I was thinking about Step, this series that we’re on. I was talking with my wife Sheryl yesterday. Sheryl is presently at the Mission campus. She’s got a team that she oversees over there. They’re working and have services going on, as most of you know. But we were celebrating a very special day for ourselves because yesterday was our anniversary. That was a big deal, 34 years. It was 34 years ago, and we were talking about it at Mission when we were married there. 34 plus one day, so this is the day after. We were recalling how we stepped into a covenant with one another. We made a promise to one another, to love each other, knowing the pain and challenges that often is connected with so many of those who start out with that endeavor in their heart. We were just reflecting on the goodness and the grace of God. How there have been seasons where we’ve had to step out and reinvent things.

We’ve had to trust God to be with us along the years as they have transformed and gone by. In fact, you saw that one of our children was actually leading worship here. She was part of the team. Chloe is our oldest daughter. Having her be here is also a tremendous blessing and reminder of the goodness and the grace of God. We started out with stepping out in faith and trusting Him as a church as well. We would never have gotten to this place here at the Lake Merced campus if we hadn’t taken the step of real faith and trust and tried to launch this. We were running out of space at the other campus. We said, “What do we think? It’s going to be complicated, it’s going to be challenging, but hey, let’s give it a shot and do it.” Many of those who are serving right now in the different ministries, children’s ministries, parking ministries, helping set this entire service up really, just throw your heart into it.

The product is that people’s lives are being touched by Jesus. We get to be a part of His expression of grace in this city. I’m extraordinarily grateful for this series itself because it’s a reminder that life with Jesus is a continual adventure that involves stepping forward. The passage that I’d love for us to sit with, look at, and learn from,  and also apply it into our own lives. It is a marvelous exchange that occurred between Jesus and His disciples at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry. I want to sit with it, imagine it, and enjoy this time with you. I don’t want to take it for granted. I want to ask that His word would speak to us and stir a hope, a trust to surrender, and to move forward. It’s what He’s calling us to.

Let’s begin by looking at verse 1. You have your handouts there. If you have your Bibles, or Bible app, feel free to use them. I’d like for us to look at this first together. It starts out in Luke 5:1, “So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him, Jesus, to hear the Word of God that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret.” The Lake of Gennesaret is another word for the Sea of Galilee. To some of us, this is the Sea of Galilee in northern Jerusalem. Somehow you can see the shape. Some people say it’s shaped like a harp. It’s an amazing place to go. I’ve been to it a few times now. So much of what takes place in the New Testament with Jesus is connected to the sea, the region of the Galilee, and the Sea of Galilee, or the Lake of Gennesaret as it’s also known. It’s a very important part of that. The lake itself is fed from both a spring and from the waters. It’s really good to know geographically where the land of the Bible is. Jerusalem is by the Mediterranean Sea. It’s close to the continent of Africa to the south, and Europe to the north and west. Of course, the massive continent of Asia to the east. Israel is located almost like the center.

In Jerusalem and in the Bible, there are two typical places of water that are mentioned frequently. One of them is referred to as the Dead Sea. Nothing comes out of the Dead Sea. Things die in the Dead Sea. Hence, the term Dead Sea. Because it’s got such high salt content. The Sea of Galilee, however, has water flowing through it. It comes mostly from the waters underneath and waters that flow from the Jordan down from Mount Hermon. You could see how beautiful it is. It has its own unique kind of beauty. It’s picturesque. By the way, did you know that the Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake in the world? It’s the second-lowest lake in the world. Do you know what the lowest is? The Dead Sea is the lowest in terms of depth, elevation, and the Sea of Galilee is second but it’s the lowest freshwater that there is in the whole world.

Look at the second verse. It says, “He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets.” The Sea of Galilee is picturesque. Seems like it’s morning. I want to plant in our mind’s eye the idea of the early sun creeping over the hills and see this picture as Jesus approaches them, the light breeze, the pastels because when you’re there, that’s what you notice. You feel it. It’s like you’ll notice these hues of light blue, lavender, brown, and beige. The lake is subtle but it’s softly beautiful. If we can see Jesus walking with a group of people, there are fishermen on the side of the edge of the sea, they’re walking, but the feel of it, the smell of it, you see it. It’s there.

