Flourishing family life. Occasionally in our home we have what we call a bits and pieces tea.
And basically what we do then is it's a kind of random assortment of all the stuff that's been
left over from previous meals. You know, the two rogue sausages that are sitting in the freezer,
the kind of margarine tub filled with bolognese sauce, a bit of cheese, and we just stick it all
out as a way of kind of using up all the odds and ends that have been sitting about in the fridge
and in the freezer. And there's a sense in which this talk on family is going to be a bit like that.
It's going to be an assortment of different points that have occurred to me about family life. Some
are going to be very direct biblical points. Some are going to be, I hope, common grace observations.
And some of the applications are going to be based on the trials and errors of my personal experience.
So a bit like that family tea, some bits might be a bit more nutritious than others. Some might be a
bit more to your taste than others. So to mix the metaphors, there's an element in which as I kind of
put stuff out, if the cap fits, wear it. If not, feel free just to leave it behind. So we don't have a
main Bible reading tonight because we're going to do a bit of a Bible study and we're going to pick up
on some of the places where family is talked about in the Bible. In terms of my own credentials,
just my own family situation, there's a picture of my wife and three children being married for 21 years.
I think that picture's about two years old now, but we have three children, a daughter who is 16,
and two boys who are now 14 and 10. So I suppose I've got a bit of experience in terms of bringing
up kids and going through some of the phases, particularly of early family life. But I want
to be very clear that I am not a specialist on family life. I'm not standing here pretending in
any sense to be some kind of guru on the issue of bringing up your children. But I have been asked
to speak on this subject of flourishing family life. Now, as regards the word family, of course,
we can think about that in a number of ways. We can use it to describe any grouping where the parts
have a strong connection to each other. So I talk about the FIEC family of churches quite a lot as I go
around. Indeed, the Bible itself describes the bonds between Christians as being familial,
that is of a family nature. Our Christian relationships to one another are described
in the New Testament in family terms. If you go to, put my glasses on here, usually I can see
things that are that far back, but I'll just get the copy at the moment. But if you look, for example,
that well-known passage in 1 Timothy, Paul writes to that New Testament pastor overseeing that church
in Ephesus, and he says,
Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers,
old women as mothers, and young women as sisters with absolute purity. You see, he's describing
our relationships within the church as Christians in family terms. Because the spiritual reality is
that as Christians, we are part of one family. We are part of God's family. Whether we like it or not,
we are related to each other in Christ. That is just true. That is just a fact if you're a Christian
here tonight. So Paul uses this domestic template of family life to instruct us and to help us to
understand what he wants our church family life to look like. And if church family is in some sense to
reflect domestic family life, then our domestic family model ought to be a good one. It will help us.
The better our domestic family model is to know then how to conduct ourselves and to relate to each
other within a local church family, to set a good example to each other. Now, of course, this is a
two-way street, isn't it? Both our church family and our domestic family should inform each other.
They should be a good example to each other. They should be mutually strengthening. But the main focus
of the time that we have this evening will be on the domestic family, domestic family life.
Take that as the subject in mind in the context of the series that you've been doing. The family,
typically of mum and or dad and children. It's a family that most of us either grew up in or perhaps
are bringing up now. And it's the family that if we weren't brought up in that environment,
I think most of us would nonetheless want it for our own children if we are to have that blessing.
It's the family which has historically been described as the basic unit or building block of society,
sometimes said in the wedding ceremony about the family being that basic component of human society
as the primary place of nurture for children. The place where we will learn our most basic values
and behaviours. The environment that more than any other in human terms that will shape us and form us.
Now the biblical model, the biblical ideal for the family begins with a man and a woman united in marriage.
We go to Genesis. We get that creational template, don't we? Genesis chapter 1.
Male and female, he created them. God blessed them and said to them,
be fruitful and increase in number. In other words, go and have children.
Fill the earth and subdue it. And then later on in Genesis chapter 2 when we have the account of Eve being formed
and Adam and Eve being placed together in the garden.
Genesis 2.25 tells us,
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
and they will become one flesh.
Very clear in the Bible and throughout the Bible that God's context for family life,
for bringing up children is that environment of a mother and a father united together.
Male and female, equal but crucially different and complementary in what they bring to the family,
committed to each other for life.
