In this sermon, the speaker begins by expressing gratitude to God for the grace given to the young people in the audience through Jesus Christ. He emphasizes the importance of being enriched by God in all aspects of life, including speech and knowledge. The speaker encourages the audience to hold on to their faith and eagerly await the confirmation of their gifts by the Lord Jesus Christ. He also advises the young people to seek guidance from their parents in matters of emotional bonding and to be cautious of potential dangers. The sermon concludes with a discussion on the importance of fellowship and the need to avoid defrauding one another in relationships.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.com. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, AFPA, 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Lord, we do bless you today. God, we thank you. Oh, Lord, how you have been loving us. You have been pouring love upon us. Lord, we thank you for the sweet instructions that we've received already this morning. God, they are honey. They are sweet as honey, Father, greater than much fine gold. And Lord, we pray that you'll continue to give us instruction, Lord, that will grace and bless our lives. I pray for these dear young people, Lord. I pray that you'll cause them to prosper. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, we greet each one in Jesus' name. Again, this morning, I've been so excited as I have been teaching these sessions on godly courtship. Several times my heart has been overwhelmed with tears of joy as I realized the potential of some sessions like this. If you young people will get a hold of what we're saying and put it to practice, I can almost guarantee you a happy marriage. That's exciting to me. Because a happy marriage will bring happy children into the world. Happy, godly children that can do damage to Satan's kingdom and glorify God. It's a very important issue, isn't it? I'd like us to open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'd like to begin by reading here in verse 5. Read a little bit about fellowship. We are giving this series of lessons in a series. Every title each day is the same. So the one is flowing from the other one. The session today will flow from yesterday's session. And I'd like to conclude a little bit about this whole matter of defrauding one another and flirting and pairing up and watching for the next couple and all the girlfriend, boyfriend talk and all of that. I would like to just sum that up here this morning with an application of what it can do for your fellowship one with another. If you'll put these things away. In 1 Corinthians 1, we'll start reading in verse 4. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ. And that is truly my heart this morning to each of you young people that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge. And that's my prayer for each one of you, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you under the end, which is an encouraging thought, isn't it? That you might be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is my heart for each one of you. Also, God is faithful. Verse nine, by whom you were called under the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Now I beseech you, brethren, and I beseech you, young people, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment concerning this matter of courtship. I beseech you, young people, you allow God to bring your hearts and minds to a place of agreement with your fathers and your mothers, with those spiritual leaders that God has put over you, and also with your fellow brothers and sisters. For there is rich blessings if you will allow that to happen and do your part to make it happen. God has called each one of you, young people, to one of the richest, how shall I say, fellowships that you can have. There are fellowships upon this earth. There are lodges. There are clubs. There are all kinds of different things that are fellowships. But God has called you, young people, to the fellowship that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is rich. It is awesome. It is edifying. It is strengthening. It is life-changing. And if I'm not careful, I'll lose my subject and start preaching on that. But consider with me today, this is God's standard for you. My own testimony, the fellowship of the brotherhood, it's all those things that I said. It's rich. We don't want you to miss that. God wants you to have that. But I have noticed through the years that this whole matter of defrauding and flirting and pairing up and boyfriends and girlfriends and all of that has literally destroyed the pure fellowship that young people ought to have for one another and with one another. It's so bad that a young man is almost afraid to share something that God showed him to a young lady for fear that the others that are watching will say, look at there. We want that for you, young people. We want that desperately and I just want to encourage you in that, that if you can come to a place of one-mindedness about this subject to where you all lay down your guns, so to speak, and everybody agrees, we're not going to play around with this nonsense anymore. You may be able to enter into some fellowship among yourselves that you never had before. It's not right that the young ladies are afraid to see a brother in the church and say, Brother John, God bless you. How have you been doing this week? And for Brother John to say shortly and briefly without spending a long, long time to share what God is doing in his life. There's nothing wrong with that. God wants