Good morning. Good morning. It's great to be with you today. I really enjoyed the worship this morning. It was glorious. The worship team just did a spectacular job. I love to worship. It's my favorite thing to do. I love the liturgy. The liturgy is what shapes us and forms us and reforms us. You know, we come, we lift our hands, we lift our voices, we listen, we stand, we sit, and we praise God with, you know, all of our bodies. And that motion, as it were, shapes our lives. It redirects our desires towards their ultimate object, which is God. And we all need that every week, right? We need that every single week. You know, we come, we worship, and the motion of worship. You know, a lot of times people will say, you know, it seems like the church just goes through the motions. as if that's a bad thing. But it's actually a good thing, right? Going through the motions is a good thing. There isn't anything we do in our lives that is meaningful, purposeful, and life-changing, as it were, that doesn't require going through the motions. You can't play a musical instrument, you can't be good at sports, you can't be good at anything, right? Unless you practice it. And that's why we call worship a practice. It's the practice of worship. And it's going through the motions, and going through the motions is good. standing, sitting, kneeling, raising our hands, listening, talking, and yes, even smelling, all of our senses are involved and engaged in worship. And that, more than anything else, the wholeness of worship rather than the individual parts of worship is what actually changes us, shapes us, and makes us into the kind of people that God wants us to be. So I love it. I absolutely love it. It's my favorite thing to do. I can come in to a worship service with all kinds of attitudes and feelings and thoughts and whatever else might have happened during the week and then you come in and you hear that worship and you participate in that worship and it does something to you and it's glorious. It redirects our desires to their ultimate object which is God. And there's a lot of things to celebrate today, right? This is Reformation Sunday, you know, where we trace our heritage back to the 17th century, right? And we look fondly upon our great heritage, our great Reformed heritage and the doctrines of grace. And how sorely we need the doctrines of grace today. But the, you know, Reformation isn't the only thing we're celebrating today. Actually, if you look on the church calendar today, you would find out that we are still in the season of Pentecost. This is the season of Pentecost. Pentecost is one of the great feasts of the church. And oftentimes, Protestants, those who trace their heritage from a Reformed perspective, oftentimes we'll celebrate Christmas. We'll celebrate Easter. That is, we'll celebrate the birth and the incarnation of Jesus Christ. We'll celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we forget about Pentecost. And yet, none of that is possible. There aren't any other celebrations in the Christian year that are even possible without Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit makes everything else possible. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no incarnation and birth of Jesus Christ. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There's no ascension, there's no session, there's no second coming, there's no church, there's no us, there's no redemption. There's no justification, sanctification, adoption, or glorification without the Holy Spirit. So Pentecost is an amazingly important time for us to celebrate. There's lots of things to celebrate today. We celebrate our Reformed heritage. We're celebrating the season of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, which we all need. for living. So I just wanted to mention that and think about that as we enter into the reading and preaching of God's holy word. Think about those two things, our reformed heritage, and that we are now in the season of the Holy Spirit. Now stand with me, if you would, please. As David mentioned, I might change my text, and I will. I'm going to be reading from the Gospel of Mark. chapter four, verses 35 through 41-ish. Here God's good word. On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us 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 windstorm arose. And the waves were breaking in the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on a cushion. And they woke him. And they said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke. And he rebuked the wind and the sea. And he said, 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? Heavenly Father, we do give You thanks and praise for Your glorious Word, for the glorious seasons that we celebrate today, for Your guiding and keeping the church, keeping your people, Lord. And we thank you for the word of God, which is sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing between the soul and the spirit, the bone and the marrow, the thoughts and the intents of the heart. We pray, Father, that it would have its way with us this morning. And we ask this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. You may be seated. I like to read biographies. And, in fact, if I'm having a rough time, biographies are my way out of that rough time often. I've read two biographies about Winston Churchill, and I'm always amazed by this guy, you know? What a character. On December 7th, of 1941, those who were dining with Winston Churchill said that he was in a particularly somber and sad mood. And no one wanted to talk. No one wanted to speak. No one wanted to break the silence. And they just sat there. And then suddenly, Churchill stood up He walked over to the wireless radio. He switched it on. And through the static, they began to hear something about the Japanese bombing somewhere. But they couldn't hear it through the static. And someone said in the room, that the Japanese, they thought they heard, that the Japanese had just bombed the Pearl River. Now the Pearl River is in the Far East. It's the largest river in China. And it's near the interest of the British Empire, namely Singapore on the one hand and Hong Kong on the other. And Churchill had been scared to death that the Japanese were going to attack those two places, and that he was defenseless to do anything. He had spent the last several weeks chasing the Japanese, trying to find out where the Japanese fleet was. And he couldn't find them, not even a whisper about them. And then suddenly, the static kind of cleared, and they heard that the Japanese had bombed the Americans at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. And Churchill said to his aide, he said, get me the President on the phone. Now, Churchill had been trying to build this