Have Faith In God - [Mark 4:36-41]

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you know in summer Sunday school we've been doing going through Proverbs we've also had the
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Mozambique team come and give a few lessons of what is going to be taught in Mozambique and today we thought we'll mix it up a little bit more and what
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I'm going to do today is, it's one of the messages that I'm going to preach in Mozambique, it's a sermon that has been modified for the local body for saints it was an evangelistic message but it is now contextualized for us as believers in terms of how the
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Word of God applies. In fact the men who are going to Mozambique they're going to be preaching at least one sermon, one to three sermons in the evening services in Mozambique.
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They're going to be preaching through Mark 4 and 5 and one of the passages that I'm going to be preaching is in Mark 4 which we will get to and the context before we get into it, why don't we open with a word of prayer.
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Dear God our Heavenly Father we thank you for this morning, we thank you for gathering us together here around the word before your presence in the fellowship of the saints.
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Lord as we open the word we pray for your spirit to illumine the words to us, may we understand what you command us to do and may our lives
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O Lord be transformed by your word as your spirit applies it in our lives today.
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It is in Christ's name we pray, Amen. Okay if you want to open your
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Bibles to Mark chapter 4, Mark as you know is one of the four gospels in the
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New Testament it is a action gospel. Mark is extremely excited about what
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Jesus Christ does and he keeps like a reporter accounting one after the other the things that happen in Jesus life and it goes very quickly in Mark chapter 1 we see the introduction of Jesus into the ministry, we see some of his miracles in Mark chapter 2 we have the paralytic that is healed
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Mark chapter 3 we already see the conflict as Jesus heals on the Sabbath and then with Mark chapter 4 we see the teachings of Jesus, he gives the parable of the sower and the soils, he is now talking about kingdom and then he gives a few other parables in verse 21 about the lamp that ought not to be hidden under a basket and in verse 30 he talks about the mustard seed, the parable and he gives various other examples, parables also.
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So today's passage is a very brief passage we're going to look at Mark chapter 4 verses 35 to 41 an event in the life of Jesus in fact if you try to picture yourself back in that particular day where this event occurred
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Jesus has just finished teaching these parables he's taught the people about the kingdom of God, end of the day everybody's tired and Jesus is going to cross over the sea to the other side and his day is over so at the very end of the day we see something very fascinating that happens in the life of Jesus and especially his disciples the title for today's
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Sunday School I was debating whether to call it have faith in God as a command or how is your faith doing this morning
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I think both of them would be appropriate as we examine the word of God and see how that applies to us.
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So let me do this, I'm going to read the passage once in fact you know I would like to do a little differently can someone here read aloud loudly and clearly verses 35 to 41 as a whole so we can all be aware of this passage would you mind
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Wes? let's begin at verse 35 and 36 that's the context of this passage this narrative this event that happens in the life of Jesus evening has come
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Jesus tells his disciples let's go over to the other side so they leave the crowd and the disciples take
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Jesus in a boat and they cross over just as he was and there were other boats with him.
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Now this is not a very strange request for Jesus to make he had just finished teaching he had intended and purpose to go over to the other side of the sea to maybe minister the next day to find rest and these disciples, do we have any young people here?
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Do you know what the disciples job was before they became disciples? Any idea?
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That's right one of them was a tax collector and many of them were fishermen at least four of them that I can think of.
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These men knew the sea, the Sea of Galilee they were around the Sea of Galilee and they are very familiar with this and to go over to the other side is not like telling me oh get me an aeroplane and drive me over it's this is a thing that the disciples are very familiar with so they take the boats that they had and they cross over very normal daily event nobody's expecting something strange to happen at this point the context is teaching over days over we're going over to the other side and the people who are driving the boats know how to do it and that brings us in verse 37 to the problem that the disciples are going to face in fact the problem
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I'm going to split it into two 37 and 38 and in verse 37 we're going to see a physical trial, a physical problem that is going to come upon the disciples.
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We read in verse 37 that a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling.
