You Need to Calm Down

I'm going to invite you to stand to your feet as we declare the goodness of our God. We're believing that He has done marvelous things and will continue to do marvelous things. So if you believe that, why don't you clap your hands as we boast on Him today. Here we go. Oh, we praise you, Lord. Yeah. We sing. Your grace more than sufficient gave me what I was missing. You knew me when I didn't. Called me by name, now I'm singing. Hallelujah. Even when persecuted. Hallelujah. Your faithfulness is my assurance. I will trust in You. There is no one else. I rely on You. You're my source of strength, gate to my rescue. Every time I fail, I know I need You. I can't help myself. We believe this today. You're the source of my freedom. Once was blind, now I see You. How could I not believe You? There's not a storm I can't sing through. Hallelujah. Even when persecuted. Hallelujah. Your faithfulness is my assurance. I will trust in You. There is no one else. I rely on You. You're my source of strength, gate to my rescue. Every time I fail, I know I need You. I can't help myself. Oh, God. I can't help myself. I need You, Lord. I can't help myself. I can't help myself. I know I need You. I can't help myself. If you know you need Him every day and every hour, can you give Him a great praise for being that to us today? We sing. If I would boast, I would boast in the Lord. Not in riches nor might of the sword. Even the wisdom of man can't compare to the God that was able to conquer the grave. If I would boast, I would boast in the Lord. Not in riches nor might of the sword. Even the wisdom of man can't compare to the God that was able to conquer the grave. If I would boast, I would boast in the Lord. Not in riches nor might of the sword. Even the wisdom of man can't compare to the God that was able to conquer the grave. Oh, yes. Even the wisdom of man can't compare to the God that was able to conquer the grave. I would trust in You. There is no one else. I would rely on You. You're my source of strength. Came to my rescue every time I fell. I know I need You. I can't help myself. Oh, God. I can't help myself. We need You, Lord. I can't help myself. Yeah. I can't help myself. I know I need You. I can't help myself. Now, come on. Let's bless a God who's a very present help in a time of trouble. Come on. Let's worship the Lord. Come on, we sing to Him. I wish I could tell you. Wish I could describe it. But I can't contain it. Can't keep it to myself.

I want enough colors to paint the whole picture. I want enough words to ever say what I found. Come on, we call Him this. Wonderful and beautiful and glorious and holy. He is merciful and powerful. This is for you, who we're talking about, that's my King. Come on, just praise Him, Church. Oh, we praise You, Lord. Come on, we won't let the rocks crack. We won't let the rocks crack without joining the chorus. We've got enough notes to make the harmony. Come on, we say, it's the song of the ages. Ages. The ages. Ages. Certain and ever-symphonic. Yeah. Wonderful and beautiful and glorious and holy. Come on, lift it up. We call Him. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Hey. We listen to glory. Give Him all the honor. He's all together worthy. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Because there is no one before You. Yes, we will adore You. Because all of this is for You. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Come on, we call Him. That's my guide.

That's my shepherd. My protector. That's my King. That's my rock. Come on, my anchor. That's my anchor. My defender. That's my King. That's my guide. That's my shepherd. My protector. That's my King. That's my rock. That's my anchor. My defender. Come on, shout it. Who we're talking about, that's my King. So we declare the glory. Just give Him all the honor. He's all together worthy. Come on, we lift Him in this place. That's my King. We declare the glory. Give Him all the honor. He's all together worthy. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Because there is no one before You. Yes, we will adore You. Because all of this is for You. Who we're talking about, come on, we call Him.

Who we're talking about, that's my King. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Who we're talking about, that's my kingdom. That's my King. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Who we're talking about. Who we're talking about. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Who we're talking about, that's my King. Come on, lift some praise in this place. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. How many of you know He's King over everything today? That He's got all power in His hands. And I don't know about you, but I'm glad that I have a God that I can trust no matter what. I've been through storms, I've been through hard times, and He's the one that has held me through it all. And if that's your testimony, I dare you to lift your hands and thank Him in this place. As we declare this about Him, we say, Christ is my firm foundation. He's the rock on which I stand When everything around me is shaken I've never been more glad That I put my faith in Jesus Because He's never let me down He's faithful through generations So why would He fail now? He won't

Oh, we believe it now He won't Say, He won't fail He won't fail He won't fail Oh, He won't He won't Oh, you've proven it, God He won't He won't fail His people He won't fail He won't fail Say, Christ is Christ is my firm foundation He's the rock On which I stand When everything around me is shaken Oh, I've never Been more glad That I put my faith in Jesus Because He's never let me down He's faithful through generations So why would He fail? I know today He won't. No, no, no. Oh, He won't. He won't fail. He won't fail. He won't fail. Oh, I believe it with my whole heart. Oh, we can still put our trust in a good and faithful God. We can still hope in the Lord Jesus, for He is victorious, still healing, still moving. And I know because I've seen Him do it time and time again, we can testify. Rain came, wind blew, my house was built on You. I'm safe with You, I'm gonna make it. Come on, won't you tell the Lord that? You say, Rain came, wind blew, but my house was built on You. You showed yourself to be faithful and strong, God. And I'm safe with You, and I'm gonna make it.

