Silencing the Storms

Greeting

Good morning Lighthouse Church.

Turn to your neighbor and tell them, “You look younger today, than you did yesterday…”

Before I begin, I just want to tell everyone that tomorrow is our Connect Group Training. Groups don’t start tomorrow, but we’re going to prepare for our groups to begin on September 7. Here is one of the beautiful things that God is doing, our weekend attendance has increased by 22% since the start of the year. God is up to something. My question is, do you want to be a part of what He is doing?

I’ve learned that the casual Christian will ask God, “Come bless what I am doing…” but it is the committed disciple who observes what God is doing and they run to be a part of what He is doing. So if you can help us lead a Group, we ask that you please come tomorrow evening. We’ll have a time of training and preparation and then allow you to go and pray about what God would want you to lead here at Lighthouse.

[Transition]

Last Sunday we kicked off a brand new series called Growing Pains. It is a nod to the TV Show from the 1900’s that is all about family. And this series is all about family.

How many of you were here last Sunday?

OK.

Listen, if you were not here, I’d love for you to please catch the podcast or the video on YouTube.

While every sermon that I am going to preach in this series stands alone, there are some truths from last week that will repeat in the weeks to come. I want for you to have that context as we dive into new material every single week.

So let’s go ahead and pray, and then we are going to dive right into our text today.

[Prayer]

Text

Last Tuesday we had our Lighthouse Leadership College interest night and it was something. What a great group of men and women who are hungry for the word of God, and their desire to deepen their knowledge of God’s word so that they can be transformed and released into the plans that God has for them.

Now, one of the things that we teach in the leadership college is that we need to read our Bible the way the authors intended for the original hearers of the Bible to understand it.

One critical thing we learn as students of the Bible is that the chapters and verses were added to the original manuscripts for our modern day benefit. The writers of the Bible did not assign chapters and verses. They had no idea that these would come later for our convenience.

I say that, because often times we allow these insertions of chapters and verses to take us off-course from what I believe the writer was trying to communicate with us.

That is happening in the final story in Mark 4 and in the first story of Mark 5.

Now, every writer of the Bible had an intended audience, and when you read Mark’s gospel, it has been called the “Action Gospel.”

Mark writes his gospel like a movie director focusing on one powerful event after another. There’s not much down time in his letter. He does this to draw in the Gentile reader of the scriptures.

For example, Matthew, opens his gospel telling us who had what son, and who his son was, and who his son was, and this goes on 28 times. It’s culturally, a very Jewish thing to do.

Mark on the other hand doesn’t have time for that. He’s going to show you story after story the might and the power of Jesus.

Now, I say all of this to get to the two stories that are separated by chapter, but belong together.

The first story is in Mark 4:35-41 when Jesus tells his disciples, “Lets go over to the other side.”

The other side of what? The Sea of Galilee. Jesus had just finished teaching to a very large crowd a handful of parables, and then tells Peter and the boys, let’s go on a trip across the Sea.

Now when they are out on the Sea, Mark tells us that they encountered a violent storm and all of the disciples were afraid for their lives. Mark tells us that water was starting to enter into the boat, they think they’re going to sink and so they’re looking around for Jesus.

Now, I love this part of the story. Jesus is sleeping when all of this is happening. He’s not moved by the storm. He’s not afraid of the water in the boat. Jesus is trying to catch a nap.

When they woke Jesus up, Mark records these words from Jesus, “Quiet, be still,” and immediately the wind and the sea calmed down.

The disciples were shook. Their words were, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Chapter 4 over, and on to Chapter 5.

As soon as the boat his the land we read this, Mark 5:2

Mark 5:2 NIV

When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him.

In a moment I am going to walk you through this encounter with this man, but I’m going to just show you the end, so that we have a framework for this story… Jesus heals this man. He delivers him from the demons. And the very next thing Jesus does is he gets right back into the boat and he tells his disciples, “OK, now let’s go back.”

Jesus didn’t stay there and he had literally no other business being there. When he said, “Let’s go to the other side,” it was because of this man, and only because of this man.

That detail shows us that the storm that tried to stop Jesus from crossing the Sea of Galilee is directly connected to the healing of this demon possessed man.

Don’t let the break in chapters make you believe that these events are separate. They are connected, and what I want to title my message today is this:

Silencing the Storms

Reading

Mark 4:35–41 NIV

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Last week we learned that the ocean and the sea were often called the abyss, and right here in the text we can see why.

I want to make some observations from the text this morning.

Here is the first one - When Jesus said they were going to the other side, they were going to the other side.

The oldest tricks of the enemy is to get us to question what God has already said.

We see this in the garden of Eden when God makes Man and Woman in His image, and then the serpent comes to Eve and says to her, “God knows that if you eat from the fruit of the tree, you will be like Him.”

Do you see what he did there? God said you are made in my likeness, and the serpent got Eve to question if she really was made in her likeness.

Satan is the father of lies. He can’t tell the truth, even if he tries.

Every time you think you are hearing the voice of the enemy, know that he can only speak lies over your life.

If the enemy says, “No one loves you,” it is because he knows that you are loved beyond measure.

If the enemy says, “You aren’t good enough for God,” it is because he knows that God has already qualified you in his eyes.

If the enemy says, “You aren’t strong enough, you can’t do it, you’re not enough,” or anything along those lines, it is because he knows that you Are strong enough, you CAN do it, and you ARE enough in Christ jesus.

I don’t know who this is for this morning, but you came in here believing a lie, but you are walking out of here in the truth of God’s word.

