SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we uh that's our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: We sing that great hymn as a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Seal our hearts up, Lord, uh, lest that uh too much uh uh of this world gets into them and we get kind of turned away.
SPEAKER_01: You warned your people all through the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Do not intermarry with those people, do not bow down to that God because they'll turn your heart away from me.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we have to come back and we have to take authority over our heart, over our affections, uh, because they'll get away from us.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, we turn our heart to you, and we say, Lord, bind our wandering heart to you, because there's nobody that's truer than you, there's no God besides you, and there's nobody that's gonna be better to us than you are, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's like Peter said, where else are we gonna go for the words of life?
SPEAKER_01: We don't have a plan B, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We confess that we are all in on you.
SPEAKER_01: Our hope is in you, our belief is in you, and our worship is for you.
SPEAKER_01: And so we give it to you today in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible tells us those are the kind of worshipers that you're looking for.
SPEAKER_01: So find us here in this place this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And now, Lord, that you found us, say something to us today that has our name on it, that engages our head and stirs our heart and finds expression in our hands.
SPEAKER_01: We pray.
SPEAKER_01: We pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat if you've got a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to take it open up to John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about the shapy nature of storms, the shapy nature of storms.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna read a familiar story to some of you out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but but while you're finding John chapter 6, verse 16, let me say this, because I don't want this to be foreboding and heavy, or say the shapy nature of storms.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is the story of the Bible where Jesus walks on water, uh, and the disciples are in a boat and they all get freaked out because the storm comes, it's at night, and the wind's blowing, the waves are going crazy, and they are so afraid.
SPEAKER_01: The word the Bible uses to describe how they felt this phobeo, and it means this, it's where we get our English word phobia, and it means to be so terrified that you want to run away.
SPEAKER_01: To be so terrified that you want to run away.
SPEAKER_01: But let me just caution you about this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Because preachers do this all the time, and I just think, don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
SPEAKER_01: It's not true.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what preachers do.
SPEAKER_01: They say, now, I know this about everybody in this room.
SPEAKER_01: You're either going into a storm, you're in a storm, or you're headed into a storm.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: That's not true.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: Because if that's true, then I here's my question.
SPEAKER_01: How do you behave when it's not when it's going really good?
SPEAKER_01: When it's going great, you feel guilty.
SPEAKER_01: You're just like, oh man, I should be doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Like I called a friend of mine a couple weeks ago, said, How's it going?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Man, I just got my bonus.
SPEAKER_01: It was way into six figures.
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I are gonna take three weeks off and travel the world.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, you made a deal with the devil.
SPEAKER_01: He said, he went on to tell me, Neil, it's going so good, we decided we're gonna take two vacations.
SPEAKER_01: After this three-week break, we're gonna go to the Virgin Islands, we're gonna drink good wine, and we're gonna eat out and sleep in and read books on the beach and get a tan.
SPEAKER_01: Shut up.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, as I'm sitting in my office down here drinking my coffee, this is really good, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I could smell the suntan lotion through the phone.
SPEAKER_01: And and landed, my friend, here's right.
SPEAKER_01: Amen is right.
SPEAKER_01: Because see, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: If you have the storm mentality that life's hard, it's always gonna be hard, you have no theology of joy.
SPEAKER_01: When it got good, you'd feel guilty.
SPEAKER_01: You wouldn't, you couldn't even enjoy if God gave you a six-figure bonus.
SPEAKER_01: I hung up the phone that day and I said, Lord, you lay that on me and I'll I'll enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: Absinkin lutely.
SPEAKER_01: I was so excited for him.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't try to make him feel guilty.
SPEAKER_01: Then he said to me on the phone, he goes, Hey, we're getting off.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, hey, hey Neil.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: I said, for what?
SPEAKER_01: He goes, thanks for not asking me.
SPEAKER_01: Am I gonna go to church while I'm in the Virgin Islands?
SPEAKER_01: I went, I don't go to church on vacation.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Really?
SPEAKER_01: I said, no.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Hey buckaroo, you've done enough.
SPEAKER_01: Sleep in.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Man, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01: So, hey, storms are gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: Life is not one big storm, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And be careful of it, because the church teaches that mentality.
SPEAKER_01: It teaches you, hey, it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: And if it's not hard, you're probably not living right.
SPEAKER_01: That's not true.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, sometimes because you are living right, God's gonna bless you, and it's gonna be better than you could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And you should just look at your wife and kind of go, can you believe this?
SPEAKER_01: But the storm's gonna come.
SPEAKER_01: And so when it does come, you need to know, you need to understand the shaping nature of storms and how God uses that in our life, how God comes to us in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't train your eye and dial in your ear, you won't hear and see God when he comes.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says it like this in John chapter 6, verse 16 when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started to cross the sea to Capernaum.
SPEAKER_01: It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.
SPEAKER_01: The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.
SPEAKER_01: When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.
SPEAKER_01: But he said to them, It is I, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at land to which they were going.
