Don't Be Afraid... Come! | Rev. Adam Hamilton | Church of the Resurrection

10:26 and to be with you at all of our locations, the foundry and of course here at our Leawood location. And I'm preaching today in part because we are dedicating our new chapel, our new Wesley Chapel at our Leawood location. So I wanted to be here for the dedication of the chapel. I've been worshiping with resurrection each week at various locations and often here at Leawood, but often online when I'm traveling over the weekend. And it's been a joy to just be a worshiper, but it's great to have a chance to preach today. And we are dedicating our new chapel. This chapel is available for anyone at any of our locations. Those of you who are watching online or on TV, you're welcome to use it to come and pray. It's available for weddings, for funerals, and of course our 7.30 service on Sunday mornings, special baptismal services and others. And this weekend, the passage of scripture you just heard is what inspired the design of this chapel. And I thought you might enjoy seeing what it looks like. So let's go ahead and run some tape here. and you'll see the outside of the chapel is meant to conjure up the image of a boat. As we think of this as the boat the disciples were in as they were on the Sea of Galilee at night in the middle of the storm.

11:24 You walk through the waves on either side. The carpet, which isn't installed yet, looks like waves. And then as you come in, in the ceiling, there is a sail on the left-hand side. The sides of the chapel on the bottom are wood, just like a boat. And as you come up to the front, you see Christ walking on the water. And you as disciples are sitting in the room and Christ is coming in the middle of the storm and his arms are outstretched and the waves are parting and he's saying, it's me, don't be afraid. Now, before we step into the scripture passage and really try to understand it today, I do wanna just take a word, take a moment to say thank you. I wanna thank you for allowing Levon and me to pursue what I believe is a calling and to allow us time away. And I appreciate your encouragement and your prayers and everything that you've done. We feel it and we're really grateful for you in that. I want to tell you, it's been, people have asked me, you know, how are you doing? And I will just say, it's been an adventure.

12:17 It's exhausting, but it's also fun and exhilarating. And we've had a chance to go places we'd never been in Kansas and to see things we'd never seen and to meet people we never would have met. When I think of a couple of the fun places we've been, we were in Cocker City recently, Cocker City, Kansas. There's not even a stoplight in the town. But I talked about this town in sermons in the past because they're home to the world's largest ball of twine. Here's a picture. and it's right there in the center. And the next day, the school students were gonna come and wrap it around with twine again. And there I am touching the gray ball of twine. And people across the country know about Cocker City. And we went there, we went from there, we went to Lebanon, Kansas. And Lebanon, Kansas is just south of the Nebraska border. It's just a few miles from where the song Home, Home on the Range was written. And it's the geographic center of the United States. There's a little chapel there. And here's a picture, a little chapel that's there. You could probably see eight people in the chapel, and there's a monument there that marks the geographic center of the lower 48 contiguous states.

13:19 Bruce Springsteen was there actually a few years ago. He filmed a commercial for the 2021 Super Bowl, and you may remember this commercial. Here's just a bit. Take a look. there's a chapel in kansas standing on the exact center of the lower 48 it never closes all are more than welcome to come meet here in the middle i love that spot it was a spot for a jeep but i'll tell you that the greatest joy for us hasn't been the things we've seen but it's been the people that we've met listening to their stories meeting with farmers and ranchers and all kinds of school teachers, stay-at-home moms, and people in Western Kansas and Southern Kansas, Eastern Kansas and Northern Kansas. And it's just been a joy. And I'm gonna tell you a couple of the stories of some of those people while I'm sharing this sermon with you today. All right, I'd love to invite you, if you have a pen and paper, take it out, write down, take some notes, write down the things you'd like to remember and reflect upon after the sermon today.

