It Is Well | Peace - Pastor Christian Lake

We tell a true story of feeling stranded and anxious in a strange city, then watch God provide in a way that points straight to kingdom culture and belonging. We connect “It Is Well” faith to shalom, covenant, and Jesus’ authority over chaos so perseverance does not cost us our peace. 

• Shifting the goal from preparing to suffer to persevering while still pursuing peace 
• The Aaronic blessing as a covenant framework for security, favor, grace, presence and peace 
• Shalom defined as wholeness and right standing with God, including the insight that shalom can read as “it is well” 
• Why peace is not the absence of chaos but security through it, from Noah to Job to Jonah 
• Sea and dragon imagery as a biblical picture of chaos and the enemy’s strategy 
• Jesus calming the storm and walking on water as authority over chaos and revelation of divine identity 
• Revelation’s ending as the final defeat of chaos, where the sea is no more 
• Prayer, communion, and the new covenant as the ground of our peace in Christ 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Setup

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Welcome to the Rock Family Sermon of the Week. For more information about our church, please visit therockfamily.tv. Now join us for a message from our special guest speaker.

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Has anybody been encouraged by the It Is Well with My Soul series? Has anybody seen breakthrough in their lives through this series? Has anybody been challenged in their faith and in their theology? Because that's the goal. I've been challenged personally. This is not just something that we say from a pastoral tone. This is something that a lot of people don't think about. A lot of people don't want to talk about. And that's kind of the point of the series. Is you know, when we don't talk about things for a long time, those things can unfortunately start to turn into an open wound. I think there's a lot of open wounds before we got into this series that I'm praying and believing and expecting that the Holy Spirit is going to heal, that we're going to see breakthrough, that we're going to see supernatural miracles in the room today. I still believe that. And then he's going to encourage us in a very specific

