How does it all work out?

What Jesus taught His disciples.

In the book of Acts

• Persecution, death, prison• Hunger, sickness• Conflicts with family, friends, government• Pain, suffering

Following Jesus

• We saw what Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount• What did Jesus teach that would help His disciples live

through the years following His death and resurrection?• The lessons Jesus taught needed the activation of the Holy

Spirit within His disciples so that His words lived in them.• The “words of Jesus” or the “word of the Lord” are key

factors in how God works on the earth today.

Mark 4

• It was another long day of teaching• Jesus spoke in parables • The parables were explained privately to His disciples• In the evening He gave His disciples a command

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening came, He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side." Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself 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 got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

13 insights for living

• Command• Leaving• Taking• Boats• Great Storm• Asleep• Wake Him up• Don’t you care?

• Speaking to the wind and sea

• Obedience• Why are you so

afraid?• Have you still no

faith?• Fear of the Lord

Our focus today

• Don’t you care?• Why are you so afraid?• Have you still not faith?• Obeying

Don’t You Care?

• The question of our heart• We see the inactivity of Jesus• We see the storms• We feel our life is being threatened• We know Jesus can help, but what is he doing

• Why is it important that God allows this question to arise in our heart?

Why are you so afraid?

• Fears are a part of life. We should have some, but which fears are bad?

• Fears are used by Satan to control and manipulate us.• Fear causes us to react and not act• Fear seeks to bypass our reason or intentions and rule over

us regardless of our will

• Why is it important that God allows us to overcome fear?

Have you still no faith?

• Faith is believing in God, but that belief has substance• Faith believes as in trust, depends on, considers faithful• Faith leads us to act, give, go and live our lives because we

are depending on God

• It is possible to have faith in God but also in our selves, our jobs, our money or almost anything

• Why is it important that God allows us to grow in faith in Him?

Obeying Him

• Obeying God is downplayed more and more in our culture which desires to seek felt fulfillment and personal desires.

• Many in the church today use the grace of God as a tool to avoid obedience.

• Why does God command us to obey and what is the result of wholehearted obedience to Him?

Psalms 56

1 For the choir director; according to Jonath elem rehokim. A Mikhtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me; Fighting all day long he oppresses me. 2 My foes have trampled upon me all day long, For they are many who fight proudly against me. 3 When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. 4 In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? 5 All day long they distort my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They attack, they lurk, They watch my steps, As they have waited to take my life. 7 Because of wickedness, cast them forth, In anger put down the peoples, O God! 8 You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? 9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call; This I know, that God is for me. 10 In God, whose word I praise, In the LORD, whose word I praise, 11 In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 Your vows are binding upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to You. 13 For You have delivered my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God In the light of the living.