Why the Storm? - Mark 4 - Coleton Segars

Um had the opportunity to uh do a wedding for um a student of mine that I was a youth pastor over ten years ago.

And um so we Randy and I go to Wisconsin uh to do this wedding, and it was really sweet.

I got to see people I haven't seen in about 10 years, and uh got to see the the student and do their wedding and officiate and everything, and it was wonderful.

But I also had the opportunity to meet um and see some students that I hadn't seen in probably 10 years, and so I I ran into one of the students that when I met him and knew him as a 15-year-old, he was just super passionate about Jesus, loved worship, loved all of it, was thinking about being called into ministry and all that stuff and thinking about that.

And so I was excited to ask him, like, hey man, I'd love to hear the story.

Like, tell me where you're at now in your journey of faith and stuff like that.

And he was basically just like a little embarrassed by it.

He was like, Oh, yeah, I don't I don't believe any of that.

I don't believe any of that anymore.

He's like, Yeah, I'm an atheist now, and so that's in my journey uh over the last 10 years.

And and so, one, just saddened by that, uh, but then two, just really curious.

Like, I'd love to know how you go from being very passionate about Jesus, considering ministry, like that's gonna be your next 10 years, and now you're a self-proclaimed atheist.

And I was like, I just want to hear the story.

I'm not here to judge your story, I just I would just love to hear it.

And he begins telling me all these different things, but but basically it kind of wound up being he abandoned his faith realistically based on the question that he couldn't reconcile in his head.

It's like, why all the storms in my life?

Like, why all the difficulty?

Why all the suffering that I see around the world?

Why all the storms in my life?

And so he's like, why would God, who loves me and who claims to love me, who is all powerful, why would he allow someone very close to me to get cancer and die?

Why would God allow people at the church that I was attending to be cruel to me, and they claimed to know this all-loving God, and yet they were cruel to me and my family?

And so for him, he wound up in this space where he was just going, I just couldn't reconcile what I believed about God to be true, and then my experience with those things.

They seemed at opposite ends, and so I just found myself in a space where I was like, I just don't believe any of this anymore.

Why the storms?

And I think it's a really good question because I think it's a question that all of us deal with at some point in our lives.

If we're honest, if we're thoughtful people, you're the finite seeking to understand the infinite.

If you're not asking that question, you're probably not being honest.

And I think for him, he just asked this question, was like, why the storms?

And he just couldn't rectify how these things could live together in the same thing.

And I think if you look at this text, this is likely what the disciples could ask about this particular story as well.

Like, why the storm?

Like you it says that Jesus leads them into the storm, which means that if he's all-knowing and knows what they're getting into, he knows there's a storm coming.

Why would you lead them into a storm?

And then the disciples find out at the end that he could stop it with a couple of words, and it's like, then why did you allow me to suffer through this for so long?

Why not just stop it immediately?

If you can stop it immediately, why the storm?

Why'd you allow me to go?

Why did you sleep while I struggled?

Why did it look like you abandoned me and didn't care if you were going to just calm it anyways?

Why the storm?

And so what I want to do today is um really just offer three things, answering the question, why the storm?

And what I think we see Jesus doing in the life of the disciples that I think he also wants to do in our lives.

Now, my hope isn't to um take all of your pain away or any of the conflict or any of the struggle.

Like, I don't think these three things are gonna magically like make these things disappear in your lives.

We go through difficulty, we go through suffering, we walk through those things, and learning three things from the Bible isn't going to magically like, oh, now they're all gone.

I don't have those struggles anymore.

It's not gonna do that.

So I don't want to do that, nor do I want to diminish your pain.

If I could have talked to my friend 15 years ago, or excuse me, 10 years ago when he was 15, and walked through his struggle and his difficulty, I would have loved the opportunity to have shared some of these things with him about what the disciples of Jesus actually go through.

But I don't know that it would have changed his experience.

He may have heard those things, seen that Jesus does that stuff, and just decided, like, that's fine that he does that, that he's trying to work in this particular circumstance.

I don't want to follow a God that would say he loves me, is all powerful, and still let me walk through some of these things.

That may have been his decision.

And that may be some of your decisions today, too.

You see the world around you and you're wondering why the storms, and you're like, well, if a God would allow those things, then I don't want to worship that God.

But maybe if you're walking through a storm, this will be something that offers you help and hope.

And so that's the goal, not to diminish your pain or diminish your struggle or anything like that, or make light of it.

But just to say, like, it seems that in the midst of this storm that Jesus knew was coming, he seemed to allow them into it and to lead them into it, to do things in the disciples' lives that I think also he's seeking to do in our lives as well, through the struggles and through the storms of our lives.

