Conquering Chaos: Finding Peace in the Storms of Life
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YouTube Chapters
1. [0:00] - Welcome
2. [09:02] - Announcements
3. [12:16] - Outreach Report
4. [13:50] - Offering and Generosity
5. [16:44] - Bible Reading Plan
6. [17:43] - Structure and Boundaries
7. [21:33] - Conquering Chaos
8. [24:38] - Jesus Calls Us into Chaos
9. [30:49] - Feeling Out of Control
10. [32:30] - Stepping Out in Faith
11. [36:59] - Jesus as Our Advocate
12. [40:13] - Challenges in Chaos
13. [48:25] - Limitations of Human Ingenuity
14. [56:47] - Faith Overcomes Fear
15. [01:00:29] - Invitation to Salvation
16. [01:06:16] - Altar Call and Prayer
17. [01:11:25] - Communion
18. [01:15:06] - Final Charge and Dismissal
Summary
The importance of structure and boundaries in parenting was acknowledged, drawing parallels to how God provides order in our lives. Without structure, chaos ensues, and this is true not only for children but for all of us. The story of Jesus walking on water from Matthew 14 was explored, illustrating how Jesus calls us into chaotic situations to test and grow our faith.
Jesus sent His disciples into a stormy sea, a place of chaos and fear, to teach them reliance on Him. This act mirrors God's call to us to step out of our comfort zones and into the unknown, trusting Him to guide us. The sea, often a biblical symbol of chaos, represents the unpredictable and uncontrollable aspects of life. Yet, Jesus walks on this chaos, demonstrating His power over it.
Human ingenuity and our own "boats" of understanding are insufficient to navigate life's storms. True peace and safety come from stepping out in faith, as Peter did when he walked on water. However, Peter's momentary doubt and subsequent sinking remind us that our focus must remain on Jesus, not on the surrounding chaos.
Jesus' actions show that He is always interceding for us, even when He seems distant. His call to step out in faith is a call to experience His supernatural power. The story concludes with Jesus calming the storm, reinforcing that He is the ultimate source of peace and order.
As we face our own chaotic situations, we are encouraged to trust in Jesus, step out of our boats, and keep our eyes fixed on Him. This faith journey is not without its challenges, but it is through these trials that we experience God's miraculous power and grow closer to Him.
Key Takeaways
Structure and Boundaries in Life: Just as children need structure and boundaries to thrive, we too need God's order in our lives. Without it, chaos reigns. God provides us with guidelines and limits not to restrict us but to help us grow and flourish.
Jesus Calls Us into Chaos: Jesus intentionally sends us into chaotic situations to test and strengthen our faith. Like the disciples on the stormy sea, we are often called to step out of our comfort zones and trust in God's guidance, even when it seems risky.
Human Ingenuity is Limited: Our own understanding and abilities can only take us so far. In the face of life's storms, our "boats" of human ingenuity are insufficient. True safety and peace come from stepping out in faith and relying on Jesus.
Faith Overcomes Fear: Peter's experience of walking on water teaches us that faith can enable us to conquer chaos. However, when we take our eyes off Jesus and focus on our problems, we begin to sink. Keeping our focus on Him is crucial.
Jesus is Our Advocate: Even when Jesus seems distant, He is interceding for us. He is our advocate before the Father, praying for our strength and guidance. This assurance should encourage us to step out in faith, knowing that He is always with us.
Conclusion
Facing chaos is an inevitable part of life, but with faith and trust in Jesus, we can navigate through it. By stepping out of our comfort zones and keeping our eyes fixed on Him, we can experience His peace and order amidst the storms.
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And I'm grateful that in our Bible reading plan, if you don't know, we do have a churchwide Bible reading plan. And in the last couple of weeks, we have finally made the switch into the New Testament. If you want to know how long it takes to read the Old Testament, it's about two-thirds of the year. So we made it through the Old Testament, and in our Bible reading plan, we finally arrived into the book of Matthew, and it's always a refreshing experience to get into the story of the Gospels after being in the Old Testament and reading the prophets and the law.
And so we find ourselves in the book of Matthew. God, it's really inspired me about this message this morning. I pray it's a blessing to you.
How many here are parents? Let me see your hands. You're parents, you have children. How many understand this morning that raising and training children requires structure and boundaries? If you've ever tried to remove structure or boundaries or failed to set proper structure and boundaries, what happens as a result? Chaos. You said it. The word is chaos. Chaos.
