When Jesus Returns Will He Find Faith？

Good morning. Well, I think the Lord is speaking to us. Of course, maybe every time you preach a sermon, you feel like the Lord speaking, but, you know, for the last couple of weeks, I've been praying, Lord, what would you have me to say? And I've had stirrings in my heart about revival, about being filled with his Holy Spirit, about the Word of God, showing the thoughts and intentions of my heart and all of our hearts, and preparing us, teaching us what it really means to deny ourselves.

There's so many things, you know, so many things about the walk with God. I wrote all these thoughts down, you know, it could be on taking up your cross, it could be on honesty, it could be on sincerity, it could be on being filled with the Spirit. It could be so many subjects I was writing down.

And I was praying, Lord, to show me which one, and I was almost like to the point, oh, I was even thinking the will of God, how do we know the will of God? I was almost at the point I was just going to do a smattering of all of them, because I didn't know. And I asked the Lord to show me what you would have to speak, and I was speaking with a brother yesterday at my house, and he launched in. One of the thoughts in my heart was faith, and he launched in, and man, by the time of our conversation, it was very evident, you know, we were talking about faith.

And then last night, I was before the Lord, and I prayed, Lord, what would you have? What do you want for your people? And he led me right to a verse. I mean, he doesn't always do that, but he did. And it was actually this passage right here, Mark chapter 4. And the verse I went right to was this.

Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And I was like, wow. Okay, Lord. And I read the story, which we're going to read in a minute.

And I was like, okay, Lord, I see the picture. It's faith. This is what it's supposed to be on.

And then we come this morning, and Brother Mikey leads songs about that last one. What was the last verse? It said, it talked about everything he means for a good purpose. I forget.

Does anybody remember the line? No, the one before that. The last one. Yeah.

And it said, what's that last line there in the verse part? You mentioned it, that brother, the preacher. Yeah, David. He's looking.

Anyway, I got the impression it was like, can I doubt his tender mercies? You know, everything Jesus, Jesus do with all things well. That's what it was. And his mother-in-law said, Jesus do with all things well.

Right. Or his mother. And then look at our Bible study, what it was on.

It was on faith. And then you let another song on faith. So I think the Lord wants us to talk about faith.

And I'm pretty encouraged in that. In Luke chapter 18, we all know this verse. We just talked about it.

But it says, and let's think about this. When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? And immediately we think, well, yes, of course, we'll be the ones, right? Do you think every church probably thinks that? Probably. Yeah.

So let's let Jesus this morning show us where are we at? Shall he find faith on the earth? This verse has been going through my head for the last while. It's found out of Habakkuk chapter two, verse four. And it says this, the just shall live by his faith.

It's repeated three times throughout the New Testament, in the book of Romans, the book of Galatians, and the book of Hebrews. Again, it says, the just shall live by faith. In Habakkuk, it says, the just shall live by his faith.

So many times when I think of the word faith in my life, I would have thought it more of his intellectual thought. But notice the verse does not say, the just shall live by the faith he made in a decision of Jesus 20 years ago. It says he shall live by faith.

He shall live moment by moment by faith. And so... Hang on a second. Turn this phone off so it doesn't rattle.

So that's the question. Do we... Are we living by faith? Are we moment by moment living by faith? Now, what I'd like to do this morning is I'd like you all to turn to Mark chapter four. And I'd like to think about and let the Lord be our teacher if we're living by faith.

And I'll tell you this right now, after reading some of these, I realized the Lord convicted me greatly that I have a lot to learn to grow in faith. You know, the scripture says that we are to build up our most holy faith and then it goes on to say praying in the Holy Ghost. Our command is to build up our faith.

And Peter, Peter the Apostle, one of the pillars that was close to God, he said this. He said, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge patience. And it goes on.

The very foundational thing we need to have in our life that holds up all these other godly characters, whether it's patience, brotherly love, kindness, if it's virtue, if it's patience, like I said, is faith. And we are supposed to be walking by this faith. Now, as we saw with the children's lesson, I find it... Well, I'll read you this.

I read this thing last night. I don't know where and how I found it, some commentary, but it was very eye-opening about these ten virgins. It says this, a lamp is trimmed when the wick is turned either up or down to regulate the amount of a flame.

