Storms

I meant to the fireworks last night of most unusual night I've ever seen the fireworks because of the storm people in our area. We're really anxious to shoot fireworks. I think it had to do with the new law and a lot of people were back in the fireworks business. So you haven't been launching fireworks in a while. Lot of young families. And so you tell the kids really wanted to get out there. So what they did in my neighborhood was alternate firing Fireworks and coming inside letting it rain, the rainbow harder it into a break and go out there and do some more fireworks. Then, run to the house. What was the fascinating though? It was really pretty fireworks. Look great, but the fireworks with the natural storms over the top look really, really impressive. So glad to do that very often, it just happened that way, but we were talking with the kids later and they were like to do, see the green when we went through all that whole process, but it was a lot of fun and very, very interesting. I have a confession to make this morning, I do not have my notes with me.

Let me tell you why, I had a little bit to do with that last night, but not as much a Sean in the IV and Elijah moved in with me this past weekend. So we put two houses together. You know how hard it is? To find a flash drive Two houses that have come together. The cats were terrible cats. Love flash drives because they can get them in the hallway. You know. You just really have a great time back and forth. I don't know about where they were this picture, flash drive went, but all I know is I don't have it in my possession. So I'm going for the top of my head. And then I'll do you scary.

I was very young. First started ministry I used to pray out loud. Lord you know what I want to say and you know how to say it has an old man, I'm going to start doing that again. Only God knows what I had written down and how much of it I'm going to be able to reconsider here just a few minutes.

We've been our house about 40 years. Literally 40 years. I went through skylights one before your one in the hall. Bathroom in the skylights have never broken until about 10 years ago. And I had gotten very, very Not even egotistical. But overconfident in the strength of the skylights, I would even go east and really interesting to see. So I did that about 10 years ago in one came through landed. At my feet, couple more right beside it, then I can hear the ones in the bathroom. Go out for our limit is in terms of what the skylights can deal with in that particular situation. Storms. Just can emphasize how they are when I was about ten years old, we went to Ruidoso for a weekend and wound up staying full week because we got 50 inches of snow over that first weekend that we were there. I looked for a picture of that, it's a great picture that my dad took your staying in the hotel which is actually two stories. But you can't see the first story for all the snow or any of the cars that are buried underneath there. So it was kind of a neat perspective to say the least this was necessary to going to be the time when with that was going to take place. I'd like for us to think they're both about a storm. I don't know what storms your billing with. I don't know what storms you've been through. I don't know what your challenges are right now, but my guess is the all of us in some shape form or fashion are dealing with something stormy or make me something threatening even goes beyond the storm our passage for today is Mark 4:35 and go down to verse 41.

Birthday. When he became, he said it was disciples. Let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind. They took him long, they took him along just as he was in the boat. There was also other boats with him, a furious. Squall came up and the waves broke over the boat. So if it was nearly swamped, Jesus was in the stern. Sleeping on the cushion, the disciples woke him is that the him teacher? Don't you care if we drown in the situation, we know that Jesus is on the Galilee which isn't in no shape form or fashion, I see it is a link that sometimes people refer to it as the lake of Galilee. It's just six miles by 13 miles but it has the distinction of being the lowest. Freshwater body in the entire world. Is 27 miles off the coast of the Mediterranean. And it's 2:00. Brittany.

C Level. Thank you, sir. I may deserve a little help and so that really Add to the ability to make this storm area of difficult because he becomes a bowl here and moisture and wind coming off. The Mediterranean goes up and comes back down the backside of the mountains and just create the Tempest, and it's very, very hard to see even today meteorologist, predicting, when a serious storm is going to take place in

Now, you look at these guys, hit the story and there's something that they have up on me and maybe other people as well as these guys are professionals. Taylor, professional fisherman, I thought you were going out there in the storm before. Odds are pretty good that they have met. This one is far more serious than what they thought. But the power is really there, notice? If they wake Jesus up, do you read me? The story is a child in Bible class. Our teacher or the teacher, I remember how to ship a Spanish Galleon and it had all kinds of decks and Captain's Quarters and how the story of baby Jesus don't into one of the lower rooms and now they're going to wake him up and was archaeology. We now have a pretty good idea. What those both look like, they're about 18, 20 ft long and they are totally open. When Jesus is a down, taking a nap in the Captain's Quarters, he's sitting on a question of some kind right up there in the middle of a storm. And I'm sure not sure, I guess they sure but I certainly would suspect the disciples were over there going last week.

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the ways. Quiet be still then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no face? Are you about that?

He saw the problem. They are no longer in jeopardy. Why are they still afraid?

