Viola Solid Rock Assembly
Faith Activates Miracles
The last few weeks we've been talking about the storm and last week we talked about the uncertainty of the storm and we've talked about the I am in the storm and we've talked about Jesus strolling on the our fears during the storm and we've talked about our focus should be what our focus should be during the storm and you know the biggest thing that we've talked about and I've tried to get you to understand this is that being obedient to God does not and walking things out with God doesn't necessarily mean it will be smooth sailing. In fact sometimes it takes us right into the eye of the storm it's not always a bad thing most of time storms serve a purpose and and so we're going to stay in that storm vein this week and Matthew chapter 14 if you have your bibles it's the same passage that we've been covering the last few weeks Matthew chapter 14 verse 28 says then Peter called him Lord if it's really you tell me to come to you walking on the water yes come Jesus said so Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water towards Jesus but when he saw the strong wind in the waves he was terrified he was terrified and he began to sink and he said save me Lord save me Lord you know the last several weeks we've been dissecting this passage and we've talked about several aspects of the storm but the the biggest thing the biggest thing that that that catches me in this passage is Peter's uncertainty or maybe boldness as well when he says if it's really you let me come out there he asked the question makes the request but it but it's not what he says it's you know the the biggest part of this passage is not what Peter asked or that even that Peter that walks on the water it was Jesus response to his request come on out here if you want to walk on water come on let's go come on out here and we'll walk on this water together he gives a one-word response a single word command if you will he says come see the thing about this is part of the part of the story is is is when Peter stepped out of the boat he was stepping into faith and when his feet hit the water he was walking in faith and on faith when we pray bold prayers we have to be ready for bold responses when you pray bold prayers and you get a bold response don't get afraid because when we have big bold prayers God's going to give us big bold responses and sometimes it's going to involve us doing something that's not comfortable that's out of our comfort zone that's not something that we want to do even but we asked the we made the request Jesus didn't walk up to the guys and say hey it's me and come on out here Peter was the one that said if it's really you let me come out there when Peter asked to walk on water he was greeted with a word from the Lord and the word was come on as we were walking on the water it wasn't it wasn't as he was walking on the water it wasn't the water that was holding him up it was the word from the Lord that was holding him up there are moments in life that that what will hold you is not the water but the word the promise from the Lord we know that Jesus is able to stroll on our fears with no issues but he has a word for us to walk on to he has a word to for us to walk through to get through the storm he has a promise the reason Peter was successful in doing the impossible was because he was he was acting and walking in obedience to the word of the Lord when walking in obedience to the word we're able to walk through the storm it literally puts the storm under our feet Romans chapter 16 verse 19 says but everyone knows that you are obedient to the Lord that makes me very happy I want you to be wise in doing right and stay innocent of any wrong the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet may the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you where will Satan be crushed under your feet under our feet it doesn't say that Jesus came down and stomped on his head it said that he was crushed under your feet our feet he'll take care of it but we're the one doing the action he'll walk us through the storm but we got to be moving to when we are obedient to the Lord we will have the word come to walk on the fears of the water and the storms of the sea and will crush Satan under our feet verse 29 said yes Jesus said yes come so Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus Peter got out of the boat in obedience he's walking on the water and he's coming towards Jesus he's obeying the word of the Lord he's able to do something that he couldn't physically do under his own ability the miracle of Peter Peter walking on water wasn't the wasn't in the act itself but in the command when Jesus spoke the word come he authorized the miracle of Peter becoming less dense than water when Peter's faith moved into obedience of the word it activated the miracles when God when God begins to ask you to do things that pulls you out of your comfort zone that pulls you out of the comfort of the boat he isn't only speaking to you he's speaking to your surroundings when we step beyond our ability in obedience we activate miracles when we step out that's when the miracle is activated this longest Peter was in the boat the miracle was not activated Jesus said come and if Peter would have stayed in the boat nothing that miraculous would have happened but the moment that he's let his faith he said okay I'm going to step in faith because you're speaking to me let me step in faith then the miracle was