Two Boats, Two Storms

Really, there's opportunity to share with someone, pray with someone and the miracles happen easily when we gather together. Good morning, church. What we are talking about, right, but it's been cool. Just be on your feet, on your feet, on your feet, on your feet. It's not the size this morning.

All right, if your feet are not busy, you can stand up. But if they are there, you can just... Right, let's just shake the coat off. And do you want to comfortably... Just comfortably take a seat. I'm sure you feel a bit... Slowly sit and you're comfortably seated.

Right? Can you tell us what's more comfortable? Right, if not, we could get a bit of cover clothes around and then you feel chilly. I like the way the children were just... So just remember that we just stood up and then I asked, "And now you're comfortably seated."

That was so easy to do. It felt like a little command, but it was just so easy to do. But now you're comfortably seated. Now in the next few minutes, I'm sure God is going to ask you to do something in this place or in this room. And it may feel comfortable.

It may not feel comfortable being from you. And faith will demand that you listen, but not only listen, but that you obey as well. So I want us to just remember that. How comfortable it is to be ready. And so God will demand that we're ready to take certain steps.

So this morning I just take us down the memory lane of what I'm sure you know and stories that you're familiar with, which involves two boats and two lakes. Popular stories in the Bible. I'll take us first to the Sea of Galilee, a big deep, famously moody lake, you know, surrounded by hills, with lots of wind down the water. And I'm sure in history the story of the Bible, the fishermen on the lake knew, okay, that in that morning the storm was deadly, even by that afternoon. Two storms, same lake.

To read the Bible, quickly go to the book of chapter four. Just to see the very first lake. And I read from verse 35. And it says, "And in the same day when the even was come, it said unto them, 'Let us pass over unto the other side.' And when they had sent away the man who came, even as he was in the ship, also with the other little ship. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.

And it was in the hinter part of the ship asleep on a pillow." And that was asleep on a pillow. Imagine, comfortable, amazing, enjoying the storm. But then there was a righteous storm outside, but Jesus was on the pillow asleep, untroubled, unbothered, unindered. And he arose and rebuilt the wind and set onto the sea, peace be still.

And the wind seized and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, "Why I do so fearful, , have no fear, but they feared exceedingly and said, one to another, manner of man is this, that even the wind and sea obey him. The first of the sea cuts. It was teaching in the crowd way before then. And Jesus, the Bible, once said, pass over to the other side.

Now, is it that Jesus didn't realize what was going on? The logical study, weather forecast, in terms of what happened. Every sea around the sea at this time, it was... people around the sea, a team of people who know what it said, let us pass. Not in the patch. And there arose a great storm of wind and waves beat into the ship.

And so it was now full. So it was not just the waves, just growing around. It was still growing. So there was almost a certainty that if care is not taken by every human standard, you will be afraid. It was into the water already coming in the ship, meaning that at some point it would get heavily soaked and it would start to sink.

And so by every means necessary, this was a great storm. By every definition, it was fearsome. It would be in such situation, it would be afraid. But by human standard, it was a type of "no". No. Because if you're afraid, I don't know how many of us are afraid of rodents.

How many of us are afraid of rodents? We all have different fears, don't we? I remember growing that... [Laughter] and it was traumatic. But it was rubber and I didn't know. So if I compare those little, little fears and the things I can count, they put even up to the storm.

Because there is a rubber snake, and naturally, even if I find the way out, I would still fall somehow out of the house. But the disciples were in the midst of a storm. There was no exit strategy. It was in the middle of it. Our life sometimes brings us in this position, in the midst of the storm, in the middle of it.

And it's not just a storm, and then that you can still find your way out. It's now in the ship, going to sink. What do you do? And here was the master on the pillow, perhaps snoring, in his sleep. And Jesus knew from the beginning, and he was there. But notice one thing.

Already, we'd established that professional fishing and all of them asleep, Jesus was. And Jesus was asleep not because he didn't care. But he had already said to them, "Let us go to the other side of things that will lead us to the destination." Now, but what the disciples didn't know is that the middle of the journey, the storms will come, but the destination is certain. And I do not know the storms that you are in right now.

And you have a prophetic destination. It is certain. You will weather it. Because Jesus, you must speak to the storm. And then the weather. Don't you care? Are you just going to be asleep? Are you going to watch us sink and die? They don't even know if you can swim.

Maybe you can. Because you've learned swimming. Some of us cannot. This is a big one. We will sink. Don't you care? And the way you are smiling, I'm sure you can't say. They're like, they just say, take it, you're a friend. They say, Jon, you need to relax.

