 Amen. All right. Keep your place there in Acts chapter 12. We're only going to get a couple verses into Acts chapter 12 this evening. Look back at Acts chapter 11, though, real quickly. Look back at Acts chapter 11 and look at verse number 28 where the Bible says in there stood up an agabus and signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. So in Acts chapter 11, remember, the Gentiles are getting the gospel. The word is going out. Disciples are going out of Jerusalem and preaching the gospel to people other than Jews, to people who we would be looked at as Gentiles in the Bible at this point. And there's also persecution arising. There's some things that are starting to, the Romans are kind of cracking down on the Jews in Jerusalem. And here you see in verse number one of Acts chapter 12, it says, Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church and he killed James the brother of John with the sword. So James is the first disciple here in Acts chapter 12 that actually dies, you know, that is actually martyred. All right. He's actually killed. Of course, we saw Stephen was killed in Acts chapter 7, but this is actually the first of the 12 that dies right here. And I figured that James, I've always like kind of like James in the Bible. I mean, hopefully you can kind of see why this evening, but I figured he deserved his own sermon. So I just want to talk about James, the son of Zebedee, the brother of John in the Bible. First of all, the first thing you need to understand is there's many, there's several Jameses. There's actually three Jameses in the New Testament that are the main, when you hear the word, you know, the name James, there's three of them. So it can kind of be confusing, but there's two disciples that were named James. And then of course, in Acts chapter 15, we're going to get there, but Jesus's brother, his, you know, his brother was actually named James as well. And he actually became one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. So he's not a disciple. There was two disciples that were James. And then there was James, the brother of Jesus, who was actually the one that wrote the book of James in the Bible. All right? So you say, well, how did, you know, the book of James written by James if he died, he's not the one that wrote it. So James, the brother of John is who we're talking about this evening. So go to Matthew chapter four. Let's look at who James was. And then let's just take a look at some of the characteristics of him and see why he probably ended up being the first one that was killed out of the disciples. Look at Matthew chapter four. So Matthew chapter four is when Jesus, he calls it first four disciples. He calls Peter and Andrew first. And then he calls two more. Look at verse number 18 of Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. Look at verse 18. Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren. Simon called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers. And he said unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And straight way they left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw two other brethren. James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them. Look at verse 22. And they immediately left the ship and their father and follow him. So we see two pairs of brothers here. We see Peter and Andrew. And then of course we see James and John. And Acts chapter 12 points out specifically that this James that was killed was the brother of John. So this first, one of the first four disciples was killed in Acts chapter 12 and verse number two. So James the son of Zebedee. He's not just any disciple, he's one of the inner circle disciples of Jesus. Turn to Mark chapter three. So Jesus definitely had disciples that were closest to him. Peter of course being the one that is going to be number one on everyone's list. But if you look at every single time that the disciples are all named in the Bible, they're pretty much named from the disciples that were closest to Jesus. And then the ones that were, you know, less close. And Judas as scary of course always being the last one listed, the one who betrayed Jesus. Alright look at Mark chapter three and you'll see what I'm talking about. Look at verse number 16. So we see that, you know, he was one of the first four called James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John. Look at Mark chapter three and verse 16. And Simon, he's surname Peter. And James the son of Zebedee is literally the second one listed here. And John the brother of James, he's surname Bojernis, which is the sons of thunder. And Andrew, there's Peter's brother. And Philip and Bartholomew and Matthew and Thomas. And James, here's the other James. James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus and Simon the Canaanite. And then of course the last on the list is Judas Iscariot which also betrayed him and they went into a house. So all this to say this, that James, the brother of John was, I mean he was top three as far as the disciples that were closest to Jesus. And you say, okay are you just inferring that from just the list? No, Jesus actually showed these three disciples, sometimes four disciples, sometimes Andrew was lumped in there as well. I'll show you that in a couple minutes. But basically he brought these three with him to some very special moments. One being in Matthew chapter 17. Go to Matthew chapter 17. Just showing, you know, how close and how much Jesus trusted these three disciples. Look at Matthew chapter 17 in verse number one. Matthew chapter 17. Look at verse number one. The Bible says, And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James and John his brother and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart and was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as light. And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with them. This is not a normal event. This is something that was amazing. Jesus shows his glorified state to these three men. Look at verse number four. Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus, Lord it is good for us to be here. If thou wilt let us make their three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias. And while ye yet spake behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And when the disciples heard it they fell in their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them and said arise and be not afraid. And when they had lifted their eyes they saw no man save Jesus only. As they came down from the mountain Jesus charged them saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. So first of all Jesus trusted these men. Not only did he show this to them, but he told them, Don't tell anybody. This is kind of our inner circle thing here. Don't tell anybody until after I've risen from the dead. And James was part of the inner circle of Jesus. He was very close to Christ. Turn to Luke chapter nine. In Mark chapter 13 actually, if you look at Mark chapter 13 which is kind of a parallel passage to Matthew chapter 24, the prophecy that Jesus is talking about in Mark chapter 13 is literally directed to the four top disciples. He's literally talking to, you know, it doesn't tell you that detail in but in Mark chapter 13 it tells you that he's talking to, you know, Peter and Andrew and James and John. And so he doesn't just give that explanation of end times prophecy to everybody, he gives it to those four men. Again showing how important it was, how important these men were to him, how trusted they were to him. So now we saw that, you know, back in Mark chapter 3 that Jesus nicknamed them the sons of thunder. Now that could have a reference definitely to their dads, Ebene, I get that. But I believe that not only did it probably have a reference to their dad was, but it had a reference to the type of people that James and John actually were. Look at Luke chapter 9 because we kind of see, you know, the personality of these two men, James and John, these two brothers, we see it a couple times in the New Testament in the Gospels here, we see their personalities kind of come out. They kind of differentiate themselves, you know, from the other disciples just on how they act and the things that they do. And I personally, I think they're, you know, they're a little misunderstood, you know, kind of get that, get to that in a few minutes. But just look at Luke chapter 9. You kind of, you know, so just think, sons of thunder. Like if I give you, you know, a nickname, you know, if I'm going to name one of the little kids in this church, you know, son of thunder, he's probably not this quiet, meek little kid, right? I mean, sons of thunder means, you know, they have some energy behind whatever they're about. Well, look at Luke chapter 9 verse 51. Look what the Bible says. And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. So here, you know, he's going to Jerusalem and he's going to this village and he wants people to go and get ready for him and they did not receive him because his face was as he would go to Jerusalem. And so they didn't want him there, all right? They didn't want him in this village and his disciples heard about this and these two disciples, James and John, look at verse 54, when it's so basically he goes into this town, Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, goes into this town, they don't want him there. They're like, you're going to Jerusalem, we don't want you here for whatever reason, you know, they didn't, they didn't believe who he was, they didn't like him there, whatever. And his disciples, James and John saw this, that these people didn't want Jesus there. They said, let's go to another town. Now look what they said. They said, Lord, we'll tell that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did. These guys are just like, Lord, they don't want you here, let's kill everybody. Just let's just burn up this whole town, just like Sodom and Gomorrah, let's get rid of these wicked people. And Jesus is like, whoa, he's like, calm down. But look what Jesus says. Notice what Jesus says. He says, but he turned and rebuked them and said, you know not what manner of spirit you're of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy man's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. So look, these men, they had, they had, they had energy deal. They had zeal. And Jesus, you know, Jesus didn't crush their zeal. It's important to know that he didn't crush their zeal. Jesus kind of just would make teachable moments out of these things with James and John, whenever they came like, hey, let's just burn everybody up. He's like, whoa, he's like, we're here to save people. We're here to preach the gospel to people, not like burn people up. All right. So he's just kind of teaching these guys. But the point is, you