Children—John Bilisoly
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OK, thank you. 104 was given out.
OK, is it OK if we sing the 1St and the last verses all right?
I'll not do.
Why everything is there?
Uh-huh. But I think you're looking for that.
And, uh, probably, uh.
Uh, I have two.
Categories.
Uh-huh. That's very good.
Oh great. Thanks. And I can't see anything.
But I'll wait for your medication.
For this little bit.
OK children, we're going to pray right now and then we'll sing a few more K and I'll, I'll pick you. And also after we pray, I'd like someone to read these these signs for us, for those that might not be able to read yet. OK, let's ask the Lord for his help.
Our blessed God and our Father, we just give thanks for this opportunity to be together. We think of all these dear children here and we just thank before them. We think of our Savior as He walked in this scene on this earth. He took little children up into His arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them. And He wants to do that today. He wants to take them up and bless them. Oh, we just pray for them. We ask for Thy help as we share together.
Something from thy word. We just pray that we might heed thy precious word. We we think of that which is before us and we and these signs and we just pray our Father, that we might take heed, that we might listen. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Going to move that down a little bit. OK, Umm. I wondered if you could just tell us what these signs say. This one and then this one.
Warren, did you hear that warning and danger? Now, how many of you boys or girls have seen a sign like this somewhere? Maybe on the street, out in the street somewhere, maybe inside this building?
Have you seen it? OK. Can you tell us what warning means? Give us a little idea of what that means. If you don't be careful, then something might happen. Very, very good. I think that's a good definition of warning. If you don't be careful, something might happen. OK, who wants to tell us what danger means? All right.
If you don't accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you might danger is you're going to hell. Oh, very, very good. You just you just told the the whole kind of the whole theme of my message.
Very, very nice. That was very good. OK. You know, I looked around a little bit and I found some warning signs in this building. Did you know that here in the Richmond meeting room, there's some warning signs?
00:05:01
There's one way back in the cafeteria up against the wall, and there's an electrical panel box on the wall and there's a little sticker and it's in red like this here, and it says warning. Now, I doubt if too many of you saw that. Did any of your boys or girls see that warning sign over there? You did very good. Umm, usually we don't pay a whole lot of attention to them, do we? And you know.
Children, it's that's why I felt like we need to talk about this because God is faithful and he has given us some warnings in his precious word and he's told us about danger. And this little girl here gave us a a nice little summary of danger. The danger of not accepting Gods invitation, not being not coming to him as a lost Sinner and accepting the work of his son the Lord Jesus.
Oh, how sad that would be. Anyone did that. And so that's why we have meetings like this, children, is to learn about these warnings. OK, I said we'd sing. We'll sing one more. Actually, we'll sing two more. We'll sing one from this little girl. And then I don't think we've had a boy yet that's given out one. So, OK, your name is Brock, right? OK, after after she gives out one, then we'll have one from you. So you'd be thinking, all right, Which 111? She said 11.
OK, again, for time's sake.
Umm, we're just gonna sing 2 verses, the 1St and the last, and the courses. We'll sing the last chorus with the third verse as it's written. OK as you journey through.
If the Grand Blanc.
Detector among our continued blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
David's God began.
Oh man man man, come on by my birthday on the phone number.
OK.
All right, that was nice. Even though we were kind of singing two different tunes at times, it's still kind of harmonized and I thought it was nice. OK, I I think I said rock. Did you have one for us?
88.
Alright, thank you.
OK, let's see.
It's hard to break this one up, so we'll just sing it right along.
There once was a wild little donkey.
And give you that but thinking about that.
In Tesco mastering and supervision.
I have a question to see so I have to pray today. I'm tired of my everything so I'm on my own. That's that's what that wild red colours on the beauty of the one YMCA. Why? Why am I standing down together and standing together and.
00:10:14
1988 by him he went just now when I've been traveling I've like a thumb get that information on being made level by the last time I'm gone and he's from his neighbours to thank you.
