Tested by the Storm

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How would you feel if I told you you were going to have to take a big test today? You might have some questions about what kind of test, right? Did any of you like tests in school?

That’s because you’re normal. Okay, most of us don’t like tests. I didn’t mind them so much, but I didn’t celebrate. Whoopi, there’s a test today.

In school, there was that one kid, that one overachiever that was excited about tests, and I don’t know why, but that wasn’t me or most of the people I know or I guess anybody in this room. Tests are helpful, though, because they tell us what we know, what we don’t know, what we’re qualified for. They tell us where maybe some shortcomings or some deficiencies are that we need to work on.

I will tell you the hardest test I ever took in my entire life was not my Greek final in seminary. It was not the ACT. It was not the SAT.

It was not the state insurance exam. The hardest, I shouldn’t even say test I took because it was so hard I ended up not taking it. But the hardest test I ever encountered in my life was the test to be a school bus driver.

Christy says yes. Years ago, I was helping with a church that was starting. We had moved to this community.

We were looking for ways to get involved in the community. And somebody said, you want to get involved with the school district. I said, well, that sounds like a good idea.

I didn’t want to go for a teaching job at that time because I would have been too tied down as far as responsibilities with the church. But I thought if I drove a school bus, I’d work early in the morning, I’d work in the afternoon, I’d have time in between. And so I went down and talked to them about a job driving the school bus.

And they were excited because they always need school bus drivers and did so in that town. Here’s the problem. I don’t know how much of what I was given was the test for the CDL and how much was just the test for the district.

But they handed me this big stack of stuff that I had to learn and had to memorize. And I got through chapter one. I got through chapter two.

I got through chapter three. Okay, it’s making some sense. I got into chapter four and they wanted me to understand all of the every aspect of the suspension and braking systems for all of their fleet of buses.

Is that CDL or is that just district? Oh my goodness. Okay, I’m never trying that again.

Because you have to have a CDL to drive a vehicle more than 15. The church better not ever drive a bus or buy a bus. I won’t be able to drive it.

But they wanted you to know all these different springs that the bus might sit on and all the, and I just looked at it and it’s like I’m trying to read hieroglyphics and they’ve got pictures and I don’t know if I’m holding the book the right way. And I finally just said, okay, God, you got to show me something else. I am not smart enough to be a school bus driver.

I failed that test before I even took it. But you know what? I learned something.

I learned that was not what God was calling me to do at that point, was be a school bus driver. And better, I found out early on. So we all face tests in life, and tests, as much as they’re unpleasant, as much as they’re things we don’t like, they have a great way of clarifying where we are and maybe what some of the things are that are holding us back from being where we want to be.

This morning, we’re going to look at a test, one of the first major tests that the disciples faced in their walk with Jesus in a familiar story to most of you about a time that they were on the Sea of Galilee with Jesus and a storm came. So we’re going to be in Luke chapter 8 this morning, if you turn there with me. Luke chapter 8, and we’re going to start in verse 22.

And once you find it, if you’d stand with me as we read from God’s Word. We’re going to look at just a few verses this morning about this test that they faced and did not do great. I’ll just go ahead and spoil the story for you if it’s not familiar.

They didn’t do great on the test, but it taught them some things they needed to know going forward. So starting in verse 22, it says, Now one of those days Jesus and his disciples got into a boat, and he said to them, Let us go over to the other side of the lake. So they launched out.

But were sailing along, he fell asleep, and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Jesus and woke him up, saying, Master, Master, we are. .

. I should read that with a little more intensity. Master, Master, we are perishing.

And he got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And saying to one another, who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him? And you may be seated.

And reading that again for probably the hundredth time in my life, it just strikes me as funny. The way they say, who then is this? Like who have we been walking around with all these months?

And they just are starting to recognize there’s something different about this man. This storm for them was unexpected. This storm for them was something that was scary, that caught them off guard.

But God knew this was going to happen. God the Father knew it was going to happen. God the Son, who was there sleeping on the boat, knew it was going to happen.

This was a test. They didn’t realize that this was going to be an opportunity for their faith to be tested. And that’s the case in a lot of circumstances like this. Life’s most difficult moments test the soundness of our faith.

Sometimes we will go through moments. Sometimes we will go through seasons. We’ll go through events, and we’ll wonder, what is the purpose of this?

And God may have a purpose in mind for the difficult moments we face that we may never understand on this side of eternity. But one thing that a lot of those moments have in common is that they’re tests. They’re tests of our faith.

They’re tests of how strong is our faith. They’re tests of, is our faith in the right person or in the right place? Now, this story clearly displays Jesus’s power and his authority.

