Struggling to Obey (Part B)

They've got to be exhausted.

This is going on for hours, incidentally, because we're going to get a time stamp in a moment. The resistance we meet with. Again, going back to Daniel, because it's going to take Christ walking on the water to reach these men to save them, and it still takes Christ exercising His miraculous powers if He's going to save me from anything, and especially myself. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Mark.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick will continue his teaching called Struggling to Obey in Mark Chapter 6. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure. We count them blessed who take a punch in the interest of the King because they hold to the truth.

Now, the world takes punches too, but they don't hold to the truth, and that is what distinguishes us from them. And that is also a reminder to us that life is to be ministry for Christ. Life includes me being a family person, but it's much more than that.

That's not enough. If you get to heaven and say, well, I had a good family, it's not enough. There should be a burden for other people, for other lost souls also. And it is a tragedy when Christians become so focused on their family that they're no longer burdened by lost souls. Would you like a pastor that said something else? Would you like a preacher to come up and say, no, just take care of your family and let everybody rot in hell? Of course not. When you hear it that way, you say that. That is not right.

That is wrong. I should have a burden for lost souls because I don't want to go to hell. Why would I want anybody else to? But to learn how, to pull it off, to learn how to serve, to learn how to do it without burning out, without becoming self-righteous and judgmental, these are reasons why we expose ourselves to the scripture and the characters in the Bible. Now, we're going to also be accused of being malicious and mean for just telling the truth, no matter how you say it. Well, we can't let that stop us from telling the truth. You can't stop people from falling on your sword if they insist on falling on it. Verse 47, now when evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea and he was alone on the land.

Now hopefully I can tie this all in for us as we move forward. The middle of the sea does not mean the center point of the Sea of Galilee. We learn how to read scripture this way because scripture explains it to us. For example, back to John chapter 6, then the sea arose, a great wind was blowing, so when they had rode about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. Well, the Sea of Galilee is larger than eight miles. I mean, for them to be in the center would not fit. So of course, what Mark is saying is they're in the middle of their trek, their journey, three or four miles.

As I mentioned earlier, it's about six to Gennesaret, give or take a little bit more. And so that's, all is kind of just sailing right along for us. Catch the nautical metaphor. Verse 48, then he saw them straining at rowing. Well, the wind was against them. Now about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea and would have passed them by.

Now the story gets really good, at least to me. Oh, first thing, when he saw them straining at rowing, for the wind was against them, he saw them distanced. It was nothing, no big thing for him. It is for us because when he doesn't show up and I'm struggling, I'm saying, where is he? Why does God seem so far away? Why does he seem not to care? He says, I always see. I always care. I just don't do it your way.

I do it my way, because my way is better. And if you don't believe that, you're going to find out when you get to heaven. You're going to find out, as it says in the very beginning of our Bibles, and he saw that it was good. When God made man and woman, he saw that it was good. He did not see it as, hmm, we need to fix this.

This is broken. As he used to say, even back in the 70s and earlier, he made them Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And we should remind folks that, you know, for someone to say, well, I've always felt that I was, you know, the opposite sex from the time I was a kid.

Well, I had kind of thoughts like that too. I always felt that other people's desserts should be mine since I was a kid. That doesn't make it right. That's how the world thinks. They think that they have a sensation that justifies sin. And God says, stop downsizing this stuff.

This is deadly. Sin is no joke. And we who preach the gospel should be very mindful of that. I wonder how many, how many teens are in the sanctuary who right now just aren't even listening. I wonder how many adults in the sanctuary just aren't even listening. You know, at the preaching of God's word, you would hope that everybody would be on the edge of their seats waiting for God to just minister to them, albeit through a flawed vessel. God can still pour from a cracked pot into cracked pots.

