yes, patient to learn and wait for Him to work fully in us.

And when that happens in our fellowship, we become increasingly Christ-like. Well, it is a progressive sanctification that's happening. You know 50 years ago I remember seeing this bumper sticker in Southern California, please be patient with me, God is not finished with me yet. And that's part of this whole matter of sanctification. But it's all summarized in Ephesians 423 that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt.

One of the English Puritans, Richard Sibbs, he said that the church is like a like a hospital where we are all in some measure sick. We all have some disease and we have an occasion to exercise the spirit of wisdom and meekness with one another. So this is the hope of the gospel. You think about the transformations that you see in the Bible. Think about Abraham.

He was a He was an idol worshiper in Ur and he was called by God to be the father of many nations. This is sanctification. Think of Moses. He was a murderer. He was a fugitive and he was called by God to lead his people out of slavery.

You think of Rahab, she was a prostitute in Jericho, and God changed her heart, saved her soul, and used her to help the spies so that the children of Israel could go into the land and conquer Jericho. You think of Gideon he was kind of he was from the worst tribe and he was the worst he was the worst kid in the family and he's hiding he finds himself hiding from the Midianites and then he let leads Israel to victory with 300 men so this thing of sanctification is real how about Nebuchadnezzar I've been thinking a lot about Nebuchadnezzar because of our conference coming up on, you know, thriving in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was a very bad guy, very prideful. He boasted of his power and then he humbles himself before God and changes his life and he has a whole new view of everything because he believes in God. Well we could go on and on and on.

We could talk of Peter and Paul and Mary Magdalene and the Samaritan woman and Zacchaeus. We could talk about the thief on the cross. There are so many we could talk about but God changes people's lives because they desire to do His will. That's the key thing. They desire to be transformed by the renewing of their mind.

I like what J.C. Ryle said about this. He said, to be born again is to enter into a new existence, to have a new mind, a new heart, new views, new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likes, new dislikes, new sorrows, new love to things once hated, new hatred to things once loved, new thoughts of God, ourselves, the world, the life to come and salvation. God changes people. You know, as a local church, all of us come from different problems and troubles and conformities.

There are people here who've experienced horrific trouble in their life. Divorces, suicide, a person whose father killed their mother. I mean in this congregation, okay? And God God has changed them. They're not the same because they're being transformed by the renewing of their mind.

The mind, he focuses on the mind. The mind is the commander of the life. It's kind of, it's the operating system, it's the engine, it's the steering wheel of your life, and that's what gets transformed. And it happens because you present your body as a living sacrifice. So the positive is that you're being transformed.

So keep it up. That's what he's saying. Don't stop. Press hard into the transformation. Keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Do not learn the ways of the Gentiles. Walk by faith. Walk in the Word. Walk in the will of God. Well that takes us to the final point here, the result of all this.

That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. I want to take each phrase here one by one because I think each each phrase is important. That you may prove. True transformation Proves that God's Word is true. It's actually verifiable by the changed life and To prove means it's tested.

It's it's proven reliable and the in the in the Bible and in ancient literature this word prove is used for the testing of metals and it's used for testing a person in battle and so under heat under battle the Word of God is proved to be true in a real person's life because it shows because they're growing in love they're being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. You know Jesus in Luke 7 he said you know He said wisdom is tested by her children. Wisdom is tested by her children. That's what he's talking about here. So transformation proves God to be good.

It proves that he is good, proving what is good And Then what is acceptable or pleasing? The transformation of a believer proves that a person can please God and that there are things that are that are pleasing to God. I've said this before in Romans 1 and 2, but every believer needs to really recognize that they can please God. You can please God, so go out and please God, and you do it by walking in His word. Like everything about your life is not bad.

It's tainted by sin, but you can actually, even in the midst of your process of sanctification, you can please God every day of your life. And you can behold his face and to receive his grace toward you. And it is a reflection of the perfect will of God. Because the will of God is your sanctification and that's what he desires. In many ways when a person is converted and they begin the sanctification process They've actually stepped from one kingdom out of one kingdom into another.

If you go in the Gospel of John and you read about what salvation looks like, you are instantly transported into the kingdom of God the moment you believe. And you've now entered actually a new realm it's called eternity with God and and so begins this transformation process that will be consummated and and fulfilled in all eternity. And I just wanted to linger, you know, for a few minutes to just glory in this transformation that God has done. The transformation is accomplished by the Word of God. That's why you should be in the Word of God every day.

You know David he said the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. He said the testimony of the Lord, it's sure and it makes wise the simple. He says that the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. This is the kingdom of God. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. And then he says, More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." And then he says, and by them your servant is warned. But the transformation Happens by the word of God the will of God Actually shows you what to do That's why David said in Psalm 16 11 you will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand are pleasures forevermore in Proverbs 3 we are told that the doing of the will of God makes you happy well that's mentioned many places in the Bible. Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding.

For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver and her gain than fine gold. She's more precious than rubies and all the things that you desire cannot compare with her. Length of days are in her right hand and her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace. This is the kingdom of God.

This is the transformed world of the believer. In the transformation you see the goodness of God, Psalm 34, 8, oh taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him. Oh fear the Lord you his saints. There is no lack to those who fear him.

This is the kingdom, This is the transformation. This is why all of us should desire to be transformed, to set aside the ways of this world, to not be conformed to this world, but to enter into the kingdom of God. In the will of God, God is your protector, Psalm 84. For the Lord God is a son in a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory.

No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Blessed is the man who trusts in you I have so much more to say about that Jesus said if anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink and out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water Jesus said if unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And then he said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And I love what it says in Romans 10 11 whoever believes on him will not be put to shame for whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved These are the blessings of the transformed life. This is the kingdom of heaven.

This is the reason God calls us into a better kingdom than our own. This is the reason God wants to cleanse your mind of your corrupt old ways of thinking and doing and relating to people and working and everything in your life. He wants to continue to sanctify his children. So let's go for it. Would you pray with me?

Lord, we thank you for the beauty of your word. We thank you for your kingdom, an everlasting kingdom, a holy kingdom. Lord, make us a holy people. Give us such urgency to throw off, cast off, everything that hinders, and to seek you with all of our hearts and to fill our minds with the word of God, that the transformation might accelerate here in this church, amen.