The Purpose Of Storms Series

Storms of Life Series

The Purpose of Storms

CCCAG June 2nd, 2019

Today we are going to explore the foundational truth behind why God allows different types of Storms to come into our lives.

Scripture- 1 Cor 3: 10-15

Intro: Yellowstone

In 2002 my family and I traveled to Walla Walla WA to see my sister graduate high school. We took 3 weeks an explored some of the western United States as part of this trip. One of the places we visited was Yellowstone National Park. If you have never been there, I would strongly recommend you put that on your bucket list it's probably one of the most beautiful areas in the United States that I've seen.

To be honest visiting Yellowstone was going to be the highlight of our trip for me. Of course, I want to see my sister and my former stepmother but as far as places to visit Yellowstone was at the top of the list. Tammy and I looked at various pictures on the internet , we mapped out many of the places we wanted to see , and we are so looking forward to seeing the beautiful scenery that Yellowstone has to offer.

We made the trip from Rapid City SD through Wyoming and stopped off and Cody for the night and then left the next morning and drove about 2 hours to get to the eastern border of Yellowstone park. Now Yellowstone is huge- To put the size of Yellowstone National Park in perspective if you were to draw a line for Madison WI eastward to Lake MI and Southward to the Illinois border that entire area is still slightly smaller than Yellowstone National Park. It takes several hours to drive from one end to another.

As we traveled through Yellowstone park on US highway 14, we came upon an area that was completely blackened out. A little over a year before we went through there a forest fire had ravaged a good chunk of the National Park. As I looked up on the miles and miles of burned forest where nothing was living, I had that disappointed feeling that I didn't get to see it when it was in its full beauty and grandeur. That feeling stuck with me during this time of us exploring the park.

The 3rd day we were there we decided to visit Old Faithful geyser. For those of you who don't know Yellowstone National Park is actually one of the world's largest volcanoes and is sitting over the top of a giant pool of lava. Because of that it has several geysers where water is heated by the lava and it erupts through tubes in the earth’s crust. Old Faithful is one of those tubes and the most consistent in its eruptions- about every 90 minutes.

When we got there, it was right after it had erupted so we had an hour and a half to wait for the next one. As i was sitting there I noticed one of the park Rangers giving a presentation about Old Faithful and I stood on the periphery of the crowd and listen to it. After he was done, he asked if there are any questions and I asked him about the fires that had destroyed a lot of the forest in Yellowstone.

He actually surprised me with his answer because he was really excited about those fires. He said part of the challenge of managing an ecosystem like Yellowstone is that these forests gets so old and so compacted with trees and undergrowth and all that stuff that ends up on the floor of the forest that it starts to actually choke out the life that's in the forest. He told me that the forest area that burned had actually been considered to be in decline as far as its overall health. Fire is actually a natural cleansing agent that nature does so that things can start over on a better foundation than that which existed before. He said as destructive as fire is when it’s happening, in the long run it's actually a cleansing agent so that new life can be born out of the Ashes.

As I was preparing this message this morning I thought back to his words and thought wow what an awesome illustration of what God wants us to learn in his word about why we have Storms in our lives, that come as trials tribulations and problems in life.

In 1 Cor 3, Pastor and Apostle Paul is giving some instruction to the church that is very instructive to us this morning about the Storms of Life.

We are going to read what Paul wrote, and then go through it to see how and why God allows these storms to impact us.