Greater Serenity

Welcome to Twin Lakes Church. My name is Jessica. I'm one of the pastors on staff here. We're glad that you're here. I hope you had a very Merry Christmas. You know it's the weekend after Christmas when they put the pastor to junior high students in the main service. They let me out. I got a hall pass to come to big church. But everyone... I don't make it in here a ton on the weekend services because I'm with the 11 to 14 year old crowd in various places around campus.

But everyone that is involved that was involved with the Christmas concerts and the Christmas Eve services is getting a well-deserved break and I'm getting some practice at preaching. So this is the weekend between Christmas and New Year's we kind of shift focus. We've been so wrapped up in Christmas and then now we're like oh that's done a whopping two days behind us and now it's time to focus on the new year and we look ahead to what's coming and then we also reflect back on the last year.

A Gallup poll came out recently I think just last week and in it people were expressing their fear. They said 2015 was a bad year. It was worse than 2014 and people also said they expect 2016 to be even worse than 2015. Happy New Year. So with that and that can be kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy right? Like if you're looking for negativity then you see all these things in as negative and you see things as bad omens.

So we planned this series before that Gallup poll came out but this year we're kicking off the Twin Lakes. We're kicking off a series called Greater starting this morning and we know that there are greater things in store for you this year even if circumstances in the situation in the world worsens you can be greater. You can have greater influence. You can be at your best and most powerful. Your purpose, your development, your character, your joy, your ministry can be greater and as Adrienne said to accompany that we have those free daily devotional books. You can pick them up on your way out. They're in these big baskets by the glass doors.

So go ahead and grab your message notes and let's get going. This weekend we're starting with Greater Serenity. Oh if the predictions are true El Nino is coming and bringing with it plenty of rain. Check out this recent forecast. A NASA scientist says a Godzilla El Nino is coming. It's gonna hit California this winter. I sure hope so. Or here's another one and this one it's not quite as exciting but it tells us what to expect and you know weather forecasters they do their best to tell us when and where the storms are going to hit and then when we know the storms are coming we get ready we prepare we find flashlights and extra batteries or hunker down at home if we can.

We know that it's silly not to get ready when a storm is coming but we don't get those same kind of forecasts for life storms right like if you're getting a big El Nino if something's gonna come and hit you you don't get a text message from God that says hey buckle up buddy the next six months are gonna be really rough and really stressful you need to get ready. We don't get those spiritual weather forecasts but we can prepare now because we know storms are gonna come sooner or later you'll face relational storms medical storms financial storms storms of loss or storms of grief they're coming so how can you prepare now to have peace in the midst of the storm how can you have greater serenity in 2016 regardless of what the year brings.

The good news is that the Bible tells us how to prepare and let me say as a pastor I see people going through storms of life all the time and the difference between the people who are spiritually prepared and are not is the difference between night and day. So we're gonna look at a biblical storm story this morning and learn four key principles from that story that we can use to weather our own storms. You can turn with me to Mark 4 if you grab a Bible from the pew it's on page 710 you can follow along in the screen or if you're technologically savvy you can look at your phone.

So here we go Mark 4 verses 35 to 41. That day when evening came he Jesus said to his disciples let us go over to the other side leaving the crowd behind they took him along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him a furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion the disciples woke him and said to him teacher don't you care if we drown. He got up rebuked the wind and said to the waves peace be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples why are you so afraid do you still have no faith. They were terrified and asked each other who is this even the wind and the waves obey him.

The disciples clearly did not demonstrate any sort of serenity that night during the storm. They were terrified. Jesus on the other hand demonstrates so much serenity that he is asleep in the middle of the storm as it is raging around them. So how can you and how can I have that kind of peace how can we be at peace in the middle of the chaos that can sometimes be our lives. So there's like I said there's four key principles in this passage but before I get into those I want to point out something that's really easy to miss.

Jesus's disciples got into this storm because of their obedience and we have this idea a lot of times that we face storms in life because we're disobedient and sometimes that's true. Jonah for example got into a big storm because he disobeyed God. There are consequences for your actions and sometimes disobedience does result in storms but you can be obeying God and you will still face storms. Just because you have difficult things going on in your life does not mean you've been disobedient and it does not mean that God is punishing you. We all face storms just like the disciples did in Mark 4.

