We’re
continuing a series of sermons on the miracles of Jesus. And this one is called The Perfect Storm Tamer. Have you ever read the book The Perfect Storm? Well, this is The Perfect Storm Tamer.
How
many of you remember back on April 10, 1912, the great ship, the Titanic, went
out on it’s first voyage? You remember
that? Reading about it. This British ship was almost 4 city blocks
long. It was 11 stories high. It was the most magnificent ship in the
world, and it was luxurious and beautiful beyond words. It was unsinkable. The captain said, “You know, I don't even
think God could sink this ship if He wanted to.” And they went out on the deep waters, the cold waters of the
North Atlantic. And they broke a world’s
record. The biggest ship ever to sink. Another world’s record they broke was that
this ship was on fire every hour of its active life of duty. I have a box here labeled Titanic, and in here,
Warren Oliver loaned this to me, is a chunk of coal that the little submarine
went down 12 thousand feet and got this chunk of coal, and several chunks of
coal that were unburned. That fire
burned for the entire trip until finally the ocean waters put the flames
out. Many passengers were so
self-sufficient and proud that they didn't even bother to get life
insurance. They believed in the
indestructibility of this ship so much.
Five iceberg warnings were given to this ship. They were telegraphed and when the sixth message came over the
radio, the operator telegraphed back, and said, “Be quiet. I’m busy. Send me a message later,” because
they were just in the process of figuring out that they were about to set
another world’s record. The fastest
crossing of the ocean ever.
And
there’s a text in Proverbs, chapter 16 and verse 18 says this. "Pride goeth
before destruction." I
think we need to listen to that. Just
about the time we begin to feel we’re indestructible, we’re headed for deep
trouble, if you know what I mean. And
with an iceberg only a mile or two away, they knew nothing about it. They were heading towards certain destruction. Suddenly the man up high in the crow's nest
spotted this mountain of ice ahead of them.
And he yelled down in that tube to the engine room, “Iceberg! Stop!” They didn’t pay any attention to it. He rang the bell. The bell rang for three minutes and finally they answered the call
and he said, “Iceberg dead ahead! Reverse the engines!” But it was too late. They hit that mountain of ice.
11
millionaires went down that day. Major Peuchen
left 300 thousand dollars, which in that day was a lot of money and the money
was even worth something in those days, compared to our dollar today, I think. He left all that money in the safe in his
room and grabbed three oranges. Many
people didn't even bother to get on the lifeboats because they said this ship
is not going to go down. It can’t go down. The water was so cold, 32 degrees they
estimated, that the brittle metal was so fragile that the ship actually cracked
in half and there are two halves down there to 12 thousand foot level.
I
daresay there are several titanics here in our audience today. Now you think, you know, I am
indestructible. I have enough
money. I'm well fixed. I’m healthy.
I am unsinkable.
I
remember very well a member of this congregation went to Bi-Lo grocery store
with her son and as they pulled out of Bi-Lo a car struck them, and she was
killed. You never know when an iceberg,
whatever it will be, I don't know what it will be in your life. Hopefully it will never happen, but let's
not get the feeling that we are indestructible. Is it possible, is it really
possible to be unsinkable? Yes or no? I want to tell you today how you can be
unsinkable, and you think, “What's he going to do?” Well, listen.
Has
there ever been such a thing as an unsinkable ship? Yes! Noah’s ship would
not sink, in the Bible. That ship that
Moses rode. Remember that one? About that big, in the bullrushes? It wouldn't sink.
And
there's another one in the Bible. Come
over here to Mark, the fourth chapter in your New Testament, and we want to do
a little bit of study today about a wonderful miracle of Jesus Christ, and this
opens with a picture of the preacher asleep in His pulpit. Have you ever seen a preacher asleep. It's bad when preachers sleep in the pulpit.
That's really bad. Well Jesus was asleep in His own pulpit.
