How to Find Peace During the Storms of Life: Facing Uncertain Times

What do we do when the perfect storm comes into our life? Dr. David Jeremiah examines a perfect-storm experience from the life of Jesus that will help us understand how we can weather the storm we are facing.

Every week when I stand here in front of an empty auditorium and preach to more people than I ever have before in my life.
I’m reminded of the incredible opportunity that God has given me to share the wonderful message of the gospel with those who watch and listen.
And I just want to let you know the one thing that’s burning in my heart more than anything else is that if you are watching and you do not know Jesus Christ in a personal way before we’re finished.
Uh with our service, you will accept him and allow him to fill you with his presence and his guidance and his friendship and his salvation.
During this time, I want to talk with you in this message about The Perfect Storm.
When the Andrea Gale left Gloucester Harbor in Massachusetts on September 201991 and headed into the North Atlantic.
No one could have known that this fishing boat would never be seen again.
Only a bit of debris ever turned up and the six crew members vanished forever.
In his book, The Perfect Storm author Sebastian Junger immortalized the fate of the Andrea Gale, a film followed featuring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg.
But these stars as big as they are played, only supporting roles.
The real star of the film was the storm itself, a terrifying, relentless oppressor born of fierce winds and mountainous waves.
It was meteorologists who named this cataclysmic Tempest, the perfect storm.
It is just a way of saying worst case scenario.
In the case of the Andrea gale, it was the simultaneous convergence of the toughest weather conditions possible.
Three deadly elements came together in October of 1991.
1st of all, there was a front moving from Canada to New England and a high pressure system building over Canada’s east coast and the dying remnants of hurricane grace.
All of them churning along the eastern seaboard of the United States.
Strong weather was coming from three of the four points on the compass and all of it converging on the little Andrea Gale.
The last radio transmission of Billy Tyne, the captain of the fishing boat came at six PM on October 28, 1991.
He reported his coordinates to the captain of his sister ship, the Hannah Bowden saying she’s coming on boys and she’s coming on strong.
The popular book and the movie brought the term perfect storm into common use.
But the concept is as old as humanity.
People have always had to deal with the convergence of multiple rough circumstances today in our faster, more crowded and more complex world.
A few little squalls can quickly become the perfect storm.
And when multiple conditions converge and threaten critical areas of our lives, such as finances, relationships, jobs, and health, we question how much more we can endure.
There is really no better term available to describe what we’re going through right now.
This is the ultimate perfect storm.
We are in the midst of this storm and it’s very hard not to feel the clutches of fear that accompany us serious storms.
The fate of the Andrea Gale demonstrates two kinds of fear that we all experience.
The first is that gut level, adrenaline drenched fear that the crew felt in the midst of the storm.
They were afraid because their lives were on the line. This kind of fear is beneficial.
It’s, it’s a necessary instinct for survival.
But there’s another kind of fear that can immobilize us completely.
And that’s the fear of fear itself. Fear in the midst of the storm is instinctive and beneficial.
Fear of a storm that could happen is not, it’s like the fear educator William Hughes expressed in his poem last night, I saw upon the stair, a little man who wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there again today. Oh, how I wish he’d go away.
We need a perspective on life that takes into account the perfect storms, but also reassures us that there’s a safe harbor within reach.
That’s where Jesus Christ comes in as we follow him as we, as we become his disciples, our troubles look different in the light of his goodness and his power and his wisdom.
What do you do? What do we do when the perfect storm comes into our life?
How do we manage when the winds of ill fate blow against us here from the life of Jesus is a perfect storm experience that will help us understand how we can deal with the storm we are facing right now.
Our lesson begins with the probability of storms in our life.
And our passage is in the book of Mark and the fourth chapter when evening had come, Jesus said to them, let us cross over to the other side.
And 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.
It is evening and Jesus and his disciples are exhausted after a full day of ministry, Jesus’s decision to cross from Capper to the other side of the sea of Galilee is the only way he and his disciples can get away from the crowds.
The gospels tell us that Jesus was near exhaustion and his 12 disciples were reeling from the rigorous training he’d been giving to them.
The crowds had been overwhelming sick people craving his healing touch had flocked to Jesus on every street.
Now Jesus was speaking near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
The crowds had began to press in so hard that he was almost shoved back into the water and he climbed into a boat and pushed out a few feet and he sat down and continued teaching according to the verse verse one of Mark chapter four.