it. In the church here on a Sunday morning, I feel very free to walk up to a married sister and share with her what God did in my life and ask her what God is doing in her life. God wants it to be the same this way. That's not wrong. I believe with all my heart if you young people will choose together to lay down these carnal ideas, repent of your defrauding, turn away from all your flirting, agree together that you're going to pull the reins in on your emotions and have spiritual fellowship instead of this, which often happens. My, it could change your relationships totally. This has been a burden on our hearts. It's been a burden on my heart. And just a few days ago here in this local fellowship, some of us preachers were sitting together sharing and the brother said to me, Brother, when you share on courtship, please bring this point out to the young people. And it's all, it's a burden on all of our hearts. We'd like you to be able to have spiritual fellowship one with another. Recently, I was visiting with a preacher who is a pastor in a fellowship down in Costa Rica, and he was sharing with me what a beautiful fellowship the young people have down there in their fellowship of churches. And this is a, in a mission context, but there's about, oh, I think he said 26 or 28 young people and the churches are scattered in some distance, but they do get together for fellowship. And he was sharing with me that they are totally free from all of this mentality of the boyfriend and the girlfriend and, and all that goes along with it, with what we're talking about. And because of that, they have beautiful spiritual fellowship. And because of that, they, they rarely have a 20 year old saying, I want to get married. He said, they're not even thinking about that. They're busy doing the work of God together. They're busy having a prayer meeting together. They're busy sharing the things of God together. And they just feel as relaxed around each other as can be. Oh, I heard that. And I said, Lord, so be it. So be it. Let, let us have that for our young people. Brother Mose was sharing with me as we begin to discuss this together. He recently made a trip to Germany and there stopped and visited a fellowship there in Germany. And they had a young people's gathering and he was there among the young people. And he said, that's the way it was among those young people. They were so free from all of this boyfriend, girlfriend stuff that they just were relaxed around each other. And they were sharing one with another. They were having spiritual fellowship. They were willing to stand yoke to yoke with one another and go and do the work of God together. And they were free from all of this stuff. And it was so refreshing to me to hear that testimony and the one that the other brother shared. A young brother and a young sister ought to be able to have some spiritual conversation when they meet each other without everyone else watching and starting a rumor and all of that stuff. There should be none of that among us. It, it binds up this beautiful process that we're going to be speaking about a little bit later here this morning. It binds it all up. A young man is so afraid as he's trying to discern the will of God, he's so afraid that somebody might see him, that he, he can hardly be free. And it ought not so to be. So I leave that with you this morning as an admonition kind of to draw a conclusion and make an application on a corporate level on this subject that we've been discussing. One question that came to me that I want to clarify also, which fits right along side of this. I said yesterday that you ought to treat the young ladies in the church like you do your sister. And the scripture says in all purity that that verse does. And I believe it has to do with our moral attitudes toward them. But the question was a good question because some of the young men said, well, I have a sweet, very sweet and a close relationship with my sister and, and we share our hearts many times and we've drawn very close to each other. Is that what you meant? And I want to clarify that. No, that is not what I meant. I don't believe that you can, I don't believe it's wise for you to enter into deep and close relationships, you know, intimate ones where you just begin to share the, the deepness of your heart with sisters. I don't believe that would be wise to do that. But I praise God that you have relationship like that with your sister or your brother. It's a good training ground for your future. Now, I'd like to move on into this process of entering courtship. Now, we took a long time to get to this. I know this is what you came to hear. We took a long time to get here, but I believe we had to cover all the ground that we covered before we got to this point. This process of entering into courtship should be initiated by the young man. He will be the leader in the relationship throughout life. And it's only right that he be the initiator in the whole relationship of courtship. That puts you young ladies in a place of learning how to wait on God and trust Him. But I assure you, you'll do that many, many times in your married life as you wait upon God to make a move upon your husband's heart about a certain thing that you may be concerned about. So it's good practice for you to learn to wait on God and trust God. And in the meantime, just go on and serve God and love Jesus with all your heart. Let Him be the fulfillment of your every emotional need. All right, the Lord, through different channels, has awakened this young man. Maybe it's in prayer, maybe by the counsel of a leader, maybe a father