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Authority over Nature
April 12, 2026
40:43
Cross Church Phoenix
Summary
What storms are you facing that make you feel overwhelmed? How can trusting in Jesus' authority over nature transform your fears? Discover the profound peace that comes from fearing the Creator rather than the created. Let's dive in together!
Heat. Heat.
Good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How
are you?
>> Good, good. Welcome in. I'm Pastor DJ.
I'm the pastor here at Cross Church
Phoenix. If I haven't met you before,
welcome. Uh, come bug me afterwards.
Come. It doesn't bug bother me, bug me
at all. Come find me and talk to me,
right? Um, but I'd love to meet you and
get to know you more. Um, and at this
time, I invite you to open your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 8.
Matthew chapter 8
beginning at verse 23.
And as you turn there, I want to echo
the announcement
uh a reminder for our VBS volunteers
meeting today after this service. Uh
we'll be over in the kids wing and I
hope you'll join us because we've got a
lot of great wonderful things planned
and we're going to need a lot of help to
get it done. Uh so we have uh VBS
volunteers meeting after service. We've
also officially launched our let's go
journey. Um and I've received some
inquiries as to where we're at on that
and we'll be announcing that next week
because there's commitment cards still
coming in. And so there's still time. Uh
and I encourage you to turn one in if
you still if you haven't yet, you are
encouraged to because this is uh really
a pivotal time in the life of the
crossurch collective. As you know, we
are Cross Church Phoenix. We also have
Cross Church Surprise Elmarrage
Cornville and then we're planting two
churches at Glacia de la Cruz will be is
having a preview their last preview
service tonight and then they launch in
two weeks week to week services. So
please keep them in prayer. And then we
also have Cross Church Mayor that is
coming uh in August and they're up there
renovating and uh doing some things uh
up there as well. And we believe that
God has positioned Cross Church um just
in a in a spot where we can um help keep
gospel lights on where they're going
out. And so I pray that you'll join us
in that. You can find commitment cards
in the foyer. Uh or there's an online
card, too. Um, if you don't like the
handwritten version, there's one online
as well. But I want to echo and
reiterate the goal here is a 100%
engagement by everyone who calls Cross
Church home. Um, that is the barometer
for success. Not the amount that we
announce next week, but the amount of
people uh here at Phoenix engaged in
biblical stewardship. My prayer is
simple, right? It is for obedience to
God's call on our lives to be joyful
givers. Um well, this morning we start a
new series called the miracles of Jesus.
We'll be spending the next eight weeks
covering miracles, select miracles of
Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. And then
after that, we'll be doing uh nine weeks
in the parables. And that will take us
well into the summer. So to kind of give
you a a wide angle view, but for now the
miracles of Jesus and it's going to be
fun. I can't wait. I'm really excited
actually to get to get to it. So let's
pray. Father, we thank you for this
morning. I thank you for your word. Help
us, Lord, to uh just
calm down whatever is going on in our
lives, Lord. That we would
just set it all aside
and focus on giving
glory to God
and exalting the Lord Jesus Christ in
all that we do. God, I pray that you
would give us eyes to see, ears to hear
what the spirit has to say to the church
here at Cross Church Phoenix. In Jesus
name we pray. Amen. Well, I want to
invite you to stand with us as we read
God's word together. If you're unable
to, that is totally fine. You can stand
with us in spirit. Uh but we're going to
stand. We're going to read just a few
verses this morning. We'll be in Matthew
8:es 23-
27.
And it reads this way in the CSB. As he
Jesus got into the boat, his disciples
followed him. Suddenly, a violent storm
arose on the sea, so that the boat was
being swamped by the waves, but Jesus
kept sleeping. So the disciples came and
woke him, saying, "Lord, save us. We're
going to die."
He said to them, "Why are you afraid,
you of little faith?" Then he got up and
rebuked the winds in the sea, and there
was a great calm. The men were amazed
and asked, "What kind of man is this?
Even the winds and the sea obey him."
You can be seated. Thank you.
Before we get into this miracle itself,
I want to give you a little bit of the
prophetic backdrop of Matthew.
and he quotes a few Old Testament
prophets, of course, but one of the
lingering threads is the prophet Isaiah.
And this is important because Matthew
assumes you know your Old Testament. Not
that you've mastered it, but that you
can see Christ fulfilling Old Testament
prophecy.
There's many miracles before this
passage, before verse 23 comes.