OK, now I want to ask you children a question. If you were walking along on a pathway and you came across a sign that said warning and then it told you something about.
What you need to watch out for Or you came across a sign that said Danger. What do you think you should do?
Uh, I don't, uh, that doesn't scare me. I'm vague and brave. What? What do you think you should do? Pay attention, Pay attention, OK? Anything else?
What? Turn around, turn around. Good, good idea. I think that's a very good idea. There's something else that you probably do right away, and that is you probably would stop.
You would stop and you would look around and you would try and find out what is the danger? What is the warning? Uh, you would, you would read it, wouldn't you? You would read what the warning is. What were you going to say? Pray. Very good. Those are good answers. And that's certainly something that as Christians we can do, can't we? Well, you know, children, there are a lot of warnings in life.
And some of them we just ignore and some of them we stop and we consider. And that's too bad, isn't it? Because these things are important. These signs are important and they're put there for our good. They're put there to protect us. And so the authorities are the laws of the land. They require certain signs and so on. And there's some other warning signs that I saw out there. There was one on some equipment there. And I, I saw one at the, the hotel this morning.
Umm, there was a hot water machine dispenser there where you could fill up your cup of hot water and it said warning, hot water. So very hot water or something like that. And so these signs are put here for a reason. And you know, boys and girls, God has put warnings in His precious word for a reason. He wants us to stop and consider and listen to what He's saying. Let's look at one of those. If you have a Bible, you can turn with me. If you don't, you can listen.
But there is a warning.
And it says in Romans chapter 3.
You know, I was noticing this morning. I think it's so wonderful that often when God gives us a warning.
Or tells us about danger.
For something that we might do, He gives us a remedy. What is a remedy? Maybe that's a word that we should explain before we go any further. He often gives us a remedy. You're gonna try that?
A way to get out of it, a way to escape. OK, well, in Romans chapter 6, actually, I think I said three, But in Romans chapter 6, there's a well known verse and I'm gonna start it and I'm gonna ask one of your children to finish it for us.
Because it's one that's well known to us. It starts out like this for the wages of sin. Now let's see. Do you wanna finish it?
Is that, but the gift of God is eternal life.
Through.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord, very good. The wages of sin is death. Isn't that a strong warning, children? The wages of sin is death. Wages are something that you earn and what I was thinking of when I said Romans 3 is that we're told there that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then it goes on to say.
Being justified verse 24 of Romans 3.
Freely by His grace, isn't that wonderful? God tells us about our condition, He warns us about our condition, and then He gives us a remedy, the wages of sin, all of sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified. Freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, isn't that wonderful? And then there's another one, a well known one in the book of Hebrews.
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Hebrews, Chapter 9.
In Hebrews Chapter 9.
It says.
That it is appointed unto man or unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. There's the warning, children, It is appointed unto men once to die, and then there's something coming after death. Death is not the end of it. And after this the judgment, but then the wonderful remedy that God provides and has provided through His Son, the Lord Jesus.
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin and to salvation. So what a wonderful provision of God. He gives us the warning. He tells us about the danger of going on in our sins, and then He provides the remedy. But I wanted to illustrate that in a very simple way this morning. And so I brought something along with me to Sunday school this morning in this bag.
And I want your children to know, just so you're not afraid or anything, that this is not real. OK? What I brought along is not real, but it's such a vivid picture to us of what we're trying to speak about this morning, the danger, the warning that God would give us and his remedy. And so I brought something here that we're familiar with.
A snake. Now this is not a real snake. See, its tail is even broken, so.
But there's something about a snake that I don't know how many here like snakes. They really like snakes. All right, let's see. We have a few braver people than I am. Well, you know, umm, I don't like snakes very well. And I know that certain members of my family, if I were to go up to them like this with this toy snake, even it would get quite a reaction. I would get a reaction.
Do you girls like snakes? Do you like snakes? No. OK, so how about you boys? Some of you said you did. Uh, how many of you, your children have pets?
All right, like cats, dogs, maybe other things, Birds. Umm, how many of you have a pet snake?
