Getting out of the Boat

Good afternoon, everyone. It's good to be with you here, back home again in Indiana. May in Indiana is always a good time, and we're looking forward to seeing everybody here today, and already been able to greet many of you. And I was telling the students, the ABC students on Thursday, the class, that this is our home, and we're coming home this week and do well, and I think they really did a very good job. So this was the first time I had heard all of their pieces put together in one set. We've heard bits and pieces for special music, but first time I've gone out with them this year to visit a congregation, and it's the first time that I've heard it all. So they did a very, very good job. I do have to comment on one song, the Down to the River to Pray song. It's kind of become, I don't know, it's kind of a favorite. I teach the book of Acts the second semester. When we got to the part where Paul started the church in Philippi, and Paul went down to the river where prayer was want to be made, as you read there. So I played them the Alice in Cross version of Down to the River to Pray in class, and it's kind of stuck. In fact, last Saturday night, one of the students, David Kavalcik, was getting baptized, and he wanted to be baptized in a river. So we went down to a river to baptize last Saturday night, and he wanted me to go down to the river with him. So we went into the river and did that. So I appreciated that piece of music there. I will say Kenny Shoemaker has, where is he? He's left us here. But Dorothy, Mrs. Shoemaker, you'll tell him for us. But he has really done a good job again this year, pulling the talents of everyone together for the ABC choir. Every year, a different group of people. He has to get everything molded together, and he comes in several times a week to do this with these students. And he's done a very, very good job once again this year, so I'm glad to hear them all. I will say one thing about this class. They are a very talented group, as you can tell, and they put on a really wonderful charity auction, which is their biggest annual project. They raise funds for a LifeNets project or a Good Works project. This year, it was for a well in Zambia. And they really did a bang-up job in putting together the music and skits and everything for this year's charity auction, which was just, what, about three weeks ago, I suppose. And you're not going to believe this, but they even asked me to be a part of it and got me involved in a skit. And I know you're really not going to believe it, but I was actually kind of funny.

Kind of brought the house down. Wasn't intended to do that, but we had a good time, so we may take our show on the road. Anyway, it's a good group and enjoy working with them this year. This is the commencement season. The season of graduation, May, high schools, colleges, and all kinds of commencement speakers. I haven't heard one yet, but I'm hoping another commencement address given by somebody at some college will kind of go viral and really be a good one. A few years ago, Steve Jobs gave a great one at, I believe it was at Stanford University. He did a good one, and there have been a few that are notable through the years, so we'll see what happens. You can consider that for the ABC kids this year, students, this is my commencement address to you. You're going to graduate in two weeks from the Ambassador Bible Center, and you'll have a baccalaureate sermon and a commencement address on the day you graduate, and I'll be there with you. But this will be considered my commencement address to you, and for all the rest of us, I think that there'll be something for us all to learn as well. You know, these students here have, for the better part of seven months or more, been going through the Bible and learning a great deal. They've had a lot of information put upon them during their time at the Ambassador Bible Center. And once it's over in a couple of weeks, many of them will scatter, go back to their homes, some will stay in Cincinnati, but they'll all get on with their lives. And a question that they will probably be asked or reflect on themselves is, what have they learned? And I might ask for all of us here, in all of our years of experience in the faith, in God's Church, what have we learned? All of us. And they will ask themselves and be asked, what have they learned in their brief months at the Ambassador Bible Center?

You know, Jesus Christ, when we look into Scriptures, put His disciples through a three and a half year curriculum. And He trained that these people who were to be disciples, the word that we see translated in the New Testament, disciple, is a Greek word, which means, really, just its meaning is to be a student. The word disciple in the Gospels, Christ said to His Church, go and make disciples of all nations. He said, make students, students of all nations.

And that's exactly what all of us are. If we are true disciples of Jesus Christ, we are students. We are always learning. In Christ's ministry, He put the twelve that He called to be His disciples through a lot of intensive experience. He gave them classroom lectures. He also gave them labs. You know how it is when you go to school? You have lectures. And then if you're in a particular discipline, a science or other subjects, you'll have a lab, speech lab, science lab, biology lab, where you have to go and do practical hands-on work to apply what you've been learning theoretically in the classroom. That's the way it works. Jesus did the same thing. His students, His disciples, had to go out and take a lot of what they learned, and they had to apply it. You, who are at the Ambassador Bible Center, will go out from your experience here, and you'll have to do the same. And you will have to apply what you have learned, and apply it in a very real way, just as all these others here have had to apply what they have learned through the years as they have raised families, gone through marriages, jobs, and experiences of life. We all know what awaits in the real world when we go out tests.

