I'm going to play you a song. From death and from shame. Open up my eyes and draw salvation. Oh, I need to raise His soul. Now I know that he is mine, and
I am his only one. He will save me from all my pain. He will make all things new. We were lost in the dense river,
We were lost in the spring of life. We were lost in the spring
of life. It's so sweet, just to doubt
and howl From sin and from strife He delivered
me From condemnation And I have peace in Jerusalem I know this
night will not be forever Please lead me along my way You may
fall into my arms You are such a blessing, such
a blessing. You Dishmans have probably heard
what Donnie Bell said about you different times. He's always
said that you're so close-knit, if one of you gets a headache,
you all have to take an aspirin. It's the in-laws that seem to
have a tough time in the Dishman family. You get in the Dishman family
and you're sort of out and in. You know, you're in because you're
married to one of them, but you're out, really. Clarence married
Gail, one of the Dishman sisters, and he said about him and another
brother-in-law, he said if they were falling over a cliff, he
said they'd be the last ones to get pulled up. Going to get
all the family first. In-laws come last. It's a joy. It's been too long.
It's been a long time since I've been here. And it's good to see
everybody. I want you to look with me this
morning in God's Word in Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4, and I want to
begin reading in verse 35. An incident that took place in
our Lord's life when He was upon this earth in His humanity And
very interesting, very interesting story. And I want to read beginning
in verse 35 of Mark chapter 4, down through verse 41. Mark chapter 4, verse 35. And
the same day when the evening was come, he said to them, to
his disciples, his apostles, let us pass over unto the other
side. 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. And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat unto the ship, so that it
was now full. And he was in the hinder part
of the ship asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him, and said
unto him, Master, curest thou not that we perish? And he arose,
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are
ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly,
and said one to another, What manner of man is this? that even
the wind and the sea obey him." Well, I've often read this, and
I thought this was one of my favorite incidences, but I realized
that next week, one of the other incidences that took place. So
that's the way we are. We read the Scriptures, there
are things sometimes that are so appealing to us. But this
is truly a wonderful, wonderful miracle that took place here.
when our Lord crossed this Sea of Galilee. And I want to look
at it this morning with you from three different perspectives. First of all, I want to look
at it as it really happened. I think as we read about our
Lord healing these people and giving life to them, one of the
things that we need to look at first is what really happened
here. It's a wonderful thing that happened. Our Lord was preaching,
had been preaching here to these multitudes. And they were there
on the sea. He was actually out on the edge
of the sea on a boat and had been preaching to them. And on
this Sea of Galilee. He spent so much time here around
this sea. He loved this place. He loved
the scenery. He loved the fishing. He loved
the time of relaxing and the time of preaching to the people
and visiting with them. The disciples, most of them,
were raised upon this sea. They fished it all the time. They called it a sea. It was
13 miles long, about 8 miles wide, but it sat in a pocket
up in northern Galilee. And if you ever get a chance
to view some photographs of this sea, if you're looking north,
There are some huge mountains that rise up on the east side
of this sea, almost 2,000 feet up in the air. And just north
is Mount Hermon. You see it most of the year,
it's got snow caps on this mountain. And the problem with these storms
was the cold air would come down from Mount Hermon and dive down
upon the warm air upon this lake and it would suddenly begin this
churning. This churning would create waves
that you couldn't endure if you were out on one of these little
ships fishing. This is the lake that the Lord
Jesus was sitting in this ship. He tells his disciples, Get in
the ship and let's go across to the other side." And we don't
know how long they were on the sea to get to the other side.
We don't know if it was now dark, they were in the midst of the
sea, but suddenly one of these churning storms came. And boy, the lightning was blinding
their eyes, the wind was burning their face with this mist blowing,
thunder vibrating their chest, and they thought, what in the
world are we going to do? We're going to perish out here.
The Lord Jesus was asleep on a pillar. They have little beds
on these ships where they often sit, or even tuck them out, and
He was asleep. And they went and woke Him up
and said, don't you care that we're ready to perish? And then
something absolutely amazing happened. Something that they'd
never seen before. They'd never heard anything like
it before. And I'm sure to their dying days
they never forgot. Jesus of Nazareth stood up. I don't know if he stood up on
his little cot. I don't know if he walked to
the bow of the boat. I don't know, but he stood up. And he just looked out at the
stars. the raging of the sea, and the wind blowing and whistling,
and He simply said, Peace. Be still. I don't know if He
said it, I don't know if He cried, Peace! Be still! He wouldn't have had to cry.
