Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 2: it gives you perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1: In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: Well, take a seat. We're so glad you're here today.
Speaker 2: We're continuing in the series Savage Jesus from the Gospel
Speaker 2: of Mark. Believe me when I say that, I never
Speaker 2: thought i'd say. This is the tenth installment of this series.
Speaker 2: I usually preach short and sweet, but I got in
Speaker 2: the Gospel of Mark and then I couldn't get out.
Speaker 2: So today we'll be in Mark chapter six. I want
Speaker 2: to introduce my scripture by way of a story. When
Speaker 2: I wrote my first book, I had the privilege to
Speaker 2: record the audio book myself, and they sent a very
Speaker 2: professional recording engineer from the publishing company to record the book.
Speaker 2: And he would stop me and correct me if I
Speaker 2: made any mistakes, if I got a little too southern.
Speaker 2: He was a Northern Pharisee and he judged my accent
Speaker 2: and he'd say, it's little Twangie. Let's get it again,
Speaker 2: or if I smacked my lips or mispronounced the word,
Speaker 2: he'd back it up and make me catch it again.
Speaker 1: And it was annoying, but.
Speaker 2: I appreciated his professionalism. And because the publisher was the
Speaker 2: largest publisher in the world. Now, not the publisher that
Speaker 2: I wrote for. The publisher that I wrote for was
Speaker 2: owned by a publisher who was owned by a publisher
Speaker 2: that was the biggest publishing company in the world. This
Speaker 2: guy worked for the big publisher and because of it,
Speaker 2: he had worked with a lot of big names. And
Speaker 2: this was my first book and my first time and
Speaker 2: I kept having to take breaks and my mouth would
Speaker 2: get dry, and so during one of those breaks, I
Speaker 2: realized that this guy had worked with a lot of
Speaker 2: famous people, and I asked him to tell me a
Speaker 2: story to entertain me during my break. I said, tell
Speaker 2: me about somebody you worked with that was difficult, And
Speaker 2: he told me a story about a very well known
Speaker 2: political figure. I don't know if the story is true,
Speaker 2: but why let the truth get in the way of
Speaker 2: a good story.
Speaker 1: That's my motto. So I'm gonna tell the story.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to say the name, but it was
Speaker 2: a famous political figure. Who was recording his memoir about
Speaker 2: his life. That was after he had served his term
Speaker 2: for eight years something like that in office.
Speaker 1: Now I can tell you who it was.
Speaker 2: But he said that when they were recording the memoir,
Speaker 2: it was very long.
Speaker 1: It was about a seven or eight hundred.
Speaker 2: Page book, and it had to be an abridged version.
Speaker 2: And so when they were recording the audiobook, they had
Speaker 2: to decide which sections to.
Speaker 1: Leave and which sections to skip.
Speaker 2: And at one particular point in the memoir, there was
Speaker 2: a section about a scandal that happened in this particular
Speaker 2: notable figure's life related to offices of oval nature and
Speaker 2: things of this sort, that happened during his tenure in
Speaker 2: what some call the highest office in the United States
Speaker 2: of America.
Speaker 1: And when he was.
Speaker 2: Telling me about it, he said, when they got to
Speaker 2: the part about the scandal, he said that the person
Speaker 2: who wrote the memoir, the former president.
Speaker 1: Said this is falling apart.
Speaker 2: Said uh, he stopped, and he was going to skip it,
Speaker 2: and he stopped the recording and he said, I don't
Speaker 2: think people really, I think people are sick of hearing
Speaker 2: about this by now. I think we can skip this part.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you think this is really significant. And
Speaker 2: the audio engineer said that it was a real challenge
Speaker 2: to look back at somebody who had been the most
Speaker 2: powerful man in the world at one point, and he said,
Speaker 2: I had to look at him and say, yes, mister President,
Speaker 2: this is significant. And that's my title for my message today.
Speaker 1: Look at your neighbor.
Speaker 2: And say, in your best Bill Clinton voice, tell him
Speaker 2: this is significant.
Speaker 1: This is significant. Our scripture lesson.
Speaker 2: For Today comes from Mark chapter six, something that marked
Speaker 2: the evangelist included in his gospel record that he thought
Speaker 2: was significant for us to know about the ministry of
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Mark six, verse forty five records.
Speaker 2: Immediately, Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and
Speaker 2: go on ahead of him to beth Sadom. He did
Speaker 2: not tell them to pack ponchos. He did not give
Speaker 2: them a warning about the storm that they would encounter,
Speaker 2: just a simple instruction. I wonder if God doesn't tell
Speaker 2: us everything, because he knows we couldn' handle.
Speaker 1: The details.
Speaker 2: So he dismissed the crowd and sent the disciples to
Speaker 2: get a head start. I'll eat you on the other side.
Speaker 2: You're almost gonna die on the way. He didn't tell
Speaker 2: him that, but after leaving them, he went up on
Speaker 2: a mountain side to pray, and later that night the
Speaker 2: boat was in the middle of the lake and he
Speaker 2: was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at
Speaker 2: the oars because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn,
Speaker 2: he went out to them walking on the lake.
Speaker 1: He was about to pass by them, but.
Speaker 2: When they saw him walking on the lake, they thought
Speaker 2: he was a ghost, because God often looks like fear
Speaker 2: from a distance. They cried out because they all saw
Speaker 2: him and were terrified. Immediately, Mark's favorite word. He spoke
Speaker 2: to them and said, take courage.
Speaker 1: It is I. Don't be afraid.
Speaker 2: Then he climbed into the boat with them and the
Speaker 2: wind died down.
Speaker 1: They were completely amazed.
