Hope in the Storm

There is hope. That's the name of our series that we're in right now here at Twin Lakes Church. Good morning. My name is Renee, one of the pastors here at TLC. I am so glad that you could join us in the series. What we're doing every single week is we tell another story from the Bible where it looked like all hope was lost, but then it turned out that God came through for his people. I know that these stories can give you and me hope as we go through this current COVID storm.

But before we dive into Scripture, I just want to say to everybody, I hope you have a wonderful and meaningful Memorial Day. I'll tell you, on my drive to church here this morning, it was stunningly beautiful. It's going to be a nice warm day here in Santa Cruz. So I really hope that wherever you are, especially if you're here in Santa Cruz County, you're able to get outside, go for a safe walk or a hike, and enjoy the beauty that's all around us. And of course, remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to make sure that our freedoms are preserved in this country.

Probably because it is Memorial Day weekend, I'm reminded of the rights that we have that I am so grateful for, like the right to worship freely and assemble together as churches. But I'm also reminded that along with rights always come responsibilities, like the responsibility that we have as a church when we do regather physically in this familiar space to do it safely and wisely, to follow the lead of the best experts and our county health authorities. So I would appreciate your prayers for us.

In fact, there's three things I'd love for you to do. Please stay prayerful. Pray for us as a church leadership to have wisdom. Also stay positive. This is so important because there are people and forces and organizations that will try to use small disagreements over the exact timing of when churches can reopen to foster division. But Jesus wants us to be united as a church. So let's stay focused on our mission and be positive. And then also please be patient as we work out all the details about how we can come together safely and wisely. And we're going to be doing that in stages.

Now, another thing I'd love for you to do is to stay connected. And one way you can do that is to go to TLC.org/notes. Right now you'll find the notes for the sermon I'm about to give right now. But maybe even more important, if you scroll down at the end of the sermon, you'll see that there are discussion questions for you to take with you throughout the week. And then at the very end, there's all kinds of different ways that you can get connected with our weekly podcast, our daily video devotionals, our weekly newsletter, and much, much more so you can stay up to date with all the latest news about what we're up to here at Twin Lakes Church.

Well, today I want to tell you one of my favorite stories from the Bible. It's a storm story. And as I was doing research for this storm story, I discovered all kinds of other fascinating storm stories throughout American history. For example, in a town in Montana, a strange weather system blew through on September 9th, 1994. Check this out. At 5 a.m., it was 67 degrees. Then at 5:17 a.m., it shot up to 93 degrees. And then by 5:40, it was back down to 68 degrees again. Sometimes storms just have very weird effects on our lives, right?

Another storm story, a hailstone that fell near Vicksburg, Mississippi, encased a six-by-eight-inch turtle. Experts say that the turtle must have been pulled up by a water spout into the clouds where he became wrapped with ice and fell back to earth as hail. Does anybody feel like that turtle right now? Because sometimes I do. Here's a third one. The only man in the world to be struck by lightning seven times was park ranger Roy C. Sullivan. Check this out. The first time he was ever struck was in 1942. His only injury was he lost a toenail. Just blew it right off. In 1969, he lost his eyebrows. In '70 and '72, his hair was set on fire. In '73, his new hair was refired, but he was struck again in '76 and '77, after which he retired early from the park service.

And of course, I'm thinking of all kinds of puns like "His retirement came as no shock," or "Roy always managed to stay current." But I'm not going to say any of those. What I'm about to tell you, though, is probably the best storm story in the world. I call this "Hope in the Storm," how Jesus calmed the storm in Matthew 8:23–27. Now, this event made such an impression on Jesus Christ's first disciples that they included it three times in the Bible. It's in the Gospels of Mark, of Luke, and here in Matthew.

And here is how Matthew tells the story, starting in verse 23 and 24. It says, "Then He got into the boat, and His disciples followed Him. Without warning, a furious storm came upon the lake so that the waves swept over the boat." Now, I want to give you some orientation here. This happened in the Sea of Galilee. It's a beautiful lake. It is a big lake. Actually, its square footage is about the size of the metro area of Washington, D.C. Now, here's why it gets such extreme weather. The lake is actually situated in a valley called the Jordan Rift Valley, and it gets weather from the north, from Mount Hermon, which is often snow-capped. It's 10,000 feet above the level of the lake, but it's only 20 miles away, and it gets weather blowing up from the south, from the Dead Sea, which is even lower than Death Valley, so this air is super-heated.