I'm gonna make it through. I'm gonna make it through. Cause I'm standing strong on You. I'm standing strong on You. Lord, I have faith that I'll make it through. I'm gonna make it through. Only because of You, Jesus. My house is built on You. Christ is my first foundation. He's the rock on which I stand. When everything around me is shaking. Oh, I've never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down. He's faithful through generations. So why, so why would He fail? Shout it out church. He won't. No, no, no. He won't. He's still an unfailing God. He hasn't changed. He won't fail. He won't fail. Now, if you believe that about Him today, can you give Him a mighty great shout in this house? It's a shout of joy. It's a shout of victory, because we have faith in an unfailing God. Amen, amen, and amen. Praise the Lord. Well, I tell you what, it's gonna be an amazing time in church today. Why don't you take a moment to encourage somebody near you. Tell somebody hello. Maybe somebody that you haven't seen all week. And let's just see our faith continue to rise as we continue with our service today. We'll see you in a moment. God bless you. God bless you. Good morning. Happy Time Change Sunday. Where are all the parents at? Give me a little wave. Give yourself a little pat on the back. You made it to Time Change Sunday with your kid's dress. Praise the Lord. All right, it's time to celebrate some other very special people. If it is your first time here, would you just wave at me really quick? Ah, good to see you. Welcome. Our ushers have a welcome booklet for you, so keep your hands up for us. And I hope you got the opportunity to interact with one of our amazing guest experience team members. But if you didn't, please take your phone and tap the seat in front of you. We have some great resources we want to share with you.

Also, I know at the end of service today, you're gonna want to know more about faith. You're gonna want to know about all the amazing connect groups, grow classes, kids and youth ministries, and adult ministries we have available. So go ahead and stop by our connection hub in the atrium after service. Welcome to Faith. Welcome to Faith Church Orlando. Here's a look at upcoming events. Easter at Faith is fast approaching. It starts on April 3rd through 5th, and we don't want you to come alone. There are multiple services to choose from. It starts Friday night, April 3rd at 7 p.m., Saturday at 7 p.m., and Sunday at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., and 12 p.m. This day also marks the start of our brand new Spanish service at 2 p.m. Saludos a todos. Nos encontramos en un momento tan emocionante en la historia de nuestra iglesia, ya que estamos justo a lanzar nuestro primer servicio llamado Faith Español. Este servicio va a ser a las dos de la tarde aquí en el campus of Kerry Ford, y va a comenzar el 5 de abril, así que apunten su calendario. Nos encantaría que invitaran a amistades, a familias, a vecinos, a gente que ustedes conocen que saben que necesitan un encuentro con Jesús. Invítelos para que sean parte de este servicio.

¿Cómo va a ser este servicio? Pues mira, muy sencillo. Es el mismo ADN de Faith. Esa misma pasión en la adoración. Ese mismo compromiso en la palabra. Todo eso, lo único que en español. Ahora, piensen en las personas que están trabajando con ustedes, compañeros, vecinos, gente que ustedes saben necesitan al Señor, y comiencen a invitarlos. Abril 5, dígale, tienes que estar allí a las dos de la tarde. Así que muy pronto se acerca Faith en español. The Saturday morning of Easter weekend, the whole family is invited to our kids' Easter egg hunt from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. across all campuses. Enjoy age-appropriate egg hunts, bounce houses, food trucks, and more. You don't want to miss it. If you would like to help volunteer and serve at any of the Easter services or events, visit faithassembly.org slash Easter and register. What an incredible opportunity to invite someone to church. So grab a ticket in the lobby and invite a family member, co-worker, or a neighbor and save them a seat. It's going to be a life-changing weekend. Exciting things are happening at Faith. Here's a look ahead.

We encourage you to connect, grow, serve, and reach here at Faith. So stay connected through the Faith app or our website. Have a blessed week. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I love Timmy's testimony. Let's give him a hand one more time. He didn't mention it, but Timmy also is a big part of serving

here at faith. He served at our kids camp this summer as part of our special super kids ministry. He's doing amazing things for God already. Now, the DIN ministry, the deaf and interpreter ministry, would not be here without your faithful giving of your tithe. That first 10% of our income that we give out of obedience to God directly goes to funding our local ministries here at this church. We also have another lane of giving, our step two, that is kingdom builder's giving. That's giving out of generosity. We have the privilege of partnering with missionaries and amazing ministries that are making an impact all around the globe. And we do that through prayer and through giving. Let's go to God today and let's ask him what he would have us to do. And then let's be obedient. Let's give. We have many ways and opportunities on how to do that. Those are listed on the screen. Let's go to the Lord right now and let's pray. Dear God, we love you. It is an honor, God, to partner with you in the mighty work that you are doing here locally in our church and community and throughout the world. Today, God, speak to every single one of our hearts what you would have us give out of obedience, God. Take that offering and bless it.

Use it to directly impact lives all around the world with the ever powerful changing of your gospel, God. We need you. This world needs you. Thank you for allowing us to give. Bless it today we pray, amen. Amen. Amen, church. Will what you give would you stand with us as we continue to worship? And if you would in this place just begin to lift your hands as we focus our hearts and minds on Jesus this morning. Come on, just tell Him Lord, I choose you. God, I choose to fix my eyes on you, Lord. You are constant. God, and I am not alone. Come on, can we sing to Him, church? Come on, we believe He is there. ♪ Who sees, peace is my meat ♪ ♪ Cause you hold the days to come, you were there ♪ ♪ Oh yes, you are there ♪ ♪ Sure that God won't forsake me ♪ ♪ Father who only, a love that's guaranteed ♪ ♪ A love that's guaranteed ♪ Come on, this is what we do. ♪ I fix my eyes on you, the rock that never moves ♪ ♪ You're forever true, so I will believe your eyes are on me ♪ ♪ I fix my eyes on you, the rock that never moves ♪ ♪ You're forever true, so I will believe your eyes are on me ♪ Come on, just tell Him you believe that today.