Speaker 2: Touch the neighbor you've been ignoring and say this is significant.
Speaker 1: So if you've ever been around church at all, you've
Speaker 1: heard this Bible story.
Speaker 2: If you've ever been anywhere near a church, you've heard
Speaker 2: about this Bible story. If you ever happened to drive
Speaker 2: by a church by accident, you heard this. If you
Speaker 2: ever played on church softball team, you heard curse words
Speaker 2: and this Bible story. It's a significant story because it
Speaker 2: teaches us that Jesus Christ is lord of all creation. Theologically,
Speaker 2: he is sovereign. He is sovereign. It's an epiphany story
Speaker 2: in that it gives us a revelation of Jesus Christ
Speaker 2: that is consistent with the revelation of Jesus Christ that
Speaker 2: was given in the Old Testament in a concealed form,
Speaker 2: when a bush burned and a man named Moses was
Speaker 2: meeting with God. The disclosure at that point was I am.
Speaker 2: Moses said, who are you? God said, I am.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: It's interesting how God would spend the next several centuries
Speaker 2: filling in that blank. That they would need to know
Speaker 2: him to be water in a dry place, that they
Speaker 2: would need to know him.
Speaker 1: To be a warrior in their battles.
Speaker 2: They would find all of this out, that He is
Speaker 2: sustainer in their weariness. Really, the rest of your life
Speaker 2: will be filling in that blank, and just about the
Speaker 2: time you think you've got it figured out who God is,
Speaker 2: life will so shift beneath your feet that you will.
Speaker 1: Realize you didn't know him at all.
Speaker 2: The disciples have been with Jesus now for quite an
Speaker 2: extensive class. They've seen him touch lepers, they've seen him
Speaker 2: heal paralytics. They've even seen him raise dead people in
Speaker 2: certain situations, and yet there was something that amazed them
Speaker 2: in this moment, something that they had not seen about
Speaker 2: him before. It is significant that Jesus told them to
Speaker 2: go forward and the wind was against them. That's significant,
Speaker 2: significant because a lot of times I assumed in my
Speaker 2: life that if God sent me to do something, the
Speaker 2: wind would work with me. That's pretty much the premise
Speaker 2: of early Christianity. You know, turn your life over to
Speaker 2: God and he'll take your burdens away. Turn your life
Speaker 2: over to the Lord, and you know, what used to
Speaker 2: keep you up at night won't keep you up at
Speaker 2: night anymore because it'll be replaced by other stuff that'll
Speaker 2: keep you up at night.
Speaker 1: Fill in the blank. You realize that a lot.
Speaker 2: Of times claims to faith are actually our efforts to
Speaker 2: manipulate God, until we discover in the course of time
Speaker 2: that just because the wind is against you doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that God is not for you. Many times, the confirmation
Speaker 2: that God has spoken to you is the fact that
Speaker 2: the wind is against you. We're discovering this in our
Speaker 2: study of the Gospel of Mark. We are learning that
Speaker 2: resistance is often the greatest place for revelation. Would you
Speaker 2: please take that elevation pin that cost about eleven or
Speaker 2: twelve cents, and before you steal it from the church
Speaker 2: and use it to sina check this week, write it down.
Speaker 2: Resistance leads to revelation. Resistance leads to revelation. The wind
Speaker 2: was against the disciples not because they disobeyed the words
Speaker 2: of Jesus, but because they went in the direction of
Speaker 2: his command.
Speaker 1: He sent them to beth Seda. They went to Bethseda.
Speaker 2: I got it when it was Jonah, because the wind
Speaker 2: was against Jonah because he wasn't going to Ninevah.
Speaker 1: He was going to Tarsish. And God said, go to Ninevah.
Speaker 1: And when you go to.
Speaker 2: Tarsish, when you should go to Ninevah, expect the wind
Speaker 2: to be against you. Because God didn't send you to Tarshish,
Speaker 2: he sent you to NINEVH. So I expect the wind
Speaker 2: to go against me. When God told me to go
Speaker 2: to Ninevah and I went to Tarshish. But when he
Speaker 2: told me to go to best Sayda, and I went
Speaker 2: to best Sayda, I expect the wind to work with me.
Speaker 2: I expect God to bless me when I come to church.
Speaker 1: I expect good parking.
Speaker 2: Places because I came to church. I expect those shoes
Speaker 2: to go on sale because I came to church. I
Speaker 2: suspect a promotion because I came to church. Makes me
Speaker 2: mad when somebody who didn't come to church, they slept
Speaker 2: in and they get a raise, and.
Speaker 1: I get fired.
Speaker 2: And I can't understand how God could be with me
Speaker 2: and the wind could be against me. But often the
Speaker 2: confirmation of the Word of God is the resistance of
Speaker 2: the enemy to show you you're.
Speaker 3: On the right track. Here's why.
Speaker 1: Feel I preach it.
Speaker 2: Here's why I'm gonna help somebody. You want to turn
Speaker 2: around and go back home because the wind is against you.
Speaker 1: The wind is against you.
Speaker 2: So that you will know that it is the Lord's
Speaker 2: presence with you that makes you successful. If the wind
Speaker 2: was working with you, you would think the wind.
Speaker 1: When you got to your destination.
Speaker 2: If it were easy, you would think the wrong things.
Speaker 2: If the wind wasn't against you, you wouldn't need the
Speaker 2: Lord to come and step into the wind and speak
Speaker 2: peace to the wind. So the wind has to be
Speaker 2: against you to prove that the Lord is with you.
Speaker 3: Calm down, verdict.
Speaker 2: This is just the introduction and so Jesus, savage Jesus.
