Please turn in your Bibles to our Old Testament lesson, which is found in the book of Job. Turn to the middle where Psalms are and back up until you reach Job. We're going to read Job chapter 9. Job chapter 9, now hear the word of our God. Then Job answered and said, Truly I know that it is so but how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with Him, one could not answer Him once in a thousand times. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength who has hardened himself against Him and succeeded. He who removes mountains and they know it not when He overturns them in His anger, who shakes the earth out of place and its pillars tremble, who commands the sun and it does not rise, who seals up the stars, who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea, Who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the Chambers of the South? Who does great things beyond searching out and marvelous things beyond number? Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not. He moves on, but I do not perceive him. Behold, he snatches away. Who can turn him back? Who will say to him, what are you doing? God will not turn back his anger. Beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him. I must appeal for mercy to my judge. If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause. He will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty. If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me. Though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. I am blameless. I regard not myself, I loathe my life. It is all one, therefore I say, he destroys both the blameless and the wicked. When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not he, who then is it? My days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good. They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey. If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and be of good cheer. I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent. I shall be condemned. Why then do I labor in vain? If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, yet you will plunge me into a pit and my own clothes will abhor me. For he is not a man as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on us both. Let him take away his rod from me. Let him not dread of him, terrify me. Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. This is the word of our God. Did you hear Job's question at the very beginning? How can a man be in the right before God? It's a good question. Can anyone stand before God and make a case for their righteousness? Job certainly doesn't, even though if there's anybody who could, it would certainly be him. God told Satan in chapter one of this book that there was no one on earth like Job. Job is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and turns away from evil. We readers know this because we get this behind-the-scenes look at the heavenly council going on. Actually, the scene where God singles out Job for Satan's attack and sets this story of Job's trials into motion. In what is a death blow to health and wealth prosperity preaching, Job's faithfulness is actually a catalyst for why his life gets flipped entirely over. In a blink of an eye, he loses everything. All his possessions, gone. All his children, dead. And to add salt to the wounds he's now covered from head to toe in painful boils. Clueless Job is left here trying to figure out why God has placed a bullseye on him. But despite being innocent, Job knows that a man can make no case with God. How can Job challenge the one who, he says in verse eight, alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea, who made the bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south, who does great things beyond searching out and marvelous things beyond number? Job's problem is the same as ours. Even if you are as righteous as Job, which you're not. Men of dust cannot make demands upon the one who has fashioned the entire universe. God's power and wisdom in our world are beyond our searching. This is why Job says in verse 11, behold, he passes me by and I see him not. He moves on, but I do not perceive him. Note, Job is convinced that God must be present right here in the roughest of waters. So he looks around to find God, but he finds that he is blind as God passes by him. At the end, Job concludes the problem is that God is not a man. Verse 32, for he is not a man as I am that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us who might lay his hands on both. Job recognizes the only possible solution, pre-remarkable for his day, which must have seemed completely impossible. Job, a blameless and upright man enduring torment in this life, sees the only hope of one being right before God would have to come from one able to bridge this infinite gap between men of dust and the glorious creator. And this is your only hope as you face all the miseries of life. I hear a lot of coughing going on out there. This is a minor one, but this is our only hope in all of the miseries of this life, including our impending death. Your hope is not that God will ignore your sin or be so impressed by your good works. Your only hope is Emmanuel, God with us, a gift given to us on the first Christmas. God is a gracious God who sent his only begotten Son, Jesus our Lord. Jesus was fully God, but he lowered himself and took up residence in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became man like us, so that he could pay for all of our sins in the greatest act of love in human history, being stretched out on that cross, bleeding and dying for all of our sins. And on that first day of the week, this day, he was raised from the dead, he conquered death, and he has returned to the Father, and he has now sent the Spirit to help us. This is the gospel. Gospel 101 will never get past it in this life. Something that we have that Job could only dream of in his day. We now have an arbiter who can lay his nail-pierced hands on both of us and God the Father. And I think I would like to hear some more about this Savior who came to grace us so. How about you? Amen. Well, let's please turn our Bibles to our New Testament sermon text from Mark chapter 6. We're going to be starting in verse 45. Mark chapter 6. This comes on the heels of Jesus feeding the 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. Mark chapter six, starting in verse 45. Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side to Bethsaida 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 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, 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 were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored 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 as touched it were made well." This is the Word of our God. Let us pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we come to you this night And we pray that you might calm all our fears, soften our hearts, and open our eyes to see your presence in all the details of our lives. Help us to believe the gospel, that we might understand and see the true bread who's come down from heaven, even our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. In our last sermon on Mark, we saw the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 people Now, Jesus first challenged his disciples to feed the people. And you remember them bucking at this? They saw that they did not have the resources or the ability. But Jesus made them step out in faith anyways, which had to be pretty daunting. Can you imagine 5,000 people sitting out in groups, looking at you and waiting to be fed? And do you know that all you have is five loaves and two fishes? And after blessing your sack lunch, Jesus says, hey, start passing it out. You'd be expecting that in about one minute there's going to be five happy people and 4,995 who are really hangry. But you obey Jesus and you see the food keeps coming. And at the end, everybody there has a full belly and there's plenty to spare. Jesus is challenging his disciples to believe that he is the Lord The Good Shepherd actually that we've just sang about in Psalm 23 as he set them out on grassy fields But more and this is key Jesus is showing them that he was beginning a new exodus a new exodus Providing bread for all who would follow him in the wilderness They could trust that Jesus was going to provide all that they needed going forward And I ended that last sermon with a question for you. And I asked, what would it mean if you believe from the top of your head all the way to your toes, if you believe that King Jesus was able and willing to provide you all that you needed in this life for every single trial and more, that every trial that he sent your way was him preparing you for heaven, for the promised land? How would you think about yourself and your life if you believe that with all your heart? That question was handed to us, and then we had to leave here and go back out into the world. And I don't doubt that we found that our belief in Jesus got tested. It's actually the same scene we find here in Mark. The disciples just witnessed Jesus' power to care for them in the wilderness. Then Jesus challenges them to take that faith out into the world. They probably wanted to stay here. Come on, Jesus, we could just stay here. We got 5,000 big-time supporters of you. We could start our own wilderness commune, you know, with you providing for all of our needs. It'd be great. But verse 45 says, immediately, Jesus sent them out on a boat. Jesus pushes them out on a boat and he's not even going with them. Jesus is sending them to Bethsaida. This is a place in Gentile land, full of Gentile and believers. Jesus is sending them out into the hard world by themselves. Have you ever left church on a Sunday and felt like this? You got fed, you got really encouraged by the Word, by the sacrament, by the prayers. And then you're left here to go face next week. And Monday morning, you're like a balloon, deflating, as all your hope just gets crushed out of you. Some of us here, we face physical sufferings, difficulties in home life, circumstances. For others, it's a nonstop barrage of bad thoughts that just come to your head all the time. Perhaps words and looks from others leave you despairing. How many of us face unrealistic expectations from people in our lives? And as all this encouragement leaks out of our balloon, despair or temptation comes, life screams for relief, building pressure to look at or indulge in things you shouldn't. When these tests come, do you ever scream, where are you Jesus right now for me? I want to believe in your compassion for me and your power to help me. But this world is unbearable and I don't know how long I can take it. Why did you place me here with these difficult tests? Well, Mark shows us that we're not the first to feel this way. The disciples really get you here. Jesus sent them out in a boat and they're trying to be faithful, right? And actually we talked about in a previous boat trip how the sea itself, it symbolizes the domain of the false gods, the raging of the nations. This is where Jesus sent them and they are being tortured right now. Verse 48 says, they were making headway painfully for the wind was against them. But the Greek verb here, it means tortured or tormented. Mark is showing that obeying and trusting Jesus can be torture in this world. My first one is to see that Jesus did not send us out alone, because he didn't send out the disciples alone. Even as we head our separate ways tonight, Jesus put us all in the same boat together. Being a baptized member in the church means you've been enlisted in Jesus' navy. In fact, do you know that this part of the building is called the nave, from which we get the word navy. So even as we go our separate ways tonight, We need to be together in our struggle to navigate through the waters of this life, reaching out to and praying for one another. I've talked with some of you this week who've been rowing your hearts out, trusting Jesus in your situation and trying hard to do what he's called you to do. And you've been at it a long time, like these disciples. They left before evening because that's when Jesus goes out and checks on their progress and sees they haven't made