The Stories that Shape Us 2025

Have you ever been through a tornado? Man, I would like to say that I had, you know, and survived it, some great story, but I have not, you know, a lot of you though, have gone through those type of experiences and you know, you've survived it. At least you know you're here obviously, but what kind of storms have you gone through? I experienced a hail storm. In fact, if you live in north Texas, we've all experienced hailstorms. And just recently, I am looking outside my window and I'm seeing hail pelt my car, pelt my home. I mean, there's some big hailstones in that, and I know it's doing damage and I, I won't tell you I was fearful for my life, but as I looked outside, a tear just streams down my cheek because it hits me. I just changed my insurance. I have not had a claim on my house, lived there eight years, no claims, and I just increase the deductible by a hundred percent. You talk about painful man, the storms that we experience in life. We all go through 'em. We're going to read about this storm in the Bible. This is the first story in our series that we're looking at in the New Testament. And it concerns a storm that Jesus was involved in, uh, in a boat, uh, with his disciples. And so what we're doing in this series, of course, is we're looking at these, uh, classic stories. We're learning the what and then the why, how it connects to our lives. So this story is told three times, three different versions in the New Testament. It's that important. It's very short. But we're going to read from Matthew chapter eight, verses 23 through 27. This is about a place called the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a, a freshwater lake, but it says in verse 23. This is after Jesus had been performing miracles. He had been teaching, he'd been doing some incredible things. The disciples were with him. He's tired. It's time though to get in the boat, cross the sea of Galilee, go to the other side and then continue the ministry. But in verse 23, he said, then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly, a furious storm came up on the lake so that the waves swept over the boat, but Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him saying, Lord, save us. We're going to drown. He replied, you of little faith. Why are you so afraid that he got up and he rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. The men were amazed and they asked, what kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him. Now, this classic story shows some amazing things. You may be wondering, okay, is the Sea of Galilee really a sea? Well, again, it's a freshwater lake. It is 209 meters below sea level. This is the second lowest, um, below sea level lake. Uh, the, the one that's lower is known as the Dead Sea. But this, where it was based winds would come over the east mountains and they would just dump into the lake, and it would create storms that would obviously, um, wreck boats. Uh, today, waves get 10 feet high and it can be very, very dangerous, particularly if you are, you know, in an ancient sort of fishing vessel. So this story happens some 2000 years ago, and the disciples that are with Jesus, you know, many were fishermen. So they, they understood, they understood boating. They knew what it meant to be out there, but storms could come up very quickly just because the way this lake was positioned. And so they're in the boat with Jesus, and man, the storms come, the waves come rushing actually over the boat, and they're scared to death. Well, you know, these boats, they did sink. In fact, in 1986, there was a fishing boat that was discovered. There was a drought, and it revealed this 2000 year old boat. Let me show you a picture of it. It's on display there in Israel. And this is not a very large boat. You could imagine with Jesus and the disciples in this, it would be so at risk, the waves would be tossing, uh, the thing to and fro. But what's so amazing about this is Jesus is sleeping. Disciples are scared to death. The moral of the story is this, whatever you're in, whatever storm you're going through, he's with you. If you're a follower of Jesus, if you have ask Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you have turned away from the things that you know are not pleasing to him, you've recognized that you don't have the ability on your own to solve your own problems, and that Jesus is the way, the truth in the life, then you could be assured that he is with you. And this story reminds us of the power of his presence in our life. The fact that he understands and will be there with us through whatever we go through. This story is powerful because it tells us about the nature it reveals to us about who Jesus is. The Bible describes Jesus as being a part of the Godhead or the Trinity. One in three, three in one. There's God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They had no beginning. It will have no end, but God in creating mankind, beginning with Adam and Eve because they, they failed. They chose selfishly. God wanted. He wants us to choose of our own will, to follow him, to trust him and love him. They failed that. But it was God's plan and intention to send Jesus. Jesus. Part of the Trinity would become flesh, human flesh and dwell among us. And so the Bible talks about the nature of Christ being both completely human and fully divine. That he is a man that experiences the same emotions, uh, goes through the same things that that we go through and we see that expressed in this story, just the fact that he was tired. He was so tired from all the ministry that he'd been doing