Speaker 1: The Jesus that's in the Bible, not the Jesus this.
Speaker 2: On Pinterest, Savage Jesus, real life Jesus, Monday morning Jesus. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Friday Jesus, Saturday Jesus. Not the Jesus that is playing
Speaker 2: a harp and stroking the wool of the lamb. But
Speaker 2: the Jesus who sends his disciples into a storm and
Speaker 2: watches them strength.
Speaker 1: I got to go.
Speaker 2: You don't believe this. You about to be really jealous.
Speaker 2: I got to go and sit on the mountain where
Speaker 2: Jesus prayed. And the man who took us there last year,
Speaker 2: he knew everything about everything.
Speaker 1: I think he was Jesus. He took us up.
Speaker 2: There, he said, here's where Jesus was praying in March
Speaker 2: chapter six. And then he pointed to the lake that
Speaker 2: the Bible mentions where the storm was, and from that
Speaker 2: mountain you can see the whole lake. And he dropped
Speaker 2: this on us right before he left us. He said,
Speaker 2: so the whole time they were straining, Jesus could see them.
Speaker 2: And he walked off and I cried, I have a
Speaker 2: picture of me sitting on that mountain and there's Kleenex
Speaker 2: all around me because Holly just kept handing them to me,
Speaker 2: one after another, that he saw them in the storm,
Speaker 2: that he saw them in the storm. And then I
Speaker 2: was after I got done crying, because I realized he
Speaker 2: sees me in my storm, and.
Speaker 1: He knows what I'm going through, and he knows.
Speaker 2: What I deal with, and he knows what people have
Speaker 2: done to me, and he sees tears that I've cried
Speaker 2: on my pillow that nobody else knows about him, that
Speaker 2: he sees what's going on in my soul. That I
Speaker 2: can cover up in front of people, but I can't
Speaker 2: hide from him. After I got done crying about that,
Speaker 2: I got kind of angry because I thought, if he
Speaker 2: could see them, why didn't he stop it? All of
Speaker 2: a sudden, it felt kind of cruel to me that
Speaker 2: he would send them into a storm and see them
Speaker 2: in the storm and not stop the storm. So I
Speaker 2: think it is significant that the Bible says that he
Speaker 2: saw the disciples verse forty eight, straining at the oars
Speaker 2: because the wind was against them.
Speaker 1: Shortly before dawn.
Speaker 2: He went out to them, this is forty eight b
Speaker 2: walking on the lake.
Speaker 3: He was about to pass them by.
Speaker 2: I thought he would never leave me. I thought he
Speaker 2: would never forsake me. I thought he promised his presence
Speaker 2: to me. And so he's about to pass them by,
Speaker 2: and they were afraid. One interesting thing about this particular
Speaker 2: record in Marx's Gospel is that it was recounted by
Speaker 2: a man named Peter.
Speaker 1: Have you heard of him.
Speaker 2: He was a very outspoken disciple of Jesus Christ. He
Speaker 2: was the one I don't know if you're like this.
Speaker 2: He would say what everybody else thought.
Speaker 1: He would.
Speaker 2: He was filter free, and so when he was right,
Speaker 2: he was really right.
Speaker 1: When he was wrong, he was real wrong. I'll prove
Speaker 1: it to you.
Speaker 2: He said, you are the Christ, the son of the
Speaker 2: Living God. She said, you are petross this rock. You're Peter,
Speaker 2: not Simon, not shifty, upon this rock. I'll build my
Speaker 2: church the rock of his revelation of who Jesus was.
Speaker 2: A few verses later, Jesus said, get behind me, Satan,
Speaker 2: and he was pointing at Peter, because Peter said, you
Speaker 2: can't go to the cross. And Peter opposed the very
Speaker 2: thing that Jesus came to do. All in the same
Speaker 2: Bible chapter. This is Peter. Peter is the one telling
Speaker 2: Mark about this story so Mark can write it down.
Speaker 2: Peter is the one recording the audiobook. Okay, Peter is
Speaker 2: the one giving Mark the gospel account. Mark wasn't a disciple.
Speaker 2: Mark was an evangelist. He compiled the story, and Peter told, look,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say you something.
Speaker 1: We have four of these.
Speaker 2: We have four gospel accounts. The gospel is the good
Speaker 2: News of Jesus Christ. When we say the Gospel of Mark,
Speaker 2: it's the gospel according to Mark. When we say the
Speaker 2: Gospel of Luke, the Gospel of John, the Gospel of
Speaker 2: mac that's the gospel account that they wrote down. John
Speaker 2: said that Jesus did so much. If you wrote a
Speaker 2: whole book, if you tried to write down everything he did,
Speaker 2: the whole world could not contain it. If you wrote
Speaker 2: down all the works Jesus did, wikipedia would break. So
Speaker 2: they had to decide what was significant enough to put
Speaker 2: in the gospel account that would prove what they wanted
Speaker 2: to prove about who Jesus was. So when Mark got
Speaker 2: ready to write, he said, Jesus walked to the disciples
Speaker 2: in a storm, and when he got in the boat,
Speaker 2: the winds died down. When Matthew got ready to write it,
Speaker 2: he included something that Mark left out. And I'm going
Speaker 2: to read you now from Matthew fourteen. It's the same story,
Speaker 2: but there's one detail in this story that is omitted
Speaker 2: in Mark's gospel, which is based on the recollection of Peter,
Speaker 2: and it's in Matthew's gospel but not Mark's.
Speaker 1: So here's what we'll do.
Speaker 2: This will be an interactive class. When I get to
Speaker 2: the part that wasn't in Mark's gospel, stop me.
