Sermon for Sunday January 13th, 2008

A TRUCK STOP STORY by Bruce Ball

Matthew 14:22-14:29


One evening in a small town in Nebraska, a tired trucker pulled into a truck stop. He parked his 18-wheeler and went into the coffee shop. He ordered a hamburger with all the fixin’s, a pie, and some coffee.

Just as the waitress delivered his order, three burly bikers walked into the shop. It was clear from the start they were up to no good. They immediately began to harass the waitress, and then they noticed the tired trucker.

They sauntered over to his table, and without a word being said, one of them tipped his plate off the table onto his lap. Another one took his coffee cup and began drinking his coffee. And the third biker took his pie and threw it on the floor. Then they stood and waited for him to react.

But this trucker kept quiet. He picked up the check, and walked up to the cashier where he paid for his dinner and then walked out the door. As he was driving his big rig away, another customer walked in.

One of the bikers said, “He didn’t do or say anything. He wasn’t too much of a man, was he?” And the customer who had just walked in said, “He must not be too much of a truck driver either, because on his way out, he ran over three motorcycles and never even stopped.”

These bikers lived for the thrill of the moment, didn’t they? They trucker lived his life according to purpose. Which way do you tend to live your life? More to the point, how do you live your Christian life? Do you live it pretty much minute-to-minute, being dependent upon your circumstances, or is there a defined purpose to it?

There was a man who decided to go driving out in the country. In his excitement to see the countryside, he forgot to fill his car with gas, so he ended up running out of gas.

As he began walking, he came to a fork in the road. At that fork was an old farmer leaning up against a fencepost. He asked the farmer if it made any difference on which road he took to town. The farmer said, "Not to me."

Today, we are going to talk about which road we are taking to heaven. And as we do, I want you to begin analyzing where your walk is with Jesus. If you aren’t where you should be, I am going to give you a chance to get there at the end of this message.

First of all, let’s talk about …


1. OUR WALK WITH THE LORD

The word “walk” in the Bible symbolizes the way we live and the way we act. It often depicts life as a journey, and it shows that Christians are always moving, and therefore always doing.

Last week, I said that Satan is in charge of this world, and as such we are influenced by the things of this world, such as wealth, power, possessions, and by other things that serve to distract us from focusing on Jesus. But the Christian looks beyond this world with a conviction that believes there is a better place waiting for us.

A lady had been a regular churchgoer for over 60 years. Even as a child, she rarely missed a service. And she was always pleasant and actively involved in the church and had been in charge of the many fellowship dinners at the church. He remembered her always telling people to keep their forks as she was collecting their dinner plates, because the dessert, or the best, was yet to come.

And so it was odd that she wasn’t there one Sunday. After the service, the pastor got a call from her asking if he would come and see her, which he did. When he got there, she poured him some coffee and then began to talk to him. She told him that the doctors had given her just a short time to live. And rather than to mope around, she wanted to start planning her funeral.

She wanted her pastor to deliver an upbeat message at her service, and she had written some things down that might help him better prepare. And she had written down some of the songs she wanted them to sing.

Her face was aglow with excitement and she said she just couldn’t wait! She went on to say that she had spent her entire life getting ready for this journey, and now she was so excited about finally being able to go home and see Jesus. But her last request didn’t make sense to the pastor. She requested that a fork be put in her hand as she lay in the casket.

The day came when she died. At the funeral, he gently put a fork in her hand, and at that precise moment, he understood her request.

Someone asked why he was doing that, and he replied that she had requested it, so that everybody would be reminded not to be sad, because she knew the best was yet to come.

To ‘walk by faith’ actually means ‘to live in the confident expectation of things yet to come’. To do this, we must become familiar with the promises of God.

The bible is filled with His promises, and for those who believe, nothing is more encouraging to our faith than reading His promises. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by hearing the word of God. Faith is to believe in what you cannot see.

We all know that Jesus walked on the water. Have you ever thought how it would feel if you could do the same thing? Soon, you will be able to do just that – well, almost. See, there is a company that is planning on building a pier in the Sea of Galilee, near Capernaum. You heard me right; they are going to build it ‘in’ the water.

They plan on building that pier about 2 inches under the surface, so that tourists can walk out on it, and have their picture taken so it will look like they are walking on water. I think that is kind of cheesy, but I am sure somebody will get rich from it.

But that symbolizes many people’s walk of faith. They say and do all the right things, so it looks like they are good solid Christians walking in faith. But just like that picture, what you see isn’t necessarily the reality of what they are doing. A real walk of faith has nothing to do with smoke and mirrors; it has to do with putting yourself totally on the line, and continuing to walk focused on the goal ahead, no matter what you might encounter as you progress toward it.

And that brings us to our second point. In any real walk of faith …


2. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A RISK

Everybody wants to be a risk taker, don’t they; even when it only looks like they are taking a risk. I have often considered myself to be somewhat of a risk taker in my life, and I am not making light of taking risks. Actually, taking risks is a very necessary part of life. Without taking risks, nobody would ever leave their homes to go to work.

