Transforming Encounter - Northland's Mission

Well, a little over 10 years ago, I was on a plane, and the pilot came over the intercom and said, hey guys, we are going through a little bit of a storm, everyone needs to buckle up immediately. Not something you want to hear on a plane, all right? When the captain or the pilot of the plane starts rushing the people on the plane to get buckled in quickly. It's usually not a good sign, right? And then a few seconds later, after I strapped myself into my seat, we fiercely started to just like drop through the sky. And as we're plummeting through the sky, several things happened, it was very intense. A fascinating thing occurred within the plane. Half of the people on the plane just instantly became vocally religious. Okay? They're just calling out to God. They're crying out to him, they're pleading with Jesus for mercy. But the other half of the plane is just screaming profanity. Okay? And you can probably guess what word just kind of like cut loose on the plane, right? It just gets starting, gets yelled everywhere. Even after those excruciating seconds of just plummeting through the sky, the engines kick back on. We leveled out and all just kind of went back to normal. And everyone was left just kind of processing. What just happened? The captain didn't come back on. The pilot didn't check on us. We were just kind of in dazed and confused. Because in that moment of just intense crisis, I realized, uh, two things hit me in that moment, metaphorically, hit me. The 1st thing I learned was something really valuable about myself. Uh, I learned that how I reacted in a genuine life or death circumstance. Like what came out of me in that moment. And the 2nd thing I learned was how everyone around me reacts in the middle of a life or death circumstance. I suddenly knew something deep and intimate about all the people seated around me in front of behind me, even things that maybe their closest friends or family members didn't know about them. Like what would happen in their final seconds of life? I now knew that about the people around me. And after all of it, I looked at the guy next to me and I was like, oh, okay, so you're an expletive guy. How's that going in your life right now? Like, how's that working out for you? My guess is probably not very well. Suddenly, I got to see what comes out of all these people when they're faced with the real possibility of death. And if we're honest, many of us know exactly what it feels like to be going through a crisis. Maybe not a life or death circumstance, though many of us have felt that before. We've lived through some genuinely unsettling times. We've lived through global pandemics, global conflicts, shaky economy, fractured political landscape, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, and we've witnessed each other's stress responses to much of it. And the question I want to ask this morning is not just, how have you been reacting? But how does someone who belongs to Jesus actually meet him in the middle of chaos? How do we, as the people of God, meet him in the midst of a crisis, in the midst of a storm, in the midst of difficult times? So how do we move through a difficult day in a different way? That's how that's what we're asking this morning. And we're starting a new 4 week series, both at Northland KC and here, through Northland's mission statement. A lot of us are familiar with our four part mission statement. And so each week, we're just going to be walking through a different aspect, the 4 aspects of our mission statement. And the 1st thing our mission statement says is that we exist to lead people to experience a transforming encounter with God. That's our first point in the mission series. And for us this morning, we're going to look at what that means. And rather than jump around from passage to passage, which is sometimes, okay, more of a topical series, we're going to zoom in on the transforming encounters of one man. We're going to look at the life of Peter. But here's the thing. Peter doesn't just meet Jesus once and then move on with the rest of his life. There are multiple encounters that Jesus have. We're not gonna cover all of them, but we're gonna look at 3 really pivotal ones. And every encounter rearranges him. Every encounter that Peter has with Christ renovates his soul. And so we're going to zoom in on a few of these moments. This morning, we're going to start with looking at one of the most famous encounters that Peter has with Jesus, where Peter finds himself in the middle of a storm, in the middle of crisis. So turn with me, if you have a copy of God's word, to Matthew chapter 14. Matthew 14. We're going to be in verses 22 through 33. And we'll also have the verses up on the screen for us. As we look at this transforming