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A great windstorm arose. Now those of you familiar with the region, how many of you have traveled to Israel?
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You must have heard, and those of you who haven't traveled but have read about the Sea of Galilee, you know about these sudden squalls and windstorms that come up.
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It's a valley, there's mountains on either side and before you know it the weather just changes. At one moment the sea looks pretty easy to cross over and all of a sudden you have a storm that you have no control over and that's what happens at this evening.
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The Sea of Galilee has unexpected storms and they can become very, very dangerous, dangerous even for experienced fishermen who know the waters and know how to sail them.
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If any of you have been on a boat, you know it is a lot of fun most of the time but when the waves start to climb a little higher, the little ones get a little excited because it's more fun when the boat is going up and down.
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But after a point, you get seasick and after a point you get scared.
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These disciples here have crossed the point of just being a little nervous. They are actually terrified.
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They see that the boat was filling. You know what that means? Yeah, the water is no longer just tossing the boat up and down.
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It is actually starting to come into the boat and the boat, when it has water in it, doesn't stay on top.
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It's going to go down and that means in a windstorm, this is the end of everybody who is on the boat.
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So there is a physical trouble, a trial that comes among these people here and it is not just something that is a trivial trial.
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It just comes up all of a sudden and before you know it, this could be the end. It's pretty serious.
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Now physical trials are common in all of our lives. In fact, you just have to live long enough before you figure out that trials will come and some trials would seem like they're ready to sink you.
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And especially if you're a believer, that's one guarantee about being a believer. You will have trials and some of these trials are going to be impossible for us as humans sometimes to tackle on our own.
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So there's nothing in one sense that's uncommon for these trials that come our way.
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But as I said, there are two aspects to this problem and the second aspect of it you see in verse 38.
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Not only was this boat sinking, the people in the boat were sinking in more than one way, not just physically.
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You're going to go see what kind of a spiritual trouble these disciples are going through.
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Verse 38 says, Jesus was in the stern asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him,
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Do you not care that we are perishing? Do you not care that we are perishing?
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Isn't that a very strange request? There's two things strange here.
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What do you think are two strange things in this verse? Suggesting that he doesn't care about them.
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In fact, if you look back at the whole day, Jesus has been talking about the kingdom, what it means to live in the kingdom and how the spiritual life is eternal and the disciples are maybe they're a little confused.
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Jesus, you just taught us about all this, but it looks like we're going to the kingdom right away. But their attitude, and I think that's precisely the problem in terms of, you know, well you've taught us all these things, we've been with you all this time, but it seems like you just don't seem to care.
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The other thing that would be curious is that Jesus himself was sleeping on a cushion. We will look at that a little more closely later, but these disciples were terrified.
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They were extremely afraid. They came to the ends of their resources as fishermen, what they could do with a boat, and their eyes turned to Jesus, and their questions showed another problem that was in their heart, that they were, they did not have something that they should have.
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And we will look at that too, and that's the spiritual trouble that they ran into. Actually, in fact, let's look at this aspect of Jesus sleeping on the storm for a minute.
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Like I said, we will look at it more closely later. But one thing about Jesus, as you all know, is
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Jesus was fully and completely God, and yet he was also fully and completely a man when he came here and lived among us 33 years.
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And here is Jesus. He has taught the whole day. He's physically exhausted, and here he is resting, sleeping, tired, worn out, as any man would be.
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He wasn't, you know, just sleeping just to show or teach these disciples a lesson. He was physically worn out.
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And, but then there is another aspect of Jesus that we always ought to see. He was not just a man like one of us.
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What was he? He was God, and there's an aspect of humanity too, which because of his deity he brings us, brings and showcases us.
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He is also the perfect man. Here you see Jesus lying on the boat while the disciples were terrified.
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Here Jesus can sleep. Why do you think Jesus can sleep while the disciples cannot?
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That's right. He had his full hope on God. He knew that this was not the time for him to die.
