Finding Peace in the Chaos

Talk it Over Note:

Start talking.

• Who are some people you care about?

Start thinking.

• Which part of this message was most impactful for you and why?

• What are some easy ways to find or experience peace when you’re stressed?

• Read 1 Peter 5:7. How do you currently handle your anxiety? What does it look like to “cast all of your anxiety” on God?

Start sharing.

• Share about a time you saw God’s purpose after a storm was over. How did that experience grow your faith?

• Is there a storm you’re currently facing? How can you seek God’s presence in the middle of this difficulty?

• Some things to remember in the storms of life:

Look for God’s presence. Look for God’s purpose.

So Don’t get so caught up in the storm that you forget the Who in the boat!

Start praying. Be bold and pray with power.

Father, we’re so thankful that You’re always with us. Please give us a clear understanding of Your will for our lives, and remind us that everything has a purpose. Help us to cast our anxieties on You. Let us rest in Your presence, no matter what’s going on around us. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Start doing. Commit to a step and live it out this week.

• Identify one way you can trust God this week. Talk about your

experience with your group.

• Spend time praying about the miracles you’re needing in your life.

• Start The Miracles of Jesus Bible Plan on YouVersion www.go2.lc/miraclesplan

TRANSCRIPT 

So today I want to talk about another miracle that shows us another dimension of the, of the incredible authority of Jesus. And it helps us to understand maybe how we should not wait when we're waiting for a miracle. So let me ask you a question. When you're in that waiting season of something, you don't know where it's going to go.

What best sums you up? Are you kind of like the cool, calm, collected type? Or the frantic, panic stricken chicken. Which one are you more like? Who's the cool, calm, collector type in all things? Wow, there's not many of us, is there? And who's the frantic, scratching chicken? Yeah, yeah, panicking chicken, right.

Yeah, okay, that's good. It's very interesting, very interesting how we approach that wait season when it comes to miracles. So Mm hmm. All right, let me ask you a question. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where there is something that is going on? It's just continuing to go on and you I don't know.

Maybe it's only me. I don't know Maybe I just lack a bit of faith, but you kind of reach a place where you you say this you say God Do you even care? Do you care? Do you care at all about this? Do you understand what's going on now? I don't disbelieve in God. I trust that God's there. I know he's there, but I still kind of, I don't know you, I kind of freak out.

It's like, don't you understand? Can't you understand the pain? Can't you understand what's going on here? What's taking place? Don't you, don't you care? No, we're not the first person and people to actually ask that question. Now, I'd like a little show of hands in here. Maybe you guys can jump on one. How many people here have ever experienced a panic attack?

A panic attack. They're lovely, aren't they? For those of you that haven't, it's when suddenly you just are gripped by fear. This dread comes upon you, and you can't even perform the simplest of tasks. You can't make a phone call, you can't talk to anyone. You are freaking out about everything. Your body starts to shake, your breathing gets heavier and harder, your chest starts to tighten, your vision becomes blurred, and you feel like this debilitating weight is crushing your chest.

And you're frightened to go to sleep, because you feel like if you're going to go to sleep, it's like my mind is going to snap, something's going to happen, and I'm going to end up completely insane. And then what they do is they rush you to hospital several times, and they say you're not having a heart attack, which everyone thinks it is, but you're actually having a panic attack.

And then they say things like, you need to slow down, just slow down, you're not going to slow down, or you could, this could get worse, but you can't, you can't slow down. And you can't let go because you're frightened of losing everything and you're frightened of upsetting people so you keep going and then you don't heed the warnings and then the final stage of the meltdown comes and you are convinced that you are dying so you start talking to all your loved ones about the fact that yes I think it's my time to die and you drop into this dark abyss of clinical depression.

Well that's where 17 years ago. And it was not a nice place to be. And it took me about two years to get out, or it took God two years to get me out. Not because He was weak, but because I didn't understand what was going on. During that time, I was not the happiest person in the world. And My wife Anne and our spiritual daughter Anita.

They came up with a little name for me. They called me Happy. And they bought me something that looked like this to remind me of Happy. And I still have this thing at home there. But this, I was called Happy not because, I was happy, but everywhere I went, there was like this dark cloud just following me.

