Mark 4:35

I play that video because many of you know that I come from over a hundred years of commercial fishermen and merchant seamen. My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my father, and I all made a living on the sea. The place you're seeing in the video is shot, I believe, in the Bering Sea. I worked up there. There's a show about it somewhere, featuring some guys up there, but I did that for years.

One of the interesting things is that you can be in weather like that for a week or ten days. What happens during that time, and it relates to this message, is that you become accustomed to it. It becomes normal. It is no longer a challenge; it just becomes an irritation. You find yourself thinking, "Wow, there's another way." You sleep in a bunk with life jackets on one side and survival suits on the other. It's like sleeping in a taco, and you get used to that. This experience has something to do with our message this morning as we learn about trials and being tested.

Also, I'm not Miles. I know that look, okay? I recognize it. There was a bit of a surprise regarding Miles. His mom, Jeannie, rented a place—was it Peoria where they do the spring training? Many of you know that his brother-in-law, Van, has contracted a type of throat cancer, and he is going to start radiation in a few weeks. Jeannie got everyone together with all the grandkids and rented one house. They are going to have a last normal weekend before Van starts his radiation treatment and everything.

So, Miles is there in the house with all the in-laws and a ton of kids—there must be like ten or a hundred kids there, and I saw cotton candy. He’s either going to come back with some really great baseball analogies, or you might be preparing for about a six-week sermon series on hell. One of the two will happen. He will be challenged and tried in that.

With that, we’re going to be in the book of Mark, chapter 4, and we will be starting at verse 35. If you need a Bible, please raise your hand. We have Bibles available for you. Love to you.

And if you need to take that Bible home because you do not want to have one at home, be our guest. We would love to do that.

Now, let's stand as we read God's Word. Verse 35 says, "On the same day when evening had come, He said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side.' Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was, and other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. But when He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow, they awoke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?' Then He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still.' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. But He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?' And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, 'Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'

Father, this morning as we look at, rightfully so, something that really scared these guys, Lord, and the challenges they faced and the promises that had been made, minister to us this morning. Teach us this morning from Your Word, Father. May by Your Holy Spirit, Lord, even just start with me. Teach me as I teach, Lord. We want to experience You. We want to interact with You, Lord. So we pray that You would send us away with something, Lord, that we would be encouraged in, that we would be maybe confronted with, Father. But we would leave here changed this morning, Lord, because we had confronted Your words and Your Spirit, Father. We trust You in this work. It is a great work, Lord. We acknowledge that You can do this work. And so we pray for this under the name of Jesus, and it is in Jesus' name we pray. And all God's saints said, "Amen."

All right, let's have a seat.

Okay, so if we were to back up a little bit in Mark 4, before this exchange here in the Sea of Galilee, Jesus is teaching and He is going into these parables. Parables are stories that illustrate spiritual points. He is talking about faith.

He is teaching the disciples because he is getting ready to send them out. He is going to teach them about some very specific things they will encounter as they try to lead people to faith. He starts with the parable of the sower, which he likens to seed being planted in the ground and how faith takes place there. Some of the seed ends up in very rich soil, where it sprouts up, becomes strong, and multiplies. Some of it gets burned up after a while, and some of it just doesn't do well.

He speaks in terms that everybody understands because, in this culture, pretty much everyone is a type of farmer. They know how to grow and plant things, so he makes it easy for people to understand. He explains how people come to faith using a parable.

He also discusses the parable of the lamp, explaining that when we invite Christ into our lives and live as believers with the knowledge of Christ in us, people will see there is a light about us. This light, or lamp, must not be put under a basket. Nobody does that. It needs to be open and not hidden so that people can see that light and have their lives illuminated by it.

The last parable he talks about is faith as a mustard seed. He explains that mustard seeds are tiny, yet they grow into large trees and become established. He gives what I want to call the lecture part or the academic part of what they need to know. However, class is dismissed. They understand the concepts in their heads, but they haven't worked them out. They haven't been tested or tried.

One of the things I appreciate about the Lord, as I have walked with Him, is that He doesn't always let me know what the end game is. He doesn't divulge all the information. In this particular instance, He tells the disciples to get in the boat, but what He does not reveal is that they are going to get in this tiny little boat and they will think...