Hmm, no pet snakes.
Umm, do you think that a snake is, uh, you know, with your, how many of you have dog have a little doggie or a cat Kitty? OK. Do you like to cuddle and pet your little dog in Kitty? Do they like that? Do they like you to pet them? You know, we have a little doggie at home and she likes to be petted and she always comes running up when I come home and she wants me to pet her and if I don't reach down and scratch her a little bit, she'll follow me around. So they're like that, aren't they? They're friendly. They like to be petted. They like to be.
Uh, shown some kind of attention and affection, but you know what? What would you think if you tried to cuddle and pet a creature like this? You think that would work very well? Do you think snakes like to be petted and cuddled? And no, no, they're just not that kind of a creature. They're just something, umm, about them that we don't generally like. We do, we don't, umm, typically want to be around snakes and have them as pets and so on.
But.
You know, we went to a place in, in South Dakota a number of years ago and I think it was called Reptile Gardens or something like that. And the whole thing was full of snakes. We went in there and there was, uh, aquarium and cages and, and they, you know, they had glass, they were behind glass. And we went from one to the other and they had a lot of very, very dangerous snakes in there, poisonous, uh, from different parts of the world. It was quite an impressive collection of snakes, but I tell you, I got tired of looking at them.
Because they're just, you know, all they do is they just slither around.
Like this and they're they're little tongues are, are going in and out real quick. And, you know, there's a reason why their little tongues go in and out like that. I understand that what they're doing is they're kind of what they say, tasting the air and they use that as a sensor to to find prey, to find food. And I'm going to talk about one snake in particular that is well known in our area. It's called the western diamondback rattlesnake. How many have heard of a diamondback rattle snake? OK.
00:20:22
I think we're pretty much familiar with those. And it's called that because it has patterns on its skin that are shaped kind of like a diamond. And so that's where it gets its name. Well, it is a poisonous snake. It has what we call venom, and that's very poisonous. And it attacks the blood system and its victims. And it it it causes a lot of tissue damage and swelling. And people have died from rattlesnake bites. And so we have these snakes around.
And there are warnings in some of the parks and so on when these snakes, when they're known to be in an area where there might be hikers and so on. And I'm going to tell you a story about some hikers.
And an experience they had with a rattlesnake.
And so they are dangerous snakes. In fact, they say that, uh, they account for more of the, the fatalities in North America than any other snake, the rattlesnake and.
Many, many people are bitten by them every year. Now, most people don't die from their bite. Most people are able to survive.
It's it's even like less than 1% of the people that actually die, but people have died and especially children because they're a lot smaller.
From the bite of a rattlesnake. There's something else about the rattlesnake. It has, uh, it's called a pit Viper. It's in, in the, the Viper family. And the reason it's called a pit Viper is not because it lives in pits, which it can, but it lives in many other places too. But it's called a pit Viper because it has two little pits on its, its head, on the forehead area of its body. And those pits are heat sensing.
Devices that the Lord has given this snake and the purpose of those heat sensing devices.
Is to find prey all of us that are alive, we give off heat and so do little animals, little bunnies, little.
Squirrels, all kinds of rodents, rats, mice, they give off heat. And So what this snake can do, it doesn't need any light. It doesn't need to be able to see. In fact, it hunts at night. It hunts through the night. And what it will do is it will be moving along looking for prey and.
Even it it'll be using these, these little tips on its forehead will be activated and working and it consents the heat coming off of the body of let's say a little Bunny rabbit. And let's say that little Bunny rabbit has a sense of danger and it just dives down into its little hole. It's a little house under the ground. What does Mr. Snake do? He goes right in that hole. He goes right in that hole after Mr. Bunny. And he can tell from these.
Pits in his forehead as he's getting closer and closer and.
He can, he can tell how far away he is. He can tell right where that Bunny rabbit is. It doesn't matter if the Bunny tries to hide here or there in its little hole, it it can just slither right in there and strikes it. It has some fangs that are shaped kind of like that. They go right in and little pumps pump this venom, this poison into poor Mr. Bunny. And then Mr. Bunny becomes its meal and it just swallows him whole. Takes a while.