And Anita would go, Oh God, here comes happy. Which meant the exact opposite meant what she was really saying. Here comes the misery guts again. But I couldn't get out of it and I couldn't see it. And I would justify, and I kept asking God, why don't you take it away? I've been serving you. I'm a pastor. I'm doing all the work.

Don't you care? Don't you care what I'm going through? And then somewhere in the middle of it, I said, Am I supposed to learn something here? And the only time he spoke to me, he said, Yes.

And what? Yes, you've got to learn some things. But because of the way you are, it's probably going to take a while. We could do it all tomorrow, but because of the way that you, you know, it's going to take a while to get life. So my life was completely crumbling. I was sad, I was angry, I couldn't control my future any longer, nothing looked clear.

And I was trying to find this peace in the midst of all this panic. But it was like my life was disappearing under the surface. It was like it was dropping into this dark abyss of nothingness. I was so angry about life. I was so disappointed about things that had happened to me. I was so furious about the church that, that I was in, and what I saw generally in the church.

And I was just unhappy. And I started to believe lies about who I am, lies about who God is. And I was completely out of control, and I could not find peace in the storm. But in the storm, eventually God revealed some things to me. So I want to interact a little bit with you now. So you know what you're gonna do?

You've got your phones. It's going to be a QR code up on the screen. I would like you to answer this question as I keep talking and we're going to have a look at it in a minute. And the question is this, you guys online as well. You can scan the cold code. What situations cause you to panic and lose peace?

Dexter had one this morning. He comes running into the bathroom. He goes, Uncle Abbey, Uncle Abbey, get out of here fast. And I'm thinking, what's going on? What's going on? It's a cockroach. I said, buddy, it's a cockroach. Whack it, put it in the bin. No, no. He was in a real panic about it. But what sort of situations do that to you?

Can you get peace in the panic? In the middle of it, in the middle of it, just let that go up. You can enjoy that. While I was in the middle of this, I kept asking the Lord, is it possible to be at peace? And then he took me to to an article on the Titanic. And I thought, that's interesting. So if you don't know what the Titanic is, it was a big honking boat.

And in April the 14th, 1912, it disappeared into the dark abyss, abyss of the North Atlantic ocean. Now what had been said about this boat beforehand was that it was unsinkable and they even made the quote, not even God could sink this thing, which was a very silly statement to make. 1, 500 lives were lost because they didn't have enough lifeboats on board.

Why didn't they have enough lifeboats? Because they stupidly thought this thing was unsinkable. But here's what I want to get to. As it was going down, the musicians, his crew musicians, they went up as far as they could go on the top deck to where they could be as the ship was sinking and they played.

And they played together all the way through to try and bring comfort to people as they were disappearing into the icy water. And as they disappeared into the icy water, it's reported that the last thing they played was the hymn, Nearer My God To Thee.

How do you stay calm and keep playing to comfort others when you know that in moments time, you're going to be disappearing into the abyss as well? Is it possible? Must be. Let's see what you had to say. Let's go back to the, can we go to the slide now? What sort of things put you into a panic when I have no control?

Spiders. Yeah. Disagreement. Confrontation. Snake. People. Stupid people. How many of those do you know? Exams. Memory flashbacks. Microsoft Excel. That throws everybody into a panic. I'm telling you. Yeah. That's pretty easy for us. Now that whole concept of the Titanic, Annie and I experienced that in Christchurch when we got caught in the earthquake.

A lot of people died in and around us and everything's falling down and there's everything's gone. But there was this incredible peace in the middle of it. Why was that? So let's talk a little bit about that. I'm going to Mark chapter 5. Now just to give you a bit of a heads up if you don't know about the Bible and things like that, the book of Mark was written by Mark but he was actually called John Mark and he was one of the companions of the Apostle Peter on his, on his missionary travels.

It's the shortest of the Gospels that were written and was probably the earliest written, I think possibly around about AD 60, somewhere around there. It is a powerful figurative picture. It's written and explains all, just how dynamic Jesus was and the miracles and the teachings. It talks about his public ministry and the interactions with the disciples and the opponents and his journey towards Jerusalem, ultimate crucifixion, which we'll be celebrating next week in Easter.

