I invite your attention in this
morning to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 5 will be our text. Luke chapter 4 starts with our
Lord being tempted by the devil in the wilderness. For 40 days
he spent in the wilderness being tempted. Then he began his earthly
ministry. I want to look here, look at
verse 18. This is where he took the book
and he stood to read in the temple. Behold, I'm sorry, I'm on chapter
5. Luke 4, verse 18, he said, he
quoted this, it's Isaiah 61, verse 1. It says, the spirit
of the Lord is upon me. Because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. Now look at this. And he closed
the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down, The
eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened
on him." Right here, these people who heard him, he simply stood
and read scripture and sat down. And the eyes of all of them were
fastened on him, and they marveled at the gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth. But, we won't read that, but
he went on. and started teaching them election. And they did not like that. They
were filled with wrath, and they took him to try to throw him
off a cliff. So here we have, he was just taken by the devil,
in the wilderness, 40 days, began his earthly ministry, and people
are amazed at how they're already trying to kill him. And it should
be no surprise, honestly. Not everyone sought to kill him.
Look down here towards the end of the chapter, look at verse
42. And this leads into our text. Luke
4, 42. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert
place. And the people sought him and
came unto him and stated him that he should not depart from
them. And he said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of
God to other cities also, for therefore am I sent. And he preached
in the synagogues of Galilee, and he came to pass. that as
the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood
by the lake of Gennesaret. Some saw him. Some came to him. They pressed
upon him, they begged him to stay with them and to declare
the word of God unto them. Why? If other people there were
trying to kill him, why were they not? Why were they desiring
him? I'll tell you why. Because they
heard of him. They heard of his power. They
heard of his grace. They heard of his mercy. And
so they came in. Pray that might be the case for
you and me today. Verse 1 in chapter 5 here again,
it says, It came to pass, as the people pressed upon him to
hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and
he saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were
gone out of them and were washing their nets. These fishermen,
they were not pressing upon him to hear him. They weren't in
this group that had heard of him and coming to him desiring
him. They're just out here fishing.
They're just out at this point. It says they're done. They're
ready to go home. They're washing their nets. Minding
their own business. They're not seeking him. That's
the point. They're not seeking him. And let me say this. God
does not save us because we're seeking him. He does the seeking,
and then in return, we seek him. All right, that's the first thing.
And I'll look here at verse three. And he entered into one of the ships,
which was Simon's, Simon Peter. And he prayed to him that he
would thrust out a little from the land. Here we have Simon
Peter, a fisherman. And this is as blessed as my
heart. The Lord, the Lord of glory, the Lord God Almighty,
entered into his ship. The Lord was pleased to walk
right onto Simon Peter. Now, this is not cruel. I'll
tell you what this is. This is amazing. It's amazing
to all God's people. I'll tell you that. On that day, at
this time, amazing grace was Now, we did read our Lord kindly
asked Peter to thrust out a little, let out a little, let the boat
out a little bit into the water. Now, like I said, Peter's already
done fishing, right? He's out there washing his hands.
He wasn't even in the boat. Ready to go home, but, but God. If it weren't for the grace of
God, Peter, he'd have just gone home. He'd have just kept living
his life like it was. And I tell you, the life he was
living, it was a sinful life, just like yours and mine. But
Sovereign Grace interrupted his plans. I'm so thankful it's so.
Oh, praise God, Sovereign Grace interrupts our plans. Where would
we be if it didn't? Honestly, I don't like to think
about it. And I'll tell you this, too.
By the time this encounter's over, Peter's gonna be, he very
well may have felt frustrated or nuisance at our Lord coming
here But by the time our Lord is done
here, Peter's going to be so thankful that our Lord stepped
on his own. He's about to be so thankful.
