I Believe in God but I Don't Fear Him

Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, I'm so glad you're here with us. Today we kick off the second part of a new series called the Christian Atheist, and you may be like what? What is that? Is that even a thing? What do you mean, christian Atheist? What is a Christian Atheist? A Christian Atheist is someone who believes in God but lives as if God does not exist. Someone who believes in God but lives as if God does not exist.

Speaker 1: 0:29

So today we're going to talk about a very serious subject and one that can be often misunderstood, and, honestly, for good reasons good reasons that is misunderstood. Today, we're going to talk about those who believe in God but don't fear God. Those who believe in God but don't fear God, and even, as I'm saying that, you may be like Jacob. What are you going to talk about today? Like, what do you mean? Like, I'm not supposed to be afraid of God, am I? Like? What are you talking? Okay, we're going to hit on that in a second Fear God. What does that mean? That's a good question. We have to acknowledge something up front, though Studies show that three out of every four Americans believe in God. That sounds good, right, you know? Okay, three out of every four Americans believe in God, but I don't know about you guys. Maybe it's just me, but if you look at in our world, in our community, and what kind of is going on, I would say that could be true. They believe in God, but I don't know if three out of every four people are following Jesus or are trying to represent or lead a life that represents what he wants for them. So I would say three out of four people. They may believe in God, but they don't live in a reverent fear of God. Their actions show they don't actually fear Him.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Last week I kind of subtitled the talk Cultural Christianity and I kind of talked about how you may believe in God but you don't know Him. Maybe you were raised in a church, a family where you went to church on Christmas and Easter, you know. Or you went on the Fourth of July or something, because that's when they have free hamburgers, come on, yeah, yeah, maybe, but you know. So you believe in God, but you don't know Him. Today, if I give it a subtitle to this talk, I want to call it Customized Christianity. Customized Christianity we believe in God, but we're going to take the parts of God that we like and apply it to our lives. But the parts that we don't really like, we'll leave that over there. You know we'll leave that for someone else. You know we'll reject the other things because we're going to customize it. Nowadays you can customize anything, can't you? You can customize anything. For example, back in my day I'm becoming that person now Back in my day, before, we didn't have streaming services, we didn't have Disney Plus, we didn't have Hulu, we didn't have Netflix.

Speaker 1: 2:39

Back in my day, we had to watch whatever show was on the TV. So if the nanny was on, we watching Fran Dresser. You know it's a good show, you know. Or if you're watching hey Arnold come on 90s babies in the house, you watching hey Arnold. And if it was the episode you didn't like, you had to suffer. You just had to suffer through it until Rugrats came on at four o'clock, followed by Slime Time Live. Come on 90s babies we in here.

Speaker 1: 3:08

But my kids today they know nothing about that my son Jameson. He loves the show Spidey and his amazing friends. He was on Disney Junior Fun Little Spider-Man show, but he knows that he can pick the episode that he wants to watch. So he's been into this new episode where this bad guy comes and destroys web quarters and Spidey and all his amazing friends have to make a new web quarters. And I'm like Jameson, let's watch another episode. He's like no, I want that one. I'm like. But Jameson, there's like 42 other episodes Web quarters. You know, get me the new and that's all he wants. It's customized, he can pick it whatever he wants.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Nowadays you can customize anything, certain shoe brands, those nice kicks. You got those killer kicks customized, you know. You can get a bobble head. You can customize a bobble head of your head and you can put it on that bobble head. And you can put a Michael Jordan jersey on it and you can pretend I'm Michael Jordan. Baby, look at my head bobble. Yeah, I got the bobble head and I'm going to put it on my dashboard. That made me a little dizzy actually doing that. But you can customize your toilet paper. That's handy.

Speaker 1: 4:25

You can even customize your potential boyfriend or girlfriend with some dating apps. You're like I would like a boyfriend who's romantic, who loves to travel, who loves good old movies, who writes poetry while serving meals to the poor. And he serves those meals on the poor with candlelight and on horseback. And I want him blonde. Six foot one, 175 pounds of ripped abs, baby. You can customize them and I want them by Friday.

