Please take your Bibles now and turn to Matthew chapter 14.
Matthew chapter 14.
I had a lot of fun reading through this chapter and thinking about a sermon, but look at verse
31.
Matthew 14 verse 31, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and
said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
The title of the sermon tonight is thou of little faith.
And I think these words could be said to any of us at different points in our life.
I'm sure there's been points in our life where we've had doubts.
Is God going to come through for us?
Is God going to answer this prayer?
As Jesus Christ says these words to Peter, I can just imagine Jesus Christ saying these
words to me sometimes when I've had little faith or maybe to yourself.
So what I really want to look at today as we get through maybe the second half of this
chapter is to think about how can we increase our faith?
How can we make sure that we remain faithful to the Lord and see it through?
So let's pick it up from verse number one there.
Matthew 14 verse one.
It says there at the time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus.
Now Herod the tetrarch, guys, that's not the same Herod which tried to kill Jesus Christ
as a little baby.
If you guys remember that Herod then, Herod the great he's known as, remember God warned
Joseph to go into Egypt to escape the murderous attempts of Herod.
But when Herod died, that's when God called Joseph and Mary to come back out of Egypt
and go back into the land of Canaan.
So this Herod of tetrarch is actually one of Herod the great's sons.
After Herod the great passed away, four of his sons looked after the same area that he
had.
That's why this Herod is known as Herod the tetrarch just to differentiate from Herod
the great that we know about.
Now look, he heard the fame of Jesus.
Look at verse number two.
And said unto his servants, this is John the Baptist.
He is risen from the dead and therefore mighty works to show forth themselves in him.
So you see Herod the tetrarch knew John the Baptist.
In fact when he hears about Jesus he goes, wow, John the Baptist has risen from the dead.
You see Herod here knew about the resurrection of the saints and he said, well what does
that mean?
How does he know that?
Because Herod took a lot of time listening to the preaching of John the Baptist.
We'll have a look at this shortly.
But Herod the tetrarch for me has always been an interesting figure in the Bible.
He's had so much truth revealed unto him.
He knew who the real prophets of God were and yet he still rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's such a sad story for Herod here.
But let's keep reading, verse number three.
For Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for Herodias sake.
His brother Philip's wife.
For John said unto him, it is not lawful for thee to have her.
And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted
him as a prophet.
So let's understand this.
Herod the tetrarch arrested John the Baptist and put him into prison.
And the reason why he did that was because John the Baptist preached against Herod for
taking his brother Philip's wife.
He had committed adultery.
How bad is it to commit adultery with your sister-in-law?
He took her as his wife and John the Baptist preached against him.
And Herodias, he says he was put in prison for Herodias sake.
Herodias is the wife.
She's the one that demanded, hey, arrest John the Baptist, hey, kill John the Baptist.
But you see here that Herod feared the multitude because the multitude saw John the Baptist
as a prophet.
Now keep your finger there and turn to Mark chapter six, please.
Turn to Mark chapter six because I want to show you how interesting Herod is in the Bible.
Mark chapter six verse 18.
And there's a big warning for all of us.
A big warning for all of us in the life of Herod here.
But Mark chapter six verse 18.
Let's get a different angle to the same story.
It says here, for John had said unto Herod, it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's
wife.
Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him and would have killed him, but she could not.
For Herod feared John knowing, look at this, for Herod feared John knowing that he was
a just man and unholy and observed him.
And when he had heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly.
You see, even after Herod had arrested John the Baptist, you know, he knew he was a just
man.
He knew he was a holy man.
He knew John the Baptist was preaching the truth.
And it says here that he gladly, he observed him and gladly heard him.
This was in prison, so Herod would go to prison to see John the Baptist and hear him preach.
This is why I'm saying it's interesting.
Because Herod knew that John the Baptist was a prophet of God, knew that he was a righteous
man and gladly heard the preaching.
Such a sad thing that Herod still rejected Jesus Christ.
Let's turn to Luke 23, please.
Let's have a look at this.
Luke 23 verse 8.
Luke 23 verse 8, where we're fast-forwarding a little bit now to the end of the ministry
of Jesus Christ.
After Jesus Christ was arrested and before his crucifixion, if you remember the story,
he was brought before Herod the tetrarch.
Jesus Christ was brought before Herod the tetrarch.
Look at this in Luke 23 verse 8.
Luke 23 verse 8.
It says, and when Herod saw Jesus, look, he was exceeding glad.
For he was desirous to see him for a long season.
This means Herod's been wanting to see Jesus Christ for a long time.
He finally sees Jesus now because he had heard many things of him and he hoped to have seen
some miracle done by him.