Look here at the end of verse 3. And he sat down, this is our
Lord, he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. They followed him, they came
to him, pressed upon him, wanting to hear him. And he sat down,
let me join in. Perhaps he was already teaching
some, he was watching Peter far off. According to his purpose, he
was going to make sure Peter heard too. I love that also. I titled this message, Christ
the Fisherman. Look here, verse four. Now when
he had left speaking, when the Lord was done speaking, he said
unto Simon, launch out into the deep, and let down your nets
for a draft. He told the people. Now it's
time for him to deal with his man, Simon Peter. Initially,
he had asked him to let out a little. We have the Lord and Peter, and
he says, let's go into the deep. We'll launch out into the deep.
And I'll note, too, initially he asked Peter, just let out
a little. Now he's commanding Peter, we're
going into the deep. We must go into the deep. They're
going fishing, and I'll tell you this, when God goes fishing,
he goes out into the deep. If God goes fishing for you or
me, he's gonna take us out with him. Verse 5, And Simon answering
said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have
taken nothing. I can't help but think that Peter
must have been insulted at our old command. He had toiled all night long.
He had been trying to finish all night And here comes this
man, and it's apparent he didn't know the Lord yet. I don't know
if he had heard of Him or not, but I know the Lord best saved
him. Peter, this man joins himself to Peter's boat and tells him,
well, let's go out to the deep and you cast your net. You imagine
how Peter must have felt. He was a seasoned fisherman.
He knew what he was doing. He and his partners here, they
were probably so confused and puzzled at why they couldn't
catch anything. Probably the first time in their
life they ever toiled all night long and had nothing to show
for it. Why did it happen? I'll tell you why it happened.
God purposed for the fish not to go in there Peter, he's about to find out
what our Lord's doing here. Verse 5 again. Here we have the
power of our Lord. I'm telling you, there's a reason
he didn't know it, but there's a reason they couldn't catch
anything before. And Peter is about to witness firsthand the
power and the majesty and the excellency of our God and His
Word. He's about to witness our Lord's
ability to fish spiritually. He's gonna see it physically,
but oh, he's gonna see much more than that. Much more than that.
We'll hear verse six. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. Now again, Peter and his fishing
partners, they labored all night. I mean all night. And they caught
nothing. Now the word toiled here, they
toiled. Here's what it means. It means
to labor with wearisome effort, Is that not what it is? Is it
not wearisome effort? People all over this world are
daily offering sacrifices that can never please God. Not looking
to Christ for the sacrifice of God. Laborsome effort. And I'll tell you this too, just
as he labored all night and had caught nothing, we're not going
to please God. God is pleased with Christ. If
we're going to be pleasing to God, we must have Christ. We
must be in Christ. We're going to accomplish nothing.
Christ is all. He must be all. Not Him blessing
Him or nothing. Singers went on Him. May Christ
be all to us. And without Him, we can do nothing.
Absolutely nothing. This great haul of fish that
they caught, it was the Lord's doing. Is that not obvious? It
isn't? It's not. Well, the fish, they
just weren't. They weren't out. They weren't
out and about. They weren't hungry. No. No,
I'm sure they were. Those fish couldn't have gotten
in the net that high that they wanted to. How serious are they? Who's in control of the fish?
Oh, Lord. The fishermen. Our Lord simply gave the command.
He didn't just command Peter to cast the net. He commanded
those fish to get in the net. And at His command, they swam
as fast as they could to get in that net. Do you believe that?
I believe that with all my heart. You think about when the Lord
sent his disciples to go catch the fish that had the coin to
pay their taxes. Well, wow, what a coincidence,
no? No, everything that happened for that to take place was our
Lord's doing. It was our Lord's doing, absolutely.
Just as our Lord prepared that great fish to swallow up Jonah.
The Lord has a purpose. everything what a glorious purpose
that was oh my the power of his word his will his purpose I love
the verse says the Lord God omnipotent reigneth he has always reigned
he reigns now he's gonna reign forever Verse seven, and they beckoned
unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they
should come and help them. And they came and filled both
the ships, so that they began to sink. Now again, I can't,
I'm not much for fishing, but I can't even fathom this. I tried
to picture it in my mind, two ships. I don't know how big they
were. If our Lord was teaching a bunch of people out of one
of them, I suppose they were pretty good size ships. But, both ships, And yet, the physical fishing
that took place here is nothing compared to what our Lord was
really doing. But what was the difference?
