Take your copy of the scriptures and turn to the gospel of Mark. The end of chapter four will be our text for this morning. Mark four, starting in verse 30, I believe. Sorry, 35. 35 to 41. Before we hear from the Lord, let’s ask his blessing once more and pray that at this time, let’s pray together. Dear Lord, our God, we come again before you and we’re eager to hear this, your word that you preserve, that you pass down to us. We come to sit at your feet and to be still and to listen. We pray, Lord, help us to settle our souls and focus our hearts As we do so, and as you do so, help us to receive from you that which is most important, Lord, through this word. For it is there that you give us yourself, your blessing, your grace. It’s there that we learn of the gospel and the rescue of our souls and the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And it’s for all these things that we yearn and long. And so we pray, Lord, open our eyes and hearts that we would accept Even in faith, all that we hear, and that it may change our lives and hearts, and that we would be transformed evermore into the image of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, be with all that are here, be with the one who preaches your name, Lord. We pray that your spirit and your word, Lord, would prevail and have its full effect at this time. We ask this in his name, Christ our Savior, and it’s all God’s people said, amen, amen. Mark chapter four, starting verse 35. Once again, give your full attention. This is the word of our God. On that day when evening had come, he said to them, let’s go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great wind storm arose, and the waters were breaking into the boat. so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern asleep on a cushion. And they woke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And he said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear. and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. May he indeed add his blessing upon the preaching of this word now. You may be seated. Well, I wonder, what do you think of when you think of the sea? What do you think of when you think of the sea? I grew up near a lake and then the Pacific Ocean, so I think of sun and sports and fun and good times and bonfires. Many people think of, when they think of the sea, many people think of the place they go to visit on vacations. It’s a place that normally has a positive association of fun and joy. But that’s not true universally, right? Think of a place like Japan. Over the last decade, they would answer quite differently. Historically, but even the last decade, some very destructive tsunamis have come through. For them, it is not a place of fun and joy. For them, it would be a whole lot darker and negative than it would be for most of us when they think of the sea and answer that question. For them, There are these, as I said, destructive tsunamis that they’ve lived through. They know those who’ve not lived through these destructive tsunamis, whom they’ve lost. The sea would bring to mind the danger and the death that come with interaction with the ocean. For them, the sea buried many of their loved ones. It’s the destroyer of cities. For the ancient Hebrew, if you were to ask them about the sea, their answer would have been closer to that of the negative, darker answer, as the Japanese might have been. For them, the sea was a place of great chaos and dread waters and danger. The Israelites were not normally a seafaring people. There were things that lived in the sea that were mysterious to them, that they wanted nothing to do with. The sea was often a place where people were, where people met with their kind of silent, wets death and grave. And because the storms of the sea that could suddenly arise and the uncontrollable nature of the sea, of the water, they tried to avoid being on that water. It was not a place where you went on vacation. It wasn’t a positive connotation at all. And for those who worked on the sea, for those who knew the dangers of it, it wasn’t just their own experience that made them feel this way. It was also their history, right? As you read through the Old Testament, on into the first century, there’s a whole lot of history that’s in mind, in the mind of the Jewish community. A whole lot that informs their view of any given situation really, but including the ocean, including the sea. And so when they think of the sea, you go all the way back to the beginning of time, right? And recall what happened when God was creating, was separating the waters from the dry land. And that was a good thing, we read. It was good that there was dry land to live on for man, and there was water. It was given certain boundaries by a sovereign God. And it was told you go this far and no farther. Why? So that man has a safe place, had a place of safety and refuge on the land on which to live. But it’s only a few chapters later, if you know your Bibles, Once men rebelled against God, that same God who made these things, that God unleashes those boundaries that he controls. He removes those boundaries. And those waters come flooding over all of humanity, burying everyone in that watery, silent grave, save one family, Noah and his children. And so they knew that the seas were full of chaos, dread, and terror. They were a place of dread and judgment. And they had seen and heard stories of this