Speaker 1: 5:00

You can customize just about anything. In fact, restaurants have really gotten a hold of this. Who in here ever goes to Sonic? You know you ever go to. I always want to call it Sonic's or the S, but there's no S at the end of it. You know you got Sonic's.

Speaker 1: 5:12

My family used to love him, my kids used to love him. But now we understand, like red dye 40 is like bad for you. So I had to break it. To Kingsley I said, yeah, we ain't getting no more slushies, but anyways. But, but here you go.

Speaker 1: 5:24

Sonic has over 3.5 million different ways you can make a slushie. That's a lot of slushies. That's a lot of bathroom breaks. Oh, come on, that was a good one. Starbucks, go home, you can get it your way. You know BK started it, but now everyone has it. You can get what you can demand. You want to customize. You want to grande soil. Half latte, half cappuccino, a little bit hot, two ice cubes, three ice cubes, a little drizzle on the top, a little drizzle on the bottom, a drizzle on the side and drizzle some all around too. You can get your coffee anyway you want and customize it. You can customize it and because of this and for other reasons, I believe people are moving to what I call a customized version of Christianity. I mean, how do you customize everything else?

Speaker 1: 6:16

And it's a consumer mentality. It's a mentality that says I come to church because the church needs to feed me. The church has to meet my needs. And don't get me wrong, I think good preaching will help you have your felt needs met. I believe that. But is that what church is? Is church equivalent to a restaurant? Oh, I didn't like the food at that church. I'm going to a different one. You know what's the purpose here. So here you go and this is what happens a consumer mentality.

Speaker 1: 6:45

And God created us in His image and often we return to favor and try to create God in our image in our way. I'll take the love of God, but I don't want the wrath. I want the mercy of God, but I can do it all without all that judgment. I want His blessings in my life, but take up the cross. I don't know about all that. You know there are parts of the Bible I really like and love and embrace. I want to hear those parts, but since I'm the king, I can choose what parts I want to apply to my life. That's the mentality sometimes we have. I love the part is about, about.

Speaker 1: 7:20

I love Jeremiah 29, 11. I know the plans for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you. Oh, I love it. I just when I say it prosper sounds good. Plans to prosper you and give you hope in the future? Yeah, I'll take that one.

Speaker 1: 7:35

But the whole verse about sexual purity, oh, that was better for them back then. That's outdated now. Come on, who does that? Jacob, you know, and that's what happens, right, you know, I like that kind of God, but the God that tells me I should manage my resources for His glory and be generous, I don't know about all that. I love the God that says he's going to bless me, coming in and going out, come on. But my weakens God, that's for me, it's people who believe in God but do not fear God. We believe in Him but don't fear Him. Again, I'm going to hit on that a little bit more. What does that mean? A fear God, because that can sound kind of crazy. But here we go, david, while I get there, david, king David. He actually was writing about the sinfulness of mankind and in fact he would recognize himself in this as he begins to write this. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 8:28

Psalm 36, one says this send whispers to the wicked. I got to stop for a second there. Send whispers to the wicked. And his word in there can sound kind of harsh. Just think about this. Think about this. Oftentimes, the things that you don't want to do, then you find yourself doing the things that you don't want to do. Typically they're not publicly displayed, right? It's typically like Jacob go make a bad decision right now. Typically it's they won't know. It's just between, it's just you. It's not that big of a deal, it's not going to hurt anybody. Come on, come on, am I speaking to anyone today? Send whispers a little bit. It's that little whisper of like hey, you're just trying to release a little bit. You got a lot of stress going on. Just okay, send whispers.

Speaker 1: 9:18

King David says send whispers to the wicked. Deep within their hearts, they have no fear of God to restrain them. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are. Again, david's word is here. It's very harsh, but here let's go with it, because seriously, isn't that how it often happens? Is these little whispers? It's like, as this little whisper says no one. If they never figure out, they won't judge you. And no one figures out. You know what you're doing in your private life. That has nothing to do with your public life, it's the values. It's the values. So, therefore, do what you want. And King David is saying hey, the reason why we do this is because there's a lack of fear of God to restrain ourselves. David said in their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are. And what I want to ask us today? The question I want to ask us today because David's right into the people back then, but maybe, just maybe, maybe that verse Is it for us today too.