When children are not given structure and boundaries, they have chaos. And can I tell you, this is necessary for parenting. Actually, children will appreciate when they know what the limits are. They operate best when they know what time is bedtime, what time is time to get ready for bedtime, what time is time to brush your teeth, what time... when they know when properly set expectations.
When they understand expectations and boundaries, it actually helps them. Do you know why? Because children were not made to make decisions. They don't have the experience. They don't have the knowledge. They don't have the wisdom yet. Especially small children, what we're trying to do is in the time that they are incapable of making decisions, we, as parents, have to make decisions for them.
Everybody know what I'm talking about? And so when you go to your four-year-old, and you say to him, I have a great problem. To them, what do you want for dinner tonight? You have made a grave mistake. It's going to be 30 minutes of trying to figure out what to eat. Instead, if you want to give them a choice, you should say, okay, we have pizza or we have chicken nuggets. Which one would you like? Now, that's a decision they can make. I would choose pizza if that was me.
But you say this or that, and they think for a second, and we'll go with this. That's a decision that a child can handle. Don't give your child some open-ended, what do you want to do with your life, right? Children of four, five, six years old, they cannot handle decisions like that.
This is why it's such a crime to, you know, to how people allow their children to make a decision on what kind of gender they want to be when they're four or five. They don't even know what to eat for dinner tonight. And so as parents, we are called to create limits and borders and boundaries for them. Otherwise, chaos will reign.
Everybody say the word chaos. I believe that chaos is part of life. We're going to look at that in just a moment here, why it's an important part of life. Risk-taking sometimes. But chaos left uncontrolled is not good. The job of a good parent is to bring order.
Parents are not prison wardens. They're not supposed to lock down every decision in the same way that God gives us the ability to make some decisions with our life while He retains the ability to be in control of all things. Is that true? Chaos is the natural state of the world. Sometimes that can be exciting or adventurous. But we realize that we cannot build important things that last while we are in chaos.
In other words, you can't build a business if you can't even keep a budget, right? You can't go on to greater things until you establish a foundation of order. And so while chaos, while risk-taking, while those risky behaviors can sometimes feel exhilarating, we can't remain there forever. There has to be a balance of chaos and order.
And it is God, who as our heavenly Father, brings order into our chaos. And I want to preach a message out of the book of Matthew, chapter 14. If you join me there, this is the famous story of Jesus walking on the water, calling His disciples out on the Sea of Galilee. And we're going to find a very powerful illustration of conquering chaos. That's the name of my message this morning, conquering chaos.
Let's read together. Matthew, chapter 14, beginning with verse 22.
Immediately after this, Jesus insisted that His disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake. While He sent the people home, after sending them home, He went up into the hills by Himself to pray. Night fell while He was there alone.
Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble, far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves. About three o'clock in the morning, well, that's not a good time to be on the sea. About three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.
When the disciples saw Him walking on the water, they were terrified, and in their fear, they cried out, it's a ghost. Jesus spoke to them, don't be afraid. Take courage, I am here. Then Peter called to Him, Lord, if it's really You, tell me to come to You, walking on the water.
On the water, yes, come, Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. When he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. Save me, Lord, he shouted. And Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him.
You have so little faith, Jesus said. Why did you doubt? And when they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. The disciples worshipped Him. You really are the Son of God, they exclaimed.
Let's pray. Father, we come once again, thanking You, God, by the blood of Jesus, for Your grace, for Your mercy, for Your forgiveness. Thanking You, Lord, for the opportunity to gather in this house. May this message inspire, convict, draw people closer to You. Help us, Lord, to recognize the chaos of our lives. Lord, to understand You've called us to conquer, to overcome. I'm praying, God, give us faith to believe You for great things.
In this place, we give You glory in Jesus' mighty name. God's people would say, this message is titled, Conquering Chaos.
And I want to begin by looking at Jesus, how He called His followers into chaos. This is very interesting. It was Jesus' idea. It was He who told them to get into the boat and put them out into a dangerous place.
I want to give you a test. I want to give you a test to start this message out. Are you ready? Pop quiz. See if you can finish this sentence without Googling. Are you ready? In the beginning, God... Whoa, pretty good, pretty good. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the very first line of the Bible, one of the most well-known sentences in the English language.
