Jesus & Cancel Culture

Austin White · Tidal Church Moncton · March 6, 2022 · United We Stand series

Austin White looks at Zacchaeus in Luke 19 and the woman in John 8 to contrast cancel culture with the way of Jesus. He calls us to judge less, listen more, forgive quickly, and love people who think differently.

More from Austin White · The United We Stand series

Topics: Love, Forgiveness, Relationships, Discipleship

Transcript

[0:01] I want to talk to you this morning about cancel culture. I want to talk to you about cancel culture. Now, if you've never heard the term cancel culture, I want to ask your forgiveness for having to introduce to you such a topic this morning, and I want to ask you if you are ready. Can you turn to your neighbor and ask them, "Are you ready?" Are you ready to talk about cancel culture? Believe it or not, the Bible has a lot to say about this topic, but for some of you, when you hear the word and the term cancel culture, I might as well have said, "I want to talk to you about your taxes this morning," or I might as well have said, "I want to talk to you about the importance of broccoli to a healthy diet." I might as well have chosen a topic that you would rather not talk about, but how many of you know that the Bible sometimes touches on topics that might make us squirm a little bit? It might ruffle some feathers.

[0:57] So I'm very honored to open up God's Word with you today, but as we talk about cancel culture, and later on we'll define exactly what that means, but first I want to talk about some people that cannot be canceled. Some people that are universally loved, universally acclaimed, that I don't think will ever be canceled. First and foremost, we've got the one and only Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman. If any of you have seen Evan Almighty, the thing with Morgan Freeman is I don't know if he's copying the voice of God or if God's going to end up copying Morgan Freeman's voice one day. I'm just kidding, but if you've heard his voice, you know that he has a heavenly voice and he is well loved. The second one, you seem to see this guy in a lot of movies, is Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. I saw this meme the other day of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in four different movies. This is four different movies, ladies and gentlemen.

[1:47] He plays the same thing in every movie. He plays the same thing in every single movie. So Dwayne Johnson is quite well loved. Another is Ryan Reynolds. Many people love Ryan Reynolds. He would be very difficult to cancel. I also believe he might be Canadian, or maybe I'm getting my Ryans mixed up, but then we have got America's pastor, Billy Graham. He is well loved on all sides of the aisle. Absolutely. Absolutely. If you're ever looking for a fantastic sermon, Billy Graham, "Who Is Jesus?" Who is Jesus? He was way ahead of his time and how he talked about racial justice, about equality, and who Jesus is. I'd love for you to look that up later on today or through the week. So Billy Graham, the next person, another actor, is Tom Hanks.

[2:32] Everybody loves Tom Hanks. And finally, last but not least, you've got the one and only Pastor Joel Gorveatte. Come on, people. He is absolutely great. And in the spirit of him being from the South, Joel Gorveatte is sweeter than cherry pie. That's how I would define Pastor Joel, as well as his wife, Tracy. I love them dearly. Now, interviewing, as I was interviewing here at Moncton Wesleyan, and on that same note, one of the things I asked was, "What is Pastor Joel's character like? Who is he?" And what he said in that moment has rung true throughout my entire almost two years here as your youth pastor at Moncton Wesleyan. And he told me that Pastor Joel is a man of God's Word and a man of character.

[3:20] He's not about flash, but he is about Jesus. And that's something that I've so appreciated about him. And that being said, I'm excited to open up God's Word with you today. And one of the key questions that I want to ask today is this: What's the difference between the world? What's the difference between the world and what the world values and what the world says and what the world calls normal and the Word of God? Because sometimes I think it's easy for us to get confused. It's easy for us to get confused. And that's why my title today is this: Jesus and Cancel Culture. Jesus and Cancel Culture. Can you turn to your neighbor and say, "Jesus and Cancel Culture"?

