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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] today's today's scripture reading is taken from matthew chapter 14 verse 22 to 33 verse 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 after he had dismissed them he went up on a mountain side by himself to pray later that night he was there alone and the boat was already a considerable distance from land buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it shortly before dawn jesus went out to them walking on the lake
00:00:52 when the disciples saw him walking on the lake they were terrified it's a ghost they said and they cried out in fear but jesus immediately said to them take courage it is i don't be afraid lord if it's you peter replied tell me to come to you on the water come he said then peter got down out of the boat walked on the water and came toward jesus but when he saw the wind he was afraid and beginning to sink cried out lord save me immediately jesus reached out his hand and caught him you of little faith he said why did you
00:01:37 doubt and when they climbed into the boat the wind died down then those who were in the boat worshiped him saying truly you are the son of god this is the word of god once again it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of god it's really a double joy to be in front of a physical congregation it feels great to be with god's people again face to face i've been waiting and looking forward so much to this day after enduring online service for the longest time we praise god for today
00:02:34 for this precious opportunity uh to see each other in person now to express our joy to be together physically from where you are sitting can you wave uh to the to those around you you know and say so good to see you come let's do that so good to see you great all right now i've asked the uh the team av team to put up the uh slide to show those at home because we don't want to forget them those who are at home attending uh this service online uh yes good can you see them live okay let's all also say have waved hello to
00:03:15 them okay come let's all wave to those on the on the screen okay all right even though they can't see you all right okay now indeed whether you are in the sanctuary or at home we are all want and united in the body of christ we are now right in the middle of our series on the book of matthew and this morning the text is from chapter 14 verses 22 to 33. let me put a quicker and this is the well-known account of jesus walking on water and hence the title when i was preaching from matthew 8 back in august
00:04:01 i showed this list of 37 specific miracles of jesus from the four gospels in somewhat chronological order the miracle of jesus walking on water is number 20 in this list and you can also see that it is also documented in mark 6 45 to 52 and also john 6 16 to 21. we will of course also take a look at these parallel passages from mark 6 and john 6 but we really want to dive deep into the 12 verses of our text from matthew 14 and as we do so we shall pick up several mini lessons practical lessons that will
00:04:48 help steady or ship when you sail into stormy weather in your voyage of life for those going through rough seas now or those who will go through rough seas in the future this passage from matthew 14 will be very very instructive at the end of the sermon we shall leave enough time to take a step back to take a macro view of this topic so that we can uncover the main lessons from the text and appreciate the real meaning behind this account of jesus walking on water shall we first commit this time to the
00:05:29 lord in prayer father in heaven we beseech your spirit to minister to us this morning as we seek encouragement from your word so that when the days are dark when the going gets too tough we will know exactly what to do because we know exactly what you would do for it's in the name of your son that we ask of you amen someone once wrote behind my smile there's a story you will never understand exactly a month ago lefan and i took a long drive to pay a friend a visit she is an ex-staff of mine who worked
00:06:20 for me some 15 years ago over the years we have kept in touch although intermittently she lives with her parents and an elder sister let's call her mary okay not her real name last year mary was diagnosed with breast cancer and is now undergoing chemotherapy her father had been battling with dementia and her life has been made much more difficult as a result and if that isn't challenging enough earlier this year her sister suffered from a brain hemorrhage the reason we visited mary is to extend
00:07:01 the love of christ to this family in distress they are non-believers by the way but what we really wanted to do was to meet mary's mom to minister to her as expected stress and strain were written all over her face her tired eyes betrayed the burden of a life devoid of calm she was like carrying a ton of load on her shoulders having to care for husband and two daughters were all not well as we were driving home my wife and i commented how we had seldom met or known a family with more struggles or sufferings