Just as Adam was not complete on his own in the garden,
a family in that sense is not totally complete without those partners.
Now please, please don't mishear me at this point.
My own wider family, two of my sisters are divorced.
One is a single parent.
I have Christian friends who have been bereaved.
And if you are in that situation or have been through that situation,
you certainly don't need me or anyone else telling you how painful and traumatic and scarring that experience is.
We live in a fallen world.
Many families do not have a united mum and dad.
All of us need to be very humble and sensitive to that fact.
But equally we recognise the sadness of those situations.
We would wish it to be otherwise.
We would want ideally those situations to be different.
Because we know the pain and difficulties that arise when the biblical model isn't in place.
Where we recognise why the Bible model is such a precious gift from God.
Actually it's in those very situations that being in a church family is such a blessing and help to us.
I'm very blessed to be married to a godly wife, Jessica.
And I have, as I mentioned, a 16 year old daughter.
And I'm very blessed particularly because my wife is such a great example to my daughter
of what a godly woman looks like.
My daughter can observe that every day.
With the best will in the world,
I am never going to be able to model to my daughter what a godly woman looks like.
But suppose, Lord forbid, that Jessica wasn't there.
My daughter would still have lots of wonderful examples of godly women in the local church to observe.
Indeed, that's exactly what Paul calls for in Titus chapter 2.
It says of the older women,
they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children.
And he mentions the men as well.
Well, similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.
And everything set them example by doing what is good.
You may be bringing up boys and they don't have a Christian dad around.
They don't have that kind of role model.
Well, at church there are men who can, in part, make up for that.
So Christian men, just as an aside,
don't vacate Sunday school and youth work and just leave it to the ladies.
You're needed more than ever in those ministries today.
Our young boys in church, our young men,
need to see Christian men living out the Christian life,
taking on those responsibilities,
and having those role models and examples before them.
And not to think that Christian ministry is just what the women do
when they come to church.
Now, those are some general background observations.
Let me move on to some maybe more practical suggestions.
But I do this with a cautionary note.
Because there are general principles,
clear principles that we get from Scripture,
such as prayer and sharing God's words.
So, for example, if we look at Deuteronomy, chapter 6,
Israel is commanded.
Israel's parents are commanded.
These commandments that I give you today
are to be upon your hearts.
This is the law, all of God revealed word to them.
Impress them on your children.
Talk about them when you sit at home
and when you walk along the road,
when you lie down and when you get up.
This is a commandment,
an exhortation that family life should be saturated in God's words.
Clear call of Scripture.
But I don't want to be too prescriptive,
on the other hand,
in exactly how parents do that.
Yes, the word of God should be central in our family lives.
But the New Testament isn't highly detailed or prescriptive
about the precise organization of family life.
It doesn't give us a timetable for family devotions
or for bedtimes, for that matter.
Because, of course, all families are different.
There are families that are small and tidy.
There are some that are just big and messy.
Some are blended, as they say today,
with the challenges of that.
Parents from different families
have different working patterns
that affect the routines
and the calendar of family life.
If you have kids,
you'll know that what works with one kid
doesn't necessarily work with another kid.
Think of discipline, for example.
And if that's true within a family,
then all the more between separate families.
I grew up in a big non-Christian family.
I was the youngest of six children.
Both of my parents had drink problems.
My mother eventually went to Alcoholics Anonymous.
Growing up in my house as the youngest,
there was all sorts of stuff went on.
There was teenage pregnancy.
There were affairs.
There were debt problems.
Remember there was a fist fight
in the hall on one occasion.
It was all very chaotic.
Sometimes I say,
what a Christmas that was.
But it was reassuring then to find out
that when I became a Christian in my teens,
that the Bible is actually full
of dysfunctional families.
But God's grace is big enough
to work and to bring good out
even in those kind of families.
Think of Jacob with his 12 sons
from four different mothers,
all at loggerheads.
David, a family riven with jealousies
and rebellions against him.
Well, you know, if God could save me
randomly from my big messy family
by sending a Christian group
into my primary school,
and if he could then save my atheist mother,
as she was very adamantly
throughout my teenage years,
she used to come to some Christian activities,
you know, the parents' nights,
that kind of stuff,
and whenever they prayed,
she would just sit bolt upright,
looking about,
having nothing to do with this nonsense.
