WHEN STORMS STRIKE
“Don’t Fellowship With Your Storm”
5/5/24
Matt. 8:23-27 “Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
26 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
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Now, as we shared two weeks ago from this same story, the disciples were about to have their faith tested by a storm.
While Jesus certainly knew they would encounter this storm in their journey, they had no clue.
And when this sudden storm struck, they were totally taken off guard and their frail faith evaporated, causing Jesus to ask them, “Where is your faith?”
Now I want to talk to you today about what they did wrong in the storm, and what they later learned to do right…
First,
I. The disciples made the mistake of fellowshipping with their storm.
Think with me a moment:
In order to “fellowship” with someone, we must both LISTEN to them and then TALK BACK.
Whatever you’re fellowshipping with has your ear and your attention.
That said, the Bible has tons to say about FELLOWSHIP.
ONE, We’re called to have fellowship with God’s children:
“But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
And we have fellowship with Jesus Himself:
“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9).
We also have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy” (Phil. 2:1).
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And it doesn’t even have to be a person you’re fellowshipping with!
For instance, Paul said, “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph. 5:11).
So here we see that you can fellowship with works and activities from the dark side.
And you can even fellowship with demons, “…the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons” (1 Cor. 10:20).
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So, IF we can fellowship with God, the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the people of God…
And on the dark side, we can fellowship with works of darkness and even demons—then we can certainly also fellowship with a storm!
We do this by listening to it, agreeing with its message, and allowing it to rule our emotions…
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Notice first how the disciples had clearly LISTENED to the message of their storm:
They said to Jesus, “Lord…we are perishing!”
Now, let me ask you—where did they get that information from?—THE STORM!
And is what they said TRUE?——Were they truly perishing?
No! Not with Jesus in their boat!
But the voice of the storm had become louder than the voice of their faith.
The storm was talking to them and they were listening!
And not only did they listen, they agreed with it!
They said to Jesus, “We ARE perishing!”
This was the message of the storm for them!
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So the second thing we see is that:
II. The voice of your storm never agrees with the voice of God!
Storms deliver a message that does not align with God’s promises.
—This fact is all through the Bible.
When the twelve spies were sent over to spy out the Promised Land, ten of them focused on the STORM of giants they saw.
They reported back to Moses and the people:
“We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” (Numbers 13:33)
Because they had FELLOWSHIPPED and come into AGREEMENT with the storm, they brought the FALSE MESSAGE of the storm back to the people, saying:
“We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” (13:31)
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But Joshua and Caleb had not fellowshipped with the storm, but were instead fellowshipping and agreeing with the PROMISES of God:
So they brought back a MESSAGE of FAITH:
“Don’t fear them…The Lord is with us, they shall be food for our consumption, their protection has departed from them…” (14:9)
But tragically, the people listened to the ten men who were fellowshipping with their storm and the whole nation lost out on the Promised Land!
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Another example is—In Elisha’s day the king of the Syrians sent a huge troop of soldiers to capture Elisha.
The Bible records:
“14 Then he (the Syrian king) dispatched horses and chariots, an impressive fighting force. They came by night and surrounded the city.”
To the natural eye this was a dark, stormy cloud of enemy troops vastly outnumbering Elisha and his one lone servant.
And Elisha’s servant saw it and the Bible records:
15 “Early in the morning the servant of Elisha got up and went out and, behold, Horses and chariots were surrounding the city! The young man exclaimed, “Oh, master! What shall we do?”
—This cry of despair is an echo of what the disciples cried out in their storm, “Lord, save us, we perish!”
Just like the disciples, Elisha’s servant was fellowshipping with the storm—
listening to it,
coming into agreement with it,
and allowing it to rule his emotions.
But Elisha replied, “Don’t worry about it—there are more on our side than on their side.”
Then Elisha prayed, “O God, open his eyes and let him see.”
“The eyes of the young man were opened and he saw a wonder! The whole mountainside was full of horses and chariots of fire surrounding Elisha!”
While the servant was fellowshipping with the storm, Elisha was fellowshipping with God and His promise of deliverance!
Which are you doing today?
Are you listening to your storm, coming into agreement with it, or are you listening to the Lord?
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The THIRD thing we learn here is that:
II. What you fellowship with IN it decides how you will go THROUGH it!
When we fellowship with the storm, we position ourselves for worry, fear, and defeat.
When we fellowship with Jesus, we position ourselves for peace, strength, and victory.
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ILLUS: I recently read a true story of a pastor and a lawyer friend that had been visiting Alaska. They were going to fly back home on a commercial jet but another pastor friend talked them into flying back with him on a small private plane.
Taking off from Anchorage, they eventually found themselves flying through dense clouds with no visibility. The pilot became disoriented and passed out. His eyes actually rolled back into his head — unconscious.
His passenger pastor shook him violently trying to wake him up to no avail.
The lawyer sitting in the back seat said, “We’re all going to die, aren’t we?”
The pastor then handed the airplane microphone back to the lawyer and told him to call for help as he tried to wake the pilot.
The lawyer started yelling “Help, help, help — is anyone out there?”
A bit later a freighter pilot responded — “Is this an emergency? Don’t you know any radio etiquette?”
After explaining that the pilot was unconscious, the freighter pilot started giving them instructions and finally got them in contact with the Anchorage airport tower.
That air traffic controller was very calm and gave them simple instructions on how to turn the plane around—they had been headed straight towards a mountain.
He repeated certain things over and over:
“Listen to my voice.”
“Don’t look at the storm outside.”
“In your panic, there will be voices in your head telling you to do this or that, don’t listen to them — listen only to my voice.”
“You can’t see me, but I can see you.”
And then the words, “If you don’t listen to my voice, you will die.”
That pastor listened and did everything he was instructed to do. By this time, other pilots in the area were listening to the conversation, occasionally giving him encouragement.
As they flew near to Anchorage the air traffic controller described the landing zone and the lights that just happened to be in the shape of a cross on that runway.
Step by step, the pastor landed that plane amateurishly—a total of seven times before it finally came to stability on the runway.
He had listened to the controllers voice, and their lives were saved!
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Which voice are you listening to today?
The voice of your storm, or the voice of the Lord in heaven’s control tower?
If you will take a moment, get quiet, turn your faith and eyes toward the Lord, you’ll find that He is saying,
“Peace! Be still. I’m Lord over your storm. You and I together are going to land this plane where you need to be.”
LET’S PRAY