know, they had zeal. And guess what? Like men are supposed to have zeal. I mean, this is what Jesus saw in these men. And so, you know, don't get, don't get upset with, you know, with men with zeal and energy to serve the Lord, you know, because men are supposed to have zeal. All right. This is why Jesus, he, you could tell that he liked these men. You could tell that he liked these men. Turn to Mark chapter 10. I actually think that they're a little misunderstood because Jesus was pretty, he was pretty light with these men. He was pretty light. And he just used these as teachable moments and he corrected them. He didn't just smash them into the ground for what they were saying. Look at Mark chapter 10, verse 35. There's a, here's a, here's another incident with James and John that Jesus, you know, between James and John and Jesus, where Jesus uses it as a teachable moment. All right. But there's a, it's interesting in this story in Mark chapter 10 because the way other people take what they do is quite different than how Jesus takes it. And I'll explain that to you towards the end of the sermon, why Jesus reacted in a different way than the other disciples did. Okay. Look at Mark chapter 10, verse 35. And James and John, here they are, the sons of Zebedee come unto him saying, Master, we would that thou should do for us whatever, whatsoever we desire. I mean, that's pretty bold. They came right up to Jesus and they're like, they're like, basically we want you to, we want to ask you to do something for us and just please do whatever we ask you to do is what they're saying to Jesus. And look what Jesus says. He said to them, what would you that I should do for you? Did Jesus say like, get out of here? You know, so I don't, look, I don't think that they came at Jesus in an arrogant way. I think that these guys were just very like energetic. They were probably a little ignorant about some things and Jesus was just going to fix that. Look at verse 37. They said, grant to us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, you know not what she asked. Can you drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, we can. And Jesus said unto them, ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of. And with the baptism that I am baptized with all ye shall be baptized. So look, he's basically saying, can you go through what I'm going to go through? And you know what they said? Yes we can. So they didn't understand, I get it, but these are some motivated zealous people. These are some, they're basically saying to Jesus and Jesus is seeing this part of them. They're basically saying to Jesus, we will go through anything. We will go through anything. We will suffer anything. I mean, can you drink of the cup that I drink of? They're like, yes we can. And he's like, you will drink of the cup that I drink of. You know what Jesus told them? He's like, you will suffer. He's like, you will suffer for me. And look, they did. And we're seeing it in Acts chapter 12. This is being fulfilled the first time in Acts chapter 12. Look at verse 40. He says, but to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared. He's like, he's saying, I don't, I don't know the side where people sit in heaven. Okay. And when the 10 heard it, now this is a different. So Jesus kind of uses this as a teachable moment. He says, you will suffer. You're right. You will suffer. And he's like, I believe you. I believe that you'll go through it. And I believe that you, but I'm telling you, you will. And then the 10 other disciples here and they're mad, right? They're upset. And you know, you can kind of see why they're upset. I mean, these two guys go to Jesus and they're like, hey, can we have the best seats in the kingdom? Basically, you know, and these guys, they're upset. But look, Jesus, Jesus didn't really like harshly rebuke them here. He just taught them here. I mean, here's the thing you have to understand. Were they trying to be Jesus? They weren't trying to be Jesus. They weren't trying to overthrow Jesus. They wanted to be the best. They wanted to be the best disciples. They wanted to be the best for Jesus. I mean, he's like, can you drink the cup? We're like, we'll drink it. They're like, whatever it takes to be the best, we will be the best. And everybody else was upset. And look, that's common. That's common. All right. People, look, people that are that are super zealous and super motivated and and just super driven, they're always going to make other people mad. That's just the way it is. Always. All right. I remember I was working. I was like 16 or 17 years old. And I worked for this, this steel building company. We built these steel building. And it was like a steel frame. And then we had like sheets of metal that would go on the building. It was big pole barns, basically. And I was the grunt. I was the I was the lowest guy in the company. So I was like doing all the garbage work. I dug all the holes. I put all the insulation up. I picked up all the trash. I was constantly doing all these garbage jobs, all these they didn't require any skill. And I remember one day, I got to I got there was two guys that had worked there for like 10 years. These guys just worked for they were like long time. They weren't the foreman, but they were just like the main carpenter guys. And they would run all the screws and the sheets and they would you know do all the measuring and cutting and