 All right, everyone, welcome back to our second session. Hope you had a good break, quick breather. Hope you all are doing well and alive. Cool. So let's continue from where we left off, from the bottom of page 73. Give me a quick thumbs up or whatever you can do. If you're all OK, doing well, cool, all right. Thanks, Chris. So from the bottom of page 73, we start off with a section that says, believers trained in spiritual warfare. But just to do a quick recap, in this chapter, chapter 11, we are looking at the local church as an army of God. And this aspect of militancy is etched in so many scriptures that we are in spiritual, we are in the middle of spiritual conflict, all right, and the languages that we, I mean, verses that we saw what Paul used as saying, good soldier, fight the good faith. And all is the language of a warfare, of an army of a soldier, right. And so believers trained in spiritual warfare simply that where the local church is an army of soldiers who are engaged in spiritual conflict. The local church is an army of soldiers who are engaged in spiritual conflict. The local church therefore must be in one sense, like a boot camp and equipping in a training center where soldiers are trained to engage in spiritual warfare. People don't sign into an army and then go into battle. Maybe it's happened in the times past, but everybody goes through a training, a boot camp, a focused time where they are prepared for battle in a very specific way, right. And that's what Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter six, verse 10 to 11, he says, finally my brother and be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, right. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil. Right, that is Ephesians chapter six, verse 10 and 11. We all know that. And then he goes on to say from verse 14 about stand therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having showed your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, while taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation, the soul of the spirit, which is the word of God. I mean, so we all know that, right. And that is as being equipped and trained in spiritual warfare begins with just us going back to the word of God and saying, what does the word of God has to say? This is what it has to say. We are in the middle of spiritual conflict, right. And we'll get to another very important verse in this next section where in second Corinthians chapter 10, verse three and five, it says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. Okay, again, we've read that verse so many times. I'm sure it's a popular verse when it comes to spiritual warfare, right. We do not war according to the flesh. That means we don't take a sword and chop someone's head off. You know, that's the devil. You know, we don't, you know, he's very clear, right. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, right. John chapter four verse 22 to 24, talks about those who worship him, must worship him spirit and in truth. Right, one of the things that we studied in prison worship course is the difference between worship in the flesh and worship in the spirit, right. That means if you can worship in the flesh and you can worship in the spirit, that means you also wage war in the spirit. And that's what Paul is trying to tell us, right. Isn't it for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. That's why we are calling it a spiritual battle, right. We battle, we wage this battle in the spirit, right. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, okay. So what are, and as an army, right, we are being trained, we are equipped, we need to understand that, you know, the authority and the influence that's been bestowed on us. Jesus has already said, right, the church of God will advance and the gates of hell shall not prevail. That means we've been bestowed with power and influence. We need to get, right, we need to understand that. We are the church of the living God and we are armed and we are dangerous, okay. You need to get your danger face on, right. But what are some of those weapons? What are you talking about? You know, what are the things that we are armed with as believers? So some of the spiritual weapons that we have as believers is the first thing, the name of Jesus, right. The name of Jesus, right. I like the story in the book of Acts, chapter nine verse 15, I think, where God tells Ananias about Paul saying, go to him, anoint him for he is a vessel I have chosen to carry my name. And that's what he says the same of all of us, right. We are all the chosen vessel. We are chosen to carry his name, right. Just like any other brand in this world, every brand that is out there, specifically say clothing brand or automobiles or whatnot, all of them want you to carry their name. There's a certain, I don't know, class or whatever comes with, okay, oh, you see a person wearing a T-shirt and you see the brand name big, say Nike or Reebok or Adidas or Zara or something like that. What's happening, right. You are showing off the name of a brand that you are carrying because they want you to carry their names, right. Apple, iPhone, I watch, iPad, what else? BMW, you know, whatever Ferrari, all of those are brands that are out there for you to show off their name, for you to carry their name. And then here God is saying, he's like, hey, you are my chosen vessel to carry my name. And are you aware of that? Do you know that? Do you know that you are a chosen vessel, chosen to carry the name of God? And so we have name of Jesus, right. At the mention of his name, where every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, right. Every demon's flee, every, you know, mountain smells like wax in his presence, you know, from everlasting to everlasting. He is God, he's the ancient of days. He is the holy one. And that name has been given to us for us to use in the spiritual battle. The word of God, which is the sword of God, right. Jesus used that when he comes face to face with the devil. Time and time again, he says, it is written. It is written. It is written. It is written, right. Jesus could have come up with whatever he wanted to. He is the word, he is the living word of God. That's what John 1 says, right. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God, right. He was God in the beginning, right. He could have come up with whatever knew, but he says it is written and it is written. And so the name of Jesus, the word of God, the blood of Jesus and the completed work on the cross is so crucial, right, for us to understand. Colossians chapter two verse 15, I think. Colossians two 15, it says, by dying on the cross and doing what Jesus did on the cross, he made a public spectacle of the enemy. He put them to shame and us resting in the blood of Jesus and the completed and the finished work of cross is, wow. I mean, it's quite a big, quite a awesome arsenal that we are building right now, isn't it? Our position in Christ, what does that mean? Our identity in Christ, who we are in Christ, do we know that, right? Our identity, our position in Christ, the full armor of God as we just saw in Ephesians chapter six verse 14 onwards. Prayer and intercession, praise and worship, repentance and righteousness, repentance and righteousness. All of these are spiritual weapons that we've been given. It's there for us to use. It's ours for the taking, right? Okay, I'm gonna fight this battle. I'm going to pray and intercede, right? That's the classic thing I've heard so many people say is like, okay, I'm gonna pray for you, right? I'm going to intercede, interceding. What does intercession mean? What does intercession mean? Interceding in simple language. Come, let's intercede. Simply means standing in the gap. When Abraham is saying, God and Abraham are having this classic conversation. He's like, I'm gonna destroy the city. He's like, no, will you spare the city there if you finally stand and then comes down to one. What is Abraham doing? He's interceding. He's standing in the gap of the city, right? He is having this conversation with God and that's what we do, isn't it? We stand in the gap for an individual, for a person, like you say, someone in your family that who does not know the Lord yet, you stand in the gap, you intercede for them, you pray, you know, so like, God, encounter him, pray that this person will come to know the truth, your truth. You're waging a war. You're stepping into a battle for that person's soul. That is spiritual battle, right? So prayer and intercession, praise and worship. If you remember from the first year in the power of praise, we've learned that, you know, and how King Jehoshaphat, when he goes into battle, the whole, he puts the worship team in the front of the battle of the army and they lift up a voice and they begin to praise and that's how they win the battle. Like praise and worship is a powerful weapon, powerful weapon, you know, and most of the time in that list, what might look like, you know, what might not look like a very fancy weapon is a position in Christ. And we cannot, I cannot stress enough on the importance of us knowing who we are in Christ. And so, you know, again, I encourage you for casual reading and download our APC publication called Who We Are in Christ. There must also be another course that's, you know, that's being done on identity, right? That's very, very crucial. So to begin with, we must learn to live victorious and overcoming lives as individual believers using these spiritual weapons. As individuals, right? We must begin to learn to live victorious and overcoming lives. And then we also minister to people destroying the works of the darkness, setting them free from the hold of the enemy over their lives. And that's what Jesus did, isn't it? In his ministry and his time on earth, right? So all of this is very crucial. Once again, for us as pastors and ministry leaders, it's important for us to understand the importance of winning our private battles. Because Bill Johnson says this, David was able to kill Goliath in public because he was able to kill a bear and a lion in private. You know, he fought his battles when no one saw. He overcame that, he was victorious. And because of which, he could kill Goliath in public, right? And it's very crucial for us. So we must understand that we are armed and dangerous as individuals and as a church, as a body of Christ. We are armed and we are dangerous, right? We are a force to be reckoned with and we are anointed for battle. As I attend, 27 days. And in the day, his burden will depart from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck and the yoke will be broken because of that. And so, you know, see that we are anointed. It is the annoying thing that breaks the yoke, right? And also in Matthew chapter 12, verse 28 says, but if it is by the spirit of God that I cast of demons that in the kingdom of God has come upon you. If it is by the spirit of God, right? And verse 29, Matthew chapter 12, verse 29 says, or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless his first, he first binds the strong man, then he may plunder his house, right? So by the spirit, by the power of the spirit, we cast of devils and usher the kingdom of God and we bind the strong man so that we can plunder his goods, right? So we are anointed for battle and again, we are armed, we are powerful, we are anointed. And then we see that the local church must intentionally advance against the gates of hell. We must intentionally advance against the gates of hell, okay? So it's like, okay, what does the gates of hell look like in your community or in your society? Right, it