If you'd find in your Bibles Genesis 21, Genesis 21, we'll be looking at verses 8 through, I didn't note it here, I think it's 34, 8 through the end of the chapter. Genesis 21, verse 8 through the end of the chapter. Here at the Shore Harvest Presbyterian Church, we believe the Bible to be the only infallible rule for faith and for practice. It is the only guide to what we must know and how we must live that is without error, that makes no mistake. And so if we want to understand this life, and if we want to understand how to live it, and more importantly, how to live in the next life, we must know this book. Genesis 21, beginning in verse 8. Genesis 21 is the long-awaited promise of God that has been fulfilled in the birth of Isaac. Sarah has given Abraham a biological heir. And Sarah, who upon the prophecy a year earlier of that child, of that birth, she laughed in disbelief, now is laughing in joyous exuberance, laughing out of excitement and pleasure. In fact, laughter is so central to Sarah's life and story, the child she has born is named Laughter. Isaac means the one who laughs. The theme of joy and celebration now continues here in verse 8, sadly, however, only for a very brief time. And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. Child mortality being what it was in the ancient world, surviving infancy was often celebrated, much as we still make a big deal over our first birthday party. We can't know Isaac's age at this point for sure, but records that have survived from this time period in Egypt suggest that Weening was normally sometime around age 3. Thus, Isaac is a toddler and he's walking and learning to talk. And if we do the math, Ishmael, his older half-brother, would be about 16. And that's going to be important in this story. Picking up in verse 9. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. Laughter continues to be a key word, but this is different. This is not the laughter of joy that we would have expected at a party, nor is it the laughter of disbelief which Sarah had once expressed. Rather, the Hebrew makes clear what we must infer in English. This was mockery. This was laughter not with the toddler, but at the toddler. This was derision and scoffing and ridicule, not joy. This was the mocking laughter that the psalmist talked about in our call to worship, how the nations mock God's people. So, Sarah said to Abraham, cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you. For through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring." This is an illustration of a doctrine sometimes called common grace. God has plans for and purposes for all who bear his image. And in many cases, those plans are gracious and kind and generous, even towards those people who will never acknowledge that he's behind the grace they've received. Even to many of the wicked, God is gracious, as he will be to Ishmael. I've already mentioned some of the literary quality, the key words that tie this passage together. There is one more literary aspect I want to touch on briefly. We have here a son whom Abraham loves who is at God's behest being put at risk, sent into the wilderness to potentially face death. And all Abraham can do about it is trust God. Can anyone say foreshadowing? If you know what comes in Genesis 22, let this be an aha moment. If you don't know what comes in Genesis 22, well then come back on the 30th and we're going to take a look at it. So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bow shot. For she said, let me not look on the death of the child." The choice of the word child here seems to reflect Hagar's perception of him. He is at least 16 years old, but to a mother, still very much a child. And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. It is not as though Abraham has sent off his son inadequately supplied. The issue here is that they are lost. The text will reveal later that Hagar and Ishmael end up in Egypt, Hagar's homeland, and presumably Abraham sent them in that direction initially. Given where Abraham lived at the time, and given that there was a main trade route between that area and Egypt, and given that Ishmael is a strapping 16-year-old and Hagar herself is probably not likely to be over 35, they were both young, healthy, in good shape, it should have been a journey of just a few days. The supplies should have been adequate. They've gotten lost. The very fact that they are waiting to die rather than waiting for passersby tells us they're no longer on the main route that would have connected Abraham's home to Egypt. They have wandered off the road and could not find their way back. They're lost. It's not that Abraham doesn't care about them and did not adequately supply them, but rather that they went astray. 