Spiritual Babes No More

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca

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Good afternoon, everyone. It's good to see everyone again. Thanks a lot for reading the passage, brother. I really appreciate that. So welcome back, everyone.

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Welcome to our visitors. We're happy to see you guys. Today's passage, we are in Mark chapter 6. We're concluding

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Mark chapter 6. So this is where we're picking up in many ways. This is actually a continuation of something we've studied before.

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Of something even I've preached before. In Mark chapter 4, just a couple pages back, in verses 35 to 41, we studied the passage about when

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Jesus calms the storm. There's another storm in this story. And it would seem that by design, the

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Lord has made these passages, these events, very similar to one another. They're very, very similar.

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When we think about teaching and we think about learning, it's true oftentimes that we don't learn things on the first try.

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Actually, it's often the case that it takes a lot of time and a lot of patience, not just as the learner, but the teacher, before something is truly learned, before we truly grasp a concept.

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To really know if someone understands something, at some point, they will need to be tested.

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When we test someone, there's certain questions we're asking about this individual.

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There's certain things that we're looking to understand. The first is, have you learned the concept that you've been studying for a certain period of time?

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What mistakes have you made in the past? Is it evident that you will not make the same mistakes again, or at the very least, make them less than you used to?

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Are you learning? Are you progressing? We think about today's text because that is one of the central themes of today's passage.

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Actually, the main theme of our passage is that in these difficulties and these difficulties and times that we experience, these can sometimes and often are ways to test our faith.

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In our walk, in our maturity in Christ, as we study and come to learn and know

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Him more, these tests remind us to continually trust in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and that no disciple will outgrow Jesus Christ.

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No master is above, or sorry, no student is above his master after all. Failing to understand this, if we don't grasp this, if we come to the end of our passage today, and we don't get this, if we don't grasp this concept, we will fail to mature, remaining spiritual babes at best, but at worst, we will never truly possess or understand

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Christ as our own. But before I continue, before we get into the passage, let's pray.

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Dear Sovereign God, Lord, You are seated in the heavens, and You do as You please. You provide according to Your will.

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Lord, You provide mercy to whom You will. Lord, You provide strength to whom You will. You provide knowledge to who

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You will. Lord, we thank You that we come again this day, Lord, to praise You and to study

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Your word. Father, we ask, Father, open our minds, open our hearts, Lord, that we would be good students.

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Lord, that we would be students in the truest sense, Father, that we would become more and more like our

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Master. Lord, that we would abide in Him and that we would have His strength. Father, we know that there is such a thing as empty head knowledge and empty worldly wisdom.

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But Father, we don't desire that. We desire the truth, Lord. We desire to become more and more like Christ and to learn more of Him and to truly ingrain these truths within us,

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Father. It is Your word. It is You, Father, who will cause the growth. And we come before You humbly, Lord.

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Make us students. Open up our hearts, Lord, that the soil of our hearts, Lord, would receive Your good word.

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Lord, we thank You. Lord, we pray that we have minds to understand the text today. We pray this all in the sufficient name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, at this point, I feel like you guys have had enough time to flip to the end of Mark.

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So we're starting up in verse 45. So Mark chapter 6, verse 45. Our first point, just to fill in your headings for those taking notes, is

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Christ desires awareness. He desires awareness. So like I said, we're picking up in similar circumstances like we have before in the

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Gospel of Mark. So up until this point, we're looking at our passage. Jesus and the disciples have spent a lot of time in and around the

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Sea of Galilee. Today, it's no different as we see in our text. We have our first heading here.

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Immediately, He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side to Bethsaida. While He dismissed the crowd.

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And after He had taken leave of them, He went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea and He was alone on the land.

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And He saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night,

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He came to them, walking on the sea. That's what we'll cut off for our first point. But we see the command of Jesus Christ to go ahead of Him as He dismisses the crowds.

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If you guys remember last week, Shane preached about the feeding of the 5 ,000. That's a very common story, one well known.

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But as a reminder, if you weren't here, the 5 ,000 that Jesus Christ fed last week, this number doesn't actually represent all the people there.

