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Danville Baptist Church

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Welcome to Danville Baptist Church.
We come here every Sunday to worship and praise our Lord to confess that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life that no one comes to the Father except by him.
We come together and help each other as we struggle with the possessitudes of life.
We come to reach out to those in the community that don't know Jesus and desperately need to hear the story of the Savior.
you. If you're visiting with us this morning, a special welcome. I would invite you to join us after the service for a time of fellowship.
I know that's intimidating for new people and sometimes for old people, but I counted them this morning.
It only takes 17 steps to go down to the fellowship. Or you can take the express elevator and be there by next Sunday.
So, again, welcome. We're glad you're here. For the
those visiting us online. We're glad you're joining us as well. Please come and join us in person.
If you think it's good online, it's even better when you're in the fellowship of God's people.
And Franco King, a sinner saved by grace who refuses to be known by my mistakes of yesterday,
but by the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ today. That same grace is available to all.
who take him ask Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of their lives.
I would call your attention to some of the announcements on the back page of your bulletin.
Guys, tomorrow night is the first Monday men's barbecue.
It's traditionally been held at the Plasker Ward and Gun Club.
But two years ago, one of our elders came back from the barbecue and said,
you know, we really ought to hold this in Danville.
and showcase our church. So our pastor has been busy, and he's finally got the leadership team with First Monday to agree to come.
So it's tomorrow night at 6 o'clock, rain or shine.
They're going to be barbecuing outside, but we're going to be eating inside. So, you know, come rain and shine.
Please bring your children, your grandchildren, neighbors. It'll be a great time.
I'm guarantee you. Don't forget the summer kickoff on June 16th, the last day of school.
I don't know about your kids, but my grandson is counting the days one by one by one.
This is a tremendous activity, not only, not only for the church, but for the community as well.
And, you know, when people drive by and see our parking lot fall on a Sunday morning, on a Monday night, on a Tuesday night,
on a Tuesday night. It just invites people to come in. So enjoy, join us for that, invite
people. There's going to be all kinds of fun things to do, including my favorite, the bounce house.
You think I'm too big for that? Mason said, he's too big for that. But Liz told me that,
well, I can't do the bounce house, I can do the face painting.
And she volunteered Patrick to be my first victim, I guess.
Anyways, come on now. It's going to be a fun time. Invite your friends, your neighbors, and everything is free.
Don't forget the BBS is coming up in July. I know it seems a long way away, but it's right around the corner.
And it's one of those activities that changes the life of young people not only in our church.
but in the community. So if you want more information on that, or you can help
see my favorite daughter, Julie, or Cindy Snow, who hides up in the archives of the
church. One of the first scripture lessons that I memorized is one that I'm sure that's
familiar to most of us. It's Psalm 100. It's given me hope and direction as I have come into the
presence of our Lord over the last 84 years. And I would share this with you this morning
as a call to worship. The psalmist said, make a joyful noise. Make a joyful noise under the Lord.
Come into his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord. It is he that is God. It is he that has
made us and not we ourselves. We are his people. Do you ever think of that? We are his people? Do you ever think of
that? We are his people?
and the sheep of his pastures.
Enter its gates for Thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.
Be thankful unto him and bless his name for the Lord is good.
His mercy is everlasting and his love, his love endures for all generations.
Let's pray together this morning.
Heavenly Father, you alone are God. You alone are our Creator.
our sustainer, our shepherd, our redeemer.
We thank you for the privilege of gathering together as your people to worship and honor your
holy name today.
Lord, we thank you for your countless blessings you have provided for us, for your protection.
And above all, the gift of salvation to our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
Jesus Christ. As we worship today, remove any distractions that keep us from you, fill this sanctuary with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. May the songs that we sing, the prayers that we share, and the words that Pastor Dave brings this morning, give glory and honor to you.
We thank you, Lord, that in a world that is constantly changing, a world that is in chaos,
We find confident hope in your unchanging love.
You were the same yesterday, today, today, and forever.
Bless each person gathered here today.
Encourage the weary, comfort, the hurting, strengthen the weak, and deepen the faith.
May everything we do today bring glory to you.
We pray this in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and all God people said.
Amen.
Lightful noise together.
Will you stand with me?
