Jesus is in the Boat

Thank you. My name is Mark, one of the pastors here. I want to welcome you, all of you gathering here in this room next door over in venue, tuning in via Facebook Live or watching this on the Internet sometime in the future because you fell asleep today and you had to try again or something like that. However you join us, we are glad you're with us.

We are in a series called Defang Fear and it was kicked off last week by Adrian, also known as Mr. January, and he did a great job on that message, talking about how to withstand worry because we worry about hundreds of things, most of which will never actually happen. For instance, your next headache probably isn't going to be due to a brain aneurysm, right? Going with the odds there. The pain in your side is there because you're getting older, not because all your vital organs are shutting down. And today when you get home and your dog or their cat, they come up and they start to sniff you, it's because they're happy to see you, not because they can smell cancer, okay? Just going with the odds.

But today I want to talk about a different kind of fear. I want to talk about the kind of fear that grips us when our life is turned upside down. When in an instant that thing that you dread, the very thing that you prayed doesn't happen, does. What are you going to do? How will you respond when something bad happens to you?

I'll never forget when Dave Dravecchi spoke here for the very first time. It was in 2001. And as you might expect, he talked about losing the catastrophic loss of his pitching arm due to cancer. He did so with warmth and humor and compassion for everyone else in the room and whatever griefs they might have. And afterwards, my wife Laura and I, Valerie, a couple others had the opportunity to take Dave and his wife Jan to lunch.

And have you ever wondered, like the people that you see on stage, do you ever wonder, like, are they the same person when they're off stage, you know, in smaller group type of thing? Ever wonder that? Like, sometimes people come up to me and they'll say, like, what's the deal with Valerie? No, they don't say that. Truth be told, I'm far more likely to disappoint you in the grocery store. I can assure you that. But over a meal, I found Dave and Jan to be more delightful than even when you hear them on a stage. So warm, so encouraging, just so compassionate and optimistic, despite being dealt a very severe blow.

And I remember as we left, Laura and I were talking in the car and we were saying, I wonder what we would be like if, you know, the other shoe were to fall in our life. We had that conversation not only because we were so impressed by Dave and Jan, but because at that point in our lives, we were really riding what you might call the blessing train. We were about to celebrate our fifth anniversary and our married life has just been such a wonderful blessing, all because of Laura. And I married up and I was just fortunate enough to do that. And so it's just been such a blessing and we were looking forward to our anniversary. We were looking forward very soon to the arrival of our second child.

And so we had all, I mean, why would we be anything but happy? We just had a lot of happy things in our lives, but we were aware that that just can't go on forever. That in every life there will be some pain. One month later, we're driving to the hospital because with just about three weeks left in Laura's pregnancy, she had become convinced that something was wrong. I could tell you exactly where I was on the road as we're driving, I've got this hand on the wheel. I've got my right hand on her belly and it does not feel the same. Doesn't feel the same as just two nights before when I was chasing that child around her stomach as it's kicking and moving. And we were having a delightful time.

I remember specifically thinking in that moment, I think that other shoe has just dropped. Now, many of you have heard that story. I'm not going to go into it now. Long story short, we lost that child, our son Joseph. And we experienced, thank you, we experienced in that moment what many, if not most of you, have already experienced. And if you haven't, you will, which is that your life can change in an instant. But suddenly you will find yourself in very unpleasant, very unwelcome circumstances.

And some of us, we live with an abiding fear that that's just about to happen. Or even worse, you're living in it right now. Some grief, some trauma and the stress and the fear that comes with that. If that describes where you are today, then I believe that today's scripture is for you. We're going to go to the Gospel of Mark in chapter four. And before we do that, I want to set this passage up because I think you can summarize this passage in Mark, this message today and the key to overcoming fear in our life with just five words.

Five words that I want you to remember for the rest of your life. Because these five words can make a world of difference when we take them to heart. Are you ready to hear what these five words are? All right, because if you forget everything else I say today, I want you to remember this. Jesus is in the boat. You're like, huh? Jesus is in the boat. And let me show you why that is such a powerful truth.

Like I said, we're going to be in Mark 4 and starting at verse thirty-five. There's an amazing story you can follow along on screen, your notes, your phone or in your Bible, the old fashioned way. Where it says, as evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, let's cross to the other side of the lake. This is the Sea of Galilee, large inland lake. So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind, although other boats followed.

But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, teacher, don't you care that we're about to drown? When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, silence, be still. Suddenly the wind stopped. There was a great calm. Then he asked them, why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? The disciples were absolutely terrified. Who is this man? They asked each other. Even the wind and waves obey him.

