Badenoch Free Church

Morning service 19^th Aug 2007:

Mat 8v23-27

Intro:

People today place their trust in all kinds of things.

Money / Political parties / Friends / jobs / education etc.

Some of these things can give us a measure of security and are gifts from God.

Yet ultimately all of these things are unreliable.

The Lord Jesus Christ however is Totally Reliable.

Context:

Chapter 8 -

V1 just after the sermon on the Mount. Large crowds follow him.

V2-4 a man is healed of leprosy, by a word

V5-13 the faith of the centurion, Jesus heals his servant by a word.

V14-15 Peters mother in law is healed by a touch.

V16-17 many come in the evening to be healed

V18-22 about to get into the boat and some disciples want to follow him.

Jesus spells out the commitment that is required.

V23-27 they get into the boat. A storm comes but Jesus is asleep. Disciples wake him up to save them. Jesus questions their little faith and then calms the storm. The disciples are astonished!

The great lesson of this passage is the total Reliability of Jesus in all the circumstances of life!

1) The Worry: v23-25.

V23 “Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him.”

The starting point is a great picture of true discipleship! V23.

Jesus gets into the boat first.

Getting into a boat always involves an element of risk!

Then the disciples follow!

This is where adventures begin in the Christian life.

Following Jesus is all He are asks us to do!

And it is what we must do always!

We can’t let anything get in the way of following Jesus, no matter the cost! V18-22.

Roy Keane has launched a tirade against footballers, accusing them of letting their wives and girlfriends, or WAGs, dictate which team they play for based on which cities have the best shops and nightlife. "What is your priority? Your wife and her shopping, money or your football? Unfortunately, that's what is influencing a lot of footballers' decisions, ” Keane said. The Sunderland manager attacked “weak” footballers who don’t make sport their top priority. “These so-called big stars are people we are supposed to be looking up to. Well, they are weak. They are soft.”

Next there is a dramatic change to the picture of discipleship.

“²⁴ Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.”

This verse sets the scene as to the situation the disciples now find themselves in.

All they have done is follow Jesus onto a boat and now look what has happened!

“a furious storm” the word for storm is the same word for earthquake!

Basically we are being told that the whole boat was being shaken and rattled about!

They were in the boat and now the sea was getting into the boat too!

The waves were crashing over the sides of the boat!

Now the amazing thing about this is that “He was asleep!”

This comment is just tucked in at the end of the sentence.

The best way to avoid sea sickness is to just sleep through rough stormy conditions!

But I don’t think that is what Jesus was doing.

He was asleep simply because he was tired!

He had just spent the whole day ministering!

Hundreds of people were looking to him for help in their troubles.

He had been healing and preaching and now he was asleep.

Enjoying the blessed sleep that comes after a hard days work.

The doctrine behind this is the full Humanity of Jesus. He was a man just like us. He needed to sleep!

So that is the situation for the poor disciples who have happily followed Jesus into the boat. There is this great storm and the only one who can help is asleep!

Obviously the only thing to do would be to wake Jesus!

^{25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"}

A perfectly natural and realistic response to their situation.

First they had followed Jesus onto the boat, now they were going to Him for help!

How do you respond to difficult situations?

The disciples are forced into a corner they can do nothing but turn to Jesus!

The follower of Jesus is always to act like that! Turning to Jesus at every moment.

“1 Peter 5:7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.”

2) Next we see the Word

^{26 He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"}

Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.”

The first thing Jesus does is question them. A Word of challenge, to provoke thought!

Why were they so afraid?

Because they were going to die! They were afraid of death.

But Jesus wants them to see that there is no need to be afraid in the life of discipleship to Jesus!

Even in the face of death - the disciple need not fear!

We need to analyse our fears and ask - why are we so afraid!

Secondly Jesus highlights the source of their fear:

“you of little faith” - is one word in the Greek. Used 4 times in Mat’s gospel.

They were afraid because their faith was not big enough to consider that even in this circumstance Jesus might be in control!

Only after Jesus has made these point does he move to change the situation!

In fact only after he has made his point does he “get up.”

All else is raging round and about him but he is a picture of perfect peace and tranquillity!

He “rebukes” - that is commands. A Word of power.

And the great sea rage, becomes a great sea calm!

Often as disciples we have to learn what the problem is with our faith before the situations are changed for us.

Why is that the case? Because Jesus is interested in the kind of disciple you are becoming. He wants you to learn and to grow. Jesus wants mature disciples!

The kind of disciples we are becoming is more important than the trials and troubles we face!

3) the Wonder / Worship.

^{27 The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!" ”}

The disciples followed Jesus onto the boat. Thinking he was a great man.

But they had not faced any real moment of trial with Him.

They possible thought he was quit simply a prophet sent from God.

But now they see there is more to Him than that.

He has sovereign power over the winds and the waves.