[4:06] If I could give an alternate title, I think it would be this: Cancel Culture versus Kingdom Culture. Cancel Culture versus Kingdom Culture, the kingdom that God ushered in to this earth. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines cancel culture as this. It's the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling, especially on social media, as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure. What the world tends to say in cancel culture is, once you do it, there is no chance of redemption or restoration. But how many of us know that the Bible says something different? How many of us know that Jesus died on a cross for our redemption, regardless of our story, regardless of our background?

[4:52] Now, as I was talking to Pastor Joel about this message, he shared this piece of wisdom that I so love. He said, "The issue with our culture is that culture has no agreed upon road to restoration. Our culture doesn't believe in change. It says, 'You are who you are. If you mess up, that is it.'" My promise to you today is that I want to be really real with you. I want to be really real because the Bible's full of tension. Whether you're on the left or the right, regardless of your background, regardless of your exact beliefs, the Bible is going to rub you the wrong way at times. But what I want you to know is that the gospel means good news. So even as we dive into a tricky topic, the gospel doesn't mean bad news.

[5:40] It doesn't mean boring news. It doesn't mean aggressive news. It means good news. So we're going to have some fun opening up the Word of God today. So what I'd love for you to do is, in a couple moments, we're going to be going to Luke chapter 19. But as we talk about cancel culture, I want to dig down and talk about some examples that we've seen of cancel culture. Number one, probably the most recent, is our Prime Minister Trudeau calling on the cancellation of the convoy, calling them misogynists and racists. But equally so, it's easy to fight fire with fire and try to cancel Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for his remarks. The truth is, instead of wanting to dialogue, instead of wanting to have a conversation, it's a much easier choice for us to name call, for us to judge, and for us to not listen.

[6:36] Another popular example is Joe Rogan. Another popular example from a couple years ago is a New York Times writer accused of reverse racism for having a tweet disparaging white people. We can see it over and over and over again. I could have a list 20 or 30 people long that we would all recognize of people that culture has tried to cancel. But can I say this, that I think the sad truth for us today and what we can fall into, a trap that we can fall into as a church, is that we are too busy sharpening our pitchforks to pray for the leaders of our country. We're too busy posting on social media in our anger to stop and pray and say, God, be with our country.

[7:26] Help our politicians. So my hope today is that we walk out of here, not being focused on the world, but realizing the way of God's Word is different than what we expect. Because the difference between cancel culture and Christianity is the fact that oftentimes, when Jesus talked, He was always causing tension. Now, here's a good example. When Jesus came to earth, His disciples expected that King Jesus, the Messiah, was gonna come on a war horse. He was gonna come and He was gonna storm Jerusalem. He was gonna go and He was going to be a warrior. But what did He do, church? He didn't come on a war horse.

[8:12] He came on a donkey. We see the story of a woman caught in adultery and they say, Jesus, she deserves to be stoned. But what did Jesus do? What did He do, church? We see the disciples coming up and saying, Jesus, these kids are annoying us. We're sending them away. And Jesus says, the kingdom belongs to such as these. We see the disciples saying, Jesus, why are You talking to the Samaritan woman? You see their tone in that passage dripping with racism, but Jesus says, I came for this Samaritan woman. I came to break the barriers of racism. I came to love the world and not to condemn the world. We see that Jesus, He loved first. He loved boldly and He loved recklessly.

[8:58] So here's the truth for us as followers of Jesus. We live in a world and engage with a culture, but we sometimes feel like aliens from a foreign planet. I hope for us as Jesus followers that sometimes we look at the ways of this world and we realize we are called in a completely different direction. That we realize that just like Paul wrote about in the epistles, that we are like foreigners in a foreign land, we're like aliens. Another translation says, our manual isn't Facebook. It's not Instagram. It isn't cultural norms. It isn't celebrities. It's not Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Our manual is God's Holy Word. It's living and active. And that's why I've shared this before, but I want you to know that I'm a Bible guy.

