It's that time we get to take out the Word of God. As we open it this morning, I'd encourage you to take your own Bibles if you have them. You'll be able to follow along on the screen, but you may want to have them open always to refer back as I'm preaching. But we're turning this morning to Mark chapter 4, verses 35 to 41 as we continue our study on the fruit of the Spirit, which is a smaller part of our greater study we've been having on the whole epistle of Paul to the Galatians. But this morning we're in Mark chapter 4, there at the end of the chapter. At the age of about 30, a woman named Peggy Harper noticed silver gray lines in her hair and thought, it's early for that. It troubled her to be turning gray at such an early age. Her husband, Paul, began calling her Silver Girl. And that name made its way into a song that he wrote. He sang it with Art Garfunkel. The line went, sail on, Silver Girl, sail on by, your time has come to shine. And of course that song became one of the great hits in American history, Bridge Over Troubled Water. It's loved and enjoyed by people all over the world. Troubled water abounds in life and people long for peace. We turn this morning to the subject of peace as fruit of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Christ's disciples. And our text tells us of troubled water to which Jesus spoke peace, and the result was a great calm. So let's stand together and read the Word of God together this morning. Mark chapter 4, verses 35 to 41. On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to His disciples, Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose. And the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he woke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased. And there was a great calm. And he said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? They were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? Let's pray. We bow our heads and hearts before You, Lord God, and to You, dear Jesus, who is the One who speaks, that the wind obeys as well as the sea, and instantaneously turbulence and tumult are turned into tranquility. It's You who has given the Word to us that we study today. And as surely as the disciples were fearful, not so much of the winds and the waves, but of the fact that God was in their boat, let us, Lord, be reverential, knowing that God is in our presence. and that you are speaking as your word is read, explained. Lord, would you do in our midst today what this preacher cannot do? Work in hearts, work in lives, bring peace, bring understanding, bring Christ so that we see him in his glory and in his beauty. and that worshiping Him we know the Prince of Peace and experience the most profound peace there can be in our lives. For Jesus' sake we pray in His name. Amen. You may be seated. So the account that we've just now read depicts really two marvelous aspects of the person of Jesus. We see Him in power. and we see him at peace. We see him in his power exerting peace on the earth in the midst of the storm. And power and peace are tightly connected to one another. You could also say that the power that was observed by the disciples brought a sense of response which in one way might be seen not to be peace, but it's that thing that they saw about Christ that would eventually totally give them peace. And it's that thing about Christ that can give us peace today, the fact that He has the power to speak to wind, and He has the power to speak to waves and bring them to an abrupt calm. Both His power and His peace pertain to our own peace. A colossal storm had suddenly blown up while Jesus and a number of these disciples were making their way across the Sea of Galilee. The waves were such, we saw, that they were breaking into the boat, and the boat was filling up with water, and the disciples were filled with fear and anxiety, so they frantically awakened a sleeping Jesus, who did not even, to them, appear to care whether they were about to die. So Jesus, whose restful slumber was disturbed not by the storm, but by the distraught disciples, awoke and spoke. He exerted his sovereign control over the wind and the sea. He turned them from tumult to complete calm. To do so, he uttered the word, peace. And actually, the word is silence. believed to be intended, perhaps, to be understood as peace. The translators in the ESV put peace, but the literal word is silence or hush. And the wind ceased, and there was, what Mark says, a great calm. This was truly remarkable, because normally the wind doesn't abruptly stop, it dies down gradually, and waves only gradually diminish. On this occasion, however, the wind and the waves were abruptly arrested, and there was such a calm that Mark says it was great." Not just calm, but a great calm. In this text, the disciples depict for us the opposite of peace. And Jesus represents the epitome of peace. And that great calm that he brings about gives a sense of what peace is. Yet the concept of peace is somewhat complex, and we're going to see that this morning as we study scripture. We find that there are at least three kinds of peace. And that's where we begin this morning. I want you to just at least get introduced to these three kinds of peace, and then we're going to explore each one, one at a time. Peace itself is represented graphically in the account of Jesus and the disciples as great calm. But for a definition of peace, we might turn back to the Old Testament word, the Hebrew word shalom. It speaks of an absence of conflict and disorder, but it also communicates a sense of being whole, being prosperous, full, and safe. And as we survey the scriptures, we see this