Do you remember when 30 was old? You people that are older than
30, do you remember that? Be careful, you can walk right
into it. I used to think 30 was old. When I was young, 30-year-olds
were mature. They had homes. They had good
jobs. They had 401k. They had insurance. What's that? That's wise. You
go ask them something, they know how to change tires, jump cars,
change oil, do whatever. 30-year-olds know how to do something.
And the closer I got to 30, I was like, well, they're just kind
of like me. I'm 42 now. If a 30-year-old came to me to
tell me something, I ain't going to listen to them. And I imagine
that's going to get worse as time goes on, isn't it? If you
want to enter the kingdom of God, you have to think 30 years
old. Would you not listen to a 30-year-old?
Here in our text, a 31-year-old is going to command his disciples.
We have to begin to think that that 30-year-old man that walked
this earth was wise beyond measure. That the council, full council
of Godhead was in his body. That's the Almighty God, the
Prince of Peace walking the earth. Now we don't frown on 30-year-olds
much today. Maybe he had something to say
to us too. We must thank this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have to admire him, we have
to listen to him, we have to obey him, and we have to trust
him. And here, a man in his young thirties, the God-man, he tells
our brethren and he tells his disciples to do something. They
just fed to 5,000. He fed 5,000 men, not counting
women and children, with five biscuits and two sardines. That's
what just happened. So here in verse 45, Mark 6,
verse 45. In a straight way, that means immediately. Straightway he constrained his
disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side before
unto Bethsaida. While he sent away the people,
and when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to
pray. And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of
the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling
in rowing. For the wind was contrary unto
them, and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them,
walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them." Not passed
them by. See that? Would have passed by
them. But when they saw him walking
upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit and cried out. They weren't afraid of the waves.
Do you understand that? These are half of them commercial fishermen.
They've been in a storm or two. They've been tossed around a
little bit. They thought they saw a ghost and they got scared.
For they all saw him, verse 50, and were troubled. That's why
they were troubled, because they saw him. They saw a thing they
thought was a spirit coming, a ghost coming. And immediately
he talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer,
it is I, be not afraid. And he went up unto them in the
ship, and the wind ceased, and they were sore amazed in themselves
beyond measure, and wondered because for they considered not
the miracle of the loaves, because their heart was hardened. A theologian
might say we're going to have an experiential message this
first hour and an evangelical message the second hour. And
I pray it's both on both counts. I hope the Lord saves somebody
with this. And I hope it's something I've experienced. I can just
tell you what this means. I live it. I know what I'm talking
about. There may be one or two here
this morning that's doing what the Lord's put in their hand
to do, but they're suffering great trials and afflictions,
and they're not seeing any progress at all. There might be someone
that doesn't know who He is. That's a picture that we're seeing
here for those that have yet to be saved. We were in that
garden of Eden, and everything's fine. We was in harbor. It was
pretty. Water's flat. No problems. Something
happened and the Lord sent Adam out from the garden, didn't He?
Sin entered in. And now we're out in the oceans. We're out
in the waves of destruction and wrath and we can't help ourselves. We can't save ourselves. And
we're scared to death. And the Lord's on dry land in
His mountain praying. And He looks upon His people
on this earth. And he has compassion on them. He loves them. And he
comes down to that water we have no hope of dealing with. And
he walks on that water. And he comes near us. We don't
know it's him. And in many ways, shape, form,
and fashion, in power, he reveals himself to his child. And he
speaks peace to the heart of his child. And he said, you see
this water? I'll take care of it. I sent this. This is all by design so you'll
see me." That's what happens. But in our lives, after the Lord
does that for the first time, sometimes the Lord sends us out
to do something. He puts it in our hand to do
something. And He sends a storm while we're
doing what He tells us to do. And sin enters in. Wickedness
enters in. Unbelief enters in. Silly, childish,
superstition, fear enters in. And we think, what are we going
to do? And then he comes to us, passes by, and he reveals himself and he
calms us once again. Once again. And the whole problem
is we ain't looking to him. What was our problem in our sin,
even when we was playing church and we was seeking God, we said,
the God of our imagination, we did all these things for religion.
