Focus in the Storm

We all know what it’s like to have the "wind against us." Life can be cruising along smoothly when, suddenly, the weather changes. A health diagnosis, a financial setback, or a strained relationship turns our calm sea into a churning mess. In Matthew 14, the disciples find themselves in a literal storm, but the real battle wasn't against the waves—it was a battle of focus.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Well, good morning. Welcome back to the Preacher Man's Podcast Sermons and Lessons. This is episode 13. And I hope you're having a good week so far. As always, thanks for tuning in and listening. And uh I appreciate the feedback. I appreciate the compliments. And um I also welcome the critique. I mean, the only way a person is going to get better at something like this is to um get some some good and some bad. Get some, I wish you were doing this instead of that. But we're going to continue to roll on with our focus on this month of April has been, well, along with our theme of fixing 26, we have uh been looking at different ways and different scenarios of how what can take your focus away from Jesus. Does sound simple. And and mind you, I understand this. It does sound simple when you hear someone in my position to say hey, all you gotta do is focus on Jesus and everything else will take care of itself. That's not necessarily the k the case. Generally speaking, yes, that is correct. So when we talk about having a focus on Jesus, as you can tell, we've been referencing Hebrews twelve in this. Focusing on Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. And how when we are focused on Him and not other things, our motives change, our personality change, our attitude changes. We have a deeper and better appreciation for Christianity, for our faith. We want to treat people better, we want to love people more, we want to share with them what we have and what we have discovered. The problem it lies in that we go through a lot of storms in our life. Physical storms perfect example. When we are in a physical storm, we uh are we we we have a lot that we need to f worry focus on. Right. If uh you know we're we're on our phones looking at the radar screens, we're watching the news or listening to the radio to hear, you know where the storm front might be going. We are listening to hear if uh the weather sirens in our towns, if if you have weather sirens, go off. In a physical storm, we can be distracted by a lot of different things because we don't want to be caught in a bad situation and potentially put our lives in danger. That's the fear. Spiritual storms or things in our life that we would say are like a storm are the same thing. And so that is why we are diving into we're diving into uh Matthew 14 in this lesson, where Jesus not only walks on water, but Peter also walks on water. And we're going to really take a look at why Peter sank or started to sink, why Peter sought permission to get out of the boat first instead of just jumping out and going up to Jesus. And we're going to witness just even when we doubt, or even when our faith is weak, we are we serve a God, and our Savior Jesus Christ acts immediately. So let's go ahead and jump into it. This is Focus in the Storm. The text is Matthew fourteen, verses twenty-two through thirty-three. And this was the lesson that was preached last Sunday. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter fourteen. Matthew chapter fourteen is where we will be in today as we continue to look at ways and things that we are encouraged that we can fix in 26. This whole month we've been focusing on Jesus, which is what the which is one of the I would say if uh for any congregation, that would be uh something that we can always strive to work on and fix is making sure that we keep our focus on Jesus, and especially in today's, in today's world and the things that we deal with. When when I was a lowly youth minister, and uh my first my first uh youth man full-time youth minister job was in Eastland, Texas, where part of my responsibilities was to, I was to co-direct with uh our with the minister Larry Roberts, I was to co-direct the junior camp at Lake Cisco Christian Camp. Now, there are some in our congregation this morning who have a connection with Lake Cisco Christian Camp in more ways than one. Um in fact, I'm I'm I'm I'm kind of proud to say that uh Corey Green was one of my kids in my youth group. So I am the reason she turned out the way she did. But one of the so I think and I and I and if I if my memory serves me right, this this happened the first year that I directed I co-directed camp. Um things were going pretty good. I was learning a lot, I was getting my feet wet and everything else. But on the day that we were supposed to have the parents come out and see the campers, we had a storm front roll in, and it was a big one. Now, the structures, the the what uh the cabins, if you want to call them that, they weren't really cabins. They were they they there was a lot of screening and a lot of stuff, and so because you know you wanted to keep that the it wasn't air conditioned. And so when when storm fronts blew in, you basically you put