judgment all life long. Think for a moment of that most formative foundational story in all of Israel’s history. That great redemptive event in the old covenant. The great exodus from Egypt. When God removed them from slavery and brought them into a place of freedom through the wilderness and ultimately into the promised land. After God had done these mighty deeds before the eyes of their fathers, So many that the great and mighty King Pharaoh himself, who considered himself to be a God, wanted no more to do with this God, the God of the Hebrews, because of his might. And he sent them away and he said, enough, fine, go, be free from here, go away. And as they’re fleeing, they come to the Red Sea, you recall. And again, for them, it was not a time of fun or vacation. The encounter with the sea was not a happy one for them. It really meant one of two things, right, as we remember the story. It was either death by drowning in front of them or death by sword behind them, as they see Pharaoh and his armies fast approaching. And so for them, again, the sea was a watery grave, another representative of watery death. It was something that was inhibiting, that was preventing, that was blocking their freedom. But God comes, and we read this in the Psalms, and the Psalms say He rebuked the water, and they separated, and they walked through on dry land. But notice what happens next when God removes His rebuke. Those waters, once again, come judging the enemies of God, just like in the flood, and they become the place of watery chaos and dread, and a place of grave and death for the enemies of God. A place where God judges those who’ve come against Him and against His people. And we read on and we see in the prophets, they give us a picture of these great beasts who will come in those last days against Israel. And we see in Daniel 7 and other texts, many of these great beasts find their home in the sea. And they come from the sea onto dry land to threaten the elect of God. So for the Israelites, the sea is not a place of fond memories, of happy times. It’s not the kind of thing that you remember as a child playing in the sand, building sandcastles. And our text this morning begins with Jesus in Galilee saying to his disciples, let’s go across the sea onto the other side. And so the first thing that we see here in this text is that the disciples follow their master. The faithful follow Jesus into the evils of the sea. into the dread of the sea. And these experienced fishermen, recall, they were, with whom Christ now was upon this boat, they were familiar with the sea that they were traveling on. They would have known the inherent dangers that could come of being on the sea. They would have known when to panic and when to stay calm. And if they panicked, it was reason to panic. It was reason to do so. And these disciples aren’t unfamiliar with being on this body of water. They wouldn’t be easily troubled by a little wind or the rocking of a boat. The Sea of Galilee on which they sailed was no stranger to very bad storms. The way that it’s located geographically, you see this particular body of water is surrounded by mountain ranges. It’s 700 feet below sea level. It’s kind of this sunken cavern. And so you have these mighty mountains and then this deep cavern that the lake, the sea sits upon. About 39 miles to the northeast is the highest mountain in that region. 9,200 feet, 9,200 feet, this mountain range. It’s a place that gathers all kind of moisture and snow. And so these two factors, these two forces work together within each other. When the wind would come from the mountain, the northeast and the southeast, from the northeast southward, it would bring in this cool air. And then the warm air would come up arising off the sunken Galilee and the Sea of Galilee. It would cause these tempests that would come out of nowhere. And the mixture of these two kinds of air pressure come together, but ultimately cause these tempests that would toss this particular body of water and everything upon it. This particular sea is something we would associate more to a lake, the Sea of Galilee. It’s 16 miles long and 8 miles wide. At its deepest, it’s around 145 feet deep. Again, it’s something we would think of as a lake more than the sea. So the small body of water wouldn’t take a whole lot of force to get it moving, but imagine it would get these great forces moving upon it, causing it to reel into rock. And so that’s what we have in this text. That’s what we have this morning. And we see according to verse 37, he says, and a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. This great windstorm arises upon the Sea of Galilee. And it’s a storm that’s so great that waters begin to come over the sides and to fill the boat with water, water from the sea. And I’m told that on a boat, you want the water to stay out of the boat, right? Dry inside, wet outside. Boat on the water, not water in the boat. And so, of course, the disciples knew this, those who are familiar with being on the sea. And because the boat was filling, they were fearing for their lives. We have to remember, as we think about this episode and what’s going on right now, how did they get into this predicament? How did they get there? It was Christ, Christ’s command that got them into this boat and on this sea. Christ is the one who’s commanded them to be in this particular trouble, in this particular difficulty. And