What was the problem? We didn't know Christ. We didn't
know who He was. We didn't know what He did. That
was the problem. You didn't know God until He
revealed Himself to us. Then once He's revealed Himself
to us and we know Him and we're His child, I know Him. I know
whom I have believed. And then, buddy, trouble comes.
What's my problem? I don't look to Him. See that? I forget Him. My mind's on things
of this world. My mind's on other things, not
Him. That's the problem. I want us to first understand
what is happening here and I hope we can enter into it. Foolishly
we say that a whole lot. That's just a thing we toss around.
Oh, we entered into this scripture. What's that mean? What's it mean
to enter in? It's a phrase in common usage,
isn't it? To enter into a scripture, that means it hits us where we
live. It ain't just put in shoe leather,
it's put leather put on our shoes. You understand that? This is
me. It's to me. This is me. It's
for me. This is me. That's called entering
in. Not that you have a good theological
standpoint on what this illustration pictures. No, it's me. That's
me. I've lived that. I know what
this means. In verse 45, it said, "...in a straightway he constrained
his disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side
before unto Bethsaida, while he sent the people away." The
Lord had to constrain them. When the Lord restrains something,
that means He keeps it from happening. When He constrains something,
that means He makes it happen. That means they didn't want to
go. They didn't have good enough sense to go. It wasn't in their
idea or their will to go, and so the Lord constrained them.
He said, get in the boat. They didn't want to leave the
Lord. They knew Him already, didn't they? That's who this
is for this morning. You who know Him already. They
knew Him already, and I said, I don't want to go where you
ain't. I want to be where you are, Lord. But He constrained
them. What constrained them? His love. Oh, this is on purpose. Don't
forget that. His love constrained them. Because He loved them,
He made them get on the boat. Paul told us there in 2 Corinthians
5, for the love of Christ constraineth us. Not our love for Christ constrains
us. Well, I make good decisions because
I love Jesus. No, you don't. His love, the love of Christ,
because He loves us. That makes us love Him and He
constrains us. That's what happened. But He
gave them something to do. His constraining love gave His children,
His obedient children, something to do. He's going to put them
to work. They were at sea. This sea was
calm there in the harbor. They were at the harbor. It was
just as smooth as a mill pond in Maine. Flat. That water was
so flat it looks like you could walk on it. Can you handle these
waters? I can handle that. Poor fellas. Us too. Poor us,
isn't it? The sun was shining. It was a
beautiful day. It was daylight. The palm trees
were gently swaying there in the harbor. All was right. And the Lord gave them a mission.
I want you to do something for me. You got it. The Lord put something in their
hand to do. It says, "...and straightway
He constrained His disciples to get into the ship and to go to
the other side before unto Bethsaida, while He sent away the people."
Our Lord's going to send away those other 5,000 men, not counting
the women and children. He's going to send those away.
He's preached to them. He's fed them. Now go. But for
you 12, I've got something special for you. Does that make you perk
up? Me? I get to do something? I want
to serve the Lord. Them others didn't get to. They had to leave.
I get to do something? Pride starts seeping in from the get-go,
don't it? Getting puffed up. These disciples, He said, I want
you to do something. There's a place I want you to go. Get
in this ship and go. Did eleven of them go? His children
obey Him when He gives a command. He constrained them. He commanded
them to get in there. There might have been some excitement over
that. I would think so. I can enter into that. God asked
us to go somewhere. He put something in our hand
to do. Well, that's just crossing the Sea of Tiberias to Bethsaida.
Well, I don't care. It's who asks us. I don't care
if I'm sweeping floors or steering the ship. It don't make a difference.