If you know kind of the big picture of
Matthew, we have the Christmas story in
the first few chapters. And then in
chapter four, the temptation of Christ
in the desert with Satan. And then in
chapters 5-7, we have the sermon on the
mount. Uh Jesus is preaching and
teaching uh to everyone there. And then
we come to chapter 8. And if you look up
at the beginning of chapter 8, miracles
start happening. He heals a man with
leprosy. He heals a centurion's
paralyzed servant and then he heals
Peter's mother-in-law who is sick with a
fever. And if you look at verse 16,
many, it says, were brought to him who
were demonpossessed and he drove them
out and healed all who were sick. So, we
know specifically of three miracles
before we even get to verse 23. But it
says that many demons were cast out and
he healed many people. So there's been
miracles, a lot happening by the time we
even get to verse 23.
Now, what does Matthew say is the point
of these miracles? The answer is in
verse 17 of Matthew chapter 8. This was
to fulfill
what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah.
He took our illnesses and bore our
diseases. Now, he's quoting Isaiah.
That's your freebie. Do you remember
where in Isaiah?
And that comes from the famous Isaiah
53, the suffering servant prophecy. And
in verse 4 of Isaiah 53, it says,
"Surely he has borne our griefs and
carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him
strick and smitten by God and
afflicted." Matthew is linking Jesus
miracles with the fact that he is the
promised one to come, the suffering
servant, the Messiah, the one.
Matthew is saying he is the suffering
servant who has come not just to do
miracles,
but he is the one who is to come to save
his people from their sins.
What are the next few verses say in
Isaiah 53? Well, in verse 5, it says,
"But he was pierced for our
transgressions. He was crushed for our
iniquities. Upon him was the
chastisement that brought us peace. And
with his wounds we are healed. All we
like sheep have gone astray. We have
turned everyone to his own way. And the
Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of
us all. So for Matthew, the miracles are
not detached from the atonement. The
atonement being his sacrificial death on
the cross for our sins.
These are signs pointing to the fact
that Jesus is the suffering servant of
Isaiah prophesied and whose ultimate
mission is to save his people from their
sin.
In Matthew 11, uh John the Baptist is in
prison and he's hearing about what's
going on. All these miracles are
happening. He's hearing about what Jesus
is doing. So he sends his disciples to
Jesus with a message really a question.
Are you the one who is to come or should
we look for another?
Jesus replies in Matthew 11 beginning at
verse 4. He says it says and Jesus
answered them go and tell John what you
hear and see. The blind receive their
sight and the lame walk. Lepers are
cleansed and the deaf hear and the dead
are raised up and the poor have good
news preached to them.
What I want you to see is Jesus' answer
deliberately echoes Isaiah 35
where those things what we just read are
evidence of the glory of the Lord, the
majesty of God and that he is coming to
save
from sin.
Jesus himself says the point of the
miraculous
is to show the glory of God that he is
God in the flesh and that he's coming to
save us from our sin, sickness,
ailments, sin, death are a result of the
fall in Genesis chapter 3. It's how uh
the fall is is visible to us.
Had there been no sin in the world,
there would be not only no death, but no
sickness, no flu, no COVID, right? No
commercials for new medications that
cure such and such with the possible
side effect of dying, right?
Those things are a result of sin in the
world. And what Matthew is not saying
is, hey, Jesus healed these people. So
every believer is guaranteed healing
from their ailment as soon as they
become a Christian is not what he's
saying.
He may miraculously heal you. Absolutely
he might. He may. But that is secondary
to him saving you from sin. Saving us
from sin.
Matthew's point is that because Jesus
has power over the consequences of sin
like disease, sickness, and death, that
points to his ultimate authority and
power to defeat sin and death and to
forgive you and I of our sins. He's
saying you could trust him with your
life. That's what the miracles say or
communicating.
Now, I know that's a rather long
introduction, but I want you to
understand the point of miracles was
never miracles in and of themselves.
Though they are amazing. The point was
always bigger
to show Jesus is the Christ, the
Messiah, the suffering servant come to
save us from sin.
And here in our text, we'll see Jesus
authority extends to even nature itself,
his authority over creation.
And so I want to break this up into two
sections. And there's uh handouts in the
back if you want one. If not, it'll be
on the screen. But um two sections,
fearing the created
versus fearing the creator.
Fearing the created. So that's our first
main heading. The effects of fearing the
created.
The effects of fearing the created.
Number one, we forget what God said.
We forget what God said.
This passage verses 23- 27 is sandwiched
between the words going to the other
side.
And I want you to see this. Look back at
verse 18. It says, "When Jesus saw the
large crowd around him, he gave the
order."