Okay?

So I want to offer you those three things.

The first is I think that Jesus uses the storm in the life of the disciples ultimately to deepen their dependence on him.

He uses the storm to deepen their dependence on Jesus Himself.

To this point in the story of the got of Mark's gospel, Jesus has been someone who's healed the sick, he's preached a bit, he's cured some lepers, he's cast out some demons, and the disciples to this point have depended on him for those things.

And those are really outside of their area of expertise, not their arena.

Casting out demons, not really their thing.

They're fishermen, they're tax collectors, it's not their thing.

But now they're on the sea.

Like now, for many of them, they're fishermen, they grew up on the sea.

This is their area of expertise.

And so for them, you have to imagine that, like, this is what I grew up doing.

This I'm some of them are with their brothers and with their friends, and like, this is what we do.

We love the sea, we grew up on the sea.

Storms are a thing that we we navigate all the time, we know what we're doing.

And so you have to imagine when they see the weather shifting and changing, see the waters picking up, you see the wind picking up, they probably just clicked into gear and was like, we know what to do.

Jesus, you can you can sleep.

That's fine.

We'll take it from here.

We know what we're doing.

And so they probably leaned on their training, they leaned on their friends and their brothers and all the rest of it, all these different things.

They started like, you hoist that, you grab that, grab that bucket, do this thing.

They have a bunch of ideas because this is their area of expertise.

But then the storm gets stronger, and the waves get bigger, and the storms get stronger, and the waves get bigger, to the point where now they wind up in this space where it's like they can't depend on anything.

Their training, their background, how they grew up, all the stuff their their dad told them about fishing and how to navigate storms.

They can't depend on their friends in the boat, their brothers in the boat, they can't depend on anything.

The force of the storm itself forces them away from everything they could naturally depend on.

And it forces them to have to look to one person and one person alone.

It forces them away from everything they know and it forces them to depend on Jesus.

And this is where he wants them.

He wants to lead them to this place where it's like, I want you to be out of options.

And if you notice what they come to Jesus and say, they don't come to him and be like, hey, I we just need one more pair of hands, and then we could really land this thing down.

Like that's all we need.

They don't do that.

They're like, we we're gonna die.

That's the end.

We're out of options.

And Jesus wants them to be out of options.

He wants them to wind up in a space where it's like they can't depend on anything that they know, and they must depend on him.

This is where he wants us.

It's where he wants them, and I think it's where he wants us.

And I don't think this is something that he wants just for you once.

Like, depend on me and learn to depend on me just one time.

This is actually where he wants you to live.

The storm is a place that ultimately forces you to depend on him, and this is where he wants you to live.

You see this most substantially in the Old Testament with God's people, Israel, and where he calls them to live.

If you know they were in Egypt and they were in slavery, and God redeems them with this mighty hand of like saving them out of Egypt, then he's like, I have a land for you.

It's gonna be this amazing land that I'm gonna take you to.

It's a promised land.

I promise to give it to you, and I'm gonna give it to you.

The issue is he takes them to this place that's actually a pretty imperfect land.

It has huge issues.

And one of those issues is it has no natural water source.

So he's like, any of the lands that you could pick, and he picks one that has zero water source to irrigate crops and grow food.

It's got the Jordan River, but it's impossible to irrigate from there based on the technology that they had.

And so the idea is, hey, I'm gonna take you to a great land.

It's flowing with milk and honey.

The issue is there's really no water.

And so you're gonna have to be dependent on someone to send you rain.

And they're probably going, well, none of us have figured that out yet.

Like, we're not super good at sending our own rain.

It's like, yeah, this land is gonna be dependent on rain.

You're gonna have to wait for somebody else to give you rain so that you can have food to eat.

The second biggest issue was that it was surrounded by enemy nations, but it wasn't surrounded by any natural protection.

And so there's no mountains, there's no desert, there's no like water source that's covering them to keep them safe.

And so the land was prone to invasion.

And so the idea is if you're gonna be at peace, if you're gonna be protected, you're gonna have to depend on somebody else to provide you peace and protection.

You've got to look to somebody else that's stronger than all the armies of the world.

You've got to find somebody else to protect you.

And this is the place that God's like, hey, I got a great land for you, you're gonna love it.

That's like, well, there's no water and there's enemies everywhere, and there's no protection.

It's like, yeah, that's perfect.

That's the land I want you to live there.

I want you to live there.

That's the promised land.

That's the place where I want to have you.

And the idea is it's dependent and it's dependent on him.

Uh Gary Burge, who is a author and professor at Wheaton College, where my wife went, uh, wrote this book on the land of Israel.

