Storms in a life journey with Jesus

하나님은 우리의 피난처시요 힘이시니 환난 중에 만날 큰 도움이시라 ² 그러므로 땅이 변하든지 산이 흔들려 바다 가운데 빠지든지 ³ 바닷물이 흉용하고 뛰놀든지 그것이 넘침으로 산이 요동할찌라도 우리는 두려워 아니하리로다(셀라). God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ² Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, ³ though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah (Ps. 46:1-3).

²³ 배에 오르시매 제자들이 좇았더니 ²⁴ 바다에 큰 놀이 일어나 물결이 배에 덮이게 되었으되 예수는 주무시는지라

 ²⁵ 그 제자들이 나아와 깨우며 가로되 주여 구원하소서 우리가 죽겠나이다 ²⁶ 예수께서 이르시되 어찌하여 무서워하느냐 믿음이 적은 자들아 하시고 곧 일어나사 바람과 바다를 꾸짖으신대 아주 잔잔하게 되거늘 ²⁷ 그 사람들이 기이히 여겨 가로되 이 어떠한 사람이기에 바람과 바다도 순종하는고 하더라. ²³ And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. ²⁴ And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. ²⁵ And they went and woke him, saying, "Save us, Lord; we are perishing." ²⁶ And he said to them, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. ²⁷ And the men marveled, saying, "What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?" (Matt. 8:23-27)

FCF: We tend to fear death amid storms in a life journey with Jesus.

주제: 예수님은 만물의 통치자이기에 인생의 풍랑에 중에도 예수님을 의지해야 합니다.                               

Theme: Because Jesus is the Ruler of all things, we must trust Him in the face of storms in life.

Introduction: We are often fascinated with adventure stories. There are different genres of movies such as action, romance, suspense, gang movie, horror, science fiction, war, true stories, or adventures. My favorite is an adventure type of movie, maybe because there are a lot of unexpected turns of events or phenomena, or beautiful scenes in such movies. I travel along with the protagonist in the movie. I feel like I were his companion watching the scenery, suffering pains, enjoying challenges, and growing mature. In such stories, the major characters grow more confident, wiser, and more mature through their perilous journeys. I think their adventures are a lot similar to the stories of our life journeys. At first, they set out their journey in peace. But soon they get into an unexpected difficulty out of which they struggle to overome. One of the challenges waiting for them is often depicted as natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, or earthquakes.

If you have seen the Lord of the Rings, Hobbits, Everest, or Himalayas, you will understand what I am talking about. The main characters climb high mountains, walk on a very narrow path on the cliff, and face a gigantic snow blizzard. Some fall off the cliff; others give up and choose to come back down. But the main characters keep climbing up until they reach the peak and enjoy a sense of fulfillment, watching the opulent scenery from the top of the mountain. If they have not encountered dangers and challenges on the way, they could easily reach their destinations. But since they have undergone them, their sense of victory or fulfillment is much greater. In much the same way, we do go through perils in life that we have not anticipated. Like Hurricane Ian which devastated Florida and some parts in the Carolinas, gigantic storms in life once in a while visit us and throw us into panic. We do not know what to do against them. We try to figure out why these storms are badly buffeting us. We try to summon every pound of strength to sustain or survive such dreadful winds and waves. Through them, we eventually grow stronger and firmer.

Let’s see we are not alone that encounter such storms. The Bible tells us about a lot of such stories of real people. I would like to introduce a group of people who faced one devilish storm in the Sea of Galilee. They took a life journey of faith with the Lord Jesus Christ. Hours ago, they experienced fascinating healing miracles that the Lord performed, and learned great teachings from Him. Their memory of Jesus’ authority over diseases and evil spirits was fresh. They had to move on to the other side of Galilee by boat. Since most of the apostles were fishermen by trade, it seemed they knew the ecology and weather of the Sea of Galilee and they were able to reach their destination. But they encountered a giant squall and were about to perish. They were in fear of imminent death. All their efforts seemed not to be working. They were exhausted. Now, what would they do to save themselves from this life-threatening gust? Deliverance came not from them, but from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord calmed down the raging sea and violent winds and brought them safely to their destination.

