 Alright, keep your place there in 1 Samuel, chapter 26. Pretty cool story in the Bible here. I like this story a lot. We're going to continue tonight. This will be the second sermon in our Random Characters in the Bible series. So, a few weeks ago we preached a sermon on Itai of the Gittite. So, tonight I want to preach another sermon on another character in the Bible and I want to focus on this character that we see in this story that is with David and his name is Abishai. Abishai. In 1 Samuel 26, we see this story of David and Abishai going down onto the camp of Saul and it's interesting to see. So, I just want to look at a couple characteristics of Abishai, a very interesting man in the Bible. I want to look at some characteristics of Abishai and then just make some application on that tonight. So, we see this story where there's two men with David and David first of all says, hey, who will go down with me? And Abishai is the one that says, you know, I'll go right away. So, Abishai is with David in this story and he's the one of course that says, you know, let me smite Saul to the ground with his spear and we see that in 1 Samuel 26. Look down at verse number 3. And the Bible says, and Saul pitched in the hill of Hakkala, which is before Jeshrimon by the way, but David abode in the wilderness and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. Saul is of course hunting David at this point. David is anointed the king, but Saul is still king. David therefore sent out spies and understood that Saul was coming every deed. And David arose and came to the place where Saul had pitched and David beheld the place where Saul lay. And Abner, the son of Nur, Abner was Saul's general. Keep that in mind, okay? The captain of his host and Saul lay in the trench and the people pitched round about him. Then answered David and said to Himalek the Hittite and to Abishai the son of Zariah. Brother to Joab saying, who will go down with me to Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee. All right, so who is Abishai? First of all, we get our first clue here in 1 Samuel chapter 26 in verse number 6 where the Bible says, we first of all see that, you know, he's very willing to serve David. But in verse number 6, we see that Abishai is the son of Zariah and brother to Joab. All right, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 2. Let's hunt down who Abishai is. Where did he come from? How did he get where he is? Standing next to David when David says, who will go? I mean, think about it, David's asking, you know, one other person or two other people, who wants to go down with me in the middle of that army and sneak into where the king is sleeping? Who wants to go? I mean, think about that question, right? Abishai right away says, I will go down with thee. All right, and notice there's no... Abishai was the only one that went. All right, it's not like Himalek was like, hey, I'll go too. It was just Abishai, all right? Look at 2 Samuel chapter 2 in verse number 18. Let's find out who Abishai was and then we'll look at some characteristics of this man in the Bible and see what we can learn from that. In 2 Samuel 2, 18, the Bible says, and there were three sons of Zariah. There, Joab and Abishai and Asahel. And Asahel was light of foot as a wild row. So we see again that, you know, Joab is Abishai's brother, but that he is a son of Zariah. So let's hunt down Zariah and find out who this person is. Turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 2. 1 Chronicles chapter 2. And we see, you know, the chronology or the genealogy of David's family in 1 Chronicles chapter 2. And look at 1 Chronicles chapter 2 in verse number 16 and let's find out who Zariah is. And the Bible says in verse number 13 of 1 Chronicles 2 and it says, And Jesse begat his firstborn. So Jesse is, of course, David's dad, David's father. His firstborn, Eliah. And Abinadab the second. And Shema the third. And Nathaniel the fourth. And Radai the fifth. Ozem the sixth. David the seventh. This is King David. Whose sisters were Zariah and Abigail. And the sons of Zariah. So of course, you know, these sons of Zariah are constantly brought up in the Bible and you can see because of who they are. But the sons of Zariah are Abishai and Joab and Asahel three. So Zariah was David's sister. So David's sister had these three sons, Joab, Asahel and Abishai. So Abishai was not only the brother to Joab and Asahel but he was David's sister's son. He was David's nephew. So think about, you know, Abishai is standing when you see all these stories in the Bible about Abishai with David that we're going to go through here. He's fighting with, he's serving his uncle. So Zariah was David's sister. And Abishai, Joab and Asahel were David's nephews. Okay, we're going to see some more family ties throughout some of these stories. But look, let's look at some lessons from the life of Abishai. The first thing that we can see, go back to 1 Samuel chapter 26 in verse number 6 where, you know, Abishai says, I will go down with thee. The first thing I'm going to show you tonight about Abishai was he was extremely loyal. He was extremely loyal. Let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter 16. 