From His Heart

Speaker 1

The challenging and threatening storms are going to come to you in this life. How are you supposed to handle them? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

There are great storms in life that you're going to face and I'm going to face. But there is a Savior who can speak a word to your great storm to bring about a great calm to produce in you a great awe so that you might realize that he indeed is the great God who can do anything in your life.

The question is this: Will you trust him? He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real from his heart.

Speaker 1

Life is most definitely filled with storms, and these problems and difficulties can hit you when you least expect it. For the Christian, the question is this: What happens when your storms meet your Savior? That's the title of today's message in this edition of From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Now, if you've just joined us this month, you'll want to know that Pastor Jeff has been going through his enlightening seven-message series, encountering the real Jesus. Now, why is this enlightening? Because in it, we're being reminded of the true identity, character, mission, and message of the one called Jesus. And that's important because we don't want to fall for the fake news about Jesus that is constantly being shouted now more than ever.

Get ready for the bright light of truth to be revealed today to help you with the storms to come. Let's get started with part two now of the powerful message we began last time: When the storms meet the Savior. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 2

Life is filled with storms. It's filled with problems and difficulties, and it can throw you into tremendous turmoil. And then the question comes, well, what do I do now? What do I do with this? How can I handle this? I want to share with you four things that you can do, and you can start them today. That makes a huge difference in whatever storm you are facing.

First thing you can do is trust in the Lord's Word. Verse 35 states, "And on that day." What day? The day that he had been teaching and had been teaching in parables and had been teaching and preaching all day. Teaching and preaching can zap you of strength, and it's emotionally draining. Jesus was tired, and he said, "Let us go over to the other side." At the end of that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." He didn't say, "Guys, we're going to get in the boat, we're going to hit a storm, and we're going down." He didn't say, "We're going under," he said, "We're going over." Now listen, we're going. When you are in a storm and a big, big problem comes and plants itself right in your lap, what do you do? You remember what the Lord has said, you remember what the Lord has promised, and you put your trust in the Lord's word.

What some people do when they're in difficulties is run from the Lord; they get mad at God. No, you don't need to run from him; you need to run to him. You need to take the promises of God and cling to those promises. So when you're in your storm, you cling to the promises of God. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promises is faithful." Hey, you can do that. You can trust in the Lord's word.

The second thing you can do is relax in the Lord's presence. Now what does it say? Verse 36: "And leaving the multitude, they took him along with them just as he was in the boat, and other boats were with him." Verse 38: "And he himself was in the stern asleep on the cushion." The Lord is in the disciples' boat. Now you say, "Oh, he's in the boat, but he's asleep in the boat." Yeah, this shows the humanity of Jesus. The real Jesus is human. He's divine and he's human. He's the God-man. As much God as though he were not man at all, as much man as though he were not God at all. The humanity of Jesus shows that he's worn out from ministering and preaching and teaching all day, and so he goes to sleep in the back of the boat.

This also shows the fact that Jesus is totally calm; he's totally at peace. He's not freaked out by the storm; it didn't catch him by surprise. He knows all things, but he's also fine in the storm. He's asleep in the storm because he's at peace, perfect peace. The storm is no sweat to him, it's no worry to him, it's no problem to him, and it shouldn't have been to them. When you go through hard times, when you go through storms, when you go through trouble and the fiery furnace, the Lord is there with you, and you can relax in his presence.

The third thing you can do is rest in the Lord's love. So here's the situation: the water is coming in, and it just came upon them out of nowhere. It's at night on the Sea of Galilee, and they're in not a very big boat, and they're trying to sail across. The wind is blowing, and the water is whipping and coming into the boat, and they can't bail it out fast enough. The boat is filling up, and they think they're going to die. These are experienced fishermen, but they think, "This is the worst storm that I've ever been a part of, and I don't think we're gonna make it." And here is Jesus. He's asleep. He's the Rock of Ages. He sleeps like a rock. You'd have to sleep through like a rock if you're going to sleep through a storm like that.

So they're like, "Well, I think we better wake him up." It's probably Peter that woke him up; he always volunteered for the dumb stuff. He comes back there and wakes him up, saying, "Lord, do you not care that we are perishing? Don't you even care? We're about ready to die, and you're asleep. Don't you even care?" You go through a terrible storm in your life; it's easy to ask the Lord, "God, don't you care about me? Don't you even care about me?" It's a common question. Even though it's a pretty natural question, it's almost like balling up your fist and punching the Lord in the heart.

The Lord is saying, "You're asking me if I care for you? You're asking me, do I not even care for you?" He said, "Do you see my hands?" Big nail scars in his hands where he took the nails for you. He shows you his feet, big holes in his feet. "You see my feet, where I took the nails for you?" He pulls up his shirt and shows you his wounded side where they thrust that spear and the blood and the water flowed. "Do you see this? Do you see all my scars? I did it all because I care for you. Because I don't want you to perish. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I did that all because I care so much for you."

