Oh Ye Of Little Faith

Alright? As I was preparing for today, I was really torn. Pastor Matt was like, what do you what are you going to talk about? And I was like, I don't know. There's so many good things to talk about in the gospel. So I was like, I was like, Look, I was like, I could talk about this. I could talk about that. There's just so much good stuff that you could talk about, like, the different miracles that Jesus did, like his interactions with the disciples, which I always read a little sarcastic, you know, like you ever read like what Jesus says to the disciples, and you're like, Jesus was kind of spunky, like when he talks to the that's how I read it. And Pastor Matt reads them gangster. I read them like, sarcastic. Okay, so I think it's all about like, like, your perspective on that. Like you could talk about his teachings and the moments that that he had teaching the the crowds of people I love, specifically looking at his interactions with women, but I decided I'm going to save that for Pioneer conference. Okay, so that'll be good. Get your tickets. Okay, so as I was praying, though, I really felt like, God began to point out a specific area of Scripture and some certain issues specifically in myself. And I was like, that might be a good place to start. So what we're going to do today is we're going to learn together. Does that sound okay? Cuz I know, like all the good preachers say you shouldn't really teach and out of stuff you're currently dealing with, but I really feel like it's really real when we're all kind of navigating it together, you know. So I'm not going to pretend like what I'm going to talk about is something I have all figured out. Okay, we're going to talk about this, because it's something I feel like all of us need to grow in, and we all need to continue to get better at. Okay, so Luke, chapter eight, it starts out in such a cool way. It starts out with Jesus going on tour. Soon afterward, Jesus began a tour. Can you just imagine Jesus with his tour bus, like he's got his band packed up, you know, like traveling to all the nearby towns and villages, preaching and announcing the good news about the kingdom. So he is going around and he is telling people about the good news of the gospel. Okay, exactly what we're talking about. He took his 12 disciples with him. They were his groupies, right? That he had with him. But he also took some women, which I think is pretty cool. These are the women who have been cured of evil spirits and diseases. Pretty cool, right? These are the ladies who had a testimony. I wonder if the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery was one of these women. I tried to find out, but Google didn't know. Alright. So we begin moving through this chapter, and what Jesus was specifically doing was preaching and announcing the good news. So everything proceeding from this verse in chapter eight, we can accept that it was the good news, right? So he says he's traveling, he's talking about the good news. So everything that comes next we know we can apply as the good news of the kingdom. So we're going to begin to unpack how it fits into this gospel message that we know so far, okay, he was healing people, and he had this. He had people with him. Crowds were gathering, and we quickly moved to some parables. The first one is a parable of a farmer scattering seed, which is actually a really great story that gives us some understanding about why people grow and mature in spiritual things, and why some do and why some don't. And one thing I love about Jesus is when he talks about parables, which are stories that he used to teach, he usually explains what they mean, which is really helpful, because how many of us are like the disciples, and they're like, I don't get it. And then Jesus is like, this is what this means, and the next verses, you just gotta keep reading. Okay, and so we know that in this passage, you should definitely dig into it. What I'm going to do today is I'm just going to kind of give a flyover view of the beginning of Luke chapter eight. But in this parable, it's going to be important later. So the seed, we know in the farmer who's scattering the seed, we know that the the seed is God's word. And what it's talking about here is that there are four options to what happens when somebody hears God's word. So I think this is like when the Word of God is spoken, when the Word of God is taught, when the Word of God is read, when I receive the Word of God. So anytime the Word of God goes forth, it is. Seed. And there are four things that happen every time that that occurs. Number one, the devil come in. The devil comes in and prevents us from hearing it. So some of you right now are totally oblivious to what I'm saying. That's what's happening. Okay, that was funny, or that's happening to everyone currently in the room, okay? The second thing that happens is the seed is received with joy, but it doesn't grow roots, and it falls away the moment you face temptation, the moment you get in the car and you get in a fight with your spouse, the moment you get a text message, when you leave this place and something negative comes up, it's gone. Right? The seeds gone. The third thing that happens is the seed is heard, but it's choked out by the cares of this world. It never grows into maturity. That means that it's just not that important, and it begins to take a lesser spot in your world, okay? And the fourth thing that happens is the seed is heard, it's clung to, and