Philadelphia Trip And Unexpected Provision

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way. But the reason why I say that it's not an accident, I think, that I'm here today, is because a couple weeks ago I got to share at another church in Pennsylvania. Thank you for making that clarification, Pastor Chris. It's actually in Philadelphia that I found out wasn't the state. Philadelphia is a city in Pennsylvania. And so I was preaching at a church there, and I shared a very similar message to uh week one of the It Is Well series. Now I'm not like a circuit speaker, so I don't have like, you know, just messages to throw around. I worked very hard on these things. But it was just specific to their campus. I prayed very, very long and hard about it and believed that this was the message, that first It Is Well message about perseverance. How many guys know that as a Christian, everything is not all roses and butterflies, that sometimes we're gonna have to persevere through trials and difficult times. And even loss, and even chronic issues, and even situations that seem like there's no light at the end of the tunnel. And so I truly believe that this was a message that I was supposed to share at this church in Philadelphia. Like I said, I'm not a circuit speaker, so I'm not used to traveling. I'm not used to being hosted by people, so I didn't really know what to expect. This was a church that uh uh is like a year-old church plant in Philadelphia. It's very small, but great, great, amazing people there. I got dropped off at the airport and then picked up uh by a 22-year-old kid named JC, and I'm going to send him this afterwards because I'm gonna make fun of him, and I just want uh him to be able to hear it and defend himself later. Uh 22-year-old kid picked me up. First thing, what do you want to do? I want well, I'm in Philadelphia. What do I want? Philly Cheak. Philly cheesesteak. We're all in the same, but this is the Holy Spirit, just unifying the room right now. Desperately wanted a Philly cheesesteak, and we get to the first Del Rossi's is what it's called. If you ever go to Philly, Del Rossi's. They don't have his Michelin star, but they were in the guide. Very, very good uh Philly cheesesteak. Uh but we're walking up, and the 22-year-old kid goes, hey, by the way, these are very big sandwiches, so we're gonna have to split one. Now I've never been hosted before. But I don't think it's standard practice to tell your guest that he has to split a sandwich with you. It's like, all right. Now, to be fair, to his credit, it was a very big sandwich. I would not have been able to eat a full one, but I at least would have liked the opportunity to try. A huge sandwich. Afterwards, he took me to a coffee shop and then took me to like a game card shop that I think might have been witchcraft. Uh, I don't know. I prayed afterwards, I think we're fine. Uh and then after that, he wanted to take me to a boba place in uh Philadelphia. I'm just following along. Uh I'm along for the ride. I don't know what you're supposed to do. I'm not I'm very uncomfortable being doted on, kind of, um by this 22-year-old kid. Uh and so instead of going to a boba place, we drive around Chinatown, driving around the block for about an hour and a half because we can't find parking. And then he just gives up. And he says, I'm just gonna drop you off at the place you're staying at 4:30 uh in the afternoon. And it's like, all right, okay, I don't know where I'm staying, I don't know if it's gonna be a hotel room or if it's gonna be an Airbnb or whatever. It turns out that this church is, you know, a sister church to another church that has purchased property that they call the clubhouse. This clubhouse is a two-story building that they often use to facilitate uh conferences, breakout sessions, things like that. It's a two-story building that has a meeting area in the bottom. These are all extra details, but it's just it's fun for everyone to just be able to visualize my pain. Uh the upstairs is some breakout rooms and a meeting area, and the very back of the upstairs uh is a padlocked room that has a bed and a shower in it. Uh and so we're getting ready to get dropped off at 4:30. I have no vehicle, I have no plans for the evening, and I have no uh a way to get dinner. Uh uh and I only had half a sandwich for lunch, so turns out that was gonna be a problem. And then we pull into the parking lot. I'm like, it's alright, I'll be able to hang out, I'll be able to pray. Maybe I'm just supposed to fast for the evening. I believe in God's providence. I believe he has his hand over my life. Amen. And I believe that he's going to provide spiritual nourishment for me as I get into this clubhouse uh area. And we pull into the parking lot, and the parking lot is completely full. Now, I don't know if you've ever been to an Airbnb. Typically, you hope the parking lot's not completely full when you get there, and so we pull into the parking lot and say, hey, is it supposed to be like this? And he's like, Oh, no, no, no, it's okay. There's an event happening on the first floor, but you'll have the second floor entirely to yourself. It's like, okay, alright, that sounds okay, but kind of strange. I don't know what's going on. I get upstairs, I don't know the combination to the padlock bedroom, so I'm just loose and kind of like a meeting area upstairs with my bags, half a sandwich in my stomach, and just a dream of food. And I find out that the event downstairs that's happening, Patrick, you're gonna love this, is a very Brazilian, very Pentecostal, very loud church meeting that is happening on the first floor. And the floors were paper thin. And I could not discern between the Portuguese and the speaking in tongues. I was terrified. So now here I am, locked out of a bedroom, just loose in a meeting area upstairs in a strange building in a strange city that I've never been in, doing something that I don't normally do. And once again, I need to remind you that I do not have plans for dinner. I'm just loose upstairs, and actually, this is like a little bit more transparent. I'm watching them on the security cameras that I found in the closet, just like looking at this Pentecostal church. I do, I have pictures, I'll show you afterwards. I was just like, I don't know what else to do. I'm just watching and just sitting. I have no Wi-Fi. All of the signage in the building is in Portuguese, so I'm like, you know, trying to call and like I don't know how to, you know, interpret the tongues or the Portuguese, you know, any of that. I know nothing. And so I'm just loose upstairs, and so I'm like, all right, I'll wait them out. Like, I I've been at Pentecostal services, you know, I know how to wait them out. I wait them out, a couple hours go by, and then finally they close in prayer, and I'm thinking, okay, great, they're gonna leave. Maybe I can figure out a way to get DoorDash or call an Uber or figure out some way that I can get dinner in my stomach or some sort of just like momentum to prank for this message. I mean, I'm here on a mission. I'm not just goofing around. This is not a vacation for me. I'm truly believing that these people ask me for a reason to be at this church to see people encouraged in the same way that we get encouraged on a Sunday morning. And so I'm up there just praying and believing, and it's like, all right, finally they're leaving, I can get this momentum going, and then they don't leave. And they just kind of like meander out into an open area out in, you know, kind of the parking lot of this place, and they're just hanging out out there. I'm like, all right, well, maybe I'll walk and pray until they leave, and then I'll start, you know, you know, figuring out dinner plans and all that. And so I start walking and praying, and then I realize that the windows to the second story of this building are very large, and every single one of them can see every single part of me. And I'm