He Is Good | In the Storm | Mark 4:35-41 | Coleton Segars

We're in a series titled He Is Good, Working Through Mark.

This is the end of Mark 4.

And over the last couple of weeks, we've had guest speakers like every other week, but over the last couple of weeks, we've looked at the stories of Jesus, the parables of Jesus.

And this particular story shifts from a parable to an interaction to an actual thing that's happening.

And this particular passage is really a living summary of the parables.

So what Jesus has taught on, they're actually going to live it in their lives right now.

And maybe he set it up that way.

I assume that he's sovereign, so he knows that, but that's actually what happens.

And so, for example, in chapter three, go to this slide here.

Chapter three, we learned that Jesus is misunderstood.

He's misunderstood by his family.

What he's doing is misunderstood.

It's like they're calling it evil.

The invitation to those who misunderstand him was to rest and trust that he will care for them like family.

But then we looked at it a little bit further into that he was oddly compelling, that there's this idea of following Jesus that was oddly compelling.

And in this particular space, it's odd that someone would sleep during a storm and they feel that it's odd.

They're watching him doing this, like this idiot.

He's sleeping while there's a storm.

There's stuff to do.

But it is compelling because he's so unafraid, he's so calm in the midst of issues and things that are going on.

Everybody else is freaking out.

And we know that in our hearts.

You see somebody when the world is falling apart and they're steady and stable.

You might be like, I don't, I don't know why they're that way, but I wish I had a little bit of that.

Jesus has all of that.

Chapter four says that his word is filled with power.

He talks about it like a seed that's filled with power in life.

And so here you actually see that he speaks word out into the story, he speaks two words out into the storm and it calms the storm.

So you get to see literally that his word is literally filled with power, power enough to stop the wind and the waves.

And then he says that life with him, the way the kingdom functions, we looked at this two weeks ago, that the way the kingdom functions is many times in this life, he will call you and lead you into spaces that make no sense whatsoever.

That following Jesus is not riddled with tons of peaceful times and just no issues whatsoever.

It is riddled with conflict and difficulty.

And he calls you into spaces and he's like, This is going to lead you to greater life.

And you go, I don't think that it will.

And actually, you see that here for the disciples, it's very, very true that they're following Jesus, being led by him.

Hey, let's go to the other side.

And then for them, they're going, Well, why if we if you're leading us into greater life, why are you leading us into the storm?

Why do we have to go into the sea?

Why did you wait till evening to come so that we hit the storm?

Why would you wait for that?

We could have left at any time today.

You chose to wait to the last possible second so that we would hit this storm on the way.

Why would you do that?

Why is life with you so difficult?

And this week I was reminded of the wedding of my sister and her late husband, and it was just a beautiful thing that just a the video of the marriage and the way that the family came together November 12th, it was just a beautiful thing, but it was also just a reminder that a year later he died tragically, and then the son that she was pregnant with that they were gonna have together was born two days later.

And so it was just kind of refreshing in my brain like why the sea?

Why do you call us Jesus?

Why do people why do the people who are seeking to trust you seem to have more issues than the people who want nothing to do with you?

It would seem to be that we should just shouldn't believe in him because everybody else is crushing it, but you're leading me into spaces that are really difficult, a lot of storms.

And so today, I think this question is still for us.

I think this thing is still something that we can wrestle with, something that we can still deal with.

Why do you lead us out into storms?

Why do you take us through the sea?

Why do you make sure that we actually hit some of those things when you know how to avoid them?

You just chose to wait so that you made sure we hit them.

Why do you do that?

And so, what I want to do is look at what Jesus does with the storm or through the storm.

I want to look at what Jesus does during the storm, his actual actions during the storm, and then um three things that of what we should do in the midst of a storm, if you're walking through something that's a trial, that's a storm.

So I'll use that phrase a lot if you're walking through a storm.

I mean trial, I mean something difficult, some form of suffering and things like that.

So the first what Jesus does with the storm, how he uses the storm.

And in order to understand how Jesus uses the storm and what he does with it, we need to understand four things that the sea represented to these people and Jewish people at this time.

Very quickly, the first one is the sea to these people represented chaos.

It's very important for us to understand that.

In the beginning, it says that God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless.

That word in Hebrew is chaos, that the the earth was in chaos, the earth was in a state of confusion or wilderness.

It was empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

That's the beginning of Genesis.

And so to them, the sea represented chaos, but then God began speaking his word into it and saying, light, and then there's light, sun, and then there's sun, moon, and then there's moon, land, and then there's land.

And he's speaking those things into it.

So that's the first thing that it represented to them was chaos.

That God had to speak and form into something that could flourish and speak it into order.

