In the Old Testament, God revealed his will mostly through designated representatives who were filled by the Holy Spirit for a specific time and specific purpose. Moses, Samuel, and Jeremiah are a few.

In the New Covenant, God promises his Holy Spirit to guide, encourage, comfort, and discipline every believer from the moment they put their trust in Jesus Christ until the moment they’re with God for eternity.

We just can’t overemphasize the importance of having the Holy Spirit – our Counselor – offering us God’s guidance every moment of every day. We don’t need to try to find some mystical plan that God has hidden from us when we have access to his wisdom at all times.

That’s the advice James gives to us in his letter of practical guidance. He’s addressed his letter to Jewish Christians all over the Roman Empire. These are people who have experienced persecution from their families, from their neighbors and employers, even from the authorities.

They’re not sure how God wants them to respond. And so James gives them this encouragement:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1:2-5)

The first step in seeking God’s guidance is simply to:

1. Ask for it!

In the words he uses, it’s clear that James isn’t talking about some wispy, theoretical wisdom. He’s talking about the kind of wisdom that guides you in your everyday life. The kind of wisdom that dictates how you’ll reflect Christ in the hectic stress of the office, or in the chaotic mess of a house with young kids. It determines how you respond to your precious child after he throws his bottle on the floor for the 10th time. It controls what you’ll do when you’re flipping through TV channels, and the show is on that catches your eye, but you know is destructive to your soul.

James is more interested in this everyday wisdom because he realizes that the big decisions we make in life are crucially affected by the little choices we make every day.

When I started out in ministry, I worked for a very well known as a pastor, author, radio speaker. One day during a staff meeting, he told us a story about being at the bank that week. He was in a hurry, late for an appointment, so he rushed up to the teller, and asked to withdraw $80.

He signed the withdrawal slip, took the money, and hurried out. As he was walking, he counted his money, and noticed the teller had given him five 20’s instead of four. He paused for a second as thoughts flooded his mind: “I’m late. I don’t have time to go back. They won’t miss it. This happens all the time. What should I do?”

Immediately, he sensed the Holy Spirit nudging him to go back. Grumbling, he made his way back through the maze of the queue, and finally got back to the teller. “You gave me $100, not $80” he growled.

“I know,” she said, “I know you’re the pastor of that church up the street, and I wanted to see what you would do. I was ready to have the guard stop you if you went out that door.”

After he told us about his experience, I never went to a bank teller again! Strictly ATM’s.

His story reminded me that the easy way out is to keep walking, and that’s true in so many areas of our lives. The easy way out is to keep walking and ignore the sin. Ignore the injustice. Ignore the pain.

But that’s not God’s way out, and he promises to tell you what his way is.

Still, there’s a condition on that promise. We’ll discover it tomorrow.

God is in control of all things, and he has a plan for the universe and for your life. But there are a few misconceptions people have when it comes to discerning that plan:

1. Since God has a plan, he always intends us to know it

We assume that if God has a plan, he must want to share it with us. And many times, God is gracious in giving us a glimpse of His will as he did through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But not always.

In fact, that’s the basic message of the book of Job – God may be up to things that we never know about. God may allow terrible things to happen to us, without ever explaining why.

One of my favorite movies of all time was the Mel Gibson flick Signs. On the surface, it’s a movie about crop circles and aliens. But at its core, it asks a theological question – does God have a purpose for everything that happens in life?

The movie concludes that he does, but unfortunately also concludes that if we’re looking hard enough, we can always see that purpose. It also stumbles into the second common misconception:

2. We can know God’s plan through inward feelings or outward signs

Many Christians would say, “No way – I’m much too mature to be relying on some mystical feeling or some smoke signal in the sky.”

But how many of us have used the Random-Bible-Page-Flip method to find God’s advice for dealing with a tough time? How many of us have tried to empty our minds so that we can follow the first thing that pops into our heads after we pray about a life decision?

How many young Christian guys worked out a system of divining God’s will for finding a prom date or even a wife? “If she answers, then she’s the one. If the line is busy, then I’ll call back later. If I get the answering machine, then it’s not God’s will.”

There’s no doubt that God could use any way He wants to convey his will to us. But even the most serious and somber Christians have a tendency to get a little wacky when they’re trying to discern God’s guidance.

