Jesus Walks

Opening Worship

Good morning, welcome to First Baptist Church of Artesia. We're going to get our service underway. Our scripture this morning comes from Psalm 46:10:

“Stop fighting, and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.”

— Psalm 46:10 (CSB)

Join us in worship this morning.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I'm come; and I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

All that I am, all that I have, I lay them down before You, Lord. All my regrets, all my acclaim, the joy and the pain, I'm making them Yours.

Lord, I offer my life to You. Everything I've been through, use it for Your glory. Lord, I offer my days to You, lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice. Lord, I offer You my life.

Things in the past, things yet unseen, wishes and dreams that are yet to come true. All my hopes, all my plans, my heart and my hands are lifted to You.

Lord, I offer my life to You. Everything I've been through, use it for Your glory. Lord, I offer my days to You, lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice. O Lord, I offer You my life.

What can we give that You have not given? And what do we have that is not already Yours? All we possess are these lives we're living, and that's what we give to You, Lord.

Lord, I offer my life to You. Everything I've been through, use it for Your glory. Lord, I offer my days to You, lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice. O Lord, I offer You my life.

The grace of God has reached for me and pulled me from the raging sea, and I am safe on this solid ground. The Lord is my salvation. I will not fear when darkness falls; His strength will help me scale these walls. I see the dawn of the rising sun. The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord our God, Strong to Save, faithful in love? My debt is paid, and the victory won. The Lord is my salvation.

My hope is here in the Lord; He flowers each promise of His Word. When winter fades, I know spring will come. The Lord is my salvation.

In times of waiting, times of need, when I know loss, when I am weak, I know His grace will renew these days. The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord our God, Strong to Save, faithful in love? My debt is paid, and the victory won. The Lord is my salvation.

And when I reach the final day, He will not leave me in the grave; but I will rise, He will call me home. The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord our God, Strong to Save, faithful in love? My debt is paid, and the victory won. The Lord is my salvation.

Glory be to God the Father, glory be to God the Son, glory be to God the Spirit. The Lord is my salvation. Glory be to God the Father, glory be to God the Son, glory be to God the Spirit. The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation. The Lord is my salvation.

I think I'll rock with mic number red. Testing, one, two. Can you guys hear me okay? Good morning, happy Lord's Day. It brings me joy to bring you God's Word this morning. I love that last song—that the grace of God is reaching for us in the midst of the raging sea, that wherever trials come up in our lives, even death itself, God grabs us and pulls us from whatever troubles we may have because He is our salvation.

And if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it and open it to the Book of Mark—the Book of Mark, and specifically Mark chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 45 through 56. I've recovered from the flu, but apparently there's a lingering cough which I still have, so forgive me for any coughing or hacking I may be doing up here. But I promise you, I'm healthy. Can you guys hear me okay through this mic? Okay, great.

Mark chapter 6, we'll be looking at verses 45 through 56, and it says this:

Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After he said good-bye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray. Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Very early in the morning he came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them. When they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke with them and said, “Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded, because they had not understood about the loaves. Instead, their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to shore at Gennesaret and anchored there. As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him. They hurried throughout that region and began to carry the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Wherever he went, into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end of his robe. And everyone who touched it was healed.

— Mark 6:45-56 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your Word. We pray, Lord, this morning that you would help us to be attentive to hear it, to understand it, and to treasure it by the help of your Holy Spirit. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Last week we looked at Jesus feeding 5,000 people in the middle of the wilderness with five loaves of bread and two fish. We looked at how Jesus wasn't just feeding hungry people, but that He was actually symbolizing something new that arrived with His ministry. And now we arrive at another common story: Jesus walking on water. Rather than Jesus showing another parlor trick, or showing His disciples that He could do something cool, or simply encouraging us in how we can walk in faith, Jesus is actually symbolizing and communicating something greater about Himself. Him stepping onto the sea and going to His disciples isn't just a picture of kindness, but a symbol of who He is and what Jesus came to do.

So, this is going to be the main idea for us this morning: to trust in Jesus who conquered death. To trust in Jesus who conquered death. There are three points for us this morning: number one, Jesus prays; number two, Jesus walks; and number three, Jesus saves. We see Jesus doing three things this morning: Jesus praying, walking, and saving.

