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[0:00] You know, it's been a, it's been very thankful for all the different speakers God has provided as walking through these different challenges with my health. And so we're just glad and thankful for each one. But morning we have a brother, Josh Burkholder, who slept his way up here last night, I think, after his busy schedule.

[0:20] But we're glad that he made it in safe last night and he's here this morning and asked for the Josh to come and to share with us from the word of God. And he's familiar to many of us or should be been around here for a little while now of in and out.

[0:34] But Josh is the camp director down at Amazing Grace Baptist Camp and has been doing a good job down there. And we're excited to see what the Lord has laid upon his heart this morning. So brother, why don't you come and share with us this morning?

[0:48] All right. Am I on here? Can you hear me? Hello. Oh, there it's good. It's good. Well, good morning. It's good to be here in an air conditioned building. Amen.

[0:58] Amen. I mean, I'd rather be in here than outside any day. What a heat wave we're having. But boy, I don't know how our ancestors made it in the Midwest prior to air conditioning.

[1:10] I think about that constantly in a week like this. Like, what did they do? Were they superhuman or something? Because I couldn't make it. But I'm glad to be here. And it's an honor to be able to fill the pulpit for pastor.

[1:23] I've actually been looking forward to this for a while. Not in the sense that I had anything special to say to you other than I just wanted to be a help to my friend. And honestly, I was really pleased when I walked to the door. I haven't seen him in a few months.

[1:38] I think he looks pretty good. I mean, I'm like, what am I doing here? This is that's the best view of someone going through some intense treatment for cancer that I've seen in a long time.

[1:49] So maybe that's just an answer to prayer. And we should be thankful. And I hope that you're praying for your pastor. We're praying down in Kansas. And we're rooting for him in April. And of course, we're rooting for you as God kind of sends you through this trial collectively.

[2:06] You know, the Bible speaks that if one member of the body suffers, you all suffer. And nobody really understands that like your pastor, because he empathizes with each and every one of you when you're going through hard times.

[2:21] You know, he was there for you when you go. You're in the hospital. He's praying with you just before surgery. He's making some extra visits. And in that process, his heart is knitting to you.

[2:31] Well, now, you know, the Lord's giving you an opportunity for a reversal process for your heart to knit to him. And it's kind of a beautiful thing for you to experience. It's not something that you wanted, but the Lord is teaching us all kinds of lessons through this process.

[2:47] And so it's an honor to be able to be here. If you have your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter number four. That's where we're going to be today. And while you're turning, you know, we are literally on the back end of our summer.

[3:01] This week, we have a one more camp. It's just to facilitate a group that we're serving. So we're not running some of our ministry specific programs since the Grays are back.

[3:12] But we've had a great summer. These last two months have been incredible to see how God's moved. We have 56 decisions for salvation recorded. And I think that's really important to tell you because you're one of our supporting churches and you have a part to play in that.

[3:28] And so God got us through all the difficulties this summer. He moved in such a mighty way, even in my own life. And I'm just really thankful. And so we got this kind of brief window before we go into the school season.

[3:42] And for us at the camp, we're going to be doing projects. We're going to get into the fall retreat mode. But it's kind of nice to be on the back end. And, you know, I am kind of a little tired. You know, I've been excited about today.

[3:55] I've been praying about today. But I'll be honest with you. I feel weak. So you pray for me as I share God's word with you. I'm very pleased, though. The Holy Spirit laid something on my heart that is, I just have confirmation that this is exactly what I need to talk about.

[4:10] And I debated it. But then, you know, last night I was just kind of thinking through some thoughts. And then that song that they just sang ties exactly right into the message.

[4:21] And it's in Mark chapter number four. We're going to look at a very familiar story starting in verse number 35. But as I get into the back end of my summer season, it's really important for me to take time to rest.

[4:37] To get physical rest. And, you know, for a person like me, I don't always like that. You know, there's many aspects to rest. There's physical rest, which you have to have.

[4:49] All right. Every day, there's a chunk of window in that 24-hour period where you're resting. In fact, some of you rest more than you move.

[5:01] That's just the way it is. God designed you to literally check out. And when you do that, you're resting your mind. You're resting your heart, your physical heart. You're resting your emotions.

[5:13] You're resting spiritually. It's amazing how God designed us to be that way. So we understand physically you have to rest. But sometimes we don't rest spiritually and emotionally.