But if he could save her in her 70s,
if he could save my sister out of the blue
just two weeks ago,
then let me say there's hope
for all our families.
There's hope for your family,
no matter how messy and dysfunctional
it might appear to be.
Don't despair if your family feels
a little bit all over the place,
spiritually speaking.
God's grace in families
is greater and far more active
than we think.
That said,
God's grace doesn't leave us floundering,
does it?
It comes to us to help to move us
and our families
onto being better families.
God's grace is always given
to help us to be the people,
to be the mums and the dads,
that reflect God's good model
of family life
more and more
as we go through life.
And because, of course,
God is the architect of family life,
then his model,
his template,
is the best one.
It's for our good.
It's the one in which our families
will be most satisfied
and most complete.
Now, I've mentioned that families
are different,
so I don't want to be overly prescriptive
in terms of applications.
There's no one-size-fits-all
in terms of the precise timetables
and arrangements
that an individual family might make.
Equally, families go through
different phases
and you have to adjust
as you go through
those different phases,
don't you,
of family life.
I read an article,
an interview,
I think it was,
with Michael Parkinson,
and he described his kind of family life
as he looked back on it
as being like a big W.
And you started off
on a high
married bliss,
those first honeymoon-esque years together.
And then the first children come along
and that's good for a little bit,
but then, of course,
you're just assumed
and nappies and sleepless nights
and all that kind of stuff.
But then, of course,
as they grow out
of those very early years,
this was his experience,
then they get into that
quite innocent,
kind of lovely,
playful,
very, very dependent upon you
kind of phase of life
when you go to the zoo
and everything's just great fun.
Back up again.
And then, of course,
they become teenagers.
And it's stressful
and it's angst
and it's all this kind of stuff.
And then they kind of grow out of that
and they go into adulthood
and you have this mature
kind of adult
kind of friendship bond
with your children.
A W.
I quite like that anyway.
So take the practice
of family devotions,
reading the Bible
with your children.
Obviously,
that is going to look different
depending on what age
your kids are.
What worked
when they were very young
might not be that helpful
or workable
when they get older.
It's just kind of common sense,
isn't it?
Our kids are 10,
14,
16.
Our family Bible time
is at the evening meal.
Mornings don't work for us.
That's just our bad planning
or organisation.
But the mornings just tend
to be too chaotic,
too pressurised,
and too prone
to interruptions.
Who's seen my so-and-so?
I can't find this,
etc.,
etc.
So we have it in the evening.
We have a bit more control
over that time.
It's a bit more settled.
But your family might be different.
That's what I'm saying.
Sometimes in the evenings,
it doesn't happen in our house.
People are away
or they've got to leave
or whatever.
We use daily reading notes
for our evening Bible time.
We read a short passage
and we read the comment
from the book on it.
And we might say
one or two things about it.
We might not.
Having that resource,
we have found,
is very helpful.
Because otherwise,
it's quite easy
to run dry.
You always think
you'll have something
to say about a passage,
but this number of times
you feel that what you're going to say
is going to be pretty predictable
and cliched.
And it avoids just repetition.
And we go round at the end
and we ask for prayer requests.
And a lot of the time,
I'll be honest,
there's not much forthcoming.
Nothing greatly dramatic.
It's a bit kind of same old,
same old.
But it means that
if there is something big
or pressing
that does come up,
then the setting for it
has been established.
But of course,
that spiritual interaction
in families
between parents and kids
isn't just about
set-piece formalities.
It's not just about
the dinner table
and out comes the Bible.
It is about talking about
spiritual things naturally.
That is what the thrust
of that passage in Deuteronomy
is about, isn't it?
It's about as you're walking
along the street,
as you're going to bed.
It's just to inform
and to kind of come into
all these different situations.
It's not to be compartmentalized.
This is the time we do
the religious stuff, kids.
I think a lot of our children's
discipleship has been done
with them sitting at the end
of our bed
before they go to sleep
unloading issues
or having questions.
My wife has discipled my daughter
so often in that way.
She tends to appear
quite late in the evening
if my wife's trying to get to sleep
and sits on the end of the bed
and wants to talk.
And that's a great opportunity
for discipleship.
Or just finishing
a conversation off in prayer.
Just, well, let's just pray about that.
It doesn't have to be elaborate
but natural.
