Matthew 8:23-27 | "Lord of the Storm"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I'd like you to open your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew chapter eight.

We looked at this passage last week, and we're going to look at it again.

Where the Lord's disciples were distracted.

They were distracted by the storm.

Matthew chapter 8, beginning in verse 23 through verse 27.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

Matthew records this incident, and when Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him.

And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was covered by the waves.

But Jesus was asleep.

And the disciples went and woke him, saying, Save us, Lord, we are perishing.

And he said to them, Why are you cowardly, O you of little faith?

Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea.

And there was a great calm.

And the men marveled, saying, What sort of man is this?

That even the winds and the sea obey him?

Would you pray with me?

Lord Jesus.

I ask that you would enable us to be focused this morning.

Yes, even me.

To be able to see you, to not be distracted by our storms, by our uncertainties, by the anxieties of life.

Open our eyes to see you.

Give us eyes of faith, I ask to see you, to be focused on you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

I routinely come across the statement from professing Christians that God will not give you more than you can handle.

It sounds good.

It sounds comforting.

But it's blatantly false.

You will not find it in your Bible.

I will go so far as to say it is a falsehood from the pit of hell that will do great damage to your soul and your spiritual life if you rest in it.

For what will you do when God does give you more than you can handle?

The unbiblical idea that God doesn't give us more than we can handle derives from a misapplication of something that is true.

And that biblical truth is found in 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

I encourage you to study it on your own sometime.

It says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability, but when we are tempted, he provides a way of escape in order to endure the temptation.

Now that truth is specifically about enduring the temptation to sin.

But it has been twisted and mangled through improper application to all of life.

And that mangling of scripture shows us that we can actually damage our spiritual lives through improper interpretation and application.

You see, application of scripture must be tied to proper interpretation.

They're vitally connected.

If you sever a major blood vessel going to your arm or to your leg, then that appendage can be greatly damaged.

You may even lose the appendage.

The same is true for the application of Scripture.

If we treat application casually as though we can apply it any way we like, then we are putting ourselves in a position of spiritual danger.

If you asked the disciples, the twelve disciples, if God takes us through circumstances that are beyond our ability to handle, they would likely put their arm around you and sit you down and say, let me tell you about the time the Lord ordered us into a boat on the Sea of Galilee.

Those seasoned fishermen were commanded by the Lord Jesus to go into a storm that would overwhelm them.

It was beyond their ability to navigate.

But it was not beyond Christ's authority.

Almost every single one of us has faced some kind of storm that knocked us to the ground, whether literally or figuratively, that took away every ability we had in ourselves to control our lives and to control, in some sense, its circumstances.

It's in those moments that this passage becomes real to us.

Because it's when we are at the end of our rope, finally at the end of our rope, that we truly begin to see Jesus as the Lord of creation.

And when we begin to see him as the Lord of creation, growth begins to come to our faith as our eyes are opened in that time of testing to see Jesus as the Lord of the storm.

Now, this is applicable to you even if you can't relate yet to a life-crushing storm.

Your storm will come.

Just give it time.

And you would do well, my friend, to be prepared for when Christ orders you into the boat.

Prepare yourself now by seeking to know Jesus more now and to trust him more.

I wish we sang a song.

And I said this to Webb this week, and he said, I wish we did too.

Written a long time ago by a man named William William Cooper, who went through all kinds of storms.

This is what he wrote.

He said, God moves in a mysterious way.

His wonders to perform.

He plants his footsteps in the sea and he rides upon the storm.

Deep and unfathomable minds of never-failing skill, he treasures up bright designs and works his sovereign will.

Jesus is Lord of the storm.

Storms, both real and metaphorical, have been a big part of my life.

I don't know what my earliest memory of storms is, but there are several that come to mind that stand out.

I remember camping with my parents one time somewhere, and we were driving, pulling the camper along a long gravel road, more like a mud road.

And we left the camping ground early because it had been raining and raining and raining.

Before we left the campground, Dad put chains on the tires of the pickup to make sure that we could get out.

After driving for some time, we stopped the pickup, and Dad said we lost one of the chains.

