Welcome Jesus Into Your Boat Series

Over 100 people have signed up for Grace Groups. And those of you who are in those Grace

Groups already know what we're going to talk about today because you've already prepared

yourself. You've already studied what's going to take place in John 6.

It's a story about a storm. It's a story about Jesus walking on the water and the disciples

welcoming Jesus into the boat. That's the story that we're going to look at. As we do, we're going

to learn about some very specific things about our own lives. That we have some challenges in

our own lives as well. So when we see these storm passages like these in the Bible, we learn

from them how we can apply the biblical truths to our own lives as we face storms on a daily

basis.

In order to understand this, I want to help you understand a little bit more about the weather and

about geography. As we get into the weather of just how a storm is created, let me explain to you

what happens in a storm. Some of you already know this. If you have warm air and the cold front

comes through, then the cold air (because it's heavier) goes down underneath the warm air,

forcing the warm air up, creating these magnificent clouds and often rain, and we have a storm.

Now the intensity of the storm is often determined by two things. One is how fast the cold front

is coming in. And secondly, by the difference in temperature between the cold air and the warm

air that's going up.

Now, if you know that information about storms in general, then when you come to this idea of

the storms on the Sea of Galilee, remember that the Sea of Galilee is the lowest freshwater lake

in the world. It's 700 feet below sea level and it's hot there. And of course the water and the air is

rather humid. Now the cold air comes in. When a cold front comes in, it comes speeding through

the mountain passes that are there. So it's accelerated through this tunnel effect, through the

mountain passes down onto the Sea of Galilee, causing the warm air to rise. And because it's

coming in so quickly and the temperature difference is so great, we can have violent storms on

the Sea of Galilee. Sometimes the waves on the Sea of Galilee are reported to be about ten feet

high. That's pretty high.

Now here's what we know about storms. When these storms come through, they are unexpected,

they are threatening, and they are dangerous. Now we take those ideas and apply them to our

own lives. Because there are some times when we're just rowing out on life or just doing our

thing, we all like to go down to… There's something that about bodies of water that attracts us.

And so we go down to the shore, or we go by the lake or a stream or a river. We just like being

there. There's something about that that's very peaceful and relaxing. Just like in the Christian

life, as Christians, we, for the most part, should be experiencing a lot of joy and peace in our

lives. But then storms come into our lives. These storms are sudden, unexpected, they are

threatening, and they're dangerous. They're dangerous in the sense that they threaten to cause us

to be off balance. Something is threatened. Our livelihood’s threatened, our marriage is

threatened, our health is threatened, something is threatened. And so these storms create a

problem in our lives. So we need to know how to respond to them.

In essence, this is what I would suggest is not just a problem for those who are facing a storm

right now; this is something we all need in our Christian lives. Because this is a call that the

Bible gives us for all of us. There's a sense of peace that we are called to in our Christian lives.

It's part of our calling that we see and God has given us this calling in regards to our peace.

Let me show you some verses. Before we get into our passage today, look at Colossians 3:15. It

says this: And let the peace of Christ rule (or reign) in your hearts, to which indeed you were

called. You were called. We were called to peace. That means if you get up in the morning and

you have a to-do list you want to get done, then the first thing on your to-do list is peace. So

when you put your feet on the ground and you start feeling those aches and pains, you don't start

going into negative territory, you say, “The peace of God needs to reign in my heart today.”