I can serve God. I'm excited. Look how beautiful
the day is. There's no woes. There's no waves. Well, this
is good. This is going to be great. I have high expectations. You
read that yet? I have high expectations. Every time I preach, I think
this roof is going to come off this place by people just singing
and praising God, and the floor is going to be just dripping
wet with tears because of joy. Oh, I see what a sinner I am,
and I say, who paid for my sin? I expect that. Sun is shining. Palm trees are beautiful. I want
to get to labor with my brothers. Oh, everything is just so perfect.
What a great day this is! And thankfully, though, our Lord
knows our frame. He makes intercession for us
before we know we need intercession. He was the Lamb slain before
sin ever entered into the world, wasn't He? He knows all things. He controls all things. He's
mindful of us. What a thought that is! We don't
row into trouble alone. He's with us. We're not just
with a small group of believers that are just by ourselves. We
better figure it out. He's with us. It says in verse 46, and
when He had sent them on their way, He departed into a mountain
to pray. And when evening was come, the
ship was in the midst of the sea and He alone on the land. Our ever-watching Lord, who's
omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, always mindful of His children. He sees us exactly where He put
us. That's heavy, isn't it? The Lord
looks on us where He put us. He put us there. How did these
fellows get out in the middle of the night? Was He shocked?
Did He react? I didn't know a storm was coming. I didn't watch the
weather channel. No! He's God! He looked on them. Right exactly where he left them.
Right exactly where he constrained them. Right exactly where he
loved them to go. That's where he put them. And
he watched. Oh man. He's not headed into
distress. We are. You get that? He's not
heading into not knowing what's happening. We are. That's us.
We're in there in confusion. He's not. He watched. Did you
ever wonder what was going through his mind? while he looked upon
his children. He wasn't standing there like
just a blank painting, was he? He had a heart and mind. He's
a man. What did he think? Here's what he told Jeremiah.
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the
Lord. Thoughts of peace, not of evil,
to give you an expected end. It doesn't look too peaceful,
does it? These boys are about to drown in the middle of the
sea. These seafaring men are about to not make it in the waves.
They don't look good. And the Lord says, this is peaceful.
This is not evil. You have an expected end. This
is out of love. That's where it all started with
constrainment, wasn't it? This love, this end is going to be
peaceful. This end is going to be beautiful. Verse 48, And he
saw them toiling and rowing, for the wind was contrary to
them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he cometh unto
them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them." These
disciples were not lukewarm. They may not have been making
forward progress. They're stuck. But boy, they're
growing. Did you know that? They're growing
muscles and getting stronger rowing this boat. They were giving
all they had. They weren't making any progress
forward. They weren't trailing backwards. They're just sitting
there spinning their wheels. Ain't accomplishing nothing.
And they're giving it all they have. That's so faithful, isn't
it? But there's still in a sin-filled
old man. There's an old nature that rears
its ugly head. That we're just susceptible to
any time. Many times. It's always with
us. This body of death. That's what we're housed in.
Our new man's housed in this body of death. I think I entered
into this. There are times in a believer's
life when we struggle. And the Lord tells us to row.
He doesn't say row and bail out all the water. He doesn't say
count the waves. He doesn't say do anything. He said row. Now
row. Get to rowing. Row some more.
I've been rowing. Row more. That's your job. Your
job is to row. They're told to row. Row and
row more. But that's toiling. It becomes
a burden. Why? We make it so. We make it a burden. There's
no ground game, but we haven't lost any ground, but we don't
seem to be moving. And our mind of flesh wars with
us while we serve God, while we do exactly what He says to
do. And you know what comes of that? I get frustrated. You ever been
frustrated? Maybe once. Maybe one time I
get frustrated. I'm doing exactly what the Lord
told me to do. I'm obeying your word Lord. You
put me here. I'm doing what you said. I'm
obeying and I'm not getting anywhere. Nothing's happening. I'm not
going forward. I'm not going back. I'm wearing
myself out and nothing's happening. Nobody cares. That's where it starts. Starts
there. When we don't see or we don't
feel the results we think ought to be. That's where it starts. That's mankind, isn't it? Isn't
that all of us? Isn't that every one of us? It
ain't working out the way I think it ought to work out and boy,
my pity party starts getting huge. There's balloons and slides
and I'm about to take all my toys and go home. I'm going to
take my football and go to the house. That's what mankind is. As the Lord says here in a couple
of verses, that's hard heartedness. You got stiff necks. I wonder
what that means in that culture in that day. Filthy rags don't,
that's something worse than our day. If I used modern vernacular,
people would probably throw rocks at me. Stiff neck, I tell you
what, you got stiff necks. That's the first thing too, ain't
it? I do too. That's what mankind is. We're
hard hearted. We think we're right. The Lord's not that way. He don't think the way we think.
