Matthew 8:18-27

[0:00] Good evening. Good evening. Being the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew, see. Matthew chapter 8. Matthew 8 immediately follows what's commonly referred to as the sermon on the mount.

[0:19] And Matthew chapters 5 through 7. And this is Matthew's account of this. Luke, Luke chapter 9, Mark and Mark chapter 4. Have some varying accounts as opposed to Matthew's.

[0:34] But once, and I've explained this before, the Matthew, Mark and Luke are known as the synoptic Gospels. Meaning they're very much alike. They have many of the same miracles.

[0:47] Many of the same things that go on inside of them. Matthew's account just happens to have this directly after the sermon on the mount, which makes good sense.

[1:01] It's not to say that Mark is a liar, or that Luke is a liar. But you got to figure that Mark and Luke would have both gotten their information secondhand.

[1:12] They would have been pinning it down as such. So like I said, nobody's lying. They both, they all give the same accounts, all three of them. Just a slightly different time periods.

[1:25] But again, Matthew 8 is directly after the sermon on the mount. I'm not going to begin in the first verse of Matthew 8. We'll pick up a little bit later in the chapter, but just to give you an idea of where we're going to be picking up.

[1:40] The sermon on the mount has taken place. Jesus has gone and preached this magnificent sermon of His where we have the beatitudes. We learn all kinds of other things that we often hear quoted in the scriptures.

[1:55] So He comes down off of the mountain and He heals a leper. There's a Romans insuring that God says that His servant's sick and Jesus heals this servant from afar.

[2:08] He goes into Peter's home and does a miraculous healing on Peter's mother-in-law. There's all kinds of things that take place that lead up to where we're going to be picking up from in verse 18.

[2:22] But what we need to remember is that this would have been a very trying day. I don't see in the scripture where it bled from one day into another. This all took place in the same day, what we're about to read.

[2:37] So we'll pick up in Matthew chapter 8 starting in verse 18. It says, Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart under the other side.

[2:51] And a certain scribe came and said unto Him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus saith unto Him, The foxes have holes, And the birds of the air have nests, But the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

[3:05] And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my Father. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him and behold, There arose a great tempest in the sea, And so much the ship was covered with the waves, But he was asleep.

[3:27] And his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, And there was a great calm.

[3:41] But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? And that's where we'll wrap up our reading for now. We'll back up to verse 18.

[3:52] And it says, Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave commandment to depart under the other side. And a certain scribe came and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whither so ever thou goest.

[4:04] And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, The birds of the air have nests, But the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. So we see these multitudes that are following Jesus at this point.

[4:17] Now remember, we just confirmed that this was according to Matthew's account. This was not long after the sermon on the mount. There would have been more than just a few people that would have heard Jesus Christ preach this sermon.

[4:30] But not only had the sermon on the mount taken place, but Jesus had done going back down into the town. He had done going back in to Capernaum. And he had performed miracles there.

[4:42] He had healed a leper. He had healed Peter's mother-in-law. He had healed the Centurion soldier's servant from a distance. And so there was a crowd of people that had begun to follow the Savior around.

[4:56] But he says here, when he noticed the multitudes, when he took notice of them, he said, we need to depart to the other side. We got to go to the other side of the sea or of the lake here.

[5:09] But folks, when he was preaching this sermon and when he was performing these miracles, he never said anything like this to avoid the multitudes. He was up on the mountain, given what we refer to as the sermon on the mount.

[5:22] He was teaching them the things that God wanted them to know. He was preaching them the things that Almighty God would have them to know. He did not disperse the multitudes from that.

[5:34] He wanted them to hear what he had to say. He didn't disperse them and he didn't try to depart from them. He was teaching them and learning them the things of Almighty God.

[5:45] But this first person, individual that we see come under Jesus Christ. He says, Lord, I will follow thee with us. However thou goest in the scripture says that this was a scribe.

[5:57] And scribes were more often than not found with another group called the Pharisees. These were proud people. They were the teachers of Israel themselves. And he comes to Jesus and says, teacher, I will follow you anywhere that you go.

[6:13] I will go with you all the way. I will go with you here and I will go with you there. If you camp out under the stars, I will be with you. If you eat the crumbs from someone else's table, I'm willing to do this.

[6:27] But how does Jesus Christ answer this man? He says, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nest. But the Son of Man hath knocked where to lay his head.

[6:38] He's given this scribe a warning here in the scripture. He's saying, you're going to be willing to depart from everything that you know and everyone that you know. You need to be willing to bring yourself down to a level of poverty like the rest of the Apostles did.

