Episode Transcript
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The text is in. It's in
the gospel of Mark Chapter Four versus thirty
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five through forty one. Mark Chapter
Four versus thirty five through forty one.
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This is God's word for us this
morning, so let's pay heed to it.
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On that day, when evening had
come, he said to them,
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let us go across to the other
side and, leaving the crowd, they
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took him with them in the boat, just as he was, and other
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boats were with him, and a
great wind storm arose and the waves were
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broke, were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
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But he was in the Stern,
asleep on the cushion, and they
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woke him and said to him,
teacher, do you not care that we
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are perishing? And he awoke and
rebuked the wind and said to the sea
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peace, be still, and the
wind ceased and there was a great calm
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and he said to them, why
are you so afraid? Have you still
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no faith? And they were filled
with great fear and said to one another,
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who then, is this that even
wind and sea obey him? Please
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pray with me, father, this
is your word. You caused it to
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be written, every word of it. It is your word, every jot,
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every tittle. We thank you for
this beautiful story of Christ stilling the
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tempest, which tells us that there, that there is a theology of Christians
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in suffering and trials that we are
to remember and not to ever forget.
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So give us wisdom and discernment this
morning to learn and apply this important lesson
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in our faith. And we ask
it for Jesus Sake. I'm in.
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Please be seated. You know,
you think you know Jesus. You have
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a relationship with him. He's your
savior, he's your Lord, he's your
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friend, you've talked to him,
you commune with him. He he comforts
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you when you're sad, he provides
for you when you're in need, he
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reassures you when you doubt. He's
always there when you call upon him.
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He meets your needs, he does
what's best for you. And then something
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happens, something everything starts to unravel. You lose your job, you lose
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a loved one, you get sick, there's conflict in the church, your
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family is in disarray, your dreams
and your aspirations come crashing down around your
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ears. You don't get that promotion
and you think, Jesus, this isn't
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what you're supposed to do. This
isn't the way things are supposed to be.
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Jesus, don't you care? You
find yourself in a storm. You
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know some of you this morning,
or in a storm, maybe most of
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you. You know this week has
been a storm and nothing about this week
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makes any sense. Do you know
John Newton's prayer, a prayer answered by
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crosses? The prayer of that old
slave trader turned pastor goes like this.
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He says, and I quote,
I asked the Lord that I might grow
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in faith and love and every grace, might more of his salvation, know
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and seek more earnestly his face.
Twas he who taught me thus to pray,
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and he, I trust, has
answered prayer, but it has been
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in such a way as almost drove
me to despair. I hope that in
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some favored our at once he'd answer
my request and, by his love's constraining
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power, subdue my sins and give
me rest. Instead of this, he
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made me feel the hidden evils of
my heart and let the angry powers of
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hell assault my soul in every part. Yeay more, with his own hand,
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he seemed intent to aggravate my woe
crossed all the fair designs, I
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schemed, blasted my gourds and laid
me low. Lord. Why is this?
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I trembling cried. Wilt Thou pip, pursue thy worm to death.
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Tis In this way, the Lord
replied, I answer prayer for grace and
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faith. These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set thee free
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and break thy schemes of earthly joy, that Thou may seek thy all and
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me. You know, if you
don't know this poem of John Newton's,
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it's also a hymn. Google it
now, get it on the web,
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prended out. Stick it in your
bibles. I'm telling you, it will
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help you through many a trial.
It will help you through many a storm.
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You see, that's what this story
of Christ stilling the storm is all
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about. It's about life's trials and
how we, as Christians, should deal
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with those trials. So, as
we begin this morning, let me just
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make a few general comments about this
text. You know, each of the
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three Sonoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark
and Luke, includes this account of Jesus
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stilling the storm. It's an important
miracle, not least because I think it
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recollects to us the power of God
displayed over nature and some of the great
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miracles of the Old Testament, for
example the parting of the waters of the
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Red Sea. It provides another demonstration
that mark gives us of the identity of
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Jesus with Yahweh of the Old Testament. It demonstrates that Jesus is God.
