Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Look to Storms as Opportunities - Luke 8:22-25

So we have a series that we're in right now, and it's called The

Orderly Account of Truth. And you know, it's in the Book of Luke

and Luke and I shared this with you guys before. It's one of my

favorite gospels, not so much that you know it's the last one, you

know that was written about Jesus, the last gospel, because Luke came about

on the scene several decades after Jesus died, was buried, and rose again.

He went about saying, hey, you know what I heard about this.

I want to go out and check make sure it's really truth. So

he went out and done an investigative Like an investigative reporter, he went out

to the real to the people that were there to get real accounts. Unlike

Matthew, Mark and John where they were there at the time that Jesus was

ministrying on on earth, Luke wasn't. So he's you know, I kind

of relate to him because I think like him, you know, I'm I'm

analytical, I'm logical. Uh sometimes I get too scientific because I lack academia

get in the way of my heart sometimes, so I have to control that,

all right. And that's just who I am. That's what that's my

makeup, and that's why it's uh, we have such good elders here.

We have elders that are very good at shepherding, and we have elders that

are very good at kicking things off and leading things. Then to have me,

yeah, that's what everybody says too. I'm like the enforcer. You

don't want to have Pastor Paul come to your house. You know, you

want a greg or a Duncan or or a Jordan to come to your house

because they're very good shepherds. But I'm not a shepherd. I'm a part

of a team that shepherd's this church though, And last week's message was a

real good one. I thought dunk and slam dunked it last week. Get

it pud all right now, I'm not gonna tell you what it meant,

what that message meant to you. I'm gonna tell you what that message meant

to me. There's a couple of good things in there that just popped.

And he says one of the things that he asked us if you guys recall

and had taken notes, that says how to listen. Well, you know,

there's so much stuff I forgot my phone. No worries, no,

never, not while I'm up here. But I want to use it as

an object lesson, and so I'll use your phone. So we I'm gonna

keep this for the service because I got another object lesson, and then I'll

charge you twenty five bucks to get it back. Yeah, is it on?

Buzz silent? All right? Okay, perfect? All right. So

you know we're driven by many times by this device. It's amazing how much

the same controls our life. You need to be careful what you listen to,

and when you listen to something, listen to it well to discern if

it's truth or if it's false. That's the important thing that came out of

the message to me last week. Another thing says, because duncan, you've

done this well, because you said everything will be revealed. Do you know

there's going to be one last final judgment when this world is gone. Everybody

in this room and anybody who ever lived and breathed and walked on this earth

will have to stand before God and that judgment, and you have to give

an account to what you've done here on earth. So there's books being written

everything you say and everything you do. There's volumes your life so far,

everything that you said and will say, and everything that you've done, you're

going to be held accountable for that. So everything will be revealed. No

rock is going to go on turn folks. And then he capped it off.

Don't capped it off with how do you respond to God's word? Says

First, you need to be a good listener to listen well, to know

and distinguish truth from from false witness. Then you got to know that everything's

going to be shared and wide open when you get to that judgment. And

then finally, how are you going to respond to the word of God here

while you're here on earth in this pilgrimage that you're on. We're all here

for a blink of an eye. It's better to obey the word. That's

how you honor God and respond to God through obedience. That's not my sermon,

but it was a good one. So I'm going to switch right down

into my sermon tonight, and I'm going to be the title of my sermon

is look to storms as opportunities. Look to storms as opportunities. And the

first point tonight is the perfect storm. We're going to read a little bit

tonight. In Luke, chapter eight, verse twenty two says, one day

Jesus said to his disciples, let's cross to the other side of the lake.

So they got into the boat and started out. As they sailed across,

Jesus settled down for a nap. But soon, if youre, a

storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water and they

were in real danger. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting,

Master, we're going to drown. When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the

wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm.

And then here's the object lesson, where is your faith? The disciples were

terrified and amazed. Who is this man? They asked each other. When

he gives a command, even the wind and the waves obey as bow our

heads. Heavenly Father, we love you and we praise you right now,

and we thank you for this opportunity to walk through your word unpacket. Lord,

and I ask the Holy Spirit, and you help me and guide me

that your words are my words, that I speak only your words, and

I only hear your voice and Father, and I will say, Lord,

right now, as the word is spoken to Knight, that Lord, that

everyone in this room will be a hearer of the Word, giving honor to

you and obeying it by doing it. Lord, with that we ask in

the name of Jesus. Right now, Amen, all right, Jesus is

out preaching in every village in town in the region, sharing the good news,

the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Now this is early in jesus

ministry. I mean it's just two chapters ago. He was hand picking his

disciples. I mean they've only been together for a couple of weeks, maybe

a month tops by this time. On this particular day, Jesus was desiring

to move on, and he said to the disciples in verse twenty two,

he says, hmm, let's go to the other side of the lake.

