Worshipping the Son of God Pt. 2

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  Worshipping the Son of God Pt. 2

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  Please turn in your Bibles back to Matthew 14, where we were last week in part one, talking about worshiping the Son of God. And we're back in the boat. And maybe I just chose this as the summer series and the Jack Sparrow in me, or the Quint from the orca that I like being on the water, at least fictionally, I do. Um, maybe not in reality, but, um, you know, I guess what captivates me about this passage that's so well known is that, you know, with the amazing way our imaginations can work in whether it's a fictional book or a character from a movie that we can latch on to and amazes us. The amazing thing about Christ is he is all the best of all of that...that your imagination could fathom, with the singular difference being he's real. I mean, just think about it...all the stories, um, the ones that keep us fixed to the screen. Some are blockbusters or, you know...read a book. Imagine that long book and it just keeps you turning page after page. But it's made up. And that character you so identify with...never existed. And yet we open the pages of Scripture here and here we have Christ, the God-Man. All of the best that we could imagine and fathom in a hero is found in Christ, and none of the worst, no flaw. We find a flaw in every hero, don't we? It's maybe why we can identify with them. Because they're not just perfect all the time. They have something that they can't do. And that's usually the twist, isn't it? They can do everything but this one thing. But not Christ...completely man, completely God. But not just any God. Not one distant, far away, transcendent overall, but no interest down here. But a good God who comes down and comes to his creation, made in his image, who has rejected him and becomes like them in all ways, and restores that which was lost through the fall and through sin. And that good God made us in his image for a particular purpose. And in Christ it's restored. He made us in his image not to make much of ourselves, but to make much of him, to worship him. And he's such a good God that it's not just this worship that's one way. As in, it's purely I just fix my eyes. He actually then allows us to enjoy him. It's reciprocal in that we can enjoy him because we start to realize that restored in Christ how much he enjoys us. That that's what he wants is a relationship with his creation that was broken by sin. And in restoring us through His Son Jesus, it's not just that we enjoy him. We recognize and part of our worship is recognizing he actually enjoys me, flaws and all. Fallenness, but forgiven in His Son Jesus Christ. He loves me as he loves His Son. And that's the height of our worship. Not ignoring our fallenness not forgetting about it, but seeing the vast distance between who we are and who he is, and that there's no way we work our way back to him. But we are brought to him by His Son, and so we truly can enjoy Jesus when we worship him for who he is and who we are. I think last week what we were trying to see, at least I was trying to show, is true worship...enjoying him as he should be enjoyed has to start with a right view of him. And what we saw in two pictures in verses 22 to 27 was when we don't see him as he is. In the beginning of the story, when he had to send the crowds away and put the disciples on a boat, it's because they weren't seeing him as he really was. They were just seeing him for an earthly king who could give them the power that they wanted, who could heal, who could feed, but they didn't get it. And so he sends them away, and they didn't quite see him rightly because they didn't see their absolute need of him spiritually. This thought...we have some temporal needs we need fixed. Give us our king. And then we saw secondly, when he is coming to the disciples, they don't recognize him thinking he's a ghost. They can't see him rightly there either. Fear distorts their vision of Christ as it does all of us, doesn't it? That the Christ we think we see isn't the Christ that really is. And they turned their God into a ghost and their Savior into a specter, and they were fearful of him. And so that sets up for this week. If we're going to enjoy Jesus rightly, we have to worship him as He is. And we saw last week how we get that image restored when we see him rightly to worship him rightly. But this week we turn from just his person to his work, that when we are worshiping Jesus rightly, it's bound up in who he is, what he does. We worship him as Lord and Savior because he is the God who saves. And that's what we will see in our text today. That to enjoy Jesus is to see him as King of earth and heaven, authority in the seen and the unseen, commanding crowds on earth and commanding clouds from heaven. He's God. And so this week we get to see a picture of his work. He's good, and he alone deserves our highest worship and gives us our deepest joy. So follow with me. We'll read the entirety of the section again, but focusing our attention now on the second half of it, from verses 27 to 33. Let's go back to verse 22, the beginning of this stormy situation.
  "Immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the crowds away. After he had sent the crowds away, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. And when it was evening he was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it is a ghost. And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid. Peter said to him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And Jesus said, come. And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened and began to sink, crying out, Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt? When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, you are certainly God's son."
