Great Calm

Thanks, Adam, and the band.

It's great to be with all of you this morning.

If you've got a Bible, let's open up to Mark chapter four.

Mark chapter four.

Think about this while you turn there.

Where in life do you tend to experience the most worry, doubt, fear, maybe even panic at times?

Is it the thought of death or disease?

Maybe you've been through the death of a loved one, maybe been through a hard divorce.

Is there anywhere in life where you feel like, you know, I am trying my best, and yep, my best doesn't feel good enough?

I feel utterly helpless even when I'm doing my best.

Anywhere in life, maybe metaphorically you feel like, man, I'm drowning.

I am being overwhelmed by the circumstances of life.

I feel left alone, utterly helpless.

Anywhere in life where maybe you feel like God's asleep at the will.

I say I believe God's in charge.

He's a king, he's on the throne, but sometimes I'm like, where are you, Father?

Or maybe it just doesn't feel like he's near and present and active enough in your life.

You ever feel swallowed up by the circumstances, just overwhelmed with life in general.

We're picking up exactly where we left off last week.

Okay, the context is this: Jesus has had a long day of ministry.

Teaching the crowds, and then at every break, it's like he's gathering with the 12 disciples and explaining everything they didn't understand.

He didn't really get a break.

And that's where we're going to pick up.

Mark chapter 4, verse 35.

Mark 4:35

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 storm, asleep on the cushion, and they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was 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 wind and sea obey him?

So, the end of this long day, evening's approaching, and Jesus says, the twelve, let's cross over the Sea of Galilee, seven or eight miles to the other side.

There were less cities over there.

Almost certainly, what was part of what was driving Jesus is I'm exhausted.

I want to break from the crowds.

So let's just get in the boat and leave.

And you notice even other boats followed him.

Even when he was trying to get away for a break, it was like he couldn't.

So the Sea of Galilee, it's about 700 feet below sea level, and it's surrounded by mountains.

So the cool wind, the hot wind come together at times, and there can be gale force winds, bad storms, especially at night, this happened.

But this storm comes along.

Now remember, Jesus is in the stern, up on a cushion, kind of in the back, would have been a little bit elevated.

So maybe he's protected from the waves to some degree, but he's going through this storm that almost sounds like a hurricane on the sea.

You got the 12 disciples in there, four of whom we know were full-time professional fishermen before Jesus called them to be disciples.

And it's likely that maybe three of the others were as well.

So what does that mean?

It means this wasn't their first rodeo.

They fished at night typically when it was cooler and the fish would bite more often.

And storms were unpredictable.

You know, they didn't have the weather app on their iPhone.

They'd been through storms before.

But this is the worst.

Literally, the words it could be like a hurricane on the sea.

Waves crashing over.

This point, they've probably done everything they can, but they feel like we're about to drown.

And what's Jesus doing?

Jesus is taking a nap.

Now, this is a total side note, but this may be the best point for some of you.

I remember hearing a pastor say years ago, I think I heard this in high school, but he said, sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do in life is take a nap.

Amen.

Right?

Even Jesus.

He's a real human.

He's fully man.

I mean, you have you thought about that very much?

What does that really mean?

He's weak in every way that we are weak, yet without sin.

He took our humanity on, our infirmities on.

And he is knocked out.

I mean, you could say he was dead tired.

Now they go and they wake him.

Teacher, that's still mainly the way to think of him.

The expert teacher.

But they go to him, teacher, don't you kill, we're about to die.

He wakes up and kind of immediately it's like he looks at the storm and he just says, be silent, be muzzled.

You could translate it, just shut up.

And instantly, wind, wave, sea, everything, total calm.

I went for a run yesterday, started raining, uh, thundering, lightning, but it's kind of like, hey, you know, I'm out here now, might as well finish.

And it didn't last long, it tapered off.

But it typically weather tapers off, right?

And the implication here is it went from hurricane to zero.

Total calm, total peace.

Wind gone, waves gone, rain gone, total peace.

Then he looks at him and he rebukes him.

You you could translate this why are you guys acting like cowards?