I like how J.I. Packer says it in Knowing God, “The idea of a life in which the inward voice of the Spirit decides and directs everything sounds most attractive, for it seems to exalt the Spirit’s ministry and to promise the closest intimacy with God, but in reality this quest for supersprituality leads only to frantic bewilderment.”

Closely related to the idea that we should focus on inward feelings or look for outward signs is this misconception:

3. If we follow God’s plan, life will be easier

Many Christians like to use the example of Jonah. When he disobeyed God’s will, and refused to go to Ninevah, he was afflicted with all sorts of troubles – being swallowed by a whale was just one of them.

For sure, when life gets hard for us, it’s a good time to reflect on how we might have fallen into sin. How God might be disciplining us. But that’s not the only possibility.

While we look at the example of Jonah, it’s also helpful to look at the example of Jeremiah. Here was a prophet who faithfully obeyed the Lord. He courageously brought God’s message to a people who wanted to kill him. And what was his reward for following the Lord’s leading? Life only got worse for him, to the point that he cursed the day he was born.

When we follow God’s guidance, when we’re in the center of God’s will, it most often means life will be harder, not easier.

We can’t look for God’s leading in inward feelings or outward signs – we can’t depend on the easiness of our life as assurance that we’re doing God’s will. But there is a way to get back on track – there is a biblical model to determine how God is guiding us. We’ll explore that later this week.

As an adoptive father, this story filled my eyes with water and my heart with anger:

The boy was only 7, but he walked off the plane that arrived in Moscow from Washington all alone, carrying a knapsack with magic markers and candy, along with a single typewritten note. It was from a woman in Tennessee who had adopted him in Russia last year, but was overwhelmed by what she described as his emotional problems and wanted nothing more to do with him. Take him back, the note said.

“After giving my best to this child, I am sorry to say that for the safety of my family, friends and myself, I no longer wish to parent this child,” she wrote.

I know how this woman felt. Every parent, by adoption or birth, has wondered at times if their kids came with a return policy. What a contrast this is to the Father who has adopted difficult, rebellious, unsafe kids like us… for good:

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:14-15)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

“They shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. (Jeremiah 32:38-40)

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:27-29)

“I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

It’s that time of year when many people are making big decisions. College students are deciding how they’ll balance work and play over the summer, hoping for the maximum amount of play. New graduates are deciding what kind of life they’ll pursue after they leave the warm cocoon of campus life. Families are deciding what summer programs and sports they’ll put their kids in, and where they’ll send their kids to school next fall.

If they’re following God, all those people will want to get his guidance on all those big decisions. Maybe they’ll pray for him to give them a sign. Maybe they’ll look for open and closed doors. Maybe they’ll flip their Bibles open to random verses and try to decode a hidden message from it.

But James promises that God will give his wisdom to anyone who asks (James 1:5). No tricks, signs, or hidden-message-decoding required. So how can we receive it? When it comes to God’s guidance, there are a few fundamental truths that are important to remember.

1. God is separate and superior

In Isaiah 55:8-9, God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways… For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” In this section of Isaiah, God is speaking to Israelites who have been exiled to Babylon. Jerusalem has been destroyed, and they’re not sure what God is doing on earth, if he’s even doing anything at all.

God confronts this doubt by explaining that his plans might not make sense to us, because his perspective and wisdom is so much higher than ours. When we start to glimpse the fullness of God’s transcendence, we start to see that God isn’t really my co-pilot, as the old bumper-sticker reads. God isn’t just my best buddy, as many of us imagine him to be. He is separate and superior – his ways are higher than ours!

Isaiah makes this point again in chapter 57:15, “Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place.”

But that’s not all. The complete sentence reads like this: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly,and to revive the heart of the contrite.

God makes a profound statement here. In the first part, he reinforces how holy he is – literally, that means “set apart.” But the second part concerns the fundamental truth of the immanence, or nearness, of God. Not only is he separate and superior, also…

2. God is up close and personal.

As Paul said it to the philosophers in Athens, “God is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being.” God isn’t just my best buddy, but He’s also not some distant deity, watching the events here on earth like it’s a TV show. He’s active in nature, in history and government, in the media, and especially in the lives of those who are “contrite and lowly in spirit”

God is always at work in the world, in each person’s individual life. And in his wisdom he has a purpose for all of this work:

3. God has a sovereign plan

In Ephesians 1:9-11, Paul says that God has “made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

When the BIble uses the word mystery, it’s not something that you have to work really hard to try to figure out. It’s not like a Scooby Doo episode. When they were romping around asking, “Who’s in that ghost costume scaring people away from the castle?” I always wanted to yell at the TV, “It’s the owner of the castle, you idiots! It’s always the owner of the castle!”