Why? Because everything the enemy has been saying about you, the opposite is true.

[Pause]

Now notice how Jesus responds to the storms… he is sleeping.

Why?

Is it because he doesn’t care?

No, it’s because he knows that this storm can’t stop them.

I wish someone here would get this kind of bravado about the word that God has given them over their life.

You see, Jesus said you’re going to the other side, and when you have that kind of word from God, come hell or high water, you are going to the other side.

Now you can respond one of two ways - you can respond in fear, like the disciples. Or you can respond in faith, like Jesus.

But here’s what you can’t do. Both. You can’t do both.

Either you will start to live in the faith that you have as a child of God, or you are going to allow everything that is happening around you to get on the inside of you.

Here is what I mean.

Jesus wasn’t bothered by the storm.

The disciples were not only bothered by the storm, but they questioned if Jesus even cared.

There’s been times that I’ve been bothered by God, and yet I didn’t question God.

I was bothered that doors weren’t opening for me on my time, but what I didn’t do was question his care for me.

When your enemy wants to really mess with your mind, he doesn’t just want you to be scared by what’s going on around you, but he wants what is going on around you to get deep down inside of you.

But here is how we can stop what is happening around us to get on the inside of us.

Watch what jesus does. He says to the waves and to the wind, “Quiet! Be Still”

Jesus SPOKE to the storm. The very words of God were powerful enough to calm the waves and the storm.

Lighthouse, I’m fearful that many of you don’t know what you have here in your hands (Bible).

This isn’t just a book.

This isn’t just documentation of the life of jesus.

This is far more than that.

This is the very words of God, given to us, so that we would know him.

The reason I am so passionate about teaching the Bible is so that you would know him better. That you would know this God who loves you so much, that he died to save you and he has a hope and a future for you.

But sadly, so many of you spend hours looking at your phone, and you spend no time looking at Jesus. We stopped seeing him. We stopped beholding him.

And when the enemy comes in like a flood, we have no weapon to fight him with.

But if the word of God is deep in your soul, then whenever you are faced with a storm in life, the storm can surround you, but it can’t get inside of you. Why? Because you are so full of the word of God that there is no room for the lies of the enemy. You are so full of the word of God that there is no room for deception. You are so full of the word of God that it’s overflowing from the inside of you and it’s impossible for what is happening around you to get inside of you.

I fear for the Christian who thinks that by simply showing up to church on Sunday, they’ve done enough.

Like the disciples, you can be around Jesus, and not be filled with Jesus.

When Jesus quieted the winds and the sea, all these men could say was, “Who is this man?”

I’m the Man on the Other Side

And now Jesus makes it to the other side…

When his feet hit the ground there is a supernatural shift in the spiritual realm and this man that lived in a grave yard comes running to jesus.

Mark 5:1–6 NIV

They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him.

When you read this passage without the context that I gave you, it would appear as if this man found Jesus. But, we know that Jesus found this man. The only reason that Jesus told his disciples to cross the sea was so that Jesus could heal this man.

[Pause]

Can I tell you what I see here in the text?

I don’t just see a man who lived among the dead. I see a son that a father had given up on. I see a son that a mother couldn’t care for. I see a son that traded in a life with the living for a life lived among dead things.

What we know from the text is that this man was filled with an unclean spirit, but what we also see from the text is that this man would cry out and cut himself.

This demon inside of him caused him to be mentally unstable.

And this is the man that Jesus came to see. This is the person that Jesus crossed the storm to save.

Application

Can I please take some liberties in applying the text this morning?

Therapy and Mental Health has been around for 120 years.

120 years ago, we started recognizing and treating mental health. And do you want to know how it’s going?

The concern is at an all time high.

Here is some data that I wanted to share with you from the book The Anxious Generation:

Depression rates tripled among teen boys and teen girls from 2010-2020

Rates of self harm tripled for younger adolescent girls

Suicide rates increased dramatically, especially for young teen girls

Social media usage from kids ages 9-15 predicts lower well being

We’ve over parented in the natural world and we’ve under parented in the digital world

Since the advent of smart phones, we’ve seen social depravation, sleep deprivation, and attention fragmentation

What social media is to girls, online porn is to boys

1/3 of teen boys seek out porn every week and we’ve enabled them by giving them devices without filters

[Pause]

But can I also tell you what I am seeing that is giving me hope?

There is a revival that is happening right now amongst Gen Z. There has been a great returning to faith as a generation that was force fed secular progressivism has had enough.

Even while the mental health rates have been soaring among this generation, we see Jesus willing to silence the storm of culture to get to the next generation.

I want to show you this same man who was possessed, living among the dead, cutting himself and out of his mind, after an encounter with Jesus.

Mark 5:15 NIV

When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.

Jesus came to that man, rescued him and healed his mind.

But he’s not done yet.

Mark 5:18–19 NIV

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”

Jesus didn’t just heal this man and add him to his entourage. He healed this man and then sent this man.

Jesus is not interested in saving a generation to seat them in the church, he’s saving a generation to send them out into the world.

Parents, what is your part in this?

Parent through the storms.

Do you think the enemy will not come after your child? Do you think that the enemy will not try and stop your child from becoming the man or woman of God that they’ve been created to become?

It will happen.

And just like Jesus spoke the word, you need to speak the word of God over your children, over and over again.

And not just when they are in a storm, but before the storm comes. During the storm. After the storm. Build your children up in the knowledge and the word of God,

Mom and Dad, get a passion for God’s word that is to tangible that your kids join you in Bible reading. Your kids join you in prayer. Your kids join you in the building of His church.

Call