00:07:46 than mary's family it has been really tough on them the reason i'm relating this is to state the obvious that life can be hard life can sometimes be very hard one day you are okay and smiling and the next day you find the ground shaking and the world collapsing around you often i have said that life isn't always a bed of roses sometimes we get pricked by their thorns not every day is a sunny day sometimes it rains if you tell me that your life has been trouble free all these years if it has been smooth sailing all along
00:08:34 then you are the exception not the norm or more likely it's because you have not lived long enough the trouble is whenever we dine in a in a fine restaurant or stroll in a fancy shopping mall we see people having a good time life seems good all seems well with these people so that when we are going through stormy days we feel that we are the only ones struggling but what we see in a restaurant or in the mall is only a small slice of life it is mostly a facade if you want a more complete picture of
00:09:13 life visit any hospital or nursing home and you will realize what life also entails and speaking of hospitals a few days before visiting mary i brought my elderly mom to university hospital to see her geriatrician it was a half yearly medical checkup uh was crowded that day really crowded and the sick people i saw there was a sobering reminder that life can sometimes be turned upside down if you have a friend in hospital do go and visit him because walking around the hospital will give you a healthy dose of reality check
00:09:58 because in a restaurant or mall nobody display their private pains or struggles and hence behind a person's smile is sometimes a painful story no one can understand and behind my smile let me tell you what is happening so after cognitive tests done on my mom the doctor told me that alzheimer's has now progressed from the medium to the advanced stage this is a burden that i have to carry during this phase of my life it is my private pain to see my mother slipping away slowly you can guess where i'm going with this
00:10:40 at some point in our lives we get confronted with challenges sometimes severe challenges which in which there seem to be nothing we can do and in fact in the face of this reality of life our text is critically relevant to us all if we face tommy days no let me correct that when we face stomy days may the lessons from this portion of matthew 14 bring comfort and assurance to you with this introduction we are ready to dive into our text the account of the miracle of jesus walking on water begins in verse 22 when
00:11:20 jesus made the disciples leave while he dismissed the crowd verse 22 begins with immediately immediately after what well our text comes on the heel of the feeding of the 5000 which ended in verse 21 so this was immediately after the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes but why the haze do to withdraw from the crowd and even from the disciples the end of uh verse 23 tells us why jesus wanted to be alone he yearn for a time of quiet solitude the next question is why was jesus seeking time to be by himself
00:12:04 and now here is a very good example of the need to read the bible in context because the picture becomes clearer from an earlier verse verse 13 just before the feeling of the 5000 he had just learned that john the baptist his cousin had been beheaded which is detailed in the first part of chapter 14 and he longed for a time alone to grieve and moan over the loss of his cousin but there was no chance to be alone as the crowd had swelled and they started to follow him as he felt compassion for them jesus
00:12:43 proceeded to feed them miraculously and now in verse 23 of our text it's like okay you guys have your feel please go and let me have some time alone and jesus finally had the chance to be by himself to grieve you might think that jesus is god surely he knew beforehand that john the baptist would be hated yes that's true but remember that jesus is both fully god and fully man at the same time and here in his humanness he felt sadness in his heart over the death of his cousin just as you and i would
00:13:26 when we lose a loved one we see the same thing in john 11 when jesus wept at the tomb of lazarus and here lies the first mini lesson that is our god is a god who can empathize with us in our sufferings god is not one who is apathetic or impressive or cold-hearted watching us suffer from a distance rather isaiah 53 verse 3 describes jesus as one who is acquainted with grief or familiar with pain and hence when you're in great distress take comfort in the fact that jesus fully empathizes with you he understands
00:14:09 your situation hebrews 4 encourages us to be confident in our adversity for we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses let us then approach god's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need because god empathizes with us in our sufferings so also we must empathize with others who are suffering and that's why paul instructs us in romans 12 rejoice with those who rejoice but weep with those who weep weep with those who weep