But He said that, and suddenly, suddenly, there was a calm The
waters become smooth. There was not so much as a breeze. And these apostles, they were
astounded. They were speechless. All they
could do was look at him and look at one another and say,
what manner of man is this? We know he's a man. It's obvious
that he's a man. We've had to wake him up. He's
been exhausted from preaching and going all day. He's a man. But what manner of man is he?
That's what astounded them. They knew he was a man. They
leaned on his breast. They smelled of his sweat. They'd watched him sometimes
as he grew thirsty, as he grew hungry and had to sit weary and
wait for food to be brought to him. He was a man. Mary knew that he was a man.
She obviously told him many times. I remember when I brought him
forth from my womb. I washed him. I put swaddling
clothes on him. I hung him on my breast. I watched
him grow up into manhood. He's a man. But what manner of
man is he? He told the Pharisees one day,
he said, I and my Father are one. Oh, my soul. I and my Father
are one, not just in purpose. Not that we have the same wills,
but in essence. My Father is eternal. I am eternal. I am one with my Father. And
they picked up stones to stone Him. And He said, Why do you
want to stone Me? Because you are being a man. He is a man. But what manner of man is He?
that He can speak to the wind and it will obey Him. Speak to
the raging seas and suddenly there's a calm. He's a God-man,
isn't He? What a miracle this was. He is
the God-man. You and I have a reverence for
nature. We have a healthy respect for nature. There is such a thing
as nature. But nature has a God. And this
God is Jesus of nature. He created nature. And nature
is subject to Him. He can let nature take its course,
and when He does that, sometimes we can predict it, can't we?
Other times He interferes with nature. He guides nature. He can say to the sun as He does
every day, arise. Or He can say to the sun, be
still. Or He can say to the sun, go
backwards. He's not subject to nature. He's
nature's God. And nature is subject to Him.
He plants His footsteps in the sea. And He rides upon the stars. peace be still. What manner of
man is this that the winds obey him, the seas obey his voice? Charles Spurgeon told about the Napoleon Bonaparte of France. He got so arrogant and so proud
that he took his chair one day down to the beach and he said,
I'm going to defy the tide Spurgeon said if he hadn't moved him and
his chair would have been washed away. There's one that can say,
here the two shall you come, and no father. And that's this
man, Jesus of Nazareth. What manner of man is this? He's
the God-man. And you know what makes this
so wonderful? It really happened. It really happened. What manner
of man is this? That's the first way that you
and I want to look at this this morning. The second way, and
this is the way the old Puritans used to look at these passages,
spiritualizing it. There are some spiritual lessons.
We can spiritualize what we read this incident and learn a lot
from it. For instance, we can learn something here of our calling. We see are calling you. What
were these men doing out on this lake to begin with? Why were
they even in this storm? Did they just decide one day? Did Peter get them together and
say, listen now, this is what I want to do. I want us to go
over this lake to the other side." And some of them said, well,
I don't think we should go. You know how these storms are.
Let's wait and go early in the morning and we'll have the daylight
hours. And Peter persuaded them and finally they decided to go
across the lake. Is that what happened? What were
they doing out here? We see our calling in this, don't
we? Why did they get in this boat to go across to the other
side? The Lord Jesus told them to. There they stood, he was
preaching to them. And suddenly he looked at his
apostles and said, get in the ship. We're going to the other
side. Isn't that not our calling? What is it this morning? And
let me put this question to you. You were just serving your sins. You were living in your sins.
The devil was guiding you around. You loved it there? What is it that brought you to
the Lord Jesus Christ? What is it that put you on this
Christian voyage? What is it that got you pointed
towards heaven's coast? Did you just wake up one morning
and decide that you wanted to start going to church and you
came forward in a worship service? Somebody talked you into making
a decision for Christ? What happened to you? You were
called. You were called. That's what
got you. That's what's got you in these
storms. That's what's giving you this
hope of getting to the other side. You've been called, just
like these men were called. No man ever truly repented of
sins. Not truly. No man ever came to
the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved by Him. No man ever got on this
Christian voyage but those who are called. My sheep hear my
voice. All of them do. And they follow
me. That's our calling. That's the
first thing we see from this isn't it? And the second thing
we can see this also, in verse 36 it says, they sent away the
multitude. Now there's a spiritual lesson
in that. They sent away the multitude.
