Why Are Ye So Fearful? (09/01/2002)

Park Meadows Church

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Turn with me if you will to mark chapter number five mark chapter number five

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And I'm gonna talk to you all about something the Lord's been talking to me about quite a bit this year More at the beginning of the year than he's talking to me about it right now

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But but I think this will help somebody because it helped me And we'll read from verse 35 down to verse number 41

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And it says and the same day When the even was come He saith unto them.

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Let us pass over unto the other side And when he had sent away the multitude they took him even as he was in the ship

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And there are also with him other little ships And there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full and And he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow and they awake him and say unto him master carest thou not that we perish and he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea peace be still and the wind ceased and There was a great calm and he said unto them.

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Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith and They feared exceedingly and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the wind?

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and the sea obey him and Our our text verse is verse 40

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Where it says or the verse we're going to hone in on this morning Where it says and he said unto them

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Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? now the

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Lord's been talking to me about that a lot this year and And to me that's just a great question, so let's pray and we'll we'll get into the message

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Lord Thank you so much for your word and I pray that you would indeed speak to our hearts and help us to hear from you today

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What you have to say to us and let our lives be changed because we were here You know

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Jesus asked many great questions I I Mean he just had a way of asking questions now.

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He never asked a question Because he didn't know the answer But Jesus asked questions

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To let us know that we don't know the answer Or to help us to find the answer

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But he didn't ask the question because he didn't know the answer Jesus asked great questions

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Jesus asked the disciples he said Who do men say that I am now Jesus already knew who men say we're saying he was but he wanted them to say it

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Who do men say that I am and the disciples said well some say you're John Some say you're

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Elijah or one of the prophets Jesus then asked the more important question the all -important question.

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Who do you say that I am? Peter said thou art the Christ the

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Son of the Living God The Bible says over in John chapter 6 after the multitude had followed

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Jesus and they were hungry They had followed him all day and Jesus was getting ready to work a great miracle

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Jesus looked at Philip and said Philip Whence will we find bread that these may eat?

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Where we gonna get some bread that all these people might eat? And the

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Bible says this he said to prove him For he himself knew what he would do

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Jesus wasn't asking if the market was open in town Jesus wasn't even asking the question that Philip thought he was asking he wasn't asking

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Philip. Do we have enough money to buy bread for all these people? That's what Philip thought he was asking But the

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Bible says that Jesus asked the question to prove him to test him to check him out to see if he's

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Been learning the stuff that Jesus had been teaching and sometimes Jesus will allow

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Circumstances to ask us a question to see if we've been learning what he's been teaching

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And Jesus asked a great question here in our text a

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Question that no doubt at one point or another in our lives all of us He could come to us and ask this same question

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He said why? Are you so fearful? How is it that you have?

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No faith now that question is twofold because it it involves the paternal twins of fear and faith

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That Are born to the parents of circumstance and perspective They're both always crying for our attention

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The one to whom we heed is the one that will govern our actions

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You see faith and fear are twins But they're not identical twins

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They don't look alike Faith and fear are both beliefs

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But I love that definition you gave And the definition that you gave was

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I was paying attention. I just can't remember what it was right now

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Man cuz I may I didn't have a pen. I made a mental note to remember that Hey faith if you're both, what do

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I mean by that? Faith is I the fact that I believe What God said is going to happen is going to happen

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Fear is I believe what God has said is going to happen is it gonna happen

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So they're both belief we could all say

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I believe Therefore I do Faith and fear in every circumstances in every circumstance.

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They're beckoning for our attention faith says Look this way Do this thing fear says no, no, no, no, no, no, don't listen to him.

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Look this way Do this thing? And whichever one we heed to that demonstrates

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Whether we are following faith or following fear in that circumstance But before we get into the answer to the question, why are you so fearful?

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How is it that you have no faith? Let's let's go back in time in our minds If we if you will this morning and and find out exactly everything that took place on this day

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There are a lot of great lessons in this little passage The first thing the Bible says it says and the same day

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When the even was come now, we learned something when we read that and the same day when the evil was come now

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What happened that day that day these people were following Jesus and they got to hear

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Jesus teach the Bible Imagine all day long getting to follow Jesus and then listening to him teach sound doctrine all day long

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Would that be awesome? I mean that would just be Absolutely an experience that would be unmatched by anything that any of us have ever done

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But the Bible says that same day the evening came. Hey, you know what?

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I found out I found out that no matter how This life is the same day.

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The evening's gonna come Doesn't matter how good a day we had the evenings got to come at the end of the day

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Doesn't matter how good of an experience we had that that experience that we had is not going to last forever

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Because the same day that Jesus taught them the Sun with them the same day that they had the brightness of Illumination of the

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Holy Spirit speaking to their heart while Jesus was speaking to the ear that same day of brightness the

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Sun I'm gonna y 'all probably notice this here in Texas, but I'm gonna share something with you.

