How Do You Regard God

Title: How Do You Regard God By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text: Matthew 25:“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” This is the Word of the Lord. INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, This is a text that has often been misunderstood and misapplied: it’s usually preached as a stewardship sermon, where the theme goes something like, “God likes those who give.” Without a doubt, there’s some stewardship application in this text, but this isn’t a parable about stewardship. It’s a parable about the kingdom of heaven. This is about how we are to live as we anticipate the Lord’s return in glory.
I. Let’s Examine the Parable from this perspective.
	A. The parable begins with a man going on a journey; and before he goes, he entrusts his servants with his property.
			1. One receives five talents—a talent is about twenty years’ wages for a servant, so this one is entrusted with a hundred years’ worth. The next receives two talents, about forty years’ worth of wages. The third receives one talent, which is still an awful lot of money.
			2. After a long time, he returns to find out what they’ve done with his money. The one who received five talents has doubled it to ten, and the one who received two talents has doubled it to four. Each receives the same praise from the master.
		B. But as we look at this parable I think that the question we need to ask is this: What is the sin of the third servant that causes him to be cast into the outer darkness? If we get that, then I think we’ll get the rest of the parable right.
			1. And the third servant has failed to produce: he comes to the master and says, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man,… , so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here is your talent.”. Please note: the third servant didn’t squander the gift, He didn’t lose it or steal it or gamble it away. But the master is furious. So what makes the master so angry? It’s not that the servant failed to double the investment: the master got his original investment back, and he isn’t angry about one measly talent. No, what makes the master angry is that the servant regards him as a hard man. There’s no proof that the master is a hard man: this is simply how the servant thinks of him. The servant considers his master to be ruthless, unforgiving. This would potentially have adverse effects in all sorts of ways. Ruthless masters are easily resented.  He is so afraid of provoking the wrath of the tyrant he’s created in his mind that he’s lived a life of fear, paralyzed into inaction. Or to put it another way, he doesn’t trust the master at all.
II. And now we can Apply the Parable to us today.
		A. it’s obvious that the master is the Lord. He is “gone away” in that He waits to return in glory on the Last Day. In the meantime, He entrusts many gifts to His people—to you. You’re stewards of what God has entrusted to you, and you are to use it in service to Him.
			1. The message of this parable is not that you need to double whatever God has given you in order to be successful. How would you measure that anyway? Do you need to double your tithes, offerings and hours of service to the Church for God to be pleased with you? Then maybe double them again next year?
			2. But really The question should be: how do you regard your Master? Do you regard the Lord as hard and ruthless, or gracious and merciful?
						a. If you regard the Lord as hard and ruthless, this will be reflected in your stewardship of all that He entrusts to you. You will live a life where you fear God’s anger for your missteps.  You will want to hoard what you have to yourself: you’ll be reluctant to give offerings and spend time in service to others. You’ll believe that what you have is yours apart from God.. Why? In part, it’s because you’re afraid that your Master is a miser, and that He won’t provide you with anything more than what you already have. In part, it’s also because you’ll have no love for your Master if you see Him as a hard man: and you do not want to support what you do not love. b. If you regard the Lord as a hard man, you’ll also resent when He gives more to others because it’s so unfair. If you regard the Lord as ruthless, you’ll see worship as a mandatory so as not to anger Him, and you’ll see opportunities to serve as one more chore that you have to do to keep the Master off your back.  c. If you regard the Master as a hard man, you will never believe that He loves you. You will not want to be anywhere near Him. On the Last Day, the Master will grant you your desire: an eternity far away from Him—the outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
				B. The truth is that God is not a hard man. God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
			1. There is no greater demonstration of this than the cross.
						a. On that cross God demonstrates above all that He is not hard.  Christ becomes man to win salvation for you by His death. b. Now God declares that He desires you to be His beloved child so much that He has given His only beloved Son to die in your place, so that you might be forgiven and holy in His sight. He declares that you are a beloved child of God: heaven is already yours! You don’t live as one afraid of God’s ruthlessness. You live as His child, set free.