There's a really key thing
that we can help our children
with us into
is just setting a model
of natural everyday prayer.
Modeling honest, reflective prayers
prayers don't have to be strident,
don't have to be flowery,
but just rooted
in a confident, secure
relationship with God.
Prayers that don't seek
to have all the answers
or even to expect
all the answers
but simply just ask
a loving Heavenly Father
to help in that situation
at that time.
Crucially, of course,
are our prayers
for our children
if we're parents.
Great quote from
George Philip
from his daily readings
on the book of Job.
He says this,
He, Job,
knew he could not
keep his children
from living in the world.
That would have created
a spirit of rebellion
against the holiness
and narrowness
of their father
as they would have
perhaps seen it.
So he surrounded them
by prayer continually.
Parents, your children,
out of love and respect
for you,
may behave at home
but unless they have
a faith that is real,
you will never know
what they are doing
when they are away.
Better get down
on your knees.
You know,
it's such a powerful quote.
I highlighted it at the time
and remembered it
in this preparation.
You know,
unless you are going
to bring up your children
in some kind of
Truman Show type construction,
your kids are going
to be exposed
to our society
in all its rotten forms.
If they go to school
and they have a smartphone
or they have a friend
with a smartphone,
they'll see porn.
Just accept that fact.
They swim
every day
in the cultural sea
of sexual chaos
and materialism.
So acknowledge it.
Talk about it.
Not stridently,
but compassionately.
Acknowledge the fact
that other people
don't share your views.
Live differently.
Don't pretend
that it doesn't exist.
Don't go into some sort
of denial about it.
And let me suggest
that more than you
condemn and oppose it,
show the goodness
of God's alternative.
I wrote a little article
a little while ago
on transgender.
It's a big cultural
issue now,
isn't it?
On the back of other
sexuality issues,
transgender is the thing
which really now
is the new frontier
of social revolution
and cultural change.
And of course,
there's a number
of approaches
people can take
to that issue.
One of them,
maybe a traditional
Christian one
in many ways,
is the slam it
and ban it approach.
It's absolutely terrible.
We should have some laws
against this kind of thing
or certainly not get rid
of any of the laws
that might be against it.
But actually,
I think we have to
acknowledge that we
live in a society
where people are going
to have that choice.
Might not like it,
but we have to acknowledge
they might have that choice.
Medicine and society
is going to support them
and facilitate them.
But actually,
what we want to say
as Christians is,
you know,
there is an alternative.
There is another way
to go
to recognize
there's a God
who made you,
who made you male
or female.
Didn't make a mistake
when he did that.
God who loves you.
God who understands
that every part
of every one of us
is messed up
to some degree
or another.
And a God
who in Christ
came to save you
and wants
by grace
and by the Holy Spirit
to help you
to move
to actually
being the person
he made you to be
content
in your own skin
and not have
to go through
all that trauma
and rigmarole
of trying to be
something
which actually
God never wanted
you to be.
There's an alternative.
But over all
these things,
pray.
Pray for their souls.
Pray for the
seed of God's word
to fall on good ground
in their hearts
as they come
to church
week by week
and YFs
and Bible studies
and around
the dinner table.
Pray for God
to have mercy
upon them
to rescue them
from this present
evil age.
One of my sisters,
my four older sisters,
was the real
black sheep
of the family.
She fell out
of school
without any qualifications,
got into all sorts
of problems
and bother.
Back in the 1970s,
she was given
a real hard time
by one particular
teacher who obviously
just saw her
going off the rails,
so to speak.
And she used to
say to her,
I'll use her name
if you won't mind,
she used to say,
Fiona Hunter,
if you don't
sort yourself out,
you're going to
end up slicing
bacon behind
the deli
in Woolworth's.
Remember the days
that Woolworth's
actually had a deli?
Anybody remember
Woolworth's?
Back in the 70s,
it was actually
a deli in Woolworth's.
And that was,
from this teacher's
point of view,
you know,
working in the deli
in Woolworth's
was the very
definition of failure
in life.
But I won't be
too pietistic about it,
Lord knows my heart.
We have often
prayed
that our children
would work
the deli
in Woolworth's
if that means
going on with
Christ
rather than
becoming another
nominal,
former church
going kid
who's now a
high flyer
and raking it in.
