to do. Well, I don't know where Pastor Decker is, where is he at? Oh, he's right there hobbling down the stairs. He said this morning, as he was getting ready to leave, he says it's been kind of a theme on who God is, and he had no idea. In fact, this morning I told him I was kind of wrestling over what to preach, and I had a couple things on my mind, and I told him about one thing I thought about preaching, but God kept directing me this way, and it was right along with what he just said. This is not our main text, but I want you to listen as I read this verse, and it'll kind of set us up for the message, but in Psalm 89, verse nine, it says this, thou rulest the raging of the sea. When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. You know, that's obviously Old Testament, it's obviously the Psalms, it was Scripture, the disciples had all probably read that many, many times, and so you'd think that they would know, But you know, disciples don't know everything either. And you would think, by the way, that we know, but the reality is this, we don't always know, and even when we do know, we still don't pay much attention. Come on now, y'all with me this morning? We don't always pay attention, even when we're supposed to know things, and so the disciples were the same way. So with the Lord's help this morning, I wanna preach on this topic, Whom Say Ye That I Am. Who is he? Who's the Lord? Who's Jesus? Who's God? We say we know, but do we really know? And we know, like the disciples, it says he's the one that stills the sea, but they weren't paying any attention, and we know that from the text we're gonna look at this morning. And we know that the Lord is always with us, and we know that he answers prayer, he knows that he helps us and encourages us, even when there's crazy COVID going on, and even when our nation is upside down, and even when life is in turmoil. But we don't pay any attention either, do we? That's why we find ourselves all stressed out and worried and frustrated in the midst of a storm, but God is God. Whom say you that I am? Let's ask the Lord for his help this morning. I'll give you the main text and we'll get started. Heavenly Father, thank you for today. Lord, I thank you for this church. I thank you for Pastor Decker, Lord, and his family legacy, and Lord, just the godly heritage that's there. Thank you for the song that we heard. Lord, you are so good. Lord, what a blessing. Lord, I pray you bless that young lady and her service to you. Thank you for all that you are. We ask you to meet with us today. Lord, you know I need your help. I pray that you'd put your hand upon me. Lord, that you would speak to your people. Help them not to see or hear me, but God, they would hear you. That you would speak to their hearts. Encourage that one that's discouraged, that one that's maybe not saved. God, I pray that you would draw them to the place of repentance and understanding that they need you. Lord, we love you. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We're gonna be at Mark chapter four for our main text this morning. Mark chapter four, if you wanna turn over there. While you're turning to Mark four, I'm gonna read a verse out of Mark chapter eight, verse 27. It says this, Mark 8, 27. And Jesus went out and his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And by the way, he asked his disciples, saying unto them, whom do men say that I am? Verse 28 of Mark eight. And they answered John the Baptist, but some say Elias, and others one of the prophets. And he saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? Peter answereth and saith unto him, thou art the Christ. I don't know if you've ever asked yourself that, but the Lord didn't ask people who didn't know him. He asked those that were closest to him. Who am I to you? And I don't know who you say Jesus is to you, and hopefully, most of you all, I would hope that most, if not all of you would say, well, I know he's my savior. And I'm not trying to minimize that by any means, but if Jesus is only your savior and that's where it ends, you are missing out. There's so much more to the Lord. You know, I've been married to Bea 29 years for us this summer. And you know, if I told you that I knew my wife when I married her, I wouldn't be lying, I mean, I knew her, I fell in love with her, but I didn't, listen, if that's as deep as our relationship got, how many of y'all would say, I have a marital problem? Come on, now, after 29 years of marriage, if I didn't know her any better than the day that I married her, would there be a problem? There'd be a serious problem. But I wonder how many Christians, believers, are sitting in today's churches that they know them, but they don't know him any more than that. The Lord asked the disciples, whom say ye that I am? And of course, we heard all these answers and we know that Peter said, thou art the Christ, you are the Messiah. And praise the Lord, he is, but again, that's not all that he is. We know that without faith, it's impossible to please God. But the reality is this, I wonder how many of us really, really trust him. Again, hope that I know that your pastor preaches the word and I know that you know that you're supposed to trust God and you know that without faith it's impossible to please God. But how many of us would say, Brother Lance, I always trust God. I would submit to you this morning that none of us really trust God. We might trust