Viola Solid Rock Assembly
Uncertainty in the Storm
You know, last few weeks we've been talking about the storm, and last week we talked about the "I am" in the storm, and we talked about Jesus strolling on our fears, and we've talked about where our focus should be during the storms, and that being obedient and walking things out with God doesn't necessarily mean that the storm's not going to come. In fact, it usually means that you're going to walk right into the eye of the storm. But most of the time storms serve a purpose, and so we're going to stay in that vein again this morning in Matthew 14, that's where we've kind of been, and Matthew 14, beginning in verse 27, it says, "But Jesus spoke to them at once, 'Don't be afraid,' he said, 'Take courage, I am here.' And then Peter called to him, 'Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.' So the disciples have been in the water for several hours at this point, right? We've talked about this, and this storm is just fierce, it's on them, and we talked about last week how Jesus was walking towards them, and we have this picture of it just being like glass, you know, he's walking on this smooth water, but really he was probably walking up and over the waves towards them, and that's why they were like, 'It's a ghost,' because they saw him, and then he wasn't there, and then he was there. But he's coming, and he says to them, he identifies himself, he says, 'It's me, take courage, don't be afraid.' But there's that moment, there's that moment of uncertainty, there's that moment of just a little bit of doubt, and Peter's like, 'Yeah, I don't know about this.' If it's really you, then I want to come out on the water. We thought it was a ghost three minutes ago. Now you're telling us that you are Jesus who we've been walking around with, we have never seen you, we have seen you heal-blinded eyes, we've seen you feed thousands of people with a couple of lows and a few fish, we've seen you do some stuff, but we have never seen you walk on water. So if it's really you, I want to come out there with you. He was uncertain even though he knew Jesus' voice, even though he heard his voice, even though he recognized his voice, he still had this uncertainty about him. He still had this, if it's really you, this doubt, they saw him, but something was off because they had never seen him come the way he would come, and so there was some uncertainty about what was being said and what they were seeing. Peter was testing, "Is this really you, Lord?" Almost like when God speaks to you and you're like, "Is that really you, God?" Okay, God, if it's really you, I need to be able to drive all the way through town with all green lights, right? I need to only see blue cars on the way to town, and so Peter is almost immediately laying out a fleece of saying, "If it's really you, God, if it's really you, Jesus, if that is truly you, I want to walk out on this water, too." But first, I need you to make all the waves go to the left, okay, now that I've seen that and I need you to make all the waves go to the right. Okay, now I'm ready to test you. There was an uncertainty, there was a little bit of doubt, there was a worry of what if this really isn't him, what if it's just a mirage, what if we're just seeing things? He knew his voice. Peter wasn't just one of the disciples, he was one of the core inner group with Jesus. He knew Jesus' voice, but he was still like, "No, no, I'm not sure about this. I'm not sure about this." I saw, I've seen it before, but I saw it again this week, this video of these little babies and their dad shaved their beard off and the baby, like they're talking to the baby and the baby's like recognizing the voice and then they see them and they're like, "I don't know about that, who is that person?" And that's almost like what it was right here. We know your voice, we recognize the voice, but we don't recognize the way you're coming, so we're not sure that it's you. They were struggling with uncertainty, but then he put his faith in Jesus and he took the step out of the boat. We're looking at another guy in Scripture that this struggle with some uncertainty. In John chapter 1 verse 29, Jesus is going to be baptized by John the Baptist and it says in verse 29, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look, the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. He is the one I was talking about when I said a man is coming after me who is far greater than I, for he existed long before me. I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I've been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel." And then John testified, "I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him." And I didn't know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me the one on whom to see the Spirit descend and rest on is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. And I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the chosen one of God. John with all certainty, and John chapter 1, with all certainty, he declares with confidence that Jesus is the Messiah. He said, "I wasn't sure about it, but now I am." He is the Messiah. He is the one. He's it. This is the guy. He backs up with the why. He doesn't just say that and walk away. He backs up with the why he believes this. He believes this and he testifies because he said God said the one that the Holy Spirit descended and set on, he was the one. And he said, "I saw it." He doesn't just say and walk away. He defends the reason that he believes what he believes. So many people, so many times we try to get people to believe the way that we want them to believe, but we don't give them the why that we believe that. We don't back it up. Well, you just need to believe it because I'm telling you that, no. Show me. Show me in the word where it says that. He's backing up. He said, "God told me that this is what was going to happen, and this is what happened. I saw it." Later on in John's life, though, he was arrested and he spent about a year in prison and he knew that death was going to be his sentence. He was waiting to be executed. And in the midst of