encounter that Peter has in his life. With Jesus. And let me just start with getting us a little acquainted with what's going on here, just dropping into a passage. We're not going through a series. So we're dropping in in the middle of Matthew, and so some of us are like, wait, what's going on with Matthew? Let me get us a little acquainted. In this passage leading into this one that we're going to read through. Jesus brought great anticipation into culmination. So he's coming out of the feeding of the 10,000. He feeds between 10. Most scholars believe 10 and 25,000 people. Because it only lists the men, but we know women and children are also present. So between 10 and 25,000 people. That's a lot of people, guys, to feed, and he does it with 5 loaves and 2 fish. And he has so much left over that every disciple leaves with a basket of food. And so it's this incredible moment, and it's this moment that Jesus just kind of reaches the crescendo of his popularity. So he's never more popular than this moment right here. And everyone wants to come to see Jesus. The gospel of John, John writes at this very moment when the people saw the sign, that's the feeding of all these people, that what he had done, he said, the people said, this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world. And perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again. To the mountain, mountain by himself. So Jesus gets away from this. Jesus, the good shepherd, at this feeding of 1000s of people, in a manner consistent with Psalm 23, he has just led these 1000s of people beside Stillwaters. He has made them lie down in green pastures. And he's prepared a table before them. In the midst of the occupied Romans. And the multitudes are shouting, we want him to be king. This is a prophetic thing that's happening. This Jesus is doing what we've read in Psalm 23. And so the multitudes are just cheering for him. They want to make him king. And so what does Jesus do next? Matthew 14, verse 22. Look at that. It says immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. Jesus de-escalates the whole situation. He sends the crowds away. He sends the disciples away, and as disciples push their way out to the sea in this little wooden fishing boat, They must have been just unbelievably disillusioned. Like, wait, what just what just happened here? Like, talk about letting all the air out of their sales. They've spent the last 2 years building to this moment, they're ushering in a new king and a new kingdom. It's here. There's 1000s of people before us. They've just witnessed an incredible miracle. The kingdom is coming. It's within their grasp. They could see the kingdom that's opening up around them and then Jesus just shuts it down. Then look at verse 23. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray. And then when evening came, he was there alone. I love this. Jesus has this rhythm, this consistent rhythm throughout his ministry that if you read the gospels, you see it. But none of the gospels will point it out to you until you start to compare them. He would enter into the intensity of ministry. He would leave the intensity of ministry, retreat to privacy, to then pursue intimacy with the Father and the Spirit. Let me say that again. He would enter into the intensity of ministry, leave the intensity of ministry, retreat to privacy, to then pursue intimacy with his father and the spirit. And if it was a rhythm for Jesus, it ought to be a rhythm for us. Mark one, Luke 5, Mark 6, Matthew 26, Luke 22, Mark 14, over and over and over the gospels, show us Jesus is getting going off alone to pray. He's praying before he picks his disciples. He's praying when ministry gets really intense. He's praying when everyone else is falling asleep the night before the crucifixion. He's not just engaging in like the tasks and the logistics of ministry. He's not just like going in a social media feed and making sure that every comment is liked or replied to. He's not doing all these things that honestly, we spend a lot of time worrying about. He's not concerned with so many things that we're concerned with. Some of us, we might even, like, look up to really good leaders who are just doing the work of ministry and not realize that Jesus actually gets alone to pray a lot to discern the will of the Father, to walk in obedience. He's not always just doing the work of ministry. He's spending time. With his father in the spirit. And so back in this passage, as it grows dark, Jesus is alone on the hillside to pray. look at verse 24. It says, but the boat, by this time, was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. So, if you don't know, they're out on the sea of Galilee, uh, which is a commonplace for storms to just come up out of nowhere. The sea of Galilee is kind of surrounded