Your Going to Need a Bigger Boat

We'll go right into the message.

You're going to need a bigger boat! Part two. This morning, if you happen to listen or watch our webcast from Fort Lauderdale, Jeff Newell was down there working things out. You heard about you're going to need a bigger boat.

Well, not only because you're just because you're north of Fort Lauderdale and you're a little bit above sea level here, where we're right at sea level, has no difference. You're going to need a bigger boat, probably. Maybe, but maybe not. The title came from... What movie? Jaws. Somebody remembered Jaws. It's the movie that made us all look really good before we went into the water, the ocean, way back when Steven Spielberg first made that movie. Well, this morning, I went through the story from Matthew, the story of disciples wanting a bigger boat. But if you know the story, hint hint, they didn't get one.

Noah didn't need a bigger boat, did he? Because God designed the boat. He knew exactly what Noah was going to need on that floating zoo. He even gave him the size, dimensions. I'm sure he even instructed him to build it, a massive building project like that. But here's the thing. In the story of Matthew, as they were on that boat crossing the Sea of Galilee, a storm came up. The disciples needed a bigger boat, but Jesus didn't. He didn't need one, and neither do we. Well, maybe some of us do. That's the purpose of the sermon. Maybe some of us do need a bigger boat. I'd like to go through two stories today of this same tale.

I went over through Matthew this morning. I'd like to go through the book of Luke really quickly. Luke's story had to be 30, 40 years after the event where this took place. Luke was writing it down with other people. He was a historian. God said, get out there and find out so you can write it all down in Greek. And he did. And so I'd like to look at that, his short story of this.

If you will go with me to the book of Luke, chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. If you would, like you go with me to Luke 8 and verse 22. It says, now it happened on a certain day. What day? Sabbath day. If you don't believe that, go back to the book of Matthew and check it out. That's the day of the Sermon on the Mount. The greatest sermons ever given. So at the end of the day, a certain day he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them, let us go over to the other side of the lake.

And they, as it says, launched out. They launched out. Verse 23. And as they sailed, he fell asleep. Who did? Jesus. And a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filled with water and they were in jeopardy. Not Alex Trebek's jeopardy. But they were in jeopardy. But was Christ in jeopardy? No. No. There was no jeopardy for him.

That's why he snoring away. Of course, he had to do all the work that day, given the sermon and also healing the leper and the centurion and the servant and Peter's mother-in-law and so casting out other demons. He had this big project and he was tired. So he headed across. See you Galilee. And then verse 24. And they came to him, that means the disciples, and woke him saying, Master, Master! We are perishing! We're gonna die! And you're earlier catching some z's. Don't understand it. Then it says, What?

Then he arose. But before he did, I'm sure they were all looking around at each other and said, We need a bigger boat. Because water was coming over and winds were just blowing and experienced men were scared to death. They were scared of dying. They should remind us where we can all look and say, I wouldn't be scared because Christ is there.

He's with us today, but how many of us face different problems and tests and trials and say, Where are you? So he said, so then he arose in verse 24 and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. So he had wind and water and he just stopped and they ceased and there was dead calm.

You ever been out by the ocean when there's dead calm? It's really nice sometimes in the morning. You go there and you can barely see. As we do in Deerfield Beach, we go out and you barely see the waves hardly even come in. It's so still. And there's something about that, isn't there? There's a piece there. That we all desire and I'm sure they did too. So this storm, the water, the rage, everything that was there stopped in an instant, which that had to be awesome to see.

I remember in Tennessee, I was out doing a job storm and everything. And I was kind of low there and I saw the winds whirling and twirling and I was just like, well, I need to get this job done. So I'm out of my truck and man, all of a sudden, these winds are just so bad. I tried to get back to my truck and just as I got back to my truck, everything just stopped. It was just so calm. It was like, wow! Actually, the sun came out almost in an instant. It seemed that way to me. I'm going, well, there was nothing to worry about. No, I was in the eye of a hurricane, a tornado at that time. It was a tornado. It came through the city and that was just this calm. And then all of a sudden, I'm walking back out and here it comes.

So there is a beauty about calm. But you see, with Christ, the disciples no longer needed a bigger boat.

