SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, thank you that mercy calls our name.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy knows our name.
SPEAKER_01: Mercy calls our name.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for anyone in this room who've never heard mercy call their name, that maybe even today would be their day.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we've not come for a religious lecture or a beat down or to be clubbed over the head with a guilt stick.
SPEAKER_01: We've come to be set free by the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, say something today that has our name on it.
SPEAKER_01: We pray and we listen now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Luke chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 8.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 865.
SPEAKER_01: And if you find a Bible on your row and you don't have a personal Bible, take that one with you as our gift and we'll get some more.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Page 865 on your Pew Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We've been in a series that I said earlier called Encounter, where we look at different encounters that people had in the Bible with God and what we take away from that.
SPEAKER_01: Today we will finish that series and we'll start a new series next week.
SPEAKER_01: I'll send you an email this week talking more about that.
SPEAKER_01: But today I want to just kind of look at, I think, one of the more formative experiences that the disciples had with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 8, I'll start reading in verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: It says, One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, Let us go across to the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: And so they set out, and as they smiled, excuse me, as they sailed, he fell asleep.
SPEAKER_01: And a windstorm came down the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.
SPEAKER_01: And they went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we're perishing.
SPEAKER_01: And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a calm.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this then that commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?
SPEAKER_01: I had a professor in seminary that said that your view of God is most on display by the way you represent him when you read the red.
SPEAKER_01: And then when he said that, I thought, that was really profound, and I didn't get it.
SPEAKER_01: Because I remember after class we walked out, me and my buddies were like, hey man, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: And basically, uh he had read a story and he said, Your view of God is most on display when you read the red.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, how you represent Jesus in this situation when the disciples wake him up, the only thing Jesus says two sentences, let us go across to the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think Jesus was some conquering hero?
SPEAKER_01: Let us go aside, let us go across to the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: Or did Jesus just kind of say, hey, let us let's go to the other side of the lake?
SPEAKER_01: Mark tells us this same story is according to Mark's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Mark says that the reason they gives a little more background.
SPEAKER_01: He says the reason they were going to the other side of the lake was just to rest, to get away from the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: Just to, they were just kind of peopled out.
SPEAKER_01: And I relate to that because my in-laws got in town on Tuesday and they just left this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And they brought their little leprous crippled dog with them.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what a bad husband I am.
SPEAKER_01: This whole week I've been kind of keeping a little scorecard of what my wife owes me for having to put up with all this.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just, in my mind, I think today she's probably gonna burst forth and say, You're so awesome because my parents came for five days.
SPEAKER_01: It's probably not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, yeah, that's just it's just real.
SPEAKER_01: So, I mean, how do you think about it?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus basically says, Hey, here's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the Son of God, and his first disciples were kind of like, I've had enough, let's get away from these people.
SPEAKER_01: Don't get too down on yourself if you just need a break every once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, some of you probably should look at your husband or your wife this week and kind of go, I'm planning to go away for a couple days.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all need to fend for yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing that Jesus says in this passage, now keep in mind, the way you what you think about God is most on display in the way you read the red, Jesus says, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you think Jesus said like this, Where is your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you think Jesus was like, What?
SPEAKER_01: Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the camp that kind of says Jesus probably just kind of went, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not as angry as some of you have been told.
SPEAKER_01: He's not as out to get you as you may believe.
SPEAKER_01: Because think about it this way: if he really was out to get you, why would he not have gotten you already?
SPEAKER_01: What is he waiting for?
SPEAKER_01: Your permission?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is looking for me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't tell him where I am.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist says this in the 139th Psalm, if I take the wings of the morning and go to the heights of the mountain, you're there.
SPEAKER_01: If I go to the depths of the sea, you're there.
SPEAKER_01: Where shall I flee from your presence, O Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, and this may be what you needed to hear today, and if it is, you can just get up and leave and go to brunch.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: You need to change the way you think about God.
SPEAKER_01: Because some of you are avoiding Him when you were created to enjoy Him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gets up and He's like, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Translation.
SPEAKER_01: You don't think I got this?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Like our oldest is she's a junior this year, and we're having we were on a date last weekend, and I said, She's all into college, and how much does college cost?
SPEAKER_01: And this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: And I over dinner I said, How much money do you think mom and dad should have saved up so you can stop worrying about college?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Oh, I don't know,$40,000?