relationship with President Roosevelt and trying to get him to get involved in the war for years. Really he had courted favor with him since 1939. And often to no avail. And so he would send him telegrams, he would send him messages, he would make telephone calls. Sometimes they would be answered and sometimes they wouldn't. And Churchill finally said, give me the president on the phone. He called the president, the president answered the phone. And he said to President Roosevelt, he said, Mr. President, what is this about the Japanese? And he said, yes, it's true. They've bombed us in Pearl Harbor. And then he said these words, we're all in the same boat now. Beloved, regarding storms, we're all in the same boat. as Christians, as the church, as the people of God, you and I and all of our brothers and sisters around the world are all in the same boat. In this story that Mark tells about Jesus calming the storm, he says that they had left when evening had come to cross to the other side, and leaving the crowd, they took him with him in a boat. Now, I want to submit to you this morning that the boat is the church. The church fathers are almost unanimous about that, that the boat is the church. He takes the disciples with him, the 12 disciples, right, that have been with him all day as he's been teaching, And those 12 disciples are a sign of the new Israel. So this is the church. The church is the boat. And I want to submit to you this morning that there are basically, for us, as the people of God, three possibilities. We are either in the calm before the storm, or we are in the storm or we are in the calm after the storm. Those are basically the three positions that we will experience as the church. There's the calm before the storm, there's the storm, and then there's the calm after the storm. And what I want to see is that, the first thing that Mark wants us to see is that this story is basically ecclesial. That is, it's about the church. We talked about our Reformation heritage and how special and unique that is because it emphasizes all the doctrines of grace. In your bulletin this morning, there's an insert, right, that lists the five solas of what we call the doctrines of grace. And they're wonderful and they're beautiful. But I have to say something this morning. If the reformers were alive today, right, Martin Luther and John Calvin and Zwingli and the other reformers, if they were alive today, I think they would have six solas and not five. And the sixth sola would be sola ecclesia, the church alone. It's almost as if The church has been forgotten. Its importance has been forgotten. Its emphasis has been forgotten. The church is what God uses to accomplish everything that he accomplishes on this earth. And so the church is of utmost importance. And I want to recover the importance of the church. And here we see the church, is on the sea, right? Leaving the crowd, they took him with them in a boat, just as he was, and other boats were with him, and a great windstorm arose, right? So the boat is on the sea. This is the calm before the storm. And sometimes that's where we are in life, right? We're in the calm before the storm. And we can almost develop the mentality that Things are pretty good, right? We've got it pretty good. And then we live our lives. No storm is coming, but storms come. It's not a matter of if they will come. It's only a matter of when they will come. The storm is going to come. It always does. And so the disciples are in the calm before the storm. But then the wind comes up. And I don't have time this morning to get into all the topographical and geographical conditions that make these kinds of storms possible on the Sea of Galilee. But it happens. It happens even today. These storms come up quickly. And they catch you by surprise. These are experienced fishermen. And these storms come up quickly. But what I want you to see is that this is ecclesial. This is about the church and the church is facing the storm. And he says, the second thing I want you to see is that it's creational. It's creational, it's ecclesial, that is about the church. It's creational, that is, it's about what God is doing to recreate the world. And he says, leaving the crowd, they took him in the boat, just as he was, and other boats with him, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking in the boat, so that the boat was already filling. Now, in the Jewish mind, What you have to understand is that they were terrified of the sea. The sea is the most terrifying thing, right? The springs and the rivers, right? That's the place where every Jew wants to be. That's the place of blessing, okay? But the sea is a place of horror, a place of terror. And every Jew was afraid of the sea. And notice what Mark does, okay? There's something very subtle that as you're looking at the story, reading the story, that happens, that you can sort of miss exactly what Mark is doing. He says, on that day, and he goes out of his way to point this out, on that day when evening had come, and they're on the sea. Mark wants us to think Genesis 1 here. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was formless and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. What Mark wants us to think about here is that primordial deep that existed at the beginning of the creation. And here again, when evening had come. right, they're on the sea. This is that primordial darkness before God does his creating work. And now what he's doing on this sea, and by the way, the reason why this is, you know, the Sea of Galilee is not even a sea, okay, it's a lake, and it's not even a big lake, right? So the sea is obviously symbolic here. It's a true story, but there is also symbolism going on here. And so he wants us to envision here, right, those waters before the creation of the world, because the one who is going to recreate it is in the boat. And so he says, they were on the boat, and a windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling, but he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him. And they said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? You know, when the storm comes, it's not a time for long prayers, right? When the storm comes, it's not a time for long prayers. When the storm comes, what we need is a short prayer, right? A prayer that you can actually get out in the midst of a storm. in the midst of a crisis, in the midst of a tragedy, in the midst of grief, in the midst of loss, in the midst of pain and suffering and death. You need a short prayer. And that's what they're doing. This is basically a prayer. And in fact, in the other Gospels, when you read the story of the other Gospels, they use every name that they can for Christ. Teacher, master, lord, rabbi. They're calling him anything they can get out. Teacher, master, lord, rabbi. Don't you care? And you know, when you're in the storm sometimes, it feels like he doesn't care. When you're in the storm, sometimes it's hard to believe that he cares. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Recently, I've been studying the Desert Fathers in Egypt, and they have a prayer that they used. It's a short prayer. It's a good prayer for storms. It goes like this. Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Now as I thought about that, One, that's a nice short prayer that we can get out at almost any time, no matter what's happening. But it's also one of the most theologically sound prayers that I have ever read next to the Lord's prayer. Think about that for a minute. Lord, the one who has complete authority over everything, over all of creation. Right? He has complete authority. He's in control. He has the power. Right? Authority, control, and he is present with us. All of that is intertwined in that one word, Lord. Authority, control, and presence. That's what Lord means. Right? All of that is incorporated into the idea of Lord. Lord Jesus, the one who saves, right? Jesus is the one who saves. Jesus is salvation. He's the one who saves. Lord Jesus, Son of God, God the Son, have mercy on us, a sinner. You know, the papers are full. of people crying out for justice. The news is full of people crying out for justice. We want justice for everything today. We see injustice everywhere. But sometimes I just don't get it. I don't know about you, but when I'm in a storm, last thing I want is justice. What I want, what I need, is mercy. Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. It's a beautiful prayer. Another prayer that made it into the liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer, right, is another short prayer. It's a perfect storm prayer, right? It's, oh God, make haste to help me. O Lord, speed to save me. O God, make haste to help me, O Lord, speed to save me. These are good storm prayers. And so the disciples come and they say, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? It's a kind of prayer. And you know, we live in a world that's full of storms. You look at the Middle East and you look at what ISIS is doing across the Middle East, right? It's a major storm for Christianity. And we're in the same boat as they are, right? We're in the same boat with Christians that are being persecuted. The first week of November is the day that we have prayer for the persecuted church, okay? All across the world, prayer for the persecuted church. Why? Because we are in the same boat. These people are paying the ultimate price for their belief, for their Christianity. They're being beheaded. They're being crucified. They're being raped. They're being tortured. They're being turned into sex slaves. You name it, it's happening to them. And what we need to realize is that we are all in the same boat as them. Not long ago, we saw in South Carolina, right? A guy goes into a prayer meeting, he sits down and prays with the people at a church, and then 30 minutes later, after praying with these people, he stands up and murders them all. You know, the thing about storms is that they come up without you expecting it. They come when you least expect it, right? And all of a sudden, major storm comes. There it is. About two months ago, I went over to a friend's house for dinner. And he said, I have to tell you some bad news. He said one of our colleagues went out for a bike ride. He's a pastor in Florida, in the PCA. He said he went out for a bike ride. He had a heart attack. No one found him. Now he's got traumatic brain injury. because of a lack of oxygen to his brain. Just like that. Storms come out of nowhere. And all of a sudden, life is never the same again. And so they just come up. They come out of nowhere. Teacher, master, rabbi, do you not care that we are perishing? And then it says, and he awoke. And he rebuked the wind and the sea. Now that word awoke actually means he rose up. And again, the language here is the language of resurrection. Christ is asleep in the stern on a pillow. It's like a reminder of the story of Jonah. who's asleep over the top of a watery grave. And Jesus is asleep over the primordial chaos of the old creation of the watery grave. And then he rises up in newness of life. And he speaks to the waves. And he speaks to the sea. And he says, peace, be still. And they were. And the wind ceased, and there was great calm. And then they said, he said to them, why are you so afraid? Now this is absolutely perplexing to me, what Jesus says, absolutely perplexing to me. I have to tell you, I don't get it. I don't understand it. Why are you so afraid? Listen people, is there any other appropriate human response? Right? Is there any other appropriate human response? They're on the sea in a, they're in a 20 footer, okay? They're in a 20 footer with a major cyclone, hurricane, storm. This is Patricia for them. Is there any other human response that's appropriate in this situation? I don't understand. Why are you so, of course we're afraid. What else would we be? Why are you so afraid? And then this, this really blows me away. Have you still no faith? Are you kidding me? What was that? Who did they go to? Who did they call for? Who did they ask and who did they believe could fix this? They went to Jesus. They believed in Jesus. Is that not faith? What else would you call it? It's perplexing. Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And I think what it is, is Jesus is saying, can you trust me when I'm non-responsive? Can you trust me when I'm asleep? Can you trust me when I don't immediately intervene into the storms that you are going through in your life. It's not just can you trust me when you see me speak to the creation and the creation obeys. It's can you trust me when you can't hear me? When you can't see me? Can you trust me when I don't intervene the way you would like me to intervene? And then he says, and they were filled with great fear." Now this is great fear, right? They were afraid, now great fear. The word for storm is actually super storm, mega storm, okay? The word here for fear is super fear, mega fear. But notice that they are more afraid after the storm than they are during the storm, okay? The calm after the storm is more terrifying than the storm itself. Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? They were filled with great fear. The calm after the storm, more fearful than the storm itself. Indeed, right? Who is this? Who is this? Who is it that even the wind and the sea obey Him? This is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. And the only appropriate response for us is, Lord, Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.