The Voice

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to go with me to Matthew's chapter 14.

[SPEAKER_01]: Immediately, he made the disciples get into the boats, and go ahead of him to the crowds to the other side.

[SPEAKER_01]: And while he dismissed the crowds, after dismissing the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the boat was already over a mile from land, battered by the waves because the wind was against them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Around three in the morning, somebody say three o'clock in the morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, there's late.

[SPEAKER_01]: He came toward them walking on the sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said it is a ghost.

[SPEAKER_01]: They cried out in fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 27, but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, take courage.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is I do not be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, if it's you, Peter answered him.

[SPEAKER_01]: command me to come to you on the water, come, he said, and a climbing out of the boat, Peter started walking on the water, and it came towards Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're almost done.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord save me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Immediately Jesus reached out his hand, caught hold of him and said to him, you of little faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why did you doubt?

[SPEAKER_01]: When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then those in the boat worshiped him and said,

[SPEAKER_01]: Truly, you are the Son of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to minister a message to you today entitled The Voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're good, Mr. Raven.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody just say The Voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And no, I don't mean the singing competition.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 130, that the ancients of your word brings light and it gives understanding to the simple.

Psalms 119:130

[SPEAKER_01]: And I, from that verse, I died to declare what I call a Bible confession.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so how this works is, we're going to declare something over us as we here in we see this word today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I want you to repeat after me, please, Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: My heart is open.

[SPEAKER_01]: and my spirit is teachable, I will never be the same after this word in Jesus name, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to kind of paint the picture, if you would, just before we kind of really dive into the context into the meat of this, I want to always feel it's very important that we kind of set the context in the picture and kind of where we are with things if you don't mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is that okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to go, just kind of walk with me for a moment, kind of where we are in our text here.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have Jesus and His disciples and in this moment that we're dealing with Jesus is personally and emotionally dealing with a period of time in his life where he's dealing with a moment of grief.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you may say, why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, because shortly before this text that we read, we read that Jesus has just been made aware that his friend, John the Baptist, had had

[SPEAKER_01]: by herit, and so Jesus hearing this news decides to take a walk from himself, and he decided to go to a secluded place just to be by himself for a moment, just to process the grief and to process the news that he's just heard about his dear friend, John DeBaptis.

[SPEAKER_01]: And while he is kind of going off to himself, the crowds in the neighborhoods begin to hear that Jesus is in the city and in the neighborhood.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so hearing that many of the people in the neighborhood begin to leave their cities and leave their homes and follow Jesus on foot, just to be wherever it is that Jesus is going to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so while they're doing this, Jesus is just kind of walking along in the communities and walking along in the cities and the people are there and they're there and they're not there as always, y'all know how we are, we will never come to Jesus and not want something.

[SPEAKER_01]: So while they're there, Jesus begins, the Bible says, Jesus is beginning healing their sick, and he is working all kinds of miracles, and he's working all kinds of graces and blessings in the hearts and to the minds of the people, and he's doing what Jesus normally does.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then the night comes after being there for hours with these individuals, and the people get a little hangry.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, in that moment, the people get a little hungry and the disciples are like, okay, all right, look here, Jesus, we've been here a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's been a long day.

[SPEAKER_01]: You still haven't really had time to kind of process what you're going through.

[SPEAKER_01]: You really, this really wasn't on your itinerary on your schedule.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's send the people home, let them go on about their own business, get their own food, let them go ahead and do what they need to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we can go and get you and get you doing what you post

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus being who he is, you know, he decides to take that as an opportunity and he says he's the, um, why don't you feed them and, um, the disciples look around like who me, um, you know, well, I mean, we don't, I mean, first of all, I have you seen this crowd of people that we have here, um, you want us to feed them and all we have in our little, uh,

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, among our crowd here, we got a couple of loo, um, one of the breads and we got a, you know, and we got a couple of little catfish over here and that's all we got to really do.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we got thousands of people over here.

[SPEAKER_01]: What is you talking about for us to feed them with the little bit that we have?

[SPEAKER_01]: And

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus being who he is says, okay, I'll tell you what, just why don't you just bring me what you have and we'll take it from there and Jesus on the disciples said, okay, well, let me go ahead.

[SPEAKER_01]: I bring you these two fish and he's five loads of bread and yonder the story.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus takes the bread and the fish and he

[SPEAKER_01]: I've lifted them up to heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: He prays over them and blesses them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what started out, that's two fish and five loaves of bread.