Did you know that? He don't have the thoughts go through His mind
that we have. He said, For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. Would I take
my children and say, Go out tonight, a hurricane's coming. Here's
a tiny little boat and an oar. Have at it. No! My thoughts wouldn't
go there. We can teach them in the classrooms.
Let them read a book about it. Not our Lord. He said, my ways
are not your ways. For as the heavens are higher
than earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts. My arms are getting tired. Nothing seems
to be happening. And it's deep water. This is
dangerous water. This is life and death waters. I'm getting tired. And I can't
do it no more. Then that frustration begins
to grow a little bit more, don't it? Now our discomfort and frustration
becomes murmuring. Our necks get stiff. Just like
those children of Israel. Ain't nothing new under the sun,
is there? Just like those children of Israel. Did you bring us out
here in the wilderness to die? I could have died in Egypt. I
could have starved to death where I used to live. With my pillow. You bring us out here to kill
us? I'm in this boat rowing what you told me to do, Lord. You
said Bethsaida, and I don't think we're going to make it. You called
all of us, made us follow you, gave us a new heart, and you're
going to drown us out here and nobody's even looking. You said we're
going to be fishers of men. You're about to make us a fish
and we'll drown us. What's going to happen? Children of God, and
those that ain't been converted yet, hear me. You wake up and
you hear what I have to tell you. Never make the mistake of
assuming when times are easy and times are great that we are
not in sin. Just because the Lord ain't sending
judgment and chasing for our sin does not mean what we're
doing is right. And likewise, just on the same
coin, the other side of the coin, never consider great trouble
and great weariness and great affliction to mean you're not
doing what God's put in your hand to do. I ain't seeing nothing. I'm drowning,
about to drown. My arms are, I got a cramp. Screaming. I'm dehydrated. I've been toiling
all night long. Who put them there? They're right
exactly, every molecule in place, where God wanted them. Put them
right where He wanted them. Remember what we looked at last
week, that blind beggar? He had opposition, didn't he?
He had trouble. These fellas in trouble. These
fellas in trouble. We have opposition. That's what
the heathen have done. A bug dies with fatness. All
their children lock them. The children go to church with
them. Some heathen place that don't tell the truth and everybody's
happy and everybody gets along and everybody's got good jobs.
I want to give. Everybody on the land ain't tolling. I'm out here in the waves. And
David said, when I entered the sanctuary of God and I went to
the house of the Lord, then I knew their end. And I do therein. We also remember what we looked
at last week in Psalm 20. The Lord hear thee in the day
of trouble. He has to send the trouble, don't he? The name of
the God of Jacob defend thee, send help from the sanctuary
and strengthen thee out of Zion. What was keeping them from making
progress? Why couldn't they make it to
the shore? The wind was contrary to them. You think about that. They were
hedged about, just like Gomer. They couldn't go nowhere. They
were completely surrounded. As Gomer was brought out to the
wilderness, and the Lord, for the saving of her soul, these
men in this boat, the Holy Ghost is on one side, the wind, and
on the other side, our Lord Jesus Christ standing on the shore
looking at them. They're completely surrounded. They're completely
surrounded. Surrender by doing what God says. Kiss the son lest he be angry.