This is what we’re looking at. It’s not just some made-up thing. It’s a real place and has a real texture to it. I want us to try to embed ourselves as much as possible into this moment and see it with our mind’s eye. Their boats were secured a few yards away, the fishermen were washing their nets, hard work any time by the way after a night of fishing, but particularly unsatisfying. It would be for, as we’re told here, them to be cleaning their nets after a night when they had nothing. We’re told here they had gone from their nets and were washing their nets. When they fish in the Sea of Galilee, they throw their nets, it was hard work. It required strength to toss nets out. It required a lot of preparation to draw those nets. Not only to toss these heavy, heavy nets out but to then pull them in also required a tremendous amount of strength and energy. It was a physical kind of labor that the fishermen had been engaged in. As we’re going to see, they had caught nothing. It was kind of brutal to put in a whole day’s labor and be told afterward, “You’re not getting paid for that.” It’ll be hard to get nothing from all that labor.

That was a fisherman’s life. They knew that. These fishermen, whose names we are about to see and will know and recognize. They had been fishing in the Sea of Galilee as Jesus was walking by. Peter and his friends were business partners. They were what we might call commercial fishermen. This is very important as we’re about to look at this. They knew these waters. They had fished these waters since they were boys. They had spent their entire life by that place we just looked at, the Sea of Galilee. That was not only the place where they had their occupation and vocation, it’s what they knew and loved. They understood those waters. They knew when a storm would whip over the mountain and move that water. They knew when the fish were biting and where to find them. They were expert fishermen. They were expert fishermen in the Sea of Galilee. If there was one thing in their life they were really good at, if you were to ask Peter, Andrew, James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, it’d be like someone asking you, “What is the one thing you’re really good at?,” they would’ve said, ” I know how to fish in the Sea of Galilee.” That was their area of expertise. That’s one thing we know.

We also know that they were also very committed to God. They were good at what they did, fishermen by trade, but they also love God. They were students of the scriptures. It’s true they had no formal training, but they had grown to love the God of their people, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That was their God. They had actually been so invested in the promises of God, and people were talking about how God was going to act on their behalf and the Messiah was coming. All of a sudden out of nowhere had arisen this man who was this radical voice in the wilderness. A prophet had arisen after generations of nothing. John, the one they would call the Baptist because he baptized people to repentance in preparation for the coming, said, of a new movement of God.

That John the Baptist was someone who was this charismatic figure who was compelling everyone to think about God in fresh new terms. We know that their paths crossed John’s path and that they were compelled to follow John the Baptist. It wasn’t until after John pointed them towards Jesus, who he declared as, “That’s the one, the Lamb of God.” Then these four; Simon, Peter, Andrew, his brother, James, and John decided to start following Jesus, but they started as followers of John. They were very committed, very devout. I want us to understand that as a setup because what evidently had happened is they had started to follow Jesus but some time had passed and they hadn’t heard anything from Him. They said, “We want to follow you now. John’s pointed us in your direction. We’re serious,” but they had heard nothing. After a while, even though they had decided to follow Jesus, nothing was happening. What they did is they had to make a living. They had to make money, so they went back and started fishing again. They didn’t know what to do. What else were they to do?

They had families to raise and feed. They had to do what they needed to do. That’s the setting. It was a sensible thing to do. They are cleaning their nets after a frustrating night of work when Jesus appears at a distance with a large group of people surrounding, following, and wanting to hear Him teach. They had left their boat out there, they were already on the shore cleaning. They looked and could see Jesus. There were people pressing and surrounding Him. Jesus kept coming in their direction. He stopped by the boat.

As Simon, James, and John look at Jesus, He stops the people all around. In verse 3 it says, “Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s,” Peter’s, “and He asked him to put out a little bit from the land.” Again, they’re not in the boat. Jesus, with the crowd all around Him, stops there where they’ve been cleaning their nets. Jesus, without asking, gets into the boat and says something to them, “Hey, come in. Let’s push this thing out a little bit.” As they pushed the boat back off the shore, Jesus sat in there and it was from that place that he taught the people.

