The Village Church
The Storms of our Lives - Audio
We have a guest preacher today, a friend of mine, a white plumber. I met Y in 2002, I think, at John Piper's church out in Minnesota at a pastor's conference. So he's a good friend, a good mentor, and I'm honored to have him to come share with God's Word with us this morning for a while. [applause] Well, good morning, Village Church, I'd like to be close, a front and personal. It's good to be here, I feel very welcomed here. Everybody speaks and introduces themselves. The music is great, thank you for worship leading. It's great to be here. What can I say? Thank you for asking me. I'm in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I work for the denomination, I work for Michigan, North America. I'm the African-American ministry coordinator, and my job is to help African-Americans come into the PCA, I can't make to the PCA, just to the PCA, and churches that are looking to be cross-cultural, I interface with them and communicate with them. And I'm also an ordinance from the PCA, I've been in the PCA for 30 years. 30 years, yeah, I was very young, I feel that God has called me to be in this denomination for his sake and for his glory, and it's an honor to be here. I was at your ordination about three years ago, and I'm excited that the church is going to be particularized, this is an incredible work of God. And you just need to know that there's other churches throughout the country who are ministering in a similar capacity, doing similar work, doing it in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at New City Fellowship, and there's a number of other brothers and sisters doing the same work, so I know that you're in good company. So I'm going to be coming from Scriptures today from the Book of Mark. I'm going to be looking at Mark chapter 4, beginning in verse 35. And this is a story, as many of the stories are in the Gospels. The Gospel writers like to tell the stories of Jesus and his disciples, and Jesus always looks good and the disciples always look bad, and this is one of those stories. But there's a lesson here for us. Let's look at Mark chapter 4, beginning in verse 35. I'm going to be reading from the NIV. Hear God's Word. That day, when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, "Quiet. Be still." Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this?" Even the wind and the waves obey him. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Heavenly Father, our God, our King, we thank you for your grace, your mercy, your love, and pray, Lord, that we would hear your Word this morning, that we would hear from you, that you are the Lord. You are the Lord of your Word. You are sovereign, you're greater, and you're great is. I pray, Lord, that we would listen as disciples, as children of God, that you would feed us the bread of life without which we would have nothing. The things of this world are so appealing, the temptations of the devil, our flesh drags us down, but we pray for your grace that we would see through this, and see reality, the only true God who came through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and who's named my pray, amen. As I said, this is one of the many stories in the Gospels, and it begins at the conclusion of a hard day's work for Jesus. He's been teaching his disciples all day long. They had been ministering to the multitudes, and no doubt Jesus was tired. And our text tells us that day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side." I'm going to get some relief from all the crowds. And although this story is recounted in all three Gospels, we have the most detail in Mark. Mark provides us with incredible details. He tells us, leaving the crowd behind, that they took Jesus along just as he was. They took him along in the boat, and apparently there were other boats along. Mark provides us with this incredible details. And often we wonder, when we read the Gospels, why do they provide all of these details? Is it the way we do it when we write stories and novels? Now, the reason why there's so much details here is because when you're telling a story, the details are important, aren't they? You're telling somebody a story, and you're describing it, and you're saying, "Oh, such and such, oh, yes, she had a red dress." No, no, no, it wasn't a red dress. It wasn't because the details are important. And Mark provides us with all these little details about Jesus being alone. There were other boats. He was sleeping on a cushion. That doesn't add to the Gospel, does it? But it adds to the reality that Mark is essentially telling a story of something that actually took place. It's an eyewitness account, probably coming from the mouth of Peter. The story continues. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Matthew tells us that this storm came up without any kind of warning. Apparently it was not unusual for sudden storms to arise in the sea of Galilee. And I'm sure that at least for the disciples who were seasoned fishermen, they were accustomed to this. No big deal. But this was an especially serious storm. And they probably thought that they could contain it until it got worse. And worse, why bother Jesus? He's not a fisherman. We're seasoned. They didn't want to even bother Jesus. But the storm became so great that the text tells us that the disciples woke him and said, "Teacher, teacher, don't you care if we drown." Matthew says that the disciples says, "Lord savers, we're about to drown." After this, Jesus wakes up from his sleep as if disturbed. He rejects the wind and says to the waves, "Quiet. Be still." And