Well, hello everyone and welcome back. This is our daily devotional for Monday, November 24th, 2025. And it's a wonderful, beautiful day in Spotswood when I'm recording this. It's a little brisk outside, but it's wonderful to be with y'all. Now, first things first, I need to say a gigantic thank you again to everybody at Old Providence, those who came and worked so hard this past weekend, those who came out and supported our youth group. As I've said on here, we do one fundraiser a year, and it is our Thanksgiving community dinner. I think we served, I was told, 463 people, or something like that, so pretty big undertaking. You ain't gonna serve that many people. You gotta have a lot of food, a lot of ham, a lot of turkey, a lot of sweet potatoes, a lot of everything, but everybody worked super hard. The youth group worked super hard as servers, when they were working the drive-thru. And y'all, if you missed it this year, and you didn't come this year because the lines were long last year, we still served about the same amount of people, but I think the longest the line of cars ever got was six cars waiting because we completely changed our format. I told you, I told you. Bindication is nice. I told you things were going to be moving a lot better this year. Somebody said, did y'all get a consultation with Chick-fil-A? And the answer is no, we did not. We changed some of our food items. Let me tell you something. If you missed it, you really missed out. But come back next year. It's going to be fantastic again. But thank you for those who work so hard. It is Thanksgiving week. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody. For that reason, I'm only gonna be here with you Monday through Wednesday, and we are not having our Wednesday night service this week. Start back next week. So no Wednesday night, but Lord willing, I'll be here with you tomorrow and Wednesday at 6 a.m. But let's get to today. Today we come to one of my really, I think, It's a fascinating passage that we come to. It's almost a sociological study here of not only the disciples, but also the Hebrew people as a whole. Now, why do I say that? Well, just think about some of the things that we've read about thus far. Okay? In the gospel according to Matthew, things like a man healed with leprosy, Peter's mother-in-law, the faith of the centurion where the guy was paralyzed. Jesus didn't even go to where he was, and he spoke and the man was healed. From other gospels, we know that some other really significant things have happened up to this point. Like, for instance, the demoniac of the Gerasenes, right, where Jesus goes and the demon says, our name is Legion, for we are many. Jesus casts them into the herd of pigs. So incredible, amazing stuff has happened. Jesus has turned the water into wine. I mean, my goodness, y'all, incredible stuff has been going on in Jesus' earthly ministry. So much so that back in chapter five, crowds were starting to amass around him. In chapter seven, we see it again. In chapter eight, we see it again. In fact, so much so that as we saw the last time we were together, Well, Matthew 8, verse 18. When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Now, y'all, the idea is that there are so many people that Jesus has got to get away from all of these people. And they've seen some amazing things. But the fascinating thing is, we didn't really get any commentary from the disciples. especially not in Matthew's work here. We hear from the people, but we don't really get much of a reaction out of the disciples. And even in other gospel accounts, we see them interacting, we see their reaction to stuff, and y'all, I'm sure they were amazed, but today, for the first time, oh, we see something different here. We see something that makes them finally scratch their heads and say, who is this? Who is this Jesus character? What are we really working with here? They're amazed, they're perplexed, they're fearful. Because what Jesus does today, y'all, it's not for the crowds, just for his disciples. And what we see is amazing. We're gonna pick up reading in Matthew chapter eight, verse 23, but before we read anything, Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our God and our Father, we thank you for this time that you have given to us together, both this time and all the times previous, well over 800 times. And Father, that's such a blessing. It's been a blessing to me. You know how this has blessed me. It's my prayer that it has been a blessing to others. And I pray now that you will work in our hearts and in our minds as we come this portion of your word, this portion that is mysterious, this portion of your word that points to some really deep things going on here. Father, without your Holy Spirit, we're not gonna understand. So please guide us right now. And we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, y'all, so what's so different about Matthew chapter eight? He's healed, paralytics, lepers, demon possessed, all of these different things. What makes this so different? Matthew chapter eight, verse 23 says, then he, talking about Jesus, got into the boat and his disciples followed him. or followed with it. Verse 34, 24. Without warning, a furious storm came upon the lake, so that the wave swept over the boat. Jesus was sleeping. Now, y'all, realize this. I realize that we talked about this before, right? The term sea and lake, those are interchangeable terms. Now, there are those that look at the Sea of Galilee and they say, really? How could something like this happen? Y'all, this is a picture right outside of Capernaum. We know that Jesus was there. He healed Peter's mother-in-law. I showed you the picture of her house last week. This is about 150 or so, 200 yards from Peter's house. This is where Jesus would have gone. The synagogue is just over there by it too. This is where Jesus would have gone when they put in the boat. We know this. Archaeology bears this out. This is where they would have started out to