Latest / Max Lucado Daily Sermons / Your Heart Wasn’t Made for This Pace- Minister Max Lucado

Transcript

Your Heart Wasn’t Made for This Pace- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You know, if only we could order life the way
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: we order gourmet coffee. Wouldn't we love just to mix
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and match all the ingredients of our life? I would
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: like a tall, extra hot cup of adventure, cut the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: danger in two shots of good health. I would like
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a decaf brew of longevity, please, with a sprinkle of fertility.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Please go heavy on the agility and cut the disability, please.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I'll go with the grande happy latte with a dollop
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: of love sprinkled with a Rocky Mountain retirement. Take me
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to that coffee shop. Too bad it doesn't exist. Truth is,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: life often hands us a concoction of different than the
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: one we expected and certainly different than the one we requested.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Joe Jones, enjoy your early retirement.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: It looks like it comes with marital problems and inflation.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Mary Adams, you put in an order for four years
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of university and then pregnancy.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Now you're pregnant.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: We'll see about the university. Gateway Church. How about a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: summer-long ride on a roller coaster? Life comes caffeinated with surprises, modifications, transitions, alterations.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Some changes welcome, some not. And in those seasons in
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: which we think we know what's about to happen, we're surprised, right?
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Just driving down today from, driving up today from San Antonio,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: we stopped at a little cafe in Waco. Next to
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: the cashier's table was a box that said, if you're
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: tired of change, just.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Put it in here.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Well, we're all a little weary of change. You've certainly
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: had your share. We're in a changing country. We have
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: one presidential candidate.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Who got shot at.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: We had another presidential candidate who bailed out. And now
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: we don't know what's about to happen. And then you're
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: going through change in leadership at church. We just don't
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: know what's going to happen. We might request a decaffeinated
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: life But we don't get it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: The disciples didn't.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Jesus got into a boat and his followers went with him.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: A great storm arose on the lake so that the
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: waves covered the boat.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: But Jesus was sleeping.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: His followers went to him and woke him saying, Lord,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: save us. We will drown. Jesus answered, why are you afraid?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: You don't have enough faith. And then Jesus got up
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and gave a command to the wind and the waves
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and it became completely calm. And the men were amazed.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: And they said, what kind of man is this that
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: even the wind and the waves obey him? At first blush,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: we think Jesus is kidding with this question.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Why are you afraid? Surely he's teasing.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Surely he knows, correct? Pulling a quick one, isn't he?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like one swimmer asking another, why are
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you wet?
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's pretty obvious why they're afraid, but Jesus
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: doesn't smile.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: He's dead earnest, and so are the disciples to whom
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: he asked the question. I mean, a storm has turned
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: their Galilean dinner crews into a white-knuckled plunge. I mean,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: look again at Matthew's question or description. Jesus got into
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a boat. His followers went with him. A great storm
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: arose on the lake so that the waves covered the boat.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Years later, when he wrote these words, he remembered that
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: pouncing tempest and that bouncing boat. And he was really
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: careful about in selecting the right word.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: In my imagination, he.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Pulls a Greek thesaurus off the shelf, and he goes
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: looking for the right word to describe this storm. He
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: bypasses summer squall, rainfall, that's not enough, spring shower, that
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: won't do, that won't capture what he saw and what
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: he felt that night, which was a rumbling earth and
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: a quivering shoreline. This was more than just Winds and
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: white tops. He keeps looking for that right synonym. And
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: finally he finds it. It's that Greek word. S-E-I-S-M-O-S.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Seismos. Seismos.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: We recognize the word, right? A seismologist measures earthquakes. A
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: seismograph measures measures earthquakes. And Matthew, in reflecting back on
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: what that day was like, uses a word that he
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: only uses two other times in his gospel. And the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: other two times is when he describes, one, the ground
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: shaking at Calvary when Christ was crucified, and two, the
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: ground shaking when Christ was resurrected from the dead. So
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: apparently this miracle deserves a spot in the trilogy of
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the resurrection and salvation and now the defeat of fear.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: This was a seismos. It was sudden fear.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: We know the fear was sudden because the storm was.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: An older translation reads, suddenly a great tempest arose on
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: the sea.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Not all storms happen.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Come suddenly, those of us who grew up in the
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: flatlands of West Texas, as I did in the Permian Basin,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: we could see a storm coming when it was all
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the way up in Amarillo.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: It was so flat.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: But this storm came out of nowhere. It barreled out
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: of the Golan Heights and it turned the Galilean Sea
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: into a teapot. And all of a sudden the boat
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: in which the disciples were riding was popping like popcorn
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: in a popcorn popper up.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And then down and then up and then down.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: It sprang like a lion out of the grass. One
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: minute the disciples were shuffling cards for a pre or
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a mid-journey game of hearts and the next minute they
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: were gulping Galilean sea spray. Peter and John, they were
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: seasoned sailors and they struggled to keep.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Down the sail.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Matthew was a confirmed landlubber and he struggled to keep.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Down his meal.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: The storm was not what he bargained for. Do you
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: sense surprise in the way he linked these phrases?
