Careful What You Pray For

For those of you that are new, I know we've got multiple faces that are new. I'm Pastor Phil. It's only by the grace of God that I stand here today and have this opportunity. I was a resident of our ho-foam a few years back, and God has just really graced me and given me love to be able to really walk out of plan that he had for me.

I by no means could have done on my earned strength or will. So I wanna welcome all the new faces. As Pastor Fred said, we love you guys, and you are truly family to us. And the message that I have for you guys today, I just wanna, that God truly laid on my heart.

He showed me a lot of things with it. Typically when I get up here, I'm super nervous that I don't have enough to say. And I feel like today that I have too much to say, and God's rolling all these crazy thoughts in my head. So if I get to Babylon, you guys can take it as that, or you can just believe that I'm prophesying in tongues, and you can interpret it however you would like to.

Amen, amen. Yeah, thank God the microphone. So I've entitled this message today of careful what you pray for. And then what you take, what I'm saying wrong, we'll get into it in a few minutes, but you gotta expect when you pray for things that you'll receive it, and you have to be prepared to receive it.

Super important, where this comes from is out of Matthew 14, a very famous story that most of you probably know it is Jesus and Peter. They get the opportunity to walk on water. And what I'm understanding is the only place that it's ever spoken of is these two doing it. So it's gonna be Matthew 14 verses 22 through 33.

Let's go ahead and read down through it. Says immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

But the boat by this time was a long way from land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it's a ghost. And they cried out in fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart, it is I do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, come, your Peter got out of the boat and walk on water on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid.

And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, oh you of little faith, why did you die? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him saying, truly you are the Son of God. Truly the Son of God.

Let's go. Let's go ahead and pray for this message. Father God, I'll tell you thank you right now. Thank you for this congregation.

I thank you for this time. Once and importantly, I thank you for your word. I thank you for your love. And I thank you for your sacrifice for us to have what we have today.

God, as this message takes place, ask that it be your spirit that moves through us, Father God, allow it to be only your words that are spoken God with revelation in the scriptures that you have given us. God, allow the hearts and minds here to receive it and hear what it is that they need to hear within their walk and their life God. Place it on their hearts to take this word with them and be in encouragement to continue with you. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

So we're gonna start with that right in verse 22. And it said immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him, before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. I wanna kind of give you the backstory of how Jesus got into this situation right here and why it's unfolding in the way that it did. So if you drop all the way back to the beginning of chapter 14 in verses one through 13, John the Baptist had just been beheaded.

Being a family member of Jesus, and Jesus after he had gotten the news of John being beheaded, he was on his way to a learn place where he could pray. In the midst of that travel though, we're gonna send a verse 14, but we're told that he's going, 13, he's telling us that he's going to pray. It says this to us now, when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the town.

So gonna tell you that his family member was just murdered and Jesus is weeping over this. And he's wanting his way to pray about the circumstance. He wants away from the crowds, he wants away from the people. But in the midst of getting to where he's going, 5,000 people stand in his way of getting to where he wants to be, where he's headed to.

What's pape this into the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. He starts teaching them and in the midst of teaching them, the disciples say, so we should send them away so that they can eat and Jesus is like, what do we have? He takes the loaves and the fish and he makes it into a, a multiplying and he feeds the 5,000. But at the very end of that, why Jesus says immediately, he put them into the boat, if we drop into the same story in a different gospel, it's in John six where this verse is used.

Like I said, it's the exact same story, just a different gospel. It says when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world, receiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king. Jesus withdrew again to the mountainside by himself. I believe that, can you go, Seaman?

We're good. Oh, I believe that the region, Jesus had him immediately go into the boat and depart from there, was because he didn't want them to get the ideas of what the world was perceiving, of forcing him to be king right there. It was not his time. So he needed to have his disciples away from that situation.

He placed them in the boat, sends them out into the Sea of Galilee and he dismisses the crowd and continues on to where he was originally headed to. I want you to understand that sometimes when you're headed to do something, other things get in the way of it. And this is where we fail quite often and we need to take the example of Jesus here. When you are headed to do something, when you are headed to pray, let's use that, you're headed to pray and you're leaving your living room and you're headed to your prayer room and your bedroom and one of the kids wants to see him.

Here's where most of us fall apart and we say, well, I guess it wasn't God's will for me to go pray at this time. No, it is ultimately God's will, but you have to understand that there is other things in life that you must take care of also. There is things in life that God has given you the opportunity to care for and nourish in there, but you're still called to the assignment that God has put on your life. So when you're interrupted by something like this, what do you do?

