HIGH TIDE & LOW TIDE
Job 38:8-11
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. It sounds like a made-up story, but it’s true. Some years ago a church in Carter County, Tennessee had an attorney draw up a deed for their property. He wrote the deed naming The Lord God Almighty as the owner.
2. That was fine until some years later the church wanted to sell the property and relocate. They went back to the same lawyer. He said it would not be a problem. The court could issue them a new deed. But as part of the process of writing such deeds, it is necessary that it be determined that the previous owner could not be found.
3. So the Sheriff was given the papers to sign. He swore that “The Lord God Almighty was not to be found in Carter County, Tennessee.” The newspapers picked that up and saw in it a story. The headline read, “Lord God Almighty Not to Be Found in Carter County.” (The article went on to say that His Infernal Satanic Majesty, however, could most certainly be found in Carter County, Tennessee.) [Robert Shannon, Preaching; March/April 1998]
4. We’re going to see that there’s no place where God is not!
B. TEXT: Job 38:8-11
8 “Who shut up the SEA behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, 9 when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, 10 when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 11 when I said, “This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt?”
C. THESIS
1. This refers to the third day of Creation, when God said (Gen. 1:9), “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and it was so.”
2. We’re going to look at the tides and the turbulence which affects the world and see how it parallels the turbulence that comes to our lives. We will find that the same God Who rules the one rules the other!
3. The title of this message is “High Tide & Low Tide.”
I. TIDES: OF OCEANS & OUR LIVES
A. IMPORTANCE OF TIDES
1. 71% of the surface of our world is covered by water. There are 324 million cubic miles of water. That’s a lot of water!
2. The term “tide” is a generic term used to describe the movement of sea/ocean water as it is affected by the gravitational forces of the sun and moon.
3. For those who stay and work on LAND, the movement of the tides has little influence. But if you work on or near the OCEAN, the tides are very important to include in all your calculations.
4. If you’re a navigator on a Navy ship, or you’re building a bridge, or you run a fishing boat, or even if you just go surfing – the tides must be taken into account.
5. There’s a lot of variation in tidal rise. The smallest amount of tidal rise in the world is in the Mediterranean Sea – only one foot of rise. The greatest amount of DAILY rise is in Canada in the Bay of Fundy, which rises and falls 56 feet every day!
B. GOD LIMITS TIDES
1. Job 38:8-11 tells us that from the beginning of the world, God spoke to the oceans and gave them decrees & laws. God set limits which the waters can’t pass.
2. The same thing is true of our lives. Life has its seas and turbulence, it’s ups & downs. There are times when everything is going right and other times when it seems that everything is going wrong.
3. The good news is that God has set limits – God has given orders to the variables of life – the highs and lows. 1 Cor. 10:13, “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not [allow] you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
4. GOD HAS LIMITED THE STRENGTH AND FREQUENCY OF WHICH THE DEVIL CAN TEMPT US! GOD HAS SET LIMITS THE DEVIL CANNOT PASS! PTL!
II. GOD WILL NOT LEAVE YOU AT LOW TIDE!
A. LOW TIDE WILL HAPPEN TO ALL OF US
1. Remember this – God will never fail you or forsake you. You may be at a “low tide” situation. Remember – it can’t go any further down, but it IS going to come back up! Someone said, “If you want the rainbow, you’ve got to put up with the rain!”
2. Don’t quit or become discouraged. Don’t say, “I’m stuck in a bad situation. I’m stuck on a sandbar and can’t get off!” It might be your HEALTH that’s gone out; it may be your FINANCES, or your RELATIONSHIPS that are effected, or your WALK with the Lord. Remember – the tide is coming back in! Your “boat of life” will get moving again!
3. God comforted us in Isa. 40:31; “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
B. EVERYONE HAS HIGH & LOW TIDES
1. The devil will tell you that other people only get the high tides, while all you seem to get are the low tides. Don’t forget: tides are UNIVERSAL. But God sets the limits for the tides; “This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt.”
2. Don’t leave the “boat of faith” at low tide! Look at Job in the O.T. In chap. 1 – the tides went out on his life. Forty-one chapters went by – but finally in chapter 42 the tide of his life started coming back in. Don’t give up at low tide!
