You know, one of the good things about pastoring is you allow, God allows you to pastor people who are going through the storms.
And honestly, I just look at it as a privilege. And as a pastor, I've noticed two things about people who are going through the storms of life. Number one is there is a major difference between those who go into the storm with Jesus, they walk with Jesus and they know Jesus, and those who don't go into the storm with Jesus. I can tell you, there is a qualitative difference between those who know Jesus when the storm hits and those who don't.
That's number one. Second thing I've noticed is this, even strong Christians can find their faith wavering when the storm hits. John the Baptist is a great example of that.
Does this ever bother you? John the Baptist is in prison. Jesus just said he's the greatest man who ever lived. He's in prison and his faith starts to waver. And John the Baptist sends some of his associates to ask Jesus, hey, are you even the Messiah or are we waiting for somebody else? Does that bother you? It bothers me. But it shows me, even those with the strongest faith can find that faith wavering in the storm.
C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest thinkers of the modern Christian era, had his faith waver when he hit a storm. Martin Luther went through a time in his life where he hit a major storm.
Martin Luther is really kind of the founder of Protestantism. And Luther, looking back on this storm in his life, said, for a week I was close to the gates of hell. Christ was lost to me.
I was shaken by desperation. That's Martin Luther, one of the greatest Christian leaders ever. William Cowper, the hymn writer, who wrote this great hymn. Have y'all heard this hymn before? There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Have you heard that? It's a great hymn. He was a great hymn writer. Cowper struggled through depression several times in his life and at one point tried to commit suicide. Charles Spurgeon, one of my personal heroes in the faith, fought depression all of his life. And after one storm that he had gone through, he said, my spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child and I didn't know why I was weeping. So when you hit the storms of life and your faith is shattered, you're in good company.
That happens. And so we've been going through the gospel of Mark and we have now worked ourselves up to Mark chapter 4. Turn, if you would, to Mark 4.35. And we're going to talk about the disciples going through a storm and things have not changed in the last 2,000 years. Some of the statements that I read the disciples saying in the middle of the storm sound a lot like some of the statements I've heard some of y'all share when you've hit the storm.
Mark chapter 4 verse 35. On the same day when evening had come, he, Jesus, said to them, let us cross to the other side. Now when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was and other little boats were also with him. And a great windstorm rose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling.
But he was in the stern asleep on a pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm but he said to them, why are you so fearful?
How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? When the storms hit, as a pastor, I've heard Christians say several things.
Here's one thing I hear Christians say when the storms of life hit. What did I do to deserve this? What did I do wrong? Have you ever faced that before? Life starts to get messy. You hit a crisis and you say, I must not be right with God.
What did I do wrong? I want you to look at verse 35. It says that this storm hit on the same day.
What day? This is the very same day that these disciples have helped Jesus proclaim the gospel. They've been serving Jesus.
They've left all to follow Jesus Christ. If anybody is right with God, it's these disciples and yet the storm still hit. Look, when the storm of life hits, you need to understand the Bible says that crises, challenges, suffering has several different causes. Number one, one cause of suffering is we're living in a fallen world. You all do realize God did not create planet earth with hurricanes that ravaged.
You understand God created earth a perfect place. When we allowed sin in the world, that's when even nature began to fall and get corrupt. We live in a fallen world. Sometimes your suffering is you just live in a fallen world. Sometimes your cancer is because you have an imperfect fallen human body. One day we'll have new bodies.
One day we'll have complete bodies, but that ain't now and sometimes your body gets cancer because we're living in a fallen world. Here's a second cause for suffering, Satan. Satan can cause suffering.
You do understand that, right? Now, we're Pentecostals, so every time something goes wrong, we automatically believe in Satan. My car didn't start. It's just the old devil trying to get at me. Okay, it could be, but Satan does cause some suffering. Here's the third cause of suffering and that's sin. Some of you all are suffering right now because a sinful person did something sinful to you and that's cause suffering. Here's a fourth cause. You understand God can be a cause of suffering.
You don't like to hear that. I've heard preachers say the Bible doesn't teach God cause of suffering. Actually, there are times where God will discipline his children. There are times that God will discipline not just his children. He'll punish the lost and so God can be a cause of suffering, but here's our problem. Whenever we suffer, we automatically jump to the God thing and we don't need to do that. It could be sin. It could be Satan. It could be that we're living in a fallen world and I think one of the greatest manifestations of this question, what did I do to deserve this is found in, I'm tired of calling it the prosperity gospel cause it ain't the gospel.