SPEAKER_01: Start worrying.
SPEAKER_01: Dad! I'm like, eh, college is infinitely more than that.
SPEAKER_01: But my first thought was, this kid has no grasp on reality.
SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, what do we take away from this encounter?
SPEAKER_01: I think we take away three things.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, let me let me just tell you if I had to put a title of this, that would talk to you about this When Life Takes on Water.
SPEAKER_01: When life takes on water, because like the disciples, they get in the boat, Jesus says, Let's go across the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: They start out, Jesus falls asleep.
SPEAKER_01: Now picture this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't just need to hear the Bible, you need to visualize the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Here's Jesus and 12 disciples.
SPEAKER_01: That means 13 grown men.
SPEAKER_01: This boat is pretty big, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's got 13 people in it, and there's room for Jesus to stretch out and go to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what exactly kind of boat it is, but it's big enough, and all of a sudden it's a boat that big and a storm so big that water begins to come over the side of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if George Clooney was on the boat, like in the perfect storm, and they're running up the waves and everything.
SPEAKER_01: When I somebody said, Did you go see the movie Perfect Storm?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Did you cry?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Why not?
SPEAKER_01: Because Mark Wahlberg's in the movie.
SPEAKER_01: He can never be Mark Wahlberg the actor.
SPEAKER_01: He's Mark Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
SPEAKER_01: And so anytime I would start getting sad, I would think, oh, it's Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good vibrations.
SPEAKER_01: And my friends are like, What?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, you don't know who that is?
SPEAKER_01: He's not an actor.
SPEAKER_01: He's an underwear model who used to sing.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what I would tell myself when the movie got bad.
SPEAKER_01: But I picture when I read in Luke chapter 8, it's only about three or four verses that here's this huge boat and a bigger storm.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: Because there's going to be some storms in life that are bigger than your boat.
SPEAKER_01: And your life is going to take on water because the Bible says that all of a sudden Jesus is asleep and they begin to take on water.
SPEAKER_01: And they kind of looked, I think they've exhausted probably every means because I don't think their first recourse was to wake Jesus up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe when you're a little kid and your dad was I'm taking a nap.
SPEAKER_01: Don't bother me unless something happens, unless the house is on fire.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, got it.
SPEAKER_01: So they've done everything they know to do.
SPEAKER_01: Second, by way of observation, the second thing I want to say to you is that not only will your life begin to take on water, but you will very quickly realize you don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so as a last resort, they're kind of like, I'm not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: You do it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: Is there a disciple on the boat named Mikey?
SPEAKER_01: We'll get him.
SPEAKER_01: He does.
SPEAKER_01: And so they wake Jesus up.
SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of like, um.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus gets up and he says, Be still.
SPEAKER_01: And the water and the wind whack.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciple said this, you should take a pen and circle this word.
SPEAKER_01: Who then?
SPEAKER_01: Circle the word then.
SPEAKER_01: That's a real pregnant word.
SPEAKER_01: Who then is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?
SPEAKER_01: What do we take away from that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, first of all, when life takes on water, you remember three things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, you need to remember God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds innocuous and simple, and you're kind of like, oh, you preachers are always saying stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this.
SPEAKER_01: You and I believe the gospel in as much as we apply it to our greatest need.
SPEAKER_01: You believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the gospel in as much as I apply it to my greatest need, my greatest crisis, my greatest circumstance, whatever I've got going on.
SPEAKER_01: That's the degree to which I believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say remember God's word, I mean that because, see, it says right here in verse 22, one day he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, Let us go across to the other side of the lake and drowned on the way.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Let us go across to the other side of the lake.
SPEAKER_01: It's simple and it's innocent and yet it's profound because you've got to live in light of what you've heard God say.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, if you kind of extrapolate that out, the next step is you've got to have a means and a method for kind of retaining what God says, kind of holding on to what God says.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are still walking in light of things that God said a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: I remember when I first started as the pastor here, uh, it was eight and a half years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And very clearly, I mean, I stand in the backyard uh with my children, one of them was in the swing, and one of them was on the trampoline, and they were like little girls, and I'm like, hang on a second, girls.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'd talk to the committee and met with advisory council and this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, just give me some room and let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: Just give me two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not talk to each other for two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you've ever talked to a church committee.
SPEAKER_01: That's hard for them not to talk for two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of them would call me about every other day.