You take care of the need just like Jesus and then you continue on to where it is God has assigned you or placed on your heart to be. In this we're also seeing that Jesus is headed through verse 23, it tells us this, and after he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When he even came, he was there alone. I know that this is a message that you hear all the time and it's repeated and it's very important that it is repeated.

You must get your alone time with God. It is amazing and it's a great opportunity that we have the opportunity to be able to be here in a congregation and pray together and pray over top of our missionary team and it's great that we have that. We'll talk more here in a moment of why it's so important for you to speak to God alone, to be able to learn his voice, be able to learn how he speaks to you, our mission team, I plead with you guys that throughout this next couple of days before you depart and over the next week while you're on this missionary journey that you get your quiet time with God. Please get your quiet time with God.

There's a lot of times that we fall into this mindset of I just want it to be seen. That is not a personal relationship with Christ. If the only reason I married my wife was to be seen by the public, not really a miracle, the relationship with Christ has not to have personal, intimate moments. And if Jesus himself, God in the flesh, needed that time to learn how much more do you and I need it?

It says in Luke 5, 16 says, but he would withdraw through desolate places, places, and pray. Don't want you to understand that this time of Jesus getting into this alone place is not a one and done situation. We need this consecutively and continually in our life. I like how it says places because some of us get the impression and the idea that I can only be alone with God in my prayer room.

I have to be in this exact position. I have to be in this exact place. This is the only place that I can have my alone time with God. I want you to know something.

Sunday morning, during worship, you can have your alone time with Christ right here. You can have your alone time with Christ sitting in your seat. Your alone time with Christ does not mean exactly like the situation of nobody else around. Yes, it's important that you remove the distractions of the world.

Your alone place with Christ is in your heart. What is your motive and purpose for what it is that you're speaking to Christ? Are you at the altar because you want to see the church? Look at you while you put your hands in the air or are you at the altar because you're saying, God, I just want to be with you.

God, my heart is love for you and to hear your voice. And that is my only purpose for speaking to you right now versus 24 and 25. This is what the boat by this time was a long way from the land beaten by the waves for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea.

I want to explain that this is the Sea of Galilee. Okay. The Sea of Galilee, I did a little bit of research. It's a sea that is about 13 miles by seven miles, not a very extravagantly big body of water.

The fishermen and the disciples that are inside this boat are ones that have been on this many times. But I want you to see that it really stood out to me that these verses here is really one of the greatest depictions of our life today. We are physically separated from Christ. We are battling against the winds and the waves of life.

But where is Christ? He's sitting on the mountainside seeing everything that we're doing. He is watching over us. He is above us.

Now I just thought it was so cool to have that revelation of that. So it said before evening that is when he dismissed the disciples. And then it says that one, the fourth watch is when this place, like I said, this isn't a very big season. You can know you can have an image of how hard this storm was.

It had taken them hours to get to the point in the sea where they are at. A boat today, not a motorized boat, a sailboat, can cross this sea in approximately two hours. I would imagine with their boats, it may have been a little bit more difficult at a little bit of time, three hours before. But still, you can see how much this storm has slowed them down in life to getting to where they're heading to.

Life can feel like this quite often. You can feel like you're on an uphill battle. And in some of the translations, it talks about the wind that it was a headwind. It was coming straight on to them.

So therefore, they had to do the work to row through it. They had to push and persevere through that storm itself to get to where they were. And I want you to know that, yes, life is very much like this. But I would just want you to remember in that of where Christ is in the situation, where Christ is in the circumstance.

He anointed you and he sent you to go across the sea of life. No matter how bad the headwind is, no matter how rough the sea is, God is still sitting there watching over top of you. And if we keep that in the back of our minds, life can be a lot more successful. Because on the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea, never before done.

When you're in your trials, when you're in your tribulations, when you're in your troubles, stop putting a box on top of God that he can only come to you in a certain way. God will show up in your life in any way that he deems necessary or in any way that he physically can to get to you. Jesus could have happened another boat and rode his way one out there. He could have snapped his fingers and been there.