Speaker 1: 10:14

Do we allow the whisper of sin to guide us and do things that we don't want to do? Here you go. What if we are blind to our own self-centeredness? What if we don't really have an honest, true, reverent fear of God to restrain us? What if we cannot see how wicked we really are? And again, that word wicked, it sounds harsh. It also makes me think of that stage play you know I'm talking about the Wizard of Oz one. But really ask yourself this question Do I deceive myself at times? Do I sell myself on doing something that I know I shouldn't be doing? Do I hold on to my anger as a part of me instead of a part of me that can be healed? Do I hold on to bitterness because it makes me feel like I have some control and power? Here we go. I'm going somewhere right now.

Speaker 1: 11:10

I want to just acknowledge that talking about the fear of God is really tricky. This is a tricky subject. It's easy to talk about love and good things, but we're talking about the fear of God. It's tricky not being prayful about this because, in my opinion, you've got to be careful, because years ago and you probably know this there was a lot of preaching that was like hellfire and brinston You're going to hell if you don't repent. All this mean and all these people would picket signs saying mean things about people, groups and stuff. That's not true biblically and that's kind of like you kind of can associate that with the fear of God, right, that kind of wrath mean. But then, on the opposite end of the podium, though, you kind of got the swing where God is love and he's so gracious, and you just do whatever you want. It doesn't matter, because there's grace for you, grace, grace, grace, you know. So you kind of got this hatefulness and what I would say.

Speaker 1: 12:13

We got to stay in the radical middle. We got to stay in the middle. We got to understand the grace of God and the truth of God. Come on, come on, come on, let's go somewhere with this, you know, because this is what it means. We got to be careful because the justice of God is true, but it's incomplete by itself. The grace of God is true, but it's incomplete by itself.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Remember when Jesus came. What does scripture say? Jesus came full of what Grace and truth. And notice how grace comes first. You can't truth someone to salvation, you can't just, hey, here's the truth, here's your sin, here's your mistakes, now follow God. No, no, grace comes first. There's a love, there's a connection there, there's a grace, and Jesus came that way.

Speaker 1: 13:01

You got to be careful to not move towards legalism, where you got to do things so God will love you. And that's not true. God will never love you more than he loves you right now, and he loves you a whole bunch. And no matter what you do, it's not going to make God love you anymore, any less when we practice spiritual disciplines. When we practice spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible reading and silence and Sabbath keeping.

Speaker 1: 13:25

It's not so that God can love me more. It's so that I can understand God more in my life, so I can actually begin to live my life, not with my false self, not with my own fears and worries and concerns, but I can live my life in the way that the one who designed me to live it. It's this freedom that comes from it. Because, as Bible says, with the spirit of the Lord is there's freedom, there's justice, there's hope. And I want some people to know today that there is freedom for your life, there is victory for your life. You don't have to live one more day beat down and destroyed by that anxiety or fear. You don't have to live one more day thinking to yourself. I have to submit myself to my broken dreams and broken people, because with the spirit of the Lord is there's freedom, there's not a legalism. Oh, I gotta do this so God can love me. God loves you just as you are. Okay, that's what we also don't want. To swing to the other side, where we have no accountability for our actions, kind of a license to sin. You know, we want to be able to have a reverent fear. So how are we going to balance this tension? How are we going to do this church? How are we going to balance the tension? Okay, here, this is what I would say. I would say this loving God plus respecting God equals fearing God. Loving God plus respecting God equals fear God.

Speaker 1: 14:50

Let me unpack it for you in a more human way, because that could still sound kind of broad. You know, if you have a spouse, what do you do for your spouse? You love your spouse and because you respect your spouse, you want to what? Honor your spouse. Because you love and respect them, you want to honor them in a way you live your life Same with God. Let me give you another illustration. Let me unpack this my pastors, andy and Sharon Meade. They're the pastors of the Virginia Beach Vineyard that sent us up here to Richmond and at that church that's where I gave my life to Jesus, that's where I found my purpose for ministry and I served the majority of my Christian life down there. But pastors Andy and Sharon have invested a lot of their time and resources and love into Aaron and I, into Aaron and I. They have a bunch of stories to share about them, but the one that really helps me kind of illustrate.