Trust all your heart, soul, mind, and body to Him. Trust all your
weariness to Him. Trust all your lack of inability
and your weakness to Him. Surrender. Lay down your guns. Leave your prayer warriors and
go surrender to God no matter what No matter what. That's a
good place to be. That's a good place to be. When
the Lord puts something in your hand to do, you do it with all your
might. No matter what your mind may make of all the providence
going on around you. God didn't tell me to analyze
what was going on around me. He told me to do something. He gave
me trash to take out. I'm going to take that trash
out. It's raining. I don't care if it's raining. I'm taking the
trash out. The Lord asked me to. These men did not row for a half hour
and throw the oars overboard and say, well, if the Lord wants
to save us, that's up Him. They didn't become fatalistic,
did they? Fatalism is fatal to both the body and the soul. But
they were made obedient and faithful children, and they rowed from
sundown. Sun was still shining when they
left, wasn't it? Until the fourth watch. That's the last watch
of darkness. We call that stand two in the
Army. Y'all might call it the fourth watch in the Navy, Bob,
I don't know. But they rode all night. The only way out of our
trouble is by seeing Christ. Christ the light, by His presence,
by our shield, our defender, our healer, our banner coming
to us. That's our only hope. Look here
in verse 48. And He saw them toiling and rowing,
for the wind was contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch
of the night He cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would
have passed by them. Not passed them by. We sing,
pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry, while on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by. It does not say He
would pass them by, but it says He passed by them. That's Him
revealing Himself. Can you imagine? Here's a boat
out in the middle of the sea, and these boys are fighting for
their lives, and here comes somebody walking on the water. And not
to them, just kind of over this way. What are you looking at? He's going to walk right past
them. Make you cry out. What are you doing? Get over
here. That's another message, I guess. Sometimes when the Lord
reveals Himself in power, God Almighty comes to His child and
He reveals Himself in power, it doesn't look like what we
think it ought to look like. Just like our trials don't come
out always the way we think they ought to. Over in Luke 24, we
remember Those two brethren walk on the road to Emmaus and our
Lord comes to them. And he started preaching to them and he said,
what's wrong with you? Why are you so upset? And they said,
didn't you hear? Don't you know nothing? Don't you know what
just happened? Christ was crucified. And he
said, oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ have suffered these things? Ought
not he have walked your waves for you? And to enter into his
glory, receive all the glory for doing so? And beginning at
Moses and the prophets, He expounded unto them all the Scriptures,
the things concerning Himself. And they drew nigh unto the village
where they went. He made as though He would have
gone further." The whole way they walked. They did the walking,
He did the talking. And their hearts did the burning,
Scripture says. And He expounded the Scriptures.
He said, Christ had to suffer. You remember the ark? No, Bill. It had to bear those waves to
save those inside, pitched in and pitched without. It had to
do that. I thought that was just a big
boat. Do you mean that's Christ? That's
Him. I see it. I see it now. And then He's made
it as if He's just going to keep on. Oh, is this where y'all stop
is? Okay. Keep on. Boy, absence makes the heart
grow fonder, doesn't it? Don't leave. Don't leave. You
come here. You stay with us. Just like Abimelech
told Abraham, you pick any patch of land you want, you stay where
I am. You're one of God's children. You preach to us. We want to
take care of you. Come here. And it come to pass as he sat
and ate with them, he took bread, blessed it, and break, and gave
it to them. He broke his body. He broke it. And he said, no, take it. He
constrained them in love. Eat. He blessed it. He blessed
it. And their eyes were open and
they knew Him. Right then they knew Him. And He vanished out
of their sight. And they said one to another,
did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by
the way and while He opened to us the scriptures. That's powerful,
isn't it? God Almighty resealed Himself.
