Great Themes of the Kingdom: Peace - Walking on Water, 3/13/16

Sermon 3-13-16 great themes of the kingdom – peace- walking on water

Matthew 14:22-33 NIV

²² Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, ²⁴ and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. ²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. ²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” ³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” ³² And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³ Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Todays sermon is indebted to the ideas of john ortberg and rev. gary spencer.

When I first moved to woods chapel I led canoe camps for the conf.

5 days of floating on the beautiful Niangua river

We had some notable experiences infolving fear

·        Canoe overturned, floating in front of it, pushed agains a stump

·        Calling their parents

·        Another time we were trying to dock and someone lost a paddle……I went in after it.  It was deep.  I had my shoes on.

·        Renting the electric boat at st johns pass

Peter sinks.  He is afraid.

Loser

He is focused on what is wrong instead of what is good

We understand his predicament

It is human nature

Do you see the clouds or do you see the sky?

Do you see problems or jesus?

What do you see?? what are you looking at??

Elisha and the hills are covered with an army of angels.

2 kings 6:17

¹⁵ When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. ¹⁶ “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” ¹⁷ And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. ¹⁸ As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked. ¹⁹ Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.

There is something going on in this world that we cannot see something more that the tangible.

God is present god is working keep your eyes upon jesus and all is well.

Do you see problems or jesus?

The church has failed me.  Pastors have failed me.  I have failed myself.

Jesus never fails.

Lets go somewhere else………….. peter was afraid and he sunk

Fear of heights

Ladder oaks ridge back side [bob and grace lighthizer]

But he did get out of the boat

HE DID IT

Maybe not such a loser after all

He was the only one who got out of the boat

Jesus never meant for us to play it safe

We like to stay in the boat

It is safe and comfortable

#1 complaint almost always boils down to I am not comfortable…

To stay in the boat is comfortable but it is

Also costly because we miss gods will, gods purpose and the joy of it all

In fact we discover the holy spirit at the edge of our comfort zone. 

He is never in the boat.  You want to be led by the spirit, get out of the boat.

Risks that this church has taken

·         Moving to the highway

·         Taking a big gamble

·         Building the worship center

·         Buying the missions center

·         Opening campuses

·         We have removed barriers to growth

·         Opened doors for others

Great people of faith begin the journey with a first step

The great “just say yes”

Bible is collection of first step people and no step people

Do you remember - 12 spies that moses sent into the promised land?

Leaders of their tribes:

Shammua Shaphat Caleb Igal Joshua Palti Gaddiel Gaddi Ammiel Sethur Nahbi Geuel

³⁰ Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

³¹ But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” ³² And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. ³³ We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

Walking on water and staying in the boat people

The wind is still howling when peter steps out.

Peace doesn’t mean that the water is still.  Peace means that god is with us during the storm

Cs lewis said

We are like an egg.  Some hatch, some go bad

You decide your fate, get out of the boat or wait

Most powerful words in scripture

Fear not 71 times in kjv

Fear not.

Hear god calling.

Just say yes.

Ist step that will lead to growth of your spiritual life

There is something that you can do……….. may be big or small

What is the one thing that you can do

Ships in the harbor are safe, but ships were not built to sit in the harbor, they were built for the open sea.

Transition to til the storm passes over.