Second thing that the sea represented, go back, go back, go way back.

There we go.

Actually, you could go even further back.

We're gonna do these one at a time.

All right.

Second thing that the sea represented was where evil resided.

Where evil resided.

So they believed because Daniel spoke through a prophecy uh a long time ago in the Old Testament.

He spoke about that the sea is where evil would come from, that it actually lived there.

And so in Daniel 7, Daniel said, In my vision at night, I looked, and there before me were the winds of heaven churning up the great sea, and four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea.

And so the sea represented this space where evil actually lived, and that the enemies and that the evil things would come out of the sea.

And then Daniel goes further and he describes it like, and then the but there's someone coming.

There's a ruler coming who's not coming from the sea, but he's coming on the clouds of heaven, who will rule in authority and have dominion over the evil things that are coming out of the sea.

And so that's the second thing that it represented.

The third is that the seed to them represented and became to represent the wrath of God, especially storms.

That storms are this representation of God's wrath against his people.

And so the prophet Jonah, uh, if you remember in the Old Testament, it's Prophet Jonah, uh, in disobedience to God, he ran away from him, boarded a boat, and because of his disobedience, God sent in the sea his wrath.

He sent a storm into the sea that uh almost caused the boat to sink.

Jonah, there's so many parallel.

Jonah is sleeping while the storm is going on.

They have to go and wake him up and say, Hey, don't you know that we're all about to die?

Cry out to your gods, and maybe they'll save us.

And Jonah's like, actually, this storm, sorry, it's my fault.

I'm being disobedient to God.

You're experiencing the wrath of God on my behalf.

Really sorry about that.

It's my sin that's causing this.

And so it's not appeased.

God's wrath doesn't go away until Jonah says, Toss me in.

I will sacrifice myself on behalf of my sin.

I will sacrifice myself so that you guys can go free and you're not crushed by this storm.

And so Jonah sacrificed himself for the people.

So it represented the wrath of God, and then fourth, it represented the greatest deliverance in history.

Greatest deliverance in history, greatest salvation in history is what the sea represented to the people of Israel.

Because when Israel came out of Egypt, the Egyptians trapped them.

Their army trapped Israel, the nation of Israel, in between the Red Sea and Egypt and their army, and it's like we're about to die.

And God commands the wind and the waves.

He uses his words to command the winds and the waves in order to create a path through the sea that led Israel to be able to go through on dry ground, and all of Egypt was crushed, and they were actually to be set free.

And so it says this in Exodus 14.

It says, All that night the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land.

The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, notice what happens.

The people feared the Lord, and you see that in this text here.

They're fearful of the storm, and then all of a sudden they're fearful of Jesus and intimidated by him.

Like, who is this?

What's he like?

And so all of that symbolism is swimming around in the heads of the disciples.

Like all of them see that about the sea, all of them understood those things that we would just miss, but all of them had those, all of that history, all of that Old Testament stuff.

All of them had all of that stuff swimming around in their heads.

And so, now you can go to that next slide.

When Jesus spoke words, peace, be still, it's a callback to Genesis 1 for them, and it's a callback, it's supposed to be a callback to Genesis 1 for us.

He's revealing, Jesus is revealing through the storm, I am the same God who can command the wind and the waves.

I'm the same one that can speak one word, peace, quiet, and it does it.

Be still, and it does it.

Two words he speaks, just like God does it in Genesis 1.

And so for them, it's this callback where they're watching this happen, and it's this reflection to this space long ago when God did that and spoke order into the chaos, and Jesus is speaking order into the chaos.

The same with the Daniel one.

When Jesus rules in authority and power over the rage of the sea and over the space where evil resides, it's a callback to Daniel 7.

He's revealing that he's the one written about in Daniel that didn't come out of the sea, but he's the one that came from heaven and will rule in authority and power over every evil that comes from the sea.

When Jesus calmed the wrath of God with his words, it's a call back to Jonah.

He's revealing that one greater than the prophet Jonah is here.

Jonah only was able to calm God's wrath by sacrificing himself because of his sin, but one greater than Jonah is here, he can do it with his words, he can speak into it.

But then it's also this looking forward and this illusion move moving forward and going, and this is what will happen.

Jesus, like Jonah, will sacrifice himself, not because of his sin, but on behalf of the sins of other people.

And just like Jonah lived in the belly of the fish for three days and then was spit out, Jesus will live in the belly of the earth for three days and then rise again.

It's all of this stuff that's happening in this space.

And then when Jesus drove back the wind and the sea, and the wind and the sea obeyed his words, again, it's this reflection and this call back to Exodus 14, where they would be like, wait, this is what God did for us and our people.

This is the way that he created the greatest deliverance in history was to use and use his words to calm the wind and the sea.

