SPEAKER_01: Are you relating to God on the basis of what you need him to do, or on the basis of who you know him to be?
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a reason.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a cute play on words.
SPEAKER_01: Do you relate to God on the basis of what you need him to do?
SPEAKER_01: Save us.
SPEAKER_01: We're perishing.
SPEAKER_01: Or do you relate to God on the basis of who you know him to be?
SPEAKER_01: Because if it if it's what you need him to do, then you never really need faith.
SPEAKER_01: You just need to be rescued.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you may realize that you've never really had faith.
SPEAKER_01: You just got rescued some.
SPEAKER_01: You like to ride in the Coast Guard helicopter.
SPEAKER_01: You like being rescued, but you've never really experienced personal faith.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together, Church.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we just uh we just sang and reminded ourselves that you buried our past.
SPEAKER_01: That means it doesn't have power over us.
SPEAKER_01: And so some of us we're gravediggers.
SPEAKER_01: We want to go back and dig up what you buried under the blood a long time ago because it gives us permission.
SPEAKER_01: It explains why we fall off the wagon sometimes and do knuckle-headed things.
SPEAKER_01: But the gospel gives us power.
SPEAKER_01: So we're not here for permission today.
SPEAKER_01: We're here for power.
SPEAKER_01: We're here to get understanding of both God and the gospel, and because we want that to manifest itself in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We understand today we were made for more.
SPEAKER_01: There's a life that we were made for, there's a life that is only found in Jesus and because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And we're here for that today, God.
SPEAKER_01: And so Holy Spirit lead us into that, give us understanding about it so we can deepen our enjoyment of it, and we can turn up the volume of our expression of it.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, this is our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience, we ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you got a Bible, you can take it, open that up to Matthew chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're our guest, we're teaching to the gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and we just go verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: It's called expository preaching.
SPEAKER_01: We do that because that's the way you nurse the faith of a congregation.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and because you're not supposed to build your life on all of my ideas.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're supposed to build and bank your life on the Word of God as revealed here in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about the authoritative nature of biblical faith.
SPEAKER_01: The authoritative nature of biblical faith.
SPEAKER_01: You say, well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: There's a cultural faith, and then there's personal faith.
SPEAKER_01: People say, Well, my faith is a personal matter.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but then there's biblical faith, and there's an authority to biblical faith that you don't find anywhere else.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm gonna read like five verses, 73 words.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm gonna read verses 23 to 27.
SPEAKER_01: And there's two things at play this morning, and I want you to not miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the all-encompassing authority of Jesus, uh, Matthew 8, 9, and 10, those three chapters are intended to demonstrate all the things that Jesus has authority over.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: He does not want you to be afraid of anything.
SPEAKER_01: The one phrase that Jesus said and repeated, and the one that he repeated the most was, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: All the way back in the Old Testament, God said over and over, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: New Testament, Jesus, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Have no fear.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we're gonna find ourselves in situations where we are afraid.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples find themselves this morning in a boat and they kind of have a little freak out, all right?
SPEAKER_01: And so what Jesus is doing, he's trying to demonstrate this is all the things that I have authority over, so you don't have to fear these things.
SPEAKER_01: And the second thing on display this morning is the testing of the disciples' faith.
SPEAKER_01: He purposely, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: God will purposely, deliberately put you in situations and circumstances where your faith is going to be tested.
SPEAKER_01: You're not being punished, he's testing your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, because he wants to promote you to the next grade.
SPEAKER_01: I remember I didn't know what the star test was until I had kids.
SPEAKER_01: And apparently in the fifth grade, the star test is to be all end all the world's gonna.
SPEAKER_01: My kids would come home, oh, next week is a star test.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, so you're a star.
SPEAKER_01: Rock that bad boy.
SPEAKER_01: Like, you don't understand, Dad.
SPEAKER_01: If I if I if I pass the, if I fail the star test, I'm like, whoever's telling you this is lying, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's just a goofy test so that so schools can get taxpayer money.
SPEAKER_01: Relax, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And my kids are like, okay, dad.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I said, besides, if you fail, Taco Bell's always hiring, but I digress.
SPEAKER_01: But they would pass the test, and now my kids pass the test and they got out of fifth grade.
SPEAKER_01: And when you see, you pass all the tests in fifth grade, you get to go to sixth grade.
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
SPEAKER_01: You pass all the tests in sixth grade, you get to go to seventh grade.