00:14:55 and further it says in 1 john 3 if anyone seeing a brother or sister in need but there's no pity on them how can the love of god be in that person as a church we in fbc take these verses very seriously no one in the congregation should suffer alone i will touch more on this shortly going back to our text we find sometimes we find something else instructive in the middle of verse 23 why did jesus want to be away from the crowd away from his disciples he wanted to be alone by himself to pray to pray
00:15:37 he was grieving in his heart over the death of john the baptist and in his grief he wanted to spend time alone with his father this scene of jesus praying while grieving is repeated with greater intensity further down in matthew 26 on the night when he was arrested the night before he went to the cross jesus was in the garden of gethsemane his heart was heavy at the thought of the trials and the scourging and the eventual crucifixion the next day once again in his humanness his heart was full of anguish
00:16:18 verse 37 of matthew 26 describes jesus as sorrowful and troubled in the next verse he said to the disciples my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death and feeling so overwhelmed jesus found a quiet spot in the garden to commune with his father to pour out his heart in matthew 26 39 he fell with his face to the ground and prayed my father this is something we all can learn from jesus when we are in great distress when our heart is in turmoil we go to god in prayer to spend time alone with him
00:17:05 to bear our soul so to speak he is there to listen to us maintaining a close communication links with god is essential when we are in a deep crisis and hence the second mini lesson from our text a close communication with god mitigates sufferings a close communication with god mitigates sufferings as a matter of fact we should maintain an active prayer life both in bad times and also in good times as well don't run to god only when you're in trouble an active prayer life is good spiritual discipline
00:17:45 it prepares us in many ways not only to face the storms of life but to seek his will to walk in his council to be equate for ministry etc we have to develop and maintain praying as a habit moving on and so jesus sent his disciples away in the boat as he sought a time and a place of solitude to pray although it's not mentioned here in the text it's believed that they were somewhere in the north of the sea of galilee a bit more to the east the parallel account in john tells us that they were supposed to to sail to
00:18:26 capernaum to the west and so they was like they were crossing the northern part of this of the lake from east to west the sky had just surrendered its last evening light and dark ominous clouds started to gather above before long verse 24 describes them sailing into a storm the boat essays here was buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it one translation says that they were pounded by the waves another translation depicts the wind as turbulent it also says here that they were a considerable distance from land
00:19:10 now the passage in john 6 gives us a distance of 5 to 6 km from the shore the pertinent question to raise here is this surely jesus knew beforehand that the boat would soon be in trouble that is that the disciples would soon be in danger why then did he send them out to sea surely it would have been much better for the disciples to wait for jesus by the by the show while he went to pray alone it would have been much safer that way did jesus send them out intentionally you see the answers to these questions
00:19:50 will help to us to understand the realities of christian living let me give you straight to you the third mini lesson god does allow sufferings to come away god does allow suffering to come our way when a crisis confronts us it is part of his permitted will or even active will yes jesus knew a severe storm was coming yes jesus sent them out to see nonetheless the reality is that god doesn't vaccinate us against troubles there is no god-given immunity against the trials of life to use another metaphor
00:20:36 in our journey of life the road isn't always straight sometimes they are sharp bends to negotiate the road isn't always smooth sometimes it gets very bumpy across the stages of scripture we see pain and sufferings as as part and parcel of life in fact jesus told his disciples to expect hardship in john 16 here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows the bible teaches that god allows them for a reason you will take a separate sermon to address them it may be that god wants to bring you back on track when you have straight too
00:21:16 far or perhaps more likely he is taking your faith to a much higher level so that you will learn to trust him more or is simply evaluating your faith to check your spiritual score whatever the reason behind your situation when you are in distress let me state that we in fbc acknowledge that there are times in the believer's life when he has to face or undergo a severe trial because god has allowed it to happen for a season and for a reason which is a key lesson from our text we have just seen jesus sending his disciples
