Five Purposes of Prophecy

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. The decision was made to focus today on prophecy. So I do invite you to open your Bibles and be ready to go to 2 Peter chapter 3 as something of a focus, scriptural focus for the day, although we will be sharing more than just from this passage. [00:00:57] And don't plan to do a lot of exposition, a bit but not a lot of exposition from 2 Peter But simply to share some of the basic things about prophecy I really don't know how much your pastors preach on the second coming of Christ and all that is associated with that I didn't investigate that beforehand, but with the interest in this subject for the day, I'm assuming that, and with young people growing up in your churches all the time, I'm assuming that the need to learn the basic things about what we would call in theological terms eschatology, the study of last things, [00:01:51] Prophecy, you could use that term as well Speaking specifically about what is in the future And including the eternal ages For us as Christians and for the cosmos as a whole And for everyone And what does God say about that And it is a very, very important subject but it is often neglected within our own Mennonite denomination [00:02:22] and I'll maybe say a bit more about that later this afternoon but let me just say now that we have somewhat unique experience in relation to prophecy among evangelicals And we do consider ourselves evangelical, although we have some differences with what we would call the western evangelicalism, but we are evangelical Anabaptists if we're true to our roots in scripture. [00:02:56] But as evangelicals, as Mennonites, among evangelicals, we have a somewhat unique experience in that we have probably, if you would count all of Mennonites from the Old Order Amish through MCUSA today now, as we're organized, You would probably still have a majority of our ministers who have an allegorical view of prophecy. [00:03:34] And we would have a minority, not as pronounced as it was at one time probably, but still a minority, who take a more literal view of prophecy. And that leads to two very different conclusions. But let me say at the outset that I'm not here to persuade you or the Lord to do things in the end times in a certain way. I would agree with what I heard Sanford Shetler some years ago. [00:04:08] Sanford's deceased, now gone for some years. But I heard him say one time, the Lord has my permission to do it however he wants to do it. And I would agree with those sentiments. And also Brother George Brunt, the late George Brunt II said that amillennialists and premillennialists cannot both be right Because our conclusions are too diverse, but we could both be wrong [00:04:42] And I agree with that too and there are some extremes in millennialism or premillennialism that I'm almost embarrassed to identify with though I would say I am definitely in the literalist camp in persuasion and that would put me in the millennial or premillennial camp but I have known dear brothers and good Bible students John C. Wenger [00:05:41] It'll help. You get it? I think it's quite important. You really ought to read them. And they are both currently available with new printings, so there's no good excuse not to read them. but J.C. Wenger was in the opposite camp from me personally on the issue of eschatology or prophecy and it does not, did not then, does not now, diminish my respect for him [00:06:17] and I have no problem with accepting that But I say all of that to make this point. I do know from my ministry across the Mennonite church over the last 40 years that, yeah, it's been a little longer than that. It's been 43 years since I was ordained, about 41 years since I started doing itinerant work and traveling across the church in good bit. And I have learned that there has been enough emotion about the differences there [00:06:56] that in some cases we have simply stopped talking about it, preaching it, teaching it. A worst case scenario was a young minister who told me back in the early 70s, no, mid 70s, the mid 70s, that sounds way back, but to me that's rather recent. But in the mid-seventies, this young minister told me that when he and two other brothers were in the lot to be ordained [00:07:35] And I won't tell you where it was, but it was somewhere between the oceans and the poles But he and the other two brothers, he was then ordained obviously But the three men were asked by the officiating bishop to promise that they would not preach from the book of Daniel or Revelation. I had never heard anything that radical. [00:08:11] I couldn't hardly believe it. I said, are you sure you heard right? He said, I know I heard right because he was the first one to answer And he told the bishop, he said, brother, I can't make a promise like that. Isn't the book of Daniel a part of the Old Testament and the book of Revelation a part of the New? Yes, he said, that's true, but they are too controversial. Now, that's the most extreme. [00:08:46] Well, maybe not. I just thought of an instance where after preaching one night and I got on to something about pastoral authority in a passing statement and made some comment about