start. Gracious Lord, we are thankful and grateful that we can be in your house this morning. We're thankful, Lord, for your goodness to us. And we ask Lord that you would be with the time we have together this morning as we wrap up our study on off script. I pray, Lord, that you would certainly give us encouragement this morning challenge. And I pray, Lord, that you would bless the time we have together this morning in class I pray for pastor in the service and Jonathan as he leads worship, Lord, that you would be magnified and that loss will be drawn to you today. We ask this in your name, amen. So for those who know me or well work closely with me, this topic is one that is probably a little bit familiar to you because I talk about this quite a bit. So we're really on lesson 11, lesson 11 of off script, really, you know, decision 10. But I told my wife last week, Two weeks ago, I feel like I'm warming up leftovers at this point. I feel like, you know, we've covered so much and I feel like I'm just repeating so much as kind of losing its kind of its impact. And so I decided to go off script from off scripts and just use a completely different challenge for you this morning. And then this is actually going to finish our study and we're going to start Ephesians next week. I wanted to hold out for one more week. because then we have that 5th Sunday Fellowship here, but I just went ahead and just cut it off. So this would be our last study on off script, but it has nothing to do at least with the chapter of the book, and I want you to look at Matthew 14. In Matthew 14, we find that there is an event that takes place which impacts Jesus deeply. and that is the passing of John the Baptist. We don't even say passing, we would say the execution of John the Baptist. And although, you know, he being God, it did not catch him by surprise and he knew it, at the same time, he is still man. And so fully God, fully man, the emotional impact of losing his cousin, John the Baptist. And when we read in John 14 in verses 13 and 14, And it says, now when he, when Jesus heard this, so when Jesus heard of the passing of John the Baptist, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. And that's just a good pause to say, sometimes you need some time to just go reflect, recoup. And so when Jesus heard this, we read that he withdrew from the house in a boat to a desolate place by himself. And unfortunately, The Bible tells us that the crowd followed with him. And so you can imagine the reason why Jesus is retreating is to kind of emotionally rebound, so to speak, as fully, man, the impact that it had. But it said, but when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. And so really here we have, it's hard for us to imagine just the weight of what Jesus has on his heart at this moment. And here he has this throng coming to him, wanting more from him. And, you know, no doubt you've been at those times where you felt emotionally depleted and that you have given yourself away. And then something presents itself that demands even more. And so what takes place in the rest of this chapter is something that is recorded. It is the only miracle that is presented in all four Gospels. The only one. And that's the feeding of the five thousand. And so five thousand plus men, plus women and children, five thousand men, plus women and children. And so Let's go ahead and fast forward. So Jesus, his heart is heavy. He sees the crowd, he has compassion on them. And they come to him and he teaches them all day long. So even beyond just being emotionally weary and heavy, now he's given himself more and he's taught all day. And they reach the end of the day and they realize these people need food. These people need food. So despite the sorrow of just losing his cousin, his ministry colleague, Jesus does the impossible. He feeds this crowd of 15,000, 20,000 with five loaves and two fish. I mean, crazy, right? It is an astounding feat that leaves the disciples amazed yet again. I mean, Jesus over and over did things that just left them amazed. that he did things that completely defied logic, science, physics, nothing like this had ever been done before. But imagine if you were a disciple at the end of the day, and you are tasked with going up and down this mountain delivering food, because they were on the side of a mountain. And so at the end of the day, after Jesus speaking all day, you as one of the disciples now are responsible to walk up and down a hillside delivering food to thousands and thousands and thousands of people. It's one of those things where at the end of the day, it's a good tired. It's a good tired, but you're still tired, right? So it's been a really long day. And so it's at the end of the day, and it's been a good day, but the day isn't over yet. The day isn't over yet. If we look in verse number 22, in verse number 22, so a lot has taken place this day. The disciples have helped Jesus feed this huge group of people. And in verse 22, we read, immediately, he being Jesus, he made the disciples to get into the boat. But the King James actually uses the term, he constrained them, or he forced them. I mean, why in the world is it not time to rest? I mean, it's been a really long day, and Jesus said, I'm going to put you on a boat. And the wording there lets us know that they did not want to go. But he made them, or he constrained them, he forced them to go. And a really good example of how we can compare that is trying to put a child together at bedtime. You know, good night. It's like pulling teeth sometimes. They don't want to go to