Speaker 1: 15:38

This is when Aaron and I wanted to get engaged. Okay, so Aaron and I wanted to get engaged in our early 20s and we wanted to meet with Andy and Sharon to kind of talk about this decision and to get some wisdom and guidance from them. And as we went to the meeting though, as Aaron and I went to the meeting Sharon told us to meet her at Outback Steakhouse. All right, you know, talking about life decisions, let me get a good steak to go with it. And so, anyway, as Aaron and I went to this meeting with hands open, you know, if they bless our decision to get engaged, you know we're going to start telling our friends and our parents and stuff like that and let them know. But if they want us to wait because of something they see, we're going to wait. We're going to wait, we're going to wait and follow their wisdom. Okay, so here you go, we go to meet, we get some steaks. Come on, the bloody year to better. That's how I feel.

Speaker 1: 16:28

And Sharon, pastor, sharon has these piercing blue eyes that can look into the depths of your soul, so you always want to make sure your soul is clean when you talk to her and as we're meeting, we're telling them, hey, this is the time we want to do it. And then she just starts telling, to talking to Aaron and calling out the leadership in Aaron, that she was called to not just sit second chair to me but to co-lead with me and to preach, to love the loss, and they start to bless our future marriage and what God has in store for us. And here you go, as a person, as people, I love Annie and Sharon because what they have done for me, but I also respect them because of the position of pastor they have in my life and because I love them and respect them, I want to honor them with my life. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? Because I know that can be kind of hard.

Speaker 1: 17:19

I remember we even told Aaron's friend, who's not really a Christian, that we were going to hold off on our engagement until they blessed it, and she was like, why would you give anyone that much say over your life? And I said to her because I got to live my life honoring the people that God puts in my life. I got to say something to that, though here's a big one pastor. I want to talk to pastors and I'm going to talk to Christians. As a pastor, as a Christian, people will follow you where you are going. They will follow you where you are going. So if you are not going towards Jesus, oh, that's where things get messed up. And we've seen this in churches where people are following a pastor, following a leader, but that leader ends up not really leading people to Jesus. And what I want us to say? The scripture tells us that Jesus makes that clear that pastors need to be careful when they're leading people.

Speaker 1: 18:15

But I want to say something as a pastor at LVC my hope is that you just don't follow me where I'm going just because, oh, I'm going somewhere. I'm trying to live my life privately going towards Jesus. I'm trying to live my life privately going towards Jesus in leaders and people who call yourself Christians, at your workplace, with your family, with your kids, with your coworkers, with people who are following you. Just don't lead them somewhere. You follow Jesus and lead people towards Jesus. You want to know the best form of evangelism. The best form of evangelism isn't a mass marketing push. It isn't like having some cool little cars to hand people. The best form of evangelism is you living for Jesus and the people around you following you towards Jesus, based on the way you live your life. So here you go. So that's the kind of a human way to look at it. But humans are what Flawed.

Speaker 1: 19:11

So it's even hard to make that illustration, because I can't put all my trust in a person, because a person is a person and people do people things, but God, but God. Can I put my trust in God? Could I love God and respect God and therefore honor God with my life? Can I do that? Because we love Him, because he loved us first, while we were still sinners, he still died for us when we didn't deserve it. He loved us. It's not just what he does, but it's who he is and because of that we love Him in return. It's our only reasonable response to say God, with all of my heart, with all of me, I want to honor you and respect you. I love you as a father, but I respect you as a consuming fire. I love you as a God who is full of grace, but I respect that you are also a righteous judge. I love and desire a relationship with you, but I respect that your ways are higher than my ways and your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. And since your ways and your thoughts are higher than my thoughts, god, you might lead me to do something I'm uncomfortable with.