[5:25] And sometimes we don't like to do that. I'm not a person that takes naps. How many of you are nappers out there? All right. You know, my wife can nap. In fact, it amazes me how different we are in our sleeping patterns.

[5:39] When we go to bed, Justinda, my wife, she could put her head on a pillow and boom, she's gone. She's in that deep rim cycle right away. Me, I'm just like looking around the room and I'm guilty.

[5:49] I get on my phone just before bed because I don't know what to do with myself. It's like my body's not ready to do that. And so I don't nap. I don't know how to turn this thing off. And it does drive me crazy. I wish I was a napper.

[6:01] But that's just not who I am. But Justinda, boy, she sleeps and she gets in that deep rim cycle. Sometimes it takes me a while to get into that. And then once I'm in that cycle, it takes me a while to get out of that.

[6:12] But I tend to be a light sleeper. Sometimes the noises, they really bother me. I don't like white noise. Some people, some of you, you're like, I got to have a massive fan. I want a hurricane sound in my room.

[6:25] I got to have silence. Because if I hear anything, it just bothers me. So I like it quiet. I like it dark. I don't want any light. So I want the curtains closed.

[6:36] I don't want any moon rays coming in my window. I have to have pitch black. I have to have quiet and pitch black just to settle down. But some of you, you could go outside right now in the streets and take a nap on a park bench.

[6:50] And I can't even do that. But no matter what your sleeping patterns are, we all recognize you have to have rest. You have to have rest. Physical rest. You have to have emotional rest.

[7:01] You have to have mental rest. You have to have spiritual rest. This is the way God has designed us. Now maybe you don't like that rest.

[7:12] But God wants you to know it's good for you to choose to take time to rest. Look at this story. A very familiar story. Starting in verse number 35, it says, In the same day when even was come, he saith unto them.

[7:29] Now that's the Lord Jesus. And he's talking to his disciples. These are the men that worked for him. But we understand there was also an entourage of people that followed Jesus everywhere he went.

[7:42] In fact, we're going to see that here in just a second. But he's speaking to his men. He's probably speaking to those that are going to take a trip with him. And he says, let us pass over to the other side. So they are on the northwest side of the Sea of Galilee.

[7:57] This is where Jesus was probably at this moment in a boat preaching the kingdom parables. And now it's nighttime. So whoever came to here, maybe even see a miracle, they're going to go home.

[8:09] But his entourage, his disciples, they're going to go take a trip. He's got another ministry trip that he has to take. And so they're going to travel to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

[8:19] The Sea of Galilee is about eight miles long, six miles wide. And you can see it's like a massive, large lake. And in verse 36 is when they sent the multitude away, they took him, even as he was in the ship.

[8:32] Meaning he was probably just preaching. They just took him right there. And they're going to take their trip. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind.

[8:45] And the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship asleep on a pillow. And they awake him and they say to him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

[8:58] Now, if you may recall another story, another time when the disciples were in the Sea of Galilee. And they had a storm. This is on the second year of his ministry over in Galilee.

[9:09] And he sends his disciples away while he goes up into a mountain to pray. And as they're in the boat, the Bible says that they were toiling into the fourth watch of the night. So most likely they had been out there five or six hours rowing, just trying to get to the other side, which would have taken them less than an hour.

[9:26] So that was an unusual storm. But they were working hard to get through that storm because they assumed they could make it through. There must have been something about this storm that was different than the other ones. Now, but we read this one and it says it was so bad.

[9:40] They had no hope. They thought this was the very end. Have you ever found yourself in a situation like that? You're in some type of trial. You're going through something and you're thinking, man, there's just no way out of this.

[9:53] And you begin to panic and you think, oh, this is the end. Well, that's what they thought. And in verse 39, it says, and he arose and he rebuked the wind. And he said to the sea, peace, be still.

[10:04] Probably the three greatest words from Jesus. He's speaking to a storm, a storm that was probably satanically driven to stop him in his mission.

[10:14] And Jesus has the authority of the storm. And he's telling you he's got authority over the storms in your life as well. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

[10:25] You know what? When Jesus comes into your life and he speaks peace, everything about your life is going to be calm. That doesn't mean your life is perfect, but you could have peace within and you could have peace without.

[10:37] And he said to them, why are you so fearful? You see, most of the storms that we face, it's not that we're going to die. It's not that there's no hope. It's that our perception and perspective of that storm is off because we're motivated out of fear as opposed to our faith.