all these types of things. And one day I got I got to run screws into the into the sheets to put the building sheets onto the onto the frame. And I was just thrilled to death that I got to run these screws for the first time. I wasn't walking around picking up nails or doing some you know lame job. I got to run screws. So I figured, you know, and I mean I knew how to use a screw gun. So I figured it when I got when I get up there to run screws, I'm going to put it as many as I can started. I mean for hours, I was just running as many screws as I could. And at lunchtime, these two guys came up to me and they were like, I was like 1617. They were probably 3035. They seemed really old to me. But you know, they were they came up to me basically at lunchtime. And they kind of like quartered me and they're like, what do you think you're doing? And I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm eating my sandwich right now. What do you mean? What am I doing? And they basically told me in in a way that I can't really say from the pulpit right now, like quit doing this or we're gonna like, we're gonna kick your rear end basically is what they said. Because you're making us look bad to the boss because I'm up there like trying to run as many I'm the 17 year old kid trying to just do this as fast as I can. And I'm just like, you know, whatever. But the point is, you know, it's not that I was better at it than them. It's just that they were, they had a pace that they went at that they didn't like somebody coming in. And I wasn't really doing it to impress anybody. I was just trying to just be as fast as I could and do as good of a job as I could. But the point is, is like zealous, driven people are always going to make people around them mad. It's a thing. Okay, so it's not, it's not surprising to me when I read this story about Jesus and about James and John going to Jesus, that the other 10 disciples, you know, got upset about it. All right. But now go back to, go back to the story and let's see how Jesus kind of finishes off what he did. Go back to Mark chapter 10. And now look at verse 41. Go to Mark chapter 10 and look at verse 41. So this is where the disciples get mad. But look what Jesus does in verse 42. But Jesus called them to him and said unto them. He's basically, he calls James and John and he says, I want to explain something to you. All right. And he says, you know not, you know that they were accounted to rule over the gentiles, they that were, which are accounted to rule over the gentiles exercise lordship over them. And they're great ones exercise authority upon them. He's saying, he's saying the gentiles when they're in charge and when they're the great ones is like, they're just like exercising authority over people. So Jesus is kind of like explaining to James and John what they were really asking for. Okay. Look at the next verse. He says, but so shall it not be among you, but whosoever will be great among you. So Jesus here is saying, he's not just tearing them into the ground and saying, and saying, you know, how dare you ask me that? How dare you come to me and try to be better than, try to be greater than these 10. How dare you ask to sit next to me? No, Jesus is just saying, look, if you want to be great, here's what you need to understand. If you want to be great, here's what you have to do. He says, if you want to be great, look what he says. He says, but whosoever will be great among you shall be your minister. And whosoever you shall be the chiefest shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So not only does he say, can you drink of the cup that I drink out of? He explains to him, what they explained to them, what that cup is. He explains to them, you want to be great? Here's what you have to do. You want to be great? You're not going to be in charge of everybody. You could be everybody's servant. So Jesus, what he does with their zeal, he doesn't crush their zeal. He focuses their zeal. He hones their zeal. And that's what you need to understand about energy, about drive, about zealous people. They need to not be crushed, they need to be focused. They need to be focused. You say, why? Because here's why. If it can be focused, it produces results. You say, why? Look at Acts chapter 12. In verse number two, what happened? How far did James take what Jesus told him? How far did James go with his Christian life? How far did James take being a disciple for Jesus? He took it the whole way. He took it to the end. He knew what was in the cup. Look, is that a great thing to be killed? Is that a powerful thing? No, you are the least powerful when someone's killing you. You are the least powerful when you're being arrested, put in prison, being persecuted. He understood what Jesus told him about the cup and what was actually going to be in the cup, and he took it the whole way. Now look, I'm going to read you. I want to read you a secular account of the death of James. And I know that this isn't the Bible, but I love the historical accounts. There's a lot of witnesses to these historical accounts. This isn't the Word of God. This isn't the Bible. But it matches what we know of James in the Bible. So I want to read you the death of James. It's written down in great detail in the martyr's mirror, not the Bible. The martyr's mirror says this about the death of James in Acts chapter 12, verse number 2. I'm just trying to point out that