Untitled Sermon (10)

Intro

Luke 8:22–25 ESV

22 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, 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. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Story

Growing up in Florida, I’ve been through thousands of storms. Some were small, but some were pretty big. As a kid, we’d spend the entire summer at the beach, and everyday there would be a thunderstorm around 3:00 in the afternoon. But everyday, we’d leave around 9:00 am to go out onto the boat and go fishing. And everyday at about 2:00, you could see the storm clouds start forming. The wind would blow a little harder, the air would get a little cooler, and you could see lighting popping off in the distance. So, about 2:00 every single day, I’m always like, “Dad, we’re fixing to go in right?” And he’d always respond, “Yeah, just one more cast.” And he cast out his fishing line, not catch anything, real it back in, and repeat. By now it’s 2:30 and the storm has gotten closer, the waves are crashing inside of the boat, and he’s like, “Okay, I think it’s time to go.” And he’d start the motor, and we’d take off, and the boat would bounce up and down, we’d go up in the boat over a wave, and crash down hard, you could see lighting popping all around us, and I’m always freaking out, but we’d always make it through it somehow.

But, in 2004, one of the worst storms to ever hit the state of Florida came right through Wauchula. It was August 13th, and school was canceled and the whole family was anxiously watching the news to see what Hurricane Charley was going to do. (We name our hurricanes). It was projected to go through Tampa, so we were going to be fine, but at literally the last minute it turned and was coming straight towards Wauchula. There wasn’t time to prepare, so my dad quickly boarded up the windows, we packed a few bags, and we went and stayed at some friend’s house because their foundation was sturdier than ours. We’re at our friends and we’re just waiting for the storm to come. All of us kids are huddled together at the bed room window, freaking out, because we see trees snapping literally in half like dried spaghetti noodles, we see powerlines falling apart, road signs are flying around through the yard, and the house is literally shaking. Finally, it passes, everyone goes to bed and we wake up to all of the damage the next morning. For the next three weeks, we didn’t have power or running water, and we had to cut our way through our yard to get back to our house because of all of the trees and branches that had fallen over.

It was scary. Life is full of storms. Some of them literal and some of them more symbolic, but there are storms. And storms aren’t fun. They’re scary. They’re frustrating. They leave us helpless and questioning everything sometimes. But, as Christians, we worship a savior who is Lord over everything, including storms, and so we can and must trust him.

Exposition

This bible passage is pretty familiar, but it’s pretty interesting when we take a closer look at it. Jesus and his disciples get into the boat and he says, hey, let’s go to the other side of the lake. Lake and sea are the same word in this context, so the lake that they are on is the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long and 7 miles wide, and on all sides of it are mountains that are about 2,000 feet above sea level. When the wind comes down over those mountains it creates violent storms that come seemingly out of nowhere. Jesus and the disciples likely left the shore when it was clear and then out of nowhere comes this unexpected storm. And this wasn’t a little thunderstorm. This might have been more like a hurricane. The boat was filling with water, the wind was probably blowing the boat back and forth to the point that the disciples probably feared that it would capsize at any moment. So they’re panicking and doing everything they can to steady the boat, they’re probably throwing water out as quickly as possible, but it keeps filling up and it looks like they’re going to sink.

So, so far we have Jesus who has told the disciples to get into the boat and go to the other side of the lake. It’s Jesus, so they do what he says, and now they’re in the midst of this terrible storm. And what is Jesus doing? He’s Asleep! It’s like, they got onto the boat, Jesus said go to the other side of the lake, and then was like “Ight, Imma head out.” And he knocks out somewhere in the back of the boat while the disciples panic and fear for their lives. And in their panic, the disciples run and find Jesus and the scream out “Master, master!! We are Perishing!” Jesus, we’re dying, Jesus we’re sinking! And after reflecting on this, I realized that when the disciples say “we,” they’re including Jesus in it. In what they think are their last moments, they’re like “Oh, we should wake up Jesus and let him know we’re all about to die.” And at this point in the Gospel of Luke, the disciples have seen Jesus raise people from the dead, heal sick people, give sight to the blind, they’ve seen Jesus do all of these miracles, and in every one of those miracles he says to the person involved or people involved, “your faith has saved you.” And so the disciples have seen him heal, and heard him talk about faith, and yet they panic, wake Jesus up to warn him, and we walks outside onto the main deck, and commands the wind and the waves to stop. He’s able to command them because he has authority over them. He is in control over them. And he stops the storm, he looks at the disciples and says, “Where is your faith.” He doesn’t say “have more faith,” he doesn’t say “you have little faith,” no, he says “where is your faith?” He’s saying, “you’ve been following me, you’ve seen what works I’ve done, you’ve seen me perform miracle after miracle, you’ve seen me cast out demons, you know I’m the messiah, you know that this isn’t the end, and yet you still don’t trust me. Where is your faith?” And the disciples are blown away at Jesus’ power and authority to the point where they ask “Who is this?” Who is the person that is able to command the winds and the water? Who is this person who has control over nature?

