Latest / HBCWestminster / 9.11.22 John 6:16-21 Doug Stoner

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9.11.22 John 6:16-21 Doug Stoner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Let me pray as we start. Lord, again, thank you for this opportunity to be in your word. Lord, thank you for this chance to be able to continue in what you're doing because of who you are and how you're working through us. Lord, I pray that you would guide my words. Lord, help me to speak your truth. Lord, help us all to be able to apply your word well. Thank you, Lord, again for your faithfulness to us. Lord, thank you for your word that always is applicable, always current, always relevant, always meets us where we are.
• 0:29
  and challenges us to walk with you and to trust you. We thank you, Lord, in your name. Amen. So one of the, for those of you who maybe didn't hear, this is actually part two of the day of the life of Jesus. In the first two services, I actually preached a different sermon on the feeding of the 5,000. And it was a sermon that we talked about, and this is something that I had spoken of in our church in Vienna earlier this spring.
• 0:56
  And defeating the 5,000 is a unique miracle that was recorded in all the Gospels. And to give you kind of a spoiler, and if you do have a chance to listen to the sermon, you're welcome to do that from one of the first services. But really, it's about how Jesus meets us in our inadequacy. You remember, there's nothing there. They had five loaves and two fish, and it's a marvelous story of how Jesus takes what little we have, entrust it to him.
• 1:23
  And then he gives it back to us to be able to give to others. And so the disciples who thought they could never do anything were actually the ones who were the channel to see God's blessing through them. And so they saw how their deep inadequacy was an opportunity for God to work. Well, that was the first part of this day. It was a day like no other. Three of the Gospels continue with the story of what happens that evening.
• 1:50
  It's an amazing story. If all we had was just the feeding of the 5,000, it would be quite a day. But the day's not over yet. There's still a lot left, and that's what we're going to talk about, is Jesus walking on the water. And the first part of the day was really a crisis that the people felt, the disciples in particular, of their own inadequacy. No food, no resources, what are we going to do? They didn't know what to do.
• 2:16
  And so they had a crisis of their own inadequacy. And we can really understand that. If you don't feel inadequate, help me to understand how you ever do that. Because it always feels like we're inadequate. And that's actually a good place to be. Well, the second part of this day moves from, in a sense, the needs of the crowd now to the needs of the disciples. It goes from meeting needs out there to all of a sudden I have some massive needs in me.
• 2:44
  It goes from a feeling of inadequacy to massive feelings of fear. Do we have any insights? Interesting, as Hallie mentioned about fears coming up. Always a relevant topic. If you don't feel inadequate, you're probably fearful. If you're fearful, you're probably inadequate. They seem to always go together. And that's what certainly this day is all about as Jesus is working.
• 3:06
  But John, when he wrote the gospel, his whole theme in John chapter 20 verse 31 is that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing in him we'd have life in his name. And so all of the stories in the gospel of John, and this being part of that, points us to trusting in who Jesus is to meet us so that he is our life. He's the one that we trust in because of who he is, not because of who we are.
• 3:33
  And this is a great illustration of that. And so this is the evening episode of the day in the life of Jesus. And what I did is that I took the three gospel accounts from Matthew 14, Mark 6, and John 6, and kind of wove them together to be able to see a little bit more of how this whole evening happened. So again, the feeding of the 5,000 just happened.
• 3:57
  Now this is the next part that goes on. It says, immediately after this, so again this is after the feeding, Jesus insisted that his disciples get into the boat and head across the lake to Bethsaida while he sent the people home. After telling everyone goodbye, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Jesus' disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. But as darkness fell and Jesus hadn't come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum.
• 4:27
  Soon a gale swept down upon them and the sea grew very rough. Late that night, the disciples were in the boat in the middle of the lake, after rowing about three miles, and Jesus was alone on the land. He, that is Jesus, saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. At about three in the morning, Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to pass by them.
• 4:52
  But when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. They were all terrified when they saw him. But Jesus spoke to them at once, Don't be afraid, take courage, I am. Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water. Come, Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.