Tests await us all. Not the academic tests. At ABC, as well as at University or High School, we're given academic tests. We're tested in a written way to find out how much we know, or sometimes happens, how much we don't know. But tests are part of it. And no matter how well we score on a test, all it tells us is what we know right up here. How much we've been able to cram in or retain, cram the night before, or retain through the experience of sitting in a lecture, a test that we take, a graduation, or at any particular point in a written test, only tells us what's in the head. When we go out into the world, the tests we get in the world, they show us how much we've applied in our heart. That's the difference between the tests that determine what we know in the head, the tests in the world determine what we know in the heart.

Both tests are necessary to become disciples, but it's the tests that determine our heart and what we have placed in our heart that will be the most meaningful and long-lasting.

If you will, please turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 14. We're going to go through an example from the Gospels here today of a lab test that Jesus put His disciples through. Matthew chapter 14.

This is an interesting section. In chapter 14, beginning in verse 13, we have an occasion. One of the occasions where Jesus fed thousands of people. He fed five thousand, beginning in verse 13 through verse 21. This is not the portion we're going to be talking about today, but I just want to at least refer to it. If I had longer time or two messages to give you, I'd give you this one first, because this was the lecture. Jesus feeding the five thousand, and what He taught them was in one sense kind of a lecture to them. The disciples had to take part in what Jesus did as five thousand people were fed by a miracle of loaves and fishes.

And it was quite an intensive day. You do the numbers of what it would have taken in terms of baskets of food to feed this many people is hundreds. And who do you think carried those baskets and distributed the food? I think the disciples did as they fed the people, and they all were given loaves. And the disciples, it says in verse 19, gave to the multitudes. The disciples were running back and forth a lot that afternoon and feeding. It was a big potluck.

Well, it came to an end. After they had eaten in verse 21, it says there were five thousand men besides women and children. But it's in verse 22 that I want to pick up the story and read through this to us, because this is where the lab experiment came in. This is where some hands-on to what had been learned through a lesson in faith. The disciples didn't have to do anything. They just kind of witnessed Jesus perform a miracle of faith.

And now they had to go and do something. In verse 22, let's pick it up here. Immediately Jesus made his disciples, get into the boat, and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away. And they were on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.

They were actually about the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee, a huge body of water in the northern part of Israel, where much of the lessons and stories of the gospel here in Jesus' ministry and life took place. And when it says in verse 22 that they were to go before him to the other side, what they were going to be doing, when the gospels used the term to cross over on the Sea of Galilee or to go to the other side, what it is talking about is not necessarily go from literally one side east to west or west to east or north to south or south to north on the Sea of Galilee.

It meant that they were to cross over where the Jordan came into the Sea of Galilee on the northern tip. You look at your map in your Bible, you see the Jordan comes down from the north and empties into the Sea of Galilee, and it comes out at the south of Galilee. And the phrase in the scripture is to cross over Jordan in this area or to go to the other side, meant basically just to cross over the side of the Jordan River.

And they were going to be heading in a westerly direction from this. But Jesus sent the disciples away. He sent the multitudes away. And what He did in verse 23, when He sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. It had been an intensive day, and He often did need to withdraw to Himself for prayer and reflection.

Now, when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat in which the twelve disciples were in was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves. For the wind, it was contrary. Now, on the Sea of Galilee then, and it does happen even today, winds can come in from the west, off the Mediterranean, across the plain of Jezreel, and down into the depression where the Sea of Galilee is. And the way the mountain passes are done there, as those winds come across from the Mediterranean, across the northern part of Israel, and they get kind of funneled down into the Sea of Galilee through a mountain passes there that rise up to the west of the sea.

They gather a great deal of force, and they explode across that water, and they can create 10-foot waves. In 1992, there was such a storm it took place, and the waves crashed into one of the cities, Tiberius, there on the shore, causing a great deal of damage. And so you can imagine up to 10-foot waves that we're talking about here, nothing very small. And they're in a small fishing boat. They're not on a huge liner. They're on a small fishing boat, big enough to take 12 people, but it was kind of chummy and kind of cozy there, because the boats that they had in that day on the Sea of Galilee, they were not very large boats.