So it's a call back to that space, but it's also a looking forward into this space and going, the same God that created the greatest deliverance in the history of Israel, he is going to even want up that and do a greater deliverance.

And he won't just create deliverance for the from the oppression and the uh subjection to the Egyptian armies and all of that stuff.

He won't just free us from the Egyptians, he will free us from our sin.

And it's not just for the Jewish people, it'd be for everybody.

And so all of these things that are happening, all of this history and all of that stuff, and all of these things that Jesus is doing, these things were colliding in front of the disciples.

And what Jesus does through the storm is he uses it as an opportunity to actually reveal this is more of who I am, this is more of what my purpose is, this is more of what's available in me, this is more of what I'm actually like.

And so he uses the storm to elevate their vision of him so that they see him properly, not just as a rabbi or a teacher who has some really cool stories that nobody can understand.

But he's like, you're actually somebody completely different.

And really they go from fear of the storm to all of Jesus.

And they go from asking, in some sense, they were asking, like, why shouldn't I be afraid of the storm?

And they shift and they go, Why should I be afraid of the storm?

As soon as they realized more about who Jesus was, it was like, of course I should be afraid of the storm.

And it's like, oh no, I shouldn't worry about this at all.

I should actually be more fearful of the person sitting in this boat with me that was sleeping earlier.

That's who I should be fearful of.

And so he does this thing and he uses the storm in their lives to elevate their vision of him, to lift himself up and for them to be able to see things about him that otherwise they just would have missed.

And he used the hardship of the storm in order to do that.

And to me, I think this is what he wants to do to all of us and with all of us through every single trial and storm and thing that we face in our lives.

It is an opportunity that he can use to actually elevate what he's like, to reveal more of his character and more of who he is and what's available with him.

And the difficulty is storms are the worst.

Suffering sucks.

It's not fun.

You can laugh at that.

It's okay.

Um it's not like, okay, he said sex.

Um, but it's not like it's not this thing that we're like, I'm just so excited for the for the storms of life, and I just can't wait to lose my job.

I'm so excited.

Like, no one's excited about those things, and yet it's this space that he has for them.

When he wants to do something in our lives to reveal something to us, it normally is revealed through a hardship and through some squeezing and some pain that he wants to do something with.

You see this all throughout the scriptures, that there are certain things that you will not learn unless you walk through a trial or walk through a difficulty.

So you see this with Joseph in the Old Testament.

He learned, he learned that, if you remember the story, he learned that God could turn horrible things to good because he walked through a bunch of horrible things with his family, sending them into slavery and being wrongfully accused and being sent to prison.

Like he learned that God could take horrible stuff and do amazing things through horrible things because he walked through horrible things and watched them do that.

But the only way to learn that is to walk through horrible things for years, to sit in a jail cell and be like, I'm wrongfully accused, I shouldn't even be here.

But then he walks on the other side of it and he's like, Well, I learned that what the enemy intended for evil, God intended for good.

He sent me here through this hard space.

It's like the only way to learn that is actually live that for a bit, and living that is painful.

Israel, the same way.

Israel found out as they were walking through the wilderness, waiting for the promised land, they found out that God would sustain them when they don't have water and when they don't have food.

They found that out by going into spaces where they're like, we cannot sustain ourselves.

I can't get myself water, I can't get myself food.

And so they go from these spaces of almost starving and almost thirsting to death and then realize that God would provide for them.

But in order to realize that, they have to go to these spaces where all of a sudden they're wondering, Am I about to die?

And it's like, oh no, I didn't.

He came through for me.

And so they found that he could come through for them, but they found it by actually walking through it.

King David, before he was king, he says this in 1 Samuel 17.

He's like, I know that I can defeat the giant Goliath.

The reason I know that is because when I went toe-to-toe with a bear and that lion, uh, God delivered the bear and the lion into my hands.

And so you can miss it in the story.

It's like, oh, cool.

So you were almost killed by a bear.

Okay, so so in order for you to learn that God can deliver from a bear and a lion, you have to go fight against a bear and a lion.

And David's like, yeah, I've done that, been there.

I've walked through the hardship of actually fighting for my life a lot.

This is nothing new.

And the same God who did it for me then, he's the same God, and he'll do it for me now.

But he learned that by actually walking through those things.

Daniel learned that God could save from the mouth of lions because he was thrown into the lion's den.

There's only one way to learn that.

Can he save?

I don't know.

Get in there and find out.

And he went in there and he found out.

Paul learned that God's grace was sufficient for him when nothing else was.

He learned that God's grace was sufficient for him because he got to a space where he could not sustain himself and he wasn't sufficient for himself, and his power and his strength wasn't sufficient for himself.