  Father, help us see your son. We believe. But we also need help in our unbelief. So help us to see you rightly today, Christ, through your Spirit's work in the word. Amen.
  If we're going to worship God and enjoy him forever, we have to see him correctly. But this week we need to get to the heart of the gospel message...his person and his work. And what was his work to do on earth? It was to save. And so we will see, as I outlined this section, that we see the work of Christ here, a work that is by grace alone, through faith alone in him alone. And that is the heart of the gospel message that we never want to forget, that salvation to the sinner is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And when you believe that, you can worship him to the glory of God alone. And so I pray you can see this with eyes of faith today, because the cry of "Lord, save me" is not the exclusive property of the first time professor of faith. If you think that is, you're in a world of hurt the rest of your Christian life. If you think I just needed the gospel at the beginning, I just needed to cry out, Lord, save me once and I'm good. Well, you are justified once and for all...declared righteous. But on a daily basis, when the storms of life and the waves are crashing against your boat, what else are you going to cry out besides, Lord, save me in those moments. Do you have something better to say to your Lord and Savior when life is hard? Things aren't going the way you thought they're going. Other than that simple cry of faith that Peter, a man of faith, still has to say here...Lord, save me, help me, deliver me, rescue me. And that call out to our Lord is always predicated...what we'll see first...on his grace.

  So let's see that in verses 25 to 27, we cry out to him to be saved by grace alone. To worship and enjoy God forever begins with God's grace coming to you. We saw last week the action of a sovereign Son of God coming to a scared group of men. Verse 25, in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them. And we learned in Mark 6:48 the parallel passage, that when he was up on the mountain, he saw them struggling at the sea. And we asked the question, how could how could he see them struggling in the sea in the fourth watch of night in the darkness? Well, he's God, he sees. He knows. He's not indifferent. He's not not paying attention. And so he comes to them and he comes seeing them, seeking them, striding over, wave after wave to save them. That is an act of what? It's an act of grace. It's grace alone that compels Christ to come to them. They hadn't cried out for anything yet. I mean, it hasn't registered to them. They're just at the sea. Doing what, I mean, these are rough men, tough men, sea tested. And yet we don't see them falling on their knees in the boat. It's not reported in any of the three accounts. Whether John's account in chapter six or Mark's account in chapter six. They're just three miles or four miles out to sea. It says in John 6. They have drifted from the shoreline, but they're not crying out yet. They're still seeming to try to figure it out on their own, straining against the oars. And so Grace comes to them. But as we saw last week, verse 26, in coming to save them by grace alone, they don't recognize him.  In a state of fatigue and fear due to the winds and waves they see a body moving to them on the water, and their minds go to the irrational. It goes to the supernatural, but not in the right direction, the entire opposite direction of the supernatural. Rather than think this is, of course, our Savior coming to rescue us. They think it's the opposite. Their mind gets the best of them. They think it's a ghost, and it's the furthest thing from the truth. So picking up in the action today, Grace comes to them in a quick response. That word immediately we saw at the beginning of verse 22, when Jesus gets the disciples into the boat and gets the crowds away, not wanting them to come and make him a king by force to soon. Immediately, when he recognizes things are going bad, he is not moving to action quickly because things are going bad outside of the boat. He's in control of all of that. He sees how bad it's going in the boat because they think he's a ghost. So it says immediately Jesus speaks a word of grace to them. Take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid. His voice cuts through the sounds and swells of the raging sea. He does not keep them in suspense a moment longer. These phrases are connected, each grace-filled in their own right. First, take courage. It reminds us of that call throughout the Old Testament to the people of God. Be strong and courageous. Be bold. Be of comfort. And I mean, if there wasn't just a rapid fire to his