bed. And so, but we, we constrain them, constrain them to go to bed. And so, and so here we have the disciples. The Bible says that finally the disciples did what they were supposed to do, because it says that he constrained them to get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. Now, it wasn't the craziest thing he's ever asked them to do. I mean, if you ever kind of read through the gospel accounts, Jesus asked them to do some pretty crazy things. Like, for instance, go into this next city, you're going to see a donkey all by itself, and you're going to take the donkey. You're not going to ask anybody, you're just going to take it. And then when they ask you what you're doing, you're going to say the master needs it. You know, and you're thinking like, it sounds a lot like stealing, doesn't it? I'm going to go, I'm going to take. And so there are all these crazy things that Jesus asked them to do. So in the end, I mean, most of the disciples were what by trade? They were fishermen. So it wasn't necessarily the craziest thing is told them to do. And so some even might have felt more comfortable getting back in the boat than going and casting out demons. You know, this is kind of, it was their trade is what they had grown up doing. And maybe it wasn't such a bad thing after all, but for many of them, the boat represented a comfort zone. It was what was familiar to them. It was what they were comfortable doing. It was an environment that they were familiar with. And they thought their day was over, but my how wrong they were. And then we read in verse number 23, and when he had sent the multitudes away, he being Jesus whipped into a mountain apart to pray, And when evening was come, he was there alone and perhaps maybe. This is what he was trying to do in verse 13, where he was trying to get away by himself for a little bit to pray. There's a few suggestions about maybe where this feeding took place, the feeding of the 5,000 took place. And maybe some speculate, you can kind of see the geographic points here on the screen, but many agree that regardless of which point they were there, that it was about a three or four mile trip back to where they were, which for us, that doesn't sound like a lot, right? We just get in our car and we drive three or four miles down the road. It's not a big deal. But for them, quite honestly, it probably wouldn't have been a big deal for them either because these were fishermen, these were guys who were used to being on the water. And then we read verse 24 and 25. Verse 24 and 25. But the boat at this time was a long way from land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them or was contrary to them. And the storm came up again. This is a very, very familiar story, a very familiar story. Here they were, they were in the middle of the lake, they were miles from land, and this tempest arose, and it was in the middle of the night. Verse number 25 tells us that in the fourth watch of the night, so in Roman times, they measured the night in first, second, third, and fourth watches. And so the fourth watch was the latest hour. It was the darkest hour. So you can get the fact that it was at the end of the day that Jesus put them on this boat. And here they'd been in the water all night long. all night long. And so in the fourth watch of the night, he being Jesus, walked on the sea. Fourth hour of the watch, he came on the sea. Mark's account of this gospel gives us a little bit more visualization to this. And he being Jesus, saw that they were making headway painfully. They were making headway painfully so here these mariners were the experienced mariners, and they could not get it to go to the other side. It didn't matter what they did the King James says the winds were contrary to them so no matter which way they tried to go, it was taking them back and forth and back and forth and they could not get anywhere it was a painful process to them. And what we see here in Mark's gospel, he says that Jesus meant to pass them by. Jesus meant to pass them by. So what on earth is Jesus trying to do here in this passage? I mean, it's a little bit awkward. He's not actually coming to them. He's actually going by them. Because notice again, it says that he meant to pass by them. The Septuagint, the Greek translation for the Old Testament, gives us an astounding insight into what this word means. So this Greek word, past, when we look at in the Old Testament, we see, and this is where the crux of the lesson really begins to come in, the translation for this word refers to pivotal moments in the Old Testament where God was making himself known to his people. Let me read that again. The translation for this word refers to pivotal moments in the Old Testament where God was making himself known to his people. Two examples for you. Exodus 33. In Exodus 33, the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. And while my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. We could also see in 1 Kings 19, where the beginning of 1 Kings 19 is where Elijah has just had this great victory on Mount Carmel. Jezebel says, I'm gonna kill you, and he runs for his life. And in this particular passage, Elijah, he's struggling with just depression and anxiety, asking God to take his life. And this is where the angel of the Lord, not an angel, but the angel of the Lord comes to him And God sent this messenger to encourage him, to minister to him. And this is what he says. He says, go out and stand on the Mount before the Lord. This is where we read about there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. There