It's a load of crap is what it is, but it's a saying that if you turn on Christian TV, if you have enough faith, you won't get sick. If you have enough faith, you won't have the problems. And so when the storm comes, we say, I must not have enough faith.
What did I do wrong? I don't have enough faith. I don't have a strong enough faith.
I want to tell you something. You can be living right with Jesus and your kids still get pregnant. You can still be living right with Jesus and you still get cancer.
You can be living right with Jesus and your business still going to bankruptcy. And so don't, don't automatically just throw this thing on. There's something wrong with me.
What did I do wrong? But that's one statement that I hear. Here's another statement that I hear when Christians hit the storm. I wasn't expecting this.
I didn't see this one coming. It's amazing. We've had people in our, it's really interesting. We've had a lot of people in our church get cancer. We've actually had a lot of people recently healed with cancer. We're in a weird season right now where people come and share with me supernatural testimonies of getting healed by cancer.
Isn't that wonderful? And I love to hear those kinds of testimonies. But when we have a church member get cancer and I talk to them, it's interesting how many of them said, I didn't see this thing coming.
I go into the doctor for a routine checkup and the doctor says, we've got a problem here. I wasn't expecting it. And I want you to see this. In Matthew chapter 8, when Matthew is talking about the storm that hits, Matthew says, suddenly a storm hit. Implication, the Sea of Galilee is calm one moment and then suddenly a storm hits. You know, we were just on the Sea of Galilee last week. It's a beautiful place. Now, sea, S-E-A, yeah, I told you I have jet lag. The sea is actually kind of being generous.
I think I did some research. I think if you look at the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, it's actually smaller than Jordan Lake. But here's a picture of the Sea of Galilee.
It's a beautiful, placid place here. But there is a valley that feeds right into the Sea of Galilee. It's called the Arbel Valley. And so these big pockets of wind can get caught in the top part of the Arbel Valley and it starts to go down and they pick up speed and they get faster and faster and they just explode on the Sea of Galilee. So one moment it can be calm, the next moment it's a nightmare. William Barclay in his commentary said, quote, the Sea of Galilee was notorious for its storms. They came literally out of the blue with shattering and terrifying suddenness. A writer describes them like this, it is not unusual to see terrible storms hurl themselves even when the sky is perfectly clear upon these waters which are ordinarily so calm.
There are numerous ravines that open up on the upper part of the lake and these ravines compress the air in such a way that they finally reach the lake and explode and agitate the Sea of Galilee in a most frightful fashion. Isn't that what it is with life? Calm one moment and it explodes. I go to the doctor for a routine checkup and it's cancer. I think my kid is doing great walking with God and she comes in and says, I'm pregnant.
I think my job is secure, everybody likes me and the boss calls me in and suddenly I'm fired. I wasn't expecting this. And I was talking to one of our staff members, a fellow here who's a Vietnam vet, and he said, Chad, would people watch these war movies? They think Vietnam was one continuous firefight.
For six months we're shooting the enemy. He said, that's not what it was like. He said, here's what Vietnam was like. Vietnam was like days or weeks of just boringness interspersed with a 30 minute battle. For days it would be boring, nothing going on. Weeks, boring, nothing going on and then out of the blue there's a battle and a firefight.
And he said this, we always prepared for that 30 minute battle during the boring times. Now you can listen to me. That's life. Life seems to be mundane day in, day out. During these mundane times you get right with Jesus. You walk with Jesus. You serve Jesus for the battle that's just around the corner. You don't wait until the battle hits to start walking with Jesus. You start walking with Jesus in the good times, in the calm times because there's a battle right around the corner. And so that's another statement I hear.
I wasn't expecting this. Here's another statement I've heard when people hit the storm and it's this, I'm never going to get through this. This is the one that will sink my ship. The disciples who had lived their lives on the Sea of Galilee, they've been in good seasons and bad seasons.
They've been in calm waters and they've been in storms. This storm hits and those disciples say, okay, this is it. This is the one that's going to sink my ship. And it wasn't and they should have known this was not the one that's going to sink their ship.
Why? Because Jesus in verse 35 had already promised, hey, we're going to get to the other side. Verse 35, let's go to the other side. They should have known that this storm, although it was unexpected, it wasn't pleasant, it wasn't going to sink their ship because Jesus, the Son of God had already promised, I'm going to get you through the other side. And some of y'all hitting some storms in life and you think this is the one that's going to sink your boat.