It also portrays Jesus as the suffering servant. This is the thing that completely derailed the Jews. They could not get their head around a messiah, a saviour that was a suffering servant. They wanted a conquering king and he snuck in as a suffering servant to make sure that this thing was no longer a Jewish thing, this salvation.

This was a for all nations. So it's a very well respected book and it forms the foundation of Christian doctrine. Now the scene behind this, just to give you some backstory of where we're going. Jesus has been teaching down by the side of a lake. There's a crowd down there and he's teaching. Now a lake was kind of like a junction point.

They would meet in these places and the crowd gathers and he's, he's just talking to them and he's talking about the dynamic of the kingdom. of heaven and how this kingdom comes to earth and what it's going to be like. And so, and, and, and he's talking to them in parables, like in stories, they're like natural stories that have spiritual, that mirror spiritual things that he's trying to do.

And he's vision casting for a kingdom that's coming. It's a different kingdom. This must've had them kind of like going, what, even the disciples must've been scratching their heads a little bit about this thinking, what is he talking about? So that all finishes and then Jesus decides that he's going to pull back the veil a little bit for his disciples and let them experience and see what this kingdom is really like.

And I bet the guys in here were just like the guys on the Titanic and the things that we go through. Didn't ask for the experience, didn't really want it, but they got it just the same. So let me just walk through. I'm going to read it through and then we'll pull it apart. It says, that day when evening came, he said to the disciples, let us go to the other side, leaving the crowd behind.

They took him along just as he was in a boat and there were other boats. A furious squall came up. The waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said, teacher, don't you care if we drown? Okay, let's pull it apart. The first part of that is that day when evening came, Jesus said to the disciples, let us go over to the other side.

This is actually a For us, we read that and go, huh, a bit of ancestral information. This was very important, because he wanted to go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. It was actually a big lake. It was about 21 kilometres long, 13 kilometres wide, and it was notorious because of where it sat for furious storms going on.

But what was more important to the disciples, he said to them, we need to go to the other side of the lake. So he's been talking about the kingdom, but he says, now we need to go to the other side of the lake. Now for them, they didn't go to the other side of the lake because on the other side of the lake were the Gentiles.

On the other side of the lake were the pagans. And good Jewish boys don't go to that side of lake and they don't meet with those sort of people. And to reinforce this in the Jews mindset, the leaders taught that over there, on that side, was actually where the devil lived with the pagan people and the Gentiles.

Now, us modern readers know different. Because we know the devil went down to Georgia. People wrote songs about it. There you go. But that's what they would do. So they had this thing, so he's asking them to cross a lake to go to the other side where they're not supposed to go to meet people they shouldn't be with.

And the devil lives over there. What is going on here? You also have to remember in the, in this, in their day, there was a lot of superstition in regard to this, to the sea. So this is what one Bible scholar wrote about it. He said, the sea was known to swallow entire ships and gulp down people. It was a common superstition.

Keep going. Next. All right. It was a common superstition to view the water as an abyss. An abyss where demons lurked in the deep. The sea was actually considered a manifestation of the realm of death. So Jesus is telling them to go to the other side of the lake to meet with people he shouldn't meet with, talk to people, go to a place they shouldn't go.

The devil lives there and they have to cross the abyss. They actually have to deal with death and confronted by it and he's saying that's what you want to do. So that they've got all this going on in their minds. We don't, we're reading a big deal, just cross the lake, whatever, get over there. No, this mess huge for them but it's also huge in what he's trying to say.

The kingdom, he's talking to the kingdom with the Jews but the next step is, is across the other side of the lake. That's where we got to go. So the first thing about this that I want us to capture is that God expects us to re risk in order to reach his lost children. He expects us to risk. He taught them about it.

He says now you need to go to the other side. You've got to deal with this fear of death and this kind of stuff. And you need to go over there, but those people aren't, we don't go to those people. Those people aren't deserving. You see what he's saying? Over here he's teaching about the kingdom. Now he's showing them the extent of where that kingdom is going to go.

