SPEAKER_00: This is Josh from Haven City Church.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning into the podcast.
SPEAKER_00: The following sermon was recorded on May 6th, 2018.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to hear a different voice.
SPEAKER_00: This is our ministry intern named Derek Hogue.
SPEAKER_00: He's preaching from Luke chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: We love our interns and the ministry internship that we run.
SPEAKER_00: Derek joined us back in January.
SPEAKER_00: This is his first chance to preach in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And we're excited for him.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the church, you can go to baltimorechurch.com.
SPEAKER_00: You can find us on social media by searching for Haven City Church.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.
SPEAKER_01: So no worries there, but we do pray for Hawaii because man, they've had a really rough season this year.
SPEAKER_01: A false missile alert where people were terrified.
SPEAKER_01: A flood that pretty much destroyed the north shore of Kauai, and now the big island's getting 4.6 magnitude earthquakes, which is big for an island, which sets us setting off a volcano.
SPEAKER_01: So let's let's pray for Hawaii, because that is where I'm from.
SPEAKER_01: Lived there for 19 years.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: So we are going to be in Luke chapter 8, verse 22 through 25.
SPEAKER_01: And this is kind of like one of the stories that's near and dear to my heart because we can all relate to the things that are going to take place in this story and things that we go through in life.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to read through the text and then make a couple points, and then I'll go kind of like verse by verse as we get into it.
SPEAKER_01: So let's go ahead and start in chapter, I'm sorry, verse 22 of chapter 8 of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, Now it happened on a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: And they launched out, but as they sailed, he fell asleep, and a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy.
SPEAKER_01: And they came to him and awoke him, saying, Master, Master, we are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they and they ceased, and there was a calm.
SPEAKER_01: But he said to them, Where is your faith?
SPEAKER_01: And they were afraid and marveled, saying to one another, Who can this be?
SPEAKER_01: For he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.
SPEAKER_01: So before we get into the text, the long thing I always like to do is let's just pray that the Lord will speak to our hearts today.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and just how you speak to us through over and preserve for over just thousands of years.
SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, as this is an important text, is the things that we're gonna talk about today.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would open up each and every one of our hearts here today, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I just pray that as I have prepared for this message, Lord, that they would be your words and not mine.
SPEAKER_01: So we just pray these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So as we're going through this text, uh I'm gonna be touching on three key points here.
SPEAKER_01: First is gonna be a storm, storms in our lives that are consist of trials, tribulations, and hardships.
SPEAKER_01: The other points I'm gonna make is about fear, and then last, about faith.
SPEAKER_01: So these are the three points that I'm gonna be touching on, and to make sure I stay on time.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so let's go back up to verse 22 through 23, where it says, Now it happened on a certain day that he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: And they launched out.
SPEAKER_01: But as they sailed, he fell asleep, and a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and they were in jeopardy.
SPEAKER_01: So, uh, real quick, if you can head to the next slide, I want to kind of give you guys a first point.
SPEAKER_01: Yep, I want to give you guys a first point here.
SPEAKER_01: As we see in Mark chapter 4, verse 35, that we are told that it is basically it's evening when they are getting into this boat.
SPEAKER_01: And I guess I want you guys to keep that in mind because that's gonna be an important point coming up.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the next point, please.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew chapter 8, verse 24, we are told that this storm comes on suddenly.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't something that they saw off in the distance that was coming, it just happened all of a sudden, like that, just out of nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to give you guys a bit of a visual of kind of where they're at and why this happens.
SPEAKER_01: So, as you see here, we have like a little, I hope you guys can see that.
SPEAKER_01: It's a map of the Sea of Galilee, and this is the sea that they are crossing.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, the first point, please, is it lies in a basin that is 700 feet below sea level.
SPEAKER_01: That's quite a few feet below sea level.
SPEAKER_01: It it is susceptible to sudden violent storms.
SPEAKER_01: Next point.
SPEAKER_01: Windstorms that can cause up to seven foot waves.
SPEAKER_01: And how this is caused is on the west side where you have all these hills right here, is winds come down from the west and it acts like a like a wind tunnel down there and creates these violent, nasty windstorms with waves that can get up to about seven feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you guys are kind of thinking, well, seven feet, that's not that bad.