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He could trust in his God, unlike his disciples who could not trust in him. And he here showcases what it means to live as a human being, but live in complete trust of his
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God. Can you think of another man who slept through a storm? I'm sorry, what?
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Yes, and that man slept through too. That's right.
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We can, we have many examples of Christians who go through trials in complete confidence of knowing that they can trust in their
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God, and therefore have no worry or anxiety while they're in the midst of a trial. But the example that you just told me is the stark contrast of Jesus.
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There was a storm, there was a storm specifically intended to wake up that man, and that man would not wake up.
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For those of you who are trying to bring that story into mind, Jonah, God told him to preach in Nineveh.
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Jonah said, let me find the boat to the other side, and he is going off to Tarshish, and God sends a storm, and Jonah is sleeping the deep sleep, trying to hide from everybody else, and then, you know, the rest of the story.
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God brings him up and casts him into this water, and he brings a whale that swallows
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Jonah, and Jonah, in the bottom of the sea, repents. The Lord knows how to bring, catch our attention when he needs to.
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But here we have Jesus, the perfect man. He has not sinned. He is just physically exhausted, and he's able to rest in this boat without any fear.
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And so let's, we've seen the context, the way the situation was, we've seen the physical problem, we've seen the spiritual problem.
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Now let's look at the solution. The first thing we're going to see is an explosion of God's power, and that's, my friends, is what should grip us this morning as we read this verse 39.
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Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still.
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And the wind ceased, and there was a great storm. I'm sorry, a great calm, from a storm to a calm.
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Now, nothing like this has ever happened before. No man stands up before the power of nature and says, listen to me, obey me, and has nature kind of bow down and submit to man's voice.
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The disciples obviously know that. We'll see what they respond to it in a minute. But here you have
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Jesus, who is fully man and yet sovereign God himself. God created the waters.
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God alone has authority over all of creation. And here you have Jesus, the creator, standing before this storm that seems to topple the boat.
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And as their ruler and as their Lord, he exercises his control over them.
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In fact, this should put many of us believers to shame. Here is the
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Lord of the Sea, an inanimate creation, and it listens to the voice of God as he commands it.
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He says, peace, be still, and it stops. In fact, the stopping is not anything that we would imagine.
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It wasn't something like the wind was blowing and the waves were in an uproar and the boat was sinking.
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And then Jesus said, peace, be still, and then they said, oh, okay, Jesus, we will kind of slow down steadily and then we'll come down to a stop and then everything would be kosher.
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No. When Jesus said, peace, be still, it stopped. Everything, the wind stopped, the waves stopped, and there was a still, a calmness that you will see, the disciples see, that this was a direct response to the word, the command of Jesus, and all of creation obeys.
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And the disciples knew Jesus as a great teacher, as a great man, an honest man, a man of integrity, a man who was sent by God.
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And here they're going to learn something that was extremely unique, and no man has ever taught or done something of this nature.
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Yes, Daniel. Yeah, you, when, yeah.
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But he said, be still, and it's still now, and it just stops.
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And to see this demonstrated in front of us, what we have been pretty well convinced of up to now, really is true.
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Because only God can command these, can command nature. Yes. Absolutely.
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And I wanted to just point to that, too. It is true, in the stages in which the disciples had an understanding of who
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Christ is. In fact, if you look at the Gospel of John, you have the Baptism, and then the John the
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Baptist disciples, two of them, I think Andrew and John himself, are then pointed to Jesus.
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And then there is a time when they follow Him, and then they, and then Jesus actually calls them as His twelve a little later on.
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But the culmination of an understanding of who Christ is happens at the cross. If they truly knew and believed and wanted to obey, there was a moment where they could have staked their faith on.
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And then they see the resurrection, and their eyes are opened, and they are able to follow. Great question. Did you have anything to add?
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Yeah, that is true. You know, let me stop.
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There's two things here. One is, you're talking about the twelve, the intimate twelve, or the eleven that remain.
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And you have these men growing very closely with them. And then you also have a larger group of men that are following.
