Triage for a Dying Church

I’m sure you’ve had to make a trip to the Emergency Room.

It’s never fun.

There are sick people everywhere.

I really didn’t want to talk about zombies.

I’m not a fan of zombies.

I don’t like zombies.

I find myself being the most judgmental person in there.

I’m not a fan of TV shows like The Walking Dead.

It think they are dark.

I think that everyone there some super contagious disease, and they are trying to give it to me.

I remember as a kid watching The Night of the Living Dead.

There is a process to making it past the waiting room, and getting a bed in the back, and getting the help you need.

The old horror movie terrified me.

What scared me so much about zombies is that they are people.

There is a process to making it past the waiting room, and getting a bed in the back.

They are living corpses.

You must go through triage.

They wear clothes.

They are recognizable.

The patient must be registered.

You must be registered and put into the system.

Only they are monsters.

After that, a nurse assesses the situation.

Over all they are repulsive.

She asks a series of questions trying to diagnose the major problems.

I resisted saying anything about them, because the whole subject is repulsive to me.

And yet, this is the description that Jesus gives us.

Once this is done, the most important needs are addressed, and the patient is cared for.

Sardis is a church of zombies.

Finally, the patient’s health is tracked.

There should be progress.

It’s of people that look alive, but are not.

There should be an improvement.

Jesus is writing to a church that needs serious triage.

He takes them through these steps.

He registers the patient.

Assesses the patient.

Identifies the needs of the patient.

Then he tracks the progress of the patient.

Let’s read about this church that is in need of immediate care.

We find it in .

Read -6.

Register the Patient

First, let’s Identify the Patient.

Jesus is writing to the church in Sardis.

Sardis is a dying city, with a dying church.

Sardis wasn’t always a dying city.

It once was an extremely wealthy city.

It had a river at the base of the city, called the River Pactolus.

Remember King Midas who had the touch of gold.

The river was apparently filled with gold.

The city was filled with gold, and most of it was mined from that river.

Everything

You might be familiar with the legend of King Midas, he is where the phrase “The Midas Touch” comes from.

The myth is that King Midas welcomed fairy like of creature into his palace for a 10 day feast.

At the end of the feast, the fairy returned King Midas’ kindness with a wish.

King Midas could ask for anything.

King Midas asked for the ability to turn whatever he touched into gold.

Initially, Midas was thrilled with the gift.

He turned:

Sticks into gold.

Twigs into gold.

Rocks into gold.

Everything he touched turned to gold.

Eventually the blessing became a curse.

He couldn’t touch people, because they would turn to gold.

He accidentally turned his daughter into gold.

Eventually he got hungry.

The moment a drop of water touched his tongue, it turned to gold.

Food turned to gold.

He sought the help of the gods, and they told him to wash himself in the River Pactolus, the river at the base of Sardis.

The legend is that the power left his body, yet the river flowed with gold.

That’s the legend behind how the region of Sardis became so wealthy.

Midas’ mythical touch was washed into the river.

It was a wealthy region filled with gold.

The first minted coins came from there.

Sardis was proud of it’s wealth.

Sardis was a proud city.

It was built at the top of a cliff.

They thought that they were undefeatable.

One side of the city bordered a cliff that they thought was unclimbable.

And because of that unclimbable wall, they thought no one could ever attack them.

They were rich, and they were proud, thinking they could not be hurt.

They eventually attacked Persia, but they were easily defeated.

In response, Cyrus, the same one who commissioned the building of the Temple in , he came and laid siege to Sardis.

Sardis was so proud of their unscalable wall, that they didn’t even post guards.

It turns out the wall could be climbed.

And the Persians defeated Sardis.

Then in 17ad, the city was destroyed by an earthquake.

Absolutely leveled.

By this time they were under Roman rule, and Emperor Tiberius ordered that the city be rebuilt, but it was a shadow of it’s former self

It would never be the rich glorious city of it’s past.

It was a city turning into ruins.

It was a rotting city.

It was a dying city.

And like the city around them, there was a church, and it too was dying.

