The Other Side

Open your Bibles to Mark chapter 4 and meet me at verse 35, Mark chapter 4,

Mark 4 · chapter mention Mark 4:35

verse 35. I'm inspired today by the word of the Lord.

What an amazing worship that we just experienced. Would you just put your hands

together for the worship team, the singers, the worshipers, the musicians.

Mark chapter 4, verse 35. It says, Because on the same day when evening had

Mark 4:35

come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side.

Now when they had left the multitude, they took along with him in the boat as he was.

And other little boats were also with him. And a great windstorm arose,

and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already feeling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.

And they awoke. him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still.

And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

But he said to them, why are you so fearful? Why?

How is it that you have no faith?

And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, Who can this be that even

the wind and the sea obey him?

Now I have a question for you this morning. How many of you have been walking

with the Lord for more than three years?

Raise your hand if you've been walking with the Lord for the more than...

So that's the majority of you in the house who've been walking with the Lord

for more than three years. And so you can relate to the disciples at this point.

They've been walking with him going on about three years at this point.

And so as you understand, as the disciples are with him, scripture tells us

here that they had preached all day. It said on the same day evening had come.

So if you look at Mark chapter two, Mark chapter three, they're ministering.

Jesus is preaching. He's teaching and he's healing. and the disciples are helping him as well.

And so I believe that they are extremely tired.

They're fatigued. This is a long day of ministry.

But Jesus said something to them that I don't think they really wanted to hear.

Jesus said to them, let's cross over to the other side. Now,

I would have wanted to hear, let's go to the house.

Let's go to the hotel. I'm tired. We've been serving all day long.

But Jesus said, no, no, we got to keep it moving.

Let's cross over to the other side.

Now, the other side can be known as the afterlife, but that's not what Jesus is referring to.

I believe Jesus is referring to the next phase of life.

Many of you are in the next phase of your life, and Jesus is saying,

come on, let's cross over to the other side.

And so they get into the boat. The disciples are obedient, and there are small

boats around them as well. And as they are traveling to the other side,

remember, when Jesus says something, that's the word of God.

If we're going to cross over to the other side, we're going to cross over to the other side.

And as they are crossing over to the other side, a windstorm arises out of nowhere.

Scripture tells us it is a great windstorm.

And this windstorm comes. Now, remember, it's evening. It's dark.

There are dark clouds. It's cloudy. Now, this windstorm is about 30 to 60 miles an hour worth of wind.

There's lightning happening.

There's rain coming down, not just horizontally, but vertically as well.

And sideways the rain is coming your hair's

getting messed up you're getting soaking wet the wind

is blowing it's beating on the boat is

causing the waves to go back and forth it's dark outside you know my family

and i we like to go on cruises and if you go to that top deck in the middle

of night it's dark out there imagine how dark it is out there with all of this

chaos and catastrophe happening.

And this event is taking place. And you got to believe, right,

that they're probably feeling a little nervous.

They're probably feeling like this boat is going under.

You know why? Because scripture tells us there's evidence it's going under because

water is filling the boat.

And so here they are in the boat. This event is taking place.

It came out of nowhere. The meteorologists didn't predict this.

They're just trying to get to the other side, and they are getting soaking wet, and it is dangerous.

And as they are trying to figure out what to do, they decide, where is Jesus?

I'm going to come down here and talk to you.

Where is Jesus? So they go, and they look for Jesus, and Jesus is asleep.

It's dark it's raining it's lightning the wind

is blowing the boat is going back and forth water is filling the boat this loud

we're trying to figure out what's going on but jesus is asleep on the pillow

in the boat scripture tells us that they awoke him this chaos didn't awake him,

He's at rest. He's at peace. He's trusting in God. He said, let's go to the other side.

He made an announcement, a promise that's going to happen.

We are getting to the other side. And he's not moved by the outside conditions.

He's asleep on the pillow.

And they awoke him. And they say to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Now, this is an emotional response to this event that's taking place.

And now they have the audacity to attack God and declare to him that he doesn't even care.

They are now saying to him we care more than you.

They're attacking him so much in his character in his words and in his integrity,

that they are demanding that Jesus respond immediately to show them some affection Thank you.

Do you not care? Or we care more than you.

How often do we feel like God doesn't care? Don't raise your hands, but I know, I know you do.

Or you feel like you even care more than God about this situation.

Do you not care that we're perishing?

Jesus wakes up. I like the first thing he does. he rebuked the wind. Somebody say rebuke.

He rebuked the wind. That means he had stern disapproval of the wind.

He commanded the wind to cease.