by small hills, so the wind can really rush down and it kind of creates this vortex effect that would be lead to really violent, really quick storms that would just pop up out of nowhere. And so in this time, it's also a common belief to believe that the sea, or the big, big oceans, where a place of death, where a place of chaos, Greek mythology taught that the sea is the entrance to the underworld. And so many people believe that demons and monsters lived in the sea. Even up to several hundred years ago, we had maps with monsters drawn in the sea. And so that's a common belief at this time, many people believe that demons and monsters dwell there, that that was kind of the entrance to the underworld. So not only is this a terrifying moment, because of the storm that's about to pop up, but it's also terrifying because of the abyss, that they all fear falling into. And then verse 25. It says, and in the 4th watch of the night, he came to them, he being Jesus, walking on the seat. So what's the 4th watch? We don't use this language today. The 4th watch is between 3 and 6 a.m. That's morning. Okay? So if you've seen paintings of this happening in the daytime, it's happening at night, 3 to 6 a.m. Which means that these disciples have been out on this boat for 6 to 9 hours. Guys, they've been rowing in the storm all night. Can you imagine that? Like, how many of us have gone to the gym and sat on a rower and rode for 6 to 9 hours? I don't know if anyone alive, has gone to the gym and done that for 69 hours. And not only that, but go to the gym at midnight and then row through the night. And not only that, row without sleep. Oh, and not just the gym, let's throw a storm on top of you, where the boat's taking on water, and it's about to capsize. Like, this is a crisis. This isn't a calm storm that you can go to the retreat into your house, and the tornado sirens are going off, so you move down to the basement to get safety. That's not this kind of storm. This is, we're gonna die here. This is the end of our days. This storm is going to ruin us. And what's Jesus doing? These guys are, they're probably absolutely exhausted. How's Jesus feeling? Well, he's just kind of taking his leisurely morning stroll across the sea. Look with me in the next verse. Verse 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. They said, it's a ghost. And they cried out in fear. So here's our 1st point. The 1st thing that we learn about a transforming encounter with God. Transforming encounters often find us in the storm, not in the calm. Transforming encounters often find us in storms, not in the calm. They shout out, it's a ghost. We're all gonna die. Not only is there a sea here and a storm, and we've been rowing, we're exhausted. It's the middle of the night, but now a ghost is walking towards us. Like, I don't know what that is, but that apparition is gonna get us, right? They're terrified. They cry out in fear and notice Jesus didn't wait for the sky to clear up. He didn't show up after the storm has passed. He came walking out to them in the 4th watch of the night, in the middle of the wind, in the middle of the waves, when they're beat and tired and afraid. I think most of us, myself included, we get this backwards so often. We think we can only meet with Jesus when life just kind of calms down. When all is at peace, after the diagnosis is figured out, once the marriage is steady, once all the kids are okay, once we're out of the newborn phase, once the finances make sense, once the roommate drama settles down, once my mental health is just perfect, Well, then I'll meet with Jesus. And the testimony of scripture is that God has a habit of showing up in the storm itself. The most transformative encounters in the Bible almost never happen on a calm afternoon. They happen in the burning bush, in the lion's den, in fiery furnaces and on stormy seas. So if you're in a storm of your own right now, which I know a lot of us are, don't assume that God is far from you. He's actually really close to you. He wants to meet with you. He's calling out to you. Verse 27. It says, but immediately Jesus spoke to them. Saying, take heart, it's I. Don't be afraid. It's interesting that when Jesus finds them struggling in the boat. His 1st act is not to calm the storm. He could have done that. And he's actually done that before in Matthew chapter 8. You guys remember that story? Jesus is sleeping in the boat. The men are terrified again. There's still a storm at this point. So they wake Jesus up. He rebukes the winds and the waves, and then there's a great calm. But this time in chapter 14, Jesus isn't in the boat. So what's changed? Because God wants them to see that peace is not found in the absence of the storm is found in the presence of Jesus. That's what he wants them to get. It's