Transcription
Well, it's the last night. I said it's the last night. Can we give Jesus our best praise, everybody? I want to pray really quickly.
Father, we thank you for those things that you are preparing us for. Thank you for the privilege of experiencing your presence over the course of these past three days. Thank you for gifting us with you. Our greatest prize, our best reward. We need, long for, love your presence. We share in the testimony of David. As the deer pants for the water, my soul thirsts for you. So, thank you for the gift of you over these past three days. Thank you for this house, your house that you've established as a city on a hill. And thank you for the privilege of being a part of it.
As we gather tonight, we know our gathering is useless without your presence and your voice. So, as we open up the gift of your scriptures, would you speak timeless truth to us in a timely manner? May you speak with such specificity that we feel seen, known, and loved by you. And as we pull our chair up to the table to receive bread from heaven, we say in the language of the old saints, bread of heaven, feed us until we want no more. Would you anoint me to teach? Would you prepare the hearts of your people to receive until the end that we live that we love and that we lead like you? We ask all of this in the name of the one who saved our life. My redeemer, my keeper, my counselor, my confidant, my friend. That name is Jesus. It's in his name we pray. If you agree in faith, say amen.
>> Clap your hands one more time. Everybody, you can um you can you can be seated. Uh I want to begin before I leap into our lesson today by first of all sharing how honored I am to be back here. I'm home. I learn so much every time that I come and my love for this house and my admiration for the leadership that God has given it is um is skyhigh. I was telling one of my um uh spiritual sons in the back um how in this season I mean there's a season I used to travel and speak a lot and this season I don't particularly en enjoy moving that much and I don't do a lot but when I come to places like this um I'm I'm at home and um I'm I'm so grateful for all that I have learned and so Pastor Jeff kind of undersold the the contribution this house has paid and is making to what we're doing in our church. Uh every time we come, I just steal a bunch of stuff. And uh like y'all hadn't even done Fruitful yet. I stole it already. It's I stole it. Drew, we doing it in the fall. It's We're doing it in the fall. I'm preaching a series in the fall. I'm going to go back and say, you know what? I was praying. God said fruitful. But um I just want you to know I appreciate you and your commitment to the kingdom and um hopefully churches like ours are bearing fruit that makes your investment worth it. And um so we're grateful for you and grateful to be here with you.
So as I was praying through what direction to go tonight um I kind of landed on this passage in the Gospel of Mark. I think I said this last year. For me, when I see the word prepare, it is descriptive, but it is also prophetic. For me, it is prophetic. It's Lord, I want to prepare for what you want to do in and through me this year. And so, the context of the conversation we're going to have with this text tonight is um is one along those lines. uh a distant mentor of mine. I've only met him once, but I'll call him a mentor of mine. Um he said something years ago I'll never forget. He says, "To be surprised or unprepared for the inevitable is to be naive. If you know something's coming and you don't prepare for it, it's naive." And so, there's something coming to all of us this year. And I think this text is going to help us be properly prepared uh to navigate that the king's way. Here's what Mark records in Mark 4 beginning at verse 35. Mark who is writing from Peter's perspective says that day when evening came Jesus said to his disciples let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him, Jesus, along just as he was in the boat. There were also other boats with him. And 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 up and said, "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?" I grew up reading the King James version, a Gideon's Bible. Y'all don't know anything about Gideon's Bible. It said, "What manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?"