It's pretty easy to picture the scene that Mark describes. Jesus has been teaching and performing miracles on one side of the lake and he says hey guys let's get in the boat and go to the other side. So the disciples are like sweet it'll be just another trip across the Sea of Galilee and they get in the boat with Jesus. And then pretty soon that night this storm blows in and the waves are crashing over the side of their boat. The boat's taking on water and it's beginning to sink and these guys are terrified. So it's also important to remember what did his disciples do? Most of them before they followed Jesus what was their occupation? Fishermen right? So these fishermen have been in storms before. This is not the first storm they have faced and yet they're terrified.

So we know that this would have been a crazy storm to scare these experienced fishermen to the point that they thought they were going to die. And one thing about the Sea of Galilee is it's a pretty small body of water and so the wind can blow across it and create waves that are going in all directions. So unlike the ocean where we normally have waves that just roll from out of the sea onto the shore they're getting tossed around kind of like waves in a tub when a kid takes a bath. So they're terrified and they look at Jesus and they're like how can he be sleeping in the back of the boat? Like how can he possibly be asleep right now? Does he even care?

So they wake him up and when they do Jesus stands up and he just says in English it's three simple words "peace be still" and everything is quiet. There's no incantation or elaborate ritual just a short powerful command and everything calms down the wind and the waves. And the disciples now are no longer focused on the storm they're looking at Jesus going who is this? Who's this guy that we have in our boat? You know they had already seen him perform miracles and cast out demons. They had seen him heal people, feed people, they had listened to him teach and yet this miracle this calming of the storm and power over the forces of nature caught them totally off guard and it gave them a totally different type of fear than they had had during the storm.

And I picture the rest of the boat ride being pretty quiet after that right? The wind and the waves are calm they're all in the boat the disciples are like what just happened did that just happen? And they're casting sideways glances at Jesus thinking like did we really just see that and what does this all mean? And then they get to the other side and that particular storm is over. The disciples that night they found peace in the midst of a literal storm and right now you might be thinking that's great but I'm not really worried about a meteorological storm I'm worried about a medical storm, a financial storm, an emotional storm. But no matter the type of storm the principles for finding peace are still the same.

So for those of you that like filling in the lines in the filling in the blanks here we go. How can you prepare for the storm? Number one, reject despairing thoughts. The disciples were already overwhelmed with despair by the time they woke Jesus up. They assumed that Jesus's ability to sleep meant that he didn't care and I know that on sleepless nights I found myself thinking the same thing. I'm thinking God why why aren't you doing anything? Are you asleep? Are you even listening to me pray? Do you know how overwhelmed I am? Do you know how scared I am? Where are you and do you even care?

And our minds are really powerful you know you can get caught in this vortex of negativity and all those negative thoughts just swirl around. The opposite of serenity is turmoil and that is great disturbance or confusion and in the midst of the storm on the Sea of Galilee the disciples experienced deep turmoil. Teacher don't you care we are perishing and some of you right now are experiencing deep turmoil. You can't sleep at night. You're wrestling with despair and yet in all of this there's a choice. The disciples at one point realized hey we can turn to Jesus and we can wake him up and we hope that he can do something about it.

So when you're experiencing deep turmoil to whom do you turn? Where do you go and what do you do with those despairing thoughts? You know most of the time we can't control our circumstances but we can control our attitude to them and we control our reaction about them. King David gives us numerous examples of this in the Psalms. Psalm 43:5 we're gonna read this one together to make sure you're all awake. So here we go Psalm 43:5 says this why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God for I will yet praise him my Savior and my God.

Psalm 43 is short just five verses this is the last verse but in it David transitions from crying out to God God do you even care? My enemies are surrounding me they're oppressing me I might die God don't you care? And then it's like he takes a step back and a deep breath which always helps and he rejects those despairing thoughts and he turns two rather than away from God and he says yeah my soul is downcast but you know what I'm gonna do I'm going to turn to God and I'm gonna put my hope in God who is my Savior and that's a statement of the will he says I will yet praise him no matter what is going on in my life I will yet praise him.