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: And if you pass all the tests in seventh grade, you get to go to and if you're like you go to ninth and the tenth, if you pass all the tests in tenth grade, you get to go to 11th grade.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: And then you graduate.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a glutton for punishment, you pay a lot of money and go to college.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you're a fool like me, you go to grad school.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why am I telling you this?
SPEAKER_01: Ask you this.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because based on the tests that you have kind of passed in your life, spiritual tests, what grade would you say you're in spiritually this morning?
SPEAKER_01: I asked people in counseling, and here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want to, if they're like, you know what, by the way, the most common answer is third grade.
SPEAKER_01: I mean 50 and 60-year-old men and women.
SPEAKER_01: Lady told me just the other day, she goes, Oh, third grade at best, and I barely passed second.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, That's a weird question.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you ask that?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Because if you're on the third grade and the way you think about God, I don't want to be up here on the 10th grade talking down to you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to incarnate the gospel and get down here on the third grade level.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Okay, so I don't feel bad.
SPEAKER_01: No, you're not bad.
SPEAKER_01: You're not stupid, you're not unspiritual.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that you haven't passed some tests.
SPEAKER_01: And God's not punishing you, He's inviting you to step up to this next grade.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what's happened right here with the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is testing them.
SPEAKER_01: Not because he wants to punish them, look at me, he wants to promote them to what what's next?
SPEAKER_01: Let's read in the Bible, Matthew chapter 8, starting in verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: It says, And when he got in the boat, his disciples followed him.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves.
SPEAKER_01: But he was asleep, and they went and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you have little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Then, circle that word in your Bible, then.
SPEAKER_01: We'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_01: Then he arose, and he arose, and he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
SPEAKER_01: And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this that even winds and sea obey him?
SPEAKER_01: You say, Ah, that's not much there.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, 73 words.
SPEAKER_01: But the authoritative nature of biblical faith involves three things I want you to see this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it involves this following is essential to discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: Following is essential to discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23, it says, and when he got in the boat, his disciples fought, his disciples followed.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus moved about with no guilt, shame, or pressuring people into following him.
SPEAKER_01: He just got in the boat and his disciples followed because hey, they was like, hey, he's getting in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: We follow him.
SPEAKER_01: Let's get in the boat too.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Jesus was not about high pressure.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he didn't guilt people, he didn't shame people, he didn't say, hey, hey, hey, if you don't get in the boat, you're gonna die and go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: He just like, hey, I'm going to get in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: The nature of following people is you wind up where they are and what they experience, you experience.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: So the Bible just clearly says, just with no fanfare, and when he got in the boat, his disciples followed him because this is essential to discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a lot of people in the American church who don't really follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They agree with Jesus, okay?
SPEAKER_01: They appreciate Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Heck, if Jesus ran for office, they would vote for him.
SPEAKER_01: But when it comes down to following Jesus in the nitty, gritty details of life, it's a hard no.
SPEAKER_01: And uh not only that, but it this is not a new response because people in the Bible, when they understood what all is involved in following Jesus, like I did a wedding last night.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, if you're married, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been married more than 10 years, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been married more than 20 years, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you people.
SPEAKER_01: If you would have known what all was involved in marrying the freak that you married, 20 years later, would you have married them?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I went back in the room, I did the way I went back in the room where the bride was, and I said, You ready?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Yeah, I'm like, in my mind, like, no, you're not.
SPEAKER_01: You have no idea what you're fixing to do.
SPEAKER_01: So because I talked to get people ready for what awaits them, I just said in the ceremony, hey, by the way, enjoy tonight.
SPEAKER_01: This is the easiest day of your marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing it's not a complaint, it's just that you had no idea what was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You just said, I'm following this person.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in, you're in.
SPEAKER_01: Let's do this.
SPEAKER_01: People say, I heard somebody say this one time, we love each other, we'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: Silly rabbits, tricks are for kids.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, but that's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like that in following Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I told you last week when Jesus saw a crowd, he just kind of assumed, I don't think these people understand.
SPEAKER_01: There, the Bible is replete with examples where people, hey, I want to follow.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus kind of said, Hey, here's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Like here's an example in John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Start reading verse 60.
SPEAKER_01: He says this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had laid down some hard teaching.
SPEAKER_01: He said, when many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying.
SPEAKER_01: Who can listen to it?
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, he said to them, Do you take offense at this?
SPEAKER_01: Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
SPEAKER_01: It is the Spirit who gives life.
SPEAKER_01: The flesh is no help at all.