Prioritizing Prayer and Communion with the Father

Let's look at Point number one: Jesus prays.

In verse 45, it says: "Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After he said good-bye to them, he went away to the mountain to pray." After Jesus feeds the 5,000, He sends His disciples to get to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, again, to go to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the 5,000. While He dismissed the 5,000 men, plus women and children. And rather than sprinting to the next destination of Jesus's ministry, Jesus pulls away. He spends time alone to pray.

Do you pray? Do you pray? Sometimes we get so caught up with what's needed that we forget what we really need. Here we see Jesus at the peak of His visual ministry. He had performed something that was absolutely spectacular. Thousands of people had witnessed the same miracle together. And like any other person with a full belly, they were incredibly eager to hear what Jesus would have to say. And rather than capitalizing on that, rather than building momentum for whatever ministry plans or aspirations He would have, or to kickstart a revolution in the Roman Empire, Jesus instead immediately dismisses the crowd. He shooes them away. He puts a dead stop to whatever it looked like Jesus was doing visually in order to pull away to pray.

He doesn't view practical needs as an opportunity to build momentum for His ministry. Jesus was not relying on natural means in order to accomplish His work. Instead, He understood that to accomplish true work, to accomplish His Father's will, involved Him pulling away from whatever needs He had and taking time to pray. He was not interested in the dazzling fireworks of visual ministry; instead, He prioritized time with His Father.

Do you pray? Sometimes we can get so caught up in the middle of our weeks, so busy with whatever schedules we may have—doctor's appointments that we need to go to, people that we've promised we would spend time with, different needs at the church that we choose to participate in—and we forget the main thing. God isn't interested in our productivity; He's interested in giving us His provisions, right? And what prayer does is it helps us with exactly that. It helps us to let go of whatever we think is most important and to remind ourselves of what really is. To take time to pray.

You can pray. I hope that you guys join us even tonight when we have our prayer service, to prioritize the real work of the ministry. You see, the real work of the ministry isn't finding counters—by the way, we have counters, thank you for those that chose to count for us, right? The real work of the ministry isn't helping out with sound, or fixing things in the church. The main work of the ministry is our relationship with Jesus and spending time with Him in prayer. Prayer helps us kill the idol of productivity, to trust in God's provision. And Jesus takes time to pray.

Revealing God’s Glory: Jesus Walks on the Water

Point number two: Jesus walks. Let's look at verse 47 again:

Well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land. He saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them.

So Jesus sent His disciples away at sundown. He taught all day, He had this crowd that gathered in the wilderness, He teaches them all day, He feeds them a supper meal, and then He dismisses His disciples. And it says here in verse 47 that well into the night, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and they are straining. They are rowing away in the middle of the darkness for hours. I don't know if you've done a rowing machine before; I get exhausted after about two minutes. They were rowing and straining because the wind was against them, and Jesus was standing on the shore, seeing everything.

You know, that could be kind of hard to imagine—Jesus standing on the shore and looking out into a sea, and being able to point out His disciples in a boat rowing while there's a windstorm going on. It could be hard to imagine, but for that, we need some context in terms of what the Sea of Galilee was like. The Sea of Galilee is actually pretty small. In 2017, I went to Israel and had the opportunity to go on a boat cruise on the Sea of Galilee. And to be honest, the Sea of Galilee is more like the Lake of Galilee. It's really small. It is 64 square miles. In comparison, Lake Erie, which is one of the smaller Great Lakes, is 9,940 square miles. In fact, if you Google the Sea of Galilee and look it up, right under the name "Sea of Galilee," it will categorize it as a lake. Everything in Israel is smaller than you think it is. The Mount of Transfiguration was more like a mound; it was just a hill. In the same way, the Sea of Galilee is more like a lake where you could actually see over to the other side.

And so, really, the disciples should have been able to cross the Sea of Galilee well within an hour. But instead, they're stuck in the middle of the sea, rowing away because the wind is against them. They're straining, struggling, and Jesus sees their struggle and lets them row some more. He lets them keep rowing. In fact, He sees their struggle, and rather than fixing it, He lets them continue to struggle. Because Jesus didn't just see their problem—He intended it.

