Don’t you Care??? Part 2 of 3
Then the question.
Do You not care that we are perishing?
Don’t you Care???
38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Alistair Begg said, “Notice what they ask, this is the worst of all questions. This is a terrible question. Teacher (didaskala) don’t you care If we drown, oh ask Jesus something else don’t ask him this. don’t you care if we drown, Jesus must have looked up into the eyes of the questioner and thought to himself, hey I called you into my band didn’t I? I wouldn’t have called you if I wasn’t gonna take care of you, don’t I care, the reason I’m in the boat is because I care, the reason I’m in the world is because I care, the reason that I’m going to go to the cross and die for you guys is because I care.”
Have you ever felt that way?
Ever wonder if you were all alone and God didn’t care?
I have, that all-alone feeling… when at night in bed and your ears fill up with tears.
When I stood in the pulpit and helped with a funeral for a 17-year-old girl, I wanted to ask it.
When I fell through a ceiling and messed up my back, I wanted to ask it.
When my cousin Ricky Harper passed, I wanted to ask it.
When every time my family got smaller here, we have had right over 30 family members pass away since my Dad died in 2017.
And every time I wanted to ask it.
When I held my Dad’s hand as he took his last breath, I wanted to ask it.
But I did not because I KNOW HE CARES. And you can too.
Does He care?
John 11:35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
Jesus in his humanity crying.
John 11:35 he wept because He hurt when the ones He loves hurt.
He loves you just the same.
Jesus in His deity Raised the dead
He cries when we hurt
Does He care?
Acts 6:1 Seven Chosen to Serve
Acts 6:2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. 3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; 4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch, 6 whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
7 Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
NKJV
Stephen Accused of Blasphemy
Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Acts 7:1 Stephen’s Address: The Call of Abraham
Acts 7:9 The Patriarchs in Egypt
Acts 7:17 God Delivers Israel by Moses
Acts 7:37 Israel Rebels Against God
Acts 7:44 God’s True Tabernacle
Acts 7:51 Israel Resists the Holy Spirit
We need more preaching like this. Of course, you see at what cost.
Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.”
Stephen the Martyr
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. NKJV
Stephen being stoned stood
When you are in trials he stands and takes notice.
He stands at Gods right hand interceding for you.
Does He care? Ray Botz, … Who nailed Him there this child of peace and mercy who nailed Him there come face me like a man who nailed Him there. Then I turned and saw the hammer in my hand.
I nailed Him there with my sins and my transgressions,
Does He care?
3 Hebrews was being burned and He got in the fire. …
Dan 3:22 Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
25 “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Oh, King God can deliver “but if not” you lose oh King
Nevertheless
Sometimes we must get the old stuff tying us down burned off.
The fire freed them of their binding. And He was with them through it all.
When we are in the fire, He is there with us.!
We never never, never go through the fire alone.
He is there with us in the fire.
Does He care?
Job …
Job’s Repentance and Restoration
Job 42:1Then Job answered the LORD and said:
2 “I know that You can do everything,
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’
5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
6 Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.” NKJV
It comes with a price but look what you learn, you learn more about God through the trials
Charles Spurgeon “God is too good to be unkind, to wise to be mistaken,
And when you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.”
Does He care? How much does God care???
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
The most important question you must ask yourself is what Brennan Manning said in the book “Ragamuffin Gospel,” “Do you believe that God loves You?”
Well, Do you?
Does He Care????
John 11:23-27 (NKJV) 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
I think God allows us to go through stuff just to ask “Do you really trust Me.?”
He was in the Ship with them. They were never alone.
Heb 13:5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we may boldly say: “The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” NKJV
Even Jesus was in the middle of the Storm. Listen they were never alone.
“Intense Moments” with the Savior by Ken Gire
INTRODUCTION
Our Savior’s life was not an unbroken succession of intimate moments that changed people’s lives, or incredible moments that captured their attention, or instructive moments that challenged their thinking. There were intense moments too. Moments when he overturned the tables of moneychangers and moments when money changed hands and his enemies turned the tables on him.
As we focus on these intense moments, we see the Savior as a son who learned obedience through the things he suffered. But through this apprenticeship of suffering,
Jesus learned something else.
He learned to feel…?
He learned the feeling of hunger from his forty days in the wilderness and thirst from his feverish hours on the cross. But he learned to feel a greater hunger in the wilderness than bread alone could satisfy and a greater thirst on the cross than mere water could relieve. He learned the pain of rejection and the sorrow of unrequited love.
We learn to feel in much the same way. We learn to feel when our faith is tested in some wilderness. When our best-laid plans go awry and our bravest prayers go unanswered. When we’re belittled by a crowd or betrayed by a colleague. When we’re deserted by our friends or done in by our enemies.
Whether it is a single thorn in the flesh or a crown of them mashed on our heads, suffering teaches us to feel
We learn from the storms!!!….from the fire, from the disappointments, from the rejections, from the heartaches
Next week we will see why.