some pastors after a while seemed to operate as if they had intrinsic authority and were lords over the church. and the pastor asked me afterward if I knew about their history and I said no I have no idea what you have reference to. [00:09:18] He said well just a few years before the pastor then had preached a sermon on eschatology, on prophecy and he was strongly millenarian or premillennial and there was a lay brother in the congregation who was just as strongly a millennial. allegorical in his interpretation and right after the sermon this Amaliel brother comes up [00:09:50] and accosts the pastor before he left the platform and they got into a heated argument and not many people had left yet when the pastor asked for everyone's attention Well, they already had it because they were up there producing a lot more heat than light and so, and decibels than intellect [00:10:21] but in any case, the pastor said I just want everyone to know as of this moment Brother so-and-so is under discipline to be excommunicated Ta-da! And sadly, the pastor in the whole melee, the thing that followed after that, he was asked to turn in his role as pastor and asked to leave. [00:10:56] And they had a new pastor when I was there then. That had happened a few years before. I'm not here to lament some of those really tragic things that have happened in our own circles over this controversial issue except to use them as illustrations that I have no desire to be a part of. And if there's anyone here today, this afternoon, this evening, who really has a problem with how I basically understand [00:11:30] and interpret prophetic scripture, then I want you to know that I share what I do with the understanding and conviction that I have as I understand scripture and know the history of these positions. I share that for you to be good Bereans and search the scripture and see. I don't claim to have all the answers. I really don't. [00:12:04] In fact, just January a year ago, I was in Sudan for a couple weeks and a minister educator from MCUSA was also there and we stayed at the same church compound in Khartoum for about seven days that our time overlapped And we had some time to discuss things, and he was very anti-Israeli and pro-Arabic. And he at one point became very, I think the best word I could use is he became very derisive of persons who believe that modern Israel has any relationship at all to prophecy. [00:12:52] Prophecy. Modern Israel is simply a quirk of political machinations by especially British and then later UN politicians and bureaucrats. It has nothing to do with prophecy. Well, I took it for about as long as I could and he has a doctorate in theology and history and I don't have enough degrees to get a fever [00:13:27] but he was not about to intimidate me I guess I'm too ignorant to be intimidated easily but I said his name and I kind of called him to a halt And I said, look, I am not on an educational parity with you, but I know people who are on a par with you educationally, and I'd love to be, but I said I'm not, but I know people who are, who feel just as deeply the other way. [00:14:02] And then I said, I have just one question I'd like for you to explain to me. What Isaiah meant when he said, speaking for the Lord, in the first person, chapter 11, as I recall now, I think it was chapter 11, Isaiah said, I will set my hand again the second time to gather the dispersed of Israel from the four quadrants of the earth. [00:14:33] North, south, east, west. Well, he said that was the return of the Israelis from Babylon. I said that's east. Where's north? South? and west and no answer I said I don't know what God has in mind for Israel and I don't know all the answers to the eschatological questions that we could raise but I said let's not disparage each other for differences of opinion on the subject [00:15:18] So that's where I come from. You're with me now in 2 Peter 3. Let's just read through part of this passage, at least through about verse 14. Peter writing not too long before his martyrdom, and probably the last of his writings, quite obviously is. He says this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Savior. [00:16:08] knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where's the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation For this they willingly are ignorant of That by the word of God the heavens were of old [00:16:41] And the earth standing out of the water and in the water Whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against or until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. [00:17:20] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, And the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation or walk and godliness? [00:18:12] Looking for and hurrying up, hasting, unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness wherefore beloved seeing that you look for such things be diligent that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless [00:19:03] just a few things let's go back to where he says in verse 3 We know this first, that in the last days, now, like in Hebrews 1, it says, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners has spoken unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days, there you have in the original, in this last age, [00:19:37] He has spoken unto us by His Son. That last age is now 2,000 years old. Here you have a reference to the last days, and this was probably written about 67 A.D. So you already have 30 plus years of church history and 60 some years since the incarnation of Christ [00:20:07] and he's saying that there shall come in the last days It appears that he's talking about in the end time of the last age meaning toward the last of the era of Christianity since Pentecost. That would be my understanding of what he's saying and then what he says that they will say [00:20:41] and note they walk after their own lusts and they ask the derisive question where's the promise of his coming? For one more warning about what has happened to our denomination in my lifetime when it comes to many of the educators and pastors within our circles. I shared in a church, a large church in Florida back in December of 1983 on Anabaptist history. [00:21:18] And I really was kind of out of my element. Talk about plain and fancy. You still have a restaurant around here that's called plain and fancy? Yeah, well, between me and them, we were plain and fancy. But in any case, I was well received, quite well received And here a chairman of a board of elders of a large Mennonite church in a northern state was there [00:21:50] And he asked me to come to their church He said, we've been without a pastor for a year And he wanted me to come to their church I said, I'm booked for two, three years, I can't make it. And for the first time and the only time that I've been asked for an appointment, the asker actually got teary-eyed. He begged me to come. I finally said, the best I could do is ask my elder board and the other ministers for an additional Sunday. [00:22:29] I had a commitment within which I stayed for an additional Sunday because I could drive it in a few hours and just give you one day, a Sunday morning and evening. And it wound up that I had two hours Sunday morning and two hours Sunday evening. And then the elder board wanted to meet with me. And it's the first and only time this ever happened. They said, is there any possibility that we could talk you into a pastoral role here? [00:23:08] I said, no way. I was ordained at United Bethel. I'm committed there. I can't even consider it. Well, they just wanted to know because they said they have been looking for a pastor for over a year. And I said, and you have a membership of 430? And you're looking outside for a pastor? [00:23:43] They said yes, the congregation voted they wanted a pastor with at least an MDiv, a Masters in Divinity. But he said we had one here On a trial basis he lasted three months And the thing that tripped him up was When they found out that he did not believe in the literal return of Christ [00:24:17] And he was a graduate from one of our Mennonite seminaries And when they finally pinched him on the subject, said, what do you believe? He believed that all the eschatological passages in scripture are allegories of what's going to happen in the experience of Christians and the church in the world. and also like the prophecy by Paul in Thessalonians about the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ rising first [00:24:56] and we who are alive and remain joining them to be with the Lord forever. That is simply an allegory of what we experience when we die. But it won't literally happen. I don't think anyone here this morning, and very few I hope, within our circles, would have such a view of eschatology or prophecy. [00:25:30] And our forefathers were actually accused by Protestants and Catholics in the 16th century of their simplicity, their simplistic approach to the Bible. And fairly recently, one of our young men studying in an evangelical seminary Seminary, that would be a lot more conservative than our own seminaries, when he insisted that you can live in a fallen world without the oath. [00:26:11] Yeah, the world will use the oath. The prophet was making the point that Jesus couldn't have meant to be exclusive, or pardon me, inclusive of all oaths when he said, swear not at all. That's good English and it's good Greek And it's not hard to understand Swear not at all And he spent 20 minutes to explain that you would need to swear at times [00:26:41] But not swear in disgust and use the name of the Lord in vain But oaths of veracity, truthfulness I swear to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God In a court of law or to swear an oath of fidelity as a president does, lays his hand on the Bible and swears to fulfill the office of president faithfully. Those are essential oaths. [00:27:15] And this young Mennonite brother said he has lived. He said, well, the prophet said, you cannot live without the oath in a fallen world. He said, well, I think it's, I'm the ninth generation of my father's side of the family that have lived in a fallen world and we do not swear oaths. Oh, he said, I know some of you Mennonites are so literalistic that you can't be practical. [00:27:50] So I'm a little impractical when I go to interpret scripture as well, eschatology as well as other