So here's the story. Then he saw them straining and rowing, straining at the oars, all of them rowing together, not different, I want to go this way, no, let me go that way, all rowing together. Even Judas is cooperating in this boat, in the midst of this disturbed sea. They were struggling. What were they struggling to do? Well, survive, not capsize, which is one reason why they probably didn't turn around. But they're struggling together because he told them, go to the other side.

He didn't say go halfway out and if it gets rough, come back. See, this is what, this is how we get the lessons out, we read this. Why does the Holy Spirit preserve this language in this manner?

There must be a lesson here. That's why Jesus would say, have you not read what David did? And that Paul would say, you know, what about the bonds?

He would bring up stories from the scripture because there are our instructions. Here they are obediently struggling to row forward and they're not getting anywhere. Sounds like serving Christ sometimes. Struggling. I mean, personally as just a Christian man, reading and rowing, that's my Christian life.

Reading what he said, getting my orders, and then trying to row forward with that. And yet, I find oftentimes I'm straining at rowing and I get upset with him for not making things easier because we're built, we're messed up. We weren't built that way originally.

We were ruined. Sin has done this to us. And as he has seen me so often, as he has watched the faithful strain to obey against the winds of life, he still does. This ability to keep rowing, to keep going on in the direction he sent me, it's not by accident. It's his influence. To face resistance in Christ is because of Christ.

I wouldn't be able to do it without him. This ability comes from his very love for us and his focus on what he is going to do and use us to do it. I mean, we pin medals on generals for sending thousands of men to their deaths on the battlefield. There's not Christ, our King of Kings, the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts is primarily a battlefield title for him.

When the multitudes, when armies show up, he's the Lord of armies in heaven and on earth, in the physical and the spiritual realm. And so he has the right to order me to whatever destination he wants and he has the right to watch me struggle in an effort to comply with his orders. So when Jesus tells you, I want you to do this and you do not want to do it, you are struggling.

But is it willful? Or are you just making up your mind, I'm going to find, here's where it gets ugly. It's one thing to say, Lord, I'm trying to roll forward, I can't get anywhere, I'm messing it up. It's an entirely different thing to say, well let me change the destination. Let me, you told me to go across towards Capernaum, I'm going to go a different direction.

I'm going towards Gadara where the maniac was. You see, that's what's happening often today and it's, the way I'm hearing it is it's coming from our young adults in Christ. They're saying they're Christians, not all of them, of course not all of them, but enough of them are insisting they are Christians while they're rowing in some other direction. And they get ugly when the rest of us who are rowing towards the direction commanded point that out. What are we supposed to do?

Continue rowing where we're going and not give an inch. Paul said I did not yield to them for one hour and essentially he doesn't mean 60 minutes, he said I didn't budge, they were wrong and I stood up to them. I stood up to Simon Peter because he was wrong. I stood up to Barnabas, my friend, because he was wrong and this was a big deal and Christianity would have stopped right there in anti-oxeria if Paul did not stand up to his two friends and say look I love you but you are wrong.

Because you know they were playing those games when the Jews from James had arrived up in Antioch from Jerusalem, all of a sudden Peter and Barnabas became very Jewish and anti-Gentile and Peter and Paul would have none of it. We should catch some of this spirit. I have also discovered and then he saw them straining at rowing, it's a lot easier to watch these men row on paper than to me row in life. I mean just say oh they're straining but they're apostles, they'll make it through, he's going to walk to them and then it's my turn in the boat.

That's what I meant earlier, now we get to see ourselves again. Far away as these men are struggling to obey Christ, far away as Herod and Pilate and Caesar and the world. The world is doing its thing and the believers were doing their thing, obeying Jesus. That was what they were interested in doing and so within the fight, within the fight that we are engaged in for the interest of Christ, there's also the fight within us against the flesh.

