Let Us Go to the Other Side

Well, I have a message I want to share with you, and I promise I won't be long, and I'll be done as soon as I'm finished.

It works better that way for you.

But I want to talk to you about going to the other side and the possibilities of how God can transport our lives.

That literally, the kid the scriptures declare that we have been brought out of darkness and translated into the kingdom of light.

That God is always anxious and concerned, not only with our promises, but even with our pain.

Yes?

And he wants to move us along in life.

And I'm praying that this message will be a blessing and a resource to your life.

So if you have your Bibles, turn with me to the Gospel of Mark.

Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

We're going to look at verse 35.

Mark 4, verse 35.

Mark 4:35

I have a little discomfort this morning, pain in my stomach, and I'll share that as I share my testimony.

So just kind of bear with me if I pause for a moment.

Mark 4, verse 35, page 847, if you need a little help.

Mark 4:35

You gotta say, uh-huh.

Yeah, sure.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side.

Can we say that little phrase together?

Let us go over to the other side.

Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat.

There were also other boats with him.

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

The disciples woke him and said to him, Teacher, don't you care if we drown?

He got up, rebuked the wind, and said unto the waves, Quiet, be still.

Or in my neighborhood, he would have said, Chill out.

Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, Why are you so afraid?

Do you still have no faith?

What a great story.

How many of you love a great story?

And the Bible is full of them, amen?

Place your hand on it.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for these truths.

We understand that they're able to transform our lives and transcend our thoughts and leave us at the foot of the cross.

Lord, anoint me and grace me to articulate your thoughts to this world-changing church.

We bless you.

We pray for Pastor Robert that he would be ultimately refreshed and ready to go next week, God.

We give you honor for all that you're doing all over the world and right here in South Lake.

In Jesus' name, and everyone said, Come on, and everyone said, Amen, amen.

Well, our story comes to us today, right after the parabolic ministry of Jesus.

For a certain time, he told these parables.

And a parable is a heavenly principle that's wrapped up in the earthly story.

So he was trying to initiate God's thoughts into the disciples and the places that he traveled.

Then he had to take it to the next level.

You know, just hearing about Jesus isn't enough.

Jesus is something to be experienced, yes?

And he had to communicate to the disciples that faith and life must integrate.

In other words, you don't do faith on Sundays or Saturdays or midweek or encounters, and then you do life all the other time.

No.

They run harmoniously together in a delicate balance that faith and life must connect.

They must merge and leave us empowered in the ways of Christ.

Can I get a good amen?

So Jesus was trying to communicate this to these motley twelve that he had called by the seashore.

And he told them, He said, Okay, guys, this is something new today, you're really gonna enjoy it.

We're going to the other side.

The disciples like, the other side, hey, the other side, hey.

Well, maybe not.

Needless to say, they were excited.

And they went down to the local 7 Eleven and grabbed their Diet Coke, snack wells, and Pringles.

They walked over to that little SS Minnow that day.

What a glorious day, right?

Man, you're with Jesus, you're sailing, you're going somewhere, man.

The birds are singing, that little lake is glistening.

Oh, what a great day.

And they all got in and they were excited.

You could hear the disciples.

Jesus had just fed the 5,000, you know.

So he was exasperated.

So he went in the stern asleep.

He's getting a little cat now.

And the disciples are out front.

Roll, roll, row your boat gently down the stream.

Glory, glory, glory.

We're traveling with the king.

Come on, how many of you glad you're traveling with King Jesus?

He is still the captain of our salvation.

And you know, on a day like that, everybody's ecstatic.

Man, what could be more picturesque?

The lake is so serene.

And then something happened to interrupt it.

You remember when you first got saved or you were freshly filled with the Spirit?

It's like your feet didn't touch the ground for a season.

Right?

The heavens were opened, and then life set in.

Oh, you'll look quiet, but I'm gonna keep going anyway.

This thing called a storm happened.

Now, some scholars they don't understand why Jesus didn't tell the disciples prior to them boarding that a storm was coming.

Everybody knows Jesus is smart.

Had he said that, they wouldn't have got on the boat.

Storms are weird, right?

And um they're often they last too long and they're definitely unwanted, right?

I mean, when the last time you saw somebody praying, no God?

Life has been too good lately.

I got too much overflow joy.

Would you let a storm come and balance everything out?

No, we don't pray that.

We pray if it's thy will, let it last into the rapture.

But storms, they sneak up on us, right?

And they come at inopportune times.

And they seem to last forever, right?

At least that's what Gilligan discovered.

Come on, you remember Gilligan, right?

The brother just set out for a four-hour cruise.

Okay, a couple times around the lake and we're done.

Six years later, they're still stuck on the island because of a storm.