again. He had been teaching, he had been healing people, casting out demons. There's incredible stories of just the energy and the crowds that followed him. He was tired. It was time to go to the other side in his humanity. He needed rest. So he was sleeping. But then we also see the fact that he was fully God being fully divine. He had power over creation. And so when the disciples are scared and they're fearful for their lives, they're expressing, we don't wanna drown, he, they see save us. Then Jesus, after correction, he speaks and has power and brings calm to the chaos. So that's a powerful story. It's amazing as far as the facts and what went on. But how does that relate to us today? First of all, know this, and I hope you could be comforted by this fact, that storms are inevitable. Storms are inevitable in life. There is this poor teaching in Christianity. Some people are under the delusion that if, if I follow Jesus, if I just love him enough, if I have enough faith, then I'm not gonna go through any storms. And the fact that, you know, circumstances are not negative or bad in my life, it's evidence of the favor of God. Nothing can be further from the truth. Because when you look at scripture in different places, uh, one Peter four, for example, just tells us that we are to expect trials. They're coming. We should expect trials and tribulations. It expands on that. But look with me again to the New Testament, James chapter one, verses two through three. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, uh, as a follower of Jesus, you're going to experience trials, you're gonna experience fibrillations, you're gonna go through storms. And we see with all of the disciples, they went through it. They went through it for different reasons. There are different sources, um, of storms in our life. Uh, let's talk about those and then learn how we can adequately deal with them. Um, first of all, there's the storms that it's an attack from the enemy here. I think you have an example of that. The disciples were going through something that was beyond their control. They're in the boat with Jesus. Now, Jesus was incredibly effective. Why? He was God in the flesh. He did miracles and performing these miracles. He did so thus validating the claim that he was God human, though never sinned. He was tempted, never sinned, tired. He wept, but again, never sinned because he was God. He later had the power. He was raised from the dead. He defeated death in hell here he has power over the storms. So the enemy of God, which the Bible describes, give him the name of Satan, the devil Lucifer, you, you, you see it in different forms. But he's described as an enemy of God, an enemy of Jesus and an enemy of the children of God. The Bible says he's like a roaring lion that roams about seeking whom he may devour. Jesus said, describes him as the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Consider this, he wanted Jesus and the disciples dead. If he could drown them in that boat, if they could not fulfill their mission, continuing to do what God wanted and prescribed for Jesus to do, God wasn't gonna let that happen. Realize in your life that when you are following Jesus, you are going to experience what sometimes is referred to as spiritual warfare in which the enemy is going to come against you and attack you. I know that in my life at various points and places, you know, especially when I've made a decision to go forward with God, believing in faith, stepping out, even leading our church, you know, when we've taken on a new initiative, when we're trying to start another campus, when we're going in faith, I I'm just telling you, I will just prepare our teams and say, look guys, I don't know, I don't know what or in what form, but know this, it's coming and it'll, there'll be a spiritual attack a lot of times from where you least expect it. Um, people that you, the love you've poured into it, it just crazy things happen. There'll be things that will happen. Your family will be challenged. There's, there's all the time things that that happen and you just sometimes feel overwhelmed. But James said to consider it pure joy. Why is that? That's 'cause God is working. He's doing something. We may not understand it. We may not feel it in the moment, but we can trust and be assured that when the enemy attacks, Jesus is present. He's in the boat with us. Um, and I think this may be a little conjecture, but I think this is what was happening here. But God also uses us, uses it to teach us, to help us, to encourage us. There's also the choices of others. You know, we find ourselves in circumstances that we're disadvantaged when positions that weren't directly as a result of our own choices, but because, uh, others put us there. It could be that, you know, you went through round of layoffs at work. It could be that in a relationship that you know, someone betrayed you. And I know there may be complicit factors and all of that, but you know, there's situations in life where we get the short end of the stick, so to speak, because life isn't fair. We live in a sinful world and and we all have to deal with the consequences of others' decisions. But God is with us. Jesus will be with you in the boat as you go through them. And of course, you know, there are those things, um, we just have to own. It's a result of the bad decisions we make. And sometimes we compound ourself and, and we continue to make bad decisions. The storms get worse because we're not making good choices. But even then, look, know this, there is hope and there is forgiveness through Jesus Christ because he is the way, the truth and the life. And then there are those storms that God, he has allowed or arranged because he's, he's teaching you, he's developing you. The Bible tells us that God does test us. Now, that's different from temptation, alright? God will never tempt you. Temptation is, you know, that's the enemy that's trying to get you to sin, to try to further you make negative decisions compound the destructive consequences in your life. Why? 