If a lamp is empty of oil, it does not matter how much more one trims it. The lamp will go out when the oil is consumed or used. Apparently, now he's making a commentary on this passage in Matthew 25 about the ten virgins.

He says, apparently, when events make it obvious Christ's return is immediate, the whole church wakes up in surprise. So some event happens, now this is this guy's view, some event happens to make it obvious that Jesus is about to return. Remember, the guy cries out, Behold the bride who cometh.

He didn't come right away, though. It took a little time. They had time to even go into town and buy.

The whole church wakes up and says, Oh, Jesus is almost coming. I don't know what events, but he says, apparently that happens. Its members get out the Bible to find the answers to where Christ is waiting for them.

But with the oil of the Holy Spirit producing only a dim light, they lack the spiritual insight to find him. It is through the foolish virgins. Sorry, it is as though the foolish versions are stumbling around in the dark, trying to understand the word of God, but they cannot at this point.

The foolish are in a state of panic. They realize they cannot understand and do not have the faith to believe, and they ask for the wise for help to understand. Sobering thought.

When the time comes when we all say, Jesus is coming back, and he's coming back very soon, like maybe the Antichrist rides up, or maybe some amazing event happens, maybe the sun grows dark, I don't know. Something amazing. We all say, Jesus is coming back.

At that point, it will all depend how much we have oil in our vessel. And up to this point, I never quite saw it like this, but will the oil that maybe signifies our faith, will it be so strong at that point to carry us through to the time Jesus gets back? Or will we stumble around in the dark and not understand because we've been living for ourselves, and we have not been living in faith? A sobering thought. So let's turn to Mark chapter 4. The verse the Lord gave me was, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? Let's back up in Mark chapter 4, verse 36.

When they had sent them away, the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with them other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, 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 awoke him and said, Master, we perish. Carest thou not that we perish? And he arose and he rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.

And he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said one to another, What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Now one of the dangers we can do with the Bible is read it and just keep moving on. We can read it and think from hindsight, Well, if I was there, I would have... These foolish disciples, you know, look at them. They're so fearful.

Why are you being fearful? Obviously, the master's in the ship, right? But let's put ourselves in the boat for a couple of minutes. Let's imagine you're out on a lake in a little sailboat. And as this word says, a great storm comes on.

The word is mega in Greek. Megas, big storm comes over. And it says that in one of the Gospels, it says it beat on the boat.

It says the waves were beating into the ship. So now you're sitting in the ship. The winds are... Imagine the times we have some crazy howling winds around here.

I remember a time in Belize where the winds blew so hard that the wind was driving through the windows and into the house. And there was only a small square this big that was dry. It was just blowing.

And we looked out and stuff was flying. Imagine being out on the ocean, nonetheless. Not on solid ground.

The wind is blowing. The sails are flapping, ripping, who knows what. It says it was a great storm.

And not only that, but the waves are coming over the top of the boat. I remember one time, I almost killed my wife doing this. I tried to take a ski boat and I tried to put it through a wave, like a real wave.

I don't know why. I was young and I was foolish, but I was going out and we were coming out of the bay and I looked over and I saw these waves crashing in and these little dingy, like jet ski things, were jumping. And I had like a 19-foot ski boat and I thought, that looks like fun.

So, I endeavored to take the ski boat over to the wave and I'm coming at the wave with my boat thinking this is going to be exciting and the wave starts to come over and I'm realizing, I'm not past the wave yet. And all I can, I can still see it in my mind, the wave is crashing over the boat and we punch through that wave and I'm gunning the gas because I know if I don't get, you know, if the wave is crashing here and I'm here, we're going to be done for. So, I got to get through this wave before it crashes over.

So, it's crashing over. I'm punching through the wave. There was a dog in the front of the boat.

It ended up at the back of the boat and we punched through that wave and I remember hearing the propellers spin freely because on the back side of the waves, they're like this. So, we just came out like this. It was terrifying.

My wife thought, she said, she thought we were going to die and I looked down and the boat was full of water and the engine was dead and another wave was coming and I started the boat and I, thankfully it started and I barely, and the thing was all bogged down. I barely got out of there. Imagine, that was just nothing compared to this.

