Hallelujah. Alright, that's sermon one. Sermon two, you'll find it in Matthew chapter number eight. Will you look with me in God's word, Matthew chapter number eight. Today's message is titled this. Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Why are you fearful? O ye of little faith. I asked the Lord to show me what to preach and I considered preaching this text and this morning about 4.30 I woke up with the Lord speaking to my heart. Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? I think he wanted to tell me a few things and hopefully he'll tell you a little bit too. So we look together in God's word. Matthew chapter number eight, beginning of verse number 23. Here's what God's word says. And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that 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 he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him? You know what the Bible says in verse 26? Jesus asked a question. He asked his disciples a question. They've just woke him up. They're terrorized. They're tormented. How many of you, if you're in a boat full of water on a raging sea in the middle of the night, how many of you would be scared too? And all God's people said, Amen. And Jesus' disciples, they're scared and they cry out to Jesus and they say, we perish. Jesus says, why are you fearful? Oh, you have a little faith. First of all, when Jesus asked me, why are you fearful? And I'm gonna be like, look around. The storm, it's awful, it's scary. He says, why are you fearful? You have a little faith. Now, something fascinating about your Bible study, I encourage you to do this as you read through the Gospel records, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Pay attention to Jesus' questions. I want you to know something. Jesus never asked a question because He doesn't know the answer. What question does Jesus not know the answer to? The answer is none of them. He knows them all. So if Jesus is asking a question, He's not asking the disciples so that He can get some amazing insight into the disciples' thinking. Jesus is asking questions because He wants to teach a lesson. So when we look at this question, we understand that the Lord wants to teach the disciples a lesson, and in turn, He wants to teach us one too. Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Fear, I want you to know fear is a paralyzing thing. Now God gave us a fear and the ability to fear because he wants us to have a healthy fear of things that will harm us. But we are tempted to allow fear to become something in our lives that paralyzes us from doing the right thing, that paralyzes us from trusting in the Lord, that paralyzes us from moving forward in the work that God's called us to do. And Jesus looks at his disciples in the midst of a storm, a real storm, a bad storm, a dangerous situation. He says, why are you fearful? O ye of little faith. Now, I want you to understand something, that fear and faith in God, they do not cohabitate. You see, when you're trusting in the Lord, you have no reason to fear because God who created the heavens and earth and everything that is, He's big enough to manage your problem. Fear and faith don't work together. Yet fear is something that boils up in all of our hearts on a regular basis. And Jesus asked this question to his disciples and to you too. Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? I want you to think in your mind for just a moment of a great example of great faith. Often when we think of great faith, we think of a preacher Attempting big things for God sometimes when we think about great faith we think about a missionary Attempting great things for God and those things require great faith, but folks great faith Great faith is shown in our lives by great rest You see, when our hearts rest in the Lord, it's proof that our faith in God is rich and right and pure. When we're trusting in the Lord, resting in Him, then it's proof that we have faith. And Jesus is going to teach His disciples at this moment a very valuable lesson. He's going to teach them that as they trust in Him, fear does not have to control the way they react, the way they respond, the way they rest. Why are you fearful? O ye of little faith. Some of you are probably on a trip with me. We went to Peru. Anybody here went to Peru with Ruth and I? How many of you Peru guys? Yeah, we went to Peru. On our way home from Peru, and it's just something that's typical on the flight home from Peru for some reason, there's airspace through there that is very turbulent. And we were in an airplane, and the good news is Phillip wasn't with us, because he would have been the little girl screaming. He's the closest thing I've ever known to Mr. T. Sorry, I couldn't resist. So we're flying home from Peru and we're nearing the states and we get into some turbulence and the plane starts to bump. And when you're on a mission strip, you know, you're in the very back of the plane. That's the cheapest seats and it's the roughest ride. So you're in the very back of the plane. And so every time you get into these airports, boy, the plane was just bouncing. Well, you could tell there was this little girl just up in front of us and to the left that was starting to get a little wound up. And she started She started crying a little bit. And before you knew it, she quit just making noises, and she started hollering out. She