As Harry Ironside said, I've got this traitor that lives in my heart, me, my fallen nature that has an appetite for things forbidden and is very serious about satisfying that appetite. And so at night, without Jesus in the boat, they are struggling, they're not heading anywhere, they've got to be exhausted. This is going on for hours incidentally because we're going to get a time stamp in a moment, the resistance we meet with. Again, going back to Daniel because it's going to take Christ walking on the water to reach these men to save them and it still takes Christ exercising his miraculous powers if he's going to save me from anything and especially myself. Daniel 10, 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia which stood me 21 days and behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. This is an angelic being speaking, telling Daniel, there is spiritual resistance. We've tried to reach you Daniel on this sea while you're rowing forward, but we have been intercepted by wickedness. We've not been able to get to you on time. Well, in a timely way.

He got to him on time, but not as fast as Daniel would have liked it. And so he offers this explanation. And we read this and we say, okay, what does the New Testament have to say about this aside from all that Jesus was doing in his life? We hear Paul say, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, principalities, power, spiritual wickedness in high places.

There are other elements that I'm up against. This is why every time Jesus gets a chance in the scripture to pray, he's praying. He's talking to his father.

It's recorded so we could read it and say I'm going to do the same thing. What parent, what mother does not like to see the daughter imitate them? What father does not like to see his son imitate him? I mean when they're little guys.

I mean now in their 40s. And then you're mocking me. But as a child of course, you want to see them say that's the direction I want to go in, where you are. And well that's what we want to do with God. You are the God who sees. Hagar learned that lesson in one of the earliest sections of scripture where Yahweh is actually seen.

Genesis chapter 16. And then she called, and she's dying, you know, things going bad for her. Then the Lord comes to her and then she called on the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, you are the God who sees. For she said, have I also here seen him who sees me?

So there on the lake and Jesus sees them just as it was with Hagar and Yahweh because Jesus is Yahweh. That recognition of truth in her life changed her life as it did the apostles. Remember they were 30, 20 years out writing, having these things written down. And it was to them like it was yesterday. It was more than they could remember. But they remembered enough and were kind of happy that they didn't remember everything because there's already a lot of reading.

So how big would the Bible be if they remembered all of it? Now about the fourth watch it tells us in verse 48, that is 3 to 6 a.m. So when he sends them out, the sun was setting, it was getting dark. Now it's maybe 3 in the morning.

Could be later. They were rowing a long time, enduring, agonizing, trapped. You ever felt trapped as a Christian? Have you ever felt, I'm just trapped?

It just stinks. I can't go to the left, I can't get out of this, I can't snap my fingers and be better. I'm trapped.

Well, you're not the only one. In this section, there they are trapped at sea. They couldn't turn around. They had to row forward. And as I've, the risk of repeating myself, rowing forward against resistance, not getting anywhere. So now about the fourth watch, he came to them walking on the sea.

Is that a little irritating? Why did he wait? He saw them earlier, why not just help them out?

Give a brother a break. Because his ways are higher than ours, and they're better. And we learn to love him in spite of it. He came to them walking on the sea. The same wind that resisted them could not resist him. That's one of the lessons.

We know this. He outpaced them. He was going to pass them by.

I don't know about you, but I think this is hysterical. I mean, they could have just added he was walking backwards, moonwalking past them. Yeah, that would have been, just put down your oars and all, this is just humiliating.

Experienced fishermen. So what was his intent? He's walking on the sea, that's miraculous, tantamount to flying. He would have passed them by. Was he trying to make a point? Yes, he was. When he rose from the dead, and he found the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, he joins them in their conversation. And it is a comical scene to some degree. So what are you guys talking about?

Where have you been? That's what they said to him. Then Luke writes, then they drew near to the village where they were going, and he indicated that he would have gone farther. Thank God he didn't. I mean, there's something there that Jesus says there are going to be times where I will pass by and keep going unless you call out to me, unless you hold me there next to you.

I'm not going to be rude and force myself, even on my own people. I think that's one of the great parts of this lesson because when they call out, he instantly answers them. Well, we could stay on this part about he came to them, walking on the sea, a kind of dramatic entrance, and would have passed them by, but let's move forward to verse 49. And when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost and cried out. They thought it was the grim reaper. I mean, they didn't think it was a ghost just casually out. Oh, look at that, a ghost sighting. It was like he's coming for us.

