What to Fear Mark 4 35 41 Tim Ingrum

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November 1, 2020 Faith Bible Church - Sacramento, CA Sunday morning service

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Well, good morning everyone good to see you here Welcome to Faith Bible Church Of Sacramento, there's no we're
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I understand from last week. There's quite a number of you watching online and That's what a blessing that is and what a pleasant surprise
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To that to see that the Lord is working Even if you're not able to or still have concerns about coming out we we know that that we have another means of Reaching out and thank you.
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We thank the Lord for that ability I wanted to announce this morning Keep penny
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Emmett in your prayers. She went into the hospital yesterday. Just a little disoriented and But it would appear she's stable and doing a little better today.
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So Just pray that She could recover from that And whatever is ailing her and that she might be able to find her way back home
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But that God would be there caring for her as we know he will
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We The Canes are not here today The family went south for Janet's father's memorial funeral service
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So pray keep them in prayer for their travel mercies back Thank you for those that were praying for for we had my mom's memorial yesterday and that was
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God's hand was in it all the way and The gospel was proclaimed and we think thank the
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Lord for that and I also ask that you would pray for Richard I think the services Saturday For his brother who passed away
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So, let's remember Richard and prayer as well, it's just a you know life and death it's it's part of the walk it's part of God's plan and But it and you can provide a comfort and be our comforter, but it's it's still hard.
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So We know that So and I'm gonna introduce a little later here.
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We have Tim Ingram. That's gonna be our guest speaker today Pastor elder from River City Grace, so we look forward to hearing what the
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Lord has laid upon your heart So at this time, let's go to the commit our time to the
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Lord in prayer Lord God, we thank you father for gathering folks here this morning and for those that are tuning in Lord We just call upon you
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Lord to guide us to rip to direct us to lead our worship father The Holy Spirit would be present that we would be
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Sensitive to his leading that we would Be changed people that we would hear things that would alter and change our life
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That it would be that we would be sanctified that would further our walk with you father that we would be engaged in In in this worship this corporate worship together father.
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We should do that all the time Lord But this morning we just call upon you to help us in that endeavor
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Help us to rest in the assurance that you have provided us in the truth of the gospel father
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Thank you for that. And so again, we dedicate our time to you that we would honor you and every everything that we do that the songs would be edifying and That you would be praised father because you are worthy of our praise.
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We thank you in Jesus name. Amen Barb you had a I'm supposed to add but I would like to make it a little announcement here, too
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The 14th of November we will start back with our ladies Bible study
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Also, I Think Deb and Lozano they both have sheets that give a list of things that are needed
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Not only for men and for women but for the mission so the reason that they have these slips and that they're going to give them to you today is
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Because in lieu of Christmas gifts that we had exchanged before amongst the ladies
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We're going to bring these things together at our Christmas tea on the 12th of December So and that's a
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Saturday and it'll be at 10 o 'clock Here in the church So these are things that I thought it would give you a little over a month
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Collect a little bit of week and kind of keep it all together. They do not have to be wrapped at all and So then after the
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Christmas get together We will take them down to the mission and you'll see from the paper the things that are
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Needed for women and for men and for the kitchen itself at the mission Would you stand together with me as we sing a shelter in the time of storm?
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We'll sing four verses A shelter in the time of storm
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A shelter in the time of storm
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A shelter in the time of storm
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A shelter in the time of storm A shelter in the time of storm
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We talk a lot of times about the fact, do you have peace with God?
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And that's, do you believe in God? And you can have peace with God. He loves to have peace with individuals.
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But then we say, do you have the peace of God? In other words, when you're going through a time of trouble, do you have
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His peace, comfort you? This song we sing is Wonderful Peace. Depths of my spirit tonight
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Rose a melody sweeter than song
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In celestial light streams it unceasingly falls
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O 'er my soul like peace streams
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Walls, billows of glory sweetly in Jesus' control
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For on His glory is flooding my soul
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Sweet over my spirit
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O my soul, are you here with us?
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I thank the
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Savior, your friend, when the shadows grow dark
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O accept this sweet peace so sublime
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Peace, peace, one Sweet over my spirit
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Thank you, and you may be seated,
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Harold. I appreciate
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Victor and Barb. They picked some really high ones today, didn't they? That's good.
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In heaven, we'll all have just melodious voices. It'll be beautiful. All sorts of praise.
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For a scripture reading this morning, if you'd open your Bibles to Psalm 107,
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Psalm 107. We're going to be reading from verse 23 to 32.
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Psalm chapter 107. Thanksgiving to the
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Lord and His great works of deliverance. So I'll begin at 23. Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works of the
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Lord and His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.
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They mount up to the heavens. They go down again to the depths. Their soul melts because of trouble.
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They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits' end.
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Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses.
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He calms the storm so that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet.
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So He guides them to their desired haven. Oh, that men would give thanks to the
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Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt
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Him also in the assembly of the people and praise Him in the company of the elders.
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May God bless the reading of His word. Well, as you know, we've been wanting to pray for our country and all the things that are going on.
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Let me find a verse for you here. 2
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Chronicles 7 -14. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then
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I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and heal their land. That, of course, is our hope.
