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We don't need to surrender. This is Pocket. I never go anywhere without it. At the tap of a button, it records and creates organized notes based on your conversations. I use it at work, at the doctors, and when I'm out and about. I want to talk to you today about sinking in the storm, the feeling that you get sometimes that you're overwhelmed, the feeling that you get sometimes that there's too much month and not enough money, too much need and not enough me to meet it all, that spread-thin feeling, that feeling that you get, and it doesn't always announce itself, and all of a sudden there is a storm, and you find yourself sinking in the storm. Ain't it crazy how you can be singing in the church and just a few days later find yourself sinking in the storm? This place is a place that God has prepared for us to prepare us for the storms of our life. You cannot be a student of Jesus without storms as your classroom. In the Bible, it says, anything else would make you arrogant. Anything else would make you write a parenting book, and your oldest kid is three. You're three months pregnant talking about how to raise teenagers God's way. What's wrong with you? Go through a storm, and then you'll have something to say. In this season of your life, God is calling you to be a student of your storm. What does this have to do with thinking? Well, it's amazing to me how quickly I can go from stepping on the water, so to speak, to sinking. I can really shift quickly from being focused on God to falling down and finding myself in emotional states that do not resemble the fruit of the Spirit. Okay, just me. Just me. Look at your neighbor and say, "It can happen quick." It can happen real quick. If your neighbor is looking like they don't know what I'm talking about, cut them off in traffic on the way out and see how quick they go from lifting their hands to lifting one finger. It can happen just that quick. Can it? Even your phone can buzz in your pocket, and it might not even be the person you don't want to hear from with the news you don't want to hear, but just the buzz itself can disrupt your peace. Can it? Even the buzz in your pocket can feel like a shock collar just reminding you that your challenges are out there in the world. Sometimes it can happen just that quick. I'm so glad that Jesus is a Savior, because I'm a sinner, so I need one. I have sinful thoughts. All of my thoughts aren't holy thoughts, good thoughts, pure thoughts, and so I need Jesus for my sinful thoughts, which can become sinful actions, which can become sinful patterns, which may not send me to hell but may make my life on earth feel like a living hell. I'm so grateful that Jesus is a Savior, and I am also so thankful that he is not a surface-level Savior, that he doesn't just save me from hell when I die, but he saves me from the hell of hell. I'm so grateful that Jesus is a Savior, and I am also so thankful that he is not in my head as he transforms my mind and brings me through life's challenges. I need salvation in my soul. That's my mind, my will, my emotions. I need Jesus to teach me how to think. In this passage we just read, there's a conversation between the student of Jesus and Jesus the Savior, and Jesus is watching him sink in the storm. By the way, have you been feeling like you're sinking in a storm lately? In your life, and it doesn't have to even be bankruptcy. It doesn't even have to be something so catastrophic that everybody would take up money for you if they knew about it. It doesn't have to be the worst thing that ever happened in your life. I just found that a lot of times I find myself in like a funk or maybe even a full-blown feeling of depression, and in those moments when God is watching me sink into those states, I'm grateful that he does not give me surface-level answers like church people do, because church people will tell you, "Rejoice in the Lord always," but they ain't rejoicing in the Lord. They've only been rejoicing in the Lord because they had a good week. Catch them next week, and they might have a different answer. It can happen that quick. Jesus watching Peter fall in the middle of a storm that had been raging all night... Remember, he's been going through this all night, and he steps out, and he's walking, and he's sinking, and he cries out, "Lord, save me." I think that's an important phrase. One great theologian who just went to be with the Lord, Dr. John MacArthur, used to say, "A lot of us refuse Jesus as Lord, but we want to use Jesus as Savior." So I think it's important that he called him Lord before he called on him to save him. I'm trying to say that God wants far more for your life than to just save you from stupid stuff that you do. He wants far more for your life than to just clean up the messes that you make because you never spend time with them. God wants far more for your life. Than to have to redeem years that you waste because you never get aligned with him. So now Peter calls out, "Lord, save me." The Bible says immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. Now, we focus a lot, and I really preach this a lot at age 16, how Peter had the faith to step out when Jesus said, "Come." Somebody shout, "Come." That's a command. When Jesus gives a command, you can obey it with confidence. When Jesus gives a command, you don't have to start doing the math on how it's going to work out. When Jesus gives a command, he already has the details in mind for how he will meet that need before you even know about the need. So when he says, "Come," take a step, and then we talk so much about the command that we neglect the question that I think is just as powerful as the command. He said, "Come." Peter's coming. He said, "Walk." Peter's walking. He gave the word, and Peter is walking not on water but on water. One word from Jesus. I could preach a whole message about walking on one word, just one word that God gives you, and you can hang on through something that you never would have made it through without that word. One word from Jesus, the command to come. But then comes the question. After he caught him, he said, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" Why did you doubt? Because if I can get beneath the surface of why you're sinking, I can maybe stop it from happening. A lot of times we sink into things, and we don't stop and ask why. A lot of times we get triggered by something, and after you get triggered, see, you get trapped, and you don't even realize how you got triggered until you're already trapped. I'll break it down for you. I can see we need a real-life example right now. When Holly and I first got married, we went on a cruise. I saved up for the cruise. It was a Princess Cruise. She's a little step up from some of the other cruises you can buy. I was so proud of that cruise and so broke after I paid for it. Three days on the cruise, she was very quiet one day, and when she got quiet on that cruise, it triggered something inside of me that I didn't know because I equated quiet with bored. So when she got quiet, I started to get angry because she was quiet. For Holly, quiet means relaxed. Of you, we're together just being. This is what she was saying. Your essence alone is so captivating. We don't even need a conversation. But I interpreted her quiet as boredom, and we would fight for years in our marriage. Anytime she would get quiet, I would think, "you don't like it here?" "This isn't good enough for you?" "Your dad took you on better vacations?" "What, you don't need my vacation?" "No, I'm relaxed." But see, just in such a stupid illustration like that, you see how years can go on because I'm reading her mind. They're being trained with information that is not true data. I am triggered by something that isn't even true. But by the time I recognize what I'm triggered by, I'm already trapped in it, and now we're fighting. So now it's not that we never get triggered in our marriage, but here's what we do. I want to teach you how to do this. We catch it quicker. We catch it quicker. Touch your neighbor and say, "catch it quicker." Catch it quicker before you blow up on them, before you go off on them, before you hit send on the text. Proofread it. Hire yourself as a copy editor. And check that thing one more time. Do you really want to say you never? Do you really want to say you always? Do you really need six exclamation points? Is it really worth that emoji? Is that emoji worth the emotional expense of what you are going to spend the next week cleaning up? And all of that could have been canceled if you would have caught it quicker and read the text and woke up in the morning with fresh eyes and said, "I think I'll just have a conversation." But we get triggered, and then we get trapped. And that's why the Lord sent a preacher to you today to give you truth, because the truth can keep you out of the trap. Preach the word, Larry Stevens Furnick Jr. I believe I will. So when you start sinking, you get beneath the surface. And this is what we need to learn to do. Now, they'll tell you that in therapy. If you go to therapy, they'll talk about triggers and traps and cognitive distortions. You sound like you've been in therapy, Pastor Steve. No comment. We need therapy. We also need theology to produce real faith and real change in our life. So I want to show you something that I couldn't end the series without showing you from Isaiah 55 and overlay it for this situation that you're facing in your life, the situation where he's stepping, stepping, stepping, doing pretty good, and then sinking and doesn't even really understand why. Look at Isaiah 55. I was debating where to start, because, the whole passage is so rich. But for the sake of time, I think I'll start around verse 6, 7. Let me start at 6. Isaiah 55, verse 6. Yeah, I did it on purpose. Isaiah 55, verse 6. Now, listen to me. This is an invitation to all of you who have been sinking in the storm. The Lord offers an invitation. The wind is the trigger, and the sinking is the trap, and sometimes you feel like you're drowning in it before you even know what it is. But this is the word of the Lord. And this will be very rich to you for the trials that you're going through. The Lord says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near." Let's read that again. "Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near." I'm coming back to that. Call on him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. This is interesting language. I'll read the whole passage, but that's where I want to camp out around verse 6 or 7. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord, as the heavens are higher than the earth. So my ways are higher than your way. God says, "I know how to do my job." God says, "I know who to let leave you." God says, "I know who to bring into your life that is a challenge for you." You keep praying to be a masterpiece, and every time I send someone to be the sandpaper, you push them away. But I know what tools to use to turn you into the disciple that I want you to be. He says, "My ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower, and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. I hear Jesus saying, "Come," when I read Isaiah 55. I feel the echo of this prophecy in Matthew 14. I feel the power of one word from God. He says, "So is my word." Just one word. So is my word. The full counsel of the word of God has value, but just one singular word that goes from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose. Many are the plans, but it is the purpose for which I sent it that will be accomplished. So why did Jesus send a disciple into a storm that he knew was going to happen, and why does God allow challenges to our faith instead of just bolstering us with the Bible so that we avoid them? Isaiah 55 gives an interesting strategy. Let me teach you what Isaiah is teaching here. He says you can seek the Lord, you can call on him, but you have to be willing to forsake your ways and your unrighteous thoughts. Now, that's interesting language. To say that I'm going to forsake a thought, that's crazy to me, because when you say forsake something, it's something you have become very attached to. You don't forsake something you don't even know. You don't even know it. To forsake something is to walk away from something it is assumed you have responsibility for. So when God says, "'I believe you, nor forsake you,' forsaking has baked into it the idea that I am responsible for this." I'm not saying it right. I'll say it. You can drop a thought like this. You can drop a thought. He said, "'Forsake your ways, because my ways are higher, and your thoughts that are not from God.'" How many times have I been drowning in my mind and in my life because of the thought that I wouldn't drop? About my situation. How many times have I clung to an offense while I'm drowning in my bitterness, and I'm asking God to help me forgive, but if I don't drop the thought, I drown? That's what I'm trying to say. Now I said it the way I want to say it. Tell your neighbor, "drop it or drown." That's the only two options you have right now, because you can't afford to play around with this right now, because there's too much. It's stake at this juncture of your life right now. It's drop it or drown. You've got to stop thinking childishly about this and waiting on people to come around and make it right, and you've just got to get your heart right with God, and you've got to let him show you what he's going to do from the place that you're at, not the place that you want it to be. Punch your neighbor. Say, "'Drop it. Drop it so you don't drown. Drop it so you don't keep sinking. Drop it so it doesn't weigh you down. Drop it so you don't miss the last, next season that God wants to give you. Crying about the season that you lost, you better drop this thing.'" The thing about dropping a thought is it's kind of hard for me to drop my thought until I understand that God can also drop a thought. This is one thing I'm ready to preach today. This is one thing that me and God have in common. We can both drop thoughts. I can take a thought in my mind. I can take a temptation. I can take a bitter thought. I can take an angry thought. I can take a victimized thought. I can take a catastophizing thought. I can take a wicked thought. I can take a thought, and I can look at it, and I can separate myself from the thought. By the grace of Jesus, by the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can look at the thought and realize that just because I think it doesn't mean I have to be it. So I can drop a thought. How dumb would it be for you to drown? On this sea, because of something you won't drop. How dumb would it be? The Bible says, "forsake your thoughts when they're not God's ways." His ways are higher. So when he shows you the higher way, don't stay down in the way you did it, the way they did it, the way you thought you were going to do it. Drop your thoughts so God can drop his. What do you mean God can drop a thought? I mean like airdrop. I mean like how I could take my phone and put it next to your