When Storms Strike

Flawed follower, that is the name of our fall series here at Twin Lakes Church, good morning. My name is Pastor René, another one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church. Who is glad to be here at church this morning? Let me hear it, what a great morning. And you know it's not just here at this church, one of the things I love about this series is how it reminds me that we're in a bigger body of Christ.

We are doing this with a total of 11 churches like, you wanna see some peaks of some of these churches. New Beginnings Community Church in Redwood City where Herman Hamilton is the pastor. Cathedral of Faith Church over in San Jose. Hillside Church up in Marin. Palace Verdes Baptist Church. They're in Southern California, but we won't hold that against them. And many other churches. Now none of those churches I just mentioned are in the same denomination. We've got, you know, majority Asian churches, black churches, Latino churches, but all these pastors, they're friends of mine and something that we all feel really strongly about is something that Trent mentioned earlier, that we, no matter what our differences, we need to find unity in the one indivisible thing that we have and that is our salvation in Jesus Christ. Amen? That's what we are all about.

You can find a list of all these churches at FlawedFollower.com. You can also find the Flawed Follower book there. It's also on Kindle, audiobook. You can get it outside in our lobby. Now one thing I wanna always mention is that none of the proceeds from this book go to me or to any individual. They all go 100% to Twin Lakes Church.

Now we also have discussion groups meeting all over the county, down in Salinas over in Silicon Valley, like this midweek group at Community Covenant Church, Scotts Valley also, the Wednesday Night Class here at TLC, the Spanish class, the Young Professionals group, many, many home groups. We have 20% more home groups this year than last. More info at TLC.org/smallgroups. There are still lots of open spots in different groups if you'd like to get into one. That's a fun way to process this information.

So we subtitled this series, Hope for Imperfect, Inconsistent, Confused People Who Still Love Jesus. How many people relate to that? Can I see a show of hands? How many people feel like, yes, I relate to that term Flawed Follower. I follow Jesus, I love Jesus, but I also have flaws I'm aware of in my life. Can I see a show of hands? That's universal, right? And that describes Simon Peter. Simon Peter was full of flaws and failures and foibles and face plants, but Jesus grew him into a man of faith, and that means there's hope for you and me too.

I'm gonna start this morning with an amazing true story. It is the most famous, still unsolved, art heist in history. The place, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, at the time early morning, March 18th, 1990. Two thieves disguised as police officers enter and tie up the security guards and steal 13 paintings worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The most valuable painting they grab is Rembrandt's, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee. It's valuable not just because it's a Rembrandt, but because it was Rembrandt's one and only Seascape. Probably you couldn't put a price on this, and it has not been seen in public since that day.

But we do have photographs. You wanna see one? If you look at the photographs, you can still see how his painting pulls you into the drama of the moment, how you practically feel the salt spray as a massive wave seems to threaten to capsize the boat. You see how the sailors are terrified. You see how none of them notice a hint of dawn up in the sky. As the viewers, we see it. We see the big picture of their situation, quite literally. None of them do. Not yet. Because we also see Jesus is in the boat with them, and we know he's about to command the storm to stop. But brilliantly, this painting is set one split second before he does. Terror still surrounds them. All still seems lost.

There's another interesting thing about the painting. How many people do you think are in the boat? Think about this now, just as a guest. Somebody said 13. Most people would say that. Jesus plus the 12 apostles. But if you count carefully, there are 14. Because Rembrandt put himself into the boat. He's the only sailor that's looking right back out of the frame at you. Why? He's encouraging the viewers, he's encouraging you and me to step through the frame and put ourselves in this story. And that is what I wanna invite you to do today. I want you to feel the reality of the storm so you can also feel the reality of their hope.

Because maybe you feel like you're already in that picture today. See, storms are, of course, not just about the weather. There are emotional storms. Maybe there's one inside of you right now. Maybe nobody else can tell. But there's depression or anger or fear or grief. There's relational storms. Things get strained in a marriage or between friends or children, children to parents. And there's the situational storms we all go through when it all seems to hit at once. It's Murphy's Law turbocharged, right? The roof leaks right as the toilet backs up right when friends come over just after the dog threw up right after he ate your homework and on and on and on.

See, there's a couple of misconceptions people have about storms. First, storms don't hit good Christians. You know, good people, you only go through a storm if you've done something wrong. But that's not true. As we'll see in the story, the disciples get into a storm when they obey Jesus to the letter. Jesus says, "Yeah, get into that boat. Go that direction over the lake right now." They do exactly what he wanted, the right in the center of his will and the right in the center of a storm.

