When Your Raft Turns Upside Down 7/8/03
Psalm 118:24
Zach and I went on a white water trip last Thursday on the New River. We had a very interesting experience that I will be sharing with you today. When I finished the trip, I thought, well at least I got a few good sermon illustrations from it. But when I prayed about what to preach on this week, God told me, I didn’t give you a few illustrations, I gave you a sermon. So here we go.
Upon our arrival, we were handed waiver forms and told to fill them out. We were notified that the trip might have to be canceled. Tropical storm Bob had raised the water level to 12’ and any higher was the cut off for any trips of this sort. We went to get fitted for our PFD (personal floatation device) and get our helmets and paddles.
Loading up on the bus, Zach and I were excited about our first raft trip. We sat on the first seat of the bus, and listened to all the reasons we shouldn’t go due to the dangers for our 20-minute bus trip.
We got paired off and assigned our boats. After a few command strokes and introductions, we were set. But then they called for our boat to come back to shore. Zach and I were pulled out of our boat and assigned a new raft.
On our raft was a father, his 15 year old son, and his 15 year old nephew (all from out of state) A mother and her 15 year old daughter. The mother was actually accused of being my wife. Her and her daughter was pulled from another raft also, so we all entered the raft together. During a conversation on the raft, the guide told us that his brother worked at “Bubba Gumps” in South Carolina. I said that I had eaten at the one in Hawaii and really like the food. The asked the woman if she like it and she said that she didn’t know. They then accused me of not taking her with me, (thinking that she was my wife) and she informed them that she didn’t even know me.
As we went around with our introductions, the dad was a VP of a large corporation and the mom was a business owner’s wife and was scared to death. This was her first time white watering and she had heard the same horror we had heard and wasn’t sure if she should be going. I tried reassuring her with my introduction of my employment. I told the group that I was a sales rep and a pastor and that I hoped that would give her some comfort. Her reply was that didn’t help; it only meant that everyone else would be thrown from the boat.
And that is where the story really begins, but first let me share with you some things that God reviled to me with the beginning of our story.
The first thing is that we all are on a journey. From the time we are born to the time that we die, we are or a journey. Now we have choices to make on our journey but the biggest choice is to accept Christ or not. In the raft trip, I also had a choice. Stay in the raft and live. Get out of the raft and die. When you choice not to accept Christ you die also, never reaching the safety of Heavens shore. You die from eternal separation from God.
Then next thing I thought about is just like there was different people on my raft journey; you too will have different kinds of people on your journey. No one is the same and nobody is perfect.
Then I thought about the fitting for the equipment fitting. Each of us when we receive Christ is equipped for a purpose. God the designer gave each of us the proper equipment to do what he has for us to do. God will never ask you to do anything that He does not provide you the means to do it.
One of the key factors of rafting is the coordination of the rowing. Like my instructor said, it’s called a paddle for a very good reason. It’s is important that we all paddle and according to the commands of the guide. Do know what happens if only the people on one side of the raft paddle? The raft just goes around in circles, never getting anywhere. Do you know what happens when you don’t have the unity in a church? You just go around in circles, not going anywhere. We all need to work together to get though the rapids in this life.
The next thing was a misconception. She felt because I was a pastor that I would be the only one left in the raft. But the truth of the matter is that bad things can happen to good people. Just because you are living the proper life doesn’t mean that you won’t have your raft turn upside down. Because, as we get back to my story, that is the thing about it. No one really did anything wrong. But our raft flipped. So let’s get back to the rest of the story.
Raft flipped; I was under the raft; I crawled out; went up for air; Hit by another raft; Came back up and caught a glimpse of Zach; Went to another raft; Drug under that raft; Came up again and was a bumper pad off a rock; finally pulled in the raft.
One of the things that I learned through this is that you need air to breathe. Just as people need air to breathe for life; people need the Lord, (as Teresa sings) for life also.
John 6:51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
There are people dying everyday and we need to be doing our best to make sure that we are doing every thing that we can to lead them to the Lord.
Now in our life, when we get out of one storm don’t think that there might not be another one to knock you down. Some one gets sick and at the same time, another dies. There is no minimum or quota for the amount of tragedies that one has to go through in life. He says He will be with us and not give us any more than we can bear, but never does He say that we will be exempt when we hit our quota on tragedies.
John 16:33, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Greater is He that is in you, then He that is in the world. Trust in God
The other thing that I thought of is we you see another person down, pull them up. If they had pulled me into the raft, it would have saved me a lot of suffering. Also when I was hanging on to the raft it kept them from paddling, and they could have gotten hurt also. My point.
When some one is down or hurting we as Christians need to pick them up.
Ecclesiastes 4:10, For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
What happens in most cases is that we see someone down and we kick them. We talk about them; we judge them, when what we need to be doing is picking them up.
Another thing that struck me is that while I was hanging on for dear life, they were not able to paddle. When we don’t pick up, lift up, and encourage others, we also are not able to paddle causing us to drift from our relationship to God.
Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? A man on his way to Jericho and fell among the thieves who left him for dead. A priest went by him and went to the other side; a Levite did the same. It was a Samaritan, an out cast not a religious person who came and lifted him up and took care of him. He bandaged his wounds and set him on his own animal and took him to an inn. He then left money for his care afterwards. He lifted him up when he was down, and Jesus said in Luke 10:37, “Go and do like wise”.
Now back to the story. When Zach and I reunited again, Zach I could tell had a rough trip also. He went though the whole section of rapids out of the raft. He and I both were spitting out the water that we had swallowed. We waited for the rest of our group to return to the raft and then we had a good more of rapids to go through yet. I asked Zach if he was OK as the guide was giving a pep talk before we entered into our next set of rapids. His reply, “Dad, I just want to go home”. I know how he felt. That is what I was feeling. But looking around, that was not an option. To get where the bus was, we needed to finish the course.
The Lord told me here that so often people will get discouraged and down and they just want to go home to be with the Lord, or if they don’t know the Lord, they just want to end it all.
If you are here and you are a Christian, don’t give up and want to go home. That is selfish on your part. When God is done with you, He will decide when to take you home.
The guide noticed our lack of paddling and informed us that, he knew that we were probably dramatized by our incident, but to make it though the rapid he needed everyone to paddle. Jesus doesn’t want us to give up, He still has a work for us to do so let’s do it.
My last point and the most difficult one was that after being flipped, I knew how that I was suffering and knowing that if I was having this much difficulty that Zach was too. Knowing that Zach was suffering and I was the one who had put him in this situation was the toughest.
God put His Son though so much more suffering then Zach and I had gone though. He knew what His Son was going through and yet He did it because He loved you and me. I got just a small glimpse of what God went through and it made me realize how much He loves you and me.