Let's take a moment to ask God to open our hearts to what we've just read today. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have to gather together. We thank you for your word. We believe that it is alive, that it is active, that it is able to penetrate the deepest parts of our being, which is where the fear lives. And so, Lord, I pray that you would deliver us today, that you would drive out our fears, and you would replace it with courage and hope and faith. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior and all God's people said. Amen.

We have to think that on that day as the sun is setting, I push off from the beach, raise the sail, that the disciples are on a high. Because Jesus' popularity is really starting to mushroom and it's really fun to be part of his entourage. I mean, they're kind of, fortunes are rising right along with Jesus. And yet it was time to take a break from the crowds. And so even though some of the crowd is trying to follow them in their own boats, you know, there's Peter and Andrew, James and John, they're all experienced fishermen.

And so as they trim the sails, they're grinning, they're looking at each other like there's no way these other boats are going to be able to stick with us. Sooner out there that the sky becomes dark, a million stars open up in the sky above them. There's this gentle warm breeze, sound of the boat cutting through the surface of the lake. It's just a great night, a happy night. Until suddenly the wind changes dramatically. In fact, Mark describes this wind in the original Greek as the kind of wind that blows from different directions with incredible violent force.

In fact, he uses a term in the Greek that literally reads that it was a whirlwind mega wind. You know, mega, like we use the term mega. A whirlwind mega wind. Matthew in his parallel account calls it a seismos. We get our word seismic. So Mark's describing the wind. Matthew's describing the water. And again, Matthew also calls it a megasesmos. And everything busts loose. And here's why. Just to give you an appreciation, the Sea of Galilee is in a long valley. At the north of it, looming at 9,000 feet, is the snow-capped Mount Hermon. Down on the southern side of this valley is the Dead Sea, 1400 feet below sea level, the lowest place on earth.

And so it creates this constant wind tunnel. And when the atmospheric pressures are trying to equalize, it can whip up these incredible winds. Waves on this lake have been measured at 30 feet high. Even in modern times, the city of Tiberias on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee has been severely damaged because of tidal waves. So are you getting the picture? This boat is being tossed around like a toy. Waves leaping over the railings, filling the boat. It's about to sink. The sky is black and these seasoned fishermen, their courage is completely drained along with the rest of the disciples.

Because to man, a chill has gripped them. Because something else is in the boat. It's dark and menacing. It's playing with their minds. It's conjuring up images of friends and family. Women and children are crying over their deaths at funerals. As the wind blows and the boat looks like it's about to come down. And it's all because of it. It is fear. And fear is in the boat.

Now if you've ever been plunged into circumstances you never expected, you know what this is like. I mean with a single word, our lives can be completely turned off course. Words like malignant, chronic, inoperable, affair, accident, divorce, death. One word. Fear is in the boat. And after some time and with a fair amount of freaking out, the disciples remember something really, really important. It's that Jesus is in the boat.

And yet he's sleeping despite this mega wind, despite the screaming of his disciples. Do you know anyone in your life who can sleep through anything? They just sleep through anything. My son Jack, my oldest son Jack is this way. One time he's about 9 or 10 years old and we're all asleep and we're woken by this loud thud coming from the boys bedroom. And so I get up, wakes up the whole household, wakes up a couple neighbors, dogs and cats are going off. And I walk into their bedroom and Jack has rolled off the top bunk and just boom right onto the floor. And yet despite that everyone else is awake, Jack's sound asleep.

So I go to scoop him up and he's getting kind of big. And you know when people are just totally out, they're floppy and unmanageable. So I don't really have the luxury of gently laying him back into his bed. I have to kind of chuck him, you know, like a bale of hay. You know, come to think of it, he might have actually been knocked out cold. Didn't occur to me at the time. I never claimed to be the world's greatest father, all right. But hey, there's Jesus. He's just snoozing, head still on a pillow. I mean, this is the first miracle of this story right here, that Jesus is able to sleep through the first half of this story. Maybe you're replicating that miracle right now.

But the disciples, they don't even bother trying to wake Jesus up politely. It says in verse 38, the disciples woke him up, shouting, "Teacher, don't you care? We're going to drown." Isn't that great? It's so honest. "Don't you care? We're dying here. Dying. Wake up." Now, true confession time. Can any of you relate? You may not go so far to say, "Well, Jesus is asleep on the job." But it felt that way at a time in your life when you really wanted him to rush to your side, and he did not show up according to your timetable or your expectations. Where are you? Don't you care?

Here's his disciples saying the very same thing. In fact, in another story, John 11, one of the best friends of Jesus, a guy named Lazarus, he gets gravely ill, and so his sisters, Mary and Martha, they send word to Jesus. I mean, they're tight with Jesus. They're on the in with Jesus. They send him urgent word, "Please come. Lazarus needs you." And if you know the story, you know that Jesus intentionally delays going there. In fact, by the time he arrives, Lazarus has been in the grave for four days. Four days. Hey, that's not kind of dead. Mostly dead. That is all dead.