And when this cold air and super-hot air collide over the lake, it produces these violent storms. In fact, just this year on Valentine's Day, somebody posted this video on YouTube of waves there. This is a 30-foot-high castle on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and look at these waves come up all the way to the top of that castle wall. This shows you how this story could have easily been true in the Bible, where waves swamped the boat. Now, I have a personal experience with this. I took this picture when I was about to go on a sail on the Sea of Galilee myself. You can see the waters are very calm. There's really no white caps, partly cloudy skies. A half an hour in, we were looking at this. There was a storm system barreling our way. It was pitch dark inside the storm, but it came over us. Rain was just coming down in sheets.

A half an hour later, we saw this. The sky's beginning to clear, the light coming through again. God rays, right? That looks like a miracle. Well, that's what happened in this story when it says, "Without warning, a furious storm came upon the lake." I've shown you some images now. You can imagine it. So that the waves swept over the boat, but Jesus was sleeping. Now, some of you, this is your worst fear, and some of you right now are going, "That is my life right now. I am in a storm, and I feel like Jesus is sleeping. I'm praying and praying, and I'm getting, like, no response from Him." Well, listen, I want you to know that one of the reasons I think this story is in the Bible is that you're not the first person to experience this.

The people Jesus knew best and loved the most had that exact same experience you're feeling now, and not in a theoretical sense like, "I prayed and I didn't feel God." No, they were in a literal storm, and six feet away, Jesus Christ is in the boat asleep. So, you know, when you feel that sense of distance from God sometimes, where is He? It's as if Jesus has left us. This story is here to say it's okay. You're not the first person to feel that way. The disciples felt the exact same thing when it says, "They went and they woke Him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We're going to drown.'" Now, it's not, "We might drown." No, "We are going to drown." They had given in to complete despair. It was a foregone conclusion for them. "We're all going to die, and apparently they want to wake Jesus up, so He's awake when they die."

And Jesus replied, "O you of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Now, I've got to admit something to you. That question has always bugged me just a little bit. It's like, "Lord, why are we afraid?" Well, okay, it's because we remember some friends who were fishermen who got caught in a storm just like this, and they drowned. So, yes, we are very afraid. You know, of course they were afraid. What is Jesus Christ rebuking here? Well, I think what He is rebuking, listen, is that they were so afraid. They let fear have a death grip on them, a choke hold on them. They weren't just anxious. They had given in to despair, convinced, "We are going to die." And then He got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. And the men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him." Good question. What kind of man is this?

Well, the kind of man He is is super. He is a superman. He has power over nature in this story. Now, Jesus wasn't just doing this to show off. His point in this moment was to teach them a lesson that would stand the test of time, and here we are 2,000 years later still talking about it. Here's why I think this story is so memorable and why it's in the Bible. Here's what I think our Heavenly Father wants to teach you and me in these next few moments. What God wants us all to take away from these narratives that have been preserved for us in Holy Scripture for all these years is this. In the midst of the what that causes us to fear, there is a who saying, "Look at me. Eyes on me."

Because in this moment, here's what happened. Their focus went from the what of the storm to the who who was in the storm with them. Their focus instantly went to what kind of man is this? You know, if there's anything that should be getting our attention in the midst of this storm, it's not, "Whoa, look at the size of these waves." It's what kind of person is with us in our boat in the storm? Because see, don't miss this. When your faith in someone exceeds your fear in something, then you'll be calm in the storm. That is the big idea of this story and of this message. But now let's dig in a little bit to the intriguing details.

First three very important facts about storms. Number one, they're inevitable. They will happen. I mean, there's storms all the time on the Sea of Galilee. There's storms all the time in life. In James 1:2, it says, "When you face various trials." It doesn't say if you face trials. It says when. Number two, storms are unpredictable. They come suddenly. They come unexpectedly. In this story, it says, "Without warning, a furious storm came up." And storms are impartial. They happen to good people and they happen to bad people.

I was looking at an article that showed the last time something like this happened, the 1918 flu pandemic, and these are the headlines from the Seattle Daily Times from October 5th, 1918. Headlines look familiar, don't they? Churches, schools, shows closed. Epidemic puts ban on all public assemblies. Man, some things are exactly the same as they were back then. And what struck me in this article was how everybody was wearing masks. Major League Baseball players and umpires were wearing masks. The police were wearing masks. The postal workers were wearing masks. The sanitation workers were wearing masks. Everybody, you know, good and bad and rich and poor, they were all wearing masks because they were all in it together. What a brutal illustration of the fact that storms in life are impartial.