So turning from despair it's tough it's tough to quiet those negative thoughts but there's also this turning towards God that we can do and I know when I have sleepless nights when I'm struggling I find that there are simple choruses and hymns or Bible verses that I memorized as a child that come to mind and those are the things that help me to reject despairing thoughts and those are also the things that help me to remember that Jesus has divine power and that's the second principle Jesus has divine power you know Jesus didn't send his disciples into that storm alone he was with them the entire time and Jesus isn't sending you into your storms alone either he is with you the entire time and we lie when life becomes overwhelming you are not alone.

That night the disciples interpreted his ability to sleep as a lack of concern but what if Jesus was just kind of testing them thinking hey I'm gonna pretend to be asleep in the back of the boat and I'm gonna see how long it takes these guys to remember that I'm here and that I can help and sometimes we do the same thing we think like we kind of know Jesus is there like he's there he's with us if somebody asked you where if Jesus was with you you'd probably be like yeah he's walking through this with me but we kind of forget and we don't turn to him and the disciples all of a sudden they're like oh yeah we got Jesus with us so we remember that he has power and when they do Jesus stands up and calms the storm peace be still and Jesus calms the storm kind of like I try to calm unruly junior hires except when he does it it works and when I do it doesn't always work that's one big difference between Jesus and me there are many um so the waves stop and the wind dies down and you know Mark's words at first seem a little bit redundant because he's like the waves stop and it's completely calm and you're like did you just say the same thing twice but really what Mark is saying is that the whole storm stopped and if you know anything about waves and how they act on a body of water the wind can die down but the waves keep going but this time that didn't happen everything was still.

Jesus has the power to calm the storm in your life he has divine power and right now some of you might be thinking but he's not calming my storm it's been going for a long long time how come Jesus calmed that storm but he won't stop the one in my life and that's one of the tough questions in life Jesus does not calm every storm we can pray Lord don't you care what's going on why can't you put an end to this God where are you don't you care and the answer is yes Jesus does care but he doesn't calm every storm sometimes he calms the child the storm may rage around you that progressive disease will progress the wayward child that you are desperately praying for to come back may continue down a destructive path your financial crisis might get worse the one thing that you dread happening it could happen life will bring difficult times and Jesus will not end every storm and yet in the midst of those times he does give you peace check out these two verses from Philippians Paul wrote these and he said do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your request to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And I don't know how many times I have been laying awake at night and I have thought with anxious thoughts and I have thought of these verses don't be anxious about anything don't be anxious about anything and there's a promise in these verses before we get to the promise we're gonna look at what it doesn't say it doesn't say hey when you're worried pray about it God will fix it immediately so you don't have to worry about anything ever again in your life will be perfect not what it says sometimes we wish that's what it said but that's not what it says instead it says hey when you're up at night and you can't sleep pray about it tell God what you want thank him for what you have and he will give you peace that's a promise he will give you peace and it's peace that is beyond human understanding and I've experienced that peace and I've seen that peace in the lives of those closest to me.

Jesus is there in the midst of the storm he did not abandon his disciples and he will not abandon you sometimes he calms the storm and sometimes he calms the child if the storm in your life is not coming down then maybe Jesus is trying to calm you in the midst of the storm instead of taking away that storm number three refocus on Jesus in faith after calming the storm Jesus turns to his disciples and he says why are you so afraid have you still no faith he asked them a question and Luke records a similar account of this event and in his account he phrases the question where is your faith and that's a question we all have to wrestle with where is our faith do I put my faith in my own brilliance or intellect have I put my faith in my career and so when I meet with success life is good but if I don't meet with career success then I have a crisis of faith have I put my faith in my health have I put my faith in my family and friends and then they let me down where's your faith we need to refocus on Jesus in faith.

The disciples were focused on the wind they were focused on the waves they're focused on the storm they weren't focused on Jesus and it's when they turned to him and they refocused on him that the storm calmed that they were able to see Jesus for who he was even if it was terrifying to them and not for just yeah they didn't just forget that Jesus was there and it's easy to get overwhelmed by problems and it's easy to look more at the obstacles and at the negative circumstances than to look at Jesus so change your focus look past your circumstances and focus on Jesus and number four realize that Jesus is outside my box when the disciples woke Jesus up that night they were expecting something they wanted him to do something they just didn't think he would do what he did and we know because they reacted with sheer terror they were like who is this even the wind and the waves obey him.

