How Do You Respond When God Doesn't Seem to Be Responding? | Robby Gallaty | Exodus 32

I want to talk about today, Exodus chapter 32. And I wanna talk to you about how do you respond when God doesn't seem to be responding? You ever been there before? You're praying and you don't feel like you hear an answer, you're reading, you don't feel like you're learning anything, you're seeking God, you don't feel like he's working. And if you think about it, in every relationship, there comes a time when the relationship is tested, when there is pressure on the relationship, where the honeymoon ends, right? And what you do next and how you respond in that situation is going to reveal everything about what you believe. How you respond reveals about what you believe. So if you remember last week we talked in Exodus chapter 20, Exodus chapter, what was it, 24? Yeah, 24. God decided to marry the nation. Remember, Moses comes down, he's the pastor, the mediator, he's got the 10 commandments in hand, all the laws of God, and he says to the people, will you agree? And what do they say? I what? Not everybody wants, let's try it again, right? They said what? I do, right. And at that moment, they pledge themselves to God in this covenant ceremony. The ink hasn't dried on the agreement and they are already cheating on God

by worshiping a golden calf. And what we're gonna see here in this moment is that just like they experienced a crisis of faith in their life, so do we. And I wanna show it to you in three areas. I'm gonna show it to you from the perspective of the people, I'm gonna show you then from the perspective of the pastor or the leader, and then finally I'm gonna show you from the perspective of a praying man named Moses. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to Exodus 32. And we're gonna see how do we respond when God doesn't respond to us. We like to say word at Long Hollow, so if you're there, you can say word. Word. Amen. The word of the Lord. When the people saw that Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, come, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses, this joker, Moses, the man who brought us out of Egypt, we don't even know where he has been. We don't even know where he's at. Aaron replied, take off your gold rings that are on your ears, your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me. So all the people took off the gold rings

that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. Note this, he took the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into an image of a calf. Put a pin in this. Who makes the golden calf? Aaron does, don't forget that. Then they said, Israel, these are your gods who brought you from the land of Egypt. The first insight I want you to get is that the people acted sinfully. The people acted sinfully. God just made an agreement with them, a covenant agreement through a marriage ceremony, and they already are cheating on God. Now, who are they blaming? They're blaming Mo. Who says Moses, God, brings us out here? We don't even know where he is. For all we know, he probably went back to Egypt. He brought us out here to die. Of course he did. Now, it's easy to throw shade at those first believers of the nation, but let me remind you, how often do we forget our covenant relationship and commitment to God at salvation? How often do we turn aside from God in time? But I know what you're saying, but Robbie, we didn't have miracles.

They had miracles. They had plagues. They had the glory. They saw the miraculous firsthand. Well, I agree with you, but let me remind you, the greatest miracle you and I will ever see in our entire life is not the parting of the Red Sea. It's not the water into blood. It's not the water from the rock. It's not the manna from heaven. The greatest miracle you and I will ever witness day after day or week after week in this church is a changed life for Jesus, amen? And I would say it this way. The greatest miracle you'll ever witness personally is the fact that God saved you, amen? Because you weren't looking for him. And we have a history now as a Christian, if we look back, if we've served the Lord for any length of time, we have a history of God working in our life. Now, the problem of the Israelites is the same problem we have. We're hard-headed, right? I mean, look at the text, what it says. Look at verse nine, and notice what it says about the people. The Lord said to Moses, I've seen these people, and they are stiff-necked, I like that,

stiff-necked people. You're gonna love this. In Hebrew, you could translate that word as, drum roll, stubborn donkey, that's what it means. This is a person who doesn't wanna. get along with the protocol. They wanna get filing rank following God. They wanna do things their own way. These people didn't want God who followed them by faith, they wanted a God they could control. They wanted a Jesus of their own imagination. They wanted a God they can make into what they want to fit their own needs. It reminds me of the book of Romans chapter one, when Paul talks about something very similar. Some of you are gonna remember this. Romans 1.22, listen to Paul. Paul says, claiming to be wise, these people became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God to worship images resembling mortal man, birds, four-legged, four-footed animals and reptiles. Therefore, because they worshiped those things, God gave them over or delivered them in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the creator who is forever to be praised, amen. Here's what I want you to see, write this moment down.

