In this sermon, the speaker discusses how Jesus gradually entered the lives of those who gathered around Him. The first two disciples to follow Jesus were originally followers of John the Baptist. They were intrigued by John's description of Jesus as the Lamb of God and decided to follow Him. Jesus then asked Peter to take his boat out into the deep and cast the net, despite Peter's doubts. The sermon also mentions the baptism of Jesus and the voice from heaven declaring Him as the beloved Son of God.

The title for our study and our meditation this morning, under the general theme, Jesus Christ is Lord, is The Titles His First Followers Gave Him. Now, we began this series by taking a glimpse at our Lord's own self-consciousness and trying to envisage how our Lord Jesus thought of himself. We confined ourselves to a limited aspect of such a study, namely, to the titles that he claimed as his own. And we saw that he claimed to be none other than the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Messiah, and indeed, much else. Now, this morning we turn to consider how the same intimate friends and followers who heard him claim certain things for himself, speak of himself in certain ways, how they came to speak of him in return and in response. How did these early disciples, how did they address Jesus? What designations, what titles, what words, what terms did they use? Now, of course, again, this is a very limited aspect of this study. We shall go a little deeper later on, but today what we are thinking of in particular is the almost instinctive way in which they came to address him. Not their studied doctrine of the person and work of Christ. We shall come to that. But their unstudied, almost spontaneous way of reacting to what they saw in him and what they heard from him and what they learned from him and how their experiences of God grew in and through him. How did they speak of him? In approaching this subject then, let's try to recapture the setting once again. A stranger comes on the scene, unheralded by any pomp or ceremony, at least as far as human beings were concerned. I suppose there are only two things that significantly mark the beginning of the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, his public ministry. The first was divine and the other was by a messenger of God. On Jordan's banks, when Jesus was baptized, something altogether unrivaled was seen and heard. We read that as he emerged from the waters, the heavens were riven and the spirit descended like a dove and abode on him. And then we are also told that there came a voice out of the unseen blue saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. So that to those who witnessed that occasion, heard and saw what could be seen and could be heard, that was a significant starting point. The other is this. On one occasion, when Jesus appeared apparently all unaccompanied in the region where John was baptizing, passing by, John pointed his disciples to him and he said, look, he said, behold, there is the lamb of God who is bearing away the sins of the world. Now, apart from that, there were no fanfares, no trumpets. Jesus just gradually worked his way into the lives and into the experiences of those who gathered around him. The first two to gather around him were two of John the Baptist's disciples. They heard John speak of him as the lamb of God. And they thought, my, if this is so, we must follow him. They knew enough about the significance of that title to want to follow him and to know more, and they did. They followed Jesus at a distance for a while, and then Jesus turned around and saw that they were there. And he says, fellas, what do you want? Well, sir, they said, we'd like to know your address. Well, come and see, he says. Come and see for yourselves where I live. And they went and they abode with him that day. And emerging out of that day with Jesus or part day with Jesus, there came this gigantic confession. They believed that he was none other than the Messiah of the scriptures, the Messiah of promise, John 141. Before you go to, before you come to the end of that very first chapter of John, you will find that one and another, due to that original confession and what happened thereafter, one and another began to confess him. One as the one who Moses and the prophets wrote. Another as the son of God and as the king of Israel, you can hear the confessions, the acknowledgements, the titles, the designations coming out, all indicating that they have found in Jesus of Nazareth someone different from all others. Now, what I want to do in the time at my disposal this morning is to take one word from the King James translation and to see and try to fathom the meaning of five different Greek words that underlie the one English word. The English word in the King James translation is the word master. And you will find that coming very often in the King James version. But it is rather, rather sad that we do not normally appreciate that behind that one word master in the King James, there lie five Greek titles. In fact, there are six, but the other one is only used twice and it doesn't come in the gospels. And we are particularly concerned with the gospels this morning. So I'm confining myself to five. So when they said