First three people, hold on for one sec.
Well, I'll send you out in a moment.
Before you go, we're going to play a brief video in a second.
Our church supports a ministry in Haiti, a couple different ministries.
We support a school called Seelow School, and also a church there called Seelow Church.
and we've had a long-term relationship with this ministry, with Pastor Renez, who leads it up.
Some in our church have even been down there.
Cindy Snow has been there, June Schulte, and they've worked with Pastor Renez.
And we've asked him to give us a video update of what's going on down there and how we can pray for them.
And so I've asked, and so Cindy's going to play that now.
I'll tell you beforehand that he has a very strong,
accent, his English is a second language, so you might not be able to understand all the words,
but you'll get the gist of what's going on down there.
Hello, everybody.
We are Monique and Wednesdays this year, the founders of Seleau Ministries.
It is a pleasure for us today to share with you an update regarding Seelow ministry.
At Seleau, we have two institutions, a school and a church.
The school first.
The area where the school is located called Silo.
The name of the school is institution Christian Silo.
For our American friends, it is Silo School.
The school has now 87 children, 17 children, 17 children in preschool,
59 school, 59 in preschool, 59 in elementary school.
and 11 in high school.
Our children have access to Christian education.
They have devotion every morning, prayer,
up noon, and they have regular Bible class.
They have also access to a meal per day.
It is important for us to feed them.
They pass six hours per day at school, and most of them,
don't bring food.
A meal is a good contribution to their learning.
The school has devoted teachers.
We have 12 teachers and our total staff is 17 people.
The school has a playground where the children can play during the recreation time.
The project we have now is to put tires
in the kitchen, we would like to see our children eating in a beautiful place.
Regarding the church, Silo Church, the official name of the church is
Iglese Communion Christian the Silo, Fellowship Christian Church of Silo.
The church building is still in construction.
It was started by the
work team from Danville Baptist Church and the First Congregational Church of Kingston
under the leadership of Al Perkins.
The congregation is working at the church building, though it's not finished yet.
We have prepared a part inside the church building to worship and pray.
The church is working.
working regularly. The congregation is getting ready to celebrate his 10th anniversary
in August, uh, 2026. We are making now a sanitary block. The next step is to put the concrete
roof which will be also serve as the platform of the church. I am asking you to pray for
80 and particularly for Sillow ministry.
The school, we got in the school, the next project is to put the tiles in the kitchen
and the next project of the church is to put the roof on the sanitary block.
We praise the Lord who provides resources to keep these ministries operational. We are
grateful to our faithful donors and partners in Christ. Your financial support are making
a great difference in the life of the children in the SILO area. Thank you so much for your
help. May God bless you. Families of the young children, you can bring them downstairs where we
have nursery care now. I will be praying for Pastor Renez and Selo's school and church during our
congregational prayer. My name is Dave Hammer, and if I've not met you before,
I love pastoring here. I love being part of this church, and I hope that you'll come to love our church
as much as we do. Yesterday there was a baby shower for Amanda Russell, and I just loved
hearing about the ways that the ladies of our church came around her and celebrated her pregnancy. It
it reminded me of the way of, you know, the way that extended family would treat their own
niece or cousin or granddaughter were she to be pregnant and expecting. And so thank you all for the way
that you love the Russell's in that way. We're going to come now to our, the last time of doing
our May memory passage, and it's Jesus' invitation to come to him and find rest. Previously,
I've mentioned that I think that that busyness is one of the, the, the,
a very significant facet of an aspect of modern life, but so is restlessness.
And we heard that in the song that we sang, where we asked God to quiet our restless hearts.
Not only are we sort of like overly busy, we have too many things to do, but even when we're
done, like our minds and our hearts are restless.
Like we don't, our bodies might stop, but we don't always.
rest and have peace. And Jesus invites us to the only place that real, true lasting rest
is found, and that's in him. So let's read his invitation to encourage one another and
ourselves, and then we're going to silently meditate on these words, and then I'll lead us in
prayer. Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Let's have some time of silent meditation.
Heavenly Father, you are the Lord, and there is no other. You are the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
the heights of heaven adore you, multitudes of angels, sing your praise.
May we join our voices and our lives to their way of seeking to glorify you in all things.
