John chapter 6, the Gospel of
John chapter 6, the story of our Lord coming to His
disciples who were going through deep, deep waters. Our Lord had just, it's all connected,
this is all connected, our Lord had just fed the 5,000, 10,000
or more, And in verse 14 and 15, look
at this again, those men that saw the miracle that Jesus did,
they said, this is of a truth, that prophet that should come
into the world. But when Jesus, therefore, perceived
they would come and take him by force to make him a king,
he departed. He left. Again, he did this. Often, he often was in a crowd
of people and he left. He went up into a mountain. He
did this again. He was always going up into a
mountain. And this time he went up there
alone. They wanted to make our Lord king. What they wanted was
an earthly kingdom. That's what they wanted. The
Jews wanted an earthly kingdom. They wanted a wealthy, prosperous
nation. God bless Israel, you know. They
would have had stickers all over their chariots, God bless Israel.
Like today, God bless America. What do people mean by that? Give us everything we want, don't
give us any trouble. Make us wealthy and prosperous
and no enemies and all of that. That's health and wealth gospel
and it's a lie. The greatest thing that God could
do to this nation is bring it down. They want to make Jesus Lord. Make Jesus King. It's all going
to be well. And the Lord departed. He was
not in the middle of that. He was not in the middle of all
those people who wanted to make Him Lord. Are you with me? And He's not in religion. Anybody,
anywhere, I don't care who it is, anybody, who says, make Jesus
Lord, doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you hear me? These people didn't know who
He was. His disciples did. His disciples, He kept showing
them over and over who He was. He's going to show them again
here real soon who He is. Make Him Lord. See, God made him so. Long before
this world began, God made him Lord. Psalm 2, I've declared
the decree, I've set my king on my holy hill of Zion. Now
he said bow, everyone bow. And then he was born king. Some
people knew that. You don't make a king a king.
You don't vote a king a king. He's born that way, right? It's
his right. It's his birthright. Our Lord
was born king. He was king before he came here.
And when he came here, he was born king and he died a king.
He lived as a king, reigned as a king, and then he died as a
king. And you know where he is now? Reigning as king. He always has been king, always
was king, always will be a king, he said. Lord, over all, we don't
make Him anything. We don't let Him do anything.
I keep saying this over and over again. You know it so much. Why
do you know that? Because He's revealed Himself
to you in these ways. These ways. Like, same as them.
So He departed and went up into a mountain again. He was often
in a mountain. I read to you how He went up.
Well, this same chapter in verse 3. Look at it. Jesus went up into a mountain
and there He sat with His disciples. And He went up into a mountain
again. He's always going up into a mountain. He was transfigured. He took three of them up onto
a mountain and was transfigured before their eyes. He was revealed
to them in a mountain who He really is, not just Jesus. It's God who dwelleth in light. No man can approach Him. And then when He left this pit
called planet earth, He went up onto a mountain in Galilee.
He said, I'm going before you. And He went and they took all
of them. Then He took all of them up onto a mountain. High
above this place. Like Abraham dwelt in the mountain
and Lot was down in Sodom. And he took them up on the mountain
and that's where he ascended in the clouds. They saw him.
He went higher than that mountain. He went all the way to the right
hand of the majesty on high. There he sits above it all. Departed into a mountain. What
does this mountain represent? Mount Zion. He's known in Mount Zion. He's
seen at Mount Zion. Jerusalem was a city set on a
hill. You had to go up. Church, that's where God... You
can't separate Christ and His Church. Wherever they are, He
is. Where He is, they are. Christ
and His Church. Husband and wife. Right? But
you can't say one without the other. That's who he came for,
that's who he lived for, that's who he died for, and vice versa. Husband and wife. You know, we
think of each other, when you think of each other, like John.