14:17 I wanna begin with where our gospel story takes place. So it takes place on the Sea of Galilee. And I want me to remind you where the Sea of Galilee is. So this is the Holy Land. This is the Mediterranean Sea. Actually, let's change colors here. This is the Holy Land, Mediterranean Sea out here. This is Jordan over here. Here is the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, which links to the Dead Sea here. Let's take a little closer look. And as we do that, we find the Sea of Galilee. It's shaped like a heart. And that was another name for the Sea of Galilee. It's a name that meant harp in Hebrew. And the story takes place on the northern shoreline. And actually, it's interesting. I'll just pause here for a moment. It's interesting that each of the Gospels is told in Matthew, Mark, and in John's Gospel, not in Luke. and each of them tell it just a little bit differently. So there's some confusion as to where the story actually takes place. But in Matthew's account, it's thought that it took place, well, in all the accounts, it takes place after Jesus has fed the 5,000. And then he tells his disciples, it's evening. And he tells his disciples to get in the boat and to head to the other side.

15:12 And then while they're in the boat, Jesus stays on the land and he continues to pray there by himself. But just to show you, to go back to the map, in Matthew's account, it would seem like this story takes place perhaps right over here. This is Bethsaida, and they were going to make their journey over here to Gennesor. At least that's where the story ends up. So having this in mind, what happens during the story is a storm comes up while the disciples are at sea. And when that storm comes up, it blows them off course. And the storm was scary. It was frightening. Here's what Matthew records. The boat, fighting a strong headwind, was being battered by the waves and was already far away from land. John tells us it was far away from land. it was two and a half to three miles away from land. So it had been blown to the center of the Sea of Galilee. That was the deepest point of the Sea of Galilee, about 143 feet. And there they are in the darkness, you know, being battered by the waves in the storm.

16:08 Now, this story is told in three gospels. And in Matthew's gospel, he has two different versions of storms that are happening at the Sea of Galilee. One is in Matthew chapter eight. Both of them are pointing to the same thing. And all three gospels are pointing to the same thing. These stories are not simply telling us about a storm that happened a long time ago. with Jesus in the boat, the story's about us. Like when we read it, we're meant to remember that what Jesus did a long time ago for the disciples is what he still does in our lives today. And so the first point to be made in this message is that storms happen. There are storms that happen at life. Now, the storms that happen in life, sometimes they're just normal storms, like we see in this story. We've had a lot of big storms here in Kansas City recently, so that there was microbursts and there was some severe damage, maybe tornadoes in Wyandotte County recently, and damage still being cleaned up and terrible hailstorms and thunder and lightning. It's been pretty dramatic this summer, the storms we've had.

17:00 And of course, we see this around the world right now. The other day, we were having one of those storms. It was probably about six in the morning and I was still asleep. I'd gone to bed late and still asleep. And I was awakened by one of our four-legged friends who sleeps in our bed. So we have Maybelle and Rocky and Rocky had made his way all the way up to my chest. and I was laying on my back asleep and I could smell his breath and I could feel him breathing on me. And when I woke up and I saw him there, I grabbed my phone off my table next to the bed and I took this picture. Here it is, Rocky on my chest. So he's scared of the storms and he wants to get as close to his master's face as possible. Now, I don't know if you've ever been in a storm where you were afraid like my dog was then. And I'm not talking about lightning and thunder. Sometimes those are super scary like it was for the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. but I'm just talking about the storms that happen in life because there are storms.

17:53 This is a metaphor for what happens in our lives and things that happen that are so scary, we just can't even imagine how we're gonna survive. We lose, you know, we just, we can't hardly breathe. And we find ourselves, you know, if you're a person of faith, desperately crying out, God, if you're there, please help me, please help me. Now, these kinds of storms happen in all of our lives. Sometimes they're quite severe, sometimes they're mild, but we find ourselves afraid, uncertain about the future. Now, again, as I've been traveling over the last few months, I've been meeting people, and I meet a lot of people who are walking through storms, whether it's what's happening in their crops or what's happening to their business or what's happening in their personal lives. I was in Great Bend, and there were a gathering of people in a coffee shop, and I was talking with them, and one man was in a wheelchair. And when we were finished, I went over to sit down and talk to him. I just said, tell me your story. And he said, well, he said, I'm a school teacher. He taught school for 30 years, and he just retired a year ago. So last May, he'd retired.

