Tonight, I'd like to continue with our study through the Gospel of Mark. If you remember, last time we talked, we left off in Chapter 4. We had discussed some of the parables that Jesus mentions in that chapter. And tonight, we'll wrap up Chapter 4 by looking at an account that I think is familiar to most of you, where Jesus is going to calm the storm in the disciples' lives as they travel across the Sea of Galilee. So Mark chapter 4 verses 35 to 41 is what we'll look tonight. And as you find your spot, I want to share a story with you to kind of paint a picture, no pun intended here, of two painters that were entered in a contest with one another to see which one could paint a portrait of what they felt like peace would look like. And so the first painter gets up and he paints this beautiful lake, very calm and tranquil, the sun reflecting off, maybe at sunset going down, just a very tranquil scene. And he said, this to me represents what I feel like peace would look like. The second artist stands up, after his work's complete and shows it, and he has painted a picture of a severe storm, just rolling clouds, I mean, the waves crashing against the rocks, lightning and all kinds of things going on, just a really chaotic scene. And he says, I want you to notice, not so much the scene that you see in front of you, but down in the corner. And he had painted two rocks with a small bird nestled in between them, singing loudly. And he said, peace is where God's calm and God's tranquility overrule your concerns. Peace is where God's calm and God's tranquility overrule your concerns. One of the verses that I've been repeating as we went through Mark over and over again is Mark 8, 27, where Jesus simply states at the end of that verse, Who do people say that I am? I've challenged you to ask yourself that question every time we've went through a message from Mark. Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? But I want you to think tonight at a different angle to that question. How do you respond to that when you face difficult situations? When you face trials, Isn't that question sometimes a little bit harder to answer? Or maybe at least not so easy to answer. Don't we sometimes doubt what God's doing, His character, His nature, why He allows those things in trials? Who do you say that I am might be answered differently on a calm day, so to speak, in our minds versus a very trying day when God doesn't seem to respond the way you'd like Him to or as fast as you'd like Him to. that question may not be so easily answered. And so look with me tonight at Mark chapter 4, verse 35 to 41. I'll read that to you. It says, In the same day, when the evening was come, he said to them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him, even as he was in the ship. And there also was with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he was asleep in the stern part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, Master, don't you care that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace. Be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? Lord, we come to you tonight, Father, asking you to open our hearts and our eyes to receive the word that you would have us to hear, God, that we would apply This lesson to our hearts tonight, God, that we who have come in tonight with fears. And anxieties and worries. Would understand that the storms in our lives serve a purpose. And God, as we go through those daily things, you are with us. You've promised to be there. And so let us take heart, and let us be encouraged, and let us not be paralyzed or crippled by fear, but let us rather have a fear of God, a reverence and an awe for you, and understand who you are and the power that you possess. and the guarantee that you will see us through unto the end. So, Lord, open our eyes and hearts tonight, strengthen us, encourage us, and speak to us where it's needed, God. And use me for your glory tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. I want you to see just two things in this story, two basic things that we can draw for us tonight, I believe, in this story. Number one, the situation that they were facing, the disciples were in, was a situation that they had absolutely no control over. They were out in the middle of the sea, caught in a storm, and pretty much had no hope of fixing that situation on their own. They were completely out of control. And I would venture to say that all of us get into those situations from time to time where we're facing things that we simply cannot control. Matter of fact, if you really look at your life in general, most of your life is not in your control. We can make decisions, we can plan, we can try to direct certain things, but in the big picture, most of our life is out of our control by and large. The other thing I want you to notice tonight from this story is that we see an unexpected response from Jesus in the middle of the storm. We don't find him up. panicking, running around, consoling, comforting the disciples, we find him asleep in the back of the boat to the point where they have to go and wake him up to try to get some help. And so we see an unexpected