One of the worst things that, at least for me, that I can't stand, it's happened a few times, is when you wake up and you realize that your phone, which you might have plugged in, did not charge overnight. Have you ever been there before? And then you have to get out and you're going to work and you're busy, and your phone is, you know, it's got the red on it. And so it's like your battery is low. And throughout the whole day, you're bouncing from charger to charger, meeting to meeting, just trying to keep enough charge to keep you through the remainder of the workday because it did not charge overnight.
Well, I'll tell you when I think about that Few things. describe American society more than that. I think that we live in a culture where we are running on red all the time. I think we are busier than we have ever been. And a lot of times we are trying as we bounce from one thing to the next.
We are trying to just keep our head above water. And we're trying just to survive. We're going from thing to thing, and anytime you have an open block in your schedule, you fill it, right? With something, because we live in such a busy, busy culture that that's what we do. And what happens a lot of times is that individuals and families are really just running on red and burning out in a lot of times.
And here in Exodus chapter 20, in the middle of the law, in the middle of God giving his law, he's telling the nation of Israel things like, hey, don't have any other gods before me. He's saying, hey, don't make any images. Don't have any idols. He's saying, don't take my name in vain. And all of those things.
It's like, hey, that makes sense. And all of us would agree, like, there's no controversy to the first three. It's like, hey, yeah, we get it. We're not supposed to have any idols. We're not supposed to have any gods before him.
We're not supposed to take his name in vain. We get it. But then, in the middle of this, in commandment number four, he's really telling us to take. Take a Sabbath. To take a Sabbath.
He's showing us that rest is important. And so, as we look at this commandment, I want to tell you up front: this is going to be very practical. It's going to be very pastoral in how we look at this, because I think that there's a lot of truths and a lot of relevancy that we need to look at here today. As I was studying this, I will say that there's some questions that I still have as I looked at this. I don't claim to have all the answers of exactly what we are supposed to do on the Sabbath and what we're not supposed to do.
So if you have specific questions like, hey, am I supposed to do this or that on the Sabbath? Is this allowed? Is this not allowed? And different things. I don't know if I have all the answers to all those practical questions that we have.
But I hope in a few moments that we have together today that we can learn the importance and what I would call a little bit of the sacredness of a regular Sabbath in our week each and every week.
So I want to start by just giving you a biblical foundation for the Sabbath. The biblical foundation for the Sabbath. In other words, let's just look at what the Bible says first before we look at the practical application. I want to talk about how the Sabbath was instituted and where it came from and what we can learn through Scripture throughout this.
So The commandment Uh this one, verses 8 through 11, is the longest. Of all the commandments.
So, God has more to say about the fourth commandment than any other commandment. Uh this commandment is repeated In Scripture more than any other commandment. In fact, you can see about the Sabbath or the mention of the Sabbath, it is mentioned 11 times in the Pentateuch. And the Sabbath is referenced over 100 times in the Old Testament. And so this commandment is so important.
And we have a lot that we can learn here. But as we look at this biblical foundation, I want you to see kind of from cover to cover what the Sabbath teaching us? Why was it instituted? What was God trying to tell us? First, God, what you have to understand, God instituted the Sabbath.
God instituted the Sabbath. I mean, what you can, you can see it way back in Genesis chapter number two that God After the world was created in six days, on the seventh day, He rested.
Now, the first day of the week that we have today is Sunday, but technically in the Old Testament, the Sabbath day was. was Saturday.
So, this was Saturday that they would observe the different things that God meant for them to observe.
Now, we know that Christ resurrected the first day of the week, and so he resurrected on Sunday, which is why in our New Testament, that's the day that we worship. That's the day of the Lord. That's why we come here and we gather on Sunday and not Saturday because of Christ's resurrection for that. But from the very beginning, God instituted the Sabbath. Before He even gave the Ten Commandments and gave the law, He showed us from the very beginning the creation of the world.
He showed us that rest is important and that a Sabbath is important for all of us. The second thing I want you to see is this about the Sabbath. The Sabbath, and you see that here, was instituted by God. To remember The the for the Israelite people to remember their deliverance from Egypt. and for them to rest in his provision for them.
