80 Miles with a Big God — E.A. Johnston

God's Transcendence and Miraculous Power

We live in a day where many folks have shrunken God down to man's size. And placed him on the same level of man, but my Bible says. And Isaiah for thus saith the high and lofty one that Inhabited the eternity whose name is holy.

I dwell in the high and holy Place. I believe in a God who's high and lifted up. I believe in a God who still works miracles today, and that's the kind of God I want to look at today friends in our passage of scripture.

Jesus Prays While the Disciples Struggle

Turning your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew. We will be in chapter 14 beginning in verse 23. Here now is the Word of God and may the spirit of the Lord Attend the reading of his holy word. And when he had sent the multitudes away He went up into a mountain apart to pray.

Let me pause here friends to say have you ever noticed how often Jesus got alone to pray? It was as if he couldn't wait to talk to his father in heaven. He lived in continuous Communication with his father in heaven.

I think we can learn a lot from that picture. Jesus up there on that mountain Which overlooked the Sea of Galilee? He's watching a little boat down there and it's getting dark and the boat isn't making much progress.

He knows who is in the boat and he knows each of its passengers. Intimately he knows their hopes and fears their cares and concerns. He knows them inside and out. He knows them better than they know themselves.

And he's watching them while he's talking to his father. Jesus spent the whole night in prayer up on that mountain Talking to God while his disciples were struggling out on the water. For a tempest had come up and the wind was contrary.

The geography and topography of the Sea of Galilee Makes it subject to sudden violent storms. Why you can be out on a boat and all is calm when out of nowhere. The waves begin to curl and rise in white cap and even fill your boat with water.

One time Jesus was in the boat with his disciples and he was plum worn out and taking a nap below. When one of these bad storms suddenly appeared out of nowhere and it was so sudden and violent it made the Seasoned fishermen aboard so fearful for their lives that they went woke up Jesus well our text says.

The Storm and Jesus Walking on the Water

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea tossed with ways for the wind was contrary. The storm was so bad friends that the little boat Literally made no progress out on the choppy water. The men rode and rode and they barely moved at all and this went on until early in the morning around three o 'clock in the morning because our text says in the fourth watch of the night the Romans divided the evening into four time periods called watches and the fourth watch Was between the hours of 3 a .m. And 6 a .m.

So the little boat with its troubled passengers had been in a conflict for a while. And the men are worn out. They're afraid they're at their wits end. Then they see something that's so terrible and frightful that these grown men began to scream out and fear like Little girls, what do they see?

They see a figure of a man Doing the impossible he's walking on the water. They think it's a spirit and it is here friends that many preachers. They grab hold of the wrong end of this text and they miss in my opinion the most important aspect of this striking passage of Scripture.

Most ministers will focus their message on Peter and his lack of faith how he began. Well stepping out of the boat onto the water and then he took his eyes off of Jesus. And he began to sink and then Jesus reached out and saved him and the thrust of their message is as Believers were not to take her eyes off of Jesus where we will sink to will sink into sin and that's a great message, but that's Misses the main point here and the main point is much more fantastic than that.

The point is this Jesus is working a Supernatural act by walking on the water because he is a super duper God who can do Super duper things by his almighty power. Then the focal point of this text should be verses 28 and 29 Which are talking about Peter and Peter answered him and said Lord if it be thou Bid me come unto thee on the water and he said come.

And I'll pause here friends to say this. I bet Jesus was grinning ear to ear over the bold faith of Peter who wanted to leave the safety of the boat and trust his master and participate with him and The supernatural and do you know what friends once you get a taste of the supernatural?

You don't want to get back into the boat. You don't want to live in the natural much longer in the key verse out of the entire passage on faith. Is verse 29 in the words and when Peter was come out of the ship?

He walked on the water to go to Jesus. I will stop there. Do you get it? Peter walked on the water. It doesn't matter how long or how far he walked on the water. Because he's a mortal man and not God like Jesus but the stark bold fact is friends that this is where the emphasis and force of the text should be placed it's on the Participation of a mortal man with a mighty God.