Without taking risks, no young man would ever put his entire ego on the line to ask a young lady for a date – just to be told ‘NO’ the majority of the time.

Of course, like anything else, there are many people who take it to the extreme. There was a lady by the name of Anna Taylor who was a major risk taker. She was the first person to ever go over Niagara Falls. Well, she was the first one to ever do it and live, that is.

Speaking of risk takers, do you know what the last words of many risk takers were? “HEY GUYS, WATCH THIS!”

A woman was walking down a city street and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, she heard a voice in her ear say, “STOP!” Startled, she stopped, just as she did, a brick falling from a roof hit the sidewalk right in front of her. Had she not stopped, she would have been hit in the head and probably killed.

A few days later, she was downtown and was preparing to cross a busy street and again, that same voice told her to “STOP!” She did, and a car came whizzing by and missed her by only inches. This mysterious voice had saved her life twice.

Recovering from the fear, she asked the voice who he was. The voice said he was her guardian angel, and was sent to keep her safe.

Not long after that, she decided to have some plastic surgery done so she would look younger. When that was done, she went on an exercise program to lose weight and get in shape. And then, she died her hair.

Soon after all that, she was crossing another street and a bus ran her down and she went to heaven. She met her guardian angel and asked him why he didn’t save her from the bus as he had two previous situations. He said he didn’t know where she was because all the work she had done on herself he couldn’t recognize her. Sometimes, changing means risking.

There is another story of a risk taker.

It is found in MATTHEW 14:22-29.

“Immediately, Jesus told His followers to get into the boat and go ahead of Him across the lake. He stayed there to send the people home. After he had sent them away, he went by Himself up into the hills to pray.

It was late, and Jesus was alone. By this time, the boat was far away from land. It was being hit by waves, because the wind was blowing against it. Between three and six o’clock in the morning, Jesus came to them, walking on the water.

When His followers saw Him walking on the water, they were afraid. They said, “It’s a ghost!” and cried out in fear. But Jesus quickly spoke to them; “Have courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.”

Peter said, “Lord, if it is really You, then command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” And Peter left the boat and walked on the water to Jesus”.

Talk about taking a risk! Here they were in a boat, and the winds were making the crossing very dangerous. You have to keep in mind that they had no flashlights in those days, and it was very dark. In this darkness, they see somebody walking across the water! No wonder they were scared; I think we would be, too! But what happened?

Peter had the courage and faith to step out of the boat and walk on the water. He didn’t do that because he had ’knowledge’ he could do it, but because he had the ’faith’ he could do it.

I know that we have some very brave people in this church, and if asked, some might even say they were heroes, but I really don’t think there is anyone in here that is brave enough to go up to the lake and then step out of the boat to see if they could walk on the water. Too many times, the only faith a Christian has is the faith they would sink like a rock if they did that.

Think about this. To be able to properly succeed in following Jesus, it takes a child-like belief in something that our natural senses say is impossible. It takes pure and honest faith. That is something that too many of us lack today, isn’t it?

Peter took His eyes off Jesus for just a moment and focused on the storm around him and what happened? He started sinking. But Jesus reached down anyway and saved Peter.

When we are in our life’s storms and feel like we are being tossed around like that boat was, do we keep our focus on the Lord, or do we take it away and look at our problems?

When we start to go through a valley, do we remember that God has promised to go through it with us? God does not let us go down to the valley while He sits on the other side yelling for us to hurry and get through it. No, God walks beside us and keeps us from falling by putting His righteous right hand around us to hold us upright.

The reason we have so many devastating circumstances in our storms, is because we do the same thing that Peter did. We take our eyes off Jesus, and the very moment we do that, our faith starts to falter and we begin paying the price of our actions.

Peter stepped out in faith and took a risk. The rest of the disciples stayed in the boat, and took none. Most of the time, aren’t we like the rest of the disciples? Don’t we tend to stay in our comfort zones rather than take risks? What would happen to us if we started taking more risks for the Lord? Better yet, what would happen to the Christian church if we all decided to take more risks for God?

I just got a motorcycle. Years ago I rode and even had several. I remember going into a motorcycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. I was looking at new Harleys. Actually, I was not looking at them, it was more like drooling over them. I wanted a new Harley so bad I could taste it.

The salesman came over and started telling me how powerful it was and how sleek it looked and what it could do. And then he told me how good I would look as I sat on it. I was sold, but I still couldn’t afford to buy it, so I got on my Honda 750 and rode home, albeit somewhat dejected.

A few years ago, I was in Sears in Arizona. I went there to buy a lawn mower. The salesman told me how powerful that model was and how good it looked. He even told me I would look good sitting on it while I mowed my yard. He was telling me basically the same thing about the mower that the other guy told me about the motorcycle.

Now, let’s look at these two items. You can ride both of them, but which one is the bigger risk? The bigger risk is the motorcycle, isn’t it? Now, which one is the most fulfilling? Having ridden both, I would certainly say that the motorcycle is the most fulfilling – by a long shot!

