Where Is Your Faith?

If you've got something to write with, we're gonna dive straight in. And if you've got your Bibles, we're gonna be in Luke chapter eight this morning. It'll be on the screens as we walk through it as well. But if you've got some notes, I want you to write this down. It's the title of the message today. Where is your faith? Where is your faith? Ask the person next to you, so where's your faith? And then turn to the person you ignore. You ignore the same person every Sunday, all right? Ask them and say, where is your faith? Write that down. That's where we're gonna go this morning. And Jesus and Luke eight, and also in the account in Mark chapter four, he was with his disciples. There were large crowds gathering around him. He was teaching them about the kingdom of heaven. He was teaching them. Maybe you've heard this story. He says that when you light a lamp, do not put it underneath a bulb, but put it on a lamp stand so that it can show light to the entire house. And then right after these moments, he teaches in Luke chapter eight. We're gonna camp out here all morning.

And it starts in verse 22. This is what he says one day. Jesus said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side of the lake. And so they got into a boat and they set out. Verse 23, it makes me laugh. And as they sailed, he fell asleep. Jesus fell asleep. I wanna ask you this morning, have you all ever been on a road trip and your co-pilot had one job? You know what I'm talking about? And it's to stay awake so that you can stay awake. And y'all know it's the same person every time they fall asleep. And if it's your person next to you, just nudge them a little bit. So you need to stay awake, especially this morning. I see some of y'all y'all on a stay awake this morning, bear with me. All right, but a serious question as we begin to unpack this text, have you ever had a moment in your life where you felt like God was sleeping during a storm in your life? Have you ever had a moment where you felt like the Lord was asleep and maybe you've wrestled with the tension when things are going really well, it seems like God is very present, like God is very near, but seems like maybe in your life,

you've had moments where when things aren't going as well. And it seems as if God is asleep. Maybe you're asking that question today as you walked into church in the season of your life that it, why does it seem as if God is asleep in the middle of my storm? And this is my prayer today, as we unpack this text, I pray that I could answer that question today with the word of God. It goes on and it says a squall storm came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger. The disciples went and they woke him saying, master, master, we are going to drown. Now this body of water was about 13 and a half miles wide, it was about seven miles long, and it set about 650 feet below the Mediterranean sea. So cool air would come off of the hilltops and meet the warm air that was coming off of the water. And there was this thing that would happen that we call a storm. Some of you were woke up this morning by a storm. Anybody hear the thunder this morning and the lightning and all that stuff? I just imagine, 'cause when I'm reading the word, I just imagine what these guys are thinking. These disciples are probably debating on who's going to go wake up Jesus. That's the kind of stuff I think about when I read the Bible.

I'm like, who's going to wake up Jesus? If I was one of the disciples, this is what I would have done. I would have went to Jesus and I would have said, hey, all these other guys are really scared. But me, your faithful servant. I'm not worried about the storm. I would probably be just like the rest of them in this story. This is the reality is they were terrified. They were shaking in their boots. They were screaming. They come to Jesus, but what do they call Jesus? If you remember in the text, they said, master. Master, it's important you circle that, make note of that in your Bible. I find it very interesting that we can say one thing and we can do another. Anybody ever wrestle with this? I'm guilty of this. We can say one thing and we can do another. They are yelling, master, master. But it is crystal clear as I have read about this text and prayed about it this week, that the disciples are mastered by something else. So they woke up Jesus. Hey, just so you're aware, we are about to die. So you need to get out of bed and you need to tend to the storm. They're talking to Jesus. We often declare Jesus as master with our mouth. Hear me, but our actions preach a different story.