just walking around upstairs, just making eye contact with the Brazilians that are out in the parking lot, watching me just pace in the attic of this building that they just prayed in, like some sort of specter or apparition, looking at them. So finally I stop, I'm gonna sit down, and I'm just frozen upstairs. I don't know what to do. Because it's just like anybody can picture this right now. I don't know if it's like I'm immature or I should have known what to do in the scenario. I've never been to the city, I've never been hosted, I don't know what's going on. God, what is your plan for me this afternoon? Pastor Chris, is this normal? Okay, alright, good. I'm vindicated. So finally I'm just sitting up there like, God, I don't know what to do, and I look out and I see something that actually was familiar to me, and I saw these uh Brazilian teenagers setting up shoes. Patrick, do you know what it means when Brazilians set up shoes out in the parking lot? It means they're gonna play soccer. Like, okay, alright, that's something that I've been known to do from time to time. Like, alright, maybe I'll play soccer. And then I come to my senses and realize I don't speak the same language as these people. I don't know how to communicate with them. I also don't know who they are, and I don't want to just barge into their like like like community, fellowship. I don't know. Like, is that that also seemed uncomfortable? I don't know. I'm just in a state of confusion, I'm gonna be honest with you. And so finally I'm sitting there, I'm like, I'm in a strange city, once again. I don't know what I'm doing, and I don't have plans. I feel like I would be missing an opportunity if I don't insert myself into this service. And so I walk down, I'm just like, you know what? I'm just gonna sit on the side of this uh uh uh you know soccer match, I'm just gonna watch, I'm not gonna intrude. No one says anything to me. All they just kind of look at me and give me funny looks here and there, you know, whatever. You know, still uncomfortable, but it's like, you know what? I'm sitting outside on a beautiful day watching some Brazilian teenagers play soccer. And then I look over on the bench, and there's another like high school junior age kid, and I look at him, and this is gonna sound weird. He is the spitting image of my brother-in-law as a teenager. It's we I this sounds weird, but I remember seeing him, and so much so that I like I I like double took, you know, took a step back, like, whoa, what is he doing here? You know? It was not him. And so because of that, again, I start seeing like a little bit more like Providence, like, all right, maybe there's something here. Anybody ever been there where you're like, you're so confused, everything's weird, and then you see something, you're like, maybe I need to be doing something now. Like maybe God actually is involved in this. Isn't that so funny? We can be in church and we'd be charismatic, we can believe in God, his hand over our life, and him, you know, organizing things for us and making all things work together for our good. And then as soon as we're in the middle of the most providential moment, we're like, I wonder what he's trying to do right now. I wonder how I'm gonna get dinner right now. Is the hand thing. Handheld microphones are so much less like terrifying. And so finally start talking to this kid. I'm like, hey, what's your name? He said, My name's Victor. You know, we're hanging out, talking a little bit, you know, having a really, really nice time. He's asking what I'm doing there. Like, oh my, I'm here to preach at a church. Like, oh, that's awesome. Like, do you know him? Like, oh, not really. You know, I don't have a whole relation with this other church. You know, I go to this Brazilian church called Shalom. It's the name of the Brazilian church, and I'm just now in this moment, like realizing what I just said, because I wasn't planning on saying that part, what church they're from. This is gonna be fun for us. Uh and finally we get done with the conversation, and he says, uh, all right, well, great. Let's get some steak. And I turn around, and unbeknownst to me, the entire time that I was sitting upstairs, there was a lot of Brazilian older men that were doing a full-on Brazilian barbecue in the very parking lot that I was sitting in all day. And so I said, Okay. We walk over and he says a few things in Portuguese. I say the two Portuguese words I know, bomb gia and obrogado, and I don't know if I pronounced it right, but it's good enough because they all got real excited and gave me plates filled with just meat, steak, and chicken, and a hot sauce that was not great for me, but it was really the rest of it was delicious. I felt my belly. I walked over with Victor to continue eating and watching soccer, and I finally leaned over and was like, Victor, why aren't you playing? He says, Well, I hurt my knee in a track accident today, and then he looks back at me and says, But you could play. I said, Who would I be if I found myself in a strange city in a unique situation, eating Brazilian steak, being asked to play soccer with people who I don't know and whose language I don't understand? Who would I be if I said no? So I say, okay, and I play for a little while, about 10 minutes in. Uh I nutmeg, you know, one of the teenagers, and everybody loses their mind. I mean, they pause the game. This is where I dribble, I broke his ankles essentially, for those of you who don't know. It's like, what you did what? Oh my goodness. Uh everyone loses their mind. Everyone's so thrilled, excited. They they stop the game, they pause, everybody gives me big hugs. You play for another couple hours. By the end of it, everyone, whether they speak the same language or not, is giving me big hugs. They line up to dap me up to hug me at the end of the game. Don't speak the language or in like broken language, trying to like talk to each other and stuff, and they're like, we don't care, we just love you. Talk to Victor, what's the kid's name, for another couple hours and get done. And I go back to my room, it's like 9:30 at this point, and my meal has been provided for, my activity for the evening has been provided for. And I remember just thinking, like, what is going on here? Because obviously God provided, obviously, God was involved in this whole situation. But here was the bigger revelation that I had is here I am once again in a city that I've never been into, to a church that I have no association with, to a people that I have no cultural connection to, not even a language connection to. But at the same time, I can feel loved, I can feel cared for, I can feel hospitality, I can feel unity, and the reason is this, because there is a culture that supersedes the situation that you're in right now, there's a culture that supersedes the place that you find yourself in. There's a culture that supersedes whether you feel lost, whether you feel uh confused, whether you feel like you don't have plans for the evening, there's a culture that supersedes that, and that's the culture of a kingdom. And today, if there's nothing else that we understand, it's like right now, if you're new here in this building, there's gonna be a lot of callbacks and a lot of inside jokes, that's fine. But I'm praying that today you experience a culture, and that's the culture of our Jesus Christ. And I pray that he's evident to you all today. Uh, but something that's a little bit more specific to the stuff that we're gonna talk about is what happened the next day. I went and preached at the church. Uh um, it went great, everything was great. You know, told some jokes, had a fun time. Everybody got matcha afterwards. I don't know if that's a Philadelphia thing or if I'm just old. Uh, but they did that afterwards, and we went and hung out and played cards afterwards for a few hours. And you know, I remember getting done and getting ready to go back to the clubhouse