A mystery in biblical terms is a truth that was unknown, now revealed. And God’s will is “to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.” All things in heaven and earth are going to be under Christ’s rule. Whether they know it or not. Whether they like it or not. People, animals, trees, rocks, mountains, fish, birds… everything.

In Romans 8, Paul says, “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Jesus Christ didn’t just come to get people into heaven. He came to redeem the entire universe from corruption and decay.

God’s plan for each one of us is to use us for that greater purpose. And in each decision we make, he’ll be guiding us to be part of that grand storyline of his redemptive plan. His plan is not to give comfort and security and fun at all times to you. It’s to unite all things in Christ through you.

Knowing this is like having a big map in front of us for our life’s journey. But even when we can look at a map, that doesn’t guarantee we won’t get lost. There are a few common misconceptions that can detour us. We’ll explore those next week.

On Easter Sunday, we saw how God became our righteousness when he died on a cross and rose from the dead. Still, we like to manufacture our own righteousness by coming up with our own yardsticks to measure righteous living.

Nobody’s immune from it. By nature, fundamentalists love rules about what to believe and how to act, and look down on those who don’t. Liberals who supposedly hate the rules come up with their own rules for avoiding the rules, and look down on those intolerant people who still follow the rules. Even those of us in the middle have our own rules about staying “balanced,” and we look down on people who fall on one side or the other.

It’s called legalism, and Mark Driscoll offers seven easy steps to become a legalist:

1. Make rules outside the Bible.
2. Push yourself to try and keep your rules.
3. Castigate yourself when you don’t keep your rules.
4. Become proud when you do keep your rules.
5. Appoint yourself as judge over other people.
6. Get angry with people who break your rules or have different rules.
7. “Beat” the losers.

Kings just aren’t supposed to act the way our king did on this day almost two thousand years ago. So says D.A. Carson in Scandalous:

The mother of the apostles James and John approaches Jesus, along with her two sons, requesting a favor. “What is it you want?” he asks. She replies, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom” (Matt. 20:21). Clearly they anticipated that Jesus would sit as king in a quite normal, historical, physical sense, and make his apostles the members of his cabinet, and they were hoping that James and John would get the two top jobs – secretary of state and secretary of defense, perhaps.

Jesus tells them, in effect, that they have no idea what they are asking for: “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” he asks, referring, of course, to his impending suffering. With supreme overconfidence and massive ignorance, they reply, “We can” (v. 22). …

When the ten other apostles hear of the request of James and John and their mother, they are incensed – not, of course, because of the arrogance and impertinence of their request, but because the ten did not get their requests in first. So Jesus calls the Twelve together, and gives us one of the most important insights into the nature of the kingdom. He says, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (v. 25-28).

This profound utterance must not be misunderstood. Jesus does not mean that there is no sense in which he exercises authority. Transparently, that is not the case – and in the closing verses Matthew reminds us, as we have seen, that Jesus claims all authority in heaven and on earth.

What he means, rather, is something like this. The kings and rulers and presidents of this fallen world order exercise their authority out of a deep sense of self-promotion, out of a deep sense of wanting to be number one, out of a deep sense of self-preservation, even a deep sense of entitlement. By contrast, Jesus exercises his authority in such a way as to seek the good of his subjects, and that takes him, finally, to the cross.

I’m in SFO right now after a long but exhilarating two days of meetings in the Bay Area with some very wise and passionate leaders who share a humble desire to see God’s glory known throughout the world. When I get off the plane in 18 hours, I’ll be meeting four Harborites in a country that’s closed to the open proclamation of the gospel. We’ll be building relationships with unreached people by teaching English, doing medical checkups, and looking for business opportunities that might fund the long-term leadership training and church-planting we would like to see happen there.

Please pray for God to give us safety and health. One of our team members has wisdom teeth that suddenly appeared ready to pop out. Another who is scheduled to teach a CPR class there just lost his voice. But God is mighty and loving, and has already begun to bring healing.