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That is our desire. We know we have strayed as a nation far away from that.
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But God is not surprised. He is still Lord over all. He is still guiding the affairs of man, and we can be assured in that.
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We do not need to fear, but we certainly have much to pray for, do we not?
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And so I'd like to pray at this time, and you pray along with me in your hearts to our
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Lord. We have an election day coming up here on Tuesday. We could probably call it more of like an election month.
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You know, it's not a day anymore. But it is what it is, but it's very substantial.
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Anyway, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord God, we come before you, Father, as humble people,
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Lord, knowing and trusting in only you. For, Father, you are our guide, you are our shepherd, in whom we need not fear.
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Lord, we confess before you, Lord, our shortcomings, for we have failed as a nation in maintaining and keeping our assurance, our trust of you, that we have gone astray in many ways to follow the affairs of man and put oftentimes our trust in them rather than our trust in you.
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But, Lord, we must put our trust in you alone, that men are fallible, they will stray as we all can,
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Lord, but we have the assurance of the grace that you have offered each one of us. Your word says that blessed is the nation whose
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God is in the Lord. May that be our heart's desire today, Lord, as we think upon the condition of our country.
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Lord, we pray for the President, the Vice President, the Congress, Lord, every person in leadership in our state government, in our local governments,
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Father. Lord, may you surround those folks that are not believers, Lord, with people that can point them to the cross, people that can tell them that this is true wisdom, this is the truth and not man's affairs, not man's just random ideas, but,
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Father, that we are anchored and we can be anchored in the truth of your gospel message, Father. So we pray for folks around the country, pray for every believer that we would uphold our government and those in government, positions of authority,
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Father, and prepare us, Lord, for what is to come after the election. Lord, we know your will be done, but help us to be gracious and patient no matter what happens,
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Father, because you are there every moment, every breath is a gift, so may we cherish those gifts, be what it may, that we are prepared for the storm and that,
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Lord, we can hold on to you. So, Lord, we thank you. Give us peace and rest in our lives, Father, and give us strength as we call upon you.
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Lord, we commit this week and every affair to your care, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.
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When I saw the scripture that Tim had picked to be read, I thought of singing the
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Navy hymn, though, but since a couple of us are from the Navy, right? But I thought better,
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I kept my minute on track. So, if you'll stand together with me, we'll sing, "'Til the Storm Passes By."
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Often says, his name is Artie, and he says, I've said to myself, and then he quotes scripture or something, well, sometimes we need to talk to ourself and remind ourselves it's a time that the
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Lord gives us peace. So, peace be still. Be still, my soul, thy suffering.
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Be still, my soul, his stormy ways leads to a joyful end.
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Be still, my soul, to guide the mature as he has the passion.
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Mysterious shall be Christ. Be still, my soul, waves and winds still know his voice through.
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Well, at this time,
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I'd like to introduce Pastor Elder Tim Ingram from River City Grace.
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We met each other probably 10 years ago or thereabouts, and I don't know if you were married or you were in the process of engagement, or is that about right?
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What year were you married? Put you on the spot. Early 2012. 2012, okay. Okay, so it was a little later, yeah.
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But we're blessed to have Tim with us this morning. And Tim, would you come forward and share with us what the
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Lord has placed on your heart? Thanks so much, Harold.
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And church body at Faith Bible, it's a privilege and a blessing to be invited here. And I bring greetings from River City Grace.
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We love you and are grateful for your co -laborers in the gospel. We pray for you regularly,
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Faith Bible Church, as with other like -minded churches that we know are proclaiming the gospel of Christ. And just so glad that he's named and known here.
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And it is a privilege to be here to open up the word of God with you and preach the unsearchable riches of Christ this morning.
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I also bring greetings from, as Harold mentioned, my wife. We have a two -year -old and a two -month -old now.
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So they greet you as well, and would have been nice if circumstances were such that they could be here this morning.
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But I've known John Cain for a few years. In all of our interactions, he's always been such a warm and encouraging brother, and I trust that the
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Lord's used him to bless all of you here during his time here. So let me read the passage.
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And as you see and as you've heard, we're going to be looking at Mark 4, 35 -41.
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So if you please turn there in your Bible, Mark 5, 35 -41.
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I'm going to read that passage and then pray. Notice Jesus, by the way, is the he here in verse 35.
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On the same day when evening had come, he said to them, his disciples, let us cross over to the other side.
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Now when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was. And other little boats were also with him.
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And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling.
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But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him,
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Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea,
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Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
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But he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?
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And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this word about your
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Son that you have spoken. We know that, as you said elsewhere in Mark, you say,
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This is my beloved Son, listen to Him. It's our earnest desire this morning that our ears would be opened by the power of your
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Spirit to listen to Him. That we would have soft hearts ready to be worked on by you.
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Please help me to be faithful to your Scriptures and to be clear. Work your mighty and gracious purposes among your people this morning.
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We pray all this in Jesus' name, Amen. Now, I hate to get things off on this foot, but do you ever have morbid daydreams about different ways to die?
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What it would be like. You kind of think about what would the experience be. And sometimes
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I imagine what it would be like to die by drowning. Drowning.
