Pastor Stephen Chandler - Why Does God Allow Storms?

y'all ready to preach here we go acts chapter 27 acts chapter 27 verse 14. if you're ready somebody say yeah come on baltimore county somebody say yeah here it goes before very long a wind of hurricane force called the north easter so down from the island the ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wave watch this so they gave way to it somebody said they gave way to it my prayer at the end of this message is that no one would give way to your storm that you wouldn't surrender to the storm that you're in right now but you'd push through to the other side so they were driven along and as we passed to the lee of the small island kolkata we were hardly able to make the lifeboats secure so the men hoisted it aboard and then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together because they were afraid that they would run aground on the sandbars of searches they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along we took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw cargo overboard the exact reason that they had made the journey to take cargo from point a to point b in the middle of the storm they started throwing it overboard on the third day they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands and when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging watch this we finally gave up all hope of being saved here's how to know for a fact here in colombia bwi baldwin were those watching online may not be everybody but there's some people in this room that you've given up all hope you've given up all hope of ever defeating depression you've given up all hope of ever being excited about tomorrow you've given up all hope about the storm that you're in and i just want you to know him before i preach his message that jesus is in this room and he's going to insert hope into your heart and the bible says that the hope that he gives does not disappoint since they've given up all hope of being saved after they'd gone a long time without fool paul stood up before them and said i love paul he said men you should have taken my advice not to sail from crete nothing like i told you so on the worst day of your life come on now if you're just having a bad day you need somebody to tell you i told you not to marry her i told you not to date him i told you not to move that city not to take that you just it's always good captain obvious thanks a lot paul i told you all you should have sailed from crete then you would have spared yourselves in this damage and loss but now i urge you to keep your courage because not one of you will be lost only the ship will be destroyed well thanks paul last night an angel listen to this confidence of the god to whom i belong and whom i so paul said i know whose i am and i know what i'm about and he said he sent an angel and stood next to me he said do not be afraid paul you must stand trial before caesar and god graciously has given me the lies of all who sail with you so keep up encouragement for our faith in god that it will happen just as he told me nevertheless we must run aground on somebody's island hey it's going to be painful but it's going to be worth it it's going to be painful but it's going to be worth it father god we're grateful we're thankful god we're not just in church we're not just with friends we're not just with family we are in your presence and god you wouldn't have shown up if it wasn't to heal to deliver to open eyes to bring breakthrough you're the god that took five loaves and two fish and you multiplied it defeat five thousand i pray that you take this one message and you make it personal to every single person and the son of my voice god we preemptively say when you speak we will obey in the matchless name of jesus we pray can somebody shout amen come on baltimore county somebody shot a man in this place we are starting what we call union church a sermon series today called shipwrecked on purpose and what a sermon series is is it's basically just an idea or a thought it's actually one message that we break up into four or six different parts so over the next few weeks we're going to be talking about how do we survive the shipwrecks the storms of life today i want to preach a message called why does god let storms happen in this passage we find paul the apostle that many of you may know that paul actually wrote two-thirds of the entire new testament he had raised the dead healed the sick he was a child of god and yet he found himself in the middle of a storm almost to the edge of losing his life you ever been in a position like where you even felt like i don't deserve this like like whatever god i've been in charge of die i don't do you ever you're not as ignorant as i am you ever felt like god i know who does deserve this like if you're looking for somebody's life to ruin if you're like maybe i'm the only one who thinks this way but god if you're looking for someone who deserves this storm i know a person it's just not me why does god let storms in our life i've never been out to sea uh in a storm but i have been uh stuck in the middle of the ocean before my wife and i we uh we got married in 2013. it's been eight years y'all and we're going strong and god's blessing us and all that other good stuff but but we were wondering our honeymoon in dominican republic and it was amazing god has blessed me with one of the the most amazing women i can imagine zai is just selfless and when she found out that i love deep sea fishing she planned a deep sea fishing trip on our honeymoon off the coast of the dominican republic so we went to bed that night she said hey babe we gotta wake up early i got a surprise for you i'm like what is it it's like we are going fishing and i'm like stop playing she's like it's not just you're going i'm coming with you now that's a wife right there now the husband's like i