Our actions will tell something different. I can speak from experience that there's been times where it's like Jesus, you are master. Like Jesus, you are the master, but when the kids start acting a little crazy at the house, right? Some of y'all are like, yeah. When the family drama picks up, when Jesus, you're master, and I know I'm supposed to submit to you, but I want to kind of do my own thing sometimes, when the bad report comes in. You're master, but I've lost my job. You're the master, but I didn't get the promotion, and so I'm gonna give in to my feelings, even though I know these feelings are not true. Let me ask you, who is the master? And I'm gonna be very direct this morning, I want you to hear me loud and clear this morning. If he is your master, then he's the master of whatever seems to be mastering you. And the beautiful thing about God, and this passage specifically is that he doesn't send every storm, but he can use every storm. There's storms from disobedience. Can I get an amen? We're gonna learn about that as we unpack Jonah the next four weeks. There are storms from obedience as well. So if he is my master,

then he's gonna master what comes out of my mouth. If he's my master's gonna master what comes out of my life. If he is my master, then he is gonna be the master of the storm. I've learned this in my life. God does not cause every storm, but he can use every storm to build your faith. If he's the master, then he can master the storm. But hear me, please hear me today. If you are the master of your life, we talked about this for the last 10 weeks. If you are the Lord of your life, meaning whatever you feel goes, whatever you think goes, whatever you think is best, that is best. If you are the master of your life, every storm that comes your way will master you. It'll cause chaos. You'll feel like everything's falling apart. The disciples knew how to address Jesus with their mouth, but they did not know how to follow him with their lives. And this is, I would say this is a picture of many Christians in 2023 that we can honor God with our lips, but we can dishonor him with our lives. In Mark chapter four, it's the same story written from the account of Mark. And this is what he says. When they went up to wake Jesus, they said master, master.

We are about to drown. And they start shaking Jesus, and they say, don't you even care? You'll ever had that thought. God, do you even care about what's happening in my life? Because it seems as if you are asleep. They're questioning God's faithfulness. I wanna reiterate what I've said so far, just to make sure that we're on the same page. Your feelings will lie to you. Your feelings and your emotions will lie to you, and that will lead you to a place where you start doubting the faithfulness of God. When you are blown by the wind and waves of the world, and mastered by the storms of life, hear me, you will start believing things that are not true about God. I can speak in my own experience about this. Oftentimes the things that completely contradict God's word, God's will, God's ways, and God's character, that's what my emotions will do. It says in verse 24, he got up. What did Jesus do? This is crazy to me. He got up, I imagine he took a yawn, 'cause he's fully human and fully got his yawning. These guys. And he rebukes the wind and the raging waters and the storms subsided and all, everybody say all. It's that everything is calm,

and then he looks at the disciples. Verse 25, it says, he asked the question. He says, "Where is your faith?" Where is your faith? He asked his disciples. He takes care of the surface issue, and then he deals with the heart issue. He says, "Where is your faith?" I'm gonna ask you this morning, where is your faith? I'm gonna ask you a million times this morning, where is your faith? Question. If somebody, like, this happens to me all the time when I'll go places, grocery store, I'll see somebody, they always say, "Where is your wife?" Now, they are not asking if I have one. They are asking what, where she is at? I'm like, what about me? Do you not care to see me? You know? They're like, "Where's Kendra?" I might wanna see Kendra, right? Like, they're not asking if I have a wife, they are asking where she is currently located. If somebody says, "Seth, where's the car at? Where's your car?" They're not asking if I have a car, they're trying to find out the location. Jesus says, "Where is your faith?"

He's probably trying to find out the location. He's not asking, "Do you have faith?" 'Cause the reality is, we do have faith. But the question is, where is your faith? A lot of people read this text and they say, "Well, the disciples didn't have any faith." I beg to differ, I think they did, but it had been misplaced. Now, I believe this is a word for somebody this morning. You don't have a faith problem, everybody look at me. You don't have a faith problem. You have a location problem. It's been misplaced in something that will never truly satisfy. Maybe it's in a relationship, hey yo. Maybe your faith isn't a little shouty. You're a little boo-thang, you're bestie for the restie. All right, we put faith in relationships and then when somebody walks away, we think it's a reflection of God. Some of us will put faith in our wallet or our bank account, and when our money is funny, then we start acting funny. Or we'll put faith in a 401(k) or our investments, or we put faith in our job or our boss, but when they let us down, then we are disappointed. We put faith in all the wrong places. And this is what I've learned when your faith is rooted in things that will fade away. Every storm that comes to your life will bring chaos. Write this down, it is impossible to be strengthened by the storm if you are mastered by the storm. It is impossible, and I mean that, circle that word,

