Sunday Setup – Matthew 8:23-27

Hey Cross Street family and welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our time each week where we digitally gather together in order to pray through our piece of scripture that we'll be studying this week. And this Sunday we start a brand new series called Miracles of Jesus. And in this we're going to look at nine of the miracles of Jesus that are seen throughout the Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And we are going to be examining these through the book of Matthew and there will be some crossover but it's going to see as we dive into these miracles really who Jesus is and what it pushes us to do in response to that. As we start this we'll our first miracle we're going to look at is found in Matthew chapter 8. We're going to be starting in verse 23. Matthew chapter 8 verse 23 through 27. And this is what it says. It says as he got into the boat, he being Jesus, 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 they woke him up saying, "Lord, save us. We are going to die." He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?" Then he got up, he rebuked the winds and 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." As we dive into this passage this weekend, want to prepare our hearts. And I have two prayer prompts that I want us to think through and pray through and just spend some time meditating on. First is that we see in verse 27, after all this happens, they ask this question. And this question is asked throughout the gospels of who is this man? And I want us to take a second as we prepare ourselves, we prepare ourselves to this passage, we'll see what Jesus can do. But let's just have a time of worship where just this prayer prompt, Jesus, you are. And just name some of the things that Jesus is, that he is holy, he is powerful, that he is God, that Jesus, you are. What are some of the attributes of Jesus that we can pray through, that we can praise him in because of who he is? Pray those to our God. >> Jesus, you are Lord. You are powerful. You are sovereign. God, you are loving. Jesus, you are everything we could ever need. And as we study this series, Lord, we are going to see the power you have, the authority you have that changes how we should live our lives, that changes how we should respond to you. But we don't stop at just seeing who Jesus is. We also see what we should do as a result. In verse 26, he says, "Why are you afraid? You of little faith." They were afraid of the situation even though they were with Jesus. And even as we go through life, we get afraid of certain things that happen even though Jesus is with us. And I think in our second prayer prompt, as we think of this, just think of the fears that we have. And and kind of having this prayer prompt here is Jesus, help me in my fear of blank. Jesus, help me in my fear of blank. And reminding ourselves that as maybe we're afraid of the current economy, maybe we're afraid of whether our kids will continue to go down and be involved in the church or they'll walk away from the faith, maybe we're afraid of whether we'll lose our job or whatever that looks like in your life, Jesus, help me in the fear that we have not to be afraid that even though we have that fear, knowing that Jesus is with us and we should not have it. Just name those fears and praying that Jesus can help to us with our fear of blank. >> God help me with my fear of failure. A fear of just not living up to what I think I can accomplish on my own, but knowing Jesus that you should quell those. That Lord, I don't have to take on the weight of the world, but instead can give it over to you. And Lord, we are all full of fears. We all have things in our lives that we are worried that are going to get us off track, that are going to derail our path, that are going to hurt us ultimately. But you remind us that we should not have fear, but we should have a faith to trust you knowing you are with us alongside whatever comes our way. God, we just thank you as we dive into this new series looking at the miracles you perform that we can fall more in love with you, and we can see how we are to respond to that love and what it calls us to do. God, we thank you for this time. We thank you for our church family, and we lift all this up in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you guys for joining us today. We'll see you this Sunday.