Why couldn't they catch anything the night before? You had at
least four seasoned fishermen here. Why couldn't they catch
anything? And yet now, they're catching
all the fish. Do we know who the difference
was? Brethren, the difference is always
our Lord Jesus Christ. But there's one difference. There's
one difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites. It's Christ.
There's one difference between the saved and the lost. It's
Christ. He alone. He's always the difference. They didn't have Him. The night
before, they didn't have Him. Now they do. But better yet,
he has them. And the Lord didn't need them. He didn't need them. He used
Peter to go fish. But our Lord, he's the difference.
He's the only difference. We're about to see it wasn't
just Peter either. Look at verse 8. When Simon Peter
saw it, I want to stop there. You see the word it is in italics.
When Simon Peter saw, what did he see? What did Simon Peter
see? He saw the fish. He saw the nets. He saw the nets breaking. He
saw the boats beginning to sink. He saw himself and his partners
I'm sure scrambling, not knowing what to do, as I always did. But he saw something else. He
saw something so glorious. He saw the Lord. He saw the Lord. I went to a
little concert a few weeks ago with Josh Turner. I've always
enjoyed his music. But he sang some awful religious
songs. Josh Turner sang a song, here's
what he kept saying, I saw the light, I saw the light. I think
the song began with something about, I wouldn't let my savior
in. What a cringeworthy statement
that was. No, we don't let him in. He comes in when he will. And then we're glad he came in. Peter didn't see. the light has
been saved. Well, he didn't see the light,
he saw the light in Christ. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, in Matthew 16, when our Lord said, who did men say
that I am? Peter. He said, well, some say Elijah,
one of the prophets. He said, but who do you say?
He said, thou art the Christ. That's who he saw, the Son of
the living God. That's who Peter saw by God's
grace. My prayer is that we might see
Him too. So many people see Jesus. I hear it all the time. So many
people see, we may as well do a lowercase j, Jesus, lowercase
g, God. They don't see the true living
God. They don't see the Lord Jesus Christ in all His glory,
majesty, and honor. Oh, may we see He made all things. Not anything
was made without Him. He made it all. Oh, may we see
our Savior. He's a just God, but He's also
a Savior. May we see Him. Verse 8 again. When Simon Peter
saw the Lord, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Peter wasn't crying that
before. And neither were you. I read what I did in chapter
4 to show us all these people were hearing Him. Again, some
wanted to kill Him, but some, our Lord gave them an ear to
hear Him, and eyes to see Him, and a heart to believe Him, call
upon Him, call upon the name of the Lord, as you read. Peter
wasn't seeking Him. He wasn't seeking Him. Our Lord
came to him. Our Lord in tenderness sought
Him. revealed himself to him. Our Lord drew him. Our Lord saved
him. He came here to die for him,
to live for him, to die for him. All by his grace, all by his
sovereign grace, it was his pleasure to do that, to please the Lord,
to make Peter one of his people. Peter was just a filthy, vile
fisherman, just a no-good sinner, just like me. one with a Savior. Now, I hope we can see very clearly
that salvation is not an act of man. It's just not. What in
the world did Peter do here by which he was saved? Well, he
obeyed the Lord's command, and the Lord was pleased to use him.
But Peter didn't do anything to save himself. He was simply
doing what our Lord commanded, only because the Lord made him,
gave him the grace to, made him willing to. Listen, if God's
gonna save us, it takes a miracle of God. It takes an absolute
miracle. It's not, well, I decided to
do this, or I did that. It's all of him. I mentioned
Jonah, salvations of the Lord. Jonah knew that, and then the
Lord taught him that again. We see Jonah making a fool of
himself, just like I do, all the time. And our Lord is gracious
in bringing us back and reminding us, keeping us grounded in this,
salvations of him. It's all of him. I'll tell you
this, Jonah. You think he could have got out
of that whale's belly on his own? You think he could have wound
up in the whale's belly in the first place? No, it's strange, isn't
it? Oh, it's so strange. Our Lord's
ways are not our ways. Oh, they're so much higher, they're
so much better. It's like a miracle. It's like a miracle. When those,
when the children of Israel walk through the Red Sea on dry ground,
it's like a miracle. That same sea that became walls
to their left and to their right, and their feet didn't even get
muddy. Imagine, I was just in the ocean a week ago. My feet
were getting all sandy, dry ground. The ocean, even, or the Red Sea.