Second misconception, storms don't hurt good Christians. Some people think storms for a Christian are kind of like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, all right? You go through waterfalls and there's cannonballs and there's pirates and there's fire. You feel like you're in peril, but you know, none of it's actually gonna touch you. No, storms are not a ride. Storms hit good Christians and storms hurt good Christians. So if all that's true, then how do I survive them? Well, let's talk about when storms strike.

The power of storms, of course, is astonishing. We're hearing about what's happening over in Tennessee. And we hope, by the way, to send support to churches there soon. Please keep them all in prayer. We've seen the power of storms right here in Santa Cruz. Personally, I was at the harbor when the tsunami of 2011 hit, just astonishing power in that tidal wave. And there are also freakish storms on the Sea of Galilee. I used to think, how bad could those storms have been? I mean, we live on the ocean. We see storms. This is a lake. By the way, of course, please keep praying for this region and all the turmoil there too. We're supporting churches as a church. We're supporting sister churches in both Israel and Gaza and Jordan, as all these wonderful churches assist displaced people there in amazing ways.

But I used to wonder, again, how bad could these storms in the Bible be? It's just a lake. Well, let me tell you about this lake. So this lake is pretty big. It's got a surface area of 41,000 acres. How big is that? Just for comparison, Lake Shasta is 29,000 acres. Lake Almonore is 28,000. So, you know, this isn't Tahoe sized. Not much is, but this is not just a pond. That's a lot of water to get riled up, right? And here's why it gets riled up. It sits in this very narrow gorge that's below sea level, right here, surrounded by mountains. So that's a weather tunnel right there. And this gorge is called the Rift Valley. It is the lowest valley on the planet earth.

Now, just 60 miles or so north of this and 10,000 feet higher in Israel is Mount Hermon, the original Mount Hermon. It's a ski resort. It's often freezing. And just about 60 miles south of the Sea of Galilee is the Dead Sea. This is 1,300 feet below sea level. Lowest place on the surface of the planet, lower than Death Valley, often blazingly hot. So you got Death Valley, a ski resort just about an hour away. And when this air comes up and hits the water on the Sea of Galilee, this blazingly hot air, and then the frigid air comes down from the mountains and hits the Sea of Galilee, and these two hot and cold fronts collide. And what happens? Severe, volatile weather.

And this has been fun because I feel like a TV weatherman right now. That's just a lot of fun. Kind of like a dream come true. In fact, the winter that I began working on this book, "Flawed Follower" in 2022, a storm blasted the lakeside Esplanade in Tiberius. It downed fences. It destroyed businesses. The mayor of Tiberius said it was like a horror movie. Massive waves battered the town, just like we saw last year in Capitola. But you know, in Capitola, that was the ocean. This is a lake. It's one volatile lake is what I'm saying.

And I've experienced the power of this myself. One time we were on a boat on the Sea of Galilee. It started out, as you can see, very nice, mild, sunny, early morning. On the water, we actually watched as this dark storm suddenly advanced toward us. You can see, you can look toward this dark weather that's advancing on us. And then like a switch was thrown. Suddenly there was a hail storm. And I took this with my phone that day. It was unbelievable. Just watch this for just a minute.

So that's not rain. That's hail coming down. And then it got worse. It got so thick that we couldn't even see the shore anymore. The shore's not even a hundred yards away. And now suddenly we're surrounded by this hail storm and we don't even know where we are. And then just as instantly it stopped and there was a rainbow. That is how fast storms stop and start on this lake, on the Sea of Galilee. I mean, we have weather on the ocean. I'm not sure we have weather that's this volatile that changes this instantly as people experience it there.

And that little weather machine is the geographical setting for today's famous story in Matthew 14:22. Now, when this happens, Jesus himself is in another kind of storm. He's going through a psychological storm. Jesus has just heard that same day that King Herod, the brutal, evil King Herod, has just beheaded his cousin, Jesus Christ's cousin, John the Baptist. It says, "When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place." Jesus needs space, right? He's grieving. Hearing of this, the crowds brought him some casseroles and then gave him some space. No, that's not what happened. They followed on foot. I need, I need, I need, from the towns all around there. They don't care, he's going through grief. Just heal us, fulfill our needs.