And so he found out, I think God's grace is sufficient for me because I'm still here and I'm still alive and I'm still moving forward.

But he learned it by actually walking through the hardship.

And to me, the same is true for us.

The way to learn some of the things that he wants to teach us is by actually putting us through the storm.

The only way to grow in your faith is by having to live by faith and taking steps of faith, which sounds fun and it is difficult and it's hard.

It's one thing to be like, yeah, I live by faith with my money, and then you have none.

It's like, well, how do I do that now?

This is harder, like, yeah.

But you can learn to live by faith.

The only way to know that he's trustworthy and dependable, and learning how trustworthy and dependable God is, is having no one else to depend on and having no one else you can trust.

And then all of a sudden you walk through that space and you see that he is trustworthy and he was dependable and he did have your best interest in mind and he was going to care for you.

But the only way to learn that is by actually going through a space where you have nowhere else to lean.

And the only way to learn that he is a God who will provide for you is when you go through times that you cannot provide for yourself.

It's just that space first.

The only way to learn this wonderful thing that's really great is to go into this horrible space down here where you have to live it for a bit.

And it's like, but he wants to teach you these things.

He's trying, God is, he's trying to get us to a point where we don't just quote the scriptures and quote the promises of God, but we have tested them.

We've tried them and we've used them and we've put them in our lives.

And it's like, I don't just know that he can work all things to good, I've lived it.

Because he worked this horrible situation in my life in this really difficult time in my life in a use of God.

I don't just, I'm not just gonna say that those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame.

That I'll never be sorry that I trust in the Lord.

I don't just say that.

I've lived it and I've watched it happen.

And he wants to get us from quoting a book randomly to people, which is annoying anyways.

He wants to get us away from that to actually going, like, this is my lived experience, this is my actual life.

I have, I have, I have sought the Lord and he heard and he answered me.

That's why I trust him.

Not because I'm told to, but because I've watched him be trustworthy.

That's why.

C.S.

Lewis says this is what God's trying to do in all of our lives.

It's a really beautiful quote, but it's a hard truth.

He says, at the beginning of our faith, at the beginning of all of our faiths, God will set us off with communications of his presence, which seem great to us, with emotional sweetness and easy victory over temptation.

But God never allows this state of affairs to last too long.

Sooner or later, he withdraws, at least from our conscious experience, all of those supports and incentives.

He leaves us to stand up on our own two legs, to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish.

But then notice this, he says, but it is during such trough periods, such low periods, much more than during the mountain peaks, that we are growing into the sort of creature he wants us to be.

He wants us to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand.

He wants us to learn to walk and therefore must take away his hand.

If you have a child and you're teaching that kid to walk, and you're sitting there and you're just holding like that, and you're doing that thing, and you want to learn to walk.

If you continue holding on, you'll be doing that until he's 30.

It's like, just walking a 30.

That was funny, y'all know?

Okay, sorry.

Um and so he leaves it in this space where it's like, you let me fall.

It's like I let you learn, and I want you to learn something and grow into a resilient person.

I want you to be formed into the image of my son.

And if you think of Jesus' life, it's like he followed the Father through the hardest, most difficult storms of all, and he followed him and trusted him, even when the father said, Go to the cross and die, give your life.

And he was like, I will do it with joy, because I trust you that much that whatever you're calling me into is something that is for my good and for the good of others, and that you'll take care of me in the process.

He is trying to get us into that image, into that space, to where when he says something that's like, that doesn't make sense, but I trust you so much.

I trust you so completely.

That's why James says, consider it pure joy.

Whenever you face trials of many kinds, you know that the testing of your faith leads to perseverance.

And then this one, let perseverance finish its work so that you will become mature and complete and lacking nothing.

Let the struggle and the trial do what it's meant to do, not to crush you, not to kill you, but let it lead you into a space where all of a sudden you shift from someone who's lacking to someone who's been made whole.

What is he trying to do through the storm?

He's trying to reveal things to us about himself and do things in us so that we go from lacking to fullness and to wholeness.

This is what he's doing.

And that's what he does through the storm.

Second, what Jesus does, like action-wise during the storm.

Here's what he does during the storm.

In order to, I want to look at this in order to understand what he probably and likely is doing in the midst of your storm.

If you're going through one, me too, uh, this is what he's likely doing.

One, here's what he does.

He's sleeping and unresponsive, which is the most annoying thing when you're going through a storm.

They just won't talk to you.

And you're like, well, I need some help.

It's like, silence.

That's hard.

This dark night of the soul where you're like, I certainly this isn't where you want me.

Silence.

Certainly you're gonna change this next week.

Nothing.