And He walked with them for a while. He's always there. Lo, I'm with
you always. He was always there. And He's about to leave. And
then they saw Christ. They saw Christ. That's what
happened with Abraham, wasn't it? When he took Isaac up that
mountain, Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
behind him, a ram caught in a thicket by his thorns. He walked right
past it, didn't he? He walked by. He passed it by. It always was there. It hadn't
been revealed yet. What did it take for that ram
to be in the thicket? Everything in the universe. Every
molecule that ever moved up to that second took for that ram
to be in that thicket. The will and purpose of God,
for His glory, that's what took. His power to put that ram in
the thicket. Right next to him, and Abraham
didn't even know. On that road to Emmaus, didn't even know.
Out here in the boat looking, and he's about to pass right
by. He's been staring at him a long
time, ain't he? Since before this world was created? Since
before we got on this big ball? That's how his thoughts have
been on him. Sometimes it's a little different. Sometimes it's very
quiet, tender, gentle. Because our father knows our
frame and he knows his children. He deals with us individually.
I know how to deal with my children individually. Some of them I've
got to whip, some of them I've just got to look at, some of them I've got to
talk to. He knows us. He deals with us as need be.
Sometimes it's a little more bombastic. So what happened to
old Saul, he was breathing threatenings, and he got his marching orders
to go persecute the church, and he journeyed and came near Damascus.
And suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
He was flooded. The floodlights came on. He was
completely surrounded right then. That's a different kind of trial.
These boys was in water. Here the light shone on. And he fell
to the earth and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
The Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard
for thee to kick against the bricks. You know what that means? Surrender. I'm God. Surrender. But he spoke to the
heart, didn't he? And he trembled in astonishment and said, Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do? You've constrained me. You've
primed me. I'll go anywhere you want me to go. I'll do anything
you want me to do. And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into
the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. He's
about to send Ananias to go tell him how much he's going to have
to suffer. He's about to have Ananias go tell him how tired
his arms are going to get rowing in this world. However, the Lord
is pleased to reveal Himself to us in whatever degree of time
or experience, all believers are thankful. I've gone over,
but I'm going to give it to you anyway. All believers are thankful
for the trouble that made them cry out in the first place. I
had a friend named John years ago. He was in a wheelchair there
at 13th Street. John had a whole lot going for
him. He had a good wife. He had a good life. He had a
successful business. And then God paralyzed him, put
him in a wheelchair. Well, the business didn't keep
going. Well, the good life, you know, can't travel as much now.
The wife left. His life changed a whole lot.
And he was sitting there watching TV one day, moping and sad in
his condition and woeful and in trouble. And he turned the
channel and there was a man named Henry Mahan pointing his finger
as Henry did. And he said, me and you have
a whole lot that we don't have in common. But there's something
me and you have in common. You're a sinner. And I'm a sinner. And John got so mad he turned
the TV off. He said, my uncle told me I'm no sinner. He got
a little madder and said, maybe I'm going to see what else he's
got to say. And he turned it back on. And next thing you know,
he started listening and listening, listening a little more, listening
a little more. And the Lord saved John. And years later, I felt
so sorry for him. I was a teenager. The Lord was
about to take him home. And he said, you know the best
thing that ever happened to me in my life was God took everything
from me and put me in a wheelchair because he did that to save me.
He did that to reveal Christ in me. It's every bit worth it.
What's that? I was trying to write an article.
People say that I'm, with that one where I have a prestigious
position, I'm privileged to be a pastor. I was thinking, you
know what? One time in third grade, I was
ahead of the lunch line and people was jealous because of my power
and my authority. Do I care now what happened in
third grade? Do you? Do you? Let me tell you something.
When we get to glory, it ain't gonna make a difference. Won't
matter one lick. Won't matter. John was tickled
to death. What comes out? What comes in our old nature
after frustration and murmuring? We become overly religious. We
become superstitious. Left to ourselves, looking to
ourselves, looking to this world, we get overly religious. That's what superstition means.
Look here in verse 49. Mark 6, 49. When they saw Him
walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit and cried
out. They went, Ah! It's a ghost!