18:46 And he said, one of the things that I've done is I've done magic shows during the summertime. So he would, for 26 years, he put together magic shows built around the themes that were used by the National Library Consortium as a group of public libraries. And so across Kansas, he would do a number of magic shows built around this theme. He really loved that. And so he decided he would retire and just focus on his magic shows. Now, he happened to be in Colorado. It was November of this last year, November 2025. He was in Colorado. and he and his wife were in their car and they were stopped on the on-ramp onto I-70. So the traffic was backed up and he was on the on-ramp, but apparently somebody had come onto the on-ramp and wasn't paying attention and they were barreling forward pretty fast and they rammed right into the back of Dan's car. Here's a picture of his car.

19:33 And when I saw that, he said, you know, the next thing I know, he said, you know, I was thrown forward and he said then, you know, I found I could hardly breathe. And then I blacked out. And the next thing I know, I was in the hospital. Now, here's a picture of Dan when he's doing his magic shows last year. And I think we've got another one too, when he's on his knees with the kids. And like, you know, he loves doing these things. And he said, you know, I realized when I was in the hospital, I couldn't feel my legs. And he said, you know, I'm paralyzed from the waist down from that accident. like talk about a storm that's happened in life right and where you can hardly breathe and it just feels overwhelming what's just happened what's my life going to look like how am i going to survive this i'm going to tell you the rest of dan's story when we get to the end of the sermon but all of us at times feel storms crashing in it's not maybe so severe as what happened with dan the magic man but we all have storms that happen in life i wonder when was the last storm you went through, the last time that you were going through something that was frightening or unsettling, or you weren't sure how the future was going to work out or if it was going to work out at all.

20:43 But I'm pretty sure you know what it's like to walk through a storm in this life. All right, so let's continue with Matthew's account. We read, very early in the morning, Jesus came to his disciples walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified and said, it's a ghost. They were so frightened, they screamed. Just then Jesus spoke to them, be encouraged, it's me, don't be afraid. Let me show you once more on the Sea of Galilee where this story is taking place. So in Matthew's account anyway, it seems to be maybe right here around Bethsaida and they were going somewhere to this side of the lake. Here's the Jordan River flowing in and flowing out. And when you cross the lake, you're crossing this imaginary line of the Jordan River. So they were heading this direction, but they were blown off course. And as they were blown off course, they end up somewhere in the middle of the lake. John tells us two and a half or three miles away.

21:36 They end up in the middle of the lake, the deepest portion of the lake. And there they are, afraid. And it's interesting, Matthew tells us this happens on the fourth watch of the night. The fourth watch of the night was from three to six in the morning. So they left at sunset. They should have taken just an hour to get from Bethsaida to Gennesar, where they were going. But instead, they had been blown off course. And for what was that? From, say, nine o'clock at night, eight or nine o'clock at night. until three in the morning for six hours. They'd been battling the storm, soaking wet, terrified, exhausted. And at that moment, Jesus comes walking to them on the water. Now, I love this. This is what Jesus says next. He says, be encouraged. It's me. Don't be afraid. So Jesus sees them in the middle of the lake. Now, he allows them to wrestle with the water and the storm for some time.

22:27 But then he comes to them. He comes to them and he says to them these words. Listen again, be encouraged. It's me. Don't be afraid. I love that. I love that. And in fact, I'm gonna ask you to say that with me because I want you to just have this etched in your mind what Jesus says. He says, be encouraged. Say it out loud with me. Be encouraged. It's me. Don't be afraid. A couple of weeks ago, I went to stop by to see one of our members who had hospice now coming to see him. And he had prostate cancer, and that prostate cancer had metastasized to his bones. And I just felt like I wanted to show up and be Christ's presence for him. That's what I was praying when I walked in. Lord, please help me to be your presence for this man who I dearly love. I walked into his room, and he just lit up, and he was sitting there in his chair. I don't think he's able to walk anymore. I'm not sure. But I went over, and I took his hand, and he grabbed my hand. He said, I can't tell you what it means to me to see you today.