When the Lord Jesus said, let's go across, you come and go with
me, what did they do? They sent away everybody else.
When the Lord calls us, what do we do? You've got someone that's hindering
you from obeying Christ, what do you do? You send him away.
You've got some lust that you've been sucking on to keep you from
the Lord Jesus, what do you do? You send it away. Whatever it
is that is between you and seeks to hinder you from coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ, it's got to go. You know there are some
people, they would never consider coming to a small congregation
like this. Too small. Too small. What do
you do about your young people? Do you have a young people's
church? No. What about singles classes? You have a lot of people that
participate in the social activities in your church. No, it's sort
of boring here really. We come here and we sing a couple
of songs. We read the Scripture. We pray and we preach. That's
all we do. We've got 50 or 60 of us. Well,
that's not my priority. We want a crowd. But when a man's
conscience becomes burdened with his sin, when he becomes concerned
with true worship and the truth, crowds will be sent away. Your priorities will change. You'll want the gospel. You'll
want the truth. It doesn't matter if those two
or three are gathered. I want to be in their midst.
You'll send the crowds away? I don't know if James and John
and Peter and these other apostles, maybe their moms and dads were
there. Maybe some dear friends were there, saying, please, spend
the night with us. We're having a family reunion.
Don't go with him today, you can follow him tomorrow. No,
no, no. He says, let's go across to the
other side. And so they send the multitude
away. What a spiritual lesson. And notice this, I think the
Holy Spirit, when He puts these words in here like this, He means
to teach us something. They're in verse 36, and they
took Him. They took Him instead of the
multitude. They took Him. You know, this word, take, is
in the Bible, and it has something that it means. You remember that
phrase where the Lord Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is preached
and the violent take it by force. If you've got to have
Christ, you will have Him. If you can live without Him,
you won't take Him. But if you've got to have that
life and mercy and salvation that's by Jesus Christ the Lord,
boy, you're going to take Him. They took Him. Whosoever will,
let him come and take the water of life freely. They took Him. They took Him. And look at this. They took Him as He was. Isn't that wonderful? They took
Him just as He was. You know, you can't make Jesus
Christ something that He's not and then take Him. You've got
to take Him just as He is. You know, one of the most dangerous
things in our day, people have their own criteria for everything. They've got their criteria for
who God really is. They make a God in their own
imaginations and they receive that God and they believe in
that God. They have it in their minds what Jesus Christ attempted
to do but failed. And that's their Christ. They
have it in their mind what He requires of them, and it's not
really very much. But we've got to take Jesus Christ
as He's revealed in the Word of God. Who is He? He's the Lord of glory, and we
simply bow to Him. His righteousness, His own obedience
is what clothes the shame of our nakedness. And you count
your own as filthy rags. And don't put any more trust
in it. His Word is the rule of your faith. You don't care what
man believes. You don't care about the tradition
of man. What saith the Lord? That's my rule of faith and practice. And what do we do? We follow
it. We believe it. Just as it is. He that comes to God must believe
that he is. Good spiritual lesson. And in
the parallel passage to this, in Matthew chapter 8 verse 23,
it says, They entered into the ship, and the disciples followed
him. That's a good spiritual lesson. That's all they did after he
called them. They were fishing, and some were
mending their nets, some were collecting taxes, but he came
by and says, Follow me. And they always followed him,
and wherever he went, They followed him. My sheep hear my voice,
and they follow me. My dad, bless his heart, for
as I know, he died lost. For as I know, he died lost.
Fellas on the internet the other day, falsely accusing me, lying
on me, and said I give my dad a hope. I can't give anybody
hope. If I give you hope, God have
mercy upon you. I never gave my dad any hope,
but that's none of my business anyway. But he and I were talking
one day about the Lord's sheep. And he said, well, I believe
I'm one of his sheep. And I said, Dad, I don't know
if you are or not. I don't have any way of knowing that, but
I tell you this, if you're not following Him, you have no right
to believe Him. If we're His, what do we do?