[6:55] Hey, they didn't stay in fancy hotels. They didn't have the finest meals. But they, the disciples, the original 12 of Jesus Christ, they were taken care of.

[7:06] They were sustained by God the Father while they wandered these regions of Galilee with God the Son. They were, they were helped along the way. They were taken care of that this scribe, he didn't understand what was going on here.

[7:22] All he knew was the excitement that had fallen Jesus down from the mount. The excitement and the intrigue that it produced when Jesus was working these miracles when he was healing the liver, when he healed Peter's mother-in-law, when he was doing these miraculous things and this scribe comes to Jesus and he says, I will follow thee with her so ever thou goest, folks.

[7:47] This is the same way that false converts are made in the churches today. This is the same mistake that they make and this is the mistake that a lot of the churches make by bringing these folks in, by installing them in the offices, by letting them do whatever they want to.

[8:06] This scribe came to Jesus, but Jesus Christ never called him. Jesus Christ never drew him. He volunteered to come unto Jesus Christ and volunteered his time, volunteered his efforts for the service of God.

[8:24] And Jesus Christ said himself, no man cometh unto the Father but by me and no man can come to me except the Father. Throw him.

[8:36] This is the bad way and this is probably the most popular way that false converts are made now. They come into a congregation, they come into a church house, they go to a revival meeting, whatever the case is and the excitement is so real.

[8:55] The people of God are praising God and the people, and these lost people, these unregenerate sinners, they see what's going on and they say, I'd like to have a taste of that.

[9:07] And folks, that's all great and that's fine and that's well, but unless the Holy Spirit of God is the one drawing them to Jesus Christ, they will never receive salvation if the Holy Spirit of God has never shown you your sin, never shown you your need for a Savior that you can have in God through Jesus Christ.

[9:28] If he has never showed you these things, then my friend, you cannot be and are not saved. It must be that way because that's the way the Scripture says it must be.

[9:41] The scribe came to Jesus on his own, on his own not knowing exactly what it would take in Luke's account of this in Luke chapter 9 before any of this happened.

[9:54] Jesus gave the famous words, if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily and follow after me. Let him take up his cross. Folks, I praise God.

[10:05] He's a crown of glory, he promised to me at the end of the way. He's a crown of life somewhere out there, but there's a cross that I must bear to get there. There's a cross that I must bear to get that crown of glory.

[10:18] To get that crown of life. Folks, your cross, it may be different than what my cross is. I'm not talking about a cross that I must be placed on and killed for the sin of the world. That was Jesus and Jesus only that could do that.

[10:31] But every man must bear his own burden according to what Paul wrote to the Galatians in chapter 6 of that book. Every man must bear his own burden. We must all bear our cross on account of salvation, on account of Jesus Christ saving our soul.

[10:47] We must all bear our cross from here to there and from there back to here every day. There is a cross that we must bear. It may be your health, it may be your finances, it may be your mind, it may be physical problems, it may be mental problems, but either way, there is a cross that must be born by the children of God.

[11:10] This scribe obviously didn't hear those words in Luke 9. He obviously wasn't around for that. We don't read in Luke's account, in Matthew's account, or in Mark's account.

[11:25] We're the scribe, nor the other man, the ad-Divarius Father. We don't read about their perseverance. We don't read that they went on with Jesus anyway. I'd like to think that they did. I'd like to think that this scribe who was a teacher of Israel, a teacher of the law of Moses to the Israelites, and he would have also been one that would have written down the laws, that would have made copies of such things to distribute to the people.

[11:52] He would have made copies of the Word of God to distribute to the people of God, to God's chosen people, the apple of his eye, the children of Israel, the children of Jacob, this scribe would have been making copies of the Word of God for the children of Israel.

[12:09] I don't read anywhere where they persevered. This second man that we read about here, it says, Another disciple said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my Father. But Jesus said unto him, follow me and let the dead bury their dead.

[12:27] Very simple statement by this man. Very simple statement by Jesus Christ. Now Luke's account is slightly different from what Matthew's account is.

[12:38] If you turn it over to Luke chapter 9, you can do that at some point. You'll see that Jesus Christ actually spoke the words, follow me before this man made the statement that he needed to go bury his dead Father.

[12:50] He made, he made, and then Jesus says, follow me. Jesus gave him a higher calling than anything to do with his family. I understand folks that the Bible says to honor thy father and to honor thy mother, to honor our parents, to understand these things and folks, unless it's a true calling of God, we are not to separate ourselves from the needs of God.

