Following Jesus through the Storms of Life

all right well let's turn in our Bibles now to Matthew chapter 8 and we're in our new series that we're calling follow me following Jesus and the modern world and the title of this message is following Jesus through the storms of life let me ask you a question have you ever had an unexpected storm coming life now when it's a big storm the weather men will usually tell us about it and if it's really building if it's hurricane strength they might even give it a name of course there are certain hurricanes that are famous now Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Katrina there's a lot of hurricanes that never got the same notoriety these are actual names that were used but I guess they weren't as powerful as others there was hurricane Larry would you be scared by hurricane Larry hurricane Fabian that's a fascinating choice then there was hurricane Harvey Felix and Teddy I like that hurricane teddy now why is it that earthquakes don't get names you know earthquake George or something I don't know but we give names to these storms because of their significance and sometimes in life storms will come there are times we know they're brewing and we know they're building and then there are other times when they just come out of nowhere of course there's you're far away to get it to rain is to wash your car right and sometimes the Weathermen don't even know that they're coming and that's how life can be as well and when I talk about storms I'm using that as a metaphor for hardship for tragedy for difficulty or even for the worst-case scenarios and there are many storms that come into our life like a difficult or a broken relationship it might be a financial crisis it could be legal problems unpleasant or painful health problems the inevitable effects of age a stroke a heart attack a disability it might be dealing with rebellious children struggling with a conflict situation at home or at work being laid off from work it could even be the death of someone you love something that happens that is life-altering and here's what we need to know about life in general you're going to have storms in life in fact there are really only two kinds of people in the world those who are going through a crisis and those who are going to go through a crisis you are either in a storm or you're ultimately headed in to another you recall that at the end of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus talked about this two men that built their homes and the storms came and the storms will always come the rain will fall according to the Bible on the righteous and the unrighteous so we cannot control if the storms come or not all we can control if you will is how we react to them so let's look now at a story when a literal storm came into the lives of the disciples so bad in fact at the despaired of life it's Matthew 8 starting in verse 23 now when Jesus got into a boat his disciples followed him and suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so the boat was covered with waves but he was asleep and his disciples came to and welcomed saying lord save us were perishing he said to them why are you fearful oh you of little faith and he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm so the men marvelled saying who can this be that even the wind's and the sea obey Him now in our last message that we simply called follow me we looked at the words of Jesus to Matthew the author of this book you remember two words were stated by the Lord to Matthew and/or Levi the tax collector and those words were follow me you remember in the original language at those words implied the beginning and the ending of something in other words Jesus was effectively saying to Matthew I want you to follow me each and every day so Matthew followed Jesus in fact all of the disciples follow Jesus and where did that lead verse 23 they followed him right into a storm sometimes in storms come in life when hardships come we may think well this is because I'm doing something wrong but check this out these disciples were in the will of God the storm came because they obeyed the Lord not because they disobeyed him so sometimes those calamities may come because of your obedience not your disobedience so what do we learn from this story number one storms will come into our lives storms will come into our lives and by the way this was a serious storm so bad in fact that these seasoned sailors began to fear for their lives in fact in the original language the word that is used to describe it is also used to speak of an earthquake so it was a seismic mega storm covering the boat with water so you couldn't even see it one translation from Mark's Gospel says that there was a whirlwind revolving from below upward sweeping down on the lake and the vote was filling with water and they were in great danger I don't know if you've ever been in a storm at sea I've been in a few I but I was I've never been in a boat like this I've seen a boat similar to what these guys were in recently in Israel they discovered what they called the Jesus boat it's a boat dating back to the times of Christ the first century fishing boat no one knows for sure if it's the boat that Jesus and His disciples used but certainly it's a boat that would be similar to the boat they were on so you get a sense of the sea worthiness of the craft and and what