That's what he does, and he may not have to eat again for a couple of weeks and pretty soon he goes and he finds something else. That's how Mr. Snake hunts. He can hunt in the dark and you can't see him. Well, you know, boys and girls, we have an adversary. Mr. Tony told us about what we need to do as Christians to be protected from our adversary. We're talking about Satan that he goes about and he's seeking to.
Deceive. He's seeking to capture, if you will. He's seeking to bite. For the sake of our illustration, boys and girls, men and women.
He's an adversary, he's an enemy. And he he told us that we need to put on the armor, all the armor to stand against this enemy, such a dangerous enemy. He is. And so that's important, isn't it? Well, you know, we first read about this in Scripture. Sometimes Satan is referred to as.
A serpent. He's referred to in other ways. Sometimes he's referred to as a dragon, maybe more in the character to destroy men. He's sometimes referred to as, as, as I said, as a serpent. And there it's more the thought of deceiving.
00:25:13
He's subtle and that's the first mention we ever have of him in the word of God is in that character of a serpent. So let's look at that real quick. It's in the third chapter of Genesis, and I'll just read you a few verses about him. It says.
In verse one of Genesis three that the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.
Which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yeah, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Or it's like he's saying, he's putting a doubt in her mind. And and Mr. Darby translates it this way. Is it Even so that God hath said?
These, umm, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden, and so on. And we know the story that he deceives her. So he comes in this character of this serpent.
To deceive and he's mentioned later on as a serpent too, you know when he's taken and he's bound first he's cast out of heaven and right now he's, he's in a, a sphere there where he can, uh, influence, uh, men and so on and we see him as an adversary in the book of Job. He comes to God and he speaks against Job and so on he's our adversary he's an enemy well.
Sometimes he's, he's the referred to as the devil too. And I believe that the Greek word for devil, it comes from Diabolus and it, it just, umm, I, I forget exactly what it means. Sometimes he, he's also in the character of, of Satan. As we mentioned, he's referred to often as Satan, but here in Genesis chapter 3, he's referred to in the character of a serpent. Now let's turn over to.
Numbers chapter 21 and I want to read a few verses about an experience that the children of Israel had.
In the wilderness, and I think there's a very important lesson, as we know. So verse four. And they journeyed from Mount Horror by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was much discouraged or became impatient on the way, as the way it should read. So that the people they came in impatient on the way, and they spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water in our soul loathes.
This light bread and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. Now for our sake of our illustration, I'd like to just, umm, apply this in this way. It says that.
These say these serpents came and it says they bit the people. So I'd like to just apply that in this way, boys and girls, that everyone as it were, has been bitten, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And you know the prophet Ezekiel, he tells us that the soul that sinneth it shall who can finish it?
Die. He mentions that twice. I think it's in like the, I'm not sure. Is it the 18th chapter somewhere in the, uh, prophecy of Ezekiel, he says the soul that sinneth it shall die. And then a little later in that chapter it's mentioned again. It's like God gives that warning danger, the soul that sinneth it shall die.
But oh, you know, the remedy is, there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me shall not come into condemnation, but it's past from death unto life. John 524 wonderful assurances from God, you know, if you're a hiker in Colorado, where I come from, where these snakes are very plentiful.
It's probably not a bad idea to carry something with you. And this little thing here is what we call a snake bite kit. And if you're out in the wilderness or out in the the mountains somewhere and you get bit by one of these snakes and you're a long ways away from help from medical help, this might just save your life. But notice that I said it might save your life. I can't assure you that it will, and they don't assure you that it will either. There's a few little things in here. There's really not much.
Umm, there's instruction that's important.
And probably some warnings, I didn't read through it. There's some, uh, topical antibacterial solution and there's a little knife in there because you have to make a little cut where the snake bites you. And then what you do is you squeeze this, you put it on your skin.