Speaker 1: When I get to.
Speaker 2: The part that where you're saying, wait, that wasn't in
Speaker 2: the other one that you read before, I want you
Speaker 2: to wave your hands and stop me. This is the
Speaker 2: only time that you are allowed to tell me to
Speaker 2: stop preaching. You can tell me to preach anytime you
Speaker 2: want preach faster, But when I get to this part today,
Speaker 2: I want you to stop me at every location. Let's
Speaker 2: start in verse twenty two. Immediately Jesus made the disciples
Speaker 2: get into the boat and go on ahead of him
Speaker 2: to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After
Speaker 2: he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountain
Speaker 2: side by himself to pray. Later that night, he was
Speaker 2: there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance
Speaker 2: from land, buffeted by the ways because the wind was
Speaker 2: against it.
Speaker 1: So far, so good, We're good. Keep go on, keep
Speaker 1: go on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, similar, very similar, very similar, few words, different sim stuff.
Speaker 2: Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on
Speaker 2: the lake. When the disciples saw I'm walking on the lake,
Speaker 2: they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and cried
Speaker 2: out in fear. But Jesus immediately said it didn't take
Speaker 2: courage it as I don't be afraid. Lord, if it's you,
Speaker 2: Peter replied, tell me to come. Okay, okay, okay, what's.
Speaker 1: Wrong with you? Lord?
Speaker 2: If it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to
Speaker 2: you on the water.
Speaker 3: Come.
Speaker 2: He said, this is amazing. Hey, hey, if I was
Speaker 2: writing my memoir, I'll put this in.
Speaker 1: Because what's what happens next. Then Peter got down out
Speaker 1: of the boat, walked on water, and came towards Jesus. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm totally putting that in.
Speaker 2: I'm totally including the part where everybody else was in
Speaker 2: the boat crying out in fear and I was walking
Speaker 2: on water, transcending the laws of buoyancy.
Speaker 1: Mabe. If I ever walk on water and then I
Speaker 1: die and they're writing.
Speaker 2: A story about my life, you make sure they don't
Speaker 2: take that part out. If I ever walk on water,
Speaker 2: and I know I do metaphorically in your heart, but
Speaker 2: if I ever physically, if they.
Speaker 1: Ever write about me, I'm not saying they will.
Speaker 2: But if they do, leave this and touch somebody say.
Speaker 1: This is significant.
Speaker 2: So how can Peter This is a good question. How
Speaker 2: can Peter walk on water? And when it comes time
Speaker 2: to tell Mark what to write about this night on
Speaker 2: the sea, tell Mark, you know, I think people probably
Speaker 2: just about sick of hearing about this. Do you really
Speaker 2: think this is thirty? Your neighbors say yes, mister president,
Speaker 2: this is significant.
Speaker 1: I wonder if.
Speaker 2: I wonder if you left it out because of verse thirty.
Speaker 2: I mean, because verse so far this is amazing.
Speaker 1: Peter.
Speaker 2: Peter's like, if it's you tell me to come, She's like,
Speaker 2: it's me come, and.
Speaker 1: You know the wind is blowing so you can't hear that. Good.
Speaker 1: So Peter's like, did you hear it?
Speaker 3: He said it is me come?
Speaker 2: And John John's like no, he said, Peter, You're dumb,
Speaker 2: because I mean two people.
Speaker 1: Can hear the same thing. It's Yanny, not Laurel.
Speaker 2: But by the way, it's Yanny. It's Yanny. It's Yanny.
Speaker 2: Come to the altar. It's Yanny. You need your ears open.
Speaker 2: I lost half the church. You hear the same word
Speaker 2: a different way. And the other disciples were operating on
Speaker 2: what Jesus told them before they left, which is go
Speaker 2: go to bed, say I'll meet you on the other side.
Speaker 2: Peter is operating out of what he feels in the moment,
Speaker 2: and he says to Jesus, if it's you tell me
Speaker 2: to come? And I've often preached about Peter getting out
Speaker 2: of the boat, but sometimes the more significant faith is
Speaker 2: the willingness to stay in the storm, not the impulse
Speaker 2: to escape it.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying Peter was wrong.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying that it takes faith to keep rowing
Speaker 2: when you can't see the shore. Sometimes it takes even
Speaker 2: more faith to stay in the boat than it does
Speaker 2: to step.
Speaker 1: Out of it.
Speaker 2: Peter gets to this part of the story in his recollection.
Speaker 2: He does not see fit to include the part of
Speaker 2: the story where he said to.
Speaker 1: Jesus, if it's you tell me to come, And.
Speaker 2: I wonder if it's because of what happened in verse
Speaker 2: thirty that he left this out of his gospel account
Speaker 2: because the Bible says that he took several steps towards Jesus,
Speaker 2: and for a moment he was walking on the water,
Speaker 2: and for a moment.
Speaker 1: He was experiencing a miracle.
Speaker 2: But verse thirty says, when he saw the wind, see
Speaker 2: he heard the word.
Speaker 1: But then he saw the wind.
Speaker 2: And I relate to this because sometimes I pay more
Speaker 2: attention to what I see than what God said. And
Speaker 2: anytime I give more focus to what I see than
Speaker 2: what God spoke, I start to sink. Peter's doing pretty
Speaker 2: good as long as he's going off of what he heard,
Speaker 2: because faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the
Speaker 2: word of God. And all you need is one word
Speaker 2: from God. Peter wasn't walking on water. He was walking
Speaker 2: on a word. And when you have a word from God,
Speaker 2: your kids can be acting crazy, honey, can be acting funny, you.