I mean, they'd been toiling probably for hours in this boat. Waves crashing over and what does this text say? It says, it was now full. It was now full.

The water was filling up in the boat. The storm was howling. The boat was creaking.

And it was now full and they are afraid. Would you be afraid? Is there anybody in this room that wouldn't be afraid? No. Me too.

I'll admit it. And Jesus is sleeping. This is the most astounding story.

I mean, think about it. This is crazy story stuff. Jesus, either we are all gone insane here or we believe in somebody pretty powerful.

He was sleeping in a boat. I mean, it'd be like if you were in a plane and, you know, the pilot comes over and the engines are going out and they're throwing out fire and chunks of the wings are falling off and we're all screaming because we're going to die and we look up and Brother Roger is like taking a nap. There'd be a little bit of an annoyance, honestly.

Like, and then he woke up and he was just at such peace and rest. It's funny and yet condemning at the same time. Think about this.

Jesus wakes up. They say, don't you care. Notice the annoyance in their voice.

Don't you care that we're going to die. Jesus wakes up and he rebukes the wind. It all goes to peace and it says there was a great calm.

We go from a great storm to a great calm in that quick. And then Jesus turns to his disciples and says this. Why are you so fearful? Wouldn't we all say anybody in their right mind would be fearful? How is it to have no faith? Some other gospels say have little faith.

This is challenging and I think we need to let it challenge us because Jesus said when he comes back will he find faith on the earth? He said we are supposed to grow and build up our faith. Think back a year ago. Would you say a year ago your faith has grown stronger in the Lord? Two years ago? You know, it's like we're going up a stream.

If we stop for a minute, we go backwards. This is a war we're in and if we are not building up our faith and growing in faith, we're going backwards. In Matthew chapter 8, you can turn there if you want.

There's another, just another view of the same passage. Verse 24. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea insomuch the ship was covered with the waves, was covered, but he was asleep.

You know, it's even funny in Mark that they mention he was asleep on a pillow. So, do you think that Jesus woke up and like, what in the world's going on? Like, I never saw this coming. Or do you think he knew it was coming? I think he knew.

And I think he orchestrated it for a reason. I think he wanted to teach his disciples something. It's the ultimate dichotomy, think about it.

This way, raging storms, waves beating over, filling the ship, it's about to sink. This way, Jesus is sleeping and is at rest. Hezekiah said that faith is trust.

And that is it, that's the first definition. Faith is trusting in God. I think the biggest thing we can learn from this lesson that Jesus is trying to teach us, and was trying to teach his apostles and disciples, was to trust God through all of life's storms, whatever they are.

Think back last week. What storm came into your life? Just take a minute and think about it, honestly, sincerely. What storm came into your life? I can think back to a couple of times.

What storm came into your life? And I bet you'd probably say it pales in comparison to this storm. I mean, I remember one day, yeah, I was having a little bit of communication between me and my wife. I couldn't seem to communicate properly, and I had a customer sending in tickets, and I had told another brother I'd come and be there at a certain time, and I had like five irons in the fire.

And I felt in that turmoil, like, ooh. And I had to keep reminding myself, this is the Lord's schedule. The Lord wants to teach us to rest in storms.

Think about that. In any storm, would you say that there's any storm that he doesn't want us to rest in? We have a brother and sister back there going through the storm of cancer. We have the Brackets going through a storm of no house.

Think about Jeremy Bracket for a minute. He is working from four in the afternoon to four in the morning, as far as I know, something around like that. His children are living down in an apartment in mother-in-law's house with a brother.

Can you imagine the stress that would go on there? And then in the morning, he's got to take all his children out, or she does, and try to keep them away so she's out of the mom's hair. Jeremy's at work being separated. When they come together, there's the frustrations of all of the situation.

That's a storm. But Jesus wants us to sleep through it. Or does he not? The Bible says to trust in the Lord with all your heart.

And that includes storms like on that lake. I can tell you, I was in a plane once, and Roger was in the same plane. And that thing dropped out of the sky right where we're almost about to land, and that was not fun.

I don't think I would be sleeping on a pillow. I was fearful. And yet, according to what Jesus said, when we're fearful, we don't have faith.