So he stopped the pickup, he turned it off, and he got out into the storm and he went looking for the chains.

And all I remember was standing up on the seat in the pickup crying because it took so long for my dad to come back.

I wondered if he got lost in the storm.

I remember backpacking one time.

I love backpacking in the mountains, and this was probably the worst trip that I've ever been on.

We got it into the mountains a day, and the next day it started raining.

And it kept raining that day and all day the next day.

And I think it was after two days of rain.

Then the third day we woke up and there was an inch of water in the bottom of our tent.

And if there was an inch of water in the bottom of our tent, then you know what that meant for our sleeping bags.

And this was during a very dry year in the state of Montana where they had outlawed fires in the mountains.

So here we were in the mountains with soaked equipment and no ability to dry it out.

Don't tell anybody, but we made a fire anyway.

Another backpacking trip, I remember getting up high into the mountains above Timberline.

It's above about 10,000 feet, and had a group of young men with me.

If I remember right, this was the first backpacking trip for one or two of them.

And as we got to the place where we were going to camp, I could see dark clouds on the horizon beyond the mountain peaks.

And I said to the guys, guys, we got to get our tent up now.

We got our tent up very quickly, just as it was beginning to rain, and we we dove into our tents and brought all of our gear into the tents with us, thankfully.

Because we were in there for a couple of hours, and by the time the couple of hours were done, there was snow on the ground and a zipper on our tent was frozen shut.

We had to take our pocket knives and chip away the ice from the inside of the zipper on the tent.

Of course, there are metaphorical storms in my life, too.

Wow.

The loss of friends, rejection by friends, major depression.

My dad's brain cancer and his eventual death.

Years of infertility.

A failed adoption.

And perhaps the greatest, both literal and metaphorical, was the blizzard of 1978, in which the Lord took my mom and my sisters home.

What storms have you been through?

I've been through a lot.

But if you follow Jesus, you're going to go through storms.

Some of them may have just some small waves that may just rock your boat a little bit.

And some of them are going to feel like this boat where the waves were covering the boat.

Now, as we think about the storms of life, we need to remember that this passage here is not about us.

We talked about that last Sunday.

If you are visiting with us this morning and you missed last Sunday, I encourage you to go back and listen to that audio.

You'll get a little bit of background and substance for this sermon.

This is more applicational of this text that we uncovered last week.

This text is not about us.

It's not about the disciples.

It's not even truly about the storm, it's about Jesus.

But if we're careful, we can apply what this passage says about Jesus and the storm to our lives as disciples and the storms that we are called to endure.

And I want to take us through this passage with Jesus and the disciples out onto the lake in this terrifying storm one more time.

And there's one truth that I want us to take to heart.

Just one.

Everything that we're going to talk about relates back to this one truth that we must make a part of who we are.

If you have come to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, saving you from your sin, and you are his disciple, then this must become a part of your life.

Disciples, all disciples must know and live by this truth.

You ready?

Jesus possesses all authority over the storm because he is Lord of creation.

Jesus possesses all authority over the storm because he is Lord of creation.

And you say, Pastor, that's what you preached last Sunday.

That's right.

I did.

It's Matthew's point.

And if it's Matthew's point in recording this story, then we cannot deviate from that truth in our application and still be faithful to Scripture.

As we do this, I want you to remember what the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians chapter 1, verse 16.

Colossians 1:16

Speaking of the Lord Jesus, he said, For by him, that is, by Jesus, all things were created.

Is anything left out of that?

No, that includes you, right?

All things were created.

All things were created through him, through his power, through his being.

They were created for him.

And as you go on in the passage, you will see that even now in Jesus all things hold together, even your storm.

Without Jesus, your storm would not be present.

We have to begin there with what Matthew wants us to see about this Jesus, by whom and for whom and in whom all things exist.

Now, how do we apply that truth in our lives?

How do we see from this truths that will help us grow as followers of Christ?

Well, first, let's think about this particular storm on the Sea of Galilee.

Satan, as Lord of the earth and the sworn enemy of God, sought to drown God's plan in the storm.