They were afraid during the storm because they thought they were gonna die they were afraid after the storm because Jesus had just controlled the weather and they didn't really know how to react and the thing is the disciples had expectations for Jesus and we often do the same thing we have expectations for Jesus and we say I have Jesus I know what's best and I want you to act this way in this time frame in the exact direct thing I'm asking you to do and we make this little tiny box that we try to fit him in and then we look for him to answer that very specific request but he doesn't usually work that way because he is outside our human boxes he doesn't answer the way I want him to or the answer that I think he will give me or the answer that I think is best he does his thing because he is greater because he is outside my box.

But we can also wait with expectancy and that's different than waiting within having specific expectations if I wait with expectancy then I'm saying hey Jesus I need your help and I'm waiting expecting that you will help me in whatever way you can help me and that's what he did that night with the disciples Jesus is good and he is loving and we know that he will act and we just have to turn to him in CS Lewis's book the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe there's a conversation between Lucy and mr. Beaver and they're talking about Aslan and Lucy asks mr. Beaver is he safe and mr. Beaver responds safe who said anything about safe of course he is not safe but he is good he's the king I tell you and that's the thing lions they're not safe there's a reason CS Lewis made Aslan a lion but we attempt to tame God or to dumb him down or domesticate him to the point where we believe that in every situation we know what's best and not God and we look for him to be safe rather than to be good and to be our king.

And then when our safety is threatened we question his goodness God I don't feel safe so you must not be good God I'm scared so you must not be good you must not be all powerful if you're not stopping these circumstances in my life but we don't need to be afraid because the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:18 it says there is no fear in love perfect love drives out fear I'm gonna make you all read this one again because it's really important there is no fear in love perfect love drives out fear Jesus loves you there is no fear in love perfect love drives out fear.

So yeah Jesus is outside of your box he's not gonna act the way you think he should in the time frame he should or in the very specific manner you think would be best for your life right now he allows us to face difficulties he allows us to struggle and even to suffer but we don't need to be afraid because he loves us and he is acting and he is good and he's acting for our good so how can you find peace in the midst of the storm number one reject despairing thoughts number two remember Jesus has divine power number three refocus on Jesus in faith and number four realize Jesus is outside my box.

So I know that these can sound like really pat answers you're like that's great I can do all those things but how does that translate into real life can you really stand up there and tell me that these things will help me face the storm and yeah I can because this is a lesson that I have learned from my life experience I have found peace in the midst of difficult times raise your hand if there is a year in your life that you would rather not relive I should see everyone with a hand up here unless you're like four now raise your hand if one of those years was in middle school and see we got some honesty now 9 a.m. service was more honest than you are as the pastor did junior high students I have lost count of how many times I tell people what I do like what do you do for work and I'm like I work with junior hires at a church and usually the response is this or I get the comment of like oh that must be interesting or I don't know how you do that a room full of middle schoolers would terrify me but that's how the conversation goes.

I of course think I have an amazing job I question more why people would want to work with adults all the time um no offense I think junior hires are some of the most underestimated part of our population and I really enjoy working with them which makes me kind of weird but um that's not really the point the point is that most of us have a year in our lives that we would not want to relive because of the pain anxiety heartache or traumatic events that it held in my life I have a couple of those years my freshman year of high school was one of those years a story for another sermon 2012 was also one of those years and it was a fairly recent year and I hope I never live a year like that again.

Peace and serenity disappeared pretty early in the year and anxiety and turmoil rained at the beginning of 2012 I'd been date my boyfriend and I had been dating for a while and we had been talking about getting married we talked about rings we talked about our future together all of that kind of hopeful anticipation of what the future would bring and then in one day it all changed on March 30th 2012 it was Friday I got up and went running because that's what I do on Fridays and I came home to a voice message from my boyfriend asking for a ride to the urgent care clinic he had had an increasingly severe headache that he no longer could tolerate and he wanted to go get it checked out.

