213. Bonus Israel Content - James On the Sea of Galilee and Doxology

For freedom, he set me free, not for chains, not for guilt, not for Pharisee. Grace lit the flame, now I'm puffing peace, cigars and victory justified, released. Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. I ain't saved by dress codes, not by what I eat. I'm covered in the righteousness, washed from head to feet. No tally of tradition, no man-made code. Blood bought my freedom, now I ride that road. They clutch pearls when they see smoke rings rise. But my praise still ascends past the legalist cries. Christ plus nothing, that's the real math. So miss me with your fence laws and your extra path. He sat with sinners, I'm sitting with saints. Sipping grace from the bottle, no room for fakes. I light one for liberty, toast to the king. Every ash a sermon, death has lost its sting. For freedom, he set me free, not for chains, not for guilt, not for Pharisee. Grace lit the flame, now I'm puffing peace. Cigars and victory justified, released. For freedom, he set me free, not for chains, not for guilt, not for Pharisee. Grace lit the flame, now I'm puffing peace. Cigars and victory justified, released. Let grace begin. For freedom, he set me free, not for chains, not for guilt, not for Pharisee. Grace lit the flame, now I'm puffing peace. Now here are your hosts, James Saifert and Brett Martin. All right, well I've been tasked to give the devotion for today out here on the Sea of Galilee. And so I just want to give a couple of thoughts. Mainly we know this by Jesus walking on water. And so we're going to get to that. But I often think that it's wonderful that we can bring the Old Testament into where we're at today. And sort of the prophecy of how Jesus walking on water. Some may not know that it was actually a fulfillment of some prophecies. And some things that were in scripture. And it really just highlights for us that God is sovereign over everything. And knowing that he is sovereign over even water that we take for granted often. But in Job chapter 9 verse 8, the Bible says that he alone stretches out the heavens and walks on the waves of the sea. And so as we think about that for a moment, think about God literally walking on water. Jesus stepping out into this storm. The Bible says that it would have been a mighty storm, a wave of storm where the sailors didn't know how to handle it and couldn't handle it. It was uncontrollable. It was out of their control. And yet it was going back and forth. Psalm 77 says it's similar to this. It says your way was through the sea. Your path was through the mighty waters. Yet your footprints were unseen. Oftentimes there's chaos that comes around us. There are things that come in our lives that we don't know how to even respond. In my 37 young years of life, and many people around here are a lot older than me and you've went through hard times. We go through difficulties and we don't understand, even in the moment, in the middle of the storm, how are you going to get through it? I've got a friend of mine right now that is struggling with infertility. She's been pregnant four or five times now. She's lost every single baby. It has been a very, very hard path for them. And yet, every single time she has said, God is in control, when that time comes, if I ever become a parent, it will be in God's hands. I'm reminded also of even the Old Testament of Israel in Jeremiah 37. They were in trouble. They were surrounded by the enemy. They were helpless. And yet God promised that they would be delivered and that he was coming. They didn't ever see him walk on water. But yet, years later, he came and he delivered Israel, which leads us to Matthew 14. Matthew 14, 22-23. We know this well. We know Jesus walked out on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples were terrified. They didn't know what this was in the middle of the night. And they see Jesus. And Jesus says something to them that is one of the most powerful statements that Jesus makes. He says, take courage. It is I. These three words, this simple Greek phrase of I am, when he says this in Hebrew, it is the same correlation of do not be afraid. So in the middle of the storm, his words were piercing to them as they were fearful. He looks at them and he says, it is I. I am the one here to save you and don't be afraid. Think about that. The waves were raging. The wind was against them and everything in their senses screams danger. Everything that they can imagine is fear of life in this moment. And as they look out, they see Jesus and he simply says, I am here. The most calming news that we can hear is that Jesus is there with us. But then we get to the next person in the story, Peter. Peter is the picture of the church. Peter is the one who puts his foot in his mouth and he says, I want to step out of the boat. I want to walk on water with you. And as he steps out and as he steps toward Jesus, you can imagine it step by step. He's doing the impossible. He's doing something that no other human ever has done. And he is walking on top of the waves. And in this moment, he notices something other than Jesus. He sees the waves beside him. He sees the storm around him. And he takes his eyes off of Jesus. We know what happens as he takes his eyes off of Jesus. He begins to sink. He begins to get overwhelmed with the things around him versus the one in front of him that's in control of everything. And in our life, when we get our eyes off of Jesus, the only thing that matters in our life is Jesus. When our eyes get off of him, it's when our life begins to fall apart. It's when our life begins to go into a way where we don't understand what's going on. And he does something. The only