Let's open the scriptures this evening to Genesis chapter 16. Genesis 16, we will read the chapter. And the text for this evening's sermon is verses seven through 13, which I will not be rereading due to their length. Genesis chapter 16. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear him no children. Allow me to pause there. At this point in the history, it's still Sarai, not Sarah, and Abram, not Abraham. If I call them Sarah and Abraham in the course of the sermon, you know who I'm talking about. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bear him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand. Do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. And now the words of the text through verse 13. And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou, and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, behold, thou art with child, and thou shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Ishmael, because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man, His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou, God, seest me. For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore, the well was called Bir Lahairoi, Behold, it is between Kadesh and Beredn. And Hagar bare Abram a son, and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. Monday, a woman crumples to the ground just after she walks into the house. For the doctor had used that dreaded word, cancer. And now with tears streaming down her face, She looks up to heaven and says, why would you let this happen? Tuesday, an office bearer in the church lies awake on his bed after another discouraging meeting. Sleep eludes him. as he rehearses everything that was said in the night, and as he quietly wonders, God, where are you? Wednesday. A mother in the home spends her entire day cleaning messes, correcting children, and cooking food. And knowing she's going to do the same things the next day, and then the next day after that, she wonders whether her life makes any real difference in the eyes of her creator and her redeemer. Thursday, a student at school spends another recess on the playground all alone. And when at last the bell finally rings and his swing comes to a halt, he whispers under his breath, God, why didn't you give me any friends? Friday. A young couple stands by the side of a grave. A tiny casket is in front of them. And when the tears start flowing again, they once again utter the same prayer. Lord, help us to be content with your will. Saturday, husband and wife crawl into bed. Ample distance between them. Backs toward each other. They had yelled at each other yet again. And though not a word is spoken in bed, they are both thinking the exact same thing. How did it ever come to this? Sunday. Before exiting her car, a member in the church puts on a face to try to mask the inner turmoil within her heart. And as she sits down in the pew, she quietly prays, Lord, help me to focus not on my worries, but on your worship. As a pastor, I know these people. I know their names, their faces, their stories. I know them. But so do you. Because we are these people. Those who feel unseen, unheard, For though your particular burden, your particular trial might not align with one of the seven examples that we just gave, every one of us lives in the midst of this fallen world. Every one of us experiences the manifold effects of the curse. We know what it is to suffer. And in the midst of that suffering, one of the temptations that we encounter is the temptation to think, nobody sees me, nobody hears me, and nobody cares. And to address that temptation, We consider tonight God's dealings with Hagar. We consider the history recorded for us in Genesis chapter 16, which is to say we're not interested tonight in the allegorical interpretation of this history that's given to us in Galatians chapter four, but we are interested in God's dealings with this runaway daughter. And we consider this history to see the beautiful truth that God does see, God does hear, and God does care. Because he is El Rai, the God who sees me. That was Hagar's beautiful confession that she made in response to God's compassion that he showed upon her during a difficult time in her life. And it's that truth that we want to consider this evening, especially for the sake of the comforting of our souls. So tonight we consider Genesis 16, seven through 13, using as our theme, Hagar seen by the Lord. First, we'll look at the compassion on Hagar, second, we'll look at the confession of Hagar, and third, the comfort for Hagar's, and the S there is deliberate because we are the Hagar's, it's meant to be plural. Hagar seen by the Lord, the compassion, the confession, and the comfort. Pregnant, exhausted, angry, frightened, and alone. That was Hagar as she sat down by a well of water alongside of a road. But now before we can understand what she was going through and how she got there, we first need to back up in this history Recognize who is this woman and how did she ever come to this well? Well, she's identified for us at the very beginning of this chapter. Chapter 16, verse one says that Sarai had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. So she's a handmaid of Abram and Sarai. That is, she is a female servant. And specifically, she's an Egyptian, which reminds us of the time that Abram and Sarai went to sojourn in the land of Egypt during a time of famine. It was the first time that Abram lied about the identity of his wife, really the relationship he had to his wife. And Pharaoh treated Abram and Sarai well. And we read in that connection in Genesis 12 verse 16, and he entreated Abram well for her sake and he had sheep and oxen and he asses and men servants and maid servants. So that almost certainly this Hagar is one of the servants that Abram and Sarai acquired during their time in Egypt. But now she's been brought up out of the land of Egypt, brought into the covenant community. so that she would have been instructed in the truths of who God is. She would have learned of him as Jehovah, the covenant God, because