Introduction:
1. A storm at sea. There is nothing else that so vividly potrays a picture of helplessness. A tiny boat on the open water tossed by the waves, defenseless.
2. It makes a perfect metaphor for the difficulties that we all face in life--situations beyond our control, unpredictable, threatening.
3. The story we read today was about a real storm but the application to the storms of our lives is fairly simple to make. the main lesson that is being taught in this passage of Scripture is that...
Proposition: In times of Storm it is good to know that we can count on Jesus
Interrogative: But if we are going to trust fully in Him we need to know where doubts arise
Transition: The disciples in our text today give us a fine example of doubt. And from their performance we can clearly see the three Doubts that each of us experience during the storms of Life. The first is the Lord’s
(His) Conciousness
vv. 24-25 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!"
How often during the storms of your life have you wondered if Jesus was sleeping? How often has it seemed that the storm has caught Him as unaware as you?
Now here’s a thought for you. If Jesus had forewaqrned the disciples of the furious storm that lay ahead, do you suppose they would have been willing to get in the boat?
What about you? As you have followedf Jesus, if he would have told you about the rough spots you were going to hit, don’t you suppose that you might have chickened out before the journey began?
Jesus had a mission for Himself and His followers on the other side of the sea that night--storm or no storm. And he also had something for them to lean in the middle of the storm itself. That doesn’t mean that He didn’t see it coming.
Nor, is he suprised by the difficulties you face in your life. Nothing you face is gonna shock Him off the throne. I can gaurantee you that Jesus has never turned to the Father and said "Did you see that--I can’t believe that Just happened."
Yet how often do we think that the storms of our life are evidence that Jesus has forgotten about us--asleep in the stern.
ILLUSTRATION: Roger Simms, hitchhiking his way home, would never forget the date--May 7. His heavy suitcase made Roger tired. He was anxious to take off his army uniform once and for all. Flashing the hitchhiking sign to the oncoming car, he lost hope when he saw it was a black, sleek, new Cadillac. To his surprise the car stopped. The passenger door opened. He ran toward the car, tossed his suitcase in the back, and thanked the handsome, well- dressed mas as he slid into the front seat. "Going home for keeps?" "Sure am," Roger responded. "Well, you’re in luck if you’re going to Chicago." "Not quite that far. Do you live in Chicago?" "I have a business there. My name is Hanover." After talking about many things, Roger, a Christian, felt a compulsion to witness to this fiftyish, apparently successful businessman about Christ. But he kept putting it off, till he realized he was just thirty minutes from his home. It was now or never. So, Roger cleared his throat, "Mr. Hanover, I would like to talk to you about something very important." He then proceeded to explain the way of salvation, ultimately asking Mr. Hanover if he would like to receive Christ as his Savior. To Roger’s astonishment the Cadillac pulled over to the side of the road. Roger thought he was going to be ejected from the car. But the businessman bowed his head and received Christ, then thanked Roger. "This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me." Five years went by, Roger married, had a two-year-old boy, and a business of his own. Packing his suitcawse for a business trip to Chicago, he found the small, white business card Hanover had given him five years before. In Chicago he looked up Hanover Enterprises. A receptionist told him it was impossible to see Mr. Hanover, but he could see Mrs. Hanover. A little confused as to what was going on, he was ushered into a lovely office and found himself facing a keen-eyed woman in her fifties. She extended her hand. "You knew my husband?" Roger told how her husband had given him a ride when hitchhiking home after the war. "Can you tell me when that was?" "It was May 7, five years ago, the day I was discharged from the army." "Anything special about that day?" Roger hesitated. Should he mention giving his witness? Since he had come so far, he might as well take the plunge. "Mrs. Hanover, I explained the gospel. He pulled over to the side of the road and wept against the steering wheel. He gave his life to Christ that day." Explosive sobs shook her body. Geting a grip on herself, she sobbed, "I had prayed for my husband’s salvation for years. I believed God would save him." "Where is your husband, Mrs Hanover?" said Roger,"He’s dead," she wept, "He was in a a car crash after he let you out of the car. He never got home. You see--I thought God had not kept His promise." Sobbing uncontrollably, she added, "I stopped living for God five years ago because I thought He had not kept His word!"
Friends, let me remind you this morning, God has not forgotten about you--Jesus is concious of where you are and what you’re going through.
