this morning, a well-known passage. Hear now the word of God. And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this, that even winds in sea obey him? The Word of God. A man slipped and fell off a cliff while hiking to a mountaintop. Fortunately, he was able to grab a branch on his way down. Holding on for dear life, he looked down to see a rock valley some 1,500 feet below. When he looked up, it was 20 feet that he had fallen off the cliff. And he panicked, and he yelled, help! Help! Is there anybody there? And a booming voice spoke. I am here, and I will save you if you believe in me. And the man said, I believe! I believe! I believe! The voice replied, if you believe me, let go of the branch, and I will save you. The young man, hearing what that voice said, looked down again and seeing the rock valley, quickly looked back up and shouted, is there anyone else up there that can help me? Faith is like a muscle, which grows stronger and stronger with use, rather than rubber, which weakens when it is stretched, said J.O. Fraser. Faith is the Samsonian lock of the Christian. Cut it off, and you may put out his eyes, and he can do nothing," said Charles Spurgeon. It is not a great faith we need, but it's a great faith and a great God we need, said J. Hudson Taylor, missionary to China. Little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul. Now after giving the greatest sermon in history, that is the Sermon on the Mount, and after healing untouchables with a touch, the leper, the servant, the woman, Jesus drew a crowd. But different than most celebrities and churches today, Jesus is not interested in drawing a crowd. Not. He's not interested in having people follow him. He's interested in having followers. He's interested in people like the leper, like the centurion, and Peter's mother-in-law, those who call him Lord and serve him as Lord. That's what he's interested in. And beloved, that's not the many, that's the few. He's interested, in other words, in making disciples, and so are we. Now the passage before us is a passage, really, on discipleship. What does a true disciple look like? The previous passage in Matthew, which we studied last week, shows that ministry of healing attracts people. You can even not heal people and attract people if you have a healing service. If we advertise the healing service on the sign out front, there'd be people in here coming in here to be healed. Nothing else they want. They want to be healed. And even if we couldn't do it, they'd still come. And maybe even come the next time you have it. But these things, people say in response, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said, well, I'm essentially homeless, so that means you might be homeless. You okay with that? And the guy, right? And the other one was, first, let me stay with my father until he dies, and I'll come and follow you. No, no, no. Jesus then says, let's cross the lake. The lake is the sea of Galilee. It is the second body of water on the earth that is the most below sea level. It is 680 feet plus or minus below sea level. And the ride is about two hours in the 26 to 30 foot boat that they were in. They actually have a boat that they recovered from the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. And it's the same kind of boat that Jesus would have used in this case. And that's why they know the measurements quite well. But they don't know if it's Jesus' boat, but they know it's the same kind. Okay. Let's cross the lake. Now Jesus knows what's gonna happen, doesn't he? He's God, so he has foreknowledge. He knows the future. He knows that there's going to be a terrible storm. And he says, let's cross the lake. If I was Jesus, and I'm not, but I would be like, I would be like, kind of have a, let's cross the lake. See how you do with that. Right? But the demands of discipleship, they didn't know where exactly they were going. They didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't say, oh, by the way, we're going to cross the lake. And by the way, there's going to be a huge storm. So be ready for it. When there is, let me know. I'll be sleeping over there. That didn't happen. Right? He gave him no advance warning. What's the most amazing thing about Christianity? Of course it's Jesus, but it's grace too, isn't it? Grace. We speak of grace as amazing. We sing amazing grace. It's the most sung song in human history. Amazing grace. But grace is no longer amazing to many people. Do you know why? They don't know Jesus. They don't know the infinitude of Jesus. Who is the most interesting person that ever lived? Who has had more books written about him than any person ever? It is Jesus. Even people who don't believe in Jesus cannot get away from What about Jesus? I don't know. It's weird, isn't it? It's still. Boyce said this, the person of Jesus broods over our discordant secular times and who he is and what he was about remains a current question. Who is this Jesus? And so the two men last week wanted to follow Jesus. They did not, but listen to what happens here. Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. They got into the boat and they were fishermen, right? They knew how to fish on this lake. That's what they did for a living. And they didn't know, again, they left their house, they left their lands, they left their occupations, and they didn't know what they were heading into, beloved. And if you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, you don't know what you're heading into. And the Lord doesn't say, this is what you're heading into. You okay with that? It's not consensus leadership. You follow me? He's just leading, and you're just following. And if you trust him, you're okay with that. Right? There are many things that happen that we say, oh, that happened. What? You wouldn't have followed Jesus? Right? Think about that for a minute. Think about that for a minute. You know, let's say you become a Christian and your boss says, you know what, I'm tired of looking at you. And you keep talking about that Jesus stuff. I'm gonna fire you. And you say, no, please don't fire me. Don't fire me. Well, if you're gonna be one of these religious nuts, I can't have you here. It's just driving me crazy. I won't do it anymore. Guess who you knew God is? Your boss. You just switched gods from the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords to your boss. And it can be anybody else too, right? Somebody says to you, why do you do that? Get rid of that stuff, your friends, anybody, right? You have a functional God that's not God. Far be it from anybody, any one of us, to have a God other than the true one and loving God. Amen? Listen, listen, listen, listen. We're all in the same boat. You and me, we're in the same boat. We're in the boat on the sea. And the wind and the waves are definitely going to come. No doubt. The wind and waves represent the troubles that flow into our lives and into our church even. We got to know how to handle trouble. Right? We got to know how to do it. We got to get ready when the storm is not there. We've got to get ready. How do you handle the storm when it comes? You know why? Because it's gonna. And I'll surprise you every time. It'll surprise you every time. So we've got to be ready. Remember when Jesus started his ministry? What happened? Did he go to a seminary? No. What happened when Jesus started his ministry? The Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. The Holy Spirit will drive us to be tested. You, you don't think so, but you're being tested. Every one of us are being tested. Hello? Tough crowd here at this moment. Let's break for a commercial. Bowling Springs. Listen to this. Are you ready? This is the Bible. You knew that. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. So when trials come, when problems come, when tribulations come, when conflicts come, don't be surprised, right? Know that they're going to. It's not strange. The Lord is testing you and he's going to make your faith stronger. You come out the other side, you're gonna be stronger in faith. And guess what? The stronger you get, the greater the Lord will use you. The more the Lord will use you, the more souls will come along, the more glory you'll give to God, the more you'll be fulfilled, the more you'll have a happy life. being used of God. That's the issue, being used of God. It's not having a big wallet, or a big retirement account, or having a great job, or having a wonderful wife, and cute little kids, like thank God for them. But it's not about that, it's being used of God to make him smile. Not that we're earning that, our salvation by his smile. But when he smiles, I feel good. It's like my dad. If I'm up there and, you know, I hit a Grand Slam home run, and I got to trot the bases, and my dad's up there, and he's looking at me with a smile, right? I'm like... When JFK was inaugurated President of the United States, right? Back then, everybody wore top hats. This is 1961. What? Two. All right? The old man, his father, was in the viewing stand. And what did the President of the United States do, the most powerful man in the world? He got up and he tipped his hat to his father, recognizing that how he got there was because of what his dad did. how he raised him and all the connections that he had, he tipped his hat to his father, the president of the United States. Reminds me of when the queen was listening to Handel's Messiah and the Hallelujah Chorus came on in the Royal Hall, right? And at that time, the queen is the queen, right? Really cool. And when that period comes on, hallelujah, which means praise the Lord, right? They're bringing praise to Jesus. The queen stands up, the queen! She stands up because she's praising Jesus. And the people next to her, hey, your majesty, sit down, sit down. No, no, no. I might be queen, but he's king of the queens, and he's king of the kings. So she had it right. Now, God has created nature. He created the Sea of Galilee. He created the wind. He created the waves. He created time. He created people. And He ordained that storm. In the same way, He created you and He has ordained your storm, whatever it may be. Your storm and my storm might be different storms. but we all have them and God ordains them. And you might say, oh, oh man, I thought life was just random. No, it ain't. There's nothing random about life. If you get a storm, God ordained it. So that should help you bring sense of things that he ordained it for your eternal good. Even though it seems like it, how could this be? Beloved, I was laying on a hospital bed, and they had my heart outside my body, like Benihana, and they were, you know, cutting it up and doing things, and I was gone for like 14 hours, and that's the last thing I ever want. I prayed for years not to have open heart surgery, years. And when I had open heart surgery, I went into that operating room as calm as anything because I was prayed up. And you know, it was just like the movies when the cannula goes on your face, you're out and you're gone. I wake up, I'm looking at my pastor and my son. It