Please pray for God to bring long-term fruit from our short 10-day trip. We want to plant seeds of relationships and ministries that will blossom over time into something beautiful.

A new church in town always attracts people who are dissatisfied with their current church. Some of them show up at Harbor with obvious scars from truly horrible churches. But others are simply escaping boredom or personality conflict in their previous churches and want to find a place where they will be more comfortable.

When I meet people from the first category, I pray with them and cry with them and praise the Lord for his deliverance. When I meet people from the second category, I usually tell them they should stay where they are.

As always, my motivations for doing so are mixed. When a new person complains to me about some pastor on the other side of town, I sinfully want to set a stopwatch to see how long they’ll be in our church before they start complaining about me. But on the other hand, I believe people should humbly work to influence their church for God’s glory until it’s absolutely clear that he is leading them elsewhere. Whether or not they are able to effect change in their church, God can use the struggle to effect change in their hearts.

This post reminded me of Wayne Grudem’s wise words on the subject:

If we are to work for the purity of the church, especially in the local church of which we are a part, we must recognize that this is a process, and that any church of which we are a part will be somewhat impure in various areas. There were no perfect churches at the time of the New Testament and there will be no perfect churches until Christ returns. This means that Christians have no obligation to seek the purest church they can find and stay there, and then leave it if an even purer church comes to their attention. Rather, they should find a true church in which they can have effective ministry and in which they will experience Christian growth as well, and then should stay there and minister, continually working for the purity of that church. God will often bless their prayers and faithful witness and the church will gradually grow in many areas of purity (Systematic Theology, 875)

Glenn Beck said this on a recent radio show (transcribed by CT):

I beg you, look for the words “social justice” or “economic justice” on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If I’m going to Jeremiah’s Wright’s church? Yes! Leave your church. Social justice and economic justice. They are code words. If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them, “Excuse me are you down with this whole social justice thing?” I don’t care what the church is. If it’s my church, I’m alerting the church authorities: “Excuse me, what’s this social justice thing?” And if they say, “Yeah, we’re all in that social justice thing,” I’m in the wrong place.

So is he right? Is “social justice” a code-word for bleeding-heart liberalism that quickly slides into godless socialism? Yes and no.

Social justice was a rallying cry for mainline churches 100 years ago who didn’t like to focus on individual sin and the necessity for repentance and life change required to deal with it. So instead they focused on societal sin and the things it bred: poverty and oppression. Walter Rauschenbush was a leading proponent of this major theological shift, and said this:

Because the individualistic conception of personal salvation has pushed out of sight the collective idea of a Kingdom of God on earth, Christian men seek for the salvation of individuals and are comparatively indifferent to the spread of the spirit of Christin the political, industrial, social, scientific, and artistic life of humanity, and have left these as the undisturbed possessions of the spirit of the world. (quoted from Walter Rauschenbush by Dores Sharpe)

This kind of thinking has dominated mainline churches in the West for the last century, leading them to equate holiness exclusively with social justice. This torch is now carried by emerging church leaders like Brian Maclaren, who said this:

I wonder if this gospel about how to get your soul into Heaven after death is really only a ghost of the real gospel that Jesus talked about, which seemed to have something to do with God’s will being done on earth now, not just in Heaven later.  …

Even if only a few would practice this new way, many would benefit. Oppressed people would be free. Poor people would be liberated from poverty. Minorities would be treated with respect. Sinners would be loved, not resented. Industrialists would realize that God cares for sparrows and wildflowers–so their industries should respect, not rape, the environment….The kingdom of God would come. (quoted from A Generous Orthodoxy)

In a sense, this liberal usurpation of the gospel is not unique to liberals. We all want to have tangible yardsticks to measure our faith by. A fundamentalist Christian measures his righteousness by how many beers he hasn’t consumed and how many godless companies he’s boycotted. A liberal Christian measures his righteousness by how many visits to a homeless shelter he’s taken and how many donations to a relief organization he’s made.