And just following it is verse 2, which is fascinating. The Bible says this, the earth was without form and void. Void. Without form and void. The darkness was on the face of the deep. If you do a deep study into the Hebrew language here, you'll discover that the words that are used to speak, that were translated in English, without form and void, is a very interesting pair of words in Hebrew.
And I'll quote them to you. It sounds like this. Tohu wabohu. They rhyme. Without form and void. Tohu wabohu. Tohu wabohu. And the idea here is much deeper than what we get in the English. It's not just that the earth was formless and empty. That's the wrong picture. When you study the Hebrew, you find that these words are used, especially the word tohu, is used in 20 other places in the Old Testament.
And the idea is a wildness, a wilderness. It's a place that is... It's not just vast emptiness of space. It's describing a place of chaos. Imagine a jungle with no structures, with no path that maybe a helicopter drops you in the middle of a wild jungle. That's the idea of tohu wabohu. It was without form and it was void. It was without structure.
And the idea added to that is that there is water involved. It said, the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And so these ideas of chaos, of wilderness, are joined together with the idea of water in the Bible, and especially seas or oceans.
Now, here in modern-day America, in the West, when we think of water, we think of a vacation, right? We think of, oh, I'm going to go on the cruise or, uh, I'm going to go join the Navy so I can see the seven seas of the world, right? And it's a place of vacation and it's a desirable place where we want to be. We are seeking, right? The most valuable properties are what? Waterfront properties, right? We think of a vacation. We think of some tropical paradise where the sea and the horizon meet and you're sitting in a little chair on the beach.
And that sounds relaxing to us. But from the biblical narrative, when we think as though we were one of the people writing the Bible or we were one of the original audience of God's Word, the idea of the sea was scary. It was frightening. It was a place of uncontrolled chaos.
The ancient world thought about water and especially seas and the wild places of the world much differently than we did in the Bible. And so we think of the sea as a place of uncontrolled chaos. And so we think of the sea as a place of uncontrolled chaos.
When they would think about the sea, they would think about people that they one day waved goodbye to as they went out onto the sea and never saw them again. That the sea was a place where people were consumed. The sea was a place of danger. The sea was a place not just to relax, but a place of great fear. It's a place the Bible describes of chaos. A place of wilderness, void, of structure, a place of chaos.
And what's interesting about our scripture is that Jesus calls His disciples out onto the water. Now we have a beach here. We live in Virginia Beach. And if you've ever been, have you ever been out at the beach in the water? This has happened to me a couple of times. And you feel something brush your leg. And then you're like running back to the beach. I got to get out of here.
I've had that happen. I don't know if it was a dolphin. I don't know if it was a fish. I don't know if it was a shark. I don't even want to know what it was because that's scary. It represents a place of the unknown. It's a place where we don't have control. It's a place where human beings are not supposed to be.
In fact, they say the final frontier of our earth, the only place that is left unexplored are the depths of our ocean. It's just as foreign to us as the depths of the cosmos. There are so many creatures there that we don't even know about still. And it's a place of the unknown. It's a place of uncontrolled chaos.
And what's interesting in our scripture is that Jesus tells them to get in their little rickety fishing boat and go out onto the sea at nighttime. Now that is crazy. We wouldn't even do that today with all of our modern technologies. But here they are. And Jesus says in verse 22, Jesus insisted that His disciples get into the boat and cross over to the other side of the lake.
Now that would be one thing if He says, hey boys, let's go together. I'm coming with you. But in this case, He made the point to send them and He did not get in the boat. He says, you guys go out there. I'm going up to the mountain to pray. I'm going up to the mountain to pray. I'm going up to the mountain to pray. I'm going up to the mountain to pray.
We'll see y'all later. Have you ever felt, have you ever found yourself in a place of chaos? Have you ever felt out of control? Have you ever gotten yourself into a situation that you didn't know how to get out of? That's where the disciples have found themselves, in a place of chaos.
And there are many times that the Lord will lead us into these places. He will ask you to take a risk, to do something. He will ask you to do something uncomfortable. To go out, to step foot into a new arena for His kingdom. This is how the life of faith began.
Think of the father of our faith. His name was Abram. And at the ripe age of 70 plus years old, a man who has everything that the world says you need. He had wealth. He had family. He had culture. He had a job. He had possessions. He had a whole bunch of stuff. He's 70 years old. He's comfortable. He's in a culture where he knows, he understands.
And the Bible says in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1, that the Lord spoke to Abram. And the Lord did not say, hey, Abram, everything's cool. Just chill. What did the Lord say? He said, get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house. Okay, God, no problem. Where are we going? He says, I'll show you when you get there. No plan. No map. No five-year progress map. No goal.
