F4F | Rich Wilkerson How to Be a Storm Sleeper

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

This is the program, the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

Word of God. Now, if you've ever heard anyone preach, you know, about, you know, how Jesus was asleep in a boat in a storm on the

Sea of Galilee, and that means that you need to learn from Jesus how you can sleep through your storms.

I'm not making that up. Even if you haven't heard that before, you will shortly. Go ahead and hit the subscribe button down below.

Don't forget to like the video. Ring the bell. It'll help you when we play Prophecy Bingo. So what we're gonna do today, we're gonna head over to VU Church and we're gonna listen to Rich Wilkerson Jr.

just make a complete mess of Mark chapter 4. Complete and utter mess of it, because he's missing the whole point.

In fact, there's textual clues, like at the end of it, that help you understand what's going on here and where the focus should be.

Or, as I like to say, that a lot of people put the wrong emphasis. They got the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Yeah, that's what I like to say. Yeah, you get the point. So let's go ahead and whirl up the desktop here and let's get our web browser up.

So heading over to VU Church, this is Restless. How to sleep in your storm with Rich Wilkerson Jr.

We'll spend a little bit of time in this sermon, so buckle up, pop some popcorn, let's get to it.

Welcome all of our VU friends and family who join us by way of online, at YouTube, or on the podcast.

Come on, VU Church, can we make some noise for all of our friends for your participation?

Tonight we're really in our third part of a collection of talks entitled, Restless, Finding Rest in the

Stress of Life. And I want to continue to encourage you to go and check out VUChurch .com.

Finding rest in the stress of life. Now, a little bit of a note here. One of the reasons why life is as stressful as it is, is due to the fact of, well,

God has cursed humanity with toil and labor because of the rebellion against him in Adam.

Yeah, you know how Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree? You kind of get the idea here. And so we got to work by the sweat of our brows.

So the peace that we get to experience from Christ when it comes to relief from the anxieties of this life and its difficulties and sufferings and capriciousness and all that kind of stuff, that all comes when, well, when

Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, or we go to be with Christ, you know, because to be absent from the body is to be present with the

Lord. So, you know, I find it odd that somebody would use

Christ in this way, especially this particular text, he hasn't even gotten to it yet, to somehow say that this is about learning how to overcome stresses and anxieties and difficulties of life.

Okay, being a Christian can actually get you killed in some places. So being a Christian, yeah,

I'm just saying, you know. There's lots of resources and content that our team has put there on the page.

There's a great landing page, because I know all of us, we're making every effort in this collection to learn how to rest properly according to God's Word.

You mean like a Sabbath rest, taking a day off, not doing any work? Is that what you're talking about? And I don't normally do this, but so much of what

I've been talking about and so much of what I've been sharing about the last three weeks has come from a friend of mine. His name is Pastor John Mark Comer.

Yeah, we got a problem with John Mark Comer. Yeah, so if you go into the archives of Fighting for the

Faith, we covered the fact that a few years back, John Mark Comer was flat -out teaching polytheism.

Yeah, he was. Yeah, no joke. He leads a church in Portland, Oregon called

Bridgetown Church, and it's kind of funny how the timing worked out, but this week he released his latest book, and it's called

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, and I think it's a book that...

Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. Is it a philosophy book?

What is it? It will bless your life. So much of what we've been talking about is in the book, but then he goes so many steps further.

He goes much, much deeper, and I think he gives us even more handles of how to live this out, and so I encourage you, go pick up this book.

I think it will be a blessing in your life. Mark chapter 4 is where I want us to read from tonight.

Just in case you don't respond well, I hired some people to respond really well up here on the stage. Yeah, he's not joking there.

They're really volunteers, but you'll notice that he uses a bullpen as well.

Yeah, just like, you know, Steven Furtick and others. So the bullpen has been moved on stage.

This will help create, you know, an atmosphere of anticipation, expectation, and excitement.

Yay! Because every one of these volunteers is to hang on to all of the pearls of wisdom that drop from the mouth of Rich Wilkerson Jr.,

and they're supposed to go, ooh, ah, and all those kind of things.

I cannot help but think that I sound like that Jack -in -the -box from, you know, that Santa Claus, Rudolph the

Red -Nosed Reindeer from the Isle of Misfit Toys. Nobody wants a Charlie in the box.