Sleeping and unresponsive.

That's what it says in verse 37, 38.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

We have that part because Peter's telling the story to Mark, and being like, Yeah, he took the pillow.

But in the middle of the hardest part of our lives, in the middle of the most difficult things that we deal with, I believe we experienced this, that God must be, you must not care.

You must be sleeping.

Because if you loved me, you would do something about this.

If you loved me, you would say something.

If you loved me, you would change this.

And yet here he seems to be doing nothing.

His unresponsiveness during the storm made the disciples feel like he didn't care about them, and I believe we feel the same way, and we're not alone.

The psalmist says this in Psalm 44 awake, Lord, why do you sleep?

Rouse yourself.

Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

And to me, that has been One of the most helpful prayers at times where I'm like, okay, so I'm not someone who wrote some of the Bible felt like God's sleeping on their problems.

Why are you asleep?

Wake up.

If you would wake up, you would see that this is too difficult for me.

I cannot bear this.

Would you please wake up?

Why are you unresponsive to my pain?

This is the idea.

He sleeps and is unresponsive, but it's important to realize that he's his sleeping or his unresponsive answers to you or his nothing changing to you.

It's not because he doesn't care about what you're facing.

He's just unworried by it.

We're worried.

And he's not.

He's in control, and so he's able to rest in the midst of the reason he's silent is because he's resting.

And in some sense, he is actually showing us what's available to us in the midst of it.

His unresponsiveness isn't lack of care.

It is I'm resting because I'm in control of this hard situation, still in control of that.

And so in that space of unresponsive nothingness, why do you sleep?

He's going, ah, because you can rest here.

And you can rest here with me.

Like you don't have to be led by your fears.

You don't have to be have your life determined by them.

You can just rest with me.

If I rest, you can rest too.

So that's the first thing he's doing.

The second is he leads them into the storm to get them to the other side of the lake.

Second thing he does is he leads them into the storm to get to the other side of the lake.

That's what it says when evening came, so he waited till evening, and then he says, Let us go to the other side of the lake.

Now, it's nuanced, and so I want to thread this needle really fast because he does want them to hit the storm.

But the storm isn't the goal.

The other side of the lake is the goal.

And you actually see it in chapter five.

We'll get there next week.

But chapter five, it says, and they came to the other side of the lake.

Like it actually worked.

Like, here, what's our goal?

Well, I want to get to the other side of the lake, and that happened.

But the storm was just a speed bump or a space in the process.

It wasn't the goal.

And so for us, it's very important for us to realize he didn't lead the disciples into the storm to drown.

That wasn't the goal.

The goal is to get to the other side.

And so in your life and in my life, he's not leading you into a storm for it to kill you or to drown you by it.

He's actually saying, like, we're going to the other side.

That's always the plan.

You are going to get through this.

I'm going to be there with you to ensure that you're going to get through this.

I didn't leave you and jump ship and jump out of the boat and be like, figure it out, man.

I don't know.

Those are some big waves.

Like, he doesn't do that.

He stays in there and he's like, I will make sure that my promise is true.

I will, I promise, I will make sure that you make it to the other side of this thing.

And I will stay in there until we actually get to that thing because the goal is the other side.

The storm is just a part of the process.

And I think that's important for us.

He's leading us in that space.

Your current trial is not to drown you, and he is with you to ensure that you make it to the other side.

And then the third, he views fear.

He views your fear as an unreasonable response.

He views your fear and all fear as an unreasonable response.

You see it in the question.

Why are you so fearful?

It's like, well, the boat is sinking.

So that's why.

And he doesn't, he doesn't do like last week, Shannon was like, we learned how to make empathetic statements.

Jesus doesn't empathize with our with their fear here.

Go to the empathy thing.

Right there.

Here's empathy.

You're supposed to say this.

You feel emotion, whatever emotion that is, because of experience.

So what Jesus to empathize with us should be like, you feel fear because the boat's sinking.

And they would be like, you see me, you get me.

But he does not do that.

Shannon also said, Don't ask why.

Never ask why questions.

Guess what Jesus does?

Big old why question.

Why are you afraid?

And it's like, isn't it obvious?

Look around.

Like, look, this is crazy.

And Shannon said, don't ask why questions because it puts you on the defensive.

And I think Jesus wants them to be a little defensive.

I think he's putting them on the defensive.

Why are you afraid?

You should not be afraid.

This is a very unreasonable response.

And to us, fear in the midst of something scary is a very reasonable response, but to Jesus it's not.

If he's there, he goes, fear is always unreasonable.

Fear is never appropriate if I'm right there with you.

It never fits.

And to empathize with it is actually something that would hurt you, not help you.

And the crazy thing is, is like he empathizes with every other emotion.