John Davis. Don't you automatically think
of Irene? John Irene. Sounds like one word. John Irene. Edgenet, Edgenet, Ron Tammet,
Red Dipper, Wessel Melony. It's just like one word, you
can't think of one without the other. Christ came, he lived
and died and loved his church. And they do too. Where is he? He's with his church. He's in
his garden. He's in his garden. Where is
he? He's on the mountain. That's where they are. They're
with him. They didn't want to be. But this
time, this time he went up there alone. Okay? He went there alone. He was often
alone. Got to himself, far from the
maddening crowd, the old saying is, away from the noisome pestilence,
out of the midst of it. When he healed the blind man,
he took him out of the crowd and said, come with me out of
all this stuff, these people. When He healed the deaf man,
He said, Come with Me out from among them. You've got to quit
listening to all that. You ought to hear Me. Alone. Alone is a good place to be.
But our Lord wasn't alone. He was alone, but He sure wasn't
lonely. Except on the cross, one time
on this earth he was alone and that was on Calvary's tree on
the cross when God forsook him and he cried with every fiber
of his being. Oh my God, my God, I'm alone. That's hell. It's vital thanks and needful
thanks for us to be alone. And God in his providence often
makes it so. Psalm 404 says, Stand in awe
and sin not. Commune with thine heart on thy
bed and be still. Nighttime on your bed, you're
pretty much alone. And what does he say? Commune
with your heart. It's a time to think. Most people don't think much.
Time to meditate. Time to examine yourself. You
need to be of the faith. The world can't stand to be alone.
People can't stand to be alone, you know that? Can't stand silence.
Gotta have something on, TV or something blaring all the time.
Can't stand to be alone. Why? Conscience. Conscience, brother. And God
said, no peace. I'm not going to let them have
any peace of conscience. As long as they're against me.
Boy, you find out. God's for you. You're going to
have peace of conscience. The world can't stand it. But
if you're not of this world, you love it. Some silence. Alone. With the Lord. Our Lord
was calling Matthew and Mark to pray. He went up there to
pray, went up there alone. You know, when we talked about
public prayer, meaning in the church. Isn't that a blessing?
John's prayer blessing. Whenever someone leads in prayer
and the Lord blesses and you're able to enter in, isn't that
a blessing? He says things you wish you could say or the things
you're feeling and you're just so blessed by it. This is the
greatest blessing it really is because we all feel so helpless
in private prayer, don't we? We do. We don't. We do. I feel
like we're just saying the same things over and over again, don't
we? And so many things distract us. And the Lord just uses this
to bring us together, to focus our attention. There's no distraction.
And we hear, and we enter into that prayer. Don't we? It's wonderful.
But still, this doesn't replace private prayer. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. When? All the
time. Our Lord said, pray without ceasing. He did. He did. Now listen to
me. This is He who, known unto Him
are all His works from the beginning of the world. Known exactly what
He's going to do and what everyone else is going to do, because
He's the doer of it. You hear me? This is the one
controlling all things. Yet He's praying. If he prays, know it all thing,
and we don't know anything. We don't know what tomorrow holds.
We don't know what we're going to do. We don't know what, how
much more should we pray without ceasing? Lord, don't let me take
a step without you. Without you, I can do nothing.
Help me. That's a good prayer all the
time. Help! Prayer. So he departed up into
a mountain. And I believe, well, this is
just a good type. He went up into this mountain
to give him a better vantage point of his disciples down there
in that city. Not really. He saw them all the
time in the dark or whatever. It's all like that. But this
is a good picture, isn't it? He's up on the mountain and they're
down in the sea now. Tossed and turned. Think they're
all going to die and drown. He's watching. He's watching.
Where is our Lord right now? You can't see Him, can you? They
couldn't see. Where is He right now? Where is He? Sitting on
the circle of the earth. Say, preacher, don't shout. Yes!
He's sitting on the circle of the earth. You hear that? Look
at us down here in the pit. He sees us. He's going to bring
us out. He's wanting to put us in it.
He's going to bring us out. This is a good message. Listen,
if it's not to you, I heard another fellow preach it. Ask me later.