So still in my running clothes which I spent all of that day in my running clothes still in my running clothes I jumped in the car went to the urgent care clinic and the doctor gave him a shot that should have dulled the pain of a migraine had it been a migraine headache but it didn't do anything so then he gave him another shot this time of morphine and asked more questions and then sent us to the clinic to the main clinic for a brain scan a few minutes after the first brain scan they caught came and called him back in and it was at that point that I realized that something was wrong and it was pretty serious you know there aren't too many reasons they would need to do a second scan either they messed up the first one or they saw something and they needed a clearer picture of his brain and only a few minutes later found myself on the phone to the doctor who said he has a brain tumor you need to go to the Dominican ER right now don't go home they're expecting you.

A headache a doctor's visit a phone call different life as we walked up to the ER you know like when things like that happen you remember very specific moments right and we had a lot of them that day as I walked into the ER I remember looking down at the receptionist desk and seeing his name written on a piece of paper with a note about his condition which only made me realize this is really serious so they ushered us into the ER started taking vitals right away within 10 minutes the neurosurgeon came to find us and if the neurosurgeon ever comes to find you in the ER it is not a good thing you don't want him to walk in.

He told us that the tumor was actually hemorrhaging and that he my boyfriend was in an unstable condition so they checked him into the ICU and monitored him overnight and scheduled surgery for the next morning so March on March 1 on March 30th 2012 circumstances we never anticipated or ever could have anticipated we're in our 30s brain tumor in your 30s is a little bit unusual those circumstances commandeered our lives we found ourselves in the midst of a huge storm one that would last for a long time and one that would likely be one of the biggest either of us had ever endured.

A week or so after surgery the report came back that it was cancer and that launched us on into a new life of chemo radiation MRIs and doctors visits life was completely different I honestly feel like I buried my head in the sand for about six months and just kind of dealt with things as they came before I could like take my head out of the sand and look around and say this is the new reality this is a new reality of our lives not surprisingly the majority of my memories from that time are pretty painful and pretty traumatic and yet even in those darkest moments God used people to encourage me people in my life to send me encouraging messages some of them are sitting in this room right now and one of them is my dad who is also sitting in this room right now.

And earlier in that day I had called my parents you know when we found out what was happening I called my parents and they jumped in the car drove from San Jose to Dominican and offered to stay with me as long as I needed them and as I went to bed that night we're at my house and my dad stopped me in the hallway and he put his hand on my arm and he looked directly and intently into my eyes and said I think he's going to be okay and it was more than a platitude he was not trying to fix anything or make it better or give me false hope his earnest direct words caught my attention because they didn't seem to be coming just from him they seem to be coming from God.

My dad is a retired pastor and he has weathered his fair share of storms things have changed really quickly in his life causing him to lose any sense of peace or serenity I've seen him struggle question God regain peace even when his circumstances haven't changed those words I think he's gonna be okay carried so much weight because of who said them my dad is in the middle of a big storm I don't know if it's the middle it's been going on for 17 years and it looks like it will continue for a long time.

In December of 1998 he went to see a neurologist because he could no longer dismiss certain symptoms that he was experiencing and so instead of me telling you about it I'm gonna let him tell you about it via video well I've been waiting in the doctor's office and the doctor finally came in and he said John you have Parkinson's disease and I could hardly believe my ears what he was saying I had Parkinson's disease I knew about this disease I had heard words describe it like incurable degenerative progressing motion disorder brain dysfunction John you have Parkinson's disease it was a shock I went spiritually numb towards God.

I remember a verse in scripture that I recalled at that time and it was Job 3:25 to 26 what I feared has come upon me what I dreaded has happened to me I have no peace no quietness I have no rest but only turmoil that's about as far from serenity as you can get no quiet no rest no peace only turmoil and that word turmoil comes from a root word that means confusion and difficulty how could God let this happen to me for more than 30 years I had been knocking myself out building a church telling everybody how great he was and then this happens.