[10:53] He says, you're being driven by fear. How is it that you have no faith? Have you not been watching what I've been doing? Have you not been listening to the messages I've been preaching? Have you not spent time with me?

[11:04] How is it that fear is controlling you as opposed to faith? You know, it's amazing. I've been a Christian for, I don't know, 35 years, 30, 35 years.

[11:15] That's a long time. I grew up in a pastor's house. I grew up in a Baptist church just like this. I mean, I was born in the culture of Christianity. I went to Bible college. I've studied the Bible.

[11:25] I preached the Bible. We have a ministry where the Bible is just ubiquitous when it comes to the lives of children in the atmosphere. I'm around the word of God a lot.

[11:35] And yet, I still have moments where I'm driven by fear as opposed to faith. And sometimes I wonder, I'm asking myself, what are you doing? Why are you so afraid? Where is my own faith? And I think sometimes Jesus has to ask us that directly.

[11:48] Where is your faith? It could be that you're going through some storms. You know, in some sense, I mean, let's just, the elephant in the room, you're going through a storm with your pastor going through a real health trial.

[12:00] And God might be asking all of us today, where is your faith? Where is your faith? And they feared exceedingly. Now, this isn't the same type of fear of the storm.

[12:11] This was the fear of reverential awe of God. And they said one to do another, what manner a man is this that even the wind in the sea obey him?

[12:23] I want to talk to you this morning about learning to rest in the storm. And before we pray, I just want you to observe just one thing. When it comes to storms in your life, there's only two types of responses to that storm.

[12:39] You're either the person who is resting like the Lord Jesus, or you're the person that's restless like the disciples. You're either at peace like the Lord Jesus, or you're in a state of panic like the disciples.

[12:56] Now, I don't know what maybe you're going through. I know what some of you are going through. But there's two responses. And the Lord's asking you, in this journey of life that you're going on to the other side, and you're going to face a storm, where are you in the boat with Jesus?

[13:16] Are you resting? Or are you restless? We're going to answer that question, and only you can respond in the manner that is appropriate in your life to God.

[13:27] Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this beautiful morning. Thank you for this time to gather. And I just pray, God, if there are some storms that are taking place in the lives of some certain folks, that you would bring peace to it.

[13:39] But Lord, help them to understand that it's a matter of faith. And they need to yield to faith and not give in to fear. And we pray that the Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted in all things.

[13:51] We pray in your name. And God's people said? Amen. God has designed you to rest. We understand physically that we must rest.

[14:05] There are some that when they do not get rest, they actually have physical problems. I have had these issues when it comes to my heart. Most of you know my heart issues. I have to intentionally make myself rest or else I'm going to complicate my health.

[14:21] It's a real reality. The scientists and doctors are discovering that sometimes the biggest health crisis that we have is that we live in a society that moves, moves, moves, and we do not rest.

[14:35] And so God is saying you need to take time to rest. And let me tell you, in two weeks, I'm going to take some time with my family. And we're going to go take a little mini vacation out of Branson. And we're going to rest.

[14:46] Why? Because we have to or else we're going to empty out and we're going to perish. You've got to rest. You know, here we have Jesus in the ministry. And he's decided to take a little nap in his ministry.

[15:00] Here is God, the creator of the world, who also became a man. And so Jesus is practicing the very thing that we were all designed and that we need to take time to rest. It's amazing that here he is preaching and he's able to rest his mind thinking, well, you know, I got a few moments to take a snooze before we go meet the maniac of Gadara because we know what we're going to face over there.

[15:21] You know what? Maybe I ought to take a nap real quick and get some rest. So the Lord Jesus understood that in the midst of busyness in life, he had to take time to rest. Now, the problem about choosing to rest is sometimes you cannot predict or anticipate the interruptions in your life.

[15:39] And here it seems like there was a massive interruption that was taking place in their ministry and in their lives. I want you to observe three things. Number one, I want you to look at the disruption storms bring into our lives.

[15:52] The disruptions. First of all, storms can be unexpected. They can be unexpected. I got the opportunity to visit Israel seven years ago. And we stayed around the Sea of Galilee near Mount Tiberias.

[16:08] That was where our hotel was. And it's beautiful over there. I would equate it to like Southern California. You got the kind of golden rolling hills in the fall. And you could see the lake.