'cause he wants to steal, kill, and destroy. But what God wants to do is he wants to raise you up. You're his child. He wants you to be mature and complete. And James goes on to say that this is why he is, he's working in you. He's bettering you. He is making you more whole and complete in Christ. But regardless of the reason or the source of the storm, the good, who is again, he's there, he's going through it with us. And he's going to look at verse 28 in Romans chapter eight. This is so encouraging to me. We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So if you find yourself in a storm, even as a result of your own decisions, you can still learn from that. God's still working. He'll bring you out of that. If you'll look to him, uh, whatever someone else decides how that affects you, God's still God. He's still sovereign. He's still working in your life regardless. It's hard to go through, right? We can have hope that maybe, you know, we can make it to the other side. But what do you do when you're going through it and you're overwhelmed? Well, secondly, look for Jesus. Look for Jesus. When you feel overwhelmed sometimes that's hard to do. It's easy to focus on how negative the circumstances are. And here you have the disciples who they're with Jesus. I mean, they've been privy to what he's been doing, his miracles and all of that. And how quickly, you know, maybe they forget Jesus is asleep, they're terrified. Look with me in, uh, verse 25, verse 25 says, the disciples went and they woke him saying, Lord, save us. Okay. I think that that's appropriate, that's good. But here's where I think they, they crossed over a little bit. Look, they'd already made this conclusion. We're going to drown. Yeah, their fear overcame them. Jesus was not upset. He wasn't correcting them for waking him. No. He was like, it's that second part. It's like you've concluded that you're going to drown. Glad you're calling on me. Just said, look, just remember. I know that's hard because when you're fearful, it's hard to focus on the right things. It's hard to be positive. It's hard to look to Jesus. But where can you find him? Well, look, look back at, at your past in the positive sense. Where has God shown up? Where has Jesus been present? How has he worked in your life? How has he performed? Miracles? See the disciples, I mean, they're with Jesus. He's exhausted. He's sleeping. But why is that? It's because he's doing ministry. He's doing incredible things. He's performing these miracles. He's validating that, that he is in fact God and he's making a difference in people's lives. Look, we have the account. Go back and read, uh, just the first part of Matthew chapter eight. There's this incredible, there's this healing of a leper. There's the, the healing of a centurion's servant. And this is just at the command of Jesus and his faith. Uh, there's even the, the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. I don't know if Peter really wanted that or not, but Jesus nevertheless held his mother-in-law. He goes on to say that there's demon uh, possession in which, you know, he delivered and cast out demons and so forth. The disciples were right there with him. They were a part of that. They witnessed it, they experienced it. But boy, how quickly in the midst of the storm, well, they kind of forgot, or they didn't let that give them the confidence that they needed in the present. Look, I just wanna tell you that if you will continually draw back in your memory and thank God and give gratitude for what he's done, that will prepare you, that will help you quickly regain your footing. When you get, when you get scared, everyone gets fearful. But Jesus wants you to look to him and to trust him, to believe him in the present, in the present. You, you have to look and know that He's in the midst. He's there. What a contrast to the disciples. He's calm so much so he is sleeping. Why? Because he knows it's all under control. He's God. God wants you to have that same confidence, knowing that whatever you're experiencing, um, that he's gonna be there for you. And the midst of the storm, when things seem so chaotic, so overwhelming, he wants you to look to him and wants you to call out to him just the way the disciples did. Lord, save us. I I am so thankful. You know, when I was a kid, uh, finding, even the older I get, some of the memories that I have, a lot of them have faded. You know, they lose, lose. I don't know space in my mind, um, if there's a few things that, man, I won't forget. I was in elementary school and I remember having this very, very vivid dream. I, I didn't even know necessarily this story in the, in the Bible, but I remember being at my grandparents' house and it's like the wind, something was, you know, in the house and the wind was swirling and, and things were, you know, moving all around the room. It was just rapid, rapid succession. And, and I, uh, remember being under their kitchen table and I was holding on to one of the table legs and, and things just kept getting crazier and more chaotic. And man, I was scared in the dream, but all I knew to do, and I'm, I'm so thankful my, my parents raised me in