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Now, when I was a youth, at some point, I watched a TV show where they were talking about if you're an
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Alaskan crab fisherman, and you're on the boat, and the rope that holds the pots, you know, the crab pots are like the big boxes that they drop to catch the crabs in.
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If the rope snags your foot, and as the pot's going down, it drags you over the side, and down you go.
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And there's like no way they could help you if that happened. And they went through and talked about like every minute what's happening to your body as you drown, as you kind of shut down.
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It's a blow by blow. Now, that really stuck in my memory, as you can imagine.
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It haunted me. I thought, what a horrible way to go. It really made it seem so vivid.
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And besides a crab fisherman, there are many other people in history who have died in the sea. Think of sailors whose ships were sunk in naval warfare.
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Think of many sailors just in storms whose ships have gone down, and they've perished at sea.
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Set adrift in the roiling waves. What a scary, and cold, and dark way to go.
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Can you imagine how these disciples felt in this moment? As they're in that little vessel, and it's taking on water during this great storm on the
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Sea of Galilee. That very fate was only moments away from them. And as professional fishermen, you can be assured that they had thought about what it would be like to drown.
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Well, how did we get to this point? Up to this point in Mark chapter 4, Jesus has been teaching the crowds.
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And as verse 1 of chapter 4 tells us, he got into a boat by the seashore to address the teeming throng that had come to see him.
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Now, he's been speaking throughout chapter 4 in parables, which is a teaching tool that Jesus used to illustrate spiritual truths with concrete pictures from everyday life.
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But as that discourse goes on in chapter 4, we see that the parables and the audience's response to the parables pointed to this theme of different ways of listening to Jesus.
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Different ways of responding to him. So there's one group that we could call outsiders.
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These are the people who hear a parable and they don't understand, but they don't care enough to dig deeper.
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They don't care enough to find out more. But then there's another group we could call insiders, and this would include
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Jesus' 12 disciples and others who care enough to ask Jesus for more light and more clarity on what he means by his parables.
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So the parable discourse is showing us these two different ways of listening to Jesus. Now, all of that closed in verse 34 just before our passage.
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So here in verse 35, and spanning all the way through chapter 5, Mark is going to show us three different demonstrations of Jesus' power and authority over various enemy forces.
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Here in our passage, he takes on a storm on the Sea of Galilee. So he's taking on nature.
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Then in chapter 5, verses 1 to 20, he takes on an army of demons. And then on verses 21 through 43 of chapter 5, he takes on disease and even death itself.
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Jesus confronting various enemies. So the setting for our passage, as you've heard, is a storm on the
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Sea of Galilee. So the narrative left off, before all the parables, in verse 1 of chapter 4, with Jesus in a boat.
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He got in the boat to teach from there to the crowd on the shore. So then in verse 35, after a day of teaching,
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Jesus probably wanted to get away from the crowds and get some rest. He's already in a boat, so he goes, hey, to his disciples, let's set out and go to the other side of the sea.
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Which is, in verse 36, what they do. But then, as they're on the water, a storm strikes.
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And really, that creates the conflict that drives along the rest of the narrative. The rest of the story is driven by this, what's going on with this storm?
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What's going to happen? So, here's the main point of this whole account. The main point of all we're going to see this morning.
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Jesus rules unruly nature, so do not fear, only believe.
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Jesus rules unruly nature, so do not fear, only believe.
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And we'll unpack that statement in three stages. And like a bad report card, it's going to be three
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F's. We have three F's this morning. The first F is a fact. Here's the fact.
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Jesus rules unruly nature. Fact. Jesus rules unruly nature.
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Now, we see unruly nature, of course, in the form of a violent storm, which threatens to kill not just anyone, but Jesus himself, on this boat.
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So, why, we might ask, is nature unruly? Well, we know that ultimately, it's the fruit of a fallen and cursed and groaning world.
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You see, back in the garden when Adam sinned, God responded by cursing not only mankind, but with him, all of creation has been placed under a curse and is groaning under the weight of that curse.
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And to really appreciate the effect of what Jesus does here, we need to understand how the first century
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Jews would understand the sea. We need to get inside their shoes a little bit and understand what the sea would mean to them.
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In short, it was a place of chaos, disorder, and terror. Now, this is the
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Sea of Galilee, which we call a sea, and the text calls it a sea, but we might also call it a large lake.
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But the effect is the same. It was enough of a body of water that it could produce the same fearful effect of pure danger.
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Now, this idea stretches all the way back, even to the second verse of the Bible. After God had created, in verse 1 of Genesis 1, the initial raw materials of heaven and earth, we're then told what the scene was like in verse 2.
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It says, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep.
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And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. So the first created thing was this great formless sea that God made, and it was disordered and unruly and chaotic.
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And then over the first six days, the creation account in Genesis 1, we see God gradually ordering and filling that empty and formless creation.
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He separates the waters and the sky and the land, and He makes creatures to inhabit each of those realms.
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So that's the creation account. It's first this unorganized mass of stuff, and then six days of ordering and filling.
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But it doesn't end there. Generations later, when the earth has filled with violence and corruption, what has
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God used to destroy all of mankind and save Noah's family? A deluge of waters, a flood.