People are sad, and like Lazarus at the tomb, he's weeping and he's weeping with those who are weeping because they lost their brother.

He empathizes with them, he sympathizes with them, he cries with them.

He's the most understanding human because he is God and made our hearts.

He's the most understanding.

And yet when it comes to fear and to worry, he's like, Why are you doing that?

If I'm with you, there's no reason for this.

There's no reason to get there.

And so for me, he's saying, like, if I'm with you, your fear is inappropriate and it's unreasonable.

You don't have to stay in that space, and that doesn't have to be your experience.

It can sound harsh, and I think it did sound harsh to them, and it can sound harsh to us.

If we're walking through one of the hardest difficulties of our life, for someone to be like, why are you afraid?

And it's like, because my life is burning to the ground.

That's why I'm afraid.

And I think Jesus would still say, but why?

If I'm with you, you don't have to be afraid.

And again, it can sound harsh, but I think he's presenting this idea and this truth that's available to all of us and casting this vision of like, there's a way to go through storms and not be completely terrified by the storm.

There's a way to walk through some of the most difficult things in your life and still be at peace in the midst of the storm.

There's a way to be so trusting and so faith-filled with his care for you, his love for you.

I know he cares for me.

I know he loves me.

I know that he'd never let anything move me into a space where I'm separated from him or any of the good things that he has for me.

I know that his plan is perfect and I can move in that space.

There's this way to get to that point where regardless of what we're actually walking through, we still in that, like I'm not afraid.

It's hard, it's difficult, I'm gonna struggle through this, but I'm not afraid because the one who actually controls this storm is actually deeply for me and was willing to give his life for me.

And so for us, I think what's presented is this idea that like on this side of the cross, they didn't know that yet, but on this side of the cross, we have this ability to look back on like how willing is he to make sure that I'm cared for?

It's like, oh, he's he's willing to give his life.

How willing is he to provide for my needs?

He's willing to bleed and die and be ashamed and have forms crushed into his face.

Like, how willing is he to help me?

It's like very willing to help you.

And so it's supposed to drive away his perfect love, supposed to drive out fear from us, even in the midst of hard things that we're doing.

And so, to us, I do think that he would ask, Why are you so afraid?

Do you still struggle in this space?

And I don't think he's being mean.

He's just not empathizing.

He's not going, it's cool, it's fine.

He's not doing that.

You are a snowflake and special made in your own way, but he's not doing that thing in your struggle.

He's going, There is no reason to fear if I'm with you.

The pagans have reason to fear.

And he actually says that, why are you worried?

Are you a pagan?

Like, is that why you're worried?

And so is this space for us where he's going, you don't have to live that way if you don't want to.

And the invitation is in your fear, when you begin to feel that emotion, remember he is not calling you into a space of fear.

He would never do that.

He would actually say it's it has no space here.

We talked about this on Wednesday night or Wednesday morning with our men's group, just some fears that we have.

And one that I have is that Teddy will die at an early age.

And I live with that fear every day.

But I know that it's unreasonable, but it's still there, right?

Like it's still this thing that I still we went camping this weekend and I had to like, I'm like, I'm gonna run up here and do this thing, like you stay here, and if anybody tries to steal you, like punch them, whatever, you know, whatever.

Whatever it takes.

And um, like I still have this thing that gets in there.

The issue is like when I make decisions out of fear, I pass fear on to my son.

When I make decisions out of fear, I'd make bad decisions, worse ones, not good ones.

And so I think Jesus genuinely is going, Why are you afraid?

This only leads to death.

There's never a decision out of fear that's gonna lead you to me.

Because there's this space that exists for you where you don't have to live in it and be ruled by it.

Okay.

That's what he does in the middle of the storm.

He asks, Why are you afraid?

Because it's unreasonable for you to be afraid if I'm with you.

He led you through the storm, not to be drowned by the storm, but ultimately to get to the other side, and he will ensure that you do that.

And then he is in those spaces many times sleeping or unresponsive, and that's hard, but it's not because he doesn't care.

The last, what should we do during the storm?

What should we do during the storm?

The first is seek to draw nearer, not further.

Seek to draw nearer to him, not further from him.

So many people fall away during the struggle.

Two different ways of doing things, walking through just the difficulty of life with Jesus and going, you could have done better.

I haven't suffered as much as you have.

And the answer is, no, you haven't.

He has gone before us in suffering.

And so there's this space where you can delete him from your life because you let life be too hard for me, and you can walk away from him, and people do that.

And then there's this other side where it's like, I actually need the one who suffered like me and suffered more than me.

I need you so close because I don't know that I'm gonna make it if you don't stick with me.

