God's Provision - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, October 25th.

Have you ever faced what looked like an impossible situation? Today's podcast continues the series on the storms of life to help us respond to hard times with trust and reliance on God. There are rainstorms, there are snowstorms, there are sandstorms, all kinds of storms in the atmosphere that affect us here on earth. Sometimes they're driving, blinding, violent, destructive and costly. But then there are those other storms that happen sometimes on the inside of us. Sometimes only we're the ones who know about them.

Sometimes maybe our closest friends and sometimes even others. And somebody has said everybody's either in the storm, just getting out of a storm, or headed toward a storm. And if that be true, then you and I need to know how to respond during the storms of our life. So probably one of the best illustrations of that is found in a night of real storm on the Sea of Galilee to be found in the 14th chapter of Matthew. So if you'll turn to that 14th chapter and let's look at this stormy night when Jesus and His disciples met together in a very unusual situation. Jesus has been healing and teaching and now He has fed the 5,000 and when He finishes, if you'll notice in verse 22 the Scripture says, And immediately He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side while He sent the multitudes away. And after He had sent the multitudes away, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray. And when it was evening, He was there alone.

But the boat was already many steadier or several miles away from the land, battered by the waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch, somewhere around 3 o'clock in the morning, fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were frightened, saying, It is a ghost.

And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered Him and said, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water. And He said, Come. And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand and took hold of His hand and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got in the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, You are certainly God's Son.

And when they had crossed over, they came to the land at Gennesaret. Now, storms come from one of three sources. They're either storms that we ourselves generate or they're storms that Satan will generate or sometimes they're storms that God initiates for us in order to accomplish something in our life. But what I want to talk about in this message is this, and that is God's provision for us when we face the storms of life. And I think this passage of Scripture illustrates all of these. The most important thing God could provide for you and me in the midst of a storm is, first of all, the awareness of His presence. So I want you to jot down presence, the awareness of His presence. Nothing, nowhere under any condition could be as important when you and I are going through a storm as the awareness of the presence of God.

Nothing else, friends, books, nothing else can match the power of the awareness of His presence in our life. And you'll recall in this storm as these disciples were being tossed about, you'll notice He says in verse 24, they were being battered and the winds were contrary. They were just being pushed here and yonder. Well, here they are, afraid, and what happens is that the Lord Jesus Christ provides for them exactly what He knew they needed above everything else. They needed the awareness of His presence. Now, when He comes, He doesn't come the way they expect Him to come. The Bible says when He came, they thought it was a ghost, some apparition, some kind of non-physical kind of being that they couldn't tell what it was, and so what happened was His appearance even made them more frightened, and now they had two problems. Not only were they about to sink in the storm, but here's some ghost out there they're having to face, and so they are extremely frightened. But when His presence is made known, He identifies Himself and they recognize it as Jesus, what happens?

I think the thing that happened to them is what happens to all of us. The awareness of His presence in the storm gives us, first of all, a sense of comfort. Here is Jesus, a sense of courage.

We can face it in a sense of confidence. God will see us through the storm because you see, the truth is there is no storm that can drive away the presence of Jesus Christ in your life and my life. And so the very presence of Jesus made an awesome difference in their life.

Now, they didn't immediately find themselves in a calm sea because the storm continued. Just because He showed up didn't mean that He was going to calm the storm immediately. And so what I want us to see is the most important thing is the awareness of His presence. Now, the difference between those days and our days is this. In those days, Jesus Christ walked among men and He couldn't be in two places at one time. He was either here or He was there because He had limited Himself in His glory and His power while He was on earth. But you and I don't have to worry about that because the day you receive, Jesus Christ is your personal Savior. In that moment, Jesus Christ not only forgave you of your sin, but the Bible says He came to indwell you.

That's why He says, I'm abiding in you and you're abiding in me. This was His way of demonstrating and illustrating to them the fact that Jesus Christ is living on the inside of every single believer. We are never under any condition detached from the presence of Almighty God who is indwelling us in the presence of the Holy Spirit. So when you and I find ourselves in a storm, we don't have to ask for Jesus to show up.

He doesn't have to show up. Now, the awareness of His presence in our life may be like He just showed up, but He's been there all along. But you see, no storm can drive Jesus out of your life. And because He's there, He is there for eternity.

He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The Holy Spirit will come and be in you with you and upon you. Now, the problem is that you and I don't always recognize Him when He shows up. And sometimes when you and I are going through a storm, you may have this tendency to say, God, where are you? Lord, where are you? Do you see the storm? Do you understand where I am, God?