cried out at the top of her lungs, and I'm not gonna do it for the sake of your ears. She cried out at the top of her lungs. She says, I don't wanna die! Yeah, it wasn't Philip, I promise. In just a few minutes, And this little girl, she got wound up, and she was screaming at the top of her lungs, we're all going to die. Now, I like to fly, I really do. It's nice, my phone doesn't work, it's one of the moments in my life as a pastor that I'm off, like I'm not on call. I mean, I'm just on the plane, it's awesome. I like flying. But I'll just be honest with you, the more that little girl screamed, the more I thought, I don't know, maybe she's got some intuition that I don't have. And she scared me. She looked a lot like these disciples. Storm was raging. They cry out to the Lord. We perish. The Lord's going to teach them something. Why are you fearful? Oh, you have a little faith? Let me tell you something. Number one, have faith in the presence of God. God's people need to learn to have faith in the presence of God. If you look with me in verse number 23 of our text, the Bible says, and when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. What happened here? Now, this is something simple in this first verse here, but Jesus goes into the ship, and the Bible says his disciples followed him. Now, here's something that we often take for granted. It is the fact that Jesus is everywhere present. We serve a omnipresent, everywhere present God. Now, if you study your Bible, any time that God wants to encourage people in the Old Testament being courageous, having peace, resting, and not being afraid. He says something that seems quite simple, but it's the most profound thing we could ever realize. Jesus speaks to his people, he says, fear thou not, for I am with thee. What's he saying? I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm with you. Oh, so many times as a child I was scared, and I'd cry out to my mother, and Mom would come to my room, and when Mom came in my room, as little as she was, Because she was present, the fear went away. Jesus was with the disciples. Now folks, you battle with fear. Your fear causes you to react and respond. Your fear causes you to be imagined the worst of the worst. You act in fear often, and I do too. But we don't have to be afraid. We don't have to be fearful because God is present. You see, Jesus was with them in the storm. It's fascinating to look at it, but Jesus led them into the storm. You see, if we're living a life that surrendered to the Lord and we've made Jesus the king of our life and we're his followers, as we follow the Lord, you can be sure that God has led you, he has led you into the storm. You may look at the moment in which you live and you think, boy, this is cruel what God has done to me. That's a foolish take on the sovereignty of God. You can rest in the fact that as you go and battle the storms of life, that God has led you, God will bless you, God will help you. Now if you're living in sin, and you're living in rebellion to God, and you've made yourself a big fat mess, you can turn to him and he'll be with you, but if you're living for the Lord, you can rest in the fact that the storm and the trouble that you're dealing with, you can rest in the fact that God has led me here and God is with me, and I'll just take courage in that. It's hard to imagine, but the disciples had no need to fear when the storm began to rage. Why? God was with them. God was with them. Something I want you to see. This ship that they were on was probably something about the size of this platform. It was not something huge, massive, but it was a ship that was somewhat seaworthy, and I'm confident that everyone was pretty much inside of each other. And the Bible says that Jesus, as the storm was raging, he was asleep. But I want you to look at him for just a moment. Every time the lightning flashed, the flash of lightning flashed on the face of our Savior. Every time the thunder crashed, it crashed within ear reach of Jesus. Every time the boat rocked, Jesus rocked too. And I'm reminded of a wonderful truth, that the Lord Jesus is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. God knows the trouble that you're bearing. God is with you in the storm. And if you're here and you're being ruled and dominated by fear, can I remind you of something? Why are you fearful? Oh, ye of little faith, have faith in the presence of God. Number two. Have faith in the power of God. Have faith in the power of God. It's good for us to think about the fact that the Lord's present. It's also very good for us to think about the fact that our God is all powerful. I remember as a child, the Bible says that fathers are the glory of children. How many of you remember as a child thinking that your dad was 10 foot tall and bulletproof? I remember having that thought. I learned that he wasn't. But I remember thinking, my dad is so strong, that because of his power, I have all the reason in the world to rest. Now, my dad's a human, and he'll fail me, and I'm a father, and I'm a human, and I'll fail them. Let me tell you something about God. All the things I dreamed that my dad was capable of doing, my God is able to do and far more. and we can trust him. He's all-powerful. The Bible says here, I'll show you something that's pretty fascinating from this text. The Bible says in verse 24, he