And that’s kind of the main point of the story, is Jesus showcasing this power and authority by his ability to perform a miracle and command the natural world. Nature bent to his command. That’s not something that you or I can do.

I heard a story about somebody that with their kids, when their kids were little, this was not me, although it might be fun to try, that when their kids were little, they’d be driving and every time they’d see an overpass. I always get confused which one’s an overpass, which one’s an underpass. I guess it depends on which side you’re on.

But when they’re about to go under another road on the highway and it was raining, they would tell their kids, I’m about to make it stop raining in three, two, one, and then it would stop for a second. But I can only do it for a second because it makes me tired. Okay.

That’s about the extent of our ability to control the weather. We live in Oklahoma. We know We don’t have a lot of say or really any at all over what the weather does.

And yet Jesus just said, shh, pipe down. That’s not a direct quote. But nature bent to his command.

This was an incredible moment, but we can’t pretend like this just came out of nowhere for them either. Now, I don’t want to be too harsh on the disciples today because you and I, no pun intended, would be in the same boat if we walked with them. we would have the same crises of faith that they had.

So I don’t want to pretend like we’re better than they are. But you look at this, you can’t pretend that this just came out of nowhere, his ability to control storms. Maybe we’ve stepped it up a notch from what they’ve seen before, but they’ve been watching him do miracles over and over. Luke, just Luke by itself records numerous miraculous stories leading up to this point of things that Jesus had done, Jesus’s power, Jesus commanding sick people to be healed, Jesus commanding withered limbs to grow back, Jesus commanding dead people to stop being dead.

They’ve seen all of these things. It boggles the mind looking back that this would be such a surprise to this. But what makes this story stand out from those other stories about Jesus’ power and authority is the test that’s involved here.

that this is really, as far as I can tell, one of the first places where we see the disciples presented with the opportunity to respond either in faith or in unbelief to what Jesus is able to do after what they’ve all seen. In previous sections, Jesus has encouraged them to believe Him and obey just in chapter 8 alone that we’ve studied the last few weeks. If you go back to the parable of the sower.

He talks about the good seed and the good soil being those who have heard the word in an honest and good heart and hold it fast. Basically, those who have taken his word to heart, they’ve believed it. And when he says in verse 18, it’s what we talked about last week, take care how you listen. Are you paying attention to God’s word and taking it to heart and believing it?

And now they have the opportunity to do just that. They have the opportunity in a real and a tangible way in a life-altering situation potentially to put their faith in Jesus. And so they face a moment that’s going to require them to make that decision either to trust Jesus or not.

And they had enough faith to get into the boat with Jesus. The Sea of Galilee is not a place where these kinds of storms are uncommon. It’s been years since I’ve done any kind of in-depth study into the geology and geography of that area, but I do remember you have winds coming from the east, and they come down off the cliffs, and they drop several hundred feet, and there’s turbulence, and it stirs up the waters as it goes into this deep depression, and storms are not uncommon, and crazy wind coming from different directions is not uncommon.

They had enough faith to get into the boat with Jesus, but the real test was not when we’re sailing along and everything’s okay. The real test is when the storm starts. And that’s true for other kinds of storms as well.

That’s true in our lives as well. It’s one thing to have faith in Jesus. It’s one thing to trust Him when everything’s going well, when the boat is steady and we’re just going along the sea.

It’s easy to trust Jesus when we’re walking along and we’re seeing Him do miracles and the crowds are cheering. It’s another thing altogether to trust Jesus when you get into those moments of storm where you’re not sure what’s happening or what’s about to happen to you. And I’ll tell you, I’m not going to stand up here and say I’m super spiritual and, oh, these are just wonderful tests of our faith.

When we go through storms in life, I hate it. And many is the time I’ve had a pity party with the Lord and whined to him about the circumstances. But God doesn’t put us through those moments to be cruel.

As I said at the outset of this, he has a purpose that we may or may not understand on this side of eternity. But one thing that’s common to many of these storms in life is that it’s an opportunity to test the soundness of our faith. And so we keep that in mind as we look at the story, the test that they went through, and we see in the midst of this test, in the midst of this storm, that life will gladly hand us reasons not to trust Jesus.

When we are in that moment of storm, or maybe even a season of storm, and we are about to be faced with the decision to trust Jesus or not, and I do believe it’s a decision for us as believers. You say, oh, well, you know, it was just in the moment. In the moment, we can remind ourselves of who Jesus is and kind of bring ourselves back from the brink, bring ourselves back to reality and say, I’m going to trust Jesus in this circumstance, whether I feel it or not.