SPEAKER_01: The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
SPEAKER_01: But there are some of you who do not believe.
SPEAKER_01: For Jesus knew from the beginning those who those who uh excuse me, but there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe.
SPEAKER_01: Now just pause right here.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you in this room do not believe, and you do not believe to such a degree that your own spouse doesn't even know that you do not believe.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to know that Jesus knows who you are.
SPEAKER_01: He's not mad at you, he's not coming at you heavy-handed today.
SPEAKER_01: He's just saying, hey, relax, you ain't gotta start.
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, when you're around your girlfriend's parents, hey, Jesus is good, he's my homeboy.
SPEAKER_01: He knows, he's always known those who do not believe.
SPEAKER_01: And he also knows who it was that would betray him.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 65, and he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by my father.
SPEAKER_01: And after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute, we can't control this?
SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute, it has to be granted by God.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 67.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus said to the 12, Hey gosh, you don't want to leave, do you?
SPEAKER_01: Because I won't have anybody eat lunch with in the cafeteria.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, bro, show some love.
SPEAKER_01: No, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was not heavy-handed or manipulative.
SPEAKER_01: He turned to the 12 and said, Do you want to go away as well?
SPEAKER_01: And Simon Peter, I love Simon Peter, like a horse caught right on bonanza.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Paul, what we're gonna do today.
SPEAKER_01: Big, burly, impetuous man.
SPEAKER_01: Simon Peter answered him and said, Lord, to whom shall we go?
SPEAKER_01: You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss the connection.
SPEAKER_01: We have believed and we have come to know.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how you know you believe in God.
SPEAKER_01: You come to know some things that you by nature could not know.
SPEAKER_01: Believing is is not an inconsequential thing.
SPEAKER_01: We have believed, and as a result of that, we have come to know some things, mainly who you are.
SPEAKER_01: You are the Holy One of God.
SPEAKER_01: And what I want us to see this morning is that people who really follow Jesus, their lives are shaped by experiences, not consequences.
SPEAKER_01: Their lives are shaped by experiences, not consequences.
SPEAKER_01: Because a long time ago, back in the 50s and 60s, the church preached consequences.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you don't want to go to hell, and it would try to scare you.
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of heavy-handed, really emotionally manipulative, all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And but what happens is the internet came along and people started discovering there's other people out there who are proud of their unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: And so when the church preached consequences, people were like, Well, how bad can it be?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but here's the thing: you should not believe in Jesus because of consequences.
SPEAKER_01: You should not believe in Jesus just because you don't want to go to hell.
SPEAKER_01: You should believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Listen very carefully.
SPEAKER_01: You should listen to Jesus, believe in Jesus because it is the only place you're gonna have you can experience this quality of life that the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_01: Like I told you this before, but it's been a while.
SPEAKER_01: It's all through the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: There's two Greek words in the Bible for life.
SPEAKER_01: One is bios, the other one is zoe.
SPEAKER_01: Bios is just biological existence.
SPEAKER_01: I got up this morning, I showered, I shaved, I rode my scooter to work.
SPEAKER_01: Uh one of my neighbors, it was cold this morning, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: One of my neighbors just standing in the front yard sipping call me, just shaking his head.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, At least I'm going to church, you pagan.
SPEAKER_01: That's biological life, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's just bios.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the word.
SPEAKER_01: When he when Jesus said these words are spirit and life, and he said, and Peter says, Where else are we gonna go?
SPEAKER_01: You have the words of eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: That's not bias, it's Zoe.
SPEAKER_01: It's this quality of life, not quantity.
SPEAKER_01: You always get to live forever.
SPEAKER_01: It's a quality of life, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so I brought you the definition for Zoe, and I point to it whenever I can in the Bible because this look at me.
SPEAKER_01: This is the reason you should consider the truth claims of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: It's not consequence, it's experience.
SPEAKER_01: You never experience this kind of life apart from a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Zoe is the absolute fullness of life, life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed in the portion, even in this world, of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection, to be consummated by new experiences above them, among them, a more perfect body and to last forever.
SPEAKER_01: This is how God created you to live.
SPEAKER_01: It's what Jesus promised, and look at me, it's why people followed him.
SPEAKER_01: It's why the first time Jesus stood up and talked in the temple, the people said, He does not speak as a scribe or a Pharisee, but as one who has authority.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was not heavy-handed, he didn't try to scare people.
SPEAKER_01: He just said, Hey, follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And people dropped their nets.