SPEAKER_01: There's four four four words to describe what we see in the text this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you the first one.
SPEAKER_01: It's simply this expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Now I've said this before, but it bears repeating.
SPEAKER_01: Everything in the Bible happens in a specific context.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot take things out of the context in which they happened because you don't understand the flow of thought, the surrounding circumstances, and uh the that that were happening.
SPEAKER_01: And that's where the good stuff is often found when you read the Bible to kind of see the big picture, like the macro, not just the micro.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say expectation, well, what what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 16, then evening came, his disciples went down to the sea and got into the boat and started across the sea to Capernaum.
SPEAKER_01: Uh now, what what I mean by expectation is that they didn't leave without Jesus' full knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, this same story is told in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Gospel of Mark, and in both of those accounts, they go into much greater detail.
SPEAKER_01: John is very brief.
SPEAKER_01: John's kind of 40,000-foot view.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew is about 400-foot view.
SPEAKER_01: He gives a lot of more details of Peter getting out of the boat and walking towards Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But in this, in this text we're in this morning, when I say expectation, what I mean is they leave because Jesus, remember the context, he just fed 5,000, and the people wanted to make him king by force.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, I'm not into that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And so he he goes off by himself up on a mountainside.
SPEAKER_01: He tells the disciples, matter of fact, in Mark's telling this story, he tells the disciples, get in the boat and go home.
SPEAKER_01: I'll catch up with you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh that's the inference that I'll catch up with you part.
SPEAKER_01: So their expectation is their rowing is Jesus is gonna come in any moment now, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so, by the way, uh they don't leave without his knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the second part of this nothing happens out on the sea without his knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: And so I say that to ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: Do you ever wonder if God sends you and I into the storms to grow our faith and see how we'll respond?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: You ever wonder?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm telling you this morning, sometimes God sends you into the storm just to grow your faith and to see how you're going to respond.
SPEAKER_01: Not his punishment, but his preparation.
SPEAKER_01: Well, preparation for what?
SPEAKER_01: For the next storm, whenever that comes.
SPEAKER_01: Two years from now, three years from now, two months from now.
SPEAKER_01: It's not always stormy weather.
SPEAKER_01: It's not always hurricane weather, Eeyore.
SPEAKER_01: Remember Eeyore?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you got friends that are like, Eeyore, how's it going?
SPEAKER_01: Horrible.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm two months behind, I'm a mortgage, and my wife's just, I mean, she's not enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: My kids are off the reservation.
SPEAKER_01: I hate my job, my truck's breaking down.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Never mind, it doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, you no one wants to be friends with Eeyore.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if you're in the room today and you're Eeyore, you need to check yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're also probably pretty friendless because that overwhelms people.
SPEAKER_01: It's just like, come on, dude, what is going on?
SPEAKER_01: So they had this expectation.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, let me ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: They're out there, they've been rowing, by the way, for six or seven hours.
SPEAKER_01: They left about dusk.
SPEAKER_01: And so they've been rowing six or seven hours, they've gone three or four miles.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not the, I mean, I'm I don't row a whole lot, uh uh, but I think if you gave me six or seven hours, I could go further than three or four miles.
SPEAKER_01: But the wind is incredible and the waves are beating against them.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if we had George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, we could make a movie out of this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so it's like that, it's just overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01: And they're just, eh, and I'm I'm sure you're probably not this way, but if I'm in that boat, I'm thinking all kinds of thoughts about Jesus, and not many of them are good.
SPEAKER_01: I'm thinking thoughts like this.
SPEAKER_01: He just fed 5,000 men, and not to mention the women and children, because many 15,000 strangers.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one of the 12 who have banked my life on him.
SPEAKER_01: I'm one of his inner circle, and we're out here about to drown.
SPEAKER_01: You'd think he would care about us.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of the storm, what are you most tempted to accuse Jesus of?
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of the storm, I mean when it's both hell and high water, what are you most tempted to accuse Jesus of?
SPEAKER_01: You see, because there's expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Accusation grows out of unmet expectation.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the second thing you see in the Bible in this passage is just the storm itself.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 17 and 18, you get the mood of the text.
SPEAKER_01: This is how John describes it.
SPEAKER_01: It was now dark.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had not yet come to them.
SPEAKER_01: The sea became rough and a strong wind was blowing.
SPEAKER_01: It was now dark.
SPEAKER_01: Something about dark changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: That's why when you were a little kid, your mom and dad told you, be home by dark.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want you out after dark.
SPEAKER_01: It was now dark.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had not yet come to them.
SPEAKER_01: The sea became rough and a strong wind was blowing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, many of you have had days like this, but it wasn't out at sea with 11 other men or women in a boat.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, it was at work when your boss called you in and said, Hey, uh, we've been talking, we've been running the numbers, and we're gonna have to lay off six more people.
SPEAKER_01: And you get to tell the six people that you're friends with that they no longer have a job.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, Oh man, I don't want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: And then for some of you, you got called in as I had dinner with a friend of mine.