master, they didn't mean the same thing each time. In fact, there is a development there in their understanding of the person of Jesus and they use greater, more remarkable titles as the days go by. Now, these words can be divided into two groups. One comprising two titles and the other comprising three. I'm going to skip over the first. I'm only going to make a passing reference to these two terms in order to come to the second list, which takes us so much further. Now, the first two titles in Greek are rabbi. Our English word rabbi is a transliteration, rabbi or rabbe. And the other word is didaskalos, properly translated as teacher. Let's just say a few words about these before we pass on to something which is even more significant. Now, I'll just give you one illustration of the use of this. In Mark chapter nine, for example, verse five, we read in the NIV, Peter said to Jesus, rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Now, the King James uses the word master. It is good for you to be here. The word is, the Greek word is rabbi. And there are a number of other illustrations that I don't need to go into now. Now, the Greek word rabbi comes from a Semitic root, rab, which means lord, master, or chief. And in the Aramaic language, which was probably the language of the Lord Jesus in conversing with his disciples, it meant great chief, big chief, as we would say today. Not just an ordinary chief, but the big chief, the leader. Thus, it implied considerable dignity and honor. In our Lord's day, this title rabbi was almost exclusively given to the trained teachers of the law. The Jewish teachers that had been trained to understand and apply the law to life and who were in consequence, the duly authorized teachers in their Jewish society. There is only one exception apart from Jesus. That was John the Baptist. The title is given to John on one occasion. They came to John and they said to him, rabbi. These were his own disciples. Rabbi, that man that was with you on the other side of Jordan, the one you testified about, well, he's baptizing and everybody's going after him. And you see, they're a little bit jealous. They call John their rabbi. The title then is only given to the accredited teachers of the law. But here comes Jesus of Nazareth. He's never been to the schools. He has no accreditation. He has no certificate. No one has given him the right to speak. But he comes from nowhere apart from being heralded as the son of God in whom he's pleased and by John the Baptist as the lamb of God who bears away the sin of the word. And his disciples, after a little while with him, give him the title, the venerable, the honorable title of rabbi. Now, I have no more time to speak about that. Didaskalos is the second word. Jesus was called Didaskalos very often. It's translated as master 47 times in the King James Version. I'll just give you one illustration again because time goes so quickly. Let me give you one from John chapter 1 verse 38. The NIV reads, turning around, Jesus saw them following the two that I referred to earlier and asked, what do you want? They said, Rabbi, which means teacher. Where are you going? Rabbi, which means Didaskalos, where are you going? Now, the King James Version says, Rabbi, which is to say being interpreted master. Well, the word is Didaskalos. Now, what does this mean? In Matthew chapter 23 and verse 8, Jesus forbade his own disciples assuming the title rabbi. He says, you must not allow yourselves to be called rabbi, nor must you call any man rabbi, because you have, notice, you have only one Didaskalos, teacher. So the title rabbi and Didaskalos are integrally related. The title rabbi refers to the honor, to the authority. The title Didaskalos refers to the sphere in which that authority is expressed, namely in the sphere of teaching, particularly. You remember, of course, that Jesus was acclaimed by his disciples to have unrivaled authority in his teaching. I'll give you but one, perhaps the classical illustration of this, though there are many others, indirectly given, if not as directly as this one. We read at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowd were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority, and now notice this, and not as their teachers of the law. Now notice that. He was a rabbi and he was a Didaskalos. He was one with authority. He was a big chief in teaching, if I may dare put it like that. But over and above that, his authority was something which was unrivaled. Those who had come out from the schools had another kind of authority. They quoted their human sources. But when Jesus spoke, he spoke with authority in himself. In using this title of Jesus, then we again note that despite his lack of formal training, despite the lack of official authorization, Jesus became acknowledged by his disciples as the teacher supreme, the teacher par excellence, because he carried an authority that was to be contrasted even with those who should have authority in matters of law and of life. Now that brings me to the second group, the second group of three titles. The first of these Greek terms lying behind the word master in the King James is actually correctly translated master, and it is so translated in the NIV and in most modern