When Jesus landed and saw this large crowd, he had compassion on them and he healed their sick. And then Jesus even has to feed them. There's the famous miracle, the feeding of the 5,000. He must have been exhausted. And it says, "Immediately after this," so everything I just described is happening on the same day. That's one intense day. And it's not over. Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he, he stays and he sent the people home. Bye-bye, goodbye, goodbye, go away. After he sent them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray, finally get some space. Night fell while he was there alone. That's the emotional context for this. And this is really important for us to understand. Jesus Christ went through storms too, emotionally, psychologically. Jesus not only commands the storms, Jesus understands the storms that you go through.

Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble, far away from land for a strong wind had risen, the kind I just described. They were fighting heavy waves. In the book I describe how while there I went fishing with Razi, who I made friends with while I was there. He's been working the lake his whole life as a fisherman. And while we were out on this trip, I asked Razi, "Have you ever feared for your life," in one of these sudden storms like in the Bible? And he said, "One time, one time." He told me one night he was fishing alone at night and he was surprised by an unexpected, sudden, freezing rainstorm. And it came down so fast he had to bail water all night long by morning. He was exhausted, he was hypothermic, and he laid down in his waterlogged boat to die. And he said he just cried and cried and cried knowing he was done for. Until in the nick of time, his brother found him.

And that's kinda like what happens next. About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. And when the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified and their fear, they cried out, "It's a ghost!" But Jesus spoke to them at once, "Don't be afraid." He said, "Take courage, I'm here." Then Peter called to him, "Lord, if it's really you, now pause there, how would you have finished this sentence? Right, Lord, if it's really you, you're going through a storm, you're terrified. It's Jesus, wow, we just saw him feed the 5,000. Maybe he's got some power for this. Lord, if it's really you, what would you say next? Stop the storm or at least get in the boat and help us row." Peter, sometimes you don't know what he is thinking. "Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come out to you walking on the water." And you can see the rest of the disciples going, "No, no, calm the storm, calm the storm first." But Jesus sees a teachable moment, "Yes, come," Jesus says. He knows exactly what's going to happen.

So Peter went over the side of the boat, walked on the water toward Jesus, but when he saw the strong wind in the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. "Lord, save me," shouted. And pause again, by the way, that three word prayer, that is like the perfect prayer. Can I just tell you, say that out loud with me, "Lord, save me." "Lord, save me." Say it again, "Lord, save me." How many situations in your life does that apply to? Meditate on it. Memorize it. Learn to truly pray it. This is a pure prayer. "Lord, save me." That prayer works. That prayer, that's the prayer that opens you up to everything else that God has for you when you learn to say, "Lord, save me." Well, Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped and then the disciples worshiped him. "You really are the Son of God," they exclaimed.

Now this is a famous story. This is a riveting story. This story has captured the imaginations of millions of people for millennia. In fact, while researching this book in Rome, I was able to visit one of the oldest churches ever excavated. It's in a cliffside cave, Santa Maria Antigua. It's a fascinating story. It was built around 450 AD, 1600 years ago, but during an earthquake in the 800s, it was buried by a landslide and it remained buried and forgotten for over a thousand years until in the 20th century, it was unearthed. And so it's surrounded by all kinds of fascinating art. There's art on all of the walls. What were Christians 1600 years ago fascinated by? And one of the oldest pieces of art there is about this story. Do you see it? Peter sinking and Jesus reaching out his hand immediately and rescuing him.

It's so fascinating because this same scene, of course, is on the cover of our book here in the 21st century. Fascinated people in 450 still fascinates us in 2024 because that right there is so emblematic of the spiritual life, isn't it? We're up, we're down. We're succeeding, we're failing. We're walking, we're sinking. That's life. And what's inspiring about this story isn't that Peter tried it. What's inspiring about the story is that Jesus has got him. That's so reassuring that even though I'm flawed as a follower, Jesus has still got. This story is not about what Peter tried. It's about who Jesus is. It's about how all I have to do is cry out, Lord, save me and Christ has got me.

But this image of Jesus rescuing Peter, this is so iconic. It's so emblematic of faith. A thousand times in our lives. I think on so many levels, specifically, there's three principles I see in the story that I hope you can remember. They're very simple to remember. And you will need these. If you don't need these today, you will need these in your life. You know somebody who needs these about surviving the storms of life. And the number one is the most obvious. I need to remember Jesus is with me in my storms. Jesus is with me. You are not alone. I mean, I watch people come in this morning and chatted with people. I was over at Lof between services, came over here, and I'm greeting people that I know have just lost loved ones, people who are going through a battle with cancer, people who are having tough times in their homes in terms of relationships. You are not alone. Somebody really needed to hear that today. You're not alone.