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In one sense, the flood, especially coming after the creation account in Genesis, the flood is like a decreation and recreation.
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Because the earth goes back underwater, kind of reversing the gears of the creation week, empties out all the life, and then the waters part, and life starts anew again.
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And Noah and his family leave the ark with the animals, and life begins again.
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It's almost like a new creation. So in the flood, essentially the oceans have taken over the whole world, for God's judgment.
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But even that's not the end of it. And throughout the Old Testament, especially in some poetic passages, the sea is used to represent a dangerous and chaotic enemy that God alone can subdue.
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And our scripture reading this morning we just heard moments ago out of Psalm 107 is perhaps the clearest place to see this.
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And I want to read part of that again because it so well describes the peril of the sea, and again the
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Old Testament Jewish background here that the disciples would be thinking. The peril of the sea, and God's sovereign rule over it.
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So I'm going to read again Psalm 107, part of our passage we read earlier, verses 23 -30.
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Those who go down to the sea in ships who do business on great waters, they see the works of the
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Lord, and His wonders in the deep. For He commands the heavens and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.
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They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts because of trouble.
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They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. Then they cry out to the
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Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm so that its waves are still.
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Then they are glad because they are quiet, so He guides them to their desired haven.
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So the sea is deeply dangerous, but did you notice in that passage that it's the
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Lord Himself whose power both stirred up the storm and then calmed it?
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It's the Lord who stirred up and stilled the stormy waters. He's sovereign over it from beginning to end.
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Now if you've ever swum in the ocean, you can relate a little bit with the way that these first century
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Jews would have thought about the ocean. Now we think of it as a fun place to go, have a vacation by the beach and go splash around and swim, but don't you get at least a little feeling of danger every time you get into the ocean?
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Like a little sense of this is a wild place. This is the wildest frontier that you and I ever meet, isn't it?
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We're stepping into this massive body of water. This sea kills many people, I don't know, maybe hundreds a year, maybe more, and has done for all of human history.
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There are sharks, that's something that's always on my mind, sea creatures that can kill you, there are strong and violent waves that can dash you against the rocks if you're in the wrong place, there are currents, cold depths, there's darkness, there's mystery.
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It is a wild place, isn't it? Then how exactly does Jesus demonstrate
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His authority here? Well, to answer the question, it's worth considering what the disciples may have expected when they awoke
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Jesus. What did the disciples expect? All they say is, do you not care that we are perishing?
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Verse 38. Now they might be implicitly kind of sort of asking Him for help in some way, but based on their reaction in verse 41, it's clear they don't expect anything like what
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He's about to do. So they're waking Him up for some kind of help, but they don't expect what He's going to do.
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What did they expect? Well, there are some parallels between this account and the episode back in the book of Jonah.
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You may recall in chapter 1, there is a storm. Remember when the prophet runs away from the mission God gave him to proclaim repentance and judgment to Nineveh?
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And he takes his ship onto the sea, and a storm rises up, and Jonah is sleeping, and the sailors come to wake him up for help.
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Hear any echoes? And they say this, what do you mean sleeper? Arise, call on your
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God. Perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish. And I think that's pretty much what the disciples had in mind here, too.
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You're a man of God, a prophet. Do you notice how they call him teacher? Which, on the one hand, is an honorific title, but on the other hand, kind of a thin one, isn't it?
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Teacher. They're essentially saying prophet. Okay, prophet. God sent teacher. Doesn't God listen to your prayers, prophet?
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Didn't he listen to Elijah's prayers and then withhold rain? Maybe he'll listen to your prayers, like he did with Jonah.
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Well, it wasn't Jonah's prayers, it was Jonah getting thrown off the boat. And save us from this storm.
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They probably want him to pray for help. So this is why Jesus' action in verse 39 is so mind -boggling for the disciples.
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He doesn't wake up and pray. He doesn't wake up and call for the manager.
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He doesn't wake up and seek help from God up there who controls the wind and the waves down here.
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What does he do in verse 39? He talks to the wind and the waves.
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He talks directly to them. And he says, and it's a little crude, but more literally we could say, be quiet, shut up, to the waves and the wind.
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And the wind and the waves obey him. They do what he says. Now the verbs that are translated rebuke and be still, they also appear together back in chapter 1 verse 25 when
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Jesus is casting out a demon. He rebukes and says, be still to a demon. It's the same verbs here in verse 39.
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And so for that reason, some interpreters think that that implies that there may be demonic powers behind the disorder and the danger and chaos of nature.
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Now to us that idea might sound a little bit strange. That might sound weird. That might be partly owing to the fact that we are western moderns and we are in a culture and a world view that tends to look for scientific and natural explanations for things.
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That's kind of our knee jerk. But ancient people were much quicker to ascribe spiritual agency to things like storms.
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And even the Bible itself confirms that in some places. Do you remember in the book of Job when Satan gets
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God's permission to strike Job with afflictions? And God gives Satan permission?
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What means does he use? He uses human raiders and thieves, fire from the sky and a great windstorm.
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So there is biblical precedent for demonic power, even satanic power behind storms. And whether or not that's happening here in chapter 4 we can't ultimately know.
