80 Miles with a Big God

We live in a day where many folks have shrunken God down to man's size and placed him on the same level of man. But my Bible says in Isaiah, For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabited the eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place. I believe in a God who's high and lifted up.

I believe in a God who still works miracles today. And that's the kind of God I want to look at today, friends, in our passage of Scripture. Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew.

We will be in chapter 14, beginning in verse 23. Here now is the Word of God. And may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word.

And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain apart to pray. Let me pause here, friends, to say, Have you ever noticed how often Jesus got alone to pray? It was as if He couldn't wait to talk to His Father in Heaven. He lived in continuous communication with His Father in Heaven.

I think we can learn a lot from that. Picture Jesus up there on that mountain, which overlooked the Sea of Galilee. He's watching a little boat down there, and it's getting dark, and the boat isn't making much progress.

He knows who is in the boat, and He knows each of its passengers intimately. He knows their hopes and fears, their cares and concerns. He knows them inside and out.

He knows them better than they know themselves. And He's watching them while He's talking to His Father. Jesus spent the whole night in prayer up on that mountain, talking to God, while His disciples were struggling out on the water, for a tempest had come up and the wind was contrary.

The geography and topography of the Sea of Galilee makes it subject to sudden violent storms, while you can be out on a boat and all is calm, when out of nowhere the waves begin to curl and rise and white cap, and even fill your boat with water. One time Jesus was in the boat with His disciples, and He was plum worn out and taking a nap below, when one of these bad storms suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and it was so sudden and violent, it made the seas and fishermen aboard so fearful for their lives, that the wind woke up Jesus. Well, our text says, But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary.

The storm was so bad, friends, that the little boat literally made no progress. Out on the choppy water the men rowed and rowed, and they barely moved at all. And this went on until early in the morning, around three o'clock in the morning, because our text says, In the fourth watch of the night.

The Romans divided the evening into four time periods called watches, and the fourth watch was between the hours of three a.m. and six a.m. So the little boat, with its troubled passengers, had been in a conflict for a while, and the men are worn out, they're afraid, they're at their wits' end. Then they see something that's so terrible and frightful, that these grown men begin to scream out in fear like little girls, What do they see? They see a figure of a man doing the impossible. He's walking on the water.

They think it's a spirit. And it is here, friends, that many preachers grab hold of the wrong end of this text, and they miss, in my opinion, the most important aspect of this striking passage of Scripture. Most ministers will focus their message on Peter, and his lack of faith, how he began well, stepping out of the boat, onto the water, and then he took his eyes off of Jesus, and he began to sink, and then Jesus reached out and saved him.

And the thrust of their message is, as believers, we're not to take our eyes off of Jesus, or we will sink too. We'll sink into sin. And that's a great message, but that misses the main point here.

And the main point is much more fantastic than that. The point is this. Jesus is working a supernatural act by walking on the water because He is a super-duper God who can do super-duper things by His almighty power.

And the focal point of this text should be verses 28 and 29, which are talking about Peter. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it be Thou bid me come unto Thee on the water. And He said, Come.

And I'll pause here, friends, to say this. I bet Jesus was grinning ear to ear over the bold faith of Peter who wanted to leave the safety of the boat and trust his Master and participate with Him in the supernatural. And do you know what, friends? Once you get a taste of the supernatural, you don't want to get back into the boat.

You don't want to live in the natural much longer. And the key verse out of the entire passage on faith is verse 29 in the words, And when Peter was come out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. I will stop there.

Do you get it? Peter walked on the water. It doesn't matter how long or how far he walked on the water because he's a mortal man and not God like Jesus. But the stark, bold fact is, friends, that this is where the emphasis and force of the text should be placed.

It's on the participation of a mortal man with a mighty God. The participation of Peter in the supernatural. He did what no man ever did or ever did since.

He walked on the water just like the Son of God. And that's where the rubber meets the road, friends, in the life of faith. Yes, Jesus said, after the fact, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Meaning, you never would have sunk if all you had to do was just hang on to your faith.

I believe all things are possible with God. I believe all things are possible to those who believe because my Bible tells me so. And I believe in a super-duper God who can still move in super-duper ways in my life, in your life, friend, if you'll only believe.

Let me share a story with you about this super-duper God. I had to be in a meeting and it was an hour away from where I lived. And like always, I was dead broke with only $5 in my wallet.

And my car was sitting right at empty. The gas needle was touching the red line. And I knew that $5 wasn't going to get me enough gas to get me to my meeting an hour away.

I had about a gallon of gas in my tank and one gallon only gets you about 22 miles worth of driving. I had to drive at least 40 to 60 miles there and back. I mean 40 miles there and 40 miles back, which is about 80 miles total.

Which means after 22 miles, my car would stop running and I'd be out of gas on the side of the road. But I had to get to that meeting, so I trusted God and I started driving. Halfway there, I noticed an odd thing happening.

My gas needle hadn't moved at all. I kept driving and driving and staring at my gas needle and it never budged an inch. Well, I made it to my meeting and I got back in my car and I started my drive back home.

And halfway back, I was still amazed that my gas needle seemed frozen. It was not moving at all. I pulled up into my driveway and began to shout praises unto God for working the supernatural by allowing me to get to my meeting without the oil in the cruise diminishing at all.

And to prove my point that my needle wasn't broken, I drove round and round the block and immediately I watched that needle move all the way down to the deep red zone where I finally stopped at a gas station and used that last $5 to buy me a gallon of gas which would buy me another 22 miles. My point is this, friend. God is looking for faith.

God is looking for the man or woman who will prove Him by their faith. 2 Chronicles 16.9 was D.L. Moody's favorite Bible verse and he leaned on that verse all his life because God made it a reality in his life. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.

Vance Havner said, If we serve such a dynamite God, how come so many of us are living firecracker lives? Listen, friends. I don't believe the Holy Spirit stopped working after the last page of the book of Acts. I believe God still works today and He moves in miraculous ways.

I wouldn't be here talking to you now, friends, if God hadn't kept me safe through a quadruple bypass surgery that a team of expert doctors were hesitant to do because the percentages were high. I wouldn't survive it. I believe in a dynamite, super-duper God who does super-duper things and who's looking right now all over His creation for the person who's willing to step out on a limb for Him so He can take that person, that person's faith, and bring that person into a supernatural experience of Him for His glory.

I once knew a minister on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland and he knew Duncan Campbell pretty well. And he was out of that Lewis revival. He'd come through that revival experience.

He was one of the people on the island that were converted from that time of God moving on that island onto the preaching of Duncan Campbell. And I asked this man to describe to me in one sentence Duncan Campbell. Kind of sum him up.

And he said, Duncan Campbell was an ordinary man who had had an extraordinary experience of God. Is that what you're looking for, friend? That's what I'm looking for. God Himself is looking for someone He can do the impossible with.

Someone He can work the impossible through. I believe if you're on the mission field and you've got the right kind of faith, you can see God do all things because all things are possible with God. I believe if you're a pastor who's discouraged and downhearted and downcast that God can get ahold of you and turn your whole ministry around, He can turn you upside down if you only believe in Him.

Friend, you've got to expect Him to work through you and do His work the supernatural way. And you can just look and stare at your Bible and by faith expect Him to step out of the pages of your Bible and enter your life and take you on the ride of your life. How bad do you want to experience Him?