Thank
you GEMS for leading us in worship this morning! Your GEMS theme
for the year is really challenging, in a good way. Your theme Walk on Water
calls us to trust deeply in God and look to Jesus during the good and the hard
times. When I first read your theme of walking on water, I first thought of
Peter walking on the water, so I was really surprised when I saw that the Bible
passage was from Deuteronomy when Israel’s in the wilderness because there’s
not a lot of water in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy
was written by Moses near the end of his life, after leading Israel through the
wilderness for 40 years. Moses remembers how God guided, protected, and
provided for Israel during those years. Often, we see God best when we stop and
remember to see how God was with us, protected us, and guided us. When we remember
it helps us trust God because we’re reminded that he’s more powerful than any
of the things that scare us, he can heal us from the things that hurt us, he
can protect our hearts and souls from things that cause us to doubt God’s
goodness, grace, and presence.
These
verses remind Israel of who they are to God, “For
you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you out of all
the people on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.”
Israel’s special to God; he chose them from all the nations in the world. They’re
ordinary people, they didn’t do anything special to deserve being chosen by
God, but God chose them to show the world who he is. It’s like when you’re
playing a game that involves picking teams. Now you can pick all the best
players so you can win, or you can pick your best friends and have fun, and
hopefully still win, but you pick the girls who are special to you, even if
they aren’t very good because you’re friends. God picks Israel because he wants
to have a special friendship with them.
Moses
reminds Israel how God saved them from Pharoah king of Egypt, how he brought
them out of slavery by defeating Egypt’s gods through the plagues. Then when
Pharoah comes after them with his mighty army to bring them back to Egypt as
his slaves again, God saves them in a powerful way, he leads them through the
sea by pushing the water in the sea back so they could walk through the sea.
When Pharoah comes after them, God lets the water go back over the Egyptian
armies, drowning them, saving Israel again, only our God is strong enough to
defeat any enemy out there.
That’s
who our God is;
“he’s the faithful God, keeping his covenant of
love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”
A generation is about 20-30 years, so God’s covenant of love is going to last
for 20-30,000 years! That’s a long time! The oldest person in our church is
less than 100 years old, so 20,000 years is really hard to imagine. God’s saying
that he’ll always keep his covenant of love with them; that’s a big promise
that includes you and all of us here this morning, and all the people who love God
and follow his commandments. God wants us to follow him out of love; Jesus later
tells his disciples in John 14:15 that “if you love
me, you will keep my commandments.” It’s kind of like your relationship
with your parents and your GEMS counsellors. When they tell you something, you
do it because you love them because they’re here for you; they’re here to help
you, guide you, even protect you when things get hard. God’s not saying he’ll
only love them if they love him back; he’s inviting them to love him because
he’ll always love them, even when they sin.
Throughout
Israel’s history,
especially during the hard times, God shows that he has their backs, as you shared
with us. It’s the same today when times are hard; God’s with you and he’ll help
you through them. It’s hard being a girl today because it often feels like you’re
in a storm and being hit by waves of lies, doubts, and fear. It’s like when
you’re on a ship during a storm and the waves come crashing over the side of
the ship; you can feel it tipping over, you feel scared. But we remember like when
Jesus walked on the water in a storm, he’s in control, the storm cannot hurt
him. Having daughters and granddaughters, they’ve mentioned how it sometimes
feels hard to keep their heads above water as they try to figure out what’s
true, who they are, and why they’re here.
Many
turn to our culture,
or social media, or friends to figure these things out. The problem is when you
turn to our culture or social media, all they do is tell you that you’re not
happy enough or pretty enough, that you don’t have enough, but if you trust
them, they’ll make you popular, pretty, and fill all your dreams if you follow
them or send them money. They don’t love you; they only love your money and
clicks; they’re willing to tell you anything to get you to follow them. They
won’t be there for you when times are hard, when you’re being teased, when
other people tell hurtful stories about you, when friends turn away, or there’s
hard times at home. Your friends care about you, but they’re just trying to
figure things out like you are. This is why we turn to Jesus; he can help us in
our storms to figure out who we are and who we can trust, he’s our lighthouse
we can see even in dark storms.
Peter
writes to people who are struggling and reminds them in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who
called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Peter encourages
them to stand strong because they’re God’s special people. God guides them out
of dark times into his light, his truth, to Jesus who loves so much he took our
sin to the cross.
God
doesn’t give up on us even when we might want to give up on him. This covenant
flows out of his relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when he promises
to be their God and they’ll be his people. God’s there with you during times
when you’re confused or uncertain like Joshua, afraid like Peter, hurt or
betrayed like Joseph, facing danger like Daniel, or when he’s calling you to do
something you’re not ready for yet like Moses, or in exciting times like the
Samaritan woman, or when you need forgiveness in a deeper way like Peter who’s
then called to live for Jesus.
Each
of them learned how powerful and faithful God is. He knows how
confusing and hard things can be at times because Jesus came to earth to live
with us, experiencing the same things we do. When times come when it feels like
we’re in a storm, when the winds are blowing and the waves are pounding against
us, we remember Jesus in the boat with his disciples during a storm. When fear
overwhelmed the disciples, they woke Jesus up from his sleep. Jesus stands up
and rebukes the storm and it calms down. The disciples marvel at how Jesus has
power even over the storm; it’s a reminder to us when the storms of life come,
that we can turn to Jesus and he’ll bring calm and safety into our lives, like
a lighthouse in a storm brings hope and guides us into safe harbours. Moses
said, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is
God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand
generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” My prayer is
that each of you here this morning will confidently face life’s storms head-on,
guided by God’s Word, strengthened by God’s love, knowing that Jesus is with you.
He’s faithful, he can be trusted! He’s with us, and through his presence and
strength, we can answer his call to be his people in our world, helping others
to put their trust in Jesus who can guide them through their storms in life.
I’d like to close with a few lyrics from the song Even If by Mercy Me,
They
say sometimes you win some
Sometimes you lose
some
And right now I'm
losing bad
It's easy to sing
When there's
nothing to bring me down
But what will I
say
When I'm held to
the flame
Like I am right
now?
Oh, give me the
strength
To be able to sing
It is well with my
soul
I
know the sorrow
And I know the
hurt
Would all go away
If
You'd just say the word
But even if You
don't
My hope is You
alone
You've
been faithful
You've been good
All of my days
Jesus, I will
cling to You
Come what may
'Cause I know
You're able
I know You can
It is well with my
soul
It is well
It is well with my
soul