And by the time he had finished, it was evening desperately needing rest.
Jesus and the disciples simply remained in the boat and set sail for the eastern shore where Jesus was to minister.
The next day, the elements of a perfect storm were gathering.
I’ve been to Israel many times and I can tell you from my own experience that the sea of Galilee is like a bowl of water nestled nearly 700 ft below sea level mountains surround nearly every side of the sea forming a valley and gullies that set the stage for howling winds.
And when the cool air from the mountains swoops through the valleys and collides with the warm moist air hovering over the sea, violent storms can erupt in a matter of minutes.
And that’s just what happened.
Mark 437 says a great winds, storm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling the great windstorm which arose on this particular day could be described as a furious squall mark.
In his gospel uses a Greek word for the windstorm that is often translated hurricane.
And Matthew describes the storm as a great seism moss or earthquake.
Like there was an earthquake in the middle of the lake and the shaking of the winds and, and the boat, this storm was so violent that the waves were breaking over the boat in which Jesus was with his disciples and it was filling it up with water.
And while the boat was filling with water, the hearts of the disciples were also filling up with fear just as sudden storms are inevitable on the sea of Galilee.
Men and women, sudden storms can descend on our lives too. The Coronavirus is our sudden storm.
One day, the sea was calm and we awoke on the next day and we were in the biggest storm.
Any of us have ever experienced the probability of storms in our lives. Let’s notice.
2ndly, the paradox of storms in our lives, here’s an interesting thought from this story at this time in their lives, the disciples were just following Jesus wherever he went.
Yet here they are being tossed up and down by a storm and in danger of drowning, they were in the middle of God’s perfect will and they were in the middle of a perfect storm.
All at the same time, they were about to learn a priceless lesson.
And that is that storms are not always a punishment for lack of obedience.
Sometimes they are the result of obedience.
The disciples were not in the storm because they had done something wrong.
They were in the storm because they were just doing something right.
Those men were there because they had jumped in the boat when Jesus said, let’s go.
So there’s a paradox here. Well, they didn’t do anything wrong.
They’re in the midst of a storm and some people would say, how does that work?
So you see the probability of storms in our lives and the paradox of storms in our lives.
Let’s notice, third, the presence in the storms of our lives mark 4 38 says this but Jesus was in the stern asleep on a pillow and they awoke him and they said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing the disciples?
You see had yet to learn who Jesus was.
If they had realized the full power and authority that Jesus held, they would have laughed and shouted at the wind in the midst of the storm.
There was a presence. Some people believe in the power of God, but they’re not sure about the presence of God.
This was the crisis the disciples faced.
They knew that Jesus was there, but apparently they still didn’t realize that he was a God.
This meant they were unaware of God’s presence. So they didn’t know what Jesus could and would do.
They knew that God could take control over the winds and the seas, but they had not yet come to believe that Jesus was God.
Remember the 12 knew the story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.
They knew that God could take control over the winds and the seas.
But was that same God with them here? And now that was their question.
They did not yet realize that Moses God and their master were one and the same.
And they truly had Emanuel God with us in the boat where the storm had captured them.
Incidentally, this is the only time in the Bible where we are told that Jesus slept and he did it in the midst of a fierce storm.
So that night on the Sea of Galilee, an exhausted Jesus slept on a cushion in the rear of the boat with the waves crashing all about him and his disciples in despair for their lives.
So we have the probability of storms in our lives and the paradox of storms in our lives and the presence in the storms of our lives.
And now we come to the peace in the storms of our lives.
Verse 39 says, this Jesus arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace be still and the wind ceased.
And there was a great calm mark tells us that Jesus rebuked the wind just as a parent would rebuke an unruly child.
He dealt with demons in the same way when he rebuked them and the wind obeyed him just as the demons did.
This incredible display of miraculous power should have quelled any remaining doubts in the minds of disciples as to who Jesus was.
I mean, the Old Testament tells us that only God has power over nature.
Psalm 89 verse nine says, you rule the wa raging of the sea when its waves rise, you still them.
Psalm 107. And verse 29 says, he calms the storm so did its waves are still.
And that’s what Jesus did in this storm.
He he first brought peace to the circumstances around his disciples before he calmed their hearts.
There was a calm around the disciples before there was a stillness inside the disciples.
Aren’t you thankful for the moments when he stills the storm and chaos around you while your emotions are running high.
