[00:00:01] Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our
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[00:00:25] All right, good. Good morning, everybody. I'm glad you are here.
[00:00:28] We've been in a series that we're going to conclude this weekend where we're talking about how God can use the events in our life that are disrupting to teach us something.
[00:00:39] I don't think that we should ever waste our trouble. You know, when trouble hits your life, I think we always should ask ourselves, okay, God, what are you trying to teach me from this? What do I need to learn from this?
[00:00:50] Because nothing just happened.
[00:00:54] God is a purposeful God. He's an intentional God. He does everything with a design in mind. And I don't care who you are or what you may be going through this morning or where you're watching online, I can tell you that even in the moments where our lives are being disrupted, where our businesses are being disrupted, our relationships are being disrupted, I mean, just fill in the blank, whatever you're going through. God is trying to, to speak to us in those moments and don't miss that opportunity. Sometimes we race through it, we get beyond it, and we miss the thing God has tried to communicate to us. And so oftentimes he'll cycle us back through it again because he wanted us to learn something that we missed. So I would tell you, if your life is being disrupted this morning, just pause, pause. Maybe this is the service where you pause for a moment, say, okay, God, what are you trying to teach me? What do I need to know? What do I need to learn?
[00:01:49] And if you are attentive and you are discerning, God may show you something about yourself.
[00:01:55] He may show you something about the people around you. He may show you something about your business partners. God may reveal something to you in the disruption that you would not have seen otherwise. So this series has just been, I hope, kind of a wake up call to make us aware of the fact that God can use the disruptions in our life for a purpose and that we not miss his purpose. In fact, I told you a few weeks ago that life is, consists of these disruptions, consists of one of two things. They are either a cyclical thing or they are a Seasonal thing. Remember we said if it is a cyclical thing, if it is a cycle, then those are things that we tend to bring on ourselves.
[00:02:36] So if I'm going through something this morning and I'm trying to be discerning, I need to ask myself an honest question. Did I bring this on myself?
[00:02:45] You know, what is that? Stupid is as stupid does.
[00:02:48] And sometimes you just. Honestly, sometimes you do something crazy and you get an outcome. I've told you before, we tend to sow to our flesh six days a week and come to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure.
[00:03:02] So one of the things I have to ask myself is, did I bring this on me? Is this something that I have to own? And it's not that you can't learn from your mistakes. I hope you do. I hope I can.
[00:03:13] But it's something that helps us kind of evaluate why it is that put us in this period of disruption. So is this a cycle? If it is, you can break that. You can break that. You can get out of that. You're in control of that. You can just say, okay, I'm not gonna do that anymore. I'm gonna learn from that. And sometimes you have to go and reset some things, maybe apologize to some people, maybe have to make some new decisions about some habits that you've developed that aren't healthy so that you don't repeat the cycle. But on the other hand, there are those things that aren't cyclical, they are seasonal.
[00:03:48] And those are things, in my opinion, that God sovereignly brings into our life. And those are things, ladies and gentlemen, you and I can't end in our own timeline.
[00:03:58] Those are things that are just in his hands that God has sovereignly ordained this season. He's ordained this storm, he's ordained this experience.
[00:04:08] And so I'm in it, and I will be going through it until he brings me out of it.
[00:04:14] And so in those moments, you just press into him, you lean into him and you say, okay, God, you're in control. I'm not.
[00:04:22] I. I can't bring myself out of this season. So I'm just going to lean into you and I'm going to trust you. And I know the thing about seasons is they do come to an end.
[00:04:31] They don't last forever. And God will eventually bring. Bring you through that thing that you are, that you're going through.
[00:04:38] And you go back to reading Romans 8, 28, 29, where God says that we know that all things will work together for good. To those who love God and those who are called to his purpose. And in the next verse he says, God will use those events to conform us, shape us, form us into the image of His Son. Meaning that God will use the good and the bad of Romans 8:28 to help us look more like Jesus in Romans 8:29.
[00:05:09] He will use those things to carve us and to shape us into the image of His Son, so that when we get on the other side of it, we'll be a greater reflection of who he is and we'll be more effective at what he has placed us here on this earth to accomplish. So with that kind of said and that background laid, I want to talk about an experience that happened after the feeding of the 5,000.