What could be better for Satan's kingdom than for Jesus and the disciples to end up at the bottom of the sea?

Of course, Jesus will prove in the next section who really is Lord.

That's why, though, we have very specific language here about Jesus rebuking the storm.

Imagine yourself looking down at the Sea of Galilee, at the storm and that small skiff from heaven.

Imagine standing in the sea of glass in heaven and looking through it and seeing all of this take place.

You would see a battle between two kingdoms.

In the fullness of time, the Lord Jesus came to overthrow the devil's kingdom, to crush the head of Satan and to establish his eternal kingdom.

And Satan does everything he can to thwart that plan.

And you will see an intense battle taking place on the sea during the darkness of night.

Only Jesus knows what's coming.

The disciples do not.

The disciples will face more than they can handle in their own strength and ability as they come face to face with the truth that Jesus is Lord of the storm because he is Lord of creation.

And yet, here's the crazy thing for you and me.

The storms, the storms of life, just like it was for these disciples, the storms of life are places for revelation.

They're avenues of challenge and correction in life.

They're places where our faith grows.

Let's begin with that thought about the storms being places for revelation.

What do we see here?

Well, we see, first of all, that Jesus reveals Himself through your storms.

I don't have inherent authority.

Any authority that any human being possesses is a delegated authority.

Even the President of the United States of America has an authority that is delegated to him by the American people through the Constitution of the United States.

No human being has inherent authority.

That's why Jesus would say to Pilate in John chapter 19, verse 11, you would have no authority if it were not given to you from above.

John 19:11

But Jesus is different, isn't he?

Jesus is not just any man.

He possesses all authority.

If you question that, look at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 28, 18.

Jesus says, all authority has been granted to me.

That's important when we see Matthew's cliffhanger in verse 27.

What sort of man is this?

What kind of human being rebukes a storm?

Mark says in his account of this situation that the disciples were filled with great fear.

Literally, they were frightened with a great fright.

You ever been there?

You know, Proverbs says that someone always sounds right until another person comes along to challenge them.

It's the same with our perceptions of God.

We gain our perceptions of God from our culture, from our society, from our family, from our upbringing.

Even from church, we gain informed perceptions of God.

But when we come to know Jesus through the actual revelation of Himself in Scripture, through God's word itself, those perceptions of Jesus begin to be challenged.

Because truth starts to challenge our small perceptions of God.

You say, I don't have a small perception of God.

I say, Yes, you do.

Because everyone has a small perception of God.

Every single person has a small perception of Christ because his power and his authority are infinite and by definition beyond comprehension.

That's why John Calvin once wrote, When men seek to comprehend the power of God, it's like a fly attempting to devour all the mountains.

Doesn't work.

But here's what happens.

When we attempt to, when we endeavor to understand who Christ is, humility begins to grow within us.

A humility that understands who I am in relation to the greatness of Christ.

And it's a humility that bows in awe before the greatness of the Son of Man.

When we truly begin to grasp, even in small bits, the revelation of Jesus, when we begin to see him as he has revealed himself, we are moved to humility and ultimately to worship.

Soon they're going to reach the other side of the lake to the area called the Gatarines.

It's a Gentile place, it's not a Jewish place.

Those people had a comprehension of Jesus that, in essence, just generated a level of stark fear without worship.

They said to Jesus, get out of here.

We don't want you here.

We are afraid of what you might do.

We don't want you here.

There's no humility in those people, just sort of this base human fear.

The disciples on the boat reacted cowardly because they feared perishing more than they feared the power of Jesus.

This storm, which in the grand picture is a battle of the kingdom of Satan against the invasion of Christ and his power, shook the disciples out of their self-absorption with the storm so that they could see Jesus.

To see how he was revealing himself to them.

And so they say, what kind of man is this?

You know, it often takes a life-impacting storm to shake us out of our arrogant self-focus.

It takes a mega seismic, that's what it means in a great storm there, a great shaking to realize and to humble us that we're not even in charge of our own lives.

It's in those moments that we face a handful of choices.

One is a choice to be fatalistic.

We could say, what's going to happen is going to happen no matter what I do, right?