May we show forth your goodness by our devotion to you.
Lord God, our holy judge, nothing is hidden from your sight.
Your eyes test even the very motives of our hearts, our uncleanness, our shame,
and the evil that we speak and do is laid bare before you.
Forgive us, Lord. Do not treat us like we deserve, but call to mind now our sin and lead us to
silently confess it, condemn it, and turn from it now.
Thank you, God, our Savior, for the good news of Jesus Christ,
that he, though holy and perfect, suffered and died for us, under your wrath upon the cross,
that we might be forgiven, welcomed, and loved through faith in him.
Thank you that through faith in him.
Jesus, we have died with him in his death, and that through faith in him, we have been
raised again to new life with him in his resurrection.
Thank you, Lord, for placing us here at this time.
For the exact challenges and opportunities you place before us, for the good work you're
doing in us and through us, and for the assurance that your kingdom will prevail overall.
Thank you for yesterday's baby shower, for Amanda, for the way the ladies of our church came around her to love and encourage her in Christ.
And we thank you for Amanda and Brooklyn's pregnancies and ask that you'd continue to bless and give health to each of them.
Thank you for Pastor Renez and his wife Monique and all that you're accomplishing through their lives and work in Haiti.
Please protect them and their co-laborers and prosper their work for your kingdom.
Thank you for the 87 students at Seelow School and for the daily lunch that they receive
and the education in Christ and about secular subjects as well, Lord.
And we pray that you'd help them to grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Please provide for the tiling of their cafeteria.
Thank you also for Seelow Church.
May it remain faithful to the scriptures and to Jesus Christ.
Please bring to completion.
and their current construction work and the putting on of the roof and multiply their disciple-making efforts for the good of the whole church, the households connected to it, and the nearby community.
And we ask for your mercy on Haiti, which is at a level of lawlessness and societal failure and prevalent violence that we just really can't even imagine in our comfortable
lives here. But we pray for that nation of Haiti. We pray that, Lord, you would lead
the violent criminals who are dominating that society now to either repent and turn to you
or be removed, be judged, be condemned, Lord. Please bring stability and peace to that land.
And we pray as Jesus taught the disciples to pray, our Father, who art in heaven,
Hello and be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Leap this day, our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
I'd like to invite Liz Cornell up for this morning's scripture reading. Come on up, Liz.
Good morning.
We're reading Mark 645 through 56. It's on page 1001 in your Bibles.
Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side,
to Beth Seda, while he dismissed the crowd.
And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land,
and he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them.
And about the fourth watch.
of the night he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass them by, but when they saw
him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and
were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, take heart, it is I, do not be
afraid, and he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded,
for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts. When they had crossed over,
they came to the land at Gisera and moored to the shore. And when they were to the shore. And when they
they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region
and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came
in villages, cities or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they
might touch even the fringe of his garment, and as many as touched it were made well.
Thanks, Liz. Let's go ahead and pray. Come, Holy Spirit, may these words of truth be used by you.
as your sword, as your primary tool by which you are operating in the world today and in our lives.
Give us insight, but not merely for educational purposes, but to help us to know Jesus Christ better.
To behold his glory in these words, in these events, and to be changed as we behold him.
lead us to repentance and deeper faith and joy in him. Amen.
Somewhere between five and ten years ago, my son and I were at Richard, we went over to Richard and Barbara Rockwell's house,
who many of you know from our church, and they live in Hampstead, and we had planned that we were going to borrow their kayaks.
They lived sort of in the middle of Hampstead over there, and not just a short walk from Wash Pond.
And they, as we were heading over, as we got the kayaks out and we're heading over, they said, hey, just one thing, probably stay to the left of our dock when you get in the water, because sometimes when you go to the right, the wind makes it really hard to get back.
So we went out and we went to the left, and we spent, we had some good time over there.
But the thing was that most of the lake actually, like 75, 80 percent, was to the right of the dock.
