What To Do In The Storms Of Life

And so let's open up in prayer.

Before I get into the word, I'm not long-winded, right?

If anybody ever says I'm long-winded, I don't know what they're smoking, I mean like I am short-winded.

I think Pastor has a saying like God, or maybe it came from John Osteen like God, bless the short-winded, because they shall be invited back.

I don't know if we go by that motto anymore, but praise God anyhow.

God is good.

Let's open up in prayer, father.

We thank you, lord, we thank you for your word.

It is sharp, it is powerful, it is the answer to every problem.

And we thank you, father, that you didn't leave us as orphans, but you gave us the Holy Spirit, the mighty Holy Spirit.

He's mighty and living on the inside of us, and so we just thank you.

He's our strengthener, he's our comforter, and so I thank you.

As we hear the word of God, I thank you that it's growing big on the inside of us, and so I just thank you that we're not only hears, but we are doers of your word, and so we mix faith with what we hear in Jesus' name Amen, amen, amen.

And so if you brought your Bibles tonight, I'd like for you to open to Acts 27.

So, and if you're taking notes, I'm a note taker, I have lots and lots of notes.

I'm old school, pen and paper, but now I got an iPad and so now I downloaded like this new notes app and I'm learning all about it and so I'm with that now.

But I'm like torn because I'm just so old school, I still like pen and paper, but now with the notes app you can take pictures of your note and download, anyways, all the things.

So I'm getting all of that squared away.

But if you're taking notes, tonight the title of my message is what to do in the storms of life, what to do, you know, in the natural.

We live in Houston.

We've been through some storms, right, quite a bit of storms.

I grew up in the 80s.

I remember a tropical storm, alicia, I think.

I was like I think those are early 80s, and I just remember being at the house, being at my grandma's and she lives close to Galveston, I think that was a couple of days before.

But then we went, moved back, went back home, and so I just remember my parents.

I remember it was, you know, dark outside and rainy and and you know, take shelter and get in the middle of the house, all the things to do or not to do with the storm.

Right, as a kid, you know, you just want to.

You want to go out, even as adults, like at J.

How many of us, like, after the storm has hit, you want to go see, like you want to.

I want to go drive around.

What you know, what trees are down, what's what you know what, what lightning, what did it strike and what, what's going on, and so, and so one I think it was Ethan we were taken to college a couple years back and I believe it was Tropical Storm Harvey, and you know we were watching it closely, but we had to get back.

I think I believe it was on a Sunday, saturday night, maybe no early Sunday morning, but we had just passed through and like they closed all the freeways, like we just made it through it because we were going back and forth and we were praying much in the Holy Spirit, like God, what do you want us to do?

Do we stay?

We left Allison here, ethan's back at college, and like we got to get back, and so we did, we booked it back, but, praise God, we made it back, and so, and that's just the natural storms.

But in life, you know, we have storms.

Life happens right.

Whether you're you've just come out of a storm, whether you're going into a storm, god is faithful.

Amen, god is faithful.

And so in Acts 27,.

I'll read it.

I'm going to read it in the new living translation Um, starting with verse nine, acts 27, nine, and Joe J told me to go slower.

He's like give Lee time to put up the scriptures, cause I'm always really fast and so I'm going to try to take my time.

And um, so I can give you opportunity to turn in the Bible.

Acts 27, nine, and the new living translation says we had lost a lot of time.

The weather was becoming dangerous for sea travel because it was so late in the fall and Paul spoke to the ship's officers about it.

Men, he said, I believe there is trouble ahead If we go on shipwreck, loss of cargo and danger to our lives as well.

Verse 11,.

But the officer in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship's captain and the owner than to Paul and since Fair Havens was an exposed harbor, a poor place to spend the winter, most of the crew wanted to go on to Phoenix, farther up the coast of Crete, and spend the winter there.

Phoenix was a good harbor with only a Southwest and a Northwest exposure.

Versa and then we, if we go down to verse 18,.

The next day, a gale.

As gale force winds continue to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo cargo overboard.

The following day, they even took some of the ship's gear and through it overboard.

Verse 20,.

The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until, at last, all hope was gone.

Verse um, let's say 21,.

No one had eaten for a long time.

Finally, paul called the crew together and said men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete.

You would have avoided all this damage and loss.

But take courage, none of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down.

For last night, an angel of God, to whom I belong and whom I serve, stood beside me and he said do don't be afraid, paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar.

What's more, god in.

What's more, god in his goodness, has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.

So take courage.

Verse 25.

So take courage, for I believe God, it will just be.

It will be just as he said, but we will be shipped, wrecked on an island.

And so here, paul, I mean, he's encouraging them right, take courage.

So, every believer, we all go through storms in life, right and um, sometimes some storms aren't avoidable, but some storms are right, and so, um, I think that's a good thing, right.

And so, through no fault of his own, you know, god knows how to stop a storm.

Amen, he is all knowing, he is just God, he knows how to stop a storm.