He rebuked the wind. The wind is an invisible force. None of us have ever seen the wind.

We've seen the effects of the wind, but we've never seen the wind.

So Jesus rebuked the invisible force, the wind, because that was what was causing the waves.

The waves were beating into the boat. We can see the waves beating into the

boat but we can't see the invisible force that's causing it to take place.

How many of you know that there are things you can see and there are things

that are in the invisible realm that you cannot see?

But in the invisible realm those things are also

real and sometimes we ignore them

and we don't talk to them and we need to begin to talk into things in the invisible

realm Satan you can't have my children now you can't see Satan but you got to

talk to him not today Satan say that not today Satan I know that's a tagline

but you better believe it.

Not today. And you got to begin to talk to things in the invisible realm because

those things in the visible realm are causing things in the physical,

visible realm that's affecting your life.

And it's going undetected and we're ignoring it. So the first thing Jesus did was rebuke the wind.

And he spoke to the waves and said, be still. And here's the part that I want to get to today.

The next question Jesus asked them was not a question of curiosity,

but it was of divine correction.

He says, why are you so fearful?

Now, earlier I said, raise your hand if you walk with Jesus longer than three years.

Most of the hands went up. Some of you said, I ain't going to raise my hand

if you said anything. I understand.

But you've been walking with Jesus longer than these disciples have.

And Jesus asked this question, why are you so fearful?

Now, notice before Jesus asked this question, he addressed the external first.

So that then he can begin to address the internal.

He calmed the wind and the waves so that he can ask this question, why are you so fearful?

When Stacey and I were dating many decades ago,

one of the questions she asked me in the dating game, and anybody here single,

ask a lot of questions and ask it again, make sure that they confirm each other.

Listen, and if they tell you something, I'm talking to single folks here,

if they tell you something, believe it.

You think, well, they didn't really mean that. They're going to change when

we get married. No, they're not. It's all going to get worse.

Now, no, I'm not talking about the marriage. I'm talking about what you think

they're going to change.

I had a friend of mine. I live in Charlotte and the Carolina Panthers,

and he said that his wife, or his fiance at the time, loved the Panthers.

She could name all the players.

As soon as they got married, she could not name not one player any longer.

And so I talked to her about it. She said, I was trying to get my man. So you know what?

You better ask, and you better ask again. Amen? So my wife, at the time,

my fiance, well, it was my girlfriend because we weren't fiance,

she said, Devon, what is your greatest fear?

And I told her, I am a man of faith.

I am a bold, risk-taking man. I go after things with courage.

I step into it and I fight. How dare you ask me?

What am I afraid of I fear nothing and I went off on her I do you know who you're

talking to I go for things with everything I've gotten she looked at me like yeah whatever.

Well, as we continue and we're married and going on and so forth,

that's been a question she's asked me.

Devon, what is your greatest fear?

And I have had similar responses.

But as I'm reading this passage, this has stood out to me.

Jesus asked them, why are you so fearful? and I believe we're supposed to answer this question.

He didn't give the disciples time to answer it. He moved on,

but the Lord's been talking to me. Stop and answer the question.

Why are you so fearful?

Pastor just mentioned that we were renting a building.

Our church there in Charlotte, we're renting. The Lord told me that the landlord's

going to sell this building, prepare to exit.

That's what he said. The landlord's going to sell, prepare to exit.

Landlord comes to me a year and a half later or so.

And because we started preparing financially to exit, a year and a half later,

he comes to me. And he says, you know what?

I'm selling the building. Well, I already knew the Lord said that.

And so we said six months.

And the building sold like within two months, but we had a, but by God's favor,

we ended up, he ended up agreeing to the six months.

And so the building, so we're looking for a building. We're looking.

We find the building, we like it, they decline our offer.

We're looking for another building. The same building we found came back to

us. We gave them another offer, they declined their offer.

Now the six months is up.

Now we're trying to meet somewhere and and

currently we're sharing a building with another church pastor

approached me said meet just meet here until you find your building glory to

god and so we're meeting at this other building currently our this building

that we saw came back to us the third time same building we liked it they said

this time we will take your last offer hallelujah glory to god come on give

the lord some praise for that.

$700,000 less than what they offered. Hallelujah. We'll take it.

So when he said, we'll take it, I said, okay, let's get under contract.

Now, we went under contract. Follow me here.

We went under contract without a bank backing us.

Now, I'm not saying I'm a man of faith and I did that because I don't need a

bank. No, no, no, no. God's going to provide and all that good stuff.

I just know that you got to move quick sometimes.