23:22 and I said I came here to remind you that Jesus is in the boat with you Jesus is in the boat with you and this is what he said to his disciples I told him this story I said I'm going to be preaching on this and I said you know what Jesus said was be encouraged it's me don't be afraid I want you to remember you know that Jesus is here in the boat with you and I asked him I said how are you feeling you know what's going through your mind right now what's you know and he said well sometimes I just get really scared. And he says sometimes I just can't stop crying. And I said you know that's normal. That's okay to be afraid. And it's okay to cry. But I said when when you're most afraid I just want you to remember he's in the boat with you. And I said look around at your room. This is your boat right now. This is your boat. And he still comes coming walking on the water to you. And he says be encouraged. It's me. Don't be afraid. And when you're most afraid, I just want you to say, Jesus, I know you're in the boat with me.

24:19 I know you're in the boat with me. It's gonna be okay. And it is gonna be okay. Now we make that decision by faith. And by the way, I went to try to physically remind him of that. I mean, I was praying, Lord, use my hand as I hold his hand to be a reminder that you have a hold of his hand all the time. So there are moments it's gonna be scary. And by faith, we decide, we choose to believe that Christ is with us in the midst of the storms. Our master is with us in the midst of the storms. I recently visited friends, Mac and Lisa Titchener. They are in Dallas. They're good Methodist people. And I was in Dallas for an event. And I stayed at their home that night. And the next morning, I said, you know, just remind me of Willie's story. So Willie is their son. He passed away a number of years ago in 2006, if I remember correctly. And when he was in high school, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma.

25:14 Here's a picture of Willie, a beautiful kid, amazing young man, and very active in his faith and in his church. And this was a storm that came to their lives that was terrifying. And over the next three years, Willie would have surgery after surgery. He would be receiving chemotherapy treatment. At one point, things were looking good. And then the osteosarcoma returned and more repeated routes, bouts of chemotherapy, lungs collapsing, all kinds of things. So Mac was telling me, his dad, he said, you know, two days before he passed, I walked into his room. Now at this point, he's, I think he's 20 years old, maybe 21. And he said, And Willie asked me, he said, Dad, he shall reign, right? He shall reign.

26:07 And he recognized the words, Mack recognized the words, coming from Handel's Messiah from the Hallelujah Chorus. And so Mack found the song and began to play it for Willie. And he said, after this, Willie began to sing it. He began to just belt it out. And I could picture this, him belting out two days before his death. and he shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I think what this meant to him as he was singing, as he was remembering, Christ was with him. Christ is bigger and stronger than any storm. And as he sang the words, it brought him peace. Now, Lisa, his mom told me the last day of his life, she walked in and she noticed when I looked at him, I'm reading, I'm quoting Lisa. When I looked at him, I could tell there'd been a physical change, but he was sporting that dazzling smile and he was singing the hallelujah chorus and he looked so happy.

27:01 And that was the last song he would ever sing. Even when the storm ends in death here, we know that death doesn't have the final word and that he shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah. Amen. Now, it's interesting when we, when other people are going through the storms, You know, you're meant to do what I did for Jake at his room at the Assisted Living Center. I walked in to be Christ's presence. I sought to incarnate Jesus for him. And I try to do that every day in my life. I pray, Lord, help me to be your presence for somebody else. But you know, it's not just pastors who do that. You don't need a master of divinity degree to do that. Every single one of us are called to come alongside other people when they're walking through the storms in life to be their life raft, to be their safety, to hold their hand, to remind them, to be a physical reminder that Christ is with them. And I asked Lisa and Mac, I said, so how did you find that in your life while you were going through the storm, while Willie was sick and then after his death? And Lisa sent me this document. It's six pages long.