versions. The Greek word is epistates. It appears. It appears six times in the gospels and found only in Luke. I'll just give you one illustration. We'll refer to this later on. Simon answered master epistates. We've worked hard all night and we haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. The scene is by this, by the sea of Galilee, Luke chapter five and verse five. Now, what does this word mean? Now you will notice that there are elements of similarity between these terms, but there is something added each time. The word means, I quote from the grim tire lexicon, a superintendent or overseer, one who has his eyes over the whole, who is a superintendent was the right, who has been appointed as a superintendent, as someone to rule, to, to take care of others. The same source quotes a German scholar, Brett Schneider, as saying that the disciples called Jesus this quote, not from the simple fact that he was a teacher, but rather because as well as being a teacher, he had unique authority. This title doesn't forget that Jesus is a teacher, but it's, it's, it's dresses the fact that as a teacher, he has authority and not simply authority in teaching, but authority that goes outside the world of teaching. Now the kind of authority that this title suggests, I believe can be illustrated one by its usage in the old Testament and by some new Testament illustrations. We have the Septuagint, I don't know whether you're familiar with it, which is the Greek translation of the old Testament, which was originally written in Hebrew. Now there are certain terms translated into the Greek epistetes, certain Hebrew terms translated epistetes. And if you trace them in the old Testament, you can see exactly what they meant. I'll give you just three illustrations. One from Exodus 1.11. So they put taskmasters over them in order to oppress them with forced labor. And they built Python and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh. Now, this is something that the Egyptians did. They put, they put taskmasters over the Jewish people. Taskmasters to determine what they must do, how they must do it. And they must come up with a quota within a certain limit of time. Taskmasters, they had authority. They were given authority to exercise the capacity of taskmasters to tell the Jews what to do and by when. In 1 Kings chapter 5 and verse 16, the same word epistetes in the Greek of the old Testament comes in this statement as well as 3,300 foremen who supervised the project and directed the workmen. Now it's a building project, but you get the point. The epistetes were foremen supervising the project. It's very much the same thought as in the former one. They were supervisors, foremen supervisors. I'll give you one other illustration from the old Testament. It comes from 2 Kings 25 and verse 19. Of those still in the city, he took, here it is, the officer in charge of the fighting men and five royal advisors. And never mind what it's all about, but that's the term, officer in charge. Now we know what this means. We are in the army. We're thinking of soldiers. There's an officer in charge of whatever group of men. Officer in charge, he commands, he orders, he knows the plan, and he gets all the people to do what they must do in the plan. Epistetes. You see something of its meaning reflected in the taskmaster that Pharaoh had appointed to tell the Israelites what to do and by when. The foreman who supervised the officers in charge. But now that which distinguishes this title from that of didaskalos then, which conveyed the notion of his authority in teaching, takes that authority well beyond the realm of teaching, pure and simple. This title implies that Jesus' authority was far, far wider. And I want to give you two new testament illustrations of that. I referred just now to the use of this word epistetes in Luke 5, 5, and I quoted it. Simon answered, master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. Now, let me remind you of what happened there. The crowds are surrounding Jesus on the edge of the sea of Galilee. He wants to teach them. And apparently he's already begun, but the crowds are milling around him. And apparently, if we read between the lines, they're pushing him back into the water, not deliberately, but because they were pressing to hear his voice. There were two boats lying there. One of them was Simon Peter's. Jesus asked Peter, let me get into your boat. He got into the boat and he used it as a kind of rostrum or pulpit, though be it noticed he didn't stand in the pulpit, he sat in the pulpit. I'm going to sit one of these days, don't get a shock. He sat in his pulpit in the boat. And from that vantage point, he spoke out to the crowds who apparently could hear him better. Now, having finished, Jesus did something which, which is just so like him. He would always say, thank you. He was always grateful. He said, okay, Peter, I've done my job. Now you take the boat out into the deep and cast the net and you'll catch some fish. Master says, Peter, you've been out all night, you know, and we worked hard. We were in this boat. We use these nets. And he said, you don't catch anything just there. And certainly not now. Now we didn't use these words, but this was in his mind. You're not going to catch