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Introduction

Well, good morning. As most of you will be able to see, unless you are blind, I am not Tony. If you knew that Tony was not going to be here and you came anyway, I want to say thank you. If you didn’t know that Tony wasn’t going to be here this morning, then I want to truly say how sorry I am right at the beginning. I want to thank you for being here with us this morning. I see a the faces of the few folks that I don’t readily recognize. Glad to have you here with us. Thank you for visiting. If you’re a member of the body of the Lord’s people somewhere else, we want to thank you for remembering what’s important on the Lord’s Day.

So often when we get outside of town, we forget about things like that. And I want to say to Skylar, thank you for putting in peace be still.

And it wasn’t.

The master of ocean and earth and skies.

And my heart. And your faith. And my faith. And do we really believe that when the tempest is raging? Because let’s face it, the tempest is always raging. There’s always a tempest. There’s always a storm. There’s always something that’s calling to us urgently saying, this is where your focus needs to be. This is where your action needs to be. This is the thing that your heart and your soul and your mind needs to be afraid of.

When he’s ever present in our thoughts. And when our conscience is bent to do his will, that there is not a wave that can wash over us. This morning I want to talk to you about the tempest. How do we keep our faith while we’re in the storm? There was a man by the name of Horatio Spafford. And Horatio Spafford wrote a song by the name of Villet du Havre. And this particular song is not without great sentiment for Mr. Spafford, although Mr. Spafford is long since gone. He wrote the song in the 1870s after the Great Chicago fire had wiped out most of his wealth. And in preparing to come from England to America to cross the Atlantic, he at the last minute was caught up in a business deal.

And so, and actually finalizing the funeral of his son as well, who had passed away. And so he sent his wife and his three daughters ahead. And in the midst of the storm, the ship, Villa du Habre, collided with another ship. And it went down. His wife being one of the few survivors that lived to tell the tale. And so when he made it to the New World, having long, or waited to America, we quit calling it New World long before then. But when he made it to America, and he finally found his wife and got the whole of the news, he sat down, and this is part of the song and composed this verse. It says, For me, be it Christ, be it Christ, hence to live.

If Jordan above me shall roll, no pang shall be mine, for in death is in life, thou wilt whisper thy peace to my soul. But Lord, ’tis for thee, for thy coming we wait. The sky, not the grave is our goal. O Trump of the angel, O voice of the Lord, blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul. In the middle of great anxiety, in the middle of great loss, in the middle of great distress, arguably in the middle of the greatest tempest that man had ever faced, he was able to compose those words. Now, I’m going to let you in on a little secret, and if you haven’t learned it by now, you’re just not old enough to have learned it. Life isn’t fair. It just isn’t.

And those of you that are shaking your head like this, know because you have lived life long enough to know that the tempest sometimes comes over the deck. Sometimes the wave sweeps over the ship. Sometimes water breaks over the dam, and all the Dutch boys with their fingers in the hole cannot stop it from breaking.

1. Do You Not Care That We Are Perishing?

So we have to ask ourselves, what do we do in the middle of the tempest? Turn with me to Mark the fourth chapter, if you will. In Mark the fourth chapter, beginning in verse 35, the text reads, On the same day. When evening had come, he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side. Now when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was, and other little boats were also with him, and a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling. But he was in the stern asleep on a pillow, and they awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Don’t you care, Jesus, that we’re perishing?

That was the question that they asked. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still. And the wind ceased. And there was a great calm. But he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? You know, I look at that, and I’ve often looked at verse 40 and thought, what a stern rebuke. Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith or so little faith? But the older I get, the less stern that seems to me. Maybe that’s the same question that Jesus asks us when we go to him in prayer asking for help when we feel like we’re so wearied by life that we can’t take another step.

Are you still so fearful? Are you still so afraid of the winds and the waves? Why hasn’t your faith increased? And they marveled at him because they said, Who can this be that even the winds in the sea obey him? I want you to think about that. I want you to imagine this, if you will. The Sea of Galilee, scholars tell us it’s you know it’s an inland sea, was known for these wicked kinds of storms that would just come up out of nowhere. They would come up, one minute, the sea would be calm, and then with almost no warning, the wind would change from one direction to the other, and almost assuredly as the wind would change, the storm clouds would begin to billow, and once the storm clouds began to billow, it was only a time before the waves turned against the boats.