[16:19] The temperature is really nice because it's at a low altitude, like sea level. And you can go visit all these little towns. And it's just beautiful to think about what Jesus's life was like there around the Sea of Galilee or even the disciples who had the business of fishing right there on that lake.

[16:35] And so we had the opportunity to visit. And we were staying at a hotel. And me and a couple guys, some pastor friends, we were like, you know what? Man, we have a hanker for ice cream. Because even though we were in the Holy Land, we couldn't get that American out of us.

[16:47] We're like, we got to go find some ice cream. You know, this place doesn't even have cheeseburgers, right? Because they don't put cheese on their beat. So we were like, let's go get some ice cream. So we take a trip down to the convenience store, which is probably, oh, maybe a mile down the road.

[16:59] And this is at night. And so it was nice and calm. And boy, you could see the stars. And we're like, man, what a life this must have been to live here around the Sea of Galilee.

[17:11] So we go to the grocery store. We buy some ice cream. And we're eating it on the way. And I'm telling you, all of a sudden, this wind started coming. And out of nowhere, this massive storm was just blowing into that region.

[17:23] And so we were, man, we were huffing it back to the hotel. And we were starting to get really wet just before it was like, like a hurricane. Well, that area is at that low altitude.

[17:33] But that low altitude is right up next to the mountains where Mount Hermon is. And so you can just imagine the type of winds that come off the cold mountains and dip down to that low altitude.

[17:45] It's kind of like what happens here in the Midwest when we're close to the Colorado Rockies. And you've got these wind patterns coming down to our low altitudes over here. And we get all these storms.

[17:56] That's exactly what it is. And sometimes it can catch you by surprise. You're like, man, I didn't see that coming. I don't even know how to process that it's happening so fast.

[18:06] I remember when back in 2020, we were facing closure of the camp. We could not believe. And it happened out of nowhere. COVID seemed to just take us all by storm.

[18:19] And then we were trying to pick up the pieces of how to respond to it. We didn't even know what to do. It was completely unexpected. Storms can be that way. Sometimes it's that bad news that you receive when you go to the doctor and you're like, you have this problem.

[18:32] You have some cancer. You have this going on. Or you have a heart valve problem. You need surgery. And all of a sudden, your whole life just changed up. And you're like, I didn't plan that. Storms can be very unexpected.

[18:43] I also think storms can disrupt our lives because sometimes they can be unrelenting. Here they are. They're in the storm. And it says that the boat began to be full.

[18:53] Now, mind you, these are experienced fishermen. These are men that grew up on that lake. They have seen the storm and the weather patterns. They've experienced this before.

[19:05] They would have had a protocol on how to deal with it. You know, we typically have protocol measures. We have things in place for liabilities. And sometimes you put those measures in place, but yet the storms just keep coming and you're out of resources.

[19:21] Here are these guys. They probably had buckets and they were just pitching that water constantly, thinking that they can make it through. But then it says it was so heavy that the boat began to be full, meaning they're going to sink.

[19:33] And they're thinking this is the end. It's like one wave after another. Before we had COVID, I remember in 2019, around Christmas time, we were visiting my parents who were in Michigan at that time.

[19:44] And our whole household got super sick. That was the sickest I have ever been. And we think it was the precursor of COVID. All of us started dropping like flies in one day.

[19:57] And we had to take our kids to the ER. Some of us were throwing up. Some of us had high fevers. Some of us were super dizzy. The day after Christmas or whatever, I told my wife, I said, we got to get out of this place.

[20:09] My parents' house has cars. We got to get home. So we made the decision. We're just going to get in the car and drive back and try to recover back home. I barely remember driving through St. Louis.

[20:21] It was that bad. Now, in one sense, it was the most peaceful trip I've ever taken with kids because they were just passed out in the back. Oh, but it was miserable. You know, I was dizzy. We were out for a whole week.

[20:33] It was so bad. A couple weeks later, Jacinda was having these bad headaches. And it just got worse and worse. And I finally said, well, maybe we should go to the doctor.

[20:44] So we're on the way to the doctor. And while we're there, she's starting to throw up. And she's getting dizzy and delirious. I said, we got to go to the ER. Well, we go to the ER. And we find out that she has this dissection on the back of her neck of an artery.

[20:56] And they're like, you're about to have a stroke. And they took her down for testing down in KU Medical down in Kansas City. And we're like, what on earth? I mean, it was that close. She could have died of a stroke.