• 5:23
  Save me, Lord, he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. You have so little faith, Jesus said. Why did you doubt me? When they climbed into the boat, the wind stopped. Then the disciples were totally amazed and worshipped him. You really are God's son, they exclaimed. But they still didn't understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in. Then immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
• 5:51
  What an evening. What an evening. What we're going to see. What we're going to see here is how Jesus works in my personal crises. The disciples were in a crisis. They had a massive thing going on. After this great miracle that just happened, their story was not done. And they had a crisis and fears. And how Jesus met them in the midst of those crises is what we're going to see. We're going to see it by three different things. First of all, how Jesus and how
• 6:20
  for our lives as well, how Jesus and God allows crises to happen into our lives, but it's under his supervision. Crises come, but he still knows what's going on. And then next, he assures us in helping us through these fears, assuring us that he is God, that he's in control because he is God. And lastly, he assures us and helps us to grow in our faith.
• 6:50
  So three things. He's going to allow trials to come in under his supervision. He assures us that he is God and so in control. But then he helps us to grow in our faith in him so that we trust him more because crises will continue to come.
• 7:08
  In the sense, this story that you have with the disciples in the boat and then Peter are complementary stories. In fact, they actually parallel one another very, very closely. And so you have a whole crisis with the disciples together, including Peter, and then all of a sudden Peter, for better or for worse, decides to take himself out on a limb and decides to try to come to Jesus. It's really that story is almost a repeat of one another. And so you see the personal crisis of all the disciples and then Peter.
• 7:36
  Same kind of idea as we go through this story. So the setting is on the Sea of Galilee. Sea of Galilee, think of it like an upside down pear. So it's kind of narrow at the bottom, kind of bulbs at the top. And so he talks about a couple different geographical locations. It's important to understand. So the feeding of the 5,000 was in a desolate area. And if you think of like a clock face, if you think of that rounded part at the upper part.
• 8:01
  is that the feeding of the 5,000 happened about at the 2 o'clock position, so in that northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee, kind of away from all the villages and stuff. Then there's a town called Bethsaida, and that's about at the 1 o'clock position, so a little bit up the coast. And then Capernaum, the town that Jesus did, in fact, that was his ministry base for most of his ministry, is about the 10 o'clock position.
• 8:27
  So again, you've got 2 o'clock, 1 o'clock, 10 o'clock, and so you kind of go around that direction. And so you had the feeding of the 5,000 that happened in that desolate location. The crowds wanted to force Jesus to be king, and so because that's not the right time, that's not what they should be doing, Jesus, in a sense, diffuses the situation. He tells his disciples to get in the boat.
• 8:52
  Tells the crowds they can go away. They've all been fed. They can go home. They can get on their way. He goes to the mountains to pray, to be by himself. So again, that whole foment to try to get him to be king starts to disperse. The disciples waited for Jesus at the boat on the shore. And they probably had some agreed to time that if he's not there by a certain time, they're supposed to start off on their journey. And then Jesus would meet them elsewhere.
• 9:19
  Now, it's important to remember this is the time of Passover, as we learned from the previous section, which is, again, about in the early spring. And so sunset was probably about 6 o'clock in the evening. It says that the disciples started off in the boat when darkness was falling. So that's probably about 7 or 7.30, 8 o'clock, depending on what they call when darkness is falling. So probably about that, we'll call it about the 7.30 time frame.
• 9:46
  of when they actually left in the boat and it's important to realize too is that because it was night time what they were trying to do is that they were going to go from this desolate place by the theta around the coast to capernaum again it's night time you're sailing at night you don't want to be out in the middle of the lake you want to be by the shore if there's a problem so they're trying to go around the shores they're going around
• 10:10
  But now you're going to have a crisis that starts because that's not how their plans actually happened in the long run. So we're going to first of all see how Jesus allows crises to happen under his supervision. If you ever want to try to do an interesting search on the web, try not to do it now, but do a search on the Jesus boat. You're going to see this boat that was dug up in the area of the Sea of Galilee. We don't know if it's obviously Jesus' boat, but it was from that era.
• 10:40
  And it's interesting, this boat was about eight yards long, about two yards wide, and about one yard was the breadth of the, you know, the depth of the hull. Easily holding 12, 13, 14, 16 people. Those boats, and again, boats varied, they're not all the same, but the boat that they found actually had a mainsail in it for when the wind was at their back, but then had a place for four rowers.