any headway. which means, and Jesus doesn't go out until the fourth watch of the night, which means they're still rowing at sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. This is a sleepless night. They're in literal darkness, so tired their arms are ready to fall off, being tormented by the pressures of this world and not making any progress at all. How many of them do you think were saying, what was Jesus thinking when he sent us out here? And where is he now? Mark told us Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. And we see the Exodus motif here again because Moses went up on the mountain as well. What we see here is that it is really important that Jesus pray for his disciples. It's more important that he pray for them than he physically be with them. This remains true today as well. We need Jesus to be praying for us as we face the problems of this world, because the prayers of the incarnate Christ are our only hope and our only help. I wasn't actually planning on making this a Christmas sermon, but the importance of Jesus coming in our flesh is what this text is all about. Hebrews 2.17 tells us, therefore he, Jesus, had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Jesus, who is fully God, had to be made like us in every respect so that he could become our arbiter. The one who had the power to make sinful men right with God, but it doesn't stop just with the atonement. Jesus is ever ready and able to help us when we're suffering, when we're tempted to sin, when we're struggling in the darkness to still believe. And how does he do that? by being a high priest who never, never stops praying for his people. Hebrews 7.24 then says, Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Do you see what the good word says to us here? Mark's picture of Jesus up on the mountain is what is happening in heaven right now. If we could peek into heaven right now, do you know what we would see? We would see our forever priest nonstop praying for you and I and every other saint, for all of God's people, which is the best news ever because he's able to save to the uttermost. I like that word uttermost, do you? Because there are days I look at myself and all my mess and I need a savior who can save me to the uttermost. I know that you need a savior who can save you to the uttermost. And we can be assured that our high priest will save all those who come to him to the uttermost. Because he always lives, always lives to make intercession for them. Jesus always lives to pray for you. When it dawned on me that Jesus is always praying, that changed my prayer life. I get on my knees and I go to God confidently praying in the name of Jesus, because I know that praying in Jesus' name means I am not a condemned sinner praying by myself. As Paul says in Romans 8, 34, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised? Who is at the right hand of God? Who indeed is interceding for us? Paul is in the middle of launching us into the stratosphere to try and explain God's amazing love. And what convinces Paul of God's love is that Jesus came and died for us, that he was raised to the right hand of the Father, but his clinching argument is what Jesus is doing right now. Paul says, indeed, and he's throwing indeed in there because it's so shocking, but it's so true. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father with his eyes fixed on our boat. And he's ever asking the Father to provide everything we need as we press on in this life. And God always answers Jesus' prayers for us. Though, we need to see Jesus is sometimes praying for something different than we are. You see, Jesus is not praying for this windy night to stop torturing the disciples. Because we know that Jesus could have just said the word and made it stop. He's done that before, just earlier in this book. I think Jesus is praying that they grow in their faith in him, that they come to an end of trusting in themselves. At least four of his disciples are sailors who probably thought, hey, we can do this boat trip. Peter and the Sons of Thunder are probably getting pretty frustrated by now because they're not moving at all. They're yelling at these fellows, come on, we've been on the water for 30 years. Come on, put your backs into it. Come on, we can get across. This trial was given so that they'd come to the conclusion that they do not have the resources to do life on their own. Jesus is praying that they come to an end of themselves and believe in his person and not theirs. So I think why Jesus waits until the fourth watch of the night when it's as bad as it can get. And he comes to them walking on the sea. Jesus comes walking on the sea. Do you get this picture? This is glory here. This is a picture of glory. Do you see that all the problems, just put a few in your head, all the problems you face in this world, whatever it is that has left you despairing or frustrated, your King Jesus just walks over them like they're nothing. Is that not wonderful? Do you see what King Jesus wants his disciples to see here? Which explains that surprising statement found at the end of verse 48. He meant to pass them by. On the surface, it's kind of shocking that Jesus intends to do a drive-by here while they're all out there struggling. But Jesus wants his disciples to see what Moses once saw on the mountain. Remember in Exodus 34, when Moses asked to see God's glory? God said, hey, my glory is way too much for the man Moses. So he put him in that cleft in the rock. And he said, I would just pass by and just give you a little bit of my backside glory. That's all you can handle. And God spoke these words, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus is passing by these disciples because he wants them to see the glory of God. The presence of their gracious God in the middle of this mess they're in. And he wants them to see that this glory is found in his person. Jesus is showing them that He is God, God in the flesh. And He has been progressively revealing this for some time now in Mark, and they just don't get it. He showed them that He was the Lord of nature by calming that first violent storm