I want to stop the reading of scripture there and I want to tag this title to this text. I want us to think around this thought in our time together tonight, family. A curriculum for crisis. A curriculum for crisis. Let's put our hands together if we're ready for God's word tonight. A curriculum. Curriculum for crisis. It can be and has been said and suggested that one of the primary purposes of the church is to serve as the educational arm of the kingdom. That is not to say that the church is a school, but it is to say that the church has educational responsibility. Jesus clearly makes this claim in what we call the great commission. Some of the final instruction he gives his disciples captured in Matthew 28 18-20 when Jesus says go and make disciples of all nations. He then gives this additional commentary baptizing them in the name of the father son and holy spirit. And then he says, "Teaching them to observe, to do, to put into practice, not some things, not most things, but all the things that I've commanded you." So God's church is not a school, but God's church does have educational responsibility. So part of our role and responsibility is not just to reach people, but to help reform people. Not just to help find the lost but to shape the found. >> Am I making sense? Yes, >> sir. >> And in an attempt to carry out this responsibility faithfully to teach all the things that Jesus uh commanded us, it means that there are areas of emphasis that churches periodically have to lean into. We have to teach people the importance of serving, ushering them into an understanding that your presence on this planet is not a coincidence. It's not an accident. That you may be surprised by your arrival, but God wasn't. That your parents may not have planned you, but God did. Because if we ease drop on a conversation he has with a gentleman named Jeremiah in Jeremiah he says to him before I form you in the womb I knew you. Your parents made you but I form you. >> And I ordained you. I sanctified you for a purpose as a prophet to the nations. And so our presence on this planet has purpose. Our creation is because we're supposed to make a contribution. And God has invested in all of us three invaluable assets. Our natural ability, our acquired skill, and our spiritual gifts. And he wants first right of refusal on how those gifts are used. >> We have to be taught how to serve. We have to be taught how to sew that generosity is the only true avenue to satisfaction. That everything that I have either God gave it to me or God gave me what I needed to get it. We've got to be taught how to serve, taught how to sew. But we also, as I read this text today, have to be taught how to survive storms. I don't know what this Dallas weather be doing. I got a coat in the closet at the hotel and I got off the plane and felt like I needed swimming trunks. So, I know the weather can be unpredictable, but I want to give you something that's going to show up in the weather forecast of your life in 2026, >> no matter what season of life you're in, no matter what stage you're in in your spiritual journey, it is something I want you to be prepared for because it's going to show up in the forecast of your life in 2026. And that is a storm. It can be relational. It may be financial. It may be physical. But remember to be surprised by the inevitable is to be naive. And our rabbi, our redeemer, our savior, our teacher Jesus offers some interesting insight on how to steward storms here in this passage. And I want to share with you what I see in scripture that serves for us as a curriculum for crisis you haven't even faced yet. >> Cuz this text is tailored to teach us if Jesus is on your boat, you can not only survive in your storm, >> you will thrive in your storm. Do I have any amens in the building? There in Mark 4, we're exposed to this interesting incident with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus has just finished an extended time of teaching. And the text says in verse 35, "When evening came, Jesus says to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. Let us go over to the other side. Let us go over to the other side. And we shouldn't just push past a detail in this text without pondering something that I think is important. He says, "Let us go over to the other side." This is a powerful picture of the way our creator communicates. He's specific and ambiguous at the same time. That's what he says, "Let us," that's specific, talking not to the crowd, to the disciples, "Go over to the other side." That's ambiguous. Where are we going? And and isn't that like God? Isn't that the way our creator communicates? He's specific and ambiguous at the same time. He says enough to get us started, but he doesn't say so much that we can stop listening. Let us go over to the other side. And this can be disconcerting. This can be confusing. This can be frustrating for analytical detailed people like me. I need some detail going to the other side. Where are we going? What side? How long are we going to be there? But I see this pattern in scripture that suggests to me that