Isn't that great? He gave the order to
go to the other side of the sea. Now
look at verse 28,
the very next verse after our passage.
When he had come to the other side,
Matthew is pointing something out on
purpose. Right? There's no waste of ink
in scripture. It all serves a purpose.
Matthew is specifically pointing out
that Jesus said that they're going to
the other side and they came to the
other side despite the violent storm in
between.
If Jesus gave orders
to go to the other side, you're going to
the other side.
That's the point.
Jesus, it says, gave orders to go to the
other side. Now, this is early uh in
Jesus ministry. And yes, the disciples
are still trying to figure everything
out. Um even after Christ is risen, they
don't have it all figured out. You know,
neither do we.
But let's not miss the lesson that
Matthew is teaching. If Jesus says we're
going to the other side, you're going to
the other side.
that's happening,
which is why he's asleep in the middle
of a violent storm.
It's easy to armchair quarterback the
disciples now and say that they had
nothing to worry about, but it's
technically true.
It's true. They have nothing to worry
about.
Now, I'm not saying we'd be any better.
In fact, we'd probably react the same or
worse if we were in their position
facing danger. But I submit to you that
if the disciples were keen listeners,
they'd recall,
but the Lord said, "I'm going to the
other side. I may not know how. I may
not know when. The storm is vicious. I
don't know how we're going to get to the
other side, but the Lord said we were."
And I can trust that.
I can trust that.
And this leads me to our second point.
When we fear the created uh we are
stressed, anxious and worried for no
reason.
Stressed, anxious, worried for no
reason.
Stress, anxiety, and worry have control
of a lot of people today. It really
does. And the Bible does speak to this,
right? The disciples are worried out of
their mind, right? And these are
seasoned, some of them seasoned
fishermen. And it's not like this is the
first storm they've ever experienced and
like what's happening? No, they know
what's up and it's violent and they're
scared.
They're worried out of their minds and
humanly speaking, we can understand why,
but they're not contemplating
what Jesus had said previously. And it's
not like he said, "Let's go to the other
side." And then like 6 months later,
they'd actually do it. This is within
minutes, right? Maybe hours if you want
to,
but I don't know.
give it that. But it's not like he said,
"Let's go to the other side, but we're
going to camp here for 3 months and then
go to the other side." It's, "Let's go
to the other side." And they got in the
boat. Went to the other side. What did
he just say? But they're not thinking
about that. They're not contemplating
what he just said. They are freaked out.
They're not contemplating his command
that they'll go to the other side.
They're worried about dying in the
storm. Now, Mark draws this out even
more in his gospel. He says this in Mark
4:38. But he was in the stern asleep on
the cushion. Jesus even got himself a
pillow. Right? It's great.
And they, the disciples, woke him up and
said to him, "Teacher, do you not care
that we are perishing?"
Mark is a little more emphatic. He's
saying, "Teacher," the disciples to
Jesus, "don't you care that we're going
to die?"
And you contrast that with Jesus, right?
Fast asleep.
He's not worried, stressed, or anxious.
Complete trust in the father, right?
And oh, how this applies to our lives
today.
We have promise after promise in the New
Testament.
We may not see how or when that promise
will come, but by golly, we can trust it
because God said it. For example, are
you anxious and want the peace of God?
Say, "Yes, sign me up." Right? Are you
stressed out, anxious, worried? Do you
want the peace of God? Philippians
chapter 4 is about experiencing the
peace of God.
We'll reread it and apply it to our
lives or will we forget about it?
Paul says, "Don't be anxious." Easy for
you to say, Paul, you don't know what
it's like to be in 21st century America,
bro. Do you really want to like,
"We don't know what it's like to be in
first century apostle getting beaten,
whipped, shipwrecked." read 1
Corinthians 11. For all all he went
through, beat up and imprisoned
within an inch of his life.
That's the guy writing in prison saying,
"Don't be anxious about anything." That
guy,
"Don't be anxious for anything." Well,
that's easier said than done. I
understand that. But he gives us
more than that.
He says,
"Don't be anxious. Pray to God." Right?
In everything give thank to God and let
the peace of God
guard your heart and your mind in Christ
Jesus.
>> Amen.
>> Don't be anxious for anything, but in
everything with prayer and supplication,
let your requests be made known to God.
And what
the peace of God will guard guard? Yes.
Guard your heart and your mind in Christ
Jesus. You're saying that prayer,
turning to him in prayer, making
supplication, being thankful for
everything will help, will guard me
against anxiety. Yes.