2 Samuel chapter 16. In 2 Samuel chapter 16 we see David fleeing the city. He's taking off after his son, Absalom, has come and taken over the kingdom. And if you look down at 2 Samuel 16 in verse number 7 we see that there's a man that as David's fleeing with the people a man starts cursing David. And in verse number 7 it says, And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out thou bloody man And the Lord have returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul In whose stead thou hast reigned And the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son And behold thou art taken and mischief Because thou art a bloody man. So here you have this guy who's just rejoicing in David's downfall here. He's sitting there and he obviously had some pent up rage and he was, you know, still loyal to the house of Saul and he didn't like how that all went down. And here, you know, he's just cursing David. But then look who's standing next to David at this time. And he says, Then said Abishai, The son of Zariah unto the king, Why should this dead dog curse my Lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. So he's the first one standing next to David that sees somebody cursing the king and says, Let me just go cut this guy's head off. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 18. Abishai also became one of David's top three generals in the war against Absalom. Who else was one of David's top three generals in the war against Absalom? Itai the Gittite. We already talked about him in the first series, in the first sermon of this series. So we see in 2 Samuel chapter 18 verse 5, the Bible says, And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Itai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even Absalom, and all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom. So David divided his army into thousands and hundreds and he set captains, and these were the three top men, Joab, Abishai, who were brothers, and Itai the Gittite. Abishai turned to 2 Samuel chapter 23. He also became, or he was in his life, one of David's mighty men. Look at 2 Samuel chapter 23, where the Bible says this in verse 18. And it says, And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zariah, was chief among three. And he lifted up his spear against 300 and slew them, and he had the name among three. He was not, was he not most honorable of three? Therefore he was their captain, albeit he attained not unto the first three. So the mighty men break down like this, just so that sounds kind of confusing. There's basically the way the mighty men are broken down is there's this first top three of the mightiest of the mighty men. There's a second three mighty men, and then there's like 30 some more after that. All mighty men. But Abishai was the top of the second three. So out of 30 or more mighty men, Abishai was like number four, man. He was up there. So how did he rise to such levels? He was very loyal to David number one. But let me show you a story that probably helped, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 21. 2 Samuel chapter 21. So here they had gone to war again with the Philistines, and David was older at this point. David was an older man at this point when they were at war in this battle with the Philistines. If you look at 2 Samuel 21, look at verse number 15, where the Bible says this, more over the Philistines had yet war again with Israel, and David went down in his servants with him and fought against the Philistines, and David waxed faint. So David went into the battle and actually fought. And Ishtbanab, which was one of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed 300 shekels of brass and weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David. So here you have a situation where David is once again fighting a giant, but he's not 20 anymore. He's an older man. He's probably 60, 70 years old at this point, and he's just, he's worn out, and he's, this guy was about to kill him. He says that this son of the giant was about to kill David. But what happened? Verse 17, But Abishai, the son of Zariah, suckered him and smote the Philistines and killed him. Then the men of David swear unto him, the men of David basically tell him, hey, look, you're not going to battle anymore. This isn't for you anymore. Let us handle this. Think about it. Abishai's his nephew. He's much younger than David. He saves David's life. David's being almost killed by the son of the giant. Abishai comes in. He is the one. So I mean, look, there's this huge battle. Abishai is obviously very close to his uncle at all times. And in this case, saves David's life. Okay, so that, I mean, Abishai was up there with David. He was extremely loyal to David. We see that in many parts of Abishai's life. But the second point I want to bring up to you about Abishai is that he was a little bit overzealous in his life. To the point where the ends kind of justified the means. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 3. 