They're going to die. They're going to be in the middle of a storm. They're going to get accused of having no faith by the guy they most respect, their teacher. When it's all said and done, this is a three-hour tour that’s going to turn into a five or six-hour ordeal. When they finally get the boat back up on the beach, guess what their treat is? The first thing you want to do after battling in the ocean, fearing for your life, and rowing like a crazy person for six hours is to meet a guy who's got demons, who's chained up, and who's crazy. That's what they're going to do.

But Jesus doesn't divulge this. He doesn't tell the whole story because he needs to teach his disciples. These twelve, and one of them is not going to make it, are going to be entrusted with the greatest story in the history of mankind. It is the gospel, the good news, the information you need to come into a relationship with Jesus Christ and live with him forever. Amen? So, he is entrusting these guys with the story, and he is training them.

Years ago, at my old church, you guys know I'm from Maranatha Chapel. I was leading the men's group there, and we had about 40 or 50 guys in our Bible study. I taught the Bible study with another guy named Randy Broberg. Randy is really smart; he was a copyright patent attorney. He always reminded me, if I was late for an appointment, that he used to get paid $600 an hour and that I had taken up about $200 of his time already. I used to tell him, "You're not important anymore, so don't worry about it."

Randy is very academic. He does quite a bit of blogging and writing, and he's a very good teacher. Some of you have heard him; he's the gentleman who's the attorney who has Parkinson's and thanks God for his condition because it has given him the ability to preach and teach to people. Some of you are old enough to remember the Smothers Brothers show. There was a serious guy and a not-so-serious guy; he's the smart one.

We taught this Bible study together, going back and forth, and it was very heavy on application. We wanted the men who attended this study not just to hear words and concepts but to practice them because I wanted to see them become better husbands and better men.

Employees became better fathers, better Christians, and better examples. We were really tough on these guys; we beat them up every week, and they kept coming back for more.

In Mark chapter 6, Jesus sends out the twelve disciples to start learning how to fulfill the Great Commission. They are to go out into the world and make disciples, which is our job as well. As He begins to train them, Randy says to me, "I'm usually the guy with all the great ideas, but we shouldn't teach this." I asked, "We shouldn't?" He replied, "No. Let's get some cars together, pile a bunch of guys in there, and give them invitations to Maranatha for the Easter service. Let's make them go into Carmel Mountain Ranch and Rancho Bernardo, hand these out, and confront people with the gospel in a kind way. Let's invite people to church." I thought, "They're going to hate me. I'm going to tell them it's your fault."

So we did that. We loaded all the youth groups, suburbans, cars, and vans, and they were idling out in the courtyard. The guys showed up for the study expecting that we were going to talk and read the Word, but we basically opened up and said, "And Jesus sent out the disciples, so here you go." Not everybody made it to the cars.

It was funny; Steve, a friend of mine who played for the New England Patriots, is about six foot one and weighs about 280 pounds of pure muscle. He spoke with the men, and I could tell he was a little scared. Later on, as he confronted people in dark parking lots, he realized they were more scared of him. I had another guy who had battled with a speech issue; he stuttered when he was nervous. He said, "Thanks a lot, Pastor. This is my worst nightmare, and it's coming to me at church. Let's go out and do this, bro."

So they went out into Carmel Mountain Ranch and Rancho Bernardo, inviting people to church, and I pushed them into it. You know what happened? As they were tried, tested, and uncomfortable, they came back with all these war stories—great stories. Some people told them to get lost, but other people were genuinely thankful that they were invited to church. Fellow believers gave them big hugs and said, "You did a great job."

Go, bro, and encouraging them. He even cruised into See's Candy. I know the guy who runs See's Candy. He loaded them up with See's Candy. I confiscated it, but anyway, they were so blessed to come back and tell these stories as they had gone out into the community. They were being tested and tried.

You see, it's one thing for it to be academic, and we do that every week. Jesus teaches us valuable concepts out of the Scriptures and how to accomplish those concepts in the Scriptures. But then we go out into something we call the mission field, which is just outside those doors, and we apply those things, hopefully. It's different than just learning it here with your buddies, right? The holy huddle. When you're out there talking to people, it's different. It's practical, right? And so that's what Jesus is doing. That's what He is up to in this whole exchange.

