Who Then Is This?

I am so grateful to be over here. This was the campus my wife and I first came to when we moved here from Atlanta over 10 years ago. We got rowdy right over here on the second row.

Garrett back there can attest to it. It was fantastic. We loved it. This is the campus God ordained me as a minister of the gospel. That's the campus that was my first pastoral job. And so it's just such a gift and such a blessing to be back over here. I hope you all know this, but I hope you realize how blessed you are with the pastoral staff. You have over here from your campus pastor, Jonathan Linker to Matt Baker and discipleship and Matt Johnson, all the way down to those that work behind the scenes, Rachel Flores and Alex Laughlin and kids. Of course, Kyle and Kami up here, Joey Fowler, Chris Lafoon, their teams back there in production.

Can we just give honor where honors do and just thank campus staff this morning? If you have your Bible, I hope you do pull it out. We're going to be in Luke Chapter eight. We're going to continue in our series in the Book of Luke this weekend. We're going to be looking at a pretty familiar passage, which is the disciples getting caught in a storm and Jesus falling a ship or falling asleep on a ship. And now don't use that as justification for falling asleep during my sermon this morning. I know it's time change Sunday, but I don't say, well, Jesus did it.

All right. Well, he's a little different. We're going to see that this morning. OK. And so Luke Chapter eight, what we're going to see is leading up to this. Jesus has been he's been busy. He's been going around. He's been casting out demons. He's been calling disciples to himself. He has been curing sicknesses. And we're going to pick up in Luke Chapter eight beginning in verse twenty two. Why don't we do this? I know you just sat down.

I know you need to stay awake this one. So let's stand up while we stand all across this room. Let's stand in honor of the reading of the word of God. Luke Chapter eight, beginning in verse twenty two, says one day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake. Now, this lake, it's the Sea of Galilee. It's about 13 by seven miles wide. It's big. It's a big old lake.

All right. So they set out and as they sailed, he fell asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filling with water and were in danger. And we're in danger. So windstorm here. This is a story that's told in all three synoptic gospels. The synoptics are Matthew, Mark and Luke.

So here we are in Luke. Luke calls it a windstorm. Matthew describes it as a hurricane, if you translated that word. Mark, the way the word translated is he calls it a seismic mega storm.

And so that sounds kind of like a sci fi movie to me, like seismic mega crocosaurus storm. But nonetheless, what we need to know is a big old storms is the equivalent to a hurricane that's coming that's come upon them. A windstorm came down like they're filling with water and we're in danger.

Verse 24. And they went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuke the wind and the raging waves. And they ceased. And there was a calm. He said to them, Where is your faith?

And they were afraid. And they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this that he commands even winds and water and they obey him? So family, this is the word of God. Thanks be to God.

You can be seated. Now, the question I want us to consider today is the same question that's presented here at the end of this story. Who then is this? Who then is this? Now, all three gospel accounts end with that question and they all leave that question unanswered.

And I believe they leave it unanswered because the point is that you and I must answer that question for ourselves. Who then is this? Who is this Jesus who supposedly calms the storms in my life? Now, I don't want to be dramatic here, but I am going to be honest that that question, who is Jesus, is the most important question you will ever answer in your entire life.

Who you believe Jesus to be is the most important question you should ever wrestle with. And so what I want to show you today from Luke, chapter eight, is that every storm in your life is an opportunity to answer that question again. Every single storm in your life is an opportunity to answer the question, who is Jesus again? See, we tend to think about belief in Jesus as kind of this one time event. And that's true insofar as it concerns salvation.

Anyone who believes on him shall be saved. But the reality is who we believe Jesus to be actually is shown more in the day to day situations in life. That when something arises, that when a storm arises, how we respond to that is usually based off who we really believe Jesus to be. Therefore, what I see here is that each storm you and I encounter in life is a new opportunity to examine who we believe Jesus to be. See, it's really easy to have faith when everything's going our way, right?

When things are going well, when the bills are paid and the kids are behaving and the grades are good. And when that stimulus check hits the bank account. Amen.

Right. It's got an amen. It's easy for me to believe that Jesus is loving and kind. But all of a sudden, the wind and the waves come in life and things begin falling apart around me and it's much harder then to believe and live out that Jesus is loving and kind. See, the true test of faith, the true strength of our faith doesn't happen when the sunshine of God's grace is shining upon our lives.

