The following is a sermon transcript from our Sunday Service at The Rock Church in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Each week, we gather to worship, learn from God’s Word, and grow together. This transcript is provided as a free resource to encourage and equip you in your walk with Christ. While you’re welcome to read and share this content for personal use, we kindly ask that it not be redistributed or published elsewhere without prior written consent from The Rock Church.
Introduction
20 years ago, the year was 2006. And a book came out that promised to change everything. It was plugged by celebrities, especially the great wise one, Oprah. That’s right, the Oprah. She devoted two of her shows to this book. And the book was called The Secret.
Exactly, you remember The Secret. Everyone remembers The Secret. It was a big buzz. It’s not so secret, is it? Everyone knows about the secret now. So yeah, the ultimate secret to the world, now available from Simon & Schuster Press on paperback or hardback at the low price of $19.95. All of the secrets that you need for health, wealth, happiness, success, all available to you.
But the problem with The Secret is that, first of all, like we just said, it’s not a secret. And there was nothing new about it. It was some pretty tired old lies that they packaged up and they slapped a new cover on it. And they sold it to us. But there’s really nothing new under the sun. This was old worldly wisdom that was just recycled and regurgitated to us.
And that’s the key that it was holding out to us. It was this: all of the answers to our problems are found deep inside of us. The answers are in here. Can you believe it? They’re inside of me. I’ve been missing it the whole time. They’ve been in here. And I just need the secret knowledge of the book The Secret to access these keys, and all the problems of my life are just going to evaporate. And if I visualize it, it’ll come true. And if I just send enough positive energy into the universe, that will be reflected back at me.
And I have to say that books like this, you know, they’re old, they’re repackaged, they’re still alive and well. We’ve got the influencers of today talking about things like manifesting. Has anyone heard about manifesting? Just visualize it and it’ll come true.
And sadly, we even have Christians adopting this, the word of faith movement, people like Ken Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, saying that if you pray it, it’ll come true. Sadly, we have heretics saying bizarre things like, if you speak it, it’ll come true. There are actually people that say that since we are made in the image of God, and God uses his creative power through the speaking of his words, we can speak our own reality, our desired outcomes, into existence.
So this manifesting, this positive energy, vibes culture, whatever you want to call it, it’s pervasive in the human experience, and it’s everywhere, and we have to guard against it. That’s why sound doctrine is so critical in the church, because even these spiritual leaders, they’re ripping Bible verses out of their appropriate context to justify their beliefs.
And let me tell you the context that they won’t share with you. Anything that you pray has to be according to His will and not your will. That’s what they’re trying to sell — that you can manifest your will. No, no. The Lord will grant you all that you ask in Jesus’ name according to His will. And that decree is unchangeable. His decree is completely set from before the foundation of the world.
So we’re going to preach against those lies and heresies today. I believe that the passage that we’re reading from Matthew, this actually contains the real secret for our lives. This has a message of encouragement for believers that’s based in truth and humility as we bring ourselves under the Lord in submission to him.
The key is not inside of you, folks. It is outside of you, and it’s in Christ alone. That key that you grasp in Christ — he is the one that lifts us up out of our misery. It’s not going to be something that you dig deep inside. It’s going to be something that you reach out beyond for. I promise you that.
My main point encompasses that when we are sinking down, Christ will lift us up as we look to him.
I asked my daughter, I said, hey, will you read this passage and tell me what you think it means? I just wanted to double check and make sure that I wasn’t crazy. You know, we believe that the word is so simple that a child could understand it. So my daughter, Dorothy Jane, she read this passage and she goes, oh, this means that you need to keep looking to the Lord. And I go, yes, okay. I’m on the right track. Okay, this is going to happen.
But you’ve heard these words here at our church before: Look to Christ. You might be tired of hearing those words at our church. Look to Christ. You just got to look to Christ. Oh, you having a bad day? Look to Christ.
That advice can sometimes seem impersonal, it can seem very sterile, very generic, but I’m telling you right now, it’s the only thing that we have to give you, and I want to explain it a little bit more today through this passage, through this very famous story that you know of one of Jesus’ disciples who has the experience of looking to Christ, and then taking his eyes off of Christ.
So, we’re going to use four points to help us go from that self-focused life to eyes-on-Christ, Christ-focused life. Here’s the points:
- Carnal fear — that means fleshly fear — is the most base, constant, and universal experience apart from Christ.