So it's really twofold. There's an idea for the Israelite people in the Old Testament. Every time you mention it, whether it be the passages in Deuteronomy or the passage here in Exodus, every time the Sabbath was mentioned, it was a time for the Israelite people to remember their deliverance from Egypt and Egyptian captivity and to rest in the provision of. Of God. And so, what they would do is that one day a week on Saturday, they would remember.
And they would worship God for delivering them from Egypt.
Now, the word remember. means to put into practice It is a word meaning to put into practice or to recollect. It's deeper than just calling to memory, if you would. It's actually this. We are supposed to practice the Sabbath and things like that.
But what we see is the Sabbath is rooted in creation and also deliverance. In Deuteronomy 5, when the commandments are issued again and they're talked about again and they're reminded again of them, it says that God was the one. that brought them up out of Egypt. with his mighty hand. Hand.
So, when we think about this idea of remembering, here's what the Israelite people were supposed to remember. Remember that they were once slaves in Egypt. They were once slaves. They were in bondage. They were in captivity.
They're in Egypt. And this one day a week.
Now, I get it. They're supposed to remember that every day. It's not something that they should forget. But on one day, you're supposed to cease from everything that you're doing and remember. That God through his mighty hand brought you out of Egypt and Egyptian captivity.
But not only are they supposed to remember their deliverance, but like it says up on the screen, they're supposed to rest. in the provision of God. They're supposed to rest in the provision of God. Listen, for Israel. Taking a day off was inconvenient.
And risky. I mean, their livelihoods depended upon the work that they could do in the fields. And if you look at it on paper and you look at it from a business perspective. They would say things like it makes more sense that we can make more money for our family if we work seven days rather than six days. Right?
So it was a very inconvenient thing for them to do. And what God was trying to call them to in the Old Testament was for them to say, okay, you're going to work six days. And you're going to work hard. And by the way, God wants us to have a work ethic. It's important.
And so you're going to work hard for these six days. But what I'm going to do is these six days of you working, if you can take one day where you rest and you remember what I have done for you, I'm going to take care of you for the entire seven. In other words, it's this day where you give to God and you trust Him. Yes, I get it that, hey, if you worked on that seventh day, it might make sense from a business perspective that you could provide more, you could make more money, and that you could have nicer things. But what I want you to know is, I don't want you to look to your work ethic.
As your provider I want you to look at me as your provider. And what he's trying to teach Israel is to rest in. Them because the problem comes when you look at your work ethic and your work. as the provider and not him. As the provider.
So the Sabbath was instituted by God, Genesis chapter 2. But then here in Exodus and also Deuteronomy, you see that the reason for the Sabbath and why they would cease from all of their labors on the Sabbath and do nothing on the Sabbath was so that they could remember their deliverance from Egypt. And rest in the provision of God. God.
So, what you see here, especially in the Old Testament, is that the Sabbath linked Worship. and rest together. The Sabbath linked worship and rest. In other words, like when you do a deep dive into this throughout Scripture, what you're going to find is this: worship and rest were inseparable. Worship and rest were inseparable.
It's important for us. And you say, why is that? Here's just why I think that is. When you rest. You become free to worship.
When you rest, you become free to worship. Here's the problem with our society today, and I'm going to get to the application here in a little bit. What does this mean for us? I just wanted to show you from Old Testament all the way into the New Testament why this was instituted. But here's the problem: we're so busy that we cannot stop sometimes to worship.
Here's what I mean by that. Many of you come into this place to worship and you struggle to worship. You want to know why? 'Cause you're thinking of everything you have to do when you leave here. I get it.
I'm the same way.
So I'm preaching to the choir. But here's what we're thinking. Man, I got a birthday party, I got lunch to prepare, I got this, I got this, whatever. We're going to talk about all those specific questions that you have here in a moment. But what I'm saying is, is that's why worship and rest were linked together because here's the thing.
When you rest and you cease from everything else, you know what it does? It positions you and prepares you to where there's nothing else on your plate that all you can do is worship him. and remember what he has done for you. And that's the reason why worship and rest were linked together. And that's why the Sabbath was instituted, so that we would do nothing except for remember.
In other words, there's nothing else on your plate, so that the only thing that you can do is remember. and rest. And that's what he says. But the fourth thing I want you to see about how God instituted this was more in the New Testament. But Jesus Jesus practiced the Sabbath.
