00:01 Hey, this is Kathy Roberts, and you are listening to the What Does God say to You, podcast. God put this on my heart to do, and so I'm doing it imperfectly, but consistently, I believe that there is so much more to the Bible and to what God has in store for us than we are walking around and acting like. I believe that churches have really let us down, and that there are so many people that do not know the power of God, the love of God, and the freedom and abundance that we have in Jesus.
00:33 That's what this is all about. If you feel led to give to this work, please follow the prompt. There's a link somewhere here on this page that you can find, where you can click on it and just give whatever your heart desires.
00:47 I thank you in advance. Now on with the podcast. Okay, so here we go. Peter walked on the water. They were, they were out hanging out somewhere.
00:57 Jesus was teaching people and whatnot. And in verse 22 of,chapter 14 of Matthew, it says, “and straight away Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitude away.”
01:18 So he was with the multitude. He sent them away and he told the disciples, you go take off while I go and do this.
01:28 and he said, “when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray.”
01:36 “And when the evening was come, he was there alone, but the ship was now in the midst of the sea and tossed.”
01:45 So there was a big multitude. Jesus was ministering to these people. He told the apostles, you get on a boat, you take off, I'll meet you.
01:55 So he sent the multitude away, and then he went to recharge and to be with God. And so now it says that “the ship was now in the midst of the sea that the apostles were on and tossed with waves for the wind was contrary.”
02:13 So it was very, very windy. It must have been hurricane territory, hurricane situation going on. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went onto them walking on the sea.
02:26 So now it's late and there's a storm going on. There's wind, there's waves, there's rain, and it doesn't affect Jesus.
02:38 He's walking on the water, going to them, the surroundings do not affect him. He's our example. “And when the disciples saw him walking on the seat, they were troubled saying it is a spirit, and they cried out for fear.”
02:55 So this is what the apostles did because now you know, they're scared for their lives to begin with. And now there's a storm and there's this, this storm that's going on, and here comes this.
03:08 What they think is a spirit, a ghost, something. They're really freaked out walking on the water and they cried out for fear.
03:18 And straight away, like right away, immediately “straight away, Jesus spoke unto them saying, be a good cheer,” be happy. “It is I be not afraid.”
03:32 He just wanted to let them know, don't be afraid. It's me. “And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be you, bid me to come out on the water.”
03:47 Like what a big, bold step this was. He, immediately did drop the fear, obviously, and he wanted to do what Jesus did.
03:58 “And then Jesus said, come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”
04:10 He did it. Peter did it. He walked on the water to go to Jesus. But then what happened next? Peters took his eyes off of Jesus and put it on what he saw around him.
04:23 He must have suddenly been in a place thinking, wait, what the hell am I doing? Like, you know, in the moment when he saw Jesus walking on the water, he elevated himself to a place that's like, holy crow, what is possible?
04:37 What is possible? And he was elated with it. Then he actually did it, and his mind got in the way.
04:45 His thoughts started coming in. And instead of him casting the thoughts out, he embraced them. “But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.”
04:58 So he saw what was around. He was like, wait a minute. Look at what's going on. Like, you could walk on the water when it's not boisterous?
05:05 Oh, if it was really nice out today, this would be fine. I'd be able to walk on the water. Right?
05:11 Doesn't make sense. But when he saw fear, fear never makes sense. When he walked, when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink.
05:24 So, you know, do you ever begin to sink being on the water? If you get in the water, what do you do?
05:29 You immediately go down. Right? Do you ever just slowly go down? But that's what was happening here, because it was to the level of his belief that was keeping him where he was so much to learn.
05:42 Here, when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him.
06:01 Can you just picture it? Put his hand out.
06:06 Peter is probably waist-deep now in the water and he saw him. You had to see his face being all frantic crazy with, with fear, grabbed him and pulled him up.
06:19 And what did they do? They, they walked back. They walked back to the ship together, and he said it to him, “oh, thou of little faith, wherefore did thou doubt.”
06:28 Why did you doubt? Now, I think it's hysterical here, that Jesus called him of little faith. If I walked on the water for five seconds, I would consider myself like pretty filled with faith, right?
06:41 Amazing. But the reality is that we've gotta keep it. What good is it if we don't keep it? Oh, you of little faith.
06:49 Wherefore did thou doubt? It was the doubt. Now doubt being that not the kind of doubt, that's like a glimmer of worry or thought because it says that Jesus, Jesus thought just like we did, yet without sin, which means that he had the same thoughts.
07:07 Let me find that verse really quickly. I have my laptop open. So, Hebrew 4:15.
07:16 Let's see. It says, “For we have not a high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted,”that's the word I'm looking for, tempted, “but was with in all points tempted like us, yet without sin.”
07:33 So It's not the thoughts that come in, it's the dwelling on the thoughts that come in. We can't help that.
07:38 It's like saying that, we can’t help a weed coming in the garden. You can't, but what do you gotta do?
07:43 You gotta weed that garden. There's, stuff about that too. Okay? So it was in the doubt, it was in the doubt that he meditated on that he allowed to take root.