So this guy even knows that Jesus Christ can do miracles.
His hope is to see Jesus Christ perform a miracle before his eyes.
And then it says here, then he questioned with him in many words, but he answered him
nothing.
Herod asked Jesus Christ many questions, but how did Jesus respond?
He answered him nothing.
Jesus did not respond to Herod.
Verse number 10.
And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him, look at this, verse
11, and Herod with his men of war set him at naught and mocked him and arrayed him in
a gorgeous robe and sent him again to Pilate.
You see, he wanted Jesus Christ to perform a miracle.
He wanted Jesus Christ to preach.
He knew he was a legitimate preacher once again.
He knew Christ could perform miracles in the same way with John the Baptist.
He knew he was a legitimate prophet of God.
But what happens when Jesus does not respond to him, does not answer his questions?
He rejects Christ.
He mocks Christ, mockingly puts that robe upon him and sends him back to Pilate.
Now you might say, well, it's a little bit unfair, Jesus.
Why didn't you answer the questions from Herod?
If you guys don't mind, go back to Mark, please, Mark chapter 8.
You guys were in Mark 64.
Go to Mark chapter 8.
So we just want to get the answer of Jesus Christ.
Why would he not speak to Herod?
Mark 8, verse 15.
These are the words of Jesus Christ.
It says here, and he charged them, saying, take heed.
Listen.
That's what he means.
Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
Beware of the leaven of Herod.
Now a lot of you guys have heard that saying, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
And I'm sure you've heard preaching on that.
But have you ever heard about the leaven of Herod?
What is the leaven of Herod?
What is this false idea that Herod was teaching?
Well, here's the thing about Herod.
Herod was so close to the truth.
Herod knew the preachers of God.
Herod had the truth preached at him.
But what is his leaven?
That he rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, even knowing full well the truth of everything
that was presented to him.
And this is the warning that I want to tell you guys, especially for children.
Okay, children, pay attention to me.
Children that have been going to church, you've been going to church maybe for a long time,
you grow up into church, you hear preaching, you know what the preacher is saying is true,
you know it's from the Bible, but you're still not ready to receive Christ.
You might put that on the back burner and say, no, look, one day, someday, one day I'm
going to believe on Christ.
I'm happy to be in church.
I'm happy to hear the preaching.
I know it's true.
But you know what?
I'm going to hold off now.
I'm not going to put my faith in Christ just yet.
That's something that I can do at an older age.
No.
Hey, beware of the leaven of Herod.
That was Herod's problem.
He had everything available to him.
He had preachers available to him.
He knew they preached the truth.
And he still rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's hard for me to wrap my head around that because I think if I'm being offered the free
gifts, if I'm being told eternal life, I'll be like, I want it, give it to me.
But you see Herod, it's like, no, you know, it didn't fall in his plans.
He wanted to see a miracle of Christ, but did not receive that miracle.
So I just wanted to show you that beware of the leaven of Herod, children, I've seen,
I've been in church my whole life.
And I see children grow up in church, hearing great preaching.
And then by the time they're, you know, 16, 17, 18, they're out of church.
You know, um, they don't want, they don't want to have anything to do with God.
You know, that's the leaven of Herod.
You've got to be careful.
Okay.
Because you know what, sometimes the teaching can be so familiar.
You know, it all, you know, you think, well, I know all this stuff, okay.
But you're missing the most important ingredient that's being born again by being born of the
spirit.
Turn this off.
Otherwise it's going to distract me.
All right.
Let's go back to Matthew chapter 14, please.
Matthew chapter 14.
Now something else that gets asked a lot, um, to me that I've been asked many times
is, when you look at the Old Testament prophets, now, if you know John the Baptist, he was
the last of the Old Testament prophets.
And if you look at all the Old Testament prophets, one of their major ministries was preaching
against the authorities, preaching against the kings, preaching against the priests when
they have failed in their duties.
I'm sure you can all relate.
If you've read the Old Testament, you know, that's a huge chunk of the Old Testament.
Just God sending prophets, calling out wicked kings, calling out wicked priests, you know,
calling out wicked pastors, you know.
And we see this.
John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet.
And there he is once again, calling out Herod, you know, for committing adultery, for taking
his brother's wife for himself.
The question comes, should we, as pastors, as preachers, New Testament preachers, should
we also be, you know, calling out our, you know, our premiers and our prime ministers
and the Queen of England or whatever?
Should we be doing that in the New Testament?
Anyway, I'll say a couple of things.
First of all, I don't think there's anything wrong to do that, okay?
There's a lot of wicked politicians.
We have a lot of wicked leadership in our country.