And we feel like He's smiling on us. The true test of where we are placing our faith and who we believe Jesus to be happens when the dark clouds are over our lives, when God seems nowhere to be found. The true test of faith happens when the diagnosis comes. When the bills are piling up. When the marriage or the relationship falls apart. When someone betrays you. In other words, the true test of faith happens in storms, not in comfort.

So who then is this? How you answer that question will determine your perspective in the midst of storms because it reveals where you're truly placing your faith. Pressure just brings out what's inside of you. Think about it like this. One of my favorite things to do in my free time. I say free time.

I have four kids aged six and under, so I have like 40 minutes a day of free time. But one of the things I love to do is working out. It's kind of a stress reliever.

It's just one of the things I really enjoy. Anybody that is really into working out knows there's this thing called testing week. So testing week is kind of the week you decide, OK, I've been working. So let's say I want to get stronger and like my back squat or something, then I'll go on like a 8, 10, 12 week kind of training thing. And at the end of that 12 weeks, I do testing week. And what that testing shows is, hey, has all has all the work I've been putting in paying off?

Have I become stronger because of the work that I'm putting in? In some ways, my strength has to be tested before it can be trusted. And I've heard it said the same way about our faith, that faith must be tested before it can be trusted. And Luke Chapter eight is one of the many places in the Bible that teach us how storms serve to test our faith. They serve to help us examine our faith in Jesus, not to destroy it.

Let's not get it twisted. So viewed correctly, my hope is by the end of this sermon, you will understand and you will see storms, how they are actually for our discipleship and for our development as disciples, not for our destruction. Now, before we get too far into this, unless you think, wait, wait, wait, I came to church this morning to get some hope, to get some peace. I was told that Jesus can calm the storms in my life, not that they're going to keep raging in my life. And the problem with that type of belief is I think a lot of you have been sold this bad bill of goods.

And so I just need to lay some groundwork by making something very clear. As followers of Jesus, we should not be surprised by storms in our lives. In fact, following Jesus is a promise that you will have storms and trials. In some ways, we should expect storms to be our norm as believers.

John Chapter 16, Jesus says, I've said these things to you, disciples, that in me you may have peace because in the world you will have tribulation. First Peter Chapter four, Beloved, summit church, summit family, guest this morning, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. Listen, you may be surprised when storms come. You may be surprised how they come.

You may be even surprised where they come from, but you should not be surprised that they come. And you certainly should not be surprised when they come suddenly like this storm did, because that's usually how they come, right? Storms in your life, they don't give you a warning. They don't give you an update. No ETA, no phone notification. They don't shoot you a text saying, hey, next week is a good week for a storm. I'll be there, right? They just come. Storms are promised, so don't let them surprise you.

But here's the good news. Even in storms, this is a really strange part of the Christian life. But it's the fact that in rough waters, that's usually what lead us to a deeper relationship with Jesus.

Because it's in those storms that we get to know him in ways that we never would have known him before. I say my wife and I sat right down here a little over 10 years ago. When we moved here, the first two years when we moved to North Carolina from Atlanta were two of the hardest years of our entire lives. We went through some stuff in our life. We went through some stuff in our marriage that I would never wish upon any of you, that I would never wish we would go through again.

But in this really weird, strange, twisted, whatever you want to call it way, I don't know how to explain it. I'm so glad we did go through those things. Because I learned things about Jesus during those hard times that were only head knowledge before. I learned about his presence and his promises and his provision and his protection and God's love for me that I never would have known if we didn't go through those things.

In some ways, the only thing worse than going through those things would have been not going through those things. This is only true for the believer because we get to know things about God. We get to cling to his word.

We get to cling to his promises and we realize that his presence is always with us, even in the storm. So who is this Jesus I'm imploring you to have faith in? According to Luke 8, here's who he is.

I'm just going to go ahead and give you the answer and then we're going to unpack it. Jesus is our sympathetic and sovereign savior worthy of our praise. Jesus is our sympathetic and sovereign savior who is worthy of our praise. So let's unpack these three qualities of Jesus to cling to in the storm. Number one, Jesus is the God who sympathizes with your suffering. He's the God who sympathizes with your suffering. Look down at verse 22.