But what you find in the New Testament is this: He allowed acts of necessity and mercy. on the Sabbath. And what you find here, so you have the Sabbath in the Old Testament, you're not supposed to do anything. And so that was a lot of pressure. It's like, man, we can't do anything.
And so come to the New Testament, Jesus comes, He's teaching. And what happens is, in Mark chapter 2 and 3, there's a couple of instances where Jesus does some things on the Sabbath that makes the Pharisees very uncomfortable. Makes them very angry. The first thing is, Jesus was teaching, and the Pharisees came to him because the disciples. Were you know, they were, you know, fixing wheat and corn so that they could eat.
And it was the Sabbath day, so they were working so that they could eat something. And the Pharisees came, they were angry. They were mad. And they came to Jesus and they said, Hey, Jesus, your followers are doing this. They're making their food on the Sabbath day.
Surely that is wrong. Surely they have broken the law. Surely they should be punished for it. And Jesus responds, and Jesus tells them this. He says, Well, listen, don't you remember David in the Old Testament?
He went into the temple and he got the bread so that they could eat when they were hungry. And he said something very interesting about the Sabbath. He said, Man Was not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man. Which is so interesting.
And so he tells them, he says, listen, don't miss this. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for father. For the Sabbath, here's what Jesus was trying to teach them. And he was trying to say this: the point that Jesus was making was that the Sabbath was not to be burdensome. to believers, but to benefit believers.
The Sabbath, the point that Jesus was making here, it was so that the Sabbath, this day of the week, it wasn't supposed to be burdensome. to believers. It was supposed to benefit believers. You go a chapter over in Mark chapter number three. Jesus comes by.
There was a man with a withered hand. You remember this story? And so he had a withered hand. He needed to be healed. And so Jesus comes to that.
And yes, it was the Sabbath.
So, what should Jesus have done? Should Jesus have said, hey, listen, if you show up to my office Monday through Friday, sometime between 8 and 5, Then I'll I'll heal you. I'll help you. No, you know what Jesus did? He healed the man.
Well, the Pharisees get upset again because Jesus did this. What Jesus was teaching us is this: that the Sabbath is something that we should practice, and he did practice it, and you can see that. But on the Sabbath, he allowed acts of. Of necessity. In other words, you have to eat, right?
And so we have acts of necessity on the Sabbath and acts of mercy. I mean, there's some jobs that have to function on a Sunday. Aren't you thankful that right now there's police officers in our community working on a Sunday, right? You have acts of necessity. There's medical workers that are working today.
There's fire and rescue people working today, and they are prepared. The point is, is that on the Sabbath, yes, the Sabbath is something that we should observe, and Jesus was teaching this, but acts of necessity are important, and there's things that you have to do. You're not going to cease from doing those things that you have to do just because it's the Sabbath, but also acts of mercy are okay. In other words, you still need to show grace. You need to show mercy.
You need to show kindness. You need to serve. Even though it's the Sabbath, it's okay to do those things. And what Jesus was teaching here in the New Testament is that acts of necessity. And mercy are okay.
On the Sabbath. But as we look at the Sabbath and its totality through the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's interesting how far our culture has gotten away from the importance of the Sabbath day. Just a few things that I'll even show you in history. And hopefully, I can do this for you.
We showed a biblical foundation, but I just want to show you kind of some changes that we've done in our society. Um You know, when America was founded and different things, it was important, but the Protestants. And the Puritans really made the Sabbath so important. And their influence kind of rang throughout how we were built. I mean, just a couple of things, if you can listen to this, this is interesting.
In 1611, A set of laws was adopted in the Jamestown colony of Virginia. And in these laws was a bunch of laws pertaining to civil and really criminal code of conduct, how you're supposed to live and different things like that. Here's a couple of things about it that I thought were interesting. Parishioners were instructed to attend church twice. each day on Sunday or they would be severely punished.
The first offense, when they were caught, was a loss of a day's food. The second offense was a whipping. A third offense was six months of rowing in the colony's galley.
So what we're going to do at Union Grove I say all that to say, I'm not saying we're going back to this, okay?
So don't get nervous.
Some of you, if you're a guest in here today, you're like gripping the seat in front of you. What have I gotten into? Is this a cult? Is this weird? And stuff.