Speaker 1: 20:26

See, one of the problems that has happened with the church is this and what has happened and I guess I would even say in our country is everything we do is so that we can position our lives to not be inconvenienced. Everything we do, the careers we try to take, the job promotions we take, the places that we live, I don't want to be inconvenienced and I'm going to tell you this you will always hit a wall and you're Christian walk If you don't live your life a little bit saying God, inconvenience me, inconvenience me a little bit. Maybe I am supposed to take in that kid who needs a home. Inconvenience me. Maybe I am supposed to actually do the due diligence and get the help that me and my wife need, so that we can become a couple that is making a difference with our lives. God, inconvenience me, Help me practice hospitality, even though I'm a little bit tired and I'm a little bit overworked, but there's still some people who need my love. Inconvenience me. I'm going to tell you this friends, you will always, you will always be a little unhappy with your Christian walk. If you live your life, just try not to be inconvenienced. I would even say this throughout scripture God's the God who loves. Inconvenience people. God's the God he's like, oh you comfortable, you snuggling up right now. Let me inconvenience you. Let me do something in you that you didn't think that you could do, because you actually can't do it without me, but I'm going to do it with you and watch the difference you're going to make with your life. Let me inconvenience your life.

Speaker 1: 22:14

The greatest miracles that Jesus did, they were often when he was inconvenienced. Imagine if Jesus said oh, my palm pilot. Palm pilot told me I can't heal you today, brother. Hey, maybe if you're feeling good next week we can pick it up.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Paul, apostle Paul, he was preaching a sermon and he was preaching so bad that a dude fell asleep sitting on a window sill. He was preaching so bad, he fell asleep on the window sill that he fell out of the window and died. That's some bad preaching. That's some bad preaching. But Paul said oh shoot, I want preaching good. See, you know what Paul did. This sounds inconvenient. This is not going to sound like convenient time for a normal church service. Right, someone dying in your church service? Hey, we still got kids singing. You know like you want to know what Paul did. He went out, prayed for the man. The man came back to life. Paul went and finished preaching. It's a weird story. Why share that story? Because sometimes we got to live our lives inconvenienced Friends. I'm telling you that depression will always get the best of you if you're always seeking convenience and not Jesus. I'm telling you, seeking Jesus will bring you to a place to get some counseling and help. But are you seeking Jesus? Are you following Him Chagically?

Speaker 1: 23:54

In our world today we talk about the fear of God going oh, I don't want to serve a God I'm supposed to be afraid of. I don't want to be afraid Like, oh, that's not good. There's a difference. There's a difference of being afraid of someone Like I would be afraid to run into Mike Tyson in the back alley. I don't want that. Ouch, that's afraid. God's afraid of you being afraid. But seriously, there's a difference of being afraid of someone and having a reverent fear for someone. Don't confuse it. God's not hovering over you.

Speaker 1: 24:33

You say you better do this. God's the loving Father that says you can do this. You got this. Come on, come on, james, james, keep me on time. Today we got baptisms. We're still doing. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 24:51

Proverbs says this. I'm going to give you three Proverbs. Okay, proverbs 9.10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What is wisdom? Knowing that what I did yesterday is an impact my tomorrow. Knowing that life is all connected. In other words, you want to be wise, you want to make a difference.

Speaker 1: 25:08

Fear the Lord, fear the Lord. Proverbs 14.23 says the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning the person from the sneers of death. The fear of the Lord is life, takes you out, which will destroy you, and brings you into the blessings that God has for you. Proverbs 22,4 says True humility and fear of the Lord leads to riches in a long life. The fear of God is not something that we run from, it's something that we step into. God, I love you and you've given me access to you through Jesus. So I enter boldly to your throne, laying down every prayer and petition I have. You created me to be in a loving relationship with you. Therefore, god, I long to know you, I respect you and honor you. The fear of the Lord, what is it. It's a good thing that leads to blessing. Here you go, you're taking those. I want you to write this down what is the fear of the Lord?

Speaker 1: 26:13

The greatest evidence of the fear of God is complete obedience to God. And again, these are some words that we don't like to use in our culture today Fear, obedience, submission, surrender. And there's people that you don't need to do those things to, but there is a loving God. When you take that step to God, you hear him. Hear him, you'll start to bring up things in him, good things, challenging things. See, guys, I'm more convinced that God is not just trying to take us from better to better, but God is trying to take us from better to obedient, and sometimes obedient is reconcile on that relationship that you damaged. I hope I'm not preaching too hard today, but I want freedom for you, I want victory for you. I want you to look at the end of your life and say I gave it all for Jesus. I've lived my life in a way that made a difference. Now I live my life in a way that made no difference.