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It's a little bit of a misnomer, but the feeding of the 5 ,000 doesn't include, this number doesn't include women and children.

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Some historians have, the numbers vary a little bit. Some historians peg this number closer to 10 ,000, if not more.

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But generally speaking, what we take away from this circumstance is that there's a lot of people. There's lots happening.

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So Jesus Christ, in His goodness, in His humility, in His service, was finishing up with the close to 10 ,000 people that were there, as He's finishing serving and all that He was doing.

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So He sends the disciples forward. As He was doing this, He also sent them forward that He could pray.

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And I think that's something we need to note up. Shane also preached on this last week. And this will be important for us later on in the text as we study, as we apply some of this.

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But we need to know that Jesus Christ was going to have His time in prayer. We looked at last week that He didn't get it.

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He fed 5 ,000 people when He intended to pray. But at this moment in time, He's making the time to pray.

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He's doing that. We notice that He climbs to the top of a plateau to seek the

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Father in prayer. But He doesn't do that just so that He can pray. He also does this so that He can observe

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His disciples at sea. The sheep never leave

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His sight after all. He's still observing them, although He is in prayer to the Father or with the

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Father. And we need to understand, I mean, we're not from that area. But geography is important here, because it's likely that at this point in time, in the

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Gospel of Mark, they're not far from Bethsaida. He's sending them not a very far distance, actually. Again, some commentators place them between Tiberias and Magdala.

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If you can imagine the Sea of Galilee, almost like an upside -down pear. That's actually a good way of describing it. The north is where Bethsaida is.

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They were probably somewhere on the kind of the western side, about five kilometers.

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It's a little bit hard to imagine. But if you can imagine that, it's not a very far distance. In other words, this is what we need to notice, is they're not far.

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They aren't far from their destination. In ideal conditions, you could expect that somebody traveling by boat could make this short trip within an hour or two at somewhat of a leisurely pace, under ideal conditions.

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But this isn't what happens. Look at verses 47 and 48. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.

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And he saw, Jesus, that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them.

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And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. Wording is important here because the way that it's described, the making headway painfully, doesn't quite do it justice.

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The Greek word used here actually adds some emphasis. In studying this word in particular, what would have been used in Greek at that time is actually a lot more strenuous.

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It's more of a strain. And actually, it's used in places as literal torture.

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In the Bible in particular, the demons would say this to Jesus when they were faced with his awesome holiness.

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When confronted with Jesus Christ, the demons would use this word to describe the amount of torment that they felt in light of his holiness.

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We see that in Matthew 8, 29, or a couple pages back in Mark 5, 7.

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This same word is the same. It's the one used in this passage. And I want to make really clear, while that doesn't mean that Jesus Christ was torturing the disciples, we have to take it in spirit.

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And we know that they are under agony, that these disciples are laboring.

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This isn't an easy storm they're trying to overcome. So while they're not being literally tortured, you can see that the apostles aren't just trying to get a workout in.

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These guys aren't just trying to beat a personal best here or anything. This is a battle and they are losing.

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So if we pause here in our text and we turn inward and we look to ourselves and we examine this text of what we can do thus far and apply to ourselves, we need to learn this.

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Do I know when I'm struggling? So it's clear that the disciples are battling for their lives here.

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And while they haven't given up yet, I mean, we're going to learn that, they are losing.

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I think that much is obvious. And the question is, do we know when we are losing?

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Are there areas of unholiness where we are falling short? Do we recognize the danger that we are in if someone were to look at our lives?

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Because truthfully, saints, we need to keep watch for our souls. We need to keep vigilant watch of our souls.

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So this is how we apply this first point. Just based on what we've read so far, learn when you are in the storm.

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So you guys need to learn when you are in the storm. So this isn't the first time the disciples have been in the storm.

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Like I said, we studied Mark chapter 4 a couple weeks ago. Jesus calms the storm then.

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And this is their fishermen. This is not the first time they are confronted with hairy weather.

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It's true that we are also slow to learn. We often face the same trouble and same problem over and over and over again.

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And still somehow we sin before our Lord. We mess up and we fall short. Like the disciples, there are areas where we are battling by the might of our own strength, thinking that we are able to weather the storm.

