The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E02 - Fear

Episode Date: March 16, 2020

We live a world gripped by fear and uncertainty. But when we experience storms in life, we can find our security in Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7 (NKJV)

Howdy church. If you've got your Bibles, grab them. We're going to be in Mark Chapter 4. Again, like I mentioned yesterday, the Lord has just laid upon my heart to just share some devotional thoughts with you. It's very casual. They're not very well prepared. But part of the way that I think as one of your pastors that I could love and lead well is just sharing some thoughts and some, particularly some places in scripture that the Lord keeps leading me to as I now. these times with my family and my friends. So in Mark chapter four, the same account can be found in Matthew chapter 8 and also Luke chapter 8, where Jesus calms a storm. And so we'll pick it up in verse 36, 35, sorry. God's word says, and on that day, when evening had come, Jesus said to them, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took with them. And leaving the crowd, they took with them in the boat and just as he was and the other boats were with them and a great windstorm arose

I don't have you ever been to the sea of galilee a few hundred of our folks have I've been there several times was there a few weeks ago and one of the things that's interesting there is that galilee wraps all around the sea of galilee and so for these men to hop into a boat and even though it's called the sea, it's really just like a big lake, and to just row to the other side, it was just another normal day. Now, sometimes winds and waves and tragedy comes into our life, but we can see it coming. And that takes one way to handle it, right? Like in Florida here, when we know the hurricanes are coming, we know for a long time. We have plenty of time to prepare. We have plenty of time to bored up. We had plenty of time to get out if we need to. But what do you do when you don't see

it coming? You see because these guys didn't see it coming. They got in the boat and the sea was calm. And then at some point in their journey on what they thought was just a normal day in their life. And at some point the wind comes out of nowhere. And the Bible says in a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he Jesus was in the stern asleep on a cushion, and they woke him and they said, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? You see, one of the things that fear can do to us is fear can make us exaggerate the circumstances that we're in.

Now, there's no doubt that there was a storm. I mean, the Bible says that the waves are coming in over the edges of the boat, but how bad could it be? Are they actually perishing? I mean, Jesus is taking a nap. And he is full of peace because peace is not in circumstances. Peace is found in the person of Jesus. And yet the disciples think that they are going to die. In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow because today has enough worries of its own. One of the things that we can do when we're surrounded by fearful circumstances is we can begin to, we can begin. to project into the future some things that may or may not even happen. I mean honestly this is the

essence of panic. Now there's the difference between being of sound mind and preparing for the storm, but we are never called to panic. The Bible says that God did not give us a spirit of fear. That fear is not a feeling. Fear is a spirit that does not come from God. But God has given us power and love and sound mind, self-control. And what begins to happen in this moment is that first of all, I think these fishermen, by the way, who have been on this sea their entire life, they for sure have been in storms like this before. But because the storms are in their life this time,

not only do they overreact to the situation, but they even began to question the love of Jesus towards them. I mean, Mark records it this way. The teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? One of the mistakes that we can make when we find ourselves in scary situations, whether it's because of a viral outbreak or because somebody in our family gets sick or because somebody loses a job, one of the things that we can begin to think is we can put our trust and our faith in our situation and look at our Savior and say, do you not even care? And Jesus cares. We know this fully because of his life, death, and resurrection. You see, it's so easy for us in tough circumstances. to just have gospel amnesia. You see, sometimes what we need to do

is we just need to look over our shoulder in the past and be reminded of God's faithfulness. And we need to look all the way back to the cross and be reminded that God loved us so much and he demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were yet still sinners, that Christ died for us. And they say, teacher,

do you not care that we are perishing and he awoke and he rebuked the wind and he said to the sea, peace be still. Now this is just a little conjecture on my part but I think when Jesus speaks to the wind and the waves I think he is looking at the disciples because just as turned up as the wind and the waves are the disciples' emotions are all turned up

and Jesus, maybe Jesus looks at his disciples, just kind of threw their eyeballs and down into their soul. And he says these words, peace be still. And just as the wind and the waves began to die down, then maybe the emotions of the disciples begin to die down. You see, peace will never be found in our circumstances. Because circumstances are just that. They're circumstantial. And they can change in an instant, but Jesus never changes. That he is the prince of peace. And so if you find your in a panic. If you find yourself in a place where you feel like the fear is coming in over the boat, then the one thing that we can learn from the disciples is this, you need to go to Jesus.

