Afraid? (CC)

Good Morning, Everybody. [Good Morning, Pastor] How is everybody today? [Good] Are you awake? [Uh-huh] Ah, uh-huh. Kind of one of those mornings, isn't it? So! What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of anything? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of anything? Ariel. [Sharks] Sharks. I just saw on the news this morning that there was someone off of ... uh ... the East Coast, far away from us, on a sufboard and a 12 to 15-foot shark bit a hole in his surfboard. Sharks can be frightening. Anybody else have anything they're afraid of? William? You're not afraid of anything in the whole world. Yes, William. [A tornado hitting our house] A tornado hitting your house. That would be frightening. Yes it would! Yes, Jenna. [Lightening] Lightening. That would be frightening, too. In The Purple Bag we have an interesting thing this morning. Who would like to see what the interesting thing is this morning? Ariel? Ariel? It's in there. [It's a candle] Are you afraid of it? [No] Why not? [Because it's just a candle] [No] Why not? [Because it's just a candle] The candle can do nothing to you. [Well, if you ... drop it, it could make a big fire] It could burn your house down. Instead of worrying about lightening, here we have a little candle that could burn the house down. But, if you're afraid of the dark, you could light the candle and then you wouldn't be afraid of the dark. You could put it on a birthday cake ... ... if you were 1 year old. Or if you turned 39 for the fourth or fifth time and you just wanted to fool people. Because can you imagine if we put 50 candles on Pastor's birthday cake? Burn the house down. [Murmuring and giggling] But at least melt all the frosting off the cake. [Laughter] Sometimes we're afraid of things because we know that they have power and that they have strength. Like lightening has a lot of energy and a tornado has a lot of wind-force and a shark ... it's jaws have a lot of power, as well. And in our sermon for today, we're going to hear about a big storm that came up and the disciples were afraid. But who had more power than the storm? Ariel? [God] God has more power than the storm. God created nature. God created lightening and tornadoes and sharks. And He created us. And He loves us. So when we're afraid or we doubt, we go back to the fact that God is always there with us. He saved us from our sins. He made us His own children. So we don't have to doubt that He loves us, or that He's gonna care for us or that He's going to protect us. When those things come along that make us afraid, we have to turn to Jesus; we have to turn to God. Because He knows, that we're afraid and He's gonna listen to us and He's gonna give us insight and understanding, so that we'll know what a shark looks like when it's coming at us. We know that we don't stand out in the yard with a golf club that's metal during a lightening storm. And if you're in a place where there are tornadoes, you learn what you have to do when a tornado's gonna come. And how to stay safe. That's one of the ways that God keeps us safe. But He can also use His miracles if He wants. Because He's God! And He's stronger than us. And so we are going to remind ourselves to not doubt and to trust Him. Anyone have any questions? So ... we remember to always remind ourselves ... to trust God. You guys can go back to your moms and dads and we'll join together in our Hymn-of-the Day: Hymn 428.