SPEAKER_01: The fishermen dropped their nets and followed him because they saw in him a life that they could never experience on their own.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you this on the authority of God's word, and as your pastor, the reason you should consider the truth claims of Christianity is not about consequence, it's about experience.
SPEAKER_01: And you should ask yourself, have I ever experienced this life that the Bible talks about?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second thing about the authoritative nature of biblical faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith makes it possible to live out of sync with your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's a mouthful, but I'll show it to you in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Faith makes it possible to live out of sync with your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: Like I told the sometimes I tell the 8 o'clock service things I don't tell y'all because it's not filmed and there's no record of it.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell y'all this anyway, okay?
SPEAKER_01: When I was a little kid, I grew up on a farm in East Texas, and my dad was just a chain-sming, whiskey drinking redneck.
SPEAKER_01: He was a rough man, uh, but he was gregarious and funny, Coastal League Baseball was a great athlete.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but my dad was never like afraid of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And like we had a john, we called it a John boat, like an aluminum boat.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: When I say John boat, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: So we had a John boat, and my dad, I was like eight, my brother was nine, and my dad goes, hey, y'all go hook the boat up, we're gonna go fishing.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just thought, great, we're not gonna have to work today.
SPEAKER_01: So we hooked the boat up, we go fishing.
SPEAKER_01: My dad would get to the boat ramp, he would get out and light a cigarette and say, Y'all back the boat in.
SPEAKER_01: Now my brother's nine, back in a truck down the boat ramp.
SPEAKER_01: I'd be in the boat, we unclip the front and the little crank, a little hook on the front of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: I'd be in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: My brother let it get rolling back.
SPEAKER_01: My dad taught us this get it rolling back at about 10, 15 miles an hour, and then stomp the brakes, and it just slides off.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what we did.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sliding back, I'm just floating in the water, I crank it up, and I'm just here we go.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, I feel the boat getting a little heavy in the back.
SPEAKER_01: That's because in the back of a John boat is a little circle, and what goes in that circle is what's called a drain plug.
SPEAKER_01: You put it in there and you flip it up and expands the rubber gasket.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the drain plug, and my dad is smoking on the shore, and he's like, Hey, hey, you're heavy in the back end, check the drain plug.
SPEAKER_01: And I look back, and the drain plug is floating.
SPEAKER_01: Like, this isn't good.
SPEAKER_01: And I freak out.
SPEAKER_01: I am just like, oh, oh, oh, oh, and my dad's, hey my God, calm down.
SPEAKER_01: Just give it full throttle, the water will float out the back.
SPEAKER_01: I'm eight.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: My because see, here's the thing about my dad.
SPEAKER_01: My dad believed this.
SPEAKER_01: If you follow my instructions, you're gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_01: Reminds you of anybody?
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, I was like, oh, and my dad, when my dad took a cigarette out of his mouth, he meant business.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, hey, don't be an idiot, I'll come out there and whip you.
SPEAKER_01: Get that boat going.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you can't walk on water, Leon.
SPEAKER_01: So finally, my brother's like, go, go, go.
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, I hammered down on the throttle, and all of a sudden, we're and I'm tootling around in a circle, and all of a sudden the water begins flowing out the back of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: And then my dad's like, ah, all right, head this way.
SPEAKER_01: And my brother jumped in, plugged it in, and my dad wow, slapped me in the head.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, hey, hey, by God, listen to me from now on.
SPEAKER_01: When I read the Bible, I'm so glad Jesus is not like my dad.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't change smoke and he doesn't slap me in the back of the head.
SPEAKER_01: Like a topspin forehand.
SPEAKER_01: Pow! Hey, hey, did I mention I'm eight?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Me and my brothers just learned to do stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And so I didn't panic after that anytime I got in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: I did check the drain plug every time, but I digress.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: faith makes it possible to live out of sync with your circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24 and 25.
SPEAKER_01: Look what happens.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves because they didn't put the drain plug in.
SPEAKER_01: But hear this part.
SPEAKER_01: But he was asleep.
SPEAKER_01: He is out of sync with what is happening all around him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And they went and welcome, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you have little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do you mean when I say faith makes it possible to live out of sync with your circumstances?
SPEAKER_01: I mean Jesus is asleep in the midst of a storm.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is inviting them to have faith in what he has faith in.
SPEAKER_01: Himself.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What in the world are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: The storm comes.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, people sometimes people are like, oh, how the how the good is this is a lake or a sea.
SPEAKER_01: The storm comes from the fact that they are six to seven hundred feet below sea level.
