Against the Wind

What do we do when we are exactly where Jesus sent us, yet the wind is still against us? In the storm, Jesus comes near, speaks above every other voice, and answers the cry, “Lord, save me.”

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To the Gospel According to Matthew, chapter 14. The gospel according to Matthew, chapter 14. And the astute learner or disciple will remember that we were in chapter 14, were we not last week? And that was the feeding of the 5,000. A very famous miracle of Jesus.

Well, another one comes right behind it, all right. And it is quite famous as well, and often finds itself into paintings or even sayings within Christian circles. And it is Jesus walking on the water. So when you have found the Gospel According to Matthew, chapter 14, would you go ahead and stand with me? And let's begin here in verse 22.

Notice these words this morning. This is the word of God.

Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. But by this time, the boat, battered by the waves, was far from land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning, he came walking toward them on the sea.

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, it is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. Peter answered him, lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.

He said, come. So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink. He cried out, lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt?

When they got into the boat, the wind ceased and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly you are the son of God. Jesus, thank you for this event in your life, this event that you inspired the Gospel writers to write down for us, for us to learn from. And so today, Lord, would you send your spirit to enlighten our minds and to turn our will to you in submission and obedience. We pray in your name. Amen.

And you can be seated.

Well, like I said, quite the famous story in the life of Jesus, right? Most of us in this room know about Jesus walking on water and then also know about Peter having his little moment there for just a second and then beginning to sink. And notice immediately Jesus reaches down and saves him in this way. And of course, Peter often finds himself in this sort of leadership role of perhaps the other disciples wanted to do this very thing. But it's Peter who speaks up.

You've noticed this in the Gospels as you've read through them before, surely, right, Is Peter is the one who often speaks. Now, that can get him into trouble at times, right? Lord, you're not going to the cross. I don't know what you're talking about, but I can still carry and it ain't happening. That's basically what Peter says, right?

And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. Oh, you know, the other disciples said, man, I'm glad I didn't say that. You know, like, man, poor Peter. Who, Boy, that was a tough word right there from Jesus. You know, Peter is the leader of the 12.

And it's very explicitly seen as you read through the Gospels now. It's fascinating. He's not necessarily. I always feel kind of bad about saying anything about any of the disciples because I know I'm going to meet them one day, you know, so it's like, if I preach about them and it's wrong and I. I feel like there's going to be a problem when we get up there. But nevertheless, it's not even that Peter's necessarily the smartest one.

I think if we had to locate the smartest one, it'd probably be John. I'll just be honest with you. Maybe Matthew, you know, I don't know. But Peter, I don't know. We kind of see him and he's fumbling around at times, right?

And kind of making some mistakes or whatever, and he's maybe not as suave as John is. When you read the Gospel of John, you're thinking, man, this dude, huh, you know, he's not even the one that Jesus loved the most. In the order of love, we're told explicitly, again, that was John, okay? And you would think, well, John then, because Jesus loved the most and because maybe he's the smartest, he's the one that's going to be the leader. And in fact, it's Peter.

And Jesus even says, you know, I'm going to give Peter the keys to the kingdom. You are the rock upon which the. The church will be built. And of course, we can debate if that rock was Jesus or Peter, but the ultimate rock is always Jesus. But Jesus, who is the rock, calls Peter the rock, which I think really means something here.

Okay? And I know Dag number two family just went to Italy, and I looked at their photos, and guess who's all over Italy but Paul and Peter. And. And guess what? Peter has the keys to the kingdom, not St. Paul, who again, we might argue, might be the smarter one of any of them.

I don't Know, I don't want to necessarily say that one way or the other, but it certainly doesn't seem like Peter would be kind of like. It didn't seem like David was really the exact kind of paragon of what a king would be, you know? And yet you remember when Samuel comes to anoint the new king? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. It went all through the sons of Jesse.

This all you got? Because he ain't here. Where's he at? We got a little run out there watching the. Watching the sheep.

That's the one. Bring him here. Boom. Pours the oil on him. He's the elect one.

He's the anointed one. He's God's choice, even when the others don't look like it. That's kind of good news for us, isn't it? It's good news for me. I didn't make the best grades.

I wasn't called to this post, so to speak, because I made the best grades or, you know, was the best guy for the job, okay? It was because Jesus called me and he called Peter and he appointed Peter. And guess what? He appoints you to your post. You have a post right there in that apartment, right there in that neighborhood, right there in that job.