28:11 And through it, there are like, I think I counted 100 and maybe 105, maybe more Different ways that she recounted people were the presence of Christ when Willie was sick and in the aftermath. She called it the ways they said, I love you. And right away, they brought food. They brought it for a year, then two, then three. They helped us get in touch with doctors at crucial times. They researched ideas for us. They came to his brother's high school reunion. They ran errands for us. They helped us think of the questions we needed to ask the doctors. They sent us Bible verses. They came over and hugged us. They cried with us. They took his yearbook picture before he started chemo and got it into the school yearbook with his friends. They brought him cookies. They helped us set up an apartment in Houston where he was receiving treatment. They sent posters so the walls wouldn't be bare. They came to visit every time we were there. And on and on and on and on it went. Six pages of the ways that people incarnated over the presence of Christ for the Titchener family while they were walking through the storms.

29:07 I just want to ask you, are you aware that this is part of your job as a human? And I'm certain you are. But don't forget it. You see, these are the kind of things that really matter when people are walking through the storms, that you show up for them, that you do small little things without even having to be asked. Because we incarnate the presence of Christ. We come walking on the water in the midst of other people's storms.

29:32 And at moments, you know, we're the ones who are meaning to say or remind people, listen, Jesus is in the boat with you. And this is what he says, be encouraged. It's me, don't be afraid. All right. By the way, based upon the story and others with Jesus in the boat, Jesus spends a lot of time in boats going across the Sea of Galilee. The church began to see itself as the ark or the boat of salvation, that every church building is in essence one of those boats where the disciples gather together with Jesus in their midst. And so it's interesting, the architectural term for where the people sit in the sanctuary is called the nave from the Latin term navus, which means ship. And so even the architecture of our buildings is designed to say, hey, the church is a ship. It's a place where we find respite. It's a place where when Christ is in our midst, we find peace in the midst of the storms. We remember that we don't have to be afraid because he's with us.

30:27 So that's part of the value, part of the power of being a part of a faith community, the church, is to be in that ship of salvation where Christ is with us. All right, now Mark and Luke tell us this story. I'm sorry, not Mark and Luke. Mark and John tells this story just as Matthew does, but Mark and Luke only tell us about Jesus walking in the water, getting in the boat, and he calms the wind and the waves. But Matthew tells us something different. Matthew tells us that, but then he adds one detail that's so fascinating. He tells us that when Jesus is coming up walking in the water and the disciples are terrified, Simon Peter stands up. Now, the rest are huddled in the back of the boat, but Simon Peter stands up and he says, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come out on the water. I mean, what a crazy thing to say. If it's you, order me to come out on the water. And what does Jesus say? Jesus says, come, get out of the boat.

31:20 Now, I love this. Come, get out of the boat. And Simon Peter, can you just picture him? He just, I mean, I can't even imagine. The storm's still raging and he steps over the edge of the boat and he steps down into the water. Remember, there in the center of the Sea of Galilee, the deepest part, it's raining, it's wind, it's waves, and it's 143 feet down, and Simon Peter gets out of the boat, and he keeps his eyes focused on Jesus, and he starts walking towards Jesus. It's amazing. It's astounding what faith he had, but then, you remember, the waves start to come up. The wind starts to come up, and he turns over, takes his eyes off Jesus, looks at the wind and the waves, and all of a sudden, he begins to drown. He begins to sink down in the water, and he calls out, Jesus, rescue me, and Jesus grabs him, And I have this picture of Jesus grabbing him by the arm and then tossing him in the boat. And then Jesus climbs in the boat and there's perfect wind and the wind and the waves die down, perfect calm after this.

32:14 Now there's about five different sermons you could preach just from that one part of this story, but I wanna focus on one of those. And it's this idea that Jesus calls us to, to take risks and to get out of the boat. Like we're not meant to stay in the boat forever. We're meant to get out of the boat and actually step out into the waves and on the water and to take the risks to come to Jesus and to be his presence in the world around us. I mean, I love that. This week I was listening to a radio program about Dolly Parton. Of course, everywhere you turn this week, we were hearing about Dolly. I love her music. I love her songs. And there was someone who had interviewed Dolly a few years back, and this was on NPR. And he said, I interviewed Dolly, and I asked her at one point, what do you do before you got on the stage? And I'm guessing she, like many people, had stage flutters or a little bit of stage fright. Even after all that she'd done, you still find yourself a little anxious before you go in front of a crowd.