The Storm

The storm was unexpected by everyone… except for Jesus. Jesus knew everything, and he knew that he was leading the disciples into a storm. Jesus said to get in the boat and go to the other side of the lake, and he knew that by doing so, he and the disciples were heading straight into a storm. I’ve said this a lot before, but life sucks. Whether you follow Jesus or not, life sucks a lot of the time. And Jesus told the disciples to go, and he tell us the same thing. He says, “Follow me.” And what happens to a lot of us is that we think that following Jesus means that nothing bad will ever happen to us again, life will be easy and carefree. Or, when bad things do happen, we think, “oh, this isn’t Jesus leading me here, it must be the devil. Jesus would never do this.” Sadly, Jesus does. This story is proof of that. The disciples were not only following Jesus, but they were following him out of obedience. Just because you obey God doesn’t mean there won’t be storms. But, we can trust Jesus right? I said earlier that Jesus is in control over everything so why doesn’t he just prevent the storm from happening?

Jesus will lead us into storms that really challenge and test us.

The storm was unexpected by everyone… except for Jesus. Jesus knew everything, and he knew that he was leading the disciples into a storm.

Storms hit everyone. But when we as Christians go through storms, we can learn from them. Jesus doesn’t waste any situation or circumstance we go through. A few weeks ago I preached on the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. In that story, Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, is later thrown into prison, and he goes through all of these terrible things, but in every circumstance, his response is to worship God more. And God ends up using every one of those situations to bring Joseph into a position of power in the land of Egypt, and because of his position, he is able to save his family from a famine, and he’s able to reconcile with his brothers. God doesn’t waste any storm, any trouble, any circumstance. Rather, he uses storms to test and develop us. The strongest most faithful people are those who have gone through the storms of life and have come out of them with a more solid understanding that God is in control.

Back in 2012, my best friend, Devon, had just gotten back from a mission trip to Sierra Leon, a country in Africa. While he was on that trip or maybe even before that trip, he came to the realization that Jesus was everything and needed to be everything in his life, so he prayed “Lord, give me a new heart.” Devon gets back from Africa, and he’s living in Minnesota, but is preparing to drive back to Florida, so he calls me up and say “Hey, why don’t you fly up to Minnesota and drive down with me.” I love road trips, so without telling anyone, I buy a plane ticket, and I’m preparing to fly to MN. The day before my flight, Devon calls me and says “Hey, so I’m not feeling too well, I think you should cancel your flight.” I was like, bro, i just spent 220 dollars, I can’t cancel. So I fly to Minnesota, Devon picks me up at the airport, we eat lunch, and then start driving down to Florida. At this point, I’d been awake for about 24 hours, so I pass out in the front seat, but I wake up and it’s like 90 degrees outside, but Devon has the heater on. I look over at him, about to tell him to turn the heat off, and I look and he’s as white a sheet of paper and shivering. I’m like, dude, what’s wrong? So I tell him to pull over and I’ll drive while he rests. Now, Devon’s car is a stick shift, and I didn’t really know how to drive a stick shift, so he teaches me real quick, and we jump onto the highway. After nearly wrecking the car a few times, we decide to just stop and get a hotel for the night. We’d only driven about 3 hours at this point, and Florida’s another 24 hour drive away. We’re at the hotel, and Devon just starts throwing up, and his insides are burning, so I’m like, yo, we’re going to the hospital. So I drive him to this random hospital in Wisconsin, they do all kinds of tests, and they come back and say, “Oh, he’s just dehydrated.” So they inject him with a lot of fluids, and he seems better so we drive back to the hotel, sleep for a few hours, then start driving again. He was fine for a little while, but by the time we got to Tennessee, so about halfway home now, he just starts deteriorating. I end up driving the rest of the way back, he drops me off at my college apartment, then drives home. He gets home, his sister looks at him and says nope. We’re going straight to the hospital. She takes him, and Devon spends the next three weeks on life support. His kidneys start failing, and his heart starts to fail. Best case scenario at this point is that he has to get a heart transplant, worst case scenario is he dies. Eventually things turn around, Devon gets out of the hospital and the first thing we talk about is how he prayed that God would give him a new heart. And he says out loud, God, I didn’t mean literally.