I'm just going to march through this. It says, one day he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake. Now, there's two things that are really obvious here, but often overlooked.

Number one is this. Jesus sends them into a storm. He's the God of the universe. He's sovereign. He knows everything. He knows what's about to happen. He knows where they're going. So Jesus sends them into a storm.

So let's kind of shelve that for a second and then recognize number two thing that seems kind of weird. It was the disciples obedience that led them into the storm. See, so often we think that when we find ourselves in storms, it's because of maybe some type of disobedience or sin or wrong decision on our part. But what if what if the very storm you find yourself is, in fact, because you were obedient to Jesus, not disobedient? One pastor said it this way.

I love this. He said, faith is not believing in spite of evidence. It's obeying in spite of consequence. Faith is not believing in spite of evidence, just because I can't see exactly what God's doing in front of me. Faith is obeying in spite of consequence.

It's saying, hey, I know I could do this deal in my business and it's going to double my business size. But the word of God says that would be an unethical way to go about that. And so I'm going to obey. I'm going to have faith in Jesus, believing whatever repercussions, whatever consequences come, because I believe that Jesus is better than any business he can give me. It's living my life according to the standard of God's work.

And again, I cannot stress this enough. I'm going to hammer this over and over, because often what people are promised when they follow Jesus is a life full of happiness and blessing and carefree and peace and no suffering and no persecution and no tribulation. And so what happens, why that's so dangerous is because the second something bad happens in your life, you feel like, again, you've been sold this bad bill of goods. Your entire belief system is flipped upside down. And this good God that you came to know at church all of a sudden doesn't seem so good anymore.

And it just doesn't make sense. And then you end up leaving the faith. That is not biblical Christianity. That is not what Jesus offers when we follow him.

Yes, he offers an internal sense of peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding. He does not promise a life of comfort. In fact, Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, deny everything that you desire, except for me, because it's all less than me. Take up your cross, your instrument of torture and execution, and follow me.

I don't know how you hear that. My ears don't hear that as a your best life now full of blessing and abundance type promise. I need you to hear this. Following Jesus does not exempt us from pain. And as a pastor, what is really tempting, what is really tempting for me is to stand up here.

The way the Bible puts it is I want to tickle your ears. What I want to do is stand up here and give you kind of this religious TED talk and say, hey, what we're going to see is Jesus got them through the storm. He's going to get you through your storm. Wherever you're in today, just keep going.

You may be in the valley. God's going to put you on the mountaintop. It's going to be amazing. Just hold on. Just keep marching. Stay in the boat.

It's going to be incredible. And those things might very well be true. That might happen. And you should pray and you should ask God to deliver you out of your storm. But the thing is, I cannot promise you any of that. I can't promise you that the storm of this pandemic is going to pass anytime soon, even with the vaccine. I can't promise you that the storm of your diagnosis or your disease or your cancer is going to pass anytime soon. I can't promise you that your storm at your school or in relationships or at work or in your family or finances are going to pass. I simply cannot promise you that.

But I have so much greater of a promise for you. Because what I can promise you, based on the authority of God's word alone, is that no matter what wind or what waves this world may throw at you, that the God of creation, who has power alone to calm the wind and the waves, his name is Jesus, is right there with you in the boat. I can promise you that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you. I can promise you that he will see you through the storm because he will be standing right next to you. That, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, not that I will get to the mountaintop, I will fear no evil in that valley because he is with me.

His rod and his staff, they comfort me. Listen, family, we are not promised a life absent of suffering. We are promised him in the suffering. Every single storm you go through, Jesus is with you. In your suffering, he is with you. In your weariness, he is with you. In your weakness, he is with you. In your situations, he is with you. He is with you. Somebody say it with me. He is with me. Say it again. He is with me.

One more time. He is with me. But not only is he with you, he sympathizes with you in your storm. See, we tend to think of sympathy kind of like pity, but that's not right. See, the root word of sympathy actually comes from the Greek meaning feeling with. So to sympathize with somebody is to experience what they are experiencing. So when you hear me telling you that Jesus sympathizes with your pain, I'm telling you Jesus has experienced pain like you were experiencing. When I tell you that Jesus sympathizes with you in your betrayal, I'm telling you that Jesus has experienced betrayal in the same way you have experienced betrayal. Jesus can sympathize with a wayward child because every single day to this day, Jesus experiences wayward children.