[00:05:32] Pastor Corey talked about how God did a miraculous thing through a little boy's lunch and fed thousands of people.
[00:05:39] And when you get to our text that we're going to look at In Matthew chapter 14, you see after the feeding of the 5,000 that Jesus was, was tired and he was exhausted from ministry, and he had just completed an incredible miracle that communicated to the people and particularly to his own apostles, that first of all, nothing is too hard for him, and that secondly, there is no situation that is ever impossible.
[00:06:12] And before we get into our text, I just want to underscore those two things.
[00:06:16] Nothing is impossible for God. And I say that because when you go through a period of time where you've out punished your coverage and you just don't know when this is going to end or how it will end, I can tell you, you never bring something to him that is too hard for him to handle.
[00:06:34] That's why that great hymn writer said, oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. And so this morning, one of the first things I would do is just bring it to him in prayer. And when you go to God in prayer, you go knowing and understanding there's nothing he cannot do. I've told you, there's no sin that he can't forgive. I've told you there's no burden that he cannot lift. I've told you there's no problem that he cannot solve. And one of the things he did and when he fed the 5000 is he showed them there's nothing too hard for me.
[00:07:11] There's nothing that's impossible for me. And those were the two great lessons that he was trying to teach, I think his apostles and certainly the crowd that was with him that day. But as you're going to See, from where I want to go with our message this morning, there were still more lessons that they need to learn.
[00:07:29] Someone as well said, leaders are learners. We never get to a point where we know it all. We ought to constantly be learning. And certainly these apostles were learners. God was pouring into them and teaching them things that they were going to need to know for the the work ahead. So if you have a Bible, look with me in Mark 14.
[00:07:49] I'm just going to look at a few verses. And I know this is very familiar ground to those of you that have been in church or you've been around the Bible for a period of time, or even if you haven't, you probably heard this story before. But I hope I can point out a few things maybe you haven't thought of that will help you make sense for the disruptions in life and see what lessons that our Lord is trying to teach us in the experience.
[00:08:11] Mark, chapter 14. I'm sorry, Matthew, chapter 14. Look at verse 22 immediately.
[00:08:17] Now, what does immediately fall on the heels of? He just fed the 5,000.
[00:08:22] Immediately. Jesus made the disciples to get in the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. Now, that normally didn't happen normally. His apostles would come behind him. Jesus would preach the message, and they would come behind him and say, hey, it's great to see everybody. Glad you were here, you know, hope to see you at the next event and send them on their way. But instead, Jesus pulls his disciples out. I don't think he wanted them to get caught by the crush of the crowd because people were constantly kind of coming to them because they were ministers and needing something from them. And so he wanted to pull them out of that crowd and out of that environment for a reason. And so the Bible says he. He kind of hurriedly hurried them off the stage, if you will, and they hurried them into a boat that was waiting. And he said, get in the boat, go across to the other side to the area of Gennesaret. And he said, I will join you later.
[00:09:17] And the Bible says in verse 23, after he dismissed them, he went up into a mountainside by himself to pray.
[00:09:25] And later that night he was there alone. Now let me stop again long enough to point something out to you that I want you to miss. There's something to be said about solitude when you are exhausted, when you are tired, when you have done the very best you can. There's something to be said about solitude. There's something to be said about recognizing the gauges in your life and knowing when I am emotionally drained and I'm physically exhausted and I have nothing left to give spiritually, I need to get away from people.
[00:09:56] I need to withdraw.
[00:09:57] God has only given you enough energy.
[00:10:00] The Bible says, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The. The principle of that is God will give you enough to deal with the problems that you're gonna face each and every day.
[00:10:10] And so there comes a time when you're watching the gauges of your life and you say, I'm about to be running on empty, where you need some solitude. And in the solitude, you'll find some serenity. And so sometimes the best thing you could do for you is to take a little sabbatical, to back away. So you don't say something that you wish you hadn't said so that you don't do something that you wish you shouldn't have done.
[00:10:33] Because so many people make mistakes. And really, they're in the category of. I would call them, sins of escapism.
