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Clap your hands everywhere I say clap your hands, family. Clap your hands. Welcome all of our locations today. Come on. Welcome in, everybody, everywhere. And you can be seated. So grateful to be in the house today. If you're here for the first time. My name is Pastor Darius, and I got the privilege of providing leadership to this spiritual family called Change Church, where our mission is really simple. We want to help as many people as possible live, love, and lead like Jesus so they can change the world Third way living. And if you're here for the first time, we want to honor you without embarrassing you. So I want you to receive this thunderous applause as an expression of our gratitude. Welcome. Maybe you were with us at Easter last weekend. We're grateful to have you with us on today. And I'm excited about all that God is doing. There are two incredible young men who flew in from New Jersey and from Delaware. They past the churches there and they came to support the bishop today and Pastor Rashawn Davis and Pastor DJ Yarbrough. I'm gonna ask them two to stand on the front row. Thank God for good people. We're grateful. Hey, two pastors on our team, I want you to keep in prayer. One does thrive with me every week. Pastor Dudley. I got a call from him a couple of days ago and I missed a call, but when I saw the text, it was, our code is 911. So I know if someone puts 9, 1, 1, I need to stop what I'm doing and respond immediately. And his wife's mother slipped away in her sleep. And the mother's husband called him to deliver the news to his wife. So he called me just to get some strength. He's sitting in the garage saying, how am I about to go in here and tell my wife her mama went to sleep and didn't wake up? And so keep him in prayer there in Mississippi. Mississippi right now. Because his. His family's from Mississippi and so is his wife's. So let's. Let's keep him and his family in prayer. Can we do that? We're gonna lift them up and cover them in prayer. So we're gonna pray for Pastor Dudley and his family. They're experiencing some adversity. But then we want to pray for another one of our pastors. And this is just how life works. He's experiencing some opportunity. This coming Friday in Greenville, South Carolina, Pastor Todd Galveth is going to be doing a live recording for his album Greater. It's something on. So we're praying that God breathes on it and Blesses it and people encounter Jesus like Paul did on Damascus Road. Amen. Well, I want to get into our time of teaching today. I teach in series, and we're in a all year. I just decided we're going to be in a series called Goaded. And I know some of y'all, y'all new school. So y'all used to short songs and short albums. I grew up in a different area era of music, the songs is five, six minutes. Huh? You got, you got. I grew up in an era where you had to ease your way into the song. You had to talk over the beat. I miss you, girl it's been a long time but you're on my heart. That's the era I'm from. So I decided, hey, goated is just what's on my heart. And so we're gonna let the goat teach us all year. So today we're starting Goaded volume two. And I want to spend the next few weeks exploring what the goat who's Jesus has to teach us about circumventing self sabotage. So let's go to the Gospel of Mark, chapter four, verse 35 is where we're going to begin our reading. It'll be on the screens. It says that day when evening came, he said to his disciples, let us go over to the other side. And leaving the crowd behind, they took him along. Just as he was in the boat, there were also other boats with him. And a furious squall came up and the waves broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him up and said, teacher, don't you care if we drown? He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, quiet or peace. Be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. And he said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Don't miss this. Don't miss this. Don't miss this. Do you still have no faith? I want to stop the reading of scripture, then talk from this subject in our time together. I want to talk from this subject. The first sermon in this goated volume 2 series on self sabotage. I want to talk from this title, World War Me. Clap your hands everywhere if you're ready for God's word. I want to start this sermon with a quote that isn't credited to a specific author, but it is extremely significant. The quote is as follows. You've heard it before. If you attend. Here we are born looking like our parents, but we die looking like our decisions, our DNA may determine our traits, but our decisions determine our trajectory. Even the devil can't destroy our life without us participating in our destruction through our decisions. The witness of Scripture corroborates this claim. Our first introduction to Satan in the Garden of Eden reveals that Satan did not directly destroy Adam and Eve's life. He influenced them to make a decision that destroyed their life. And as it was in the garden, so it is all throughout Scripture, Satan's strategy has always been self sabotage. He didn't destroy Adam and Eve, but he influenced their decision. He didn't destroy Cain's life. He influenced Cain to destroy his life with a decision. He didn't destroy Moses life. He influenced Moses to destroy his life with a decision. He didn't destroy Samson's life. He influenced Samson to make a decision regarding Delilah. Delilah. And that destroyed his life. He didn't destroy David's life. He influenced David to mismanage relationship with Amnon and Absalom. He influenced David to make a decision regarding Bathsheba. And that is what destroyed David's life. He didn't destroy Solomon's life. He warned Solomon against. As a matter of fact in Proverbs, Solomon gave advice that he didn't keep in Ecclesiastes. And so he didn't destroy Solomon's life. Solomon