You see, the struggle of the disciples as they're rowing their oars in the middle of the lake shows the limit of our own efforts. Sometimes we could delude ourselves into thinking that we can actually accomplish everything on our to-do list, everything that we intend. We go out with our plans, but the Lord says in His Word that He directs our steps. You see, the disciples, despite their best efforts, despite their years of being fishermen, rowing in the sea, knowing the waters, being able to peruse through whatever weather dynamics they faced, found themselves in the midst of their best effort stuck in the middle of a lake, rowing with all their might without any success. They couldn't progress at all. In fact, all their efforts found them exhausted, absolutely exhausted.

See, this is a good image of what the Christian life is like. You could try to row with all your might to try to earn your own way, to figure out your own path, and it will leave you stranded. Some people think of Christianity as something that you can do once you figure out your life—that once you clean up your own mess, make your house presentable, then you can finally open the door and let Jesus in. Here we see just how useless that kind of strategy is. Even if you were to try your best, the work would only get worse; your best efforts won't actually progress you at all. You'll still be stuck in the same place. What you need isn't more effort; what you need is someone else.

And so, you see that Jesus then comes onto the scene in the second half of verse 48. Look at verse 48 there: "Very early in the morning he came toward them walking on the sea and wanted to pass by them." Everything Jesus does in this story has intention, has a purpose. Notice that it says that Jesus didn't leave until very early in the morning. So even after Jesus sees them in the middle of the night, He lets them continue rowing until two or three in the morning. Think about how delusional the disciples may be as they continue to row and try to get to the other side. Despite their struggle, Jesus looks and He deliberately waits. He lets them struggle, He continues to pray, and then He leaves. And notice that He doesn't run. He sees their problem, and He decides to stroll. He walks. He takes His time.

And then Jesus does something absolutely incredible. He walks on water. He walks on water. He does what no other man can do. He performs a miracle to reveal who He is—that Jesus is God. And He's doing it not just by doing some kind of magic trick and walking on water. The wording here is all intentional. It says here at the end of verse 48 that Jesus wanted to "pass by them." Pass by them. That is a very specific phrase. In order to understand it, you need to turn back in your Bible. So, I'm going to ask you to grab your Bible and turn back to the Book of Exodus, the Book of Exodus, and look at chapter 33. Let's look at Exodus 33, starting in verse 12:

Moses said to the Lord, “Look, you have told me, ‘Lead this people up,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor with me.’ Now if I have indeed found favor with you, please teach me your ways, and I will know you, so that I may find favor with you. Now consider that this nation is your people.” And he replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” “If your presence does not go,” Moses responded to him, “don’t make us go up from here. How will it be known that I and your people have found favor with you unless you go with us? I and your people will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.” The Lord answered Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Please, let me see your glory.” He said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name ‘the Lord’ before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

— Exodus 33:12-19 (CSB)

So Moses is making a point. He is saying there is no way that our nation is going to make it if you don't go with us, God. So he insists that the Lord would go with them, and the Lord promises that He will. But that's not enough for Moses, so he continues to plead in verse 18. Then Moses said, "Please, let me see your glory."

Moses isn't satisfied with just God's promises; he wants to see God's glory. And when God agrees to that, He says that He can't show the fullness of His glory in the following passage, or else people would die in His presence, because God is a holy God and we are sinful. Instead, what God promises is that He would let His goodness, His glory, pass by him, pass by Moses. And that would be a promise for Moses that God would be with His people, that He would deliver them, that He would secure them and make them a mighty nation, that He would protect them, and that sign would be proven by God passing by His people.

So when Mark writes that Jesus intended to walk on water and pass by His disciples, that is more than just Jesus walking on water. That is Jesus revealing Himself as God in Exodus 33. That Yahweh, the God who said, "I am that I am," would pass by, that He would reveal His glory with this mighty miracle of Jesus walking on water. But the disciples don't think that. What they think is that they saw a ghost. You can see that in verse 49, when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke with them and said, "Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid." Then he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.

