Good morning. Before we get started, the message that I’m going to speak about today is on storms, and, we woke up to news this morning and the news over the weekend about this terrible storm that has devastated parts of Texas. Dozens of children seem to have been swept away by a river over a flash flood. The 26ft wall of water comes rushing down a basically a dry riverbed unexpectedly, and has just washed away Christian church camp for children. So it’s pretty awful news. So the governor of Texas kind of asked for his state to kind of turn this into a day of prayer for the families and for those lost. And I thought, speaking about storms, I thought this would be just a good opportunity for us to pause a minute and just pray for those associated in Texas with this tragedy. So if you would just take a moment and just silently pray to yourself, I’ll wrap this up. But let’s just pray for those in Texas right now. God, we lift up those that are that are affected by this tragedy in Texas. We don’t know them. We’re not close to them. But, God, we, God, we pray for them and God like we’re going to hear about today. What do you do when tragedy strikes and you don’t know how to even pray for that God? And that’s where we are right now, and that’s where those families are with this unspeakable tragedy that they’re had that they’re having to navigate through. But God, we just pray, Lord, for those that are in the search teams out there, God that, that they would be able to do their job and find those that are lost. So we pray for miracles. We pray for those that would, even be assumed to be lost and assumed to be gone. But Lord, here they are. We pray that we would hear stories about that God and Lord, we pray for the families. We pray for the parents that are that are having to deal with this. Lord, we just pray your Holy Spirit would just engulf that place God and Lord, somehow some way through this they would be able to see Jesus. God, we lift up the state of Texas to you now and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Yeah, thank you all for that. A couple months ago, John asked me if I would be willing to speak again on, Sunday morning, to which I said, let me think about it. And that is true. I did not say yes right away. But it just so happens that about that time we had I had taught a life group lesson just it was in the curriculum that we use, and it was about storms. And I just felt like this was a good opportunity. That was I really resonated with what that life group lesson was about. So I’m sort of going to take that material and expand on it a bit. Since John did ask me to speak, I would ask for you to direct any and all complaints to John C Majors at johncmajors@vvc or valleyviewchurch.org. I’ll give you a second to write that down. So, we’re going to talk about storms a little bit. So, those of you that know me, I like to run. So I’m a runner and I run trail races and stuff. So one of my favorite all time races that I ran was in the year. It was, I can’t remember. It was about the year 2018, but it was a trail race that I ran on this Christmas tree farm in Fleming County. It was on a Christmas tree farm. Whoever the whoever assumed that they would have a trail race there. But it was this very rugged, hilly course and that. And the concept is you’re on a relay team. So it’s me and three other guys, and we relay kind of around this course. It’s a ten K course, which is about 6.2 miles, and you’re running through this rugged, hilly course, and then you’re carrying like a timing chip, like a baton. And then when you finish your lap, you hand it off to your teammate. And then they run the same course only in the opposite direction. And you kind of alternate like that. And the goal is to do it ten times as quickly as possible. Sounds fun right? It was fun. I really enjoyed it. But something unusual happened in this race. As if the race wasn’t unusual enough. So I was running the last lap or the anchor lap, right? So I’m supposed to bring it home. Our team is in second place. Now, the first place team, they were a group of former cross-country runners with the University of Kentucky. So I don’t count them right. They’re doing their own thing. They won. Good for them. Woo hoo! We’re in second place. And the third place team is pretty good. And they’re not that far behind us. So I’m starting my last lap and I’ve got about a half mile lead on their last guy. But he’s faster than me and I know he’s faster than me, so I know I’ve really got to push it. So I get about a mile into this race and you go off a main path into the deep woods, and I can see as I’m about to enter the woods and it’s a beautiful sunny day. It’s been hot. It’s been I mean, it’s been really, really hot. It was mid-July and it was so hot, actually, that they literally had to helicopter a guy who had passed out due to heat exhaustion, they had helicoptered him to a hospital in Lexington. It was that hot. So I’m I’m starting to enter the woods and I see the sky becoming consumed with this black storm cloud. I mean, it looks ominous. It’s really kind of scary. But you keep you keep running forward. So pretty soon I’m in the woods and the storm just opens up. It is like no storm I had literally ever even driven through, much less been out in the middle of the woods in. Torrential rain, almost like a monsoon. Thunder and lightning was ferocious. The wind was like a hurricane wind. And I’m out there like an idiot, running through the woods carrying a timing chip by myself. There’s no one around me, so I have a choice to make. I’m only about a mile in. Do I turn around, head for safety, go back where I came from. Do I seek shelter in the woods? That’s not a good idea if it’s lightning. But I’m