So the lake is the Lake of Galilee, or you could say some translations,

is the Sea of Galilee. So let's just use let's turn on our

imaginations for a moment. Okay, So we're gonna give you a little idea

about this region that we're in and why these storms are so intense in this

area. Okay. So we see that this water is the is the largest

freshwater lake in Israel. Okay. And so this is north. By the

way, if you guys know your directions, guess what is west Okay?

South east and west okay. So that's the south side. This is the

north side. This is diagonal, okay. So think of the tops of

this building right here. The inside of the building is the mountain range.

Okay, this valley right now, the mountains come right down to the valley

floor. And it comes from all three directions right down to the valley floor.

Nice move transition to the valley floor. You guys are the sea of

Galilee. Okay. A point to a little factoid here. The top of

my head is sea level. Guess where you are at You're below sea level.

Why is that important? Well, when the winds come off the lake,

they go uphill during the day and at night they come they flow downhill.

When the storms come from the east where the weather patterns, flow comes

across the top of the mountains, and this transition wind is going up the

mountain. When this transition wind hits this flow, this storm flow that's coming

across the top of the mountains, it's starting to turb and starting to gyrate,

and it can't go anywhere but back down. The hill. As soon

as there's that fearst wind hits those waves, guess what happens, You have

a storm. They happened frequently there. However, when you cross the lake,

it's eight miles across, thirteen miles long. Coming out of the north,

here is the river Jordan flows into it, and then it flows out

as well. It's one of the eastern boundaries of the country of Israel,

except for two and a half tribes. Two and a half tribes decide to

stay on the west side. Same piece of property they've been fighting over the

last thousands of years is that very same piece of property today as well?

To cross the lake, it takes about an average of an hour to sail

across the lake. So Jesus at this time in verse twenty three, he

decided to take a nap because he knew it's going to be a little while.

Hey, you guys, don't me, I'm going down all right.

And so all of a sudden, a fierce wind came down onto the lake.

Now, the storms when they hit to the Sea of Galilee, or

the Lake of Galilee, they were no joke. Okay, when the winds

descended on that lake. Remember those turbulent winds they hit that lake, resulting

in big waves. Then the storms can come up suddenly, and in this

case, the Bible says that the boat was filling with water and they were

in fear of drowning. They were in real danger. Now, most of

Jesus Posse was professional fishermen. I mean, they made their living on this

lake. They knew this lake. They knew that storms can come up suddenly.

A matter of fact, they've probably been through several storms in their life.

When they catch, they know fishing, They know when the seasons to

fish. They can use the lunar calendar to fish, just like we do.

They figured it out and then they get their they get their catch.

On their way back to the marina, they would sit in their boat and

they would sort their fish out in baskets. Then they would take the fish

to the market for the resellers. That's how they made their living. Most

of these guys were fishermen, so they knew these waters. But on this

particular day, something was different about this storm. It was so violent that

their boat was filling with water and they were in real danger. Now Here

there are drown fishermen screaming, Master Master we're going to drown all of a

sudden. This is this is where the transition is, folks. For the

message tonight, we're going to see for the very first time, We're going

to see the power and authority of God's words being spoken by Jesus. Other

than taking care of heart conditions, matters of the heart, physical conditions like