And the answer, of course, is always, not only do I see it, I'm in the middle of it with you. That is, you and I never go through a storm of which He is not in the middle of. Now, we may not recognize His presence. They didn't recognize His presence. They'd never seen Him walk on water before. He'd probably never told them that He could even walk on water. And so they're naturally frightened. When Mary and Martha were going through the worst storm in their life, Lazarus had died. And one of the things that made it so bad was that they'd already contacted Jesus and asked Him to come and He didn't show up.

And so not only did they have the death of their brother, but there's this emotional storm taking place inside of them. We love Him. He said He loved us. We've cooked Him meals. He's been at our house. We've set at His feet. We've heard Him teach.

We've done everything we know to make Him feel comfortable. Why didn't He show up? And this awesome emotional storm, this trauma going on inside of their life. How did Jesus show up at that storm? He came in the form of a human being, of a man, like they had seen Him before.

They knew Him as a man. And so He showed up at the tomb of Lazarus and the Bible says He said, Lazarus, come forth. And you know that He came forth and resurrected Him from the dead.

Another fellow who was in desperate need was beaten and robbed and left on the Jericho road to die. Jesus came to Him in a different sort of way. He didn't come to Him through some apparition that would frighten Him to death. He didn't come to Him as the Son of God, as the Lord Jesus Christ walked among men. He came to Him in the person of the Good Samaritan. And that Good Samaritan was the Lord Jesus Christ reaching down to meet His need at that moment.

That was Jesus working and walking through Him, living through Him, reaching out, pouring in wine to heal, binding up His wounds and then taking Him to an end and paying the end keeper for His stay until He was a well man. How many times has the awareness of His presence come in ways that you and I were not aware of? The truth is He was there all the time.

And sometimes He has to get our focus in such a fashion that you and I can recognize that it is Christ, that it is God working in our life and that He is there in the midst of this storm and that He desires that you and I would be aware of that. You see, He's going to show up. It's not that He's not there. He's always there. He's going to show up. That is, we're going to see Him if we have eyes that can see and ears that can hear and faith that can believe. Jesus Christ is always there.

He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. If you'll notice in this passage also, He didn't show up at the beginning of the storm because the Scripture says that they were ministatia from the land, battered by the waves and the wind was contrary. How long they'd been out there?

I don't know. Probably a pretty good while because He had been preaching and teaching and He had fed the five thousand. He had sent them away. And that was certainly before nighttime because they had to find their way back home.

They knew where they lived, of course, but they had to travel on the roads. And then He spent some time with the Father. That is, He's up in the mountains praying and talking to the Father and whatever their conversation was about. Then somewhere between three and six in the morning, this storm begins. That's when the Scripture refers to them here. They've been out there being battered and torn by this storm.

It was a short trip across the Sea of Galilee, only five miles the way the crow flies. But that storm had probably gotten them off course, at least they thought it was off course. And they were behind schedule. They thought they were. Probably didn't know exactly where they were. Couldn't see the stars.

As many times they'd been on that sea, but when it's all black around you, you don't know where you are on a sea at night like that. And so here they were. But He didn't show up on time, as that is as far as they were concerned. Because you see, our timing and God's timing is not always the same. His presence is there. My awareness of His presence is not always the same. And while for them, He allowed them to be in that storm long enough to accomplish what He wanted to accomplish, and then He showed up. The Lord Jesus Christ is always with us in any storm. Our awareness of His presence oftentimes may not be until we understand, that is, what His purpose is and what His goal is. Now, sometimes the reason we can't see Him in the storm is we're so busy doing our own thing or so busy trying to work our way out of the storm, we don't even see Him in it.

But He is always there. You and I have never, listen, we've never even been in a drizzle, let alone a storm, without the presence of Jesus. We're not here on a sunshiny day without the presence of Jesus.

No hurricane, no tornado, no kind of atmospheric tumult. We have never been in anything apart from Him since the moment you and I trust that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Most important thing, the most important provision is the presence of Jesus Christ.

Number two, the second thing I believe He provides for us is a pathway through that storm. Now you'll notice what He says in this particular verse, verse 22. Immediately He said, He made the disciples get in a boat and go ahead of Him to the other side while He sent the multitudes away. Now He had to get them off the scene so He could get up in the mountains to pray by Himself. And He knew exactly where they were headed. He told them to go to a particular town, a little village there, Ganesha on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. So they had a particular place.

He knew exactly how long it would take them to get there. And so they got in the boat. The Bible says He made them do it. That is, they probably didn't want to leave.

I mean, here were all these people. And so He made them get in the boat. And He's up in the mountains talking to the Father, meditating upon Him. The Lord Jesus Christ knew exactly what was going on because, you see, the Lord Jesus was talking to the weatherman. And this storm did not interrupt and disturb Jesus and His meditation with the Father.

You know what happened? The weather and the goal of God and the meditation time of Jesus were all working in perfect concert. Jesus wasn't disturbed. He wasn't upset. He didn't have to hurry up and do anything. And He didn't say, oh, there they are out there in the sea.

I better go help them. No, all of that was known to Him. Because, you see, the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ is the presence of omniscience. He knew exactly what to do and the timing was absolutely perfect. So here they are out there in the sea being battered around and troubled and wondering what in the world's going to happen. And yet He knew exactly where they were headed.

Now here's the thing of it. While they thought they were off course and didn't know where they were, the Lord knew that storm had them exactly right on course because He knew they were going to end up exactly where He had designated because He knew that being the captain not only of their ship but the captain of the seas, He would get them where He intended that storm to blow them. Now, I'm sure with them they thought they were off course and didn't know where they were, but I think it's something you and I need to think about is this. If He is the sovereign of the seas and the sovereign of our life, there is no time when He's not in absolute control. And being in absolute control of our life, there is no time when He is not guiding those storms. And those storms may be tumultuous and they may be battering and beating and we may feel the pain and the hurt of it. He will make the storm take us exactly where He wants us to go because you see He is in sovereign control and He is our presence. That is wherever we are, the Lord Jesus Christ is there.

And so they didn't know what was going on. And when you and I think about troubles and trials and difficulties and hardships and storms in our life, you may feel at times, oh Lord, what are you doing? Where is this leading? Where are we going?

How is this going to end up? And we may have lots of questions and He is under no obligation to give us all the answers ahead of time. All we have to remember is this, He holds the future and He who holds the future holds us. And if He who holds the future holds us and He who holds the future and holds us is living on the inside of us, we can trust the future to Him no matter what. We can trust Him because He is that kind of a sovereign God. He is that kind of a sovereign leader.

He is that kind of a sovereign captain of our soul. So what's the first word? His presence. What's the second word?

His path. There is a third word I want you to jot down, that is His protection. Does His protection mean that in the midst of the storms we're going to be so shielded that there'll be no water on board? No. Does it mean that we'll not be tossed and turned about? No. Does it mean we'll not be battered and blown?

No. Does it mean that we'll not feel hurt and pain and suffering and disappointment and all that? Doesn't mean any of that because these disciples knew and probably wondered, well where is Jesus? He told us to get in the boat and He was going to go talk to the Father. Wonder what He and the Father are talking about. If the Father's omniscient, why hasn't He told Jesus about us and why doesn't He do something about that?

That's what I'd be thinking. I'd be thinking, Lord, if He's who He says He is, why doesn't He talk to the one who controls the seas and get this thing settled and get us out of this now? Well, He just doesn't operate that way because, see, protection doesn't mean the immediate cessation of the storm because He has divine purposes in every single storm He allows in our life.

And so what we see here is we see them really suffering through this. They are frightened and afraid they're going to sink and that they're going to drown. What was Jesus up to? He wasn't up to trying to sink this boat. He could have done that sitting up on the, up on the mountain talking to the Father and all He'd have had to say, blink His eye, lift His little finger or say nothing or just think, sink, and they would have gone down. That wasn't His purpose.

His purpose was very clear. He wanted to reveal to them several things. First of all, He wanted them to see Him from a whole different light. I don't believe Jesus had ever told them before, I can walk on water. In fact, I don't think Jesus told them a lot of things like that except He could say, He would say, I am the Messiah. If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. If He'd have said to Peter, Peter, I can walk on water. You know what Peter would have said? Same thing you and I would have said, show me. Just show me. Here's the Sea of Galilee. Just take a trip and then we'll believe you.

No, He waited until they got absolutely desperate and hopeless and there was nothing they could cling to, nothing they could lean on and here He was coming to them on the sea, walking on the top of the water and what I want you to see is this, when Peter said, Lord, save me, the Bible says the Lord reached forth His hand and took him and pulled him out. You and I never have to look for the hand of Jesus. We don't ever have to look for that. You know why?

Here's the reason. The moment you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ got an eternal grip on you and it doesn't make a difference what goes on in your life. You'll never be out of the eternal loving grip of Christ Jesus, the Lord. Thank you for listening to God's Provision. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Atlanta, Georgia.