phone, and if it's near enough, you can choose to share with me what's on your phone, on my phone. If we are close enough to connect, you can drop something to me that I didn't come with, and now you know why it was important for you to be at church today, so you could get close to God and close to somebody. Fist bump your neighbor and say, "I'll drop you some faith today." Fist bump them real quick and say, "I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got something for you. Tell them, 'I'll airdrop you some peace today.' I'll airdrop you some joy today." The Bible says that if two of you will agree, well, we got a lot more than two, baby boy, and the Holy Ghost in me is the Holy Ghost in you, and if you came a little empty today, there is a word from God, and if you don't feel it right now, then praise him by something in your spirit, and you'll get the sense. Oh, that's good, isn't it? Isn't that good to know that God can drop you a thought? Forget about a human. They might not have it, but if I'm close enough to Jesus, what I didn't get from other people, what I didn't have in my flesh, God did by sending his son. See, so you can drop a thought, and so can God, and the moment you drop your low thought, the moment you drop your human thought, the moment you drop your sinking thought, notice the Bible says that immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. Yeah. Hey, thanks for stopping by my YouTube channel. I hope you were blessed today. If you were, share this with somebody, like and subscribe, and leave me a comment. Let me know where you're watching from, what we can pray for you about. Hope to see you back here again really soon. From five Halloweens to five 4th of Julys, same price guaranteed. Cox, a step ahead. Requires two gig speeds and gig unlimited mobile. Taxes and fees excluded from price lock. Mobile data speeds reduced after 20 gigs. When God speaks, reason can never answer. God cannot be sought at the level of mind. God must be experienced at the level of spirit. I don't know who I'm preaching to right now, but you keep telling God when he shows you more, you'll go more. You keep telling God that you will obey him once you understand the outcome, but in matters of faith, you know, you have to follow to find out Abraham. Go to a land I will show you. What's it going to be like? You've got to follow to find out, and you'll find out why I called you as you follow. I cannot describe to you what the next season of your life will be like if you follow God in faith. You will have to follow to find out. This is where most of us would have never gotten past John 1, verse 43. The whole thing would have ended right there. Follow me, and we would have waited for details, and he would not have given them. Jesus, does not call you to figure out. He calls you to follow. Maybe it gives you relief because there's a sense in which some of you in your mind right now are trying to figure everything out for the future of your life and the next season of your life, and maybe it can be an exhale for you or a sigh of relief or a surrender to the Savior to know that he never called you to figure out. He just called you to follow. But how are we going to pay for it? Follow. But how is it going to follow? But what's going to happen in three? Follow. We might not be here, but we might be here in three years. Have y'all watched the news? I don't know about no three years. I'm just following Jesus the best I can today. Somebody asked me, what's the 10-year plan for the church? I'm doing good to have a 10-minute plan for this sermon. I don't even really know what I'm going to say after this first point, if you want to know the truth, but I'm trying to follow. As you follow, you find out. That's what Philip knew. I've got to find out. There was something in Philip that said, "I want to find out." I believe there's somebody in here who God is calling you to follow him, and it is unseasonable. It's unseasonably difficult for you to do that right now, but don't you want to find out what your life can be in his hands? Don't you want to find out how freedom feels when you finally decide to forgive that person? Don't you want to find out what it feels like to lay your head down on your pillow at night, knowing that you've confessed your sin instead of continuing to hide it? Don't you want to find out what it's like to get beyond this selfish, me-first generation where I'm saying, "I'm going to follow. I'm going to follow. I'm going to follow. I'm going to simply just follow in the crowd, and I say goodbye to the crowd, and I start following the Christ who is greater than the crowd." Something in Philip, I can't prove it, but something in Philip, I just inferred from the text, and I deduced it from what is written that he said, "I don't know what my future is, but I want to find out behind this man." You have to follow him to find out. Sometimes you have to see it to believe it. Here's what I want to talk about. Other times, you have to believe it to see it. Now, these are the moments in life