And that same Jesus said, hey, I'm the one who started this good work in you and I am going to carry it on to completion. I'm going to get you to the other side. And I just found, look, we're going to have to start living by, particularly when the storms come, we're going to start living by faith, not by feelings. Okay, I feel like this is going to sink my ship. You may feel that way, but faith says it isn't.
Hey, I just feel like this one's going to destroy me. You may feel that way, but faith says it's not. In fact, look, when God and I, we flew separately into Israel and we came in late at night and it's pitch black. And I think they had to turn off lights because of all the conflict in the Middle East.
So it's pitch black. And I couldn't see outside that plane. I don't know how that pilot landed that plane. Now let me tell you what the pilot did not do.
As that plane is coming into Tel Aviv, that pilot didn't roll down the pilot window and look out and say to his co-pilot, all right, a little bit more. You're almost there. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, yeah.
Come on, bring it on. He didn't do that. That pilot did two things. Number one, he talked to the tower. And number two, he looked at his instrument panel. Even though he couldn't see outside, he could talk to the one who could see. Even though he couldn't see outside, he could look at that instrument panel and that instrument panel gave him a very clear picture of reality.
How far are you from touching down? All you have to do is look at the instrument panel. And I found when storms come, you're not going to do two things. We talk to the tower. We talk to the one who sees things we can't see.
We talk to the one who knows what's going on. We talk to the tower and we keep our nose buried in this instrument panel right here. And even though you can't see in the storm, even though the storm doesn't make sense, you do have an instrument panel that gives you a view of reality. And that instrument panel says things like this, Philippians 4.19, and my God will supply all your needs according to your riches in Christ Jesus. I may not feel it, but the instrument panel gives me reality.
Storms hit. I keep my nose buried in this instrument panel and it says things like this in Romans 8.28, and we know that God calls us all things to work together for good to those who love God who are called according to His purpose. You think this thing is going to crash and you can't see and it's dark outside and you're trying to land this thing, your instrument panel says I have been young and now I am old and I've not seen the righteous forsaken and I've not seen His children begging for bread. You're going to get to the other side. That's another statement I hear. I'll never get through this. Yeah, you will get through this because He's already promised to get you through it. Hey, here's another statement I hear in the storm. I feel so alone.
Nobody knows what I'm going through. I'm alone. They almost felt like the disciples. We're in this thing alone and in verse 38 it says no, the Son of God was asleep in the stern of the boat.
William Barclay says that was the place where honored guests would ride in a boat. And so they think they are alone. They forget that the one who created that storm, the one who created that sea, the one who created water and wind and air, He's asleep in their boat. They are not alone.
And beloved, over and over and over, I wish we could get this through our head. Here's the difference between Christians and every other religion. Every other religion says here are the teachings of the founder, now go out and live them.
Jesus says something different. No, in this religion the founder of the religion is going to be with you everywhere you go. His Spirit is going to be with you. His Spirit will never leave you. His Spirit will never forsake you. And when you go through the storm and you feel alone, you may feel alone, but you ain't alone.
He's with you. And God says that over and over and over again in the Bible to people about to go through the storm. Moses is facing a major crisis. He's going to take a bunch of Bedouin shepherds and go against the most mighty superpower in the world. And God says I want you to go and talk to Pharaoh.
Be like a Ukrainian is going to talk to Vladimir Putin. And God says now you're about to hit a major storm, but Exodus 33, 12, but don't worry Moses why? Because I'm going to be with you. Joshua is about to take on the hardest challenge of his life.
Talk about storms. He's going to take all these people with some sword sticks and clubs and they're going to go fight literal giants. Do you know what God says before he goes and fights his battle and goes into this storm? Joshua 1 5, I will be with you. I will never leave you.
I will never forsake you. Jeremiah is going to preach a message that is going to get him rejected and persecuted. And before he hits that storm Jeremiah 1 8 says but Jeremiah never forget this. I'm going to be with you. The disciples are about to go into missions and it's going to cost 11 of the 12 of them their lives.
They will be tortured and they will be killed. They are about to go into the world and proclaim the gospel into all the world and Jesus says but let me remind you of one more thing before you go out there and get your head chopped off. I will be with you always. And you may feel like God has abandoned you and you may feel like God is angry at you and you may feel like you're going through this alone but that same Jesus. Now listen to me. Either Jesus knows what he's talking about or he's a liar.