I don't think there's anything wrong in and of itself.
We take the example that we see of the prophets of old preaching against, you know, the leaders
of the nation.
But here's something that you need to understand that's very different between the Old Testament
and the New Testament.
The reason the prophets were called to, you know, many times preach against the leadership
is because Old Testament Israel had a covenant with God himself.
You know, God had a covenant with those people, with that nation, that he would be their God.
And if they stopped obeying the commands of God, if they started to follow after false
gods, that God would curse them.
And quite often when that would happen, that's when God would send his prophets to preach
against them to get the nation back on track, okay?
But if the nation as a whole kept the commandments of God, God will bless them.
God will, you know, keep them safe in that land, will protect them from their enemies
and so on and so forth.
But you see, in Australia, we don't have that anymore.
Australia does not have a covenant with God.
The United States does not have a covenant with God.
We've got the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, we've got the New Testament, okay?
And under the New Testament, what's more important than a physical nation is that spiritual nation,
the spiritual nation, you know, of God's people, you know?
And that's why the Bible says that judgment begins in the house of God.
You know, more important than me calling out some prime minister for their sins, what's
more important is that we preach to the church.
That judgment is in our church, that we challenge one another in the sins, in the weaknesses
that we have and that we mature and we grow understanding the spiritual truths that we
have in the Word of God.
So I'm just saying that because that's a question that gets asked of me, should we be like the
Old Testament prophets?
Well, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
I'm not going to say that's wrong, but our focus today is primarily in the local New
Testament church, not in the nation so much because God does not have a covenant with
the nation of Australia, okay?
That was something special for the nation of Israel back in the Old Testament days.
Let's go back to Matthew 14 verse 6.
Matthew 14 verse 6.
But when Herod's birthday was kept, so it's Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias
danced before them and pleased Herod, whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever
she would ask.
And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in
a charger.
So the word charger is just another word for a dish, like a big dish.
And the demand of the daughter of Herodias was to have the head of John the Baptist on
that dish, beheaded.
Verse number 9.
And the king was sorry.
Why do you think he was sorry?
We've sort of seen what he was like.
He knew John the Baptist was a just man, and of course he was sorry, he doesn't want to
kill John the Baptist.
He says, Nevertheless, for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meet, he commanded
it to be given her.
And he sent and beheaded John in the prison, and his head was brought in a charger and
given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother.
And his disciples came and took up the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.
So the only thing that I want to point out here, guys, is that this is the end of the
Old Testament prophets.
John the Baptist, the last Old Testament prophet, why is that important?
Because now Jesus Christ, at his death, would bring in the new covenant in his blood.
The next prophet, as it were, to die, in that sense, would be the Lord Jesus Christ, and
his death would usher in that New Testament, the new covenant.
Verse 13.
When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart.
And when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities.
And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them,
and he healed their sick.
Now, this is something that's interesting about Jesus.
He hears about the death of John the Baptist, you know, his cousin, the one who baptized
him, the one that was the forerunner, that prepared a generation for the Lord Jesus Christ.
He hears about the death of John the Baptist, and you can see that he moved Christ, that
it caused him to depart into a desert place.
He went somewhere quiet.
He needed some peace.
He needed somewhere to have time to think, you know, and to, you know, I guess, be re-encouraged
once again.
I'm sure he went out to pray.
But even though he was sorrowing the death of his cousin, you see that this great multitude
came and followed after Christ.
Now I love verse 14, because, notice that in verse 14, it says that Jesus was moved
with compassion.
Moved with compassion.
Now I don't know if you have compassion for the lost.
I mean, don't show me a show of hands, but can you honestly tell me I have a compassion
for the lost?
I'm saddened for those that do not know Christ as a Savior.
I'm saddened for those that have not heard the gospel.
Maybe you do.
Maybe a little bit.
Maybe, if you're honest, you might even say, actually, I don't.
I don't have that compassion.
Well, I think the ingredients are here in verse 14.
How do you gain that compassion for the lost?
And I can relate to this.
I can relate to this a lot, because look at verse 14.
It says, and Jesus went forth.
So the first thing we notice is that Jesus went, he went out, and saw a great multitude,
and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
What's the process?
What's the first thing that Jesus did?
He went forth.
He saw the multitude.
What's the next thing?
Then he was moved with compassion, then he healed their sick.
Now you and I, we don't have the power to heal the sick, but we do have the power to
preach the gospel.
And the healing that comes from preaching the gospel by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ is much greater than physical healing.
Having your soul healed, having your soul saved for all eternity is much more important
than some temporal ailment that you suffer with.
So we do have a task to heal the brokenhearted, to heal the sick, as it were.
