Trusting God in a Storm - Tony Evans Sermon

without him you cannot but without you he will not when we travel across a bridge it typically means that two bodies of land have been separated by a challenge this bridge is designed to take you from where you are to where you are trying to go the bridge that god has constructed for you to move from the natural to the supernatural is the bridge called faith unbelief will keep you stuck where you are unbelief is so powerful it'll stop god's work in your life he says i believe helped my uncle he said i believe but i'm shaking will you give me what i lack so i can go deep enough to believe so even if your faith is weak you've got a faith helper so get ready for your miracle as long as you cross the bridge [Music] we've been talking about faith we define faith as acting like god is telling the truth faith is measured by feat not by feelings faith is measured by walk not by talk faith is measured by life not by lips jesus has been teaching all day he's been teaching the crowds preaching the big sermon and then he takes his disciples aside and he gives them a private word he says in verse 33 of mark 4 with many such parables he was speaking the word to them so far as they were able to hear it and he did not speak to them without a parable but he was explaining everything privately to his own disciples jesus said get in the boat they got in the boat after the sermon they listened to the word he said get in the boat they got in the boat and they are doing exactly what they were told to do they are perfectly situated not only are they in the will of god jesus is in there with them because it says jesus got in the boat too so life can be better than having church hearing the word and jesus joins you in the boat so jesus is in the boat they're going their way over to the other side but while in the will of god and on the boat with the lord there's a problem the problem is described in verse 37 there arose a fierce gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat so that the boat was already filling up the greek word here for fierce gale of wind is lilac a lilac was a tumultuous storm coming out of nowhere on the sea of galilee and while they were obeying god in god's will doing exactly what god said after church was over jesus had finished teaching they run into a storm and it's a whopper it's so bad that the boat is filling up and so they are caught in the storm while being in the will of god so the first thing that you need to know is that in the will of god it does rain you can be smack dab in the will of god and be in the middle of a lilac you can be smack dab doing exactly what god tells you to do and the boat of your security begins to sink you can be smack dab in the will of god now obviously you can be out of the will of god and be in a storm and you can be in the will of god so this ought to clarify as we've tried to do all along that storms in and of themselves do not tell you whether you're in or out of god's will what tells you whether you're in a god out of god's will is did you do what he told you to do but whether you did it or you didn't do it you can still be in a lilac that is a tumultuous situation the other thing you need to know about this lilac is it's merciless that is it comes down on you and it seeks to consume you but let me tell you something else about a storm a storm is always designed to increase your faith and give you a deeper experience with your god storms aren't pleasant they aren't comfortable and sometimes they can be life-threatening but they always come with a purpose so here they are in a crisis they're in this crisis and the crisis was threefold there are actually three storms occurring here let me walk you through the three storms first of all there is a circumstantial storm the lilac i'll say one more thing about this circumstantial storm and that is it was a storm over which they could exercise no control you can't control the wind you can't control the sea you can't control the rain you can't control the the spinning of the turmoil you can't control waves billowing up and going you can't control that that is out of your control so you can be in the will of god and in a storm and absolutely be able to do nothing about it because you can't control a lilac it's circumstances that produces a helpless and sometimes the feeling of a hopeless scenario so that's storm number one that leads to storm number two storm number two is that they were terrified we know that they were terrified because jesus is going to say to them why are you afraid in verse 40. so they weren't scared they were scared now we're talking terrified so now we not only have a storm of circumstance we have a storm of emotion because their emotions have riveted up and they are scared about the doctor's report scared about the financial struggle scared about the the relationship direction scared whatever it is that you can't control that's causing your emotions to be uprooted is your lilac because it's something so big so deep and so devastating you can't control it so the first storm are circumstances out of their control the second storm is their emotional instability because of the uncontrollable circumstance but there's a third storm here we'll call it a theological storm because not only was their circumstance out of control and now their emotions responding to their circumstance they now have a spiritual storm a theological storm because the scripture goes on to say that they woke up jesus and said in verse 38 teacher do you not care that we are perishing see that's a spiritual storm because their circumstances were out of control and their emotions have gone crazy now they question whether what they have been believing is true if we were to tell the truth and shame the devil there have been those times when we have to raise the question like martha and mary where were you when i needed you because if you would have been here it wouldn't be this painful it wouldn't take this long and it wouldn't hurt this bad teacher do you really care because you're overwhelmed that naturally leads to a spiritual question where were you god let's go a little deeper because verse 38 says jesus himself was in the stern asleep on the cushion no you didn't oh no you didn't jesus i'm in a storm and you're snoring i'm in a storm and