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And among the twelve, one of them was not a disciple, as we found out Judas betrays. And you have a larger group that follow as well.
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And there is doubt still in the larger followers that happen. And that is an interesting point that you brought up,
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Lou. Yes. Yeah, they are still hiding in the
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Book of Acts until the Spirit of God comes and empowers them to go out, because they are still terrified of the authorities. And, in fact, that's a good illustration, just to keep moving here.
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You know, here the disciples are looking at the storm, they are terrified of the storm, they know that the storm is something they cannot control, and they are like,
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Uncle, not just uncle, they are saying, Jesus, how could you?
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And the same thing happens in the Book of Acts. Instead of looking at the resurrected Christ, they are looking at these authorities who have killed that Christ, and they think, oh, this same thing could happen to us, and we better hide, otherwise we are going to be crucified too.
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I mean, that would happen eventually as part of their martyrdom. But they had a work that God had given them to do, and they will not go before their appointed time.
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And when the Spirit of God empowers them, they are able to go out and fulfill what they are called to do. Anything?
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Did I see another hand, Steve? Right, that is very true.
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So I said the solution. The first thing that we see is that Jesus demonstrates explosively who
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He is by dealing with the trial, the physical trial that was going on. But part of the solution is going to expose the spiritual trouble that is going on in the hearts of these disciples.
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In verse 40, we see Jesus say to them, Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith?
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Why are you so afraid? Have you no faith? The Lord of creation has dealt with the storm, and now
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He deals with His disciples. You know, we all want to be Jesus' disciples, and here is one moment,
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I think, that the disciples wish they were somewhere else. Here they have the Creator of the universe who has just stopped the creation from its roaring, and here
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He turns His attention to His disciples on the boat, and He says, How is it that you have no faith?
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They receive the rebuke from the Lord. In their fear of the elements, they had forgotten who
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Christ was. And His question about the lack of faith is a very piercing question.
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They are now here asked to fix their faith upon Jesus. He should be the one that is their strength in the midst of the storm.
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And they had wavered, and they had asked the question, How is it that you do not care about us,
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Jesus? And had forgotten who He was. And here He is giving a powerful demonstration that He indeed is
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God, He is their Lord, and they can trust Him no matter what happens.
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Now let's look at the response in verse 41. So the disciples have been asked this question, and they, we read in verse 41, were filled with great fear, great fear.
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And they said to one another, Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him? The disciples were initially afraid of the storm, and now they are filled with a much greater fear of the
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One who stilled the storm. They knew Jesus progressively as who
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He was, but they had not seen such a demonstration of God's power. And here He is revealed to them as the
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Creator Himself. The knowledge that they are in the presence of One who made the wind and the sea, and to whom the wind and the sea obey, instills a reverential awe of God as Creator.
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And that grips their mind when they realize that Jesus truly is God. Now let's look at a few things as we ask some questions.
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How does this apply to ourselves? The two things I want to point out are, one is, yes,
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Mike, it's a good point.
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Yes, there is a revelation before the disciples.
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There's something that they probably did not know before that they see firsthand, here is their Teacher, He is their
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Messiah, and He is God. And that actually is the point that I want to talk about, is who is this
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Jesus? We're going to look at the object of our faith, because faith is not just some, yeah, everything will go fine.
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There is a firm, fixed object on whom our faith should rest on, and then we will look a little more closely at us, being the subjects who exercise this faith, and how we must exercise it.
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So let me just kind of recap quickly this object of our faith, Jesus Christ, and why
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He is our firm anchor in the midst of any storm. Jesus, as I said, is the
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Lord of the sea. Actually, let me read a few verses, so you don't just listen to what
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I say. You don't have to turn here. But I want to just say these verses, so you know where I'm coming from when
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I make these statements. Colossians 1, 15 -17, it talks about Jesus Christ.
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It says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
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For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.
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And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
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So this Jesus, while in the flesh, He was a man like one of us.