[00:10:40] Escapism where you make a mistake because for a little while, you just wanted to get out of your life. For a little while, you wanted to get away from the pressure. It doesn't mean you don't love the people around you. It doesn't mean you don't even love what you're doing. It just simply means because you need to escape it for a little while.
[00:10:58] You're empty. You're out of anything that you can give of any value to anyone.
[00:11:02] And you just try to push through it and keep going in the midst of it. And you fall victim to a sin of escapism. So I'm just saying Jesus was so wise. He recognized the fact I don't have anything left to give. I need to get along. I need to go refuel.
[00:11:18] I've got to get somewhere with my heavenly Father, and I need to be replenished, and I need to get revived again in my own spirit. Because you and I are limited resources.
[00:11:30] You're a limited resource. You can't be all things to all people. So I hope I pause here long enough to help somebody recognize in the midst of the disruption. You can get exhausted. And if you don't recognize that and get away.
[00:11:44] In fact, Jesus said, come apart to yourselves and rest a while. It's what he told his disciples on one occasion. Vance Havner read that. And Vance Havner said, if you don't come apart and rest a while, you'll come apart.
[00:11:58] I mean, it's going to happen.
[00:12:00] I had a guy One time, tell me, he said, well, Bill, I'd rather burn out than rust out. And I appreciate that, right? I mean, I understand that macho attitude, and most guys have that. But can I tell you, either way you go, you're out.
[00:12:14] Out's out, buddy. You can burn yourself out or you can rust yourself out, but out is out. And you're not gonna do anyone any good when you're out.
[00:12:24] So Jesus took a pause and the Bible here says he came apart to rest a while. He dismissed them and he went up into a mountainside by himself to pray. And later that night, verse 23 again says he was there alone. But look at what's going on in verse 24. And the boat was already a considerable distance from the land. And notice what was happening to this boat. That is apostles were on. It was being buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. One of the things about the Sea of Galilee that it was notorious for was unpredictable and sudden storms.
[00:13:03] All of a sudden the winds, if you know understand the geography of that area with the mountains that surrounded those, that, that lake, all of a sudden those waters could get stirring. And when those waters got stirring and those waves start white capping the. Those vessels could easily be capsized.
[00:13:18] There are a lot of seasoned sailors who lost their lives on the Sea of Galilee because they sailed into a storm that they were not expecting.
[00:13:27] And here Jesus is sending his apostles into a storm. Now here's another thing I don't want you to miss is Jesus was God. He was the God man. He was just as much man as though we were never God. So being a man, he got tired.
[00:13:43] But he was just as much God as though he were never a man.
[00:13:47] So being God, he would have known I am about to send the boys into a storm. He would have known that.
[00:13:55] He knew when he said, get in the boat and go to the other side, he was sending them into trouble. He was about to disrupt their life.
[00:14:03] He knew that and he did it anyway.
[00:14:07] And so here he is up in the mountain praying. And while that.
[00:14:11] That wonderful moment he's having with his Father where he's being refreshed and replenished, the boat is a long way from land, meaning there's no turning back now. They're gonna have to push on and it's being buffeted by the waves, the wind is against it. But shortly before dawn, Jesus went down out to them, went out to them walking on the lake. Now there's the scene you're all familiar with Jesus walking on the Water. It's not because he knew where the rocks were. This was a miracle.
[00:14:38] In verse 26, when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. Wouldn't you be?
[00:14:46] They were terrified. And they said, it's a ghost.
[00:14:48] And they cried out in fear. And look at verse 27. But Jesus immediately said to them, Three things, take courage. It is I do not be afraid.
[00:15:00] Now, from that narrative, I wanna point out three important things that I believe was happening with the disciples when Jesus sovereignly sent them into a storm.
[00:15:13] Number one, I think he did that to inspect them.
[00:15:18] To inspect them. How many times have we talked about the fact that you and I really don't know how strong we are until we get tested? You get tested. If you're having heart issues, One of the things cardiologists will probably do at some point, put you on a treadmill.