And it was a common occurrence for fishermen to be lost at sea. Never to be heard from again. On top of that, they had great belief in monsters and things like that lived under the waves. They just knew that if that boat went down, they were lost. And yet they go to Jesus and say, Why don’t you care? Why aren’t you doing anything about this? And then when he does it, they marvel, how can he do this? How can a man who’s in a boat, and if you’ve ever seen a picture of a first century boat, it’s basically one deck. You might have a little compartment below deck, and one mast, one big sail, low sides, so you can haul the fishing nets over the side.

You don’t want to have to do more work than you would otherwise have to do. So you’ve got these low sides, so you can imagine what it would be like to be out in the chop and out in the surf when the waves begin to spill over the side. Even a little storm could be a fearful, or fearsome rather sight. Do we believe? As small as we think we are, as tiny as we are in our own eyes, as insignificant as we are in terms of affecting the course of the world around us. Do we really believe that the same Jesus that could say to the winds and the sea, peace be still, can at the right moment, at the right time, without any intervention from you or from me, other than to hold the course that we’ve been charted.

That he can say, peace be still. Brothers and sisters, there is always a tempest. Maybe it’s something personal.

We’ve all had and seen the effects of illness. We’ve all seen the effects of struggles and marriages of people that we love. We’ve all seen the effects that friends can have on our young people and friends can have on our not so young people. We’ve all seen these effects, we’ve all seen these things. And sometimes the struggles aren’t the outward struggles. Sometimes they’re the inward struggles. Sometimes they’re the struggles that we have or temptation. Sometimes they’re the struggles that we have with grief or despair. Sometimes they’re financial. I was just thinking, Lauren and I were talking about it earlier this week how blessed we have been recently at this congregation to have so many of our people who’ve been out of work find positions and go back to work.

But during those times, how ardently did we pray that something would happen, that those men or those people would find jobs? That some kind of increase would come their way. Because the worry about the we worry about the creditors and we worry about the mortgage and we worry about the car notes and we worry about whether or not our money is safe in our financial institutions and if our 401ks grow in the right way, and am I going to be retiring at 65, or is it going to be 75, 85, or 105 before it’s all said and done with? And we hear we’ve got to do something about this. We’ve got to change our course, we’ve got to change our monetary policy. We’ve got to do something.

We’ve got to set a budget. We’ve got to tighten the belt. We gotta we’ve got to act now. Maybe it’s political. I know you’re not supposed to talk about the elephant in the room, no pun intended. But just peruse your Facebook account when you get home today and tell me how urgently are people appealing that you vote one way or the other. As if the whole world depends on how you cast your ballot. I was telling the kids this morning in Bible class that you’re always hearing that something is urgent. For every election I’ve been alive for, I’ve heard it’s the most urgent one. This is the one that defines us forever and ever and ever. There’ll never be another more important one. Do you know when we get to 2016, if God allows the world to spend this long?

Well, we don’t even know if it’s going to make it the 2012 yet. It’s going to be the most urgent one we’ve ever encountered. Because it’s always the most urgent one. It’s always the pressing need. It’s always the thing that if you don’t act the right way, somebody’s going to be out there to convince you that you’re somehow doing the wrong thing. Maybe you don’t vote like they do. Maybe you just choose not to vote at all. But that’s a tempest. It’s a storm that surrounds us in our culture. It’s a storm that works its way into our thinking, and if we’re not careful, it’s a storm that’ll come in through the front doors of the church building and start dividing people against each other. Or maybe it’s societal.

How many of you watched with great interest the protests over the last couple of years where young people were camping out in parks and holding up signs? Or been watching the protests in the Middle East that happened where the what is it, the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to overthrow one government after the other, and there’s always fire and there’s always something bombastic going on. Brothers and sisters, we are not immune to the tempest. We’re just not.

We are going to get pushed around. We are going to be inundated with waves unless we decide here and now what’s important.