this is the way our co creator often communicates. Even if you connect this to Matthew chapter 14, there's this experience where Jesus and his well Jesus's disciples are on a boat and they're in the middle of the sea. Jesus sends them ahead of him. He goes to pray and the Bible says that he meets them on the sea. He's walking on the water. They rode their way there. He walked his way there. They rode their way there. He walked his way there. Or they sailed their way there. He stepped his way there. While they were rowing, he was praying. And so prayer allowed him to walk on what other people drown in. >> So he meets them in the middle of the sea. Peter sees Jesus and says, "Lord, if it's you, come to me. Allow me to come to you on the water." And all Jesus says is, "Come." >> And the Bible says Peter got out of the boat, walked on water, and stepped on the water and walked toward Jesus. All Jesus said was, "Come." He didn't say, "I'm going to suspend gravity." He didn't say, "I'm going to make the water a roadway." The only thing he said was, "Come." And sometimes following Jesus will require you to go on a come. >> All you get is come. He says, "Let us go to the other side." And the text says they get into the boat. They obey Jesus. And at some point in their journey, a furious squall is what the text says. A windstorm kind of creates these water dynamics in the middle of the sea. They run into a storm. And the only reason, are we here, family? >> The only reason they run into a storm is because they did what he said. We see all sorts of storms in the Bible, don't we? >> And we see people experiencing storms for dis for different reasons. We can go to the Old Testament. We can read a book of the Bible like Jonah and we can say, "Hey, Jonah experienced a storm, but he experienced a storm because of his disobedience." But here in the text, the disciples only run into a storm because they did what he said. And I'm wondering on this last night of prepare if we're willing to be emotionally honest and admit that there are seasons we've dealt with some frustration, some conststonation, and some confusion because we like Jesus. How am I dealing with adversity and I've been obedient? >> How did this happen to my family? How did this happen to my company? How did this happen to my body? How did this happen to my mind? How did this happen in my house? They're obedient and still run into adversity. This is the Sea of Galilee that they're on. And the Sea of Galilee was prone to sudden storms. Sudden storms. Sudden storms. And storms represent unexpected seasons of pain, pressure, and perplexity that produce a desire for relief that can cause us to make decisions without wisdom. >> What is it? Unexpected seasons of pain or pressure or perplexity that can produce a desire for relief that can cause us to make decisions without wisdom. Why is this important? Because if Jesus is on the boat, my storm can't destroy me. >> But my storm but my management of myself in it can. >> So storm management is self-management in the middle of a storm. >> Am I making sense here? >> Yep. And we all, I believe, know what it's like to have these unexpected seasons of pain. And the presence of pain will produce the desire for relief. And the desire for relief can tempt us to make decisions that are absent of wisdom. And we can trade long-term healing for short-term numbing is called self- sabotage. So we can't always have storm prevention. So we need storm management. So the text says something really interesting here. It says the waves started to get in the boat so that the boat was nearly swamped. Jesus is in the stern sleeping. Watch this. The text says on a cushion. He not just sleep. He comfortable sleep, right? He didn't just like fall asleep. He got a c He either got a cushion or went where a cushion was and went to sleep. Are you guys following me? >> I said, are you following me? Okay. So, he's on the same boat in the same storm with the disciples and he's sleep. Yeah. >> Same boat, same storm in the same sea with the disciples. They're screaming. He's sleeping. Same boat, same storm, same sea with the disciples. They're screaming. He's sleeping. And they have some agitation because the disciples, the text says, woke him up. Look at this. Verse 38 says, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" They're interpreting, watch this, they're interpreting his lack of action >> with a lack of concern. >> Do you even care? I know you sleep, but I know you feel this rain on your face. Come on. I know. I know you I know you feel the water in this boat. How can you say you have such great affection for me and observe what's happening to me and not intervene the way I think you should be intervening and they don't even realize and recognize that what is causing them agitation is actually education. He is teaching by modeling. He is a picture of possibility for them. He is showing them what is possible for them. That just because you're in a storm doesn't mean the storm has to be in you. LET ME SHOW YOU how to manage yourself in the middle of a storm. Let me show you how to