Faith or Fear

Male: Hey, Porch. Join me as we read God's Word together from the gospel of Mark, chapter 4, verses 35-41.

"On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, 'Let us go across to the other side.' And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.

And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?' And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace! Be still!' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, 'Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?' And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'"

Now our seventh message in our series called Disciple.

Timothy Ateek: What's up, Porch? How are we doing tonight? Hey, I do want to give a quick shout-out to everyone watching online tonight. Porch.Live Springfield, welcome to the mix. I know you guys are new, getting up and running. We have Porch.Live Fresno and Porch.Live Scottsdale. It's amazing that you guys are jumping in with us.

Hey, my name is Timothy Ateek. I'm one of the pastors here. I am not normally here on Tuesdays, but I love any chance I get to be here. I did not know I was going to be here tonight. I got a call this morning, probably between 9:00 or 10:00, from Kylen. He was like, "Hey, man. Do you remember when you had your child on a Tuesday at Breakaway and you needed someone else to speak?" I was like, "Yes." He was like, "I need you to do that for me tonight," because Kash Levi Perry was born today.

I don't know if they have the livestream on just to introduce Kash to The Porch. That would be a good way to start his first day on this earth. Brooke and Kylen, we are so excited for you guys and can't wait to meet Kash. So, that means you have me tonight, and I'm so glad to be here with you on election night.

Anytime I have the chance to teach the Word of God, I love to give people an opportunity to pray before we do that. If you join us on Sundays… And if you don't have a home church, please come join us on Sundays. We'd love to have you. Right now, I want to invite you to take a second and pray. Say, "God, would you speak clearly to me tonight?" Then I want to invite you to pray for the people around you. Just say, "God, speak clearly to them." Then I want to ask you to pray for me. Just say, "God, would you speak clearly through TA to us tonight?"

Lord, I pray that you'd give us eyes to see you and ears to hear from you. God, I pray that our hearts would be receptive to all that you want to say. In Jesus' name, amen.

I wasn't planning on being here, as I have already shared, so I'm just going to warn you from now. I am giving a talk I have given at The Porch before about two and a half years ago. Some of this might sound familiar to some of you. I'm okay with that. I am not under any impression that you remember what I said two and a half years ago, and sometimes a movie is better the second time you see it. So, I hope it's an encouragement to you. If some of the stories are familiar, you can just laugh as hard as you did the first round. That'll make me feel really good.

Several years ago, when my two boys… I have three boys now, but when my two oldest boys were about 2-1/2 and 5 months old, I made a very unfortunate decision as a dad, and that was to attempt to drive from Austin to Dallas with my two boys but without my wife. I was planning to fly solo, just myself.

So, we began to make our way up I-35, and for the first hour of the trip I was crushing it as a dad, primarily because both kids were asleep. Then we got to around the Temple area, if you're familiar with that drive up 35, and my kids were awake, so I decided it was time for us to stop off at the Chick-fil-A in Temple to have lunch.

So, I pulled into the parking space at the Chick-fil-A of Temple, Texas, and I sat for a minute and evaluated everything that needed to happen in order for me to get in and out with my two boys without dying. I felt like I had my game plan. I got out of the car. I had Andrew in the car carrier in one hand. I had the diaper bag slung over my chest. I had Noah, my 2-1/2-year-old, in the other hand, and we walked into Chick-fil-A.

You could just see the sympathy on the Chick-fil-A worker's face. He was like, "My pleasure." It's always their pleasure, but this time it was absolutely his pleasure. So, we go into the Chick-fil-A. I order, and we sit down. Everything is going perfectly during lunch until my 5-month-old, Andrew, who's in the car seat, just destroys his diaper. Right there in the middle of my #1 with no pickles and Chick-fil-A sauce, he absolutely destroyed his diaper.

It was the type of thing that if I was going to be a good dad, I'm not going to finish my lunch before changing him; I'm going to change him now. So, I gathered up all of our stuff. We went into the bathroom of the Chick-fil-A in Temple, Texas. I pulled down the changing table. I put my 5-month-old on it. I told my 2-1/2-year-old, Noah, "Stand right here. Just stand right here."

I begin ferociously wiping Andrew down. I'm trying to clean this kid off. Right as I'm cleaning him off, he goes to the bathroom, a different number this time, and he floods the changing table. Like, this thing is out of order. He floods the changing table, and right as he floods the changing table, I use my last wet wipe.