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The Sun goes down every day. I Didn't want anybody to miss that so I figured

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I might as well just go ahead and stop beating around the bush and say it The Sun goes down every day now

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It also said He saith unto them. Let us pass over to the other side and when they had sent away the multitude

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They took him even as he was in the ship and what we notice in that is we notice that even though a multitude

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May feed on the doctrine Only a minority will follow in discipleship

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The Bible says the same day when the evening was come The Bible says

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Jesus said to them let us pass over to the other side and when they had sent away the multitude

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They took him even as he was in the ship there are a lot of people who like to say

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Jesus There are a lot of people who like to talk about God There are a lot of people who proclaim to be a

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Christian But a lot of people may feed on the doctrine They may know have a head knowledge of Jesus, but only a few will follow him in discipleship

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Well We see another lesson Jesus gave them that great promise when he said let us pass over to the other side

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And the Bible says when they had sent away the multitude they took him even as he was in the ships there were also with him other little ships and Then it says in verse 37 and there arose a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship

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So that was now full what we see is we see first of all that God gave a promise

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Now how many y 'all like getting those promises? I? Like those problems. I like when I find a promise in the word that applies to me

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I like it when I like it when I'm in a certain circumstance in a certain situation and I open up the

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Bible and it's like He said that to me I like that And they received this promise.

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Let us pass over to the other side, but Immediately when they acted on the promise

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See Storms will often rise When we act on a promise that we have from God When we get

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Rima from the logos when God speaks to us When God gives me a personal word from the written word and I act on what

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God has said to me What oftentimes? Happened is the wind will begin to blow and the waves will begin to beat in my ship to check me out and see if I Really believe the promise that I acted on when

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I got on the ship It happens all the time, I mean whenever you know, sometimes we when we when we trust

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Christ we think everything's gonna be just fine And then when when God shows us that he wants us to go in a certain direction

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We think it's all gonna work out. Okay, because God has shown everything and the devil's gonna go to sleep now.

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I got a promise Devil's going on vacation. I got me a problem Now the devil doesn't go on vacation

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Circumstances don't lay down and go to sleep when we get a promise from God the wind begins to blow the waves begin to dash

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And that's what happened in this story as soon as The promise came as soon as that in faith they acted on the promise

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And the Bible says this wasn't just a little bit of storm now

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Y 'all are looking at We went on a cruise two years ago

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We're down in st. Thomas. We're sitting on that ship and I was eating and all of a sudden the whole world started to move

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And I didn't even realize the ship was moving I just knew I started feeling My head started feeling kind of funny and my stomach started feeling kind of funny and I said

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I still didn't have it figured out And then after a while I realized I was seasick and I had to go lay down I Mean I had to go left.

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I'm not talking about 20 foot weight. I'm not talking about great And I was just as sick as I could be

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And in the Bible the Bible says there arose a great storm of wind I'm talking about one that picked up that ship like it was a toy and tossed it this way and tossed it that way and The waves beat into the ship so much that it was full of water

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Man what a storm I said, why don't y 'all just shoot me now?

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But no these guys they were in a real storm See we read this sometimes and it's just words on a page what we need to understand that I like the way my brother says, you know when a ship's in the water, that's okay but when water gets in the ship

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We got a problem and the Bible says that the ship was full of water

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How many of you know that when you're on a ship and it's full of water. That's It was full and here's this ship that's supposed to be on the bottom of the ocean on top of the ocean with water in Now that gives me

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Because that shows me that God is not bound by principles, but principles are bound by God Boats don't float because they're buoyant boats float because God wants them to float when they float

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And if God wants a ship to sink that don't have any water in it It'll sink with no water in and if God wants a ship to float that's full of water.

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It'll float Now isn't it exciting to know that we serve a God who's in charge of the whole deal

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The Bible says that all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven and Among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou the

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Bible says but our God He is in one mind and who can turn him and whatsoever his soul desires even that will he do

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It's awesome to serve a God who can make a boat float that's full of water It's awesome to serve a

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God who if the enemy throws you into a lion's den the lions can't touch it They'll just be as gentle as a kitty cat

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It's awesome to serve a God who when the king throws you in the fiery furnace The fire will kill the people that threw you in but it doesn't even make you smell like smoke

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It's awesome to serve that kind of God that if he wants to when the waves are dashing and the wind is blowing

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He call you out of that ship and say come here walk on those circumstances that threaten to destroy your life

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That's an awesome God We see that oftentimes the problem comes

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After Promise and the problem doesn't come to shake our faith

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The problem doesn't come to beat down our faith and the problem doesn't come to upset our faith

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But the problem comes to strengthen our faith. I've discovered Strength comes from resistance and repetition