not found like the 1st time in Matthew 8, by ceasing storms, peace comes when Jesus walks onto the scene. It's not found by absence of storms or crisis. It's found in the presence of Jesus. It's interesting that Jesus, when he finds them in the boat struggling. He doesn't calm the storm. He brings himself closer to them. He's saying peace comes from me. So why does Jesus do this? I think Jesus is preparing his disciples for a time that he's not going to be right next to them. He's been with them for 2 years now, very close to them. But he's saying, hey, peace comes from me, from me, not from a lack of crisis. So the disciples, they freak out. Jesus says, hey, take heart, have courage. Don't be afraid. I'm here, I'm with you. And then verse 28. Peter answered him, Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water. Here's our 2nd point. The 2nd thing we learn about a transforming encounter with God is this, transforming encounters, confront us with who Jesus really is. Transforming encounters, confront us with who Jesus really is. Remember, the storm is raging. The boat is rocking. Jesus walks out, and Peter says, Jesus, if that's you, Command me out of this boat, call me out of this boat. Now, do you think Peter thought that he can walk on water? Peter's a career fisherman. He's not a water skier. He's never done this before. He absolutely doesn't believe he can walk on water. This guy has made a career out of fishing, out of being in a boat. And if Peter actually believes, like, the culture abroad, that the sea was the abyss, then getting out of the boat would have been a terrifying thought. So why does he get out? Have you guys ever thought about that? Why call out to Jesus? Do you understand how badly Peter wants to be with Jesus? How badly he wants to be next to him. How badly in the midst of a storm, Peter wants to be right next to Jesus. He willing to drown, if it means that he can be close to his rabbi. Verse 29. He said, come, Peter. So Peter got out of the boat. And he walked on water that says he came to Jesus. But watch what happens to Peter, in this moment. His entire understanding of who Jesus is gets rewritten. The disciples started this scene calling Jesus a ghost, but by the time it ends, they're on their faces calling him the Son of God. That's what an encounter with Jesus does. It strips away the categories that you had for Jesus, and it shows you that he's way greater than you ever thought. That's what a transforming encounter does. The lesson here is not that you can walk on water if you just have enough faith, because I've heard pastors preach that before. That's not the point here. It's that the Son of God has command over the storms and the seas. Job says, God alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waters of the sea. Only God can do this. This isn't just a man before us. This is God Almighty. And in the crisis of life, we don't have to fear. We don't have to ask, God, what are you doing here? I don't know what's going on. This hurts, it's painful. I'm suffering. What are you doing? What's the purpose of this? Man, I think those are authentic questions to ask. But probably the wrong ones to ask. In the midst of a storm, in difficulty, in crisis, The best questions to ask are, God, how are you with me in this? How are you with me and what are you trying to teach me? Because I want to be close to you. I want to learn from you. I want to be like you. Those are better questions to ask in the midst of difficulty. And so verse 30, it continues. It says, but when he saw the wind, he's afraid. And he began to sink, Beginning to sink, he cries out, Lord, save me. And so Jesus, this is verse 31, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Who does Peter doubt? See, I think we all want to make Peter doubt Jesus. But Jesus is still standing there. Jesus doesn't sink. Jesus doesn't swim. He doesn't falter or flounder. And Peter cries out, Lord, save me. Because he believes that Jesus can actually save him. So I don't think Peter doubts Jesus. I think Peter doubts that he can actually do what Jesus has called him to do. I think Peter doubts his role as a disciple. I think he doubts his identity as a child of God. I think Peter doubts his ability to walk in obedience to God's word. I think Peter doubts himself. Verse 32. And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him. Saying, truly, you are the Son of God. And here's the 3rd thing that we learn about a transforming encounter with God. Transforming encounters, change the way we view ourselves. Not just the way we view Christ, but ourselves as well. So Jesus brings Peter back to the boat. The storms, the storm ceases, the disciples worship. They say, truly, you are the son of God. And that's the 1st time that they've ever said that. in the gospel of