Him for salvation. I'm not saying you're not saved. I'm not saying that you don't intend to trust Him or that you want to trust God. But how many of us really, really trust God? Completely. You say, well, Brother Lance, you don't even know us. How can you say that? Well, let me ask you this. If you really, really trusted God, and if the Lord asked us that question, just like He did to the disciples, whom say ye that I am? How many of us would say, well, yeah, I do have some anxiety. Or I do have some discouragement. Or I do have some distress. Or I do have some turmoil. I do have some worries. You know what the reality is? If we really trusted God, there would be none of that. Come on now. I'm just telling you what the Bible says here. If we really trusted God, even when things are as bad as they can get. You know, I preach to men who often tell me it can't get worse than it is. But even there, I've watched God do amazing things. Do we really, really trust God? Whom say ye that I am? Look over at our main text in Mark chapter 4. You all know this story, it's a common text, I'm not gonna pretend to give you anything new, but I do pray this, listen, I said this morning and Sunday, by the way, if you don't come to Sunday school, shame on you, you oughta come. You really oughta be there, and Pastor didn't ask me to put that plug in for Sunday school, I'm just telling you, you need to be there because That's where you dig in and you learn some things. But we talked about it in Sunday school. Listen, we think that we've got it all together, but we really don't. And by the way, neither do the disciples. I preach about the disciples all the time. I love preaching about them because the Lord gives us many examples in scripture. We all know the story of the five loaves and two fishes. And we know the Lord looked at them and he looked upon the multitude and he was moved with compassion. We also like to skip over that part where the disciple said, I love looking at the disciples because they were guys. They were just normal people like us. Even though they were disciples, they were followers of Christ, I know that they know the Lord as their Savior, but look how many times they were so carnal. I'm not being harsh on the disciples, but what it is is a glimpse of a reality and sometimes we have this false sense of security and this false sense of spirituality because we're good independent Baptist church members that we think we're spiritual. I can tell you that because I have met a lot of people that tell me the same thing. Brother Lights, how can you go preach to those guys? Them. Send them away. Boy, that sounds a lot like the apostles, doesn't it? We're the same way, we're just like the disciples. So I love studying them and sometimes we read these texts and we don't really follow along and we don't really pay attention to what's being said. The reality is this, most of us see Jesus in two dimensions. We read the pages of the Bible, Lord willing you read the Bible, and we hear stories of Jesus, we read the stories, but they're not just stories, they're who he is and he can change lives and he can impact lives and some of us have put that on the back burner. Well, we kind of know it, but we don't know it. We know stories of it, maybe even experienced it, but we kind of forget it. And he's just two dimensional, but the Lord's more than three dimensions. He has dimensions that we have no understanding of, the depth and the width. I mean, the Bible talks about the width and the depth and the height. The magnitude of God is so great, we have no idea. We don't know God like we ought to. We do not know all that he is. John 21 verse 25 says, and there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. We've just scratched the surface. But some of us think we know him pretty well, but I would challenge you this morning to think about this that we really don't. Mark chapter four, verse 35. Are you there? Say amen if you are. Mark chapter four, verse 35. By the way, a preacher told me he usually tries to land the plane about noon, and I'm having a hard time with that already, so y'all pray for me. The Bible says, maybe I'll just preach long to make him look really good. I'm teasing, I'm teasing y'all. Well, I'm trying to tease. I don't know if I can get this said and done. I want the Lord to speak this morning. Mark chapter, y'all keep sidetracking me. See, y'all doing it already and I haven't even started. Mark chapter four verse 35. In the same day when the even was come, he saith unto them, let us pass over unto the other side. By the way, that's all he says to us too. Hey, let's get over to the other side, amen. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship, and there were also with him other little ships. I want you to pay attention to that, because we're going to address that in a moment. and there arose a great storm of wind. Sound familiar? And the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. Boy, that sounds like today, doesn't it? And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow, and they awake him, and they say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? Let me stop and correct myself for a minute. Let me read that again, because I believe I read it wrong. Not the words. But I want you to think about, if you were in that situation, how you would say that. They say unto him, I mean, they were thinking they were gonna die. You don't say, Jesus, hey, don't you care that we're dying here? Oh, come on now, if you weren't thinking you were dying, you'd be on. You ever called to the Lord like that? Maybe it's been this last year with all the chaos that's going on. God, don't you care? Do you remember Psalm 89 that I read to you a minute ago? They knew that verse. They weren't thinking about it. and he arose and rebuked the wind and he said unto the sea, peace, be still. The wind ceased and there was a great calm and he said unto them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? They feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Here's the reality, most of us look at Jesus, and Lord willing, you do know him as your savior, but I've heard many, many different responses over the years, who you think Jesus is. I've had Muslim guys come to my service, and well, we believe Jesus is a prophet. We believe he was a great man. Maybe you're here this morning, and by the way, those are right answers. I mean, he absolutely was a prophet, and he absolutely was a great man. But that's not all that he is. Maybe you're saying this morning, well, I know he's my savior, but that's not all that he is either. The magnitude of who God is and what he is and what he can do in your life and how he can fill your life. It's not just going to church and punching the, I went to church card for the week, and well, I'm a good Christian because I went to church. In fact, I even went to a midweek service, so I'm feeling really spiritual this week. That's not what it's about. The Lord is part of every single day and every day. When I wake up in the morning, I mean, some days are worse than others. I mean, I'm a human like y'all. And the days that I don't trust the Lord and the days that I don't say, God, help me not to be me today are painfully evident. Am I the only one? Are y'all have days like that? Usually they're more painfully evident to my wife than other people because she lives with me. Come on now, y'all know what I'm talking about. Come on wives, y'all know what I'm talking about too. It's obvious that when we're not trusting God, when we're not walking with God, when we are living our lives, I've talked about that this morning, we live our lives rather than let Christ live through us. It's very painfully evident in our lives. And this is one of those times, the disciples, you know, maybe they forgot that. And that's maybe why Jesus asked them just a few chapters later, you know, who do you say that I am? Who say that I am? Do you really know who I am? Or is it kind of trendy to kind of follow me around because I do cool things? I mean, are you just kind of hanging out? Maybe you just come to church because you want to see, you know, what's Pastor Decker going to do this Sunday? Maybe you just come to church because you want to see something phenomenal. I mean, maybe you see, I mean, we could talk about that throughout scripture. And he says, who am I to you? Do you think about that? I want you to think about that this morning. I want that to be the central thought through this message is, who is the Lord to you? And if he's not what he used to be to you, then why? Whom say that I am? Three things this morning. Number one, do you just say he's an alarmed saint? Was he just another guy in the boat? that was a good guy that was awakened, an awakened servant. You just say, well, the Lord's there for me. By the way, that's a lot of people's attitude about God, is God is this genie in a bottle kind of deal. When storm waves start hitting and COVID hits and things start getting locked down and all, you rub the genie lamp, come on now, and poof, here comes God and you ask him for three wishes. Come on. To some people, that's what God is. Is he just an awakened servant? Or is he truly an almighty savior? Those are really the three things this morning, and with the Lord's help, I hope you get something from it. An alarmed saint, you know, we get so focused on ourself, and we forget who he is, and we just say that he's just another one that's there, and yes, we turn to him, and he might, well, yeah, he's a leader, and all these kind of things, We get so focused on ourselves that we fail to see the others in peril around us. We're all Christians. Lord willing, you know the Lord is your Savior and you're born again. And Lord willing, Jesus is in your life. But have you thought about those that are going through this storm of life that don't have the Lord? Remember I told you we're gonna go back and look? Look at verse 36. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship and there were also with him other little ships. Listen, the ship with Jesus in it and the disciples in it was only one ship of many that were going across. There are a lot of people in this life that are just trying to get across. And may I remind you that the Lord's not in most of their ships? And our faith or lack of faith is painfully evident to them. And if we have faith and we really trust God through the storm, they're looking to us, well, Jesus is in their ship, what are they doing? And they look over and they see the disciples saying, no. If they look at the church and the churches are disbanding and the churches are breaking apart and people are stopping to trust God, stop trusting God and they stop serving God and they stop meeting, they're looking, man, well, if the church is freaking out, we're okay. But they're looking at us. There are other