Another choice is humanistic.

Just push through.

Just keep on going.

Put your head down, put on your boots, and just go.

Just keep pushing through.

Persevere.

Do your best.

But the only reaction to the storms of life that has value is when we trust in the Lord of the storm.

For there's no other way.

You see, this is a this is a your God is too small kind of moment.

Disciples must know Jesus as the God who causes people to fall on their faces as though dead, while at the same moment know Jesus as a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Sometimes we lean more into Jesus as our friend and companion because that's comfortable, that's supporting, that's encouraging, that's loving.

But that can have a detrimental effect of lessening Jesus as the one whom Isaiah saw as high and lifted up and about whom the angels cried out, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Let's not forget either.

Let's know Jesus as the one who spoke us into existence and calms the storm with a word, but also as the one who lifts us up to bring comfort and peace to our troubled souls.

We cannot have one without the other.

For Christ is both.

He is the one we love because he first loved us.

He is also so powerful that we would fall down as though dead before these glory.

He is the one who can just as easily still the storm with words or strengthen us to endure the storm in order to bring him glory.

We must seek to see Jesus as the Lord of the storm.

We might not know what he's doing.

We might think he's crazy.

You might say to him, Lord, I can't do this.

And he will say, You're right.

Welcome to the boat.

But as John Murray once wrote, he said, It is not easy to trust God when he appears to be silent, as he was with Job.

But trust we must.

Jesus reveals himself in your storm.

That's not all he reveals, though.

He also reveals something about us.

If Jesus is taking you through a storm, he's going to show you something about you.

Generally, that something is not real positive.

Something that needs some correction.

Jesus reveals truth about us.

You know, your perception of your life, your perception of your storms is at some level inaccurate.

You can't fully see your situation, your life with perfect objectivity.

Case in point, the disciples in the boat.

They were fighting against the storm, right?

They were rowing, they were probably messing with the sail, they were bailing water out of the boat, they were doing everything they could.

And what was their conclusion?

We are dead.

Jesus, we're it's over.

That was their perception of their reality.

They were convinced that they were perishing.

I can remember a moment sometime, sometime around three years old, when my my sister and I were out on the porch during a thunderstorm.

I don't remember much about that situation other than that apparently I was afraid.

Because I remember my sister telling me that I didn't need to be afraid of the thunder.

Every three-year-old is afraid of the thunder, right?

Sometimes every 30-year-old is afraid of the thunder.

My perception was that I needed to be afraid of the sound.

But that's not true, is it?

See, in the midst of the storm, our ability to see things as they really are is limited.

That's why our good shepherd uses storms to reveal to us who we really are.

See, storms show us that we fear creation more than we fear him.

We fear this world and this life more than we fear Christ.

It reveals weaknesses in us.

It reveals what or who we really trust.

Storms reveal to us where we find rest.

Storms reveal to us where we find comfort and encouragement.

Storms reveal to us what concerns us most.

It reveals to us in what we are hoping or what we're hoping for.

Storms show us that we're like the soldiers in front of the army, shaking in their boots because of a man named Goliath.

Storms reveal to us that we're just like the Israelites who said, we can't go into the land.

There are giants in there.

We may even, like Jonah, the prophet, fear that God might be merciful towards someone we don't like.

Storms reveal our cowardice.

That's the character of those who lack faith.

Jesus says to the disciples, Why are you cowardly?

Are you of little faith?

Anton wanted me to preach a sermon on being cowardly.

I'm not gonna do that, just gonna mention the text that he wanted to really bring out.

Revelation chapter 21, verse 8 says, But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Revelation 21:8

That's shocking.

The destiny of the cowardly is hell.

What do we do with that?

Why is that the destiny of the cowardly ought to be our first question.

And we look back then in Revelation chapter 21 and verses 5 through 8, and you will see that God is developing a contrast for the Apostle John between those who are his children and those who are not his children.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

And he's saying, Those who are my children will be brought into my rest and into my peace, but those who are not my children will be sent to a second death, to the lake of fire.

That's why it says right before that, I will be his God and he will be my son.

Hear that again.