I think you got to say. They're afraid of him. They're overwhelmed by the power that he has just imagine. But, you know, being here home and and somebody for the television is telling them to the public good. If you live in this area, if you live in this County, if you live in this Zone, you need to find your safe place right now. And Jesus is with you two after the front porch Adidas's.

How do you make system go away? Would that scare you any? It would leave you in a place, it would leave me in the place of wondering, what is the potential that Jesus has? They have a prayer meeting, he just said for the storm is stuff. And it did and they are still. They're still on the edge. And Jesus is really saying to his wife, why are you still worried?

First 48, we just read. He said it was a disciples. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no face? They were terrified and ask each other ask each other, who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey?

What kind of power you're really good at when your power of a thunderstorm.

It's really hard to express. Because normally, when you read about power of thunderstorm, the measurements to use are the measurements that we associate more with nuclear blast than anything else measured in.

This storm is so powerful that it really takes a more developed sense of science language to, even begin to understand what's really taking place. We look at Jesus healing the dead impressive. We looking in feeding the thousands impressive with us no more impressive. If somebody just looking to the skies saying,

Three things I'd like for you to think about as we move forward here, this is a metaphor for life. When people say, are there storms in your life, you probably think we got rain last night, but probably more like you. That is what storms are we talking about here? The storm stand for trouble. Then we're in route to the storm. We're in the midst of a difficulty of something that we don't exactly know how it's going to turn out. It could go either way. And so we're constantly being bombarded by these storm. You may be involved in a hurricane next to him. Right now, it's been going on a while. You may be in an area where spiritually emotionally psychologically, you're feeling the warning signs of a storm. And wondering what you'll do, what steps will have to say that we deal with in her life parallel, this one. Because they didn't know it was coming, they didn't have any idea.

Jesus tells him to get into it. And I go with him. Some people say you have storms in your life when you misbehave and I think one of the under elements of this story, that is helpful for us is if there's no indication any way anybody in that boat does anything wrong. It wasn't a bad decision, it wasn't a poor choice, it wasn't somebody being disobedient. There's no Jonah on board, those kind of things. This just hacked. It popped up and each of the bed to do with it in their own way. And you, I think that parallels what happens in our own lives more even than the hurricane.

And maybe it doesn't last all that long, but the after-effects can't be extremely long and extremely powerful.

Sometimes with me in it, it's the storm. If people actually do this, we ask a question. Where's God? well, what would the disciples have said if that adds pressure been asked

That's what they went. Woke you up there wasn't any other choice is. It could have been helpful to them. Was the son of God is with him and we can reinforce and we encourage ourselves by reminding ourselves when the storm is our what is a big huge? Previous one of these walls. But God is with us, no matter what. Where is God? God is right here. So, why do we feel like God is with us?

Our fear. Overwhelms us. And I think it's a really good good pattern here and seeing that disciples are still afraid after Jesus makes his definitive moves. Because now they're thinking what power does he have? What am I doing in relationship to that power? Am I submissive I might Defiance of that power and there's so many ways that the reality of the power that Jesus through God has Can be a little bit overwhelming for us. I was about 10 years old. We were staying here in Oklahoma for the summer, my parents should come to pick us up and we had a huge huge, thunderstorm tornado top situation now, this is about 1960. and what happened was the been sitting out on the sidewalk and when are you saying looks like you could be

but finally get to the point where grandpa is in a Cellar, it's getting loud and crazy. And my dad is holding the Cellar Door by Chain. And my grandpa looks over it just Jackie probably old. Is that chain go? He doesn't just rip. So Cellar Door, right off its hinges, and I'm like, we're in it now. As we came back out of the cellar, little bit later on the house is fine, but the pump house and the barn were gone, just is that 30 yards and I can still remember just seem so scattered across the pasture there. A little later on, we pick some stuff up and I found a baseball meeting heavy Baseballs in the garage. In the barn baseball.

We just really hit wrestle. We can't totally grasp how much God Is With Us and how much power God has. But back to pulling back disciples, you're pulling back a little bit.

And in real hard circumstances, we have a tendency to pull back.