I just want to put you there, people. I want you to imagine. Here I am in the Chick-fil-A of Temple, Texas. I am holding a bare-bottomed baby up in the air with nowhere to put him and nothing to clean him up with. You might be like, "That sounds like worst-case scenario." It wasn't. Do you want to know what the worst-case scenario was? The worst-case scenario was holding a bare-bottomed baby in the air with nowhere to put him and nothing to wipe him down with, looking left just in time to see your 2-1/2-year-old playing with the urinal cake. That's the worst-case scenario.

So, let's talk about stress tonight, because I will tell you, when I was standing there in that bathroom, I felt stressed out, overwhelmed, and out of control. That is what I felt in that moment. And that was just for a day. Praise the Lord, I got out of that situation, and that stress only lasted for a brief time, but here's the reality. Some of you guys have much more significant things going on in your life, and it's causing stress.

We're talking about it on election night, because some of you just sang, "I trust God," but the reality is you might feel like the world is over if your candidate doesn't win. You're like, "Man, is this it? Am I leaving the country? Is Jesus coming back tomorrow?" For you, it's deeply stressful. Or maybe your life has just not turned out how you thought it would at this age. Maybe you're not living up to your own expectations, and that's really stressing you out.

Or it's that time of year where bonuses are that close, and you're beginning to wonder, "How much is it going to be? Am I going to get it? Will there be a promotion? Is there not going to be a promotion? Am I about to lose my job? Is my company going to downsize?" Inflation is kind of a thing. Holidays are coming up. For some people, that spells disaster when it comes to being with family.

Maybe you're in a relationship, and you're wondering what the timeline of this thing even is. There's just so much to be stressed out about. Some of you are stressed and don't even know why you're stressed. You just know you are. If any of those things are going on in your life, I wouldn't be surprised if you feel what I felt standing in that Chick-fil-A bathroom. If you're honest, you feel stressed out, overwhelmed, and out of control.

Here's the good news: according to the Scriptures, stress isn't inevitable; it's actually optional. I want to invite you into peace tonight, and I want to share four truths from the Word of God that speak directly to your peace. What you do with these four truths will have everything to do with whether your soul feels chaotic or calm tonight and in the days ahead. It will impact whether you live under pressure or filled with peace. Stress isn't inevitable; it's actually optional.

If you have a Bible, I want to invite you to turn with me to Mark, chapter 4. Now, as you're turning there, I really need you to listen, because some of y'all just heard me say that stress isn't inevitable; it's actually optional, and that stressed you out. It stressed you out that I said you shouldn't be stressed out. Here's what I want to make sure you hear. Some of you guys in here have clinical anxiety. If that's you, I want to make sure you know I'm not speaking about your clinical anxiety, your anxiety disorder. That's not what I'm speaking to tonight.

So, I want you to feel the weight lift from you that I'm not trying to put a weight on you that's going to feel crushing right now. I'm speaking to the everyday stress that the good majority of us allow to weigh us down when we have a Savior and a King who is before all things, and in him all things hold together. I'm trying to invite us closer to Jesus and to peace.

So, we're looking at Mark, chapter 4. The gospel of Mark was written by a guy named John Mark. John Mark was not an eyewitness to the things he wrote. He actually got his accounts of what we're reading from Peter. He was a disciple of Peter. If you're not familiar with the Bible, Jesus had twelve really close friends, but there were three of those twelve friends he spent extra time with, and their names were Peter, James, and John. Peter was one of the people who was closest to Jesus.

A lot of people in the early church, the first-century church, viewed Mark's gospel as Peter's memoirs. John Mark is learning from Peter's eyewitness accounts. John Mark wrote this book to portray the person and mission of Jesus Christ for Roman Christians undergoing persecution under Nero, so I would imagine that they felt stressed out, overwhelmed, and out of control. So it was helpful for these Christians, who were undergoing persecution from Nero, to hear a story about Jesus calming a storm. So, let's pick it back up. We just read it, but listen to it again. It sets the scene for us.

"On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, 'Let us go across to the other side.' And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?'"

I love this passage so much. I just want you to get what is happening here. You have Jesus and his friends. They begin to go across the Sea of Galilee. What you need to understand is the Sea of Galilee is situated at about 700 feet below sea level and is surrounded by hills. I've been on the Sea of Galilee before. It is known for sudden and violent storms. Jesus and his friends find themselves in one of these sudden and violent storms.

What's interesting, though, is to think about who was on the boat with Jesus. If you're familiar with the Bible and you're familiar with what the occupations were of several of Jesus' friends, what was their occupation? They were fishermen. At least four of them were fishermen, which means the Sea of Galilee had been their office. These were boat guys, yet these guys, who officed on the Sea of Galilee, find themselves in a storm that has them freaking out, which I find really interesting.

