Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Intro* – J. B. Phillips wrote Your God is Too Small in the 60’s challenging the impotent vision of God that governs most of our lives.
We’ve a great God in theory – a small God in practice.
We fear a cancer diagnosis, drought, illness, investment loss, the death of a loved one more than we trust the greatness of God.
We trust doctors and teachers and counselors and our own wisdom more than we trust God.
Our faith is small because our God small.
John Piper says, “People are starving for the greatness of God.
But most of them would not give this diagnosis of their troubled lives.
The Majesty of God is an unknown cure.”
We need the cure the disciples got.
They start out fearing the wild storm outside the boat.
But they end up far more fearful of the God with them in the boat.
We need the same shocking confrontation with Him.
Jesus poses a critical question, “Where is your faith?
Where is your faith?”
We forget that the One in the boat with us is far greater than any circumstance we will ever encounter.
And so we live tepid, anxious, fruitless existences.
Our faith is MIA.
So how can we change that and make God big in our lives?
*I.
Launch Out*
Vv. 22-23, “One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.”
So they set out.”
When Jesus says, “Go”, the disciples move.
To experience God, we have to be moving!
This means obedience in a mission.
God has gifted every believer to serve other believers; it is our job to utilize that giftedness.
When Jesus said, “Take me across the lake,” the disciples didn’t say, “But we only use our boats to fish.”
They were at His disposal – ready to move at His command.
When I was a kid on the farm, I spent hours pretending to drive Dad’s tractors.
I knew how to clutch, brake, shift and accelerate.
I drove all over the world on those tractors without every moving an inch.
Occasionally Dad let me sit in front of him, hands on the steering wheel while he drove.
But one day when I was 6 he said, “Well, let’s go!” Man, I had a grin bigger than Texas.
He didn’t have to ask twice.
I started the engine, put it in gear and promptly popped the clutch!
That’s how I learned you have to ease it out.
The next thing I noticed was that when I turned to steering wheel while moving, it was easy to turn.
When sitting still it was hard to turn the steering wheel, and the tractor still pointed the same way.
I learned you can only steer a moving machine.
It’s the same with people.
If you’re waiting for an email from God telling you what to do, you may wait a long time.
You want God to be big in your life, put yourself in the game.
Find a ministry?
Pray, ask where volunteers are needed, evaluate your interests and launch out.
You may not find the right place right away, but that’s okay.
You’re moving, and God can guide a willing, moving target a lot easier than a blob that just sits there.
Do you see? Find a need and fill it; see if God leaves you there.
Help a neighbor.
Invite someone over.
Give someone a good book.
Help with the kids, with community needs, Praise team.
Get moving so God can steer.
I would never have become a pastor if I had waited for God to call, like most people think happens.
Being a pastor was the last thing I wanted to be.
Until I got to college all the pastors I knew were old and boring; I wasn’t interested.
But I did like to teach.
Started helping.
Began with the young ages; found I didn’t do well up to about 3rd grade.
Only way I could keep order was by bribing them.
But the older kids, I got on great with.
Began a Boy’s Brigade program that utilized all the things I loved – sports, competition, mountain climbing and kids.
Got under some great preaching.
That’s how God gradually tricked me into becoming a pastor!
But you have to be moving.
See?
*II.
Expect Storms*
Here’s a news flash.
God grows us through adversity.
Expect difficulties.
This is so hard.
We look at difficulties as the exception.
But they are the rule for those growing in Christ.
God purposely sends difficult people, hard situations, temptations, trials because He loves us and this is the way we grow.
V. 23, “and as they sailed he fell asleep.
And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger.”
Jesus is tired.
He’s preached all day, ate in Capernaum and then set sail with His apostles for the eastern shore where He had a divine appointment with a demonized man next day.
Meantime, He’s bushed.
He curls up in the back and goes to sleep.
Mid-journey a vicious storm hits without warning.
Bad weather hits often on this lake as cold air from surrounding hills blows down onto the surface.
But this storm is unusually violent.
Soon they can’t bail fast enough and are in imminent danger of capsizing.
V. 24, “And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”
Remember these not weekenders.
They have lived on this water for years.
They are experts at surviving Galilee – and they were scared to death.
The pro sailors turn to the amateur carpenter for help.
What an extraordinary scene.
So what do we learn from this?
We learn that having Jesus in the boat does not guarantee against storms; it guaranteed the opposite.
Do you think that Jesus did not know what was coming when they set out that evening?
Of course He did.
Yet, He got the party rolling and promptly went to sleep.
Now, they are frantic with fear, but He sleeps on.
Ever feel like God was sleeping through your storm?
Way too often, right?
But Peter, who lived this, later wrote in I Pet 4: “12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.”
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