♪ Oh, I believe it, you're always with me ♪ ♪ You're always with me ♪ ♪ Nothing's separating me from your great love ♪ ♪ No distance in between ♪ ♪ And if I ever go too far, you're still in reach, you're there ♪ ♪ Reach, you're there, oh yes, you are there ♪ ♪ Cause you're the God who won't forsake me ♪ ♪ A Father who won't leave, a love that's guaranteed, yes ♪ ♪ So I fix my eyes on you, the rock that never moves ♪ ♪ You're forever true, so I will believe your eyes are on me ♪ ♪ I fix my eyes on you, the rock that never moves ♪ ♪ You're forever true, so I will believe your eyes are on me, yes ♪ ♪ Oh, your eyes are on me, Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, thank you, Lord ♪ Come on, churches, word tells us that he will never leave. Don't forsake us. Come on, how many are thankful for that promise today? Come on, every season, we walk it with Jesus. Come on, we can declare this, that you are there. ♪ Cause you're there in the victory, with me in the suffering ♪ ♪ With me in the suffering, as sure as the air I'm breathing ♪ ♪ My eyes on you and yours on me, your hand over everything ♪ Come on, goodness. ♪ Goodness always following, as sure as the air I'm breathing ♪ ♪ My eyes on you and yours on me, you're there in the victory ♪ Come on, with me in the suffering. ♪ With me in the suffering, as sure as the air I'm breathing ♪ ♪ My eyes on you and yours on me, your hand over everything ♪ Come on, goodness. ♪ Goodness always following, as sure as the air I'm breathing ♪

My eyes on you and yours on me. ♪ You're there in the victory, with me in the suffering ♪ ♪ As sure as the air I'm breathing, my eyes on you and yours on me ♪ ♪ Your hand over everything, goodness always following ♪ ♪ As sure as the air I'm breathing, my eyes on you and yours on me ♪ Come on, we sing to you, Jesus, we will always be with you. We will always be with you. Come on, the claim is my eyes. ♪ My eyes on you and yours on me ♪ Come on, you can trust Him in every season. Come on, our God will never fail us. He will never fail. ♪ Oh, we believe it ♪ Come on, so we fix our eyes on Him. ♪ I'll fix my eyes on you, no rock can ever lose ♪ ♪ You are forever true, so I will believe your eyes on me ♪ ♪ Fix my eyes on You ♪ ♪ No rock can ever move Your Word forever true ♪ ♪ So I will believe Your eyes on me ♪ Come on, just tell Him that. Come on, I will believe. I will fix my eyes on You, Jesus. In every season, Lord, You are constant. Come on, You are constant. Just praise our Father. ♪ Holy Jesus ♪ Come on, church, there is something powerful about focus. I mean, for you individually, there's something powerful. When you can focus with all the noise and all the things going on,

when you can focus on Jesus, there's something even more powerful. We can come together in settings like this across every location and collectively focus on one person, collectively focus on Jesus. I want us, we can take 30 more seconds, and come on, put all of the focus and all of the attention on the only one who deserves it. Come on, the only one that is truly worthy. Jesus, we look to You. Jesus, we cry out for You. We cry out for more of You, O God. Jesus, I pray that You would come and fill our lives. God, fill every single room. God, fill every single gathering. And I pray, God, that You would be seated high. Lord, that You would have the supreme place of authority. And we bless You and we honor You because You're the only one who's worthy of our praise. We bless You in Jesus' name. Come on, one more time. Will you put your hands together and lift your voice and say, God, thank You. Thank You, Jesus. Amen, amen. God bless you. You can be seated across every location. I am so glad to see you today. And this is just, man, this is one of those days, I just, I'm grateful to see you here

at every single location. Grateful for all of our volunteers that serve. This is just one of those weekends where we're just so grateful for all of our volunteers that serve. Can we just put our hands together for all of our volunteers that serve across all our locations? Speaking of our locations, let me mention those. Today, joining this second service right now is our Red Bug Lake campus, our Michigan Street campus joining this service, our Narcoossee Road campus also joining this service. And then, of course, today's service is streamed at the Central Florida Reception Center. That's our campus there in the correctional facility. And so now, come on, across all of those, let's do this right. Let's put our hands together one more time. Thank You, Jesus, for what You're doing at every single location. And we're getting ready to get into the Word today, and I have a word from the Lord today. Okay, some of you are with me on that. I thought everybody would be with me on this. I said, I got a word from the Lord today. And excited to preach in this series on the miracles of Jesus. And I'm gonna read from Mark chapter four. So while you're turning, if you have a copy of God's Word,

while you're turning to Mark chapter four, let me mention something that's coming up in two weeks. So it's March 22nd, two weeks from this weekend, and we're doing something that, because of the kind of the content and the tone of the service on that day, it will be a non-streamed day. And so to be a part of that service two weeks from today, March 22nd, you'll need to be in person at one of our locations to be a part of that service live. And so just because of the tone and the direction of that service, we just felt like that this is what's best. And so two weeks from today, just make sure you're here. Of course, if you're here today, but if you're watching from in town, and make sure you're in one of the locations for one of the normal times. And that's two weeks from today. That's just a no-stream Sunday because of the content and the tone of that service. And then four weeks from this weekend is Easter weekend. Come on, somebody. And hey, we still have this cultural phenomenon in our country where people will come to church, non-church people, people that maybe are unsaved, people that don't typically come to church. We still have a cultural phenomenon. I don't know how long it will last,