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The disciples have been battling at sea since early evening. Remember, Jesus Christ dismissed them about the evening time.

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And by the time He makes His way over, it is about, it is the fourth watch, which is in Roman, it's a

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Roman figure of speech. But this is between 3 to 6 a .m. It's been hours.

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These guys are fighting for their lives and it has been hours. And they are suffering needlessly.

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But it doesn't need to be like this. 1 Peter 5 .8 says,

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What's interesting about the way lions hunt is that lions stalk their prey when they hunt. They're not actually the fastest animal.

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They don't rely on their speed. If you guys have cats, cats are like a shadow of how lions actually hunt.

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Because lions have a lot more patience, actually. The amount of patience that lions can demonstrate, especially in the wild, if you've ever studied this, is actually pretty incredible.

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They'll wait for hours. They will stalk their prey for hours and they will not move until that prey, that beast that they're hunting, gains confidence.

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And it's often that it's only the most vigilant of animals, animals that don't rest very much, that are kind of the fidgety ones, that are the ones that get away.

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The ones that become confident and overconfident, as it were, don't make it very long. These lions cannot wait you.

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If the Lord did not save the disciples, if He did not make His way to them, the disciples would have been consumed by the storm.

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They're very likely. Proverbs 3, verses 5 to 6 says,

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Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.

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Again, we have to remember many of us are battling circumstances and doubts that are very difficult. Examine our own lives for a moment.

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Some of us are seeking the Lord's wisdom for very big decisions in our lives. Things that warrant us seeking the

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Lord. We are all in the war against our sin and our flesh, as our flesh does battle against our spirit.

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We're all in that war. We all need Christ's redeeming power over sin to overcome.

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But before we even get to that point, before we recognize that we might be in over our heads, we need to be able to see the danger.

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So before you even ring the alarm, before you even act, you need to know that you're in danger.

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We need to have that known about us. So saints, we need to know when we're in these storms. We need to be able to recognize those things.

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We need to be vigilant. So pushing on in our text, we're going to go to our second point here.

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And again, for those taking notes, Christ desires growth. Christ desires growth.

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Here is where we get to the heart of the passage. We're going to spend the bulk of our time. Because this is where Mark puts all the emphasis in our passage today.

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So let's just read the rest of our, up to verse 52. Picking up from the end of verse 48, it says,

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He meant to pass them by. But when they saw Him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw

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Him and were terrified. But immediately He spoke to them and said, Take heart, it is

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I. Do not be afraid. And He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.

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And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

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I've mined so many good things about this passage. And we come to understand as the more you dig deep into the passage that it's so rich in meaning, so rich.

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This little phrase at the end of 48, pass them by. This is the same phrase that is used to describe

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God and His actions in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. That is the Septuagint. This phrase is used in many places in the

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Old Testament. This is true of Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 33, 19.

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And Elijah in 1 Kings 19, verses 11 to 12. This is

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God passing by. This isn't just a man. This is a man, to be sure, but this isn't just a man.

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While Jesus Christ is letting His glory pass by them in the midst of this storm, He is also doing something else.

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It's interesting, if you look in Luke 24, verse 28, this is where Jesus Christ is on the road to a maze.

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He is risen and He is on His way. It says this, and this is something that is very interesting, and we need to note this.

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It says, so they drew near to the village to which they were going. He, Jesus, acted as if He was going farther.

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So Jesus Christ was acting as if He was going farther than where He intended to go. Jesus Christ would test

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His disciples, and that is also happening here. This is one of those tests that when we face them, we need to be aware of.

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This is happening to the disciples as they are in the storm. If you can imagine for a moment, if you had sandals on your feet and you were in first century church, having this gospel read out loud, you can imagine as you were sitting on the floor as this gospel is being read and being dispersed to the churches, the thoughts that you might have as the reader is reading and you're hearing, the thoughts you might have, not knowing where the story goes, you might say, this is it.

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This is the moment, and the disciples are finally going to get it. This is the second time they've been in a similar situation.

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They're going to get it. You might be on the edge of your seat, but then you're going to find out that they don't.