I believe this was the worst storm they had ever experienced in their life, because we don't see even the professional fishermen saying, "Hey, guys, we've been here before. You do this. You sit here. We're going to make it. Don't freak out. This is just what happens on the Sea of Galilee." No. The professional fishermen are like, "This is it! This is it! We are going to die." As water fills the boat, stress fills their souls. Why? Because they're no longer in control, which shows us the very first truth we need to understand about stress.

1. At the root of your stress is a lack of control. You realize that. Right? At the root of your stress is a lack of control. Just think right now about what you can't control. You can't control the outcome of the election tonight. You can't control how much free time you have. You can't manufacture a 30-hour workday.

You can't control whether you're going to get that raise or not. You can't control chronic pain. You can't control your loved one's health. You can't control it. At the root of your stress is a lack of control. So, that's where we have to start. Now, if that is true, if at the root of your stress is a lack of control, you're going to love the second truth I have for you.

2. God will intentionally lead you into situations you cannot control. No one is saying, "Amen" to that. Isn't that great news? At the root of your stress is a lack of control, and great news: God will intentionally lead you into situations you cannot control. Do you remember whose idea it was to go across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee? It was Jesus'. Jesus was and is God, which means Jesus knew he was inviting his friends to cross the sea at the exact same time as an "I think we are going to die" type of storm was going to be brewing.

So, I have to believe Jesus intentionally led them into the storm. If you were to go and read this book, you would see that's what God has a tendency of doing. He consistently leads his people into situations they cannot control. Think about Joseph in the book of Genesis. He's thrown into a well and sold into slavery by his brothers. The nation of Israel was busted out of Egypt and led by Moses, but where did Moses lead them? To a dead end at the Red Sea.

Daniel was thrown into a lions' den. Zechariah and Elizabeth were old, wrinkly, and barren. This is what God does. He will intentionally lead his people into situations they cannot control. The problem with that is we love control. Some of you guys are budding control freaks. Some of you guys are in full bloom. You know who you are. You're like, "Yeah, that's me. I love control." You want to have every single aspect of your life under control.

Hair has to be perfect. Clothes have to be perfect. Weight on the scale has to be perfect. Organization on the desk…perfect. Your day has to go exactly how you planned. You need everything under control. If you're one of those people who needs every single aspect of your life under control, do you know what your life is going to feel like? Some of y'all have heard me share this before. It's going to feel like trying to carry a big pile of laundry.

Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, you go to the dryer. You open up the door. And we're busy people. Right? So we only have time for one trip from the dryer to the couch or to wherever we're taking our laundry. So, you reach in there, and you scrape the insides of the dryer until something in your mind clicks, like, "Yep, I got it all. I have every article of clothing in my grasp."

Then you begin to make the walk, and as you are making the walk, something triggers inside, like, "Hey, just look back," and when you look back, what do you see? Man down. Sock down. Now, this is where we display our brilliance, because instead of taking that pile of laundry, dropping it off, and coming back… No. We're busy. We develop this very noble and heroic mantra of "No sock left behind," so we back up to the sock and try to balance the entire pile on one hand, as if we were crushing it with two hands.

Just when you get that sock, what do you see? Tighty-whities down. (And shame on you for never switching to boxers. What are you doing with your life?) Look. If you need to have everything of your life in control, this is going to be your reality. You're going to feel like, "Man, I am crushing life" one day, and then the financial sock is going to fall.

Just when you feel like you get that back under control, there goes your relationship status. Just when you get that back in control, okay, here comes your parents' divorce. It's just one thing after another where you want control and can't have it. I think it begs the question…If Jesus loves us, why does he lead us into situations we can't control? It feels unloving. I'll answer that before we're done.

3. You don't have to be in control, because Jesus already is. We sang about that tonight. Here's the great news. On the night of the 2024 election, you don't have to be in control, because Jesus already is. Your candidate doesn't have to win, because Jesus Christ already reigns, which is really good news. You don't have to be in control, because Jesus Christ already is. Watch how things play out for the disciples. Look back at the text. Chapter 4, verse 39:

"And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Peace! Be still!' And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, 'Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?' And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'"

This is amazing. They come to him, and I love their question. Their question is, "Do you not care that we're perishing?" That's how real the Bible is. They are coming up to God in the flesh, and they're like, "You don't even care." Jesus wakes up, and he begins to speak to the storm. And what are the words that come out of his mouth? "Peace! Be still!"