He said, just step out by faith, Abram. Now that is similar to Jesus calling His disciples out to a dangerous sea. And that is so similar to many times in our lives. Jesus will speak to us and lead us to step out into chaotic or uncontrolled places.
Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus is leaving back to heaven. He's going to ascend to His Father and His last words to the church as He rises from the Mount of Olives. In Acts 1, verse 8, He says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is where they were, right? Mount of Olives is right next to Jerusalem. So you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, that place where you are. Then you'll be my witnesses in Judea. That's the larger area, the countryside. It is not just the city, but the whole surrounding region. Then He says in Samaria, you'll be my witnesses in Samaria.
What's that? Samaria is the place where the Jews did not want to travel. In fact, they had a road connecting northern Judea with the northern part of Judea and they were to the southern part of Israel. Samaria was right in the middle, and it was the shortest distance to go through Samaria. But the Jews had a different road that went around instead of through because they didn't like Samaria. They didn't like those people.
That's why the Samaritan woman, it was such a surprise that Jesus even spoke to her. That's why it was such a surprise when Jesus used the illustration of a good Samaritan who healed the man who fell among thieves. And Jesus said, you'll be my witnesses here where you are, Jerusalem, in Judea, the surrounding region and nation, and also Samaria, that place filled with people you don't like, places you don't want to go.
And finally, Jesus said, you'll be my witnesses to the end of the earth, to places you never heard of, to cities and nations and countries and islands with people that you've never encountered, the ends of the earth. That, you know what that sounds like to me? A call into chaos.
We've had the privilege, my wife and I, to be called as missionaries. We were in Bulgaria for four and a half years. Can I tell you that when Pastor Campbell came to me, and the opportunity had been explained to him, he approached us, and he said, have you ever heard of Bulgaria?
And to be completely honest with you, I don't think I had ever heard that word uttered in the English language. I said, what's a Bulgaria? Where is that? And so, he says, well, there's an opportunity. It's a country, Eastern Europe, a former communist nation. There's a church there, and if you're willing to go, we'll be willing to support you.
I had not one single fact in my brain about Bulgaria. And so, we were called upon to make a decision. That was a call out of our comfort zone, out of what was familiar. It was very similar. In my life, it was similar to God calling Abram, get out of your country, the place that's familiar to you. The place where you know how to pay bills.
And going to a place you don't even know anything about. This is the missionary calling, isn't it? And while you may not have the same missionary calling, I do want to tell you, somewhere in your life, God is going to call you to an uncontrolled, chaotic, risky place. Maybe it's into a new job. Maybe it's into parenthood. Maybe it's into marriage. God will call you into a ministry that you never expected.
There are many areas, there are many seas, many chaotic places, risky places that God will send us into. And many times, when we find ourselves there, we seem to be separated from Him. Verse 23 says, after sending them home, the other people, He said, He went up into the hills by Himself to pray.
So, Jesus is not bodily with us. He's not physically with us. He's not physically with them. He's not with them in a physical sense. But as Jesus goes to the hills, He begins to pray. I want to tell you, Jesus is still praying for you. If you find yourself in a chaotic situation this morning, don't suppose that you are completely left alone.
Because we have an advocate with the Father. 1 John 2, verse 1 says, my little children, these things I write to you, so you may not sin. And if anyone sins, listen, we have an advocate. Say the word advocate. With the Father. Who is that? Jesus Christ, the righteous.
You know, it's important in life to have a good Jewish lawyer. That's who Jesus is. He is our advocate before the Father. He stands on your behalf. If you are in His will, He will be praying for you. Listen, 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus.
Jesus exists today. His present ministry between the time of the cross until the time He returns, His primary role, His primary mission, His primary ministry is to advocate on behalf of His church to the Father. He's praying for us. Hebrews 7, verse 24. But He, Jesus, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood.
Therefore, He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercessions for them. Jesus was praying for them, even though He wasn't in the boat. You know, that's just a picture of what it's been like for the church for the last 2,000 years. We don't see Him. We can't speak to Him, to His face. We can't, you know, give Him a handshake or a hug.
But I want to tell you, just like these disciples in the boat on the waters of chaos, Jesus is up on the hill. He can't see them, but He's praying for them. Just remember that. In the moments of chaos, in the moments of difficulty, in the moments where you can't predict how your situation is going to end, there is a Savior. There's an advocate who's pleading on your behalf to the Father.
