LUKE 8:22-25
‘One day, Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He told them, ‘Let’s cross the lake.’ They started out, and while they were sailing across, Jesus went to sleep. Suddenly a violent windstorm struck the lake, and the boat started taking on water and began to sink. They were in great danger, and feared for their lives, so they went to Jesus and woke him up, ‘Master, Master,’ they said, we are about to drown!’
‘Jesus got up and sternly ordered the wind and waves to stop. They obeyed, and everything was calm. Then Jesus asked the disciples, ‘Don’t you have any faith? But they were both frightened and amazed. They said to each other, ‘Who is this that can give orders to the wind and the waves, and they obey him!’
In this passage, Jesus wanted to go from the western side of the Sea of Galilee to the eastern shore, where most of the people were not Jews.
This morning, we are going to find out how deep the relationship is between Jesus and us, and we will look at it from both perspectives. We are going to discover that no matter what we might claim, our true relationship with Jesus is exhibited in times of trouble, and as we go through:
1. THE STORMS IN OUR LIVES.
Most people, including Christians, do not have a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And since they don’t, they often do not understand why we have storms in our lives.
It is necessary for us to realize that not all of our storms are caused by the sin we commit. The Jews believed if something bad happened to someone, it was directly because of the sin in their lives. If a person was sick, they must have sinned. If they suffered financially, they must have sinned, etc. When we find ourselves embroiled in a storm, the first thing we do is ask how we got there. And then we ask what we did to deserve the storm.
Let’s take another look at our text. How did the disciples get
where they were? This is very important: They were in the middle of a violent storm, not because they sinned, but because they followed Jesus!
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I need to let you in on a not-so-secret bit of information. If you set your heart and mind on following Jesus, the storms of life will arise for two reasons.
First of all, the devil seeks to swamp the boat you are in! When you start to follow Jesus, you are going to upset the devil. And when you upset him, he will come against you and try to destroy what you are doing. He will not materialize in front of you, but he can and will use every demonic influence around you to make your life miserable in every way.
He will have people close to you spread rumors about you and he will use those same people to provoke fights with you. He will keep you upset; confused, and torn up to the point you can’t focus on anything, especially your walk with God.
If he cannot get to you that way, the devil will start attacking family members, taking them down to where your focus is turned away from Jesus and on to the plight of the family member.
The second way storms come into your life is because God will allow them! He wants to have you understand you can go to Him when you are in need. And the best way we realize that is to see it first-hand. If we have a storm, God can actively demonstrate His faithfulness to us! This actually builds our faith in Him.
Jesus knew the storm was coming, yet He led the disciples into the boat and out onto the lake. The devil would try and use this trip to destroy Jesus, but if he couldn’t accomplish that, he would use it to destroy the disciples faith in Him.
ROMANS 8:28 reminds us, however;
‘And we know that God will use everything for the good for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose.’
The devil tried his best to thwart Jesus’ plans, but found out that God’s plan was even more important; to grow the disciples faith in Jesus. And therein lies the lesson for us today, too. We must fully understand that no matter what we might encounter in life, God will use it for our ultimate good.
In JEREMIAH 29:11, it tells us the same thing.
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares God, ‘they are plans that will prosper you and not harm you. They are plans that will give you real hope and a blessed future.’
Different people like different things, don’t they? I heard of a man once that liked to take his boat out in the middle of storms; the more brutal the storm, the more the man liked it. He is reportedly to have said the higher the waves and the tighter he must hold on, the more thrill he got.
In the passage I just read, we find out that Jesus’ disciples had a similar experience, but they didn’t get as much of a thrill out of it. These disciples were professional fishermen, and they knew how to handle themselves at sea, but this storm scared them.
The disciples found themselves fighting the some of the roughest seas they had ever encountered. They were professional fishermen, and they knew what kind of danger they were in; and they were very frightened.
What we must remember is Jesus originally told them, ‘Let’s cross the lake.” He didn’t say, ‘Let’s take a chance on crossing the lake.’ Jesus knew they would get to the other side in one piece.