Now, this is where you have to learn to see the Scriptures… You have to start putting yourself into the story, because sometimes we get the wrong picture of Jesus, like he's groggy, just woke up from a nap, and he's like, "Oh, man. Peace. Peace. Be still." No. When he says, "Peace, be still," he uses the Greek word phimoō. Phimoō is the same word he used back in chapter 1 of Mark when he cast out a demon. It literally means to muzzle.

So, don't imagine him saying, "Peace. Be still." Imagine him saying, "Shut up! Be quiet!" It's like putting a muzzle on an unruly dog. When I read this, I thought of this TV show that used to be on. It was probably long before y'all's time. It was called Dog Whisperer. Dog Whisperer was this show about this world-renowned dog trainer named Cesar Millan.

The way the show would go is it would open with this montage of clips of an unruly dog. The dog would be barking and biting his owner and eating an entire couch in one sitting, and then Cesar would show up and knock on the door. The dog would come up, and Cesar would just look at the dog and go, "Tsch! Hey!" The dog would stop what it was doing, do the head tilt, and fall over and die. It was crazy.

I read this, and I'm like, "Yeah, Jesus is the sea whisperer." Jesus just steps up and is like, "Tsch! Hey! Be quiet! Be silent! Peace! Shut up! Put a muzzle on it!" And in a moment in time, the sea goes from chaotic to calm. What if the great calm of the sea could be the great calm of the soul? Do you know what I love? Everyone on the boat is freaking out, but did you see the word but in verse 38?

When you learn Bible study methods, people tell you to look out for the but, because the but marks a contrast. So, if I'm studying the Scripture, I want to put a box around that. It's something you want to highlight and zero in on, because what the author of the text is trying to show you is what's coming after the word but is very different than what came before it. What comes after the but? "But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion."

Everyone is freaking out. Jesus is asleep. How was he able to sleep through the storm? Because he wasn't threatened by the storm. Those waters had been made by God simply speaking. Surely they could be calmed in the exact same way. Whether it's the election that's causing you stress or one of the other many things I mentioned, I believe God is inviting many of us and saying, "Hey, look. The great calm of the sea can be the great calm of the soul." He wants to speak peace into your life tonight.

That can sound really nice and flowery. It's like, "Okay. TA, this guest speaker, is just saying, 'Oh, just be at peace.'" That sounds really good in this room, but then when you leave it's like, "I don't even know what that looks like." The good news is the apostle Paul tells us the way. Listen to what he says in Philippians 4:6-7.

"…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So, let's unpack that really quickly.

He says, "…do not be anxious about anything…" That is a command from God through Paul to us. "Do not be anxious about anything." Do you know what anything means in the Greek? Anything. That's what it means. It means anything. "Do not be anxious about anything." At least in my Bible (you can check yours) there's not an asterisk next to the word anything that points me to a footnote at the bottom of the text giving me caveats.

"Do not be anxious about anything…except at the 2024 election when you only have two options, Harris or Trump. Do not be anxious about anything…except when your relationship status feels like it is falling apart. Do not be anxious about anything…except when you haven't lived up to your expectations and life just isn't what you thought it would be at the age of 28." No. "Do not be anxious about anything."

Then he goes on. "…but in everything…" Everything means everything. "…by prayer and supplication…" What's his point? If something is stressing you out, God wants to hear about it. Whatever is stressing you out right now, have you talked to God about it? I'm not asking if you have talked at God about it. I'm asking you if you have invited him in. Sometimes we want to talk at God about what's stressing us out, but we want to keep the ball in our court. We really don't want to give it over to him. We keep trying to control and manage. So, what I'm asking you is if you have invited him in.

Paul says, "By prayer and supplication," and then watch this word: "…with thanksgiving…" Now, this is where I feel like my tendency is to think Paul messed up and erasers didn't exist back then. He was like, "Okay. You're stressed out. You're anxious, but don't be anxious. You have to pray about it, and then thanksgiving… Oh, shoot! No, you don't thank God yet. He hasn't done anything about it. You save that to the end." No.

Our tendency is to think the order of things is something happens, we stress out, we pray, God does something about it, and then we say, "Thank you." Paul is like, "No, that's not how it works." Something happens, you start stressing out, you start praying about it, and you start thanking God right in the midst of the uncertainty. Have you ever tried that? Have you ever stopped in the midst of the stress and started thanking God for what he has done in the past?