And you would have thought surely with ginger on there, somebody would have came to rescue girlfriend, right?

Six years later, with all of her beauty, she's stuck on the island, running out of makeup.

And then you have Thurston Howe, you know, entrepreneur of entrepreneur.

The CEO of every CEO.

And you would think with all the money, the influence, somebody would have surely got him out of that storm.

Six years later, him and Lovey, stuck in that same outfit.

And then you have the professor, yes, the professor, who has amassed an incredible, incredible amount of ingenuity.

Surely, surely, he can program an escape.

No.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes it doesn't make a difference how beautiful you are, doesn't make a difference how much bank you have stored away for retirement, doesn't make a difference the size of your brain muscle.

There are some storms that even we can't get out of.

There are some storms that lead us to Jesus.

These are the perfect storms of life.

I often say this: if we got ourselves into it, there's a good chance that we're not qualified to get ourselves out of it.

That's okay, you'll get that later.

That was there's a delay on that one.

I'm in one of the worst storms of my life.

I read an article that said um prostate cancer comes early in African Americans, so I decided to go in early for my annual violation.

Um, excuse me, I'm uh check up.

I'm sorry, but it is what it is.

And I was trying to make the moment spiritual, right?

So I I told my doctor the words of Jesus, you know, what thou do is do quickly.

And of course, you wait for two weeks for the reports to come back, and you're nervous.

And um, the report came back that my umoglobin level was low.

And so in men, it should be between 14 and 16.

Mine had dropped to eight.

And um every time I got up, the room was spinning, and they had to detect what was still in my iron.

And so they came in, they told me to drop everything, cancel it, and come in and run some more tests.

And I went in and they said, Roosevelt, we spotted about a four-inch mass in your large intestine.

They said, Don't worry though.

Um, we'll send it off to be biopsied, and everything's gonna be okay.

And they sent it off, and the reports came back that it was malignant and that I had cancer.

It rocked my world.

In 18 years of marriage, I'd never been sick, never canceled a television show, a ministry opportunity.

Been healthy.

Matter of fact, prior to that, every other day I was running 5K, I was working out.

It just didn't seem right.

It just didn't seem fair.

Nobody in my family had cancer, nobody in my distant family had cancer.

People I didn't even like didn't have cancer.

And all of a sudden, now I have cancer.

And how many of you understand that's a lonely car ride home with your wife?

Right?

We um went in and talked to this guy and said, Roosevelt, it's so small.

We can actually do it lyphoscopically, which means, you know, three small incisions.

One is used for the light, and the other is used for his instrumentation.

And so I said, Um, okay, you know, I'm just gonna trust the Lord.

My pastor came down, anointed me with oil.

My wife was there, we're praying and standing in faith, believing God, and and um when they went in with the light, that's when things grew worse.

They realized that it wasn't just four inches, that it was larger than the grapefruit.

And they split me down the middle like a watermelon, and they pulled out a ball of signet cancer out of me, stapled me back up, and when I came to consciousness, it's just eight months ago, when I came to consciousness, my doctor looked at me and said, Well, we did get the ball out, but unfortunately it already spread in your lymphatic system and in your stomach, and it's stage four.

And the doctor looked at me and said, Good luck, and walked out.

But when the doctor walked out, that didn't bother me because I believe the Lord Jesus, the healer, walked in when he walked out.

Oh, come on, you can do better than that.

Our God is an on-time God.

Jesus is still a healer.

And there are times and moments I asked myself, Lord, what are you gonna do?

How are you gonna transcend this moment of chaos?

Lord, what are you gonna do?

And he reminded me.

He said, Roosevelt, remember when the children of Israel were locked in Egypt for 400 years?

Remember I had the other side for them?

Remember I had a land flowing with milk and honey?

Remember that I rose up a deliverer called Moses?

And Moses told the children of Israel that you're going to be released from this side and you're gonna go to the other side where the honey is flowing, where the milk is creamy, where the giants are defeated, and you can possess the land.

How many of you know we are going to the other side?

Matter of fact, if you read it, you know Jesus in his inaugural message, right?

He walks into the synagogue, he takes the scroll from Isaiah.

Listen to what he reads.

I really want you to get this.

Look this way.

He reads this the sovereign spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Yes?

Listen to what he says.

He has anointed me.

Watch this.

For those that are imprisoned over here, he said, I'm gonna take them and they're gonna be free.

Those that were blind over here, over here they'll be able to see.

Those that were bruised in heart, he said, I'm gonna take them to the other side, and I will give you the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for heaviness, and I'll scrape up your ashes and leave you beautiful at the end of the day.

Can we give God a big, big praise?

Well, the disciples now they had a little situation.

All of a sudden, the singing has stopped.