activated you know a lot of times we miss out on miracles because we're not willing to step out we want God to perform the miracle before we make a step we want God to make it's to say okay here it is before we take the step of faith we don't like taking the step of faith we want it all there right we want the plan laid out before us we want we want you know God says I want you to do this and we say okay how are you going to do that we want you to do this okay well we want you to pay for it first when God told us to build that building I was praying that he would pay for it before he started I still believe and he's going to pay for it and he's we're getting there right we're getting there but with we've never taken the step of faith we would have never seen it happen James we built a half a million dollar facility and we only took out 170 thousand dollars with the loan and it's been less than a year and we've already paid 65 thousand dollars of that off when God begins to ask you to do things that pulls you out of the comfort of the boat he isn't only speaking to you he's speaking to everything around you what miracles are we missing because of our lack of obedience or willingness to step into the word to step out in faith and Joshua chapter 3 we see this and they had to take the step in order for the miracle to happen verse 13 says the priest will carry the Ark of the Lord of all of all the earth as soon as their feet touch the water the flow of the water will cut off upstream and the rivers will stand up like a wall so the people left their camp to cross the Jordan and the priest who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them it was the harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing its banks it was in flood stage but as soon as the feet of the priest who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river's edge the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam which is in his xerithin and the water below that point flowed to the Dead Sea until the river bed was dry and then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho and meanwhile the priest who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the river bed as the people passed by they waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground but it took the guys that were carrying the Ark of the Covenant to get wet sock for the miracle to happen because we have to take a step of faith in order to activate the miracle the water is at flood stage Joshua this is not going to work how is that going to happen well let's try and see let's just do what God is asking us to do let's see if it works and the moment they stepped in the water's edge they didn't even get to the river they didn't even get to the bed of the river they were in the flooded stages in the very edge of the field and the water stopped flowing by the time everyone crossed over the wet sock was dry the water didn't stop until the priest touched the water it's walking in faith of the word of God that will activate the miracles i think about naman second king chapter five tells the story of naman he was a a general and and and he had leprosy and he goes he he gets to to to Israel and he goes to the king and says i'm here to be healed and the king is they've come to kill me how i i don't have the power to heal this man and elisha sent a message that says bring him to me bring him here send him to my house and so naman comes and stands at the door of elisha's house but elisha didn't go and see him he sent a messenger out verse 10 says he sent a messenger out to him with the message go and wash yourself seven times in the jordan river and then your skin will be restored and you will be healed from your leprosy but naman got mad he's like this guy wouldn't even come out and see me i came all of this way and he didn't even come out to see me what a joke and that all the rivers and Damascus and i have to go clean in the jordan river it's disgusting sometimes the hardest things for us to do are the simplest things that jesus ask us to do many times i found that the hardest things for me to do are the the easiest things that god asked me to do is that him and his servant have a little talk his servant said you know if he would have told you to do something grand you would have done it how much easier to go get in the jordan river what could it hurt at this point you're already leprosis so naman verse 14 says so naman went down to the jordan river and dipped himself seven times as the man of god had instructed him and his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child and he was healed naman was mad because the prophet didn't want to see him he was mad because he didn't like the word that he received how many times though does the lord ask us to do something and we don't want to do it so we get mad and we don't do it and we miss the miracle because we're too busy griping about what he's asking us to do this time last year god began to speak to me about 2024 and this year and there were a few things that i felt he asked me to do and he showed me some things and i believe i believe that they will be the result of obedience but none of the things that he asked me to do were going to be easy or things that i necessarily wanted to do but in the nine and a half months i have seen miracles take place because of obedience to what god was asking us to do when i start to worry when i start to wonder and then things show up a perfectly placed limb a phone