What Good Is A Storm
Luke 8:22-25

I found a story this week that is a good introduction for today’s message: The central figure of the story is a person who accepts everything that happens as manifestations of divine power. And he said, "It is not for me to question the workings of divine providence." All his life, misfortune had been his. Yet never once did he complain. He got married and his wife ran away with the hired man. A villain deceived his daughter. His son was lynched. A fire burned down his barn. A cyclone blew away his home. A hailstorm destroyed his crops, and the banker foreclosed on his mortgage, taking his farm. Yet at each stroke of misfortune, he knelt and gave thanks to God Almighty for his unchangeable mercy. After a time, penniless but still submissive to God, he landed in the county poorhouse. One day the overseer sent him out to plow a potato field. A thunderstorm was passing over, when without warning a bolt of lightning descended from the sky. It melted the plowshare, stripped most of his clothing from him, singed off his beard, branded his naked back with the initials of a neighboring cattleman, and hurled him through a barbed wire fence. When he recovered consciousness, he got up slowly on his knees, clasped his hands, raised his eye toward heaven and, then, for the first time in his life, asserted himself and said, "Lord, this is getting plumb ridiculous."
Have you been there? Haven’t we all, at one time or another, felt that we had more than our fair share?
Charlie Brown builds a beautiful sandcastle, works on it for hours. Finally he stands back, looks at it. It’s wonderful. Just as he’s admiring it, a storm comes up and blows over all of his sandcastle. Now, he’s standing where his beautiful masterpiece was, on level sand, saying to himself, "I know there’s a lesson in this, but I’m not sure what it is."

Here are three things I believe storms reveal about us

I. Our faith in God’s plan. (verses 22)
When storms come, we reveal if we truly believe that God has a plan for our life.Now there are many different times that storms come to us.

    1. Storms come when we are running from God’s will.
       A. Jonah is a perfect example of this.
            1. God had called him to go to a land that he didn’t want to go

                So he took a ship in the opposite direction.

           2. Jonah’s storm came because he was outside of God’s will

               for his life.

    2. Storms come when we have attitude problem about God.

        A. Zechariah is a perfect example of this.

            1. He failed to believe an angel’s message from God about

                his wife having a son and is struck with blindness for a time.

           2. This was a storm that came into his life because he had a

                doubting attitude about what God wanted to do in his life.

    3. Storms come when we have unconfessed sin.

       A. Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 are a perfect example.

           1. The told outright lie concerning their giving and it cost them

                dearly

                a. it cost them their lives

    4. Storms come when we are right in the middle of God’s will.

        A. These disciples were exactly where Jesus told them to go.

            1. It was Jesus who said, “Let us go over to the other side of

                the lake.” (v. 22).

           2. It was Jesus that led them out there, and the reality is that

               storms come even when we are in the middle of God’s will.

      B. A common misconception is that if we don’t follow God, we

           experience storms

          1. Notice with me (Mat. 5:45) That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

      C. That’s why storms reveal our faith in God’s plan. It’s easier to

           understand facing a storm outside of God’s will, but to face a 

          storm in the middle of God’s will is much more difficult to handle

II. Storms reveal our faith in God’s presence. (verse 23)
One of the most astounding elements to this story is that while the disciples are fearing for their lives, Jesus is sleeping. Have you ever felt that way? You’re going through the storm of your life and it seems like God is sleeping. We all have haven’t we.
In Matthew 28 Jesus said, “I will be with you always” but He didn’t say, “you will feel like I’m with you always!” did He? There is a difference in “feeling” and “knowing”.
There are at least two things that would change if we realized that we are always in God’s presence.
    1. Our conduct.

       A. One question that is often asked to challenge believers to live

            out their faith

           1.“Would you obey God even if nobody was watching?”

           2. But There is no place anyone can go where “nobody is

               watching.” You are always in God’s presence.

        B. Understanding that we are always in God’s presence makes

            a  difference in how we conduct our lives.

       A. It transforms our day to day walk as a believer when we

           remember God is with us.

      B. Storms reveal if we truly believe that God is with us!

    1. Jesus asks His disciples, “Where is your faith

        A. They are in the boat with Jesus and they are following the will

             of God and they still thought they were going to die! Their

             storm revealed their faith (or lack of faith) in God’s protection.

    2. There are some truths we need to be reminded of concerning

        our God.

       A. God is Powerful.

       B. God is Righteous.

       C. God is Omnipresent.

       D. God is Trustworthy.

       E. God is Eternal.

       F. God is Caring

      G. God is Triumphant.

    3. When we find ourselves in the middle of the storm, our true faith

        in God’s protection is revealed.

Conclusion