Understanding the Storms
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Intro - Welcome to MBF
Intro to sermon prep, when we start to think of storms and what those are and what they look like sometimes we start to become overwhelmed
When we hear of tragedies like the school shooting in Florida we start to become depressed by the thought of that could actually happen and maybe we start to question God
Some of you may be here today and you know for a fact you are in a storm, I believe I am in a storm, and I have been struggling to understand why and what todo in the storm
The title however may be somewhat misleading like we could actually understand the storms of life
Why they happen
When they will occur
How we stop them
How to avoid them
How we grow and move on from them
We start to become overwhelmed by the thought of this
If you and I are honest we know that there is no way we will ever understand the storms of life
So let’s look at the storms of the Bible
23 When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.
22 Immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the crowds away. 23 After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. 24 But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves; for the wind was contrary.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4 The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
If you still don't believe that you and I cant understand storms maybe you believe there is no way you and I will be able to understand the different storms that come up
But yes storms come up out of no where at times, and other times we are sent head long into the storm, and still other times we create the storm ourselves
So what do we do when storms comes because as we have discussed so far storms will happen
we know storms come up out of know where and frankly those are the effects of living in a fallen sinful world
we also know that valleys must happen as a result of the mountains
as we just read we see that Jesus sometimes sends us into the storms and we must weather them
we also know if we are honest some if not most of the storms we encounter are because of us, we put ourselves in situations that cause us storms in life
if we cant understand them what do we do
what do we do in life when we hear about the tragedies like what happened in Florida
I am glad you asked
Church when we are faced with storms in life
we press in Jesus, we anchor ourselves to the truth of Jesus Christ
those maybe church words that we say that we really don't understand, when we know people are in a storm some of the church things we say to them are
Jesus Loves You
I’m Praying For You
At times you and I have to say truth to ourselves so we can hear it ourselves
The truth is Jesus and the Word of God which is Jesus
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Rather than freaking out and running around trying to figure everything out
we go to truth
You see in the storms we talked about this morning the safest place to be was where Jesus was,
25 And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” 26 He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.
When storms come in life, like health problems, money problems, relationship problems, when you are struggling with whatever life situation you are in the
Safest place to be is in the boat if Jesus is in the boat
25 And in the fourth watch of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. 26 When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” 28 Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”
There are times that Jesus calls us to go into the storm, and once we are in the storm if we are not carful we get side tracked
our focus is no longer on Jesus and it is on the storm, just like in the previous storm we start to worry when are focus in no longer on truth
When Jesus is outside of the boat the safest place to be is outside the boat
Do you start to understand that no matter what is going on the safest place to be is next to Jesus
I know what you are thinking, is the safest place to be in the belly of a whale
I am not sure the safest place to be is the belly of a whale, cause in the belly of a whale we start to doubt that the safest place to be is the belly of a whale
21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Paul is writing a letter to believers in Rome and explaining why storms happen in life, and to be very honest is it because we tell Jesus we know better
This is the picture I see when I read this passage of scripture
A teenager cause we have all been a teenager before but a teenager goes to their parents and say look mom and dad I know better than you so I would like to do this and that and I am going to do this and that no matter what you say because I know better than you
When I read this passage that is what I see, in fact I think that is what we as a world and a nation and a people have said to God, and God has said, ok you think you know better than the creator of the universe, you think you know better than the inventor of dirt
And God doesn't leave us but I do believe that he like the scripture said allows us to venture out on our own because we think we know better
So when those storms come, like Jonah thinking he knows better, or in when we think we know better
How do we as believers begin to make sense or what do we do when we find ourselves in these types of storms
like the other storms the safest place to be is where Jesus is
We press in and we begin to anchor ourselves to the truth
what is the truth again
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Jesus Christ is truth and sometimes it doesn't always make sense in the storm to press into Jesus but we know that Jesus is truth and in the midst of the storm that is what we anchor ourselves to is truth
6 “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”
This is truth you anchor yourselves to
10 ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.
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11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
Psalm 42:11
In the midst of those storms we anchor ourselves to scripture and begin to do it
1 Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.
1 Hear my prayer, O Lord! And let my cry for help come to You.
This is pressing in to Jesus
Resting in Jesus in the midst of the storm, giving Jesus our burdens to Jesus in the midst of the storm, allowing the body of Christ to be the body of Christ in the midst of the storm
Can you and I really every make sense of the storm? Probably not, but we can know the truth! We can know that Jesus is the truth and find peace and rest in Him
Church for us to survive the storms of life we must press into Jesus
I want to challenge you to anchor yourself to Jesus this week, and if you are in a storm I would challenge you to anchor yourself to Jesus by spending time reading His Word this week.
Maybe you are in the thick of the storm and you are not sure which way is up or down or to the right or left, I would challenge you to spend some time in the Psalms this week, and allow the Holy Spirit to breath over you.
Closing
The Altar is open
Maybe you do no know Jesus or the truth as your personal savior, there will be people down here to help you with that
maybe you need to just spend some time in prayer alone or maybe you need to bring someone up to pray with you
the altar is open