Over All (Calming the Storm)

Intro

Good morning! At this time we are going to dismiss our Gen Kids to go back to kids church.

If you are new or a guest with us this morning my name is Pastor Jeff and it’s my honor and privilege to be the lead pastor here at Generations Church. And I just want to say welcome…and we are so glad that you have joined us this morning!

As most of you know last week our family was up in Minnesota dropping our oldest son Mason off at Crown College in MN. (Picture) Mason will be playing baseball for them and majoring in video production and editing with a minor in Worship Ministry. And so He is pursuing God’s calling on His life there in MN.

Last week we finished up a 6 Week Series entitled “Life in 6 Words” and our worship director Leah brought the final message....Didn’t she do a great job?!! Leah is our Worship Director but she’s also our Director of Ministy Leader

We are so blessed to have some great leaders here that when I am away I have total and complete trust that the church is in great hands when I am away…it frees me up to be who God has called me to be as a husband and as dad to my four kids.

Although she’s not here this morning can we just show Leah some love today and give honor where honor is due?

Before we dive into the message this morning I want to encourage all of you to invite your friends and neighbors to a brand new series we are starting next week called Parenthood. School is now in full swing and we are going spend a few weeks talking about parenting. So whether you are an empty nester, in the full swing of parenting, hope to be a parent one day…or maybe you don’t....this series will be packed full of great life tools for every age and every generation. So please take a few and pass them out.

With that being said…Let’s go to the Lord in prayer this morning.

PRAYER

If you have your Bible this morning we will be looking at the true story of Jesus calming the storm which is recorded in the Gospel of Mark in chapter 4 verses 35-41. While you find that let me pose this question. "Do You believe in Miracles?"

A while back I came across an article in Newsweek entitled Do Americans Believe in Miracles?

According to the poll, the vast majority of Americans believe in miracles.

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• 84% believe God performs miracles.

• 79% believe the miracles in the Bible actually took place.

• 63% know someone who claims to have experienced a miracle.

• 48% say they have experienced or witnessed one.

• 90% of Christians believe in miracles.

• 67% of Americans have prayed for a miracle.

• 77% believe miracles can cure people given no chance by

medical doctors.

• 72% say people who face death in accidents can be saved by a miracle.

Looking back over the course of my life I can remember a few times when I honestly believe I saw a miracle happen in front of my eyes.

One of the most vivid in memory occurred while I was a hospital chaplain while attending seminary in North Carolina.

One afternoon as I was on duty at the hospital a young child was brought into the Emergency Room. The child had been put down in his crib at daycare with his bottle. A half-hour later one of the daycare workers noticed the child was blue and was not breathing. They immediately rushed him to the hospital. I was with the mom and dad in the ER as the child was being worked on. He had been dead for approximately 20 minutes.

As I stood there with my arms around this couple I felt God's spirit tell me to pray out loud. So I began to pray. I prayed for this boy and I begged God to breathe life back into him, to save him, to be able to survive this tragedy.

They had hooked him up to a heart monitor when he first came in. The only sound in the room that I remember was the flat line humming, and the prayers we prayed.

I kid you not as I prayed the phrase "bring him back to life" the heart monitor jumped and began to keep a rhythm and he returned to life.

I left the hospital that day looking for things I could pray for. I honestly felt that if I saw some lame man on the side of the road I could scream "Hey you, get up!" and it would have happened. Now, I don’t know why but I believe for some reason, God used the prayers of a scared, insecure hospital chaplain to do a miracle. So yes, I believe in miracles.

Generations Church.....do you believe in miracles? Turn to your neighbor and say “I believe in miracles.”

This morning I want you to see that this same God that did miracles in the Bible is alive, well, & still able to do miracles in our own lives.

How many of you would say “Pastor Jeff…I need a miracle in my life right now?”

Maybe it’s a physical need, maybe it’s a financial need. Maybe it’s a relational need....a wayward spouse, or a wayward child. We all come in here today from different places, different needs, and different situations. I have talked to many of you throughout the week this week who are in the midst of storm. If I’m being totally honest and transparent with you, I have been in an incredible storm for the past two weeks. And if you’re anything like me when the storms of life hit, we suddenly realize the truth and the fact that you and I really are not in control. Isn’t that true? When you’re spouse is taken to the hospital, or when life dishes out a hard or painful situation we suddenly realize that we are in need of a God that can walk with us in the midst of our storm and not only walk with us…but we begin to beg God to speak peace into the storm. And sometimes He calms the storm , but other times He calms us in the midst of the storm.

Today we want to take a look at the story of Jesus calming the storm found in Mark 4. If you have your Bible follow along, if not we will have the verses up here for you.