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Sadly, they do quite the opposite. So we see in verse 50 that they were terrified of Christ.

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They're terrified. The storm no longer being their biggest concern. So instead of welcoming their master onto the boat, like we saw in Mark chapter four, he calmed the storm once before, he will do it again.

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No. Instead, they reel in fear. They're terrified. Immediately, Jesus calms the heart of the disciples first by declaring to them once again, take heart, it is

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I, do not be afraid. But one thing that's really interesting about this is the little phrase, it is

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I, translated literally, it means I am. This is the great I am.

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This is the same name that God gave Moses in the burning bush in Exodus 3 .14. This is the

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I am, the great I am. And yet, they still don't understand him.

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They don't understand him, and even worse, you think that they would make progress. They're making progress.

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Okay, well, maybe they get him a little bit. And worse yet, they hardened their hearts. Verse 52, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.

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So we need to pause here for just a moment. We need to pause here and say, what is Mark telling us? Well, what

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Mark is telling us in this passage is that we can't afford to fail this test. This is not a test that we can afford to score zero on.

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Jesus is a loving teacher, and his ways are higher than ours. Though we might have the temptation to think that there must be some reason things aren't going well in our lives,

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I know that this is true of me. What have I done wrong? Is there something that I need to fix or do better of? And I might complain.

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The truth is, brothers and sisters, that the more God -honoring perspective would be to realize that these are opportunities for growth.

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Growing in knowledge of our Lord doesn't just mean that our hearts are warmed on Sunday afternoons when we come to church.

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That isn't, that isn't, it starts there, but it does not end there. Maturity, there's a maturation in the believer, both body and soul, that when the believer is called upon, called up to meet the challenge, they meet it.

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So that is what we need to apply here. We need to apply this. This needs to be true of us, brothers and sisters. We must grow up.

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At some point, we have to grow up. If I can have you guys turn to 1

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John 2. We're going to linger in there for just a little bit here. This is actually a perfect description.

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In 1 John 2, verse 12 to 14, we get a perfect description of what maturity looks like.

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It looks a little bit like doxology, like poetry, but we're going to study this for just a little bit because these three verses, in these three verses,

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John is talking about three groups of people. And we're just going to dedicate some time to that. So the first group of people he's going to speak to are children, then we're going to have young men, and then fathers, or older men and women.

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So let's read that. So 1 John 2, verse 12, it says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake.

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I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

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I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know

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Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.

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So let's unpack that really quickly here. Can't devote as much time as I wish we could, but let's unpack that.

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So the first group we're going to look at is the children. He says this of the children.

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He says, you know the Father and your sins are forgiven. So in other words, we rejoice because these are believers.

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These are believers in Christ. These are spiritual babes. They're babies in the Lord. They're young.

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These people have their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life. They will be in heaven, but they're very young.

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Logically, we're going to look at the next group, and that is young men or young women. This is who

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He addresses. He says these believers have learned to stand on their own and more importantly are serving others.

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That's critical here. There is fruit and maturity that is evident in their lives.

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Like some of the little ones, like we have little ones here. We think of Charlotte. We think of Ellie. They will eventually grow up.

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One day they'll grow up, and they will no longer require that their parents meet every single need at any hour of the day to have all their needs met.

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They will not need that. One day they will grow up, and they will be expected to do things on their own. And as the passage teaches, one day they'll be serving.

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They will have to overcome, and logically we're going to study the next group.

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We have older women and older men or fathers as it's described here in 1 John. These are the men and women who have run the race with endurance, with a perseverance from on high, and remain true in their lives.

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It's not perfect. There is no perfect race that we can run. We will all fall, but these believers, you know how we're praying for gray hair in this congregation.

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We want brothers and sisters who have ran the race, who can come alongside us, and with their experience, love us.

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We have been praying for that because they have known Him who is from the beginning. They have known

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Him. These older brothers and sisters have remained faithful, and despite the challenges and tests of their lives, whatever that might be, whatever has come, they have passed, and their lives demonstrate seasoned growth.

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Seasoned growth. This is something that has taken time and effort and labor. How many of us would be the first to admit that we fall into the category of spiritual babes in our lives?

