Advice for Your Christian Walk: and There Will Be Storms

(These are my notes for an adult Stunday School class I taught.)

When I prayed about teaching this Sunday's class I felt like the Lord gave me two pictures or images, and then the title of the talk. Using these images and the title, I decided to do some Bible study on some of the storms mentioned in Scripture. Here is the first image I got:

{ Ask a man to come up to help in the demonstration }

FIRST IMAGE: Pinky Handshake
As believers we all have a relationship with Christ. But what kind of relationship do we have? { link by pinky fingers } Do we have this tenuous, just barely touching pinky to pinky with Christ as we go through life? { swing arms a little } We go to church, look good to fellow believers, easy-peasy lemon squeezy kind of relationship. Like walking with an acquaintance. Maybe our relationship is strong enough that we actually hold hands with the Lord. If this is how we go through life -- connected, but only superficially, what happens when a storm/flood/big wind hits? Christ is going to hold steady; He's SOLID as a Rock. But what happens to me? { pretend to stumble forward } Yes, I may even break my finger/lose my grip, severe my relationship with Christ, then fall away.

Pastor Wes preached last week about "strengthening the core", getting solid in the fundamentals of loving and knowing Christ. A pinky-handshake/superficial relationship (just "fire insurance") is not going to cut it; nor is just walking hand and hand. We need to hang on to Christ with both hands and STAY CLOSE. { hang on to man's arm. } Now, if a storm hits, I'm latched on and can't get blown away. { demonstration over }

Read Luke 6:46-49. Parable of the house upon a rock. Notice is isn't "if a flood came", it's "when a flood" came. You EXPECT floods! Three things have to happen in order for a sure, solid foundation to be built: 1) Come to Christ, 2) Hears His Word, and 3) Puts them into practice! So can you be protected from storms without coming to Christ? No. Can you be protected from storms if you've come to Christ, but can't be bothered to spend time listening to His word, either in church or through private Bible study? No. And "head" knowledge is not good enough. You have to put it into practice!

What kind of storms can hit? (financial, emotional, spiritual, physical) What does "putting Jesus' words into practice" look like? (prayer, reading the Word, confessing sins, generous, forgiving, loving, sacrificial, acting like Christ) I've been convicted about needing to be more consistent and disciplined in prayer.

SECOND IMAGE: Brace, Brace, Brace
The second image I felt like the Lord gave me was when you are on an airplane and you are preparing for bumpy or crash landing. Both the pilot and the flight attendants have warned the passengers to prepare and they've showed them what they need to do. { Sit in chair, reach down grab your legs, keep your head down. } The passengers are specifically told that when the pilot shouts "Brace, Brace, Brace!" they are to get into this position. The pilot and the flight attendants know that something bad is coming and that if the passengers DO NOT follow their instructions/warnings, when the plane crashes the passengers can get badly hurt. (more so than if they aren't braced)

What do you think is going to happen to a passenger that LAUGHS OFF the warning and says: "hey, I've been on dozens of flights, I've never had a problem, no one I care about has ever had a problem, and I think that these flight attendant and this pilot are just negative people and are just trying to scare me. Nothing bad is going to happen." And when the call to "Brace, Brace, Brace" comes, he does nothing { show image of sitting cross-legged, loose and easy, contemptuous } What could happen to this passenger?

As I was preparing this talk, this image expanded and it reminded me of how when healthy adults travel with children or disabled adults or with the elderly on planes; the flight attendants expect the healthy adults to help their dependents (ie. when the air mask falls down, put it on yourself, then help the dependent). What happens if you are the dependent of someone who ignores the flight attendants warning? There's a good chance you won't "brace" when necessary, either.

Read Exodus 9:13-35. Here we have God warning Pharaoh and the people of Egypt that a massive hailstorm is coming. He even tells them the SPECIFIC TIME (vs 18). He gives them clear instructions about what to do through Moses (ie. the flight attendant) (vs 19). And here we have two sets of people, the wise ones who listen to Moses (vs 20) and those that were unwise and ignored his warning, out of pride (vs 21). And the saddest thing about this second group, it is the animals and slaves that belong to the "unwise" group that suffer that worst. It is our dependents, those we are responsible to take care of, that suffer when we ignore God's warning to prepare and be ready!