Jesus is the one who is writing to this church.

Look at the first half of , ““And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.’”

Jesus is speaking to the angel of the church in Sardis.

Jesus speaks to John, who is on exile on the island of Patmos.

This letter is written down, and it is passed on to the churches of Asia Minor.

Eventually it will make it to Sardis.

Jesus says, “to the angel of the church in Sardis”.

I think that this is the pastor of the church.

Jesus describes Himself.

These are His words.

They are authoritative.

They are from Jesus who has the “seven spirits of God.”

This doesn’t mean that God has 7 spirits.

describes these as 7 attributes of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus holds the 7 stars.

We’ve already seen from , that these 7 stars, are the 7 leaders of the 7 churches.

This is a dying church.

Jesus says they are dead.

It’s as if they were found lifeless on the side of the road, put into an ambulance and rushed to ER.

They are taken to the one who gives life.

To the one who has the Spirit.

To the one who gives life.

To the one who is over the church.

To the one who holds the church in His hands.

You are taken to ER.

They take your name.

Then they Assess the Patient.

I’m sure you’ve been there, there is a brief physical.

A nurse ask questions.

Where does it hurt?

What happened?

Does it hurt when I push down on it?

Of course it hurts why would I be here.

And Jesus also assesses the situation, this is in the rest of verse 1, “I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

The theme for this sermon is zombies.

I really didn’t want to talk about zombies.

I’m not a fan of zombies.

I don’t like zombies.

I’m not a fan of TV shows like The Walking Dead.

It think they are dark.

Notice that Jesus’ diagnosis of the problem is different from the diagnosis from other churches.

It was one of the first horror movies I ever saw and it scared me.

What scared me so much about the movie is that it had zombies, and they are people.

At least they look like people.

They are living corpses.

They wear clothes.

They are recognizable.

Only they are monsters.

Ephesus was said to be enduring patiently.

They are repulsive.

They faced doctrinal pressures.

And yet, this is the description that Jesus gives us.

But they tested false teachers and stood strong by Christ’s name.

Sardis is a church of zombies.

Smyrna was a church that was suffering.

It’s of people that look alive, but are not.

They were facing tribulation.

People were going to be thrown into prison.

Polycarp would be killed there.

Pergamum was a church in an evil town.

Surrounded by false gods.

Facing tests.

Antipas, one of the people in the church was roasted alive in a bronze bull.

Thyatira, was facing leadership problems.

The pressures were growing heavy on them.

There was demonic and Satanic pressure in these churches.

Smyrna had what Jesus called the synagogue of Satan.

Pergamum was said to be where Satan’s throne was.

We were seeing the church in Thyatira begin to embrace satanic teaching, some held to the deep things of Satan.

But in each of these instances there was a fight going on.

Those churches knew the strength of the battle against evil, because they were fighting against it.

They were active in the struggle.

In Jesus’ diagnosis of Sardis, we don’t see the presence of any struggle.

Sardis was not active.

CS Lewis one time said, “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.”

Sardis did not know the strength of evil because they were not fighting it.

There’s no great Satanic influence mentioned.

Because they’re dead.

Satan doesn’t need to tempt, because they’ve got no fight in them.

They’ve already surrendered.

Jesus says, I know your works, You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

When Jesus says they are dead, He’s not talking about church attendance.

Church planters and church marketing gurus like to say a church is dead if it is not growing financially and numerically.

Maybe you’ve heard that before, or heard of a church that is dying.

Jesus isn’t saying that at all.

He’s not saying, “You’ve got this great big building, a cathedral to my name, and no one is there on Sunday mornings.”

He’s not talking about their attendance, or:

How many people go there.

Or how many people they baptized.

Or how many people made decisions for the Lord last year.

Because externally, they look good.

He says, “I know your works ...”

They do things.

They serve the community.

They have worship services.

They do the things that a church should do.

“You have the reputation of being alive”.

Literally, it’s “You have the name of being alive.”

They’ve made a name for themselves in the community.

They have a reputation.

They are active.

Today they would have:

Big numbers.