he was doing, he was out ministering at this time. He was going

down to town. He was he was being pressed in by people wanting to

to get him to touch them, want him to speak to them, wanted

them to heal them. And then Jesus spoke, you know, before I

get there. You know, there's two things in chapter eight that that are

real truths. That is that is that it's a common thread throughout this entire

chapter of two things. Be careful, to be careful to hear God's word

is one of the truths. Remember what Duncan had said last week. You

know you got to listen well, be careful to what you hear. And

then the second thing is to be sure to believe God's word, to hear

God's word and to believe it. So remember that that's going to be a

test tonight. Okay, all right. Until now. Jesus ministry consists of

proclaiming the good news of God the Father, healing the sick, casting out

devils. He even challenged the religious leaders. At this time, all were

matters of the human heart and the mind. But here in verse twenty four,

Jesus woke up and he rebuked the way, the wind and the raging

waves, and it ceased, and there was a calm and waters. They

have no mind, the wind and waters. They can't think, they do

not have ears. The wind and water can't make decisions, but they obey

God. They obeyed the word of Jesus. M But since sin came into

the world, we find it hard to obey God. The wind and waves

put us to shame. We have to look at the unthinking things to know

how to how we should think about God's word and authority. That's the point

that we're saying here, that's the transition. Not only was Jesus meeting the

needs of the crowds people that were pressing you, he for the very first

time spoke authority to creation. I'm grateful for this passage of scripture. It

reminds me of the authority. But look here verse twenty five, verse twenty

five. He says that Jesus reminds us of and says, to his disciples,

where is your faith? Where is your faith? Which is my next

point, So if you're taking notes, it's faith is what it takes to

please God. Now we're going to run through a bunch of scriptures here really

quick and talking about faith. Jesus said in Mark chapter eleven, verse twenty

two, said to his disciples, have faith in God. That was so

profound, wasn't it? Have faith in God? You know, all week

I've been bending these pages. I wouldn't they wouldn't stick on me. I'm

still doing it, by the way, so I can turn them as you

end this day. I would like to encourage you to have faith in the

Lord, have faith in the one who was, is and whoever will be.

Without faith, the Bible tells us it's impossible to please God. So

let's take a look at Hebrews chapter eleven, starting at verse six, and

it is impossible to please God without what, without what? Faith? It's

impossible to please God without faith. But you can have. All you need

is the smallest little fragment, The little touch of faith can make things happen.

Let's look at Matthew chapter seventeen, verse twenty says, I tell you

the truth, if you have faith, even as small as a mustard seed,

you can say to this mountain, move from here to there, and

it will move. Nothing would be impossible. I'm talking about a little sliver

of faith. A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds that yields one

of the powerful trees in that region. I remember, I remember growing up

in church. You know when it's six, six to eight years old,

somewhere in there it so it's been a long time ago. Remember in Sunday

school seeing these the ladies of the church. They would have a necklace on

it be like a pendant. It would it would be translucent, about the

size of my thumbnail, and right in the middle would be suspended a tiny

seed. It's a mustard seed. It was there to remind them. That's

all it takes. Nothing would be impossible. That's all it takes is a

little piece of faith. You could stay to that mountain, move from here

to there. So I want to stand here with you guys today and tell

you to keep the faith, whether or not you're waiting on your prayer request

to be answered. Keep the faith. If people are closest to you have

made you feel abandoned and alone, keep the faith. Keep the faith that

Jesus will take your pain away. He will remove those feelings of loneliness.

Jesus is and will be all that you will ever need and more than you

can never ask for. If you feel like you're drowning today under the weight

of sin, cry out to the Lord. He will deliver you and keep

you. Just keep the faith. He will hear you. Understand that the

Lord is merciful. He is faithful and righteous and always good and always faithful.

Earlier this week, I was texting to the Elders and Greg and I

was going off for on a tangent, and he shared a scripture with me.

It was so good I had to put it into sermon. It was

that good. And so it's relative okay, just because he sent it to

me, although I do read it all. Brother, Let's look, it's

not up or on the board because I injected it later. Okay, However,

look it up in your Bible. Here it's in Hebrews chapter four.

Hebrews chapter four, verse fifteen says this high priest of ours understands our weakness.

Talking about Jesus, our high Priest, understands our weaknesses, for he

faced all the same testings we do, yet he did it without sin,

So he understands our pain. He knows where we are in life, and

he wants to lift our burdens. The Lord is good because he gives us

strength to carry on even though there's those moments when it looks like we can't.

So at that moment, right here, right now, raise your faith,

Reach out to Jesus, trust him, embrace him, and hold on

to his word. Cast your cares on him because he deeply cares for you.

Keep the faith. Let's look at the second half of verse twenty five.

This is where I really get off into this message because I'm amazed.

I'm literally in awe of what it says here. So I'm going to focus

on the characteristics of the ones who are both terrified and amazed at the same

time and said, who is this man? At this time? This rocked

their world all up until this time. The last four weeks, he's healing

the sick, raising the dead, he's out challenging the religious leader. Now

all of a sudden, he's talking to the elements and they stop and there's

a great calm. It rocked their world, it changed them. Who is

this man, Jesus Christ and him crucified, raised from the dead, sitting

on the right hand of God, the Father. That's who this man is.