- The presence of God inspires supernatural courage.
- Our reversion is inevitable, but Christ is faithful.
- Hindsight leads to understanding, and understanding leads to worship.
1. Carnal Fear Is the Most Base, Constant, and Universal Experience Apart from Christ
(Matthew 14:24–26)
When I say carnal fear is the most base, constant, and universal human experience apart from Christ, what I mean is when we’re apart from him, this is all that we can expect.
Let’s read again verses 24 through 26:
But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them, walking on the sea. But 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… I’m just going to stop there. But they cried out in fear. Okay.
Carnal means flesh. It’s the—carnal fear is the fear that is coming out of our natural man. Fear is not always bad. Fear of the Lord, good. We want that, but that is not what is coming out of our natural man. That has to be a gift from the Lord to have godly fear. The natural fear that we have is carnal and it’s base. Base means low, common, ignoble. It’s not a compliment when someone says, you’re basic. Base is bad. It’s ignoble fear.
Whoever made a movie about a hero that was scared of everything? No one. We know that it’s not a thing to aspire to, to have this fearful posture. But it is universal, meaning we all have it. And it is constant. Meaning that there will be fears day in, day out from our external circumstances for our entire life.
We will not escape all of these fears. We will not escape the motivators, the externals that cause our fears until we’ve escaped this mortal life.
And I know that there’s special people out there that are born without fear, those people that climb cliffs with no protective equipment whatsoever. But I think it’s safe to say, when we look around a room of non-psychopathic people, that we share this experience of fear.
And natural man, unfortunately, we are only a little better than animals. This fear is our instinct. And we cannot honor God by following our instincts.
So this fear, it’s omnipresent. It’s something that we have to deal with. It’s a big problem. And fear is the mood of this boat trip.
The picture is painted here. The setting is certainly a little spooky. It’s at night. We’re on this little boat. We’re in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. Land is far off. You can’t see it. The wind is blowing. The waves are beating down. And the worst part of all is the Lord is absent from them.
They’ve already been through a really big storm in Matthew 8, and Jesus was asleep for most of the storm, but at least he was on the boat. At least he was there with them, the presence of their Lord at least providing some comfort.
And even though our experiences are quite a bit different from the disciples here, we can relate. We can kind of figuratively interpret these winds beating on us, these waves beating on us, having headwinds in our face, feeling like we’re making no progress. Disorientation, not knowing where you’re going and when you’ll get there—these are common to our lives.
So we identify with the mood on the boat. But we can’t stay in fear. Fear is actually a really big problem.
I’m going to say this right now: It’s not a sin to be afraid, but fear certainly does lead to very many sins, doesn’t it? Fear of poverty leads to money hoarding. Fear of rejection can lead to viewing things online you’re not supposed to. Fear of man, it leads to people-pleasing, gossip, and moral compromise.
Because our carnal fears—they lead to carnal sins.
And we see this from the dawn of time. It was the fear of not attaining to his supposed full potential—that fear caused Adam to eat some fruit. And Abraham, when he was fearful that he would have no heir, what did he do? He took Hagar into his bed.
And then when Lot’s wife was fearful of losing her old life, which she loved so much, that caused her to sin. She looked back. She looked back at the burning city out of fear.
So yes, our carnal fear is constant. It might be ebbing and flowing at different times. There may be different seasons. But it’s going to be present for us even as a Christian.
And these disciples, they spent almost their entire night of fear. We read that it was in the fourth watch that he came to them. The fourth watch is the very last watch of the night. In Roman times, you had four watches. And the fourth watch are the hours in the wee morning right before twilight and the sun is coming up.
And you’ve heard it said, it’s always darkest before the dawn. That expression evokes the idea that the longer we’ve been in the darkness, the more hopeless and despairing that we become. But that is when Christ approaches them.
The only problem is they don’t know it’s him. They think it’s a ghost. They say, It’s a ghost. And that word there, it’s phantasma, which doesn’t really mean dead people. It just means like a phantom. They just know that this is a figure, and it has to be supernatural because the natural man does not walk on water.
So it looks like a guy, but you know, squint, squint. I don’t think that it can be. It must be a phantom.
But then something amazing happens. Jesus speaks and reveals himself.