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He can control the weather, he
can control nature. It's also interesting,
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I think, that this little account
is vivid with many eyewitness details. The
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first one is in verse thirty six. You know, we see this curious
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detail that that they took Jesus along
just as he was, which apparently means
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that Jesus was taken directly from the
boat from which he had been teaching the
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crowds along the lake shore, without
returning him to the shore. Now that's
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something that an eyewitness would remember,
but no one else, I think,
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would think to add. A similar
detail, not picked up again in the
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account, is that there were other
boats with them as they began their crossing
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of the sea. You know,
we're left to wonder what happened to these
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these other boats in the storm,
but mark says nothing about them. It's
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an eyewitness detail. Then there's that
strange little detail here that Jesus was asleep
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in the back of the boat on
a cushion. Again, it's an eyewitness
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detail. Now, I mentioned all
this because these sorts of details, they
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don't have advanced the plot here.
They don't develop any of the characters.
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They're basically irrelevant, they're unnecessary to
the flow of the story, and I
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think that's what gives this story the
marks of something that actually happened and it's
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being reported by someone who was actually
there. In other words, we can
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know that this story, which is
all about the power of Jesus, really
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happened. It's a true story.
In other words, also in calm weather,
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a journey across the Sea of Galilee, depending upon one's destination along the
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fire shore, would probably taken an
hour or two. But this is this
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lake is notorious for sudden and severe
squalls. Now, the surface of the
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Sea of Galilee is about seven hundred
feet below sea level and on several sides
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it's bordered by steep hills, including
the goal on heights. Now what happens
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is the interchange between cooler air from
the heights and the warmer air coming up
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from the surface of the lake creates
conditions in which these winds sweep down the
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ravines and they whip up unusually large
waves for a lake that particular size,
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and that's what happened here. It
says in Verse Thirty Eight that Jesus is
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fast asleep even in the uproar of
this storm, which is a testimony,
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I think that he's no doubt he's
exhausted from his ministry. He has to
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get away from the crowds. By
the way, this is the only passage
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in the gospels where we read that
the Lord is sleeping, and the fact
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that the disciples, who make their
living on the waters of this lake were
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so afraid indicates the severity of this
storm. It was a big one.
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You know, this desperate and,
we might think, disrespectful rebuke of Jesus
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by the disciples in Verse Thirty Eight, I think it's almost certainly of verbatim
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recollection of what they said. See, this is the way people speak when
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they're terrified. This word for rebuke
in verse thirty nine. It's the same
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word used earlier by mark when the
Lord rebuked the evil spirits in people.
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You know, the Lord speaks to
this lake as if it were an unruly
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heckler. I think a good paraphrase
of what he said is quiet, shut
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up. You know, whether evil
spirits or forces of nature, they're all
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subject to his command. But power
over nature even more starkly, I think,
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reveals Jesus Divine Authority. You know, there are remarkable parallels between this
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verse and Psalm One and seven,
but they're the one who stills the storm.
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In Psalm one hundred and seven is
Yahwe now in verse forty one.
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The presence of the supernatural terrifies the
disciples just as and even more than the
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storm had. Now even the prospect
of their own death was not as discomfiting
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to them as the presence of God. And so, as this text ends,
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we're left with the question, in
the midst of this storm, will
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these men put their faith, put
their trust in Jesus? How should they
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respond to this serious trial that they're
experiencing? So let's get into the boat
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with Jesus and these disciples and see
what we can learn. You know,
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this story, this historical narrative,
in the first place, is a revelation
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of Jesus himself. It's a demonstration
of his divine authority. It's a demonstration
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of his power over the forces of
nature, and that's really important for us
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to see that. But this story
is much, much more than that.
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I think it's entirely proper to treat
this passage as a lesson for us regarding
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the trials of our lives, the
sorrows, the fears and confusion which we
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have to endure in this world.