He appointed you. And when we don't see our lives that way, we really miss what God has called us to. You are to be a missionary right where you are, and likewise me right where I'm at. And we have different jobs. And that's okay.

So, so did the disciples. That's my whole point here. But it was Peter. And here we go with Peter again. And he's sort of one of the focal points here, along with Jesus, of course.

And so I want to look at just a few things this morning that I think the Lord has a word for all of us in this room. All right? And the first one begins probably where you would imagine it to begin. And that is with the storm. It's fascinating here that Jesus made them get into the boat.

Did you notice that? Again, please always read the scriptures carefully and intentionally. It's not like reading a novel that might have some fluff in it. Again, every word is inspired by God. Every word.

We actually call it plenary verbal inspiration. It's every single word he wanted there. Alright? Which means we need to really pay attention when there's little things. Like Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him while he dismissed the crowds.

Now that's the same crowd where we just had the feeding of the 5,000, right. So there's about 10,000 people. Ish. Okay. And he's like, I'll tell them to go.

All right. Remember, the disciples wanted to tell them to go, but before they ate. But Jesus feeds them now, and now it's time to go. So there's always a time to go, which is why at the end of our service, there's always a benediction. We don't just keep preaching, keep singing, whatever it's.

We eat. We feed upon his word. We feed here at this table, and then we move out. Okay? Same.

Same thing here. And so the. The storm that is here is fascinating because we've got Jesus that is not in it. He's up here on the mountain. So once he dismisses them, he goes up to pray in solitude.

Now, that's kind of reminiscent of our Old Testament reading. And by the way, in proper time, which is what we're in now. And that's why we've got, you know, here on Proper 14, right? It's just ordinary time, as it's called. There's no big season like Advent or Christmas or, you know, all those things, right.

When we're in that time, the Old Testament reading and the Gospel reading are paired together so that they actually speak to one another or help interpret one another. And what was today's story? Do you remember? It was Elijah. It was like.

And where does Elijah go? Well, he goes to the mountain. And you have to understand, though, about Elijah that there was a lot of stuff going on here with Elijah before he went to this mountain. And he's not going to the mountain for the same reason Jesus went to the mountain, is he? Jesus goes up there to pray and kind of to oversee things.

You can see the disciples more than likely out there on the sea, and they are laboring, right? That's not what Elijah's doing. Okay, so there's a bit of a difference here that we'll kind of express. But the disciples, they're out there, and Jesus is up here, there in the storm. Jesus is up on the mountain praying.

Now, that sounds. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but that sounds probably a lot like how we see some of our situations, isn't it? We're down here, the wind against us. You know what I mean? In life, I don't just mean physically.

I mean, I've had the physical wind against me before, and it's terrible. If you've ever cycled before, like on a road bike, you know, man, I remember I took off on this. I think it was like a 20 mile, that's a long way from me. Okay, 20 mile bike ride. And I was cruising.

I was looking at my watch, I was like, man, I'm actually making record speed here. And I'm just flowing. I'm like, man, I must be really getting strong and good at this. Until I turned around to go back home. And then I realized there was actually a north wind that was blowing and that's why I was going so fast.

The wind was at my back, right, like a sail. And I was cruising along. But when I turned around, that was the longest bike ride I've ever had back home. And I really wanted to quit pretty much 90% of the time. I mean, I felt like I was going nowhere.

You're just pedaling and everything is against you. And now my time is super slow and I'm doing the same cranking. And now I'm sore, you know, and I'm not. I don't feel like I'm not. Anybody ever been there before in life.

Frustrated because the wind is again. And then of all things, you're thinking, Jesus sent me here. Like, surely on that boat they were saying, peter, are you sure? He said, go ahead. Like, seriously, man, or is this you again?

You know, I'm just kind of here, like, so some of their murmurings, right? And we do the same thing. Like all of a sudden when things are hitting, it's like, okay, is this something I did or am I right where God wants me?

I'll tell you in our story today, they're right where God wants them, and yet they're laboring against this wind. Seasoned fishermen, and they're going nowhere. This sea is not even that big and they can't get over to the other side. They are just stuck out there. Ever been you in life?

You just stuck. And man, you're rowing and rowing and rowing. You just can't seem to get anywhere. The wind is driving against you. We can even say the wind and the waves.

Here. The focus in Matthew is mainly waves. I'm sorry, wind. In Mark and Luke, it's more wind and waves. But of course, when the wind is whipping up, the waves are going to follow.

