It is always great to share God's Word. It is especially good this evening. I don't know why, but I can feel it. Oh, it is so sweet to share God's Word.
I have had a lot of good things happen to me in the ministry in the years that I have served the Lord. The Lord has blessed me in many ways. Now, I'm not saying that its all been easy. I hear some of us preachers & Christians get up & talk like we never had a problem in the world. I've had problems, but the Lord has be good in spite of the problems. And the Lord has been faithful thru all of the problems. I praise Him.
I learned a few years ago that all that I am & all that I shall ever have & all I shall ever be is not by my goodness, it is not even by my faithfulness to the Lord, it's by His grace. Now it took me a long time to learn that.
As I approach each week I have what I feel the Lord would have me to preach. It is the work of hours of study & prayer. But I do not stop once a I have a word for a particular week, I continue to pray to God saying in essence, "Lord, what do You want me to preach?" The Lord either says nothing, in which case I know that the last word I heard was correct, or He lays upon my heart another word.
The Lord this week laid upon my heart this passage and so I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew 14 & I'll begin reading with verse 22. I usually, for whatever the reason, do not read a lot of verses in the text, but today, I do want to read down thru verse 33. Beginning with verse 22 of Matthew 14:
Shall we pray: Father, may the meditations of my heart and the power of Your Word be felt today. May the Holy Spirit take & have control, that Your work may be done, & lives may be changed. In the precious name of Jesus we pray. And all of God's children said, Amen.
All of us have had storms come into our lives. If you haven't, sooner or later you will. It's just a part of life. God has not promised us smooth sailing on the sea of life. Sooner or later, storms come. Sometimes it is a storm that involves our health, sickness, disease. Sometimes it can be a storm, that is a financial storm. Everything wiped away.
I remember back a few years ago, about 9, I think. A friend of mine told me of the misfortune that happened down in TN. They had several banks fail. One of these was a Southern Industrial Bank, not protected by the F.D.I.C. And there were, I am sorry to say, several thousands of people, in east Tenn., lost their life's savings. Over night. Completely wiped away.
Here in Indiana, just about 3 years ago, there was a buy out of a financial institution. People had invested their life's savings in that company. Their money was protected by the Federal Government. The parent company convinced these people that their money would be better off invested in the parent company. They failed to tell the people that the money was not protected. Those people lost everything. The interest from that money was to supplement their social security or their pension.
I just buried a woman a few weeks ago who had lost most of her money to a family member who had cheated her out of it.
That's a terrible storm, especially when you are retired and you are living on part of the income from the interest on that savings. What a storm.
Sometimes there is a family storm, the children become involved in things that crush your heart. Separation, divorce. All of those things can become a personal storm in your life and in my life.
Sometimes those storms are very difficult. Sometimes they are very, very painful. And sometimes it seems as if the sun will not shine---- anymore.
Sometimes, death can be a tremendous storm. Oh how the knife of grief can cut so deeply, when someone we love, someone who has been a part of our lives, is separated from us physically. Grief weights heavy sometimes and we walk with slumped shoulders and down cast eyes as we endure the storm of that grief.
I want to say this morning---It is so comforting though, in the midst of those storms, to know and to feel---the presence of the Lord!!! But I must also be honest and say, there are times, in the midst of a storm, the presence of God is not real!!!!! There are times when God seems to be silent. We reach out, to find the hem of His garment and we draw back our hand empty....What do you do, in the moments, when in the midst of a storm, there is no assurance that God is there and you feel empty.
YOU MUST LEARN THEN TO WALK ON THE WATER!!!!!!
Walk on the water. Have you ever done any walking on the water in the storm of your life?
I have 3 simple thoughts concerning this message. First of all I want you to look at THE STORM ON THE WATER!!! Then we want to look at THE SAVIOR ON THE WATER and then finally THE SINNER ON THE WATER.
We will start with THE STORM ON THE WATER. Jesus was up in the mountain praying and He had compelled His disciples to get into the boat and begin their journey across that particular sea. SUDDENLY...as it can, and does happen, a storm suddenly swept down from the Judean hills and moved across that body of water, WITHOUT WARNING, it just came.