sleep. And am I talking to anybody at prepared that's made a decision that you want to be like Jesus and in the midst of a storm learn how to sleep? They're screaming he's sleeping. They're they're assuming that the lack of action is a lack of concern. And they don't realize that what is causing them agitation is really education. They thought, remember I gave you context. What was Jesus doing before they got on the boat? Teaching. >> They thought because they left the place, they left the classroom. They don't even realize you're still in class. >> Now you're experiencing field education. >> I gave you information on the shore. Now I'm about to give you education on the sea. Because there are some things that you can't learn from information. There are certain things you can only learn from experience. Did you hear what I just said? He is it. It is. It is. And I'm getting ahead of myself. But this is why at the end of the text, what you see is they get a they get a greater revelation of him. They are already disciples, apprentices, students of his. But remember, at the end of the story, they say, Gideon's version, what manner of man is this? I thought I knew you, but you used this situation to give me a greater REVELATION OF WHO YOU ARE. I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I WAS IN SCHOOL. YOU DIDN'T TELL ME I was in class until I was out of the crisis. >> Is there anybody that can look back in different seasons of your life and you can say, "I was confused about it then, but I'm clear about it now. I was mad about it then, but I'm glad about it now. I was upset about it then, but I'm appreciative for who it made me and how it shaped me and how I grew from it now. They thought class was over and he was using their agitation for education. He was giving them a gift that was priceless. He was giving them a gift of an experience that would create a conviction that would keep them in the midst of future confusion. I heard one writer uh or one thought leader put it this way. He said, "If a smart person can talk you into faith, a smarter person can talk you out of it." But when I've had an experience, >> the experience creates a conviction that your concepts, your precepts, your ideologies, your philosophies, and your theology can't talk me out of it. I grew up in the Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Kil Michael, Mississippi. And here is the way church mothers would say it at the Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Kil Michael, Mississippi. You can't make me doubt him >> because I know too much about him. I've had I've had an experience where there are situations where God gives me revelations of him. And Jesus, got up. Verse 39 says, "He rebuked the wind and then said to the waves, quiet or peace, be still." Now, when I get to heaven, and I hope it's not soon, but when I get there, I need to ask Jesus about this because here's the way Mark exposes us to the sequence of events here. Jesus gets up, verse 39, he rebukes the wind. He says to the waves, "Peace, be still." Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Then he said to the disciples, I I got to I I I want to know why he didn't talk to them first. He talked to the wind first. I'm going to ask him. I got a hypothesis, but I'm going to ask him cuz maybe there are some conversations we not ready to have >> until after things calm down. He asks them a question. Now, this question is interesting. If you're honest, it's interesting. He asks them, verse 40, "Why are you so afraid? Do you see the water in this boat?" They said, "Why are you so afraid? The wind is blowing. Water's consuming the boat. What do you mean? Why am I so afraid?" You know how to speak to the winds and stuff. Do you still have no faith? I believe he's asking this question because he had just had a teaching session with him. >> Amen. >> And part of what they talked about was faith. >> And he's it's almost like he's saying, "What happened between the shore and the sea?" Cuz on the shore you sure >> on the shore you confident. On the shore you quoting scriptures. When somebody else is on the sea you on the shore you sure. In other words, it's like he's saying, "Hey, I want to show you growth gaps. I want to show you opportunities. I want to I want to use this to show you an opportunity for your faith to grow and develop to a place that your future's going to require. >> Remember, these are disciples and this is the least amount of inconvenience that they're getting ready to endure. Yes. >> So if they're going to be shaken in a storm, they are not going to be able to handle the persecution >> that's waiting on them when they step into the fullness of their assignment. >> He's getting them battle ready. He's not saying necessarily that they are absent of faith altogether. He is saying your future's going to require more faith than you have. >> And so although this seems like unnecessary, it seems irrelevant. We just going to the other side. Jesus, why did this happen? I'm using this as a gift to you to develop something in you that your future's going to require. >> And the