but in our country, people still come to church on Easter. There may be people that you've invited to church before, and they've said no, and you said, well, I can't ask them again, but it's Easter. So you can, because they'll probably say yes. And we got extra services across, I think, almost every location. And so there are Easter invites out at every location. Grab one of those, grab bunches of those, and be praying about who you're bringing with you on Easter weekend. Don't come to church alone that weekend. If you have to buy somebody's lunch to get them to come. come do that, Pastor Matt will reimburse you guys, okay? And so, man, we're excited today about God's word. Go to Mark chapter four. We've been in this series called The Miracles of Jesus, and of course, there's different definitions of miracles. We've been kind of sharing miracles, kind of any time God gets engaged and involved in human circumstances in a way that is unexplainable other than something supernatural happened, that God did it, and so Mark chapter four, and we'll read verse 35 through 41. Mark chapter four, verse 35 through 41. This is what the word of God says. That day when evening came, he, Jesus, said to his disciples, let's go to the other side.

So leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. So Jesus was kind of already in the boat when he said this, they took him in the boat with them as he was, it says. And there were other boats with him. Look at this in verse 37. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. And Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion, and the disciples woke him, and they said to him, teacher, don't you care if we drown? And he got up, he rebuked the wind, and he said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down, and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? I like when Jesus gets hardcore with the disciples. He said, why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? And look at verse 41. They were terrified and asked each other, who is this? It's the key question in the whole text. Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. And I just pray today, God, that your word would bring peace.

I pray today that your word would bring a calm. Lord, there are many, God, that are sensing in the middle of a season of turmoil and unrest and storms. And I just pray, God, that today we would put our focus and our attention on you. God, may there just be a fresh, prophetic anointing, God, on what you are saying to the church today. And God, give us ears to hear it, we pray, our hearts to receive it. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen. I'm gonna give some, the title of my message today is in this series of the miracles of Jesus. But the title of my message today is, you need to calm down. Now, let me give some relationship advice. Let me give some conflict resolution advice. Let me give some, especially to you married people. Has anyone ever been in a moment of tension, a moment of conflict, a moment of, you know, we're not agreeing, maybe, and have you ever been in a moment like that with somebody and you had a grown adult look at you and say, you need to calm down? How many know that that doesn't work? Like, it does the opposite. Like, it compounds all the wrong feelings inside you. When somebody tells you to calm down, it makes you just wanna go, I'm fixing to calm up is what I'm gonna do.

Like, we're not calming down. No, we're not gonna calm down. Now that you said that, like, in all of its forms, if it's not, you need to calm down, somebody will say, man, just chill out. You need to chill out. That does not make me chill out. If somebody says that to me, I was trying to remember if Jamie and I had ever said that to each other. If we did, man, it would have been a long time ago. But if she ever looked at me and said, you need to chill out, I'll tell you what I probably did. I probably heated up, all right? Like, it's just, it just doesn't work. Or if somebody says, man, just relax. It's hard to relax when somebody tells you and orders you to relax. And so, this term of like, man, you need to calm down, it just doesn't work when somebody says it unless that somebody is Jesus. Because we see in this story that the disciples are in this boat and this massive storm comes enough that it's scaring these professional fishermen and they think that they are going to drown and they go wake Jesus up and Jesus looks out to that storm and that raging sea and the waves and the boat that's sinking and he says, you need to calm down. And man, it just is an immediate calm.

So here we are and I think that a lot of us today, well, let me say it this way. If you're not, if you're not in a storm right now in your life. Or if you're not coming out of a storm in your life, then I have bad news for you. One is probably on the way. And if you're somebody that goes past it, like I've been living a while and I've just never had any rough season at all in my life, first of all, come to me after service and pray that anointing all over me. Okay, I want that life, okay? Second of all, I would say this, you better enjoy it while it lasts. Because we are going to face troubles, we are gonna face difficulty, we are gonna face seasons of question and unrest. And there are seasons of that then where we need more than just things to get a little bit better. We need more than somebody, just anybody, to look at us and go, you just need to calm down. No, sometimes we get in those seasons of unrest and we get in the midst of those storms and we need a miracle, okay? This is about the miracles of Jesus. This miracle is a natural miracle, okay? There's different categories of Jesus's miracles and this one is a natural miracle.

In other words, he interacts with nature and kind of changes what nature is doing and changes the laws of nature a bit. And so this is a natural miracle and some of us need a spiritual miracle in the storms that we are walking through right now. How do we know if we are in that place where we need a miracle? We need a miracle kind of peace in our life. We need a miracle calm down in our life. Let's look at this story and see the parallels for us. I think that sometimes we need a miracle whenever we go through storms that are unexpected or unpredictable. And this storm was one of those storms. It was unexpected and unpredictable. When those disciples got into the boat with Jesus to go to the other side, they weren't expecting a storm. Verse 37 says, a furious squall came up and they're in the Sea of Galilee, which is, it's called the Sea of Galilee. It's actually a very large freshwater lake. And on three sides it's mountains and then on one side there are plains. And with the geography makeup of that body of water, these crazy funnel storms will just pick up and they'll be violent and turbulent and immediate and they will just bring all kind of wind. They'll be dangerous, they'll be deadly and it'll come just like that.