[13:11] We are not to separate ourselves from the needs of our family. But in the case of it being a calling of God, you read in Luke's account in chapter 9, Jesus Christ told this man, he said, let them bury their dead.

[13:23] You go and preach the gospel. You go out and you be a preacher. You tell the people the good news of Jesus Christ. You tell them that the Messiah that has been promised since the books of Moses, since Genesis chapter 3, you tell them that Messiah is here to save them from their sins.

[13:45] He called this man to preach. I don't read in Scripture where the man does it. I'm not saying for a fact that he didn't, but I would think that if they had persevered, that if they continued in that way, I think that we would have a count of that as Scripture to one way and one way shape form or fashion.

[14:03] Jesus rebuked both of these men. He rebuked them subtly. He rebuked them softly. Believe it or not, they are soft words that Jesus Christ spoke. But here we have two men, a scribe and somebody else, the Bible doesn't give a name.

[14:20] Two men, one of them come to Jesus on his own voluntarily and offered to go, whether so ever, the Lord went. The other was called by the Lord himself.

[14:33] But when he said, give me leave, basically, that I might go bury my dead father. Jesus said, let the dead bury their dead. Let those that are dead in their trespasses and sin.

[14:44] Let those that have no spiritual life. Let those that have no spiritual calling do the things of this world. Let the worldly people do the worldly things I have given you, a spiritual calling. I have given you a calling that is higher than anything this world would have to offer you go and you preach the gospel.

[15:05] And I don't read in Scripture where that man took that offer from Jesus Christ. I don't read where he done that. These are two different occasions. One was not called by Jesus. Another one was called by Jesus.

[15:18] I don't read where either one of them followed through with that. Verse 23 says, when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea.

[15:31] And so much the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep and his disciples came to him and awoke him saying, Lord, save us. We perish. And I'll stop right there. When he was entered into a ship, the disciples followed him.

[15:47] It doesn't say how many disciples we can rightly assume this would have been the twelve that Jesus Christ would have had with him on the ship. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea and so much the ship was covered with the waves.

[16:00] But praise God, Jesus was asleep even while this storm was going on outside of the boat that they were on. I realized that the Scripture caused it to ship. This was more unlawfully just a small fishing vessel that these men were on. Most of the disciples were fishermen by trade and they were up here on this ship.

[16:20] Jesus Christ had said, we must depart and go to the other side. They had entered into the ship. They got out on the waters. Hey, folks, when Jesus come down from the mountain, he didn't get any rest.

[16:31] We've already discussed the miracles that he performed. We've already discussed some of the conversations that he had. He had these conversations with this scribe and with this other gentleman that came his way.

[16:44] Jesus Christ was tired. Hey, he was all God, but he was all man while he was here on this earth. And this is a wonderful picture of him being God and him being man.

[16:56] All at the same time, Jesus Christ got weary just as you and I will get weary. Hey, folks, you cannot suffer anything that Jesus Christ has not suffered himself, whether it's being tired, whether it's being poor, whether it's being homeless, whether it's the feeling of abandonment as Jesus Christ hung on the cross.

[17:18] He said, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Jesus Christ knows what it feels like to be alone. And I thank God for that. The cause he understands and the cause he feels what I feel sometimes.

[17:36] The cause of these things, folks, I'm not saying he couldn't be compassionate without them, but boy, he can be sympathetic. He can be empathetic. He understands what we're going through.

[17:47] You can't suffer a pain that Jesus doesn't know about. You can't suffer a discouraging thought that Jesus Christ doesn't know about. You can't suffer anything that Jesus Christ doesn't know about and has not suffered himself.

[18:00] But here he is out here on these waves, on this lake, on this sea with these disciples, these men that were mostly fishermen by trade, and they were afraid.

[18:12] Hey, folks, don't think that this was the only storm that they had ever seen. Most of them had spent their lives and made their living on the sea, just enough for fish. They had seen storm after storm after storm, but this one came upon them suddenly and praised God.

[18:29] Jesus Christ was asleep in the back of the ship. He was tired. He was tired. There are very one that created the Sabbath.

[18:41] The very one that created the Sabbath for rest was tired. The one that the Bible says, the God who watches over Israel, neither sleeps nor slumbers.

[18:53] He had to slumber. He had to sleep because he was an old man. He wore down just like you and I do. He got tired just like you and I do. He suffered just like you and I do.