SPEAKER_01: He was in town visiting this past week from Dallas, and he texted me and said, Hey, you available for dinner?
SPEAKER_01: I'm in town for like a day and a half.
SPEAKER_01: And something in me just kind of said, You need to make time for that.
SPEAKER_01: And we did, and we did about 10 minutes of chit-chat small talk, and then I said, Hey, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, I might as well tell you, I lost my job.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, he's like way up in the company, and I was like, Whoa! And he said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a great conversation because we started talking about what this stirs up in us as men when we don't have the capacity to provide for our families.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, wow, I thought about this passage.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't preach this summer to him sitting at Willie's up here on Highway 6, but I just thought, man, this is exactly what the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_01: We've had days like that.
SPEAKER_01: For some of you, ladies, this when you were in the shower when no one can see you cry, and you cried hot tears of remorse about your marriage, and you thought, this ain't never gonna get better.
SPEAKER_01: It ain't never gonna get better.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you had this thought when you thought, you know what, I'm 26, I'm never gonna get married.
SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with me?
SPEAKER_01: The storm is going to come.
SPEAKER_01: The important thing I want you to see this morning is to remember uh back in the previous uh uh passage before, feeding the 5,000, the people wanted to come make Jesus king by force.
SPEAKER_01: He wouldn't have that.
SPEAKER_01: But all of a sudden, in the midst of the storm, he comes to them on his terms in his own way.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when it's really, really hard, uh, I am not a good counselor.
SPEAKER_01: I do not someone said to me here, they said, Man, you've been sitting a lot of people for counseling the past couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Yeah, I don't know why they come.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not good at this.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, here's one of the reasons I'm not good at this, because people will come to me and tell me, oh man, this is happening and this is happening, and this is happening, and this is happening, and it is overwhelming.
SPEAKER_01: And then because I love them, but also I believe the gospel, I say to this person, hey, in the midst of all this, and I'm sorry this is happening, how do you see God coming at you to help you in this?
SPEAKER_01: How do you see God at work?
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: They always have an answer.
SPEAKER_01: No one ever says, Ah, I got nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I don't even believe in God anymore.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, people are like, hey, I buried my dad, my mom's in hospice, my kids in drug rehab, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm quitting my job because I don't want to work here anymore.
SPEAKER_01: But you know what?
SPEAKER_01: God's faithful, and I see him working.
SPEAKER_01: And here's one of the ways my relationship with my daughter is getting better while my son's getting off the reservation, and I'm like, wow.
SPEAKER_01: See, you gotta train your eye and you gotta train, condition your ear to see and hear how God's at work.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, when you get in the storm, you're gonna get overwhelmed and you're gonna become convinced of this one fatal fact.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, this all is up to me.
SPEAKER_01: I gotta do something about this.
SPEAKER_01: And that's when you get ruthless.
SPEAKER_01: When you get in the storm, you're tempted to two things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one is fear, number two is ruthlessness, or you just are like, hey, at all costs, I'm gonna get out of this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm uh I'm I'm gonna come up with a solution that's gonna make this work.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, you should ask yourself, now by the way, when I say that Jesus comes to them uh in the midst of the storm and he comes to us, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: One of the things about Jesus coming to them is that he knows where they are.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: You may be in the storm right now.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know he knows where you are.
SPEAKER_01: You're not out there alone.
SPEAKER_01: And he knows what you're feeling.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: They never notice in the text, they never called out to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Jesus, it's us, and we're pretty freaked out.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, he knew how they were feeling.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're in the storm today or the next time you get into a storm, remember this He knows where you are and He knows what you're feeling.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to reach for the pill to take the edge off.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_01: I've got friends that really are sinners and struggle sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend that she she calls it her mushroom.
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend.
SPEAKER_01: She says, Oh, well, this is my little helper.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a bottle of pills called Xanax.
SPEAKER_01: And every once in a while she'll say, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: I just need to take one or two.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, how many of you taken today?
SPEAKER_01: And she goes, Well, I don't want to, I don't want to admit to that.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Well, how about let me hold the little helper for a little bit and we learn not to rely on that and to rely on God?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Well, sometimes this is like God to me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, on some level, some of you hear that and you're like, that's messed up.
SPEAKER_01: That's honesty.
SPEAKER_01: And I say, hey, because I want to incarnate the gospel, you think God could be more consistent than Xanax in your life?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: This makes me feel pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, we'll we'll we'll start there.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my point.
SPEAKER_01: You you have to understand how he comes at us.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta understand he knows where I am and what I'm feeling.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself this question: Has your response to difficult times changed the longer you've been a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Has your response to difficult times changed, gotten different the longer you've been a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you and I still respond the same way to every storm of life that we did when we first became a Christian, something's wrong, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: You're not growing spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to have a different kind of response to these kind of things.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the third thing we see in the text.
SPEAKER_01: We see fear.
SPEAKER_01: We see expectation, we see a storm.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, we see fear.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to understand, because I say fear, you may just think, oh, well, they're afraid.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says when they rode about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, but they were frightened.