Useful lessons. Sometimes we don't recognize our Lord. He's just that awesome. Sometimes he just, you know, we're too caught up in the storm, in the resistance, in the struggle, and we don't see him right there. What I try to do is just settle it down. Just try to calm everything down and just submit. Try to stop everything.

Get to mechanical zero. Just stop and hope that he will minister to me. Sometimes our lack of understanding causes us to be afraid of him because we don't recognize that it is he who is the one that is doing the things that we're faced with. God does not abandon one of the lessons, a struggling soul, in the path of obedience. It feels like that sometimes. And Satan wants us to believe that we have been abandoned. Jacob felt that way when he wrestled with the Lord until finally he just submitted.

Just bless, I can't let you go till you bless me. Now some of you have said, I've been there. It doesn't work that smoothly. That's correct. That is faith overcoming the curse.

And many times it's not smooth. What if they were determined to go forward without him in the boat, without going, ah there's a ghost and just continue, as many in the world do. They would have never reached their destination. Some are determined to row through life without his miraculous walk into their life.

They're free to do so. Had they turned back, if they could have turned back, they would have accomplished nothing. They just would have been tired. You know, there's a saying, if you, you know, there are times if you retreat, you die tired. If you run away, if they had turned back, ministry would have stopped. That should mean something to Christians. What is ministry? Again, I think some Christians don't understand. Yeah, I think the church is the centerpiece of ministry.

It's not the only piece. And I also believe to be independent of the church is to be wrong when given the choice. I also believe that those in countries who cannot assemble to worship, wish they could assemble to worship, to be able to freely, amongst the brethren, have communion, to pray together, to fellowship after service or before, to sit and have God's Word just said to them.

May we, may we never take this for granted. Verse 50. Well, they all saw him and were troubled, but immediately he talked with them and said to them, be of good cheer as I do not be afraid. What quieted them? The voice. It is the voice of God. That changed everything.

In my earlier days, it seemed that God spoke to me so many times. I'm with you. I've got this. I'm, it's okay. Now it's just like, what are you going to do? You know the drill, O teacher of Israel. What are you going to do? He doesn't even say it.

It's kind of like a flashing neon sign. What are you going to do? Because he treats me like I'm supposed to have matured. I don't like it. I don't like it. I'd love to hear him say, I got this.

I'd love to hear him say, I am with you. I'm not fond of, hey, let's use faith. I thought I was using it. We were getting along so well that way. What happened?

Crying out to Christ. I'm not the one that moved. You moved.

I'm still talking to you, but I don't hear you talking to me. And yet, I get up off my knees and I do what I'm told as best I can. Because I have enough truth. And it just takes a pinch of truth.

Put it this way. It takes a pinch of incense to blaspheme God. That's why the Christians were persecuted. They would say, look, just put a pinch of incense and go about your business. You can worship Jesus Christ, but just put a little incense on the altar to Caesar and we'll leave you alone.

And they refused. Well, it works the other way, too. Just a pinch of truth submitted to rocks hell. So when James says, how great a forest.

A little fire kindles. That goes both ways. You can start a big fire for God, too, with just a little fire.

Satan does not get all the advantages, though he gets many. It was the sound of his voice. It was one word in the Greek where he says, be of good cheer.

That's a single word. And it means just what it says. He's speaking to their emotions. It has within it, okay, the best I could maybe transfer this is he's saying to them, chill out.

That is true because the word has in it in the meaning courage, but that's not all of it. And this again, be of good cheer is supposed to make them feel safer. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the Book of Mark. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. To learn more information about this ministry, visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. Once you're there, you'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. That's all we have time for today, but we hope you'll join us next time as Pastor Rick continues to teach through the Book of Mark right here on Cross Reference Radio.