Trust me. is greater Than confusion.
So, we're going to look at this last building block of trust. And by way of introduction, I want you to think about it, think about it this way. How many of you would say, you know, when you're traveling and things, or even let's just say around town here, and you're using a GPS, you really just trust the GPS wherever it takes you, you're going there. Any of you like that? You just rely totally upon it.
I'm that way. I really feel, I'm like, wherever Google is deciding to take me today, like, you know, I feel like it's going to get me to the destination better than I can. I feel like Apple knows more than I. I feel like Waze does, you know, and so wherever I'm at, even if I kind of know generally where to go, I like to, you know, follow the GPS.
Now, just to be honest with you, I don't follow the GPS to my house, okay? I know how to get there. I know there's not going to be traffic on Leonard Barrier Road. And so I'm not worried about it. But if I'm going north of town and it's the decision of do we take Peters Creek, do we take 52, I like to always just throw it in the GPS to give me an idea.
And here's what I'll do: I'll follow it. matter what it says, right? But here's what we know about a GPS. Especially if you're in a place where you don't know where you're at. You've probably followed the GPS to some point or some destination, and you're on your way.
And you've wondered. If this is the right way to go, right? You start questioning the GPS. You start wondering, like, man, I wouldn't have gone this way. I know better.
And maybe you don't question it, but if you're married to somebody, they're questioning it, right? Like, I have a wife of a GPS, and she always doubts where we're going. And I always tell her, I'm like, hey, listen, Google knows better, all right? Apple knows better than us. We're going to trust it.
But here's what we know: sometimes the GPS start to doubt when we get in places or we go routes. that we wouldn't have gone. Maybe it takes you uh a ton of back roads. Or it makes you turn like 20 times when you feel like you shouldn't have turned 20 times. Maybe it takes you through a neighborhood and you're like, why in the world is the GPS taking me in the middle of this residential neighborhood to get me somewhere, right?
We start asking all of these questions, and here's what I know to be true. Take your relationship with God. It's very similar to that. When God sends us through a trial. Or through a difficult moment.
or through a storm. A lot of times, what do we do? We start doubting his guidance upon our life, don't we? We start asking questions about. Why God?
And we start asking things like, hey, God, you know, are you listening? God, are you really leading me? God, are you really in control? God, are you really sovereign over this? God, do you even hear me?
And we start crying out to God with all of these questions, with all of these doubts, because He sent us through something that made us doubt. And here's what I'll tell you to be true, and you probably would agree with this. is sometimes the hardest part of of the storm. that you're in or the trial that you're in, it's not just the storm and the circumstances that surround you.
Sometimes the hardest part for you as a Christ as a Christian or a Christ follower is it's the confusion that exists in the storm. It's the questions that you are trying to answer. It's the thoughts. or the doubts. That you start to have about God in the midst of our storm.
And if you've had some of those, this passage I think will encourage you. If you have your Bible, join me in Mark 4. It's where we're going to be today, Mark chapter number 4. And if you've asked questions like that. I want you to know you're not alone.
Sometimes, you know, I grew up in a culture where I feel like asking questions in church was a no-no, right? We don't ask the hard questions. We don't address the hard questions. We just do what we're told. You know, this is it, and that kind of thing.
Very black and white kind of world that I grew up in. And here's what I will tell you: is this: if you've asked some tough questions about God and about the circumstances that you found yourself in, you're not alone. The disciples asked some of these same things. And here in Mark chapter 4, you see that. Jesus had been teaching all day.
And he'd been doing, you know, teaching through the parables and/using all these parables with this large multitude of people. And the crowd gets so impressed upon him that he goes into a ship. He continues teaching there. But as the evening goes down, he has this idea with the disciples who are with him on the boat. And that's where we're going to pick it up.
In verse 35, it says on the same day, that's the day that he was teaching, when the even was come. Jesus said unto them, Let us, everybody say the word us with me, us, pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, They took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow. That's Jesus. And they awake him and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? In other words, what they're saying, these disciples, as they encountered a storm, they're asking this question. Jesus, do you even care about me?
Never asked that before. Jesus, are you even listening when I pray? Jesus, do you even realize what's going on? Jesus, do you hear me? Do you even care?