>> Yes, it will. Your heart and your mind.
Paul doubles down. Um he doesn't stop
there. He tells you what to focus on,
right? What to think about. Focus on
what is true, what is honorable, what is
just, what is pure, what is lovely, what
is commendable. Focus on these things
and what the God of peace, he repeats
himself, the God of peace will be with
you. You mean if I focus on what is true
and I focus my mind on what's honorable,
I focus on things that are just and
pure. I focus on what's lovely,
commendable. And if he says, "If there's
any excellence, if there's anything
worthy of praise, think on these things
and the God of peace will be with you."
You mean that
is the antidote for anxiety? Yes.
Biblically, it is.
The God of peace will be with you. It is
a battle. Yes. But Philippians 4 is a
recipe for dealing with stress and
anxiety. And it's about focusing on God
and the truth that comes from his word.
That's freedom from anxiety.
Thank you, Jesus.
>> Or there's the promise that he be he who
began a good work in you will complete
it. You might not see how. You might not
know how, but you could take it to the
bank that God will complete his good
work in you.
>> You might be like, "But you don't
understand my situation, DJ. You're
right." I probably don't. I may not be
like, "But I'm living paycheck to
paycheck. I can't survive. I'm stressed
out and anxious beyond." Okay. And go to
the Lord. Trust in God. Easy for you to
say, "Pastor, I'm not the one saying
it." Actually, it's God's word saying
it.
>> Anxiety is real,
but so is God
and so are his promises.
We really going to say that anxiety is
more real than God in his promises. Yet
we let that control our lives instead of
him.
Don't let it control you. Don't let it
rule over you. Put it in its place.
Now, I'm not being hard against those
who experience anxiety. I am being hard
against anxiety itself.
We give it way too much power. We really
do. We do.
Don't let it. Don't let it. Fear the
creator,
not the created. I want to say what
Jesus said about anxiety.
Matthew 6 27. So he just got done saying
this in his sermon on the mount. And he
says this about anxiety. He says, "And
which of you by being anxious can add a
single hour to his span of life?"
Man, come on, Jesus. Like, dude, bro,
come on. Right? Like, what is he saying?
What is his point? He's saying
anxiety ain't your friend. Anxiety don't
care about you. It ain't helping you.
And it can't add a single hour or a
single span to your life.
So, don't let it rule over you. Right?
The disciples have this much zero
control over the storm that they're
experiencing. Zero. It's happening.
God's allowing it. All right.
But what they do have control over is
their response to it. They could have
recalled what Jesus said. We're going
over there.
Just think about this with me for one
minute. I don't want to overstep, but I
want you to think about it. Could
could any of the disciples
walked in, saw Jesus sleeping, and said,
"You know what? I think I'm going to
take a nap, too."
Could they have?
They still would have made it to the
other side
because Jesus said, "We're going to the
other side." Could they have taken a
lesson from Jesus and said, "You know
what? I guess I'll take a nap too in
this storm.
Would that have kept them from arriving
at the other side?" Of course not. They
would have made it. Now, we know that
that didn't happen, but I
submit to you that they could have
because that wasn't going to change the
outcome of arrival on the other side.
Their panic
didn't change it. And if they would have
taken a nap right right with Jesus,
they're still gonna arrive.
What good did their panic do? None.
Right. That's why he points them out. He
says, "Oh, you of little faith."
Interesting, right? He he he goes
straight to them.
Not you're right. That's a crazy storm.
I'm so sorry. I was sleeping.
He says, "What is it?
You of little faith." What is it? The
storm is secondary. Your faith is
primary.
>> Amen.
>> And we can do the same. We can trust
Christ. Hold on to his words. When fear
and anxiety come, don't fear the
created. Fear the creator. And so that's
our second main point. The blessings of
fearing the creator.
When we fear the creator, number one, we
have no reason to fear anything or
anyone else. We have no reason to fear
anything or anyone else. And second, I
want to give you the second one quickly.
When we fear the creator, our fear of
God keeps our fear in its rightful
place.
Keeps it in its rightful place.
Now Mark tells us in his gospel that
when Jesus rebuked the storm and there
was calm, the disciples went from
fearing the storm
to fearing Jesus.
Everything switched
to
who is this? So Mark says in Mark 44
4:41 he says and they were filled with
great mark it great fear and said to one
another who then is this that even the
wind and the sea obey him. They go from
fearing the winds and the sea to great
fear
of Jesus.
Their fear of Jesus was greater than
their fear of the storm that they just
that he just calmed.