[19:07] He felt everything that these disciples had felt and everything that you and I would feel 2000 years later here in 2023, the man was tired. He was asleep while the storm was going on that the disciples came.

[19:22] They said, same as we perish. Hey, folks, this was the same cry that you would read about. I know Easter's coming up here pretty soon. This is the same cry that the people, as Jesus Christ was riding into Jerusalem and they were standing on the sides of the road and they were waving their palm branches and they were throwing their garments out on the road and they were screaming, Hosanna.

[19:43] That's exactly what the word Hosanna means. It's save us. Save us now. This would have been a very similar cry that these disciples were saying to Jesus Christ as they were in the midst of this storm.

[19:55] They were saying, save us Lord. We perish. This was their prayer and Jesus Christ acted once he heard it. Hallelujah. I'm tickled to death to report to you and Jesus crossed when he awoke.

[20:08] He didn't rebuke the disciples for suddenly waking him up and he wasn't a bit concerned with the sound of the waves. He wasn't worried about any thunder. He wasn't worried about the sound of the wind. He wasn't worried about any beast of man there in the water that could have ate them up.

[20:22] What he heard was the cry of his disciples. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. We had the scribe. That was one type of person.

[20:33] We had the other man that wanted to bury his father. That was another type of person. These disciples, they describe me and they describe you if you're real honest with yourself.

[20:44] Someone with weak faith but praise God I've got faith. Someone that has doubt but praise God he looked down upon me one day and there was enough faith that was in me that he could save my unworthy soul.

[20:59] It's a weak faith but it's enough faith to get me home. The folks I don't want to leave my faith where it's at I want my faith to grow. I want to grow in the grace and knowledge of Almighty God and the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

[21:12] I want to grow in his word. I want to grow in his service. I want to grow in everything that Almighty God commands me in the scripture to grow in. Hallelujah.

[21:23] Amen. These men had weak faith but they had faith. They knew who to go to. They didn't just toss their hands up in the air and say we're finished. We're through. Just let Jesus sleep.

[21:35] Hey folks, these men, if they had done that, folks, I think that vessel would have still made it to the other side. Why? Yeah, it was carrying the most precious cargo known to mankind on it.

[21:49] Jesus Christ himself was on there but not only him. He was the most precious but folks, those disciples were with him. These disciples that had been commissioned since the beginning of time. These disciples that were foreordained to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[22:03] They were on there with him. Hey folks, I'm happy to report to you that the very boat that bears Jesus Christ right now, which is the church of the living God, we bear Jesus Christ right now.

[22:14] We carry him to the nations. We carry him to the communities. We carry him all over this country. Hey folks, that boat will not get lost. It will not sink. It must reach the destination that God has foreordained.

[22:28] That it will. It has to. It has to make it. Praise God. And hallelujah to the Lamb of God. His disciples came to him and awoke him saying, Lord, save us we perish.

[22:43] And he said through them, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? How many times I wonder as Jesus looked down on me and said the same thing.

[22:54] Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Folks, if I got faith enough to think, not just to think, but to know that Jesus Christ saved my soul, knowing what I was and knowing the sinful, wicked, evil, mean, nasty, filthy creature that I was.

[23:13] And every one of you was too. Come here and look at me like I got three heads. Every one of us were that. Every one of us were vile. And we were a stench in the nostrils of Almighty God at some point in our lives, knowing what I wasn't knowing that the Son of God would come to sin to become the Son of man.

[23:30] He would leave the heavenlies and come here and associate and dwell among people like us. Sinful creatures, wicked creatures. He would not only live amongst the sin, but he would live amongst those that were committing the sin.

[23:45] If I had faith enough that Jesus Christ descended to heaven to come to earth to give his life a ransom for many, including me, I should have faith that he will get me anywhere I need to go and anywhere he wants me to go.

[24:01] Hallelujah. He says, why are you fearful? Fearful. Oh, you little faith, why are we fearful? Oh, us, the little faith, us, the church, us, the bloodbought, born again Christians.

[24:13] Why do we have such little faith? I wish I could truly answer that. Much of it has to do with the world, much of it has to do with the world rubbing off on us.

[24:25] Much of it has to do with the news that we read, with the Facebook posts that we read. Maybe with some of us with the Facebook posts that we make. Much of it has to do with how the world has infiltrated the church, the believers in Jesus Christ.

[24:42] Most of they didn't have all these things I just listed back in these days, back in these disciples days. They, you think, on these disciples here, they had just witnessed Peter's mother-in-law get miraculously healed.