2 Samuel chapter 3. He was involved in and looked the other way when some things were not done correctly. And I might be playing that down a little bit because by some of these things, I mean murder of certain people. Okay, now let's look at the murder of Abner. The murder of Abner. So Abner was David's, I'm sorry, it was Saul's captain. It was Saul's general, top general of his army. And then later became, you know, the captain or the general of Ishbusheth's army. Of course then, Abner, he, you know, started, you know, waxing against Ishbusheth and there were some problems there. So Abner goes to David on his own and wants to make peace and just, you know, kind of bring the kingdom together and make peace with the house of Saul and just, you know, basically say, David, you know, you're going to be the king and that's fine. And in 2 Samuel chapter 3, in a battle before this happened, Abner had killed Asahil, which was one of the three sons of Zariah. So you had Joab, you had Abishai and you had Asahil. And there was a battle where the Joab's men and Abner's men were together and they were fighting and there was this big battle and basically Asahil was just coming at Abner all the time. Abner basically said to him, he said, hey, stop it, just get out of here, just leave. You know, we're done with the battle and he wouldn't stop. So Abner kills him with the butt of his spear and, you know, Joab and Abishai had not let this go. All right, they had not let this go. So Abner comes to make peace with David and you'll see here in 2 Samuel 3, look at verse number 24, that Joab, you know, the brother to Abishai was having nothing of it. He had not forgotten about his brother. Then Joab came to the king and said, what has thou done? Saying, you've made peace with this man. Behold, Abner came unto thee. Why is it that thou hast sent him away and he is quite gone? Thou knowest Abner the son of Nura that came to deceive thee and to know thy going out and thy coming in and to know all that thou doest. He said, he just came here to spy on you. And when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner. Look, Joab was a powerful man. He was in command of the entire army at this point, which brought him again from the well of Sira, but David knew it not. So Joab goes behind David's back. He has Abner come back to him and then when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly and smote him under the fifth rib that he died for the blood of Asahel, his brother. He murders him. He murders Abner. And afterward, when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever for the blood of Abner, the son of Nura. Let it rest on the head of Joab on all his father's house and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, that is a leper, that lenith on his staff, that phallith on the sword, that lacketh bread. So you say, what does this have to do with Abishai? You know, it was Joab that killed him. But look, the Bible implies that Abishai was either, was there, at least. It was there with Joab in verse 30. It says, so Joab and Abishai, his brother slew Abner because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle. So here, Abner had killed this man in battle and off the battlefield, Joab suckers him in and murders him, you know, by sleight of hand. In verse number 39, you see David say this. He says, I am this day weak, though anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zariah, be too hard for me. The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness. Let's look at, so you see here that, you know, he was a little bit overzealous and he looked the other way when it came to, you know, certain things. David says here, he says these men are too hard for me. He's like, they're hard for me to handle these sons of Zariah. Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 19. David, David was constantly holding, so Abishai, look, Abishai wasn't the one that killed Abner, but he was there. He was there. He was, it was his brother that did it. He was, he was complicit in it. David was constantly holding these sons back and many times, especially with Joab, he failed. Look at verse number 21 of 2 Samuel chapter 19. This is when they come back after the battle of, against Absalom and they're coming back to Jerusalem. David is restored to the kingdom and here Shimei is apologizing and in verse number 21 we see here David's holding Abishai back again and Abishai says, but Abishai the son of Zariah answered and said, shall not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed the Lord's anointed? He still wants to kill him. He's like, you know, Shimei comes and he apologizes and all this and then in verse number 22 David said, what am I to do with you, sons of Zariah? That you should this day be adversaries to thee. He's like, just, just calm down. He's like, just stop, you know, wanting to kill everybody all the time, right? So he's sitting, so he's a little bit, unfortunately he's a little bit overzealous sometimes. Joab was a little bit more out of control than Abishai, but Abishai, you know, there was some stepping over lines to get things done that caused David great stress, you could see. All right, so what's the application here? What's the application of somebody like Abishai in the Bible? And what can we learn from somebody like him, from the way he was? Look, there's a lot of good things there in where it talks about him being a mighty man. It says that he's honorable. It talks about he's an honorable man. So the first application is this. When you look at Joab and Abishai as brothers, the first application to his life is look, is just because you are not in charge doesn't mean you don't bear responsibility for what happens in a situation. Okay, that's the first thing