little ships that don't have him. If we trust God and they see us going to the Lord and say, Lord, we know that you're here. And we know that you've got this. And yeah, there's waves crashing in our ship. We're taking on water. And by the way, I think it'd be foolish of us to convince ourselves we're not, because our ships are taking on water in these days. But God is still God. And we've forgotten Psalm 89, that he is the one that stills the waves. And by the way, he did ultimately give us the command and said, let's get on over to the other side. And it's not over. The Lord is not just an alarmed saint. By the way, smaller ships usually mean bigger problems. Our lack of faith, our sin hurts and affects other people, but yet our faith can also greatly impact the lives of others. I want you to notice this, too. When people get their eyes on circumstances, they don't see Him. Maybe there's nobody guilty of that here this morning, but I am certainly guilty of that. When I start looking at things going on around me, and I start saying, well, man, I don't know, you know, right now we're kind of in limbo. They bulldozed my prison, for those who didn't hear me say that this morning. They are rebuilding. It was the oldest correctional facility in the Department of Defense. And I start thinking about these things. Man, what happens if they don't, you know, I'm not, a DOD employee. I do have an official position. They appointed me as a lead chaplain, but what happens if the next commander doesn't want to do that? What happens if the next chaplain doesn't want to allow a civilian chaplain, a missionary chaplain to be there? What happens if the facility and the new COVID regulations prohibit it? Lord, what's going to happen? What if I can't do it? I'd get my eyes on circumstances, and I don't know what's going on in your life and how the chaos in this world's affected you, but we start thinking about the circumstances, and guess what? When you're looking at those things, you're not looking at Him. The apostles did not have their eyes fixed upon the Lord. Psalm 57, verse 7 says, My heart is fixed, O God. My heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. Is your heart fixed on Him even in the storms and all the things that are going on around or is the Lord just an alarm saint? Maybe He is just an awakened servant to you and you know, by the way, their disciples were competent, you know, some of them were seasoned fishermen. We all, y'all know scripture and I know that you hear the Bible preached in here. The Lord knew what their skill set was, and sometimes we get so competent and so self-sufficient, so independent. I like using that word because we're independent Baptists. Sometimes we're so independent, we might just be independent of God sometimes. We get so self-sufficient that we don't even need Him. Maybe that's why He was in the back of the ship, sleeping, because, oh no, no, Lord, you sit down, we got this. I wonder how many of us said that last year, before all this chaos. Lord, hey, we got this. Hey, we know how to preach. We know how to do soul winning. We know how to do visitation. We certainly know how to do Sunday morning breakfast, because that was good. We certainly got this. Lord, we got this. Just relax. Listen, if the Lord's not in the center of it and God's not doing the work, then we're all in trouble. I wonder if the Lord's just sleeping in the back of your ship because you don't need him. I hope he's not just an awakened servant in your life. Jesus is always willing to help us, we know that. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Jesus is always willing to serve us. Remember, he washed the disciples' feet, and I've got, you know, I mean, there's so many messages you can preach on all the, the servitude of Christ is absolutely mind-blowing. We believe in God, but yet, you know, we forget that he was God. Maybe even you say, well, Brother Lance, we know those things, but yeah, but we know them, but do we really know them? We say we trust God, but do we really trust him? I mean, we know what to say. I would warn you this, and I know I hear a lot of preaching at other churches where they start talking about other religions and other denominations. Come on now, y'all pay attention. Well, it's just rote memory and it's automatic, it's just tradition. I'm gonna tell you, brothers and sisters, y'all looking at me this morning, there's a whole lot of vain tradition right here in our churches. And we just do what we do because we do it. And we sing the songs because we sing them. And we do what we do because that's the way we do it. And without, listen, if the Lord's not in the forefront of our ship and he's not in charge, then it is rote, R-O-T-E. That just means, automatic means nothing. Just you're not even thinking about it. We are in dire straits if the Lord is not in charge. Our lives are that way. Our lives are on kind of autopilot. I have to warn myself every day. My wife warned me the other day. She's like, you know, we have all these meetings, and she reminds me constantly, it's not about the churches. It's not about the church meetings. It's not about the pastors. It's not about even our work. It's all about Him. If we don't follow the Lord, and it's really been kind of a Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 life for us here recently, and does the Lord really direct your steps, or you just kind of go and hope He's there? Come