scripture tells us that Abram was faithful in instructing his entire household, including his servants. But now at this point in the history, she's pregnant. That's what we read in Genesis 16, verse four, and he went in unto Hagar and she conceived. For prior to this, God had made promises to Abram. He had promised that he would make of Abram a great nation and that his descendants would inherit the land. But understand that that promise depended on having a child first, a son. And now Abram and Sarai have been sojourning in the land of promise for 10 full years and as of yet, They have no son. And then the whole promise hinges on them first having a son. And so in the weakness of their faith, they try to help God's promise along as it were. And they come up with a plan that's recorded for us in verse two. And Sarai said unto Abram, behold now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her." And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. Now for Abram to do this certainly would have been in harmony with the customs, the practices of the nations around him and of that culture in that day, but it was not at all in harmony with God's will and God's word. And it betrayed his lack of faith at this time. But in the end, he does go in unto Hagar and she does conceive and she is now pregnant. And this led to a great deal of trouble. It became the occasion for sin. It became the occasion for Hagar to sin. We read of her sin in verse four. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she, Hagar, saw that she had conceived, her mistress, that is Sarai, was despised in her eyes. She came to despise Sarai. She viewed her as nothing. And likely this is indicating that Sarai probably supposed that she would now have the place of preeminence in Abram's household because she was the one who could at last give him a child. So Hagar sins in this history. But this also becomes the occasion for Sarai to sin. And we read of that in the subsequent verses. Verse five, Sarai goes to Abram, says, my wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy bosom. And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes, the Lord judge between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold thy maid is in thy hand, do to her as it pleaseth thee. And now notice especially this, and when Sarai dealt hardly with her. She oppressed her. She afflicted her. She made Hagar's life miserable. And that was sin. There was trouble in the home. And this is a reminder to us that this is always what happens when we walk in the path of sin. Sin makes a mess of things. Do not believe the lie of the devil. Sin does not bring happiness. It does not bring joy. It does not bring blessedness or contentment. Sin brings trouble. And it was from that trouble that Hagar fled, that's her response to this, even as we read at the end of verse six, and when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she, Hagar, fled from her face. So that in verse seven, we read that she's by a fountain of water, that is by a well of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur, that is alongside of the road, the path leading to Shur. We must understand that she's trying to run away here. She's not stepping outside for a few moments to cool off. She's not going for a brief vacation intending to return soon. She is running away altogether. And this was foolish on her part. Yes, she has been mistreated and there's no minimizing that. But this is not the right response to that. Because in running away, she's turning her back upon the covenant community. She's leaving the church of that day. But evidently, none of that mattered to her at this time. And evidently, all that she knew was the experience of being oppressed. So she flees and she comes to this well. Do you see her there? Pregnant, exhausted, angry, Frightened and alone. And no doubt overwhelmed with a thought. Nobody sees me. Nobody hears me. And nobody cares. Child of God, can you identify with Hagar? Have you ever been alone in the wilderness, as it were? Then let what happens next truly thrill your soul. Because what happens next is that the Lord himself comes to Hagar and speaks with her. That's what we read about in verse 7. Verse 7, and the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness. Verse 7 speaks of the angel of the Lord and we must understand that this angel is the Lord. And that becomes very clear when we continue reading in this history and come to the confession that we'll talk about in the second point that's mentioned in verse 13. In verse 13, Hagar will make the confession and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God seest me. so that she recognized this angel is God himself, not just an angel, a messenger sent by God coming from his throne, but the angel who is the Lord himself. And more specifically, this is the second person of the Trinity, the son of God coming to her. Because understand that within the Trinity, among the three persons, if one of those three is going to come down into this world in order to comfort, to console one of his people by revealing himself to her, by speaking to her, it's going to be the second person. The second person who in the fullness of time would come down to be born of a woman. So that what we have here in Genesis 16 is what we call a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. Pre-incarnate. The incarnation is when Jesus Christ would come, not just in the form of a man, not just appearing as a man, but he would truly assume our flesh and blood. He would clothe himself in our humanity and become a real man. But prior to the incarnation, pre-incarnate, He would show up at different times in the history of His church. Not yet assuming to Himself a true human nature, but simply coming in the form of a man. He appeared as a man, even as He did here. This is the pre-incarnate Christ. This is our Savior. And if you have any doubts about that, consider his seeking, hear his voice, and look at his heart, all of which are here in this passage. Consider his seeking. Seven tells us, and