this guy took it the whole way, and Jesus didn't crush the zeal, he focused the zeal, and it produced results. The martyr's mirror says this. It says, James, surname the greater, was the son of Zebedee and Solomon, and fisherman by occupation. But Christ, having called him to be a disciple, he abandoned fishing and followed Christ. This we already looked at in Matthew chapter 4. He was instructed for a considerable time together with the other disciples in the duties of the apostleship until he was properly sent out in a capacity. He was endowed with a gift of working signs and miracles, and on account of this special gift, he was one of the three surnamed, he was one of the surnamed Bojernis, which is sons of thunder. He was with Jesus on every remarkable occasion, so much so that he was chosen by the Lord to behold his glory upon the Holy Mount. I just read that to you. That was the transfiguration. Of him, Christ had predicted that he should drink of the same cup in which Christ would drink, and that he should be baptized with the same baptism, which he was baptized, and that he should be subject to his Christ suffering, he should be, you know, subject to suffering and death. After Christ's ascension, he also remained in Jerusalem, and we eat together with the other apostle to have received the Holy Ghost. He preached the Gospel in Judea and Samaria. This apostle lived only until the fourth year of the Emperor Claudius. Now that, that's interesting, that actually matches the Bible, what the Bible says in Acts chapter 11 in verse number 28, at which time Agabus had predicted, this is what it's actually referring to Acts 11, 28 here, that there should be a dearth throughout all the world. At that time, Claudius charged Herod Agrippa to suppress the Church of Christ. Then Herod laid his bloody hands on this apostle, on the Feast of the Passover, and put him in prison. Shortly afterwards, he was sentenced to death and executed with the sword in Jerusalem. This occurred in the year 45 after the birth of Christ, also matching about this same time that, you know, the Bible account would have taken place. Clemens, now he gets into detail about the execution. Clemens relates that the executioner, seeing, this is the guy who's going to cut his head off, okay? Clemens relates that the executioner, seeing his innocence, was converted to the Christian faith and died with him. According to the annotation of Eusepius, Pamphletheus, from Clemens, Alexandrinus, these are the historians, the witnesses, the executioner was so moved on account of the death of James, that he professed himself to be a Christian. And so as he states, both were led forth together to death. As they were led out, the executioner asked James to forgive him. James, this is, I love this part, James, after a little deliberation, he thinks about it for a second. So this guy was involved in, you know, the arrest and he was supposed to be the one that killed him. But instead, he converts and he's going with James, now they're both going to be killed. And he asked James to forgive him. James, he's like, let me think about it for a second. And finally he said, peace be with thee and kiss him. And thus both were beheaded. So look, the man was very zealous. He was literally soul-winning up to the very end, okay? The guy that was about to kill him saw his witness and was converted, was, you know, accepted Christ, you know, just from the witness, you know, literally moments before he died. And I understand that that's a secular historical account and the Bible doesn't give us that detail. But look, it matches, it matches the personality, it matches the person that we know that James was. So here's all I'm trying to say to you tonight. What we see from James in the Bible is a man with an incredible amount of zeal. And what Jesus saw in James with that zeal, look, zeal can annoy people. Zeal can upset people. Zeal upset the disciples themselves. But what Jesus saw there and what we need to see in our lives with zeal is it's a building material. Think of it that way. Zeal is a building material. Zeal is clay that needs to be formed and molded. You think about your kids. I remember many years ago, 20 years ago, before Garrett was even born, I read a book by James Dobson. I don't recommend James Dobson, but I recommend, I read a book called, it was called The Strong-Willed Child. And the whole book was just on these people that had these kids that were just really hard to discipline, where the kids would get spanked and they wouldn't seem to care. Because some kids are just harder to discipline than others. But look, that's a good thing. That energy that kids have, that zeal, that energy, that drive, it just needs to be focused and directed. And that is what we can take from the life of James and the way Jesus handled James and John. He didn't crush that spirit. He didn't rebuke them to the point where he knocked them off out of the inner circle or whatever. He appreciated the zeal and he focused it. He focused that zeal. This is the guy, this is the young guy that gets saved and goes, the first, and just gets an argument with everybody. It's like, okay, we don't want people. That's how we do things here. We're not going to get millions of dollars before it, but it doesn't work. But you don't take somebody like that and just destroy them. You mold them. Because that, you know, yeah, there may be a little pride mixed