Think about that. When we're fearful about if this cancer's going to kill me, when we're fearful about are we ever going to find a place to put our children and to rent? When we're fearful about all the things coming in at this very moment and all the demands, it's not faith. So the question is, the just shall live by faith.

Are we that person? Are we the just? Are we the righteous one? Are we the one in the new covenant living by faith? We love the song, living by faith in Jesus alone. Trusting, confiding. We can sing songs, really great.

Do we really live by faith? This lesson is not a waste of time. He wanted his disciples to learn this very clearly, that they would rest and not be fearful. I think the biggest thing we can do is to be honest.

I know you've heard me say this before, but the man who went home justified was the man who was honest. And the more we trick ourselves and make excuses like, everybody gets stressed in these situations, or whatever it is, the more we're not being honest with God. I think God wants us to take him at his word and to be honest with him when these things do stress us out, when they do worry us, when we are fearful.

We need to be honest, God. And we need to be honest that it's sin. I still say this to this day.

I remember when I first came to the church, Roger said, Discouragement is sin. And I thought, what? But it's true. Let me ask you this first.

Whatsoever that is not of faith is? Is discouragement of faith? Matthew. Is fear of faith? No. So it's sin.

Think about that. Is being stressed out of faith? Was Jesus ever stressed out? I think you said in your sermon, I heard your sermon back at Living Hope, we never see Jesus running. That was you, right? Yeah.

He was late, but he never was running. Think about that. Do we ever see Jesus running? My wife always says, Why are you running? And I say, Because I don't want people to wait.

But Jesus was never running. He was always about his Father's schedule. So let's be honest.

It's sin. That's what the Lord convicted me of. Fear is sin.

Doubt is sin. Discouragement is sin. And that's what he's trying to teach his disciples here.

And if we want to be disciples, why would we go to certain areas of the scripture and say, Oh, he sent everyone out. He told them to preach all the gospel, and that's for us too. But then this story, we're like, Is this for us? Is this for us too? So as I meditated on that, I kept reading, and I just was shocked at all of the times.

I just kept going in a mark here, and the next chapter, this is the story where, this is the story where he goes, and he casts out an unclean spirit, and then he departs, and he comes to a town, and a man comes up to him, and says, My daughter, this is in Mark chapter 5, he says, My daughter is sick. And he says, I pray she lies to the point of death. I pray you come and lay your hands on her that she may be healed and shall live.

Well, he's on his way, and as he gets going that way, this woman comes and touches him. We all know the story, and he says, I perceive virtue has flown out of me. And he turns to her, and he says, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole.

Go in peace. And then he goes on, and he's still, remember, he's still on his way to help this man whose daughter had just died, and as he was going that way, it says, they came to him and said, My daughter died. And do you know what Jesus' words were? Do not be afraid, only believe.

Think about that. What is he trying to teach his disciples? What is he trying to teach people who follow him? Here this man's daughter just died, and he says, Don't be afraid. Just believe.

He goes into that room, and he raises her from the dead. Then in chapter 6, he sends his apostles out, disciples out. He gives them power of her spirit to heal, and when they come back, they're weary, they're tired.

John the Baptist was just beheaded. They've had a pretty busy ministry. They want to go on a sabbatical.

You ever feel like that? Thank you for the honesty. And they just want to go have a break for a while, and so they go out. Jesus says, Let's go have a break.

Let's go rest. Let's go out to a desert place and rest. But all the people follow him, and they get out into this desert place, and it says, Jesus had compassion on all these thousands of people.

This is in Mark chapter 6, if you want to follow along. In verse 34, he saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them because they were as sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. Verse 35, And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far past.

Send them away that they may go into the country round about, into the villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. If you were tired and on your sabbatical and all these people followed you, and you were expecting a nice rest and relaxation, and it turned out to this, would you feel a little frustrated? Send them away. Yeah.

What does Jesus say to them? The next response, You give them to eat. 5,000 people? If 100 people showed up here next week for shared meal, just 100 over the top of this, what would you do? What's that? This is 5,000. This is 5,000 people.

Are we getting the picture? And he turns to them and says, You give them to eat. What is Jesus trying to teach? John chapter 6. Turn there really quick. Hold your place there and mark.