33:12 And she said, there's two things I do before I go out on the stage. I pee and I pray. I pee and I pray. And I love that. He said, well, what do you pray? And she said, I pray, Lord, please make me a blessing to all the people who are sitting out there right now. Don't you love that? Please make me a blessing to all the people who are sitting out there right now. I mean, that's the prayer I think many of you pray every day. It's the prayer I pray every morning. When I get up, I get down on my knees. You've heard me say this. I offer my life to Christ again. Here I am, Lord. I belong to you. Do with me whatever you want. Help me to pay attention. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. But this is my prayer. Make me salt and light. Help me to be a blessing to everyone that I meet. Everyone that I talk to on the phone. Help me to be a blessing today. Right, that's what Dolly was praying. every time she went on stage, just before she went out on stage.

34:04 Now, six months ago, LaVon and I, you know, so this sermon series has been about, you know, various ages and stages in life and, you know, what, you know, faith in every generation, every stage in life. And LaVon and I are in the last quarter of our life, right? We're in the last quarter of our lives, fourth quarter. And it's interesting. Sometimes you get to the fourth quarter and you think you could just kind of cruise along. It's just like, hey, hey, this is great. I get to retire. Things are going to be easier. And that's how I think I was picturing the fourth quarter. I was kind of excited about getting to the fourth quarter and thinking, you know what, we're going to just slowly move towards retirement and then it's going to be great. It's going to be travel and we're going to be at the lake and do all these things. And that sounded pretty wonderful. And then in the middle of the fourth quarter, we began to feel like, okay, wait, there's something else we're supposed to do. and it was, you know, the most frightening decision that we'd ever made to get out of the boat and to walk on the water a little bit.

35:08 Maybe there was something else I was supposed to do in the fourth quarter of my life. And, you know, I don't think I'm unique in that. If you read the scriptures, what you find throughout the scriptures is that often when people were older, they were in their fourth quarter is when God called them to do, you know, maybe the most important thing they were gonna do in their lives. I think of Moses, who's 80 years old, when God calls him at the burning bush and says, hey, you need to go back to Egypt because I got something important for you to do. I mean, he was retirement age. Or Abraham and Sarah who were, you know, enjoying their retirement in their luxury tents, you know, along the Euphrates River. And God says, no, no, I have somewhere else I need you to go. I have something else I want you to do. And throughout scripture, you find this again and again and again. And I'm just wondering, you know, of somebody who's in my fourth quarter. And to all of you who are in your fourth quarter or those who will be in your fourth quarter, you know, sometime in the not too distant future, are you ready and willing to step out of the boat?

36:07 Or are you looking for peace and safety and comfort and convenience, right? Because sometimes when there's no storm, the boat seems like a pretty awesome place to be. And it can be, and it should be. You should enjoy being in the boat sometimes. You know, we'd spend an hour and a half here every Sunday morning. But you weren't made to stay in the boat.

36:30 You were made to get out of the boat. And that's where the real adventure begins. So I was thinking about Willie. Now, after his cancer had returned, he decided he wanted to go on one last mission trip to Juarez, Mexico. And he led a group of young people to go to Juarez. and they were going to build a house. And he had to do this between chemo treatments. So the doctors sort of timed the trip around, or timed this chemo treatments around when he was going to go on this trip. His mom had to go with him just in case his lungs collapsed while he was on the trip that he was leading to build this house in Juarez, Mexico. And I thought it was fascinating. You know, one of the kids on the trip said, you know, how can you do this? Where do you find the strength to push your body so hard in this construction process, given the fact that you're so ill? And these were his words. He says, because I love the feeling that I get when I make a difference in someone else's life. Don't you love that?