then suddenly the wind and the waves, they completely die down. Jesus essentially tells them, "Be quiet." As if talking to a person, Jesus says, "Quiet and the storm immediately." It's quiet. I mean, it's a calm. It's called a mega calm. You know how after the wind goes, it's still rocking? Well, it wasn't rocking. It wasn't as if there wasn't any wind at all. Mark goes on to tell us that after Jesus rebukes the storm, the disciples who were afraid are even more afraid now. They're terrified and they ask each other, "Who is this?" Even the wind and the waves obey him. Today, I want us to look at this story. I want us to look at the story and what it has to teach us about our own lives and the difficulties and the storms that come up in our lives. And I want to put it in the framework of the questions that are asked in the text itself. The disciples ask two questions and Jesus asks two questions. The first question is asked by the disciples. In light of the ferocity of the storm and the waves breaking over the boat so that it was nearly swamp the disciples ask a critical question. Teacher, don't you care if we drown. Now, the simplistic answer from our perspective is of course he cares. This is Jesus. And we often look at the disciples thinking, "Why don't they get it? They've been with Jesus. They've heard him preach. They've seen all the miracles. Why don't they get it? Why can't they put two and two together?" But I wonder if we don't do something similar. And we have less of an excuse than the disciples. See, we know what Jesus did because we can read of the accounts. We know that he was raised from the dead. We've heard his high priestly prayer. We know so much more than the disciples. Yet we ask the same question, don't we? Particularly when difficulties in life come up, we say, "Jesus, don't you care? My baby is sick and the doctors don't seem to know what the problem is. Jesus, don't you care?" I worked for this company and they're beginning to lay off people. And I'm liable to lose my job. And we have little money in the bank. "Jesus, don't you care?" I have relatives in trouble. I've been praying for them. I've been praying for them. You don't seem to be making them any better. "Jesus, don't you care about me?" I'm talking to my parents and they don't get it. They don't get what I'm going through in school. And the other kids I'm getting, I'm praying, "Lord, protect me." But they keep teasing me, "Jesus, don't you care?" I wonder if that's a question that's on our heart. We wonder when the difficulties and the struggles of life come, whether God cares. And why isn't he responding to my prayers? But I want to encourage you that in spite of what feels like silence that God hears you, he hears your prayers, he hears your cries. The silence of God can often seem like he doesn't care. The psalmist in Psalm 44 sounds very much like the disciples. In Psalm 44, 23 it says, "Awake, O Lord, why do you sleep?" The psalms often reflect our hearts. Rows yourself, do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? Doesn't it seem sometimes that God is hiding? And although we know that God loves us because we know this from the Scriptures, it tells us over and over. It just seems like when difficulties come that God must be displeased with us for some reason, we ask ourselves, "What did I do wrong?" And we recount things that might be wrong in our lives. You remember the story of Job? How difficulty came on his life and he lost everything except for his wife? And his life kind of fell apart and he was filled with disease. And his friends came to comfort him. And they said, "Well, okay, let's go over there. There must be something wrong in your life. You must have done something. Bad things don't happen to good people, not." Our basic assumption is that if God loves me, then bad things are not going to happen. And if they do, they're not going to last very long. They're Christian. And these things are not supposed to happen. But you need to know that the Scriptures never promised us a trouble-free life. If anything, it warns of just the opposite. John 1633 says, "In this your world, you will have trouble." But Jesus tells us to take heart. Why? Because he has overcome the world. Our basic assumption that life is supposed to be good and golden, that's an American myth. Because there are a lot of countries that just kind of know better. You talk to people in Haiti, they know that life is not basically good. It's difficult. And so we need to be prepared. So 1 Peter 4 reminds us not to be surprised at the painful trials you're suffering as though something strange were happening to you. If we could only remember that God allows us to go through difficulties to discipline us. Hebrews 1211 says, "God disciplines us for our good, that you may share in His holiness." No discipline seems pleasant at the time. When you were disciplined as a child, did you say, "Thank you." Did you say, "I know this is unpleasant now, but I know that it will reap fruit as I get older." We just don't have that kind of wisdom, do we? No, it just hurts a lot and we want it to go away. We often don't understand the purpose of the difficulty. And we say, "If you would only explain to me why I'm going through this, then maybe I could take it better." I once had an appointment at a doctor at a certain time, 9 o'clock, let's say, and I got there always on time. And it seems like they never get to you. And so I allow 15 minutes, you know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. When it got to be half an hour, I was starting to get frustrated, 45 minutes, they finally brought