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Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's Word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in. Rhetorical questions are designed to make a point rather than get an answer. And this is what's happening in this verse today. We see it throughout the Psalms and actually throughout the Bible. God is very rhetorical. In his speech to humans, the psalmist said, o Lord, God of hosts, who is mighty like you, who is equal in power, who has strength like our God, Can God create a stone he cannot lift? Can we have a problem that God cannot solve? Or as the Lord said to Abraham in Genesis 18:14, Is there anything too hard for the Lord? And then after the question, he makes a statement. He says, o Lord, your faithfulness also surrounds you. Not only are you strong and powerful, there's none like you. But Lord, there's no one as loyal, as constant, as trustworthy as you. Wherever God is, his faithfulness is with him at all times. Faithfulness is not just what God does, it's his very nature. It's who he is. You cannot extract that or separate that from God. You see, the problem with bad character is that wherever you go, it's with you. Because wherever you go, you take yourself. You see, what makes hell so hellish is that we will be stuck there forever with our unredeemed selves. We will live eternally with unredeemed regret, unredeemed rage, unredeemed memories, unredeemed guilt, unredeemed self loathing and unredeemed hate. So choose redemption before it's too late. And then the psalmist goes on under inspiration, he says, you rule despite what's going on, Lord. You reign and you rule. And then what he selects as an example of his rulership is something that you know, would kind of escape the modern mind because we don't think the same way the ancients did. But he said, you rule the raging of the sea. To the ancient mind, the sea was the scariest, most turbulent and formidable power in all of nature. Not only were the seas or the oceans huge, they were unpredictable. And also the ancients understood like we understand, that we can only hold our breath for so long that the waters are not anything to mess with. Isaiah, when it came to describing the great God we worship, he said this in 40 and 12, he worshiped a God that was big enough to measure the oceans in the palm of his hands, all of them his pinky and thumb. The span of his hand marked out the heavens. That's the way the span goes. Sorry. Our God knows the weight of the entire globe down to the very ounce. And if there's a smaller measurement, he knows it down to the milli mille milli of it. God could place our greatest mountain ranges from the Appalachians to the Rockies, place them on his bathroom scale, and it would be able to handle it. He said, God, you rule the most onerous, the most frightful matter of fact, they thought dragons were out in the sea. There were leviathan and sea creatures, and the gods were out there. And he said, no, no, even the chaos, you rule the raging of the sea. When life in the world is at its craziest, you still rule. Everything in nature must salute you. And when its waves rise, you still them. You quiet them again. To the ancients, God's greatest expression of power was his ability to rule the waters. That's why God intentionally led his people to the Red Sea before they left Egypt. He was like, I want to show you that I could deal with the kings of the earth and all the rest, but I want you to understand that phenomenon that you don't completely understand. You know, you guys haven't circumvented the globe and all that yet. You know, you don't really get this, but I even have power over that. So when God parted the Red Sea, he was showing his rulership also, he raised up Joshua and he did the same thing. Joshua parted the Jordan. And then it's like, in case you missed the cue and didn't quite understand what I'm trying to say to you back then, then when Elijah died, Elisha took his mantle, smote the Jordan again, and then it parted. And then you remember reading in Jonah where the rebellious prophet was running from God and the sailors surrendered Jonah into the sea and immediately God calmed the sea. Or maybe when Jesus walked on water, or when Jesus turned water into wine, or when Jesus promised all that believed in him, out of our hearts, out of our bellies will come rivers of living water. But our problem with water is that typically we seldom appreciate it, we seldom appreciate its value until the well runs dry. So now you're ready for our focus. Today, what I'm going to teach you is going to sound familiar because the disciples crisscrossed the Sea of Galilee so many times throughout Jesus ministry. But the lesson we're going to learn is very important and very apropos to what we're facing here today. Mark chapter four and verse 35 on the same day. These were the days that mother warned you about. Over the last couple days, if you read the scriptures, you see that Jesus was called a devil by the religious authorities. Then after that, he had a disagreement with his family that he had to be very, very stern about. And how many of