Start Off With Good Cheer | January 4, 2026 Sunday School

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Now the title of my message is to start off with good cheer.

They have they have a lot of titles at Southwest and I'm

trying to I'm trying to be like Pastor Gaddis in a sense, but

definitely not there. So we're we're going to start

off at verse 45 and the Bible says and straightway he

constrained his disciples to get into the ship and to go to the

other side before unto Besada while he sent away the people.

Now this passage is very familiar.

There's a lot of stuff, a lot of background, and we're getting it

to the passage where Jesus performs this great miracle of

Him walking on the water. And so notice that He is sending

out his disciples unto Peseta. And so he has planned this out

already so he knows what he's doing.

And then verse 46 or we'll finish 45 while he sent away the

people, verse 46. And when He had sent them away,

he departed into a mountain to pray.

And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and

He alone on the land. And He saw them toiling and

rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them.

And about the fourth watch of the night He cometh unto them

walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them.

But when they saw Him walking upon the sea, they supposed it

and had been a spirit, and cried out, for they all saw him and

were troubled. And immediately he talked with

them and saith unto them, be of good cheer.

It is, I be not afraid. And he went up unto them and to

the ship, and the wind ceased, and they were sore amazed in

themselves beyond measure and wonder.

This is, I mean, if you just stop for a second, like this is

reality. Like imagine this, you're in the

middle of the sea and Jesus is walking on water.

It's it's fascinating just to see the Bible in, in form and

words, but in the same sense, if you go back to this time frame,

it, it actually happened. And so verse 52 for they

considered not the miracle of the loaves for their heart was

hardened. And when they had passed over,

they came into the land of Ganesarat and drew to the shore.

And when they were come out of the ship straightway they knew

him, and ran through the whole region roundabout, and began to

carry about in beds those that were sick where they heard he

was. And whithersoever he entered

into the villages of cities, or cities or country, they laid the

sick in the streets, and besought him that they might

touch it, touch if it were but the border of His garment, and

as many as touched him were made whole.

Let's pray and we'll get into the lesson.

OK, Lord, thank you for today. God, thank you for everyone

being here. Lord, thank you for the weather.

Thank you for being so good to us and for giving us a new new

day. Lord, a new year.

Many of us have things we want to change, Lord, to draw closer

to you, many resolutions to make an attempt to be more godly and

holy. And so, God, we thank you and we

thank you for this church. We thank you for pastor's heart

be with him as he preaches today.

Lord, be with us as we try to apply this message into our

lives and thank you so much for all that you're doing in Jesus

name, Amen. I'm going to take a little sip

here. My throat is a little dry fancy,

right? Like I said before, I've read

this about a month ago and I wanted to, I want to share it to

us, you know, this year, 2026, I mean, I'm sure there's so many

things that happened in 2025 in your lives.

I know you just went to New Zealand and a lot of, you know,

a lot of trips going on a lot of different things last year.

And there's so many things that we want to carry over from last

year or maybe some things that we don't want to carry over,

right. Maybe you've made some

resolutions, you know, with health or, you know, you're

trying to be eating healthier. Like the guys told me they want

to eat healthy, but then they ate Donuts this morning.

So I'm trying to figure out what's going on, you know, and

so and so. Yeah, right.

And so many resolutions, you know, you want to eat healthy,

you want to draw closer to the Lord, be more spiritual,

whatever the need is. And so I think something that I

want to carry over in my life is something that Jesus said here.

And it says in verse 50, if we can look back on it.

And it says, for they all saw him and were troubled.

And immediately he talked with them and saith unto them, notice

this phrase be of good cheer. It is I be not afraid.

I love that, that that whole saying, but in the sense that it

wasn't be not afraid, It is I be of good cheer, but it was be of

good cheer. It is I be not afraid.

And So what I'm, what I'm trying to say is that we should carry

over that phrase to, to be of good cheer.