• 11:08
  to be able to row as well because again you don't always get the wind at your back so you have to row as well so they have this boat that they found um and it's interesting because it is from that time frame uh and shows a little bit more about that so you have this strong wind blowing against the disciples they start around the shore but this and again it's a clear night because it says jesus saw them in the moonlight so it wasn't a storm like all the clouds and everything but just this gale of a wind blowing and
• 11:38
  We went to school at University of Colorado in Boulder. We know strong winds up there. I mean, they just blow you right through around campus and everything. So you're thinking of some of these really strong winds that we can have here in Colorado. That's what it's like, but you're on the water. And so the waves are getting up. The sea is coming up. You're doing it. And so they're trying to go around the coast, but what's happening is they're getting blown out to the middle of the lake. And so it literally is two steps forward and three steps back.
• 12:06
  Or two rows forward and three rows back. You're going backward. They're not doing it in the right position. They're actually going in the wrong place. They're going out into the lake. And you know, rowing is one of the hardest physical sports you can do. And I always laugh because you know at Christmas time they always advertise rowing machines? And you know what's on sale in January? Rowing machines. Because it's a lot of work. If you're out there rowing, you do this and say, wow, I bought a machine.
• 12:36
  I paid money to do this, you know, and it's a lot of hard work. And so you have these disciples who are rowing against the wind. We're going to see that it was probably about eight hours of time that they're rowing out there against the wind, getting blown further back, back-breaking work after a full day of ministry, after they had already been doing lots of stuff. It can't get any worse than this. It's just adding one on top of another. And so things are really difficult for the disciples at this point.
• 13:08
  All of this happens, and it says in the text that I wrote, that Jesus knew that they were in trouble. He knew that they were in trouble. In fact, it says in the moonlight, because again, it's a full moon at Passover time, or almost Passover time, he could see them on the lake.
• 13:26
  far off, and he could see that they're in trouble. He sees the wind, sees the waves. He knows what's going on. He knows their capacities. He knows they're bone tired, yet he sees them and he allows it to happen. He allows it to happen. It's amazing. The disciples, and you think of the disciples, they're out rowing. It's the middle of the night. Where is Jesus? Why didn't we wait for him? We should have waited for him. He's not in the boat.
• 13:52
  We're going in the wrong direction. We could get capsized. We could sink. We could drown. And Jesus isn't around. At least before when he was in the boat, when he was asleep, at least he was there. But now he's nowhere around. And they're frustrated. There are three groups of four people rowing. Peter, everyone else, man, I'm tired. Okay, you take over. I'm rowing. And they're not making any headway. And so you can feel the frustration of the disciples.
• 14:24
  The disappointment, the questioning. But they're doing exactly, and this is the point to remember, they're doing exactly what Jesus told them to do. Get in the boat and go across the lake. They are in trouble because they are obedient to the Lord. Because they're obedient to the Lord, they're in trouble. And that is so important. God does not promise us an easy life. Many times because we choose to follow him, we get in worse trouble.
• 14:55
  The rest of the 5,000 who ate the loaves and the fishes, they're sleeping on the shore. They're in a tent. They're at home. They're satisfied. They didn't care. The disciples are the ones in the boat having all the trouble because Jesus told them to go in the water. And that's one of the hardest things for all of us to remember in Christian lives and in ministry and whatever you do is that troubles come.
• 15:21
  And if they haven't come, they will come. And if they've come, sometimes they're going to come even more hard and harder and harder. And things feel like they're getting worse, not better. God, where are you? Why are you doing this? Don't you love me? We asked those questions. The disciples were asking those questions. But Jesus, and get this point, he is observing them. He knows what's going on. He's allowing it to happen.
• 15:50
  Because he wants them to trust in him in ways that they never have before. If we don't have trials, we don't have the blessing of growth in the Lord. You cannot get away from this. It happens over and over again. It's amazing how often I know for myself I have to relearn that lesson. So much so that Peter, and I'll do 1 Peter.
• 16:14
  who's looking back 30 years later at this scene, he says this in 1 Peter. It says right at the beginning in chapter 1, he says, So be truly glad. This is Peter again. So he says, So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than gold.
• 16:43
  So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus is revealed to the whole world. Peter said, you must go through trials. He's writing to Christians all over the Roman world and he says, don't be surprised. Part of the issue with trials is we get surprised by them. Why did that happen? I shouldn't have had that happen.