I will be his God and he will be my son.

God says that to every person who places their faith in him.

And then he says, but as for the cowardly, do you see it?

Those who are the children of God have no reason to be cowardly.

Those who are the children of God are not by nature any longer given to cowardice.

Because God says, I'm going to give you my spirit, I'm going to put my spirit within you, and you will no longer follow the works of the flesh, but show the fruit of the spirit.

And so we act cowardly then when we walk by sight.

When we walk by sight, we look at everything around us.

With the disciples in the boat, we're looking at the storm, we're looking at the height of the waves, we're looking at the amount of water in the boat, we're looking at the billowing of the sail.

We're wrestling with the oars in the boat, and we're thinking, how in the world are we going to stay afloat?

And Jesus says, You're looking at the wrong thing.

You're walking by sight, not by faith.

And if you walk by faith, there's no place for cowardice.

So you see then what revelation does.

When in the midst of the storms we begin to see Jesus.

When our eyes are turned off of what we're enduring and we look to see Jesus, we see ourselves properly, we see our situation in light of Him.

And we are then moved to confession, to repentance, and to worship.

And the next step after that is trust.

Trust in what?

Well, if we're talking about storms, it's trust in Christ to control the storm.

Because Jesus reveals here that he controls everything, even the storms.

In the next section, he's going to show us that he controls Satan and demons.

You know, scripture reveals something interesting to us.

And this account here is a perfect illustration of it.

God's creation isn't running right.

Every once in a while I think about our old car that I drive.

What's that noise?

You know, as something gets older, it degrades, and you know, things happen to it and it doesn't run exactly the way it did, as it was brand new.

God's creation isn't running right.

In the section before this, the animals have homes, but the creator doesn't.

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

That's why Jesus is trying to sleep in a boat.

In a storm.

The creation, the natural world, is out of control.

The storm is threatening to swamp the boat.

Jesus is asleep, and his disciples fear it will overwhelm them and destroy them all.

See, this is where we begin to realize our need for some biblical theology.

When you look in all of Scripture, you begin to see that over and over and over again, water, specifically the seas, are often presented as a threat to God's program, to God's kingdom.

It starts in Genesis chapter 1, verse 2.

Genesis 1:2

It gives us this unformed, unfilled darkness where waters covered everything.

Until God says, Go back.

I'm going to set boundaries for you.

A few chapters later, God says, I'm going to take away those boundaries and I'm going to flood the earth.

Destroyed a world that rebelled against God.

As Israel fled from Pharaoh's tyranny and Pharaoh's army was chasing after them, they come to their first major stop.

Where is it?

The Red Sea.

And they say to Moses, You brought us out here to put us between a rock and a hard place?

So that we might be slaughtered?

Really?

This is what you did.

And then for just a day, for just a day, the ruler of the sea changed its boundaries.

And he made a path through the sea.

And when his people, his children, were safe, he said, Now return to your place.

And he flooded the sea and covered Pharaoh's army.

It's Exodus 14.

Over and over again in the scriptures, the waters present threats to God's people.

Psalm 69, Isaiah 43, Jonah chapter 1, Jonah chapter 2.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention Jonah 2 · chapter mention

So to these disciples, the sudden storm whirling in the Sea of Galilee that feels like some giant being shaking their world is yet another threat to their survival in an out-of-control world.

And if the storm succeeds, then the Messiah is going to perish with them.

Let that settle.

But all hope perishes if the Savior drowns.

If Jesus drowns with his disciples, then evil and chaos will continue to reign and the kingdom of God will not be established.

Now notice then that Jesus speaks to his disciples before he rebukes the wind and the waves.

I just find this image astounding.

The disciples are all out of control, they're going crazy.

And Jesus wakes up and says, What's wrong with you?

The boat is still being tossed around.

Jesus is likely soaked.

And yet, while the wind is still billowing, while the waves are still crashing over the boat, he says to them, You're walking according to sight.

You're acting cowardly.

While the wind and the waves are still raging, rocking and sloshing the boat, Jesus confronts his disciples over their fear and unbelief.