What is that implying to, to live with hope to to not be

Let's see here to carry, carry hope with you to understand that

even through trials you've been through difficulties, you can be

of good cheer. And so if 2025 was a hard year

for you, understand that you can be of good cheer.

Know that it is I right. It's it's Jesus, it's your

savior, it's your master, it's your Messiah.

He saved your soul. He changed your life.

He's given you kids, he's given you a family, he's given you

finances, he's given you health. And there's so many things that

we can be thankful for and, and we should be of good cheer even

through those trials. And so that's something I want

to care carry over in my life. And I think that if I can share

with you properly that maybe you can apply it to your life as

well. And so like I said, you know, a

lot of resolutions that we're trying to make this year for the

guys, for I'm sure some of you as well.

And so we want to carry that over.

And so in verse in chapter 5, we see many miracles that Jesus is

performing from the start of it. In chapter 5, you can see that

there's this man and he's, he has an unclean spirit and

unclean spirit that he's crying out to the Lord because he is

tormented, the man of Ghadera and he is tormented and he's

cutting himself and he's going through all these, all these

things and he's crying out to the Lord And he's just saying,

Lord, I need you pretty much. Lord, there's, there's something

in me. And clearly Jesus calls that

that unclean spirit out and he performs a miracle where he

delivers the spirit out of the man.

And so we see a miracle there. And then we follow up with this

woman with the issue of blood. And you know, she just touches

the hem of the garment, just the hem of the garment.

Imagine that there's one touch of his hem and changes a whole

soul's life. And so it's powerful stuff.

And we we can see the background in that and it keeps going on.

It talks about Gyrus's daughter and how she is almost presumed

dead. She's she's as seen as if she's

asleep. But Jairus wanted restoration

for his daughter and he's begging to the Lord and he does

another miracle and he's still working miracles, right?

And he does another miracle and he resurrects the daughter.

In a sense, he wanted restoration for his daughter,

but they got resurrection. And so it's powerful stuff that

Jesus is performing and and it continues on.

And then we go into chapter 6 and it talks about how Jesus

encourages disciples to go forth for the gospel sake.

And then further on, John is executed for the name of Jesus

Christ, completely beheaded, persecuted.

And then we see that Jesus performs this miracle of

multiplying the five loaves and the two fish to feed the

thousands. And so we see these miraculous

miracles and like I said before, I mean, imagine just being there

to see all of it. It's like imagine watching that

on live stream. Like honestly, just watching it

on live stream and seeing, you know, Jesus delivering this

person, healing this person, resurrecting this person,

whatever the case may be that he's performing that miracle in.

But it's fascinating. And so we arrived to our text

here where he where he is sending out his disciples after

the feeding of the 5000. And so in verse 45, he says, and

straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship

and go to the other side before unto Beseda, while he sent away

the people. And so we can see that Jesus

here is he is sending his disciples forth and he is, he's

sending them unto Beseda into the ship.

And so we understand that Jesus knows what's going to happen,

right? Jesus understands that there

there is going to be a storm. And we know that the disciples

don't know that. And so they're they're just

expecting that, hey, God has sent me on this mission.

I'm just going to do what he says.

And, and and they went, they went into the ship.

And so we see in verse 46. And when He had sent them away,

he departed into a mountain to pray.

Even though Jesus had many miracles in preaching work, He

still needed to set aside time to pray unto the Father.

We can see that. And when He had sent them away,

he departed into a mountain to pray.

Though we tend to get busy serving the Lord and ministry in

our day-to-day lives and work and our schedules, there needs

to be time set aside for the believer to have a personal

conversation with the Father, to set a sign to set, set aside

time with God and just talk to him and just have a personal

relationship. I think that's one of the

biggest things I want to strive for this year, to just be

personal with God to, to really, to really talk to him.

I think sometimes our, our prayers can be so mechanic and

so, so wordy in a sense. You know, God is just there to

hear your heart and he understands where you're at.