I’m going to trust him. We can make that commitment, but life will, when we come to those moments of decision, whether we’re going to trust Jesus with the storm we’re about to sail through or not. Life will gladly hand us reasons not to trust Jesus.

And this passage outlines some of the reasons why they might have not trusted Jesus, some of the reasons why we might not trust Jesus, some of the examples from the disciples’ experience that caused them to doubt, that would cause us to doubt. Our storms are big. They were not just afraid of thunder off in the distance.

I know sometimes kids are scared of thunderstorms. I don’t think any of mine have ever acted scared of probably because they’ve lived their whole lives in Oklahoma. It’s just normal. And now living in Lawton, we can’t tell. Actually, Charla and I will sit downstairs in the living room at night and play a game called artillery, thunder, or someone out of bed, because we can’t tell what we’re hearing overhead.

But this wasn’t just the sound of thunder in the distance kind of getting them a little nervous. They were in the middle of an actual storm. They were in the middle of lightning and thunder and wind and waves that were tossing their boat around like it was a toy.

The storm was big. The storm was real. It says a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake. And when that happened, a boat of any size was in danger.

Folks, it may be a literal storm that tests our faith. Lord, why did this happen to us? Why did this happen to our house?

But in many cases, it’s a less literal storm that you and I face, but it’s no less real and it’s no less big. Sometimes the storm can come in the form of a diagnosis. Sometimes the storm can come in the form of a broken relationship.

Sometimes it can come in the form of a prodigal child. Sometimes it can come in the form of a financial hardship. Any number of things.

I would imagine for each of you this morning, something different has come to mind. Either a storm you’re going through right now or a storm you’ve been through. The storms we face are big.

And even if somebody else is facing a bigger storm, the storm can still be big to you. Part of the problem we face, though, is when we’re in the middle of the storm, we look around and all we see is the storm. And so it looks like the whole world is a storm.

Our storms are big to us, and that can persuade us not to trust Jesus because we’re more focused on the size of the storm than we are on God. We look around and see the gravity of the problems we face. We see the enormity.

We see the complexity. We see how unimaginable a solution would be in the storm. And if we look at that, we look at all of those things that we think this can’t possibly be fixed, and that’s where our focus is, it pulls our focus off of God and makes it more likely that we’re not going to trust Him and that our faith will waver.

Our storms can be real, and our storms can be big, and that feels like a reason not to trust Him, but it’s not. Second thing we see here is that our danger is real. They were not overreacting when they said, we’re in real danger here. They began to be swamped and to be in danger.

That’s not just a direct quote from them. That’s commentary from the Holy Spirit through Luke. They were swamped and in danger.

Their boat was sinking. And it’s bad enough if your boat sinks, but to be out in the middle of that storm with the winds and the waves, some of these people, if not all of them, were going to be lost. Sometimes our problems present a real danger to life, to property, maybe just to life as we know it. And when we are in a situation like that where we’re genuinely at risk, it’s easier to doubt God than when the cost of faith is minimal. It’s easy to trust God.

It’s easy to walk in faith when everything’s wonderful. But in a moment where there’s a real cost, our faith is put to the test. Do we really believe this or not? I think of brothers and sisters all over this world this morning who are in real risk of life and limb for worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. And in a way that you and I don’t understand, they have a real choice every day.

Do I trust him and walk the road he’s called me to, or do I focus on the danger? Now, we face lesser dangers, but sometimes just the reality of the danger, hands us a reason, maybe an excuse is a better word to say, to not trust him. Our fears are overwhelming.

Part of their problem is that they weren’t thinking clearly because they were afraid. But you know what? That’s my problem too.

Do that all the time. When I went through the volunteer training at the pregnancy center several years back, one of the most valuable things they taught us about counseling somebody when they come in for help is that everybody that through that door with an unplanned or unexpected pregnancy, they are overwhelmed and overcome by fear. And fear is in the driver’s seat of making decisions.

Fear is in the driver’s seat of reactions. And so your number one job is to try to calm down the fear so that you can think clearly. I have found that more helpful than almost any training I’ve ever been to on anything in ministry in my life.

And sometimes I have to have that conversation with myself. No, no, you are reacting out of fear. You need to stop and just slow down.

But sometimes our fears will convince us. They will overwhelm us and they will convince us God can’t handle this situation. Oh, I know he promised something, but he wasn’t talking about this.

God couldn’t have foreseen. When your fears start telling you God can’t or God hasn’t, they’re lying to you. But in their fears in verse 24, they were saying, Master, Master, we are perishing.