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He was the creator, and He is the one who created all that we see.
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He is the one who created the sea. In fact, in Genesis 1 -1, when you look at God creating the heavens and the earth, the
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Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. In verse 9, God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear.
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The waters obeyed God at that point, and then God called the dry land earth.
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And in fact, after Noah, you also see that God set the limits on where the waters can go. And Jesus, again here in Mark 4, demonstrates how
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He is Lord over the sea, because He, in fact, created it, and they obey
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His words. Just as He spoke creation into existence, just as He sustains the world by His power, so also they will change their natural laws in order to obey
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Him when He commands them to. So Jesus is God, and that's one of the reasons why we ought to have our hope fixed firmly upon Him.
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But we also see the other aspect of Jesus as fully and completely a man, and not just a man like one of us, but a man in perfection.
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Jesus is not a God that some of the world imagines
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God to be, a God that is remote and far off, and He does whatever
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He wants, but we've got to deal with life. That's not the kind of God the
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Bible talks about that we serve. Our God is a God who is intimately familiar with everything that we go through.
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He knows our trials, and in this case, He experiences that trial with His disciples. He is, in fact, deeply concerned with the affairs of men.
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In John 3 .16, you know that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son. He did not have to, but He cared for the people that He created, that He sent
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Jesus as a human being into this world. Now, Jesus, again, was tired because He was a man, and He shows us how man ought to respond in trials by fully and completely trusting in God.
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Now, when we face trials and temptations, we can always look up to Jesus, because the
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Bible says that Jesus endured and was tempted in all forms as we are, and yet He did not sin.
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He is our perfect example of how we ought to respond, and He shows how He responded to trials and responded without sin.
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As a perfect man, He shows again the object of our faith, how we ought to have faith.
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I just want to give one more comment about God's sovereignty before we move to our own application.
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So we saw in this example, and I think this is one area where some people take and run off with.
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So we saw Jesus, how He responded to the disciples on the boat, right? So does that mean that every time your boat is taking in water,
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Jesus is going to come and say, peace, be still, and the boat would stop, and then you will have greater fear of God than the fear of the storm?
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Obviously not. That is true. There were probably good
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Christians on the Titanic too, who could have entreated their God. Somebody else said no here.
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Yes, can you give me a reason why, why not? That is excellent.
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We are going to look at the purpose of trials, and in fact, can you think of another storm in the Bible where it didn't happen this way, where the boat went down?
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Yes, Charlie? Paul. Yeah, you have in Acts. He is a prisoner taken down to Rome, and this ship is running amok, and what a great demonstration.
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There were hundreds of soldiers and other prisoners. If that had happened, you would think that all these people would have been saved.
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Why didn't God stop that storm? Like you said, trial has its purpose.
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God did rescue Paul because he had his purpose to take Paul to Rome, and it doesn't mean that just because God stopped this storm, every other storm in life is going to be stopped.
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That is one of the things you have to be careful when you read narratives. Just because something happened in one event in the
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Bible doesn't mean that every event in our life has to happen the same way. You have to read the rest of Scripture to find out
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God's purpose in and through trials. I have kind of skipped ahead of myself, which is probably a good thing since we need to finish this in the time we have.
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Let's look at the subject, exercising faith. What must I do in trials?
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There are three stages in a Christian's progression, and we ought always to keep this in mind.
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First, you have justification or justification. Before you are justified, before you have a relationship with God, you have no right to have an intimate relationship with this
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God that I'm going to be talking about. First comes justification or salvation, although that's used in a more broad term for the next two stages also.
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Here we have disciples on the boat, and I'm addressing all of you here as believers who have trusted and who have your faith in Christ.
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Because if there's any of you who does not know Jesus as your personal Savior, you need to have that dealt with.
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This great God who commands the winds and the waves commands each and every one of us to bow our knees to Him.
