SPEAKER_00: The scripture text this morning is found in Mark chapter 4, verses 35 to 41.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue our sermon series looking at the life and the ministry of Jesus, really through the eyes of Peter, who was the eyewitness, who supplied Mark with much of this information.
SPEAKER_00: Let's hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: On that day when evening had come, Jesus said to them, Let us go across the other side.
SPEAKER_00: And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was.
SPEAKER_00: And other boats were with him, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
SPEAKER_00: But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
SPEAKER_00: And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace be still.
SPEAKER_00: And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, Why are you so afraid?
SPEAKER_00: Have you still no faith?
SPEAKER_00: And they were filled with great fear and said one to another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's powerful, majestic word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for this story, this true story.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how we need to hear what you taught your disciples then through this story.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how you need to teach us today.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, open our eyes, our ears, and our heart to see, to hear, and to be humbled in our hearts to actually receive and build our lives upon this solid ground.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Many scholars believe that Mark's gospel is the earliest gospel that we have, that Matthew and Luke leaned on this as a foundation.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you know what was going on at the time that Mark wrote this, but in Rome there was a lot of persecution going on.
SPEAKER_00: We've studied that, we've heard about that, the reign of Nero, the emperor.
SPEAKER_00: Many Christians were being persecuted for their faith, suffering.
SPEAKER_00: And knowing that maybe helps understand some of the themes of the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: Giving courage and giving strength to those who were going through storms, hard times, those who were losing their lives, not just in Rome, but in other parts of the Roman Empire at that particular time.
SPEAKER_00: Mark's gospel follows up with four stories after we saw chapter four, most of chapter four, the parables.
SPEAKER_00: Remember last week, last couple weeks we were talking about the parables, Jesus used about 60 or so parables.
SPEAKER_00: And now he follows that up, still talking about his authority, but he tells us what his authority looks like when it controls nature, demons, disease, and death.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're going to see in the next four weeks, as Mark lays that out.
SPEAKER_00: My approach to the sermon this week is just basically found in the language, the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: We all know what mega means, right?
SPEAKER_00: You go, kids, teens, you know, you go through the drive-thru, you know, if you want the mega, that's the big one.
SPEAKER_00: That's the big cup.
SPEAKER_00: That's the big order of fries.
SPEAKER_00: Mega.
SPEAKER_00: Literally it means very large, extremely large, great.
SPEAKER_00: Three megas in this text in the Greek.
SPEAKER_00: A mega storm, a mega calm, and a mega fear.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a closer look.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, a mega storm, a great storm.
SPEAKER_00: Mark tells us that when evening came after a long day, Jesus said to his disciples, let's go to the other side of the lake, Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Sea of Galilee, seven to eight miles wide, 13 miles long, not a huge lake, but not a small lake either.
SPEAKER_00: We know from geography that Mount Hermon was to the north, not too far away, almost 10,000 feet, a big mountain.
SPEAKER_00: The Sea of Galilee was about 700 feet below sea level.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You can just see the effects of the winds in the storm with this channeling of the winds through that.
SPEAKER_00: And yet these experienced fishermen were in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: By this time in their lives, they had sailed the Sea of Galilee many times.
SPEAKER_00: For some of these disciples, this was their business.
SPEAKER_00: They were fishermen by occupation.
SPEAKER_00: But this particular night they experienced a storm like they had never experienced before.
SPEAKER_00: This particular night they found themselves baling out water, taking down the sails, just trying to keep the boat afloat.
SPEAKER_00: The text tells us that a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat and waves were filling up the boat.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you like the water.
SPEAKER_00: I remember I capsized a few times on a lake.
SPEAKER_00: Was no big deal in a sunfish.
SPEAKER_00: It was easy to upright, no biggie.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is different.
SPEAKER_00: This was different.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: These experienced fishermen, they knew storms, but this was a different kind of storm.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew, in his account of this, calls it a seaquake.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like an earthquake.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you perhaps have been around and experienced earthquakes.
SPEAKER_00: It's got to be frightening.
SPEAKER_00: The earth's starting to give way.
SPEAKER_00: Bruce read about that earlier.
SPEAKER_00: Though the earth give way.
SPEAKER_00: What was going on?
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of this storm, Jesus was asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, wake up.
SPEAKER_00: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, by the way, you're in the bow too.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going down, you're going down.