to be strengthened by the storm if you are mastered by the storm. So where is your faith? The famous theologian, Kelly Clarkson, once said, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." I don't know the rest of that song and you don't want me to sing it, but, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?" So here is the tension we're dealing with this morning. There's good news, and the good news is this. We got a lot of faith. The bad news is we have a lot of faith in all of the wrong places. And I want you to write this down, misplaced faith is dangerous. It's dangerous. I want you to think of it this way, my son is four years old. He woke me up at 4 a.m. this morning because his bed was sop and wet. And so that was a good morning surprise, and we just stayed awake and came to the church, it was awesome. And my son is four years old. If I gave him a hammer, what do y'all think he's going to do with that? He's going to hurt himself. He's definitely going to hurt his little sister. All right, she's been picking on him. He's going to hurt someone else, and he's going to absolutely destroy something in our house, and I'm going to regret it. But if I give that same hammer, that same tool to a person who is an experienced carpenter, someone who is experienced with their hands, they can take it and make something absolutely beautiful. And I'll say it this way, when you place your faith where it does not belong, you will hurt yourself, you will hurt somebody else, and you will destroy something, and typically it is our life. Where's your faith?

Verse 25, he looks into the disciples, he says, "Where is your faith?" And in fear and amazement, they ask one another, "Who is this?" Hold up, y'all been walking with Jesus for a little while at this point. He does what he's been doing, and now y'all are asking the question, "Who is this?" And he commands even the winds and the water to obey him. Micah and I met a principal this week, incredible man of God, and we were just talking about the school year. He is a principal of, I think it's a middle or junior high here locally. And as we were talking, I was asking like, "Hey, are you excited for the school year?" And what he said to me, it shocked me, he said last year was one of the hardest school years, maybe if you're a faculty or teacher or coach, you experience some of this as well, working with kids. He said, "This was one of the hardest years that we ever had in school." And I said, "Why is that?" He said, "The level of stress, the level of anxiety, the level of fear about things that are in the future, it is crippling these kids." Have y'all seen this? And just so you know, anxiety doesn't have an age limit. It happens to young people, and it happens to what? Old people as well. Rich, poor, it happens to everybody. Anxiety is crippling an entire generation. And I want you to say, will you repeat this after me? Say, don't be anxious about anything. So many people, I want to say this this morning, are struggling with anxiety. I have struggled a lot with anxiety. I heard a pastor say recently that anxiety, hear me, anxiety is proof that you are creative. It's proof that you're creative. Now, some of you are like, what in the world does that mean? I'm going to explain.

Anxiety is proof that you are actually very creative. You don't have to be a designer or an artist or videographer or photographer. Anxiety is proof that you are creative because this is what you do with anxiety. You create things that have not even happened yet in your mind. For tomorrow, the next day, the next week, the next month, the next year, ten years from And we will create those things and we will literally take ourselves Can anybody agree with that? Oh, you didn't know that anxiety was actually in the negative creativity, right? Because you take your mind to a place that it's not supposed to go. We create these scenarios. We believe it so much we travel into the future and we set up camp there. I've learned anxiety tends to be faith that actually is working against you. You hear me because you are believing in something that you cannot see that has not happened yet. You meditate on it day and night and most of the time you have made it up in your own mind. Now, I know that this is going to offend some people because someone told you you will have an anxiety for the rest of your life. Let me tell you today if God's Word tells me do not be anxious about anything but submit my thoughts to him. I can find freedom in Jesus' name because somebody say amen. So I'm not negating what someone has told you. I'm not neglecting what has happened to you, but what I am saying without a shadow of a doubt, if God said it, I believe it. I believe it. Don't be anxious about anything. It's so interesting to me. Anxiety is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength and when I realize this that I'm using the energy and the strength that God has given me for this very moment for things that probably won't even happen. It's set me free. I realize so often I'm robbed of today's blessings because I'm so busy carrying tomorrow's burdens and I just want to put it to rest this morning. I love counseling. I think it's completely necessary. I love that people can get medicine to make them feel better for anxiety. I'm not negating any of that, but what I am saying is that when you hold something and you start squeezing it and identifying yourself as it, that thing is a porcupine, by the way. And it is hurting you every time you hug it, God can set you free.

