I know the last time I was in front of the congregation. I shared a message involving an extremely well known passage of psalm 23 and it would seem I am sticking to the familiar with another passage that I am sure you all have some long standing knowledge about, but bare with me and hopefully I will get to a meaningful point. Besides, I have know idea how Jeff chose sermon topics and scripture readings and hymns every week for 40 years. God Bless him. The last sermon I delivered I had months to mull it over and I knew what to do. This time I was a little more cloudy with where I was going. Until, I took a minute to breathe, refocus while on vacation and ask for a little guidance. I think that is all I had to do, ask the lord for a little help and guidance. Matthew recounts in the scripture Jesus and the disciples left in the boat and suddenly a terrible storm struck. Jesus was sleeping, but the disciples seemed like they were in panic mode and shouting to Jesus to wake up. Something that used to resonate with me at the old 9:30 service was that Jeff liked to picture the scripture like a video tape in his head and play the scene out. I am a very visual person so I tend to do the same thing. When I was younger I always played out this scripture with the waves being huge and the boat standing on end with Jesus sleeping. The story in each gospel Mathew, Mark, Luke and John all agree on this. The context of the story was they were all traveling to the other side of the Sea Of Galilee. So I also pictured an ocean with monster waves and the disciples in real fear. A few years ago I was gifted the opportunity to visit Israel and got to visit the actual Sea of Galilee and well… wha… wha…it’s a lake. Still very beautiful but kind of a let down. You can see the other side. I remember thinking how bad must the conditions on the lake be that professional fishermen were scared and shouting for Jesus to help. Not too long ago I saw a video and I guess the waves there can get really big.10-12ft. The reality of the situation is the scripture says what? Jesus woke up and said why are you afraid? He calmed the waves and the storm. Then questioned his companions faith. The lesson or the moral is that as long as we have faith in God he will calm the storm and it will pass. Whatever the storm is in our lives Jesus tells us to have faith and it will pass. Not to harp on my last sermon but follow his path. He has a plan. Each of us have our own storms to weather and to others that storm might not seem like a big deal but the fear or anxiety that we feel is very real. So I say have faith, ask the Lord for help and weather storm because this too shall pass. Have faith and ask for help. The gospel makes it sound so simple, but if you are anything like me and tend to be a little hard headed. Like it may take a few times to learn a lesson, maybe stop going fast. I am positive my wife could give you many many examples. I would like to point out that it’s okay if we need reminders. Calming the storm on the way across the lake left the disciples in awe but a few days later after performing the miracle of the loaves and the fishes they were coming back across the lake and this time Jesus walked on water. Matthew 14 speaks of Jesus reaching and helping Peter up and said, “You surely don't have much faith. Why do you doubt?” and again he calmed the storm.
No matter how many times we need to be reminded to have faith and ask for help the lord will still be there. The waves and the wind may be strong and scary but the storm will still pass.
by Neil Lisberg