Below is the written transcript of a message I did for the “Be Still” Gathering, in Chicago, September 2025. If you want to watch the full video, click here, or your can listen here in the Substack browser, or on Spotify or Apple Podcasts (search “SHAREapy. The Podcast). It was an honor to be invited write a message for this gathering and we are excited to continue to support Monica in her women’s ministry going forward! Full Blog Post on this event coming soon!
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Be Still Gathering, y'all. I am so excited to be here. I have been thinking about this so much. We have been praying for you so much. It has been weeks and days and prayers and details and so much and we're here and we're so happy that you're here. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I know I'm not there. It's someone else's house, but still, welcome to Monica's house.
Okay, my name is Joel Barnes. I am a pastor. I'm a pastor. I'm not a preacher, probably. It's probably not my thing but that is not my daily job. But God has definitely called me a pastor and I have definitely stepped into this calling in a fresh new way in this last 5 year season. A little bit about myself, I have dealt with some pretty crazy things in the last five years in particular. It's been a heck of a season. Heck of a storm. (hint hint) But it has been a crazy crazy time. Not the easiest time in my life by, you know, that's saying it lightly. But in that time, I feel like God has expanded my capacity in a new way, in a different way. He's shown me through suffering how to walk with his kids well through suffering of their own. I am starting a ministry called share. where we teach people to share their blessings and their bruises to connect with love and empathy. That is my mission is to help to build and facilitate community for people. God has shown me the vision of eradicating isolation and it is a big, crazy, God-has-to-do-it mission. But that's how I kind of came into this space with you. Monica and I have known each other for about 8 years. I go to Soul City Church. That's my home church. And we've known each other from there for years.
And speaking of Monica, and speaking of all the details and the prayers and all the things that have gone into today, can we just bless her for the vision that she's had to get you guys all in a room and have a prayer and worship moment with you guys? There has been so much intentional time and love and honor and respect and prayer and you've been prayed for so many times…like so many times. If you feel a little bit weird right now, you should because without you being here, without us knowing you were going to be here, without the people watching in the future, we've been praying for you. Yes. Strangers that don't know you like have been praying for you in this moment in this time and that this message receives you well. So, can we just bless Monica with having the vision and her first Yes to host this event and to sponsor this video and this message for you here today.
I want to talk to you guys about the theme of being still. When we were kind of going back and forth, I felt very clearly that God was like, "Talk to Monica about what the theme is for the gathering." And when she told me ‘Be Still’ was the gathering, it fit in line with so many things that I've already kind of had brewing for you guys. So she asked me to start to think through a message for you probably about 2 months ago and it has been like drinking from a fire hose. God has been giving me so many things for you for this time. It was overwhelming. And at one point I was like, "God, I can't say all that. I've got like 20-25 minutes max to talk." And you know that I'm a talker. I'm going to go off script. And so I need help, God, with kind of tightening this whole thing. And he was very clearly saying to me that, “I've given you all these things and I've shown you all these things for this group, for these people, for anyone that could watch this message because I have so much for you.” So, out of all the things that I've heard, the theme, the thread through everything has been He has so much for you. And I'm excited to just bring you the first of maybe many messages that He has for you. But I think it's really important and it's really awesome to think about a God that thinks about and plans and sculpts and scripts messages for us, intentionally for us, and intentionally for our season. But it was overwhelming. Okay, I'll be honest with you. I've been in a very overwhelming season. I deal with chronic pain daily. My finances are a mess. It has just been like a really crazy, overwhelming season. But something that God told me a long time ago is that He never really wants me to talk on topics, never really wants me to teach on topics that I have not personally had Him do something really powerful and that I don't have experience with.
And so in my season one of the things that I've studied quite a few times is the story of Job. And in my studies with Job, one of my favorite parts of the scripture, parts of the story is towards the end when Job is… so the story of Job quickly is that he had been chosen by God to endure. He was a good and faithful servant chosen by God to endure immense loss in his life. And he did. And he lost everything. And everyone from his wife to his friends to everyone kind of said, "This has got to be something you did. You should just give up. You should curse God." But he refused to curse God. Even though he was suffering, he toiled with God in a way that says, "I don't understand it. I don't get it, but I don't blame you. I blame me, if anything." And he was blameless in God's sight according to scripture. So, I say all that to say when we are in these storms, it's really important not to blame God. It's important to understand that God is in that storm. That comes to fruition in Job 38 where God actually speaks to Job from a physical storm. I think it was a really amazing representation of the fact that God is actually in the storms. If we think about our turmoil, our trouble, our overwhelmingness from that perspective, from the perspective of in all this chaos, God is there, God is in the storm with us, then I think things start to shift for us. At least for me it does because I know a lot of times when I'm in the chaos and I'm in the scary bits that I feel very alone, and I feel very much like maybe God's not with me and that's just not further from the truth. But that's not even the scripture we got going for today.