[00:15:35] And he's not trying to see how much in shape you are. He's racing this engine in here to see if anything starts flying off of it. That's a medical term right there. You recognize. I'm sure he's running that motor up. He's putting those RPMs on that heart. Because he or she is watching how your heart performs under stress and under pressure.
[00:15:56] If you go in and you're going to get a trainer and you're going to. Somebody's going to help you, one of the things they're going to do is assess where you are.
[00:16:04] They're gonna check your bmi, they're gonna look at your weight, they're gonna look at a lot of things. They're gonna know what are your goals, what do you hope to accomplish.
[00:16:12] And because they can't get you where you need to be if they don't know where you are.
[00:16:17] And one of the things that God will sovereignly do in the midst of the storm is help us to evaluate where we are now. Look, he's not doing it for his benefit.
[00:16:27] We have a lot of educators in the room, a lot of them part of our church family. And I'm proud of all of our educators. And I. I think I can speak for them when they say anytime they give a test to their students, it's not necessarily so that they will know where the students are, because they have a pretty idea. The students that are struggling and those that aren't, they're doing it so the students will understand where they are.
[00:16:49] Because there's no point in teaching new material if they haven't learned what they've been taught.
[00:16:55] I mean, one level of Educate. One level of information builds on the next, particularly if you're in math one. One particular thing builds upon the next. And as you get older and you go through the grades, you understand, if I missed a step down here, I'm going to struggle with it up there. And so a teacher will recognize that and oftentimes will retest the student so that they learn the material, not because they're being hard on the student, but because they know if they don't learn it at this level, it's going to be a struggle. They're going to be on the struggle bus at the next level.
[00:17:28] And so one of the things God is teaching, I think, when we go through a storm is he's giving us a means of evaluating where we are.
[00:17:37] Another thing you might think about is it tests our limitations.
[00:17:42] It brings us kind of to the end of ourselves.
[00:17:45] Most of us will do what we know to do until we're in a place where we can't do because we don't know what to do. Does that make sense?
[00:17:55] I mean, as long as I kind of have a plan and I can come up with a way out, then I'll continue to work my plan until I'm in a place where I don't have a plan and I don't know what I don't know.
[00:18:05] And these apostles, here's what they knew. They knew Jesus said, get in the boat and go to the other side. So think about it. They were doing what he called them to do. They were obedient.
[00:18:17] They were following after the direction that he had given them. They were faithful.
[00:18:21] Check those boxes. Obedient, faithful. And in the midst of all of that, suddenly the storm comes that is threatening their very lives.
[00:18:30] And in the midst of it, you know, they were rowing harder. They were trying to come up with a plan until they got to the point of desperation where they said, I don't know how we're gonna get out of this.
[00:18:41] I don't know if we're even going to survive this.
[00:18:44] And what I want you to understand is when you go through a storm and you have a. There's a disruption, God will use that oftentimes in your life to help you evaluate yourself.
[00:18:55] Let me give you a great verse. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 27 and 28.
[00:19:00] I'll paraphrase it for you. In Hebrews 12, 27 and 28, God says that you and I will go through a shaking. A shaking.
[00:19:09] And when you read the verses, it says that when the shaking is done, whole lot of shaking going on. And when the shaking is done, what remains of the structure is what is permanent or eternal.
[00:19:25] Now let's back out. 10,000 foot view of that verse. Here's what he's saying. He's saying that oftentimes when your life is being shaken, when a relationship is being shaken, when a business is being shaken, it is a great way of inspecting it, it is a great way of evaluating it to see the things that are temporal and, and the things that are eternal or permanent.
[00:19:44] Because what's, what is still standing when the shaking is done is the things that are permanent.
[00:19:51] And that's where you evaluate it and you look at it and you go, wow, you know, I was able to go through this with a better attitude than I thought I would have had. I recognized some of the people that I did not think would be there for me. They were for me and with me when I went through that experience. Right.
[00:20:07] So again, you learn something about yourself, you begin to learn something about other people, you begin to learn something about God. So one of the things that was happening with these apostles is it was a time of inspection, introspection. They were kind of understanding how they were handling this situation and how they were going to navigate through it.
[00:20:26] And one of the things you see them do is you see them exaggerate the situation.
