Control in Chaos

End result: Greater engagement & participation in discussion in small groups.

Text: Mark 4:35-41

Thesis (sermon in one sentence): We don’t have to lose control, because we know who’s in control!

Story: First time riding a roller coaster

Image:

Metaphor: We don’t have to just ride it out; we can invite God to take control!

Layer 1: Warm-Up

Housekeeping:

No youth next week

Two weeks: Christmas in July! Wear your best Christmas fit, we’ll have a real-life snowball fight

Mark 4:35–41 NLT

As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

Control in Chaos

Layer 2: Confirmation Bias

My son recently had his very first roller coaster experience, and I’m grateful to say that it was a positive one. After his face returned back to its normal shape and he caught his breath after riding the Steel Eel: he asked time & time again, “can we go again???” To which of course I gladly said: ABSOLUTELY!

Anybody else remember your first roller coaster experience?

Layer 3: Funny

Some of my favorite videos on youtube are the ones of people passing out on roller coasters. Have you seen these? They go from AHHHHHH to *dead face* in an instant.

Layer 4: Ouch

But if we are honest…the truth of the matter is that we aren’t always too far off from that. It may not be on a physical roller coaster, but it’s an emotional or mental one.

We go from overwhelmed, out of control, freaking out a bit: to just giving up or giving out. Anybody else that can be honest and say they’ve been there?

Music today has TONS of references to this internal struggle, the idea of feeling like everything’s out of whack or that we’re losing control.

And while we do not make recommendations: we do have the ability to look biblically at songs that can showcase to us a greater spiritual reality that’s at play.

The artist Teddy Swims would describe a version of this phenomenon this way:

Something's got ahold of me lately No, I don't know myself anymore Feels like the walls are all closing in And the devil's knocking at my door — Lose Control by Teddy Swims

Layer 5: Emotional Surgery

Anybody else ever been there? Where you look in the mirror, and feel like you don’t even recognize yourself? Where it feels like everything’s just kind of closing in?

Friend, here’s the great news: you’re not alone in that feeling. I myself have felt that way many, many times, and I know for a fact that many in this room have felt that way.

Those feelings are a great indicator, but a terrible master. So how should we handle those feelings of not knowing ourselves anymore, like the walls are closing in?

Layer 6: Theological Application

Well, let’s think about it in the context of the disciples: they weren’t alone in the boat. First of all, they had each other. But, let’s be honest…if all they did was talk to each other: they would’ve sunk so fast!

But secondly, and most importantly: they had Jesus in the boat with them.

And even when we don’t know what to say, and even when we don’t have the right thing to pray: Jesus in His kindness hears us out, stays calm, and calms the chaos around us and inside of us.

Layer 7: Full Circle

You’re either:

Headed towards a storm

Headed into a storm

Headed out of a storm

And, as much as we hate to admit it…

How you handle the storm depends on who you trust in the storm.

For most of us, the problem is not that we’re ignoring the storm: the problem is that we’re not trusting the right people to be on the boat with us. The disciples’ problem was that they were talking to people that didn’t fully trust Jesus.

Rather than talking to Jesus about the storm, we talk to other people just as powerless as us about how bad the storm is.

The goal of a night like tonight, is for all of us to get honest about our storms, to find godly support that points us to what Jesus has to say about our storms.

James 5:16 MSG

Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.