phrases, they might hear that. Take courage from this ghost like appearance in wonder why should we be bold and not afraid? Because we've been out here six hours in the dark, we're tired and now death is coming for us. Some form of a ghoul. He says, don't be afraid. Take courage. Because second phrase, it is I, Christ, the everlasting God. Why do I say that? Because this phrase, it is I is actually 'ego eimi' which is transliterated in the Old Testament in Exodus 3, when God has to strengthen who?...Moses for a great task in front of him. It's the same phrase. God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus three to strengthen him when his faith was weak. He wasn't going to go back. He wasn't going to try to rescue his people. He didn't feel like he could do it. And he says to God in the burning bush, behold, I am going to the sons of Israel. And I'll say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am. It's not in our English Bibles the same, but it would be in the Greek of that Old Testament verse as well as this one ego eimi, I am, it is I. It's revelation meant to encourage, meant to fortify them. So it wasn't just an empty take courage, be bold. Come on, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Except that they've come off in the waters in the boat. He strengthens them by just saying it's me, the I am. And then he says the third thing, don't be afraid. And the force of this command isn't so much...don't be afraid. It's...stop being afraid right now. They were already afraid. He's not saying to not start it. He's saying to stop the thing that you've been doing for the last few minutes. Why, they may ask again. And it's back to the middle. It's the, I am. The key to these two commands if you want to think of them this way, the key to taking courage and not being afraid is where?...it's in the middle with the I am. I know everywhere I look I see a sandwich. But that is a grace sandwich of strength that. you know, Biblical counselors, you know, the put off and put on principle. Some of you who operate out of Ephesians 4 a lot, you know, put off the old man, put on the new. How does Paul actually recommend that we do that? He says we have to do that by the what?...renewing of our minds. And how do we renew our minds in Ephesians 4? You have to remember that you've been created in the likeness of God, in righteousness and holiness in truth. You just don't go putting off and putting on by your own strength. What allows you to put off in this case, fear and put on courage is nothing in you....except for the one who is in you. You have Christ in you, the hope of glory. So anything else just can veer into the abyss of self-help, self-actualization. I can just put off fear. Yeah. By doing what? Well, as a Christian, you renew your mind. And what do you renew your mind with? It's right here. The first biblical counseling put off, put on in the Bible wasn't from Paul. It was from Jesus here in verse 27. How can you put on courage and take away fear? Recognize the I am is with you...that you have Christ in you, Christian, for whatever sin problem you're struggling with. And yes, fear is a sin problem. It is. I mean, like all sins, they come to us as temptations, but sometimes over, you know, the anxieties that we could feel in life take over and they override what we should be doing is living by faith. And we just get stuck in that, and we just can't get out of it by somebody coming up and shaking us up, saying, snap out of it already, okay? Quit being so afraid. That's never helped anyone. But to take them to the reality that if you renew your mind, Romans 12:1-2...be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Don't be conformed to the world. That's going to say, oh, it's all outside of you. When you say no, the answer is in me. It's Christ in me. I can have courage. I can be bold here. Why? Again, it's not because anything in me. It's because of who I have with me. That's what Jesus is trying to say to these guys, to snap them out of it. And this power of God to not be afraid is a work of grace. And that's why it's for the believer today. It's not just for the unbeliever to remember the work of grace in salvation. It's for us as well in Christ. And it teaches us that working at the oars harder was a losing battle, resisting recognizing the grace of God that we need daily.  These disciples aren't just to keep paddling harder and fighting against the wind that they were never going to win against. How much is that a picture of our lives striving and working and not recognizing that we need his grace, his sustaining daily grace. He comes to us by his sovereign grace, not our straining efforts. That's the first lesson we see in 25 to 27. He comes by grace.