made decisions to destroy his own life. He didn't destroy Judas life. Judas made a decision to destroy his own life. And as it was for them, so it is for us. The devil can't destroy you, but your decisions can. However, I believe I'm talking to some people. I just sense it intuitively that I'm talking to some people who have a revelation that this is my season where I'm going to refuse to continue helping the devil hurt me. I'm gonna say that one more time. Well, let me put it as a question. Am I talking to anybody that's in a season of your life where you're getting ready to make a decision that I'm going to refuse to continue helping the devil hurt me. Watch this. When we consistently engage in self sabotaging behavior, we have unconsciously become the enemy's assistant. But I believe I'm talking to some people that's getting ready to turn in your resignation. I believe I'm talking to some people whose testimony is it's time to quit that job. I want somebody that's about to quit helping the devil hurt you to just shout so that the enemy can hear it. I quit. Yeah, I quit sabotaging my own joy. I quit sabotaging my own Peace. I quit subjecting myself to exploitation and abuse. I, I, I, I, I quit playing myself small. I quit blocking my own blessing. I quit self sabotage. And if we're going to quit, we need more than grit. If we're going to quit, we need more than conviction. We need coaching. If we're going to quit, we need more than inspiration. We need instruction. If we're going to quit, we need more than good intentions. We need guidance. And if that is you, I got good news. The goat who is a lamb wants to guide you and I on how to stop self sabotaging behavior. Because he's the only one in scripture who didn't self sabotage. What Satan tried in the garden with Adam, he tried in the wilderness with Jesus. And it didn't work. He didn't sabotage Jesus, didn't sabotage his destiny. Therefore he's qualified to teach us on how to not sabotage ours. And if we're objective and honest, we would all have to admit that certain seasons of life make us more prone to self sabotage than others. Come on. I said certain seasons in life make us more prone to self sabotaging behavior than others. And one of these seasons is seen in this text. In this text, the goat Jesus wants to offer some insight on how to circumvent self sabotage when you're experiencing a season of life called a storm. Because storms make us prone to self sabotage. It's right here in the text. In Mark chapter four, we're exposed to an interesting incident in the life of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus has just spent some time teaching parables on the kingdom of God. It is a parabolic discourse. There is a succession of parables that he tells in Mark chapter number four about the kingdom of God, about living life, the Kings and verse 35 says that day when he was done teaching, evening came and he said to his disciples, let's go to the other side. He didn't say to the disciples, let's go to the other side. Until evening came. When evening came, then he said, when evening came, then he said when evening came, then he said evening represents the end of a day which can also represent the end of yourself. It can represent a time where you have exhausted physical and emotional resources. Therefore your level of resistance is diminished. Cause some fights you don't feel like fighting when you tired. I worked all day. I don't feel like it. Come on. They got on my nerves all day. I've been stressed. I've had pressure all day. I don't feel like it. So evening can represent not just the End of a day, but the end of yourself. And for us spiritually, it can represent a time in our life where we have exhausted our own emotional resources and you no longer have the energy for insubordination. God's like, I'm gonna talk now cause you're too tired to fight me. Who's gonna who? I need somebody to talk back to me. I said, God says, I'm gonna talk now because you're too tired to fight me. It can represent the reality that there are some words God only releases when we're at a place where you're no longer wrestling to receive it. An example of this is. Is seen in the Book of Jonah. Because in chapter one in the Book of Jonah, Jonah gets a word from God that he runs from. But after being caught up in a storm, swallowed by a whale, tossed into the sea, God gives him the same word in chapter four. And the word he ran from in chapter one is the word he ran with chapter four. Cause God will use a chapter two and three to wear you down. So you ready for what he's got to say in chapter four? Is there anybody in a chapter four season right now? Jesus, I'm tired of fighting. What you want? Just. Just tell me what you want me to do. When evening came, he said, let us go over to the other side. Let us notice the nature of the Word. It's us. Somebody say us. So this isn't a personal word. It is a corporate word. Now, corporate in the spiritual sense doesn't mean business entity. It comes from a Latin word, corpus, from which we get the word corpse, and it means body. So when we say a corporate anointing, we're not talking about an anointing on a business. We're talking about an anointing on the body. Did you hear? So when we say corporate blessing, we're not talking about a blessing on a business. And a business can be blessed, but we're talking about the blessing on a body. It means. This isn't a me blessing. I'm gonna see if I can get an amen here. I'm gonna see if somebody's gonna get excited for your role. I'm gonna see if somebody's gonna get excited for your family. I'm gonna see if somebody's gonna get excited for your friends. This isn't a me blessing. This is. He's not just getting ready to do it for me. He's getting ready to do it for us. Let us go over to the other side. There are some words that are not just personal Commands. Some words are corporate invitations. God's saying, let us in the