See, the sea, when they're rowing on water, represents more than just a body of water where you go out for a vacation. It represents something else. You see, the Old Testament uses water to represent death and chaos. Think about Genesis chapter 1. Before God says, "Let there be light," the world was formless and void, and God's Spirit hovered over the waters. So, pre-creation, pre-God establishing His order, the imagery of chaos and death, formlessness and voidness, is the waters. That's why when God in Genesis 6 is dissatisfied and mournful over humanity's rebellion, He decides to destroy humanity, to get rid of humanity, through a flood. In fact, throughout the Old Testament, whenever you see Old Testament prophets rebuke Israel for abandoning the Lord, and they talk about His judgment, they would use water imagery—that the floods would come up, that God's judgment would come and wipe out the people.

And so the disciples, as they're rowing on the sea, if they knew their Bibles, are thinking of more than just the sea. First of all, they're getting really tired because they're rowing very hard. Secondly, they know that if they can't successfully get to land, that means they're going to die. They're going to die, that they won't even be able to make it to the other side and continue to serve their Savior. And so, as they're rowing in the midst of this windstorm, and they're looking out into the distance, and they see the visage of a man starting to approach them, they freak out because they think they've seen the grim reaper. This is it. This is where it ends. They're going to find themselves buried at the bottom of the sea.

And then immediately Jesus speaks to them and says, "Have courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid." Every single one of those words has intention. Jesus says those words with deliberate intensity. You see, when He says, "It is I," He's not just saying, "It's me." He says the words, "I am. I am. Ego eimi. I am." That should call us back to Exodus 3:14. Moses, when he's interacting with God in the burning bush, and God sends him to Egypt to plead before Pharaoh to let His people go, Moses asks, "Who shall I say sent me?" To which God responds, "Tell them I am that I am. Tell them that I am sent you."

So imagine this: if you understand the Exodus story, and you know how God's people were delivered through the water into the wilderness, and they know about the promises in Exodus 33, as they're struggling through the sea, as they're fearful of their own lives, they see Jesus show up. And He's not just reminding them that it's Himself; He's invoking the very name of Yahweh, and He couples it with two things for us to do: to have courage because "I am," and because "I am," don't be afraid.

Jesus is doing more than just walking on water. He's telling the disciples exactly who He is: that He is Yahweh, who delivered God's people from Egypt, and now He would be delivering people from death itself. And rather than the Exodus, where they walked through water, Jesus walks on water. He walks on water, and the result of that is that all of our fear gets eviscerated. You see, sometimes we get so caught up in the middle of storms that we can't see what's actually ahead of us. We get fearful, we panic, we begin to tunnel vision on whatever trials come our way. The Lord reminds us here in this passage that if we know who Jesus is, what He came to do, what His work would be, that that would cast out any fear that lasts in our heart.

In fact, the Old Testament promised this long ago. I want to ask us to flip back to one more passage. Go back in your Bible to Psalm 77. This is a Psalm about a time of crisis. You can imagine the disciples resonating with that idea: struggling in the midst of trouble, talking about how the psalmist cries out to the Lord all night long, exhausted, moaning, groaning, refusing to be comforted, that he can't sleep because of his own restlessness and his grief. And then in verse 16, God shows up on the scene. Psalm 77, verses 16 through 20:

The water saw you, God. The water saw you; it trembled. Even the depths shook. The clouds poured down water. The storm clouds thundered; your arrows flashed back and forth. The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind; lightning lit up the world. The earth shook and quaked. Your way went through the sea and your path through the vast water, but your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

— Psalm 77:16-20 (CSB)

The comfort for the psalmist in his time of crisis and trial wasn't in the solution to his problem, wasn't in his crisis going away, but in the God who walks through water. In the God who walks through the sea. That the storm wouldn't be the thing that pulls him away from the Lord, but that the storm was a demonstration of God's own power and strength, and that God would lead His people like a flock, just like Moses and Aaron did in the Exodus. And what does Jesus do when He first arrives on the shore and sees the 5,000 waiting for Him? He sees them like sheep without a shepherd. He sees that flock and He cares for them. And now, as He sees His disciples struggling on the sea, this Shepherd begins to walk on water because the Lord's way is through the sea; His footprints wouldn't be written in the sand. He would walk through water itself to deliver His people.