Well, they came to Jesus and they asked that question: Do you even care? And then in verse 39, and he arose, Jesus arose, he rebuked the wind, and he said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, And there was a great calm.
So Jesus said unto them, verse 40, Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they, the disciples, they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this? that even the wind And the C. obey him.
Now before we get into the outline, I want to say this because I think this is true. Um Many of us, when we come to a story like this, this is a familiar story. Perhaps everybody's heard this. If you're brand new to church, maybe this is new to you. And so, by the end of this, you'll be familiar with the story.
But for most of us, we've heard this. And so, it's easy for us to come to a passage of scripture like this, and we immediately kind of, you know, we shut the Bible and we feel like, okay, we got it. You know, we know everything there is to know about this. I know the themes that the preacher today is going to be talking about because we've heard this story a hundred times and things like that. And it's easy to kind of just breeze through a story like this.
But I believe that there's some things that if you're going through a storm, if you're going through a trial, I'm telling you that if you can just lean in just a little bit of some things about how we trust God and some things that we can trust God with, I think that this will help you. But before we jump into the outline, I'm going to give you four things here in a moment, but from this series or from this story. But before we jump in, I want to point out one thing. When Jesus said in verse 35, He said, Let us pass on to the other side. What I want to get you to understand about this story that oftentimes I think we overlook is that the disciples.
were completely in the will of God when they landed in the storm. They were living. In complete and total obedience to God and His will. When they landed in a storm. Jesus invited them.
They followed. They obeyed his voice. And they landed in a storm. Listen, I wish that I could tell you that following Jesus and obeying Jesus. would always be a life of sunshine for you.
But here's what I want you to know.
Sometimes following Jesus leads you directly into a storm.
Sometimes walking with Jesus. Leads us directly into a storm.
Sometimes obeying Jesus' voice. Leads us directly into a storm.
And when you get into a storm, we begin, like I said earlier, we begin to ask questions. We begin to doubt God. We begin to think, is there a better way? We begin to think, like, did I do something wrong? Is this God chastising me about this?
Is this God disciplined me about this? Is it whatever? And we begin to look at our trial through the lens of our circumstances. And here's what I want you to know: because this is true: if you're in a storm or you're about to go into a storm, which you probably are, all of us will. Here's what I'll tell you.
We're all faced with a choice. A decision to make And here's what it is, and I'm going to frame it in the form of a question. It's simply this: you're faced with a decision when you, as a Christian, go into a storm. Are you going to allow? The confusion of the storm to determine what we believe about God.
Or are you going to allow what you believe about God? to determine how you view the storm. You're going to have to make a decision in your life and in your family. Are you going to allow the storm and the circumstances around it, the confusion around it? Are you going to allow that to determine what you believe about God?
In other words, when you get into a circumstance as you start questioning who he is, questioning if he listens to you, questions if he's leading you, questions if he's in control, questions about his sovereignty. Are you going to allow the circumstances and confusion of your storm to determine what you believe about God, or are you going to allow what you believe about God to determine how you view your storm? And that's the decision that every single one of us has to make. And unfortunately, A lot of us When we get into a storm. We allow the storm to impact and influence what we believe about God.
And I want to challenge you today to allow God and what you know about him to impact how you view your storm.
So, the big idea from this story is this, and this is what we're going to talk about. When we don't understand what God is doing. We can trust Who God is. When we don't understand Who, or we don't understand what God is doing, we can always trust. Who he is.
And so, trust is better than confusion. And so, I want to give you four things here that I think the disciples learned in this story about what we can trust. With Jesus. Number one is this: we can always trust God's direction. We can trust God's direction.
You know, I mentioned this earlier briefly. The disciples did not wake up this day or have a decision in the afternoon and say, hey, you know what's a good idea? Let's just sail across the Sea of Galilee tonight, right? They didn't initiate the journey Jesus did. Jesus initiated the journey.
And so, because of that, here's what we know: the disciples are in the boat. In the storm. Because they obeyed God.
Now It's such an important part because of the story for you to understand that and see that. Because when we assume difficulty, I even had somebody after the service this morning, the first service, they came up to me and said, you know, this has really helped them because every time they go in a storm, they immediately think that they have to be out of the will of God. Like, what did we do wrong? You know, did I disobey God somewhere and this storm as a result?