He understands what you faced. He understands that, but he also

wants you to set a time so you can talk to him about that.

And so Jesus said it's a time apart from him sent the

disciples away. And in verse 47, as the night

approached, Jesus was on the land alone while his disciples

were in the middle of the sea, a time where Jesus set himself

apart from everyone to be with his father.

Matthew Henry said a good man is never less alone than with God.

There's nothing wrong with being alone.

At times, I think of times in the dorm, these guys are

slamming the door. These guys are having random

conversations, like, let's see, one guy, he asked me one time

when I was just reading a book or something.

And he was like, hey, and he pulls out his socks and he's

like, hey, do you think my girlfriend will like these?

And I'm like, brother, I don't know.

So I go back to reading the book and such.

And I'm like, it's just random distractions.

And they're slamming the door. And, you know, I can do the

same. And so there's so many

distractions. But sometimes you got to just

set aside time and, you know, be alone and pray and read your

Bible. And so, yeah, just just don't be

in the dorm. How about that?

But yeah. And so then we can see that with

Jesus here, he's setting aside time to be with his father.

And in verse 48, we see that Jesus sees that disciples were

fighting a harsh storm on the sea and approaches them by walk,

walking on the water. And this is a familiar passage,

but let's not not like glaze over it.

It's just this is this is powerful.

I mean, it's it's real. It happened.

And these disciples are really struggling toiling a pain and

rowing. They're you know, they're

they're having a hard time rowing through the sea.

All of this whole battle, these big waves, a hard and difficult

time. The wind is contrary.

So it's going against them. And so in about the fourth watch

of the night, he cometh unto them and walking upon the sea

and would have passed by them, right?

He sees them. He was alone on the land, but

now he sees them. So he starts walking on the

water and, and then but he would have passed by them.

So don't, don't miss that phrase.

He would have passed by them in the sense that he, he would have

just passed by them. He wouldn't have noticed them.

But the reason why he would have just passed by them was because

he wanted the disciples to cry out to him.

And so notice this like he, he was going and walking on the

water, but he would have passed them if the disciples never

called unto them. And so that's another lesson for

us to understand that we need a call unto Him even through those

times, even through those difficulties, even through those

trials and those big waves. And you know what it is, right?

Maybe 2025 was a really rough year.

And but you don't need to be discouraged in it.

You can be of good cheer, that you can be rejoicing in the Lord

that you know you're here and that he's done a great work in

your life, and you just keep plugging along, keep moving

forward for him even through those hard times.

And so we see that the disciples are trembling.

They're in fear because of this great wind.

Jesus starts walking on the sea and would have passed them right

but in verse 49. But when they saw him walking

upon the sea, they suppose it had been a spirit and cried out.

And so they see them walking on the sea, They see him walking on

the sea. And they they they they, they

couldn't recognize him pretty much they couldn't see who it

was really. They they assumed that it was a

spirit, but they didn't know. And so for in verse 50, for they

all saw him and were troubled and immediately he talked with

them and saith unto them, be of good cheer.

It is I and be not afraid. So it like going back to verse

49. But when they saw him walking

upon the sea, they suppose it had been a spirit and cried out

for they all saw him. So they cried out unto the

spirit, seeing that seeing him now and we're troubled.

They were anxious. They they didn't know what was

going on. But immediately he talked.

That's a big word right there. Immediately he talked.

That's comforting. That's that's powerful.

When Jesus talks, it's, it's powerful.

And so immediately he, he, he saw their need, he saw their

difficulty, he saw where they were at and immediately he

talked with them. And that's another thing, you

just cry out to God and maybe immediately he'll talk to you,

right? You know, that's not always the

case. It's a still small voice.

And sometimes you got to be patient even through those

trials. But there's times, there's times

in my life where he just spoke to me immediately.

