 I wanted to share with you, what I've been doing is sharing with you things that the Lord has placed on my heart, and a lot of it has been simply the personal lessons or the reminders that God has given to me, and I wanted to share out of chapter 14 tonight here in Matthew out of verses 22 through 36. I'm going to give you a Bible study that is pretty much what you're used to in terms of giving you background or giving you some cross references, but we're going to get to a point of application probably three quarters into the message that is really something I really feel that the Lord has been placing on my heart to remember. And so I'm going to give you what, like I said, it's going to be a general Bible study. Don't expect the clouds to open up in the voice of God to proceed or anything spectacular like that, not in that kind of sense, but there is some very practical, a real practical portion of the study that I want to get to the application that I will get to once I've laid the foundation and developed all of it. But this is something that the Lord is reminding me of as we look at this. And I basically entitled this particular message sent into a storm. And you'll see why in just a moment. Normally we speak about this as simply the portion of Scripture, not simply in reality a tremendously miraculous event, but where Jesus walks on water. And that's what we're looking at. But you'll see what I mean as we get into our application in Matthew 14. So let's begin reading at verse 22. I'll read to verse 36 just to close off the chapter and we'll get into our study sent into a storm. Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up on a mountain by himself to pray. And when evening had come, he was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves. For the wind was contrary. Now in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying it's a ghost and they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, be of good cheer. And as I do not be afraid. Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. So he said, come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those who were in the boat came and worshipped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to him all who were sick and begged him that they might only touch the hem of his garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well. Now for context's sake, we need to know that this particular event takes place right after Jesus performed the miraculous feeding of the 5,000. Now the Bible tells us in verse 21, those who had eaten were about 5,000 men. But notice how it says besides women and children. So we know there were 5,000 men. So the number obviously was higher than 5,000. We simply refer to this as the feeding of the 5,000 because men were counted at that time and they did not count the women, they didn't count the children. The estimates of the actual miracle in terms of the amount that were actually served could have been anywhere from 12,000 up to some have said up to 25,000 people. But that's what has taken place here. Jesus Christ has performed an incredible miracle. Now after this miracle takes place, Matthew writes to us that Jesus immediately noticed with me made his disciples get into the boat and go before him. So Matthew says that Jesus made his disciples do this. The word made means to compel. It means to drive strongly urge or to constrain. Jesus basically forced them or compelled them to leave. Now why is that? Why would Jesus in the midst of all that is going on? Why would he force his disciples? Why would he compel them? Why would he make them leave that area? There are a variety of guesses related to that. Perhaps the most accurate one could be this, that his disciples could have been in danger. In danger in a different kind of way. In danger of being influenced. In danger of being influenced by the multitude. Now why would I say that? And what would make me say that? I mean obviously you don't see that here in the passage before us. All you need to do when you're studying your Bible is learn to cross reference because this particular incident is not found simply here in the Gospel of Matthew. But you also have other accounts of the same incident. And John gives us some insight in John chapter 6 concerning this. You see John chapter 6 verses 14 and 15 gives us insight where it says those men when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did said this is of truth that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king he departed again into a mountain himself alone. And so Jesus was protecting them from an influence, an influence of the world and influence that wanted to make Jesus into its king because Jesus satisfied their carnal appetites. That's a good reason why Jesus would order them to leave. Why? Because he didn't want his disciples being influenced by the world system. The world system of rulership. Jesus did not come to establish a system patterned after the world. Jesus has rulership over what has been rightly called an upside down kingdom where greatness in his kingdom is measured by service. In Mark 10 42 through 45 Jesus called them together said, you know that in this world kings are tyrants and officials lorded over the people beneath them. But among you it should be quite different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. For even I the son of man came here not to be served but to serve others. And to give my life as a ransom for many. They could get their idea of greatness from the way the world measures greatness and God helped the church because we can be influenced by that ourselves. Even today and this isn't in my notes but it comes to mind even as I'm sharing this with you. Even today a good way to determine whether or not we're influenced by the value system of the world is how we go about choosing what church we go to. How do you go about choosing what church you go to? A lot of people say why go where the word is