We follow Him. We may find some storms, and
we will in our lives, but we follow Him. Through difficult
times, we follow Him. Through our infirmities, falling
and failing, we follow Him. By His grace, we follow Him.
Oh, and these waters, these deep waters, these troubled waters,
boy, is that not a spiritual way to look at our lives? You
know it, don't you? I don't have to mention that
to you. You know it. Some of you know it. But you
know this too, that when the Master stands and speaks to your
storm, there's a calm. There's a calm. Let's quickly
go on to this, okay? The third thing is this. I want
to look at this thirdly and lastly this way. I want to consider
it just as it happened and see what spiritual lessons we can
learn from it. And I think the key in learning
from this aspect is found here in verse 40. Look at it in verse
40 again. I think here is the lesson that
you and I have to learn from this as believers. He said in
verse 40, he said unto them, Why are you so fearful? How is
it that you have no faith? Two questions. Why are you so
fearful? This is a question, brothers
and sisters, that you should ask yourself in all your circumstances
that you're overwhelmed with a tormenting fear. Stop and ask
yourself this question, why am I so afraid? And you know the question goes
much deeper than the obvious. The obvious and all of us can
answer and say, well, it's because of this storm. Lord, look at the storm. Look
at these waves. The lightning lightened up the
skies on this lake. The ship is almost full of water. It's obvious what we're fearful
of. We're fearful of this storm. But you know, that's not so. That's too obvious. We have to
go deeper than that. Here's the true reason, and it's
a much deeper reason. Their fearfulness was based upon
that assumption that they were going to perish. They weren't
afraid of this storm. They were afraid this storm was
going to be their demise. This storm was going to take
them down in the dark waters. We're going to perish. Why are
you so fearful? We're going to perish. This storm
is going to get us. We're not going to make it across.
We're going down in these black waters. We're going to perish.
That's why I'm afraid. If they had been persuaded that
this storm was only temporary, that it was just a bump in the
road, that it was only a passing trial on their way to the other
side, their fear would have been dispelled. What's the first lesson our Lord
Jesus is teaching them here? The first lesson, I think, is
this. As believers, we've got to learn to listen more closely. Now, they heard Him when He said,
Let's go across to the other side. That's why they got in
the ship. They heard what He said, but they didn't hear Him
very well, did they? It didn't sink down deep into
their hearts. What should they have done? Just what you and
I should do. Listen more carefully. Read the
Word more slowly and prayerfully. Every Word of God is pure. He's a shield to those who put
their trust in Him. Every Word. Share every Word. They did not get this into their
hearts. Let us go over. to the other side. Did they hear that? No. They got the shallow part of
that in their poor brains. And they jumped into the boat
and said, let's go! Until they hit the storm. And
then they really didn't have the Word in their hearts, did
they? Do you ever do that? Did you ever read so fastly,
so swiftly, And then when the storm comes, you didn't have
nothing there to hang on to, because you never got it past
the top of your brain, into your heart. Isn't that special? Was there anything in this statement
that would have dispelled their fears? They didn't doubt Him. They never
really doubted Him. They knew that he was the truth. They knew that he was the true
witness. He never tried to appeal to people. He never did try to
win people's sympathy or their emotions. He never compromised
with anybody just to make them his friends or to get them to
follow him. Boy, they knew that when he said
it, that was the truth. They never doubted him. The problem
was they never heard him. They just didn't get it into
their hearts. And therefore it led them to
this wrong assumption that they would perish by this star. But if they had listened and
had believed what he said, their fears would have been dispelled.
And I believe this. If they had listened to Him and
got His Word down in their heart, they'd have never been afraid
to start with Him. When this sudden fear came, what would
they say? We're going across to the other
side. We may have to row hard, we may have to endear these ways,
we may get seasick, but one thing about it, we're not going to
perish in this storm. And I think the Holy Spirit tells
us that here in verse 1 of chapter 5, look at this. Isn't it wonderful
how the Holy Spirit put this word in here like this? Look
what He says in chapter 5 and verse 1. He said up here in verse
35 of chapter 4, let us fast over to the other side. Then
He comes down in verse 1 and says, they came over to the other
side. It always happens that way, does
it not? Well, unless we hit a storm,
gentlemen. Unless something happens. Unless
the wind ceases to blow your sails. Unless you lose an oar
or two and we're stuck. There's nothing unconditional
about this. It was a command. This was His
will. Let us pass over. Did they perish? Well, their
fears were unfounded then. Ain't that right? It was a false
assumption. We make it all the time. David
said, I'll perish one day at the hands of Saul. No, you won't. As the Lord Jesus called you
on this Christian voyage, is that why you're in this storm?