don't know if i want her to come or want her to stay well we were three days in so at that point we were inseparable somebody all right just send me i'll be fine but we woke up the next morning we were we're at one of those all-inclusive resorts that all the food is free and you got to understand we kind of broke back there we were struggling a little bit so you see free food and you just start thinking they may take it away tomorrow so we said just in case they take it tomorrow we're going to eat it all today and i mean we went in the entire fruit bar they had little omelets that way you want to order we had three different omelets i mean we had it to go back we gorged ourselves then we make our way down to the dock where the boat was you ever been through a difficult season of your life and after you went through that season you looked back and you said i should have seen that coming i should have known not to trust them i should have known not that i should we were kind of in that but we're in hindsight we should have never been in that situation the first sign that we should have seen it coming is when the captain introduced himself and said am i brother said his name was somebody say that's problem number one if the ship you're on is captain by a name guy named coca-cola you are in trouble the second thing we should have known is when coca-cola looked like chad ocho cinco from the cincinnati bengals i don't know if you witness protection or what but you look i was so happy you got it i was just ready to go i've always been one of those guys that even if i don't know what i'm doing i'm addressed apart back in high school i played basketball i stole one my sister's pantyhose maybe a little allen iverson sleeve like i was just always going to look the part even if i couldn't do what i was doing so y'all i showed up to that boat looking like i owned that thing had my little docker pants on i'm a little thigh high docker stained defenders and my fishing shirt button down in my belly button i was married so i could do that now i'm a little fishing i was ready your brother looked like he could fish i didn't know what i was doing but i was ready to go we get on that boat and they push us off and somebody say sign number three i should have known we were going to be in trouble when there was black smoke billowing out from un i just want that bright ball and why she's like you know maybe it's a diesel engine you know maybe maybe it's just a dominican we look we booked this trip on expedia no way expedia is going to leave us out in the ocean that's just not going to happen that's when you trust the internet too much we get in the boat there's music playing i don't worry i'm like hey don't worry man had three canadians on the boat with us two brothers from brazil and we were going deep sea fishing we started going out to sea probably about 45 minutes we were over a mile off coast we could see the island about this small next thing i know coca-cola he shuts the engine off or at least i thought he shut the engine off next thing i know from the captain's bridge i hear uh oh like what you mean oh like the engine shut off i said you mean you shut the engine off he said no i'm on somebody like that's not a dominican republic accent leave me alone right it's for effect anyway he said it shut up he said don't worry he said i'll call for help now we lost an hour of our shipping or our fishing trip next thing i hear uh-oh what you mean uh-oh i don't have any cell phone reception yo we're a mile off coast he said but don't worry when we don't come back they'll realize we were missing and they'll send another boat i said how long were you supposed to be out here six hours so it's gonna be six out yeah i'm on one hour goes by i mean it's the ocean it's beautiful two hour goes by that boat starts going hour three next thing i'm on my beautiful wife she's on the edge omelette and mango and i'm sitting there i'm i'm rubbing her back i'm like oh babe that's okay what i'm really thinking is women you know they're the weaker species right next thing i know hour four i'm on the edge of that bowl i'm omelette now she threw up i didn't throw up i was putting bait out for the fish that's what i was doing by hour six the canadians the brazilians everybody on that butt was on the i mean just and i wasn't suicidal at least i don't think i was but i'm not gonna lie at some point on that but like maybe it'd be better if i just jumped in now i can't swim but maybe i'd have a better faith we were utterly you know y'all may not know about this me and my wife we waited until marriage and i was just like god i know you're gonna come back and crack the sky and take us to heaven but can you wait till my honeymoon night like god i know i want to go to heaven all right but usually i give me one shot i just need some of y'all don't know what i'm talking about that's called living right but anyway i'm literally sitting on that like god i didn't mean three days after i mean could i get a week are you really gonna kill me and i can have fun yet pray for me i need jesus y'all we were utterly hopeless utterly stuck and we weren't even in a storm we were just stuck at sea some of you is not see that you're stuck at its life where there's not a storm raging around you the problem with where you are is today looks just like yesterday did yesterday look just like last week and last week looked just like last year you're looking around like is this all there is to life is this all that i have to look forward to some of you are like pastor i would pay to be stuck because being stuck would be 10 times better than the storm i'm in right now some of you are facing the storm of your life some of you this storm is a mental health storm where it takes all the energy that you have just to put your clothes on and get out of bed in the morning maybe it's not you facing a mental health store maybe