taught? There are a lot of very small churches where the word is taught very well and yet it's not packed out filled with people. And a lot of times what we like to do is we like to go where it's popular where lots of other people go. And it becomes such an important thing to us that it doesn't really matter what that pastor's saying up there as long as I'm part of the popular group. We have to be very careful because sometimes we select. We select places even that are supposed to be feeding us the things of God based on outside kinds of things and not the matters of the heart. Not the proper division of the word of God and presentation and encouragement and things of that nature. We have to be careful that the world does not influence us because indeed Jesus would protect us from that. And so he sends his disciples away. Now notice with me after he sends his disciples away he does dismiss the multitudes and John gives us insight into why he would send the crowd away. And again it's because they wanted a carnal kingdom. In John 6, 26 and 27 Jesus said the truth is you want to be with me because I fed you. Not because you saw the miraculous sign. You shouldn't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that I the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has sent me for that very purpose. Pursue those things that matter. Your life does not consist in the things that you possess. The abundance of things you possess. We need to remember that God's kingdom therefore is primarily spiritual. In Romans 14 verse 17 the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus says I want you to leave. Now I want to point something out here in verse 22 again in Matthew 14 where it says immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat, go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away. They were obedient to this command to go before him to go to the other side. And it says here he sent the multitudes away. After doing so verse 23 says he went up to a mountain by himself to pray. When evening had come he was alone there. But the boat was now in the midst of the sea. Tossed by the waves for the wind was contrary. He went up on a mountain by himself to pray. When you read your gospels and you read about the spiritual practices of Jesus our Messiah it's interesting to note that he had the habit of prayer. He had the habit of communing with his father. You see it quite often mentioned and let me just give you a couple incidents. Mark 1.35, Mark says very early in the morning while it was still dark Jesus got up, left the house, went off to a solitary place and there he prayed. Luke 5.16, he himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed. Luke 6 verse 12, one of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray and spent the night praying to God. Jesus prayed quite often it was his habit. He prayed because he was committed to doing the will of the father. He prayed that he might commune with his father. And Jesus was so busy that he had to make sure that he remained constantly in communion with the father. He had little time to rest. You see after feeding the 5,000 he would have encountered the pressure to become king but he'd have been encountering the pressure and this is an important point to become king without a cross. That would have been another attempt by the enemy to tempt Jesus to simply take the kingdom. Do you remember that when Jesus was originally tempted in the temptations that he endured right after his baptism? Do you remember that the devil tempted him by promising to give him a kingdom, all the kingdoms of the earth and the devil said, this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomsoever I will and all you need to do if you want it, I'll give it to you. All you need to do is worship me. And so that temptation that Satan brought to Jesus was the temptation for him to wear a crown without a cross. He was saying you have come so that the world could be yours. You don't have to go to the cross so that it becomes yours. You don't have to die. All you need to do is just worship me. This has all been delivered to me. It's something that I can give away if I want to. I give it to whomsoever I will and I'll give it to you. You don't have to die. You don't have to suffer. You don't have to go through the things that you're going to go through. All you need to do is a very simple thing. Bow down to me for just a moment. That's all it's going to take and I'll give this all to you. Well, we know that the Lord refused that temptation and after doing so, Luke tells us in chapter four, verse 13, when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. That means that the enemy didn't just tempt Jesus at that particular moment, but he found opportunities again later on. There's no doubt that he's provoking the people there to want to make Jesus king. It's a temptation. He's already thrust at Jesus in the past and so Jesus goes to the mountain to pray to commune with his father in a solitary place because the enthusiasm of the crowd and even his apostles as they see these miraculous things taking place could have been a form of temptation to once again draw him away from that cross. So Jesus went to commune with his father. I can't help but wonder if it's not also that he went to pray for his disciples, which was a habit that he had. One of the more famous portions of scripture that we have related to that is found in Luke chapter 22, verses 31 and 32. This is one of those powerful portions of scripture where Jesus is speaking to his beloved disciple, Simon Peter. And he says to him, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brethren. Yeah, Satan has asked for and obtained permission to work you over, which is what he did, to work you over. He's asked for and obtained permission. God has given Satan permission to do a job on you. We used to say a long time ago, to work you over. But here's the thing, and I could stay here for a