But I'm just going to show you from a historical perspective how the Sabbath has changed and transitioned. In Massachusetts and Connecticut, it was illegal to walk the streets on Sunday except if you were attending church. And Virginia Every minister would choose Four men. From the settlement that would go around checking if you were in church or not on the Lord's Day. If you were f not found in church, you were punished.
I think that's a great role. I don't know if we can find four guys. I'll just tell you. We have so many people out of town this weekend and sick. They're watching online and they feel so guilty right now.
Don't feel guilty, okay? Um In Massachusetts in 1646, Roger Scott Uh and the he um he was picked up for repeatedly, he was found sleeping on the Lord's Day and he was severely punished. Captain Kimball was arrested in 1656 in Boston. I love this. This is funny.
In 1656, Captain Kimball was arrested for lewd. and unseemly behavior. Because he kissed his wife on a Sunday. All right, we're not instituting that one, okay? He was severely punished by spending hours in the stocks that day.
Now, some of those things are very far-fetched. I get it. And I'm not suggesting that we go back to that. But if you remember, some of you would remember what we would call blue laws. Do you remember those?
How many of you remember those, okay, where things were required, businesses were required to be closed on Sunday?
Now, raise your hands again if you remember that day. Look around you. That's quite a few of us.
So, the reason I say that is this is not too far removed. This is just recently. But the The point is, is there used to be... in our culture, such a high regard for the Sabbath. And it goes back to biblical times and what we just saw: that you couldn't do anything on Sabbath and stuff.
And then it kind of, you know, as our society was formed, specifically American society was formed, it was founded upon these biblical principles. And many of it was the Ten Commandments woven throughout the framework of our judicial system and how we govern as a society. And over time, we have adjusted how we handle these things. Even Abe Lincoln signed an executive order that limited military to work on Sunday except out of necessity.
Now Sunday is viewed in a lot of ways like any other workday for our society. It's a day for travel. And I'm not saying anything, these things are wrong, so please hear me. And we're going to get to the application. I'm just trying to show you something.
It's a day for tra it's a day for travel sports leagues. I mean, we got people hardly ever in church sometimes. You don't know why? Because they're playing sports every Sunday. And what happens is, it becomes that.
It becomes a work day. It becomes a leisure day. It becomes get the chores done day. And a lot of times we look at our culture and we've gone so far. Far.
Jonathan Edwards said this: The Christian Sabbath is one of the most precious enjoyments of the visible church. John Wesley said this. He demanded in a sermon that he preached, he demanded a part of the time be restored to him that gave the all. In other words, what he was saying in a sermon is that a time in your work week should be given to only God. Every single week should be given to only God because he gave all.
To you. He goes on in this sermon to tell us, and you can take this for what it's worth, because I'm going to get into how I think we practice it here in a moment. But he goes on in the sermon to say this: that what you should do on the Lord's Day on the Sabbath is spend time in rest, spend time in scripture reading, spend time with the church, pray, and then repeat everything you have heard. All I'm saying is that we have gotten away from things.
Now, there's a couple of things we could look at in our culture that still kind of observes this. David Green, the CEO of Hobby Lobby, they're still closed on Sunday. You know, like Truitt Kathy, who started Chick-fil-A, they're still closed, and we gasp at this one, but they are closed on Sunday. And they observe that and things like that. And I mean, even if we go back to the scripture and what the scripture says about the Sabbath, if you lived in the Old Testament and you violated the fourth commandment.
Exodus 31 says that you would receive the death penalty.
Now I want you to know, don't get nervous. That's not what we're trying to I'm not trying to say that's what we need to do But when you kind of search for this, here's what I'll tell you. I was doing some reading this week on the history of the Sabbath. And this is really eye-opening. Here's what one article said.
It said over the last century The high regard for the Sabbath. has steadily Eroded. Due to two things. Pluralism Which is the worship of many gods. And economic pressures.
Here's what I'll tell you. Does that not just define? The opposite of exactly why the Sabbath was instituted. Worship me and only me. And one day a week, I want you to remember that it was my mighty hand that delivered you out of Egypt.
And so, the reason that our society has gotten away from it is because we've allowed the influence of a lot of religious culture and a lot of other things to come in. And out of respect for all of these different religions, what's happened is our biblical foundation for what a Sabbath should look like has eroded and gone by the wayside because of pluralism and then also for economic pressures. In other words, as the economy continues to do what it does, what's the quick answer? We need to work more.