He uses a natural amphitheater as His words bounce off the water and the people are sitting at the shore. It’s very picturesque. It’s a beautiful scene. Peter, James, John, and Andrew, I’m sure they’re watching,, “Wow! Jesus is there, He’s teaching, and they’re interested in what He’s teaching.” Look what happens in verse 4 when Jesus stops speaking. He said to Simon after He was done sharing and teaching, “Go your way with the blessing of God upon you.” He said, “Simon, I want you to launch out into the deep,” by that he means, “I want you to untie this and take the boat back into deep waters. I want you to go back out there into the deep place. I want you to throw down your nets for a catch.” That’s the picture. Throw down your nets for a catch.

You can see a little bit of what that might’ve looked like. Remember this; they had made it known that they were willing to give Jesus their allegiance in the realm of morals and duty, religiously speaking, spiritual things. They had already said, “We want you to hold court. You’re the one we believe in.” They believed He was a great rabbi without controversy. Even His critics acknowledge that Jesus was exceptional and though unorthodox, his knowledge was something that had to be reckoned with. Jesus was topped by no one. He went to no school. They didn’t really know what to do with Jesus. His words, when he spoke them, didn’t even speak like he was talking about somebody. He talked as if He was speaking directly from God as if His own words had authority. People were compelled by Jesus. But they could not underestimate His knowledge. He clearly had it. How had he gotten it? No one knew. For the disciples, even in their short exposure to Jesus, they had come to believe that He was more than a teacher. They had come to believe that He was, at minimum, a prophet. Clearly, as John had said, “Anointed of the Lord. Quite possibly, the Messiah. The promised one of Israel.”

It was an altogether different matter, startling and unexpected, if you will when Jesus decided to invade and challenge their sphere of expertise. It was one thing for them to regard Jesus as the spiritual teacher, as a rabbi like none other, the possible Messiah, but it was another thing for Jesus to come in and start trying to tell them what to do in their area, the one real area of expertise. They knew the waters and they knew where the fish were. That’s what they did.

They have Jesus after he’s teaching and sharing. They loved it, I’m sure. I’m sure they were looking at one another and thinking, “This is wonderful. He’s on the boat. This is fantastic.” But then they have Jesus say, “Okay,” after they had cleaned their nets and everything, which was extraordinarily hard work. It wasn’t like they just got a hose and washed it off. These were heavy nets. They had things in them. Seaweed, dirt, and other such things were caught as they pulled them through the water. To clean your nets as part of the ritual that closed your day out. It would be like you closing up shop. “I’m done for the day. What a day.”

“Did you catch anything?” “Nothing, but we worked hard.” Now Jesus is saying, “Hey, time to go back out.” I can see Peter thinking, “Okay.” He looks and listens. Probably they’re all looking at each other, but look at what he says. Jesus says, “Launch out in the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” I would assume Peter’s will buckles a bit, and they look at each other with reluctance in their eyes. It’s captured in these words in the fifth verse, “But Simon answered and he said, ‘Master,'” which was a term of great respect. “We have worked and have toiled all night. We have caught nothing. We’ve been out all night. The fish aren’t around today. This is not the time of the day to do it. You don’t fish at this time of the day. Plus, the time to fish was when we fished. That’s when they don’t see us. When it’s day, like it is now, and you throw the nets out, they see the shadow on the nets and won’t go anywhere near it. Plus, we’ve cleaned these nets. I know you wouldn’t know this, but this is hard work, and we’re done. Shop’s closed.” But then with a pause, I think it’s important to put it right in there, “No. We toiled all night, we got nothing. Nevertheless, if that’s what you want, that’s what we do. Nevertheless. At His word, let’s do this. I was reading F.B. Meyer when I was a young man, a young follower of Jesus. I used to love to read about Bible characters. I would read these little biographies, kinds of studies, character studies.

I remember one time reading something that F.B. Meyer wrote about Peter at this moment. I didn’t forget it. He said, listen to these words and try to put yourself right in them, “Peter had fished these waters from boyhood. There was nothing in the craft with which he was not familiar; the habits of the fish, the hours and the spots most suitable for taking them, the effect of climatic conditions, in all he was proficient. He would have hotly resented any interference on the part of other fishermen of his acquaintance. Now, he found himself suddenly confronted with a bidding which was contradicted by his experience, by the universal maxims and practice of generations, and by the bitter failure of the preceding night which had left him jaded, weary, tired, out of heart. He would be prepared to obey the slightest preset that came from the master’s lips but how could one, who had spent his day,” if I can say it this way, “in the carpenter’s workshop of a mountain village be competent to take command of a boat and direct the casting of a net. Was he to renounce himself in this also? The morning was not the time for fishing. The glare of light revealed the meshes of the nets, and the fish were not to be found, not in the deep, but the shallower parts of the lake. The whole of the fisherfolk, the other fishermen that might see his boat pulling out at such an hour laden with nets and evidently prepared for fishing, would laugh at him and count him crazy.”