  What's the response if we want to worship, enjoy God forever? It begins with grace as Christ moves to the needy. But what is expected of us in return? What's our response? It's faith. Look at verses 28 and 29. Peter said to him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Peter responds in grace, the only one out of the 12. It's as if he was sitting there, and while the rest of them are still caught up in themselves and in the turmoil of their hearts, it is if Peter goes, no, I recognize that voice. I know that name...I am.  I've heard it before. His are the only ears of faith that pick up on it, though, and it just moves him to action. And we see how faith, when it recognizes the voice of our shepherd, cuts through fear pretty quickly, doesn't it? How quickly? Just as quickly as Jesus's words to take courage, it is I. Do not be afraid, Peter responds in faith, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. At that moment it didn't matter what he could see or not see with his eyes. It's what he could hear. It's what Jesus says all his sheep will hear. They'll hear his voice. John 10:27, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Can't argue with that. Why did Peter do it and the rest didn't? In faith he recognized the voice of his shepherd, and he followed him. He said, if that's you, command me to come to you. Now, Verse 28, some of you may say, and rightly so, is the word...if it is you, is that faith, or is he hedging his bets? Um, I think two things help us to maybe understand in our English Bibles the kind of the the way in which he's asking this. The first is the "if" it's a part of a conditional clause, and we're used to if then statements. But in in the Greek language there are four conditional clauses. This is the first class condition where when if is used by a speaker, it's saying it, but it's saying it from the point of belief. It's kind of the if hypothetical, assuming the truth of a reality. Don't get too lost on that technical jargon. But all I'm saying here is he's not saying that if out of doubt...it's, if...assuming this is you, then command me to come to you. And so he's really just saying I believe. But for the sake of argument, he gives it an if. Now it's not just maybe I'll call that a lexical argument. Think also about the logic of this situation. If there is any chance it's a ghost, why would he say yeah, command me to come to you. As if this is going to be Casper the Friendly Ghost. He's going to take his chances on a goul? Oh, you know what? If it's really you, Lord, and I know this could be a ghost. Well, then that ghost is going to say, sure it's me. Come on out. It doesn't make sense logically, that he would do it that way. As my hero pirate says, a dishonest man or a dishonest ghost you can always trust to be dishonest. And that's why, Peter, I don't think would be saying this if he had any amount of doubt that it really was Jesus. So he was just it was just a hypothetical. I do believe, but I'm going to kind of phrase this for the sake of argument. If it is, you command me to come to you on the water. And that's beautiful, because what it really is saying there, and there's no evidence in this text, and this is the only of the three that talks about Peter going on the water, that he's just wanting to kind of like surf, you know? No, it's just all the text commends to us is that he just wants to be near his Lord. That he recognizes, I want to take my chances out there and next to my Lord. Why would I want to stay in here? If that's you, Lord, then just tell me to come to you. Notice there's no presumption in that, is there? He's asking permission. He's saying you command me to come to you. I'm not going to venture out into this ocean, these waves, because he understands in any other situation, without walking towards the Lord, he would step out there and be done. There's no life vests in this boat. The other guys are afraid. So nobody's jumping in to save him, especially Peter. So this is an all in proposition, and all he wants from the Lord is, just tell me to come to you and I'm going to come. That's faith. That's the response, okay? The grace. He's come out to me this far and I hear his voice. So just tell me to come and I'll come. And Jesus didn't have Peter come any further. You know, he just hears his voice, sees him, says, can you command me to come to him, to come to you? And then Jesus just says, come. It's not...there's no bargaining here. I'll come a little further. You come. No, it's just command me to come to you on the water. And he says, come. And so Peter gets out of the boat and walks on the water and comes toward Jesus. And I think that is such a beautiful picture of faith in the simplicity of the way that Matthew describes it. Look at it in your text. It's just rapid fire. He gets out of the boat. He walks on the water. He comes to Jesus. Matthew would have been in the boat recording this...just sees it as so simple. It's probably I don't know what else I could say about that. He doesn't have any detail of like putting his toe in and kind of testing the waters first...the winds. No, when he says come and it's a beautiful, simple command with Christ, isn't it? As simple as it is then it is today for you. Come. And I said this before. I'll continue to say it. Christianity is not complicated, but it is hard. It's very hard because it