go across the lake. And look, yeah, it looks beautiful. There are some that it could even say, oh, it looks a little bit like Smith Mountain Lake. The hills aren't quite as high around, but It's beautiful. The water is clear. As I said before, there's hot springs close to there, so there's this abundance of fish. It's really a fantastic place. And you see it, and you say, what do you mean? Wind and waves. It's just like hanging up over the boat. You know, I was kind of sort of thinking the same thing when I saw it and then the guy that was leading us talked about the fact that a year or two prior to that, the same hotel that we were staying in, they thought that one in the group was really quite injured because a squall blew in. off of the Sea of Galilee, the Lake of Tiberias, whichever terminology you want to use. This squall blew in and the wind was blowing so hard, it blew the man right off of his feet. It picked up all the furniture around the pool, threw it, threw it. I mean, just, you know, you're talking about gale force winds. And if you've ever been on the water during a squall, it's really a terrifying experience because there is so much water that you can't tell what's down and what's up. The wind is blowing so loud you can't hear anything. You can't breathe right. It's kind of like when Hurricane Camille came through this area in 1969. One of the things I read about it was they found birds dead everywhere because the birds were drowning. The rain was that hard. Those that were out in it said that they had to cup their hands around their mouths to keep from drowning. That's what a squall is. And yes, it would have happened right there as they put in. And I know it doesn't look like it. We actually went out on a boat. That's the part of the boat right there. I took that picture. I was right in the front of the boat. We put out in a boat. We went all over the place on the Sea of Galilee. Beautiful, wonderful experience. Clear, sunny day. But as they say, a squall can blow in. You got desert on one side. You got Greenland on the other. So humidity, no humidity. Hills, they all come clashing together in this one spot. And so that's what happened. This squall blew in and it was so violent, it was so powerful, that the waves swept over the boat. Now, if you've ever been in a boat where waves are sweeping over, realize they didn't have a sup pump back then. They didn't have the electronic frills that we have now in modern boating. This was a wooden boat. It was a fishing vessel. It could cross the lake. But a lot of times, they didn't really get that far from the shore. They did sight sailing. But nevertheless, what's Jesus doing? He's sleeping. Sound familiar? You know, we find another example of somebody doing something very similar. It happened to be a man named Jonah, who during the midst of this awful storm, he was asleep in the bow of a boat. They're sleeping for two very different reasons. One believes that he has run from God. The other is God, and he knows that he's safe and secure. Verse 25, the disciples went and woke him, saying, Lord, save us. We're going to drown. I get it, right? It's easy to talk smack about the disciples. You know, that's really easy for us to say, oh, those idiots, what are they thinking? Of course they're not gonna drown. What, they think God's gonna drown right there with them? But y'all, we shouldn't do that, okay? In the moment that we wouldn't have done anything different. And so Jesus' response is, verse 26, he replied, you of little faith, why are you so afraid? And y'all, when Jesus asked this question, this can be applied to a lot of different things, he's not asking why they're afraid of the wind and the waves. It's obvious why they're afraid of the wind and the waves, because it has the power to drown them. But what Jesus is really getting at is not why are you afraid of your circumstances, why are you afraid knowing that you're with me? Knowing that I've got you. You know, I don't know what you're going through in life. I know what some of you are going through. But I know what this life is like. I know what it feels like when a storm sweeps in that you didn't see coming. It just blows up out of nowhere. You got a catastrophe on your hands. You got a crisis on your hands. You can't tell up from down. You just put your head down and you try to push through and you blink and time is gone, but you're still dealing with this thing. I get it. I have been there. And in the midst of the storms of life, it's very easy To think, this is it. I'm going to be overcome. I'm going to drown. I can't breathe. I can't think. I can't feel. But at the same time, I feel way too much. I get it. But y'all, it's in those circumstances that, just like the disciples forgot, we often forget who we're with, just like they forgot who they were with. We need to remember that Jesus has got us. that no matter how tumultuous life is, he's in charge and he has taken up residence in us by the power of his Holy Spirit. And so what do we find out? Verse 26, he replied, you of little faith, why are you so afraid? Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the waves and it was completely calm. And y'all, that's a hard thing to imagine to go from like tumultuous, the whole world's falling apart to that again. And even that, there's a little bit of ripple there, there wasn't much wind. It's hard to even envision, but that's what Jesus did. But the fascinating thing is this, this is why I said this is almost like a sociological study. After all they had seen, Demons cast out, paralyzed people walking again, people on the verge of death are now alive and well, the centurion shows up, Jesus doesn't even go, and that dude's healed. All of these things, but after witnessing all of these, and by the way, part of all of these was casting those demons into the swine that rushed headlong into the sea of God. They saw all of it, and we get nothing. But verse 27, after this, The men were amazed and asked, what kind