What We Need To Remember From 2020 Part 3

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Father, you are worthy today.

You're faithful.

You're worthy.

You're faithful then.

You'll be faithful now.

There never was, nor will there ever be a time where you are not faithful.

So we find, we let us derive comfort from that.

Not laziness, but comfort, perspective, and a posture towards our God who is faithful, uh, who's never been unfaithful, who does not possess the capacity to be unfaithful.

So it's not like, well, it's good now, but it could get bad in the future.

No, no.

Your nature is consistent and the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So when the Bible says that you are faithful, that means you will always be faithful.

And so, Lord, today, I just real simple prayer.

Remind us that you didn't just come to deliver us from our fears, you came to introduce us to the proper fear.

Now, Holy Spirit, we ask you to illuminate the scriptures.

Let us see this so we don't hear the words of a man, but we we we we hear the word of God.

This is our prayer, God, make it our experience.

We ask for it in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.

I invite you to take it, open up to Mark chapter four.

Mark chapter four, and we're finishing today a little three-part series we're we're in called Remembering 2020, coming out of a year like 2020.

Uh for all of us, those of us that are in person today, and those of you that are online, all of you sitting there in the warm coziness of your house.

Thanks for joining us uh today.

Uh it's cold and rainy.

Somebody said, Man, I almost stayed in bed this morning.

I said, Yeah, think of it like duck hunting.

And if it's duck hunting, you get up, men get up, it'll be 18 degrees sleety.

Like, we're going duck hunting.

Remember, I dated a girl in college and her brother said, Hey, you want to go duck hunting in the morning?

I went down and stayed with him.

I said, Sure.

We got up at six o'clock, went duck hunting.

I remember sitting at duck blind, my my finger was sticking to the steel of the gun, and I the thought went through my mind, your sister ain't this pretty.

And that relationship did not last.

But anyway, uh, so it's kind of like duck hunting today.

So we're glad you joined us online.

Uh, and I just want you to understand this, okay?

I'm gonna put all my cards on the table.

Jesus did not come uh uh to deliver you just from all your fears, but to introduce you to the one necessary fear.

This is where we'll begin today, it's where we'll end, okay?

It's easy to look back on a year like 2020 for all of us and go, whew, good riddance.

I want to get past that.

And I say yes and amen to that, but let's also remember.

And so we started a couple weeks ago, we said, what do we remember from 2020?

Just three big consequential observations as we look back on that year.

Number one, we were created for community.

God made us to be in intentional relationships with each other, not just, hey, what's up, social media, Facebook, whatever you're on, I don't care.

But but but that's not really connecting, okay?

That's just kind of voyeuristically checking in on strangers.

We're created for community where we dig deep and we dwell deep together, okay?

Last week we looked at this simple statement that humanity is as sinful as the Bible says.

Uh, it sounds like bad news, but it's really good news.

Now, today we're just gonna finish with our third observation as we remember 2020, and it's this that fear is really pervasive.

Fear is really pervasive.

And this has always been it got magnified for us in our country, starting about end of February, early March, but we start dealing with the virus.

And so I want to begin before I read the text, just by giving you kind of three foundational truths about fear that I learned from a guy named Edward Welch.

Uh, he wrote a book called Running Scared.

Uh, and and and and it's a good book, great book.

Uh, uh, but here's kind of the three takeaways early on in the book that he unpacks.

Here's the first one is this fear and worry run deep in all of us.

Fear and worry run deep in all of us.

During the middle of this summer, someone said to me, I bet I I mean, he was talking about his fear, and he said, I bet you don't have anything like that.

And I said, I had a dream the other night that we lost everything, and my wife and I were both homeless.

And he looked at me and went, dude, you're our pastor.

I said, I know, right?

And I said, I woke up and I was a little dysregulated for about 30 minutes because I was like, What in the world?

Was that a dream or was that a prophetic?

What, what, what, what, what?

And he goes, Really?

So, what'd you do?

And I said, Fear is like a bird.

You can't keep it from flying over your head.

You can keep it from building a nest in your hair.

And then, because he's a smart elicate, like, you don't have any hair.

I'm like, is that the biggest point you take away?

Here's the point I was trying to make is that fear and worry run deep in all of us.

Secondly, fear and worry have meaning.

Fear has meaning, it says something to us.

Your fear is constantly communicating to you.

Thirdly, like, I know if people are in college right now and this is going into their senior year, they're like, oh, this global pandemic, there can be no jobs available.

I'm like, we're gonna stop producing stuff.

This is America, okay?