takes faith. Everything else that's hard in our lives, we can just feel like, you know, if I just have faith in myself and work hard enough, I can do it. And Christianity is hard. Not just because the world, the flesh and the devil and all of that coming against us, but it requires us to completely put our trust in Christ and not in ourselves. I was just with a brother in Christ this week... he's had a hard year. But he's in the fight and we're driving in the car to lunch, and he's wanting to go see another brother to encourage him with me. And he just says, Adam, Christianity is hard, but it's worth it, because he's loved us. And I love him. And he's worth it. See, that's faith. Because he ends up by saying he's worth it. It's the relationship this brother has with Jesus Christ that makes it worth it. But he's not going to sugarcoat anything. It's been a hard year for this guy. But he's not losing faith. He's just taking it head on. And when Christ tells him to come, he comes just like Peter gets out, walks on water...no hesitation, little explanation. And I think that's also a precious picture of our faith. It, uh, the clearest evidence of our faith is the action of it. It does something. It moves, it walks, it responds. Faith works. It does. James says 2:17...faith, if it has no works, is dead. So it shows itself in the action, in the doing. Otherwise it's all talk. And Jesus even says in Matthew 7:16, you'll know them by their fruits. A good tree has good fruit. So we see the fruit of Peter's faith here. It moves him to come to the Lord, to want to be with the Lord, to be close to him, to abide with him. And it's a great story, a great picture of faith, until, of course, the payoff here, verse 30. But seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink. You know, it's interesting the kind of parallels between 29 and 30. There's just like three parts in each. Peter gets out of the boat, walks on the water, comes to Jesus, and then boom!...next moment, seeing the wind, becomes frightened, begins to sink. And isn't that just life for the Christian? The high to the low...back to back. One preacher stated, our trophies are never won without troubles. The way to heaven is uphill and downhill, and that's what we see right now with Peter. He was he was just thinking, maybe I've got this thing in cruise control. This is pretty awesome. The disciples would have been amazed to see this. Nobody's ever walked on water. They've seen Jesus walking on water. But then, of course, you put that together. He is God. But to see Peter walk on water? Uh, no. You just can't do it. And now he's doing this. And Jesus did say in his life that you'll do greater works than me, as in, the faith that you have in me is not just a faith to kick over an ant hill. It's the faith to move mountains. And so you see a picture here of walking on water because it can't be done unless you have God with you. And Christ was with him. And so he does it. And there's no magic tricks here. The disciples saw him get out of the boat, walk on the water. But next moment, seeing the wind, he becomes frightened and begins to sink. And here we have the situation. The main verb here, just to note, is he became frightened. There's a lot of action there. Seeing wind, beginning to sink. But the main verb that the two other verbs kind of orbit around seeing the wind beginning to sink is the main verb is...he becomes frightened, which tells us that's the heart of the issue. It's his fear. The heart of his problem isn't seeing the wind, as in he sees the effects of the wind and the waves. It's not beginning to sink. It's that his fear has been reduced or his faith has been reduced down in this fear. And so he is going to sink. And why I say that is because wind and waves aren't his biggest problem or ours in life, are they?..if Jesus is the one in control of them. I mean, you really have to live your life in faith that way, picturing your life as a story in this moment that Christ is there and there is all this stuff going around him. Just picture it in your mind. But picture you as Peter and it's waves in front of him, waves beside him, waves behind him, darkness crushing all of it. But you have to see in this story that the biggest problem isn't all of that, because he's the one in control of it all. It's the fear to stop believing that if he said, come, I can come and I'll be okay. And I have to not act like the rest of the stuff doesn't exist, but see it in relation to the one who is sovereign. Whatever trial it is in life, whatever thing is tormenting you, whatever thing is bringing you down, whatever makes you feel like you're about to sink. Look, I mean this truth here about the sovereignty of God over the storms of the sea and Peter sinking out of fear and not faith. The doctrinal power of this moment gives, gives you a million different applications for you personally that I couldn't possibly think of them all. But you know what they are. You know where you stand on the water or you're sinking in it right now. And what it is that's causing you that fear, that thing that makes you not be able to trust him as you should. And, so what is the true believer do when he comes to his senses? He cries out, Lord, save me! Because in a true picture of faith's dependence on Christ, you can't do anything but plead. He can't. He can't do anything but cry out.