I'll give you that one. This is a good story. Because this is all of us. Matthew and Mark's gospels say,
look at verse 16, When evening was come, his disciples went
down into the sea and entered into a ship. Matthew and Mark's
gospels say he constrained them to get in a ship. Matthew, Levi, James, John, get
in that ship. What ship? That one right there.
That's the one I've chosen for you to be in. James, John, Simon,
get in that ship. All of you, get in that ship.
Fellas, get in that ship. He constrained them. I'm so glad
the Lord constrained me The love of Christ constrains
us. Constrains means compel. Constrains means to cause. Blessed
is the man thou choosest of causes. We pray that. We always pray
that. Causes to approach unto them. And he puts his people
in a fellowship. Church. The kingdom of God. Church. Little ships. One time he said
there were little ships all in that harbor. It's like churches. It's an amiable type of thing.
Once again, the ship, where they are, that's where He is. He was
always in a ship with them. It's a good illustration, a wonderful
picture of the church and Christ together. He constrained them
to get in the ship, get in the ship. Oh, I'm thankful the Lord
put me in this ship. Aren't you? I wouldn't want to
be anywhere else right now. Fell a ship, put me in Christ, put
me in the ark of Christ. put me in his ship, his church
where I know our rest is. A ship, a ship by definition
is a seagoing vessel. A boat is not a seagoing vessel,
okay? A boat, like a canoe or a fishing
boat or a John boat, is not a seagoing vessel. A boat is mostly recreational. A boat is for show. Especially
if you've got a big, vast boat. Look at my boat. Well, it's worthless
in heavy seas. A boat, and this describes most
religion. It's recreational. And it's for
show. And religion says God doesn't
want bad things to happen to you. God doesn't want you to
go through those things. God doesn't want this to happen.
No, no, no, no. You've got it all wrong. This
is the captain of our salvation. And He put them right into the
eye of a stone. He did it. Put them in a ship. Deep waters. They're at their
wit's end. And they know if they don't drown,
it's going to be the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, see how this all started?
We're going to make Him king. You're going to find out He's
king, alright. Bless God we find out sooner than later. And the way we find out is just
like these disciples. He's going to put us in a ship.
He's going to bring us down. Down. Down. Or you think you're going to
drown and die. And that's when He's going to
come walking We read that. Go back there again,
Psalm 107. I was wondering, are you listening
to this? Am I listening to this? Psalm 107. Look at that. They
went down, it says. They entered in a ship. They
went down unto the sea. Down. You know, Isaiah, all through
Isaiah, our Lord keeps saying, the lofty looks of man are going
to be brought down. The haughtiness of men is going
to be brought down. The Lord alone is going to be
exalted in that day. He told His people to enter into
the rock and hide in the dust for fear of the Lord. Because
He's going to bring this thing down. He's going to bring everybody
down. And bless God, this is what He
does to His people. He brings us down right now in
this world. to see the salvations of the
Lord. Like old Jonah. The whole story of Jonah is a
picture of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's why it happened.
He came down and went through hell for our people. And we wouldn't
live if He didn't. If Christ hadn't gotten this
ship, they would have died. If Christ hadn't walked on that
water above this world, we would have drowned in it. Psalm 107
says, verse 23, they that go down to the sea in ships, you
see, they do business in great waters, deep waters, unfathomable
waters, unnavigable waters. These men had been through storms
before. And they'd weathered those storms.
Before they knew the Lord, they'd been through storms. And they
thought their skill and their ability and their ability to
sail. Sail? The wind blowing where
it missed them. We're going to see in a minute.
It was totally contrary to them. They didn't know where they were
going. Read verse 24. These see the works of the Lord,
His wonders in the deep. So he's the one that commands
all this. He's the one that sends all this. But as I said, now, an earthly
captain, Mike, an earthly captain, if he was any captain at all,
he's not going to send his boat through the middle of a hurricane,
is he? What's he going to do? He's going to go around it. Christ
did. He had to go right into the eye
of a hurricane, right there. You know, a boat may seem like
a nice boat when it's on a farm pond. What a nice boat you have
there. Or even a ship, you know, a cruise ship, you know. By the
way, a ship is for long voyages. A ship is for many passengers.
