Jesus Demonstrates His Power - Life of Christ Part 26

How many of you have ever been to Israel, to the Holy Land?

Raise your hand. Oh, pretty good number. I'm surprised in each of the services how many people have been there, more than I expected. I don't know about you, but whenever I go there, I've been there seven times, and Lord willing, next year is going to be my eighth. There's always a couple of places that kind of become special to you. Now for different people, they're different places. But I've always found that the people who go to Israel come back saying, you know, that one place was so special to me.

I'll never forget it as long as I live. Well, for me, one of those places, one of my favorite in all the Holy Land, is up around the Sea of Galilee. I just love being up there. I don't know what it is exactly, but I just love being up there. The scenery is just breathtaking. The climate is mild.

The pace of living is really slow and easy up there. And the sea is just so calm and so serene. It's just like out of a picture book. Most of the time, most of the time, but sometimes the Sea of Galilee can become the site of some of the most violent storms imaginable. In fact, the Sea of Galilee is kind of schizophrenic in this way.

I mean, it's kind of like Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde. It can be so nice and so calm and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, just have the most incredible storm you ever saw. And it's this crazy weather pattern on the Sea of Galilee that kind of forms the setting for the passage that we have in front of us this morning. And I want you to come along as we follow this story of what happened to Jesus and the disciples one night out on that sea, because it's a great expose of who Jesus Christ is, helps us really understand who he is a lot better. And it's also a tremendous message in these verses that's here for us as Christians in terms of how God wants us to handle the storms that come into our lives. So come along with me.

Let's look and see what happened. Luke chapter eight, verse 22. He said to his disciples, let's go over to the other side of the lake. So they got into a boat and they set out. Now this same incident is recorded in Matthew's gospel and Mark's gospel.

And by putting all three of them together, we get a little fuller picture of what's really going on. Mark tells us that this day that Jesus said this was actually a Saturday. It was a Sabbath. And Jesus had had a very long and a very difficult day. He had not only done some healing and done some teaching, but he had been in conflict with the religious leaders of Israel, the Pharisees, the scribes and the rabbis all day long. Finally, he had even pronounced the unpardonable sin against them.

And he was exhausted when the day was over. And so when the day came to a close about evening, he said to his disciples, guys, let's get in the Sea of Galilee. And let's head across to the other side. Now how far were they going? Well, the Sea of Galilee is 13 miles long, eight and a half miles wide at the widest point. And they were going catty corner from the north to the east. And so they were probably going about eight or 10 miles across the Sea of Galilee. What kind of boat were they in that the Bible says they got in? Well, until recently, we didn't know.

But in 1986, March to be exact, there was a great drought in Israel. And since the Sea of Galilee is used for irrigation, they pumped it and pumped it and pumped it and it receded to levels that no one in modern memory can recall. And in the mud banks that became now up in the air, usually they're underwater, but now they were to the open in these mud banks on the western side of the sea, there was an ancient boat that was discovered. It's been excavated. It's on display, as a matter of fact, right up around the Sea of Galilee these days. And the archaeologists who've worked on this boat have concluded that it was a boat that came from the time of Jesus and was a boat very similar to the kind of boat that Jesus and the disciples probably got in that night. It's made out of wood.

It's 27 and a half feet long, seven and a half feet wide and four and a half feet deep. So could 13 guys fit in it? Yes. Would they all have a sleeping bunk? No, but they could get in it. But yet even though you could fit 13 guys in it, it's not very big. I mean, if you ran for a first and 10, you'd run longer than this boat.

It's only 27 and a half feet long. So it wasn't a big boat, but it was a boat that Jesus and his disciples crowded into and they set out onto the lake. Now verse 23. And as they sailed, Jesus fell asleep.

Why? Because he was exhausted. I see some of you yawning. He felt exactly the same way.

