Good morning Cornerstone, San Francisco. It is so good to be with you guys and to join you. I have been asked by Pastor Terry I think over the past year and a half, to come to visit you guys and to speak. It is one of my favorite churches. Actually, I don’t tell a lot of people, but you guys are my favorite. I love coming to Cornerstone and being with you guys. It’s so awesome to be able to jump in on this series Up and Over. I’m thrilled to be with you. It’s been, obviously a crazy season, which I’m going to talk about this morning. But let’s just pray and ask the Lord to open up our time together and open up our hearts as we look at the scriptures and ask God to challenge us. So, just join me in prayer.

God, we pray, as you’ve done throughout the generations and throughout the years, that you take your word and you show it to us in a way that doesn’t just make us more enlightened, but it causes us to live more like Jesus. Will you do that again today as you’ve done in so many years in the past and encourage us during this weird season where we can’t be together except for being online and strengthen our hearts? Luminate our eyes to see, we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.

It is really good to be with you guys. I’m thrilled and I wanted to share something jumping in on the Up and Over series. I’ve never been in a season in our country and a current climate where we have come across and experienced anxiety and fear on this level. I was just reflecting on that as things continue to happen, I was reflecting on different things. If I could put every year of my adult life in a fear index to see where it stands, 2020 stands out far above any other year. I think about the different years that I went through, 1996 was the year I actually moved from Southern California with my family to the Bay area. We didn’t know anybody and I remember thinking, “What are we going to do? How’s this going to play out?” We didn’t know where we were going to live and all these other things. There was a lot of fear involved with that.

I remember the year 2004 was an especially hard year for our family. We went through some trauma and brokenness in some things that we went through and thought, “That’s really high on the fear and anxiety index.” Many of you will remember 9/11 as in 2001 and what happened that day was crazy, but then the fear that followed afterward because of the vulnerability that we felt. We couldn’t travel, there are places where we couldn’t go and a lot of unknowns. We have that and 2001 was that really crazy fear level. But still, nothing seems to beat 2020, and it’s not over yet. It’s been weird for me personally, it’s been weird for my family, for the church, for my community, for the state, for our country, for our world. So when you put it on a global scale, this has been on the fear index. 2020 takes top honors in the fear and anxiety category. I’m confident that I’m not alone when I’m feeling this. The mere fact that I’m speaking to Cornerstone, one of my favorite churches via video and not live is rooted in fear and anxiety over this crazy virus that just between you and me, I am done with. It’s just crazy wearing masks. It’s just insane.

But everyone is fearful and holds anxiety about the pandemic, about personal health, about social distancing, about the economy, about a myriad of different fears that we carry. So with Covid, add onto that a weird election year, a divided country, racial tensions, California burning down. I live in the Santa Cruz mountains and we just had crazy fire sweeping through our county. Ash and all this smoke as you guys have experienced. Horrible air quality, educating their kids on Zoom, riots, the economy. The fact that I have to watch five different news channels and get news sources just to figure out what the truth might be. You can easily see how it might hold some people in fear and might carry a little bit of anxiety. It’s crazy because you think, “This can’t get any worse,” every time. From spring, when this came on us we kept thinking, “This can’t get worse.” It’s like every week it gets worse. We have a Supreme Court Justice pass away and then it gets worse. It’s just like, “What is going on?” Let’s be honest. There might be days where I would wonder and maybe you wonder, “Hey, God, are you paying attention down here? Because it’s kind of getting gnarly.” Ever feel that way?

It’s driven by fear. It’s driven by anxiety. There’re literally days where I think, “You know what? If I could just hide somewhere until this blows over if I could just hunker down, shelter in place, and then just let this pass. I’m going to just stay there and hide until it’s passed.” It’s fear. Driven by fear and anxiety. Fear is the primary driver in our culture today, which is contrary to God’s word. So, when I go through the scriptures, and I go through and talk to people about fear, my grid is to think through the passages that respond to fear. Here’re some of the passages where God talks about fear. This is one from the Old Testament in Isaiah where he says, “So do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Another one, King David, as he’s being pursued and chased and all the different things that went on in his life where he says, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Here’s one from Philippians, a favorite book of mine where it says, “Don’t be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God and the peace of God transcends all understanding and will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Seems nice, but is that how it plays out.