[00:20:32] For example, they, they cry out and they say, we're, we're perishing, we're dying. Well, the reality is, no, they actually weren't. They thought they were, but they weren't.
[00:20:42] When I read that, I thought about, man, when I go through something, if I'm not careful, I can exaggerate it. I, I can think this is worse than it is. And I can forget with God. Remember, nothing is impossible. I, I can forget. I can think, man, this is over, I'm done. And I can forget that there's nothing that God cannot do.
[00:21:02] And so in the midst of the lessons that he thought the apostles had learned, when they saw him provide food for 5,000, they get in the middle of the storm, just hours later, completely forgot the lesson.
[00:21:14] I see that a lot on the weekends. I've had that happen to me where I've been in a service like this, maybe watching online, and you go, okay, that's going to help me. I'm going to, I'm gonna practice that. I'm gonna put that into practice. And then all of a sudden we leave this big old holy huddle and get back out into the real world. And suddenly the theory becomes reality.
[00:21:35] And we're trying to put that in practice. And all of a sudden we find ourselves questioning the very thing that we thought we had addressed when we were in this room.
[00:21:44] I had a guy tell me one time, he goes, man, I feel like when I lay my burden before the Lord, when I come to worship, it's not a day until I pick that same burden up.
[00:21:55] It's almost like there's a bungee cord attached to the burden or to the challenge that you're facing. And you get to a certain point, and all of a sudden, man, here it comes right back at you, and it lands right back on you.
[00:22:06] And I'm saying, don't miss this. They had just seen God do an incredible miracle. They had just witnessed God do the impossible. And just a few hours later, in the midst of the storm, they say we're perishing.
[00:22:18] The storm caused them to exaggerate their situation and to exasperate it.
[00:22:25] In fact, what they said when they saw Jesus, and they understood it was him, they said, don't you care?
[00:22:31] Aren't you concerned?
[00:22:33] And, man, when you go through something like this, you not only can question your faith, you can question God.
[00:22:41] Let me tell you something about that. There's nothing wrong with asking God questions. Nothing wrong with. I've asked him thousands of questions. Why? I don't understand. This doesn't make sense. Why this? Why me? Why now? Why her? Why this? Right? We've asked, okay, here's the difference. There's nothing wrong with asking God questions. Here's the problem we get into when we question God.
[00:23:05] There's nothing wrong with asking him questions. The problem is when we question. In other words, put it another way, I began to question his character.
[00:23:13] I began to question his love for me.
[00:23:16] I began to question his integrity in the midst of a problem. See, that's different than asking him questions, is when I begin to question him. God, you don't care, or you don't really love me or God, you're not. Just because other people do worse than I've done and get by better than I'm getting by. And we begin to, you know, compare ourselves among ourselves. Where the Bible says, when you do that, you're not wise.
[00:23:40] And all I'm saying is the problems, if you're not careful, will begin to reveal things about you. And let me say the good news about. About the bad news. That's not a bad thing to happen.
[00:23:51] That's not a bad thing to happen.
[00:23:54] We have psychologists in our church, and I talked to one one time, and he said, you know, Bill, if We can get someone to talk about what they're thinking about.
[00:24:03] A lot of times they don't even believe what they just heard themselves say.
[00:24:08] Because when you don't talk to someone and you don't talk about what you're thinking about, it almost takes on a life of its own and it becomes just this living thing. And have you noticed things are always worse in your mind than they actually are?
[00:24:21] Lord, we're gonna perish. Lord, you don't care.
[00:24:25] Exaggerate, exasperate.
[00:24:27] Those were things that were happening. And what was happening is that they were learning something about themselves.
[00:24:33] They were seeing something coming out of them that they didn't know was really in them.
[00:24:38] I didn't know I was capable of that. I didn't know. Wow. I thought I was stronger than that.
[00:24:43] Well, that's okay.
[00:24:45] That's actually a good thing.
[00:24:48] Because until you actually see it, until you recognize it, till you own it, you can't fix it.
[00:24:56] I mean, you talk to someone who's gone through a 12 step program and they'll say, number one, you have to acknowledge it.