SPEAKER_01: But if you think about seven foot waves, if you've ever been to a beach and that amount of water hitting somebody at that amount of force, it's dangerous and can be deadly, especially in a boat.
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you can go to slide six, please.
SPEAKER_01: This is just kind of what the Sea of Galilee looks like uh as an actual picture.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, it's not the best picture I have.
SPEAKER_01: And then uh, so the disciples are going through this storm that comes on suddenly, and one that is violent and strong with waves that are seven feet tall.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is not a fun or an ideal situation to be in if you're in a boat.
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times people think that this was kind of like some little dinky rowboat, but this is to kind of give you an idea of what the possibility of that boat looked like.
SPEAKER_01: It was about a 15 to 20 person boat with a crew of five with like four oars and sailing capabilities.
SPEAKER_01: So it wasn't like they were in some little tiny, tiny boat.
SPEAKER_01: They were in a good sized boat, but still enough to be taking on water with these seven-foot waves.
SPEAKER_01: And just like the disciples who are going through this storm in life, they're going through this storm as they're trying to pass.
SPEAKER_01: We, as we're walking through life, we're gonna go through various storms in our life of hardships, of testings, of trials.
SPEAKER_01: And so we can go through financial storms where we're having trouble maybe paying our bills.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe we can't save money like we want to, or having to decide do we pay the electric bill or do I buy food?
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe living from paycheck to paycheck.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we can go through testing trials of sickness and disease.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe have a chronic illness or a disease, one that's life-threatening or just is causing major problems in life.
SPEAKER_01: Marital problems, brokenness in marriages, or going through a hardship with your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: There's emotional problems that we go through, depression, loneliness, sadness.
SPEAKER_01: The list goes on and on.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not going through a storm now, it's not a matter of if you're gonna go through a storm, it's a matter of when you will go through a storm in life and go through hardships.
SPEAKER_01: I want to repeat that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a matter of if you're gonna go through a storm, it's a matter of when.
SPEAKER_01: The storms we go through can rock our world.
SPEAKER_01: It can make it seem like we're up against these giant waves and just the wind just hitting us.
SPEAKER_01: Finances, how am I gonna pay these bills?
SPEAKER_01: Waves, wind, and so on and so on.
SPEAKER_01: And we see in verse uh chapter 8, verse 24, the first section of it where it says, uh, and they came to him and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: Now I can't imagine the disciples just gently going to Jesus and going, Uh, hey Jesus, there's a storm, there's a storm.
SPEAKER_01: Wake up, wake up, wake up.
SPEAKER_01: No, they're they're panicking right now.
SPEAKER_01: They are scared.
SPEAKER_01: And I would probably say, even terrified.
SPEAKER_01: And to make things worse, as I guys told you earlier, this is happening at night.
SPEAKER_01: It's not during the day, it's night, where it's most likely really dark, if not pitch black, because they didn't have electrical lights back then.
SPEAKER_01: They may have like candles or lights, but there was no tower, you know, of a light going like, hey, look, there's a shore ahead.
SPEAKER_01: It was pitch black.
SPEAKER_01: And the storms that the disciples were going through caused fear in them.
SPEAKER_01: And it can be that same way of the storms in our life.
SPEAKER_01: Fear of not being able to be able to pay the power bill on time.
SPEAKER_01: Or fear of like, I'm gonna have to choose between paying the power bill or food or how am I gonna get this money to pay these bills?
SPEAKER_01: Fear of what the sickness or an illness is gonna do in your life, fear of just the getting poked in the prodded and all the testing that go with sicknesses and illnesses, and so on and so on.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the storms in our life is fear and anxiety itself.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know if you guys have ever struggled with or gone through anxiety and fear, but it's a very, very crippling thing to go through.
SPEAKER_01: Anxiety and fear can cause your mind to just to stop working.
SPEAKER_01: You can't think straight because all you can think about is what you're terrified of.
SPEAKER_01: All you can think about is the what-ifs and how this can happen and the situation you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: It can make you feel paralyzed, like you can't move, or maybe your arms feel numb and you're I'm seeing it's hard to move.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's hard to breathe, hyperventilate.
SPEAKER_01: Or you can feel like you're gonna pass out.