No, you’re not, because Jesus is still in the boat with you, but that fear infests your brain where you can’t think clearly. And I think a lot of it comes down to our knowledge of Jesus hasn’t become trust yet. I was listening to an interview with a professor talking about this idea of faith in the scriptures the other day.

And he was talking about how we treat the biblical concept of faith as just belief that. You know, I believe that Jesus can. I believe that Jesus did.

It’s a whole different thing. The biblical idea of faith, that’s part of it, but it’s so much more. And he likened it to getting married.

And getting married with the perspective we’re supposed to have that when you say, I do, I’m all in, I’m fully committed, I trust this person. Like the story from centuries ago about the conquistador, I can’t remember which one, but landed in Mexico and told his men to burn the ships because we’re not going back. We’re here.

That’s faith. It’s not just belief that something is true. It’s trust in that fact.

And I’ve been thinking about what that man was talking about. And as it applies to this, our relationship with Jesus is intimately connected to our trust in Him. Because trust isn’t just part of a relationship.

Trust is the relationship. Any meaningful relationship we have is based on trust. And There’s a spectrum of this, but the depth of the relationship is tied to the trust you have in the other person. When I walk into Chick-fil-A, I trust they’re not putting anything weird in my sandwich.

I don’t know those people, most of them, but I have at least the amount of trust that they didn’t do something to my food. On the far other end of the spectrum, I trust my wife implicitly. I trust my wife more than anybody else on this planet.

She’s the one person I know I can tell what’s ever on my mind, and she’s not going to judge me or hold it against me. All of our relationships require trust. It requires trust to be church family. And I look around and I see people I trust. I see Christy that I can talk to about ministry things and work through those things.

And sometimes we have disagreements, but we figure it out. And I trust her, and I know she’s got my back. I look at Aaliyah, who I’ve trusted to be in my home watching my children.

That’s a lot of trust. I look at Bob and Polly that I’ve trusted to be in my home with my children. I look at Rick. Well, I would look at him, but he’s out there.

I look at Rick. I’ve traveled across the country with Rick. So what kind of trust does that require?

Go down to Stripes, find a random person, and just take a road trip with them. No, we don’t do that. But I look at people that I know and we trust each other.

I won’t name names in this, but so many of you have come to me in my office or in the fellowship hall or in here or over a cup of coffee or something and have talked about struggles that you have in life or questions that you have about God’s Word, and you have trusted me enough to bring those to me. And in many cases, I’ve entrusted stories back to you. Even the relationships we have together are built on trust. The relationship we have with Jesus is not just built on belief that He is.

That’s the foundation of it. But we have a trust in Him because we believe that He is. Our relationships have to be based on trust. And sometimes when we find it hard to walk by faith, it’s because that knowledge, that knowledge of who He is, that knowledge of what He said, that knowledge of what He did, it has not yet translated in our brains, in our hearts, into trust. And I think that’s where they were, because they came and woke Him up.

They came and woke Him up, and one of the other Gospels tells us, I think it’s Matthew, they actually asked Him, save us, Lord. They’re calling out to Him. Save us, Lord, we’re perishing.

But they had enough belief in him to ask him for help. But the fact that they were so afraid, they were so surprised when he actually did something and it worked. And the way Jesus handled the situation tells us that there wasn’t a real trust. It’s more like they were calling out to him as the last resort rather than trusting in him.

It was more of a head knowledge that he could than something that had translated into actual trust. And I think sometimes that’s where we are in our walk with the Lord. We read the book. We know what he said.

We know what he did. We know what he’s capable of, but we haven’t yet become convinced that he can and he will. On the other hand, Jesus has given us plenty of reasons why we should trust him.

First of all, his past performance. I don’t know why the phrase has stuck in my head, but when you would see, I watched a lot of history channel back before they got into aliens and swamp things, and I don’t know. But they used to have back in the 90s these commercials for stock brokerage firms, and they would always say, past performance does not guarantee future results.

Okay, they have to put that on there so they don’t get sued, but past performance is probably the best indicator of future results in anything, in anything in life. And you can look at the past performance of Jesus and know who He is and know what He’s capable of. Why should I believe that He can handle my situation, because look at all the things that He’s handled before.

And if we go to verse 22, it says, now one of those days, Jesus and His disciples got onto a boat. That may not mean much to you, but that tells me this started out as just another day walking with Jesus and witnessing all the miracles they had. This was nothing out of the ordinary.

These men had for months been walking with Jesus and seeing the things He had done, seeing the healings, seeing the raising from the dead, hearing him teach with authority, and just being awestruck by everything that he had done. And if you look at that, if you’re less focused on the storm, and instead you’re looking at everything Jesus has done up to this point, that will bolster your faith like nothing else. I will tell you, moments of fear when I start thinking God can’t handle, and I would never say it like that, but this situation’s too big.