any fish there. Now we've been out all night and night's the time for fishing here. Nevertheless, he says, epist, epistates. Nevertheless, he says, you are epistates. And because you say so, I'll do it. It's against my better judgment. And I'm a fisherman. You're a carpenter. It's against my knowledge of this, uh, sea of Galilee. And I've lived in it and I've toiled in it most of my life. You're a carpenter. You've, you know, nothing about these waters, naturally speaking, but you're epistates. And as epistates, because you say so, I'll go against my better judgment. I'll go against my grain and my own common sense, because I believe that as epistates, you have knowledge that I haven't got. Even though I'm the fisherman, you're the carpenter. Even though I've lived here all my life, you come from another area altogether. Because you're epistates, your authority comes into a realm that naturally we wouldn't expect it to be there. And Peter moves out, throws the net out. Do you remember the story? When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful? So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and they filled both boats so full that they began to sink. Epistates authority is not simply in the realm where he has been humanly trained or authorized by men. His authority extends beyond the realm of mere teaching into the realm of catching fish. See, this is one reason why I find it very difficult to get on with dear people well-meaning who say that, you know, we take what Jesus teaches about God, but if he says anything about what we call science or medicine, well now, he didn't know anything about it. He's not competent in those realms. Listen, my friend. Epistates means that Jesus is competent everywhere. He's bigger and greater and knows more than your scholar, however great that scholarship may be. And I believe that my New Testament requires me to bow and surrender my mind to Jesus wherever he makes a clear-cut declaration, be it about the authority and authenticity of the Old Testament or about the fact that he's going to be with the Father and he's coming back to see, to take his own, to be with him at last. It doesn't matter what he speaks about. He's epistates. I'll give you another illustration because it's very, very important. You see, we are moving over a hump here. We're getting beyond a certain crossroads here in the way these people understood Jesus. Not just a rabbi, not just a didaskalos, more than that. The general authority of Jesus as the shepherd or overseer of men is again brought out by the usage of the same word, epistates, in Luke 17, 13. Entering into an unnamed village, our Lord encountered ten men with leprosy. There they were standing at a distance and they apparently knew him because they indicate that in what they're shouting. They were crying out in a loud voice, Jesus epistates, have pity on us. Now their appeal was for physical healing. Their very use of the term epistates meant that they deemed our Lord's authority to extend beyond that of teaching and of fishing, if they knew anything about that fishing incident. They believed that they could appeal to him for things that they couldn't appeal to others for. And so because they called him epistates, or rather, I should put it the other way, they called him epistates because they believed they could appeal to him to deal with this awful, ruthless scourge of leprosy. And there was next to nothing that could deal with that in his day and in their day. You remember what happened? Jesus was not a disappointment. We read, when he saw them, he said, go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. You see, epistates has authority in the realm of the physical, as well as in the realm of the fish of the sea, catching fish, as well as in teaching. Now that brings me to the next title, which is despotism. I'll give you one illustration of this. There are quite a number of them. I'll quote from the NIV rendering of 1 Peter 2, 18, for example, slaves. And this is the, this is the correlative to despotism. Slaves submit yourselves to your masters with all respect. Now the NIV translates it master there, but in the other places where it appears in the NIV translates it sovereign or sovereign Lord. Now let's ask ourselves the question, what more do you mean by despotism than you mean by epistatism? You forgive me, we don't always take this tack and throw out these Greek terms that you're doing. So you'll forgive me this once. Okay. Now this word despot is, is sometimes transliterated into English with a connotation that is far from pleasant. Namely as our English word despot, we must read our minds of all the unworthy ingredients in that transliteration and simply fasten onto the notion of power and mastery, the right to rule. It is one of the strongest terms that could possibly be used with reference to the authority or power of one person over another person. So that invariably it was the word used of a slave owner or those who owned what is called, what should be called household servants. Peter uses the word oiketai in one place. And it's translated slaves. It means the servants of the house, not outside house servants. The point is, you see whether you were a house servant or whether you were a slave, your