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So if you do not know Him as your personal Lord and as your Savior, that's where you need to deal with. Don't worry about your trials, don't worry about everything else because God's command to you today is that you bow your knee and submit to this
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God who created you. The second stage, if you will, in the believer's life is sanctification, and that's where we're going to spend most of our time.
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And the third is glorification, where you are in heaven and you don't have to worry about what I'm going to talk when you're there.
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You'll see Him face to face. So it's about sanctification. How do we respond in our trials?
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So the question is, it's easy to look at the disciples and say, okay, they went through this trial, they should have trusted
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Jesus, and they didn't, and they got rebuked. And we learned from their mistakes.
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That's always nice. But now, each of you here, if you just examine your life for less than a minute, you can probably pick quite a few trials that are probably lapping at your boat.
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Maybe some of them are a little stormier than others, and maybe there are some trials that you really don't know how to deal with at this point.
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But the question to you is, what are you to do, and when and how are you to trust
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God in your trial? I'm going to throw a couple of responses. First, I'm going to throw two major categories of false responses.
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And I want you to walk through this, because many a time, even though we may intellectually agree that these are wrong responses, that sadly is the response that most
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Christians walk down through. So let me throw you the first of this.
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Well, there are two extremes. The first one is a false view of God as a God who is transcendent, but not very imminent in our lives.
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And the other view is that he is very imminent and personal, but you forget God's sovereign purposes.
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So I'm going to ask a couple of questions here, a couple of questions there, and then we'll stop where we ought to walk.
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So the first question, should I do everything I can in my strength that God has maybe enabled me to do, and believe in a
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God who is transcendent and keeping God over everything? So I just do everything in my strength and then believe in a
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God who is, well, I'll throw the word out, deistic, a God who is above, who has set the laws in place, and I just walk in whatever path
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I can? I think all of you will agree the answer is no.
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That was not the right way to frame the question. Let me rephrase that question.
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Do you find yourself walking in such a path? When you come across a trial, you know there is a
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God, you know that this God made the world, you know that he is in control over everything, but when you respond to that trial, what you're doing essentially is, all right, here's a list of things that I need to do and I'm going to do it, and there's almost a fatalistic attitude like the
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God of Islam, that there's something up there, but I'll just kind of go along. Do you find yourself doing that sometimes?
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If you're honest with yourself, you will find, sadly, that it's true of us. We could be those disciples rowing really, really hard and forgetting that we have a
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God who is with us in those trials. And he is not just a God who is sovereignly controlled over everything, but he is intimately concerned with everything that happens in our lives.
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And maybe I'll just ask you, so what would be the right response? So you have a God who is sovereign over everything, and you are not supposed to just walk and figure out your own path.
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How would you walk to show that you believe that there is an imminent and personal
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God who is with you in your trials? Yes, Steve. That is true, and that's a very important aspect of it.
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And we'll probably touch that. Yes, Charlie. That's very good, because that's where I want to go.
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You have a way with words, Charlie. You should be here. Let's take a few more before we get into what
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Charlie just pointed out. Yes, Mike. That's excellent.
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That goes back to the object of our faith. He is God's sovereign, and because he is God, he is able to look at, and he cares for all your needs.
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So that goes back to the object of our faith. Once our mind is fixed on that, we will respond rightly to our trials.
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Yes, Joni. Absolutely.
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If I can maybe just summarize what we just said and point you in terms of how we can walk this fine line between dropping off on both edges.
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We heard a couple of things about trial, and the first thing I think as believers we need to have is the right view of trials.
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Many a time, when trials hit us, we think this is an unwanted intrusion, and many a time it is, because you hadn't planned for these trials.
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They just come out of nowhere, as it did on the boat here. When you have these trials come your way, when you have your object, the first thing is you need to have trust in God throughout.
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I'll rephrase that, because many a time when we think of trust, we think we just let go and let
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God. We'll see that camp in a minute. I trust God, and therefore I just kind of fall back, and God will just carry me in a pillow of cloud and get me on the other side.
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That's not trust. Trust has to do with saying, this is the God I serve.