And so these disciples are on their way out, again, professional fishermen and this kind of storm pops up out of nowhere. And sometimes storms, man, we don't see them coming and they just hit us. It's kind of like the difference between a tornado and a hurricane. See, I live now in hurricane country but I used to live in tornado country. Any Midwesterners been around a little bit with some tornadoes? Yeah, and so the difference is now when hurricanes are on their way, sometimes we'll have plenty of notice. Sometimes it'll be days or sometimes even a couple weeks. They'll be like, oh, there's a disturbance out there and the cone of it, Florida's in the cone. And then sometimes five days out, they'll be like, okay, we're pretty certain it's gonna hit us. And I know you had maybe two weeks notice, then you had five days notice and I know what you're gonna do. You're still gonna wait till the last day to run to the grocery store to get your supplies. I know what you're gonna do. But you had some notice there that this thing was coming and that is one of the good, I guess, better things or the advantages of a hurricane

because with a tornado, we never had two weeks out. With a tornado, we never had five days out. With a tornado, you'd be outside playing and then the sirens would start sounding. And that just meant a tornado is probably close. You better get inside somewhere. And so sometimes instead of five days, you might have five minutes. Sometimes you might just have a matter of seconds before the wind is coming. Now, both storms are gonna do some damage. It's just one, you have some preparation. One, you have some expectation that it's coming. The other, you don't have any expectation, you don't have any warning. It's unexpected. And so there are different kinds of storms in our life too. Like what kind of storms can we expect? Let me tell you the kind of storms you can expect. You can expect a storm when it's of your own making. Have you found that? Have you lived long enough to see that you can make some poor decisions that create some stress in your life? And like some of you in that season right now, you're like, Pastor, I have made bad decision after bad decision after bad decision. I can't get out of this rut that I'm in. Bad decision, they're compounding. It is a storm of my own making

and I don't know where to turn. I don't know who to talk to. I don't know what to do, but it's a storm of my own making. Can I tell you this? That even in a storm of your own making, Jesus can still speak peace. Even in a storm of your own making. In John chapter eight, I'll show you. In John chapter eight, there's a woman who is caught in the very act of adultery. You could say it's a storm of her own making and she has been thrown to the ground and ready to be killed, stoned for this act that she has done. And Jesus steps onto the scene and this is the story where he kneels down and he begins to write some things in the dirt and then all of the accusers, they start to go from the oldest to the youngest. So he's writing something down that's got them all kind of freaked out and ready to get out of there. And then he looks at this woman and he says, where are all your accusers? He brings peace in the midst of a storm that was of her own creation. I'm not saying that God promises to remove every consequence of every sin. Our sins, our decisions, they have consequences. But there are times, there are miraculous times when even God will even lift the consequences as we see. So there are storms that we know are coming.

Jesus is still the Lord of those. And yet then there are some that I mean, they come out of nowhere. And sometimes we can get sucked into believing that if I'm doing enough of the right things for Jesus that I'll just have smooth sailing with my whole life. And I just won't hit any storms because I'm in church and because I'm serving and I'm giving and I'm doing all, and if I do all these things right, then I should have smooth sailing. And that's never been promised. Listen, every single unrest season of our life or every single fearful situation that we go through, not all of those are a result of the sins that we have committed or the wrong decisions we've made. Sometimes God sees fit to allow you to go through a storm because it's going to refine your faith. Sometimes God's gonna see fit to let you go through a storm because you're gonna see him in a different way and it gives him the opportunity, come on, to be the Lord in your storm. God's allowed to do that. And so when a storm comes that's unexpected, unpredictable, we need a miraculous miracle from Jesus. And then verse 37, this furious squall comes up and look at it, it says the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. And so we need a miracle when we're taking on more than you can handle. Here is this boat, man, and it's got so much water coming in

that the boat is beginning to sink. The boat is beginning to sink so much so that these professional fishermen are scared to death of what's going on. There's wind, there's waves, there's storms, the boat is sinking. Anybody ever played dodgeball? Any dodgeball fans? Wave at me at every location if you're a dodgeball fan. Okay, some of you are dodgeball fans. Did anybody just have some post-traumatic stress from fifth grade dodgeball when I mentioned it? You're like, Pastor, just pray for me, I'm still working through that storm in my life. It was 30 years ago but I'm still suffering, yes. Okay. All right, so I've played a little bit of dodgeball in my life. I've been to too many youth camps where I can't say I've never played dodgeball. So I've played some dodgeball in my life and there's a strategy that a good dodgeball team will employ. So let's say you get down towards the end of the game and maybe there's four or five people on one team still remaining and there's only one or two on the other team. And so let's say I'm the last person left on my team and there's five on the other team. And you know how dodgeball works, right?