Let's look at the same version of the story there. Verse 5 and 7. John chapter 6, 5 through 7. He says, He lifted up his eyes. He saw a great company.

5,000 people is a lot of people. I don't think we can fit 160 in here. He says to Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? So he tells them, Give them to eat.

Where are we going to buy the bread? Notice the next verse. It says, And this he said to prove him, for he himself knew what he would do. Now, remember, they were just in a boat.

The storm was coming. They were sinking. They were going to die, like the song we love to sing.

No water can swallow the ship where lies the master of heaven and earth and skies. Right. It's a great song.

But they'd already forgot about that, right? Because he went from an absolute crazy storm to peace. You would think if they were in faith, what would be their first response? Lord, I'll work with God. You can do anything.

What does Philip say? Two hundred pennyworth for six. A bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may take a little. So this is the word denarii.

A denarii is a day's wage. So I did a little math. Today, people earn about 15 bucks an hour times eight for a day's wage times 200.

You know what that is? $24,000. If I'm doing the math right, Jesus is saying, or Philip is saying, $24,000 wouldn't even be enough to feed them a little. Back to Mark chapter 6. So he tells them, you give them to eat, verse 37, Mark 6, 37.

And they said, shall we go and buy 200 pennies worth of bread and give them to eat? And he said, how many loaves have you? Go and see. And when they knew, they said, five and two fishes. And he commanded them to make them all sit down by companies.

And we know the rest of the story. He fed them. He fed 5,000 people out of two fishes and five loaves of bread.

Which one would you have been if he said, you give them to eat? If he told you, ladies, next week we have 200 people show up for shared meal, which one would you have been? Run to Halsey Select or whatever the new name of the store is, right? They probably don't even have food down there for it. Or would you be the one that said, the Lord will provide? Just crank up the fire, just crank up the crockpots, the Lord will provide. Did the Lord put the story in here for us to say that was for them in that time? Or did he put it in here for us to be pricked in our hearts to grow in faith? I'll be honest.

I would be right along with you running to Halsey Select. But I'll be honest with God right now and tell him that. But I want to be, I want to grow in faith.

I want to be a person that believes and trusts in God. Do you want to be a person that believes and trusts in God? When the Lord comes, will he find faith in the earth? Is it our experience that we're living by faith? Please be, I'm not trying to beat up on you. I'm trying to inspire us to go on and to let the word of God show us if we are really pressing in for faith.

And I'm right here with you. I'm saying let's all go on. Let's all go on.

Like Paul said, that his heart's desire is that Christ would be formed in you. And that's what my desire is for all of us, including myself, that Christ would be formed in us. Think about this.

Think about Stephen. When they went to choose him, he was a man full of faith and the Holy Ghost. Think about that.

Before Pentecost, we had these disciples. After Pentecost, we had people that were full of faith. We're after Pentecost, right? Can we be full of faith? It's only our doubt that says we can't, which is sin.

We need to confess it to the Lord. We need to be honest. So anyway, the story goes on.

Mark chapter 6. So after this experience, it says verse 45, in a straight way, he constrained his disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side before unto Bethesda while he sent away the people. And when he had sent away, he departed them away. He departed to a mountain to pray.

And when the even was come, the ship was in the middle of the sea and he was on the land. Interesting. Now he's not in the ship and he saw them toiling in rowing for the wind was contrary to them.

And about the fourth watch of the night, he cometh unto them walking on the sea and he would have passed by them. But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit and cried out for they had all saw him and were troubled. And immediately he talked with them and he said to them, Be of good cheer.

It is I. Be not afraid. And he went up into the ship and the wind ceased and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure and wondered, verse 52, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves for their heart was hardened. Think about that.

Their hearts were hard. They didn't consider... They sat in the ship. They watched Jesus calm a storm.

They sat there and watched him feed 5,000 people and they still somehow didn't gain the spiritual understanding from it. They still didn't get the lesson. The Lord wants to fill our oil.

Right? He wants to teach us spiritual truth, opening the eyes of our understanding and they somehow still missed it. Their hearts were hard. They missed the lesson from the miracle of the loaves.

And now they're sitting in the ship and they're amazed again. And Jesus is trying to teach them what faith is. He's trying to teach them how to live by faith.

