Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

From time to time I get the opportunity to fill the pulpit at the Friends Church in Stuart. It’s a fun group and I always enjoy visiting there and spending time with them. This past week I gave a sermon which asked the question “Why are you afraid?” and thought that I would share parts with you here as it is a good reminder to each one of us.

If you want to follow along I would suggest reading Psalm 27 and 28 and then join us at Matthew 8:23-27. So as we know at this point in Jesus’ life he was spending most of his time out in the land talking to people and proving the miracles of God through healing. If you think of him in today’s terms he would be similar to some sort of famous person who really couldn’t go anywhere without crowds following him and this was the same for Jesus and his disciples. Everywhere they went, thousands followed and even more came to hear this man teach.

In order to get to the men whom Jesus had intended to heal, he and the disciples boarded a boat to go across a large lake to the other side. Now this lake sat in the direct center of a large range of mountains, which if anyone is familiar with weather we all know how mountains affect lake weather. As the disciples and Jesus were taking the boat to the other side a great storm came up rocking the boat fiercely and sending waves crashing over it.

It is at this point that I picture the disciples like the cartoon Minion caricatures all running around the boat with their hands in the air. They looked to the back of the boat to find Jesus taking a nap through all of the commotion. (See here folks, now I have biblical proof that napping is good for you.) The disciples cried out “Teacher, teacher save us for we are going to drown.” Jesus looked at them and asked, “Ye of little faith, why are you so afraid?” At this point Jesus rebuked the winds and calmed the seas and they journeyed on their way without further trouble.

Take a moment and ask yourself what you are afraid of? Spiders, failure, clowns, mice? Do you sometimes feel like the boat of your life is like this story? Things are great and amazing and you are enjoying your time on the water and suddenly your boat is being tossed and turned and you feel like you are going to drown? It can be scary at times, but have you stopped to realize this… every single one of us have periods in our lives where are boats are tossed on stormy seas, yet every one of us reading this has managed to weather those storms and come out on the other side.

Why do you suppose this is? Do you think God just allows stormy seas just for fun? Or do those times when are boats are most shaken and we reach out to him in our faith, not only verify our faith but indeed strengthen it? Let us not forget that just 20 verses farther in Mathew, He tells us, “I will never leave you and the Lord your God will never forsake you.” Christ is there when our ships are rocky, he may be napping waiting for us to ask his help, but he is always there and he won’t ever let you drown.

See you next week…remember, we’re all in this together.