Speaker 1: Can be in the.
Speaker 2: Darkest night of your life, but declare He is Lord.
Speaker 2: And then he saw the wind, And the Bible says
Speaker 2: when he saw the wind, he began to sink, and
Speaker 2: he cried out, Lord, save me.
Speaker 1: And I thought, well, That's why Peter left it out,
Speaker 1: because I think.
Speaker 2: People don't really need to hear about this. We can
Speaker 2: leave that out, can't we. You know, you want to
Speaker 2: leave certain things out of your story, skip over certain
Speaker 2: parts and certain failures.
Speaker 4: And there's some stuff, honestly, that you don't need to
Speaker 4: share with everybody. There's some stuff that they don't even
Speaker 4: need to know about. Sometimes your greatest testimony.
Speaker 1: Is that you went through the fire, but you don't
Speaker 1: smell like smoke.
Speaker 2: And when Peter was telling Mark what to right, I
Speaker 2: imagine Mark saying, shouldn't I.
Speaker 1: Put that part.
Speaker 2: In where you climbed out of the boat, And Mark said,
Speaker 2: I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think you want to leave that out.
Speaker 2: Peter said, no, no, it's been a while now, because
Speaker 2: this gospel has written decades after it happened, you know,
Speaker 2: And by this point Peter has discovered something verse fifty one, Mark,
Speaker 2: Chapter six, Verse fifty one. Then he climbed into the
Speaker 2: boat with them, and the wind died down. Peter said,
Speaker 2: it's not significant what happened when I climbed out of
Speaker 2: the boat.
Speaker 1: Let's read it again.
Speaker 2: Then Jesus climbed into the boat. Peter said, don't tell
Speaker 2: him what happened when I climbed out. Tell him what
Speaker 2: happened when he climbed in.
Speaker 1: That's so good.
Speaker 2: I want to sit down and then stand up and
Speaker 2: run a lap around this Balentine.
Speaker 1: Building all by myself.
Speaker 2: It's not important what happened when Peter climbed out. It's
Speaker 2: not important what happened when Peter stepped out. It's not
Speaker 2: important what happened when they were straining all night, all
Speaker 2: night long, they strained to get to Jesus. But the
Speaker 2: wind didn't stop while they were straining. The wind did
Speaker 2: not die down because Peter came to Jesus. The wind
Speaker 2: died down because Jesus came to Peter.
Speaker 1: And that's the gospel.
Speaker 2: Not that I came to God, not because I was
Speaker 2: so good, not because I was so glorious, not because
Speaker 2: I got my act together. No, I'm not praising him
Speaker 2: because I got out of the boat.
Speaker 3: I'm praising him because he.
Speaker 1: Got in.
Speaker 3: And the wind died down.
Speaker 2: Now go ahead and worship him for eighteen seconds because
Speaker 2: I got up because he got in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, who whoa, whoa.
Speaker 2: I find somebody saying that is significant, Not that I
Speaker 2: loved God, but that he loved me, and.
Speaker 3: I'm in a storm right now, but the storm is
Speaker 3: not significant because help is on the way.
Speaker 1: It's the contrast of straining versus submission.
Speaker 2: And he was showing them to do what he commanded
Speaker 2: the wind to do. Submit, and they they were amazed
Speaker 2: at this. They were amazed. They were amazed at the
Speaker 2: wind did what he said. In fact, the wind did
Speaker 2: what he didn't even have to tell it to do.
Speaker 1: Let me appreciate to LJ for a minute.
Speaker 2: He gets bored back here because he has to play
Speaker 2: three times on the weekend. And I just want to
Speaker 2: tell him this real QUI because I didn't mentioned in any.
Speaker 1: Other of the worst experiences.
Speaker 2: Last time Jesus calmed the storm, he said, peace be still.
Speaker 2: So he calmed the storm with his words this time.
Speaker 2: If you check the record, he didn't even say anything
Speaker 2: to the storm. The storm stopped just because he sat
Speaker 2: down in the boat with the disciples. That lets me
Speaker 2: know that all I need is his presence. All I
Speaker 2: need is his presence. I don't need proof that he
Speaker 2: is with me. When he got in the boat, the
Speaker 2: storm sat down. When he sat down, Why he is
Speaker 2: the puppet, He is the Lord, He is the.
Speaker 3: Great I am.
Speaker 1: He is the bread.
Speaker 2: Of life, and he sent them against the wind because
Speaker 2: he needed a situation to reveal his sufficiency.
Speaker 1: That's what he needed, and so the storm.
Speaker 2: Served that purpose, just like the hungry crowd. Just like
Speaker 2: the hungry crowd, because verse fifty two tells us why
Speaker 2: they were amazed.
Speaker 1: Look at somebody said, this is significant.
Speaker 2: Come on, only about forty five percent of you did
Speaker 2: what I told you to do.
Speaker 1: Tell them this is significant.
Speaker 2: They were amazed for they had not understood about the loaves.
Speaker 5: Their hearts were hardened. What does bread have to do
Speaker 5: with a boat.
Speaker 2: And this is where we need to mention a significant miracle.
Speaker 2: This miracle is so significant that Matthew, Mark Luke, and
Speaker 2: John all put it in their memoir their audio book.
Speaker 2: They put it in even though it wasn't a resurrection
Speaker 2: or a healing. One day Jesus fed five thousand men,
Speaker 2: the women, and the children, and he did it with
Speaker 2: a little boy's lunch. I personally think Peter beat up
Speaker 2: the little boy and took his lunch.
Speaker 1: Only reason why I have kids.