This story is didactic in that it teaches who we are and who Jesus is. We learn from the story that Jesus has authority over the natural world. Because He is the Ruler of all, He can quell storms in our lives. Thus, we must trust Him in the face of storms in life. God may bring us storms with the purpose of teaching us about Christ and man and increasing our faith. We will look into what we learn from storms in a life journey with Jesus: 1) Storms in life reveal our limitations, 2) Storms in life reveal Jesus’ sovereignty, and 3) Storms in life offer us an opportunity to practice faith. Let’s get into the first point today.     

      I.         인생의 풍랑은 우리의 한계를 드러낸다.

Storms in life reveal our limitations.

Storms in life reveal our finitude. Before they hit us hard, we feel as if we are sufficient and able to do whatever we plan on. However, storms in life may completely shake us up from the rock bottom. Before we encounter such violent winds and breaking waters in life, we often rely on our mental acumen, physical strength, or spiritual stability. However, storms in life expose how limited and finite we are in every aspect. Let’s see how finite we are and what we can realize about our limitations through storms in life.

Through storms in life, first, we can come to realize we are limited in knowing our future. By studying current events or situations, we may guess or predict something may come in our way. But we can’t perfectly know what our future holds. We certainly do not know what awaits us five minutes later. In fact, we may get involved in a car accident on the way to school or work. Unfortunately, none of those who died because of Hurricane Ian expected or predicted they would die during the storm surges. We didn’t have any impact of the storm in our areas though we heard of a possible storm damage through the weather forecast. The weather forecast was wrong about our area. There was a severe warning. But, we didn’t have any issue caused by the hurricane. We are so finite about predicting our future. If we have ability to predict our future with accuracy so that we can translate it to making a fortune out of stocks, we will be sought by a great crowd who wish to ask us about what to buy and what to sell in the stock markets. We want to know about our future. But it is hidden from us. Some visit fortune-tellers to have some ideas about their uncertain future. They try to buy a foreknowledge about their future from unreliable spiritual mediums. Again, we are so limited in knowing what our future holds.

The apostles, though they were so close to Jesus Christ, knew nothing about the imminent storm in the Sea of Galilee. The majority of the apostles were fishermen who well knew the Sea of Galilee. But none of them were expecting they would be thrown into a violent storm during the night. None of them had any inkling that they would suffer a dreadful storm in the lake. As fishermen, they must have experienced such storms in the past. They may have known of symptoms of storms brewing in the region. But on that night, they were completely unaware that they would be buffeted by that killer storm. Also, none of them knew how they would be rescued or what the Lord would do for them. Today, we have no such problem because we can watch a weather forecast which will tells us about a coming storm. At any rate, the disciples had limitations about guessing a night weather even though they had so much experience of fishing in the Sea of Galilee. This fact reveals their limitation of knowing, or foreseeing their immediate future.

Of course, we are no different from these apostles. If we know when storms in life would come upon us, we will prepare ourselves for them. But in many cases, we are totally unprepared. So, we suffer more damages. None of you students knew you would be worshiping here with us in this church a few years ago. Some of you didn’t expect that you would come to study at BJU. We do not know what good or bad things may befall us. None of homeless people knew that they would end up in streets. I didn’t know I would be a diabetic. I didn’t know I would be a pastor. In fact, I knew not that I would plant a church in Greenville. I knew not that I would suffer diabetic comas numerous times. Three years ago, none of us knew about the coming corona virus pandemic. None of us knew this giant hurricane Ian would kill so many people and cause so much damage. Even though our weather forecasters warned us about it, none of us precisely knew what havoc it would cause. This fact confirms our finitude. For this reason, we are to rely on the Lord Jesus who knows everything about us, our past, present, and future, and has the best in store for His people. Even though we know not about what kind of a storm in life we will face or about how the Lord will rescue us from it, we must simply trust the Lord who knows our problem and its solution. He is the Lord of all to whom we can commit all of our concerns and matters.