2. The Presence of God Inspires Supernatural Courage
(Matthew 14:27–29)
And when he does, the mood on the boat—does it change dramatically? I’m going to show you that it does here. The presence of God, point number two, the presence of God inspires supernatural courage. And that’s in contrast to the carnal fear that we have apart from God.
So verses 27 through 29:
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” And 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 and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
What an incredible story. Turn of events here. What an incredible shift in mood from fear to courage in the presence of the Lord.
Peter’s fear and hopelessness—it melts away instantly when he realizes that his master is out there. That this isn’t some shadowy phantom figure to be terrified of. This is the Master himself, demonstrating mastery over creation.
I’m reminded of Job 9:8 that says God alone can trample the waves.
So here we have Christ once again proving his divinity, literally trampling the waves of the Sea of Galilee during this storm, proving that he commands all of creation. There’s nothing to fear in his presence.
And he proves to them—just as importantly as they’re in the middle of the Sea of Galilee—that nothing can separate them from his presence and his love. Not height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Even when they were in the middle of a big body of water, he will break the rules of nature and literally walk on water to come get his people. Because what seems impossible to us is certainly never impossible for him.
And Jesus, when he reveals himself, he says, Take heart, it is I. We can more literally translate this as: Have courage. Be encouraged. And what is the reason for the encouragement in the middle of the storm? It’s just this: It is I. It is the Lord. I am here. I am with you. My presence has come.
And when Peter hears this, he’s so excited—as Peter does—he’s so excited, he says, it’s not enough for you to be out there. I want to be with you, Lord. I want to come out. I want to come see. I see that it’s a phantom, but now you’re saying it’s the Master, and I want to be close to you because I love you.
And it’s not a statement of doubt that he’s doing. He’s not testing the Lord. It’s like, well… if it really is you, tell me to come out there. That’s not his tone at all. He’s not like the Pharisees testing. He’s expressing zeal. He’s expressing love. He’s expressing the desire to be closer to his friend.
And then our gracious Christ, instead of like kind of, you know, slow down, tiger—he says, Okay, I’m going to reward this guy’s zeal. I’m going to—I’m actually going to bring him out here with me. And Jesus says, Come.
And that’s all Peter has to hear.
He has so much courage from being in the presence of God that he comes out onto the water.
Peter knows that it’s actually safer to be out there on the waves with the Master than inside the rickety wooden boat.
And something that I find interesting from this passage is how Peter needs to be told to come. He says, Command me. He doesn’t say, Lord, invite me to come. He says, Lord, will you, like… command me to come? Will you make me do it?
I do not like being told what to do personally. You can ask anyone around me—I do not like it. But I tell you what, when there’s the King of the universe telling me what to do, I love being commanded to do it. I’m going to tell you why:
If God is commanding me to do it, that means he will surely equip me and strengthen me to do it. He’s not going to command something that’s impossible for me to do.
So Lord, don’t invite me into obedience. Command me into obedience. I love your commands, Lord. Delight in the Lord’s commands.
When Peter departs the boat in this story—I’m going to try to explain this. I wrote it out a billion times; it’s not going to work, but let me just tell you what I think was going on in this story.
We’ve already talked about some figurative elements here. Something that is happening when Peter leaves the boat is actually a step of faith outside of the natural realm, and he is entering in to join Christ in the supernatural.
He’s leaving the relative safety and security of the material boat and saying, I have faith enough to come to Christ where he is—in the supernatural realm—because he’s commanding me to do it.
This is the essence of what we mean at this church when we say, Look to Christ. We’re saying: leave your natural circumstances, step out in faith, and join Christ in the heavenly places.
Because that is your reality, actually. You are embracing something that is already true. Ephesians 2: He has raised us up with him and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Christian, you are as good as there with him in the supernatural realm always—all of the time. It’s our mind that has to be placed in that mindset constantly to enjoy the benefits of that reality.
So when Peter gets out of the boat, he is putting his mind in the spiritual realm. He’s putting his mind on his spiritual identity in Christ. And he knows that he is infinitely safer in the care of Christ on the water than on the boat with his friends.
This is the same mindset that Christ is authoritatively calling us into.
So embrace the supernatural, and you can do miraculous things.
Randy, calm down.
You really can do miraculous things when you embrace the supernatural identity you have in Christ. I’ll explain what I mean, okay?
Walking on water is a miracle, but so is every expression of effectual saving faith in Christ Jesus. It’s a miracle because in the natural man, we are incapable of that. The natural man is all fear and no faith.
