Have you ever heard the expression, "Don't rock the boat!" I am sure most of us have. If you are in a small boat it doesn’t take much to rock the boat and cause it to take on water. If you keep rocking the boat you can easily turn it over or sink it by taking on to much water. So, it is much safer not to rock the boat.
We live in society today that demands that you don’t rock the boat. They want you to be politically correct and they don’t want you to offend anyone. This why you don’t call people fat anymore, you call the horizontally challenged and you don’t call people short you call them vertical challenged. We are no longer supposed to use the word man to describe things because it sexist. So, instead of fireman or policeman, we are supposed to say fire person or police person. Instead of calling two men or two women gay we are supposed to say they are simply living an alternate lifestyle. The list could go on and on how our society does not want us to rock the boat. They want everyone to get along with each other no matter who they are or how they live their life because it is safer not to rock the boat.
Unfortunately, this same mentality has found its way into the religious world and the church. Some Christians today would rather hold hands with every religion that claims Jesus as their Lord even if everything else they do goes against what the Bible teaches because they prefer to have unity no matter what the cost. It is a whole lot easier to agree to disagree with your religious friends than to rock the boat and take a stand for God’s, truth, but the fact of the matter is that our God expects us to be people that rock the boat when it comes to conforming to the ways of the World.
God’s Word is full of examples of Him calling His people to rock the boat by going against what they were used to doing and by going against worldly ways. For instance, consider what God asked Abraham to do in:
Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Have you have stopped to think about how great this request was for Abraham. At this point his father had died, but he was living in a rich city. He knew what to expect and how to provide for his family. Also notice what Joshua says about this in:
Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Your fathers, including Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, dwelt on the other side of the River in old times; and they served other gods.
Joshua lets us know that Abraham grew up in a family that worshipped many gods. This would have been how Abraham lived his life. Now God has spoken to Abraham and made this unusual request. We need to understand that it was unheard of in Abraham’s time for a family to split up and go their separate ways. They relied on each other and worked together and moved together.
God was asking Abraham to rock the boat and trust in Him to go to an unknown place based solely on the Lord speaking to Him. Now that was a hard thing for Abraham to do, but eventually he did it because he was willing to rock the boat. If Abraham had the attitude that many have today, he would have never left his family’s life of idolatry because it would have been the easy thing to do.
What if this had been you instead of Abraham? What would you do? What if God asked you to do something that was outside your comfort zone? Would you do it? Well, if you love God and you trust in His wisdom you should be willing to do whatever He ask you to do.
We all know that Abraham listened to God, and the promises God made to Abraham came to pass, but God was not finished with Abraham rocking the boat because when he was old and finally had a son with Sarah, God decided to test him as we read in:
Genesis 22:1 Now
it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him,
"Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now
your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the
Again, put yourself in
Abraham’s shoes. He had waited for many years to have this son that was
promised by God. God had made it possible for Sarah to become pregnant and give
birth to this child even though she was to old to bear children. Now God wants Abraham to
rock the boat again and offer up his only son by Sarah as sacrifice. Can you
imagine having enough faith and trust in God to do something like this? Well,
Abraham did, but of course would not allow him to actually sacrifice his son
because that it not God’s way.
Since Abraham was willing
to rock the boat, he was blessed and his descendents were multiplied like the
grains of sand.
Rocking the boat is not
always an easy thing to do because sometimes it means that you have to do
things that go against your nature and what you are used to. This is what
happened to the children of
Most of us are familiar
with the story of Moses. He spent his first 40 years growing up in the
Pharaoh’s home until he killed an Egyptian and ran off. He spent the next 40
years as husband, father and farmer. At the age of 80 God asked Moses to rock
the boat by going back to
At first, Moses refused
to rock the boat because he liked his life just how it was. He made excuse
after excuse of why he was not the man for the job, but eventually he can
around and he and his brother changed the fate of the children of
Once the children of
This is what can happen
to new Christian today as well because they began to think back to how they
used to live their lives and they start longing it for it even though they know
it is wrong. Sometime their desire to return back to their worldly ways caused
them to leave God and to stop rocking the boat.
Another challenge the children of
They always say history repeats itself if you don’t learn from it, and this is exactly what is happening today. Far too many Christians have stopped rocking the boat and they have decided to conform to society and with any religious group that claims Jesus as their Lord. If we keep taking the easy the path, we are going to end up just like the children of Israel when they did this, which means we are going to end up spiritually bankrupt.
God is a patient God, but He will not tolerate our compliancy with the world for long. When we choose to stop rocking the boat to be friends with the world, we stop being friends with God. As John says,
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things
in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in
him. 16 For all that is in
the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life
-- is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he
who does the will of God abides forever.
Paul also says:
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Even though our society demands that you not rock the boat, God says that we must when it comes to staying away from worldly ways.
So far we have looked at several OT examples of how God called on his people to rock the boat. Now I want to look at a few NT examples.
