The Next Generation
by Taylor Little
October 20, 2024 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Psalms 78:1-4, Genesis 3, Genesis 3:14-15, Leviticus 18:21, 2 Samuel 16:22, Judges 11:29-35

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/taylor-little--the-next-generation
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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So very much, I'm going to be continuing what I feel Pastor, sister Chassidy, began last week at The Family Table, emphasizing and highlighting the importance of multi-generational faithfulness. And it was at the end of their time last week that sister Chassidy read a passage of scripture that I had already prepared to open with this week, and so I knew that the Lord was involved in the details of what is happening around Centerpoint Apostolic church, because he cares about the details. So I'm going to read from Psalms chapter 78. I'm going to read verses 1-4. Says: give ear, oh my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. And I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the Praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he has done. And for the next 29 minutes and 29 seconds I would like to speak to us about the Next Generation. The Next Generation. Also, it's very good to see my grandparents in the back. I love you very much. Thank you guys for being here today.

This theme of generations is woven all throughout the fabric of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. Page after page and chapter after chapter, we are tied into this generational narrative. Generations are so important to God that he literally gives them chapters upon chapters upon chapters upon chapters. For those of you who read the Testament you know what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the genealogies, where if we're listening to the Bible we turn that speed up to 2 and A2 per. But it seems that there's there's an emphasis there. There is priority biblically regarding the past generation, the current generation, and the future Generations. The promise of the holy spirit is a generational promise. It is to your children and your children's children.

And the first time that we see a reference of generations pop into the pages of scriptures as in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, they had disobeyed the commands of God. They have eaten the forbidden fruit, and now this great curse called sin has entered the story of man. They have sinned, they have fallen short of his glory, and God comes walking in the cool of the day. He doesn't come in the heat of the day to accentuate this false anger, but he comes in the cool of the day to represent his goodness and his grace towards us. However, the goodness and the grace of God did not then, and it does not now, dismiss his Justice and sovereignty. His goodness does not eliminate the righteousness of his nature. The wages of sin will always be death. Disobedience, obedience still requires Justice. And so the Lord begins to pronounce judgment against those who have disobeyed his Sovereign will. And it's here in these pronouncements of judgment that we see the war between the generations begin. He says in Genesis 3: 14 and 15: so the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field, and on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

Satan had deceived mankind into the fall. And salvation for This calamity wasn't going to come in the form of a fruit or in the form of a tree. It was going to come in the form of a man. It was going to come in a future generation of Eve, where a savior would annihilate the kingdom of Satan. And it was this promise that gave Eve and Adam a hope that through the generations would come the salvation of the Lord. But what became a hope for Man became a mission for the enemy. It was Satan — if Satan wanted to subvert what God's Plan of Salvation would be, he should turn his attention to destroying the Next Generation. And so Israel is becoming too strong. These these people are becoming too many. Pharaoh, we risk them overturning our ways. We risk these chosen people of God overturning The rhythms of Egypt. And after all, they could pair up with, unite with one of our enemies, and they could destroy destroy us. So the pharaoh of Egypt gave the ungodly command to The Midwives of Israel: kill the baby boys. Throw the sons of Israel into the current of the Nile River. Destroy the Next Generation.

The Babylonian Empire has conquered Jerusalem. They are taking Israelites captive. And so King Nebuchadnezzar wants to solidify y this Victory, so he looks at his officials and He commands: bring young men from all over Israel, but don't just look for any type of young man. I want the best. I want the brightest. I want the ones that have been anointed. I want the ones that have been called. And let's take the Next Generation and teach them our language. Let's take the Next Generation and teach them our ways. If if our kingdom will prevail against their Kingdom, let's take the youngest, let's take the best, and let's assimilate them into the culture of Babylon. Let's destroy the Next Generation.