00:21:57 into a storm we will never say to you oh this is your storm going yourself remembering paul's words in romans 12 15 to weep with those who weep what we want to do is to minister to you so that you will come out of come out of it stronger and better as i said earlier no one in the congregation should struggle alone when battling with the storm of life talk to us let us walk with you because we are one in the body of christ to that end over the past few years we have established two very important ministries
00:22:34 firstly family life headed by brother john go with a team of dedicated counselors and secondly pastoral care headed by pasteling surprisingly but also not so surprisingly we have encountered many in our midst with painful stories behind their smiles before we continue here i wish to digress a little bit to offer some peripheral points so that we can better appreciate what is going on here we just saw in verse 24 how the disciples in the boat were caught in a severe storm now here i have an unusual question
00:23:15 how big do you think was the boat which would indicate how much danger they were in sometimes when we study scripture the word of god can become more vivid more telling when we read the verses through some supplementary lenses what do i mean sometimes we we when we have the benefit of additional information relating to the text even extra biblical information the study of scripture can become more fascinating for example when we read a bible text through a say a cultural lens we begin to understand better
00:23:55 more of what is happening in that verse also why and how now let me illustrate this in two ways firstly let's look at this through an archaeological lens i was just asking how big the boat was well in 2017 i led a group of bruce lee fbc members on the political tour of the holy land and we were in the galilee area when you visit whenever you visit northern israel you must go on a boat ride on the sea of galilee and so we did this was the this was the this was the boat sorry this was the boat uh we boarded to
00:24:40 get a feel of what it might have been like when jesus and his disciples were moving about the sea of galilee it was like the bible coming alive for us now it would have been more dramatic had we encountered the storm during the boat ride but unfortunately unfortunately the weather was fine our group consisted of 30 plus pilgrims and this vessel could easily accommodate all of us with plenty of room to spare and here are some ladies in our group uh in the boat i can see uh i think bridget uh here in
00:25:27 the photo i tell you these ladies they love taking photos and i have to double up as the cameraman now some of you may recognize our dear late sister chi xiong on the extreme right i'm happy that she was able to tour the holy land before she went home to the lord in october last year let me also mention in passing that that she don't suffered much before her passing for months but i'm heartened that she was well ministered to by so many of you who loved her and cared for her now back to the boat
00:26:14 apparently this was a replica of the kind of boats they used in the sea of galilee back in the time of jesus or so they claimed i was thinking isn't this a bit too big i doubt the waves could topple it over during a severe storm at sea in any case amazingly in 1986 on the shore of the lake archaeologists dug up an actual wooden boat which had been preserved in the mud for 2000 years it was one of the greatest archaeological finds in that area and this biblical treasure is now kept in the museum and here is the photo that
00:26:55 i took it has been nicknamed the jesus boat but to say this was the actual boat used by jesus and his disciples is quite a stretch i think as you can see the top part of the boat is all gone what is left is just the bottom part of the hull nonetheless we now have a very good idea what the boat in matthew 14 looked like it was a single sailboat and this wouldn't remain measures only 27 feet long and so it's not a very big vessel and can easily capsize in the severe storm speaking of storms in the sea of galilee
00:27:36 we now use a geographical lens to help us i use an amazing tool known as google image to get this satellite view of the area around the sea of galilee in order to survey the topology of the land you can see that that much of the lake is surrounded by mountains and high plateaus especially towards the east now here is the cross-section cross-sectional view showing the mountains on the east topping as high as 2 300 feet above sea level the sea of galilee itself is 700 feet below sea level resulting in a height
00:28:14 differential of about 3000 feet what happens is that cold air up in the high plateau can sometimes rush down to collide with the with the warm air above the lake to whip up a sudden and ferocious storm and given the small size of the boat you can imagine the serious situation the disciples were in what we read in matthew 14 is supported by archaeology and geography back to the account of jesus walking on the water we'll look at three more mini lessons earlier in the first mini lesson on god's empathy we saw how important it