his storm, he starts to have some uncertainty of what he had seen and heard with his own eyes and own ears. And he sends two of his disciples to go and question Jesus. And in Luke chapter seven, we see John's two disciples, they found Jesus and they said to him, "John the Baptist sent us to ask, are you the Messiah we've been expecting? Or should we keep looking for someone else?" With all confidence, with all boldness, he says, "He is the Messiah." And then when things got tough and things got hard, he said, "Maybe I was wrong." It wasn't necessarily that he didn't believe. It was that he had some doubt and some uncertainty come in. And he was looking, he had a choice. Do I subdue to the doubt and the uncertainty, or do I follow my faith? John was chosen by God. He was chosen to be the forerunner of Christ. He expected to be a continuing part of the kingdom that Jesus had come to establish. He thought, "I'm the forerunner. I'm telling everyone about him. I'm going to get to see this through." What he saw in his own mind, what he thought would happen, sitting in prison and waiting his execution wasn't part of his plan. That was never in his plans in his head. He didn't wake up and say, "You know what, today I think I'm going to go get arrested and spend the rest of my life in prison and at the end of my life they're going to execute me and put my head on a platter." Nobody thinks that that's a good plan. I think that's a great plan. You should do that, John. No, that wasn't something that he thought about. That wasn't something he was looking for on his big plan of things that should happen in his life. That wasn't there. Crisis struck and it was changed, his circumstances changed. When crisis strikes our vision and expectations of our future, when that is threatened, we tend to wrestle with doubts and uncertainties because we don't understand what is happening. We're sitting in prison and we're waiting, he's waiting and crisis struck and it affected his expectations of the future and he said, "I'm not sure I was correct." When the doctors give us a bad report, then we question, we question, "God, are you really in this? Why are you letting this happen to me? Why are you letting this happen to me?" Our kids that we've prayed for and pleaded the blood over time and time again and they're continuing to just turn their backs and walk away, we struggle. When we can't seem to pull out of the issue that we're dealing with and we keep just falling right back into it, things aren't working out the way that we had it planned. And suddenly we're battling uncertainty. God told us to do something and we're doing it and it's not happening the way we think it should. It's not going the way that we think it should go and we start questioning, "Is this really your plan for me, God?" Is your plan really for me to go through this? It's okay to have doubts and uncertainty. When it becomes a problem is when we allow doubts and uncertainty to become unbelief. John was struggling like many of us do from time to time with uncertainty, so he sends his guys to go check it out. Are you the Messiah we've been expecting? That was the question. Are you Him? Because if you're not, then I've got to figure a way to get out of this prison because I know what I'm supposed to do. Are you the one we were expecting? And verse 21 says, "At that very time Jesus cured many people of their diseases, illnesses and evil spirits, and he restored sight to many who were blind." And then he told John's disciples, "Go back into John and tell him what you have seen and heard. The blind see, the lame walk, those who leprosy are cured, deaf ears hear, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is being preached to the poor." Jesus was saying, "John knows, but he needs a little encouragement. Tell him what you've seen today. People are healed, people are delivered, people's lives are changed forever, the good news is being preached to the poor. Go and tell him because I say a prophet's side, this would happen, and he'll know that." And John went to his execution knowing Jesus was the Messiah. In Mark chapter 9 we see this Father and he brings the Son to the disciples for them to heal him. He's been afflicted by spirit and it's causing him to lose his sight and go into convulsions and it's causing him to do all these things and so he takes his boy to the disciples and the disciples basically tell him there's nothing more we can do. We prayed it didn't leave, there's nothing more we can do for you. We're unable to cast out the demon that was terrorizing your son, sorry. And Jesus walks up and says, "What's going on?" And his Father describes it and he says in verse 22 of chapter 9, "The spirit often throws him into the fire or into the water trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us if you can." What do you mean if I can, if I can? Have you ever had someone ask you to do something like, "Well if you can do this, what do you mean if I can do that?" This is my expertise, I'm very good at this. Of course I can do this, if I can. And then he says, "Anything is possible if a person believes." And the Father instantly cried out, "I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief." He's saying, "I believe, but I have doubt. I believe, but there's some uncertainty because I haven't seen it happen yet. I believe that you can do it, but I'm struggling to see how you're going to do it." This Father was in crisis mode. His son was being threatened. His life was in danger. The storm was raging on. He was struggling to navigate the emotional turmoil and the confusion of watching his son struggle to live a life of any substance as all. He was struggling with unbelief, with doubt, with uncertainty. He's saying, "I believe, but I'm not certain, I'm not certain. I believe, but I have doubts." I've been there. I've struggled with what God has told me to do at times. Not that I didn't believe him, not that I didn't trust him, but I wasn't certain of what he was saying. Or there was a bit of doubt, and I've asked him the same thing. Help me overcome my unbelief. Help me overcome my doubt. I know that you're able. I