[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually became a home time buffet.

[SPEAKER_01]: And everybody had enough food, not just to eat there, but they had enough to take food home.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of part of how I'm talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen here.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus does what He does and He feeds the 5,000 men, not including the women and the children.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's interesting, but I always think it's very important to we say Jesus feed the 5,000, but scholars say that when you really look at that, there had to be almost at least probably almost about 12,000 individuals there, not just 5,000 when you look at when you consider them the women and the children as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so, and I think it's also very interesting as we kind of take a moment just to kind of pause here and take a first look at this because I think it's something, it teaches us something about Jesus that if we don't be careful to realize that we'll miss when we're reading certain things so I'm scripture.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus was in the midst of trying to process his own grief and in process his own emotions and deal

[SPEAKER_01]: with his own things and yet the people had a need and the fact that Jesus will stop doing what he's doing just to come and see about your need even in the midst of his own confliction and in his own emotion.

[SPEAKER_01]: It tells you it teaches us that Jesus cares enough about you that no matter what is going on in his own life, the selflessness of Jesus to stop for a moment just to make sure you have what you need.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the kind of God that we serve.

[SPEAKER_01]: John 6, chapter 6 verse 15 tells us that there was some people in the crowd who witnessed this miracle of Jesus feeding these thousands of people that they were so enamored any and impressed by what Jesus did.

[SPEAKER_01]: that the significance of this blessing and of this miracle that this must be the prophet that they've been waiting for.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so in this moment, the people wanted to make Jesus their king in this very moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so this Jesus knowing this, this is why Jesus began to dismiss the crowd.

[SPEAKER_01]: because he realized that this is not the set hour for that to occur.

[SPEAKER_01]: And me knowing what's in your heart, let me go and dishing your home for a moment because I don't want to act prematurely.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, but no thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Jesus sends the disciples ahead of him by a boat while he stays behind to dismiss the crowds.

[SPEAKER_01]: And when after doing so Jesus finishes what he started and he goes up to a mountain by himself to get his prayer timing among himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the scripture says that in the fourth night of the fourth watch of the night, that three a.m. to six a.m. time.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you have ever?

[SPEAKER_01]: woken up and that fourth watch that 3 a.m. 6 a.m. time.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's, that's a very weird time of night because it's very dark.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's, it's still, it's not daytime yet and it's, it feels like you're for some people, it's like you just went to sleep the night before.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it is typically the most quietest time.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is the most darkest time.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is it is it is the most significant time And in in in a history and especially in and and biblical history because it is very significant this time of the night

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the Bible tells us that during this period of the night Mark tells us that Jesus is up on this mountain watching the disciples and notices that they're in trouble.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's watching them as they're battling against the winds and the waves that are coming against their boat.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's important for us to realize something here because if we're not careful, what really miss was happening here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, sit the disciples away hours ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: He set them away hours ago, so which means they should have made it to their destination by this time.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, due to the adverse environment that they were encountering in the calamities that they were facing, they still had not yet made it to their destination.

[SPEAKER_01]: scholars say that this sea of Galilee, that they were on, in total, it is about four to five miles wide in distance.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at this time of the text, they had made it about three or four miles into their journey.

[SPEAKER_01]: So by the time in the text that we're reading this fourth watch of the night,

[SPEAKER_01]: I want us to understand here that they have been on the boat traveling at this time for about nine hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, they were exhausted.

[SPEAKER_01]: they were tired, they had been wrestling and fighting and battling and moving for hours on end and they still had not yet made it to a destination's end.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus just missed him hours ago, and that what should have only taken about one to two hours, they still have not made it after nine hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: How many of you can relate to it?

[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like there are times in my life when it seems like I should have been done with this by now, but I'm still feeling like I'm wrestling against the same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm battling against the same thing and I'm still not done.

[SPEAKER_01]: steel battling, I'm still wrestling, I'm still fighting, I'll get something that should have been done a long time ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_01]: The closer they got to the other side,

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's significantly forced to understand because oftentimes, as people, we sometimes think that the closer we get to the finish line, the easier it becomes.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I was in high school, one of the biggest lies I learned in high school that I'm still working out my deliverance on.

[SPEAKER_01]: Devonjay, will you become a senior?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just smooth coasting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Four classes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go home, Earl, if you want to.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just smooth sailing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lies.

[SPEAKER_01]: From the pit of hell.