And it's here in chaos, in the tohu wabohu places of our lives, where we find complications. Jesus will call us to adventure. He will call us into exciting things. And they hold great promise. It is true that there's no reward without a risk, right?
This is why people don't start businesses. Because businesses are risky. It requires a large amount of investment and time and effort. And you're not guaranteed to be a success. So it's a lot easier to, you know, go find a corporate cubicle to do your work in, right? And you get benefits and 40 hours a week and a set schedule.
And not many people want to go into business because it's risky. But if you are successful in it, there's a larger reward that is available. And it's the same with God. We could spend the rest of our lives being comfortable. Just receiving the blessing of God. Just going to church, have a good time, shake a few hands, say a few prayers.
And we could get through our lives and make it to heaven like that. But I believe God calls us into riskier situations. That living for Jesus will, He will purposefully put you out on the lake sometimes. And in that place, there will be complications.
Let's look at these complications. Number one, the disciples felt a period of darkness. It says that as, verse 23, after sending them home, He went up to the hills to pray and night fell while He was there alone. That also means that night fell on those poor disciples out there on the sea. They're rowing. They're trying to get across the lake.
They're hours into this thing. And by the time, it was Jesus who sent them out there. Remember that? They didn't get sent out there at 6 a.m. It was in the evening. The day had already passed and He said, you guys need to go out there right now. He compelled them to do that. He ordered them to do that, even though it was the wrong time.
And darkness fell in that chaotic place. You know, when we find ourselves in these risky steps for God, it is easy for us to lose our sight. When there's a lack of light, there's a lack of clarity. David described what this was like. Psalm 82, verse 5. They do not know, they do not understand. They walk about in darkness. The foundations of the earth are unstable.
When you can't see in the darkness, you can't see in the darkness. When you can't see in the darkness, everything automatically gets more difficult. Is that true? So darkness falls on them. The second thing they find is that they're separated from safety. Matthew 14, verse 24. The disciples were in trouble, say in trouble, and they were far away from land.
They were so far into this journey that even if they said, boys, we're in trouble, we got to go back. The journey back was even farther than the journey forward. They were in trouble. They were in trouble. They were in trouble. They were in trouble.
Have you ever found yourself neck deep in a situation and you don't know how it's going to work out? Maybe financially. The bills with the red ink start showing up. You know what I'm saying? The phone calls from the bill collectors start blowing up your phone. We become separated from safety. What used to be comfortable now becomes difficult.
And if that wasn't enough, then there was a storm. It says a strong wind had risen. And they were fighting heavy waves. This is what happens in chaotic places. When you take a risk, it's risky. And there's a chance that a storm could rise and that it might get harder before it gets better.
And I want to tell you, people come to church on Sunday morning and we can put on a certain view to other people, but often we're in over our heads in many situations. Maybe in your marriage this morning, your family. There's a relationship that's strained. You don't know how to get out of it. You don't know how to handle it. You don't know how to make it better.
Finances. We can get over our heads. Our children. Training children is hard, man. Teenagers can be difficult. Not my teenager, but other teenagers. Ministry. Hey, in the church, working with people can be hard. In your job, in your workplace, you know what? Customers, bosses, fellow workers.
And you find yourself in conflicts and situations where like, is this ever going to get better? And the winds and the waves are beating against this boat. Remember, it was Jesus who told them to go out there. It was Jesus who said, you guys, at this time, when the sun is going down, when the storm is coming, I'm going to send you out there at this moment.
And they are in the boat facing a storm. And it shows us that there are going to be inevitable challenges as we face a life with Jesus. We just got back from our missions trip a couple of weeks ago. Our missions team, we had eight of us. We went to St. Lucia. It's an island in the Caribbean. So that sounds pretty nice.
And yeah, there are some nice things there. But you know, being a missionary, and if you were on the trip, you saw it. If being a missionary and actually living your life, you saw it. There's a lot of challenges related to that. There's a lot of things they've had to adjust their lifestyle. There's challenges.
Yeah, it's exciting, right, to go to conference and to hear the announcement, going into St. Lucia. Heath and Renee Flitcroft, everybody, yeah, everybody cheers. It's exciting. A call out to the water. But then they get out there. And they've lived there for two and a half years. And there's a lot of complications.
