The Year Of Storms, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. How do I move from control to trust? How do I move from what I need to do and how I need to control it to just say I trust the Lord with this? I'm going to let the Lord do this. The only way to control your life is to trust the one who can control it. You can't.

The only way to control your own life is to trust the only one who can control your life. There's something else here, though, about them. Knowledge about Jesus is not the same of really knowing Jesus. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. He got up, he rebuked the wind, and he said to the sea, hush, be still. Literally, the Greek is kind of interesting. He doesn't say be still. In Greek, he says be muzzled. Just be muzzled. And I don't know this because it's not in the Greek, but I know when he said it, he probably shook his head. Be muzzled.

Or maybe rolled his eyes. Come on, guys. The storm's here for a reason in your life. You're not getting it.

You see, you're not getting it at all. The wind died down and it became perfectly calm. I'll tell you what a supernatural storm this is. If you had seas that scared a fisherman to death and the wind stopped, does it get smooth then? Nope.

How long does it take? A while. Not this one. Be stopped, calm wind, glassy sea. Now they have to realize maybe something else is going on here.

You see, something else is happening here. He said to them, why are you afraid? Now, I love this because this is a case where knowing in Greek helps.

This is dylos. It's not the normal word for being afraid. It's a very rare word.

They translate it that way because they think it gets the point across. But here's what that word means, dylos. Why are you cowards?

That's the word. Dylos means cowards. Why are you cowards? In other words, your faith should embolden you. Your faith should strengthen you. But you're a coward.

He said, why are you cowards? Do you still have no faith? Now he knows they have some faith, right?

Because they're following Jesus. But he means in the context of a storm, you have no faith. Does that sound like you and me?

It does. You see, isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing that we could have put our faith in Jesus Christ years ago, we could go to Bible studies in church, we can sing praises to him and tell him how much we love him and trust him and how good and sovereign he is, and then we get in a storm. And where did it go?

Where did all this go? Jesus said, you have no faith. What happened that you have no faith? He means you have no faith in the storm. They became very much afraid, not the same word now. They became very much afraid. That word for fear means terrified. They are now terrified.

And notice what they're terrified about. They said to one another, who then is this that even the wind and sea obey him? He is exactly who he has said he is. That's who he is.

If you've seen me, you've seen the father. That's who he is. They're saying, who is this? You see, the whole perspective was that was their problem. They're terrified. Only God could have done what he did. He goes, yes.

So why are you asking who I am? Because they're struggling with what you and I struggle with when it comes to storms. How do I move from control to trust? How do I move from what I need to do and how I need to control it and say I trust the Lord with this? I'm going to let the Lord do this. The only way to control your life is to trust the one who can control it.

You can't. The only way to control your own life is to trust the only one who can control your life. There's something else here, though, about them. The knowledge about Jesus is not the same of really knowing Jesus.

And that's their problem. If they really knew Jesus, they'd trust him in the storm. If you really knew Jesus, you'd trust him in these storms. If you really knew Jesus, all things are going to work together for your good.

I'll see that. You see, nothing isn't filtered through my sovereign good love for you. These storms should make you more and more reliant on me and less and less reliant on you. That's what he's trying to teach him in a storm.

Now, let's see how it worked out. Let's go to Mark 6. Mark 6, just a couple pages, and verse 30.

Now, if you read the Book of Mark and you understand the Book of Mark, chapter 6 in the Book of Mark is a big demarcation point. Up till chapter 6, everything Jesus did was for the crowd. Everything he did. His teaching was for the crowd. His miracles were for the crowd.

It's for the crowd. Now, from chapter 6 on, everything he does is for his disciples. Now, I'm going to deal with you.

Now, I want you to see what you need to be when I'm gone. That's what happens in Mark 6. So, there's a very famous miracle here. It says in verse 30, the apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to him all that they had done and taught, and he said to them, come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest for a while. For there were many people coming and going, and they didn't even have time to eat. And they went away in the boat to a secluded place by themselves and the people saw them going and many recognized them and they ran there together on foot from all the cities and got there ahead of the disciples or them. When Jesus went ashore, he saw a large crowd. He felt compassion for them and because they were like sheep without a shepherd, he began to teach them many things. And when it was already quite late, the disciples came to him and said, this place is desolate and it's already quite late. Send them away so that they may be able to go into the surrounding countryside and the villages and buy for themselves something to eat.