Exactly the same way. He had a very hard day and he was tired. And so he went and fell asleep. Now Mark's gospel tells us something very interesting. Mark's gospel says that Jesus was in the stern of the ship asleep on a pillow. You say, oh, isn't that nice? He took a little down comforter or something with him.

No, not exactly. Actually, we've learned a lot about these verses. From this boat that we dug up. It's incredible how once again, archaeology has confirmed even the minutest details of the Bible. Listen, I'm quoting to you from biblical archaeology review where there was a multi page article on the boat. Listen to what they said about this stern where Jesus was asleep. And I quote, they said we found that a boat like this had a large stern platform, which is where the helmsman would either sit or stand and guide the boat. This explains why Jesus chose the stern in which to sleep. There Jesus would have had the most protection from the elements and would have been out of the way of the other people on board. Then it goes on to say the pillow that he used was actually a sandbag that was kept on board and used to trim the boat when it was under sail. And when it was not in use, it was routinely stored under the stern deck to be used as a pillow by crew members who rested there, end of quote.

Incredible. We dig a boat. And we find it confirms to unbelievable accuracy the details of the Bible. So Jesus was asleep under this stern platform, not with a down pillow, but with a sandbag.

Today a sandbags better nothing. And so that's what he had. Now verse 23 goes on to say, and a squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped with water. And they were in great danger. The Greek word that's translated here.

Squall literally means a gale or hurricane. And the Bible says it came down on the lake. And if you understand a little bit about the topography of the Sea of Galilee, you understand why the Bible says that. The Sea of Galilee is 689 feet below sea level. It is surrounded by mountains that rise as high as 9,200 feet above sea level.

That's quite a difference. And there are huge valleys that come down through these mountain ranges. And actually kind of spill out onto the Sea of Galilee. So what happens is cold air comes rushing down these valleys sometimes, running onto the Sea of Galilee and meeting the warm and temperate air that's down on the Sea of Galilee. That begins to generate all kinds of wind. The wind begins to swirl and the wind begins to whip around. It can't go anywhere because the Sea of Galilee is like a little bowl. You know, it's at the bottom and all these mountains are like the sides of a bowl. So it just goes around. And around and around like a tornado. And of course, that's why the Bible says the storm came down onto the sea because it came down through these valleys and onto the sea. You can set out from one side of the Sea of Galilee and everything be as peaceful and as calm as you please. And before you get to the other side, you can be in the middle of a rip snort and storm.

They come quick. This is what happened to Jesus. People read this and go, well, why would Jesus and his disciples? Have possibly set out in a storm like this? The point is they didn't.

When they set out, everything was fine. But when the time they got out into the middle of the lake and it had turned dark, they found themselves in the middle of a hurricane is what the Bible is telling us. And do you know that there have been waves on the Sea of Galilee documented at 20 feet between the crest and the trough?

20 feet. You say, well, now that's a wave I think of in the Pacific Ocean. No, on the Sea of Galilee, 20 foot waves.

In fact, Matthew's Gospel says that the boat was actually disappearing between the waves as it would go down into the swells, the little boat would actually disappear. It was so bad, the Bible says they were in great danger. You say great danger what? Well, great danger sinking, great danger of drowning, great danger of dying, great danger of going down to Davy Jones locker and never coming back.

They were in trouble. I don't know if you've ever been on board a ship in a storm like this, but I came close once. In 1978, Brenda and I went to England with a bunch of college career kids and we were taking them around for three weeks to tour some mission stations on the continent and in England. So we went to England, we were going to go to the continent for a couple of weeks and take trains around and then come back to England and fly home. So when the travel agent asked me when we were setting this tour up, if we wanted to fly across the English Channel, I said, No, no, no, no, no, I don't want to fly across it. We need the experience of sailing across the English Channel. Book us on a boat.

