[0:00] On that day when evening had come, he said to them, let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
[0:11] And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
[0:25] And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, why are you so afraid?
[0:37] Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? Let's pray together.
[0:50] Father God, we do thank you this morning for your holy word. And we thank you for Christ, who is your very character made manifest amongst us.
[1:02] And we thank you for the gospel of Mark, that we have an opportunity to behold his life, to learn from it, to glean, to wonder at who he was.
[1:15] We thank you for his accomplished work. We thank you for who he is to us this day. And I pray that by the gift of the Spirit, to those of us who have placed our faith in him, that we might learn, we might understand, we might apply your word today in wisdom in this world.
[1:33] For the great end cause of magnifying your name. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, we would do well this morning as we would any time we study the gospel of Mark together to remember why it is Mark wrote this gospel account.
[1:49] And it's very similar to the other gospel accounts. It shouldn't be a strange concept to you. But remember Mark 1, verse 1, it reads, The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
[2:01] And he takes a great deal of pains in presenting to us the fact that Jesus Christ was, in fact, the Son of God. And therefore, God himself made flesh to dwell amongst us.
[2:15] And the natural then response to understanding that is that we might follow him. That we will be disciples of Christ. And disciples of Christ make disciples. So you've heard me saying over and over again that the great call of Mark to our lives is to recognize Jesus as the Christ.
[2:29] And to become disciple-making disciples of Jesus the Christ. We've witnessed a series of Jesus' miracles up to this point. In fact, Mark fires through them pretty quickly for us.
[2:42] Kind of laying out for us the authority that Jesus had. His power over creation we've seen a number of times already in his healings. That he has healed people of physical illness means that he had to do some regenerative work in them.
[2:57] That there was some malady of a particular organ or of some limbs and he had to do a regenerative work. Not apply some medicine but actually make something new.
[3:08] So we've already seen this power over creation displayed for us in the gospel. But here we see it in a particularly mighty way. We see a display of Jesus as the creator and sustainer of creation.
[3:24] Now, if you study much the attributes of God, you will come to know and understand that there are attributes of God that are both communicable. Meaning things that we can do. God is love.
[3:34] Therefore, we can love. And there are also some incommunicable attributes of God. Things that God is that we will never be. We're called to be holy because God is holy.
[3:45] Not like God is holy. We'll never be like God in that way. And another way that we'll never be like God is in his creativity. And I'm not suggesting that we cease using that term for the things that we do that are creative.
[3:59] I have a very creative wife and I will continue to call her creative and appreciate her creativity. But none of us are creative the way that God is creative.
[4:10] The way that Jesus Christ is creative. And that is that God creates from nothing. The fancy Latin term for that is ex nihilo if you care about such things.
[4:22] We will never be this way. And in fact, I think one of the reasons that we're so wired to appreciate creativity is that it gives some semblance, some reflection of who God is.
[4:35] That God creates beauty. Whether you like art or not, if that's where your mind is gone, you may appreciate music. You may appreciate buildings that are beautiful to behold.
[4:46] All of these things are some reflection of God's creative person. So we see that on display here in the person of Jesus Christ.
[4:57] And this shouldn't be, for those of us who are students of the Bible, any real surprise. We should already know this to be true. I've got a number of texts I'd like for you to try to turn with me quickly for the sake of time.
[5:08] John 1, verses 1-3. Anybody catch that I just spilled water all over myself? I'm just not being quite as full.
[5:25] In the beginning was the Word, being Christ. This is who John is writing of. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
[5:40] Jesus Christ. All things were made through Him, and nothing was made apart from Him. Ready? Hebrews 1, verses 1-3. Hebrews 1, verse 1.
[5:58] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also created the world.
[6:15] He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature, the facsimile of God. And He upholds the universe by the word of His power, certainly the creator and sustainer.
[6:28] of this world. Colossians 1. Don't turn in here. Just stick with me. Colossians 1, verses 16-17. 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.
[6:47] And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And the last one, 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6. For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and from whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist.
[7:11] And this is only a sampling of texts in the New Testament that make this very apparent to us, that Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, is Himself God, and is therefore the creator and the sustainer of the universe.
[7:23] And this is what we see displayed for us as He has power over this storm. There's much conversation as of late about the question of origin. Recently there was a debate between Bill Nye, the science guy, and Ken Ham, which had some mixed review at the quality of the debate itself.