thing that he can do is he says three words. Lord, save me. It's the prayer of all of us of Lord to save us. And it's the prayer of what we should be doing on a daily basis. Lord, I need your help. And what does Jesus do? Jesus says, make sure, Peter, I need you to put on the right clothing. Peter, I need to make sure that your hair looks right. Peter, do you have the right attitude right now? No, Jesus simply immediately reaches down, pulls him out of the mire, pulls him out of the depths of his despair, and saves him in that moment. He does the impossible. He simply saves him. And so what are the lessons of what we can look at in the last couple of minutes here? What can we understand by this? The storms of life are inevitable. We're going to go through storms. We're going to go through difficulties. But yet the one constant thing that we can know is that Jesus is in control. That Jesus is over all. And the waves are going to crash. The winds are going to howl. The difficulties of life are going to happen. And God is sovereign through everything. Nothing takes him by surprise. Many of us in the south right now, we didn't have church today. Some of you thought you were going to have church. And yet God knew from the foundation of the world that the storm of the snow, snowmageddon in North Carolina, all hundreds of counties got snow. The Lord knew that that was going to happen and we weren't going to have church from the foundation of the world. Didn't take him by surprise. Nothing takes the Lord by surprise. In our life, we have this wonderful thing of faith. Where are our eyes at? Are we fixing our eyes on Jesus? Peter walked on water as long as he looked at Christ. As long as he was focused on the one that was the Savior of the world. Not his circumstances, but the Savior that was there for him. When we feel ourselves sinking, when we feel ourselves into the despair of life that can happen, we oftentimes will get to the point where we try to cry out to our parents, we try to cry out to our spouse, and we look to the things that can't help us. We must call out to Jesus and God says that he is always there for us. He's always standing by our side. He's there when life seems like things are going to go crazy. So tonight as we sit here on this boat, as we look around and we see the Sea of Galilee as we were coming up, Paul looked at me and said, I never thought I would be here. Never thought I would be walking on to this pier about to get onto a boat, about to step onto the Sea of Galilee. As we're here in the midst of all this, some may be terrified. We've stepped away from the real world for a moment. We've stepped out here into the Sea of Galilee on this wonderful expedition. But some of you are thinking about the bills that are going to be back home when you get there. The church problems that are going to happen when you get there. The church member, our pastors here, that is that thorn in your side, as Paul often talks about. Some of you maybe even have a family member that's maybe lost and doesn't know the Lord. And it's a weight of a burden on you. In this moment, in this season of time where we get to be here, continue to just face the Lord in everything we do. Don't fix your eyes on the winds and the waves and the storm, but begin to fix your life on Jesus and ask Him to do the impossible in your life. Peter was faithful to step out and do the impossible. As Jesus says, as we get to Jerusalem in just a couple of days, as He says to His disciples, if you had the faith of a mustard seed, you could look at that mountain and you could throw it into the sea. That little bit of faith of a mustard seed, how often do we have that faith? As small as a mustard seed, we don't have that faith, and we wonder why the Lord doesn't work in our life. So I want us to, for the next moment, just reflect over the next couple of seconds. I'm going to pray in just a moment for us, and I'm going to have the lady who's our designated song leader lead us in a song in just a second. But in this moment, just simply ask yourself and reflect and say, Lord, am I keeping my eyes on You? Am I keeping my eyes on the One that's the creator of the world, that created everything that we see around us? Are we fixing our eyes on Him? Father, we come to You thanking You for who You are and what You've done. We thank You for the goodness and the greatness and the mightiness that You are, Lord, as we have already experienced in today as we went through different locations. And we got to see as You proclaimed to Your disciples that You are the One that is the creator of all things. God, help us to focus on You. Help us to be like Peter. Often we're going to be focused on the storms, but He didn't let the storms define who He was. He eventually got His eyes back on You, and You gave Him grace, You gave Him mercy time and time again. And I pray, God, that You would allow us to be in that same way, merciful for who You are and show mercy on us. God, we thank You. We love You. We praise You for who You are. In Your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Praise God, love whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures. Praise God, love whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, all of the heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. I found my new name I found that good grace I found that healing And the tears fell down my face When I found my beginning That has no ending I found that second chance I found my best friend I found my forgiveness I found my happiness I've been singing ever since I found my freedom in you Thanks for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. 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