• 17:08
  Maybe I wasn't listening to the Lord. We get surprised, and that is half of the defeat for us. If we understand that that's part of the life the Lord has called us to, it certainly makes a difference. Oh, okay, that's another trial. It doesn't make him easy, but at least we have the context of not being surprised by them. James, another Jesus' half-brother who also knew many trials, he said, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider an opportunity for great joy.
• 17:38
  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. That's how we have to respond to trials. If we know that the Lord is watching over our trials, if he has a purpose for them to help us to grow, it makes a ton of difference when we're going through trials. We don't feel like we're just adrift and that somehow things are not where they should be.
• 18:07
  But if we understand that, that's half the victory right there is realizing the Lord's in control. He knows your capacity. He knows your limitations. He knows your pain. He knows your tears. But it still continues. It still continues. They rode for eight hours and they still hadn't seen the Lord come yet. So Jesus allows trials under his supervision.
• 18:34
  And that's a first part of us understanding in our crises of fear to realize the Lord is still in control. And you know what? That was true even if the disciples didn't feel like it. It still was true that he saw them from the shore and that he knew their capacity. He knew that. It was still true no matter what they felt like. No matter what they felt like, the fact was still true that he knew and he was in control of the situation.
• 19:03
  And so Jesus calms us. This is number two. Jesus calms us. He calms us best by assuring us that he is God. Now you have the situation where Jesus comes. They thought they were scared before. They're really going to be terrified. It says that Jesus comes walking to them on the water. And two things that showed in particular that Jesus showed himself that he was God himself. First of all, he had this kind of
• 19:31
  weird phrase that he intended to pass by them you know it's kind of like what were you doing why were you passing by them you know what were you you know but you have to understand the context of that intended to pass by them was like a like a bell that would be dinging off into their minds because you know what else who else had the lord pass by them moses do you remember the situation moses at the whole time
• 19:59
  of this when he was on the top of mount sinai he asked the lord he would said let me see your glory and so he says okay so he tells moses i'm going to hide you in the cleft of the rock i'm going to cover you with my hand until what i pass by until i pass by and so jesus passing by the disciples again i i don't
• 20:24
  Give them the credit that somehow they would have found it at this time, but looking back later, Jesus passing by would be like, ding, ding. When did that happen before? Moses. God passes by Moses. Jesus passes by us. It's a real-life, personal illustration that Jesus is God, that he's in control, and you don't need to fear. That passing by for them was like, Moses had this happen. We just had it happen too.
• 20:55
  God had it. Jesus is God. He's doing the same thing. And then he had another one. So that's the first thing. He shows them that he's God. But then he has this other one. He says, take courage. Don't be afraid. And it literally says, I am. If they didn't figure it out the first one, when he said that, that should have really made that clue that he's really talking about that he's God. Because when you say, I am, which is one of the themes that you see in John,
• 21:23
  They should understand when he says, I am, that means that I am the eternal one. I'm the unchanging one. I am God himself. And so Jesus says that. Take courage. Don't be afraid. You're in the middle of all this thing. And he says that in the middle of their fears. The storm is still going when he says that. Take courage. Don't be afraid. I am. Amazing. Amazing that he would do that in the midst of the storm. Trials have us, test us to doubt God's love and power.
• 21:54
  power and control. But it's interesting in this crisis, it is precisely in that situation when we feel that, that he says, I am, don't be afraid. The storm is still raging at this time and he says, don't be afraid. I am God. Our doubts can somehow, in a sense, cloud the reality that God cares for us and he's in control.
• 22:20
  But the reality is, is that he's very much in control, very much loving us, very much caring for us. And we should doubt our doubts, not let our doubts, in a sense, cloud the reality. The reality is, is that God does love us, even in the midst of our trials. But our doubts can cloud this. And so we have to be brave to choose against our feelings, to believe what God says, rather than what I feel.
• 22:45
  Even when the feelings scream at me, even when my circumstances scream at me, I need to be courageous. Take courage. Don't be afraid. It's that same command for all of us in our fears. Because I am. Because I am. Because Jesus says this. A verse in Isaiah 41.10, which again is another verse I think that they would think of probably later. Isaiah 41.10 says, Do not fear, for I am with you.
• 23:13
  Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Echoes Jesus' words, very similar. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Why? You see all these things. For I will help you. Surely I will help you. I will uphold you. All these things we don't need to fear because of who God is. Not because our circumstances would change, but because of who he is. That's why.