So he did. We went down to Dover and we got on a ferry boat with about 1000 other people and went from Dover to Austin, Belgium. It's a four hour ride across the British Channel. Now I knew nothing about the British Channel, except everybody who knows anything about the British Channel. As soon as I tell them we took a ferry, everybody goes, Oh, and if you know anything about the British Channel, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

British Channel is never nice to anybody. And so we got out. We were about 10 minutes out. Brenda had gone down to the bottom level of the ship where we were right at the level of the waves.

Bad mistake. But we didn't know. And we thought, all these huge picture windows. Isn't this nice? We're riding wide at the water level and can look out and see the waves.

Isn't this nice? And so we were sitting down there. We were about 10 minutes out into the channel and my wife was straight out. I mean on her back flat, sick. And so was everybody else. And I this was one of the most incredible rides I have ever had now I never get seasick I didn't get seasick I was probably one of the six or eight people on the entire boat that didn't and I went down to comfort my wife you know I mean she was so sick and I tried to rub her forehead and make her feel better and I said how you doing and she said to me I am so sick whose stupid idea was it for us to take this boat I said gee dear I don't know I think it was the travel agents idea I mean I don't know I have no idea she said well I'm not coming back on this boat I said well we have to we gotta fly out of England she said I don't care where we have to fly I'm not coming back across on a boat like this I'll fly I said but you don't understand sweetheart to fly back cost a lot of money one way and she said well I'll get a part-time job when I get home if I have to I am NOT getting back on this boat again I said you'll be fine you'll be fine you'll be fine just you know four hours of this I have never seen so many seasick people in my entire life it was unbelievable words cannot describe the pungent aroma on this boat I mean after a while no lie people stopped even trying to get to the bathroom and they just let it fly wherever they were is most incredible thing I ever saw and I mean as the boat would roll the stuff would just kind of slosh to one side and slosh doesn't I'm not lying I am telling you the truth it would slosh back and forth they did not have carpeted floors on purpose and that stuff would just roll all around and when we got to Belgium this is the honest truth they said we're sorry nobody can get on until we remove the sick and they brought stretchers on the boat this is true and actually carried people off of the boat to ambulances but we didn't have any 20 foot waves we weren't in weather anything like Jesus was in can you imagine if the people on this boat were as sick as we were can you imagine how some of these 12 disciples were doing on this little boat I bet you some of these guys were down for the count what do you think old land-loving tax-collecting Matthew I'll bet you he was one sick dude out in the middle of the sea on his boat well that's what they were in look at verse 24 and the disciples who could still walk went and woke Jesus and said master master we are going to drown now don't forget who's saying this the people who are saying this are Peter and James and John and Andrew you say well so what's so important about that well these guys were fishermen they were raised around the Sea of Galilee they made their living fishing the Sea of Galilee they went out on the Sea of Galilee every single day in little boats just like this they had seen everything the Sea of Galilee had to throw at them for year after year after year and these are the guys who in absolute panic come to Jesus and say we are going to drown we have seen all kinds of things out here on this sea but we have never seen a storm like this and we are terrified how do you know they were in trouble folks when sailors ask a carpenter what to do in a storm you are in trouble you are in big trouble so when Jesus awoke get the picture now he was facing one of the most violent one of the most furious one of the most savage storms that these men of the sea had ever seen half of them were sure they were gonna die the other half of were so sick they wanted to die and Jesus gets up and has this unbelievable opportunity to demonstrate his power verse 24 and he got up pulled himself up and stood majestically on this tiny little speck of wood in the middle of this sea in the middle of this hurricane he pulled himself up in the middle of the sea the Bible says and he rebuked the wind and the raging waters Mark's gospel says he stood up and looked towards the sky and he never raised his voice he never screamed he never yelled to be heard over the wind and the waves Mark's gospel said he simply looked up at the sky and said hush up that's all he said hush up and the Bible says that the storm subsided and all was calm you know even if the wind it stopped just like that even if all of the raining and the commotion it stopped just like that the laws of physics say the waves would have gone on for hours before they died down but not here not when Jesus stopped it he stopped the wind the waves everything just like that and it was as calm as glass friends in doing this