So they're on the journey. And then what do you know? A furious score comes up and the waves break over the boat. And it's nearly swamped. Every time you're going to risk and you're going to step out with Jesus, there will be a storm. They're just par for the course. That's just how it is. But the disciples, they're freaking out in the storm.

Whatever illusion of control they thought they had, it was gone. And they also got in their mind, let's not forget who got us into this mess. Jesus is the one that suggested that we come over and do this. And they're freaking out in the storm. They're going, Oh, we're going to die. We're going to die. And they're running around.

They're panicking and they're panicking. They're packing. They go, where's Jesus? Where is this? Where's Jesus? Oh, he's sleeping in the back of the boat. Really? Let's have a look. Yeah. Jesus is in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. Really? Are you serious? He's sleeping through a storm. Why is he not up here with us?

Freaking out, trying to save ourselves. He's sleeping in the boat. What's he doing in there? Here's the second lesson out of this. It's possible to sleep through a storm and be perfectly at peace. It's possible to have that kind of conviction. But anyway, They're still freaking out so, the disciples woke him and said to him, and here's the line, Teacher don't you care?

Don't you care? Don't you care if we drown? Which is pagan code for, Jesus are you out of your Vulcan mind? Are you serious? Look what you have got us into! Check out this storm! Look at the waves! Look at the wind! This is terrible! We've been flogging ourselves to save ourselves and we're all going to die!

And what do you do sleeping in the back on a cushion punching out some Z's? Don't you get it Jesus? Well you've been sleeping! We're all about to die! And I reckon when Jesus woke up, I think he just chuckled to himself a little bit, knowing what was about to happen. But are we any different when the storms come up?

Jesus, don't you care that I just lost my job? Well, yeah, but I think I'll just rest for a little bit. What? Don't you care about my anxiety, my depression? Don't you care about the fact that we're going bankrupt? Don't you care that the kids are rebelling and we don't know what to do? Yeah.

Don't you care that I'm stuck in this loveless marriage? Jesus, why don't you do something? Why don't you do something? I remember when we first took over down here and our elders are the most amazing people and their wives in the world. And we're looking and going, Oh my goodness. We don't know if we're going to survive.

And this went on for like three or four years. And I remember crying out to God, Don't you care? Can't you see we're doing everything we can, but don't you care? And he goes, Yeah, yeah, I care, but I'm just going to rest up for a bit. Why? Why? We're in this mess. Don't you care? Yeah, I'm just going to rest up a bit until the appointed time.

Well, this is the appointed time. We're about to die here. Yeah, yeah, just rest for a little bit longer because there's some lessons that you need to learn. And we learned in the middle of the storm to look for his presence in everything. In everything. Jesus was always in the boat. Sleep in the boat. And they had to learn some lessons.

And in every storm there are lessons to be learned. But you begin to realize after a while, as you start to trust Jesus and develop a relationship, and you have Him in the boat, that who is more important than what? Jesus said, He said, I will never leave you and forsake you. In the context of what? As you go and make disciples.

In the context of you face your fears, cross the lake and have the conversation. Now for us, it doesn't necessarily mean crossing the lake. It might mean look over the fence and talk to your neighbour. Might mean the person at work, just across the hall. But that fear will be there. The demon, the abyss is there to stop you from doing it.

But no, no, no, it's okay. We need to get across it because these people need Jesus. Because every person that you see, that you look at in this world, bears the image of God. And they are children of God that are separated from Him. And they need help to find their way back, to trust Him again. It's amazing.

It's amazing. He says, I'm always with you. And that's what helps us in the storm. So that's why when suddenly you find yourself standing by a casket of someone that you love and you're saying goodbye, Jesus, you said, you'd never leave me or forsake me. He's in the boat. When someone breaks your heart and you think like, that's it.

I'm just, it's all done. No, no. Jesus is in the boat. I'm with you. I'm with you through that. I'm with you through the job loss. I'm with you when you get the call that you don't really want to get. I'm with you when everything's gone bad. I'm right there with you in it. Jesus never said you wouldn't experience storms.