Mark,
chapter 4, verse 35 to 41 is our topic of study today. Jesus was tired. Did you know that preaching is exhausting? When you put yourself into it, isn't it
exhausting? People shake my hand and
then, ‘Your hand is cold.” Well it's
because all the energy is taken up, I’m presenting to you and my hands are cold
if I have preached a good sermon. Now you’re
going to test me from now on, aren’t you? “Your hands are hot today. You didn't give it your best.” I should never have said that.
Towards
dark Jesus and His disciples got on the boat and they were going to cross to
the other side. They were going to go
over to see the other side. I don't
know why we always want to go to the other side, but that's where they wanted
to go.
Now
we have been on the Sea of Galilee. In
January of 1984, my wife and I went there. We were walking along the west side of the Sea of Galilee, and I
noticed all these government signs printed in three languages warning people
about the danger of high waves and dangerous conditions that could instantly
erupt. And so we read them and we
thought, well, it looks pretty calm today, so we got on the boat and went out
there and enjoyed it. Didn't have any
problem at all.
But
notice Mark, chapter 4, verse 37. “And there arose a great storm of wind.” The storm was a wind storm. “And the waves beat
into the ship so that it was now full,” the Bible says. The ship was full of water. Now when your boat is full of water, you're
possibly in danger.
Storms
need fuel. Do you know what ‘storm fuel’
is? It is the temperature difference of
air. You can’t have a storm when
everything is the same temperature, but when you have a huge cold front meeting
with a huge warm front you have a problem.
That's why we don't live in Wichita.
We live in, well I'm not picking on Wichita. I never should've said that.
You know, you can say bad things in the pulpit. But anyway, we live here because storms are
better here. They’re bad, but they're not as bad, it seems like, and there was
a heavy storm, and the Sea of Galilee… As my wife and I were on this little boat we could see up toward
Mount Hermon. Now Mount Hermon is an
elevation of 9 thousand 2 hundred and 32 feet high, above sea level. The Sea of Galilee is below sea level. In fact, it's down to the level of 6 hundred
and 82 feet, so there's a difference there of 10 thousand feet, and the air
channels down through these valleys, all the way down to the Sea of Galilee and
comes out across, and you end up with waves.
The waves of the Sea of Galilee can reach as high as 30 to 40 feet on
that little sea. It’s 13 miles long and
8 miles across. Imagine looking up at a
wall of water 40 feet above your head.
Just imagine that. That is a
serious wave, and the mountain valleys act like big funnels and the wind comes
across. In fact, the spray can go 3
hundred yards onto the land across the lake.
Now
the Greek word in Matthew, chapter 8, verse 24, is very vivid. It says the storm was a ‘seismos’. You know, we have seismometers. We measure earthquakes. That storm was so huge that it was like an
earthquake. It shook the lake. It shook the boats, and in Mark, chapter 4,
verse 37, the boat was in danger of swamping. It was full of water, and you never know. When you get your health checkup or your
mammogram or, you never know what's going to happen. You never know what the stock market's going to do. You never know. Somebody gave me an article, we need to start stockpiling
food. I'm going to read this article. We’re in serious times. You never know what is going to happen and so
you need to do, to be ready.
You
need to trust Jesus, and they quickly realized that they needed to do something
drastic, and I can just picture them bailing water and probably Peter bailed
the most water because he was the most energetic, but eventually they realized
that they could not help themselves.
They could not save themselves.
And when we come to the realization that we can’t save ourselves, we
have actually arrived. You know, even
experienced Christians can't save themselves. You realize that, don't you?
You can’t save yourself.
Romans,
chapter 3, verse 23 says, “All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God.” All have sinned. What case is that? “Have
sinned” is what? Is it past, present,
or future? “All
have sinned,” that’s in the past, and all “fall
short.” Is that past, present,
or future? That's present. All have sinned in the past, and all fall
short, now. Today.
In
fact, I was reading in a little book that I have here. It’s called The Faith I Live By, and in this
little book there’s an interesting quotation.
This quotation says this. “We
shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our
shortcomings and mistakes.” We shall often have to bow down at the feet of
Jesus. As Christians we make
mistakes. We have sinned in the past
and we still sin and we can't save ourselves from that. There is only one Savior and Who is that? That's Jesus Christ. He's our Savior. All of our good works will never be enough. Salvation by good works doesn't work.