Now, watch what happens. Verse 37, Jesus said, you give them something to eat. What? What? You give them something to eat. No, you're the guy that does the miracles.

What are you telling me for? You give them something to eat. And they said, shall we go ahead? Shall we go and spend 200 denarius on bread and give them something to eat? They're not getting it, Jesus says. How many loaves do you have?

Go look. And they went and they found out and they said five and two fish. He commanded them, he said, all to sit down in groups on the green grass and they sat down in the groups in hundreds and fifties. He took the five loaves of two fish looking up to heaven. He blessed the food. He broke the loaves and kept giving them to the disciples to set before them. And he divided up the two fish among them all and they all ate and were satisfied and they picked up 12 full baskets of the broken pieces and also of the fish. And there were about 5,000 men who ate the loaves, a feeding of 5,000. Now, what's different about this?

This is important. Who did it? Jesus threw them. They did it.

You know what that's called? Ministry. That's what ministry is.

And that's exactly what they did. This is extremely important. A great definition of ministry I read this week is this. You must do what you cannot do with what you do not have for the rest of your life. You want to be a servant of Christ?

You must do what you cannot do with what you do not have for the rest of your life. That's Christian ministry. See, we even want to control that. I'm going to control it. No.

Because Jesus is telling us, look, I'll work through you, but you have to understand that it's I that do the work through you the way this happens. So here's what happens. Immediately.

Now, that should tell you something. Immediately means immediately. He said, I'm going to try to teach you this again. Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and go ahead of him the other side of Bethsaida, and while he himself was sending the crowd away after bidding them farewell, he left for the mountains to pray. And while it was evening, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he alone was on the land, and seeing them straining at the oars for the wind was against them, it was about the fourth watch of the night, that's three to six in the morning, he came to them walking on the sea, and he intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed that he was a ghost and they cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified.

Same word. And it says, and immediately he spoke to them and said, take courage. He said, it is I, do not be afraid.

There's something different about Marx. Do you notice who's missing in this account? Peter. Remember, we know from the other, Peter got out of the boat, remember, and he walked for a while. Peter is the one who really dictates this to John Mark. Peter said, this is not to mention me.

He doesn't want himself in this story. He said, I just want to let you see what's happening here. They were astonished that he came. And they were terrified.

And he said, look, take courage, it's I, don't be afraid. What's the problem? What have they learned? Nothing. So guess what? They're in another storm.

If you won't learn by the words I speak to you through education, you're going to learn through experience. He says then, then he got into the boat with them and the wind stopped. Wow, that's a coincidence.

And they were utterly astonished. How could the wind stop? I don't know, how about two chapters ago?

You don't remember this? You know what happens when God takes us out of a storm? When the next one comes, we forget that God took us out of the wind before.

That's just who we are. For they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves. Look, you're my chosen guys.

You're going to do great ministry. They didn't get any insight from that. I don't know why he used us. Couldn't he be passed it on himself?

No, I'm using you. Now watch. But their heart was hardened. That's the problem. They have a hard heart. That's why they went going through a storm. God's trying to soften up their heart, just like he's trying to soften up ours. Your heart's hard. Don't you care, God?

Look what's happening to us. Why do you have a hard heartness? See, why aren't you getting this? You should have courage. I'm right here. See, have courage, don't be afraid.

I'm right here. How bad can all these storms get? How bad can the pandemic get? Exactly to the same degree as God allows it to go. How long will it last? To the exact second when God says that's that.

And there's a good God who loves you. So why is your hard heart about this? Why are we afraid? Why do we have so much conflict about this? He said it shouldn't be that way.

It shouldn't be that way at all. In fact, just turn another two pages. I want to show you something in Mark 8, verse 11.

I want you to see something. Jesus is still talking to them, but he wants to make his point. Verse 11 says, The Pharisees came out and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him, sighing deeply within his spirit. He said, Why does this generation seek a sign?

Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation. And leaving them, he embarked and went to the other side. And they had forgotten to take bread. And they had, and they said, and did not have more than one loaf in the boat with them. Here they are again in a boat.

It's just funny when you start putting them together. And it says, And he was saying to them, Watch out. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. And they began to discuss with one another the fact that they had no bread.