Anyway, so that being said, this is really not a good idea.

Yeah, there's manipulation going on here. So let's take a look at the text first and see if there's any exegetical clues as to what the focus here is on this passage.

Now, we're gonna note that the Gospel of Mark is a very short gospel.

He doesn't give a nativity narrative regarding Jesus's birth.

Kind of starts off right with John the Baptist, but let me again remind you of the thesis sentence of the

Gospel of John, which I am convinced applies to all of Scripture, doubly so when it comes to one of the four

Gospels. Here's what it says in John chapter 20, verse 30. Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Right. These things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. Kind of an important thing.

Now we'll take a look at Mark chapter 1 real quick. Mark chapter 1, the beginning of the euangelion, the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God. Now there's the opening to the Gospel of Mark, and that's going to help you out here.

The beginning of the good news, or the gospel of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God. First sentence out of the chute is one that is just theologically charged.

One that, you know, if you don't pay attention to what Scripture is saying, there could be confusion, there could be scandal regarding this.

Remember the Jews had a tough time swallowing the fact that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.

So that's gonna be a sentence that is going to be vital in understanding what's going on in 4.

Why? Because this is all about the good news of Jesus Christ, who is whom? The Son of God, which means he's

God in human flesh. But you'll note that Mark 4 is pretty early in the

Gospel of Mark, which means the disciples haven't put everything together yet regarding Jesus.

That'll come later, but they're still kind of sorting all this out. So here's the account, again, early in the

Gospel of Mark. On that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, let us go across to the other side.

Now this is not some allegorical other side. This is the actual other side of the

Sea of Galilee, and this also has some importance to it due to the fact that where Jesus hung out in Capernaum, where he had a home, that is going to be your

Jewish portion, you know, quarter, if you would, of the Sea of Galilee. The other side, so he's on the northwest part of it.

On the east side of the Sea of Galilee, you're gonna have the Decapolis, and you're gonna have cities that are pagan.

Even though they're technically in Judea, they are in Israel, they are going to be pagan.

So that's kind of an important bit of all of this, but I'll just keep reading here.

So leaving the crowd, they took with them in the boat, just as he was, and the other boats were with him.

So the little regatta going on there. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.

But Jesus was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him,

Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? All right, so Jesus, don't you care?

We're, you know, we're about to drown here, Jesus. And so he awoke, and listen to what happened.

He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace. Shalom.

Be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've never seen anyone do this. And I'm gonna wager that you haven't either.

And if we were in this boat, and saw Jesus talk to the wind and to the

Sea of Galilee as if they were his personal pets, because you're gonna note this, this is kind of how

I talk to my dogs. We have two dogs. One's my wife's. Yeah, that's

Max. He's a Westie Pooh, right? And then my dog, Luther. Yeah, my dog's name is

Luther. And, you know, and Luther, you know, he's kind of a German Shepherd, Black Lab mix.

And so, you know, when Luther and Max are, they're not doing what they're supposed to do, or they're, let's say they're wound up because they've detected that the mailman is coming up the walkway.

And what do I say to Luther? Luther, relax. Calm down. Settle down.

Quiet. Right? And Luther goes, and they start kind of doing those little, you know, like, woofs that aren't really loud barks, but, you know, they kind of show that he still wants to make his displeasure known that the mailman is on the property, but he wants to obey me.

So it's woof, woof, woof, woof. Right? It's not, it's not the full boom. And so,

Luther, Luther, relax. Relax, Luther. All right, you see, you kind of get the idea.

If you have dogs, you know what I'm talking about. So Jesus is talking to the wind and to the Sea of Galilee, you know, like they're his pets.

So he rebuked the wind, said to the sea, peace, peace. Still, relax, would ya? And the wind ceased, and there was great calm.

Who has the ability to do that? Now, let me come back to our thesis sentence for the

Gospel of Mark. The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God. Okay. All right.

So, peace be still. The wind ceased. There was a great calm, and he said to them, why are you so afraid?

Have you still no faith? Do you not trust me yet?

So they were filled with great fear, and they said to one another, who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

That's the thing. These things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you might have life in his name.

This is the beginning of the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God. Who is he? He's the Son of God, and as the story goes, you know, if you were to read all of Mark, you find out that he was crucified for your sins and mine.