You know, Jesus asked his disciples immediately
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after calming the lake. Have you
still no faith? So Jesus is interested
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not only in the facts about himself, but he's interested in the implication of
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those facts for us, his disciples. So the Lord turns this miracle into
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an important lesson about my faith,
in your faith, in trial, in
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tribulation and frustration, in fear,
in the storms of life. And what's
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our faith going to look like when
things suddenly go south and we find ourselves
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in a situation these disciples found themselves
in? You know, I think if
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there is a single and simple lesson
to be learned from this narrative of the
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stilling of the storm, it's best
captured by that old Anglican Bishop, Bishop
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J C Ryle, who put it
this way. Raoul said sight, sense
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and feeling make even believers very poor
theologians. Sight, sense and feeling make
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even believers very poor theologians. And
he went on. He says the size
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of the waves and the fury of
the wind, the sight of the water
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accumulating in the bottom of the boat
and of the boat sinking deeper into the
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waters of the lake, made the
disciples forget almost everything they had already learned
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about Jesus, not everything, for
they at least knew enough to wake up
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the Lord and cry out to him, but they did so after the manner
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of a desperate appeal to their last
resort and in a spirit of despairing fear,
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master, master, we're going to
drowned. You know, sitting here,
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dry and undisturbed, we may think
very poorly of the disciples. I
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think we might smug smugly say,
why didn't these guys put simply put two
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and two together? You know,
the one who had miraculously healed a leper
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and driven demons out of men obviously
wasn't going to drown in a storm on
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the Sea of Galilee. You know, why didn't one of them just say
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not to worry, let's just set
here and see what happens. But not
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a single one of them thought that. Not a single one of them said
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that. And far too often you
and I are just like them, just
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as forgetful, just as mesmerized by
the waves when our trials come. You
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know it's true. You know we
see the waves, we hear the wind,
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we sense the danger, and our
trouble consumes us in the same way.
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And though we're Christians, we appeal
to the Lord only as a kind
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of desperate afterthought. Why aren't you
doing something, Lord? Can't you see
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that? I that I that I'm
drowning here. We can't hear our theology,
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we can't hear our Christology, what
we know to be true about Christ.
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That can't be heard in our souls
over the moaning of the wind and
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the crashing of the waves. And
here's the point, here's the lesson.
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There is a theology for Christians,
for you and me, in suffering,
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to be remembered and not forgotten,
and I think that theology is clearly depicted
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here in this account of Christ tilling
the storm. You know, one of
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the best definitions of personal faith that
I've run into lately is this. Faith
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is confidence in Christ as able to
act suitably to the occasion. Faith is
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confidence in Christ as able to act
suitably to the occasion. And I think
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that's true, and at least three
particular aspects, all of which are highlighted
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in this wonderful account of the calming
of the storm. First, the troubles
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which so much disturbed and distress these
disciples were the Lord's doing. Look at
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Verse Thirty Five. It was the
Lord's idea to take a boat across the
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lake, and one Peter's idea,
when John's idea. It was the Lord's
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idea. Now they would never have
been in this pickle, they would never
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have been on that lake that night
but for the Lord's decision. That was
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the Lord's doing. Now he was
tired, he was exhausted, he had
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to get away from the crowds.
So it was the Lord's needs and the
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Lord's purposes that had put the disciples
in this difficulty. So, given that,
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what do you think their response of
the disciple should have been? Well,
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let me suggest this. You know, had the disciples had the faith
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the size of a grain of mustard
seed, which, by the way,
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Jesus had been taught that had just
taught that earlier in the day, I
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think these disciples would have come to
Jesus in the boat and said not master,
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master, were going to drown,
but let's just sit back and see
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how the Lord is going to deal
with this rather interesting situation, knowing that
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these troubles had been ordered for them
by the Lord. No, think now,
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if the Lord could still a great
storm by merely rebuking the wind and
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the waves, is it not obvious
that he could have prevented the storm from
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rising in the first place? Now, he could have ordered up a glassy,
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smooth water, he could have ordered
up a bit of a tailwind.
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If you find yourself in a storm, your merciful savior has had a hand
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in that. Faith knows that.
Sight does not site forgets that, and
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I think knowing this as a very
large part of the hope and the peace
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and the strength that we need in
the storms of life. You know,
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my experience has been that it has
been a large part of my deliverance from
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various trials just to know that this
is the Lord's plan, this is his
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purpose, that it was his plan
for me to pass through these waters,
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whatever that water was. Now,
he who loves us with an everlasting love,
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could have kept us from every one
of our trials, every one of
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our heartbreaks, every one of our
dangers. That he has not, I
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think, is the clearest indication that
he intends for us to face this trouble
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or that trouble. Dear. One's
nature is powerful, but a storm doesn't
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love you, a storm is indifferent
to you, but God is all powerful
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and he is filled with an untamable
love for each of us. So I
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think that's one thing that we can
get from this text. The troubles which
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so much disturb us are the Lord's
doing, I think. Second, the
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troubles which so frightened the disciples posed
no real danger to them at all,
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with Christ present with them, as
he was. You know, in the
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aftermath of this storm, it's clear
what a blunder these disciples made and why
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they had nothing to say when the
Lord effectively rebuked them for their lack of
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faith. They had been terrified for
their lives, while the Mac Maker of
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heaven and earth lay a few feet
away from them sleeping peacefully. Now,
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these these guys didn't know everything about
Jesus of Nazareth, but they knew enough
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by now that he was the Messiah. They had considered it the most sensible
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thing to leave their livelihoods to serve
him. They had witness, at witness,
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all his miracles, all of his
healings, is casting out of demons.