Anytime you see white caps out here on the Tennessee river, you can guarantee there's wind involved.

And when the storms of life come, it doesn't mean brothers and sisters, hear me? It does not mean that you're out of God's will. Now this is a tough lesson for us. Sometimes I think it just goes right over. Oh, yeah.

Because some of us aren't in the storm right now. So it's like, oh, yeah, yeah. No, I get it. It's still. It's all God's will, right?

Not everywhere you go is God's will. Not every valley you enter into is God's will. Some of those valleys you went into. Now, the good news about Psalm 23 is, even though I am walk through the valley of the shadow of death, guess who's still with me? Yeah, the shepherd is going to go with you.

Okay. But some of the time, he leads us into the storm. Now, that's tough. But they are exactly where Jesus told them to be, and yet they are not getting anywhere. And it's interesting that this begins in the evening and then moves to the morning.

So we've got a full day here in the Hebrew understanding, right? Evening and morning. That was the first day, second day, et cetera. So you've got evening now, you got morning. In other words, Jesus waits to the darkest point of the storm, and then he's like, all right, I'm going to go get my boys, you know?

And so here he comes, walking on the water, which we know from Job and places in the Psalms, and that only God can walk on the waters. In fact, there's Job says, who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled or walks upon the waves of the sea. Okay, That's God. So this is a clear instance where this story is telling us and even confirmed, affirming for us that Jesus is not just a man, but Jesus is the creator God. He is the only God.

Again, he is Yahweh, as we said last week, right? He is the great I am. And it's almost. He almost says it. When he says, take heart, it is I.

He's using that same term, ego. E Me. He's almost saying, like, it is I am. Right? It's me.

And that's enough. In other words, because he is the creator. Now, they look out and they see a phantom or what they think is a ghost. Because you have to understand, they didn't have paddle boards. You ever.

You ever seen, like, somebody on a paddle board at the ocean, you know, or on the lake? They're, like, standing on the water and it's kind of. You're like, oh, well, that's. That's pretty cool. They didn't have that.

Okay? There was none of that. So they see this dude walking on the way. And, you know, have you ever been in a situation where you just. What your eyes are seeing isn't natural or it seems to be something more Than the natural.

And you're a little freaked out about that. I've only had that happen, like, maybe a handful of times. But one of the times, it was at an office where I was calling out. I was literally doing what they were doing. I was in an office.

I was renting it. It was actually where we had some of our first meetings at Harvest Point, north of here. And it was this older building, used to be a church. Then it turned into an office building. It was already kind of spooky, you know, And I was there at about 11:30 at night, and I heard something.

And, you know, you hear stuff. Whatever. Creaking, old. If you're ever here by yourself, you'll hear weird things. I mean, it sounds like people walking up in the roof.

It's actually not okay. I know, because I've been here, and I went up there and looked and stuff, But I was in this office building, and I heard something that I knew was alive. You know what I'm talking about? Like, the difference in hearing something, like boards moaning, you know, because a building's old and some thing moving. And I heard a thing moving, and I was like.

So I started crying out just like that. You know, it says they cried out in fear. Now, these are seasoned guys, but they're crying out in fear. Here in this moment. I was, too.

I was, who is that? I mean, I was screaming. I should have grabbed a hammer. At this point, you know, I'm looking down the hallway. It was like this long hallway.

And I was like, who's here? Who's here? Anybody?

And then, I kid you not, the knob started turning slowly, just like in the movies. And I'm like, this has got to be a joke. I was literally thinking that to myself, like, this can't be real, you know? And I'm just watching, like, who is that? You know?

And emerges, a guy. He never said a word. And I'm like, what are you doing? You know, I'm getting mad, you know, like, what are you. We had this conversation, you know, all this kind of.

It worked out fine, but I immediately left after I realized he was there and not answering me and my screaming. I was terrified for a moment, be honest with you. I really had no idea what was going on. I was thinking, this. This can't be real life.

Like, am I really in a situation like. Like I've seen in the movies or something? I think that was going on here when they look out, like, what? I'm sure that. Who is that?

Hey, you know, hey, chill, guys. It Is I notice immediately he said, when they cry, this is important. When they cried out, immediately he responds. But not until they cry out. Now, that's important.

Same thing, thing with Peter here, right? He starts sinking. When does Jesus save him? When he cries? There's two cries out.

When he cries out, lord, save me, boom. Immediately, Jesus lifts him back up and they go to the boat together.