And that's a real
test of our
convictions,
isn't it?
Because the reality
is that what
we want for
our children
is pretty much
what we want
for ourselves.
So pray over them.
Don't be naive.
Pray that God
will rescue them
from this present
evil age.
Finally then,
discipline
and grace.
Of course,
in all this,
you need to have
boundaries,
don't you?
My father-in-law
used to say to me
as I hauled
one of our children
away from the
dinner table
for playing up,
he said,
don't worry Andy,
you've got to
bring them up.
And indeed,
that's a biblical
command.
Ephesians chapter
6 and verse 4,
we are told,
fathers,
do not exasperate
your children,
instead bring them
up in the training
and instruction
of the Lord.
Some versions
say the discipline
of the Lord.
Hebrews goes on
to tell us
that the Lord
himself disciplines
the one that
he loves.
the instruction.
Well,
we thought about
that a bit,
haven't we?
That biblical
input and
teaching that
is to be
central to
our family
lives and
however that
is administered.
But discipline,
of course,
is setting the
limits of what
is acceptable
behavior.
And like the
Lord who
enforces,
at times,
discipline in
our lives,
the lives of
his own
children,
we do it
because we
love them.
Discipline is
vital to
protect them
and to
develop good
character.
One boundary
that we've
tried to
enforce in
our own
family,
and believe me
it's a
constant battle,
so don't
in any way
think that
this is
something that
we have
gotten top
of.
But one
boundary that
we try to
enforce is
how people
speak to
each other
in our
home,
how the
children
interact with
each other.
As you know
what it's like,
constant put-downs
and meanness
and picking
fault.
And the
point we
try to
make to
them is
that that's
the kind
of thing
that you
have to
put up
out there.
That's the
kind of
thing that
you're not
going to
escape from
when you're
in the
playground or
in the
street,
that kind
of abuse
and nitpicking
and fault
finding and
just general
meanness.
But in
this place,
in this
home,
is a place
where you
should be
able to
escape from
that.
You
should be
safe here,
you should
be respected
here.
That's not
acceptable here.
This is to
be a haven
for people
who have to
put up
that kind
of stuff
out there.
Actually,
you know,
the church
should be
like that,
isn't it?
That's the
point of the
church family.
You go to
work,
you go out
in the
street,
you interact
with people,
you might
be subject
to kind
of meanness
and unfairness
and insult
and difficulty.
The whole
point of
these instructions
about holiness
in the church
and how
we're to
interact with
each other
in the church
is that the
church should
be a haven,
should be a
place where
you come to
and you're
not subject
to that
kind of
stuff,
you're free
from that
kind of
stuff.
This is the
place where
you will be
loved and
respected and
cared for.
People don't
get treated
the way they
do out in
the street
when they
come in
here.
And that
should be
true in
our families.
Again,
exactly how
you work
these things
out,
what your
precise
boundaries
are,
what the
sanctions
that you
want to
impose are
in terms
of discipline,
that's going
to vary
from family
to family,
even as I
mentioned
from child
to child.
Let me
just make
two observations.
One is
that discipline
is never
going to be
popular or
gratefully
received at
the time.
It's a very
obvious thing
to say,
isn't it?
But I
think we
need to
make that
point
increasingly
today,
because what
it means
is that
your
relationship
to your
child
cannot be
based on
being
BFFs.
That means
best friends
forever.
Low.
Your
relationship
with your
child is
not about
being a
BFF.
My
father had
six kids.
he spent
most of
his adult
life raising
children.
My brother
is 16
years older
than me.
He's at
the end
of the
spectrum.
So you
can imagine
his whole
life was
basically
just children.
And I
don't think
that he
ever gave
a moment's
thought as
to whether
his kids
liked him
or not.
But he
looked after
us.
We knew
where we
stood,
and that
ultimately
gave us
much more
security
than a
pal who
was trying
to get
our
approval.
Secondly,
discipline
needs to
be
complemented
with
grace.
Because notice
those verses
that we
read,
the same
verse in
Ephesians
that talks
about
discipline,
about
instruction,
about
training,
says,
fathers,
do not
exasperate
your
children.
Always
tempting,
isn't it,
to raise
the bar
up behind
you in
life.
So we
set our
expectations
of others
on the
basis of
where we
are now,
as opposed
to where
we might
have been
ourselves
in the
past.