Jesus demonstrated a power over nature that is utterly staggering think about it a storm like this generates millions and millions of horsepower of energy and Jesus stopped it by simply saying what hush up it's all he said think of us puny little men if we want to run a 450 horsepower bulldozer for a day we've got to use hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel just to put that little thing around and move dirt can you imagine the kind of power that could turn a storm like this with millions and millions of horsepower off can you imagine the kind of power it must take to move the universe around the way Jesus Christ says he does I mean our telescopes for example show us a universe that stretches hundreds of millions of light years in every direction everything spinning in absolute order can you imagine where the power is that must keep that a thing all going and here our earth 8,000 miles in diameter 25,000 miles in circumference weighing millions upon millions of tons who's holding it up spinning at a rate that's so constant that you can set your watch by it going around the Sun in a rate so constant that you can set your calendar by it who's running all of this and making it happen the way it does with such perfect order where is that power coming from and the Sun putting out six trillion horsepower every single year and there are millions of these Suns in the universe who's running this where does that power come from and did you know that a codfish lays nine million eggs every time it lays eggs you say but what's that got to do with anything but I mean God is the God of the little just like he is the big I mean 9,000 eggs ladies I mean hey takes a pretty big God to do that I figure and you know in a teaspoon of water there are billions and billions of atoms in one teaspoon of water I was a chemistry major in college and we studied the atom and even though scientists today can tell you what the atoms made of and can describe the parts there is not a scientist alive today who can tell you why the atom sticks together because it defies everything we know about quantum physics the atoms should not stick together it should not do it what makes it hold together the millions and billions and trillions and who knows how many atoms there are in the universe well the Bible says Jesus Christ holds them all together by his power if he were to relax his power you and I and everything in this world would fly apart in an instant the kind of power that it takes to run the universe it's beyond our comprehension and Jesus demonstrated that kind of power over the forces of the universe time after time after time you know in John chapter 2 he turned water into wine now we chemists would say Jesus brought about a chemical change in the molecular structure of water with a simple command but may I say to you that that can't be done we can tell you what he did but it cannot be done that is impossible it cannot be done but he did it in John chapter 11 Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead that cannot be done but he did it in Matthew chapter 14 Jesus walked on the top of water that cannot be done but he did it in Matthew chapter 21 he was standing next to a fig tree and he cursed that fig tree and he said wither and die and it withered and died that can't be done but he did it if you don't think that's hard to do you go out and try to experiment the next spring in your yard go out there and instead of spraying those dandelions or putting something on top of them go out there and just look at them and point to them and go die die wither wither and see if anything happens now if anything happens you call me because I want to come right over I want to see what it looks like but I guarantee you the only thing that'll happen is those dandelions will get bigger and they'll fill your whole yard up if you try that because you don't have that kind of power and neither do I but Jesus Christ did and he does and you know the disciples may not have been rocket scientists but they were smart enough to figure out that they were dealing with somebody who was way out of their league way out of their league look at verse 25 it says in fear and in amazement they ask one another who is this who is this that even the winds and the water that a hurricane he can command it and make it stop I mean they had seen the guy do some healings and they had seen Jesus raise a little girl up from supposedly being dead at least they said well we thought she was dead and they'd seen Jesus do a lot of other things but friends when you stand up in the middle of Hurricane Andrew and say hush up and it stops man that's a kind of power these guys had never even dreamed of and had no explanation for so who is this they said and that's really the $64,000 question in it folks that's the big question and you know it's real important we have the right answer to that question and that we make sure that we're rightly placed with this person anybody who has this power is way out of your league to way out of my league and it's our job to make sure that we are in right standing with a person like this who can command the winds and the waves of a hurricane like that and make them obey now that's our passage but it still leaves us with the most important question and that is so what right and I want to answer that question in a little bit of time I have