And so I said, we got to go for it. We'll find the bank later. Let's just go for it.

And so we went for it, we're on a contract. Then my wife started noticing that I wasn't resting well.

I wasn't sleeping well. Acne coming up. Can I be transparent with you today?

And she said, Devon, what is your greatest fear? And I heard the Lord say, why are you so fearful?

And I heard the Lord say, answer it. I said, babe, my greatest fear is embarrassment.

I get up and I lead our church that we're going this direction and we just don't get there.

And when you begin to answer the question, why are you so fearful?

You'll begin to see that there's solutions. See, a lot of us,

especially as faith people, we try to act like there is no fear.

You know, I'm a man of faith.

Like I told you, I'm not afraid of nothing, right? No, no, no.

I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from what?

All my fears. That's a conversation. All my fears.

I sought the Lord. He heard me because I had some fear. And so if you don't

answer the question, you won't know how to get the solution.

So I told Stacey, I said, I'm afraid of embarrassment.

I feel like this may not work. And I've led these people in.

We started capital campaigns. And by God's grace, he's providing for us. And we're closing.

We're even moving, closing up now. But let me back up. Watch this.

Until I admit it I was afraid of

embarrassment wasn't it wasn't until the Lord began to talk to me after I admitted

it after I admitted it the Lord began to talk to me and I started thinking guys

I started saying I would rather suffer from embarrassment than to suffer from regret.

I would rather say I went after it and it didn't work than to say I never went after it.

And so when you answer this question, why are you so fearful?

You'll begin to recognize that there is something that's holding you back from

receiving God's love in that area.

1 John chapter 4 verse 18 says,

1 John 4:18

there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment.

How many of you know that fear has torment?

And it says, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

And so when you find out what you are afraid of, you'll start seeing this is

an area in my life that I have not received the love of God in.

Listen to me. Why are you so fearful? And then you answer it.

Well, I'm fearful because my mother had this and now they're saying I have it and my mother passed.

This is an area you say, okay, does God love me?

And he loves me so much that he's also Jehovah Rapha, the healer.

It's an area you have to indicate and discover where are you missing it in the love of God for you.

Notice Jesus didn't ask them, why was there a storm?

He asked them, why are you so fearful?

Because what was happening around them wasn't the issue. That's why he was asleep.

That wasn't the issue. The issue is what was happening inside of them.

And so there is no fear in love.

What does that mean? That means fear when you understand how much God loves

you cannot exist when you recognize my father loves me.

There's no fear. Fear is rejected when you know how much you're loved.

Because scripture says perfect love casts out fear, expels it,

evicts it, flushes it down the toilet. Come on, somebody.

Perfect love will cast out fear.

That word perfect means mature, cultivated, developed.

Love that you are working on, that love you're working on, God loves me every

time you say it and you believe it, fear begins to leave.

Every time you say it and believe it, fear begins to leave.

Every time you say it and believe it, fear begins to leave.

How do I get rid of fear? I wish I could just lay hands on you and fear would

leave, but it only leaves by how much you recognize God loves you.

So perfect love casts out fear because fear has torment.

Mental harassment, keeping you up at night, acne and acting crazy and things happening in your body.

You know, a lot of diseases are associated with fear and stress in our bodies.

It should tell us that's an indicator somewhere in my life I'm not receiving the love of God.

He is love. God is love, 1 John 4, it says. God is love.

So he is love, but this may be an area that I'm not receiving his love.

And so we see here, Jesus is asking them, why are you so fearful?

Why are you afraid? I said we're going to the other side.

So that's where we're going.

And then they attacked him and said, you don't love us.

When they say, do you not care in a person, they literally say you don't love

us. Well, how do you know that?

The next question he says, why is it that you have no faith?

Why don't you have any faith? What is he saying? Galatians 5, 6 says it this way.

It says that faith works by love.

The Amplified Classic says it this way. Faith is operative and effective and

activated and exercised by love.

The reason why you are struggling in your faith and believing God is because

you're struggling in believing that God loves you.

The guys, the people that you think have the greatest faith are the people that

have the greatest revelation that they are loved by God.

Not as they should be, but as you are.

Come on, listen to me. This is the gospel. You're not loved as you should be.

You love just the way you are.

Your flaws, your mistakes, all of the flailings, all of the aggression,

all of the bad thoughts you have, all of the unfaithfulness that occurs.

God loves you just the way you are. And when you begin to believe it and receive

it, then you'll begin to change.

You'll begin to trust him more.

You'll begin to depend on him more. And so what they literally said,

or what Jesus literally said to them was, when did you believe that I stopped loving you?