And as we turn the pages from the Old Testament to the new, there's a shift taking place in the spiritual atmosphere. The landscape of Eternity is on the brink of transformation, and God's Divine timeline is advancing in something significant is about to unfold. There's this old promise from Genesis that's starting to Shake the Dust of Bethlehem. There's a promise, a savior, a redeemer for man, is about to be born. And the angels stand guard at the edge of heaven, and creation holds its breath, and the Shepherds feel a wind blow that they have never felt before. It's peace on Earth and Good Will toward men. But alas, between your seed and her seed, between your kingdom and my kingdom, there will be enmity. And so a voice begins to plague King Herod, an unshakable feeling of rage. Enity is pulsing through his veins, to where he cannot deny action any longer: kill the baby boys. Destroy the Next Generation.

Hear me today: the devil has not changed his game, he only changes his players. There is a war that is going on in the heavenlies for the next generation. And we might not see the physical Bloodshed that the Israelites saw at the Nile River, and it is very probable that that we will not hear the screams of mothers as they come for the babies of Bethlehem. But the battle that we fight now is not a fight of Flesh and Blood. It is a battle in the spirit for the Next Generation. The enemy is after the Purity and the passion of the spirit of the Next Generation. And he's not going to be able to throw them necessarily into a Nile River, but he does want to seduce them with the seductive beats of Babylon, through secular music and through secular entertainment and through movies and storylines and the glorification of celebrities and influencer on social media. He does want to put a magnifying glass in front of every young person to the kingdoms of this world and say, I'll give you all of this, and in the fine print he says, if you worship me.

I don't view youth ministry as a stepping stone to Adult Ministry. I don't you youth ministry as a bench that I sit on waiting until my time to shine comes. I know that I am standing in the gap before the Next Generation. To my youth team, I want you to know in the Holy Ghost: don't wait for a future Ministry opportunity. Don't wait for a seemingly more important or dignified task. Ask the Lord that he would open your eyes to let you see that what we do, week in and week out, is battling for the Next Generation. I know, parents, sometimes you have to wait, because we're having altar calls 20 and 30 minutes after service. And I'm going to be honest: I don't apologize. I don't apologize for having Sovereign moves of the spirit, where young people lay down their lives on an altar and say, I surrender all. It is Warfare. It is Battle. It is sacrifice that happens in that youth room.

It is an interesting note that if you look at ancient Pagan worship — not really just in a Biblical context, if you look at Pagan worship as a whole, but we can look at it for Biblical context today — you will find a majority of pagan worship and rituals led to the death of the Next Generation. Leviticus 18- 21 says: and you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to mik, nor shall you profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. There was an abominable practice that would take place to the Pagan God mik in the Old Testament. He was the god of fire, and to worship this God people would bring their babies, and they would offer them into a fire to worship this Pagan God. There are 10 plus verses in the Old Testament that speaks to God's abhorrence to this AB abominable practice. And there's one detail that I want to share in studying this, this worship, and how they would perform this ritual to mik. It is said that they would beat drums very loudly, and many scholars believe that that this was to drown out the cries of babies from their mothers as they were being offered into the fire. But I believe that there was also a satanic spirit that would work through the beating of that drums. And if you even look at Pagan religions now, many of these Pagan rituals will involve the beating of drums. I believe that there is a seductive Spirit from hell that works through beat and Rhythm. And as a minister of the Gospel, I have been commissioned from the King to be a Watchman on the wall for the next generation, and I have to lift my voice and say that I have never physically seen children thrown into a fire, but I have seen young people by the thousands Gather in arenas to attend concerts because of the Beat of the Music, because of the catchy Rhythm and rhyme. And through the guise of music, I have seen the purity of young people sacrificed in the fire of hell. I have seen personally the Peace of Mind of young people sacrificed through lyrics that have been attached to beats, and they have an ungodly fire burning inside of them, and creates feelings that they don't understand and feelings that they don't know how to comprehend, through ungodly beats. I've seen Apostolic identity brought to the ungodly fire.