Family, we do not serve, we do not have, we do not worship, we do not put our faith in a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses and our weariness. The truth you need to know today is that when Christ sends you, he stands by you even in the storm and he sympathizes with you. He feels with you in your weaknesses and storms. So yes, as God, he knew this storm was coming. But as man, this is one of the reasons I love that Jesus is man who sympathizes with me, he was just tired. Jesus has been traveling, he's been preaching, he's been healing, he just needs some time away from the crowds.

And again, it's just one more way he sympathizes with us. So let's pick up at the end of verse 22. It says, so they set out, verse 23, and as they sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake. So Jesus is sleeping peacefully in the middle of the storm, which we just have to admit, that has to be some good sleep, y'all.

And they were filling with water and were in danger. Now, when I read this, I've got two competing emotions going on, two competing emotions. On one hand, I'm incredibly encouraged by the story because there's just one more way, as I said, that Jesus sympathizes with me. It's another way that Jesus knows exactly how I feel.

I am a father of four, six years old, four years old, two years old, newborn. I am tired, y'all. Like, I am worn out. And some of y'all are worn out. Like, I've got work, I've got a sermon to preach, I've got a small group to go to, I've got chores to do, I've got errands to run, I've got bills to pay, I've got friends to hang out with, I've got small group, I've got blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've got thing after thing after thing, I go, go, go, go, go. And that's how some of y'all feel.

The list goes on and on. Jesus knows how you feel. He's been tired, he's been exhausted, he's been hungry, he's been thirsty. So he sympathizes with me.

I'm encouraged by this. Man, he knows what it's like to be tired. But on the other hand, pastoral confession, I'm incredibly disappointed in Jesus here, at least at first glance. I mean, of all the times he could have slept, why now? In the middle of a storm. Quite literally, this is the only time in the entire Bible that talks about Jesus sleeping.

So why now? I mean, I could maybe swallow this a little bit easier, if he had told them what was going to happen and he had perhaps prepared them for it and let them know. So if it was like, Jesus told them, let's get in the boat, go to the other side.

And then he was like, hey guys, come here, huddle up. I'm going to tell you what's about to happen. We're going to go to the other side, I promise we're going to get there. Now what's going to happen is a storm's coming.

How do I know? I'm sovereign. I know everything. A storm's going to come.

You're going to be really scared. So here's what I need you to do. I'm going to assign some roles. So Peter, you stay on the helm. John, you make sure to secure the sail. James, you tie all the gear down. Thomas, that's about the extent of my sailing knowledge. I don't know what else you do on a boat. Pull up the air.

I don't know. But either way, he's assigning roles. He's saying, we're going to the other side. I'm going to go take a nap, but I promise you we're going to get there. Might still be scary, but I feel like there's some security in that promise. That would feel a lot better.

That is not what happens. Jesus said, let all of us combined as a group get in, go to the other side, nap time. This is how I feel sometimes. I feel like one of the disciples. I feel like sometimes when I need God the most, he is nowhere to be found.

I feel like he is asleep on the job sometimes. And so you hear me talking about this sympathetic savior in your life. And all you are experiencing is an unsympathetic non-savior because wave after wave after wave keeps coming. And here in the story, Jesus sleeping to me is a picture of his humanity. But if we keep reading, what we're about to see is that this is actually evidence of his divinity. That in actuality, his sleep is a sleep of fearlessness.

It's a sleep of sovereignty. It's a sleep of divinity because he could wake up and calm it at any moment. This is what is so beautiful about Jesus and these seemingly contradictory and competing thoughts that I have. It's the fact that he is human enough to sleep in the storm, but he is God enough to speak to the storm. He's human enough to feel my pain, but he is God enough to fix my pain. He is human enough to take upon himself the debt that we owe because of our sin, pay that price, and he's God enough to pay that debt of sin. So in the storms, we must remember that Jesus is the God who sympathizes with our weariness.