Today, we're going to take a look at Mark 4:35-41 so if you have your Bible here, good for you bonus points! Pull it out. We're going to go through scripture. If not, pull your phone out. I'd love for you to go through this scripture with me and read these words for yourself. I'm reading from the ESV version in Mark, so the words may not match up. You may have an NIV or a different version of the Bible. The message is always going to be the same, even if the words don't exactly line up the same way. But in Mark chapter 4 verse 35,
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat just as he was. And the other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern asleep on a cushion. And they awoke him and said, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace be still." And the wind ceased, and there was great calm. And he said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great fear and they said to one another, "Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?" MARK 4:35-41
Okay, so listen… already a great story. In this story, we have the power of Jesus: clear. The power of God on earth: clear. The power to speak to the wind and the storm and the calm and the chaos. And out of the chaos comes calm. There's so much here already and it's so incredible. And you can read the story that way and be satiated. But I think that there are some things that we can actually pull out of that story that give us a little bit more instruction, more tips and tricks, if you will, for how to actually have that calm in chaos. And so if we kind of break down this scripture, it breaks down into a few different ways. The first thing that you'll notice, the first thing that I noticed when I was kind of rereading it, going back through it, and saying, "God, what do you want us to see? What do you want us to study?" It makes it very clear that Jesus is in the boat. And because God's in the boat, he's along for the ride with us. And because he's along for the ride with us, he's in it when the storm comes. That's very very clear. And I think that that's a good thing to remember, right? But when they're in the storm, when they're in it, there's a very specific thing that has to happen because Jesus in this story… I think it's so funny when I read the Bible and I'm like, man, this could be anything. This could read any way. I want to pay attention specifically to what is going on right here. Specifically, Jesus was asleep when it happened. So, he is at peace in the storm. Let's pay attention to that. He's not worried about the storm. He's not intimidated by the storm. He's not afraid. There's 12 other men that are all those things. Now, if you need a little bit of encouragement today, these 12 men had seen him do miracle after miracle after miracle in front of their face and in their eyes, and they still were terrified. They had the savior of the world in their boat. They had a man that was healing the sick and casting out demons and raising the dead with them in the boat. So you think that it's bad that you've been stressed out about that thing? No. Listen, God understands. It is scary. God understands that it is terrifying and that in the wind and the waves that we are going to be afraid, right? I think that's why God gives us this story because you could not have gotten any closer to Jesus, and they were scared. So I think it's okay if sometimes we're scared. But I think then it's what we do from that position, from the point God knows we're going to be overwhelmed. He knows that the wind is going to crash and the waves are going to come and we're going to be scared for our life. He knows about the disagreement with your daughter. He knows about the discomfort with your husband. He knows about the stress of your finances. He's right there in it. He's in the boat when all those things were on the way. He was in the boat and he's still there in the boat when they come. And isn't it a nice reminder that he's asleep on a cushion at the stern of the boat in the storm? And so, but there's something that they do very specifically, right? So, I want to give you a few things that I feel like have kind of come up in this time of study for you guys. And so, thank you, by the way, for giving me the opportunity to study the Bible very specifically. Yes, five different messages in five different times. So, your being here means a lot to me and my spiritual growth, too. So, thank you very much for that. I appreciate it. But, so there's four things that I've kind of seen in this scripture kind of come to life, right, that I want to share with you right now. Call it four ways to be still, right? We need like something for clips and whatever, right? These days, everything's a clip. Everything's a TikTok. Whatever it is, I don't know. I'm trying to figure it all out. We got to do it because it is what it is. But here's four ways to be still in the storm. I don't know. Maybe I might actually use that because it's so ridiculous. Anyways, four ways to be still in the storm.