Obviously we don't hear through audible voice, but at times I

just know in my heart that God just spoke to me and I need to

do that thing. And that should be the same for

all of us said. And so they assumed that it had

been a spirit. And so they cried out.

And verse 50 For they all saw him and were troubled.

And immediately he talked with them and saith unto them, Be of

good cheer. It is I be not afraid.

I love that so much. I think we skimmed through these

words and we kind of take it for granted what Jesus said.

He says be of good cheer. It is I be not afraid.

Like I said, typically the human response would be, hey, hey, be

not afraid. It's it's me, I'm here, I'm

here, you know, be of good cheer.

But no, no, Jesus completely flips the script.

He says be of good cheer. It is I be not afraid.

And so you got to understand the wording here that he he wants us

to I have it here. There's a there's a there's a

quote that's really good and it talks about how how this be of

good cheer is in the Greek. I'm learning this Darseo Darseo

and I'm still trying to pronounce my Greek, but Darseo

meaning to have courage, to be of good comfort, having hope,

not being discouraged, living life joyfully.

And this is a quote to live life with joy and hope through faith

under circumstances. And so we can be of good cheer.

And I just want to encourage, you know, I, I haven't been here

in a while and I know that brother Vince is going through

surgery and I know it can impact the whole church.

And, you know, there's a lot of things going on right now just,

you know, maybe on pastor's heart, you know, with the

building and, you know, the heat that just happened.

And, you know, there's a lot of things with the whole church and

maybe some things that we don't even see ourselves.

But we can be of good cheer. We can, we can strive to have

hope, strive to have joy, strive not to be discouraged, even

though, you know, it's freezing cold in the church maybe or

whatever the case may be, right? That we can, we can be joyful,

you know, just a reminder, you know, if if something happened

last year, you know, you can, you can move forward and be of

good cheer. You don't need to sit in that.

God doesn't want you to sit in that.

He didn't want them to sit in this storm here.

Although he sent that storm beforehand, he knew what the

plan was ahead. And then afterward he also sent

that storm because it was preparing them.

It was a test for when they would be persecuted by their

enemies. And it was just a, a great test

of how they would be under circumstances, right?

And so as soon as they got on land.

But, but we can be of good cheer in that we can be of good cheer

that God is going to take us through that storm.

And it's a, it's a, it's a message that we need to hear,

although we've heard it maybe our whole life, we can hear it

again and again and again, right?

To be of good cheer. So meaning to have the courage

to be of good comfort, having hope, not being discouraged,

living life joyfully. Often times we have lost our

cheer, our hope, our boldness, joy when life tends to throw

things at us. Believers, let us be reminded

today that the promise Jesus made for us in John 1633.

These things have ever written to you, that you might have

peace in the world. You shall have tribulation, but

be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.

Notice that phrase again. But be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world. I love how Jesus walked on the

water. It's almost, and it shows, it's

a, it's symbolic because it shows how Jesus is over all the

problems of life. You know, he's, he's over the

water and the waters, picturing all the trials and all the

difficulties that we all go through right as human beings,

you know, battling with sin or battling with other things like

that, conditions and stuff like that.

And so we can see that he is above all that, right?

He is sovereign, He is God. He's in control of all that.

And so we need to be reminded of that as well.

And so that's that's the lesson that we all need to take in.

And I love when he says it is I how Matthew, Matthew Henry also

said it is I I your master, I your friend, I your Redeemer, I

your Savior is I who came to troublesome earth and now to

attempt to a sea to look after you.

It is I Jesus reminds us, don't you remember who I am the one

who just performed all those miracles beforehand?

You know, it talks about later on in the chapter how their

hearts were so hard. And don't you realize that I

just performed this miracle of feeding these thousands of

people, right? Not even counting the women and

the children. Don't you see that I just did

this for you and their hearts were hard into that.

And so remember, it is I, it is I the one that saved you.

It is I the one that gives you food on your at your table.

It is I who's giving you a church.

It is I who've given you salvation.