Another one. This is from Jesus himself where Jesus says, “Peace is what I leave you with. It is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset, do not be afraid.” Jesus’ words. Then Paul’s letter to Timothy where he says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.” These are passages that as I hear about the fear that’s going on in our world, these are the passages that come to mind and I’m like, “Well Jesus speaks the Bible.” God’s constantly speaking to us about fear and over and over again, talks about dealing with fear, eliminating anxiety, trusting in God. But this year seems different. Does it seem different to any of you? It’s like all those passages were meant for every other year in the history of the world except for this one. But the truth is that God is present. He actually does calm our fears. He gives us true peace and peace of mind. He will guard our hearts and minds. But this year does seem exceptionally crazy and if there were a time that we need him the most, I think it’s right now. To actually have a conversation.

I want to share a story with you about a person in the Bible. As I process this story and as I think through it, it’s kind of a crazy story because God uses this individual in a time when the world as they knew it was in absolute chaos. People were far from God and whatever else and he raises up this person, Gideon, to advance God’s kingdom. But the crazy juxtaposition of his mindset at the beginning of the story to the end of the story is super ironic. Because when you look at the end of the story you think, “No way. This guy’s just this mighty warrior of God.” But when you look at the very beginning of the story and the circumstances, you think, “This is exactly what’s happening in our world today.” It’s kind of crazy.

When I think about it, the Midianites were these warrior nomadic groups of people that were like a mob. They weren’t even a formalized army. It was like a mass mob of the Amalekites and then mostly the Midianites and other people that came together and gathered in the Valley of Jezreel. There were 135 thousand of men and then it says, “The camels were so many that they couldn’t count. They were as many as the sand on the seashore.” It was this sea of people. What they would do is they would come in as raiders. They would raid the camps. They would raid the fields. They would pillage things. It says they were like grasshoppers and they would kill the crops, they would kill the livestock, they would kill the people, and they would enslave them, torture them, all those things. The Midianites were the worst. This is what’s happening. The Midianites are coming in and Israel is wracked with fear during this time.

When you look at this story, it starts with Gideon, who’s just a regular person like you and me. God calls him to actually lead the children of Israel against this encroaching thing that is causing so much fear and anxiety. It’s a weird part of the story. Then, at the very end of the story, you see this crazy response. I’m going to walk us through the front part of the story and through some of the things that I see in this. It’s in Judges chapter six. If you want to read the story on your own, it’s chapters six and seven. I’m just going to summarize a little bit of chapter seven but I’m going to read parts of chapter six for you. It says this, Judges chapter six.

It says, “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in the mountain clefs and the caves, and in the strongholds. And whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites invaded the country. They camped on the land, they ruined the crops and they didn’t spare a living thing for Israel as they invaded the land to ravage it.”

Verse 11 he says, “And the angel of the Lord came down and sat down where Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. And when the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’ Gideon replied, ‘If the Lord is with us, why has all this bad stuff happened? But now the Lord has abandoned us and has given us into the hand of Midian.’ The Lord turned to him and he said, ‘Go in strength, in the strength that you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?’ he asked.” And then Gideon replies, he says, “How can I save Israel?” This is a really neat thing. He says, “My clan is the weakest in Manasseh,” that’s one of the tribes of the children of Israel. “My clan in this tribe is the weakest clan.” And he says, “And I am the least in my family.” He’s basically saying, “I have no strength on my own.”

Then the Lord answers. He says, “I will be with you and I will strike down the Midianites.” That story so far, that’s the front end of the story. When you look at chapter seven, and you read how it plays out, it is so weirdly contrasting from fear to faith, from inaction to heroic kingdom God work. You think, “What just happened?” So let me just walk you through this and summarize a little bit of the story for you. First of all, the Midianites are a semi-nomadic people and lived in the [inaudible 00:13:12] peninsula in Western Arabia. They were raiders. They swept in like locust. They destroyed all the crops and the livestock. They weren’t an army, they were more like a mob. They were like-minded raiders and thugs. Scripture tells us there were too many to count, as I said earlier, and they put this nation, the nation of Israel in a spot where they were starving. Then, this is the weird piece where Gideon was threshing wheat, which means separating the wheat and the chaff, which you usually do out in an open field where they throw the wheat up and the chaff blows and the wheat, grain. and kernels fall and you’re able to gather that for grain, your bread and food, and stuff like that.