where you have no physical proof that what God spoke is true, and it actually contradicts the way you feel in that moment. We're going to move on from Philip for a moment, and we're going to move to this character called Nathaniel. This is really who I wanted to talk to you about today. I was just telling you about Philip, just in case you can't figure out your life right now, but God is calling you to do it. I'm going to tell you about him. That's probably not anybody in here. You probably all got it figured out, but some of us are still trying to figure out what to do, and we don't know what to do about this situation with an aging parent or this situation with a struggling child. We don't know what to do about this issue in our body, and we're trying to figure it out, but God is just calling us to follow. That was for some of us, but for the rest of you who have got it figured out, like Nathaniel, right? Nathaniel has got it figured out because Philip found Nathaniel and told him, "we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law." In other words, all of these that were about Jesus, and after meeting Jesus, he said, "we found him, and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." We are seeking Jesus in this season of our church, and as we seek him, we need to pay attention to everything we can learn about him, and one of the things that we need to learn from is the label that was associated with him as he walked the earth. They didn't call him Jesus the Savior yet. He hadn't died for them yet. They did not call him Jesus the Healer yet because he hadn't performed any miracles yet. Not yet. They would see all of that as they followed, but at this point, they only knew him this way. Watch. Jesus of Nazareth. It was common to call somebody by where they came from back then, and then they call him the son of Joseph. Well, that one's kind of complicated, isn't it? Remember Mary's story? She's like, "I promise, Joseph, it was the Holy Spirit." He came from a questionable background. When he called him Jesus of Nazareth, watch Nathanael's response. I was laughing at it as I read it, and maybe you didn't know why. He said, verse 46, "Nazareth, can any..." You said you found the Messiah, and he comes from Nazareth? Yeah, that's right, Nazareth. Then Nathanael wants to know, "can anything good come from there?" Come and see, said Philip. Now, the reason that Nathanael negative perspective of Nazareth is because it was small, and I studied this week. Y’all, I studied so much this week, I have no idea how I'm going to say amen at the end of this sermon. That's why I called the sermon Begin With Amen, so wherever we end, we'll just end and come back next week. I studied so much for this sermon. This is how much I studied. I was waking up last night every hour on the hour, 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 3 a.m. At 4 a.m., I had this horrible nightmare that on my way to preach, I got in a terrible car accident. I went to the hospital, and I was in the hospital. They had me all hooked up, but I was trying to scan my credit card to pay for the hospital visit, and I was telling them, "I've got to go teach this series at the church." I studied too much. That's how much I love y'all. I was in my fictitious hospital bed. I got out of my not-really-hospital-bed-to-preach-this-to-you, and I studied and found out that Nathanael came from somewhere near Nazareth, but not Nazareth. Follow me. Nathanael came from a place called Cana. Cana was also in Galilee, but Cana was north of Galilee. Cana was distinguished. Cana was sophisticated. Cana was a wealthy place. Picture the part of town where you drive through and judge the people and say, "It must be nice if I had all their money." That was Cana. Cana was a place where if you came from there, you wore the sweatshirt. Straight out of Cana, you would not feel like you came out of the mud. You would feel like you came from privilege. So I'm not calling Nathanael a snob. I'm just saying that he looked down on where Jesus came from. So when he says, "Can anything good come from there?" Come and see, he's giving a negative interpretation of where Jesus came from based on his background. He believes a certain thing about a certain place, and because he believes a certain thing about a certain place, he cannot accept a certain person that came from a certain place. Only problem is, John 1, verse 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Through him, Jesus, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. And the Lord stopped me and showed me something that Nathanael thought, that Jesus came from Nazareth. But Jesus didn't really come from Nazareth. If John chapter 1, verse 1 through 3 is correct, and through Jesus, everything was made that was made, that means Jesus didn't come from Nazareth. Nazareth came from Jesus. I came to preach about Jesus today. Oh, I preached that better than your respondents. Through him, all things were created. He is not subject to what he made. He is not subject to a human label. He