This is not going to work out. This is not going to get fixed. This is going to be a catastrophe.

Part of that calming down and slowing down is to start thinking about the ways that God has come through before. This is something that Israelites did all throughout the Old Testament over and over. Every time they were called to step out on faith, right before that, somebody stepped up and began recounting the stories of how God had been faithful to their nation.

That’s why they built monuments. That’s why they would build altars at places God had done a miracle because they wanted to remember. We can go through God’s Word, and we can see the things that Jesus has handled before.

And our faith can be strengthened through that. But you can also look at your own life and the things that He’s done for you up until now. You look at His past performance, like the disciples who should have looked at everything that had happened up to this just one day we got on the boat and seen the past performance.

And that’s why our faith is not just a leap in the dark. It’s based on evidence. It’s rooted in who He is and what He’s always done.

But his past performance gives us reason to trust him. Also his promises. And you might say, well, where did he make a promise?

Because I missed it too, several times reading this through. But look at verse 22. He said to them, let us go over to the other side of the lake.

If they believe that he meant what he said, and if they believe that he had the power to do all the things he’d done up until now, he already told them where they’re going. He didn’t just say, let’s go on a boat ride and see where it goes. They already had the promise that they were going to the other side of the lake.

He emphasized in the last things that happened in in Luke chapter 8 he emphasized trusting his word and now his word said they were going to the other side. So sometimes when we’re walking through a storm and we find it difficult to trust him we don’t stop at looking back at how he’s come through before in scripture and in our own lives. We also take a look back at the scriptures and say what has he promised?

Now he’s never promised that every situation is going to be fixed exactly the way we want it. I wish, but he doesn’t work for me. I work for him.

But he has made promises to us in his word. He’s told us that he’s working things out for our good and for his glory. Now his definition of good may look different from ours.

I’ll let you in on a little secret. I believe in Romans when he says he’s working all things together for good, for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. When he says good, I think the context there points to he’s using circumstances to make us look, to make us more like Jesus, which puts a little different spin on it than, oh, everything’s just going to be peachy.

But see, we have certain promises that he’s given in his word that we can fall back on because he’s always kept his promises. And then the final reason I see in this text of reasons he’s given us why we can trust him is his presence. If they just paid attention to the fact that he’s here with us on the boat.

They were sailing and he fell asleep. Jesus wasn’t worried about this. Jesus wasn’t worried about the storm.

And rather than notice that, they get mad. I mean, rather than take comfort in that, they almost seem annoyed. You don’t care that we’re perishing, they ask in another one of the Gospels.

But He was still with them. His presence remains with us. Now, not in the same way as them, but for one thing, He’s given us His Holy Spirit.

The Bible calls that a seal and an earnest, a down payment. How do we know He hasn’t abandoned us? How do we know He hasn’t left us and forgotten about us?

Because He’s given us the Holy Spirit. His presence is still with us. And so I want to leave off with this this morning.

I think there are two vital questions that are asked in this passage that you and I need to consider when we go through storms. And maybe even when the skies are fair, we ask ourselves these in preparation for the storms. The question Jesus asks in verse 25, where is your faith? Is our faith rooted in Jesus? Is it a biblical faith that comes from a place of trusting Him have walked with Him long enough to know that we can trust Him?

Has it gone from being a belief that to being a trust in? And then the question they asked in verse 25, who then is this? Who is this man that He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him?

Because that question, if we ask ourselves that question and we answer that question, that’s going to help take care of the where is your faith question. The most important question Jesus ever asked His followers is, who do you say that I am? And if we stop and ask ourselves, who is he?

Who do I believe him to be? Who do I know him to be? That’s going to go a long way towards strengthening our faith to come through the storms. That’s also the question that starts our very relationship with him.

Who is he? Is he a good moral teacher? Is he just a historical figure?

Is he a man with some good ideas? Or is he who he claimed to be? When he claimed to be God in the flesh, when he came to, when he claimed to be the one to come to die for our sins in full, when he claimed to rise again under the Father’s power, when he claimed to be the one that forgave our sins, do you believe in that Jesus?

Even the relationship begins with not just a belief that, but a trust in. Trusting that when Jesus claimed to be our one and only Savior, that he really is that person. To recognize that you and I have sinned against a holy God, that that sin incurs a penalty, and the only way that penalty could be paid and our debt could be cleared was for Jesus to be the sacrifice.

And so he went to the cross, he shed his blood, he died paying for your sins and mine in full, and rose again, so that you and I could be forgiven if we would put our trust in him.

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