SPEAKER_01: On the eastern rim, there's this range of mountains, and so the wind comes down and it's very turbulent.
SPEAKER_01: It can go from very calm to very turbulent immediately pretty quickly in a short amount of time.
SPEAKER_01: A squall blows in on them, waves start coming over the side, and they are losing their mind.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the Bible teaches very clearly that we're gonna find ourselves in a storm on occasion.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: So the Bible's it's plain spoken.
SPEAKER_01: It says, hey, you're gonna find yourself in a storm.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what also the Bible says the Bible also teaches us to think differently about the storm before it comes, so we experience the storm differently when it comes.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible teaches us to think differently about the storm before it comes.
SPEAKER_01: So we respond differently to the storm when it comes.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Like here's an example.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 1, verse 2 says this Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
SPEAKER_01: Hard stop?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
SPEAKER_01: And let steadfastness have its full effect.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you read something like that in the Bible, you should be like, okay, what's the full effect of steadfastness?
SPEAKER_01: Let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
SPEAKER_01: What is the full effect of steadfastness?
SPEAKER_01: It's a complete, fully developed, mature Christian who is content, who's not tossed to and fro with every experience they have.
SPEAKER_01: Like I saw it a couple weeks ago on TV, uh, they had a security camera in a bar, and a guy walks in, a teenager walks in with a gun, and he's holding up the bar, and everyone's ducking down, the bartender falls down, and there's one guy, he's in his 60s, he's just sitting there, he picks up a pack of cigarettes and lights a cigarette and takes a drink of his beer and says, and the guy's got a gun pointed at him, and the guy just shrugs and takes another drink of his beer.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, I want to be that guy.
SPEAKER_01: What does he know?
SPEAKER_01: And the commentator was like, Clearly, this man knows something no one else said because people are pulling out their money and their cell phones.
SPEAKER_01: This guy's just sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: At one point, he looks at the guy and just shakes his head like, and I just thought, wow.
SPEAKER_01: I how can you be this composed when someone's got a gun on you?
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you are like, I don't know about that pastor, a man in a bar.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a more uh church acceptable answer.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you ever heard of a guy named John Wesley?
SPEAKER_01: John Wesley had a brother named Charles Wesley.
SPEAKER_01: They started the Methodist religion, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The Wesley brothers.
SPEAKER_01: Great men, Charles Wesley was a great hymn writer.
SPEAKER_01: John Wesley, in like 1738, he was a missionary for the Church of England.
SPEAKER_01: He was on a ship and he was going to his assignment.
SPEAKER_01: And on the ship also were these cats called the Moravians.
SPEAKER_01: The Moravians were deep theological men.
SPEAKER_01: They were godly, godly, godly people.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, very respected.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that ship hit a storm, and I mean it was listed hard to the left and to the right, such that John Wesley said he thought I thought we were gonna, the ship was gonna go down.
SPEAKER_01: And in the midst of the storm, at its most intense moment, he looks over, he hears a noise, and the Moravians are singing.
SPEAKER_01: And John Wesley was like, Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, We're singing about the God, we're singing to the God that gives us peace in the midst of the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know this God?
SPEAKER_01: And John Wesley said, I'm a missionary for the Church of England.
SPEAKER_01: And the Moravians said, Yes, but do you know God personally?
SPEAKER_01: And don't miss this, John Wesley would later say, their response to the storm made me realize I do not know the God they know.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, why are you telling us that?
SPEAKER_01: Does your response to the storm convict anyone?
SPEAKER_01: Because John Wesley said, I was so deeply convicted about the insufficiency of what I called faith.
SPEAKER_01: I had religious traditions.
SPEAKER_01: I did not have a relationship with God like the Moravians, that in the midst of a storm I could sing to this God.
SPEAKER_01: It it messed him up.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I again, does your response to the storm convict anyone?
SPEAKER_01: Here's four things about storms I want us to understand today.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, storms alter the way we relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: They alter the way we relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people spit the bit and you just quit.
SPEAKER_01: But I would say it like this: Are you relating to God on the basis of what you need him to do or on the basis of who you know him to be?
SPEAKER_01: Now there's a reason.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a cute play on words.
SPEAKER_01: Do you relate to God on the basis of what you need him to do?
SPEAKER_01: Save us.
SPEAKER_01: We're perishing.
SPEAKER_01: Or do you relate to God on the basis of who you know him to be?
SPEAKER_01: Because if it if it's what you need him to do, then you never really need faith.