[9:46] I believe that God's Word changes everything. And my hope is that you walk out of here seeing the truth of God's Word, because God's Word and Jesus change absolutely everything. So Luke chapter 19, but before we open up God's Word, let me go ahead and pray for us this morning. Father God, I ask as we talk about an important topic, that Lord, it wouldn't be my words that shine through, but that Holy Spirit, You would speak through me, that You would pierce the heart because we know that Your Word is sharper than any double-edged sword. That God, it is living and active. It is true and inerrant. And that God, You are with us in this room. So Lord, if there's anybody with a heavy heart, if there's anybody with any walls up, Holy Spirit, I pray that You'd be with them and they'd feel Your presence, Your love, Your joy, Your peace right now, right now.

[10:35] God, we love You, we praise You and all of God's people said with me, amen. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been self-conscious about your height? Have you ever been self-conscious about your height? For me, I'm average to a little bit less than average height. And I wanna be honest with you, especially playing basketball growing up, I totally was self-conscious. But oftentimes for us short people, what we'll do is we'll look at tall people and say, hey, do you play basketball? But what I'm waiting for is a basketball player, a tall person to look at me and say, oh, do you play mini golf? Because you're short. That's what I'm expecting. No, we are gonna be reading from a guy that was definitely into mini golf. He had a shortness issue. This is the story about Zacchaeus.

[11:23] So let's dive into Luke chapter 19 and I'm reading from the New International Version. It says this, Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. Tax collector is code for somebody that everybody hated back then. They were not a popular group of people. He was the chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was. He was curious, but because he was short and liked mini golf, he could not see over the crowd. Verse 4, so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see Him since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, He looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today." So he came down at once and welcomed Him gladly.

[12:10] All the people saw this and they began to mutter. "He has gone to be the guest of a sinner." They're thinking, "I thought we canceled this mini golf lover. I thought that we wrote enough Facebook posts about him. I thought that Jesus wouldn't be going to Zacchaeus. Why is He going to the house of a sinner?" This is another time in Scripture where Jesus has been accused of being friends with sinners, of being friends with tax collectors. This is something that Jesus will be accused of more than once. "He's gone to be the guest of a sinner." But in verse 8, but Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."

[13:05] Jesus said to him, oh man, church, I think we need to hear this today. Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham. This man too deserves the love of God. This man too deserves to meet Jesus." In verse 10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." He came to seek and to save the lost. I want this to be a side note that regardless of where you were last night, regardless of what your story is, what your background is, what your sin of choice is, that you're welcome and wanted here at Moncton Wesleyan and that Jesus loves you. For Jesus came to seek and to save.

[13:50] Absolutely, absolutely. God is so good. So what do we see in this story, church? We see this guy who in all ways should have been canceled because what we know about tax collectors is he was a cheater, he was a thief, and people looked at him as a traitor to the Jews, that he had sided with the enemy. He had sided with the people that were dragging people out of their homes, that were killing people, were flogging people, that the Romans were corrupt, and he as a Jew had decided to side with the Romans. He should have been canceled, but guess what Jesus did? What did He do? He posted about him on Facebook? No, He gossiped about him? No, instead, Jesus has shown us a different way. He's shown us a Kingdom way, a way of God's word instead of a way of the world.

[14:36] And that's why I want our first observation about this passage and our first observation about Jesus, the difference between the world and the Word, is this, that Jesus judges less and loves more. Jesus judges less and loves more. I want you to hear this, church, that mercy is more powerful than judgment. Mercy is more powerful than judgment. James 2:13 says this, "Judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment," period. When the world says to judge, Jesus, what does He say? He says to love. I love this quote from Bob Goff. He's got an incredible book called Love Does, and in there he says this, "Most people need our love and acceptance a lot more than they need our advice."