in the woods. What do you do? The hills. The trail hills that I had to go up and down. They were dry before, but now they’re just little rivers of mud and rock and grossness. But I keep pushing forward. I decide to keep moving forward. It– I kind of felt like if you ever seen the movie Forrest Gump, there’s a scene where Lieutenant Dan is sitting on top of the mast of the boat, their shrimp boat, and he’s like, in this storm, and he’s yelling at God, is that the best you can do? I kind of felt like that. It is, but I was more like saying, okay, God, I get it. That’s enough. Well, pretty soon I reached the end of the course and I reached the end. I reached the finish line. And usually there’s a bunch of people there cheering for you. Yay! Troy made it! There was nobody there. Where were they? Well, they were seeking shelter in a barn that was close by. So I’m by myself. Nobody’s looking around. I’m like, who? Who even saw that I finished? Well, one of the race directors comes out and she said, excuse me, sir, we’ve got to pause the race, because it’s too unsafe. I said, yeah, no, I just finished. She said, oh, you just finished? Yes, I just finished. My team is done. We came in second place. So then my teammates come running out and they’re like, we thought you were hiding somewhere. We thought you were seeking shelter like a sane person would. What? You just kept running through that? I was like, yeah, I wanted to maintain our lead. Of course I did. By the way, pretty soon the third place guy comes and finishes right behind me. He had actually closed the gap on me like I thought he would, but we still beat him. I was very happy about that, but I learned a lot about myself during that race. When you’re out in the elements like that, you really learn a lot about yourself. Like, what do you do? Do you stop? Do you hide? Do you turn around? Do you quit? I learned not I learned a lot about myself, not just physically, mentally and emotionally. I learned that storms pop up at the most unexpected times. This was a literal storm, obviously, but there are storms in our life that’ll just pop up. Things that you don’t expect. But many times at the end of those storms life physical, emotional, mental and spiritual growth we didn’t even know we needed. In the book of John chapter six, the disciples encountered a terrible storm as they’re crossing the Sea of Galilee. They weren’t expecting it, and they were without Jesus. Jesus had sent them on. But through this event, they learned a few valuable spiritual lessons. I want to prepare you ahead of time. I got a lot of scripture in here, so we’re going to be doing a lot of reading of Scripture. It’ll be on the screen. You can look it up in in your copy of the word if you like. There’s going to be a lot of Scripture starting with this one John chapter six, verses 16 through 18. Now when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and went over the sea to Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose, because a great wind was blowing. There’s another version that says, A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn. So this scene takes place right after the feeding of the 5000 by the way. They had had that whole scene, the fishes and the loaves. Now they’re crossing the sea. Jesus has retreated to be by himself, which I’ll address in a minute. The disciples headed out across the sea without Jesus at night. This would not have been unusual for them. They were fishermen by trade. They were comfortable on the water. They were comfortable on the water at night. Fishing is sometimes better at night. So they’re familiar with that. They would be familiar with crossing this particular body of water, and they would be familiar and expecting seas to kind of be a little bit rocky. Even storms storms occur on this body of water. They would have expected that. They weren’t fishing. They were crossing the water. But regardless of their intent, they would have been confident that they could do it. It’s important to know that this is not a big body of water. The sea of Galilee at its widest point, it’s about eight miles across. So during the day you could see from one side to the other. On a clear day you could see from one side to the other. So. So it’s a body of water. It’s kind of deep, but it’s not like an ocean or a lake where you can’t see where you’re going. They’re familiar with it. So they felt confident of traveling. These these men were skilled on the water and they were without Jesus. But what could go wrong? Right. We got this. But Jesus had a different plan. Jesus was about to use the coming, unexpected storm as another miraculous faith building event for the disciples. Even though it’s a relatively small body of water, kind of ferocious storms still occur, still occur the topography of the area. There’s the the air around on the sea is kind of warm, and winds from the east blow in kind of over the hills, in the mountains. And that cooler air from the east mixes with the warm air over the sea, and it causes storms to occur, sometimes pretty ferocious storms with large swells of water there. They’re expecting that that could happen. That’s not normal, but well, that is normal. There is. There was something unusual about this particular storm, though, something that they weren’t expecting. It was different. It was harder. In fact, they panicked because it scared them. They didn’t know how to respond. They were confused. They were turned around. They didn’t know which way to go. In fact, they were basically lost in this essentially a big lake. The storm was that bad and they panicked that much. Jesus wasn’t with them physically. He had pulled away, like I said, to recover and reflect on some recent events. Like