you're sleeping this is serious sleep so that meant he sleep on purpose so not only is jesus asleep not only is he sleep or perfect he's asleep in a storm okay now i got another problem cause he's sleeping on me and he's in the same storm i'm in because he's on the same boat i'm on he sleep on the storm and the only way he gets up is i got to wake him up it says they woke him up that's when you crying out cause it's so bad so deep for so long and they they they shook him and they said don't you care because if you can we wouldn't even even if you were tired we wouldn't have to wake you up you got you getting wet like we're getting wet the boat's flipping and flopping you like it's flipping and flopping us and you are asleep jesus has just taught the disciples that just come from church so to speak and now they're under pressure and it's tough does jesus care about my pain my finances my loneliness my hurt my depression because i'm in his will and i feel all this and so they wake jesus up verse 39 jesus gets up and he rebukes the wind and says to the sea hush of us hush be still notice who jesus is talking to he going to talk to them but he's not talking to him right now he's talking to the circumstance the circumstance is the wind and the sea it's a storm he doesn't speak to them yet he speaks to the situation but when does he speak to the situation after they wake him up so jesus is asleep they wake him up when they wake him up he speaks to the circumstance that was causing the crisis so don't let it be said your crisis continues because you never took the time to wake the savior up in other words you were not so concerned about it that getting his attention to it was unimportant because we'll wake up our friends we'll wake up people with power we'll wake up people who we think can change it and a lot of times we don't try to wake up the savior now i'm explaining you that because i know what you're saying you say well he shouldn't be asleep i got you stick with me here because see i know what you're thinking and the reason i know what you're thinking is because i've had to think it too because we all face storms different shapes different sizes equally real and so jesus now turns to his disciples why are you afraid verse 40 how is it that you have no faith now i don't know about you but i have issues with the question i got issues with that question because that question doesn't make sense to me they wake jesus up the boat's filling with water they're in a lilac it's a terrible storm they don't even know whether they're gonna live or die and jesus is gonna ask a question like that why are you afraid and why do you have no faith oh i don't know jesus maybe it's because we're getting ready to die i mean a question like that is like somebody asking a swimmer who just gets out the water why you wet isn't it pretty obvious i mean this is this is not that deep gee excuse me jesus it's not that deep we're in trouble why are you afraid why the question well that takes us back to verse 35 because in verse 35 jesus said let us go to the other side but when the circumstances showed up they overrode what i said in other words your problem overrode my promise so you are now living in light of the problem no longer living in light of the promise and when you live in light of the problem and no longer in light of the promise the problem will dominate you and it will totally erase the fact i ever made one god never wants your circumstances he doesn't want you to deny them a storm is a storm you don't call it a sunshine day a storm is reality but he never wants your circumstance to trump his word not only does he not want your circumstance to trump his word he doesn't want your circumstance to trump his presence because he's on the boat too because storms are designed to deepen your faith and heighten your experience with him they're not pleasant but they are unavoidable because you can't control lilacs you can't control when they come how they come and how long they stay and so that's our scenario that's our situation their circumstance was determining their theology and their circumstance caused and forget what god said oh but when he spoke he told the wind chill he just chilled he told to see and when jesus spoke to the circumstance the circumstances changed so the issue in a lilac is not your ability to change the circumstance the issue in a lilac is your communication with jesus so he can speak to it and so jesus speaks to the problem and when he speaks to the problem there is a circumstantial change and then it leads to a conclusion and oh what a conclusion it is verse 41 says they became very much afraid i i don't think you just read that with me verse 41 says they became very much afraid okay maybe they'll get it on this side verse 41 says they became very much afraid okay when they were in the lilac they were afraid when they saw who they were dealing with they became very much afraid in other words we're afraid of the wrong thing see we let our circumstances scare us he says when you know who you're dealing with you'll be less afraid of that and more scared of me so it's more important to by faith get jesus dealing with the circumstance then you living in fear don't be scared of the wrong thing and they ask a question because they're scared now who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him who then is this obviously we don't know who he is let me tell you something when jesus is humanity his sleep his deity stays awake who then is this they were on a journey of discovery trials as inconvenient and as painful as they are are a journey of discovery of who you're dealing with okay god has placed you it's not convenient and i'm not trying to make light of it but you're in a situation where god wants you to know you're dealing with because it's human we call this in theology the hypostatic union the hypostatic union means two natures in one person unmixed forever two natures and one person unmixed forever so he's both human and divine see so god fertilized the egg of a woman he fertilized the egg of mary without a male sperm so that the holy spirit would provide the divine and mary would provide the human so that the human and divide would be mixed in one person without sin forever that's a hypostatic union so so one minute he's thirsty the bible says he said i thirst