You're gonna have a job, all right?

And then my hope is not in America, my hope is in God.

Relax, enjoy going to college.

Okay, well, if you if you if you say so.

Here's the third thing is that fear and worry reveal us.

Fear reveals us, it reveals the things that we love and the things that we value.

Uh just lay those down as a foundation.

Now I want to read from Mark chapter 4, starting in verse 35.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

The Bible says this it says, On that day when evening had come, he said to them, Let us go across to the other side.

And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.

And other boats were with him, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And he woke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

And he said to them, Why are you so afraid?

Have you still no faith?

And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

There's four things that I want to point to from the text, okay?

And the first one is simply this that our emotions are intended by God to put us into motion.

Our emotions are intended by God to put us into motion.

Now, you may not think about it like that, but if you've ever heard this phrase, say amen.

Have you ever heard the phrase fight or flight?

If you have, say amen.

Everybody's heard of that.

But the I'm so I'm just basically using more words to say what we're familiar with.

Our emotions are intended by God to put us in motion.

Now, one of the things that's happening in our culture is that a lot of energy is being dissipated coming out of 2020 because people are feeling a lot, but they're dissipating a lot of energy, but they're not making much progress because they get stuck in a place of fear.

This is why the word emotions plural comes into play, because you got to be careful that not every, like if you're a man, it's typical for everything to be anger.

Everything, I'm just feeling something, I'm just angry.

Uh, women say all the time, my husband's kind of consistently angry.

Uh anger's on the surface, but if you if you really tap into anger, typically it's connected or anchored to fear.

So you have to learn to ask yourself, man, what am I really afraid is go uh is happening, is not going to happen, is never going to happen.

What do I feel threatened by?

Because the way we defend ourselves is by getting mad at everybody and everything.

It's like a barrier that kind of protects us.

And so when I say our emotions are intended by God to put us into motion, just hang on that word emotions.

We have to be able to diagnose what I am feeling.

It's not all anger, it's not all fear, not all of it's anxiety.

Some of it's just simple worry.

So this is why I love Tim Alton's definition.

He distinguishes between these three with this.

He says, fear is a God-given emotion when our mind alerts us to danger, real or perceived.

Fear is a God-given emotion when our mind alerts us to danger, real or perceived.

Ladies, have you ever been walking out of the mall or store at night and you got your bags and you got your purse, your shoulder bag, or whatever?

And for whatever reason, you reach in and you grab your car keys and you stick one of the car keys coming out of your knuckle, like, if we got to throw hands, I'm prepared.

It's you're walking along, you got your six-year-old and your four-year-old, but you're calmly thinking to yourself, all right, if anybody comes out of that car right there, I'm gonna pivot, drop my hips, wham.

If you've ever thought that, ladies, say amen.

See, men, you're surrounded by killers.

Natural-born killers.

No, no, no, no.

Here's where that comes from.

Because no one has to tell you, hey, be on guard, be aware, be whatever.

No, you've got this sense of, hey, something's going on here.

It's a God-given emotion when our mind alerts us to danger, real or perceived.

That's fear.

See, but here's the difference.

Anxiety is what we feel when our body is responding to the emotion of fear.

See, it just got personal, it just got grounded.

Anxiety.

Anxiety is what we feel when our body is responding to the emotion of fear.

There's a great book called The Body Keeps the Score.

Talks about how our body processes the emotions that we're not processing.

This is why they talk right now about the COVID-15, everybody gained 15 pounds, because our body is processing the emotions that we're not dealing with.

We're not doing we're not drilling down on and saying, hey, this is what this feels like.

Here's the third thing Altern says, he says, worry is the thought process that molds over and gives power to the object of our fear.

Worry.

And this is where when I had the dream where we lost everything, and we're just like, what am I gonna do?

What am I gonna do?

What am I gonna do?

It wasn't that we lost everything, it's the feeling I had the instant I wake up.

You ever had a bad dream and you're just like terrified, like, oh my gosh, that lingered for about five minutes.

And I just remember thinking, what in the world is going on?

I work for Jesus, I shouldn't feel this way.

Again, fear is like a bird.

You can't keep it from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair.

Fear, I mean, excuse me, worry is the thought process that mulls over and gives power.

Key in on that gives power.

Mulls over and gives power to the object of our fear.

Now, when I say that our emotions are intended by God to put us into motion, uh, be careful.

We can't always help that.

I would say, I would almost say you can never help that, but I say it's important that when you feel fear, that we move towards God and not away from God.

We move towards God and not away from God.