passages. Note something else said by Peter here. They will come in verse 4 and ask the question, where is the promise of his coming? I was only in the ministry two years when the local Plain City Ministerium asked Elton Trueblood, a very well-known writer, who on many subjects was really quite good. [00:28:27] I have a few of his books. And though I wasn't involved in the ministerium, he was there to speak on a Good Friday evening service, the only service that the ministerium put on for the community. And Elton Trueblood was the speaker and then all of us ministers in the area were invited to a sanctified social hour, you know, afterward where we had pop and things like that and punch to drink [00:29:00] and then we could rub elbows with this brother Trueblood So, after the six-day war in Israel, and there was a lot of excitement about the return of Christ, one of the Mennonite pastors, an older brother than myself, asked Mr. Trublan, Do you believe we are any closer to the end of time and the coming of Jesus? Jesus, now that things have been happening, that we are close, not any closer, that we are close to the end of time because of what's happening in Israel, I'll never forget, Mr. Trueblood kind of shook his head, laughed a condescending sort of laugh. [00:29:57] I don't know how to explain that, but it sure sounded like, it was like, what a question. He chuckled a bit and said, I don't think we are any closer to the demumma, I had to look that word up, than they were in the time of the Apostle Paul. And I wrestled with an answer like that. [00:30:31] My puny mind couldn't figure out how, even if it's 10,000 years down the road, that we weren't closer than the Apostle Paul. until I discovered that then already in 1968 there were evangelicals, true blood among them, who had thrown in the towel on a literal return of Christ. [00:31:06] So we weren't any closer because it wasn't going to happen. And frankly I think, this is free now, I think the driving force behind much of conservationism today Though I believe we should be good stewards of the earth, don't get me wrong but a lot of that is a humanistic worldview that thinks we are stuck here forever as man [00:31:43] and so we've got to make the thing last forever because they don't believe it was spoken into existence that it was flooded universally the world that then was And the world that now is, is kept in store by the word of God Reserved until God destroys it They don't believe that And Peter, a fisherman [00:32:15] With my level of degrees Was used of God To reveal something That a lot of people with doctorates Can't see They are willingly ignorant They choose to be ignorant of the fact that God spoke the worlds into existence Though they're still trying to figure out how it came to be They believe it's here [00:32:46] Most of them do There are some of them who are so brilliant As to think that the only thing that's real is mind And so, all that we think is matter is simply an illusory perception of mind. I had a landlady like that when I was in 1W service back in the 50s in Cleveland. And she had quite a few health problems. [00:33:16] And one day when I was paying the rent and she was terribly sick, I said Mrs. Irma Keel I'm sorry that you're not feeling well. I'm fine she said. She said sickness is not a reality. We had talked about it before so she was insulted that I reminded her of the reality and I said well if sickness is not a reality what about all this insulin and other medicines right there on the table. She said, they're not real either. [00:33:50] Now, it's pretty hard to have an intelligent conversation when nothing is reality but mine. Most people aren't there, however. They really believe that the earth is here, but they don't know how in the world it got here. And man is here now, and somehow we evolved from grandma and grandpappy protozoa from a pool of slime that probably got hit by lightning. about 13 billion years ago. They choose to be ignorant of you. [00:34:24] Let me share just a few things with you about prophecy. And you may want to take some notes. Is it alright to suggest that you take some notes? Most of you didn't come prepared this morning, but try to prepare yourself. I didn't check, does your bulletin have a blank on the back side Do you have a bulletin this morning? I don't know. But anyway, if you don't have notes, then empty a shelf and, you know, put it in there somewhere in those folds in your brain where you can remember some things. [00:34:59] Bible scholars, with a whole lot more credentials than I would have, would range the percentage of scripture that is eschatological, dealing with last things or with the end of the age and what's going to happen in the future. They would say that in the lowest number that at least 20% of the Bible is eschatological, meaning it refers to and deals with prophecy and what's going to happen in the future. [00:35:39] Now some of that has already transpired, like all the Old Testament prophecies about the coming of Christ in his first advent, those have been fulfilled, but they're still part of scripture, and they verify scripture to us now, and the divine inspiration of it, but if you add everything up, and