			2. There are two more demonstrations of His grace and mercy in our text.
				a. The first is that He gives you all sorts of gifts for use in this life—money, talent, goods, time, etc. Everything you have is a gift of God. Nothing is yours: and He entrusts what you have to you for a time. He doesn’t need you to get His will accomplished, but He gives you the privilege of living as His instrument, free to serve b. The second demonstration of God’s mercy and grace is found in the master’s words to the first two servants: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” After your less-than-perfect stewardship here, what does the Lord say of heaven? He’s going to give you more. The kingdom of heaven is yours—not because you’re an ace at using what God’s given you now; but because—Christ has sacrificed Himself on the cross to deliver you.
III.   Your life is not one of a servant afraid of a hard master. You live as one convinced that your Master is gracious and merciful.
		A. This will be reflected in your stewardship of all that He entrusts to you. Rather than resenting a hard God, you will live a life in which you acknowledge joyfully that you are the Lord’s instrument to serve.
			1. Rather than fear His anger at your missteps and sins, you’ll quickly run to Him and confess your sins because you’re confident that Christ has died so that you might be forgiven. 2. If you regard your Master as gracious and merciful, it will be evident in your offerings and service—because then you’ll be able to give with the glad confidence that the Lord will always supply what you need. You’ll live comfortably with the truth that nothing is really yours, that everything you have belongs to God anyway. You won’t live in fear that God will turn off the spigot, because He’s promised to provide. You will contribute to the needs of the Church because you want to, out of love and gratitude for the Lord’s gifts to you. 3. If you regard your Master as gracious and merciful, you won’t resent when others receive more from His hand; because you acknowledge that Holy God knows better than you as to what you can handle, and what others can handle. 4.  If you regard the Lord as gracious and merciful, then worship is not a chore: it’s a place in which your Master gives to you—there He graciously pours out upon you forgiveness and faith.
		B. This text then, is not primarily about how you use what God gives. It’s about how you see your God.
			1. Your stewardship of what God gives is a way to examine how you regard God, if you regard God as a hard master, then you will never believe He is gracious and merciful, and that will be reflected in your stewardship. If you regard God as gracious and merciful, then you will act and give and serve out of gratitude for all that God has done for you. 2. How do you regard God? The truth is that you’re probably somewhere in between.
					a. If you regarded God as only hard and ruthless, then you probably wouldn’t be here in church. b. If you fully and unreservedly acknowledged God as gracious and merciful, then you wouldn’t be here either—you’d be in heaven, delivered from the sinful nature that still clings. c. But here you are, which means that you’re a conflicted mix of acknowledging God’s grace and worrying that He’s not going to provide. d. Repent when you consider God hard: He’s never given you a reason. Confess the worry and the fear. Rejoice in His forgiveness—forgiveness that takes away the sin and strengthens your faith against fear.
CONCLUSION: Our God is not a hard master. He is gracious and merciful, and He continues to pour out upon you His gifts, all for the sake of Jesus. By the faith that He gives, we cling to this salvation that Christ has won for us. And because of Jesus, you can be confident that, on the Last Day, your gracious and merciful Savior will say to you “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master…because you are forgiven for all of your sins.” The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen

Be Wise - Be Ready

Title: Be Wise - Be Ready  By Pastor Lohn Johnson
Text:  Matthew 25: 1 "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.  2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise….  13 "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, Now to understand this parable, you have to understand Jewish weddings of Jesus’ day.
I.   A Jewish wedding consisted of 3 parts.
	A. The first was the engagement. Marriages most often were arranged by the fathers' of the bride and the groom. The engagement amounted to a contract of marriage in which the couple had little if any direct involvement.
	B. The second stage was the betrothal. This was an actual marriage ceremony where the bride and the groom exchanged vows before family and friends and the marriage was considered to be official even though the marriage was yet to be physically consummated. Now the betrothal could last for many months, but as far as society and the law was concerned, the couple was legally married.
	C. The third step was the wedding feast. At a certain time the bridegroom accompanied by his attendants would proceed through the streets usually at night to the bride's home to claim his bride.
