The Storm Is Raging - Dr. R.B. Ouellette

open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 8 I'll read you a story and preacher if it's okay I would like to read three different versions tonight is that okay y'all all right I'm getting some squinty looks I've been here long enough for you to trust me I can see that the version number one is from Matthew version number two is from mark and version number three is from Luke you okay with that Matthew Mark Oh getting getting some smiles now Matthew chapter 8 verse 23 and when he was entered into a ship his disciples followed him that's a good thing for disciples to do I hear his disciples followed him that's a good thing for disciples to do there we go and behold there arose a great tempest in the sea in so much that the ship was covered with the waves but he was asleep and his disciples came to and awoke him saying lord save us we perish and he said unto them why are you fearful o ye of little faith then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm but the men marvelled saying what manner of man is this that even the wind's and the sea obey Him Mark chapter 4 if you would please verse 35 what's happening in these three Gospels there's no contradiction but there's a little bit of information supplied in one part that's not supplied in another part I was preaching in Montana earlier this summer the end of June beginning of July and dr. David Gibbs preached a sermon he told the story and I'd heard the story before and I think probably because the time he left out part of the story so at the dinner table I said brother Gibbs tell them the rest of that story and he did nobody encountered dictum Selvi there was no inconsistency but he supplied more information mark chapter 4 verse 35 the same day when the even was come he said unto them let us pass over unto the other side and I just broke your microphone I can fix it and when they had sent away the multitude they took him even as he was in the ship and there were also with him other little ships there was a great storm of wind and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full he was in the hangar part of the ship was sleep on a pillow and the away command saying Him master carest thou not that we perish and he arose and rebuked the wind and sad under the sea that'll be important later on peace be still and the wind ceased and there was a great calm and he said unto them why are you so fearful how is it that ye have no faith what's this why are you so fearful verse 40 verse 41 and they feared exceedingly and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him Luke chapter 8 if you would please verse 22 now it came to pass on a certain day that he went into a ship with his disciples and he said unto them let us go over unto the other side of the lake and they launched forth but as they sailed he fell asleep and there came down a storm of wind on the lake and they were filled with water and were in jeopardy they came through and awoke him saying master Master we perish then he arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water and they ceased and there was a calm and he said unto them where is your faith and they being afraid wondered saying one to another what manner of man is this for he commandeth even the winds and the water and they obey him father helped me as I preached tonight to say that which would please you which would help your people and would you Holy Spirit please empower me and direct me I confess Lord Jesus that without you I can do nothing so give us that which you want us to have this is the message I believe that you put on my heart it certainly goes along with some of the music we've heard tonight and I pray that you use it to your intended purpose and will thank you in Jesus name for all that you do amen the Sea of Galilee is about eight miles wide about 13 miles long it's surrounded by mountains most of it and there are valleys almost like gullies going down through those mountains and it's not at all uncommon because the Sea of Galilee is six hundred and eighty feet below sea level that the wind will sweep down those hills and those goblins have become like funnels and a storm will come up overnight just in an instant I want to make a couple remarks and then I'll give you some other points here well make remark about the sailors the Jews in general were not see going people they were generally landlubbers but of the twelve disciples four were expert sailors Peter and Andrew James and John made their living on this exact body of water they knew the water they were familiar with the storms they knew the kind of boat that likely the boat they were in is very much not if not exactly like the boat they would use in their fishing business and then I'm gonna make remark about the storm there were lots of storms in the Sea of Galilee but this one was really bad it says the boat was covered it says it was covered with waves it says it was full of water and this one was so bad that even the expert sailors became afraid your pastor and I have a mutual friend of dr. Paul Chapel he tells the story of being deep-sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico and a terrible storm came up his grandfather had taken them on the trip and he went to the captain of the boat and he said have you ever been in a storm this bad before and the captain looked at him and he said si Senor but in a much bigger boat they were scared this was a bad storm now I want you to think for a minute about the reason for the storm I'm gonna suggest something to you that you don't have to believe I found this in studying about this passage of Scripture of these passages reading a commentary by my favorite commentator john phillips john phillips the exploring the bible series and it is i think he's got to 30 some books of the bible he has commentaries on i have all of them as far as i know he he died a member of Bobby Robertson's church in Walkertown North Carolina had his funeral there and this brilliant educated man had a pastor who never finished the