I want you to get this. Every sin problem in your life and mine is a worship problem. Every sin problem is a, here's what, now don't think worship as in singing songs in church. Worship is how you live, how you act, how you obey, how you respond, how you seek the Lord, the things you listen to, the places you go, the movies, that's your whole life. The totality of your life is worship. And sin enters in when we have the wrong direction of our worship. For example, you and I fall into sin, get this, when our love for God wanes. We fall into sin when our love for God wanes. I'll prove it to you. The reason you love money so much, the reason you love gaining so much, the reason you are addicted to gambling and getting ahead and dopamine hit with money is because your love for God is less than your love for money. I'll say it another way. The reason you have a porn problem is actually a worship problem, why? Because you're seeking intimacy from someone or something other than God. That's what pornography is. It is idolatry because, guys, listen, ladies too, 40% of those looking at porn are ladies.

You're looking and worshiping an image in place of the creator. Your desire for fame and fortune and recognition and accolades and achievement. What's the problem? The problem is a worship problem. And here's the problem. You and I worship a God of our own imagination and our worship of God is in direct proportion, don't miss this, to the picture of God in our mind. Let me say that again. Our worship of God, or the lack thereof, is in direct proportion to the picture of God we have in our mind. And sadly, many Christians in the world today are worshiping an iPhone-size real picture of a photo on their phone. That's God. I can pull him up when I want and I can put him away when I'm done. That's what we do. We have this small image of God in our mind. And this is the reason, watch this, look at me, you are so flippant with your relationship with God. See, some of you have no problem sinning. You don't even get convicted over your sin anymore. You swear and use the Lord's name in vain and it doesn't even bother you anymore. You don't even consider the cost of what you're doing.

Friends, don't miss this. The reason God brought the nation in Exodus 19, right after they got out of the Red Sea, God said, oh no, we have one stop at Mount Sinai. And here's what he does. He brings the entire nation to the base of an enormous mountain. And as the people picture it, as they're looking up at this mountain, what do they see surrounding it? Put yourself in their shoes. What do they see? Fire and smoke and clouds and lightning striking and they're saying, wow, here's what God's doing. God says, I want you to get the proper perspective of who you're following before we go on in this relationship. It's not a carved image you put on a shelf and you burn candles to and you bow down to. No, this is the God of the universe that you're worshiping. So let me ask you, when was the last time you were enamored by the glory of God? When was the last time you shook to your core in fear of the one who holds your eternity in his hands? That's what I'm talking about. When was the last time you trembled over the creator of life and death? See, the problem was they didn't have the correct picture of God,

but the reason they sin, don't miss this. is because their leader cowered down to the pressure. That's why they made the calf. Their leader cowered down to the pressure of the people. Look at verse 19, brace yourself for this because this is church going wild, if you would. It's gonna make a Jerry Springer show. How many people remember old Jerry? Jerry, Jerry, you can hear it in the... Sorry. Dating myself again, once again. Verse 19, as he approached the camp and saw the calf and the... So Moses heard, God says go down, those people, your people, go down and fix them. Moses comes down and he hears singing and dancing. Moses became enraged and threw the tablets out of his hands, smashing them at the base of the mountain. I'm gonna teach you something I didn't know. Candy taught me this this week. We love reading a Hebraic commentary from the first fruits of Zion, if you're interested, it's called Unrolling the Scroll. It's one of my favorite commentaries. I read it almost every day for the Old Testament. And she said, did you know, I didn't know this. She said, did you know we've always been taught that when Moses comes down from the mountain, he has these two tablets with five commandments on this side and five commandments on that side.

Now, why do we believe that? Because you've seen the movie like me with Charlton Heston. That's what we saw, of course it was right, right? But that's not right. According to the sages, the rabbis, they suggest, and I think they're right, when Moses comes down, there are two separate tablets, and we know this from the fact that they're written on both sides. So think of it this way. On one tablet, you have the entire 10 commandments on this side, and on this tablet, you have the entire 10 commandments on this side, why? You and I know this because whenever we sign an agreement, let's say you buy a house. One copy goes to the realtor or the loan officer, and another copy goes home with you, why? One copy was God's version. The other copy of the commandments were there. God's saying, I'm gonna keep my end of the bargain. Let me remind you of yours. And before the finger could finish carving in the stone, the people have already turned on God, and they're worshiping a golden calf. Now, here's what they did. They broke many commandments, but they broke the first two, and I'm gonna give you the first two in a different way to think of them. Commandment number one of the 10 is God prohibiting them from worshiping the wrong God.