As one writer put it, I quote, he wants them to feel the force of his words while the storm is still raging.

Are you listening to Jesus in your storm?

Jesus will confront us with the reality of who he is in the midst of the storm.

Do we look to Jesus either in Scripture or in what we know of him to be challenged and corrected in the midst of our storms?

Do we look to Jesus to be rebuked in our storms?

You see, the nature of Jesus' rebuke to the disciples is that they trusted Jesus so little.

Along comes the first storm of their discipleship, and they don't trust his power and his authority.

How do you think they're gonna handle his crucifixion?

If they can't handle a little storm on the Sea of Galilee, what are they gonna do when they see Jesus lifted up and crucified?

They need, every disciple needs a strong, deep trust that even if they see Jesus nailed to a Roman cross, they will still believe in him, just like Abraham believed in the resurrection when God told him to offer his son as a sacrifice.

One writer put it this way: In the calm, Jesus' students pondered his authority.

What kind of person commands the forces of nature?

With a word spirits and sicknesses yielded, with a word winds and seas subsided, what kind of person has that authority?

Do you confess that Jesus is in control of your storm?

Do you confess that my storm submits to Jesus?

Let's move then from avenues of revelation to avenues of challenge and correction.

Jesus uses storms to challenge our shaky faith.

Notice what Jesus does here.

So in Revelation, cowardice is assigned as a reality of those who don't belong to God, who aren't his children.

But here Jesus says, you are not those people because you have a little faith.

You have faith.

It's very little, but you have faith.

Therefore, the cowardice is not the cowardice of unbelief in terms of trusting in Jesus.

The cowardice is the unbelief of walking daily with Jesus in the midst of the storms of life.

When we are challenged about our cowardice, when we're challenged about our timidity, about our shaky faith, we must be moved to confession and repentance.

There is purpose and intention in your storm.

You may not realize it, you may not see it, you may not understand it, but there is purpose and intention in your storm.

We can't see those details, but they are in the mind of God.

And if you are a believer in Jesus, then you can be assured that God's purposes and God's intentions for you in your storm are good.

Remember the situation here.

Even the experienced professional fishermen are cowardly in the face of the storm when Jesus is with them in the boat.

Now the disciples were a level above the Gadderenes in the next section.

The Gadderen didn't believe in Jesus, they wanted him gone.

That's why Matthew returns in verse 27.

He doesn't call them disciples, he calls them men.

You're acting like fleshly human beings who aren't trusting in God.

And the disciples then are confronted in their cowardice by the awesome power of Jesus.

So the truth of this situation.

Is quite simple.

There is absolutely no reason to be timid, to be fearful, or to be cowardly of any kind of storm if Jesus is in the boat with you.

Right?

The creation is not going to drown its creator.

Remember what Jesus said?

No one can take his life from him.

But he gives it up.

Nothing will happen to you that Jesus, the Lord of creation, does not allow or directly cause to take place.

So how much do you trust the Lord of your storm?

Remember, Hebrews reminds us in Hebrews 13.

Promise of God, I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.

I asked you earlier, what is your storm?

What is your mega seismicos, your great shaking at the present time?

My friend, Jesus is with you in that boat.

Jesus will be always with you in the storm.

And he will be so calm that he could be laying down sleeping while you're going crazy and frenetic.

Why?

Because he's Lord of the storm.

You will feel as though he's ignoring your pleas for help, as if he's not listening to you.

He's not ignoring you.

He's fulfilling his purpose because he's Lord of the storm.

Therefore, do not fear your storm.

Do not let it stir you up to anxiety and cowardice because the Lord of the storm has himself said, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you in the midst of the storm.

Do you believe that?

Now there's a bunch of practical elements here that would take an entire sermon to cover.

If that is true, if he is with us, then what does that imply about our timidity in speaking to other people about Jesus?

If we get nervous and uncertain and scared and frightened about sharing the gospel with somebody, then Jesus could say to us, just like he said to the disciples, why are you cowardly?

I'm here.

What does it mean about standing firm in the truth of Scripture?

Friends, we're we're entering a time in world history in which I believe that the Church of Christ is going to have a much harder time.