[15:25] Here's my challenge to you, church. I want you to take that quote, and I want you to just post it under a controversial Facebook post. No, no, no, don't do that. I'm just kidding. But I hope that instead of maybe, because what's our kind of go-to as human beings? When we see that quote from Bob Goff, or when we read that passage of Scripture, we say, oh, I know exactly who that's for. Not for me, it's for that other person, right? But I hope that we internalize that and say maybe there's something in here for us. Maybe I've got that little tiny portion of my heart that's judgmental, that's condemnation, that's full of condemnation. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking.

[16:10] I know that some of you might be thinking, Austin, listen, you're focusing on one passage and excluding other passages. Maybe you're thinking that, Austin, there are certain circumstances in Scripture where we're called to cancel, and I would also say that even though, as we're talking about cancel culture, I do believe in consequences when people make poor decisions, influence needs to be lost. But specifically, there is a passage that I want to address in 1 Corinthians chapter 5. One translation puts the heading of this chapter as this: "Throw out the evil person." It says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of the kind that even pagans do not tolerate.

[16:56] A man is sleeping with his father's wife." In verse 4, it skips down and says, "So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord." Verse 9, it says, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people." Not at all, meaning the people of this world who are immoral. I really want us to pause and see this. Not talking about the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy and the swindlers or the idolaters. "In that case, you would have to leave this world." But now I'm writing to you that you must not associate with anybody who claims to be a brother or sister. Anybody who claims to be a follower of Jesus but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler.

[17:43] Do not even eat with such people. But verse 12, see this church. What business is it of mine to judge those outside of the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked person from among you. Now what I want you to know and something that's so important to realize about Scripture is that it is imperative that as we're reading Scripture, we don't just pluck one verse out of context and not look at the breadth and the whole well-rounded Scripture. Because what Jesus says on a very, very similar topic is, He says this, He talks about confronting a brother and a sister in love. Matthew 18:16 says this, But if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

[18:35] If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Jesus says regard them as you would a pagan or a tax collector. But how does Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors? What does He do with pagans and tax collectors? He loves them. He prays for them. He doesn't post nasty messages about them online. He doesn't gossip about them in the church lobby. No, He loved them, church, and He spent a ton of time with them. And what I want you to know is, are there consequences for bad actions? Absolutely yes, because grace without truth is not truly grace.

[19:21] There were consequences. There was influence and status loss, but Jesus didn't just shun them. He loved them and prayed for them. That is the difference between a kingdom culture and a cancel culture. That's the difference between the way of the world and the way of God's Word. And this one fact has totally reoriented the way that I look at people and the way that I interact with people. Even Jesus, even Jesus in His omnipotence, in His omniscience, even Jesus as the Son of God, He is waiting until judgment day to judge the world. Let that sink in. Jesus has every right to judge us for our sins right here, right now, but He is waiting, because John chapter 12 proves this.

[20:07] He says, If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to what? Save the world. I came to save the world, and he who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings has one who judges him. The word I spoke is what will judge him when? At the last day. God's Word will judge him, not our Facebook posts, not our Instagram posts, not our gossip, but rather God's Word will judge them in the last days. So, do you want to make the world a better place? Do you want to love unconditionally, love recklessly? Where it starts is by you looking in the mirror every morning and asking yourself, am I going to love or am I going to judge today? Am I going to pick up my pitchfork?

[20:53] Am I going to pick up my self-righteous pitchfork and judge those around me, or am I going to pray and love my neighbor? And that's why I want to encourage you to love even when it's difficult. Love even when it's difficult. Matthew 22:36 says this, we know this as the Great Commandment. Hear these words with me. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the law? Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.

[21:41] He's talking to these people who have spent their entire lives, decades, memorizing every letter and pen stroke of the law, of the Torah, and He says everything hinges on these two things. We don't understand how monumental this passage really truly is. One of the things that I love about being a Christian is that Jesus gets us to love people no matter what they've done, no matter where they've been, what their background is. John 3:16 says what, church? For God so loved the world. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that how many people can perish? So that none may perish.