has prompted him or some other godly man that he knows has come alongside of him. And nevertheless, the other day, God has gotten his attention. And he realizes that God is leading him and impressing upon his heart that it is now time for him to seek a life partner. He should begin to pray for direction from God. And at the same time, I would recommend when you feel those kind of promptings in your heart, young men, that you should sit down with your father and maybe even your mother. But for sure, you should sit down with your father immediately and say, Dad. God is beginning to impress upon my heart my need for a life partner, and I'm starting to pray for direction about it. Could we talk about it? Do you have some instruction that you'd like to give me? Could we spend some time praying about this? And could we covenant together to pray about it often? This is not a matter of, OK, now God has given me the OK, now I'm going out and find me a wife. No. You need some help in this matter. You should be in close communication with your father and praying much together about it. I'd like to refer again to the Old Testament concerning this principle. In the Old Testament, the fathers were actively involved in this whole process of entering into courtship and having courtship. They were actively involved. And I think that we do foolishly to say, well, oh, that was the Old Testament. I think we can glean some great wisdom in this area because the fathers were actively involved. In fact, in some situations, I don't believe in all of them, but in some situations, they arranged the marriage. And I'm not suggesting here today that that be done, but I think that the parents ought to have an active role in helping a young man and helping a young lady to come to God's clear choice in this matter. In the Old Testament, the father of the young lady was the one who gave permission in his marriage. In the Old Testament, the young man went to the father to get permission. In the Old Testament, it was the father of the young man who determined when the son was ready to go and get his bride. This was even after the espousal, when he had betrothed himself a wife and and people would say there's Mary Joseph's wife. But even then, it was a father who said, OK, son, I believe you're ready. I go and get your bride. Consider those things as you ponder this point of making sure that your father is actively involved in this area. And also, I would suggest that you get some help from other godly authorities that he may put in your life. I would. I would that each of you would also make a covenant with your fathers, young men and young ladies, also that you will not enter into a relationship without his full blessing. A covenant with father that he will protect you and watch over you and help you discern God's choice for your life. I would like to make that recommendation to each one of you that you do it even long before we get to this process where we're now ready to enter into courtship. You sit down with your father and say, Dad, I want you to protect me in this area. I want you to watch over my life. And I want to make a covenant with you that I'm going to promise you. I'm not going to draw a young lady's heart without your blessing upon it. I'm not going to sneak around, Dad, and have my own program going on for a couple of months before I come and let you know what my desires are for this young lady. I'm going to bring it through you. Will you help me with this? And with the young ladies, I would encourage the same thing, that you agree with your fathers. Dad, protect me in this whole area. I promise you I will not let my heart go in the direction of a young man without your blessing upon it. And ask him, Dad, will you protect me in this? Will you watch over me in this area? A young lady came to me and this is what she said, and this is something that I get pretty often in different places, but a young lady came to me and she said, Brother Denny, I'm not sure what to do. There's a young man. I think he likes me. Every time I turn around, he's always staring at me. And he's always around me and he's standing there and I'm feeling uncomfortable. What do we do with that? Well, I'll tell you what should happen there. That whole scenario should take place with your father, young ladies. You should sit your father down and say, Dad, I'm not feeling good about this one boy. He's looking at me and he's staring at me and I'm feeling uncomfortable. You should tell your father that and your father then should fulfill his responsibility by protecting you and graciously go to that young man. And in his nice 40 to 45 year old mature spirit, say to that young man who may be 16 or 17 years old, Son, we're not feeling very good about the way that you're behaving yourself with our daughter. I assure you, if you ask your father to take care of that, it'll take care of the problem very quickly. But the problem is that that is not being done. So because it's not being done, the young men feel free to move around on their own and do things that they shouldn't be doing. This is part of a father's protection over his daughter. Point number three. Once you have cleared the direction to move ahead with a certain young lady, I believe at this point it's the young man's responsibility to go and see the young lady's father. To me that's so beautiful. It's like here's this father over here and we've already portrayed it so clearly. Here's this father over here and he's got these wings, you know, and they're stretched out over his daughter and he's there with her and he's protecting her and he's loving