eighth grade loved him and respected him John Phillips said that the word used to rebuke when it says in mark that he rebuked the wind but he spoke to the waves that that word is most often used in the Bible for rebuking and unclean spirit more often by a majority than any other way that it's used is used to rebuke a demon a devil he goes on to remind us in the commentary that the devil is the Prince of the power of the air not the earth no the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the devil men have claimed the one square inch of God's good earth but he's the Prince of the power of the air and we know that the devil likes to stir things up we know that the devil entered Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord Jesus you know the Peter said to Ananias and Sapphira wyeth Satan filled thine heart to lie against the Holy Ghost we know that he moved against David to number the people we know that it likes to cause trouble and so John Philip suggests that the storm was inspired by Satan now whether you believe that or not I do know the devil is the accuser of the Reverend and he's a deceiver and he's a liar and he's a destroyer and he tries to cause us trouble and he's one of those that would try to lead us away from God but even though the storm was inspired by Satan it was instructive for the Saints when the storm was over the disciples knew a lot about the Lord Jesus they had not known before they understood some things they not understood savour they had some great lessons that were going to look at some of those tonight and then I want you to notice the response when the storm comes the disciples are scared pastor a story perish master carest thou not that we perish we're gonna die it was a really bad storm they had reason to be scared was a valid fear it was a voiced fear there's some nice very nervous but we don't say anything there they were far beyond trying to maintain their cool or continue their dignity or keep an outward appearance upheld it was a vexed fear because while they were scared here's the second response to the storm the Lord Jesus was sleeping he went to sleep he fell asleep he was asleep in the hind ER part of the ship now we don't normally think of sleeping as being a great character trait wow just hired a new assistant pastor man can that boy sleep I want to tell you I've never seen a sleeper like him before probably he sleeps no he was almost somebody's sleeping on the job or being asleep at the wheel the Lord Jesus is asleep in the way I read it it kind of almost looks like he did it on purpose I would suggest you everything the Lord Jesus ever did it never does he didn't does on purpose now I've had people sleep while I'm preaching I never fuss about it I deserve it when I was in college I worked a lot to get through school I was working three jobs my junior year one of them was the night watchman and every other night I worked from 10:00 to 2:00 a.m. and then from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. have to have a night off in between and worked at a mattress Factory in another job at the same time and so I perfected the art of sitting in Chapel with my elbow on my hymnbook and my chin on my fist and sleeping in an upright indirect position so the law of sowing and reaping says that I am owed people sleeping while I preach and I usually don't say a thing about it every once in a while I'll just kind of get down close to somebody that's sleeping a little bit and I'll preach good that's about as far as I'll go I did hear about a preacher had an old guy at his church and he deliberately went to sleep every Sunday morning and the preacher finally had it he said to his wife you arts I'm gonna this Sunday after he preached whoo I said no all of you who'd like to go to heaven when you die would you please raise your hand everybody with that old guy raised their hand and then he said all of you would like to go to hell when you die would you please stand up you okay woke up he jumped to his feet he looked around he said well preacher I don't know what it is we're voting on but it looks like you and me are the only ones for it but I have never had anybody bring a pillow in the church put it down on the view and lie down and go to sleep and Jesus fell asleep on a pillow there in this terrible storm worst storm of their lives and Jesus is asleep does it ever seem to you like the Lord is sleeping during your storm the wind is howling and the waves are bouncing the ship of your life and the lightening is splitting the darkened sky and the Thunder is rolling and you ask for help but it seems like there's no answer the disciples are scared the Savior is sleeping but the ship is safe now nobody acknowledged owning a boat so I don't know if you'll get this or not all boats tend to get a little water in them if you have a Bloomington fishing boat a John boat or something like that with an outboard motor on the back you've got some kind of a can or a plastic deal that you bail out the water with it's normal to get a little water if you got a bigger boat with an i/o and an board outboard in the back that it is designed so when the water comes in it runs down to the back compartment where the engine is there's a pump in there called the bilge pump when the water goes high enough it automatically goes on like a sump pump in the basement and kicks the water out but boats are not designed to be full of water and any boat out there if you get it full of water is going to sink but not this ship the disciples scared the Lord Jesus is sleeping but the ship is safe we used to sing a song when I was in schools and sometimes in churches it's called master The Tempest is raging and it says no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies the ship is safe but then I want you to notice a rebuke the Lord Jesus issues a calming rebuke and he says to the wind the peace he says he rebukes the wind then he says the waves peace be still and the storm stops calming rebuke but then there's a convicting rebuke and he says to the disciples