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And I don't know if it'll work here. There's just a little suction cup.
And that's to suck out the poison. And that could save your life. But you know, children.
How wonderful that we can tell you that you are a Sinner, but if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. There's no question. So God's remedy is perfect. Man's remedies for this snake bite might save your life. You might even go to the doctor and it might save your life.
He might be able to save your life.
But there's always an element of doubt that with God, His remedy is perfect. And so how wonderful that is. But now I told you I would tell you a story and we're not going to go through all of this, but this is such a beautiful picture to us of the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Because when they were bitten with these serpents and much people died. I don't think I finished it. I will finish it here, verse seven. Therefore the people came to Moses.
And said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee, Pray unto the Lord.
That he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole. And it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole.
And it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, and he beheld the serpent of breath.
He lived. Well, isn't that a wonderful story? And we know exactly what it means because the Lord uses that story.
And speaking in John 3 to Nicodemus, and he says as Moses.
Lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, and he was Speaking of that death that he would have to go into and die upon the cross and shed his precious blood in order that man might have a remedy for his sins. Just like these children of Israel needed a remedy for the from the snake bite. These fiery serpents. I imagine they were called fiery serpents because their venom stung.
And it caused great pain and it was the people were dying. Oh, boys and girls, you know you have sinned. And because you have sinned, you are a Sinner. And the word of is faithful that the soul that sinneth it shall die. The wages of sin is death. But what a wonderful provision God has made. Now my I'm going to tell a story about my father. And maybe you've heard this story, but my father.
Had a brother, has a brother that's still living my father's with the Lord, but he had a brother and they would go hiking a lot with their grandfather and their grandfather was a foreman on the railroad. And so he lived out in the the Prairie in Colorado and they would he would have the boys come over and they loved to do that because whenever they were with grandpa, there was always going to be some kind of adventure. So this time they were with grandpa and they were hiking through this this forested area with some trees and fields and so on. And grandpa was in the lead and he had.
Gone over some, a little goalie area with some rocks and things in it, and he didn't notice that there was a great big rattlesnake in that goalie. Now, when grandpa went over the route over the, the gully that made the rattlesnake, uh, scared and aware that people were around. Now these rattlesnakes are not really snakes are not really aggressive as, as we think of. They're not like a lion that, uh, stocks its prey and so on in that way. They're, they tend to hide from man.
So.
They're camouflaged and that's one of their lines of defense. And then they there's something else that we haven't talked about, about these rattlesnakes. And that is they have some rattles on the end of their tail. And I've heard them before because I've, I've looked for rattlesnakes myself and I've heard their rattle and it sounds a little bit like this.
Kind of like that. Now what do you think that Rattlesnake is doing that for? Why is he doing that?
He's warning. He's saying stay away from me. I don't like you near me, Just get away from me. Now that's that's a little unlike our enemy. But anyway, the rattlesnake rattles and he wants you to stay away. Well, grandpa had gone over this goalie and the snake had gotten a little bit alarmed. And then my, my father's brother, my Uncle Bob, he was the next one through and he stepped over. Well, by that time the snake was getting upset.
00:35:17
And what they do these these rattlesnakes is they begin to go into a coil and they continue to shake their rattle. And he was beginning to shake his rattles ferociously, you know, really making.
Lots of noise. Stay away from me. I don't like you being near me. And he was going into a coil. And about that time my father was coming along. He was the last one lagging behind a little and he was coming along. And at that time, by that time, Mr. Rattlesnake was in a coil and he was ready to spring. He was ready to strike and he was rattling loud.
And my father heard that he knew just a little bit, enough, enough to know that that was not a good sound. And so he stopped and they're down in that goalie. Not far from where he stopped was this rattlesnake already to spring Well, So he called for his brother and his grandfather and they turned around and they came back. And there was that dangerous snake down in that gully in a near a trail where people were walking. There were other people that were out.
And So what do you think Grandpa did?