the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness. He found her. And is that not the work of our Good Shepherd? Yea, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. And that's exactly what he's doing here. He pursues after one of his wandering sheep. And he does not rest until he finds her. And notice still more that it says he found her by a fountain, that is by a well of water. And does that not remind us of the history recorded for us in the book of John when Jesus Christ would find another woman? by a different well of water when he found that Samaritan woman by Jacob's well. When he brought salvation to that woman. So here he finds Hagar. Either to bring her to salvation for the first time, or to preserve her in the salvation that he had already begun. And notice still more that it says, He found her by a fountain, a well of water in the wilderness. And did not our Savior tell us about His willingness to leave the ninety and nine behind to pursue after that one lost sheep? That's what He's doing here. She's run away from the covenant community. She's gone out not just into a physical wilderness, but to the spiritual wilderness, and yet he pursues after her. And he did not fail in his search, as indeed he never does. And it's when we look at this seeking, when we see the feet of this angel of the Lord, when we look at his motions, his movements, We say, that's my Savior. I recognize Him beyond a shadow of a doubt. That's my Shepherd. It's unmistakable in light of His seeking. And it becomes even clearer when we hear His voice. When we hear Him speaking to Hagar. Because He does speak And the first thing he does in speaking to her is to convict her of her sin, verse eight. And he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence camest thou and whither wilt thou go? He addresses her as Hagar, Sarai's maid. That is, he states her name and her position, making very clear he's known her all along. He does not need any sort of introduction. And then he asks those two piercing questions. Whence camest thou? And whither wilt thou go? Whence camest thou? Do you not remember? the mercy of God in bringing you out of Egypt and into the covenant community, your hope lies in Abram's tents. And yet you are flying away from that blessedness. Do you not understand what you are giving up? Whence camest thou? And whither will you go? Are you gonna press on to the wilderness? To die of hunger or to die of thirst? You're gonna go back to Egypt? Are you waiting alongside the road for someone to pick you up and take you back down there? So you can have some cruel master instead of Abram? Do you not see that the path you are on is the pathway that leads to destruction? Whither wilt thou go? Two piercing questions. designed to convict her of her sin. But he not only convicts, he also commands. He commands her in verse nine, and the angel of the Lord said unto her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands. And now he does not minimize the difficulty. He speaks of it as submission. This is going to be hard. But knowing that the path of sin only brings trouble, he calls her to return to the right path of obedience. And to help her in that, He also comforts her. He's convicted her, he's commanded her, and he comforts her. He comforts her with the beautiful promises in verses 10 and 11. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, behold, thou art with child, and thou shalt bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Ishmael. Hagar, I have a blessing in store for you too. I'm going to give you a son. I'm going to make of him a great nation, and I'm going to give to him a land. He makes promises to her concerning her seed. And this is meant to comfort her, to encourage her to go back, knowing it's going to be difficult for her to return. He makes this promise. I have a plan for your life too. Not just for your master Abram. And it's when we hear this angel of the Lord speaking to her, we say, that's my shepherd. I recognize His voice speaking to one of His sheep. The same voice that comes to me and convicts me of my sin. With piercing questions in His Word. The same voice that commands me to live a life of obedience out of thankfulness for what He's done for me. And the same voice that comforts with so many blessed and beautiful promises. This is the pre-incarnate Christ. And if you still do not believe me in light of His seeking, in light of His voice, then let his heart be what removes all doubt, and specifically his heart of compassion. Even as we see it here in this passage, specifically in verse 11. And that last phrase, thou shalt call his name Ishmael because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And what makes that so beautiful is that it does not say, the Lord hath heard thy cry. It does not say that he heard your prayer or your supplication or your request. And it does not say that because every indication is that she has not yet cried out to God. Whether because she never thought of it, or whether on account of hardness in her heart she's refused to do so, there's no indication in the passage that she has looked to the Lord yet. And yet, we read, The Lord hath heard thy affliction. He heard your sighs of distress. He heard your groans of despair. Though you have not cried out to him, your affliction did. And he heard your affliction. And that points us to the compassion of our Savior. We're given a glimpse into his heart, a heart that sympathizes with us in our trouble, a heart full of pity, full of tenderness toward his people. And it's that compassion. that pity, that sympathy within the heart of our Savior that stands behind the action, the fact that He went out to pursue her, to find her, to reveal Himself to her. And oh, how gracious He was in this. Because what was there in Hagar that would lead Him to do this? What was there in this runaway slave that would cause him to seek her and to find her? The explanation is grace. God's grace. This is divine mercy here. And it makes it unmistakable. That's my Savior, Jesus Christ. Not yet come as a real man, but