So he’s threshing that in a wine press, which tells you what’s going on. He’s trying to provide for his family but he’s hiding in fear. Gideon’s self-confidence is at an all-time low. He’s wondering, why has God abandoned us? When I look at this story, I look at Gideon. I look at what’s happening in Israel, I feel like that’s how many of us feel today. With everything going on, I’m not feeling very confident in myself. I just want to provide for my family. I just am going to hide behind my mask. I know that there are mobs and chaos in our world. I just want to hunker down in my home and hope that this imminent threat goes away, all the while wondering, God, where are you? as this plays out.

In this series, Up and Over, where we’re challenging each other to live, and overcoming life, one of the things that I see again and again is fear is such a powerful emotion and it takes control of us. Instead of living up and over, it’s more like we’re living down and out. That’s just not what God calls us to. That’s why Pastor Terry and others have been speaking to this very thing; is how do we live this overcoming life that God has created for us to live when fear seems to take us over? So let’s talk through fear for just a moment. Fear, fear is actually a human emotion that’s triggered by a perceived threat. It’s a basic survival mechanism that signals to our bodies to respond to danger, either fight or flight, as you’ve heard that as a response. As such, it’s such an essential part of keeping us safe. It’s a piece of our human hardwiring and emotion. When something happens, if for some reason you’re in your house and a bear walks up to the front door and the door’s wide open, you might feel some feeling of fear. That’s not a bad thing. It’s actually a good thing. It’s an internal DNA response that I’m either going to fight the bear, which is a bad idea, or I’m going to run from the bear. That’s how that plays out.

However, when people live in constant fear, whether from a physical danger in their environment, or threats they perceive, they can become what we call incapacitated. This is where anxiety sets in. This is where worry overtakes us. This is where anger can take over. This is where apathy and inaction become part of our daily routine. Not just fear, but constant fear. When I look at that, when I look at the pandemic that hit, there was this initial unjustifiable fear. Now it’s been seven months; it’s moved to constant fear. When I look at the shutdown of our economy, it’s moved to constant fear. When I look at racial unrest and rioting, it’s moved to constant fear. The unprecedented fire, smoke, and air qualities have moved us to constant fear. The ongoing unsettled nature of our political climate has moved me to constant fear. The initial fear is a God-given human response and emotion that is designed to protect us. Whereas constant fear is a counterproductive mindset that’s designed to control us.

Constant fear is driven by the enemy. It’s driven by others or it’s driven by my own lack of faith. Constant fear eliminates effort, sidelines my resources, clouds reasonable thinking, it debilitates our ability to fulfill God’s calling on our lives. So when the Bible says to me, God has not given me a spirit of fear, what he’s saying is, “God is not giving me a spirit to live in this mindset of inability and debilitation of constant fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.” The spirit of fear is not just regular, initial fear. He’s talking about the effects of ongoing, constant fear. We’re living in an age of fear. Unchecked or constant fear causes most people to underestimate the very thing that God uses to advance his purposes.

When I look at this story, I begin to ask myself the questions. When I see Gideon, I realize he has this pressure of constant fear. Children of Israel and it says in the story that they walked away from God and so there was this oppression. God’s probably using this to get their attention, but you have 135 angry mob crazy people bearing down on you, you’re hiding and you’re in constant fear. God calls Gideon out of this, not just personally, but to lead his nation, to lead the people. There are three things that I observe in this first passage of chapter six, then I’ll walk us to the end of the story and share some things I want you to see today.