You beat them with the ball and if you hit them with the ball, they're out. And so I'm the last one left and if I'm the last one left, I still am dreaming, man, I'm gonna come, it's gonna be the greatest comeback ever. And so if one person throws a ball at me, I have a chance, man, I might catch it. And if I catch it, they're out. If one person throws the ball at me, I can make one of my moves and the ball will miss me. I can stay alive in this game. But a good dodgeball team will employ this strategy. They'll wait until four or five of them all have a ball and then they'll say, okay, on the count of three, we're all gonna throw a ball at the same time at the same person. One ball coming at me, I got a chance. If all five people are throwing at me at the same time, I got nothing to do but go in fetal position and try to protect myself and try to stay alive. And that picture of all the things flying at me all at once, that's how some of you feel right now. It's like at every turn. We've been in seasons where it's like, man, everywhere. Like at work, I got issues. I get home and everybody's sick at home and everybody's fighting at home and someone stole my credit card number and they're putting charges and then we got the house and the house air conditioner broke down

and then the car messed up. It's like and it's all happening at the same time and we got extra family coming in this weekend and I can't handle it all. We've all known what it's like to be in these seasons where there's so many things coming on all at once and when you are in a season like that, you need a miracle from Jesus. And that's how it was in this story. There are so many elements going on. And when there's so many elements like that, the dangerous thing to do is to start to focus on all the things that are happening around. And I wanna make it really, really clear about this story that this story, that the focus of this story is not all the storms. The focus of this story is not the wind. The focus of this story is not the wave. The focus of this story is not the boat sinking. The focus of this story is not the clouds. The focus of this story is not even the disciples. The focus of this story is Jesus. Now there are never any shortage of storms. And if you go past it, like internally, like I don't really have any storms going on right now. Well then there are plenty of storms out there. There are plenty of national storms going on. There's world storms going on right now. And we can get so focused on all of the different things, the cultural moments.

There's no shortage of different cultural storms that get brewed up from time to time and political arguments and wars and rumors of war. There's no shortage of these things, of outbursts on social media where everybody wants to talk about this and injustices and demonstrations and devastation and disagreements. Oh, there's no shortage of any of those things. And here's what happens. Because we are so focused on those things, sometimes that's all we start looking for. And watch this. Some of us, we come to church and we just want breakdowns of all of the latest divisive things that everybody's talking about. Well, which side does our church come down on on this new thing that everybody's mad at now and you gotta pick this side or that side. And we come to church and we wanna focus on, well, where are we at on this political issue? Where are we at on this divisive thing? And where are we at on this incident that happened? And so we can come to church and we start wanting somebody just to be a cultural commentator because that's what we're focused on. And we want somebody to break down all of the elements of this new storm that happened. Like you want me to break down the barometric pressure

and the atmospheric changes and the down streams of air that are happening and the cold front that's coming in socially and culturally. And here's the thing. It's not, I'm saying that we're never gonna mention things that are going on in culture. What I am saying is that when we gather, those things are not going to be our focus. Let me tell you, Jesus is gonna be our focus every time we gather. Why? Because that's what you need. Well, I feel like it's part of my calling because some of you, you're so focused on some of that for so many hours of the week. I almost feel like it's my calling to go, hey, I know there's a storm. Like I know there's a storm now in our world. And I'm praying for peace in this conflict in the Middle East. I know that. But you know what? I'm looking for Jesus in this. I want people to find Jesus in this. And I know this, that if there's a tenseness, if there's a fear, if there's an uncertainty, I know that more information and more stuff and more social media, it's not gonna bring any peace. I know a peace speaker and his name is Jesus. So he is going to be our focus.

Is that okay if Jesus is our focus at Faith Church? Come on, somebody. He's gonna be our focus. We need a miracle, though, when it feels like it's all coming all at once. Some of you need that miracle today because that's where you're at. Just be honest. We need a miracle when we start to doubt God's participation in our life, which is exactly what happened with these disciples. Verse 38, Jesus is in the stern and he's sleeping during the storm, sleeping on a cushion. And the disciples woke him and they said, "'Teacher, don't you care if we drowned?' And they call him teacher. It's ironic that they call him teacher because they're not learning. They don't understand who he is still. He's given them some insight. Even in this same chapter in verse number 11, it says that they were given the secret to the kingdom of God. In verse 34, it says he explained everything in private to the disciples. And so he's teaching them and they're calling him teacher, but man, it's just not getting in here. And it's the same for us sometimes. We know how to talk about it. We know how to hear about it.

We know how to sing about it. We can sing about trusting Jesus all day long and we trust him pretty good until there's a storm. Nothing will reveal your theology quite like a storm will, right? Until we go through the storm, it's like, no, no, I'll walk with Jesus. I trust Jesus. I'm not afraid of anything. And then the diagnosis comes. It'll mess with your theology. No, I walk with, I'm not afraid of anything. And then the tear in our family happens. No, I'm fine. I'll walk with Jesus. And then we lose the job. Nothing will mess with your theology and expose your real theology like a storm will. And that's what happens. What happens in this story, this storm, they go to Jesus and, hear me, there's nothing wrong with going to Jesus. I want you to come to Jesus if you're in a storm today. Jesus wants you to come to Jesus every time you walk through a season of unrest and you're tempted to be fearful. Jesus wants you to come to Jesus. It's not that they came to Jesus, it's how they came to Jesus. They came to Jesus so void of faith.

They came to Jesus accusing, can you believe it? Accusing Jesus of not even caring that they're about ready to die. It's how they came to Jesus, even though he was in the boat. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was recently on a missions trip to Honduras and the city that we were in, in Honduras, was San Pedro Sula. And I didn't know this, but like 10 years ago, it was on a run every year for being the most violent city in the world. And even now today, it's still amongst the most dangerous cities in Central America. And I didn't really know that and I spent a week there. And I mean, if you read about it now, it'll be like, hey, visitors need to beware and be careful and don't go into these certain places and don't go to these certain part of towns and don't go out at night. Like, it'll still say that now if you search it. And I was there for a week and it never even dawned on me. I never felt scared one second. I just didn't even think about it. You go, why? Because I can handle myself, okay? Like, bring it. Like, let's do this.