[00:25:01] Did you know no one can come to Jesus? Not one person can come to Jesus and be saved if they don't first admit they're a sinner.
[00:25:09] You don't know you need to be saved until you know you need to be saved.
[00:25:15] Cause as long as you can, you will. Until you get to the point where you say you can't. And then you rely on him.
[00:25:21] And what these problems will do and what these storms will do, folks, is bring us to the end of ourselves. They inspect us and make us realize we cannot get out of this without him.
[00:25:32] We're not strong enough, we're not smart enough, we're not savvy enough.
[00:25:37] And that's exactly where they were. That's why when I read that, I thought, man, this was a time of inspection.
[00:25:42] God will use the storm to inspect us. Here's second thought. Not only will he use the storm to inspect us. You ready? He'll use the storm to direct us.
[00:25:53] He will direct us.
[00:25:56] Storms have a way of either pointing you toward God and you pressing into him, or driving you away from God and you walking away from Him.
[00:26:05] I love how David assessed the disruption of his Life in the 117th Psalm in the first verse. Listen to what he said. Psalm 117, verse 1. It was good for me.
[00:26:17] It was good for me.
[00:26:20] Basically, paraphrase that I went through what I've gone through. It was good for me. So that I might learn your statutes David said, I would have never learned the things that I've learned had I not gone through what I've been through. And I look back at it now and say, good for me.
[00:26:37] God used that experience that was troublesome. He used it to grow me, he used it to show me, he used it to direct me, and he used it to correct me. And God will use storms in that very same way.
[00:26:52] When I say directing you.
[00:26:54] As long as the apostles focus was on the storm, they were in despair.
[00:27:00] But the minute their focus was came on Jesus, even though they didn't recognize him at first, they thought he was a ghost. But the minute all of a sudden they put their focus on him, they had hope.
[00:27:11] They redirected the focus.
[00:27:14] Let me tell you something. You're either focused on the disruption that's going on in your life right now, or you're focused on the one who can bring you out or take you through what is your focus today?
[00:27:27] God wants the focus to be on him.
[00:27:30] Remember when you were teaching your kids how to maybe to swim, and you remember dads, you'd be on the side of the pool and maybe you're a little boy or little girl, they're on the side of the pool and you want them to jump to you. Jump, I'll catch you. You'll be okay. And you know, they're sitting there, ah, they're so nervous about it.
[00:27:47] They don't doubt that you love them. They know you love them. Maybe it's a mom that says, come on, jump, I'll catch you.
[00:27:53] It's not that they die. There's just an element of faith that is required of saying, okay, I'm gonna release where I am and release what I thought. And I'm going to trust, completely trust that you're going, I'm coming. Here I go.
[00:28:07] Did you know that's one of the words that is used to describe belief?
[00:28:12] Belief, the old English word belief, comes from these words by live, by live, meaning that when I believe something, I live by what I believe.
[00:28:23] You wouldn't have sat in that chair this morning if you didn't have instinctively known it would hold you up.
[00:28:29] You would have shaken it, checked it, you would have picked it up and kind of hit it on the ground. You wouldn't just naturally sat because you believed it would. That same thing is true with our relationship with God.
[00:28:40] The way I believe in him will affect how I live.
[00:28:45] And if I truly believe that there's nothing that comes into my life that he cannot handle, and there's nothing that comes into my life that is too hard or impossible for him. Feeding of the 5,000. Remember that lesson. And if I can remind myself of that in the middle of the storm, it will affect how I live my life.
[00:29:04] It doesn't necessarily mean that you're gonna enjoy all the experiences of life, but it gives you an outlook that says, this is going to work out.
[00:29:12] I don't know how. I don't know when this is going to work out. Can you see how it affects your brain to think positively about an experience instead of negatively about an experience?
[00:29:26] Because your faith is not in luck or it's not a false hope. Your faith is in God.
[00:29:34] You believe in him, and you know that he doesn't lead you anything into anything he can't lead you out of.
[00:29:40] We talked a few weeks ago about the three Hebrew teenagers that went into the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, and God was with them in the fire.
[00:29:48] And the principle that we talked about that weekend is he has the power to keep you out of the fire, but if he sends you through the fire, he'll go with you.