Peer pressure on top of everything else. “What are you doing, Peter? Peter, you can’t be serious.” Go back to it, “Master, we’ve toiled all night. We’ve worked all night. We’ve got nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net.” What’s fascinating here is that he calls Jesus “Master”, in the Greek epistates. The word doesn’t actually mean teacher. It’s almost better translated out as captain or overseer, one who is in charge. It’s almost like Peter says, “All right. You’re the captain of this boat.” So, he steered into the deep waters. By the way, when we surrender to His word in our lives, it will always take us into the deep. Verse 6, “And when they had done this, they got there, they threw the nets out, they caught a great number of fish,” we’re told, “and their net was breaking.” The description here in verse 6 is that their boat is lurching dangerously, so dangerously that it’s getting near the waterline. They’re starting to signal for help, such was the extent of their catch that even with the help of their partners, they could barely stay above the water and hold the fish. That’s how much of a catch it was.

In verse 7, “they signal their partners in the other boat to come and help them.” “Hey guys, we need your help badly.” They came and filled both the boats to the extent that they almost both began to sink. So much weight of fish. I’m imagining this back to the shore. It could’ve been on the boat though, I’m not sure. But when Simon saw what had happened, how illogical it was, how different it was from everything that had made sense to him in the area of his expertise, we are told here, he fell down on his knees and said, “Get away from me. I am a sinful man. I am a willful, stubborn man.” Oh, Lord. “For he and all who were with him were astonished, they were stunned at the catch of fish which they had taken.” I love Peter because you know what Peter does right at this moment? He turns internal. He looks inside his own heart. He’s an utterly honest self-assessor. For all his flaws, one thing he was, he was honest about himself. You wonder, “Why does he say that?”

At that moment, Peter feels the contrast is so deep. He senses his resistance and how far off he was. The enormous gap between him and Jesus. He feels it. “Unworthy, that’s what I am. Willful, that’s what I am. This is who I am. Don’t waste your time on a man like me. I’m not your guy.” It’s beautiful and powerful. In verse 10, “And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.” Jesus said to Simon, I love this response. Think about why he gives it. Peter is on his knees saying, “Don’t have anything to do with me. I’m a sinful, willful man. You can’t use a man like me, not who you are.” Do you know what Jesus says? “Do not be afraid.” What are you talking about? “Do not be afraid. From now on, you will catch men.” When they brought their boats to land, they forsook all, and started to follow Jesus. That’s the beginning of a big movement of them attaching themselves to the ministry of Jesus. “Don’t be afraid.” What a response. Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid.” Think about that. Peter says, “Don’t have anything to do with me.” Jesus says to Peter, “Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid.”

Jesus hears Peter’s words, and you know what he calls it? He calls it fear. Peter is basically saying, “I won’t be able to sustain. I will let you down.” Part of that is true. I think he’s afraid he’ll disappoint Jesus and that he will fail. It’s so honest, so real, so raw, sincere humility driven by a lack of confidence in his capacity to be the kind of disciple that Jesus needs. Again, “I’m not your guy. You have to find somebody different from me. I resisted you here, and you went so far.” “Don’t be afraid, Simon. Do not be afraid. You used to catch fish, but from now on, you will catch men.”

Jesus uses the language of his vocation to translate out His kingdom commission. “That’s what you’ll do.” So it will be for all of us. Jesus wills to use us in the place of what we know. The gospel is translated primarily through the language of our experience. Here are some things I want to present around this marvelous passage that I just love. It’s going to sound so simple. Hear me when I say it; Jesus can do everything better than me.