[7:42] But that sparked a lot of conversation. There's a lot of people talking about the issue of origin right now and applying science to the age of the earth. And all of those things are important and valuable. And I appreciate young earth apologists that are making a case for the inerrancy of Scripture in that way.
[7:59] I love it. I appreciate that. But more importantly than all of that, if you want to ask where our origin is from, how did this world come into existence? It came into existence by Jesus.
[8:10] That is it. That is the answer to this great question. I have encouraged a number of you, particularly the families, to use with your children a resource called New City Catechism.
[8:23] I would actually encourage everyone in here to use it as a resource. A question and an answer. A doctrinal layout. A road map, so to speak, for us to understand the truths of God in a very systematic way.
[8:36] And the second question of that, which we're working on with Cade, is what is God? What is God? And the answer, and Cade can say this with confidence, I don't think he fully understands it, but is that God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything.
[8:53] And this is such an important truth for us to understand. It's so key that we wrap our minds around who Jesus is. This is a magnificent thing about our Lord.
[9:07] In fact, the use of the word Lord in the Old Testament was the word Yahweh. In Hebrew, spelled Y-H-W-Y in our English equivalent of that.
[9:18] Which is the name that God gave Himself in speaking to Moses in the burning bush, which was to say, I am. That's how we read it in English. I am. In that everything emanates from Him.
[9:31] You've heard me say before that everything plugs into God. God plugs into nothing. He is self-sufficient. He is self-sustaining. All the power in this universe comes from His being.
[9:42] And in this miracle, Jesus expresses Himself uniquely as the Great I Am. This is huge. The miracles before this have been a big deal.
[9:55] He's shown that He has authority over sin. He's shown that He has authority over Satan. He's shown that He has authority over flesh and that failing. But here He is saying, I am the Great I Am.
[10:07] Watch what I'm about to do. Now I'll tell you that I've stolen great part the outline for this sermon from John MacArthur. I just think it's proper to give him proper due in this and not be a plagiarizer.
[10:22] College students know what that means. But we're going to look at this story in four different parts. The calm before the storm. The calm during the storm. The calm after the storm.
[10:33] And the storm after the calm. So that's how we're going to progress through this together. So let's look first at the calm during the storm. Verse 37. We're just going to read that again so it's fresh in our minds. And a great windstorm arose.
[10:43] Oh, excuse me. I just jumped. On that day when evening had come, He said to them, Let us go across to the other side. And leaving the crowd, they took Him with them in the boat just as He was. And other boats were with them.
[10:54] Now, it's widely understood. There's some debate. We can't say with a great deal of finality on this. But that this event proceeds, follows up a day, excuse me, follows a day of teaching.
[11:11] So beginning in chapter 4, we see Him casting out on the side teaching from a boat. He's on the side of the Sea of Galilee. And He's now gotten out because the crowd is pressing it around Him in a boat.
[11:23] And He uses the water then as a natural projection. He didn't have a handy mic that thumps His voice when He looks the wrong direction. But spoke out across the water so that all this crowd might hear the message that He was teaching.
[11:37] And we saw very quickly kind of backing up that a series of four sayings, some of them parables, some not really fitting into that mold. And I believe that Mark intends for us to see this as a day of teaching.
[11:49] There's some evidence to that. There's just a little bit of evidence contrary to that, like in verse 10. And when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parables. So at some point, He was not with the crowd and was able to give some explanation to the disciples.
[12:05] Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. And praise God for that. But certainly, He has concluded some teaching. And it's likely, I would err, if I'm going to err on a side, I would err to the side, of this being a full day of teaching.
[12:21] Because it says, in verse 36, that they took Him with them in the boat. And the article is there in the original language. So, what boat are they referring to? And I would assume that it was the boat that He was teaching from in the beginning of chapter 4.
[12:35] So it's been this long day of teaching. And I can say to you that preaching a 45-minute sermon is exhausting.
[12:45] And some of you in your lives will understand what that looks like and what that means and what it feels like to have this many eyes staring at you and have to kind of pour yourself out and to have both something happening coming out of your mouth and dialogue running in the back of your head.
[13:00] Like, why is He looking at me like that? I'm not really sure what I just said wrong. Or as I tend to invent words at times, I'm thinking, is that a word? I don't think that's a word. Should I go back and correct myself?
[13:11] No, I won't worry about it. And moving forward like that. And it's quite mentally exhausting. The preparation for such is exhausting. And so we see Jesus here wanting to get away.