Think about that. Amazing. But that same water
ended up drowning their enemies. The blood of Christ is salvation.
It's life to God's people. And yet false religion tramples
it under their feet. It takes a miracle to save a
sinner like you and me. I like this song. It says, it
took a miracle to put the stars in place. It took a miracle to
hang the world in space. But when he saved my soul, when
he cleansed and made me whole, it took a miracle of love I love what Peter said here,
did you see it? The end of verse eight, he said, he fell down
first, he fell down. And he said, depart from me,
for I am a sinful man. Oh Lord. Was our Lord gonna depart from
him? Did Peter actually desire the
Lord to depart from him? I'll tell you what Peter knew,
he knew he did not deserve to be in our Lord's presence. He
knew he was unworthy to stand before the Lord, so he fell down. Why would God have anything to
do with me? Why would God look my way? He had to condescend
to have anything to do with me. That woman caught him taken in
the act of adultery. says our Lord stooped down. For
God to save us, brethren, He had to stoop way down. It said
that He commanded Peter to launch out into the deep. Our Lord went
into the deep to save us. He went down to the pits of hell
to save us. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell. He went down to the pits of hell to save us, to redeem
us from the sin, not just that we've committed, not just the
sin that we will commit, but the sin that I am. He went into
the deep. His people. He made sin, made
us righteous to God, so that we could be saved and praised
and glorified. Amazing. He was not going to
depart from Peter. No. He came here for Peter. He
came here to call Peter out of his darkness into his marvelous
light. Call him out. Verse 8 again,
When Simon Peter saw, he fell down to Jesus' knees, saying,
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. for he was astonished. And all that were with him at
the draft of the fishes which they had taken. And so also was
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. The power of God is astonishing. If the Lord Jesus Christ, the
word of God, is ever revealed to us, first it's gonna be by
the power of God. And if he's ever revealed to
us, we, too, are gonna be astonished. Absolutely astonished. Later
in this chapter, there's a man with palsy, and he had some good
friends who saw to it that he got taken to the Lord's feet. They couldn't get into the building,
so they started tearing the roof apart and dropping him down on
the bed. And our Lord said, Thy sins be
forgiven. No matter what physical ailments
we may have or mental, we have a far greater need. There's one
thing, we need Christ to save our soul. We need him to forgive
us of our sins. But when our Lord said that,
when he said our sins be forgiven, the lost religious leaders who
were there, they had a problem. When they thought, who are you
to forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins. So
then what does our Lord do? He says, alright, well what's
easier, for me to say thy sins be forgiven me, or say take up
your bed and walk? So he commanded the man, take
up your bed and walk, and he took up his bed and he walked.
The Lord healed him physically and spiritually. And look at
this here, look down in chapter 5. Look at verse 25. Immediately
he rose up before them and took up that whereon he lay and departed
to his own house, glorifying God. Who did he glory in? He
gloried in the Lord. Now look at this, verse 26. And
they were all amazed. And they glorified God and were
filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things today. And right after this, he goes
on to call Levi, Matthew. We've seen strange things today.
You know what that word strange means? It means extraordinary. We've seen extraordinary things
today. They were astonished. They were
astonished at what they'd seen. Are we not amazed and astonished
at the glory of God, the power of God? His purpose, His grace, His goodness,
God's dealings, His bountiful dealings with His people. He's
not dealt with us after our sins. He's dealt bountifully with us.