2. Why Are We Afraid?

I should have put the slide in again. Do you not care that we are perishing? Do you know where that question comes from? It comes from being afraid. So why are we afraid? Well, maybe we’re afraid because we’re focusing on the wrong things. Open to Matthew the sixth chapter. I borrowed Tony’s F. Matthew 6, beginning in verse 25 says, Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing. Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin. And yet, I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith. Therefore do not worry, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? Do you think we could maybe append to the end of that? Do not worry who gets elected. It’s in the same vein as what we’re going to eat and what we’re going to drink, what we’re going to wear.

For after these things, the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient to the day is its own evil. Maybe we put our trust in the wrong things. Maybe that’s why we’re so afraid. Maybe that’s where the fear comes from. It’s the fact that we don’t have our trust where we ought to. Turn over, if you will, to the book of 1 Timothy. Shot right past 1 Timothy and ended up in Hebrews. The book of 1 Timothy in the first chapter. Something’s not right about that.

You ever say something you just know it’s not right when it comes out of your mouth? 2 Timothy 8 chapter says, or 1st chapter verse 8 says, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor for me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. But has now been revealed by the reappearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. To which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.

For this reason I also suffered these things, nevertheless, I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day.

And he says, Guess what? I’m not ashamed. I’m not going to be fearful. I’m not going to worry. Because I know whom I have believed. And am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him until that day. Do we have that kind of faith? Do we have is that where we are where our trust is? Can we say, I know whom I have believed? Is that who we believe in? Or Romans the 8th chapter. 31 and following. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall we not with him also freely, he not with him freely give us all things?

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns and is Christ who died? And furthermore is also risen who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword, as it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, yet in all these things we are more than conqueror through him who loved us, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Or maybe it’s just that our faith is too small.

We read Matthew chapter 6 a while ago. He were to go back just a little further in that passage. You would see in verse 8 where he admonishes those that are listening to him there at the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore, do not be like them, for your Father knows the things that you have need of before you ask of him. He knows what we need.

3. We Forget That We Are Built upon the Rock

Maybe he’s not addressing what we want. Maybe he’s not addressing the way that we’d like him to address the thing that we desire. But he knows what we need. Is our faith so small that we believe, that we question? Does God care? Is he listening? Doesn’t he know. I’m convinced that there are some things that we forget in the waves. First, we forget that we are built upon the rock. And no storm can shake that foundation. There’s nothing that man can do, regardless of his power or his resources. There is nothing that man can do that can change God’s plan. One insignificant bit. Jesus, when he was wrapping up the Sermon on the Mount, told the story of the wise and the foolish builder. The difference between them is that the wise man built upon the rock.

They heard the sayings and did them, he said. We could also go over to the book of Isaiah in the 41st chapter.

Isaiah 41, verse 5, following. The coastland saw it and feared the ends of the earth, were afraid. They drew near and came. Every one helped his neighbor and said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the craftsman encouraged the goldsmith, he who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil, saying, It is ready for the so for the soldiering. Then he fastened it with pegs that it might not totter. But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the descendants of Abraham, my friend. You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest regions, and said to you are my servants, I have chosen you and have not cast you away. Fear not, for I am with you.

Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will hold you with my righteous right hand. Similar passage can be found over in the book of Hebrews, this time the 13th chapter.

4. Fearing the Tempest Only Brings Doubt and Division

Hebrews 13, 5 and 6. Let your conduct be without covetousness, but be content with such things as you have, for he himself has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. So we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me? Incidentally, drawing on Deuteronomy the 31st chapter, the fifth and sixth verse. Thing too that we forget when we’re in the middle of the waves. Fearing the tempest only brings doubt and division.

Fearing what man can do does not increase your faith in God. Fearing what man can do does not increase the strength that you find in your brethren. Fearing what man can do to the outside does not increase your faith. In 1 Peter, the third chapter. Peter makes this statement. Finally.

Stop right there for a second. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers.

Because so many of his songs dealt with that this morning. Sorry, you’re over here, not over there. The Lord hears the righteous.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed, and do not be afraid of their threats nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and with fear. Fear of the temporary undermines hope in the eternal.