Fancy buildings.

Top of the line websites.

And cool technology.

They have numbers.

They have buildings.

They have fancy websites

The community might even like them.

But the community is the not the judge of authentic ministry.

The community does not decide if a church is good or not.

Look at verse 2, “Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”

Another way to say that, that “I have not found your works satisfying ...”

The world might like them - Jesus doesn’t.

That’s a reminder about what makes a church good or not.

It’s not what the world thinks.

It’s what does Jesus think.

And what is the diagnosis?

They are dead.

I’ll tell you what this scares me.

It’s this kind of a church, a church like Sardis.

I remember as a kid watching The Night of the Living Dead.

It was one of the first horror movies I ever saw and it terrified me.

What scared me so much about the movie is that it had zombies.

They are monsters that look like people.

They are living corpses.

They wear clothes.

They are recognizable.

They look like one of us, but they are out to get you.

That is what the church of Sardis is.

Only they are monsters.

They look alive.

But they are dead.

They are repulsive.

It’s a zombie church.

There are many churches and Christians that look like Sardis today.

They are active.

They have ministries.

They have numbers.

They have buildings.

They look alive.

But they are dead.

They don’t have actual zombies inside.

But they are filled with dead souls.

says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked ...”

They are filled with people dead in their trespasses who have not been born again or received life.

They’re not really Christians.

This is a strong reminder, that going to a church does not make you alive in Christ.

They have ministries.

Going to church does not make you Christian.

They have numbers.

Sardis had people who were going to church.

They were active in the church.

And they were dead.

If they died … they’d go to Hell.

What a terrible statement about a church.

It’s not a light, it’s a black hole.

They have buildings.

One of the reasons why we need to continue to hear the Gospel on Sunday mornings, and when we are together is that there are often people who think they are alive, who think they are Christians, but they are not.

There are people who come to church.

They grow up in the church.

But they are like those in Sardis.

They are unconverted.

They have fancy websites

Charo Washer, is Paul Washer’s wife.

She like many people.

She grew up going to church, and being in the church.

At the age of 14, at a Christian youth function, she heard a speaker preach and ask if anyone wanted to invite Jesus into their heart.

She raised her hand and was brought forward.

She prayed a prayer, and was told she was now a Christian.

But there was no repentance, no real change.

She just didn’t want to go to Hell.

She said a prayer like they were magic words.

She continued being in the culture of the church.

She would grow up in youth group.

She would go to Christian camps.

She would continue to be around Christians, but something was always missing.

At the age of 20, she married a missionary, Paul Washer.

She heard the gospel frequently, and she heard the Gospel from Paul Washer on a regular basis, one of my favorite preachers.

They served in Peru together.

Often surrounded by violence and warfare.

She seemed like a Christian who gave up everything to follow Christ.

Yet, she didn’t believe, she was spiritually dead..

This went on for 12 more years.

She was a dead Christian in the church.

Then at the age of 32, she was reading I John.

And she realized she was a sinner.

She wasn’t a sinner in the generic sense of the word that people normally use it.

She understood specifically how she was a sinner.

And at that moment, the Lord opened her eyes.

She was converted.

She went on to tell people the story, and it was shocking.

People had a hard time understanding that she could be raised in the church and not be a Christian.

People had a hard time understanding that she could be married to Paul Washer and not be a Christian.

But she wasn’t a Christian.

She was dead in the church.

She’s not alone.

That’s my story.

And I’m know that there are others.

Maybe even in this room.

People who look alive.

Have grown up in the church.

Who can say the right answers.

But inside the heart, you are dead.

And if you were to die today, you’d not find yourself in the presence of the Lord, but in Hell.

God doesn’t judge like you and I judge.

We judge on the external.

We judge on things that I see.

Paul Washer’s wife was:

In church.

In youth group.

At camps.

Married to a missionary.

Serving in other countries.

But she was spiritually dead.

God judges on the internal.

tells of Samuel approaching Jesse.

He was going to anoint one of Jesse’s sons to become the king.

Jesse brings out his first born son, Eliab.