Instead, the Bible calls us to measure our righteousness by the perfect righteousness given to us by Christ. When we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as Lord, then the perfect life he lived for 33 years on earth is laid on top of our own:

He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10)

By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)

When we live in Christ’s righteousness, the result is that we become concerned about personal holiness and social justice. We start to live out the prophecy of Isaiah:

If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. (Isaiah 58:10)

We start to imitate the first words Jesus spoke when he began his ministry:

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-20)

We start to heed the admonishment of James:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:27)

Social justice is not a dirty word, as long as it is a fruit of personal holiness rather than a means of obtaining it. So sponsor a Compassion child. Bring dinner to a homeless guy. But do it with the humble realization that you are just as spiritually poor apart from God’s grace as the people you help are physically poor apart from yours.

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)

In his brand new book, Scandalous, Don Carson reflects on this passage from Romans 3:

Some of us have a view of the gospel that makes Jesus out to be something like an automobile club repairman: Jesus is a nice man, he’s a very, very nice man, and when you break down, he comes along and fixes you. Yet what Paul depicts here is that the nature of our brokenness turns first and foremost on our offensiveness to God. It is the wrath of God that is disclosed from heaven.

Paul is certainly not denying that there are many kinds of social parameters to sin; he is not overlooking the raw fact that sinners can also be victims. Perpetrators have very often been abused. Sin is a social thing. We commit sin, and we affect others. On the other hand, if we think of ourselves only in terms of victimhood, then we need only a healer or repairer.

Of course, the Bible can picture God and his salvation in these sorts of categories. Yet in the Bible the most fundamental category of all to which the biblical writers resort in order to portray the nature of the problem is our offensiveness before God. It follows that what we needed first and foremost for us to be saved – for this situation to change – is to provide a means by which we may be reconciled to this God.

When God leads his people in obvious ways, it doesn’t ensure that they’ll actually follow. So instead, God often leads from behind. That’s what he explained to Abraham in Genesis 17:1, ““I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.”

You could also say it, “Walk before me so that you can become blameless.” We need to walk before God. Live a life that’s completely open to God. A life that’s open to him looking at every part of our lives… even the hidden little parts that you’d rather keep in the dark. A life that’s open to him guiding you and exerting his influence over you. And as a result, he’ll make you blameless.

The image that God was trying to paint for Abraham, a guy who owned hundreds or thousands of sheep, was of a shepherd guiding his sheep. A shepherd doesn’t walk in front of his sheep and say “follow me!” A shepherd walks behind them, and guides with his voice and his staff.

It’s like teaching a kid to ride a bike, as I was just trying to do with my daughter Talia last week. She wanted me to walk in front of her and hold the handlebars, so she could see me at all times and be reassured by my presence. I tried it for about 30 seconds, but it was impossible. You need to walk behind the bike, holding the seat and helping to lean into the turns and stay straight.

There are times in life when God seems invisible. When it feels like you’re forging through uncharted territory, and you’re all by yourself. But the promise of God is that if you are walking before him – if you allow yourself to be open to his inspection and influence – then he’ll be guiding you from behind, with the purpose of making you blameless.

Everybody knows Romans 8:28, “God works all things together for the good of those who love him, those who are called according to his name.” Most of us conveniently forget the next verse, “ For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”

The good that God wants to accomplish in your life is to conform you to the likeness of his son. He’s working in all things, at all times, to make you more like Jesus!

.

Many people think following God would be so much easier if only he would make his will more evident. A Google map with directions would be nice: “Take a right at this college, then a left at that career, then go straight until you hit marriage.” Even better would be if God served as a tour guide, personally taking you from one lifestage to the next: “Follow me this way through pregnancy and childbirth. But watch your step… your wife is going to snore like a trucker during her last trimester, and she won’t believe you when you tell her.” Wouldn’t guidance like that be great?

There’s a small problem with this idealization. God has already proven that spiritual maps and tour guides don’t work.

He provided a detailed map to the Israelites suffering in slavery in Egypt: “I have come down to deliver you out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring you up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites” (Ex. 3:8). He even acted as a tour guide: “The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.” (Ex. 13:21).

What was the response of the Israelites who were on God’s tour bus? It wasn’t greater faith and obedience. It was greater disbelief and complaining. They became a bunch of spoiled toddlers: “The people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled” (Num. 11:1).

When God leads his people in very obvious ways, it actually hinders our spiritual development. That’s why, most of the time, God guides us from behind, gently nudging and prompting us like a shepherd guides his sheep.

Later this week we’ll explore why and how he does it.