Many of you are going through storms
Maybe a storm on your job
Storm in your marriage. Storm with your kids. Storm with your parents. Storm with your physical being storm with your finances
Storms that we don't invite. Storms that come from people we think that love us
Storms that come from seemingly nowhere, but there they are
So what do you do when everything you trusted in collapses in a storm?
How do you prepare for a sudden change in your life? And how do you recover when life hits you on the blind side?
And some of you know what that feels like
What do you do after a lifetime of hard work and dedication and commitment and loyalty
How do you change your vocational skills suddenly when they release you from your job?
When all your skills that you learn they don't need anymore
What do you do when the rug is pulled out from under you as we all know is happening to so many people
How do you face the family you once left behind?
To go back home because you couldn't pay the rent or the mortgage and you have to go live with your parents again
The storm has many origins the answer is only one
You can't bring anything to God that's too big for him
You cannot
You can't bring anything to God that's too heavy for him. He can handle it
You can't bring anything to God for which he does not have a perfect answer every single time
He will make your way clear
He will give you a sense of confidence and boldness and assurance that you can stand anything
That comes your way
And sometimes God allows very difficult situations in life to do what to grow us up
And I think that if God allows a storm in your life that is ultimate purpose is to bring you out stronger
A storm this kind of trial
Is an unexpected circumstance
That invades your life
Where you don't know if you're going to make it or not, let me tell you something else about a storm
A storm is always designed
To increase your faith and give you a deeper experience with your God
Storms aren't pleasant. They aren't comfortable and sometimes they can be life-threatening
But they always come with a purpose. A storm in your life can destroy you
Or it can develop you, it can build your strength, your wisdom, your knowledge, your understanding
Your commitment, your devotion, your faith, your serenity, your peace, your joy in your life that is
Some storms when God gets through working them into our life. We're just so much better off. We're cleaner
We are purer there's more peace. There's more joy because you know, you're in the center of the will of God
So sometimes they develop us. Sometimes they destroy us
He doesn't want a storm to destroy us and the truth is only
When we allow satan to get a grip on us in the times of difficulty
Will it happen all kinds of storms come and they come in different seasons in life. But what I like about life
Is God says that as long as the earth endures
There'll be seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and there'll be day and night
And these will never cease God says as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest time
There will be some dark nights, but there will be days coming afterwards. There will be winter
It'll be cold. But I promise you he says there will be summer
Some of you in the season of plenty right now
others broke
But let me tell you something about seasons if you broke now, I guarantee you can't be broke forever
In other words seasons are controlled by God
That makes me very comfortable
Because whether it is raining or sunshine God is in control
Ecclesiastes 3 says to everything there is a season unto every purpose there is only a
Time under heaven in other words, everything is seasonal. That means that no matter what you go through it cannot last
Seasons are important because
seasons guarantee change seasons give hope
Nothing remains the same in a season. Seasons are always temporary and the key to life is
outlasting the season
In other words seasons are always moving and never respond permanently to a temporary problem
This is very important because when you are in a dark moment, sometimes you think that that's a permanent address
But never make a permanent decision
To try and solve a temporary problem
This is what happens in divorce many times in in a marriage you go through a very tough moment. I mean hell on earth
And believe me you got a choice
Am I going to make a permanent decision at this point?
Or am I going to outlast this season and and make it through this dark moment?
It happens with friendships and happens with even jobs. It happens with business. Sometimes you want to quit the business life is so tough
But everything is seasonal and that's the encouragement of life
God never wants
your circumstances he doesn't want you to deny them a storm is a storm. You don't call it a sunshine day
A storm is reality, but he never wants
Your circumstance to trump his word
Not only does he not want your circumstance to trump his word he doesn't want your circumstance to trump his presence
Because he's on the boat too
And so Jesus speaks to the problem and when he speaks to the problem there is a circumstantial change
Trials as inconvenient and as painful as they are are a journey of discovery
Of who you're dealing with
And no matter what you're going through you can mark this down there is a promise in the word of God
That will match what storm you're going through
This infinite God of ours
Who gave us the revelation of himself because he's omniscient he watch this he knew every single kind of storm that could ever
Come upon humanity
From Adam and Eve in the garden to this present day until he comes back and wraps it all up
He knows all about all storms
So therefore when he gave us his word how many storms does his word cover all of them
You cannot think of one. He does not consider
Know that storms are natural
Stop being shocked that things are tough
Can I say it again stop being shocked that things are tough
Stop being shocked that you lost your job. Stop being shocked that the business going through a tough time. Why storms are natural
Storms are temporary
There's no permanent hurricane
There's no permanent earthquake
There's no permanent tsunami. There's no permanent cyclone. They're all temporary
Storms confirm how strong you are
No matter how much you claim you got faith storms will test whether you get it or not. Storms reduce you to God again
Well, what anchors you
When a storm hits you what anchors you or you just drift along with it?