master was a despot. You had no rights. The slave had no rights. The servant had no rights of his own. He was bought and his services were bought. And the one who owned a household servant or a slave, he had absolute mastery over him. Total mastery that was according to the law of the day. Now, my friends, the first followers of our Lord Jesus Christ were constrained to concede to him such a title as this. Now, clearly, clearly, it's evident from evident from, from the writings, from the gospels. They did not think of him as a despot in our harsh English sense of the word, namely as a tyrant who exercised his rule without any consideration for those under him. Far, far, far from it. But they unquestionably thought of him as having absolute unquestioned right to dispose of their lives, to rule over them in every conceivable way. They conceded to him that right. The implications of conceding such a title to Jesus were most far-reaching. You see, in so doing, they were virtually surrendering to him their claim to any self-rule, to any form of purely self-expression, self-seeking, self-interest, self-will. And that is nothing short of death to self. Jesus said, if any of you will come after me, let him deny himself. Not cuddle up the self and make a fuss of self, but deny himself. And the very image of taking up the cross daily to do this means dying daily. And they conceded to him the right. Now, that attitude, though implicit in the gospels, finds its fullest and frankest expression, I believe, in the apostle Paul, where the apostle Paul does not shrink from speaking of himself as, quote the King James, the bond slave of Jesus Christ. Though it's often translated as servant in the New Testament, the word behind it is the word doulos, for slave. Let me give you an illustration. In Romans chapter 1, Paul introduces himself in this way. Paul, a doulos, a slave of Jesus Christ. The NIV translates it servant. But it's stronger than that. Again, in Philippians 1.1, Paul and Timothy, doulos, douloi, the plural, of Christ Jesus. They were slaves of Christ Jesus. Or again, in Galatians 1.10, am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a slave, a doulos of Christ, which I am. You see, that's why he could say, I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will be, will have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. Notice that. Christ exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. They thought of him, in terms of this title, as despot, as having the right over them. And Paul could say, may I never glory except in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, by the which I'm crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me, and to me to live is Christ. Mastery. The last one, kurios. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, Lord, kurios, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And there are many other usages. I won't refer to them now. There is an overlap, again, in the meaning of this and the previous title, despotis. They meet together at certain points. This title also is one that conveys the notion of total ownership. Though we must be fair and we must be careful to say there are times in the New Testament when it is used simply of respect. It is used in the sense in which we use the English word, sir. Now, if you have the NIV, you will have noticed that, for example, in Matthew 25, 11, we read, later the others also came, sir, sir, they said, open the door to us. The words are kurios, kurios, open the door to us. Or we read in John 12, 20 to 21, that some Greeks among them went up to worship at the feast. They came to Philip who was from Bethsaida and in Galilee with a request, sir, they said, Lord, kurios. We would see Jesus. They apply that title to Philip. Evidently, in the sense of a courteous approach, a Canaanite woman from the vicinity came to him and she said, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. Possibly she was only meaning, sir, I don't know. And there are others. Even though it did mean, sir, in some cases, I would suggest that even with a Canaanite woman, it could very well have meant something bigger because she was asking him to do something that no one else could do. Now, this title unquestionably meant something well beyond mere respect, even though in some places it meant respect. In its fully developed form, it was the equivalent of the Old Testament Hebrew word for God, Jehovah. When you read the Greek translation of the Old Testament, you will find that the name for God, Jehovah, is regularly translated into this Greek word, kurios, kurios. As such, it is unquestionably a title of deity. Now, at what stage, at what stage the disciples applied it in its fullest sense to Jesus, we cannot properly say. We cannot finally, unequivocally say. But let me remind you of this. There are those who say that they didn't do it very early. There are those who say that they did it from the beginning. I don't want to enter into the argument, but I would remind you of this. The angels introduced Jesus onto the scene in these words, unto you is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord, right at the beginning. Couldn't be earlier. Jesus spoke of John the Baptist's ministry, and John spoke of his own