it's a family member and you're looking on helplessly wishing that you could do something about it and there's nothing you can do maybe the storm that your faith in is it facing is a health concern where you you're just going in for treatment after treatment after treatment or therapy after therapy after therapy maybe it's a financial storm maybe he looked and you said man how did i drift this deep into debt i would have never seen myself here maybe your storm is affected you have three kids all under five you're a pastor of a church leading it through the i'm sorry that's my storm here's what i do know in life you will have storms it it's inevitable you you will go through a storm i've heard it said everybody in life you're in one of three different positions you're either currently in a storm you're coming out of a storm you guessed it or you're getting ready to head into a store this is welcome home sunday this is the encouraging guy you brought you told me to come out this sunday this is he ain't that positive i'm sorry let me be positive i'm positive that everybody in this room you're either in a storm coming out of a storm or you're getting ready to head into it here's what the bible says the bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust light so what i've discovered is life is not about avoiding storms life is about maximizing storms i've discovered a storm can either make me or it can break me a storm can break me and cause me to do things that are so shameful i wouldn't even speak of or a storm can make me and bring a tenacity and a courage and a creativity out of me that god placed in me but i never knew until i went through this storm it all depends on your perspective in the storm so what i want to do is i just want to talk about the next three hours it's not gonna be a long message whatsoever only talking about about three hours maybe three and a half if y'all don't say amen and just give you a toolbox of how do i survive the storm that i'm in you might be saying pastor i just got out of a storm i wish you to preach this in july or maybe you're like i'm not in this storm trust me you'll need this okay three thoughts three thoughts if you could write this down grab your phone out grab a pen come on do something take notes in church you may not know this but you are more likely to go to heaven if you take notes in church that is completely made up but it makes me feel good when i see you writing stuff down because i feel like i said something worth writing all right here's the first thing write this down there's always hope in the storm it doesn't matter what storm you're in you've got to understand there is always hope in the storm now when i say a storm what some of your definitions of a storm is not really a storm and i know i'm offensive but it's my anointing some of you people when you mean you people i'm talking about you some of you people you're just soft that's not a storm that's called a tuesday you know people like that everything's the worst day oh my gosh my nail tech is booked i can't get right now pastor don't play with me that is a sword well you've been clawing through a storm anyway bye-bye bracket no no we're not talking about that some of us we're on the other extreme we don't complain about things that are storms and we don't complain about things that are storms we just grit it out we take pride in our high threshold for pain and we're just like it is a storm it's whatever i'm good i was built for this some of you for the first time you're going to realize that you're in a storm because what we call storm you've just said this is life pastor this is all i've ever known i don't know how you live but in my life i've had to fight for every single thing that i've had everything has been difficult everything has been a barrier this is just life i i did some research about a bunch of different shipwrecks throughout history i figured welcome son you might as well sound edumacated on welcome home sunday so i i read a whole bunch of stuff and i discovered what you people already knew that the most famous shipwreck in history is the titanic i ain't gonna sing the song but but titanic is the number one most studied shipwreck in the history of the world and there's literally all types of historians that have built careers over studying this and many historians believe that the shipwreck of the titanic was guaranteed before it ever left the port and what a lot of historians said is it wasn't the iceberg that caused the ship to sink it was pride so the reason why the titanic sunk is because they thought it was unsinkable they thought they had built something that was so technologically advanced that there is nothing that nature could have brought its way to sink it some of us are in danger because we think that we're exempt from storms so what happened is because they never thought that they could sink they weren't looking for any barriers in their way and even after they struck the icebreaker that iceberg ripped a 300-foot hole in the whole of the ship they didn't even tell anybody for an hour and a half because they said man we're taking on water but we can take it i wonder how many of us are taken on water but we haven't told anybody because we're like i can take this isn't going to sink me yeah i just buried a loved one but it's not going to sink me yeah i just closed a business that i gave 10 years of my life to but it's not going to sink me taking on water and not even realizing after an hour and a half of not telling anybody they finally said hey the ship is going down we got to get on life the problem is because they weren't telling people they were too busy partying and they said a lot of people on that ship were too inebriated to even get on the life raft i promise you baltimore this message is gonna get good at the end but it's gonna be a little tight right now i'm just gonna warn you