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And without that resistance and repetition there would be no strength people say well You know what? I'm going down to the gym and they go down there on January 1st and they pick up those weights one time they go back to the house

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I'm gonna be in good shape for the rest of the year. No you won't It comes from resistance and repetition

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Some of y 'all must have been doing that It comes from resistance and repetition

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That's why God doesn't give us a whole bunch of promises and only let one problem come

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But when we when we take action on the promise that God has given us The wind begins we get stronger not by sailing around the storm not by staying on the shore

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Because we know a storm is coming But we get stronger by sailing through the storm with our eyes on the one who can calm the storm and the

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Bible says You know what? Sometimes the funniest thing you can do the Bible says

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I'm trying to see this They're in a storm. That's so great They're in a storm that is so great the

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Bible calls it a great storm of wind And they are trying to figure out now

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I know because of human nature And I know they're trying to figure that out

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And surely one of those guys on there had to be enough like me to want to get that water out of that boat

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And where is Jesus while the wind is raised where is Jesus while the ship is filling up That's right

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That is the most unlikely place for somebody to be in the middle of a storm in the ship that's full of water

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Asleep and then they went and woke him up and said Lord. Don't you care?

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We're about to die the

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Bible says He was asleep on the interview And They awake him and said him master cares now not that we perish and he arose and rebuked the wind now like that I like the fact that he rebuked the wind because the wind is a picture of false doctrine

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We know that because the Bible says don't be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine

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The wind is a picture of false doctrine, but the waves are a picture of false doubt

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What do I mean by false doubt I Mean that the waves were threatening to do something they had no power to do they were threatening to destroy them but notice

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Jesus didn't rebuke the waves the Bible says he rebuked the wind and Said unto the sea peace be still now.

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Why didn't he rebuke the sea? He didn't rebuke the sea because Jesus doesn't rebuke us for our doubt.

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He just speaks to our doubts. I Just thought of this. I mean, I didn't But the amazing thing is, you know, the

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Bible says that faith Cometh by hearing and hearing by what?

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the Word of God now I was studying that one day and I thought it was just talking about faith cometh by hearing and hearing cometh by the

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Word of God But that's not the word word logos word, which is this the written word

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Doesn't mean faith cometh by hearing and hearing cometh by the log off the written Word of God It means faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the

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Rima R -h -e -m -a Rima written I mean spoken Word of God personal

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Word of God the Word God speaks to you through his word when you read his word So faith is created in us when we get a word from God when we hear from God our faith

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Becomes stronger more real and bigger than our fears So Jesus spoke to the sea because the sea is a picture of false doubt

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Whenever we fear those things that bring false doubt into our lives They bring doubt into our lives because we wonder can

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God deliver on this promise? Of course he can can God really get me all the way over to the other side?

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Of course he can So when we begin to be afraid how am

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I going to pay the bills he doesn't say what's wrong with you When we begin to worry what's going to happen to my children he doesn't say what's your problem

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Don't you know I can take care of your kids Whenever we're afraid and we want to pace the floor and chew our fingernails down to the bone

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Whenever we're worried and walking back and forth and wringing our hands he just And when

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God speaks to me it Evaporates my fear when

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God speaks to me it burns up my fear when God speaks to me it

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Eliminates my fear because it gives me something new to focus on do you realize why?

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Why David this this this this little runt teenage kid was not afraid of this big old nine -foot giant that had a spear with a 16 head 16 pounds spearhead on it

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And when that 16 pound spearhead That's all you gonna do you

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How come the armies of Israel and Saul who was head and shoulders above all of Israel were afraid of that giant

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Goliath All they could see was how big the giant was all they could see was that 16 pounds spearhead

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All they could see was what Goliath could do to them, but David heard from God and David Didn't just see that big old giant and how much bigger than David the giant was but David saw

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God and how much bigger than God I mean how much bigger than Goliath God Why Notice he said you have fear, but you don't have any faith

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That tells me I can't have fear and faith at the same time about the same thing I can have one or the other but I can't have both and The reason

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I have faith is because I don't have fear and the reason I have fear is because I don't have faith But the reason

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I have faith is because I don't have fear and the reason I have fear is because I don't have faith

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Why are you so fear? Why do you have so much fear? Well, the reason you have so much fear is because you don't have any faith.

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Why don't you have any faith? Because you have fear. That's why. And you can't have both at the same time about the same thing.

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So let's see if we can answer that question. Why are you so fearful? That was a long introduction.

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This is the message, all right? Here's the message. Why were they so fearful?

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Same reason we are. Because they didn't remember. Jesus said, let us pass over to the other side.

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He didn't say, let's go out here and die in a swamp. He said, let us pass over to the other side.

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He didn't say, let's go see if we can't take this ship. He said, let us pass over to the other side.

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And one thing's for certain. When God gives you a promise, you can take it all the way.