In fact, he promised that you would suffer. He said, we will suffer because that's the nature of this world. And it's also the nature of mission. But he said, when you're in the storm, if you're freaking out. Check out the back of the boat. Because there may just be someone sleeping down the back. And then you look for his purpose within the context of the storm.

Because you've got to remember, Jesus is the one that told them to go to the other side. He's the one that put them in this place, to go to a place they shouldn't go, to talk with people they shouldn't be with. Apparently the devil lives over as well, because they didn't know he was in Georgia. So it was terrifying for them.

But he says, no, no, that's okay. Here's the funny thing. We all go through storms and go, oh, I'm out of God's will. I want to tell you, they were in the storm because of God's will. Because there was something for them to learn. They had to learn some things if they were going to engage and embrace the Gentiles and the pagans and get over their own fears to get there.

Now I get it. I get Peter. I so get Peter. Peter, they'd have finished their beautiful thing up on the hills and Jesus has been teaching and it's all been wonderful and this that and the other and then Peter would said, okay Jesus, we're crossing a lake, we're the professional fishermen here. You take care of the preaching, we'll take care of the boats, that's our, this is our domain, so just chill, relax.

So Jesus would go, oh okay, well let's go and have a sleuze down the back. And then the storm hits and they learn a lesson. They learn a lesson that even in the areas where you think you're gifted and they thought they were gifted and they thought they could handle it, when the storm came they realized they couldn't handle it at all and they needed Jesus.

And so they cried out to him because he's sleeping in the back. I don't think Jesus wanted to be sleeping in the back of the boat. I think he wanted to be active in every part of their lives. But us human beings, we go, yeah well I can probably handle that myself. And so they had that dynamic where they're freaking out.

They're trying to save themselves and they're exhausting themselves. And it's only to the very end that they go, well, we better wake Jesus up. When do you think about that in the beginning? Why wait till it gets to there? See, Jesus wanted them to experience somewhat of the kingdom that he's talking about on this side.

That's the kind of power and the demonstration that'll be need once it goes to all nations. And so the only way he can do it is allow a storm and then he can pull back the veil and he can reveal who he is. And so we read on. So Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind and the waves. Rebukes the wind and the waves and says, Quiet, be still.

The actual word he used is, Be muzzled. Like a rabid dog, he says, Be muzzled. He takes authority over it. The appointed time had come. The lessons had been learned. And so he stood up and he addressed it. And in that very moment, the storm was over. It was done. It was gone. It was over. It was completely done.

It was completely over. And there was no fear of the storm anymore. But there was another fear now. And that was one of those holy schnikey fears where they realized this guy, he can even speak to the waves. He can talk to the waves and the wind. He can, he can, he can calm the weather. This is not normal and I love the fact that it's the professional fishermen that are freaking out like mad thinking they're all gonna die.

And the carpenter is just in the back there that he's just demonstrating his authority over the weather, which is why I think he had a chuckle beforehand, you know? And he'd just be still see, they learn a lesson. They thought they could control their life. Their trust was in themselves and they were filled with self sufficiency.

But Peter learnt this lesson because later on he wrote in a document that he wrote to the church. He wrote this, he said, Cast all your cares, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. When Peter was writing that, he was remembering this time.

He was remembering and learning that lesson. It's amazing. That word cast means to transfer, means to transfer. So he's saying when you've got a problem with a relationship, transfer that burden to me. You got a problem with something that's going on, transfer that to me. When you're worried about your teen, I love your teen more than you do.

Just transfer that burden to me. Trust me, I'm in the boat. When you're worried about your finances, just transfer that to me. Got a health issue? Just transfer it. Just transfer it. And trust that I'm in the boat. I'm there with you. Just trust me. Now, of course, this whole process at the end of it, Jesus said to them, why were you afraid?

Storm. Did you not see the storm? What storm? Why are you afraid? And he says, Oh, well, your little faith. Why did you, why do you not have faith? And they're terrified. They're terrified because they're catching a glimpse and they're understanding that this kingdom. This kingdom that's coming, that's an all skate for everyone, all nations, all tribes and nations and tongues.