With Christ, we don't need a bigger boat. Whether your issues of a boat are financial, health, problems with other people, problems with the government, you don't need a bigger boat as long as Christ is in the boat with you. That's the point of my sermon today because it is about a mindset first. Remember what Paul told the church at Colossae? Colossians 3 and verse 2 said, what? Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of this earth. That's where it starts. Set your mind on the things above. God's got this. No matter what it is, no matter how big the storm is, sometimes no matter how small the storm is, he's got this. And then, of course, he tells the Romans. Remember Romans 8 and verse 5? Hmmm. Romans 8 and verse 5 says, for those who what? I guess you don't have that one. You do. No, you can't deny me. Yes, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on God? No. Jesus? No. Deliverance? No. Those who set their mind on the flesh, live in the flesh. Their stuff is all about the flesh. It's all down here. But what does it say? But those who live according to the spirit, their minds on the spirit. What does that say? They know where their anchor is. They also know where help is, where relief is going to come from. It may not be on our time, but it'll be there. Remember? Said, I will never leave you nor what? What? For sake you. God doesn't lie. He cannot lie. He's just not always on our timetable. That's a challenge to us. So if you find yourself setting your mind on the things down here, on the things of the flesh, guess what? You're going to need a bigger boat. It's that clear. You're going to need a bigger boat. Because with God, you don't. Well, here's a news flash. Luke wasn't there. He wasn't there on that boat. He didn't experience it. He just heard about it. And he wrote it down. Matthew, if you go back and look at the book of Matthew, you'll find in the chapter 8, it, you know, Matthew 5, 6, 7 is the Sermon on the Mount. And then chapter 8, it tells when he comes down off of the mound or the little mountain, hills, as we call them in Tennessee. And he comes down and he does all these incredible things. He does all these incredible things and he gets in a boat. And he goes across the sea.

Then you read in chapter 9 of Matthew. 9, chapter 1, as Matthew is telling the story. And he's saying how then they came over with the boat and came back to the other side after they had been over to the one side. And he came back. And in Matthew 9 and verse 9 says, And then Jesus came across Matthew, sitting in his tax collector booth. So Matthew tells this story. He wasn't there either. He wasn't a disciple yet, but I'm sure he heard about it. But there was someone on that boat. And that's what I'd like to finish this message with because it's Peter's story. Yes, that Peter. Now, we don't have the Gospel of Peter. We have 1 Peter and 2 Peter. But we also have the book Mark. Mark, according to 99% of theologians. Is that right, Matthew? Yes. John, is that right? Should know too. Right. That, hey, this was Peter telling the story. Now, most experts think Peter, because he was a fisherman all his life, he couldn't really read or write if he did not really well. It wasn't important to him. Catching fish was important. So we can go to the book of Mark. I'd like to, but before we do, I'd like to do a little backdrop because Peter was a lifelong fisherman. In fact, you usually picked up the trade when you were about 12 years old. You were following your father's footsteps. Right? Matter of fact, by the age of 9 or 10, a young Peter would have been out learning how to repair nets, since that's how they caught fish. They didn't have that Zebco 404 to reel it in. They had to throw out nets and pull them in. And so he had learned this, so by the age of 12, you were, it's time to produce.

So Peter would have grown up, Peter and Andrew, his brother, on the water, especially on the Sea of Galilee. So he knew the Sea of Galilee like the back of his hand. That's what he'd done for 20 years, if not more. So he knew all about the wind. And he also knew that in the evening, this Mount Hermon and these mountains here, wind would come down through there and hit the Sea of Galilee right when you were out there on your boat. You'd think, hmm, you've done that for 20 years? You've been through quite a few of those gales that have come up, storms. No big deal? Ride this thing out? Boat? Hmm. I'll see Peter's incredible story is for us today. For anyone who might be wishing for a bigger boat. Because we all go through the storms of life. And if you're not having one now, hang on. You're going to get one. And if you don't have any, thank God for it, and realize you're probably a young person. Because the older you get, the more storms come your way. Storms of life. But that's sometimes when we need God the most. Because of how we handle things. So, here they are on this side here, Capernaum. It's kind of where they think this mount was. Sermon on the Mount. It's just more just going up part of the hills there. But they were going to sail then, once he got in a boat, to what's called Gedara. Here it's a Gergasa. But that was where that ambulance is not for any of us, I hope. That's where the Romans kept some of their troops. That's where it was more of a rough area. It was more of a gentile area. Not a lot of Jews hung out over here.