it's gonna be a little tight right now y'all all right some of us are so inebriated in our own success that we don't realize we're taking on water and in danger of a shipwreck some of us are so inebriated by our fans and people that are impressed with us and wish they had our life and all the friends that we have around us without even realizing that you don't know you are in the fight of your life the decision that you make in this season of your life will dictate the trajectory for the next 20 years of your life how do i know that i'm in a storm can i give you some clues you know you're in a storm when a situation outside of your control has changed the trajectory of your life and altered your dreams it says when that northeastern wind hit that ship they were heading to rome but they just decided i'm gonna go wherever it takes me you know you're in a storm when that sickness hits and it just turns all your plans for the next five years when that relationship breaks apart when that that contract falls out or whatever maybe you know you're in a storm when you're getting hit by wave after wave after wave after wave when it doesn't matter what day it is there's going to be bad news with this day you haven't been one of those situations where you're scared to pick up your phone or check your email because you're just like i cannot deal with another bit of bad news and i know you're not like this because you people love jesus but i kind of get myself in this position even when life is good i'm still paranoid it could be calm seas no problems but i'm still on edge because i'm just waiting what's gonna be the next wave that hits because i've been in so many storms i don't even know how to relax when i'm not they used to say it's like this you're waiting for the other shoe to drop you haven't been out there chilling with your friends and just like you all right i'm good you sure i'm good yeah i believe you how do i know i'm in a storm you're in a storm when the winds are swirling so hard they're controlling you the bible winds represent words when negativity seems to be a cloud that's just hanging over your head it doesn't matter what the situation is you can't see anything positive in it it could be a random wednesday and somehow your imagination has how this is about to be the worst day of your life the disciples found themselves in a storm they were in a boat and there were waves crashing all over the place the bible says that they were in despair of their own lives they thought this storm was going to take them out jesus was asleep in the hole of the boat that's a different message for a different day but i need jesus to teach me how to sleep in a storm i don't sleep in storms i stay awake and i stare at my phone trying to figure out who in this contact list can get me out of it jesus can you teach me how to sleep through a storm but here's what the disciples said in mark chapter 4 verse 37 it says this and a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling with water he being jesus was in the stern asleep on a pillow if you don't think the bible's funny you're reading it the wrong way like these jokers are screaming and jesus they come to jesus and they woke them and they said to him teacher listen to this do you not care that we're perishing they have the creator of the universe baltimore in their boat they have the man that literally just raised the dead literally just healed this sick cast out demons took five loaves two fish fed five thousand people they wake him up and they don't ask him to fix the problem they wake him up and they don't ask him what should we do they wake him up and they accuse him of not caring about their lives remember how many i wonder how many of us find ourselves in the position where we are saying god don't you care i've discovered many of us don't have the guts to say things to god but our actions do like you would never say you're mad at god because you read the old testament he'd be open up the ground just swallowing people just killing people and i i know in the new testament i don't know if he's still in the business of killing people so just the case i ain't about to say it but the actions of my life are screaming i don't think you care you know what one action says i don't think god cares when we try to fix problems without him when we're in the midst of a storm but we don't ask for his involvement we just try to make it work ourselves the only reason why you would try to make it work yourself is if you think he doesn't care you know another action that we have that shows that we think god doesn't care about us when we get into a position where we're performing for god god i've been in church for the last six weeks straight aren't you proud of me god i'm tithing god i'm in three different connections through grabs i shall retreat god look at all i'm doing for you now you should love me because we bought the lie that he only cares for us if we do good for him and perform for him when the bible says he so cared about you while you were ratchet i mean while you were yet sinners he didn't die for you when you were perfect he died for you when you weren't even thinking about him god sent me to say if you're a follower of god if you believe in jesus here's what you need to understand that you may be in a storm but jesus is in that boat with you and you got to understand that if jesus is in that boat with you there is no storm that can take you out hope himself is in that boat with you hope himself is in that situation with you if the disciples have the entire bible like we have the entire bible they would realize there's nowhere in scripture where it says the god of the universe dies in a shipping accident it is that he was a lamb that was slain that drowned in the ocean it is that god so loved the world that he drowned in the sea no no he came to die on a cross and because there was no cross