I believe that Philippians 4 says, don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation, my prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving, everybody say Thanksgiving. I can't wait for Thanksgiving, that's not this, but I'm hungry, it's almost lunch time. With Thanksgiving, listen, if you would bring the beginning of this verse, we read at the beginning of service, rejoice. I say it again, rejoice, let your gentleness be evident to all, let me tell you, if you start rejoicing and you start showing gratitude, and you start telling God what you are thankful for, those negative things will start to dissipate in the name of Jesus. I have learned personally, it is very hard for me to be grateful and anxious at the same time. So if I can be grateful and cling to God, thank you for my family, thank you for my home, thank you for, and I go down the list, things just start to become a lot less important. I want you to write this down today, it's very simple, this is from the Word of God. Number one, take the thought captive, I believe this is going to set someone free today, submit it to God. Number three, the peace of God will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. I need this. And number four, think about God things, first I had good things written down, but do you want to know every good thing, ain't a God thing? Think about God things, it says next in verse eight, that same passage of scripture, he says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, noble, rights, pure, lovely, admirable, and excellent and praiseworthy, this is what it says, think about these things. Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice, talking about practice. No laughs, no courtesy laughs, practice. I got three laughs at first service, there was none, this service. So hear me, I know that this is a sensitive topic, I know that this, a lot of people are wrestling with this, but can I tell you that gratefulness, gratitude, and thanksgiving can be medicine for your soul. When you start meditating on things that are true about God, you start remembering that the things you believe about yourself often aren't true. Put it into practice, hear me, if you can use your imagination for doom, disaster, and destruction, then you can use that same God given creativity and mind to dream up a God dream, to have a vision for your life, to be reminded of your purpose, and to know that this is not how the story is. For so many years of my life, just be transparent with you, I had no idea that anxiety was negative creativity, that I was using strength for today for tomorrow's problems. I was creating things in my mind that would cripple my faith. I want you to take note of this today as a Christ follower, your soul belongs to God, your heart, your heart, and your heart. Belongs to God so the big question again today is where is your faith? Is it misplaced? If I were to be completely honest with you this morning if you ask my wife she would tell you Seth has an issue with focusing Anybody have an issue with focusing I never got diagnosed with ADHD But I'm convinced if I walked into a doctor today, they'd be like yep If somebody all know my story, I I used to do a lot of bad things And I used to sell drugs for a season of my life one of those drugs was Adderall What I realized is I probably should have been taking it instead of selling it. I'm serious I had this revelation this week. I was like man that probably could have helped me tremendously

Focus and she calls me Ping P. I. N. G. Kendra. I'll be talking to her She'll say Ping like a ping pong ball. She said you just bounce all over the place I'll be right in a sermon you guys and I'll write four sermons I'm talking about like a hundred pages of notes that have nothing to do with what needs to be talked about on Sunday That is how my mind works. Some say it's a blessing some say it's a curse. I call it amazing. All right I'm just like all over the place But you know there's one thing I've learned in life that If you struggle focusing One thing that works better than any medicine on the planet is is this word and please hear me out as I explain this. It's worry If you think that you have an issue focusing worry about something that's completely out of your control and and Pay attention to how long you can meditate on that When I'm worried about something that I can't control I can think about it for weeks anybody else Oh, I if somebody said something that that speaks against my character or integrity or is trying to put me down or Something happens. That's out of my control someone sick. I don't have an answer I can think about that thing every single moment of every day if you think you struggle with focusing just worry about something Oh, you'll lose you'll lose sleep. I'm not encouraging you today to worry But I'm what I'm saying I want to reframe some of these things that we think are in control of our life Because they don't have to be worried. We'll make you laser focus I could be drinking coffee or having lunch or breakfast with somebody and they could be talking for 30 minutes They get done talking. I don't have a clue what they just said anybody else y'all confess to be healed this morning, all right? And then I'm just like they get down like man, that's crazy I'm like wow, you know like and I usually will confess like man. I'm so sorry my mind is somewhere else I could be tough my wife This is the worst is when she is trying to tell me what needs to be done before like she gives me the list as soon as I hear That lists all the husbands are not there and as soon as that list starts. I'm in another place I'm what and I'm usually worried or consumed by something else I could be playing with my kids before nighttime we do our little routine and they're like And Kendrick's like Seth are you not gonna answer your son and I'm like I didn't hear him say anything Because y'all listen my mind can get laser focused on most of the time things that bring God absolutely no glory

