Jesus calms the Storm

Introduction

Good Morning! My name is Chaplain Danny Watton and I wanted to encourage you this morning with the promises of Gods love and to tell you that in the midst of this Pandemic

God is not sleeping.

God has not forgotten about you!

God has not forsaken His people!

I come to you today in a different setting. Normally we would be gathering together for worship, lifting our voices to Him and then we would listen to Gods word right here at the chapel.

But as you can see the chapel is empty. The chapel is not filled with His people today because of the on going Global Pandemic that is making our entire world

fearful,

sad,

anxious

and confused.

But we know that this Chapel.....this sanctuary is not the church!

We as a body of believers in Jesus Christ are His church and we will not allow fear to stop us from hearing from our God.

We saw in the Old Testament that God had a temple for His people where He could dwell among them. But Jesus came and died so that He could live inside of us. He could dwell in us so that we could be with Him in Heaven for eternity.

So we are coming to you in a different way so that you can feel Gods love and concern for your health and also for your spiritual health.

I pray as you hear His word today that He brings you supernatural peace that surpasses all understanding.

Thank you for allowing me into your homes today and I want you to know how much you are loved and how much we as a chapel want to care for you in such a time where the world seems to be spinning out of control.

But I want you to hear this....God is in control of everything......He is the creator of the Heavens and the Earth and He will be with us through this period of

uncertainty,

fear

and panic.

This morning we are going to look at . We will see that even though Jesus was with the disciples…physically with them on a boat....that they still had fears and doubts of Jesus care for their wellbeing.

But before we go to His Word this Morning......Let’s go to Him in prayer!

Open your Bibles with me to Mark 4:35-41

Jesus Calms a Storm

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

Does God Care for Us?

As I look around in my own community and I see what is happening globally it is easy to conclude that we as a people are gripped with fear.

We see that the coronavirus is everywhere and we are scared that we might contact it and every minute of the day we are waiting for it to disrupt our lives. Shut our cities down.

As we have seen it has shut down schools, closed movie theaters, museums and it has caused everyone to run out to the grocery stores to buy all the supplies we need in order to survive.

Now we go to the stores and we can’t buy the essentials because the stores are sold out of everything.

We see that our loved ones are getting infected and around the world loved ones are dying!

This leads us to the question, “Does God Care about us?”

This is the exact questions the Disciples as Jesus in verse 38.

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The Disciples started this journey with great weather! No cares in the world and on their way to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As they were at the front of the boat a great storm came upon them. So much so that they were taking on so much water.

Now the disciples where fisherman. They have been in a storm or two. This was not an ordinary storm.

The scripture says that

waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.

The Bible says that Jesus was at the stern/back of the boat sleeping on a cushion.

Right now it would be tempting to fall into the same error that the disciples did.

Right now you may be thinking to yourself that the storm of the coronavirus is like nothing I have ever seen before.

I can’t buy the essentials I need to survive. I lost my job because everything is shutting down. How am I going to pay my bills.

You are looking to the heavens and yelling at God

“Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

He hears you and see you right now. He loves you and has not forgotten you.

God works a great wonder when He sustains His people in trouble rather than brining them out of it.

Moses saw a burning bush before him and it was better that God did not quench the flame to save the bush but instead sustained the bush so it would not be consumed.

It was a greater wonder that He sustained the bush rather than quenching the fire to save the bush. He used that to show His mighty power.

God is being glorified in your troubles because when He sustains you through this trial His glory will be on display for all to see. And you will witness His love for you.

We cannot allow Satan to tempt us in not believing His eternal love for us.

We know that God cannot be unkind or unloving because He is the very definition of love.

His very name and essence in LOVE

We know that God is unchangeable and that His mercy endures forever and ever.

In this time of fear and uncertainty we cannot allow us to think of God as something He is not. We need to rest in His love for us. His care for us.

God cares.