left let me first say that if you're here and you've never embraced Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior maybe a friend brought you this morning or a mom or a dad or a husband or a wife brought you or who knows why you're here but you've never really made a personal surrender of your life to Jesus Christ as your personal Savior then there's a big so what here you know Jesus promises in the Bible that he's coming back to earth one day and he promises in the Bible that he's going to defeat every foe that opposes him he promises in the Bible he's going to resurrect every person who's ever lived and that he's going to judge them for sin he promises in the Bible that the only refuge that will protect you and me from that judgment is the blood of Christ that was shed on the cross and Jesus promises in the Bible that any of us who will embrace the blood of Christ will be shielded from that judgment and any of us who refuse to embrace the blood of Jesus Christ as our only payment for sin that we will be judged and will be separated from God for all eternity in a place the Bible calls hell and Jesus promises in the Bible that he is the way and the truth and the life nobody will ever come to the Father nobody will ever get into heaven apart from him that's what he said well you say you mean you can't go through Buddha Jesus said nobody comes to the Father except by me well you mean you can't go through Muhammad Jesus said nobody comes to the Father but by me oh you mean you can't go through your church membership and you good works Jesus said nobody comes to the Father except by me now my question for you is should you be concerned about all these promises I mean should they worry you does Jesus Christ really have the power to do everything he's promised if he doesn't you don't have to worry about him well in light of what we just saw him do on the Sea of Galilee what do you think do you think he has the power to keep his promises I do and you know what Jesus Christ did on the Sea of Galilee demands a personal response from every person in this world from you and from me it says in Matthew's gospel that those who were in the boat came and worshiped him and said truly you are the Son of God nobody else could do this kind of thing you are the Son of God and we worship you you see they responded in a personal way they responded with belief and they responded with worship and they responded with surrender of their own wills and their own lives to Christ because they said nobody else but the Son of God could do this you're out of our league and when you're out of our league the way you are then the proper response for us is belief and worship and surrender and so if you're here and and you've never imitated that response of belief and worship and surrender that's the response God's looking for from you friend when Jesus Christ comes back he has the power to fulfill every one of the promises he makes he's not gonna change those promises for you he's not going to alter them for me our job is not to try to get God to change what he's promised our job is to figure out where the safety zone is in light of all that he's promised and make sure we're in it and Jesus said it's very simple the safety zone is under the blood of Jesus Christ and I hope if you've never embraced Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross for you in a real and personal way that you really think about this in light of what you've seen him do on the Sea of Galilee this morning well you say Lon what if I'm here I'm a Christian I've already trusted the Lord I know I've trusted the Lord in a real impersonal way no doubt in my mind there's nothing here for me is there oh yes there is yes there is there's a big so what for us too you know I don't know if you've ever felt this way I have but isn't it true that sometimes even as a Christian that we can feel like our boats in the middle of a hurricane I felt that way sometimes it's things at work where you just feel like you know it's a hurricane at work and I'm right in the middle of my little boat just going up and down up and down up and down up and down disappearing between the waves sometimes or maybe it's something that's going on in your family with family conflict maybe it's something going on in your own life with your health or with your finances or who knows what it is but I'll tell you I felt like as a Christian many times I've been in the middle of a hurricane and I've also felt like I've been taking on water faster and I can bail it out you ever felt like that man you just bailing bailing bailing bailing bailing and it's coming in faster and you can bail it out and sometimes I have felt haven't you maybe that Jesus meanwhile was fast asleep while my boats about to go down just like these disciples felt you know but the truth really is Jesus had the whole situation under control the whole time that situation was never out of control Jesus had it in absolute control all the time and in the same way I believe that the Lord wants us to understand from this passage that he's got our circumstances and our storms under control all the time they're not out of control friend Jesus can stop any storm anytime he wants to he can calm it down and make it half what it was anytime he wants to but sometimes he lets storms go on for a while in our lives as Christians because as our loving