SPEAKER_01: You just need to be rescued.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you may realize that you've never really had faith.
SPEAKER_01: You just got rescued some.
SPEAKER_01: You like to ride in the Coast Guard helicopter.
SPEAKER_01: You like being rescued, but you've never really experienced personal faith.
SPEAKER_01: So storms alter the way we relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing about storms, storms speed us up emotionally.
SPEAKER_01: They speed us up emotionally.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: You go from experience to conclusion.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the experience.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, the ship is gone.
SPEAKER_01: Take it on water, save us.
SPEAKER_01: Conclusion?
SPEAKER_01: We're perishing.
SPEAKER_01: Storms speed us up emotionally.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a third thing.
SPEAKER_01: Storms expose the relationship of fear and faith.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Where fear is present, it's not faith is absent, but it's usually lacking because Jesus, he doesn't say, Oh, you have no faith.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you have little faith.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you feel fear, you should cause that fear should cause you to think about, hey, fear is really big.
SPEAKER_01: Where's my faith in relation to this fear that I'm experiencing right now?
SPEAKER_01: And here's the last one: storms are the context of discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: Storms are the context of discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, I had you circle a word earlier, the word then.
SPEAKER_01: And let me read verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you have little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
SPEAKER_01: So there's an order to how Jesus speaks, and there should be an order to how you and I act and speak when you find yourself in a storm.
SPEAKER_01: Speak to yourself first and then to your situation.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus speaks to them, and then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't do this until the storm has accomplished its purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Now it doesn't make sense if you wake Jesus up, save us, we're perishing.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, what?
SPEAKER_01: There's a storm.
SPEAKER_01: All right, storm, peace be still.
SPEAKER_01: But he does it.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: The boat is just lifting hard right and left, port and starboard, and the disciples are freaking out.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to them, they wake him up, and the first thing he says is, Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_01: They're like, Hello.
SPEAKER_01: Why are you afraid?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you little faith.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: It's a test of discipleship.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is saying, I have, I have, you, you, you woke me out by calling me Lord.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm really Lord, why are you freaking out right now?
SPEAKER_01: Save us, Lord, we're perishing.
SPEAKER_01: Well, clearly, you don't understand what it means for me to be Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Lord over this as well.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is, God doesn't quiet the storm in your life until the storm has accomplished its purposes for your life.
SPEAKER_01: This is why there's an order to what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_01: He speaks to them first.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are in a storm right now and you're like, Jesus, would you?
SPEAKER_01: If you're really real, would you?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is like, nah, storm, I ain't sweating the storm.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to get you to get to where you live out that I really am Lord, not just say that I am Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I reference this passage in counseling a lot.
SPEAKER_01: It's Proverbs 4, 7, but I memorize it and I use it in the NIV.
SPEAKER_01: I preach for the ESV version.
SPEAKER_01: The NIV says it like this the beginning of wisdom is this.
SPEAKER_01: Get wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, no duh.
SPEAKER_01: But then he goes, it's the last part that I refer.
SPEAKER_01: Though it cost you all you have, get understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: When life is really costly and it's really hard and the boat is taking on water, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You should look at yourself and your spouse and say, hey, what can we understand because this is happening that we would not understand if this was not happening?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: What can we understand because this is happening?
SPEAKER_01: That if this wouldn't happen, we couldn't understand.
SPEAKER_01: Like last night, I I like to hear people's stories.
SPEAKER_01: I did the wedding, then we had dinner reception, and somebody said to me, We're at the dinner, we're sitting down, and somebody said, How long do you usually stay?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Till the white people get liquored up and get on the dance floor.
SPEAKER_01: That's when I when the DJ says, Hey folks, the dance floor's over, my wife just stands up like Pavlov's dog.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we're gonna go.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't want to see the white man overbike.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't want to see me on Sunday after you've done that.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just graciously slip out the back door.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I'm sitting there talking, and this is this fascinating me.
SPEAKER_01: I was talking to a young man, and he said, Yeah, I lost my job and I was personally bankrupt, my company was bankrupt, and it was a turning point in my life, and I just memo to self.
SPEAKER_01: I want to get lunch with this guy and hear about this.
SPEAKER_01: How'd you survive that storm?
SPEAKER_01: It was fascinating.
SPEAKER_01: I was just like, ah, you know, they got the chart, they have the tables and the assignments.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my favorite part.
