welcome to gospel in life thank you for joining as we go through this special series of meditations by Tim Keller trusting God and difficult times this new series is meant to encourage you to trust God more deeply and to meditate on his word and what it promises to give you strength and hope in difficult times and now here's today's meditation my title is where is your faith this is Luke chapter 8 obviously it's about the disciples in a boat with Jesus during a storm and I'm gonna read verses 24 to 25 the disciples went and
woke him saying master master we're going to drown he got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters the storm subsided and all was calm where is your faith he asked his disciples in fear and amazement they asked one another who is this he commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him what's most interesting about this text here in stormy times how do you act in faith how can you have the the fearless ability to look at the storm and not be so scared it's interesting that when they say master master
we're going to drown jesus says where is your faith and it's very clear that faith is the opposite of that panic so how do we we get that faith so we are able to not panic in the face of storms and let's just notice two or three things here first of all when Jesus says where is your faith that shows that faith is probably not what most of us think it is it's a deliberate action notice Jesus does not say when he says where is your faith he does not say you don't have any faith
or why don't you have any faith notice that's very interesting because they were showing a lack of faith at the moment but he doesn't say oh you lack faith he doesn't do that we mostly think that faith is sort of automatic it's like it is like a heater that if it's cold enough outside the heater just comes on and most of us think that if we have faith and panic yeah I mean and storms come up it'll just come on and if it doesn't just come on then I guess we just don't have faith I
have people say this to me all the time they say oh I wish I had your faith I wish I had that person's faith as if it's something that you catch or it's something that's just in in in you but this says no he doesn't say you don't have faith he says where is your faith get it out it ought to be here your and which means it takes deliberate action number one number two it's faith not in general but about Jesus because you see they come to him and they say who is this at
the end who is this and that's really what they should have been saying all along see when Jesus says where is your faith I think he was trying to say you're looking at the storm instead of looking at me and you know who I am you've seen me feed the hungry the five thousand the four thousand you've seen me raise the dead you've seen me pledge my love to you you've seen me do all these things but you've just forgotten all them and you panicked what you should have done is you should have said in
a way that we know this about Jesus that about Jesus if he's all this there's he's not gonna get we're not gonna drown here and so Jesus is saying what you're really doing when you panic he's not so much showing a lack of faith you're refusing to exercise the faith that you've got you're refusing to get out what you know about Jesus Christ I mean let me ask you a question do you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God incarnate born in the manger do you believe he was he died on a tree
to atone for our sins that he rose physically from the dead that he's passed through the heavens and now he's sorted seated at the right hand of the Father and he's directing all things that happen in history and someday he will come back to judge the living and the dead and put everything right do you believe that then you can face anything there is no storm here on earth that can can stand before those facts so where is your faith get it out but there's one more thing I believe we're not supposed to just see
faith as a deliberate action and just get out what we know about about Jesus but we especially have to remember his love for us because not in Luke six Luke eight but over in in Mark chapter four I we're told that the disciples also said master don't you care that we're going to drown don't you don't love us and of course they didn't know yet but what we know and that is that on the cross Jesus Christ experienced this the greatest storm possible the storm of God's wrath the storm of divine justice coming down and
he because he loved us he just obediently bowed his head into that storm and took it for us and if I see him loving me that much has to bow his head into that storm than any other storm that comes along I will never say Oh Lord do you not care I know he cares so get out your faith it ought to be here remind yourself of not only who Jesus is but what he did for you and now here's Tim and Kathy Keller for a short time of qat on today's meditation the things that
you were saying about the disciples not really trusting Jesus to me that's the really key moment in the life of any Christian is the word the word tipping points been overused I think that I can't think of a better one right now but every professing Christian everyone who says they are a Christian has to come to a tipping point where what they know about God they decided that they can actually trust his character is he loving is he wise is he good and if you go on the other side of that tipping point yes you've
made the decision he is he is wise I've seen him be good I've seen it anywhere is him and then you that's a settled issue and so if their informs the foundation for the rest of your life then you act completely differently than people who are on the the first side of the tipping point they haven't made that decision so every time something bad comes up it like calls the whole thing into question my whole faith is I might now you be able to believe in God anymore because XYZ heaven but you have to reach
that tipping point and say is God loving do do I believe he's wives is he loving is he good once you have confidence I guess that's the way to say it confidence in God's character then you are able to pull your faith out but you without that confidence in God's character and that's based on seeing how he's treated you yeah so I'm actually not asking you a question I was just gonna say it's not a question but it's really important that's a really important putting a footnote to it you had an addendum no no I
think you're absolutely right - and I think in all Christian lives and John Newton talks about this yes he says there comes a moment in which you're gonna make that decision because troubles are going to come and once you finally make that decision you know I actually can trust God then you really are on you might say the down slope of your Christian life and you were gonna make it you're you're gonna stay a Christian you're going to grow in Christ as time goes on that's right and so because it wasn't so much a question
let me just end like this our little time I never got a chance to read this in the reflection this is a great old hymn as you know by only him by a new tonight capper God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform he plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm a fearful Saints fresh courage take the clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall break with blessings on your head if you found today's meditation encouraging please subscribe below and be sure to share it with a
friend to encourage them as well and if you'd like to hear more teachings by Tim Keller you can listen to new sermons every week at gospel and live.com slash podcast thanks again for watching gospel and life