Speaker 1: 27:26

So the greatest evidence of the fear of God is complete obedience. It's not partial obedience, it's not delayed obedience. This is how I would describe it the fear of the Lord is an ongoing attitude of my heart that moves me to choose, over and over again, to obey God when it would be easier to do something else. You say that one more time the fear of the Lord is an ongoing attitude of my heart that moves me to choose over and over, and over and over again. When it's not easy, when it's not convenient, when it's not how I had it planned, when it's not where I saw my life going, where it's not the direction I thought it was going to go, when I have depression, when I feel afraid, when I am lonely, when I am struggling, over and over again, I'm going to choose to obey God when it would be easier to escape, to run away, to give up, to act like my life doesn't make a difference. I'm going to choose you, god, over and over again, and it's not instant, it's ongoing. The posture of my heart is surrender to God. I'm going to choose you.

Speaker 1: 28:41

I'm not talking about a customized Christianity where I'll take that part, believe that part out. I'm talking about God. Wherever you leave me, I'll follow. Leave me to the oceans, lord, leave me to the unknown, and I will follow you. You say it, lord, I'll get out my boat and walk towards you. And here's the best part when we get out of our boats, when we walk towards Jesus, when we fall, not if when we fall Jesus, jesus and his beautiful, wonderful grace grabs us, lifts us up and walks. Well, he walks with us, he walks with us. I'm going to follow you, I'm going to go after you.

Speaker 1: 29:30

The question of application today is I want to make it practical for us today. The question I want you to ask today is this in what area of your life are you not fearing and obeying God? What is what area? Here's the application, and what are you going to do about it. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? If you say nothing, then that's fine. Just call it what it is, that's all right.

Speaker 1: 29:59

You might believe in God, but you do not fear Him. But I believe with all my heart. God wants to work on your heart and deep down, he wants to move you closer to Him. Because you love Him and you respect Him, you will fear Him, and because you fear Him, you will obey Him. And I don't know what that looks like for you and your personal life. Hey, like I said, our mission here is to help everyday people. That's you and your everyday life, your everyday schedule, your everyday routine, your everyday you. It's help everyday people learn how to become Jesus' followers. So maybe for you it's a step of confession, it's your next step. Maybe for you it's counseling. Maybe for you it's just it's just you saying I'm going to stop being so negative. Maybe for you it's going back to school, taking a step of faith. Maybe for you, like the two people today, you're saying I want to be baptized. You're just saying I'm just going to be obedient to you. I don't know what your next step is, but I do know this A life lived for Jesus man, it's the best life possible.

Speaker 1: 31:20

It's the best life possible. So, because you love Him and you respect Him, because you love Him and respect Him, you are in reverent awe and fear of Him. Because you fear God, you say I'm going to live my life in a way that honors Him. Pray with me, church, god, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your love. We thank you for your goodness. We thank you, lord, like that lost sheep that we talked about in the song earlier that Jesus, you leave the 99 to find us and I feel like the Lord is making this kind of clear to me.

Speaker 1: 32:09

You would even say, man, you got 99 things in your life that, like man, this is kind of good. But there's one thing, there's one thing that keeps getting away from you. Maybe it's that childhood trauma. You keep returning back to that version of you when you were hurt as a kid, and it's overflowing into your life today. That's the one thing that keeps getting away. Maybe it's that addiction, maybe it's that insecurity, whatever it is, you would say. There's one thing that you just can't get a hold of. I want to, I want you to picture this, I want you to have, I want to use your imagination. Right where you are, jesus pursues that one thing. He's going after it and when he finds it, he picks it up, he carries it and it's like the Holy Spirit is saying you are not alone in your pain, you are not alone in your trouble and your heartache, but God pursues you. There's healing for you, there's freedom for you.

Speaker 1: 33:29

Maybe in here today you don't know this Jesus I'm talking about. Maybe you went to church, grew up in church, kind of believed in God at one point, but kind of fell away. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, just write where you are. I want to pray for you. I'm not going to call you out or have you stand up or come up front, nothing like that. Just write where you are. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, just pray this simple prayer after me. Say Jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new. Today I follow you. Today. I trust you In Jesus' name. Amen, amen. That's the end of our praise in here today.