This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions and our continuing look at our personal
growth, our spiritual growth through Mark chapter 4. This is our last day in
this great chapter. We are going to be looking at verses 35 to 41 today.

We've been talking, as I just said, all week about personal growth, 35 to 41.
Now it's time for a little field trip with Jesus and the disciples. He's been
talking to them about growth.

Now there's a field trip about growth. Verses 35 to 41, listen to what happened.
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the
other side.

" Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was in the boat.
There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up and the waves
broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamped.

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said
to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown? " He got up, rebuked the wind, and
said to the waves, "Quiet, be still.

" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples,
"Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?

They were terrified and they asked each other, "Who is this? " Even the wind and
the waves obey him. This was a field trip with Jesus and the disciples after
talking about personal growth.

All of a sudden, they're in a place where all that they've heard that day is
tested. Is faith, is growth going to be real in their lives? You can talk about
personal growth.

You can teach even others about change, but all of a sudden, all of a sudden
you're in a place where all that you've heard and maybe all that you've taught
others is put to the test. You're in a storm. It's sudden and it's unexpected
and it's stressful.

This storm that the disciples faced that way, remember that many of them were
fishermen. They knew a storm. They knew when they were in danger.

They knew that this was a terrible storm that had come upon them. In this storm,
Jesus reminds them of some things about growth. By the way, as we go into these
five things that Jesus reminded them of this day, it's a reminder of God's
process in our lives.

First he teaches and then he allows me an opportunity to practice what he has
taught. I don't always like those opportunities. I don't know about you.

I don't like the storms of life. I don't like it when things don't go the way I
wanted them to go. I don't like it when I feel unsafe or insecure or even
uncomfortable, but God has a plan and in his plan, he's going to work to grow me
even through the storms.

So notice five things in what happened that day. Notice number one, that Jesus
put them in the middle of this storm. Jesus is the one who said, "Let's go to
the other side of this lake.

" He put them right square in the middle of this storm and the truth is,
following Jesus will put you in uncomfortable places, sometimes even in
dangerous places. Jesus put them there. I know some people who their brand of
Christianity is, "Jesus is never going to put me in an uncomfortable place.

Jesus is always going to put me in richer and richer places. He's going to
always put me in more and more comfortable places and real growth is me feeling
comfortable. " That's not growth, that's comfort and comfort and growth are
polar opposites from each other.

You know this, you make kids more and more comfortable in a classroom, they're
going to be playing video games. They're not going to be learning math.
Sometimes it takes discomfort, sometimes it takes change and challenge to grow
and Jesus will put me, he'll put you in those places.

Jesus put them in the middle of that storm. Don't blame God for the storms in
your life. Ask him how he can grow you even through the storms and give you hope
to see that there is another end.

This storm is going to end someday. Second thing you learn from this story is
that Jesus cares. Jesus cares about your anxiety in the storm.

When the disciples went and they woke Jesus up, which first of all that's
amazing, there's a storm, the waves are coming over the edge of this boat and
Jesus is staying asleep. That just shows how exhausted Jesus had to be at the
end of these days of ministry. It's just one clue about how deeply tired Jesus
became physically because he poured himself out so much in ministry.

So he's sleeping, he knows it's not his time to die, he's going to die on a
cross. He's not going to die in a boat out on the Sea of Galilee. But the
disciples are worried, they're anxious, and so what does Jesus do?

He doesn't say, "Oh, don't wake me up. What are you doing? " Instead he gets up,
he hears their anxiety and he responds to it.

As I read these verses, I almost get the picture of a parent who in the middle
of the night, their child cries out, "There's a monster under my bed. " The
parent knows there is no monster. The parent still gets up, the mom or the dad
goes in to see the child, the son or the daughter, and looks under the bed to
show them that there's no monster there, and that's what Jesus was doing for his
disciples.

We do get anxious in storms sometimes. We get stressed by the storms of life,
and Jesus says, "I care about your stress. " But there's a third thing you learn
from this story, and that is that Jesus has the power to make a difference.