I have friends that do not believe what I believe.

They're not Christians, they're good people, I love these people.

Uh, and anytime something bad happens in their family to them or their kids, they call me.

And and and they want to tell me about this.

Want you to be praying.

And I'm just like, I just say one time, I don't want to be a jerk, but why is it when tragedy strikes, do you call your religious friend Neil?

They referred to me, and you want me to pray to a God that you don't believe in for uh for your betterment?

Just, I mean, isn't this just what you do?

But there's it, I that it makes no difference if this is what I do, if this is not what you believe.

And what I'm trying to say to them, I'm just trying to mirror, I just try to hold up a mirror, let them see themselves, because I tell them, you're closer to faith than you realize.

You you're one of the most consistent people.

You always want me to pray for you when something goes wrong in your life.

But I just said, here's the thing: what if God created you not just to believe in God, but to enjoy a relationship with God all of the time, not just when you had something come up that you couldn't control?

And the guy's like, this makes no sense.

And I said, if you're not careful, you relate to God in such a way that the only way you think about his existence is when there's something happens you can't control.

It's like the alcoholic.

I came to a power, a point in my life, I was powerless over drugs and alcohol.

I needed a power greater than myself to help me regain control.

It's not about just gaining control, it's about, hey, is this really true?

And so I just told my friends, I said, Hey, I want to commend you.

I think you have more faith than you give yourself credit for.

You just need to learn to sit drill down on that.

Because, see, fear uh moves us one of two ways.

We've always been this way.

Go back to the very beginning in Genesis chapter three, okay?

God got Adam and Eve in the garden.

Uh, they're there.

He tells them, hey, here's the ground rules.

You can eat of any tree of the garden.

This one tree, don't eat, because when you eat that tree, you'll die.

We talked, I think last week, sin in the Bible, it talks about the ways of sin is death, it's not termination, it's separation.

So when you sin, you feel really far from God.

The more you sin, the further you feel from God, which is why some of your friends, when you say, Hey, would you like to come to church?

Like, if I came to that church, the building would fall down.

Because what they're saying is, hey man, I don't feel really close to God.

Let me say, if you're here in this room right now, or if you're watching at home online or listening to this driving down the road, okay, if you feel a million miles from God, that the Bible was written also for you, not just for all the cool people that got it figured out or whatever.

Because in the book of Acts, the guy named Peter's preaching, and he says the promises, the promises of the Bible are for you, the people listening, the people that go to church every Sunday.

And then he says this, and for those who are far off.

So if you're sitting here right now and you're thinking, dude, I am a million miles away from where you are.

I think you're obnoxious.

I think you should shut up so we can beat the Methodist to a restaurant, or better yet, go home, build a fire, and watch football all day.

Amen.

I will say this the promises of God are just as much for you as they are for me.

And what you got to ask yourself is the fear causes us to move, it puts emotions are designed by God, intended by God to put us into motion, but just make sure that your emotion is towards God, not away from God.

Because my friends that that aren't believers are good people, and something bad happened, he gets laid off, they move close to God.

He gets another job, they move back away from God.

Their kid, oh, their kid, oh, kid's in trouble.

Our kids in in rehab for drug addiction.

We move close to God.

Call preacher Neil.

Our son gets clean and sober, let's back up.

We're all good.

By the way, it's been that way from the very beginning.

Genesis chapter 3, verse 10.

Genesis 3:10

God puts Adam and Eve in the garden, says, Hey, you're free, but of this one thing, don't do this, just trust me.

I want you to orient your life around me and trust in me.

What do they do?

They didn't trust God.

They sinned.

This is what the Bible says.

God comes to hang out with them.

Do you know that when you sin, God doesn't change his mind about you, he still desires to be around you?

Hello?

He's not like, Oh, that's it.

You're done.

One and done.

Good luck.

No.

So God comes looking for them.

The Bible says, in the cool of the evening, verse 10, Genesis chapter 3, and because God said, Where are you?

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And he has to find them because they're hiding.

And Adam says this, he says, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

Do you hear it?

I heard the sound of you in the garden, but I was afraid.

And so I moved away from you, God.

See, our emotions are intended by God to set us into motion.

Here's the let me ask you a simple question.

When you feel fear, do you move towards God or do you move away from God?

Second thing the Bible tells us this morning that fear causes us to doubt God's care for us.

Fear causes us to doubt God's care for us.

Look at verse 37, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves are breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.

There's two parts to a boat.

There's the bow, which is the front, and there's the stern, which is the.

There you go.