to recognize here. I mean the Bible calls him honorable. In 2 Samuel 23, it says, was he not most honorable of the three? So he's an honorable man, yet he was still involved in some things that were not above board. Turn to 2 Samuel 20. And just because you're not directly the one doing those things, it doesn't mean that you don't bear some responsibility. There's another man that was killed by Joab. His name was Amesa. And in 2 Samuel 20, the Bible says this. It says, but Amesa, this is another thing where Joab comes up to Amesa, and Amesa was given charge of the army instead of Joab, and Joab did not like Amesa, and Joab comes up to Amesa in verse 10 of 2 Samuel 20, and he says, but Amesa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand. So he smote him therewith in the fifth rib and shed out his bowels to the ground and struck him not again, and he died. So Joab and Abishai, his brother, pursued after Sheba, the son of Bikri. Now look, it doesn't say that Abishai had any part in this, but he was once again there, and he saw this happen. He allowed himself to be dragged down by Joab. Turn to Leviticus 20, and let's look at what the Bible says about seeing evil things happen, seeing bad things happen, and not doing anything about it. Because the Bible is specific about this. Turn to Leviticus 20, and look at verse 1. So Joab is just another animal in itself. Joab is doing what he wants to do when he wants to do it, and Joab took the law, so to speak, into his own hands many times. But Abishai, especially in these main, big things that Joab did, Abishai was there. Look at Leviticus 20. Look at verse 1. The Bible says this, it says, And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, were of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech. He shall surely be put to death, and the people of the land shall stone him with stones. This is saying anybody that sacrifices their children to this God, Molech, is, because people were doing this. He's like, you're going to be put to death for that. Think of the rules that God had to make. I mean, you go read through Leviticus, and you're like, God had to make a rule for that, because he knew men would do that. He knew men were doing that. And one of those things, those disgusting things, was sacrificing their own children. And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from amongst his people, because he hath given of his seed unto Molech to defile my sanctuary and profane my holy name. And if the people, now listen to this, if the people of the land do in any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he hath given his seed unto Molech and kill him not, then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go of whoring after him to commit whoredom with Molech from among their people. Look, even the people that saw that happening, and did nothing, are held accountable. Now this is the scary thing about, you know, abortion in this country. It's even the nation that stands by and does nothing is going to be held accountable. So that's why we know that we will be held accountable for the things that are happening in this country. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. So the point I'm trying to make here is that it's not only the person that is committing the abomination or the horrible thing that happens, it's the people that stand by and do nothing that the Lord will hold accountable. That's where Abishai missed the bus. He should not have stood by his brother and did nothing as his brother committed these crimes. Okay? Point number two in applying Abishai's life is this. Turn to 2nd Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3. It's this. Always remember that in your life, your methods matter. Your methods matter. Look, these guys, these sons of Zariah, I mean, look, these guys, these guys were nothing to mess around with. These guys were no joke. These guys were mighty men. They were mighty warriors. In 1 Samuel, you know, 26, you know, Abishai was the first one. And he's basically, he's holding him back again in 1 Samuel 26, I'll just read it for you. Because Abishai says to David when they go down to Saul, he's like, let me just drive the spear right into him and just get this thing done right now. I mean, David, once again, he's holding him back. These guys, they're just getting it done at all costs, is who Abishai was. So David is constantly pulling the reins on Abishai, constantly. And it worked with Abishai, not so much with Joab, but it worked with Abishai. So, I mean, there's a lot of things to admire about him, but the thing that you need to remember is, you know, that your methods matter. I mean, Abishai had a lot of good things about him. He's constantly defending his uncle. He's saved his life from the giant. I mean, he didn't even like someone insulting David. I mean, he didn't even like someone saying words against somebody like David. He led his army, but there was things that he did where his methods were not right. Look at Colossians chapter 3 and verse number 17. So for us, we need to remember this. We need to remember in Colossians chapter 3, look at verse 17 where the Bible says, And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Skip down to verse 23. The Bible says again, and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily. So