He was tall.

He was handsome.

He had the look of a king.

And the Lord told Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or the on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

That verse should terrify you.

Because you may fool me, but you can’t fool God.

Are you alive?

Have you been born again?

Has Christ made you His own?

We are in spiritual triage.

takes us into a spiritual emergency room.

And before you can get the help that you need, we need to diagnose the situation.

We are diagnosing the situation.

The most important thing you can ever do is acknowledge your true spiritual condition.

No one ever wants to say, “I’m sick and dying. I’m dead and I deserve Hell.

But understand, that in this triage unit, you cannot move forward until you acknowledge your sin and the depth of your sin.

In , Jesus said, ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

If you are going to receive help, you must first acknowledge the truth.

Listen and be cared for.

We move past the nurse giving you triage, and next Christ Identifies the Needs of the Patient.

A person comes in with high blood sugar, what is the need?

Stop eating sugar.

A person has a broken bone, what is the need?

Isolate the broken bone so that it doesn’t move.

A person comes in with a deep cut, what is the need?

To sterilize it and give the person stitches.

Jesus identifies the condition of the church and then He gives 5 emergency orders for the dead saint.

Verses 2 and 3 have 5 imperatives, 5 commands, 5 orders from the Great Physician.

“1. Wake up.”

There are many people who are living their lives on the snooze button of the alarm clock.

I lived in a dorm.

It was finals week.

I had an 8 o’clock class, statistics.

Not my favorite class.

I woke up at 8:15.

Class had started.

Final Exams were passed out.

I ran as fast as I could from my dorm room, to the class.

Arrived still in my pajamas.

The exam had started.

Time was wasted.

They set their alarm for 6am, and they hit the snooze button a dozen times.

They do this with their spiritual life.

They’ve heard that there is a coming judgment.

But they hit the snooze button.

They say, “I will become spiritual later.”

They say, “I’m not at a point in my life where I want to think about spiritual things.”

But right now it’s me time.

They have grown so accustomed to each day coming, that they have forgotten that they are living on borrowed time.

None of us are guaranteed tomorrow.

Wake up.

Get out of bed.

Let Christ’s words to the Christians in Sardis, pull the curtains to your dormant spiritual life apart.

Let the blazing light of Christ, shine into your life, and get you out of bed.

Now is the time to wake up.

The next spiritual order is “2. Strengthen what remains and is about to die.”

This doesn’t mean that they were inactive.

They were a church that was doing things.

They looked good on the outside.

But the things they were doing were not pleasing to God.

Jesus says, “for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”

What they were doing was of no spiritual value.

So He says, “Strengthen what remains.”

I’m sure you’ve gone to the doctor with an issue.

Something hurts.

A shoulder, a back, a knee.

You want them to fix it.

You go to the doctor for the initial consultation, and what does he say?

Lose weight and exercise.

This past year, I became diagnosed as prediabetic.

What’s the doctor’s orders?

Lose weight and exercise.

I exercise, and I have lost weight.

And they continue to say the same thing,

Lose weight and exercise.

Some blood results came back that I had high cholesterol.

What was the doctor’s orders?

Lose weight and exercise.

We hear it so much that it starts to sound cliché, and we ignore the orders.

The same thing applies to our spiritual life.

Lose weight and exercise.

If you are going to become Christlike, sanctification takes some effort on your part.

Growing in Christ takes work.

Strengthen what remains.

Don’t let it become cliché.

You’ve got to exercise your spiritual muscles.

Paul told the Philippians, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,”

You want to get stronger physically?

What do you do?

Work out.

You want to strengthen what remains, if you want to get stronger spiritually?

What do you do?

Work out your salvation.

What does that look like?

Careful, this sounds cliche, but it’s real.

It looks like prayer.

Paul frequently said, “Pray always.”

It looks like being in God’s Word.

“For it’s God breathed and profitable.”

It looks like rejoicing always.

Lose weight and exercise.

You know the orders.

Now do them.

The Great Physician gives His 3rd order, “Remember, then, what you have received and heard.”