you know that family problems can be exhausted? He spent the days performing miracles, casting out demons, and he also told a bunch of parables that no one could understand until Jesus explained them. And at the end of those days, he was tired. Some days are just harder than other days. And when evening had come, bedtime was approaching. But he still had a job to do, administrate to complete. He had places to go and people to meet. So he said to his disciples, let us cross over to the other side. Jesus did not say, let us go into the middle and sink. Jesus did not say, let us almost cross over to the other side. He did not say, let us try our best and see what happens. No, he said, let us, all of us, no one missing, cross over to the other side. But here's the deal with crossing over. It always puts us in the middle of something at some point. I may be in the middle of it, you may be in the middle of it. But at least like the disciples we have left, so many are stuck on the same side of life, doing the same old stuff with the same old people, same old attitude, getting the same old results. The disciples would mess up, but at least they left and they came back with a story, talking about how they made it over. Now my soul looks back and wonders how I made over. Yep. And other little boats. Watch this. I messed up the song. The song goes, you know, my soul looks back and wonders how I got over. Just for the old saints, I need to say that, right? So they come up after service and say, boy, yeah, so? And other little boats were also with him. I think this is what ticked Jesus off the most. These men were supposed to be leading the little boats. These were the apostles. These were the eyewitnesses to all his miracles. They saw blind eyes open, people raised from the dead. They saw demons come out of people and their sanity snapped back. If anyone should understand the power of Jesus, it was these men. And Jesus understands all that that's happening in the context. And a leader leads by example, whether he or she intends to or not. And he expected that from the apostles. Now, when they had left the multitude, Jesus met the needs of people all day long. He'd been doing this day in and day out, and he was tired. And in this verse, we're Gonna see both the divinity and the humanity of Jesus, truly God and truly man. But what I also want to say to you is we all get tired sometimes. Sometimes I feel discouraged. Sometimes we can feel like our work is in vain. But that's when we need the Holy Spirit to revive our Souls again. Isaiah 40, 13, 30 says. It says, even youth, young people shall faint and be weary, and young men shall utterly fall. But those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They shall mount up on wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Some types of tired, even for young people, you won't be able to get past apart from God's help. So Jesus, as tired as he was, and he was probably just finished preaching the parable of the sower. And he was sitting in Peter's boat and pushed off from the shore. And he didn't even go back on the shore to collect his things or to get food for the journey. They just took him along in the boat as he was. So the disciples very quickly whisked the master away. What I want you to notice is they didn't judge him for being tired. They helped him. A true friend knows your frailty, but loves and supports you anyway. Anybody a friend in this room? So Jesus is exhausted. The disciples are tired. On top of all of that and all the demands of the day, they worked into the early evening. They get in a boat, and a great windstorm arose. So if it's not one thing, it's another. In fact, it was one thing on top of another. Ever have a day like that? And Jesus is the perfect will of God. So this is not because they're out of God's will. A lot of times we run into trouble. It's like, well, what did I do wrong? Sometimes, because you're doing something right. And the waves beat into, not against, but into the boat. Which means the waves were rising above and cresting down into the little craft. And the boat began to take on very serious amounts of water. Cause it goes on to say so that that boat was already, what? Filling? It wasn't just a little inch. The boat was filling. The wind was howling. The waves were loudly crashing. The boat was reeling. Everyone was wet and cold. But here he was in the stern, which means the back of the boat. And what I want you to see here, that even when Jesus is tired, he got your back. He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. Why was he sleeping? He was resting on his word. Let us go over to the other side. He had peace that the word that God had spoken would come to pass. All we can do through certain storms in our lives is lay our heads on the pillows of God's promises and rest. You'll be with me in just a moment. Philippians 1 and 6 says this, he who has begun, watch this. A good work in me shall complete it. God don't start things he don't finish. Alpha, Omega. You hear what I'm saying? He's a finisher. He called it a good work that God started. So if it's not good yet, the process must not