00:28:54 is to read a bible passage in context now here's another easy and useful technique when it comes to bible study which is called cost referencing that is examining a verse against other verses that are similar or related now let's take a closer look at verses 23 and 24 in our text now i shall extract them to do a comparison with verses 46 47 48 in the parallel account in in mark 6 and so we have uh both passages now side by side in this slide now we don't have time for you to examine this carefully but if you have
00:29:33 time to look at this carefully you will see that both are similar almost word forward but there is important extra line in the marked passage at the bottom he saw the disciples training at the ors so while jesus was was praying alone he saw the disciples struggling against the violent storm now this is a sunday school uh book i picked up recently at the at the charity shop entitled a walk on the waves and this is a picture from from this book depicting the desperate scene that night on the sea of galilee
00:30:19 it's a picture done for kids so just pretend you're in sunday school now okay what was happening is that the sale was completely useless against the fierce win the artists here even drew the sail straight to pieces by the by the strong wind and so they had to work furiously on their ores to try to control the the boat tossed about by the angry waves but what we really what what really warrants our attention here is not so much what the disciples were doing on the boat as much as what jesus was doing
00:30:57 on land he was praying alone and yet he noticed the disciples training at the us from mark 6 48. wait a minute i thought you told us that it was fine the boat was 5 to 6 km out in the sea how could jesus see so far remember you're supposed to be sunday school kids asking this question you know oh yes jesus could see very very far he can see you when you are six meters away or six kilometers away or even six thousand kilometers away god is omniscient he knows everything he sees everything jesus knew and saw
00:31:43 all that was taking place on the on that boat so and so this little line from mark 6 48 he saw the disciples training at the auss it's actually a powerful verse of assurance which brings us to our fourth mini lesson god sees and knows all our sufferings god sees and knows all of sufferings he is not oblivious to the difficulties we are going through he is not unaware of our desperate situation he will not abandon nor forsake us in our season of distress and this is a very comforting thought whenever we are in a deep crisis
00:32:26 coming to the highlight of the text verses 25 to 27 when jesus walked on the water and stepped on the waves now if you recall the list of 37 miracles performed by jesus in that list this particular miracle stands out because compared to all the preceding miracles jesus walking on water finally convinced the disciples that he was truly the son of god which will become evident later in verse 33. now we will not discuss the miracle per se here i'll touch on it at the end of the sermon but what i want to do is to examine a
00:33:03 kind of timeline of what is happening here now it says here in verse 25 shortly before dawn jesus went out to them walking on the lake notice shortly before dawn but this is actually not a very accurate translation most translations have it as in the fourth watch of the night now in those days night time was divided into four watches uh six uh p.m to nine pm nine pm to midnight i think midnight to three a.m and then three to six am so in the fourth watch of the night would mean that jesus set out to go to
00:33:40 the disciples between 3 am to 6 am now let's say it was 4 to 5 am when jesus crossed the lake to get to the disciples here's another picture from the sunday school book bearing in mind that earlier jesus had dismissed them immediately after the feeding of the 5000 they had set sail as it was getting dark let's say it was then 7 00 pm now i estimate it took them about an hour to get to the spot when the sea turned against them can you see the timeline the disciples have been battling the wind and the waves
00:34:20 for almost 9 hours from 8 pm to 5 a.m to the point of complete exhaustion the more pertinent point i'm making is this that when they were almost at the limits of their endurance jesus reach out to them sometimes our pain and sufferings can stretch for the longest time sometimes our struggles never seem to end sometimes we even ask god why don't you do something if you ever encounter such a situation in the future take heart that at the time of his choosing god breaks into our life and intervenes
00:35:04 just as jesus did that night on the sea of galilee and hence the fifth mini lesson god steps in at the right time in our sufferings god steps in at the right time in our sufferings we may not understand or agree with god's timetable it was a precarious nine hours for the disciples god may stretch us to our breaking point but he will never stretch us beyond what we can bear in order to achieve his purpose for us there is more as jesus approached the boat the disciples couldn't recognize him and thought he was a ghost