SPEAKER_01: How are you feeling?
SPEAKER_01: How you feeling?
SPEAKER_01: I'm feeling like you're wearing me out.
SPEAKER_01: I just need some silence.
SPEAKER_01: And while the one guy said, What do you need silence for?
SPEAKER_01: I said, So I can just hear God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
SPEAKER_01: I said, This isn't math, fellas.
SPEAKER_01: This is music.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy started laughing.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're gonna have to explain that one.
SPEAKER_01: And the thought went through my mind, Lord, is this are you sure?
SPEAKER_01: It was great.
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks, nothing, just but I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I would pray, because at the time I traveled all over the country, lived in hotels, and ate out for a living.
SPEAKER_01: And there are days I missed that life.
SPEAKER_01: And and and so, but every time I'd pray, I wouldn't hear a thing.
SPEAKER_01: But what I would see is those, you know, those green exit signs you see on the interstate?
SPEAKER_01: I would see one of those.
SPEAKER_01: And so one day I said to my wife, she goes, Well, what are you hearing?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm not hearing a thing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I pray and it's like crickets.
SPEAKER_01: I said, but in my spirit I see this green exit sign, and my wife was cooking, and she just looked at me and smiled and she goes, Maybe this is your exit off the road.
SPEAKER_01: Shut your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_01: But I remember I called him and said, Hey, I'm in the backyard.
SPEAKER_01: Called the guy that I was talking to one, two guys I was talking to said, hey, I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in.
SPEAKER_01: And very clearly I heard the Lord say, just be patient, because I'm gonna do something.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why, probably about a week ago, about 10:30 one night, I'm coming out of my office uh and I walked out to get in my truck, and I just that little same voice just kind of said, Look around.
SPEAKER_01: And I just kind of stopped and looked around, and I was like, and he said, I told you I was gonna do something.
SPEAKER_01: And I just sat in my truck and cried.
SPEAKER_01: I got home, my wife, well, that counseling point went long.
SPEAKER_01: Not really.
SPEAKER_01: Took me about 20 minutes of deep breathing in my truck.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say, Remember God's word, that sounds like, oh, great.
SPEAKER_01: Is that all you got?
SPEAKER_01: I shaved my legs for this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, Let us go across the lake to the other side.
SPEAKER_01: There are going to be moments, opportunities, periods in time where it feels like what God said He's going to do is never, ever, ever going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: So, because of that, you got to have a means and a method to kind of holding on and to retaining God's word so you can kind of walk in light of what God has said.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing we take away from this encounter is that you've got to ask yourself, where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: You have to locate your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wakes up and I don't think he yells.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think he screams, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: This is the best you can do.
SPEAKER_01: I just think he smiles and goes, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: What, what?
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: For many of us, our faith is in people.
SPEAKER_01: Like I had a conversation this week.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't try to have conversations that end awkwardly, but they do.
SPEAKER_01: And my every once in a while, my wife's kind of like, are you aware of how many awkward conversations you get in?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, but people say dumb stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And I just then words fly out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: Like, for example, I had a conversation with a man.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you he you may be in here today.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and he said, Well, I'm thinking about coming to your church, but I'm looking for a church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be a part of a church that has any hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, in the words of that great theologian Liam Neeson, good luck.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, because I said, tell me about your passion for hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, I have too much wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I mean people hypocrites, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And the more he talked to, the more he talked, and the more he talked to, the more he talked.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just kind of like, hey, I said, this is a great church.
SPEAKER_01: Best chart about the best part of this church is the people.
SPEAKER_01: The pastor is a highly functioning bipolar caffeine addict, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But the people are great.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Well, I mean, on a percentage, how many people we think are hypocrites?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, at some point or another, 100%.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy was like, Oh, what?
SPEAKER_01: How do you call yourself a church?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We should probably chisel it off the sign, right?
SPEAKER_01: And the whole time we're talking, you ever get the nagging sense that something's coming, rising up in you?
SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden I feel it coming, and I'm like, oh, this is gonna be good.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, after about 15 minutes of him going on and on and on about hypocrites, he said, I said, You let me ask you something.
SPEAKER_01: I I'm not sure where your faith is.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I said I'm gonna talk about this Sunday, but I'm gonna talk to my people and then tell them, hey, you gotta locate your faith because when life begins to take on water, it reveals where your faith really is.