And now he's having to deal with the government officials to try to get a visa. And it's taken him six months. When we were there, he told me, yeah, they lost all of our paperwork. Have to do it all over again. Have to start from scratch. And in the meantime, they're threatening him. If you don't get this right, we have to send you out of the country.
While he's trying to build a church, while he's trying to do something for God, right, while he's trying to keep his family, and there's real challenges that come by following Jesus. Now there's a temptation in the challenge, in the midst of the storm. And that is that we rely on the boat alone.
This is a great mistake. Now remember, it's 12 disciples, no Jesus. He's up on the hill praying for them. The only thing that's keeping them alive in this moment is their rickety little fishing boat. Now let me ask you something. Who built that boat? Some guy, right? They probably, somewhere a fisherman.
It could have been Peter, Andrew. I don't know. They had some fishermen in the crew. Might have been their boat. We don't know for sure. But at the end of the day, this boat did not come down from a cloud from heaven. This boat was built by the hands of men.
We know how to make boats. These guys know how to make a boat, how to maintain a boat. They know that, you know, you have to build it in a certain way. You have to have this kind of wood. You have to seal it up tight. You have to have some little holes where the oars will rest. You have to have a keel that goes down the center. You have to have some seats.
We have been, as a species, as human beings, we have been making boats for thousands and thousands of years. They know how to make a boat. The problem is that in this situation, their boat is not good enough.
Have you discovered the limitations of human ingenuity? See, when we get out on the, and when we find ourselves in the midst of chaos, the mistake is, it's gonna be okay. I know how to handle this. I've got my little fishing boat. You'll discover very quickly that your boat is not enough to save you.
Your intelligence is not enough to get you through. Your education is not enough. Your human experience is not enough. Your human relationships are not enough. Your intelligence is not enough. Your human relationships are not enough. Your human ingenuity, your ideas, we will bump up against challenges that all of our preparation is not enough to get us to the other side of that lake.
Because this storm was stronger than their boat. And if their trust was in that piece of wood, if their trust was in the maker of that piece of wood, then they would have drowned. I want to tell you, Jesus not only calls us out into the sea in a time of chaos, but there's going to be a time when He asks us to step out of that comfort.
To step out of our own experience. To step out of our own wisdom. Our ingenuity is not enough. See, God made man in His image, but He made us with limitations. Even from the beginning, we had limitations. Adam and Eve, they were made in God's image. They were without sin. They lived in a perfect existence.
And yet, God limited them. He said, of all the trees, Genesis 2, verse 16, you may freely eat from every tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, this is my tree. Don't touch my tree. Don't touch its fruit. And God said, this is the one limitation that you have as my created beings.
And man could not even handle that limitation, right? They came up with the idea. It was inspired by the enemy. Eve was beguiled because what did he tell her? He said, oh, God's just trying to hurt us. He said, oh, God's just trying to hurt us. He said, oh, God's just trying to ruin your fun. He's holding back from you.
And that one limitation. See, what we try to do is we try to get through our chaotic situations by leaning on our own understanding, by doing a few Google searches, by watching a few YouTube videos. Oh, I can make it. We buy a book from the self-help section. We even ask chat GPT these days, right? What does AI have to say?
And you know, we can come up with some interesting answers. But at the end of the day, there are going to be some seas that are too powerful for your boat. Despite being skilled fishermen, they're overwhelmed by the storm. And this shows us that human ability is limited.
If you are relying on your skill, on your wisdom, on your saving account, on your resources, if you're depending on these things, things that you can understand, then you're going to be able to do a lot of things. And if you're going to understand things that you have control over to navigate life's challenges, I want to tell you, you're going to reach a limit of how far they can carry you.
That boat was able to get them into the problem, but not out of the problem. And this is the problem. Have you ever known somebody who thinks too much for their own good? People are pointing at themselves. Some people consider themselves too smart to believe in God.
I often say those are the people who watch the show. I'm not saying they're not smart. I'm saying they're not smart. I'm saying they don't watch too much YouTube. They think too much because they think themselves into the problem, but they can't get out of the problem.
Consider with me as we close the woman with the issue of blood in Luke chapter 8. Now, this woman has a desperate problem. It says, a woman having a flow of blood for 12 years. Think about what that would be like. She's got some kind of hemorrhage, female problems, and she's been bleeding for 12 years.
Now, this is difficult in a Jewish culture where a woman who has that kind of a situation, she is considered by the culture to be unclean. That means she cannot have regular human interactions. She can't go worship at the temple. She can't be with her family. She is ostracized from society. She has to live outside the city for 12 years.