The Scripture says that we can be assured of God's love and God's care for us. You know how much the Lord loves you. This is mind-blowing. How much does the Father love little old you and little old me? John, chapter 17, verse 23: "I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me." How much does God love you? As much as he loves Jesus. That's what Jesus said. How much does Jesus love you? John, chapter 15, verse 9: "Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love." Stay in my love, remain in my love. Hey, we could say, "Rest in my love." And when you're going through a terrible, horrible storm in life, you can rest in the Lord's love. You can know that you know that you know that you know that he loves you.

The Bible says in 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 7, "Cast your cares, your anxieties upon him." Why? How? "Because he cares for you." It matters to him concerning you. Anything you go through in life, it matters to God because he loves you. He loves you. Now, the common question is this: If God loves me so much, he cares so much, then I don't understand why he's not doing something in my situation. Why is he asleep when I am about ready to go under? That's a good question. That's a question we have, especially during the hard times, especially when it seems like the Lord is not really interested in what's going on with us, when it seems like he's asleep in our boat.

The way you answer that question, "Why is God not doing in our life?" I think it's best answered through the life of Job. Job, who was a man who loved God with all his heart. Job walked with God. There was no one like Job in the face of the whole earth. He was blameless in all his ways. But then the devil said to God, "God, the only reason Job serves you is because you bless him. Lord, you quit blessing him, and he'll curse you to your face." And so God allowed the devil to get at Job. He let down the hedge of protection on Job's life. Job lost his fortune, he lost his family, all 10 of his children. He lost his physical health; he was covered in sore boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. Then he lost his face in the community. Job said, "The lowest of the low. Now spit in my face." They treated him like he was a piece of garbage. Job lost everything.

And Job asked God, "Why? Why, why, why?" In chapter three of the book of Job, five times, "Why, why, why, why? Why?" It's a natural question, "Why?" And you know what you find in the book of Job? God never answers Job's "why." God is not in the business of explaining; he's in the business of sustaining. I think the reason why God doesn't answer us when we're like, "Why, Lord, is this happening?" is because God said, "My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts. If I explained it to you, you wouldn't understand it." You go home to your 2 or 3-year-old and try to explain quantum physics to them; see how much they're going to get. They don't understand that God is God, and we're down here. God says, "You don't understand what I'm doing, and I can't explain to you what I'm doing. So I just tell you to trust. Trust me."

Job, chapter 13, verse 15: "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." And Job trusted God, and Job found that God was trustworthy. Babby Mason sings that song: "When you don't understand, when you don't see his plan, when you can't trace his hand, trust his heart." Trust his heart because he loves you. He loves you. "Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?" Don't ask God that. Say, "Lord, I thank you that you care for me." And I cast this care and this burden and this fear and this problem and this storm; I cast it upon you. You can rest in the Lord's love.

Lastly, you can rejoice in the Lord's power too. What happens in this little story? In this situation, there's a real-life situation. They wake up Jesus, saying, "Lord, do you not care that we are perishing?" Being aroused, what does he do? He goes from the back of the boat to the front of the boat and says, "Hush, be still." Immediately, the wind stopped, and the waves stopped. Now it's one thing for the wind to stop, but it's another thing for the waves to stop. Because we know that once the water gets going, it doesn't just go from coming at you at a hard pace to stopping. It doesn't do that. But it does when the Lord says it. It does when the Lord rebukes the wind and the waves. It does when the Lord says, "Hush, be still." And all of a sudden, everything was just perfectly calm.

Whoa. And then what does he do? He looks back at the guys and says, "Why are you so timid? Why are you shaken? Why are you thinking you're going to die? Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith, man?" You mean this whole thing was a test of faith? Yes, it was a test of faith. Storms. The Lord uses them to test our faith. Jesus had been teaching all day, and these guys were privy to hear him teach. And then all of a sudden, just like any teacher, we're going to teach, and then we're going to take a test. This was a pop quiz because they didn't know it was coming, but the Lord knew it was coming, and they didn't do well on the test. "Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?"

Well, what was the faith response? He said, "Let us go over to the other side." Faith is trusting God's word and believing what God says. If he says, "We're going over to the other side," we're going over to the other side. He didn't say we're going under; he said, "We're going over." And that is faith. The faith response in this situation is you keep rowing the dumb boat, and you just trust that the Lord is going to see you through. He uses storms to test our faith.

Listen, a faith that can't be tested can't be trusted. If you have a faith that has never been tested, how do you know that you can count on it? Faith is a lot like a muscle. If you're going to get big muscles, you don't get big muscles by sitting on the couch eating more Blue Bell. You know, you say, "Well, I'm doing curls." No, that doesn't work. You got to do curls like this. And then when you test your muscles, then your muscles get stronger. When your faith is tested, your faith gets stronger. So God uses storms to test our faith, and he uses storms to show us that he is able. In any and every situation, he is able.

Now, this is wild. Verse 41: "And they became very much afraid and said to one another, 'Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?'" These guys had been with Jesus. They had seen him cast out demons. They have seen Jesus cleanse the leper. They have seen Jesus forgive sins. They have seen Jesus perform miracles of healing. They have even seen Jesus raise a man from the dead. The widow from Nain, her son, he raised him from the dead. You would think, "Man, this Jesus. We believe Jesus can do anything." But they had never seen him calm the sea. They had never seen him tell wind and water to stop. Silence. You just stop right there. And that's what the water did.