The first thing that you notice is that because Jesus is asleep, he wasn't noticing the storm, right? I don't think that's on accident. I think that creates an opportunity for the disciples to come to him. Is that the first tip? Yes, it is. Bring it to him. Okay. Bring the concern to him. Bring the stress to him. The Bible says, "Come to me all who are weary for I will give you rest." But you got to go. You got to bring it. You got to come to him. You got to bring it to him. So that's the first thing. Bring it to him. The way the disciples brought it to him is they went and they woke him up. Wait a second. You ever have this experience where you get mad at somebody when they're asleep? Now, I need y'all to be honest right now cuz we're treating this time like it's church. Okay, this is holy ground. You can't lie. You ever have a time when you've been mad at somebody when they were asleep? Yeah. Be honest. The kid didn't take the garbage out or do the dishes or whatever it is and they're in there asleep and you go wake them up. What? Don't you see? Don't you see how we… do you not care how we are perishing? Your gripe might be like, "Didn't I tell you to take out the garbage?" You know what I'm saying? But I think this is very interesting. It's very human. Jesus is asleep. He's asleep on a cushion. So, he's comfortable. I don't know why, but what a beautiful vision. He's not just asleep in a boat that's wood and he's sleeping on a wood board. He's sleeping on a cushion. He's comfortable. He's comfortable in the storm. He's comfortable in the the journey. He's comfortable that he's going to be alright. He doesn't have to worry about nothing. And they just come and wake him up stressing out. And and you know what's funny? He doesn't check them right away. He checks the storm right away. And I think that he does that with us. He will check that storm immediately. But the first thing we got to do is we got to bring it to him, after you woke him up when you were mad at him for being asleep. Bring it to him. Come to him. That's your responsibility. You got to say, "God, I got this. I need this. I need you to help me figure out how to pay this rent. God, I need you. God, I need you to help me figure out how to navigate this pain. I need you, God. I don't know how to get through to that person because that person is hard to love. God, I need you. I need you, God. I need you." That's our first responsibility is to bring it to him. Go wake Jesus up at the stern of the boat and say, "God, we got a problem out here. We're stressing right now. These winds and these waves are crashing in on us." So bring it to him is the first thing.
The next thing is to actually make the request. Make the request. Say, "This is what I need." God knows what you need, but he needs you to know what you need and you're asking of him. Make the hard request. What I see in their wrestling here, and it is okay to wrestle with God. Again, we hear in the story of Job, we're not blaming God. We're just like, God, I don't understand what's going on. Don't you see that we're perishing? Don't you see that I'm suffering? God, I need you. And so make that hard request, but ask it of him. Make that request to him because what he hears when you say what you need is your dependence on him for it. Very specific. If you need sleep, God, I need sleep. If you need a parking spot, God, I need a parking spot. You're a parent… A lot of you are parents. I'm a father. When my daughter comes to me and makes a request to me, I'm not annoyed. I'm not annoyed by that. I don't care. Sometimes I'm annoyed because you could get the juice box yourself. Okay? Right. Hey, listen. Sometimes we could do the thing that we need ourselves, too. But when my kid makes a request, Dad, I'm tired. I got called into work, Dad. I need a sandwich. I'm not upset. It's not trivial to me. It's important to me and it's important to your God, but he wants you to ask it of him. So, we're bringing it to him… our posture to wake him up… to go to him to pray, to get on our knees if we have to. And then we're asking it of him. We're making that very specific request. And then listen. We got to listen to him. When he does, then command the waves. Peace, be still. Peace, be still. What we should be hearing, what we should be paying attention to, what we should be listening to is that the power… he's bigger than this storm. He's the creator of wind and water. He is the one that is in ultimate control of everything. So when we listen to him, we can hear that power. We can hear, when we listen to him, when we read our Bible, when I listen to him and I'm listening to him as I read my Bible and I see the words say, "Peace! Be still!" Nothing in here is on accident. There's a command that he has over the wind and the waves and over chaos that brings calm. When you listen, you can hear that. When you listen to listen. Listen to let it land. Now we have brought it to him. We have acknowledged the thing. We have made the specific request, but now we're saying what do I do, God? He's going to give you breadcrumbs. He's going to leave little bits and pieces on the trail for you to find to lead you in the right way. Cuz just like in a video game… I'm a gamer, okay? I was trying to not tell y'all this, but I am. And one of the messages God gave me for you guys was around video gaming. And I was like, this is a group of women, God, they're going to judge me and they're going to think that I'm a silly little boy. That part's true, but you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm really not trying to be out here, but I am now. Okay, I'm out here. And I say all that to say one of the first messages he gave me for you guys