The word of God is our anchor
Now think about this for a moment
Storms are inevitable
Our anchor is immovable
It doesn't move. It doesn't change it anchors us solid to the rock of Christ the word of God anchors our storm now watch this
Because he is omniscient all-knowing. He knows where I am in the storm
Because he's
Omnipresent
He's with me wherever I am in the storm
And because he's omnipotent
He has the power to bring me through the storm
That is the anchor
How do I know that's the anchor because that's who the bible says he is
That he is all-knowing
That all presence is in his presence and he's all-powerful. You may not feel very strong
You may not feel very powerful, but you can be wise
And the wise thing to do is to anchor your life
on the rock of God's unchanging truth
What are you building your life on?
You building it on pop culture. You building it on personal opinion
Are you building it on the unchanging rock of God's eternal truth
Whether you build on sand or rock the storms come to both houses
Christ was saying look whether you're in a secure house or a shaky house. The storm don't care. It's coming. Expect the storms to come
Everybody
will face storms
That's what Christ is saying whether you are built on the rock or the sand the storms come against you if the storm hits
everybody
Then the issue in life is not storms
Don't worry about the storm it coming anyhow
You got to focus on something else
In other words storms come to expose what your built on
You got to focus on am I built in the right way. The structure is more important than the storm
In other words
You are never remembered by what you avoided
in life
You are remembered by what you what
survived
Never trust a person who have been through no storm. Why because you are not remembered by what you avoided
How do we know David? Goliath
How do you know Joshua? The wall
How do we know Samson? The Philistines
How do you know Moses? Pharaoh
If you ain't got no problem, you ain't got no reputation
A calm sea never produced a good sailor
How would you like to go on the seas with a sailor who had never been on troubled seas?
If you're going to have a good life, it means you're going to go through stuff
But the purpose of that stuff isn't to harm you God allows it or causes it to grow you up to grow me up
What do you got to know first of all he says you got to know
That the testing of your faith
Develops what perseverance and perseverance must finish its work in your life so that you may be mature
and complete
And not lacking anything the only way to live a life of no lack is to be tested by storms
And he says have pure joy when they come
Because you know that this storm is going to leave you a better person a stronger person with more stable perseverance
In other words, don't leave the class stay in the class until
Perseverance has its complete work
A storm can put you on the shelf so that you never used of God or it can equip you to be a
fantastic servant of God, it's our response
And our response is determined by a number of things one of which is our view of God
How do you see God
If I see God as this
legalistic strict
God who's just chalking off my bad points, or do I see him as a God of love
And compassion and kindness and forgiveness and purpose
And desire to use you in some fashion in some way
How do you see him? How do you how do you picture God?
That is when you think about God and that you're a child of his and you've been saved. How do you picture him?
Is he
Is he on your side
Or is he on the side of something else
Do you see him behind these storms with anger or do you see him an awesome loving God sending into your life something
that you don't like
He knows you don't like it, but he knows it's best for your life at this moment in time
How do you see him?
If somebody says well what is God like if you want to know what God is like look at Jesus
Here's what Jesus said if you have seen me you've seen the father. He was not talking about physically he's talking about
Who he is the person
If you've seen me you've seen the father I am the father are one. I only do those things that I see the father doing
So let me ask you a question
What is it about Jesus
That some of you do not like what is it about Jesus that you don't like
I'd like somebody to tell me somebody who doesn't believe in him. Well, just tell me what is it about him. You don't like?
What did he do wrong?
Zero
When the storm comes he says he will not allow you to be what
Tested beyond what you can bear
So if you if he allows it he trusts you
A storm is a message from God about what he thinks about you
And if you lost your house God says you can handle lost house
Why I got another one coming bigger than that in other words every storm that comes
Is God saying to you
Go girl, you can handle this
Come on, son. You can handle this. I won't allow it if you couldn't handle it
That means if it comes you got what it takes to overcome it
So sometimes what appears to be storms in our life may be a storm
But on the other hand the question is what's God doing in the storm and you can mark this down
Whatever the storm is he is at work
He's at work in the storm, he's up to something good in every single storm if we'll just trust him
You