			1. Since it was usually at night the bride and her attendants had to make sure they had lamps, to light the way back to the bridegroom's house.  This is where the 10 virgins come in.
			2. Then the bride and groom and their attendants would then parade through the streets proclaiming that the wedding feast was about to begin. They would go back to the groom's house for the wedding feast.
II.  Since this is a parable, we must look for Jesus’ meaning here.  Obviously the 10 virgins or bridesmaids are at the center stage.
		A. But as we strive for meaning here we must acknowledge that it doesn’t fit to see the virgins as representing all people. Those outside the church do not wait for the Bridegroom.  They do not gather in His House to meet Him, nor do they look for His coming in the clouds on the Last Day.  So we must conclude that our text does not discuss these people at all.
		B. But It does talk about those who do gather together to meet the Bridegroom.
			1. So the virgins represent the baptized.
						a. The ten virgins are those people whose names are on the church roster; who have some connection with the church.  The ten virgins are those people on earth who call themselves Christians.  b. Why don’t we bring this story home.  We are the ten virgins.  We’re not outside the church—we belong to the visible church on earth.  Our names are written on the church rolls.  We come to God’s House to meet the Bridegroom.  We expect Him to come again in the clouds of judgment.  Our lamps of faith are shining.   We are the ten virgins.
			2. And all ten had good intentions.  They intended to wait for the coming of the Bridegroom.  Even the five foolish virgins had lamps with oil in them at one time.  They had faith.  That’s what the lamp represents.  It’s the lamp of faith.  “Let your light shine before men,” says Jesus.
						a. These five were doing works of faith.  They were coming to worship.  They were singing songs of praise to the Bridegroom.  b. At one point in time, there was no way you could tell a difference between the five wise virgins and the five foolish virgins.  By how they looked, by what they said…there was no difference.
III.  Of those who are the baptized; of those who call themselves Christian, as we consider our parable…there are wise virgins and there are foolish virgins. But we’ve got to ask, why does Jesus call these five, foolish, and the other five, wise?  Well, there is one difference between them.  Just one difference.  Not a great big difference, just one small difference.  But sometimes the small differences are pretty important.  When you’re locked out of your house, that little key is pretty important.  With these ten virgins, the difference was in the little flask of oil.  Lamps need oil to burn.  Lamps are very much like faith.  Both will die out unless more fuel is added.  Lamps need oil…faith needs God’s Word and Sacraments.
		A. The five foolish virgins were just like the five wise virgins except for that one thing—they did not bother to take along any extra oil for their lamps.  So when the Bridegroom came, they were not ready.  Their lamps had gone out.  And they were locked out of the wedding banquet.  That little difference of not having any extra oil cost them everything.
			1. You know what strikes me about those foolish virgins in our text?  They weren’t your typical cheats or swindlers or adulterers or hardened criminals—they were church people; virgins waiting for the Bridegroom.  But they were locked out of heaven’s door for one simple reason—when the Bridegroom came their faith had gone out, because they neglected to refuel their lamps.
					a. The foolish ones had succumbed to the temptation to forsake time spent listening to Jesus.  They’ve turned to other distractions.  Our sinful aversion to spending what we deem to be too much time in the Lord’s house comes out in them.  An indifference to the Word of God grows and leads to low church attendance and small turn outs for Bible studies for them.  b. In the end they never come to God’s House to store up oil for their lamp. It doesn’t matter if we have faith if we’re not fueling our faith with God’s Word and Sacraments.  A lamp is worthless without oil, and our faith is worthless unless the oil of the Word fills the lamp.  c. A few years ago, a pastor was talking with a middle-aged man to whom life had dealt a severe blow in the death of his wife. He was fumbling around trying to find the resources to meet the demands of the hour. "Pastor," he said, "when I went off to college I put my Christian faith in the drawer because I didn't think I'd be needing it. That was 27 years ago and now I need it and can't remember where I put it." Well, even if he had found it, it probably wouldn't have fit. A faith that hasn't grown since childhood isn't likely to fit a 47-year-old man!