[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like I wrestled more as a senior than I did my freshman in sophomore June a year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because all the stuff that I did not do as a freshman sophomore in June, you know, I'm trying to make sure I'm good to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I'm like, oh, you know, I'm behind, at that time I was behind so many credits.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have to take, we had ROP back when I was in Scott.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've had that out here in Texas.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was a reasonable occupational program, but you can kind of take classes in order to get ahead.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I was, I was, I had to take classes during the summertime on weekends.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was, I was doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was a dinner with 64 a couple months.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was doing all the time, but they just to earn some extra credit.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I congratulate high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: And steel, I graduated at that time, he needed a 2.0 to graduate high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: I graduated with a 1.9 GPA.

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody say, God bless you.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're the only thing that allowed me to make it about that classroom was the fact that I had enough credits.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if it was a GPA dependent, my God today.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm glad to say that though I graduated high school rider with the 1.9, I graduated college with the 3.4 GPA.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, because it's not about how you start.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's how you finish that thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes in life,

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't ourselves out because of how you started.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I want you to encourage somebody today that is not about how you start what you're doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: But do you have the focus to finish what you started?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about how you started.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God is going to work out a strong finish in you and change that story around.

[SPEAKER_01]: My God today.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus purposely waited for the perfect opportunity before he intervened.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to try to think about this for a moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm very visual when I read, and I think it's my Hollywood brain, I used to want to be an actor, and so when I read scripture, I see it like a movie, and so I want you to picture something for a moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's three to six o'clock in the morning, and the disciples are on this boat in the middle of the water, surrounded by nothing but water, winds and waves, and Jesus is up on the mountain, watching from afar, and he is,

[SPEAKER_01]: purposely watching them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now here's the thing he didn't just start watching them when they started getting in trouble He had been watching them the entire time and as they were going and as they were walking and and and rolling along in the ship in this journey

[SPEAKER_01]: And when they reached this point where they had gotten so far out into the lake that where they were too far from land to go back to the land and yet they were still not close enough to their destination.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is on this mountain, finished praying and he's watching them and he sees them in trouble and yet there was this holy restrict that he has to have to stop himself from intervening too prematurely.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they get so exhausted to the point to where I can imagine that at some point they just said, I give up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I give up.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't make it that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, I just, we've been at this thing for hours.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm tired.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're tired.

[SPEAKER_01]: What are we going to do, and Jesus watching them from afar, and yet still has to restrain himself until the right time, because the fourth watch of the night symbolically.

[SPEAKER_01]: represents the deepest point of fatigue and trial.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's often referred to metaphorically as the hour when human strength is completely gone and dawn or deliverance seems most unlikely.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus waits.

[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, until you get to a point,

[SPEAKER_01]: when you stop relying upon yourself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus gets to a point where he's watching you, trying to work it out on your own.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he waits and says, listen, I see you, but until you get to a place where you rely, that this ain't going to happen without me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Until you get to a place of realizing that no matter how smart you are, no matter how educated you are, no matter how much money you got in your bank account, no matter who you know, no matter what your relationships are, no matter what you came from, no matter your family last name, no matter your pedigree, no matter what that is, until you get to a place and you realize that this isn't going to happen unless I come in, then guess what I'll stick back here and just keep on watching.

[SPEAKER_01]: until you get to a point, to realize I give up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes ladies and gentlemen, the greatest sign of strength is you having enough strength to say, I give up.

[SPEAKER_01]: You think giving up is a sign of weakness.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in the kingdom, sometimes the greatest trick you can have is to say, I give up.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm tired of trying to do this thing on my own.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm tired of trying to figure this thing out by myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because obviously, this trying to do it on my own is wearing me out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the best thing that I can do right now and Pastor Austin is give up.

[SPEAKER_01]: The fourth watch, this dark, cold, bleak, stormy, wet, violent, trivial situation, and the Bible tells us that in this moment, Jesus comes to them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's significant because I want you to understand something ladies and gentlemen about the God that you serve.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus always comes to you in the storms of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: I must say it for this out over here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus always comes to you in the storms of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's good news, ladies and gentlemen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have the fight this thing by myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have to try to keep through this thing on my own.

[SPEAKER_01]: That once I get to a place where I'm what I've realized, I can't do this by myself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I've got somebody I can call upon.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that Jesus is gonna come to me in the darkest, dryness, ridges, redness, craziest, weakness, time of my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is gonna come see about me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Robert, sitting in that cell like you said, Jesus came and saw about you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus came and he saw me in the darkest, dryest time of my life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus will stop doing what he's doing just to come and see about me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why did Jesus wait this whole time?

