With Christ In The Vessel We Can Smile At The Storm When I was working in Sri Lanka I visited the Maldives three times. Maldives is an atoll with thousands of islands. The airport is an island. Each hotel resort is an island. When you land at the airport you have to take a boat - not very big one - almost like a sampan - to the resort. On one of the trips as we were nearing the resort a storm suddenly broke out. The sea got really rough. The rain was so heavy that you cannot even see your own hands when you place them in front of your face. Fear will grip your hearts when you are hit by a storm such as that. Have you experienced a storm - perhaps you have never experienced such a storm in the seas but I am sure that you have experienced the storms of life. When everything seems to be going on fine, all of a sudden you find everything going wrong. Suddenly you feel as those you have lost control of everything. You do not know what to do. Panic and fear begins to grip your hearts. Worse still is when you are doing what God wants you to do when it happens. You had thought it out - consulted with the church leaders and you know that this is what God wants you to do. After you started, problems begin to happen. Trouble begins to start. The disciples were caught in a similar situation. They were asked by Jesus to go to the other side. They took a boat to do so. Let us read what happened. MK 4:35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" MK 4:39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. MK 4:40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" MK 4:41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" Thus far, Jesus and the disciples had been ministering among the Jews. It was time for them to cross over and begin ministry to the Gentiles. They chose the area of Gerasenes just across the lake from where they were. When they set sail there were other boats with them. It was a fine day to go sailing. A great day to go out fishing. Suddenly however, a furious storm broke out. Satan certainly did not want them to bring the Gospel to the gentile world. He was out to stop them as far as he could. Jesus tired from the hours and days of ministry was asleep - taking a rest. As the storm brew, the disciples became frighten. They felt that they had lost control. They were surely to be killed at sea. Jesus got up, rebuked Satan and calmed the storm. Turning to them he asked where their faith was. Have we experienced a storm in our life before? A storm where we had become frightened. A storm where we feel that we had lost control. What can we do in such a situation? What should we do under such circumstances? Today, we want to see what we can do. How we should respond to such situations when they do occur in our lives. I have experienced such storms many time in my life. I would like to describe one of them to you. In January 1996 I visited Brisbane. There I met up with a pastor friend. He asked whether I would like to start a church in Singapore. I was told that was a group of young graduates who had just returned to Singapore. They are ready to help me plant this church. I told him that I would consider it. That weekend after I preached in his church, a lady came up to me and said "Pastor, I feel that God wants me to tell you this. There is an apostolic anointing upon you. God wants you to venture out and do more for Him." I did not know who the lady was. I asked my friend. He told me that she was one of his leaders - that she has a prophetic ministry. I told myself that I had to be sure before I would leave Trinity Christian Centre where I was serving to plant this church. That evening I conducted a training course for the leaders of the church. They then asked that I pray for each of the leaders one at a time. When I came to the founding pastor, he held me tightly and said "you had taken a great step of faith before. God wants you now to take another step.:" I froze. This is all too real I said. Maybe Brisbane was setting me up. When I came back to Singapore and to my work at Trinity Christian Centre the thought "should I or shouldn't I" continued to haunt me. Then one morning that week after I came back as I was in the pantry room making a drink for myself one of the admin staff turned to me "Pastor are you leaving to plant a church?" I could have had a heart attack then - how in the world does she know? That Sunday, Pastor Dowdy preached a message and said "do not let old ties hold you back - go be where God wants you to be.: After the spate of four prophecies, I had no further doubt that God wanted me to go to the other side and start our church. This was further affirmed by one of the pastoral staff of Trinity who told me "it is no surprise - we were expecting it all this time." On my final day, Pastor Dowdy asked me whether I remembered an incident several years earlier. She said that one day as she was preaching she pointed to the crowd and said "there is a person in senior management whom God is calling into full time ministry. Don't struggle with Him anymore." Do I remember? Sure I did. Those words had hit me like an arrow piercing my heart. I had been struggling with the Lord for about five years up to that point in time. Pastor Dowdy continued "I knew all the time that it was you. Now, go forth and do what God wants.: so, I left with the full assurance that I knew what God had wanted me to do. The initial days were like a honeymoon. I was filled with excitement that at last I had found the purpose for my life. My pastoral friends were full of support for what I was doing. The Brisbane church said that every year graduating students would join the Singapore church. It was sure to grow. How wonderful. Like the disciples I could say "It was a great day for sailing. A great day to be out fishing." That was what it was. Then suddenly after the initial days were over, hell struck. A mighty storm brew up. After serving on the pastoral team of Trinity for about seven years and been involved on the Board for many years prior I thought I knew what to do to plant a church. How wrong I was. The graduates that had returned from Brisbane had other things on their minds. Church planting was about the last thing on their minds. Who can blame them? At that stage of their lives, they were concerned about building a career, getting married, starting a family and so on. They were totally uncommitted. Not only that, after a short while they began to complain. They compared the embryonic stage of this church with the more matured Brisbane church and lamented what they feel lacking in the church here. They wanted a transplant of that church into Singapore. They also compared their previous pastor to me and began criticizing me for various things. I thought a tornado had hit me. No matter what I did, nothing seemed to work. Then I shared with a pastor friend. He looked at me and said "what do you expect. You are planting a church. You think Satan would leave you alone." I was seeking God intensely during and I found myself rebuking the devil. I also told God "unless you do something I don't know what to do. You have asked me to do this church planting thing. Now everything seems to be loaded against me. I can quit. But I know you don't want me to quit. So, what do I do?" that year, we had a church camp in Sentosa and I will never forget what happened. On the second day of the camp, the speaker told me "let's get rid of demons from these people's lives." I agreed. I didn't think much would happen as these people love God surely - they will be no demons in them. How wrong I was. Every single one of them began