SPEAKER_01: I I said, here's the thing, I'm not sure that that your issue is hypocrisy as much as it is idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: I thought that made perfect sense.
SPEAKER_01: And he went, I don't understand what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I think that your faith is in people, which is idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, It's not.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, then how do you know how many hypocrites there are?
SPEAKER_01: See, the more faith you have in God and your faith is in God, people lose the capacity to let you down.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that you don't recognize some people do wrong or they disappoint or they don't keep their word or whatever, but it doesn't have the power just to capsize your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, oh, I'm looking for a place where there's no hypocrites.
SPEAKER_01: Good luck.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, are you even can I just, since I'm already out here, can I just go a little further?
SPEAKER_01: Well, why not?
SPEAKER_01: Because if it's like this, I don't know if I want to come.
SPEAKER_01: Let me jump in right there and just tell you, I don't know if I want you here.
SPEAKER_01: See, the church, we've got to stop kind of prostituting ourselves to anybody and everything.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I lost some of you there, didn't I?
SPEAKER_01: That's just the church, brother.
SPEAKER_01: We should just be glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: Love you, glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01: You're all welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: But this is not the dairy queen.
SPEAKER_01: You go and drive up over the little hose and the bell rings, we come trotting out to manage your nonsense.
SPEAKER_01: And I lost the rest of you there.
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, here's what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, unlike some people in our city, I'm not a life coach.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a preacher, and I'm a pastor, and I love you, I'll marry you, I'll bury you, and I'll do everything necessary in between.
SPEAKER_01: I'll come to the hospital, all that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But just say, what do you mean, locate your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: It's an invitation to think about not do you have faith, but what is your faith in?
SPEAKER_01: Like some of your faith is in your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: Because you have a running record of what they've not done that they should have done and what you deserve.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are almost on the verge of divorce because they've almost gotten to that level, ding, when the doors open, and you get to do what you really want to do and blame it on them.
SPEAKER_01: That's because your faith is in your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes my faith, because I have an awesome wife, sometimes my faith can get in my wife.
SPEAKER_01: So when she doesn't pay as much attention to me as I think she should, I have a record of that.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk to her about it.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, she'll look at me today and go, you just need to suck it up and grow up.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's the way Jesus would talk.
SPEAKER_01: I've read the Bible and I don't think that's in there.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you where some of you, Jesus says, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, your faith is in your children.
SPEAKER_01: You say, How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: Ask your kids today if they feel pressure from you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you feel that?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, that's close enough, preacher.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I have a 17-year-old and 11-year-old, and I I have to repent to my 17-year-old of this.
SPEAKER_01: This happened last night at my house at about 11:15.
SPEAKER_01: I heard, because my daughter can't just talk on the phone, she has to do FaceTime.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, hello.
SPEAKER_01: People have got to see you when they talk.
SPEAKER_01: And I heard a boy's voice coming out of my daughter's bedroom.
SPEAKER_01: So I grabbed, so I grabbed my 40 cow, jammed a clip in there, went down the hall, walking sideways like a cop.
SPEAKER_01: You know how the cops walk like kicked the door open and did a sweep of the room.
SPEAKER_01: She's like, oh, hi, daddy.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I hear a boy's voice.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm talking to a friend of mine.
SPEAKER_01: I'm FaceTime with a friend of mine.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want any boy looking at you at 11:15 at night.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're fully clothed.
SPEAKER_01: Turn that thing around where he can see me.
SPEAKER_01: And then that's not like I repent of it.
SPEAKER_01: I said, hey, we don't talk to boys past this time of night.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's the weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Shut that off.
SPEAKER_01: And then about an hour later, I heard her talking again, and I was like, so kind of threw the cup, whoop, and I opened the door.
SPEAKER_01: And here's my I gotta confess to my daughter this because sometimes I don't think 17-year-olds can get overwhelmed because I'm 50, and I just think, you can't have real problems.
SPEAKER_01: You don't pay taxes, you don't have a job, you go to school.
SPEAKER_01: How hard can that be?
SPEAKER_01: Well, my daughter has six AP classes and one pre-AP calculus class.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, what are you, a martyr?
SPEAKER_01: But I walked in and I said, Hey, what do we do on the phone?