they find themselves in great danger. And they ask, if they were to ask, whose fault is this? How did we get here? Right? All the attention goes to Jesus. He commanded this. We’re following the Master. In fact, when we look at what’s going on, I don’t think I’m alone in associating this as well, thinking, what’s going on, right, in the situations of our life? What’s going on? I’m yours. I’ve committed my life to you. Why so many of the wicked who hate you are physically whole? and without unending problems and pain that we go through. Or of the saints, right? We think they’re the good guys, Lord. They’re the good guys. Why the struggle? Why the infertility? Why the terrible health issues? And on and on. While those who reject and hate you can’t wait to kill their child after child after child. So many suffer from nowhere near the maladies of your saints who love you. These same kinds of questions, And crying out could be asked of this scenario from this passage, from the followers of Christ on this sea, who’ve listened to him, right? What’s going on there? The reality is that those who’ve refused to follow Jesus and to trust Jesus, where are they? They’re sitting back on the shore. They’re still there on solid ground. They’re not dealing with this danger and dread and fearing of death that the disciples are. Those who followed and trusted Christ, for those who rejected him, all is well. But those who faithfully followed this Jesus, they find themselves in danger, so much that they fear for their life. It’s the calling of discipleship that has landed them in the midst of this turmoil, and this chaos, and this trouble. And you’ll notice, they assume in the midst of all of this turmoil, that the master doesn’t care. We see this in verse 38, as the water begins to enter the boat, and they realize that Jesus is sleeping in the stern of the boat, that is the back of the boat. and they’re angry. What do they say? Don’t you care that we are perishing, Master? You don’t even care that we’re dying. We’re about to die. They say, you’re the one who got us here. It was your idea, and we’re all scared for our lives, and you’re just crashed in the back, napping away. We’re going to die. We’re going to die, and you don’t seem to care at all for us. And again, that sounds familiar, right? Sounds familiar. of ourselves and we find ourselves in the middle of a problem, problems that we know are God’s will. These disciples do question whether Jesus cares about their well-being because of the circumstances that have arisen in their lives and the circumstances that have ultimately come from God’s hand. And this is surely where we find ourselves in this story, questioning God at times about our well-being. Don’t you care at all? when we know that God has brought particular providential circumstances into our lives, right? We believe in the sovereignty of God. And we don’t see why he would do this if we’re simply trying to follow him. It’s like, if we’re your people, why do we get dealt these cards in our lives? And these are the honest questions, brothers and sisters, that we ask ourselves. And it’s okay to inquire, it’s okay to be honest before the Lord, because when we are, we find that His answer, the answer of the Lord, is far beyond anything that we could ever imagine or improve upon, and we’ll see shortly. The next thing we wanna see from the text is not only the faithful following the Master and finding themselves in this great danger on the sea, we also find God’s storm-silencing solution, right? The solution of the Lord in silencing the storm. In verses 39 and following, we see this. Notice, in their distress, they awaken Christ and He arises, and what does He do? Notice, instead of rebuking them, right, and saying, don’t question me, you be quiet, what does He do? He doesn’t, in His care for them, He rebukes not them first, but He rebukes the wind and the sea. To remove the danger in their lives, and it’s very interesting wording in our text here, this rebuking of the wind and the sea. It says the wind was rebuked. That’s not normally what you think of when you think of Christ interacting with the forces of nature. It’s the same word that’s used here, that’s used in the first chapter of Mark, where the very first time Jesus encounters a demon, enemy of God, and he rebukes him, remember, he rebukes him. Exact same word. The same word that we read in Luke that of Jesus and he stood over her and rebuke the fever and it left her immediately. She rose and began to serve them. The result of Mark Mark 125 is that he tells him and as he rebukes him be silent. Right? The same set of words he used here, he used there in Mark 1. He rebukes the sea and he tells it, be still. Or the word is be muzzled, is what it literally means. Be muzzled. And in these two places, it seems like it’s likely that more is going on here than a simple nature miracle, right? Where Jesus is the master over nature, over the sea, over the storm. It seems there’s more going on here. He’s not just saying, I control nature. He is surely saying that. He is absolutely saying this. And we’ll see that. But he’s saying more. He’s addressing something else. And there are these issues of what water represents throughout the whole of the Old Testament. This idea of chaos and evil that they find themselves in the middle of. This is what he is in control over. This is whom he is dealing with. And he