around it means that he wasn't going to die in that situation and just by the simple fact that he was in the boat means that the boat was not going to go down hear me if jesus is in my marriage it means my marriage can't go down if jesus is in my finances it means my finances can't go down if jesus is in my parenting it means my children can't go down as long as he's in my boat it means my boat can't sink so yeah the waves may come the winds may crash it may get real scary it's not going down because he's there isaiah 59 19 says this so shall they fear the name of the lord god teach me how to reference your name more than i reverence my problems so often we fear sickness more than we fear the healer we fear job loss more than we fear the provider he said in his glory from the rise in the sun because when the enemy comes in like a flood the spirit of the lord will lift up a standard against him let me remind you if you are a follower of god you are unsinkable because jesus is in your boat my heart however breaks for the people that don't have jesus in their boat a heart breaks for the people that think they have jesus in their boat but what you really have is you have church in your boat you have religious exercises in your boat you have a belief that god is real here's what the bible says even demons believe that god is real it says they reverence him believing that god is real doesn't make you a christian it doesn't make jesus in your boat giving him control of your life i'm not gonna lie to you as i was preparing this message my heart broke for those of you that are going through a storm but you don't have jesus in your bone the greatest storm i ever faced was when my mom passed away and i know for a fact the only reason i'm in my right mind right now is because jesus sustained me through that i remember four weeks baltimore after she passed away i was back on the platform preaching preaching about how god's a healer and a delivering all this and after service went on the lobby and a young man came up to me as a young man like i'm old but he was a young man what preachers say and he came up to me said why are you so happy and like what first of all your breath stinks here's the peppermint second of all sorry things preachers say think but she didn't say and i said i don't even know what he said so you're you just buried your mom why are you so happy i said i'm not happy i'm heartbroken and everything inside of me wants to crawl under the covers of my bed and not get up but you know what every morning when i wake up there is a strength that i can't even express to you that surpasses all understanding and it puts my feet on the ground and clothes on my back and it still has hope in my heart you see before my mom passed i thought grace was only for sinners you know for by grace you have been saved if you ratchet you need god's grace it's after she passed it i came and encountered the sustaining grace of god not grace to save you but grace to keep you [Applause] in a purpose that's beyond all that your natural strength can take you to the second thing is this right there all right this time write this down verse 8 there's always hope in the storm be there is a way through the storm in acts chapter 27 verse 23 paul said last night an angel of the god who i belong to and whom i serve he came to me and he gave me specific instructions of how to survive this storm here hey i'll understand i love church i'm a pastor i build church but i'm also a pastor's kid so the church irritates me because sometimes church is like god is good all right go home what am i gonna do with that pastor god's good but my kids are still ratchet god's good but my money's still funny like no no the angel didn't just say hey you're going to survive he said here's specific instructions on how to survive the storm hear me we don't serve a god of just hope he's a god of hope and wisdom he's a god of strength and of strategy he is a god that will give you action steps to make it through this storm just a quick question has nothing to do with the message quick question how many people you you're afraid of bugs you're afraid of bugs come on baltimore bwi come on raise your hand don't be shameful we won't judge you we will but okay this is just just you're scared of bucks you grown dog on an adult and you're you're scared of bucks you you're not even high school you you got a driver's license you're scared of bugs okay okay if you if you're scared of bugs i got got two things for you first things freedom conference frame conference friend compensation you can go to freedom conference we'll cast the spirit of bugs off of you so i gotta have a question for you people you scared of books you know you're bigger right i just said maybe you might be never like this pastor is ignorant he is yeah i mean we got bug we got you passing with cicadas you're 17. okay we got cicadas and we got you you try telling me you're scared pastor don't judge me okay i am i am i am not supposed to but i am what was i doing i was driving a car with somebody i won't talk about is my sister but um we were driving and you know i really got a little control issue i don't like people driving around i like to drive so it's already a big surrender for me to let somebody else drive and he's driving and you know got two hands on the steering wheel anybody who drives with two hands and everybody makes me nervous why are you nervous now i'm nervous and she's looking around i'm just i'm looking around what's she looking at y'all next thing i know there was a bee in the car y'all might have had the same scenario i don't know how the bee got there it was a messenger from satan all i know is one second she's driving the next second she's not who was driving i guess it was jesus cause she was look at the bee and i'm like this is a car this weighs 3 000 pounds we're going 50 miles per hour and you're concerned about