[24:53] This same day, they had heard Christ preach about the Beatitudes. They had heard Christ say, the Siki first, the kingdom of God, and these other things shall be added unto you.

[25:05] They had heard Christ preach all these things. They had heard Him preach about the broad gate that leads to destruction. They had heard Him talk about the straightener that leads to life everlasting.

[25:16] They had witnessed Him heal a leper at this point. They had witnessed the miraculous come from this man, Jesus Christ. And yet they had little faith. This is so much like the other gospels where they said, Lord, increase our faith.

[25:32] My goodness, they had seen the blind people heal. They had seen deaf ears unstopped. They had seen those sick with the palsy that were made whole. They had seen all these things.

[25:43] And yet they said, Lord, increase our faith. This should be the daily prayer of every Christian under the sound of my voice right now that God, increase your faith.

[25:55] We should all want our faith increased daily. Not just once a week. Not just on Sunday mornings. Not just in a midweek or Sunday evening. Not just a revival.

[26:07] It should be a daily thing that we want our faith increased. You'd be careful praying that prayer though. You'd be careful praying that because God might just answer it.

[26:19] God might increase your faith. How's our faith increased? A lot of times by trial. A lot of times by suffering. The folks of the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please Him.

[26:32] It is impossible to please Him. That is another reason why we should pray daily, Lord, increase our faith. That Jesus doesn't have to look down on us and say, why are you fearful?

[26:44] Why am I fearful? He's already saved me from hell. What else have I got to fear? I shouldn't fear man. Jesus said that himself. Did He not? He said, fear not man that is able to destroy your body, but fear God who is able to destroy both your body and soul in hell.

[27:01] I have nothing to fear. Jesus has already saved me from hell. He's already saved me from my sins. I have nothing to fear. So why do I have a little faith? Why am I fearful?

[27:14] Then He arose and rebuked the winds and sea and there was a great calm. He arose and He rebuked. This is the same thing that He done with demon possessions. He would rebuked the demons.

[27:26] He would call the demons out. He rebuked the wind and He rebuked the seas. Praise God. They had these disciples. They had the very creator of the wind on board with them.

[27:39] They had the very creator of the waters and of the seas on board with them. They had the very one that reached down his finger and carved up the valleys for the rivers on board this ship with them. He is the only one that could do anything for them.

[27:52] That's why they went to Jesus Christ and they said, Lord save us. We perish. They went to Christ knowing that He could do something. This wasn't like the account of Jonah when Jonah was running from God.

[28:04] Jonah was the cause of that storm. If he hadn't been for Jonah disobeying God, that storm would have never happened. This storm I believe was for the sole purpose of increasing the faith of these disciples that were on board this ship with Jesus Christ.

[28:23] What those men say to Jonah, those pagans, those heathens when they come to Jonah, they said, Old Sleeper, what meanest style? Jonah was asleep on the ship.

[28:35] There was this huge tempest that blew up on them, but folks like I said, these are contrasting accounts. Very much so. Jonah was the cause of that. I've heard people say that Satan himself was the cause of this storm.

[28:49] I've heard people say that demons evidently swim around in the waters with the cause of this storm. I don't put much stock in that. I've heard all kinds of things blamed for the cause of this storm. All I know is that Jesus crosses the very maker of this heaven and He's the very maker of heaven and He's the very maker of this earth.

[29:07] And He made the water. He made the air. He made the winds. He made the sun, the moon, the stars and everything they're in. Hey, Job says that God Almighty, He's the one that put the waves in their place.

[29:18] And He said, you can't come any further than this. Hey, God Almighty is the one that determined these things. And God Almighty is the one that keeps these things going the way that they are. I don't care who was to blame for the storm.

[29:31] What I care about is that Jesus Christ was able to step out on this boat and say, peace be still. And He calmed the storm with just His words. He didn't need a staff like Moses did to separate the Red Sea.

[29:45] He didn't need anything. He didn't need a mantle like Elijah did to deal with the waters. Jesus Christ simply spoke and it stood still. Hallelujah.

[29:56] Amen. That's all Christ needs is His Word. Just a thought from Jesus Christ. Folks, not just physical storms.

[30:07] Everyone that was suffering mental storms doing all. It was asked before servicing who've been through a trial.

[30:18] Who've been through something like that. Everyone knows that Jesus calms those too. The tempest might rage inside my head. It might rage inside my heart.

[30:30] It might be brought on by a number of different things. It might be work. It might be a novel, realistic finances and health. It might be spouse. It might be brothers and sisters.