in the form of a man. And come to do the work of the shepherd, namely to restore her soul. That's what he does here. Hagar left, exhausted, angry, frightened, and she's gonna go back completely changed. Because the Lord revealed himself to her, showed himself to her, spoke to her, so that she came to know him more fully, more deeply, and came to know his compassion for her as one of the daughters of the Most High. And it was knowing his compassion upon her that led her to make the beautiful confession that she does here. And that confession of Hagar is found in verse 13. Verse 13, and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God seest me. For she said, have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Now in coming to these verses, it's worth acknowledging that there's considerable debate. about how to understand this confession that she makes in verse 13, and there are really two different sides, two different opinions. There are some who say that when she makes this confession in verse 13, she's expressing her amazement that God saw her, that he looked upon her, and that's clearly the way that the King James takes it. Thou seest me. But there are others who say, no, no, that's not quite the idea. She's expressing her amazement that she was allowed to see God and to live to tell about it. And the reason for the debate is that, admittedly, verse 13 is quite hard to understand. The Hebrew here is very difficult and it really could go either way. And that's true of both halves of verse 13. She says, it says that, She called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, thou God seest me. And those four words in our English are two words in the Hebrew. In the English we would say El Roy, E-L space R-O-I. In the Hebrew it's pronounced El Roy. And the difficulty is that you have the name God, El, and the Roy, It has to do with seeing, but it could be seeing really in two different senses. It could be that she's expressing that God saw me, or it could be that she saw God, that this is the God of seeing in the sense of he appeared unto her. And the same difficulty carries through the rest of the verse there. I will not get into the technicalities of the Hebrew, but suffice it to say, the second half of the verse Have I also here looked after him that seeth me could likewise be understood in either way. And now in the end, there's no way for me to tell you with absolute certainty what Hagar meant when she said this. For while we are taught Hebrew in seminary, I am no scholar. I'm not qualified to try to make some definitive pronouncement about what she meant here. But I'm also not sure that we need to. Because do not both interpretations fit perfectly well with the history that we just considered? Think about it, it really could go either way. It could very well be that she says, the Lord is El Rai in the sense that he saw me. So that in this it would be a confession of God's omnipresence and his omniscience. The truth that he sees and knows all things, whether they take place in the middle of a city or out in the middle of the wilderness. Whether something happens on top of the highest mountain in the world or in the depths of the lowest parts of the sea. God sees, he knows all things. He is omniscient. He knows all things with a perfect and immediate knowledge. But if that's what Hagar has in view, surely it goes deeper than that. If she's saying, this God sees me, surely she has in mind God's special interest in the hearts and lives of His people. So that while yes, it's true, God sees He knows His entire vast creation and the movements of every single creature upon this earth. And yes, while it's true that He knows the wicked, they're sitting down and they're uprising once again. Yet, He has a special interest in the hearts and lives of His people. So if this is what Hagar meant, no doubt it's that she's astounded that this God would see me personally. That He looked upon me in my affliction. That He saw the inner turmoil within my heart. And He saw me and He heard me even though I was not looking to Him. Even though I was not crying out to Him. And he looked upon me not just in some general way, but with a look of tender care and loving concern. That interpretation fits perfectly well with the history. But it could also go the other way. That she's saying, he's the God who sees in the sense, he's the God who let himself be seen. He's the God who appeared unto me. For after all, he sought me out. There I was alone in the wilderness. I had concluded no one sees, no one hears, no one cares. And yet he came to me. He showed up when I least expected it. He appeared in the hour of my greatest need. In what is more, He revealed Himself to me. He let me see Him. He let me hear His voice. Though I was a runaway slave. Though I had turned my back upon the covenant community. He let me see Him. He let me hear His voice so that He's given to me the same blessed privilege that He gave to my master Abram. He's come to my master before to speak to him, to make all these wonderful promises. And now he's done the very same thing for me, a servant. And wonder of wonders, I'm still alive to tell about it. Because this God is a consuming fire. And I'm a wretch of a sinner. And yet I have not been consumed. I'm still living, I'm still breathing. And that too fits perfectly well with the history. So that if we want to know what Hagar herself meant by this, we're gonna have to wait until we get to heaven. And we can ask her for ourselves, Hagar, when you made that confession, what exactly did you have in mind? In the meantime, I leave it up to you to decide which interpretation you prefer. But I will acknowledge that I wonder if the Hebrew is deliberately vague so that it does communicate, it's meant to communicate both ideas. Because it's both truths. that provide such comfort for us. And we do need this comfort. For there are times that we can very much identify with Hagar as she sat down alone in the wilderness. There are times in which we too are afflicted There are times in which our lives feel absolutely