SPEAKER_01: When fear and anxiety hit and you can't think straight, uh that is like when we're trying to focus on the situation and not on God.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give you guys a few examples in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Is moving here from Hawaii is a totally different culture than Hawaii.
SPEAKER_01: And this is my first time moving off of Hawaii since 19 years and being totally out on my own and making a big change.
SPEAKER_01: And that's freaky.
SPEAKER_01: That that was scary.
SPEAKER_01: I was getting pretty anxious as the time was coming.
SPEAKER_01: And I had a choice.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, do I go through with it?
SPEAKER_01: Do I do I say, you know what, now I'm kind of over this, it's a little too freaky.
SPEAKER_01: You know, what do you do in that situation?
SPEAKER_01: And when I first got here, oh man, the anxiety goes through the roof because I'm used to a place where you don't have to lock your doors at night.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to worry about getting robbed or shootings that are just blocks away from your house.
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't have that in Hawaii.
SPEAKER_01: But moving here, I'm pretty sure I annoyed Josh going, is this area safe?
SPEAKER_01: Is this area safe?
SPEAKER_01: And so, and just that's all I could think about.
SPEAKER_01: And there were times at night where I was afraid to go to sleep in my own house here because I was afraid somebody would break in, have a gun on me, or something.
SPEAKER_01: How am I gonna get out if that happens?
SPEAKER_01: Fear is very crippling.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll give you guys another example of when I was in Kauai.
SPEAKER_01: I woke up with some pretty bad chest pains at one point where it it really, really hurt to breathe.
SPEAKER_01: Like I had to go because it hurt to breathe.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know what the problem was, anxiety already going through the roof because I can't breathe, chest is hurting.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the hospital from 4 a.m.
SPEAKER_01: to 2 in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: And so hearing machines going beep, beep, beep, beep.
SPEAKER_01: I know I didn't flatline, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: So, and so uh a week later the doctors clear me, I'm fine.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know what's wrong, they just figure some type of little minor lung infection or something.
SPEAKER_01: They don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But a week goes by and I'm still having problems with these chest pains.
SPEAKER_01: And I work about 50 minutes from my house, all the way up on the north shore of Kauai, and I'm having this chest episode, and I can feel the fear coming on as I'm driving, and I'm an hour away from my house.
SPEAKER_01: I can feel the fear coming on.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, I hope I don't have another episode.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't let me have another episode.
SPEAKER_01: And I cannot pass this slow tourist in front of me because anytime I find a passing lane, there's either a line of oncoming cars, or he decides to finally speed up.
SPEAKER_01: So now I'm freaking out even more.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going, I just want to get home, I just want to be on my couch, and I can feel my arms going numb.
SPEAKER_01: Now that starts freaking me out even more because now it could affect my driving, and I don't know what's going on because I've never felt this before.
SPEAKER_01: So when I finally get home about an hour later, and I'm out of the car, I'm literally moving like this because like I feel so heavy, and my arms, my hands, my fingers are numb, and I literally feel like I'm gonna pass out.
SPEAKER_01: And I finally get in my house, and my mom goes, What's wrong?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going, My arms are numb, I feel like I'm gonna pass out.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, You're having a major anxiety attack.
SPEAKER_01: I go, Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_01: So I sit down, I have to calm down.
SPEAKER_01: And why did that happen?
SPEAKER_01: Slide, the next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I think we're already there.
SPEAKER_01: Anyways, fear and anxiety hit us when we look at the wind and the waves around us in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Fear and anxiety hit when we look at our problems, when we look at the hardships that we're going through, and we take our focus off of Jesus, off of God.
SPEAKER_01: Fear and anxiety come when we see how big that price of that bill is rather than how big our God is, or how big this sickness is rather than how big our God is.
SPEAKER_01: I saw this saying on Instagram that I really, really liked.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: It says, on a scale of one to God, how big is this problem?
SPEAKER_01: And I found that to be a very interesting thing to say.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you put a scale on one to ten, right, ten's always the biggest, one's always the lowest.
SPEAKER_01: So on a scale of one to God, how big are our problems?
SPEAKER_01: That's something to think about because if you put our problems, God at one and our problems at ten, fear and anxiety hit, and other problems hit as well.
SPEAKER_01: But some of you may go and see as you're going through a trial, one of the most number one responses is but Jesus doesn't seem like he's there.