me in. And I was pretty angry. And then they put you into a little waiting room, and I wanted to know why. And I'm still not seeing the doctor. What's the hold up? And she began to explain to me that there was an emergency and that there were a lot of other people that they had to attend for. There was a bad car wreck and I said, "Oh, I understand now." Change my temper. It seems like if we could only understand why God takes us through these difficulties, if you could only explain it to me, God, then I can relax, yeah. But you know, God can't always explain to us, can he? It reminded me of a story of how they disinfect sheep on these sheep farms. And they take the sheep and they basically dip them inside of this insecticide all the way up to the nose. And the sheep is trying to get out all along. I wonder if you could explain to the sheep why you're putting the sheep through the insecticide, if the sheep would even understand. And what are we called in the scriptures? Are we not called sheep? And so often the difficulties that we go through, we're not going to understand the side of glory. I try to analyze them sometimes, I had an accident a number of years ago, I fell down a flight as this broke my ankle and said, "Why did I go through that? Why was that necessary, Lord? You could have saved me from that." Maybe one day I'll find out. It sure did get me to pray. It did show me my dependency. It showed me the fullness of the world. It showed me the difficulty that I was going through. It revealed a lot. I didn't want it just like these poor disciples. They didn't want this storm. They thought they could handle it. Jesus, don't you care. And the answer is yes. I love you. The second question that's asked is asked by Jesus. After being awakened by his hysterical disciples, he asked the questions, "Why are you so afraid?" Well, the simple answer is we thought we were going to die. Now, the more sophisticated theological answer is because ever since the fall, we're all afraid. Adam and Eve fell and all mankind fell and we're all afraid. We're all hiding. We're afraid. Every single person in this room is afraid of something. I can guarantee it. I don't know your particular fears, but I know that you're afraid of something. It could be the fear of heights, could be flying. My brother refuses to fly, but drives on these highways for fear. But we're fearing something that was one counselor who summarized all fears and put them in three categories. Money, people, and death. I kind of put them in this box and said, "Most of us, you know, we're kind of afraid of either running out of money, not having enough money, wishing we had more money, hoping that we don't run out with the money that we have, or people, how many of us fear approval, wondering whether people care, wondering what other people think, even strangers wondering what strangers think. I always find that ironic to care about what strangers think. I'm never going to see them again. Why do I care?" Death. I've heard a lot of people say, "Well, I'm not afraid to die. I know where I'm going to go." We just don't like the process. We just don't like suffering. We don't like difficulty. We don't like pain, which is all a pointer to death. And that was what these disciples feared this day. They were fearful that they were going to die. And Jesus rebuked them for their fear. He asked, "Why are you so afraid?" And the operative word is so. "Why are you so afraid?" See, a certain level of fear is reasonable. I should fear stepping in front of a moving car. I should fear jumping out of a building of any height. But when God tells us to fear not, we shouldn't fear. The disciples were in the realm of unhealthy fear because Jesus told them not to fear. And it's unhealthy to fear something when God tells us not to fear it. Do you know it's actually arrogant? Isaiah 51, 12 says, "I, even I, am He who comforts you." That's God saying, "I comfort you." Who are you to be afraid of mortal men? See, it assumes that we know more than God. I said, "Don't be afraid." And then you're going to want Him to be afraid anyway. Well, that assumes that I know what's going on more than you do. Jesus told His disciples not to worry. You remember? Not to worry about your life, what you will eat or what you would drink. He said, "Don't be afraid of Him who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." He said, "I'll tell you who to fear. You want to fear someone. Be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul." You see, and that's why the Scriptures say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. He is the only one who counts fear of anything else is understandable but unreasonable when God tells you not to fear. And so when we find ourselves in the realm of fear, we need to go, "Lord, I'm not trusting you. I'm scared. I'm not trusting you. Help me. I lay my fears." You know, the disciples are in the boat with Jesus. They heard Him preach. They've seen Him heal. They've seen Him perform miracles. He told them, "Was yet they were fearful?" And we get the same way. We know a lot more than they do. So let's don't look down on the disciples. They were fearful because they failed to trust Jesus and that brings us to the third question. Jesus asked the third question. He says, "Do you still have no faith?" The operative word here is still. See, they should have had enough faith, but now they've seen enough to have faith in Jesus. See, faith is simply taking Jesus at His Word if He says it, believe Him. Jesus puts it this way in the same message, He says, "Luke says, where is your faith?" Faith is something that