[13:24] Getting in a boat in order to get away. Jesus was God in flesh, but He was still a man. And I'm always encouraged to see the times that He rested, the times that He withdrew, because I feel that so readily in my life as well.
[13:40] So there's a calm before the storm. There's a calm during the storm, beginning in verse 37. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
[13:54] But He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke Him and said to Him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace.
[14:05] Be still. Now some of the incredibly fascinating things I learned this week were about the Sea of Galilee. As a person who likes adventure, I really want to go to the Sea of Galilee now.
[14:17] It's a fascinating place in the world. I would say primarily for its historical significance. Many very important things happen. The other lake miracle, Jesus walked on these waters, the Sea of Galilee.
[14:30] The fact that He stilled a storm on these waters would be a reason to go see this place. But it's unique in many different ways. It's different from all other bodies of water in the world.
[14:41] To give you some approximation of the size of it, it's 13 miles long and 8 miles wide, 64 square miles. And just to kind of help you understand that, Lake Lanier is 59 square miles.
[14:52] If you ever look at pictures of the Sea of Galilee, it's much more open. It doesn't quite have the fingers that Lake Lanier has. But it's roughly the same size. At its greatest depth, it's about 150 feet deep.
[15:04] Just like Lake Lanier, at the dam, it's about 150 feet deep. So it kind of helps, I think, you wrap your mind around this is not a massive body of water. It's unique in that it's 682 feet below sea level.
[15:17] Not the lowest lake in the world. The Dead Sea is the lowest, but the Dead Sea is a saltwater lake. This is the lowest freshwater lake in the world. 682 feet below sea level.
[15:28] Fed primarily by the Jordan River, although it does have some natural springs that feed it as well. What's really, really unique about this particular lake is the way that the mountains border it and the way the winds blow across this lake.
[15:42] Primarily in the wintertime. There are two seasons. The summer, there's some fairly regular storms that come in that can be calculated. In the wintertime, the winds come from a different direction and they are really hard to calculate.
[15:53] Come up at any moment. And this is the experience that they find themselves in. I can't say with certainty that this was in the wintertime, but they certainly didn't set out across the lake to brave a storm of this nature, so it's safe to assume that it came up on them very suddenly.
[16:09] Now get this. Imagine Lake Lanier. I think most of us have been out on the lake and the lake on a really windy day gets pretty choppy. Pretty choppy on the lake is like one foot waves. Those waves are caused by the wind.
[16:22] Well, on the Sea of Galilee, these waves can be up to ten feet high caused by the wind. Isn't that fascinating? Just a small body of water. Waves ten feet high.
[16:33] And these boats were low-sided boats. They were used to fish out of. They hauled nets aboard them and they hauled nets manually, not with some kind of a crane or something like that. So they were low-sided boats and these waves would have crashed across the deck.
[16:47] And we see here that it was happening, such a storm was happening that the boat was filling with water and a boat that's full of water sinks, just in case you didn't know that. Right?
[16:58] Now, up to seven of the disciples, possibly up to seven were confident, five, but up to seven of the disciples were fishermen. They would have been very familiar with this circumstance.
[17:09] Very familiar with it. They probably would have encountered it before. But here we see this calm during the storm as they're terribly concerned having experienced this, being in the midst of it, having the boat filling with water and in the back of the boat, Jesus is sleeping.
[17:27] Jesus is sleeping in the back of the boat. That's the stern, the back of the boat. And He's asleep on the cushion, which is probably something that was always in a boat like this and that the fishermen would sit on in order to steer the boat.
[17:40] He just decided to doze off and take a nap after his long day of teaching. Right? This is similar to the story of Jonah. Remember the story of Jonah?
[17:51] God calls him to go and preach to Nineveh, to call them to repent and turn to God. And he flees instead in the opposite direction across the Mediterranean towards a town called Tarshish.
[18:05] He doesn't quite get there, but a great storm comes up and he is also asleep in a boat. And he admits that it's probably his fault that this is happening. This is in Jonah 1 and is thrown overboard.
[18:17] Although I think that this comparison is meant to express contrast rather than similarity. Right? It's meant to express contrast rather than similarity.
[18:28] Jonah is the victim rather than the victor in his story. Jonah was tired from running away from God. Fell into such a sleep that he could sleep through a storm like this.
[18:41] And I would propose to you that Jesus was tired because he was running after God. Jesus could rest because he knew the promises of Romans 8.28.