I'm not talking about Jesus as some genie in a bottle kind of style, but I just want you to get the point that Jesus can come to you in any way that he wants to. A lot of us are failing in the storm of our life because we can't accept that Jesus is walking on the water towards me. And we want to so easily dismiss how it is that Christ can come to us. So next time that you're in a hard situation, next time there's an issue in your life that you feel like you're in a storm and that you're battling, open your heart and your mind to how Christ can come into that situation.

Now, I want you to know that also, he does calm this storm eventually. He could have sat on the mountainside and calmed that storm. There was a lesson that he wanted the disciples to learn coming into that. We need to understand that Christ is not always going to remove the storm out of our life, but Christ will be in the storm with you.

The first 26th when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, it's a ghost. And they cried out in fear. Sometimes we're going to get scared of how God enters our circumstance. We're going to be terrified by the way it is that God is going to handle this storm.

I think about this. You're in the middle of a devastating storm that you've been rowing against all night long. You're tired and a more fearful thing comes into the situation. A lot of us will run right there.

A lot of us will abandon ship and go ahead and drown because of fear. Again, God will enter in many ways. Are you willing to accept it? But it says that they cried out from what I am to understand of what they are crying out to right there is God himself.

Yes, it is. It is. They're fearful of the things of the world, but crying out to Christ. It's OK to be fearful of the things of the world.

I just talked to the Hearns the other day about this, that God gave you fear. That gave you these feelings, happiness, joy, fear, sadness, all of these kind of things for a reason. Yes, I know the Bible tells us I believe it's like 365 times to fear not. But he's talking about fear of physically fearing him in those from what I understand.

God gave you fear and these emotions to be a part of your life to keep you from doing dumb things. God gave them to you for situational awareness. Fear of a hungry lion is much different than fear of God. I'm not staying near the lion.

God, I can stay next to you in my fear. They're crying out to him. They're on the boat and crying out like God, we need you to save us. We need you to do something about this circumstance.

But immediately, immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, take heart. It is I do not be afraid. When God is walking into your situation that you are crying out for him to be a part of, and you don't see it as the way it's happening, and you're fearful of the way that your situation is unfolding or taking place, God will let you know whether it's him walking into the situation or something that you need to run from. I told you just a moment ago that it's important that you know the voice of God.

The disciples, the question is, especially Peter, but I believe when Jesus is saying, take heart, it is I, he's trying to remind them of what they already know from scripture. Isaiah 43, two, another famous verse. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. And the flame shall not consume you. Nowhere in God's word, do I find it safe, you will never be in the storm. Nowhere in God's word, does it ever say that things won't get a little heated up and life will be peachy and unicorns and rainbows and things?

God tells you that I will be there with you. I don't, I don't, image in my head when I first came to Christ. Oh, my life's gonna be so great. I'm not gonna have no more problems.

Now reminds you at the time that I came to Christ, I was freshly just walking out of heroin and crack cocaine addiction in a really bad place in life. So yes, the things that I was inviting God into ultimately left my life, what that didn't mean that I was going to have no more troubles in my life. When I took Christ into the addiction situation and the marital situation and the homelessness and all the things that I was in, they didn't end like that. There was still work that I had to do to get to the place of where I am today.

And there is still work from here that I need to do to get to where he wants me to go to. But I want to use that to encourage any of you guys that are freshly new to Christ or what you will classify as a baby Christian. But I also want to encourage you guys that have been walking with God for several years and been watching God manifest and unfold inside of your life. There's still more work to be done.

There's still more time to put in. Just because you've read the Bible once doesn't mean you don't need to read it again. Jesus is walking on the water. The very thing that the disciples are fearing, I believe that God is giving them a demonstration of what it is that is trying to consume us, what it is that's giving us the problems and trouble in life is the very thing that he's standing on to show up in your life.

Now we got Peter and Peter answered him. Peter was a man that didn't think too much. He spoke really quickly without thinking out what was about to happen. And this is really where the message, the title of this message comes from.

It says in verses 28 and 29, and Peter answered him, Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water. He said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. How many of you all have ever prayed for something without thinking about it?

You get into some places that you really don't want to be inside of. But I want you to see that Peter still has doubt in his mind. If it's really you. And here's the thing, Peter walked with Jesus.

He's your new, Jesus's voice. But he still said, if it's you, tell me to do this. There is nothing wrong with verifying what you're hearing is the voice of Christ. It is okay to have a little bit of skepticism in you.

But when you realize that it's Christ, immediately get out of the boat. So Peter has a little bit of doubt there. It's over, John 14 says, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. And this is another one of those that has proved that whatever you ask for in listening to Jesus, listening to God, following God, whatever you ask for will be done.