Everything is better than me, and everything is everything. In our area of greatest strength, He can do better. In the place of our most effective service, He can do it better. In the details of our supreme talent and our gifting, whatever we think we’re really good at, He can do it better. It will be for all of us. Anything, any place, anyone, anywhere, He can do it better than me. When we’re facing things, when we’re stuck, when we think we know, remember, Jesus can do it better than me. “But I know this.” Peter, He can do it better than you. What does that mean? Here’s a second piece, remember this too; there can never be two captains in the boat. No, sir. Humble submission and courage.

When we struggle with the Lord, it’s because we’re having a problem with who’s the captain. There can never be two captains in the boat. Either we are or He is. We may struggle with this. I certainly have. But before the nets of our lives can be filled or a seasonal promise can come into being, the issue of captaincy has to be settled. Back to Peter, “Master, we have toiled all night, we’ve caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I let this down. Okay. We’re going to do it. We’re going to do it.”

It was a protest. “We’ve been laboring all night long. This is hard work to go back out there and do this. This does not make sense. This is lacking sensibility. Nevertheless, at your word.” That’s the key, “Nevertheless, at your word.” Sometimes, it will be a struggle to get to launch. Sometimes, it’ll be a struggle to get to step out. Sometimes, it’ll be a struggle to get that sail back up. Sometimes, that’s exactly where the struggle is. Then to see the catch that shouldn’t have happened for Peter. It has been said that it was there that Peter recognized for the first time what partnership with Christ means. How submission on our part secures cooperation on His. Humility is a prerequisite to breakthrough, but it also requires courage and trust. I was thinking about it, trust in His words and His word for us. Trust in His words and His word for us. His word to us.

Perhaps there is an issue right now in your life that requires great trust in God, and very few people may know of it. It may be something very personal to us. I have more than a few things that I am struggling to trust God with, one of which we’ll talk about this afternoon. Is there something we are anxious over that we are struggling to trust Him with? Sometimes, trust is stepping out. Sometimes, it’s rowing out. Sometimes, trust is letting go. It’s like throwing the net, “All right. Here we go. Letting it go, letting it go. This is crazy.” “Ready, let’s do it. Let’s do it.” That’s trust.

That’s trust and expectation. Sitting right underneath that thought is the idea of the captain and the boat. If we cannot trust Him with expectant faith, I don’t know exactly how this plays out theologically, but I know what it did to me last night as I was sitting with it. If I cannot trust you, Lord, by faith with expectation, then let me trust you in obedience. You look at this, and one of the things that stand out is their faith wavered but their obedience remained. “We’ve toiled all night.” That’s wavering faith. “Okay. If you want us to do it, we’ll do it.” That’s reluctant obedience, but it was obedience. This is really important. It was enough for God to work with. “I’ll do it. Yes, I’ll do it.” Sometimes, the real victory for us is just doing. You say, “Where’s your faith? You gotta have it all tied together. It’s got to be really good. You have to have faith right, then obey God.” I’m looking at this and thinking this is choppy waters. This is not, “Oh yeah, I believe you Lord, and now I’m going to obey you. We got the big nets going to fill up with fish.” This is, “Lord, this doesn’t make sense to me. I think you’re mistaken on this one, but I’m going to do it anyway because you asked me to and I’m going to do it.” That’s obedience, hardly champion-like faith, which is really hopeful for me and you, I hope as well.

It reminds us that, “God, I may not have this thing all the way down right. I may be wrestling back and forth with unbelief. I may be struggling back and forth on this issue. I may be getting it right, sometimes not getting it, or I may be doubting your goodness. I might have a little bit of fear lay ahold of me, but you know what, Lord? I’m going to do what you ask, I’m going to get out there and do it. I don’t even necessarily want to do it, but I’m going to do it because I know you want me to.” Watch what God can do even with reluctant obedience. What? That’s exactly what I said. Look at this third piece here. They obtained the stunning blessing. The blessing of God often makes us uncomfortable. It often makes us uncomfortable. When we’re on the stretch for God, our nets may actually start to break and our boat may get a little too close to sinking. In other words, systems get stretched when we are stretching for God, but that can be a sign of success or that we’re on the right track. With a catch of fish comes breaking nets. 