Part of
me is
horrified of
the thought
that a
30-year-old
me would
have been
an elder.
But I
was.
And I've
got to bear
that in
mind when
I'm looking
at other
people today.
It's the same
with our
kids,
isn't it?
There is a
danger, I
think,
sometimes in
hot house of
evangelicalism,
of expecting
teenagers to
behave like
seasoned
saints.
Youth in
the Bible is
often recognized
as a time of
recklessness and
excess.
David says,
remember not
the sins of
my youth,
Psalm 25.
In
Timothy, we
are called
on to flee
youthful passions
or to flee
evil desires
of youth.
Youth is a
time, perhaps
more than
most, where
lots of
grace is
needed.
If you
are on
your
teenagers
back
constantly,
they're not
going to
notice when
you're actually
trying to
warn them
about something
that's really
serious,
because it's
just you
picking faults
again.
You pick
faults about
the colour
of my hair,
about my
bedroom, and
now you're
just picking
faults.
But actually
this thing is
quite serious,
but it just
all disappears
in the
noise.
What is
vital is
that we
model to
them,
unconditional
love, and
a consistency
in our
own faith?
Let me
finish this
rather scattered,
I told you
it was going
to be a
bits and
pieces talk
with a
quote, I
love this
quote.
This is
one of my
tutors at
Bible college
used to
say this
to us,
there's no
such thing
as perfect
parents, and
the ones
who have
got lousy
kids.
I love
that, there's
a lot of
truth in it.
It should
humble us,
and it
should make
us all
calm down
a little
bit when
it comes
to this
subject.
But of
course there
is a
perfect
parent,
isn't
there?
The
God and
Father of
Jesus
Christ.
And yet
even his
children are
far from
perfect in
this world.
Whether that
was Israel,
whether it's
Christians now,
that of
course is no
fault in
God's part,
but a
reflection of
their fallenness.
That means
that regardless
of our best
efforts and
all the good
wisdom in
the world
that we
could share,
there are
no guarantees
in family
life about
how things
are going
to work
out.
The best
families can
see children
go awry.
Corinthian
church sat
under the
care and
teaching of
the great
pastor and
theologian
Paul himself.
It doesn't
get any better
than that,
and yet
they seemed
to get
just about
everything
wrong.
You see,
remember that
no one
loves your
kids or
your family
more than
God does.
Matthew
7 in the
Sermon on
the Mount,
these great
words,
if you
then,
though you
are evil,
know how
to give
good gifts
to your
children,
how much
more will
your Father
in heaven
give good
gifts to
those who
ask him.
You see,
God is
right behind
us when
we ask
for good
things.
He's not
going to be
less kind
and less
generous to
you and
your family
than you
are.
So whatever
your family
situation,
whether it's
good or
bad,
you can
commit it
to the
Lord.
You can
do so
in the
trust and
in the
confidence
that he
will work
out his
good
purposes
for those
that you
love.
You can
commit them
to a
loving
heavenly
father.
And one
of the
things you
can ask
him for
is for
your
family.
I know
that as
you ask
for your
family with
those good
desires,
that he
is willing
to bless,
to help,
to carry
you in
your family
and to
do his
good work
in you
and among
those
precious to
you in
that place.
Let's
pray.
Father, we
thank you
for family.
We thank
you that
every one
of us
has
experience
of family
in some
way or
another.
And we
thank you
that even
as we
reflect on
families that
fall very
far short
of your
good standards,
of your
template for
life, yet
we in
Christ can
be brought
into a
family which
is being
worked out
according to
those good
purposes,
that family
that will
transcend this
life itself,
that we will
be your
children, the
children of
the one
perfect
Father.
So,
Father, I
just pray that
you will
bless these
random
thoughts to
us, that
the things
which haven't
been helpful,
that perhaps
have been
arbitrary, will
be quickly
dispensed with
and forgotten,
but Father,
where you
have spoken,
where you
have breathed
truth out
through your
words and
through our
thoughts tonight,
that they
would help us
to have
families and
to be parents
and grandparents
and brothers
and sisters
and church
members who
reflect something
of your
goodness and
your love and
your care for
us.
So we commit
these things to
you now and
ask your blessing
upon us for
Jesus' sake.
Amen.