Y'all watched Gilligan's Island growing up.

And so Jesus is basically in the back of the boat, asleep on a little cushion, okay?

All hell is breaking loose.

The boat is taking on water, and they are freaking out.

And the God of the universe, God concarni, God with skin on him, is sound asleep.

I don't want you to miss that.

I don't want to see, God's not as troubled by everything in our life as we are.

And so they wake Jesus up.

When I say fear causes us to doubt God's care for us, look what they do.

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And he woke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Fear causes us to doubt God's care for us.

Fear asks us questions.

You should ask yourself, what is my fear asking me these days?

Because fear causes us to assume and to accuse and not ask.

They don't ask Jesus, hey, uh, by the way, uh, we're at about six inches of water and this thing's sitting heavy in the in the water.

It's like a low rider, but a boat, okay?

This is not going well.

We're throwing stuff overboard, water splashing over.

Kind of, what's the plan, boss?

And we'll execute.

No, they wake Jesus up.

I don't, by the way, I don't like to be woken up real shrilly.

I don't like to be yelled at or talked like, I don't even like to be visited until I have coffee.

I can just be honest.

My wife just come in, set coffee down, and very quietly go, it's time to get out.

I don't let her let our dog in our bedroom because he runs and jumps on the bed.

He's like, I'm like, I'm gonna give you away.

Get off my bed.

But they wake Jesus up with this accusation and this assumption.

Don't you care?

The assumption is he doesn't care.

And then secondly, we are perishing.

We are perishing.

Jesus is like, hey man, is there any coffee?

Would you lower your voice?

Why are you yelling, dude?

It's the middle of the night.

I had a crazy day, okay?

No, fear causes us to doubt God's care for us.

What do you mean?

See, in this situation, because most people don't have a biblical worldview, they're obligated to make assumptions about God and then relate to Him out of those assumptions.

Let me say that again.

If you don't have a biblical worldview, and in other words, if the way you think about the world and God and yourself is not informed by the Bible, you make assumptions about God.

Sounds like this.

Well, God helps those that help themselves.

You know that's not in the Bible, right?

I hear it all the time.

Well, you know, the Lord just, you know, we God wants me to be happy.

Not in the Bible.

And and it's not, well, therefore, God wants you to be miserable, not at all.

I'm just saying, when fear creeps in, the first thing that goes is your ability to believe that God cares about you.

And so we we assume and we accuse.

When you don't have a biblical worldview, you're obligated to make assumptions about God and then relate to him out of those assumptions.

And in that context, God, what happens is God, you want God to prove Himself, you just don't want God to be Himself.

Like back to my friends that are great people.

I love, by the way, they're really good people.

They had a bad experience with religion early on.

And I say to them all the time, there's a difference in religion and Christianity.

And they're like, okay, we'll take your word for that.

We like you, we think you're like a real dude, but we're not.

And I'm just like, ah, here's the thing: you've set your whole life up where God has to prove himself instead of just be himself.

And you're missing out on what you were created for.

Yeah, yeah, just pray for us.

And I I said to the dad one time, I said, Hey man, if you're not careful, your kids are gonna have more faith in me than they do in you.

Don't give them my cell phone number.

Oh, my boyfriend break up with me.

Hey, call Pastor O'Neil.

No, Dad, and I said to my friend, I said, You should have such a biblically formed worldview that on the most disappointing day of your kids' life, you can sit on the edge of their bed and say something to them that brings them so much hope.

I said, Where do you find hope?

He goes, Well, I mean, that's kind of your department, bro.

Okay, all right, whatever.

We'll we'll see.

Again, fear causes us to doubt God's care for us.

Uh, fear causes them to take things to the worst possible conclusion.

Lord, don't you care that we are perishing?

The only thing worse than the fact that we're perishing is that you don't seem to care.

And so, because fear asks those questions, we should ask ourselves questions like, what's happening when you feel cared for by God?

What is happening when you feel cared for by God?

Another question we should ask ourselves is, Well, what question is my fear asking me these days?

Because fear causes us to doubt God's care for us.

Here's the third thing fear is short-sighted.

Fear is short-sighted.

You say, What do you mean?

Jesus wants them to know that they lack the power to control the outcome.

Let me say this again.

Jesus wants them to know.

That's why he's asleep.

He could have been fully awake.

You think he fell asleep on accident?

He knew what was coming.

Nothing catches him off guard.

But he wants them and us.

Look at me.

This is not a moral lesson about going fishing, which, by the way, one of the most traumatic experiences of my life as a small child that revolved around fear, involved fishing.