Sometimes, that's how the storm comes. SUDDENLY.
Back I'd say about 12 years ago, 2 american young men were killed in Nicaragua...The C.I.A. said they had nothing to do with what those American young men were doing. I'm not here to say yea or nay about that. But it is a strange world and the mother of one of those young men lives about 4 miles from a friend of mine's church. She is not a member of his church, she is a member of the First Baptist Church of Kingston, TN.
But the church was at that time without a pastor. And one of my friend's members called him one morning and said, "Would you go over to Kingston and visit this particular person, I don't know if you have heard the news or not, but 2 Americans were killed and one of those young men was her son. he said he would go. He went to their house, he went in and he tried to talk to her and her husband. And in the midst of her tears, it could never be forgot what she said to him, and I'll quote;
"I never knew that one day could change my life so much..."
My friends, sometimes the storm comes suddenly. We get up & we think it is going to be just another normal ordinary day. Then one phone call can change us for the rest of our lives.
And the storm came....Sometimes the storm is almost out of control. That reminds me of the story I heard of 2 women who were sitting one day drinking coffee. And one of them said, "It was awful, it was awful, it was awful" and the other woman said, "what in the world are you talking about?"
She said, "I was driving down the road the other day and all at once my car just left the road and I side swiped a tree, went up into this person's yard and hit their front porch, bounced off, back out into the road, side-swiped one car and then hit another car and THEN I JUST LOST CONTROL!!!"
I want to tell you something, there are times that storms come and we feel as if we have lost control. We can't seem to find the handle and we cry out, "My God, what am I going to do?" "Where can I turn?" "How can I handle this?"........"God, help me!!!!!"......
There are 2 things that I want you to remember about the storm on the water. ALL STORMS ARE IN GOD'S PLANS!!!! Now listen, I did not say God planned every storm. Because there are some storms that I have brought on myself. I get tired of hearing people blame God and blame the devil for everything that happens to them. There are sometimes that I just make dumb decisions. And I bring things on myself and then sometimes other people bring things on me. But I want you to know that all that happens to us, it is all under the umbrella of the power of almighty God. There is nothing that happens outside of the plan of God!! I'm not saying that He wills it all, I'm not saying that he plans it all---but there is nothing outside of His plans......
Whatever the storm...Jesus knew...when He constrained His disciples to get into the boat...there was that possibility. It was all in His plan...You say, "Preacher, why in the world would a storm be in God's plan for me?"
Well, let me give you 2 answers, there's more, but I have just got time for 2 answers, because I want to get home on time. OK...2 answers...First of all, sometimes God allows storms to come to strengthen us and prepare us for bigger storms.
Could not most of you agree with me, that if someone had told you years ago that you would have to face certain things in your life, you would have said, "I can't do it!!!" But God knowing, has prepared you and taught you and helped you to grow, so when that storm came, by His grace, you endured, you survived, you lived thru it.
Oh how I love to bike. Do you know what I have learned as a result of these years of biking? The only way to make my muscles stronger is to put more pressure on those muscles ....the only way you can learn how to run faster, is to run faster. Slow running will never make you run fast any more than slow biking will make you bike fast. You can run slow for 25 miles and you'll always run slow for 25 miles. The muscle will do no more than what it is ask to do....it will do no more than the pressure that is brought to bear upon it. If the muscle is going to get stronger it has to have greater pressure brought upon it.
Secondly, sometimes God allows the storms in His plan for our lives, so that we might learn more about Him. Some of the fastest growing I have done as a Christian came not when the sun was shining. It came when I was in a storm. Do you hear me....Some of the leaps of spiritual growth have come not when there was an absence of pressure....not when there was the absence of persecution.... not when there was the absence of criticism.....but when I felt tribulation...when the storm was raging in my soul, it was then I grew near to Jesus. Listen to me---Shadrack, Meshack and Abendigo were cast into a fiery furnace. NOT THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL A HOT STORM!!! Do you remember what Nebucanezzer said?