But they wanted out of the storm. When we find ourselves in the middle of harmful storms, we want out, too, don’t we? If we are experiencing financial crisis, we seek a loan; or if we are having a family crisis, we might seek counseling. I am not saying either of these is wrong, but I will say that the first place we tend to seek help is in the world, when the first place we should be going is to God in faithful prayer.
If we are going to grow our faith, we must go through God and seek His help. We must be willing to ride our storms out, to learn lessons from them, and to realize that we need to help ourselves in the storms, but we need to do so only in the way that God instructs us too. For instance, just getting a loan to help you today may not really help you at all tomorrow.
I used to be a loan manager at a large national company. It was my job to sell larger loans to people so my company could make more profit from the interest we charged. I don’t know how many consolidation loans I sold, even when some of them weren’t really necessary. That shows that when people, even Christians, walk in the world, they act in ways that are not always Christian ways. All I can say is; ‘ thank You, Lord, for your loving forgiveness!’
For those of you who have been wise enough to not get involved with them, a consolidation debt is simply taking all the debts one has and making one large loan to pay them all off. It is good in that the new monthly payment on the consolidation loan is usually much smaller than all the other ones they had before. But it is bad in that, with all that extra money, people generally go out and create new debts, and then they end up having to pay more out per month than they did before.
So, the answer in a financial storm might not be a new loan, but to stick with what you have and just bear with it until you have some bills paid off. You might have to get a part-time job, or take some other avenue, but to ride the storm out.
What is needed more than anything else in getting through our storms is having;
2. A DEEP ROOTED FAITH IN CHRIST
We are talking about our having true and lasting faith in Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought how we can make our faith stronger?
I read one time about how shipbuilders of sailboats used to prepare the masts for their ships. They would go to the forest and find an appropriate tree, then they would clear out all the surrounding trees and leave that one standing all alone, leaving it exposed to strong winds and storms.
Every time the wind blew the tree, it would make that tree bend a little. This flexibility actually made the tree stronger and more resilient to the stresses the wind put on it. Trees that never have to bend as they mature become brittle and break apart at the first sing of strong winds.
That strength they found in the storms caused them to be so strong that they could easily withstand the winds at sea. I believe that if we build our lives on the solid rock of Jesus and his words, then when the storms come, we will not only survive, we’ll gain strength just like those trees did.
I think Jesus was using the strong winds of this storm to strengthen the disciples’ faith. Their first reaction was to doubt: ‘Master, Master, we are going to drown; don’t you care?’ The first thing we see is that Jesus didn’t jump to His feet with a gasp of shock. He gets up and commands the storm to stop – and it obeys! His words had an immediate effect on the storm, but a different kind of storm was taking place in the disciples’ hearts. Jesus asked them if they had any faith.
But they didn’t answer His question. They shot back with a question of their own. They said, ‘Who is this that can command the wind and water and have them obey?’
And in their question lies the problems that continue to hinder us today. They did not fully understand who Jesus really was, and sometimes we don’t either. We have storms come into our lives, and we ask the same thing that did; ‘Lord, don’t you care?’ And Jesus responded by saying, ‘Don’t you have any faith?’
This is a story of childlike faith, and it is a true story.
In April 1998, several tornadoes ripped through the southern part of the United States. One of them completely tore a church apart. The next day, National Public Radio aired a story about that church.
As the storm was approaching the church, children had been in a choir rehearsal. When the pastor saw the storm coming, he quickly gathered all the children in the main hallway. They huddled together and held tightly to others as the winds ripped the church apart. In an effort to calm the children, the pastor led them in singing, ’Jesus loves the little children.’
Although some of the children were hurt, none were serious and there were no deaths. It was a bonafide miracle; the only thing left standing was the main hallway! The most penetrating part of the broadcast was when one of these children reported;
‘While we were singing, I saw some angels holding up the hallway. But the winds were so strong that the angels started shouting, ‘We need help!’ And then I saw more angels coming to help.’
That little girl will never forget what she saw, and she knows that angels are watching over the little children, and that they are precious in Jesus sight. How does that story relate to us as we go through our storms? First of all, we need to know that we are protected, and then we have to realize that we are also children of God.