When Perseverance Teaching Creates Anxiety

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and sleep, just had a great evening. It was a whole lot of fun. And right before I'm getting ready to go back to the hotel and get some sleep before my flight the next morning, one of the couples that are the leadership of the church called me over, young couple. They call me over and they said, Hey, Pastor, we love your message. It was great. I told a lot of the this is very similar to the first story. I told a lot of the same stories. I told the story about, you know, some of our trials that we went through, told the story about our miscarriage, you know, in great detail, just to, you know, explain some of the trials that you might have to go through and how the perseverance and the faith was forged in the midst of those trials. And I was really believing that people were encouraged. And then this couple pulled me aside and they let me know they're 39 weeks pregnant. And their last visit at the hospital, they got a bad report. And she said, Pastor, I love your message. I believe everything that you said. You know, I believe that we're supposed to persevere, but after your message, it really, really gave me intense anxiety. And I was devastated. This is me just being totally transparent to all of you, you know, and I prayed for them and they were great. They were like, hey, we don't need, you know, we we don't think you were wrong, we just want you to pray for us. That's it. You know, you kind of got me, you know, in my head a little bit, you know, and I was just again totally transparent. I was devastated. I was frustrated that that I might have caused that. I was uh going, I was wrestling with God, going back through my head, like, was this the right message? Did I just give them whatever I had in the hopper, and that wasn't actually the message that I was supposed to communicate there? Is this even biblical? I'm going through all of my thoughts, and I'm like going back through the notes and the receipts, like, yeah, that's there, that's there, that's there. I'm going through the stories and the real testimonies. And the thing that frustrated me the most is I was so cavalier and I was so confident and I was so articulate when I was giving a message about how we're supposed to suffer, but I was completely speechless when I was asked to give somebody peace. This is a very real, this is not a, you know, I hope you know I'm not, you know, making any of this up. This is not, you know, just a fanfare or anything like this. It was when I was asked this week to speak to Sunday. I said, I know what I'm gonna talk about. Hey, we've made it very clear today that if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in this room, we have a relationship with Jesus, and that's amazing, and our eternity is secure, but you're gonna have to go through trials and tribulations. As a matter of fact, sometimes your good behavior doesn't guarantee material blessings. A relationship with Jesus does not guarantee that everything's going to go well with you all the time. And as a matter of fact, bad behavior doesn't always guarantee immediate punishment. It doesn't always guarantee immediate, just like Augustine said, we talked about the first week that if there was no immediate punishment that was that was that was just enough for that, everything was adequately punished right here in this life, then we would assume there's nothing reserved. And by the same token, if every good deed was met with manifest generosity, I would assume that there's no eternity where I get to experience the manifest outpouring of the blessing of God. So I know those things to be true, but today there's a very, very important message that we have to understand is knowing all things to be true, knowing all of those things to be uh things that we need

The Aaronic Blessing And Shalom

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to prepare for. I don't want my preparation for perseverance to cause me anxiety or to cause me to lose my peace. So today we want to talk about what it looks like to be prepared to persevere and still pursue peace. I didn't mean for those all to be peace. I promise you. That's not in my notes. I just rolled out like that. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your many blessings. We thank you for it once again this opportunity that we have to pursue you, to glorify you, Lord. We thank you that you've already been present in the room with us today. We thank you that it doesn't matter what happens for the rest of the service. What you've already done is enough. But Lord, right now we ask that your spirit will be so evident in this room and your word will be made manifest, and every single individual and family represented in the room would have an opportunity to receive and respond. And Lord, we pray that your word be written on our hearts and reflected in our words and our thoughts and our actions. Lord, we thank you so much for what your son did for us. We thank you so much for our opportunity to rehearse that today, Lord. And we pray today we would have a unique understanding, a new revelation, an acute awareness of what it means to persevere and to still have peace. We love you, Lord. We give you all the glory, honor, praise in Jesus' name. Everybody said very professional. I'm glad I got to do that for all of you. Uh so far, so good. Um I'm also doing this at the same time. We're just trying everything new all at once, just ripping the band-aid off. I'm a big boy now. There's no strings on me, moving around, feeling good. Uh uh, all right. Do something like that. All right, there we go. This is great. This is Aaron's blessing. This is awesome. This is an exciting thing that I get to do because normally we do this at the end of a service, but we get to do it at the beginning, and hopefully it gives us a little bit more uh uh awareness, a little bit more um uh uh just clarity on what the what's going on here. Oh no. I did not put the reference on the slide. Psych. This is punishment for all you guys doing the Matthew 4 thing to Pastor Scott last week. You guys made fun of him for putting the wrong verse, and guess what? Now you don't even get one. Pastor Scott, that was for you. Another callback. Um but let's look at this real quick because this is gonna be kind of like the jump-off point for um these callbacks, it's gonna be like a lazy comedy sequel, a bunch of like, you know, no new plot, no new story, just callbacks and and you know, too many cameos. Um let's look at this. Alright, this is the Iranic blessing, Aaron's blessing, and this is after the people of Israel have made covenant with God. We've already gone through uh uh uh you know the Exodus from Egypt, and God is continuing to write his name on his people, is continuing to reveal an identity for his covenant people, and this is what the blessing that God gives, God gives to Moses, saying to speak to Aaron's sons and saying, This is how you shall bless the people of Israel. This is what you shall say to them. We're gonna go through it very quickly. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. Everybody say peace. And so shall they put my name on the people of Israel, and I will bless them. We're gonna see, we're gonna look at a lot of passages today. It's too many passages, and I don't care. Uh because Pastor Scott's not here, and again, his anointing's over here, so every person that's been up here so far has already been long winded, and that's just how we're gonna do it. Uh, this is in uh uh um reverence to him. Um but what you're gonna see in a lot of these passages is parallels. Parallels, inclusios, sandwiches. So you see, if you look at a verse and there's a word at the beginning of the passage and a word at the end of the passage or a phrase at the beginning or the end, pay attention. We're gonna look at a lot of like little you know literary devices that we see in both Hebrew and Greek literature. It's not gonna be for you don't get a grade. It's not gonna be a test at the end of this. This is to help all of us understand and have a better idea of how we can personally read scripture. That's my main goal today. Because I believe there's things in there, you know, there's passages that we tell you to read, and you go and read, and you're like, what the heck is this? You know, it's like, no, I'm believing today that we're gonna have a better understanding not only of peace, not only of covenant, but also of scripture today. And so we have this, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord bless. Now you guys don't know this right now, maybe you do, but this is automatically the dog whistle of the thing that we need to hear to know that this is a sign of the covenant. The Lord bless. This is language that's borrowed from Deuteronomy 28. When God is going through the law and is continually making a covenant with the people of Israel, he's saying, Because of this, I will bless. These are the ways that you will be blessed. When you enter into covenant with me, you will be blessed, and these are the way that you're gonna do it. So when we look at this right here, this is not just a random blessing. This is not just something that just fell out of the sky. This is not just something that God just decided on a whimsy. This is uh a legally binding blessing that God is making with his covenant people. That's important. A legally binding covenant blessing that God is making with his people. So the Lord bless you and keep you. Keep you is language uh describing the security that's afforded to those that are in covenant with him. This is a word that means security. Everybody say security. These are important. You're gonna have to remember all these. The next one the Lord make his face to shine upon you. This is favor. His face is his presence. This is favor that comes from being in his presence. He's making his face to shine on you and be gracious to you. This is so awesome, guys. I hope you see this. Be gracious to you. This is to see that all the way back in the beginning, all the way back at the original covenant that God makes with his people, all the way back at the start, it's still predicated on God's grace. The very beginning of covenant. Our God's a covenant God. We say it all the time. Our God loves to cut covenant with us. Our God's faithful because he cuts covenant, but we don't recognize that these covenants are always started with the grace of God. That he's greater than us, he's wiser than us, he's above us, and that should give us comfort. Is anybody comforted that they're not responsible for how great the covenant is? Alright, maybe it's just me. Okay. Be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you. So this is funny because it's another face thing, but this is almost more like God turning his face to you. This is God not just saying that his presence will give you favor, but saying that his presence will be with you. So this is a presence that isn't just far off. It's not a dormant presence, it's not a presence that I have to call to get nearby, it's not a presence that I have to search for all over the place. He's saying, No, my covenant people, my presence is with him. And this is the most important part for today, the thing that we want to look at the most. Lift up his countenance on you and give you what? Now I'm gonna do something. I believe the Holy Spirit's gonna do something right now in the room. That's supernatural. He's going to unify the room, and he's gonna make every single one of us a Hebrew scholar in the room all at the same moment. Okay, do you guys believe this is gonna happen? You gotta believe. Okay, alright. Everybody, all at once, on the count of three, tell me what the Hebrew word for peace is. One, two, three. Look at that. God, okay, come, somebody, come on. Thought you'd be more excited to see a miracle, but okay. Shalom. The church that gave me food at uh the clubhouse when the 22-year-old gave me half a sandwich was called shalom. I don't think that's an accident today. So they will put my name on them, the people of Israel, and I will bless them. Does that sound familiar? This is God closing the door, closing the door on a blessing. This is a secure blessing. But I don't want to talk just for a minute about this word, shalom. It's a word that we've heard a whole lot. Evidently, it was uh uh the name of a TV show that my wife used to watch with her older sister called Shalom in the Home. What was it about? Was it like what now you don't remember Shalom in the Home? Okay, she told me to reference it like everyone was gonna be aware, but evidently it's a more niche joke than even what I'm making right now. So I think we're just gonna get so much so I'm gonna keep making jokes until nobody laughs at the very end of service. Um is a word that means peace. But here's the exciting part. This is right here at the tail end of this covenant. Again, all of this is covenant language, and this is language that is uh uh tied to being in a relationship with God. This is what covenant is for, right? What does a covenant do? When people make a covenant with one another, it's to uh to secure peace between two individuals.

unknown 27:15

Right?