you can get out. Faith is something that you can count on because you have it. It's based on reality. So often we think of faith as kind of like air conditioning. Temperature rises up to a certain point, kind of kicks on, the air can do. And we expect, "Okay, faith is going to kick in. I'm really scared and faith is going to kick in." Well, faith doesn't work that way. It's not an emotion, faith is something that we rely on because we go back to the reality of what God has already told you, what He has already proved, what He has already shown. We can go back to things like the fact that He raised Jesus from the dead. If He raised Jesus from the dead, He could do anything. He says, "Duck, not to worry. I need to rely on what He has taught." It's based on what we know about Jesus is putting into practice. But we know. We do it all the time. We have faith in things when we're driving down the highway and there's traffic coming in the same direction and you have faith that nothing's going to, that car's not going to veer over. Now, suppose that particular highway had a reputation of accidents. You would be a little bit more fearful. You'd be a little bit more cautious. See, faith is based on knowledge. Has God ever let us down? Is God reliable? Did He create the world? Does He sustain you? You don't sustain yourself. I can guarantee you. Do you know when you're going to leave this world? We don't know any of these things. See, we are totally 100 percent lying upon our God. By now these disciples should have known better. They've seen Him heal. They saw Him heal the centurion. They saw Him heal lepers. Peter's mother. But they didn't believe. And so God has to show us that we don't believe. So that's what some of our trials are about. He took them to the other side in the boat, went to sleep, knew what He was doing. He knew they were going to go through a trial. And He was just waiting for them to respond to the trial. You know, God often tests us this way. He puts us through difficulty, not for His sake, but for us so that we could see that we're relying on something other than God. Remember the children in the wilderness? It says that the Lord your God led you all those days in the desert for 40 years to humble you and to teach you in order to know what was in your heart. What did God do? He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with man to teach you, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, was God intentionally let His people go hungry? And then He fed them, okay, why? To teach them that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. That's what we need. We need the bread of life. It's the air we breathe. That's what we really need. Now this world will have you convinced that you need a lot more than that. Oh, you need self-reliance. You need an education. And I'm going to say you don't need this, but the primary thing that we need is a reliance upon the living God who sustains us and keeps us. You let them go hungry. That's not fair. But James tells us to let the count appear a joy whenever you face trials. It's a trial that God takes us through that we would learn to rely on Him. First Peter once says, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer a grief." Little while never feels like a little while does it. It's just a little while. This brief, momentary affliction is called in another place in Scripture. But this is so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by five, may be proved genuine. God takes us through thoughts, through difficulty, through fire, to prove our faith. Because there's nothing more important in this world than that we rely on God. And He allows us to go through difficulty for us, their tests. You know the interesting thing about God's test is that He doesn't, He doesn't grade on the scale from 1 to 100, you get a 90% or there's no A's and B's. It's really just past fail. Very simple. Are you relying on God or are you relying on yourself? And the trial shows you what you're relying on. And once you see the fear, once you see the shaking, I'm not relying on God, we repent. The good news of the gospel is that you can never really fail. Because even your failure shows you your need and you turn to God in repentance. Look at these weak disciples. They've doubted Jesus, they don't think He cares, He's going to sleep on them. And He doesn't get up and, I've had it with you, I'm going to get another set of disciples. What does He do instead? He rebukes the wind. He tells it to be calm and He does this to show them who He is. He strengthens their faith. He strengthens their faith to the point where they've got to scratch their head and go, "Who is this?" Oh, Jesus is a lot more than we thought He was. The last question is, "Who is this?" Does anybody remember the movie, Jaws? You remember Chief Brody when they were out in the water and he got a glimpse of the... He didn't... They thought they were just after a medium side, maybe even a large chart. And then he saw the mouth on this thing and he turned around and he said to Quint, "You're going to need a bigger boat." And that's how we are. You see, we have no idea how big, how magnificent, how wonderful the God is that we serve. There was Job's experience. Job complained throughout the book of Job. He complained, "I deserve my day in court. Why is this happening to me?" And then at the end of Job, God makes an appearance. And Job looks up and he says, "Never mind." I had heard about you, but he had never experienced the presence of God. These disciples did not know how large, how big, how magnificent, how wonderful was the God. They