The first is this, that God, in the story of Gideon, God meets us in our fear. If you’re feeling anxious and you’re feeling constant fear and like, “Whoa, this is going on and on.” The weird piece of that is that God actually meets us right there. That’s where God makes that connection point and walks us through those things. Oftentimes we think, “Where is God?” Actually, I call that the distant presence of God that we feel like he’s distant, but turns out he’s right there with us, walking with us. The scriptures speak of it again and again as God is walking and journeying with us through our greatest fear. He says, “Yea that I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because you’re with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” It speaks about that concept of the presence of God in the midst of fear and so in this passage, it says that the angel of the Lord, that representation of God’s voice, comes to Gideon in the midst of fear.

We have to recognize that God meets us in our fear. Sometimes it feels like he doesn’t. That’s a faith aspect to be able to say, “Okay, I’m going to trust the fact that God is here and present with me in the midst of my constant fear.” Remember, in constant fear, there’s an unreasonability in our mindset that goes, “I don’t know what’s going on, blah, blah, blah.” It’s almost settling and clearing your mind for a moment to say, “God, I need you right here.” And God’s whispering, “I’m right here.” First, God meets us in our fear as he did with Gideon.

The second thing that I see in this story is God sees things in us that we don’t see in ourselves. God sees things in us that we don’t see in ourselves. The passage is crazy because it says, “The Lord,” it says in the passage, “The Lord is with you,” and he calls him “mighty warrior.” This is a dude that’s hiding in a wine press. This is a dude that’s doing his job, but doing a job in a completely different area because he knows if he does it out in the open he could get attacked, killed, lose everything that he has. He’s operating out of fear and they come in and the angel of the Lord says, “Mighty warrior.” “Mighty warrior? One, I don’t feel like a warrior and if I was, I sure as heck am not mighty. He does not feel that and yet, this is the identity of how God sees the individual.

I think of this passage as one of my favorite, an anchor verse for me in Ephesians chapter two verse 10 where it says, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared in advance.” Meaning God has uniquely made me a certain way. He’s given me traits, qualities, gifts, opportunities, great experiences, and wounded pasts to be able to do things that no one else can do. Then he’s created this trajectory of things that I can walk in and do; serve mankind as Christ would and to advance his kingdom. He’s created that. Ephesians 2:10 teaches us that. I look at this and I say, “God sees in him the fullest potential, the logical limit of who he is and can be.” He does the same with us. I just think we don’t think that. I think we underestimate, we believe the lies, or we believe the assumptions about ourselves that aren’t true. When, in fact, God has created us and called us his sons, heirs to the kingdom. He’s called us his ambassadors as if God were pleading his case through us for people to be reconciled in him.

Oftentimes what happens is God sees things in us and we don’t see them in ourselves. That’s what happened in this story. The third thing that I see in this story is, God reassures his omnipotent presence. God reassures his omnipotent presence. What does omnipotent mean? Omnipotent is a fancy word to say all-powerful. There’s omnipotent, omniscient, all-knowing, and omnipresent, all present everywhere.  God reassures of his omnipotent, his all-powerful presence in this moment because he says, “I’ve got this. We’re to deliver Israel? You’re not delivering. I’m just using you and the resources and the connections and the person that you are, to do something great through this whole thing.” This is how the story plays out.

I’ll just walk you through chapter seven, which isn’t the focus, but I wanted you to see. Here’s a guy that was wracked with fear, God gives him and reminds him of who he is and what he sees in him. He reassures him that, “I’ve got this.” Then he takes them to, I believe, one of the craziest military battles in all of Biblical history. It’s one of my favorites because it’s so weird and it demonstrates the character of God. Here’re the Midianite warriors that are in the Valley of Jezreel, 135,000 of them. In chapter seven, you see Gideon finally pull himself together, recognizing God’s [inaudible 00:24:21. He’s going to gather any able men that can be a warrior to fight against the Midianites. There were 135,000 of them and more camels than they can even count. Gideon is able to gather 32,000. Just do the math. 32,000 verses 135,000. That’s a four to one odds, plus. All right, going to battle but nobody can die and you’ve got to kill at least four people. That’s the kind of battle it is.