For they all saw him when more trouble." That's why they were
troubled. They saw him. You mean to tell me these apostles, these
great disciples of the Lord, they thought they saw a ghost?
Yeah. But I stopped believing in the
boogeyman and ghosts and goblins and Bigfoot whenever I was nine
years old. I got over that. You listen to me, without the
Lord Jesus Christ, His presence, without us having our eye fixed
upon Him, being constrained by His love, man's just plumb crazy. It don't make no sense. You can
get mad at one thing or another, it's all the same. That ain't
no different from anything else. If one religious group was running
everything, would you be happy if the Southern Baptists did
it? Would that make it better? If your child was going to a
false church where they preached works, would you be happier if
they went to another church over here that preached the same thing?
Would they just wear different size hats? Not looking to Christ
is crazy. And nothing makes sense without
Him. They were crying out in fear, not in mercy. They weren't
crying out in mercy, they were crying out in fear. And our great
God, who delights to show mercy, who answers before we cause,
He was still merciful. Verse 50 says, For they all saw
Him and were troubled, and immediately He talked with them and said
to them, Be of good cheer. It is I, be not afraid. And He
went up. unto them and the ship, and the
wind ceased, and they were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure,
and wondered." You know what the problem of all this was?
All this woe, all this screaming and crying and tired muscles
and everything else. Verse 52, "...for they considered not the
miracle of the loaves that had happened." Within 24 hours, they
saw creation. God took them fish and them biscuits
and made food to feed 15,000 people. He created. He made something
out of nothing. That wasn't empty calories. It
fed people. Why did they forget that? For
their heart was hardened. They had a hard heart. What do we have to cry out? I
have to be always cautious. Be mindful of my soul. Lord,
break my heart. Soften my heart. Give me a heart
of flesh. The woe that comes with the waves
is from not remembering the person and the work of our Lord. That's
where the problem comes. Oh, I've been walking with him
for 50 years. Your hard heart's your problem. If you've been
walking with him that long, you probably all know it. What a
wicked sinner you are. You see it more and more. When you get
time, read Psalm 107. It speaks to those in ships that
go down to sea and do business in great waters. And the storms
that come, they see the works of God and they cry unto the
Lord in their trouble and He bringeth them out of their distresses.
When you're rowing in deep waters that God sent you, keep rowing.
Seek the Lord. Praise Him. Believe Him. And
though He will slay me, trust Him. Trust Him. Christ descended
on His place on high to walk these waters of wrath for us.
I think He can handle some waves. If He gave His Son for us and
shed His blood for us, I think He can handle a Tuesday evening.
I think we'll be alright. What's our response? If the Lord
does something like this, and we forget to look to Him, and
we look to ourselves, we get hard-hearted and worldly, and
we start getting superstitious and believing in the boogeyman,
and then He comes to us and comforts us and points us back to Him,
for that wave in this rollercoaster of life, what do we do? Look
here in verse 53, it's beautiful. And when they had passed over,
they came into the land of Genesaret, and they drew to the shore, and
when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew Him,
they loved Him. And they went through the whole region. They ran through that whole region
round about and began to carry about beds and those that were
sick and they heard he was. They went and found everybody
they could find that was sick. James, Philip, grab his legs.
You sick? Really sick? Let's go." I believe
him. The Lord saves people. He heals
people. Come on. You a sinner? John Fireman
carried me out. Get him over there. Get him to
Christ right now. What are you going to eat for dinner? We'll
eat dinner later. Get him there. Get him to the Lord. And whithersoever
he entered into villages or cities or country, they laid the sick
in the streets and besought him that they might be touched. if
it were but the border of his garment. And as many as touched
him were made whole. In spite of me, I learn this
every day, in spite of me, God saved me. And I'm going to tell
of all of his doings and his great work. It's productive when you're getting
somewhere. When you quit worrying about
the rowing and you quit worrying about the distance and you see
the Lord, look to Him, cry to Him and be saved. Amen.