it patiently produces a good harvest. Every time God speaks its seed, and every time we have an opportunity. But how interesting that one out of four is the only time it develop roots and produces harvest, 25% 25% of the opportunities that we receive the word. It grows a harvest. It produces something life giving in us. Okay, let's keep moving. Okay. So then we get to another parable, the parable of the lamp. And we're encouraged in this parable to let our light shine, to be known to all. And then in verse 18, we get to this interesting thing, because it's about hearing again. It says this, so pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, but for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away. So we're adding a layer, but it's similar, right? Because it's about hearing again. Okay, let's keep going so we could then get to these little verses about Jesus, and he's ministering. And they're like, hey, Jesus, your mother and your brothers, they're here. And Jesus is like, actually, they're part of a greater family now, and they don't really get any special treatment anymore. I'm not really sure how his family handled this. I'm not sure how it went over, but we're going to skip past that. Okay, verse 21 is what's interesting. Jesus replied, My mother and My brothers are all those who do what, hear God's word and obey it. So we're now not just talking about hearing God's word, but we're talking about listening to it. We're talking about understanding it, and then we're talking about obeying it. So each of these parables is building on the the next one. We've probably all read these parables individually, and we can use them. We can apply them to our lives. But I believe here in Luke eight, as Jesus is going around, and he's preaching the good news, he's trying to establish something about how we hear the good news, that it's not just about hearing it, but it's about listening to it. It's about understanding it. It's about obeying it so that we can apply it, so that it takes root, so that it produces fruit in our lives, and so that it impacts us. Okay? Because if we just let it go out all of these passages individually are great, but what happens when we put them all together? It leads us to an event that happens, and we can see about the gospel, what God's trying to deposit in us, and this is where we want to land today. Okay, all of this is the gospel. All of this is the good news. It's about hearing, not just hearing it, but letting it produce a harvest in us. Okay, so we get to verse 22 and the ministry of Jesus, the tour, is cruising along. The good news of the kingdom is being preached. The crowd is growing, and the disciples have a front row seat to all of it. Okay? They are the inner circle of what's going on. So they're at, they're in the front row of every crusade, alright? They are there to closest to Jesus. They get to see all the miracles. They get to see all the power, all the good stuff, up close and personal. So you can imagine they are probably full of faith, right? They are probably like, never doubting. They're probably never like, insecure. They're probably never squabbling amongst themselves like, they're probably never struggling with fear or trusting God. They're probably never trying to control anything because they like, have a front row seat to Jesus, right? Like this is not like the pastor. This is Jesus. Okay? So Jesus knew all of this, and he knew what was about to happen, and he knew what was up ahead. And so I believe that over these few verses, these parables, he wasn't just speaking to the crowds, but he was actually speaking to the disciples. And I. Happen to believe that he was actually setting it up for us as well. Because I believe that not only did he know what was about to happen to the disciples, but he knew that maybe, just maybe, there would be some people down the line who also struggled with hearing, listening, understanding and obeying His Word, especially when they face certain situations. So he knew he needed to set some things up to establish something so that we could be secure in His Word, so that we would know how to handle it when something happened. Okay, so that's where we're at right now. So we're going to, we're going to keep reading. Okay, in verse 22 it says this, one day Jesus said to His disciples, let us go over to the other side of the lake. Now, let's pause here for a minute, because I wonder if that morning, during Jesus's prayer time, he was talking to God, and he said, Hey, let's see if the disciples have actually been listening to what I've been saying to what I've been teaching them. Let's give them an opportunity to put this into practice. Okay, I've got an idea. Jesus said to God, and God's like, Yeah, let's do it. Okay. So he says, let's go over to the other side of the lake. So they got into the boat, and they set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep, and a squall came down on the lake. I'm just going to let you guys know what a squall is. It's a storm, I think, okay, the squall came on down the lake so that the boat was being swamped, and we're going to say that it was being dumped on, okay? And they were in great danger. Okay? So this was like a big deal. This wasn't like a a little thing. This was, this was a big storm that was happening. Okay? In verse 24 the disciples went in and woke him, saying, Master, master, we're going to drown. He got up and he rebuked the wind and the raging waters, the storm subsided and all was