ministry as preparing the way of the Lord, right at the beginning. And I find it very difficult other than to believe that the disciples thought of Jesus as Lord earlier rather than late in his ministry for this simple reason. He claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath, and they knew that it was only Jehovah who was Lord of the Sabbath. And if they conceded him the right to be Lord of the Sabbath, they must have seen that he was equal to God. And when Peter confessed his great confession at Caesarea Philippi, it was unquestionably, unquestionably involving Jesus as the divine Lord, the son of the living God of the great I am Jehovah. He's not a distant relative. He's the son of the living God. One thing is unquestionably, unequivocally certain, beyond any dispute, that when Jesus rose from the dead, here the disciples saw that he was deserving of the title in all its fullness, in all its glory, in all its ramifications and implications. Therefore, says Peter on the day of Pentecost, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. God has made him so. He's risen from the dead. He sent forth the Holy Spirit. Who can command deity? Who can send forth the Holy Spirit? Try it and see. He did. He promised, and the promise was fulfilled. It means he is divine, for he can determine when deity, when the Holy Spirit comes into the world. Peter there and elsewhere gave Jesus not only the title of deity, but let me add this, the highest title that even the Roman emperor claimed. He claimed to be divine, and he claimed to have all power and all authority. When Jesus, when Peter said in the, in Cornelius's house, in Acts 10.36, that Jesus is, quote, Lord of all, unquote, he was taking the very title as it was applied to the emperor of his day, and he was applying it to Jesus of Nazareth, Lord of all, emperor of all. And you have only one stage beyond this to which you can come, and you'll find it in the Apocalypse of St. John, where he is King of kings and Lord of lords. Hallelujah. Amen, Mrs. Hawkins. So you come back to that great passage in Philippians, where Paul says, Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Here then I close. Along with conceding to Jesus Christ the right to be their rabbi and their teacher, their chief and their commander, and to be their absolute owner, the New Testament Christians gave him the very place and honor and worship due to God. He was the incarnate son. Dr. Alan Rawlinson, late Bishop of Derby, in his book The New Testament Doctrine of God, wrote, Whereas the title is, wherever the title is used, in whatever language, in application either to gods or to men, it denotes always that the Lord in question, whether human or divine, has a just claim to the devotion, loyalty and reverence of his slaves, subjects and worshipper. This is an impressive testimony to the apparently simple Galilean peasant whom we all too often only call Jesus. I covet for him his full title. What honor do you concede him this morning? What worship do you give him? What obedience do you render him? What really do you think of him in your heart? Listen, without acknowledging Jesus as kurios, there is no salvation. No, no. The word of the gospel is this. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you make confession to salvation. As the scripture says, everyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, not just Jesus, there are many people who are simply praying to the human Jesus. See, my friend, even if you call him Jesus, that your concept of Jesus is Jesus, the Lord. It's he who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You are not saved because you believe in the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth, not simply because you believe that Jesus of Nazareth was a great man or a good man. You are saved if you believe that Jesus is Lord and trust him. Trust him. David Brainerd, missionary to the North American Indians in the 18th century, said in a beautiful passage where he comes to a door and to respond to what he's been meditating upon, Lord, he says to thee, I dedicate myself. Oh, accept me and let me be thine forever. Lord, I desire nothing else. I desire nothing more. What's he asking for? For the Lord to possess him, to rule him and thereby to save him. Are you following in the train of the apostles? What think ye of Christ? If you've never done so before, I plead with you before you leave our service this morning, acknowledge Jesus as Lord from whom you expect redemption and salvation and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, saith the scriptures, will be saved. Let us pray. We bow our Lord Jesus Christ before your sovereign person sitting on the right hand of the majesty upon high and offer to you and the father and to the blessed Holy Spirit, our gratitude and our worship and ask for grace to honor you as we honor the father and to honor the father in honoring you by the spirit. Forgive us our unbelief. Forgive us our crazy ideas about yourself which are based on no facts, but merely on our own fences. Win us over today and reign over us in order that we may be your servants and do your will and fulfill your program right down to the end of the age through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.