[21:07] That's what they were telling us. And the doctors didn't know what caused it. They're like, well, we did all this test. And we're taking all your money. But we don't really know what the answers are. Like, oh, that's a blessing. Thank you. Well, then, then that's 2020.

[21:22] COVID comes. And we're trying to figure out what kind of decisions to make about the camp. And we make the very difficult decision. We're going to close it down. It's like one storm after another.

[21:35] You ever had a year like that? The very next year was an unrelenting year. You had four precious people in my life die. And then that's the year I had to have heart surgery.

[21:48] It's like, when are we going to get a break? You know, storms sometimes can be unrelenting. And it's disrupting your life. And you don't like those interruptions.

[21:58] And your problem, though, is that you're looking right here as opposed to up here. Hey, storms can be unexpected. Storms can be unrelenting. Storms can be unbearable.

[22:09] There is a breaking point for all of us. Hey, we can't just push our way through life. There is an end in sight. You either are going to die or you're going to be raptured up into heaven.

[22:23] I would prefer the latter. But let's be honest with you. The probability is that we will all face an end one day. But God doesn't want you to be restless and to think that there's no hope in life.

[22:37] He wants you to be peace in your soul because you will continue to live on. And you might be facing something right now that seems like it's unbearable. But God wants you to get your eyes off the horizontal and get your eyes on him and be strong in faith.

[22:52] And don't give in to your fears. Hey, let's be honest. Storms can disrupt our lives. I want you to observe the second aspect of this story. I want you to see that there can be real distress in the storms.

[23:04] Real distress. Here we have these men and they're panicking. The first distress signal in the storm is that they begin to be in despair.

[23:16] Meaning they're panicking. They're saying, wow, this is the end. We're going to die. We're going to die. I mean, that is a statement of hopelessness. And you might be thinking right now, I'm ready to give up.

[23:29] Boy, I've given God my all. And I've been coming to church. And I've been faithful. And I've given him money. And I've served him. But it seems like the storms in my life are just pounding me. I don't really see an end in sign.

[23:40] And you're starting to give in to despair. You're starting to give in to your fears. And that's a real distress signal that you should be aware of. Here's another distress signal for them.

[23:51] They had discouragement. Meaning they had a distorted perspective. Boy, if you've ever been out in the ocean, which I've only been on briefly. You know, if you get out deep into the ocean and these waves start coming.

[24:04] And it's dark. And the rain's pushing one way. And your body's pushing the other. You might be lost out in the waves. You're thinking, well, am I facing north? Or am I going south?

[24:16] Are we east? Are we west? I can't see beyond this next wave. Is there another big wave? Or is there going to be calm coming my way? That distorted perspective means you need to have grounding in your life.

[24:28] Hey, listen. When you're in an emotional and a spiritual storm. You might not know what the next step is. But your grounding of faith should not be in your circumstances.

[24:38] Whether you've got money in the bank or you don't. Or whether you have good health or you don't. Your faith should be rooted in something stable, which is the word of God. You want a strong perspective?

[24:50] You don't want to give in to discouragement, despair? Get rooted in the word of God. Another distress signal for them is that they were beginning to doubt and have disappointment in Jesus.

[25:03] This is where it really gets home because this could lead to bitterness in your life. And they say to Jesus, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

[25:15] Hello? Have you ever had a prayer time like that with God? I mean, come on. Be honest. I've had prayers like that. This year, in preparation for summer camp, I had one issue that I could not get resolved.

[25:31] And that was we could not find good workers for men. And we could always get girls. Now, I could run an all-girls camp. That'd be easy. They love working at camp. They have a blast.

[25:43] But getting good young guys to commit and serve? Man, it's tough. And I'll be honest with you. It's a sacrifice. I get it. But no matter what you do to say, hey, we can help you, man, it's hard to get guys to commit to anything.

[25:56] Now, typically, God usually sends us the right people at just the right time. And so for the last 14 years here at AGBC and another four years at another ministry, I've never seen God not supply the need.

[26:09] And so this year, you know, I didn't have a lot of guys on my roster. But as I go into the spring, I'm like, hey, it's okay. God showed up before. I'll be all right. We'll be okay. And then we're getting into March.

[26:21] We're going into April. And I'm like, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. And then we're getting to May. I'm like, it's okay. And then, you know, I've got to go talk to God about this. And so, you know, I'm starting to pray pretty intensely.