says, And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea. Now, this was a bad storm. Behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. Now, I want you to see that little phrase, the ship was covered. If you've ever been in a covered ship, I'm not covered with a tarp, covered with a roof. I'm talking about covered in water. Let me tell you something, you need to get off as soon as possible. Covered ships sink. I remember as a teenager, I'd gone out with one of my teachers and my best friend, Matthew Lewis, and we'd gone out on canoes and we were canoeing the river that runs through Chilhowin. And it happened to be a day that the water was up and really up higher than we should have been out on it. There's a sewer pipe that runs across the river that runs through our town. And normally you can ride your canoe right under the sewer pipe, no problem. On this particular day, the water was running under the sewer pipe only about eight inches from the bottom of the sewer pipe. Well, I'm a teenager, and sometimes teenagers don't think real clear, and I was paddling towards the sewer pipe, and the current was pretty strong, was taking us toward the sewer pipe, and I begin to think, what am I going to do? Well, before I could come up with a good plan, the nose of my canoe would hit the sewer pipe. Then my canoe went sideways and hit the sewer pipe. And the next thing you know, my boat was full of water. My canoe was full of water. And you know what happens to full canoes? They sink. Now, I had some concerns. One, all my snacks were in the canoe. Big deal. Number two, my fishing gear was in the canoe. Big deal. The biggest deal though was I had borrowed my Uncle Pete's canoe. And I thought, I gotta get the canoe. I'll never forget it. I still have the mental picture of being under the water. I went in after the canoe, and the mental picture that I have, I can still see it. I'm looking back at the canoe, and I'm holding the canoe underwater. The water's just barely over my head. And I come up out of the water, dragging the canoe, and finally I surface and catch my breath. And I rescued the canoe. But I said all that to tell you this, boats that are full of water sink. But I want you to see something here, what's going on in the lives of these disciples. The Bible says that the boat was full. The ship was covered. It says in here, it says here, the ship was covered. In the book of Mark, the Bible says it was full. And I'm so encouraged by this little truth. Now you're in the midst of a storm and I don't doubt that your storm is raging and the tempest is crazy and it's scary and even an impossible situation, but I want to remind you of something. That the God that we serve, the God who spoke everything that is into existence is the same God that has power to float full boats. And the storm around you may be so mighty and raging that you don't think there's any way you can possibly survive. I want to remind you of something. Trust and have faith in the power of God. He's able. He's exceedingly, abundantly able to do more than you can imagine. Have faith in the power of God. You've come to a place in your Christian life perhaps where you think, Oh well, no hope for us. You know my favorite Greek word, baloney. It's not true. It's just not true. There's hope. Have faith in the presence of God. Have faith in the power of God. I want you to see something in this passage of Scripture that's just fabulous. The Bible says in verse number 24, The ship was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. I want you to take a quick look at Jesus. He was asleep. I told you just a moment ago that every time the lightning flashed, you could see it on his face. Every time the thunder crashed, it was within an earshot. Every time the boat rocked, he rocked too. But I want you to look again at Jesus, and I want you to see the demeanor on his face. The Bible says he was asleep. It's interesting. That night, they were flying from Peru to Atlanta. I did something that calmed me. I'll just tell you, the more that little girl screamed, the little brat that she was, the more she screamed, the more anxious I got, and I could feel the tension in the plane rising. And I settled in, and my seatbelt on, and I happened to be in a spot where I could see one of the stewardesses. I fly occasionally. But the stewardess, she flies all the time. And you know what I did? I sat down in my seat, and instead of looking at all the people that were starting to get anxious, instead of paying attention to the little girl to see if perhaps she had some special intuition, I'll tell you what I did. I started looking at the stewardess, because in my mind I thought, this woman flies all the time. And I thought, here's the rules that I laid out for myself. When she gets excited, I will. You know what I did? I sat there and watched her. Every time the plane hit a bump, it's no big deal, she started even dozing off a little bit. The little girl would scream, and you could see it, and she's like, hallelujah, she's on the other girl's side of the plane. She didn't have to deal with that. And I kept watching her. She'd doze off a little bit. She was calm, cool as a cucumber. And the more I watched her, the more I just said, hmm, it's okay. Now I want you to see something. This storm is raging. The disciples cry out, we perish. And Jesus is asleep. Oh, I beg you. At this moment in your Christian life where you think the whole world is crumbling around you and your problem is too big for God to solve, I want you to look at Jesus and I want you to tell me, is Jesus overwhelmed by the depth of the despair that you're overwhelmed with? The answer is no. The Lord's got this. You've got to trust him. You've got to rest in him. You've got to apply his principles. You've got to go to the Lord Jesus and trust him. He was asleep. Have faith in the presence of God. Have faith in the power of God. I'd love to preach for another hour, but I don't want to get in trouble on the other side of the clock. So I want to share with you the third point. Have faith in the purpose of God. Have faith in the purpose of God. Look what the Bible says. The Bible says in verse 26, 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. The first group of people that Jesus deals with are the disciples. The disciples cry out, We perish! And Jesus looks at his disciples and says, Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Do you ever wonder if God perhaps looks at the things that have got us tormented and he thinks, Oh my lands, what are y'all so upset about? What are you so upset about? My secretary's grandson went to Tweetsie Railroad a couple weeks ago. The train whistle sounded and it absolutely, t-totally freaked the kid out. Cried uncontrollably for a couple hours. Grandma had it up to here. She was glad to get rid of him and come back to work on Monday. It's kind of funny, we laugh about it, but we look at the little boy, there's no need to be afraid of a train whistle. But sometimes we get afraid, and from our perspective, we think, how silly could you be? But you can't help but think, and I have to think, that there's so many times that I'm concerned about things and worried about things and fearful, and God's like, what's wrong with you? So Jesus looks at his disciples and says, why are you fearful? He rebukes his disciples, but then he does something to follow that. Then the Bible says he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm. Now I want you to note something, the order of events. The order that Jesus does things is he calms his disciples in the storms, and then he calms the storms. You see, we pray and we'll ask God to take away all the problems, take away all the problems, don't let us have to deal with the problems. But the truth is, we need to not be praying that God would take away the problems as much as we would, God would give us courage and faith to deal with the problems peacefully. And God calms you in the storm and then He calms the storm. But something sweet about being calm in the storm, it doesn't matter if it's storming or not. You have peace in your heart. You have joy. You have the fruit of the Spirit. You can rest in the faithfulness of God. May God help us have faith in the purpose of God. God wants to calm you in life's storm. Rest in the storm. The Bible says in verse 27, After Jesus rebukes the winds and the sea and there's a great calm, the Bible says, the men marveled. What happened? The disciples marveled. After this whole experience, this scary experience, the Bible says the men marveled and said this, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? Let me remind you of something. As you see God give you victory in life storms, you know what it's going to do? It's going to cause you to see how good, how faithful, and how trustworthy God is. And any storm in life that causes you to have greater faith in your Creator is a storm worth having. Trust Him. Trust Him. Why are you fearful? You have a little faith. One short story. a ship's captain, who on a long trip decided to have his wife along on the journey. He was at the helm and the operator of the tower where the ship's captain manages the ship, navigates and controls what's going on the ship. It happened to be a night where there was a horrible storm, a very, very scary storm, and it had awoken the ship's captain's wife, and she'd gone to place where her husband was and she couldn't help but notice as the ship rocked and the troubles along and he was dealing with people coming and taking care of business, she couldn't help but notice how calm he was. Finally, when she had just a moment, she looked at him and said, how in the world do you stay so calm in such a terrible storm? In his ship, he had a sword hanging on the wall, sharp sword. He took the sword off the wall and had it in his hand and put it right on his wife's shoulder, right next to her throat and looked at her and said, are you scared? She's like, you're crazy. No, I'm not scared. Why aren't you scared? I've got a razor sharp sword right there at your throat. Why aren't you scared? She said, well, you're holding the sword. He grinned and looked at her and put his sword back. So let me tell you why I'm not scared and I'm calm in this storm. It's because my God is holding the storm. He can be trusted. He can be depended on. And if you're here and you've not been acting right because you're afraid of what might happen, If you're here and you began to let your faith in Christ wane because of the fear that... Man, we live in a troubling moment. It's a fact. Let me remind you of something. God holds the storm. You can trust in Jesus. He'll help you. Why are you fearful? Oh, you have little faith. It's a piercing question that God uses in my own heart.