So why in the world can I be anxious and worry for months for weeks for years about something but I can't pray for five minutes I can't open the word and meditate on scripture for a couple minutes to start I can't think about things that are true noble honorable pure righteous holy for a feet listen We don't have an anxiety and worry problem. We have misplaced our faith And I know that this is hard to hear sometimes But I just want to say it how I feel if I can worry then I can worship and hear me if you can worry You can worship this too. You can worship God. You can give him your focus and your Attention because this is what worry is I wrote this down. It is a prolonged focus on the problem at hand And so this I want you to hear this today if I can worry and get my mind to focus on a problem For this amount of time that I just explained I can I can put faith in a God that already has the solution to the problem before it ever existed We have to reframe our focus. I've realized though that I can't do both at the same time. Did you know that? It's really hard to trust and be completely anxious about something at the same time I can have fear or I can have faith I can have anxiety or I can I can put faith in an ever-present God I can be anxious about a situation or I can press into discernment knowing this everybody look at me This is not how the story ends And so you may be smack dab in the middle of a storm right now here today. It's not how the story ends Verse 24, it says the disciples went and they woke up Jesus saying, "Master, master, we are going to drown." I wanna point out the disciples sound pretty confident, would y'all agree? We are going to drown. What they did not say is, hey Jesus, by the way, I was looking at the weather outside, with the rain and the clouds and the thunder and the lightning and the weather waters coming in the boat. It's a possibility that we could be in trouble. They said, we about to die. We are about to drown. Do you not even care about our life and our situation?

You see it's interesting. When you start trusting your emotions and your feelings, you will start believing things that are not true about God. You will be in the middle of a storm questioning God's faithfulness. And I'm telling you that the storm can make you stronger if you will let it. I've also learned that faith is neutral. Faith is neutral, let me explain this. Faith alone, you can put faith in yourself. How is that working? Everything in the world is like, just believe in you. Just live your own truth. Have faith in you? I've had faith in myself for many years and I let myself down every single time. Put faith in your spouse. You can put faith in your spouse, but humans are imperfect. You can put faith in your pastor. Your pastor will let you down. Your pastor is jacked up. I am, I am human. But let me tell you, when you put faith in God, he is a man of his word and he cannot lie. He does what he says he will do, but I've learned that the enemy will disguise himself. Have you all realized this? I've never had the devil walk up and ring our ring doorbell. And I see on my phone, oh, the devil's here. He's got little pitchfork and horns, there's fire around him.

He's like, hey, I've come to ruin your life, to steal, kill, and destroy everything in your household. No, he disguises himself. He comes dressed like everything I think I need. And he comes dressed in emotions called anxiety, fear, depression, worry, doubt. I've wrestled with all of these things. And as soon as he sees the opportune timing, he disguises himself and then he tries to attack. I could think back in my life from high school and college when I first started walking with God, back to the beginning before I got saved, I was so stressed out. I was so anxious about everything. Fear of failure, letting people down. It led me to do things that I am not proud of. I was addicted to drugs. Some of you have heard my story. I was selling, I was doing all this stuff, drinking myself to sleep, to numb the pain, puffing pills, years of chasing money and promotions, addicted to pornography, sex before marriage, toxic relationships. I was trying to be the master of my own life. And let me tell you today, it was meaningless. Meaningless, none of that stuff brought any gratification to my life. The devil disguised himself and then he would attack me when my guard was down. And I wanna tell you, it actually reminds me