A ship is an ocean going in deep waters, not a boat. But a big
ship can be sitting there at harbor and you say, whoa, what
a beautiful ship. We'll see. Oh, look at the Titanic. Oh, it's beautiful, the Titanic. And then the man said, it's the greatest
ship ever built, it can't sink. And then when God had a man build
an ark, the whole world came by and scoffed, it won't float. Which one did? Huh? Where am I? Ship. Ship. It says that the evening was
come, the disciples went down into a sea in a ship, and our
Lord put them through, purposely put them through the eye of a
storm, number one, to show His power. He's the one that raised this.
He's the one that did all this. And He's the only one that could
bring them out of it. All right? To show them their unbelief.
You know, this is not the first storm he was with them in. This
is the second. You remember the first one? They
were in a ship together. He's asleep. He's asleep. And they're rowing
and doing everything they can. And they're so full of unbelief. And when he woke up and told
them, where's your faith? Didn't he? And they woke up and
they said, ignorantly, like little children, don't you care that
we perish? He's the one that raises the
storm. Care, they're the ones He came and He cared for. He's
the one that put them through this storm. He did it all for
His glory and for their good to show them, you're so full
of unbelief, you're so weak. After all I've shown you, don't
you believe me now? No. Storm after storm after storm. That's us, isn't it? To increase their faith. To increase
their faith. Simon Peter was there all the
time. And he wrote in his epistle that the trial of our faith works
with patience. And patience, experience. And
experience, hope. The first storm they went through,
they all thought they were going to die. Don't you care, Lord?
Don't you care? And He stilled that. The winds and the waves.
So where's your faith? And they all took, what manner
of man is this? We'll never doubt him again,
never, never doubt him again, ever. It wasn't 24 hours, but... And
then, right before this, Philip said, there's not enough money
to feed all these people, where are we going to... And Matthew's gospel said they
forgot after the storm. It says they forgot the loaves
and the fishes after the storm. They forgot. He fed all these
5,000 miracles. He brought them through the first
storm. He brought them through another storm. And they still
didn't trust Him and believe Him. You know, we're saved by hope.
The hope that is seen is not hope. The trial of our faith. for patience
and spirits and hope. Heaviness, Peter said, a heavy
trial. They all went through heavy seas.
They all went through heavy sea. Every one of them. Every one
of his disciples went through these heavy seas. Together. That's why they were in a ship.
The fellowship. Now, Peter talked about the fellowship
of his suffering. Now, we need to enter into the
fellowship of Christ's suffering, the fellowship of the gospel.
Here's suffering. And the Lord said, Behold, see
if there is any sorrow like unto myself, any suffering like unto
myself. No, no, no, no, no. Nobody suffered
like you. He came down into this pit. to
deliver us from the pit, He was the ransom. He came down into
this slime pit. He came down into this pit of
corruption, this present evil world. Why? To take on Him the
iniquity of us all. God put on Him the iniquity of
all of His people to make Him to be sin. Cover Him in that
slime pit with His own blood and bring them out. He's the
ransom, you see. He's made sin while we're made
righteous. God punished him while God rewards us for what he did. Have you entered into the fellowship
of that suffering? All of God's people see His suffering
because of our sin. And that's why they give Him
all the glory for all things. And then Paul wrote, it's given
unto us not only to believe, but to suffer. For Christ's sake. My dad used to say this all the
time. He said, God had one son without
sin. One son without sin, but no sons
without suffering. No. And these sufferings show them
His power, His glory. The one who sent it, the one
who gives it, the one who takes it away. to show them their unbelief
and their weakness. You know He's only strong when
we're what? We'll only really call on Him
when we're at our wits' end. Right? When we realize, when
we strike sail and quit rowing, and we think, I'm going down,
now you're going to call. Like Psalm 106, now you're really
going to call. And you know what He's going to do? Every time. Brother Kelly, was there one
time that they called and he didn't answer? No. Oh, that we
would praise the Lord for His goodness. To the praise of the glory of
His grace? Hmm. And as a witness to the world,
if He allows us to bear witness through these trials? Job. Job's the one that said that,
Lord gave me all this. I didn't deserve any of it. He
gave it to him. And the Lord took it away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. His wife said, why don't you
curse God and die? He said, you're a foolish woman is what you are.