But you know, even though we might understand that He is concious of the storms we face--Sometimes we doubt
His Concern
v. 29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
Mark’s Gospel records: The Disciples said to him, "Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?"
The lightning flashes Illuminating the sleeping Jesus. Since Phillip is nearest he moves toward Him to wake Him, at that moment the thunder rips through the drenched air and boat pitches uncerimoniously dumping Phillip in the Savior’s lap. Jesus opens His bleary eyes, to see the fear on His disciple’s dripping face. And Phillip voices the the thought of each of the twelve, "Don’t you even care that we’re all going to die?"
Don’t you even care? In the storms of your life you’ve probably asked the Lord the same question. As the waves crash around us and threaten to sink our boat, it seems the only logical soloution, If Jesus knows what I’m going through, and yet leaves me to suffer in it, He obviously doesn’t care.
Just because the storm was raging that night, didn’t mean that the Lord didn’t care about His disciples, first of all He knew that ultimately they would weather the storm and secondly there was an important lesson about Himself that He wanted to teach them that night.
Sometimes during the storms of our lives, we too, have lessons to learn. One of the most important lessons that storms teach us is that He really does care for us...
Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.
A little boy was eagerly looking forward to the birthday party of a friend who lived only a few blocks away. When the day finally arrived, a blizzard made the sidewalks and roads nearly impassable. The lad’s father, sensing the danger, hesitated to let his son go. The youngster reacted tearfully. "But Dad," he pleaded, "all the other kids will be there. Their parents are letting them go." The father thought for a moment, then replied softly, "All right, you may go." Surprised but overjoyed, the boy bundled up and plunged into the raging storm. The driving snow made visibility almost impossible, and it took him more than half an hour to trudge the short distance to the party. As he rang the doorbell, he turned briefly to look out into the storm. His eye caught the shadow of a retreating figure. It was his father. He had followed his son’s every step to make sure he arrived safely.
In the darkest of Storms as we are finally forced to cast our cares upon Jesus because every other option has been played out, it suddenly becomes clear that he really does care.
But even if He is Concious of our situation and even if He really does care, we sometimes doubt...
His Control
vv 25-27 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!"
26He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
The Savior comes to His feet, and without a word to any of them shouts to the storm, "Hush, Be Still." The words which only a moment ago would have been ripped away by the howling wind echo in the stillness of the night. If the disciples had been frightened, now they are terrified. Jesus calmly looks around and says, "What? You still don’t have any faith?" Then without another word finds his place again on His still warm pillow. Meanwhile, the disciples whisper to one another--"did you see that?"
In spite of all that they had already seen from Jesus, the twelve are still startled to find that Jesus is actually in control--even over the Storm. I wonder what they expected Him to do? Help bail out the boat? Offer up a prayer that they might somehow limp back to shore? Maybe just to offer a word of comfort in their final hour. Whatever they expected--they certainly did not expect that he would order the storm to stop and that the storm actually would stop. They still doubted that He was in control.
In spite of all that we know and confess about the Lord’s strength--His omnipotence, when it comes to the personal application of that truth to our lives we are often in the same boat with the disciples (pun definitely intended).
It is one thing for God to be in control of the sunrise and quite another for Him to be in control of your hateful boss.
It is one thing for God to be in control of the moon and stars and its another for Him to be in control of the disease that afflicts your body.
It is one thing for God to be in control of the rise and fall of nations but it is something altogether different for Him to be in control of your colapsing marriage.
But brothers and sisters I want to remind you this morning that no matter what the storm of your life is, even if it looks like your boat is about to sink, the same Jesus who commands the winds and the waves is in control of the storms of your life too.
And even if he doesn’t command the storm to cease in your situation, just knowing that He could if He thought that was best for you is a life preserver that can see you through the most devastating hurricane. God is in control! And even when the storms rage around you you can be confident that at any moment He has the power to say Hush, Be Still, Either to the Storm or to Your Soul. Just knowing that can give you peace in the storm
CONCLUSION:
During the storms of life it is good to know that you don’t have to doubt
His Conciousnous He knows where you are, He knows what you need
His Concern when the storm forces you to Cast your cares on Him you will certainly find that He cares for you.
His Control No matter what You face you can know that He has it all in control