That is to preach the gospel.
But notice here, what we're required to do, if we want to follow off the steps of Christ,
is to first go forth.
Now let me tell you a story about myself.
Before I started going soul-willing, before I started going door-to-door soul-willing,
I thought I had a compassion for the lost.
I thought.
Okay?
It wasn't till I went forth.
It wasn't till I started knocking doors.
It wasn't till I started to hear what other people, lost people, were saying about going
to heaven.
They were trusting in being a good person.
They were trusting in their church.
They were trusting in, you know, that God would just be merciful for whatever reason.
And when I started to hear the stories, and then I started to see people that really wanted
to know what they must do to be saved, guess what happened to me?
I started to be moved by compassion.
Okay?
But I was kind of waiting for the compassion to come first.
It's like, well, now that I have the compassion, now I'm going to go and preach the gospel.
But no, actually what happened was, I had to go and knock doors without compassion.
Then I saw the multitude seeing what they needed, and then I was moved by compassion.
I'm not sure if some of you guys can relate to that, but I said that was a significant
part of my life, to realize I had to do something first, and then I was moved by compassion.
And then once you're moved by compassion, then you can heal the sick, as it were.
Preach the gospel to them.
See them saved.
And this is something similar with our relationships, husbands and wives.
If you feel that, you know, you got into a point in your life where you just don't have
the same love for your wife, you don't have the same love for your husband like you used
to, you know, you're waiting for this emotion to come your way, you know, those feelings
that you first had when you first met, that first date you went out on.
You know what?
Sometimes you just need to go forth.
You just need to look after your spouse, look after your wife, look after your husband,
provide their needs, and what you'll find is that love will come back when you start
caring for that person, when you start doing things for that person, when you start investing
time and effort into that relationship, that's when the love is going to come back, you know.
It's not waiting for the love, then I'll do my part, no.
You do your part and the love, the compassion, the emotions will come out of your actions,
okay.
It's a very similar thing to what we see here in Jesus Christ.
Verse number 15, please, verse 15, and when it was evening, his disciples came to him
saying, this is a desert place and the time is now past, send the multitude away that
they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals.
So the word victuals just means food, all right.
They're in the desert, there's a multitude.
The Bible later on tells us how many were there, there were 5,000 men, just men, but
then there were women and children as well, all right.
They could have easily been 10,000 people, you know, listening to Christ, following after
Christ at this point, but we're given the numbers of 5,000 men here, okay.
Now what you'll notice is it's a desert place.
Now if you're one of the disciples of Christ and you knew the people were starting to get
hungry, you knew it's starting to get late, I think it's reasonable to think, hey Jesus,
let's send them away so they can get some food, you know.
But what we see here is that this is actually a lack of faith on the disciples.
They're thinking we cannot provide for this group.
We cannot provide for this multitude, okay, but they're with the Son of God, they're with
Jesus Christ, who they've seen perform amazing miracles, and it's amazing because it's like
Jesus here proves to them that he can provide every need.
This is why it's so important for us to look at here.
And let me just quickly read to you from Mark 11 23, you don't need to turn there.
It says, For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed
and be thou cast into the sea, look at this, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall
believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he
saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe, and ye receive
them, and ye shall have them.
You see, Jesus Christ, when there's a need for us, right now there's a need of 5,000
people to be fed, but you're going to go through times in your life when you have a great need.
When you need the Lord to provide for you, okay, what does the Bible say we need to do?
It says we need to pray to the Lord, right, without doubting, you know, pray with all
our faith to the Lord, knowing that he's going to provide our needs, and it says we'll
have them.
I mean, I'm sure we all have stories of having a need, praying to the Lord, and then him
coming through for us, and providing our every need.
You might be in a position right now where you have a great need.
You might be in a position right now where you have some doubts, is God going to provide
for me?
Is God going to find a way?
You know, well, what does the Bible say?
Pray.
Pray, and don't have doubts, and he'll answer that prayer.
But the story that we have here, guys, is this 5,000 men without food, this great need
that there was.
Let's keep reading, verse 16, but Jesus said unto them, they need not depart, give ye them
to eat.
I love about Jesus, right, they don't need to go, you give them food.
This life is like, what, we want to send them away so they can get some food.
Jesus says no, you know, give them the food that you've got here, all right, verse 17,
and they said unto him, we have here but five loaves and two fishes.
That's all they have, guys, five loaves of breads and two fishes to feed at least 10,000
people on the day, all right.
Verse 18, he said, bring them hither to me.
So here's what I want you to understand.
When you have a need, okay, and you might be in a financial need right now, all right,
you need to pray to the Lord, you need to go to Jesus Christ, he can provide for you.