17 And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Though Ishmael's name is never explicitly stated in this entire chapter, nevertheless there are references to it. Recall that Ishmael means God who hears, and we have here God hearing their cries. up lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand for I will make him into a great nation then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water remember in the previous encounter between Hagar and God she named God El Roy the God who sees and this God is now giving her sight And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt." At that time Abimelech and Philcol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, recalling the previous incident with Sarah, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned. When we last met Abimelech, he was trying to marry Sarah, Abraham's sister. And one speculation as to why, well, it was commonplace in the ancient world to secure a peace treaty by intermarriage. We're now family. We're now married to one another's family. If you invade us, you're attacking your own kin. It was a way to secure a peace. That approach having failed, Abimelech not being able to marry Sarah, he is now seeking a peace treaty through a show of strength. He is bringing the commander of his army along. It works. Verse 24. And Abraham said, I will swear. When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized, Abimelech said, I do not know who hath done this thing. You did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today. Abraham's direct approach toward Abimelech seems to have put Abimelech on the defensive. So Abraham, rather than inflaming the situation, takes concrete steps to alleviate the tension. So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant. Literally, they cut a covenant. Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart, and Abimelech said to Abraham, what is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart? He said, these seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well. While the details are omitted, most commentators are agreed these lambs were slain and their parts used symbolically, much as we had seen God slay animals back in Genesis 17 when he made a covenant with Abraham. So these ewe lambs were slain and their bodies used symbolically to mark this covenant between these two men. Again, the wording in verse 27 is literally, they cut a covenant. So the pact between these two powerful leaders is no longer merely a verbal agreement, but is now formalized and it's cemented in the way that was typical of their time and place. Verse 31. Therefore the place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. Beer means well. Sheba means both oath and seven. There's a play on words going on here. So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Philcol, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of Yahweh, the everlasting God. That is to say, Abraham worshipped. And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. The focus of our sermon here in a few moments is going to be on Sarah and Ishmael, and yet I want to make a few comments on this latter portion of the text so as not to have omitted it altogether. I really want to point out one message that we need to hear from this latter portion of the text, and one message that I hope we will completely ignore. one that we need to hear, one that we must ignore. The message to hear is this from this latter portion of Genesis 21. God is at work protecting His plan. God is at work protecting His plan. Even in the geopolitics of that ancient world and of that time and place, He is working things to bring about His covenant promises. You see, war between Abraham's clan and the Philistines would have been disastrous, or at least could have been disastrous. Even if Abraham's household were to escape relatively unscathed, remember why they were there at all. It was for the greener pastures to feed their flocks. If they have to flee the Philistines, they're fleeing the good land where the grass is, and they're going to find themselves in the wilderness running out of food, much like Ishmael. God is at work so that the promised child, Isaac, will be protected and secured. God is at work, even in the geopolitics of this world, to bring about His covenant promises. More next week on God's working in and through politics. So, the message we are to hear is that our God will work behind the scenes to accomplish His purposes. What is the message that we are not to hear? Well, I hope you're not hearing this. You know, God will always step in and protect those who are His. You see how God protected Isaac here? He'll always protect you in that same way. That's an easy sell. But it's just not the case. God will always bring about His covenant promises, but safety and security in this world have never been promised. Jesus goes so far as to actually promise the opposite. In this world you will have tribulations. Isaac is protected because of God's future plans through Isaac to be the progenitor of the Christ, the ultimate seed of the woman. Isaac was protected literally for Christ's sake. And so long as God has Christ's work for you to do on this earth, you will remain upon this earth. Neither Paul, nor Peter, nor any other Christian martyr has been taken prematurely, but neither were they