And God's displaying that to Peter right here. Whatever you ask of me, it'll be yours. So Peter asks me about the truth and he immediately asked, immediately asked. I know my life will fail at that sometimes.

That's okay. I just want to encourage you guys with that scripture itself that when you hear the voice of God to act upon the situation, how many times I sit with people that say, well I know God's saying this and then they use the famous word that I hate so much. But, but, and it's actually in these verses of where Peter really jacks things up. Take a word but out of your book, Gabular.

The word, the word but makes everything previous to the statement that you're making obsolete. Fred, I really like your shirt today, but the color of it. You just took the greatness of the shirt and threw it away. It's no good.

Seriously, think about that word itself. I told you Peter didn't hesitate. He got what he asked for. He got out of the boat immediately and he walked on water to Jesus.

He was doing it. Exactly what he had asked for. He was doing it. I'm telling you to be careful what he prayed for because of this.

Verse 30. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out. Lord saves me. First word in that verse is but.

I'm doing it right now, but I took my eyes off of Christ. Therefore what I was doing is now obsolete. Peter, we ultimately know why Peter sank here. And I want to stress this in your life.

He took his eyes off of Jesus. The very thing that was glorifying him in the situation. The very thing that was giving him the authority to do it is what he took his eyes off of. If I want to walk to the sound booth, I come down up the stage staring at it, but then I close my eyes to try to finish getting to it.

I've got a chance. There's clear power, but there's nothing that's truly navigating me to where I'm headed to. You pray to God for something and you begin to do it. Not just don't look at all the things around you.

Don't get proud of most of the situation. Could you imagine what would happen to Peter if he hopped down out of the boat, turned back around. Guys, look at what I'm doing and he's jumping up down on the water because he's so worried about look at what I'm doing compared to look at where I'm going. He got scared of the very thing that he was praying for.

So it wasn't like Peter didn't know that the storm was there. Peter was very aware of the waves that were going on. He'd been battling it all night. He was very aware of how rough the sea was and he prayed to walk on that very thing, but he allowed that very thing to consume him.

Often we pray for something. We pray for our marriage to be repaired. We pray for our child to come out of addiction, whatever it may be that you're going through in your life. But then you allow that very thing that you wanted to be the very thing that syncs you.

Knowledge of the world is very dangerous too. Common sense tells us that you can't walk on water. Common sense. The laws of physics.

Tell us that you can't do it. We'll take the word of the world over the word of God. Well the world says that I can't do that. You know what?

Statistically the world told me I'd be a drug addict for the rest of my life. If I walk around proclaiming myself to be a drug addict, then I'm very, the very thing that I'm saying that I'm trying to come out of. The law of God tells me that I am renewed. I am a new man in Christ.

Stop allowing the world to tell you what you can and can't do. And listening to what God says you can't intend to do. Start listening to the place that God has placed you in. The very boat that you've been called out of because you pray to be there is the very thing that you should keep your eyes focused on.

So as you begin to sink, you cried out. I've watched a lot of people completely sink in their life for the very thing that they pray to get out of for one reason. When they begin to sink, they take it upon themselves to get out of the situation. It is okay to start to fall or something.

It's okay to start to sink or something. I'm not proclaiming that that's what you need to do to experience Christ. But I want to tell you guys today that when things start to get a little hairy in the situation for the very thing that Christ has called you to, it's okay to rely on God's strength to pull you back out of you. It's okay to say the word God I'm failing at what you called me to do.

God, I need you to help me in the situation of what it is I came into for you. As a pastor, if I take my eyes off of Christ, I'll sink right away. But in the moment that my old will starts to come up and I become selfish or boastful or anything in the situation, God has made me very aware that it's very okay to say I still need your help in this area. I still need you to grab a hold of me and pull me out of this very thing that I'm sinking in.

There is no chance of redemptive power. There is no chance of a miracle in your life. You don't rely solely on Christ to pull you back out. There is a boat full of people directly behind Peter.

If he would have turned around instead to them, I need a life preserver. I need you to throw me a rope. I need you to get me out of this circumstance. The ending of this story could end very differently.

It is okay to have the people that are with you in the boat to help you in a situation. What's your first instinct when something is wrong needs to be the occurrence of Christ. Christ could have very well had the people behind him to row out the rope for him to grab a hold of Christ. Christ could reach down and pick him up himself.