The first example I want to point out is conversion of Saul. Saul had grown up being taught to be a Pharisee, and he was the best in his generation at being one. His fellow Pharisees looked up to him. As Paul said, I was:
Philippians 3:5
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;
Pharisees like Saul
viewed Christianity as great threat to their nation, so Saul’s solution to this
problem was to arrest as many Christian women and men that he could and cast
his vote against them, and he no did not mind if these people were put to
death. Again notice Paul description of himself as he stood before king
Agrippa:
Acts 26:9
"Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of
Jesus of
Saul had everything going for him, he was popular and respected. He was at the top of his class. No one would ever suspect that Saul would ever rock the boat and change his ways, but Jesus confronts Saul and wants him to rock the boat as we continue with verse:
Acts 26:12 "
While thus occupied, as I journeyed to
Granted it took an appearance of the resurrected Jesus to motivate Saul to rock the boat and change his ways, but it is amazing that someone that dedicated destroy Christianity would become a Christian himself and an apostle. Even though he had to give up his fame and respect of his fellow Pharisees and face death around ever corner he was willing to rock the boat for the Lord. As Paul declared:
Philippians 3:7 But
what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all
things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I
may gain Christ
How about you? Are you willing to rock the boat in your life and change your ways to the Lord’s way? Are you willing to lose the respect of your friends and family to follow Christ first? When we decide to become a Christian, God’s Word makes it clear that we have to change our lives just like Saul changed his. We have to be willing to put God first even above our parents, spouses, and children. While this can be difficult to do sometimes if we want to be pleasing to God we must learn to rock the boat in this area of our life.
A man by the name Ananias was involved in Saul conversion and Jesus asked him to rock the boat as well as read in:
Acts 9:10 Now
there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord
said in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am,
Lord." 11 So the Lord said
to him, "Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at
the house of Judas for one called Saul of
Ananias was a man who
willing to serve God and do anything for Him, but when Jesus asked him to go to
Saul it caused him to hesitate because he knew Saul reputation. So, Jesus was
asking Ananias to do something that didn’t make any sense to him and something
the he would never consider doing on his own, but Ananias trusted in God, so he
was willing to rock the boat and go to Saul.
Sometimes when we study
our Bibles we find some things that just don’t make sense to us why God would
want us to do certain things. For example, many in the religious world cannot
understand why we don’t use musical instruments in our worship to God, and they
cannot explain why they are mentioned in the OT as part of worship to God, but
they are not mentioned a part of NT worship. When they read passage such
When it comes to topics
like this we must be willing to be like Ananias and accept what God has asked
us to do. Yes, we may be hesitant at first and scratch our head, but we must be
willing to respect the wisdom of God over our own wisdom even when we may not
fully understand why at the moment. How about you? Are you willing rock the
boat and do what God’s Word says even when you don’t understand why? Again if you
love God and trust Him you should.
Our last example this morning comes from Acts 10. At this point in the growth of the church the only people that were being taught and converted to Christianity were Jews and proselytes. As we read at the beginning of our lesson all the families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham in Gen. 12:3. It was time for the Gentiles to be taught the Good News and God is going to ask Peter to rock the boat in his life to do this.
We need to understand that Jews like Peter grew up being taught that it would make them unclean before God if they went into a Gentiles home, and they were taught to stay away from them. This caused many of them to become extremely prejudice of them, but God sent a vision to Peter of a sheet filled with common and unclean animals that came before him 3 different times and the Lord told His to kill them and eat them, but Peter refused because he had never eaten animals like this, but God told him:
Acts 10:15 What God has cleansed you must not call common
Peter was completely
confused and while he was trying to figure out this vision the Gentile men from
Cornelius’ house were making their way to Peter because an angel had appeared
to Cornelius earlier and told him to send for Peter so he could hear the words
that would save him.
Next the Holy Spirit
tells Peter,
Acts 10:19 Behold, three men are seeking you. 20 "Arise therefore, go down
and go with them, doubting nothing; for I have sent them."
This doesn’t help Peter
understand his vision, but he complies with the Lord and goes with the Gentile
men. Now I don’t know at what point Peter began to understand the vision, but
by the time he arrived at Cornelius house he understood because he told them:
Acts 10:28 Then he
said to them, "You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep
company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should
not call any man common or unclean. 29
"Therefore I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. I ask,
then, for what reason have you sent for me?"
Even though Peter did not
fully understand God’s purpose, he was willing to rock the boat and to go to
these Gentiles, which is what all of us should be willing to do for God even
when do not fully understand the purpose of God’s ways.
Next Peter makes a
statement that no other Christian at that time had understood.
Acts 10:34 Then
Peter opened his mouth and said: "In truth I perceive that God
shows no partiality. 35
"But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted
by Him. 36 "The word
which God sent to the children of
All people no matter who they are open to God’s plan of salvation, and we should not show partiality. Instead, we should treat every person as a soul that can be won for God. Even if we were raised up being prejudice toward different ethnic groups, as Christians we must not be prejudice because we are all created in the image of God. This is what Peter had to do.
At first, his fellow Jewish Christians were not to happy about his actions as we read in:
Acts 11:1 Now the
apostles and brethren who were in
Peter really had to rock the boat to follow God this time. He had to go against his ingrained prejudice and even go against the beliefs of his fellow Christians Jews. Again, I ask you the question, what would you do if you were in Peter’s shoes? Would be willing set aside your prejudice and go against those like you to do what God has asked you to? If you want to please God, you should.
I can promise you if you faithfully follow after God and adhere to His Word without compromising with the world, you are definitely going to be rocking the boat quite often. So, while our society says don’t rock the boat, as faithful Christians we have to ignore that plea and be willing to rock the boat in order to remain faithful Christians.
So, I hope this lesson has shown you how God has asked his people to rock the boat on many occasion, and how He wants us to rock the boat instead of compromising with the world for the sake of unity.