church, but all I knew to do, I just said, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And the chaos turned to calm. Now, look, I'm not saying having a dream like that is normative. And I'm saying that, you know, don't look necessarily for God to give you some dream, but as a child, I count that as a real gift. See, here is the beauty. We have this story. You don't need necessarily a dream. You have this story. And when you, when you read this and you know and understand that in the midst of all the chaos what's going on, when things are at their worst and it seems impossible, it things seems like all's lost. And you're drowning. Jesus is there and he's gonna make it okay? He can give you calm regardless of what circumstantially happens in this life. I want you to be encouraged. I want you to look to him. I want you to call out to him and then finally realize that God's word is powerful. Rely on God's word for power in your life. Here we have the account that he, he stood up and, you know, basically rebuked the storm. And here's where it's told. In Mark chapter four, the gospel of Mark. Verse 39 said, he got up, he rebuked the wind and he said to the waves, quiet, be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm and there's power and the word of God. And so Jesus, he exemplifies that. But how do we apply that to our lives today? So Jesus is in the boat with us, alright? If you're a follower of Jesus, you've trusted him as your Lord and Savior. The Bible tells us that when we call upon him, we will be saved and we receive His spirit who indwells us. Um, the Holy Spirit is present in our life. He's in the boat with us. And we have the assurance that we can get through any storm, but we also have the word of God. We have the Bible tangible form. This is the authority for us. You know, for matters of faith and practice. And I I just want to encourage you, use the power of God's word in your life. Read it. Read it daily. Get on a reading plan. Because what it's going to do, it's going to remind you of God's power, that he has power over all these things. All the things that are chaotic, all the things of nature, all the things that are beyond your control. Look, you know, you may have been a position where you've gotten bad news from a doctor, or you have a family member that has a terminal illness. You've, I don't know, maybe things are going haywire in your business. The relationships are not good. You don't know what to do with your kids. You, you've been, you know, where I've been, maybe at a point where you just, you don't know what to do. Look, reading God's word prepares me. It helps me to recognize that he is bigger, he's in control. And I not only think about what he's done in my past, but I see what he's done in the Bible. I read stories like this. It gives me confidence for living. I wanna encourage you to pray God's word. Pray his word. You know, sometimes I'm hurting. I don't know what's going on. I'll just go to Psalms and uh, I will see a song or prayer by David. And I pray that there are different prayers in the Bible. I pray scripture. I 'cause God's word's powerful and God knows everything that's going on. And, and sometimes I don't know what to say. Your heart can be so heavy. You, you can hurt in such a way where you don't even know really what to pray. But have confidence in this. God knows everything. Nothing escapes him. Alright? He is always present. He is nothing. He knows everything but prayer aligns me with him. There's sometimes where I'm just so heavy, all I know to do is just call out on his name. You know, that's, that's praying scripture. In fact, Romans 10 13 tells us that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That's meant for salvation to begin a relationship with him. But I think even in the moment when you don't know anything else, you know, the Bible tells us that his holy spirit within us helps intercede and, and it makes plain and clarifies. And we could shift that burden. Even we don't know what to say. Just call upon his name. He is present. He'll be with you. He'll help you and you're forever His. No matter what happens in this life, if you've trusted him, next step is look to the words of Jesus to bring calm to your chaos. And these moments, I wanna pray for you. I dunno what you're going through, what you may be about to go through. You may feel overwhelmed. Would you call out to him? I wanna encourage you, we wanna pray with you. Whatever you're facing, use that connection card either physically, digitally, let us pray for you. Let us pray for that storm. Let us pray that you'll realize his presence. I also wanna encourage you use that connection card. My prayer is that you'll have the courage to say and ask the questions that you need. Be willing to talk to someone so that you can have the security of knowing that Jesus will be in your boat eternally. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us. Thank you for God just wanting a relationship with me in spite of all my hangups and mess up in life. But God, I thank you that you'll love me. And I pray that no matter what we're going through, we would recognize your presence and know that truth. And God, I pray for people that, that have not yet trusted you. You would help them come to understanding and to clarify and get answers to their questions. And God, just for all the, the chaos that that exists in our world. And, and I know that it feels for many of us that we just live in sort of a constant state of chaos. God bring calm to our hearts 'cause we put our faith in you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.