The circumstances is all a hindrance and a distraction.

The fear is the enemy's greatest weapon.

Matter of fact, it's his only real weapon to get you to be paralyzed and to not move.

And when you are full of fear, you begin to be full of anxiety,

full of the cousin called worry,

dread, torment, and you won't do anything.

The devil's, if the devil could kill you, he would, but he can't kill you.

That's why you're still here.

He can't do it. What he tries to do is give you fear because fear will paralyze you.

You won't move. You're, you're, I'm just too afraid. Well, I'm afraid to go out.

You remember I'm afraid to go to the mailbox or I'm afraid to do all type of stuff. That's fear.

Wisdom didn't say don't go to the mailbox because you got mail coming.

I'm looking for some checks in the mail, amen?

I need to go to the mailbox, get them checks out the mail, right? Fear said that.

And I started going through my life. My wife did this 20 plus years ago,

just, hey, what's your greatest fear?

And I hated the question, but now I'm embracing it because I'm locating myself.

I'm getting honest with myself.

Yeah, I'm afraid that they're going to hurt me.

I'm afraid they're going to leave me. I'm afraid that maybe if I'm too transparent,

they're not going to like me anymore.

I'm afraid if I tell the truth, they'll despise me.

I'm afraid if I'm too honest, they won't connect with me anymore.

I'm afraid if I step out and leave this job, that maybe the next job would fold.

Fear, fear, fear, fear.

And God is saying, I love you.

I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

I got you. I'll carry you. I'll take care of that for you. I'll handle that for you.

I'll fix that for you. I'm already ahead of you.

I'm 20 years ahead of you. I know where you're headed. I know where you're going. I love you.

I'm going to watch over you. I'm going to handle it. Just like with your smaller children.

You know that you love them. They can do nothing. I got a seven-year-old here.

She can't do nothing for me.

What can she do for me? Nothing. But I love her so much that I'll tell you what,

I'll give her the moon if she asks for it.

Throw a little lasso up there. What movie was that, babe? Throw a little lasso

up there. It's a wonderful life. Y'all know what I'm talking about.

He said, I'll lasso the moon for you, right?

That's how much I love her. This is what God is saying about you and I.

That we are loved. We're greatly loved. We're so loved.

We're going to the other side. And what's going to hinder us is external things.

What we hear on the news, what we hear in emails, what we hear from other people

is trying to hinder us, but we've got to get there.

We've got to go other side, and the only way we can get there is with the love of God.

We've got to know who we are. Ephesians 3.19 says, not only are we supposed

to know his love, we're also supposed to experience his love.

We're supposed to experience it and recognize it and know it,

that we're loved and God's going to take care of me and I've never seen the righteous forsaken.

The seed has never been begging bread.

You got to become a candidate of the miraculous.

What do I mean by that? I used to say this, guys. I used to say provision follows vision.

But the Lord told me, no, no, Now, provision follows movement.

What are you moving towards? Because fear will keep you just talking and not moving.

But when you get to moving, God will begin to provide. You'll become a candidate for the miraculous.

As you step out of the fear, God's got you.

I used to say this, the greatest fear is the fear of death. That's what I used to say, but not anymore.

I believe the greatest fear is the fear that what God has said will not come to pass.

That's our greatest fear, that what God has said he's not going to do.

He's not going to bring it to pass. It's not going to happen.

That's what happened in the boat. Jesus said, we're going to the other side. They said, we're dying.

The fear was greater than death. It was fear that what you said to us is not going to happen.

And we've been limited because we somehow, someway, the devil has convinced

you and I that God is not going to be true to what he said,

that whatever he told you, it's not going to happen. We've believed him.

But God is saying this morning, I love you. I have not forgotten about you. You are not forsaken.

Just like Isaiah says, your name is written in the palm of my hand.

Every time I look at my hand, I see you.

Glory to God. He's not.

He's not forgotten about us. I want to talk to someone in here today that feels

like your dreams are not manifesting. God remembers you.

He remembers the conversations you had.

He remembers those times when you guys talked about these things.

He remembers.

He loves. He's not forgotten. He's getting you ready to possess what he has already promised you.

I use this illustration. I have an 11-year-old son. He thinks he's ready to drive.

He can't even reach the pedal, okay? He thinks he's ready. Now, the car's ready.

The road's ready.

He's not ready. And so, God's not forgotten about you. He's just getting you ready.

Because the promise is big enough that it justifies preparation so that when

the promise appears, it won't disappear.

Say amen to that.

I know it hurts. I know you may be hearing bad news.