You see, it's all about who is this guy? That's the punchline, right? You know, so,

I mean, have you ever told a joke? I mean, I tell them from time to time, and you know,

I note that the punchlines are important, you know, and so if I were to tell you a joke, you know, there were two penguins, and they were sitting on an iceberg, and the iceberg, there was a rumbling, and a shaking, and a quaking, and then there was a crack, and a split, and wouldn't you know it, it split right in half between the two penguins, and one penguin was running, was, you know, off on one side, the other was drifting off on the other side, and so one penguin shouted out to the other, and then, you know,

I just decide not to tell you the punchline of the joke. You'd be very dissatisfied, right?

Or worse, if I told you the punchline, and then said, is there,

I mean, wow man, you know, the whole thing about, you know, the iceberg cracking and stuff, you know, whoo, whoo, yeah, you know, you'd think

I was off my rocker. By the way, the punchline to the joke is no soap radio, so that's a,

I'll have to explain it to you later, but that, that is the punchline of the joke, and you're sitting there going, what? Anyway, so, a little inside Roseboro family joke there, but anyway, so you'll note then, the point is, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?

This is really all about, who? Jesus, like, and doubly so, because they're all scratching their heads going, who is this guy?

How is he able to do this? That's the point. You now know what the text is about, and let's get on with getting back to it, shall we?

And we'll listen in as Rich Wilkerson Jr. tries to, he'll read out the text, and we'll pay attention to what he does with it afterwards.

They're going to shout, they're going to enjoy it, and hopefully, that will encourage you to enjoy it as well. Mark 4, verse 35, it says, that day when evening came, he,

Jesus, said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. Everyone say the other side. Leaving the crowd behind.

Everyone say the other side. That's another manipulation technique, by the way. That take by, when somebody gives you a command, and you obey it, psychologically, it lowers your critical thinking, because it, you know, your brain kind of thinks, well, if this guy's giving you orders, and you're, and you're obeying it, that he must be okay.

Behind, they took him along, just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him, and a furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Now, the disciples woke up and said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown?

He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm.

Everyone say, completely calm. He said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?

They were terrified, and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.

Now, we're going to note, he's read the punchline to this particular account in the

Gospel of Mark. Who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him? So, he's read it.

Let's see if it registers. You know, if he recognizes, oh, wait a second, that's the punchline of the story.

Better focus in on that, because that's the emphasis, and I wouldn't want to put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

You kind of get what I'm saying here. Yeah, oftentimes, biblical texts will help you out in this way.

This one's quite convenient in helping you get the point, but let's see if it registers with Rich here.

I thought tonight's text gave me a very, very easy title to pick, and I titled tonight's sermon, How to Sleep in Your Storm.

Why? Why did you title that? Because this isn't some how -to text teaching me how to experience restful sleep while in the midst of a storm.

That's not the point of this text. It's, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? How to sleep in your storm.

Would you pray with me tonight, and would you believe with me that God is going to speak to us in this room? Lord, we thank you that you brought us here.

We thank you for what you're doing at VU Church. God, we open up our hearts now, Lord, that we might receive a word from you.

We want to leave this place looking more, talking more, thinking more, behaving more like Jesus.

That's our prayer tonight. Do a work in this place. If you agree with that prayer... So your prayer is that you want to behave more like Jesus after reading this account.

Are you saying you want us to learn how to control the weather? We've chronicled weather warriors here at Fighting for the

Faith, and every single one of them are utterly incapable of controlling any weather at all, despite their most audacious declarations and stuff, you know?

All of God's people said? All of God's people said? Okay, now I want everybody at the 715 service to live up to your name.

I want you to give Jesus Christ the biggest turn up, shout of praise you got. Give Jesus a big standing

O, would you? Yay, Jesus. Okay, what am

I giving him a standing O for exactly? Come on, you can do a little bit better than that tonight.

I can't hear you. You got some extra sleep. Come on, somebody give him praise in this house.

Oh, you sound like you're rested. You're praising

God like he gave you an extra hour of sleep. I came across an incredible book by A .J.

Swoboda entitled Subversive Sabbath. In the book, he teaches the principle of the Sabbath like we have been learning the last few weeks.