So we had a good time over here, and then it wasn't very windy, and so we threw caution to the wind and thought, let's explore.
the other side. And so Josh and I, we go down there and we're, you know, have a good time,
we're having a good day, and then finally it seemed time to go back. And I don't know what it was. It didn't
seem very windy. But we, I mean, we just couldn't even go anywhere, you know? I mean, it was like we were on a river
trying to go the wrong way. We're, I mean, after paddling, paddling, paddling, paddling, we might go by, you know,
one house. And then, I mean, it was pretty, it was evident pretty quick that this probably was not,
we probably weren't able to do it. But we kept working on working on it. And then to make matters
even worse, my boat is filling with water slowly. It's just like, I mean, at this point, it's like
halfway filled, and I'm like, I'm like halfway submerged underwater, my kayak. And I tell Josh,
and, but, and after a while of struggling, and, I mean, it's really embarrassing. I'm, I'm an adult,
guy, and I can't even paddle, like, on a lake, and there's, like, it seemed like there was no wind.
I don't know. Is there an undertow in, I don't know, there's something. And what we just needed to do was
just, well, my boat was completely submerged. And I needed to get out and pull it up onto the shore. At some
person's house, they're, like, in the yard gardening, and, you know, tell them, and eventually they said
they're going to, they would drive us back to the Rockwell's, to the Rockwell's house.
and um but i thought of that story because we're you know in our passage here the apostles are
struggling at it is struggling to row to beths sada where jesus told them to go and they're making
progress very painfully in the middle of the night against the wind jesus had told them to go
and i think that's something of a picture of the christian life where we're doing what we're doing what we thought
God had called us to do, the circumstances maybe he brought about, that we know he brought
about in our lives, and we're getting nowhere. It's painful even just to not lose ground.
Maybe we're even, we even feel like we're sinking. And where is he? What is he doing? Does he even
care? Those are some of the questions that we're going to ask, try and answer in this passage.
What's just preceded this is that Jesus has just fed the multitudes out in the wilderness.
You'll remember there's 5,000 men there, but so was it 10, 15, 20,000 more people, maybe if you can count children and women.
And after a day of teaching, Jesus takes five loaves of bread, some fish, he multiplies them, and he feeds everyone, and there's leftovers.
In that evening, Jesus takes the,
disciples look with me at verse 45 immediately he made his disciples get into a boat and
and go before him to the other side to Bethseda while he dismissed the crowd.
Right from the beginning of the disciples working with Jesus and learning from Jesus, the way it
began was him asking them, command, calling them to follow him. And what we've seen throughout Mark's
gospel is they're doing just that.
Jesus goes here, he goes there, they go with him.
They go across the lake to the garrisons, they head back, they go into a synagogue, they go out into the wilderness, he sends them out on a mission.
And now they're going where he sends them across to Bethsaida, this time without him.
He said it's apparently let them know he'd be coming soon.
And so we have just this really simple picture of what it is to be a Christian.
It's following Jesus, going where he goes, imitating what he does,
living like he calls us to live, sometime making changes in our lives.
And so they head out.
But Jesus, for himself, he goes up on a hill to spend time praying.
We see there in verse 46, and after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray.
We saw Jesus do something very similar back.
in chapter one, after he healed many people in Copernum and cast out many demons, we read in
chapter one, verse 35. Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and
went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. In Jesus' teaching, sort of the burning heart
of Jesus' teaching in the words he spoke, it was all about God. He spoke. He spoke about all of
reality, being founded on God and centered in God. And Jesus lived that out in many ways.
and one of the ways you see that is his commitment to prayer. I know that God hears our prayers
anytime, anywhere, and so we should pray in our car or even just mutter a small prayer when we're at work
or walking between rooms in our house. But one of the things that Jesus does that shows his great
faith in God, love for God, commitment to God, is that he not only
prays, I'm sure, all the time and in his head and in small moments, but he sets aside
extended periods of time where he can be alone to talk to God, to express his love to God,
to thank God, to ask God what to do next, to ask God for his help for the people that he
cares about. And that's what he does here. We might imagine that he's praying for what's about
to happen in Beth Seda. We might imagine that he's asking God to help the
the multitudes who received the food out in the wilderness to understand that it meant more
than just that he can fill their bellies. He is probably praying for the disciples, as we are going
to see. I think he very much was. But from Jesus' example of setting aside time to pray and even
his commitment to pray through the night, I mean, that's a sacrifice. Like prayer, setting aside time
to pray sometimes requires sacrifice.