text says they were terrified. a a holy awe, a holy reverence. And they asked each other, "What manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey him." Now, I don't want to spend an extensive amount of time talking about this, but this is it is on my heart. It is a place and space I'm leaning into in this season. But I want you to notice what the disciples say. They say, "Even the wind and the waves obey him." I think what makes this statement so profound and so powerful is that the disciples have had extensive time with Jesus already. I literally been teaching this past few weeks our congregation. There's this concept, guys, called progressive revelation. Simply put, God is so God, so magnificent, so great, so grand, so multifaceted that it is impossible for God to reveal all of himself to us all at once. That's right. >> So over the course of our spiritual journey, as we engage in long obedience in the right direction, God progressively introduces us to aspects of him that we didn't know, didn't even know existed. Or he introduces us to aspects of him that we knew conceptually, but we didn't know experientially. He progressively reveals himself and so he allows certain situations and he uses those situations to give us a different revelation of who he was. The disciples knew he was a rabbi. They knew he was an incredible teacher. They had experienced his teaching ministry, but they had not experienced a man named Jesus who could stand in the middle of a boat, in the middle of the sea, in the middle of a storm and speak to winds. They knew teaching Jesus, but they didn't know miracle working Jesus. They didn't. They knew Jesus who could take natural concepts and tell parables and articulate supernatural things, but they didn't know the Jesus who did supernatural things. They they knew certain things conceptually. Yeah, you're the Messiah, but not experientially. Conceptually, I know you're a healer, but God, what if you allow situations, not cause, but allow situations that give me a revelation experientially that you really do heal the brokenhearted and you really do bind up their wounds. God, I know conceptually you're a provider. But what if he he allows situations to give us revelation? Not just conceptually, but experientially. I provide. I'll send water out of a rock if I have to. I'll make mana fall from heaven if I have to. I'll make ravens feed you at a brook if I have to. B people, watch this. People feed birds. Birds don't feed people. But if I've got to make something change its nature temporarily to take care of you, I'll make it change its nature because I'm a provider. >> Family, I'm telling you, in 2026, there are going to be some situations that God allows. I'm done. Y'all gave me a lot of time. I preach. I'm I'm done here. In 2026, God's going to give or allow some situations to give progressive revelation of who he is. You can't talk me out of my conviction that God is a keeper. Not because of my training, not because of the books, >> but because I've been kept. >> Because I'm being kept. >> So true. >> So the lesson that I learn and the conviction that I carry outweighs the temporary inconvenience of the experience I had to go through to learn it. >> So good. Jesus here offers us some curriculum for our crisis. And I know a lot of times when we experience storms, we are wondering what is God trying to teach me? When sometimes that's an appropriate question to ask. But what this text points to is not necessarily just what God is trying to teach me. What this text points to is what is God trying to show me about him? And why in his providence did he choose to show me this about him now? And it may be because something that's waiting on me in my future is going to require this revelation of him. So in 2026, to be surprised by the inevitable is to be naive. Remember the gospel is not a gospel of avoidance. Do we avoid some things? Of course. The whole Passover narrative is avoidance. But the gospel is not just a gospel of avoidance. The gospel is a gospel of overcoming. I don't have to avoid the wind. >> I don't have to avoid Jesus didn't Jesus didn't avoid the grave. The grave just couldn't hold him. That's right. >> So in 20126, I don't know where the rain's going to fall, but it's going to fall somewhere. But God through the gift of scripture has prepared us. And just because you're surprised, look at me, doesn't mean you're unprepared. Your good and gracious God has been getting you ready for whatever 2026 is going to throw in your direction. So you can step into this year full of faith and full of confidence and full of peace and full of boldness. Why? Because Jesus is on my boat. And as long as Jesus is on my boat, it does not matter how hard the wind blows. As long as Jesus is on my boat, it does not matter how great the rain falls. As long as Jesus is on my boat, I will not just survive any storm. I will thrive any storm. Because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. And I want to know on this last night of prepare, am I talking to a group of faithfilled, persuaded, convinced, convicted, fortified