And I'm not trying to be mean. I have to War for the next generation. And I'm just going to be a youth pastor for a moment. I don't always care what the lyrics say or don't say. I don't care about what the lyrics say. I know that there is a Godly and an ungodly beat. And I'm not, listen, I'm not like against like Christian raps or like contemporary music, like I'm not going down that road today. If you would like to come peruse my Apple playlist, you're welcome to. All I'm saying is there should come up something inside of us when certain beats come through music that start Conjuring up moves in us that shouldn't necessarily be there. I have personally been at a Youth Event where I have seen a certain type of music being played, and everyone's acting normal, everyone's acting Godly, and it changes to a Christian song where the Beats beating a certain way, and all of the sudden I see this involuntary ungodly moving of bodies happen, all because of an ungodly beat.

The devil doesn't just come and say, sacrifice your children to me. How do we obey God? We obey God through adhering to his ways, to the ways of godliness, to the ways of righteousness. So how do you worship Satan is, you don't fall down on a face and like you light candles and stuff. That that's not, that's not how you do it. He wouldn't get anybody really if you did it that way. It's through adhering to his ways. It's through entertaining what he says is Right, entertaining what he says. And entertainment in those veins of Music creates an ungodly beat that we have to stand up as a church. We have to stand up as parents. We have to stand up as members of righteousness and Holiness and say, some of these things aren't of God. Holiness is not about the letter of the law; it's about the spirit of the law. And I'm thankful to be a part of a church that still believes in holy of spirit and in mind. It's not just a way that we look; it's a way that we live. It's a separation of things from this world. We have to consecrate ourselves as vessels meet for the Master's use.

I was on an extended fast. When I began to do extended fast, it was, it was three days, which at that time just, you know, three-day fast — listen, I actually, it don't matter how long you've been fasting, you say you're not going to eat for 3 days, you can be a veteran and three days is like eternity. It was on second day of this three fast, and it was one of my first ones, so I just kind of learning and whatnot, and I was getting ready for something. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere — and at this time I thought, like, when I fasted, I was like, this is when you're supposed to be like uber spiritual, right, like, like you could do anything for God, like God could come down in a vision right now, I've not eaten, right, like, I like, this is it. I was getting ready, and all of a sudden this song started playing in my mind that I used to listen to as a teenager, that was like just a very bad song. Lie to you, like, it's very nasty. Can I just say it that way? Like, it's not a good song. It wasn't the Hokey Pokey, all right. Like, this is not a great song. And I'm on day two of this fast, and I'm like, God, like, like, come on man, I'm stretching for you right now. You know, like, I'm coming after you know Holiness and righteousness and the burning bush, like, give it to me all. And I'm like, but all this song's coming to my mind. He spoke back and he said, Taylor, he said, that song has been in your spirit for years, and I am purging what has been resting in your spirit. What into your mind does not just enter into your brain; it enters into your spirit, in the realm in which God operates. And we have to be careful. Young people, you have to be careful what you allow into your spirit.

What incriminated Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — what told them that they were going to get thrown into the fiery furnace — it was when the music began to play, where they were going to worship and to bow to a False Image. It was when they heard a certain kind of music and they failed to obey is what incriminated them. And I am not, I'm not here preaching against music today, I'm really not. I'm, I'm here preaching against the spirit of the world. I'm here to preach against the current of the Nile river that flows through our cities and flows through our schools, that says throw your kids into this, and throw your kids into that, and let them be involved, let them be, let them, let them, let them be. And that's all fine if you've prayed about it. That's all fine if you, if you've thought, maybe, maybe I should talk to pastor about this. We're trying to protect their Spirits. We're trying to go to war for a generation that the enemy wants to destroy. The enemy, he loves the idea that he can Pur Ade a person to believe that their decisions will not impact anyone but themselves. He loves to try to convince us that if I do this or I don't do this, that the only impact it will have is me. But that is wrong. That is false. God gave us a will like himself. We were created in the image and likeness of God. The likeness is, we have the will like he has, which means he gives us the power of choice. And this power comes with a ripple effect.