[00:29:56] Psalm 23, verse 6. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why?
[00:30:03] He's with me.
[00:30:05] He's not gonna prevent you from going through that experience unless he comes. I'm looking for the rapture, believe me. I'm looking for the upper taker, not the undertaker.
[00:30:15] But I'm saying if that moment comes in my life, I know I'm going through an experience, not into it. And I know when that happens, God will be with me every step of the way.
[00:30:25] What does that do? It helps alleviate fear.
[00:30:29] And one of the things that the storm will do is not only to inspect me, but to direct me and to help point me toward Jesus and help me know God, you are the answer. And you have the plan and you have the power. And so, Lord, I'm gonna try to put my focus on you.
[00:30:47] That's why you pray when you're in trouble. You pray more when you're. We should pray. The Bible says pray without ceasing, pray all the time. But let's be honest, on a Sunday morning, we all tend to pray more when we're in trouble.
[00:30:58] I do. I'll admit that.
[00:31:00] I pray more when I'm in trouble. If I'm in a storm, I pray all the time.
[00:31:05] Well, what are you doing when you're praying? You're directing that experience, your focus, toward him.
[00:31:12] Why does it lift something in your heart? That you can't describe. Why does it give you a peace in the midst of storm? Why does it do that? Because the focus now is not on the storm. The focus is on your Savior.
[00:31:25] And when you're focused on your savior instead of the storm, the stress in your life tends to lower.
[00:31:31] Think about this. You got a stress gauge. If your stress gauge is pinging this morning, your focus is on the wrong thing.
[00:31:40] Maybe the takeaway for you from the message this morning is I need to redirect my focus more on God and commit to prayer. The things that I'm worrying about.
[00:31:50] Now, most of us, it's a natural thing. We'll pray about the thing that we're worrying about. But some people, when they say, man, I'll just pray for a minute or two, I don't have a lot to pray for. I would say pray about what you worry about.
[00:32:00] Pray about what you're concerned about.
[00:32:02] Oh, my. You'll be a prayer warrior. You'll pray all the time.
[00:32:06] Pray about your kids, pray about your grandchildren, Pray about your business. Pray about your life. Pray about your health, Pray about your friends.
[00:32:14] Pray about this world.
[00:32:16] God help us.
[00:32:17] There's a lot to pray about.
[00:32:19] And I'm saying, when you begin to pray, all of a sudden, man, the focus, the direction goes toward God and away from the problem. And all of a sudden, man, God is lifting your and giving you hope because you realize he's got the answers and there's nothing too hard for him. And so I'm gonna direct my focus toward him.
[00:32:40] Let me give you a word of warning. Be careful.
[00:32:42] Be careful, because no matter how bad your storm is today, it can always get worse.
[00:32:53] So make sure the direction of your prayer is toward him, not on the storm. Remember one other illustration I'll get off this point. You remember when Simon Peter in that story, I didn't really read into it, but if you'll keep going, Simon Peter said, lord, if that's really. You bid me to walk on the water.
[00:33:10] And he said, come on out. Remember the story? And the Bible said, for a period of time, Simon Peter walks on the water. It's right there in that same context. I read just a little lower under where I stopped.
[00:33:21] You remember that?
[00:33:23] And then the Bible says something that's interesting because it says concerning Simon Peter that the waves around him were boisterous. And he took his eyes off of Jesus and he put his eyes on the waves. And the Bible says this about it. He. He began to sink.
[00:33:39] What caused him to sink?
[00:33:41] He was walking on Water.
[00:33:44] He was on top of the thing that tried to bring him under. He was over the thing trying to bring him under until his focus, he put his eye on the storm and he took his eye off the Savior. And the minute that happened, the Bible says the moment that happened, he began to sink.
[00:34:01] And then he did the smart thing. He changed his direction.
[00:34:04] He prayed one of the shortest prayers for help in the Bible, Lord, help me.
[00:34:09] And Bible says immediately Jesus reached out his hand and saved him. Man, when you're in trouble, you don't need to worry about long, lengthy, flowery prayers.