I think we need to take our walk with Jesus very seriously. We need to expect extraordinary events out of ordinary of circumstances. But do we ever look to see the extraordinary that Jesus provides? Or do we close our eyes to Him as we try our best to get through our daily lives, giving Him lip service only, as did the ancient Israelites, while trying to take care of our problems through the world?
Do we catch ourselves in the middle of a raging storm, and see no evidence whatsoever of Jesus being with us? Maybe the problem is not Jesus being gone, but that we don’t see Him. Maybe it is time that we realize He isn’t the One who is asleep at the wheel, but that we are asleep at the wheel.
You say, ‘That happens only to backsliders and weak Christians. That kind of thing doesn’t happen to people with strong convictions like me, who attend church regularly, most of the time.’
To that, I would have to caution: ‘Don’t be too sure of yourself, as everybody lets their faith down from time to time, no matter how deep their faith or how close their relationship with the Lord.’ It is during these times that we must stand strong and learn how to pursue Him; to press in and rely on Him even more than we might do normally.
Jesus told us that wherever two or more are gathered together in His name, there He is also. We tend to forget that we need to act through faith. We need to rely on the Lord for our help. But to do that, we need to feel Him in our hearts. And we cannot feel that close to someone we are not willing to talk to.
And that brings us to our holy act of prayer. Actually, it is holy, but it is not filled with religiosity. We forget that prayer is just;
3. HAVING A PERSONAL CONVERSATION WITH GOD
True prayer is nothing more than a one-on-one conversation from your heart to the heart of a holy God. A God that you feel so close to that you cannot wait to talk to Him.
When are we supposed to pray? Many people only pray when they have a big enough problem and know they cannot solve it by themselves. So, as a very last resort, they cry out to God for help. But that is not how God wants us to pray. He wants us to have a running conversation with Him, sharing all the things in our hearts with Him, both the bad and the good. He wants us to love Him enough to want to talk to Him as often as possible.
He also wants us to praise Him and be thankful to Him, in every situation we encounter, whether it be the storms that ultimately strengthen our faith, or the blessings that we receive from Him.
In 1 THESSALONIANS 5:17 we are reminded to,
‘Be in prayer continuously!’
So, if we are to approach God on a continual basis, what is the attitude we should be approaching Him with?
In 1 THESSALONIANS 5:18, it tells us to:
‘Give thanks in ALL circumstances!’
In PHILIPPIANS 4:4-7 Paul takes it a step further:
‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be upset about anything, but in everything – through prayer and thanksgiving – give your desires to God. And the peace of God, which goes beyond all human understanding, will protect your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ.’
We have learned who Jesus is, but have we ever really taken the time to sit down, analyze it, and fully receive Him on a deep personal level? If we have, we know that a good prayer life is one of the most important thing a Christian can have. Prayer is the most powerful thing in existence, but we have misused it and hurried through it so much we have forgotten its importance.
We all want a more peaceful and happier life. That is the one thing I think everyone yearns for. But as we just read in PHILIPPIANS 4, it will only be through having a personal relationship with the Lord and talking to Him often, will we ever find that peace and happiness.
Sometimes, we treat prayer like it is a petition: We are convinced that if we cry loud enough, God will be forced to answer our prayers – unless He just doesn’t care about us. And sometimes we are looking so hard for that explosive type answer from God that we miss His gentle whisper. When we pray and don’t hear Him or see Him answering our prayer, we wait even longer before going into prayer the next time. Remember this: The longer you wait to go into prayer, the less you are going to hear when God does speak.
Our ineffectiveness in prayer points to something that all of us would just as soon deny. And that is, despite all of the church services we go to; no matter how loud we yell about how much faith we have, and no matter how many quick prayers we say; we believe God can and will answer prayers, but we just aren’t sure He will answer our prayers! And that denial of faith is all it takes to let the enemy come into our hearts and begin sowing even more seeds of doubt.
God will answer prayer. He may not answer them when and how we want Him to, but He will answer prayers at the right time and in the best way. Sometimes He will say ‘GO!” Sometimes He will answer by saying, ‘NO!’ And then there are other times He will answer by saying ‘NOT YET!’ And if we do not have a strong enough relationship to rely on His answer as best, we will act without faith.