[30:41] It might be brothers and sisters in the Lord. It might be people that are out there in the world. Either way, different storms are brought on by different things. But folks, it doesn't matter the storm. It doesn't matter the cause of it.

[30:53] God Almighty has the power and has the means to calm any storm that we have. Hey, child of God, I've got good news for you. Whatever storm is brewing around in your heart right now.

[31:04] Whatever storm may be coming up next week or in the weeks and the months to come. I've got good news. Almighty God has not lost his power. He has still got the same power as he had when he was on this boat with the disciples.

[31:19] And he can still come every storm that you step into. Hallelujah. There was a great calm. The men marveled saying what manner of man is this.

[31:30] That even the winds and the sea obey him. What manner of man is this? Not what man is this. What manner of man is this? What kind of fellow is this is what they were asking.

[31:42] Oh, this is the maker. This was God himself. What manner of man is this? This is he who loved me and gave himself for me as Paul in Galatians chapter two.

[31:55] This is the one that encouraged and they said we must depart. He's the one that said let's get into the boat. Let's go out on the sea.

[32:06] The manner of man that he is was here and that he is now. There is no difference between the two. He still has the same power.

[32:17] He still has the same love for his people. He still has the same desire for his people. His desire here was to get to the other side so that they could do what? Hey folks, Jesus came to teach and to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[32:30] He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to help those that the Old Testament talked about, the Old Testament prophesied about. He came to save his people from their sins.

[32:44] That was his mission. That was his goal. That was the entire purpose that he came was to destroy the works of Satan, to destroy the works of the devil. And the works of the devil are wicked and they are simple.

[32:56] And Jesus Christ's mission while he was here and mission now is to destroy the works of Satan. Hey, if you happen to be here lost right now, he can still destroy the works of Satan that are brewing in your heart.

[33:10] It ain't just the same people that have storms. It's the lost people that suffer through storms. They suffer through thermal. They suffer through scrap. They suffer through a lot of the same things that same people do, but the same Jesus has the same power to calm these storms.

[33:30] Hallelujah. And it'll end up the same. The great calm. The great calm. That doesn't mean that it's not going to come our way again.

[33:41] That doesn't mean that the demons in this world will rear their ugly heads. It doesn't mean that another tempest won't brew up and come our way and toss us to and fro to the left and to the right.

[33:55] It doesn't mean that we might not think that we're going to perish. It doesn't mean any of those things. But praise God, if He brings you through one, that increases your faith that He'll bring you through the next one.

[34:09] If He brings you through the next one, that'll increase your faith that much more. That He'll bring you through another one sometime down the line. Hey, if He saved you out of one storm, He'll save you out of a hundred more if that's how many you run into.

[34:24] That's what increases our faith is seeing the same thing over and over, seeing God's deliverance over and over. Hey, God's delivered me more than just a time that He saved me 14 years ago.

[34:35] That wasn't the only deliverance that I've experienced with Almighty God. He's delivered me so many more times from so many other things. God is a deliverer. Jesus Christ came to deliver.

[34:46] Jesus Christ is a deliverer. And if we put our faith and our trust in Him, He will deliver us from all sin, all iniquity, all transgression. He will deliver us unto the Father, which is the haven that I am looking for across the way one day after awhile.

[35:04] Hallelujah. There'll be a great calm. Even when these other troubles come our way, even when other storms might brew up in our lives, there'll be a great calm.

[35:16] Peace with the children of God. There's a peace that the world don't understand. There's peace whenever we're suffering through health problems. Whenever the doctor says you ain't got an X amount of months or X amount of days to live, there's a peace with the child of God.

[35:32] Folks, I've seen it with my own eyes. I've seen it. I've witnessed it myself. You could tell the people that had peace with God, and you could tell the people that didn't have peace with God.

[35:44] There's a peace that passeth all understanding. As the scripture says, when we are a child of God, and that peace grows and grows and grows along with our faith, every storm that we're delivered out of.

[35:57] Hallelujah. My question to you, and I'll be done. I want to read the scribe. Did you come to Jesus without being bitten, without being drawn?

[36:11] Or are you the man that was called but didn't follow through? Or are you like these disciples? Yes, you're with Jesus.

[36:22] Although your faith be weak, you are with Jesus. If your faith is weak, such as mine, pray that God increases. Pray that God increases your faith, and your peace will increase along with it.

[36:35] That folks, that's the message. God bless you all. I appreciate your attention.