And so it's no surprise that as soon as he arrives on the scene, Martha, one of the sisters, she just gets in his face, and in John 11:21, she says, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." In other words, don't you care? Where were you? And what's even more astounding is that just a short time after this, Jesus himself will be nailed to a cross where he will famously say, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And so you can know one thing for sure. Jesus gets it. Jesus knows firsthand what it feels like to be abandoned in the storm.

But there's a lot more here than just empathy. There's power. Because Jesus is in the boat. And again, with the storm raging and the disciples screaming, I imagine Jesus, he just takes his big yawn. Silence. Be still. And poof. A great calm descends. In fact, Mark calls it a mega calm. And turning to his disciples, Jesus says, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" Now, how much of this they hear, I don't know. They're so stunned. One thing is for sure. They're no longer afraid of the storm. They're afraid of Jesus now.

In fact, you won't be surprised to learn that in the original Mark describes this, he says they feared mega fear. Like, how else can I say this? We went from mega storm to mega calm to mega fear, as they say in verse 41. "Who is this man? Even the wind and waves obey him." And that, my friends, right there, that is the million dollar question right there. That's the zillion dollar question. Who is this man? Jesus. That is the most important question you can ever, ever ask yourself in life.

Because if Jesus really could command the wind and the waves, if he healed anyone he felt like healing, if he raised people from the dead like he would do with Lazarus, if he would rise from the grave himself, then he is without equal. He is the most important person ever. He is the most crucial subject you could ever study. Do you know him today? Do you know him? And if you're blessed enough to say, "Yes, I know him. I know him as my savior. I know him as my Lord. He is my everything," then you owe it to yourself today to ask yourself this question in response to who Jesus is, "How will I live? How will I live?"

And with today's subject in focus, when it comes to fear, it really comes down to just two options. "Will I live in fear of what might get me?" That's option one. "Will I live in fear of what might get me?" Afraid of when that next shoe will drop or what's around the next corner. And again, I'm not talking about some kind of anxiety disorder or mental illness, but even people I know very close, very dear to me who struggle with this, they will tell you as they've told me, "You still have a choice in how you respond, how you manage it, and the worst thing that you can do is just roll over and let it have its way with you." But for the majority of us here today, the simple question is, "Will I live in fear of what might get me or in awe of the one who's got me?" Which will it be? What will more or less define my life?

Now, we tend to view fear as a negative emotion, right? And it often is, but it's not always a negative thing. I mean, for example, if you're surfing or swimming out in the ocean and you see something like this grinning back at you, you should be afraid, very afraid. Or if someone offers you these safari tickets they got on Groupon, that's not going to end well there. You know, they use those same panels to fence in Christmas trees at Home Depot. So, down with that. Or perhaps you're driving along and you see this billboard and you think to yourself, "Well, that seems like a cool thing. Go to that." I'm not taking issue with either one of these things. I'm just saying, you know, pick one at a time. A little bit of caution sometimes, not the worst thing in the world.

Do you know what the healthiest fear of all is? It's what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord. And that's what's starting to happen with these disciples here. They're starting to learn the fear of the Lord. And it's not about being afraid that God is going to get you. It's about developing this abiding sense of reverence and awe over the fact that the God of the whole universe who spun all creation into being, who's unlimited in His power, who has every right to judge us and condemn us, doesn't do that when He sends His Son.

He sends His Son to save us, His Son who would die on the cross on our behalf, take our punishment when you begin to realize that that God is in the flesh, that God is Jesus Christ, your fears will begin to diminish as your sense of awe and faith starts to grow. And that is a very healthy fear and a sense of awe. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, "Well, Mark, you know, I want to be that kind of person, but I've got a past. I've got wounds. It's hard for me to trust anyone. And there are things in my life, they are not going away anytime soon." I understand that.

But I would want to remind you and remind all of us here today, remember this, that when it comes down to it, ultimately it's not about the strength of my faith, but the strength of my Savior, ultimately. Now, do we want to have strong faith? Of course, we're all about that. It's one of the reasons we gather together. But listen, more important than the quality of your faith is the object of your faith. Better to have a little faith in Jesus than a ton of faith in anything or anyone else. So it really comes down to the object of your faith.

I mean, think about it. After Jesus calms the storm, not like He turns to His disciples and says, "Well, guys, on behalf of your incredible faith here today, the fact that you never doubted at all, I have decided to reward you with this, my latest miracle." There you go. No. They didn't even have a little faith. It says they had no faith, none, zip. So what made all the difference that day? Same thing that makes the difference in our life today. Jesus is in the boat.