And he says, This He says, I have often thought that other lands might have served as better places for God to forge a people.

Places where rainfall was more abundant, where wars were less frequent, where crops grew richly and wildlife could be easily found.

But God's promised land is not a land designed for comfort or ease.

It is a land with a divine purpose.

He gives Israel land that is dependent on him, a land where prayer would have to be a regular occurrence.

This is a land that will demand faith.

From the beginning, God hasn't just wanted to lead us into a space where it's like, you just learned, like, you got some power, I got some power, let's share this thing.

He's like, from the beginning, he's like, I need to lead you into a space where you're constantly forced to your knees and dependent on me.

And he doesn't do it to be cruel, he's actually doing it to show us like you're supposed to live by my power, breaking out into your life.

Your power is what led to your problems.

I want you to live by my power.

And so, and not in cruelty does he lead us into storms.

He actually is in his kindness to go, look, I am leading you into something difficult and I'll be there with you in the midst of it.

But I'm leading you into a space where you can wind up actually finding that my strength is made perfect in weakness.

I want you to find those things.

One of my favorite quotes of all time uh comes from Dallas Willard, who is a philosopher and a professor and an author.

But in his book, The Great Omission, he writes this about our need for God's power.

He says, However, we may understand the details, there can be no doubt on the biblical picture of human life that we were meant to be inhabited by God and live by a power beyond ourselves.

Human problems cannot be solved by human means.

Human life can never flourish unless it pulses with the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe.

I love that I like human problems cannot be solved by human means.

Human problems cannot be solved by human power.

Your power created the problem.

There's no way that your power is going to be the thing to be able to help you.

And the idea is you were never meant to actually go it on your own anyways, and to try and do it on your own.

And so, what Jesus does to the disciples and what he's seeking to do in our lives, and what God is trying to do, is like, I'm seeking to lead you into spaces where you get to the point where you stop depending on your power that created all of your problems, and you begin leaning on my power and being dependent on my power, so that you experience my life in you and my power for you.

He's trying to teach, again, it's not cruelty.

It'd be cruel for him not to do it.

If he knew that you can't solve your own problems, but he never led you into spaces where you stop depending on your own power to solve your own problem.

That would be cruelty.

It'd be like me telling Teddy, like, you're gonna be super healthy if you eat donuts and Oreos the rest of your life.

Just do that thing.

It's like, is this good for me?

Absolutely.

You're gonna love it.

It's gonna be really good.

That's cruelty.

He's gonna die at an early age, you know, gigantic.

I don't know, it's gonna be really bad for him.

It would be undended unwise to like not force him to like, you gotta try some broccoli, man.

Like, you got to.

This is health for you.

This is something that leads you into a space that's healthier.

And for him, and for the Lord, he's like, I have to lead you into a space where you actually realize I can't do this on my own, so that you reach for somebody who can do it for you and wants to, because you were meant to live this way.

He wants us to learn that you can't meet your own needs, and you were never meant to.

You can't meet your own needs, but he can.

You can't fulfill your own longings of your heart and all those things.

You can try, and that's what leads us to try sin and all this stuff, and it never works, it never fulfills.

You can't fulfill your own longings, but he can.

You can't make life peaceful for yourself.

There's not enough money in the world to give you the security that you're longing for, but he can do those things.

We can't set ourselves free from our own sin, but he can.

We can't change our children's heart to love Jesus and to follow him, but he can.

We can't debate them into believing in God.

We can be right, but it doesn't change their heart.

He does that.

He's the one who changes hearts.

You can't fix your own marriage.

You can't do it.

And some of the people are like, like, oh no, I can't.

I just need, I just need to be more loving.

I just need to be more kind.

I need them to be self-controlled.

Like I need them to, I just need to be more patient, and then he needs to be more patient, and then that'll that'll fix our marriage.

I just need them to be faithful.

If they just be faithful, then our marriage would be fixed.

And what you don't realize, and then in needing all of those things, what Paul calls all those things love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, all those are fruit of the Spirit.

None of those are naturally inborn.

We don't have any of that.

Paul would say the only way to actually get any of those things is how you learn to depend on him, then he puts those things in you.

If you want those things to break into the life of your marriage to heal your marriage, they come from him, from power beyond yourself, not within you.

It's dependent on him.

And so, no, you can't fix your own marriage, but he can.

And the things that you need in order to do that, those are the things that he's saying.

You were never meant to live in a space where you had to do it on your own.

The whole idea of the cross is so to repair this relationship between God and man, where it's like now God dwells with his people, and the help and the things that you need and the power that you need, you have them because I'm able to be near you again, and now we're able to live together.

The best we can do in our own strength is really band-aid our problems, just cover them up, and then manage the pain.