I said, the feeding of the 5000 that had just happened, that’s a pretty big event. His cousin, John the Baptist had just died. He had just found out about that. That would be cause for some reflection. The disciples had also just come back from their time being away for ministry. He had sent them out to minister. They had come back and we’re sharing stories about that. There’s a lot for Jesus that he needed to process. So he needed to be by himself. And there seems to be an understanding that Jesus would catch up. Probably on a boat the next day. Jesus would catch up to them. That was the assumption. But we see this in John chapter six, verse nine, verses 16 through 19. So when they had rode about 3 or 4 miles or about halfway across, remember it’s about eight miles across. About halfway across they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat, and they were afraid. But he said to them, it is I do not be afraid. So I want to hit on this just a little bit. There are many passages in Scripture where, where we hear that where an angel or God or Jesus or the writer is telling us to not be afraid. I want to highlight some of these, and later on I’m going to bring them back in to highlight a point. But I just wanted to mention these to you. Feel free to write these down. Sometimes life gets hard and life gets fearful. Maybe write down these scriptures so you remember them. We see in Joshua one nine. This is one of my favorite scriptures. The Lord is transferring power from the children of Israel, from the recently deceased Moses over to his second in command, Joshua. Joshua, the Lord is speaking to Joshua. He’s reminding them. He’s reminding him of this promise. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That’s not the first time Joshua and the nation of Israel at that point had heard that Moses has shared that same word from the Lord earlier in a speech. We see this in Deuteronomy 31:6. God had provided the same message of reassurance to them in this way be strong and of good courage. Do not fear, nor be afraid, for the Lord your God, He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Here are some other scriptures Isaiah 41:10– 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 uphold you with my righteous right hand. Psalm 27:1– the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? And John 16:33, this one’s pretty familiar probably– these things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble or tribulation. I like to highlight that word will– in the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. So as we continue to look at this scene on the water, I wanted to bring out a couple other versions of it because two of the other because two of the other gospels talk about this same scene, but they bring about differences, they bring about different details. And I’m going to insert those into my points here in a little bit. But let’s finish up with John chapter six, verse 21. This is the John’s narrative to sort of wrap it up. Then they willingly received him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going. Well that’s pretty cool. Well, let’s see what Mark has to say. Mark chapter six, verse 49 through 51. And when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him, and were troubled. But immediately he talked with them, and said to them, be of good cheer. It is I do not be afraid. Then he went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. There’s one more version of this in Matthew chapter 14. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, it is a ghost. Pause. Does anybody else read that like Scooby Doo, or is it just me? Right. A ghost. Anyway, and they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, be of good cheer. It is I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, saying, well, this is interesting, right? Lord? If it is you, command me to come to you on the water, how many of us would have done that? So Jesus said, come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink. He cried out, saying, Lord, save me! And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and called him and said to him, oh, you of little faith. Why did you doubt me? And when they got into that, and when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, truly you are the Son of God. We see in this scene that Jesus is who he says he is. Jesus is showing the disciples that he is who he says he is. Jesus is teaching them to look for him for help in their time of trouble. He is the Son of God, the ruler of the universe, master over all creation and their help in time of need. One of our former pastors used to say, you’re either coming out of a storm, you’re going through a storm, or you’re about to go through a storm. I’m going to talk a little bit about some storms that we go through. This was a real storm that those that the that the disciples had to navigate through. I’ve ran through a real storm that I had to figure out. But sometimes there are storms in our life that aren’t thunder and lightning, but they’re pretty ferocious. Why does God allow us to go through storms? Why can’t I mean, I’m a Christian. Why can’t God just let good things happen to me? There’s an old adage that says, smooth seas make poor sailors. President Franklin Roosevelt said a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor. Storms teach us resiliency how to push through hard times and to rely on the Lord in our times of trouble. So what will our response be when storms do come? What do you do when you don’t know what to do? Some examples. What do you do, teenagers, when you’re getting bullied at school? That’s a storm. And I know there are other teenagers probably in the room, but they’re kind of