   Stephen and Katie share their experience through sickness and disappointed hopes! An experience that taught them to trust in God’s faithfulness as they walked through the valley of the shadow of death.   

AMEN 2017: Are You Willing?

<div> <div> <div> <p>Stephen and Katie share their experience through sickness and disappointed hopes! An experience that taught them to trust in God’s faithfulness as they walked through the valley of the shadow of death.</p> </div> </div> </div>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Plenary

Phil Mills

Infertility Clinic

Carlos Moretta

Free Clinics: Willing Service Inspires Willing Changes

Ricardo Whyte

The Vital Connections of Wholeness

Katie Waterbrook

Stephen Waterbrook

When Loss is Gain

Norman McNulty

Willing to Be Humbled?

Mark Finley

The Tyranny of the Urgent: When Your Best Is Not Enough

Dear Father in Heaven, Lord, we thank you for this happy Sabbath day.

We thank you for your faithfulness and we pray that you would speak through us this morning that your words would be heard and not ours.

We're standing up here today not because we are good, but because God is good.

We feel compelled to praise him for that.

This is a difficult story to share for a couple reasons.

It's very personal and it's also very emotional.

I would like to say that it's all neatly wrapped up in the past, but it's not.

I prayed that I wouldn't, but it's just reality.

So we have learned that repeating aloud of God's goodness helps build our faith.

God's goodness to us has been different than the goodness that I usually, or maybe we usually, think of God.

When we think of God's goodness, we often think of Psalm 37, 4, that he will give us the desires of our hearts, right?

Or Psalm 21, 2, you have given him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.

Or even James 1 17, every good and perfect gift is from above.

But as I have reacquainted myself with the promises of God lately, I've actually found that most of them don't promise the desires of your heart or that you will get what you want when you want it.

The vast majority talk of a God who is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

A God that will sustain us as we cast our burdens on him.

A God who will uphold us, and that the righteous will never be forsaken.

Through our experience we have been introduced to a God who has shown his goodness not by giving us our version of good and perfect gifts but through disappointment, loss, sickness, and an uncertain future.

And if we had not walked through this valley of the shadow of death, we wouldn't have the experience of God proving his promises of being our refuge and our fortress, of upholding us and never forsaking us.

And this experience has taught us the importance and necessity of an abiding and continual surrender to God, waiting on him to make all things beautiful in his time, and placing our full confidence in a God who is faithful and looking back to see how he has worked and trusting that he will continue to work in the future.

We know that in a room this size, there are a lot of stories of loss, pain, sorrow, disappointments.

In fact, in Christ Object Lessons, Page 33, it says, None who receive God's word are exempt from difficulty and trial.

But when affliction comes, the true Christian does not become restless, distrustful, or despondent.

Though we cannot see the definite outcome of affairs, or discern the purpose of God's providences, we are not to cast away our confidence.

Remembering the tender mercies of the Lord, we should cast our care upon Him, and with patience wait for His salvation.

Through conflict, the spiritual life is strengthened.

Trials well-born will develop steadfastness of character and precious spiritual graces.

The perfect fruit of faith, meekness, and love often matures best amid storm clouds and darkness.

1 of my favorite paintings is this painting by Rembrandt entitled the disciples in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.

And early in our experience, I drew a lot of strength from this portrayal of that parable, or that story in the Gospels.

It was a story in the Gospels that resounded with me and that I read over and over.

And if you get a chance to Google this later and go to images, get a high resolution 1 and blow it up.

I mean, the detail is absolutely spectacular.

The colors, the expressions on the faces, I think Rembrandt did a really good job of capturing that biblical story.

And so if you'll turn with me to that story in the book of Mark, chapter 4.

So if you'll turn with me to Mark chapter 4 and verse 35.

Mark chapter 4 and verse 35, and we'll read that together.

I'll have it up on the screen too, if you need.

On the same day, when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side.

Now when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was.

And other little boats were also with him.

And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on a pillow.

And they woke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

Then he arose, and he rebuked the wind, and he said to the sea, Peace, be still.

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

But he said to them, why are you so fearful?

And they feared exceedingly, And they said to 1 another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?

I want you to notice in verse 35, this story starts with Jesus' command to go on to the lake, to cross to the other side.

He called them to get into the boat, even though he knew a storm was coming.

Jesus didn't send them in the boat alone, though.

He went with them to ride out the storm by their side.

But Jesus soon fell fast asleep, and the disciples found themselves fighting to stay afloat without his aid.

Why didn't he wake them up and help them?

Didn't he notice that this was a life and death situation?

Why did it seem Jesus did nothing to stop the storm?

I'm sure the disciples asked questions similar to these as they frantically scooped water out of their boat and tried to manage the sails, just like we saw in that painting, so well portrayed.

Interestingly, the disciples almost lost their confidence in Jesus.

Yet at the point where they felt most desperate, they ran to Jesus, and their pleading for help woke him up, and he calmed the sea, and they exclaimed, Who is this man?

We can probably already, we can all probably relate to that story.

We assume that since we are with Jesus, everything will go well for us, right?

And then the storms whip up out of nowhere.

We can feel tempted to think that Jesus doesn't really care.

We may ask where God was in such and such a situation or when such and such happened, but this story illustrates that Jesus is always with us in calm seas as well as in the tempest.

It also reminds us that as we read earlier, we are not to cast away our confidence and with patience wait for his salvation.

1 of the attributes that has brought us a lot of hope and comfort of God is his faithfulness.

And as we choose to place our confidence in this God and trust his love and mercy, we have to trust and believe that he will make all things beautiful in his time.

At this point, we've just seen hints of beauty.

We haven't seen the full beauty, but I know that it is coming And I know that it is already in the works.

And so today we're just going to share the hints of beauty that we have seen.

And we hope that it encourages you to also look for the beauty in your own trials as well.

We're both very similar in most areas, and this has worked out well for us, mostly.

But then when 2 clean freaks marry each other, they become kind of germaphobic.

And then when 2 slightly compulsive people marry, they become neurotic.

And when 2 type A planners marry, we get a little too addicted to a schedule and a timetable.

We do things like we get together sometimes Saturday night, and we schedule out our week.

We plan our week, like where are you going to be when, and all these kinds of things.

Sometimes we just really get into it and we've got everything planned.

In this room I think we're pretty safe to say yes.

So then you can understand how important it is that those plans that you planned out come to pass exactly as you've planned them.

We don't want any deviation from the plan.

Well, I grew up only 19 months younger than my sister.

Series

Plenary

When Loss is Gain

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Breaking the Silence

37m

Plenary

The Storm of Jonah

1h 34m

Don’t Lose Heart

50m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the Disciples in the Storm

43m

Preparation for the Final Crisis

53m

The Final Call

5- Safe and Secure, or Not so Sure?

53m

Restoration 2023

The Atheist Who Found God

50m

How to Stand at the end of Time

1h 6m

The Atheist Who Found God

1h 25m

Speak it in Love

49m

The Sanctuary, God's Answer to the Sin Problem

Why Jesus Waits

1h

Secrets from the Ancient Sanctuary

03 What Is Jesus Doing Right Now?

49m

Sound Doctrine