We're in our power, we're effectively hospice care for our problems.

We just manage the pain until we inevitably die.

That's his that's our power.

We're really good at that.

But Jesus says that he's resurrection, that he's life, that he restores, that he heals, that he redeems.

Like that's what he offers to all of us and to every, not just our salvation to heaven one day, but here and now we can experience the life eternal, the everlasting life that comes from him, not just in eternity one day, but here, now, his power breaking in.

And so he leads us into these spaces that are challenging and difficult, that he knows if I lead them into this storm, they might decide to bail on me and abandon me forever and deny that I exist.

But if I don't lead them there through the struggle, they will only ever depend on themselves and stay stuck in some of these things that's gonna crush them and create conflict and bring them pain consistently.

So I have to lead them into a space that actually will be kind of painful so that they decide to abandon their dependency on themselves and they turn to me and actually experience my power breaking into their lives.

This is where he wants us, and he's constantly doing that.

And so you deal with hardships and you deal with those things because he's trying to break something loose in you, because you were meant to live with power beyond yourself.

You were never meant to go it alone.

He's like, I have this for you.

But I need you to learn dependency, and learning dependency is hard.

But it's his kindness that leads you there.

Okay, that's the first thing.

Second thing, Jesus uses the storm to reveal what's in the heart of the disciples, he reveals their hearts.

Notice in verse 38, he says, But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they awoke him and said, Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing?

One of the things, this story is told a couple of times in the Gospels, this is the only one that mentions the pillow, the cushion.

And the reason, uh we don't know, but the reason, pretty sure, is Peter is the one that's telling Mark to write this story down, and Peter's still upset about the pillow.

There was one pillow.

Jesus took it.

Come on, man.

Like, why'd you take the pillow?

He's just mad about the pillow.

He Jesus is, at this point, Jesus has been resurrected for a number of years, and he's still mad about the pillow.

I think that's really funny.

It's the only place where it's mentioned because Peter's telling the story.

Anyways.

But under this threat of death, like what they actually believe in their heart comes out.

They've been calling him Lord, they've been calling him master.

And right now it's like, hey, teacher, you and are you are you blind?

Are you asleep?

Like, what's going on?

Like, you don't even care about us.

Under the threat of death, what they actually believe comes out.

C.

S.

Lewis says this is what naturally happens.

I love this quote.

He says, Surely what a man does when he's taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of man he is.

If there are rats in a cellar, you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly.

But the suddenness does not create the rats, it only prevents them from hiding.

And in the same way, the suddenness of the aggravation does not make me an ill-tempered man.

It just goes to show what an ill-tempered man that I am.

And that's what happens here.

They probably shout these things and say these things and are like, whoops, sorry I said that.

Like if you're in an argument with your spouse or something and you're like, and your mother's the work.

And you're like, oops.

I've been holding that one in.

And I've never said that to my wife.

Ever.

That's not in my notes.

I just stayed in the notes.

It's fine.

But that's what happens here.

What's really in there comes out.

What actually lives in their heart, what they've been so able to keep down there, comes out.

And at the end of the day, they're like, you don't care about us.

Everything that we think when we're going through a storm, you don't care.

You don't really love me.

You're not really as powerful as you say that you are.

Who then are you?

Why is this even worth it?

You don't care.

And if you did, you'd do something.

And I think Jesus isn't abandoned them in this, obviously, but he uses his struggle to actually get that thing out of them.

Because truthfully, if it stays in there, then their relationship will just be built on a facade of platitudes and niceties, of like, oh, you're so great, Lord, and you're so whatever.

And it's like, yeah, but it somewhere in there, there's some honesty that needs to come out so that we can actually have a real relationship, so that we can have something that's built on truth and not built on half-truths, of like, you're great when you treat me great.

And so he tries to get those things out of us so that they can build a real relationship.

Uh, Rainey and I, at our first counseling session that we ever went to with our therapist, uh, we were dating and we had butchered it.

We just made a mess of our relationship.

And um we we weren't really even going to that counseling session to fix it.

It was more like, hey, we just want to end it well, uh, with civility, because you know, ministry and pastors and all the rest of it are involved, and let's just end it well.

And so the idea was we'll go into the counseling session, Rainey will share her what she did wrong, which was a lot more than what I did wrong, but uh she would share her bit, and um, and then I would share my bit, and then we just part ways, shake hands, or whatever, and we go.

And so Rainey does her thing, it's very honest, very vulnerable, shares everything that she did wrong, and then it was my turn.

And I have to win at everything.

And so I wanted to share some of what I did wrong, so it looks like I'm being vulnerable, but I had a secret that I was hiding that I didn't want anybody to know.