Like, who wants some? This was not the portion of the service that I was looking for a laugh, by the way. I was kind of looking more like, that's true, you can pastor, but you laugh instead. All right, that's fine. Because I think you sense that's not really where my confidence was coming from. It's not myself, that's not the reason. I think part of the reason why it never even dawned on me, why I never even thought about how dangerous that city might be, it never dawned on me, maybe it had something to do with that armed bodyguard that stood in the doorway of our minibus everywhere we went. He'd stand there right in the door, like, just the whole ride. And we went on some long trips to different places and we'd say, hey, do you wanna sit down? And he'd be like, nope, didn't say much to us, didn't interact with us much. He just stood there in the doorway with his weapons showing. It's like, maybe that's where I had this sense of peace knowing that he was in our vehicle with me. See, the presence of Jesus in your life, the presence of Jesus in this boat did not mean that they wouldn't go through a storm. It meant that when they did go through a storm, they should do so with faith.

It meant that if Jesus, listen, if he is truly in your life, if you are truly doing life with Jesus, if you had invited him into your boat, then come on, whatever storm you go through, you should go through with confidence because Jesus is with you. But when you start to think, well, God's not participating in my life, then you need a miracle in your life. You need a miracle of peace to show up. Last one is this. When might we need a miracle of peace? When might we need to have a calm down moment from Christ? I would say if fear starts to choke out your faith. They won't both coexist. And so fear starts to choke out our faith. Verse 39, Jesus gets up, watch as he rebukes the wind and he says to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And then he says to his disciples, why are you so afraid? I don't even think Jesus had issue with them having some fear. He didn't say, why are you afraid? He said, why are you so afraid? Do you still don't, you don't have any faith still? And so the greatest danger that we see in the story, the greatest danger in life is not a storm

and water and waves outside the boat, it's fear inside the heart. That's the real danger. And so these disciples are so afraid of a storm and then this really cool thing happens. There is a shift in fear. It's like they fight fear with fear. You've heard fight fire with fire. They fight fear with fear. There are fear shifts. In one moment, they're afraid of this storm that then Jesus comes out and goes, stop it. Calm down, storm. And then their fear shifts from the storm. Now they're afraid of him. Now they're afraid of Jesus. What do they say in verse 41? They're terrified and they ask each other the pivotal pillar question in this passage, who is this? That's the question that a storm should bring out of your life. Who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him? When your vision of Jesus becomes bigger than your vision of your problem, boy, the problem loses its power to control your life. If you can get your focus so they're terrified that Jesus, this 100% God, 100% man can speak to creation, he must truly be the creator. This thought just seizes them with this holy fear, with this reverent fear, with this fear of God is, man, this is, he's the real thing. And we better live a certain way because of that. It's a holy, good fear that happens here. Part of what I love about this moment when fear starts to defeat fear is that Jesus speaks

to this storm. The Bible says he rebukes the storm and then he says to the waves to be still and to be quiet. Peace, be still, some versions say. So I have this container of water here that some of you have been wondering what we're doing. You thought we were changing our stance on infant baptism today, but that's not what this is for. We're going to do a science project. So I have here, this is a storm. This is a disruptor and we're going to disrupt this water and watch what happens when we are disrupting this water. I'll pull the disruptor out and the water stays disrupted. I'll do it again. I'll disrupt and I'll pull out the disruptor and yet it still stays. So this is the cause of it. I'll pull out the cause and the effect is still in effect. So this is the coolest part about the story to me, is that Jesus not only calms the storm, which is the cause of all of the fear, he not only just calms the storm, but he immediately calms the effect. Okay, if I had been in the boat, that's the part I would have freaked out out. Because like, if Jesus said, I rebuke the storm and the storm stops, wouldn't there be a part of you that would go, well, the storm is probably over anyway. I mean, like storms don't last forever. All storms end. So maybe he just timed it up just right. Don't we do that sometimes with God? When God does a miracle in our life, God brings healing and we go, well, that's probably getting better anyway. My body's kind of created to heal.

I know your creator did that. It's still God. Okay. Sometimes when we get the new job or we get the promotion or we get the raise and we start thinking, well, I kind of did that. No, God did that. Or we give ourselves or we give things credit for things that God did. So maybe, maybe if it had just been that and the boat's still rocking, everything's still going, they'd be like, well, he rebuked the storm, but he might've timed it just right. But he, he not only rebuked the storm, the cause of all of this, but immediately, water is still, I'm just telling you, that's the part where it got me. And that's the real miracle. And that's the miracle some of you need. Because some of you, you're not even living in the storm anymore. Some of the abuse happened a long, long time ago and God has rescued you out of it. And yet you're still living in the trauma of what happened 20 years ago. Jesus can still bring peace to that if you'll let him. Like, well, we had problems in our marriage and it caused quite a storm and there was infidelity, but we forgave each other and we got counseling and God helped us. And yet I'm still scared that it's going to happen again. I'm living in fear that, but what if it happens again? And I had the diagnosis and it scared me to death and it was cancer, but then the cancer went in remission and God healed me, but what if it comes back? And we constantly live in this trauma. And what I'm telling you is this, Jesus not only can calm the cause of the storm, he can cause the effect of the storm. And so you don't have to live in the trauma of what you have gone through in the past. As a matter of fact, what you have gone through in the past, the storms that you have walked through in the past don't need to cause trauma in your life now. They need to cause a testimony in your life now.