their ships or boats look like back in those days and it was very simple very primitive and I'm sure this was very frightening there are some people that have spent a lot of time at sea and and they have their sea legs and and they're not alarmed by things like this have you ever watched that TV program called The Deadliest Catch those guys are crazy I mean they're out there on deck and they're pulling in those cages in with a crab and and those waves are washing over the top of the boat and it's pitching back and forth and if I was on board that boat I would be crying for mommy I mean that scary stuff and that's pretty much what was happening here because these were seasoned sailors these were guys that knew how to navigate rough seas they knew how to use their equipment but yet they were panicking they were freaking out so what was Jesus doing amazingly he was sound asleep actually asleep and the lower part of the boat let me ask you this does it ever seem to you as though God is asleep in other words that he is not paying attention and then you know can be rather disheartening when someone falls asleep when we need them and some people can sleep through anything my wife can do that quite well once she goes as she sleeps she's asleep me a bird chirps and I wake up I'm a relatively light sleeper and it doesn't take much to get me up and if there's noises it's hard for me to go to sleep and so forth and and so but it's really discouraging when someone falls asleep in your presence have you ever been talking with someone who had them actually fall asleep while you're talking let me restate the question have you ever preached a sermon I've had people fall asleep and by the way I don't know if you all know this but I can actually see you I see you I see you in the balcony - and the back of the balcony and I know when you're going to sleep you're not fooling me now you should be happy I don't point you out there are those telltale signs you know when you're you act like you're praying you're it's you just like this but when your head lurches you know like when people laugh and you look around with that blurry eyed look and you go back to prayer again you know one time the Apostle Paul was preaching and apparently I'm not the only long-winded preacher out there because he was going on and on and one guy was sitting up high like you guys in the balcony so be careful now he was near the edge of the window and while Paul was preaching he felt out of the window to his death his name was Eutychus so they came in interrupted Paul Paul a man just fell to his death while you were preaching Paul stops a service and he goes on and he prays for Eutychus to be raised again from the dead and then like any good preacher Paul goes back and finishes his sermon I like that but yeah you know people do fall asleep but listen God never does Psalm 121 verse 4 says indeed he that watches over Israel never tires nor sleeps now in a technical sense Jesus the man weary from a hard day's work was asleep but in the broader sense God never sleeps he's always on watch always on duty always paying attention you see Jesus was asleep because he rested confidently in the will of the Father and that's what the disciples should have done - they should have realized they were fine but here's the thing to realize the storms will come in life and what should we do when storms come number two we need to cry out to Jesus in the midst of our storms cry out to Jesus what do they cry out lord save us and when I say cry out to Jesus I mean cry out whatever is on your heart listen you're not going to offend or or hurt God you just tell God how you're feeling God why God what God where are you lord I don't get this Lord I don't like this Lord this is really hard help all of those things are fine sometimes I think we need we feel as though we need to stand is all of our prayers you know no God wants to hear you speak from your heart he wants honest prayer read the Psalms read the honesty of David and others as they cried out to God it even expressed their frustrations to God even Jesus hanging on the cross said my God my God why have you forsaken me here's my point talk to God about it call out to God that's what they did they cried to the Lord though the shrieking of the storm did not wake Jesus the cry of his people did and you can be sure they had tried everything possible to get out of this mess but after exhausting all of their efforts they knew Jesus was their only hope and sometimes in life God will let us get to the end of our rope so to speak or come to the end of ourselves so we will cry out to him the story is told of a hardened old sea captain who was quite vocal about his atheism and one night during a storm he was swept overboard and his men actually heard him crying out to God for help so after they rescued him one of the men asked him I thought she didn't believe in God that old sea captain said well if there isn't a God there ought to be at times like this that's how a lot of people are CS Lewis said even atheists have moments of doubt do you think you're the only one who doubts Christians doubt and sometimes atheists do too you see that person that seems so confident and their message that there is no God they have their doubts and they have their struggles but here's the good news even when we've messed things up if we call out to God he will hear us how easily