And so I have to draw near to the one who actually has everything that I have.

I have two options in the midst of a storm, and I would just encourage you, draw nearer to him, not further from him.

The disciples tried everything, and Jesus doesn't get mad at them, like, ah, did the bucket not work with the water?

Is that not helpful?

Like he doesn't get mad at them for doing that.

Um, but it was really doing nothing.

Like it was it's not helping, and it wasn't until they shifted their gaze, even they even they even went to Jesus incorrectly.

They went with wrong motives, they went with wrong questions, but they still went to him.

They went in anger and fear and disbelief of his care for them, but they still went to him.

And as soon as they went to him, all of a sudden everything that they were longing for and wanting to experience begins to begin breaking out among them.

They went to Jesus incorrectly, and they still found the thing that they were longing for.

And so, whatever it is for you to like, in the middle of the struggle that you're dealing with, to move towards him, even if you're moving towards him with a lot of angry questions and victory all just mad at you, fine, but just move closer to him.

Turn your complaints and your frustrations and your anger, turn them into prayers by talking to him about them.

Because it is when they actually face him and look to him, even though they're doing it wrong, they actually figure out this is what I was looking for.

And it begins helping them, even though they're coming with wrong motives.

So seek to draw nearer to him, not further away.

The second is don't assume you know how your storm is going to go.

The disciples experience a storm and, like, well, we're dead real fast.

Like, how's this gonna go?

Well, we're all gonna die here at sea.

This is really it was a good time.

We had a good year ministry, it was kind of fun.

Um, Jesus is really good with like casting out demons, but not great with water.

Okay.

Um so they just automatically jump to the end.

What's the end gonna be like?

What's my life gonna be like walking through a storm?

And I think we do that.

We walk through these storms, and it's like, well, this is gonna be terrible.

It's all gonna burn now.

Like, this is gonna be the rest of my life, I'm I'm gonna feel this way the rest of my life.

I'm never gonna have enough the rest of my life, this is gonna happen the rest of my life, I'm gonna stay single the rest of my life, I'm gonna stay married to this person the rest of my life, I'm gonna stay like on and on and on and on, like, and we just we jump to the end of the storm, and on the end of the storm it's a godless future versus the one that Jesus is like, the storm was never the goal.

I was just getting you through a thing to the thing.

And I think for us, don't assume that you know how it's gonna go.

They assumed and they were wrong.

Give them a million guesses.

What's gonna happen when you go out on that boat today and the storm hits?

Their first guess was, well, we're all gonna die.

That's fast.

But give them a million guesses.

No, no, no.

Okay, so you're not gonna die.

What's going to happen?

And they would have been like, well, maybe we like figured out a real good bucket system to like get the water out, and that's how maybe we like just swam to shore, maybe it broke into a million pieces, and we just found rafts or whatever, and we'll let Judas die because honestly he's a little difficult, so we just kept going.

You know, maybe, maybe that's what's gonna like give them a million things, they never would have stood up and been like, I bet Jesus stands up and says, peace, be still, and then all of a sudden it's really quiet.

They never would have said that.

And yet that's exactly what happens because he is in control and can do whatever he wants.

And so when we get into the space of the storm and we begin to define the rest of our journeys and the rest of our lives by this thing that we're walking through, don't do that because we're becoming God in that part of our lives, and we're going, now I know the future.

And the future that is real for you is one that he actually knows, and we know his plan is better for you, and his love for you is greater for you than anything that you can possibly imagine.

And so don't assume that you know how it's gonna go.

I don't know how your storm is gonna go, and I don't know how mine goes, but he does, and so the one who does, who loves you beyond enough to give his life for you, just trust that the rest of your story isn't gonna be this storm.

And then last, I would encourage you to consider the question that they ask.

Consider the question they ask.

Who is this?

Who is he?

What man is this?

Different translations say different things.

They actually were asking, like, they don't know who he is.

They're like strong teacher, really great with demons and healing blind people.

Um, I don't know who it is, who is what is what am I dealing with here?

But we know.

And so I want us to ask this question to ourselves, not genuinely wondering who he is, but asking it as a reflection about who he has been and who we know him to be.

Who is this that is walking with me through the midst of the storm?

Who is the one who controls the wind and the waves and they obey?

Who is the one that's actually in control of my current situation?

Because again, I think that we know more of who he is than they ever did.

We know that he is, as Romans 8.31 says, we know that he is for you and not against you.

Who is the God who is running this storm and allowing me to walk through this?

Oh, the God who runs this is the one who is for me and not against me.

Who is this God that is in control and has still letting me walk through this?

Oh, he's the God that Paul says that his the love that he has for us is so high and wide and deep that it's it's almost surpassing knowledge how much he loves us, that we need special prayer to even understand how much he loves us.