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If I make a covenant with you, it's like, you know, this is what me and my brother used to do like, hey, I won't hit you if you don't hit me, or I won't tell mom if you don't. Those are covenants. The difference is when I make a covenant with God, the effects move into my whole life. It's not just peace with somebody who otherwise would hurt me, it's not just peace with somebody who I need to make some sort of political agreement with. This is a peace that that permeates into every other area of my life and my family. So this word shalom right here, it means uh uh it means wholeness, it means completeness, it means right standing with God. So this is a word that, depending on the context, shalom, can be almost identical or synonymous with covenant. So this is where covenant and shalom coincide, when both can be rightfully defined as being in right standing with God. The ultimate peace, the ultimate shalom. See, sometimes we think of peace as just a state of mind or a philosophy. The ultimate peace, can I tell you today, is being in right standing with God. Being in right standing with the covenant God who secures. Everybody say secures. I'm gonna be using a lot of the same language. I don't know if you could tell already. Secures, covenant, peace, shalom, wholeness. What do some of these things look like? I'm gonna, I probably got ahead of myself. Oh, I'm doing it the wrong way already. Peace, prosperity, welfare. These are all definitions of the word shalom, depending on the context. Wholeness, complete, secure. And some of you guys think maybe I'm swishing up. Like, hey, I thought this was a series on suffering. I thought this was a series on perseverance, but now you're talking about a covenant God who just gives me prosperity and wholeness and completeness and security. Like, are you changing the theology for us today? No, no, no. Let's look at this. Genesis 29, 6. I found this out yesterday on a Saturday. I was perusing my lexicons, like most of us do. More niche, more niche every time. I don't care. I love it so much. Norm MacDonald used to say that the point of a joke is to surprise people, and if you tell a joke and they don't laugh, surprise. So that's the goal of the day. But I found this yesterday, and this really, again, kind of put the lid on how much I believe God wants us to get this today. How much I I believe God wants us to get this today. In Genesis 29, 6, uh uh the Hebrew word shalom is translated into the English as it is well. It is well. So when I say it is well with my soul, what do I mean? Maybe this is the full circle moment. When I say it is well with my soul, what does it mean? It means my circumstances might not look like it. It means my emotions might not feel like it. It means my my my family might not think my job might not think about it, but I am in right standing with a covenant God. You don't want to know what it feels like to say it is well? It means that I am in covenant with a God who secures me. It means I'm in covenant with a God whose presence is available to me. It means I'm in right standing with a God who says, I don't care what your circumstances look like, I am with you, my face is shining on you, and you are secure in my covenant. Is anybody thankful for that today? I don't know why I did my hands like this. This is Jazz's hands. It is well with my soul. If there's nothing else, I hope that encourages you today. Goodness gracious. Here's the thing with covenant, too. Make sure that we get this. For one, we have to hold on to the attention that biblical wisdom in practice produces biblical results. So we talk about good behavior. Doesn't some some some people probably want to weigh this series and thought, like, oh, well, if it doesn't give me material blessings to be good, then I ain't gonna. Right? No, here's the here's the problem. Like, we have to hold on to the attention that there's wisdom literature, there's proverbs, there's biblical principles that produce biblical results on stewardship, on giving, on faithfulness, on love, on caring for your neighbor. These produce biblical results, but at the same time, I know that there are trials and tribulations that the righteous man will have to go through, but take heart because he's overcome the world. So I have to hold on to those tensions today that both of those things happen. But what does behavior actually affect? If I understand what covenant looks like, if I understand what right standing with God looks like, it means that right behavior might not dictate my circumstances entirely, but right behavior can compromise my peace. Wrong behavior might compromise the way that I interact with God, or me stepping under his covering, or my submission to God. My peace might go away because I'm intentionally in an unrepentant state where I'm deciding to not be in covenant with him. And it's at that moment that I've decided that my comfort is more important than his peace. See, it's so much nicer if I'm sitting in the chair than I can just go to the things. Alright,

Chaos As The Enemy’s Strategy

SPEAKER_01 32:29

so what is peace? How does peace interact with the world? This is how we want to move forward. How does peace interact with? Alright, peace is nice, great, it's covenant with God, it's right standing with God, but what does that actually mean? What does that do for me? What is the the purpose of God to making a covenant with the people? Uh, and how does it interact with the world? Is it just a material state? Is it a philosophy? Is peace just an awkward way to end a phone call? What is it? Uh I hope to answer this today and also explain why I don't get invited to dinner parties. Um Yeah, because there was a dinner party that we went to Friday. It wasn't a dinner party, it was a friend's house. But we went to a dinner party Friday night. You remember this? Two nights ago. Yeah, you remember it. She knows where this is going and this is a problem. Uh we were at a dinner party Friday night and we're just having casual conversation. You know me, I'm just a casual conversation guy. I'm just goofing around, just having a great time. And at one point, my wife looks over at me out of the blue and says, if the devil is not omnipresent, then where is he? I'm supposed to answer that? You guys are all looking at me the same way she looked at me, like, oh, like, alright, if he's out there, let's go find him. You know, it's like a kid that finds out there's bad guys in the world. It's like, well, go get him. What are we waiting for? Like, let's go get the devil. I was reading about this devil guy today. Somebody should really do something about that. The good thing is, you're gonna have to go find him in the world. He's pretty evident in scripture and his intentions are pretty well stated. Right? Unfortunately, because of true crime podcasts and because of conspiracy theories, uh, many of us have forgotten the idea that if the bad guy writes down his intentions in plain language, I should probably believe him. So let's look at some of these things. And this is really like the big idea here for us today is that the devil, sometimes we think that he's trying to trick us or prank us, you know, or whatever, or that he's, you know, doing some sort of eschatological or end times power play behind the scenes, you know, or whatever it is. They're like those are his real goals, is to is to trick you into who's really, you know, pulling the strings, you know, like all that kind of stuff, you know, whatever. But really, if we look at scripture and we look at the narrative arc, we look at you know the consistent language that's used around this, the the devil, the the principalities, every part of darkness, the primary goal is now and has always been chaos. Chaos. Has anybody ever felt during the It Is Well series, during some moment in your life, during some perspective of the world, during some perspective of your circumstances, has anybody ever felt like the real problem is chaos? Alright, I I didn't want to say this and it's not in my notes, but because I was texting with Pastor Rusty Nelson on Thursday, and he asked me, this was him asking me that in honor of one of my best friends in the world and his wife and his beautiful daughter moving back to tell some story about his son Alex Nelson. I don't have this in the notes, uh, but he asked me to do it. What do you want me to do? It's a spiritual father, he asked me to do it. He's not even in the room. He went out with the daughter. So, Mariah, you get to hear this, tell him about it afterwards. This is perfect because now it can go full, you know, no strength. Now he's not sitting here. Probably 15 years ago, he asked me on a family cruise uh uh with his family, not my family at all. Um, and I was really, really excited. It's like, oh great, my dear friend. And then afterwards I found out that I was like the fifth person he called. Uh which is fine, it's still a great honor. And I didn't even mention, I was just like, yes, thank you. Yes, I'll go on a carnival cruise with your family. That's amazing. And I remember there's a lot of stories I could tell about this, and this one doesn't mean anything to anybody except me. But uh I remember like, you know, sitting there at dinner, and uh uh Pastor Spencer Bell, the pastor of our our uh Smith Lake campus was there as well. And I remember we're all sitting around the table, and everyone else has sodas, right? You know, so Alex has a soda, you know, Spencer has a soda, Pastor Rusty has all these people have sodas, whatever. I'm drinking water. And we're like, Why are you drinking water? We're on a cruise. Come on, live a little bit. I go, oh well, you know, it's still a little expensive, and I didn't get the soda pass. And so Spencer looks at me and he says, Well, just use mine. And this is how much of a dork I was. I said, I don't think they want you to use that unless you're family. How much of a square. He says, Dude, no, it's fine. Just tell them that you're my brother. It's not my suggestion. This was Pastor Spencer. He's not streaming, so I'm allowed to say this. And so he peer pressures me into him. Like, alright, sure, I'll use the soda pass. And I take it and I walk up to the counter and I hand it to him. This is so embarrassing. I hand it to him and I say, uh, yes, sir, I would like a Dr. Pepper, please. And he looks at the card. This doesn't look like you. Like it was a fake ID that I just handed him. And I get so sweaty and nervous, and I go, Yeah, uh, I'm sorry, sir. Uh, that's my brother. All right, well, I'll get you Dr. Pepper, but next time he needs to come with you. Right? You know, like those guys that take their jobs way too seriously, like, buddy, okay, I think the crews can afford one extra Dr. Pepper, you know. Hands me the drink, and I turn around, and right in front of me is Pastor Rusty Nelson. With just a faint smile on his face. At that moment in the distance, I heard a rooster crow three times. A lot of people say they like the ocean, a lot of people say they like going out there, and oh, it's great, we love it. And I want to tell you right now that you don't love the ocean, and it's a sin to love the ocean. You don't love the ocean, you like the beach, and you like carnival cruises. You don't like the ocean. If I picked you up, Pastor Chris, right now and I dropped you in open water, you would not love the ocean. Sean, if I picked you up right now, it didn't even have to be deep, and just dropped you in the middle of Smith Lake, you would not be happy. Have you ever been in like ankle deep water and something brushes against your foot? Nobody loves open bodies of water. You like fishing? Maybe the what is the um tubing? I don't have a lot of friends that have boats, you can tell. No, why is that? And this is not something that's just germane to modern times or something that we just came up with. This is something that's been consistent because of the ocean's propensity to be unknown, to be untamable, to be uh uh uh terrifying and to be chaotic. This is not something that I'm making up, but but but the sea or waters or oceans throughout all of ancient Near Eastern history, second temple literature, all of the Bible stuff that we read, the sea is imagery for chaos. How do we know?