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But the point is the same. God alone is Lord over all other powers.
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Natural powers, demonic powers, human powers. God alone talks to the wind and the waves and they obey.
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And here's Jesus. Not asking God to do what he himself can't do.
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But doing what only God can do. Ruling the unruly chaos of nature.
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He's doing the Psalm 107 thing that the Lord Yahweh does. You see he's not just a man sent by God.
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He is that, but he's more. He is God himself in the flesh.
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And this is the mystery of Christ's incarnation that God the Son has become a man joining the divine and human natures in one person.
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So he gave up nothing of his deity but only added the nature of humanity to it in one person.
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So the same human Jesus who amazingly he's limited he's weak, he's exhausted from a day of teaching and so he's sleeping through this storm because he's a tired man.
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He's the man who wakes up and divinely rules the storm and commands the wind and the waves with the word of his power.
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This is Jesus Christ. Philippians chapter 2 puts it like this. Who, that is
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Jesus, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking the form, and that word form there means nature not just outward appearance, taking on the form or nature of a servant, a bond servant, and coming in the likeness of men.
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End quote. He didn't become anything less than fully God, but yet he took on full humanity including human weakness and limitation.
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So this narrative presents a crucial fact about Jesus. He's the divine son who rules unruly nature.
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So far so good, but that fact isn't all that we're supposed to learn here from this passage. His interaction with the disciples following his calming of the storm is supposed to raise the important question of our response to him.
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So that leads us to our second stage. Our first stage was fact, Jesus rules unruly nature. Now second stage is faith.
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We respond by trusting him. Faith. We respond by trusting him.
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Now in verse 40, Jesus gives us the moral of the story, the big payoff. And it comes in the form of two questions that rebuke the disciples because of how they had rebuked him.
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You see, he says, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?
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Now that's the same as saying, it's just another way of saying if you had faith you wouldn't have been afraid.
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You see that? If you had faith you wouldn't have been afraid. Now we see their fearful reaction in how they rebuked
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Jesus in verse 38 when they said, do you not care that we are perishing? They are rebuking him in their fear.
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So how does that display a lack of faith when they spoke to Jesus that way? Now in the disciples defense we should point out, and we may argue that they did in fact display some measure of faith.
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They went to Jesus. They did in fact display some measure of faith in going to him.
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And it seems unlikely that they woke him up simply to scold him on their way to their watery death.
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What's wrong with you? You're asleep. It seems like there's some measure of trust like he can do something for us.
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It seems like they were seeking his help, as we said before. Maybe his prayer to cry out to God for them. But they certainly didn't expect him to command the storm itself.
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They certainly didn't expect that. And that's because they really didn't yet understand who he was.
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They don't yet get who he is. So when Jesus challenges their faith, he's implying what their faith is supposed to be in.
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Namely him, Jesus, according to his full identity as both the
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God sent man, the teacher, and God himself, divine and human.
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Of course they believe in Jesus as a man. They're following him. They've answered his call. He says, follow me.
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And they're following him. As a teacher, they must think he's worth following. But they don't yet get who he is, do they?
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They failed to believe all that he is. He is the son of God who is God himself. Now we, the readers, know this better than the disciples do because, unlike the disciples, we were at Jesus' baptism back in chapter 1 of verse 11 of Mark when he was baptized, and the father said to him, you're my beloved son in whom
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I am well pleased. We've been let in on that. The disciples are having to sort of figure it out as they learn more and more about Jesus.
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But digging a little deeper, what is the nature of this faith that they're supposed to have in him?
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Now, from elsewhere in scripture we know that faith in Jesus, saving faith, is a very black and white thing.
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You don't kind of have it. It's binary. It's like an on -off switch. You either have it or you don't.
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You either trust him and have eternal life, or you don't and you're condemned in your sin.
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So that's the way it is objectively, but in our experience can't it seem very different?
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It can seem like there are all these degrees of faith, there are all these degrees of coming to trust in him truly.
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And that's what the whole gospel of Mark spends a lot of time focusing on. A lot of ways the gospel of Mark is showing this progressive, slow, gradual, halting nature of coming to believe in Jesus.
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The educational process for the disciples especially, of really coming to know who he is and trust him.
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So stretching all the way back to chapter 3, verse 13, and going all the way through the rest of chapter 3 and all the way of chapter 4 up to this point,
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Mark has been stressing this important theme, and I mentioned it earlier. The issue of how you listen to Jesus draws a stark and bold line between insiders and outsiders.
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There are those who are sympathetic and trusting in their listening. Those are the insiders.
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But then there are those who are hard -hearted and cynical and dismissive listeners. Those are the outsiders.
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The insiders, as they listen and they learn more and more, Jesus will give them more and more light, and they'll come to understand him more fully.
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The outsiders actually will only be hardened more and more as they listen. It's a very important question, which side of that divide you are on in your heart toward Jesus.
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The disciples are on the right side of that line. They're insiders. They are on board, and I mean literally in this passage.
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They are on board with Jesus. But against that backdrop, with that in place,
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Mark's narrative now turns his attention to focus on the weakness and sometimes the apparent absence of that faith, even among the insider disciples.