Not only that, but the Bible says she spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed. She's went to every doctor, she's went to every healer, she's went to every place that took her money and failed to bring a satisfactory resolution to her problem.
And this is where we find ourselves often. We've tried everything we knew to try. We did everything we were supposed to do. We did everything right. We did everything I thought I knew. But this woman, having spent all, being desperate, heard about Jesus.
The Bible says she came from behind, touched the border of His garment, and immediately her flow of blood stopped. I want to tell you, where human ingenuity ends is where supernatural power begins. If we want to see the hand of God, we have to get out of the boat.
Peter did not walk on water until he got out of the thing that he understood. And that's where we're going to look, finally, as we close, supernatural solutions. The answer doesn't always come the way that we expect. I love this scripture, verse 25.
Three o'clock in the morning, they're all freaking out. Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. Now, aren't you glad Jesus came walking on the water? In another gospel account, it says that He would have passed them by. He was just out for a stroll. Hey, guys, good luck.
But they cried out to Him, and He turned aside to them. Now, this was very frightening. It would be frightening to you, too, if you were out on the water, thinking you're about to die, and you see somebody walking on the waves. They were terrified. They thought He was a ghost.
But He was the answer to their problem, wasn't He? Often, the answer that we want from God is terrifying at first. Wait, what do you want me to do? What offering do you want me to give? Wait, what place do you want me to go? Often, the answer to our prayers is so far away. Isn't that true?
The kingdom of God is so opposite from our own understanding. Jesus says, if you want to live, you have to die. If you want to be first, you have to be last. This is the paradox of the kingdom. It's not an earthly kingdom. It's a heavenly kingdom, and it's opposite from our own thinking.
It was terrifying. The second thing we see is that it required great faith. Verse 28, Peter called to Him, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water. This was not Jesus' idea. It was Peter's idea. He was so afraid and so desperate that he didn't want to die.
He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. He was so desperate, and so on the edge of himself, he thought, Lord, the only safe place is wherever you are, so help me to get to you. Man, Peter had a lot of flaws, but one thing he had right. He wanted to be with Jesus, even if it required getting out of his own understanding.
Walking on the water represents to us stepping into the realm of the impossible through faith. It shows us that when we do step out in faith, trusting in the power of God, you can conquer chaos. You can walk on the thing which you think is about to destroy you.
Let me ask you this evening, this morning, what boats have you been struggling to survive in? What water and what wind, what waves have been crashing against your life? Is Jesus calling you to a new level of conquering chaos?
This morning, it requires faith. It's not easy, but I want to encourage you to step out of your boat and trust Him. See, Peter did this. He's the only human being, besides Jesus, to walk on water. He took a few steps, miraculous steps, but he started looking around. He saw the wind.
The problem was he took his eyes off of Jesus. He was distracted by his problems again, he was distracted by the waves that were crashing, the wind that was blowing, and when he put his focus on the problems instead of on the Savior, he began to sink again.
Now, he did cry out. He said, Lord, save me. And Jesus did save him, pulled him back out, but there was a rebuke. Man, it's like, Jesus, pretty hard on the guy, right? I mean, he has just stepped on the water. Nobody's ever done this except for you, Jesus. And Jesus still rebukes him.
Why did you doubt? You were doing it, Peter. You were succeeding. You were conquering your chaos. But even as he began to fail, Jesus had a rebuke for him. Why did you doubt? Wow. Some expectations the Savior has for us. He expects us to conquer our chaos.
It requires faith this morning. And I want to challenge each and every one of you. There's a chaotic place of your life. You're in a boat trying to figure it out yourself. But the boat's not good enough. I challenge you this morning to step out of the boat and trust Him.
Because, here's why, walking on the waves with Jesus is safer than staying in the boat. Did you hear what I said? Walking on the waves with Jesus is safer than staying in the boat. The end of the story is that Jesus gets back into the boat with them. Immediately, the storm is calm.
He exercised His power over nature. And the end of the story is they're all, okay, this guy really is the Son of God. And that's the point. At the end of the day, when Jesus helps us to conquer our chaos, the proper response is one of fear, admiration, and worship.
Okay, Jesus, you are worthy of my whole life. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes as we bring this service to a close. And I'm grateful for your attention.