to manifest. They were coughing. Vomiting. Crying. Demons were being cast out from every single person. The amazing thing was that from that day onwards I observed that the group began to flow with me. The church also began to move and grow. Satan and the demons that were trying to stop the church from being birthed were defeated. Jesus turned to the disciples and asked "where is your faith?" They had forgotten who Jesus is. That He has all power and authority. Satan and the demons are subjected to Jesus. With the Holy Spirit in us, we have the power and authority in the name of Jesus to rebuke Satan and the demons and they have to obey. Therefore when the storms hit, we need not fear. We need not despair. With Jesus in the vessel we can smile at the storm. With Jesus in us, we need not fear the storms. We can command it to calm and it has to. Today, know what God wants you to do and if the storm should come, know that you can smile at it for Jesus is with you. You can rebuke the demonic forces and calm the storm. One thing that I know that God wants every single one of us to do and yet when we try to get into it we will find all sort of difficulties is reading the Bible and praying every day. I was not surprised therefore that the Minimum Factor in our NCD survey this year is Passionate Spirituality. We know we need to read the Bible and pray daily but when we try to get into it, what happens? All sorts of things. Satan certainly does not want any of us to know God's Word. He does not want you to pray either. All sorts of things begin to fill your mind - you say, oh, I forgot to do this or that. Before you decided to read the Word or pray, you were not reminded of all these things. But when you decided to read the Bible and pray all sorts of things suddenly come to your attention. Sometimes, the telephone rings as well. You were at home whole day - nobody calls. Then when you were into your Bible and wanting to pray, the telephone rings. Yes, all of us have experienced this. but does it mean that we should not read the Bible and pray daily. You say "but I don't really have the time?" Time and our activities are how we make of it. If you find that something is important you will make time for it. Is reading the Bible and praying important? The Bible is God's Word to us and is useful in guiding us through every single decision in our life. It is a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths. This world of ours is dark. None of us know what is ahead of us. We need something to point the way out for us. King David said "Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you." This world presents us with many temptations. Satan does not want us to know God's Word as he does not want us to make the right choices. We were brought up to see things from a secular angle - totally different from God's way. How can we change to God's way unless we know what is right and wrong. God's Word encourages us when we feel down. It guides us into making the right decisions. The Bible contains what we need to know about life. Unless we read it and internalize it we will continue to be carnal Christians. We will not grow spiritually. Prayers keep us in communion with God. Though Jesus said that He is with us all the time, we will never realize His presence if we do not want to. A person can be beside you but if you ignore him no relationship can ever take place. Sometime I am seated by a stranger in a flight. We do not talk right away. Hours can pass by before we begin to talk. All the time the person is beside me - he is doing his own things and I mine. In our relationship with Jesus He is beside us all the time. He is Spirit and we therefore do not see Him. If we do not seek Him, we will never realize His presence. Prayers help us to realize God's presence. It helps to bring us into a focus on God. Starting the day with a prayer is important. We do not know what the day is going to be like. But God does. We may have the schedule for the day planned out but that does not mean that we know every single thing that will take place. So, I find it necessary for me to commit the day to Jesus before I even begin the day. Friends, finding time to do something is therefore dependent on how we value that something. Is reading the Bible and praying important for us. If so, we will find the time for it. But you may say "yes, Pastor, but every time I read the Bible I don't really understand it." Don't worry. Neither do I. nor Pastor Eileen nor Bern nor do all pastors and Christian leaders. It calls for a proper study of the text before we do. A text without a context is a con text. When we preach without a proper study of the text we are conning the congregation. When you read without a proper understanding of the text you may also be conned. But does not mean that you should not read the Bible. In HSM, we teach you how to read the Bible for all it is worth. When you read a text and with your knowledge of the historical outline of the OT or the occasion in the NT, you roughly know what the text is talking about. There are only more detailed things that you don't really understand. Let us take today's text for example. By reading the text and knowing the principles that we have covered in HSM we will know that when we are hit by a storm we should have faith in Jesus and not panic. There are however details that we may not be aware of unless we do further studies. For example, we may not have known that Jesus was asking them to cross over to Gentile territory and expand the spread of the gospel. We do not know it unless we have read the few chapters before and after. Then we would realize that they were heading to Gerasenes, a Gentile area. We would also not know that it was a Satanic induced storm - that Satan was trying to stop them from spreading the gospel unless we have read the text in the Greek and saw the word used for rebuke is one only used in the Greek for rebuking Satan and his demonic forces. In the general reading of the Bible we do not need to go into such details. But with the principles that you have learnt from HSM you should be able to read the Bible for all it is worth. Without these principles, we may deduce into the Bible instead of inducing from it. For example, if I do not know how to read the Bible and I am preparing a sermon based on this text I may do the following. Jesus is asleep. He is asleep because you are. You are in a spiritual slumber. Your spiritual life is practically dead. Jesus is tired of it all. He has therefore gone to sleep on you. When Jesus is asleep you will be completely exposed to hazards. It is only when you realize how vulnerable you are without Jesus that you will wake Him from his sleep. Friends, why wait for that to happen. Get up from your spiritual slumber and have an authentic relationship with Jesus. Sounds good. Many preachers do it. I had in the past as well. Great sermons but totally unbiblical because the Bible cannot mean something to us today what Mark never intended. We cannot only understand what Mark intends if we study the genre and know how to read the genre. HSM provides you with these principles. To help you to read the Bible by yourself. We know the importance for you to read the Bible and to pray daily. We help you to do so. Satan will not be happy. But you have the power and authority to silence him. Today, will you continue to press on in what God has called you to. Today, if you are experiencing storms in your life, know also that you have the power to silence the enemies and still the storm. Let us pray…..

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