Well, He's already said, you're going to the other side. Here's the second part of this
question. See, there's two parts of this question. Why are you
so fearful? Well, a false assumption. Knowledge. Doesn't that have
to do with knowledge? Fear in what he says. And then
this. How is it that you have no faith? Now, these men have faith. We
know that. They said you are the Christ.
The Son of the Living God. They did believe in Him. But
when He's saying here, how is it that you have no faith? He's
saying, how is it that you have no exercise of faith in what
I've said? How is it that you don't believe
what I just told you? Let us cross over to the other
side. You don't believe that, do you? You're not living by
faith and therefore you're fearful. That's why you're fearful. Why
didn't they exercise faith in His Word? Because faith comes
by hearing. And they never heard what He
said. Let's go across to the other
side. If they had heard it, then their
faith could have taken hold upon what He said. And what would
that have done? Well, that would have produced
hope. Faith produces hope. And what
does hope do? It conquers you. Remember the
word to thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort. In the midst
of the storm, what if Peter had said in his heart, now listen,
now listen, I am not going to perish in this storm. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
me, let us go across to the other side. Therefore, I'm going to
cross. And his faith took hold of that
word. And he says, I have a good hope.
And a good hope conquers you, doesn't it? That's one thing, to be saved.
It's another thing to live by faith upon Him that saved you. But he said more than this. He
said, let us. Did you notice that? Let us pass
over to the other side. Here was the Son of God in this
ship with him. Did they think he was going down,
I wonder? No, I doubt it. They thought that. He could get
out and walk on the water if he wanted. He's not going down.
Then how did they think they were going down? They were in
the ship with Him. If they perished, He would have
to perish. Christ could not go over by Himself
and leave their drowned bodies in the lake of Galilee. If they didn't make it, neither
would He. Let us pass over to the other
side. Can you see the Lord Jesus standing
on the east side of this lake? And the waves are washing up
pieces of the ship. And there lies John's lifeless
body on the shore. And the Lord remembers when he
leaned upon his breast. There lies Peter, the one who
says, I believe and I'm sure that you're the Christ. And he's
looking down at him. How does he possibly face himself? My dearest friends, why were
they on this seat to begin with? I was responsible. I called on
Him. I got Him out in the midst and
I hit this thorn and I've lost Him. How could He possibly face
Himself? Oh, brothers and sisters, if
you ever believe such a thing, repent of it. That the Lord Jesus
would call one of His and bring them on this Christian voyage,
and in the midst of the storm, lose them. There he is in heaven
at his father's right hand. And he says, Father, I've got
some awful sad news. I've lost the one that you gave
me. Oh, Perry, such an awful blasphemous
thought. What would it mean to you this
morning If you could live every day of
your life with this knowledge and this faith, that your eternal
happiness had been fixed. How would that affect you as
you faced your storms? Are you here this morning and
you're in Christ? Your eternal happiness is fixed.
It's fixed. God the Father has purposed it.
His purpose. I don't remember preaching that,
but it's fixed. Those He foreknew, He predestinated to be conformed
to the image of His Son. Those He predestinated, He called. Then He called, He justified.
Then He justified, He glorified. It's all in the past. You cannot
rescind history. It's fixed by the purpose of
God. God Himself has fixed your eternal
happiness. The death of Jesus Christ has
fixed it. The just for the unjust. Why? That He might bring us to God,
all the way to God. And the Holy Spirit fixed it.
I will give you another Comforter and He shall abide with you for
how long? Forever. Forever. Forever. I think it's very telling that
the Lord Jesus was still in the ship when they got to shore. And so
were all of them. You know what the Bible says
about Him? This is how faithful He is. This is how faithful He
is to you that have been called by Him that's out on this sea
of life. This is how faithful He is. Though we believe not,
yet He abideth faithfully. He cannot deny Himself. If He gives command, which is
nothing but a promise, And Ben doesn't fulfill that promise,
he has denied his word. And if he's denied his word,
he's denied himself. And that's impossible. You're
in the ship with him, he's in the ship with you, you're one
in this ship, and both of you are going to the other side.