[18:52] Even though Paul had yet to write it, for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, he could rest confident in the hands of the king.
[19:06] Further, as Jonah's running away from the call of God to preach good news to the people of Nineveh, Jesus is running towards a divine appointment.
[19:23] In John 5.19, Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
[19:37] He had a great confidence in his ministry. He didn't have to look to some methodology. He didn't have to come up with some sort of strategy. His single-mindedness is that he would listen to what the Father was doing and do what he said.
[19:52] So he gets into a boat and he sets out across a lake headed from the west side of the lake to the east side of the lake. We don't know. Did Jesus know the encounter he was about to experience?
[20:04] Maybe. Probably not. I would guess in his humanity that he did not know the future of his encounter on the other side of the lake, but he knew that he was meant to go across the lake and he could rest in that.
[20:18] Now we see where he goes at the beginning of chapter 5. We'll talk about this at length in some coming weeks. Chapter 5, verse 1, he ends up in the land of the Gerasenes.
[20:29] There are two cities there, Gerasa and Gadara, I'm assuming, is the way you pronounce these things. And this is where he casts out a demon, which is demons, called legion.
[20:40] Remember the story of the crazy man who lived amongst the tombs and he casts the demons out and he puts them into a herd of pigs? Guess what Jews didn't eat? Pigs. These are Gentile towns that he's gone to.
[20:54] Jesus' primary ministry was amongst Jewish people, but here we see him crossing to the other side of the lake to proclaim the good news of the coming kingdom, which was his consistent message to Gentile peoples.
[21:07] How do we know this? Chapter 5, verse 18, the man that he's cast this legion out of wants to go with him. They're going to get back in the boat and go back across the Sea of Galilee and he wants to go with him and instead he tells him to stay.
[21:24] He tells him to stay and go share the good news. Verse 19 and 20, into the Decapolis, which is a group of ten cities which were on the eastern front of the Roman Empire in modern day Jordan, they were Gentile cities in this largely Jewish region and this is where this man that legion was cast out of goes and shares the good news of the coming kingdom.
[21:46] I was so enlivened by this as I read this because our God is a global God. He makes global promises all throughout the Old Testament.
[21:57] We know that we are meant to go to the ends of the earth and here we see Jesus as part of that work as ministering primarily to Jewish people of Jewish descent but also expanding that reality out and beyond to Gentiles as well.
[22:14] We read in Isaiah 60 verses 1-3 Arise, shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you for behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the peoples but the Lord will arise upon you and His glory will be seen upon you and nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your shining.
[22:39] And Jesus could rest in this. So that's the calm during the storm. And then the calm after the storm.
[22:53] He awakes and He rebukes the wind and rebukes it peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
[23:04] He said to them why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith? Now remember that these are the men that Jesus spoke to in chapter 4 verse 11 He says to these men to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God.
[23:22] We know that these men except for one all became followers of Christ in their finality. They pursued Him to death. But yet they still lacked faith at this point.
[23:37] What a fascinating time in history. They still lacked the faith to believe He is who He says He is. He has made this point to them previously at the end of chapter 3.
[23:50] They are those that are sitting with Him and He says that those who are my family those who are my mothers and my brothers and my sisters are those who do the will of my Father. He has already made this claim that He is the Son of God again and again and again and yet they still find their faith so weak.
[24:11] Faith is confidence in the person and promises of God which find their fulfillment in Christ. Faith is confidence in the person and promises of God which find their fulfillment in Christ.
[24:25] 2 Corinthians 1.20 says for all the promises of God find their yes in Him being Jesus. So we ask this question why are you so afraid?
[24:38] If you believe I am who I say I am why are you afraid? If I am God incarnate coming to dwell amongst you and I'm asleep on the boat why are you afraid of a little storm?
[24:51] Ten foot waves right? Why are you afraid of a little storm? Have you still no faith? And this is a piercing question that Jesus asked and we would do well to ask ourselves the same question.
[25:07] Do we have faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? That's the case that's been building here that Mark is driving at. And most of us I believe with a great deal of confidence in the room can say yes of course I do.
[25:25] Of course I believe that Jesus is the Son of God and I see fruit in your lives that bear evidence of this reality. But I don't know that to be true of everyone in here. And we would be remiss at this point if we didn't ask that question.
[25:37] Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? It's not merely enough just to say it. It's not enough just to have some mental recognition of it.
[25:49] It's not enough to have grown up in a Christian home and to attend church services on a regular basis. All those things are outward trappings. Where is your heart?