If you remember, maybe you grew up in
church, I don't know, Sunday school
story of Jonah. Yeah. The the guy who
was swallowed by the fish. Yes. But
there's more to the story, right?
The whole first chapter of Jonah is
about fearing Yahweh above everything
else.
That's the point of Jonah chapter 1. If
we were preaching Jonah 1, it would be
fear God. Fear the Lord above everything
else. Because that is the point. That's
the whole point of Jonah 1. In Jonah 1,
the sailor's fear
grows. And that's what is being
communicated. Everyone fears God but
Jonah. That's kind of the point. And
then God gets Jonah's attention. Um, but
the sailors, in fact, in Hebrew and and
it comes out in the original language
better. Um, but in Hebrew, the sailors
are actually the salty ones. We use
sailors cuz that's what they are.
They're professional sailors, but they
would be salty because they spend all
their time on the sea. It is the salty
ones. And these are seasoned sailors.
And there's a great storm. And it says,
"And they were afraid."
good oldfashioned afraid of the storm.
And they panic and they come to Jonah
who is what? Asleep. And he's like,
"Yeah, I I fear God. I fear Yahweh. I'm
a I'm a prophet. I'm a servant of
Yahweh. Um if you throw me overboard,
you know, everything will be fine." And
eventually they do, and there is a great
calm on the sea. And what does God's
word have to say about that? in in Jonah
1, their regular old fear of the storm.
It went from that to it says exceedingly
great fear of Yahweh the Lord when the
storm was calmed.
It is emphatic for a reason. Sailors
fear the storm. We're scared we might
die. The storm is calmed after they
throw Jonah overboard. They are
exceedingly
greatly
fearing Yahweh
at the end of Jonah chapter 1. And
that's the point, fearing Yahweh above
everything. And you can see kind of
hints of Jonah 1 in our text here. And
Matthew, I believe, is drawing some
parallels to that. That Yahweh controls
the sea is obvious in the Old Testament.
I could just give you one psalm, Psalm
89:9. It says, "You rule the raging of
the sea. When its waves rise, you still
them." And there's other psalms that
speak to that. But the point is
the sea, that Jesus is God who controls
the sea. Now, the difference between
Jonah and these disciples here in
Matthew 8 is that Jonah was not
not where he was supposed to be. But
think about it. Think with me. The
disciples are.
They sure are. I was talking with
someone this week who who brought this
out and I thought it was great. Think
about it with me. The disciples
are exactly where they should be. Where
are they? In a boat with Jesus
going to the other side.
They are in a boat with Jesus on the
lake following where he said they're
going to go. They are exactly where they
should be, traveling where he leads. And
yet a storm comes and a violent storm at
that, right?
Following Christ does not mean immunity
from storms.
It does not. Maybe you'd say, "Man, I'm
following Jesus. I'm trying hard to do
what he says, to live how he tells me
to. And yet, storm after storm, trial
after trial.
What we learn here is that following
Christ doesn't mean no storm. It means
what? Trusting him in it.
>> Amen.
>> And trusting in his words before and
after it.
Following Jesus doesn't mean rainbows
and unicorns all the time.
There are great times. Don't get me
wrong. The joy of following Christ is
immense and great. But it doesn't mean
that it will be that all the time. You
can be right where God wants you to be
and yet in a violent storm. The question
isn't if you'll experience a storm of
life following Jesus. It's what are you
going to do when
you experience
storms of life following Jesus?
The trials we experience tempt us to
fear the created. Don't do it. Continue
to walk with the Lord. Fear the creator.
I want to end with the words of Jesus
himself.
Jesus said this in Matthew chapter 10.
And do not fear those who kill the body
but cannot kill the soul.
Rather fear him who can destroy both
soul and body in hell.
Strong words. Yeah. Not mine. Those are
Jesus's.
What's he saying? Even if your life is
threatened
physically, literally,
don't fear anyone who can only harm you
physically,
cuz that's just one piece.
Fear him who can destroy both your body
and your soul in hell. Very serious and
sobering words from the Lord, from
Christ.
He's talking about hell
and people going there who do not fear
him.
Your eternal state is far more important
than any present storm. It really is. We
can lose sight of eternity in our
present circumstances.
And the challenge is will we continue to
fear God and to walk with God, to revere
him, to love him, to worship him no
matter what happens in our lives.
Matthew closes with the question we all
must answer. What kind of man is this?