You still don't have any faith in who I am.

And they don't even address him or ask him a question.

They address one another, look at one another like, who is this guy?

Right?

We kind of get it that he can uh deal with disease, right?

Because they've probably seen something like that before.

I mean, doctors can deal with disease, and you know, they probably didn't have all the psychology we have, but there can be psychosomatic type things and placebo effect, and maybe if some great rabbi says, be healed of your fever, you just gin it up in yourself, say, I think I feel better.

Maybe you could explain that away.

The demons, maybe they were just crazy people, and Jesus kind of had a calming prayer.

You can't explain this one away.

We were seasoned professional fishermen, convinced we were about to die.

This guy wakes up from a nap, says about two words, and everything goes total calm and total peace.

And they they're just they're they're in shock and awe.

The Phillips translation said, sheer awe swept over them.

There had been a great storm, a megastorm, and then all of a sudden it was great calm, what they wanted.

Mega calm.

And then it literally says, They they feared with a great fear, a mega fear.

Now they're really afraid.

MacArthur said, There's only one thing more terrifying than having the storm outside the boat that can kill you, it's having God inside your boat.

A lot of lessons here.

The first is this sometimes obedience to Jesus will bring storms and pain into your life.

You experience that personally?

Whose idea was it to get in the boat at night, go across the lake?

Jesus'.

And every implication we had is the disciples were like, yes, sir, happy to obey.

Let's get out of here.

We're sick of the crowd, too.

More time alone with Jesus.

Even with all of our great, deep Presbyterian theology, it is still possible for us to fall into a soft, kind of subconscious prosperity gospel.

You understand what I mean by this?

Listen, we most of us, I don't think, struggle with the idea that, you know, I'm just gonna say a name it and claim it prayer.

God, I want to lose 20 pounds like that, and I want a brand new Ferrari in the parking lot for me, and it's gonna happen.

I mean, most of us are like, those people are idiots.

And maybe because like I tried it and it didn't work.

Still got the pounds, and the car ain't out there.

So, what do I mean when I say a subconscious soft prosperity gospel?

I mean this.

If I'm being a good boy, if I'm reading my Bible, if I'm doing this stuff, God's supposed to bless me, right?

I mean, things are supposed to go good for me.

I'm supposed to have an easy life.

And again, most of us wouldn't say it out loud.

Well, we kind of feel this way.

And you're like, well, then how do I know if I struggle with that?

When you go through a hard and painful situation that you feel like you didn't deserve, humanly speaking, how do you respond?

Do you get mad?

Do you get frustrated?

Do you get a this isn't fair, that it kind of exposes your entitlement heart?

Or are you more like Job, at least in the first couple of chapters, when he suffered and he said, God gives, God takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

I'll give you a quick personal example.

I went through a thing a couple of years ago, had a dentist doing some work on a tooth, and in my humble opinion, the dentist did a bad job, and it led to more time, more money, and more pain.

And I was getting angry.

And I was in kind of an accountability group with one of my friends, and I was told myself, man, I am I am angry at this guy, to the point like I am thinking about driving to his office and telling him what I think.

And and my friend just said, Man, why are you so angry?

And as soon as he asked, I knew, and I hated the answer, but I just had to say, because I'm entitled.

Because I say, and even as I'm saying this, I know this is stupid theology, but this is what I feel in the basement of my heart.

In the basement of my heart, I feel like, dad gummit, I'm a good guy, I'm a minister.

I'm doing good stuff, and this dentist is basically torturing me.

It's not fair, it's not the way it's supposed to be.

Mentally, I know that's a stupid, evil, unbiblical way to think, but in the basement of our heart, that's what I felt.

You understand what I'm saying?

Now, second thing, God likes to humble us in the airy areas of our perceived strengths.

You're like, Olin, can you give us an example?

I just did.

I like to pride myself on good theology and practice what you preach and all that.

I don't always do it.

These guys, again, seasoned fishermen.

Do you remember Luke chapter 5?