Matthew. The father says it. He declares it at the baptism of Jesus. Uh, the demons even say it on the eastern shore of the sea. So at the highest point, the Father declares it at the lowest point, the demons declare it, and now the disciples declare it. That he is the son of God. And when Jesus stepped into that boat, the disciples realized, God almighty stepped into this boat. And here's what I want you to see. When you encounter who Jesus really is. What he's really done. You don't just walk away with a bigger view of him. You also walk away with a different view of yourself. Disciples didn't just learn something about Jesus' power that night. They learn something about their own identity as men who belong to the Son of God. Peter, learn something about his own faith. He learned something about his own doubt. And in an instant, these young men went from worrying about their circumstances to worshiping their Christ. They have all had a transforming encounter with God. That's what it does. Christ renovates our hearts. He rearranges our soul. So what does this mean for us? Like, what do we do with this? Let me give us 3 things this morning. Number one, position yourself to see Jesus more regularly and more clearly. Position yourself to see Jesus more regularly and more clearly. Remember the rhythm that Jesus had, his example throughout the gospels. And in this passage, he enters into the intensity of ministry, then he retreats to privacy to pursue intimacy with the Father and the Spirit. That's his rhythm over and over and over again. And if there was a rhythm for Jesus that he needed in order to walk closely with his father. We've got to do it too. We need it more. Encounters with God are not random lightning strikes. They tend to happen to those who have made themselves available. People who have built rhythms of stillness. rhythms of prayer, scripture, worship, into our lives. You can't manufacture and encounter with God, but you can absolutely position yourself in the places where he has a long history of showing up. We have to slow down enough that if Jesus walked by you, you wouldn't miss him. Number two, our 2nd point, application. Call out to him while you're still sinking. Call out to him while you're sinking. One of the most beautiful things, I think, in this whole passage, is that Peter doesn't wait until he's stabilized to cry out. Like, he doesn't tread water for a minute, gather himself, take a breath, and then offer Jesus like a compose theologically accurate prayer. That's not what he does. He's already had the Lord's prayer at this moment. He's not like, oh, what did Jesus say? Oh, I need to make sure I get this formally correct. He doesn't do that. He cries out, Lord, save me. As he's sinking. Like water in his mouth, can't breathe in the middle of his failure to walk out, in his weakness, at the moment that he's seconds away from death, he's crying out to Jesus. Jesus immediately reaches out his hand and scoops him up. I get to see a little glimpse of this with each of my kids, if you've got kids, you've probably experienced this, I've got 3 kids. Titus is 7, Ezekiel's 5, and Hosanna's 2, and I've experienced with each of them. Right now I'm experiencing this more with Hosanna, but it'll happen in the middle of the night. I'll be sitting with Abby, maybe we're having dinner. All the kids are checked into their beds. We've had our prayers. And then we'll hear an hour after bedtime, crying, screaming. Hosanna is having a bad dream. She's screaming out, No, no, no, don't get me. Right? She's crying out. And what do I do? I'm not close to her room. I get up from what I'm doing immediately. I race across. our house, I open that door, and I scoop her up into my arms. And I whispered her, I'm here. Dad is here. I'm with you. You don't have to be afraid. And what does she do? She immediately falls back asleep. Because she's resting in the reality that her father brings peace. And so often we don't trust the Lord, or we doubt ourselves. That he can't bring peace to us. So why bother? And I love this example. Because she finally rests in the truth, that my presence brings her peace, and that's what Peter does in the water. He cries out, and Jesus comes running. So often we postpone meeting with Jesus until we feel like we have something to bring him. We think, man, I'll come to God when I've got this addiction under control over here. It's out of control. I got to get control over it, and then I'll come to Jesus. I'm gonna pray, but I can't pray when I'm angry. I have to come to God with formal clean prayers. I'll come to church when I've like cleaned myself up when I just happen to know people more, but, How am I gonna get to know them if I don't go to church? I don't know, it doesn't make sense, but it makes sense in my mind. You don't