			2. And this text warns us that there are certain things which cannot be borrowed.  The foolish virgins found it impossible to borrow oil.
				a. Some people may think they can get into heaven riding the coattails of another's faith. Some think they are right with God because they were born into a Christian family. b. Maybe we can look at it like this: [Video Clip Friday Night Lights]  You have got to have a helmet to play football.  Without it the player misses his chance to play.  Similarly without their own faith fed with adequate oil the foolish miss out too.
		B. Some of our lamps are burning brighter right now than others are.  We’re working harder for the church.  We’re letting our faith shine by our singing, our involvement, our witnessing, our tithing—and that’s commendable.
			1. But let’s not pat ourselves on the back over much. Because all that is God’s oil – his word and sacraments.  Otherwise it’s worthless.
				a. We’re not wise by our own efforts.  It is God who makes us “wise unto salvation” in Christ Jesus.  It is like this story:  A young fellow came forward in a Gospel meeting, earnestly asking, “What can I do to be saved?”  Knowing the man thought he had to accomplish something by his own efforts to gain redemption, the Christian worker responded to the anxious inquirer, “You’re too late!”  “Oh, don’t say that,” exclaimed the distressed seeker,  “I really want salvation; I’d do anything or go anywhere to obtain it.”  “I’m sorry,” replied the other, “you’re too late for that.  Your salvation was completed many hundreds of years ago at Calvary.  It’s finished work!  The blessed gift He offers is yours through faith.  Realizing his great debt was paid, the young man found peace had been given by the Savior and now he was resting upon the grace of God.” b. Our love for the Word of God; our desire for His body and blood; our hunger for His forgiveness is not of our own making—it is the Lord’s doing.  It is God who baptized us; who brought us from death to life; who forgave all our sins and called us His child.  He gave us our lamps of faith through those baptismal waters.  It’s God who teaches us about His love for us in Jesus through the mouths of our Christian parents, teachers, and pastors.  It is God who leads us to His Holy Supper where He gives His meal of grace to us—the body and blood of our Savior. c. So through His oil we are brought to be watchful and vigilant for Christ’s return.  Being watchful and vigilant means having our noses in God’s book, our back sides in a pew, our infants at the font, and our mouths filled with the body and blood of Christ.  d. The wise virgins came prepared.  You are wise for being here.  You live wisely by taking the time regularly to come to the House of the Lord and store up the oil of God’s Word for your lamp.
			2. Now at this point in the sermon you’re probably expecting me to say something like this:  “Some of you are like the five wise virgins and others of you are like the five foolish virgins.”  And after that you’d expect me to encourage you all to be more like the five wise virgins so that you don’t get locked out of heaven when the Bridegroom comes…and then say, “Amen,” and sit down.
				a. And I suppose that I could—but it’s not quite that simple.  Because as I look around this room all I see are wise virgins.  I don’t see any foolish virgins.  All I see are wise virgins.  Perhaps some of us have been foolish virgins in the past.  b. But not today. Today you’re wise virgins.  Because you are here to refuel your lamps.  God’s Word and His Sacraments are the fuel your lamp needs, and you are wise for being here today.  This is not to say that you will all be wise virgins next week, or next month, or next year.  But today you are wise virgins.  Foolish virgins do not continue to stock up on fuel for their lamps.  Wise virgins do.
CONCLUSION:    If you have lived more like a foolish virgin than a wise one, God forgives you.  Jesus died for your spiritual laziness.  And as He forgives you, He works upon your heart to make you wise in Christ Jesus.  And He will never stop doing this.  God will never give up on you.  No matter how spiritually lazy you are, as often as you come here He keeps forgiving you and working within you so that you can look forward with joy to the coming of the Bridegroom.  For you know, dear forgiven child of God, that He comes for you.

