Genesis 7:11-12; Jonah 1:4,11-12; Matthew 14:25-33

“Surviving the Storms at Sea”

We are in the midst of a series, where we are thinking about the Christian life in terms of seafaring metaphors. And we are looking, specifically, at the story of three sailors in the Bible … Noah, Jonah, and Simon Peter. And today, we are focusing on “Surviving the Storms at Sea” … the storms that come to us in the midst of life.

It has been said that, “Life is a mixture of long periods of boredom, punctuated by stark terror.” That’s how it is in life, isn’t it? Just about the time we think everything is going well, suddenly, a storm blows up.

And I want to begin by recognizing that not all storms are terrible. Storms vary in their intensity. Some of them are beautiful and we enjoy them when they come … times when we desperately need the rain. Some of them are just minor irritants and disappointments, because they rained out a soccer game or something else. And then there are those Category 5 Hurricanes where we can’t see how are going to survive them. We’re going to take a look at these storms today.

Let’s begin by recognizing that some storms are just minor irritants. How many times have you planned an event, only to have it rain on your parade? This has happened to me on several occasions. I love to cook outside on my grill and eat out on the patio. And periodically, we will make plans to invite the family over and cook outside.

This past 4^th of July, we prepared all week, we bought the food, decorations and fireworks. Marie even went out and bought red-white-blue shirts for us to wear. All week, we were looking forward to it. But when the day came all of our plans had to change, because it was raining. All stinking day, it rained! And of course, we were all disappointed, because we had this idea of the way it was going to be. And so, we had to reorient ourselves. We had to say, “Okay, so it’s going to rain all day. But you know what, we’re still going to have a day together.”

So, we moved all the cars out of the carport. We moved the patio furniture and the grill into the carport, turned on the fans, and we ate outside anyway. And as we sat there watching it rain on our parade, we suddenly realized how beautiful the rain can be. It can actually be refreshing, watching it rain. How fresh the air smelled and the clouds were beautiful as they rolled across the sky.

It like the old saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” When it comes to the irritants of life, we have a choice. And the choice is, either to be disappointed and upset with life, because it’s not what we hoped it would be. Or we can look for the silver lining … we can find what is good in the midst of those things and rejoice in that. And this is a key for life. Because none of us find that life works out just the way we thought it was going to. I mean, you get married and you think that it is all going to be perfect … that you’re going to be madly in love with each other every day. Give me a break! It doesn’t work that way. And when it comes to your job … you’re not going to love your job every day. Some days, you are going to wish you could quit and sometimes you’re going to get fired. And that’s life! So, we either become disappointed, because life didn’t measure up to our expectations or we learn to rejoice in what we have. As Paul says, we learn: “To give thanks in all circumstances.”

But of course, storms get more serious than that. And this is what we want to focus on today. And to do that, I want to turn again to these three Sailors that we find in the Bible and their experiences with storms at sea.

Let’s begin with the story of Noah. All of us remember the story of Noah. In the story of Noah, God brought a cataclysmic storm. And the reason that God brought this storm, is that God looked upon the earth and He saw how destructive human beings had become toward each other and the planet and “God grieved that he had made us”. So, God decided to bring a storm upon the earth to solve the problem that He had made by creating humanity.

But, as we learned last week, God saw Noah and his family and he saw that they were righteous. So, God decides to give humanity one more chance. He decides to start over with these righteous human beings. So, God instructed Noah to build a boat. And this “Ark” became for them “an instrument of salvation”.

As we talked about last week, the Early Church saw the Ark as a metaphor for the Church. The Ark saved humanity through that storm in Noah’s day. The Church was meant to be God’s instrument of salvation for people through the storms of life. Like Noah found safety and security in the Ark, the Church was meant to be this for humanity. So Noah finds salvation in the boat. And likewise, the Church is meant to be a place where people can find salvation from the storms of life.

Part of the reason why being in worship each week is important, is that when you come here, you are supposed to find your soul renewed. You’re supposed to remember that “On Christ, the Solid Rock I Stand”. You’re supposed to remember, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”. You’re supposed to hear and remember that, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present source of strength and help in times of trouble.” We’re supposed to hear God’s Word and spend time in prayer. We’re supposed to be surrounded by people who are our shipmates and on the same journey. When we come together, we are supposed to experience the Holy Spirit touching our lives, so that no matter how tumultuous the seas are around us, when we come here, we remember that, “God is with us. We are not alone. And God is going to help us through the next week.”