kept from all harm. Do not imagine that the application of this text is, fear not, God will never let harm come to you, just as he never let harm come to Isaac. In fact, as the Church Father Tertullian once stated, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Many who suffer actually do so for Christ's sake. Isaac's protection and peace served God's purposes, but so too did Jeremiah's suffering. The message of the peace treaty with Abimelech is not that you or I will have peace on this earth, but that God is at work behind the scenes, in peace and in war, to secure for his people that which was promised, namely eternal life in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, as we consider the first portion of this passage, it is a difficult passage. We find Sarah to be difficult to accept, harsh, unkind, seemingly unloving. We need to come to grips with the truth of this passage, with the message of this text. Open our hearts and minds that we will hear your message. Work in me that I will deliver only your message. And let us hear what you have to say this morning through this text. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Can any fair-minded, compassionate person read this text and not be, at least initially, somewhat put off by Sarah's behavior? I certainly was. I imagine each of you here was uneasy with Sarah's actions. Even many of the very youngest among us probably recognize that Sarah is unkind, that she seems to lack compassion, that she is, to put it mildly, harsh. The very wording, cast out the slave woman. A few chapters ago, Hagar was the servant. Now she's the slave woman. The wording is harsh. I myself, some months ago, writing about the relationship between Hagar and Sarah, I reflected this opinion. I used words with regard to Sarah like jealous and spiteful. And it's easy to arrive at that conclusion. Certainly Abraham took exception to what Sarah said in verse 11. And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. Very displeasing. Given that the Hebrew writer is prone to understatement, one commentator suggests that Abraham was very displeased. In other words, he exploded at Sarah. I don't know if he exploded. I'm sure, like all Christian husbands, Abraham was completely patient and understanding, you know, fully, you know, saying, I get you, honey, I'm on board with it. I doubt he exploded. But whatever view you take of this understatement, the point is clear. Abraham has our view of Sarah. How could you suggest such a thing, woman? No, I'm not casting Ishmael out. He's my son. And just as Abraham's response seems to affirm our own, we turn right around and affirm his. We go, wait a minute here. This whole mess is Sarah's fault in the first place. Wasn't it her idea? for Abraham to sleep with Hagar and have a child through her? Now she turns on Hagar and Ishmael the moment she has a child of her own? But I think we need to carefully consider the statement I just made. Did she turn on these two the moment she had a child of her own? And the answer is she didn't. Again, we cannot know for certain, but the best available evidence suggests that Isaac is probably about three years old and could actually be a touch older at this point. It is not as though Sarah got up from Isaac's nativity bed and said, aha, I have a child of my own, now get out of here. That's not what happened. At least three years have passed. And what's more, she did not drive them out without reason. Now some would argue that she didn't have a good reason. After all, they would say, Ishmael, he didn't do anything that terrible. Teenagers are prone to teasing. Teenagers are inclined toward this sort of behavior, mocking. This is what they do. They're going through that whole growing up process. All he did was mock a toddler. Is that really that big of a deal? But the derision of God's chosen heir, is serious. It is a big deal. Remember God's warning way back at the beginning of Genesis, I will put enmity between the seed of Satan and the seed of the woman. Enmity is strong language. And it's not as though Sarah is without some precedential warning. Why is it that Cain killed Abel? Was it not because of God's favor toward the one brother and not toward the other? Is Sarah supposed to wait until Ishmael actually attacks Isaac? She seems to be well justified in protecting her child. I fear that I have never given Sarah proper benefit of the doubt on this matter. Moreover, Ishmael's mother derided Sarah some 16 years earlier. Recall when Hagar did have Ishmael, how she began to ridicule Sarah for being barren. Sarah did not immediately kick Ishmael out. It's only when she begins to perceive Ishmael as a threat to her son that she acts. And for what it's worth, she appears to have been acting legally. Just as the law of the day allowed for surrogacy, something we considered several months ago, it also allowed for the reversal of that arrangement. In other words, the surrogate and her child could be disinherited. according to law. Now, getting into all the specifics, where such