Where do you place your hope in your time of trouble, in your time of crisis, where you've run out of tears, when you're exhausted and you refuse to be comforted? Where are you placing your hope in your time of trouble? God reminds us here to trust the Lord. To trust the Lord that Jesus is able to conquer any trial that may come our way, and we can place our hope in Him. And when Jesus steps foot into the boat, the wind ceases; the waters become still and calm.

But the disciples don't get it. Instead, they're astounded because they didn't understand. Notice what it says there: that they did not understand about the loaves. Wasn't that last week? Why are they talking about the loaves? The reason is because what the disciples don't understand is what Jesus is doing with the Exodus. They don't understand that Jesus's redemption is more than just saving their lives in the boat; it's redeeming them from death itself. You see, there are people that won't get that message, but this really is the main message of Christianity.

See, when we read the gospels, if you're not a Christian and you're joining us here as we walk through Scripture together, when we look at passages like Jesus walking on water, we're not talking about Jesus as though He's some interesting magician who's able to do supernatural things. We're not even saying that Jesus is able to do what human beings can't do, which is why you should particularly listen to Him. Jesus is trying to communicate a clear message to you: that you are going to die, and no amount of plastic surgery, exercise, work, expenses, or wealth is going to save you from your inevitable death. You will row, and row, and row, and row until you die.

But the good news of the gospel isn't that you have another opportunity to row harder, but that there is someone who has put death under His feet: Jesus Christ. That He came into the earth and lived the life that you and I could never live, that He walked on water and put the sea under His feet, and that on the cross, He paid the penalty that you and I deserved for our sin and died. He went into the water itself, and then three days later, He emerged from the sea of death, victorious over sin and death, so that if you turn from your sin and trust in Him, if you let Jesus into the boat, not only will you be able to stop rowing, but you will be saved from death itself. That when you see a visage and you're rowing in the middle of the sea, you don't have to fear the reaper, but you'll see your Savior coming towards you, undoing the threat of death itself. You could turn from your sin and trust in Him. That's God's invitation to you this morning. If you have questions about that, about what it looks like to follow Jesus, I'll be right at the door after the service. I would love to talk to you more about what it looks like to follow Jesus.

But that's not how this story ends. You look at verse 52, and the disciples, rather than understanding who Jesus is, they don't get it. It hasn't been revealed to them. They had not understood about the loaves; instead, their hearts were hardened. It's a very interesting way of talking about it. You see, the people that don't understand what Jesus did here, don't understand for two reasons. On one hand, the disciples don't understand about the loaves. They don't get it. They didn't ask questions. They were astounded, and they didn't work to understand. On the other hand, right after that, it says that their hearts were hardened. That's passive. That's not something that the disciples were doing; that's something that's happening to them. They're unable to see and understand. And likely, the reason why they don't understand is because Jesus hasn't fully revealed what He's going to do with His ministry work yet. There's still a lot of ministry to be done. He still needs to be arrested and put to death for His own supposed crimes. There's more ministry that needs to happen, so their hearts were hardened.

But here we see an interesting truth about the way that salvation and understanding Christ works. On the one hand, the disciples absolutely have the responsibility to understand what Jesus is doing. That when Jesus performs His miracle about the loaves, when you read it in the Book of Mark, you have an obligation to understand, to hear God's Word, to work to understand it, and to turn from your sin and trust in Him. On the other hand, you also see here the fact in verse 52 that their understanding is limited because their hearts were hardened—not by anything that they did, but the fact that their hearts were hardened according to God's intention. And sometimes people will take the fact that God is in control of all things and the fact that we have our own choices, and they'll make them fight against each other. They'll create enemies. Instead, what you see here in Scripture, just like you see in all sorts of other instances throughout the Bible, is that both are true at the same time. The disciples absolutely have a responsibility to understand what Jesus is doing, and at the same time, their hearts were also hardened. The Bible teaches both, and the mystery is in how it hangs together, right? I just wanted to point that out when it comes to salvation: that you see here that they did not understand. They have a responsibility—they should have chosen to understand or at least ask some questions, and they don't. At the same time, their hearts are completely hardened. They see Jesus walking on water, but they don't understand what it means. But we'll see more about what it means in our last point this morning: Jesus saves.