This is the emergency triage for the dead faith.

We are back in the ER, back in the operating room of the human soul.

And what does Christ say?

What amazing piece of medicine does He deliver?

What soothing balm does He apply to the sick soul?

Remember.

Remember what you have received and heard.

We need the Gospel.

Think about your conversion.

What did you hear?

What was the Gospel that you received?

Christians need the Gospel.

You need the Gospel.

You stumble into sin.

You feel the guilt and the burden of sin.

You are a Christian, and you feel the disgust of your hypocrisy.

Perhaps Satan tempts you to say that there has never been anyone worse than you.

He leads you down into a pit of despair and convinces you that the gate at the top is locked tight, and that there is no way out.

What is it you need?

You need the Cross.

You need the Gospel.

You need to remember, that there is one sacrifice that covers sin an removes sin.

And that was Jesus.

Remember what you have heard and received.

This is one of the greatest graces of God.

Your healing begins with remembering something, remembering what has been done for you.

Don’t skip this.

Your healing begins with having a Healer, a Savior.

This is Christ Jesus.

I hope you can remember something.

I hope you can remember the Gospel’s work in your life.

There are people who know something is wrong, but they have never

You will never outgrow it.

The Gospel of Christ isn’t just for new Christians, it’s for all Christians.

Into eternity.

The 4th order for the dead faith, follows the 3rd, you need to keep what you have received and heard.

Don’t just remember the Gospel, but obey the Gospel.

Don’t just recall the Lord’s words, but obey the Lord’s words.

Kids know what this is like.

I had these big 3 ring binders, with plastic sheets inside of them.

Suppose you had a deadly disease, and your doctor gave you a prescription which would be the cure for the disease, what must you do?

You take the medicine.

Go to a house that has kids, and the kids want to show off their room.

You don’t just look at pill container on the counter top.

I’d arrange the sheets by team, with all the cards for players in their team category.

You open it up, and swallow the pill.

Show you all the cool treasures that they have.

It’s at this point where I think we can see part of the problem.

These were my treasures.

There are people who think they are Christians,

And the 5th order of Christ is to repent.

Their legos are on display.

I’d pull the cards out carefully, holding them by the edges with only 2 fingers.

The diabetic sits in the doctor’s office.

The dolls in their dollhouse.

Careful to never crease the corners.

The doctor explains that his blood sugar is through the roof.

These are the most valuable things that they have.

He carefully explains that his body is not processing sugar rightly, and that if he continues eating the way he does, without any changes, he will face vision trouble, and might even have his leg amputated.

The Christians keeps what He has heard.

The diabetic’s mind is convinced a change is needed.

Then he goes home and changes his diet.

Your sin is killing you.

If you die in your sin, it will be worse than having your leg severed.

It will be eternity in Hell.

You need a mind change.

Then you need to turn from your sin.

Christ the Great Physician carefully gives these emergency room orders to the church of Sardis.

They aren’t a bandaid to spiritual lethargy.

They are the cure.

Wake up.

Strengthen what you have.

Remember what you have received and heard.

Keep what you have received and heard.

And repent.

The patient is treated, he is sent home, but not abandoned.

Christ will Track the Progress of the Patient.

There’s sometimes this idea that coming to church is enough.

You show up, put in your hour and a half on Sunday, go home and that makes you a Christian.

In the case of Sardis, maybe you do more than you show up, maybe you even serve a little.

Everyone around thinks you are one of them.

But Christ can see through this.

He’s the great physician, He knows your true condition.

He says that He will come like a thief.

Not like a robber.

It was one of the first horror movies I ever saw and it scared me.

What scared me so much about the movie is that it had zombies, and they are people.

Think of a bank robber.

At least they look like people.

They walk into the bank.

They are living corpses.

He raises his gun and he says, “It’s a stick up!”

They wear clothes.

And everyone knows what’s going on.

Jesus comes like a thief.

They are recognizable.

A kleptes, a clepto.

Only they are monsters.

A cat burglar.

They are repulsive.

He creeps in when you aren’t expecting.