Now, by this, I don't mean, of course, that some people aren't feeling the brunt of the storm more than others. Of course, that's true. Follow me. What I mean is that there's a misconception that the only time people have tough times is when they're disobeying God. And that's simply not true. The disciples sailed into a storm because they obeyed God. Jesus told his disciples to follow him into the boat. In other words, they were in the center of his will and yet they were in the middle of a storm. You know, when you're going through a tough time, don't automatically assume, "I must be out of the will of God." You may be exactly where God wants you to be. God has not promised you and me a storm-free life. This is not heaven where everything's perfect.

So if storms are inevitable, unpredictable, and impartial, the question becomes, "What is my response going to be to the inevitable, unpredictable, impartial storms that will hit my life?" I found this picture online this week of a surfer up at Mavericks, and he's surfing a wave that could smash a small boat into splinters, and he's riding it. And that's kind of the idea here. I can panic in the wave or I can surf the wave. How? In this story, we learn three truths about Jesus Christ's identity for the storms of life. Jot these down. Number one, Jesus is close. The disciples forgot how close they were to the miracle maker.

You know, in the Gospel of Mark, it says for the entire day preceding this, right before they get into the boat, Jesus had been spending the entire day preaching and mostly doing miracles. So they had literally just witnessed Jesus Christ's incredible power, but they forgot, "Oh, yeah, Jesus is in the boat. He is here with me." Now, a storm is striking us here in our county, in our country, around the world, a pandemic. But Jesus is in the boat with us. There may be a storm of uncertainty in your life. You may not know when you can ever reopen your business. Jesus is in the boat with you.

Maybe your relationships are fraying. You've been sheltering in place with the same people, and you're starting to rub each other the wrong way in some serious ways. Or maybe you're so lonely because you've been sheltering in place all alone. Jesus is in the boat with you. You know, in crisis, we tend to think that we're going through this all alone, but we're not. We need to remind ourselves, like the Bible says in Isaiah 43:1–2. What a great passage. God says, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine." Now, watch this. "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you." He's not saying that you and I never go through a crisis. He's saying you will never go through a crisis alone.

This is a simple truth, but it's so important. Now, follow me here. It's important to know and to own the fact that Jesus is with me now, even before you get answers, even before the problem is solved, just having that emotional support from the concept that Jesus Christ is present with you. Why is this important? Because fear is not rational. Fear is primarily emotional. Let me prove it to you. Have you ever tried to talk yourself out of fear, try to rationalize yourself out of fear? It doesn't work, at least not for me. In the middle of the night when I wake up full of anxiety, logical argument does not work because I just keep the argument going with yet another reason I need to be afraid.

Because fear in the middle of the night when I can't sleep, it's not really rational. It is emotional, and that's why I need emotional support, not just rational argument to get past my fear. I need to know emotionally in the midst of the trouble before I get any answers about whether I'm going to make it or not. Jesus is right here with me in this boat. Jesus is close. Second, Jesus cares. I mentioned that the story is told in three gospels, and in Mark 4:38, the disciples said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown." That's a typical reaction to a storm, isn't it? "God, don't you care?" Listen, let me assure you, God cares about what you are going through.

Now let me press pause and say you may be thinking, "Yeah, Renee, you know what? Tell me something that I haven't already heard a million times in Sunday school and in church." Well, you may have heard this, you may know this, you may even believe this in your head, but in your heart, you need to relax into this. You know, true confessions. For me, this right here, this second point, is the hardest of the three points in the message today. Now, don't get me wrong. I believe that Jesus cares. I trust that theologically, but to, in real life, relax into his care, man, that's tough.

Let me tell you a story about a guy who has one of my favorite all-time names, Harmon Schmelzenbach. Man, a guy with a name, Renee Schlepfer, loves it when he sees a guy with an even weirder name than me, Harmon Schmelzenbach. I want to go into a partnership with this guy just so we can answer the phone, Schmelzenbach. Can I help you? I was thinking the other day, if he had a daughter named Sheila, she married one of my two sons, they could have hyphenated their last name, Sheila Schmelzenbach Schlepfer, but that's another story.