This is, this is a game changer. This is a game changer and it's not just for them. So let me go back through those things just so we catch them. Kingdom, he's talking about kingdom. He's expanding their mind to realize it's about not just them anymore, it's where it's going to go, puts them in a position.

He expects them to risk to reach his lost children. There will be a storm. There will be a storm if you're going to step out with Jesus. And that's to help us know of our need for Him. Our continual need. But in the middle of a storm, it's possible for you to actually be at peace in the middle of that storm.

And you just keep waking Him. Say, Jesus, wake up. And if Jesus doesn't wake up, you just sit quiet. And realize, okay, it's obviously not the appointed time. I'll just keep waiting for you, Jesus, and keep asking until the appointed time. But then you ask the other question, okay, Lord, what do I need to learn here?

What's the lesson that I am missing that I need to learn? And then at the appointed time, Jesus steps up. And the storm is gone in an instant. Gotta look for his presence, gotta look for his power. This is a demonstration of the miraculous of Jesus. The miraculous nature of having Jesus in your boat of your life.

That's what it's about. The all powerful, ever present, all knowing God is with you always. Is with you always. You just gotta make sure you don't let him go to sleep. In the back of your God, because you force him there, back of your boat. So what are you going to do about it? What do we do about this? You know, some of you, the storms of your own making, some comes from others, some comes from the broken world, but some of it is a gift.

It's a gift from God. To help you get what you need for what is coming next. It's to prepare you. But in every storm you're going to be faced with two choices. Will you try and save yourself? Which you'll end up like a frantic, panicking chicken. Scratching around, trying to save yourself. And in the end, that will lead to death.

Or will you just surrender to Jesus? And say, you know what? If you're sleeping, I'm resting too. And I'll stay calm in the midst of this. I'll learn the lesson I need to learn. And then suddenly, Jesus speaks and the storm is over. That's the greatest miracle of all. The greatest miracle of all is the fact that you and I can have a relationship with God.

You can have the creator of the heavens and the earth within you all the time. So it doesn't really matter what happens, it's the who that you've got in your boat. That is the greatest miracle of all. And it doesn't matter whether you're going into the storm or you're coming out of a storm or there's something on the horizon, it doesn't matter.

As long as Jesus is in your boat. You can remain calm in it. You can learn the lessons in it. Keep trusting Him and eventually, when the appointed time comes, it happens. He stands up and says, Peace, be still. That's the greatest miracle. That is the greatest miracle being able to have Jesus in the boat of our lives.

And you can tell when someone has that. Because when someone has that, when things are going wrong. They have this uncanny, weird piece. It's like, how can you possibly be calm while all of this is going on? Well, I just know who's in the boat. I know who's in my boat. And sooner or later, he's going to stand up and rebuke the storm.

In between times, I'm just going to learn the lesson. What am I, what do I learn out of this that's going to prepare me for the future? People like this, they face death with absolute poise and grace, because they know the death is not the end. It's just the doorway to another dimension of life that we all have to step through.

You just got to choose well before you get to that doorway. So you've got to make sure that Jesus is in the body of your life. We use a very simple process for this, for our discipleship core, and that's, we use our devotions, where we encourage people to get together, get together, just read, read together, listen, journal down what God is saying to you, what he wants you to change, how he wants you to shift, what you're going to apply, and then you pray that, and then you share it with a few others, and then what you discover is you get a collective revelation because they add to what God has been saying to you.

That's a simple process that will help you stop Jesus going to sleep in the back of your boat. Because you include Him in everything. That's the part that He wants. He wants to be involved in every aspect of your life. Here's the thing. You can believe in Jesus. That's cool. Eternal security. No problem whatsoever.

But you may not grow up and mature and become effective in the kingdom. So then God has to bring storms to force you to grow up and to mature in the kingdom. I think, because I watched some people over the last 30 or 40 years or whatever it is, and some people just never seem to have any storms or hardly any.

You know, you can't not have all, but just hardly any. And then other people seem to have like, they're like a walking disaster. It's like, they've got mines all around them and they step on them and one blows up and then someone else blows up. And here's what I've discovered. The more of your life that you can include Jesus in, and you can surrender to Him, His will be done more than yours, and you include Him in that, the less storms you have.