It just wasn't. They didn't want to be around. The people or the pigs. Because there's a lot of swine there. You say, why do Jews don't eat pigs? Oh, this Romans do. So you can see how the gentiles worked and kept the pigs and everything. And you might remember the story. Because who was there when they got there? Remember that story? I didn't go through that this morning. Who came over there? The pigs? The pigs might agree, didn't they? I don't know.

Jesus took his disciples and got out of the boat. What did he do? He was confronted by a wild man, demon-possessed man. Remember that story?

Naked man. And they had even tried to chain this dude up. He broke the chains and everybody knew him and he hung out at the tombs, hung out at the cemetery. And what did we find out about that man? He was demon-possessed. And Christ even asked him, what's your name? What did he say? My name is Legion. My name is Legion. It means there are many, many. A typical Roman Legion at the time was between four and six thousand men. This man had some serious demons, but we are many. It was a mighty story and you can read that. I'm not going to go through that. That's not my purpose today. They didn't want to be told what to do. But then they knew who, as Bill was talking about, the keeper of the gate, who was in authority. And so they asked, don't do what we know you can do. Cast this into the swine. And he did. What happened to all those pigs? They often drowned themselves. I always found it interesting. They didn't ask to go into lambs or goats, did they? Pigs.

But I'll just throw this aside because I've got a Bible study coming up here and I'm taking some of the things that you at last asked me to give. But I'd like you, in the meantime, because you know this story. Go back to Matthew and to Luke and to Mark and look at this story. And tell me, is there a conflicting scripture? Was there one demon or two? Hmm. Look at it. It makes an interesting little Bible study.

But let's look at the reason for this boat trip. This wild ride that they took across the water. That they took across the water. This tempest that came, this storm that came. Why do you think it happened? What was the cause of it? Nature? Could it have been? Satan? Could it have been? Can he control some of the weather?

Okay. So, do you think he really wanted Christ to go over and cast out all those demons? They had a home. They had their own territory, didn't they? I don't think he wanted them over there. Stay on your side. But he came to the other side, and he cast out that demon. And the man actually wanted to become a follower of his. Isn't that interesting? That when he said he wanted to get in the boat after he was staying in the same mine, going to get in the boat, and go back with Christ? And Christ said no. Isn't that interesting? What he had just said earlier that day, you want to follow me? Oh, no, I have to bury my father. I have to look after the... He told this man, don't want you to follow me. Go into the city. Go into the city. Where he had family, where everybody knew him. And that miracle would have stood out like no tomorrow, where everybody knew him. Plus, they'd have run out of food. They didn't have any pigs to eat. So, what would this event be for? Event before this, when they were on that water, and they had this storm, and they really thought they were going to drown. Would it have shaken the disciples up? Obviously, it did. Were they scared? Yes. What about all these people that when they came to the other side in Gedara? Were those people scared of this demon-possessed man? Uh-huh. What does God tell us about fear? Stop it! Don't do it! Don't have fear, because he's with us. It is.

So, here they were. These disciples were going in, and they were about to see an event, unlike any they had seen before, of a wild man. Things taking place of such power, a force they had never seen before. How about you? Are you ready to see a force you've never seen before? Are you ready to confront a problem you've never seen before? Are you ready to have things come into your life that you're afraid you can't stand? Without Christ, you need a bigger boat. But if you've got him, you're big enough to stand against a legion of angels, of legion of devils, of demons. Are you ready to stand against the problems that will confront you, because, what did he say? Those with us are more than those with them? This is what God has. See, God doesn't have angels that are back in call of legions, but by millions and millions.

I guess the disciples forgot about it, but let's go to Peter's story. If we go with me to Mark, let's go to Mark. Mark 4. Because here's a guy that was there, and of course, most of you know Peter's personality, and he definitely had one. Mark 4, and verse 35. Let's go with 35. It says, On that same day, the evening had come, he said to them, Let us cross over to the other side. This was at the end of the Sabbath day. And then 36. Now, when they had left the multitude, and you'll find it interesting if you look at Matthew's account, Luke's account, and then you read Mark's account. Mark's account is more detailed and longer. Why? He was there. This is for us to understand. So he left the multitude. They took him along in the boats as he was, and other little boats were also with him. So he says, We're going to cross over and go over there. I'm tired, but let's go over there. And so here, I mean, he's a celebrity. Okay. He was their version of an internet phenomenon, because people came from all over. They had just seen him heal. Hundreds of people saw him casting out demons, saw all this stuff coming from this one individual. Ah, love it!