laws have been unearthed by archaeologists, the pattern is generally this. The price of disinheriting a slave surrogate's child was freedom for the child and his mother. And that's exactly what Sarah is proposing, that they be set free. The child, having once been a child, cannot be enslaved. Nor is he expected to enter this life completely on his own, but can take his mother with him. Sarah seems to have been behaving in accord with the law. Sarah is responding to a provocation, a serious provocation, from Ishmael, and Sarah has been patient with this arrangement for at least three years after the birth of her son Isaac. Now maybe we would wish that she had found a gentler way to approach the subject. Maybe we could wish that Sarah had taken on some compassion. Abraham, I understand how hard this is going to be for you, but you're not seeing behind the scenes the things I'm seeing. We've got to make a change. We may regret the harshness with which Sarah goes about this, but there's one other thing to be considered. God agrees with Sarah. God agrees with Sarah. We cannot possibly handle this text properly unless we fully acknowledge that simple fact. It was Abraham himself just three chapters earlier who asked rhetorically, shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And of course the answer was yes. God will do what is just. God will judge in righteousness and God judges in Sarah's favor, telling Abraham to send Ishmael away. Now to be sure, God does so with a great deal more compassion and gentleness than Sarah did. God, unlike Sarah's blunt cast her out, God offers some comforting promises. I will protect the boy. I will make him into a great nation. I will honor him because he is your offspring, Abraham. And yet in the final analysis, God's judgment is on Sarah's side of the argument. Sarah waited for a time. She reacted to provocation. She acted legally. And God agrees with her. So we're forced at this juncture to do one of two things. We could take our assessment of Sarah, our judgment of her, and apply it to God. Sarah was unkind. She lacked compassion. She was impatient. She was jealous. God appears to be all those things as well. Now, we're not going to do that. You're all sitting there going, well, come on, Pastor. We're conservative, Bible-believing, Reformed Christians. We're never going to say God was wrong. And I can respect accepting God's judgment just because it comes from God. There are times we have to do that. But I think in this case, we would be better off if we understood the why. If we explored what it is that's behind God's judgment. Why does God act this way toward Ishmael? A Dutch preacher of the early 20th century, and unfortunately I didn't note his name and now I've forgotten it, so my apologies to you and to him. But a Dutch preacher of the early 20th century, he got at the answer to this question of why God acts this way by looking at it kind of the other way around. Instead of trying to figure out why God rules in Sarah's favor and drives Ishmael out for merely having laughed at the toddler Isaac, this preacher asked a different question. He asked this question. He said, what would have happened if Ishmael had not mocked Isaac but embraced him? What if Ishmael had rejoiced in the weaning of Isaac rather than scoffing at it? What if Ishmael had gotten on board with Isaac as the promised heir? You know, it's easy from a human perspective to understand the difficulty Ishmael would have had doing that. After 16 plus years of being the one, the son, the heir, the recipient of all of dad's doting and the center of household attention, he would have to humble himself and accept that God had appointed another to be the son. But as we begin to frame it that way, we begin to realize what's at stake. humbling ourselves and acknowledging that God has bestowed on another the place of glory we want. That God has granted to another the position of privilege we desire. Well, that's the essence of faith. That's the very core of our Christian religion. Do we not as Christians set aside any hope we might have in ourselves and say instead, I humbly acknowledge and accept that God's plan of salvation lies not in me, but in Jesus of Nazareth. I admit that there is no good I can do to recompense God for all of my sin. I cannot be on my own holy as he is holy. Are we not required to point to Jesus and say it is He and not I that is the center of attention? He is the one around whom the household of God must resolve and I pin all my hopes on Him and God's plans through Him. That's the very essence of the Christian faith. Ishmael, by contrast, could not accept that it was God's plan that Isaac be the center of the covenant household, just as Jesus must be the center of any new covenant community. The problem of sinful man is, as it has always been, that we want to be the man, the woman, the one, the heir. We want to be our own way to God's promises. We want to be the center of our religion. Just as Adam wanted to acquire knowledge of good and evil by eating rather than by