So, as pressure with the economy gets higher, the demand for work becomes higher. But instead, you know why the Sabbath was instituted? It was to trust him. No, as it co as the economic pressures get higher. Our trust in God should be elevated.
Not your work week. It doesn't mean if economic pressures get high. It doesn't mean, like, okay, now I need to work every single day of the week. No, it means this: you need to trust God. And that's why it was instituted.
And so, as you see this, like even society is claiming the wrong thing about the Sabbath, is that the reasons are exactly why it was instituted for us in the first place. To remember. That God's mighty hand has delivered us out of Egypt and to rest in his provision.
Now, let's talk real quick as we close this out. What's the practice for us today? What does it look like? What do we do with this? How should we handle this?
And I told you this was going to be very practical and very pastoral in how we handle this.
So, church, I really want you to listen, especially if you're a member of our church. I want you to look at this. And I want you, I do not have all the answers, and I want to be the first to say that.
So, I never want to come across arrogant in what I'm trying to say because there's some questions that I have about what I'm allowed to do. You know, I'll just be honest with you, as your pastor, like, I mean, we've, my sons play baseball on a Sunday. And so it's like, okay, I want you to know, and some of you don't fire me today, but here's what I want you to know: is that this is something that I don't think we all have figured out. And I want you to know that I'm right there with you.
So we have questions about it, depending on your backgrounds and stuff. Like, I know some people wouldn't eat out on a Sunday. Do you ever You might have even had that rule. You wouldn't eat out on a Sunday because it would force somebody else to work on a Sunday and you didn't want to be a part of that. Right?
And so, those things, and I want to be respectful to all of our traditions, but I want to look at what I think we can practice and what do we do with this today. All right. You guys still with me? Say amen. All right.
So, the practice of this: here's what I'll tell you: the first purpose that I think, as I was studying this, that I think is important. For your family. And dads listen up, all right? You need this. The first purpose that I think we learn from this is we should gather each week.
And remember. that Christ has delivered us from the bondage of sin. Deuteronomy chapter five He wanted the Hebrews to remember how they were once enslaved in Egypt. In other words, hey, remember the days of slavery? And when you remember the days of slavery, what does it do?
It helps you to appreciate and celebrate the freedom that you have.
So, in other words, there's a spiritual connotation here for us in the new covenant: is this: you have been freed from something far greater than slavery in Egypt. You have been freed from the bondage of sin in your life. Jesus has freed you from that with his mighty hand. And because of that, what we are supposed to do is one day a week, give it to him and gather with the church. And remember.
That Christ has freed you. Christ has freed you from the bondage and the power of sin in your life. It's a greater freedom than even the nation of Israel experienced out of Egypt. And so, what I'm telling you this is: if there are times of necessity where you got to travel on a Sunday or you got to do something on a Sunday, that's fine. And I'm not going to get into, hey, is this allowed?
Can I throw a birthday party on a Sunday? Can I do whatever or whatever? That's your own thing. But here's what I want you to know: is that every week, this gathering that you're in today needs to be a priority for your family. It needs to be.
And if it's not, and things like that, then we're missing the point of what the Sabbath is supposed to be. to do. Simkins said in his writing about the Sabbath, here's what he said: Many of us as Christians have room in our hearts for God. but not room on our calendars. If that does not categorize, listen.
We need to get away. Listen, I love sports. I'm all about sports. But if travel ball comes first in your life, you've missed it. Just gonna be honest.
And we do a lot of things and stuff. And I'll just be honest with you, I can speak very transparently about this because we love sports, and my kids play sports, and my son plays travel baseball.
Okay, so when I say that, I want you to know I'm right there with you, I love it.
So The only reason we were able to say yes to travel baseball is because we found a team. It doesn't play on Sundays. It might happen once a season or something like that. But we found a team that wouldn't do that because listen, there's a lot of travel baseball teams that play all the time on Sunday. And what we're teaching our families and our kids is this: that for us, is that this Sabbath day that was instituted by God, created God for you, whatever, we're not going to do because we're going to busy up our schedule.
And we're going to forget the main thing in life. And by the way, we're raising up generations as well in the midst of this. And that's why, for us, we got to make this an important thing in our life. If you're still with me, say amen. I feel like, okay, I feel a little tension in here, and I don't want that, okay?