on now, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to your own understanding. I hear that all the time, Brother Lance, I don't understand. God never said you needed to understand. He said trust me. In all the ways, acknowledge Him. That means just look at Him, look at His direction, pay Him attention, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. Let me ask you, I used to be a police officer years ago, and I ask people all this all the time. Do you have to do what you're directed to do? No, you don't. Do you have to stop at a stoplight? No. It would behoove you to. It'd be a really good idea to observe direction. Do you have to stop at a stop sign? You don't have to. You say, well, Lance, I've run many stop signs and I've ran red lights and I'm still here to prove it. Well, pride cometh before a fall. Because you only have to run at one time and get T-bone to enter eternity. Or to run through that light when officer not so friendly is sitting there. And who was once your friend now becomes the bad guy because you ran a red light. You don't, listen, God gives us direction all the time, but that doesn't mean we have to heed it. We ought to, we know we should. But the reality is this, most of us are so much on autopilot in our life, living our lives, that God's not giving us, when he is giving direction, we're not even, because we didn't acknowledge him, we don't even know where it's going. And that, my friend, is why we find ourselves stressing out. Preacher, you gotta help me. I'm going to run. Well, listen, if you knew you were in God's will and you knew where you were supposed to be regardless of what's happening, God's still there. I just talked to someone here the other day and I remember talking to him and said, you know, we don't know what's going to happen, but do you really trust God? Because yeah, these things could happen and these things could happen, but you know what? God is still God and you never know. And some amazing things happened. but we don't always give God the credit, do we? Because we just kind of do what we do and we're on autopilot, co-pilot, we've got the autopilot set. We don't need Jesus to fly the plane because we got it so down, the computer's flying it. It would do us well to get the Lord out of the back, out of the coach, out of the airplane and say, Lord, you need to get back up here. Lord, I need you to fly this thing. I like that, preacher. Thank you for that this morning. 1 Timothy 2, 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. You know, the Lord, I think the Lord, just like the disciples here in this storm, allows people to be forced out of their comfort zone so that he can show you a little bit more about himself. I mean, they obviously knew the Lord, they knew who he was, they saw him do miracles before. It was a terrifying thing, it was, More than likely, it was dark and terrifying. If you do any studying on the storms that are at the Sea of Galilee, it can kind of go like any Florida day. I was down in Florida not too long ago. Go from bright, shiny to stormy and thunder and torrential downpour in just a matter of minutes. And the Sea of Galilee is much like that. And no matter how qualified or how skilled they were, all of a sudden, more than likely, it was dark. More than likely, it was a temptuous wind. And the waves were obviously beating into the ship, as it tells us. dangerous, and the ships were obviously in peril, and they look at the Lord, but because they were in their comfort zone before the Lord was sleeping, and now when we're in trouble, then we want to rely on Him. Then we want to ask God to do things. Why are we the ones sleeping? We ought to be sleeping, saying, Lord, all right, hey, you got this, I'm trusting, I'm resting in the Lord. I'm not saying spiritually sleeping, where you're not doing anything, but we ought to be so at peace, even in the midst of all this chaos, even when the administration that's in charge is in charge, even when the chaos that's out there is going on, even when the pandemic that's going on is out there, we ought to be, you know what, I'm resting in the Lord, it doesn't bother me a bit. I'm still going to church. I'm still in the Word. I'm still trusting God. Yes, it's a little uncomfortable at times, but you know what? I'm trusting God anyway, and I really am not worried. Imagine the impact on this town. I don't know this town, but imagine the impact on this town if every one of y'all had that attitude. They're like, man, what is wrong with you? Don't you know people are dying? News flash, people have been dying in this world for thousands of years. Someone asked me that when we left. I like your gun up here. I just kicked this. Is this for unruly church members? Someone asked me, they said, Brother Lance, what's gonna happen? When you get on the road, you could catch COVID and die. I said, well, worst case scenario, threaten me with heaven. But you're not even worried about it? I said, well, I'm going to take precautions. I have sanitizer in every door of my truck, you know, and I wash my hands. Y'all know how to do that, right? I mean, I wear a mask when I have to. I mean, there are things you ought to do. Well, what if you get it? Well, number one, I've already had it. It didn't kill me. And he said, well, you could get it again. I could. And worst case scenario, it kills me. And guess what? I get to see my daddy again. And I'll be at the feet of