What I’m saying is it may stretch us a bit to contend for the miracle and breakthrough He wants to bring us but it is worth it. It is worth it, it is worth it, so worth it. I’d rather have breaking nets with a lot of fish than clean, pristine nets with nothing in them. He has beautiful nets, they are clean, but that’s not what a net was made for. Not to be on the shore, but to be in the water. It’s work and it’s messy, I know, but that’s where the grace and the blessing are to be found. Do you want clean nets? Stay here. Do you want to have them filled? Come with me into the deep. That’s holy ground. We will never witness the miraculous and be amazed just playing it safe. We will never witness the miraculous and be amazed just playing it safe. No, sir. No, we will not. What was it? There’s a time to launch out and there’s a time to risk, and some things cannot happen just by playing it safe. I’m going to leave it with this, I know I’m just putting stuff out there for you to think about, but I love this part of it too.

When the Lord brings a breakthrough, He requires all of us to work together. Do you see it? Isn’t that so good? “Hey guys. Guys! Guys! Hey!” No one’s back there, I was just saying it. It’s like, “We need you to help us here. We can’t do it! It’s going to sink! There’s so many fish! You gotta help us. You gotta help. You got to take some of them. We got to work together here.” You know what? It says, “They signaled their partners, “look at the seventh verse, “and the other boat to come and help them, and they came and they filled both the boats so high that it would begin to sink of so much weight.”

At a personal level, we’re all going to need partners in faith. That is why this journey of faith in Jesus, when it works right, is never done alone. It’s not one guy or one woman in a boat on their own. There’s a time to be alone, I suppose, and it’s pretty clear there is, for replenishment. There are some replenishments that only being alone can bring. But there is clearly a template of healthy life in God, which is what we consistently talk about; community, the value of small groups, friendships, and partnerships, because when God is doing something, it requires others.

That’s true at a personal level, never be isolated. Never. It’s too tough out there. Two is better than one. Three is full core, not easily broken, because we’re prone to ups and downs. We emotionally get hit. We could fluctuate, our faith can get dry. The way gets hard. I want to quit. Nothing’s happening. I can’t do it. Depart from me. I cannot deliver for you. I’m a man of contradictions. We need others to pray for one another, confess your faults to one another, pray for one another that you may be healed in the Lord’s name. There is power there.

We’re all going to need it. None of us is that strong. Never man ever made that way. As a church, that’s how the church works best. Do you know how it works best? When there’s so much life to take care of, we have to all work together to get it done. That’s when the church is probably at its best. It’s one of the best feelings in life to see the Lord send a miraculous catch. May it be so for us, Lord. May it be so in the coming months and years that we get the joy of partnering together because with what he has, what the Lord is doing among us is so much that it requires all of us working together, throwing our hearts into it because God has been so amazing. How good would that be?

I’m going to pray. We have our time of giving. Thank you by the way for those of you who are so faithful, your tithes, your giving. You carry the weight of this church. Thank you. We have a song to close with. But I’m going to pray for what we’ve just shared. Even now, Lord, I thank you for the great privilege of being able to look at your words and share them. Hopefully, some of it comes alive in our hearts, and our minds. I ask that you help us to trust you as our captain. Oh captain, my captain. Be my captain or be the captain of my life. Jesus, in the places where I’m most afraid, whether it’d be like Peter of my own inability to honor you properly, therefore I’ll pull back, or whether it’d be with some of the things that I’m burying, that we’re burying that are heavy, heavy loads, emotionally, relationally, we feel it. Some of us are very anxious. It might have to do with our bodies, even now I pray, healing in the body that is sick, in the name of Jesus, I pray it. For whoever we may be.

I pray for a life in wholeness. I pray for provision and grace. I pray for the goodness of the Lord to prevail in ways that are seen and not seen. I ask that you would make a way for each one of us individually as we place you at the head of this ship, this boat of ours. You’re the one, Lord, nevertheless at your Word, we claim your Word, we hold to your Word, we submit to your Word. Help us to receive what it is you have for us as we line ourselves up with your Word. Your word over our lives, oh captain, my captain. Lord, we commit our way to you, we commit this closing song to you, which reminds us that you are the captain of our faith. Let it be a wonderful full-circle moment. For those of us who can stay afterward, share a meal together, and share a tender time of unity and communion together, so be it. We thank you, thank you so much, Lord, and we bless you in Jesus’ name, Amen.