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Look at this.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Jesus got into a boat and his followers went with him.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: A great storm arose on the lake. All the disciples
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: did was what Jesus told them to do and a
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: storm showed up Wouldn't you hope for a happier second sentence?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Jesus got into a boat, his followers went with him,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: and suddenly a great rainbow arched in the sky. Jesus
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: got into a boat, his followers went with him, and
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: out of nowhere there was a covey.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Of dove in the sky.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Jesus got into a boat, his disciples follow him, and
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: the Water was like glass reflecting the mast. This story
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: sends a not so subtle and not too popular reminder
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that disciples get caught in storms. You can do exactly
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: what Jesus told you to do.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Follow him. Exactly where he went.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: And look up and see the waves are churning.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: And the wind is blowing. And you're wondering wait a second.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: All I did was do what he told me to do.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Christ's followers battle cancer. Christ's followers bury children.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Christ's followers wrestle with addictions. And as a result face
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: unexpected and unrequested.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Highly caffeinated. Events like this one.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: It's not the end absence of storms that sets believers apart.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It's whom we discover in the storm. An unstirred Christ.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, you're going to love this. Verse 24. Jesus said,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: What's the word church? Sleeping.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Jesus was sleeping. There's a scene. The disciples scream in
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Jesus dreams. Thunder roars in Jesus. You got it. Do
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: you ever imagine that God on earth could be heard going.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: In a storm. In the midst of a storm. Who
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: could sleep.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: In a seismos?
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Who? Could you? Could you sleep on a roller coaster ride?
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Could you sleep at a kettle drum concert? Could you
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: sleep in a wind tunnel? And yet Jesus slept in
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: the midst of all three. What a Savior we served.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: that what stirs our fears does not stir his. When
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: we are stirred, he is unstirred. In Mark's gospel, he
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: adds two wonderful details. Jesus was in the stern, asleep
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: on a pillow. In a stern on a pillow. Why
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the first and from whence came the second? First century
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: fishermen used large, heavy, sane nets for their work. And
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: when they weren't using the nets, they stored them in
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a nook built into the stern for this purpose. So
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: those nets wouldn't trip up anyone's feet. Sleeping upon the
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: stern was impossible. It offered no protections. It didn't have
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: enough space. But right beneath the top of the stern
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: was just enough room for somebody, if they wanted to,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: to pull out the net and crawl in and catch
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: some Zs. And that's what Jesus did. He rested his
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: head on a pillow. Not a fluffy pillow that you're
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: already thinking about. using at some point when you get home.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: But this was a ballast bag, a leather bag that
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: literally was a ballast to the boat. It weighed as
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: much as 100 pounds. Fishermen in the Mediterranean used them
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: to this day. And so Jesus just used the ballast bag. Now,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: did Jesus take the pillow into the stern? Or was
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: he asleep in the stern and someone rustled up the pillow?
