Engaging Christ

I believe Christ sits on a heavenly throne. I believe Christ has all things under submission to him. I believe Christ is acutely interested in the lives of his followers to such a degree that he keeps tabs on us continually and constantly.

I believe that Christ wants each of us to engage him. Allow me to explain, friends. In Matthew's Gospel we have an incredible record of the account where Jesus walked on the water.

But what makes this account so incredibly significant is that we also see a man out on the waves with him. Peter defies gravity and enters a supernatural walk with his master out on those blustery waves. This is a marvel to me because it demonstrates just how big a God we serve and one who can make a mere mortal walk on water.

We all know that Peter soon sank as he took his eyes off of Jesus, but nevertheless, friends, for a time he walked on water. When you have such a close intimacy with Christ and a close love relationship with him, and he allows you to taste the supernatural life, you never want to get back in the boat of the ordinary again. My message is entitled, Engaging Christ, and my text can be found in Matthew's Gospel in chapter 14.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 22 to 33. I want us to look at this familiar passage of scripture with new eyes tonight because we can experience the extraordinary presence of God if we will only engage Christ.

In our passage, we find a storm-tossed band of men rowing relentlessly against a raging sea that is too powerful, too overwhelming for their human efforts. They were wet, they were whipped, and they were dog-tired men at their wits' end, when they see a form out on the waves walking toward their boat, and it scares the daylights out of them. Verse 26 says, And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit, and they cried out for fear.

But something is happening inside of Peter at this moment that is not occurring in the other disciples. Peter is thinking to himself, If that's my master, I want to join him out there on the sea. A work of faith is engaged in Peter's heart, for he really believes that if Jesus would only say the word, he could step out in faith and join them on the waves as well.

This feeling wells up inside of Peter like a rising tidal wave in a reach of such a peak of faith that we hear Peter shout across the waves, O Lord, if it be Thou bid me come unto Thee on the water, and to the great amazement of the disciples in the boat, and to the wandering startlement of Peter, as he steps out, he hears his master say, Come, and the text reads, And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. I will stop there. I bet Christ got a kick out of Peter's bold faith, and he allowed him to participate with him in a walk in the supernatural.

I believe, friends, that if we too engage Christ like that, we can live like few can. Now I'm going to tell you a story, and some of you will think I'm crazy for it. Others of you already think I'm nuts anyhow, so it won't make any difference.

But nevertheless, here it is. I had an important meeting to get to in another county that was 53 miles away, a total of over a hundred miles round trip. I was plum out of money, which seems to be my life lately, and I had no money for gas, not even five dollars to my name.

I knew I had to get to that meeting, and I knew my gas tank would be empty by the time I reached my destination. But I set out anyhow, and I prayed the whole way there. I was engaged in prayer, to such a degree that I had not kept an eye on my gas gauge either way.

When I left, I had 53 miles on my gas gauge. When I got back home later that day, I still had about 30 miles left in my gas tank. I engaged Christ that day, and he did a supernatural work with my gasoline in my car.

He stretched it like the widow's oil. Now you can believe that story or not, but it's true. I saw it with my own eyes, and I drove all over town that evening with the rest of that gas just to prove it.

God is looking for faith from us. Christ is desiring us to engage him. Engage him in prayer for his presence in preaching.

Engage him in prayer for a closer walk with him. Engage him by faith to expand our faith and to allow us to participate with him in his supernatural work in this world full of sinners in need of him. For to engage Christ is to activate something in us.

It activates faith in us that will allow us to experience more of him. God wants you to step out on the water, so to speak, with him, even if you soon will sink. The key is to engage him for a supernatural walk with him.

He's an extraordinary God, friends, who wants to do extraordinary things through us if we will only believe. Let us pray.