while. I'm not because I want to move into what I really have to share with you. Though this is part of it. Do not ever get to the point in your life where you think that you have no value in the hand of God. You, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, listen carefully. This is so important. Some of you have yet to learn it, learn it. You are a weapon in the hand of God. Do not forget that. Do not forget that. You think you're nothing. Where'd you get that idea from? Is it God who told you that? You're nothing. Well, in a sense, I realize, Lord, I am nothing in comparison to you. But with you, I can do all things. I am more than a conqueror because of you. I am your child. And you've given to me, you've given to me armor. I'm, here you go. I am a warrior. Now, you may not look at me as a warrior, but Satan does. Satan does. You may be looking at yourself and you look in the mirror and you say, man, look at this 98-pound weakling. Or some of you may say, I wish I weighed 98 pounds. Those were the days. Listen, and this may sound like just a bunch of hype to you, but it is absolutely true. You are dangerous. You are armed and dangerous. You have the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. You have the conqueror, who is your general. You are more than conquerors because of him. And the enemy knows it. And he knows it. You ever watched, and some of you guys may be into MMA or boxing. You know, I grew up watching boxing and yes, I watch MMA, sinful as that may be to some of you. Something about combat. And you see them facing each other, acting all this and that. Then they go into the ring and the guy who's been all haughty and acting all bad and say, I'm going to kill you. I'm going to eat your liver, kill your children or whatever. He gets all beat up. He gets chased around the ring. You know, the enemy does that to you. He does. He says, I'm going to tear you up. I'm going to ruin you. You're going to lose everything. I'm going to take it all. And you know what we do? We kind of whimper. He's after me. I'm not going to demean the enemy. I have to tell you, it's an incredibly powerful foe. We could not defeat him on our own. I used to have, my son really, used to have a little Rottweiler, a little Rottweiler. And we were taking a walk through the grounds. I was walking her. And as we were walking, we came up to one of the fences right over here to the south of our property. And there were two geese in the backyard. And she's just fascinated with these geese. And she goes walking up to the fence, and she puts her nose on the fence, and she's sniffing at. And the gander jumps up because he sees this enemy that he's afraid is going to kill his girl. He gets between his hen and the dog, and he puffs out his chest and puts his little wings out and starts making this noise, right? And I've got her on a leash. And when that thing came at her like that, she took off running. And she's dragging me across the parking lot. That dog was strong. The funny thing is, is there was a fence. That goose couldn't have gone to her even if he tried. She was protected. And you're a Rottweiler. It's not like you're a Chihuahua. A Rottweiler. You can eat him and her and the babies, too. And that fence is protecting. God has made you more than conquerors, and he's protecting you. And you know what the enemy does? He does this, doesn't he? Puffs out his chest, puts out his wings, starts making noise, and then off we run across the parking lot. He's after us. Jesus said, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked for you. He's obtained permission to sift you, even as we'd asifted. He says, but I have prayed for you. Do you know that the scripture teaches us in the book of Hebrews that he ever lives to make intercession for us even now, that he is praying for you right now? Did you know that? Do you remember that? Listen, whatever you're going through right now, you have someone praying for you right now. Jesus himself is praying for you. And your faith, that your faith may not fail, because you will be sifted. We go through seasons of sifting, and the dross, and that which has no value, that which the chaff in this illustration, that which has no value at all that needs to be discarded, that's removed so that the pure word, the pure work of God, is going to be evidenced by the sifting. And Jesus is praying all along. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. You'll see this a little bit more in just a moment as we continue. But Jesus was in the habit of praying for his disciples and continues to do so to this day. Now, in verses 23 and 24, continue in its evening. Just to give you the timeline, it's between 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock in the evening. And the boat is now in the middle of the Sea of Galilee. According to John 619, they had rode from three to three and a half miles. And they're in the middle of the sea. And they're tossed by waves. For according to verse 24, the wind was contrary. So now this is between 6 and 9. But verse 25 says, in the fourth watch of the night, the fourth watch is giving us another timeline. It's between 3 and 6 o'clock in the morning. This has been going on, in other words, for some time. And between 3 and 6 in the morning, Jesus went to them walking on the sea. See, the wind kept pushing them farther and farther into the middle of the lake. And they'd been battling the wind and sea for perhaps up to nine hours. Imagine that for just a moment. So what would happen if we were trying to get across and battling this force of nature against us? Well, we'd be tired. We would be frustrated. And we would be alone. So I'm certain they have been calling on the Lord to help. And that's a question that a lot of people would ask even to this day, where is God? Where is God when you need Him? Where is He? He most certainly must be aware of the trouble that we're in. In Psalm 38 verse 9, it says, you know what I long