How does Pharaoh respond?
While the storm is going on the Pharaoh, the leader, admits his sin and calls for Moses to pray to protect them from the storm. This reminded me quite strongly of how political leaders call or endorse prayer for our country when natural disasters strike. Or after terrorists attacks. (9/11???) They are more than happy to pray then, crying out to God to save us, save us, Lord. But what do they do once the crisis is over? Many of them, and many people (Christians and non-Believers alike), fall right back into the same old sin of a hard heart, as if nothing astounding had just happened.

THIRD IMAGE: Paul's Shipwreck
When I was praying about this message, one of the confirmations I had that I should talk about "coming storms" was that when I opened my Bible at random after praying it opened to Acts 27. This is the chapter that describes when Paul is being taken to Rome by ship, and there is a shipwreck.

Read Acts 27:9-12. Notice that Paul warns that trouble is coming, that there is going to be a great loss of ship and cargo. The centurion chooses to ignore Paul, but instead listen to the pilot and ship's owner. Then we see that it is a case of "majority rules" when it comes to sailing on. We need to remind ourselves that we need to listen to God, not man, and pray for discernment to know when it is only a man or woman that is speaking and when God is speaking through that person. "Majority rules" usually DOES NOT work when dealing with spiritual matters, since I expect most people to be drawn to think selfishly and not Godly.

Read Acts 27:13-20. Then the storm hits and they men do everything physically possible to try to survive the storm, and even Luke (who is traveling with Paul) loses hope of surviving. You will note that they DO NOT PRAY. This is quite different from Jonah's famous shipboard storm. Read Jonah 1:4-6. But Paul doesn't lose hope. Why? Because he knows something that they don't: that God had promised him that he would testify about Christ in Rome. Read Acts 23:11. He held fast to the Lord's promise to him and did not let go, even in the fact of the terrible storm. He also got confirmation from an angel that they would be saved. Read Acts 27:21-26. Verse 24 is very telling in that Paul is told that "God has graciously given you the lives of all that sail with you."

Let's stop and think about what that could mean. 1) you know trouble (a storm is coming); 2) those with you pooh-pooh or scoff about what is coming and ignore your advice; 3) you can pray and ask that God be gracious to you and save those who are sailing with you. You can intercede for those with you: family, co-workers, neighbors and ask that they be saved from the storm.

I think there is a principle there. By hanging on to Christ we can be personally prepared for the coming storm. But, we may be able to help others, even if they are not hanging on to Christ, to survive. If, however, we DO NOT hold tight to Christ, we may be swept away ourselves and bring our dependents with us.

Some other spiritual truths we can learn from this story. Read Acts 27:27-32. This time the centurion listens to Paul. He had learned his lesson. Ideally we would all have a personal relationship with God and able to hear His voice through the Holy Spirit, but in all practicality we often need to be able to recognize the Lord's hand on someone else's life and be willing to listen and take someone else's advice. That's why we need preachers, teachers, prophets, shepherds, and elders in the church.

To finish up the story. Read Acts 27:33-44. Lastly, the other prisoners (some of which were probably wicked men) were saved from being killed because Paul had found favor in the centurion's eyes. Paul's righteousness, his mere presence on the ship, protected those men from being slaughtered.

IF THERE IS TIME...
Let's look at a final passage of scripture, Psalms 32. This passage speaks about "when the mighty waters rise", which makes me think of a storm causing flooding. It also talks about having a "hiding place." We tend to focus just on verses 6 & 7, as there are "feel good" verses, but we need to read the whole Psalms to see the context. How do we move into a place where we are safe from the flood waters, how does the Lord become our hiding place?" Read Psalms 32

Blessings!

Source
Women's Devotional Bible. New International Version