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Holding On To Heaven, When Hell Is On Your Back!
Contributed by Jarrod Bottley on Jul 7, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon was written to elaborate on how when you are trying your best to be a christian and live up to the true creed of being Christ like, but Satan always attacks you and provokes you to do otherwise. But Greater is He who is in me than he that is i
Look at your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, I hope that you came to praise God. Empty your mind of worldly things and put your mind on Heavenly things and give me a high five because i am ready to be blessed!"
The setting here is at the Sea of Galilee, a lake only eight miles wide. The lake is situated 700 feet below sea level and is surrounded by mountains that rise 3,000 to 4,000 above sea level on the West, North, and East. Bananas are grown there in today’s society.
As we began to visualize this great scenery, water is all around them, small boats surrounding them, and a representative from Heaven is on board with them. The term ’them’ here is referring to the disciples. Even though they had a Heaven’s Representative with them, Satan still brought them Hell. He knows when to strike you and where to strike you. Is they would have been on land they could have ran to a shelter, but they are on water. Jesus, as a human, was sleeping. If He was woke, Satan couldnt have brought hell. Because remember when Satan tried to bring Hell to Heaven, he was thrown out. So Hell and Heaven cant be in the same place at the same time. One has to be of a greater substance than the other in the situation at hand.
Now Heaven’s Representative, called Jesus, was fully woke when he told them let us cross over to the other side. And if you are serving the same God that I am serving, you would know that when Jesus speaks, it will come to pass. Now after he delivered the command. See it was a command that they cross over. He did not say "let us try", "let us attempt", nor "let us hope that we cross over." For He was sure that they were going to cross over the lake.
However, when Jesus delivered the command, He went to the stern (the bottom) part of the boat and went to sleep, as a human. Because let’s not forget that Jesus was as much of a man as He was God. So His human side got tired and weary. He was so tired that He didnt need Aleve, Tylenol, Advil, nor any other sleeping aid. For He went fast asleep as soon as His head touched the pillow.
Now it was Satan’s time to move in. See when Satan thinks that you have allowed God to fall asleep on your situation or you are not focused on God at that present moment. He will walk in and stir things up. Get you all nerved up and ready to jump overboard. But remember that Jesus is only a prayer away.
Now I could use my sanctified imagination and say that the disciples were now talking and communicating about diverse experiences that they had witnessed. Many things that people would never tend to believe. They also began to talk about things that were not even their business. They had already witnessed the casting out of an unclean spirit, Healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, cleansing a leper, healing a paralyzed man, and healing a man with a withered hand. If they were not there, they had been aware of the miracle. But see that’s how we as Christians get sometimes. We tend to have extra time on our hands and began to chat among ourselves about everybody’s business, but our own. We can see everyone else’s faults, but our own. We can notice that everyone is behind in their bills, but our own. We can notice that somebody’s child is gone astray, but our own. We can notice that somebody’s marriage is breaking apart, but our own. We can notice that somebody is always breaking God’s law and being a hypocrite, but OURSELF!
Now after a couple minutes have passed and Jesus is now snoring and dreaming, Satan brings in drama. Before they had left one of the disciples, I’m sure, looked at the clouds and said that the sky is awefully clear today. We are aboard a nice cruise. And now the sky had gotten all dark. And rain began to form up in the sky. The wind began to pick up and transform the water into tides.