are you how is it you have no faith oh ye of little faith where is your faith why are you so fearful how is it that you're so afraid rebuke about faith and rebuke about fear now fear is natural fear is normal fear is a regular part of our life but it is not from God God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love the Bible says and of a sound mind I like the verse where the psalmist says the time I'm afraid I will trust in me but I better the psalmist say I will trust and never be afraid whatever is afraid of something some people have irrational fears I knew a lady one time and she was so insecure she was sure her husband was going to leave her she just didn't think anybody want to stay with her I certainly wouldn't want to do but her husband loved her and and she was afraid he was gonna leave her and one day they were supposed to meet at a mall and it was way before the days of cellphones and she went to one door and he went together he was 10 minutes late and she was weeping uncontrollably she was sure he dumped her and was over some people were afraid of heights some people afraid of losing their job we're getting a bad report from the doctor not being able to keep their house or having struggles in the family afraid that the children are gonna never come back and the family will never be together the husband and wife will never be reconciled so I want you to think about what you fear and ask this question although Jesus is why are you so fearful maybe it's cuz there's no God maybe it's because there isn't God but he doesn't care about you see only a few possibilities that if there is a God may be may be the reason you having trouble is that God is ignorant he just doesn't know he's got seven and half billion people to keep up with and he just can't be all the time looking at all your little problems and so he just doesn't know what you're going through you think no all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do he knows the end from the beginning well maybe he's not ignorant maybe he's indifferent maybe maybe he just doesn't care he says come on I got a whole universe around I got to keep the stars shining in their sockets and the planets rotating in their orbits and I got to hold the atoms together so this whole thing doesn't blow up in the fact that you're a few months behind on the mortgage or maybe losing your job or got a negative report from the lab is just too small for me to mess with but that's not true the Bible says that the very hairs on your head or number it says the sparrow doesn't fall to the ground without your heavenly father's notice in hisses fear not year of much more value than many sparrows so if he's not ignorant he's not indifferent maybe maybe he's incompetent maybe we'd like to help but he's just not able to man in our church are you music director many years ago had an automobile wreck and his youngest daughter a young daughter Jessica eight years old was killed they went to the hospital in the hospital chaplain came as it well there are some things that God can't help but God wants to be there to help you through the things he can't help and in spite of the grief and the shock of that terrible event Roger Powell looked in the eyes of that unsaved man and he said mister that was this was not an accident this was an appointment the Bible says that God works all things together for good to those who love him to those are the called according to his purpose and so if he's not ignorant if he's not indifferent if he's not incompetent then he must be in charge he must be in control and he asked us a question why are you so afraid does he love you did he promise to work everything together for good did he promise never to leave you or forsake you did the psalmist say I've been young and I'm old and two things I've never seen I've never seen the righteous forsaken I've never seen his seed begging bread there's a rebuke about fear and there's a rebuke about faith how is it you have no faith though you've a little faith where is your faith I want to focus on that particular part of the question he asked them now somebody say well I just don't have any faith I just I just don't have a guy I'm just not a person to great faith no everybody has faith the Lord Jesus didn't say why don't you have any faith he said in this particular gospel mark where is your faith let me see a question who made these pews anybody know nobody else how old are these pews they get a rough idea twelve years old and what are they rated for purp you how many pounds perfume huh but you nobody came and looked under the bottle and tried to read the little label and said okay get away ourselves there but in this row I'm gonna make sure you don't exceed the limit I don't want to be sitting here the thing fall down to be embarrassing I mean they raid everything they got how many people you have in the elevator how many folks can you ownership and they there's a rating for these and you know what you did you just came in and plopped down on the Pew you didn't ask anybody near how much they weighed you didn't worry about if your viewers fold or not you just had faith the pew would hold you up anybody driving today and you came to an intersection and you had a green light did that happen anybody and there's a strange occurrence and when that light was green which you did is you slowed way down and almost stops and look both ways because you said I just can't trust those other drivers I don't know what they're gonna be doing and so I'm gonna stop even though I have a green light right even in polite Canada you would hurt an and know you just drove on through perfect strangers in the other cars people you never met before in your life they could have been drunk they could be drug addicts they could be practicing for some race somewhere run through the red light but you had faith that when the light was green they would stop because their light was red you have faith in a lot of things so some of you say yeah well I'm gonna be okay because I have Universal Canadian