look, whatsoever you do, do it as hard with all of your heart as you can possibly do, but as to the Lord. And not unto men, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong, it's interesting that this verse is right after this. He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he had done, and there is no respect of person. So it's saying, whatever you do, do it with all your heart. But if you do something wrong, you're going to be punished for that. So look, Abishai, he did everything, he did things heartily in his life. He was after it when he was doing it, and David was constantly holding him back. But there were certain things where he didn't realize that your methods matter in your life. So it doesn't only matter that you accomplish things. It does matter, look, it does matter how you got there. That matters. This is the problem that many Christians will run into out in the world today. That they're bounds for us. There's bounds on the Christian. This is why you won't see that many Christians in super high places in government or corporations. Because the Christian is operating under a set of rules that other people aren't operating under. You see, there's people out there in corporations and government where they don't have limits on what they will do or how they will do things. But we have limits because we have to do things heartily but as unto the Lord, you see. We have bounds upon us. So look, we're playing with a smaller toolbox, so to speak. When it comes to the worldliness of how things are done, the Christians will only have certain tools that they can pull out, like we're operating with this toolbox called morals, the Bible. But look, a person that's just willing to do anything, that's just willing to break any rules to accomplish things, they will in many places get further than a Christian in this world, in this world. Because they'll in many ways get more things done. More results. They won't be bound by those rules. And look, in the corporate world, I can tell you for sure that there's many cases where all that matters is results. Where all that matters, where people will literally turn a blind eye if you can make them money. They'll turn a blind eye on how you did it. You know, David sort of did that with Joab and his brothers. He didn't drop the hammer on Joab after he killed Abner. He sort of did that. He just said these men are too hard for me. He sort of did that. He kind of turned a blind eye on that with Joab and his brothers. They caused him great stress. Many times, in the political world, all that matters is results as well. It's the same thing as the corporate world. It's very similar. The main result for politicians is always after their own survival. They all have this in common. No matter what spectrum they fall under, they all just have one goal. It's their own survival. This is why you're not going to see too many Bible believing Christians in high places of political power. You're just not going to see it. Because in order to get there, certain things had to be done in order to get them there. In order to make sure that they survive to the next level. In the next level. The Christian is just bound by too many rules to be competitive in these types of environments. The Christian probably isn't going to be in too many smoky back room deals. So to speak. There's a lot of this going on in these two worlds. That's one of the reasons that I encourage my kids and other people to go into trades and skills and things like that that could build into their own business. They could build into them being in control of that destiny. Of that own business. Because then they can operate that venture, that business, that way to support themselves and their family under their morals. Their rules of the Bible. And no one can tell them. No one can jump ahead of them in that case. You can build and operate a business that way. So we see that there's just some things. Your methods matter. So to conclude, Abishai. Turn to 2nd Samuel. To conclude Abishai, I can sum it up with kind of an analogy that I've used with people over the last, I don't know, 15 years I suppose. But basically when you look at Abishai, think of a scale. And I've found that this seems to work pretty well. Think of a scale. And you have a balancing scale. And on one end of the scale you have a value factor. And on the other end of the scale you have a pain in the neck factor. And you will find that you will have certain people that have a lot of pain in the neck factor, but not much value factor out there. But look, one thing that I've learned is to really not write off people who are a huge pain in the neck a lot of times because of the fact that many of these most valuable people are also a huge pain in the neck. I think I know why that is. But look, some of the greatest talent that I have worked with, that I have met in my life, I have some of the greatest leadership and the people that had the greatest judgment, they had this huge pain in the neck factor that came with them. But the scale was balanced because they had great value. What you don't want to be is where you're just this huge pain in the neck and there's no value. That's a bad place to be. But ideally you want to be like this. Huge value, no pain in the neck. But most people unfortunately who have