What did Grandpa do? He was concerned because the snake was a dangerous snake and he was upset. So Grandpa did something. He killed that snake. And then he did something with that snake that my father never forgot. And he used to tell the story. And I remember the story from a little boy, and maybe you've heard it, but I'll pass it on. Grandpa did something kind of strange after he killed that rattlesnake. He took that rattlesnake and we'll pretend that I'm a tree here. And he went over to a tree.
And it had a branch sticking out from it.
And he took that snake.
And he flopped it over that branch like that, and then they went on hiking.
OK, so there's that tree with this branch, and there's a snake hanging over that branch, a big old rattlesnake. And what would you do if you were a hiker and you saw that? Would you say, oh, there's lots of rattlesnakes hanging from trees? That's nothing, nothing different about that. Is that how you would act? No, you'd stop and you'd look and and you'd say, look at that. There's a rattlesnake hanging from that branch.
Wonder what that is?
What's that trying to tell us? What do you think Grandpa did that for? Who can tell it?
What a warning. Very good. What was the warning about?
Snakes, right? The warning was there's snakes. There's rattlesnakes in this area. Be careful, hikers. Watch where you're stepping. You don't wanna step on a rattlesnake.
And so that was a warning, boys and girls, we've heard about warnings this morning. Have you heeded those warnings? Have you listened?
You realize that you're a Sinner and that God wants to save you.
But He can't save you in your sins. You have to accept His Son, the Lord Jesus, and be delivered from your sins. Don't ignore the warnings from God's precious word. And you know this adversary I might just mention in closing, this adversary doesn't leave us alone once we're saved. We heard about that yesterday. We need that armor. We need to be protected from Him. In fact, He continues to seek to trip us up. He can't take away our salvation. Never.
He can never take away our salvation, but he can take away the joy of it. He can be a hindrance to us in progressing to enjoying those things that we've been enjoying in these meetings. He can hinder us from that, and he wants to do that. And we have this adversary with us our whole lives until we pass away or until the Lord comes to take us home. And sometimes he's a roaring lion. Peter talks about him as a roaring lion. He says be sober, be vigilant. That means be on your guard, be on the lookout.
Because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. So it's a very real thing. And I think the problem is, boys and girls, is we can't.
See the danger, We don't see it with these eyes. You know, we live. I was talking to Brother Steve Bambaro. We were sharing some things together. And I was just commenting that we live in a world where it's I, I call it a show me world. We have to be shown. We don't think the world knows nothing about faith. Faith is believing something that we can't see. But this world is a show me world. They want to see it before they'll believe it. And because they can't see this adversary that we're talking about, this enemy.
00:40:26
They don't believe it. They don't believe that. That's sad, isn't it? And so they fall victim to him.
One after another. It's so sad. Well, we don't want that to happen to me, and we don't want you to to leave this conference without knowing in your hearts that you've accepted God's remedy for your sins. His Son, the Lord Jesus. Well, let's just sing a song in closing and then we'll be finished. So who has one? I think someone down here. What was it? You. Someone raised their hand before We didn't get to him. OK. What? 196? All right.
Sorry we couldn't get to all the songs that you wanted to sing. That's nice that you wanted to sing a lot 96.
All right, let's just sing the 1St and the last of #96 when he come up, when he comes.
To make up his shoe. All his shoes.
Or anything to gain anything, right? Uh, let's do the minimum level, right? That's good, yeah.
Thumbnails are.
Blind underneath.
Him and crying round the door, knee breaks upside and it takes you to sleep right down to the bottom.
Umm OK, let's pray.
Our blessed God and our Father, we just pray that if there is some boy or some girl here that still hasn't said yes to the Lord Jesus as we had last night, we just pray that they would do so this morning, that they would not put it off.
For all have sinned and come short of thy glory, but thou hast provided a remedy.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We just thank Thee, blessed Savior, for going to the cross and for Thy precious blood that can wash the vilest Sinner clean, and we just give thanks to thy precious and worthy name, Amen.
Books to some, Maybe pass your books up towards the middle of the room.