When the world looks at us, do they see a people that cowers in a corner, that’s afraid of what’s going on, that our faith in God is shaken by the fact that the world seems to be drifting further and further? Are we away from him? Are we a people who put our hopes whose hopes are bound up in the temporary? In what the next day brings, or what the next hour brings, or what the next election brings, or what the next economic, financial beta report that comes out, blue book, beige book, whatever it is? Are our hopes bound up in the temporary? Or are we a people of hope? A people that those in the world will look to and say, why is it among these circumstances, your own personal circumstances, the circumstances that our country finds itself in?

Why is it that you are a person who dares to have hope?

Are those hopes and things eternal?

Brothers and sisters, are we giving in to the language of despair? Giving in to the language of urgency and doubt? And forsaking the language of hope? Forsaking the language that says, I have a Savior, I have a God, and He sent His Son to die in my stead, and you can have that same hope that I have. Do we portray to those that are out there, do we portray ourselves as people who look not to this world to solve our problems, but to look to the but who look to the next world as our final goal? You see, fear of the temporary undermines hope in the eternal. They couldn’t see for themselves when they were on that boat what Jesus was capable of doing. They had heard him preach some great sermons, they had seen him do some great works.

5. No Device, Party, or Man Can Calm the Storm

But that urgent fear of death in that moment undermined all that they had learned thus far about eternity. Things we forget in the waves, there’s no device, party, or man that can calm the storm. Where are we putting our faith? Is it in the boat? Did we put our trust in the boat? Maybe the apostles did. They had sailed that boat probably back and forth across that sea so many times. Or maybe in the sails, if we trim them the right way, if we do just the right thing, if we say just the right thing, then the storm will just pass us by.

In our own ability. I’ve got to tell you, if there’s one shortcoming that I have, and I’ve got a lot of them. But if there’s one that is just so glaringly evident to me, it’s that one right there. How many times do we try to take the future in our hands and say with absolute conviction that I am going to make this work? I am going to do this. I am going to succeed. Maybe the boat’s a political party. Maybe the sails are divisive creeds. You say, oh, whoa. Sean pointed this out this morning. We got a tract out there that says, we don’t believe in creeds. You’re right, we don’t. But if we start looking at people that want to come in and be part of us skeptically and divisively.

And we start making agreements about the things that we’re going to do that aren’t about things in the scripture, we start saying we’re going to say these kinds of things and make these kinds of posts on Facebook. And if somebody doesn’t post the way that I want them to post, if somebody doesn’t line up with me exactly on things that are not biblical, then I’m just going to uncircle them. I’m not going to be friends with them anymore, and I may not even worship with them. You don’t think it can happen, and it’s happening. Not here. Thankfully. But it’s happening in other places. You don’t have to look any further than any social media out there to see it. The institutions of man. How many times do we say, if I just had gotten a higher education, life would be so much better.

6. The Size of the Storm Doesn't Change Our Obligation

If I had just put my trust in this thing that man says to put our trust in. Brothers and sisters, there is nothing that man has devised that can calm those waves. The only thing that can calm the waves is the master that created them to begin. Who spoke the seas and the skies and the winds into existence? Finally, no matter the size of the storm, it really doesn’t change our obligation. To remain unspotted from the world and unencumbered by the world. To win the hearts of men not to change the world around us. Man, spell check really failed me there. Just imagine that’s an H. To win the hearts of men not to change the world around us. You know, that’s a secret to it.

Conclusion

You want to make the world a better place? You want to stem the tide of things like abortion and homosexuality in this country. You don’t further entangle yourself with the world. You start teaching those that are out there in it. You start introducing them to the one person that can calm the waves. You introduce them to Jesus with hope and with conviction, with love and compassion and understanding. Back to Villaduhavare. Believe it or not, this is a song that you know. When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well. It is well with my soul. Brothers and sisters, I have only one question for you this morning. And I realize the invitation song is not what you would typically think of as an invitation song.

But is it well with your soul? Is there peace within you? Is there hope within your words and in your thoughts? Can you truly say that whether it’s peace like a river or sorrows like sea billows roll? I know because I can see from the beginning, the end of the thing, that it’s well with my soul. There’s anyone here this morning that owes some duty to God if your soul is not right. There’ll never be a better opportunity to change that anymore. Won’t you come forward confessing your sins as we stand in seconds?