call that covered everything this all started with a word and a step of faith Luke 17 verse 12 says as he entered the village there were 10 men with leprosy stood at a distance crying out jesus master have mercy on us and he looked at them and said go show yourself to the priest and as they went they were cleansed of their leprosy when he told them to go show themselves to the priest they weren't healed they still had leprosy it just says that ten lepers came and stood before him and said i have mercy on us and he said go show yourself to the priest it doesn't say Charles that he healed them and then told them to go he said go show yourself to the priest they still had leprosy that seems crazy we're not go show ourselves to the priest we're not healed we have to stay outside and cook everyone that comes by we got to yell unclean unclean but as they took the step of faith as they began walking towards the priest they were cleansed of their leprosy if all we focus on is the impossible we won't ever see the miraculous if all these guys would have done was said look i still have it you still have it on your forehead we can't go see the priest they would have never been healed if peter would have never swung his legs over the side of the boat he would have never walked on the water it takes an act of faith peter was walking in the miraculous right these guys looked at something that seemed impossible and if they would have focused on the impossible they never would have seen the miraculous peter was walking in the miraculous and his focus his focus shifted to the storm and when his focus shifted to the storm was when he began to sink right and we've beat peter up for a long time we throw rocks at him he sunk on the water he was the only one that got out of the boat our focus though will either empower our faith or empower our fear if we focus on the lord and his word our faith is empowered if we focus on the crisis around us our fear is empowered peter's focus led to his fear he looked at everything around him and he lost focus on what he was doing he saw the crisis around him and said i can't keep going many times our focus leads us to fear what we are focused on right now in our country we're we are being driven by fear can i give you some some advice some of y'all really need to hear this turn off fox news cnn in ms nbc or any other news outlet because all all these fear focused news outlets are doing is making you fear get out and vote next month and move on what i have learned is watching the television at this point in election season has never changed anyone's vote y'all knew who you were going to vote for six months ago i don't need i don't need the guy from fox or cnn to help me with my decision fear sales though that's why they do it cut the stress and the fear and focus on the king and what he has for you it's much more eternal than anything that will happen in november when peter stepped out in faith and obedience to the word when he stepped out in obedience he was given the supernatural traction to walk on the water but when he shifted his focus of the lord onto his circumstances the distraction caused him to lose his traction you know when we use the word the the acronym or the phrase the part of the word d-i-s it means the opposite of whatever it is this unified is the opposite of unified will distract distraction is the opposite of traction it's the opposite of focus it's the opposite of moving forward when he allowed distraction to get in he stopped making traction when we get distracted and we lose traction and we stop moving forward with what god has for us we'll miss out when we've got the traction and we're moving towards what god has for us there's not a whole lot we miss but when we allow distraction to take hold we lose we lose traction with the lord peter allowed the circumstances around him to distract him verse 30 of Matthew 14 says but when he saw the strong winds 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 why why did you doubt me he allowed fear to take take a grip he began to sink but he cried out to the lord and Jesus response to peter's failure was his um he immediately came to him that's what Jesus does for us he pulls us up immediately up out of the mess when we cry out to him in our worst storms our worst embarrassing moments when we cry out to the lord he will immediately reach out to us the lord is not the delight of does not delight in our failures he does delight in pulling us up out of it the fact that jesus was able to grab peter immediately though speaks to the fact that peter was was almost to jesus he had walked on water to the point that he was almost there he was almost to the goal how many times do we get almost there almost to where god wants us and then we get distracted and lose traction we can see the goal it's right in front of us oh look a squirrel and we're immediately distracted immediately distracted we get so focused on everything around us and we lose focus on what god is asking us to do jesus looks at him grabs him and picks him up and looks at him and says oh you have little faith one version said you know one version he says you have so little faith one version says oh you of little faith and we've looked at this and we've we've looked at it as it was a rebuke from god but it wasn't a rebuke if you look at the language and what was used here it wasn't a rebuke it was more of a jab it was more of a he was making fun of him it was more of a you got to be kidding