C. BIBLE EXAMPLES OF HIGH/LOW TIDES
1. Naomi was in a drought. She lost her husband and both sons. She had no family, no money, and no home left. The tide had gone out of her life. She despaired, she wanted to die. But God gave her an anchor to hold onto: her daughter-in-law Ruth. In due time God sent the tide back in and Naomi became the great-grandmother of King David!
2. Daniel was living righteously for God but he had many enemies. They plotted against him and framed him in violation of a trumped-up law. His tide went out. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by lions & was thrown into the lion’s den. But guess who was there in the lion’s den? The Almighty!
3. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lion’s den or a fiery furnace – God knows how to get you out! He can get you out of the whale’s belly!
4. Peter was arrested by Herod and put in the inner prison and chained to 4 guards. Do you think God was worried about that? NO! People began to pray. God said, “That’s enough! Let the tide come back!” God gave all the guards some Sominex and put them to sleep. Then God sent His angel and woke Peter up and escorted him out of prison.
III. GOD’S POWER OVER ALL OUR PROBLEMS
A. GOD'S POWER OVER THE BIGGEST THINGS
1. The sea strikes our imagination chiefly because of its vastness, yet God is in control of it. If God can control the greatest things, then He can control the great things in your life.
2. Water is one of the most simple and seemingly harmless things in nature, but in vast quantities it gains strength. The little trickle swells into a roaring torrent. Waves mount up as mountains with deep valleys in between.
3. Yet the sea is under God's control. Nothing is too strong for God. Nothing and no one can escape his authority: Kings and presidents, men of genius, the great organizations and nations – all are subject to God’s rule.
B. GOD IS OVER THE MOST TURBULENT
1. Nothing is so wild and untamable as a storm at sea. Super Typhoon Tip was 1,379 miles (2,220 km) across (that’s HALF of the USA in size). Nazare, Portugal has recorded Atlantic waves as high as 78-feet. Norway has recorded a rogue wave that reached 84-feet in height! (can you imagine riding a ship up an eight story building, over & over again?)
2. But OUR GOD rides upon the storm and rules over the wild tempests of human emotion, upheavals, revolutions, and disasters, etc. He’s able to turn all things to good and bring victory out of defeat!
3. When black clouds gather and wild waves rise on the sea of the nations, remember that there’s One who rules over all!
C. GOD'S RESTRAINS WHAT’S MOST CHANGEABLE
1. Lastly, God restrains what is the most changeable. No matter how fast human events change, God is not behind them, but before them. God isn’t caught off-guard by technology, space travel, or medical breakthroughs.
2. They’re all limited and under God’s restraint. So is it with the alterations of our lives; they are restrained by the providential care of our Father!
3. Our protection is from the Lord! Unless the Lord keep the city, the watchers watch in vain. “If the Lord had not been on our side, they would have ridden over us!” But God IS WITH US and shall give us victory over every adversary!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A shipwrecked sailor who had spent three years on a deserted island was overjoyed one day to see a ship drop anchor in the bay. A small boat came ashore, and an officer handed the sailor a bunch of newspapers. "The captain suggests," he told the sailor, "that you read what is going on in the world and then let us know if you want to be rescued." [Anonymous]
2. Booker T. Washington said, "Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."
3. DENSE FOG FROM SMALL PROBLEMS
a. According to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of less that one glass of water. That amount of water is divided into about 60 billion tiny droplets. Yet when those minute particles settle over a city or the countryside, they can almost blot out everything from your sight.
b. Many Christians today live their lives in a fog. They allow a cupful of troubles to cloud their vision and dampen their spirit. Anxiety, turmoil and defeat strangle their thoughts. Their lives are being “choked by the cares of this world” (Luke 8;14). But “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline” (II Tim. 1:7). Let’s not let the fog get us down! “Let’s live in the Sonshine! The Paper Pulpit
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you would admit to having had a “low tide” moment in your life lately?
2. How many are facing a big storm or turbulence in your life and you’d like some prayer?
3. Are you here tonight and you’re not sure that, if you died tonight, you would go to heaven?
4. All who raised their hands stand and let’s pray.
[This is a rewrite of Gary Chapin’s message of the same title.]