The Parkinson's was not only a physical crisis but a spiritual crisis as well I didn't want anything to do with God I closed my Bible I stopped praying I was not on speaking terms with him anymore and I thought of those words of Jesus over in Matthew 7:9 where he says which of you fathers would give his son a stone when he asks for bread who do that and my answer is you Lord you heavenly father I asked for bread for health just to keep my body working the way you designed it to work and now I get Parkinson's disease I asked for health I get Parkinson's disease that sounds to me like a stone when I asked for bread.

What father would do that you heavenly father well in my prayers I had one basic prayer every week when I got up to preach and that was God help us all I have nothing in my soul I didn't want anything to do with God but after several weeks I found myself thinking I wonder how many times the word bread appears in the Bible and how that word bread is used I don't know why I was thinking that means thought just came to me one day so I looked it up in my Mac Bible program I had on my computer and on the screen there was listed verse after verse after verse where the word bread appears and I found this phrase the bread of affliction and I thought the bread of affliction what's that and looking it up I found it was the unleavened bread the Israelites ate at Passover to commemorate the years of bitter enslavement at the hands of the Egyptians the bread of affliction.

And then as I scroll down I found another phrase the bread of the presence the bread of the presence what's that and I looked it up and it was the bread that was baked fresh every day and put in the tabernacle to symbolize the presence and the provision of God the bread of the presence and I thought the bread of affliction and the bread of the presence they're both part of reality like furious opposites that remain furious and remain opposite but then I found more than that I found those verses in John 6 where Jesus is talking about himself as the living bread and I read these words I am the bread of life he who comes to me will never go hungry and he who believes in me will never be thirsty I am the living bread that came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and I realized that God had indeed given me bread he's given me Jesus and Jesus is all I need and his presence will be with me and give me whatever I need to face Parkinson's or anything that comes into my life.

Well my Parkinson's didn't go away but I did have some new insights not answers to all my questions but insights that help and enable me to keep going in the journey of life we face furious opposites that remain furious and remain opposite maybe you find the bread of affliction on your plate this morning but I want to tell you there's another bread available the bread of the presence and it's Jesus the living bread you are not forsaken with Christ beside you and his arm around you you can face whatever's in front of you and let me tell you friends that brings a thing called serenity.

Yeah that's pretty amazing that's my dad he's in here somewhere the bread of affliction and the bread of the presence serenity in the midst of the storm it's possible because of Jesus the bread of life and I'm not sure if you caught what my dad said at the end there he said I didn't get answers I got insights and a lot of times with you're asking a specific question or for a specific thing you don't get an answer you don't get the answer you want but you do get insights and it's those insights that we learn in our storms that we can help when others are experiencing storms and that is exactly what my dad was doing when he stopped me in the hallway that night and looked at me and said I think he's going to be okay.

And my dad was right after a year of treatment the tumor didn't return but we did not get married we broke up that relationship did not that is turn out as I thought that it would or I hoped that it would and in the way that ended one storm but it started another and that's the thing about peace or serenity you have it and then circumstances change in your life and you kind of lose it for a while and you say okay how do I get that back how do I have serenity in these circumstances and then you're okay and then you lose it again and then you gain it back but you're not starting from scratch you build on your past experiences you say okay this is how God gave me peace in the midst of this storm so how am I gonna have peace in the storm that I'm currently in.

When the disciples arrived on the other side of the lake that night their faith was stronger because of the storm that they had experienced that night on the Sea of Galilee they learned that Jesus is the Lord of the storm Jesus is the Lord of the storm well 2012 was a horrible year that I would never want to relive it was during that year I learned that Jesus is the Lord of the storm and not just of that storm but of every storm that I will face no matter what type of storm you're going through Jesus is the Lord of the storm knowing that you are in his loving care means that you do not have to be afraid and that you can have peace like my dad said you are not forsaken with Christ beside you and his arm around you you can face whatever is in front of you.

Let's pray Jesus I thank you for being the Lord of the storm I pray that you will help us to focus on you to look past the circumstances in our lives and to see you working in us and through us I thank you for your ongoing presence help us to turn our eyes and our hearts towards you give us strength to endure whatever is going on in our lives give us peace in the middle of the night when we're overcome with despair and help us to support and encourage each other with insights we gain in our own trials your name amen.