Fix Your Eyes on Jesus: Faith in the Middle of the Storm

Dr. Brandon Rix: Is this thing on?
Can y'all hear me?
You can't hear me.
Let's see.
It says we're on.
Can you
hear me now? I think I can hear it.
A little bit.
All right.
Very good.
Like you might have heard
somebody yell at me.
I'm Brandon.
I am, there we go. I can hear it now.
Okay.
I'm Dr. Ricks.
I am a father that inspires change.
I'm a teacher that ignites,
and I'm a shepherd that feeds,
that's disguised as a physical therapist and a professor.
I hope you guys know that your platform is not your purpose.
Your identity informs what you do with your platform,
and that's the first thing.
Before we get going, let's just pray.
Heavenly Father,
we just thank you.
Help.
Please just let me only say the words that I hear you say today and let them fall on good ground.
In Jesus'
name,
amen.
All right,
so last Wednesday,
Dr. Fraze, he gives me a call.
I was in class when he's calling me, so I couldn't really answer it, but I get the voicemail and he goes,
Dude,
I have something to ask you and you can't say no.
He's like,
come talk in chapel on Monday.
I was like, okay,
here we go.
three or four days.
That's good, right?
And so I said, okay, what do you want me to talk about?
And he just goes,
dude,
just talk about Jesus.
Tell us your favorite story in the Bible.
I'm like,
all right,
I think we can do that.
So I started praying.
I started praying for y'all,
started praying for me,
and just started trying to listen to what the Lord wanted to say today.
And he still just wouldn't let me get past,
you know, kind of the story that all the other stories of the Bible point to.
That man and woman was broken in need of a Savior.
And God in his love for us came down in the form of his only begotten son.
Walked the earth for 33 years as a man.
Showing us what's possible with a life submitted fully to the Holy Spirit.
He bore a beating unlike any other so that we could walk in healing and health here and now.
He poured out his blood so that we could be cleansed from our sin forever.
And then he rose again so that we could live with him forever starting right now.
I hope that none of you ever get past that.
Because the more that you sit at his feet and learn from him,
the more you're like, oh my gosh,
Lord, I know me.
Don't,
yeah,
thank you.
I love you.
Thank you.
And then I kept praying.
He never wants us to get past that.
And then I kept praying.
I said, okay,
I know there's something else you want to talk about.
And so he started,
he brought me to a story of Peter.
You guys know Peter.
Peter did some cool stuff.
And today we're going to talk about him.
When he walked on the water,
and before you roll your eyes and say, oh man, I've heard this a thousand times,
just see if the Lord wants to do something new for you today.
So,
picking up in the story,
Jesus had just fed the 5,000,
and he sent them all away, and he went away to pray,
and he sent his disciples into the boat to go across the water.
And there was a nice little storm that came on.
And I don't know if you guys have ever been in a boat when it's pretty windy and the waves are tall.
It's a little unsettling to say the least.
Now, I can only imagine what that would have felt like in a boat that was made 2,000 years ago
instead of one that has a nice big mercury engine on it that you can drive right through the waves.
So I can imagine that they were feeling a certain type of way here.
But let's just pick it up here if my page will stay.
All right.
It says, now in the fourth watch of the night,
Jesus went to them walking on the sea.
And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled,
saying, it's a ghost.
And they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them,
saying,
be of good cheer.
Some versions say,
take heart.
It is I.
Do not be afraid.
And Peter answered him and said, Lord,
if it's you,
tell me to come to you on the water.
So Jesus said it.
He said, come on.
And when Peter had come down out of the boat,
he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
But when he saw that the wind was boisterous,
he was afraid.
And beginning to sink,
he cried out,
Lord,
save me.
And immediately Jesus reached out and caught his hand and said to him,
Oh, you of little faith,
why did you doubt?
And when he got into the boat, the wind ceased.
All right, so if you're anything like me,
the first 150 times you read that story,
you get to the part of,
oh, you have little faith.
Why did you doubt?
And I'm like, oh my gosh,
this is Peter.