SPEAKER_01: And she said her friend's name and said, You know, so-and-so had a really hard day today, and she just needs someone to talk to.
SPEAKER_01: And clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit said, Shut up.
SPEAKER_01: And so I looked at her and went, just pulled the door to.
SPEAKER_01: So today I need to pull my 17-year-old and I want you to hold me accountable.
SPEAKER_01: I need to pull my 17-year-old aside and say, hey, I think sometimes dad forgets that your friends, their life takes on water too.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're in the room and you're 15, 16, 17, 14, we believe that your life can take on water too.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's easy to forget that.
SPEAKER_01: Just because it's not dramatic to me doesn't mean it's not real.
SPEAKER_01: And so I need to say that to my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: Without my wife enjoying it too much.
SPEAKER_01: But your faith, Jesus says, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: Your faith is sometimes in your children.
SPEAKER_01: And here's how you know, because do they feel ask your kids if they feel pressure from you?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes our faith is in our job and our accomplishments and what we do.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when we get laid off, we feel debilitated.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes asking you now the question today: where is your faith?
SPEAKER_01: See, when when life takes on water, you have to number one remember God's word.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, you have to locate your faith, your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And then thirdly, uh, you got to see it as an opportunity to grow in your knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the hardest one.
SPEAKER_01: Put a star by this.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: See it as an opportunity to grow in your knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what the Bible says in verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: He said to them, Where's your faith?
SPEAKER_01: And they were afraid and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then?
SPEAKER_01: Circle that.
SPEAKER_01: Who then is this?
SPEAKER_01: That he commands even winds and water, and they obey him.
SPEAKER_01: Who then?
SPEAKER_01: Remember I said, then is a real pregnant word in this passage?
SPEAKER_01: Who then, which means basically, who, in light of what we just saw, is this?
SPEAKER_01: Now you ought to, you're thinking people, you should read that and kind of go, You're the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: You don't know who Jesus is?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because when life begins to take on water, it's not punishment, it's an opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: You're not going to perish.
SPEAKER_01: It's an opportunity for you to understand God in a way you've never understood him before.
SPEAKER_01: Like Friday night, I was at dinner with some friends, and we were just kind of chatting around the table while we're waiting for food to come, and one of the young ladies there goes to AM and I said, What are you majoring in?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, supply chain management.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, I don't think they had that major when I was in college.
SPEAKER_01: They had like four degrees at my little school.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, tell me about that.
SPEAKER_01: And basically she says, Well, I take raw, I take materials from raw materials all the way to finished product and manage that process all the way in between.
SPEAKER_01: Because, and then we just went around the table and said, Hey, and and and kind of the guest of honor, it was a kind of a where there was a wedding, and a bunch of us went to dinner afterwards, and the dad was kind of saying, and this is, and then telling about people around the table.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a guy, and this guy here is buying his uh company from his dad, and they're in eight states, and because that's what we do.
SPEAKER_01: We kind of we define people in kind of terms of what they do.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when you meet somebody, you say, What do you do?
SPEAKER_01: And they tell you, like if you meet somebody, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: They say, I'm a garbage man.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, awesome, awesome, we need garbage men, being a garbage.
SPEAKER_01: No one ever says, I'm a brain surgeon, awesome, we need more brain surgeons.
SPEAKER_01: So we kind of relegate this sense of, and this guy, and I'm thinking, because when people ask me what I do like at a dinner party, it never goes well because I say, Well, I'm pastor of church, and they're like, Okay, thanks.
SPEAKER_01: What that means is if we get drunk and need a designated driver, we'll call you.
SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, don't talk to us.
SPEAKER_01: So last night, I mean, Friday night they're going around the table, supply chain management.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just thinking, I'm gonna say that sometime next time.
SPEAKER_01: People, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I am over supply chain management.
SPEAKER_01: And just let it hang out there.
SPEAKER_01: But then this guy has a company and they're in eight states and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And this guy over here has got three jobs, and I was like, I'm lazy.
SPEAKER_01: I've got one, and I only work on Sundays.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: This then, I'll never think about those people the same way ever again.
SPEAKER_01: Because the then, one of the one of the wives of breaking our phone, showing us a picture of her baby.
SPEAKER_01: The disciple says, Oh, they asked this great question.
SPEAKER_01: Who then is this?
SPEAKER_01: Who then, in light of what we just saw, is this the next time water comes kind of pouring over the edges of your life?