How are they doing? Jesus says, Look, you got to watch out. I think he's talking about leaven.

That's got to be. We don't have bread. What are we going to do? I don't know. The son of God's in the boat with us.

Shouldn't that be enough? No, we don't have any bread. Now watch. Jesus said to them, Aware of what they said, he said, Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet see and understand? Do you have a hardened heart?

What a question. See, why don't they understand? They made the heart hard. They made the heart hard. He said, Having eyes you don't see. Having ears you don't hear. And you do not remember. When I broke five loaves into five thousand, many baskets full and broken pieces picked up and they said to him, Well, you have 12 baskets. And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full and pieces did you pick up? And they said seven. And he said to them, And you still don't understand?

How do you not understand? My heart's hard. My heart's hard. You see, even the storm of having just a little bit of bread, this was not a storm on the sea. See? They said all we have is a loaf. If Jesus Christ is in the boat with you or he's in your life, you never only have a loaf. You have the Son of God.

Why don't we start trusting him as the Son of God? You see, we can't control these kind of circumstances. It's not something we can do. We can end up with a hard heart. One last passage. Go with me to Matthew chapter seven. So what have we learned so far? One, we try to control our lives in a storm. Two, in a storm we often think that Christ doesn't or God doesn't care. Three, we know a lot about Jesus, but we don't know Jesus.

We know a lot about him, but we don't know him. And four, the only control you and I have in a storm is to trust the only one who controls the storm. Those are four things we should learn from every storm. Matthew 7, Sermon on the Mount, verse 24. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Now here comes the storm.

And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the rock. Hear my words, don't miss it, and act on them. Hearing the words of Jesus won't help you.

You have to act on them. Remember I said Tony Evans said the definition of faith is acting on the basis of what God said is true. Whenever I act on the basis of what God has said, that's faith. I have to act it. Faith is active.

It's not intellectual. Oh yeah, I kind of believe that. Here comes the storm. I don't believe anything.

What happened to me? No, I'm going to act on it. He said, and notice what happens here. If we act on the words, he said we have wisdom. Wow, storms prove your wisdom.

And it proves where your house is built. Are you on this rock? Do we act on the words of Jesus Christ or the words of the word of God? If you do, you'll endure the storm.

That's what he promises. He said everyone who hears these words of mine does not act on them. He said like a foolish man who built his house on sand, the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, slammed against the house, and it fell, and great was its fall. When it comes to the storms of life here, the storms of 2020, you're going to come out one way or the other.

You're either wise or you're a fool. You either act on the word of God or you don't act on the word of God. Our lives survive and endure the storm because of our trust and faith in Jesus Christ. The storm has nothing to do with our faith. The storm just gives us an opportunity to put our faith into action, to give it to the Lord. And the storms I talked about earlier are ones we're all experiencing. But on an individual basis, we all experience physical storms, all kinds of issues, terrible diagnosis, fatal diseases. That's a huge storm. We all experience emotional storms. Our lives are in emotional turmoil through relationships or insecurities. Always do. A lot of people right now are experiencing financial storms. What am I going to do?

Where am I going to get the next money, the money I need to survive? And almost all of us experience spiritual storms because from my point of view, almost all the storms have a spiritual meaning. It's not just the big ones, but even the small ones. And so the question is how we respond will tell us whether we're wise or foolish. How we respond will tell us whether we trust Christ or we've hardened our heart against him. If your heart is tender to Christ, you'll be fine in 2020. If your heart is hard, these storms can consume you. After all, that's why God sent them to you to reveal your heart to you.

Let's pray. Father, this is one of those things that we find ourself on one level intellectually, saying, oh yeah, I agreed with everything Jesus said. But experientially, Father, when we find ourselves in a storm, we seem to relate much closer to the disciples than we do to the Lord. We panic when we lose control. And then we often blame you for not caring about us enough. How could you let this happen to us? Well, Father, you make it clear, you send it to us because you love us.

And you want to move us from a hard heart to a tender one for you. And that's what storms do. The storms of life help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ to become more like him. Not just for our own sake, but we can encourage other brothers and sisters in Christ by how well we do in the storm. And we can also be light and salt in a culture that's falling to pieces because of how well we do in the storm. But so often, we act just like everyone else.

And the storms prove it. Father, have us open our hearts to you. In Jesus' name, amen. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. ... ... ...