I know what choices you make. I don't know what to say. I don't know how God feels about me or we have some some ideas that just aren't valid. It always a must be really mad at me to put me through a storm like that. What is he trying to say? What's what in fact, there are lessons to be learned But those aren't the listens really at all. God is with us. Through the whole time, the whole process. The second thing is the storm, God is sovereign. God doing what he's planning on doing. And we sometimes look around and say, well I didn't exactly want to learn it that way. Don't learn how to do what we talked last week about Joe, you do finally getting put up so tired of everything, he comes up and answer me. And if you remember God, said, where were you Where were you and I built all this and we don't, we don't remember or we don't focus enough on the fact that God is working out everything for everybody all the same time. And storms, maybe your sister be you. Last night, if you were a person that you wanted your flowers watered, if you had a crop in the field you ain't been excited to see that water. Would you do last Friday night? We got 6 inches of rain in an hour. That's a lot of water but there were folks or joyful about that they needed and wanted to water their other people were like a little bit differently.

Years and years ago, I was at a banquet. And dr. James Beard, and dr. George Benson were telling about fundraising for the college back. Probably in the 1960s or so. Are these guys were out in the country and they were driving and various places to talk to people about the contributing. Well, this huge tornado comes up. Again, really have much warning. The two of us together, just kind of pull over to the side of the road, and one says to the other one, what should we do? And the other was this, we got to pray prayed and when they finish their free or looked up the tornado, hit turn.

Yeah, that was a really great story until the man who was the Master of Ceremonies got up and he said, I need for you to know that was a tornado turned. It hit my

And we forget that other people are looking as a similar situation with other needs and other desires, and other petitions to God. When he turns the tornado to protect us. Inadvertently there. Other people that are impacted by that. And when we say Lord, I don't want any storms. The farmers the other people say, wait for me. You know, that's part of the process. That's for gluteal. That's part of the reason. White works. The last point. Is it. Shapes us through the storm?

We're into. Digital learning. Would it be nice if we could learn these things online? Maybe we're going to study about storms, we got to study about how God helps people in need the information. You can answer the question. I got it online class.

Is an experiential thing. When you experience it, you get the fear and the resolution. Any understanding that comes through that whole process and his God looks at us. He's trying to make us stronger. He's trying to prepare us here. The function there. and when we allow, when we cooperate, was God, when we were respond to these hard difficult moments,

We're growing.

I don't know what you're going through right now. it may be something that's a very doodle financially. It might be a relationship could be a misfortune or misunderstanding there. Just all kind of ways your foundation may feel a little bit weak. For me. The skulls are just a real. Google stration of what I'm dealing with.

And then you, hopefully, they go away. And then we, we just manage them and kind of move forward with that starts to wear us down, that starts to take away the joy that we would like to feel the joy that with we'd like to have him the joy that we like to experience. remember the reason the reason we're going

To finish up this morning. Is it amazing? How beautiful the morning-after can be? Just really amazing to me that this guy could be so red and so threatening and so Dynamic and hold so much power. And you kind of expect to go outside and find the trees down or whatever and it isn't, It's in fact a beautiful day. God saying, who is this? Is your day? There's a passage. Songs about the darkness of the night, but the morning brings joy and whatever storm we are in. We can remember in our mind that God is with us. This is part of God's plan. And God is going to bring good to me and the others to the circumstance.

back at the May 3rd tornadoes that can

okay.

Are people from our church whose homes were here until the next morning, there were people all over the place from church and they were very helping. These people just literally pick up the pieces. I mean, the pieces there home, the crazy thing about it was there were other people around who would do the same thing. Gathering up stuff trying to put things in a certain way. I've been with you before that we're out there, hot thirsty and some guy drives up with us up. Styrofoam. Cooler. We probably about 20 bottles of water and drop that off in the driveway and drives on and everybody. There was just so thankful to have cold water There were ways that that family was encouraged and strengthened with other people showing up in the morning. After help him deal with the things that were already there, there was T's and there was trusting and they were spaced building and nobody came out there with better jenda. But because of the way, the folks just said okay this is hard but we're going to help deal with it and I did it and I wasn't sure about some of the funny things that other people have said or done at as we went through that process.

When Storms are God's teaching in, he's asking us if we're willing to learn to listen, would you play with me?

We got our father in Heaven. I thank you for this day. I think you for the weather that threatens us and helps us. And I think ask you to do with those who need your protection and your guidance, father help us to recognize that there are storms. They are going to continue to be storms, are going to be large ones, and they're going to be small ones and many of them and we don't have the power to do anything. but you do, Bummed, we pray that we may look to you and take shelter in you in those hard, hard normal times. By the way, we know that you're wizard. We know that your plan is in place. We know that you want us to come home to be with you and help us deal with that reality in the function, with the fact that that's what's going on. Thank you for everything that we have asked. You to forgive us our wrongs before this. Your precious son.

This morning, we extend the invitation of Jesus Christ, if you need to respond to that, we invite you to do that right now or we can sing.