You need to relax. And Jesus was there and he looked. He saw fears in their eyes, legitimate by every human standard. But yet he said to them, because you have worked with me for this. And he said, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?

And that was after he told the storm, peace is still. He stepped out of the pillow that he was sleeping comfortable. He told them peace is still. As the miracle happened, now it's a miracle in which the disciples were able to just be watchers. I don't know how many of us watch people get miracles.

I don't know how many of us have seen people get miracles. And it proves that in the midst of that storm, even if it's not your fault, if Jesus could step in, Jesus can always step in for you. So when you have been a watcher or a testifier or you can say that I have seen people because it means certain that if I am in the middle of it, Jesus can step in for me. Because one man's testimony is another man's possibility. But Jesus has not called us only to be watchers.

So in the boats, the disciples, they were telling us one statement, it happened, but their faith were hindered. But in the second incident, which is the second boat experience that the disciples had with Jesus. And in this particular one, there was a difference. They were not just but 1422, and I'll read that quick. And straight away, Jesus constrained him, his disciples, and to get into a ship, remember, he constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him onto the other side while he sent the multitude away.

And when they ascended the multitude away, he went up the mountain to the other side alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And the fourth watch at the night, Jesus went onto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled. They cried out for fear.

Just the way I cried out when I saw that rubber snake. And I walked the entire house. Coming. They said it must be a spirit. They cried out for fear. But straight away, Jesus spoke and said, "Be of good faith." And Peter asked him and said, "Lord, if it be thou, be me come unto thee on the world."

And he said, "Come, one world, come." And when Peter was come out he walked on the world. When he saw the wind burst yours, it was a beginning to sink. Oh, Savior. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and cut him and said, "O thou, wherefore thou doth doubt?"

And when they were come unto the ship, the wind seized and came and worshiped him. And of the truth, "thou art the son of a living God." Now, in this particular instance, Jesus constrained the ship into a ship. The world constrained here. Jesus put them into the ship.

Jesus mandated that they should be on that boat. Into the ship. They obeyed. And so this is because they obeyed, but they were in that storm situation because they obeyed. Now somebody here needs to hear this. A storm is not proof you missed God. you missed God.

A storm is not proof that you missed God. What is a miracle? It would look like, why am I in this situation? Why is it that I am in this level? How... Of it there is God. And so while you are in the storm, just like Peter was destroyed, let your focus be on Jesus because in the midst of that storm, there is still the same one who told you come.

He has not left. Too many voices will rise from your gaze at Jesus. He told you to walk that path. Don't forget I established earlier that he knows the destination before the beginning. Walk this path with me. He knows you will get there. But in the middle, he knows there will be storm, there will be itches, there will be issues, there will be distractions, there will be lots of people, there will be gossips.

Talk about it. Make you feel like you're nothing. They would bring you down. They would make you feel like you cannot do it. But he that has sent you, has said, "Go." Said to Peter. Peter stepped out and his focus was on Jesus. Peter was able to walk unbothered.

Where he changed was Peter, all of a sudden, that fight of the master. And his concentration was on the noise, was on the gospel, was on the whispers, was on the distractions. In the midst of, even if you have left your attention away from the master, I'm saying to you today that the storm, in the midst of the storm, the master has not left, he is there with you. You just need to look back and possibly just say two words that Peter said, "Save me." And the Bible says Jesus stretched out his hand.

His intention was not for Peter to sink. And when Peter was come out of the sheep, he walked on water and he went to Jesus. So in this example, Peter did not walk on water. But he walked on water and he went to Jesus. He came out of the water. And this is about faith.

And immediately Jesus stretched his hand, cut him immediately. And he says he can move a mountain. Now it depends on how you measure faith. And the example was to say that everyone about the mountain, hold on to it because it has a possibility of slipping out of your hand because it's very little. It's very little.

And so if you can have just that tiny bit of belief, it says he can't move a mountain. Peter had little faith. I'm waiting until I gather the entire faith. No. Faith is about starting now. That little faith is believing for somebody and you stay in the corner of your room having faith that God, my neighbor, can encounter for more hard to know you.

It's as little as that and you stay believing. It says you can move a map of the sea. In verse 33, "Into the ship it sees." The wind did not stop. Okay, So the wind will not wait. The storms will not wait. You must keep confessing. When you have the faith, you must confess the faith.