[00:34:21] Sometimes the smartest prayer you can pray is, lord, help me.
[00:34:25] You don't have time to get on your knees sometimes, not when you're going 60 miles an hour down 35 in rush hour traffic. That's the time to say, lord, help me.
[00:34:38] Are you navigating the roundabouts, oh, Lord, help me.
[00:34:44] Or you're trying to get on the freeway when it's crowded, nobody helping a brother, Lord, help me.
[00:34:51] I'm saying if you can kneel before the Lord, that's wonderful. It shows reverence. But there are just times I'm suggesting that you don't have a chance to do that. If Simon Peter had been focused on the posture of his prayer, had he been focused on how many, you know, how many words to put to describe the wonder of God? God, you're magnificent. You're glorious.
[00:35:10] We had gone under.
[00:35:12] He had time to pray the shortest prayer. Lord, save me.
[00:35:16] Authentic, desperate, but directed toward the one who could answer the problem.
[00:35:25] Prayer will inspect us and prayer will direct us. And here's the third thought, we'll go. Prayer will perfect us.
[00:35:32] What do I mean by that? I don't mean perfect in the sense that we're sinless. I mean perfect in the sense that we're mature.
[00:35:39] Prayer has a way of maturing me, meaning that I hope what I've been through has made me stronger.
[00:35:47] I hope what I've been through has made me wiser.
[00:35:51] As you get older, you don't suffer fools as gladly as you did maybe when you were younger, you're not quite as trusting. And that's not being cynical, that's just being smart.
[00:36:02] I'm just suggesting to your heart that one of the things that will happen when you go through a storm and you navigate it correctly and you let it, you do the inspection and introspection and you let it direct you toward the Lord, you'll find that it's perfected you. You'll find that it has matured you. You'll find. You'll find that God has grown you and he has given you wisdom in the midst of the things that you've been through and equips you. It equips you. What do I mean by that? I mean you are now equipped to help somebody that's going to go through a similar problem that you've been through.
[00:36:36] I've helped a lot of people that have been through some of the things that I've been through, whether it's a loss of a wife to a disease, loss of a granddaughter, through which maybe your health is. Broken heart attack, had that.
[00:36:55] Cancer, had that.
[00:36:58] I've helped encourage a lot of people that are kind of coming behind me to go through that. And I say, look, I can give you some advice on. Here's how I navigated through it. Not that I did that perfectly, but I hope I learned something from that about myself and a way to help other people. I'm just saying, guys, don't waste your trouble.
[00:37:14] At the end of the day, let it make you stronger. At the end of the day, let it make you wiser.
[00:37:19] Because, listen, if you have no one else to communicate it to, you can impart that wisdom to your children.
[00:37:26] You can tell your kids, hey, you're gonna go through some tough times. Dad's been there, Mom's been there. I get it.
[00:37:33] But when you go through those hard times, check yourself before you wreck yourself.
[00:37:39] Do that inspection, Direct it toward your heavenly Father, knowing he will not fail you.
[00:37:45] And you'll find God will use the experience to make you stronger.
[00:37:50] He's got you and he's got this.
[00:37:54] He will not fail.
[00:37:56] Let's pray together.
[00:37:58] Father, thank you for your word.
[00:38:00] Isaiah said, your word never returns void. It never comes back empty.
[00:38:04] It always accomplishes purpose.
[00:38:07] So, Father, as a pastor, I pray this service has accomplished purpose.
[00:38:12] Maybe it was through the worship or maybe it was through the teaching of your Word. I pray that it has landed in the minds and hearts of your people in a way that will help them make a difference in their life.
[00:38:25] Father, I pray we'll see the value of corporate worship, of being in this place, being around one another, of encouraging and praying for and worshiping with and giving and serving with one another so that we can be strong enough when we go out into the world to make a difference in the lives of other people.
[00:38:44] And finally, Lord, I lift up those who may never have trusted you as their Savior.
[00:38:49] I pray this would be the very moment where they swallow their pride and humble their heart before you and pray a simple prayer like this and say, Lord Jesus, with everything I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you.
[00:39:03] Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in me and I'll give you praise and thanks. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
[00:39:15] Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week. Sam.