of the story we used to read as, I was laughing so hard right in this sermon 'cause it's probably the worst illustration ever, but it reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood. You ever read that story growing up? I'm telling, I don't know why they read this stuff's kids. It's kind of jacked up. Little Red Riding Hood, she's walking down this path, she's going to see her sick grandma. And she's like, I'm gonna get grandma some flowers and some food, and so she stops and on the path, she gets off the path, she's picking some flowers. And what does the wolf do? The wolf comes up, I'm probably gonna butcher this story, so just bear with me. Read the book if you wanna know what really happened. And the wolf comes up, I was like, where are you headed? Where are you headed? You know, I don't know. (audience laughs) She's like, I'm going to grandma's house. Gotta take, she's sick, I gotta take care of her. And isn't it just like the enemy to try to get out ahead of you? And the wolf runs ahead, goes to grandma's house, eats grandma, by the way. Yeah, they read this to us, his kids. And like trauma, just thinking about it, you know? And the wolf then disguises himself as grandma, which is a whole 'nother sermon,

and then Little Red Riding Hood, goes to grandma's house, goes to grandma's house, knocks on the door, (knocking) come in, somebody's like, what is happening? Just bear with me. And then Little Red Riding is like, grandma, you sound different than I remember. And she's like, I'm closer. That was weird. Oh, but what big ears you have grandma and Little Red Riding Hood, you know, she's just innocent, and this is the wolf says, so I can hear you. Well, what big eyes you have grandma, so I can see, or what big teeth you have grandma and then the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood. Or it depends on if you went to homeschool, public school, private school, they'd all end differently. I can tell you this, at Jacksonville, Little Red Riding Hood got ate along with grandma. It was the end of the story. I'm like, man, this is a jacked up story. Where's the hoe? Where's the silver lining? You know, somebody are like, she got saved. I'm just telling you, all right? Hear me today, I tell you that. Think about this, some of us have gotten so familiar with the wolf we forgot what grandma looks like. I'll say it this way, some of us have gotten so familiar with the devil, with the things and the tricks of the enemy that you forgot what God looks like.

You forgot that he's faithful. You forgot that he created you, that he gave you your mind, that he created your heart, that he knows the number of hair on your heads, that he's got a purpose for your life. Does anybody believe that this morning? I forget what God sent his son to do. So let me remind you this morning, Jesus came to do the will of the Father. He came to save sinners, to bring light to darkness, to bring truth, to destroy the pits of hell, to bring eternal life, to receive worship, to bring great joy. Oh, did you know that there's joy coming from salvation? To demonstrate humility, to preach repentance, to bring judgment, the list goes on. Can I continue? Awesome, to call sinners, to repentance, to die the death that you and I deserved, to wear the cross and the crown of thorns that should have belonged to us. He died for us, he saved us, to serve us, to bring peace, to bring a sword, to give us the Holy Spirit, to reign as king, to restore human nature, to holiness. You don't hear that a lot today, holiness. To become more like God every single day. He came to be loved by us, to reveal God's glory to a broken humanity. I feel like I'm just simply supposed to remind you, that's the God that we serve.

Jesus came to set the captives free. So, when I read in the book of James, submit yourself then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you, I believe it. Call me a fool, but I'm just telling you, I've been doing this for 12 years, he's a man of his word. So, when I read the Bible in Exodus, and he says, be still, the Lord will fight for you, I believe it. And so, when I read this passage in Luke chapter eight, and he says, hey, guys, we're gonna get in the boat, and we're gonna go to the other side, no matter what storm comes my way, I'm gonna believe if God says I'm getting to the other side, I'm gonna take him at his word, and I'm gonna believe him. And I wanna strongly suggest today that you would do the same. Write this down, I will take him at his word. I will take God at his word, even when I can't see, or even when I'm having a hard time believe, I'm gonna take him at his word. Listen, God can't lie. He's a man of his word. If he spoke it, he will carry it until completion. This is good news. But all the devil's gotta do is disguise himself as a little thought that you marinate on for a little too long. That leads to another negative thought, which leads to action,