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And this is going to crop up a few times in the next several chapters of Mark.
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They have decided for Jesus, and they're following him, but it's not a done deal yet. They're not out of the woods.
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They have to keep following, keep watching, keep learning who he is that they are following. They've begun to see the faint shadows of reality, but their sight needs much more clarity and resolution.
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And that's what Jesus will be giving them, actually all the way to the empty tomb at the end of this book of Mark.
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So earlier in chapter 4, he told them that the outsiders who reject his parables, he says that they are seeing but not perceiving, hearing but not understanding.
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But then later in chapter 8, he's going to challenge the disciples themselves in a burst of righteous frustration.
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He's going to say, do you not yet perceive or understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear, and do you not remember?
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He's saying, hey disciples, you sure are acting like the outsiders who disbelieve in me. He's challenging their weak faith, and he's confronting it and encouraging them to move forward in faith.
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Now I've heard of other cultures where marriages are arranged between a man and a woman who have never met before their wedding day.
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You've heard of this. Arranged marriages, they've never met. Can you imagine getting married to a person and then getting to know him or her?
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You're married, you're committed, you're in. But then the question is, well who is this that I'm joined to? Thus begins his journey of coming to know who you're joined to.
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And that may be just a hint of what the disciples are in for. You see, they have come on board with Jesus and followed him and now they're going, okay so who is he?
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They have to learn. Who is he? They have a long journey yet ahead. But with all of this faltering and slowness, the disciples will ultimately believe, all save Judas, they will all ultimately believe.
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And what hope that is, isn't it? For honestly thick -skulled people like you and me, isn't it? That our hearts and our minds can be so slow to see
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Jesus for who he is. So slow to trust him for who he is.
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Even when he's shown us who he is on the pages of scripture and in our lives, we've seen his faithfulness.
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And we can still be so slow to see and to trust who he is. And he's here both to sympathize with our slowness and to challenge us on to a firmer and clearer faith.
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So this passage has both a warning and an encouragement for us. The warning is that there is something less than biblical faith that sees
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Jesus as a helpful passenger on our boat, but not the
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Sovereign Lord. Having the attitude the disciples had. A helpful passenger with us, not the Sovereign Lord.
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Beware of this counterfeit faith. And sadly that's how many present Jesus in our day.
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And without necessarily putting it in these words, the idea is that Jesus is a spiritual booster. He is a spiritual supplement.
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There was a song with the lyrics a few years ago, Jesus take the wheel. I've had enough, Jesus, you take over.
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He can help your relationships. He can help your marriage, your self esteem, your success. He can help you win victories.
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But all the while, that whole time at the bottom of it all, he's merely helping you with your stuff.
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He's helping you with your stuff. Now friends, when you come to believe in Jesus, you're turning to Him as the
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Lord and the Master of all. You're turning to Him as the Lord over you and in your entire life.
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You're turning your life over to Him as the Lord over all of your interests and your concerns, and as the
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Lord over everything that threatens you. Everything that threatens you.
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He is Lord of all. Maybe you're listening this morning and you don't yet believe in Jesus.
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Or maybe like the disciples, you see yourself in some kind of gray area in between where you honestly don't really know where you are.
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You don't know where you stand with Him. But whatever the case it may be, let me appeal to you, He is the
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God man. He's the one who came to bridge the gap between us and God.
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You see, our sin has made us like the wind and the waves. We are the enemies of God. We're the ones rebellious and unruly and untamed by nature because of sin.
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And the beautiful and amazing thing is, Jesus came as a servant to put away our sin on the cross, to take the judgment we deserve, and to undo all of the destructive effects of sin for His people.
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That's what the Gospel of Mark, at this point in Jesus' ministry, that's what He's showing with His miracles. He came to undo all the destructive effects of sin.
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He is remaking all who trust in Him. And one day He will return to remake the whole world in peace and righteousness and to judge
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His enemies. So the question for us this morning is, where will you stand on that day? We urge you, everyone in our hearing, we urge you, come to Jesus.
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Trust Him. Be reconciled back to God in Him. He is the Lord of all.
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So the takeaway for us is this. Because Jesus is the Divine Son who rules over nature, we should trust
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Him as such. We should trust Him as that Divine God -Man who rules all things.
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We should follow Him. We should gladly submit our lives to Him under His Lordship because He is the
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Lord of all. But there's even more than that. I said there are three F's.
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This passage isn't merely a generic call to faith, but there's something sharper and more specific about what's happening here about faith.
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And this brings us to our third stage, our third F, which is freedom. Freedom. Faith dispels fear.
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There's freedom in the fact that faith dispels fear. Isn't it interesting to compare verses 40 and 41?
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Verse 40, He said to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? And then in verse 41,
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And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey
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Him? In verse 40, He rebukes the disciples for their fear which revealed their lack of faith in Him.
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And then they turn in verse 41 and they respond to what He did, not what He said. They respond to what
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He did with what? Fear. Fear. And I think it's fair to read this as an even greater fear than they had during the storm.
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Mark is so emphatic. He says, They feared exceedingly. Isn't that ironic?
