Acts 27:20-26

Never allow the presence of a storm to cause you to doubt the presence of God.

I. Keep your courage.

he said, "…Everybody else deserted me. No one stood by me… But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength."

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Real peace is not found in the absence of a storm. Peace is found in the presence of Jesus.

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, for I have overcome the world."

II. God is not finished.

III. Have faith in God.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”

Matthew 28:1-20

“The evidence for Jesus's life, death and resurrection has been shown to be satisfactory (according to the standards of any historian). It (holds up) according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece as carefully as any judge reviewing the most important case. I have myself done this many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself. Throughout my life I have made a career of studying the histories of times and events, examining and weighing the evidence for what was written about each of them, and I know of no other one fact in history which is proved by better and fuller evidence than this one: Jesus Christ died and rose again from the dead.”

I. The women, who respond with fear and great joy.

"If Jesus resurrected, none of these things that cause you grief—guilt and injustice and addictions and pain and death and the loss of loved ones—have the final word. I could do others: The empty tomb is the final word.”

II. The chief priests, who closed their eyes to the evidence.

III. The soldiers, who respond with fear without joy.

IV. The disciples, who worship in spite of their doubts.

Faith is when the unexplainable meets the undeniable.

V. Us, who receive the Great Commission.

Matthew 27:27-56

I. The suffering criminals, who rage against God.

“The God of the gospel is the only God that doesn’t simply offer platitudes and perspective about pain, or say merely, ‘Here is an explanation for your pain.’ He’s a God that came down and shared in the forsakenness that we feel in a universe gone wrong. He’s the only God that did that.”

II. Creation itself, quaking under the weight of glory displayed.

III. The outsiders, who recognize He is doing this for them.

IV. Simon of Cyrene, who helps carry the cross.

“It wouldn’t matter if Jesus died 1000 times if no one ever heard about it!” Martin Luther

Matthew 26:57-67; 27:1-26

I. The threatened.

II. The distracted.

Trifle not with Christ, whose hands and feet were nailed to the accursed tree for sinners such as you. Trifle not with his precious blood, for that is your only hope of redemption. Trifle not with the Holy Spirit, for if he should leave you to perish, your case would be hopeless. Trifle not with the gospel; what would the lost in hell not give to hear another proclamation of mercy! The devil does not trifle; he is very earnestly seeking your destruction. God and Christ and the Holy Spirit are not trifling with you, and (I am) not trifling with you either.

It was not unbelief that sent Pilate to hell; it was indifference.

III. The guilty.

IV. The despairing (or unbelieving).

Matthew 26:30–56

I. We are confronted by what Jesus did.

In Gethsemane, Jesus looked full into the cup of God’s wrath, and it overwhelmed him so badly that it almost killed him.

I stand amazed in the presence, of Jesus the Nazarene. And I wonder how he could love me—a sinner condemned unclean! For me it was in the Garden, he prayed not my will but thine. He had no tears for his own griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine! He took my sin and my sorrow, and made them his very own—he bore my burden to Calvary, and suffered and died alone!

II. We are invited to respond.

The church—the true church—is built not through the power of the sword but the power of the cross.

True salvation is not something we can achieve, but something we must receive.

Matthew 26: 6-16

I. What’s your price?

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

We’re not saved because of how committed we were to Jesus, but because of how committed he was to us.

II. Why did Judas betray Jesus?

Daniel 4:1-3

What motivates you?

What is your standard for success?

What’s your source of power?

What’s the purpose of your life?

“’Therefore, I bring charges against you again,’ declares the Lord…’My people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,’ declares the Lord. ‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.’”

What motivates you?

What is your standard for success?

What’s your source of power?

What is the purpose of your life?

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Luke 18:18-30

I. Success vs. blessed.

There are not enough deeds or donations in the world to buy an ounce of the purity we need.

No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

III. Jesus my purpose.

Luke 12:13-21

“Some men worship rank, some worship heroes, some worship power, some worship God, and over these ideals they dispute and cannot unite – but they all worship money.” Mark Twain

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

“Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb, and as everyone comes, so they depart. They take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.”

I. Source of security.

II. Source of satisfaction.

III. Source of significance.

Genesis 29

"EVERY ONE OF US IS, EVEN FROM HIS MOTHER’S WOMB, A MASTER CRAFTSMAN OF IDOLS."

I. Looking for love.

When you make a relationship with someone else your god, it will eventually be marked with disappointment and bitterness.

II. A new love