calm. Where is your faith? He asked His disciples, in fear and amazement, they asked one another, who is this? He commands even the wind and water, and they obey Him. The disciples got into the boat with Jesus, and a storm came up, and all of the sudden, everything they had heard, every miracle they had seen, every teaching they had heard, everything they had seen him do, was totally forgotten, and they knew that they were going to die, they got very, very quickly into a place of panic and went into a place of fear. This was the fear cycle, and we know this well, don't we? Something happens. It doesn't matter if I have a really amazing time with the Lord this morning, if I go out and then I, all of a sudden I get a call and I get a bad diagnosis, and then all of a sudden I'm in panic and fear, or I have a really great time with the Lord, and I go out and I get a bill, and all of a sudden I'm in panic and I'm in fear, and the fear cycle takes over. I have a really great time at church on Sunday morning, and then I go and then something happens. Something happens, a storm comes up, and immediately I get to a place of panic and fear, and I forget everything that God just spoke to me. It just goes in one ear and out the other, and I can't retrieve it for the life of me. I can't find it. And fear takes over, doesn't it? The storm brings panic and the panic brings fear. And this is not the good news that Jesus was preaching. It is not the gospel. Fear is not good, and it is not God, the fact that the Bible tells us 365 times do not fear. Should let us know that it is contrary to what God says. 365 times I learned first service that is one time for every day of the year period, one time for every day of the year. 365 verses you could find to learn about not being afraid. I think God's trying to tell us something. But isn't it amazing that many of us still let fear take root, and you might be sitting there thinking, Well, I'm not afraid, aren't you? Maybe you're just worried. Maybe you're just concerned. Maybe you just feel anxious or uneasy. That's all fear. Anxiety is just fear. Worry is just fear. Control is just. Fear, all of it. The root of it is fear. It's all rooted in not trusting in what God said. It's all rooted in not listening, not understanding and not obeying the Word of God, not letting it take root in you and let it patiently produce a harvest of fruit. That's what fear is. Fear when it drives us. It is an awful motivator. It makes you hurry and make really bad decisions. It makes you act in anger. It makes you act in frustration. It makes you respond to things in a way you would never normally respond to them. It makes you rush right fear. It causes chaos. Jesus's message to us is one of trust, not trusting in ourselves, which is usually what fear drives us to, is I'm going to go ahead and take care of this myself. Jesus forgot. He's asleep, right? Like Jesus is not around. How do we respond when we're afraid? It lets us know how we're hearing this is the good news for today. If you're saved, if you've invited Jesus into your life, he's in your boat, you're not alone. The simplicity of the Gospel is that Jesus is in the boat with you. And there's a few things you can know when Jesus is in your boat. Number one is that storms will still come. The news is good, but it may take a minute to get there. The news is good. This can be hard for some of us. It was interesting to me that Jesus was the one that suggested they get in the boat and go to the other side. Jesus knew the storm was coming. He knew what was up ahead, and he still suggested that they get into the water. He knew what was happening. Some of us hear the word and we know the truth, but as soon as that storm hits, we forget and we panic and we blame the devil, don't we? Something's out to get me, or I made a mistake, right? But what if it's God or Jesus leading you into the storm to reveal that, hey, there's some fear in there that we need to get out. What if God is leading you into a storm so that he can uproot some things and help you grow and spiritually mature and let the word of God take a deeper root on the inside of you. Storms can come in all sorts of ways, all shapes, all sizes, all those things, but God will never lead us into something if he doesn't know how to handle it. We can trust him to handle it. If we choose to panic and worry when the storm comes, we take it back. Then we're in charge of it. I don't want to be in charge of it. If he led me into it. He's got it and that, that way I can be like, God, you told me to do this. This is your storm, right? Like, what if we, what if we took that attitude like you, you told me to take this job. You told me to marry this guy. You told me to have these kids. Like, what? What if we could say that like you told me to do you led me into this Lord, this is your storm. You have a plan. You told me to start this business. You told me to do this thing. This is your storm, and I'm going to trust that you can handle it. Number two thing that happens when Jesus is in your boat is he is not concerned about the storm. One of my favorite parts about this account is the fact that Jesus was napping. He was totally calm, kind of annoying, right? He was napping. I like a nap.   