concentrated over here. So I’m going to speak to them for just a second. What do you do when you’re getting bullied at school and it happens? It probably happens to every single one of you. It happened to me. I got bullied relentlessly at school, in middle school, and high school for various things. What do you do? Let me give you some advice. Your value is not dependent upon what other people think or say about you. It doesn’t matter. Think to yourself. Is what that person saying true? Probably not. They’re just mean people. There are mean people. There are mean kids. There are mean adults. And we have a choice to make. Are we going to value what they say over what God tells us in Scripture, or are we going to trust in the promises that we are a child of God? We have a purpose and he has created us uniquely and wonderfully. That is a promise that he has for us. And let me just address this too. If you’re somebody who likes to pick on other people, stop it. Just stop it. You don’t have to. And if you see other people being picked on, step in. Not in a mean way, not in a confrontational mean, I’m going to beat you up retaliate way, but stick up for your friends that are getting picked on. Being being bullied and picked on is a big deal. And don’t let adults demean that. It is a big deal. It’s a big deal to you. Let adults know about it too, so that they can help you. And that’s a storm. That’s a real storm that these folks have to deal with almost on a daily basis. Other storms that we have to navigate. What about, what about when you don’t know how you’re going to pay your bills? You have too much month left at the end of your money. Your car needs to be repaired again. That school keeps sending your kid home. It’s a week to payday and food is running short. You get that eviction notice. What about if it’s even more serious? What if that loved one passes away? My, what if your father dies? What if your mother dies? My father used to sit right where Ms. Barbara is sitting right now. Right up there. We used to sit there for years. Every time I look up there. I think of my dad sitting right there. That’s a storm when somebody you love passes away. What do you do? What do you do when you start googling the results of the tests that you just had on MyChart, and you see scary words. The doctor says cancer. Or your spouse says it’s over. We’re done. These are real storms, real life things that we’ve got to navigate and look through. Life is full of storms. It’s always going to be that way. No one worth listening to ever promised that life would be easy, especially if you’re a Christian. But through storms, God has lessons to teach us. So here’s four lessons that he’s going to teach us through storms. One is to trust these are not on the screen. You just have to write them down or remember them. One is to trust. For one thing, remember the disciples were out on the sea on their own. But Jesus was watching. Jesus was aware of what was going on while he wasn’t present. He was watching them from a distance. He was allowing them to struggle because he had a greater plan in store for them. While it was hard and scary, he was not going to let them falter. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that Jesus knew the type of storm they were about to go in, and he let them go into it because he knew he would be with them to face it. He knew he had a lesson for them to learn at the end of it. Going back to Matthew’s account, when Peter came out, when Peter came out of the boat and started to sink. Jesus is teaching Peter and the others that even and especially during storms when it’s most difficult to trust, we need to keep our eyes and faith focused on him. So I tell our life group all the time, and they probably get tired of hearing me say this, but I think about this when I’m at work and in other situations. He has not brought me this far for me to fail. He has not brought you this far for you to fail. Or to put it another way. We didn’t come this far to only come this far. Our life won’t always be easy. There will be storms. There will be obstacles. We will stumble. We will fall. It will be hard at times. But we need to trust that there is a greater plan at work. Second point. First one was trust. Second one is surrender. We learned to submit to God’s authority that he has over the lives and circumstances surrounding us. Remember back in John it said they willingly received him into the boat and the boat was immediately where they were headed. They were rescued. They were rescued by surrendering their control over their circumstances to Jesus, and they arrived safely at the end of their journey. So we have trust and we have surrender. The next one is courage. In the book of Mark that we read, that account, we saw that he was walking on the sea. They were scared. And he says, be of good cheer. Do not be afraid. And then he went up into the boat. In their great hour of trouble, distress, and need, Jesus was showing them that they needed to have the courage to focus on him. See, when we get scared, when we get fearful, when we’re. When we’re afraid. We tend to take the focus off of the Lord and put it on our our own strength. And we can’t do anything in our own strength. We need to keep our focus on him. He is teaching them to keep your eyes on me. That great theologian, John Wayne once said, courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. I have that on a magnet in my office, by the way, at work. When faced with a tough situation like maybe I have an uncomfortable meeting I have to have with somebody, or maybe I’ve been asked to speak to a roomful of people while being live streamed over the internet. When you’re faced with a difficult situation, or when I