When you remember that God has been faithful, it reminds you that he's capable. He has been faithful in the past. He's capable with your present. So try that. Just start looking back and thanking God for what he has already done. But I also want to encourage you to try thanking God for what he will do. Have you ever tried that? "God, I thank you in advance for what you're going to do."

Now, what I'm not talking about right now is a "name it and claim it" thing, that if you just pray and ask God for it… If you ask him for $10,000 tomorrow, it's just going to show up in your mailbox. That's not what I'm talking about. "Thank you, God, that you're going to give me a new car this week." That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just saying you put your confidence in God.

"Thank you. God, I'm going to make it this week because you're in control of my life. I don't know how you're going to figure this out. I don't know what you're going to do, but I do know you are in control. You're before all things, and in you all things hold together, so I'm grateful, because I'm safe in your hands. I can't see a way out, but just because I can't doesn't mean you can't, so I trust you." Thank him for what he will do.

"…let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will…" That's a promise from God through Paul to you. It doesn't say it might guard your hearts and minds. It says it will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Do you want to know what stress ultimately is? Stress is simply a distress signal from your soul that you're looking inward instead of upward. You're looking to yourself for the solution. You're looking for control that you don't have. Paul's point is, "Hey, stop looking inward; start looking upward." You have been made to look upward. Put your trust in him.

4. When you can't control life, you have two options: fear or faith. Those are your two options: fear or faith. The normal and natural response to a lack of control is fear. That's what stress is. It's when you don't have control, when you can't see the outcome, when you can't see how something is going to turn out, and it causes fear. That's what stress is. It's fear of the unknown.

Fear was the disciples' response. We know that because Jesus asked them, "Why are you afraid?" But look at what else he says. Look back at the text. Verse 40: "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" Jesus' point is, "Hey, you actually had two options. You chose fear, but you had the option of faith." Why did they have that option? Because Jesus, the one who calms storms, was in the boat.

So, his point was, "You chose fear when you had the option of faith because the one who just has to say the word was in the boat." Maybe God brought you here tonight so you could simply hear that stress isn't inevitable; it's optional. You do have a choice. Why? Because Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the one who just has to say the word, is in the boat of your life, and he cares. He's passionate about your peace.

If you ever question if God cares about your peace, all you have to do is look at the cross of Jesus Christ, because the cross is a message of peace. Colossians 1:19 says, "For in him [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross."

Just listen to this. Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the dead so we could experience peace. On the cross, Jesus Christ was crucified, punished for your sins and mine, and when he declared on the cross, "It is finished!" it was the same thing as Jesus saying, "Shut up!" to the storm. When he declared, "It is finished," that was his way of saying, "Be quiet" to a different storm, the storm of sin that threatened to separate you and me from him for all of eternity. He has gone to the cross and conquered the grave, making peace.

If this is your first time at The Porch, if you don't know anything about Christianity, then I want to make sure you hear what I'm saying. Our message tonight isn't "Do better. Try harder." It's, "Hey, there's peace available with the God of the universe." You can leave tonight having peace with your Maker. You don't have to lie awake on those nights where it's just you and your thoughts and wonder, "If I were to die tonight, what's going to happen? If I stand before God and he looks at me and asks, 'Why do you deserve to be in heaven…?'"

You don't have to wonder. Jesus Christ came to make peace between you and God. He takes all of your sin and gives you all of his righteousness, so when the God of the universe looks at you, do you know what he sees through faith in Christ? He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ his Son, which is incredible. You can have peace with God tonight, but the only way it comes is through faith. It's inviting Christ into your life. It's giving your life to Jesus and saying, "Jesus, I don't want to do life without you anymore. If you're the one and only one who can make peace with God, I want you. I want you to be the King of my life."

Jesus cares about your peace. If you ever question if God is in control, all you have to do is look at the empty tomb, because that's where Jesus Christ took his life back from the grave. That's why Jesus can say in Revelation, chapter 1, that he holds the keys to death and hades. He is sovereign and in control of all things.

So, it brings us to this question…If Jesus loves us, then why would he lead us into situations we can't control? Here's the simple answer: it gives him an opportunity to show up in your life. The worst thing he could ever do for you is let you go your whole life thinking you are self-sufficient to let you get to the end of your life and stand before God and realize that without a Savior you have nothing. What if Jesus loves us so much he knows there's more joy waiting for us in dependence upon him than in control of our own lives? What if he cares so much about our joy that he invites us into situations where we have no choice but to depend on him?