But what you need to do, guys, is to take your five loaves and your two fishes.
You say, well, it's not enough.
Hey, you've got to take what you have, you've got to do what you have, you've got to play
your role, you know, offer it to Jesus Christ, and we'll soon see that Jesus Christ can multiply,
that Jesus Christ can feed the multitudes, okay.
But we need to have faith that, you know, Jesus Christ can come through.
Look at verse 19, and he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass and took the five
loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the
loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude.
So this is a great example of Christ before we partake of food, before we partake of a
meal, you see, once again, Jesus Christ blessing the food, you know, so, you know, Thanksgiving
for the food that God has provided for us.
You see, even though it's not enough, we see Jesus Christ still being thankful for
the five loaves and the two fishes.
Verse number 20, and they did all eat and were filled, and they took up the fragments
that remained, 12 baskets full, and they that had eaten were about 5,000 men besides women
and children, all right.
So we see how Jesus Christ was able to perform an amazing miracle.
Somehow those loaves, those fishes were multiplied, somehow everybody was able to eat to the point
that there remained 12 baskets full, and the reason I believe there are 12 full baskets,
you know, is one for each of the apostles, one for each of the disciples.
They were asking Jesus, hey, send the multitude away.
They were all left with one basket each, you know, full of bread, full of fishes.
You see, God does not just provide your every need, but God can provide in abundance.
Quite often when God provides, He provides more than you need, you know, more than you
need.
It's such a blessing when you see God come through, you know, and look, we serve a living
God.
We serve a God who loves us, and if you're going through troubles, financial problems,
whatever your needs are, hey, and all you've got are your five loaves and two fishes, well
then offer that to God.
You know, thank God for what you have, do what you can, you know, pray to the Lord,
don't doubt, and He'll come through for you.
This is the promises that we see in the Bible.
And again, once again, you know, I'm sure we've all had those experiences in our lives
where God has come through, but you know what, we're also very weak, our flesh is weak.
So we've seen in the past when God's done things for us, but then today we might have
problems and go, man, I don't know if God's going to do it, but He's done it for us before.
This is why with the disciples, when you read the disciples in the New Testament, it's like
they see these amazing miracles, and it's like, but you're still failing, or you look
at Israel of old, you know, God gets them through the Red Sea, the amazing miracles,
the manna from heaven, and you know, provides their food, and then they're still complaining,
they're still whining, they're still disobeying God, it's like, why don't you get it?
But we're made of the same flesh and blood, you know, and I can understand when you may
feel that God is far away, when you may feel that God's not providing, but look, we are
not to doubt, okay, the first thing we need to understand for us to increase our faith
is to just remember that God will provide, okay, God will provide, not only can He provide,
but He can provide in abundance, okay, provide in abundance.
That's the first lesson that you need to understand in order for your faith to be increased.
And look, I often get asked the question, how did you manage on a single income, you
know, to have 10 children?
I mean, people ask me all the time, like, how do you manage your finances?
And honestly, I don't know, I don't know, I just did what I knew I had to do, I just
got a job, worked hard, paid the bills, tied to church, go to church, serve the Lord, read
my Bible, ask God to provide, and somehow it happened.
I can't tell you how, you know, I would say, yeah, I had five loaves and two fishes, but
I gave that to the Lord, and somehow the Lord was able to multiply that, you know, I don't
really have an answer to you, how I've been able to, you know, especially down in Sydney,
you know, I have 10 children, we're now up in Queensland, and provide, you know, going
to Queensland and studying at church, I've not had a full-time job, you know, like a
full-time paying job, outside of being a church pastor, for over a year now.
So how's God provided?
I don't know, it's just, He's done it, right, okay, you know, obviously with our labor,
when I was 20 years old, the house, we built a granite plan in the back, that's our, you
know, our provision, the rent that comes through, but look, all of that has been provided by
God.