but the next minute he walking on water and and and and stopping storms and stuff one minute he says i hunger the next minute he's taking sardines and crackers and making a folk moby dick sandwich to feed 5 000 men not counting women and children over 20 000 people one moment he died on a cross another moment he raising folks from the dead come on who are you what manner of man is this hebrews 4 says and we have a high priest who is able to sympathize with our pain how can you sympathize with my pain cause i'm human so i can feel what you feel the way you felt it but i'm divine see when i go to you or you go to me that's human to human i may be able to sympathize but not be able to fix it but when you deal with the god man you're dealing with someone who can feel it and fix it god says because i'm a man i know how you feel but because i'm god i can do something with it what manner of man is this that even the circumstances nature obeys him that nature has to succumb to him so if you have a lilac and if you don't have one keep living you will god wants to take you to a place of understanding in him that you've never been before i tell a story about this major event that took place in our lives in the pacific ocean when we had the urban alternative our national ministry we had a trip for our people who support the ministry to alaska and that's where i minister to people who listen to the radio broadcast support ministry from across the country we have about 300 people on the boat and on our way back from alaska the captain said we're gonna hit a storm we're gonna hit a storm and uh it might be a little rough it was more than a little rough it was the worst storm royal caribbean had ever had in their history the waves were hitting the boat 50 feet high it was tossing this cruise line around like a tin can people were screaming and hollering throwing up in the halls the uh piano was rolling all over the place dishes were flying they had to order everybody to their state rooms it was midnight it's pitch black out so you can't see anything except the waves hitting the boat and it's flipping and flopping and turning this boat every which way would loose and people were terrified sister evans bless her heart was very upset because they did not use the inside passage coming out so you can come you can come from alaska open ocean or you can come through the inside passage well if you come through the inside passage mountains are all around you so you wouldn't feel the weather like that but they had to get back because they had to drop us off and get another you know it's money for them so so they were on open ocean so we were just out there and uh what was worse is the captain knew we were going to be out there he told us we were going to be out there in the storm he didn't tell us how bad it was going to be but he told me we're going to be in the storm so sister evans is like a little bit evangelically ticked off so we're in the cab because everybody ordered back to the cabin and she picks up the phone and says may i speak to the captain please i'm sitting on the bed going [Music] she says may i speak to the cabin she calls the operator answer says i want to speak the captain i don't know why they didn't take us to unified passage we had 300 guests on this boat and this is a bad experience for them and makes our ministry look bad you know she said well the captain can't come to the phone right now because he's weathering this storm so i'm sorry but we'll relay your concern a few minutes later the phone rings it's the assistant captain the sister captain says ma'am we know you're upset we know you know this is a bad situation but i need to tell you something and that is this boat was built with this storm in mind when we were on dry dock and we put this boat together we knew we would hit a day like this that was calculated in the building of the boat so even though it's an uncomfortable journey you're going to be fine your guests are going to be fine because before we ever left it had already been established that we would be able to handle a day like this uh let me explain something jesus told them let us go to the other side that was on dry dock he said before we ever leave i'm gonna tell you where we're gonna wind up we're gonna get to where we're supposed to go now there may be rough sailing between leaving here and coming back here but your salvation and your savior was built with your struggle in mind he has not forgotten you your struggle your pain or your purpose and he knows how to get you from point a to point z even if you have to go back to b and go to t to one back at f to go to x in order to get you there he knows how to take you from here and get you there because it was built with you in mind including your struggle [Music] i know faith can be risky business [Music] because we're asked to believe god and trust god and sometimes the weirdest of circumstances i will admit for myself and i know you've been there too when things are tumultuous when there's no answer in sight and jesus wants us to keep our eyes focused on him and believe when it looks like it's unbelievable to take a step out on god when we're not sure whether we can stay up yep faith is a risk and what makes the big risk is we're believing in a god we don't see a savior who's in heaven and not physically with us in a circumstance we don't understand boy you put all that together and it even sounds riskier the question that we have to answer since god is god is he worthy of the risk you see we take risk all the time in our lives don't we we risk on the plane getting to its destination we take a risk on the stoma stock market continuing going up over time we take a risk when we do things that that are for the first time and we're nervous about it so risk-taking is not unusual to us if we are willing to take a risk on things that are in the natural realm then we ought to be willing to take a risk on the things that are in the supernatural realm since god is overseeing that realm and he is worthy of risk-taking if you're going to bet bet on god because that is a bet worth making [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 217,287

Rating: 4.9061003 out of 5

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Id: m_9LYyXR4l8

Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 09 2020