And so I have a couple of points tonight, my, um, a couple of points on what to do in the storms of life.

Number one is stay in faith.

Stay in faith.

So, if you go back to verse 22, he says but take courage, none of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down.

Take, he says it again, he says it twice Take courage in verse 22.

And then he says it again In verse 25, so take courage, for I believe, god, it will be just as he said.

You know how many times do we say that during a storm?

It will be just as he said.

Do we say that we should?

Right, paul, here he was in a ship, couldn't see the stars, it was pitch black, they had to throw cargo, hey, they had to eat, you know, and then they had to probably throw the rest of the food away, and so to make the ship wider, I guess.

But they had to throw it overboard, and so it was the real storm, right?

And so we have to make sure, through the storm, that we stay in Faith.

Don't let your faith become shipwrecked, right?

And so Pastor says faith begins where the will of God is known, and so we need spiritual understanding.

We can't just be wishy-washy.

Faith begins where the will of God is known.

If you don't know the will of God about a certain situation, no, there's no faith there.

So we have to Get into the word and stay in faith.

Pastor also says faith will work in your heart, with doubt in your head.

Right, faith works in your heart.

Like, maybe you have some doubts in your head, no, faith will still work.

So faith is not a product of reason, right, we?

Well, I've a reason that.

No, that doesn't.

You know faith, faith is of not in the natural.

You have to get over that.

And so it's not a product of reason.

Faith is of the spirit, amen.

And in mark 1123 I have here my big Scripture study guide from pastor mark and Trina Hankins.

I just wanted to read to you a couple translations from mark 1123.

I thought it was so good, for rarely.

I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he sayeth shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he sayeth.

So we have to make sure that what we're saying is connected, right, like we can't have doubts here, let me read it in different translation be lifted from your place and hurled into the sea and has no inward doubts, right, no inward doubts.

And so we have to make sure.

Like we may be putting on a front or acting like everything's okay, but on the inside there may be doubt, and so we have to make sure that there's no inward doubts.

But believes that what he says is happening, it will be done for him, let me see.

Believe that what he says does take place, it shall be unto him, be thou taken and be thou cast into the sea, and not doubts In his heart of him, but believes that what he says Happens, it will be to him, he will have it, and that good has no hesitation in his heart, right?

And so we can't have any hesitation, but is sure that what he says is to come about and Entertains no inner doubt.

And so we can't.

We have to make sure not to entertain a A doubt.

You know, not to enter, not not to entertain and don't even go there, right?

And so let me read one more.

Anyone who speaks to that mountain yonder saying dump yourself in the lake, and does not become separated from the statement he makes, that person will actualize his statement.

When anyone's expression and prayers congruent with his inner being, the desire will be actualized.

And so we have to hook up with the Holy Ghost.

We have to pray much in the Holy Ghost, right?

We can't doubt, we can't have those inner doubts like no faith.

How does faith come?

By hearing and hearing, not just one time, hearing and hearing the word of God.

It's not enough just to get the word on a Sunday and like that's it right, right.

And so we have to make sure to keep on, keep it on, to keep on.

That's how our faith is gonna grow, to keep spending time in the word Amen.

And then, number two stay in the word.

Matthew 7, 24 through.

27 in the New Living Translation Says anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise.

Like a person who builds a house on solid rock.

Though the rain comes in torrents and floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock.

But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish.

Like a person who builds a house on a sand.

When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against the house, it will collapse with the mighty crash.

And so we have to make sure to stay in the word.

That's part of our foundation.

Right?

Both had a house built.

Right.

Both had storms, both heard right, and so it's not enough just to come to church.

We have to make sure to apply the word in the daily.

We have to make sure to apply the word Monday morning when we have to get up and go to work.

And so I wrote down difference between a house standing and not standing is what your house is built upon and what it's built with.

Right.

So what it's built upon is the word of God.

And what are you building it with?

Rejection, anger, frustration.

I'm gonna do it my way.

Sometimes we make these inner vowels, which that's a whole another message in and of itself.

But if you raise a certain way, I'll never do that because my mom did it that way Well, your inner vow, your inner commitment, is stronger than the word of God.

No, it shouldn't be.

We don't make those inner vows, we don't make those inner promises.

I'll never do that because I'll.

And usually that comes from a hurt.

That comes from just a hurt in the past, where you're like I'm never gonna do that.

No, we have to make sure just let the word of God sift that all away, amen.

And so we have to make sure we're staying in the word of God daily and not get it through Facebook, not get it through social media, like actually dig into the word.

Sometimes I'm torn because when Jay and I have prayer time and we get in our Bibles, I wanna get my phone, because then I wanna look up a different translation, but then I'm like no, because that's gonna be a distraction.

So I'm like, jay, let's put the phones away, let's put all the media stuff away, right, and just get in our Bibles and dig into the word of God, because there's so many distractions.

And so we have to make sure we're filled up with the word of God, amen.