And he is not asleep in the stern of the boat anymore. He is raining from on high on his throne. And like we talked about yesterday, he says to us, cast all your cares upon me because I care for you. And what Jesus can give you, whether he calms the storm, or whether he ask you to endure the storm. What Jesus and Jesus alone can give you is this. He can give you peace. He can look in your soul and say peace, be still. In fact, in the book of Philippians, Paul says this, be anxious for nothing, which is a pretty audacious command of the scripture, is it not? I mean, some of you have gotten a call from work or you got a call from your school. I mean, her kids are going to be a home a lot more.

and your anxiety level may rise. Or you went into the grocery store and there was no toilet paper and your anxiety may rise. And the Bible would look at you into your soul in that moment and say, be anxious for nothing. And you think, well, how in the world do I do that? And Paul says, but by prayer and supplication,

make your requests known to God. That means, just like we said yesterday, that we pray and we pray and we pray, and we ask and we ask and we ask and we knock and we knock. Because prayer is not just about communicating with God. Prayer is when we shift our anxiety and our worry over to him. And so, Paul says, be anxious for nothing, but in prayer and supplication, make your request known to God.

And then here's the promise, the same promise that we see here in this boat. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart, your emotions, your mind in Christ Jesus. So are you anxious? Are you worried? Are you afraid? Again, prepare for sure. Be wise, for sure. Get informed for sure. Quit filling your head with fear mongering that's on TV like crazy to get us all stirred up so that we will buy in to all of this. But with prayer in supplication, bring our request to God, pray. Don't question whether Jesus loves us or not. We know he does at the cross. And his promise is that he will look deep into our souls,

and he will say, peace, be still. And the Bible says, and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Wherever you are right now, whether you're watching this at your house or you're in your car, or wherever you are, will you just take a second? Will you just mentally look at Jesus? Will you hear these words from him? Peace, be still. Breathe in, breathe out, experience the comfort that God said he would sin

through the power of His Holy Spirit. He said to them, why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Now, in the book of Matthew, Jesus says to them, where is your faith? I think that's the significant question. If you're a Jesus follower, when you feel yourself being overtaken by fear, the question is not, why are you afraid?

The question is, where have you placed your faith? Where have you placed your trust? And if the disciples are honest in that moment, they would have pointed outside of the boat. where's our faith? Our faith is in the waves. Our faith is in the ocean. Our faith is in the wind and the sea. We have taken our trust and instead of putting it in you, the Prince of Peace, we have taken our trust and we have put it in our circumstances. And what Jesus is telling us to do is take back your faith from the circumstances that you have put them in and put your faith and trust in him because he's the only one that can calm the winds and the waves. And even bigger than that, he for sure is the only

one that can calm our soul and give us a peace that transcends all understanding. And they were filled with great fear. This is, though, like reverence. They were filled with great reverence of Jesus and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him. You see, again, Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow, because today has enough to worry about. And it's, it may be the reason he said this too, is because the scripture, says that we receive new mercies every morning. So we have no idea what we will face tomorrow. But that's okay because we know that we have Jesus

and he is more than enough to face whatever we need. And instead of worrying about what will happen tomorrow at work and school and church, now for sure we're getting prepared at making decisions. But there's no need to worry about it. Because what we need to do right now in this moment with any fear, with any anxiety, with all of our unanswered questions as we go to Jesus and we once again snatch back our trust from the temporary circumstances that we find ourselves

in now, with quarantines and school closures and all of that. We snatch back our trust and our faith from those circumstances and once again we put them into the hands of our Lord and Savior. here. And we hear these words from him. Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden. And maybe that's how you feel. Maybe every time you turn on the news, you feel worry and you feel heavy burden. And Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burden. And I will give you peace. Rest for your soul. And so the way to overcome fear is the take. take your faith back from those circumstances and give it to the one that can calm the wind

and the waves and that can calm your soul and mine. Would you pray with me? To the Prince of Peace, through the power of the comforter, and to the father that loves his kids. God, we make our request known to you. Economically, relationally, physically, spiritually. we bring these waves and these storms to you. And God, we look forward to the day when you look at even our surroundings and say peace, be still,

but way more importantly, Lord, we open up our souls to you and we want to hear those words at the soul level. That we would be calm, that you would give us rest for our soul. God, we thank you. We thank you for your love. And we thank you that because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because When you says it is finished, it counted for us, that we never have to question your love for us. Because we know, we know that you do care, and you decided to perish in our place that we could have rest in our soul. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.