be complete yet. You didn't know if it's not good yet, God must not be done yet, yet. So don't give up in the middle. Pay attention to what I'm saying to you today. But he was asleep on a pillow. As far as the disciples were concerned, Jesus was sleeping on their storm. And it is upsetting when it feels like God is just sleeping with. While you're out there twisting in the wind, you're in the midst of your crisis, and he seems like he's snoring, not paying attention, doesn't even seem aware of what you're going through. And they awoke him. I kind of doubt they did it gently. And they said to him, teacher, do you not care? Another rhetorical question. He wasn't asking the. Well, they weren't asking the question to get information. They were asking the question for effect. And it's natural to have questions for God when you're in the midst of a crisis. But whether you come out of that crisis with the right answer depends on whether or not you take your complaint to him and let him teach you. You see, his ways are not our ways. That is so important to understand. You say, well, if I was God, I would. But you ain't God. So it really doesn't matter what you would do. Last I checked, there's no opening in the Godhead. It's Father, Son, Holy Spirit, not Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and you. But they had faith enough to call him the right word. And in your problem, you need to look for the lesson. They called him Teacher. And if you would be teachable, if you'd be open to learn in your crisis, he will teach you. Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Listen. They did not question whether or not Jesus existed. Their question was, did God care? Many listening, you do not question whether or not God exists. It's pretty obvious that God exists. The universe is too complicated. Our bodies are too complicated, our cell, the genome too complicated for an intelligent mind not to have created it. So we're not questioning whether or not God exists. But in crisis, we often question whether or not God cares. And at times, God can seem very indifferent. At times he can appear unaffected, nonchalant about what we're facing. The Bible said, and they awoke him. The wind didn't wake him, the crashing waves did not wake him, nor the worry of the disciples. Their worry did not wake him. Only their call woke him. You see, if worry moved God, we would have all night worry meetings instead of all night prayer meetings. But real prayer is when you take God's promise and present it before God. God you said, I trusted. Listen, I was doing okay in my daddy's business, but you called me. You said that, leave all that and follow me. And I left. Then. Then I f. Then I got on this boat with you, and you said, let us cross over to the other side. And what I've learned in my crisis, if I'm going to get through it, I got to remind God of what he said. Not that he forgets, But he wants to hear us give voice to his word. I heard what the doctor said, but the psalmist said, I will live and not die and proclaim the goodness of God. I recognize what my boss is saying, but you said, you shall supply all my needs according to your riches and go not dependent on Washington, not dependent on my circumstances. God, you said, your eye is on the sparrow, that you're watching over the birds of the air. And they don't toil, they don't spin. Don't be like the Gentile worrying about all that because I got you. Don't worry about it, Lord, you said that in your word. And what prayer is, is reminding yourself and putting it in the face of God, the thing he promised. But as Jesus said, but when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth? And they said to him, teacher, the rest of the sentence was wrong, but they got one thing right. And you don't always have to get everything right. If you just get one revelation of God right, that he wants to teach you and instruct you, make you stronger, wiser, and better. Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing? Notice the we here, they're like, hey, Jesus, we're all in the same boat. If we go down, you're going down too. Like, don't you. Come on, Jesus, you know? But when God feels far away, guess who moved emotionally? See, it's one thing to kind of say you believe something in your head. It's another thing, when you believe it through and through. Jesus was emotionally, yes, intellectually, but also emotionally resting on his word. But the disciples were emotionally flipping out over their situation. So in your crisis, what do you look to your circumstances or the promise? You see, I've been through some things in my life where I thought I believed it. But when the crisis came, my emotions went every other way. I was like, lord, maybe I didn't believe it the way I thought I believed it. But now I'm getting a little older and a little bit wiser. And now I'm not so troubled by the storms. Been there, got the T shirt, the bumper sticker. My God is faithful and he will keep you. He will preserve you. He will uphold you. There is no God like our God. And if you will let him instruct you and teach you and mold you and shape you, everything is