--- IN THE STORM --- SOUND OUT!
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
Remember this: IT IS EASY TO SWIM, FAST IF SHARKS ARE BEHIND YOU!
TEXT:
Matthew 7: 24 --- 27
24: Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew; and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26: And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Matthew 14:28-31
28: And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29: And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30: But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31: And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Mark 4:39 And Jesus arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,
PEACE BE STILL. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
STORMS are a part of life. If we serve the Lord or not, there will be storms and trials that pass into our daily walk. No one is exempt from the storms.
Most of the time when we accept Jesus as our Savior we feel on top of the world. The feeling stage is wonder, but ---
WE MUST GROW INTO THE FAITH STAGE.
Storms will come, storms will grow but there is a reason.
Storms bring life. Storms weed out weak trees. Storms can knock off excessive parts of life.
I ponder storms.
Let us define storms:
---a disturbance of atmosphere
---disturbed or agitated state
---a tumultuous outburst
---a crisis
---to rush about angrily
I realize the Bible identifies life has many storms.
The Bible tells us of three kinds of storms.
1. RAIN STORMS ...
frequent, little, short duration, falling water drops, shower,
2. FLOOD STORMS ...
Flood in the Bible can represent Divine Judgment.
Floods are not as often as rains.
The storm of the flood can show in proper building, one should not build in the spiritual flood plains. The storm of floods can come from making poor choices and building in unsound areas.
3. WIND STORMS ... gales, tornadoes, hurricanes, not as often, you can prepare some a head of the wind storm, but when the wind storm is raging, you have to find safety until the storm passes. After the storm passes you survey the damage, and repair or rebuild if necessary. Often cloud burst and hail storms accompany Wind storms.
I ponder, sometimes God calms the storms, sometimes He calms the individual. Be encouraged in your difficult situations. Your attitude and your view can make a difference.
Ephesians 3:20 Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
We need to learn not every cloud is a storm.
Some can seem to raise a storm from a tea pot?
We can let storms drive us, we must expect and prepare for storms.
We must learn to pilot our ships in the storm, instead of just always praying for the storm to pass.
Storms are not forever, they shall pass.
Just because there is calm, does not mean the storm is passed.
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is a train.
The story of the two buckets.
Unknown
There were two buckets both tied to the end of the same pole. The master would carry the two buckets to the well several times a day. Often the buckets would talk to each other.
One day, on the way to the well, the one bucket said to the other bucket... "You look very sad and depressed today? What is wrong?"
The sad bucket replied, " I have been pondering about how useless and vane this work of ours. We are totally ineffective. What, on earth, is our useful purpose? We go to the well dry every time?
Day after day, we go to the well empty and dry. We get full, but then we always come back to the well empty and dry. We are failures! What is the point? After all our efforts, we are dry again!"
The other bucket that hung from the same pole said, "Bucket, I see this different from you. You have it all wrong! Listen to me. I enjoy what we are doing. I was made to carry water. The way I look at it, as many times as we come to the well empty, we always leave the well full and running over with cool water."
"God works in us and through us, to carry water to others. The secret about being empty and dry is to keep going to the well and getting filled up again. The water is what is important, we are vessels that helps our Master accomplish His Plan." Said the little contented bucket.
With God all things are possible. God can. Do you know that God can? I CAN! YOU CAN! The question is: what do we want to do?
God is bigger than our dreams, request, above what we ask or think. Could our littleness affect God’s work?
God is never pushy. God does not work by pushing you around, but by working within as well as without.
Calm can arise out of any storm.
Matthew 14:28-31
28: and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29: And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30: But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31: And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Peter was doing super as he walked on water.
Something happened to Peter.
He lost his vision of what was important.
Peter started focusing not on the Master of the Sea,
but Peter started seeing the boisterous wind, the storm.
Now, you know you cannot see the wind? Then what?
Peter started seeing the effect that the wind was causing.
When Peter focused on the storm, he was going under.
Our enemy would love us to focus on the storms and trials.
One sees hopelessness, another says --- LET’S TRY AGAIN.
One feels the cold water running up their legs then
the storms water runs down the head, all this water --- the danger?
Lose of FOCUS.
What does loosing our focus do?
Misplaced focus on the storm breeds fear!
Fear breeds more wrongful focus.
Peter never tried swimming.
We know he could swim. The New Testament records his swimming ability.
TRY SWIMMING IN A STORM? YOU MIGHT DROWN?
Peter REGAINED HIS FOCUS ON THE SAVIOR, THE MASTER OF THE SEA.
Peter had enough sense to call out to the Master of all storms.
As Peter refocused, he saw Jesus...
Jesus was not passively standing there.
Jesus was reaching out his hand --- hope was there all along.
Peter had to learn to grab a hold of his emotions and control them.
Peter saw the extended hand and accepted deliverance.
See, Peter’s loss of focus was a TYPE OF DOUBT.
Jesus corrected Peter.
Now Jesus has his hand extended toward you.
Why not accept His Plan?