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This is the God who is able to carry me through this trial. This is the God who has sovereignly brought this trial in my life, and as Joni just said, sometimes you can even see what that purpose of the trial is.
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You may not like it, you may not enjoy it, but you know that that has its purpose. We'll look at a few verses as we close in terms of why trials are brought into our lives, and you say in your trials, if you're not thinking of a deistic
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God, that A, you turn to God in your trials. You don't do everything you can, say, well,
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God, I've done my part, now I give up. It's your turn. That's not the Christian's response to life.
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You look up to God in everything that you do. Your trial just starts, you think you've got it under control, you thank the
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Lord for the trial. You say, Lord, how do I respond rightly to this trial?
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You go to the Bible, you study the Bible, you let the Spirit of God guide you along those paths that he has prepared in and through the trial.
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We've had Pastor Mike preach about how do you respond to life situations.
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Again, we will look at that when we look at the other extreme. You ought to always have your eyes fixed on Jesus.
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He is the one who is able to take you through a simple trial or a big trial. I mean, how many of you can look at simple trials that you said, oh, you know, that's a small temptation and I got it under control.
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And before you know it, two weeks later, you're on your knees and you're, Lord, how did this happen? I should not have fallen on this sin.
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It was just not even a temptation to me. Everything that we go through in life, we ought to walk with a
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Godward attitude. We need to have our eyes fixed on Jesus. We need to have the right view of God, like we heard a few responses, that he is sovereign, he is in control, he brings what he wants in our lives.
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And what we do ought to be in response to God, knowing that he is intimately with us.
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It's not just a deistic God that, you know, he's got it all figured out. We'll find it in the end. But you are walking with him in the midst of this trial that you're going through.
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Let me quickly jump over to this other side. So you have the disciples here who had this boat taken care of.
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So next time they go through a storm, this is what they should do. I should expect God to stop the trial. And if it doesn't stop,
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I just keep praying for it and believe it. And somehow the trial will stop because I'm a child of God. And God will take care of me.
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And that should be my purpose. Well, I'm preaching to the choir here.
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We've had this preached on so many times. You know, that is not true. God promises trials in the life of believers.
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And to just say that, you know, because I don't like trials, God must not like trials. And therefore, I'll just tell
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God not to give me trials and everything will be fine. That would be the church of Pradeep Tilak.
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You don't want to be in that church. And therefore, you know, the problem with this attitude is, you know, sometimes trials just get too difficult.
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And maybe we don't even know, you know, which part God has prepared for us. But we've had that.
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If you haven't been to that sermon, the series that Pastor Mike preached, you ought to listen to it. God has given us everything we need in the scriptures.
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Sometimes the decisions are clear. Sometimes it is hard. But his spirit and his word and his counsel will guide you through those parts.
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You may be unsure sometimes. But you can trust in your God that he will take you through those. To have this attitude where, you know,
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I don't like this trial. I wish I can throw examples.
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You can think about what's going on in your lives. You know, these things didn't happen, would be fine.
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I mean, maybe the Lord will take them away. Maybe he won't. But while he has you in those trials, you ought to not say,
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Lord, take away these trials, believe it, and then hope that it will all go away. Put my head in the ground. Stop doing anything about it.
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And say, when God deals with it, I will start my life again. That's not a Christian response. So what ought the
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Christian to do? We cannot look at that already. While we are in the trial, we ought to always have our eyes on Christ.
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It doesn't matter whether there is a, in fact, it doesn't matter if there is no trial. If your life is going well and easy and sailing along, you ought to still have your eyes on Christ.
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And he should be your imminent God, whether life is going easy, life is just starting to pick up a few waves, or your life is upside down.
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In and through all of this, your eyes should be on Christ. He created you for a relationship with himself, and he will walk with you through all of these trials.
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The second thing, after having your eyes on him, is to trust him. Because he is more concerned about your welfare than you ever can be, or any of your loved ones ever can be.
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And if he has brought that trial handcrafted through agents of evil into your life, he will walk you through.