Speaker 2: I've never seen my kids voluntarily do anything sacrificial. So
Speaker 2: in my mind, the little boy did not willingly offer
Speaker 2: his lunch.
Speaker 1: But you read the Bible. How you want to read
Speaker 1: the Bible on your own time? Right now? I got
Speaker 1: the microphone. Peter beat up the boy, took his lunch, brought.
Speaker 2: It to Jesus. This is significant. This miracle is so
Speaker 2: significant because Jesus, when he was feeding the crowd, he
Speaker 2: was revealing himself as to Christ, and everybody ate and
Speaker 2: they all got their.
Speaker 1: Fill that day. Pointed out real quick.
Speaker 2: While we have a moment because I don't know when
Speaker 2: I'll get to see you again, somebody, you don't come
Speaker 2: to church enough.
Speaker 1: Just while we're here.
Speaker 2: The miracle came from somebody who was not even included
Speaker 2: in the official count.
Speaker 1: It was five thousand men, women, and children.
Speaker 2: God's greatest miracles often come from what people consider insignificant sources.
Speaker 1: That's why you can't let the world.
Speaker 2: Ever define your significance, because the world celebrates all the
Speaker 2: wrong stuff, all the wrong stuff. We find significance in status.
Speaker 2: We find significance sometimes and we even call it our
Speaker 2: significant other. Okay, but this is an announcement. You don't
Speaker 2: need any other to be significant. I'm not against the term.
Speaker 2: I'm not against the term, but you don't have to
Speaker 2: be a Duchess of Sussex to be significant. No, not
Speaker 2: to be significant in the eyes of God. If significance
Speaker 2: was predicated on marital status, Jesus was insignificant. He was
Speaker 2: never merit. Neither was Paul. But the world breaks all
Speaker 2: the wrong stuff and so we wait for it significance
Speaker 2: to be assigned by something.
Speaker 3: Outside of God.
Speaker 2: But I am not significant because somebody recognized me as significant.
Speaker 2: I am significant because of someone who died for me,
Speaker 2: who created me, and who lives in me. This is significant,
Speaker 2: real quick, real quick. I'm really proud of Elevation Worship.
Speaker 2: They got nominated for a Billboard Award Christian Album Christian song,
Speaker 2: Oh Come to the Altar, and I think that's really
Speaker 2: cool and I think it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if we'll win it or not.
Speaker 2: Somebody said we probably won't win it this year, and
Speaker 2: it's not a competition, but I'd love to beat Hillsong.
Speaker 2: Don't put this online, edit this out, and one day
Speaker 2: maybe we will. But I'm not waiting to see if
Speaker 2: we win the award. Here's why I saw Oh Come
Speaker 2: to the Altar when it was born. I remember when
Speaker 2: we wrote it and imagined our church singing it, and
Speaker 2: then I saw the church start to sing it, and
Speaker 2: I saw people baptized while we were singing, Oh, Come
Speaker 2: to the Altar. I saw people baptized while we were
Speaker 2: singing The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought
Speaker 2: with the precious blood.
Speaker 1: Of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: So I don't need Billboard to tell me what baptism
Speaker 2: already did. So if Chris Brown gets an award, that's wonderful.
Speaker 2: But if Billboard didn't recognize, Oh, come to the Altar,
Speaker 2: touch somebody say, it's still significant. And if people appreciate me,
Speaker 2: that's wonderful. But if they never recognized me, I'm still significant.
Speaker 2: There's a word for somebody.
Speaker 3: If I got a date, great, If.
Speaker 2: I don't, I'm still significant. If I did the job, wonderful.
Speaker 2: If I don't, I'm still significant.
Speaker 3: If you like me, good less hung it out, but
Speaker 3: it not Pomps.
Speaker 1: I'm almost Dunn. This is significant.
Speaker 2: This is significant because I saw Chris Brown in a
Speaker 2: prison during Love Week. He wasn't a member, was there
Speaker 2: voluntarily for the record. He was singing, and he finished
Speaker 2: singing and we were leaving. IP preached he's saying, and
Speaker 2: a prisoner came up to me and said, before you go,
Speaker 2: can you single come to the altar? That's the song
Speaker 2: that got me through. And I hope he can get
Speaker 2: a billboard. But I watched him single come to the
Speaker 2: altar to one prisoner, and that was significant. This is
Speaker 2: significant this season. It's hard to see the significance of
Speaker 2: the season you're in. You see it better when you're
Speaker 2: out of it. That's why it's hard to raise kids.
Speaker 2: I love being a parent. I joke about it a lot.
Speaker 2: Is actually my favorite thing that I do. I just
Speaker 2: play around like as hard as really for me, it's
Speaker 2: just super easy. I just I always know the wisdom
Speaker 2: and I'm always like watching my kids play all these sports.
Speaker 2: It's kind of hard sometimes because now they've got so
Speaker 2: much pressure on us as parents.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is a suburban thing. I don't know.
Speaker 2: You gotta be at every recital or your kid's gonna
Speaker 2: end up in therapy as a serial killer. It's pressure.
Speaker 2: I try to get out there. Sometimes there's running around
Speaker 2: and is this significant? Is this significant? And then I
Speaker 2: get I get caught up in insignificant things and I
Speaker 2: missed significant things like the disciples almost missed the miracle
Speaker 2: that day of the Feeding of the five thousand, the
Speaker 2: one that's in all four gospels.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's why they all included it, because.
Speaker 2: They all almost missed it because they wanted to send
Speaker 2: the crowds away.
Speaker 1: I show you something real quick. This is this is Graham.
Speaker 2: You got it in the back. I didn't use it
Speaker 2: the other times, but yeah, this is Graham pinning a joker.