This is the guy that lived with Jesus. He walked with him for three years. He
got out of the boat and walked on the water.
And Jesus said, oh,
you have little faith.
And I'm like,
okay,
here's me. Here's Peter.
Something's not stacking up here, God.
Like, what's going on?
And I always felt very condemned when I read that.
I was like, oh my gosh, I can never stack up.
I don't know, how is this attainable?
And then he,
the 151st time,
or maybe the 1,000 and 151st time I read it,
he just so gracefully points me to Mark 11:23,
and he says, remember this,
Jesus is telling his disciples,
If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed,
you can say to this mountain,
go be cast into the sea,
and it will be done for you,
if you do not doubt in your heart.
So then we go back to what Jesus says to Peter when he reaches down and grabs him.
He says, oh, you have little faith.
But what did Jesus just do in Mark 11?
He discredited that you have to have James and the giant peach-sized faith.
He says,
no, if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed,
you could say.
And he just reaches down.
And this is the Brandon International Version.
But he says, oh,
you of the faith the size of a mustard seed.
Why did you doubt?
Or take it a step further.
He reaches down and he says,
oh,
you with the faith the size that could move a mountain.
And you just don't know it yet.
Why did you doubt?
That word that is used there for little faith,
the Greek word,
I'm not going to say it on
here, it's just,
but what it means is teeny tiny little faith that hasn't grown up into
full maturity yet.
Okay?
Imagine if I had a flower pot here, big flower pot, I plant a seed, I water it, I do all
of things and a flower starts to come up,
right? A small little one,
no like flowers, yeah? It's
just a plant.
What's happening?
It's getting all the water.
It's getting all the nutrients from the
soil.
It's getting all the sunlight,
okay?
It's not contending with anything for the fuel to grow.
Jesus says, but why did you doubt?
Jesus says, you could move a mountain if you believe in your heart and do not doubt.
What happens in West Texas when we have a windstorm?
You can ask your parents,
but weeds pop up everywhere,
okay?
So now imagine I have this little flower in my flower pot,
and then a weed sprouts up,
and another weed,
and then another weed,
another weed,
and guess what happens?
it starts contending for the nutrients for that plant to grow.
Okay?
A weed pops up.
Man, I prayed for somebody and they didn't get healed.
Oh,
man, another weed.
Oh,
man.
Literally last Friday,
the battery in the car went out,
the middle of slide and right in front of Chick-fil-A,
and it's like, oh, my gosh,
there's $500 that I wasn't expecting to spend.
like what in the world
like hold on
life starts to happen
and what
what Jesus is saying here is he's like
Peter oh you
of little faith
we need to weed your garden
a little bit
and the fun
thing about this is
is it's all connected
remember I said everything points back to what Jesus
says
in Hebrews 12
12:1.
This is on the heels of the faith chapter. It's called the Hall of Fame of Faith chapter,
talking about all these people that did incredible things by faith.
And let me read to you the first
one and a half verses of Hebrews 12.
Therefore,
we also,
since we are surrounded by such a great
cloud,
by so great cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and every sin that so easily
ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the author and the perfecter or finisher of our faith.
If you read the story of Peter walking on the water and you say, man, I just don't know
how I can ever get there.
Jesus reminds us who the author of your faith is.
When you started,
when you first believed in him,
it wasn't your own sweat that caused you to have faith.
It was the one that died for you.
And guess what?
Every single step I take,
It's him that is growing and building and encouraging my faith within me.
All I have to do is fix my eyes on him.
All right, yeah, we got time.
So in the PT world,
you don't have to raise your hands,
but you've all seen Grandma Susie walking around like this,
right?
What happens when Grandma Susie tries to stand up straight?
nothing because we call that a fixed posture of the spine if it's fixed it can't move
you see where i'm going with this right fixing our eyes on jesus it doesn't mean i'm just gonna look
at him oh the wind oh man we're in west texas the dust it hit me in the eye sorry i can't see
anymore lord no no no no no trying to think of something this floor the flooring right here this
is fixed to the frame of this.