  Which brings us to the third aspect of saving faith, which is it's in Christ alone. It's by grace alone, of course, that Christ comes to Peter in the disciples. It's through faith alone, peter responds, I want to come to you, okay, I'll come. And as he starts to sink, his faith has to go back down to the absolute source of it all...in Christ alone, Verse 31. What a picture here of anyone that reaches out to Christ that calls for Christ and Christ saves them. Verse 31, and there's that word immediately, no hesitation. Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand took hold of him and said to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Where does the cry of faith lands?...simply in the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. And you hear it in the simple call, Lord, save me. First, it's a call on the name...Lord. Proper title for the Son of God, King of kings, Lord of lords, sovereign over heaven and earth. So his theology is right in that he sees that's my master. He's my hope. But it's also a proper term related to what Jesus came to do as I said at the beginning. It's not just his person that he is the Son of God, but it's his work. This simple phrase, save me, summarizes what the Son of Man came to do, doesn't it? He came to save. He came to save. It's even in his name. That the name, the Hebrew name Yeshua means Yahweh saves. And that's what we found out about Jesus back in Matthew 1:21 when we first met him. And what were they to call the child? They were going to call his name Jesus. Why are we going to call his name Jesus? 1:21, she will bear a son. You'll call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. You know, this is just a helpful, apologetic at the end of verse 30, Lord save me. Why is it a helpful apologetic? Because in there you can if somebody man on the street comes up and says, Who is Jesus? Well, he is Lord. He's sovereign, King of kings and Lord of the lords of all. And what did he come to do? He came to save. When you tell them this little story and you make it simple. Parents to your kids... Instill in them that basic truth about who Jesus is and what he came to do. He is Lord and he came to save. That's why we say we call upon him as Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior of my life. There's so much in that statement. He is Lord. He is sovereign. He's in control. He's in authority. He has all power. He can do anything. And he's my savior. As Luther would say in the personal pronouns. It's where salvation is found. He's my savior. He came to save me, the sinner. And how does he do it here? Well, when it's we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. All of the work is in Christ's saving here. Immediately Jesus stretches out his hand, takes hold of him. What is Peter doing here other than drowning and crying out for help? It doesn't say that peter reaches his hand up. All it is is his voice. And notice in Jesus stretching out his hand in the desperation of Peter, it's not met with any further challenge from the Savior. He doesn't call upon Peter to have more faith. He doesn't say, oh, if only your arm can stretch a little farther, Pete. I'm talking to you, word of faith movement. Right? Oh, you know, you can just get out of that situation that you're sinking in if you just have a little more faith. How demonic and diabolical...call it for what it is that you're the one that can get you out of the situation you're in. You have the power to save? You have the power to heal. If only you could say it with your words. It's a lie. Jesus is the only one doing the saving here. It's his hand that stretches out and takes hold of Peter, not Peter's. The saving is in Christ alone. The cry of helplessness is in Peter alone. Word of faith, false teachers are not interested in you stretching out your hand to God. They're interested in you stretching out your wallet to them. So just call it for what it is and call them for who they are. Creflo Dollar, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, Steven Furtick...call them out for what they are because that's what they're doing. They're saying the power is in you. You just got to say it. You got to believe it. You can make it happen. What is Peter making happen here?...nothing. He's desperate to be saved. He has nothing to give Jesus. It doesn't even say he can give him his hand. If you're an unbeliever here, this is the only way Christ saves. If you're not in Christ today. Because if you're not in Christ today, you are not Peter flailing at the surface of the water. If you're not in Christ today, Ephesians 2 says, dead in your sins and trespasses, where are you actually? You're actually at the bottom of the sea, lifeless, motionless, completely unable to save yourself. That's the picture of the unbeliever. And so that unbeliever has no ability in and of themselves to reach out towards God. Christ has to dive down and pull you up from the deepest and darkest part of the ocean floor. So what I'm saying to you today is what can you do sitting there knowing that's you...accept in your heart, cry out to him to save you that way. You're not where Peter is in this story. You're down below 140ft to the bottom of the Sea of Galilee. You have no hope apart from Christ coming down to pull you up. So call out to him from your heart this morning, right where you are, and ask him to save you from your sin, from the wrath of God that abides over you. Call on him, and he will save, and he'll save to the uttermost. And he's not asking you to do anything, but what you can do in your heart is recognize your need. That's for the unbeliever. For the believer, I think we pull away from this story at this moment. I mean, who are we? Other than the Peters of life struggling at the surface we haven't sunk down to? As we sometimes say, we haven't hit rock bottom. But I think this story is good for us to stop and think. Um. What type of sea might I be in that, uh, I might be reaching for someone else or calling for someone else other than Christ even as a Christian. Some of us are in the sea of self-pity. Right? You're the victim. It's always being done to you. Life's not what you want. You feel bad for yourself. But instead of crying out to Christ, you reach for some other savior...alcohol for some people, drugs for others, relationships for others. Solving it through working harder, making more money, entertainment, whatever it might be...distraction. And in that sea of self-pity you just don't recognize...what I don't need more of is myself here and trying to meet my own needs. I need a Savior to save me from myself...As a Christian, because I'm just here thinking woe is me, rather than just crying out Lord, save me! That's what I mean for the Christian, like the problems you have, whether they're outside of you and oh they're in you because of the sin still in your heart that wants to think it's all against you and it's all everybody else's fault as a Christian and you say, Lord, save me from that. In this moment, as in, I need to get my eyes off of me and back on you. Back on you and help me to do that. Or some of you are skimming...you're not sinking in a sea of self-pity. You're just skimming on the surface of self-worship. You're not out in the deep where faith is meant to dwell. I love this quote by Spurgeon. "Faith is a vessel expressly built for the deep seas." But sometimes, as believers, we just want kind of the sea to carry us into the shore and just play around where it's nice and safe...self-worship. Entertain myself to death. Keep myself happy by the frivolous, passing things of this world. When your faith is meant to be back out on the water. Because one step closer to the shore is where Jesus left those crowds who were after the wrong type of Savior. And we can easily drift into there...riding the waves. So you find yourself in this story maybe in a number of places, but you know what the solution is still the same, isn't it? It's to cry out to Christ, to save. 