[26:33] And my prayers are like, hey, Lord, I think you know we've got to have workers, right? We can't do this job unless you send me the workers. You know, I'm kind of talking to the Lord like, hello, don't you know what I'm facing?

[26:45] Like, don't you see my problem? And then I would go through a little bit longer period. And I would talk to so many guys. David and I, we were on the prowl, searching for anything.

[26:56] We would take a hobo off the street. I mean, that's how desperate we were getting. And so I'm talking to all these guys. And every time I would say, hey, what do you want to work for us? They would say, no, no, no, no.

[27:08] And now I'm like one week before we start training workers. And I don't have the workers in place for male counselors. And I'm telling you, my prayer life was pretty intense.

[27:18] I'm telling you, there was a couple moments. I mean, it was pretty frustrating. Pretty frustrating. Like, Lord, can't you see, which was probably my contemporaries saying, hey, don't you care what I'm facing?

[27:29] That's a real human response. Hey, listen. If you're not rooted in faith, doubts can overwhelm you.

[27:41] If you're not careful, you'll have a disappointing relationship with God. And those are the type of things that bring in bitterness. Those are the type of things that start to drive you away from church, from the community of God.

[27:58] Because your perspective is, and your heart is rooted in fear as opposed to faith. Do you see the distress signals in your storm?

[28:09] Are you identifying maybe your response is not where it should be? Because these men who were with Jesus in person, they had the same struggles.

[28:21] So we can see the distress signals. We see the disruption. But I want you to see, lastly, our divine security. You see, even with their lack of faith, God was still with them.

[28:35] And he was still leading them. He was still in control. Hey, listen. When you're in Jesus, you are secure as if you've always been secure.

[28:48] You will never lose your faith. Once saved, always saved. The doctrine of eternal security is something you can take to the bank because it's stated right in the Bible. And God does not want to let you go.

[28:59] He says, no man can pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which is greater than them all, no man can pluck them out of his hand. I and my Father are one. Let me tell you, when you're in God's hands, you are in the best place you could ever be.

[29:12] And here, they were secure in the Lord in four ways. First of all, they were secure because God was leading them. Hey, listen. It was the Lord Jesus who said, hey, let's go to this destination.

[29:24] Hey, why don't you go into this boat, in this vessel? Hey, let's just go as we are. Hey, listen. When God is prompting you and he's telling you to go do something special for him, hey, even though it might be a little scary and you might have to get out of your comfort zone, there's no safer place you ought to be than in the will of God.

[29:42] And he was leading them. Listen, he was leading them by instructions. He was giving him his word. He had just been preaching the word. He was the living word. And when God speaks, you need to listen.

[29:55] He was leading them by instruction. Hey, he was leading them by illustration. Here he was practicing what we need to learn to practice when we're facing storms. Hey, we need to just give it to God.

[30:06] We need to let him take control. One of the best lessons I learned as a young man in ministry was that there were some things that I can't control, but there was a whole lot of things I couldn't control. And the things that I couldn't control, I ought to stop worrying about them.

[30:19] My old boss, Jeff Call, he used to take me on trips with him, showing me the ropes on how to do camp ministry. One day we were headed down south of Michigan and we stopped at a hotel.

[30:30] And we're about to go to bed. He said, you know what, let's just pray. And so he starts to pray. And he said, well, Lord, I pray that you'd be with all the families back at the camp. And then you would help the ladies, they're running the ladies' retreat.

[30:42] And help us on this trip. We're going to go do this youth rally with Josh. And he said, now there's a lot of things that we can't control, God, so we're just going to go to sleep. Amen. And I thought, oh. Oh, I get that.

[30:57] Because what are you going to do? What are you going to do at that moment? Nothing. Nothing. So why don't you just give it to God? Go to bed. It's that simple.

[31:10] And so here the Lord Jesus was. He was the living God. And God says, you know what, I think I'm just going to rest to this storm. I need rest. Why not? That's what we need.

[31:22] If you allow the Lord to be the captain of your vessel, he will help you navigate the storms. Hey, listen, he was leading them. They were secure because he was living inside of them. Hey, listen, when you get saved, the Bible says that God dwells in us.

[31:38] The Holy Spirit comes and makes his abode. And now you have God living within you. He's not some distant figure. He's not some esoteric thing that needs to be arrived on to a consciousness.