And so I was sharing a little bit of the honest stuff, and I was just but I was very careful to make sure that I never mentioned this thing that Rainey kind of suspected button she'd mentioned, but I I was able to hide it and keep it, and so I kept it over here.

So I'd give my little spiel and uh you know, crushed it like always, and I was like, my um the therapist is gonna be like, this guy's amazing.

The whole the reason this thing is in is because it's all Rainey's fault, and then that would be it.

But she didn't do that.

She heard my spiel or whatever, she never addressed Rainey.

Rainey finished her thing, then I finished my thing, looked straight at me, and she's like, Why are you lying?

And I was like, What?

Like uh I was like, What are you I about what?

She's like, Why won't you tell me what you're hiding?

And it it freaked me out.

I was like, sorceress, like it freaked me out.

Uh it freaked me out so much that like I just I just came out with it.

And I was like, as if it was my mother, like she was double naming me, like Colton Taylor, you gonna and so I did, I just told her everything, and I just I just unloaded like all of the secrets and all the things, and I'm weeping and crying, and Rainey's sitting there.

I was thinking that she'd be like, see, I knew it, but she's kind and she didn't do that.

But I just unloaded all of this truth, everything that I've been hiding, like all of it into this this room, and just going, like, I'm gonna burn these couches later.

I just couldn't believe I was saying all this stuff.

My art therapist waits until um I finish and there's a lull in my weeping.

And uh she does this really beautiful thing.

She's like, Okay, now that we know the truth, if you want to, we can build you a healthy relationship.

I was like, now that we know the truth.

Now we can build something great if you want it.

I'm not gonna force you to have no dog in the hunt.

I get paid either way.

But if you want a healthy relationship, now that we know the truth, we can do that.

And for her, there was nothing that could be built on anything else other than the truth.

Like it's gotta come out.

It's got it can't just stay here hidden, and you're gonna have a great relationship while we keep a couple of small things hidden.

Like until that's out there, there's nothing good that can be built in terms of relationship.

And thankfully, Rain was kind enough to be like, yes, I want to move forward with this crazy man.

And I was just grateful to do it.

And been married 12 years, it's been really strong.

But Jesus does the same thing here.

He knows this.

He's like, if we just stay at platitudes, if we just stay at these, at these nice, you call me Lord and all this stuff, if we stay there, we're never gonna have anything rich, we're never gonna have anything deep.

And so he tries to get the truth out of them, and it finally comes out.

He's like, great, finally.

Now I can address your faith.

And eventually he does that.

Now I can talk about the thing that you you've been following me and claiming you have faith, and now I can ask, but you still don't have faith, right?

And now we can build real faith here.

And he waits for that moment for them to actually be honest.

And I think he wants to do that for us.

And in my experience with most people, we live in this Christian culture where we just we just feel like we can't be honest with God as if he doesn't know those things.

We have all these sayings, these quippy things we put on t-shirts, and it's me, Jesus, and coffee.

Like, okay.

Um, you know, like I'm too blessed to stress.

I'm like, bro, we live in Memphis, man.

That's never real.

You're never too blessed not to stress in Memphis.

Like that's like, how are you?

It's like, oh, you know, I'm better than I should be, better than I should be.

I'm like, I don't know what to do with that.

Like, I'm not okay.

And if you all if y'all say those things, that's fine.

But maybe just try something else every now and then.

I'm not calling anybody out, just FYI.

I'm just, this is my experience with Christian people.

How are you?

And they have this quippy thing.

Or and sometimes they'll be honest and go, like, oh, life is tough right now, but God is good, but God is good.

And I'm like, as if if your life is bad, I'm gonna like lose my faith.

Like, God, remember that God is good, even though my life is bad.

I'm like, no, but we're good.

I got it.

Thanks.

But we have this thing where it's like we we're nervous to be honest.

With who I I rarely, I rarely ever hear somebody say, I'm really mad at God right now.

Someone I love died, and I prayed.

And he said, if I prayed that he would answer and I'm mad at him, I'm so disappointed in him.

I can't believe that he would allow these things to happen in my life.

These tragedies, this stuff, I can't believe that he would do it.

I rarely hear somebody be that honest without the qualification.

I know that he's still not that, but just like, how are you in the Lord?

Not great, really bad.

He's been mean to me lately.

In my experience, people aren't normally that honest until they're ready to walk away from him.

We equate brutal honesty about what we believe about God with a denial of his existence.

And so we won't ever be really honest until we're ready to be like, and now I don't believe that he exists, now I'm parting ways with him, now I'm not gonna follow him anymore.

And the tragedy of that is like that's not how the Psalms were written.

