Do you really believe that God can do all that His Word says He can do?
Do you have enough faith to believe?
If God told you to lay your hands on a person who just suffered a compound fracture of their tibia & fibula and declare that they are healed would you have any doubt in your mind?
If God told you to go to a place where there was 1000 people and they were all hungry but they had no food and feed them some food, but all you had was a McDonalds value meal, would you bless it and break it and serve it?
If you were out on the paddleboat on the Missouri River and you saw Jesus walking on the shore and Jesus said to you, “Get out of the boat and walk across the water and come to me.” Would you get out of the boat and walk on the water to get to Jesus?
Let’s pray.
Father,
Open my eyes so I can see Your truth.
Open my ears so I can hear Your voice.
Open my mind so I can understand Your Word.
And open my heart so I may receive all that You want me to receive. AMEN
In the book of Matthew chapter 14 we have two accounts of the power of God that was demonstrated through Christ.
The first is the feeding of 5000.
In this account, Jesus was teaching the people but they were out of town, they were in a remote place and it was getting late.
The disciples were getting hungry and so they suggested to Jesus that He wind it up and send the people on their way so they could all get something to eat. Jesus had other plans!
Jesus told His disciples to feed this group of people which most likely caught the 12 disciples by surprise.
The disciples could only see the problem that this situation presented, which was they did not have enough money or enough food to feed this large group of people. There were 5000 men at this event plus women and children. It was more like 10000 people in attendance and all they had was 5 loaves of bread and two fish that had been cooked up.
They confronted Jesus with this problem and they let Him know that all they had was some bread and fish. They didn’t feel that they had enough resources to get the job done.
Jesus said, “You give them something to eat.”
God wanted them to get their eyes off of what they had and He wanted them to focus on what He could do. He did not want them to be concerned about how it was going to be done, He just wanted them to obey and watch a miracle.
We all know what happens after that. Jesus instructs everyone to sit down and He takes the five loaves of bread and the two fish in His hands, He looks up to the Father and He gives thanks for this meal.
He starts breaking the bread and giving it to His disciples and every time He breaks a piece off a piece grows back and the same thing happened with the fish and they were able to feed the people that were there that day and when they were done there was 12 baskets of food left over.
This was the second time that Jesus had performed a miracle like this. The disciples had a memory problem!
Sometimes we forget what God can do and sometimes we forget what God has done. In Mark 6:52 we learn that the disciples had a hard time understanding because their hearts were hardened.
Their hearts were hard because they had not completely accepted Christ. They had not opened up all of their lives to Him.
Most of the time, we look at a person with a hard heart as a person who hates God. The word hardened, as it is used here, means to make calloused, unyielding, or cold in spirit.
The disciples were not God haters, but rather they were so use to the natural world and its limitations that they were overwhelmed to see Jesus supersede the laws of nature.
In other words their hard hearts were a result of the disciples not yielding their minds to the things of God.
We have the same problem today when we don’t completely yield our lives to Him we run the risk of becoming insensitive to Him.
Our hearts become hardened when we think upon, study, or ponder on anything other than God and His ways.
The disciples were not thinking about sin they were thinking about how they could help the situation themselves.
They were still thinking this way when they got into the boat after Jesus fed the multitudes.
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Matthew 14:22-33 NIV
Jesus does this awesome miracle of feeding all these people and then tells the disciples it is time to go and makes them get into the boat and cross over to the other side while He stayed back to spend some time with Dad.
The Sea of Galilee is known for its violent storms, which can come up suddenly and be life-threatening for any on its waters. These tempests are caused by the cooler air masses from the surrounding mountains which collide with the warm air in the lake’s basin. Winds sometimes funnel through the east-west-oriented valleys in the Galilean hill country and rush down the western hillsides of the lake. The most violent storms, however, are caused by the fierce winds which blow off the Golan Heights from the east. They can cause waves as high as 9 feet.
Jesus put these men into a small boat about 27 feet long and left them to the elements. It was time to get these men to start thinking and living not according to the laws of nature but rather by the supernatural laws of God.
My challenge to you to do is to help you do the same thing; to reach beyond yourself and begin living by the power of God.
God has many great things planned for you and has many great purposes for your lives but we will never see them accomplished until we get our eyes off the impossible and put them on the possible.
That is what happened when the disciples were out on the boat being buffeted by the waves when Jesus came walking by. It was time for them to grow in their faith and become an extension of the kingdom of God and the power of God.
Something began to change in the disciples when the realized that it was Jesus walking on the water, especially in the Apostle Peter.