am, I tend to tell myself this one thing. And I’ve said this to my kids on certain occasions over the years, too. What’s the worst that can happen? I’m not going to die, right? What’s the worst that could happen? Nearly everything I’ve ever been afraid of or nervous about hasn’t been nearly as awful as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it usually turns out for the better. So think about this. What if that thing you’re so worried about? What if it all works out? What if it’s actually better than you could have ever imagined? Focus on being courageous by giving your fear of tomorrow over to the Lord. In Matthew chapter six, verse 34, it says this– therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Don’t let the fear of tomorrow steal your joy from today. We have trust. We have surrender. We have courage. And the last one is storms teach us to prepare. This won’t be the last storm. Whatever storm you just came out of won’t be the last one. Whatever storm you’re about to go into, it won’t be the last one. Whatever storm you’re in right now, it won’t be the last one. That’s not very encouraging. But every storm that we go through prepares us for the next one. The Lord uses tough times to build us up, to make us stronger for his purpose. Resiliency. When the next storm comes, you, Bill, you will be ready. Remember when times get tough. He didn’t bring you this far to only bring you this far. In John 16:33, back when I read earlier these things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble, but I have overcome the world. Jesus is teaching the disciples and us that he is the one who will see us through storms. You may fall and you may stumble, and it will be hard, and you may not see a lot of good in it, but keep this in mind. Philippians one verse six says this– he who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. I’m going to wrap this up with a little story. In 1870. Most of you weren’t alive then. A wealthy Chicago real estate developer lost his four year old son to scarlet fever. That wasn’t enough. Two years later, a great fire ravaged the city of Chicago, the Windy City ravaged, and he was a real estate developer. He lost most of his investments. His personal income was devastated. So while recovering from these tragedies, in 1873, he decided to take his wife and four and four children, four girls on a trip to Europe. A much needed vacation, if you will. At the last minute, some business matters came up that he had to attend to. He couldn’t leave right then, so he said, you all go ahead without me. I’ll catch up. So his wife and four daughters start. They hop on the ship. They’re crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way that ship collides with another ship. The ship, carrying his wife and four girls sinks into the ocean. Hundreds of people die, including the four daughters. The wife is somehow saved, her and I think 27 other people are saved in the ocean. They find her clinging to a piece of the vessel she’s rescued, brought on board ship. She arrived safely to where they were headed in France. And she telegraphs her husband this message: saved alone. There was another, I read another account or two where it says. She said saved alone. What shall I do? He. He then immediately drops everything as anyone would, and starts heading across the Atlantic to be with his wife. As they’re on the ship. They start to reach the point where the accident happened. The captain knows the story, so he notifies the man. We’re approaching the area. Obviously, he was very emotional with this. They were passing over the area that his four little girls had drowned. From that tragedy he wrote soon thereafter these words– 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. There are other verses, though Satan should buffet, That trials should come. Let this blessed assurance control. That Christ has regarded my helpless estate and Hath shed his own blood for my soul. My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. And then there’s the fourth verse. Feel free to sing along. And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so it is well with my soul. And then the refrain goes. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. That song that you’ve heard your whole life came out about from that tragedy. And how many times have we sang that song? And it has ministered to us and it. And it resonates within us. Because times are tough and life is hard, and storms come and we don’t know what we’re going to do. God, it’s not fair. Why do I have to go through this? There’s lessons to be learned from that song. I hope you, when you hear that song, you maybe think about it differently with that story because out of great tragedy comes great promise and great hope. Whatever storm you’re facing, you’re not alone. In fact, often God will send someone to help support you and love you through it. Just trust that no matter the storm, God is preparing you for something greater. So have the courage to keep moving forward, trust in his promises, and surrender to his presence and purpose for your life. I’m going to wrap this up in prayer, and then John’s going to come up to close out the service. God, we thank you for the message of hope. We thank you for this message, God, that we recognize that when storms do come, great storms, literal storms, but even figurative storms that we see in our lives, God, that we would keep our focus on you. Times are tough, God, but we know that you didn’t bring us this far to only come this far. You have a greater plan and purpose at work in our lives that we can’t even understand or see. But we trust you and we give those to you right now. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.