Let's start in verse 35 of the fourth chapter of Mark. On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side." Now, when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. Other little boats were also with Him, and then a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling.

Now, just a note: I've been on the Sea of Galilee. These boats are horrible. They have replicas of them. They're slow, they're heavy, and it's like they were meant to fill with water. I wouldn't like to be in that boat, but anyway, they're horrible boats.

So, number one on your fill-in-the-blanks on your outline: a very powerful concept, and we need to get a hold of this. When we follow Jesus, our faith will be tested. John 16:33 says, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Now, I've been to the Sea of Galilee. It's about 14 miles long. They also call it Tiberias. The spot they're crossing over is three and a half miles wide, and it's kind of at the beginning of this wind tunnel section. I remember, as a boat guy and even as a kid growing up, I would hear the story of...

This story makes me think, you've got to be kidding me. Seriously? A freshwater lake? How bad can it be? I've been in some storms. I remember we used to say on the boat, "Hey, what's the weather like?" Oh, it's like a lake. It's flat out here. I have in my head Lake Hodges, okay?

So when you actually go there and look at it, this lake has a wind phenomenon called "fetch." This wind is compressed and pushes, creating waves. It's not from tidal action because we're in a lake. What happens with these waves is that they're really close to one another. They don't give you a break. Instead of doing this big, slow roller thing like you saw in the video, they're different. There's a lot of foam and a lot of spray involved. It gets in the boat, and when you start emptying ten gallons of water into a boat every few seconds, it gets kind of hairy. When I got to see this firsthand, I realized this is what they're going through. It's very real. It really happened.

I have a son. There's an old saying: once a sailor, always a bum. My youngest son decided to follow in my great-grandfather's footsteps. He is a captain on a sport fishing boat and is currently the second captain. He got his license about seven or eight months ago and has pursued the family tradition of going to sea and fishing.

When he got home from his last trip, I saw him, and he looked horrible. I said, "What happened to you, son?" There's no other way to put this: I looked at him and said, "You look like hell." He replied, "Thanks, Dad. You wouldn't believe what happened."

I asked, "What happened?" Well, when they offload passengers in Cabo San Lucas, they bring the boat back. The captain said, "I'm going to fly home, and hey, it's you, bro. You're the captain. You've got your license and everything. We've got a couple of good guys on the boat with you, so you're going to take this boat back to San Diego." It was his very first captain's gig, and he was excited.

However, about 40 miles out of Cabo San Lucas, everything went south. Every little thing you can think of went wrong: bad fuel filter and all these other issues. He literally said, "I haven't slept in four days."

He joked around, saying, "Man, I've got to get a job at Costco. I mean, it's something. This whole boat thing isn't working out." He started to tell us the story of all the things that were going wrong. There were just a few passengers on the boat and the crew. As he relayed these stories, I could see my wife and my mom listening, thinking, "Oh, poor kid. I can't believe that. Wow, man, that's so bad." My dad and I were sitting next to one another, high-fiving, while they looked at us.

I told him, "Look, calm seas don't make for good sailors. When things go bad, you don't call the auto club; you don't get a jump start. It takes a while for the Coast Guard to arrive. You either fix it or you sink and die." A lot of people die on boats. He understood that if he was going to stay alive and take care of his people, he had to figure out a way to solve these problems. Those guys figured it out, moving from one problem to the next. That's how you learn. You find yourself in situations—not because you want to, but because you put yourself there. You have to fix it, make do, and figure it out.

That's what Jesus is doing with these disciples. These are not PhDs; they are fishermen and farmers. When you listen to some of the things the disciples say and do, you realize they are not the sharpest tools in the shed. However, they are perfect for ministry. They are being trained for the Great Commission, learning what they need to know to go out and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. They will take the experiences they've gained and relate them to people who are struggling with things every day, just like you and I.

Most of us here are believers. We probably said a prayer on a stage not too different from this one, often referred to as the sinner's prayer, which has various forms. In that prayer, we say, "Dear Lord, I am a sinner." We admit our guilt and our inability to get to heaven by ourselves. Then comes the hard part, which you may not realize at the time.