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: But I do know this was a premeditated slumber.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: He didn't just doze off. He wasn't sitting there. He said,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: I think I see a storm coming. A good time
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: for me to take a nap. The view our God
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: has of our storms is entirely different than the view
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: we have of them. Amen. Do we not need a
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: God who is unstirred by what stirs us? Do we
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: not need a God who looks at the storm and says,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: I'm in charge. I can manage it. Do we not
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: need a heavenly father who, when our world gets turned
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: upside down, says, oh, I can set it right side up.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: That's my job. And so this story is in the Bible. Now,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: this nap really ticked off the disciples.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, it really did.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Matthew and Mark record their response as staccato commands. You know,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the Bible was, New Testament was written in Greek. Forgive
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: me for being a bit of a nerd here. But
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: this is really just three Greek words in the original.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: And it reads like this. Lord, save dying.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're about to go down. They can't even
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: get a sentence out. And what the gospel writers remember
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: are these three commands. Again, they are commanding Christ. And
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: then they have a question. The question, teacher, do you
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: not care that we are perishing? How do you process
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that question? Do you not care? They don't question his strength. Jesus,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: can you manage this storm? They don't question his know-how.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Do you have any experience with this storm? They question
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the character of Christ.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: Don't you care?
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: When we think that God is not paying attention, do
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: we not tend to do the same?
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: Do you really love me, God? If God really loved me, if.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: God really cared, he would not allow this to happen.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: We would question the very character of Christ.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Friends, fear does this. Fear does this.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Fear corrodes our confidence in the goodness of God. And
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: we begin to wonder if love lives in heaven. I mean,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: if God can sleep in my storm, if he can
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: appear inactive when I'm in a hospital, or if I
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: hear nothing but silence when I'm asking hard questions. I
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: begin to wonder, does he care? And fear can stir
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: a flurry of faith-robbing doubts.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Fear does this.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: Fear also turns us into control freaks. Do something about
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the storm, the disciples are saying. They don't say please.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: They don't say Lord. They don't pray. They Isn't there
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: something stunning about the fact that they are commanding God?
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Do something now or else fear does this.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Fear at.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Its core is a perceived loss of control. It's a
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: perceived loss of control. Life begins to spin wildly and
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: we grab for something that we can control, right? We
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: grab for a component of life, something that we can manage,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: maybe our diet or the tidiness of a house or
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: even the armrest of a plane. Do you ever think
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: it's kind of funny how we grab an armrest of
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: a plane? Is that really going to keep the plane
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: in the air? Hang on there. I've got it.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: I've got it.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: But we want to control something, right? We want to
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: grip something. It brings a false sense of security. The
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: more insecure we feel, the more we control. And hang on,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: you're going to get mad at me. But the more
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: insecure we feel, the more demanding we become. The disciples demanded,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: not requested.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: They demand. We bear our fangs.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: We shake our fists. Why?
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Because we're bad? Not really. But because we're cornered. We're cornered.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: We feel trapped. And so we lash out.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: We're not always the easiest to get along with. Fear
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: does that. And you know what fear also does? It
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: deadens our recall. It deadens our recall. The disciples had
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: reason to trust Jesus. I did a little research. By now,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: they had seen him heal all kinds of diseases. and
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: all kinds of disease among the people.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: They had seen this.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: They had seen him heal a leper with the touch
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: of a servant. They had seen him heal another person
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: with just a command. Peter saw his mother-in-law recover. They
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: all saw demons scatter like bats out of a cave.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: He cast out spirits with.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: The word and healed all who were sick. Where is
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the disciple who's going to raise his hand and say
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: to the others.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: Hold on a second, guys.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Don't you remember what we saw him do a month ago,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: three months ago, a few weeks?
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Ago?
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Don't forget his track record. Where is the disciple who
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: raises their hand in the midst of a storm and says,
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: we've seen God do this before. We know he'll do
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: it again. Where was that disciple then? And let me
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: ask you, where is the disciple now?
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Hmm.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Where's the disciple now? Fear has a way of.
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: Deadening our recall. We forget.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: And Satan sucks us into this lie that says, oh,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: this is too big even for God.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: He'd never seen anything like this before. Oh my goodness.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: And our memory goes dull. Fear makes us forget.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: The character of Christ makes us forget the power of Christ.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: And you know what else? Fear makes us feel yucky, right? Dreadful.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: It sucks the life out of the soul. It curls
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: us into this embryonic state. It drains us dry of contentment.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: You know, fear never wrote a symphony. Fear never wrote
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: a poem. Fear never really loved a church. The fear
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: never pulled a family out of poverty or a country
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Courage did that. Faith did that. Hope did that. Belief
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: did that.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: But fear, fear herds people into a prison.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Of unlocked doors. Wouldn't it be great to walk out?