And again, bear in mind, I hope you're encouraged by this, because bear in mind, this whole trusting Jesus thing, it was a long time coming for His disciples. Even after being with Him day after day for three plus years, seeing Him perform miracle after miracle with their own eyes, they did not really trust Him until after He had risen from the dead. And even then, it wasn't until they were filled with the Holy Spirit that they became unstoppable. So this is a process. This is a journey. But they arrived at a place where, like the Apostle Paul says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" God is for us, who can be against us?

And I'm here to remind you today that that same God is here. That same Jesus is in this boat, Twin Lakes Church. Do you believe it? If you do, it means that ultimately you're trusting, you know, it's not the power of the storm, but the power of our God. That's what really matters. I quoted the Apostle Paul from Romans 8 when I said, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" The Apostle Paul was in four mega storms. He was shipwrecked. He was imprisoned. He was beaten. I mean, you name it, he experienced it. He experienced worse treatment, worse circumstances than any of us in this room ever will.

And yet he writes this in that same chapter, Romans 8:28. He says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." And we say, "Wait, wait, wait. Time out, Paul. Wait a minute. I think you meant to say, 'And we think that in all things God works for the good.'" And he says, "No, no, no. I know." "We hope that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." "No, no, no, no, no, no. You don't hear me." "I know I was left for dead." "I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

You know what that means for us today, friends? It means that our story is not over. In fact, your story, it's not over until you stand in the presence of Jesus and you see him face to face and he rolls back the curtain on your life and shows you how he made good on that promise over and over and over again, how he accomplished his purpose in your life because he was in the boat the entire time. Do you believe that today? I mean, think about it. If we knew now what we will know then, we'd be a lot more relaxed, don't you think? Far more.

Paul and the other disciples got to this point too. You see it in the book of Acts. They believe this to their core. That's why Paul will continue in Romans 8. He says, starting in verse 38, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, neither Republicans in the Senate nor Democrats in the House nor even government shutdowns." Okay, that verse is not really there. But it may as well be because what he does say is this, "Nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Do you believe this today?

I mean, many of you say, "Well, I believe it a little bit." Okay? Thank you. Amen. Maybe today you're like the guy who said, "Jesus, I believe. Now help me with my unbelief." By the way, you never get past saying that. You pray that all the way into heaven. "I believe. Now help me." And maybe today, you know, everything in your life, and it's just groovy. I mean, it's smooth sailing. Awesome. Praise the Lord for that. Enjoy that. Celebrate that, but don't put your faith in that. Don't put your faith in your good circumstances.

Because Jesus also promises in this world, "You will," not you might, "You will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." In other words, there will be times in this life, life is gonna deal you a hand that you can't handle. You will not be able to handle it. But life will never deal you a hand that God can't handle. There is no storm that He cannot sustain you through. And so when that storm comes and your little boat is just getting tossed back and forth, up and down, sideways, in your prayers, in your worship, in your thoughts, in your decisions, in whatever you do, keep doing those things, but remember all the way through it that what, Twin Lakes Church? Jesus is in the boat.

And when we do that, you will receive mega peace and encouragement and hope. And by the way, this is not just for us. Because remember that little detail in the story that there were other boats chasing after the disciples? People in those boats experienced the same storm. They experienced the same terror, the same wonder and awe when it all just went still. And they must have wondered what was going on in that boat with Jesus. There are people out in our community, they're curious about Jesus. They're trying to get a glimpse of Jesus. And as they see what Jesus is doing in this boat, Twin Lakes Church, in your boat, I believe some of them are going to say, "Jesus, I want you in my boat too." So remember that as you go through these days ahead. Amen? Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your goodness and your grace to us today. Thank you for the blessing of being able to gather together. And Lord, I pray for anyone here today who has come in with a deep burden or in particular deep fear over something that might have just happened this week, happened very suddenly with no warning or something they've been living in for some time. But it fills them, it overwhelms them at time with fear. Lord, I pray that the truth of your word and the power of your spirit would deliver them today, that in your perfect love, you would cast out their fear and you would replace it with a sense of peace and hope and calm.

I also pray for those that might be in this room or next door or watching online somehow. And they're like the folks in those other boats. They've been checking you out, Jesus. They're curious. And today is the day that you have called them and they say, Jesus, I want you to be in my boat too. And maybe if that's you, you don't understand everything there is, but you say, I understand this much. I need Jesus. I admit that I'm a sinner. I mean, I can't even live up to my own standards, let alone God's. And so I need someone far more powerful than me to take over my life. And I believe that that's you, Jesus, that you came for me, that you died on the cross for me, and that you offered to live through me now and forever.

If that's you, again, you can simply say this is the attitude of your heart. Say, Lord, that's what I want. Count me in. I want to follow you from this day forward. We pray all these things, Lord, knowing that you are our hope if we were to have any hope at all. We want to place it in you and affirm you are our foundation today. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said. Amen.