The Holy Spirit Acts: SURVIVING THE STORM

Transcription

1 The Holy Spirit Acts: SURVIVING THE STORM Acts 27 II Corinthians 4:7-10 The Spirit gives us courage to face our difficulties. A sermon preached by Dr. William O. (Bud) Reeves First United Methodist Church Hot Springs, Arkansas May 22, 2011

2 I m a landlubber myself. My experiences on the ocean have been pretty much limited to splashing in the surf at various beaches. However, once on vacation in North Carolina, we decided we would take our boys deep-sea fishing. We were hungry for some adventure on the high seas. The day we went was rather gloomy, with a steady breeze and the threat of rain. A front was coming through, so not only was the fishing poor, but the ocean was a little rough. The sailors on the boat kept saying it wasn t too bad, but they were lying. We had taken our motion-sickness medication before leaving, so we were OK a little sleepy, but not seasick. Offshore about ten miles, the boat slowed down to allow us to fish, and it began rocking on the five-tosix foot waves. It was immediately apparent who had not taken their medication. About a fourth of the passengers probably ten people immediately headed inside to find the barf bags. Had the fishing been good, I m sure the human misery would have been worth it, but as it was, our only catch was about a two-pound something-or-other. Nevertheless, we incorporated that fish into our supper that evening. It was the most expensive piece of fish I had ever put into my mouth. Having had that experience on the coastal waters of North Carolina, I hate to think what Paul experienced on his journey to Rome. It was a full-blown nor easter in the middle of the Mediterranean. (Do you remember the movie The Perfect Storm? How about Gilligan s Island?) Paul was being transported from prison in Ceasarea Philippi, on the coast of Palestine, to Rome for his final hearing before the emperor. It was too late in the year to be making sea voyages sometime about the end of October or early November. Paul cautioned against going, but the captain relentlessly pressed on, and sure enough, they got caught in a storm and were blown way off course. They

3 threw cargo overboard to try to stay afloat, and for two solid weeks the storm pounded them. Finally Paul stood up and addressed the crew and passengers. First he said, I told you we shouldn t have made this journey. I m sure that endeared him to his shipmates. But then he told them that he had dreamed about an angel who assured him that they would arrive safely. So he encouraged them to keep up their spirits. The next night, the sailors began to sense that the water was getting shallower, and they took soundings that proved them to be right. So Paul took the bread that remained and told the sailors to eat something. When day broke, they could see an island dead ahead. Needless to say, everyone was exhausted but very relieved. When they came close to the island, the ship ran aground, and all of the crew and passengers on the boat had to swim to shore. The ones that couldn t swim grabbed a plank or a piece of the ship and dog-paddled in. But eventually everyone made it safe to shore, and the long ordeal was over. Paul s experience on the sea reminds me of some of our experiences in life. We re no strangers to the storms, are we? Even if we ve never been near the ocean, we ve been through the shipwrecks of life. I look out every Sunday morning and I see people who are dealing with difficulties, coping with crises, washed over by the waves of adversity. You re here because you re sinking. You need a life preserver. If you are about to go under today because you re grieving the loss of someone you love, or you are sick, or your marriage is in trouble, or your job is in doubt, or your kids are in danger of going the wrong way in life, I want to give you hope. I want to throw you a life preserver. I want you to know that you can survive the storm. But first you have to call on the Master of the sea. When the ocean of despair threatens you, call on the One who made the oceans themselves. When your trouble seems

4 too big, call on the One who is bigger than trouble. Call on the God who can bring you safely home. Bill Hybels, senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, is an avid sailor. He even races sailboats as a hobby. He says that when he was growing up, he would often take the family sailboat out on Lake Michigan. For safety s sake, he would always take a friend with him. As a teenager, whenever he saw the first sign of a storm approaching, he and his friend would head back to the marina immediately. In a storm, his friend would be no help whatsoever. But sometimes Bill would go out sailing with his father, who was an expert sailor. He had sailed the Atlantic Ocean. He had survived for five days in a hurricane. When his dad was along, Bill would wish for a storm, because the high winds and waves were exciting to him. He also knew his father could handle anything Lake Michigan could dish out, so he had confidence to challenge the storm. 1 Do you have confidence in God to handle the storms of your life? Are you willing to turn over the helm to him? Can you call on him in your time of need and rest in his peace? If you remember, the disciples were in a similar situation one night on the Sea of Galilee. They were crossing the sea, and a windstorm rose up, and they were fearful that the boat would swamp and sink. Jesus, however, had gone to sleep on a cushion in the back of the boat. The frantic disciples woke him up and cried out, Master, don t you care that we are perishing? Jesus woke up and looked at the storm and said, Peace! Be still! Immediately the Sea of Galilee became like a sheet of glass; the air became still; and the moon and the stars began to shine. Jesus said to his friends, Why are you afraid? Have you no faith? They turned to talk among themselves and said, No faith? Did you see that storm? Who is this guy, that even the wind and sea obey him? 2