he could say hey you mean you made your bed now sleep in it which by the way what does that expression even mean I've made my bed and slept in it why is that a bad thing it's sort of like that expression you can have your cake and eat it too I've had my cake and eaten it and I've slept in the bed that I made and it wasn't so bad but you understand that gist of the expression it's saying hey you brought this upon yourself that's your problem you deal with it well Jesus didn't deal that way with them when people cry out to him he is always ready to answer Psalm 91 verse 14 the Lord says I will rescue those who love me I will protect those who trust on my name when they call him me I will answer I will be with them in trouble I will rescue them and honor them it was Thomas Watson who said quote when God leads men on their backs then they look up to heaven and quote I got a letter from a lady who came to our crusade in Chicago and it was crisis that got her attention here's what she wrote dear Greg my husband and I have been going through a lot he had a stroke a few weeks ago and we have really been struggling I became upset with God and all these things that were hitting me at once so last week I was told by my mother that I never fit into our family and never would and was not welcome in their home anymore she writes I was ready to take my life so here's a woman who is going through such hardship that she's ready to commit suicide because of the rejection of her mother and the stroke that her husband experienced so how does God reach her he reaches her to her eight-year-old daughter who in her words love the Lord and wanted to go to the crusade mom reluctantly went she said so I went with teryn little did I know God was sending me to because when the invitation was given her little girl wanted to go forward mom didn't really want to go forward she went down to the front with a little girl who wanted to commit her life to Christ and she writes this and I went down there and I fell to my knees and I felt his love I knew he loves me and had forgiven me and then she concludes you saved my life not only my soul thank you you see that's a person who needed help that was a person who needed help but the Lord responded to her and he responds to us look at verse 26 jesus arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm so the Lord responded to the cries of his people but here's the thing number three God has his purposes in the storms of life God has his purposes in the storms of life maybe you're in a storm right now and you've cried out for it to stop and it hasn't in fact it's gotten worse you say why why is God allowing this well there's no easy answers to that but know this where there are no trials in life there will be no triumph it's been said the hammer shatters glass but it forges steel and often and the hardships of life great things will come for instance Paul died and went to heaven and wrote a few lines about it but then he was imprisoned under house arrest and rose first inroad first and second Timothy my point is through his glorious triumph in heaven he said very little but through his difficulties and hardships he said a lot and a lot of times when you go through those difficulties in life there are things that you will learn and discover you would not learn any where else you know we all love Psalm 23 right many of us have committed it to memory it's a beautiful scene the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he makes me to lie down in green pastures he leads me beside the still waters he restores my soul it's a pastoral scene a pleasant picture sheep grazing on grass then drinking from the cool mountain streams we love that now understand of course I was written by a shepherd named David he knew a little bit about sheep because he had to take care of them he knew they were one of the dumbest animals on the face of the earth he knew they needed the constant care and protection of the Shepherd and that's while he humbled himself and says you know what the Lord is my shepherd so we love the green pastures and we love the still waters but then David continues on yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they come for me hold on we say I signed up for green pastures and still waters not for dark valleys I don't like valleys I don't do valleys oh yes you do if you're a child of God if you're one of his sheep yeah there'll be those times he'll take you to those pastures and the waters but then he's with you and the valleys as well and it is to those valleys we learn important lessons because fruit does not grow on mountaintops it grows in valleys and here is a secret of making it as a Christian through thick and thin feast or famine know that you are not alone and God will get you through whatever you are facing how could David get through that Valley yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me that's the hope that's the promise God is with you and he's with you in your storm now there's different kinds of storms we face and ly fact I can identify three kinds of storms for you there are correcting storms protecting storms and perfecting storms again correcting protecting perfecting first there are correcting storms that was the kind of storm Jonah face when he disobeyed the Lord and tried to run a great storm came and the Lord got hold of this reluctant prophet and put him back