[SPEAKER_01]: And then why did he do this whole walking on water demonstration?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it gives him an opportunity to show the disciples, watch this show, that the very thing that you fear,

[SPEAKER_01]: The raging sea, the violent wind, the strong waves, the very thing that you are afraid of, I walk on top of.

[SPEAKER_01]: The very thing that you feel is going to be the thing that's going to take you out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need you to see me for a moment because I'm going to need you to watch that the very thing that's trying to take you out, I want you to understand that you have the power to walk on top of.

[SPEAKER_01]: I need you to understand something that, yes, I understand is what I understand is strong.

[SPEAKER_01]: I understand it feels like it's your way to take you out and take you under.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I need you to keep your eyes on me for a moment because the very thing that's trying to take you under.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've given you the power to walk on top of.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I need somebody to understand something here today that the call that you serve.

[SPEAKER_01]: He does not do anything by accident.

[SPEAKER_01]: The demonstration wasn't for himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: God do his own power, but I need to demonstrate to you that the thing that you think is going to take you out The storm is raging and the winds are blowing, but baby don't get afraid because I'm going to give you the same power to walk on top of what's trying to take you under

[SPEAKER_01]: It's important to know, here's why I find interesting here, in Mark's account of the story, and chapter 6 verse 48, he lets us know something very interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus was not intending to stop when he began walking

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, according to Mark, actually intended to walk past them.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it wasn't until Jesus heard the cries of His people.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is said that the cries of His people caught His attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all know what I'm believing me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go to the text.

[SPEAKER_01]: That would say it's Pastor Olsen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Chapter 6, verse 48.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is it seeing them?

[SPEAKER_01]: Shraining at the Earth for the win was a gift to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see, let's see, let's see.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me, let me go to my, I like, I like my amplified version.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, that's, that's where that's where the smart people live.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and Abba Favre just says, seeing the disciples staring, straining at the old at the ors because the wind was against him at about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea and acted as if he intended to pass them by.

[SPEAKER_01]: According to Mark, his intention was to keep on walking.

[SPEAKER_01]: until he heard his people calling out his name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, yes, they were crying in fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yes, they were crying in terror.

[SPEAKER_01]: But all it took was the cry of his people to get his attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they were crying in fear.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they were crying in terror.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they were hopeless.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they were despair.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they were worried.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they were concerned.

[SPEAKER_01]: But all it took to get his attention was the fact that they were crying.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they didn't know who they were looking at.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they didn't recognize that he was Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: But all it took was the fact that they were crying to get his attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are things sometimes in life where you don't have a definition for it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have the words to describe what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: All you know how to do is cry out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And guess what?

[SPEAKER_01]: All it takes is your cry to get the ears of the attention of your father.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to know what it is you're going up against.

[SPEAKER_01]: You may not even be able to explain it to all foolishness.

[SPEAKER_01]: But all God needs to hear is the cries of His people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it will get His attention wire because the Bible lets us know that He and the Habits, the praises of His people, the Bible lets us know that if my people who are called by my name would humble themselves in praise,

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't have to have all the answers just yet, but if they were just pray and seek my face, I will do what I'm gonna hear.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna respond.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm not moved upon your understanding.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm moved by your cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need you to have to figure it all out by yourself just so I just need you to cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of the last time you cried before the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: When was the last time you really just cried before God?

[SPEAKER_01]: When was the last time you just had a moment to just take God help me?

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I need you.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, listen, what was the last time you were real with God and said, God, I'm afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I'm scared.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, I don't know left from right, God.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have the words.

[SPEAKER_01]: All I have is a cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: When was the last time you took a moment just to cry?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I promise you, it's not your understanding that gets his attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's your cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just a bit of a turn to push the next to you and just say, have you cried lately?

[SPEAKER_01]: You cried lately, it's like, I know you're grown person.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know you a grown woman, I know you a grown man, but have you cried lately?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just, it's just,

[SPEAKER_01]: He was, he was stopped in his tracks for your cry.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll convince, sometimes, we read the scripture, and sometimes we miss these, these principles, we miss these treasures.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was intended to go past them and yet he would stop just to see him.