Phenomenon. And they wanted to follow. They wanted to be apart. Wow, let's follow him. You ever seen that? I've seen a couple of celebrities. One was on an airplane near me, and he went to the bathroom, and people were following him into the bathroom. Huh? In the airport. Yes. And I was like, all he wanted to do was be left alone. He couldn't even do that. Ah, huh, huh. And I remember going over and sitting in this corner, and he will sit in this other corner, and put some sunglasses on and a hat on. He was a movie star. People knew him, and he was just on this short flight. Matter of fact, he's on my flight going back. But people just, ah, this is what Christ was dealing with here. I mean, they wanted to follow him.

Let's finish. 36. Now 37. And a great windstorm arose, and waves beat into the boat. So that it was already filling. So Peter was in it. Guess what? The waves weren't just like, oh yeah, here, good picture. It's coming into the boat.

They thought they were going to drown. Because there's one thing about it, when you get enough water in the boat, you can't keep it afloat. It's going down. That's what they thought. They didn't know what in the world are we going to do.

And then they said, verse 38, but he was in the stern, which is the back, right Jeff? The aft of the boat. Different opposite of the bow. Okay, so he was in the back of the boat. He didn't have a picture of the boat. Christ was in the back sleeping. And I'm sure they were all at the front. Yes, here. Of course, that's a rowboat. They don't have a sail. But yeah, they're like, what are we going to do? And I love how they put that then, because they said he was in the stern asleep on a pillow. I don't know if it was one of those My Pillow things or whatever is supposed to make you. Feather, a goose down. Have you ever had one of those? Goose. Used to have one when I was a kid. Someone had one. How you sleep like a baby. Well, Christ, he wasn't worried. He was sleeping. And this is what they had to say. Teacher! Do you not care that we are perishing? Do you not care that we are perishing? That's about as blasphemous of words as we can ever say to God. Think about that. And how many times we may not have said it, but we thought it. Is he just going to let me do this? Is he just going to let me laugh? Is he going to let me have to go through this? Where are you? He doesn't want anyone perishing. Do you not care that we are perishing? It also tells us the story about the boat. Okay? When we're on our boat and we think we need a bigger boat, God's in the boat. You don't have to worry about that. He said he'd be with us. He'd never leave us nor forsake us. But they learned something real quick here because he was on one end of the boat and they were on the other. Well, this is a story we learned. When our boat, when we start having rough seas, get to where Christ is at. Get closer to Christ, not farther away. We must get closer to Christ, closer to God. He's going to rescue us. Nothing else is. He's going to save us. No one else is. Then he arose in verse 39. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace! Be still. Be still. Why? Because the disciples were so scared. They were about to jump ship. You ever heard the phrase, rats on a ship? You want all the ship to sink each other? Look to see where the rats. Well, this was, they were ready to abandon him. They were so scared. But then they got their right minds and went and asked him for help. What a lesson to us because I've sometimes gone when I have problems and issues. God didn't want to hear. He didn't answer those. And so what happens to me? I'm not as close to God as I need to be. I went to the other end of the boat. How about you? It's something for us to really, really think about. That's why this story is such an incredible story because it's for us. Because every year, especially around this time, there seems to be storms that come up. If you've been around the truth long enough, you realize, uh-oh, what time is it? Oh, it's a spring. Oh, it's the fall. Things are going to happen. And that's the time we need to be closer to God. Definitely the time we need to be closer to God. So he said, peace be still, and the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Wasn't just like, oh, there's some waves here. No, it went dead. It went... He had total control. And he stopped it all. Wouldn't that freak you out if you were on that boat? And really, really think about it.

Who would have gone to? Who would have gone to? Christ first. I mean, you know the story. You had at least 11 of the disciples on. If Matthew wasn't one of the last ones that got on board with the discipleship. You had 11 on there. Who always ran his mouth first? Yes. Don't you think he would have been the one saying, are you going to let us perish? We're going to drown out here. It would have been Peter, the one telling this story. Now, the one who has this alpha male type thing. Are we fearful?