abstaining. In other words, his way, not God's way. So we want to acquire salvation in ourselves rather than stepping aside and accepting that God has anointed Jesus for that purpose. We could write volumes trying to define and describe unbelief. Or we can just look at Ishmael. He is the embodiment of unbelief. He could not humble himself and hope in God's appointed one. Ishmael is unbelief personified. But still, why couldn't he have remained in the covenant household? The New Testament makes plain in so many different ways that faith and unbelief cannot coexist, but will leave the household of God in turmoil and tumult if they try. Jesus said, do not think that I have come to bring peace, but a sword. He goes on to say, I will turn brother against brother, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law, et cetera, et cetera. He gives a bunch of different other relationships. Jesus says, there's going to be strife between belief and unbelief. There can be no peace when belief and unbelief are trying to coexist in the same community. To the Corinthians, Paul writes, do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. You can't have all that wickedness in your church. To the church in Galatia, Paul appeals to this very passage. and says, listen, the Judaizers, the party of the circumcision, those people who are telling you you need Jesus and the law, you have to get them out. They have to be driven out. Like Ishmael was cast out, they have to be cast out. And Paul leans on this very text to say, listen, it's Sarah and her son Isaac that represent the true way of salvation, the true way of God, a way that is brought about entirely by God. Whereas Hagar and Ishmael represent man's efforts to get to God. and they have to be driven out. Faith and unbelief cannot coexist. It was God himself who warned that from the beginning. Genesis 3.15, I've referenced several times already. We call it the Proto-Evangelium, the first giving of the good news, the first presentation of the gospel. But it opens up with, I will put enmity. there will be division and strife. By the way, the Bible closes with the same message. The second to last chapter, Revelation 21, is a long description of the beauty and the glory of God's existence on earth. When the new heavens and the new earth are established in the new Jerusalem, Jerusalem, city of peace, is literally what it means, Hebrew, Salem. When the city of peace comes upon the earth, There's all this description of how God will be among them, be their God, and they shall be His people. That chapter 21, that beautiful description of our eternal resting place, ends with this verse. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. It is absolutely a... A tenet of the scriptures, that there will be separation. That the people of God will not have to coexist with the mocking of the nations, just as the psalmist anticipates the mocking nations to be driven away and dealt with and judged by God. So also this text points in that same direction. We must also consider one other thing. It is not as though Ishmael would have been unaware of all the promises and miracles and covenants surrounding Isaac. Are we to imagine that Ishmael has not heard the message of God? Some six years earlier, he was 13 years old, when his father came to him and said, it's time to be circumcised. Do we imagine for one moment that there was no conversation surrounding that? That he did not say, whoa, dad, wait a minute here. We've never done this. This is kind of a new thing. What do you got going on here? Why are we doing this? I mean, nobody. Come on. You got a big old household here, dad. You got 318 fighting men who went out and recaptured lots. You got all their children and all their slaves. None of them are circumcised. What are we doing here? And Abraham had a conversation with Ishmael. God came to me, son. And he said in a vision the following would be true. Ishmael knows about the covenant between his father and God. And a couple years later, when Ishmael's about 15, he's going to know about the visitation where God promised, a year hence, I'm going to give Sarah a son of her own. It would have been all the talk in that community, all the talk in that household. But now we have a specific time, a concrete announcement that a child is coming. And he's 16. He understands the way of the world by this point. He can look around and say, 90-year-old women don't have babies. He knows this is a miraculous birth. He is aware of all of the promises of God, the covenants of God, the miracles of God surrounding his younger half-brother Isaac. And he mocks him anyway. He scoffs at him anyway. He is the embodiment of unbelief. His is not a problem of knowledge but of pride. He cannot bring himself to bow to the will and plan of God. He cannot accept that Isaac is the chosen one and he is not. He cannot bring himself to admit that. Instead, Ishmael sees foolishness and he scoffs at it. You can just imagine the scene at the weaning party. Seriously, dad? Come on. I'm sitting here. I