Harbors For Your Soul (Isaiah 40)

Valley View Baptist Church                                                        Pastor Curt Audet

6N656 Route 25                                                                          February 1, 2026

St. Charles, IL  60174                                                                     

“Harbors For Your Soul” (Isaiah 40)

Message 1 # in message series, ‘Harbors For Our Soul‘

BI: God gives foundational reality for us to find comfort for your soul.

41 miles from here and 166 years ago near where the Tower Park in Winnetka is today, just north of Lloyd Beach, the boat slip, and the harbor a shipwreck occurred on Saturday, September 8, 1860.  At about 2:30 in the morning offshore from what the area was known back then as Port Clinton, the passengers aboard the steamship Lady Elgin were travelling between Milwaukee and Chicago.

Two days earlier the Lady Elgin left Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sailing south on Lake Michigan for Chicago, carrying its passengers to hear a campaign speech by Stephen A. Douglas—Abraham Lincoln’s opponent—in perhaps the most consequential presidential election in American history.The passengers spent Friday listening to political speeches and an evening of entertainment by a German brass band on board the Lady Elgin. On the return trip to Milwaukee that night, the brightly lit Lady Elgin was steaming through Lake Michigan against gale force winds heading due north. In poor visibility, she was rammed by a schooner called Augusta. A schooner is smaller sailing ship with two or more masts.  Augusta was sailing using only a single white light on the bow (front), and never attempted to turn to avoid the collision in the fierce winds. The schooner rammed the port (left) side of Lady Elgin, puncturing a massive hole below the waterline.

Water rushed into the wooden-hulled sidewheel passenger steamship.  10 miles offshore from the Winnetka, Illinois harbor she sank that night in Lake Michigan. The passenger manifest went down, and was lost, with the collision. The result was the loss of about 300 lives. One of the greatest marine horrors on record.The disaster remains the greatest loss of life on open water in the history of all the five of the Great Lakes.

Among the five Great Lakes—Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie,

Superior—Lake Michigan is the most dangerous with 1500+ shipwrecks. In 2023 National Geographic produced Ghost Ships of the Great Lakes: Lost Beneath the Waves telling the stories. In Door County (WI) Scuba Tours of Sunken Ships. Of course, the goal is always to not sink the ship.

The secret to avoiding becoming a shipwreck statistic in America’s most dangerous lake is (1) knowing where to find the safest harbors, and (2) getting there before the storms and winds get out of control.

Another secret is to get the hang of the directions when you are on a boat:

Front = BOW

Back = STERN

Left = PORT (loading side)

Right = STARBOARD (steering side)

So what features make the best harbors? What does a wise captain look for?  A ‘harbor’ is a place on the coast where vessels may find shelter from an oncoming storm, from the raging waves of rough waters, especially one protected from rough water by piers, jetties, and other artificial structures:

Features Of A Safe Maritime Harbor

Adequate Depth

Sufficient water depth to accommodate various vessels and prevent grounding.

Sheltered Location

Protection from strong winds and waves, ideally surrounded by natural barriers.

Stable Bottom

A solid seabed to provide secure anchorage and prevent dragging.

Clear Navigation Channels

Well-marked and maintained routes for safe entry and exit.

Lighthouse

Guidance to safety..

Emergency Services

Availability of rescue and firefighting services for quick response.

Communication Facilities

Reliable systems for maritime communication and coordination.

Access To Supplies & Services

Places to retool and resupply.

In our new series, we are looking at “Harbors For Our Soul”.  What am I talking about?  I am talking about the wisdom, the truths, the worldview that is given to us in God’s Word.   As we go about life, we are often facing storms, hard things, confusing circumstances, tough decisions and the fog of sickness and pain.   How do we make decisions that will keep us on course.  Where can we go to gain perspective and clarity. What resource do we have to bring comfort, strength, hope, joy, peace, wisdom?

The Harbors For Our Soul:

Restores

Refreshes

Retools

Rests

Redeems

Reconciles

In Isaiah 40, the people of God went through a hard and destabilizing season of exile.   It was a correction from the hand of their Shepherd, their Father in Heaven graciously leading them.