Second, we can come to realize we are limited in our power and wisdom when we meet with storms in life. When we are young, we feel as if we could do anything or overcome any foe. But real storms in life expose our inability. Just as hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans so hard that the seemingly invincible levees were broken, as strong winds and waves immobilize our entire defense system. People in Florida prepared themselves against Hurricane Ian. They were unable to win against this storm. Some of their homes were destroyed. Trees were unrooted. Streets were flooded. Roofs were blown off. Millions were without power. Some people were defenseless before this storm. Of course, the apostles were powerless against the violent winds and the raging sea though they were experts at sea. They held firmly oars to move forward. They kept trying against high waves. But their small arms, oars, and boats were no match with the fury of the nature’s force. During those 10-hour struggles of life and death, they were able to move only three and a half miles. They soaked with freezing water. They couldn’t see what was ahead because it was too dark. They continuously encouraged one another not to stop oaring. But their hands were blistered and bloodied. Their minds were filled with despair. Their entire bodies were shuddering with exhaustion. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t see any hope of survival. They were ready to give up at any moment.

This is what we see when we are hard hit by hurricanes in life. Surely, there are some easy winds and waves we can handle with our own strength. But, there are also a lot of storms that could completely shatter us into pieces. When we are severely struck by them, we really come to see how limited we are in strength. All our knowledge comes to nothing to defeat them. Have you ever experienced something you couldn’t handle with your wisdom and power? Something that exposed your finiteness, powerlessness, rock bottom? Something that brought you to your wit’s end? For me, diabetes hit me so hard at first that I thought I would die soon. Ever since I came to believe in Christ as my Savior and Lord, I have gone through a lot of storms in life that shook me up, so that I had no desire to live on. Even Paul confessed he lost every hope of life when he was hit so hard by hardship. Listen to what he said: ⁸ 형제들아 우리가 아시아에서 당한 환난을 너희가 알지 못하기를 원치 아니하노니 힘에 지나도록 심한 고생을 받아 살 소망까지 끊어지고 ⁹ 우리 마음에 사형 선고를 받은 줄 알았으니 이는 우리로 자기를 의뢰하지 말고 오직 죽은 자를 다시 살리시는 하나님만 의뢰하게 하심이라. ⁸ For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. (2 Cor. 1:8-9). Regardless of how or what we are, we will face unknown storms in life that go beyond our strength. For this reason, we must trust the Lord Jesus who is so powerful that He can calm down all storms in life we encounter unexpectedly. Let’s trust Him who is in control over all things.

When we realize how impotent we are before great storms in life, thirdly, we really come to see what is within us. Before we are beaten down by them, we look normal, strong, or able, on the surface. However, storms in life expose what we are. In particular, they expose our inside. What we are is what we have in our hearts. In good times, we don’t give thoughts to what we have in our hearts. But in perilous times, we really come to see what we are because we see our hidden inside face to face. First, we see fear in our hearts. The first thought hitting hard on our hearts is dread of death. In peaceful days, we don’t think of death. We feel as if we would live here on earth forever. However, when treacherous storms in life such as terminal diseases, financial collapses, relational break-downs, and so on, unexpectedly fall prey upon us, we come to realize how fragile and how fleeting our existence is. All of a sudden, we may be paralyzed by fear of death. The apostles were gripped with fear of death. When they heard the devilish bellow of the storm, saw the high waves swamp upon them, and felt the deathly chills of the waters flooding in the boat, they were totally overwhelmed with a specter of death hovering over their souls. In such a dark, chilly, desperate situation, they couldn’t get over a dread of death down in their wearied souls. 

We are no different from the fear-stricken apostles. In such a situation, we often feel the same fear and desperation in our souls. We try our best but see no help coming soon. We are deeply swamped in a sea of hopelessness and helplessness. Despair prevails in our hearts. Then, we really come to see misery or distress in life. When we really feel miserable through storms in life, we naturally cry out for help. In addition, Christians come to find lack of faith in their souls through storms in life. They know they have a saving faith in Christ. They often declare they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. But when they are really hit by storms in life, they come to see how small their faith is. Notice what the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, "Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?" The greater a storm is, the lesser our faith is, we soon come to realize.