They were kind of open decked, and they're probably, I don't even, the one boats that I've seen that have been actually excavated, they didn't have anything below decks. It was all open on top. So they were on top of this boat. The winds came up. Now, in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. Now, you have to ask, how did this happen?

Many of these men were experienced fishermen. They knew that scene. How was it that they were out in the middle of the Sea of Galilee in a boat, the middle of the night, the darkest, loneliest part of the night, and caught unawares, in a sense, trying to row. Mark's account talks about them rowing and trying to get back. You know what I think happened? I think they got in that boat, and they were pretty tired, and they were probably pretty well fed, because there was a lot of food that left over from that potluck.

And I think they fell asleep. And the boat may have drifted out, and all of a sudden they got caught in the midst of a storm on the lake. That's what I think. That's my speculation on this, because you wouldn't expect it with Peter and John being experienced fishermen as they were, having had made their living on that lake. They knew what could happen. I just think they fell asleep, and they got caught. It's not said here, but that's something that I add into it. And then they saw Jesus walking on the sea.

Walking on the sea. Again, Mark's version of this gives you the indication that Jesus wasn't necessarily walking toward them, but He was just walking on the sea. And they saw Him, verse 26, walking on the sea, and they were troubled, saying, it's a ghost, and they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water. So here's Peter, the impetuous one. Peter, the one who seems to always wanting to be out front. And I don't always think that Peter was doing that just because of his ego. I've come to think that perhaps Peter wanted, above all, the esteem of the man that he looked up to more than anyone else. And he was looking for, always looking for approval. That's my take on this, and why Peter seems to always be the one. In this case, he says, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water, in verse 28. And so Jesus said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand, caught him, and said to him, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. Quite an episode.

Jesus walking on water. And even Peter walking on water for a short distance.

He may have taken a dozen steps, a couple dozen maybe. He walked on water. And Jesus walked on water, too. And they learned something there. It's a short episode. Let's pause for a moment. Let's consider a few things. Let's step back. You ever notice how many times the great stories of the Bible are centered around a boat? Remember Noah built a big boat. Jonah, he was in a boat, too, trying to get away from his duty to God. Paul's journey to Rome, we'll read about that in a few days, he was in a boat. He had a lot of experiences. They got into a shipwreck and tossed seas as well. Several scenes in the Gospels occur on the Sea of Galilee, this being one of them. The resurrected Christ even wanted one last fish fry with his disciples right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And throughout Scripture as well, we see that a lot of events take place on great waters. Great waters are used in many different ways to teach spiritual matters, lakes and seas. The Sea of Galilee is really one big lake, it's called the Sea of Galilee. But great waters are a theme in which God builds many spiritual lessons.

You go to Genesis 1, verse 1, and it says, The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters at the very beginning.

You go all the way to the last chapter of Revelation, Revelation 22. The Bible ends with a river of life flowing out of the throne of God in that future vision. Psalm 107, verse 22, one of my favorite phrases out of the Psalms, it says, Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. A lot packed into that very, very short verse. And of course, Israel passed through the Red Sea, didn't they? And Paul used that in 1 Corinthians 10 as a type of baptism for all of us. When we go down into a river, or a pool of water, or a trough full of water in type, we go through a sea like Israel went through the Red Sea, and water washes away our sins. So boats, water, great waters, often come to teach great spiritual lessons. Let's look again at this story. It's set in the middle of the night, the darkest, coldest part of the night, the fourth watch. You know the old saying, people say that nothing good happens after midnight. You don't want to be out on the street. Don't be closing the bars down at midnight or even 11 o'clock, for what that's worth.

We know the phrase, the phone call in the middle of the night. It's never a good phone call in the middle of the night. Every time I've been awakened in the middle of the night by phone call, it's never been good. You wake up in the middle of the night, worried, stressed, something on your mind, you can't go back to sleep. You watch, you see three o'clock, you see three thirty, you see four thirty, you see five o'clock, and it's time to get up. Those things happen. And then there's that phrase, things that go bump in the night. And so, the middle of the night like this is a time of testing, trials, difficulties at times, stress. I've already mentioned these men were 12 men in a boat, and it wasn't a large boat. It was chummy, and they were nervous because the waves were big, and the wind was strong, and it was dark. And they were experienced fishermen, and they were in a tight spot. They couldn't get out of it. They discovered if they woke up that they were in the middle of the lake, that's what happened.