on course that storm was the result of his own disobedience to God and the call on his life many times we bring storms upon ourselves you know you do wrong things and you reap repercussions you know maybe you go rob a store and you get caught Oh Lord why are you bringing this storm because you're a thief and as a matter of fact you're really bad thief and you got caught now you're going to face the repercussions or you mistreat your family and your wife leaves your your husband abandons you or you do something else wrong and you say why is this storm coming on me you brought it upon yourself and sometimes life is that way and God will allow you to reap what you sow so you'll stop doing that thing you see it can be correcting in that the Lord's trying to discipline you listen when you go astray and you face discipline that is a reminder that you are a child of God listen to Hebrews 12 it says have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as children my child don't ignore it when the Lord disciplines you and don't be discouraged when he corrects you for the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes those he accepts as his own children we don't discipline other people's children we would like to you know there's been times I've been out maybe in a market and some child's having a meltdown and the momma's flustered and doesn't know what to do and you'd like to step in and that's not your role that is your role with your own children but down with someone else's and and when we're going the wrong way the Lord discipline just coming back to what David said yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I'll fear no evil thy rod and thy staff they comfort me what comfort wait a second maybe I get that with a staff but not with the rod see his staff that's the long crook'd instrument this Shepherd uses to pull away we're cheap back in the line but the rod that's just a club is what that is how does the club comfort a sheep well sometimes when God disciplines me it just reminds me I'm still his child see when you as a believer know what's right and you'll go against it and you get caught you get nailed or gods against me no the opposite cuts for you that's why he did it because you're his kid since you're going astray I love you come back here what are you doing here come back here get close to me again I love you and sometimes the Lord will use the rod he'll use that staff go come on now hey now get back over here now don't make me keep I'm you see this rod I'll use this rod now come on bad get yeah I'm in a union he warns us you can think of times like this right you kept pushing the envelope that's another expression what does that even mean we've made our bed we have to sleep in it we can't have our cake and eat it too and then we're pushing an envelope with it and what you know but the idea is that all year you know you're going to the bleeding-edge how far can I go and and the Lord says not any further than this did you know sometimes with the rod the club a shepherd will actually break a Sheetz leg if necessary oh poor little GPD listen better to have a broken leg then they become leg of lamb because if that sheep wanders away from the others he's an easy prey for the Predators out there so the Shepherd is trying to protect that wayward sheep and the others that follow it because this is another crazy thing about sheep as when one goes astray the others follow there have been stories I read one in a newspaper a while back up one sheep that walked off a cliff and fell to his death and was followed by a thousand more how stupid can you be about a stupidest sheep that's how stupid that's why the Bible says all we like sheep have gone astray ternary one to his own way yeah so there are those correcting storms that come into our life but then there are protecting storms on this one's interesting because there's a story in the Gospel of John where Jesus performed his most popular miracle the feeding of the 5,000 you remember he multiplied the loaves and the fishes and so the people loved this miracle and we actually read in the Gospel of John that after this miracle was done the people came by force to make Jesus King I love that they came by force Lord we worship you and you're going to be our King or we'll kill you we are forcing you to be king now and Jesus got his boys out of Dodge as quickly as possible why because their hearts were wrong they didn't want him to be their Lord and Master they just wanted free lunch from that point on and he knew that would destroy his disciples who already had visions of grandeur and a more than one occasion would argue about who would be top dog in the kingdom of heaven and so suddenly these disciples would be elevated to positions of prominence and we read actually there that he put him in a boat and sent him to the other side Matthew 14 22 says immediately Jesus made them get into the boat and as they were crossing over a storm came it was a protecting storm protecting them from what themselves sometimes God will bring difficulty in our life to keep us believe it or not from something worse be thankful God doesn't answer all of your prayers in the affirmative Lord if you really love me the girl would marry me no God loves you too much he's not going to let it happen Lord if you really love me I would have got that promotion Lord if you really love me I'd win the