You know, it's interesting. I said you have two choices, fear or faith, but I want you to look back at the wording of verse 41. What's their response when Jesus calms the storm? It says, "And they were filled with great fear…" You would think it would say, "And they were filled with great faith." Jesus says, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" They should be filled with faith now, but it says Jesus said, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" and they were filled with great fear. That feels off.

It's a different type of fear. Do you know what faith is? Faith is choosing not to fear your circumstances because you fear the one who's in control of your circumstances. See, it's a different type of fear. It's a fear driven by faith. It's not the opposite of faith; it's the product of faith. It's believing that the one who's in the boat of your life is in control and can give peace.

I'll close by showing you one more thing in the Scriptures. Years ago, I was battling some stress and anxiety in my life, so I went to see a biblical counselor. A biblical counselor is someone who opens up the Bible, listens to what's going on in your life, and then shares Scripture with you to encourage you with it.

So, I sit with him. I share with him what's causing me stress, and guess where he takes me in the Bible: Mark, chapter 4. He opens up Mark, chapter 4, and tells me the story about Jesus calming the storm. I'm like, "That's so great. Thank you so much. I paid a lot of money just for you to show me that story. Okay. That's great."

But this is the thing I remember. Before that session was over, he said, "Hey, man. You have to see Acts, chapter 12." I was like, "What's Acts, chapter 12?" He had me turn over to Acts, chapter 12, which is a story about Peter. Peter was one of the guys in the boat. What's interesting is we don't know who ran to Jesus and said, "Do you not care that we're perishing?" but if you know anything about Peter, it sounds like something he would say. We don't know for sure. Peter was a "Speak first, think second" kind of guy.

But we do know that question articulates what everyone in the boat was thinking. "Do you not care?" So this is amazing. Turn to Acts, chapter 12. It's a story about Peter. King Herod has just put James to death. He sees that people are so excited that he put James to death that he arrests Peter, and what the text leads us to believe is, on that night, Herod plans to put Peter to death. So, here Peter is on another night with a different storm where his life is on the line, but listen to what Peter is doing. This is amazing. Watch this.

"Now when Herod was about to bring him out, on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, 'Get up quickly.' And the chains fell off his hands."

So, just think about this. Follow me on this. Peter is on the boat. He runs to Jesus, and what's Jesus doing? He's sleeping. What's their question? "Do you not care that we're perishing?" Jesus gets up, calms the storm, goes to the cross, conquers the grave, comes to Peter, looks at Peter, and says to him in John 21, "You follow me."

Peter took him so seriously that on another night, with another storm where his life is on the line, he's like, "I know exactly what to do. I go to sleep. He said, 'Follow me.' I know what to do when storms in life come. I sleep peacefully." He's sleeping so peacefully that an angel shows up and it's not enough. Did you see the text? The angel comes in. Light shines. He's still asleep. The angel has to strike him to wake him. It's amazing. He's like, "Dude, get up. I'm an angel. You should be up by now."

So it's instructive. If sleeping peacefully when death is knocking at the door is the goal, then can't we all agree that we probably all have some room to grow? Tonight, are you going to sleep peacefully? Whenever you find out who wins this election, are you going to be able to sleep at night? What's going to keep you up tonight? Will you lie down and go to sleep, knowing that the Prince of Peace, the one who just has to say the word, is in the boat of your life and he cares? Let's pray together.

I just want to invite you right now. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have people up front who are available and ready to pray with you. So, if it would be helpful to you to talk to someone or have someone pray with you over what's stressing you out, you can totally do that. We're going to sing in just a minute, but if you need to ask your friend to pray over you, to put a hand on you and pray over you and whatever is stressing you out, you should do that.

You don't have to rush out of this place. You can sit here and do business with the Lord and just wait on him to bring peace into your life for whatever it is. If you're here tonight, and you don't have a relationship with Jesus, and you're realizing for the first time that Jesus Christ wants to give you peace with God, then I want to encourage you right now to invite Christ into your life.

So pray with me. Just say, "Lord Jesus, would you come into my life tonight? Thank you, Jesus, that you died for me. Thank you that you rose from the dead for me. Would you come into my life? Would you forgive me of all of my sins? Would you make me at peace with God, and would you lead me in a new life?"

If you just received Christ into your life, my encouragement to you is to tell someone tonight. For everyone else here, this is time for you to… Maybe you need to sing in response to declare that you trust Jesus. Maybe you need to sit and pray. Whatever you need to do, if you need to come up and have someone pray for you, this is a time for you to respond to God.

We need you and we love you. In Jesus' name, amen.