Sea Imagery From Genesis To Job

SPEAKER_01 39:30

We can see it right here in the very beginning. Genesis 1, verse 2 the earth was that without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the what? The waters. That's right. So the earth is without form and void. Easier way to say this to get the imagery again of these sandwiches that we're talking about. The earth was uh uh um uh unformed and unfilled, unformed and unfilled. And the reason why this is important is because immediately afterwards we get a poem about how God forms the world in three days and then fills the world. And this is important to know because it gives you a little bit of understanding of what God's intentions are. His intentions aren't so you know that he created birds on the fourth day. Or whatever, it's another third day. Fourth day is the sun or something, I don't know. You don't have to know. The point is that in three days he forms the world, and in four in the next three days he fills the world. So on the first day, he creates light and dark. How is there light and dark? There's no sun and moon. The first day he creates light and dark, and then on the fourth day, he creates the luminaries, the sun and the moon to govern the light and the dark, to fill the light and the dark. He creates the oceans, and then on the opposite day, he fills the ocean with all sorts of teeming creatures. He creates the expanse in the sky, and then he creates birds to fill the thing. And the ultimate picture that we get from this uh uh sandwich that we get right here in the Old Testament is that what God is ultimately creating is order. So before God's primary intention is made obvious to us that order is there, what is there before order? Waters. Same thing. Waters. Waters is there before order. And it's so funny that that uh uh the sandwich, right? So before we have order, we have chaos, we have waters. After we have order, what do we have? What happens on the seventh day? Rest. Shalom. This is probably later in the notes. I don't know if I'll put it in my notes, but the the concept of shalom gets expanded in the New Testament to a Greek word Irene. Irene. Uh uh Jesus is called our Prince of Irene. Irene, just as a literal Greek word, literally means rest. So we have the opposite of chaos is rest. On the other side of order is rest. And in the New Testament, we're gonna see this more and more that Jesus is our what? Our rest. He's our peace. Oh, yeah, I'm just moving on. We got so many other verses. This watch is broken, by the way. I don't have money for a battery. Um Genesis 3, 1. Now we have the bad guy. We had chaos, and then we have order, and then we have somebody who wants to supplant God's order or an adversary. Uh so like we talked about uh in the first week, another callback, Satan in the Old Testament is typically not a proper noun, it's an adjective to describe an adversary or an accuser. So many times in the Old Testament, the phrase Hasatan or the Satan is used to describe humans, and in Numbers chapter 22, Hasetan is even used to describe the angel of the Lord. Not because he's evil, but because he was the adversary to Balaam. So in the Old Testament, what I'm seeing, Satan, is typically an adjective describing some sort of being and their function in the uh uh uh in whatever story they're in. In the Old Testament, we start with this picture, and it's gonna get developed in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we start with this picture of a serpent. A serpent. Now I said something about the story of Job where uh I was very like concerned with the security of heaven because Satan just walked in. You guys remember that? This one's another problem for me is because the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field the Lord God had made, and then he began to talk to Eve, and she just talked back. No one else concerned with the fact that you've just named every single animal, and now one of them's talking? You guys must have something different. Maybe you guys live out in the county or something, you have different snakes. I don't know. I don't have any snakes that talk. Garden of Eden, evidently there are. The reason is because this word serpent in Hebrew is Nakash. Nakash has a lot of other imagery that's associated with it. Scales, almost dragon, chaos, imagery, uh, some sort of beast. Uh uh uh uh uh uh it almost says language of like a shining one. The root Hebrew words give you these pictures. So Not just a serpent, but some sort of divine being that has shining qualities and almost looks like a dragon. So this is imagery that's associated with it doesn't mean it's the definition, it's imagery that's associated with a word that a Hebrew reader would see when they're reading this word Nakash. So this is the picture, the first, this is like the origin story, you know, like whatever. And then we have this Genesis 7 in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all of the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of heaven were open, and the earth was flooded. What does this look like? It looks like in the beginning there was chaos. God created order, God created man and things to govern the order, and then God arrested, and then this creature comes out that seeks to supplant the order of God, and then what do we have? Chaos. So what does it look like? Looks like the bad guy won. So that's a short story. It's only seven chapters, and the bad guy wins? That's not a great story, except there's a problem. There's a remnant. Noah and his family are found what? In right standing with God. In right standing with God. And what happens to them? They're preserved in an ark. Not taken away from the chaos, but preserved in the chaos. Preserved in the chaos. And then obtain peace in the form of what? A dove and an olive ranch. You guys see this? Like, you think I'm making it up? It's in the book. Read the book. And then what happens? He gets off the boat, and God makes a covenant with him. Right standing with God. Preservation. Security. Peace. You guys getting the picture? Peace. Peace is not the absence of chaos. It's the security through it. Alright. Is Alex back? No. Mariah left too. Dang it. Last week, Pastor Scott indicated we should all read the book of Job, and I wholeheartedly agree, but I also know that many of you went home and read like 30 seconds of it. This made everything a thousand times worse. I don't know what's going on here. First off, terrible things happen, and then it gets really boring for a long time. Can you just give us the end, right? And this is, you know, I'm being silly here. It's a great book. It's, you know, one of the most philosophically dense and theologically dense books ever in history. And secular scholars know it, atheists know it, and there's too afraid to admit it. It's the most beautiful piece of poetry, in my opinion, that's ever been written. I think the problem is often we ask poor questions about the book of Job. I think we read the book of Job and think that our purpose is to like sympathize with Job. Or be like, you know, like, oh, well, he's got it bad too. Or like look at it and be like, well, at least I don't have it that bad. Or you read it in a much more logical sense that is that's still insufficient. Well you read it and you're like, well, why is there suffering? The only problem is you read the book and you don't get an answer. There is no answer in the book of Job as to why good people suffer. And then you start to realize that yes, Job is going through trials, but in the book of Job, Job is actually not the one on trial. God is. God is on trial. Well, let's say let's let's take a look. I'll give I'll give you a somebody smarter than me, and this is a book that I'm gonna highly recommend. This is from John Walton, and there's another guy who helps write it about how to read Job. If you guys are interested in this, he told you, buy this book right here. Uh uh, I think how to read is better than just getting some sort of commentary, because this helps you get to your own, you know, your own conclusions and get your own thoughts through the book, and not just somebody else's, so it's like a little bit more helpful. If you don't want to buy this book, um, I'm also gonna be selling some of my material in the lobby after service. I'm not, by the way. It's just gonna be some auto traders and a mad magazine. Uh, this is what he says about the book of Job. The first challenge suggests that God's policy of blessing righteous people is flawed because it seems to buy people's loyalty and righteousness. The second piece of the challenge falls in a place when Job begins to suffer. As he makes his speeches and launches his demands to God for a hearing, we learn that Job also has a problem with God's policies. He considers it bad policy that God allows righteous people to suffer. In short, he also thinks that God is unjust. You guys see right out of the gate, God is the one on trial. Hey, you're making all your people uh uh prosperous. He's only serving you because he has good things. And then immediately afterwards, that same person says, God, I'm righteous. Why are you not blessing me? So there's nothing that God can do except answer from the whirlwind. Um we're gonna look at some passages in Job, too. Here's the other part, too. When I recognize that this is a book about God, my question shifts from why is Job suffering to why is Job righteous? And what does this indicate about relationship with God? Um, so let's try to find first the real bad guy in the book of Job. Uh look at another couple of passages. Job is comprised of a bunch of different styles of literature, poetry, dialogue, narrative, lament. You got we learned a lot about lament last week. Was that not the best message that you ever heard from Pastor Scott last week? I've heard him, he was my youth pastor. So I've heard him preach since I was 12 years old. I think it was the best one, I don't know. This is sincere. He's not here to promote me or anything. Like, this is just for you. I'm being sincere. Alright, um, so this is some of the language, but we'll look at it. I can't read my notes, I get cross-eyed because I'm not sitting to like a tether. Um so, what kind of language? Again, this is a theological book, and this is going to give us language to describe God and the way that he interacts with the world. And again, we get the same. It's so funny. This is a completely different book, a completely different author. We get the same imagery. Guess what? It doesn't matter who's writing about it, the same problem still exists in the world. Doesn't matter who the author is, the same cosmic battle is still happening over your lives right now. In your circumstances and your world right now. It doesn't change because it's a different guy. So, right here in Job chapter 3, uh, this is gonna be fun. This is one of my favorite things as a kid to read. Uh, let those who curse it curse today, those who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Because the first time I read that, I had just watched the DreamWorks movie Atlantis, and I thought this was like a giant sea scorpion, uh, like mechanical sea scorpion. Maybe. I don't know, I can't tell you. Um this is Job talking. This is funny, you can kind of guess who's talking uh depending on which verse that we read. I don't know how to cough, but the this one, this intercessor needs to wake up because I'm coughing. It's a callback. It's a callback. Um this is Job talking right here, and he's talking about cursing the day of his birth. He has boils on his body, his family is gone, he has uh uh uh illness, he's extreme loss. Uh uh, he's cursing it, and then he says, Let those who curse it curse the day, those who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Leviathan is again this sea dragon imagery. Sea dragon, an agent of chaos. This is not just, you know, it doesn't matter if this is uh um, you know, like like one literal thing or whatever it is. The point of this passage right here is that these are spiritual forces whose desire it is to stir up chaos. Think of any fish that you've ever put in the water. That was stirring. I don't know if you saw that. Stirring up chaos. And this indicates right here, even that there are people or individuals or humans that have the ability, or all humans have the ability, to rouse up these spiritual forces. So there's times where even you in your own life have the ability to provoke spiritual forces to rouse up more chaos in your life. This is not, I know this is one verse. Trust me, there are countless passages all throughout the Psalms, all throughout scripture, that I back these up. I just don't have time to do every single one of them every time. I can't just do every verse in the Bible and just read the whole Bible every Sunday. No? Anybody down? Alright. That'd be a fun event, right, Reese? Just like, hey, we're gonna read the Bible all day. Um, so there's the ability to ri you know, there's gonna be a few of these, these spiritual uh forces that are depicted or the imagery or these sea dragons or these beasts or uh uh um just these these things that rouse up the unknown, is what it is. We have another one over here. Uh this is Job talking again, uh extolling God for his power. By God's power, he stilled the sea. By his understanding, he shattered Rahav. Rahav is again another sea beast. We're gonna get more language about her in the Psalms later on. You can go back and read it or look that up. Again, it's another sea creature. There's these spiritual forces that are prepared to rouse up chaos. And then here we have God talking about his own power. Asking Job, who shut in the sea with its doors when it burst out from the womb? What does this sound like? Noah. The sea, the chaos, burst out from the womb, and then God once again restrained it, showing him what? God has authority over the chaos. So, this is the point of this language right here in Job, and you see it all throughout Job, is that there's a cosmic battle going on right now. German scholars had a word for it. This is just fun, a fun way to think about it, but chaos kampf. God's cosmic battle with chaos. Chaos, the language that you see about the sea, it's constantly pushing against the borders. God created borders to restrain chaos, and it's constantly trying to push forward, and then it recedes back. It pushes forward and receives back. Has anybody ever looked at the chaos or the unknown or fearful events in your life and feel like they subside for a while and then out of the blue? They come back. And then sometimes there's a monsoon.

unknown 54:31

Right?

SPEAKER_01 54:31

And you feel like there's this Leviathan or this spiritual force that now has unleashed another level of chaos. So what do we do? It's so funny, in all these stories that we're about to read, uh, again, it sounds like the bad guy's won. And not just that God can't restore, because we know that God can restore, but it sounds like in these particular instances that the goal of the enemy is not uh to do something that God can't undo, it's to break the faith of the person who is enduring the chaos. So, does the bad guy win in the story? Well, let's go to a passage that

