One Of Those Days

One of Those Days

Opening Illustration:

Have you ever had “one of those days”?

1. The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.

2. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist toward the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Till that moment he had been happily listening to his walkman.

3. Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn’t pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with “return to sender” stamped on it. Forgetting it was a bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.

Current Storm Conditions

Tuesday marks the 1 year anniversary of Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast causing $81 billion dollars in damage and snatching 1,8000 lives.

Tropical storm Debby in the Atlantic

Hurricane Ileanna (Cat.1) in the Eastern Pacific

491 tornados in the US this year so far with 52 fatalities

Some storms we can track and be somewhat prepared for, others come suddenly and without warning. We normally don’t think about them until they hit or effect us.

The storms of teens…88% of Americas teens haven’t entered a church

In a typical teen school day

- 2,5000 watch their parents get divorced

- 1,1000 had abortions

- 250,000 carried a gun

- 1.3 mil. Made suicide plans

- 90 were rescued from abusive homes

- 52 became prostitues

SYATP is a day for our students to take a stand and pray…

It’s also a day for us to pray for them…

DVD: SYATP – The Storm

This morning I want to read a scripture for you that for the disciples was “one of those days”

Luke 8:22-25a (Matthew 8:23-27; Mark 4:35-41)

One day Jesus said to His disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into the boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is you faith?” he asked his disciples.

1. You’re on God’s boat.

a. Illustration: Thomas Andrews, chief builder of the Titanic

b. He designed your life, he loves you, and he wants to see you succeed

2. He wants to get you to the other side.

a. There’s more to life than getting on the boat

b. He has a purpose and destination in mind (He wanted to heal a demon possessed man, 26-39)

3. Just because Jesus is on board doesn’t mean storms won’t come.

a. Mt. 8:24 “Without warning”

b. Change your question from “Why me?” to “What now?”

c. Mt. 5:45b “He causes his sun to shine on the evil and the good, and send rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

4. We can always come to Jesus.

a. Hebrews 4:14-16

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

b. 1 John 5:13-15

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence that we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we ask of Him.”

5. The “conditions” are in his hands.

What are the conditions of your storm? Write them down.

Is it sin? – Romans 6:1-7

“Should we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?...For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”