lottery No maybe God knows that thing that you want so bad would actually destroy you if you got it it's a protecting storm so we have those correcting storms we have those protecting storms and finally we have the perfecting storms these are probably the most common storms we face in life that come actually as a result of following Jesus and God is a work that he wants to do in these storms he's trying to produce a desired result 2nd corinthians 4 says our present troubles are quite small they won't last very long yet they produce for us in a measurably great glory that will last forever so we don't look at the troubles we can see right now rather we look forward to what we not yet seen for the troubles we see now will soon be over but the joys to come will last forever those terms are going to come and God is doing a work sometimes you can see the work later sometimes you can sometimes that work is to simply conforming into the image of Jesus Christ and when you get to heaven you'll understand why God allowed that storm why that particular difficulty lasted so long a lot of these things are quite honestly inexplicable listen we can't control our universe I've tried it doesn't work we can't say when a storm will start or when a storm will stop all we can do is react to the storm one of the greatest examples of faith that I think we see out there today it's on the life of a woman named Johnny Erickson tada she has faced amazing obstacles with her faith intact in fact offering words of encouragement to others as you may know if you don't know of Johnny's story as a young girl she dove into a shallow lake back in 1967 suffered a spinal cord fracture that paralyzed her from the neck down despite this severe lifelong disability Johnny has encouraged millions of people not only others with disabilities but people all around the world through her writings and her radio program and we've had her carrot harvest sharing her amazing story just a wonderful woman and but Johnny just found out that she has breast cancer so in addition to being a quadriplegic Johnny Erickson now has breast cancer and she's going through chemotherapy now if she were to just say you know I'm really doubting I'm having struggles I don't know where God is we would understand it wouldn't we but in an interview that she did with world magazine she said that she sees herself in the battle against powers and principalities that want her to despair and emotions that take her down dark grim pads and she said she quotes his scripture Hebrews 10:38 my righteous shall live by faith and if any shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him and Johnny said in the interview I do not want to be one of those that shrink back I will not tarnish his name so she memorizes scripture she spends time ministering to other patients weeping with those that we and then she says I keep thinking God's up to something big how can I showcase him to others what you're a quadriplegic and you have breast cancer and you just said how can i showcase him to others that's right that's what she said she continues on she knows her life is on display and others are watching and learning by her response she says I'm on this battlefield how can I glorify God that's amazing now what are you going through what's your problem oh what's that you have a cold oh you you uh you're having a little bit of a struggle in this other area right now really did you hear what Johnny said now look Johnny's the person it's like we are and she has her struggles and she has her doubts and she has her hard moments but she has Saint I want to use this as a platform to glorify God so when we go through a trial or through a storm we need to say how can I bring glory to God through this how can I point people to the Lord through this listen these storms don't last forever in general now quite frankly for some they have lifelong storms you know first some people there are storms have a beginning middle and end it comes you know child is raised on the way of the Lord child rebels from the Lord child comes back to the Lord storm ended great ending beautiful other things you know I have an illness I get treatment treatment is successful storm completed on we go life can be that way and thank God for those but then there are storm comes storm stays storm never leaves you know when you have a permanent disability that's lifelong that's one storm so to speak that is not going to go away so well wait a second every storm has an end but here's the problem we tend to think of the end as well has to happen in this life but maybe life for some can be a storm and then in the big picture they'll see God's ultimate plan and purpose you see sometimes Jesus stops a storm but he is always with us in it that's point number four sometimes Jesus stops the storm but he has always with us in it yeah sometimes he stops it and in this case he did first he rebuked the disciples oh you of little faith why did you doubt and he goes out and stops the storm Cole but here's what they needed to remember because they did get rebuked by him I figure better to weather the storm and not get rebuked by Jesus then have him stop the storm and have to get in my face okay so he rebuked them hey guys where's your faith haven't you learned anything here's a little detail we don't have in Matthews account but we find a Mark's version of the same story mark 