Our loving heavenly father is kind and patient with us when the storms of life overwhelm us and fill us with anxiety.
We’ve experienced some of that in recent days. He’s gracious to show us his power.
Even when we are beginning to wonder if he’s asleep or absent, even when our cries to him for help are permeated with doubt, but we can face whatever circumstances await us with courage.
If we just reflect on his faithfulness and place our confidence in his great power and loving purpose for our lives.
Remember men and women that peace is not the absence of stress. Peace is the presence of the savior.
So you have the probability of storms in your life and the paradox of storms in your life and the presence of storms in your life and the peace in the storms in your life.
But let’s notice number five, the purpose of storms in our lives.
And let’s ask the question that’s in the back of many of our minds.
Did Jesus bring about this storm just so he could calm it and build his disciples. Faith?
No, no, he didn’t do that.
He had no need to create new storms to demonstrate his true nature because this fallen world stirs up enough storms without him having to do it specially, he builds our faith by using the storms that are already there.
So I see no reason to believe that Jesus went to sleep for any other purpose than catch some much needed rest.
Yet he was quick to use the storm, wasn’t he?
As a teachable moment, the storm brought him their full attention even as the coronavirus has brought us to attention and the lesson would never be forgotten by those disciples.
As I hope it will not soon be forgotten by us since we are human beings.
I think I’m safe in saying that we have no shortage of storms in our lives, not just the storm, the big one that we’re going through now, but we live in a fallen world and trouble of some kind is woven into the fabric of life until these storms hit.
We live with the delusions of adequacy.
But storms cut us down to size and cause us to fear what we cannot control.
And although God does not create the storm in our life, he uses the churning seas to demonstrate his power and strengthen our faith in Him.
I’m a real fan of CS Lewis.
He has a way of saying things that really help me understand and this is what he said.
He said, God, who has made us knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him.
Yet we will not seek it in Him.
As long as He leaves us any other resort where it can even plausibly be looked for while what we call our own life remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him.
What then can God do in our interests?
But make our own life less agreeable to us and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?
I have to honestly tell you that what’s going on for many of us now is we’re sequestered and can’t go anywhere and do what we normally do.
We have found our life less agreeable, have we not?
But if we pause for a moment and take a step back, if we examine what’s really going on, we will discover what David the psalmist discovered.
And that’s the value of the storms.
God allows in Psalm 100 19 and verse 67 David said it this way before I was afflicted.
I went astray. But now I keep your word once again.
In Psalm, 100 19 verse 71 it is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
David said, God used the afflictions, the storms in my life to bring me back to a relationship with Him.
He said before this happened, I was going astray and maybe some of you would have to say the same thing.
You know, it’s so easy to get comfortable with our faith and then allow our faith to be pushed to the circumference of life.
We go on with the busyness of our work and our family and our enjoyments and our sports and all the things that are a part of us.
And all of a sudden, the God who desires to be the center of our life is barely on the circumference of our life.
And like David, we’ll go through something like this.
And if we’re careful, if we listen to our heart, if we’re sensitive to what God is doing, we’ll discover what David discovered before the storm, we went astray.
But now we have come back to fellowship with God. I hope that is true for many of you.
I’ve heard from some of you that that is what’s happening.
So Jesus allowed the winds to rage in order that his disciples would learn to trust him and through the storms of life, our Lord teaches us many precious lessons.
He reminds us of our own human emptiness, our own total dependence upon Him.
He teaches us to fear God with astonished reverence, not to fear the storms.
We’re almost finished, but there’s still a couple of points left. The probability of storms in our lives.
The paradox of storms in our lives, the presence in the storms of our lives, the peace in the storms of our lives, the purpose of storms in our lives and the product of storms in our lives.
Once again, mark chapter four and verse 40 Jesus 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?
Now please notice Jesus was a lot gentler with the disciples than he was with the wind.
When he rebuked the wind, he only asked his disciples two questions. Why are you so fearful?
And how is it that you have no faith with these questions?
Jesus reveals a spiritual truth and that is that the opposite of faith is not unbelief.
The opposite of faith is fear. Belief breeds confidence.
While unbelief breeds fear, essentially, Jesus was saying, why are you afraid?
Do you not yet trust God whose power is present in me?
In the book of First Kings, tells us about the prophet Elijah who challenged the prophets of bail to a duel of faith.
On top of Mount Carmel from morning until noon.