That's your only choices right there. Either he will be with you always into the end of the age or he lied. He won't be with you always into the end of the age.
Which one do you think it is? And when the storm hits Jesus Christ is still in your boat. He is still in the ship. He has not abandoned you.
He's with you. I read something a little while back. I think I've shared this with y'all before but it's been a long time ago. First time I read it I thought somebody was kind of doing a little fake news thing or whatever. You know there's actually an American blind skiing federation? An American blind skiing federation? I started reading about this thing and it fascinates me. So you get blind people and you put them on a ski slope and you send them on that ski slope and this thing says sometimes they go 70 miles an hour.
I don't know if that's true or not but this thing I read said they'll go 70 miles an hour. You say, Jim why would you send and how do you send a blind skier going down a slope 70 miles an hour? Seems kind of cruel doesn't it? You know what they do in the American Blind Skiing Association? They actually have a seeing guide that goes right along with the blind person. And when the seeing guide says go right the blind person goes right. When he says go left the blind person goes left. Or can you say visually impaired or whatever you're supposed to say today. Whatever.
But you understand what I'm saying right? And so you don't send the blind person down the slope by themselves. This federation has a seeing guide.
And I love this. One of the blind skiers said here's how this works. You have to have a strong trusting relationship with your guide. You have to have confidence that your guide knows the directions.
You have no time he said to second guess. If he says left you go to the left. And when I'm in the storm and I'm blind and it makes sense and life seems to be falling apart it's good to know that I have somebody who can see things I can't see. His name is Jesus. And when he says Chad go to the left I go to the left. When he says go to the right go to the right. When he says just keep moving ahead I trust that Jesus is with me and he knows what he's doing. Just stay close to Jesus. Here's another statement I hear in the storm.
This is a big one. God doesn't care. He just doesn't care. You see this in verse 38. The disciples wake up Jesus who's in their boat and they say Jesus don't you care that we are perishing.
You know what I hear that kind of variation when storms hit all the time. Here's one variation of God doesn't care. You ever heard this one? Where was God when whatever happened?
Have you heard that before? Where was your God when this happened? It's always after a school shooting.
Have you noticed that? There's some kind of school shooting or some kind of national tragedy. Our society who's telling us to shut up about God and don't bring God into the conversation when that happens.
You know what they say? Where was your God when that happened? Wait I thought we're not supposed to talk about God. But anytime there's a tragedy where was your God when such and such happened?
Implication God doesn't care. Somebody said one time the average person in society treats God the way we treat the sound guy. When everything is going great he's not there.
When something messes up in the microphone scale where's that idiot man? When everything is going great in society we forget him. When things start to mess up where's God?
It's interesting. Here's another variation of God you don't care. You ever heard of this one? Why do bad things happen to good people? Oh what kind of God would do this? Why do bad things happen to good people?
Can I tell you something? A bad thing only happened to a good person once in history and he was crucified. We are not good people.
You do realize that right? We walk around with a sense of entitlement thinking life ought to treat us right. God shouldn't let any problems come in our way because we are good people.
Y'all might be good but here's my question about Chad Harvey. Why does good things happen to a bad person? I don't deserve anything that God does for me. When the good times are good I ought to be thanking God that good things happen to a bad person but we don't do that do we? When bad things happen to ostensibly good people we get mad at God.
It's kind of interesting isn't it? God don't you care? I can tell you something. God has already established that he cares.
1 Peter 5 says God, now this is just for followers of Jesus, God cares for you. You're his child. You ever heard of this guy named Henry Blackaby? Great author. Henry Blackaby's daughter was dying of cancer and it was a horrendous way. He and his family went through with that cancer battle.
It was horrendous. And he said somebody asked me after the battle was over, they said did you ever doubt the love of God? He said you know I doubted a lot of things when we were going through this cancer battle. I never doubted the love of God.
Here's what he said because that was settled at the cross. God do you care for me? God says I've already answered that question. 2000 years ago I sent my son to die for you. Yes I care for you.
Hey here's one more. This problem is bigger than God. You know sometimes when the storm hits we lose perspective, we lose objectivity and suddenly the storm seems bigger than God. But look what happens with Jesus. Jesus establishes that he is stronger than the storm. In verse 39 it says that he rose up and said peace be still. First of all he stood up.
Do you know what you don't do in a boat when it's storming and it's about to sink? You don't stand up. He stands up and says ain't scared. I'm Jesus.