All of that's come from God, you know, not necessarily knowing how that was all going
to come together, but I've seen how God can answer prayers, you know, and then, you know,
up there in Queensland with our church, we were praying for the Lord to provide a building,
I don't know if I've told you the story before, but when we calculated how much do we need
to pay for a building, to have our own building, to lease a building, we worked out how much
we had per month, and we concluded, hey, we can get this building, but we're only going
to be left with $50 at the end of the month, okay, $50 at the end of the month, and it's
like, wow, that's going to be tight, you know, but we got the building, and then it's like
ever since we got the building, the Lord's provided above and beyond, you know, we've
had other people come to join the church, we had other, you know, amounts of offering
that's come into the, you know, and we've been able to pay every month our lease easily,
with plenty left over, it's like every time the need comes, you know, when you pray to
the Lord, you doubt not, you just take the steps that you need to, you know, even thinking,
man, only $50 left over, but it's like, God knows he's there, you know, if you're doing
the work of God, you're putting him first, you're putting his kingdom first, the Lord
will step in and provide, you know, and it's just like this church, New Life Baptist Church
Sydney, I didn't know whether we could be here every week, I didn't know we could afford
flights every week, you know, but there was a need, wasn't there, there was a need, and
we wanted to serve the Lord, you know, we put this church, you know, we prayed for it,
we put it in the hands of God, and we've seen how God can provide, you know, he's come
through, you know, soon we're gonna need our own building, you know, and the Lord has provided
a building for us, you know, at this point, St. Fairfield, he's provided this house for
us so we can meet at different times as well, the Lord has always come through, and I have
no doubt that when it's time for us to hire our own hall, that the Lord's gonna provide
our needs, I have no doubt, I was telling brother David, I bet you it's gonna happen
the week that we need it, like the very week that we need a hall, I bet you that's when
God's gonna come through and provide for us, because I've seen how God has worked through,
you know, the last few years, but does that mean I'm always full of faith, no, many times
I'm still doubting, I'm like, God, are you gonna come through for us, you know, but that's
why we need to increase our faith, but we do need to do our part, it's not about just
praying to the Lord, and the Lord just stepping in doing everything for you, no, you've got
to do your part, you've got to serve the Lord, you've got to go to church, you've got to
read your Bible, you need to go soul-winning, you need to serve, you know, you need to work
hard, you need to do all these things, do your part, offer your five loaves and your
two fishes, and let God multiply the rest of it, and take care of the other things.
Back in Matthew, Matthew 14 please, Matthew 14 verse 22, and straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent
the multitudes away, and when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain
apart to pray, and when the evening was come, he was there alone, but the ship was now in
the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary, and in the fourth watch
of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea, so if you're not sure what the
fourth watch of the night is, that's between three to six a.m., so, you know, about three
a.m. in the morning, Jesus Christ is now walking on the water, okay, and he sees the disciples
struggling in that ship, it says the winds were contrary, the winds were taking them
the opposite direction, which they were trying to get at, Jesus sees they started walking
on the sea, verse 26, and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, it is a spirit, and they cried out for fear, but straightway Jesus spake unto
them, saying, be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid, and let me say just very quickly
guys, is, you know, if you have fears, you know, a lot of people experience different
fears, I remember as a child, I had the fear of the dark, you know, I remember having,
you know, thinking there was a monster underneath my bed, you know, and when I would go to bed,
I'd run, and I'd jump on my bed, because I was worried if I went slowly, like the monster
would grab me and pull me out of the bed, you know, we all have fears, we grow out of
those fears, you know, my fear of my kids are afraid of the dark, parents, we might
be afraid of not providing for our family, we might be afraid of not raising our kids
for the Lord, you know, for our kids to go into the world and destroy their lives, we
all have different kinds of fears, right, but we need to remember that if we just set
our eyes on the Lord, what does he say, you know, he says, be of good cheer, it is I,
be not afraid, you know, the best way to overcome fear in your life is just remember the Lord
Jesus Christ, just call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will deliver you from your
fears, I'll tell you a quick story about my wife, Christina, maybe you've heard this one
before, but when she got saved, so my wife, Christina, she was a Roman Catholic, and she
had all the statues, you know, in a room, she had all the pictures, she had all the
rose, like on the rosary, yeah, she had all that, she had all that stuff in the house,
and when she, you know, believed on Christ, she realized, I need to get rid of these statues,
you know, and she had them all in her bedroom, she got rid of all of them, she got rid of
them, I think she kept one picture of Jesus that she was kind of emotionally attached
to for a little while, she got rid of it eventually, but I remember I was speaking
to her, so I wasn't, you know, we were kind of dating at that time, and I remember speaking
to her on the phone, and then all of a sudden, things went quiet, I was like, Christina,
are you there?
Like, quiet, you know, and then, you know, I don't know how long it took place, but she
got back to me, she got on the phone, she goes, you won't believe what happened, I'm
like, well, what happened?
She says, you know, I was just, she had some music on while she was talking to me on the
phone, and then she heard some, like a rumbling sound, and she was like, what's that?