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If we're honest, if we took, again, if we apply this text, if we look inward, where are the areas in our lives where we still need the

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Lord to wipe our bottoms? Where we walk from church and someone else is tended to all your needs?

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Christ desires that we grow up. It glorifies

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Him. There is so much to learn to apply to our lives.

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Are we content with just doing the bare minimum? John Piper said once that it would be better to lose your life than to waste it.

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Brothers and sisters, how tragic would it be that if we get to the end of our lives, we have thought that we've lived a pretty obedient life, only to know that, like it says in 1

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Corinthians. We'll turn there, actually. We'll turn to 1 Corinthians chapter three.

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To know that, to think that we have given the Lord our best, that we come before Him happy, joyful, misguided.

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1 Corinthians chapter three, verse 12 to 15.

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We come before Him boldly misguided and we haven't given Him our first fruits.

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Let's read this. It says, Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest for the day will disclose it.

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Because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

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If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved.

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But only as through fire. Think about us.

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Think about your life, brothers and sisters. Is this what you want to bring to the Lord? If this is you, if this is you, and this is what you bring to the

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Lord, congratulations. By His mercy, by His grace, you make it into the kingdom.

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But you don't have much to show for it. Why stay there?

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Why let this be us? We need to grow up. Learn to give

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Christ your first fruits. Learn to give Him your best. Are there giftings that you possess and are neglecting?

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Are there things in our lives that we know we ought to practice, we ought to do, we ought to serve, and we just neglect them, we don't do them?

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Are we happy knowing that there are others who will serve us without complaining or grumbling, this is what they love to do, they serve us without a thought, and yet in the back of our minds, we know that we ought to be doing these things.

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Is this us? Don't be content to waste your life as a spiritual baby, having your spiritual bottoms cleansed daily, but instead, walk like a mature believer who is confident to bring his or her best on the day of redemption.

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It's going to become known, the day will disclose it. So we need to grow up.

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That is why we apply it in this second point. And before we go on to the end of the passage, before we wrap up everything that we've looked at here, you guys have noticed that there's still some left that we need to look at.

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But before we do that, I'm going to have a story to tell you guys about a little church history. You guys may or may not be familiar with the story of George Herbert, George Herbert.

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George Herbert is actually an interesting guy. George Herbert was a man who preached in a very small church in the

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Church of England. He lived a seemingly quiet life. He became a deacon in the

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Church of England in 1626 and a priest in a small church in Bemerton in 1630.

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So he became a priest in the church in 1630 and actually not long before that, not long after that,

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I should say, in 1633, he died at the age of 40. After a long battle with tuberculosis, it eventually claimed his life.

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So he lived to about the young age of 40 and seemingly a quiet life, quiet service.

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And, you know, because he's preached and what's interesting is we don't have a lot of his writings.

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You guys know that they wrote their manuscripts. Some preachers write their manuscripts, some don't, but we don't have a lot of his personal writings and there's not a lot that's said about him actually.

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He lived a quiet life. He was survived by his wife and three kids and if that was the end of the story, that's it.

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That's like many members in the church we see today who just, who lived their life, who served quietly and will receive their reward in heaven.

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But this isn't entirely true. He's not forgotten in history. His friend actually in the same year, in 1633, not long after he died, his friend was sent a book that was sitting on George Herbert's, his bookshelf.

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This is a little unassuming book. George, sorry, George sent it to his friend

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Nicholas Ferver and his friend actually published this little book.

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But not before George sent him this letter and he said this concerning the little book. He said this, Sir, I pray deliver this little book to my dear brother,

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Ferrer, and tell him he shall find in it a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed betwixt

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God and my soul before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my master, in whose service

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I now found perfect freedom. Desire him to read it. And then, if he think it may turn to some advantage to any poor dejected soul, let it be made public.

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If not, let him burn it. For I and it are less than the least of God's mercies.

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This is the letter he sent to his friend. Contained in this little book, this unassuming little book, are 167 poems.