was that he will give us the knowledge and the info and the intel and the breadcrumbs that we need to succeed. He will give you the info that you need to succeed. The reason why I bring gaming into this is because in video gaming there are clues. There are audio cues and there are visual cues and there's different ways of progressing. And you know an audio cue might be like you're running around a corner and you hear footsteps and you hear them on this side of your headphones cuz you're a nerd and anyways you hear it over here and you're like “ah!” You know what I'm saying? That's an audio cue that tells you that there's someone there, right? You might see a visual cue. that says, you know, over in this little area of your screen, you can kind of see footsteps. And you're like, “oh!” So you're responding to a visual cue. Why are all these things built into video games? Because the video game creator wants you to have fun. They want you to have fun. They want you to invite your friends. They want you to enjoy it and you can enjoy it more if there's more information that helps you be better at the game. So because you have these cues, these visual cues, these audio cues, you are able to be better at the game. That is the Holy Spirit in this metaphor. The Holy Spirit will give you these little cues, these little tips and tricks. Today, this is a true story. Today I woke up this morning to film this message. And as I woke up to film this message, I wake up to hearing my kid singing, “He won't fail, He won't,” that song, “Firm Foundation” by Maverick City. And she's in her room getting ready for work and she's singing that song. Great way to wake up through our season, through the storm, through all the turmoil that we've had just in the last few weeks and the pain and the suffering and the financial stress. It's been like, to hear your kids sing that is amazing, right? And that's how I opened my eyes today. God knows that I was opening my eyes getting ready to come teach this message to you. So, he gave me encouragement this morning. You understand? I don't take that lightly and that's not on accident. And then, oh, you think, oh, that's just a coincidence. Okay, well, how about this? Last night, I'm at church in worship and I very distinctly hear a message that that says, "Here am I, send me." And it's a scripture in Isaiah 6:8, matter of fact. And I hear God say, "Remember, you asked for this. You asked to be sent on this mission. In this mission, I will have to refine you and you will have to not buckle under stress. The stress of not being able to pay your rent on time. You will have to not buckle under the stress of the pain that you are in. You will have to not buckle under the pressures of the world. You will have to rely on me in this season to be refined so that I can use you. And I have this message and I hear this message and I hear this reminder that I've been praying this prayer for decades. And I hear this and I'm reminded of a prayer that I prayed that is coming true in this season even as I am sitting here talking to you. I'm reminded of that message. And I'm reminded that I prayed that prayer. And I see in my eyes a time when I had written that exact scripture down on paper, but I didn't know where the paper was. I didn't know where or what journal it was in. I've been journaling and writing for 25 years at least. I was like the little nerd kid that was like writing my feelings. Yeah, it was me for years. I don't know where I wrote that thing at. I have no clue. I let it go. Thank you, God. I got the message. I'm on. And then I'm like looking for the Bible that I'm going to bring to prepare for the time to talk to you and to the place that I'm at right now, which is incredible, by the way. And I'm looking for this Bible and I'm like, man, I know I have this leather Bible somewhere. Two separate disconnected thoughts. I know I have this little leather Bible that's not super heavy. I don't know where it is. Okay, cool. I guess I'll have to bring one of my big old thumpers. And I'm just fine. Whatever. I wake up this morning and my daughter's mom, who knows that I'm coming to this penthouse to film this for you and do a bunch of other content recording stuff in my writing time, she says, "Hey, I found this Bible. And here's a picture. Do you recognize this? Do you recognize this Bible?” She didn't just send me a picture of the Bible. She sent me like seven pictures, like a couple things that I wrote inside that. And I scroll up and literally in my text messages this morning…
I wake up to my kid singing. Amazing. I open my phone and this is the text message that I get. It's the place that I saw in my mind when I was in worship last night when I was thanking God for the trial and the tribulation that I've been in. And I'm thanking him, God, that hopefully, God, you are using all of these things, this chaos and the calamity in my life. Hopefully, you are refining me, God, to rely more on you. And I wake up to a text message where 15 years ago I left this Bible at my daughter's mom's house and she just happened to find it this morning. We have to listen. Sometimes it's very clear like this. Sometimes it's very clear. But he's going to leave us breadcrumbs because he wants you to be good at the game. He wants you to. I promise. He wants you to excel in life. He wants you to be at He wants you to be still. He wants you to be at peace. He wants you to rely on Him in the storm. He wants you to bring it to Him when you're going through it and then ask for Him when you need it and ask for him what you need and listen to him as he is speaking, as he's dropping breadcrumbs, as he's giving you little messages here and there.