Okay, so if you're going to learn about, you know,

Sabbath, taking a day off, resting, not doing any work, then the text you're going to want to focus in on, you know, actually might need to be about the

Sabbath. You know, just say it. Yet there's a beautiful story that he tells that I found it to be so, so remarkable, fascinating.

I want to share it with you. And really, it's a story about two groups of people, and it's a psychological study that they've actually gone on to study, and that is that the men who came home from World War II, compared to the men and women who came home from Vietnam, well, they had a very, very different future.

It's really interesting because the men who came home from World War II, a study would show that they come home, and well, obviously, they sleep with their wives because that's where we get the baby boomer generation.

Praise God. And it was actually the next decade, a year of increase in where our nation flourished and where our nation began to grow.

But when you compare them to the men and women who fought in Vietnam, it's strikingly different.

For the men and women who came home from Vietnam, they had a much different future than those that came home from World War II. The difference was that PTSD began to rise.

There was a drug epidemic that hit. Suicide began to grow. Anxiety, worry, depression, medication, all of this stuff began to increase.

And psychologists have looked at the story, and it's complicated. Two different groups of people, two different time periods, yet in many ways so similar.

They both saw horrific, horrendous, awful things. They witnessed things that many of us will never, ever have to witness.

I just got to ask, what does this have to do with helping me to rightly understand the gospel text that you just read in Mark 4, where the punchline is, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?

Both of their futures were different. What was the difference between the two groups? If you can believe it, the answer that they've come back with is very simple.

Here's what they said that's very different, is that those that fought in Vietnam when the war was over, within two to three days, they got on airplanes, and they were back home in their living room.

But when you compare it with those that fought in World War II, they didn't get on airplanes when the war was over. Instead, they got on ships, and they went home, and it took, in many cases, two to three months on the water before they got back to their living rooms.

Wow. Okay, this is, I mean, it's an interesting psychological study. I mean, you can kind of see where this is going.

They had the ability in that three -month ship voyage to process with their buddies, the guys who've been through what they went through as well, all of their experiences, which is an important vital part of decompressing after something as terrible as having to fight in a war.

What do you do when you're on a boat after you've been at war for two months?

You cry. You grieve. You mourn.

You process. You sit with other people who have gone through the same thing that you've gone through, and you talk about it.

I saw this. What did you see? I felt this. What do you feel? I heard this. What did you hear? And you process out loud, and before you know it, because they had the time to simply cry when they got home, they had a bright future.

The men and women in Vietnam, they got back to their living room, and they're looking at people that have no idea what they've gone through, have no idea what they've faced, and before you know it, the result was restlessness.

Many ways, this collection that we're in is a simple plea for you to find some space in your life that you can cry.

All right. Now, I want to be careful here. We go through a lot of different traumas and suffering in this life, and you don't have to go through war in order to have an experience that will cause you to mourn or will require the need for you to cry or to mourn.

This is most certainly true. That being said, this text has nothing whatsoever to do with that at all.

I don't know about you, but I get all my news on Twitter, and I do.

It's just like Twitter, that's how I get all the news, and I have to delete Twitter every week because the news that I read is so bad.

Yeah. Twitter is one of the most toxic places on planet

Earth, if you can call it a place. In fact, it's so sad at times.

Savage. Yes, I know. Much of what I'm reading deserves tears.

I should stop and cry about the news that I'm reading, but I don't know about you. I don't have enough time, and I can feel my soul being desensitized slowly but surely.

Just stop reading it then. This has nothing, again, nothing to do with Mark chapter four.

Who is this guy that even the wind and the waves obey him? There's not enough time for me to find the space that I need to pause and to cry.

In order for our souls to be at rest. Sounds like he needs a safe space.

Okay. We're going to have to learn how to find moments to process. We're going to have to find moments to speak about what's going on in the inside.

We're going to have to find some gaps where we can grieve together so that our soul can be at rest.

Do you believe that tonight? If you believe that, somebody said amen in this house. Again, what does this have to do with Mark four?

I love our story that we come across here in Mark chapter four. Mark's gospel is one of my favorite gospels because Mark doesn't waste any time getting to business.

Mark skips over the birth of Jesus. He skips over the nativity. He skips over Jesus's puberty.

You just get full grown Jesus. Right on with John the Baptist in the wilderness telling people to repent.