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Well, what's going on here is that there are two different kinds of fear. The fear in verse 40 is cowardice.
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The fear that He rebukes them for is cowardice. It's bad fear. It is inappropriate fear.
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Jesus is saying that if they had trusted Him, they wouldn't have been afraid of the storm. That fear reveals an absence or a weakness of faith.
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But then the fear in verse 41 is a good fear. Because it's not fear that's directed at the storm, is it?
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It's fear directed at Jesus Himself. They say, Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey
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Him? That's what they're fearing. And as we saw, this is the kind of stuff only
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God can do. And the disciples know it. They've seen up to this point, they've seen
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Him heal the sick and the lame. They've seen Him cast out demons. They've heard
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His teaching. But somehow, until now, they haven't gotten it at this level, the way they're getting it now.
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Can this be God Himself? Who are we dealing with here? Now, why do
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I say that that is a good fear? You see, fear is an entirely biblical and appropriate response to God.
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It's a major theme throughout both testaments of Scripture. The fear of the Lord is a central and crucial virtue for His covenant people.
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You see it back in the Old Testament, commanded in the law. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your
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God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love
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Him, etc. Deuteronomy 10, verse 12. It's commended in the wisdom literature. Proverbs 9, 10.
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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It's compelled in the prophets.
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Isaiah 8, 13. The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow. Let Him be your fear, and let
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Him be your dread. And I think that Isaiah quote helpfully amplifies and explains to us the concept of fearing the
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Lord. It's a way of hallowing Him, which means honoring Him as holy. The fear of the
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Lord is simply the recognition that He is the biggest, scariest, most glorious, and yes, most frightening being in all of existence.
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It's a reverence. It's a heart that trembles before His grandeur, His power,
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His authority, and His word. That is the fear of the Lord. And if Jesus' calming of the storm reveals
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His deity, then fear is exactly the kind of response that's called for.
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But let me ask you this. Does that disappoint you? Does that bother you about Jesus?
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The idea of fearing Jesus Christ? Does it in some way seem to take
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Him far away from us? What about Jesus the Good Shepherd? What about Jesus, as we see here in Mark, the
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Suffering Servant? What about Jesus the Prophet weeping over Jerusalem?
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What about Jesus the Sympathetic High Priest? You see, it's so easy for us, in our minds, even if we don't articulate this theologically in our minds, we can fall into this error where we think about Jesus according to this false dichotomy.
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We create two Jesuses. And the human Jesus is near, or eminent is the term.
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He shares our weaknesses and limitations. He loves us. He has compassion on us. He sympathizes with us in our temptations and our struggles and our sin.
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He's the one walking on the pages of the Gospels, we might think. But then the resurrected
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Jesus, oh, He's the Divine Transcendent Divine Jesus. He is far off.
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He's glorious, majestic, ruling the universe by His authoritative Word. But of course, as you know, there aren't two
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Jesuses. There's only one. What glory it is to see, and we must this morning, that these are one and the same person.
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God the Son was asleep from exhaustion on the boat. God the
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Son awoke and looked into the wild eyes of His terrified disciples and had compassion on them.
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To answer the question that they asked Him, yes He most certainly did care that they were about to die.
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And the man, Jesus Christ, spoke to the wind and the waves and ruled them. This is the deep mystery of the person of Christ.
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There is one Christ. There is one person. And the important thing for us to realize is that the
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Christ we fear as God is every bit as compassionate and tenderhearted and sympathetic as the servant we see on the pages of the
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Gospels. It's the same Jesus. It's the same man. So when we say that we are to fear
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Him, putting those two things together, when we say that we are to fear Him, it means this. Recognizing Him as the most majestic and yes, frightening being in all existence, and then running to Him and hiding in Him in all
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His glory and majesty and authority. What is He for you? He's your refuge. He's your protector.
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He has all the care and concern to want to help you and all the power and glory to be able to help you.
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Christian, this is your Christ. This is your Christ. When we trust in the
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Lord Jesus Christ as the divine Son of God, that includes fearing Him. And that fear might strike you and me as a burden and obligation.
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When we hear about fearing the Lord, that may be the first thing that hits you. It sounds like a load to bear. And in a way, reverence is spiritual work.
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It is hard work to maintain a heart of reverence. But let me tell you, let me assure you, the fear of the
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Lord is the most beautiful freedom. It is the most beautiful freedom for the people of God.
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How does the fear of the Lord free us? This is how it frees us. By displacing all other fears with the one who is near and tenderhearted and compassionate and unshakably
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God with us. God with us. When the glorious and majestic Christ is near and on your side, who can threaten you?
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Now there's a motto that Ronald Reagan used to use, but it goes all the way back, I think, to the Roman Emperor Hadrian, peace through strength.
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Peace through strength. You may have heard of it. And that's yours in Christ. Do you want freedom from fear?
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Fear the Lord above all, and you will have peace and security in his strength.
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Imagine that you're out for a walk and a vicious dog comes barreling around the corner right at you.
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How do you feel in that moment? Afraid. Not good, right? Now let's modify this scenario a little bit.