that big he's like it could stink me we could die i said what does it have to do with anything some of our reactions to our storms make the storm worse than it was in the first place yeah it's a storm yeah it's a problem yes it's real but your overreaction to the storm has now multiplied the effects of come on can you you don't you don't understand preaching is fun you get to talk about people and walk off in the back room so okay can you help me pray just just just look at the person that you tell calm down come on come on say like a prophet say the word of the lord to you today is to calm down the one thing paul did right he did a lot of things right but one thing he did right is he kept a calm head i ain't even preaches any of those services the only reason that the angel could speak to paul is because paul went to sleep paul said in my dream an angel came to me if he wasn't dreaming the angel wouldn't have come if he was up on the dock just pacing how's this gonna work how's this gonna work listen some of y'all this is the only word you need to hear from god today go to sleep you staying up till 2 a.m and waking up at 6 00 a.m is not making it any better you're just cranky and none of us want to be around you go you're not you when you're sleepy the angel came and said here's what you need to do there's three things you need to do step number one throw everything overboard that you don't need there's nothing like a storm that will reveal the dead weight in your life there's nothing like a storm that will reveal the fact that you are carrying things giving energy to things that are not taking you towards the call of god on your life last 18 months in this pandemic is 18 19 24. just just keeps going yeah you ever noticed when depending on first especially when they shut everything down you went home there were certain people that you got on the phone with right away are you all right you need anything you got toilet paper i got five rolls i know i still buy one but i got five don't worry about i gotta hook up at walmart just let me know i could use some toilet paper by the way i think we found toilet paper guys you notice there's people you checked in on right away you know there was other people that use you still ain't called him i'm not trying to be mean i'm just asking if you didn't need them to get through the worst storm of your life this sounds mean but why were you carrying them in the first place it's not just people it's dreams it's ambitions there's nothing like a storm that reveals to us there's just certain things we're carrying in life certain grudges certain bitterness certain people that we don't forgive but it's been 10 years come on let's all sing what the bible says let it go let it there's just certain things paul said you got to throw that overboard or it's going to sink you and it doesn't even have anything to do with your purpose the second thing he said he said tell everybody to stay with the ship they actually found some of the soldiers they were trying to steal the life rafts off of the side of the ship and sail off by themselves and leave everybody back to drown there is nothing like a storm that will reveal selfishness in people this past 18 months have been the most trying time of our generation and it has been the most selfish time of our generation pass it it's coveted out there you expect me to go out there no no i'm good this is trump yeah there's covered out here but there's homelessness too there's people that are battling with suicide too there's brokenness out there and i'm with them with the mask i'm with the clorox i'm with the staying safe but i'm not with the self-preservation at the sake of everybody else he said if you're gonna survive this storm you can't just obsess over your problem you gotta see somebody and i'm gonna say this in a low voice because it's i your storm is real i'm not minimizing it i'm not trivializing it cancer is no joke job loss is no joke a broken relationship is no joke a broken heart is no joke but it doesn't give you the right to cut off the rest of the world and to say i'm only going to worry about me matter of fact doctors who don't even believe in god they will tell you a person facing a terminal sickness is more likely to beat that sickness if they have people other than themselves that they're living for if they have relationships that means something to them and people that they want to be they said there's something about the body when it has something to live for that is bigger than itself it kind of self heals in a way there's something about just seeing other people that brings life to us and brings our storms into proper perspective here's what the angel said the only people that are going to get saved are the people who stay with the ship can i say it in a church way the only people that are going to make it through the storm are the people that refuse to isolate themselves the people that say hey i'm going to stay in community i'm going to stay linked into other people why is it in a storm we start to pretend like we're perfect how you doing god good all the time and all the time god is good i know god is good but you're jacked and why won't you just be real you know i'm getting trouble i need to move on you know the only person who thinks we're perfect is us i'm glad my wife is not in here cause she's like hey man i know he ain't i don't want my kids to know i'm hurting they already know i don't want my co-workers to think i'm off my game they know and here's what i've discovered i don't know who this is for cause i haven't preached any other message people have no grace for people who pretend to be perfect but when you are humble enough to show people your scars you'll be surprised the people that will come rushing in to lift you up and encourage you to carry you through that score and to cheer you on don't do life by yourself last thing is this