text. Now, this is interesting. The key, though, for the disciples. Are y'all ready for this? Because remember, Mark couches this story in the context of a day of teaching. So Jesus has been teaching all day, but he hasn't just been teaching two disciples. He's been teaching two crowds. Did you hear what I just said? So the disciples cam aren't the only people there. The crowds that were receiving the teaching are there, too. So when he said let us, they had to know who us is. And some of our problem is we hadn't discerned who us is. So now you're trying to put people in a boat who don't belong in that boat, and you're trying to take them to a place they don't really want to go. Come on. And some people are in the boat not because they don't want to go, but because they don't want to be left. Did you hear what I just said? I said, did you hear what I just said? He says, let us go to the other side. They're on the Sea of Galilee. And scholars say, when he says the other side, he's referring east. So he says, let us go to the other side. This reveals the nature of divine instruction. It's specific and ambiguous at the same time. Is it time to go? Yes. Where we going? Other side. Where? Other side. Come on. Here? Yeah. And this is challenging for those of us, like myself, who thrive on detail. It makes this dynamic between us and God difficult because God. Are you hearing what I'm saying? God will give you enough to move on, but not enough to stop listening. I'm going to say that one more time. He'll give you enough specificity to move on, but he won't give you too much detail because he wants to keep you listening. And the text says, watch this. Verse 36. Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along just as he was in the boat. Okay, I'm not going to bother this too much, but the text says, leaving the crowd behind. And sometimes you can't go with Jesus unless you're willing to lead the crowd. Here it is. Lesbian Newbegin, a British missiologist, says this following Jesus is actually a minority activity. Most people won't. Did you hear what I just said? I said, did you hear what I just said? Yeah. And so our desire to feel normal can be the reason we end up stuck. Some of you, you're not fighting obedience. You fighting normalcy. Did you hear what I just Said you're not fighting, doing what God's called you to do and birthing what God's called you to birth. You're fighting the abnormal nature of the instruction. So Jesus is like, let us go to the other side. And you like the crowd not coming. Because divine instruction from God will expose codependency on people. You don't know if you're codependent until something threatens your dependency. Abraham, get away from verse 37. Says, they get in a boat and a furious squall. A sea storm comes up, the waves breaking to the boat and the boat is nearly swamped. Because the Sea of Galilee was prone to sudden storms. They could come, they could come unexpected. They were unpredictable. And in the text here it is, they experience a storm literally. But we experience storms metaphorically. And metaphorically. Storms represent unexpected seasons of pain, pressure and perplexity that produce a desire for release, relief that can cause us to make decisions without wisdom. I gotta read it again. I said I've got to read it again. Storms can represent unexpected seasons of pain, of pressure and perplexity that produce a desire for relief. And the desire for relief can cause us to make decisions without wisdom. Did you hear what I just said? I said, did you hear what I just said? Yeah. The presence of pain will produce the desire for relief. And the desire for relief can tempt us to make decisions without wisdom. So we'll trade long term healing for short term numbing. It's self sabotage. Seasons of pain. Then there are seasons of pressure. And pressure makes us think speed is better than a strategy. So pressure will have us making quick decisions to fix a problem. But a bad decision creates another problem trying to fix one. Pressure. And then there's panic. And panic often. Watch this. Panic, watch this often causes us to make panic moves. And panic moves often produce permanent messes. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah. Yeah. And then there's perplexity. And this is fog and confusion. And this can cause us to make decisions in the dark. When you're confused and you're in the dark and you're making decisions, what you think is a door might be a ditch. Pressure, pain and perplexity makes us prone to self sabotage. And I want you to objectively take a mental trip down memory lane and evaluate some of the worst decisions you have made in your entire where's the honest? Section. Right here. I said I want you to evaluate some of the worst decisions you and I have made in our entire life. And if we are honest, some of the worst decisions you and I have made in our entire life where we were insistent seasons of pain, we were under pressure, or we were dealing with perplexity, confused pain. Pressure and perplexity make us prone to self sabotage. Storms make us prone to self sabotage. But because they are unpredictable and in some sense inevitable, we can't always have storm prevention. This means we gotta have storm management. And this is what Jesus models for us in the text, how to not self sabotage in the storm. Please notice in the text you got the disciples in the boat and Jesus in the boat. It means the same storm they're experiencing, Jesus is experiencing, but they got two different reactions to the same storm. Trying not to run. This morning the disciples are screaming, but Jesus is sleeping. I'm gonna say that one more time. They're in the same boat, in the same sea, in the same storm, but it's two different reactions. Somebody is screaming and somebody else is sleeping. In the middle of the storm, the disciples are panicking, but Jesus is at peace. And I don't want to learn from the