Heavenly Father in his wisdom he knows that we need the storm for a particular purpose for a particular reason you see God has a purpose for the storms in our lives as Christians you say oh yeah like what like what good purpose could possibly be served by one of these hurricanes in your life huh well I'll give you a whole bunch of them number one God uses storms to get our attention you know how you'll get a mules attention you hit him upside the head with a two-by-four sometimes God needs to hit us you'll headed people upside the head with a two-by-four to get our attention God uses storms to do that God uses the storms of life to bring us to an end to our own resources and to bring an end to our own self-sufficiency and to humble us and make us realize we're not as smart as we thought we are we're not as clever as we thought we are we don't have this whole thing knocked and under control the way we thought we did success never teaches that to anybody all success does is make you more arrogant but I'll tell you you have a couple hurricanes in your life and you'll begin to see that you're not as smart and not as clever and not as in control as you once thought you were that's good God used the storms in our life to drive us to depend on him and not ourselves Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 we have the sentence of death in ourselves we were pushed right to the edge he said and here's what he said so that we might learn not to trust in ourselves but to trust in the God who raises the dead and God uses storms to cause us to abandon our own cleverness as the way we're gonna make it through life and to depend on the mercy and the goodness and the grace of God as to how we're gonna make it friends God uses storms in our life but you know there's one thing that Jesus Christ never allows a storm to do in a Christian's life and that's sink you he never allows one to sink you when Jesus knows the time is right to calm your storm he'll do so when he knows it's right to stop their storm he'll do so he's got the power to handle it the one thing you can be sure of he'll never let you sink that's why he said to the guys in the boat what he said you say yeah Lon I noticed you skipped a little bit of this you're right let's go back verse 25 Jesus after he calmed the storm look what he said he said to the disciples verse 25 where is your what where's your faith now for years I would read this passage and I'd go now that makes no sense I mean for faith to exist there has to be a promise from God faith means that I have responded correctly to a promise of God God promises me if I trust the blood of Jesus Christ you'll take me to heaven faith says I may not know where heaven is or how to get there myself but I believe in you God I may not be able to empirically prove it but I'm gonna hold on to that promise and believe in any way faith is always responding to a promise of God so where's the promise of God here I looked and I looked and I looked for years and I said I don't understand why Jesus is rebuking these guys because he never made him a promise but he did you say what here right up in verse 22 he said let's get in the boat and what go to the other side did Jesus say hey guys let's get in the boat go out in the middle of the lake and let's all drown no he didn't say that did he he said guys let's get in the boat and let's do what go to the other side and friend when Jesus says we're gonna get in the boat and go the other side we're gonna get in the boat and go to the other side that's what he said wasn't it and so he said to them where is your faith what's wrong with you guys I didn't say we were going out here and drown I said we were going the other side what's wrong with you where was your faith and my dear Christian friend Jesus Christ has never said to you hey why don't you get into my boat and let's go drown no when Jesus Christ invited you into his boat he invited you into his boat to go to the other side you say to go to the other side of what Lon well in this life to go to the other side of conformity to Jesus Christ to be made more like him and the storms that God sends our way friends is because God's using those storms to mold our character so we become more like Jesus Christ God's gonna get us to the other side of that process and you're not gonna drown in the middle and in the life to come we're gonna get to the other side of death to a place the Bible calls heaven you don't know where it is and neither do I but Jesus said you get into my boat and I'll make sure you get there and friend when Jesus Christ says get in my boat and we're going to the other side that you can believe him if you get in his boat you were going to the other side you're not going to round and so he asks us as Christians the same question where is your faith let me finish up this morning by giving you a verse from the Old Testament listen carefully Psalm 46 verse 10 be still and know that I am God Psalm 46 verse 10 be still and know that I'm God could I give you kind of more of an updated translation I would say that Psalm 46 10 is actually saying relax and let me run the show that's what God's really saying relax chill out and let me run the show I know what I'm doing now let me run the show I like what Oswald Chambers said he said faith may not know where it's being led but it trusts the one that's doing the leading faith