[SPEAKER_01]: the Christ.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we had the time, I would dig a little deeper into this interesting conundrum that I've always kind of wrestled within this text because the text tells us that when Jesus started approaching the disciples, it says, it talks about how they did not recognize him and I've always been kind of perplexed by that, how people who had been walking with him for so long didn't recognize him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know the environment, environmentally, I understand it was very dark and, you know, it was pitch dark and I was probably hard to see and the waves and the water were happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I get environmentally what was happening there.

[SPEAKER_01]: But spiritually speaking, the reason that they didn't recognize Jesus was because they weren't looking for Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in my mind, I'm perplexed by this because in this kind of situation, the very person you ought to be looking for is the person that you just saw, the thousands of people went to look at fish and some wonder breed.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this type of situation, the very person you ought to be looking for is the same man that, in whom chapters earlier, he would amend with the skin disease called leprosy.

[SPEAKER_01]: In this type of situation, the very person you ought to be looking for is the man who just shopped this earlier, went into Peter's house and who found his mother-in-law sick and when she just walked in, he touched her body and her body began to regulate and she began to be healed in that moment in the very first thing she begins to do is get up and start cooking a meal.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the same man that in Matthew chapter eight was in the boat with the disciples that went into the waves and the wind began to blow.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is back at a boat, take it a nap and they begin to be afraid and in a very similar situation here and yet they still don't recognize who he is in this moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: But yet before they were in a similar situation and they saw what he was able to do and yet in this moment,

[SPEAKER_01]: they don't recognize who he is, and so I was always been kind of perplexed by that, but I realized that fear often blinds us from the truth of God's presence in his promise, and in these moments it's easy for us to begin to focus on facts rather than the truth, because the truth is, I'm sorry, the fact is, I'm tired, I'm exhausted.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd bid at this thing for a long time, and if Jesus was going to do something or show up, he would have been here by now, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But the truth is, we just say something outgrooping about the church, we just say something like, he may not come with you on him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, I further quickening in my shot time.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he's always on time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've got a few more minutes with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of the principal, this text teaches us is about focused faith, focused faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's my question for you today, Church of the City.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes in life, we have enough faith to start.

[SPEAKER_01]: But my question to you today is, do you have the focus to finish?

[SPEAKER_01]: As we reach into this last quarter of the year, my question to you is, where's your focus?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where's your focus?

[SPEAKER_01]: The challenge for you today is to grow in your focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because there will be times in your journey where your faith is going to be challenged and your ability to focus will be threatened.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you, you have the faith to begin, but the challenge is going to be, do you have the faith to end?

[SPEAKER_01]: You had enough faith to start the business, but do you have the focus even when the sales aren't coming in?

[SPEAKER_01]: You had the faith to get the job, but do you have the focus to keep the job?

[SPEAKER_01]: You had enough faith that this year I won't be dead free.

[SPEAKER_01]: But do you have the focus to stick to a budget?

[SPEAKER_01]: You had enough faith to get delivered.

[SPEAKER_01]: But do you have the focus to keep on working on your healing?

[SPEAKER_01]: You have enough faith to reconcile and build your marriage.

[SPEAKER_01]: But do you have the focus to start communicating better tomorrow?

[SPEAKER_01]: You have the faith to walk away.

[SPEAKER_01]: But do you have the focus not to walk back?

[SPEAKER_01]: You have the faith to say I forgive you.

[SPEAKER_01]: But do you have the focus to start punishing them every time you think about it?

[SPEAKER_01]: Complete faith requires continual focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And say that again, complete faith requires continual focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you are focused,

[SPEAKER_01]: There are some things that you have to learn to say no to.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't be a part of everything with your focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't be everywhere with your focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't do everything you're used to doing when you're in focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are certain things that you have to turn our blinded eye to when you're in focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't be everybody's friend when you're in focus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Matter of fact, when you're in focus, it'll teach you who are your friends.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they're no good dirty running pigs to the great-great-great-grandfather called family.

[SPEAKER_01]: You got to remember where that book holes?

[SPEAKER_01]: You got to remember where that book holes coming up in school?

[SPEAKER_01]: Stanley Yeo-Nets.

[SPEAKER_01]: We've been encouraged by your no good dirty, right in pigs to then great, great-grandfather.

[SPEAKER_01]: That look.

[SPEAKER_01]: If the people around you are subtracting from your focus, watch this, then they're adding to your distraction.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't have people around you, that you can tell not right now too,

[SPEAKER_01]: You've got the wrong people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or if you got people around you who you've told, I'm trying to do this, that and the other in my life right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And at no point, they ever tell you, remember when you said, for the purpose of trying to hold you accountable, you got the wrong people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the white people are gonna hold you accountable to what you said.