idea in these three different or distinct categories or kinds of peace, or I'd say kinds of shalom, each with its own emphasis. First, there is upward peace. Upward peace is Peace with God. It's peace in a vertical direction. Second, there is inward peace. The inward tranquility of soul is peace centrally within one's own self. And third, there is outward peace. Peace of harmonic and cordial relationships among fellow human beings. This is horizontal peace. Here are three then distinct kinds of peace, yet they are integrally related to one another. And as you will see, upward peace is the ground both of inward peace as well as outward peace. The Spirit of God is involved in each of the three of these, producing the fruit, one aspect of which is peace. So, let's focus on each one of these three categories. inward and outward. We'll start with upward. Upward peace has regard, as we said, to the human relationship with God. When God created the first man and woman, there was peace. The stage was set for a life of tranquil flourishing in the Garden of Eden. Life in the Garden was characterized by this Hebrew word, Shalom. There was security, there was safety, there was wholeness and prosperity. There was fellowship with the Lord as He walked with the couple in the garden in the cool of the day. It is difficult for us to imagine the harmony and tranquility of those days. They were days of great calm and the two humans had known nothing else. But the peace of the garden and peace with God were brought to a sudden and abrupt termination in the same way that peace was brought to this sea in the day of Jesus and the disciples. The peace of the garden was brought to bear upon the garden in a same abrupt kind of way, only it was moving in the opposite direction. And the cause of the abrupt termination of peace was sin. The couple disobeyed God's one clear prohibition. In effect, they turned against God. They acted in hostility toward God and declared war on God in essence. Harmony was destroyed. An offense had been committed. Now human beings and God were at cross purposes. There could be no peace. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and prohibited from taking from the tree of life. They had acted pridefully. You see, their pride is evident in the fact that they believed that they were better judges than God of how to pursue and keep their shalom, how to keep their peace of heart. And so they decided that eating the fruit would be a better idea to do that than not. Their flourishing would be improved if they would partake of the tree of life. So they set themselves in opposition to God. acting pridefully to the one God who opposes the proud. So they became opponents to Him. And as a result, there came enmity and conflict into the now ripped and torn fabric of the divine human relationship. Peace of all kinds was destroyed. And those born of Adam would not know the way of peace on their own. That's one of the things that Paul says in Romans 3 when he's talking about all of how you see sin expressed. One of the quotes that he has from the Old Testament is, the way of peace they have not known. Sin is the destroyer of upward peace. So to sin is, as we see illustrated in Adam and Eve, to sin is to act in the ongoing destruction of upward peace. And that leaves human beings in a bad place, a helpless place. If there is to be peace between God and humans, it must be brought about by God. And it has been brought about by God. God sent His own Son called the Prince of Peace. He sent the Prince of Peace to make peace between Himself and the people of His grace. And Paul expresses this aspect of the work of Jesus Christ in Ephesians 2, 14 to 17. He writes of Christ that He Himself is our peace who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of the two. So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who were near. So Paul is explaining how Christ has brought peace where there was a great divide among peoples. I mean, the Mosaic Law produced a division between Israelite and Gentile. And Jesus Christ broke down that dividing wall by abolishing the law. The law which divided served the function of demonstrating our need for Christ. And now that Christ has come, the Mosaic Law has been fulfilled and believers in Christ are no longer under it. Among those who turn to Christ in faith, then the horizontal division between people groups has been erased. And then Paul goes on to say, and what's more, Christ has also broken down the dividing wall of hostility between people and God. He has reconciled us to God through the cross. So reconciliation is the work that Christ accomplished. He reconciled us to God. brought peace where there was tumult. and where there was opposition, He brought us back to a relationship of peace with God. He removed the enmity, the estrangement, the animosity. Christ's death on the cross killed the hostility. It's through the sacrificial work of Christ that in effect the wrath of God against us as sinners has been satisfied. And in effect, Jesus spoke to the winds and waves of the wrath of God, making a command. Peace! Be still. There is now a great calm. And we who belong to Christ through faith, have peace with God. This is upward peace. Christ Jesus absorbed the penalty that we merited, the death which was our wages, and now with the removal of the alienation, believers in Christ are granted to experience real and true shalom. peace. And so Christ died on the cross to bring peace between sinners and God, and that peace comes only to those who identify with Christ through faith in Him. We have to rest our hope for reconciliation with God on the merits of Jesus, on