SPEAKER_01: That's that word phobia.
SPEAKER_01: And it means this it means to put to flight by terrifying.
SPEAKER_01: To put to flight by terrifying.
SPEAKER_01: Now, fear does two things to us.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it signals something beyond itself.
SPEAKER_01: Fear signals something to something beyond itself.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, it's what's called a secondary emotion like anger.
SPEAKER_01: If this is fear, there's something back here that's causing me to be fearful.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's the same way with anger.
SPEAKER_01: If people say, well, I got an anger issue.
SPEAKER_01: No, you don't.
SPEAKER_01: Your real issue is what's what's behind your anger.
SPEAKER_01: Same way with fear.
SPEAKER_01: If there's fear, then there's something back here.
SPEAKER_01: And it's hard to get past the fear and get back here to what the real problem is.
SPEAKER_01: So when I say fear does two things.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, it signals something beyond itself.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it turns all of our thoughts and our words inward.
SPEAKER_01: It turns all of our thoughts and our words inward.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we have this fear, and we there's things in life.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, if they could have gotten out of the boat, there'd have been 13 people walking on water that day.
SPEAKER_01: Those cats would have jumped out because they were so terrified they wanted to get away from the circumstance and the situation.
SPEAKER_01: Because we tend to move away from things that stir up fear in us when in reality, and hear this now, beloved, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: When in reality you should stand still and then move towards your fears.
SPEAKER_01: What we do is fear makes us want to get away from it, but in reality you should stand still and then move towards it.
SPEAKER_01: This is especially complicated for men because in our culture we're not allowed to be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And when we don't have freedom to discuss our fears, we opt for anger because it gives us the illusion of control.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in our culture, our culture, when's the last time, guys, you got together with some buddies and they said, Hey, how's it going, Billy Bob?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I tell you what, I got some fear at work in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Can we talk about that?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We can send a message, hey, just just fake it till you make it, suck it up, figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: And so, what would the last thing we want to do is just be honest and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm I I got I got some fears.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where it's coming from, but I know it's very real.
SPEAKER_01: So what we do is that we instead because we can't express fear, we choose anger because anger gives us the illusion of being in control.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you show me a man that's always angry, I'll show you a man that's got some deep-seated fears he's never talked about.
SPEAKER_01: Fears like this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna be able to provide for my family the longer we go on.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I have a friend that called me one time and he said, Hey, I'm reading the insurance policy, and I think these people would be better off if I wasn't around.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, back into the phone, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: I'm coming your way right now.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if I don't want you to, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I know where you live, I know where you work, I'm gonna track you down, I'm gonna call Dog the Bounty Hunter, he's gonna come with me.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Man, thanks.
SPEAKER_01: I just I just hate to bother you.
SPEAKER_01: You're not bothering me.
SPEAKER_01: That's fear at work in that man's life.
SPEAKER_01: That's fear inviting him to believe a lie and then act in a way that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: So you got a man that's always angry, that's a man that's got some deep-seated fears he's never got out on the table.
SPEAKER_01: When I said a minute ago, instead of running away, we should do two things we should stand still and move towards.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Standing still refers to the process of asking ourselves what I call digestive questions like this.
SPEAKER_01: What am I feeling towards this?
SPEAKER_01: What is that?
SPEAKER_01: What is this feeling based on?
SPEAKER_01: Is the basis for this feeling real or imagined?
SPEAKER_01: Is it experience, uncertainty, lack of knowledge, or past experiences that's making me feel this?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is what the Bible means when it tells us to take every thought captive.
SPEAKER_01: You don't just let your thoughts just overwhelm you.
SPEAKER_01: You have to take those thoughts captive.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible says, take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Your thoughts are not always obedient to the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You have to make those obedient to God and the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, here's four questions that fear answers for us.
SPEAKER_01: Here's one of the reasons I say stand still, because fear answers four questions for us.
SPEAKER_01: What do I really want?
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, what's important to me?
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, what do I value?
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, what do I love?
SPEAKER_01: See, by standing still, and if we'll stand still long enough, and sometimes we need people to come alongside of us and say, stand with me, because I want to run from this, and I'm tired of running, I want to face this and get clarity around it.
SPEAKER_01: The second step in the process is moving towards.
SPEAKER_01: And this is only after we've stood still long enough to get clarity around our fears, because then we can move forward in an informed manner.
SPEAKER_01: Typically, in fear, we underrepresent ourselves and we overrepresent the situation.
SPEAKER_01: In fear, we underrepresent ourselves and we overrepresent the situation, and these two steps allow us to gain perspective on both of those things.
SPEAKER_01: Now, speaking of perspective, remember I said a minute ago, everything in the Bible happens in a context, and so you got to see kind of the big picture all around it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, right before this happens, Jesus tells him to get in a boat and go back across the sea.
SPEAKER_01: He fed 5,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: Hello?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so he feeds 5,000, and there were some leftovers left, and he told the disciples, hey, get pick these up and fill up these baskets.