Luke 5 · chapter mention

There was the time they came in and Jesus said, Hey, how'd the fishing go last night?

Terrible.

Go out one more time, put out the net.

And Peter's kind of like, Jesus, man, come on, you're the teacher.

Nobody can teach like you.

I'm the fisherman, but just to show respect, we'll do it.

And they catch so many fish, almost breaks the boat.

For over half my life, what I did is I worked for a college ministry.

I was supposed to at least be an expert in mentoring young men.

Teenage, college age men.

And I've mentioned this here before, it's no secret.

We went through a season where we had three of them ourselves, these teenage college, and all of them were doing terrible.

I'm the expert, and I'm also another failure.

God is able to humble the proud.

So, when you do experience pain, humility, hardship, what should you do?

Here's something the disciples got right.

When in doubt, you run to Jesus.

What's going on in your life?

Where are you overwhelmed?

Where are you confused?

Where are you exposed?

Where do you see your own sinfulness and stupidity and stubbornness and pride and whatever?

Just run to Jesus.

They get this right.

They run to Jesus.

How's your prayer life?

Had a couple different conversations with a couple different close friends just in the past week about I feel like I'm just going through the motions in my prayer life.

You ever been there?

I mean, I'm doing it, I'm checking all the boxes, but there's nothing like a crisis to fix that.

When things get hard in your life, again, just think to yourself for a second.

You don't have to answer out loud, so you can be really honest, hopefully.

Don't give the Sunday school answer.

When things go hard or go wrong or go painfully in your life, where do you tend to run first?

To your own intellectual ability?

I can think about this, I can fix it, I can come up with a plan.

To friends, to the bottle.

Listen, there are better ways and worse ways to handle problems, but the best way is run to Jesus first.

I remember talking to a woman one time, very smart, very intellectual, very accomplished, and I'm spiritually mature, but struggled a lot with anxiety.

And I said, Well, tell me how you typically get anxious.

She said, Well, you know, when I have some big problem, I try my best to fix it.

And uh, if it doesn't work, then I get anxious, then I run to Jesus.

I said, Well, that's that's not bad.

I said, I just I think I have a slight tweak that might make it better.

When you find yourself facing a big problem, run to Jesus first.

And then use your intellect.

I mean, he gave you a brain, he wants you to use it.

But prayer, okay?

And guys, did you notice what kind of prayer this was?

They didn't even ask him to do anything.

They just kind of woke him up in a panic.

They didn't say, please save us, calm the storm.

They just kind of woke him up and emotionally vomited on him.

This is a little bit like parents will understand this.

You you remember these where maybe you have a three-year-old, and about 2 a.m.

you hear a knock on the door or a cry, and one you wake up, you're you know, trying to wipe whatever out of your eyes so you can see, and little kid says, Mom, I feel sick.

Like, and then you're like, go to the bathroom.

You just walk past the bathroom, and then they just throw up all over the carpet.

That's a little bit what the disciples are doing.

Just they just panicked.

Help.

Often, this is fourth, I think, if you're trying to keep up.

Often our deepest beliefs are exposed in a crisis.

I mean, again, if you had asked me before this incident with my tooth and the dentist, old and does God owe you a good life because you're an obedient minister?

I'd be like, of course not.

We don't deserve anything from God but hell.

Anything better than hell is mercy.

Pristine theology.

Give me the test, man, I'll pass it with an A plus.

Then when the pain comes, it's like, how dare you, God, hurt my tooth.

I mean, I'm laughing at myself because I'm thinking, I'm the idiot.

I remember talking to a woman one time.

Again, let me give you several stories here.

First three people were all in full-time ministry.

Talking to a woman one time in full-time ministry who was single later in life, and I just didn't like it, wanted to be married.

And I said, Well, are you praying about it?

I mean, it just seems like an obvious question.

I probably asked it just kind of as a throwaway question until I could ask a good question.

Because it seems like an obvious question.

Are you praying about that?

She said, Oh no, I never pray about it.

Well, why don't you pray about it?

Because when I pray about it, I get sad, I get mad, I cry a lot, I get angry at God, but if I don't pray about it, I just I feel fine.