As Jesus tells him in this story, don't be afraid, take courage, I'm here. I want you to notice something. Jesus says this to them, not after he calms the storm, but before. What brings us courage is Jesus himself. What will give you courage even before the storm ends? It's knowing God is here with you in your storm. Now watch this, I love this. In the original Greek, Jesus says just five words. And if you translate them directly, the phrase reads like this in English, courage, I am, which reminds us of God's name of the Hebrew scriptures, I am. Always existent, always present, no fear. Courage, I am, no fear. Question, where in your life right now is Jesus saying these words? Courage, I am, no fear. The job situation, the test, the diagnosis, courage, I am, no fear. Your sobriety, your trauma, your worries, courage, I am, no fear. Would you say these five words out loud with me too? Courage, I am, no fear.

Now I wanna be clear about something. Sometimes the boat sinks. Am I right? Like three years later, Jesus tells the disciples essentially the same thing in the upper room. Storm coming, this one's the big one. Now don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't be afraid, no fear. But I want you to know, he goes on to say, I'm gonna die and you're gonna be hunted down. Many of you will die. This boat's gonna sink. But don't be afraid because you'll be with me in my father's house and my death is a purpose, the salvation of your souls. And I'll be resurrected and he was and he is making these next words possible. Be sure of this, I'm with you always, even until the end of the world. The living Jesus is with you, amen? Whether the storm stops or not, whether the boat sinks or not, he's always with you.

Now some of you are going, tell me something I don't know. I've heard this a million times. You may know this doctrinally, but do you live this practically? I have a suggestion. Write these five words down on a three by five card today and then put that little card or post-it note or something somewhere where you're going to see it all week. Make this just a week-long experiment, like your dashboard, your fridge, your laptop. Meditate on this. Hear Jesus saying this when you wake up in the middle of the night in your storm. Courage, I am. No fear. And this leads right into point two. Refocus on Jesus in my storms. Refocus on Jesus. Peter starts to sink when his focus shifts, right? To the wind and the waves and so do we. But Jesus doesn't let him sink, right? It says he immediately reaches out and grabs him.

One thing Peter's story teaches, Jesus never fails those who fail him. Amen? Now he does teach Peter, right? He diagnoses the problem. He says you have little faith, and that's not an insult, that's a diagnosis. Why did you doubt? That might seem harsh to you. Well, what do you mean? Who hasn't had doubts? This isn't about questions. We all have questions, and you can follow Jesus even if you have questions about Jesus. We're gonna see that next weekend. This word doubt in the original Greek means to waver, to try to go in two directions at once. And this is Peter's problem. It's like Jesus storm, Jesus storm, Jesus storm. (imitates storm) Like this, right? That's gonna sabotage your serenity and your progress. Of course. And so the obvious question is am I trying to look two directions at once in my life? The security of the Lord and the dangers of the world at the same time. Maybe that's why you're not feeling peace.

In fact, I'll challenge you, do a little self diagnostic here. Ask yourself how much time do I spend every day fearing the waves versus focusing on Jesus? And if you're going, I think I'm good, just open your mind to this. I saw a journal article this week, average daily time Christian set aside to be with God. Prayer, average 10 minutes reading the Bible, 30 minutes, I thought that's pretty good, that's something. But contrast that to this. Average daily time spent on media, 12 hours, 31 minutes, a day. Look, I don't wanna make anybody feel guilty because I'm just as likely to be imbalanced this way, but just kinda theoretically, is it possible that you're getting stressed or cynical or worried because you're downloading into your brain a lot about the storms and not a lot about the Savior?

I love this verse from Psalm 112 about people who focus on the Lord. They will have no fear of bad news. Their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Doesn't say they wanna have bad news, it says they won't fear it, why? Their hearts focused, they're steadfast. So here's another suggestion. Look at your message notes. Take all these verses that are in your message notes there and other verses you like, put them on three by five cards too and use that as a tool for your meditation, for focusing on Jesus. I've done this myself many times. I keep that stack of cards with me in my pocket, under my pillow at night, and when my thoughts just start running like a hamster on a wheel, I grab those cards, I read through some verses. That's one way, otherwise what am I doing? Reaching for my phone and reading the horrible headlines. That's one way I can focus on Christ instead of the crisis, which is the point of the story, eyes on Jesus.

