God With Us In The Storms Of Life Series

God With Us - Storms

December 12, 2021

Matthew 1:23

As we move closer and closer to Christmas, just 13 days away, we're talking about the presence of God in the difficult moments of life. As I’ve said, it’s always easy to say God is with me in the mountain top experiences. On those milestone days, the celebrations and fulfillment of hopes and dreams.

But we struggle with God’s presence when we’re hurting. When times aren’t so good, when those milestone days are few and far between, when we’re walking through the valleys, through the wilderness and storms of life. We enjoy God on the mountaintops, but we get to know Him intimately in the low points of life.

Last week we talked about God in the wilderness. God whispered to Elijah and maybe the reason God can whisper to us as well is because He is close to us. That’s something we need to trust and believe. We can’t go anywhere apart from God. That’s great news!

Today, I want to talk about God’s presence when we’re in the midst of the storms of life. Some people seem to walk in the midst of a daily storm. I think that’s where social media really hurts us. We watch their lives and it seems everyday there’s a storm brewing. You know - drama!

There’s a German word for how we might feel when we see this drama. It’s called schadenfreude - it means - - we experience pleasure or joy because of another person’s troubles.

But for many of us, we’ve either been in a storm, are in a storm, or are anticipating the next storm. That’s not a great way to live, you know. Yet, the storms of life certainly occur.

Let me give you some trivial information - - they didn’t use real names until 1954 for storms. 1954 was the first year that US meteorologists started naming storms. They named them after their wives or girlfriends. Isn’t that crazy? Imagine I'm a meteorologist, I come home and tell Debbie, “there's a category 5 storm, it’s going to be devastating and it reminded me of you. We’re calling it Hurricane Debbie.” What were they thinking?

Then in 1979 there was equal right for storms, and they started to name them after men as well, and if there's a particularly bad storm, they retire that name and never use it again. OK

Maybe you’re in a storm right now that you would like to name. Maybe it’s a storm named divorce. Maybe it’s a storm called money. Or it’s called career. Maybe it’s friendship. Maybe loneliness. Maybe grief or addictions. Kids, in-laws, friends. Maybe it’s a storm called cancer.

As we’ve been talking --- we wonder where is God in the midst of my struggles. Why is God allowing this to happen? We usually don’t understand, even if we’re the culprit, it still doesn’t seem fair or right.

Yet, God is there. He’s always there in the midst of the storm. Don’t allow the presence of a storm to cause you to doubt the presence of God.

Remember, our key verse is Matthew 1:23, which tells us - - -

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). - Matthew 1:23

That’s our theme. It’s really believing and trusting that God is with us.

With that in mind, I want to look at a passage from Acts 27. As Paul was being transported to Rome, the focus was on a storm on the ship Paul was on. There was this massive storm at sea. The storm went on and on and on. The crew was so terrified that they threw cargo overboard, believing they were about to die.

In Acts 27:20, Luke tells us - - -

20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.

When we read, no small tempest lay on us --- Luke is telling us this was a massive, raging storm. It wasn’t just a rain storm, the wind was blowing the skies were dark day and night, they couldn’t even see the sky.

The storm was raging and I wonder how many of us would use that phrase for what we’ve been going through. The storm - won’t - stop.

Do you see the end of that verse? All hope of being saved was abandoned. They gave up all hope of being saved. Man, that’s terrible. Have you been there? Have you given up all hope?

It’s the finances that are killing you and you see no hope. Maybe there’s a wedge between you and your spouse and you can’t see any hope. Maybe it was the diagnosis. Maybe you can’t see yourself with a mate. Maybe it’s a job, it’s the kids, it’s getting older and more dependent. Whatever it is . . . and just like those sailors, you’ve given up all hope!