But, after all of that, something changed in Devon. That circumstance, that storm, caused him to view his life as fragile, and he wanted to spend every moment from then on worshiping and serving God. Now Devon leads a discipleship school in Minnesota, and leads mission trips all over the world. And to this day, he points back to that situation as to why he does what he does. He points back to it and knows that God allowed him to go through that so that his faith would be in God and God alone.

Storms test us, and storms develop us. We’re stronger and more mature in our faith after going through a difficult season, but storms do something else: they reveal where our faith is. When we’re going through it, where is our faith? When life hits us out of nowhere, because that’s what life does, where is our faith? When our friends turn their backs on us, where is our faith? When our parents are angry at us or overbearing, where is our faith? When we seemingly fall short in everything we try to do, where is our faith? Is it in ourselves? Is it in our ability? Is it in our strength? Is it in our achievements? Our success? Our gifts? Our talents? Or, is it in Jesus? For the disciples, it wasn’t in Jesus. Not here. Their response was to panic. Their response was to run around, yelling, throwing water out of the boat, tightening the sails, trying to turn around, pure panic. Their faith was in themselves, and because of that, there was only panic. Either they didn’t know who Jesus really was, or they forgot that the son of God was literally with them. But, they forgot for a reason. Jesus was asleep.

Just when they needed Jesus the most, he wasn’t there. In all of the panic and commotion caused by a storm, Jesus seemed to just check out. And this is how a lot of us feel when we’re going through life. For the disciples, he was just sleeping. They were able to wake him up and he came out and calmed everything, but for us, he’s not just sleeping, he’s completely absent. We don’t feel God. Maybe you used to, but now, you can’t feel him. He doesn’t speak to you. Your life is falling apart, but you can’t find God anywhere. You try to read your bible, but it doesn’t make sense. You try and pray, but nothing ever happens. You try and worship, but it’s just a habit or tradition, and you feel no connection to Jesus at all. Where is he? He’s always there. He’s always with us. But sometimes, he waits to show up when we just can’t do it anymore. When we get to that point where we realize we aren’t enough, that there’s nothing that can be done by us, he shows up, because that’s the point where we’re truly able to surrender to him and place our faith and trust in him. Jesus leads us through storms, through trials, through temptation, through pain and heartbreak, so that we can literally remove us from the throne of our lives and place himself there. Because he knows that unless he’s at the center, unless he’s the one our faith is in, he knows that everything else will lead us to death. I’ve said this before, but we were designed by God to worship him. This might sound selfish on God’s part. Why would God make it so that we can’t find satisfaction in anything but him? Because, God, being infinite in wisdom, being infinite in love, being himself infinite knows that if we place our faith and trust and identity in finite things, we’ll never be happy. If he hadn’t designed us to worship and have faith in him, it would be impossible for us to live. Yet, most of us live contrary to this. We live, and our faith is in ourselves, and the storm comes, or the storm will come, and it ruins us.

But, Jesus invites us to follow him. He invites us to get into the boat with him, go through the storm with him, and come out on the other side of the storm, with him. Jesus was asleep because he knew that they would make it through the storm. He wasn’t worried. When you’re going through a storm, Jesus isn’t worried. If you follow him, you’re safe with him. It will be dangerous, and it will be painful, but he will get you through it. Sometimes the boat sinks. Sometimes life doesn’t get better. And here’s where it’s important to note again that our faith has to be in Jesus. Not in what Jesus can or might do. But Jesus alone. If the boat sinks, Jesus is still with you. If life just gets worse, we can still have joy if our faith is in Jesus and only Jesus, because Jesus is in control of everything.