If you read the Psalms, they're constantly going, Why would you allow this to happen?

How could you call yourself a good God?

How have you abandoned me?

Why have you done this?

They're angry.

Darkness is a better friend than you, Psalm 88.

Like, they are constantly honest with him.

And God puts those in his book.

And he doesn't, because he doesn't receive them as anger and like he as hatred, he receives it as worship.

They're saying all this hateful, angry, honest things, and he receives it as worship because they're saying it to him.

And they have this space, like the whole psalms are written by people just being honest with their emotions about what they actually believe in that particular moment about God and themselves.

And for us, we need to be more honest with him.

The psalmist, their honesty came from intimacy.

Their honesty came from their closeness, not their distance.

And we think that if we say I'm mad at him, that now we're distant from one another.

But the psalmist was able to say very honest, harsh things to him because they were close.

You say your most comfortable, most I mean, most honest things to normally to people you're closest with, and that was their experience.

And to me, if you're ever honest enough with God and you're being so honest that other people might call you a heretic or whatever, you're being so honest, I would suggest that you're actually closer to him than ever you've ever been because you're actually now speaking to him in truth and worshiping him in truth.

And Jesus says, the father is looking for people who worship him in spirit and in truth.

And I feel like we get to this space where it's like, well, I told other people that I was mad at God and they made me feel condemned by it.

And it's like, well, then join the join the club.

Job told all of his friends how mad he was at God, and they were ready to condemn him too.

Like, but at the end, God says to Job, like, he has spoken well of me.

And he, you know, says, and he needs to pray for you three friends because y'all are kind of the worst.

And they were ready to condemn a man just because he was being honest about his experience with God and his questions and all those different things.

And I meet people who are going through crisis of faith, and they're ready to deconstruct what they believe based on their crisis of faith.

And I'm like, read the gospels.

The people who had the most crisis of faith moments are the disciples.

They're constantly wondering, what should I believe now?

Who is this man?

What could he possibly be doing with this?

What is this going to do for me?

I don't even know what to believe anymore.

What should I believe?

They're the people, the ones who are closest to Jesus.

They have the most crisis of faith.

And it's because they're finite seeking to understand the infinite.

If you don't, you're not thinking, if you're not wondering what this could be and what this is, like if you if you don't struggle to believe some of these things, we believe a man rose from the dead, we've never seen that before.

Our whole faith is based on that.

And if you struggle to believe some of those things, of course you do.

And I think to be honest about those things is actually a space that builds relationship with Jesus and builds a relationship with God versus actually turning you away from one.

And I think most people turn away from God because they never were honest.

They felt that stuff and felt like they could never say it.

So they wind up in this space where it's like, I can't, I feel like I can't argue with you.

It's like, what do you think prayer was for some of the psalmists?

They're arguing with him.

What do you think Job was doing?

They're arguing with him.

They were just honest over and over and over.

And it led to a closeness, it led to questions being answered, it led to led to doubts actually being resolved because they brought those things up.

But if they stay hidden, then the doubts stay there.

If the questions stay hidden, then the questions stay there and they never get answered.

I think for us, if you're walking through a crisis of faith and wondering what to believe, great.

Just do that in the church and do that with Jesus.

And if you can't find somebody that allows you to feel or express some of these things, talk to me or talk to somebody that reads the Bible.

They'll help you.

And talk to him.

He'd love to do that.

But all that to say, I think that's what Jesus is doing here.

It's like, I want a real relationship with you, and I need you to find a space where you can actually be honest.

And so I'm going to lead you into a hellacious storm so that you'll finally say what's actually in there already.

I already know what's in there.

I just need us to deal with it together.

And I think that's what he wants for all of us.

All right.

Oh, last thing.

The beautiful thing, if you complain about God, and if you question him and if you doubt him and you say those things, the beautiful thing is if you aim those things at him, they turn into prayers.

And he always delights to hear your prayers.

And so you have your complaints and your doubts and your questions and all that stuff, and it's out there.

But as soon as you aim those things at him, all of a sudden those things turn into prayers, and he always delights to hear our prayers.

And I believe it's a space of worship.

So be honest with him.

He's you're if you're in a space right now that's difficult, he knows that.

And I think one of the things he's trying to do is to get those things out.

Some of you are better at this than others, but be honest with him.

Ask him those questions, express those doubts, but just don't walk away because it got hard.

All right, third thing.

Jesus uses the storm to elevate their view of him and to elevate their vision of Jesus.

Verse 39 says, And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

And he said to them, Why are you so afraid?

Have you still no faith?

And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

These men go from being in awe and terror of the storm to in awe and terror of Jesus.

Just like, I don't know who this is.