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: What is God inviting me to know about Him in light of what I'm going through right now?
SPEAKER_01: I tell you a little secret.
SPEAKER_01: These people in the section right here, there's a family that comes to our church.
SPEAKER_01: They are building out on some property, and in the meantime, there's like four kids and a mom and dad, and they all live in an RV.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, all of a sudden my house doesn't feel small anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I pray for them, I just pray for them in light of this passage.
SPEAKER_01: There's people in our church that uh, there's a man that goes to our church, they got a phone call this past week that your dad was playing golf and he had a massive heart attack.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't know how it's gonna go.
SPEAKER_01: He jumped on a plane and flew out to California.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lady in our church that sits on the back row right back there, and got a phone call this past week.
SPEAKER_01: Her brother was having just a basic, I mean, it was a it was a surgery, it wasn't you know, life-threatening, things didn't go well, and he ended up on a ventilator.
SPEAKER_01: And I called and she answered her cell phone and she said, We're just making the decision about what we're gonna do because we don't believe in artificially sustaining life.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought to myself, who then is this?
SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna find yourself in situations where God's inviting you to think differently and deeper about him in light of what you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: Because most people relate to God on the basis of two things, what he, either what he does or what he doesn't do.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't tell you how many people have said to me, I can't believe in a God to let my grandmother die.
SPEAKER_01: Or we had a baby and the baby didn't live to be about a month old, and I just I stopped believing in a God.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just here to tell you that when life begins to take on water, you need to have a mechanism by which you remember God's word.
SPEAKER_01: You need to, okay, I'm gonna live in light of what God said, so let me be clear about what God said.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, you've got to locate your faith, it will reveal to you what you have faith in.
SPEAKER_01: And then finally, it's a reminder.
SPEAKER_01: You get to grow in your knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_01: Who then is this?
SPEAKER_01: John, in John's gospel, it gets to the end of chapter 20.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, and he says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, These things are written.
SPEAKER_01: These things, all 19 or whatever chapters, John kind of spells out and looks back, and he says, just kind of in summary form, he kind of looks back at them and points and says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: There's enough.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says there's enough here for you to believe.
SPEAKER_01: These are written.
SPEAKER_01: Hear this again, because there's three simple questions here, and I want to end with this this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But these are written.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus did many other signs, and people say, Well, you think the Bible records everything Jesus ever said and did?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01: At one point it says, hey, if we were to make a record of everything Jesus did, it would fill libraries.
SPEAKER_01: You couldn't record it all.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
SPEAKER_01: But these that are written here are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: He says that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That's a question of authority.
SPEAKER_01: The Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a question of sufficiency.
SPEAKER_01: Is he really the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: The disciples are like, who then is this?
SPEAKER_01: And that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_01: It's a question of opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like us to close our service by just uh taking a little bit of time and just kind of thinking about how you encounter God these days.
SPEAKER_01: And I told you last week, and I meant it, that we're all different places along the scale.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us are over here, and you're like, I'm just, I just don't believe this at all.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are kind of over here, you're a five or six, you're like, I'm getting warmer to the idea.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you are like, hmm.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you're in today, look at me and I'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you're in, if water's pouring over the sides of your life.
SPEAKER_01: It God is inviting you to taste and see that He's good and that He's sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: We live in a culture, we got a lot going on, we got ISIS, we got Ebola, and we got uh school shootings going on in Washington, and we got all this kind of stuff, and the stock market's down and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And for a lot of people you work with and I work with and you hang out with and you know and you live next to, water is pouring over the sides, and they're watching.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a great environment for the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Let's spend some time thinking about these things.
SPEAKER_01: Let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest today, we like to just kind of uh look at the Bible and then think about what it says.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'll voice a prayer, and Clyde will come, and he maybe just play, he may sing or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But we invite you just to kind of encounter God in your thoughts, in your head, and in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you know what it's like to be abandoned.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, you have a deep and profound appreciation for an ever-present God.
SPEAKER_01: Who is on record in his word is saying, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: Translation, I'm not gonna do to you what your dad did to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna do what your mom did to you, I'm not gonna do what your first husband or your first wife did to you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm your father, and I'm always here with you.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when you can't find him, maybe he's sleeping in the bottom of the boat.
SPEAKER_01: Slow down, sit down, and believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.