The prophets of bail called upon their God to send down fire and consume the sacrifice on the altar.
But nothing happened. Not even a flicker and Elijah mocked them with stinging sarcasm.
In first kings 18 27 he says this cry aloud for he is a God, either he is meditating or he is busy or he’s on a journey or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.
The disciples apparently assumed that Jesus was just as indifferent to their plight. So they cried teacher.
Do you not care that we are perishing Elijah’s suggestion that bail might have been asleep is precisely the complaint.
The disciples leveled at Jesus. You’re sleeping and we’re drowning. Please wake up.
But there’s a specific fear that may be claiming your attention.
Whatever that fear is, it will only be amplified by failure to trust in God. He is not sleeping.
He is here. He knows every thought in your mind and in mind, every feeling in our hearts.
And when I stare with fear at the dark skies, he focuses on the person.
He is forming me to be. He sees those storms as growing pains, part of the formation process.
He knows that a storm may be the very thing that awakens me to deep faith in Him.
And what really intrigues me about this account is that Jesus replaced the disciples fear with more fear after staring in awe at the suddenly calm and winless sea.
The Bible says, they feared exceedingly and they said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Several Bible translations say they were terrified.
They suddenly realized they were in the presence of a power they had never imagined could be any person and the power was mightier than the violence of a stormy sea.
Matthew tells us that in their awe, they asked, what kind of man is this? Not?
What kind of God is this? They were still focused on his humanity.
And although they were beginning to realize that he was something more than mere flesh and blood, it never entered their heads that Jesus actually created the sea of Galilee and that the wind and waters were his, the disciples no longer worried about drowning.
Now, they were in awe of Jesus and they felt a new sense of security in him, debilitating fears were being replaced with the empowering fear of God whom they dimly began to realize was with them in the presence of Jesus, the proba probability of storms, the paradox of storms, the presence of the storms, the peace in the storm, the purpose of the storm, the product of the storm and the promises for the storms in our lives.
As we review this story, which is familiar to most of us, if we’re readers of the Bible, we know the story, we know the story of Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat.
But here are some takeaways from this story that are meant to help you and me as we negotiate our stormy time right now.
First of all, God’s word alerts us to expect stormy seas, men and women.
The New Testament is salted with warnings about the stormy seas we face as followers of Jesus Christ.
James writes in his book, My brethren. Count it all joy.
When you fall into various trials, Peter writes in his book, beloved, do not think it’s strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
Jesus gave us the key to surviving storms in his story about two houses.
Do you remember that one built on the sand and the other on the rock?
The sand represents the shallow shifting and unreliable values of worldly culture and the rock represents the unshakable truth of God as the storm rages the first house quickly topples into the sand and washes out to sea and the other stands firm withstanding the force of the most violent winds in decades of ministry.
I have often seen the truth of this parable vividly demonstrated people who place their trust in God withstand every storm because they have built their lives on the only foundation that cannot be moved and people who do not do that crumble when the storms come, let me just tell you, you shouldn’t be surprised when storms come into your life because God told us it would happen.
His word alerts us to expect storm. He sees. Secondly, God’s word announces that the savior is on board.
The disciples were too inexperienced with Jesus to have a faith devoid of fear.
Perhaps you’re the same way you identify with Christ, but you draw no assurance as the clouds roll in and as the storm, the Coronavirus storm continues.
When the sky darkens, you might wonder whether you should step into the boat with Jesus or stay ashore in hopes of avoiding the storm.
The problem with that choice is that it’s a false one.
You can’t run, you can’t hide, the storms will find you.
You don’t get to decide whether the rain is coming.
You only get to decide whether to carry an umbrella, but he is sleeping.
You say he doesn’t care, don’t let his seeming silence lead you to conclude that he isn’t with you.
Jesus says in hebrews 135, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
And in Matthew 28, he says low, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Those are promises and he has yet to break a promise that he will be with you is the most certain fact of your life.
What’s uncertain is your grasp of that fact. And your ability to trust and build your house upon that truth.
It’s the only storm proof foundation in existence and sometimes the rains will pound hard to drown out all other voices and we struggle to hear Christ, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t calming the storm.
The storms pass as they did for these two Christians.
And we hear the voice of God once again, this time through a new wisdom tempered by our struggles.
And we realize that he was there all the time. God’s word alerts us to expect stormy seas.
And God’s word announces that the Savior is on board. And God’s word affirms that faith drives out fear.