was a strong, mighty wind, but God was not in the wind. There was fire, but God was not in the fire. Rather, he was the still small voice. And he says, and behold, the Lord passed by. The Lord passed by. All of this comes from a book, and I know I've lent this out to one or two people, and I've used this quite a bit. The entire concept of this challenge to you this morning is to leave your comfort zone. Exactly. We don't want it. Well, see, when we've been talking about off script for weeks, because in many cases, God brings us to difficult trials, but in some cases, we have different. we have unknown. And for so many of us, we struggle with this. And in his book, which quite honestly, the entire lesson comes from his book. So just kind of a citation plug there. There is a pattern to these stories. In each case, God had to get people's attention. In some case, it was through a burning bush, or a wind and fire, or walking on the water. With each person, God was going to call them to do something extraordinary. In each situation, the person that God called felt afraid, which we'll talk about in just a minute. But every time that people said yes to their calling, they experienced the power of God in their lives. So what we read when we see that Jesus meant to pass them by, he was making himself known to the disciples in the hopes that someone would say yes. He was passing by to see if anyone was willing to leave their comfort zone to do something a little bit extraordinary. It seems ironic that this is the only The only story, only miracle, Ephesians 5,000, that is in all four Gospels, but yet the miracle that we're about to read, that look at, the book of Matthew is the only one that includes it. And it happens directly after that. And it is Peter walking on the water. And really, the lesson almost is the title of the book. If you want to walk on the water, you've got to get out of the boat. If you have a hunger to do something more in life, you have to be willing to get out of the boat. In this passage, we see an indispensable principle to spiritual growth and personal growth. If you want to live above the level of mediocrity in life, you have to be willing to step out of the boat. You see, the boat represented their comfort zone, because after all, it was the safest place they could have been in that storm. Many families grew up in the same trade as their parents. So like James and John, they were the sons of Zebedee. We have these guys that they were fishers of men. We have Peter and other men. They grew up fishing in boats. And if this is the case with Peter, he practically grew up living on a boat. He made his livelihood from being on a boat. And this is where Jesus found him in Matthew 4. Now he was in a storm and complete darkness, and surely the safest place to be was in the boat. And quite honestly, there's not really any reason to leave at this point. He says in his book, I believe there is something, someone inside us who tells us there is something more to living than sitting in a boat. I realized that God makes us all differently and that God creates everyone uniquely to fulfill a certain function in society. And that is how a healthy society functions. I can only give you my testimony. I can only give you what God did in me. I remember going to college. I remember having no interest, no people not interested in me. I found out later that every single employer that I actually went to, they put my resume at the bottom of their stack because of where I went to college. So it's a little bit of humble pie there for you. And for the next several months, you know, Joanne and I just got married. We had moved to Tampa. I was working in a freight terminal, driving a forklift. And I was surrounded. And again, this is, so please, if this is how your mind works, please don't be offended. This is just what God did in me. That I was surrounded by men who had been driving a forklift for 30 years, clocking in, clocking out, going home. If you, if you, if you even remotely use the word leadership they ran. They almost literally ran. They did not want responsibility. They literally wanted to clock in clock out and go home. And again I understand God create certain people that way. As days passed, as weeks passed, God began to do a hunger in my heart that said there has to be more in life than clocking in, clocking out, and going home. There has to be. God was getting me ready to step out of the boat. When we are talking about stepping out of the boat, getting out of your comfort zone, obviously, number one, we have to face fear. We have to face fear. In verse number 26, we read, but when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. I mean, after all, who wouldn't be, right? And they said, it is a ghost. And then they cried out in fear. We can be real with each other this morning. We all have fears, right? We all have fears. Some more than others. I was looking at phobias, for instance. Do you know that there's a phobophobia? There's a fear of being afraid? There is. My favorite, and I practice this, okay, so it's hippopotamonstrosesquitdaliophobia, and that is the fear of long words. Yes, it's actually one of the longest words in the dictionary. Someone in our house whose name shall remain anonymous has catsiridophobia, and that's the fear of cockroaches. For me personally, my wife will attest to the fact that I have My wife will attest to the fact that I have ceibophobia, and that is fearful that foods are near or past their expiration date. I don't know why. I don't know why. You know, she'll say, you know, I'll say, can I take anything for lunch today? She's like, you can take this. And I'm like, is it safe to take? And she's like, I just made it last night. You know, start sweating bullets. But, you know, the reality is that most of us fear the unknown. Most of us fear the unknown. Some of us are the adventurous types that just love the unknown, but the majority of us, we love comfort, we love familiarity, we thrive in it because it represents comfort, it represents familiarity. And quite honestly, ultimately, we also have a fear of failure. We're afraid that if we embark, we're going to fail. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. See, there's actually 100 of them, you actually can Google it, there's like a list of 100 of them. And so some are actually quite quite funny. Then there's actually a fear of goats to somewhere in there. So, hey, so the point here, listen, please, the point here, the point here, is that all of us have a very real fear of failure. We all have our own fears, but this command appears more in scripture than any other. And what do you think that is? Fear not, fear not. Read Joshua chapter one. Could you imagine being Joshua, taking the reins after Moses? You're talking about following a tough act. And God comes to him and he says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Do not be afraid. Be strong and of good courage. He has to tell him three times in one chapter. Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid. That command is fear not. And what I would also tell you is that water walkers accept fear as the price tag of growth. In other words, you embrace the uncomfortable. For my staff, I use that term on occasion. Embrace the uncomfortable. Because if I'm wanting to be, if I'm wanting to grow, I'm going to accept fear as the price tag of growth. In order to grow this way, we have to do it, if not daily. If not daily. Because even once we take, make that decision, we take that step of faith, we still battle that fear inside of that decision every single day. Fear and growth are inseparable companions. Fear and growth are inseparable companions. And that is why most people don't want to get out of the boat because I don't want to live every day with that price tag hanging over my head. I love how Shakespeare said it. He said, our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we off might win by fearing to attempt. And as a follower of Jesus Christ, we are commanded to face fear with godly courage and boldness. So if I'm gonna walk out of the boat, if there's something deep inside me that just, I know there's something more to life than sitting in the boat, I'm going to, I'm gonna have to face fear, but I can also do it with godly boldness and courage. But also, we also, inside of this, we find assurance. Notice in here, but immediately, Jesus spoke to them and said, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. To me, the first thing that stands out is immediately. Immediately. As soon as fear set in, we have the living word of God speaking assurance to them. Many weeks ago when we were talking about emotional and spiritual health, I asked you the question, when tough times come, where do you go, where do you run. Do we run to the living Word of God. Do we run to the place where we get encouragement and assurance and hope. This week I had a great opportunity to meet with someone who quite honestly did not have hope. They were facing grief, a loss of a loved one, and I was able to introduce them to the living word that gives them hope. Not only do we find assurance in his word, but we also find it in his presence. We find assurance in his word, but also in his presence. Think about when Moses is going to the promised land. I mean, we can't even imagine the daunting task that Moses had. We can't even imagine it. And Moses prays and says, Lord, I'm praying for your grace. I'm praying for direction. And then God tells him, this is in Exodus 33, God stops him and says, and my presence will also go with you. And Moses stopped, I'm sure he probably had this really eloquent prayer that was all alliterated and parallel. And as soon as God interrupted him and said, and my presence will go with you, he stopped. And he said, Lord, if your presence doesn't go with me, I don't wanna go. It doesn't matter if I know the direction. It doesn't matter if I'm gonna have everything I need. God, if I don't have your presence with me, I don't want to go. In Joshua 1, verse 5, as God is speaking encouragement to Joshua, in Joshua 1, 5, he says, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. How reassuring must that have been for God to say that to him? No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. And somehow we compartmentalize to think God only gave that promise to Joshua. I mean, Hebrews 13, five, I will never leave you or forsake you. And not only that, but he gives us his spirit. He realized that his spirit wasn't part of the people in the Old Testament, but we don't read it where it was imparted to everybody. In some cases, spirit was given to certain people or it was given for a season of time. He says, I'm literally giving you my spirit. As the believer, I'm indwelling you with my spirit. I'm empowering you with my spirit. We've looked at the verses in Isaiah before, but Isaiah 41.10, fear not for I am with you, do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. And Isaiah 43.2, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. If you have a hunger and a passion to do more than just sit in a boat, Ortberg calls them boat potatoes. then