SPEAKER_00: I've noticed as I prepare this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Like the disciples, we sometimes are willing to let Jesus sleep in our lives when we think we can handle things on our own, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: I don't need to wake them up.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you do what you need to do.
SPEAKER_00: I've got this.
SPEAKER_00: How many times do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Too many times to count.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes in life, you know you're in a megastorm.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you know you need him.
SPEAKER_00: And he's got to be awake and he's got to be close.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we need you to do what only you can do.
SPEAKER_00: Those storms in life come, storms we know we cannot handle.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can be in the very center of God's will for your life and still find yourself in the very center of a megastorm.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: God permits megastorms to come in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Not when we're disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he just knows.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what our faith needs to grow.
SPEAKER_00: He knows.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes he sends storms that we can't cope with.
SPEAKER_00: Seaquakes, though the earth gives way, when we feel like we are losing control.
SPEAKER_00: You know control is an illusion, right?
SPEAKER_00: We just think we're in control of so much.
SPEAKER_00: Things can change in a heartbeat.
SPEAKER_00: For any of us.
SPEAKER_00: We're not really in control of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we just think we are.
SPEAKER_00: They knew they were not in control.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, here we see the opposite of faith is fear.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me when I tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelief is more than intellectual.
SPEAKER_00: There's often a story behind our unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Fear takes hold when your story intersects with God's story.
SPEAKER_00: The story of your life, the things that are going on that you can't control, and now you understand and you're aware that you can't control.
SPEAKER_00: God, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, are you asleep?
SPEAKER_00: No, there's unbelief is, I don't believe, unbelief is ever purely intellectual.
SPEAKER_00: Our stories have a way of showing up even in our unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: What does Jesus tell us in the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
SPEAKER_00: How many hairs are in this sanctuary right now?
SPEAKER_00: Too many to count.
SPEAKER_00: All the hairs on the heads of all the people I created.
SPEAKER_00: I know the number.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's not the most impressive thing about Jesus, but it's pretty impressive to me.
SPEAKER_00: He says in that same context, he says, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing.
SPEAKER_00: They're not much value.
SPEAKER_00: You remember what he said?
SPEAKER_00: Not one little sparrow falls to the ground without my notice.
unknown: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: He has that kind of intimate knowledge of each of us.
SPEAKER_00: He's not missing a thing.
SPEAKER_00: He's not missing a detail in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, fear not because I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not.
SPEAKER_00: Are you not of more value than the sparrow?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus knows what you're going through now.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Jesus cares more than you know.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, Jesus is in the boat with us.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: He is in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: Charles Wesley, the minister, wrote one of his most famous song hymns.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, lover of my soul.
SPEAKER_00: You know that hymn?
SPEAKER_00: That's a great hymn.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly while the nearer waters roll, while the tempest is still high.
SPEAKER_00: Hide me, O my Savior, hide till the storms of life are past.
SPEAKER_00: Safe into the haven, guide.
SPEAKER_00: O receive my soul at last.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know why he wrote that hymn?
SPEAKER_00: He was in a storm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
SPEAKER_00: He and his brother were coming back from the southern colonies, headed back to England.
SPEAKER_00: They thought they were going to die.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he had just recently, as far as I can understand, he had just recently either been saved or was he had a growth season, gospel growth season in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He was in a different place spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: So he could write that hymn.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else on the ship was freaking out, according to his report.
SPEAKER_00: How is it possible that when you're on a large ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and you're pretty sure that that ship is going to sink and you're going to die, how can you not lose all grip?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you know Jesus is the lover of your soul.
SPEAKER_00: If you know that Jesus is the lover of your soul, you don't need to lose your grip because you know he's not going to lose his grip on you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Are you experiencing that in the midst of your storms?
SPEAKER_00: It's true, it's as true today as it was when Wesley wrote, it's as true today as it's ever been.
SPEAKER_00: A mega storm.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of storms brewing around here.
SPEAKER_00: We know, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that in worship recent weeks.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of storms.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of countries.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just our country.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of countries.
SPEAKER_00: Our friends, many of our members here back in their homeland.
SPEAKER_00: Health, career, financial, family.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of storms.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the great calm, the mega calm.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still.
SPEAKER_00: That's all you had to do.
SPEAKER_00: And what did it say?
SPEAKER_00: And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately the winds died, the water became like glass.
SPEAKER_00: William Hendrickson commentator says, in this instance, winds and waves synchronized in the sublime symphony of a solemn silence.