King David should have been out at the time when kings go forth to battle, but he remained behind. And it was at this time in his life where he should have been actively engaging in the things of God. He should have been proactively pursuing the enemy, but he allowed complacency to rest in his spirit. And he was on that King's roof, where he saw Beth Sheba, and he committed that great sin. It's the sin of one generation. And so we fast forward to the next generation, and absum, his son, is now in the middle of a coup. He's trying to overthrow his father falsely and take over the Kingdom of Israel. Pride has consumed him. He's manipulating his way into every part of the Kingdom that he can. And one of the chief moves that absum was going to make to prove that he was now the king of Israel is found in 2 Samuel 16-22. Says: so they pitched a tent for absum on the top of the house, and absum went into his father concubines in the sight of all Israel. This was the same roof where King David let down his guard and committed sin. It was the same roof where D David messed up times one. Now the next generation is times 10. Now I want to stop and put a pause here, because I am not saying this story is prescriptive, okay. If I drink one can of beer, I am not saying this story suggests that my son is destined to drink 10 cans of beer. You understand? Are we good? Cuz I'm not saying that's like a prescriptive story, where if we mess up, then the next generation's just, they're just out of the count, right. I'm not saying that. I do think the principle that this story teaches is: what one generation allows in moderation could lead to the Next Generation consuming in excess. It could. And when it comes to my family, and when it comes to my kids, I am not willing to take anything in moderation that could destroy the Next Generation.

I, Mariah and I, don't have it all together. And I've had the Holy Ghost come to me and point its finger in my face and say, you have let this in your house, and you've got two options: you can repent and change, or I'm out of here. And I've had to repent, and I've had to correct, and I've had to change, because I don't want to let something in my home that could corrupt the minds and spirits of my children. I am the priest of my home. And I maybe, and I know my position, I know my place. So maybe this is just encouragement to other dads in the room, but it matters, as the priest of your home, what you deem acceptable. As the priest of my home, I can bless or I can curse. Something comes into my home, if I repeatedly allow that into my home, in essence I am blessing that thing. It has permission to be here. It has permission to be View. It has permission to be listened to. It has permission into your spirits, Lea, Lincoln and linia. I also have the ability to curse things. We don't do that here. We don't watch that in this house. We don't listen to that in this car. We don't do those kind of things. And I curse the things that are not of God. The next generation is depending on us to bless the things of God and to curse the things of this world. Every day it's, it's a choose you this day whom you will serve. Not a one-time decision. It's a this day kind. Who have you chose to serve this day? Who have you CH chose to serve on this Sunday night? Who have you chose to serve on this Friday, Saturday? What are you serving? You can't be deceived. We can't be deceived. God is Not mocked, for whatsoever a man Seth, that shall he also reap. And I say, we sew the good things of the kingdom of God into our homes, so the next generation will reap generational faithfulness, generational faithfulness. You know, it's a good thing to just put a preaching video from YouTube and just let it play in your house when nobody's even watching or listening. Just let the preached word of God sew the atmosphere of your home and let work. And a lot of us do — all, I'm assuming everybody does — but worship music, just let it play when nobody's around, nobody's listening, because it creates an environment in which God comes in and dwells. It's sewing an atmosphere where we'll reap the things of God.

So I would like to transition to the final story I want to reference today. It's in the time of the judges. The time of the judges was a toitu period in the history of the children of Israel. And if you want to talk about a toxic relationship, I think they pretty well defined it, as far as the children of Israel. And the book can be summarized in this way: children of Israel would turn from the Lord, they would turn from his ways, because they breached contract. The Lord would stop protecting them. Their enemies would come in, they would overtake them. Then the children of Israel would begin to cry out. They would repent. They would say, God, we want to live with you, we want to serve you, please come back. So God would raise up someone to save them, and then they would save them. And then most times — go read the Book of Judges — it would say, by the Next Generation, they were already serving the false gods again. They only had victories for one generation. I feel the Holy Ghost: they would only have one generational victories. And so as humorous as this Saga seemed, on the other side of this Unfaithful and selfish people was a completely faithful and holy God, who was continuously confronted by this breach of Covenant that he made with his people. And his heart grew weary of saving a people who were not interested in serving him any longer by the Next Generation.