You tell Jesus you're going to follow Him all the days of your life. That last line of that promise and that covenant that you just made means you signed up for trials. You signed up for tribulation. Not problems for problem's sake, but you signed up for the part where you actually have to go out and do it. You have to take what you've learned and actually make it happen. You signed up for that.

And you know what? It's awesome. I've had more fun as a man following Jesus Christ. I've gotten into more trouble following Jesus and more trouble telling the truth than I ever did for lying and not following Him, and it's been fantastic. I love it. It's an adventure. These disciples walked everywhere they went. They took on nature, armies, and kings for God's sake, for Jesus' sake, and they lived amazing, exciting lives.

If you're a Christian and you're falling asleep at the wheel, you just are not engaged in the adventure of being a Christian. I would encourage you, there is so much more out there for you—so much more.

So when we say that prayer, let me ask you this: When you said that prayer, did you get an automatic download from God where you all of a sudden knew everything that you needed to know? I had more stuff I had to unknow. No, we didn't. It's because we didn't know anything. We hadn't walked with God. We'd heard the classroom section, but we hadn't done it. That's part of the trial thing.

Nobody wants to trust untested people or untested things. When I go to the doctor, I want to make sure it's not the first time this guy's put somebody to sleep. I want to make sure it's not the first time he's, you know, filled in the blank. When I go to a mechanic, I want to make sure it's not the first car he's ever worked on, right? You want somebody who's been tested and tried, who knows about what they're doing. It's about the physical, making it happen part, not just the schoolwork part.

There's an old saying that the Titanic was built by professionals and the Ark was built by amateurs. A lot of it had to do with the attitude surrounding these vessels. In 1912, a woman named Sylvia Caldwell was boarding a vessel on its very first trip with passengers. One of the crew members could tell that she was apprehensive about this journey. He said to her, "Don't worry, ma'am; not even God Himself could sink this ship."

Two days later, or perhaps a day and a half later, 1,500 people died in those icy waters. The ship was untested, and the theory that it couldn't sink had not been proven with an untrained crew that didn't know how to get all the lifeboats out. As the saying goes, pride goes before a fall.

Let's turn to Mark 4:38. It continues, "But when He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow, they awoke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?'" Then He arose, rebuked the wind and the sea, and said, "Peace, be still." I need to brush up on my Charlton Heston, but "Peace, be still." The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

The second point in your outline is this: when we give in to fear, we deny that Jesus has the power and the ability to fulfill His promises. Jesus made a statement when they got in the boat. What was that statement? Was it, "We're going to the middle to drown and be in the papers the next day?" Or, "Let's turn back around because it got a little hairy?" No, He said, "We're going to the other side."

That was a statement; it was also a promise. The New Testament alone has over 700 promises for you and me. I'm not crazy about all of them. Some of them say that I will have great tribulation. But they also tell me that I will not perish, but I will have everlasting life.

How do we not trust those promises? Second Timothy 1:7 says, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

There's a bridge at Lake Hodges that I ride my mountain bike over all the time, and it really messes with your head because it's so narrow. There's about a six-foot drop underneath, or a five-foot drop—my wife's listening, so I'll say a two-foot drop below it. She says, "Be careful." I say, "Be awesome." You go over this bridge, and it has Second Timothy scratched into it. All you have to do to get over this bridge is just ride straight, and you won't get freaked out. I think that's why the guy put it there, because a lot of people freak out. Second Timothy says to be of a sound mind. Fear leads to an unsound mind. Fear is the opposite of faith.

I don't live in a monastery, okay? I hang out with real people, and I have contact with a lot of them. I visit many people who are sick and hurting. I'll tell you, my heart really goes out to those who suffer from anxiety and fear. I will say, especially in the last ten years, a lot of it has to do with the amount of information we receive. I think we're more afraid as a society than we've ever been.

This is an age where, I mean, I think even the ashtrays in our cars—if they had ashtrays—would have airbags in them, right? When our emergency services are at their best, they've learned so much. I can't believe what hospitals can put back together today. We really live in a very safe time if you compare it to when Jesus walked the earth. Yet, we're afraid.

Okay, honesty. Who here knows and has heard of the boogeyman? Did anybody grow up with a boogeyman? Did anybody get a positive ID on what he looks like? I mean, I've seen a lot of paintings of Jesus, but I've never seen a real good one of the boogeyman, right? I know he resided underneath beds and in closets. I'm starting to wonder if it was a plan by my parents to keep me in my bed, because somehow...