Then God says, “You know what?” He says this line in the passage where he says, in chapter seven, he says, “I don’t want Israel to think that you got this. I got this. I don’t want you to think that you had the power to pull this off and so we’re going to thin down your army a little bit.” He says to Gideon, “Let the men go that might be afraid to go to battle.” So Gideon makes the announcement to his 32,000 men, “If you’re afraid to go to battle, you’re free to go home.” 22,000 people leave. Again, nothing’s changed for the armies of Midian. There’re 135,000 Midian raiders and now 10,000 Israelites left over. God says, “It’s still too big. I’ve got to thin this out even further.” The odds now jumped down to 135 to one. Now it’s a whole different story. Now we look at it and say, “Okay, what are we doing here? How is this plan-” not 135, 13 to one. Anyway, sorry, my math is bad. So then we look at it and we say, “Okay.”

God says, “I want to thin this out even further,” to Gideon. If I were Gideon I’d be like, “Okay, what’s happening here? I was trying to put an army together? How are we going to do this?” God’s basically saying, “I’ve got this. What you were wracked with fear is not anything of your concern. You were consumed by fear. You had this constant fear and I’ve got this.” God says to Gideon, “Take the men down to the river and I’m going to thin them out for you. Have them get a drink, whoever drinks like a dog, basically puts his hands on the shore and puts his face down in the water and drinks, verses the men that kneels down and cups water up and drinks, we’ll keep the guys that are cupping the water, and we’ll get rid of the guys that are kneeling down to sip the water like a dog.”

So you have to think from Gideon’s perspective, what am I feeling at this time? “Man, I sure hope guys cup water because I’m running out of guys.” Only 300 men are separated by God to say, “These are the 300 you’re going to take to battle 135,000 Midianite warriors.” Crazy. Then what happens very simply, even after that, he gives them a, “All right, let’s get our weapons of warfare,” and pulls the weapons of warfare. Instead of a bow, a blade, a sword, and arrows, he gives them a pot, a torch, and a trumpet. They gather around the armies of the Midianites and instead of attacking them, in the middle of the night they throw down the pots to get their attention, they hold up the torch and they blow the trumpet and yell, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” What happens is the Midianites just freak out and turn upon themselves and destroy their own internal destruction in their own army and attack one another until they’re completely gone.

But the story is this unique story because if you look at the front end, here’s a guy just wracked with fear. The least of the least. A guy that brings nothing to the table. There’s no wisdom that he has, there’s no strength that he has. He’s just like, “I got nothing.” Then God releases him from his fear, helps him to see who he is, and brings him to this new place. So, what I wanted to challenge you with are a couple of things. Four things I just wanted to give you. If you have paper and you want to write these things down, in order to move up and over, we must first, this is the first thing, right size fear. We must right-size fear. Often fear overtakes us and it seems like, “Oh, man, this is bigger than it needs to be.” Actually, what we need to do is look at it and say, “Is this constant fear or is this just coming at me right here?” We need to right-size it. We need to help ourselves see actually what’s coming our way. Is it just initial or is it something that’s going on and on in my life? But we need to right-size it and help us to see actually what’s going on. That’s the first thing.

The second thing, in order to move up and over, is we must countermand fear with faith. Oftentimes when I’m feeling a sense of fear in a particular thing, I have to counter it with a statement that starts with, “But God.” “We don’t know how we’re going to pay our bills, but God has provided for us.” “We’re not sure how this election’s going to, but God’s got this and he appoints kings and presidents and leaders.” “But we don’t know how this Covid thing’s going to-” “God’s got this and God protects us. He’s our healer.” And every time, if I countermand fear with a faith statement that starts with, but God, it changes the trajectory of the fear for me. So first, right size fear. Second, countermand fear.

Third, lean into identity and not individualism. So when you see in the story, if it was individualism, the Israelites need to, “We need to do an army that matches person to person. We need to come in at our own strength.” What they needed to do is to lean into their identity. “No, God is the God of armies. I’m his child. I’m the child of God. God has got this. God will take care of this.” So lean into our identity and not our individualism.

