Sunday Recap
Mark 4:35-41 (NIV)
There are times in your life that you need to just walk away from the crowd. You have to remove yourself from the crowd if you’re going to hear clearly what the Lord is trying to say to you. One of the reasons people stay in the crowds is because they are afraid of what the Lord is going to say when he gets them in a place of isolation, where he can really talk to them and tell them some things. You need to get a way so you can hear, and so you can spend some time in humility. Being around a crowd and performing works and miracles amongst the crowd will have people beginning to praise you. They will think that what you have and what you’ve done is because of your own merit. Everything that you are and have come from the father above.
*The storm comes when you are being obedient to God
Isn’t it amazing how God will test you when you do what he told you to do. You thought the test would be in whether or not you would follow the instructions, but you follow the instructions and then he allows a storm to rise up in your life. Everyone have been recipients of storms and have experienced tough and tumultuous times, that has you questioning where is God. Who is this that loves you yet allows you to experience your greatest moments of pain. When you find yourself in moments where you can’t take anything else, here comes more bad news.
*Who is this? Jesus answers the question of who he is by what he does. Jesus is the Son of God and does not get tired. Jesus chooses to go to sleep, asking you whether or not you can still trust him even when you don’t hear him? Can you still trust him when he’s not performing miracles in your life? Can you trust his silence in the midst of your storm? When you go through storms you want God to be loud, hollering, and speaking bringing it to calmness, but God says no sometimes he just has to sleep. You put your phone in sleep mode or do not disturb so you can rest, because at times you don’t want to be bothered or give counsel to someone else or hear their burdens. But isn’t interesting that you get upset when Jesus goes on sleep mode, when he silences his notifications. Where would you be as a Christian if you treated the Lord the way you want him to treat you? You don’t always do what the Lord tells you to do, go where the tells you to go, or say what he tells you to say. You may have run from the Lord for a long time, doing what you wanted to do, making the decisions that you wanted to make, but the Lord brought you to a place where you had no other choice but to get down on your knees and call on the name of the Lord to get you out of that thing. If you stayed where you were you wouldn’t be in church today, you’d be in your grave. Thank God that in spite of the fact that you were disobedient and made God wait, he still waited for you and loved you so much he would not allow you to stay where you are, and waited on you until you got yourself together. Maybe you feel like the pieces in your life are just crumbling and you feel like you’re losing constantly, but maybe the Lord is trying to get your attention. He keeps allowing those thorns to arise in your life, because he’s trying to get your attention to turn you away from what it is that is pulling you away from him.
*You’re waiting for the Lord to respond to what you asked, and you don’t understand that he didn’t answer you, but he already dealt with your situation. You keep asking God to open the door and make the way, and you’re crying Lord do you care. He’s ignoring you but he’s already quieted your storms, already turned the situation around, or already opened the door for you. Sometimes you keep praying about it, instead of expecting the manifestation of it. You pray and ask God to do things, but don’t expect that God’s going to answer your prayer. You think that if the prayer is not answered the way you want it then it’s not an answer. God has a way of blowing your mind, while you’re still praying. When you’re praying, If you can get up off your knees sometimes you can see that what you’ve been praying for has already been answered. Prayer works, but sometimes you have to stop praying, get up, and open the door so you can receive your answer.
*Jesus will show you not only does he care but show you who he is. Creation always has to take their mark from the creator. When the Lord says do something just do it. How long do you have to walk with the Lord before you get just an ounce of faith? How many times has the Lord asked you do you still have no faith? How many more situations does he have to place you in, allow you to go through and then bring you out of and you still don’t have enough faith to believe that he is who he says he is. God has not run out of grace, because he is the God of all grace, but God is tired of giving his grace to people that really don’t deserve it. If you want to see prayers answered in your life it takes faith. If you want to see people healed it takes faith. Have enough faith that what you’re asking God for, he can do.
*You can show people the proof that having faith in God works, by just having people look at you. You are a witness that God can change your life, keep you, protect you, watch over you, deliver you, and heal you. Testify that you are living proof that God answers prayer. Replace your fear with faith because storms will keep coming. In the midst of your storm learn how to have enough faith that the one who brought you to the storm is the one that will carry you in the storm, and bring you out of the storm when it’s ready to come to an end. When you’re afraid it makes you ask questions.