SPEAKER_00: Very poetic, a little dense.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read it again.
SPEAKER_00: In this instance, winds and waves synchronize because that's the right word.
SPEAKER_00: They synchronize in the sublime symphony of a solemn silence.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus simply speaks to the storm as if it had to answer to his authority.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't go through all these gyrations.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't go through some ritual to get God, his father's attention.
SPEAKER_00: Why did he not have to do that?
SPEAKER_00: He's God.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's still a lot of people today that really aren't sure that Jesus is divine.
SPEAKER_00: Just look at the word.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the gospels.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: He's God.
SPEAKER_00: He looks at this storm.
SPEAKER_00: He simply says, be still.
SPEAKER_00: Be still.
SPEAKER_00: Peace.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, the winds die down immediately.
SPEAKER_00: But the waves die down immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Now you know that never happens, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, on a lake or any body of water, when there's wind that whips up the waves, the waves always continue for a while before they become calm.
SPEAKER_00: Always.
SPEAKER_00: Not this time.
SPEAKER_00: All he had to do was say the word.
SPEAKER_00: All he had to do was say, peace.
SPEAKER_00: Be still.
SPEAKER_00: And there was this deep calm.
SPEAKER_00: This is because he is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: This was proof of his divine nature.
SPEAKER_00: He simply spoke.
SPEAKER_00: He simply spoke, and the world came into being.
SPEAKER_00: What do we see in Mark's gospel?
SPEAKER_00: He simply speaks, and people are healed of leprosy.
SPEAKER_00: All kinds of diseases and problems.
SPEAKER_00: You know, probably the most famous early piece of art coming out of the early church, it wasn't the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It was a picture of a boat with the disciples and Jesus in it on the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: This story really carried the early church.
SPEAKER_00: Probably more than any other depiction of art.
SPEAKER_00: This just really resonated.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt because a lot of the early Christians were going through a lot of hard times.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to be reminded that they were never alone in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: How about you?
SPEAKER_00: You forget?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I forget.
SPEAKER_00: Not alone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in the boat with us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says to the disciples, why are you so afraid?
SPEAKER_00: I'm in the boat with you.
SPEAKER_00: It would be different if he was hollering from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Hey guys, I see you.
SPEAKER_00: I see you.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's different, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That he came down from heaven so he could be in the boat with you.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not hollering instructions or giving directions from afar.
SPEAKER_00: He could not be closer to us.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever storms we're in.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Storms in life have a way of either pushing us away from Jesus or drawing us closer to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is the storm in your life pushing you further away from Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are you losing your grip?
SPEAKER_00: Are you saying, you know, I'm just a ball of anxiety and worry?
SPEAKER_00: It keeps me up all night, it keeps me uh distracted during the day.
SPEAKER_00: It's just I can't I can't do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Do you think you're alone in the boat?
SPEAKER_00: You're not.
SPEAKER_00: Let the storms of your life draw you closer to Jesus, not push you away.
SPEAKER_00: You come into his word.
SPEAKER_00: You stay, you stay grounded in the word of God, not the sinking sand, but upon the word of God, that firm ground under your feet.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is with you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows how to calm the greatest storms.
SPEAKER_00: But then we come to the last mega.
SPEAKER_00: This is an interesting mega.
SPEAKER_00: This is, well, he tells us, they were filled.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, after he calmed the storm, the disciples were filled with great fear.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to one another, Who then is this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you've been with him for quite a while by now.
SPEAKER_00: You're his disciples, you've been traveling together, you've been eating, sleeping, worshiping.
SPEAKER_00: You're his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Why in the world are you asking that question now?
SPEAKER_00: Who then is this?
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the storm they were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: After the storm, they were terrified.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's like Peter earlier, probably months earlier, out fishing again one day in his boat, and Jesus comes up in the morning, early morning, and he looks out and he says, Have you caught anything, Peter?
SPEAKER_00: No?
SPEAKER_00: The fish aren't fighting tonight.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, why don't you cast your net on the other side of the boat?
SPEAKER_00: And it, you know, the language seems to suggest that, you know, Peter was humoring him.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Jesus, you do what you do.
SPEAKER_00: We'll do what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We're fishermen.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, really.
SPEAKER_00: Put the net on the other side of the boat.
SPEAKER_00: The nets start breaking.
SPEAKER_00: They're so full of fish.
SPEAKER_00: This is who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what Peter said?