I think it's Matthew 14 that gives us the story right there too. Matthew 14. So here he is walking on the water.

They see him coming. The storm's happening and there's a little bit more to the story. He says... Verse 27.

He walks up and he says, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. And Peter answered and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come.

And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the winds boistering, he was afraid and began to sink and he cried, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? An amazing picture.

As he kept his eyes on Jesus, even though the storms were raging, he kept focused on Jesus. He did not sink. But when he looked around and saw the waves, he began to sink.

He began to doubt. In Revelation chapter 21, the first two people being thrown into the lake of fire are the fearful and the unbelieving. We call ourselves believers.

Believers in what? Is it just believers in mental facts that Jesus died? Because when I read what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples it's a whole lot more. It's a whole lot more than facts. It's trusting God in everything.

We can learn three lessons from this or maybe four. The first one is the boat and the storm and the water filling. The biggest storm that can come into your life, whatever it is, God wants you to be in rest and he wants you to be in peace through it.

We may not always do it right. We may fail. We may fail over and over.

But his desire is for us to labor to enter into his rest. Whatever storm and whatever it may be. And if you're like me, I don't even know that I've ever had a storm as bad.

Well, maybe cancer. I would say cancer was as bad as that boat. But most of our little trials that we get so frustrated about are nothing compared to this.

Number two, we learn the story of them and feeding the 5,000. Stressful circumstance. You feed them.

Would you feel a little frustrated at Jesus if he told you that? You feed them. And yet all he was wanting is for him to stand up in faith and say, Lord, I believe you are the Son of God. You can feed these people.

Sometimes we feel tired like the disciples. Overworked. Maybe it's in being a mother.

Maybe it's in your job, your boss. Maybe it's in ministry. Jesus wanted them to press in and trust in him.

The third thing we can learn. By the way, on that last one, we need to learn the lesson and not let our heart be hard. They missed the lesson of the lows because their heart was hard.

The third thing, an impossible thing. How many of you have walked on water lately? Sometimes God wants us to trust in something that seems pretty impossible. And he wants us to learn in faith that the way to accomplish the impossible is to keep our eyes on him.

It says he is the author and finisher of our faith. What does the verse start with? Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher. And sometimes the way seems impossible.

Sometimes we look around and we see the ways. The best thing Peter could have done is turn back to the Lord and say, Lord, I honestly admit I got my eyes on the waves, but Lord, you're here. And he probably would have just started rising again.

The just shall live by faith. Romans 117. Galatians 311.

The just shall live by faith. Hebrews 1038. The just shall live by faith.

In Matthew it says that Jesus could not do many miracles there. Why? Does anybody know? What tied his hands? Yeah, unbelief. Because of their unbelief.

You know, we have a lot of things we want from the Lord, right? We want all of our children to be saved. We want to be an effective witness in this community. We want to know the Lord.

Paul himself said that I may know him. And the power of his resurrection. We want to know him.

But how much of unbelief is in our life? I think the first thing, if we want revival, we're going to have to address this. We're going to have to address where are we at with faith? So like my wife always says, she says, Jeremy, please give us practical steps. So I've got some practical steps.

Number one, let's all recognize that God is the orchestrator of the storm. Let's not act as if this thing came in and somehow caught God off guard. Right? God knew, Jesus knew as he lay asleep in the boat what was going on.

Jesus knew when they were going to feed the 5,000. He said this to Philip to try him. These things don't catch Jesus unawares.

Let's admit that God orchestrates the storms in our life to teach us. I remember years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to get a subscription to a gym. Work out, get strong.

And so I hired a personal trainer. And I went and showed up and we're going to have this great session. And you know, I think that was the last day I went.

I have never been so sore at the end of that training session. He tore my muscles up, it seemed like. He made me go and go and go and I have never felt my muscles so torn.

Why do you think God brings storms into our life? Why does he orchestrate these things? Is he just some evil God that just wants to bring mean things into our life? Everything in the physical life shows us if we want to become strong, we have to put strain on our muscles, we have to work, we have to labor, right? He brings storms into us to work our faith. You know, it's just like my wife has said it before. She says, you know, if it weren't for being a mother, I think I was a pretty holy person.