So it is a gift of God to empower us, quicken us, yes, regenerate us to be able to express this faith.
And are there other supernatural things that we get to do as a Christian? Yes, Randy, there are. Let me talk about some of them.
They’re not demon exorcisms. They’re not healings, miracles. They’re actually things that are quite a bit more pedestrian—things that might not impress your neighbors that much, but it’s very impressive to the Lord. And it’s actually very impressive to me to see you guys do these supernatural things.
What are they?
How about this: loving your neighbor. That is a supernatural act. It is a supernatural act. It does not come from the natural man. You can’t reach inside and love your neighbor. That has to be something that’s found in Christ.
What about dying to yourself? Who’s going to do that? No—an animal will chew his own leg off to get out of a trap; they’re not going to die to their self. We’re not going to die to ourselves out of our instincts. That’s a supernatural act.
And it is only by the power of God that we can ever hope to do these things.
But encouragement: He is faithful to supply that strength every time he commands you into this supernatural activity of living the Christian life.
And not just that. We’re able to do these supernatural acts of love—we’re able to be Christians—because Christ has gone ahead of us. He is already there. He’s already been tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin.
Jesus will never ask us to do something that he has not already done before you.
And remember this: there is nothing that the Lord ever asks you to do alone. Nothing.
I think that’s a great peace and comfort to us as we embrace this truth that we never have to be alone. Christ is always going to be with us.
And you might have to walk through some painful and frightening and, yes, fearful things, and you’re going to have to share in some of Christ’s suffering so that you can be partakers in his glory.
But Isaiah 41:10 says: Fear not, for I am with you.
It’s the presence of Jesus that drives out fear.
So whatever he is commanding you to do, he is also strengthening you to do. In order to encourage you, he’s already gone before you and accomplished all of these things. He’s already lived a perfect life. He’s done the things that he’s calling you to. He’s not asking you to blaze a trail.
He’s gone before you, and it gives us great boldness and courage—just like the disciples were flipped to when the presence of the Lord became clear to them. It inspires us to have boldness and courage.
- Our Reversion Is Inevitable, but Christ Is Faithful
(Matthew 14:30–31)
But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
Nothing good ever lasts forever, does it? Peter, walking on water, probably feeling some sort of a sensation of exultant, exuberant victory. Oh my gosh, look at me, Mom, I’m doing it. Like, excited. He walks out to Christ. He’s face to face with Christ. It says here that Christ reached down and held onto him. So he’s within arm’s length of Jesus. He’s right there.
But the fear of his circumstances starts to distract him. It starts to distract him from the miracle that he’s in the process of participating in. Verse 30 says, he saw the wind and he was afraid, and he began to sink.
So, do we ever do this? Do we ever take our eye off the ball? Do we ever start thinking about the bills, the parenting, the studying, the boss’s expectations, the retirement? I could go on for about an hour and a half. You know what I’m talking about here. It’s the external circumstances of our lives. It’s the waves beating on your boat. It’s the wind howling. These are distractions. They’re not fake; they’re real things. And they inspire real fears, but they are distractions from what is, as a Christian, our primary goal of putting our eyes—focusing on the Lord—in the midst of the noise.
So Peter does what anyone would do. He starts to think about it. He remembers, oh my gosh, I remember that thing. It could be the wind; it could be anything else. Maybe he starts thinking about how far away the boat is. Like, wow, I’ve come a long way. That was cool. Now I’m stuck out here.
I wish that the solution to my problem wasn’t faith. I wish that looking to Christ wasn’t the answer. I wish that that pastor at church didn’t give me that advice again. I want a different solution, one that I can manipulate and control and produce inside of me at will. You know what I mean?
So he takes his mind off of the things of Christ, off of the face of Christ, and it starts to plant that little seed of doubt. And my friends, doubt is dangerous. Doubt is powerful.
Who here has ever heard the acronym FUD? Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. This is a tactic of war. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt—that is a propaganda campaign that enemies wage against you to demoralize you. It is a tactical lie that gets planted and promoted in an enemy camp to start telling soldiers things like this: your identity is immoral. Your leaders are exploiting you for gain. Your country is not so good. Maybe you should join our side.