[SPEAKER_01]: If they're not adding to your focus, then they're adding to your distraction.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the greatest threat to your faith is not going to be failure every time, it's distraction.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're just like that I want to share with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Focus finishes what faith starts.

[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 28 and 29 in our text, it said, and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if is you, command me to come to you on the water.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he's, and then Jesus said, come.

[SPEAKER_01]: Matthew's account is the only account of the three gospels that records Peter's involvement in this narrative.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in my natural mind, I'm wondering,

[SPEAKER_01]: y'all were afraid while y'all were in the boat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why in the world would you want to get out of the boat?

[SPEAKER_01]: If I'm going to die, at least let me die in something that's a little sustainable, but it helped me to understand something.

[SPEAKER_01]: that when you have a faith that's rooted in Jesus, it makes anything look possible.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the reality, ladies and gentlemen, faith will always require a response.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not enough just to believe and not do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because faith isn't faith until you bust a move.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, faith is not faith if you standing still doing nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Your faith is never active in isolation and in what you instantiate to a mode.

[SPEAKER_01]: Faith only works in motion.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense ladies and gentlemen?

[SPEAKER_01]: Faith requires a response.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now it's interesting to know and to realize that in the beginning of this narrative, it's Jesus coming towards the disciples.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in a Matthew's account, there comes a part in the process where after Jesus comes towards us, now we see that a one to the disciples has a responsibility to walk towards Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: because focus faith doesn't leave everything up to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if it's going to happen, God's going to be the one to do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if it's going, if I'm going to be blessed, it's just going to be on God.

[SPEAKER_01]: True, eh.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because yes, God ultimately will be the one to cause it to happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: But faith also has a level of responsibility on your part.

[SPEAKER_01]: We can't expect God to be the only one moving in this situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Faith involves responsibility, as that makes sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want you to understand something here ladies and gentlemen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Notice that Peter did not move based off of what he saw.

[SPEAKER_01]: Peter moved based off of what he heard.

[SPEAKER_01]: They did not recognize Jesus visibly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yet right when Jesus began to speak and said, don't be afraid it's me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, a Peter's next response is Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stop it, excuse me, we read that too fast.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't recognize him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I see something out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be afraid.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord?

[SPEAKER_01]: If that's you, I can't see, but I heard something.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, if that's you, sometimes you can see, but you have enough history with the voice,

[SPEAKER_01]: I have enough history with your voice to know that even when I'm blinded and even when it's dark and is where we are and if that's you didn't guess what I may not be able to see your face but the voice sure sounds familiar Lord, if that's you be it me to come to you there's a lot of noise around me right now but I hear a voice that I recognize

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't see, but there's a voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: I recognize, I can't, I don't know what I'm looking at, but I recognize that voice, I don't know about you sometimes, but sometimes in your life you're going to be in situations where I don't know how it's going to work out here, but I heard a voice, I don't know how it's going to work.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how it's going to work, I don't know how it's going to come to fruition, but I heard God say, get up and do some.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it's going to turn out to be, but I heard a voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got enough history with the voice to know that the voice had never turned me yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: The voice had never felt me yet, and so if he spoke it, then guess what?

[SPEAKER_01]: I may not be able to see it just yet, Robert, but if the voice spoke it, then all I have to do next is move.

[SPEAKER_00]: My sheep.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, my voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: He said my sheep.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, my voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: In order to know the voice, you've got to make sure that you are sheep first.

[SPEAKER_01]: What makes you a sheep isn't necessarily what you look like.

[SPEAKER_01]: What makes you a sheep is how you obey the shepherd.

[SPEAKER_01]: What makes a sheep a sheep is not what they look like.

[SPEAKER_01]: What makes the sheep the sheep is their obedience to the shepherd.

[SPEAKER_01]: My sheep, no, my voice, I don't care what your mama said.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what your daddy said.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what your life says.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what your bank account says.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what your education says.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what your future said.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't care what your history was.

[SPEAKER_01]: My sheep, no, my voice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if I said it, then my sheep know how to obey my,

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to today's message.

[SPEAKER_00]: We pray you were inspired, challenged, and marked by the word you heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: If this message blessed you today, we encourage you to subscribe to the Church of the City podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: There you can find more faith-filled messages to uplift you and help you on your journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: For more information about Church of the City, head on over to www.cotcdfw.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: And until next time, remember this, the best is yet to come.