There are so many times that I have walked into worship, feeling overwhelmed by the storms that were going on around me. But, after spending time in worship and prayer, after listening to the music or singing a hymn and being instructed by God’s Word, my soul is renewed. Sometimes, during the week, when no one is here, I will come here to the altar and pray. It’s not that God lives here, but being here, I just feel closer to God. This is “the Ark”. This is the place that we meet God each week. No matter what is happening outside, we feel a sense of safety and security here.

Part of what I know, is that when people go through those Category 5 storms of life, one of the ways that they survive those storms is by people in the Church surrounding them with their love and care. Every time there is the death of a loved one in our church, the people of this church surround them and we carry them. When the storms are rocking their boat, so that they feel like they are being thrown overboard, we hold on to them and refuse to let them go. Like the Ark, the Church and Worship are important for us for these reasons.

Well, we go from Noah’s story to Jonah’s story. Jonah’s story is quite the opposite. Instead of finding salvation inside of the ship, he has to get out of the boat to find salvation. You remember from last week, that God called Jonah to go to the City of Nineveh and preach repentance to them. He was to tell them that God had seen their wickedness and if they didn’t repent in 40 days, God was going to destroy them. But Jonah doesn’t like the Ninevites and he says to God, “I don’t want to warn the Ninevites. We’d all be better off without them, so go ahead and destroy them. Besides, I know what you are like. You will show mercy to them. I don’t like them. I don’t want to do this. So, I’m not going!”

After telling God this, he realizes that he needs to get away as fast as he can. So, he tries “to flee from the presence of God” by boarding a ship that is headed in the opposite direction from Nineveh. But of course, as we learned last week, you can run from God, but you can’t hide. And so, as he is sailing on this ship, God brings a terrible storm. But we need to recognize that God didn’t bring the storm to punish Jonah. Just the opposite, God brought the storm to save Jonah.

This storm is so intense, that the sailors begin to cry out to their gods for help, but nothing stops the wind. The ship begins to rock and take on water, so they begin to throw their cargo overboard, hoping that would help them stay afloat. And finally, they say, “God must be angry with somebody on this boat.” So they draw straws to see who it is and the short straw came to Jonah.

And so, Jonah finally fesses up, saying, “Yes, it is me. God is angry with me, because I am not doing what God wants me to do.” So, the sailors ask Jonah, “What should we do to stop the storm?”

Now, what would the right answer have been? “Turn the ship around and take me back to Tarshish, so that I can go to Nineveh as God wants me to.” Right? But what did Jonah say? “Throw me overboard! I’m not going to do what God wants, even if it kills me. I’d rather die than go preach to those Ninevites!” Can you imagine that?

Reminds me of my kids, when I’d say, “I’m going to put you in time out if you don’t do what I tell you.” And they’d say, “I don’t care. Put me in time out. I like time out.”

So, the sailors toss Jonah overboard and then they plead with God for forgiveness. They didn’t want to do it. And afterwards, the sea grows calm. Now, Jonah thinks that this is the end of the line for him. But this is not the end of the line for Jonah, because God is not going to be stopped that easily. So, God sends a giant fish to swallow Jonah.

So, now Jonah is inside the belly of this whale. There’s gastro-juices all around him. Half digested fish and other icky stuff, and its pitch black. Can’t you just see Jonah sitting in the middle of all that saying, “I don’t care, God … I’m still not going to do it. This fish can digest me, but I’m not going to do it.”

And I can picture God saying, “You know what Jonah? I’ve got all the time in the world. Just sit there. I can wait.” And so, he sits there for three days. And finally, on the 3^rd day, in the midst of all that yuck, he says, “Okay, I get it.”

And if you read chapter 2 of Jonah, you’ll read a psalm that he wrote, in which he repents. Yet, the jest of what he says is, “I don’t like the Ninevites and I don’t want to do this, but clearly you’re going to make me. So, I guess I’ll do it.”

And I love what we read in Jonah 2:10. This is Jonah’s salvation: “Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.” Don’t you just love that image? So, Jonah goes to Nineveh and he does what he’s supposed to do. He’s not happy about it, but he does it anyway.