Then the fourth thing, so right size fear, countermand fear with faith, lean into identity, not individualism, and fourth, remind ourselves of our narrative. This is super important. Throughout the scriptures you’ll see oftentimes when the children of Israel are wavering or there’s something that goes on, God will say, “I’m the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I’m the God that led you out of Egypt. I’m the God that brought you through the desert. I’m the God that fed you manna in the wilderness. I’m the God that did this. Remember? I’m the God that did this.” That was Israel’s narrative. They would always go back to their narrative to remind themselves who God was and what he did. I think we have to do the same thing. Who is God and what did He do in my own life? How did He provide? How did He protect? How did He take care of me? How did He save me? How did He redeem me through these whole things?

So that’s what I wanted to share with you today. I wanted to challenge you. When we think about a right-sized fear, countermand fear, lean into identity, and remind ourselves of the narrative as we respond and move up and over in this life, the life that God has called us to. I have a special song for you that was written by my son, who is going to sing it with your team here, that really speaks into it, it’s called Make Me Holy. It starts with, I have no strength on my own, no wisdom that I know. Then it’s really saying to come take my nothing and turn it into something. Take the fears that I have and turn them into something that’s used for you. So I want to share this song with you. Before I close in prayer, I just remind everybody about giving. If you want to give online, respond through the app or however that works best for you. We encourage you to do that as well. We thank you, we love you. Cornerstone, it’s a blessing to be with you guys. Let me just pray as we close our time.

God, thank you for the chance to be together with my brothers and sisters, and families and friends all across the Bay area, and different parts that listen online and watch online. [inaudible 00:32:25] responding to the community online as best we can to this wonderful, beautiful faith community. Father, I pray that as we continue through this year, we know we have bumps ahead. Will you help us to not live in constant fear, but to live in faith? To lean into the identity and to recognize that you have got this bigger, better, and above and beyond what we would ever imagine. That we would move up and over as we continue to press onto what God has called us to be and be strengthened by that. I pray a blessing on this community and I pray a blessing on the leadership as they lead through these times, strengthen us this week, bless us this week we pray, in Christ’s name, Amen and Amen. God bless you guys.

I have no strength on my own. There’s no wisdom that I know. The wounds from my past and the scars on my chest are proof that my actions were not the best, so I sing, leave me holy then. Now I have no song to sing. There the truth’s going far from me. I’m desperate for cover from thy light no other. My sin running deep, there’s no light in the tunnel. I say, make me holy then. You make me holy, you make me holy. I am unworthy and I am a wanderer. Now I have no gift to give for the life I thought I live. I’m working so hard, there’s no fruit in the garden. The soil is still rich from the truth you imparted. I say, make me holy then. You make me holy. You make me holy. And I am unworthy. And I am a wanderer. Lord, you are holy. Lord, you are holy. I am unworthy. And I am a wanderer.

Make me holy. Make me holy then. Make me holy.

Counting my [inaudible 00:36:51] turn it to something. Down on my knees and just me and freedom. Don’t let me find it, I no longer find it. Lay down my burdens, washed in your mercy. You make me holy, you make me holy. I am unworthy. I am unworthy. You make me holy, you make me holy. I am unworthy. And I am a wanderer.

How good is that? God can take our nothing and turn it into something. This is a great truth that the Lord wants us to hold onto. There is nothing, no limitation that we’re experiencing that the Lord can’t, if he’s welcomed into it, turn it for good. Even now Lord, we just welcome you into our places of challenge, anything that we may feel is confining us. As you know, it just seems like there’s been one problem after another and yet, the Lord is present, he is here. We’re together. We’re together. I know that the Lord is with us. We can weather this together. Together we can weather the storms of life. I think that’s just part of the gift of God. My earnest desire for all of you, all of our church community, wherever you may be, in different parts of the world even. Certainly different parts of the country. We’re all spread out right now, but we’re together in a different way and I’m so grateful for that. My prayer is the Lord would keep you, your spirit, your body, and in your mind, in your soul. So much of the battle is fought in our thought patterns and the Lord wants us to center ourselves on the good and not get carried away by all the trouble and anger and different things that just seem like everybody’s yelling.

The Lord wants us to have, in the midst of this storm, peace in our heart, peace of mind, peace with God, and peace with one another. Why does he do that? He’s given us Jesus. He’s so good and He’s so God. He wants us to be so good and so God, doesn’t he? Do not forget, do not forget, you are greatly loved.