Write this down. Commandment number one is they broke, they worshiped the wrong God. The second commandment was prohibiting them from worshiping the right God the wrong way. That's what the first two are. And Moses approaches the camp, and he starts to hear the singing and the dancing and the people yelling and the people getting excited. What are they doing? Don't miss this. What are they doing? They are worshiping this calf. That's what that means. They are worshiping a false idol. And so Moses says, bring the calf here. Now, we've always assumed this is one big gold calf, you know, all the gold. I don't think that's what it is. The sages, the rabbis, again, say it was actually a wooden calf with gold covering on the outside that they made and fashioned on top of it. Moses said, bring the calf here. He burns the calf down, and then he takes the powder, and what does he do? This is fascinating. Watch what Moses does. He took the calf, and they made, burned it up, and ground it to powder.

He scattered the powder over the surface of the water and forced the Israelites to drink. Mo ain't playing by the way. If Moses came down from the mountain, his shirt said, don't mess with Mo. He ain't playing games right now. Mo's like, you're gonna drink it. No, we're not. Drink it. Okay, we're drinking it, okay. They drank it, and then Aaron said, what do these people do? Or Moses said, what do these people do that you have led them into a grave sin? Aaron said, don't be enraged, my Lord. You yourself know these people are bent on evil. You know that. These people never listen. They said to me, make gods for us who will go before us because this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't even know what happened to him. So I did. I mean, hold on. You're not gonna believe this, but it's true. Whoever has gold, take it off, and they gave it to me, and when I threw it in the fire, out popped a calf. I know it sounds crazy, but that's what happened, right? I mean, that's about the craziest thing in the world. But notice what Moses is doing.

Moses ain't messing with the people. He's just been in the presence of God. He knows what God can do. So what does he do? He takes the calf with gold overlay. He burns it down. It comes into a powder, and then he sprinkles it on the only water source they have. By the way, they can't go to the fridge for Dathani. That's all they got. And Moses is like, y'all gonna drink it right now. And if you think about it, why in the world would Moses do? I mean, I'm not gonna get too graphic here, but Moses is making them drink this. Can you imagine the next morning? What goes in, nevermind. That stomachache was horrible. Could you imagine this? I don't know how bad it hurt, but I imagine it. I never ate or drank gold with wood before, but I can imagine they were sick to their stomach. Come in close. I don't know if this is the reason, but I assume. God wanted them to be sick to their stomachs to feel how sick he was of their sin. Let me show you what it feels like. And you could say, if we think about it, this is the first time they're drinking a golden calf cappuccino, if you will. You know, a little water, cappuccino.

Actually, no, it's actually the first decaf cappuccino. Nate, I've been sitting on that one for a week, man. I've been waiting on that one all week. That's a good dad joke, huh, amen? My boys are going under the seat, right? But I mean, think about it. Aaron takes the cake, right? Aaron literally said, you're never gonna believe this. I know it sounds crazy, but we just threw in the gold and out came this golden calf. Here's the point I want you to write down. How many times does sin make you do stupid things? Did you know sin, excuse the language, makes you stupid? Amen? I mean, how many times do we come up with dumb excuses to rationalize and justify the sin we've committed? And the problem is, Aaron knows better. See, Moses is gonna be the high priest, in a sense, the mediator between God and the people. And so what he does is appoint Aaron. He's like, hey, you're gonna pastor these people. I'm gonna be a little while, but I'm gonna be back. And who is in charge? Aaron. And what does he do? He cowers to the pressure of the people. Why? He doesn't wanna rock the boat. He didn't wanna make anybody, he didn't wanna stand up for what's right.