Just shows up on the scene. It's Jesus in action in his ministry. And in Mark four, what we witnessed is we see that Jesus had just gotten done teaching and doing miracles.

And now he tells his disciples that let's get in the boat. And he says, let's get in the boat together. Let's go to the other side.

Everyone said the other side. I love this phrase and I want to preach it to you for a moment because it's important. The fact of the matter is, is that God metaphorically has an other side for all of us.

I'm in pain. Okay. No, you see, this isn't a metaphorical allegorical thingy going on here.

This is part of the historical narrative. The other side is the side where the

Gentiles are predominating. As far as the population, the Decapolis is on the other side.

Yeah. Boy, let's, in fact, let's go back to Mark for a minute here.

And we'll note what happened when they got to the other side. Okay. Because this isn't some allegory.

This isn't some metaphorical thing about, you know, God has an other side for you. No. So they came to the other side.

See, here it is. Mark five, they came to the other side of the sea, the country of the

Gerasenes. And when Jesus stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit.

He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. And he'd often been bound with shackles and chains and he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had had the strength to subdue him night and day among the tombs on the mountains.

He was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.

Listen to what he says. So he's crying out with a loud voice. What have you to do with me,

Jesus, son of the most high God? Now, stop for a second and consider this.

The demons know exactly who Jesus is. The disciples, the question that they just asked was, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?

They're scratching their heads. And here comes this demoniac naked and quite the mess, you know, you know, and and he knows exactly who

Jesus is. And he shouts it out. What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high

God? And you see the disciples going, how does he know Jesus? And how do what?

What? You see, this is all challenging here, because remember the whole point of that that Mark is making here, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

So on this on the other side here, the demon gets it right and just says who Jesus is. And the disciples are right.

So crying out with a loud voice, what have you to do with me, Jesus Christ, son of the most high God? I adjure you by God.

Do not torment me. So Jesus was saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit. So Jesus asked him, what's your name?

He replied, my name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside.

Yet you'll know Jews don't raise pigs. Right. So we're in Gentile territory here.

So send us into the pigs, the demon said, and let us enter them. So he gave them permission.

They said, you're going, wait a second, the demons have to ask permission from Jesus? I know there's a lot of theology going on here.

Who is this guy that even the demons have to ask him permission to do stuff? And so the unclean spirits came out, entered the pigs, the herd numbering about 2000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

So the herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened.

And they came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed man, the one who had the Legion sitting there clothed and in his right mind.

And they were afraid. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here? So those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon possessed man and to the pigs.

And so they began to beg Jesus to depart from the region. You need to leave, fella. Right.

So he was getting into the boat and the man who had been possessed with the demons begged him that he might be with him.

Please, Lord, let me stay with you. Take me with you. Watch what

Jesus says. Jesus did not permit him, but he said to him, you go and you tell your friends, go to your friends and you tell them how much the

Lord has done for you and how he's had mercy on you.

And so he went away and he began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled.

So Jesus sends this guy out to go and let everybody know what he had done.

Now, Jesus, they don't want him there. But Jesus had taken a fellow who was the most lost, the farthest gone, the fellow who may as well have been halfway down the throat of the dragon himself.

And Jesus yanks him out, cast the demons out of him, puts him in his right mind and clothes him.

And by the way, I mean, the demoniac is a perfect picture of sin running its course, of its complete insanity and torment that you suffer at the hands of the devil as a result of sin.

This is what it means to be completely under the dominion of darkness. This is the guy who is the most far gone, the most protected by the demons.

I mean, a legion of demons protecting this fellow. And Jesus, with a word, sends him into a herd of pigs and off they go.

And Jesus sends this fellow and you go tell everybody, let everybody know what

I have done for you and let them know how I've had mercy on you. And he goes and he preaches

Christ in the Gentile, pagan Decapolis. And the people there are scratching their heads going, whoa.

All right? So I assure you, all of that being said, there is no allegorical other side here that applies to anything in your life.

That's not what this text is about. Rich Wilkerson is just really messing this up.

Let me back this up then a few seconds and listen again. Everyone say, the other side. I love this phrase, and I want to preach it to you for a moment because it's important.

The fact of the matter is is that God metaphorically has an other side for all of us. Aren't you thankful tonight that you haven't stopped growing?