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And they were published under the title, The Temple. This little book that was unassuming, this little book that sat on his mantle, essentially a compilation of the life of George Herbert, became one of the greatest books of poetry in the

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English language. This little book solidified George Herbert as one of the greatest

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English lyricists of all time. And this is all after his passing, after he's gone to be with the

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Lord. John Piper says this of Herbert. He says, Poetry was for Herbert a way of seeing and savoring and showing the wonders of Christ.

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The central theme of his poems was the redeeming love of Christ, and he labored with all his literary might that it might be seen clearly, that he would feel it deeply and show it strikingly.

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What are we going to see, however, is not only that the beauty of the subject inspired the beauty of the poetry, but more surprisingly, the effort to find beautiful poetic form helped

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Herbert see more of the beauty of his subject. The craft of poetry opened more of Christ for Herbert and for us.

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If you didn't understand that, in other words, what made this poetry, this book, so excellent wasn't the structure, wasn't the form, wasn't the words that he used.

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Although those are all excellent, it was the subject of whom

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Herbert wrote about that drove him to excellence. It was

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Jesus that drove Herbert to compose some of the most beautiful poetry to ever be printed in the English language.

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And this is going to lead us to our third point. So this is where we're going to conclude today's sermon. We're going to look at our third point. Christ desires striving.

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He desires striving. Here we're going to read the end of our message today.

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In verse 53, it says, When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret, and they moored to the shore.

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And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was.

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And wherever he came, in villages, cities, and countryside, or countrysides, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment.

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And as many as touched it were made well. This is a familiar territory for us. We've seen this.

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Jesus Christ healing, he's serving. This is familiar. This is routine almost at this point. The people hear of Christ, and it's interesting to note they didn't actually make it to Bethsaida here.

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Not yet, anyways. But everywhere he goes, the people gather, and Christ serves them in humility.

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So Christ serves wherever he goes. And we see another familiar feature of the

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Gospel of Mark, and that's the Marking Sandwich. I've talked about this before, but again, it's worth mentioning.

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If you remember from previous passages, Mark will interject stories as the

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Spirit led him. He would insert different stories that almost seem to conflict or not jive with the rest of the passage, but actually it serves to tie together theological thoughts, like big thoughts are tied together in these almost contrasting stories.

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In the same way a poet uses form and function to drive meaning, Mark does the same thing using an

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ABA structure to his writing. So just track with me here a little bit. The passage that Shane preached last week, the feeding of the 5 ,000, if you think about it, this is

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A. So we have A. That sits right at the top. Looking at our passage today, verses 45 to 52,

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Jesus walking on water, this is B. And if we're looking at this last chunk, verses 53 to 56, this is

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A again. A, B. And the question you might ask yourself is, so what?

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Why should I care? Why does this matter? The reason's this. Mark is practically shouting from these pages, look at Christ.

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Look at Him. Look at Christ. If you look at the parallel passages in the other

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Gospels, you look at Matthew chapter 14 and verses 22 to 33, this is a parallel to today's passage, but you'll notice in that passage that it includes

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Peter walking out on the water. Peter goes out to Jesus Christ and he walks on the water, but in his unbelief, he begins to sink and Jesus Christ lifts him out of the water and puts him on the boat.

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And if it's interesting to you, Mark is a disciple of Peter. He knew about this and yet he did not write it.

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He neglected to put this into this Gospel, something so pivotal, something that would have been known to Peter and Mark.

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And if we had included it, we might come away looking at Jesus Christ rescuing

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Peter. We might be looking at the blessing that Jesus Christ is offering here. But Mark, instead, he omits this and he says, focus on the great

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I am. Focus on Christ. Don't focus on Peter because we might come away looking at Peter saying, well, that's what

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Jesus Christ can do for me. But instead, we need to look to Christ. This is the

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I am. And we also need to note the misunderstanding and the fear of those closest to him.

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The disciples still don't get it. They still haven't learned. Darrell, if I'm going to ask you, what is our only hope in life and death?

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Amen. Amen. That didn't get there day one. He didn't learn that today. That's not something he learned today.

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He learned that over the course of weeks. Every day you practice that at least once.