SPEAKER_01: And they filled how many baskets full of leftovers?
SPEAKER_01: 12.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever happened to the 12 baskets of leftovers?
SPEAKER_01: Hold your calls, we have a winner.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: Best we can tell, the disciples, the 12 disciples, each have a basket of leftovers.
SPEAKER_01: Just this tangible fish and bread reminder of the powerful capacity of God, and yet they freak out anyway.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the question I want you to ask yourself, and it's simply this how do you remind yourself of God's faithfulness towards you and your family?
SPEAKER_01: How do you remind yourself of God's faithfulness towards you and your family?
SPEAKER_01: My wife and I have a friend, we were just kind of talking.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it's like at your house, but when I go home, I'm expected to be able to recount every interaction I had that day to my wife.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and I'm just like, uh, and she's like, I know you can't tell me about counseling, but tell me about your day.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll go blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And she'll go, that's it?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was it.
SPEAKER_01: God loves our mortgage.
SPEAKER_01: I have a job, we'll be able to pay the mortgage.
SPEAKER_01: It was the anti club.
SPEAKER_01: Today.
SPEAKER_01: That's not that's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: She puts on this minor hat with a little light and a pickaxe, and she just digs around and asks me questions, and we'll go for a walk and she'll ask me more questions.
SPEAKER_01: And then she goes, Well, you didn't tell me that.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't understand the context.
SPEAKER_01: Go back and start the beginning of your day, and I'm like, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: It just comes in bits and pieces.
SPEAKER_01: Be glad to get that.
SPEAKER_01: But we're talking the other day, and I said, Hey, I was talking to our friend.
SPEAKER_01: He's going, he's accepted a position at First Baptist Church of McKinney.
SPEAKER_01: And she went, First Baptist McKinney, why does that church strike us?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that striking me?
SPEAKER_01: Have we ever been there?
SPEAKER_01: And I laughed and I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because that church is on the register of the ways God is got the ways God is related.
SPEAKER_01: That's in our basket full of leftovers.
SPEAKER_01: You see, we were married in 1993, and I was traveling and preaching, and I was exhausted.
SPEAKER_01: And I was going to preach at First Baptist McKinney Sunday through Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: Great church.
SPEAKER_01: It's just, I was out of gas that whole week, and I was just like not looking forward to preaching.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, and so my wife was so concerned about me.
SPEAKER_01: I came home on Tuesday night and she goes, Hell, I said, I don't know, and I don't even care.
SPEAKER_01: I just I was preaching every weekend somewhere in the country.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so she said, Well, babe, I'm gonna go with you tomorrow night.
SPEAKER_01: I'm worried about you.
SPEAKER_01: You're really tired.
SPEAKER_01: I said, That's fine, come on, we'll go.
SPEAKER_01: And so we drove over there uh to the church and she said, Well, I mean, what are you praying for?
SPEAKER_01: I said, What would be great if somebody just walked up to me, somebody just dropped$5,000 on me and said, Take a month off.
SPEAKER_01: That would be glorious.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Yeah, all right.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're in our Mitsubishi Mighty Max pickup that we had, and we drive up there and I preach, and after preaching, I go to the bathroom and I come out, and a little kid comes up to me and says, Hey, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Neil, would you drop me a picture?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, sure.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm bent over on a table by the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: This guy rounds the corner of the church and he hits the wall with his shoulder, and something flies out of his hand, hits the ground.
SPEAKER_01: It's his bill fold.
SPEAKER_01: A piece of paper falls out, and he goes, Oh, sorry about that.
SPEAKER_01: And he picks it up and he walks around me, pushes the door of the bathroom, and he stops.
SPEAKER_01: And he backs up and he walks over to the table at the other end.
SPEAKER_01: I'm drawing a little picture here.
SPEAKER_01: He walks over to the other end, unfolds the check, and says, How much money do you need?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Oh Lord, the devil's trying to tempt me.
SPEAKER_01: The devil's trying to make me look materialistic.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Oh, don't worry about that, that's fine.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, seriously.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a problem.
SPEAKER_01: You need some money, and I have a lot of it.
SPEAKER_01: What do you need?
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden there was an angel on this shoulder going,$5,000,$5,000.
SPEAKER_01: And the devil was on this shoulder going,$50,000,$50,000.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, uh, and he picked up on it and he said, seriously, just give me a number.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm standing there and I am so awkwardly, I'm like, uh, yeah, uh, oh, ha ha ha.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, just just just give me a number.
SPEAKER_01: And I said,$5,000?
SPEAKER_01: And he went, that's it?
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh, I should have said$50.
SPEAKER_01: Did I say five?
SPEAKER_01: I meant fifty.
SPEAKER_01: Five.
SPEAKER_01: Oh.
SPEAKER_01: He scratched the check for$5,000, handed it to me, and said, Hey, thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_01: Walk in the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: I put it in my pocket.
SPEAKER_01: I walked around the rest of the night like this.
SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with my meal?
SPEAKER_01: I'm having some chest pains.
SPEAKER_01: We were driving home.
SPEAKER_01: I said to my wife on the way home, I said, Hey, you remember driving over and said, hey, it would be great.
SPEAKER_01: I can just take a month off.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, Yeah, yeah, I'm not like that's ever gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Somebody handed me this.
SPEAKER_01: Can you turn on the dome?
SPEAKER_01: I'll turn on the dome.
SPEAKER_01: What is this?
SPEAKER_01: What about had a wreck?
SPEAKER_01: She attacked me.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh! I'm what am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: When I look into my basket of leftovers of the way God's provided for me and my family, first Baptist McKinney is in there.
SPEAKER_01: 1993.
SPEAKER_01: It's 2018.
SPEAKER_01: My kids, every once in a while, are like, hey dad, tell us that story about when you went to that church.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And they look at my wife and they go, Mom, did that really happen?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, what do you mean that really happened?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean when I say you gotta remind yourself of God's faithfulness towards you.
SPEAKER_01: The last thing you see in the passage is just this word capacity.
SPEAKER_01: Capacity.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 20 and 21.
SPEAKER_01: It says this, but he said to them, It is I after they said, We're frightened, we're so afraid, if we could walk on water, we would run the rest of the way home.
SPEAKER_01: But he said to them, It is I, do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
SPEAKER_01: Notice verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: They've been rowing by this time, best we can tell, six to seven hours.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gets on board and the capacity changes.
SPEAKER_01: Should be the same way in our lives, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus gets on board, your capacity changes.
SPEAKER_01: You're not just a sinner saved by grace.
SPEAKER_01: You are something you could never be or become in your own effort or of your own accord, and you need to embrace that and you need to understand that.
SPEAKER_01: And if not, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: If not, all you're gonna do is ask Jesus for forgiveness the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_01: And you're never gonna live in light of what Christ makes possible and available and necessary.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: If you ever going through fear, especially if you got church friends and you say, Hey man, I've just got a lot of fear in my life.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray for me?
SPEAKER_01: Send me some Bible verses, they'll send you this verse.
SPEAKER_01: This is 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, which says this great verse.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For God has not given us, for God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you ever heard that verse in your life?
SPEAKER_01: God, see your hand.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great verse.
SPEAKER_01: God's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
SPEAKER_01: What if I told you that's not the best part of the verse?
SPEAKER_01: Because when people quote that to me, I say to them, is the F and four capitalized?
SPEAKER_01: And they look at me like, you're a strange little man.
SPEAKER_01: Now look in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Is the F and the four capitalized?
SPEAKER_01: For God is not good.
SPEAKER_01: No, see, it's a fragment, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's a fragment.
SPEAKER_01: It's not even a full sentence.
SPEAKER_01: You want to get the context of it?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: This is what he says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, For this reason I remind you of the fan of your flame, the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
SPEAKER_01: For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and of self-control.
SPEAKER_01: See, when you kind of pull the camera back a little bit, just one verse back, what you see, Paul's telling Timothy, you have a spiritual gift, and you ought to use it because when you do, it reminds you of what you're capably created to do.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden it's like, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I'm not just out, I'm not just at the mercy of my fear, reminding myself of good doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: God's not giving me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: It's more than that.
SPEAKER_01: I have a gift, and I gotta get people around me that lay their hands on me and stirs up the capacity of my gift.
SPEAKER_01: But if you can't pan the camera back a little bit more, you start reading verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This, I thank God, whom I serve as I did, uh as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers, night and day.
SPEAKER_01: As I remember your tears, I long to see you that I may be filled with joy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm reminded of your sincere faith.
SPEAKER_01: The faith is dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and now I am sure dwells in you as well.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on to say, for this reason I remind you, so when you pan the camera back from, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, of power, and self-control, and goes from being a doctrinal Sunday school lesson to pan the camera back, one level, hey, you have a gift.
SPEAKER_01: Get some people around you who they lay a hand, they yes you and they bless you, Timothy, because that's gonna remind you of what you were created, capable of doing.
SPEAKER_01: But you pan the camera a little bit further back, verse 3, 4, and 5.
SPEAKER_01: He says, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Not only are you a man of faith, but you come from a long line of people of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Your grandmother was a woman of faith, your mother, Eunice, was a woman of faith, and you, my man, are a man of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden you're like, whoa.
SPEAKER_01: But if you want to see the best part, pan the camera back a little bit more and read the first two verses.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I Paul, an apostle or Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear it there in verse one?
SPEAKER_01: Hear it again.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the part according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: According to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: One more time, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, by the way, that word life is a Greek word Zoe.
SPEAKER_01: It's why we call this John series, light and life.
SPEAKER_01: It's what he says in John chapter 1, and this life was in him, and this life was the light of all men.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just bios, it's not just natural life.
SPEAKER_01: There's a capacity that you and I give when Jesus gets in the boat that we did not have before Jesus came on board.