Unless I get some power tools out,
it ain't moving anywhere,
right?
Fix your eyes on him.
This is what he says.
That's all it is.
Mary versus Martha.
Wasn't what Martha was doing was bad,
but Mary chose the better thing,
to sit at her feet,
to sit at his feet and look at her Savior.
So in this story,
I feel after praying for me,
praying for y'all,
I feel like there's three types of people in the room
he wants to maybe do something in today.
And before you shrink away from this,
I want you to
know that I've been all three of these people at some point.
So you're not alone.
The first
is the people that are still sitting in the boat that aren't even acknowledging Jesus is there.
They're caught up in their ways.
They think they're living their comfortable life,
or maybe they're just in a lifestyle that they know if they started to look at Jesus for a second,
he would say, hey,
your condemners aren't anywhere,
and neither do I, but don't go do it anymore.
And some of us just,
maybe today's the day that he meets you for the first time.
The second group is those on the boat looking at Jesus,
knowing he's out there,
but are still in the boat because logic says,
look how big that wave is.
You kidding me?
No way.
I ain't doing it.
Lord, look how big this problem is.
We just talked about mustard seed and moving mountains.
Anyways,
here we go.
He wants you to know that when you fix your eyes on him,
you get to do stuff like all the people in Hebrews 11.
And then the third group of people is those that have stepped out on the water.
And you're walking.
And you're starting to sink because you're starting to see all the problems of life.
And guys,
I'm not minimizing any of it.
There has been some really,
for lack of a better term,
crappy stuff that has happened the past couple of weeks.
Like friends burying family members way too soon.
little kids that now have to grow up without a mom way,
way, way too soon.
And you're in the water,
you're walking,
and you're like, God, I don't know.
This is tough.
This is tough.
I don't know if I can do this.
And he says, fix your eyes on me.
You of mustard seed size faith,
fix your eyes on me and watch what happens.
And so what I want to invite us to do right now, we've got two minutes left.
if I'm talking to you
if you're one of those
three groups of people
when I said it
there was something
going on in here
you had a little bit
of a burning going on
this is awesome
remember the road to Emmaus
when Jesus didn't show
the guys who he was
but he showed him
in the scriptures to them
and they're like
weren't our hearts
burning within us
pay attention to that
because he's trying
to speak to you
if you were any one
of those group of people.
I want to pray for you today.
But since we are the body,
I want us to
pray for each other as well.
You don't have to specify which of the three,
but if you were one
of those three, would you just be so bold to just raise your hand for a minute?
Just so bold.
Look at that.
Hands everywhere.
All right.
What I want you to do is if you're not raising your hand,
Find somebody that is raising their hand.
Keep your hands up.
I just want you to put your hand on their shoulder.
And I want you to pray for them.
I want you to pray that whatever they need, God's going to provide.
That God's going to walk with them.
And I want you to pray with me as I pray with y'all.
Lord, we thank you for what you're doing today.
God, that first group of people that is still in the boat,
that doesn't want to acknowledge you,
because they're afraid of where you might take them
or what they might have to give up
or that sin that they might have to let go of.
God, we just say meet them in a new way today.
In one moment,
you turned Saul
into somebody that ministered to the world for you.
God,
group number two,
those that are in the boat
but are just,
specifically,
they've got the fear of man on them.
They're so worried about what is gonna happen
if they go ask to pray for somebody
and it doesn't happen.
Or they say no.
God, just remind them that the worst thing that can happen
if they say no is nothing and that's already happening.
So God, please just give them the boldness to do it.
And God, those that have stepped out of the boat,
renew the vigor.
Connect them to you again,
Lord.
Let them take the hard posture of Mary
to sit at your feet
and to just glean on everything you have
so their feet stay on the solid ground,
even if it's on the water in the middle of the storm.
You are the rock,
Lord,
and we stand upon you.
So God, we just love you,
and we praise you, and we thank you.
And it's in Jesus'
name.
Amen.
All right, you're dismissed.