for, Lord, you hear my every sigh. You have to be aware of what I'm going through. But I feel abandoned at this one. I feel like, how would I get here? Well, here's an insight that Mark offers in chapter 6 verse 48. Jesus is aware of their situation. In Mark 648, it says, He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard, struggling against the wind, and waves. Here's something for you. In the midst of that storm, He had not forgotten them. His eyes are upon them. And here is something that blesses me. His eyes were upon them even when they did not know it. I'm one of these hovering grandfathers. I hover over my grandchildren. I do. You know, if I got a little one of my little ones walking around, you know, we have a fireplace that has some brick. And I see one of them toddling near it. I'm not one of these guys who can lay there and say, oh, you know, God will protect him. I, I, I, Marie, Marie, take care of your grand kid. No, I, I, I'll sit up immediately. If I'm laying back, I'll sit up. And I watch them as they toddle. If they get too close to that concrete or whatever, I'm on it. I got my, and guess what? They don't even know I'm doing that. They're not even aware. They're so busy being goofy, doing whatever they want to do. They don't even notice that someone's got their eyes on them. Someone's watching them. They're being watched because they're loved. And I don't want them hurt. And I will do what I have to do in my power to protect them from injury. Now, Jesus refers to us as fathers. He says, how you are a father who is evil. But you want good, you give good gifts to your children. So I'll, I'll take that, that name. Lord Jesus, you're, I would never say that I'm not evil without you. I am my human nature is evil. I understand what you're saying. So if I have concern and I hover over my child or my grandchild, I can safely know that my father's aware of everything I'm going through too. That his eyes on me and the scripture tells me he saw that they were in serious trouble. When they did not know that he was watching them, they were watching their situation, he was watching them in that situation. We'll see some more of that in just a moment. And so he hadn't forgotten them. His eyes were upon them. Verse 26 says to us, the disciples saw him walking on the sea. And there were trouble. They said, it's a ghost. Well, it says that they saw him. The word saw there in the original language means to transfix, to stare, or to look intently upon. In other words, as they saw this coming across the water. And imagine if you were for a minute, all that's going on, all the noise of the wind, the waves crashing, all of the, the busyness that's taking place all around you. And, and now you see something come out of nowhere. Now, obviously, would you immediately say somebody's taking a walk on the water? So what are you going to think? You know exactly what they thought. They thought, oh my goodness, there's a ghost. It was dark. It was misty. It was windy. They didn't recognize him. And Mark gives us more insight again in chapter 6, verse 48. It says he was about to pass by them. Now, that was a common superstition, by the way, of their day when they saw it as a ghost. But Jesus' immediate reaction was this. He calmed them down. Verse 27, immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, be of good cheer. It is I. Do not be afraid. Somebody wrote, it was most important to steal the storm of their heart first. And that's true. It's me. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. First thing the Lord brings to you in the midst of all of that is courage. Is courage. Keep your eyes on him. John 1633, these things I've spoken to you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. Be of good cheer. Be of good courage. I have overcome the world. So what is the response there? Verse 28, Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. So he said, come. When Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid, beginning to sink. He cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those who were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. Now, you know, when I was a new believer and I read this particular portion of scripture, I do remember thinking how Jesus's words were right. I mean, after all, you are of little faith. Why did you doubt? And I began over the years to begin to think about it. You know, there were other men in that boat, too. I didn't hear anybody else say, call me. I'll come on out. You know, I could hear it. You know, Judas has taken bets. The bet is going to sink. And you've got Thomas saying, I doubt if he's going to make it. I mean, you've got this thing going on in that boat, you know? And everybody, listen, listen. It is so easy to be seated on the sidelines, cheering the team on, and telling them what they did wrong. It's easy to do that. Everybody's an armchair quarterback. And everybody is. You know, oh, if you'd only done this, and how come they didn't do that? Oh, you should have done this. That's because we got an above view. We've got a camera. We're watching the whole field at one time. We're not in the middle of the battle. We don't know what's going on. We don't know why that quarterback fell down. We don't know why. We don't. But we're, oh, man, you should have done that. Do we do that all the time? Everybody is an armchair quarterback. Everybody is. We know what should have been done, when it should have been done, how it should have been done. And we know why it didn't work. But we weren't in the middle of the battle ourselves. We're just good at telling other people what they should have done. I discovered a long time ago that when you're in the middle of a spiritual battle, you don't have time to criticize other people. You really don't. You don't have time to do that, because you're too busy surviving in Christ. It's the people who are not doing anything that have a tendency of saying how it should have been