could be corruption, it could be alcohol addiction, drug addiction, drugs being sold like crazy in your neighbor, it could be the neighborhood, is that the problem? Is your city known as the suicide capital? Is that what it is as a prostitution? Is that corruption, is it crime, right? All of that are the gates of hell, isn't it? And so you identify it, right? And then you intentionally advance against the gates of hell because we are commanded to. We are not just called to observe and see, oh, this is happening in my city and just ignore it and not do anything about it. That's where you intercede. That's where you use the weapons of your warfare, right? On behalf of the city, and you rebuke and say, okay, you rebuke the spirit of suicide over my land, over my city, right? There are people who declare saying, I want my city to be a cancer-free zone. That means there should not be a single case of cancer in my city. And those are the burdens that God will put on you as you seek his heart, as you say, okay, what do I do? But then there are also times that you just see, it's out there in the open and you say, okay, this is what it is. There's a lot of corruption over the politicians in my area. For the last 20 years, the road has not been laid because of the corruption. I mean, you pray, isn't it? So you intentionally advance and declare, you see that in John chapter one, verse three and eight, verse three, sorry, chapter three, verse eight, says, he whose sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil, that he might destroy the works of the devil. So Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and that's what he did. And we saw that in Colossians 2.15. And by doing that, he made a public spectacle of them. But in doing that, we see that in John 20, 21, just that he says that peace to you, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. So we are not to sit back, relax and enjoy the service, enjoy the ride, kind of say, but we are to advance intentionally, right? As again, as a ministry leader, you are intentionally leading your congregation, you're teaching them about spiritual warfare, the importance of it. And as a community of Christian believers, you advance and you intercede for a certain thing in your city, in your community, in your society, right? Another thing that we, couple of things that we see in an army is, there is a rank, there is order, discipline in an army. Similarly, there's a rank, order, discipline in the local church army, okay? So Joel chapter two over seven and eight, it says, they run like mighty men. They climb the wall like men of war. Everyone marches in formation and they do not break ranks. Okay, they climb the wall like men of war. Everyone marches in formation and they do not break ranks. They do not push one another. Everyone marches in his own column. Though they lunge between the weapons, they are not cut down, right? Now, if there's anything that we can learn about army, now you say, okay, if there's an individual or a person that says that they were in an army, they know how disciplined they are. They wake up at a certain time. They cut their hair a certain way. They dress a certain way. They carry themselves a certain way. Why? Because for years, they've been trained to be disciplined and follow a certain order. And similarly, as we are talking about the local church as an army of God, there is rank, there is order, there is discipline in the army, right? However, what we need to understand that in the New Testament obedience is always in the Lord. The authority we walk in experientially on earth is in proportion to our submission to the King. The importance of us being under the supervision of a leader is important. Like we see that in 1 Chronicles, chapter 25, when you read that chapter, 1 Chronicles, chapter 25, you see Asaph, He-Man, and Jerethen, and it goes on to say in verse eight, I think, all of them were under the supervision of the King, King David at that time, right? So there is order, there are ranks, right? We need to honor the leaders who are leading us, but keeping in mind that we are all accountable to Jesus himself, right? So there is rank, there is order, we need to keep that in mind. There is a military mindset that we are encouraged to have a military lifestyle, a military discipline, et cetera. And this is a very important point, is an army has a strategy. Right, does anybody here like war movies? Yeah, okay, Anita here. Anybody else, war movies? Any war movie that comes to your head? Which is your ones that you like? I like war movies. I mean, I don't like what war does, what has happened, but it's just, there's so much of history that we can learn from it, but one of the things that you can always see is that there is strategy, right? How many of you know who or what a sniper is? It's called Sniper. Have you heard of the term sniper? Yeah, do you know what he does? Oh, he or she, sniper does. But snipers are trained to kill, I mean to take their shot from a long distances. That's one of the things, right? Like a far away ranges. And they also like an overseer for an army on the ground. Like they see, okay, they keep the army informed on the ground, say, okay, there's this group of 50 people coming from the east or there's a group of, you know, whatever, this is a group coming from the north. So they are scouting and they are guiding people on the grounds, okay, this is what's happening. And they take long shots. The another thing that they do is a sniper, this is a real story during the second world war is a sniper crawled, crawled for say, I think five days or something. And they move very slowly so that the enemy cannot identify. So he's crawled through the rain, through the jungle, very slowly for five days without eating anything, just to accomplish his target. So there is