The story's not about taking risks, even though you have to take risks sometimes in life. This is a story about having faith, because when I focus on Jesus in my life, not only do I calm down, but I also gain insight, and that leads into our final point, realize Jesus reveals himself in my storms. The disciples saw the power of Jesus in a new way in the storm in ways they never would have seen if there hadn't been a storm. They said, "You really are the Son of God!" Now as will become clear in this series, they don't have fully formed Christian theology in their heads yet, but they're getting there. In fact, would you agree with this? There are things we learn in the storms of life that we would never see in the calm of life. Raise your hand if you have seen this to be true in your own life.

In fact, let me ask you a question, then I'm gonna ask you to raise your hands. How many would say, looking back at a storm, a tough time in your life, that you grew spiritually through that time in ways you wouldn't have grown probably without the storm? Can I see a show of hands? Lift up your hands. Now raise 'em high and leave 'em up. Leave 'em up. Now I want everybody to look around and see these hands raised. Because if you're going through a storm right now, there are hundreds of testimonies in the air. Thank you very much. And let me give you one specific example. This week I talked to Alicia Boyer, the wife of one of our pastors here, Jared, about how she learned this to be true when she was going through her own storm.

My husband Jared and I had just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary, and we were enjoying this beautiful season with the birth of our baby boy after five years of infertility. And the season ahead just felt like it was filled with hope. And what we didn't realize was that we were getting ready to face a storm that was bigger than anything we could ever imagine. I was diagnosed with a very rare, very aggressive form of breast cancer at 28. And as a nurse and a high capacity person, my first instinct was to assemble the best medical team and the best facilities and do all the research that I could to make sure that I made it through this. It was really challenging for me because at the end of all my research, I didn't get the peace that I was looking for. I actually felt much more afraid. The reality that my son might not have a mom really started to weigh on me. My father-in-law was in town when we were going through all of this and he saw that hopelessness in my face. He looked me in the eye and he said, "Alicia, do you remember that story of Peter being called out into the storm to trust Jesus?" He reminded me that I am facing a very similar thing, that Jesus is calling me out into the unknown and there were gonna be wind and waves and uncertainty, but that he was gonna be with me and to keep my eyes on him.

In this painting of Peter, he's depicted stepping out of the boat and he's looking back and his hand is barely let go. This is his security, but he knows he needs to look to Jesus. And that was the point in my treatment where every medical hope that I had had run out. My body was rejecting the chemo and I wasn't able to continue. I was still too much shy of where they wanted me to be. And our last resort was surgery. I had to cling to Jesus for every thing I had. There was no more hope in the boat and I had to commit. And there was this incredible peace that came from it just being me and him and not being responsible for the outcome or the process, but just being with him. And that's when I really experienced God's peace in a way that I never have. And it was totally separate from my circumstances. I went in for surgery and a couple of days before Christmas, I got a call that God had already dealt with the cancer on his own and I was done. My encouragement to you if you're going through a storm is to hold on to Jesus for dear life. He doesn't promise that there won't be storms, but he does promise to be with us in the storm and he will be with you just like he was with Peter and like he was with me.

We are so grateful to God for how Alicia's story turned out. Now listen, I know not all cancer stories and as wonderfully as Alicia's, but here's the point. As Alicia said, what she experienced was independent of her circumstances, that peace she felt from God. Even when the stories don't turn out like hers, the principle is still the same. Remember, even before the storm ended, Jesus said, "You don't have to be afraid because I'm here." Our comfort isn't the storm ending. Our comfort is Jesus is with me, I'm not alone. This story is not teaching Jesus will prevent every storm. The story is teaching Jesus is present in the storm, Jesus has power over the storm, and Jesus has purpose in the storm, including your storm right now.

Listen, if you're in a storm that you can't do anything about, you can't calm the waves at home or in your medical condition or in the chaos at work, focus on the Lord, he's with you. Do you remember that Rembrandt? Have you put yourself in the picture like Rembrandt did? Remember one day Jesus will calm every storm. Look, these people don't see it yet, but there's a light ahead. The Bible promises this, one day every injustice, every disease, every grieving heart. And on that morning when all storms stop, he will wipe away every tear and there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, for the old order of things has passed away, amen?

Ultimately, that's the dawn we await, the dawn of the day. We sing hallelujah forever, amen. Let's pray together, heavenly Father, thank you so much for your comfort in the storm. And whatever storm people are sailing through right now, I pray that they would just focus on you, Jesus Christ, and say wherever it relates to their lives right now, say Lord, save me. And help me to remember you are in my storm. Help me to remember to refocus on you, not to look exclusively at the wind and the waves, and to realize that even in my storms, you are revealing yourself to me in profound new ways. Help me to follow you though I'm flawed, even in the storm, in Jesus' name, amen.