which leads to another action, which leads to sin. And we know that sin ultimately wants to destroy our life. The enemy has no new tricks under the sun, but he knows if he can get your eyes off of Jesus and onto your storm, then that is a battle that has been won. And I just want to suggest to you to get your eyes off of your situation. I know it's easier to say it than to do it. Lift your eyes off the circumstance that you're in. I'm talking with people in our church right now that have lost loved ones, that have been laid off from their jobs, they can't see what is ahead. I've heard of spouses being unfaithful and lives are falling apart. Can I tell you, lift your eyes off of the storm and onto Jesus? I have focused way too long of my life, being fixated on what's right in front of me and just saying, I can't get past this. I can't get around this, but man, when I lift my eyes to heaven, where my help comes from, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, things start changing. I want to ask you, if you are thinking about negative things all day long, how is that going? I'm telling you, it will rob you of joy. It'll steal your peace. It says, think about these things that are good and of God. All he wants us to do is he disguises himself and then he looks for that opportune moment to attack.

So I want to rewind back to the beginning of the story 'cause the solution is in the first verse. Says in verse 22 one day, Jesus said, Jesus said to his disciples, this is what he said, let us, who is us? Everybody who was present, I'm assuming, go to the other side of the lake. So they got into the boat and they said out, let me tell you, we going to the other side of the lake. I don't care what storm comes. I don't care what kind of adversity comes. I don't care what somebody said about you, what someone did listen to me. If Jesus said it, I'm gonna believe it. And I'm getting to the other side. I believe someone needs to grab ahold of that today and have enough faith to say, I'm gonna get to the other side. I know it doesn't look like it, but I believe that my God is faithful. This is what I've learned in my life. Disobedience can bring some storms, would y'all agree? We're gonna study that next week. Just show up next week. What happens when you disobey God? Are you gonna send a fish? Modern day Uber, you know, it's gonna take you where you're supposed to go.

But what happens when you're obedient to God and that brings a storm? Because these guys got in the boat and Jesus told them to get in. He said, we're going to the other side, but they still encountered a storm. Last time I read my Bible, it said that as a Christ follower, we don't have some hard times. We're gonna have adversity because we are going the complete opposite way of the rest of the world. There will be distractions. There will be things that try to get you off track. We live in a fallen, broken world full of sin. Storms are inevitable. Some storms can be from the Lord. Some storms are from the Pizza Hell. And some storms are just because the world has fallen. Some storms, I can't even explain why they exist, but they just do. And all we can do is make a decision that I'm gonna learn from this thing. I'm gonna be stronger after this storm. And the last thing, write this down. Listen to God and do what he says. It's very simple. Don't just be hearers of the word, but do what it says. It may be a distraction and not your destination.

It could be something just trying to get you off track so that you would get your eyes off Jesus and onto the storm and then you are completely gone. Eyes off the storm, eyes on Jesus. So no matter what comes my way, my encouragement this morning for you is keep walking. Hear me please, keep praying, keep worshiping. If you can worry, you can worship. Instead of using your anxiety and your negative creativity to create scenarios and rhetoric, would you create some scenarios that are good? Think about things that are good and honorable and pure and righteous and holy. Things of God meditate on these things. Praise be to God, I'm gonna rejoice. I'm gonna say it again, rejoice. When we really think about it, the Bible's simple, would y'all agree? But man, I screw this thing up so much. 2 Corinthians is what it says, "For I walk by faith and not by sight." So if God said it, I'm gonna believe it. If you would cross the room, would you stand to your feet? My prayer is that your faith is stirred up this morning that you would ask the question, where is my faith? The Bible says that faith comes from hearing and hearing the Word of God. So when we speak the Word of God, the Bible says that it should stir up some faith in us. Hebrews says, "Without faith, it's impossible to please God."

Luke says, "For nothing is impossible with God." Hebrews says, "For faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." I'm gonna read the passage again today from this, and Luke, hey, this is what it says. One day Jesus said to his disciples, and I hope you see this differently now, says, "Let us go to the other side of the like." So they got into a boat, and they set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. Hopefully I've answered that question if you feel like Jesus is sleeping in your storm today. A squall came down on the lake, a storm, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and they woke him saying, "Master, master, we are going to drown." Bro, we're about to die. Would you, would you get up? And he got up and he rebuked the wind and the raging waters, the storms subsided, and it was calm, and he turns to the disciples, and he says, "Where is your faith?" And in fear and amazement, they asked one another, "Who is this?" He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.