what I'm trying to say, this whole point is there is strategy involved, right? And but again, coming back and reminding us that as what the Corinthians says that a battle is not against flesh and blood, right? Though we walk in flesh, we do not wage war in flesh. So what do we do? How do we lean? When you read second Samuel chapter five, right? Second Samuel chapter five, verse 19 to 25. Okay, this is just for your reference. We're not gonna read that chapter now. Second Samuel chapter five was 19 to 25. It says time and time again, with David inquired of the Lord. He says, okay, it says that David inquired of the Lord and said, okay, if I go there, will you give that army over, will I beat them, will I defeat them? He says, go, I'm with you, you will win. And again, it says David inquired of the Lord. And then there's this one time where it says David inquired of the Lord and God says, don't go now, okay? Go around that army, take up your position and wait till you hear a sound of an army marching over the balsam trees and then advance, right? So David could have been easily arrogant and say, yeah, you know, God was with me. This is what he told me to do last time. So what worked last time can work again the same time again now. But it shows so beautifully about David's humility of how time and time again, a battle after battle, he leaned on God's guidance and is on God's understanding and leading. And so I think we as church, as individuals and also as a collective, we need to keep inquiring of the Lord for strategies, right? For us to, a successful army is strategic, right? And so that's very important. An army has a strategy and army takes care of its wounded. It's very important. The army takes care of its wounded, right? We need to look out for one another, you know, in our community as a church, in the congregation. It's very easy for us to become self-righteous and pick up the stone and want to throw at someone because they are in the wrong. It's very easy to do that, especially in this day and age of social media, we don't throw literal stones, but we throw stones in the form of our negative comments, especially we find out, okay, this is what happened. That's, you know, it's like, oh my gosh. That's like, we start typing, you know, hey. And when it comes to our own, that you know a person, you know, has sinned or failed, you know, had a fall or whatnot. Your first reaction should not be to condemn them or kill them. We do not kill our own, right? Just because of their failures. We help people recover and regain strength. And that's another beauty of the army. It's not always about, you know, advancing. We also take care of one another, right? We look out for each other. And so an army takes care of its wounded. So those are all the pointers that we can keep in mind as the local church, as the army of God, right? Practical ways a local church can implement this, teach people about their spiritual authority, spiritual identity, the cross, the blood, the weapons of our warfare, prayer, intercession, et cetera, teach people how to correctly exercise spiritual authority, how to minister healing and deliverance. There is an element of spiritual conflict that is involved in healing and deliverance, right? We set specific targets and go after them collectively as a local church body, right? So those are all some of the practical ways where you can, where a local church can implement this and challenges to be prepared for. Always maintain focus on the Lord Jesus and not what the devil is doing. That line is super crucial for us, is most of the times we are too impressed by the devil. We are too impressed by what the enemy can do. And I think we fix our eyes on the devil more than we are to fix on God, right? Don't be impressed by him. Don't give him your attention. Always maintain focus on the Lord Jesus and not on what the devil is doing, right? Engaging incorrectly in spiritual warfare, keep dealing with things that we have been given authority over. So those are some of the challenges to be prepared for you know, when you're talking about spiritual warfare and in this journey of understanding the local church as an army of God, right? You guys with me? Any questions or any thoughts? Okay, all right. You're still alive, right? Pretty much. Let's move on now to chapter 12. The local church, the bride. Local church, the bride. Okay, yeah, it's again one of the most wonderful pictures of the church and something that I could relate to from, you know, it's for at least since 2010 because of a song that I was listening to. It's called, You Have Ravished My Heart. I will share the link maybe, but then it spoke about how the church is the bride of Christ. And I was always curious about it and started studying about it. And it's just a wonderful, wonderful picture of the church, right? So we're just gonna go dive into it a little bit and see what, you know, what we can learn from it, right? There are some of the differences to begin with for us to understand between the old covenant and the new covenant, right? The thing is it comes down to how God deals with his people, right? In the Bible days, right, there are just two kinds of people. One is people in the covenant and the other is the people not in the covenant. That's it, okay? And the people in the covenant were the descendants from Abraham because of the covenant God made with Abraham and everybody else like who were not in the covenant are people who were not in the covenant, right? So it's all about in the old covenant we see how God deals with the people in the covenant and see how his dealings with the church and the new covenant, you know, also happens. So a couple of differences as we see is under the old covenant, he dealt with them based on the law and the new covenant, he deals with us based on grace and under