[26:00] At the end of chapter 3 we found three categories. We found his family coming to him thinking that he was insane. That he was a lunatic. We saw the scribes accusing him of being a liar. Saying that he couldn't possibly be the son of God but that he must be the son of Satan doing these miracles from the power of Satan.
[26:18] And then we see those who are truly his family his mothers and his brothers doing the will of God and that is to believe that he is the Christ. So he's either going to be a liar a lunatic or Lord in your life.
[26:33] And this question and the answer to it has such great consequence. I would plead with you if you can't say with confidence you place your faith in Christ do that today.
[26:45] Begin searching. Begin asking questions. Begin stepping out of Christendom this little bubble that we live in that for some people is so magical and neat and for some people is so distasteful because they've seen the hypocrisy so many.
[27:02] And begin to really ask questions of your heart. What do I believe about Jesus Christ? There is no more important question in this world. Do I believe that he was in fact the Son of God?
[27:18] And if what he said was true about himself then this Bible these scriptures are of utmost importance and the way we arrange our lives by them matter immensely.
[27:29] The question the answer to this question has eternal consequence and I can't with you I'm right there with you I'm not more high minded than you I cannot wrap my mind around eternity. I do not know what that looks like.
[27:41] Every example I've seen people have told me oh I saw this great example somebody was showing about eternity that is a poor example of eternity. A piece of string stretched across a string with a little flag on it this is your life this is eternity no you can measure that right?
[27:57] Eternity is much bigger than that it's forever I don't even know it's so so difficult to see but the answer to this question has eternal consequence death pain punishment I fully believe in hell Jesus spoke about it more than he spoke about heaven there's retribution coming for those who are enemies of God who are not found in his family what that would be like I just can't imagine I can't imagine what eternal joy is like and that's what's promised to those of us who do believe that Jesus is the Christ this matters not just for eternity but it matters now too the way we arrange our lives what we believe to be true matters now you want to have life now believe in Christ you want to have death you want to live a miserable life you've come to the end of everything that you think might possibly bring you some satisfaction and some joy continue on that path right?
[28:54] reject Jesus as the Christ you want life accept him for who he is who he said he is that's a very piercing question have you still no faith that's the calm after the storm then there's a bit of a storm after the calm it says and they were filled with great fear and said to one another who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him you see their response of faithlessness at this point and they really should have known these men while they were simple men they would have known their scriptures as Jews they would have been saturated by this and they should have known who he was Job 38 8-11 says this is God speaking to Job or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said thus far shall you come and no farther and here shall your proud waves be stayed they would have been familiar with these words of God to Job right and the clear answer to that is me
[30:04] God the one who's speaking I am the one who set the limits on the sea we see in Psalm 65 a Psalm of David verses 5-8 by awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness O God of our salvation the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas the one who by his strength established the mountains being girded with might who stills the roaring of the seas the roaring of their waves the tumult of the peoples so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs you make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy David saw that this Christ was going to still the roaring of the waves and here they are witnessing it unique characters in history in the boat with Christ when there is a great calm brought about by his simple words peace be still and yet they didn't believe there is a storm going on in their hearts who is this man they feared him it says a man who speaks to the waves and they obey what we believe about Jesus has to have some real effect in our lives in fact the word believe that we see so often throughout our New Testament scriptures is the Greek word pastuo and it means to be persuaded of to place confidence in it carries a weight with it that's not simply understanding something to be true but understanding it to be true and having it affect the way that you live it's that kind of a belief
[31:48] John 14 12 Jesus says truly truly I say to you whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father whoever believes in me has this kind of deep abiding belief this persuasion this confidence in who Jesus is will also do the works that I do so the belief in us births activity it births good works it births following the example of Christ and to make it so simple and repetitive for you it makes us disciple making disciples those who pursue Christ in all that he did and Jesus was about the work of seeking and saving the lost so the reality that Jesus Christ is the Son of God has real implication for today's living we could just look at this and say man that was awesome how cool