Have we received good at the hands of the Lord? And shall
we not receive evil also? Eli said it. It's the Lord. Let him do what he seems to do.
Oh, may I say that. May we say that. Some of you
have. Many of you have, most of you have. Brother Scott one
time said, Brother Scott Richardson one time said, every believer
is going to have one great opportunity to really bear witness to the
grace of God. Most of the time we fail. Oh, man. And it's going to be
to the praise of the glory of His grace. You know that? Every
one of these disciples, when they landed on shore, you know
what they're talking about? When they got to their desired
haven, every one of them, you know what they're saying? That
Lord, that Lord did great things for us. The Lord saved us. The
Lord did this. The Lord did that. You know this
Lord. All their fellow sailors, To wean us from this world. And
to help each other. Did you read the article by my
pastor? Did you? Did you? Just to help
each other. We're in this ship. Fellowship. Fellowship. Help each other.
Pity each other. Pray for each other. My, my. Look at our tale. So they went
in the ship. It was now dark. And the Lord wasn't come to them.
It was now dark. Heavy seas, deep, dark. Why is it that all things seem
worse at night time? You have a sick loved one, child
or spouse or somebody, even your own sickness, it seems worse
at night than dark, the darkness. You think that night's never
going to end. Time goes, just stops. Everything seems worse at night.
This is why David wrote Psalm 130. Before that, he said, Out
of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. That's Christ from
the cross, and that's God's people in this world. Out of the depths. And David went on to say, My
soul waited for thee more than they that watch for the morning. At nighttime, in the dark, everything
seems hopeless. Sin will put a dark cloud over
your head. Sin will leave you feeling that
you're in outer darkness. Sin will be a heavy burden for
you. Sin will give you a sinking feeling.
You ever been there? Sorrow. Sorrow. If the Lord doesn't come to us
and help us, we'll drown in overmuch sorrow. You ever watered your
bed with tears? You thought whatever sorrow you
were going through was going to, you're going to just not,
can't endure it. Sorrow. We're down in heavy seas,
in the darkness. And He was not come to them.
He was not come to them. Verse 17, He was not come to
them. And verse 18, the sea arose by reason of a great wind that
blew. This wind raised the stormy sea,
like it said in Psalm 107, and the wind and the waves were boisterous
against them. Contrary winds, what Matthew
and Mark said. Contrary winds. Brothers and
sisters, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and the Lord is the
one that sends these, raises these stormy winds, and it's
never contrary to you. They thought it was, but no,
it's never contrary to you, stormy wind. The Lord is the one. Nothing
more sovereign than the wind. Nothing more at the mercy of
the wind than a sailing vessel. And that's us. completely at
the mercy of the Lord. And the winds He sends, and the
trials and the troubles, and whatever it is He sends, He sent
it to every one of His people at different times. They're all
going to go through heavy seas, dark times, heavy seas. And Psalm 107 says they mount
up to the heavens on the mountain and they're crashing down. They
were just up, listen to me, they were just up on the mountain
eating, drinking, laughing, sitting, resting, just at peace, didn't
have a care in the world. 24 hours later, they don't know if they're coming
out of this. Is that you? It's the life of a believer.
