I am no stranger to the world of being deaf. As a child I was deaf for nearly two years and as a result of my military service, I ultimately became deaf in my left ear with damage to my right. No doubt I have to say that there are many challenges in being deaf. One of which is miscommunication. My wife was folding laundry and I heard her say I need to go to the bank and make a deposit. Puzzled I repeated what she said although finding out what she really said was she was putting my pants and hanging them in the closet. What I heard is not what she said, or so I thought. We laughed for weeks at that one. It does beg the question though. Are we at times misunderstanding God? Are we hearing one thing, but God is actually saying something else? Or even is God really listening? How many of you this morning can relate to how maybe God seems silent at times when other times there is more a quick response. In other words, is our communication with God falling on deaf ears? I would be first to say this morning, nothing we say or do falls on deaf ears. While there is no doubt, scripture tells us communication with God is vitally important, we learn early in our Christian journey that how we see God significantly improves our ability to communicate with Him as we trust and experience Him, even when we think there is nothing but silence. This morning friends we are going to start our journey in a very familiar episode of Jesus where He takes His disciples onto the sea of galilee. While this is not the first time they have seen trouble waters, they are about to experience God in a new way—How their voices did not fall upon deaf ears.
On that day, when evening came, He [Jesus] said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” 36 After dismissing the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. From this, we already see two things. First, it was Jesus’ idea to cross the sea, not the disciples. Next, these disciples have signed on with Jesus to follow Him wherever He went. The disciple’s growth is very important to God which shows as Jesus placed these disciples in a specific place at a specific time its all for a purpose. IN other words, God was always in control! Continuing in verse 37, And a fierce gale of wind developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water. 38 And yet Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. The disciples are in it. Gale force winds (40 to 50mph) with some major tossing and turning on a small fishing boat. It started to fill with water and then, as Mark tells us, there is the King of Kings fast asleep. You bet the disciples experienced anxiety, stress, uncertainty, faith failure and more. No doubt they thought of God and murmured to God while crying out for help! Let’s continue! And they woke Him [Jesus] and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Does this sound familiar? God, don’t you care? Are you not listening to me? Do you not know I’m suffering here? Do not you realize the waves of life are crashing all around me, I am fearing death here, experiencing anxiety, pain, hardship, and more! GOD WHERE ARE YOU! Continuing to verse 29 And He [Jesus] got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
It’s so easy for us to say that God is a God of genuine love, peace, joy, happiness, healing when we experience or see it first-hand! But let me ask you, what has changed when one moment we have faith and another you lack faith? What changed from the times we say God heard my prayer to where were you God? Our faith seems to shift like the waves hitting that boat the disciples where in.
In December, 1958, Helmar Heckel came to America from Germany on the USS Butner, a transport ship which traveled in the north sea where the waves was well known to be treacherous. Huge waves covered the ship, and every day seemed the same—water, water everywhere, to the north, the south, the east, and the west. All they could hear was the monotonous grinding of the ship's engine trying to fight the waves while trying to keep moving forward. Finally, after five days, the scene changed dramatically. There was water to the east and the south, but to the west stood the Statue of Liberty gleaming in the morning sun. They had come home. Walking by faith is like this. Waves of opposition battle us, with no change in sight. In all directions there seems to be nothing, with the Lord seemingly asleep. Until a special day arrives, revealing that we have been moving according to plan. When things are not going the way you think friends, we need to stay calm and ask ourselves, am I trusting in Jesus as He is, or am I freaking out because of what I do not know or understand? I read in an article this statement which to me makes perfect sense. "It's not death, it's life that defeats the Christian church. She's always been equipped to deal with death." None of us like to be lacking or empty with nearly anything, especially God. We are gifted with so much while we live the Christian journey yet when the storms of life hit us, even when Jesus is leading us through and times where God seems silent, we lack something very important! Faith! Continuing with verse 40, And He [Jesus] said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
What are you experiencing today that you are getting the impression that God is not listening, or God is fast asleep and seems to have no concern for your welfare? Do you not believe that God is indeed actively listening and hearing you as you are? No doubt none of us like to be tried in a fiery event, but what we forgot friends is everything we encounter produces a great fruit that is useful and purposeful in our journey. Jesus tells us in Matthew “Are two sparrows not sold for an assarion? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all counted.” The first chapter of James tells us this, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
In closing I would like to leave you with some elements to ponder on when going through a faith test. First, you must trust God to bring you through it and not setting you up for failure! The gloom and doom attitude are not of God but of the evil one. Second, when Jesus leads you into the boat of life, we must trust Him even if our panicky thought of leaving our comfort zone. We must choose blind faith and trust in His ways. Third, we must realize that God has indeed imbedded each of us regardless of who we are with the ability to trust Him! Our trust in Him shall overcome our greatest peril with a great calm that is beyond all understanding. A great presence that’s right with you and you just cannot fully understand, yet you know its God fulfilling His great work in you! Fourth, don’t believe the negative thoughts and words, stay focused on what God is saying. It so easy to get caught up with what’s wrong verse what God is saying. Satan loves to tell us to lose hope, all is lost, give up, you will never be saved, no one is listening and so much more! Your life has meaning and purpose regardless of what you feel. You can have little faith in thick ice, and you survive. You can have great faith in thin ice, and you drown. It's not the amount of faith. It's the object in which you place it. That's why the Bible never says, "Believe." It always says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." That's why the Bible never says, "Have faith." It always says, "Have faith in God." Faith is a development in progress. Living the Christian life is not smooth sailing, there are waves to be experienced in order to grow us. If Jesus Christ your personal savior is in your boat, it will never sink. The storm will not last forever. Then you are going to discover that God is very much interested in everything you say! Your words do not fall on deaf ears.
Looking at this painting, you see Jesus asleep, yet what the disciples and us today don’t always realize, While God is onboard with us, we will never fail, but only fulfil God’s ultimate purpose.
You will encounter problems, storms that cause waves, but as I stated in one of my previous messages in scripture it tells us, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Amen.