He just acquiesced to the pressure. And as a result, don't miss this, if you're in any leadership role, if you're a dad or a mom in a home, as a result, the people ruled him instead of him leading the people. And here's the point I want us to get. When the leader follows the people, nobody's leading. That's what happened. If you've ever been a Christian for any length of time, or ever lead a ministry or lead a business, you're gonna have a crisis of faith in your life. There's gonna come a moment when you're tested in your leadership. And the church, they taught me this years ago when I became a pastor. They said, whenever you go to a new place to pastor a church, you're gonna have what's called a honeymoon season. Anybody heard of this before, a honeymoon season? So the honeymoon season is basically, supposedly, you get six months, maybe a year, where the people are so excited for the new preacher to come that literally, he could do anything. They're not mad about all the changes. Oh, that's fine, you can do that. They just approve all the changes. But then that day quickly comes to an end. Six months, 12 months, and then after that,

they start to, why are we doing, why are we doing? I remember when I went to Emmanuel, my first church, I was only a Christian for three years, three and a half years. I still don't know how they called me. I think they were desperate. The church was down to 65 people. Jason, I think they said, what do we have to lose? We're gonna close the doors anyway. Let's try this former drug addict, alcoholic, and former Catholic, let's give him a shot, right? So I didn't know what I was doing, and that was probably the best thing for me. I didn't know what I was doing, and I was just ready to reach people. That's all I wanted to do was reach people. Emmanuel Baptist was 65 people when I had gotten there, and right away, the church started to grow, and we started to ask questions in the leadership, like what can we do to reduce any barrier to reach people, to make it easier for them to come and worship? And so right away, we started looking around and realized I was pastoring a church that hadn't been updated since the day it was created in the 60s. So there was like paneling on the walls, and the carpet had a stain, a couple stains in it, if you can imagine, and old pews, and no padding on there. So we started to change a few things. We removed right away the wood paneling on the wall

and put sheetrock. Immediately, it was lighter, and it made it brighter. Then we started to change the carpet. Then we widened the stage to make it bigger for worship. Then we moved from singing only hymns only in a book. I know this is crazy, but we started doing praise songs in church. And then I did the unthinkable. I brought in a drum set and a guitar, and that really rocked the boat. But it faded in comparison to the last change I made, which was I got rid of the suit and tie. Now, my defense is South Louisiana. You know how much I sweat here with the AC pouring. This was South Louisiana. It was a matter of life and death. I thought I was gonna die, okay, so I took off the suit. And if you can imagine, most everybody was excited about that except Brother Chuck, old Brother Chuck. Now, Brother Chuck was someone the previous pastor had warned me about before I got there. He said, I mean, that's how you know. He's like, everybody's pretty much fine, but Brother Chuck. And so he warned me about Brother Chuck. Now, here's the deal about Brother Chuck. He was in his late 60s, or in his 70s, mid-70s, and Brother Chuck, every time the pastor would wanna do anything or implement something new, Brother Chuck would push back, cause a ruckus,

causing the pastor to cower down, ultimately to leave the church. He just couldn't deal with it anymore. One Sunday morning, I'm not making this up, one Sunday morning, I was only there six, eight months, and I'm about to, it always happens when you're about to walk up to preach. And I walk up to the very, and all of a sudden, one of my deacons come up to me, and they said, hey, Pastor Robbie, can you come here for a second? I said, sure. He said, there is this three-page paper circulating around Emmanuel Baptist, true story now. Can't even remember his name. And it was three pages, stapled together, and it was circulating around the Sunday school classes by yours truly, Brother Chuck. And on the top of the, I said, oh, can I see that? On the top of the paper, here's what it said. 10 ways to know that your church is purpose-driven and heading to hell. Now, I was curious, I wanted to know it, too. I was like, well, give me that paper, let me see. I'm curious, too, what sends the church to hell? I'm not making this up. Point number one, the pastor will change the color of the carpet. Point number two, the pastor will start painting the walls. Point number three, you will stop singing from the hymn book alone, of the hymn book.