is work. It's often boring. And yet it is an essential part of life in a world where we're
dependent on God, where God loves us, where he calls us to pray, and where his son set aside time
to pray. And we read in verses 47 and 48, and when the evening came, so maybe 6 p.m., the boat was out
on the sea, and he was alone on the land, and he saw that they were making headway painfully for the
wind was against them. And this is another beautiful picture of the Christian life in this
passage. One was following Jesus wherever he goes, going wherever he tells you to go. But another
one is right here. And here's what I want us to see. You can fill in the blanks on page 3 in your
bulletin. My first main point is that Jesus, our priest, praise for his disciples in our
struggles. Jesus, our priest, praise for his disciples in our struggles. Jesus, praise for his disciples.
in our struggles. So here's the picture. Jesus sends the disciples out and where he sends them,
they're painfully making headway. And we find out until the fourth watch of the night,
which is 3 to 6 a.m. If he sent them out at 6 p.m., this is, it's about 9 hours that they've been
working here at this. And Jesus isn't with them. And they might be wondering, why did he send us out here at this time?
Why didn't he come with us? Does he even care? And yet, we're given a picture. We're giving the bigger picture. And we see Jesus up on this hill, spending time in prayer, but also watching them, watching them, seeing them. And I think we can conclude praying for them. Listen what Romans 834 says. Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interseeing.
for us. The normal day-to-day Christian life, we cannot see Jesus, and yet he sees us.
And one of the ways he's involved in the lives of your average Christian is not only by sending his spirit to dwell
within us, but he's with the father at the father's right hand, lifting up our needs and his goals in our life that he's
trying to achieve to God. He's saying, God, you see Dave Hammer screwing up again. You know, we've got to
help this guy. And because the father loves Jesus so much, he listens to whatever Jesus says.
And we see a picture of that. You know, I think, I think it's just like a more, a more comprehensible
picture of it. Jesus on the mountain, looking down, seeing the disciples, they're rowing through the
night. He's praying. He's praying for you and I in our struggles as well. And we know that we need
it very much. And we read in verses 48, continuing verse 48 to 50, and about the fourth watch
of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him
walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were
terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, take heart at his eye, do not be afraid. And
here's this famous miracle. And in it I want us to see. Point two in your message notes that
Jesus, our Lord, comes to his disciples in our struggles. He not only prays for us in our
struggles. He comes to us. Jesus, our Lord, he's not only our priest, but he's our Lord and
our God comes to his disciples in our struggles. One author imagines the scene like this. He says, he writes,
The wind howled and the waves dashed high, but they affected him not at all.
He was not pitched about or tossed up and down, but he walked as on ordinary ground,
not floating in the air. No earth, unearthly light played about him as painters might imagine,
but it was simply Jesus as they had seen him the night before, but now on the storm-tossed sea
walking toward them. And as I said, as we saw the feeding of the 5,000 last week, if we read this
and our conclusion in reading this is Jesus is not an ordinary man.
Jesus is truly the son of God. He can do anything and nothing is impossible for him.
That's enough to get out of this account. But if we have a study Bible, if we use a computer to look at cross-references
and other parts of the Bible that might say things relevant to this passage,
It begins opening up a lot more, and we see how Jesus walking on the water reveals that he is the Lord God,
the creator of all things, the God who rescued his people from Egypt, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
in the flesh walking on the water. For example, in Psalm 77, where the Psalmist is praising God
for the way that he led Israel through the Red Sea, the author writes this,
when the waters saw you, O God, they were afraid. Your way was.
through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen.
Now, as I read that, I realize that I actually thought about, think about the crossing of the
of the Red Sea a little bit different. I think about Moses standing there. He's lifting up his staff
and God divides the Red Sea. And where do I think of God in this picture? I guess I think,
well, it's God's power that's dividing the Red Sea, but I don't think of God as being there.
But the Psalmist, in praising God, did you hear that? He says, your way was through the sea.
Your path was through the great waters, and yet your footprints were unseen. So the Psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit,
understands that at that dividing of the Red Sea, God's power wasn't only at work, but God was there leading his people through the waters.
And Jesus is carrying this out in the flesh.
Jesus is there coming to his people through the waters as God once did at the Red Sea.
Jesus also is fulfilling the promise that God made through Isaiah.
