Drowning In Difficulties

Matthew 14: 30

In 1891 George W Truett became financial agent for Baylor University in Waco, Texas,
with the responsibility of raising $92,000 to pay the mortgage on the university,
and to save it from foreclosure.
In the company of B.H. Carroll who was president of the university and pastor of the
First Baptist Church in Waco, Truett set out to raise the money from Texas Baptist
to save Baylor University.

On one occasion Carroll and Truett were to speak at a church in a remote community.
They expected a large crowd of well-to-do Baptists to attend the meeting.
But it rained and the crowd was small.
Truett said to Carroll: " Dr. Carroll, of course we will not take a collection from this
small group of people here today.
Don't you think it best to dismiss them, and let them go back to their homes now?"

Dr. Carroll looked sternly at him and said: " Brother Truett, never take counsel of your fears
or of appearances.
Of course we will proceed just as though the tabernacle was full of people.
I will preach, then you will speak to them about Baylor, and take the offering as usual."

Many of us need this advice.
" Never take counsel of your fears."
We look around us and see so many things and situations that tend to frighten us.
We see a wave of terrorism all over our world.
There are murders committed daily in our cities.
There are gang wars in many of our cities.
We read daily of drug dealers and of drug overdose.
The threat of illness, the haunting fear of death, and the uncertainty of life are matters
that we live with daily.
Too often we take counsel of our fears and almost drown with the difficulties of life.

This is exactly what happened to Simon Peter.
Just after the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 Jesus sent the disciples away
to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.
He needed some time alone for prayer, for rest and to recuperate.
While Jesus was on the mountain and the disciples were in the boat on the sea,
a sudden storm came up on the lake.

The disciples were having trouble with the storm even though they were excellent sailors.
Suddenly, they saw someone coming toward them walking on the waves,
and this frightened them out of their wits.
They thought it was a ghost, but the familiar voice of Jesus brought them assurance.

Then, impulsive Peter asked if he could walk on the water to Jesus.
He started walking on the water, and he was walking on the water.
And as he was walking he looked down into the water and his faith failed,
and he started to sink.
He was almost drowned by this tremendous difficulty.
We need to learn what we can do when we're almost drowned by the difficulties
that we face in life.

It is a fact of life that we will face difficulties.
We must expect that difficulties will come as long as we live on this earth.
So, how can we learn to deal with them?

First, we must not focus on them.
This is what Peter did when he was walking on the water.
" But when he saw all the wind boisterous, he was afraid." (Matthew 14: 30)
It was not until he noticed the wind and began to focus on its fury that he really got into trouble.
We must get our difficulties in proper perspective and not to focus them
until they almost overwhelm us.

Then, we must not become possessed with the problem.
When Peter became possessed with the problem of walking on the water in the midst
of the wind and the waves, he began to sink.
As long as he kept his eyes on Jesus, and refused to concentrate on the problem
of not drowning, he was safe.
But when he focused on the problem becoming the important thing, he sank.

When the 10 unfaithful spies reported to Moses that the Promised Land could not be taken,
they were possessed with the problem.
They all acknowledged that it was a land flowing with milk and honey.
They also knew that God had promised it to them.
Their problem was that they were so focused on the difficulties that they took
their eyes off of God.

However, Caleb and Joshua saw the problems, but they focused on the power of God,
and were not overwhelmed by the difficulties.
They gave an optimistic report.
They knew that they could take the land with God's help

Thomas A. Edison was well aware of the problem in making an incandescent light bulb.
He had hundreds of failures, but he refused to give to stay focused on the problem.
Again and again, he experimented with materials for the filament until he found
the material that would work.

When we are drowning in the difficulties of life, there are some things that we can do.
We can face the facts.
We cannot defeat anything by running from it.
We usually know the problem.
Usually, we have properly analyzed and scrutinized the problem.
But we must not let the problem overwhelm us.

Peter faced the facts when he realized that he was sinking.
At that point something positive can be done.

In 1896 B.W.Spelman was elected as the first Baptists Sunday School missionary in North Carolina.
He was told repeatedly that his program for teaching and training Baptists in North Carolina
would not succeed.
This was a matter to which he had given his life.
So, after hours of prayer, Spelman reached for his desk dictionary and marked out
the word, " failure."
Failure did not exist for Spelman after that.

This dictionary that does not contain the word, "failure," is on display at the Dargan Carver Library
at the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tennessee.
He faced the facts, and refused to be defeated by them.

Another thing that we must do is to look to Christ in faith.
Simon Peter took his eyes off the Saviour, and looked at the wind and the water.
As long as he looked to Christ in faith, he was able to succeed in walking on the water.

We may not be interested in walking on the water, but there other difficulties that we must face.
We must face them by looking to Christ in faith.

Saint Francis of Sales once noticed a strange custom in the country districts in which he lived.
He noticed that a farm girl would always put a stick of wood in a brimming pail of water
that had been drawn from the well in the yard.

One day he asked the girl why she put a stick of wood in the water pail.
She looked surprised and answered, " I do that to keep the water from spilling
and to keep it steady."

Writing to a friend later the bishop told this story and then added:
" So, when your heart is distressed and agitated, put the Cross into the center of your heart,
to keep it steady."
-- From William Barclay's Gospel of Matthew

Another thing we must do when we are drowning in our difficulties is to call out to Christ.
When Simon Peter cried, " Lord, save me…" immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand
and saved him.
We must remember when we are drowning in our difficulties that we must call out to Christ.
Jesus has the power to save us from any difficulty that we will ever face.
But we will not experience His power until we call on Him.

Leighton Ford ones said: " Belief is not faith without evidence,
but it is commitment without reservation."

At times the difficulties of life will seem so great that we fear they will drown us.
In times like those we must call on Jesus to give us the strength and help that only He can give.

Sermon by Dr. Harold L White