They had seen people cast out demons before.

That was an ancient Near Eastern thing.

They'd seen that happen before.

They'd seen people heal.

They had healing ministries back then.

They've heard tons of people preach.

They've never seen a man control the wind and the waves with his words.

And so for them, having seen all those things, they had a high vision of Jesus because he was doing some of these things as well.

But in this particular thing, God uses the storm in their lives to just go, He's greater than what we thought he was.

He's absolutely, completely different.

And he raises their vision of them.

A.W.

Tozer, who's a pastor back in the early 1900s, wonderful pastor, great author, he says that this is the most important thing about us.

He says that what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.

And the reason is because we tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

We tend by some secret law of the soul to just move towards that image of God.

And so for the disciples, you actually see it in their lives.

If you imagine, if they had believed the truth about Jesus, differently about Jesus, if they believed he does care for me, he is in control of the storm, he can calm it with a few words.

And if he's sleeping, maybe I can sleep.

Like, I mean, like if they believed those things about him, they wouldn't have been hoisting this and grabbing that and doing that stuff immediately.

They would have run straight to Jesus and just done what he did.

They would have been asking for some pillow.

Hey man, share.

We need some of that too.

They wouldn't have been freaking out because they would have known, like, no, he does care for us, so this storm doesn't declare his abandonment of me.

They wouldn't have been afraid of what's going to happen because they're like, he's in control, and if this is happening, it's happening because he's allowing it to happen.

And if he can stop it at any moment, and he's not stopping it right now, that means that it doesn't need to be stopped right now.

He has a plan and he's in control, and I'm just gonna let him do it.

If they believed correctly, all of a sudden it shifts what they do.

They're not freaking out, they're actually resting.

They're just enjoying rest with Jesus, snag in some pillow.

And I think for us, this is where he wants us to get us as well.

He is seeking to elevate our vision of him, to watch him do things in our lives, to uh, for us to be dependent on his power, to see it, and to elevate our vision so that we actually are able to be led in a space of rest and trust and confidence of his love for us.

Tozer again, excuse me.

Uh AW Tozer again says the person who comes to a right belief of God is relieved of 10,000 temporal problems.

You just believe correctly about him.

You come to a right belief of him, you're relieved of 10,000 temporal problems.

We can think that, like, oh, he wants me to think well of him and highly of him because we're supposed to, like he deserves it, and that's true, but it's he doesn't need our worship and elevation to feel good about himself.

Like that's not, he's not like, oh, thank God somebody worshiped me today because I was feeling pretty lonely.

That's not what it was.

He's doing that for us.

Like, you need to think highly of me so that all the problems that you face in your day-to-day, you know that I'm still ruling the universe.

You need to know that my power is still in control of every government and all this stuff, so you don't spend all your time watching the news and on like Facebook feeds and all the rest of it, like Reddits and all that stuff.

Like, you need to remember who I am so that you're actually able to live at peace with me.

Because if you know that he's your provider, you're not going to sit there and go, like, well, I don't have everything that I need because you know the Lord is my shepherd.

I have everything I need.

And if I don't have it right now, that means I don't need it right now.

And if you know that about him and you believe that about him, then you're able to rest in the fact that what I have is what I need.

We won't, if we believe that he's our provider, we won't sacrifice our family on the altar of our careers, going like, well, I need this career, I need this promotion, I need this money in order to provide for my family.

No, no, no, he's your provider.

Which means that if he's your provider, he's not gonna call you to do something that's gonna destroy the thing that actually displays his glory to the world, which is your family.

And if you know that stuff, that he's true to his promises, that he's faithful to you, that he's never gonna leave you or abandon you, he's never gonna do those things, but he is gonna call you into storms.

But if you know that stuff, it relieves you of 10,000 temporal problems.

And that's what he's seeking to do for you.

He is who he says he is.

You can trust him, you can rest.

He has no rival, he has no equal.

There's nothing else in the world that's the same as him, that has the power of him, and he rules all the things.

And so if you can rest in that, if you can believe that, then there is rest in that.

And I think that's where he's trying to lead us.

I think there was a space in the disciples where it was like, hey, eventually there's gonna come a storm where the church is gonna be completely persecuted and people are gonna start killing you because of my name.

And I need you to not freak out.

I need you to not run and hide.

I need you to not stop speaking in the name of Jesus because there's a storm coming.

And I need you to trust that this storm, this thing that happens in Acts 8, when that happens, that this is actually something that I'm guiding and leading and planning myself.

And then all of a sudden you see the disciples when persecution breaks out into Acts 8.

All of a sudden they do scatter, but they don't scatter in silence.

They scatter and share the gospel with the entire world.