It's like I got it all buried.

I'm managing my life pretty well if I can just keep pretending.

But a lot of times in crisis and prayer, you you get it, you get like x-ray vision into your own soul, what you really think, what you really feel.

Talking to another good friend who applied for a job, he didn't get it, thought he deserved it, kind of heartbroken.

Similar question, are you are you praying about it?

No, I'm not praying.

And he was, I said, Well, he said, I'm sick of crying, man.

He said, Every time I pray about it, I just cry.

And I'm sick of crying all the time.

At least he was honest.

Talking to another guy again, another full-time minister.

And I've had this conversation a lot with people.

They're going through something really hard.

Maybe with their kids.

And you can just tell they're angry.

So I who are you mad at?

They'll start listing out, and I'll just say, you ever think you're angry at God?

No, I'm not angry at God, of course not.

Okay.

And I can't tell you how many times I had a conversation like that, and about two weeks later they call me back and say, I'm angry at God.

Guys, a little side note.

Is it sin to be angry at God?

Of course it is.

Because you should only be mad at sin and God never sins.

But but here's here's the caveat that us Presbyterians can forget sometimes.

If you're angry at God, the best thing you can do is talk to him about it because he already knows.

He's not shocked.

He's not up there like, I can't believe this, how dare you! He already knows.

If you're stuffing it, you think you're lying to yourself, you're not lying.

He knows.

The best thing you can do, where it can get healed, is by talking to him about it.

Father, I'm angry at you.

I know I shouldn't be.

Help me.

I remember talking to another friend of mine, older in a PCA church, but he had some hardship going on in his family, at his work, at his church, all sorts of things, and just angry.

And we were meeting several trying to talk about it.

And finally he showed up one week, and I, again, I so appreciated his honesty.

He said, I figured out what my problem is.

I said, Okay, what do you think is the problem?

He said, I don't believe Romans 8, 28 is true.

He said, I love to sit around and read and listen to great reformed pastors and teachers like John MacArthur, but at the end of the day, when push comes to shove, I don't really believe that God works all things together for the good of those who love him.

I don't believe it.

Because I don't feel like I'm experiencing.

Again, why am I kind of hammering this?

Because my guess is most of us in different times in different ways have things that front lobe of our brain, tip of our tongue, we get the right answer.

Basement on my heart, I still believe the wrong answer.

And we got to get honest with ourselves and honest with others and honest with God so that He can graciously minister to us and change us and grow us up in grace.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

Um, and guys, you may say, yeah, okay, a big storm.

You remember the story in Luke chapter 10 at the very end of the chapter?

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Mary, Martha, right?

Martha's sitting at the feet, excuse me, Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus, Martha, big sister in there cooking, and she kind of gets angry and she comes out, she basically says the exact same phrase.

You don't care about me that you left me all alone in the kitchen?

God didn't have to bring a hurricane into your life to expose your doubts and your fears.

He can just make you feel alone in the kitchen one day on Thanksgiving.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan essentially said to Adam and Eve, God doesn't really care for you.

That's what he essentially said.

God doesn't really care for you.

And Sinclair Ferguson said, that lie entered into the human bloodstream, and we've all been wrestling with it ever since.

That's what this battle is about every day in life.

So I think this is point five.

God loves honest, raw, real prayer.

If you doubt God, tell him.

If you're angry at God, tell him.

Again, and I don't mean in a callous, who cares?

I don't mean in a humble, repentant way, but be honest.

There was this guy I used to like to listen to named Leonard Ravenhill, and he said, the best prayer is just to cry.

Think about it, parents, and think about it even kids.

What is it that brings mom or dad running the quickest?

Is it a very articulate address?

Or is it just a panic scream?

You see, sometimes we think if I'm going to really engage with God, I have to go into like King James Version language.

Guys, be honest.

Be real.

Jacob, Genesis 32, his prayer life turned into a literal physical wrestling match.

And there will be times, if you're really growing and maturing in the faith, you'll feel like you're wrestling with God in prayer.