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So scenario one is you're on a walk alone, dog comes, you're scared. Let's modify it. Same walk, same dog, but now you have with you at your side your pet tiger.
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Your pet tiger. He's well trained, he's deeply loyal. Now how do you feel?
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How does that change the scenario for you? Now Jesus, yeah. Jesus is not our pet tiger.
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Every analogy is very limited. I want to say Jesus isn't our pet anything, but he is loyal in his love.
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And he is more powerful than anything that can threaten you. Now the exact threat in this passage may seem far off to us.
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Most of us probably don't spend a lot of time on the sea. And unlike first century Jews, we don't live in quite,
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I think, the same constant danger from things like natural disasters, bad harvests, things like that.
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Natural disasters aren't totally foreign to us. We might at various times fear wildfires, or wildlife, or earthquakes, or in this year what's been on our minds is an infectious disease, a pandemic.
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But even if what you fear isn't natural hazards, the same principle applies. Whatever you fear.
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If you ask yourself, what sorts of chaos and disorder most frightens me? What keeps me up at night, so to speak?
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What are the things that most frighten me? Probably in our lives, most of the fear we have has to do with what other people might do.
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What other people might do. Now these last several months have introduced a great deal of tumult and uncertainty into our lives, haven't they?
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The coronavirus pandemic has filled our lives with all kinds of uncertainty, threatened the economy, some of our livelihoods.
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It's strained trust between citizens and authorities. Add to that the troubles of race relations, riding in the streets, a crescendo of violence and unrest.
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And oh yeah, we're two days away from a presidential election. It all adds up, doesn't it?
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This year especially, this swirling sense of kind of chaos and danger. Do you fear the results of Tuesday's election?
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Is there a possible outcome that makes you shudder? That raises your blood pressure or your pulse with a sense of a looming threat?
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I'm no prophet, but who knows where the political and social tensions that we're feeling now, where those might lead in the future, in the years to come.
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They may get better, they may get worse. You may fear all of these things at various times.
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I certainly have fears like this. Or maybe the unruly forces that concern you are closer to home.
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It may be relational chaos, disorder in your dearest relationships. It may be a wasting disease that's coming to claim you or a loved one.
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Our dangers and our threats are numerous. But the point here applies to all of it.
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The Jesus Christ who walked humbly with the disciples and healed and taught and later went to the cross as a ransom for sinners.
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That Jesus rules every single detail of every single thing that threatens and frightens you and me.
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He rules everything. Do you remember Psalm 107? The scripture reading passage.
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Remember that God doesn't just calm the storms. He's the one that raises them in the first place. All the forces arrayed against us have to bow their knee to the sovereign
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Christ. They cannot do a single thing that His loving heart does not permit.
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They can't do anything He doesn't allow. Christian, do you believe this?
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Do you really believe this this morning? Will you believe it tomorrow? Will you believe it Tuesday?
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No matter how much red or how much blue is on that map on Tuesday? Will you believe it the next time the news punches you in the gut?
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Will you believe it next time you get that heartbreaking email or phone call or diagnosis? As with the disciples so with us, this is not merely a one -time decision.
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This is a constant habit. This is a growth curve, isn't it? A discipline of taking our fears and holding them up and putting them next to our sovereign
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Savior and comparing them. That's the spiritual discipline that we need to learn is to take the thing you're afraid of and to take
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Christ in all His fullness, all His glory, all His worthiness to be feared and all His compassion and comparing them.
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How do those things look next to His grandeur, His greatness, His authority? All of that marshaled toward doing the greatest good for you,
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His blood -bought disciple. How do they compare? Jesus Christ, the
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God -man rules unruly nature. He rules every enemy, every force that threatens the well -being of His people.
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So our response is twofold. Do not fear, only believe. This belief is a trust that embraces all that He is.
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He's the near and compassionate servant. He's the mighty sovereign. He's all of that, and Christian, He's all of that for you.
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He's yours. This belief may be weak and faltering, unclear, but keep on pressing to know
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Him. Keep on pressing to see Him in His fullness. Keep on pressing to trust Him and to take every fear relentlessly to Him.
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This is a belief that trembles in reverent fear at His majesty, at His glory. And knowing and feeling all of that about Him, let's draw near to Him to find in Him the power that dispels fear.
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And every enemy that He now rules, He will one day conquer entirely.
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Do you remember where this whole story ends? I mean the whole story, where it ends.
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Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.
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Let's pray. Father, You have given us such a fathomless treasure in Christ.
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One who possesses the fullness of Your divine nature. One who is sovereign.
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One who is great. One who is worthy of our awe and our reverence. And one who is like us, a servant.
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One who sympathizes, one who has suffered more than any of us can imagine. Father, we pray this morning that every soul who's heard this word would be compelled to both tremble at the greatness of Christ and flee to Him in faith.
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At the first stirrings of trouble and fear. Please may we, and may
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Faith Bible be a people characterized by confident faith that looks to Your Son.
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Thank you. I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you
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Tim very much for presenting your word to us. And I know it has a you know, as you think about fear of the
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Lord and trusting you know, it's a balance there that we all need that proper fear of the
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Lord. Stand together with me as we close by singing two verses of Close to Thee.
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Thank you.