I know that someone may have left you, forsaken you.

But why are you so fearful? You've been walking with God a long time.

He's never let you down, never disappointed you, never gave up on you,

never failed you, never abandoned you, never forsaken you, never forgotten about you.

Why are you so fearful?

Listen, this word was not to the world. He turned to his disciples.

And said, why are you, you, you? And I'm not trying to disrespect you,

but I'm just pointing in the area.

You, you, you, you, you, you. Why are you, you?

Not the world. Why are you so fearful?

Why do you not have any faith? When did you believe that I stopped loving you?

God's never stopped loving you.

There are some things I know God's speaking for you to do.

It's time to do it. It's time to step out.

Release your faith by your action. Faith is an act. If you've heard from God, step out.

Don't, fear is the enemy.

Fear is false evidence appearing real.

Fear has torment step out

do it go for it don't just

stay in the same place do it get all your comfort zone God gave you the comforter

because he's gonna ask you to do something uncomfortable you would need the

comforter if you're always comfortable.

Am I a preacher or am I preaching today? So you're going to have to have the

comforter because you're going to be moving in some uncomfortable situations.

When we stepped out to secure six acres of land, praise God,

a building on this land, and we had been renting, it's been uncomfortable,

especially when we said we're going to go on a contract, not even have a bank yet.

I didn't tell them that, though, praise God. But I know, I know.

And we begin to call. First bank said, we can't help you.

Second bank said, we can't help you. Third bank said, you can't help me.

And here I am stressing out, oh, Lord, what are we going to do?

Fourth bank said, we can't help you.

Fifth bank said, go on and send us your information.

Come to find out. You want to know something that's really cool?

The fifth bank is a banker that went to children's church with my wife.

They went to children's church. He goes, oh, yeah. Listen, he said,

listen, what do y'all need?

Well, this is what we need two, three days later. Approved. Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

Now what if I stayed.

Lord where's the money how are we going to do this is our season up should we

close the church now I'm going to tell all the people,

Or do I say, I defy fear. I'm going to keep pressing. I'm going to keep going.

I'm going to keep possessing. I'm going to keep laying hold of what God has laid hold of me.

And I'm telling you, get rid of the fear. We're going to be all right.

It's all going to work out. We are crossing over to the other side.

No devil in hell can stop us. No demon can stop us.

Nothing's going to hinder us. We're going to the other side.

What God has promised shall come to pass.

What God has declared shall manifest.

What God has said will happen will happen.

God is for us. Who can be against us?

If God didn't even spare his own son, Jesus, for us, How can he withhold anything that he has for us?

Do not let fear stop you.

I'm on assignment today to tell you, don't let fear hinder you.

You are loved. You are greatly loved.

You are so loved. For God, so loved. Didn't just love, he so loved.

Love, when you put that word so, you were placing an emphasis on it.

You know, like it's so hot outside. I don't mean it's just hot.

It's so hot. Well, you are so loved.

There's a degree and extent and an emphasis placed on the love that he has for

you. And fear is your enemy.

Don't embrace it. Worry, don't embrace it. It's gonna come.

You say no. You answer the question, what am I afraid of? Why am I so fearful?

And you answer it. And then you say, perfected love will cast out this fear.

Because fear has torment.

Notice the last part of 1 John 4, 18. He says, but he who fears.

You can be seated. You can be seated. You can be seated. But he who fears.

I'm going for that three hours, Pastor. But he, he, no, I'm writing it down. But he who fears.

Somebody looked at their watch. But he who fears.

God has not perfected love. Don't take that as a condemnation, church.

Take that as if I am fearing and worried and concerned in a certain area,

it's because I haven't developed the love of God in that area.

And so I just need to develop God's love for me in that area.

It's an indicator. That's why you have to answer the question.

It's an indicator that this is an area of my life that I've got to work on the love of God.

For some people, I've talked to people, healing comes easy for them,

but maybe money doesn't.

Well, then you've got to work on that area of your life that God loves me so

much he's going to provide.

There's areas that we're all working on, trust and risk and stepping out and

obedience. We're all working on some areas. Just put love on it.

God loves me and he's going to work this out for me. Maybe not the way I want,

but the way it needs to be.

He loves me. Say that. He loves me. Say it again. He loves me. Say he loves me.

Say it again. He loves me.

Come on. Hear yourself. Say it. He loves me. He loves me.

He loves me. he loves me. He loves me. He loves me. He loves me. He loves me. He loves me.

Oh, glory to God. He loves me.

My father loves him some divine. Come on, make it personal.

He loves me. He loves me.