02 - EPISODE 1 - Fallen Oaks - Dr Sybrand de Swardt - Part 1

PART 1The particular episode was recorded as part of the annual conference hosted at Lynnwood Baptist Church. If you would like more information on SMTI, Lynnwood Baptist Church or ACBC Africa, please click on the links in the show notes.While this talk was intended for ‘fallen oaks’ - men who have given up in the storms of life, the principles apply to all believers who experience hardship. God shows himself in the storms of life. God designs the storms of life to alleviate our ignorance regarding Christ, the Savior. God uses storms to deliver us from our unawareness regarding our own strength and the power of God.Dr Sybrandt De Swardt uses Mark 6:45-52 to point out that the disciples witnessed Jesus Christ, the creator, create bread and fish before their very eyes, and yet they did not gain any insight about Christ and the event. They remained unaware of the person and work of Christ. The disciples lacked understanding because their hearts were hardened. And therefore, ‘they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves.  In this section, we will see that Christ knows when we form the saviour into the likeness of our desires. We will see that Jesus will not live up to our expectations but will rather expose those longings that will draw us away from him.Jesus is the expert storm designer who uses them to rescue us from ourselves and put the focus back on his real person. He removes our focus on our misplaced loyalties and unbiblical expectations that are self-directed. The storms of life also shows how the Lord is after our hearts - our thinking, our wrong beliefs, our wrong desires and commitments. For more information on SMTI, please click here: https://smti.co.za/ For more information on the Biblical Counsellors Association of Africa (BCAA, formerly ACBC Africa), please click here: https://bcaa.co.za/For more information on Lynnwood Baptist Church, please click here: https://lynnwoodbaptistchurch.co.za/