write this down write this down how do i survive a storm first never forget that there's hope in the storm if jesus is in your boat no understand it's not just hope but he has strategy there is a way through your storm last thing i need you to know is that there is always victory on the other side there is no storm that god would allow you to go through that it's not better on that side than it was on this side i'm not gonna lie welcome home so there's a lot of pressure y'all like everybody invited their friends their family you're looking at me like you gotta impress me faster together i wasted my whole son need to be here don't you know kickoff happened like 30 minutes ago so i mean i did my homework i read i i looked at every storm in the bible i looked at noah noah's ark i looked at jonah and the whale i looked at all the disciples and storms and here's what i've discovered every storm in the bible there's only three reasons why people ended up in a storm the first reason why anybody in the bible ended up in a storm the first reason is because they were running from god and when you run from god you run right into jonah remember jonah god said jonah i have a plan for your life i want to use you to bring hope and healing and nineveh he said i don't like nineveh then people smell and i've gotta bet you know the definition of running from god i've got a better plan i'm gonna do me and the bible says that god allowed a storm here's what we don't understand god believes in your purpose more than you do god said you can run but the only reason you're running is because you don't know how i made you and how i made you is to transform a world not just to give everything away but fullness and purpose and joy is only found in me you think you're gonna find it out there the only thing you're gonna find out there is setback and heartache and pain it's in my presence where there is fullness of joy so i'm gonna send a storm let you know you have no other options it's me or it's me you know what's crazy about the storm that jonah was in he wasn't in the storm by himself but he was the only person running from god everybody in his boat was going to sink with him because of his rebellion this is the side imagine a new zombie some of you the storm that you're in is not in you and it's not your storm it's that you have kept people close to you that are running from god and because you refuse to put healthy boundaries in your life you're going down based on somebody else's rebellion but pastor that's my mama that's my daddy we've been friends since three it's not worth sinking your future over the second reason why people end up in storms the first one is because they're running from god the second reason is because they got a head of god one of the stories the disciples ended up in jesus had just fed five thousand he said hey you guys go on and across the ocean or across the sea and i'll stay here i know jesus sent them but i just don't think anybody has come in since nobody thought jesus you ain't going oh cool i ain't going either y'all go ahead why aren't you going well because the creator of the universe ain't going and if he's not going i'm not gonna preach about you i'm gonna preach about stephen there have been seasons in my life that i've been so thirsty for success i would take it without god god that's what i want all right you coming not right now you're not ready but the door's open yeah that's not your door all right i'm gonna go see don't laugh at me so judgmental you just have a gun open doors and we're like listen i don't know if this is god or not but she finds him and we love god but we're just not including him in our decisions the storm that we're in is because we've gotten ahead of god now some of your past life that's good tell them heathens they stop running from god but i'm not running from god and i know i haven't gotten ahead of god but yet i'm still in a storm a storm i don't think i deserve why has god allowed this storm in my life maybe the same reason he allowed the storm in paul's life you may not know this but the bible says that paul was one of the greatest apostles of all paul wrote two-thirds of the new testament paul raised the dead he healed the sick if you are not a jewish person you're a christian because of paul because he's the only person that was willing to preach to people who weren't jews church exists and yet he ended up in a storm god really i'm preparing this it's simple but here's what god told me he said hey tell them the reason why they're in a storm is because that storm is going to carry them to a miracle on the other side that they would have never gotten to if it had not been for the storm he said you're asking me why the storm god says you're asking the wrong question don't ask why ask what god what is the purpose on the others here's the thing and i'll end quickly paul was on his way to rome because that's what god had called him to do when the shipwreck happened they ended up on the island of malta and what it turned out is everybody on the island of malta was sick and when they found out that paul was a child of god they said do you mind praying for the sick and they brought one sick person to paul and they got healed instantly they go grab the other one and they brought another one and they got here next thing you know revival broke out on the island of malta and hundreds of people got healed paul wasn't going there he didn't want to be there but god said there's a purpose on the other side of this storm that you have no idea but it is your purpose [Applause] here's what i've discovered there is no storm that god will allow me to go through that on the other side i won't look back and said i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy but i'm glad i went through that because if i had not gone through that i would not end up where i am right now i know it hurts i know it's