begins to rebuke that evil. And he begins to take on that chaos that they’ve encountered. And what will add credibility, if you will, to this, is not just this use of language that we find, that he rebukes the wind and the sea and tells it to be still. But what happens right after this? What does Mark tell us immediately after this? The next story in Mark is what? It’s the story of Jesus and his interaction with the demoniac. And casting the demons into the swine, and the swine ending up in the sea. and they’re destroyed. And so Jesus is confronting not just nature, but he’s confronting those who have opposed God and God’s ways, the enemies of God and of God’s people. And he’s taking all of that Old Testament idea of the sea and he’s placing it into this story that we read about this morning. And he’s saying to chaos and to evil, to that great enemy of our souls, the people of God, be still and be silent. He stands up in the boat and he speaks to the sea, sit down and be quiet. And notice what happened, the sea completely complies. And it’s very interesting, it says, there was a great calm. It was a great calm. That’s an interesting phrase. It answers the call and everything becomes utterly still, a great calm. Could you imagine standing out in front of an ocean or a great lake that’s raging and seeing someone come out and say, enough, stop. And then the whole thing becomes serene, gentle, a quiet pond. That’s exactly what happened. Christ’s words ultimately summon the sea to obedience and the sea obeys. It complies without any delay. And notice that the disciples begin to get it. develop their comprehension or question their comprehension of this Jesus. They really ask the key question of the text. Those, remember, who have been around Christ for a while now, those who’ve seen him cast out demons, those who’ve seen him heal the sick, those who’ve seen these mighty miracles and heard and seen his teaching, when he acts in this particular manner, right, they begin, I think what happens, the story begins and they were what? They’re scared. And how did it end? They’re terrified. They’re terrified. They begin scared at the end of the story. They are greatly afraid. They’re terrified. They get more scared as the storm goes away, as they begin to realize something is different about this man with whom they are following that they didn’t quite get before. Again, Mark. And they were filled with great fear And after the storm, they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Why is that question being asked amongst them at this time? They’ve been with him. They’ve seen his authority. They’ve seen his power. But you see that the actions that Christ has taken so far, in some sense, are seen elsewhere in Scripture, in other places in the Bible. Think of casting out of demons. You recall David as he plays the harp for Saul. He summons to come and play the harp. Why? Because there are these demons that are harassing Saul, that are disrupting him, hindering him, interrupting him. And so David comes and they’re cast away, in a sense. Remember, recall that episode. Or think of Elijah and Elisha. They do many mighty works, incredible works. But there’s only one person in the whole of the Old Testament, only one person in all the Old Testament that ever speaks to the sea and it obeys him, that ever commands the sea, withholds the sea and lets the sea go. And over and over, the one who does this thing alone is Yahweh himself, the God of Israel. And so one way of identifying, we see in Scripture, the might and the majesty of this God is when the psalmist and others talk about his might, is that he can say to the sea, be still, and it obeys him. Think of Job, we looked at last week. He assigns the sea its limits, and he says to it, you go this far and no farther. It’s something about God’s ability to control the great sea out there, that thing that we’re so afraid of, that they were so terrified of, that chaos, that place of death. God is the one who has enough sovereignty to say to it, you can no longer do this, and it listens. There’s no other being in all the world that can do this. and even Israel’s surrounding nations. They all have these all sorts of mythology related to the sea, and the dread, and the monsters, and creation, and terror from it, and deities arising from it. The Bible takes on their mythology, and he puts their characters into their story, and it says, oh, you know that great God of the sea that you believe in, that you worship? God stepped on his back and killed him. God spoke to that pretend deity that you worship, and he laid down before his feet like a trained animal, like a trained beast. Yahweh is above these gods. He’s the real God. And that’s Israel’s way of acknowledging God being the supreme and greatest God of all other beings in this universe. It’s his control over the ocean, over the sea, and his ability to silence these waves that rage. There are too many places to quote But just a few, Psalm 89 speaks to this, Psalm 93 says, mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. Psalm 107, Psalm 104 speaks to this as well, but Psalm 107, God both makes the sea to churn and he’s the one that can silence the sea. This is how great our God is. And Jesus, or think of Psalm 29, the voice of the Lord over the waters. Right? Over the waters. He’s the one that controls those waters in creation, in judgment, in recreation. But Jesus, think