done. So I used to think, man, Peter, you're messed up. Why'd you do that? I mean, come on, man. But then he hit me. You know, if all 12 were there with Jesus, 11 stayed in that boat. And only one climbed out. He knew it was safer on the water with Jesus than in the boat without Him. Did you get that one? It is. It's safer on the water with Jesus than in a boat without Him. When He calls you, He will keep you. He'll work with you, and He'll protect you. And that's why Jesus could say, why did you doubt? Peter, you were already doing the impossible. Why didn't you continue? What distracted you? Well, things around me do. The things around me distract me. I'm doing the impossible, something that I humanly can't do. And then I become aware of, hey, look what I'm doing. And when that happens, I'll take my eyes off the one who's keeping me up, and I'll begin to immediately sink. And the smartest thing I can do at that point is to do what he did when he cried out and said, Lord, save me. What did Jesus do? Well, verse 31 says, Jesus said no and pushed His head under the water and held him. No. And you know, Peter's faith was enough to get him out of a boat, but it wasn't enough to keep him from sinking. Somebody once wrote, my peculiar temptation has been constant, unbelief. I know that God's promise is true, yet does this temptation incessantly assail me? Doubt him. Distrust him. He will leave you yet. I can assure you when the temptation is aided by a nervous state of mind, it is very hard to stand day by day and say, no, I cannot doubt my God. When your faith is overcome by fear, it's very difficult to say, no, God will come through. Well, I'm going to give you some insight in a minute, but let me give you a couple more thoughts, and then I'm going to give you some application here. Verses 32 and 33 says, when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him saying, truly you are the Son of God. Well, two things occur. One, the wind immediately ceases. And then two, according to John 621, immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. So these things immediately happen, and it causes a response. They worshiped Him. They worshiped Him. Let me give you five things, five things here that might help us, the things that the Lord is trying to teach me that I want to share with you. One, He sent them into the storm. He sent them into the storm. Do you think that storm was a surprise that Jesus didn't know? He sent them into the storm. How contrary to much of what is taught today about God and His way of working with us. Most Christians want to think that they will never enter into another storm after they have been saved. They're actually taken by surprise when they enter into a season that is dark. Job 3510 reads, no one says, where is God my maker who gives songs in the night? My maker who gives songs in the night. Tozer once wrote, God knows how long we can endure the night, so He gives the soul relief. First by welcome glimpses of the morning star, and then by the fuller light that signals the approach of the morning. Slowly you will discover God's love in your suffering. Your heart will begin to approve the whole thing. You will learn from yourself what all the schools in the world could not teach you, the healing action of faith without supporting pleasure. You will feel and understand the ministry of the night, its power to purify, to detach, to humble, to destroy the fear of death, and what is more important to you at the moment, the fear of life. And you will learn that sometimes pain can do what even joy cannot, such as exposing the vanity of the earth's trifles and filling your heart with longing for the peace of heaven. The contemporary preaching that it's coming out of many pulpits throughout the United States today is simply saying this, come to Christ and you'll never have another bad day. That is not good Bible. That is not good Bible. That's error. On the one hand, yes, God wants to and does bless us, but too, He also conforms us to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. And one of the things we need to remember about Jesus Christ, and this isn't a popular message, by the way, but this is true. And this will deepen you if you hold fast to it, is when you look at Isaiah 53, there are words that can refer to Jesus there. And what He is is the suffering servant. And when I pray and I say, God, make me like you, I need to remember that He is a suffering servant. Because in a lot of ways, I think today in contemporary preaching, it's not brand new. It's been part, Paul actually had to deal with in Second Corinthians this attitude that we are ruling now. When in fact, Jesus Christ said, the greatest in the kingdom is a servant of all. And if you have said, and I have said, God, make me like you, I need to remember what He went through. I need to remember that Jesus is broken. I need to remember that He suffered. I need to remember the pain that He went through. And what makes me think that I'll be exempt from those moments? And there are times when, God, listen carefully. Some of you need to hear this. There are times God will send you into a storm. There's no doubt about it. Depart from here and move into there. And you say, no, no. I thought that when I got saved, it would be an everyday great day. It is. And I'm going to conform you to my image. But haven't you been saying, you want to be broken like me? You will be broken. Haven't you been saying to me, you want to love me? Like I do, you will learn to love. You will learn these things, not in a Bible study. You will learn these things in the crucible of suffering. You will learn these things in the disappointments of life, in the pain of losing a job. When you have a child that is not doing well, when you are diagnosed with a disease that nobody can heal, except for God. I am telling you something that's not popular, but it is true. When you stand at the side of the bed of your father when he dies, and