This morning, as we look at this powerful scripture, this story, before we close this service, before we pray together here at this altar, we're going to come together to pray, and then we're going to be receiving the Lord's Supper together.
But before we do that, I want to ask if someone has made their way into the service today, and the honest truth of your life at this moment is that you're not right with God. The Bible says we have all sinned. We've all fallen short of God's glory. There is nobody here who deserves heaven.
In fact, what we do deserve is condemnation. We deserve the wrath of God. We have all sinned against Him, broken His laws. The bad news is that we are all sinners in His eyes. But there's also good news. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
And if you're here this morning, I want to give you some good news. If you're in sin, if you are consciously and knowingly disobeying the will of God, the Word of God, the laws of God, I want to give you some good news. There's a God in heaven who knows exactly who you are, knows exactly what you've done, knows exactly what you're going through, and He loves you.
Say, how could God love somebody like me? Well, He made you, and He doesn't make junk. He made you, and He wants to save you from your sins, and He proved it by sending His Son, Jesus. If you want to know how much you are worth to God, you need to think about what Jesus did for you.
Jesus was willing to give His life, shed His blood, His body to be broken on the cross. He was willing to do that because it was the only way to atone for your sins and mine, to ease and to put at peace, to put at rest the wrath and the anger of the Father. Jesus paid the price so that you and I don't have to.
And the Bible says, if you are willing to turn from sin and trust in Jesus, that that sacrifice can be applied to your life. It's a decision that I made at about 16 years old. It's a young man finally understanding that my sin was leading me to death. If I didn't get right with God, all of my church experience would not save me.
All of my Christian morality, all of my church attendance, all the scriptures I read, all of the religious activities of my life, you put them all together and add them up. It is not enough to save us. And I realized that at 16 that my sin was going to destroy me. And I said, God, I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to be separated from you forever. I said, save me. I'm lost. I'm broken.
It requires humility. But if you're willing to do that, if you're willing to step out on the sea, humble yourself and trust in the Lord Jesus, the Bible says, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all our iniquities.
And before we close this service today, I wonder if someone's here. I'm describing you. You're separated from God. Oh, but there's hope for you. He is not finished. You are here at this moment for a purpose. He's calling out to you. Will you respond?
If that's someone here today, would you do something that takes a little courage for me? Would you just lift up your hand so I can see it? Say, Pastor, pray for me. I'm not right with God. I've been running from God. My sins are before me, and I feel the guilt and the weight of my sins. And I believe God wants to save me.
Don't miss this opportunity. Someone here, unsaved or backslidden, prodigal, you're here today. You need Jesus. Can I see your hand? Would you lift it up right now? I want to pray with you. I don't want to embarrass you. We're not going to put you on the microphone, but you want to experience the salvation of the Lord Jesus. You want to not just know about it, but you want to know God.
You don't want to have a relationship with Him personally. Is that you? Quickly, lift up your hand. Put it right back down so I can see it. Someone here, you need Jesus to save you. Don't miss this. Don't leave this place without knowing the Savior. Can I pray with you? Is there anyone at all? Quickly, right now, as God's speaking to hearts.
Amen. Then we want to pray together, church. I preach a simple message about stepping out on the waves, about conquering chaos. Yes, it's Jesus who calls us into chaotic and difficult places. Places that are filled with complications and wind and waves and storms.
We find ourselves up to our neck and not knowing what to do. Often, we are grasping on as tight as we can to the little rickety boat of human understanding. You know what the Bible says in Proverbs? It says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
That little boat of understanding, it can get you so far. It can get you into the lake, but it can't get you out. And there are some people here this morning, God's speaking to you to take a step of faith, take a step out of the boat into the presence of the Lord Jesus.
See, miracles begin when human understanding ends. And we're going to open up this altar for prayer. If God's dealing with you about a situation in your life, would you come? Let's stand to our feet. We're going to pray together here at this altar. Would you come and present your chaotic situation?
Lord, you brought me this far, but I can't continue unless you speak to me. Amen. This altar is open. Let's begin to pray. Let's find a place here. We can cry out to God together. Amen. Church, let's begin to lift up our needs to the Lord. He's the only one who can rescue. He's the only one who can redeem. He's the only one who can bring us all the way through.
Would you come and present your need? Listen, Jesus, you are not alone. He is praying for you. He is advocating for you even at this very moment. So let's come. And let's cry out to the living God. If you're still in your seats, please be praying for these that have come. Let's lift up our needs. Let's believe God for a few moments.