He sympathizes. Number two, Jesus is the God who is sovereign over your storms. Turn to verse 23. It says a windstorm came down on the lake. They were filling with water and were in danger. Verse 24. And they went and woke him saying, Master, Master, we are perishing.

So here's what happens. The disciples look around and all they see is danger, right? Winds, waves. They look within. They see fear. Now, fear as an emotion is not a bad thing. Our emotions are God given abilities. Fear as an emotion is not a bad thing.

Hear this very clearly. Fear as a devotion reveals when we have misplaced our faith. See, the occasion of fear gives us a choice.

Are we going to allow our fear to be the setting for our unbelief or will our fear become the setting for faith in a sovereign and good God? The problem wasn't simply the storm around them. It was also the unbelief within them. I mean, these are the guys who have been following Jesus around, watching him do miracles, watching him heal people, watching him raise people from the dead.

Yet in this moment, their faith has become fragile. In other words, as Tony Evans says, he says they followed Jesus around. They heard his sermons.

They took notes. They said amen, but then they closed their notebooks, went out into the world, and it made no difference in their lives. Y'all, Satan does not care how much Bible knowledge you and I have as long as we don't live it out. And in some ways, that's what's happening here in verse 24. Look back down at it, at the wording here.

So careful. Master, master, we are perishing. The way Matthew records it in his gospel is save us, Lord, for we are perishing. Now, again, kind of dual concepts going on when I read this. It's fascinating because on one hand, this declares Jesus' lordship.

That's a good thing. Master, master, Lord. But on the other hand, it declares their unbelief. We're perishing.

Are you going to do anything about this? God. God is good all the time, right, brother? Faith.

But I'm going to walk around and be miserable in life. Unbelief. Yep, I believe God's sovereign.

He's in control. Everything happens for a reason. Faith. But I'm going to go silently drown in doubt and despair and anxiety.

Unbelief. Hopefully you can relate by now that these disciples come to Jesus in a mix of terror and faith, of panic and trust. They've seen him do miracles before, but now they're questioning, can he stop a storm? I know we can raise somebody from the dead.

Can he stop a storm, though? And keep in mind, these guys are professional fishermen. They've been in their fair share of storms on a sea before. But here they're terrified. They think they're going to die. And I don't know about you, but if I'm in an environment alongside somebody who is considered an expert in that environment and they become frazzled, it's time to get a little bit worried, OK? Like I've been skydiving twice before.

If my skydiving instructor I'm trapped to all of a sudden gets worried, I'm a little worried. That's what's happening. These guys, what has happened is they have reached the end of their know how. And that's when they decide to wake Jesus up. Y'all, ain't it funny how it often takes for us to get to the end of our know how before we go crying out to Jesus? See, we think that Christian maturity is needing less and less help from God.

That could not be more wrong. Maturity is realizing how dependent we are on Jesus more and more every single day. And so they go to him terrified. They go to wake him up from his nap. Which I hope in here we can all agree waking somebody up from a nap is a very bad idea. Anybody here hate getting woken up from a nap? OK. And what makes it even worse.

I'm going to go down. OK. What makes it even worse is when you get woken up from a nap, the perpetrator always follows their crime with a very stupid question. Right. What's that question? Oh, were you sleeping? Like I'm literally I'm laying horizontally with my eyes closed, heavily breathing, not speaking for an extended amount of time.

And you choose to shake me and ask me, was I sleeping? Bad idea. OK.

This is again for kids. Maybe this is like some catharsis coming out right now. I get no time for this.

OK, digress. Verse 24. So Jesus awoke in a much better mood than I would have and rebuke the wind and the raging waves. And they ceased and there was a calm. Oh, don't miss this. This is this is so encouraging.

It's so good. Notice how it was not the storm that woke Jesus up. It was the cry of his saints that did.

The raging storm doesn't seem to bother him one bit. But the cries of his disciples, even this week and these faithless, these these unbelieving cries doesn't matter. These are the cries of his friends. These are the cries of the needy. Jesus was asleep up until the very moment that they shouted to him in their weak and faithless voices. And boom, he's awake.

And we're going to see in a minute. Jesus doesn't commend the content of their plea. But he does honor the direction of their plea. And here's why this should be so encouraging, because it means you don't have to have a filter when you pray towards God. So if you're feeling lost or you're feeling like God isn't good, if you're experiencing doubt, if you are frustrated with your lot in life, if you feel like God is sleeping on the job, take it to him. Be messy with him.