The Special Seed

Text:   Colossians 1:6b  All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth….    9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you… in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,... INTRODUCTION:   My dear friends in Christ, a few years ago around this time of year a pastor had an idea for a sermon using a giant pumpkin.  He drove down to a farmer he knew, who sold  pumpkins.  He explained that he wanted a huge pumpkin that would be an illustration of how big God wants to grow faith in each of our hearts.  He wanted the biggest pumpkin available.  So the farmer took him around the side of the barn, where he saw the biggest pumpkins he’d ever seen.  He gave him one of those.  It took two muscular men to lift it into his SUV.  The pastor turned to the farmer and said, “I really appreciate the pumpkin but I also need a sermon.  Would you tell me how you grew such a big pumpkin as this?”  “Sure,” he said.  “First, you gotta get the special seed, the giant pumpkin seed.  It is a seed that comes from one of these giant pumpkins, not a seed from a miniature pumpkin.”  “Good,” the pastor said, “I’ll get these giant pumpkin seeds, plant them and a miracle happens. Up comes a giant pumpkin, right?” “No, no, no.  You have to have more than the special seed.”  The farmer chose his language carefully, “You have to lay a good foundation of fertilizer, and you can’t put the seed in the hot manure or you will burn it.  You have got to cultivate and fertilize all that soil in the thirty-foot circle around the pumpkin with really good nutrients, so that the pumpkin has plenty of power to draw from.  You put the seed on the foundation of the fertilizer.”   “Is that all?” The pastor asked.  “No, no, no. There is more.  After you have the special seed and lay it on the foundation of fertilizer, you then cover the whole thing with a mound of dirt.  You put light, airy dirt mounded over that seed, so it can breathe.”  “Oh, I got it.  The seed, the foundation, the airy dirt, and I have the miracle, right?”  “No, no, no.  There is more.”   “Rain and sunshine.  Rain and sunshine will help grow that plant.” The pastor said, “Is that all I have to do in order to grow a gigantic pumpkin?” And he said, “Yep. That’s all. That’s what you have to do to grow a giant pumpkin.” Growing that giant pumpkin is a picture of what God wants for each of us.  It is God’s desire for each of us to have faith the size of a giant pumpkin.  [Confirmation Students] ...that’s what God wants for each of you.
I.  Remember that farmer started with the special seed.  With us we need the Jesus seed.  You must have the Jesus seed.
	A. You need special seed to grow a great pumpkin.
			1. You can’t use beet seeds to get pumpkins.  You can’t get faith from anything or anywhere, but solely from God and His Word. Faith in something other than Jesus and what He did, has no saving power. 2. You see God has packed the special seed with the gift of salvation.  God’s word – the Gospel is this seed.  Jesus has lived, died and risen.  Salvation has been won.  Only this seed can give what Jesus has won.
		B. That seed has been planted in you in your baptism.
			1. You have been given what Jesus has done.  He has lived, died and risen for you.
						a. What He did is given to you—a very special gift.  You are washed clean.  He has made you His.   b. This all came to you when the Jesus seed was planted in you in your baptism.
			2. 1 Peter tells us: 2:2-3   “2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,”  Peter tells us having faith in not the end. He gives you the seed, but He wants that seed to grow. Seeds are vulnerable.  They need to grow to be more resilient.
						a.  They need the right conditions to grow – just like the farmer’s great big pumpkins. b. God has placed you into families where this vulnerable faith was nurtured.  In those families the conditions were good for the seed to germinate in you.  You were probably exposed to God’s Word at home and in Sunday School  And that sprouting has taken place in you.  But like that pastor and the farmer we must say that that’s not all.
II. Then came Confirmation time.
		A. That was also a step to grow your faith.
			1.  Here we worked on the foundation of your faith.
					a. You learned the basic doctrines of the Bible.  You learned what the bible contained.  And maybe you could look at it like the fertilizer.
			2. Some would say it stinks to have to go through all this work, but you don’t get a vine without it.  Your faith won’t grow without the fertilizer.   The vine grew because it was fed.  Whether you realize or not your faith grew in confirmation
		B. But confirmation was never intended to be the end, it’s a beginning point.  In accordance to our pastor—farmer and pumpkin illustration, so far we’ve only gotten a vine, no pumpkins yet and that’s not where God wants anyone to stop. But, here is where many people stop.