00:35:47 this may well be because it was dark it was at night and the weather was bad they couldn't see clearly now i forgot to point out earlier that when they dug up the two thousand year old boat in galilee archaeologists also found oil lamps in the hull made of clay so it's likely that the disciples had oil lamps and so it wasn't pitch black so they saw something or someone walking towards them but they couldn't figure out what or who it was they were terrified as described here here is another picture from the book
00:36:25 i know this is a bit cartoonish but it captures very well the reaction of the man at the sight of this ghost now the word ghost here is again another example of poor translation the greek word use is actually phantasma or a phantom and so they saw a kind of a shadowy figure or an s or an apparition approaching them interestingly there is no mention these verses that the disciples were panicky throughout their long ordeal at sea a number of them were actually seasoned fishermen and they must have had a lot of
00:37:03 experience with rough seas now they may not be so afraid of the raging waves but they were clearly in fear when they saw the phantom my conjecture is that they might have thought that it was like a modern day a grim reaper coming to claim their souls perhaps they thought this is it this is the end of us in verse 27 jesus sends their deep fear and at once assured them take courage it is i do not be afraid words of comfort and calm in a time of crisis and confusion throughout scripture god has often
00:37:47 encouraged his people do not be afraid there are so many hundreds in fact of bible verses containing this soothing refrain do not be afraid of fear not or something similar so further to our fifth mini lesson not only does god step in at the right time in our sufferings he comes to reassure us not to be afraid we come to the last mini lesson to the second last segment of the text verses 28 to 31 in the part where peter jumped out of the boat lord if it's you tell me to come to you on the water if it's you
00:38:33 he wasn't 100 sure it was jesus but nonetheless he was eager to get to where jesus was peter is known to be someone impulsive and rash often acting without thinking but that may not fully explain why he wanted to exit the boat perhaps he was wondering wow walking on water how cool is that lord let me have a go at it or maybe he was thinking since i made a commitment to follow jesus that was way back in chapter four it shouldn't make a difference whether on land on water but seriously let me offer you what i think is the
00:39:18 real reason he wanted to get out of the boat to go to jesus because he felt it was safer to be next to jesus than to be on the boat that's why to put it mathematically the level of your stress is proportional to your distance from jesus personally whenever i i go through a rough patch my prayers are punctuated by oh god draw me closer to you jesus let me be near to you the next thing in verse 29 at jesus command peter was walking on water not many people realized that this is the second miracle in the narrative
00:40:06 peter walking on water we don't know for how long but he did manage to get close to where jesus stood but then in verse 30 he started to feel the strong wind bearing on him other translations added that he saw the high waves and he began to sing and this is the the last picture from the book poor peter not our daughter peter poor peter he started feeling heavier and heavier the water started rising higher and higher because he lost focus his attention was consumed by the wind and the waves which brings us to the last mini lesson
00:40:55 focus on god to strengthen your faith during sufferings focus on god to strengthen your faith during sufferings it's not that peter didn't have faith he had great faith when he stepped out of the boat but his faith was compromised when he diverted his attention away from jesus focus on your problem and it will get bigger but focus on god and the problem will not seem so big now to finish with the narrative quickly as he was thinking he cried out lord save me i'm in serious trouble rescue me to which
00:41:34 jesus acted at once by grabbing his arm and pulling him out of the water salvation comes when we call up on god in desperation god will act and intervene in his time as we learned earlier from the fifth mini lesson in the last segment of the attacks versus 23 and 32 32 and 33 when jesus climbed into the boat the wind dissipated and the waves subsided this is actually the third miracle that night you know the storm was still and normalcy was restored now does this mean that when i face a severe crisis
00:42:18 that the wind and the waves will eventually cease will god eventually restore calm in my life the short answer yes he will god will restore come sooner or later he may do it sooner than you think he may do it later than you expect at the latest he will do it when he calls you home as in the case of our late sister chision whatever is timing calm the storm he will as he did that night on the sea of galilee we are done with the text and we have learned six mini lessons along the way now we have just a bit of time left to take a step