So
in this crisis in the boat they actually had forgotten Jesus. They had forgotten their Savior, and I
imagine during a huge lightning strike it illuminated the boat and suddenly
they saw Jesus. Suddenly they remembered
that Jesus was there. Finally these
struggling, exhausted, sopping wet sailors saw Jesus. They remembered Him and they called on Him, and I think when
disaster strikes the very first thing that you should do is turn to Jesus. Number one. That's what you need to do, and He has an unlimited supply of
rescue.
Now
where was Jesus? Well, He was on the
boat. Look at verse 38. What was Jesus doing? He was sleeping! He was sleeping. He was
sleeping on a cushion, the Bible says. Now
I don't envision that this was a big, you know, like the cushions that we have
in our television room. It was a
cushion, the cushion in most of the ships, in those days, were kept under the coxswains
seat. And that's where Jesus was. Jesus was in the stern, which is the back of
the boat. And the stern; the stem is in
the front. There’s a, I’m a landlubber
so I don't really, but I know where the stem and the stern are. And one is the starboard and the other is
the moonboard, or something like that.
I don't know much about it, but the stern is in the back. He
was in the back of the boat, and He was sleeping. Imagine that. During this tremendous storm, the Bible says
that the boat was filling up with water and here's Jesus sleeping. How could He be sleeping in a storm like
that?
The
storm was severe, and I imagine the devil had something to do with the severity
of that storm. Satan has studied the
secrets of the laboratories of nature and insofar as God permits, he controls
those things. The devil was after the
early church. You see, the entire
church was in that boat. All the
disciples, and Jesus their leader. They
were all there. He had them all. They were all in the same boat. Do you remember back in December of 2001, when
we had an airplane crash over here across the street from our church and our
conference president was killed, and our conference vice President. There were five people killed in that air
crash, right here across the street.
2004. I got the right date. You always say things that are wrong, but
you're always corrected, so that's good. 2004. It hurt our
conference. Imagine what the devil
might have done, could he have destroyed that early church. So here comes the devil, not like a snake in
the forbidden tree, but like a sea serpent. He’s going to paralyze the early church. He’s going to kill it, and he comes, but
Jesus, is there and fortunately Jesus takes charge.
Now,
I don't know how Jesus could be asleep in a storm like that. The boat was filling up with water. Let me ask you a question. Which part of the boat fills up with water the
first? The front of the boat or the
back of the boat? Wouldn't the back of
the boat fill up first? Isn't that
correct? And where was Jesus sleeping? In the back of the boat. How could He do that? I just don't understand that. He had peace in His heart. Jesus did. He is the creator of the world, He doesn't worry about anything. The storm revealed the Savior, and often
times in our lives, it’s the storms that reveal the Savior. There's a church down the street here from
McDonald Road that has a sign out in front of it. Did you read it on your way to church this morning? It says something about the fact that it
takes a crisis. It takes a problem
before we see the Savior. The storm
revealed the Savior. The storm could
not wake Jesus, but I want you to know that as soon as they cried out to Jesus,
[snap] He woke up, just like that. Storms don't wake Him up, but you do when
you pray. You wake Him up. Well, not that He’s asleep, but He diverts
all of His attention to you.
I
think one lesson that I learned in reading this story is that never, ever battle
the storms of life alone. Always turn
your problems over to Jesus. Storms are
beyond our ability to cope. So don't
keep struggling on and on without Jesus. Come to Jesus early on, before the boat even gets full. They had run out of human solutions, but
they hadn’t run out of answers because Jesus was there. He was there and what a great Savior He is.
Well
they cried out. In verse 38 they said, “Don't you care that we’re perishing?” Does Jesus care when we’re suffering? When you go bankrupt? When you can’t sell your house? I could ask you today, how many of you can't
sell your house and a lot of hands would go up. Does Jesus care about that? Absolutely He does. Have
faith in Jesus. Jesus often stays in
the background until we really cry out.