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Imagine your life wholly untouched by angst. What if faith,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: not fear, were your default reaction to change? What if
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the people in your circle came to expect that you're
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the one who's going to say, oh, God's got this. Oh,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: I've seen him do it. Oh, let me tell you
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: about the time he... What if fear was placed in
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the back seat and faith was placed in the front seat?
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: What if you could hover a fear magnet over your
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: heart and extract every last shaving of dread insecurity, and doubt.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: What would remain? Imagine a day, friend, that just one day,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: absent a dread, absent a dread of failure, absent a
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: dread of calamity, no worst case scenarios.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: None.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Just, okay, it's a tough time, but our God can
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: talk to wind Our God can talk to waves.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: I've seen him do it before. He's going to do
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: it again.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: This is the possibility behind the question.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Why are you afraid? Jesus asked.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Now tell me again. Why are you afraid? I haven't
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: shown you enough.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: Now why are you afraid? You need me to do what?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Now, why are you afraid? Did you know that the
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: most common command of Christ emerges from this theme, this
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: genre of fear not?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: He issued 125 commands as.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: Recorded in the gospels. By far and above, the most
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: common sounded like this.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: Fear not. Don't be afraid. Here's a few.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: So don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Don't be afraid. Just believe. It's all right. I'm here.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Don't be afraid.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Do not fear, little flock, for it is your good
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Don't be
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: afraid or troubled or afraid. Arise and do not be afraid.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: And we could go on and on and on. The
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: bottom line is this, dear friend, dear son or daughter
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: of God, God does not want you to live a
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: life that is sucked hollow by fear. God did not
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: give you a spirit of fear. That comes from the devil.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: God gave you courage. God gave you the very mind
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: of Christ. And you are one choice of faith from
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: becoming a person who puts his or her shoulders back
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and takes in a deep breath of hope and faith
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and presses into the wind. The storm is coming.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: The waves are bouncing. The sky is dark.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: The lightning zigzags. You've got a king of kings who
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: is so calm and comfortable that he can take a
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: nap in this storm. And you don't belong to the storm.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: You belong to the storm stiller, right?
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: He's the one who is in charge.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: By the way, don't you want to be a person
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: with less fear?
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: Don't you?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Down deep, do you really enjoy a life that's marked
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: by anxiety? How many of you have ever.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: said words like these.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Oh, my phobias just put such a spring in my step.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Or I'd be a rotten parent if it weren't for
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: my hypochondria. Oh, thank God for my pessimism. I've become
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: such a better person since I lost hope. My doctor
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: says if I don't begin fretting, I will lose my health.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: We've learned the high cost of fear. That's why the
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: question of Jesus is a good one. He lifted his
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: head from the pillow and he stepped into the very storm.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: And he said, now why are you fearful? Oh, you
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: have little faith.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: And what he said then, he says still today. Now
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: to be clear, a fear serves a healthy purpose. It's
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: a canary in the coal mine. Fear in limited doses
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: does us good. Fear can keep a child from running
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: across a busy road or an adult from smoking a
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: pack of cigarettes. Fear is an appropriate reaction to a
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: burning building or a growling dog. Fear can help us
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: in limited doses. And fear in and of itself, my friend,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: is not a sin. It's an emotion.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: It's not a sin. So don't beat.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Yourself up for these surges of fear.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: They're healthy. They're good.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: They're necessary. Fear will knock on the door. The key
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: is to not invite fear in for dinner. And for
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: heaven's sake, don't invite fear to spend the night. You see,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: if we treat our fear with angry outbursts, or drinking binges,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: or sullen withdrawals, or self-starvation, or vice-like control. What we're
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: doing is we're excluding God from the solution. We're looking
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: for a short-term solution to what is a deeply rooted problem.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: And we subject ourselves to a position of fear. We
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: allow fear to dominate our lives, to define our lives,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to sap our joy.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: To petrify us. To sour us.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And sometimes to turn us into mean people. Again, 2
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Timothy 1, 7. For God has not given us a
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: spirit of fear.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: Fear may fill your world. It may fill our world.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: But it doesn't have to fill your heart or my heart.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: How many of you would like less fear? Less anxiety,
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: less dread. Two ideas on how to do this and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: then I'm done. Number one, recall the faithfulness of God.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Just recall the faithfulness of God. Has he not been
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: faithful to you? Has he not been faithful to us?