SPEAKER_01: It seems like he's silent, it seems like he's sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the disciples thought in verse 23, because as they get in the boat, Jesus falls asleep.
SPEAKER_01: He's 100% God, but he's also 100% human.
SPEAKER_01: So he is tired.
SPEAKER_01: He is sleeping.
SPEAKER_01: So let's leave, let's read the rest of the passage, and then we'll uh finish it up, but we're not quite done.
SPEAKER_01: So the last part of verse 24 where it says, Then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and there was a calm.
SPEAKER_01: But he said to them, Where is your faith?
SPEAKER_01: And they were afraid and marveled, saying to one another, Who can this be?
SPEAKER_01: For he commands even the wind and the water, and they obey him.
SPEAKER_01: I want you guys to note one thing in verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: It says that when he awoke, Jesus was not concerned about the storm when he awoke, nor was he taken by surprise by the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Now remember, this storm came on suddenly, so the disciples, they were taken by surprise, they were freaking out.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is a they wake Jesus up in a panic.
SPEAKER_01: We don't see Jesus go, Oh, where did this storm come from?
SPEAKER_01: This is nasty.
SPEAKER_01: What the we we don't see that.
SPEAKER_01: We see Jesus completely calm.
SPEAKER_01: He is not concerned, he is not taken by surprise.
SPEAKER_01: That is because he knows he has it under control.
SPEAKER_01: I like what Mark says, I don't have this on the slide, but I like what what the reading of Mark says in Mark chapter 4, verse 39.
SPEAKER_01: It says, He arose and rebuked the wind and the and said to the sea, Peace be still.
SPEAKER_01: And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew what he was doing.
SPEAKER_01: He was not taken by surprise, because he had it under control.
SPEAKER_01: He just had to say three words.
SPEAKER_01: Peace be still.
SPEAKER_01: And it says there was a great calm.
SPEAKER_01: So the sea goes from a raging storm with heavy winds, seven foot waves crashing on this boat.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus speaks, great calm back to how it was.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has it under control.
SPEAKER_01: Did you guys know Jesus is not taken by surprise when we go through hardships in life?
SPEAKER_01: He is not concerned about the hardships in our life either, because he has it under control and he knows what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he is concerned about us as we go through the hardship, but he's not concerned about the hardship because he has that under control.
SPEAKER_01: It's how we react to the hardship.
SPEAKER_01: When we have those times when it feels like God is not there or he's not answering, and it seems like he's asleep.
SPEAKER_01: I like what Psalms chapter 23, verse 4 says.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
SPEAKER_01: Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know a lot of people like to use these when people are about to pass away and maybe you have terminal illness, and they like to use it as you don't fear death because you have God.
SPEAKER_01: But I also like to think of this verse as when we go through the valley of the shadow of death, that seems like a very dark place, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: It seems like a scary place, and sometimes a place where God is not there.
SPEAKER_01: It seems like Jesus, are you sleeping?
SPEAKER_01: But look at the words, your rod and your staff.
SPEAKER_01: These show the presence of God in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death when it seems like he's not there.
SPEAKER_01: And a rod and a staff, the cool thing about these are these are shepherds' tools.
SPEAKER_01: The rod was used to defend livestock, such as sheep and goat, from predators, like minor predators and things that would attack them.
SPEAKER_01: It would be designed to keep them safe.
SPEAKER_01: The uh staff was designed to direct and guide sheep.
SPEAKER_01: So it kind of like had that, you know that when people are like on stage just being all silly and they have that little hook thing and yank them off the stage.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of like what a staff was.
SPEAKER_01: It's used sometimes to either yank uh the sheep or the livestock, it was used to guide and direct them.
SPEAKER_01: Or what the what the uh shepherd can do is they can throw it to, hey, get the sheep's attention.
SPEAKER_01: Like, don't go that way.
SPEAKER_01: So God is the same with God.
SPEAKER_01: He's even though it seems like he's not there, he is protecting and guiding us through these storms and these hardships.
SPEAKER_01: We see that the disciples wake Jesus up and he calms the storm, he gives them a minor rebuke.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this at first seems kind of odd, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because you have a huge wind storm, you have seven foot waves.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says they were in jeopardy, they were in danger.
SPEAKER_01: So fear really seems like a legitimate thing.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't seem unreasonable, right?