We got to realize that the disciples had an encounter right there at that

moment. Now, when the storms come like this one in the Bible,

here in your life, sometimes it feels like the boat is filling up with

water. Sometimes the storms make you feel like you're drowning or you're in danger.

My next point is, let go and trust. This is the good

stuff now, So you guys, ready, all this other stuff was filler.

Okay, So let's look at Psalms Chapter forty six. Chapter forty six

and Psalms. I love Psalms. A lot of golden nuggets in there.

Starting at verse one. I'm gonna read the entire chapter. It's only eleven

versus guys. So all right, God is our refuge and strength, always

ready to help in times of trouble. I can stop there, and you

can live off of that for the rest of your life. So we will

not fear when earthquakes come and mountains crumble into the sea, Let the oceans

roar and foam, Let the mountains tremble, and the water surge and bring

a river brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of

the most time. We're talking about Jerusalem. Here. God dwells in that

city. It cannot be destroyed, for the very from the very break of

day, God will protect it. The nations are in chaos, their kingdoms

crumble. The voice of God thunders, and the earth melts. The Lord

of Heaven's armies is here among us and Israel, and the God of Israel

is our fortress. Come and see the glorious works of the Lord. See

how he brings destruction upon the world. He calls wars to end throughout the

earth. He breaks the bow, snaps the spirit, and burns the shields

with fire. Now comes the good stuff. Be still and know that I

am God. I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored

throughout the world. The Lord of Heaven's armies is here among us. The

God of Israel is our fortress. Hallelujah, Glory to God. This here

is actually a psalm of praise that Solomon wrote, exalting God as our refuge

and strengths and ore ever ever present help in times of trouble. He says,

be still and know that I am God. I will be honored by

every nation, and I will be honored throughout the land. Be still and

know that I am God. Meaning what to understand to be still. Let's

look at the English translation of still. Okay, the definition means to be

silent, utterly, no sound, uttering, no sound, quiet, and

motionless. Sounds like dead to me. By the way, the use of

be still in the English is way different than in Hebrew. So let's look

at the Hebrew translation for still to let go, stop striving, slacking meaning

given slack and to let go or let drop. It's a picture of loosening

our clutched grip on the circumstances and the outcomes, and trusting God, who

is sovereign over both. Now let me say that again, loosing our our

clutch script on the circumstances and outcomes and trusting God who's sovereign over both.

I'm the first to admit because I'm up on stage, so I gotta be

the first. If if Jordan was, I would definitely get behind him.

So this is uh it go to be still, goes against my instinct.

Okay, I'm a fixer. I talked about that earlier. I want to

make things happen. I talked about that earlier. Is this confessional? Uh

so? I I keep pushing through, I keep forcing an outcome. But

the call to be still is a call to surrender. It is an instruction.

It's not something that you just happenstance to read in a nice book of

the Bible. It's an instruction. To be still in his verse doesn't mean

we're doing nothing. It doesn't mean we give up and sit down. It

doesn't mean that we quit doing the last thing God called us to do.

It doesn't mean that we wait on God to do everything. When God instructs

us to be still and to know that he is God, he's commanding us

to release control of the situation to his sovereignty. That means releasing the control

of timing and giving way to God's will to bring about his purpose in the

situation. So when we're in that position and condition of our heart, we're

posturing ourselves before God to be still. There are in those situations, there's

five things that we can do. Let's look at them. They're up here

on the on the monitors. It's worship prayer, remember thanks or give thanks,

and watch all things that we can do while we're in that that be

still, and let God be God. Give up the control of that storm,

those situations, those circumstances to him, Let his perfect will be redeemed.

I'm going to unpack each one of those, starting with worship says we

cannot worry when we are worshiping. Oh, let me say that again in

a different way. When you got your worship on, you're not worrying.

But when you got your worry on, you're not worshiping. They can't coexist.

They can't be in that same space in your heart and in your mind.

You're giving one to God or you're keeping it to yourself and you're miserable.