You need to know that Jesus can not only rebuke the wind, he can also calm the waves. I need you to not forget the first verse that we read today because it's important. We're trying to figure out how we navigate storms. It was verse 35. And in verse 35, Jesus said, let us go over to the other side. It was his idea. He had a destination in mind. Can I tell you that when Jesus has a destination in mind, you don't have to fear about the journey. And I need everybody to look at me real quick because Jesus wanted me to tell you, he already has your destination in mind. He does. Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one says, he who began a good work in you is faithful to finish it and to complete it. If Jesus has your journey marked out, you don't have to fear any storm. Pastor, are you saying that then these things won't ever happen? So then the cancer won't ever come back and the marriage won't ever get on rocks again and I won't ever have a financial issue again. Are you saying that'll never happen again? That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that even if it does, come on, Jesus is in your boat

and he's gonna be the one that gets you through it. It's gonna be a testimony if you do. I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. Let me pray for you because I know that some of you are in a storm right now. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for each and every person that's under the sound of my voice. I pray, God, that your word would, I thank you, God, that it's just stirring something up within us today to begin to believe and to begin to see you differently. It's changing our theology today knowing that you are capable of calming every storm and also calming, God, the effects of that storm. And I pray, God, you do it right now as we look to you and put our focus on you. In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name. With nobody looking around in church, here's what we're gonna do. I wanna sing this song that we sang a moment ago that just talks about the faithfulness of Jesus in every circumstance, in every trial. Yes, John 16 says, in this world, you will have trouble. We know that, but he's gonna be faithful. So would you just, as a response to this word, would you sing this with us today that he is our firm foundation? Come on, sing this. ♪ He is my firm foundation ♪

He's the rock on which I stand. ♪ The rock on which I stand ♪ ♪ And everything around me is shaking ♪ I've never been more glad than when I did this. I put my trust there. ♪ I put my faith in Jesus ♪ I put my faith there. And he's never let me down. He's faithful. ♪ Faithful through generations ♪ I wonder if somebody would sing it today like they mean it. Come on, Christ is my firm foundation. ♪ Christ is my firm foundation ♪ Maybe we stand as we sing this. He's the rock on which I stand. Come on, stand on the rock that is Christ Jesus. ♪ And everything around me is shaking ♪ Oh, I've never been more glad that I put my faith. ♪ I put my faith in Jesus ♪ I put my trust in Jesus. And he's never let me down. ♪ He's never let me down ♪ He's faithful. And he will be faithful. So why would he fail? He won't. ♪ So why would he fail now? ♪ Oh, he won't.

Church, we're gonna sing it again. But I know that there are some today you are in the middle of the kind of turbulence that you need a miracle today. You don't need to go out of here just feeling a little bit better. Come on, you need peace. You need calm. You need Jesus to tell you, come on, calm down. And so as we sing it again today, if you need prayer today, you're going through a bit of a storm, a bit of a season. Maybe it was unexpected. Maybe it feels like, man, it's too much to handle. I want you to step out and come as we sing it again. Maybe the storm is of your own making and you need today to get right with Jesus. And the storm is just, man, it's bad decision after bad decision. As we sing this again, I want to invite you to step out and come to this front. Come on, church and the rest of you, I need you to sing this with all the faith you have because we need a miracle in here today. Come on, is that you? Come on, meet me. Meet me at this front. Pastor, I'm walking through it right now and I need strength.

I need faith again. I've been living in fear. I've been living in turmoil. Come on. You need prayer today? Come on. You need Jesus today? Come on. Oh, sing it, church. He never, He never let me down. Come on, come on. Come on, young man. Come on, sir. Why not step out? Why not step out and see what God will do in your life today? Jesus wants you to come to Him. He does. He wants to help. Jesus wants to speak peace in this storm. Come on, let's appeal to Him. Our prayer team is coming. Our pastors are coming. People are still coming. You can still come forward. Let me pray for each and every one of these. And these altars will stay open as we dismiss service, but Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for those that are suffering, those that are hurting, those that are filled with doubt, those that are filled with fear, those who feel like they're taking on more water than they can handle.

Those that feel, God, maybe that you are not participating, Lord, I pray that there would be an infusion of the presence of God into their situation, God, that you would speak peace. I pray, in Jesus' name, we will not focus on our problem, but Lord, instead, we focus on the peace speaker, and I thank you, God, for bringing supernatural, miraculous peace and calm and rest and trust and faith and confidence that you, you've begun a work in this, and God, you'll bring it to fruition, you'll bring it to fulfillment, and we thank you for it, and we bless you now, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, amen, thank you, Lord. Thank you for your peace, Jesus. Now, if you're here today and you gave your heart to Jesus for the very first time, I want to encourage you to scan the QR code. We want to follow up with you and give you resources to help you win your walk with Jesus. You can also visit faithassembly.org slash care for our first steps devotional. We're so happy you came today. May you go in the peace of God. Don't forget to grab some Easter invite cards and invite everyone you know, and let's pack out every campus so more people can learn about Jesus. God bless you all.