[32:51] Jesus spoke and the waves stopped but it has real implications for today this reality that Jesus Christ is the Son of God 1 John 5 12 says God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son he who has the Son has life who has not the Son of God has not life and the opposite of that being death I mentioned that previously right he is the surety of our salvation placing our faith in him and that means something today your confidence in who Jesus is means something for your position today his accomplished work is what's granted you access into the family of God it's what's given you adoption you are a daughter or a son of the most high because of the accomplished work of Christ we don't believe he was the the Son of God then his work was nothing he was just a man who was crazy and died for his insanity Galatians 2 20 says that we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us so it carries out a process in our life the continual believing in the good news of Jesus Christ carries out a process of faith for us it builds our faith the opposite puts faith to death in our lives as Chris so poignantly said this morning in our Sunday school class right believing that Jesus is who he says he is believing in the work that he did that it has been accomplished births faith in us and so we live by that faith
[34:23] God creates life in us in Jesus Christ and God sustains life in us in Jesus Christ remember who God is the creator and sustainer of everyone and everything this happens by the person and work of Jesus Christ it means something for you and I today today it means something right now sitting in your chair this moment this great reality this means something for one of our elders this morning Stan Luttrell and his family aren't here you may note they're in Tennessee where his father is potentially dying he's had a heart condition had a stint put in yesterday we're going to reach the 24 hour mark at about noon of the success of such an operation it means something for them as they sit at his bedside wondering what will happen to him it means that God is able to heal his father that it's possible that that might happen that he can pray that that if it's God's will God can heal his father if we see his father come back to some level of rejuvenation this will be a great work of God maybe by the hands of able doctors but it will certainly be a work of God and Stan's father as far as he knows is not a believer he may be at the very end of his life right now and his eternal surety is not secure his dad may be facing an eternity of torment and separation from God knowing that Jesus is the Christ knowing that he is in fact
[36:01] God himself that he can say to the waves and the wind peace be still and they obey him certainly means that Jesus is able to save his father you can pray confident prayers that God would save his father it means things for us day by day that we remember who Jesus is the vision statement of Christ Family Church that Christ Family Church exists to glorify God by experiencing proclaiming and displaying the supremacy of Jesus Christ in all things to all peoples is Jesus Christ supreme is Jesus Christ the son of God made manifest the one who is being exalted at God's right hand even now as we speak if he is this then he is certainly supreme to everything else in this world the father himself has exalted the son the spirit exists to exalt the son he is supreme to all things so is Christ supreme in your experience in all things do you experience
[37:13] Christ to be supreme in all things has this truth worked down into you in such a way that you can say in every moment of every day Christ is supreme Christ is better than anything else that I might experience in this world the clear answer to that is no and the clear answer to that should be yes is Christ supreme in your proclamation in all things what do you talk about what do you spend your days gabbing on about right what occupies your words so I'll tell you this you talk about the things you love think over this past week the things you spent your time talking about what did you talk about this week not that we don't ever talk about anything else in this world right but is the personal work of Jesus Christ the predominant thing that you talked about this past week I'm afraid that the resounding answer to that would be no for most of us but the clear answer should be yes
[38:17] Jesus Christ is supreme and therefore I talk about him is Christ supreme in your display in all things do you live like you have a hope beyond this world right do you live in such a way that people see you and think you're odd this person is different even in this Christian culture that we live in we should be set apart not that we want to be set apart for the sake of being set apart right sometimes you can run away from things and not ever know what you're running to right but a lot of Christians don't look any different from this world they give no really clear evidence that they have any hope at all beyond the normal things of this world right how do we arrange our lives this means things about the way we dress this means things about what we drive what kind of professions we pursue this means things about the quality of our study this means things about the quality of our work this means things about how we take care of our homes and what we use our homes for right it means things for every aspect of our living and I know this is a high and lofty concept and it's so difficult to take this and play it out into every situation in your life but you've got to start taking this reality and begin filtering who you are through it is Christ supreme in everything in your life right if he's not when you're not experiencing them to be that then you have failed to believe in that moment the reality of the gospel and don't hear me saying that you can you can wax and wane that you can unbelieve the gospel right if you are gods you are gods you are secure in his hand and I have confidence that you will progress until the end in your faith full confidence in that praise god for our soteriology the doctrines around salvation that we believe around here the bible clearly teaches!
[40:08] this to us you're secure in that way but in those moments you forget the riches of that truth for your life in those moments right you fail to believe it at that time right because belief really believing that Jesus is who he said he is will have effect it will change the way we live it will give us power to deny sin it will give us power to live righteous lives right these realities of the gospel we must filter everything through it so this is the storm after the calm and I hope for everyone in here I maybe shook you up a bit but I hope that you find a calmness in your confidence in your faith in Christ this morning if you don't it's time to wake Jesus up that he might calm that storm for you let's pray together