So this is what fear, uncertainty, and doubt is. Doubt is not so innocent or innocuous. It has to be dealt with. It has to be taken seriously, because who is planting that doubt? We know that in the spiritual realm, we have this great war against spiritual powers of darkness. We know where the doubt is coming from. It’s the flaming darts of Satan. He is amplifying your doubts. He’s sending them. He’s manipulating you with them. He wants to make you think the battle is lost. He doesn’t want you to know that you’re a victor in Christ already—that you’re more than conquerors. He’s trying to keep that information away from you and instead give you the lie.
So Satan brings the lie. If your inbox gets hit with a lie, you can just block spam, you know—report sender, that kind of thing. Ignore it, because these doubts are not from Christ. The doubts are being sent in by your adversary: the Satan, the evil one.
But Peter gives his ear to them. He gives his ear to doubt. And even though he was standing on the waves, victorious, he’s with the Lord, that little lie that he listens to says, what you’re doing right now, it’s just not possible. Even though you’re doing it, it’s impossible. And Peter listens.
And that’s the way our natural mind works. We want to have control over the situation. Giving ourselves over to the supernatural power of Christ is uncomfortable for our flesh. Our flesh hates it. Our flesh will do anything to get the power back.
So Peter—you’ve heard the phrase, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. So Peter, all of a sudden, he thinks he can’t, and so he doesn’t. He starts to sink down.
It’s true that we can do anything when it is under Christ’s power and according to His will. But we can’t do it perfectly. So He’s supplying the courage and the power to do these supernatural things, but we can’t do it like Him. Even though He’s gone before us, lived this perfect life, had perfect faith in the Father, we can’t do it perfectly, and we won’t ever do it consistently. You will fail.
But when you do, who is there for you? Christ is there.
As Peter sinks down, he calls out to Jesus. He says just two words in the Greek: kurios sudzo, which just means, Lord, save me. He can only get out two words. Have you ever been so desperate that you could only get a two-word prayer out? That’s what this is. Lord, save me. That’s a powerful prayer to send out. Maybe the waves were just about to come over his mouth. Maybe those were the last two words he could get out—but they were the perfect words to get out. Those are words to live by. Lord, save me.
And what does Jesus do? He does save him. The saving arm of the Lord reaches out and pulls Peter up. Jesus takes hold of the ones that He is saving.
And I love it that this passage does not end in, okay, if you want to be saved, then just build your faith back up. Just get that magic back, Peter. Dig inside. Dig deep. The keys are deep inside you. Just have more faith. It’s also not, here, take my arm.
It’s active. Christ reaches down and He picks Peter up. That’s exaltation. That’s lifting a sinner up in his moment of doubt and worry. It’s a beautiful picture of Christ’s power and faithfulness and mercy over Peter, the doubter.
Because Jesus fully knows that whatever type of salvation it is, it cannot hinge upon your faith. Praise the Lord that it does not. This faithless sinner talking to you right now—if it depends on me, I am lost.
So He knows that. Jesus knows our frame. He’s created humans and He knows everything, and He’s walked these paths without temptation, and He knows that it’s hard.
So when He chides Peter and says this to him, oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?—you know that’s a rhetorical question, right? Like, the doubting was going to come.
But if I heard that and I was Peter, I’d be a little defensive at that. Me, little faith? Look at the eleven on the boat. I’m the one out here. I’m the one with the big faith—the greatest faith. I’m the one that is to be elevated, not sinking down.
Well, I don’t think that Jesus is calling out Peter out of any sort of contempt or to like shame him or tsk tsk. This is Jesus’ “bless your little heart” moment. This is His little condescending—He just sees the weakness of His friend and says, I expect this totally. This is who you are, Peter. And not just Peter. This is who you are, Christian. Oh you of little faith. We know you’re going to doubt.
So He’s calling out all of us. He’s calling out our little faith. He’s speaking truth about all people. So when you stumble down, don’t worry. You’re not surprising Him.
And maybe Jesus was trying to teach Peter this: that your faith is indeed small, but my faithfulness to you—that is infinite.
Jesus let Peter start sinking to show him that his faith is insufficient. Because it doesn’t matter whether you’ve got little faith, or maybe you’re a super Christian who’s been doing it for a long time—you’ve got this big faith. It never becomes self-sustaining. It never becomes like, okay, I’m now the nuclear reactor of the faith. I’m now self-energized. It’s always Christ.
And that’s a trap that Christians fall into. What has started in the Spirit, we try to perfect in our flesh. We say, God, thank you for all that help. I can take it from here now. You can take the training wheels off. You can let go. Look at me, Mom. I’m doing it.