health care your prices are talking about how he appreciates the health care system here in Canada I must say that's the first time I ever heard anybody say that I'm not saying he's the only one who does but I heard a lot of negatives about it by various people and read some negatives in the in the newspaper what do they say you know what seemed to be a by written article in time said what seemed to be a rare piece of good news for the much abused health care system it turned out they'd had this good report but it was wrong yeah that's suffer I'm gonna get a pension well my job is secure I'm in a business that's a recession proof you know and I'm gonna be where is your faith and my dad will take care of me my husband is gonna look out for me my family is going to be there for me all those things are good but you know what the Lord Jesus tells us the Bible tells us not have faith in the government not have faith in your job not have faith in your family not have faith in your friends the Bible says have faith in God where is your faith let's somebody get a little money in the bank and they think they'll be ok cuz they got some money the Bible says trust not in uncertain riches palaces riches make themselves wings now God gives you money praise important use it for his glory and I think it's wonderful that God blesses his people and he does on many an occasion David and Abraham by today's measures were billionaires Abraham when I made Donald Trump look like a commoner but Jesus says where is your faith and he rebukes them a calming rebuke to the wind and to the sea and a convicting rebuke to the disciples somebody said that fear is the result of depending on human things instead of spiritual things somebody said all fear has its root in natural affection as opposed to godly affection now what's interesting about the lack of faith and the abundance of fear in the disciples is what they had just been through this experience directly follows the famous Sermon on the Mount Matthew 6:7 5 6 and 7 then the Lord Jesus right after the sermon is active I think sermons should be followed by action I think Bible preaching should stir you to Bible living and so what they did after that the lord jesus healed the servant of a centurion and He healed Peters wife's mother and he cleansed the leper and then right after that they got in the boat and all of a sudden they're amazed when they see the Lord Jesus calm the waves why don't you know who he is didn't he tell you that He is God that he is the Messiah haven't you left all the follow him so let me give you a few reminders a few thoughts I'll just give you three or four of them get this if you don't get anything else reminder number one if Jesus is in your ship you can survive storms that will sink everybody else one of my friends and heroes of the faith is a man named Tom Malone for 46 or more years he pastored the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac Michigan and dr. Charles Whitfield who served with him taught in his college much at that time said I never saw anybody that could go down further stay down long and still come back then Tom Malone could time alone been through all kinds of difficulties the time came when he thought he should turn his church over to somebody else and he never really left he would say I'm the senior pastor he said I think that means if I don't want to I don't have to and if I want to I can and if he wanted to be dead even though there was another pastor and the church had been 3,500 a Sunday they were running about 2,000 on buses about 1,500 in the driving crowd they were seeing thousands of people saved and it went down and down and down and down they came the pastor who had taken the church and turned out to try to take the college from dr. Malone and get the church to vote out the little pension they'd offered to give him and take his office from him that preacher left and they called Tom Malone back to the Immanuel Baptist Church at the age of 72 his first Sunday there back they had 90 something in attendance and 60 of them came on buses had a big 1,200 seat auditorium seats mr. preacher you wanna see rope off some of these seats and he said oh no we're gonna face those seats until we fill them and Tom Malone scheduled coming back as a 72 year old man to pass through the church that he had founded was this he'd get up in the morning eat breakfast with his wife go to church do a little work and then go out soul-winning and knocking on some doors he'd come back for lunch he'd take a nap and then he'd go back and do a couple things in the church and go knocking on doors and then he go home and eat supper and visit with his life a little bit of go back and knock on some doors in the church grew to 600 in attendance with a high day of a thousand and there was a time when the fastest-growing Church in the state of Michigan was pastored by a 75 year old man hey if Jesus is in your boats you'll survive storms that will sink everybody else the question is not how bad the storm is the question is are you in the will of God the question isn't how say he worthy is your boat the question is the Lord Jesus in the ship with you you don't need to worry about the waves and you don't need to worry about the weather and you don't know they worry about the wind but you need to worry about whether you are in the will of God for your life Jesus is in your boat you'll survive storms little sink everybody else now I want you to get this the devil can influence our circumstances but he cannot sink our ship I don't know much about martial arts don't you a lot of people know more about him than I do but I'm told there's a difference between karate and judo karate is direct force they tell me if you hold your hand just right and shove it the heel of your hand in a guy's nose and push in and up that the cartilage you go inside his head and come up in Pierce's brain and he will die never worked for me none of the Deacons I tried it on died judo is not direct for us judo is based on using your opponent's weight against him if