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Mark 4:35 (CSB)

35 On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.”

Let me stop here for a moment. In order for us to see the big picture of this story, we need to understand the context of what we are reading.

Here Mark uses the phrase "On that day". When you or I read scripture and we see phrases such as this we need to ask ourselves what the significance of that phrase is. So in this situation, we need to ask ourselves what else happened on that day?

If we go to the beginning of Mark 4 we notice that on this day Jesus had been teaching there on the beach to a very large crowd. It was so large that he decided to get into a boat, sit down, and cast off the shore in order for him to be heard.

He is engulfed in ministry this day. On this day he told the parable of the sower and explains how God's Word falls on different types of soil or hearts. He goes on that day to tell the parable of the lamp being put under a basket. Remember that one. It's the beginning of one of the most famous Sunday school songs of all time…this little light of mine. And He's not done yet. Then Jesus then goes on to teach the parable of the mustard seed.

He has been out on this boat teaching in the sun all day and is completely exhausted and just wants to get away from it all and rest for a while.

Now that we have filled in what "that day" looked like, we can continue reading.

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Mark 4:35–40 (CSB)

35 On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.” 36 So they left the crowd and took him along since he was in the boat. And other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” 39 He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

Is there anything scarier than a terrible storm? Not just a calm thunder and lighting storm where your little kids get scared and want to climb in bed with you, but the kind of storm that begins to threaten to take your life, your family, your possessions, and your very identity and existence.

You see storms come un-expectantly and they take on many identities and forms. Let me ask you a question.

WHAT STORM ARE YOU FACING TODAY?

And maybe a more appropriate question would be what storms (plural) are you facing?

Whatever they are...I want you to write them down whether on a piece of paper or take your phone out and make a list. I want you to name them and list them today. I want you to acknowledge your storms this morning.

Most of us, have different storms. Maybe for some of you your storm is job-related. You've got a job you can't stand. The people you work with drive you crazy or you feel like you couldn't do it another day, and you just hate your job. Or maybe you’ve recently lost your job and the storm just came out of nowhere and you don’t know what you’re going to do.

Maybe for some of you you’re in the middle of a financial storm....and you’re just fighting to keep bills paid and keep your head above water.

Others of you have gotten bad news from a doctor and the certainty of life you once had is no longer certain.

Whatever storms you are facing…you know what it is. You are cruising along and life is fine. And then you go in to get something checked out, and boom! All of a sudden, life is on hold.

What's the doctor going to say? For some of you, it is someone you love. Maybe a family member has gotten bad news from the doctor and for the first time you are dealing with the fact that this person may not be around much longer and you're wondering how you'll ever survive.

Even in a room this size there are people sitting around you that are simply trying to hang on. The wind and waves of life are blowing and you feel like you are about to go under.

My wife Jenn and I have Christian friends that have separated and just recently divorced and their children have been left as collateral. I have seen godly people in churches die of cancer and I have done their funerals. I have seen families devastated by storms. Some left feeling angry, some left feeling alone, some left in a complete daze asking how and why or why not.

Maybe you’re sitting here this morning thinking "wow, my life is really good right now. I am not going through any storms" If that's the case consider yourself to be blessed.

The reality is that storms affect us all. There are 3 types of people in this world. Those who have been through storms, those who are in the storm, and those who are headed into a storm. Life is full of storms and none of us are exempt.

This morning I simply want to leave you with 3 things to Remember while you're going through a storm. The first is this.

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1. You are in the storm by God's Appointment

You see, God knew before you were born what was going to happen during this season of your life. Listen to what Psalm 139 says

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Psalm 139:16 (CSB)

16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

You may be sitting this morning in shock at the situation you find yourself in. Listen to me….your situation did not take God by surprise!

Notice what our text says vs 35

Mark 4:35 (CSB)

35 On that day, when evening had come, he told them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the sea.”

Who told them? He did.....The trip was Jesus' idea and being the Son of God, God in the flesh, certainly He knew that a storm was coming. So it was Jesus' idea.

Listen....I need you to hear this. Sometimes storms come and people will tell you it’s because you are not in the will of God. And yes, a lot of time certainly that is true, but here we see that the disciples were in the storm not because they were out of the will of God, but they were in the storm because they were in the will of God, following Jesus' direction.

So you may be in a storm right now, and you are saying "I wish I wasn't here!" Listen, God knew you were going to be here. Now, you might ask "where did the storm come from?"

Let me give you three possibilities. If you’re taking notes the first could be that there are a lot of storms that come simply

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From bad decisions.