Hey, God, I got all this sin, I got all this stupidity, I got all this selfishness in me.

But that's where the healing can start happening.

Our prayer lives ought to be like a raw exposed nerve.

All my cards on the table, all honesty.

And yet all humility, openness to being changed.

A couple of different commentators that I read pointed out that the disciples were basically rude.

And this is rude.

The teacher, the rabbi, their master, their mentor, he's asleep, and they wake him up and they're like, You don't care about us?

We're dying out here.

One commentator named Johnson said, They are protected despite their lack of faith.

Did you notice what happened?

He woke up, and the first thing he did, he calmed the storm first.

Again, if I was Jesus, and aren't we all glad that I'm not Jesus?

I think if I was Jesus, I'd have woke up, just kind of watched him for a while, let them suffer a little bit more, maybe rebuked him, waited for a little repentance, and then called the storm, not Jesus.

The perfect elder brother, so kind, so gracious, so compassionate, wakes up, shuts the storm down completely.

And then he does turn to rebuke them, right?

I mean, it's very similar to John 8, to the woman caught in the middle of adultery.

I don't condemn you.

But go and sin no more.

Grace first, a rebuke second.

Matthew Henry, when Christ seems as if he slept in a storm, he is awakened by the prayers of his people.

We may be at our wit's end, but not at our faith's end while we have such a savior to go to.

You see what he sounds like?

The hurricane couldn't wake Jesus up.

That's how tired he was in his humanity.

But you know what woke him up?

The prayers of his people.

If you feel like he's asleep in your life, he's not.

Just pray.

Point six, when God works powerfully in your life, one of the best things you can do is take time to think about it and discuss it with other Christians, just like they did.

Did you see that?

Who is this guy?

This is what good Bible study, community groups, accountability, whatever you want to call it all to be, is kind of sitting around and saying, Let me tell you about what God has done in my life lately, what I'm seeing God do in the Word, and then let's just marvel together.

Who is this guy?

Seventh, last point, maybe the most important, okay.

The best way to heal our sinful fears is with one great godly fear.

It literally at the end says, they feared with great fear.

And I tried to come up with the best illustration I could of this.

It's not perfect, okay?

So just hang with me, but I think it makes the point that I want to make.

If you're old enough, you'll probably remember exactly where you were, what you were doing when 9-11 happened.

And I remember the second plane hits the tower, and it becomes clear other planes are hijacked, our country's under attack.

And I'm living in Little Florence, Alabama.

No terrorist cares about Florence, Alabama.

But even living on that, there was a sense of fear.

And I think at that point, uh I know I had a wife, I think we had one little baby.

The only time I've ever done anything like this in my life, I went and got my pistol and I loaded it.

And we get in the car and I take my wife and my child to a friend's house, stay here.

I'm going to the bank, I'm getting as much cash out as I can.

I think I left the pistol in the car when I went to the bank.

That could have been bad.

I know for sure I went to the grocery store, right?

And then I'm just like buying up food.

And I never go to the grocery store.

I'm not one of those men that like just like I hate that kind of stuff.

But I'm like, honey, you stay with, you stay in safety.

The terrorists might be out there, right?

Me and my pistol, we're going to the grocery store.

I buy a ball's food, and then I get back, you know, and I get back about in time to see the first tower start crashing.

And I just remember this.

The best word that I can think to describe it was awe.

Now listen, that was something terrible and evil and destructive, but but it was powerful, it was overwhelming, it was unexpected.

And I just remember this sitting there watching this TV as this gigantic tower is crumbling and just having this sense of being shocked, staggered, overwhelmed, speechless.

And yeah, I just want you to think about a couple things with me.

In that moment, I wasn't thinking about the terror terrorists coming to get me anymore.

My preparations about the bank and the grocery, I wasn't thinking about any of that.

It was like I was just zeroed in on, I can't even get my mind around what's happening in front of me.

I was overwhelmed.

It was like my circuits were blown.

And also, guys, I wasn't thinking at that moment, this is gonna hurt me.

