Crisis Becomes Your Classroom

Pastor Pat opens his first Sunday back from sabbatical by thanking the church. The sabbatical was not a rescue from a crisis at home, he says. It was time to celebrate 14 years of ministry at New Hope and to process the mountains and valleys so he could look ahead with fresh eyes. Then he asks the room: have you ever felt your faith sinking?

How we respond matters. Good Christians often try harder, but Pat says the gospel is about surrender, not effort. He confesses that through many storms he has been “a frustrated student pouting in the corner,” a 44-year-old man stomping around like a four-year-old because he believed he shouldn’t be in the storm at all. Storms are necessary, he says, and some treasures are only found in valleys.

In this series, Jesus is revealing who he is. Feeding the 5,000 pointed back to manna in the wilderness. Now he is the God who is above the storm, and the disciples will need that memory when the cross and persecution come.

Jesus tells them, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Peter has enough faith to step out of the boat, but not enough to sustain the walk. He was a fisherman who knew what Galilee’s storms could do, so his fear was reasonable. Pat calls fear faith in the wrong direction: more confidence in what we can see, or in a catastrophe we have imagined, than in God’s word. Doubt, he says, means divided. Much of our doubt is distraction from too many affections and too many yokes.

When Peter cries, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reaches out and catches him. Grace catches first, then corrects: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Little faith, not no faith. When Jesus steps into the boat, the wind dies down. After the storm in chapter 8 the disciples asked who he was. Now they worship him as the Son of God.

Pat quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones: the way to answer our doubts is to look at Jesus. He gives practical ways to do that: daily devotions, prayer and fasting, singing, Growth Track, Life Change and life groups. He suggests praying “God, define my priority” instead of only asking for more capacity. The message closes on the shore at Gennesaret, where people only wanted to touch the edge of his cloak, and with an invitation to ask Jesus to save you.