We make a bad or stupid decision and boom! You have some painful consequences to deal with. You knew you shouldn’t do it, you chose to anyway….bam….you’re suffering the painful consequences of your bad decision. We’ve all been there right?!

Another possibility is this. You might be experiencing a storm

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From the enemy. the evil one, satan….the one whose mission is to steal, kill and destroy. Maybe you're under a satanic attack. It's very possible this storm here in Mark was an attempt from the enemy to thort Jesus'ministry.

Another source could be that you are experiencing storms simply because you and I live in a broken world marred by sin.

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From a broken world marred by sin.

Jesus even warned us of this in John 16:33 when He said

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John 16:33 (CSB)

33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. It’s not a maybe, it’s not a probably. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

Are you in a storm? God knew you were going to be in a storm. And He knows every detail about it.

If you’ve been alive for very long, you’ve probably experienced a pretty bad storm. Jennifer and I have experienced a couple of major storms in our lives but none bigger than the one which came in the late evening hours of April 6th, 2016.

I happened to be on kid duty that evening and after getting our four kids down for the night I laid down on the couch to watch tv. Jenn had been out having coffee with a couple of the pastors’ wives where we were serving at a church in the Minneapolis area.

Jenn came home that night around 10:30 pm and as she came into the family room she began to have a grand mall seizure. I rushed over to her and called 911. The ambulance showed up and rushed her off to the hospital in downtown Minneapolis. I followed the ambulance….I thought maybe she was having a stroke…I really was in shock…I had no idea what was happening to her. One thing was for sure, we never ever could have prepared ourselves for the words we were about to hear…There’s a tumor on your brain…you have brain cancer.

We had four little kids…our youngest was 15 months old. Everything was going great and out of nowhere the biggest possible storm that could ever hit us…crashed down on us.

I’d love to tell you our faith wasn’t shaken….it was! We were shaken to the very core of our existence. I’d love to tell you we weren’t afraid! But honestly, we have never been more afraid in our lives! The night before Jenn’s surgery…we were laying in bed up at Mayo and I asked her…”Are you afraid? How are you doing?” She said “I’m a little nervous. But I’m at peace. And then she said something that has changed my life and its trajectory for the rest of my life. She said, “This is the story God’s writing of my life, and I am going to glorify God in the story!”

I was floored…how could she say that? It’s because she knows the Truth of Psalm 139 and that every day of our lives has been planned out before we breathe our first breath. She trusted that God was with her working all things for good.

So here’s the question…Did God cause Jenn’s brain cancer? Did He? Was it His fault? Now There are all sorts of room for theological debate here but I personally think that God didn't cause this, but that God did allow it, and God has been and certainly will continue to use it for his purposes and His glory.

Jenn, is a testimony of God’s amazing grace, His healing power, and the fact that God does miracles. After brain surgery, chemo, and radiation…we were told it would be back within 3-5 years. Today she is here 6 years later with no signs of cancer and God is being glorified in her story!

The next time something like this happens to you, hopefully, it won't but chances are it will. You will get a phone call and on the other end, you will hear some bad news, and just like that, everything changes. You will say goodbye to someone who goes on, and you will think are going to see them again and you won't, and everything changes just like that.

When that happens, remember that you are in the storm by appointment. He knew it was going to happen, and God is a good God, and He will bring about good in all things….. Say “all things,” Come on, Say it like you mean it “All things” to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

So You are in the storm. #1 by HIS APPOINTMENT. and secondly

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2. You are in the storm with HIS PRESENCE.

Look at verse 38 with me

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Mark 4:38 (CSB)

38 He was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him up and said to him, “Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?”

Wait....what? There about to die and where’s Jesus. ? 38 "But He was in the stern," and what was he doing? Would you say it out loud? “sleeping on the cushion"

I love that. He was sleeping while the disciples were completely freaking out!

Do you realize that God never panics? In the middle of the storm, though unseen…where was Jesus? Underneath in the stern. Though unseen, HE WAS THERE!!!!

You might be in the storm of your life right now, and although He might be unseen, or you may think He’s nowhere to be found....Jesus is right there with you!!

And though unseen in the middle of your storm, there is One who is much greater. The Son of the living God through the presence of the Holy Spirit, He is with you!! Be encouraged! Take hold of Hope today! Find peace today!!! He is with You in your storm and He is Over All!!

Maybe you haven't been around church your whole life. You may still know this verse. King David in the Old Testament, as a shepherd boy penned the 23rd Psalm and he wrote "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." Why did he say that? He said, "For thou art what? Say it…PAUSE….For thou art with me". Thou art with me…..He's with You! He is with You.

In Hebrews 13:5 he said, "Never will I leave you; never ever will I forsake you."