I mean, I realized this is hundreds of miles away.

It was just awe.

Now you see why that's a little bit of a bad example, because that was something that was terrible and evil and destructive that was overwhelming.

But what happened is my awe at this huge, distant thing took my mind at least off all of the present fears that I had been racked with just a moment ago.

Does that make sense what I'm saying?

Matthew Henry again.

Now they feared the power and grace of the Redeemer in the calm, and it had pleasure and satisfaction in it.

Guys, the fear of the Lord is a sense of I fear, I'm overwhelmed, I'm awed by his power and his grace, but there's a sense of pleasure and joy and satisfaction in it.

Right?

We are supposed to be in awe of something powerful but not destructive.

It's powerful and it's saving, it's life-giving, it's calming.

The person of Jesus Christ, the incarnation, is one of the greatest miracles of all time.

And one of the greatest miracles.

Fully God, fully man.

A human body, just like us.

And this is so important.

Affected by the fall, and yet he never sinned.

But he had flesh, a body descended from Adam, just like me and you.

He gets tired.

He gets exhausted.

Sometimes he wants some distance from people.

He needs personal space.

He's totally human.

So human that he could get so tired that he is dead asleep in the middle of a hurricane.

And yet this exact same person is 100% God that when they wake him up from his dead sleep, that he basically looks at the storm and says, Shut up.

And it all instantly obeys him.

Because why?

Because he made wind.

He invented rain.

He rules storms.

They are all at his beck and whim.

Just like God in Genesis said, let there be light, and there was instantly light, he can say, Let there be calm, and there will instantly be calm.

Another quick side note, we're almost done.

But guys, any whatever the sin is in your heart that you struggle with the most, worry, fear, lust, greed, pride, whatever it is that you feel like, man, I'm doing my best, but it just feels like it's raging inside of me.

Anybody identify with what I'm talking about?

One of the best things you can do is just say, Jesus, would you just speak calm to the sin in my life?

And I'm not promising he's gonna instantly take it away.

He could if he wanted to, but he may not.

Why would he do it?

For all the reasons we've been talking about, to keep humbly driving you back to him in desperation, making you dependent on him.

Ask him to speak.

Because, guys, seemingly nothing is a problem for this guy.

Demon, cast it out.

Disease, heal it.

Hurricane, calm it.

He's awesome.

He's awesome.

He's awe-inspiring.

Now, notice that I said, seemingly, nothing is a problem for this guy because there was one thing that seemingly was a problem for this guy.

We're all sinners.

We all deserve the wrath of God.

God is totally loving, but he is totally just.

But the plan involved the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, going to the cross, being thrown into the storm of the fury of God's wrath and suffering for sin that I've committed, that all of his people have committed.

And guys, it was a problem for Jesus.

He did not want to do it.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating so much that the capillaries are bursting, and there's blood praying, Father, if there's any other way I want out, I don't want to do this.

Yet not my will, but that guy's, he's the model of everything we're talking about.

He prayed very honestly, he prayed very rawly, but he submitted, he obeyed, and he went to the cross.

And even in the dark night of the soul, when literally hell came to the cross and consumed him for all those sins, at a point where he didn't, he felt forsaken by God.

He didn't feel like he could call God Father.

He still had enough faith to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

He persevered to the end.

That's how I can be forgiven.

That's how you can be forgiven.

That's how we ought to say, John already said this in the confession, that when circumstances in life seem to say, God doesn't care, we say, I may not know what God's doing, I may not like what God's doing, but I know this.

I know he cares because he died for me.

So I will hang on to him, I will persevere.

I will rest in the finished work of Christ.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your life, for your death.

I pray for myself, I pray for all of us.

Let there be the proper sense of all in our hearts at your majesty, at your love, at your patience, at your gentleness, at your willingness to come and humble yourself and die for us.

Give us spirit-filled confidence and strength that you do love us, that you are for us, that even when you orchestrate circumstances that hurt us, we can trust, we can hope, we can persevere.

Because your grace is so real, your love is so proven through the cross to the resurrection.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.