we have to be willing to face fear. We also have to be willing that we realize that we also can find assurance when we do this. Verse number 28, and Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come out to you on the water. And he said, come. And I think that's a really critical point here to say that Jesus gave the confirmation, yes. Okay, because if he didn't get that confirmation, it would have been really bad for Peter, right? So when we think about Peter, what, what, what descriptors come to mind about Peter? He's impulsive, maybe a little bit arrogant and prideful. Okay. He was very passionate. He was very passionate, but yet he was also brave. So when he said, when Peter said, if it's you, give me an invitation to come get on the water. And Jesus said, come on. And so Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. When we read this verse, we obviously see that Jesus was not the person who came up with this idea. And I think that's a critical part to this. Jesus was not the person who came up with this, Peter of all people did. because when Jesus was passing by, he was looking to see if anyone was willing to take him up to do something a little bit different, a little bit extraordinary. Sometimes we are forced out of the boat. Our boat has just capsized and God says, whether you want to or not, you're in the water. But then sometimes, I believe according to this, sometimes we're given a divine opportunity to step out on faith to see what God will do. 2 Chronicles gives us a little bit of a glimpse of this. In 2 Chronicles 16, 9, for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the entire earth. The net version says that certainly the Lord watches the whole earth carefully and is ready to show himself strong to those whose heart is blameless towards him. You know, God, I believe has given each of us callings, whether it be engineers, teachers, administrators, medical professionals, blue collar workers, but no mistake, every single one of us have a calling. All of us have a divine calling towards something. And so you can say, well, I don't really feel like this lesson really applies to me. It isn't a matter of does God have something for me to do? The question is, what does God want you to do? Sometimes we think of something that is grandiose, but it could be something very small that makes us leave our boat. And so, the thing that's difficult in this is what time of the night was it? What's the fourth watch? How much time had to pass before he was given that opportunity? A season of waiting. Number four, accepting risk. Not only do water walkers accept fear as the price tag, but they also accept risk. We want predictability. We want assurance. We want a guarantee. But remember, we walk by faith and not by sight. I've heard a lot of lessons on Peter, and Peter, quite honestly, gets a bad rap a lot of times. When you hear a lesson or a sermon on this, you know, Peter took his eyes off Jesus. Absolutely, he did. But do you realize he was the only disciple that walked on water? I mean, it's kind of a big deal. In verse 30, but when he saw the wind, Peter, Peter was afraid, and he began to sink, and he cried out, Lord, save me. Yes, he took his eyes off Jesus, but Peter went further than any of the other disciples did. Yes, he had a confirmation. Yes. So otherwise, if you just step out, you might see the Lord. There has to be a calling. We'll come back to that. So how many how many soldiers stayed in their boat when Goliath cursed the armies of Israel? All of them. How many Hebrew children stayed in the boat when Daniel was the only person who stood strong? You see, there's a lot of people that are just, they wanna stay in the boat. But the people that we see in scripture were people that were given a divine opportunity to step out of the boat and they faced a risk, they faced fear. Many people struggle with this because we like predictability. We want to know how things will work out. but it doesn't work that way. As a result, many people play it safe because they don't want to take risks. This is a rather humorous passage here. You can stay at home in bed because you like comfort, you like predictability, you like safety, but that may make you one of the half a million Americans who require emergency room treatments each year for injuries sustained while falling out of the bed. I have not met such a one. Don't volunteer if it has happened to you. You can cover up your windows, but that may make you one of these 10 people a year who accidentally hang themselves on the cords of the of the Venetian blinds. You can hide your money in a mattress, but that may make you one of tens of thousands of people who go to the emergency room each year because wounds caused by handling money. So, in other words, everything is risky. Everything is risky. If you're looking for absolute safety, you chose the wrong species. In other words, there is a risk to everything in life. If you want to walk on water, you have to accept fear as the price tag of growth. You willingly accept the call and can take the risk because Jesus, your heavenly father, and his Holy Spirit are right there with you. And again, he received an invitation. He didn't just have some blind, ambitious notion and ran off. In my office, I have this. Theodore Roosevelt is a somewhat controversial figure in history. Eric and I were talking about him a couple of weeks ago. Embrace the strenuous life. He also is very prolific. He did, he was actually known to read a book a day. And also if someone were coming to the White House, he would read a book