SPEAKER_01: So why does Jesus rebuke them?
SPEAKER_01: He rebukes them because, uh, first point, because fear got in the way of their faith.
SPEAKER_01: Next point, their fear affected their faith.
SPEAKER_01: Third point, they saw the storm bigger than Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It was not the fear that was the problem.
SPEAKER_01: It was fear in that it was a lack of faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's because fear is not a bad thing.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is what keeps us sometimes safe and keeps us from danger.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is what keeps me from going up to a lion to want to play with it.
SPEAKER_01: Because why?
SPEAKER_01: A lion can maul me to death, it can eat me, it can seriously hurt me.
SPEAKER_01: So it's that fear that keeps me from wanting to play with a lion, even though sometimes they might look cute and cuddly.
SPEAKER_01: So it is not the fear that it's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: It is when fear affects the faith, is why they got the rebuke.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is like fear is like when it affects our faith, like when Peter was walking on water.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great example.
SPEAKER_01: Because what does Peter do?
SPEAKER_01: He starts out on faith by walking out on the water in the midst of another storm, Marayad, probably quite like this one.
SPEAKER_01: And he's walking on these raging seas, keeping his focus on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: His faith is on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But what happens?
SPEAKER_01: He starts looking at the wind and the waves around him, and his fear starts creeping in.
SPEAKER_01: Fear that affects his faith, and what happens?
SPEAKER_01: He starts to sink.
SPEAKER_01: So fear is not the problem, it's fear that affects our faith.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Jesus gave them this minor rebuke.
SPEAKER_01: We need to see that God is bigger than our hardships.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take David, for example.
SPEAKER_01: This is a great example.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take David and Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: You have David who is about 15 to 20 years old.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of scholars put him at about 15.
SPEAKER_01: Going up against a 9'6 to about a nine-foot giant.
SPEAKER_01: Now, nine foot is pretty tall.
SPEAKER_01: That's about almost like two of me.
SPEAKER_01: And not skinny and lengthy like a basketball player or like I am.
SPEAKER_01: We're talking about a muscular guy.
SPEAKER_01: Because he has about a couple hundred pounds of armor and a couple hundred pounds of weaponry on him.
SPEAKER_01: Now you can't be tall and lengthy and have a couple hundred pounds of armor.
SPEAKER_01: On you and be an effective warrior, a champion of the Philistines.
SPEAKER_01: But you have little David here, nothing but a sling going up against Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Because David doesn't look at how big Goliath is.
SPEAKER_01: David looks at how big God is.
SPEAKER_01: David doesn't look at the weapons, the armor that can kill him.
SPEAKER_01: He looks at how big God is.
SPEAKER_01: Because you see that when Goliath comes at him, he goes, You come to me with sticks.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to feed you to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of the air.
SPEAKER_01: I am going to kill you.
SPEAKER_01: What does David come back at him with?
SPEAKER_01: He says, You come at me with spears, with javelins, with armor.
SPEAKER_01: I come to you with the living God most high.
SPEAKER_01: David saw God bigger than Goliath.
SPEAKER_01: And just like, and what does David do?
SPEAKER_01: He flings his sling, hits him dead square in the forehead, knocks him down, kills Goliath, wins over the Philistines, wins the battle.
SPEAKER_01: David, just like David was a conqueror in God, we are conquerors through Jesus in our hardships, in our trials, in our storms, in our fears, in our anxieties.
SPEAKER_01: Like what Romans chapter 8, verse 37 says, it says, Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_01: Note how it says we are more than conquerors.
SPEAKER_01: How are we conquerors in hardships, in fears, and anxieties in these storms when it seems like these waves are just pounding us?
SPEAKER_01: These winds are knocking our boats over.
SPEAKER_01: Well, John chapter 16, verse 33 says, This is Jesus speaking.
SPEAKER_01: These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace.
SPEAKER_01: In the world you will have tribulation.
SPEAKER_01: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_01: See, like I said before, it's not a matter of if you're going to go through hardships, it's a matter of when.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus promises it right here by saying, You will go through tribulations.
SPEAKER_01: But he also says, In me you may have peace.
SPEAKER_01: In me I have overcome the world.
SPEAKER_01: So that's how we're more than conquerors, is in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because he has conquered the world.