Overcoming Death: Jesus Heals and Saves

Point number three: Jesus saves. Let's look at verse 53:

When they had crossed over, they came to shore at Gennesaret and anchored there. As they got out of the boat, people immediately recognized him. They hurried throughout that region and began to carry the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. Wherever he went, into villages, towns, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch just the end of his robe. And everyone who touched it was healed.

— Mark 6:53-56 (CSB)

When Jesus shows up at the shore, everybody knows exactly who Jesus is, and they turn that shore into an urgent care facility. Everyone brings their sick. They have heard what Jesus did. They might have even heard about the bleeding woman who touched just a piece of Jesus's robe, and they sprint to bring Him everyone, every single need. And this passage looks really familiar to all the other portions throughout the Book of Mark where we see Jesus arriving, healing the sick, continuing His ministry. But it's more than that. This is right after the passage where Jesus walks on water. In pretty much every Gospel, it's there for a reason. Because when you are dealing with those that are sick, they are on their mats, they are unable to walk, they need healing, they are on the brink of death. They are being threatened by the sea of death itself. And as though the image isn't clear enough, Mark doubles down on Jesus's ministry. In this passage, He's not casting out demons, He's not teaching, He's not helping the poor; instead, He specifically heals the sick. And the reason is because, as Jesus is walking on water and He puts death under His feet, His ministry would be undoing that bite of death itself.

I'm really young. I'm currently not insured by health insurance because I let my health insurance expire. That's how lazy I am. I need to re-up it right now, right? When I go into the hospital, I generally don't expect a lot of bad news, right? That'll probably change thirty years from now. I'm sure all of us have sat on hospital beds as our feet dangle off of the edge. As much as we wouldn't like to admit it, there's a little bit of nervousness that sets in, a fear that your doctor may walk into the room with a serious look and have something to talk to you about. When Jesus shows up on the shore of Gennesaret, all that fear goes away because the sick have a hope beyond their illness. They know that if they go to Jesus, they will be completely healed, that they don't have to worry about their sickness, they don't even have to worry about death itself, that if they can even just touch a fiber of Christ's clothing, they know that any concern they have would be completely casted away.

Now, all of those sick who were healed would be made sick again. They eventually would fall to their own deaths. I don't think any of those that were at Gennesaret are still around to talk to us today. But what we know is that this was just a foretaste of what Christ would do—that Christ wouldn't just heal the sick, that He would fix the very problem of death itself. That, as 1 Thessalonians says, when we die, we won't be falling to our deaths, but instead, we would be rising to heaven to meet Christ in the air.

Do you have that hope this morning? Then if you do, don't fear the seas of death when the waves begin to crash over you and your eyes begin to darken as you strain and struggle for your life. You can rest in peace knowing that as you enter the sea, you are following the steps of your Savior who came into death and rose victorious. As He rose from the dead, so will you. Jesus will undo every sad thing in this world. The death of our lives won't be the end of our story, but will be the beginning of a new chapter where we can celebrate not just in hope, not just in faith, but in joy, seeing God pull through with every single promise that He made. Friends, you can have courage this morning. You do not need to fear for a second. Don't be afraid because Christ is God. He did what we can never do, and we can place all our hope in Him forever.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this good news this morning. Thank you that Christ walked on the water and conquered death. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to trust that promise this morning and for the rest of our lives. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Church Family Announcements and Benediction

I want to thank you guys for joining us this morning. A couple of announcements for us before we break up. First, you can give to our church online or in the offering plate in the back. You can scan the QR code, or you can go to firstbaptistartesia.com and you'll be able to find a giving portal there. Let me go ahead and pray now and give thanks to God for our offering.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you've done something that we can never repay, that you've forgiven our sins and paid the penalty in full. So we pray, Lord, now that as we give to you, that you'll be able to use this offering for the advancement of your kingdom, that you use it to glorify your name, and that we'll be able to give in joy out of gratitude for all that you've done for us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. If you're visiting us this morning, we're glad that you're here. Don't feel any obligation to give; this is something that God calls Christians to do out of obedience to the Lord and out of commitment to their local church.