I grew up in East Texas.

My dad said, You want to go on vacation?

And I said, We're going to go on vacation.

We're going to go to Galveston and go deep sea fishing.

When you live in East Texas, Galveston is like a million miles away.

It's exotic.

The water is blue and the beach is sand, it's white, sugar sand.

And you get down there and it's brown and brackish.

The water and the sand.

There's piles of sea wood everywhere.

And I'm like, we paid money for this.

And then, because we'd gone months before and gone red snapper fishing, and we just killed them.

It was great, very calm day.

And then this next time, we went way out.

I mean, we went way out the first time, but we went out there, and then I heard the captain say this on the way out.

Hey, folks, we're going to experience some rolling seas.

I was 14.

I'm 56.

I never forgot it.

I remember just thinking, and then the boat started, mmm, the slow thing.

And then we're going into it, and it was doing this.

And I remember looking up, and there's like eight people holding the railing, throwing up into the ocean.

And I'm like, I think we're going to get in trouble for that.

Uh and so we get out there and it gets progressively worse.

And here was the moment.

I I fell asleep on the way out.

I didn't realize that we were three hours out.

Yeah, because like Jesus, I was on a cushion sound asleep.

And we are way out there, and I remember just looking around and thinking, true thoughts.

Now, again, remember, this is all under the banner.

What Jesus is doing here is he wants them to know that they lack the power to control the outcome.

Why do you keep saying that?

Because if you have the power to control every outcome in your life, then why do you need God and why do you need faith?

It's back to my friends.

I keep telling them, God's not punishing you, God's inviting you to have faith in something bigger than yourself.

Well, that's why I wouldn't You on speed dial.

I am a vain substitute.

But anyway, so we we go fishing the first time, which is great.

Second time we go, it's not great.

The people are throwing up.

And I remember I got up and I kind of looked around and I couldn't see land anywhere.

And then I thought, well, there's the captain.

And I looked over, I walked around, and I looked at the captain, and the guy had more ears than teeth, and he had a bunch of bad prison tattoos.

It looks like the meth monkeys that run carnival rides in the fall and spring and then run a deep sea fishing boat in the summer.

And then I looked at my dad and I was so full of vacuum.

I was like, really?

You brought it?

This is the vacation?

We're out here and people are throwing up everywhere, and there's fishing rods on the ground, and everybody's holding on.

And the captain says, folks, we're going to have to turn around and head back in.

And I'm thinking, don't you have like weather forecasting equipment?

You saw this coming?

And he said, Uh, we're not like the other boats.

We don't have all the radar and stuff.

And I'm just thinking, my dad's a moron.

The captain is a meth monkey, and I'm going to drown out here in this boat called the Jean Lafitte.

I remember the name of it.

I was like, what is this?

Some drunken pirate vessel?

And so we got back, three.

He goes, We're going to be steaming full.

We're going to be steaming for home.

And I'm just like, what did I do?

I went back down and laid down on the cushion and just thought, I don't want to see.

I'm just going to block it out.

But I can tell you this we got back to the dock.

I walked right off that boat, walked straight to the car, got in the back seat, put my seatbelt on, just folded my arms.

My dad said, You boys want to go eat?

Nope, I don't want to go out and go back to the hotel.

Took a shower, got in bed.

Because all of a sudden, listen, when you realize you're out of control, what you do is that you move towards all the things that you can control.

And that's all I could control as a 14-year-old.

But I remember looking at the back of my dad's head, driving to the hotel, thinking, if you really loved us, why would you put us in that?

I don't quite get that.

Jesus wants them and us to know that we lack the power to control the outcome.

This is why fear is short-sighted.

By the way, it goes all the way back to Exodus, one of the second books in the Bible, Genesis, Exodus.

Way back in Exodus, God says to these people, hey, by the way, God's people are slaves in Egypt.

It is miserable and they are short-sighted.

God delivers them out.

And every time, every time they have a short memory, they forget and they're full of fear.

And something doesn't go their way.

And they're like, God, was there not enough graves back in Egypt?

You brought us out here in the desert to kill us?

Oh, we have, we would sit around back there and have pots of meat just to eat out of all day, and we're starving out here in the wilderness.

And God was like, You want meat?

I'll tell you what, I'll make it rain quail right in the middle of your camp.

It's like going dove hunting in Argentina.

They stack them up three feet deep and then don't even take them home.

It's like they're everywhere.

God's like, you're doubting my ability to provide for you?

And so what happens when I say fear is short-sighted, this is what I mean.