As a parent I have four wonderful kids. And I know for a fact that when my kids are suffering or hurting that I would take their pains onto myself with joy to remove their hurts.

Same with God.

He looks to us with love and tenderness and we should not look to Him asking,

“do you not care that we are perishing?”

Think of Jesus Christ who is the second in the Trinity. The Son of God!

Would you think that He would forget His people?

Did Jesus not climb down from His throne to take upon Himself our nature?

Did He not climb on a cross and willingly take on the sins of the World?

To be without the communion and fellowship of God because He took upon His full wrath on our behalf.

And to think in the midst of this time we don’t think that Christ cares if we are perishing?

If Jesus dying on the cross and for our salvation, for your sins to be eternally forgiven, doesn’t convince you that He loves you and that you can trust Him to walk you through this storm...

I don’t know what will.

If God had not done so much for us already it might be easy to conclude in the midst of this horrific storm that He did not love us.

But that simply is not true. He has paid too much in the spilling of His blood to give up on us now.

His covenant with us will not be discarded or thrown away. We are His bride and He died for us.

His Absolute Care for Us

Just as He cared for His disciples. We see here that Although Jesus was asleep in the boat He was still with the Disciples. He didn’t leave them.

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How can we be encouraged by Jesus sleeping at the back of the boat?

Jesus was setting a great example of sacred restfulness in times of trouble.

Jesus could sleep in the worst of storms not because He was so exhausted from His ministry that He would not wake but rather because He felt safe in His fathers hands.

When Jesus stepped foot onto that boat He knew there was going to be a storm. The tossing of the boat, the wind and waves did not take Him by surprise, yet He went to sleep anyway.

He did that because He had full confidence in God. And by Jesus sleeping He was saying,

“Trust in your God, He has you in His hands and will never let you go” Being in the hands of God is the safest place you will ever be.

Jesus was also strengthening the Disciples through this storm. They had been fisherman before so when they encountered a storm they relied on their own strength, power, fearlessness and knowledge of the sea to get them through the storm.

But this time He revealed to them that they needed His power, His strength, His fearlessness and knowledge to bring them to safety.

Because when He would leave them He wanted them to not crumble in the face of another storm. but remember that He rebuked the winds and said

“Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Conclusion

I think that this is applicable right now to how we are reacting the state we find ourselves with the Corona Virus.

This is a storm that we have never seen before in our life time. We have quickly realized that our power, strength, fearlessness and knowledge in who to operate in the world we live in has failed us.

We are scared and we are reminded that we cannot control anything. We are running around the boat watching the waves overtake us.

And we are wondering if Jesus is sleeping. People are loosing their jobs, people are loosing their loved ones with no end in sight as the world is being affected.

Church!!! Hear me when I say this!!!!!

Jesus never over sleeps. Glory be His name because Jesus is not dead but alive right now actively loving us.

Jesus woke when the Disciples put their full dependance on Him. And then He displayed His full power. The storm immediately obeyed the command of its creator.

I can’t tell you when we will be free from this global pandemic but know that Jesus is in control and is walking with you right now.

Be of good courage, when you are weak He is strong. This too shall pass by dear brother and sister in Christ. Go to Him right now and pray for this world to know Him. Pray for the people around you and show the love of Jesus as you care for others.

But I want to close with something else. To the one who has not called upon Christ to be their savior.

There is something worst then the coronavirus that will kill you eternally.

Sin is a pandemic that has plagued us since the beginning

But we are not scrabbling to find a vaccine for sin because Jesus has already eradicated sin and death for those who believe in Him.

Jesus died for your sins and the only way to be made whole is through the free gift of salvation that Jesus gives.

We read in Romans that the wages for sin is death

His death and resurrection on the cross provided the only way for sin to be paid for fully.

You can accept Jesus sitting right where you are. Talk to Him and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and to be your God....your Savior so that you may have eternal life with Him.

When you do that

you will right now have the Shalom peace that surpasses all understanding.

Let’s pray!