me on it hey little faith i was right here in front of you you had two more steps to take that was it what happened to you got focused on the storm i was right there all you had to do was take one more step but you got you got sidetracked oh little faith he's making fun of him essentially he was saying to him you were right there why did you why did you doubt i was with it on arms reach of you when you begin to doubt but the most remarkable part of this whole passage the most remarkable part of the whole story is through though it isn't the fact that peter walked on water is it it's not the fact that peter walked on water to jesus it's not the fact that jesus reached out and picked him up the most remarkable part of this passage is that when jesus reached out and picked him up they walked together back to the boat the scripture doesn't say that when jesus reached out and grabbed him they were immediately in the boat guess how they got there they didn't swim jesus wasn't getting his hair wet they walked on water they walked through the storm and the wind and the waves the storm was still raging the wind didn't stop blowing the waves didn't stop the water didn't become still the moment that jesus reached out and grabbed peter up because it says in verse 32 it says when they climb back into the boat the wind stopped after they took a stroll back to the boat through the storm in the midst of the waves and the wind and when they climbed back into the boat that was when the wind stopped that's when the waves died down that's when the storm ended it wasn't while they were in the water it wasn't when he cried out to jesus it wasn't when jesus reached out to him it was after they got back in the boat so many times we miss the big miracles in our life we miss the the water walking opportunities because of fear because of distractions because of unwillingness and jesus is looking for willing vessels to say yes when he says come he wants us to say yes when we we wants us to take a step of faith that when he says come that we step out not that we may not fall fail or fall not that we may not get sink in the water but the willingness to say yes the willingness to take the step of faith that's when miracles are activated God didn't ask me to succeed he asked me to be obedient the success of the task that he's asked me to do is in his court not mine my job is to be obedient to what he asked me to do I don't want to miss a miracle opportunity because I'm unwilling to take a step of faith I don't want to miss that I don't want to miss what God is trying to do because I'm unwilling to step out I don't want to lose traction with God because I get distracted by the crisis around me are you willing to walk on water are you willing to take the step of faith when God speaks regardless of what he's asking you to do when God speaks are you willing to step out I must give everyone that would just stand your feet Lord I just pray right now that you just begin to move across this house Lord I pray that you just begin to touch God Lord I know that you've been speaking to people in these last few weeks I know that you've been speaking to people I know that there are people in this room that are going through storms right now and they're they're leaning on your promise Lord but they're losing focus and they're losing traction Lord I pray that you just begin to move and you begin to touch and you begin to draw me Lord we want to see miracles in this house you spoke a word and said that this would be a house of miracles and Lord we've we're holding on to that and Lord I pray that we don't miss it because we're unwilling to take a step of faith maybe you're here today maybe you're here this morning and you say you know what I'm in the storm right now I'm going through a battle I've got a crisis around me and I just need God to move I need God to help me I need that word to help me through this storm I want to invite you to come I want to pray with you I want to believe with you just because you're in a storm doesn't mean that you're a bad person or something wrong is something's wrong with your life we all face storms from time to time you're in a storm right now and you say I need I need God to help me maybe God's been speaking to you and for whatever reason you haven't taken that step of faith because you've been waiting on the miracle before you before you took the step of faith and you say this morning I'm ready to take that step of faith I want to invite you to come I want to pray and believe with you I want to pray and believe with you because if God is speaking it to you we don't want to miss it what miracles have we missed because we've not acted in faith maybe there's something in your life that's caused you to lose traction maybe you've been distracted and you're losing traction with God and you say I just need help to refocus I want to invite you to come you won't be the first one don't let fear keep you don't let fear keep you from allowing God to move in your life don't miss the miracles because of fear Lord I just thank you right now I thank you for the ones that responded and Lord I just pray if there's anyone else in this room that needs you that needs you to move in their lives Lord I pray that you just that you just direct them now God Lord I pray that you begin to move and you begin to activate faith in this house God Lord we just thank you this morning if you feel led to come and pray around this altar feel free to do so [BLANK_AUDIO]