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But we need to get this, brothers and sisters. This is a lesson we need to learn. This is for us. This is the great

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I am. So this is how we apply this. Let's apply this right now. It says, this is

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Mark talking to us. This is the Holy Spirit using Mark to speak to us. We need to look higher.

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That's our application. We need to look higher. If the disciples don't get it, we need to look higher.

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As we meditate on this, as we think about the end of this passage, we acknowledge just how far we fall short.

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We fall woefully short. We need to discipline ourselves to pray and to pray more.

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Often I'm reminded that we need to spend more time in prayer. And actually as a way of application, we're not just going to talk about prayer.

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We are going to pray. We need to pray. We're going to spend some time in prayer and we are going to go before the throne.

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But before we do that, before anything, before we conclude today's service and we meditate further on this and where we are and where we are in our growth, we need to set the stage.

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We need to address this. We need to go to Isaiah 6 for just a little bit. And I just, and even if you just, don't even go there if you just listen.

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Just close your eyes with me for just a moment and just think about this. Isaiah 6, verse one, it says this.

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Verses one to four. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the

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Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

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Can you see it? Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings.

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With two He covered His face and with two He covered His feet. And with the last two He covered, with the last two

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He flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the

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Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with His glory. Verse four.

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And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of Him who called and the house was filled with smoke.

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Brothers and sisters, this is our audience. When we pray, when we go before the throne, we bring our petitions to God.

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This is who we're talking to. So quickly we become calloused.

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We see prayer as something that we do in our car or we devote some time when we have a spare second.

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But we become so calloused to think that this isn't who we're talking to.

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The room in which He abides is filled with smoke. We could not even see Him. Were it not for the blood of Christ, we couldn't even look at Him.

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We can't even stand in His presence. We read Psalm 38 today.

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We like prostrate before Him, crushed by His holiness, crushed by the weight of His majesty. His garments are even holy.

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We treat prayer so callously. But not today, brothers and sisters. Today we're going to apply this. Today we're going to pray and we're going to remember that we go before the holiest of holies.

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Today we're going to weigh this awesome ministry. We're going to come before the throne and we're going to seek an audience with the maker of the universe.

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And as we consider that, it is by grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ that He even allows us to enter in.

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So let's pray. Oh, Father.

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Father, how often do we look down upon You? Father, if we think that we have the right view of You, if we even for a moment think,

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I know my God and I know Him fully. Lord, let us repent right there in that moment. Father, not one person in this room, in this city, on this earth, loves

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You as You deserve. Father, we have never loved You as You deserve. You have been good to us all our days, from the beginning.

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And yet, Father, we are so quick to stray. Father, You are the holiest of holies.

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You are on Your throne right now. Father, let our attitudes be nothing else other than like the man who came before the synagogue,

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Father, praying, beating his chest. Lord, have mercy, a sinner like me.

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Lord, help us to look at You as You deserve. And if we fail, Lord, give us the strength to stand up and look to You again.

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Let us grow, Lord. Let us grow to be servants and more and more like our

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Master, Jesus Christ. We need Him. We need Him more. Lord, we admit, Lord, we confess to You, Father, that we have never loved

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You as You deserve. And yet, Father, by the obedience of another, Lord, we have the opportunity, the blessing to come before the holiest of holies, to pray,

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Lord, to bring our supplication to You. Lord, we thank You for Your patience before Your mercies. Lord, I thank

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You. Lord, we thank You. Lord, that You did not do away with us,

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Father, that instead, Father, You loved us. That Jesus Christ stands amidst us, Lord, in the gap.

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That, Father, without His love, without His blood spilled for us, washing us clean, plunging us within the flood,

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Father, where our sins are now done away with. Father, we cannot even look to You.

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Father, we would die before we even glimpsed before You, before we even understood what were happening. Father, I thank

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You. Father, when we approach prayer, Lord, when we, Lord, when we come on our knees,

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Lord, and we come before You, Father, let us come to You in nothing but holy reverence.

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Father, not looking down upon You or the audience with whom we seek, Lord. Father, thank

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You. We love You. Your mercy is good, and You are good all the time. Father, we thank You. And in the precious name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, the one who redeemed us, who gave us this opportunity,