didn't know how big Jesus... They didn't know that they were in the boat with God himself. They had thought of Jesus as a great teacher. He's a great teacher. He's a prophet. Oh, we've heard about Old Testament prophets like Elijah and Elijah and they healed and they raised the dead even. So maybe Jesus is like that. But they didn't realize that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. They didn't realize that Jesus didn't have to ask permission of anyone else, that he could talk directly to the storm. Or by him, all things were created, and all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, and all things were created by him. And it goes on to say in that reverse in Colossians, that before him, all were all things, and in him, all things hold together. You know that in Jesus, everything's holding together, that the God of the universe who created the universe came to this earth, was with the disciples, that we have something more than even those disciples had. They had him in the boat. But if you are in Christ Jesus today, you have him through his spirit, that he is closer than on the boat. And he's not asleep, he's at the right hand of the Father now, he's even interceding for us even now in prayer, that he loves you more than you could ever hope for or imagine. You see, the disciples thought their greatest need was to be rescued from their storm. But the greatest need that they had, and the greatest need that we had even today is to realize that God is real, that Jesus is real, where two or more gathered together, is he, Jesus is in the midst of us. And that his heart's desire would be that we would know him better. His heart desire is not that he'd get us out of trouble. His heart desire is that we would know him, that we were made for him, that we would understand our purpose is to reflect his glory. It's the nature of the prayer that Paul prays in Ephesians. He said that he is asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, why so that you would know him better. That should be our daily prayer. Before questions. Teacher, don't you care if we drown. The answer is yes, it just doesn't always seem that way, but he does care. Why are you so afraid? Could it be that we're not fully resting in him and so we're relying on ourselves, and you know what happens when you rely on yourself and it's all up to you? Would it be that you're not a hundred percent relying on him? Do you still have no faith? Our faith is being built up day by day by day as we come to know him more and more. Who is this? This is Jesus, the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the end, he's the king of glory, the king of all king, it's Jesus. His word can be counted on in the Scriptures. What he says can be counted on, and when we have those moments of fear, those moments of trembling when we're in the hospital or even waking up in the morning or coming here. Or when we have those times when we fall into sin, like coming back from vacation and we wonder is everything going to be together when I get back there? I wonder can we rely on a reality that this is Jesus Church. This was here before I got here, and this will be here after I leave, and it's all about him and not about me, and I wonder with that as we realize that might we be able to go to our neighbors and witness to them and tell them about this glorious Jesus without shine, with no shyness, trepidation, fear that they'll think little of us because we really don't care what they think, because we have the approval and the righteousness of the only one who is worthy, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, which has been put on our record through his death on a cross, and so we are saved, we are sanctified, we are filled with his Holy Spirit to bear witness that he is the truth, he is reality, and he loves you, he is closer than laying sleep on a mat in a boat, he is closer than that, he's closer than a mother, he's closer than your very heart, and he loves you, let's go to Him, my gracious Father, our King we thank you, we thank you for this grace that you've given us through your word. Thank you Lord for the witness of the disciples, thank you that they seem silly to us as we reflect on what we know, and we look back at them, and we laugh at them, but how often Lord Jesus do we do the very same thing, so I pray for my brothers and sisters here today Lord that you would fill us with the truth, that you would open our eyes so that we could see our sin confess it, repent from it, and then turn to you for healing and greater faith. Thank you for this church, I pray that you would bless it, that it would be a blessing in this community, a light on a hill, that people would be drawn to it, because of Christ Jesus, and I pray the Lord that you would expand them, I mean to be able to particularise in three years, what a wonderful grace, and to be able to expand the ministry and property, and to have a campus ministry, what a wonderful way that you have blessed this work, and I pray that you would be with them. I pray to Lord if there are any here today who don't know you, that you would use this message to save them, to open their eyes to reality, and I pray Lord if there's any who are suffering here, and I heard about the person with cancer Lord that you would be with them, comfort them, help them to go through this trial, and any others who are here, who have relatives, Lord who are suffering, and I pray that you would abide with them. Thank you Lord for this church, for this congregation, for what you're doing here. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]