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Has he not been faithful to Gateway? Has he not
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: been a faithful, good God? The Old Testament says, remember
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: his marvelous works which he has done. Here's your homework assignment.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Catalog God's successes in your life. Just make a catalog
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: of them. Make a list of them and rehearse them.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Rather than rehearse your woes, rehearse his accomplishments. I mean,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: you're going to think about something.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Might as well think about.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: How good he is as opposed to how tough life is, right?
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Has he not proven to be faithful? Have you not
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: known his provision? How many nights have you gone to
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: bed hungry? How many mornings have you awakened in the cold?
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Has he not made roadkill out of the demons that
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: came after you?
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: Has he not sent Satan?
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: With Satan's little tail tucked between his legs? Has he not.
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Delivered you from.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Do you not have a testimony of how good he
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: has been? Then why would we focus on the tough
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: times when we can focus instead on our good God?
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: Write today's worries in sand. Chisel God's accomplishments in stone.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: And then number two, pray first, pray most. Pray first,
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: pray most. Don't pace up and down the floors of
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: the waiting room, pray. Pray for a successful surgery. Don't
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: bemoan the collapse of an investment.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: Just ask God to help you. Ask him for wisdom.
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: Ask him for strength.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Don't join the chorus of co-workers who endlessly complain about
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: work or the boss or the environment. You be the
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: one who wears them out by so often saying, well,
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: let's just pray about it. You be the one they
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: see coming in and they say, oh no, she's going
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: to want to pray again. That's okay. Inoculate yourself inwardly
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: To face your fears outwardly, casting the whole of your cares,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: all your anxieties, all your worries, all your.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: Concerns once and for all on him.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: When I was six years old, my dad let me
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: stay up with the rest of the family and watch
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: the movie Wolfman. Boy, did he regret that decision. The
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: film left me convinced that Wolfman lived in our living room,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: right behind the couch, and that every night he was
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: awaiting his preferred meal of red-headed, freckle-faced, six-year-old boy. That
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: proved problematic because in order to reach the kitchen from
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: my bedroom, I had to walk right past the couch.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: And so I would awaken in the middle of the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: night and I'd want a glass of water. I'd want something.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: And then I'd get up and I'd start walking. And
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: then I would remember Wolfman's in there. And I would
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: step into my father's bedroom. And I would shake him.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I would get eye level with him. And I can
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: still remember he would open one eye.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: What do you want? A glass of milk. You know
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: where the milk is. Yeah, but dad.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Wolfman.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: And he would sigh and he would climb out of
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: bed and he would take my hand.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: And you know what?
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: He would walk.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, within a few feet of Wolfman.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, he would walk right past him. My little
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: heart was pounding in my chest and he was not
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: even afraid. And he would walk me right into the kitchen.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: And he would pour me a glass of milk and
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I'd look up at my father and I would think
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: to myself, what kind of man is this? That not
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: even wolf man scares him. The disciples looked at Jesus.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: After Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves and
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: they asked one of the great questions.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: What kind of man is this? Can I tell you
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: what kind of man this is?
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: This is a man who is alive and well at
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: the core, at the center of the universe right now.
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: And he oversees all the details of your life and mine,
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: this church and the church where I serve in San
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Antonio and the church universal. This is the kind of
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: savior who has already circled the date. He's got that
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: return on the calendar. And it's just a matter of
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: staying faithful until he returns. He can turn a typhoon
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: into nap time.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: He did then. He does still. Let's stand and pray.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: As we pray, I'll pause for a few moments and
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: let you talk to Jesus.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: And my desire would.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Be that you just tell Jesus whatever fear you have
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: and you give it up to him. Oh, great Heavenly Father,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: we thank you for this reminder of your goodness, how
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: faithful you are. Father, we know you love this church.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And we know that you are mighty and strong. And
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: that at those seasons in which we feel a seismos
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: has come our way, all we need to do is
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: turn to you. We beg you, Lord, to speak to
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the wind. Speak to the waves. And now hear our
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: personal fears as we lift them up to you. Thank you.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Thank you.