And the beginning of this is going to sound familiar to you because we sing these words in one of the hymns that we often sing.
God says this through Isaiah, through Isaiah. When you pass through the words, through the
waters, you know, the difficulties of life. I will be with you, says God.
Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters.
Jesus is showing the disciples, and he's showing us as we read on the scripture,
that he is the Lord who promised to be with his people as we pass through deepened for us
impassable waters. That he is the God who makes away against the
odds. He's the creator and the redeemer of his people in every age who trust in him.
That's who Jesus is showing us that he is. But there's another important illusion in this
passage as well, and we see it in the rather strange detail. I read it, and you maybe didn't even
notice it. I mean, I wouldn't typically, I would just say, what's that all about, but then go on?
it says that he meant to pass by them, but then he got in the boat in verse 48. What's that all
about. He comes to them, but then he's going to pass by them. Why is he going to do that?
Well, actually, that detail, sometimes questioning things that don't make sense are the most
helpful ways to learn a lot. And actually, if we search on that phrase, God passing by someone,
we see it come up in some significant ways. So, for example, Job's experience of God, described in
Job chapter 9, Job writes this. He says, God alone stretched out the heavens and trampled
the waves of the sea. Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not. He moves on, but I do not
perceive him. So here's Job's experience of God. That God is the creator of all who
tramples on the sea and passes by him, even though he can't see him. And it seems that Jesus,
is showing that he is the invisible God that Job somehow knew of through the Holy Spirit,
but he's that invisible God made visible in the days of the apostles in the first century,
trampling the sea, beginning to pass by the apostles. But not only that,
recall with me one of the highlights of Scripture is when Moses is on Mount Sinai,
he's receiving the Ten Commandments, lots of wonderful things happen there,
and Moses boldly asks God.
will you show me your glory? Do you remember this? And God at first puts him down. He says,
listen, no one can see his face and live. But then God grants Moses a wonderful concession. And he says,
here's what he's going to do. He's going to put Moses in a cleft in the rock. And he's going to cover,
he's going to cover Moses while his glory passes by. And then he's going to remove his hand, and he's going to
allow Moses to see God's glory from behind. And if you look at the passage, the reason God
says he's going to give this gift of this vision, Moses, is to assure Moses that when they go
into the promised land, that God is with them and he will surely fulfill all of his promises.
Well, here in this passage, it seems to me that Jesus is wanting to show the disciples again,
that he is the God of the Exodus, that he is the Lord of glory, but in the flesh. And he wants to
assure his disciples and all who would believe that we read in the pages of the Bible that he is
with us, and he will surely fulfill all of his promises just as he did for ancient Israel. But
the disciples don't get it, right? They don't get it. They think he's a ghost. They're terrified. They
cry out in fear. And Jesus comforts them, says, take heart at his eye. Don't be afraid. He
gets in the boat. The wind stops. And Mark tells us actually why they were so afraid in
verse 52, for they did not understand about the lobes, but their hearts were hearted. You see,
if they had understood what Jesus was teaching them and the multitudes in multiplying that food,
they would have known that not only can he feed us, not only can he do impossible things,
but they would have seen from that that Jesus is Lord, that he is Yahweh from the Old Testament,
that he's the one who gave manna from heaven to Israelites in the wilderness. He is the one
who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. He is the one who sent the ten plagues on Egypt
and brought the Israelites into the promised land. He is the Lord of all.
And if they would have made that connection, then what they knew from the Psalms, they could have applied to Jesus.
The Psalms tell the apostles, and it tells us in Psalm 89, the Lord rules over the raging of the sea.
It says in Psalm 93, the Lord on high is mighty, mightier than the waves of the sea.
It says in Psalm 135, the Lord does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps.
So if the apostles had recognized Jesus is the Lord,
they wouldn't have been as shocked, or at least they would have recognized him walking on the water coming to them.
But the encouragement to us is now we know these things.
We are helped by the scriptures and the Holy Spirit to put these puzzle pieces together
that we might know that the Lord of all creation, the Alpha and the Alpha and the Holy Spirit,
Omega, the beginning and the end, the judge of all the earth, is the Lord who comes to us
in our struggles. That when Jesus says, I am with you always even to the end of the age,
he is not promising that we'll have a little invisible friend keeping us company. He is
telling us that he is Yahweh in the flesh, the Lord of all. That is the one who is with us,
who even storms and winds and rains and.