Now, I want to be clear. There are times when God has to chastise his children, and the way that that looks could be in the form of a storm. I don't know. But this story tells us that sometimes. God sends us through storms to teach us something about Himself.
It's not always just because we've done something bad. And so a lot of times when we go through storms, we ask those questions. We ask the really tough questions about: is God leading me? Am I in God's will? And we lead to confusion.
But here's what I want you to know: that sometimes obedience leads you directly into uncomfortable circumstances. You've been there, right? You you prayed for something and it it got worse. Right? You prayed that God would take something away and it got worse, or you stepped out in faith.
And it led you right into a storm or right into a trial. You tried to please God. You tried to do what's right. You tried to obey Him. And next thing you know, things got harder for you.
Listen, obedience sometimes leads you directly into uncomfortable circumstances.
So if you're in uncomfortable circumstances or in the middle of a trial right now, it doesn't mean that you're out of the will of God. It could mean that you're right in the center of it. I mean, think about this: Noah. Right, we see this throughout scripture. Noah obeyed God, and it led him into a worldwide flood.
Moses obeyed God. And he stood face to face with Pharaoh. David, he obeyed God and He ended up fleeing for his life multiple times as a result. Daniel Obeyed God. And it led him into a lion's den.
And here the disciples obeyed and sailed directly into a storm that Jesus knew. was on the horizon. Here's what I'm telling you. When you're in the middle of a storm and you feel like you're obeying God and you're trusting the will of God and you're following the will of God and you've obeyed Him, let me tell you this: sometimes it's going to lead you into uncontrollable circumstances around you, things that are out of your control. That doesn't mean that's the reason not to trust God and His direction in your life.
He's still trustworthy in your life. He's still deserving and worthy of your trust. You can trust his direction in your life. But number two, I want you to trust God's presence. Here, you know, Mark describes this in verse 37 as like a windstorm that came up.
It wasn't a small storm. This storm terrified the disciples. And let me remind you. Hmm. Let me remind you that several of them were professional fishermen.
These guys knew the boats, they knew the sea. They knew the weather. They understood it. They got it. And when those guys start to panic.
That's when you know that this is a serious You know, a serious storm. And so those guys were panicking. But there's two parts in the story that are super important that you can rest in in the midst of your storm. The first one is in verse 35 when he said, Let Us. Pass on to the other side.
What's amazing about this story, don't miss this, is that Jesus didn't send them off by themselves, did He? Jesus knew that the storm was on the horizon, and he didn't say, Hey guys, good luck to you. I'll see you tomorrow or whatever. No, he said, Let us go to the other side.
So, what he knew was on the horizon, Jesus was going to be with them. And then, when the storm goes crazy, and you get the sense in the story that they didn't run down to find Jesus the minute that the clouds got dark. Right? They didn't run down to find Jesus the minute that the first raindrop fell. They didn't run to find Jesus the first time the wind started howling.
When the waves started getting bad. No, the moment that they came to Jesus. Was when the wind was out of control. You get the sense it's probably pouring rain, and the waves are coming into the ship, so much to the ship's about to sink. That's when they go find Jesus.
And here's what I want you to know: Jesus was asleep on a pillow in the midst of this crazy, terrible storm. Nothing illustrates the point of this series probably more than that picture. The point of the story is that all of us, or the point of the series, every single one of you want a life. That can rest peacefully in the midst of your storm. Isn't that true?
We want that. We want the peace that passeth all understanding, the thing we learn about in a relationship with Jesus. That's what we desire more than anything else. And what we learn is it's only found through Through Jesus. You see, obeying him.
Obeying Jesus, it doesn't always guarantee smooth sailing for you. But it guarantees that you will never sell a loan. Do you understand that? It it doesn't guarantee that there's not going to be a storm on the horizon. It just means that you're going to have Jesus with you in the midst of the storm.
And so you can be confused about what God possibly is doing through the storm in your life. But don't be confused about who is with you in the storm. He's with you. And that's enough. And that's what the disciples learned here: is that Jesus, what we learn is you might be on the way to a storm just like the disciples were, and Jesus knows that it's coming.