I. Harbors for your soul brings God’s comfort. (v.1-4) Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. ² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,  and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double [grace] for all her sins. ³ A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up,  and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

II. Harbors for your soul leads you to God’s Word (v.5-8)  ⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ⁶ A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. ⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. ⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

III. Harbors for your soul builds faith on God’s character (v.9-27) ⁹ Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” ¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and His Arm rules for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.

¹¹ He will tend His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs in His arms; He will carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? ¹³ Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows Him His counsel? ¹⁴ Whom did He consult, and who made him understand? Who taught Him the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, He takes up the coastlands like fine dust. ¹⁶ Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. ¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are accounted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness. ¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with Him? ¹⁹ An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. ²⁰ He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

²¹ Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? ²² It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; ²³ who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. ²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when He blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵ To whom then will you compare Me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. ²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?
He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name;

by the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power, not one is missing. ²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

IV. Harbors for your soul depends upon God’s strength (v.28-31) ²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and to Him who has no might He increases strength. ³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; ³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

The Lord is our everlasting God!  Trust Him!

God’s ways are way beyond ours! Get okay with this!

With His strength God strengthens the weak.  Seek His strength!

God’s renews us who trust Him to fly like the eagle! Fly like the eagle!

Each of these things we are talking about forms the best harbors in our lives.   The safe places.  The safe realities.   The foundations we are standing upon.

Let me give you a few of the ‘Harbors Of Our Soul’ that we will be looking at over the next weeks:

• The fear of the Lord leads to living and acting wisely.
• The truth that God created the world stabilizes our view of the world.
• The truth that God created people stabilizes our view of ourselves.
• God’s design of marriage leads to peace and stability in society.
• The existence and engineering of Creation demonstrates God created it.
• Awareness of our greatest need; reconciliation with God against whom we sin.
• God is personal and relational toward people.
• God’s image replicated in two genders stabilizes our insecurities.
• Living however we want in life brings turmoil and confusion.

On Tuesday, January 22, 1929 along the northern curve of Lake Michigan, northwest of Sturgeon Bay there is a lonely lighthouse closed for the season and surrounded with floating plates of ice, many miles from end to end.    To catch a trout for dinner, Lewis Sweet went to shanty he set up on the small Crane Island.   In the middle of winter he could walk across the frozen water and set up for a few hours.  He saw his buddies had the same idea with their neighboring shanties.  Like most days, fishing was slow but the shanty is warm and restful.  Just before he caught his trout through hole drilled in the lake, Lewis’ friends came by telling a storm was brewing and that they were heading out.   Lewis assured them he was right behind.  Minutes moved quickly and a sow squall moved quicker still.  Visibility was changing outside the shanty as Lewis drew in the night’s dinner.  He packed up his gear and proudly march the mile across the ice.

He noticed the ice shelf ice upon which he walked broke loose and became a massive floating sheet of ice.  The gap was already 10’.  Too far to jump.  Not risking getting frozen in the water.  He turns back to follow the ice walk to another way off.   But he found that his shanty was now out of reach.  With an axe and his trout he looked for ways back to the mainland.  None.  Minutes turned to hours, and getting back to his car turned into fighting for survival.   The snow storm was merciless, and temperatures were dropping.  He spent the night embanked under a pile of snow he managed to pull together.  The next day was more of the same with whiteout conditions.  He ended up floating and walked and moving seven miles to the White Shoals Light. At last! The White Shoals Lighthouse was a 100 foot square of concrete island at the opening of the harbor leading to Lake Huron and the Mackinac Bridge.  The Lighthouse was his first stop in a rescue that finally came after seven harrowing days!   

Alone and unaided, Lewis Sweet had come home from the lake! When a man ran to him he put down two things he was carrying the whole time the battered ax that had been dulled by chipping ice off the iron ladder of White Shoals Light, and a big lake trout frozen hard as granite!

Conclusion & Prayer:  The Bible is loaded with the Harbors For Our Soul.   And it all begins with the ‘anchor for our soul’:  Jesus Christ

Sources:

¹ Clark, Dwight. “The Wreck of the Lady Elgin” in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, p. 410-411, December 1946.

² “I Became Trapped on an Ice Sheet in Lake Michigan — and Survived Against All Odds” | www.outdoorlife.com/survival/frozen-terror-lake-michigan/