Jesus, worshiping him. That's worst case scenario. And I just believe this. Call me ignorant. I just trust the Lord. It's His will. It's not gonna take Him by surprise. We all know we have an appointment. We all know that it's appointed and a man wants to die. If that's my time, it's my time. I'm really not worried about it. And I'd like to see my grandson grow up and I'd like to understand that. But we spend too much time worrying about these things instead of trusting God. Whom say you that I am. Listen, lastly, and we'll be done. He's really an almighty Savior. He's really an almighty Savior. Look what it says in verse 39. So they come to him and they, I want you to think, have you ever gone to the Lord and said, God, don't you care? These are the disciples. Master, don't you care? We're dying here. Have you ever stopped to think about how ludicrous that Satan is? Come on, now. Have you ever looked at God and said, God, don't you care about me? Don't you know what's going on, really? Think, listen to yourself. Do you know how silly that sounds? God knows exactly where you are. He knows exactly what you're going through. And listen, in case your pastor didn't tell you this, God loves you and cares about you. I know he does tell you that. But we act like he doesn't. Why did the disciples even ask him this? God, don't you care? We know that he cares, and why are we asking him that? That tells you there's something wrong up here. we all have a little bit of problem going on. We get overwhelmed, we're looking at the circumstance. So Jesus arose, verse 39, and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was, I want you to notice this, maybe you've never seen this before, I like looking at adjectives, this great, Calm, not calm. Now I've been on a calm sea. In fact, I got to go fishing with a buddy of mine in Central Florida and it was just gorgeous. It was pretty much like glass, but you know, there were a couple ripples out there. Listen, I believe this. I believe it went from a tempest with who knows how high the winds are, dark sky. I believe that those winds, obviously the waves were crashing. I believe it went from absolute chaos Not just a calm. It says great calm. Does it not, preacher? It says great calm. All of a sudden the Lord said, peace be still. I believe it was just like boom. You say, Brother Lance, that's ridiculous. No, it's not. I think God just went whoosh. And all of a sudden, I think those clouds were gone. I think the sea was like glass. And those disciples were like this. You say, Brother Lance, I've never seen God do anything like that. I have. I've watched God pick up broken men and broken lives. And I've watched God pick them back up. And I've watched Him give them new life and give them victory. And now they are serving Him. That is miraculous. We've forgotten those things, we forget who God is and we should give him all the credit and all the glory and instead we've taken that from him and we get so focused on the things around us that we forget he can still do miraculous things. Here's what I want you to focus on for our last thing here. He is an almighty savior, look what it says. And he said unto them, pay attention, I want you to catch this. Why are ye so fearful? You say, Brother Lance, why do you care about that? Why didn't it say this? I mean, I don't know, maybe I'll have to ask your pastor about this. Maybe he has some kind of biblical answer for this. It doesn't say, why were ye? Did you ever catch that? It doesn't say, why were ye so fearful? Listen, I just said, calm the sea. It's like glass. The sea is calm, they're in the boat. Yeah, there's still water in the boat, but he says, why are you, not why were ye? Why are you so fearful? The storm is gone, and yet they were still fearful. Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have currently, present tense, not some, not a little, no faith. Listen, these are the disciples, these are the apostles. How is it that when a storm is raging and we, Lord willing, are disciples and that we're in the ship with the Lord, even when the Lord calms the sea, how is it that we're still fearful? How is it that we still have no faith? Again, I'm not trying to beat down the apostles, but we like to convince ourselves that we're spiritual and that we have great faith and that we trust God. Look at me and my God-given eyeball this morning. Most of us don't have any. At best, we try to have faith because we know that preachers and teaches that we ought to trust God and we ought to, without faith, it's impossible to please God. We try to and we desire to and we want to, but the reality is we don't. and neither did the disciples. You know what that proves? It proves how gracious God is. It really proves what an amazing almighty savior he is. Why we keep him minimized to an awakened servant or an alarmed saint, he is the almighty savior. They feared exceedingly and said one to another, what manner of man is this that even the wind and sea obey him? You know, the Bible says this, and I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Psalm 111 verse 10, I studied this out, I don't have time to really dive into it, because we're out of time, but Psalm 111 verse 10 says this, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Remember what I said, sometimes God allows us to be taken out of our comfort zone so he can reveal new things about himself to us? Really, that's what we're seeing happen right here. The disciples, for the first time, are seeing Jesus do something they've never seen him do before. And the only way that could happen is to be put in a situation that they had not been through before. Just like we're in a situation that we have not been through before. And guess what? Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that the Lord is just as great now as He was then. And He is still an almighty Savior, and He can bring us through this, and even worst case scenario, their ship sank, or our ship sinks. The Lord's still the Savior, and we still have nothing to worry about. He is the Almighty Savior. Trusting God, you say, well, I said the prayer, I got saved. I got a news flash for you. A prayer don't save you. No, you need to pray. Call unto me. I understand you need to pray and ask him. But the prayer isn't what saves you. It is the Almighty God of heaven that saves you. And we are trusting him, not in the words that we say and some little prayer we said. Remember what the thief on the cross said? The one that didn't get, the one I always say on the left side, because you know the one on the right side. The one on the left side, the one on the wrong side. If you're really him, then save me, save yourself and save me. Did he get saved? Hey, he opened his mouth, he said a prayer, kinda. He was talking to the Lord. By the way, I know a lot of people, listen, and I'm not trying to make anybody doubt your salvation, although the Bible has a lot to say about examining yourself, and by the way, if I can make you doubt your salvation, you got problems anyway. But just because someone says, God, if you're really out there and you're really him, then save me. If you're counting on a prayer like that to save you, there is no faith in the word if. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. By grace through faith is where salvation comes from. If you're a countenance, I've talked to men. Well, Brother Lance, I remember laying on my, in fact, I was talking to a soldier one time that was in prison. And he said, well, chaplain, I was laying here. I said, God, if you were to lay out there, then save me and help me and get me out of this place. I said, you're no more saved than you were before you said it. He goes, how do you know? You don't know my heart. I said, I don't need to. He goes, how can you say that? That's arrogant. I said, it's not arrogant. It's Bible. He said, how do you figure? I said, you said if. He goes, so what? I said, there's no faith in the word if. You didn't trust God. You don't even know if he's there. I wonder how many church members are sitting in church today that just in case God's for real, just in case he's real, I better do the right thing and better at least pay attention to some of the Bible things because he might be real and so I'm just kinda making sure I'm checking all the boxes. Listen, folks, you're not born again. You're missing it. You're missing a fact. He's just an alarmed saint or awakened servant to you. He's someone that can do, help you out when you get in a storm. He's not your savior. Unless you shouldn't be making people question their salvation. Listen, I was raised in church. My daddy was a deacon and a preacher my entire life. I didn't get saved until I was an adult and married. Why? Because it was all rote religion to me. You can be a Baptist and split hell wide open. I don't care if your grandma was a preacher. It don't make us right. It's all about Christ and either he changed your life and he saved you or he didn't. There's no if. If you're mad at God, you really don't know him. You know, who in their right mind would be belligerent and rebellious against the Lord instead of submitting and saying, God, I need you. John 14, I don't have time to go through all this. John 14, yet have you not known me, he says. Lord, show us the Father and it'll suffice. You don't even know me. Yes, hast thou not known me. I wonder how many of us really don't know. I want you to know the Lord is your savior. I'm done. I'll end with this illustration. I remember my grandpa telling me a story. It wasn't him. Well, he says it wasn't him. I don't know if it was or not. He's gone now. He says, there's one of my buddies was driving his old pickup truck down the road and his wife of 50 something years was in the truck riding down the road and she said, hey Clarence, do you remember when we used to ride down the truck, ride the road in this truck when we were dating? He goes, yup. He says, you remember when we used to sit real close together and you'd have your arm around me while we're driving? Yup. She says, you remember when once in a while you'd lean over and kiss me while we were driving down the road? He grins a little bit and says, yep. Do you ever miss that? Yep. Why do you think it's not like that anymore? He looks over at her, he's driving his old truck down the road and he says, I ain't moved. You know, the Lord's right where he's always been. And I wonder how many of us, whom say that I am? Are you in love with the Lord? Do you know that he's your Savior? If you know he's your Savior, then why are we going through what we're going through? We're not trusting him. If we just let God be who he is. Let's have every head bowed and every eye closed. Pastor, you come, musicians as you come. Heavenly Father, I thank you for all that you are. I thank you for, Lord, your grace, your mercy. Thank you for your salvation.