I'm like, a 10 to 20 minute Napper. Anybody else like you just need to close your eyes. Who's like, I need an hour plus, if I sleep an hour, I wake up and I am mad. I'm like, I'm done for the day. Get away from me right now. So I think Jesus was more of like an hour Napper. He was like, Pastor, Matt, Pastor. Matt likes a good hour nap because he was out okay, because it's holy, yeah, okay. He was totally calm. Okay. I wonder how many times I've been freaking out about something overwhelmed, like, totally excessively losing it, and Jesus is just like, Girl, I have got this. I am not concerned with you. Probably a lot, you know, like, he's like, the answer is, right there. It's just up ahead. It's like one day later. You know, like Jesus has a plan. He is not concerned with the storm. Most of us have a go to emotion or action when the storms hit, don't we? Some of us go to fear. Some of us go to control. Some of us go to worry. Let me tell you when we go to fear. Write this down Second Timothy, one. For God has not given us a spirit of fear. So when you go to fear, you can know this. God's not concerned with that. How do I know that? Because he hasn't given me a spirit of fear, he's given me a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. If I go to control immediately, which is what I normally do, I like to take it back into my own hands. I go to Hebrews one three. Jesus sustains everything by the power of his command, he's in control. If I go straight to worry and I start to feel overwhelmed and anxious, I can go to Philippians, four, six. I'm not going to worry about anything. Instead, I'm going to pray about everything. I'm going to tell God what I need, and I'm going to thank him for what he's done. We can go to these places where God is, and it will show us what type of hearer we are. That's how we show what type of hearer we are. The Word of God has not grown roots and produced a good harvest in us. If we go to to control, if we go to fear, if we go to worry, the good harvest in a storm is always peace. Now it's it may take us a minute to get there. That's okay, right? Like your first go to might be fear, but then what if we catch it real quick and we say, wait a minute, I'm not walking in fear. I'm going to walk in peace. I'm going to choose to walk in peace in this storm. That's how the Word of God grows roots on the inside of us. Are we the type that allows the devil to block or steal our seed. Do we leave church? Do we leave our prayer time and we allow it to be choked out? Or do we let that seed grow roots on the inside of us? This is where the seed produces fruit and the word becomes active inside of us. The storms always reveal where the seed is. You cannot know where the seed of the Word of God is until you face a storm. I wish you could. But so often, so often we when we face those hard times, when we face those struggling times, that's when we really see, where's my faith? Where is it at? The third thing that we find out when Jesus is in our boat is that even the wind and the water obey him. I love this so much. Everything is subject to Jesus. Everything is subject to Jesus. What does this mean for us? Ephesians, 121 through 23 says this, this is powerful. He is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else he I want to just be clear, this is Jesus, okay, not only in this world, but in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ, all things under the authority of Christ, and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. Who is the church? We are the church. The building is not the church. We are the church. Jesus has been given all authority. Everything is under the authority of Christ for the benefit of the church, for our benefit, that sounds like good news. Let me take it a step further. Luke 1019 says this, look, it's in red. Red. That means Jesus is saying it. I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy. Everything is subject to the name of Jesus. And Jesus said, You know what, I'm going to go ahead and give that to you. So everything that Jesus has authority over, you have authority over. If Jesus Christ is living on the inside of you. You have authority over sickness. You have authority over fear. You have authority over anxiety. You have authority over doubt. You have authority over every single thing that tries to control you, that is not good, that is not the gospel. You do not have to let it control you. Now that doesn't mean you I can't change someone else, but I can change what my decision is. I can say, you know, what, my situation hasn't changed, but I'm not going to walk in fear. We've been faced with a situation that's been going ongoing for over a year now, and it's been really difficult. And there have been seasons where I have let it control my mind. I've let it control my thoughts. I've let it. It's affected me physically. It's affected relationships and and I've been in seasons where I've been like, in a pit, right? And then all of a sudden, one day, I'm like, What am I doing? I am allowing this thing so much power in my life that my life is being affected. I'm giving that person so much power over me that my family is missing out on me. No, ma'am. And then I get up and I say, I am taking authority over that. You and every lie that the enemy would try to speak over me, I rebuke that in Jesus name, that's the authority we have, because the power of the Holy Spirit has been released. That's what Acts says. The book of Acts, read it chapters one and two. It is amazing. It says that we have been given the power to stand up to the enemy. We have all the authority over the enemy. How do we do that? We use the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, I come against fear. In the name