You know, go back, Jesus sent them out on the water by himself. He'd been all day with them, he needed some time on his own, but you know, I also think that Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when he sent them out alone. It's not that he would have intentionally sent them out into danger. If their neglect caused them to drift into harm's way, his walking out to them was to rescue them. You know, Christ doesn't send us into harm's way intentionally either. That's not his intent. There's not his intent here for them to get caught in any situation like that.

1 Corinthians, hold your place here if you want to turn over to 1 Corinthians 10. Verse 13. It says, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God, who is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

He doesn't tempt us. James 1, beginning in verse 12, James tells us that no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted by God. God doesn't deliberately put us in harm's way. He didn't put his disciples into harm's way. James goes on to say that each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. That's when we get into problems at times if we don't have a character to make the right decision. When these disciples got into trouble, Christ went toward them. He was not that far away. He doesn't deliberately send you and I into trouble, but he also gives us a way to get out of the temptation as well. To go back to the story, you have to ask if Christ was going out to rescue them. If so, how was he going about doing it? Think about it for a minute. He could just as easily have stilled the waters from on shore.

He could have done that, but he didn't. The winds came, the waves came up, he didn't stop it, and he didn't still them. He could have also swam out to them. I happen to think that he could have done that, had the strength to have done it. He could have swam out to them, but he didn't do that. He walked. Why would he walk? Now, Christ was not a trick dog.

He wasn't just doing some trick. He hadn't just fed 5,000 people with a miracle of loaves and fishes, again, just to kind of wow people. That's not why he did that. There was always a lesson in everything that he did, and it was a lesson in how he did this and why he did it the way he did it.

He wasn't showing off. They had to see him. If he'd swam 10-foot waves, they wouldn't have seen him.

If he'd stayed on shore and just filled the waters, what would they have learned? Nothing. They wouldn't have seen him. But he walked out on the water, and they saw him. And they thought it was a ghost. They didn't know exactly there for a moment what they were looking at. It was important that they look out of the boat and fix their gaze on him and see him. And they saw him walking on the water, and they thought that it was a ghost.

They didn't recognize that it was him. There's a lesson there, too.

Even those who are closest to Christ and they were very close to him, they didn't always recognize him, the disciples. Even after he was resurrected, you recall, there were some of the disciples who didn't immediately recognize him in his resurrected state. This night, the middle of this night, they did not recognize him at first until he called to them.

Even those closest to Christ, do we recognize Christ? Can we see him?

Can we envision him and recognize him? Do you realize how challenging it is to recognize the true Christ? Christ warned his disciples on another occasion that it would be a constant challenge to discern who he was. Hold your place here and turn over to Matthew 24.

When they asked him what would be the signs of his coming, his first sign that he gave them in verse 4 of Matthew 24 was to take heed that no one deceives you. Be alert, be aware that you're not deceived by someone else, for many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will deceive many.

Always an interesting statement to look at and to think about. We always need to think about this statement. How is it that people will be deceived? And they come and they say, I am Christ and be deceived. They can say they're representing Christ, they're speaking for Christ, they are speaking the words of Christ. In many different forms do they say, I am the Christ. Perhaps even some will say, I am the Christ. But you know, it's pretty easy to discount anybody who says, I am the Christ. Sometimes we may not be the sharpest blade in the drawer.

But I think most of us in this room would recognize and say, you're fraud. If somebody would claim to be Jesus. A lot of people get delusional. When you go to Jerusalem or Israel, as I've done a few times and you get in a tour group, one of the things they talk about is what they call the Jerusalem Syndrome. Usually among people who are very devout, very religious, and perhaps a little bit off emotionally or mentally. They go to Jerusalem and they get caught up in walking the streets of Jerusalem, looking at all the sites, and they often get overcome thinking that they have a message for someone. Back in 05, we had on the feast trip, we went to Jordan and we didn't even get into Israel. We had one of our own members in the group who had a message that he felt had to be delivered. And a couple of three of us who were in the group ministers, we had to sit down with him and kind of sit on him. Because he didn't really have a message and he wasn't going to upset everybody else. So we watched him and had to watch him pretty closely for the next few weeks on the tour. Jerusalem Syndrome. People get caught up in a kind of a frenzy. They think they've got a message or they've got something from God. They have to be delivered or they'll do something irrational and bizarre. It happens all the time from all different groups of people who go into Jerusalem and to Israel. Deception, religious deception, is something that the Scriptures are very, very pointed and direct about. And this was the first sign Jesus said of the end of the age. People will not be able to recognize Christ. And there is a period of deception. Down in verse 23 here, Matthew 24, he says, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there, there is the Christ. There is His work. There is His representative or whatever it might be. He says, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible, even the elect.

See, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if I say to you, look, He is in the desert, do not go out. Or look, He is in the inner rooms, do not believe it.

I've been reading, I was reading a book that I bought a couple of months ago about Catholic evangelism. Evangelism within the Catholic Church is a very, very big topic among devout Catholics right now. And it came out just before, about the time of the, this book came out just about the time of the resignation of Pope Benedict and the selection of the new Pope. And I was reading, what I've been reading in the book, as they are very, very devout and sincere about evangelizing and going out and making new converts. And they use language that, as they want to preach Jesus Christ and as they talk about Jesus Christ, it is very convincing language, it is very biblical language. And I was reading through it, I'm thinking it's very interesting. And I've read, I always try to read the speeches, especially when they get into a papal conclave as to what their leadership are thinking and talking about. You know what they're talking about? Jesus Christ. Christ. And the need to get back to Christ.

It's hard to believe, I mean, in the Sistine Chapel where they elected the Pope, the one whole wall is a scene of the judgment and this huge, gigantic Christ coming back in judgment that Michelangelo painted is right there staring them in the face and all of their idols and their statues and everything that is so much a part of their tradition and their walk and they say we've got to get back to Christ. We've got to recognize He is the head of the church. Where do you hear that? Have you heard that anywhere else? I have.

I've heard it in the United Church of God, too.

Christ-centered leadership. Jesus Christ is the head of the church. We read it, we believe it, we speak it, we're speaking it even more than we have in my whole experience in the church. We're not afraid to say it and we're focusing upon it.

And of course, other denominations are, too. I'm not saying that. Who's right?

Where is the true Christ being preached?

You read Jesus' words and you have to ask some very hard questions. Everyone does. And the more we say it and the more and louder we say it, I am convinced at some point the tension will be drawn there. The point I'm making out of this story is that even those closest to Jesus, they didn't immediately recognize Him. And so we should not assume that we know everything there is to know about Jesus Christ either. In that we know and would profess that we do and that we obey the true Christ and we worship Him in spirit and in truth, but never assume that we've got the whole picture complete. Because if Peter and John and James in this boat couldn't see Him and recognize Him, there's a lesson there for us. That in a moment of test or fear, because they were scared in the midst of a trial, they didn't recognize Him momentarily. Could you and I not recognize Jesus in a moment of our own testing and trial and forget Him and neglect Him and not see Him? Because this story is really all about seeing Jesus and keeping one's eyes and vision focused upon Jesus. That's really what the story is about. It's not a nice little mythical tale told in Sunday school or Sabbath school or on a Saturday afternoon for us to kind of be warm and filled by. This is a story, a very real story that happened and a very real miracle that took place. And at the heart of this story is keeping a straight vision upon Jesus Christ and being able to see Him even in the middle of the night when we're scared to death, we're fearful, and we're all fogged up because of that fear.

Be able to lock in on Him and know He's there and recognize Him and be able to go right to Him. That's the lesson. In John 17.3, Jesus prayed on the night before His death, and He gave us really the essence of eternal life in John 17.3. He said to the Father as He prayed, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This is the essence of eternal life. This is the essence of any life worth having. It is the essence of life that will be for all eternity. It is the essence of what you and I want to live forever, to have eternal life in the kingdom of God. This is the essence of it. John 17.3, to know God the Father, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

What did Jesus preach and teach when He was sent? You go to Mark 1, verses 14 and 15.

He came preaching the kingdom of God, saying, Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.

Jesus, whom God the Father sent, came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.

Our mission in the United Church of God is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And we've got it right. There's no question as to what the scriptures teach us about the gospel. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the true Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of God.

And our challenge is to keep our eyes firmly fixed upon that and not let it be distracted.

The disciples awoke in the middle of the night in the middle of a storm-tossed sea, and they were afraid. I've had moments of my life where I've been afraid, too, because I'm sure you have. Now, I know you have. We all know each other pretty well, don't we?

Fear is not a nice thing to have to go through.

