Storms Beyond Your Control

STORMS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL

TEXT: Mark 4:35-41

Mark 4:35-41 KJV And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. [36] And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. [37] And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. [38] And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? [39] And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. [40] And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? [41] And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

I. INTRODUCTION -- STORMS

-Every person sitting here is in one of three places. You are either in a storm, emerging from a storm, or about to enter a storm.

-Storms are just as much a fact of life as are death and taxes. By the way, storms do not respect people. They befall the rich and the poor, the young and the old and any other category in between. Storms are simply a part of life.

A. I Lost My Boat, But I Preserved My Life

An American (Ken Barnes), safely headed toward land after three days adrift, said a driving storm off the tip of South America snapped his masts and rolled his yacht, shattering his dream to make a nonstop, round-the-world voyage. "I lost my boat, but I preserved my life," Ken Barnes told a group of reporters in a radio conversation from the fishing vessel that rescued him Friday.

Barnes said his 44-foot (13-meter) ketch, Privateer, was hit with winds between 40 and 50 miles per hour and waves of about 20 to 25 feet. "The boat rolled 360 degrees. I was inside the boat, if I would have been outside, I wouldn’t be here today," he said. "But like I say, I went around with the boat as everything else did inside the boat. The batteries ended up in the sink, all the tools, the floorboards, one of them came up and broke in half."

Barnes received a long gash on his right thigh but was otherwise uninjured. The 47-year-old man from Newport Beach, California, hoped to become the first American to circumnavigate the world in a solo, nonstop voyage from the West Coast. He left Long Beach, California on October 28. He said he knew the attempt would be dangerous.

"Anybody who sails these waters knows the risk that they are taking," he said. The U.S. Coast Guard and Chilean maritime officials received signals from Barnes’ distress beacon on Tuesday, minutes after he called his girlfriend on his satellite phone to report he was in trouble. It wasn’t until Friday that the Polar Pesca 1 fishing vessel, guided by a navy plane, was able to reach Barnes.

He was some 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the western entry to the Strait of Magellan at the time of his rescue. Navy Capt. Ivan Valenzuela said Barnes’ boat, which he spent years equipping for what he expected to be a six to eight month voyage, had to be abandoned.

"It was badly damaged, its two masts broken and had also meter-high flooding," Valenzuela said. "It will probably sink very soon, and Mr. Barnes himself told us he has no interest in recovering it." After his rescue, Barnes spoke briefly to relatives gathered at his condo in Newport Beach, California.

Barnes wore a survival suit and ate Pop Tarts and granola bars while waiting to be rescued, his family said. "He was very well equipped," Valenzuela said. After the fishing boat reaches land, expected Sunday, Barnes will be flown by helicopter to Punta Arenas, Chile’s southernmost city. (AP – 1/7/07)

B. We Survive. . . But. . .

-Often we survive the storm, but the injuries stay with us for a while. The storms of life frequently come without warning:

A phone rings and a doctor asks, “Could you come to my office. . . now?”

A letter in the mail. . .

A knock on the door. . .

A phone call. . .

A severe look from the boss. . .

A clearing of the throat followed by the words, “We need to talk. . .”

-Storms can approach in velvet slippers with silent footfalls but in the end thunder roars from the steps of the storm.