"Did we not cast 3 in there, I see 4, and one of them is like the Son of God?"
Friends, sometimes the only way somebody is going to see Jesus in you is when you are in a storm.
Does that make sense. Amen. Sometimes we have got to get into a furnace......sometimes we have got to have our boat tossed to and fro, before somebody is going to see Jesus.
The storm on the water is in the plan of God. And then I want to share this briefly with you...The storm on the water, during those storms, our Lord Jesus is praying for us. For a long time I just didn't grasp that, but I have come to believe in my study of the Word of God, that When I'm in a storm, I not only pray....the people I share my storm with not only pray...But I have got the High Priest praying. .... He's at the right hand making intercession for me. And I want you to know something....He's not up there walking back and forth on the golden street and God said, "Son, What's wrong? You act like You are worried.".....and He's not up there saying, "Oh, Father, you don't understand ole brother Ferry is down there in a storm and I'm worried to death for him."
Now I may be down here worrying...but my Jesus knows that He's got everything under control. Well, I'm glad I came. (whew) I'll tell you, I wish I was down there taking notes on what I'm saying....Sometimes the Lord just blesses you....Thank you Jesus...Amen...The storm on the water. In His plans & in His prayers.
Now secondly....I want you to look at THE SAVIOR ON THE WATER. There the disciples were in that boat...I don't know, I could just kind of dress this thing up .... and say the lightning was zig-zagging across the sky and the thunder was roaring and a clapping...but I won't, I'll just say the waves were just a tossing that boat and Scripture says, "they were AFRAID!!!"
Now remember it is between 3 & 6 in the morning. I didn't even know the Lord got up at that time.....but He does... between 3 & 6 in the morning...all at once, one of the disciples looks out into the darkness...."Is that somebody out there?" And one of them says, "Jim, you know there is nobody out there." That's James for some of you who don't know his nickname. Alright. "Jim, you know nobody is out there" "I think I see somebody" JESUS IS COMING!!!! AND HE IS WALKING ON THE WATER!!!
Now I want you to notice, the supremacy of Jesus...You say, "Man can walk in space, he did so just a few weeks ago" Yes... "but man can't walk on water". Yes...but THAT man is more than a man...that's God Man coming.
Now I want you to know that when Jesus put His foot out there on the water for the first time...those droplets of water said, "let's just join hands here and hold Him up....for He is Lord.....He is Lord....He is Lord.....He is Lord over us.
So Jesus began a walking on the water. Now I know there are some people who just can't believe that...Now I'm king of like them, like I am about the little boy whose mother had a baby sister for him....and they brought the little baby sister home from the hospital and so the little brother , he notice his little baby sister and then he went outside to play. And one of the neighbor boys said, "Johnny, how do you like your little baby sister?" He said, "She's alright, but she don't have her head screwed on straight or tight"
There's a lot of people when it comes to the Word of God, they don't have their head screwed on right. Brethren, Jesus, 1900 years ago walked on the water. I don't care if you've got Ph.D's after your name or you can't even write your name... Jesus walked on the water. He's Lord....He's Lord.....There He came...so the disciples looking out there at Jesus.
Then I want you to notice the sympathy of Jesus, when He said to those disciples, "Be not afraid, it is I"
Now according to the Greek language, what He said was, "I am". When He said "It is I" it comes from the word which is translated "I am". Don you know what I think Jesus was saying to the disciples? Don't be afraid, I am is here. And whatever you need, I am is here.
If you're hungry, I am the bread of life is here. If you're looking for direction, I am the Way is here....If you're looking for truth, I am the Truth is here...If you're looking for salvation, I am the Door is here... Whatever you need, I AM what you need!!!! Whatever the need, in any storm, Christ walks on the water.
Now there is a beautiful thought. No storm will ever drown Jesus.. ...He's on top of all your problems...Amen. Doesn't that sound good?