• 23:43
  So how do we do that? How do we do that? The reality we have to do, and again, I think Peter comes back to this. He says in 1 Peter 1.5, casting all your anxiety, all your fears on him. Why? Because he cares for you. Again, you think Peter is writing this and you think he's got to be remembering the situation of all this, what's going on. Casting, throwing all of your fears, all your anxieties on God. Why? Because he cares for you. So what do I do with my fears?
• 24:13
  Give them to the Lord. It's all that we can do. I certainly can't do anything with them. I gotta give them to the Lord. He cares for me. I have to choose the reality that he is more real than my fears, my circumstances, whatever else is around. Because it's true. So we see that God, Jesus, God allows trials under supervision. He assures us because he's God. Finally, he helps us grow in faith. And here we come to Peter. So,
• 24:44
  You already had the situation of the feeding of the 5,000. We entrust things to the Lord. That's the essence of faith. But now you have the situation of Peter. For good or for bad, Peter, boy, he is always out there getting himself into trouble, getting himself over his head, or at least up to his knees in this situation. He is amazing. I think Peter is just a great illustration for all of us.
• 25:10
  He has the faith to ask the Lord, okay, Lord, if it's you, then command me to come to you, right? That's what he asked. Command me to come to you on the water. Jesus says, come, okay? You wanted it, you come. Come to me. That's what you asked. That's what I said, come. But then you have this situation where Peter starts looking at his circumstances. You know this, right? He's looking at the wind and the waves, right? He's looking at first to Jesus.
• 25:41
  But all of a sudden, the waves start, he's starting to look at what's going on. He's looking at the very real circumstances that are around him. These were real waves. This was a real wind that was battering on him. Okay, it wasn't fake. So it's a real thing that's happening. But he takes his eyes off the Lord as he looks at the other circumstances around him. Then all of a sudden, those circumstances become a greater reality in his mind than Jesus who said, come to me.
• 26:12
  You said, come to me. He said, come. Right? He's balancing reality here. And all of a sudden, the reality of the wave starts outweighing what Jesus told him. And guess what? As he outweighs it, his sinking in his feet starts sinking like his sinking of his hope and his confidence and his fears and everything else. He starts sinking down there. And you know what Jesus is doing? He's observing Peter.
• 26:38
  Jesus has his eyes on Peter as he's starting to panic, as he's starting to sink, right? Jesus is right there in the middle of his crisis because Peter's going through a personal crisis like his whole disciple group was around him doing the same thing. And Peter starts feeling alone, afraid, panicking. Save me, Lord. Jesus reaches out. He was probably only a, you know.
• 27:04
  maybe a couple feet away from him. I don't know, you know. You don't know, but all of a sudden, he says, save me, and he goes, boop, grabbed you. And Jesus tells him a question we all need to hear. Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Why did you doubt?
• 27:21
  That's a question we all need to answer. We all, I as well as you, have frontiers of our faith. We can trust God for everything that's kind of inside that faith, inside those borders, but you hit that frontier and all of a sudden, I'm not sure about this, right? And the crises kind of show us those borders, maybe kind of even highlight them. And so it's a question when we have our crises of when we have fears and they seem to overwhelm us, why are you doubting?
• 27:51
  What is it about this situation? What is it about you don't understand about who the Lord is that's causing you to fear? Why is the reality of your circumstances outweighing the reality of who God is? What is your thought pattern? Why is that happening? Jesus didn't tell this to Peter just to make him feel bad. He wanted him to think. And so God calls us to think. Where are those places where I can trust God up to this point, but beyond that, I don't think so.
• 28:19
  Because what trials do is that they continue to push those frontiers away. They continue to help us to expand those areas so it takes more to have us be fearful than what we were before. And that's the whole reason why trials are so necessary. Those borders don't move unless we have, in pain, see them start to move. And that's why they're so good for us because even though they hurt,
• 28:45
  The best thing we can do is to trust the Lord. And so he's more interested in our faith than how we feel if we feel good about ourselves. Why did you doubt? But then look at the ending. They both walk back to the boat together. As soon as they get in the boat, the wind stops, showing obviously Jesus was in control. The disciples all worship him because they realize, and then they saw Peter, right, what happened, right? And so they're all observing this whole thing right off.