Sure, swim if you want? But you better like the taste of water?
Are you prepared to drink a lake?
Jesus was teaching Peter a great lesson about storms.
Notice the lesson?
Matthew 14:32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
Wow, there is safety in the church.
Acts 27, Paul is in a terrible storm.
Paul, the Preacher warned the Captain of the ship.
The Captain said, I am the Captain, I have the experience, who are you?
Not listening to the Preacher about storms can be very dangerous and
put many lifes in jeopardy.
The storm came on suddenly, and caught the master Captain off guard.
After some time in the storm, discouragement came to all but one on the ship. One man had heard from God.
If you lose control of your ship in the storm, GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!
WHY NOT TRUST GOD?
Paul learned violent storms cannot vanish your hopes.
God has HOPE for YOU!
Will you hear God’s message?
God has a plan, hang on a little longer.
At one point in Acts 27 They had to learn --- Don’t give up, set your sail.
Do what you can? But that is not always enough.
There is such darkness, they do not know how many days have passed.
In Acts 27:22 --26, Paul declares right in the middle of the storm,
everything will be OK.
Paul encouraged the others in a storm.
Can you encourage others while you are still in the storm yourself?
Be of good cheer! This was an order, an imperative command.
Twice Paul exhorts them to BE OF GOOD CHEER.
In Acts 27:34 Paul calls all to a commitment of Faith and a declaration
by ACTION, not words --- ACTION, --- men eat --- we don’t feel like eating?
THE EATING BECAME A STEP OF FAITH AND A COMMITMENT TO THE WORDS THE PREACHER HAD SPOKEN.
You better get with a man that has heard from God and stay close to him.
They started sounding out...
They started measuring, SOUND OUT TO SEE WHERE YOU ARE in the storm?
Quit letting the storm drive you, SOUND OUT.
There was one last order from the Preacher,
YOU BETTER STAY A HOLD OF THE SHIP.
Don’t jump ship... STAY WITH THE CHURCH!
All that stayed with the ship was guaranteed safety.
Don’t try someone’s life boat, stay with the ship.
Paul had been through a terrible chain of negative situations.
Was he bad or backslidden? NO!
Paul was whipped, in prisons, ship wrecked, bad storms.
Paul was driven off his planned course of action, but not beyond God’s plan
You will not have smooth sailing and good winds.
You will face a great variety of terrible storms.
Storms do not make or break you,
Storms and how you handle them will either bring you closer to God,
or you will allow the contrary winds to drive you farther away?
It is up to you.
What will you do?
EYES OF FEAR OR EYES OF FAITH?
Unknown
Eyes of Fear see with comparison. Eyes of Faith see with compassion.
Eyes of Fear see mistakes. Eyes of Faith see perfection.
Eyes of Fear see death. Eyes of Faith see life,
Eyes of Fear see Satan. Eyes of Faith see God.
Eyes of Fear see with hate. Eyes of Faith see with love.
Eyes of Fear see with despair. Eyes of Faith see with hope.
Eyes of Fear see control. Eyes of Faith see protection.
Eyes of Fear see failure. Eyes of Faith see success.
Eyes of Fear see lack. Eyes of Faith see abundance.
Eyes of Fear see challenges. Eyes of Faith see victories.
Eyes of Fear see with judgment. Eyes of Faith see with mercy.
Eyes of Fear see circumstance. Eyes of Faith see opportunities.
Eyes of Fear see with rejection. Eyes of Faith see with acceptance.
Eyes of Fear see with resentment. Eyes of Faith see with forgiveness,
Eyes of Fear see troubles. Eyes of Faith see testimonies.
Eyes of Fear see with apathy. Eyes of Faith see with change.
Eyes of Fear see with anger. Eyes of Faith see with peace.
Eyes of Fear see with complaint. Eyes of Faith see with prayer.
Eyes of Fear see differences. Eyes of Faith see variety.
Eyes of Fear see threats. Eyes of Faith see promises.
Eyes of Fear see the end. Eyes of Faith see the beginning.
Eyes of Fear see victims. Eyes of Faith see martyrs.
Eyes of Fear see division, Eyes of Faith see multiplication.
Eyes of Fear see man, Eyes of Faith see Jesus!
Mark 4:38 The men asked a dumb question, Lord, do you care if we perish?
Some of you in a storm right now are screaming, Preacher, don’t you care?
Jesus don’t you care.?
Yes, Jesus cares, but there is something up to you!
Mark 4:39 And Jesus arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,
PEACE BE STILL. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
Please know and trust God during the storms.
If you are weak Jesus will calm the storm for you.
But the real goal is that we trust Jesus,
and Jesus will calm us during the storm.
Hide me, Hide me O, Lord until the storm passes by.
Or teach me to navigate wisely in the storm.
God has a plan, trust Him.
If God brings you to it --- then God will help you through it.
God knows when to lighten you load or to strenghten your back.
Trust God to calm the storm,
or trust Him to calm you in the storm!
His servant,
Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.
Kyfingers@aol.com
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