believers that are ready to step into 2026 with faith, with boldness, with fervor, with zeal because my God has prepared me. I am prepared. I want to pray for you. I got this this this and people was really thinking through hypothesizing really on what Paul meant. But there's like this term of praying in the spirit and praying by the spirit where the spirit prompts and burdens your heart on what to pray for. And as I was preparing uh in the room before just kind of meditating in the room before I came over, I just felt this prompting to pray really really specifically for something. And um Pastor Jeff, I had this experience in Auckland, New Zealand. Um I had I had read what Paul said in Romans 1:11. I had read it, so I knew it conceptually, but I never exp I never experienced it. So, I didn't have the conviction experientially, like I knew it made sense. And you know, and and and not this church because Pastor Jeff is such a a great teacher, but I grew up in church and they would use words, they never explained what they meant. And then cuz I wanted to look spiritual, I never asked. You know what I mean? So, they would say like, "Yest." And I don't know what that mean. And there's this this word that Paul uses when he's writing to believers in Rome. He says to them, Romans 1:11, he says,"I long to see you that I might impart some spiritual gift to you." So we use this word impartation, impartation, impartation, impartation. Like what does that mean? And um you even see Paul referencing the concept, not the word, when he tells Timothy, hey, stir up the gift of God that's on the inside of you. Read it. He says, that was given to you by the laying on of hands by the pres of the presbyter. So he's not saying that the gift came from the presbyter, the elders. He said it came through. So an impartation is a divine transfusion. It is when God by his spirit deposits something into yours that this next season will require. And I'm in Auckland, New Zealand, and I was dealing with what I call faith fatigue. Um cuz God tests your faith not just with the enormity of the obstacle, but with the length of the weight. The testing of your faith produces patience. >> So he tests your faith with the weight. So strong faith is long faith. It's not how big can you believe, it's how long can you believe >> when it looks like believing isn't working. And I was I was dealing with faithful and there was this pastor. He was a he was another speaker in Auckland at this conference and he's from South America. And when he is speaking it's oozing faith. I mean, it's just like I'm like, man, he I believe it, but I don't believe he believes. And I sat in my seat listening to him speak and I said, "God, I I want that. I'm contemplating transition and leaving Jersey and these ne this next season's going to require a lot of faith." And I'm like, "God, I need that." And I said to myself, man, I want him to pray for me, you know, so I'm hoping he called me out or something. You know what I'm saying? Like like And uh he he didn't. And we go to dinner after the service and I happen to be sitting next to him and he looks looks up to me. He say, "Dr. Darius." I said, "Yes." He say, "I since I'm to pray for you that God wants to give you the spiritual gift of faith. And so I had an experience there. And I'm not going to say I became less fearful after that moment. I can say I became more courageous. I can't say I wasn't afraid to do some things. I just was able to do it scared. And ultimately faith manifest itself in action, not feelings. So the fact that I was able to act was an indication that God gave me something at that dinner table that that that my future required. And I don't know what 2026 is going to require of you, but I know God wants to prepare you for it. And so I want to pray a prayer for an impartation. And different people will need God to transmit to transfuse to them different things. Some of you this year is going to require the spiritual gift of wisdom. The complexity, the complexities that you have to navigate will require a sixth sense, a sensitivity to holy prompings and nudges. Don't sign that. Don't do that. Don't say that. Some of you, it's faith. I don't know what it is, but I know not just conceptually, I know not just exoggetically, it's it's in the Bible, but I know experientially he does it because it happened to me >> in Auckland, New Zealand at a dinner table, and it's going to happen to you at every location right here for prepare. Father, I thank you that you are faithful to be who you said you would be and faithful to do exactly what you said you'd do. You supply our needs, not just physically, but spiritually. And as we step into 2026, your people need something fresh and new from you. So according to Romans 1:11, I pray for a supernatural impartation of the gifts we need for what we will face. I pray for the release, the deposit of the gift of faith, the gift of wisdom, and any other grace that your people need for what they must face. Kind father, would you do it now for your people? We believe and we receive. We ask this all in Jesus name. Amen.