You know, she thought it was the music, she turned it off, she turned off the music, and
then it's like, and she could still hear the rumbling sound, and then she realized that
her door, you know, her bedroom door was like, vibrating, like violently, violently vibrating,
and it was twisting, like out of shape, you know, it was unnatural, unnatural, she says,
you know, this huge rumble, and she goes, the reason I went quiet is I was so afraid,
I mean, have you ever been so afraid where you just freeze, like, you just don't know
what, that's what happened to her, she froze, you know, and I have no doubt that she was
attacked spiritually during that time, because she got rid of all that demonic stuff, all
those demonic statues, and, you know, obviously the devil, or whatever devils were there that
were involved in that kind of worship, weren't happy, you know, and they were trying to bring
fear into Christina, and I said, well, what did you do?
And she goes, I just said, Jesus, help me, that's the only thing that she could think
of, Jesus, help me, and when she called out to Jesus Christ, it all stopped, and she had
peace, you know, and I've never had that kind of experience, I mean, I've heard of other
people having, you know, similar kinds of experiences, especially when you're really
involved in a false religion, you know, especially when you're involved in worshipping, like,
dead idols, because that worship does go to a devil, okay, I don't have time to cover
that, but you see, even in times of fear, even in times of spiritual wickedness, in
power, the powers of darkness, you know, all we need to do is call upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, and Christ says here, you know, be of good cheer, you know, be not afraid, let's
keep reading, let's keep reading, verse number, where am I up to, verse number 28, verse 28,
and Peter answered him and said, Lord, if thou be, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee
on the water.
So you see, Peter has come to accept that Jesus Christ can perform supernatural miracles,
he sees Jesus Christ there walking on the water, and says, well, if it's you, Jesus,
let me go on the water, I want to experience that, you know, Peter had the right idea,
you know, he, his faith was increased, you know, he was strengthened, he was of good
cheer, he had seen Christ walking on the water, because I want a piece of that, I want a piece
of that adventure, I want to do that, so you see, Peter now full of faith, isn't he, calling
out to Christ, full of faith, verse 29, and he said, Jesus said, come, and when Peter
was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
What an amazing thing, Peter actually walked on water at this point, but I want you to
notice a couple of things here, first of all, Jesus, Jesus said to him, come.
So what are we seeing with Peter, that he was obedient, wasn't he, he was obedient to
the call of Jesus Christ, and number two, as he walked on the water, it says, to go
to Jesus, you see, as he walked, he was, he set his sights on the Lord Jesus Christ, his
focus was on Jesus Christ, he was obedient to Christ, and he was seeking to follow after
Christ, that's why Peter was able to perform such a great miracle himself, obedience, following
after Christ, and he was able to, you know, walk on water.
Verse number 30, but when he saw the wind, boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to
sink he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
Why did Peter begin to sink?
He saw here, he saw the winds, right, he saw the waves, he saw the winds, he got distracted,
he took his eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ, and started to look at the water, started
to look at the wind, and he began to fear, he began to doubt, and that's what caused
him to sink.
You know, what's the lesson that we can learn here, guys, is that when we're looking for
Christ to provide for our needs, what do we need to do?
We need to be obedient, and we need to set our eyes on Jesus Christ, we need to follow
after his ways, okay, but if you get distracted by the troubles of life, you get distracted
by the storms of life, that's when you go into doubt, that's when you go into, start
to sink in your life, okay, that's when you're gonna call out, Lord, save me, you know, come
rescue me, Lord, but I love this in verse 31, and immediately Jesus stretched forth
his hand and called him, immediately, you see, he did not want Peter to suffer, he didn't
want Peter to drown, he was there to catch him, even in his times of doubts, and that's
the same thing with Jesus Christ with us today, guys, is that even when we doubt, even when
we lack in faith, Jesus Christ is there to catch us, okay, and called him and said unto
him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
Now, I don't know about you guys, have you ever walked on water?
At least Peter did it, and he's calling Peter, thou of little faith, so how much less than
faith do we have, I mean, you know, we also like, you know, we are made of flesh and blood,
okay, we have the weaknesses of our bodies and the weaknesses of our minds, but you see,
when there's great faith, when you're following up the Lord, even miraculous things can happen,
you see, the Lord can provide supernaturally, miraculously for your life, you know, so
what I want you to notice there, guys, is the second point to increasing your faith,
you know, the first point was to know and to believe that God can provide and provide
abundantly, but point number two is to keep your eyes on Jesus through thick and thin,
that's what's gonna get you through your troubles, that's what's going to, you know, cause God
to provide for your every need.
Verse number 32, and when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased, then they
that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, of a truth thou art the Son of God.
That's a beautiful thing because as they were in the ship, you know, they were struggling
with the storms, weren't they, they were struggling without Jesus Christ in the ship, but as soon
as Jesus Christ enters the ship, what did it say in verse 32, the wind ceased.
You see, when you're in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, when you're in close fellowship
with him, that's when the winds will cease, that's when you're going to have peace, even
in times of necessity, even in times of fear, even in times of troubles, if you're just
close to the Lord Jesus, you're going to have the peace, and the winds will cease, okay,
because the Lord is there with you, it's important for us to be in the presence of the Lord,
and then verse 33, and when they were come in the ship, the ship came and worshiped him,
saying of a truth thou art the Son of God.
See the third point that I want to bring up here guys to increase our faith is that we
are to worship God, worship God, and here in church tonight, guys, we're here not to
hear me necessarily, not to necessarily see one another, though those are things are important,
but we come to the house of God, so we can worship God, so we can be in the presence
of God.
You see, when you're in church, the Lord is here, the Lord is here in our midst, okay,
and there's a peace here, isn't there, there's a peace of the Holy Ghost that's within the
believers, within the brethren, the fellowship can be sweet.
I'll just read to you, actually you guys can turn there please, John 4.21, I'll get you
to turn to John 4.21, John 4.21, John 4.21, keeping your finger, sorry there in the book
of Matthew, but John 4.21, this is Jesus speaking to the woman, the Samaritan woman at the well,
and he says, Jesus saith unto her, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews,
but the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
So one thing I want to take away from this guys, is that it's not about a place, it's
not about going to Jerusalem, going to Jerusalem is not going to cause you to worship God more,
it's not the mountains where the Samaritans would worship the Lord, it's not about the
physical location, we can worship God anywhere, because God is a spirit, but He asks us to
worship Him in spirit and in truth, you see the only ones that can actually worship God
are those that are born of the spirit, those that have the Holy Spirit dwell in them, those
that are not saved, non-believers, their worship to God is actually not worshiped,
because it's not done in the spirit, but we also are to worship Him in truth, it's important
to know the doctrines of the Bible, it's important to try to walk after His ways, because that
is a part of our worship to Him, you know we come to worship God, when you worship Him,
your faith will be increased, your faith will be increased, because you are practicing a
spiritual work, which works together with the Holy Ghost, as you worship God the Father.
But I want to read to you very quickly from Matthew 18 verse 20, Jesus Christ says, for
where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Let me say to you, are the two or three here gathered in the name of Christ tonight?
Absolutely, there's more than two or three gathered here for the name of Christ, then
what does Jesus promise?
That He'll be in the midst of us, you see the reason church is called the house of God,
is because it's God's house, it's where God lives, it's where God is, and when we gather
together for church, you know you might go, oh man church again this week, hey but where
you're going to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, hey this is the best place
to come and worship Him, it's so much easier to worship God, when we're gathered together
with fellow believers, it's hard to worship Him on your own, you know it's harder to read
your Bible, to pray on your own, but when you have other people together, you know soul
winning is hard on your own, but when you have other people encouraging yourselves,
you know they're counting on you to be there, you know that's going to motivate you, it's
going to get you to serve the Lord, to worship the Lord, so I just want to quickly just summarize
those three things that we see in this chapter, what's going to increase your faith?
Number one, believing that God can provide and that He can provide an abundance, number
two, to keep your eyes fixed on Christ, don't get distracted by the trials of life, and
number three, worship God, the best place to worship God is in the house of God, in
the local church, we're almost done now, Matthew 14 verse 34, Matthew 14 verse 34, and when
they were gone over, they came into the land of Gennesaret, and when the men of that place
had knowledge of Him, they sent out into all the country roundabout, and brought unto Him
all that were diseased, and besought Him, that they might only touch the hem of His
garments, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.
So once again guys, we see the sick here, who placed their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Bible says here they were made perfectly whole, perfectly whole, how were they made
perfectly whole?
They had faith on Christ, okay, they went to see Christ, they went to be in the presence
of Christ, they just wanted to touch the hem of His garments, and they knew they would
be made whole, they had faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, what I love about the end of
this chapter, it summarises it all there for us once again, what do they have?
The faith, they followed after Christ, they had Christ as their focus, didn't they?
That they went to be in His presence, and that's why they were healed, that's why they
were made perfectly whole, once again guys, if you want your needs provided for, I don't
know what your needs are today, you know, they might be financial, they might be about
your relationship, you know, it might be about your spiritual growth, whatever your needs
are, the Lord can meet those needs, okay, He just requires you to have faith in Him,
He requires you to set your sights on Him, okay, He requires you to be in His presence
to worship Him, alright, you do those things, and I guarantee it, not because of me, but
because of what the Bible teaches us, is that your needs will be met, and they'll be met
abundantly, alright, let's pray.