going to be all right. Then Jesus arose. Like I said, even imperfect prayers can work if you're generally trying to connect with your revelation of Jesus. I also want you to see that these men in the boat, these disciples, were offended by him. He was sleeping through their storm, but they still talked to him. And many of us, we stopped talking to God from the heart because of some storm we went through, some disappointment we're in. But here's what I know about God. If your experience with God never challenges your way of thinking, if it never challenges the way you look at the world, I doubt you truly know him. Because God doesn't do things the way we do things. I can't tell you how many millions of times I've told God how things supposed to be done. And he almost never does it the way I think he should do it. God is God all by himself. Stay in your lane, church. Don't tell him how he's gonna get you through it. And then Jesus got up. And then it uses a word here that was reserved for when Jesus addressed demons. He rebuked demons. That same word used. And he rebuked the wind. Jesus responded to the storm with a growl. I don't think it was because he was sleepy. By the way, some of our images of Jesus are just not Jesus of the Bible. He doesn't always have a smile. He will get on your case. He will deal with your stuff. He woke up with a growl because he understood that it was also a spiritual battle as much as a weather crisis, and Jesus was not having it. The problem with many of us is we just address our problems on the surface level and never strike them at the spiritual root. How many of you have ever had dandelions in your yard? At least in your neighborhood? All right, only some of y' all have yards and neighborhoods. Okay? But I'll tell you my experience with dandelions. You pull up the flower, give it a couple days, it's back. A dandelion's root goes pretty deep. Matter of fact, if you just get half the root, the thing's going to come back up again. You have to go beneath the surface, deal with the root, pull it up if you're going to rid yourself of the weed. There are some things in your life that you will not be free of or for from until you deal with the roots. So Jesus has an attitude, and sometimes you need to get sick and tired of being sick and tired. And if our goal is for Christ to be formed in us, there should be times that we have the same attitude. There are times that there should be a roar and not a whimper. And he rebuked the wind. He addressed the spirit behind the problem, not just the problem. And he said to the sea, peace, be still. He's told the sea to calm down just as. As an elementary school teacher would address an unruly class. But I want you to notice he was not at all afraid. He was not at all threatened. He knew who he was, and he was like, who is this storm compared to I am me. And if the great I am lives in you, what is this storm? What is this crisis compared to the God that lives on the inside of you? Let's go back to our first rhetorical question, Psalm 89. 8. O Lord, God of hosts, literally armies. Theologians tell us that one third of the angels went with Lucifer or the devil, but 2/3 stay with God. What that means to me is they're more for us than against us. Even if God were God and were sleeping, the angelic armies outnumber anything we might face in this life. O Lord, God of hosts, who is mighty like you, O Yahweh, O Lord. No question is too big, no, no problem is too large. God loves each of us like there were only one of us. Back to Mark 4:39. And the wind ceased. And there wasn't just calm, there was great calm. When you know the King of the universe is handling your situation, it will bring a calm, a peace that passes all understanding. Folks will not understand where you're coming from, why you're the way you are. When you really know that God is in charge and in control handling your situation. When you really recognize that he got you, that if he for you, who could be against you? If you really realize, though a thousand may fall at my left hand, 10,000 at my right hand, if you really realize that you dwell under the shelter of the Most High God, and he will catch you lest you dash your foot against a stone. He's given angels charge over you. And the wind ceased it, did what only the wind could do when God is addressing it. And there was great calm. Let everybody else fall apart. Let everybody else let all their hair drop out and worry. As for me in my house, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up on wings, will shoot up above the clouds, looking down on the storm. I'm going to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, Not only mentally, but emotionally. Listen, y' all say, well, Bishop, you're not a government worker. Yeah, yeah. Let me tell you something. If 65% of your church work for the government, I'm in this mess just like you in this mess. He preaching to me like he preaching to you. But. But I'm gonna leave this place with great calm. Everything's gonna be all right. He gonna work it out like he worked it out before. You see, the problem was not only the sea that was raging. Part of the problem