They can't stop speaking.

They can't stop talking about this Jesus who is like just wrecked their world.

Kill me if you want to, but I swear I'm being kind to you by telling you that he is who you need.

And so if you have to kill me, fine.

But you gotta know this man.

He's changed everything, he will change everything for you, and he can do it.

And so one storm leads to another, but but they have a very different experience because they just trust and believe in this king who rules over all things, who has bent his power towards their good and is guiding everything towards the redemption of all things.

And they just rest in that.

They're like, whatever he wants to do, we trust him completely, even to our death.

But Lord, they're killing me.

I trust him completely.

The world changed because this storm happened.

And I think for you, the opportunity exists for you as well.

In the midst of your struggle, in the midst of your storm, what he's seeking to build in you isn't he's not trying to drive you away.

He's actually trying to deepen something to make it stronger.

But it hurts.

But I tell you, the strongest relationships are the ones that walk through conflict and stop fighting against each other and start fighting for one another.

And he's trying to do that thing with you.

And if you notice, he's in the boat.

He didn't leave them out in the storm by themselves.

Like, I don't know, man, figure it out.

He's right there the entire time, and he's with you right now in the midst of yours.

It may seem like he's sleeping with the only pillow that you got, but he's right there in our lives.

The Lord is constantly trying to help us learn to be dependent on him, to live.

We were meant to live with power beyond ourselves.

You cannot do what he can do.

And he wants you to experience what he can do in our lives.

He's trying to lead you to it, to be an honest person with him so that your relationship, so that you can confess your sin, you can confess your darkness, you can confess the block, just the gook.

You can just you can tell him all those things.

He wants that kind of relationship with you.

Where you're so honest with him.

And then he's seeking more than anything to elevate your vision of him, not for his sake.

He doesn't need your worship, but you need the worship of him.

You need him high and lifted up, so that all the problems and all the different things down here don't bother you.

So that you can be like David standing before Goliath.

He's like, You come against me with sword and spear and javelin.

But I come against you in the name, the name of the Lord.

There's no one like him, and nothing will defeat me because he's for me.

So that's what he's trying to do in your life.

I don't know what you're walking through.

I did not ever mean to diminish any pain or difficulty or suffering that you're walking through at all.

But Jesus does this in the life of the disciples through a storm, and I believe he's seeking to do the same thing through you and in your life, and he's with you in it.

We pray.

Father, thank you for uh your word.

What a kindness just to be able to see the life of Jesus on display.

And this man who is unlike any other.

You're close like a brother, you're close like a friend, but you are a ruler and king and Lord.

And nobody controls you, but you control all things.

No one has the upper hand on you, but you rule by your righteous right arm.

And so, Father, I pray in the midst of our struggles and our difficulties and our questions and our doubts, God, would you be close to us?

And Lord, would we uh see your power breaking in as we're dependent on it?

We'll be to see you high and lifted up in our own hearts and in our own lives.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Um we're gonna take communion.

If you're a leader in the church, like you're the leadership team of the church, can like four of you come up here and do that?

So if you're a leader in the church, that'd be great.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, don't be shy.

There you go, there's two, there's three.

Oh, you gotta go?

Oh, yeah, that's fine.

That's okay.

We're not judging you, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

We got four, we're good to go.

Thank you.

Um, we get to take communion.

Um, if you're walking through a storm, one of the beautiful things about taking communion is it's a reminder that Jesus has walked through the most difficult storm of all of the cross.

Like he walked through the suffering.

And so anybody who has walked through the most difficult suffering and your suffering, he understands where you're at.

He understands and he's walking with you in the midst of that.

If he walked through this so that you could actually feast, he is walking through you in your thing as well.

And so we have this moment to take communion, to remember the death of Jesus and the crucifixion of Jesus, and the blood spilled and the body broken.

And it's a space to go, like, you have suffered as well.

And so you understand deeply what I'm in right now.

And so if you've ever wondered, like, I just feel like no one understands me, that may be true, but he does.

And this is just a space and a reminder to be reminded, like, you've been broken the way I feel broken.

I feel like I'm dying, but you actually died.

I feel like the storm of my life is going to crush me, and you were actually crushed.

And so you're able not to be like, oh, your thing is worse than mine, but like you know what I'm walking through.

And so as we take communion, just remember that.

The whole idea of the crucifixion was like, now the veil is torn, and now this space between me and you is no longer there, and now we can be close, and you can carry me and you can hold me, and we can do this thing together, and I don't have to do it alone.

And so allow this space to be a reminder of that.

Remember, he walked through similar things to what you're doing, and he can do that and wants to walk through it with you.

So just come as you feel led.