5 He s the Son of God, that s who. And in the midst of the storms of life, his Holy Spirit will give us courage to face our difficulties. His Holy Spirit will wrap us up in the arms of love and give us peace and calm our fears, and we will survive. In his book, Postmodern Pilgrims, Dr. Len Sweet tells about a doctor who witnessed an amazing sight one night in the cancer ward. His patient was a little eight-year-old girl who was dying. Her body was disfigured by the disease, and she was in constant pain. The doctor was overwhelmed by the magnitude of her suffering. But when he went into her room that night, the girl s grandmother was staying with her, and she had crawled up into the bed with her granddaughter, and with her arms and her body she had embraced this precious, inhuman suffering. The doctor wrote: I stood in awe, for I knew I was on holy ground. the suffering of innocent children is horrifying beyond words. I will never forget the great, gentle arms and body of this grandmother. She never spoke while I was there. She was holding and participating in a suffering that she could not relieve, and somehow her silent presence was relieving it. No words could express the magnitude of her love. 3 We cannot find the words to describe the love of God either. But when we are hurting, he wants to wrap us up in his arms and protect us and heal us and relieve our pain. When you face the storms of life, call on the Master of the sea. Then shake it off. Surviving the storm sometimes means just having the courage and the determination to grit your teeth and persevere through your time of trial. You re going to get wet in the storm, but you re not going to melt! Be courageous. Just shake it off. There s a great story about an old farmer who had the misfortune of losing his mule in a dry well on his farm. Somehow the mule fell into the well, and was braying up a storm. The farmer decided he couldn t get the mule out of

6 the well, so he would just put him out of his misery. He began to bury the mule in the well. Only he forgot to kill the mule first. So every time he would throw down a shovelful of dirt, the mule would simply shake the dirt off and stand on top of the dirt in the bottom of the well. Again and again this happened. The farmer would shovel in dirt, and the mule would shake it off and step up on the new dirt. Soon it became apparent that the mule was getting closer to the top of the well, so the farmer just continued to pour in the dirt, and the mule continued to shake it off and step up, until he was able to step out of the well altogether and run to freedom! Sometimes that s the secret to surviving the storm. Shake it off and step up! Rise above the dirt of the world and the things in life that are trying to bury you. When we re faced with the difficulties of life, the Holy Spirit acts to give us courage to shake it off and step up time and again, until we have conquered our problems. Do you remember what happened to Paul once he got safely to shore? He had just survived two weeks in a storm at sea, a shipwreck, and swimming to the shore of Godknows-what island. They made a fire to warm up and dry off. When Paul threw some wood on the fire, a snake jumped out and bit him on the hand! Ever have one of those days? What did Paul do? Did he say, That s it! That s the last straw! I m through! I quit! No more mission work for me! No, he simply shook the snake off into the fire and went on. Everyone else thought he would swell up and die, but nothing happened, so they all thought he must be some kind of god. Which he wasn t, but he did know One. Sometimes the appropriate response to trouble is simply not to let it bother you, to take it in stride, to know that God has a plan for you and a will for your life, and he s going to take care of you no matter what. Just shake it off, and go on.

7 Whatever you do, don t give up. The one sure way to survive is not to die. Hang in there. Don t give up. Paul encouraged his shipmates not to give up, even in the midst of the storm, because God had revealed to him that nobody would die if they just held on. That word gave them hope. Our hope today is not in our skill as sailors of the waters of life. Our hope is not in the strength of our boat those material things that we have accumulated around us. Our hope is in God. He is steadfast. He is the immovable Rock. He is strong and powerful to save us in our time of floundering. He will never let us go. When the waves of despair are crashing in on you, when the storms of doubt and fear threaten you, when your boat is leaking, and you re taking on water, and you think you might be sunk you can still have hope. God will bring you through to safety. There will be clear skies ahead, and you will reach the shore and look back and see the rainbow of God s protection. For today, just do the best you can with what you have left. Jack Riemer of the Houston Chronicle wrote one time about a concert at the Lincoln Center in New York City given by Itzhak Perlman, the great violinist. Perlman was stricken with polio as a child, and he still wears leg braces and walks with crutches. So each concert is preceded by him walking out onto the stage, one painful step at a time, sitting down slowly, unlocking his leg braces, putting down his crutches, and picking up his violin, before he is ever ready to play. The audience sits respectfully and silently while all this takes place. On this night, however, as Perlman played his first piece, a sound like a rifle shot went off in the auditorium. Stretched tight, one of the strings on the violin had snapped. The conductor halted the orchestra, and everyone looked at Perlman. Their hearts went out to him. They wondered if he would have to go through the whole ritual of getting up, hobbling offstage, getting a new violin, and coming back to his chair to continue the performance.

8 But that is not what Itzhak Perlman did. Instead, he closed his eyes for a moment, then he signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra played, and he began again from where he left off. He played with unbelievable passion and purity, all with a string missing! It would seem impossible to play a classical symphonic piece with just three strings, and everybody knew that except Itzhak Perlman. He recomposed the piece in his head while he was playing, even detuning the strings in the middle of the piece to play notes as they had never been played before. When he finished, there was a stunned silence in the room. Then as one the audience leapt to their feet and cheered. The ovation was just incredible. Finally, after several minutes, Perlman raised his bow for silence. When the crowd stilled, he said quietly, humbly, even reverently, You know, sometimes it is the artist s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left. Jack Riemer wrote, What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the way of life not just for artists, but for all of us. perhaps our task in this shaky, fastchanging, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left. 4 So Paul wrote in the Second Letter to the Corinthians: We have this treasure in clay jars (that is, the Kingdom of God comes in human containers), so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 5 When you find yourself in the storms of life, call on the Master of the sea. Shake it off. Don t give up. The Holy Spirit acts to give us the courage we need to survive the storm. Amen!

9 1 Bill Hybels, The God You re Looking For (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1997), pp. 19f. 2 Mark 4: Leonard Sweet, Postmodern Pilgrims, cited on PreachingToday.com. 4 from Jim Lane, April 18, II Corinthians 4:7-9.