And Jesus knows what you're going through right now. But here's what I want you to know.
If you're a Christ follower, Jesus is with you right in the middle of the storm. Right now, he's with you. He's walking with you. He's there with you. Number three, not only do we trust God's presence.
And we trust God's direction. You can trust God's power. You can trust Scott's power. In verse thirty-nine The disciples, you get the sense that they've probably done everything that they know to do. They They were clearly in over their heads.
The storm was out of control. It was out of their control. There's nothing that they could do. You get the sense they probably thrown things overboard. I'd perhaps.
They've adjusted the sales as much as they could to slow things down. They're probably scooping water out of the boat. Trying to do everything in their power. And when they realize that, man, this is in way over our head, we're at our wits' end, there's nothing that we could possibly do anymore. Then they go to Jesus.
You know, sometimes I think that God wants to send us through situations that are bigger than us so that we can really learn on the other side of the situation how big he is. How he is bigger than that. And so here, Jesus, it says in verse 39, and he arose.
Now, I think it's important that we point this out. When Jesus arose, he didn't just say, okay, guys, I'll get up. He didn't grab a bucket and start helping them. He didn't start throwing things overboard. He didn't go and adjust the sails, did he?
No, you know what he did? Hmm. He spoke. He spoke. Listen.
Creation. Obeys. Its creator. Creation obeys its creator. And what Jesus does here in this story, all he did was he speaks.
And the moment that he speaks, Mark says that there's a great Calm. The wind stopped. The waves Settle. You say what happened? A great, the way Mark calls it, a great storm met an even greater savior.
And what I want you to understand about your storm and about your problem in your life is this. It could be big. It could be great. It could be huge in your life. Whatever, and you might be looking at it like this is too big for me.
This is too hard for me. And you might feel like, with whatever circumstance, whatever trial, whatever storm you have in your life, you might think, man, this is way over my head. But don't ever forget. That what and this is what the disciples learned. That's what is over your head today is always still under his feet.
Do you understand that? So, what is troubling you, that's bigger than you, that's out of your control, that is over your head, don't forget that it's still under his feet. It's still under him. He is still sovereign. He is still bigger than whatever we have.
Our problem may seem big to us, it's small compared to him. Your problem may be beyond your control. But it's under his control. Your problem may have surprised you. But it didn't surprise him.
You may have ran out of answers. But he has not ran out of power. And what we have to learn about the trials that we have, it's the decision that you're making. Are you going to view your storm? Are you gonna view it?
Through the confusing circumstances around the storm? Or are you going to view it based on what you know about your God? You know he's trustworthy. You know he can be trusted. You know that he's leading you in the right way.
You know he's good. You know he's merciful. You know he's compassionate. You know he's kind. You know he's good.
Are you going to let your life Be led by the circumstances, or are you going to allow it to be led by what you know about God?
So you can trust God's power. You can trust God's presence. You can trust God's direction. But last and finally, you can trust God's character. You can trust Scott's character.
What's awesome is that when Jesus arose, he rebuked the wind. He said into the sea Peace be still. The wind ceased, there was a great calm. And then he looks at his disciples. He looked at him.
He said, Why are you so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Isn't that that's so humorous to me almost. They were about to lose their life. Of course, we're going to be scared, Jesus.
What's awesome about this is that Jesus did not pretend that the storm wasn't. Reels. He didn't even pretend that the storm wasn't big. He challenged them about their fear. Listen, I believe this to be true and it's probably true in your life too.
Our fear when we go through trials is usually rooted in something that we're questioning about who God is. Not all the time, but a lot of times, like when we're fearful, a lot of times it's like, does God really hear me? Is God really answering? Can God really fix this? Is he really in control?
Did he really lead me here? A lot of times our fear is rooted in these deep.
Somewhat theological questions. About what we believe about God. And it was true of the disciples, they were still learning what it was like to follow Jesus. They didn't have the entire canon of Scripture the way that you do. They were literally living this out and following him day to day.
And so after this crazy storm, Jesus wanted to teach them something. He wanted to teach them something about their faith. And and their fear. Here's what I'll tell you. One writer put it this way.