00:43:00 back to look from a wider angle this miracle of jesus walking on water and this we do to unpack two main lessons quickly and to learn what this is really all about this can may go may get a little too deep okay let me start by by asking you a strange question why did jesus walk on the sea of galilee why did jesus perform this miracle of walking on water now in primary terms all four gospel writers documented the miracles of jesus to convince their writers their readers that he is indeed the messiah the son of god just like how
00:43:41 the disciples were convinced at the end of our text today that's true for this particular miracle but it's much more let me modify the question why do you think jesus have to walk on water why did jesus have to walk on water i mean he could have easily steal the storm from where he was on land or he could have easily teleported himself straight into the boat and then still the storm it would still be a great miracle a wrestle with these thoughts surprisingly the clue is found in the in at the beginning of the bible
00:44:24 in genesis 1 verse 2 it says now the earth was formless and empty now this verse comes just before the six days of creation again bible translation can be an issue so i spent some time finding out what the original hebrew words mean formless here really means chaos or without order while empty is actually empty waste or desolate and so the picture is of an earth chaotic and desolate the verse further says darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the waters the
00:45:04 deep here is is really watery deep or ocean depths so we have an earth covered completely with water it was dark and chaotic and desolate and very importantly the spirit of god was hovering above over the waters the imagery we see here in this verse will slowly unfold across the pages of scripture the sea or the ocean will come to represent something turbulent or in turmoil on a theological level the sea in the bible often serves as a metaphor for evil and sin and rebellion i think of the the flood in genesis 7 god's
00:45:49 judgment against sin think of uh the severe sea storm in jonah chapter one god's warning against uh disobedience but on a personal level the sea imagery in the bible can also symbolize our trials and pain and sufferings especially in the book of psalm and this is key in the light of the mini lessons we have learned imagine yourself drifting alone on a boat in the middle of the ocean there's no food you can't drink the sea water the sun beats down on you there is no hope to look nothing to look forward
00:46:28 to except despair and that's why in his deep distress the psalmist wrote in psalm 69 save me oh god for the waters have come up to my neck i sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold i've come into the deep waters the floods engulf me it's almost a picture of peter sinking in the water however although the bible begins with with scenes of darkness and chaos in genesis 1 verse 2 happily the bible ends with a picture that is completely the opposite in revelation 21 the apostle john in his vision described
00:47:13 how god will wipe away every tear from our eyes how there will be no more crying or pain and for that reason john also noticed that there was no sea the other loud then i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea at the end of the bible you may guess what i'm driving at you see jesus walking on the turbulent sea of galilee is like a mirror to the spirit of god hovering over the chaotic waters in genesis 1 2. but over at the other end of the bible
00:48:02 god establishes something beautiful and perfect out of chaos and darkness so in the same way out of your pain and sufferings god will create something strong and good he works for the good of those who love him romans 8 28 secondly jesus walking on water also teaches us that he's above all the turmoil in our lives since the sea is also metaphorical of our pain and sufferings jesus stepping on the waves means for us that he has full control over our situations he has mastery over whatever we are
00:48:43 going through not only does god see and know our pain not only does god empathize with us in our sufferings he also has the power over whatever difficulties we might face in life these are the two main lessons on top of the six mini lessons may these assurances strengthen you in your hour of need and may god spur as many in fbc to walk alongside fellow believers who might be in need and may god be glorified in our care and love for each other shall we close in prayer father in heaven cause us to always look upon jesus
00:49:28 both in good times and especially in bad times at the same time turn your face towards us and grant us peace whenever we are caught in the storm of life for we ask this in jesus name amen now here's a chance for you to respond if you wish if you wish to make a decision to follow jesus or if you would like to attend the alpha program or join a live group or you have if you have a prayer request please scan this qr code and the leader of the church will get in touch with you we would love to minister
00:50:04 to your needs