When the terrified disciples awoke Jesus in the midst of the storm, he asked two critical questions.
He said, why are you so fearful? And how is it? You have no faith.
And when the disciples stepped into the boat, they didn’t trust in Jesus so that their fear escalated to terror when the storm came.
But when Jesus awoke and calmed the storm, the dawning realization of who he really was ratcheted their faith to a whole new level.
Later, we learned that they became utterly fearless, proclaiming the truth of the kingdom in the face of all kinds of storms.
Had they possessed mature faith that day in the boat, they could have curled up a nap with Jesus with no regard of the storm raging about them.
They needed to understand that fear is dispelled only by faith.
And then God’s word alerts us to expect storms.
God’s word announces that the savior is on board and God’s word affirms that faith drives out fear.
And number four, God’s word assures us of a safe landing.
Notice what Jesus said to the disciples as they began their journey.
And mark 4 35 he said on the same day when evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side.
Now consider what the text says about the end of the journey.
Mark chapter five and verse one says, and they came to the other side of the sea to the country of the gatherings.
God’s word assures us of a safe landing. We will make it to the other side.
Jesus had said, let us cross over to the other side and Jesus names the destination.
It was certain they would reach it. Could there be a storm?
Certainly would it be comfortable always on the voyage? No assurance of that.
The disciples could have worried about ceasing us, but they didn’t need to worry about drowning because Jesus had told them where they were going.
Will there be storms along the journey? Certainly will our voyage be comfortable?
We’re learning right now that it’s not comfortable the time.
No assurance that we will ever have a completely comfortable life. We might have to worry about sea sickness.
But what I’m here to tell you is you don’t need to worry about drowning.
We will get through the storms in our lives and we will arrive where Jesus is taking us.
Let me say it again. If Jesus says, we’re going to the other side, we’re going to the other side, our Lord is with us and we will not be abandoned by him in our time of need.
So as we wrap all of this up here is the key question that I alluded to at the beginning is Jesus in your boat or better yet?
Is Jesus in your heart? And in your life, the disciples wouldn’t have made it without the presence of Jesus.
And I’m pretty convinced that we’re not gonna make it.
You’re not gonna make it with victory without Jesus in your life. The storm was meant to get your attention.
This storm we’re in was meant to help you understand how desperately you need God because only God is, is worthy of trust in such an untrust time.
So let me ask you again. Is, is Jesus in your boat? Is he in your heart?
Have you ever accepted him as your personal savior? And I wanna ask you right now to do that.
If you’ve never done it before, I want to ask you to invite Jesus Christ into your life, into your storms, into the troubles that you are going through right now into all of your questions and wondering about jobs and money and, and food and all of the rest of it.
Invite Jesus Christ into the middle of it, invite him into your heart. And here’s how you do that.
You pray a prayer and through that prayer, you make that invitation. So let me lead you in that prayer.
Let me help you pray that prayer, pray this prayer after me, dear God.
I need your presence in my life.
I need your son Jesus Christ, as my savior and Lord in the midst of all of this confusion in the midst of the fear, in the midst of the wondering about the future at this moment in time in my life, I invite Jesus Christ to be the captain of my soul.
I invite him to come into my life and take his position on the throne of my life.
Be my Lord and Savior, Lord Jesus, come into my heart, come into my life, make me a new person, make me a new creature, forgive me of my sin and I will seek to serve you going forward and father, I want to thank you that wherever that prayer is prayed, you have heard it and answered it because in your book, you say you’re not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Thank you for those who prayed this prayer.
Give them the courage to follow through on what they have done that this won’t be a whim or a moment or an emotional response.
But a deep seated decision that will change their lives forever and will give you the praise for what you’re going to do in each heart today.
And I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
And if you made that decision to put your trust in Christ, for many of you, as you’re watching, uh on the internet, uh on your computer, there’s a place on the screen where you can check that you have made the decision to put your trust in Christ.
Please check that. And if you will give us information, we will send you some material that will help you grow.
We have a little booklet called Your Greatest Turning point that outlines some steps that you can take that will help you grow in your relationship with Christ.
The booklet is absolutely free and all you have to do is ask for it and we’ll send it to you.
My prayer is for you that you will trust in God in the midst of this storm and find what we always find that He is sufficient that He loves us and he loves us with an incredible love and he will see us through men and women.
We’re going to get through this storm. We’ll get through it together, we’ll get through it with God.