SPEAKER_01: So now that we know how we are conquerors, these conquerors, okay.
SPEAKER_01: A little spiritual warfare there.
SPEAKER_01: So how how do we obtain being conquerors through in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: 1 John chapter 5, verses 4 through 5 says that for whatever is born of God overcomes the world.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the victory that has overcome the world.
SPEAKER_01: Our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Who is he who overcomes the world?
SPEAKER_01: But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we obtain being conquerors and overcoming the world?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus overcome the world, we are more than conquerors because of our faith in Jesus, in who he is, the Son of God, who is God, who defeated sin and death on the cross, and he can defeat and will defeat the hardships we're going through.
SPEAKER_01: The fears, the anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: But it's faith in Jesus, faith in God's word, that we're more than conquerors.
SPEAKER_01: Not only that, our faith is a shield from when the enemy wants to just throw those fiery darts.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, anxiety, here you go.
SPEAKER_01: Shield of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Blocked it.
SPEAKER_01: When your bill is bigger than your income, and the enemy just wants to take that fiery dart and go, there's some fear in it.
SPEAKER_01: That bill is bigger than your God, shield of faith.
SPEAKER_01: God's word says otherwise.
SPEAKER_01: God owns a thousand cattle on a hill, which means God owns all the money in the world.
SPEAKER_01: He's able to take care of you.
SPEAKER_01: You have this sickness, God's able to heal you.
SPEAKER_01: God's able to give you the strength to go through it.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ and if the sickness is terminal, God gave you life after death.
SPEAKER_01: Biggest part of faith right there to get through a terminal illness.
SPEAKER_01: And you find that verse about the shield of faith in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to give a closing with a couple thoughts and a brief testimony of some hardships that, really big hardships that I went through a couple months before, about six or eight months before I moved over here.
SPEAKER_01: So, and when I'm telling you guys this, this is not to look at me and go, oh, what a trooper that guy is, but it's to show you how big God is.
SPEAKER_01: It's not for you to look at me and go, oh wow, he read, he he led, he's had a pretty hard life.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's to show you what God can do in the midst of a hard life.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what this is about.
SPEAKER_01: So, a couple quite a few months before I moved over here, uh, I became pretty good friends with a coworker at work who was kind of living on the premises in this little side house that's on the premises.
SPEAKER_01: And he became very depressed, very lonely, very angry at certain things, and he was suicidal.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I happened to see his post on Facebook about it.
SPEAKER_01: I called him, I prayed with him because he was a confessing believer in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, I was able to pray with him, I was able to uh, you know, just share love with him about Jesus and what Jesus had done for him.
SPEAKER_01: Well, a couple weeks later, he decides to try and commit suicide by hanging, and I find him hanging in his house.
SPEAKER_01: And this was on a Friday.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, this was on a Thursday night.
SPEAKER_01: So I go to work the next day, where it happened, have an emotional breakdown because of what I saw, and I'm sent home just because uh my co-workers there with me when I found him.
SPEAKER_01: And the next day I had just gotten in this relationship that I was praying for, and praying for, you know, a possibility of a future wife, or just you know, praying for a relationship, and I finally found one I've been praying for.
SPEAKER_01: Well, right after the day of my friend, finding my friend hanging, the relationship doesn't work out and we break up just the day after.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I need, right?
SPEAKER_01: Is just more heartache upon what what I've discovered.
SPEAKER_01: And if that didn't make matters worse, the Sunday after that Friday, my mom goes in the hospital with kidney failure because she has been battling cancer for five years, stage three ovarian cancer.
SPEAKER_01: And this time her being in the hospital is gonna change me and my brother's life for quite a few months because now she is deteriorating fast.
SPEAKER_01: She can no longer do things on her own.
SPEAKER_01: We are now her caretakers.
SPEAKER_01: We're helping her in and out of the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: So we're having to get used to now washing disciples' feet, if that ever was one.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so we're having to do all these things to help change her, clean her up, make her food, having to set aside our life to take care of her.
SPEAKER_01: That's no regret, don't get me wrong, that is no regret at all.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad me and my brother were able to be there for her.
SPEAKER_01: But it would take a toll.
SPEAKER_01: It was a hardship, seeing her deteriorate.
SPEAKER_01: A mom who was so strong, now so weak and dying.