everybody into their cabins, you closed the flaps, and you just wrote it out until unless it was getting more severe, and then you started moving kids around, that storm was rolling in and rolling in, and the timing of it was that if we were to continue with our schedule, kids and parents would be coming up to the the place where we were going to do our program right at the same time of this storm blows in. So my job that at for that moment was to basically keep the parents informed about what was going on with the storm and rearrange the schedule. Now, Lake Cisco Christian Camp had at the time had lousy cell phone service. And there was there was one spot about this big where you could stand, and if you lifted your leg up on one, you know, and held your phone out that you know, if you could, you know, one spot you could get a good signal and you could like watch the weather radar on your phone. And so I stood there and I watched this storm, and I watched this storm, and and questions were coming, what are we gonna do? And we we we we got it all organized, but as I was watching this storm, I could not help but think about the song that we sometimes sing in our church in church in worship where um hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of thy hand, keep me safe till the storm passes by. And what we wound up doing was we we we found every every youth minister and counselor who brought their church van, we loaded everybody up in the church van and we basically moved the program into the cafeteria area where it was a lot drier. And we and we and while the storm blew over, we continued with the program. And and I I don't know if Corey, you remember this or not, but those little kids, some of some of the some of them kids were first-time campers. And I told the the counselors and the junior counselors, I said, Look, I I I know that some of you are probably scared right now, and you're afraid right now because of this storm. Thunder, lightning, it was I think we even got some hail. And I said, I said, but you need to do me a favor for the next 15, 20 minutes. And that is when you go and sit with your kids in your cabin, you do not need to have the look of fear on your face because they will see that and they'll get scared. You've got to maintain some composure. You've got to, you've got to step up a little bit here and and and put on a brave face and have a little faith that we'll get through this because when the program ended and we walked outside, it had rained, it had cooled off, and the sun was shining. It was like like nothing. I mean, it was it was that storm just blew right through. As we go through this uh lesson this morning, we we know how good how sometimes how how different situations can cause us to feel get distracted. Maybe there's a time, maybe that maybe some of our situations where our focus is is joyous. But what what I want you to think about this morning as we go through this lesson on focus in the storm is um uh I want to put it this way. Have uh if if if you were to try to walk on something narrow, a beam, a tightrope, you know. Some of you, I'm not doing any tightrope walking, but you know, it when when you when you when you're trying to walk on something narrow, where do they normally tell you to look? Straight ahead. Look straight ahead. If you look at your feet, you might get you might get lose your balance, you know, stumble, fall. But if you but they tell you if you keep your eyes fixed on something ahead of you and uh a steady, something steady, a point, a steady point ahead, you will have more success and you will be able to stay upright. And so in the storms of life, it's important to remember that our stability is determined. Here's a little catchphrase for you. Your stability is determined by your visibility, your stability is determined by your visibility. What or who are you looking at right now in your own storm of life or trial that you are facing right now? The main point of this lesson this morning is to understand that our peace in the storm is not determined by the absence of thunder, lightning. It's not determined by the absence of ginormous waves blowing your boat back and forth. It's not even determined by the wind. Your peace in the storm is determined by the presence of our focus, and our focus has got to be always on Jesus Christ. Now, many of you have you're many of you have taught, have taught this Bible lesson. All of the little kids probably know it the the ins and outs of this story. You've probably heard this sermon, a sermon like this. You've probably read this Bible story a thousand times. Well, guess what? You're going to get to read it a thousand and one. Because the preacher man will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. So in 14, you had uh some amazing things happen. First of all, you had at the beginning of 14, you had the the they found out that that John the Baptist was killed. He got beheaded, and we all know how that affected uh Jesus and how it affected the followers of John the Baptist. But also in 14, um, Jesus does a miraculous feeding of the 5,000. And we all know what took place and how that came about. And so the next section has a transition, if you will. Uh Jesus encourages his his followers, the the 12 disciples, to get in a boat and head across the sea, and uh he is going to dismiss the crowd, and then he goes up into the mountains to pray. And what happens after that is a storm blows in onto the ocean, onto the sea, and Jesus does another amazing event. He walks on water. Many of you know how this all took place. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, him being Jesus, they were terrified and said, It's 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 responded and said to him, Lord, if it's you, then command me to come onto the water. And Jesus said, Come on. And Peter got out of the boat, and Peter walked on the water and came toward Jesus. We live in a world today where I'm sure at some point in your career, or in some point in in or you have been in a meeting, or maybe you've even heard someone important say, it is time for the people in this world, or the people in this people in this meeting, or they may be point right at you and says, It is time for you to step up. Step up. It's time for you to take a leadership role in this situation, it's time for you to take charge of this situation. We need some people who are willing to step up. When's the last time someone encouraged you to step out? Well, good news. You're gonna get that today. Because I'm trying to encourage you to step out. Stepping up is important, don't misunderstand me, but stepping out on your faith, like Peter did, that's that's that's so, so important for you to understand what that means to do. In verse 28, we read that Peter asked, said, Hey Lord, that you call me to come out there, and Jesus says, Come. And and notice that Peter just when that when they saw Jesus and they were calmed after him, saying, Well, don't be afraid, it's me. You know, it is I, don't be afraid. Notice that Peter didn't just get out of the boat and walk toward him and say, Hey, Jesus, where you been? No, Peter waited. Peter waited for the Lord, the word, uh the Jesus to tell him to come in verse 29. Now, all of you, like I said, all of you here know this story. You know that in the end, what happens? And you know that Peter normally gets criticized for taking his eyes off of Jesus. Just like we criticize and and and and give the uh disciple Thomas a nickname. But did you know that before Thomas was a doubter, Thomas was willing to go wherever Jesus was gonna go and die with him? In fact, he says that while they were on the road. Jesus tells them what's gonna happen next, and Thomas is the first one to speak up and go, well, let's, hey, if he's gonna go, let's go die with him. But instead, we give Thomas the name doubting Thomas because of what happened after the resurrection. We criticize Peter for uh taking his eyes off Christ and sinking. But who's gonna give Peter the attaboy for taking the leap of faith and stepping out of the boat? I mean, we we need to applaud his readiness to step out when Jesus calls him. What were the other 12 doing? Sitting there in the boat hanging on for dear life, bailing water, trying to tie down things, probably trying to keep from getting seasick, but not Peter. Peter wants to go be with Jesus. Now it's true, it is true, and I don't want I don't want to be misleading anybody here. If we choose to step out on our faith, we there's a good chance we could risk failing. But only by stepping out will we personally experience Jesus' power. Faith is not taking faith is not taking a blind risk, it's taking a calculated step step based on the word of God. And so if Jesus is calling you while you're in a storm, make sure you understand this. Jesus is responsible for your buoyancy. If Jesus is going to call you in a storm, you need to understand he's not gonna let you sink, he's not gonna let you go under. There's a reason why you're in this storm, and there's a reason why the Lord's with you. Peter does have enough faith to get out of the boat. And like I said, we should really give him an antiboy for that. But we all know that the water, the waves, the thunder, the lightning, the wind got his attention, and it caused him to get distracted. He He he he took a look at the conditions when focused on Jesus. Well, no, he took a look at rather than uh stay focused on Christ. The conditions around him got his attention. But but here's the thing about it. Even when you have a small amount of faith, focus on Jesus should, even with a little faith, should quiet the doubts that may come up. What does verse 30 say? After seeing the wind, he became frightened. And when he began to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. The Bible says, seeing the wind, he became frightened. And so the wind and the waves and all the stuff that terror, all the terribleness that was taking place, they were there the whole time. In fact, Peter was on the boat that sailed into that storm for crying out loud. They knew what they were getting, they knew what they were heading toward them. The wind and the waves and the thunder and the lightning was there the whole time. The problem was, and the problem didn't start happening until Peter started seeing it and not Jesus. And so when we