I'm in charge. And the second thing he says is peace be still. That's the same thing he told the demon back in chapter 1. The same Jesus who conquers demons and has authority over demons, he's got the authority over the storm. And the wind and the waves ceased and it says verse 41 that they're like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Who's this? We've seen them cast out demons. We got it. We've seen him heal the blind.
We got it. But who is he to ask time over? Wind and the waves?
Who is this? Now here's why they ask that question. Because according to Jewish thought in the Old Testament it's Yahweh who controls the water. In Genesis chapter 1 God controls the water. In the Red Sea Crossing God controls the water. Joshua 3 when they're crossing the Jordan River God controlled the water. Psalm 104 it says at your rebuke oh God the waters fled. Wait a second God of the Old Testament controls the water and now we're seeing this man standing on our boat and he's controlling the water, what implication might they have drawn from that?
Jesus is God. And I'm just telling you, you're going through a storm right now, I don't care how strong or intense the storm is, that same God is in your boat. He is more powerful than any storm that could come against you.
And so look, I'm running out of time real quick. So what do I do when a storm hits? I'm going to ask you all to raise your hands if you're going through a storm right now, whatever. But if you're a follower of Jesus Christ and the storm hits, now you're not going to like the answer here okay, but I'm going to give it to you. What do I do when the storm hits? You wait on God to do his work. You just wait on God. Isaiah 64, this is becoming a verse God is drilling into my heart. It says God works on behalf of those who just wait on God.
Yeah but Chad I'm weary, tired. I've been fighting this storm and the storm's getting worse. Isaiah 40, 31, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. You just wait on God. He is moving behind the scenes. God is working. Look, he has got one eye on the thermostat.
He's got one hand on the thermometer. He knows how much you can take. You just hang in there and wait on God. I love G. Campbell Morgan's definition of waiting on God. Waiting on God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not going to sleep. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting on God means first, activity under command. Storm hits, wait on God, you keep going to work. You keep feeding your family. You keep mowing, you just do what you do.
It's activity under command. Second, waiting on God is readiness for any new command may come. And then third, waiting on God is the ability to do nothing until the next command is given.
You just wait on God. I love this story of waiting on God. This man, you ever met somebody who wants to make money fast?
You ever met somebody like that? This get rich quick guy was praying and he said, God, I just read 2 Peter 3, 8 through 9. And God, 2 Peter 3, 8 through 9 says that a thousand years is like one day with you, oh God.
Have you read that before? A thousand years is like one day with God. God said, yes, that's right. He said, so a hundred years is like a minute with you, oh God. God said, yes, a hundred years is like one minute. And he said, well then God, a million dollars is like a penny to you. God said, yes, it is. He said, God, will you give me a penny? God said, yeah, wait just a minute.
We're called to do a lot of things, but the hardest thing we're called to do is just wait on God. And I, see this is, my pastor, why don't you counsel? I do, I'm counseling right now. Here's my counseling session. Some of you are going through the storm right now.
What am I trying to say? If you're going through the storm right now, I'll give you three pieces of advice. Number one, if you're not saved, give your life to Jesus.
Because remember I told you, there's a qualitative difference between those who know Jesus and those who don't know Jesus when the storm hits. Give your life to Jesus. That's the first thing I tell you.
Second thing I tell you is what I just said. You just wait on God. I don't know what God's doing. I don't know how long the storm will last. Some storms are five minutes. Some storms are two years. I don't understand, but you just wait on God.
And the third thing I would tell you is this. Remember, God is moving behind the scenes. God is doing something great. You may not feel it.
You may not sense it. I'm just telling you. He's doing something. He's building something in you. God does not waste a good storm. He doesn't waste a good tragedy. God's doing something behind the scenes.
I don't know what it is, but he's doing something. You ever heard of these violins that are called the Stradivarius violins? I was reading about those a little while back. Stradivarius violins go for, some go for $8 million. There's a Stradivarius, I think it went for $20 million. And violinists say you can tell a qualitative difference when you play a Stradivarius violin.
They were created by Antonio Stradivari in the 1600s and 1700s. And scientists are not sure why they have such a distinctive sound. They have actually done examination of the wood, and the wood cells in there are hollowed out. Each one of those wood cells in that violin, they're all hollow on the inside. Bacteria seems to have hollowed out the inside.
So now you have a violin that has all these little echo chambers. All right, but how do they get hollowed out? Nobody knows.