The boogeyman only got me if I got out of bed and was a bother. He's not real, right? He wasn't real then, and he's not real now. I think it's kind of crazy that we have a term called fake news, and I have to agree with that. Fake news has been around for over 2,000 years. The devil has been saying false things and trying to come up with something that looks like God since the beginning of time. The devil is the author of fake news; he invented it. But we believe fake news. We believe it because what we tune into and what we spend our time with determines our outlook.

Now, I do not like to raise a problem or a question unless I provide a solution or an answer. I appreciate that our pastor does the same thing. When he raises a problem or an issue, he always gives us an answer on how to fix it. I appreciate that. So, what is the solution when we're overcome with fear? When we can't move forward and won't do the next thing because we're so afraid?

Tune in. I want you to tune in to something. It's called The View. Not that view. That view told us—what did she say? She said the other day that Christianity was a type of mental illness. So, if you're getting your information from that view, you should be scared because you're getting really bad information.

No, this is what The View is. This is what I mean. The people who walked the earth during this time were part of an agricultural society. They spent a lot of time outside. When it was warm, they didn't turn on their air conditioners and sit inside watching cable. Don't tell me I don't have cable; I've got Netflix. They went outside, laid on the roof, looked up at the stars, and witnessed God's creation. They were able to ponder His might and His creativity. They saw nature. That was their view.

They went out into God's creation and spent a lot of time there. I visit many sick people and a lot of dying people. It is a privilege and an honor to go to a hospital, to pray for people, and to encourage them. Maybe I can get them to laugh and help them see the situation. That's a blessing.

But I'll tell you personally, when you see a lot of that, I know I need to get outside. I need to be reminded that the Creator of the universe is in control and that He is in charge. In the book of Job, what a wild book it is! Job is called into a time of testing solely because the devil tells the Lord that this guy is going to deny Him. But Job is right on. Job sees it; he will not deny the Lord.

One by one, the devil starts taking things away and begins cursing Job, yet Job does not deny the Lord. However, Job has some friends who start to make some pretty convincing arguments about why all this is happening to him. They say, "You must have done this, and you must have done that." Finally, God becomes tired of being misrepresented and undervalued in this conversation because He is part of this exchange. He speaks.

I love the fact that, as it's reported in the book of Job, there is a bit of sarcasm. I'm glad that God might be a little sarcastic because I can be sarcastic too. I hope that's a family value in a good way.

In Job 38:4, listen to what God says about Himself as He calls these guys out: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb?"

When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band? When I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors? When I said, "This far you may come, but no farther. And here your proud waves must stop." Is it a stretch to think that the God who created all this, who just brought to light the fact that we can't do any of this, is in control? Is it safe to assume that on that night on the Sea of Galilee, the wind and the waves were under His control? Absolutely. He formed it. He put the gates to hold the sea in, He says.

Is it safe for you and me to assume for a moment that it's no different today? That the trials and the things we go through, the things we fear the most, are covered by God? I think so.

Number three of your outline: We fear when we don't believe that God loves, cares, or remembers us. We perish, they said. In Matthew 6:25, it says, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Do you think God doesn't know? Do you ever think that God has forgotten about you, that He's busy? He doesn't have the attention span or the care? There's a verse you all know; I'm going to have you say it with me. "God so loved the world," the last part, "whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have..."

Perish everlasting life. The greatest promise in the Bible to me, because I believe, I've given my life to Him. It says we won't perish; it says we'll have everlasting life. John 3:16 covers it—end of story. I am not going to sacrifice my son for people; I wouldn't do it. Yet God sacrificed His perfect Son on a cruel cross to rise again in three days for our trespasses, our sin. I think that proves that He's paying attention. We need not fear; He's got this covered. The cross should settle it.

In Mark 4:40-41, He says, "But He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?'" And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, "How can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

Number four on your outline: fear and disobedience are close friends. You see, there's a cause-and-effect relationship between fear and disobedience. If we are so fearful, we will not do what God has told us to do; we are in disobedience. If we're disobedient, we are in direct violation of what He would have us do. We are fearful because we expect something's coming, right? We learned that from our natural parents. If something was wrong, you got in trouble—well, if they loved you.

