Often we think: well, we'd love to invite people to come; and it's great to have events to gather people too. They're great to do that, but really the bottom line is, God wants us to go where people are in need. I just so appreciated Thomas this morning, just his willingness to go to desperate people in need. I mean that's a - to have a young man stepping out like that to do something like that, he's never put any demand on anyone. He's worked sacrificially to do this. This is a thing that's inspiring, and it's a great example, but the bottom line is: he's going where people are; and we go out those doors to where people are, but you've got to intentionally leave the comfort zone.
Notice: they left the multitudes, left the crowd, left the place of comfort, to go to where people are in need. You actually have to engage them; and in the engaging with unsaved people, there will be a clash of kingdoms. We have to just understand the reality of that, and in this particular passage, and the next one that follows, there are two clashes that take place. In other words, Jesus has given the disciples an assignment, but always with the assignments of God, there will come a spiritual conflict. It is inevitable. If you are walking into what God has for you, you will face a clash between: the kingdom you represent; and the kingdom of darkness. It will not yield it's captives readily. It's something we have to bear. A lot of Christians aren't aware, that around the issue of reaching souls, there is a spiritual conflict; and it requires we overcome some of the things that arise against us. I want to help you understand some things that arise against us, some storms that arise against us, and what to do. But always it costs you something, always it costs you something.
Let's have a look at the story there, and it says: a great wind-storm arose. That word 'great' is 'mega'. It's a MEGA storm. Don't know if you've ever been out in a boat in a mega storm? It's horrendous! The word storm there, indicates there were great furious thunderclouds; there were driving blasts and gusts; and then there's this torrential rain. That's what it describes. When you read it: oh well there it is, yeah, a great windstorm. No, no, no. They were in a life-threatening thing. This thing rose up out of nowhere, and threatens to sink the boat before they've even got there; and so the storm came up. Now I want you to understand there's a whole number of storms that we can face in life. I want to identify for you four different kinds of storms. When you face a storm, usually what happens is: it affects your thought life; it affects your emotions; it affects your decisions. You feel like your life is a little bit out of control, because you're in the middle of a storm. How many understand what that's like?
There's all kinds of storms. You can have a financial storm, and suddenly there's this dramatic pressure; things look black and cloudy, the rain is on you. You look like the boat is sinking. That's a financial storm. You can have a storm in your marriage, it looks exactly like that in your marriage. It can be black and cloudy, and the winds are beating, and you're feeling very distressed, and thinking: I'm sinking very quickly. There can be storms in the family, especially if you have teenagers. You can have dramatic storms arise, suddenly overnight. Out of nowhere they just suddenly turn up, and there's a crisis call, and then you have to leave home and go down to the police station; or leave home and pick someone up from some place; or you leave home and you've got to sort out some crisis. Anyone who's had teenagers knows, there's a whole number of storms come during that period of life. How many understand what I'm talking about here? There we are, everyone! That's right. Be nice if you knew what to do in those storms wouldn't it? [Laughs]