Harmon is a missionary in South America, and he holds audiences spellbound when he speaks at camps and conferences with his all-time greatest illustration. One day, he went to pray at his house there in South America, and a huge python uncoiled itself from the rafters of his room and wrapped itself around his body. Now, of course, pythons squeeze their victims to death, and he says, in that instant, for reasons he can't explain, a verse he had memorized, Isaiah 30:15, flooded his mind, and here's what it says, "In repentance and rest is your salvation. In quietness and trust is your strength." Rest, quietness.

And so with this huge snake wrapped around his body, Harmon says he sensed God saying, "Rest, quiet." And so he remained perfectly still. Experts told him later that if he had moved a muscle, the python probably would have constricted and killed him, but he just totally relaxed, and slowly the snake uncoiled itself and went back up to the rafters, because it apparently thought of him as just the branch of a tree or something. He became uninteresting prey, and it left him alone and lost interest. And he has a great quote. He says, "I learned two important lessons that day. One, always pray with one eye open, and two, relax in God's care." As 1 Peter 5 says, "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."

Think of these first two points. As you and I go through crises in our lives, this current crisis that has the attention of all of us, remind yourself over and over again, God's close and God cares. Does it sometimes feel like there's a snake coiling itself around you? Relax and say it, maybe literally out loud, whisper to yourself over and over, God's close and God cares. God's close and God cares. And it will feel at times like the snake of fear loses interest in you and leaves you as you relax in God's promised care.

And again, even before we get answers, this is an important emotional support. Maybe I'm talking to a single mom who can't pay rent right now because the salon where you work is closed. God's close and God cares. Maybe I'm talking to a young couple and you poured your entire nest egg into a shop that's now closed. God is close and God cares. Or maybe I'm talking to those who watched a loved one die all alone and you weren't allowed in. But in that moment and in all the moments since, God's close and God cares.

You know, I want to point out one thing the disciples really did right in this situation. When they became afraid, they talked to Jesus about it. You know, even if they did say, "Don't you care?" At least they opened the dialogue. J. Kim is one of the pastors at Vintage Faith Church and he spoke to our staff at a staff meeting this week on Zoom. And one line he said really struck me. He said, "Turn your pessimism into prayer." Now, we're going to talk a lot more about this next weekend when we look at one of the most fascinating and mysterious books of the Bible, the book of Job. Don't miss it. But the disciples did not just complain. They didn't just grumble to each other. They talked to Jesus. And you and I can do the exact same thing. Turn your pessimism and your doubts and anxieties into prayer.

And then finally, you and I need to know that Jesus is in control. And that's really the point of this story, isn't it? In Mark 4:38, "Jesus got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the waves, 'Quiet, be still.'" Now, it's interesting. Friends of mine who are experts in the Greek language in which the Gospels were originally written tell me that this is kind of a hard phrase to find a translation for in English. In the old King James version, they translated it "Peace, be still." But a Greek professor told me once that in his mind, a more literal rendering of this would be, "Sit down and shut up." Which reminds me that Valerie Webb, who's one of the pastors here at Twin Lakes Church, told me that when she was a kid, she and her little sister were not allowed to say the words "Shut up."

And I relate to that. My little sister and I weren't allowed to say those words either. But the way they were taught by their parents was to instead use the language from the old King James version Bible, "Peace, be still." Now, let me just paint the picture for you a little bit here. Valerie had one younger little sister, yes, but she also had 12 foster kids in her home at the same time. So there were 14 kids together, and they were all taught to use King James language, not "Shut up," but "Peace, be still," because the poor parents were probably trying to just stop arguments from escalating. And of course, what do you think happened? Well, they still had arguments, only they yelled at each other, "Peace, be still! You, peace, be still! Peace, be still times a thousand! Peace, be still infinity!" Right?

Well, Jesus didn't have to say, "Peace, be still infinity." He didn't have to yell. He just said in a commanding voice, "Quiet, be still," and then the wind died down, and it was completely calm, instant quiet. And again, what was the point of that? Just to show off, no. Jesus did this to show He is the Son of God, and nothing is beyond His control, absolutely nothing. This is important because here are the facts of fear. Fact one, I feel fear when things are out of my control. Fact two, most of my life is actually out of my control, so I'm going to have a lot of occasion to fear. Fact three, God is in control. And so I'm going to feel less fear during times when things are out of my control, when I remember that God is in control, that Jesus Christ is the Lord of the wind and the waves.