on one of their interests so we could have a conversation with him. Interesting guy. And so the man in the arena. It's a rather popular saying but it is not to the critic who counts, not to the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds may have done better the credit belongs to the man who was actually in the arena. whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself on a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least still fails while daring greatly. so that his place shall never be among those cold and timid souls who never knew either victory or defeat. In other words, so many people spend their time living outside the arena. They don't want to go in. And I decided a long time ago, if I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail moving forward. If I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail in the arena and not someone in the stands picking the Monday morning quarterback, telling how someone else didn't do it right. and we have making the choice, making the choice. Do you realize that by not making a decision, you make a decision? I don't want to get out of the boat. Okay, we made your decision to stay. Every time you say no, you lose a little bit of yourself. I personally believe this wholeheartedly. This is a bedrock conviction for me. Every time you say no, you lose a little bit of yourself. Your heart becomes a little more resistant. And each time you say no, it becomes easier the next time to also say no, until eventually it becomes your automatic response, until finally you look back at the price you paid for never getting out of the boat. You choose comfort over challenge, safety over the supernatural, predictability over production, and ease over extraordinary. And you look back and see a life riddled with regret and wonder What could have been? Or will you get out of the boat? Because God does not call us to predictability. I mean, his entire word is filled with examples. God does not call us to predictability. You know, we write our script the way we want it to be. We want it with little risks. We want it with a little loss. We want it with great certainty. But that's not what we're called to be. That's not what we read in scripture. My life is filled with stepping out of the boat. stepping out of the boat. And I made this decision when I was around 23, 24 years old. I'm going to step out of the boat every chance I get. It doesn't matter if I'm insecure about it. It doesn't matter if I am afraid to do it. If I have, if I believe I have a divine invitation, I'm going to do it. I stepped into teaching without ever having gone to college to teach. And I was given 24 kids and said, see you in May. It's a great year. Yes. Switching to then, I was asked to teach older students in a different subject area, and I got out of the boat. When I had this calling, I felt like this invitation where God was saying, I want you to start leading. You have this fear inside of you, like, hey, people won't follow you. You're not gregarious and outgoing. Life of the party, people aren't going to want to follow you. And I felt like God just said, but you've got to get out of the boat. And that's when we moved to Baltimore. Going back to college, I thought, can I handle it? I mean, can I actually pass? Can I actually complete this? Then when the Lord brought us here, I felt like I was having to step outside my comfort zone because I never had led people. I had never led students. I had never led parents. I had never led staff. And I felt God saying, you've got to get out of your boat. And then a year later, I had this little divine tug that says, now you need to leave elementary. I thought, Lord, I have never taught a kindergarten class. I have a little bit since then. But again, God was saying, you've got to get out of your comfort zone. You have to leave. And even teaching this class, quite honestly, even teaching this class, quite honestly, I feel like many times I have to get out of the boat every single Sunday morning when I'm up here because we want the comfortability of not having to lead. We want the predictability of not having to feed people who come hungry every Sunday. My question to you is, what is your vote? What is your vote? When we were in Baltimore, I'll be very honest with you. Our boat, my boat was where we were at. We loved our church. We loved the school. And God said, yes, you're comfortable. And quite honestly, I remembered saying it and I was like, oh, I shouldn't have said that. I remember saying, I feel very comfortable doing what I'm doing. And it was almost like God said, oh yeah? I think God changed things up. But what is your boat? What to you is your comfort to where you don't want to step out on faith? Most of us are waiting for life to get easier. The reality is that life doesn't get easier. Successful people learn how to handle hard better. Make yourself a person that handles hard well, not someone who's waiting for easy. If you have a meaningful pursuit in life, it will never be easy. And as we're wrapping up our study on Offscript, There is difficult, which quite honestly has been the majority of what we have talked about, but there's also different. There's also the unscripted stepping out on faith of God asking us to do something that is unknown and that we have to be willing to take risks with the divine invitation, with the divine confirmation. And so next week we will be studying the book of Next week, we will start the book Ephesians, and then we will have our fifth Sunday fellowship. And then after that, we'll resume Ephesians. Sam?