Speaker 1

Just.

Speaker 2

Okay, just stopped. And they're blown. Their minds are blown. They're like, who is this that even the wind and the sea obey his voice? They grew in their understanding of his ability and of his power. And see, God uses difficulties in our lives so that we would grow in our faith and in our understanding that God is able in this situation.

In 2005, the Lord led me to start From His Heart Ministries, the radio and television ministry of the pulpit of our church, just the sermons from our church. And the Lord led me to do that. Two guys put it upon their hearts to give me a total of $35,000 to start the ministry. This is separate from First Baptist Church, so it's not a burden on the finances of First Baptist Church. So we started up, and I was feeling pretty good. We have $35,000. I went to my first National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Los Angeles in February 2005, and I was feeling like, man, we're doing so good. God has so blessed us. We got $35,000. I had enough to pay for airtime once a week on this one station and a little bit for our website and some others. You know, money's just to do a little bit of this and that with the ministry.

I remember at my first meeting at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention, it became pretty apparent that this was going to cost a whole lot more money than I thought. I remember asking my friend Carl Townsend, who had been in that business for a long, long time. I said, "Carl, I was thinking $35,000 was pretty good to start off. What do you think?" He said, "Well, in order to do this, you need to have about $500,000." I said, "How much?" He said, "500,000." I said, "Well, that's a lot. I don't have that much. I'm never going to have that much." I remember going home just thinking, there's no way this is going to work. Lord, there's no way that I can raise $500,000. And right at the beginning of the ministry, I was ready to throw in the towel.

The Lord convicted me and said, "You know, I guess I'm a pretty small God to you. I guess I'm the God of $35,000, but can't be the God of $500,000. I mean, what's $500,000 to God? It's nothing. Nothing to God. It's huge to me, but it's nothing to God." And God really convicted me. He said, "You're walking by sight and not by faith. Why don't you trust me? Why don't you believe me for something big?" So I said, "All right, Lord, I apologize. I'm sorry. Forgive me for thinking so small. I don't know where that money's going to come from."

It was about two weeks later I got a check in the mail, unsolicited. I hadn't talked to this person at all about this. He gave me a check for $100,000. About a month later, I got another check for $100,000. About six months later, I got another check for $100,000. And the Lord was saying, "You don't think I can do this? I can do this." And maybe you're like me. Maybe you just need to say, "I've been thinking too small with what God can do. I need to start expanding my horizons." The scripture says, "Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory." He is able to do all things so you and I can rejoice in the Lord's power.

Now I want to show you one last thing, and we'll be done. There is a key word in this passage. It's the Greek word "megas" (M E G A S). It doesn't show up obviously in the English translation, but it's used to describe the wind in verse 37. "And there arose a fierce gale of wind." A "megas" gale of wind. "Megas" means great. A "megas" gale of wind. And then it's used to describe the calm that came in verse 39 when he said, "Hush, be still." The wind died down and it became perfectly calm. It became "megas" calm, a great calm.

Then it's used in verse 41, where it says they became very much afraid. That's a "megas" fear, a "megas" awe. "Megas, megas, megas." What is the message there? The message is this: There are great storms in life that you're going to face and I'm going to face. But there is a Savior who can speak a word to your great storm to bring about a great calm, to produce in you a great awe so that you might realize that he indeed is the great God who can do anything in your life. The question is this: Will you trust him?

Speaker 1

Have you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord? If not, now would be the best time to sincerely cry out to him from your heart, repent of your sin, and put your faith in Christ alone. When you do, God promises to save you for now and for eternity. Now that is good news. You can find out more about who Jesus is, what it means to follow him, and how to find his will for your life when you go to fromisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link. You can also then download some free materials to help you get started in your Christian life.

Today's message was part two of the lesson entitled "When the Storms Meet the Savior" from Pastor Jeff's seven-lesson series "Encountering the Real Jesus." You know, when it comes to our relationship with Christ Jesus, God wants us to have the real thing, not the cheap imitation. And that's why we believe this seven-message resource will be a blessing to you by explaining what happens in life's storms when you know the real Savior. You can get this series, "Encountering the Real Jesus," in the format of your choice when you click the "Listen" link at fromisheart.org.

As we've said, From His Heart is a listener-supported broadcast ministry, depending on the sacrificial giving of our listeners. For your donation this month to the ongoing outreach of From His Heart, we'd like to say thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's seven-message series, "Soldiers of the Cross," and the companion booklet, "The Lord's Army," both for your support this month of any amount. To get your copy, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org and make that gift of any amount and request the series either on a USB flash drive, on CDs, DVDs, or as an MP3 download.

Well, that's all the time we have for today. I'm Larry Nobles, and we trust you'll be here next time for the last powerful message in Pastor Jeff's series "Encountering the Real Jesus." That's on Wednesday when we'll surely open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from His Heart. From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.