Aren't you thankful that God hasn't stopped blessing you? Aren't you thankful that tonight you haven't fully arrived, but God is continuing to take you on the journey of faith?

Faith is a journey. We are justified in one moment at the cross, but then it's a lifetime of being sanctified as we're formed and developed into the person of Jesus.

I agree that regeneration happens in a moment, and sanctification over the rest of our life.

I don't have a problem with that at all. That's not what this text is about. Come like Christ.

He's taking us to the other side. The scripture says as they obey Jesus, Matthew's gospel now says, suddenly a storm came about.

Everyone say, suddenly. You ever notice that life happens suddenly? This is hard.

Especially storms. So many times the storms in our life, we didn't prepare for them. We didn't plan for them. We didn't ask for them.

We didn't even cause them. This text isn't about a storm in your life. Nope, it's not at all.

They just suddenly happen, and the scripture says as the storm comes about, the disciples they begin to panic, and so they go looking for Jesus.

And would you believe they find Jesus in the bottom of the boat, but he's sleeping. Now if you're new to church or new to this text, you might read this and get very annoyed, because it's kind of annoying.

Not as annoying as you completely missing the whole point of the text. That's even more annoying.

Tonight you're in a storm, metaphorically, and you're calling upon God, but it's like, God, are you asleep?

Where are you? Do you not care about my pain? Do you not care about my feelings? Now, by the way, there are texts that address this experience that Christians have, that they are facing difficulty, and it seems like God is nowhere to be found, or that their prayers aren't being heard.

Let me give you a text that addresses that, because this text isn't that, okay?

That's not the point of that. But one of the texts that really addresses that phenomenon is found in Psalm 13.

In fact, let me back this up here, otherwise I'm going to get a...there we go.

Psalm 13. Listen to this prayer from David. How long,

O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must

I take counsel in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Light my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.

Lest my enemies say I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice, because I am shaken.

But I've trusted in your steadfast love, and my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the

Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. Now, there's a text that, for real, addresses the thing he's talking about.

Mark 4 isn't about the thing that he's talking about, though. Don't you know what

I'm going through? Why are you sleeping, God? Yet the more you get acquainted with Jesus and you look at his life, this text, it doesn't annoy you.

Instead, it encourages you. Yeah, it does encourage me that Jesus is the actual

Son of God, that he can command the wind and the waves with a word, and that he has spoken a word to me, and that word is forgiven.

Why would you say it encourages us? It encourages us because it's good to know that your God is not shaken by your situation.

Come on, it's good to know that your circumstances... Who on earth believes that God is sitting there biting his nails going, oh my goodness, wow, you're really in a mess there, dude.

No one thinks of God in that way. Don't cause panic in Jesus. I think it would be really scary if Jesus panicked.

Boots! What if Jesus needed lifeboats? Well, then he wouldn't be

God. No, you serve a big God who sleeps in the midst of the storm.

Oh, come on, somebody. How is this comforting?

I have a big God who sleeps in the middle of the storm, so I'm going through a difficult time, and I send up my prayers, and they go to voicemail.

So it's the Holy Spirit, man. I'm praying to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, I'm going through a storm.

I need your help, and my prayer goes to voicemail, and the voicemail goes, Hi, this is the

Holy Spirit, and I'm sleeping right now. I know you're going through a storm and stuff, but I just needed some rest.

I'm not sure how long I'm going to be asleep, but I assure you, as soon as I wake up, then

I'll go ahead and answer your prayer. So leave your prayer after the beep.

Beep. Yeah, that doesn't sound very comforting to me.

I'm telling you, your God sleeps in storms. How is this good news?

He sleeps in storms, and many times we can look at a moment like this in the scripture, and go, wow, this is epic. Whoa. It was.

Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? Really epic, and then in the next chapter, the demons know who

Jesus is, but the disciples don't. Do you see what's going on here? He's the storm sleeper, bro.

Why don't I have faith like that? A faith like Jesus?

What? You think Jesus was sleeping because he had faith, and he's trying to give us an example of what we can do if we have big enough faith?

We can be storm sleepers too? No. Well, it's always important to note that you have to have faith before you need faith.

If you just go searching for faith when you got a problem or a crisis, bro, you don't have faith.