on the sea when they thought they were going to die. He showed them that He was Lord over all Satan's hordes, defeating an entire legion of Satan's army. He was Lord over death. He raised up a little girl by the hand. And now in the feeding of the 5,000 and this vision of him trampling the waves, Jesus wanted them to see that the glory of God had come in his person, that he was beginning a new and better exodus for the people of God. What do the disciples see? They mistake God's presence for a ghost and start freaking out. Instead of believing in God and being encouraged by the glory that Moses once saw, they act like they're as blind as Job, even though God himself is walking right in front of them, crystal clear. They have more faith that Caspar the ghost has come to haunt them than that the good shepherd who just fed them and sent them out here is watching over them and wants them to see he's with them. This is sad. I tremble to think how many times I've left church with every reason to believe Jesus, and then spent the whole week taking in all these untruths, being scared by the very things God set before me to build my faith. How many times does God's presence go unrecognized by us or just misunderstood? When tough circumstances or challenging people enter into our lives, how often is it that our first thought is, wonderful, this is means by which I can see God's glory. How I can see new doors being opened, see His glory. How often is our first response to despair and believe lies? How often are we just hard-hearted and hard-headed like these disciples? You see that Jesus' prayer for his disciples did not yet get answered. Praise God, Jesus does not look at us and just keep walking. Jesus does not say, really, are you freaking out again? Really, do you not still trust in me and that I care for you? No, this is exactly what we saw in that hungry crowd. Jesus' first impulse when he sees us in all our mess is compassion. His first impulse. Jesus sees trembling disciples and he says, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And Mark wants us to see that Jesus doesn't hesitate. Verse 50, but immediately, He spoke to them and said, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. Immediately Jesus shows them his compassion and then he gives them reason for every confidence in the world. That second sentence, which is translated, it is I, it's ego me in the Greek, which means I am. I am. Jesus wants them to see that the one walking on the water is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then he wants them to see clearly that he is fully man, just like them. Verse 51, and he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob got into the boat with man. That is what Christmas is all about. Emmanuel, God with us. God's people were making no progress in this life, were unable to right the ship. And then joy to the world, the second person of the Godhead got into the boat with us. And you see what happens at that very moment, the wind ceases. Jesus coming brings peace to our world. That is what is good news. We're not saved because we row so hard because we're making progress. We're saved because the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We need to be amazed by this each and every day, but we've got to go further. You see, the disciples are amazed that Jesus got in the boat with them. Verse 51, He got in the boat with them and the wind ceased, and they were utterly astounded. But they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hearted. The disciples are utterly astounded at this. But they did not understand the loaves because their hearts were hearted. And heart should be singular here, actually. They all have one heart in not understanding the loaves. They're proving to be just like the sinful wilderness generation we sang about in Psalm 95 at the start of our worship. That first generation of Israel had been brought out of Egyptian slavery. They had seen the mighty works of God in the wilderness. They refused to hear God's voice and follow His way through the trials. They refused to believe that He was leading them to the promised land to restoration. God shows His love for them and His power. But as soon as a trial like lack of water, lack of food comes, they shrivel up in despair. They get angry and they accuse Moses of bringing them out of Egypt to die. And they want to go back because Egypt was an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord. The question we need to ask ourselves is, do we understand the loaves or are our hearts hard? The way to get at that is to look at our response in the trials of life. When the heat comes, do we remember what God has done in sending Jesus and start looking for his glory then in the situation? Or do we tremble in fear and start looking longingly back to the slavery of this world? We trust that in the trial, God wants to set us free from wrong desires, that he wants to refine us as we follow our good shepherd. If not, you need to hear Jesus' voice again. Take heart. I am. Do not be afraid. And then believe that trials are for your good and that you might see his glory. You see that Jesus has been watching over these disciples the whole time, wanting and praying that they will step out in faith. He actually wants them to take the good news to the unbelieving Gentiles, who eventually he'll get to and start feeding them in the same way, in another miraculous feeding. But the disciples show they're not ready for that yet. So patient Jesus gets in the boat with them, and he takes them to Israelite territory instead. to give them a picture lesson of how absurd their faith, their lack of faith in Him really is. Verse 53, When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored 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 marketplace and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well. The disciples did not recognize Jesus as he passed by. And here in Gennesaret, they find countless Jews who immediately recognize Jesus. Faith in Jesus is the norm for folks in Gennesaret. They go bananas believing that Jesus can heal them of any and all their diseases. Well, the