And the very first thing that we must know today, four things. Now Peter, the apostles, me, come. It starts with a word. And Paul says, "So when faith cometh by hearing," and that's Romans 10, 17, it says, "So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God." And so when Jesus, Peter said, "Nevertheless, at thy word," on the net.

Remember at this point, Peter had told and told, but it's at thy word. So faith starts with a word, not wishes and not faith. Something but not have faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things. So this is the difference between faith.

Faith is the question that comes. As God said, come. Because if Peter, let's turn the table around, for instance, if Peter seen Jesus and Jesus had answered and he said, "It is I," he said, "Okay, Master, I'm coming." Now, two scenarios. The first thing Peter said, one word, come.

And Jesus said, "Hey," and he confirmed that I'm not the Spirit. And Peter says, "Oh, Master, what happened?" "I'm coming." In Mississippi there is a study in say, "Come," because Peter could wish to walk on water, but in his face to walk on water. So the wish would not sink.

So there are a number of things we wish for, but we must have a little bit of time. Faith is the engine, is the particular engine that makes it happen. The number two thing is step out while the wind is still blowing. And this particularly, I don't know the wind that is blowing around us. It might be some difficult situation.

But God has told you keep going. And in this story, God is still with them. He was physically present, but there is still yet the storm. And so he has not promised that there wouldn't be storms. No, he hasn't. But what is assured, not only promised, is that I will be there with you all the time.

Is that I will be there with you all the way. And so in the midst of the storm, if he said, "Come out," if he said, "Take the step," "Go," and this is what makes us stand that we know how to deal with difficulties of life. We understand that when it comes, it does not take us to and throw and toss us around. Our focus is on Jesus because we know that the Lord will sort it. Isn't that right?

He is there, He is on the pillow. He is coming to tell the storm to be still. That the master is there. He told us we are going to the other side and the other side we will get to. Maybe many Maybe many of you got lost to pay. You've got little pains here and there in the body.

You've got the clad upon you. You've got friends saying different things about you. But in the midst of that storm, the master, he will not let you sink. That brings me to the word that keep your eyes on Jesus, not on the wind. Keep your eyes on Jesus, not on the wind.

It is very important that you paint when even fishermen and all of those who are professionals studying water and the winds understand that this is fearsome. So is it difficult? But is there an assurance that Jesus is in the boats? Yes, he is. We can see him leave, but the storm came.

He is right there in the midst of the storm. So even when the storm is raging, what the master is saying, because even this is a. He saw the wind. At that time, Jesus and what I was holding him, the same wind, Peter, different focus. And I love what Hebrews 12 verse 2 says.

It says, looking on to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Even if you say his hands are closed. Hey, I like this. Then the words. I don't know the measurements between when Peter was walking and was walking. So in the head, I imagined why Peter was walking that Jesus was stepped out and he had gotten all the way, took the first step, he could walk.

The second step, he could walk. First, he could walk. He was all of a sudden, he knows, oh, that's the politics. What's happening in Gaza? Oh, this is happening. Oh, the world. This is happening. And all of us, almost Jesus there by and by every human standing.

And he was singing. Words save me. Don't be quiet. His hands, he can reach you. Who calls him up? You've got the knee. Wake up in the morning. Take this body and help me. You will not let you sing. I will not let you sing. In course of the week, I woke up one morning just this week and it just felt like I am drained and I am tired.

And so, wake up. You say, "Take it on the man." What Jesus said, that's a way place. The shadow of the old began to cry. The burden was lifted. Now, do I even know what was happening at that point in time? I could not pinpoint why I was trained. And that looks like a season.

Lord, help me. For you today. I don't even know what's still in the midst of it. Jesus is here. And it will not let you fall. So some of us are afraid to step out because we might fall. And the bands start coming up. Let's wrap it up. So today, please, your own votes.

The relationship that you have outgrown, the both can mean many things to different people. It might be a big idea. It may be a big idea. But you know that what you know, that both that you are in, is eating. This has already whispered one word into your spirit.

It will be your choice to heed that voice. Something... If Jesus has said to you, "Come," understand that He will not leave you hanging. I like us to close our eyes while we're seated. Jesus said about something specific. And come, can we go and do this?

It's giving you a command, an instruction. .\ Don't get coldaudio} \ I told you to take a step, take a move, do this for me, do this around you. While our eyes are closed, I'd like us to pray these words together. I know your hands are nearer than my fear, not in faith. I am stepping out in your name, in your... If you are lucky to step out in faith this week, sign, God can see anything to you, around you in our doorstep world, which is our mission.

Take that step, because God is there with