I thought this was really good. Fear Looks at trials and storms and asks this question: what if? Like, what if this goes bad? Whatever. What if everything falls apart?
Whatever. Faith. looks at problems and says even if. Think about it. Fear?
says this, what if everything falls apart? Faith. Says, even if it does, God will still be faithful. Fear says, what if I lose everything? Faith says, even if I do, God is still good.
Fear says, what if the answer doesn't come? Or what if deliverance doesn't come? Say it. Says even if it doesn't I can still trust who God is. Fear says, What if I can't handle this?
What if this is bigger than me? Faith. says even if I can't. I know the one who can. You see, that was the issue here.
Is they were doubting God. They were doubting God's sovereignty over the storm. They were doubting God's direction in the storm. They were even doubting God's presence in the middle of the storm. And ultimately, they were denying and doubting God's power over.
The storm. You see the opposite of fear. It's faith, it's trust. And listen, knowing God's character, it should give you confidence to trust Him. with tomorrow's storm.
And here's what we know about storms. All of us are either in one or we're headed to one. You've heard that right. I heard it preached, and I think I'm going to say this right. You ever heard it said that you're either all every person is either coming out of a storm.
You're in the middle of a storm. or you're about to head into a storm, right? And that's what we've heard. And if that's true, listen, if we're going to remain stable in the midst of that, we have to have this building block of who are you going to trust in? And so, here's what I want to do.
We did this in the first service, and I appreciate the honesty of everybody. You know, normally when we respond, when we respond to the message or whatever, a lot of times we do that, you know, it's heads bowed, its heart's lifted, nobody looking around or whatever. Here's what I want to be true because I think it'll be helpful. We're going to do this with our eyes open for just a moment, okay?
So everybody's eyes are open. But how many of you, I want you to be honest with me, okay? It can be big, it can be small, it can be whatever. But if you say, Pastor, today. I'm in a storm.
or I'm in a trial, there's something troubling me, there's something in my life that I can't control, that has burdened me, and it's chaotic, it's created very uncomfortable circumstances. And it's a problem that is bigger than me. I feel in over my head, and I'm in a storm right now. I want you to be honest. We had hands going up in the first service.
How many of you would say that's where I'm at today, okay? Listen. There are so many hands that are going up, right?
So many hands. Here's what I want you to know. You're not alone in your storm. And yes, Jesus is with you. But I want you to know: we're all, there's a bunch of storms going on in here.
And for every one of you that raise your hand. Here's the question that you have to ask as we kind of land the plane. Where are we going with this? Right, here's the question. What voice?
Are you going to trust or whose voice? Are you going to trust? in the midst of your storm. You see, what I think is so interesting here, when the disciples saw the storm, the waves. They're speaking.
Right? The wind? is speaking. It's saying, this is bigger than you. We are more powerful than you.
You can't tame us. You can't control. You see, the wind was speaking. The waves were speaking. The rain was speaking.
Everything happening around them, you know, even one another. I bet there was some chaos, right? If you feel like your ship's about to go down, we'd be turning on one another, probably too, freaking out because of the chaos that exists in that moment. And you can only imagine.
So, people are probably saying stuff, and the waves are speaking, and the wind's howling, and everything. And they have the opportunity. Are they gonna allow those voices? to impact what they believe about God. in the midst of their storm or are they gonna allow What the word says, the voice of Christ through his word, are we going to allow what God says about himself?
to dictate how we respond in the storm.
So, the question that I want to ask you this is this: What voice are you going to listen to? Are you going to decide today? And for some of you, you're in a storm. Are you going to decide? To allow The Lord And to trust him as, like, hey, listen, I might not understand the direction I'm going.
But God, you've never led me astray. I'm trusting your direction. God, I might not understand the strength of this storm, but God, I can trust your power. God, I may feel alone in my storm, but I'm going to trust your presence. God I don't know if you're really meaning this storm for my good right now.
But I know your character. And all things work together for good. And so I'm going to trust who you are above the storm. I'm going to trust that you're with me above the loneliness that I feel in the storm. I'm going to trust your power over my storm.
And I'm going to trust your direction for me in the midst of the storm. Whose voice or what voice are you going to trust?