painful i know it's a lot but you got to understand there is purpose on the other side of this storm stop thinking about what you've lost and what you've left and start obsessing about where you're going because he's getting ready to take you to a place that is greater than anything that you could ever ask think or imagine the bible says that for the joy that was on the other side of the cross jesus endured the pain how do you get through a storm don't look at this storm looking on the other side jesus was looking at me and you and our sins being forgiven us being child of god and he said you know what i hate the cross but it's worth it if i get to make them family on the other side there's purpose on the other side of your storm if you remember at union church you're like man i'm so tired hearing about his mama i know it's insensitive he tells that story every single time can't be honest with you i was a good pastor i wasn't a great pastor until my mom passed because i preached to people but i didn't have any compassion i spoke to people's pain but never felt their pain hey god's full of hope we'll give you a peace that surpasses all understanding and before my mom passed i used to counsel people now i just cry with them i'm like i've been there and it hurts but there is a god that will put your two feet on the ground we'll wake you up this next day we'll put purpose in your heart we'll put vision in your eye will put dreams on your life and will use you for something greater than you could ever ask think or imagine you think your life was over at that moment that was not the end that was just a comma that was just a transportation into the destiny that he has for you and my heart breaks that you had to go through that i wish with everything you never had to go through that but here the key word you went through it you didn't stop in it you went through it and the reason why you went through it is because there's purpose on the other side i wish i had some people in baltimore columbia that you can testify that i've been through a storm but don't miss it i got through it and because i've made it through i know god in a way that i've never known him before i trust god in a way that i've never trusted him before i've seen him move hear me i wish i never got sick but because i got sick now i know that he's a healer i wish i had never lost my job but when i did i know that he is now a provider i wish i never battled with depression but then because i did now i know that he will give you a peace that surpasses all understanding that will guard your heart and guard your mind in christ jesus here's what the angel said he said paul because there's purpose on your life everybody in your boat is going to be saved here's what i've discovered even if i don't got purpose i just need to hang around with people who do i've discovered that if everybody in my crew has purpose everybody in my crew has the hand of god on their life i'll end up in places that i wasn't even supposed to end up with but just because my associates were walking in the things of god just by the grace of god he took me to places that weren't meant for me it was meant for them that's a whole no i've ended up in some rooms where people like how'd you get here i'm with him you need church because sometimes you're not gonna realize that there's purpose on your life when you get around people of purpose there's gonna be some seasons where their purpose carries you there's gonna be some seasons where your purpose carries them don't leave the ship don't jump overboard and don't you dare curse god because there's purpose on the other side hey can we pray father god we're grateful god we're not grateful for this storm we're grateful for the god of the storm god we're grateful that you didn't just say have courage but you're giving us strategy in this moment god i'm praying over people that are facing mountains that they don't even know what to do with god you're downloading divine strategy in their heart right now god i pray that you'd encourage every single person in the son of my voice that they would know there is purpose on the other side of this storm just where you're sitting you're standing watching a line in this room wherever you are can you pray this prayer with me say holy spirit what are you saying to me just give god a moment to make this time this message personal to you i'm not gonna lie to you i have been praying for particular people for weeks up to today and i'm praying for that person that'd be honest enough to say pastor i can't say i have jesus in my life i thought i had jesus in my boat but now i realize all i had was church all i had was religion all i had was a belief system but i've never surrendered to him here's what i know it's never too late it's a setup i'm not gonna lie to you he's been waiting to get you to this moment so if that's you you say pastor i can't say i know jesus the way you're talking about i can't say that he's in my boat i've been running up and ahead of him but i need him in my life if that's you can you pray this prayer with me matter of fact every single person in this room out of encouragement of those that are making the greatest decision ever say lord jesus come on say it with passion say lord jesus don't pass me by today i invite you into my life thank you for dying on the cross for paying the penalty for my sin and my mistake thank you for your forgiveness today i surrender i give you control of me be my lord be my savior use me for your purpose in jesus name amen and amen and amen come on church can you celebrate for every single person that made the greatest come on that's a golf club can you act like people just made the greatest [Music] decision ever you

Channel: Union Church

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Id: KgUUSTEcSm8

Length: 53min 2sec (3182 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021