That's called foxhole faith. Bullets are already flying. Jesus, I do believe in you now. No, you're late.

No, there was certain things about Jesus's life. There was patterns. There was principles. There was practices that he adhered to, and as you look at Jesus's life, you can see the small steps that he took on a daily basis.

It's the small things that we do every day that create big results in our life. So tell me,

Rich, what were the small things that Jesus did every day that made it so that he could be a storm sleeper?

I've never aspired to be such a thing, but tell me, how did he do it? And I firmly believe that this story is in the

Bible, yes, on one side to remind you of the glory of God, that you serve a God who's big, who's not afraid, who's not panicked, who's not shocked, who's not surprised.

Again, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him? That's kind of the big deal here.

I mean, I'm trying to figure out like a word picture to put this together to talk about just how much he's missing the point.

I mean, could you imagine if in your town, you know, two masked men went into one of the local banks with, you know, firearms and robbed the bank, right?

And so the headline reads, bank needs new paint job after bank robber scuffs the paint.

You know, there was a bank robbery and you're talking about the paint job?

What on earth is this? There's not one problem in your life. There's not one challenge you're facing right now that God is surprised by.

He doesn't panic. He's big. He's God. He's not stressed out in heaven like, oh my

God, how do I get to all these requests? Why'd you say OMG? I'm just saying that is so inappropriate, especially for a pastor during a sermon.

It's not God. But on the flip side, I think this story is in the Bible for a very personal and intimate message for all of us, and that is,

I believe Jesus rested in the storm to teach you how to rest in your storm.

Adventures in missing the point. No, no, no.

The text itself, the disciples, they got eyes the size of saucers. Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him, right?

And then the demon in the next chapter knows exactly who Jesus is. You get the point.

And Mark 1 says, the beginning of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God.

How to sleep in your storm. I'm backing that up because it's just absurd.

And that is, I believe Jesus rested in the storm to teach you how to rest in your storm, how to sleep in your storm.

Why do you believe that? What in the text would lead you in that direction?

You can sleep in the midst of your storm. Am I sinning if I'm awake during a storm?

I'm not saying tonight, let's make sure we clear some stuff up, that the next time a that's not what I mean.

Yeah, that was my logical next question. No shutters for my house. I've got Jesus. Okay. Okay.

I'm speaking about a metaphor that there's problems that we go through that cause stress, worry, anxiety, and fear.

And tonight I want to point you back to Jesus Christ who declares you might be in a storm, but that doesn't mean the storm has to get inside of you.

Again, I'll just point this out and I can't handle the sermon anymore.

It's just so far off the mark. It's not even funny. When we talk about anxieties and things like that,

Jesus for real address that straight on. In the

Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter six, we noted this not too many videos ago, and Jesus, he rebukes the people for their lack of faith.

So Matthew six, therefore I tell you, don't be anxious about your life, what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink, or about your body.

What you'll put on is not life more than food in the body, more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air.

They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns. And yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan? Why are you anxious about clothing?

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you,

O you of little faith? So note here, Jesus is saying, trust

God. So don't be anxious, saying, what will we eat? What will we drink?

What will we wear? The Gentiles seek after these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Seek first the kingdom of God, his righteousness.

These things will be added to you. That's the solution. But note then, the text that Wilkerson is preaching on has to do with the fact that Jesus is the

Son of God. He is the one to whom we should have faith, the one in whom we should have faith.

And that was the point that Jesus made. In fact, let me point that out again.

When Jesus chastised the disciples for panicking while he was sleeping during the storm, and here again, the boat's filling up with water, they said to Jesus, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. The wind ceased, there was great calm, and he said to them,

Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? You see,

Jesus is the one whom we are to trust, the one who calmed the storm can also say to you,

Your sins are forgiven. He calls you to repent and to believe in him, and by believing in him you will have eternal life.

You will not get what you deserve, you will get mercy, like the demoniac, forgiveness, and restoration.

These are the things promised because Christ went to the cross and bled and died for your sins and rose bodily from the grave on the third day.

So, you see, this is the beginning of the good news of the good news of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God. Trust and have faith in him. That's the point of this text.

Rich Wilkerson, although he makes points that are valid in the overall schema of Christianity, they have nothing, the things he was bringing up had nothing to do whatsoever with the text that he was preaching from.

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