A Devil Of A Storm Or A Hell Of A Storm Series

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

Sermon Series - Drawing Close to Jesus

Sermon #2 - A Devil of A Storm

-See part one - "Steps to drawing close to Jesus - obedience, separation and invitation"

Proposition: The Devil will do all He can to stop, stagnate and to have us abandon our walk with Jesus -

1. Satan will create a storm

2. Satan will create a spirit of terror, confusion leading to doubt/dispair

3. However, Jesus will bring peace and revelation if we allow Him

INTRO:

There is an old story about a conversation between the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and his side kick, Dr. John Watson. Apparently, they were on a camping trip and Holmes decided to wake up his friend in the middle of the night so they could have a serious discussion. Waking Watson, Sherlock asked him to look up at the sky and tell him what he saw -

Well, said Watson, I see a million stars or more

What does that tell you Dr. Watson, asked Sherlock?

Dr. Watson pondered for a moment and attempted to answer in the way he thought Sherlock would appreciate -

Astronomically speaking, it tells me that there are millions of stars, galaxies and potentially billions of planets like earth.

Astrologically, it tells me that Saturn is in Leo

Time wise, the stars tell me that it is about 3:15 in the morning

Theologically, it tells me that Our Lord is all powerful and that you and I dear Holmes are small and somewhat insignificant.

Meteorologically, it tells me that we are going to have fair skies the rest of the day.

Why, Sherlock what does the stars tell you?

Well, dear Watson, looking up at the stars - They first and foremost tell me that someone has stolen our tent.

It is easy to look at something and miss the most obvious of things. And what is true of the open sky when someone has taken your tent can also happen to us when we look at scripture. It is easy to miss the most obvious of things in reading and meditating on a scriptural passage.

A couple of weeks ago, we began looking at Mark 4:35-41 where our evangelist is sharing with us ways to use to grow spiritually in the LORD. We examined verses 35 and 36 and discovered three ways that will lead us to growing deeper in the LORD.

1. We must choose to live a life of obedience to the LORD's commands and leadings

2. Separate ourselves to Jesus - we must come out of the crowd and follow Jesus - we must live a sanctified life

3. We must invite Jesus into our boat - we must allow Jesus in our lives, hearts and minds.

There is a tendency to read such a passage and think that after we implement those things in our lives, then things will suddenly go right in our lives. And while that is true (things will go better in our lives) there is something else that is also true. The Bible tells us that we will come under spiritual attack as well.

Remember Isaac Newton's third law? Remember it is - " For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" is true not only in physics but can be true in spirituality. For when a person decides to grow closer to the LORD, one must naturally expect that the Devil will do his best to stop that growth and action in our lives.

For you and I have a supernatural enemy the Bible calls Satan or the Devil. Mark shows us, that is Evil Being will do everything to stop us from following Jesus and from believing in Jesus. Our spiritual battles are not over once we have allowed Jesus into our boat. In fact, the closer we get to the LORD the more fierce the Devil will attack us and attempt to defeat us. For at times as we see in this passage, the Devil will bring up a Hellish storm in our lives to defeat us and to get us to doubt our Savior's love and concern. He will muster up all the forces of evil to defeat us, cause us to despair and hopefully cause us to disengage. For once we have disengaged, then we slowly stagnate and die spiritually.

How does Satan, that old liar operate? What does he do and what can he do to bring us down spiritually? Let's look at Mark 4:35 - 41 again and we will notice a couple of things that the Devil will throw against us to deceive and destroy us. And after noticing them we will see what we can do to stay victorious. For Jesus provides for us a way to defeat the Devil not just once or twice, but as He did, Jesus makes a way for us to have victory over the Devil and his schemes.