Fear fogs things up. It causes a fog to develop in our heart and in our mind, where we are supposed to be learning those lessons. Fear causes us to lose a clarity or a clarity of purpose. Fear causes us to lose our vision. We forget when we're fearful because we're just focused upon ourselves. You get that phone call from the doctor, and he's got the diagnosis, and fear strikes us. For a moment, for a period of time, perhaps, we panic. We don't know who to turn to, and we look for reassurance, and we say it can't be, and we're not me. We get that phone call in the middle of the night, and something has happened bad, and we say, I can't believe this. We get seized with fear, and fear causes us to lose our vision. Fear can freeze us in place. We don't know what to do. We can't move. We can't grow, and we lose ground. Fear is the enemy of faith. It's the great enemy of faith. I've had my moments of fear. I'm sure I'll have other moments of fear. I hope I am learning to deal with my fear better than I have in the past. Fear kept 11 disciples, and remember at this point, they were only disciples. They were not yet great apostles. They were only disciples. They were students. They were learning. Fear kept 11 of these disciples in the boat. It kept them in the boat in a storm-tossed sea, and it was a small boat again, remember? That boat could have been capsized, and those waves, I think, were washing over the boat. It was still afloat, but it kept them in the boat. They couldn't move. That was their safe place. That was where they were immobilized.

Then Christ said, Come to me. He was walking, and if you look at how Mark records this account, it is the indication that he wasn't necessarily walking toward them, but near enough that they could see him. He was going in a certain direction, is the indication that you get. They saw him, and Peter was summoned, and Peter had to go.

Peter was the only one who left his comfort zone, crawled over the side of the boat, and ventured out.

Experiencing a relationship with Jesus Christ requires that every one of us leave what's comfortable and go to him and follow him.

Again, I don't think that he was necessarily coming in a beeline straight toward them. He was probably going in a direction that would have not led him directly into that boat, but would have led off in a different direction. If you're going to go to him when he said, Come, you're going to continue to follow him. That's the point. We have to get out of our comfort zone. We have to crawl out of the boat, get away from what is complacency at times. At any time, if we're going to experience a relationship with Jesus Christ and get to know him and have a vision firmly fixed upon him and learn, and we have to then go in his footsteps.

Peter was only going to get out of the boat, but he had to ask Christ to call to him.

Back in verse 28, Peter answered and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. Peter was always the one who was speaking out. He was the one who would later say that he would never betray him. And Jesus says, Yes, you will, three times before the rooster crows.

Peter wanted the affection, the attention, and the approval of Christ, more than any other disciple.

But he got up, he crawled over the side, and he started walking. And he did walk on the water. There's a book. We were talking about this the other day.

I was talking with another elder's wife about this idea, and she was telling me about a book. I haven't read the book at all, but there's a book based on this. I think the title of the book is, To Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat.

Some of you may have seen or know the book. To Walk on Water, You Got to Get Out of the Boat.

Stay in the boat, you're not going to walk on water. And he did walk on water until he got to looking around, and he saw the waves. And he said, I'm not supposed to be doing this.

This is illogical. I'm really not doing this. And he got fearful again, and he started to sink, and Christ had to pick him up and pull him out and get into the boat with him.

It's a remarkable story. We can walk toward Christ. We can begin to walk in his footsteps as a student, as a disciple. And then a trial and a test comes up in life, and we get fearful.

And we begin to wonder, why is this happening to me? And why isn't God hearing me? And why is this decision made? And it's different from what I anticipated and thought and hoped, and what's going on. And why me, Lord, we think. All of this. And when we do that, we're really, just like Peter, we're taking our eyes off of Christ, and we're looking around at the problem.

We're looking around at the difficulty. And we're seeing our own inadequacy. And that's what happens when you get out into the laboratory of life. We all know that.

We can listen to sermon after sermon after sermon. We can listen to class after class after class. We can fill our notebooks with notes, and the margins that were Bible with notes. I notice, however, we fill less margins with less notes these days because we're either holding an iPhone or an iPad. And I'm not talking about anybody, because when I go to church anymore, I take my little iPhone, I got my Bible right there, just like you do, and I'm looking at Scripture. And I hope you're looking at Scripture, too. Not Facebook. But I know you, and I know you're looking at Scripture.

But I don't write in my Bibles anymore. I don't write in my Bible anymore. Not that it's not, that it's a bad thing. That's a good thing. I still have my college Bible, and it's got all kinds of notes in it. But you know what? I don't have my college notebooks anymore. They've long since disappeared. And I don't even turn to my college Bible anymore for reference in the margins. Believe me, students, there'll be a time in your life you won't either.