of Jesus, I come against doubt. In the Name of Jesus, I come against lack. I come against anxiety. What are you facing? You have authority over it. If your home is chaos, you have authority over it. You can walk into your house and say, I declare that this is a house of peace in Jesus name, I have authority over the chaos that the enemy is trying to bring in our home, we have authority over that. It's your home. You have authority in your home. You have authority in that. Jesus has given us all authority. That's the That's the amazing thing, that the gospel is power. That's what we have to understand. The good news is power. It's not a weak message. The gospel is a powerful message that we can walk in life. Christians are not weak and wimpy. I mean, some of them are, but we don't have to be like we do not have to be weak and wimpy. We are powerful. We have the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is alive on the inside of us. I don't know about you, but if there is a dead raising spirit alive on the inside of me, then I don't have to let fear control me. Then I could say, Hey, if you can raise Jesus from the dead, I'm pretty sure we can tell fear to get out of here. I'm pretty sure I can say, joy, come back into my life. Life. Come back into me. Peace. Come into me. Come into my life. The fruit of the Spirit, love. Let me walk in love. Let me have access to the good things of the gospel. That's the power that we have to walk in when Jesus is in our boat, when Jesus is in our boat, our faith will grow. Jesus wakes up and he says, Where is your faith? That's what he asked the disciples. He says, Where is your faith? The storm revealed to him where their faith was, that it was not in the hearing of what they had been hearing in the teaching and what they'd been seeing in the miracles, that it was still in this fearful place, only the storm could reveal that. And I love what happens next. At the end of the this account, the disciples asked this question. They say, Who is this? Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him, and we don't know when the storm takes place. We don't know when this account happened in the gospel, but we do know that some significant ministry had already happened. We do know that dead had already been raised, that evil spirits had already been cast out. We know that Jesus had already been baptized, that that he had already preached the Sermon on the Mount. We know that sicknesses had been healed, that crowds were following him, that he had already fed the 5000 but in this moment, the disciples ask, Who is this? And that I had to stop here for a few minutes, and I was like, man, what's the tone of this question that they're asking? Like, you know, for me, I was like, Are they, like, upset, or did they really not know, like, what's going on? And so I actually got up from my computer, and I was like, I'm going to just spend some time with this. And as I was praying about it, the Lord said it's in the it's in the text Carrie. And I was like, Oh, let me go back and look at that. In fear and amazement, they asked one another, who is this? And I look this up, and this doesn't mean like they were afraid. It means in awe and wonder. And I love that after everything they'd seen Jesus do, they were still in awe and wonder. They were staying in a place of reverence with Jesus, they were still amazed by what he could do. When's the last time you were amazed by what Jesus did in your life? If you don't know, it's not a reflection of him, it's a reflection of our faith. Have you put your faith out there for him? Have you invited him into the storm with you? He wants to show himself like in awe and wonder like he wants to like reveal himself in this. Ridiculous way, where he sets us free from some things, where he calms the things that are going on around us, where he settles our hearts, where he settles our minds, where everything makes sense. Nothing can change, but everything makes sense. Nothing might change, but everything makes sense in fear and amazement, in awe and wonder, my prayer is that God would never let us become familiar with the power of the gospel. If we become familiar with the power of the gospel, we quit talking about it at the beginning of this text, it says that Jesus had women with him who had been set free. I wonder why they were there. I wonder if it was because it was through the word of their testimony and the power of the gospel that other people's lives were being changed because they were still living in awe and wonder of what God had done, how he had set them free, let us never become familiar with the good news that offers us mercy every single day, every single day that we have access to all that God's done, Every time we're faced with a storm, every time we're faced with that question, Who am I going to trust? I want to invite you to remember this scripture, Psalm, 56, three. I love this when I'm afraid I will put my trust in you. It's so simple. But what if we heard it today? What if we really heard it? What if we listened to it? What if we understood it? What if we obeyed it? What if we let it grow roots and produce something on the inside of us. What if we let trust when I'm afraid, I will put my trust in you, just that little bit of his word. What if we let it come alive on the inside of us today? Let's close our eyes for just a minute, and I want you to repeat after me say, when I'm afraid, I will put my trust in you. When I'm afraid, I will put my trust in you.