There are all kinds of theories, but in his book, Why It's Hard to Love Jesus, Joseph Stoll talks about one of those theories. He, Antonio Stradivari, lived in a time where to ship big old logs, they used to float these logs down the river. You know, they used to do that on the Cape Fear River years ago. They'd do these big old logs and float them down the river and put them in the market. And some of these logs would go down the river, and they would get to the harbor and they would just sink into the mud. And those harbors in those days, they were basically big land fields.
They didn't have the environmentalists like we have today, and so they're big land fields there. And so the logs would go into the harbor, sink in the mud with this polluted, nasty water. And the theory is that maybe the microbes in that polluted water went into the cells of that wood, and the microbes in that polluted water ate out the heart of that. Now imagine you're a nice maple tree minding your own business, doing what maple trees do, and then the storm hits and somebody chops you down and you hit the water. And not only do you hit the water, you're this nice maple tree minding your own business and you get to the harbor and you sink in the harbor.
Have you ever had one of those days when nothing goes right? And you hit the harbor and you sink, and it's not clean water, you sink into the nasty muck of this harbor. And you're this maple tree thinking, what in the world's going on?
I was minding my business when I was chopped down, floated down, I'm now in a nasty, smelly, polluted harbor. It doesn't make any sense until the master comes and picks you up out of that muck and does some cleaning and some planing and some cutting, and he makes you into a masterpiece that people spend $20 million for today. It didn't make any sense then, but the master had a plan.
And I'm here to tell you, some of y'all have hit a storm. It doesn't make sense. It's smelly.
It's unpleasant. But God knows what he's doing. And in his time and in his way, he will pick you up, he will clean you off, and he is making you into a masterpiece. That's the God we serve. So I want you to stand with me right now.
Would you stand? If you are going into this storm right now, you can keep fighting it if you want to, and wear yourself out. You can keep getting mad at God if you want to. Or you can take that storm, this crisis, and right now you can lift it up. You say, God, this is your crisis. It's not my crisis. This is your storm. It ain't my storm.
Or here's how Peter puts it. Just throw all your worries and cares onto God, because he cares for you. You say, Chad, you know, a church this size, you must have a lot of problems. I don't have any problems.
You know why? They're not my problems. They're his problems. I'm saying to God, Jesus already died for your church once. My death ain't going to help, so I'm going to just give you these problems here, Lord. And I wonder right now if you need to take whatever you're going through, this storm that you've hit, and if you need to put it in your hands and give it to the Father right now, would you bow with me? And just in the quietness of your heart, say, Lord, I give you this problem. I give you this storm.
I've tried to figure it out. I've tried to manage it. I've tried to stop it, but this storm is bigger than me, so I give it to you. And may the Jesus who said, peace, be still, and the wind and the waves cease, may you now speak peace into my situation, and may you give me that peace that passes all understanding.
I give you these storms. Y'all believe he's big enough to take your problems and fight your battles and overcome? You believe he's still big enough? You think Jesus is still bigger than the storm? Y'all believe that? If you think Jesus is bigger than whatever storm you're going through now, then lift up holy hands and lift up your voice, and let's sing to the Lord Jesus.
Because there's power in the mighty name of Jesus. Everyone he wages he will win. I'm gonna see a victory. I'm gonna see a victory.
For the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm gonna see a victory. I'm gonna see a victory. For the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm gonna see a victory.
I'm gonna see a victory. For the battle belongs to you, Lord. You take what the enemy, you take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good. You take what the enemy meant, you take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good. You take what the enemy meant, you take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good. You take what the enemy meant, you take what the enemy meant for evil, and you turn it for good.
You turn it for good. I'm gonna see, I'm gonna see a victory. I'm gonna see a victory. For the battle belongs to you, Lord. I'm gonna see a victory. I'm gonna see a victory. For the battle belongs to you, Lord. I've said this before. We lie in church when we sing more than any other time, because we say we're gonna see a victory, but do we really believe it?
Let me ask you. You really believe that God is gonna get victory in this counselor diagnosis? Do you believe he can do that? You believe God can get victory in this bankruptcy that you're going through? You believe God can get victory in whatever storm you're facing?
You really believe that? Lift your hands and receive this blessing from the Lord. God spoke this to his people years ago.
Y'all the people of God, he speaks it to you now. He says, which means the Lord's gonna bless you. He's gonna keep you. He's gonna make his face to shine upon you. He's gonna be gracious to you, and he's gonna turn his face. He's counting to salute you, and he's gonna give you peace, shalom, mind, body, soul and spirit in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus.