of Jesus with the Word. He speaks to this particular sea that is reeling and rocking this boat with Him and His followers. And in utter obedience, what does it do? It falls at His feet. And the disciples begin to have the light turned on and they say, who is this man that we’ve been following? This is not the prerogative of anyone, but Yahweh himself, our God. Even the sea and the wind obey him. And the answer is, he’s the God-man. He’s the God-man. That he is man among them for certain. But he’s also God. And has all the authority, resident, residing within himself that Yahweh himself has. because He is divine, He is God. And so as we look at this story, what is it that we’re supposed to see? What does God want us to gain from the telling of this episode on the sea, on the boat with the disciples? Well, I think more of this will be brought about the next time we’re together as we consider the demoniac in the episode, as I mentioned, that follows. But one thing for us, brothers and sisters, is the reality that it is God’s will that leads them into the midst of this evil, this chaos, and this terror. It’s God’s will. It’s nothing other than God’s will that brings this trial upon them. They find themselves before the face of death and haunted by these evils that they fear precisely because Jesus told them to be there. And that’s something I think that’s very hard to grasp. It’s very hard to grasp in our weakness, in our forgetfulness, in our feebleness. But it’s a reality that we are commanded to and that we need to embrace. That things come upon us, the things that are evil in our lives, that are dreadful in our lives, that are terrifying to us. These things are not outside of the purview of God’s will. It’s not that we’ve been so naughty that all of a sudden bad things happen to us. It’s not that Satan has overpowered God this time and gets his way in this one particular aspect in our lives, but rather this is precisely what God wanted for us. As terrible as that is and as painful as it may be for us to comprehend, we’re called to trust him, even in these things, to trust him. It’s nothing less than the will of God that brings us into these sorts of circumstances. But notice, it’s not only that it’s God that brings us there, or that Jesus wills that to be part of our circumstance, but that Jesus, who is God, is what? He is with us. He is with us in the midst of those circumstances. He is with us. Emmanuel, God with us, of course. That this one who is seemingly distant, I think we’ve all had that question ourselves. Where are you, Lord? Don’t you care that I’m perishing? Where are you? I think a lot of times, in the midst of our suffering, we have those same thoughts and those same questions. Where are you in this particular time, in this particular difficulty? When I need you most, God, why are you silent? Why are you so far? And Christ seems far to them. He seems distant to them. But he’s with them in all of his power. He’s able to act, he’s able as the God-man to act and to overcome the evils and the perils that come upon them. The same Jesus who ordains and allows, yes, this difficulty, this evil in their lives, is the same Jesus who was powerful enough to rebuke that chaos. He did not stay at a distance. He entered into our story as a man. He didn’t say, leave me alone, I’m sleeping, and they all died but him. And for us, we know the big picture. He entered into our story as a man and rebuked the devil face-to-face, and He has come out victorious. He is the victor. In these waters of chaos that judge sinners as the flood did, Jesus Himself has also confronted. It’s interesting that in this text, the disciples ask the question, Master, don’t you care that we are perishing? And that really is the question I think that confronts us in the midst of suffering ourselves, right? God, don’t you care that all these things are happening to us? I thought you loved us. I thought your desire for us was good and not for evil. How is it that these things now confront us? Don’t you care that we’re perishing? I pray that you’ve never had difficulties in your life where you thought that, but I imagine most of you have. And if you haven’t, find someone that’s, you know, got a little gray in their hair and inquire of them and they’ll tell you. Don’t you care that we’re perishing? And Christ answers that question definitively in his gospel. In this action, yes, he stills the storm, but more than that, what’s greater, he will ultimately still the storm. He will ultimately put away evil and chaos from their lives for good. He will confront that great enemy that they have and ultimately overcome that great enemy. And he can answer that question, don’t you care that we’re perishing? By saying, yes, I do. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, will have everlasting life. He answers the question, don’t you care that we’re perishing? He answers that question with a cross. Do you not care that we’re perishing? And he points to his cross and he answers it in the definitive. It’s definitive. Yes, I care that you are perishing. You see, it’s a fascinating thing. As we look at the scriptures and you see all this imagery of the sea and the ocean and the water and how it’s infused with this meaning of evil and chaos and dread. and ultimately a watery deathbed, right? Think of Jonah going down, down, down in the deep. The barge closed upon me, right? He’s going down to Sheol, down to death, farther and farther away from God. And this is really how the Bible views the ocean and the waters, right? You see in Psalm 69, for instance. Psalm 69 is a psalm he knows, a psalm about our Savior. All the psalms are, frankly, but Psalm 69, it’s a psalm that has verses that say things like this, a zeal for your house has consumed me. We know that the verses, in fact, about Jesus, it talks about, they gave me gall to drink in my thirst. right, the psalm that’s quoted there, why Christ is hanging on the cross and they’re giving him this sponge filled with gall, the same psalm, right, listen to the words of it, as it is a psalm about our savior and his experience on the cross says this, save me, oh God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink deep in the mire, there’s no standing. I’ve come into deep water where the floods overflow me. Deliver me out of the mire, let me not sink. Let me be delivered. Let me not be delivered by those who hate me. Deliver me out of these deep waters. Let not the floodwaters overflow me. Don’t let the deep swallow me up. Let not the pit shut its mouth upon me.” And we ask that question, Lord, don’t you care about us in our suffering? Don’t you care about our suffering? And the answer is an unequivocal yes. And not only does He care about your suffering, not only does Jesus rebuke this particular storm, but He enters into those watery depths and He joins Himself to the judgment that is found there, that same judgment that came upon God’s enemies in the flood. Jesus binds Himself to and subjects Himself under that same judgment that overcame Pharaoh and all of his enemies. Christ enters those waters and ultimately is drowned by those waters of judgment to answer that question that we have so often. Lord, don’t you care that we’re perishing? And Christ, from the cross, answers, yes, definitively, yes, I care that you are perishing. And in Christ, the God-man enters into the judgment of God himself and can find himself under those chaos of evil, why? it’s in order that we might be set free once and for all. Once and for all. And it’s interesting, you know, the story ends with a sea at peace, a great calm. The sea is no longer raging, it’s utterly still in a great calm. And if you will, all is good, it’s a happy ending. There’s nothing left to fear. But our story, our story ends even more decisively. And we know this, right? As we open and we look to the last pages of our Bibles, not the maps, but as you look at these verses in the book of Revelation 21.1, it says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And what does he say next? And the sea was no more. The sea was no more. This is a reference to all the connotations of all that came before it. The sea was no more. I think when we come to those verses and we think, why is there no beach in heaven? Why can’t I surf there? There’s no one talking about it. That’s not the point. The Bible is taking up this imagery that was given to us at the beginning. And as I said, all the way through, it is trying to tell you that Christ has so decisively dealt with your enemies that in the new creation, there will be nothing left to fear. All of that chaos, all that evil that threatens you in this life, all that makes you fear as though you’re perishing in this life. It makes you wonder, Lord, don’t you even care? Don’t you love us like you said that you love us? All of that evil that threatened our Savior on the cross, that he dealt with once and for all, now that we are in him, we can know that the future for us is once and for all. It is certain, it is definitive. We are freed from the dangers of this particular existence. No more chaos, no more evil, no more tears, no more loss, no more threat from disease or heartbreak, or threat from the enemy. All those things are symbolized and shown for us in this text in Revelation 21.1, and the sea was no more. Nothing that could come upon God’s people and make them fear any longer is there. You see, as we read the story, we see this is about our Lord. We can know that in the present, God is with us. He is with you. And he does care. He does care. And we can know this for a fact, because in the past, Christ hung on that cross. He was drowned in those waters of judgment in order to secure for you a future where there is no more threat, a future that ends with all still and all is well and an eradication of all of those things. So that in your present existence, whatever may be coming against you, causing you to think that, whatever you may fear at this particular time, Christ has already answered that question to you. Lord, don’t you care? And he beckons you in his answer. Look to the cross. Look to the cross and see my decisive action on your behalf. And know that my plans for you are good and not for evil. Trust me, for I have acted for you. Let’s pray. A great Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for your act, your mighty deeds in this world. We thank you for the definitive accomplishment of our salvation, a new heart and a home in heaven to be forever with Jesus. Lord, we praise you and thank you for that. Help us to believe what we’ve read and seen here this morning. Lord, we pray that you would increase our faith, that we might follow you more closely, and that you would evermore conform us to the image of your son, Jesus Christ. For it’s in his name that we pray, amen.