Psalms is a Psalm forty six is a song of praise, beginning with

who God is. God is our refuge in our strengths and our ever present

help in times of trouble. Worship reaffirms that God is on the throne and

in control. Worship ushers us into the presence of God, where we find

comfort and strength. In worship, we've become less and the things of this

world grows, Jim, as we exalt God to pray. When we quiet

our hearts and our calendars, we can have time for praying deeply. But

when you're busy and God the Holy spirit's urging you, oh sorry, I

didn't mean to get to that site, I'd better give you the phone.

So anyway, when God's calling you to do something, you can't hear them

because you're doing You're doing your own thing, but yet you want his help.

There's an instruction. The instruction is to be still and know that I

am God and Luke Chapter five, verse sixteen. Jesus models this to us

throughout his earthly ministry. He's often was getting up early and going off to

himself while it was still dark to pray. Even on those days when the

crowd was pressing in on him, they were pressing on him to touch him

to get a word from him. He modeled by getting at the end of

the day, getting off by himself to pray to recharge his spirit. Number

three, remember when we are still, we can remember God's flawless records of

faithfulness. Psalm forty six eight said come and see what the Lord has done.

Remember when we remember, there's two ways that we do it. First,

the first way is getting into the Word. We're reminded in there in

the Word of God's character, his miracles, his provision. Secondly, we

remember what God has done for us personally. We often talk about this as

elders, what God has done for us personally. There's times in our lives

and I'm constantly reflecting, been around a few years, but seeing where God

met me here and I remember that, Oh yeah, and then God done

something for me. I remember here, Lord, and I tell God about

all of those things, and I just fill my cup and it runs over.

Let's look at Joshua. There's an encounter here and Joshua doing the exact

same thing Joshua twenty three and verse fourteen. So Joshua was at the end

of his life, but before he goes to the pearly gates, he was

going to give one last word to the community. The community was the nation

of Israel. Okay, so he was reminding Israel of God's constant faithfulness,

leading them out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, into the through the

wilderness, and then finally into the Promised Land. You know, Joshua was

the one that took him into the promised land. Moses never got that opportunity.

And he said, he said these final words. He says, now

I am about to go the way of the earth. You know he's going

to get a dirt blanket. Basically, okay, he says. You know

with all your heart. Now he's speaking to the people. You know with

all your heart and soul, that not one of all the good promises of

the Lord R God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled,

none has failed. Remember number four thanks or give thanks giving. Thanks in

all circumstances, God tells us. And once this Thanksgiving starts, we see

with fresh eyes God's goodness all around us. That God is tenderly caring for

those who for those he loves, And because of that, He is threading

every detail of every delay and every setback to accomplish a more perfect will than

we could ever ask for. Imagine now, we don't like to hear about

those delays and those setbacks, but if we got everything we asked for,

we'd be spoiled rotten, and God's will wouldn't be holy and righteous and perfect

for us. We'd be spoiled. I want the perfect will of God in

my life. So that means there it's going to be delays and setbacks.

Okay, the end is better than the means. God is good and God

does good. And when we stop and count our blessings, we realize what

we thought mundane is rich. We see God's grace and provision, love and

kindness. We cannot wow tho. His goodness and kindness is not merely sufficient,

but it has been extravagant for us. When you ever think about and

you guys probably say it from time to sign, when you're in in prayer,

and you know and you ask for it, when you ask for the

presence of God? What are you asking for? Do you know? When

you ask for God's presence, you're asking for all of love of heaven to

be there. You're asking the God of Heaven's armies, all the heavenly hosts,

it's going to be there. Do you know that all the wing creatures

that surrounds the throne twenty four hours or day, seven days a week,

every day of the year is glow? Sorry, find they're there When you

ask for his presence, it's just not a word. Give thanks. Watch

even when we were still, God is at work, though we may not

see God. What God is doing for us. We can be certain that

He is working in every circumstance to accomplish his desires. It wasn't never so

truer than on Holy Saritay. Jesus had died, had been buried, and

on the Sabbath, and the Sabbath has begun, and the disciples could only

be still and wait. There was an expectation. They were still and wait.