was the disciples also. So he addressed them next. And when the test is over, a good teacher explains the answers. So that's verse 40. But he said to them, why? Another rhetorical question, dripping of sarcasm, almost like, is the sky blue? Guys, I already gave you the promise that we're going to make it over to the other side. Now, I may not have responded the way you thought I should, but last I checked, I'm still God. I'm not afraid. I'm not worried. And if I'm not afraid and I'm in you, and I'm with you in your situation, why are you afraid? It embarrasses me to you to be afraid. I'm God. I can fix it. I could dissolve it, I can loose it, I can bind it. How is it you got a problem that God can't solve? How is it you got a bill God can't pay? How is it you got a situation that God can't address? Last I checked, God said in the scripture, he said if I was hungry, I wouldn't even tell y'. All. Because I own a cattle on a thousand hills, all the beasts of the field, all the trees in the valley, all the springs, and all of that's mine. I know every job opening. Psalm24 said, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof in every job within. This planet doesn't belong to the government. This planet doesn't belong to man. It belongs to God. These are his resources, and he knows how to get them to his people. Now the way he does it is up to him. And how he provides it may change. Your job is a resource, but God is your source. Give God a hallelujah. He is your source. God uses different pipes in different lanes, but he is the source. Almost there. Two more verses. He said to them, why are you so fearful? God did not ask that question. Question to get information. He asks that question to make a point. If I sent you, if I'm with you, of course you're going to make it. You will make it to the other side. Watch Jesus now. He starts writing on the board, if you will. He says, how is it, how is it that after so long, so many years, so much word, you have no faith. No faith is when you say God doesn't care just because you have some problems. No, faith is when you watch God perform miracle after miracle time and time again, but somehow you think this time will be different. No, faith is when he brought you through the death of loved ones. He brought you through that drug problem, that money problem, that marriage problem, that health problem, and suddenly he's too weak to deal with the circumstances of your life. And when they. They saw all that happened, that they saw the wind and the wave calm down, but on top of that, they saw Jesus's attitude. And my prayer today is, you leave here with an attitude, you start rebuking the crazy circumstances at their root. The devil not going to take that which is mine. If God be for me. If God be for me. If God be for me. Verse 41. And I'm there. And they feared exceedingly. I mean, the storm was scary, but Jesus was scarier. That type of power is scary. And the type of power you need is hidden in Christ who's living in you. And they said to one another, they wouldn't even talk to Jesus. I'm scared of you. They said to each other, who can this be? Even the wind and the waves watch it in the sea. Obey. Because he, he didn't. Would you please, Mr. Wind, would you please? There was an authority, there was a command. And the sea obeyed the. The one who created the earth through a word has given you a word that you will cross over to the other side. He created the whole world through his Word. His Word still reigns today. The government may want to downsize But God may be trying to right size our trust in him, that we're not trusting in any resource, but the ultimate source behind the resource. I want to wrap this up with five rhetorical questions. Proverbs 30 and verse 4. Who can ascend into heaven or descend to the earth in a blink? Who can gather the wind in his fists and no breeze escape? Who can bound the waters, all the oceans, rivers and streams in a garment? But this means if God took off his jacket like the one I'm wearing, laid it on the ocean, just the friends, just the him would suck all the ocean, all the rivers, all the streams dry because he is the quicker picker Upper. Rhetorical questions Rhetorical Questions who has established all the patterns all the seasons and you know the the way the air current moves and the way that the sea and the seas inside the seas and who has established all the patterns of the ends of the earth? What is his name? But watch the second part and what is his son's name? If you know by the way, this is Old Testament. What is his son's name? If you know his name, use that name. Call on that name. It's a name above every name that can be named. Use your weapons. Use your arsenal. Use the authority he gives you. Get sick and tired of being sick and tired and trust God to do what only God can do. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember you have what it takes in Christ to live big. We also invite you to partner with Derek Greer Ministries in bringing the life changing and impactful teachings of God's Word to the world. Get started by visiting Derekre.com by clicking the link in the description.