Mark 4, verse 39, “Immediately Jesus got up and He
said, ‘Peace, be still.’” The
Greek word here is ‘be muzzled’. ‘Be
muzzled’. Jesus is in charge of the
waves and the water. They obey Him. Just like they're alive. In fact, the word in Mark 1:25, ‘be quiet’,
is the same word that He used in both instances. When He was casting the devil out of somebody, He used the same
word. Interesting. Jesus knew the demons were out to get Him, I
think, and the wind and the waves obeyed.
Now there’s 2 miracles here.
I've seen wind stop blowing, but then the waves, it takes away the while
for them to calm down. I think there
was, the wind stopped and instantly the water was placid. The Sea of Galilee was just as smooth as
your top of your table. They probably
had to row all the way to the other shore.
I don't know. It only took two
words, ‘be still’. Jesus is the
superman of the world, right? He's the
creator, and He concludes here in verse 40 of Mark, chapter 4, and He said to His
disciples, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? Where’s your faith?”
Where
is your faith? As you look at your
401(k)s and you see everything going, which direction is it going? It’s going down. Where’s your faith? Hang
on, hang on. Trust. We have so little faith in Jesus. Never trust the Titanic. Trust your titanic Savior, but not your
titanic boat. And switching from
cigarettes to wine coolers, and I could give numerous illustrations like that,
is like switching seats on the Titanic. You’re going to go down either way.
In
verse 41, the disciples concluded, Jesus was on the boat, they were terrified. They asked each other, “Who is this?” They knew Him as a person from Bethlehem, they knew Him as a person from Nazareth, but
Who is this? Well, He was the creator
of the world. God Himself was on
board.
There
was a train that was going through the darkness, through the night, and they
encountered a bad storm, and the rain and hail started beating on these coaches,
and the wind was buffeting the train, and the people could feel the coaches
moving in this terrible wind and the rain was coming down, and they could see
in the lightning strikes that the water was up to almost the level of the
tracks and people were beginning to pray. Their faces were white.
They were clutching onto the edges, and they noticed one little girl on
board, who was just sitting there smiling and happy and at peace. Somebody said, “How can you do that? We might lose our lives,” and she said, “Well,
my daddy is the engineer, and he's not going to risk our life. We’re going to be just fine. He's driving the locomotive.” You know, you need to put Jesus in charge of your
life.
I
was going down the freeway and I saw a bumper sticker. I don't have any bumper stickers on my bumper. But I saw one on somebody's bumper and it
said ‘God is my co-pilot’. You know, I
pity people like that. ‘God is my co-pilot’. That's bad. You don't want God as your copilot. You know, they better switch seats. You better put God in front of the steering wheel, and you sit
over there.
I
went up in my brother-in-law, John Kershner's airplane last week, a little
homemade, experimental aircraft. I
don't know how to fly. I said, “You
feeling good today, John?” “Yeah,
feeling good.” “Okay, let’s go”,
because my life is in his hands, you know. I don't know how to land it.
Well I know how to get down, probably. If you push on the wheel, you’ll go down. If you pull clear back, you’ll probably end
up going down. Whatever I would do, I
would go down, but it might not be a good landing. I want God as my pilot. I
don't want to be the pilot of my life. I want God to be in charge of me.
I want Him to be the captain of my ship, and He'll see the icebergs
years in advance, and He'll route me around, and I may be fearful at times, but
if I just look to Him, I'm going to make it. I'm going to be there.
Let
me tell you how you can be unsinkable. That
little boat hit a giant iceberg of the devil's wrath and all the forces of
darkness were there. The disciples were
on board. Jesus was on board. The demons were intent on killing the early
church, but the ship was unsinkable. Do
you know why? Because no ship can ever
sink if Jesus is in it. Amen? No ship can ever sink if Jesus is in it, and
you can't sink if Jesus is in your heart.
And here is the grand secret of how you can be unsinkable. How you can have faith that will carry you
through the most stormy challenges of your life. If Jesus is in the midst of your heart you will be safe from stem
to stern. You'll make it.
Hymn of Praise: #3 God Himself is With Us Scripture: Luke 8:22-29 Hymn of Response: Master, The Tempest is Raging
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 8/6/08