there's nothing you can do, except watch this man die. And you watch that as it flatlines. And there's one whom you love with all your heart is in the embrace of Christ, but no longer with you. And you stand there. Who do I have to turn to but you? Who? Who's going to be my joy in the morning? Who am I going to have somebody say, I'm proud of you? Or who can I go to and ask for advice from now? He took him away from me. I am telling you, God says, go into the storm. And we don't want to. But it's in the storm that you learn deep things. You want to be deep? You want to be deep? You will go through deep things. You will, if you want to be deep. And I started praying, oh, God deepened my soul a long time ago. And over time, he has. And you go through pain, and you go through sorrow. You go through things where even your closest friends can abandon you. Those who you love the most can leave you when you need it. I'm the most right. Some of you know, some of you know what I'm saying. Those who would come up to you and tell you, if you leave, I'll follow you. Wherever you go, I will go. And then one day, they're God. And you say, where did they go? Maybe they thought you left because they're God. I can't tell you how many people over the years have put little knives in my soul. Pain that sometimes was unbearable except for him. It's called the ministry of the night, where the Lord takes you through times when the things that you held fast to and believed in the most and desired the greatest seem to be taken from you. One thing at a time until the only thing that is left is you and him. And that's what you wanted all along. And that's what gives you the greatest pleasure when you come to realize that. You are all I need. And when you are with me, I'm never alone. You learn those things. He will send you into storms. Some of you are in a storm right now. Some of you are saying, Lord, don't you see? Can't you hear? Don't you hear my cry? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you allowing this to take place? Read the story of Isaiah again. Read about Jeremiah. Read about Ezekiel, the things these great men of God went through as everything was stripped from them until it was just them and God. Isn't that what you want really in the end? I would hope so. And so Jesus will send you into a storm. He will send you into a storm so that you will discover that the only thing important is just Him. And two, you're going to learn that He watches over you and that He is aware of your danger. And Psalm 121, verses 3 and 4, it says, He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. So you'll learn that He's watching over you through it all. Third, He will come to your aid, and He does so in His time. As it says in Psalm 18, verses 1 and 2, I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge. He is my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. He will also teach you a fourth thing. He will teach you to trust Him, to have faith in Him. In Psalm 107, 23 through 25, it says, Others went out on the sea and ships. They were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, His wonderful deeds in the deep, for He spoke and stirred up a tempest that lifted high the waves. It goes on in verse 28 through 30 and says, They cried out to the Lord in their trouble. He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper. The waves of the sea were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm and it guided them to their desired haven. He says, I will guide you and you will trust in me. And then you learn to worship. You learn to worship Him. He will provoke you to worship. You see, here's something that you need to remember as we began this portion. It said in verse 22, Jesus made His disciples get into the boat, go before Him to the other side. He intended for them to make it. He didn't abandon them at all. They were going to make it to the other side. They just, in the midst of the journey, forgot that He was sending them to a complete journey. He who has begun a good work in you will continue until the day of Christ Jesus. He doesn't stop His work. And if He sends you somewhere, you're going to get there. You will arrive. Now in the midst of the journey, maybe a little tough, a little hazardous, a little frightening, little challenging, but you will make it because you're never alone. And the result is going to be worship. The result will be worship. Listen through the things that I, as a man, have gone through as a father, as a grandfather, as a pastor, as a son, as a husband. The things that I thought were going to kill me, they did. They killed a portion of me that shouldn't have been alive anyway. And have taught me the lessons that I've been asking God to teach me all along. Don't be surprised. Don't be surprised when the Lord puts you into a boat and sends you into a storm. But don't think you're alone either because He does come to you. He does walk on that water. He does call you to be with Him and He does safely deliver you because His promises are true. And when you arrive, you will worship Him. You will say, oh, God has been with me all along. It was quiet for a while. I felt alone for a while, but I'm never alone for you are with me. You walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but you don't camp out there and you don't live there. You walk through it. And then you discover you are with me. You are with me. Your rod and your stuff, they do comfort me. And you do bring me to that place of refreshing beside those still waters because that's what God does. Don't give up hope. Allow Him to finish the work He's doing in you. And you will be that what you want it to be. You want to be used by God. He will take from you the things that are not like Him. And He will mold you into His image and you will be wonderfully made, fearfully made in the image of Jesus Christ. That's the key, isn't it? And that's what's most important in life is to be like Him.