Now, this teaches some spiritual, important spiritual lessons here for us. And a lot of it has to do with the voices that we listen to and our voice and who we cry out for.

They don't cry out to themselves, Peter, you know? No, it's, lord, save me, John, help me, bro. No. And I'm going to ask you, what voices are you listening to in your life when you're in the middle of the storm, when it doesn't seem like you've been led the right direction, when you're questioning, why does God have me here? We're not making any progress.

We're not being productive. You know, as Americans, we're, like, all about productivity. But it looks like the Lord isn't always about just productivity, just moving the ball down the court. He's more about our character than us producing something. Your job's going to measure you by your production, and that's fine.

They're trying to make money, but that's not the point of the Christian life. It is to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ himself. And if he uses a season in our life where we're rowing away, he's building some character in us. When the wind is against us and we don't seem like we're going anywhere making any progress, there's progress being made. Brother and sister, if he has you in that storm, he's forming something in you in that moment that's going to last.

It'll be worth it if you can listen to his voice. But quite frankly, it's hard to decipher the voice of God in our life. There's so many other voices, right? We scroll past them, we listen to them on podcasts, tv, the books we read. Those are all voices.

And they're fine. I mean, some of them, maybe they are. I don't know what you're watching or listening to, but it's not just evil to listen to other voices. We need to listen to other voices. Okay?

But then we need to filter them to the voice of God. And there is no comparison. His voice compared to all the other voices is not even close. And if you've ever heard that voice of God and it's been confirmed in your spirit. Or maybe we could say it this way in a more technical way.

It's been confirmed in our conscience, which the conscience is given to us by God. And by the way, your conscience will torture you when you've done something wrong because it's given by God. Now, conscience also can be seared. Paul says if you continue doing the wrong thing, you can sear your. I mean, we can say it like the kids do today.

You can cook your conscience basically to where it doesn't operate correctly. That's a dangerous place to be. By the way, God has given each of us a conscience so that we know some things are just dead wrong with. We might not be able to articulate why. They're just wrong and they feel wrong.

Everything about it feels wrong. Well, that's our conscience, right? And the conscience weighs the various voices that are coming in at any given moment. And that's why we sometimes feel like when something is said to us, like man, that was a word for me. Like I needed that.

Well, we can say, thank you, Lord. He sent that person, he sent that circumstance. You know, there's generally four ways to hear the voice of God in your life. The first way is through prayer. If you're not talking to God, you're probably not going to hear from God.

And what is prayer? But talking to God, even when it's crying out, lord, help. That's a prayer. You know, in our small group, sometimes the guys don't necessarily want to pray, but I make them pray. Hope that's okay.

I'm trying to teach them to be disciples, right? And I tell them to say, even if you just say, lord bless Baylor, that's a prayer. Like that is actually a prayer to God for someone else, right? First way, pray. Second way to hear from God is his Word.

He's actually already spoken his divine again. Plenary, verbal, inspired, inerrant, infallible. Just get all the things in there. Word of God, it's not wrong. We must read it if we want to hear.

If you want to hear from God, those are to pray and read His Word. But then there's also the voice of others. God uses other people. And any Christian that's followed Jesus for any length of time knows that sometimes God will use other people listen that aren't even Christian sometimes to get us somewhere.

He's kind of a wild God in that way, you know, like he's no respecter of persons. He will use even bad stuff to get our attention. An enemy who's saying something Kind of like Jezebel to Elijah. He was teaching Elijah something there by that. He didn't make Jezebel say that thing, but because she said that thing, it messed him up.

It really messed him up. I'm gonna make a little, I'm make a little point here. You realize Elijah had just defeated 450 prophets of Baal, okay? And really kind of 400 prophets of Asherah. So let's just say he defeated 850 by calling fire down from God, from heaven.

You remember? Laps up, the whole thing. They're all cutting and calling on their gods. Nobody answers. He jokes around with them, you know, is your God in the bathroom?

Like, did he have an appointment? You know, can he not hear you? And then finally, the living God, boom, he speaks. And then those prophets, well, the 450 of Baal at least, are killed, okay? Elijah's triumphant for now.

Yahweh worship is saved in Israel, all because of Elijah's obedience. And you're saying, man, what a guy. And there's one lady, Jezebel, who speaks a word and says, tomorrow you'll be dead, buddy. So enjoy tonight, because tomorrow you will cease to exist.

