Does God Care About Me

Does God Care About Me?

Mark 4:35-40

God cares enough to save you! Mark 4:35a

Our Earthly Life is Temporary

Our Eternal Life is Permanent

God cares enough to grow you! Mark 4:35b-38

God cares enough to comfort you! Mark 4:39-40

Slide

The world is sure getting to be a difficult place to live.

Job losses

Medical concerns

Foreclosures

Past due bills

Creditors calling

Marriage difficulties

Relationship challenges

Heart ache

Bosses who are demanding

Parents who don’t understand

Kids who don’t obey!

Sometimes it feels as if nobody cares.

Sometimes if feels as if God doesn’t care.

Have you ever been in that place?

Have you even been in the place where life seems to have gotten so hard that it seems like nobody cares, not even God?

I imagine that most of us here have experienced that at one point or another.

If you are in that spot right now, I want to encourage you this morning.

Turn with me this morning to Mark 4:35-40 (p. 710)

Slide

This passage of Scripture has helped me greatly and I want you to be encouraged by the fact that you are not alone in your feelings either, because there were times that even the disciples have questioned God’s care.

But God did care about them.

And He cares about you too.

He cares for you where you are at right now, at this moment, even when you are questioning Him.

He is caring about you right in the middle of your circumstance, even if you are in the middle of a storm in your life.

We are going to see in this passage of Scripture that God cared for the Disciples in a number of ways and God wants to care for you to in these ways, no matter what circumstance you are facing, no matter what you are feeling.

Let’s read

Mark 4:35-40

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?"

39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

Pray

The Disciples had a bad situation from their perspective.

They were in a bad storm and it looked like they were going to die.

And from their perspective, Jesus was sleeping on the job.

And from their perspective, with the storm the only thing they could see, they began to question His care.

Sometimes we think God is sleeping on the job because if He cared and He were awake, we wouldn’t be in the circumstance we are in.

That is not true.

God cares for us in a number of ways. Ways we don’t always see in the midst of difficult circumstances. This morning I want us to open our eyes to how God has shown and shows His care.

In the beginning of this passage, the first thing I want you to see is that

God Cares Enough to Save You.

Slide

Mark 4:35a

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples,

Those in the boat with Jesus are disciples.

They are followers of Jesus.

One of the primary ways that God has shown His love and care for us is by seeking

to draw us into a saving relationship with Him

to save us from eternal damnation and

to be His disciple.

We need to remember that it is because He cares for us that

He went to the cross,

to die for the sins of mankind and

to provide eternal life for those who respond to his call to receive salvation.

John 3:16

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God cares about you and He uses the circumstances of your life to draw you into relationship with Him precisely because He does care.

We easily get our eyes fixed in the moment.

We need to realize what God realizes.

Our Earthly Life is Temporary.

Our Eternal Life is Permanent.

Slide

If a situation causes you earthly pain but leads to eternal gain, then it’s worth it in God’s eyes.

And even if you don’t think so now, it will be worth it in your eyes too someday.