In fear and amazement the disciples ask one another, ‘Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.’ It is easy for us to look at their doubt and be amazed at it. After all, we know what Jesus is capable of. We know what Jesus will do for them. What we are not entirely convinced of is, would Jesus be willing to do the same for us?
I think our biggest mistake is thinking that easy sailing is a mark of God’s favor and trouble is a sign of his displeasure with us. If all is well, we may conclude that God is pleased with us. But let the skies darken, and before you know it we are experiencing a crisis of faith. But we must remember that storms are a normal part of our lives, allowed by God for His ultimate glory.
JOB 5:7 reassures this.
‘Yet, man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward!’
And of course, we ask the age-old questions: ‘Why would a loving God let bad things come into our lives,’ and ‘doesn’t God care about us?’
Let’s answer each of these questions separately. Why would a loving God let bad things happen to us? We’ll find that answer in,
JAMES 1:2-4.
‘Consider yourself fortunate when you face trials in life, because those trials test your faith in the Lord. And if you allow it to, your faith will become stronger so it can persevere and lack for nothing spiritually.’
Like I have said before, if you want strong muscles you must work them so they become strong. If you want strong faith, you need to work it, too. And the only way you can work your faith is to go before our God and fully depend on Him to make things right for you, because you have nothing that can fix anything on your own strength.
Why would God allow bad things in our lives? So we can develop a strong faith; one which could actually save our eternal lives during a stronger storm later. We live in a fallen world, the enemy comes to kill and destroy, so our faith is our strength when we face these trials: God doesn’t cause our storms, He allows them.
And as far as asking if God cares about us, let me ask you a question: With all that God has done for us, why would we even consider questioning whether or not he cares for us?
JUDE 1:20-22
‘Build yourselves up using your most holy faith and always pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life’
The mere fact that God allows us to come personally before Him, and then give us His mercy through Jesus shows He loves us. The fact that we are being offered eternal life in heaven is a testament to His great love for us. Why would we even doubt for a moment?
Yet many of us remain uncertain. We accept Jesus as our Savior and we are filled with faith. And then, as time goes on and we do little to increase our standing with Him, that faith begins to wane and doubt begins to enter in. We set out by wanting to run to Him, but quickly settle for the struggle instead.
We become unfocused and confused, which leads to missing some of our blessings. And when we begin losing our own blessings, we begin to envy (be jealous) of others when we see the blessings they receive. And then we start thinking God cares more for them than He does for us.
We are inwardly focused most of the time. Our perception, whether it is accurate or not, is that even though somebody else might have the same kind of problems I have, my journey is much rougher than theirs.
But if the truth be known, it isn’t so much the heavy weather of our storms that bother Christians the most; it is the silence of God that causes us to stumble. Or as it has been said before; ‘The lights are out and the house is empty.’
And so as we develop our faith, we must use prayer to its fullest extent, not only going into prayer often, but staying in prayer as long as possible. And we must remember that our purpose in prayer is not so much getting hold of the answer, but getting hold of God!
Let’s close by getting back to when Jesus was sleeping in the boat. How should we interpret His sleeping while the disciples were panicked? Should we see it as Him not caring about them? Certainly not! Jesus was not asleep at the wheel, but Jesus did have absolute peace that they would make it to the destination because it was He who had laid it all out beforehand.
Christ’s outward life was one of the most troubled lives ever lived. There was next to no peace; and it was filled with constant turmoil. But His inner life was like a sea of glass; smooth, beautiful, and calm. And His ability to sleep through such a violent storm shows the peace of God that was in His life.
Our faith does not lie in the wind or the things in our lives. Our faith only lies in God and His ability to command all things to do His will. If we could realize that, we would not fill ourselves with worry or fear or doubt.
Our faith is found in the One who came to live among us. Our faith is found in the One who gave up His live for us. Our faith is found in Jesus Christ, the anointed One.
To walk in total faith, we must fully rely on Jesus; every day; through everything. And to rely on Him, we must first trust Him enough to have a very deep and personal relationship with Him.
Do you have that relationship today with Jesus? Is that the one thing that is missing in your life? Won’t you choose to make today your day of personal decision in not just inviting Jesus into your heart and life, but all the way into your heart and life?
INVITATION