And that puts Elijah in a bad way. Now think about it. God had heard from a lot from God, Elijah had heard from God. And then he had been triumphant in a really big way over all these other voices. And yet one voice.

Anybody ever been there before? It's that one voice. Maybe it's a mom, maybe it's a dad, maybe it's a brother, sibling, co worker, Somebody said something, and now it's in your head and it's disabling everything you do. You ever been there before? Because I have just one voice.

It could be a thousand good things that people say about you, but it's that one person, that one voice. And maybe it's yourself.

You know, you got a voice too about yourself. That's what conscience is, is like being able to see yourself as well. It's not perfect, but you can evaluate yourself in that way. And some of us wrongly, because we're not ordering things rightly to God. Listen, brothers and sisters, the big point here is this.

We need the voice of God in our life. And to listen to that voice above the others. That's why we pray. That's why we read. That's why we listen to voices and filter them.

Lord, was that you? And sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. The voice of Jezebel was not God's voice. And notice for Elijah, he goes into the cave goes to Mount Horeb, goes into the cave, and it's not the fire, earthquake, or the wind. But instead he said, I'm sorry.

Say that one more time in order to hear what I'm saying in a whisper. What happens? You gotta get close. You gotta get real close. Say that again.

A whisper. You gotta be close. I think that's part of what Elijah's learning here, and it's something we should learn so other people can speak to us. The word of God at times, but sometimes not. And we have to help discern that both through others and the Holy Spirit.

And then the final way is circumstances. Sometimes God will speak to us through circumstance. We often talk about as, like, open doors, right? You ever just like, lord, help me make this decision. And then all of a sudden, a door swings wide open, an opportunity comes, and you're like, was that.

Was that the Lord? It might be. Well, start walking through it and let's see, you know, circumstances. We've got to cry out to God for his voice in our life and then put that as the priority when everybody else might be saying something else. That voice is loudest.

That voice is most authoritative. And when Peter looks over at the wind, what happens? He starts sinking. We all know it. He starts sinking.

He didn't keep his eyes on Jesus. I mean, this is real simple, right? Nobody needs to, like, teach you that applicational point. Same thing for us. It's His Word that brought him out of the Jesus word that brought him out of the boat, and it's the focus on Jesus that kept him afloat.

We got to have both. We got to have both. We got to have His Word in our life, and we've got to keep our eyes on him. You don't get his word and go do your own thing. No, no, no, no, no.

Eyes on him. Lift up your eyes until the hills. Where does your help come from? Not from the hills. Higher up.

From the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, the Creator. Think about it. Right here. The Creator walking on the water. All right, good.

Now, the final thing here is this. When Peter and Jesus get back in the boat, the wind ceases. Now, this is not the only time this has happened. In Matthew's account. You remember before this, okay, chapters, before this thing is like chapter nine or eight.

There's another storm and Jesus on the boat. What's he doing? He's asleep. You know, he's asleep. Okay.

And guess what rouses him. They call out, you see, we need the voice of God, but we need to Use our voice to invoke his name. To say his name. Say his name over your children. Say his name over your plans.

Say his name over your finances. Don't blaspheme his name. Don't throw it around. Understand that when you invoke the name of the living God, he begins to act on your behalf. But that's a good thing.

So rouse him. Lord, save us. And he wakes up, and what happens? Boom. Wind and waves obey him.

And they say. Here's what they say. They say, what man is this? This is not a man.

And that's where it ends on that one, this story. He gets in the boat, wind ceases, which means the wave ceases. Well, and what they do, truly, this is the Son of God. We know who you are now. Like nobody else could do this but God.

You're not a phantom. He doesn't just appear to be human. He's really human. But also, he's God in one person.

When we've heard his voice, we bow down and worship. It's what we do. Listen to this. This is cool. Because we've heard his voice.

We gather on Sundays. To what? To worship. When we gather together, we seek his voice over my own, over others, above all. Because why?

His name is above all names. And at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. We'll use our voice to confess. There will be no denying one day. So you'll either deny him in this life or you'll confess it in the next and be in denial for eternity.

Don't do that. Today's the day of salvation. Today's the day to hear his voice. His voice has been spoken. And only by the Spirit are we able to say, lord, save me.

And he immediately reaches down and pulls us up. Anybody in the storm? Anybody feel like they're sinking? Anybody feel like they're stuck? Call out on the name of Jesus Christ.

Don't listen to the Jezebels in your life. Instead, listen to Jesus and be saved. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.