37:21 Here's a picture of him on that mission trip. There he is in the center with the hat on, purple shirt, t-shirt, or blue t-shirt. And the joy on his face as they were building a house. In the middle of the storm, he'd got out of the boat and he was following Jesus and doing his work, blessing other people. Or Dan Heath, the magic man, Dan the magic man. So he told me that what he felt in that hospital as you lay in the hospital. He said he couldn't move his legs. And then all of a sudden he thought, oh, but wait, I have 31 magic shows. I've already booked for next summer, 31 magic shows. And he said, the thought of having those magic shows that I had to do was what helped me in the hospital, even though I was paralyzed. And I began thinking, well, how do I do my magic show while I'm paralyzed in a wheelchair? And it was this that drove him when he went to the hospital where he was receiving all of this treatment, all this therapy.

38:17 is what drove him was, I still got to get out there and do my magic show for these kids. Now, here's a picture of him in the wheelchair doing his magic shows this summer. And he did his 31 shows. I just talked to him before I came out to preach this sermon. And I said, so what were those magic shows about? He said, well, I was trying to teach kids about life, the meaning of life. And he said that we're better working together. And he said, one part of what I try to do is, he said, it seems like a pretty good gospel message. He said, I just try to help people remember that we're supposed to love one another. We're supposed to love one another. And then he said this, and I wrote it down. If for the rest of my life I can roll around in my wheelchair bringing joy to people, helping them to remember to love one another, what a great life that would be.

39:06 You see, he knew that the storms, I mean, he'd had some pretty serious storms. But even in the boat where he felt safety with Jesus, he was called to get out of the boat. and to go and serve. By the way, Dan's words, love one another, is the theme of this year's kindness campaign that we do every year in October, right before the elections. And, you know, there's one of the signs right here. These are available now. Let's love one another. And there's t-shirts and there's stickers and everything else. But I love this idea that we're trying to remember ourselves and trying to help other people remember that we are called to love one another. We are called to incarnate Christ's presence. We are called to get out of the boat. the safety and security of the boat and to go out and to actually live the great adventure of loving one another. All right, I wanna ask you, in your storms, do you remember he's in the boat with you?

39:58 Do you remember, can you hear his voice saying to you, be encouraged, it's me, don't be afraid. When you're in those times of storms and wherever you are, the hospital room or wherever it might be, this week, there was a young person in our congregation, and 23 years old and he'd had a stroke and I called him. You know, he was in Arizona. I called and his family was gathered around in the ICU. And I said, hey, I'd like to pray with you right now. But first I want to remind you of this story. And I told him the story and I said, that ICU room, that's your boat. And he's in the boat with you. And he says to you, be encouraged. It's me, don't be afraid.

40:34 But then I also want you to remember what Christ says. In that stained glass window in our new Wesley Chapel, I want to show you the picture again. So you've got Christ in the window and his arms are outstretched walking on the water to you. But I also wanna remind you what he's saying. At the end of the service, he's saying, hey, it's time to get out of the boat and go walk on water. It's time to serve. So the story ends, by the way, with Jesus in the boat and the wind and the waves have calmed. And the disciples, what do they do? They fall down and worship and say, surely he is the son of God. He's in the boat with you. Don't be afraid. But he's also calling you to step out of the boat, to incarnate his presence, to love one another. And there you find the great adventure. Let's pray.

41:22 Oh God, how grateful we are to you that you came to us in Jesus to show us that you're with us in the midst of the storms of life, that we don't have to be afraid. That despite the rivers that seem to be overflowing, the floodwaters that come, You still are God and you are with us. You never leave us nor forsake us. Help us to remember that. Help us to trust in you.

41:50 And then Lord, we pray that like Peter, we might be willing to step out of the comfort zone of our boats and to seek to bless others and be your very presence in this world. Give us courage, we pray, to do this very thing. In Jesus' name, amen.