His work, what He accomplished on the cross, dying and then rising again. It's by faith that we become reconciled. We become reconciled through being justified. When God is able to say, righteous once and for all, then we have peace with God. That's the explanation Paul gives in Romans 5, 1 and 2, where he says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice and hope of the glory of God." So not only do we have peace, we also have eternal access. Having peace, we're destined to share in the glory of God. Apart from peace through Christ, we have the grave expectation of facing the wrath of God. But along with peace between us and God, we have the joyful hope of looking forward to the glory of God in the new heaven and the new earth. So before I go on any further this morning, I need to ask everyone in this room this question. Do you have peace with God? That's the question. Do you have upward peace? Because if you do not have peace with God, Whatever you think you've got that feels like peace is no peace at all. If you do not have peace with God, you cannot have real peace at all. You can try to hide from reality and pretend that you have peace, but that hiding cannot keep you from ultimately standing before God in the day of judgment and being sentenced to an eternity of justice. An eternity is a long, long, long, time, while how long is your life on earth? It's but a vapor. Any peace you may think you have, whilst just a vapor, will be completely overtaken and forever overshadowed by an eternity of tumult, terror and unrest, where there is ceaseless weeping and gnashing of teeth and where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. You cannot have true peace when you know that is what awaits you. It's like, you know, in a small sort of way, I used to dread it when I was told by my parents that I was going to be punished with a mountain belt. And it's like saying, as soon as you get back from Six Flags, you're in trouble. Like how can you enjoy Six Flags if you know that a belt is waiting you on the other side? And how can you be at peace in this world when you know that as soon as it's over, you stand before Him who judges the living and the dead? And while He welcomes His people into heaven, Everyone who has not taken refuge in Christ is forever excluded from the presence of the glory of God and is exposed to the wrath and justice of God. Not for a minute, not for an hour, not for a day, not a week, not a year, but for all eternity. That reality should grip the hearts of human beings and keep us from being at peace until the day we will fall at the feet of Christ in repentance and faith and rest in His work on the cross. Because that's what Jesus was doing on the cross, was He was bearing eternal punishment for human beings. And that is why He says, Come to Me, because He offers truth. peace. If you have peace with God, then you can be assured you can have other kinds of peace as well. The experience of peace with God is produced by the Spirit of God through the knowledge that Christ has died and risen and that we are united with Him through faith. And if we have upward peace, then we can also have inward peace and outward peace. Let's turn next to inward peace. This is a practical, practical point. It's how many of us would say, you know, if you were to talk about your inward peace today, I'm sure it would be more of a, how peaceful is it? Because there are always things breaking in upon us like the waves breaking over the sides of the boat. Here we're going to look at inward peace. Our text provides significant insight for when we seek to express the nature of inward peace, we might say it's the opposite. of the fear and anxiety that was experienced by the disciples in the boat when the storm was raging. It was quite an alarming situation. There was this great windstorm. The waves were breaking into the boat. The boat was filling with water. The circumstances were frightening. The lives of everyone on board appeared to be in danger and they thought they might die and they were afraid. They were anything but at peace. Well, December before last, Melissa and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary by going to Mackinac Island. It's an interesting place. You can only get there by boat or plane. And once you're there, you can only get around on foot, somebody's foot, your foot, your feet, your bicycle, a horse or a horse-drawn carriage. There are some riding mowers I've seen there, but they're few and far between. But anyway, That being said, the island is the destination each year for a sailboat race that begins in Chicago and goes northward up through Lake Michigan. And so as we were walking into town one morning, yes, walking two miles from our place we stayed to go down into the town, we were joined by a man who had come in at night and he really didn't know where he was going. So he walked with us for a little while and as we walked, he couldn't keep his story to himself. He was part of the race. that had landed on the island the night before. So he was telling us what happened during the race. This terrible storm had blown up on the lake and it would not pass on. It wasn't like storms, you know, that quickly move along. It moved along with them as they were sailing almost the entire night. He told of how it engulfed the racers and stayed with them, and it was torrential. The waves were enormous, the lightning was relentless, and the winds reached gusts of over 60 miles an hour. And for a sailboat on Lake Michigan, this is a harrowing experience. Many of the racers dropped out. In fact, their boats were damaged because of the high winds, and they had to