Tell him how you're feeling. Say, God, do you even care? Are you even aware of what's going on? Are you asleep in the back of my boat? I promise you're not going to hurt his feelings. He's a big boy.

You can take it, OK? Because the lie of the enemy, the lie of the enemy, and it works so beautifully, is that when you're in a storm, he tries to tell you that it's because God doesn't love you or because you've done something wrong. And he tries to tell you that no amount of prayer or crying out to God is going to make any difference at all. That is a lie from the pit of hell. I beg you, don't let a storm get between you and your savior who cares for you and who hears you and who listens, even when you shout to him in a weak and faithless plea for help.

Cry out to him. And the moment Satan begins raising more storms in your life, you call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is sovereign over all storms, over all creation, over every inch of your life, who lays those storms. This storm, which had suddenly arisen, is about to be silenced by the savior with a single word, the one who rules supremely. The disciples cry out for him. He wakes up.

He stands up. I picture it like a Middle Eastern Gandalf. And he says, you shall not pass. And it's like glass. This isn't like the wind stopped, but the waves were still kind of choppy until it died down.

This was like, get out on the lake at 6 a.m. to go wakeboarding glass in an instant. That's who this God is. He controls even the elements. We're told over and over and over in this book that Jesus is the one by whom the universe was made. That Jesus is the creator of heaven and earth, that all of the forces of nature are underneath his authority. And here in the middle of a raging storm, we see complete and abrupt submission to the authority of this Jesus, who is sovereign over those storms and over your storms. In a single moment, prophecy and power are coming together in the form of this Jesus whom we should praise. Psalm 89, O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, because it is you who rule the raging of the sea.

When its waves rise, you still them. Psalm 65, you silence the roar of the seas, the roar of their waves and the tumult of the nations. Psalm 93, mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. The Lord on high is almighty. Psalm 107, he made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed. That's why Tim Keller says Jesus doesn't have to call on a higher power because Jesus is the higher power. And when I believe that higher power is in the boat with me, that his presence is a promise that will never forsake me, I can declare along with the psalmist and the prophet Isaiah saying, when I am afraid, even in my storm in God, I put my trust in you whose word I praise. I shall not be afraid, for God is the strength of my song and my salvation. Church, this is our sympathetic and sovereign savior.

It's my last point. Who's worthy of our praise. Who's worthy of our praise. Now, what I would think here is if this were like a made for TV story, a made for TV movie, I think the Hallmark version would end by Jesus rebuking the sea. It goes calm and he's like, come here, guys, come here. He huddles him up. He like gives him a hug. He's like, I know that was so scary. Like, you guys OK? And then he's like, they sail across the other side.

They have a meal. Everything's good, right? That's not what happens. Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves and then immediately turns and rebukes the disciples. Look at verse 25.

It's our final verse. He said to them, full circle, where is your faith? And they were afraid of the way Sally Lloyd-Jones and Jesus' storybook Bible set the storm. The storm outside may have stopped, but now inside the disciples are filled with a different kind of storm. And they marveled, saying to one another, who then is this?

He commands even winds and water and they obey him. Jesus says, guys, where's your faith? Is it in me? Because if it's in it, if it's in me, I'm right here. I haven't gone anywhere.

I'm right there with you. Where's your faith? And see, another overlooked detail in the story occurs all the way back in our first verse, verse 22, when Jesus said, what do you say? He said, let us go across to the other side of the lake. What's just as important is what he did not say. He didn't say, let's hop in this boat and see if we can make it to the other side.

He says, let's go to the other side. For them in this time, in this context, this was a promise. But what happened is the disciples allowed the storm to come between them and their assurance of Jesus's love and care for them. Y'all assurance comes from remembering both Jesus's promises and how he has worked in history. Don't forget your history with Jesus just because a storm has come in your life. Don't lay aside his word where his promises are found. See, so often what happens is the times that we need to lay hold of the promises found in this book are often the times we are most tempted to step away from them. The times we need to turn to his word for strength and help are often the times we are tempted to give up reading our Bibles, to step away from prayer, to step away from community and stop coming to church. Brothers, sisters, don't let your storm come between you and your assurance of Jesus's love and care and promises for you. Don't forget your history with him and how his presence has never left you.