her and he's been preparing her and all of those things. And now this young man has to come to this father and say, Father, I'd like for you to put your wings down. That's good for a young man. With much fear and respect and carefulness and probably a couple of days of prayer and fasting on top of it, he'll go to sit down with a father. You'll probably be nervous, but that's all right. You've never done it before and you won't do it again. We're usually nervous when you do something new. And you should sit down with that father and express to that father what your heart is. And I can guarantee if you'll do what we've already said, you'll gain some real points with that father if he knows that you've been praying about this for a long time and you've been discussing it with your father and your mother and you've been talking it over with spiritual leaders in your life. And now you're coming here to share with him your desires and what you feel like God is saying. You'll be the first base real fast. At that point, it's time for another father to get actively involved. The father... And by the way, young men, plan to wait a while on this stage. In most situations, I don't believe you'll get an answer on the spur of the moment. I wouldn't say not always. It may be that that father has been praying about you for six months and you walk in the door and say, sir, I feel like God has been leading me to your daughter and I'd like the permission to win her favor. And if he's been praying about it for six months already, he'll probably say, go ahead. But if he hasn't, he's going to want to pray about it. He's going to want to talk it over with his dear wife. And after they get some clearing, he's going to sit down and talk it over with his daughter. And it may take two, three weeks and it may take his daughter four months before she feels clear. And she may not have considered you at all. And if she has never considered you, it's good if she takes a couple months to pray about it. So plan on waiting a little bit in this stage. During this time, the father, the mother, the mother and the daughter are going to be considering these points of character and maturity and compatibility that were brought out earlier in the sessions. These will be the things that they're considering as they're praying. They're going to consider these things. Is this God's will? Will this make a good marriage? Is there godly character in this young man? Will he make a good husband? Will he make a good father for our grandchildren? These are beautiful things for a father and a mother to discuss together with their daughter at this time. This is so sweet to me. My heart just thrills even at the saying of it because it's right. It has the answer of wisdom in my own heart. And by the way, young people, you want the blessing of your fathers, your mothers and even your church authority and the fellowship that you're in. You want that blessing. It's like the dew of heaven that falls down upon your relationship as you begin. It is like the dew of heaven. I've been so thrilled as God leads young couples together here in our fellowship. They often will get up and make an announcement up here in the front and to let everyone know what their desires are. I mean, they get showers of blessings from the whole congregation. You want that. It's like the dew of heaven. Alright, now that we've gone through all of this and we've got a clearing, the young man has gone to the father and he's gotten a clearing from the father and he has gotten a clearing from the young lady and everyone's in agreement. We're ready to begin. Courtship. You're clear. Everyone's clear. But I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the commitment being clear before the emotions are released. At this point, I'd like to give some guidelines for courtship. We're moving on into another phase here. Guidelines for courtship. I'm not going to draw it on the board again. I think it was up here long enough and we referred to it enough yesterday. The diagram of the two young people on the board. Guidelines for courtship. Point number one. Make an agreement between the two of you that you're going to have a hands-off courtship. Make that agreement. First Corinthians chapter seven verse one says, it's good for a man not to touch a woman. And I don't believe that means that a man can't shake a woman's hand. It's in the context of fornication and moral purity that the questions were given to the Apostle Paul concerning the question that you wrote to me. He said, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. I'd like to encourage you in this area. This whole process that we had up here on the board is speeded up at a breakneck speed. If you step over the line and decide that you're mature enough and you're old enough that it won't hurt for you to hold hands and a little hug every now and then never hurts and a goodnight kiss is okay. You think you're mature enough for that, but you're going to put this thing in the high gear that we had on the board here yesterday. Don't do it. We who counsel with troubled marriages find so many times that the root and the source of a troubled marriage was essential approach to their courtship. Deep wounds are made there. Big mistakes, irreparable scars are put there that you won't want to live with the rest of your married life. Don't go that way. Agree together at the beginning that you're going to have a hands-off courtship and also tell your parents about your desires and ask them to keep you accountable. Amen. Just out of nowhere, dad comes up and says, son, how's the courtship