here they don't all agree, it ranges from 20% to about 30% of scripture. is eschatological, has to do with eschatology. [00:36:15] Now that, even at the lowest number, and I would say it's probably somewhere between there, 20 and 30, that is a high percentage. We are pretty convinced as Mennonites that it really only needs to be said one time to be authoritative. So let's not neglect preaching and teaching and reading eschatological prophetic scriptures. [00:36:52] They really, really are important. Let me share five purposes with you. I don't have a transparency on this one. I just put this together this week, this past week. Five purposes for prophetic scripture, that part of the Bible, 20-30% that deals with prophecy. Number one, it is to warn us and protect us from deception. [00:37:27] And I would turn to one specific instance where the disciples asked Jesus, after he said when they were commenting about the beauty of the temple, That not one stone would be left on another. And that happened only 30 some years later, about 37. They asked him, when will that be and what will be the signs of your coming and the end of the age? His first statement in reply to their question was, [00:38:05] Beware. Beware. Beware. We don't use that word a lot, but it really means be very aware and be very wary. And that isn't the German-English problem there. My mother used to say wieners and weel, for wieners and veal, because she got her V's and W's mixed up. But we need to be aware and we need to be wary. [00:38:40] You understand those words clearly. Beware lest any man deceive you. A lot of deception going on. That's the first thing he says. It is also, secondly, to challenge us to holiness. And your clocks run fast here too, just like in most places where I preach. I think there's a conspiracy that's associated with that. [00:39:12] But in any case, here in 2 Peter 3, he asks the question, he answers it partially, But it's a question that you could say is so obvious it needs no answer Since all these things shall be destroyed Do you like your house? Do you like your car? Mary Jane and I just updated from a 2000 van With 236,000 miles on it And starting to make noises where it wasn't supposed to [00:39:45] And bought us a 2004 and more. And you know, it's kind of nice. You can even slide the roof open. We still haven't washed it in the car wash. If it leaks, it won't be so nice. But it's got everything in it. All the gingerbread. We like it. And I have interest in an old Cessna airplane. I like it a lot. [00:40:22] We have a nice little doughty house. Well, I have a doughty house. Mary Jane has an apartment. But we do live together. And I like it. But all these things shall be destroyed What kind of persons ought we to be in light of that? That's the question [00:40:53] So it's to challenge us to holiness and carefulness Thirdly, it's to give substance to our hope Now everyone has a sense of and even a desire for utopia. We don't use that word a lot but I think it's well known and I don't want to insult people's intelligence. But utopia is the idea of a place where everything is perfect. [00:41:27] And I have seen quite a few people in abject poverty, at least by my definition. Who would think that to be able to come to America is to be able to get at least this close to utopia? And when I came home, Mary Jane and I came home from India three years ago, [00:41:59] it almost felt like utopia. I saw the worst living conditions of anywhere in the world I have ever been in India. Our cattle, our pets have it better in America. We all have this utopian concept. [00:42:33] It's intuitive, but we don't know what the substance of it is to be, purely from human insight and learning. But we have at least substantial information. Well, the information is not just substantial, the information is absolute. but we can gain substantial understanding of the substance of our hope from reading the Bible. [00:43:12] For instance, right here in 2 Peter 3, after talking about what sounds like a nuclear annihilation, not triggered by Iran but by God himself, He says in verse 13, nevertheless, we, we Christians, we Bible-believing Christians, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth. [00:43:54] Ta-da! A new earth? Wherein dwells righteousness And John said in his revelation That I saw the new heavens and the new earth And then he made a very fascinating statement about the new earth He said there was no more what? [00:44:26] Sea That's a good place to just make an illustration from my own experience. I asked a particular preacher who visited our campus at Rosedale back probably the early 80s, late 70s. I asked him to do a devotional in the chapel, or the chapel address, 20 minutes. that's a homily, a little sermon [00:44:59] and he did and it was moving but three, four minutes into his homily I knew that he was on the other position of eschatology from myself but we had a few on the faculty who were with him and we didn't brand them or fire them but in any case he said that passage [00:45:31] and that was his text for 20 minutes there was no more sea and he did a bang up job with it it was a goose bump sermon among some evangelicals it would have been a