[22:26] That all may have eternal life. That passage doesn't say for God so loved the people that think like us. For God so loved the people that vote the exact same as us. For God so loved the people that don't annoy me. For God so loved the people that don't go 20 kilometers under the speed limit on Wheeler Boulevard when I'm really in a rush. It doesn't say that, church. And can we be really real for a moment? Are there any imperfect people in this room like me? Is there any people that have messed up before? But what's incredible is, instead of God canceling us, when He had every reason to cancel us, what did He do? He sent His Son to die for us, the ultimate sacrifice.

[23:13] And He's called each and every single one of you. Each and every single one of us who call ourselves Jesus followers not to spread hate, not to spread bitterness, not to spread judgment, but rather, Galatians 5:22 says that if we truly have the Holy Spirit living in us, we are to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Nowhere in that list is judgment. Nowhere in that list is condemnation. Nowhere in that list is gossip, because God wants us to spread those things. And how many of you agree with me that our world desperately needs more of the fruit of the Spirit? They desperately need love. They desperately need joy. They desperately need peace. And that is what God is calling us to do. And really, the plot twist for me is this: that even the world is starting to wake up and realize maybe there's a different way.

[24:05] Maybe all this canceling and condemnation isn't getting us anywhere. There's this wild quote that I just read this past week. This is what Barack Obama had to say about canceling and wokeness. And he said this, "If all you're doing is casting stones, you're probably not going to get very far." How wild is it that the world is starting to wake up and realize, "Oh my goodness, something's missing." The amount of stones we're casting, the amount of hate we're dishing, something is wrong. If the world is getting at church, can't we? Can't we start to lay down our stones and our pitchforks of judgment? So what I want to do for the next five minutes is I want to explore some ideas on how we can love like Jesus, how we can love like Jesus.

[25:00] Number one, I hope that we'll seek to listen more instead of passing judgment. In a world that's always yelling, in a world that's always posting, in a world that demands you have an opinion about absolutely everything. In a world that's yelling, will you be a listener? I've shared this quote before that Jesus asked 307 questions. It's kind of like you're asking the question and you already know the answer, right? I mean, Jesus can't get any more all-knowing than He already is, right? Jesus asked 307 questions. He wasn't this guru that everybody went up onto the mountain and said, "Jesus, give us Your wisdom." Rather, He looked people in the eye and He asked them questions because Jesus was into the listening. And believe this, that He only ever gave three answers to questions.

[25:48] Imagine if Jesus was here today and everybody demanded His stance. "Jesus, what do You think about this political issue?" And instead, He just answers with a question. He would really annoy those TV hosts, wouldn't He? He would really annoy us. We say, "Jesus, we want Your wisdom." And then He says, "Well, what do you think? What do you think that the Bible says?" "Jesus, what do You think about these gas prices? Do You think that the government is doing a good job?" "Let Me tell you about the parable of the oil." That's what He would say, maybe. "Jesus, what do You think about politics?" And He'd say, "Let Me tell you about the kingdom of God. Let Me tell you about King Jesus. Let Me tell you about My government." "Jesus, look at this crazy Facebook post. What do You think about that person?"

[26:33] Jesus says, "Let Me tell you the parable of the good Samaritan, someone who is considered the worst of the worst, someone who racism was abundant." He said, "Let Me tell you about the love of Jesus." Number two is this: go out of your way to make friends who are different than you. This one might sting. Go out of your way to make friends with those who are different than you. You have no idea how a single friendship can change everything for someone. Can I ask you this? Are you so focused on your opinions that you're ignoring the opportunity to love those around you? Are you so focused on the things that aren't eternal that you're getting distracted from the incredible missionary that God wants you to be in your neighborhood?