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Did they really think that God's plan
for the world would come to an
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end because of some unforeseen accident,
Jesus drowning while crossing the see of Galilee?
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Couldn't they see that no boat ferrying
the son of God, the Savior
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of the world, was going to
sink? Couldn't they see that there was
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no safer place in all this great
universe and in that boat on the lake
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on that night? No, they
couldn't see any of that, because,
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while the eyes of their bodies were
wide open and terror struck by the side
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of the ways, the eyes of
their souls, their faith, were slam
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shut. And we can fire too
often, I think, be just like
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the disciples on the lake that night. What we can see with our eyes
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and hear with our ears often mesmerizes
us. We forget that our savior promised
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that he would never leave us or
forsake us and that he will be with
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us to the end of the world, that he will always provide a way
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of escape from our tests and our
trials and that he knows how to deliver
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the godly from their troubles. God
forgive us that we can sometimes think and
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behave as if our Lord Christ,
our master and commander, were on the
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far side of the world, unaware
of our circumstances, uncaring of our plight,
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instead of in the stern of the
very boat in which were rowing through
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the storm. Now, what a
difference it would have made if the disciples
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had exercised their faith that night on
the lake. I tell you, they
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would have felt alive. Now,
it would have been vitality, not fear,
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that it would have filled their hearts. They would they would have felt
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and I think they would have written
home saying what Winston Churchill told his mother
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from Cuba after participating in a battle
in eighteen ninety five. Churchill wrote told
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his mother, you know, there
is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot
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at and missed. Dear ones,
I don't know what storms you're rowing through
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this morning. I'm rolling through my
own storms, but I do know that,
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whatever your troubles and sorrows and dangers
may be, if you see the
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Lord at your side, if you
see heaven before your face if you see
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the angels camped around you. If
you see that, then suddenly, instead
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of fear and this creeping despair,
you will discover that there is a certain
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exhilaration to being shot at and missed. So I think that's that's a second
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thing. Now, the troubles which
so frightened US pose no real danger to
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us with Christ present with us as
he is. And finally, I think
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the troubles and dangers which so disturbed
and distress these disciples were, in fact
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they were primarily opportunities for Christ to
manifest himself and reveal his glory among his
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people. You can't tell me and
when all this was over, you know,
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when this lake was calm and the
wind was just a gentle Zeph Zephyr.
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You know, with the adrenaline still
pumping through the veins from what they
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had just gone through, you can't
tell me that even one of those disciples
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would rather have stayed behind and missed
out on all that action. Not on
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your life. You know what they
had seen would stay with them, vivid
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in their memories, to strengthened and
encourage them. They would take that experience
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with them to their graves. But
don't you see? No great demonstration of
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divine power, calming a storm,
can be given without a storm to come.
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Now, these disciples would never have
seen what they saw had there not
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been waves and win for the savior
to rebuke. You know, Sam Samuel
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Rutherford, once wrote that the Lord, he said, ties terrible notts just
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to have the pleasure of loosening them
off from those he loves. He lays
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nets and sets traps only that he
may get a chance of healing broken bones
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and setting the terrified free. And
that marvelous in that exhilarating dear was what
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a completely different, wonderfully different way
to look at the troubles we face,
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to see them as opportunities for the
Lord to show himself to us as our
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deliverer and savior and friend and all
powerful protector and and and this isn't just
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some psychological ploy, some trick that
we play on ourselves when we do that.
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Rather, it's nothing more nor less
than the practice of the truth.
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The playing out of true faith in
all the disciples straining at the oars,
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all of their worry and fear was
nothing but a setting of the stage for
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the Lord Christ to thrill them with
his power and glory to show them what
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a savior and what a salvation they
had got in the son of God.
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And our troubles are the same.
Thou'll have the same thrilling, exhilarating effect
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if we practice faith in the midst
of storms and see the Lord rising up
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to help us. Well, as
I wrap this up, I want you
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to notice one more thing. Notice
that the Lord doesn't simply encourage us here.