Because you've already included Him in. He's not gone to sleep. But if you force Him to sleep, and you start taking control, and you start trusting in yourself, and you start thinking it's all about you, Who? . Well then he's gotta let some things happen so he can get your attention to keep you on the track of growing and being conformed to the image of Christ.

Wow. See, every provision starts with a decision. What's the decision? To believe? To believe, to believe in Jesus. Believe he's in your boat. Believe he is in your boat. Could you imagine what would happen across our city if everyone. that professed to follow Christ was that confident that they had Jesus with them always?

I, sometimes I watch people and I go, do you even believe that Jesus is with you? Because they're freaking out so bad. But this is it. Jesus said, the greatest thing, the whole work of God is for you to believe. Believe in Him. Believe that He sent Jesus to die for you, to take your sins. To take your punishment and my punishment.

And then He rose to give us His righteousness. His right standing before God. And all we have to do. Oh, so hard. All you have to do is stop trying to save yourself. Just admit. You're broken. This world is broken. We're broken. You can't fix yourself. And then just say, Jesus, I'm going to stop trying to fix myself.

And watch how the pressure goes off. You I choose to receive you as my Lord and my Saviour. And I trust that you, by your Spirit within, on the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, you'll conform me back to the image of Christ in your community called the family, called the church. And that's how you pray and you start trusting Jesus more and more.

Could you imagine what we would look like in circumstances? People will be going, wow, why are you not freaking out like the rest of us? When the business is going down, the Titanic's sinking, why are you not freaking out? Why are you just still listening there playing music, waiting for the miracle? That may or may not come in one way, it comes one way or the other.

It's just amazing. The greatest miracle in this is you can have Jesus in your boat. And that's your belief component. That's your belief. That gives you eternal security. But, don't let it stop there. Don't let Jesus stay asleep in your boat. Because, as he said here, there is a mission. There is a gulf to bridge.

There are people to reach. There are children of God's children that need to find a way home. And they need to learn to trust Him. And they won't learn to trust Him unless they can see someone that's already trusting Him. Through all the different seasons of life. And so we need to go make disciples.

That's what this is all about. But if we remember that, he's the miracle. He is the miracle and he is within me and he is within you. Storms will come and storms will go and there's something to be learned in them all. But you can remain calm and at peace with your saviour because you know he You're not God, you don't have to be God.

You can just trust Him. Let's pray together. Father, I just thank you that I love the way you're leading us through this series. And some of, maybe some people this morning and online, you just decided, man, this is the day I'm going to start trusting Jesus. My life's a mess and I don't want to do this anymore.

Well, you just heard me share with you how you pray. You just acknowledge you're broken. Amen. You just acknowledge you're broken. You can't fix yourself. You acknowledge that there's sin that blocks your relationship with God. But that's why Jesus came. Jesus came so that you could surrender to him. So you could actually have him in the boat of your life.

So you never have to worry about being alone ever again in any circumstances. And Lord, I reckon there'd be some of us here that, you know, Have been on the journey of being conformed to the image of Christ and letting the kingdom expand But we've kind of like found some places that we're good at and we've become self sufficient in some areas And now we're wondering why these storms are coming and that's because jesus you're trying to get our attention You're trying to get our attention To help us understand even in the areas that you think you're gifted and you can handle it.

You can't When the storm comes you will panic and you will go down with the ship But if you'll keep me included, if you'll keep me included all the way, you just rest in me through the storm. You learn the lessons and when I speak, it's over. And you'll be just fine. Let us all just keep in mind, Father, that this whole thing was about you helping them understand the kingdom is way beyond now.

Way beyond just the Jews here. It's like, it's for all people. And we have to be about having to risk and face some storms and learn some things and stay at peace Knowing that you're in control and we look for your presence and we look for your power and we look for your purpose And I pray this morning That more of us will just start surrendering a little bit more and including a little bit more in other areas of our life So the kingdom may grow and so people may discover a relationship with you Because they see someone that is following and trusting christ in every area of their lives Father, I thank you.

That is the greatest miracle of all. The fact that we have Jesus in our boat always.