When he saw that it was Jesus walking on the water he was challenged to do the same. It was at that moment that Peter and the other disciples began to realize the power of God.
More so with Peter, his faith was challenged to the point that he joined Jesus. Peter gets out of the boat, with his eyes on Jesus and begins to walk on the water. He’s doing it, walking on the water!
Amidst all the wind and the waves Peter is walking on the water with Jesus. Wait a minute! Did you say wind and waves? They storm was still raging and Peter, for just a moment, took his eyes off Jesus.
He took his eyes off Jesus and looked around at his surroundings and saw the waves and felt the wind and the spray of the water on his face and he begins to sink. He had forgotten about Jesus’ miracles of feeding the multitudes, the healings, and all the things Jesus had said and done. His faith for just a moment wavered and he began to sink.
He just took his eyes of Jesus for just a second and then he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
His faith was renewed. His eyes were back on Christ. Jesus took him by the hand and helped him back on top of the water and together they walked back to the boat.
If the Apostle Peter’s faith had not been challenged that day and if he had not reach beyond himself; Peter might have never gotten out of the boat and if he did not get out of the boat he may have never went on to be the founder of the church.
The Apostle Peter’s faith was challenged and there are times that our faith is challenged.
When your faith is challenged in such a way one of two things is going to happen. Either you are going to stay in the boat or you are going to get out of the boat.
Getting out of the boat is the kind of tenacity that God is looking for in His children.
God is looking for people whose eyes are fixed upon Christ and who are willing to allow their faith to fuel their vision and their purpose.
When Peter realized that it was Christ he had the vision to get out of the boat and walk on the water with Jesus. He began to understand with Christ all things are possible.
And even when Peter began to sink, he knew that he could call on the one who was walking on the water to save him. The Apostle Peter had tenacity in his faith. Being tenacious means, having a firm hold on something. He had a firm hold on his faith.
Because Peter got out of the boat that day and because Peter called upon Christ to save him Peter was able to go on and do all the great things he did for the Kingdom of God.
He was able to go on and oversee the beginning of the church.
He was able to get up and preach a message after the Holy Spirit came upon them the first time that resulted in over 3000 people being saved.
He was able to go on and minister to the needs of people.
He was able to see people healed and the church grow.
When God calls us He desires for us to reach beyond ourselves and begin living by His power. To do this we need to have tenacious faith.
Tenacious faith means that we believe that nothing is impossible for God. It means we can say to this mountain be removed and it is removed.
Jesus said, 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. John 14:12-13
The Apostle Peter’s faith made him an extension of the Kingdom of God and our faith does the same thing for us.
God wants to do great things through each person who calls upon the name of Christ to save them but there are times in our lives that we get our eyes off Christ and we only see the natural.
Sometimes we are like the disciples, in the boat but scratching our heads wondering how because they were so use to the natural world and its limitations.
If we are going to be led by God we need to have tenacious faith. But what does that look like besides a man jumping out of the boat and walking on the water with Jesus?
The only true way in which faith can be seen is in the actions of the faithful. James wrote, "Faith without action is useless."
That is what Hebrews 11 is all about. Men and women who acted out their faith because faith isn’t measured by God doing what we ask, faith is measured by us doing what He asks.
Jesus asked Peter to get out of the boat and Peter got out of the boat.
How much faith did the others in the boat have? Not as much as Peter did.
God desires for us to step out of the boat.
Stepping out of the boat represents the walk of a Christian. It represents how we live and what we do. It represents our work and our recreation.
God has called each of us to do much in this life.
He has called us to be His children.
He has called us to praise Him. He has called us to proclaim His Good News.
He has called us to love.
He has called us to help others.
He has called us to do the impossible.
He has called us to get out of the boat.
God has placed Open Bible Churches in this world.
God has placed PFC here in Bismarck.
God has placed you here at PFC.
God has called you to be a part of what He is doing.
And God desires for each of us to get out of the boat. He promises us that when we get out of the boat He will not leave us stranded. He will give us the tools to get the job done.
He desires for us to step out in faith, to refuse to be frozen in fear, fear of failure, fear of what others think, fear of opposition and step out of the boat.
He is the God of the impossible who promises to never leave you or forsake you.
God is asking you to step out of the boat and listen to His voice. Even though the wind and the waves might be coming at you, even though it might seem an impossible job to do, He is the one who can calm the storms, remove the fears and provide all that is needed.
All you need to have is the faith that God can do all that His Word says.
Do you have that faith?
Do you want that faith?
Are you willing to get out of the boat and be obedient to God?
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