• 29:15
  Jesus gets in the boat and they worship him saying, you really are God's son. You know, if they didn't realize it before with the feeding of the 5,000, they certainly saw it again. But it says the text, they still didn't really understand it. You know, it's like so many things. And you're going to see the disciples react badly just like we do. You know, he's like, I thought I learned that lesson. Well, I got to relearn it again, you know. And so he says they still couldn't quite take it all in. But you hope that their faith started moving along again in that direction.
• 29:44
  And then the final thing that it says, immediately they were at the land where they were going. They were immediately at Capernaum. So they rode hard eight hours against the wind, got pushed three miles in the middle of the lake. Jesus gets in the boat and guess what? Three miles, boop, they're in Capernaum. Wow. Okay, the storm stopped. We're where we wanted to go. All by rowing, which didn't do me any good, and Jesus took me right there. You know, the final three miles in the middle of the lake, I'm there.
• 30:10
  And so all of these things, Jesus encourages their faith, encourages Peter, asking those questions, not to make us so much feel bad, but really searching. Because Jesus is continuing to want to have us grow in our faith, and that's what he's doing to help us to grow, to be there. I think many times our faith...
• 30:31
  We have these in Vienna and I think you probably have them here. You know how sometimes like in parking garages you got the circular ramps that kind of do this, you know, to get up to the upper layers, you know, and you see them like the Denver Stadium, you see these. I think many times our faith and our journey is kind of like that. It's kind of like we kind of go around and we kind of feel like we learned the lesson and hopefully by the time we get to the same place we're a little bit higher.
• 30:54
  But then it seems like we have to learn that lesson again. We go around again. Maybe we're a little bit better. And around again. We go a little bit better. It's like our Christian life. We just keep on going around. But hopefully we're making a little bit of progress up as we continue to learn. We'd like to go straight up like an elevator, but...
• 31:10
  Sorry, that doesn't happen. It seems like we have to go through these things again and again and again to keep on learning. But the Lord is patient. The Lord knows us. He knows our capacities. He's there to grab us. He's there to encourage us in our faith. He's there to assure us he's God, to assure that all these things are still under his control. And so where are you at? Where are you at with the Lord right now? Is the Lord the one that you're looking toward? You know, he was the savior of the disciples.
• 31:40
  as he dies for us he asks and he pleads with us will you believe in me will you trust in me you see jesus the disciples went through this storm and a storm can many times be like god's wrath and so jesus was not only in the storm he was actually thrown into a much greater storm of god's wrath on our behalf he was thrown into a storm where he really was alone he was thrown into a storm where he was all alone so we wouldn't have to be
• 32:09
  So that we could be with him and with the Lord. He did that for us because we couldn't. And all he does is he offers that to us to say, if you want to be with me, if you want to know me, all you have to do is trust me. You can't do it on your own. You just need to trust me. If you've come to that point where you've trusted in him, then you know what? This whole area of fears and these crises that you're facing, you know what? If you're not in one, you're going to be in one.
• 32:38
  I wish I could say that you wouldn't be, but I can't make that promise because Peter says many trials need to come into our lives. I don't know what's in your life right now. I don't know what's coming in your life, but the Lord is still the one who's in control of it.
• 32:52
  watching it, knowing you, knowing your pain, has a purpose in it, encourages you to trust him. As we go round and round and trusting in the Lord, learning that lesson and hopefully coming closer to him, he's the one who's working. He builds our faith. He helps us so we can help others to grow in the faith. They learn from our crises to hopefully help them through theirs.
• 33:16
  So I hope this was encouraging. It's been a great lesson, both the first service as well as our inadequacies and fears. I certainly needed to redo this again. I spoke on this a couple months ago. I was like, wow, I need to hear it again. Let's pray. Lord, again, thank you very much how you meet us where we are. Thank you, Lord. You know the fears that we each have. Lord, our frontiers of faith where we have limits, where apart from that we get fears and we start sinking.
• 33:44
  Lord, there may be some here who feel like they're already up to their neck in their waters, in fears. And Lord, I pray that they would be encouraged. Knowing that you know them, you know the circumstances, you have a purpose in them. Lord, I pray that you would encourage each one of us. Help us, Lord, when we doubt, when we...
• 34:02
  see those areas where we need to trust you more, that we would understand what you're calling us to be brave in, to trust you over the fears, the circumstances, to see you as the greatest reality. Thank you, Lord, again for all that you've done in your name. Amen.