SPEAKER_01: And it's according to this life, excuse me, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And what Paul tells Timothy, and what I'm telling you, let me say it again.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul is telling Timothy here, and what I'm telling you, is that this life is according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's the standard.
SPEAKER_01: That's the thing that we get to participate in.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean we're little gods.
SPEAKER_01: Don't hear what I'm not saying, but hear what I am saying.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not careful, you will get taught in the church that all Christianity is you get to go to heaven when you die, and you get to get your sins forgiven if you remember to confess every one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, there's a measure of life, there's a way of doing life.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible calls it Zoe.
SPEAKER_01: That you and I get to live.
SPEAKER_01: It's a life that you and I get to live.
SPEAKER_01: You wonder why your kids get bored and check out when they get to be 16 and get a car?
SPEAKER_01: Because they've never seen anybody live Zoe.
SPEAKER_01: They've never been around when something inexplainable, inexplicable happens.
SPEAKER_01: They're just like, Yeah, yeah, we went to church.
SPEAKER_01: It was great.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul says to Timothy, hey my man, let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: This life you get to live, it's according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This life that you see in Christ Jesus, that's just a sense and a savor of what you and I get to be a part of.
SPEAKER_01: That's capacity, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself questions like this How is your life different once you became a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: What capacity do you now possess that you didn't possess before you came to Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Or most simply, are you operating that capacity?
SPEAKER_01: Because if Paul says to Timothy, and I'm saying to you, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, and John begins his gospel with, hey, this life was in him, and this light was the this life was the light of all men?
SPEAKER_01: What John's telling us, and what he's kind of winking at us here in chapter 6, and just kind of saying, Hey, by the way, everything changes when I get in your boat.
SPEAKER_01: Your life takes on a capacity that you didn't have before.
SPEAKER_01: So just ask yourself this morning, are you operating at capacity?
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe ask it like this what would it look like for you to begin to operate according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: What would it look like for you and I to operate at capacity?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Take a moment.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says they were going six and seven hours.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't getting very far.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus gets on board immediately, the boat was at the land to which they were going.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way to wiggle out of that.
SPEAKER_01: There's no explanation for that.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like a millennium Falcon going to hyperdrive, going to light speed.
SPEAKER_01: Boom, it was there.
SPEAKER_01: Because things change when Jesus gets on board.
SPEAKER_01: And what the Bible's asking us today, beloved, is what has changed about you once Jesus got on board your life?
SPEAKER_01: Once you became a part of his life is probably the better way of saying it.
SPEAKER_01: What changed about you?
SPEAKER_01: Because you see, when we start saying everything the Bible says, what we'll realize is that there's a lot of people in the church that don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They want forgiveness, but there's no capacity in them.
SPEAKER_01: They don't operate according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like that's just crazy talk.
SPEAKER_01: What if that's the best news of Christianity?
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about this for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we're mindful.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible has invited us to think on a level maybe that we haven't thought in a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe for some of us, the great prayer that we could pray coming out of the out of today is that, Lord, I want the life that you promised me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want just the life that preachers have told me I can have a life of forgiveness and I get to go to heaven when I die.
SPEAKER_01: That's a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: But Lord, what would happen if we just started saying, Lord, I want the life that you promised me.
SPEAKER_01: I want this Zoe life that the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_01: I'm tired of just stumbling and fumbling around in the natural.
SPEAKER_01: I want the life that right there in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You said, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, I want the life that you promised me.
SPEAKER_01: And we're not going to sit on our blessing assurance and just sit like spoiled kids and say, Gimme, gimme, gimme.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to walk in this, God.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, protect us from thinking wrongly about this and thinking, oh, where's he going?
SPEAKER_01: What's that mean?
SPEAKER_01: We just want to think in terms of what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, yes, there's a storm, but your capacity exceeds the storm.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, we're going to be okay.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to be more than okay.
SPEAKER_01: Remind us of that.
SPEAKER_01: We pray in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: When everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for your presence today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a guest, hopefully you filled out a one of those guest cards, just drop it in the wooden box by the door on your way out.
SPEAKER_01: If for the rest of us, if today's the day you worship through obedience or generosity, make sure you take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Let me remind you of a few things before I dismiss you by way of announcement.
SPEAKER_01: Things that are coming up at our church that are great opportunities for you to get involved and be spiritually formed by these things.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, is our women's retreat coming up next weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Tonight at midnight is the last night.
SPEAKER_01: That's the registration deadline.
SPEAKER_01: Marcy has to turn in, or our women's pastor has to turn in the numbers to the camp tomorrow morning.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're thinking about it, it's not too late, ladies.
SPEAKER_01: You have until tonight at midnight.
SPEAKER_01: The restroom in the lobby this morning if you have any questions.
SPEAKER_01: Second thing I'll remind you of is our marriage conference coming up May 4th and 5th with Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Dan Allender.
SPEAKER_01: This is an incredible opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: I got a text from a guy that lives in Austin this past week.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Can people from Austin come to this marriage conference?