response from Jesus, which often happens in our lives again when we face trials, when we face difficult situations. God responds, but unexpectedly and not in a way that we would think he would. So let's kind of break down these verses and then we'll go back and talk a little bit about each one. Verses 35 through 37, we see Jesus after a long day of ministry. He's tired. He wants to get away from the crowds as he often did. So he says, let's get in the boat and cross over the Sea of Galilee. Now the Sea of Galilee sits in a valley with mountains around it. and the desert surrounds it. So what happens is the warm air blows in from the deserts, comes in over the mountains, hits the cold air on the Sea of Galilee, and violent storms will arise quite often over there, even today. And so it was a very, very common thing for these pop-up sudden storms to arise. And that's what we see happening in those opening verses. Then we come to verse 38, and it begins to shift directions and really gets into the meat of the message. These men, these brave fishermen, who have no doubt experienced storms before in their lives, face one now that causes them to really fear to the point where they ask the question, don't you care that we perish? How many times have we come to God after pleading with Him and praying to Him and receiving an answer, and sometimes in our hearts, if not with our mouths necessarily, we feel or maybe say, don't you care? Don't you care? Why haven't you done something? Don't you care? Paul Tripp, who is a very good pastor and writer, he says this about fear. He says fear by its nature is an interpretation of life. He says you can break it down into a formula like this. You take a situation plus yourself plus God and it will equal what? He says we look at the size of a situation or a circumstance that we're facing We then look to ourselves and say, OK, what is my ability or maybe my inability in this situation to control it or to change it? What can I do or what am I capable of doing in this circumstance? And then finally, we have an idea in our minds, not always a biblical idea, but we have an idea of who God is and what we think he can do or will do, or maybe we restrict him and say, well, he won't do this or he can't do this. And when you jumble all those things together, you'll get one of two results most of the time. You'll either come to the conclusion of that equation that you have hope and courage or you have fear. When you look at your circumstance, you look to yourself, say, what can I do or can I do? What is God going to do or what will he do? And either you will be greatly encouraged and hopeful or you'll be filled with fear. And we see the disciples looking at this, seeing the storm, recognizing that they cannot do anything to save themselves, looking at God and saying, my goodness, he's asleep, he doesn't care that we're going to die. Fear is the result of their equation. But look at verse 39. He arose. And he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. That literally in the Greek means be muzzled, be silenced. It was the same command that Jesus used when he cast out demons. It was the same Greek wording. Be still. Jesus, being God incarnate, had power over all creation. And so he simply spoke a word to nature and it obeyed. Peace be still. And then he turns his attention to the disciples in verse 40. After he calms the storm, he looks to them and he says, why are you so fearful? There's two words in the Greek for fear. He uses a word here that means timid. Or why are you ready to give up? Why are you ready to give up? Where's your faith? Where is your faith? And look at verse 41. They feared exceedingly. He asked them in verse 40, why are you so fearful? Why are you timid? Why are you ready to give up? And they, in verse 41, feared. That's a different Greek word that means to have reverence, to have an awe towards someone. That is a godly fear. that we are to have for God. They knew and they understood in that moment who Jesus was. Now, don't miss this. It's not like this was the first time Jesus had done something miraculous in their sight. We have just spent weeks already looking at Jesus performing miracles, healing people, cleansing lepers. They had seen it. And yet, in a difficult trying moment, All of that stuff went out the window, they looked at the equation, and the result was fear. And every one of us have done that. And we continue to do that. No matter how many times God has brought us a great victory, no matter how many times God has proven himself faithful, we will get in the trial, and the result of our overanalyzing and overthinking is, this is impossible, I need to panic. But if we recognize who it is that's with us, just as the disciples recognized who it was in the boat, the second fear, the reverence and awe of God, would have been their first fear, and the first fear would have not ever taken place. Does that make sense? They would have never feared, they would have never given up, they would have never become timid if their hearts would have recognized the reverence and awe that they should have had for the one that was in control all along. And we need to recognize that because in verse 39 we see once again the power and authority of God. And the same power and authority that God had then, He continues to have in us now. You know, it amazes me that we feel that we are so powerless in a world today when the same Holy Spirit that was alive and well in eternity past that we see throughout the scriptures is in us today. That same power, that same principle is still there for us. But we have such little faith that we never rarely tap into that power. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. And we don't allow that to work through us because we spend so much time in the arena of doubt and fear. Isaiah 45.7, God said, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil, or that could be better translated, calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things. You see, once again, Jesus proving by His power and might that He was more than just a man. He was God in the flesh and He proved it over and over to everyone that was around Him. And I can promise you that when you exercise faith in your trials and recognize and have a godly fear towards Him, it will help you overcome the fear that you face through your trials. Another thing I want you to see is that in verse 35 of our chapter, It was Jesus that asked them to get in the boat to begin with. And Jesus, being God, being omniscient, knowing all things, did already understand that this storm was going to come. It's not like he got out in the boat and went to sleep, and then when they woke him up, he said, man, I didn't see that coming. You know, he understood that they were going to end up in a storm because he was the one that directed them to launch out and go into the storm. Now, I'm not saying that every time we face this situation that God necessarily sent that storm. Living in a fallen world, sometimes storms will come, but he is always in control of the storm. Sometimes he sends them, but he's always in control of them. Don't lose sight of that. Don't lose sight of that. Why do you think that he sends them? I think we see the answer in the text. Why does he send the storm in this situation? Verse 40, he says, How is it that you have no faith? How is it that you still have no faith? You've seen so many things. You've heard my teaching. You've seen my power. And yet here we are again, a difficult situation, yes, But I'm greater than any situation. I'm the creator of all things. And here we are again, and you doubt me. Here we are again, and you doubt me. He sent the storm because they needed a lesson in faith. And quite simply, He sends storms into our life quite often because none of us have matured in our life of faith. We don't reach maturity in faith by having a nice calm road. We have to be driven to faith through trials and through the simple fact that God is all we have and God is enough if we have Him. We need to remember that. 2 Corinthians 4, verses 17 and 18. Paul says, for our light affliction, it doesn't mean that he's downplaying suffering. That doesn't mean that Paul says that every trial you're facing is light. But in comparison to what's waiting, it is light. That's what the meaning of this passage is. He's not saying, well, if you've suffered some great suffering, suck it up and don't be such a wuss. That's not what he's saying. He's saying your light affliction, what you're facing, is not that deep. compared to the eternal joy and pleasure that's awaiting. If you balance those things out, there's no comparison. He says, your light affliction, which is temporary, it's but for a moment, even if you endure those hard times for decades, that's nothing compared to the eternity that's waiting. Your light affliction, but is for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary or temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. He's teaching them faith. That scripture is talking about faith, right? He says it's not the things that you see, but the things that aren't seen. We walk by faith and not by sight. And so these storms come into our life to teach us faith. It teaches us about the nature and character of God. We talk so much about faith, and that's why I felt led to start a little mini-series next week on some buzzwords I'll use, or keywords, that we talk about faith being one, that I think we use it, and we need to know it, but I think we're confused about what it is. And so we'll look at that a lot more in depth, but faith, is really the key to unlock the very understanding of the Christian life and to really point us to the nature and character of God. And we need to have an understanding of what true faith is. Christ sent the storm and Christ calmed the storm. But it was in the middle of those two points that he was teaching them a lesson. And I don't know where you might be tonight in your walk. He might be sending the storm or he might be getting ready to calm the storm. But no matter where you're at from point A to point B, there's a lesson being worked out in the middle of that. And don't lose sight of that lesson. Don't lose sight of the lesson. 