If we study the signs Jesus performed, written in the book of John and witnessed by the apostles, we can see how easily we are overcome by fear of death. The apostles, who witnessed Jesus turned water into wine, healed a nobleman’s son by word, restored an invalid who had been crippled for thirty-eight years, and fed tens of thousands of people with five loaves of bread and two fish, were doubtful of the Lord’s presence and power, when they were distracted by the apparition of death and surging waters of the sea. Even Peter, who just walked on the water according to the Lord’s command, wavered in faith when he saw the killer wind and wave and got afraid of drowning. The apostles were no different from us until they witnessed the risen Christ. All of them ran away for life because they were afraid of arrest and execution for following Jesus. Only one of the two criminals, who was crucified along with Jesus, overcame fear of death and eternal judgment on the cross by asking the crucified Lord to remember him when He came in His kingdom (Lk. 23:42). Faith in Christ and His kingdom is the key to overcoming fear of God. 

Honestly speaking, we are no better than these great apostles. Storms in life test how small our faith is and whether our faith is genuine or not. In most cases, they expose littleness of our faith. The opposite of faith is fear, not doubt in most cases. Lack of faith causes us fear. Satan uses fear of death to paralyze our faith. The following story illustrates the power of fear. Black Bart was a professional thief whose very name struck fear as he terrorized the Wells Fargo stage line. From San Francisco to New York, his name became synonymous with the danger of the frontier. Between 1875 and 1883 he robbed 29 different stagecoach crews. Amazingly, Bart did it all without firing a shot. Because a hood hid his face, no victim ever saw his face. He never took a hostage and was never trailed by a sheriff. Instead, Black Bart used fear to paralyze his victims. His sinister presence was enough to overwhelm the toughest stagecoach guard. A way to defeat fear of death is faith in Christ and heaven. The author of Hebrews says, 자녀들은 혈육에 함께 속하였으매 그도 또한 한 모양으로 혈육에 함께 속하심은 사망으로 말미암아 사망의 세력을 잡은 자 곧 마귀를 없이 하시며 ¹⁵ 또 죽기를 무서워하므로 일생에 매여 종노릇하는 모든 자들을 놓아 주려 하심이니.¹⁴ Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (Heb. 2:14-15). Christ destroyed death through His death. We are to trust Christ in the face of fear of death.

Let’s deal with the question “In what sense can storms in life be profitable to us?”  When we see our limits or inadequacies, we realize what we are, that is, how fragile we are and how small our faith is. When we face the gigantic full force of nature, we see how finite, small, or little we are. In other words, we come to see we are not gods. We are creatures of God. It means we are to exist in dependence on God and we owe worship to our Creator. Matthew records another storm episode that tells us the apostles worshiped Jesus as the Son of God. Matt. 14: 33 puts it this way: 배에 있는 사람들이 예수께 절하며 가로되 진실로 하나님의 아들이로소이다 하더라. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." When we are devastated by storms in life, we will not dare to make ourselves gods.

When we really realize how small we are, we will learn to be humble. True humility leads to true greatness. The Lord said of Himself, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” He was the greatest Person, who was the humblest Person. His exaltation came through His condescension. We can truly learn humility, not through exaltation, but through storms in life. When storms in life make us scared of death, we will become humble. When we really see littleness of our power, wisdom, and faith, we will not brag about ourselves. When we face fear of death in the recesses of our souls, we will cry out for help. When we realize we can’t rely on our faith, we will truly rely on the God of our faith. We come to learn true humility before powerful storms in life by sensing our fundamental weakness and frailty.

With humility, we learn to be wise. True humility leads us to true wisdom. In fact, humility is an essential component of wisdom. Proverbs 15:33 says: 여호와를 경외하는 것은 지혜의 훈계라 겸손은 존귀의 앞잡이니라. “The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor.” Pride is the essence of sin. Lucifer fell because of pride. Adam fell because of pride. They tried to compete with God. Pride is in our hearts. Our pride will not be broken by prosperity. But it will be brought low by adversity. We must pay heed to the following word: 사람의 마음의 교만은 멸망의 선봉이요 겸손은 존귀의 앞잡이니라. Before destruction a man's heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor (Prov. 18:12). The humble are wise and ready to receive God’s grace. 1 Peter 5:5 says, 하나님이 교만한 자를 대적하시되 겸손한 자들에게는 은혜를 주시느니라. "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." True humility leads us to true reliance on God. With God’s grace, we come to realize how inadequate we are and how sufficient Christ is, so that we can put trust in Him alone.