Are we going to be cowardly?

Or are we going to recognize and trust that the Lord of the storm has promised to walk through it with us?

We must confess the sin of living in our own strength, of fighting the storms on our own, and then repent of it.

Face the storm and the unknown with the strength of Christ's spirit.

Repent simply means change your mind.

Change the way you've been thinking about this, that I have to endure the storm.

No, Christ will give me guidance and strength through the storm.

Think differently about what causes you fear as a follower of Christ, and then act differently because his spirit empowers you and he gives more grace.

I know, easier said than done.

But hear the truth and seek to live it out.

Finally, I'll stop with this point.

Jesus uses the storm to correct our view of him.

Jesus uses the storm to correct our view of him.

But not just that.

He wants to take our little cowardly faith and mature it.

He wants to strengthen it.

He wants to build it.

We often begin at the place of cowardice and timidity.

But when Christ's might and his power and his authority are revealed to us and we begin to see more of who Jesus is, we are then moved into a place of fearful worship of him.

We begin to realize that we are sinful creatures before a holy God.

We see ourselves as needing to have our faith strengthened.

We are too often like these disciples in the boat.

We are timid and we are cowardly when Azlan, the king, Christ, the lion of Judah, is right beside us.

Confess that cowardice and that timidity and repent of it and ask, beg to see more of Jesus.

And that then becomes the fertilizer for our faith.

It's there that our faith begins to grow.

It's there that our little faith grows in strength, it grows in height, it grows in depth, it grows in breadth, it grows in its resolve.

My friends, we often enter our storms overwhelmed with anxiety, with grief, with sadness, with pain from having to endure the storm and all of the tolls that it takes.

But what kind of difference would it make if we could enter the storm seeking to consume the nutrients of the fertilizer so as to grow in trust and obedience through the storm?

That Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, said, little faith, from one point of view, is most precious.

But under another way of thinking, it is most unjustifiable.

Why would we have little faith in a great God?

It is well that there is faith.

It is ill, it is bad, that it is little.

Let's face the storm.

Not with unending grief over the loss of things in this world, or with the compounding introspection over struggle in the storm.

Let's face the storm with boldness and with trust because we see Jesus.

We see Jesus, the Lord of the storm, whom we love and worship and long to embrace.

And when we do that, we begin to change.

You want to see it?

Look at Peter and John.

I'm assuming they were in the boat.

They began with fear and cowardice.

They needed that correction to their faith.

They needed their faith to grow and to mature.

Three years later, after spending time with Jesus, they were brought before the Jewish Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin, for preaching.

Specifically for preaching Jesus.

They were beaten.

They declared, in return, we must obey God rather than men.

And the scriptures say they left rejoicing.

How does that happen?

How do you face a storm like that by seeing Jesus?

Another one, John.

Look at John on the island of Patmos, somewhere around 90 years old at the end of his life.

He's been exiled on an island for his faith in Christ.

We don't see any kind of complaint.

We don't see any kind of pity party.

Instead, John is looking to Jesus and he is given a revelation of Jesus.

You see, we see Christ more clearly in the storm.

And when we look to see him, that begins to increase our faith.

And then resting, resting in the authority of Jesus over the storm ought to calm our anxiety.

It ought to reduce our panic.

It ought to undermine our uncertainty.

And then we go out and we live under the authority of Jesus, which brings a settled hope in the midst of the storms of life.

And then, as God's children, we can endure because we know who is in the boat.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, help us.

We have too little faith.

Grant us grace, Lord Jesus, to see you.

To see you with eyes of faith.

Oh, we would love to see you with our physical eyes.

And we pray even come soon.

But until then, give us eyes of faith to see you, to know you, to understand you, to see your glory, to see your beauty, to see your power, to see your authority, to see your greatness, and to know that even though you are such a great being, the creator of all things, who holds things together, that you love us enough to lay down your life for us.

May you give the gift of faith to trust in you today to someone who's not had it.

And may you strengthen the faith of your people to follow you even into the storm.

Lord, we trust you, and we know that you are Lord of the Storm.

Glorify yourself through us.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.