SPEAKER_01: How did you get Dan Allender to come?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We prayed and we asked.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says something about ask, seek, and knock.
SPEAKER_01: And so we did.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'd love to, and there you go.
SPEAKER_01: And so this guy's coming in from Austin with his wife.
SPEAKER_01: And so I tell you that, not to shame you and say, I'm to say this is a great opportunity to invest.
SPEAKER_01: Our early bird deadline ends, I believe, at the end of this week, next weekend.
SPEAKER_01: So it's$65 a person now.
SPEAKER_01: I think it goes up to$80 or$85.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're contemplating uh coming to the conference, uh this would be a great week to register.
SPEAKER_01: Uh two other things to remind you of.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, we have Secret Church coming up on April the 20th out in the warehouse, which is our student ministry building.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, the time is from 5:30 to 11:30.
SPEAKER_01: It is a very condensed uh biblical teaching by a man named David Platt that you would be blessed to avail yourself to.
SPEAKER_01: Uh he has a little workbook that you can buy for like 10 bucks, or you can just come and take notes on your own.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but he covers a specific topic.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we'll have Chick-fil-a sandwiches there, and there'll be breaks all throughout it.
SPEAKER_01: We'll have coffee and drinks and stuff.
SPEAKER_01: It's a fun time.
SPEAKER_01: And the warehouse gets pretty filled up with people because we love to kind of sit and be made to think.
SPEAKER_01: And so you can register for that this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Right, and you walk out on the left corner over there, you'll see a little short guy smiling with glasses on.
SPEAKER_01: That's Don Minton.
SPEAKER_01: He's always smiling, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh Don, I'm gonna shoot you.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Don is our spiritual formations pastor.
SPEAKER_01: He is over all of that.
SPEAKER_01: He would love for you to get signed up if you have any questions.
SPEAKER_01: He's also restoring people for our luncheon next weekend, next Sunday, uh, with a video and a Dina.
SPEAKER_01: These are our missionaries in Romania.
SPEAKER_01: We support when you put money in those little wooden boxes, it doesn't just stay here in the church.
SPEAKER_01: We don't go back in some room and go, two for me, one for you, two for me.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: We send money to these people because they preach the gospel in Romania.
SPEAKER_01: You buy groceries for poor families in Romania that this man and woman deliver, and you help those kids.
SPEAKER_01: You help build that building they're standing in front of, and you help feed those people.
SPEAKER_01: So it puts your job in a different context.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, my job sinks.
SPEAKER_01: Your job empowers the gospel to go to those people.
SPEAKER_01: Your job empowers a bag of groceries to show up at a widow's house who's sitting in her house freezing.
SPEAKER_01: Your job buys firewood for those people.
SPEAKER_01: A video in a Dina.
SPEAKER_01: He's the guy that always says, Hurry, hurry, people are dying, people are dying.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we take a mission trip every summer.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you ever want to just go and love on people and just be exposed to the gospel, and by the way, that guy worked so hard.
SPEAKER_01: Last year when he was here, I took some of your money and I told him, Take your wife and go away for three days, just you and your wife.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Oh, but I should help the orphans.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm giving you this money and it's not for orphans.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't take your wife out, I'm coming to Romania and I'm gonna punch you in the throat.
SPEAKER_01: And he looked at me and he said, You are violent.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, I'm right.
SPEAKER_01: And so, after much persuasion, they went away for three days.
SPEAKER_01: I got an email.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01: It was so good to get away with just my wife and rest.
SPEAKER_01: Also, I don't think they'd mind me telling you this.
SPEAKER_01: They've been trying to get pregnant for years and they struggle with infertility.
SPEAKER_01: And every once in a while the thought goes through their head, hey, we work for God.
SPEAKER_01: We're just trying.
SPEAKER_01: So if you ever wonder about, hey, I don't know what to pray for.
SPEAKER_01: Pray for this man and woman that they get pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: We need righteous men and women like this to have righteous babies.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: He'll be here next week.
SPEAKER_01: So funny, so down to earth, and so incredibly humble.
SPEAKER_01: He was in my office one time, we met for coffee, and I said, Hey, video, you can have any books in here.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm so overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: I would never take.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You're not taking them to give it to you.
SPEAKER_01: You better start stacking up books and taking them with you.
SPEAKER_01: And he just, it was so overwhelming for him.
SPEAKER_01: And here's why I'm making a big deal out of this because you will be blessed to be around a man like this and his wife, very humble down to earth, uh, having a luncheon after the third service next Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Tickets are available.
SPEAKER_01: See smiling Don in the lobby.
SPEAKER_01: He's got all the details, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Stand on your feet.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: I'm speaking a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: To your deepest fears and your highest anxiety, Jesus responds simply, it is I.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And when he says, It is I, he is reminding you, I'm bringing all that I am to bear on you and your boat.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to get in the boat.
SPEAKER_01: And when he gets in the boat, everything changes.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now.
SPEAKER_01: And live in light of your God given capacity.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.