in there, that they know they're right and all this. But mainly, you know what you have there? You just have zeal. You have zeal flying in every direction and it just needs to be focused. That's it. I mean, at least if you have zeal, if you have that material, it can be worked with. You know, you got to remember that with your kids. You got kids with a lot of energy. Kids that are just, it doesn't seem like, you know, I won't give examples of my kids because they get embarrassed when I do that. But you get kids that seem like the discipline is not working. It seems like, you know, you're spanking them and you're like, he must like it. He must like spankings. No, he doesn't like spankings. It's just, he's got a lot of zeal. He's got a lot of drive. He or she's got energy. That's a good thing. It just needs to be focused. That's it. That's it. This is what Jesus knew. This is a great leadership example from Jesus on how, and this is the perspective difference because Jesus was a leader dealing with someone, dealing with a follower who was very zealous. But the peers didn't like it. But Jesus used it. He tuned it. Now look, the real problem, the real problem with people, children, just in general, the real problem that you will have is if there's no zeal. Now you have a problem because if you have something, look, there are people, and look, this is a major problem for a soul winner. This is a major problem for a soul winner because you're not going to somebody's door and it's a major problem with the population that we're dealing with today because there's some people that you just, you meet them, you just can't get them excited about anything. But here's the thing. People, you knock on their door, they just could care less. Heaven, hell, I don't care. What do you do? I don't know. There's no zeal there. There's no drive there. What are you going to do with that? What are you going to do with that? You can't tune that. You can't hone that. Some of the best Christians I know that are like driving as hard as they can in their Christian life. You know what they were doing? They were really driven towards other things. They were driven towards their job or they were driven towards, you know, some hobby or they were just, they were seriously driven discipline person. Then they got saved and they just got honed in the right direction. They just started to realize like there's, you know, some leader got them and just tuned that zeal to be focused in the right direction. But look, you got no zeal, you're not going to offend anybody. People are going to be happy with you. You're not going to get anybody upset if you just don't really, yeah, whatever. Don't really care about anything. Heaven, hell, work, not, I mean, just kind of, just kind of floating along. You're probably not going to offend too many people like James and John offended the other 10 disciples. But look, the point is, is there's nothing to work with there. So if you find somebody with drive and zeal, maybe you work with them, your kids, whatever, use that. That's a good thing for a leader. And if you're up here, don't get upset at people like that. Don't get upset at people like that. You know, the other disciples, they should have been like, we want to be great. We want to serve as hard as we can. But turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Instead, you know, you shouldn't be, you know, you shouldn't be comparing yourselves against somebody. Get somebody that's super zealous, just be like, okay, you want to be flying. You should help that, you know, sharpen yourself. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. You know, we shouldn't, you know, the problem is, is when you see, you know, as when you're not in the leadership role, but instead, you're in the layman role, you're in the brother's role, you're in the friend's role, you know, you can look at zealous people and it can upset you. But the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, look at verse number 12. It says, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. So we go out sowing and if we see somebody that's like, maybe like super or like going in the wrong direction or whatever, appreciate the zeal and you don't have to compare yourself against them. You don't, you know, just be like, hey, you know, I appreciate the zeal, maybe help hone them in the right direction, but we're not to compare ourselves amongst ourselves. Look, I don't do that. Look, I don't compare myself amongst my peers, even as a pastor. Like, because I want to look at somebody that's really zealous, somebody that has really good ideas, and I want to be like, hey, what can I take from that? You know, what can I, how can I grow from that? Look, that's, that's how like true friendship sharpen each other. And we're going to talk about that on Sunday. But the whole point of trying to get you to understand tonight is that James is an example of an extremely zealous person. James and John. There's a reason that they were called the sons of thunder and Jesus recognized that. So recognize that in people. Recognize that in your kids. Recognize that in your spouse. It's a great thing. And just because sometimes it might be focused on the, in the wrong direction, doesn't mean that the zeal itself or the drive itself is not a good thing. It just means that it needs to be focused. That's it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of