And deep waters who no storm, who nothing can get in his way because he's Lord.
And the Lord comes to you and to me in our worst struggles, in the things where we're paddling and
paddling and paddling and paddling, and we feel like we're getting nowhere at all.
Where our boat feels like it's just sinking and sinking and sinking.
And this could be true for you children, maybe in school or maybe in loneliness, your desire for friendship.
Maybe it could be true.
of you young teens and people in your 20s and in just the season of your life and you
don't know what's next and you feel like you're not going anywhere. This is, this promise that the
Lord is with you and your struggles is true for you, adults either in your singleness or in the
challenges in your marriage, and your health problems and you feel like, where is he? And first
we've seen he sees you and he's praying for you and now we see that he comes to you and he is near
you. And then finally we see point number three.
Jesus, our Savior, rescues his disciples from our struggles.
Jesus, our Savior, rescues his disciples from our struggles.
We see this in the wind ceasing as soon as Jesus gets into the boat,
and we see it again in the virtual whirlwind of healings that occur when Jesus arrives in Gennassarit.
Look with me in verses 53 to 56.
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Ganaseret and Mord.
to the shore. And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and
ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they
heard he was. And wherever he came in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the
marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many
has touched it were made well. Jesus is virtually bursting
in this chapter with redemptive power.
I mean, he's like a nuclear power plan of redemptive power.
Feeding 5,000, walking on the water, going through Ghanceret,
healing dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people.
People who couldn't even make it to Jesus,
they have to be carried there like the man who was lowered down through the roof.
And even if they just touch the fringe of his garment, they are healed.
And so we're given insight into the great paradox of
of Jesus Christ here. On the one hand, he is God with all of the power of God.
He can do anything and everything. Nothing is impossible for him. He is the almighty God.
And yet, at one and the same time, he uses that power in a way that no other human being would.
Never for himself. Never for his good. Never that he might accumulate, population.
or fame or possessions and wealth.
But he has all power and he uses all of it to meet the needs of others, to feed hungry people,
to go out onto the waves of struggling people in a boat not going anywhere, to heal the sick.
This is the heart of God for our world, all powerful and all loving.
This is the heart of God for you.
And we're also given a coming attraction.
of the kingdom of God.
As the kingdom of God comes into our lives, it brings a degree of order and a degree of healing and lots of hope.
But it doesn't heal every problem. As we go on through the New Testament, we don't find
that the Christians who have come to Christ are way more healthier and getting a lot more worldly
success than everyone else. No, actually, you see them struggling and suffering in all kinds of new ways
because they become Christians.
Jesus does not fix all our problems when he comes into our life, but in his miracles,
we have a coming attraction of the world he's created, the world that he's coming back to restore,
that there's going to be a day where there will be no more sickness or suffering or sin or death.
One day when all the world is rightly ordered to His majesty and his will and his will
and his purposes.
There will be no more lack, no more need, no one hungry, Jesus will provide.
There will be a world of love because when we see him, we will be like him, and we will use
all of our abilities and resources, not for ourselves, but to bless others.
This is where the world is headed.
And I want to conclude now with a brief vignette of a man's life, and then my favorite poem.
Francis Thompson was a British medical student in the second half of the 19th century.
So, you know, he lived between 1850 and 1900 right around there.
And he was, he had submitted his final medical exams,
to then become officially a doctor, to his university several times in London.
And each time he failed.
And for a variety of reasons, you know, he felt like a failure.
He laughed.
direction. He knew Christ, but he just began wandering away. And for a variety of reasons,
he ended up getting addicted to opium. And he would go to Sharing Cross where he would, you know,
that's one area of London where he'd acquire his drugs. He would go out in the Thames River where
the other addicts would do their drugs and sleep out there. For three years, he was impoverished
and homeless and living for nothing more than his opium addiction.
And yet, while he was on the streets, while in the midst of his homelessness,
he learned about the heart of God and the salvation that Jesus offers in ways that he never had before.
If you don't know, if you've never heard this poem in No Strange Land by Francis Thompson,
I highly recommend that you look it up.