Job’s Hope In The Middle

SPEAKER_01 55:04

many of us read. I know Pastor Steve has read this passage countless times, uh uh doing uh pastoral care. And funerals. This is in Job chapter 19. So again, right in the middle, right in the middle of the book of Job, another sandwich. We're just gonna be full by the end of this year. I don't even want to go to lunch, and we'll just have another hour of teaching. I'm kidding. No, I only had half a sandwich for breakfast. Uh call back. Job 19 says this. Oh, that my words were written, oh, that they were inscribed in a book, that an iron pen and lead they were engraved in rock forever. Why? Because in verse 25, I know that my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. After my skin has thus been destroyed, in my flesh, I shall see God. This is chapter 19. This is not a man who has had a single thing restored to him. This is not a man who has seen the olive branch. This is a man that is in the middle of chaos. This is the man that is in the middle, not he's not in an ark. This is a man who's being tossed to and fro by the winds of uncertainty. I know that my Redeemer lives. This is how the enemy loses. This is how the enemy loses. The enemy doesn't lose because God just restores everything whenever you want it. The enemy loses despite my circumstances. I can say, despite the chaos, I can say that I know my Redeemer lives. I shall see him from myself. He even says, My heart faints within me. But my eyes shall behold, and not another. Right here in the middle of the narrative, we see hope, we see security, and we see a right relationship with God. This is my favorite part about the whole book of Job. Is there not there's not a single time in the book where his righteousness is in question. In chapter one, and Job was an upright man. His friends question his righteousness, he demands his own righteousness, but at the very end, God affirms, no, he was a righteous man. He uses harsh language and he tells you how powerful he is and how secure the chaos is within his borders. But there's no point in the scripture where it is proven that Job is outside of right standing with God. Right standing with God, covenant with God. Let's look at another one. This is one of my favorite ones. This is hilarious. We'll do this one really quick. This is Jonah, Chaos and Jonah. Jonah is a hilarious book because it's basically satire. Uh, it really is. Like if you read it, we've now read about Elijah and Elisha, these amazing prophets. We've read about Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Isaiah and all these prophets that were just filled with confidence and boldness in the spirit and able to speak things and situations that were difficult and were able to survive absolutely insane uh situations and speak against the prophets of Baal and win. And here uh Jonah is asked to go on a seaside vacation and he jumps off a boat. It's so funny that just out of the blue, there's this random prophet who's just like, no, I can't do it, God. Just this, you know, and again, this is funny, but it's it's kind of the point of the book. We see uh uh uh this is what I wrote. Jonah comes along like the Mr. McGee of Old Testament heroes. That's pretty funny, right? It's a very niche. Again, we're going niche, more and more niche until you don't understand the references. None of these people know what that is, by the way. Mr. McGee, they're all asleep right now, and that's fine. They're asleep in the back of the boat. That's all that is. Um, this time chaos is roused, and Jonah is consumed by the beast. Once again, it seems like Jonah, or the enemy rather, has been victorious. But what do we see? In the middle of the beast, in the middle of chaos. What are Jonah's words? Then Jonah prayed to the Lord from the belly of the fish, saying, I called out to the Lord out of my distress, and he answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice, for you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me. All your waves and your breakers passed over me. Then I said, I am driven away from your sight, yet I shall look again upon your holy temple. The waters closed in over me to take my life, the deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped about my head, to the roots of the mountains I went down, to the land whose bars closed upon me forever. You brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. Is anybody seeing a pattern here? This is right in the middle of the story. This is another sandwich. Take it slow, cut it in half. Right in the middle of the story. This point again, deeper into the chaos. To the bottom, to Sheol, to death. Three days and three nights he's in, which is also like uh it's primarily a Hebrew phrase. It can literally mean three days and three nights, but it's primarily a Hebrew phrase that describes long enough to be dead. That's the primary point of three days and three nights. Long enough to be dead, yet you brought my life up out of the pit. Alright, we're gonna go to another callback. This is gonna be a good one. We'll do it uh quick. We're we're fine, we're fine. We're coming to a good point. Everybody feeling good? You guys, hey, everybody feeling good tonight, huh? You know, how are we doing tonight? Uh, you sir, what do you do for work? No. He's the worship pastor, is Pastor Brian. Presence team later. Uh do I need to say anything before I go to this slide?

Jonah And Prayer Inside The Deep

SPEAKER_01 1:00:48

I don't know if there's like a big reveal. I don't think there is. Again, this is what you get from me standing back. No, I don't have to say anything. Oh, this is it right here. Uh, you know, I said earlier that it was a Matthew reference, but Pastor Scott looked at the story. In Luke, we're gonna look at another story in Matthew chapter 8. It's the same story, but this is Matthew's account of it. And maybe many guys reveal, you know, remember this, right? This is Jesus asleep in the back of the boat. And Luke's account, you know, Pastor Scott pointed out something that was I had never read before in my life, that there was other boats there. Describing, have you ever felt like Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat? Have you ever felt like you were in the midst of chaos and it was rousing up and you had no hope, and Jesus wasn't answering your prayers? Uh so last week, Pastor Scott covered this story out of Luke. It's a callback. It's too many. Now I've flooded it, and it's uh He also discussed what kind of prayer chaos might produce or pain might produce, but now we're gonna look at what kind of revelation chaos might produce in us. So I'm gonna look at this account really, really quick and point out a couple things. Uh you can see the blue is the highlights here. So basically, um uh yeah, there's a storm on the sea. Jesus is asleep in the back of the boat. They woke him saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing. And this is what he said to them Why are you afraid, oh you of little faith? Why are you afraid, oh you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds of the sea, and there was a great calm. There was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? So this chaos produces a question. The resolution of the chaos produces a question. What sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? So there's chaos, there's a storm, and it appears that the only person who can do anything about it is asleep in the back of the boat. So we're going to look at another story very quickly. I don't know why I say very quickly. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. This is in Matthew chapter 14, verses 26 through 33. So, how many chapters is that? Six chapters later? So this is the same author writing about another story six chapters later. So Matthew knows what he's writing about. This is when Jesus walks on water. So the disciples go on ahead, and Jesus stays back on a mountain to pray, and then they see him. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Listen to this, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it's you, command me to come out to you on the water. Everybody say, Water. And he said, Come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took a hold of him, saying to him, Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt? Did Matthew forget that he wrote that same phrase of Jesus six chapters earlier? Is this an accident? Or is this another callback? Only this time by a biblical writer. And when they got in the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. So let's look at these two stories right next to each other, the parallels. So in the first story, you have winds and waves, you have storm, you have chaos, you have everything being roused up against the disciples. They find themselves in fear, they find themselves lacking faith because it appears that Jesus is asleep on the boat. Jesus wakes up, he calms the wind and the waves, and they ask a question. What kind of man is this? Here, six chapters later, we have another story. The wind and the waves rise up. The disciples are afraid for their lives. They see Jesus walking on the water. They say, It must be a ghost. It certainly couldn't be the savior that we've seen countless miracles from. It certainly couldn't be the savior that we've seen do everything else. Move mountains, see lepers healed, see a blind man uh see, see uh a lame men walk. It couldn't be that guy, it must be a ghost. Jesus says, It is I, and then gets back on the boat with Peter. He says, Peter, why do you have little faith? The same admonition. But then instead of asking a question, the disciples answer, Surely this is the Son of God. Why do they ask a question in the first story and they they they seem to answer their own question in the second story? And I would posit that it's because of this phrase right here. Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid. The Greek used here for the phrase, it is I is ego I me. Ego I me. We see this in the Greek translation of the Old Testament one time. And it comes in the book of Exodus, and it comes from a burning bush. When it's making its face to shine on Moses. When he says, I am that I am.

Jesus Over The Storm And The Sea

SPEAKER_01 1:05:56

This is not just some supernatural revelation, this is not just some. Uh guess Jesus says to them, I am that I am. And they say, Truly, you are the Son of God. There's something that we need to understand about this. Now that we've read these stories in the Old Testament, we're now fully aware of the cosmic battle that's going on for your faith and for your souls. We're fully aware of the intentions of the enemy that they want to rouse up chaos in your life. We're fully aware of a covenant God's ability to secure, of a covenant God's ability to maintain, of a covenant God's desire to show you favor, to lift up his countenance on you, and to give you peace. Right standing with God, a covenant with God. Who secures our covenant in the new covenant? Who is our security? Who is our peace? This peace, this security is now no longer based off of following a law, a living of the law. It's no longer based off of ritual sacrifices, it's no longer based off of all the things that we can do. Our peace is now secure in Jesus. Our hope is now secure in Jesus. The body and blood of Jesus Christ is what secure peace. So peace in Jesus Christ when I look at this story. The water is raging. The storm is evident. But in Jesus Christ we say that peace is not the absence of chaos, it's authority over it. I guess you guys didn't there's people okay. There's people in this room today that desperately need peace. And maybe Pastor Brain can go and come. One more slide. People in this room that have heard the series that we've done, that have heard the testimonies, that have heard, that have put prayers on the wailing walls out there. And I would encourage you if you haven't already, that if there's something, a situation that you need prayer for, if there's a situation or circumstance, a prayer that's not been answered, if there's something that you're dealing with, if there's something that you feel like is there to forge a faith in you and you want partnership, you want a group project, that perseverance that you're dealing with right now, very, very encourage you to write something. It can be anonymous, whatever you want, write something and put it on the wall out there. We have prayer teams that meet here every Tuesday, every Wednesday. We have staff that's here praying over these things. We have people that are going to pray over these walls right now. I encourage you today, if you need prayer, put something on those walls right there. Because we believe that a God who secures our peace is also a God who can answer your prayers. We believe that just because we have to persevere through trials doesn't mean that we don't serve a God who miraculously heals, saves, and delivers right now in this moment. And we're going to pray for that today. But I want you to know today that our peace is secured in the person of Jesus Christ. So how does the story end? Because it does. It does. Like once again, what I said, it's all written, it's all there, it's all in writing, it's a manifesto. We see the plans of the enemy and we see what happens time and time again. When it seems like he's about to win, and it seems like the chaos is enveloping people, and then you look and it doesn't. I don't know, no, I don't know another way to say it. You look, and the people have withstood the trial.