He stopped the storm. Be quiet, he said, and the storm stopped. I've got storms
in my life, you've got storms in your life.

They may be about relationships. They may be about some physical health problem
that you're facing. They may be something related to a job situation, a fear of
losing a job, or maybe you have lost a job and you're out of work right now.

You're going through a storm. Jesus Christ has the power to make a difference.
Why doesn't he do it right now?

Why doesn't he do it as soon as I want him to do it? He doesn't always exercise
his power when I want him to. He doesn't even always exercise it as I want him
to, but he always makes a difference.

He always shows his power to make a difference. Even the storm of a health
problem by which somebody loses their life, he has the power for the
resurrection of life so that person's going to live forever. He has the ultimate
power to make a difference in any storm of life, the power of hope that you
need.

So look to his power right now and ask him, "Jesus Christ, would you quiet this
storm in my life? " There's a fourth thing you learn in this story of Jesus and
his disciples. My fear is what keeps me from having faith.

That's what Jesus said to his disciples. Why are you so afraid? Do you still
have no faith?

It is my fear so often that gets in the way of my faith. I am afraid that life
isn't going to work out as I want it to. I'm afraid that God isn't going to
supply my needs.

I'm afraid that I'm going to be embarrassed in this situation. I'm afraid that
I'm going to lose the opportunity that I wanted to have happen out of that
situation. I'm afraid.

I'm afraid that God's not going to supply my needs. I'm afraid that God's not
going to take care of me this time. I'm afraid that God's no longer going to
have a plan for my life.

Well, God is going to take care of you. God does have a plan for your life. And
Jesus says when you're afraid, look to those things and it will build your faith
because the opposite of this truth is faith is the true antidote to fear.

Even faith is an antidote to fear in my life, in your life. And then there's a
fifth thing in these verses, the five things. Number one, Jesus put them in the
storm.

Number two, Jesus cares in the midst of the storm that you're in. Number three,
Jesus has the power to make a difference. Number four, my fear keeps me from
having faith and faith is the antidote to fear.

And then number five, the fifth thing I learned is to never lose my sense of awe
at who Jesus is and what Jesus can do. If I want to be growing, even through the
storms of life, I want to not lose that sense of awe at what he can do. Jesus
said, quiet, and the waves settled down and the wind was still.

And the disciples looked at this and they said, who is this? There's something
about that that I never want to lose in my life. I see Jesus walk into a
situation in my life, a circumstance in my life, and do something that only he
can do.

Grow my character through a problem. Only he can do that. Give me hope in the
darkest of days.

Only he can do that. Bring somebody to Christ through a crisis of life. Only he
can do that.

I don't want to ever become familiar with that. I always want to have this sense
of awe at what Jesus can do. Who is this?

He's God in human flesh. He's the Lord. He's the Savior.

And look at what he can do. Look at what he can do in our lives. That awe is a
deep part of my growth in everyday life.

So as we close this week talking about growth, let's close it focusing on Jesus,
the one who is working for our growth. And Jesus right now, in the midst of
whatever storm we might be in right now, we just see you and our minds, we see
you standing up in the middle of that storm saying, "Peace, be still. " And we
trust you.

We trust that you're at work. Even when we can't see that you're at work, even
when we have to be patient for you to be at work, we trust that you're at work
even through this, even through the storm. Growing us, growing the people in our
lives, doing your work.

God, we pray that in that trust, you'd bring a new and deeper faith into our
hearts than we've ever had before. And out of that faith, we'd grow a deeper
hope in our hearts than we've ever had before. And out of that faith and hope,
there would be the foundation of a new kind of love for you and other people in
our lives than we've ever had before.

Grow us, Jesus, step by step, day by day. Grow us. We pray this in full
confidence, because you've said you're doing it.

So we just ask you to do and trust you to do what you've said you'd do. We trust
you in Jesus' name, amen. Be sure to join us next week.

We're going to be looking together at Mark 5 and the power that Jesus has to
heal the hurt places in all of our lives.