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So, to have a full and complete confidence in God, in fact, if you know that you are saved, it is not very hard to come to this point.
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If God would rescue you from the depths of pits, from the depths of hell, from sin and death and evil, into his kingdom of darkness, and preserve you forever in eternity, if you can trust that, how can you not trust that God would walk you through the trials that you are going through today?
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No matter how difficult it is. If that is a God you trusted for your salvation, you definitely can trust him in your sanctification.
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And finally, you ought to walk patiently through the trial until God's end is near.
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And I think this is the hardest part. We all wish we had one -minute trials. Lord, just crucify me for a minute, and as long as I know a minute is over,
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I'll be fine, I'm okay. But some of us, especially those of us in the body who are ill for long periods, you know that.
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You wish a month, two months, things would go away, but they don't sometimes. And those are when you have to really trust and continue trusting when the
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Lord chooses to keep his trial. Paul said, remove this thorn, Lord. And the Lord said, no, it's my good pleasure that you have it.
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And we ought to continue to patiently walk down that path. Not a fatalistic path where we say,
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God is in control and therefore everything is fine. But a path where you are intimately walking with your
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Savior, not just asking him your demands for how you are to walk through it, but walking it in light of God's word.
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And as we close, before we get there, any questions so far? Let me just read a few verses for you in terms of the purpose of trials.
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And as I read them, I want you to just examine your own faith in those trials. How ought your eyes toward God be while you experience trials.
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The first one is from 1 Peter 1 .6. It says, Wouldn't we want, allow
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God to let trials for his glory? 2 Peter 2 .9 says,
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It's not that our God is impotent. He is capable. But his perfect plan will go through each of our lives.
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What he expects from us is faith in the midst of it. Many of you know this verse, James 1 .2.
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I think you're getting the idea here. So trials ought to evoke a response of joy.
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You know, especially young believers, you know this.
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When you just became a believer, you said, my family has treated me as an outcast.
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This trial has just come. I have no idea why, but I know my God is with me.
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And there is almost a manic laugh that comes from inside you saying, yes,
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I know my Lord is going to walk me through this. And sadly, as we grow older, we forget that intimate joy that we have when
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God carries us through those trials, when you have an eager expectation of your God with you in and through those trials.
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And that ought to be the joy. James says, And we read,
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And in fact, he says, in the context of trials again, if you lack wisdom, ask God and he will give you the wisdom you need.
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But ask it in faith. And as we close, just one last verse.
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If you remember the Great Commission, Matthew 28. In my times of greatest trials, this is one verse that I always cling on to.
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It's this assurance that God is with you no matter what. It may seem that way.
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It may feel that way. People want to feel that God is telling them something. But there is one thing
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God has told us. And that is he is with us no matter what. And that, my friend, should be the greatest assurance and the greatest confidence in our faith.
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We know whom we have faith in. And we are told in the scriptures how we ought to walk in our faith.
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So the three stages of salvation to have a relationship with this great
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God, you ought to believe. And sanctification is life. You just live life, whatever
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God has called you to live it in assurance that he will take you through. And glorification is something one day you can hope for when these trials indeed will be passed and you will see him face to face.
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Yes, Joni? Amen. So the trials not only help you to help other believers struggling through it, but it's a demonstration of how
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God works in his people that the others can just stupefy others. Here is a people living life by the power of God and no other explanation.
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Thank you. Anything else as we close? Let's pray.
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Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your son.
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We thank you for his teaching and his life. Lord, even as we examine this word,
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Lord, you know the trials that all of us go through and you are intimately concerned with each of them.
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Lord, I pray that with the psalmist in Psalm 139, we can say to you that before a word comes out of my mouth, you know it.
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You have couched me in the front and the behind. And Lord, we confess that as a people we are lacking in faith, much like the disciples.
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And we pray, Father, that you would strengthen us even this morning, that we would live out a life of obedience, a life of trust, and a life of confident joy even in the midst of our trials.