Speaker 2: It was good. It was a little tournament that was
Speaker 2: the championship match of the tournament.
Speaker 1: It was on a Saturday.
Speaker 2: Normally I'd be preaching that particular Saturday, I had somebody
Speaker 2: else preaching for me. Look who he's looking at now.
Speaker 2: Guess who he's looking at when he's I mean, he
Speaker 2: just pinned him. The ref just slapped the mat and
Speaker 2: he looks up like what. And I like it because
Speaker 2: I like it because what he said to me when
Speaker 2: he came back up. I said, isn't the cool how
Speaker 2: I went and preaching today so I could watch you
Speaker 2: in this tournament? And what if I had missed it?
Speaker 2: He said, well, if you had missed it, I probably
Speaker 2: wouldn't have won it. And I was like, if you
Speaker 2: never say anything, just never talk again until you go
Speaker 2: to college. Let's end on that note.
Speaker 1: The same thing.
Speaker 2: You could take it down, although I'd be happy to
Speaker 2: put it on Instagram for you Instagram.
Speaker 6: Anyway, It's hard to know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you don't always get to see the gold medal.
Speaker 1: They don't hand out a gold medal.
Speaker 2: In fact, when it says that the disciples did not
Speaker 2: understand about the loaves, they were amazed, because show the
Speaker 2: verse again, verse fifty two.
Speaker 1: This first got my attention.
Speaker 2: Really, this is my whole message, because it says they
Speaker 2: were amazed when he got in the boat and the
Speaker 2: winds died because they had not understood about the loaves.
Speaker 1: It just happened. It was the thing that happened right
Speaker 1: before the storm. It had just happened.
Speaker 2: It wasn't years later, and they forgot it had just happened.
Speaker 2: You know how God provides for you, and then you
Speaker 2: go into a different test and you forget the lesson
Speaker 2: because it's a different test, and God provided.
Speaker 1: For you in a bigger way back there.
Speaker 2: But now you're struggling with a little thing here and
Speaker 2: you trip over an insignificant thing when God has already
Speaker 2: done the most significant thing, which.
Speaker 1: Is to save your soul.
Speaker 2: They understood about the loaves on one level. Physically, they ate.
Speaker 2: They understood about the loaves on one level. The crowds
Speaker 2: were fed. But what they didn't understand is that Jesus
Speaker 2: did not feed the multitudes so they could know what
Speaker 2: he did. He fed the multitude so they could know
Speaker 2: who he was. The lesson of the loaves is not
Speaker 2: I am your burger, king your way right away. The
Speaker 2: lesson of the loaves is not that you will never
Speaker 2: be hungry, or you will never hurt, or you will
Speaker 2: never wonder, or you will never doubt. The lesson of
Speaker 2: the loaves is I am the bread of life.
Speaker 1: I am. It is me.
Speaker 2: It was me when you were hungry. It was me
Speaker 2: when you were lonely. It was me when you were depressed.
Speaker 2: It was me when you were anxious. It was me
Speaker 2: on the mountaintop, it was me in the valley. The
Speaker 2: Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, I will
Speaker 2: fear no evil.
Speaker 1: He is with me in this moment. It's me.
Speaker 3: It was me then, and it's me now. It was
Speaker 3: me that got you through that.
Speaker 1: It's me that will see you through this. And if
Speaker 1: I am in the boat, the wind must submit.
Speaker 2: To my word, I am with you. And they didn't
Speaker 2: get it. They saw the miracle, they experienced the miracle.
Speaker 2: They're the ones who handed out the bread to the people.
Speaker 2: But you can experience a miracle and miss the significance.
Speaker 1: So God saved you, But what did he save you for?
Speaker 2: So you could spend the rest of your life carrying
Speaker 2: the shame he died to take away and nail to hiss?
Speaker 1: Is that what he saved you for?
Speaker 2: God saved you, But what did he save you for
Speaker 2: so you could live the rest of your life just
Speaker 2: as selfish as you live the first part of your life,
Speaker 2: but with a cross around your neck this time?
Speaker 1: What did he save you for?
Speaker 2: You can experience the miracle of salvation but miss the
Speaker 2: significant something.
Speaker 1: God didn't just save you from.
Speaker 2: He saved you for a purpose, a mission, a calling.
Speaker 2: And the miracle was not just that the people were fed.
Speaker 2: The miracle was not just that they ate bread. The
Speaker 2: miracle is not just what God does for you. The
Speaker 2: miracle is that you see who He is. This is beautiful.
Speaker 2: It is so beautiful that it bears repeating. It bears repeating,
Speaker 2: and in Mark chapter eight, this miracle is so significant
Speaker 2: it happens again. One way you can tell when something
Speaker 2: is important is when.
Speaker 1: It is repeated.
Speaker 2: So the disciples find themselves in a situation that is
Speaker 2: very similar. There's a big crowd and there's no food.
Speaker 2: You know, like last time when you were worried and
Speaker 2: upset and you didn't think you were gonna make it,
Speaker 2: and you made it. And now here you are again,
Speaker 2: and the wind's blown again, and you don't think you're
Speaker 2: gonna make it. A spoiler alert, you will. That's the
Speaker 2: lesson of the lows. That's the lesson of the I
Speaker 2: didn't mean to ruin the movie for you, But at
Speaker 2: the end of this thing, you're gonna be in bed, saydom,
Speaker 2: because if he told you I'll meet you on the
Speaker 2: other side, you don't die in the lake in the middle.
Speaker 1: Of the nine.
Speaker 3: Come on, cherch has he not shown you? Don't you
Speaker 3: see it? Don't you hear it?