1 Peter 5, 7 says, Castor cares upon him for he cares for you. And so often we pray that the storm would be calmed when in fact he's wanting to calm your heart in the storm. He's wanting you to trust him. He's wanting you to understand that we've been here before. Maybe it's been a different avenue, a different type of trial. But has he failed you yet? If you're his, has he ever, ever failed you? No. No, he hasn't. He won't fail you. He doesn't always change your circumstances. And I think that's sometimes why we get so discouraged. We pray for a change in circumstances, but what He's trying to do is change us in the circumstance. He's wanting to do something in our lives that when we look at a trial and we say, man, we just need to get through this, God. This is bad. I'm not enjoying this. Let's get this over with so I can continue on with my life. What you're saying basically is this has no need, this has no purpose. You don't know what you're doing, God. Why are you allowing this? Let's get this unnecessary out of the way so I can get back to enjoying my life. And we miss the fact that God is doing something in that trial. Now again, I'm not saying that everything comes because God necessarily sent that. Sometimes we sin and bring about a situation in our life that was brought about by our own rebellion. You can't pin that on God if you get yourself in a bind or in a mess because you have made sinful choices. Right? But other times, God is in fact trying to work out something greater in your life. And as we rush through that trial, we miss the lesson. And so another trial is waiting on its heels because we never got anything from the first one. Right? And that's unpleasant because sometimes we face one after the other and we think, man, is this ever going to end? Maybe it'll end when God gets it in your head to trust him. Maybe he has to keep sending them because we're so stubborn to learn from what he's trying to show us. If we would fear God like they did in verse 41, the fear that they had in verse 40 would be non-existent. They won't exist together. If you have an understanding of the nature and character of God and who He is and what He's able to do and what He's promised to do, you can't give a logical reason why you're afraid to face tomorrow. What is there that you can fear? You've got the God of the universe in the boat with you. What's coming that he can't handle? What's coming that he can't bring you through? That ought to encourage us tonight. I hope it encourages you. Because what we should understand is we're not in control. That's scary. That's scary for us. But he is. And that's all right. I don't want to give the wheel to just anybody to drive, but I'm okay with him driving it. If it can't be me, I'm okay to let him drive. You don't know the outcome. I can't sit and tell you the answer to everything you're facing and that it's going to be okay. I can't go into a hospital when somebody's sick and say, you're going to make it out of here. It's going to be okay. But he knows the outcome. And if you know him, the outcome will be okay. You see? We have to let go sometimes. We say it's taking so long. God, why is this taking so long? All I can tell you is he's preparing his people for eternity. He's preparing us for something greater. And so when you go through things, the length of the time of the trial is really secondary. I know it doesn't feel that way, but the length of time is secondary to the purpose that God is working in you through that. That's the real lesson, not the time spent in it. So Jeff, as you come tonight and as we sing, I would simply ask you to take two things from this lesson. Number one, what fear are you holding on to because you think your circumstance or maybe your ability has to somehow work itself out before you'll trust God? What is the circumstance that you're looking at that is so great that you feel like God can't handle it? And maybe just tonight, pray to have the faith. Pray to have the faith. To understand who God is again in your life, maybe you just need a renewal of that, a reassurance of that. Take a look back, like God did in the Psalms with David. Psalm 118, when he takes Israel back to the Old Testament, and he tells them how he provided manna for them when they were hungry. And he tells them how he provided water from a rock, and how he parted the Red Sea, and how he defeated their enemies, and how he cared for them time and time again. And maybe you just need to stop tonight and look back at your life, at all the times God has been there, and then look ahead of you and say, this is a tough trial. It's not any tougher than anything I've ever went through before, or maybe it is. But God is greater than any situation you're facing. And maybe more than that, he's trying to teach you a lesson. Maybe tonight you'll exercise the faith to trust Him and believe in Him. Maybe you've never trusted Him at all as Lord and Savior. That's the first place you have to start. He's promised to wash away your sins and make you new. And from there it's a walk of faith the rest of your life. So as we stand tonight and as we sing, if God's speaking to you, if you need to leave your fears at the altar and walk out of here with all your burdens laid aside, I would come and do that.