Number four, the pastor will introduce drums and guitars in the worship service. Not making this up. Number five, the pastor will stop preaching in a suit and tie. I was five for five at this point. I was like, wow, I got them all. So we called Brother Chuck in. I met with the deacons that afternoon, and I said, hey, we're gonna come. And they said, no, no, no, you can't call Chuck in. I said, what do you mean? They said, no, no, no, Chuck's gonna cause, Chuck's not gonna listen. Chuck's gonna cause problems. We don't wanna, are you sure we should do this? And I told them, guys, listen, this is a biblical, Matthew 18 says, if a brother has something against you, you confront him and talk. I'm not gonna put heaps of, I'm gonna talk to this brother, bring him in the office. So we brought Brother Chuck in, and you can imagine he was hotter than a hornet's nest. I mean, he was hotter. First time a pastor had ever confronted him. And I had the deacon by there, and we brought him in, and Brother Chuck was so hot, and this is true now, in that hour, hour and 20-minute conversation, Brother Chuck popped not one, but two, Andrew, you'll love this, nitroglycerin pills

in the meeting. And if you know what that means, I was praying the whole time, please don't let him die in my office, please don't let this guy, I mean, I'll never get another job at a church. What happened at your last church? I killed a man, you know, but anyway, sorry, sorry. But anyway, so Brother Chuck was in there, and here's what we did. We just read Titus 3, which says we're causing division, warn a brother, and that if he continues, have nothing to do with him. And so we read that, and here's what I told him. I said, Brother Chuck, listen, I just wanted you, I just wanna know, why didn't you come to me? You could've come to me instead of blasting me with this letter circulating around Sunday school. I said, I know you don't agree, we don't have to agree with everything, but what we're doing is not compromising the gospel, we're not watering down the message of the gospel. Why don't you just come to me instead of criticizing the church? And then one of the deacons spoke up, and he said, hey, Chuck, we love you, you're welcome here at Emanuel, but if you're gonna keep causing strife, we're gonna have to ask you to leave. If you stay, I mean, come to pastor, come to me.

By God's grace, Brother Chuck never caused problems again, thank God. But here's the thing, as I left that meeting, I was driving home, and I thought to myself, I wonder if the previous pastor, if he would've just confronted Brother Chuck in a loving manner, if he would still be there. And it got me to think about the culture we live in today. Young people, listen up, I want you to hear this. You live in a world, even more so than we did growing up, you live in a world today where it is counter-cultural to hurt anyone's feelings. I don't wanna tell him, I don't wanna rock the boat, I don't wanna get him upset. And so here's what we're tempted, and adults too, we're tempted to allow our friends and family and neighbors to wallow in sin because we don't want to hurt their feelings. We will allow friends to wallow in addiction, to spread lies, to suffer from alcoholism, and continue to ruin their lives because we don't wanna say a word. We don't want them to think bad of us. Friends, here's my challenge to you. If you see something, speak up, amen? Say something, confront evil, call out sin, do it with love, obviously, but speak the truth to someone who needs to hear it, and then pray like Moses did, who prayed for mercy. That's what Moses prayed.

Moses stood in the gap, in place of the people before God, and he prayed for mercy. Here's what you gotta understand. God is going to say to Moses, I am done with these people, I'm gonna decimate them. And Moses prays, and the Bible says God relents. Now, the King James translated that as repent, which is not entirely accurate, you're gonna see. But here's the point I want you to write down. Because it looks like God changes his mind. We read that this week, let me show you. God doesn't give a decree here, write this down. God gives a threat. There's a difference. There's a difference between a threat and a decree, why? Because a threat is God moving Moses along to stand in the gap and intercede for the people. God sovereignly planned before the world began that if Moses as a mediator would pray in the present, God would have mercy on the people in the future. You see what I'm saying? This is, I know this is hard to wrap your mind around, but this is God's way of showing us the sovereignty of God to control all things in the free will of man. Now, how do I know this? Look at verse seven, watch this. This is how I know that God is going to work based on Moses' response. Look at verse seven. God says, go down at once for your people

that you brought, I love God. In the past, they were his people. These are my people. God's like, no, no, no, go take care of your peeps. Those people out of control, Moses, they're your people. And now Moses has the responsibility to pray. Look at verse 14. After Moses, don't miss this. After Moses prays, God relented concerning the disaster he said he would bring on the people. Not repented, that means he messed up. Relented, he held back. So the million dollar question, did God change his mind? What do you think? No. God doesn't change his mind. The Bible says he's the same yesterday, somebody help me, today and what? Forever, tomorrow. What we're seeing here is the duality between the sovereignty of God to be in control of all things and the responsibility of mankind to respond and act. Remember, God's threat is not a decree. The reason God does that is the same reason he does that in our life. God allows, he sends threats in our life, he allows hardships to bring us to our knees so we pray and intercede for things in our life. The question I wanna ask you is this.