disciples in this storm because I know how to panic. I know how to panic. I know how to worry. I want to learn how to sleep when the rain is falling. I want to learn how to sleep when the wind is blowing. I want to learn how to sleep when the lightning is flashing. Jesus models the third way for storm management because there's three ways to manage storms. Culture's way, church's way, and the third way. The King's way. Culture's way is to react emotionally and impulsively. Church's way is to mask the pain with platitudes and act like you already are. Where God wants to use the storm to take you. Oh, I'm strong. No, you're not. And if you admit you aren't, then God could use the storm to actually make you what you acting like you already are. And then there's the King's way is to see the storm, face the fear, and then submit to the Savior. I see the storm, I face the fear, but I submit to the Savior. It means I am not going to engage in behavior that the Savior does not endorse in an attempt to get relief from the storm. I'm a stay submitted. Hallelujah. I'mma stay submitted in the storm. Why, Pastor? Because if I stay submitted in the storm, eventually the Savior is going to make the storm submit to him. I'm trying not to run. Hallelujah. But Jesus woke up and spoke to the thing that was stressing his disciples. He said, peace, be still, because Whatever's stressing you has got to submit to him. I gotta. Whoo. Whatever's bothering you has got to bow to him. If you will submit to the king in the storm. The king will make the storm submit to him. How do I do this, Pastor? Four points. Y'all know I grew up Baptist. Here it is. I gotta give you points. Number one, you must get your word on the shore before you venture into the sea. Because some people are trying to walk on water without a divine invitation. Did you hear what I just said? The disciples were only at sea because they obeyed the Word. Their obedience led to their adversity. Did you hear what I just said? That's another lesson. What happens when you do the right thing and it go wrong? They in a storm because they did what God said, y'all. I don't have time. See, in the Bible, you see people like Jonah, they're in a storm because they didn't do what God said. And you got people like the disciples in the text. They're in a storm because they did do what God said. So I need to get my word on the shore before I venture into the sea. Because watch this. When you get a word, the giver of the Word goes with you. And people are struggling on the sea because they didn't get a word on the shore. And Pharaoh chasing the Israelites through the Red Sea teaches us that you'll drown if you try to follow a word God didn't give you. I'm not getting on this boat. If I'm going to face this storm, I need to know. You told me to be out on this sea. Number two, you must trust the Word in the midst of the weather. The gospel writer Mark places this story in the midst of a parabolic discourse where Jesus had just finished talking about faith. So the question, where is your faith? Is a rational question because he had just spent an entire day teaching on it. So when he says, do you still have no faith? He's saying, all this time with me and all this teaching from me. You shouldn't be reacting like this to a storm. Am I making sense? They're getting the revelation that they couldn't trust the Word in the midst of the weather. Just because the word weather changed doesn't mean the Word did, because the Word isn't weather dependent. And the storm on the sea will challenge the words you heard on the shore. God, did you really tell me, Number three, you must conquer your contradictions. They say, rabbi, don't you care that we perishing? Because how are you Present and not performing. The absence of your action is causing me to question the quality of your care. How can you say you care for me and you watching me go through this. And you're gonna experience some seasons where you got to deal with contradictions. God, you told me to do it. It's not working. Contradiction, you told me to go, I'm in the middle of a storm. Contradiction, you told me you'd never leave or forsake me. I feel alone. Contradiction, you said you supply all my needs, but I'm dealing with lack. Contradiction. And you conquer your conquer your contradictions by refusing to place periods where God's place commas. I hadn't done it yet. And number four, we're done. You must have wisdom for restraint even when you don't have clarity for action. Even when you don't know what you've got to do. You need to know what you not gonna do. Here is the one thing the disciples did right. They stayed in the boat and they woke up the Savior. They stayed in the boat and they woke up the Savior. They stayed in the boat and they woke up the Savior. They stayed in the boat and they woke up the Savior. When you don't know what to do, stay in the boat with Jesus and wake up the Savior. And every time you pray, you waken him up. And every time you praise you waking him up. And when you wake him up, he speaks to the thing that is threatening you on the sea, the storm. Look at Pastor. Because some of you right now, the storm can't destroy you, but you can behave in the storm in ways that cause you to destroy yourself. And God by his grace and providence is sending this series because your season and my season of self sabotage has to come to an end. And you decide when it ends. Now, you can't stop self sabotage without the Savior. And my question to some of you is, is Jesus actually on your boat? And if he's not, I want to extend that invitation to you today to make a decision to make Jesus the leader of your life and the forgive of your sin. To say it is time for me to take my spiritual journey seriously and to say Jesus for the rest of my life. I need you to teach me how to live life your way. Storms are coming. But I need you to teach me how to sleep when everybody else is screaming.