Up, down. Hot, cold. Saved, lost. Light and darkness, even as others. Is it so with you? Remember Tommy's
message on priorities, lukewarmness? That's a dangerous place to be. We need to be brought down because
only when we're at our wits end. It's true. We don't worship him. We just don't worship him, do
we? Until he puts us through some trouble. The sea arose. The Lord... And it wasn't contrary
to them. Old Jacob said this. Jacob said
he came and Joseph... I love you. I love you. May all
of you love me. Joseph was on the throne. Jacob didn't know
it. He thought Joseph was dead. No, he's alive. He's controlling
everything about Jacob. And he kept Benjamin. A son with a silver sack. And
Jacob said, everything's against me. That's what Jacob said. It's all against me. That man on the throne is going
to kill us all. No, he's not. You're going to live because
of him. Jacob, hang on. Naomi. Naomi came back with nothing
and nobody. She said, the Lord is against
me. No, Naomi. Everything He did
was for you. Are you with me? Everything.
He took your husband. It's for you. He took your sons. It's for you. Everything works
together for God's people according to His purpose. We just don't
know it yet. We will when we reach our desired haven. I bet
they were all standing on that shore. Hallelujah! You know they were. It hasn't sounded like that in a
long time, buddy, but we have to go through those deep waters.
They're singing at the top of their lungs. They struck sail. It means they
took the sail down. That's not doing them any good.
It's against them. They started rowing. They started rowing. In our text,
it says they all rowed. Have you ever rowed a boat? Karen,
have you ever? Mike, show me that video of you
learning how to row their boat. Okay? It's hard. Don't laugh. Put you in one. Oars. I'm talking
about oars. You won't be able to go to your
left or your right. You'll be pulling and pushing. Rowing is pulling. Rowing is pulling. And you're
going backwards. No, you're going forward. But
they're all rowing, you see. Here's the point. They're all
rowing. And if you've never rowed a boat,
you need to. And they were rowing in 10-foot
seas. Michael, they were in 10-foot
seas. You ever rowed a boat in 10-foot
seas? It's hopeless. You're not going
to get anywhere. You just might as well quit rowing. And at the time, I guess they
quit rowing when the Lord came. John, what a picture this is.
We labor. People are laboring to get to
heaven. When you quit rowing, we get
laboring. Oh, come unto me, all ye that
labor, heavy laden. Christ said, I'll give you rest. Stop rowing. I'm here. I'm going to take you there.
You're not going to get yourself there. I'm going to take you
there. Isn't that a good picture? Tell you what else this is a
picture of. They're all rowing together. They're all in this
ship together. They all have a vested interest
in this ship getting to land. It's not every man for himself.
Oh, no, no, no. It's every man for that ship.
You hear me? They all wanted to live. They
all wanted that ship to survive. You want this ship to survive.
Do you need it? You know what? If we're not rowing
together, We're against each other. If you're not bearing
one another's burdens, you know what? You're being a burden. If you're not caring for one
another, you're being cared for. If you're not for us, you're
against us. If you're not praying for the
preacher, you're probably talking about him. If you're not helping,
you're hurting. If you're not making peace, you're
making trouble. That's so. If we're not in unity
of the Spirit, we're grieving the Spirit. We're in this ship together.
Do you want it to survive? I believe some people would like
to see this place fold. I don't. I could get a job somewhere
probably. I don't need a job on Social
Security. I need this place. I need you. We need Christ. We need each
other, don't we? We need to labor together. We need to strive together. Not against one another. Strive
together. One mind, one accord, one spirit.
Striving together for the faith of the gospel. Unity of the spirit.
There's some people that don't know the Lord in this town. Some
sitting in this room right now. And I'm the preacher. Pray for
me. They were rowing. They were rowing
to a man. They were together, going through
these deep seas. Now look at this, I quote. It
says in verse 19, when they rowed about five and twenty or thirty
furlongs, that's three and a half miles, you know they rowed for
nine hours in ten-foot seas, three and a half miles. And it says in the fourth watch,
And Matthew's got the fourth watch between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. I remember I worked on the railroad. I had to stay up. Trying to stay
awake is one of the most brutal things I know of. Not having
rest. And what a good picture this
is. You can't sleep. You want to sleep. You can't
find rest. You've got to stay awake and watch. It's just miserable.