Way back that the Exodus, the deliverance of God's people from captivity and bondage into freedom, all started in Exodus chapter 2, verse 23.

Exodus 2:23

Hear these words.

It says, During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out for help.

Now let me just stop right here.

I don't have time to get into this, but there's no real record in the Bible that they were crying out to God.

They were just grumbling.

They were just like, Well, take anybody.

It's not like they were like, hey God, we're praying to the one true God of the universe.

We're just, when you want relief, you don't really care about the truth.

And so what I'm trying to say to you is that God is the one that initiates this.

They didn't say, oh God, we were wrong.

We violated your law.

No, they just like, we want deliverance.

This is terrible.

And God said, I tell you what, I want to deliver you and I want you to spend the rest of your life worshiping me.

How about that?

It sounded like this.

The king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out for help, and their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God saw the people of Israel, and God knew.

This is what set the Exodus, the deliverance of God's people from bondage into freedom.

This is what set it into motion.

Hear those verbs again.

Now, let me just confess to you, when I was in school, I wasn't the I wasn't a great student.

I didn't really care about school.

Matter of fact, my English teacher said to me in eighth grade, son, do you do do you have a strong work ethic?

And I was like, Well, thank you very much.

Thanks for noticing.

Yes, I do.

Seals good because you're so dumb, you're gonna have to dig ditches the rest of your life.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that affirmation.

But I remember just thinking, people need ditches.

I'll always have a job.

I did not understand subject, verb, direct object.

The subject was kind of the focus of the sentence.

The verb was the action, and the direct object received the action of the verb.

Did you know that?

Say amen.

Now you do.

And so, but see, there's things that I didn't didn't stick in my head in the eighth grade in English class, they stick in my head now.

Like when I read this, look at it again.

And God heard their groaning, heard their groaning.

Verb, direct object.

God remembered his covenant.

Remembered is the verb, his covenant is the direct object.

That's what he remembered.

God saw the people of Israel.

God saw, what did he see?

The people of Israel.

And then look at this last one.

God runs the okie doke on you, and it just says, and God knew.

There's no direct object to receive the action of God knowing.

So what do we put in there?

Whatever.

It's basically what the Bible is telling you is there's nothing that God didn't know.

Back then or now.

In 2020 or in 2021.

God heard, he remembered, he saw, and he knew.

Notice that God never goes outside of himself to find motivation for the task at hand.

He remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that was enough to motivate God.

What in the world?

Like in 2020, people would ask me, hey, what are you, what are you doing to bring you comfort?

Because I said one time uh in a sermon uh back in like around August or September, I said, hey, here's the deal.

One thing that's being revealed in this global pandemic is what we look to to save us and what we look to for comfort.

What we look to, hey, hey, deliver me from this.

Sometimes it's a glass of red wine, sometimes it's a pour of this, sometimes it's food, sometimes it's Netflix.

I have friends, I think they've watched everything on Netflix.

Right, well, what do you do?

I just binge Netflix.

I mean, I work from home and it's not really hard.

My boss can't tell if I'm working or not, so I got two things going.

I got my computer and I got my other computer watching Netflix.

I'm like, there's only so much content on there.

Yeah, I think I've seen everything I care to see.

Not a good sign.

But what he's saying is, this is what I look to to rescue me.

And this is what I look to to comfort me.

He said, What about you?

And I said, I look to what I believe to comfort me.

Not because I'm a preacher, just because I'm a Christian.

Like one of the things that I would read and remind myself of during the during the midst of this, I mean, when it broke out in March and we started locking down, my kid was in England on a mission trip with a bunch of other 20-somethings that don't take anything seriously.

And she said to me in a text, Oh, Dad, lighten up, it's not that bad.

I tell you what, I'll come to London with you right now, kid, in front of God and all your little punky college friends.

I texted back, You you might not get out of England.

You need to prepare to lock down there.

Because I told her, I let her, she was 22.

I said, Babe, you got to decide if you want to go on this trip.

I think you should probably shouldn't go because this thing's heating up and looks like it's coming our way.

Oh, Dad, God's faithful.

I didn't ask you about God.

I know God's faithful, but you got to use some common sense every once in a while.

And she's a good kid, got a good head on her shoulders.

But I was just like, mmm.

And so we're texting her saying you're gonna have to get rerouted.

They're not gonna let you come back in the airport you came in, they're gonna send you to Dallas.

They got set up to process people and screen for the virus.

So, what what brings you comfort in that?