is not a baby that was born in a barn. He is the pre-existing God, who in John chapter 1, verse 14, became flesh, that's incarnation, and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the one who came from the Father. So they said he came from Nazareth. He said he came from the Father. They said he came from a small place. He said, "I came from a place that you've never seen, because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and nothing exists without him. And so all I'm saying is, God is bigger than your background. God is bigger than your background. Oh, God is bigger than what you think about him. God is bigger than your little tradition about him. God is bigger than what you were taught about him. God will come to places that you were taught he'd stay away from. God will use people that you were taught he hates. God will do things that you were taught were impossible. God will do things. Now, I'm not saying I've seen all of it, but sometimes you have to believe it to see it. So if the enemy can keep you from believing it, because you've never seen it, he can keep you from ever seeing it and experiencing it. And he can keep you from seeing it if he can keep you from believing it. Not Nazareth. Nothing good can come from Nazareth. Somebody say, "not Nazareth." Now, for Nazareth, just put whatever in the blank you don't think God can use. Not heartbreak. Not Nazareth. No, no, no. Nothing good can come from a broken heart. The Bible says a broken and a contrite heart, he will not despise. He will dwell in what you despise. Not Nazareth. He didn't want to get a divorce. And now you're saying, "not after a divorce, God can't use me." I got a word for you. Follow him and find out. One man said, "pull around and find out," but this is the church version. Follow him and find out. I don't care what they called you. I don't care what they said about you. I'm going to come over on this side. I always come down that wrong side of the steps. God is looking for somebody today who will follow him and find out. No, God can't use me. I'm an alcoholic. Follow him and find out. What if God gives you that same passion for his presence that you used to have for a substance? Follow him and find out. I speak to somebody who's a drug dealer right now. You're about to be a disciple and you're about to turn the chain of supply and demand on his head. Because when you get hooked into this vine, there's an unlimited supply. And I don't care what they said about you. And I don't care what you said about yourself. I don't even know what you said about yourself. I don't even know what you said about yourself. I don't even know what you've been labeling your kids. I don't even know what the doctor told you to say. But follow him and find out. He's a healer. He's a wave maker. He's a chain breaker. He's a stone roller. Yes, he is. And he came from Nazarene. So if you're going to seek Jesus, you might have to look in Nazareth. You might have to look in a dirty place. You might have to get honest about what you're going through. You might have to get authentic and quit pretending like you have it together. And so if you're going to seek Jesus, you might have to look in Nazareth. Stop saying, "praise the Lord, we're fine." And pick up the phone and call a counselor and say, "I need help." Because the help might come from Nazareth. Nazareth. Nazareth. Nazareth. I kept saying it wrong all week. Nazareth. Like I was saying, Lazarus and Nazareth. And the Lord said, "well, what did the two things have in common?" I said, "both were situations where everybody thought it was over." And both were places where God displayed his glory. You better follow him and find out. I know when the Lord's speaking, I'm not moving. I'm not moving to my next point. It would be a shame for you to let the shame of where you came from stop you from seeing the glory of who you came from. I've got to show him verse 14 says, "the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." And we have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only son who came to us. And we have seen his glory. And we have seen his glory. And we have seen his glory. From the father. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Nazareth. Nazareth. Nazareth. Can anything good come from that? Well, it depends because before he came from Nazareth, he came from the father. Everything that God allowed to happen in your life passed through his hands and it has to go back through his hands. And we have seen his glory. Now, they say you have to see it to believe it. But back up to verse 12. In chapter one, verse 12. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. See it? Circle the word, "believed", Justin. Believed in his name. Verse 14 again. And the word became flesh, that's Jesus, and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory. Circle the word, "seen". Sometimes you have to see it to believe it. I get that. But sometimes you have to believe it to see it. See, if I don't believe that God is my provider, I won't see the provision.