shouting sermon But we Mennonites can only go with the goose bumps because they're quiet. But in any case, his point was this, that John was exiled on a stony island out in the Aegean Sea off the coast of what is today Turkey. [00:46:16] On that little island called Patmos, it's still there. There wasn't a big enough tree on the whole island to make a boat to try to get to the mainland, so when they used it as a prison, it needed no fences, no walls, because the sea was the wall. And he did a beautiful job of talking about how in the kingdom of God [00:46:50] there is the potential and the intention on God's part to remove the walls between races if that's even a logical concept. Races? God made of one blood all nations. I think we are simply different ethnic groups. Can I get away with that here? And I have a lot of black friends. And their blood's the same color as mine. [00:47:26] It comes from the same source. But all those walls will be gone. Walls between an in-law and a mother-in-law Between a father and a son or daughter All the walls will be gone I'm getting goosebumps right now just remembering it But I think John saw the actual world [00:48:03] Terribly simplistic, isn't it? It gives substance to our hope. Number four, it comforts us in trial. And Paul specifically said that in 1 Thessalonians 4. When he talks there about what was often called the rapture of the church, which is not a biblical term, but the idea of the taking out of the dead in Christ and the living saints [00:48:34] in that particular experience at the end he says wherefore comfort one another with these words it won't always be like it is today where things can go so terribly wrong like they did just last Thursday in Virginia for the Blue Ridge Mennonite Fellowship where Henry Blank pastors. [00:49:06] We were to be there this past weekend. So it would have been the week before that on a Thursday. We were coming home from Georgia when Henry called me and said, Walter, we're going to have to cancel the weekend. And there was a catch in his voice when he said, we've had a tragedy. A young father of seven, 39 years old, made his living driving a dump truck. [00:49:47] And he rolled the truck and was killed. Children from 6 months to 13 years It's not always going to be like that And here I am at 73, almost 74 And all you have to do is look at me And you can see I'm dying And next week [00:50:23] Our second great grandchild is due to be born. I'd love to see him or her grow up to be an adult. But I really don't expect to. Because I'm dying. But it won't always be like that. The scriptures give us substance for our hope [00:50:58] What is there intuitively and what is there because of scripture itself And then the fifth reason, the fifth purpose of prophecy is to verify the divine inspiration of Scripture. Let me just use one illustration as a case in point, but there are so many like it. [00:51:31] For a good long while before 1948, liberal theologians, yes, people with doctorates who studied the Bible, liberal theologians insisted that the book of Daniel could not have been written by a man who lived in that 5th century B.C. Sixth century, which was it? I'd have to think now. And that's one of the things that happens in old age. Some of these dates slip away. But anyway, some hundreds of years before Christ, at the time of Daniel, when he as a young man went over in the Babylonian captivity to Babylon, he could not have written the book of Daniel. [00:52:26] You know why they said that? Because some of the prophecies he made were so explicitly fulfilled already that it was impossible for a Daniel of that era to have understood the future events so well. So they had a pseudo-Daniel. not a guy with a suit, fake Daniel, another Daniel that they said must have lived in the 2nd century B.C. [00:53:10] Then in 1948 they found a book of Daniel in the caves of Qumran that was older than their pseudo-Daniel. Daniel, it just killed Pseudo-Daniel. He didn't exist. But what did they do? They just moved Pseudo-Daniel's birth back a couple hundred years. But they had a really hard time because it was early 3rd century B.C. [00:53:45] No, pardon me, late 3rd century, nearly 400 years prior to Christ that that Daniel was written and well documented for dating and some of the events happened before that, not all of them. So they kind of precariously picked a date when Pseudo-Daniel must have lived and written. Anything but to believe that this really is God's book written by men. [00:54:18] Now let me close out, and I'm out of time, I know that. No, I'll do that this afternoon. I'm out of time, so I'm going to quit for this morning, but I want to give you a list when all of you will have pencil and paper. No, but anyway, more of you. I want to give you a list on a transparency of some terms and definitions so that we're all on the same page when I use them, and could also possibly be helpful if you've not made prophecy or eschatology any major interest or study of yours in the past. [00:54:59] God bless you good, you've been an easy congregation to... Was I preaching or teaching? I'm not sure. But in any case, God bless you good and I look forward to the rest of the day with you.