4:35 jesus said to them let's cross over to the other side now if you had said to them let's drown today in the middle of the Sea of Galilee I don't know if I would have boarded that boat but he didn't say that he said let's cross over to the other side he did not promise them smooth sailing but he did promise them a safe arrival so they needed to know yeah it's going to be rough it's going to be kind of crazy but he did say let's cross over to the other side that means we are going to get to the other side and God promises to be with us in our storms as well isaiah 43:2 when you go through deep waters in great trouble I will be with you when you go through rivers of difficulty you will not drown when you walk to the fire of oppression you will not be burned up the flames will not consume you all origin never let go every high every low Oh Lord you never let go and it was also reflected in the song I will be with you in the storm you're in right now God is with you he's walking with you through it so Jesus stops the storm now listen to this what could be more human than Jesus sleeping exhausted after a day of hard work and what could be more divine than rebuking a storm I mean imagine this for a moment here's a storm and the boats pitching back and forth the waves are overhead Jesus comes at whoa oh you guys a little faith all right peace be still little seagull fly mine they're looking around what you know remember I used to be a cartoonist okay so I see things a little cartoon panels everything suddenly calm so who was he talking to peace be muzzled I mean isn't that a weird thing to talk to a storm he was talking to the power behind the storm who is that the devil God did not initiate the storm but he did allow it Satan was behind it and that's why it's interesting when we see a calamity which there was an act of God well there was a hurricane and I could god earthquake act of God guess what the devil can do some of those things too if you don't believe me go read the first two chapters of the book of Job and look at all the things that happened to the man of God brought on by the devil and allowed by the Lord peace be muzzled almost as though he was talking to a dog stop no down cuckoo say that to a cat down see ya not listening to you and the storm stops he said you're going to get to the other side sometimes the devil will whisper in our ear you're not going to ever make it as a Christian you're gonna fail you are going to crash and burn you're not going to go to heaven when you die you know he's a liar and he's the father of lies Jesus says you'll make it to the other side if you want to if you want to Paul was on a little cruise and they hit some rough seas and the Lord revealed to them they would get to their destination safely and he said if you stay on the boat you'll be safe now if they jumped overboard you will be safe and what I'm saying to you is if you abandon your faith if you turn against God no you won't make it guess what God has given you a free will and you can choose to walk away from the Lord that is why the Bible warns about falling away and turning away however if you want to make it you will not through your effort but because God will give you the strength to make it but he is looking for your cooperation there's God's part and there's your part but here are the promises of God Jude 1:24 no unto him that is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy God will keep you from falling Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing that he was begun a good work in you will finish it under the day of Jesus Christ hebrews 12:2 describes Jesus as the author and the finisher of our faith remember the storm will come into every life believer and non-believer alike the rain will fall and the wind will blow but it's only the child of God that has the promise that caught us with him and he will cause all things to work together for good to those that love him you're going to get to the other side now you might have a rough voyage but you're going to get there but here's a question what would you rather have a nice easy flight and a crash landing or a bumpy fly and a soft landing so maybe you know hearing some turbulence I hate turbulence but it's just it just changes in the currents in the air there's really nothing to be alarmed by most planes don't come down by turbulence but you know when I'm flying and I've done quite a bit of that flying my life I I'll always watch the flight attendants if they panic it kind of scares me so we hit some turbulence and they're still serving coffee I'm like we're cool we're good and if I see them go I go oh I remember one time we were flying between the islands in Hawaii we're in one of these small little planes and and we got caught in what they call jet wash you know when a large jet takes off it leaves like this this trail of exhaust and powerful currents that swirl around and in this little plane we were in where we flew into the jet wash and whoop we went almost upside down and that flight attendant looked really panicked and I cannot panic to for a moment we had a safe landing though and so listen if you're an unbeliever this is as good as it gets so I hope you're enjoying life because it's going to be a lot worse after this because you're going to face judgment but if you're a Christian this is as bad as it gets in might simple Greg I'm having a