going? Fine. Dad, are you still having a hands-off courtship? Or if dad does that a couple of times in those times when all of a sudden there's a temptation to reach out and hold a hand a little bit, you'll remember. Dad's going to ask me, how's it going, son? And I don't want to answer him in the wrong way. So you tell your parents about it and ask them to keep you accountable in this area. I'd like to say something a little here before we move on to the next point. To be careful of extreme. You shouldn't push away the normal. I know that some couples decide, I mean, and I appreciate their motive there. They're striving for that which is excellent. But some have even decided, we're not even going to shake hands during our courtship. To me, I feel that's taking it to an extreme. All the other young men in the congregation are going to shake your young lady's hand, but you can't shake her hand. That doesn't make sense. And I believe that's carrying things to the extreme, that you can't even shake hands. Or maybe you're walking across the road and it's ice everywhere and you can hardly keep your stability. I don't think it's wrong at a time like that just to grab the arm and give a little bit of support there. What the Scripture is talking about when it says that it's good for a man not to touch the woman, it has to do with those romantic feelings flowing forth. And then we hold hands and you know how the rest of it goes or can go. Point number two, in your courtship, plan to have spiritual fellowship around Jesus Christ. I'm assuming here that you're in love with Jesus by now and you step forward to enter into courtship and you love Jesus with all your heart and she loves Jesus with all of her heart. It's only natural and normal for you to center your courtship around the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times, young people will say, I'm having a struggle with this point. My courtship is centering around her. We're enjoying our fellowship so much. Our emotions are drawing together so much that we're having a real hard time having fellowship around Jesus. And I recognize that. That's going to be somewhat of a struggle. But at the same time, I believe if you will center your fellowship around Jesus Christ, share the Word together, when you're together, share what God laid on your heart that morning. Pray together. Have spiritual activities together where the spiritual atmosphere can be stimulated. It's a beautiful foundation for a lifelong relationship of fellowship in Jesus Christ, which you will desperately need when the winds begin to blow on your married life. The next point I'd like to talk about is the times that you spend together. As I said already, make it a spiritual time. Also, I believe that most of the time that you spend together should be with others. I don't think it's wise for you to have a time together and maybe you set aside an afternoon, you know, five, six hours, and you just go to a park somewhere and spend five or six hours together just sharing your heart intimately with each other. I don't believe that's wise to do that. Let most of your time together be time with others. Maybe at your house, or maybe at her house for a meal, or maybe at another brother's house or a sister's house, or maybe you'll go to church together, or maybe there's a young people's activity and you'll go there together. Let it be that way. But I would also like to say, you need to take some time where you can share your hearts with one another, where you can allow your hearts to begin moving in the direction of the diagram that we had on the board here yesterday. You need that. There need to be times when you share your dreams, your goals and visions together, where you begin to share some of the burdens that are on your hearts and you share some of the struggles that you face in your Christian life. These are good things for you to do, and I recommend that. The next point I'd like to look at is how long. How long do we have the courtship? Well, this varies some by different circumstances. If you're quite a distance away from each other, your courtship may be longer because you don't get much time together. If you don't know each other very well, which sometimes that happens when we have fellowships that are spread across the country, you may not know each other as well as you would if you were both in the same local congregation. In situations like that, it's good that maybe the courtship be a little longer. But if all of these other points that we've shared the last two days are in order, you're a mature couple and love the Lord Jesus, you've been in a mature way, you've made your decisions together and everything is clear, your courtship shouldn't need to be very long. And the reason for that is because this emotional bonding process is already in motion. And once you get it in motion, you don't want to have a long courtship. Otherwise, you'll bring a lot of unnecessary struggles upon your lives and upon your relationship, which will hinder it. And you don't want that and you don't need it. The next point I'd like to bring out is keep your courtship under loving, watchful authority. I guess that's kind of assumed that you would do that, but I'd like to make a point out of it. Surely, if you went through authority in the choosing of your partner, surely you'll keep your courtship under authority also. But I'd like to make a point out of it. Let your parents help you in this area of courtship. Let them watch over you. In fact, invite them to watch over you. In fact, plead with them to watch over you. You need this more now than ever. Share