the old covenant, not everyone experienced the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In the new covenant, every believer enjoys the personal presence and work of the Spirit, right? Those are the primary differences and the similarities are under both covenants God has chosen a people through whom he could bless the nations of this world. He has chosen a people for himself, right? We see that in Exodus 19, Exodus chapter 19, he says, you yourself saw what I did to Egypt. I brought you out of Egypt for myself, right? Out of the whole world, although the whole world is mine, I have chosen you to be my priesthood, a holy nation, right? So he's chosen a people for himself through whom he could bless the nations around the world. And then we see that both covenants, God's people are royal priesthood, call to minister unto God. We are a royal priesthood. Exodus 19 also talks about the same thing, that holy nation priesthood and then in the new covenant. And we see that in Revelation chapter one is that Jesus has made us a priesthood, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. And also Peter talks about it, right? So one interesting similarity is that under both covenants, God pictures his relationship with his people as that of a groom to his bride, okay? Man, if you have a problem, just deal with it. Grow up, because that's what it says, right? God pictures his relationship with his people as that of a groom to his bride. So the first thing we see that in Jeremiah chapter two, verse two and three, in page 679, Jeremiah chapter two, verse two and three says, go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem saying, thus says the Lord, I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal. When you went after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown, right? This is God saying, I remember, the NLT version says that I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride. How have you followed me in the wilderness, right? You see the language there, the imagery that is being used there, right? So God talks about the day when Israel was betrothed or engaged to him, the kindness, the love, the pursuit they demonstrated, okay? So the kindness, the love, the pursuit they demonstrated by pursuing him, right? A nation that was holy, that means they were set apart unto him, right? Israel was betrothed to him on Mount Sinai in the wilderness after he had brought them out of Egypt while journeying to their land of promise. And another verse that says in Jeremiah 3, 14, return or backsliding children. The language and the imagery is changing now. Says the Lord, for I am married to you. I will take you one from a city and two from a family and I will bring you to Zion, right? God is saying, see, I'm married to you. I am in this covenant with you. I'm in this relationship with you. Why don't you see that? And he's calling his wayward people back to himself, right? Once again, guys, I apologize for sounding redundant, but then the recurring theme from Genesis to Revelation is this, God keeps saying, I will be your God, you will be my people. I will be your God, you will be my people. I will be your God, you will be my people. Book after book after book, the book that is written by so many different authors over so many period of time. The recurring thing, the heartbeat of God from Genesis, all the way to Revelation is that his heart is for us, that we will be his people and he will be our God. And that is what he's reminding them. It's like, hey, I am married to you. You are set apart for me. Why do we use these words? I'm sure you've heard these words in a marriage ceremony, wedding ceremony saying, we call this as a holy matrimonial, right? I'm sure you've heard that, right? Holy matrimony, right? We understand the word holy. We see that it simply means set apart to be cut, right? And we say it, holy matrimony in a wedding ceremony where it says it's a symbol of a man and a woman coming together and saying, I am setting myself apart from every other woman in those world for you. And then the woman coming and saying, I am setting myself apart from every other man in this world from this point on, my devotion, my affection, my love, everything of who I am is only for you, right? That's holy matrimony, isn't it? That's the wedding ceremony. And this is where God is saying, I am married to you. You are, I've set myself apart for you and you don't realize, but you've set yourself apart for me. You have to set yourself apart for me. And that's the recurring theme again in Jeremiah chapter 31, three and four. It says, the Lord has appeared of all to me saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you, right? Again, I will build you and you shall be rebuilt. In Jeremiah 31, verse 32, it says, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord, the people, again, the imagery, the language that God is using to portray his relationship with his people is the relationship of a husband and a wife, right? A bride and groom, right? So God assures a wayward people of his everlasting love. His love is an everlasting one. It's love forever for eternity, right? He's wooing them back with his loving kindness. And he speaks of the covenant he established with his people in terms of being a husband. I mean, he goes on to say that you will call me my husband and Hosea chapter two, verse 16 and 17, it's a beautiful, now Hosea is known as a minor prophet, you know, we like to do character studies there are minor characters with a major impact. So Hosea is one of those minor prophets with a major impact, you know, which paints this picture of a bride and a groom so beautifully, right? And Hosea chapter two was 16 and 17, it says, and it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call me my husband and no longer me my master. Hosea, the same