you want your judo match they'll be there just kind of tugging and and trying to get the other person to do something yeah if you know judo they can you start judo they tell me to learn the oh go shitty okey go she the osoto gari if you do well on those get to learn the Kawasaki the Suzuki in the yamaha but but if you knew judo and somebody were to punch you you put your hands up like that and you'd grab his wrist for this hand you put your shoulder under his arm when you'd flip him not because you're bigger or stronger than him but because he had already committed himself to go that direction and use his weight against him I would suggest you that the Lord often uses spiritual judo was it good or bad Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus it was it tell me it was it was bad the Judas did it he went out and wept bitterly committed suicide gave back the money been paid for the act of betrayal but you know what happened as a result of Judas betraying Jesus he died on the cross for our sins rose from the grave the third day was they good or bad that Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery it was bad for them yeah it was rough for Joseph for a while but after time he got promoted to be the prime minister and the most powerful land in the world on a famine came and he'd had them prepared for the famine of hamon spread to the place where his family was and they came down to buy bread and Joseph eventually moved them all there after sending wagons loaded with the best food of all the land of Egypt and he said to his brothers you man it for evil but God meant it for good to save much people alive and I want to remind you no matter how terrible the situation I had a dark and gloomy it is no matter how awful it is it may be that the devil stirring things up but he can never sink your ship and God will give you beauty for Ashes God will turn the curse into a blessing God loves to bring good out of evil Jesus is in your ship you'll survive storms of sinking of many else devil can influence your circumstance but he can never sink your ship the more were attached to this world the more were likely to fear I have a wealthy friend and I've known for years and years that he lives in mortal fear of his children being kidnapped they have had messages on the answering machine our child is missing one of the grandchildren God and he just knows it because he's got a lot of money somebody's going to take one of those children and hold them for ransom and he'd be glad to pay the money but maybe the child to be harmed and never happened he had a couple scares that were really not anything so if the kid had gone somewhere they didn't know insecurity comes from attaching value importance and significance to something or someone that can be taken from you love your wife you should love your husband love your children love your parents I just don't know how normal but everything in this world is temporal you're gonna die your wife's gonna die your husband was gonna die your children gonna die your parents gonna die stock market may crash real estate boom may turn into a bust all kinds of things should happen and the only thing that you have in this entire world that can never be taken from you is God and the more you build your life around him and the more you make your life geared to serving him and the more you depend on him and the more you strengthen your relationship with him the less insecurity you'll have and I don't want to say this even when the Lord Jesus seems to be asleep you can still trust him he'll wake up before you sink and he was never really asleep his body was sleeping the the truth is the Lord Jesus all God and all man at the same time and his sleeping demonstrated his humanity but remember what he said to Nicodemus he said name is no man hath ascended to heaven but he that descended from heaven even the Son of man watch this which is in heaven he didn't say which was in him he said I'm in heaven while I'm talking to you Jesus became man in Bethlehem's manger but he never stopped being God and his human body may be sleeping in the boat but he's still overseeing everything he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep I'm not a movie guy I've never been to a movie in my life my parents raised me different than that when I was a boy growing up Detroit nobody I knew who was saved when two movies if in the movies I thought you weren't saved it would wouldn't mean about it it's just I thought it was now I want to be fair I know Christian's someone go to movies these days and I want to be fair because Hollywood is much cleaner and more decent than it was when I was a boy but I read about this movie it's a Superman movie and they said in the movie that Superman went down and he rescued this guy from a burning building he's flying him back and the guy looks down and he sees buildings that look like Legos and people that look like ants and he sees how fast he's going he gets really really nervous yeah and these scared he's way up high is going away fast and super and says hey relax I didn't fly all the way down there and pull you out of the burning building just to drop you on the way home and I think sometimes the Lord looks at us he says why are you so afraid where is your faith how come you're so bothered about the circumstances of life don't you know that I dug you out of a pit and I lifted you from the miry clay and I set your feet on a solid rock and I gave a new song to you and I established your goings I redeemed you from your sin I saved you from eternal damnation in hell I gave you a place in heaven I've been preparing for you I didn't go to hell my rescue just to drop you on the way home even if it seems he's asleep you still trust him

Channel: Greater Vancouver Baptist Church

Views: 1,040

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Greater, Vancouver, Church in Vancouver, Baptist Church, Canadian Church, Church Anniversary

Id: _2Ob3gLBrec

Length: 35min 11sec (2111 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 28 2017