It is, I mean, you just fill in the blank honestly, right?

It is I who's giving you peace, giving you joy, giving you a

family, giving you a school to go to, giving you godly friends

and godly leaders. And it is I, right And so.

And then it goes on to say, be not afraid.

It's a common thing to hear this phrase in our day-to-day lives.

Yet we tend to struggle when the pressure arises around us.

We tend to struggle when fierce storms come our way.

We tend to struggle when things unexpected arise.

Notice the order in which Jesus speaks to them.

Be of good cheer. It is I be not afraid.

This order is significant because Jesus tells us to be

cheerful over being fearful. It would seem reasonable to us

for Jesus to speak unto them to not be afraid 1st and yet He

speaks hope and joy first. Jesus pumps, jumps on board and

the storm stopped and the disciples were amazed.

Once the disciples got into the presence of the Lord, not only

were they comforted but also astounded by what Jesus just

did. The disciples were with Jesus,

but they did remember that he performed the miracles of the

fishes and loaves because they had hard in their hearts.

Don't forget the miracles He already did in the past from the

last year. Move forward and be of good

cheer. Don't don't sit and dwell on the

past. Just move forward and be of good

cheer. You know, these disciples went

on to Beseda and they didn't know what was going to happen,

right? We don't know what's going to

happen to us next semester. We might gain 50 lbs.

I mean, who knows, right? But, you know, be of good cheer.

We don't know what lies ahead in front of us.

And there's so much, so much, so many things that God is doing

that we can learn from and we can grow in, we can apply

ourselves in. And so we just see disciples,

they're amazed, completely amazed from what Jesus has

already done in their lives. And I've, I've now recently done

a mocking water and saving them and protecting them from the the

fierce winds. And in verse 52, for they

considered not the miracle of the lows for their heart was

hardened. And if you have on it here on

the side, let our hearts not be hardened, dear God, Oh, I pray

that my heart's not hardened. I pray that all of our hearts

aren't hardened right? I love that verse for they

consider not the miracle of the loaves.

I mean, Jesus just performed that he just did it in front of

them. And now their hearts are

hardened because they don't even they don't even realize what

Jesus already done in their lives.

And so let that not be said of us.

Let's not harden our hearts. Verse 53.

And when they had Passover, they came into the land of Ganesarat,

and drew to the shore. And when they were come out of

the ship straightway, they knew him, and ran through that whole

region roundabout, and began to carry about in beds those that

were sick, where they heard he was.

And whether so ever he entered into villages or cities or

country, they laid the sick in the streets and besought him

that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment.

And as many as touched him were made whole.

And so we see the end of their voyage into the land of

Ganesarat. The storm completely ceased.

The storm will come to end. Just keep holding on.

Just keep holding on. 2025 must might have been a rough year for

you might have been a great year, but just keep holding on.

Understand that God is with you. Be of good cheer, you know, be

of good cheer. I know that he's right there.

Understand that Jesus was right there with them.

He sent them out and he was, he walked on water to arrive with

them and then he also got on land with them as well.

So understand that God is always with you.

I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

And it was just an encouragement to me.

I was going through a rough time in my life and, and I

understand, I understood through this passage that I need to be

of good cheer. All right, Just be of good

cheer. Understand that God is directing

my life and noted that it is I that he has saved us, that he is

our Savior, that He is our Master.

Be reminded of what he's done in our past, what he is continuing

to do and to be not afraid. Understand that that phrase is

said often times as well, but to understand that he, he's with us

and that we don't need to be timid or afraid of anything

because he's with us. And so that storm will come

again. And it's up to you and I on how

we are going to respond. Be of good cheer or be of great

fear that we start as we start the new year.

There are many resolutions meant, many changes, many things

that we don't know what is ahead yet we can be comforted in

knowing that God is over, the water has overcome all of it and

the trials we face and will face, and that He's with us

today. Thank you for listening to the

sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

[email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.