a lot on the pain in the neck side have a lot on the value side. So it's best to just not throw people away right away. And I think the main reason for that is pretty simple. It's pretty biblical. If you're just really good at your job and you're just really good at working on certain things or certain systems and all this, you tend to just get a little bit prideful. And there that pride comes in and pain in the neck. Pain in the neck. But you're valuable so it seems to work. It's kind of how I look at Abishai. He was very, very valuable. The guy had some pain in the neck factor. David lamented. David said these sons of Zariah, he didn't say Joab. At this point there was two sons of Zariah. Asahel was dead. There was two sons of Zariah. And Abner was killed. There was a horrible blight on David, on the kingdom. And he didn't say Joab. He said at the end, he's like, these sons of Zariah are too hard for me. I mean, Abishai was part of that. He was part of that pain in the neck. Turn to 2 Samuel, I mean, chapter 3. And look at verse 39. Let's just look at it in the Bible. David says, in this day I am weak, though anointed king. He said, and these men, the sons of Zariah, be too hard for me. He just says, it's too much. I can't take it. I mean, look, these guys were animals. I mean, these guys were like, talk about your quintessential alpha males. I mean, that's these guys, right here. These sons of Zariah. But the difference is this. Both of them were liabilities. The difference between, with this scale, it's a beautiful example of Joab and Abishai in scale analogy. Because basically Joab, he had way more pain in the neck factor and much less value. You say, what was Abishai's value? His value was his extreme loyalty to David. And he had less liability. He wasn't actually the one murdering people. So he saved David's life several times. David knew he could always count on him. David knew that if there was somebody that I need to walk in the middle of an army with, it's this guy. So pain in the neck factor, yeah, huge value factor, though. Joab, yeah. Joab just, he's off. He's off doing whatever he wants. David says, no, Joab does it anyway. Joab thinks somebody needs to be killed that David wants to be allies with. Joab just kills him. You know, it was Joab that killed Absalon. It was Joab, I mean, David's own son. I mean, that's why, you know, in the end, David had Joab put to death. But not Abishai. But not Abishai. Because Abishai, you know, he had great value to David. And he was more honorable. The Bible actually says he was honorable. And he was loyal. So just think about that. You know, I mean, think about that when you're dealing with people, and even when you're thinking about yourself. You know, think about that. You know, what do you bring to the table for things? But you don't want to be, look, it's okay to be a little bit of a pain in the neck if you have great value. And if you notice that about people, you won't, when I was younger, I tended to just want to just not deal with people that were a pain in the neck. But I realized that I was throwing away great value. Again, and again, and again. And with Abishai, that's exactly what we see. If David would have realized that Abishai, if he would have said that these men, these men, these sons of Zariah are too hard for me, just get rid of them, I mean, David would have been killed in battle. He would have been killed by that giant. He wouldn't have had this great man who became, you know, one of his mighty men, one of his generals of his army. He would have lost that value. So remember that when you're working with people, when you're dealing with people, when you're in church with people. And somebody maybe, you know, irritates you a little bit, or has a little bit of an irritating personality or something like that or whatever. Most people, 90-some percent of people, there's a value there. There's value there. They're not just there to cause trouble and be a pain in the neck. They're there, and there's value there. And, you know, if you can harness that value, you can have an Abishai like David had. So look, Joab was a great fighting force, but he was too big of a pain in the neck. He didn't have that loyalty. He didn't have that balancing factor. And honestly, you know, at the end, it cost him his life. It cost him his life. But Abishai did not have that balance. He was definitely a huge asset to David. David knew it. A mighty man of the Bible, Abishai. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for these stories in the Bible, Lord. We thank you for the things that we can learn from these stories, from these men. Lord, I just pray that you help us to see the value in people, see the value in people's talents. See, you know, even if people have, you know, a little bit of a pain in the neck factor to them, you know, we realize that we all do. You know, we all have that, Lord, and help us, you know, kind of control our own pride and just notice and recognize and be able to utilize both in this world, Lord, and in church, church life, this value that people can bring to the table, Lord. We love you. We thank you for this evening and this Easter. And we thank you once again for the resurrection, Lord, and for your son, Jesus Christ. And we pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.