So, Jonah is saved through the storm. Listen, sometimes we create the storms we experience in life. By not doing something that we we’re supposed to do, we create the mess. Sometimes the storms come, because we’re going in the opposite direction from where God wants us to go. We all know of people who finally came to faith after they “hit bottom”. And it took a lot of pain to get them there. It wasn’t God who brought all that pain. The pain was brought on by themselves. But finally, they said, “I can’t keep walking in this direction. It is bringing me too much pain. I’ve got to change.” And we talk about that as “repentance” … turning and going in the other direction.

So, some storms are like this. We find salvation outside the boat, so that we eventually get back in the boat.

That then, leads us to the story of Simon Peter. And Peter finds salvation, both outside and inside the boat. In this story, Jesus has been teaching the multitudes on the North side of the Sea of Galilee. When it starts to get dark, toward the end of the day, Jesus tells the disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side of the sea and he will meet them there. I can imagine the disciples scratching their heads and wondering, “Well, how are you going to get there?” But it’s Jesus, so he’ll figure out a way.

So, the disciples head out in the boat, Jesus dismisses the crowds, and then he goes up on the mountainside to pray. And he does this for most of the night. The scriptures say that at 3 AM in the morning, Jesus looks out over the Sea of Galilee and he sees the disciples struggling, because a storm had blown up. And so, Jesus goes to help them. And this is the famous story where Jesus walks on water.

But, before we get to his encounter with Peter, there are a couple of things we need to recognize. As Jesus approaches the boat, the disciples are afraid, because they think he is a ghost. But Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid, it’s me.” Now, notice that the wind and the waves didn’t die down at that moment, but they were not to be afraid, because in the midst of the wind and the waves, Jesus was with them.

This is an important spiritual truth. We find this throughout the Scriptures, such as in Psalm 23, “Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thy art with me.” We find it in Isaiah, “When you pass through the floods, be not afraid, for I am your God and I’ll still give you aid.” It doesn’t say that the storms of life are not going to come. It says that God will be with us in the midst of the storms … so we don’t have to be afraid.

And notice that this story doesn’t say that Jesus caused a storm to blow up, so that he could walk on water and teach the disciples a lesson. It doesn’t say that Jesus caused the storm, because he wanted to punish the disciples. The storm just happened. And that’s how it is in life. Storms just sometimes happen.

I find that a lot of people are confused about this. Many believe that every time a storm blows up in life, it is because God causes those storms to happen for a reason. Often our response is, “Why is this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this?” But we need to be very careful attributing storms to God. Can God bring a storm? Yes. As in the case of Noah and Jonah, sometimes that happens. But God’s ordinary way of working, is not to bring suffering in your life to accomplish his purposes … even though, suffering may accomplish his purposes. And, if and when God does create a storm, it is always going to be about redemption. It is always going to be about saving you, not crushing you, because the goal for God, is always our salvation.

This is important. Because when a Category 5 Storm hits us, that’s the worst time to try to figure out what God is doing in the midst of that. We need to come to an understanding of this now, before we encounter such storms. The question we have to ask ourselves is: “Is it really the way of God to drown small children in swimming pools … to push cars in front of trains … or to give people cancer? Is this how a just and loving God teaches us things and gets his point across? Or are those storms that just happen in our world that God doesn’t really want to happen.

Some say, “But how can anything happen that God doesn’t want to happen?” Well, isn’t that the point of the Noah story? Isn’t the point, that people were doing things that God didn’t want them to be doing? Isn’t it the point of the Jonah story, that God wanted Jonah to go to one place, but instead, Jonah went another direction? There are a lot of things that happen in life that are not necessarily God’s will. Life is fragile and storms just happen. If we understand this, we can turn to God in the midst of the storm, finding comfort and peace and strength to make it through. But if you think that God causes all the storms of life, that can cause you to turn away from God for the rest of your life. And how tragic that would be.

I came across this quote by an unknown author that I think says it well:

Suffering is not God’s desire for us, but it does occur in the process of life. Suffering is not given to teach us something, but through it we may learn. Suffering is not given to teach others something, but through it they may learn. Suffering is not given to punish us, but sometimes it is the consequence of our sin or poor judgment. Suffering does not occur because our faith is weak, but through it our faith may be strengthened. God does not depend on human suffering to achieve his purposes, but sometimes through suffering his purposes are achieved. Suffering can either destroy us or it can add meaning to our lives.