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the first thing that Peter said?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that an interesting thing that he would say?
SPEAKER_00: Why didn't he say this is going to be good for business?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I don't know how much time you have, but I think we could do this together.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody get a contract.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he say, Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man?
SPEAKER_00: Because the deity of Jesus was breaking out in a whole new way.
SPEAKER_00: He's seeing Jesus as he really is in a new way, and therefore he sees himself in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know?
SPEAKER_00: That the more clearly you see the real Jesus, the less holy you're going to feel.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: You're not actually becoming less holy.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to just sense, you're going to see the gap.
SPEAKER_00: The more you walk with Christ, the wider the gap is going to become.
SPEAKER_00: When you see him as he truly is, you're going to bow in reverence and awe to him.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never done that, I don't think you can be a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You don't become a Christian just because you think he's good.
SPEAKER_00: You don't become a Christian just because you think, well, okay, I understand he saved me.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: He saved me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, it doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever bowed before him in the presence of his deity, in the presence of his holiness, and you just see the gulf between him and you, and yet you believe by faith that he came to save us, sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, I hardly know him.
SPEAKER_00: I know enough about him to believe him.
SPEAKER_00: I know enough about him to ask him to save me.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to depart from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to depart from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here this morning and you're thinking about what this looks like in your life, if you're getting an increasing awareness of your sin, which would be a good thing if that's what he's about.
SPEAKER_00: If you have an increasing awareness of your sin and you wonder, could he save someone like me, the answer is yes.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is yes.
SPEAKER_00: There's no sinner, there's no sin that is too great to keep him away if you believe him.
SPEAKER_00: If you receive him.
SPEAKER_00: And it'll be different once he's in the boat with you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you sometimes feel like you're just beginning to see the real Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you, every decade of my life, with every coming decade of my life, Jesus is getting bigger in my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: That's a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00: Reminds me of the story I told a couple of weeks ago in a sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Chronicles of Narnia?
SPEAKER_00: Lucy, when she sees Aslan, she hasn't seen Aslan in a while.
SPEAKER_00: Aslan, you're getting bigger.
SPEAKER_00: He said, No, I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: I'm Aslan.
SPEAKER_00: You know, a symbol of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I don't change.
SPEAKER_00: You're getting bigger, my dear.
SPEAKER_00: You're growing.
SPEAKER_00: You're growing in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And the more you grow in your faith, the more it seems that he's getting bigger.
SPEAKER_00: May he be getting bigger in your eyes and my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Another story, remember, this is one of the more famous ones from Lucy and Aslan.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when she starts learning more about Aslan and big, kind of scary lion figure.
SPEAKER_00: Sharon just went Friday night to the Firewall Museum and saw the lion, the witch in the wardrobe.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, you've got these big costumes, and you know, they can't be a little can be a little scary to a little kid, or maybe a bigger kid.
SPEAKER_00: And Lucy has a question to ask when she sees Aslan, the lion figure.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the question to Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Beaver?
SPEAKER_00: Is he safe?
SPEAKER_00: Remember Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Beaver's answer?
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not safe, dearie.
SPEAKER_00: But he's good.
SPEAKER_00: And he's the king, I tell you.
SPEAKER_00: That's good theology.
SPEAKER_00: No, we can't control him.
SPEAKER_00: He's not always predictable or comfortable to be around.
SPEAKER_00: Can we all attest to that?
SPEAKER_00: He's not always comfortable to be around.
SPEAKER_00: He's not our genie.
SPEAKER_00: He's not our slave.
SPEAKER_00: He's the master.
SPEAKER_00: We're not.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it could be very uncomfortable to be around the real Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But whatever is necessary to be with the real Jesus is the best thing that could happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: Or me.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not safe, but he's good.
SPEAKER_00: He's the king, I tell you.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the Bible gives us a great a better comparison than that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in Matthew chapter 12, talking about another comparison.
SPEAKER_00: Another person that was on a rough sea with sailors, Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Who are we talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 12, Jesus says, just like Jonah, just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Something greater than Jonah is here.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: Both Jonah and Jesus get caught in a great storm.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember what happened with Jonah?
SPEAKER_00: Jonah was running away from God.
SPEAKER_00: God was getting his attention through the storm.
SPEAKER_00: Jonah's conscience finally catches up with him, and he says to the other sailors on the ship, he says, Look, the only thing that's going to calm down the storm is you've got to throw me overboard.