Speaker 2: It's the same voice, the same God.
Speaker 1: And so he feeds the crowd. In Mark chapter eight,
Speaker 1: and the.
Speaker 2: Bible says Mark eight fourteen, the disciples had forgotten to
Speaker 2: bring bread. Stand up, it'll make me close, quicker, don't leave,
Speaker 2: it'll make me angry. The disciples had forgotten to bring bread,
Speaker 2: except for one loaf they had with them in the boat.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to.
Speaker 2: Correct the scripture, but there were actually.
Speaker 1: Two loaves in the boat. One of them was the
Speaker 1: bread they could see.
Speaker 2: Be careful, Jesus warned them, watch out for the yeast
Speaker 2: of the Pharisees and that of Herod. He is warning
Speaker 2: them against the seemingly insignificant compromises.
Speaker 1: That corrode your faith.
Speaker 2: Watch out, said, your words are significant, your habits are significant,
Speaker 2: your friendships are significant. Watch out for that that yeast.
Speaker 2: And when he said yeast, they thought about bread. And
Speaker 2: they discussed this with one another and said, it.
Speaker 1: Is because we have no bread. They still didn't get it.
Speaker 2: They saw him do it, and they still didn't get
Speaker 2: that he was it. They're still worried about provision. You're
Speaker 2: still worried about bills. You're still worry We're still thinking
Speaker 2: on the level of what we can see. Jesus, aware
Speaker 2: of their discussion, asked them a question, why are you
Speaker 2: talking about having no bread? Why are you worrying about
Speaker 2: something that I've already worked out. Why are you doubting
Speaker 2: something that you've already seen me do so many times before?
Speaker 1: Do you still not see or understand?
Speaker 2: Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail
Speaker 2: to see? And ears but failed to hear? Do you
Speaker 2: still hear Laurel when it's really Yanny?
Speaker 1: And don't you remember.
Speaker 2: When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand,
Speaker 2: how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?
Speaker 1: Twelve? They reply.
Speaker 2: When I read that, I thought the significance of the
Speaker 2: miracle is in the numbers. You know, five is the
Speaker 2: number of grace in the Bible. It represents grace symbolic,
Speaker 2: twelve disciples, twelve tribes, a number of government. So I
Speaker 2: thought it was about the numbers. But then verse twenty
Speaker 2: says when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand,
Speaker 2: how many basketballs and pieces did you pick up? And
Speaker 2: then I said, well, seven is the number of completion
Speaker 2: and four thousand, really I can't really do anything with that.
Speaker 2: They answered seven. He said, do you still not understand?
Speaker 2: And then I read it again verse nineteen, Verse nineteen,
Speaker 2: verse nineteen when I broke, And then I read verse
Speaker 2: twenty when I broke, and I realized the significance of
Speaker 2: the miracle is that the bread had to be broken
Speaker 2: They wouldn't understand this really until he went to the cross.
Speaker 2: They ate the bread, but they did not understand the
Speaker 2: significance until he was crushed for our transgressions and bruised
Speaker 2: for our iniquities, because the bread couldn't be given until
Speaker 2: it was broken. When you were in a breaking season
Speaker 2: of your life, and you are being broken of your
Speaker 2: pride and your stubbornness, your opinions, and you're straining against
Speaker 2: the wind, it is easy to begin to believe that
Speaker 2: it is going to break you. But God will not
Speaker 2: allow life to break you. That's his job. And when
Speaker 2: you're in his hands, like the song said, prepare that
Speaker 2: chorus of do it again, we're going to sing it.
Speaker 2: I'm still in your hands. We're going to sing that,
Speaker 2: and we're going to understand that. The lesson of the
Speaker 2: loaves is not that everybody went home with a full belly.
Speaker 1: The lesson of the loaves is this. The end of
Speaker 1: your story is not that you are broken. The end
Speaker 1: of the.
Speaker 2: Story is the basket false. This story does not end
Speaker 2: in brokenness. This story ends with leftovers.
Speaker 1: I want to let you know today this is significant.
Speaker 1: God is not done with you. That God is not
Speaker 1: done with you.
Speaker 2: I'm reaching this word for somebody who's been straining against
Speaker 2: the wind.
Speaker 1: Grace is coming to your pope.
Speaker 2: The bread is in the Master's hands, and the bread
Speaker 2: was only broken to be given. Lift your hands in
Speaker 2: the presence of God, no one moving.
Speaker 1: This is my.
Speaker 2: Confidence that he is faithful, faithfulness.
Speaker 1: I'm stealing you hands.
Speaker 3: This is my conference.
Speaker 1: You never.
Speaker 3: You promised.
Speaker 2: See its greed is your faithfulness, faithness. I'm sealing you.
Speaker 2: This is my contents, you nevers.
Speaker 3: You've drawn, missieus. It greed is your faith faith See,
Speaker 3: this is my confidence.
Speaker 1: Listen, here's what you do. You take what you learned
Speaker 1: from the loaves, and you remember it in the storm.
Speaker 1: You take the basketful.
Speaker 2: From the last time that God provided for you, and
Speaker 2: the next time the wind begins to rage in your life,
Speaker 2: you remember that if Jesus is in this boat with me,
Speaker 2: if I draw near to God, he will draw near
Speaker 2: to me. And as we worship him as the Son
Speaker 2: of God. Today the wind has to die down, anxiety
Speaker 2: has to shut it fro out in the presence of God.
Speaker 3: Because we know who he is and we've seen what
Speaker 3: he's done. We have faithful what he's gonna do?
Speaker 2: Does anybody believe He's with you in this season in time?
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you