And then the last thing I think that God wanted to show me about this season about this whole thing was at the very end when they are saying, “Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” We need to give glory to him because here's what giving glory to God does. This to me sounds like the disciples were in awe of him. They are just in awe of him. They're just like, "Are you kidding me? He just woke up." First of all, y'all woke him up angry, remember? And then he did what you told him to do. And now you're like, "Wait, he actually did what I told him to do. He did what I asked him to do. He answered my prayer.” And I hear them being in awe of him. “Who then is this?” They've seen what he can do. They've seen what he does. They've seen his power. They've heard his words. They've known that they were walking with him the entire time. And they still got scared because they are human and we're human and we're going to get scared and it's going to be uncomfortable. And then they brought it to him and they woke him up. And then they communicated their needs. They asked him for what they needed. They communicated that they were scared. “Don't you see that we're perishing God?” And then they listened to him. They listened to the power that is in him. They had to be reflecting on the fact that he's telling them that you are built the same way I am. That you can command that that matter of fact in Matthew's version of this story there was faith like a mustard seed. That story comes right before this story. So they had heard the story that if they had faith like the tiny mustard seed, that’s the smallest seed known to man that grows up to be the biggest most powerful tree in the garden, if they could just have faith like a mustard seed that they would be able to look at a mountain and say mountain jump into the sea go to the sea. That's the story. They had these stories buried in their heart and they're still scared. You know why? Because we're going to be scared. We're going to be scared because it's scary because we're human. Because we forget. We forget. We forget how good God is. We forget how many times he's shown up for us. How many things have been impossible? I can't wait to get to heaven to be like, "God, how many times did you save my life?” Seriously, that's my question. How many times did you save my life? And for him to give me a number and be like, "Oh, I thought it was only this many." But he was like, "No, there was a time that you were looking for your keys and it took you too longer to get out the door and you were so annoyed. You were so annoyed, but I protected you from an oncoming car collision. There was a time when you had a surgery go wrong and it changed your life. It sent you into the worst depression of your whole life and you didn't know where I was and you questioned if you'd even make it out of that storm. And you thought about not coming out of the storm, but I was right there with you then, too. I was the one that told you to get up and go back to church, to go rejoin community because I have to use you.”
So I come to you and I deliver this message to you. I believe it. I believe it. I can only tell you this because I believe it. I can only share this with you because I've seen it. I've been saved by it. So I give glory to him. I stay in awe of him. I will always get stupid happy about the little things that I see him do because I know that he has the capability to do the big things. I bring my chaos and my calamity and my needs to you, God. I want to bring it to you. I want to ask it of you. I want to listen to you. I want to give glory to you. I want to thank you, Lord, for all the times that you have been with every single person in this room, every single person watching this video, every single person under the sound of my voice. Lord, from now until eternity, I want to thank you for the ways that you have changed their life, that you have protected their life. Lord, I pray Lord that you allow them to command the wind and the waves the way that you have, with the authority that you give us, Lord, to actively be still, to trust you in the midst of it, to feel the calm and the peace that surpasses all understanding, Lord, in the middle of the chaos. We know, Lord, that you're with us. And it doesn't feel like it sometimes. It's just so hard sometimes. But we trust you and we will bring it to you. We will ask it of you. We will listen to you and we will give you all the glory. Bless my sisters in this room. Bless my brothers who watch this online in the future. Lord, I am so thankful to be used by you. You didn't have to use me. I wasn't worthy, but you qualified me. And I believe you. I love you so much, in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Listen, I didn't write this into the script. I didn't but I can't, I cannot share the stories of how God's shown up for me and continues to show up for me in my storm without getting emotional because I know he's close and I know He's real. And I've stood in awe as he calmed the wind and the waves. So if you have things that are going on in your life, I promise you that he's there. He just wants you to bring it to him. He just wants you to give it to him. He knows you can't handle it. So bring it to him and ask him what you need. He's a good father. He's going to give you more than you ever could have imagined in ways that you never could have understood. But he answers prayers. So I leave you to pray, to take this opportunity, to bring it to him, to leave it at his feet, to listen to what he says. And I thank him for it in advance. We thank you, God. We love you. Amen.
❤️
Joel
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