SPEAKER_01: And then a couple months later, just the day after my birthday, my mom passes away in her bed.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I tell you all that to say this that through that, God made me more than a conqueror.
SPEAKER_01: Because after everything I've been through in those past couple months, that was in a span of two months, all that happened.
SPEAKER_01: In a span of two months.
SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't some things that, oh, quickly over that.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: There was a few times I thought my mom was dying in my arms.
SPEAKER_01: There's a few times where she couldn't walk.
SPEAKER_01: I literally had to field drag her to the couch because she couldn't walk anymore.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff that's ever in here.
SPEAKER_01: But God has made me more than a conqueror because God has shown me.
SPEAKER_01: And I see God in and throughout all those hardships, especially when it came to my mother.
SPEAKER_01: Because we had a our landlord who lives on the same property as us, and they were like family to us.
SPEAKER_01: In Hawaii, you call that Hana'i family, which means you're basically adopted.
SPEAKER_01: You are family.
SPEAKER_01: They gave my mom for quite a few months rent free without having to pay it back when she was first diagnosed and going through the operations.
SPEAKER_01: Not once did she go through any pain with the cancer, and that shocked the doctors.
SPEAKER_01: They were shocked, they're like, I cannot believe that.
SPEAKER_01: She died peacefully, as if the Lord just took her.
SPEAKER_01: So I can see everywhere how the Lord just took care of my family.
SPEAKER_01: When me and my brother had to work and we couldn't always be there for her, God provided a team of five ladies from my mom's church to be caretakers when we were gone.
SPEAKER_01: And that was a big fear of ours.
SPEAKER_01: What are we going to do when we're working and we can't be here?
SPEAKER_01: That was a legitimate fear.
SPEAKER_01: But God provided.
SPEAKER_01: God made me more than a conqueror.
SPEAKER_01: And when I found my friend hanging, I had a pastor who's a father figure of mine and still is to this day, give me like a one-day counseling and help me see the bright side of things.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's not the first time and wasn't the only time I've dealed with suicidal people.
SPEAKER_01: I was able to talk to somebody at the compassion center who came in suicidal.
SPEAKER_01: Because I was once suicidal, tempted twice.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord brought me through.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord made me more than conquerors through my trials to help other people what they're going through.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord can make you guys more than conquerors.
SPEAKER_01: And as I was going through all of this, another thing the Lord showed me, and that was really awesome.
SPEAKER_01: He showed me this on Instagram, which the Lord likes to show me Bible verses for Instagram for some reason.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I was going through all this, the Lord showed me Psalms chapter 27.
SPEAKER_01: Next slide, please.
SPEAKER_01: Psalms chapter 27, verse 13 through 14.
SPEAKER_01: And this is an important Bible verse to remember when you guys are going through hardships.
SPEAKER_01: Is I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
SPEAKER_01: Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, I say, on the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Note how it says that I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: To lose heart in a testing and a trial is to soon lose hope.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you lose heart, what happens?
SPEAKER_01: You become depressed.
SPEAKER_01: You start thinking nothing about but your trials and tribulations.
SPEAKER_01: And then once you lose heart, the thing to soon go is to lose hope.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we keep that hope through testing and trials?
SPEAKER_01: How do we know that Jesus is still there by seeing the goodness in the light in this life that we are living now?
SPEAKER_01: Not your best life now, the life you're living now.
SPEAKER_01: There is still goodness in God through the hardships.
SPEAKER_01: Even though they're hard to see, we have to find them.
SPEAKER_01: Just like when my mom was passing away and seeing her go through all this.
SPEAKER_01: I saw God work in her life, work in my life, hopefully soon in my brother's life.
SPEAKER_01: So there is goodness of the Lord in hardships.
SPEAKER_01: We just have to look at them and get past the enemy's lies.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna go ahead and close it up in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I think Josh is gonna uh come up and also close in prayer, but hey, prayer's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's what gets us through the hardships, by the way, as well.
SPEAKER_01: So, Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for you being there through the hardships, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you that you're there to strengthen our faith when it seems small or we're focusing on the wind and the waves in our life.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I just pray when those hardships come that we would see how big you are and not how big the storms in life are.
SPEAKER_01: So we thank you for all that you are, all that you do.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.