He says, i will come against you.

This is judgment.

The false convert, the fake Christian, might be able to convince me or others in the room.

But not God.

There is urgency here.

Receive Christ today.

Heed the physician’s orders.

Or He will come against you.

Christ tracks the progress of His patients.

When I was a kid, I’d go to the doctor, and if I was a good patient, the doctor would give me a lollipop or something out of a treasure box.

Christ has a treasure for his patients who are alive.

Verses 4-5 give 3 promises to the enduring patient.

Verse 4, “Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.”

This addresses the nature of the true Christian.

Before our conversion we were covered in the grime of sin.

Christ’s righteousness, His perfection, His sinlessness is passed onto us.

Christ’s righteousness covers us like a white garment.

The true Christian is no longer seen as the sinner, but as Christ Himself.

We were dead in our trespasses.

Those He saves, those who are alive,

At your conversion 2 things happened.

Your sins were removed.

We talk about forgiveness of sins.

And the second thing that happened is that you are covered in Christ’s righteousness.

He gives you a white robe.

That means, that as far as God is concerned you are now covered in Christ.

He declares you good, just like Jesus is good.

What a promise.

But not only are you covered in white garments, but look at the promise found in verse 5, “The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. ...”

He says, “I will never blot his name out of the book of life.”

Scripture talks about this book, this Book of Life.

According to , this book was written before the world was ever made.

And written in this book, were all of those that Jesus would die for.

And what is the promise?

He will never blot out their names.

Their names are written in permanent ink.

It’s the ink of Christ’s own blood.

Those who’s names are written in this book, have been purchased with Christ’s blood, and secured by Christ.

They are eternally His.

Some have tried to use this verse to say the opposite of what it says.

Some have used this verse to say that it means that there is no eternal security.

That Christ will blot out your name.

That’s it’s possible for Him to un-know you, or for you to “lose your salvation.”

But it doesn’t say that at all.

This is written to those who are alive.

To the conquerors.

To the faithful.

To those who are awake, strong, remembering, keeping and repenting, they have security.

And He will not blot out your name.

Don’t put words there that aren’t there.

Those Christ died for … He will keep.

And though your sins call out against you.

And you wonder how Jesus could die for you.

And maybe you tremble that Jesus is ashamed that He died for you.

This is your promise.

Don’t listen to those words.

He will not blot out your name.

That is your promise.

And the third promise to the enduring patient is that those who are His, Jesus says, “I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”

When Jesus came to earth, He was given a mission; the mission was to seek and to save those who were lost.

There were specific people that Jesus came to save.

says that He knows them by name.

Down to their very names.

We call these people the elect.

Those who were predestined by God.

Their names were written in the book of life.

Their names were written there before there was anything.

describes the mission that God assigned to Jesus.

“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”

Jesus knew and knows the names of those who are HIs.

says that He knows His sheep by name, and He calls them, and they come.

It’s as if Jesus is in heaven, being debriefed by God.

“Were you successful in your mission?”

Not as if there would ever be any question since Jesus is God.

But there is Jesus, in the throne room of God, in the presence of Yahweh and His holy angels, and Jesus is confessing the names of those He saved.

He says the names of those He died for.

Luke

Richard

Jason

Amanda

Randy

This is a tremendous blessing, because we sin.

And we suffer the affects of our sin.

You lose your temper, and your wife remembers.

You ignore your family, the children miss-behave.

And you find yourself, back in the emergency room for the spiritually sick.

And what do we have?

We have Jesus in the throne room of God, saying that we belong to Him.

says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

And though sin is terrible, gives this comfort to the Christian, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

This is an eternal hope.

Christ’s Letter to Sardis describes a trip the Spiritual Emergency room.

We meet the patient.

We access the patient.

A diagnosis is given.

What is your diagnosis?

Then the immediate needs of the patient are addressed.

Wake up.

Strengthen

Remember

Keep

And repent.

The patient is sent home, but the Lord tracks His progress.

To those who remain dead … the Lord will come against them.

To those who are healed, there is an eternal comfort.

Pray