As a matter of fact, he's already taken heaven for you. He's the
forerunner who has entered yonder within the veil for He won't
be in heaven and have his body upon this earth forever. And
he won't lose a one along the way. Why is it that you have
no faith? Why is it that you have such
little faith? I've often wondered what might
have happened on this voyage. If these apostles would have
merely exercised faith in His Word, and I don't know what other
word to use, maybe this isn't the right word, exercising faith,
but that's what we hillbillies understand though. You know what
it is about exercising? Exercising faith. I wonder what
would have happened. I wonder, this sounds really
funny, I know this. I wonder if they would have really
lived off of faith on him. If they couldn't have just jumped
out of this ship and began to skip across the water, leap over
the waves, and shout and sing. You say, Bruce, that's plum ridiculous,
isn't it? Yeah. Peter did it, did he not? This wasn't the first storm they'd
got in. The Lord Jesus come walking on the waves another time. And
they were scared to death. And Peter said, Lord, is that
really you? He said, it's me. Lord, if it's
you, bend me coming to you. He said, come on. And Peter jumped
out and landed on the waves. He was walking on the water,
divine nature. And what happened? He started
looking around. He took his eye off the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he says, Ma'am, I've fished
this lake all my life. I've never seen a storm like
this. And he looked yonder, there came
a wave twenty foot high. And he said, Ma'am, this one
has got me. And down he started to go. And
began to cry, Lord save me. I'm just saying this, brothers
and sisters. I truly believe if they had lived upon faith
in Him and His Word, they could have jumped out of this boat.
They could have skipped and danced and shouted. You can defy nature when you
trust Christ's Word. You must defy nature. to follow
Him. Well, some of you know what it
is to be in trial, don't you? Here's the only advice I
can give any of us. Stop looking around. Stop getting our eyes off of
Him. Stop listening. When these storms scream in our
ears, you're going down, boy. You ain't gonna endear this thud. This one's gonna get ya. Stop
listening. Stop looking around. Fix your
eyes upon Him. And listen to nothing but His
Word. And sing. And be joyful. He will keep you in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed upon thee. Be careful for nothing, but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known to God. And what happens? The peace of
God, which paths us all understanding, which defies the storms of life,
which lifts you up above nature, will keep your hearts and your
minds. through Christ. These storms aren't sent to hurt
us. That's difficult to see that when you're in the midst of it.
No storm in a child of God's life is sent to hurt him. The storm itself is not good.
The Lord Jesus rebuked this storm. But they yet have a purpose behind
They're to teach you to listen closer. They're to teach us to
live by faith upon His Word. That's where He's honored. Put
Him to the test. Try Him, if you will. And you'll
see. You'll see. The storm won't hurt
you, Jacob. You're not going to perish. And
He loves it when you say that to yourself. Because you're taking
Him at His Word. Can we pray? Oh, our Father, our covenant
Father in heaven. Our Father, our eternal Father, who chose us before we had a
being, wrote our names down in your book of life before the
world ever existed. Our Father, we lift our voices
to you this morning. Lord Jesus, the Son of God, who
purchased us with your own precious blood, who redeemed us from sin
and death, we give thanks unto your name. Holy Spirit who has
called us, who has made us feel the load of our sin, who has
revealed the Lord Jesus and the power of His blood to our conscience,
who is our sealer, our advocate within. Oh, our triune God, God
our Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, In the trinity
of your sacred persons, we lift praise and honor and glory unto
your name this morning. We worship you, we bow to you,
we own you as our God, and we're amazed at what you've done for
us. That you would visit us and redeem
us at so great a cost to yourself. Our Father, we love you. Lord
Jesus, we love you. Blessed Holy Spirit, we love
you. Oh, our triune and eternal God, we love your name. We pray this day for your pity,
for your sympathy. We pray your mercies upon this
congregation, upon the pastor, upon Mary, upon each one that
assembles here week after week to worship you, We pray that you'll use this
dear man. Mold him. Form him. Take everything away but that
which is your image. And give him grace to withstand.
And take your word as he preaches through much weakness in himself.
And use it to honor your glorious person. Use it for the good of
those who are gathered here. Oh Lord in heaven. We pray these
things in the glorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Brother Donnie. 228.