Who is this? And we've talked about this
before in previous sermons, right? Who
is Jesus? Not who is he to you? Like who
do you think he is? And what what have
you know have you conjured up Jesus in
your mind and you just make him up as
you go? Not that not the version of
Jesus that's not biblical.
Who is Jesus?
Right? I was going to say period but
then that would be like not accurate,
right? But simply who is he?
And CS Lewis
put it this way. Maybe you've heard this
before. This is not original to me. from
CS Lewis. He said Jesus is either liar,
lunatic, or lord. Those are the only
three options you have. No one refuts
the existence of Jesus Christ as a as a
man walking the earth. No one. You have
to kind of be like hidden under a rock
to think that he didn't even exist. No
one refutes that. Atheists are like,
"Yeah, Jesus existed. He's like a
Gandhi, you know." So, either he knows
what he's doing and he's a liar. That's
deception.
That would be awful.
Or he's a lunatic, meaning the he makes
vast claims and he just doesn't know
what he's doing. He's just out of his
mind crazy. That would make him a
lunatic. Okay? Or he's Lord.
Everything he said is true. And this is
true. He has all authority over sin,
death, hell, nature, everything.
Spoiler alert, he's Lord.
>> Okay? Can I just answer that for you?
It's whether or not you will submit to
him. And we've talked about this
previously. We don't make him Lord like
I'll let you be Lord now
or I'll let you be Lord next week when I
decide to turn my life over to you. No,
no, no, no. He is Lord.
The question is, will you submit to him
as Lord? Because he's Lord regardless.
He's Lord of heaven and earth whether
you agree with it or not.
>> Yes. It's just whether or not you will
submit to him and trust in him with your
life.
Matthew intentionally closes this with
the question, "What kind of man is
this?" And the answer to that question
will come from an unlikely source next
week. And I'll give you a hint. It's in
the next few verses.
We'll touch on this next week. But
demons will say,
"What are you here to do, son of God?"
Matthew's doing this intentionally. What
kind of man is this? He's the son of
God.
>> And comes from an unlikely source. Yes.
Intentional in his writings to point out
that's the answer. You want the answer
to verse 27? You look at verse 29.
That's the answer. He is the son of God,
not created,
the eternal son of God.
I want to invite the worship team back
up. But if you're here this morning, you
say, "I don't know Jesus Christ as as my
personal Lord and Savior." Maybe you're
wrestling with it. Praise God. But if
you say, "I don't know him. I know about
him." There's a big difference in
knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus,
right, intimately.
But I would invite you, you can come
find me after service and we'll talk.
I'd love to chat with you about the
gospel and about Christ.
And if you're here today, you say, "I do
know the Lord. I've been walking with
him for a while, but things are just
upside down in my life right now. I'm
really going through it, Pastor DJ.
And I don't I'm not even going to
pretend to know what you're going
through.
I do know that a lot of us here, a lot
of us are just going through it right
now.
But I would submit to you that you can
rest in Christ regardless.
And yes, we're called to work hard and
to do to be good stewards and to to live
to support our families. All of that,
yes and amen. But in the end, you can
trust that God is saying in his word
that the peace of God will guard your
hearts and minds if you'll take it to
him. That if you focus on these things,
the God of peace will be with you. And I
just gave a selection, right? There's
other promises of God. He began a good
work in you. He'll complete it. Trust in
that. Everything. Romans 8:28, all
things work together for the good to
those who love God according to his
purpose. Notice his purpose, not yours.
Um his.
But you can trust in that somehow
someway, Lord, you're using this for
good. I don't have the slightest clue
how, but I do love you. That promise is
for those who love God, right? to those
who love him according to his purpose. I
love you, God. I don't know what's going
on, but I could trust you that it will
work together for good, for your glory
and my good, right? Let's pray. Father,
we thank you for this morning. I thank
you for your word. Help us, God, to
um not just be hearers of the word, but
doers also.
God, I pray that you would help us to
take seriously what you say. Take
seriously your promises.
Hold on to your promises more than we
hold on to stress or worry or anxiety or
any other thing that we're dealing with,
Lord. Those are just a few. And we all
have these struggles, Lord. And we all
have different struggles, God. But I
pray that we would hold on to you more
than that. Let those things go and flee
to Christ. Run to Christ. Take hold of
Christ.
Like Paul said in Philippians 3, I have
been taken hold of Christ, so I pursue
him. May that be us also. In Jesus name
we pray. Amen. Let's stand as we sing
our last song.
Part of Series
Miracles of Jesus
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Miracles of Jesus
Authority over Nature
April 15, 2026
40 minutes