know that you can, but I'm struggling to see it right now. I'm struggling to see it right now. I don't know how we could do it. I don't know how it's going to work. My prayer is in this house. My prayer in this house has helped all of us to overcome our unbelief. Help all of us to overcome our doubt and our uncertainty, that when God speaks, that we don't worry about whether or not it's really him, but we know that it's him. That we don't doubt what he's asking us to do, but that we walk out what he's saying with certainty. I think about David battling uncertainty. And Absalom, his own son, was trying to steal the kingdom, and he writes this third song. Verse 1, he says, "O Lord, I have so many enemies, so many are against me, so many are saying, 'God will never rescue him, but you, O Lord, are a shield around me. You are my glory. You're the one who holds my head high. I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy mountain.'" David opens the song acknowledging the chaos of his reality. People were out to get me. My son wants me dead. He wants the kingdom. He has turned good men against me. It's in chaos. Everything bad is happening. Everything's going wrong. But then he changes his tune, and he says, "But God, you are my shield around me. You are my glory. You are the one that holds my head high." David opens and acknowledging the chaos of his reality, and then shifts his focus to this confidence in God. It's okay to acknowledge your feelings and your reality, but we can't let our emotions control us. I don't like making big decisions on a whim, because I don't want emotions to control my actions, because although emotions are real, they don't always represent reality. We can have real emotions that don't represent real reality. We can be angry. We can be sad. We can be mad. We can be happy for all the wrong reasons. Because we feel those real emotions, yet they don't represent reality. Acknowledging our emotions and then focusing on our faith can help us during times of personal trouble. When we get a devastating report from the doctor, it's okay to be upset, sad, or even angry, but at the end of the day, we have to have faith to believe that God is bigger than our issues and that despite how we are feeling, God is still in control and He will use our personal tragedy for good if we allow Him to, He will. How could He possibly use this situation for anything? How is that even possible that He could take our situation that we're struggling with, that we're dealing with, our personal storm and use it for anything? How is that even possible? The last three weeks we've been talking about, second Corinthians 1-4, when He says He comforts us in all of our trouble so that we, so that we, so that we can comfort others. When we are troubled, when we're going through our storm, guess who's there with us, David? He is. And when we let Him comfort us, He will comfort us. And what does that help do? When we get through the storm, we know that we can, and so then we're able to comfort the next person because He's got us through it, Ronnie. He brought us this far, He's not going to leave us now, He's going to continue to comfort us so that then we in turn can comfort others when they are troubled. And it doesn't say we'll be able to comfort them somehow. It says with the same comfort God has given us, so when He's comforted us, it's not always easy to see His comfort right in the middle of the storm. It's not always easy to see God's in this when you're going through the junk. But at the end of the day when we get to the other side and we look back and we say, you know what? It could have been a lot worse, David. It could have been way worse. But God, but God, and He comforts us so that we can comfort others in the same way. If nothing else, this storm that we're going through has going to be used so we can comfort someone else later on. Then Jesus dealt with uncertainty. Matthew 26, 36 says, "Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane and He said, 'Sit here while I go over there to pray.'" He took Peter and Zebedee's two son James and John and he became anguished and distressed and he told them my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. He went on a little further and bowed with his face to the ground praying, "My father, if it's possible, let this cup of suffering be taken from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." Jesus knew that he was about to be arrested. He knew that he would soon lay his life down. But what did he do during this season of uncertainty? He didn't isolate himself, right? He didn't go and climb in a hole and hide from everyone. He took all of the disciples with him to the garden. So many times people get in a season of uncertainty and the first thing they do is isolate themselves. You watch people who will stop coming to church and you approach them about, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while and they'll say things like this, 'Well, I've just been going through some stuff.'" And I've just been dealing with some things. I'm just trying to work through some stuff all by yourself. How's that helped you so far? Because you haven't been to church in six months. Just doesn't seem to be working, you're not getting any better. But that's what we do because we don't want people to see what we're going through. We don't want people to see our struggle. We don't want people to see our pain and so we isolate ourselves and we hermit up. We don't want to talk to people from church. We don't want to see people. We see them in the store and we turn and walk the other way. We get in a season and when we isolate ourselves, we get in this season of uncertainty and it just continues to get bigger and bigger. Instead of allowing Jesus or doing what the word says in Galatians 6-2 it says, "Share each other's burdens in this way obey the law of Christ." When you isolate, it makes it easier for you to be attacked. When you're not sharing your burdens with others so they can pray with you and believe with you, you're opening yourself up for that isolation attack. The scripture says in 1 Peter 5-8 it says, "Stay