[27:24] Imagine if, church, we laid down our pitchforks and our opinions and befriended our neighbor that votes different, that thinks different, that believes different, and we invited them to church this Easter. Imagine the opportunities. And, church, if we want to talk about leading by example, our teens are inviting people to church. Just in the last two months, and out of these two months, four of those weeks being online, we've had 26 new guests on Wednesday. And week after week after week, I see these teens inviting their friends in this hostile environment, in their schools that will barely even let them talk about Jesus. They are inviting their friends. Who do you need to invite? The third is this: gossip less and uplift more. I am a big believer that an encouraging word can change someone's life.

[28:14] Pastor Jim last week shared an awesome story about a previous church context that he was in. And people were out in the lobby gossiping about something that a youth pastor had done. And they came up to Him, and he used a fake name and said, "Pastor Frank, what do you think about what he's done?" And Pastor Jim said this bold statement, saying, "Instead of gossiping about Pastor Frank, why don't you go and ask him yourself?" Now, I wanna note that all of my youth leaders have now started calling me Pastor Frank. And I just wanna go on the record and say that I am not Pastor Frank, that I believe that was another church. So please don't start calling me Pastor Frank. The fourth is this: pursue justice. Turn to the person next to you and say, "Pursue justice."

[29:01] The truth is that justice matters to Jesus. He walked alongside those who are in poverty. What does it look like now that the restrictions are starting to lessen for you to volunteer at Harvest House? What does it look like for you to take up the call to action that Pastor Jim talked about and give of our finances to those in Ukraine? What I love about being a follower of Jesus is that He paved the way for racial justice, for equality, for women's rights. When everybody was being racist to the Samaritans, where did He go? He went to Samaria, and who did He visit? The Samaritan woman. Number five is this: forgive fast. In a world that holds grudges, will you show God's grace? Be uplifting, be encouraging, show the fruit of the Spirit.

[29:46] Be fast to forget and to forgive. So church, what will you do in the weeks to come? Will you pursue kingdom culture or cancel culture? At the beginning, we talked about uncancellable people. Will you treat everybody as somebody that can't be canceled? I look at the stories of Jesus and the way He lived His life, and I think about this story that's subtitled "To Throw the Stone." In John chapter 8, it's recorded that the religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who'd been caught in the act of adultery. Everybody gasped. She'd been caught in the act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery.

[30:35] The law of Moses says this, it gives orders to stone such a person. What do you say?" They said to Jesus. They were trying to trap Him into saying something incriminating so they could bring the charges against Him. But what did Jesus do? As everybody was picking up their stones, thinking, "The law of Moses says to stone this woman, to cancel this woman," a brutal death that, believe it or not, still happens to this day. There's nine countries where by law, stoning is a valid form of law, a valid form of punishment. Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger in the dirt. They kept at Him, badgering Him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first. Throw that stone." Bending down again, He wrote some more in the dirt.

[31:23] Hear this, church, as they were calling for her to be canceled in verse 9. It says, "Hearing that, they walked away one after the other, beginning with the oldest." The people that had their hands raised, stones in their hand, ready to cancel, to condemn, all of a sudden, their stones started to drop. Their stones started to drop. One after the other, the woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her, "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?" Does no one cancel you? Does no one judge you? Does nobody post Facebook posts about you? "No one, Master." "Neither do I," Jesus said. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin."

[32:10] Church, will you watch what you post? Will you watch what you say? Will you guard your heart against the sin of judgment? Will you guard how you talk about your pastors, your politicians, your leaders? Will you be like Jesus? And instead of picking up the stone of condemnation and canceling, will you instead connect and love people who think differently than you? Will you love them with the unconditional love of Jesus? Because, church, love truly does change everything. Let's pray. Father God, change us. Lord, what a travesty if I walk out of here the exact same as I walked in. If we walk out of here the exact way that we walked in, Lord, help us to be molded in Your image, in Your likeness, to be people of Your love, to be people of Your forgiveness.

[33:07] God, I ask that You would do something so special and so powerful in our hearts. We love You, Jesus, and we pray this in Your name.