I read these words from the Heidelberg Catechism, which is basically just a list of questions that long time ago people would ask their kids at the dinner table.

Here was the first question What is your only comfort in life and death?

And here's the response.

Now, by the way, this is what parents would talk about at the dinner table with their kids.

Oh, hang on a second, mom.

My friend's hollering, hitting me back.

Let me get on that.

What is your only comfort in life and death?

Answer that I'm not my own, but I belong body and soul in life and death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has set me free from the power of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven.

In fact, all things must work together for my salvation, because I belong to him.

Christ by his Holy Spirit assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

So I said to my friend who's watched almost everything on Netflix, I said, Yeah, that's that's where I find comfort.

That doesn't mean I'm gonna get my way.

That doesn't mean this isn't going to affect me.

Buried my cousin a couple weeks ago who died from COVID.

I leave tomorrow morning to go to Fort Worth to bury my friend Mr.

Shauver, who died from COVID.

But my only comfort in life and death remains the same.

Because I realized a long time ago, not on a deep sea fishing trip, uh, but but but but I realized I can't control all the outcomes of my life.

Remember, I said when I first got up that that God did not come just to deliver you from all the fears in life, but to introduce you to the one necessary fear?

This is what I mean.

This is the last thing I want to say this morning from the Bible.

Fear is intended to intended to lead us to the proper fear.

Fear is intended to lead us to the proper fear.

After Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind, and says to the sea, peace be still, and the wind ceased and there was a great calm, he said to them, Why are you so afraid?

Have you still no faith?

Look at me.

If you do not have faith, you are gonna live with this low grade level of fear the rest of your entire life.

Because you know deep inside, hey, if I can control everything and I can't control this, you're gonna be dysregulated.

You're gonna be a little bit of, I gotta lean heavy on some self-medicating behavior.

Notice this, verse 41.

And they were filled with great fear.

And they said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

And they were filled with great fear.

Remember, I said Jesus didn't come just to deliver you from all your fears, but to introduce you to the one necessary fear?

It's this great fear.

This this it's like, oh, you see, if we're not careful, one of the myths of our time, preachers say this all the time, counselors say it all the time.

One of the lies that we tell is that Jesus comes to deliver you from everything.

No, no, no.

This is one of those circumstances Jesus didn't come to deliver, he came to introduce.

Hey, you guys are your fear is perishing.

Are you kidding me?

Your fear is that, oh, this boat might capsize?

Jesus is saying in so many words, don't waste your life fearing that.

Fear this.

Fear the fact that you'll spend your entire life and never understand who God is and what he's capable of.

This is why they were filled with great fear.

And they said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

And so I just want to be done this morning, but I ask you a simple question.

Do you know the God, this God, who even the wind and the sea obey?

Because they were just like, oh man, we wanted to be delivered from drowning, and now we have a greater fear than what we started off with.

Which is what I said to you, Jesus didn't come just to alleviate all your fears, he came to introduce you.

It's really the initial experience of FOMO.

You old people are like, is that profanity?

What'd you say?

Your kids in their 20s are smirking, like, I can't believe that old guy knew what that is.

FOMO is an acrostic, it stands for fear of missing out.

And let me just say this and I'll be done.

What if the God of the Bible, not the God of the bad experience you had with church in 1984 or whenever?

What if the God of the Bible is so good and so sovereign and so in control that he relates to you and he wants you to relate to him in a way that just says, you know what?

The greatest fear in my life is that I'm not gonna believe God, I'm not gonna know this God, I'm not gonna believe this God, I'm not gonna trust this God, and because of that, I'm gonna miss out of everything he has in store for me.

Or you can spend your entire life clutching the side of the boat, accusing God of wrongdoing, not caring.

Don't you care that we're perishing?

Jesus is like, I'm out of cigarettes, anybody got a marble?

Raise your voice to me in the middle of the night.

Get on some coffee, nurse ratchet.

Why?

Because he didn't come just to deliver you from all the lesser fears, he came to introduce you to the one great fear you were created to live in light of and enjoy the rest of your life.

Let's pray to God.

God thinks that you're always working on a level that's bigger and beyond where we are.

And it's not to be aloof and distance, it's it's to be alluring and inviting.

It's to just kind of just kind of say, Hey, aren't you tired of uh of just worried about perishing?

And so, Lord, we uh sounds crazy, but we need that great fear that keeps us from missing out on the life that only you can give, the truth that only you are, and the person that we can become only in relation with you.

The Holy Spirit just brood over us while we think about these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, we like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it, which means I'm just gonna be quiet.