I thought when I had all of my Oxford-wide margin Bible all filled up at the end of Ambassador College, I had the sum total of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that I needed for life.

Didn't take me long to figure out, close that book, because life isn't always answered by something right there. And the notebooks, they've long since disappeared.

The head knowledge, you can you can regurgitate it back. You can pass the test.

But we'll all be tested on heart knowledge and what we have internalized, and what we will apply, because life will test us on that. And we'll find out just how much fear we have, how much faith we need to build. That's what happens. That's what happens. Our job, as we go through the waves and the winds of life, is to keep our eyes upon Jesus Christ.

Firmly fastened upon Him and His vision, that vision, and where He is going.

Christ was able to be clearly seen in the dark of night, and above the waves that were probably pretty high there in the Sea of Galilee. He didn't hide Himself from His disciples then, and He doesn't hide Himself from His disciples today. He can be clearly seen.

And you and I, in our little boat, man is always a little boat.

It's like that anthill I was telling you about the other day. Remember the anthill?

Life on the anthill. We're all in a little anthill. We think we're, you know, doing something big. We're going to do big work sometimes, we talk about. And we want to do a big work, but you know what? We have a big God, and He has a big plan, and God has a big work, and we have a little part in it. And the more we realize that we're really on a little anthill, and we're all in a little bit of an anth, scurrying around with our ego and festering pride and ambitions. The more we realize we're just a little bit of an anthill, on a little bit of anthill, in this great universe, in this great plan that a great God is working out, then we can begin to get to point. And if you don't like the anthill analogy, then just, you know, we're in a little bitty boat on a great storm-tossed sea of life. And there comes a moment when we do need to get out of the boat, and we need to follow Jesus Christ and keep our eyes firmly fastened upon Him. He's made Himself very clear to us. None of us are without excuse. And at this most critical period of even our short history in the United Church of God, He has made Himself very clear to us. It's remarkable the focus that we have had, though, in recent years, the last two to three years, upon Jesus Christ. As the true head of the Church, we lost a president, the Church goes on. We elected a new president, the Church goes on. The feasts were planned, the camps were up and running, services were being held, life goes on. That's the beauty of what God has given to us, because our eyes are really focused upon Jesus Christ as the head of the Church.

And as long as we keep that in mind, then our hearts will be right before God.

So, Christ climbed into the boat with them, and they learned a big lesson.

The laboratory session was over, and they got back to shore, and they went on with life.

They crossed on over, as you read in the remainder of that particular passage.

Head knowledge versus heart knowledge.

How much head knowledge do we have? It's important to have the head knowledge, and it's important to have true knowledge and have it right.

I don't test the kids too often. Every once in a while, I give them a pop quiz.

Well, I've only done it once, so you can't say that I've done it too much. But other instructors give them more comprehensive tests, and they make their scores on that, and that's all fine and has its purpose in place, too.

But it's what you learn, and you put into your heart, and you apply. That will be the most important as you go forward with your life.

And that's what everyone else in this room and all of us have learned as we go on.

It's the heart knowledge that has kept us, keeps us focused. Do not fear life. Do not fear any man.

Fear God. Don't fear what waves and winds toss us around.

When Jesus said, don't fear the ones who can kill your body and put you in a grave. Fear Him who can put both body and soul in Gehenna.

In other words, He said, don't fear man. He was basically saying, don't fear any human being. Don't fear any physical experience that you may have to encounter. But fear God.

And when you fear God, when we fear Him, then we've got everything lined up right. Don't fear life. Fear God in a proper way.

And secondly, be willing to extend yourself beyond your comfort zone.

Push yourself. Be willing to get out of the boat. Be willing to go beyond what is safe and seemingly dry. And be able and be willing to even go out and do something that you do not think you can do. And thirdly, keep your eyes upon Jesus Christ.

He is the one who will get us to the vision. He has a vision already laid out. He knows exactly where His people, His disciples, the elect are going to wind up. And they're going to wind up in a body that is knit together in love and is prepared as a bride for her husband.

That's His vision. And when we keep our eyes on Him, He'll get us to that vision.

He will get us there. So keep that in mind.

And as we go about the experiments, the experiences of the Lab of Life, take what we've learned from the lectures and the classrooms and the sermons and all and ask ourselves if we've applied it in our hearts. And if we have, then our vision will be fast and firm on Jesus Christ.