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And I'm going to tell you something about God's promises. God's promises can take us to the other side. God's promises can take us so far from where we are to where we want to go.

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God's promise can take us from that place of fear to that place of faith. God's promise can take us from that place of devastation to that place where we have hope.

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God's promise can take us from that place where we are broken, destitute, to the place where he supplies all our needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

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God can take us from the place where we are to the place he wants us to be. The promises of God are yea and amen, and they can take us where he wants us to go.

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The reason they were fearful was because they forgot, they did not remember the promises of God.

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So the next time you have fear, the next time you have fear, this is what we need to do. We need to begin to remember the promises.

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See, we talk about faith, right?

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We sing about faith. We preach about faith. We say amen when somebody else preaches about faith. And then we try to align our lives in such a way so as to have the most security possible.

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And I like what Helen Keller said. Helen Keller's one of my heroes. She was just remarkable.

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She didn't have sight. Her eyes didn't see, but man could her mind see. Her ears couldn't hear, but man could her mind hear.

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Helen Keller said, security does not exist in all of nature, neither do the sons of men as a whole experience.

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Life is either a daring adventure or an adventure.

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You know, I've often asked myself, Brother Roger, who would Helen Keller have been had she had no senses?

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Who would Helen Keller have been had she not been blind in death? She would have been just. Challenges in our lives that God uses to mold us and to make us into what we want to be.

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They had fear because they didn't remember the promise of God. They had fear and didn't have faith because they didn't remain in the presence of God.

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The Bible says that Jesus was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.

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That, the inference there that Jesus was the only one on the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.

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I heard a preacher say this one time, and when

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I see God getting up, that's what I'm going to do. But until I see him get nervous,

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I'm going to try my best to stay calm. And the fact is, if Jesus is calm and comfortable in the midst of the storm, then we need to get calm and comfortable in the midst of the storm.

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Because I know as long as he's on the ship, the ship ain't going to end. Isn't it exciting to know that if we remain in the presence of God, we don't have to have fear?

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That's why Daniel could go down into the lion's den with a smile on his face, because he was in the presence of God.

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That's why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could walk around in the fiery furnace, and they have their ropes taken off or burned off, whichever the case may be, and walk around in there, and come out and not even smell like smoke.

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Why? They were in the presence of God. And the reason the apostles, these disciples, had faith and not fear is the same reason we have faith, fear and not faith, and that's because we don't remain.

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And the last thing is this, and I already spoke to this, but I'll say it again. They asked him this question. They said, carest thou not that we perish?

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Not only did they not remember the promise of God, let us go over to the other side, they didn't remain in the presence of God so they could have his peace for their peril, but also they didn't rehearse the principles of God.

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They asked him a silly question. Don't you care that we're about to die? Don't you care that we are about to perish?

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Now, they forgot about those. They didn't rehearse the principles of God. The first principle they didn't rehearse was that he cared. They said,

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Lord, don't you care? Now, that's about a silly question.

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Don't you care? Here's what I've discovered. I've discovered that God cares about us more than we care about us. God loves me more than I love him.

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Now, he's only one. My kids don't love me more than God loves me, more than I love me.

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My wife, as much as I like her, she don't love me more than I love me. Dave's my friend.

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He don't love me more than I love him. He loves me, but he don't love me more than I do. My mom, my dad, my brother, he doesn't love me more than I love him.

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He's always willing to do what he wants.

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And they said, Lord, don't you care? See, here's what I discovered. I discovered God doesn't love us because we are good.

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God loves us because he is good. Lord, don't you care?

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Of course he cares. Not only does he care, but also he can. See, they said, don't you care that we perish?

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And see, what they didn't understand was not only that he cared, but he could do something about their circumstance. He had more power than the storm.

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He was bigger than the wind. He was stronger than the waves. And just because they were in this storm that seemed to be life -threatening,

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Jesus could do something. Your circumstance seems to shake your whole world up, turn it upside down.

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And you wonder, Lord, as big as it is, because our problems that are so huge, us, we cannot see.

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We step on them with this flame. We won't grow properly.

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The Bible says, what manner of man is this? They asked this question.

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The Bible says, they feared exceedingly. Now they were getting to the place God wanted them to be. Because before he calmed the storm, they were afraid of the storm.

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After he calmed the storm, they were afraid of him. Before he calmed the storm, they feared for their lives.

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They feared the waves. They feared the water. After he calmed the storm, they only feared the wonder.

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What manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him? He's the kind of man that's not just man, that we call the

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God has over the waves that beat into our ship.

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God has power over the winds that toss our lives to and fro.

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That's what manner of man is. There's a lesson in that is that God wants us to get nothing but him.

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Because whatever you fear controls you. God doesn't want anything in control of our lives.

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Lord, thank you for your word. Help us not to be so fearful. Help us not to have.