And we find this story in judges 11: 29 through 35. Says: then the spirit of the Lord Came Upon jeffa, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through mispah of Gilead, and from mispah of Gilead he Advanced towards the people of Amon. And jeepa made a vow to the Lord and said: if you will indeed deliver the people of Amon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Amon, shall surely be the Lords, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering. So jeffa Advanced towards the people of Amen to fight against them, as the, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. Verse 33 records that jeepa defeated them PA. In verse 34: when jeffa came to his house at mispa, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timberl and dancing. And by the way, important note: she was his only child. Besides her, he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said: alas, my daughter, you have brought me very low. You are among those who trouble me, for I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot go back on it.

Jeffa had asked God to give him the victory: when I come home, the first thing to come out of my house I will sacrifice unto you, Lord. And I have read enough of the Old Testament to know that God can use donkeys. God can move on bulls. We've seen him move on cows in the Old Testament. We have seen God do almost everything in the Old Testament, short of using plates and like spoons and stuff, to talk. And so I've read enough of the Bible to think to myself: God, what in the world, why did you allow her to come out first? You could have sent a goat. You could have sent a pigeon. You could have sent fluffy the dog. You could have sent anything. And I really was, I was talking to the Lord about it, and the Lord spoke back to me, and he said: I got tired of my people walking in Victory and not bringing me the Next Generation. He said, so when I gave jeffa the victory, what I required of him was the Next Generation, where I didn't want the victory to end with one generation. I wanted it to pass on to the next generation, and the Next Generation, and the Next Generation.

Hearing me, apostolics: we can't be content just because we're sitting in the safe house, just because we're in the ark and so we're fine. So maybe for the Next Generation we can let some things slide, because, because after all I'm safe, after all I, I'm here. And we risk losing the Next Generation. Now, this story really bothered me, okay, especially because I just referenced that I just T spoke about God abhorring the practice of children being sacrificed. He uphor that practice. So I'm like, God, you're going to have to help me here, because I see some conflict. So I began to study it out. You can study it out. The story, basically, there's only two conclusions. There's only two conclusions. One conclusion could be that essentially she was taken to the temple like Samuel was, and that she was not physically sacrificed, but that she would have been committed to service in the temple, that she would have been left there, she never would have been able to marry, she never would have been able to have a normal life, but she would have been in the temple, serving and sacrificing to the things of God. That's one, that's one Viewpoint. And I, and listen, I'm not trying to change the word of God. The word of God does not specifically say if she was sacrificed in the fire. It just says that she was taken to the temple, essentially. So that's the first line of thought, is that that she could have been taken to the temple for service. The second line of thought is basically, under some Old Testament laws of war, that she could have been squeezed in into these certain laws — which I didn't list or write out, but again, you go study it — but she could have been squeezed into some of these laws, and she could have actually been sacrificed at the temple, based off of some of these laws here.

Here's, here's the ultimate point of the story: we don't know whether she was sacrificed or whether she was sent to the temple to be married. And I think here's maybe the principle for me in this, is that we don't always know how God will choose to use the Next Generation when we say, We'll sacrifice them. We don't always get to control how God will speak to the Next Generation. They might be a doctor. They might be a lawyer. They might be a business owner in this community. We have those, and God blesses us through those, amen. He might require that of them. But are we okay if God says, I want them to be a missionary to a third world country? Are we comfortable if they need to move to another state, into a rural area that has a town of 3,000 people, because God's calling them to a community, to go Pastor a church? I've got kids. I know what I'm saying right now. Are we okay to sacrifice the Next Generation and not get to choose what the lord requires of them?