Because storms come, they come to all, right.

And so, number three stay quiet enough to hear God's voice.

I know it can be difficult for some.

Stay quiet enough to hear God's voice, not freaking out During a storm, not panicking, not getting upset, not saying I'm done with this, that's it.

I heard so.

I got some bad news.

That's it, it's over.

No, no freaking at, no freak out moments, right?

So stay quiet enough to hear God's voice.

Like God, what do you want me to do?

And so the world, when you feel pressure, that's a Holy Spirit.

He doesn't pressure you, right, he doesn't easy.

He's not beating you upside the head.

He doesn't pressure.

The world Will pressure you to do things right, and so comfort and peace comes from the Holy Spirit.

And so we have to make sure to rewire our brain and and be quiet and be still before the Lord, because that's where he gives us his download, that's where we get revelation.

When we dig into the word and we're quiet before him, he speaks to us, amen.

Number four stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

And so you know we can get caught up in all the logistics.

And so I'm Paul.

I'm sure he had to.

You know all the on the ship, you know the cargo and all the stuff.

I don't know about a ship, but all the things and he I'm sure he had to, you know, bark some orders and he had to do that and there has to be logistics.

We got it.

That's life.

We got to do, we got to do, do, do, go, go, go right, but In that going, going, going, doing, doing, doing, bossing, bossing, bossing, we have to make sure that we don't become hardened in heart, right, we have to make sure that we Stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And then number five stay encouraged.

Pastor stole my point this morning.

It's whole message was on encouragement.

It was so good.

How many over here this morning.

It was so good.

And if you weren't, I just encourage you, go back on YouTube or Facebook.

That was such a Wonderful message of power of encouragement.

So, stay encourage through a storm.

Stay encouraged right Through a storm.

Sometimes it's good to keep our mouth shut right.

Sometimes we want to retaliate through a storm.

Maybe it's a storm that you didn't cause, but it it came and you want, you want to put your two cents in and you Want to say say, and I got something to say?

Now I got no.

Stay quiet before the Holy Spirit, right, get into the Word of God.

And so we have to make sure To stay encouraged.

So, verse 20 when all hope was gone, paul was encouraged, right.

And so we have to make sure to maintain our joy.

That's where God brings you to the other side, not where we're complaining, not where we're murmuring, but that's when God brings you to the other side, when we maintain our joy and just laugh Ha ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha.

Romans 8.17 says for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Right, and so that's what the kingdom of God is.

And so in life, in storms, sometimes we focus on the wrong thing, right?

No, what it could have should us?

We don't, we don't, we don't focus on that.

That keeps us back there.

Instead, we focus on Romans 8, which the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And so we're commanded by God to demonstrate those things.

And if we're not demonstrating those things, if we're just keeping silent, well, that's a whole other message you lose by default.

Well, I'm just not gonna say anything.

Well, speak up.

You gotta speak up, you gotta proclaim the word of God.

And so, in number one, you know, we encourage, like we should encourage ourselves.

And so and I wrote this down you're the best preacher in your life, right, you might have a favorite preacher, but you are the best preacher in your life, right.

What you say to yourself, what you preach to yourself, right when you, if you mess up, what you say after that, right.

And so you're the best preacher in your life.

And so we have to make sure to stay encouraged.

And then number six is stay thankful.

Stay thankful.

Verse 33,.

Just as the day was dawning, paul urged everyone to eat.

You have been so worried that you haven't touched your food for two weeks.

He said please eat something now for your own good, for not a hair on your head.

Hair on your head will perish.

And so, hey, we, hey, you haven't eaten, don't worry about it.

Right?

You feel like giving up.

You're on this ship.

We know we're gonna crash, right.

And Malta, we know we're gonna like there is no, no, we're not gonna call 911, lifelike, we're not, we're not just there's no, nothing.

Back then we're gonna crash, and so, but this is what we're gonna do right.

And so, in the storm, through it, he encouraged himself, he encouraged the people around him, right.

And so encouraging is not just, you know, being thankful and encourage you, it's not just for everybody else, it's also for you, it is for you, but then also, who's on the but, who's on the ship with you, on the ship of life, right?

And so we lead by example, right, You're like, oh, you may think, oh well, that's not a big deal if I don't say anything, or that's a big no, it's a big deal.

Right.

Again, storms come to everybody.

Right, again, you may be going through a storm, you may be about to go through a storm.

So I just wanna encourage you.

Don't be faithful, be encouraged, remain, have those quiet times with God, stay faithful to that, amen, amen.

So let me go over our point.

Stay in faith, stay in the word, stay quiet enough to hear God's voice, stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit, stay encouraged and stay thankful.

Right, easy to say those words, but then it's another thing to do them, right.

But then that's where you see the victory, right, that's where you see the victory when you apply the word and when you do the word and when you remain thankful, and when your words line up with his word, that's where you'll see victory.

Amen, and so it's.

Not only is it for you, but it's also for this next generation.