SPEAKER_01: Watching people realize, oh, we're at the preacher's table.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Though it cost, here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Because the guy was telling me, he just referenced it kind of in passing.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, man, what happens, we'll put attack on that and come back.
SPEAKER_01: Though it costs you all you have, get understanding.
SPEAKER_01: There's something that man understood about himself and God in that circumstance and situation that if he hadn't had a file bankruptcy, he wouldn't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, hey, I want to glean out of your field, bro.
SPEAKER_01: I want to learn from you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the last thing I want us to see in the text today.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is an invitation to a transformed view of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me give credit where credit's due.
SPEAKER_01: I learned this from an acquaintance.
SPEAKER_01: We're not friends, we're like an acquaintance.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I met him through a friend from a guy named Dan Allender.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever heard of Dan Allender?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Dan Alender is he's the he's a thinker, a counselor.
SPEAKER_01: He started the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and we had we've had Dan here before in the past.
SPEAKER_01: A man left our church because I had Dan Allender, because Dan Allener, you know, he doesn't agree with everything that Dan Allender says.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't agree with everything Dan Allender says.
SPEAKER_01: The first time I met Dan Alender, had breakfast with him in Seattle, I said, he said, Whoa, you're kind of an eccentric.
SPEAKER_01: I said, dude, you're nutty as a squirrel turn.
SPEAKER_01: You're calling me eccentric?
SPEAKER_01: You were crazy, Alander.
SPEAKER_01: You believe in the healing power of essential oils.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I lost some of y'all, didn't I?
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all like, I got a diffuser in my house right now, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: But Allen has podcasts about.
SPEAKER_01: Now look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why I'm bringing this up.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be those people that are only learning from people that are just like you.
SPEAKER_01: Dan Allen and I could not be more different.
SPEAKER_01: And I like the guy.
SPEAKER_01: He's eccentric, he's nutty, he wears his pants up to his armpits.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, man, can your body breathe in that?
SPEAKER_01: But look at me.
SPEAKER_01: If all you can do is learn from people who are like you, you will you will miss out on learning a lot of stuff in this life.
SPEAKER_01: And he asked me what I thought about the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You should chisel theology off the front of it.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are all about psychology.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Well, how do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Because I started bringing up theology when you got so well.
SPEAKER_01: I want to caution you again, you're bringing up theology.
SPEAKER_01: It's on the building.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Whoa, okay, well, that that okay.
SPEAKER_01: But I learned this from him.
SPEAKER_01: We were having breakfast, we were talking, and I said, You've read in good books lately.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Have you read Edward T.
SPEAKER_01: Welch's book on fear?
SPEAKER_01: I sent you a quote yesterday from the book.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, tell me about why should I read it?
SPEAKER_01: He said, You should read it because it's not just a book about fear, it's an invitation to a transformed view of God.
SPEAKER_01: And I took a pen and just wrote on the corner of my placemat.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, None of your business there.
SPEAKER_01: I want to think about this.
SPEAKER_01: Got me something like a squirrel, got me some nuts here.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna put it on a storm away later.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what I mean when I say, because when I'm studying for today, I saw Dan Alander with his bushy hair.
SPEAKER_01: Fear is an invitation to a transformed view of God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: We're about done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this that even the wind and sea obey him?
SPEAKER_01: See, what happens is they gotta they gotta be transformed in the way they view Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They called him a man.
SPEAKER_01: Hello.
SPEAKER_01: Start there.
SPEAKER_01: That's your first problem.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not just a man, he's the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: News flash.
SPEAKER_01: And these knuckleheads are like, hey, what kind of a man is this?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think David Blaine could even do this magic.
SPEAKER_01: It's an invitation to a transformed view of God.
SPEAKER_01: See, what needs to happen is not that we change how we view our circumstances or ourselves, but what needs to change, be transformed is how we understand God.
SPEAKER_01: Fear invites us to a different view of God because ours is insufficient, unsatisfying, and unhelpful.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, in your last storm, was your faith helpful to you on a real practical level?
SPEAKER_01: I see a lady, she's in her late 20s, she doesn't go to church, and she goes, Hey, by the way, if my story will help anybody, and that that's anytime I share, it's people like, dude, if my dumpster fire warms somebody else's heart, you can share it.
SPEAKER_01: Just leave my name out of it.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so she's in her late 20s, and she's I I'll say it in a clinical way.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, I need to revisit the way I relate to men in dating relationships.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, I know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so there's a pattern here, they're real intense, they don't last long.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so she's about 20 minutes in, and she says, So you got anything?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't feel anything yet.