shift our gaze from the creator of the elements to the elements, yeah, we're gonna sink. We're gonna start to go under. Did the storm change at that moment in time? No. But Peter's perspective had. Let's try it again. No, we we there's a lot of good things that we can see about Jesus and we can say about Jesus, but I think one of the things that we may have uh maybe have taken for granted or not talked about enough is Jesus is not just a savior, Jesus is an immediate savior. He may rebuke the doubt, but he will never let go of the doubter. You understand what I'm saying? He's gonna, he has the right to go, hey Peter, what happened? But he's still gonna hang on to you when he does. Verse 31 says that um, well, verse 31, verse 31 at the end of 31 said, You have little faith. Why did you doubt? He didn't say he had no faith, he said he had a little faith. The question, that same question is one something that we need to ask ourselves when we sometimes sink and take our eyes off of Christ. Because if we are able to be honest with ourselves, with our little faith and with our doubt, in the end we can look back on that situation and see how silly it was, and how silly our fear was in the view of who Christ is. We teach our little kids. Do we still teach our little kids the song, My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do? We teach that to our kids, right? Are we able to sing that song when we're in the middle of a storm? Now, and and and and I'm not trying to don't don't I'm not talking about a physical storm here. I'm talking about your spiritual storms, what you're dealing with right now. We can and we do. Well, maybe we maybe y'all don't. Maybe y'all got this figured out. Maybe I'm just a dumb preacher man. I have trouble some. I I struggle with this, y'all. I let my storms get too big for my Jesus. And when I do that, what happens? I start feeling the pressure. It's all up to me now to navigate right this ship and navigate out of this. And instead of looking and trying to find where Jesus is, I'm trying to figure out how in the world did I get myself into this situation in the first place? Did you notice that the storm didn't stop storming until Peter and Jesus got back in the boat? Peter stepped out into the storm, walks on water, little faith, little doubt, gets frightened of the waves and the wind and all that stuff, sinks. But all that stuff was taking place. There were still swells and lightning and wind and waves. Only until Jesus and Peter get back in the boat in verse 32. It says in verse 32, does the storm stop? Church, sometimes God will calm the storms. Sometimes, sometimes uh it will be just gone away with before it even takes place or even gets there. But sometimes God wants us to walk on top of the storms. Either way, the goal is the same. The goal of those situations are designed to bring us to a place where we are moved to worship and are moved to confess. That same confession that was made in the boat when the storm cleared up, you are certainly God's son. It's accumulation of the things that all take place in chapter 14. The miracle of the disciples witnessed, the miracle the disciples witness correctly explained what the motive was in this whole situation. Jesus is the Son of God. Awed and thankful. The disciples confess and they worship Jesus as Lord and Master. Your walk on the water in the storms of your life moments is meant to increase your wonder of who Jesus is. Now the question is, are you sinking today? Does it feel like you're sinking today? Have the waves and the wind overwhelmed you? Have your circumstances become bigger than your ability to focus on the man who can save you? Have the eyes of the Savior have become blurried? Have your eyes on the Savior become blurried because of the winds and the rain? Even though he's asking you to come to him. I'm not saying take your eyes off Jesus to acknowledge him. I'm saying, yes, I know I'm in a pickle. I'm in a storm right now, Lord. I know that. Acknowledge the storm, but keep your eyes fixed on Christ. Listen to his voice. That's the second thing you ought to do. Listen to the voice. Listen to what he is saying. Everything he said, even when he is admonishing Peter, take courage. It's I. Don't be afraid. Come to me. I don't care how little your faith is. I don't know your doubt, yeah, but come. Are you gonna fail? Probably, but don't worry, I got you. And then reach out. Reach out. If you feel like you're going under, make that same confession that Peter did. Lord, save me. It's very important that no matter what the situation is, our focus is never taking off Christ. In the world today, so many things are taking place. So many things are making us scratch our head about, you know, well, if this happens, what happens if this? And if so-and-so says this, well, what happens if this takes place? This is taking this is going, this is this is going on in my family right now. Do I have time? I don't have time. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do, because if you don't, you're going to start sinking. No matter what the situation is, our focus on Jesus must be a mainstay. And that's why I think it's important for us to uh uh focus on this as we focus on Jesus. As we get ready for the invitation, I'd like to share with you the lyrics to a song that while I was working on this lesson, I couldn't help it. The song kept rolling over in my head all the time. It's it's uh from casting crowns, uh, Praise You in the Storm. The lyrics go like this. I was sure by now, God, you would have reached down and wiped my tears away, stepped in and saved the day. And once again, I say amen. And it's still raining. But as the thunder rolls, I barely hear you whisper through the rain, I'm with you. And as your mercy falls, I'll raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away. I'll praise you in this storm. I will lift my hands, for you are who you are, no matter where I am. Every tear I've cried, you hold in your hand, you've never left my side, even though my heart is torn, I'll praise you in the storm. I remember when I stumbled in the wind. I you heard my cry, you raised me up again. But my strength is almost gone. How can I carry on if I can't find you? But as the thunder rolls, I barely hear you whisper through the rain, I'm with you. And as your mercy falls, I'll raise my hand and praise the God who gives and takes away. I'll praise you in this storm. I will lift my hands, for you are who you are, no matter where I am. And every tear I've cried you hold in your hand. You'd never left my side, and though my heart is torn, I'll praise you in the storm. I lift my eyes into the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. I lift my eyes into the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. I'll praise you in the storm. I will lift my hands, for you are who you are, no matter where I am. Every tear I've cried you hold in your hand, you never left my side, though my heart is torn. I will praise you in the storm. It's a marathon. And in many cases, it's more like a cross-country event where the terrain could be different. You could be running through a field in one section of your uh Christian race, and then in the next you're running on asphalt down the middle of a road or a dirt road or whatever. Are we going to have spiritual storms in our lives? Yes. Is this world becoming a less or more of a distraction? Well, I think we know the answer to that question is too. We can get distracted by so many things. Even our own brains can distract us. Perfect example. You're about to go to bed, you're about to, you know, and you are your your habit is to say a prayer before you go to sleep. And I don't know about you, but well, sometimes it is hard to turn your brain off at the end of the day and spend some time with your Lord in prayer. But you still do it. Right? You still do it. So we know there are going to be storms. We know that there are going to be distractions. We know that we are challenged by our Savior to take a step out of the boat sometimes. If the master calls, I believe we're supposed to respond like good sheep are supposed to do. And I am thankful that our Savior is one not afraid to call us, even when he knows how little our faith is. But I am also thankful that our Savior is willing to meet us in the storm. To come out to us in the storm, to provide comfort with his voice saying, Do not fear, it's me. To challenge us to come. Lord, if it's you, call me out on the water. Come on, he says to Peter. And then just that mindset of like walking on a tightrope or walking across a narrow plank or something, they tell you, don't look down, don't look to the left or the right, get yourself a focal point and stick with that, and you will make it across. Same thing applies here. You just Jesus is encouraging you, come on, come on. Because I think we all know that the closer we are to Jesus, no matter what the conditions are, we are always going to be in a better position and in better shape if we're closer to Christ. Which is what Peter wanted to do. And lastly, like I said, I'm thankful that our Savior is an immediate Savior. Quick to grab and extend a hand and pull us out and walk us back to the boat. Just a lot of good things happen when you choose to stay focused on Christ. That closes out our show today. We would love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment, please email me at preacherman1178 at gmail.com. That's preacherman1178 at gmail.com. And as always, we want to uh thank you for listening. Be tuning in uh next week, Lord willing. We will have another episode, uh, another instance where our distractions and our worries and our fears and our desire to do something good can take us away from the one thing that is important, and that is learning from Jesus. Next Sunday we're gonna be looking at the story of Mary and Martha and uh what Mary does versus what Martha is doing. But I think we're gonna find a twist in that, and we're gonna see that um Martha's uh experience had a lot more meaning in the end than Mary's did, although Mary was very, very faithful, and we know what Mary did with um when it came with Jesus' crucifixion and everything, but the focus is going to be on Martha. Martha, Martha. Hope to see you then. Thanks for listening. This is the Preacher Man signing off, and always remember who you are and whose you are.