If we could all stand to our feet. 29 minutes and 29 seconds — I'm a minute and a half over. Young people, I need your help. This is not a trick question, I promise, and I would never embarrass any of you. And now look, you're already getting nervous. Maybe I shouldn't even have clarified. No stipulations: if you want to be used by God — it's a yes or no question — if you want to be used by God, you're not determining how that is, you're just — if you want to be used by God, would you come meet me on this platform? No STI, and no wrong. Look, if you want to stay, it's good. Like, nobody's going to judge you, except me, so it's fine. Don't lie. Hey, you're not lying to me, right? Don't y'all walk up here unless you really want to be used by God. You're not lying, right? Nobody's lying. I've been doing this for a while. I'm not nervous up here. Thank you guys for being honest. I love y'all. So y'all aren't lying. Y'all aren't like sheep crowd thing kind of thing, you know what I mean, like one's going so we're all going. You want to be used by God? Yes sir. Y'all want to be used by God? So center point, I have a question: will we give God the Next Generation? Will we say, God, whatever it means, god, whatever it takes, if it makes me comfortable, if it makes me uncomfortable. They said they wanted to be used by God. So I say: Lord, we give you the Next Generation. Lift your hand, young people. Lift your hands, young people. Close your eyes, can you'all do that? It's okay. Lift your hands, close your eyes, if you're comfortable. Could we all stretch our hands towards the Next Generation right now? God, I don't know what you'll require of them. God, I don't know if you're going to call them to be a doctor or a missionary. God, I don't know if they're going to be a business owner or a pastor. God, I don't, I don't know, I don't know what you're going to require of them, Lord. But God, we're committing to you right now in the spirit, Lord, that we're going to give you the Next Generation, Jesus. You can use them any way that you like, Lord. Lord, bring them to an altar, Jesus, to be used by you. God, we give you the Next Generation, Lord. And furthermore, we commit, God — we commit — that we will not get complacent in our spirits and be lulled to sleep by the Beats of Babylon. We're not going to let the drums of Babylon discombobulate our mind, to where we can't call good good and evil evil. I'm not going to get so discombobulated in my mind about what's easy and not easy. I'm going to live for Holiness and righteousness unto the Lord.

This past mid week, it was our first midweek to be able to be back in the youth room in a service format. Thank you, brother Spencer, and brother dult. And Lord, I shouldn't started calling names. There was multiple people that helped. Thank you to everyone that help make the youth room possible. It's beautiful, if you haven't seen it. We're able to have our first youth service. Carson preached. I didn't even preach. He preached the first youth service back in the youth room. And I just felt like it was, just felt like the right thing to do. And I've been in there for three years as the youth pastor. I was in there with the Stevens for a bit, and we've had deep moves of the Lord. We've have deep moves of God. But there was something special that broke out Wednesday night. It, there was, it was a moment — I can literally take you back to where I was standing on the platform — and I'm going to tell you what happened. There was a young person, who I'm not going to call out. There was a collective group there that were laying their lives on an altar. But there was a young person — they're on this platform right now — and in the spirit they literally gave the surrender all call. It was a specific call, where it was from the bottom of their heart, they literally said, I am willing to lay it all down. And when that person did that, there was something that broke in the spirit in our youth room. And it was, it was a burning bush kind of moment. There was something Sovereign that sweeped into the place, and everybody that was bringing sacrifice, there was a, there was a breach into heaven, and we were able to send up and pull down. It was so sacred and it was so special.

God doesn't expect that kind of stuff to stop when they turn 20. God doesn't expect those type of surrender moments to stop. I'm 30 years old, and I still want to come to an altar. I'm not perfect, but I still want to come to an altar. I still want to put my face in the Altar, and I never want to get to a place where I say, God, I'm not comfortable with what you're doing. God, I'm not, not comfortable with what you're calling me to. He wants to give us all continuous burning bush experiences.

So today, young people, you can make your way down. I just feel like today that God wants to send out calls in the spirit in this place. Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost. There is something Supernatural sweeping over our church. And we experience it month after month, where we see growth Just Happening, like we can't even control it. It's just, it's just happening. And God is sending us Revival. But God needs yeses from the people of the congregation. He needs yeses in the Spirit. Lord, we open up this altar to you today. God, I pray that you would send a holy fire, god. We've prepared our yeses, God. Whatever you would say, God, I ask that you would speak clearly. God, I ask that you would speak vividly. God, I ask that you would speak in a way that we could not deny, that we could not logic out in our minds. God, speak so clearly that our only response would be yes or no. But I pray that there would be a surrendering spirit that would Captivate Us today, that says, what ever you require of me, Lord, I will go. I will speak, Lord. I will go to the Nations. I will go to the peoples, and I will be used of you. I open up this Altar for prayer.