How many people believe in the power of intercessory prayer? Anybody with me? Raise your hand high if you believe in that power of prayer. Then look at me. Why do you pray so little? If you believe it's powerful, which I do too, and I'm not throwing stones at you because I've been convicted all week myself. I prayed more this week than I have in a while. Why is it that I have to study on prayer to pray more? But that's the challenge, right? See, what this is is a picture, a foreshadowing of what's coming in the New Testament. What does this remind you of? A man, Moses, standing in the presence between the wrath of God and the justice of God to the people of God. Who does that, what does that sound like in the New Testament? Jesus. That's our story of salvation, right? The story of salvation is that God, just like the Old Testament, God punishes sin, and the people rebelled, and the people gave in to idols, and the people fell into adultery, just like us, and they worshiped false things, and God sent Moses to stand in the gap to intercede for the mercy of God, the Father. Friends, look at this. The good news of the gospel is this.

God doesn't send Moses, God sends a man named Jesus, not just to intercede, but to die for our sin. Write this down. At the foot of Mount Sinai, God should have destroyed his people. At the foot of Mount Sinai, God should have destroyed his people, but at the foot of the cross of Calvary, at the foot of the cross of Calvary, God destroyed sin. When God saw sin, he did something about it. He sent his son, Jesus, to do, not just to pray on our behalf, which he does, but to intercede with his life. And what does Jesus say? He's hanging from the cross, and the people are below. He says, Father, what? Decimate them. Is that what he said? No, that's not what he says. Father, get back at those, they don't even. That's not what he said. He says, well, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. Prayer is powerful. Christian, listen to me. There is power in intercessory prayer. Anybody amen to that? As I began to pray for Brother Chuck, what's funny is Jody and Julie were at Emanuel, Jody was one of my deacons at Emanuel

when this was going on, so he and Josh, y'all know this story, but let me tell you how it ends. I started praying after that meeting, I was pretty disillusioned, I didn't know what to do for a guy who was negative and cantankerous. Let's say he didn't leave happy, I will say that, and he was pretty upset, and I began to pray and I asked the Lord, what should I do? And the Lord gave me a word. How do you respond to a man like this? Guess what the Lord told me to do? To go confront him and say, who do you think you are? Do you know who I am? Is that what he said? No. Do you know my job? No. Guess what God told me to do in prayer? God said, go be his friend. Go be his friend. He didn't want a friend, he didn't want me to be, no, go be his friend. And I would take Brother Chuck out, I'd go to his house sometimes, I went to lunch one time, and after we sat down and he complained about how we weren't given the way he wanted and how we weren't playing the songs that we should have, after we finished, I started asking him a question like, hey, tell me your story, Brother Chuck. And here's what I found out.

He was a World War II veteran. He had a tough life. Shortly before I got there, I didn't know this, but he lost his wife of many, many years and he was all alone. And I came to realize, Brother Chuck wasn't mad at me or even the things I was doing, he was just lonely. And the real reason he attacked me was not because he was mad at me, it was because he missed his wife and he didn't know how to respond, so he just took it out on me. Now, I could have written him off, I could have said, we don't need you, you're a speed bumper, but here's what I realized. God had called me, not just a pastor as a Christian, God has called me and you to be ministers of the reconciliation of bringing lost people to him. God has called us to the ministry of reconciliation to fill the gap for people who are far from God, 2 Corinthians 5.20. Therefore, we are ambassadors to Christ since God is making his appeal through who? Through us. God uses us to make his appeal to people. We plead on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Here's the thing I want you to leave with. I wonder what could happen if you got serious about prayer. Like you said, I'm gonna stand in the gap for people. I know in a room like this, there are moms in here today

who have been praying for their wayward child. There are Christians in here today who are praying for their lost friends and family. There are believers in here today who are praying for a family member who is experiencing a health crisis. You have neighbors who need Jesus. You have a son or a daughter who's an addict or an alcoholic and they need you to stand in the gap for them. And so in just a moment, we're gonna have an opportunity. It's such a cool opportunity today to intercede, to stand in the gap, to stand in the way for these people.