Let's not forget all His benefits toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God's goodness to us, His
salvation that He's wrought for us is astonishing. There's nothing
like it. There's nothing like it. Nothing in this world can compare And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear
not. In the middle of the verse, Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not. Peter, I'm not going to depart
from you. And here's why. I came here to
save you. I came into the world to save
sinners. And Peter learned that he was
the chief. Oh, I did it too. I know it too. Do you know that? Am I looking at a bunch of chiefs
of sinners? By God's grace, I pray so. He came out to call the righteous,
those Pharisees that had a problem with our Lord forgiving that
man of all his sins. He didn't come to them. And he
went on to say that he came to call sinners to repentance. He
came to call sinners to believe on him and not ask him. What a day this was. I don't believe we've read it
yet, but our Lord not only, not only had he clearly saved some
of the multitude that had come to him and desired to hear him,
clearly he had, not only did he save Peter, he saved Peter's
brother Andrew, James to John. There's four right there. Four
fishermen our Lord was pleased to save right here, and I must
confess this, they didn't save themselves. What did they do
to save themselves? Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing.
And I can't say it enough, they weren't even looking to be saved.
They were just looking for fish. They just wanted fish. I gotta tell you this, they went
home without fish. But they went home with something, someone
far greater. Our Lord saved these men in spite
of themselves. From henceforth, thou shalt catch
men. From now on, these fishermen
are going to be fishers of men. And what that means is gospel
preachers, and they were our Lord's disciples, his scholars,
his apostles. Turn back to Matthew, I wanna
show you this. Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. Look with
me at verse 18. Matthew 4, 18. Let me say this before we read
this. It's just a few verses, but the different Gospel writers
often recorded the same thing. But under the inspiration of
God, one would say this and the other would say this. They're
not contradictions. It's just letting us see the whole picture
of what happened, okay? Some say more, some say less.
I'm going to tell you, Luke said a lot more. Look here, Matthew
4, verse 18. And Jesus, walking by the sea
of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers.
He saw them while they were still fishing, okay? Verse 19, and
he saith unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men. Verse 20, and they straightway
left their nests and followed him. Why would they do that?
Doesn't that seem strange? Would you have done that? If it was us, we absolutely would
have, because the Lord said, follow me, and by his power,
his effectual call, they followed him. They didn't have a choice in
the matter. He saw him. He said, thou shalt
be called sought out, a city not forsaken. God seeks his people
out. He came to seek and to save them.
And he saw him, and he saved them. That's what happened here.
He called him, he saved him. He called him with a holy calling,
not according to our words, according to his purpose and grace. He
gave him the name of our Lord Jesus before the world began. Now, where it says he's gonna
make them to be fishers of men, He's going to send them to preach. What are they going to preach?
They're going to preach Him. Who do we preach? We preach Christ. We preach Christ crucified. They're
going to go declare the one who saved them. Nothing. There's
no other message. keep reading when you stop at
verse 21, but Peter told him, You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God among you
by miracle signs and wonders, he was delivered. You by wicked
hands crucified and enslaved him, but he was delivered by
the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God. This was God's doing,
and it's marvelous in our eyes. God's appointed means to call
out his people is through the foolishness of preaching. Not
foolish preaching. foolish in the sense that God
would use sinful men, sinful men, though given a new nature,
saved by God, righteous in Christ, to go declare Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. And God uses that as a means
of fishing, drawing His people to faith in Him, to believe on
Him. And know this, brethren, God's
not frustrated. Dave brought a message on that not long ago.