You’re not doing it. It’s just true.
Because if you do think that you’re doing it, here’s what that’s called: putting your faith in your faith. It’s not enough to have faith. We have to have the correct object of our faith. Our faith has to rest upon the correct thing, or it’s worthless no matter how big it is.
So we constantly need this calibration that the Lord gives us—redirecting our faith back onto Him, putting our eyes onto Christ.
It’s so much more important to have the correct object of our faith than to have a big faith. I’d rather have a little faith on Christ than a big faith in the keys hidden deep within myself. I should see a doctor if that’s true.
So thankfully, our salvation is not contingent on us and our faith and our performance. Praise the Lord. Jesus cannot help but to save His people. His name literally means the Lord is salvation. It is His identity—saving. And surely He will accomplish this great salvation in spite of our weaknesses.
And when we acknowledge that to each other, when we just call out our own insufficiencies, the ones that are in ourselves, it points us more to the sufficiency of Christ. We’re insufficient. He is all-sufficient.
That’s an understanding that comes in hindsight.
- Hindsight Leads to Understanding, and Understanding Leads to Worship
(Matthew 14:32–33)
And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.
When you go through a trial in your life, do you understand it more in the middle of it or after it? After it. That’s why they say hindsight is 20-20. After the calamity comes the clarity. We see it better looking back on it. We can see the purpose in it. We can see some good that came out of it, even though it was miserable in the middle of it.
And that’s especially true for Christians. Because our lens is different. The rubric that we’re grading our lives by is different than worldly people. And many times when we lose, at the end of it, we actually win out of that.
I’ve been playing chess with my kids a lot. They actually beat me quite a lot, which is embarrassing, but they’re good, they’re good. They’re really smart kids beating me, so don’t hold it against me. And I tell them, you know, I know it’s really fun to win, but you’re certainly going to learn a lot more from losing. And that’s true for us. We learn a lot more from taking a loss than from taking a win.
We know that when we fail, God is using that. He uses all of it. He grows our maturity. He grows our character. He conforms us into the image of Christ through failure. And he uses our failures to display his glory, his strength perfected in our weakness, man. He uses our failures to build up the kingdom in the church. He says, I’m going to take that failure of yours, and you’re going to minister to your brother or sister that’s going through the same thing. So the Lord is using our suffering, obviously.
Something that I can see from hindsight in this story is that Peter walked on water at the pleasure of God. And then he also started sinking at the pleasure of God. It was a privilege for him to walk on water at all. And the ending to the story is that the Lord is glorified because he shows that he is the one who empowers. He is the one that gives power. It’s his power. It’s never your power. So he gives the power. And sometimes he removes some power. But even when he removes it, he is always faithful to save.
We are able to do supernatural things that we never thought possible before in our fallen, human, carnal nature. And I believe that those things that we are called to do—showing this saving faith in Christ, loving each other unconditionally, dying to self, forgiving those that have sinned against us—these are supernatural acts. These are water walks. This is you walking on water with the Lord when you are able to do these things because they’re not coming from you. The power is coming from Christ who’s gone before you, who did all these things perfectly, beautifully.
And I witnessed these supernatural acts at our church, and it shows me that the Lord is here with us because we couldn’t do them out of our natural man. With the Lord, all things really are possible. And if you’ve ever done something and looked back on it and said, I can’t believe I was able to do that—well, you weren’t. But God supplied that ability for his glory. He supplies every strength. And a Christian recognizes that and he glorifies God because of it.
And the reason that we go through these difficult things is he is building our faith through it. Our faith not in our faith, but our faith in Christ. Because faith exercised is faith strengthened. We have to build that muscle. And the Lord’s going to send the trials your way. He’s going to allow the sufferings to build your faith muscle. He’s going to build it up. But that faith has to rest on the appropriate object, which is, of course, Christ. Eyes always on Christ.
When did Christ come to his people in the story? I told you it was in the fourth watch at the end of the night. They had to wait a long time for the gift of his presence. But we have something better than the disciples did. We have the indwelling of the spirit of Christ. So we don’t have to wait all night long for the relief, for the courage, for the power to come. Christ’s power and his spirit is indwelling every Christian, and his presence is what gives us the boldness and the courage to go on.