  And then when he does, where does your life end up giving him the worship and praise he deserves? 32 and 33, we're saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Verse 32, when they got into the boat, the wind stopped, and those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, you are certainly God's son. See, now we arrive where we should have been at the beginning, worshiping him, enjoying Christ, praising him for who he is and what he's done. Cool thing to note in John 6:21, not just when he steps into the boat, the wind stops, but John 6:21 says, maybe when the disciples looked up from worshiping, it says immediately the boat was at its destination. And just, you know, he's God. So out of his goodness, he's like, these guys are so sick and tired of...that by the time they look up there where they should have been, just like the cherry on top to the miracle that he has stopped the storm, and they're where they were trying to be and couldn't be on their own. Saves them from the storm and any more struggle, he cuts them a break.  And they've moved from fear to faith again. Peter led the way. But it's what faith is designed to get us to even this morning...to the source of true worship and the source of our true joy in Jesus Christ alone. And I think this story should inspire us to greater faith. To know that if we really, truly believe, truly believe that as the message of Matthew from Matthew 1:23... Emmanuel, God with us to Matthew 28:20...and lo, and I will be with you even to the end of the age. The message of Matthew is just that...God is with you, believer. He's with you from beginning to end. And so what can't you step out in faith, step forward in faith to do? That's where he wants you to live your life today. In the words of the great missionary to India, William Carey, attempt great things from God. Expect great things from God. That's the life of faith. Faith is drawn to that. That's why he leaves us here, that we shouldn't just be sitting back bored as a Christian, because faith is meant to endeavor things that you can't do on your own. So what is it you're not doing today? I mean, exciting, adventurous type things, bold things, people you should, you know you should talk to. That fear has kept you...not.  I got to do it. I got to do it. I got to get over it. I got to say it. I got to speak up. That person needs Christ. And you know, when you start living that way and doing that with what you measure out to be measured back to you, and, oh, the promise of John 3 that he gives the spirit without measure. So if you're just measuring out a little bit right now, maybe that's why you're sitting around kind of bored by your faith, whatever is left of it. But he wants you to endeavor great things for him. I mean, our last week of one service and then we split off, and then we'll see a lot of empty rows, and they won't be filled unless we endeavor to do great things for God. They won't. I mean, sovereignly, can he bring people here?...absolutely. It's because Hickory is the new epicenter of the universe. You know, everybody wants to move here. Because, you know, there's no truth to that. This place will fill as we endeavor to do great things for God, to talk to the people that we have been afraid to talk to, and let God work in that person's life when you have told them the hope you have in Christ, and your life is a life of worship, and they see it in you. You enjoy him and it makes them attracted. He's the explanation from it. Let's pray.
  Father, we thank you this morning for your word. I pray you would help us to rightly apply it. And there are so many different ways to apply it for every person in here. But just help us to be more zealous for you, Christ. It takes faith to be bold and to be courageous. And it's not to say that the storms and the waves and the winds of life aren't real. They're right there in front of us. They're all around us. But you are there, and you're with us. And with that promise to be with us to the end of the age, we can attempt and expect great things from you so that you get all the praise and all the honor and all the glory. That's where our heart is this morning. Help us now as we sing to sing for your glory, Lord, because you've been so good to us. Receive this praise back from hearts...thankful. We ask in your Son's name. Amen.