Do you remember the last verse in this story? It says, "The men were amazed and asked, 'What kind of man is this?'" And the answer, of course, to that question is He was not merely a man. Jesus was also the Son of God, the Messiah. And I can be so much less fearful, so much less fearful, does that make sense? I can have less fear in my life. I can fear less. I may not ever be fearless, but I can fear less in this current COVID storm and in any crisis in my life. When I remember not just the what of the storm, but the who that is with me, who is so close to me, who cares for me, who is ultimately in control of my life and everything on the planet and the universe, it's Jesus who also calls me friend.

Now, you might think, well, that's easy for you to say, Renee. You know, you're a pastor. Is this really real life? Well, let me give you a real life example of how important this is. This week, I spoke to Ed Lake and Elaine Kerrigan. They were two Twin Lakes church attenders who were on the now infamous Grand Princess cruise ship where so many people got sick with COVID-19. It all started with two passengers, just two. And then the disease swept through the ship. You might remember the story at first. No port allowed the ship to dock. Talk about a ship headed right into a storm. Only it was a COVID storm. Finally, they were allowed to dock and Oakland were put into quarantine. And then both Ed and Elaine both became very ill with COVID-19.

The good news is they're back home now. They're fully recovered. And so I called them up this week and I asked them, what was that like? And did your faith help? And specifically, even in the midst of all that, even if you didn't know if you would even survive, did your faith help you out? Now, our whole 20 minute conversation will be on my podcast in just about a week. But here is just a two minute tape. It was scary, anxious, lonely, and I would not want to wish this on my worst enemy if I had to be honest with you.

Well, I was at ICU for four days. And on the second day, I heard them talking that they weren't sure whether I was going to make it or not. I had a fairly good chance of making it and a fairly good chance of not making it. And I had I don't know how many people praying for me. We both did. Thank you. I want to tell you and all your people in our congregation that there's power and prayer. And without that, I don't. I can't tell you how my heart rejoices seeing you both healthy now because we were praying for you.

This weekend, I'm talking about how when we're in the midst of a storm, it helps to know Jesus is in the boat with us. Absolutely. No question. No question. Well, I tell you, it just makes you makes you feel whole. That makes you feel like you have a partner with you. I went through the same thing. I went through the same thing when my my son was killed. And. Rob and I both said many times, you know, without the Lord, how would you feel? I don't know how you're going to. I mean, just. It's just such a wonderful feeling to be saved and to have the hope that we have. Just. More than what you say. It is real life. It is not just church propaganda.

They knew deep in their heart of hearts. Jesus was in the boat. Jesus was on that cruise ship with them. You know, Jesus said that really interesting phrase. He said, you of little faith. Why are you so afraid? It just say, you know, why are you afraid? Everybody gets afraid. He says, why are you so afraid? Why do you have much fear? And he ties much fear to little faith. And that's really kind of the big idea. The bottom line of this message. I fear storms too much when I trust God too little. And I know that is definitely true in my life. And the converse is true too. The more I trust God, even before I know what's happening, even before I understand, even before there's a solution, the more I trust God is close and cares and is in control. The less I am afraid because in my heart I can hear him say.

Peace be still to the storm inside of me and I remember there is hope. Would you pray with me? Let's I want to invite you to bow your head right now with me. And in a spirit of prayer, you heard Ed and Elaine say what a blessing it is to be saved. That's an old word, but I love it. Who doesn't want to be saved? And so first thing I want to invite you to ask Jesus into your life as your Lord and Savior. If you haven't done that yet, just say yes to Jesus. That's all that means. Pray something like this in your heart. Jesus Christ, come into my life as my Lord and Savior and calm the storm inside of me.

And maybe you're already a believer, but you've been stressed. That's understandable. And so pray Lord help me to relax in your care, in your closeness and in your control. And Father, of course, we also want to pray for those who are on the front lines of this. I want to pray for all first responders and medical professionals and people like the grocery store workers and many, many more keep them safe and strong. And we pray for all our leaders at every level. God, give them wisdom, give them insight. And we also want to pray for all those working on a cure. Give them special skill. Work through them. God, heal our world. And we pray all of this in the name of the one who says peace be still. Jesus Christ. Amen.