			1. After confirmation, things change.
					a. You are not in class anymore. The demands of high school, and after that, college and career, attempt to pull you away from the worshiping congregation. We often unconsciously think:  “God, I don’t need your house anymore.”  b. So the things that were unifying us with Christ and His church become less and less a part of their life. I am not a child anymore, and I don’t especially want to be your child either.  So we rebel, not only against our parents, but against God too.
			2. One of the greatest disappointments of my life is to see so many young people let go of Christ.
					a. It is no big deal, so we think.  It is not something we hold tightly onto.  It is not something precious.  How foolish.  b. And so young people and parents drop out of a regular worshipping pattern after confirmation, not realizing how valuable that worship pattern has been.
III. And I’ll agree the life of faith is not easy.
		A.  It is work. It is work to get into the Word.  It is work to forgo other activities to read the word or go to church or be involved in youth activities.  It is hard to turn from popular activities that may not be the best things to be involved in.  It is work to stick with God and His ways.  But it is worth it.
			1. Let’s look at the bottom line for a minute.  God really did make us and God knows better about how we work best.  When we turn from him and his principles we are going to run into problems we don’t need to have.  The Scriptures are on one level God’s instructions on how we work best, on how to grow. the vine and have giant pumpkins.  When we go against our Maker’s instructions, we do have more difficulties in life. 2. On another level you only find forgiveness in Scripture.  That weight of sin that you may not even realize bogs you down as you go through life.  Only in Christ is it removed.  Only through Jesus is forgiveness given. 3. Another thing is that only in Him do we have comfort as we face the trials of life.  Only in him do we have comfort as we face death.
		B. And God provides what is needed to grow our faith (great pumpkin).
			1. God gives The Sun and the rain.  The prophet Isaiah tells us:  10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,  11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  So God’s Word is given to us to grow our faith
					a. Try this experiment when you get home today. Take a trash can lid and lay it on a healthy portion of your lawn. Leave it there for a week. Afterward, lift the lid and look under it. See the pale, sickly grass? See the bugs and worms nesting in the dark decay of the withered grass. That's what sin does to us! Now, finish the experiment. Take the lid away. The bugs flee. The grass begins to receive sunshine and moisture. Its health is revived, restored. It is literally forgiven, let loose from bondage and decay. Forgiveness is just like that. What we can't pay, God pays. God lets us loose from debts of sin and frees us to new life! b. And it is no secret where this forgiving word is seen most clearly.  His Word sits on the altar in His Supper. His Word comes in the baptismal font. His Word is spoken by the mouth of your pastor. Through your continuing in these things, God’s grace will be evident in your life and you will remain one with Him and with His church.
				2. Those great pumpkins had to have a huge root system of over thirty feet.  Likewise God want us to have deep roots in His Word:  Roots give strength. Roots allow faith to grow.
						a. When trials come deep roots find water where plants with shallow roots cannot.  Shallow rooted plants whither but the ones with deep roots stay green.  b. It is the same with us when we have deep roots in Scripture we have hope in any situation.  We are sustained when trials come.
IV. Now with pumpkins, once they start growing on the vine, they can only grow attached to the vine.
		A. Once you sever the pumpkin it is dead.  It starts to rot.  The same is true of us.  If we sever our connection with Jesus our faith begins to deteriorate.  Soon it will die.  Jesus even tells us:    4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”  B. Fruit like a giant pumpkin is very visible – so is a grown faith
				1. Faith is shown in confident serving Christians.  It is seen as we forgive and we have been forgiven.  It is seen as we reflect our God to the world.  .  2. Jesus even tells us: 5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; …   16 -- fruit that will last.…..”
CONCLUSION:   This is pumpkin season so I guess it’s appropriate to use pumpkins as an illustration.  The confirmation students have been given a great gift—the seed of faith.  It has grown.  Now as you go from here please don’t forget that seed, that vine.  Please remain in His Word – Grow that faith you’ve been given.  I hope to see giant pumpkins of faith in the future.  Amen.