What this poem is about, it's about.
it's about where God is and how we can look for God in all sorts of ways and in distant places
and thinking maybe if I just get there, maybe if I just look here, maybe I can find God
and it's about the reality that he's not way far and distant when he comes to us,
especially in the very places where we may be running from him or suffering the most.
And so here's Francis Thompson's poem in no strange land.
He writes, he says, O world invisible, we view thee.
O world intangible, we touch thee.
O world unknowable, we know thee, inapprehensible, we know thee.
We clutch thee.
Does a fish soar to find the ocean?
Does an eagle plunge to find the air that we ask
the stars in motion if they have rumor of thee there? Not where the wheeling systems
darken or our benumbed conceiving sores. The drift of pinions would we hearken beats at our own
clay shuttered doors. The angels keep their ancient places. Turn but a stone and start a wing.
Tis ye, tis your estranged faces, which miss the many splendid thing. But when so
sad, thou canst not sadder. Cry, and upon thy so sore loss shall shine the traffic of
Jacob's ladder, pitched between heaven and sharing cross. Yay in the night, my soul, my daughter,
cry, clinging to heaven by the hems, for lo, Christ walking on the water. Not of
Ganaseret, but Thames. What Francis Thompson came to see is that
when he was lost and suffering and sinning and running from God, that God had not shut him out,
that God had not turned the door, turned away from him. But in the very place sharing cross
where he was going each day to buy his drugs, that there Jacob's ladder was, and the angels of God were
ascending and descending and calling him back to God's love and protection and care. And there
where he was doing the drugs and living homeless for all those years on the Thames River.
Even there, Jesus was not far away in knowledge that he had learned in Sunday school as a kid,
was not only on the pages of the Bible, was not only walking on the water of Ganaser
those years ago, but the Lord Jesus Christ had come and was there calling to him in that very place,
and so is he for you and I. Where is God in our struggles? Where is He in our suffering, where we feel
lost alone in so much pain, he is at the right hand of God, and he sees you and he is praying for you.
He comes to you. He draws near to you. Even if you're running from him, he is near you and he loves you.
The Lord of all creation comes to you. And he will, as we trust in him, heal us, rescue us in this life,
in part and in full in the life to come. Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, I beg you,
in your mercy, to burst through the false reality that we think we understood about this world.
With the radical reality of your life and love, burst into our lives, I pray.
That we would know and see and believe that Jesus is Lord and that He comes to us in love.
Oh, Lord, lead us to repentance and faith.
either for the first time today, or as yet another day in the life of faith.
Oh, Lord, make Jesus real to us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
Let's sing our final songs in way of response, and we'll receive an offering.
And it's offerings like this that support the Seelow School and Seelow Church Ministries in Haiti.
Over $20,000 of our budget every year goes out to ministries like this that we support.
God made a theme in our service today.
It was not me, and it was not Pastor Dave, because I had already planned to say this,
but our music, when I choose the music, I often don't know what we're going to be learning about,
what Pastor Dave's going to be preaching about.
Once in a while, he chooses a song.
Most of the time it's me.
This time, it was mostly God.
Anyway, our next song is a familiar.
old hymn, but it has a modern chorus. If you ever want to listen to it, it's by Carrie Job.
But anyway, the chorus says, in you I rest. In you, I find my hope. In you, I trust. You will never
let me go. Psalm 46, verse 10 says, be still and know that I am God. It doesn't say be still.
Just stop there. It says, know that I am God. To me, that not. To me, that not.
Knowledge is a huge sigh of relief. He is God. He is faithful. He knows what's best for us.
His timing is perfect, and we can rest in that.
Let it bring you peace.
Rely on him. He loves us and he is in control. So rest.
Will you stand? Let's think together.
You'll join us downstairs after the service to greet one another for fellowship, for refreshments.
We have our final Sunday school. Last I heard for the children following at 1145.
And if there's anyone who would like prayer, I would love to pray for you right down here after the service.
Just come on up and tell me how you'd like me to pray. And I'd love to pray for you.
Receive this benediction as you go.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
flood our lives and drown out all that is unclean and unbelieving and foreign to you, Lord.
And may it restore us, may these things restore to us true life.
In Jesus' name, amen.