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He actually rebukes us. Now,
because I think of our modern therapeutic
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way of dealing with people who failed
or people who are in trouble. We
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might miss that in the Lord's words
here, but he rebukes these men for
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the lack, for their lack of
faith. You know, we might have
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thought that he would put an arm
around Peter or John or maybe tussle James
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Wet here hair and say, with
a smile, you know, come on,
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guys, what do you think I
am? Chopliver? You guys crack
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me up. You didn't have to
worry. No, sorry, I didn't
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wake up sooner. I could have
stopped the storm before it got started.
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But he didn't say that, did
he? Instead, he said why are
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you so afraid? Have you still
no faith? Or, to put in
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another way, after all you've seen
me do and heard me say, do
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you still understand nothing at all?
You know, we all need encouragement in
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many ways, and the Lord gives
us that. He gives us that in
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abundance. But from time to time
we also need to hear that our faithless
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ways, especially in the light of
the Lord's many demonstrations of his faithfulness to
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us over the years of our lives, are inexcusable. There are sin we
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must repent of those and put them
to death. You know, there is
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no excuse for us not to understand
that our troubles are no accident but have
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been brought to us by the Lord
himself, that he is with us in
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and through them and that we cannot
sink so long as he is there to
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save us, and that our trials
are his opportunities to thrill us, as
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he thrilled the disciples that long ago
night. We need rebuke, and that
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rebuke, I think, is a
powerful encouragement in itself. You know,
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there's a young woman, I know
she's a marvelous, marvelous songwriter. She
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attends a big PCA church in Atlanta, Georgia. It's called perimeter PCA.
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Her name is Laura's story. I
don't know if any of you've heard of
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her. About ten years ago,
suddenly, out of the blue, during
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a routine check up, doctor's found
a brain tumor and her husband it was
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pretty serious and they originally thought that
it was inoperable, that he wasn't going
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to make it. Laura and her
housemen were devastated and they they had the
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same questions, exactly the same questions
that these disciples had. You know,
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why, Lord? Why us?
Lord? Don't you care about us?
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Are you asleep? What's happening to
us? And that news started a long
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journey for this young couple. Surgery, Chemo, ups and downs, good
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days and bad days, and through
it all Laura's story and her husband learned
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the lessons, I think, we
find in this short narrative of Christ stilling
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the storm. Well, Laura's husband
survived. Today they have two wonderful,
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beautiful children. She wrote a song
called blessings, which I think expresses their
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experience of rowing against this brain tumors
storm. So wonderful testimony which captures,
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I think, the essence of the
lessons of this biblical narrative and the lyrics
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go like this. We pray for
blessings, we pray for peace, comfort,
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for family protection while we sleep.
We pray for healing, for prosperity,
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We pray for your mighty hand to
ease our suffering, and all the
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while you hear each spoken need.
You love US way too much to give
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us lesser things. Because what if
your blessings come through rain drops? What
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if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what
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it takes to know you're near?
What if trials of this life are your
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mercies in disguise? We pray for
wisdom, your voice to hear. We
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cry in anger when we cannot feel
you near. We doubt your goodness,
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we doubt your love, as if
every promise from your word is not enough,
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and all the while you hear each
desperate plea and long that we'd have
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faith to believe when friends betray us, when darkness seems to win. We
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know that pain reminds this heart that
this is not this is not our home.
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It's not our home, because what
if your blessings come through rain drops?
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What if you're healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights
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or what it takes to know you're
near? What if my greatest disappointments or
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the aching of this life is the
revealing of a greater thirst this world can't
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satisfy? What if trials of this
life, the rain, the storms,
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the hardest knights, are your mercies
in disguise, Jesus, calming the storms
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of our lives? Dear ones,
the Lord's in the boat with us.
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He's with you in your loneliness.
He's with you in your worry, yes,
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in your worry about the future or
your job. He's with you in
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the troubles you have with your kids, with your husband, with your wife,
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with your boss. He's with you
and your sickness and those of your
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loved ones, and he will be
with you still on your death bed.
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And he who simply spoke and calmed
a great storm, is fully able to
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hold you up and deliver you when
his waves and breakers sweep over you.
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And you see, if you call
this to mind, if you keep it
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in mind, it is, after
all, a frequently taught lesson in the
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Bible. I promise you, in
the Lord's name, you will, far
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more often than is now the case, have occasion to say with wonder and
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with exhilaration, who, then is
this that even wind and sea obey him?
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Let's pray