unknown 1:09:30

Let's see.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:31

Yeah, Revelation, I'll just do this real quick. Revelation is a lot like Job, where people often just try to summarize it. You know, and they're like, guys, it's okay because in the end we win. That's true, I believe it. Come on, somebody, in the end we win. And that's great, but sometimes I think, well, why do you put all that other stuff in there? Like, couldn't that have just been like an email or a text blast? Like, hey guys, don't worry, we win. No, we gotta talk about dragons and things coming up out of the sea and blasphemous names on people's foreheads. Why do you have to put all that other stuff in there? Oh, sorry, Jesus. He was asleep on the podium. It's gonna go good now. Alright. Alright, and the reason why he puts all this stuff in the book is, you know, yes, we we win in the end, but guess what? We're not at the end yet.

unknown 1:10:23

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:24

That's why he puts all this stuff in there. Because there are people that still need to be encouraged, there's people that still need to be set free, there's people that still need to be made aware of their calling and their purposes in Jesus Christ. There's people that need to be reached, there's nations that need to be discipled, and who's gonna do it? The people that in the midst of chaos, in the midst of all of your circumstances, crying out, saying, curse God and die, saying, Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, anxiety, I'm sorry fear. I guess you didn't know I'm in a covenant. I guess I didn't make it clear to you uncertainty and unrest that I'm in right relationship with a God who secures my peace. I don't have to see all of the things aligned right now because I know that my Redeemer lives. So we see this right here. This is again the final death throws of the serpent in the end. Revelation 12, in opposition to the plans of God, the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. So now the enemy's not just rousing up chaos, he's trying to counter the actual covenants of God. What was the first covenant with Noah? I'll never flood the earth again. He is so insecure in his position that he's trying to take out the very first covenant. And he's trying to release that same chaos again after the purposes of God. But what happens? This is my favorite part because again, you're like, okay, I don't know. Are you sure that the serpent is Satan or the devil? This is the answer to my wife's question right here. Where is the devil? Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? It's the last one that's the most niche reference of the day. It's a good one. That's the last one I promise. Where is he? And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years. He would later go on to throw those, that same person into the fiery pit to be tormented for everything that he's done, for all the chaos, for all the confusion, for the mental chaos. Paul tells you to make yourself a mature in Christ, so you're not tossed to and fro by the what? The waves of doctrine. Mental chaos in the room.

Revelation Hope And The Sea No More

SPEAKER_01 1:12:46

It's the knowledge of Christ. The knowledge of Christ, it's that right relationship with him. I also love this too because it's like you ever been called by your full name by your parents? Have I heard Christian William Lake? I'm not coming out. The dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, he's bound and he's cast in the sea. And then this is the this is when we finally see. Alright, but what about the chaos? What about the chaos that was there before God even ordered the world, before he even ordered the cosmos? What happens to the chaos that pre-existed that's constantly pushing against my life, that's causing fear and unrest and constantly causing uh worry and constantly causing me to worry about my pregnancy, to worry about my my financial security, to fear the future of my country or geopolitics, to have anxiety about what I'm going through, about my illness or about my diagnosis or whatever it is. What is it that happens to that chaos right here? In Revelation 21:1, the new heavens and new earth. I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and what? The sea was no more. God's got up. I'm doing jazz hands again. It's because I'm getting emotional. Thinking about this series and thinking about all of the things that just came together. This was not, we didn't get this off the internet. This was not something that we uh uh chat GPT. This was something that I truly believe God had right now in this moment. For families that are here, for individuals that are in the room that feel so insecure, that feel so unrested. Isn't that the funny thing about suffering or persecution? That the first thing to go is your sleep. Whenever there's loss, oh well, you know, I've been sleeping. Whenever there's chronic illness, God you can't sleep. You you do your best, and it's not you know wrong to seek medical help for these things, but you do your best to find anything else. Anything. Please, God, I need this thing to help. My sleep, my rest is taken away from me. There's people here who are feeling that right now. I truly believe that this series and all of the evidence that's been mounting is that our God is a God who, regardless of the chaos that exists, has authority and is inviting you to walk on it with Him. He's inviting you to walk in the water. We don't need an ark anymore. We don't need a fish anymore. We have the hand of Jesus who Hebrews tells us is our rest. He is our rest. The believer's rest. There's a rest that exists for the room that that supersedes whether you slept well through the night. It supersedes whether your circumstances look okay today. There's a rest that's available in the room tonight. And we want to pray for that. Let's pray together. Let's do that. Holy Spirit, we just ask it one more time. To just bring clarity, just wrap a bow in this for us today.

Prayer For Peace And Communion

SPEAKER_01 1:15:57

We've been made so aware of the enemy's plans. And the times that he tries and tries again over and over to push back the boundaries that you've set. To rouse up chaos, to rouse up confusion, to rouse up fear, Lord, and we do not partner with it, we do not accept it because we believe in the Jesus Christ who conquered at the cross. Lord, I pray that you would teach us to say that today. In Jesus' name. You can raise your hands. We have ushers that are handing them out. But because what secures our peace, but the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And again, just as we can uh just as we can identify the plans of the enemy, because he has them down and writing, we can identify the plans of our Lord and Savior. Because he told us time and time again. He sat there with the disciples, and he broke the bread and he blessed it. Blessed it. Blessed it. Blessed it. Covenant language. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The security. May the Lord make his face to shine in you and be gracious to you. The grace that's afforded to us by Jesus Christ. May the Lord lift up his countenance on you, turn his face to you, put his presence inside of you, and give you peace. He breaks the bread and he says, This is my body that was broken for you. The body that not only secures your peace, but the body that unifies us. Taken from one. Our peace is not just because of Christ, our peace is in Christ. As his body. Lord, I thank you for your body today. I thank you for the moment where the supernatural, the spiritual meets the physical. Right here, that we're not just cages for your spirit to pass through, Lord, but we're embodied. Just as you had wounds in your hand that could be felt, just as you came, not as a spectre, not as a spirit. No, you're not a ghost. God made flesh. We thank you for it today and we bless it. And we thank you for your covenant. Let's eat together. And he took the cup and he said, This is the blood of the what? The new covenant. The new covenant. The new covenant. The new covenant. The new right standing with God. The new right relationship with God. The new security in God. The new peace with God. Peace. Peace. Peace. This is the ultimate symbol of your peace today, is the blood of Jesus Christ that speaks a better word than the chaos in the world. So, Jesus, we thank you for your blood that was shed for us. We thank you that it secures a covenant. That we're in right standing, not because we're perfect, not because we followed all the rules, we're in right standing because of faith in Jesus Christ. We're in right standing, and that's peace. And though my flesh and my heart may fail, you're my portion forever. That you might take my material belongings, you might take my physical circumstances, but there is neither depth nor height. No powers nor principalities, nor angels nor demons. Nothing in heaven on earth that can separate me from the love and the blood of Jesus Christ. We thank you for your covenant. Let's take together.

Closing And How To Connect

SPEAKER_02 1:21:39

We hope and pray this message was encouraging and impactful. Join us live on our website or Facebook on Sundays at 9 and 11 a.m. You can stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at the Rock Family. Have a Jesus filled week.