The dark clouds begin to roll in and chase the sun away.

The birds that sung fled to the four corners of the earth.

Spider web lightning now began to hit that little lake.

The waves began to pound on the side of that boat.

And you can almost hear Thomas.

I told y'all we should have prayed a little longer.

Now the disciples, they're at an impasse.

What are they gonna do?

They can do it the Home Depot way and try to do it themselves.

Or somebody can get a word from God to the reality that Jesus is on board.

Oh, oh yeah, that's a good preaching point right there.

I think I want to stay here a little bit.

Because no matter what happens, no matter what kind of storm you may be facing, mine is physical, yours may be financial, yours may be parental, it may be marital.

I don't know, but I'm glad this morning that Jesus is on board with us.

He will never leave us nor forsake us.

He will be with us until the end.

Hallelujah! But now it takes some intentionality.

Church family, listen, it's not enough just to know that he's with you.

They had to be deliberate, they had to be intentional, and they had to wake him up.

Turn to your neighbor right now and just say, wake him up.

Well, turn back to your neighbor and just say, wake up first.

Let's start there.

Come on, say, wake him up! I am on a quest to get the American church engaged in a vibrant relationship with Jesus.

It's not enough to have a cross around your neck and a Bible on your dashboard.

We have to get intimate with the Lord.

Somebody say, wake him up.

Which in and of itself is quite a perplexity.

How do you wake up a God that says, I neither slumber nor sleep?

I can see the disciples sneaking down there, you know.

Quit pushing, Peter Adani.

Halloween.

Jehovah Jira, our provider, his gracious.

I know if it would have been me.

I know some of y'all are religious and all proper, you know, eternal God our Father, blessed are the old ancient of days who was in it.

I don't have time for no religious superlatives.

I gotta get straight to the issue.

And you gotta love Jesus, right?

I mean, he plays every part in the Bible, first of all.

But you gotta love him right here because Jesus gets up and like what's that?

The disciples are like their hair is matted to their head, pupils are dilated, the boat's half full of water, and they go, Don't you care?

Y'all know how we take things personal.

You know, to suggest that tragedy is the fault of Jesus, is a misnomer.

When Jesus said, let us go to the other side, that was not just a casual conversation.

That, ladies and gentlemen, was an anointed announcement.

It's in red if you didn't read it.

There is some emphaticness to that deliberation.

Let us go to the other side.

That simply meant that anything, opposition, any kinds of adversity, that creative, redemptive word, let us go to the other side, would be able to forge through any kinds of sicknesses, situations, and sadness ultimately to get them to their desired destiny.

How many of you appreciate that about his word?

It will not return void.

So Jesus says, We're getting ready to drown.

I never mentioned anything about drowning.

I thought we were going to the other side.

What's this new message you have?

So Jesus, watch this.

And this is where he needs to be, right?

It's like Corey Timboon.

Corey Timboon said often that we put Jesus as a spare tire and not a stern wheel.

He needs to be up front as Lord.

Yes?

So Jesus comes out of the stern and walks up to the bow to the front of the boat.

Now y'all laughing.

Because y'all don't think Jesus walked like that.

And that ideal is predicated on the thought that you think Jesus was white.

Yeah, it's been nice knowing you.

Jesus wasn't white and Jesus wasn't black because he knew we'll argue about it.

So God put him right in the middle and made him Middle Eastern.

And he walks up to the bow.

And he says, Rain?

Rain comes to a screeching halt.

Stands at attention.

Wind.

The wind bows majestically before him.

Waves! The waves become at ease.

Because they were all cognizant of that voice.

See, that voice was the cosmic chemist that spoke them into their existence.

Jesus is proving here that he has power over seen and unseen elements of our life.

And that when he gives us biblical command, it doesn't make a difference what may happen.

No weapon formed against us has the ability to prosper.

We will go to the side.

Peace is a confidence in turmoil.

They are in balance and in sync with our Creator.

And therefore producing shalom.

Peace be still, he utters.

And the Bible says there was a great.

Now look at me.

I'm well apprised that there are a lot of people here in a storm right now.

Many different kinds of storm.

But you're going through something.

Could even be a friendship.

You're going through something.

I want you to understand that the disciples initially were terrified, literally petrified, at the storm that they were in.

But when they saw Jesus as Lord, Master, Sovereign of the universe, when he stood at the edge of that boat as the glistening silhouette of omnipotence, their fear shifted.

No longer were they afraid about their current state of affairs.

Now they fear him who controls all.

Because I have seen Christ illuminated and magnified to such a degree that now I have a great calm.

I know that I'm in the master's hands.

Hey, go ahead and praise him if you want to.

Well, give him one more hand clap of praise.