It's just so hard. And the sun comes up, you just,
all of a sudden you're a Jew today. But our Lord, here's what
happened. It'll be 3 a.m., 6 a.m., all
night long, they're rolling. And they see Him walking on the
water. Right when the sun's starting to come up. Isn't that fitting?
The sun has risen with healing in His mind. He saw Him. He put
Him through all of this. Put Him all through this. And
he saw what was going on. And just when they were at their
wits end, just when they couldn't row any further, just when they
all thought, to a man, we're going down, we're all going to
drown, here he comes. He was with them all along. He
had his eye on them all along. But they needed to go through
that, didn't they? Were they calling on him? Do
you reckon they were calling on him? I imagine each one of them thought,
where is he? Why did He leave us like this? Where is He when
we need Him the most? Huh? Oh, He's put you through
this. They say they saw Him walking
on the sea. Our Lord said you must through much tribulation,
deep waters, troubles, trials, tribulation, go through this
world. And you must through much tribulation
enter the Kingdom of Heaven. One time he said, In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome this world. This world that threatens to
drown us. This world that is drowning Egyptians.
All of us are passing through the Red Sea. Hebrews 11. Every
one of us has to pass through this world. And the Egyptians
are going to drown. God's going to drown them. But
He's made a way for us to pass through it on solid rock, which
is Christ. And these waters that threaten
to drown us are walled. We're hedged about. You see that?
Like Joshua and the Ark. We're all going to pass through
it. Our Lord, because the Lord walked
in this world above sin, overcame it for us as our captain of our
salvation. Went down in the pit and came
out. Went up on the cross and came down. Went into the grave
and went up. There he sits. Lord over it all. He said, I have overcome the
world, the world that threatens to overcome you. And he went
through every single trial that every single believer went through. Like that first storm, he was
in that ship. all the waves, ups and downs,
ins and outs, all those waves, every temptation, not temptation
known to man that he hadn't gone through. Gone through it all.
Tempted in all points, like as we are, without sin. What's he
doing? Trusting the Lord. Resting the
whole time. And he came and they saw him.
But they were afraid. Verse 19. They were afraid. Matthew's Gospel said they thought
they saw a ghost. And here's what he said, and
we're afraid of so many things, aren't we? We need to quit looking
at what we're looking at and listening to who we're listening
to, and look to the Lord. He said, it is I. They thought
they saw a ghost, so no, it is I. Look, look, look, terrorists
know it is the Lord. Look, look, look, cancer. Well,
it's the Lord. Look, look, look, look, look.
No, look unto Him. It's the Lord. Whatever it is,
whatever it is, it is the Lord. I, the Lord, do all these things. Look, look, look, death's approaching.
Christ is approaching. I see Him coming. Look, a dark
cloud. The dust of His feet. Look! A hurricane! Oh, he has
his way in the storm. In a hurricane. In a whirlwind. Be not afraid. It is I. And then they willingly received
him into the ship. Oh, my. Lord, would you please
come into our ship? We're here today. Enter into
the fellowship of thy sufferings. And we're going through all these
troubles. All these trials that you sent us, Lord, we need you.
We can't do without you. We're at our wit's end without
you. Would you come into this ship and just stay with us? And
it wasn't, it was just immediately that they were at land where
they went. Just, it just was like that. Now they're, it's over. It's
over. They made it, as bad as that
storm was, was as calm as it calm was. This is the calm after
the storm. See, He puts us through the storm
to appreciate the calm. He puts us through all this trouble
to bring us to a land where there's no more trouble. And only those
can appreciate that. Only those can appreciate Him
knowing He's the one that brought me through that. He's the one.
The only reason I'm here in the land of glory Because he put
himself through trouble. And he puts us through it. On purpose. Okay. Now John, you come.