got big old adult teeth. I'm chewing on this lovely lack of ram that you grilled up beautifully, by the way. Good job, dad. Good job with the grill there today. It's really good. And this kid just barely got off mother's milk. This is absurd that he's going to be your heir. This is absurd that he's going to make your name great. This is foolishness. But what does Paul say to the Corinthians? The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of this world. The world looks at our faith and says, seriously? A carpenter died and that's what you're staking your life on? And they mock it. Just as Ishmael mocked God's plan. I imagine that there are a few of us who are still at this point struggling. Pastor, if Isaac was the covenant recipient, if Isaac was the future of God's plan, then was there really ever a place for Ishmael anyway? Was not Ishmael doomed from the very beginning? There was no path by which he could have stayed in Abraham's household and benefited from God's plan. Ishmael, Pastor, is not the picture of unbelief. He's simply the picture of non-election. He's not God's chosen one. Maybe, but consider this. There was another young man, very much like Ishmael, an eldest son, his father appointed by God to be the head of God's people on earth. He living with the assumption that that place would one day be his. That he would walk in his father's footsteps and become the leader of God's people on earth. This young man spent much of his young life as the presumed heir of the promises of God. The chosen and anointed father was named Saul. His son was named Jonathan, and the one who supplanted him named David. Unlike Ishmael, Jonathan willingly accepted God's plan, believing God and accepting that it was gonna be through David that the leader God's people so desperately needed, not actually David, but David's eternal son. It was through David and not himself. was going to fulfill his promises. Jonathan stepped aside graciously and believed God. And he did not just merely get out of David's way, he became David's advocate, David's defender, David's best friend. If you ask the question that the pastor asked, how would things have turned out differently, Imagine for a moment that Ishmael humbles himself and says, little brother, you the man. I thought it was going to be me, but God has made you the one. I'm going to help you out. I got your back. I got whatever you need. I'm going to help you learn to grow. I'm going to help you as you grow up. When somebody threatens you, I'm going to be there to defend you. Had Ishmael believed God's plan and humbly accepted God's plan, then yes, he could have remained in the household of the covenant. He could have remained under the benefits of Abraham's covenant. He could have remained in the grace of God, just as Jonathan did. Isn't it ironic that Ishmael, wanting to be the one who would make Abraham's name great, loses that privilege. Who among us names our sons Ishmael? But the name Jonathan still lives in faithful communities the world over. And it's Jonathan. He's one of the few people in the Bible about whom there is no negative word. Not one bad thing is ever said about Jonathan. There is no record of his sinning. Now we know he sinned, but there's no record of it as there is for most of the characters in the Bible. Jonathan received great glory and honor and prestige because he humbled himself and accepted God's plan. Jonathan accepted that it was David who was to be the heir of God's people. You and I must accept that as the author of Hebrews says, Jesus is the heir of all things. We cannot hold that place of honor. We cannot accomplish on our own what he accomplished, but we must humbly accept him. Dear friends, anyone who will not humbly accept the one whom God has appointed heir of all things, Jesus of Nazareth, such a person will one day be driven into the wilderness for all eternity, separated from God and his people, cast out, just as Ishmael was cast out. But the one who will believe in God's plan, hope in God's anointed one, though humbled for a time, He will be raised up on the last day. He will reside in the household of God for all eternity, a joint heir with Christ, sharing in all the blessings that are His. Let's pray. God, give us humility to accept Jesus, to recognize that He is the plan you have for the saving of humanity. that just as Ishmael should have stepped aside and humbly accepted your plan, we need to do the same. When our pride seeps in, squash it for Jesus' sake and ours. When our desire for glory creeps in, squelch it for Jesus' sake and ours. Let us not be the embodiment of unbelief like Ishmael. Let us not be those who would mock Jesus. But instead, make us like Jonathan. Those who could accept that your way goes through another. That your plan is carried out and fulfilled in another. And that in so doing, in humbling ourselves and accepting and believing and resting and hoping in Jesus, We too will enjoy for eternity all the things we are striving to get on our own. We pray this in His wonderful name. Amen.