of man is this? I like the King James, I think it's the King James, when they say, who then is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. Y'all, what's indicated here, almost like a sociological study, has to do with the Hebrew people and how they viewed the sea. how they viewed the deep, the yom, yom is the name for sea, and kecham is the, it's the name for the abyss. for the depths. You hear Jonah talking about this, being brought down to the very bowels of the earth, the deep breakers washed over him. There was a lot of mystery in the world at this time, which is not a bad thing, but very few things held mystery for the Hebrew mind, for the Jewish mind, like the deep, the abyss, the water, they used the water. Make no mistake about it, Galilee, especially, fishing. That was how most men, it's an agrarian society, but most men, several of Jesus' disciples made their money by fishing. So they used the water, they were practitioners of the sea, but the mystery of the deep was something that had always eluded them. And when you add to it the Jewish people's history as it related to water, You know, I'm not trying to belittle anything that Jesus had done thus far, casting out demons, healing people, all that kind of stuff. That's prophet activity. It's for this reason, if you went to Mark's gospel in Mark chapter eight, Jesus is gonna stop and he's gonna say, who do the people say I am? And you remember what they said? Some say Elijah, some say John the Baptist. In other words, they said, hey, the people, the crowds, they think that you're a prophet. But y'all, this business right here, This isn't prophet stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no, not at all. In fact, when you look at the history of the Jewish people, you find some fascinating things. You know, the first thing that we really see when it comes to water is creation, that God separates the waters, drawing land up from the deep. It's not prophet activity. It's what God does, settling the ocean down. the seas and the dry land. Then again, what do you find? You find Noah, don't you? Where it rains for 40 days and 40 nights, Noah builds the boat. But God's the one that closes the door. God is the one that causes the waters to recede. Fast forward, Israelites are delivered out of bondage, out of slavery in Egypt. And then what happens? Pharaoh changes his mind and there they are at the Red Sea. What happened? Moses raised his staff, but it was God that parted the waters and they went through on dry land. After that, causing water to spring forth from the rock, that was God too. After that, when it's time to go into the promised land, the Ark of the Covenant goes before the Jordan through those wild and rapid rivers. And the river parts. You see, it's for this reason, the techam, the deep, the yom, that mystery from of ol. You know, the world is 75% water. I think we've only explored about 10% of the ocean. Oh, my friends, there's plenty of room for mystery out there, but it was the mystery of the depths that caused the disciples to finally stop. They'd seen all the other things, but when Jesus does this, They say, who then is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him. Without saying it, they say, he's different from everybody else. Guys, this is not just a prophet that we're dealing with. I think this moment is pivotal. because I believe it is this moment that God uses to really start to inform the disciples that this man that they're following, this man is more than just a man. This man is God, and they're very mixed. Now, what's the application for you and me? Well, I think part of it is that we need to conclude what they concluded, that Jesus, he's not like anybody else. And if he can calm the wind and the waves, what does that say about the storms in your life that he can calm? What does that say about the peace that he can bring you? As we're told, I believe in Luke, where he said, peace be still. Don't you think he can calm the storms of your life as well? He can, because he's not just a man. He's not just an example to follow. He's not just a wise man. He's not just a prophet. He's God. And overall, what this points to, what the disciples may not have seen up until this point, and interestingly enough, it is what the centurion saw. The centurion said, hey, listen, I'm a man who's in charge. If I tell a soldier, do this, he does it. If I say to that one, come here, he comes. You're a man of authority too. If you say it, it'll be done. The centurion got it. You remember what Jesus said? He hadn't encountered anybody in all of Israel like this man that had a faith like his. That included his disciples when he said that. But here, they start seeing who they're really with. I wonder, do you see who you're really with? Before you answer that, consider this. How are you responding to the storms in your life? Are you trusting? Do you know that the Lord is working, no matter what? Have you placed your faith in Him? If not, well then, let today be the day that like those disciples, maybe you'll look at Jesus in a new light. Ask, who is this? You don't have to ask. I'm telling you, He's God the Son. Through Him, all things were made. And forget about me, I'm not, that's what His word tells, that's what He tells you. And you can trust Him. I promise you, He's got you. and He's not gonna let you go. Make sure you're trusting in Him. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you for your word, for its beauty, for its simplicity, for its power, for its depth. Forgive us for those times when we haven't trusted you as we should. Instead, work in our hearts that we would see you in a new light. And in seeing you, unwaveringly, let us put our faith in you. And we pray it all in Jesus' name. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. Lord willing, we'll be back tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Until then, have a very pleasant Monday or whatever day it happens to be. And again, happy Thanksgiving.