[31:52] No, he's something. He's someone that lives right inside. And when you get saved, you have God with you at all times. And here this story that was a real story is a metaphor for what's going on in life.

[32:07] That's why the Lord, the Holy Spirit gave us this story. Because we also are on this vessel going from one side to the other. And God is leading us the whole way. And he's living inside of us. And he's not talking.

[32:19] He's sleeping. Hey, listen, I haven't had a verbal, audible voice of God. I just had his word. There are seasons where it seems like he's silent, but he's still there. Why? Because he's living right here.

[32:31] Hey, the question could be for you. Do you have Jesus living in you? I mean, that's a real gospel application. Hey, maybe you can't overcome your fear because you don't have faith in God. Hey, maybe today, this morning, you need to confess your sins.

[32:43] And you need to come to Jesus and receive him into your life. Hey, he's living inside of them. He was leading them. He's listening intuitively to them. It's amazing that when our kids were real little, Jacinda used to have this baby monitor.

[32:59] It kind of reminds me of when I see Dave and Kira, they have these monitors they would take with them around camp as they're waiting to see if Selah would wake up. And I remember those days. I hated those days. Because, you know, that thing would be noisy and they'd stir.

[33:15] But I told you Jacinda, she sleeps like a rock. I don't think she wakes up from anything. But I'm telling you, just a little bit of a stir or a little coo when our kids are babies.

[33:27] Boy, she's right up and she's ready to go. It's because a mother is in tune to the voice of her children. And here they say, Lord.

[33:47] Gets right up. And before he even has to tell them that they're wrong, he brings peace into their lives. You know why? Because God hears you.

[33:59] He's listening to us. He's longing to intercede for us. This is an intervention from the Lord Jesus. His men are facing a storm.

[34:12] And he says, I'm going to step in place and exercise authority in what you're facing. And when he speaks up, he says, peace! Be still! And there comes a great calm.

[34:25] When Jesus speaks peace in your storm, you can experience inner peace, inner calm, even if that storm doesn't pass. Did you listen to the song that they sang?

[34:38] There are seasons where God stops it. There are seasons he's going to help you push through it. But through it all, he's still with you. God can help you rest in these storms.

[34:51] Let me give you some thoughts here as a point of application. Number one, do you need to yield to Jesus so that he can lead you? A lot of times when we're facing a storm or a trial, we're like, we got it!

[35:05] I'll take over. I know the protocols. Sometimes you don't know anything. And the only thing that you can do and should do is that you should yield over to Jesus.

[35:16] Number two, is Jesus living in you? It could be that Jesus is not inside of you. And it could be that your step, number one, that you need to take is you need to be born again.

[35:28] Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Meaning you cannot experience the power of God until you exercise faith in him. He's the only one that can get you through the storms.

[35:42] Number three, are you actively channeling your burdens in prayer? Here, they were praying and it was quick. You know, listen, maybe it doesn't take much to pray.

[35:53] But it matters that you do pray. And that you bring your burdens, you bring your emotions, you bring your struggles, you bring your frustrations, and you're laying at the feet of God.

[36:04] And then you understand that he hears you because you're his child. It could be that you need to activate your prayer life. Is God asking you to rest?

[36:17] I remember when we had this, we closed down the camp in 2020 for COVID. I couldn't believe that happened. And I was scared out of my mind. That decision, by the way, was out of my control.

[36:29] I had a group of men that are my board members, just like Lou and Pastor. And they helped counsel us. So I didn't have to bear the weight of that responsibility. But still, it was scary because in a camp setting, you live and die by your income in the summer.

[36:45] You take that away, we're going to lose jobs. So we had to figure out what we were going to do. So we decided to do this fundraising campaign. And then we could just wait.

[36:57] That's all we could do. I didn't know what to tell our staff. I said, you know, we just need to pray to the Lord. He'll get us through somehow. I mean, I would say that to give them confidence. But then I would walk away and go, I have no idea what's going to happen.

[37:11] About a month into doing some fundraising, God started bringing in some funds to their people. It was pretty cool. I also was homeschooling my daughter because they canceled school. Which, she still never recovered from that.

[37:24] I'll tell you, that was a bad idea. One day, though, we were going to the office and I was going to homeschool or work on some projects. And we had a warning that a storm was going to come through.