And then you become a mother and wow, the things that come out of your heart, the evil, disgusting things. See, that's the Lord. He's strengthening and showing you.

Look, you think you're holy? There's still a lot of stuff down there. I'm just going to start, you know, like coffee grinds, just stir it up a little bit and they all come to the top. Where did those come from? That's why he brings storms into our life.

Number two, so recognize God has orchestrated the storm. It says, there hath no temptation taken you but such as common as to man. But God is faithful.

Am I missing a part, Roger? I did that the other night, messed it up. But God is faithful. Am I missing a part there? Yeah.

Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape. And what else? He works all things together for our good. Okay, so God orchestrates a storm.

Two, we need to be honest. The Bible says, if we confess our sins, fear is a sin. Discouragement is a sin.

Doubt is a sin. Stress doubt is a sin. Anxiety is a sin.

We need to confess it and be honest. Say, God, I shouldn't be this. Help me.

Lord, help me to trust you. We have a little idol in our little hearts, and it's us. How many of you, the other night, we had a nice prayer meeting, it was great.

How many of you, when we were asked to all praise the Lord, and we started saying, Lord, we praise you. Did you feel a little awkward? I did. Why? Why did I feel awkward about saying that in front of you? I mean, I can sing, like Gusto, and sing tenor, you know, about praising the Lord, but now I have to say the words.

Why do I feel awkward? Because there's a little idol in our hearts that says, I don't want to, I don't want him to think this of me. You know what's crazy about the devil? Sometimes he says, I don't want him to think that I think I'm holy. Like if I close my eyes and worship the Lord like this, maybe somebody will think that I'm thinking that I'm holy.

What are we doing? We're like thinking about somebody else's thinking that I'm holy. We have a little idol in our heart, and that thing, that little wall, has to be broken down if we're ever going to find revival. We need to think what God cares about us.

Now, we have brotherhood, and there's a reason for that, but the thing is here, we have to be honest. We have to be honest and confess it. Number three, we need to ask for grace.

It says in Romans, we have access by faith into this grace. This is a diagram of a door. We have access by faith into what? Grace.

Here's grace. God wants to give you a whole bunch of grace. You're not going to get any of it until you go through the door of faith.

Let us go to the mercy seat and the seat of grace where God can give us grace to help us in a time of need. He wants to give us help, but we have to ask. Remember when Jesus said, oh, the man said, oh, son of David, have mercy on me.

What did Jesus say? He said, and what would you have me to do? We got to get specific. Lord, I need help with this. I'm doubting.

I'm fearing. I'm whatever it is. We have to ask for grace and go to that throne for help.

And then finally, and this is a hard one, really hard. We read it the other night, Mark 11. Jesus teaches us a concept of faith.

Mark 11. Verse 24. He says.

Well, let's go. Verse 24. Verily I say unto you that whatsoever shall say whoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast in the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he say it shall come to pass.

He shall have whatsoever he hath. Say it. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you will receive them and you shall have them.

Now, there's a qualifier here. He will never give you something that's not according to his will. So, you're going to have to know the heart of the Lord.

You're going to have to know the promises of God before you go to the throne and pray. You're going to have to know it. And so, last thing is believe that you've received it.

First John says, this is the confidence. We have a confidence. John wanted us to have a confidence when we pray.

When we are... This is the confidence we have when we approach God. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.

Do you think God wants to deliver you from fear? So, can you have confidence that he wants to deliver you from fear? Or do you have to say, I'm not sure, Lord. Is it your desire to deliver me? That is absurd. But somehow, we believe things like that.

Now, I'll admit, there are times we don't know. Do you want me to move here? Do you want me to move there? Find out what the will of the Lord is. But there are some things in the scripture we can have confidence to know.

He wants to remove doubt. He wants to remove fear. He wants us to grow in faith.

He wants us to be filled with the Spirit. These are things we can have confidence with. I wanted to leave the last ten minutes, and I know this is a little different, to pray.

So, let's do that. Let's seek the Lord and ask him. Be honest.

Be sincere. If you need to confess something, that's great. If there's nothing in your heart, then just be honest with the Lord about that.

But let's just, let's all get on our knees and let's cry out to God to increase our faith.