SPEAKER_01: I could start talking, but I would just be talking.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you keep talking?
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to listen through my spirit, because I the Holy Spirit hadn't revealed anything yet.
SPEAKER_01: She talked about five more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh, time out, I think I got something here.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I said, if God doesn't have the authority to mandate your morality, he probably doesn't have the authority to comfort you when you're afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, What?
SPEAKER_01: I said, You can live your life in such a way that you rob God of all his authority.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you turn to him to receive authoritative comfort, because of the way you lived, the God that you relate to has no authority.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, I said, Yours is a structural problem, not a relational problem.
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Wait, wait, okay, I'm not that smart.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Stop saying that.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, change the way you talk to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Stop saying, I'm not that smart.
SPEAKER_01: Dumb it down.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm not dumbing it down because you're not dumb.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh, okay, give it to me one more time.
SPEAKER_01: I said, if God does not have the authority to mandate your morality, then he probably doesn't have the authority to comfort you when you're afraid.
SPEAKER_01: This is because I said, God is not situationally authoritative.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Bring it down.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-uh, uh-uh, you're not dumb.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, you don't want God to have authority over here to tell you what to do and not do with your body.
SPEAKER_01: But you want to come to God and you want him to be authoritative when you want comfort.
SPEAKER_01: He's not situationally authoritative.
SPEAKER_01: If he's not authoritative over here, he cannot be authoritative over here.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm not saying you redefine God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying your experience of God is pretty limited based on how you live in relation to men.
SPEAKER_01: I said, if you would just let, if you would submit to the authority of God over here, you would experience the authority of God over here.
SPEAKER_01: And my friends, many of us in this room are the same way.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's not morality, it's some other area in your life.
SPEAKER_01: But see, God always has authority over all things.
SPEAKER_01: You can live in such a way that God is rendered not helpful when the storm hits, because he just lacks authority.
SPEAKER_01: And so if he doesn't have the authority to govern your life when it's you know 60 degrees in sunshine, then when it's hurricane weather and you're eating breakfast with Eeyore, there's not much comfort there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, face it.
SPEAKER_01: You're just like, oh, I asked me, hey, how does your faith speak to the situation?
SPEAKER_01: I I don't, I'm not sure what you're asking.
SPEAKER_01: Like, how does your faith, how does the historic biblical Christian faith, what does it inform you, how does it inform you?
SPEAKER_01: What does it tell you to do?
SPEAKER_01: What does it make you capable of?
SPEAKER_01: And the reason is when you do not submit to the authority of God over here, you cannot experience an authoritative God over here.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: Say amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so the question we have to ask ourselves today is very very simple.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, do you allow fear to transform your view of God?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is trying to demonstrate to his disciples, hey guys, by the way, the reason I spoke to you first and the storm is raging, I could have called the storm first, but I didn't.
SPEAKER_01: The storm has yet to fulfill its purpose in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Do you what do you knuckleheads understand I have authority over this as well?
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, when they land the boat, he's gonna demonstrate something else he has authority over.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's nothing that Jesus does not have authority over.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_01: We like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Some questions come up on the screen, that's for your consideration, contemplation.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about these in our community groups next time they meet.
SPEAKER_01: But for right now, let's just kind of brood over this right here.
SPEAKER_01: Is Jesus an authoritative presence in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Just think about that.
SPEAKER_01: God, our understanding today from your word is that you're you're not a man that you would lie, and you're not a God that fails.
SPEAKER_01: You say in Isaiah, I'm the Lord God of all flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Is anything too difficult for me?
SPEAKER_01: So there's no thing that's too difficult for you, and there's nobody in this room that is too difficult for you.
SPEAKER_01: So if there's anybody here today that wants to excuse themselves from the grace of God, saying, Man, I burned it to the ground just last night, you have no idea.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he does.
SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone who doesn't believe, just like you knew Judas was gonna betray you, so our unbelief doesn't catch you off guard.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would let us feel the insufficiency of not believing, so that believing in Jesus would be the only response that we have.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we believe in you, we start growing and understanding things about you, and we start experiencing things that you say we could experience.
SPEAKER_01: We're no longer managing consequences, we're experiencing goodness.
SPEAKER_01: This is biblical Christianity, and this is what we were made for.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, reveal that to us.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to this message.
SPEAKER_00: Be sure to give us a five star rating in review and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to go deeper with our sermon content, you can hear more on our Circling Back with Neil McClendon podcast at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.