So, be careful of what storms you attribute to God. And know that in the midst of the storm, Jesus says to us, “Don’t be afraid, I am with you.”

Now, part of what I love about this story, is that Peter decides to step out of the boat. And this is a powerful metaphor for life. At some point, we are called to step out of the boat and to walk with Jesus by faith. We are supposed to come here for an hour or two each week … to have our batteries recharged, to remember who we are, and to allow God’s Spirit to strengthen us. But then, we are to go back out there and walk on water for a week. And while we’re out there, we may encounter some storms. And so, we come back and regroup ourselves, and then, we go back out again. We’re supposed to get out of the boat! Not stay in the boat forever.

Now, we can look at Peter and say, “But he took his eyes off of Jesus and he began to sink!” But at least he got out of the boat! While the other disciples stayed in the boat, playing it safe, Peter experienced the adventure of walking on water with Jesus! How cool is that? What about you? Are you living your faith out there in the world? Or are you playing it safe, only practicing your faith only when you’re here?

Like Peter, if we’re stepping out of the boat and living our faith out there in the world, we’re going to sink sometimes. We’re going to focus on the wrong things and we’re going to start to drown. But the good news is that Jesus will be there to pick us up and toss us back in the boat.

And don’t you know, that if Peter got the chance to do that again, he’d of learned from that and made it a few more steps. And the next time, he would have gotten further, until finally, he wouldn’t sink any more. This is how it works in our spiritual lives. But we never grow spiritually, if we don’t get out of the boat.

And notice, that when Jesus rescues Peter, he climbed into the boat with him and when he did, the wind and the waves are stilled. And seeing this, the disciples say, “Surely, this is the Son of God.” Spiritually, Peter grew from that experience of walking on water. Spiritually, the other disciples grew from seeing Jesus calm the storm.

And here’s what I want you to remember from this. Our times of greatest spiritual growth are always going to be when we’re walking through the storms of life. The most defining moments in my life, have been the times when I didn’t think I could survive walking through them. Yet, we look back and see how God carried us through such moments, and we see how we were deepened and changed. The storm didn’t come so that could happen. But when it did come, that is what happened. God takes the storms that come to us and he brings something good from them.

Alright, how do we survive a hurricane … the Category 5 Storms of Life? I hope that you never experience such a storm. I hope that I never do. But I have been with some who have. If you were to think about what would be the most awful experience that could happen in your life, what would it be? I can tell you, that from ministering to those who have lost loved ones, the most awful experience is when someone loses a child. I mean, how do you survive that? Can you survive that?

As I thought about this, I found some quotes from people who did survive such storms. And they all talked about the importance of people who came alongside of them and helped them. That’s one of the ways that we survive the storms of life … through people who come along side of us and carry us. And this is what we are called to do for others when they are in the midst of such storms.

But then, there is also “a radical trust in God” that gets us through such storms in life. One parent who lost her 3 year old son when he chased a ball into the street wrote this:

“I had people tell me that it was my son’s time and I was having a hard time believing in a God who would take my child at age three. I eventually learned that tragedies weren’t necessarily part of God’s plan, but that God gave us free will and sometimes bad things happen. Understanding this helped me to turn to God, instead of away from him. Since my son’s death, my faith has continued to grow. His death changed the way I view God and my faith. I no longer have a naïve, childlike faith where God protects you from all harm and makes everything okay. It is a deeper faith that has been tested through tragedy. I know that God doesn’t promise a pain free life, but he does always promise to be there to love me, comfort me, and guide me. My faith gives me something that people without faith don’t have. It gives me hope.”

Another wrote:

“I think that when the storm hits, all you immediately do is grab for something to hold on to. Hopefully faith in Jesus is within grabbing distance when the storm hits. For us, possibly because Jesus was already in our lives when the storm hit, it felt as though Jesus was holding on to me, rather than me holding on to him.”

It is the help and support of others and a radical trust in God, even when you can’t see him, that helps us get through the storms of life.

So, this is the question I want to ask you. What is the anchor in your life? What is it that you hold on to in the middle of the storm that sustains you, heals you, and carries you through … if not Jesus Christ? What I believe we learn from these stories, and what I believe God wants you to know today, is that He is the anchor of our souls … so let us place our trust in him and be not afraid.