Conclusion: We have seen ourselves in the fear-gripped struggling apostles for life in the midst of a storm. Now, let’s turn to see how Jesus is like in the midst of a storm. As I said earlier, storms in life reveal not only our limitations, but also they reveal who Jesus is and what He can do for us, which we will discuss next Lord’s Day. As in the story, storms in life pass eventually at the Lord’s command. This is what we know. Though we may feel as if a few seconds of pain were eternity, they shall pass. Storms in life are helpful for us to realize our inadequacy and the Lord’s sufficiency. They reveal how weak we are and how great Jesus is. They challenge us to walk by faith. In his book Your Father Loves You, J. I. Packer wrote the following: 하나님께서 죄인들을 자신에게로 점점 더 가까이 이끄시는 것이 바로 은혜이다. 하나님은 어떻게 이러한 목적을 은혜로 이루시는가? 그것은 우리를 일이나, 육신이나, 마귀의 공격에서 막아주시므로가 아니다. 버겁고 절망적인 환경에서 우리를 보호하시므로도 아니다. 우리 자신의 기질이나 마음 상태로 인해 빗어진 문제들로부터 우리를 막아주시므로도 아니다. 오히려 이러한 것들에 우리를 노출시키므로 우리 자신의 부족함에 압도당하게 하시고 하나님을 더욱 더 붙잡도록 이끄시는 것이다. 우리의 관점에서 볼 때 하나님께서 우리의 삶을 여러 종류의 문제와 당혹스러운 일들로 채우시는 것은 바로 이런 연유에서 이다. 그것은 우리가 하나님을 꼭 붙드는 것을  확실히 배우도록 하기 위함이다. 성경이 많은 부분에서 반복해서 하나님이 연약한 자들을 위한 강한 반석이요, 견고한 방패요, 확실한 피난처요 도움이시라고 말씀하시는 이유는 하나님께서 많은 시간을 할애하여 우리가 도덕적으로 혹은 정신적으로 얼마나 연약한지 그리하여 우리가 바른 길을 찾아 따라가는데 스스로를 의지하지 말아야 함을 보여주시려는 것이다. 우리가 기분 좋게 깨끗한 길을 따라 걸어갈 때 누군가 우리를 도우려고 팔을 잡으면 우리는 곧 그의 손을 떨쳐 버릴 것이다. 그러나 어둡고 험한 산골에서 폭풍에 갇혀 기진할 때 누군가 우리를 도와 팔을 잡아 준다면 우리는 고맙게 그에게 기댈 것이다. 하나님은 우리로 인생길이 험하고 당혹스럽게 느끼도록 하여 우리로 그분을 감사함으로 의지함을 배우길 원하신다. 그러므로 하나님은 우리가 스스로를 의지하지 않고 그분을 의지하도록 필요한 조치들을 취하신다. 경건한 자의 삶의 비밀을 성경적으로 표현하면 “주님을 기다리라”이다. Grace is God drawing sinners closer and closer to him. How does God in grace prosecute this purpose? Not by shielding us from assault by the work, the flesh, and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstance, not yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology, but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another -- it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much of his time showing us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find or follow the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, likely we would impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm brewing and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we would thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn to lean on him thankfully. Therefore, he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself, to -- in the classic scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly man's life -- "wait on the Lord." Let’s wait on the good and faithful Lord coming through storms to rescue us. Let’s fall prostrate before Jesus who is sovereign over all in life as we step out in faith through storms in life. Let’s worship Him as our Savior and Lord.

Benediction: ²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. 능히 너희를 보호하사 거침이 없게 하시고 너희로 그 영광 앞에 흠이 없이 즐거움으로 서게 하실자 ²⁵ 곧 우리 구주 홀로 하나이신 하나님께 우리 주 예수 그리스도로 말미암아 영광과 위엄과 권력과 권세가 만고 전부터 이제와 세세에 있을지어다 아멘 (Jud 1:24-25)