was cool. My pastor was this old Swede type of guy, kind of an austere reformed Baptist fellow, not very emotional. And as I'm looking at him, there's a tear going down his cheek and I'm saying, wow, I must look terrible if he's crying. Right? So the question is, Peter and Andrew left their nets and followed him. James and John left the boat and their father followed him. Matthew abandoned his tax collector's booth and followed him. There was a great deal more to come, of course. The disciples had much to learn about being what a disciple meant, but they trusted him. They trusted him. and they obeyed the summons. They passed the small gate and they were on the narrow way." Are you on that path? Have you left all lesser loyalties to follow Jesus? It's not enough to be impressed with Jesus. his person and his teachings, or even to be amazed at his miracles. The vital thing is to actually follow him. Now, this is really strange. The storm is going crazy and Jesus is asleep on the boat. He's asleep. He's, of course he's asleep. He's the Lord over all nature. He wasn't worried. He wasn't afraid. He made it all. The scripture sets it straight. And I guess in the interest of brevity, I'll read one for you. Listen to this. Psalm 89, you rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, you still them. Ever since antiquity, people knew that the Lord stilled the sea, and ancient people were afraid of the sea. Did you ever go to the sea and watch it? Did you ever watch the swells of the sea? Like say, if you're in a boat, it goes up and down, swells. Have you ever been on the sea when a storm strikes? The sea has power. And in the Bible, the sea represented chaos. It represented sin and, you know, lack of order. So the ancients were afraid of the sea. And the ancient Bible verse here says, Psalm 107 says this, doing business on the great waters, they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven. They went down to the depths. Their courage melted away in their evil plight. They reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end. How's that? That might be just like looking forward to what we're talking about today. Remember, remember, remember, remember, it's always a matter of trust. Do you trust Him? Do you trust Him? If you trust Him, providence will be your pillow. Doesn't matter what's happening in your life. You trust Him. You'll sleep good because you'll know He's in control. He's got your back. He's doing whatever He's doing for your eternal good. And you can trust Him. I don't know how it's going to turn out. You don't know how it's going to turn out. But you trust Him because He's the Lord and He loves you. He loves you more than you love you. He loves you more than anyone loves you. More than your mom loves you. Moms love a lot, don't they? Right? What you have to do, could you imagine having a kid in you? It's like, what? I'll be like, what's going on here? That's quite a sacrifice. We should respect the providence of God. He's the final cause of all things, even the storms of life. Remember, it's not necessarily him sometimes. You know, if you look at things when bad things happen, like say a bad man. Say you got robbed at gunpoint. God's not robbing you at gunpoint. Of course, it's the man that's in front of you, but the Lord has allowed it to happen. And the Lord is never the author of sin, but he allows sin to happen and he uses it for his good purposes. You have to understand that. And so rather than struggling against his providence, find solace even in the storm. And that, you know, with those adversities that nothing touches us, but that which has been ordained. Doesn't mean we become fatalists and give up planning, but we do submit our plans to his will. Now get this, Jesus has power over every storm, but he doesn't calm every storm. We had a sign issue this week that demonstrates this quite well. Each week I send a text out to a couple of our members and I say, okay, this is the sign week. This is what's going to be on the sign, the slogan on the sign, because that's the text, right? And it's this week it's Jesus calms a storm. Now if you were doing it, right, if you were putting the letters up at night, you're kind of tired, you might put, Jesus calms the storm. And me, being a pain in the butt, said, no, it's Jesus calms a storm because he doesn't calm everyone. Right? Well, maybe he does. Think about it this way. As my dad used to say, something's going to get you. So that storm that takes you to eternal life, he's not going to calm that one until you're in eternity. So there's at least one disease you'll never recover from. Your final illness, your terminating illness. So that's the thing. And anyway, so he calms a storm. And He can calm everyone. It's just His sovereign will. And sometimes we're left with things that last for all our lives. Things that we have some measure of healing for, but never complete healing. Paul had it. And you know, it's those things that urge us on and sanctify us, consecrate us. They're wonderful things. And we ought to have strong faith and confidence in Jesus, no matter what the storms are. Because if you don't, it's a long life. If you look at it like the clash of the titans, the devil's here, Jesus is here, and who's going to win? That's not how it works. Jesus is in control of the devil. In control. The devil doesn't do anything without the permission of Jesus. Just read the book of Job and you'll get the answer on that. Right? The oldest book of the Bible. The storm arose by the providence of God, but get this. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, Genesis 50, 20. You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring about many people should be kept alive as they are today. That's what Joseph said. when his brothers sold him into slavery. And as a result, he became the prince of Egypt. And as a result, with his wisdom, he stored up grain. And as a result, Israel came down during the famine and Egypt fed Israel, right? And save the line of Israel. If that didn't happen, you and I wouldn't be here right now because we wouldn't be saved. It's a whole line, it comes right down, right? So, the brothers meant what they did for evil, but God meant it for good. And that's how it is with providence. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Romans 12, 12. Now here's one. And this is kind of a sweet memory for many of us here. James 1, 2 through 4. Listen to this. Listen to these words. You ready? Listen. Listen, listen. You hear them? No. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Consider your trial, your adversity, to be joy. That is a change in perspective, isn't it? When you have a hammer, and you hit your hand, That's not what you usually do. You usually say, what? Some other word, which I would never say, of course, but you, your whole perspective is your hand. Your perspective is your pain, right? And the Lord says, don't think about your hand. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. Right? May your perspective be as wide as his providence. You see the difference? We got people walking around as victims. Oh, my hand. Oh, my hand. But that's not the Christian's way of life. We're not talking about our hands all the time or I bang my thumb or my pain. We're talking about his providence. God is good. He's doing something in my life through this and this and this. Amen? Hard to take? It's the truth, man. This is where maturity of Christian comes from stuff like this. Little faith leads to great fear. Do you want to live in fear or do you want to live in faith? Yeah, I do. And great faith leads to calm courage. They're coming for me. I only have a few minutes left. I got to talk fast. The Constitution has been burned. It's over. Look at this. These fishermen, they're freaking out. The storm is swamping the boat. And so the fishermen, you figure they're fishermen, right? So they should do fishermen stuff. Like, I don't know, bail stuff and do whatever you do. The fishermen go to a carpenter. They go to a sleeping carpenter. He's a carpenter. He doesn't know how to be a fisherman or seaman. He doesn't know how to run a boat. He's a carpenter, right? And he's asleep even. And so they call upon the sleeping carpenter. And right they were. They had faith. It was just little faith. Because they say this, save us, Lord, we are perishing. Save us, Lord. They knew who to call on. They had faith. They knew He could save them. And they went to Him, right? And he looks at them and, you know, so many times, if it wasn't for adversity, our prayer life would really stink, wouldn't it? Our prayer life gets really good when we're going through adversity, doesn't it? It gets really good. It's like, wow, it's a great prayer life I got going on here. Right. But when you don't, when everything's going great, you just inherited a million dollars, you know, you don't have to work anymore. You're eating bonbons. You tend not to pray so much. Anyway, he says, he's just about to rebuke the wind in the waves, but who does he rebuke first? The disciples. Why are you afraid, O you of little faith? Why are you afraid? If you were a wise fisherman, you would be like, Jesus, really? the boat's swamped, we're about to die, we don't know what to do, and you're asking us why we're afraid? And he's like, yeah, I'm asking you why you're afraid. The Lord of creation is in the boat with you, hello? Why are you afraid is a valid question. If the Lord is with you, what do you have to be worried about? Right? What do you have to be afraid of? Anything? You don't. You don't. You don't. It's a lesson we have to learn. You know, sometimes these lessons, if you don't learn them and the Lord lets you up, of course, and you move on, you're going to repeat the lesson in a different way until you get it. Until the Lord can say, okay, she's got that one. Right? And it's not because he's being mean. It's because he's growing your faith and your faith is more precious than gold. You know? In Mark it says, he said, he rebuked the wind and waves and said, peace, be still and the wind ceased. And so Jesus in our hearts is our safety. We're not saved by our seamanship, we are saved by Him being on board. The Lord is on board. What do you have to worry about? Right? And of course, there's a prayer you can pray if you like, have a little time and you want to do some fighting. And that's, Lord increase my faith. If you pray that one, He will. and you may face a few storms as he does it. But he's compassionate. But the point is, we're to be courage, courageous people. Courageous. We're about to commission some missionaries and they're courageous. They're just 26 and 29 years old. And they're going to a place that's dangerous. and doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. What courage! That courage comes through faith. Adelaide Addison Pollard was a woman who was born in the 1860s, and she was a great Bible teacher, and she wrote hymns. And she had a strong desire to go to Africa as a missionary, and she raised funds. And ultimately, she was unsuccessful and didn't get back to Africa. She wrote a song as she was waiting. It's this. Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will while I am waiting, yielded and still. Think about that. Finally, What did the men do? They marveled. They were in awe. The sea is like glass, like that. And they marveled. Who is this man? Who is he? Well, he's the Lord of all creation. In Mark, it says, they feared exceedingly. If you were in the literal presence of God, you would not be wisecracking. You wouldn't even be standing up. You would be afraid. You would be on your face. Because he is wholly beyond our imagination, and we would be we would be afraid if we were in the literal presence of God. You might be confessing things that you never told anybody because you're in the literal presence of God. They, you, me, would be afraid. And Freud missed this. He said, people make up religion because they're afraid of nature, things like that. You know, people make up religion because they're afraid of God. The Bible tells us that. The threat of falling into the hands of the living God is something that they invent religion to interpose between them and God. That doesn't work. Read Romans 1 if you want further information. Remember the ancient axiom? Remember that God created everything what? You know any Latin? Any Latin people in here? Ex milio. He created everything from nothing. Ex milio. That means out of nothing. And some people say that, well, there is no God, and yet we still have this. It was spontaneous generation, or maybe it was progressive generation. But the ancients then said, ex nihilo fit, meaning out of nothing comes something. It had to come from somewhere. You follow me? Yes. It had to. Right? Out of nothing, nothing comes. We have defense mechanisms as human beings. We pigeonhole people, don't we? You meet somebody, you're putting them in a pigeonhole already. Oh, he's that person. He's like that. He's like that. They had no category for Jesus. They're trying to find a pigeonhole. And they were like, who is this man? They were in awe. And so should we be in awe, amen? Where is the awe? Have we lost the awe, the sense of awe in the presence of God? Have we lost it? I don't wanna lose it. I don't wanna lose it as a church. I wanna be conscious of it. We're in the presence of God and that changes how the way we act and look and we don't come in and drink coffees and smoke cigarettes and burp and everything. while we're in church service, because we're in the presence of God. Right? Used to be people dressed up like this. And I'm not saying you have to, we're in a different age. But I mean, they did it because they were concerned, right? And then, I don't see anybody here doing this, so I won't offend anybody, but go out into the world. I don't know what it is, but there must be a lot of bald men in the world, because everybody's going to wear a hat these days, right? Everybody's going to wear a baseball cap. You go into any store, any building, any place, and the person who's wearing the hat keeps the hat on. Right? They all have the hat on. When I was a kid, when you went into a building and you had a hat on, you took that hat off and they cut your head off. Let me hand you your head. You can keep the hat on just as long as you hold your head. But I'm bleeding. Can you call an ambulance? By the same token, there are people today that are in churches of Jesus Christ with hats on. Nobody here has a hat on, I think, right? On, a hat on. On. I see a shiny head. Either you have a shiny hat. But you took it off, didn't you? You took it off. And you can go into lots of churches where people go into a courtroom. They still will take your head off, by the way. If you walk in with a hat on, they'll take your head off. Especially if you're a lawyer, you're probably gonna better have some bail money, you know? Call your secretary, hey, can you pick me up? Something wrong? Yeah, I'm down in the lockup. Bring 200. I don't wanna go to the Worcester house. And so, my wonderful people, faith is precious. And you know what? We used to play this little game when I had the kids, when the kids were young. We would eat like a Lorna Doon or something, right? A cookie or something. We'd break it, and I would put it back together again, and they would break it out of their seeing, and the game was, is it broken or is it one piece? You know, and usually that cookie went back together perfect. You really couldn't tell until you put a little pressure on it, and then you could tell whether the cookie was broken or not. When you have been through all kinds of trials and tribulations, You're a broken cookie, but you'll be sensitive to pressure, and you'll know how to help other people. You'll know how to comfort other people with the comfort you've received in Christ. Amen? Because nobody knows what you're going through like the person who's already been through it. Amen? And that sensitivity that you have, Oh, it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. God is so good. He takes us through it so we can help others. So the Lord bless you both in tempest and in calm. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we do indeed thank you and we pray, Lord, that you would help us to see these things in a new light, in a Bible light, in the light of the scriptures. And we pray, Lord, that not only would our faith be strong as it is tested, that our hearts be tender to those around us, that we would be sensitive to them, to their needs, to others, and so love them and encourage them. In Christ's name, amen.