He's always on top of the storm!!! And I AM is always there. Whatever the need, look into the darkness of your storm, Because I AM is coming your way.....and sometimes it may take Him a little longer than you may like, but in the fullness of time, I AM will be there.
Now thirdly, I want you to look at THE SINNER ON THE WATER. Peter, in the boat, "Yep, that's Jesus out there walking on the water." Peter looked around and said, "Lord, if that's you, ask me to come?" Jim looked at John and said, "Now he's gone and done it." And Jesus said to him, "Come". Peter threw that big leg, or at least I think he had a big leg, he just threw that big leg over the side of the boat and he started walking on the water.
Other disciples stood there bug eyed....Now I've got something I want to say to you. When Jesus comes to you and when Jesus ask you, to leave your boat, where it is safe and secure and ask you to walk on the water, GET OUT OF THAT BOAT!!! Peter look out and said to himself, "the Lord's out there, the Lord's doing a miracle, I want to be out there where the Lord's doing a miracle. I want to get in on the miracle."
"I don't want to stay here, I want to be out there where it is happening!!!! I want to walk on the water."
I have told churches everywhere I have pastored, in a very kind way, if God every gives us the word to get out of our boat, where we feel safe and secure and comfortable. Boy us Baptist don't like to move out of our comfort zone....RIGHT. I don't like to......I struggle with it......We don't like to move out of the comfort zone, but I told the people, if Jesus is out there doing a miracle, I want to be out there and I don't want to be in the boat. I want to be out there where the miracle is happening.
Now we have got to finish the story...You have to look t the defeat of Peter also. Don't take anything away from him, at least he had courage enough to leave the boat. At least he had enough faith to get out there on the water and by the grace of God he walked on that water. But big waves splashed him across his face (you won't find that in your version of the Bible, but in my sanctified imagination a big splash of water hit him in the face, more like a slap, slapped his face. A big gust of wind tossed his hair and boy there for a split second Simon Peter said, "My Lord, I'm going to drown out here." And he did, he began to go down into the water. Do you know what happened? He got afraid. He got afraid.
Outside of Apathy, one of the greatest enemies in the life of a Christian is fear. I've lived long enough to know that.... It's fear.
We sometimes look at God thru our circumstances and that's fear. Now faith, faith is looking at your circumstances thru God. Put God before you look at your circumstances, don't put God after you look at your circumstances, that's fear. Always look at your circumstances first thru your faith in God.
Fear is like a ball and chain. It has held many of a Christian back. It has held many of a church back. God did not call us to walk by fear, He called us to walk by faith and we don't' even know what that means. WE want to see it before we walk and that's not faith, that's not faith. One of these days I would like to see our church develope a FAITH BUDGET. A budget developed based on what God wants done in our community. Not based on last year's income or last year's expenses, but based on what God is telling us to do in our community. That's a faith budget. Not based on fear and on what we see, but on faith.
Peter began to sink, because of his fear. We won't sink because of our faith, we'll sink because of our fear...Simon calls out "Lord save me." If Peter would have had one of our pious type prayers, he would have drowned before he would have gotten half way thru. No, no, he said, "Lord save me." Jesus reached out, "Simon, why are you afraid? Could you not believe all the way?"
I just want to share this with you tho, I'm coming at this thru the back door. Sometimes it is better to suffer a defeat, that leaves you humble, then to have a victory that leaves you proud. It took me a long time to learn that too.
In closing let me share with you from the last verse again. "Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, of a truth thou art the Son of God."
Yes, Simon Peter failed, but he had faith enough to get out of the boat, and in doing so, he go to walk with Jesus and he got to lead the others into a recognition of Who God is.
You see, it is the water walking people who get the boat people turned around. He walked out there, he was walking out there by himself...he failed....Jesus pulled him up and he walked with Jesus for a while, because you can't teach the boat people until you walk with Jesus yourself for a while.
Get out of the boat.....yes....some will drown in unbelief, you must be willing to fail...some of the greatest successes comes out of a failure. Do you want to be where a miracle is going on? Well, it's out there on the water where Jesus is. Let's pray.