have to be on top of the water to meet with Jesus. Sometimes the encounter happens on the way down. So when you're drowning in life, when you realize your need, your weakness, your desperation, man, That's when you call out to him. That's when he's near. Psalm 34, I am close to the broken hearted. I rescue those who are crushed in spirit. Let him rescue you. He delights in it. Our third application point. Allow the encounter to rewrite what you believe about him. Allow the transforming encounters with Jesus to rewrite what you believe about him. The disciples started this scene calling Jesus a ghost, and they ended it with calling him the Son of God. That's not a small move. That's a huge chasm between that, right? And here's the test of whether you've actually had an encounter with God or maybe just like a religious experience. Did your view of Jesus, get way bigger? If you leave an encounter, and your view of Jesus just got bigger, and your previous understanding of Jesus just shattered, and you realize that was way too small, you just had a transforming encounter with God. Real encounters with God, don't leave our theology untouched. They expand it. They humble it. They make us realize, they make us say things like, I had no idea God was like that. I've been walking with him for 50 years. I had no idea. He was this good, this kind, this loving, this powerful. So when God meets you in a sermon, in a moment of prayer, in a crisis, in a conversation with a friend. Don't just, don't just file that moment away. Let it actually rewrite what you believe about him and about yourself. Now, before we wrap this thing up, we've got a few minutes left, I think it's really important that we see a glimpse of how Jesus is developing Peter through these encounters. Because remember at the beginning, I said, we're going to look at several moments. Because there are so many key developmental moments that the gospel writers include in the life of Peter. And I think we'd missed something this morning if we didn't talk about how this event, walking on water, fits in Peter's life. For example, this isn't the 1st time that Peter has had an interaction with Jesus on the water. It's also not the last time. There's one coming later in his life. In Luke five. Do you remember Peter's fishing in his boat? He hasn't met Jesus yet? And he has been fishing all night and he hasn't caught any fish. Which you can imagine if you're a full-time fisherman, that's probably really frustrating. Like, you make your livelihood off of this. You're probably really good at it. You can almost hear in Luke 5, Peter thinking, uh, gosh, I'm exhausted, I'm frustrated. And then in that exhaustion and frustration, this carpenter. Named Jesus climbs into his boat and tells him to push out a little deeper into the water. Just like go out a little deeper, Peter, and he's like, I'm sorry. Who's the fisherman? You're a carpenter. You're telling me what to do? This makes no sense, but I'm exhausted. I've tried everything. Uh, sure, I'll just go out a little bit deeper. So eventually he listens to Jesus. And he catches so many fish that he can't get them into the boat. It's breaking the nets. And in that moment, this lands on Peter. This isn't just a carpenter who stepped into my boat. The creator of the heavens and the earth is sitting in my boat with me. And Peter does the only thing that he knows how to do. Do you remember the story? It says Peter hits his knees. And he goes down and falls before Jesus. And he says, get away from me. I'm a terrible guy. Like, there's nothing good in me. I'm weak. I'm a liar, I'm a sinner. Depart from me. And you remember what Jesus does? What he says next. He says, no. You belong to me. You're mine now. I'm rescuing you. No longer will you catch fish. No longer will you take fish from life to death. I'm gonna show you how to take people from death to life. You're mine, Peter. You belong to me. And it's this beautiful transforming encounter that Peter has with Jesus on the water. That was Peter's 1st encounter with him. And then what we read today in Matthew 14 is in the middle of Peter's training as a disciple, but then there's another encounter that Peter has with Jesus on the water. And it happens after Peter has betrayed Jesus, and after Jesus has already walked out of that grave. It's been a while now. John 21. Peter's out fishing again. Just as before, he's going back to the life he knew. I failed. I've denied him. My rabbi's dead. I'm going back. I don't know what else to do. I'm a failure. And John writes that as the sun is coming up, Jesus is out there, he's standing on the shore, and he's just watching Peter fish. And this time, Jesus is not on the boat, not in the boat. He's not on the water. He's out on the shore, far away. Jesus is about to recreate the same