07:55 “And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased then that they were with them in the ship, came and worshiped him, saying, oh, the truth that art the son of God.”
08:07 All right? So there's that. But the one thing I wanted to show you right after that was this section in Matthew where Jesus was in his own hometown.
08:20 Because what I wanna show you is the connection to believing, the connection to faith and how it doesn't matter.
08:30 Like when people say, why does God let this happen? Why does God let this happen? It's up to us. We have free will.
08:36 It's about what we think, how we believe he's there. He was there for Peter when he was walking on the water and when he was sinking?
08:46 Yes. Was he sinking because Jesus made him sink? No, we have a responsibility too. We've got a responsibility. So look at what happened when he was in his own hometown.
08:59 “And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence. And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue in so much that they were astonished.”
09:13 “and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter son? See, they, they knew him.
09:23 They knew who he was. They knew who he was from a baby. So they're looking at him like, wait a minute, you can't be doing this.
09:31 We know who you are. “Is this not the carpenter son? Is this not his mother? Mary is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters.”
09:46 “Are they not here with us?” Did you know that Jesus had brothers and sisters? He did. “And his sisters, are they not with us hence then has this man all this, these things.”
09:57 It's like, how could this guy have all this? We know who he is. He's a carpenter son. Never think that you're not special because of where you came from or who you used to be.
10:08 And Jesus was pretty incredible all the time. So if you're having naysayers around you, you're in good company.
10:17 All right, ready? We're getting to the point now. “And they were offended in him, but Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor saved in his own country and in his own house.”
10:32 You’re with your honor, everywhere else but home. and this is the verse I wanna get to.
10:40 “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” This is the man that walked on the water, raised the dead, made the blind to see, made the lame to walk.
10:53 This is the man that did all of this. Yet when he was here, there were sick people there. He couldn't help them because they had the responsibility, and he did not
11:06 many mighty works there because of their unbelief. And in another section where it talks about this, it says, except healing a few sick folk like somebody with a cold or something.
11:16 Because that's the level of the believing that they could have if there was somebody there that needed an arm grown, if there was somebody there that needed to be able to see if there was somebody there on their deathbed, they they didn't think he could do it.
11:32 They didn't have any faith in him at all. But you know they thought, “I could be healed of a cold.” And so their level of believing they had was was minimal, they could believe for that.
11:43 So now, that's what I wanted to bring into this reading about the part where Peter walked on the water and then he sank because he stopped believing.
11:55 And you know, I get it because we see things all around us. And it could be scary. You do something, you expect something, you put all your work and all your heart and everything into something and you're working so hard and then all of a sudden it looks like it's not gonna work.
12:10 Or nobody cares about it. Or you're working on your health or something, or you're on a diet or whatever it is.
12:17 We've got to not see the negatives. Maybe you lost your job, and every time you go to get another job, you're just hearing all of these negative things. Or or diagnosis.
12:34 A diagnosis that you have. Where are we gonna put our eyes? If we put our eyes on what we see, we're gonna sink.
12:42 That's gonna be it. We sunk, we're done. We're gonna put our eyes on Jesus. Is it easy? No, it's not easy.
12:49 But guess what? I can tell you from experience that if you stay in that place, allow the feelings. Because we're not the feelings.
12:58 We can't help the feelings. Can’t help the thoughts. But we can reject them. And, and if we sit with it long enough and we just take the time, instead of trying to rationalize it, push it away or push it down.
13:16 Instead of doing that, if we actually take the time away from it and get with God and say, all right, God, I'm being attacked here.
13:26 All I'm seeing everything that I'm seeing, I don't wanna see this. I wanna see you. Take the time away, get quiet, allow him.
13:35 It says,”Let the peace of God rule in your heart.” What does that mean? Does that mean that peace of God can rule in my heart all the time?
13:42 It doesn't mean that. Let the peace of God rule in your heart. So that has to be that there's gonna be sometimes that there's gonna be a lot of crap going on in the world and around you that it's gonna be hard to allow peace in there.
13:57 We have to not see that, and see him. Boy, am I preaching to the choir! I needed this like you can't believe today.
14:04 So this is wonderful for me. I hope it's great for you. It's not easy in the moment, but the moment's gonna come and go Anyway.
14:16 We might as well let it come and go standing on faith, believing in Him rather than fearing the circumstances and what we see.
14:26 Okay? So that's that. Thanks for being with me. I'm gonna say a prayer and then we'll end. Okay? Father, God, thank you so much for your word.
14:32 Help us to see only you, God, regardless of the circumstances that are around us, so that we can stand in the fullness of what you are and be deliberate and have that power that you came to give us that more than abundant life.
14:46 In Jesus Christ's name, I pray and I praise you, and I thank you. Amen. If You, you like this podcast, please support it.
14:54 There's so much that I want to do, but I need your help. I can't do it alone. I'm gonna thank you in advance.
15:01 You could find some sort of link somewhere where you can give here on this page or someplace. You can email me, Kathy@thetidytutor.com.
15:11 I don't have a, What Does God Say to You email yet, so that will have to do. See you in the next podcast.