But how defeated they must have felt and experienced. But on this Saturday

stillness, God filled his eternal plan as Jesus experienced death on our behalf,

and then he defeated death in our stillness? Are we looking for the hand

of God regardless of our circumstances that are swirling around us? Can we steal

our hearts to worship, to pray, to remember, to thank and to

watch? Can have the band come up? And Jesse, I want to

make a request. I believe it. Verse ten of chapter forty six of

Psalms says, be still and know that I am God. When you are

in the storm, run to your refuge, Run to your strength, run

to the fortress the most High, the Almighty God. We need to ask

God to teach us to be still. Teach us to lay down and to

give up our strength and to yield to his strength. Father, show us

how to rest on the altar of your will, to know that you are

God. So my prayer for you, tony, it is Lord, teach

us to be still in the mighty matchus name of Jesus Christ. Teach us

to be still. One page left, fight, Okay, I want to

reflect back to an Old Testament story. I like the Old Testament. That's

the clean part of my Bible. It's starting to get dirty now because a

minute more it's getting used marked up more. I can't even read a New

Testament anymore. It's been so much going on over the years there. I

overwrote things, and oh that thought changed. Had to overwrite that one.

Because you always learn the truth. You don't learn it all at once,

but you always learn the truth. So you guys, remember the account Numbers

that the Lord had instructed Moses to send out spies to explore Canaan. Remember

that story, all right, let's go to Numbers, chapter thirteen. We're

gonna start at verse one. The Lord now said to Moses send out men

to explore the land of Canaan. The land that I am giving the Israelites,

send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes. So Moses did

as the Lord had commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal

leaders of Israel, from their camp, into the wilderness of param Okay.

Sounds simple, right, I mean, no big deal. They're out on

a long hike looking things over, checking out, you know, if it's

good grass. Because we're shepherds, they need a lot of good grass.

We also need to grow all of the livestock that we need for our offerings

and our sacrifices. And there was a lot of and so we got a

lot of mouths to feed. How's the growing seasons and all that. Well,

let's look and see how this thing unfolds. Let's look at verse twenty

five. After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses

and Aaron and the whole community of Israel and Kadesh in the wilderness of Pran.

They reported to the whole community what they had seen, what they had

seen, and showed them the fruit that had been taken from the land.

This is the report that This was their report to Moses. We entered the

land you sent us to explore. And it is indeed a bountiful land.

The land is flowing with milk and honey. Here are the fruits, Here

are the kinds of fruits it produces. But but the people living there are

powerful. Their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there from

the descendants of Anak and the Amalekites living in the GeV and the Hittites Wsi

Amorites live in the hill countries. The cantaan Kites live along the coast of

the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley. But Caleb tried to quiet the

people as he as they stood before Moses, Let's go at once and take

the land. And then he and he said, we can certainly conquer it.

I'm gonna stop there for a moment, because just recently we had you

know, the elders, we get together quite a bit in a monthly basis,

and I remember a few weeks ago we had a conversation that had to

happen. It took us a year and a half to have this, to

get to this conversation had to happen, and it was one of those white

elephants in the room type conversations, and as we were talking our way through

and listening to everybody's input, we were getting jazzed up. I mean like

a holy spirit kind of jazzed up, like they say back in Pentecosts,

a holy ghost moment. And I remember as we were talking there, Greg

had a Hurrah moment and he started to he got up and he started to

do our frontal assault on Hell with nothing but a squirt gun. Now I

don't know what was in that squirt gun, if it was ice water,

you know, mineral water or holy water. I don't know what was in

his heart and his mind at the time, but he was going all out

frontal assault on Hell. I looked over at Duncan, and Duncan went,

Wow, bucket list item. You know, that's the kind of meetings that

we have. And this is the moment that Caleb had. We could take

it. We can conquer this verse thirty one, it says, but but

beware of but nothing good comes from but the other man had. But the

other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. We cannot go up

against them. We cannot go up against them. They are stronger than we

are. Man. They just conquered nation after nation, kingdom after kingdom,

and they they say that we cannot conquer them. So they spread this bad

report amongst or about the land among the Israelites. The land, the land

we traveled through to explore, will devour anyone who goes in to live there.

All the people, all the people we saw are were huge. So

you guys know the rest of this story. It didn't fare well for this

generation. They had to wander into wilderness for another forty years until all the

adults died off, till that generation was buried out in a bone pile out

in the desert somewhere. But inclosing, are we going to trust what we

see the storm? Or are we going to trust what God says? The

disciples here in Luke saw the storm. Are we going to be like the

Disciples in this storm and trust what we see? Or are we going to

trust God's word and please him and have faith in God? Keep the faith.

Are you going to loosen your grip of control and force your outcome in

the storm or are you going to stop striving, give slack and be still

and know that He is God