[37:37] Not a surprise, right here in the Midwest, especially in Kansas. And I was looking at the radar. There's a little bitty cell traveling down from Topeka. And it was coming over towards Ottawa.

[37:47] But big deal. It's a little cell. And so I didn't think twice about it. Well, I looked out the window. And the clouds looked pretty dark. And then the wind started to come.

[38:02] And so I walked into the hallway of our office building. And I'm in this breezeway. And we have a glass entry door. And so me and Peyton, my daughter, we were just watching this wind.

[38:13] And I mean, in a matter of moments, it was blowing so hard with so much rain. And I could not even see the building straight in front of me, which is our stone house. I couldn't see it. It was so bad.

[38:24] I knew the storm was bad, though, because what I did see was a canoe fly over that building. And I thought, oh, my. Now, it was too late. It was too late. I couldn't get on the phone and tell Jeremy and his family or my family to go take cover.

[38:40] They were just stuck in their house. And so they had to do what they had to do. And we just stood there and watched. It was one of those, it was too late to make a response. That storm lasted maybe like a minute or two.

[38:50] But a minute or two seems like a lifetime. And in that short period of time, we had massive trees just uprooted all over the camp. And our roofs were just destroyed.

[39:03] I couldn't believe it. I'm looking out at this and I'm like, wow, that was a bad storm. And now I'm kind of disappointed. I'm like, good night. Not only can we not have camp, we got to get destroyed through a storm.

[39:14] Well, as you know how storms go, we had the ambulance chasers called roofers come out. And they said, oh, we'll give you an estimate on this and that. And so we let them have at it.

[39:25] We'll give us an estimate. Well, they did. And then they took that to the insurance company. And God gave us above what we were trying to raise. And he did that in a matter of no time.

[39:37] And now I had a job. Me and Jeremy, we were roofing cabins and mowing the lawns. It was actually one of the most peaceful summers. It was great.

[39:48] I mean, I'm telling you, people work wearing me out, you know. But that was incredible. Taking that step of faith to just yield to God and make the hard choice was scary.

[40:00] It was scary. But you know what? We did it by saying, God, help us. We yield to you. We know that you know what's best. And when we made a decision to appeal to our churches and just give it to God, it was almost like the Lord said, you know what?

[40:17] I see that step of faith. And I'm going to outgive everybody else. It was unbelievable. I will never forget it. In fact, we had this fundraising campaign for summer season.

[40:29] So it was going to last from May all the way to August. We had already hit our goal by the time we got close to those dates when it was supposed to stop.

[40:41] And I was doing live updates on our Facebook page, you know, telling people. Because, you know, we didn't get out. No one talked. No one went out and did things. So I was going to go tell, I was going to film a video and tell people, we just hit our goal.

[40:54] We made it. And this is separate from the insurance claim. As I'm on my way to the chapel, my secretary at the time, Emily, she was walking up to the mailbox. And she was checking our GoFundMe.

[41:06] And she yells at me. She goes, Josh, which Emily doesn't yell. So this must have been, Josh, somebody just dropped a couple thousand dollars. And I was just blown away.

[41:17] Because God did above and beyond anything I could ask or think. God brought peace to my storm. And God wants to bring peace in your storms.

[41:32] Do you have faith? Or do you have fear? In the boat, where are you? Are you with Jesus? Or are you with the disciples? If you're over there, all you got to do is take some small steps of faith and God will give you rest.

[41:50] Lord Jesus, thank you so much for this illustration, this story, that there's so much meaning in it. And these things were written for our benefit, our learning.

[42:03] And what you're teaching the disciples and what the Holy Spirit is teaching us today, that Jesus is Lord of our lives. And I don't know what kind of storms people are facing.

[42:17] I don't know what kind of decisions they need to make to let go and experience rest. But I pray that you would help us come to a place where we just give it to God. Give it to the Lord.

[42:28] With your heads bowed and your eyes closed, let me ask you, friends, is God... Has God allowed a storm in your life that you really need Him to stand up in? You know, maybe you're at a breaking point.

[42:40] And God's telling you that the only way out of this is through me. Question is, are you given into faith? Or have you capitulated into fear?

[42:53] It could be that this morning, you just need to do some business with the Lord. A time of prayer. That's the invitation. Would you come and pray? I'm going to ask the pianist if she'll just play quietly. And while she does, would you do business with God?

[43:05]  Maybe you want to come up and kneel down. Maybe you want to stay...