So be encouraged by that, that you don’t have to wait until the fourth watch. And the secret to life, as I’ve demonstrated, it’s not positive thinking, it’s not manifesting. The secret is getting out of the boat and looking to your master. We have to leave the natural realm behind and embrace our supernatural, transcendent reality that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
And Jesus is not inviting you to come. He’s not beckoning you to come. He’s commanding you. Come. Come out here.
So, what do you trust? The wasting away wooden boat of your life? Or are you going to trust in the most powerful being in the universe? Get out of the boat. Put your eyes on Christ. Leave behind the fake safety of the material, natural realm.
And what a promise is this, that Isaiah 41:10 says, which I read a little bit of earlier. It’s an amazing passage that you could absolutely overlay on this story, and it just matches up perfectly like they were built together. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand. What a promise.
Application
How to Set Your Mind on Christ
So how do you set your mind on Christ? This is kind of your application for today because I can tell you to do it, but you want to know, well, how do I do it? What does it look like in my life to be doing it? I want to do it. Here’s what it looks like.
Well, this is gonna sound kind of boring, maybe. You come to church. You surround yourself with fellow believers who think the way you think, who are going to be guardrails to point your gaze back on Christ when you start being distracted by your circumstances.
You read your word. That’s the mind of Christ right here that you’re reading. It is a precious thing preserved for us through the ages. This is how the Lord will speak to you—through his word and no other way. I knew Randy would do that.
You embrace your identity that you read about in these pages. The identity that you read about, that you’re seated in the heavenly places—you set your mind upon that. You draw your encouragement and your strength from that.
Here’s what looking to Christ is not. And I know that this is a little bit bumper-sticker-esque, but here’s what we’ve got to do, people. We’ve got to put down our phones and pick up our Bibles. That’s just the end short of it. That’s everything.
That doom portal that you’ve got in your hand, you’re endlessly scrolling the news, you’re endlessly looking at your bank accounts or bills—you just got to put that down. That’s from the natural world. That’s an object that’s in the life, that’s in the wooden boat. That’s not putting your eyes on Christ and looking out into the supernatural.
So we’ve got to get our phones down, Bibles up, and the church is going to be what encourages us and reminds us to do that.
I missed church last Sunday. Bad. I missed church last Sunday, and I felt that all week long. So I just want you to know that it’s a real gift to be back with you today. And I told the men yesterday, you guys encourage me. You guys just coming, you’re encouraging. You’re doing supernatural acts of encouragement by coming to church. Raising your voice with the saints together to the Lord, that is beautiful. What you do, even if you come late and you sit in the back row—that matters to me.
So please come. Come late, just come. I don’t care.
When trials come and the way forward looks impossible, let’s remember that the very presence of God is with Christians. And that is the source of our courage today.
And so when a brother or sister or a pastor or an elder says to you, “Look to Christ. You just got to look to Christ,” why are you looking to Christ? It’s not a brush-off. Like it’s not a, let me just say this and then I won’t have to interact with the real pain that my brother or sister is experiencing.
It’s said to you because it’s the only advice that we can give. It’s all I have to extend to you. I’m not going to give you the book The Secret. It’s garbage. The key to enhancing your life, the key to having life itself, is to do what Peter did initially. You put your eyes on Christ and you don’t let anything distract you.
But even when it does, he’s faithful to save. He’s going to reach you and pick you up. And then you can start looking to him again.
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray.
Our great Heavenly Father, we’re going to come to You now in a minute of quiet reflection and contemplation. We’re sinners. We confess it. And we know that we need a Savior. And we know that You have the keys to death. You have the answer to all of life. You are powerful. And we forget that power so often, Lord.
Embolden us. Make us courageous. Bring to our mind sins that need to be brought out and confessed to You now. And let Your word be implanted deep in our hearts for encouragement during times of trial.
Lord Jesus, You’re so incredibly faithful to us. We look upon Your face and we see all of Your goodness and power. The very glory of God come down from heaven and personified for us, given to us as a gift—and yes, even dying for us.
Lord, You are worthy. You are worthy of our praise. You are worthy of our faith. We can trust You. Your promises are true, and we live by them. We are children of God because of Your indwelling and Your saving grace. We thank You that that salvation will come to Your people in its fullness at the end when You come back for us.
Don’t wait anymore, Lord. Come to Your people. We eagerly await Your kingdom’s fullness to come upon the earth. We set our hope on it. We thank You, Lord.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
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