just pull into shore. But clearly, he was glad just to be alive. And we couldn't fail to get that message as we walked with them back to town. Now it would seem, jumping back now a couple thousand years to Jesus and the disciples, it would seem that the disciples were feeling a lot like that man was. Perhaps even worse in the moment. It was far from that peaceful, easy feeling the old song talks about. Inwardly each man felt like the boat they were in tossed. and turned and severely at unrest. What a contrast between them and Jesus. The epitome of total inward peace was in the boat with them. All commotion was breaking loose. The disciples were frantically working to keep the boat afloat and Jesus was asleep. And the comfort of his rest seems to be emphasized by Mark when he mentions that Jesus was asleep on a cushion. Now that's peace. The fullness of His peace made the disciples accuse Him of not caring. Between the disciples and Jesus, we observe examples of what inward peace is and what it is not. Inward peace is based on having peace with God, as we've said, but there's more. Inward peace is the internal rest and calmness of soul. An inward calmness that stems from the deep-seated conviction that everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay. It is not the conviction that everything is going to be like my flesh would like it. It's not the conviction that I will be delivered from all trouble and affliction in the immediate future. It is the conviction that God is in control and He is working out His glorious purposes, all of which are good for His people as well. And if I belong to Him, then I know that includes me too. No matter what it is, I'm convinced of what Paul says, that God is working all things together for my good. If I am called according to His purpose, if I love Him, peace rests upon the complete and unshakable conviction that that is true. It derives from the conviction also that as my Father, God truly loves me. and only does what will make me more like Christ and glorify His name." So here is no doubt why Jesus was not only able to sleep but was fearless and unflappable despite the circumstances. The Father had a plan and the most challenging aspect of life in any given day was only going to be used as part of fulfilling that plan. No storm was going to keep Jesus from preaching the kingdom. No storm was going to interfere with the culmination of his ministry to die on a cross and rise victoriously from the grave. He knew that was coming. He knew. And so he was absolutely convinced this storm was going to be an opportunity, if nothing else, along the way. And it was an opportunity to teach his disciples about what peace looks like and that they ought to have that peace, because they should have the same convictions that he has, that Almighty God does rule the universe down to the smallest detail, and He does so as a Father who cares for His children. He knows sometimes they need a little storm, and it is good for them. Sometimes they need a big storm, and it is good for them. But unlike Jesus, of course, you and I don't know what our lives will be like. The Bible even says so. We don't know what a day may bring forth. There is uncertainty that faces us every day. Some days, Despite our uncertainty, we are greeted with things continuing smoothly, seemingly like they did before. And yet some days we wake up in the morning and abruptly all peace is disturbed by a storm, a storm that shakes us because everything we're used to might just take a sudden turn. But there is uncertainty that faces us every day. We don't know what a day may bring forth. There's so much that we don't know. And trouble especially threatens our rest or our sense of inward peace. When we adopt our plans, our hopes and our thoughts about the future and then interruptions come and what we hoped for, what we planned, what we thought would be cannot be. The unexpected happens. Health issues happen. Job circumstances change. Storms blow up. Literal storms may blow up. Fires may come. Afflictions and suffering invade. We will not know the outcomes of all these various circumstances. And many times we know we're entering into a time of greater uncertainty. Perhaps we feel that it's greater uncertainty than we had the day before. And that uncertainty and subjection to things we cannot control tempts us to fear. The fact that we'd like to control them gives us anxiety because we wish we could control them and make them go the way we want them to go. And so, fear and anxiety flood in. Like the disciples, we're tempted to feel like we are perishing or our plans and hopes and dreams are perishing and we may wonder whether God even cares. And people will often say that. And they will turn to God like the disciples did Jesus. Do you not see what's going on in my life? Do you care? And those are profound, sinful responses. Because they expose the doubt. Or they expose the selfishness that fills our hearts. Our peace can easily be fractured and replaced with the frenetic unrest of worry as though that can change things and make them better. Yeah, if I worry about this, if I just get all frantic and frenetic, surely it can change things. You know that doesn't happen, but we do. Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, not about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to the span of your life? You know as well as I were, it's not going to help, it's only going to hurt. It'll never add, it might take away. Not in a sovereign sense, but the effect. could mean that the day we die is the sooner that all other things being equal, we would have had we not spent so much time with a raised heart rate. Because all we can think about is what's not going to happen, or what didn't happen, or what might happen. Why is it that our inward peace is shaken up? Well, in a word, it's a lack of faith. We refuse to believe that God is in control with His very good and excellent purposes. We act like we have a stronger impact on our life circumstances than God. We also refuse to believe that God really cares. We are like the disciples. Do you even care that we're perishing? The absence of peace is the exposure that our faith is small if it exists at all. Jesus rightly asked the disciples, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? So why is it that our inward peace is shaken up? The absence of trust in God. Him where peace is part of the fruit of the Spirit that He produces. He works it in us as we walk in the Spirit. But let me highlight three key components that are inseparable from the work of the Spirit in producing peace in our hearts and life. And the first is faith, as we've said. But we must trust the Lord. Trusting the Lord day by day is grounded in the belief that He's sovereign, that He exercises control over all things, that He guides them to fulfill His wonderfully ordained purposes. And not only is He sovereign, that He loves His children. This is what we must believe. He's sovereign and He loves His children. He's a Father like no other. He knows what we need and He's able to do whatever it takes to provide that need. And not only that, He has done it. He has done what it took to reconcile His children to Himself. And so it is that Paul says in Romans 8, How will He not also with Him freely give us, graciously, generously, gloriously give us all things? If He has given us His Son, what will He not give us? Do we believe that? And if we believe that, then that's the first step of faith in being at peace. Because when that verse says that God will do whatever it takes, basically, then maybe the storm is part of what it takes. And so rather than screaming, no. We'd rather say to God. I trust you. I trust you. I trust you. So we need faith, we need to believe those truths that God is sovereign, that God loves his children, that he's a father like no other. We don't, then we'll panic when the wind begins to blow and the waves break over the sides of the lifeboat. So there is faith. But second, and this really grows from faith, but secondly, there must be prayer. There must be prayer. Prayer is faith in action. Prayer is me talking to God, believing He hears me and that He cares and that He wants to hear what I have to say. In their fear, at least the disciples went to Jesus. They knew where they could go. They were all discombobulated, and we see a lack of faith, but at least they went to Jesus and said, help. Prayer is when we go to God in the midst of it and say, help. But consider how important prayer is, and it's really brought out by Paul's instruction to us through his letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. Hopefully, many of you have these verses memorized. He says, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication. Let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, great calm. will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. If you want to enjoy the peace of God inwardly, you must be in prayer to God. Do not expect peace if you do not pray. When you start feeling anxious and worried, you need to pray. God, I trust you. God, help me. You could let your request be made known to God. God, please take these circumstances away. That's what we usually say, right? I don't like this. Please take it away. Well, how many times does God just take it away? Sometimes, on a few rare occasions. But in general, having asked Him and made our request known, we at least know we couldn't do anything better with our concern than we've done because we've talked to the one who controls it all. And if He says no, And we can rest assured He's got a reason that is good for us. And sometimes the pain is part of that. Now, thirdly, so there must be faith, there must be prayer. Thirdly, there must be thanksgiving. In everything, says Paul, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known. See, thanksgiving is another expression of faith when you're praying. Thanksgiving is key. It looks backward. And looking back, it sees evidence of God's sovereignty, evidence of His care, evidence of His provisions. But it also looks forward, and by faith, it thanks God for what He will do, even if He doesn't fulfill the request that we've made, but does something better It says, God, I thank you for what you are going to do, and I trust you for what you are going to do. And when you pray with thanksgiving to God again, you can know what better action could you have carried out in regard to this matter of concern than to take it to the one who has the absolute ability to change that situation, that problem, that affliction, that storm. So, walk in the Spirit. Commune with God in His Word and prayer and in faith. Your sense of upward peace with God will be nourished and it will feed your experience of inward peace from God that is a part of the fruit of the Spirit at work in your life. And the Spirit is in your life if you're a believer in Jesus. Now, lastly, let's consider, even if briefly, outward peace. Upward, inward, outward. The fruit produced by the Spirit in terms of peace includes this outward component. This peace spreads, this internal and this upward peace spreads outward into our relationships with others. Just as the Spirit of God works in us to produce love, Love that's an outward expression for loving God and loving others. So the Spirit