Claude's gonna play, some questions come up on the screen.

Here's all we ask you to do is look at those questions and think about them.

You don't have to write them down.

You can put your phone, take a picture, but just ask yourself what did God say to me today that I want to think about more on Tuesday?

That's all.

Then I'll come and close our service.

Let's think a little bit.

God, days like today are made for a hot bath, not a quick shower, but a bone warming soak in something bigger and better than us.

And that's what the Bible is.

It warms us down to the bone.

It's just better.

It's not a contest, it's an invitation.

Aren't you tired of being tired?

Aren't you tired of trying to control everything in your life?

God said, Today we want to be done with all these lesser fears, and we want to just live in light of the one great fear we were created for.

That we'd miss out on the life that you called us to and created us for.

And then you say we're capable of.

Not because of our effort, but because of our identity, that we're the sons and daughters of God.

Doesn't mean we're better than anybody else, not some narrow-minded, mean-spirited religious people yelling at people.

That's that's buffoonery, God.

We reject that in Jesus' name.

So, Holy Spirit, wash off of us all the necess unnecessary fears, they're lesser, and let the greater fear remain.

This is our prayer, God.

We prayed in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest, let me say this: you're always welcome.

You're always welcome.

Someone walked past me after the last service and said, I gotta think about that.

I think I got some questions.

I said, Great.

Let me know if you want to stop by for a cup of coffee.

I may have some questions as well.

And so this is not just a lecture or a sermon, it is that.

Uh, it's a dialogue.

And so any questions you have are welcome here.

So if you're a guest, all we ask of you is you pull one of those seat bat uh those guest cards in your seat pocket and fill it out and drop it in the wooden box by the door on the way out.

Uh uh that's also where we receive our offering.

If you consider this your church and today's day you worship God through stewardship, that's where you take care of that.

We have some things uh that are beginning in the life of our church, we want you to know about.

So give your attention to our video announcement.

Hi, Grant Parkway.

I'm Blake Hardcastle.

Hey, I'm Marcy McClendon, and I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about what's coming up on Tuesday mornings this week.

Last semester, we studied the whole epic story of God.

This semester we're gonna hone in on a couple of books.

One in the Old Testament, Esther.

The name of that study is God's Hidden Hand.

It's gonna be taught by Katie Groves.

The other one is in the New Testament.

It's gonna be um in the book of 1 Peter.

It's gonna be taught by Sally Collier.

But it's gonna be an incredible opportunity for you to go deeper into the word in those two morning.

Wednesday evening, 6 45 APM.

Sounds like a made up word, but we'll be here.

And it's like more fun.

All these things are upgrade.

Every believer in it, it really is what do you need right now?

What do you mean right now?

So for more information or to register, go to gramparkway.org slash minutes.

We want you to register so that we are expecting you and uh have particularly prepared for you.

If you decide last minute, we've still got room.

Uh but listen, we these students these teachers have been preparing, and uh, it's gonna be worth your time.

Yeah, we've got a lot of questions about the the class middle essence.

Basically, it's for people that are they're approaching 50 or after 50.

It's things like, how do I forgive myself that I wasn't the best dad I could have been?

A lot of men get to be 58 and their kids are out and grown, and you feel punished by your kids because they don't call as much.

Or like, is my kid mad at me because I screwed up?

No, your kids kind of launching, they're escaping the gravitational pool of their family of origin.

And sometimes that can feel threatening to us as mom and dad.

Uh and so it's things like that.

How do I parent my parents and my adult children?

What does marriage after 50 look like?

Do I still like this person?

Our kids are gone.

We have a big house.

We can just avoid each other.

Some of you are like, don't move, honey.

Don't move.

Anyway, that's what middle essence is.

Also, one other thing to remind you of our men's breakfast starts back up this week.

Uh, it's once a month, and the first and the next one is this coming Tuesday.

We meet in the warehouse back here at the back of our property.

Uh, and uh, someone talks for about 15 minutes, and then with breakfast is free.

Someone talks about 15 minutes, and then we kind of just talk about what we heard around the tables, and then you'll be prayed for.

You can bust out the door and go to work.

It starts at six, it ends at seven, and each one is standalone, so you're not like behind if you've never been.

Uh, and so you're more than welcome to come this Tuesday, six o'clock, right out here in the warehouse, okay?

We like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.

So stand to your feet.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

Your God is so good, so loving, so kind, and so smart.

He did not come just to deliver you from things.

He came to introduce you to things.

Introduce yourself.

You're not disqualified.

You're welcome to them.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.