miserable. It's true for every one of us to one degree or another, whether that affliction is known broadly to the church as a whole, or whether it's very private and known to no one else. And what can compound the difficulty is that at times, That affliction is directly connected to our sin. Not always, certainly not always. There was not a direct connection between Job's suffering and some sin he had committed. There was not a direct connection between the man born blind in John chapter nine and the blindness he experienced. But for Hagar, there was a connection. Now I say again, yes, she was being mistreated. And there's no minimizing that. But by running away, her sin only aggravated the difficulty. And the same can be true for us that at times, the trials, the afflictions are the chasing hand of the Lord upon us. But either way, Whether the difficulty is connected to sin or not, there's still the same temptation. To think no one sees, no one hears, and no one cares. No one has any idea how hard my life is right now. No one knows, but I have to put up with day after day after day. And even if they did know, I'm not so sure that they would care. And in fact, this has been going on for so long, I'm beginning to wonder if God himself cares. If God himself sees me, if God himself hears me, it sure doesn't feel like it right now. Child of God, that's the devil. It's the devil who wants you to think that God does not see, that God does not hear, and that God does not care, and it's not true. It's not true. Because this God is El Rai. He's the God who sees. So that Monday through Sunday, when we are at a loss, when we are downcast and discouraged, when our hearts are filled with shame, Despair, sorrow, and grief. This God never closes his eyes. He never turns and looks the other way. He's the God who sees it. and looks upon us in our affliction, not with the general look whereby he looks upon any creature in this vast creation, but with that look of mercy that he has for his most precious creatures, his blood-bought sheep. His eyes are full of compassion as he looks upon you. It's true. That's his name here. He is Elra'i, and understand, this is not just Hagar's special name. It's not just that she's the only one who gets to call him this, but God himself reveals this name to us. God wants us to know this name. He wants us to know this truth about him. He wants us to know that as surely as he numbers the hairs upon her head, and collects all of our tears in a bottle. So surely, he counts the fissures in your fragile heart. He weighs the burdens that you bear upon your shoulders. He measures the grief and the sorrow that you live with. He tallies the minutes that you lie awake on your bed at night, unable to sleep. He sees that pain that no one else knows about, child of God, and he hears your affliction. and seeing it and hearing it, he then comes to us. When we are all alone in the wilderness, he draws near. He sits down with us in our suffering, and he holds our trembling souls. He's not a far away Savior. But He's very near to us. And He's near to us by His Spirit and His Word. By His Spirit. The Spirit that has been there all along. The Spirit that we had forgotten is even within our hearts. The Spirit who redirects our spiritual eyesight to our Savior. Who points us to the Good Shepherd and reminds us of His faithfulness toward us. He's with us by his word, his revelation of himself to us, his self-disclosure of himself, his word through which we can hear his voice calling out to us, convicting us of our own sin, commanding us, comforting us with all those beautiful promises. And what makes this even more amazing is that He does all of this in spite of our sin. Because we're the ones who go astray. We're the ones who turn our backs upon Him and wander out into the wilderness. And when we do that, we are giving Him every reason to say to us, You wanna leave? Fine, go ahead, see if I care. But child of God, he does not entertain that thought for even a moment. That thought never even once enters his mind. But instead, when we go astray, when we wander off as sheep, in his steadfast covenantal love, He pursues after us into the wilderness. He does not rest until He finds us, picks us up, places us upon His own divine shoulders, and carries us all the way home. Do you see what a good God we have? He is El-Rei. And understand that the way He interacts with the way he addresses Hagar is meant to be representative. This is his dealings with every one of us. So take comfort. Find your consolation in this truth. God sees you. He hears you, and He most certainly cares about you. And knowing that, may it be that it is the encouragement we need to then respond with both praise and service. Because that's Hagar's response. She praised Him. That's what she's doing in verse 13 with the confession that she makes. She's glorifying the name of this God. May the same be true of us that knowing His faithfulness to us, His compassion upon us, that it would lead us to praise Him from the heart. But it also led Hagar to serve. She went back. She did. She did exactly what the angel of the Lord had commanded her to do. Clinging to those promises that she'd been given, she submitted herself to the hands of Sarai once again. May God give us the grace to do the same. knowing that it may very well continue to be difficult. Tonight's sermon is no promise that all the difficulties are just gonna vanish come tomorrow. But instead, it's meant to comfort us and encourage us to press on, knowing that there will continue to be difficulties. But knowing this, that in the midst of it all God sees me, he hears me and he cares, and thus he will be with me. Amen. Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for our Savior Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, And we praise Thee for His great faithfulness to us. And we pray that Thou will now comfort our souls by taking this word and applying it to our hearts and giving us the encouragement we need for the week that lies ahead. Hear this prayer for Christ's sake. Amen.