pretty good life great that's really good that this is as bad as it gets won't get any worse than life on earth it's going to be way better for you later so I think I'd rather have a bumpy ride in a safe landing this is all because Jesus was on board and I asked you in closing is Jesus on board in your life so to speak the story is told in Luke's Gospel of a time in Jesus borrowed Peters boat to preach to the molded dudes now after he was done he said hey Peter let's go on into the deep water Shore a great catch of fish and Peter says now Lord we've told all night and we caught nothing nevertheless at your word we'll do it now it's interesting because I think in all honesty Peter was respectfully saying that Jesus look Jesus rabbi look you're the man when it comes to theology when it comes to telling us of our God you are the authority we respect you but you're kind of a landlubber okay yeah you don't know the waters like us were seasoned fishermen this is what we do but at your word we will do it now that's an interesting phrase er using Luke's Gospel master at your word we'll do it because it's a unique term only used once in the New Testament and it's a nautical term that means captain of this bow now I wonder how Peter said it did he say Lord we've told all night nevertheless captain at this boat at your word we'll do it let's go or did he say Lord we've told all night nevertheless captain of the bull as if you know anything a true word will do it I don't know how he said it probably said it was with respect but no matter how he said it they had so many fish it caused our little boat to start to sink under the weight of them and then Peter fell down before Jesus and said depart from me for I am a sinful man jesus said follow me and from now on you'll be a Fisher of men it all happened because Jesus was on board his boat and I asked you is he on board yours you see he's not going to force himself into your boat so to speak he's going to ask you to invite him on board captain's on board all attention here we are and he wants to be in control and guide you through life so you might say well Greg that's a nice little illustration but is he the captain of my boat when I lose my job yes he is actually hey is he the captain of my boat of my house burns down of my investments failed yeah he's still captain yeah what about if I get cancer is he still captain then yes he's still captain then what if a loved one has died yeah he's still captain because here's what the captain says let's get to the other side not just in life but in the big picture when you get to heaven you'll see when we look back we'll understand why these storms came and what their purpose was but until then we need to realize that Jesus is there with us walking with us through our calamities sometimes he'll stop the storms he'll always walk with us through them and he has said let's cross over to the other side our world today says this is it this is all there is we're just an animal a highly evolved animal so live it up eat drink and be merry no this is not the end the Bible says there is more life to come and if you're a believer that life is in his presence for jesus said I am the resurrection and the life and he that believes in me though he were dead yet shall he live and I ask you in closing is Jesus on board your boat let me put it another way is Jesus Christ living in your life or are you walking through life alone you know maybe you've been hard against God and you haven't had time for God or a place for God and you're like that old captain that got washed overboard I don't believe well now you're starting to rethink it because you know when when you go through hardship in life without God I don't have any words of assurance for you I don't have any clever cliches that will bring comfort oh no I thought of one you going through a hard time here's something when life gives you lemons make lemonade does that help oh here's another when the going gets tough the tough get going is that good oh here's a better one don't worry be happy yeah those didn't help much did they no they don't but here's one we know that all things work together for good to those that love God another called according to his purpose now that works that's in the Bible it's not clever in Q its biblical and true but it's only for the Christian the non-believer cannot say well everything will work out together for good no none necessarily in fact honestly I might get a lot worse but for the believer ultimately all things work together for good if you have put your faith in Christ and if you haven't done that yet respond to this invitation right now we're going to close with a prayer and there's anybody here that doesn't know Jesus in a personal way you don't have that hope of heaven respond to this invitation and let me say if you've come here because of hardship and you feel almost guilty that brought you here that's okay remember the story of the girl I told from Chicago hardship got her to the event but God welcome to any welcomes you if you'll turn to him

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Views: 152,955

Rating: 4.8134713 out of 5

Keywords: greg laurie, matthew, jesus, world, people, storms, difficulty, trials, hardship, hurricane, hebrews 12, bible, trust, hope

Id: 9yiOehq40UU

Length: 44min 15sec (2655 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 14 2010