with your parents how it's going. Share your struggles with them. If you happen to have one of those times, and this happens in courtship, where you were sharing your hearts and your emotions began to rise and you had to fight off temptations and you weren't sure what to do, you go home and tell mom and dad about that. Don't be so dumb to just bury that one and not tell anybody. You tell your mom and dad. They may need to come in and help you and adjust your courtship a little and how much time you're spending together and how much time alone you spend together. Don't you just hide that thing? You go home and you share it with them. I appreciated so much a young man whom I was watching over his courtship, and he described to me one evening. He sat me down and he shared something that happened. He said, we were together. We hadn't been together a long time. We were sitting on a picnic table. We were sharing our hearts together. Our hearts grew close to each other, and we just had to walk away from each other right there in the park. And he said, Brother Denny, what do you think we should do? Oh, I blessed that young man. I blessed him. We gave him a little counsel on what he should do. I think he was about a month away from marriage, and we gave him some counsel on what he should do, and he listened to that counsel and everything went fine. Don't be so foolish as to hide those things. You let Mom and Dad know where you're at in your courtship experience. It can be a beautiful, exciting relationship with Mom and Dad if you just be open about it. It doesn't have to be one of these heads knocking heads, you know. What do you mean? How come? Again? You mean we got... That's not long enough. It doesn't need to be all of those things. Just remember on this point, you haven't walked down this emotional bonding process yet, and you may not see the danger signs as quickly as Mom and Dad do. So you need to share it with them and allow them to slow you down if need be. I have seen several couples follow these basic guidelines that I've shared with you that led up to courtship and in their courtship. What a joy to watch that, to see as God leads in their lives and brings them to the marriage altar. What a joy to see them sitting there behind that table at the reception after they've been united in holy matrimony, to see their hearts just rush together, to see the expression on Adam's face as he looks at Eve, and to see the expression on Eve's face as she looks into the face of Adam there behind the table. What a joy! What a blessing! What a thrill that is! And I assure you, if it's a joy and a blessing and a thrill to us, older ones, as we're looking on, what a joy and a blessing and a thrill it will be to you. You sit there knowing you've done right, you've kept yourself, you've held your emotions, you were wise, you kept these things under authority, and now here you are, sitting behind this banquet table, and you're the center of attention, and everybody is happy for you, and they're blessing you, and the one that married you pronounced the blessing of God upon your life, and he didn't just give it in word, but he gave it in reality because of the way that you conducted yourselves through your courtship. Oh, what a joy that is! What a joy it's been to me to see young couples come together this way, marry, and then to sit back and watch the months and years go by, and watch them prosper, and see them two years, three years later, still in love, love growing, beautiful relationships, still holding hands when they walk together, he still opens the door for the young lady, and there's still a courtship going on, even though they're married three or four years, and what a joy to see that then God blessed that union with beautiful children, and the children begin to rise up, and what a joy to know that those little children came into the world, into a home that was filled with love and joy and blessing. What a thrill that is! This is what we want for each one of you young people. This is the burden on our hearts. God wants it for you. Your fathers and mothers want it for you. Your spiritual leaders want it for you. And all the other brothers and sisters in the church that you're in, they want that for you. I just want to encourage you, go for it. Go for the gold. Don't settle for the silver or the bronze. Go for the gold. Go for that beautiful day when you sit behind that banquet table, and your hands are clasped together, and the thrill of it is there flooding your heart, and your eyes meet each other, and the joy of all of that is flooding your soul. Go for the gold. Go for the gold. Let's stand together for prayer. Father in heaven, Lord, we end these sessions on courtship here with a prayer. With a prayer, Lord, from all of our hearts, all of us older ones in this room, with a prayer of blessing upon these young people. God, I pray for them, Lord. I pray that You'll open the eyes of their hearts. Oh God, I pray that You'll, God, give them the grace. Lord, give them the virtue of this control. Lord, give them what they need to make the decisions that they need to make so that they can have these great blessings upon their lives, upon their courtships, and upon their marriage, all of their days. Oh God, we are looking to You and we're trusting You to bring forth much beautiful fruit out of the things that were said these last three days. And Father, as we also think of the testimonies that will be shared, oh God, I pray that You will anoint those testimonies, and may they put the icing on top of the cake. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.