SPEAKER_00: I'm running away from God.
SPEAKER_00: And at first they're reluctant to do that.
SPEAKER_00: But then they realize even after they throw so much cargo overboard, no, we think he's right.
SPEAKER_00: He's got to go.
SPEAKER_00: They throw him overboard, and what happens?
SPEAKER_00: The word in the Hebrew says, God provided a great fish.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is referring back to that.
SPEAKER_00: For three days and three nights he was in the belly of this great fish.
SPEAKER_00: God spared his life, changed his life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus in the boat with the fishermen, the disciples in the Sea of Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: This time, nobody was thrown overboard.
SPEAKER_00: This time he just looks at the storm and he says, peace.
SPEAKER_00: Be still.
SPEAKER_00: You know he's still saying that.
SPEAKER_00: He's still saying that to very anxious Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He's still saying that.
SPEAKER_00: Peace.
SPEAKER_00: Be still.
SPEAKER_00: I see the storm.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: I have authority over anything in this world that could harm you.
SPEAKER_00: I have authority over.
SPEAKER_00: And yet it'll be a couple years later that he would be in the mega storm of all mega storms.
SPEAKER_00: He would be going to Calvary to be crucified on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He would face his darkest moment.
SPEAKER_00: He would face his biggest storm.
SPEAKER_00: Why did he do that?
SPEAKER_00: He did it for you.
SPEAKER_00: Why would he be nailed to a cross and say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
SPEAKER_00: Why was it that he not only felt abandoned, but he was actually abandoned by his father so that he could calm the storms of your life?
SPEAKER_00: The biggest storm that he came to calm, we don't experience in this life.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest storm that he came to calm was the storm that happens after you die.
SPEAKER_00: If you die without Christ, if you die without Christ as your Savior and your Lord, you're gonna find the storm of all storms, and you're not gonna be able to do anything about it.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna sweep you up, it's gonna crush you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to calm that storm for his followers.
SPEAKER_00: Are you one of his followers?
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone to save you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ alone to calm the storms in your life?
SPEAKER_00: There's no storm that can happen to you, Christian, that can truly sink you.
SPEAKER_00: It may feel like it.
SPEAKER_00: But no.
SPEAKER_00: Because he was thrown, Jesus was thrown overboard.
SPEAKER_00: There's no storm that can truly sink you.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Is the gospel penetrating your mind and your heart this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that Jesus is saying, Come to me if you're weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: This is the one who saves us.
SPEAKER_00: You will be rescued.
SPEAKER_00: So that we will not ultimately sink in any storm.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus was thrown into the abyss of the sea.
SPEAKER_00: There is no storm he cannot calm.
SPEAKER_00: It is Well with My Soul, Horatio Spafford, businessman in Chicago, member of a Presbyterian church in Chicago, supporter of D.L.
SPEAKER_00: Moody's ministry and other ministries.
SPEAKER_00: Decided that he and his family were going to cross the Atlantic to go to England to help be there to support and encourage Moody and his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Last minute, business came up for Horatio.
SPEAKER_00: He couldn't go with his family.
SPEAKER_00: They went ahead.
SPEAKER_00: Horatio's wife was one of the few that were spared, but all four of their daughters perished.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as the cable gram was sent back to the States and Horatio got it, he got on another boat.
SPEAKER_00: He got on another boat.
SPEAKER_00: As close as they could approximate where the last boat went down.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote these words to this hymn.
SPEAKER_00: It is well with my soul.
SPEAKER_00: How do you write those kind of words?
SPEAKER_00: When you've been through that kind of storm.
SPEAKER_00: Because he knew his savior.
SPEAKER_00: And he knew that his savior was with him, even when he lost everything else.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_00: He's in the boat with us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's thank him.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for giving us your son.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you for giving us your life.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you don't simply call out instructions to us from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: You could not have come closer than to come from heaven to earth.
SPEAKER_00: You could not have come closer.
SPEAKER_00: You came all the way down to take us all the way up.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you were thrown overboard so that we never would be.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saving us from the eternal torment.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saving us from hell.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we mean that.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for saving us from the lesser storms.
SPEAKER_00: Because any storm that we experience in this life is the lesser storm than to be punished for our sins eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Get us through these storms in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us that you're in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us that you have all power.
SPEAKER_00: That you don't do anything for us that's not for our good ultimately.
SPEAKER_00: Give us faith to believe these truths.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever we're facing, we pray in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.