produces peace inwardly, but also that works outwardly with others. The Spirit produces what God's Word commands and what God's Word commands. Listen to just a few of these verses about outward peace. Matthew 5, 9 tells us, blessed are the peacemakers. Romans 12.18 instructs us, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Romans 14.19 exhorts, so then let us pursue what makes for peace. Hebrews 12.14 directs us to strive for peace with everyone. Relational peace is part of what the Spirit of God is seeking to produce in each of Christ's followers. Well, what is this relational peace? One thing it's not, it's not compromising the truth. The world will tell you peace is when you affirm me and accept me and tell me I'm good no matter what. That's not real peace. That's a compromise of truth. Sometimes you can affirm people, but the things that the world most clamoring in our day to be affirmed in are the very things that we cannot because it's untrue. But peace with others can only go as far as others will allow it. I mean, striving for peace does not mean a sacrifice of righteousness. And Jesus Himself brought up the fact that in the world He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. When we're trying to act as peacemakers, there will be times when there are others who will refuse to have peace. So we recognize that. in our striving for peace and allowing and cultivating the work of the Spirit through us to bring and maintain peace. But what peace outwardly does mean is that we exhibit eagerness to maintain unity. It does mean we treat others with respect. It does mean being patient with them. It does mean being sensitive to the opinions and preferences of others. Obviously, it means being at war. with the devil, the world, and the flesh. But it will mean trying not to be at war with others. Jonathan Landry Cruz writes this, and he writes, it's in his book, The Character of Christ. He writes, peace is not at the cost of truth or godliness. But it can be at the cost of our own comfort, reputation, perhaps even safety. The hand of peace never reaches for the weapons of this world, whether they be physical clubs or Facebook comments. The hand of peace reaches to restore, reaching out to heal those who are wounded even if they deserved it. Peacemaking knows nothing of revenge. something that never belongs to us no matter what wrongs are done to us. So it is the work of the Spirit to make us ready to make up when we have offended. We must be ready to reconcile when conflict has erupted. We must be ready to forgive when another comes with contrition There are things we must do, remembering it is the Spirit who produces the fruit in us. Pursue, yet submit. Be a peacemaker whilst knowing the peacemaker is at work in us. Again, we must walk by faith, we must pray, and we must give thanks in the midst of obedience. Troubled water is a fact of life. Jesus alerted us that in this life, You will have tribulation. But He also offers this comfort and assurance to those who trust Him. Take heart, I have overcome the world. He is more, Jesus is more than a bridge over troubled water. He does comfort His people through His Spirit. But to the troubled water of God's wrath, He has spoken peace. And in the troubled water of life, He assures us not only that He will be with us, but He will bring His people through. He has overcome the world. And His is true and lasting peace. In their song, Simon and Garfunkel, they promised to be a bridge over troubled water, if nobody else, to themselves, right? But they were really not there for themselves. They were not there for each other, truth be told. Theirs has been a tumultuous relationship involving conflict and disharmony and multiple breakups. Through the years, they've gotten together to sing, and as soon as they sang, they went apart. And even one in an interview said something about, Paul, now's the time for you to be my bridge over troubled water. It's like they're clamoring for what they had promised but have not delivered. What they could do with their voices, they would not do with their lives. And to some degree, we all fail at being there for one another when times are tough. But there is one. who will never fail you. His allowing you to go through the storm does not mean He doesn't care. It means He loves you enough. His name is Jesus. And He's more than a bridge. He is peace itself. Rest in Him. Let's pray. Our precious Lord, we are storm tossed people. And so often in our lives, we behave just the way the disciples did when they were in the boat that day. And so we first come to you, Lord, and say, please forgive us. We take from you the lesson today that storms do not mean you don't care. We thank you for stilling the biggest storm of all, impending upon every one of us, the storm of the wrath of God. And with that stilled in the lives of those of us who trust in you for your gift of gracious salvation, Lord, we thank you that you also give us peace inwardly to handle the outward storms, and that you give us such a peace that we also can and should and by your power will strive for peace with others. We pray today for above all, your help and for the power of the Spirit to be at work in us and for us to The walk in the Spirit, the power in the Spirit, that peace would abound between you and us, in the midst of our own hearts, and between us and others. And Lord, we especially pray for any in this room today who are not at peace with you. Lord, we know that you would have to come You would have to be working in them, and we pray that you would. Drawing them, bringing them to true peace in you. It is our prayer in your precious name. Amen.