Other announcements: we have Sunday gatherings tonight. We'll be praying together at 5:00 p.m. We'll be doing what Jesus did when He went away to the mountain, so we'll be joined together to pray together tonight here in this room at 5:00 p.m. All are welcome to come and join us there.

We also have Bible studies on Sundays. Erwin is continuing to preach through Mark at 8:40 in the library, and I also am teaching through a Church Matters class. So if you're interested more about what it looks like to be committed to a church, what a church is, and some of the basics of Christianity, that's what I'll be going through in our Church Matters class. And if you're interested in joining the church as well, that would be the place to show up—to go to our Church Matters class. That's at 9:00 a.m. just straight down the hallway. So you can just come in through the main building, just walk all the way down the hallway, and feel free to talk to me if you have any questions about that.

A couple more announcements: we have a VBS in June, from the 17th to the 20th. That'll be run by the Spanish church that rents from us. So if you have kids and you're interested in bringing them, again, that'll be on June 17th to the 20th.

At this time, I'm going to ask Connie and Carrie Caddell to leave the room, to go ahead and quickly step outside, because they have intended to join our church in membership. So they went to all the Church Matters classes, they did a membership interview with me. So we'll be doing separate motions for each of them, but let me tell you about each of their lives.

First, Carrie Caddell was born on July 4th, 1952, and they grew up—both of them grew up—around Southern California. Connie was born December 23rd. They live in Norwalk. Carrie was a truck driver, and Connie was an office manager. And Connie grew up Catholic, Carrie didn't have a strong religious background. They both got saved listening to sermons from a faithful pastor who walked with them in the fundamentalist church in Hollydale, so they were baptized there in the 1970s. And so, they have come to our church. They agree with the Baptist Faith and Message, they agree with our Church's Covenant, and they've agreed to be committed members of our church. So, I'm happy to recommend them forward in membership.

What I'm going to do now is I'm going to ask the members of our church to stand. So if you're a member of our church, please stand. We'll do separate motions for each one. So, I'm happy to recommend that Carrie Caddell be a member of our church as we take responsibility for his discipleship and he takes responsibility for ours. All those in favor of voting Carrie Caddell into our membership, say yes. Any opposed, say no. So ordered.

Next, I'd like to recommend Connie Caddell to be a member of our church. If you are in favor of taking responsibility for Connie's discipleship as she takes responsibility for ours, say yes. Any opposed, say no. So ordered. You may be seated, and we can call Connie and Carrie back into the room.

While that is going on, let me go ahead and check my notes and double-check to make sure that we don't have any other announcements I'm forgetting. Let's see here. Side note, we do... oh, okay, two more announcements. Number one, we do have counter volunteers, so thank you for those that have volunteered to be counters. I will see you after the service. Yeah, you could clap for them. Yeah. And one more announcement for you: I am working on making a photo membership directory so that people can see each other's faces and pray for them. I will be coming at you like a paparazzi! I need your photos. So if I come at you with a phone and ask you for a photo, don't stress out; this is not about wearing your Sunday best and being the most presentable you could possibly be, it's just a photo for the membership directory so people can pray for you. And if you have a specific photo that you would like to replace my photo with, you can do so by emailing me.

And now for our benediction from 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 14: "And now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." Let's stand and sing together.

I heard an old, old story, how a Savior came from glory, how He gave His life on Calvary to save a wretch like me. I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood's atoning, then I repented of my sins and won the victory.

O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever! He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about His healing, of His cleansing power revealing, how He made the lame to walk again and caused the blind to see. And then I cried, "Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit," and somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory.

O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever! He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory, and I heard about the streets of gold beyond the crystal sea; about the angels singing and the old redemption story, and some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory.

O victory in Jesus, my Savior forever! He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood.

Amen. Amen. Have a blessed week.