Who is the one that's in control of my pain?

Oh, he is the one that did choose to go to the cross.

He is the one that chose to bleed instead to run.

He is the one that they said, just if you're God, come down from the cross and then just prove to us.

And he could have done that, but he chooses, like, no, I'm gonna stick here and I'm gonna stay here until it's done so that I can care for the people that I deeply love.

Who is he?

And so when you're walking through something difficult and you're wondering, what it what is this storm?

How long is this gonna last?

Those are these questions are fine.

But who is the one that runs it?

And then to be reminded of the love that he has for you, the way he's proven that to you, the way that he was in the past is the same God he'll be in the future.

And you're able to just consider this is who he is.

And so, if that's who he is, let that inform my current situation versus just looking at the wind and the waves and being terrified by them.

And so it's a great thing to do, just to reflect who is the one that controls this circumstance that I'm actually walking through.

And I think as we do that, we'll be filled with more trust and more faith because we'll remember like this is who he is.

He's willing to care for us so much that he was willing to give his life for us.

And then death couldn't stop his plan.

And so if death can't stop his plan, certainly my storm can't stop his plan from my life.

Death should, that death is the stopper, right?

Like, that's the end.

I had plans for tomorrow, I died, couldn't do those plans.

For him, just give it a few days, and then he's like, no, I'm gonna keep going, I'm gonna keep rolling with my plan.

Like, like it did if that didn't stop him, then it leads us to the space and it's like, okay, then certainly the good plans that he has for me isn't gonna be harmed by this evil person in my life or this thing that I'm dealing with, of the storm and the struggle and the trial.

Certainly that he came to give life and life in abundance, that's not gonna be hindered by the fact that I lost my job or I'm dealing with this or dealing with that.

Certainly he can continue to move forward with this plan.

If death couldn't stop him, then nothing can.

And he is for us and with us and not against us.

And so, this is this space where we're supposed to consider who is he?

And if he is with you and for you, then there's no reason to be afraid.

So if you're walking through a storm, the storms reveal things about Jesus that you would miss otherwise.

I'm not saying it makes it easier, but it is true.

He is seeking to make you whole always.

What he does in the middle of your storm might be confusing.

He may be silent, but he is trying to get you to learn to walk.

And he has proven his love for us on the cross that he is willing to do whatever it takes to care for you.

So when he rests, you can rest with him and he makes that available to you.

And so I want to finish by just asking anybody in a storm, like if you can, you're in church, so it's okay.

Thanks.

Yeah, if you raise your hand, I just want to read this over you.

Could you keep them up?

You can tell everybody.

It's fine.

There we go.

We're a community, we belong here.

Cool.

I'm in one too.

I'll just join you in this, okay?

Yeah.

There are dozens of us.

They're everywhere.

It is part of it.

Walking with Jesus doesn't lead us into this space where there's no storms and no trials.

But walking with Jesus does lead us to the space where we can be filled with awe and wonder at the end of the storm and looking back on it and being like, can you believe what he did?

Can you believe he still got me through that?

I'm gonna read this over you and then I'll pray for you.

Just a speed bomb.

Just a speed bump that seems more like years than just a speed bump.

A season that's turning into a decade.

Who is this that controls the wind and the waves?

Who is this that controls our storm?

How would you show us again?

Who is this?

Who loves us so deeply that you would give your life?

Help us to trust you and not fear.

Fill us with faith.

In Jesus' name.

Communion testifies to this idea that we used to do this every single week.

It's a celebration and it's a reflection.

It is a reflection of who is this?

What's he like?

Can I trust him with my life?

Can I trust him with my story?

Can I trust him with this situation?

Or should I just bail on this ship and go do something else?

And communion is a constant reminder.

He gave his blood, he had his body broken.

And it wasn't to just accomplish some amazing plan.

It was for you to provide for you, to care for you, not to shame you over your sin, but to actually be able to set you free from this thing that actually does plague our world and plague our lives so that we can live in this space with him, experiencing heaven on earth here and now, peace on earth here and now, and then one day fully forever.

And so this is just a reminder.

So if you're walking through something difficult, there are dozens of us.

Um I would just encourage you to be reminded, like, he chose to bleed for you, he chose to have his body broken for you.

And it wasn't like, so now worship me.

It's like so now just rest with me.

I promise I got you.

So take some time.

Sit in that for a bit, talk to him, complain to him, be angry with him about what you're walking through.

Cast your worries and your cares upon him, whatever you need to do, or just worship him.

And then come and receive the elements together, and then let's commune and take communion.

Remember who is this?

He's the one who gave body and blood so that we could be set free.