chapter, the next verse, 19 and 20 says, I will betray you to me forever. You will be mine forever. I will set you apart, I have set you apart. My heart is, my heart for you is that you will be mine forever and I will be yours forever. I will betray you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness, in holiness and in mercy. I will betray you to me forever, right? These verses, the recurring thing there is saying, mine forever, we are his forever. In righteousness, he draws us himself to him in holiness and in purity, in justice, in loving kindness and faithfulness, and intimacy you shall know the Lord, right? We've broken this word intimacy before. It simply means if you, when you break it into me, you see because I show you, right? God is saying, you know, come and have this intimate relationship with me. I will show you the things of my heart. And those are the language that's being made there, right? And he emphasizes that once again in Isaiah chapter 54, verse five to be more specific, saying where he says, for your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name. Your maker, for your maker is your husband. The one who created you, the one who's called you out, your maker is your husband, the language there. And again, in the same book of Isaiah in 62, he says, you shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land anymore be termed desolate, but you shall be called Hepsiba, which simply means my delight. The name Hepsiba means my delight. And then he says, and your land, Bula, which means married. And then Isaiah goes on to says, for the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married. It's just so beautiful, isn't it? Verse five goes on to say, for your young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom, listen to these words, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, as the bridegroom, the groom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. And then we see verse six. Okay, remember the context of the previous verse, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your bride rejoice over you. He says, I have set watchmen on your wall, so Jerusalem, they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent. It's amazing to see that out of the understanding or the revelation, ministry is birthed, right? So ministry is birthed or should be carried out of the understanding and revelation that we are ministering to the bride of God. That's God's people, his delight. We look at people as how God looks at them, right? So the previous verse talks about how he rejoices over his people as a bridegroom or a bride, and then verse six talks about watchmen on the walls. That's intercession, ministry. And so our ministry to one another, right, is we train, you know, we teach us, we tell ourselves that, okay, hey, I'm looking at the people that I lead, my congregation, as God looks at them. If they are his delight, they have to be my delight as well. And that's how ministry is birthed out of the understanding and out of revelation. And it's the same thing in the new covenant, we see the parable of the 10 virgins, isn't it? In Matthew chapter 25 verse one to 13, right? There's a bride waiting for the bridegroom to come. It's in the context of the end of days, right? It draws this picture about teaching us about the end times and how we must look in readiness and in expectation and anticipating the coming of the Lord. But the analogy there, the illustration there is again a bride and the bridegroom, right? And in second Corinthians chapter 11, verse 12, verse two, sorry, second Corinthians chapter 11, verse two, Paul is writing, for I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chast virgin to Christ. So what he's trying to say is Paul is saying, when I minister to you, I am looking at you as the bride that needs to be prepared to be present before the groom. All right, so this language time and time again is recurring in the word of God, right? And this is a famous chapter, Ephesians chapter five, verse 22 to 32. We all know the chapter, you know, begins with 22 where wives have submit to your husband as to the Lord, you know, all the way comes down to verse 32, for as just as Christ gave away his life, the husbands are called to lay down their lives. You know, talking about husband and wife, but the context really is between the church and God. But the relationship they're used is between the relationship of a husband and the wife, right? Just has how Jesus sanctifies us and how he cleanses us, you know, and how he nourishes us and how he cherishes the church. We are called to nourish the people that we lead. We are called to cherish the church just as Jesus would do for his people, right? So I mean, with that, I just wanna kind of bring the session to a close, you know, and the local church as the bride of Christ. Okay, and we'll continue with the rest of the chapter, the following class, okay? And when you get the time, go through the notes, it's just wonderful, you know, I think when you come down to all the way down to page 83, just as a reminder, at the bottom of page 83, you see that church is therefore not about us and what pleases us. Church is about what pleases him because the bride adorns herself in what pleases her groom, right? The bride adorns herself in what would please her groom. That's what she is constantly thinking of, right? The church is not about what I like, but about what he likes to see in us, among us, coming us back to that point where the church is, God's idea, it's his blueprint and we are to follow in everything that he teaches us to do, right, guys? Well, so that's about it for today. Thanks once again for joining in. We'll meet again next week and continue with the rest of the course. All right, God bless you. Have a lovely weekend. Take care, guys. Thank you.