Be open to whichever way it is that God is trying to restore you in your life. But I really truly want to stress the point of real life first on Christ to pull you out of what it is that you are sinking in. I've sat with a lot of people that we have an issue in their life. I'll turn to my counselor.

I plead him with my mom to give me help. I just have to remind those people. Where have you placed God in a situation? Have you asked God for the help in it?

Have you cried out to Christ? I tell you again it's okay. I can't stress this enough. It is okay to stay on family.

It is okay to say I'm sinking. What's not okay is to say I died because of it. What's the saying that I hear all the time of? It doesn't matter how many times you fall.

What's the rest of it? How many times you get up? As long as I get up one more time than what I've failed, I'm good. I'm in the right direction.

Christ knows that you're going to fail him. Christ knows that you're going to fall short of walking in the perfect glory of him. What's so amazing is he's still willing to stand right there on the water and pick you back out of it. Time after time after time.

Peter goes back again. What's even greater is how he does pick up Peter. He doesn't say before he saves him. He doesn't say to him.

Why'd you doubt me? He doesn't say to him. Well, you was walking on the water and you started to sink because you took your eyes off me. You're just saying, he saves him.

You want to understand that God is going to correct you in the situation. He's going to let you know that you was wrong in taking your eyes off him. He's going to let you know why you began to sink. So correction is not a bad thing.

Information of where you were wrong in the situation is not a bad thing. A lot of people when they do get corrected, what do they do? Well, they slap the hand of Jesus. I mean, if you're going to be that way, I'm taking my ball and going home.

Then when you're sinking the situation, Christ, I believe will still save you. It's going to be a little bit tougher on you. It's going to be a little bit harder in your situation. But again, I say to you, call out to Christ in this moment.

Ask for God's saving grace over the top of your life for 31. Because Jesus immediately reached out his hand, took hold of him, saying to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Why did you doubt? First thing I want you to see there is we already kind of talked about it, but immediately Jesus grabbed ahold of him.

You'll hear the things that are weighed on the Lord. It's a waiting process that takes some life. But you know what Christ is really waiting on? You to cry after him.

You to step out of the boat. Most of the waiting process that you have in your life is your own selfishness. I can do this on my own. I don't need Jesus to help.

I don't need God in the situation. Look at me, I can swim. I want to stress again a quick one or a second ago of Jesus did not condemn Peter. And that word immediately tells us that this is truly a hot topic of when you cry out to Christ, yes, he will be there.

But that doesn't mean that the situation is over, that it's not looked upon no more. When he immediately reached out, I've heard a lot of people say in these verses here that, well, Peter had to reach back to Christ. I don't see that in Scripture anywhere. I don't see Peter saying, I put my hands up in the air and then I cried out to Christ.

No, he spoke to Jesus and Jesus did what? reached out to him and pulled him out of the situation. So don't think that you're life, that you have to have something special in your life, that you have to do it a certain way or you have to be reaching your hands up towards God, then speak to him before he'll grab ahold of you. Don't get this image in your head that you have to grab ahold of Jesus and climb up him for him to save you.

What does it say? Anything that you ask for in my name. Again, I don't see it saying, if you do your works, then I'll give it to you. Just ask for it in my name.

Take your mouth and speak the words to me and I will do it for you. Just don't know why did you doubt? Why did you doubt? God has been speaking these words to me for some time because I promise you, you know, Fred talked about it that I'm over here pacing in that.

I'll be honest, I'll be transparent with you God because there's a whole lot of doubt in me sometimes that you can't do this. You don't have to curse. You don't have to correct. You're not educated enough to speak to the people of the congregation.

You know what that is? That's lies of the enemy causing doubt in my life. But then God reminds me, you've been doing this for almost two years. Why can't you do it today?

And I say that to you guys too, that it's lies of the enemy. You're doing it. You're walking with Christ. Why do you doubt so much that your walk with Christ is not good enough?

A lot of conversations that I have stored off with. You know, I've been doing this, but I don't think I can do it. Well, again, there's that word, but you just made it all obsolete. But you're doing it.

You're walking on water. Why are you doubting that you can continue to walk on water? Because you listen to the work. Peter seen the waves.

Peter, it priced him in his face or something. He took his eyes off and he doubted that he could do the very thing that he was already doing. That calls you to a business. You start operating the business.

You start doubting that you can do it. Why? Because you're not making the amount of money that you thought you were doing. You're doing the business.