And so the point is: this, and we don't have it all figured out. And I know you can probably look to my life and say, well, Pastor, I remember you did this. And listen, I've probably broken the fourth commandment like you have and stuff like this. And I'm praising God that I'm under grace and that I can ask for forgiveness and stuff. But we need to get back to the sacredness and importance of what this was for.
So for us, we need to make it a priority. The gathering needs to be a priority. It's a Sabbath day to remember what Christ has done for you. And then the second thing, the second purpose is this. We should rest on the Sabbath day.
We should rest on the Sabbath day. Exodus 20 compares the Sabbath day. To the day that God rested.
So, in other words, he rested on the seventh day.
Now, here's what I want you to know up front: God did not rest because he was tired. That's not why he rested. He wasn't like, man, there was a lot on me. I'm winded. I'm I'm exhausted.
No, God did not institute the Sabbath because he was exhausted and tired. He instituted the Sabbath because he knows that we get tired and we get exhausted. Listen, I'm just going to tell you, you need rest. If you're like me, I'm a workaholic. Any workaholics, be honest, I'm right there with you.
I'm with it. I just feel like if I'm not at work, I'm lazy. I feel that way, literally. I could have a day off, and you know what? I feel like I got to be doing something.
Or when I talk to someone, hey, what'd you do today? It's like I got to say, man, I got to share with them the list of work stuff I did because I don't want them to feel that I'm lazy. And listen, that's a lot of us in our culture because we've prided ourselves off busyness. We've prided ourselves off of work ethic. And we feel that our work ethic is so important that we got to walk around and we got to work as hard as we can.
And listen, working hard is important. And I'm not going to downplay that. You should work hard, okay? But we need to understand that the Sabbath day was instituted for rest. Every single one of you needs a Sabbath in your life.
Every single one of you. You know, for because listen, we live in a busy society. We're overworked, we're sleep deprived.
So there should be a day when you're off.
So, personally, here's what this looks like for me. We have done something different, and it's hard. But we're trying to give our pastoral staff a day off. You want to know why? It's because they work on Sunday, whether you want to admit that or not, whether you want to see that or not.
Our pastoral staff's here all morning and a lot of times at night, they're working, they're preparing things.
So, you know what we did? If you try to call Pastor Bailey on a Friday, I hope he doesn't pick up your phone call. Because he needs a Sabbath.
Now, if it's an emergency, that's a different story, but he deserves a day off. All of our pastors and our leaders, they need a day off because Sunday's not like for us what it is for you.
So what we've done is we've tried to incorporate that recently so that our staff can have a day off during the week because they don't get a true restful day. If they're not careful. And it's important. Another thing that I do personally. A lot of our closest friends know this about me.
I don't like to be out late on Saturday.
So like, listen. Every now and then, there is a necessity that I have to be at something, but here's what I'll tell you about my life. If you're going to ask me to go out to eat on Saturday, I will more than likely say yes. And we will do it early in the evening. And if you ask me to do other things on Saturday night, I'm probably going to decline those things.
Not because I don't like, well, some of you, and so, but, you know, that's neither, okay. Doking, but the point is, it's not because I don't like anybody, it's not because I'm no fun. Trust me, I would love. I love people, and I'm an extrovert. I would love to be out and about, but here's the thing: I want to come into Sunday so rested and so recharged, ready, because here's what I'll tell you: if I'm really out late on Saturday night and then I come in here and I'm exhausted and all I want to do is sit on that front row and I have no energy to worship, I have no energy to reflect, I have no energy to meditate upon what Christ has done for me, isn't that a lot of us?
We're so busy on the weekend. We come in here and we're just exhausted. Half of us can't even stay awake in a sermon. Don't nudge the person next to you. But the point is, is this: it's because we're busy, we're busy, we're busy, and we come into Sunday and we're not rested because in the Jewish.
you know, for them, Jewish history, they would start their Sabbath on like the night before.
So it'd start Friday night and it would go into Saturday night. And so they would rest and they would recharge and they would do nothing. And all they would do is focus and remember. Their deliverance out of the bondage of Egypt. And they would rest that, hey, listen, God is going to provide.
They wouldn't work. They wouldn't do anything so that they had all of their mental energy. To focus on one thing. What God has done for them.
Okay.