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Hebrews 13:5 (CSB)

“5 …I will never leave you or abandon you.”

Maybe you’ve been abandoned by someone…maybe some has left you, maybe people have betrayed you. i don’t know what your situation is, but I do not that God is with you today in whatever you are facing and whatever place you find yourself in.

Yes, you are in the storm by His appointment. He knew it would happen but you are there with His presence, and number three

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3. You are in the storm for His purposes.

Think of the disciples. There were about to face one of their greatest fears. What was their fear? Death!!!! We don't want to Die Jesus!!!

Look what scripture says.in the second part of Mark 4:38 (CSB)

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“Teacher! Don’t you care that we’re going to die?”

Jesus don’t you care that we are about to die Jesus? Don’t care that we are perishing?” Jesus we are about to drown!! We don't want to die!

And some of you are are here today and you’re facing the storm and the wind is blowing and the waters coming in and you are afraid, and you’re yelling out God dont you care???? Jesus where are you??? Do something!!!!! If you don’t come through we are going to die!!!! I am going under God!!! Help!!!!

Think about the journey through the disciples' lives. What happened? In a few moments, they get to see the power of Jesus. Later on, they get to see the character of Jesus. Later on, they get to experience the death of Jesus. They get to see Him after the resurrection, and through all this, God did so much in them that the very guys who were horrified to die, on this day ten of them were willing to die for Him later…willing to die for the cause of Christ. Not only would they face their greatest fear, but they would surrender willingly to death saying, "I would never deny the One who gave it all for me."

The thing that had the biggest stronghold on them, they became free of because God did more than a miracle in calming a storm. He did a miracle right here in their hearts as they experienced the presence of almighty God!

Now some of you, you can relate to what the disciples say ?"Teacher, don't you even care if we drown?" Maybe you are echoing their cries…"God, I am in trouble and you are not helping me! Why God!!

There are those of you who have prayed and prayed and prayed and you are thinking to yourself Okay God, how hard would it be? You've done some pretty big things. All I'm asking for is this, and You won't even do this." Where are you? Are you really there? Are You really able? If you are able, why don't You? If You could and You don't then are You good?

Do You still love me? Why are You silent? Are You just a crutch that I've made up or a lie I’ve chosen to believe?

I think the reason that the disciples were able to go on and die for Christ is that they had been to the edge and faced that fear and found that God is faithful and that no matter what else happened they would love Him and would praise Him.

You are in the storm tonight ..By His appointment, with His presence, and for His purposes.

Maybe that's why James said this in James 1:2-4

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James 1:2–4 (CSB)

2 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

I want you to catch what I'm going to say here…this is important and you need to understand this. You see,

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In storms we want God to do a removing job, but He wants to do an improving job.

We want Him to remove the storms. But maybe He wants to improve something in us that He couldn't do any other way.

What our family has gone through on this cancer journey has been the most terrifying experience we probably will ever go through. And you better believe that most of the time the thing I pray for is for this to be taken away. There isn't a day that goes by where I do not pray and beg God to take away Jenn’s cancer…. All the while he is wanting to do an improving job. And I believe God has accomplished much more through us with her cancer than if she never had it. I think we can honestly stand before you and say that we are thankful for this journey.

Listen, because I have a calling to be a pastor does not mean for a moment that I am exempt from being in the boat and from seeing the waters filling up the boat. I catch myself crying out to Jesus just like the disciples did and I say "Teacher do you not care that I am perishing?" "Wake up!!! Wake up!! Do something!! Anything!! I am dying! Don't you care? Don't you care?

So let's watch this miracle happen before our eyes - let's continue our story in Mark 4:39

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Mark 4:39 (CSB)

39 He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Silence! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

But that isn't the end of the story. Read with me verses 40-41

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Mark 4:40–41 (CSB)

40 Then he said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 And they were terrified and asked one another, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

You see, there are those of you that God is going to speak to your storm. He is going to heal you. He is going to heal your marriage. He's going to miraculously provide for you financially. He's going to answer your prayer, and He's going to say to your storm and to your heart "Be still!" And it will, and both will be miracles. But for some of us, the outcome will not be what we desire.

Regardless of the outcome, we must come to the place where we too ask "who then is this?" God is more interested in us becoming more like His son than anything else. Many times it takes pain to bring about his purpose and bring us to a place where we will say… I will love you! I will worship You. I will praise You regardless of the outcome because You are God. This is the story God is writing of my life and I will glorify him in the story!

Storms will come. but

We must remember

• They are By His Appointment

• They are With His Presence

• They are For His Purposes.

Hebrews 12:2 (CSB)

2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus Is LORD OVER ALL.....