God is not frustrated, and He's not. God will have his people,
all of them. Well, isn't it a shame? More
people don't believe on Christ. To me, it is a shame. But everybody
who got his purpose to believe on Christ is going to believe
on Christ. There's not one going to be missed. However many fish
got in that net was the exact amount of fish that God purposed
to get in that net. Not one too many, not one too
few. There wasn't one swimming, trying to get in. going to see to it. Christ, when
he laid down his life for us on the cross, he saw to it that
he wasn't going to lose a single one the Father gave to him. Look here, verse 21, Matthew
4, 21. And going on from this, he saw two other brethren, James
the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee
their father. So their father was with them,
mending their nets, and he called them. And immediately They left
the ship and their father, and they followed him. Now look back
at our text. Luke 5-11. And when they had
brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed
him. These four men, they parted ways
with everything they knew. They weren't just out fishing
for fun like we might. This was their livelihood. This
was their life. They forsook everything. They
didn't have to sit down and consult about the matter. The Lord gave
the command. They left everything, and they
followed. Now, it tells us that James and
John left their father in the ship. I'm sure Peter and Andrew
had a family, too. They left their family, too,
but James and John, their dad is right there in the ship. success. But is that not amazing
to you that they just up and left? And why didn't their father
leave? They wanted to. They were thrilled
to go. It wasn't what they had in mind
when they woke up that day. It wasn't what they thought was
going to happen when they're over there cleaning their nets
and about to go home. No, they need to go home. But why didn't Zeddy go? The Lord didn't call him, but
he also had no desire to. When the Lord calls us, we go,
and we want to. That's the power of it. That's
far greater power than the miracle He did with the fish, or when
He multiplied the loaves and the fishes. The fact that our
Lord is so powerful, He calls us and says, follow me, and we
drop everything and we follow Him. He's our life now. He's
our one desire, the desire of all His people. Nothing else
matters but Him. I just need to be with Him. What's
heaven? Being with Him. Christ Himself. He is heaven.
He's glory. We just want Him, don't we? That's
how powerful He is. Someone may have come here today
with no desire for him and to walk out these doors only seeking
him. Our God is able. I pray he might be willing this
day. Zebedee, he got to keep the ships. He got to keep the nets, all
the equipment, the fish. He got it all, didn't he? No,
he got nothing. He went home. He went back to his house with
nothing. I'm sure he had a great meal
that day for days to come. Probably made some money, maybe
sold the fish, I don't know. He went home empty-handed because
he went home without Christ. And unless God was pleased to
save him in due time, he perished without Christ. We need the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's, I said earlier, he's the
one thing people, these fishermen didn't go home wherever he went. I want to follow him. He said
in John 10, it's on your side. As much as you can hear my voice,
I know them. They follow me. They follow me. They heard his voice, and they
followed him. And God did that for us. Christ
is their life, both now and forever. And we've had some dear brethren And this is the thought that keeps
coming back to me. Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. By God's grace, I believe this.
By God's grace, Martha, she believes this. He is our life. The just shall
live by faith, and we die in faith, but here's the thing. We live death is just the the
stepping stone if you will from death to life They just like
him his goodness and mercy, his loving
kindness and grace, he chose to save a bunch of sinners, unworthy,
vile, helpless, unable sinners for his glory. Just like Peter, James, John,
Andrew. At his appointed time, he's going
to see to it, God will see to it, that we hear the How amazing is it that we're
here desiring, actually wanting to worship God? Isn't that amazing? I mean, my
flesh would choose anything else. Oh, no wonder Sunday traffic
is great. Everybody's just at home. I love
traveling on Sunday. There's never so few cars on
the road. It's sad, isn't it? Oh, that
God would save us and give us a heart to worship in. That's what he did for Simon
Peter. God's grace is coming to all his people. There's no avoiding
it. There's no escaping it. And yet he had to confess this
and God do it according to his will. He did so with me. That's what he did. He did it.
He cried out and he praised and glorified the Most High. He thought
he was the Most High. So God show him who he was. Reveal
yourself to him. Oh, praise the Lord. I'll close
with this. Chapter 5 begins with these words, and it came to pass.
Oh, it always does. to call us to himself to do for
us what he graciously did for Simon, Peter, Andrew, James,
and John. Let's have a word of prayer.
Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank
you for your word. How precious is your word, every
single word you've preserved for us. Oh, how precious it is. Thank you for these dear saints.
Thank you for the opportunity and blessed privilege to gather
together in your name to worship you. I pray that we might see
your glory today. I pray that we might see ourselves,
like Peter did, as a sinful man, nothing more. Fall down at your
feet, your beautiful feet, and cry out to you for mercy. Lord,
draw us to yourself, if you would. Save us by your grace, forgive
us, be with us, continue to keep us, and continue to draw us to
yourself. Forgive us of our sin. May Christ Jesus be exalted both
here and everywhere today. Send your precious words.