The participation of Peter in the Supernatural. He did what no man ever did or ever did since he walked on the water. Just like the Son of God and that's where the rubber meets the road friends in a life of faith.

Faith That Expects the Impossible

Yes, Jesus said After the fact Oh thou of little faith. Wherefore didst thou doubt. Meaning you never would have sunk if all you had to do was just hanged on to your faith. I believe all things are possible with God.

I believe all things are possible to those who believe because my Bible tells me so and I believe in a super duper God who can still move in Super duper ways in my life and your life friend if you'll only believe.

An Eighty-Mile Journey by Faith

Let me share a story with you about this super duper God. I Had to be in a meeting and it was an hour away from where I lived and like always I was Dead broke with only five dollars in my wallet and my car was sitting right and empty.

The gas needle was touching the red line and I knew that $5 wasn't going to get me enough gas to get me to my meeting an hour away. I had about a gallon of gas in my tank and one gallon Only gets you about 22 miles worth of driving.

I had to drive at least 40 to 60 miles there and back. I Mean 40 miles there and 40 miles back, which is about 80 miles total which means after 22 miles my card stopped running and I'd be on the out of gas on the side of the road.

But I had to get to that meeting. So I trusted God and I started driving Halfway there. I noticed an odd thing happening. My gas needle hadn't moved at all. I kept driving and driving and staring at my gas needle and it never budged an inch.

Well, I made it to my meeting and I got back in my car and I started my drive back home. And halfway back I was still amazed that my gas needle seemed frozen. It was not moving at all. I pulled up into my driveway and began to shout praises unto God for working the supernatural.

By allowing me to get to my meeting without the oil in the cruise Diminishing at all and to prove my point that my needle wasn't broken. I drove round and round the block and Immediately, I watched that needle move all the way down to the deep red zone.

Where I finally stopped at a gas station and used that last $5 to buy me a gallon of gas. Which would buy me another 22 miles. My point is this friend God is looking for faith. God is looking for the man or woman who will prove him by their faith.

God's Search for Faithful Believers

2nd Chronicles 16 9 Was DL Moody's Favorite Bible verse and he leaned on that verse all his life. Because God made it a reality in his life for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro Throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.

Vance Havner said if we serve such a dynamite God. How come so many of us are living firecracker lives? Listen friends. I don't believe the Holy Spirit stopped working after the last page of the book of Acts.

I believe God still works today any moves and Miraculous ways. I wouldn't be here talking to you now friends if God hadn't kept me safe Through a quadruple bypass surgery that a team of expert doctors were hesitant to do.

Because the percentages were high. I wouldn't survive it. I believe in a dynamite Super-duper God who does super-duper things and who's looking right now all over his creation. For the person who's willing to step out on a limb for him.

An Extraordinary Experience of God

So he can take that person that person's faith and bring that person into a supernatural experience of his glue him before his glory. I Once knew a minister on the Isle of Lewis and Scotland and he knew Duncan Campbell pretty well.

And he was out of that Lewis revival. He'd come through that Revival experience he was one of the people on the island that were converted from that time of God moving on that Island on to the preaching to Duncan Campbell and I asked this man to describe to me in one sentence Duncan Campbell kind of sum him up and he said Duncan Campbell was an ordinary man.

Who had had an extraordinary? Experience of God. Is that what you're looking for a friend? That's what I'm looking for. Yeah, God himself is looking for someone. He can do the impossible with someone he can work the impossible through.

Expecting God to Work Through You

I believe if you're on the mission field and you've got the right kind of faith. You can see God do all things because all things are possible with God. I believe if you're a pastor who's discouraged and Downhearted and downcast that God can get a hold of you and turn your whole ministry around.

He can turn you upside down if you only believe in him. Friend you got to expect him to work through you and do his work the supernatural way. And you can just look and stare at your Bible. And by faith Expect him to step out of the pages of your Bible and enter your life and take you on the ride of your life.

How bad do you want to experience him?