alert, watch out for your great enemy to the devil." He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Guess what? Guess which gazelle gets devoured. Not the one that's staying with the herd. The one that isolates is the one that gets devoured. So when you isolate yourself, you're more likely to be devoured because the weight of the world will continue to pour on and pour on and you've isolated yourself and you've got no help outside, we're not supposed to do this thing alone. He gets in our head and he messes with our thoughts. Jesus had some people that he shared his burdens with. He didn't just take the 12 and not do anything about it. He took the 12 and then he took the three. He took Peter, James and John a little bit further and he told them in verse 37 he said, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death." Stay here and keep watch with me. All of them went to the garden with him. Then he took three a little bit further and he shared his burdens with them. We all need people that we can share our heaviest burdens with and that can keep it to themselves. He didn't just share with everyone. He didn't share it with the 120 people that have been walking around following him. He shared it with the three. He said, "I'm in distress. My soul is crushed with grief." Verse 39 says though the next thing that he did, the next thing that he did, he didn't just share it with the circle of people. He went on and shared it with the Father too. He went on a little further and he bowed his face to the ground praying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken from me, yet I want your will to be done, not mine." He vented to his buddies and then he went and vented to God. Then he went to the Father and said, "If there is any other way," he laid it out. "I'm struggling with this. I'm struggling with what's about to happen. There was some uncertainty if there was any other way. If there was any other way that this could be done, let's do it. Take this cup from me." But then he says, "Not mine will, but your will." Second Corinthians 5, 21 says, "For God made Christ who never sinned to be the offering for our sin so that he could be made right with God through Christ. He was hoping. He was hoping. This part was negotiable." Jesus was saying, "I know the plan. I was there when you wrote the plan. Is this part of the plan negotiable? Can we do it another way?" Is there any other way? The uncertainty with him was not, was not whether or not he was to do what God was telling him to do. The uncertainty was, is there another way? Put it into this prayer. I want your will to be done not mine. At the end of the day, it's okay to be uncertain about what God is speaking to you. But our prayer should be not my will, but yours be done. I don't like it, I don't like it. But if this is what you want, if this is what has to happen, okay, not my will, your will. Not my will, your will be done. What uncertainties are you dealing with today? Where are you struggling today? Where are you doubting? Ask everyone that would to stand your feet. What I just thank you today, I thank you for your, for your word, God. I thank you that it, I thank you for allowing us the grace to be, to doubt and to have uncertainties. A little bit, I pray that in this house that we don't let doubt and uncertainty become unbelief, but yet we turn to you in our faith, that even when we're uncertain, and even when there's doubt that we still turn to you with our faith, that we find comfort in you. What we just thank you today, we just thank you for what you're doing in this house. What I believe that there are some people in this room that are going through some storms, Lord. Life has thrown them into some curves this morning, and Lord I pray that today that you help them to get through the storm, even when things are uncertain, and there's a little bit of doubt, God, I pray that you help them to get through the storm. Lord I pray that you help them not to isolate when things get tough. And Lord I pray that if there are people that are listening to the, to the, to the online version of this Lord, I pray that if there's people that are isolating, that if isolated themselves, Lord, I pray that they will get back in to the fold. What we just thank you. If you're in there here this morning and you're not where you need to be with God, or you don't know Him as your personal Lord and Savior, I want to encourage you to get to know Him. So if you're not where you need to be with Him, or you don't know Him, I want to invite you to come, I want to pray with you, I want to believe with you, that God can do something in your life, and we'll do something in your life. Maybe you're here this morning though, and you're going through a storm. You're going through a season, it is a storm. Maybe you're going through a season of uncertainty and doubt, and you're wondering, what's next? And you need God to speak, I want to invite you to come, I want to pray with you, I want to believe with you. You're going through a storm right now, you're filled with doubt and uncertainty of how God's going to get you through this situation or these circumstances. I want to invite you to come, this doesn't mean that you're a bad person. We all struggle with uncertainty from time to time, but we can't let us devour us. You're in that season of uncertainty, you're in that season of doubt, and you say, I just need Him, I need Him to show up in my life, I want to invite you to come, I want to pray with you, I want to believe with you. Don't let the storm devour you. Don't let pride hold you back. If you need God to move in your life, I encourage you to move right now, hold on, I just thank you right now. I thank you for the ones that are in this altar, God. I thank you for their hearts, I thank you for what you're going to do, and Lord I pray that you begin to move right now, that you begin to move right now in their lives, God. I pray that they leave this place changed. If you feel that to come and pray around this altar, feel free to do so. If you feel that to come and pray for the ones that are here, feel free to do so. [BLANK_AUDIO]