Are you doing it for the glorification of Christ or are you doing it for yourself? Peter was not walking on water to prove to himself he could walk on water. Peter was walking on water because he called out to Christ to come to him. Why do you do what it is that you do?

Why? Because your vast Christ is giving you the authority to be able to do it. Stop allowing the distractions of the world to tell you that you can't do it. That gave me a lesson in this verse here.

And if you look at John 15 5, it says this, I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is that he is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.

You can't walk on water outside of Christ. You can't be successful outside of Christ. I know that there's people in here right now and there's people in line. I'm being successful.

You may be successful in the world. But guess what? That's going to end. That's going to cease.

I want to truly plead with our missionary team for a second. Do not do not do anything on this trip except for keep your eyes on Christ. If you get there and you do the look at me thing, yes, you may impact somebody's life. You may glorify somebody for a moment, but that's going to cease the moment you're not there.

When you're walking those streets, you focus on Jesus and he'll glorify everything around you. When Peter was walking on water, the astonishment of the men that were still inside the boat was great. But it was only great because Christ was allowing it to happen, because Christ was causing the situation. So I plead with you guys that you are a branch of the vine.

You don't bear fruit. You don't. The plant itself utilizes you to bear fruit. You walk on water, you get into the sink.

Jesus saved me. Jesus reached out, picked him up, brought him out of it, put him back in the boat. Walk back to the boat. However they got back in the boat.

He says, when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. When you fully have Christ into the middle of the situation is when the storm will stop. When it will be cared for. It didn't stop as soon as Peter was pulled up and set back on the water.

They said, I'd get back to the boat. I told you that there's still more work to be done. It would walk a little bit more of the storm on top of water. But when Christ was fully into the situation, it's then when the storm itself stopped.

I know a lot of times we say, well I've got Christ in the situation. I placed Christ at the center of it. You made it close to it. You made it close to it.

But as long as you're still on this side of the grave, there's still more to go. There's still more to do. You've got Christ besides you. You're standing on top of water.

You're walking with him. You'll see what the boat moment is when you get to that point. Very last verse that we read and probably the most important besides the keeping your eyes in the right place. And those in the boat worship him.

Saying truly you are the son of God. Anytime God has one of those walk on water moments in your life, you need to worship him. But I want you to see what it says in this verse. It doesn't say Peter to worship them.

It was a part of them. What it says. And those in the boat worship him. Your walk on water moment will be a worship set for somebody near you.

Others will worship Christ in response to you. What's the thing? If you're still out there in the water flopping around at your own willpower, these people are missing a worship moment because you wasn't willing to say Christ saved me. This moment wouldn't have been able to happen if Peter didn't, first of all pray to get out of the boat.

It wouldn't have happened if Christ wouldn't allow him. It wouldn't have happened if Peter didn't cry back out to Christ and say save me. Or you guys stepping out of the boat. Or you guys giving others around you the heart of worship for your actions.

I know you guys know what the butterfly effect is. Butterfly flaps and coins in China cause a hurricane in America. The philosophy behind it. Your walk on water moment will have a butterfly effect.

This story goes on to talk about when they get back to the other side of what took place there. Now this is an accumulated thing of what Christ had been doing the whole time. But I'll guarantee you when they hit that short shot, but everybody in that boat was talking about Peter walking on water. God, I see.

It was so amazing. The storm was going on and Peter stepped outside of the boat. You walked over to Christ on top of the water. What walk on water moments are you missing because you're not crying out to do it?

What walk on water moments are you missing because you're too fearful to get out of the boat? In everything that you do, try out to Christ to lead you in the situation. When you come out of the boat and you're in the situation, keep your eyes on Christ. I was watching a video this week about these verses.

I just want to give you a couple little snippet points that was important about this video. And the first one is peace is not found. Peace is not found in the absence of the storm. Peace is found in Jesus.

When Peter was looking at Jesus, he didn't see the water in the storm around him. He seen Jesus. Faith requires you to step out of the boat. Sometimes you'll like that.

That you're called by by God. That you're going to pray out to something and you must step out of it. The last one I want to give you, there was five of them, but a million or three of them right now. Worship could be our response when we see the power of Christ.

We should go into worship even though we're still wet from the storm. When the worship took place in there, they probably still had some water to bail out of the boat. Everybody was probably soaking wet. Peter was definitely wet when he got back into the boat, but he was still worshiping Christ.