Are we fearful in tests and trials? Is that something that comes up? Well, yeah, I probably need to do that, but I don't know if that's going to turn out. And do we sometimes want to bail bail out on God? Well, I thought you were going to take care of this, so I guess I got to go do it. Then we find out we make a mess of things. Or we just cry out we need a bigger boat. Because we're looking at the physical. So do you look to physical solutions when you need to be looking for spiritual ones? See, because God controls both the physical and the spiritual. It's nothing for Him. That's like we heard in a song. He can move mountains. He says we could move mountains, but we lack what? Faith to do it. Because we haven't set our minds up there enough. So we must seek God first. And it's easy because He's right here. He's right here. Did four of those guys, those disciples, they were experienced fishermen. That's what they did for a living. We know Andrew did. We know Peter did. We knew James did. We knew John did. The brothers, right? Sons of Thunder. You ever know what their name was? What their father's name was? What was it? Zebedee. Right? Do you ever know what Peter's father's name was? Peter and Andrew's father. He called him Simon Bar-Jonah, son of Jonah. And they gave the name usually of Jonah at that time, which we would reference as John. But you would use Jonah because they were a lot of fishermen. Isn't that funny? Jonah was the last one who'd really want to be a fisherman. So there's a good chance they believe that Peter and Andrew grew up. And Andrew grew up fishing like his father taught him.

So here these men were, they were concerned.

Just like we would be. Unless we get closer to God, we're going to be concerned and worried about things time and time and time again. So let me finish this sermon up. Verse 40. He said to them, Why are you so fearful? How many times has he asked you that by the Spirit? How many times are you going to ask you in the future? Why are you so fearful? You've got all these angels and you've got me. And yet, you're afraid to go do something.

Verse 40. So he said to them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? So rather than that, something that we can work on. You want to have less fear? Have more faith. You want to have more fear? Have less faith. It's that simple. We either believe in God, believe what he says, and believe he can do what he says he'll do. Or what? Or say, No. No. No, I don't believe you. I just worry about this myself. And we do. And we do worry about it. Verse 41. And it said, Then the disciples feared exceedingly, and said to one, Who can this be? Wait a minute. Who can this be? That even the wind and the sea obey him? They feared the right thing. They were in awe of the right thing now, is the power of God. They learned, hopefully, to get rid of the fear, not being with God, and be in awe, in reverence of the power that was with them, and the power that's with Jesus Christ. That is our great lesson. The spring holy days will suddenly be here. With them come tests and trials. Forces that test our faith, they will come. If you don't have them now, you will have them. Okay? You can either fear those, or you can have the faith. See them through. God leaves entirely up to you. He desires us to be faithful. Because, you see, opportunities to show our faith is what it's all about. And as I said this morning, faith that's not tested is not really faith. You don't know what you can accomplish till you try to accomplish it. You don't know that you fail until you fail. You don't know that you succeed until you succeed. God wants to see, and he looks at those opportunities for us. And he wants to see, do we have the faith? God doesn't have to put us on a boat. He can see right now. He can see on this land. Maybe it's a financial issue. You're going to trust him? Maybe it's a health issue. We've had some people here. This congregation with health problems had to put their faith in God. I had my own that I had to put my faith in God. Had a good nurse sitting over there who helped me through it. But when a doctor tells you you've got 12, 16 months to live, after you had the cancer removed, and that's all you're going to live, okay, you have to make a decision. I had to. And that's almost four years ago now. It's up there. It didn't come from me. You can see I don't keep myself in that good a shape. And everybody knows if you see me eat, I'm not eating your greens like you guys do. I think you could eat greens every day.

In my own mind, there's something sick about that. But I'm not going to go into that because that works for you and you're in great shape. But these are the things I want to bring out because why? Why? We have to look forward to our faith being tested. And we've all gone through a financial crisis before, and we're going, how are we ever going to get through this? But when we're through it, we're going, wow, it wasn't as devastating as I thought it would be.

We have a chance to prove we don't need a bigger boat. Will you prove that? Will you prove that to God? Because that's what he'd like to see. Because we have God to care for us, no matter what size your boat. He can fit in it. He can be that there with you. The disciples found this out 1,990-something years ago. When will we? When will we become so faithful, so fearless that our life and how we look at life totally changes? Let's let God calm our seas of life and enjoy, brethren, the tranquility that is only and can only be in Christ. Let that describe our life. Let that describe what we are like inside and outside. Because if you have this, you're never, ever going to need a bigger boat.