They begin to see that Jesus is utterly reliable and trustworthy.

That leads them on the path of wonder and worship!

As followers of Jesus today, we too need to learn that lesson! Jesus is utterly reliable in every situation!

What are you afraid of?

Grow in faith by trusting in Jesus instead of fearing!

Conclusion:

We have in this passage, Worry that leads to a Word that leads to Worship!

Take your Worry - put it under the spotlight of the Lords Word.

Ask why are you so afraid. Consider you faith, apply your faith by trusting in the Lord with your worry.

And then Worship. See Jesus for who He is. The Sovereign One. Then Wonder and Worship.

Evening Service 19^th Aug 2007

Judges 15:18

Intro: there is nothing more encouraging than answered prayer.

It testifies to the reality of God. It encourages our faith. It leads us to worship.

The bible contains many prayers that are meant to for us to read and learn form and pray about ourselves and put into practice in our own faith! So what can we learn from this Prayer of Samson?

Context:

Judges 14:4 His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.

The Lord was raising up Samson as Israel’s leader, saviour from the Philistines.

Through his marriage to the Philistine woman this whole dispute arose.

- she wept for the 7 days of the wedding feast because the Philistines were pestering her for the answer to the riddle. Samson eventually told her - she then told the others.

Ch14v19 he leaves his new wife in a huff!

Ch15 - some time later he goes back to her only to find she had been given to another. In a rage he goes out and burns up their crop fields that were ready for harvest.

In response the philistines go and kill his wife and her family!

Then Samson takes revenge for this and kills many of them v8.

Then the Philistines go to Judah to get Samson.

The men from Judah hand over Samson.

Then he kills a thousand of them with a jaw bone of a donkey v15

Then we come to the text.

“Judges 15:18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"”

He is thirsty after the battle. What is he to do?

He prays! And here he learns something more of his power!

Spiritually he is a man of power with God! He cries out and God listens and answers.

1) 3 Reasons for prayer :

A - He was in great need - “very thirsty”.

He kills a thousand men with his hands and here he is humbled.

On his knees about to die of thirst! Such a powerful man, yet about to die!

His strength matters little at this point! He has been humbled.

Whatever humbles us is a good thing.

We realise we are lost without Him!

We may have great talents, great strength. But without Gods help we will surely die!

B - this was the LORDs doing “you have given your servant”

When it comes to prayer we need to know that we are in the LORDs will.

Basically that means that we need to be actively obedient to God.

Samson was right in the middle of the Lords will at this point.

He knew that God had given him a great victory.

What a difference this makes to prayer.

We can only ask for Gods help if we are following him.

We will never have Gods help to be disobedient!

C - the LORDs honour was at stake “must I now fall into the hands of the uncircumcised.” - would God abandon him after such a victory?

If he was abandoned now then people would just have thought what a remarkable man he was to have killed so many!

But they would have not given the glory to Yahweh.

So Samson is able to say: You have led me so far - will you let me down now?

If we are at the LORDs work then we can pray this same thing!

It is his work, it is His Kingdom, will he not come and honour His name amongst us?

Three great reasons for prayer - need, doing the LORDs will and the glory of God.

2) The Request of prayer: give me a drink!

Nothing remarkable in this request!

Our prayer life does not need to be full of great requests for remarkable things.

We can pray for the simple needs of life.

We need to identify our needs and pray about them. What do we really need!

This takes humility: only after we have been humbled will we see what we are really in need of.

“Give us this day our daily bread” - basic needs.

The doctrine behind our praying for our daily needs is the Providence of God.

We pray for our needs relying upon God in his providence to give us what we need.

We don’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, but God graciously gives us all we need.

In the Fall our rights to daily bread were lost!

Our sins still deprives us of so much that is good.

Yet Graciously God still provides and still asks us to ask Him!

more deeply: this was not just a prayer for basic needs, this was a prayer for life saving intervention!

more deeply than our basic needs we can pray for the Holy Spirits empowering on our lives. to save us and enable us to live for Gods glory.

Symbolically in scripture water often represents the Holy Spirit. How we need His power. John4v10 & 14.

3) The Recipient / Receiver of prayer: the LORD / Yahweh. “he cried out to the LORD”

Samson had many failing but when it came to prayer he knew who to address.

Not the false gods of the surrounding nations, but Yahweh.

The Hearer and Answerer of prayer.

Who is it you pray to?

“ ^{Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.}”

This is a challenge to our faith. Do we really believe in God when we pray?

Perhaps it is only when we are in desperate straights that we really cry out to God?

Thus, we need to realise that we are always in desperate need of Gods help, then we will begin to pray!

Conclusion :

Let us pray! If we are to make a difference for God in this place we need to pray.

We have many Reasons for prayer!

We are thirsty for the Water of the Spirit to come and refresh His Gospel here!

Thus, many Requests to make!

And thee Great Recipient to plead with!