Let his word and his track record speak for itself. And as you remember, let it fill your heart with faith, knowing that even in the worst of storms, Jesus is with you. Faith is not believing in spite of evidence.

God making your situation turn out perfectly. It's obeying in spite of consequence, believing that even if your storm never passes, that even if your boat sinks, that my God is still worthy of praise. That's the kind of faith we lay hold of, not from the story alone, but only if we know the end of the story. See, God sending Jesus to earth was him saying, let's go to the other side. And then Jesus, in obedience to the father, was sent into an oncoming storm. Jesus would then sail into the waters of our sin, into the waters of our rebellion, and be met with the storm of God's wrath that was kept for us. And then on the cross, the storm raging around him that day was the storm of crucifixion. It was the storm of death. It was the storm of abandonment.

The storm of nine inch nails being driven through his wrists. Why? He did that out of love for you. Out of sympathy for you. Out of a desire to save you.

Wrap your head around this. Jesus, the sovereign one who could have spoken a word and in an instant come down from the cross and seen his storm cease, in an instant allowed himself, willingly allowed himself to be plunged into the depths of the sea of death and hell for you. And what it looked like on Good Friday is that the storm had won. Jesus went down and he perished while it seemed like at best God was asleep in the back of the boat. It seemed like death had won. It seemed like the storm had overtaken the sovereign.

It seemed like Satan and sin were too much for the salvation plan of the Almighty. And I know this is where so many of you are today. You feel stuck in Good Friday. You've been waiting on God to get you through the storm. But when you look up to him, all you see is Jesus lying dead in a tomb. And your life seems like nothing but darkness, hopelessness, wind and waves. Again, I'd love to stand up here and promise you just hold on. You're going to get through it.

But I know what you need way more than that. You don't need a Sunday school lesson where I tell you, Jesus fixed this storm and he's going to fix yours too. No, you need to hear that John the Baptist wasn't delivered from prison. He was beheaded.

The Apostle Peter didn't become a megachurch pastor. He was crucified upside down. That every single one of almost these disciples that walked with Jesus were killed because of their faith and obedience to Jesus. So what you need today is not a religious pep talk that's going to make you feel better for the next 12 hours until life hits you in the face again. What you need is to be shown that Jesus is with you and to have your heart and your eyes and your mind fixed on the sympathetic, sovereign, loving Savior Jesus Christ who was plunged into the sea for you in order that he may live eternally with you. What you need is a reminder that even when the path isn't smooth, even in your problems, even in your pain, that Jesus's presence is a promise you can stand on and that wherever and whenever Christ sends you, he's already gone before you and he stands by you. Then and only then, whether he decides to intervene and cure the cancer or not.

Whether the breakup resolves in a manner in which you had hoped or not. Whatever it is, the very storm itself is just another opportunity to make this discovery about Jesus. That Jesus Christ is Lord of all.

That he loves you and he cares for you and he sympathizes with you and he is with you to the end of age. And that suffering with Jesus is better than any life of comfort without him. You need to know that his story and your story did not end on Good Friday. Because three days later came Resurrection Sunday. And even if you haven't experienced your Sunday yet, let me tell you, with Christ, your story ends in resurrection and hope. Maybe not this side of heaven.

Your ship may go down. But Jesus is going to be there to meet you in the depths of the sea and you'll rise with him again in eternity. That's the faith. That's the hope.

That's the assurance. That's the peace that surpasses all understanding. That whether Jesus calms your storm or whether your boat sinks, that you will have a peace and a joy and an assurance that the world can't know.

The peace that comes from trusting in Jesus, the God who sympathizes with your suffering, the one who sovereign over all of life's storms and the savior who is worthy of our praise. You pray with me. God, I thank you for your word today. I thank you that it's a reminder that we can come to you when we are weary and burdened. God, that you'll give us rest. God, I do pray for the deliverance from storms today. God, even more than that, I pray for the assurance for someone to know that even if you don't deliver them from the storm, that you are with them in it.

Would they know you personally like that? God, I pray and I ask in Jesus' name, amen and amen.