One day, I thanked my dad. I said, "Thank you for every whooping I got, okay? Thanks, Dad. You missed a few, but I'm good with that." Fear and disobedience are close friends; they work with one another.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned; they made a mistake, and they were in disobedience to the Lord. In Genesis 3:9-10, it says, "Then the Lord called to Adam and said to him, 'Where are you?' So he said, 'I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked.'"

I hid myself. You see, his view of God, the God that he was walking with the day before, had changed. Not because God had changed, but because he had changed. His position had changed; now he was in disobedience.

I love 1 John 4:16. It says, "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." So, he lives with him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love. This is one of my favorite lines: perfect love casts out all fear. Fear involves torment, but he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

I promised I would not give you a problem without a solution. It's really easy. This morning, if you're in a position where you're fearful of God because you're in disobedience, or if you're so fearful that you're afraid to move forward, which will lead to disobedience because you're not going to do what God is calling you to do, you can fix it easily. You just stop, repent, apologize to God, and move on. Accept His forgiveness because you have it. Don't carry it around; it doesn't belong to you. God is not far from you in that situation; you are far from God, and you can get right back to where you need to be.

Now, number five on your outline: we shouldn't fear death because we have been dead before. This may be news to you, or maybe not. Ephesians 2 says, "And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." We were dead before; we weren't alive. We didn't know; we were going the wrong way. We had a limit on our lives, and now we've been made alive in Christ.

not perish, but we will have everlasting life. Remember that.

As we come to chapter five, I paraphrase: the disciples are up on the beach, and they meet a man who, at first, they think has a demon. He comes up to Jesus and says, "Look at Jesus and the disciples." He actually starts to worship Jesus and begs Him to be gentle with him, so to speak. Jesus asks him his name, and he replies, "Legion, for we are many." This man has the full effects of demonic activity in his life. His life is ruined; he has been in chains, and nobody can restrain him. He is crazier than anybody you've ever met on the streets of Escondido.

He is out there, and he has experienced what it is like to be thrashed and beaten up by the devil. Jesus gives us a lesson in what we should fear. He says in Matthew 10:28, "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

The last part of the lesson for the disciples is that they get to encounter what the world is subject to without Jesus Christ. They see a life that has been ruined, and you, my brothers and sisters, see a lot of lives out there that are ruined by the ravages of sin. We have the same message that the disciples had that day, and we worship the same God. That message is the good news of Jesus Christ. Our mission today is no different than the guys on that beach that day: it is to go out into the world and make disciples.

In that, you will be trained, you will be refined, and you will lead an exciting life. I love it; I would not do it any other way.

So, on April 15, 1912, the Titanic had sunk, and in the town of Belfast, Ireland, that is where...

It was constructed, and men and women were weeping in the streets. It had been such a big part of their town, and so many people were employed in the building of this vessel. It was personal because 16 of the engineers, including the head engineer of the Titanic project, were on that boat, and they perished. So it was personal.

The church that Sunday was packed, as it often is when there is a disaster; we start to remember. The pastor, a man named Andrew Smith, taught on that day from this very verse that I am teaching on right now. He has a quote that I want to leave you with, and it is very important. To a packed church, I quote him: "There was only one vessel in all of history that was truly unsinkable, the little boat occupied by the sleeping Savior. And the only hearts that can weather the storms of life are hearts with Jesus inside."

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for a morning that spurred a lot of conversation, I know. I recognize that there are those who are gripped with fear and want to follow you, but they just can't. This may be fear over getting out of a disobedient relationship, a disobedient financial situation, fear of loneliness, or fear of death. Some of us have very real consequences bearing down on us right now.

Lord, I ask that nobody in this congregation this morning would give in to that. Father, I pray that you would free them from it. I pray that you would bless us here at Cross Connection, that we would be bold in our adherence to you, that we would abide in you, Father, and that we would be bold in our faith.

Community, we would go out and give a reason for the joy, the hope, and the faith that lies within us this week as we enter this mission field we call Escondido.

Lord, bless my brothers and sisters by Your Holy Spirit. Give them opportunities and grant them victory as they follow You. It is in Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen.