Skip to main content

Cross Over - A Newyear message



          
Experiencing sound quality issues?  Please Click here Crossing Over - A New Years Message   


"Jesus said to the disciples, “Let’s go to the other side.”"  (Mark 4:35)


Crossing over to the other side is a common theme in the Bible. God wanted the Isarael people to cross over the Red Sea.  They had to cross over the Jordan River to get to the promised land. Here Jesus asked the disciples to get into the boat and cross over the Gannesereth lake to the other side. We are called to not to be stationary at one side, but Jesus wants us to advance and go forward and cross over to the other side though it is our choice to stay here or cross over. 


Faith journey is about moving and crossing over to new territories.

We are familiar with our side, the side where we are comfortable, where the risks are decreased. Yet Jesus is persistent. They probably had a long hard day. All they wanted to do was to sit down to read the newspaper, check emails, have a refreshing drink, maybe watch some TV or a movie or maybe just enjoy Facebook. Or if you were the disciples in Jesus time, maybe you were just about to relax on the shoreline and tell some fish stories about the day’s catch.


The first time he told me to go, I was a teenager, very involved in church youth group. I thought about being a minister but it was just too scary at that time.  I kept it aside for over 35 years, until one day a call came. At the most surprising time in my life, the most inconvenient time for me, but it was the most convenient time in God’s plan. I am here today, preaching on this pulpit. 


I know I experience His presence on this side, His presence in the storm and His presence and power will be there on the other side. Before, it was a side of preparation, teaching and training for the journey. The journey through the process was about testing of the preparation and teaching. The other side is to exercise the faith. 


Storms arise when we start the journey. On the journey in the boat, they faced with a severe storm that threatned their lives. This event follows a series of parables about seeds: the sower and the seeds, the self-growing seed, and the mustard seed. All of these parables were told as a method of planting the seeds of faith in the hearts and minds of his disciples and others. Now these men are professionals and they have had to deal with rough weather before but there was something different about this storm. This was possibly the worst storm any of them had ever seen and it scared them tremendously. Where is Jesus? The Bible says that He was in the stern or the rear of the ship asleep! On the other side was foreign territory, the land of the Gentiles and also the Gerasenes—where Jesus drove out the demons from Legion into the pings that then ran and drowned in this same sea of Galilee. We are called to serve in more ways than before, To transition a healthy church designed for the past generation into one ready to reach a new generation to reach new set of people. 


It will give you a new perspective of who Jesus really is.The power of God will be revealed if we take the journey to the other side.  Storms are a reality. They may come suddenly, without notice.  Many of life’s storms are sudden.  A simple routine doctor's appointment can suddenly turn out to be a great storm that may threaten the life.  When a dear one, a child or a spouse gets estranged.  When your company announces that your job is being terminated. Or an accident on your shopping trip or way to work. A leak in the roof, or a car broke down, or a flood in the basement are all storm of life.  Having Jesus in the boat with you never exempts you from a storm. But it will give you confidence that  you will be delivered 'in' the storm, may not be 'from' the storm. Safety in life is not the lack of storms. Safety in life is having Jesus with us in the storm. It is not about deliverance FROM the storms, but it is about deliverance IN the storm.  


The crossing over empowers you to more powerful ministry and life. We continue to see the  ministry expanding in Chapter 5. "They arrived at the other side of the sea in the territory of the Gerasene. 2 Just as Jesus stepped out of the boat, a man with an unclean  spirit came out of the tombs and met him. He told him, “My name is Legion, because there are many of us.” 10 He kept pleading with Jesus not to send them out of that region. "God will use your storms to grow you up, to bring glory to His Name or to reach people that only you will be able to reach, because of your storm. It wasn't the storm that woke Jesus. It’s not the wind and rain and thunder in your storm that will wake Jesus. It is the fear of his people. Jesus asks in verse 40 “why are you so afraid?” The one thing you never see in the Bible is that Jesus was afraid of anything. Thank God we have a sleeping Jesus. He is not afraid, He is always calm because He knows the storm coming, and the storm will pass. He was in our storms yesterday, He is with us today, and He is the same tomorrow. "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow."


How is it that seeing all that you have seen and hearing all that you have heard, you still live in fear!? Is it that you still don’t believe in me or maybe you haven’t learned to trust me? You have seen the miracles, you have heard the scriptures in depth.After your storm has passed, you still have Jesus with you empowering you to a powerful ministry waiting for you on the other side“Do not be afraid, because I’ve redeemed you. I’ve called you by name; you are mine.  2 When you pass through the waters, I’ll be with you; and through the rivers, they won’t sweep over you. when you walk through fire you won’t be scorched, and the flame will not burn you. The preserves your life. 8 The Lord will guard your goings and comings,  from this time on and forever." (Isaiah 43) 


During the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century, German pastor Paul Gerhardt and his family were forced to flee from their home. One night as they stayed in a small village inn, homeless and afraid, his wife broke down and cried openly in despair. To comfort her, Gerhardt reminded her of  Scripture promises about God's provision and keeping. Then, going out to the garden to be alone, he too broke down and wept. He felt he had come to his darkest hour. Soon afterward, Gerhardt felt the burden lifted and sensed anew the Lord's presence. Taking his pen, he wrote a hymn that has brought comfort to many. "Give to the winds thy fears; hope, and be undismayed; God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears; God shall lift up thy head. Through waves and clouds and storms He gently clears the way. Wait thou His time, so shall the night soon end in joyous day."It is often in our darkest times that God makes His presence known most clearly. He uses our sufferings and troubles to show us that He is our only  source of strength. And when we see this truth, like Paster Gerhardt, we receive new hope. Are you facing a great trial? Take heart. Put yourself in God's hands. Wait for His timing. He will give you a "song in the night."  Our Daily Bread, May 7, 1992.


Surely we have all experienced one time or other that the Lord can clear the darkest skies. When sorrows and sadness roll like sea billows, His presence gives us peace. It is often in our darkest times that God makes His presence known most clearly. He uses our sufferings and troubles to show us that He is our source of strength. 




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Puzzle pieces or work of art?

Is life a puzzle or work of art? Life can look like a puzzle. Some get the prizes they expected, and some get suprised at what they get. What is the most exciting time in the process of solving a puzzle? the beginning? or as we get each piece? or is it at the end when all pieces are complete? Regardless of what excites you, the potential beauty that it can become is rewarding. When we first open the box, the puzzle looks nothing like the picture on the outside; it is simply jumbled pieces in a bag. If life is compared to a puzzle, it may be a simple puzzle with a hundred different pieces, or it may be a more complicated thousand-piece puzzle with a picture that’s rather tricky to put together. There may be unpleasant and uncomfortable pieces in life that you feel like not fitting in well. You have been able to put together everything well for years, and all of a sudden find yourself confused as to how to fit in the next event. But whatever the size of the challenge, those events can...
Post a Comment
Read more

In Defense of a Disreputable Woman

Buy my book   " Joy in the Journey " on Amazon now 20% goes to missions               Experiencing sound quality issues?  Please Click here   In Defense of a Disreputable Woman      A woman in the Bible who has no name but being portrayed as deplorable and has been a victim of bad reputation. She has seen her life collapse - she has lost ten children, seen the family fortune disappear, and her husband has a rather disgusting disease with bad smells and slimy sores all over his body. There are only three verses in the Book of Job in reference to Job's wife; they are Job 2:9 (curse God and die), Job 19:17 (My breath is offensive to my wife}  and Job 31:10 (may my wife grind another man's grain). She is not looked upon as a good person. I've heard many preachers and theologians who use Job's wife as an example of a lousy wife. She is the one who told Job to deny God and die. Many Bible...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ugly child Economics

The Bible is a book that is brutally honest and unsentimentally realistic. We can read about the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the characters. We read about Abraham's strong faith, but also his weakness when lies about Sarah being his sister. We read about David's successes, but we cannot ignore the sins he committed including murder. We read about Jacob who seemed to delight in trickery and deceit to achieve success until he meets Laban. The one who cheated his own father now gets cheated by his father-in-law; not once, not twice, but ten times!!! (Gen 31:7). Jacob and Laban are portrayed as two shrewd business men in the story. Jacob negotiated seven years for Rachel, but ended up working for Laban fourteen years and ended up with two wives which was nowhere in in his business plan. Laban used the 'ugly child hostage' economics here. He thought that chances of Leah getting married was slim, may due to her 'cross or weak' eyes. So he used the princ...
1 comment
Read more

Fathers Day

A father was hiking a mountain with his 3 year old son on his shoulders. After some time the dad said he was tired and asked the son to get down, to which the boy replied, “You can’t be tired. You’re my daddy!” We all have stories to tell about our fathers, or about being fathers. Mark Twain said, "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in 7 years." Our famiies are facing a great crisis today. More and more fathers are disappearing from the scenes. It is now common to meet young people in our big city schools, foster homes and juvenile centers who do not know their dads. Most of those children have come face-to-face with their father at some point; but most have little regular contact with the man, or have any faith that he loves or cares about them. Statistics show 1 in 4 children live without a father figure in the household in t...
Post a Comment
Read more

God of Jacob

Buy my book   " Joy in the Journey " on Amazon now 20% goes to missions  There are several Psalms in the Bible that are attributed to the 'Sons of Korah' as the author. We dont know the writer of specific chapters because there were more than one sons to Korah. The Korahites in the Bible were that portion of the Kohathites that descended from the Sons of Korah. They were an important branch of the singers of the Kohathite division (2 Chronicles 20:19). The Sons of Korah were the sons of Moses' cousin Korah. The story of Korah is found in Numbers 16. Korah led a revolt against Moses; he died, along with all his co-conspirators, when God caused "the earth to open her mouth and swallow him and all that appertained to them" (Numbers 16:31-33). However, "the children of Korah did not die" (Numbers 26:11). Several psalms are described in their opening verses as being by the Sons of Korah: numbers 42, 44–49, 84, 85, 87 and 88. It i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Baptism

Mile markers are stones buried on the sides of highways that help us to determine direction and distance when we travel. In the USA, they generally increase from the South to the North,and from the West towards East. The exit numbers are generally lined up with mile markers so that you can calculate how long you have travelled and how much distance is left to the destination. Without them, we become lost and vulnerable. If you call for emergency help, they will ask your location about your mile marker or exit number to get to you quickly. These exit numbers give us a sense of comfort and peace in knowing where we are and what direction we are heading. The prophet Samuel set up a stone to commemorate the victory over the Philistines at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:12). He called it Ebenezer which means 'thus far the Lord has helped us.' It is a mile marker in his life and the peoples' lives. We all have mile markers like birthday, firstday of school, sweet 16, graduation, marr...
Post a Comment
Read more

A touch of faith

A man went to see a psychiatrist because he was extremely depressed. The psychiatrist just could not get him to snap out of it. So he said to the man, “Tonight I want you to go to the circus in town because they have a clown named the Great Rinaldi, he is the funniest clown I have ever seen. Whenever I go to see the Great Rinaldi it always lifts my spirits.” The man responded. “You don’t understand doctor, I am the Great Rinaldi.” Life is made of joys and sorrows. The saying is that misery loves company and, if that’s true, there’s plenty of company. But the Bible teaches that you don’t have to be a victim. God wants you to have victory over them. We read in all the synoptic gospels about Jesus healing a woman with the issue of bleeding (Matthew 9:20–22, Mark 5:25–34, Luke 8:43–48). She had been in pain for a long 12 years, physially, emotionally and spiritually. She must have been under a lot of physical pain with the loss of blood feeling pale and tired. She definitely had a lo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Where is God when it hurts?

A man looked agitated during Sunday School. When he got out and and started pacing up and down the hallway, a friend asked him, “What’s the trouble?”. He replied, “The trouble is, I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t.” It is not uncommon to feel like God is taking a long time or not even paying attention. Silence of God can be scary and frustrating for a believer. David wrote a number of Psalms including Psalm 13 when 'God seemed to be distant in his life. We can see Asaph in Psalm 79 and Elihu in the book of Job asking similar questions. Most of us believe that where God is, there is no misery. We think that all is well when we have faith. But Jesus came to this world to turn that around when He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst and mourn". As believers in Christ, we can rest assured that ‘Where there is misery, there is God’. Jesus voluntarily embraced misery in order to share ours. A great author puts it like this, "Where misery is, there is the Messi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Raging Waters

"Faith rests on a firmer basis, and is not to be moved by swelling seas" (Charles Spurgeon). In Psalm 124 David sings “if the Lord had not been on our side the flood would have engulfed us,the torrent would have swept over us, the raging waters would have swept us away.” A mother got paid to nurse and care for her own son. Jochebed, the mother of Moses was the lucky woman to make history (Exodus 2). Her story is a message of a heartbroken woman who turned over her dreams to God. You may have desired a happy marriage, a successful career, developing their talent, or some other worthwhile goal, yet circumstances prevented it. We can only get through that kind of disappointment by turning it over to God. Whenever I passed through raging waters my Redeemer had been with me, sheltering me against the rising tide (Isa. 43:2, Psal 124). When I came out on the other side, which I always did, I was able to say with joy and confidence, “He is a faithful God!” Are you in the middle...
Post a Comment
Read more

Song in the night

"It is easy to sing when we can read the notes by daylight; but the skillful singer is he who can sing when there is not a ray of light to read by" Charles Spurgeon. We all go through difficulties and hardships: illness, broken relationships, loss of loved ones, conflicts, stress, and many other challenges. Sometimes we may feel overwhelmed and discouraged. But as Christians, we can go through these dark times like the saints of old, who sang in the darkness of their lives. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we can live with the assurance that the best is yet to come. We can look forward to an eternal life of joy and peace with our Lord and Savior. Asaph, the song writer sings in Psalm 77, "in the time of trouble, I remembered my song in the night".  To brood on sorrow is to be broken and disheartened. We can see the light of God's hope in the songs we sing in the dark. Full sermon: Mathew Philip Blessings Mathew Philip
Post a Comment
Read more