sad thing is they're only focused on the healings. But I don't think Mark or Jesus are showing us this is a bad thing. in contrast to the hard-hearted and hard-headed disciples. These folks are recognizing and coming to Jesus, believing in His power, believing in His love for them. People here, like the woman of chapter 5, who heard the reports about Jesus and believed just a touch of His garment as He passed her by, would be glory. That woman and these people see the glory of Christ. Sure, belief in garment instead of in Jesus indicates a level of ignorance. But like faith, that cloth does connect hurting people to a mighty Christ. It's like faith. And that last line, as many as touched it were healed, it actually could be translated saved as well. We're seeing that Jesus helps people who come to him for all the wrong reasons. simply because they're coming to Him and believing in Him, that He can do something for them and wants to. There's so much good news in these seeds. Because how many of us have come to church with all the wrong motivations, and yet Jesus, the mighty Christ, still lays His nail-pierced hands on us, that we might be healed, that we might be saved. How many of us leave church well-fed, inspired, By morning, we let this world pour its concrete into our hearts. So we stop believing that Jesus is watching over us and praying for us at that very moment. And yet, here we are once again, and you're hearing the voice of your patient King, saying to you once again, take heart, Messianic covenant. I am. Do not be afraid. I want to close with a few thoughts. I want us to remember what season we're in, and I want us to remember where we are located. Perhaps it would help if we christened ourselves tonight the USS Advent. Perhaps it'd be a good name for a church plant. Nah, just kidding. As those made right with God, Jesus has sent us out on a mission to the world. And one of the guys on that boat, Peter, later wrote a letter to Christians facing trials in life. And he said this, you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do his work and to speak out for him, to tell others of the night and day difference he made for you, from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. Friends, This world is not your home, so don't make yourselves cozy in it. Don't indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they'll be won over to God's side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives. We are one day closer to the arrival of King Jesus. So as those chosen by God, we're to be telling natives, winning them over in this season of anticipation by our holy living. Telling others what God has done for us in Jesus and by resisting temptations and despair as the inevitable trials of life come at us. Peter says we do this by remembering who we are and who we belong to. We're those. chosen by the high priest for the high calling of our own priestly work in our day, which means we are to be praying during this Advent season with a specific focus during this time of preparation, this time of trials. Please hear this. This means that we can pray that God will take away the trials. We can pray that God will give us endurance to handle the trials. And we can pray for Christ's returning glory. Yes and amen, pray for all of those things. But I want us to challenge us to consider praying this. Heavenly Father, let Jesus pass me by. Heavenly Father, give me eyes to see his glory in this darkness. perhaps offer a supplication that before God takes that trial away, that please just have Jesus first come and get in the boat with us just for a minute because we prefer a little communion with him now before him bringing peace in the midst of this trial. Discovering Emmanuel, seeing the glory of heaven come alive is a better blessing. because God-given trials are meant to give us eyes to see that future that God has in store for us, which is far more than we could ever ask or imagine. And I ask you to consider Job. I'll land the plane with a quote from someone who understands trials much better than the preacher. Joni Eareckson Tada, a woman sentenced to a lifetime of paralysis, who's really suffering right now. Hear her reflection. on seeing God's glory in the trial. I was humbled by this. Nothing more radically altered the way I looked at my suffering than leapfrogging to this end of time vantage point. When God sent a broken neck my way, he blew out the lamps in my life that lit up the here and now and made it so captivating. The dark despair of total and permanent paralysis that followed wasn't much fun, but it sure made heaven come alive. And one day when my bridegroom comes back, perhaps when I'm in the middle of lying down on my office sofa for the umpteenth time, God is going to throw open heaven's shutters. There's not one doubt in my mind that I'll be fantastically more excited and ready for it than if I were on my feet. In the meantime, suffering hurries my heart homeward. Let us pray. Gracious Father, we come to you, and we come to you with thankful hearts for what you have done in sending Jesus. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your words of comfort to us, and we also thank you We're not praying alone right now, that you are praying with us, that you're on your knees, that you're watching over us through all of our trials, all of our temptations, praying us into heaven. We give you thanks for this, Lord Jesus. And we thank you for your spirit, who's at work in our hearts right now, who gives us the power to endure when temptations and trials come. Heavenly Father, we long to see Jesus' glory. We're about to leave this place and head out into our lives, and you only know what awaits us. and you're sending us out there nonetheless. So we ask and pray that you give us faith in Jesus, in his person, in what he's come to do and what he will bring to completion in our lives. We pray you help us to see his glory. And Lord Jesus, we ask and pray that you might show us that you're in the boat with us, that we need not fear, we need not be afraid. Have mercy on us now, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.