SERMON | Lord, Save Us
Scripture: Matthew 8:23-27
And when Jesus got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but Jesus was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?”
Questions
What?
1) How’s everyone doing? Check in with the group.
2) What does the word “save” mean when you use it in a daily way? What does it mean to you when referring to Jesus? How are those different or similar?
So What?
3) Jesus and his disciples are caught in a pretty nasty storm. It is there where they realize their dependence on Jesus as their savior. Have you ever learned something in a metaphorical or literal storm that you couldn’t have realized on a calm day?
Now What?
4) The disciples probably tried for a while to keep the boat from being “swamped” by waves on their own to no avail. Where in your life are you trying but realizing that your control has run out? Where is it that you ask for God to walk beside you? To save you?
5) How does Dawn’s story of Sherryl resonate with you? Has there been a time where you were afraid and Jesus acted through a stranger or friend?
6) As most people know, there are times when we ask for God’s salvation and it does not come in the manner of how we ask it. The cancer isn’t healed, the child doesn’t live, the marriage doesn’t last…. What does this reveal about who God is and how God might view salvation?
Prayer
Lord, Save us. It is the simplest prayer we can utter. It is the most necessary prayer we ought to say. Save us in our weakness. Save us in our anger. Save us in our anxiety, our fear, our failure. Remind us that you are in our boat, feeling our feelings, knowing our thoughts, and calming the storms of our lives and this world before we are even aware. Thanks be to God. Amen.
“Faith is something we profess. It’s what we sing. It’s what we pray. It’s what we exhale in moments of crisis or in the moments of relief right afterwards..”
—Rev. Dawn Hyde