may not know where it's being led but it trusts the one that's doing the leading have you ever taken your children or your grandchildren or a niece or a nephew to the swimming pool maybe a little one they were just learning to swim and so you put them right on the edge and it's gonna be their maiden voyage jumping in the pool to you and you know what happens you climb down in the pool and you kind of go shake it off and then you go over and you stand right by the edge and they're right there teetering on the edge and you say you got your arms out right and what's on your face a big smile right and you got your arms out and you're looking at them and in your eyes is all this you're trying to convey how much they can trust you and you say to them jump they look at you and they look at your arms and they look at your smile and they look deep in your eyes and then they look at the water and they back up and they're not gonna jump in there now it's only two feet deep but they're not gonna jump in there and you coax them back and you say come here come here come here daddy's right here mommy's right here nothing's gonna happen to you it'll be fine I'll make sure I catch you you won't drown come on jump and they're looking at you and meanwhile the whole pool's watching and you could very easily say to that little child what's wrong with you where is your what where's your faith I'm in the water I'm standing up I'm gonna catch you there is absolutely no way in the world I'm gonna let a thing happen to you you can be absolutely sure of that you can jump you can trust me then once they finally jump you can't get him out of water then it's like they go rally jump they go rally jump they go around they jump it's like please can I get a candy bar let me out of here but you understand what I'm saying so many times Jesus Christ is out there with his arms open saying come on it's gonna be okay come on it's gonna be okay take that next step I know it's a little scary but it's gonna be okay I'm not gonna let you drown I'm gonna catch you and we teeter right on the edge and we go whoa and Jesus says to us where's your faith where's your faith I'm not gonna let anything happen to you come on he said well Lon listen that's easy for you to stand up there behind some pulpit and say I mean you know that's great you stand up there and go on about all this kind of stuff but we're the guys out here going out in the real world having to deal with all these hurricanes you know so you up there telling us how nice it is and how we can trust God listen friends I want to tell you I've been in my share hurricanes just like you have I've seen my two-year-old fall out of a car doing 35 on i-66 and roll down the road I've heard a doctor tell me that it was cancer on my back and had to be cut out I've stood in the emergency room and watched while they tried to resuscitate my little girl because she stopped breathing during her seizure I've been home in my house on the floor having to start CPR with my girl while she's turning blue while we're waiting for the rescue squad to come I've spent countless days and nights in pediatric intensive care at Fairfax Hospital and in the hospital room in general with my daughter I've watched as her medical condition decimated our family finances and caused us to postpone or even cancel a lot of our dreams and I still say that I trust the one who's doing the leading I trust the one that's doing the leading so I'm not standing here telling you something that I haven't had to live but you can trust the one that's doing the leading it's not out of control God knows exactly what's going on and he's doing it for your good whether you can see that or understand it or not and believe me when God takes you through the storm and lands you you're gonna like every destination he takes you to if you'll just trust him may God help you do that may God change the way you see your life because of what we've seen here this morning let's pray dear Heavenly Father I want to thank you for the Word of God and how it touches and how it ministers to our lives father I want to pray for people who are here this morning that are going through real hurricanes in their life and I know there are many some of us here who've been through real hurricanes and we're still kind of licking our wounds I pray father that you would give us a different perspective than the world would like to give us on our troubles I pray you would help us to see them as all being in the hand of a loving merciful Heavenly Father who's promised us that if we get in his boat we're going to the other side Lord teach us that the storms along the way are only meant for our benefit and I pray father that you would help us even though we may not know where we're being led to have deep abiding trust in the one who's doing the leading give us the strength we need and the faith we need to have that father and I pray especially for those here this morning who are right in the middle of one of these hurricanes that they would be able to walk out of here this morning and say I may not know where I'm being led but with your help God I'm gonna trust you give me peace just help me jump in that pool believing you're gonna catch me help it be well with our souls Lord even if there's a storm all around us because of our faith and our reliance upon you we pray these things in Jesus name amen you