miracle that he 1st called Peter. He's about to recreate the same moment. The same thing happens. So many fish that Peter can't get them into the boat. And at that moment, Peter realizes that it's Jesus on the shore. Like the it triggers this moment where he's like, this has happened before. And who was near me last time? Jesus was. So he looks at that guy on the shore and it lands on him. That's what Jesus, that's Jesus there. So what does he do? Does he drop to his knees and ask Jesus to depart from him? No? Does he ask? Does he call out to Jesus and ask if he can walk on the water? No. This time, Peter leaps out of the boat. And he sprints, swims to Jesus, which I did, I think is one of the funniest passages in scripture because some of the other disciples are still in the boat, and they're rowing, and it says that they met the shore at the same time, right? So Peter's just like, there's Jesus, jumps in the water, rogues on, he's swimming, and John's like, oh, Peter, come on, we're right here with you. Just keep swimming, buddy. You will get there at the same time, right? But Peter is so excited to see Jesus. He moves towards him. He's thinking about getting close to Jesus as fast as he possibly can. It's very interesting that we see this progression that Jesus starts in the boat with Peter. And then Peter's out of the boat walking on water, and at the end, Jesus is on the shore. And Peter swims to him. What does that all mean? What's that progression showing us? Well, I think one thing is that Jesus is teaching Peter through this whole arc that every encounter with him, every encounter with Jesus is going to change you a little more. Every encounter with Jesus is a changing, transforming encounter. In the 1st encounter, Peter falls, he hits his knees, he says, get away from me, in the 2nd. He steps out of the boat. He walks towards Jesus until fear pulls him under. And then this 3rd encounter, he doesn't hesitate at all. I'm not figuring out if I can walk. I'm just swimming to him. That's the work of repeated transforming encounters with God. They don't leave you where they found you. They change you. They renovate your soul. They restore your heart. And guys, that's what we're praying for as a church. That's what our leadership is praying for, that as the people of God, we exist not only to have our own transforming encounters with God, we exist to lead other people to Jesus. To have transforming encounters with him. Because we know, man, that encounter is so good. It's so sweet. It's what we live for. That I want other people to experience this. People in Riverside that don't know him. I want them to know him. That's what we're praying for. It's not just a one time event, it's a lifetime of understanding who Jesus really is and seeing how he's bigger and greater than we could ever imagine. And meeting him in ways that keep rewriting who we are. We become less, he becomes more. So what do we do? We position ourselves to see Jesus more regularly and clearly. We realize our need, we call out to him while we're sinking. And we let every encounter rewrite what we believe about him, and what we believe about ourselves. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you. You've gathered us here. That's not a mistake. You've ordained our lives. You've gathered us to this time in this place to worship you, to be reminded of the good news that we have in Christ. that when we were far off, when we were rebelling against you, When we hated you, God. When we were in the depths of our despair and sin, you entered into our world, you came running after us to pull us out of the deep, out of the abyss that we're sinking into, you rescued us. And you continue to rescue us. A transforming encounter with you is not a one and done circumstance. It's a life lived calling out to you day by day, hour by hour, because we need you. Your word says, you don't just save us. You are saving us, and you will one day save us. That we're sealed by your spirit. We are held in your hands, and there's nothing we can do that would separate us from the love of God. So, Lord, help us to not doubt you. and help us to not doubt that we can be obedient to you, that we can live in light of the peace that you offer. We can live in accordance to the joy that you bring. We can live in obedience to the things you're asking us to walk in. And it's not gonna be perfect from day one, but that's why we call out to you, God, for help. For saving, for strength, for endurance, for patience, for joy. So, Lord, help us in this moment, that we wouldn't pass without acknowledging that we have and can have transforming encounters with you. And I pray that as we leave here today, that we would be reminded of how good and kind and great you are. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.