Remember this! The amount of fulfillment you receive in life is directly related to the amount of risks you are willing to take.

And to take the risks for God, we must …


3. STOP SITTING AROUND WASTING HIS TIME

Throughout history, the only times the Christian church has experienced any substantial growth is during the times it reached out to others by obeying the Great Commission, which is found in –

MATTHEW 28:19-20.

‘Go into all nations, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’

Every time the Christian church has left the safety of their comfort zones, and taken a risk, the church has blossomed. That is when the earth-shaking revivals have occurred. God rewards the steps taken to glorify Him.

I guess that tells us that if we are serious about a revival taking place, we had better get out of our recliners and start walking for the Lord.

Today, the fastest growing religion in the world is Islam. If you pay attention to the nightly newscasts and read the papers, you will see that the Muslims do not remain in the shadows and try their best to be obscure. They proclaim their faith mightily and boldly.

Now, I do not agree with anything they believe, but I do think that if Christians would be just as bold in their faith of Jesus as the Muslims are in their faith of Muhammad, there would be a worldwide revival tomorrow that nothing could stop!

There was a time when our churches challenged her members to reach out for Christ. Today, we all but sit here waiting for people to find the church on their own and then come to us. Most of you are fishermen, so you will relate to this story.

A fisherman spent half a day picking out just the right campsite by the river. He spent the remainder of that day setting up his tent, grill and other equipment. Early the next morning, he found a nice rock to sit on down by the river bank and he began to cast his line to catch some fish. About two hours went by and he hadn’t had a nibble, even though the fish were jumping like crazy several hundred yards upstream.

Now, let me ask you a question. If you were that fisherman, what would you do? Would you demand that those fish move on down to where you were so you could catch them, or would you pack everything up and go to where the fish were? Jesus never once said that the lost should go to church. He did say, however, that His church should go to the lost. Again, which choice would you make?

Another man wrote a book on how to catch fish. The book was an instant best seller. In a matter of weeks, the man was scheduled to talk about fishing on all the talk shows, and he was kept constantly busy with personal appearances and book signings. Over the next few years, he had taught just about everyone how to fish, but the sad part is that he got so busy teaching others how to fish, he never had time to do any fishing himself.

Many churches spend a lot of time talking about how to reach the lost too; but in many cases, those same churches do not seem willing to actually go out and do any reaching. That is where the expression “All talk and no walk” comes in to play.

They do not understand how the younger generation could worship to certain kinds of music, or they do not understand that today’s generation has a ’sight and sound’ lifestyle and will not go to a church that does not offer what they are used to. When I grew up, all the women wore spiffy dresses, and men always wore ties and wore hats.

Today’s people don’t dress that way. Many of today’s generation don’t own dresses or ties, and most men never wear any other kind of hat nowadays other than a ball cap. Today’s people not only worship differently, they dress differently, too.

And as hard as that is for some people of my generation to contend with, we need to step back and look at something that is miraculous. Look at the words to the songs they sing. They describe a deep and pure love for the Lord! Look at their actions in church. They don’t just sit and listen as we did when we were their age. They close their eyes, or raise their hands, in complete surrender to Jesus!

We are all members of a family. And a family is just like one body. We have many different parts. Each part has a different look about it and has a different function than the other parts. For instance, a hand does not look like, nor does it operate like a knee. But each part serves a specific purpose in the kingdom of God.

If we eliminate a knee because we don’t like what it does or how it looks, it cripples the entire body, doesn’t it? And if we eliminate a portion of our church because it doesn’t look like or act like another portion, the entire church suffers.

Which is why we started this church with the deep belief that we do things, not concentrating on HOW we have always done them, but WHY we should do them in the first place.

The Lord laid it upon my heart several years ago to see that, and to accept that. After all, the way I was raised was quite different than the churches that the Apostle Paul had gone to, so who am I to say today’s people can’t have their church, too, just like I had mine when I was young. Change can be a very good thing if it is done with a pure and focused love for Jesus Christ.

Most people in churches today are like the disciples that stayed in the boat. We find a comfortable spot in church to hang out in. We can be comfortable and focus at all the “ways” we think church should look, without having to take the risk by focusing on “things” the church should be doing.

We need to start taking risks for Jesus Christ. If you are content to only stay at home, then lock the front door and just watch TV, as you are not doing anything to enhance the kingdom of God. And, God will not reward people who do nothing for Him. He only rewards those that are willing to take a risk for Him.

As we go into our time of invitation, may we have the CrossRoads Singers come back on stage?

This morning, I talked about walking down a road that forked into two roads going in two different directions. Which fork you take may not matter to those around you, and it might not even matter to you, but it matters very much to the Lord.

You are at that fork in the road in your life today. Knowing that you cannot walk both roads at once, you need to make a viable decision as to what you want your life to be.

Do you take the Christian road, or do you take the worldly road? The worldly road tells you to stay home and sit in your recliner as you watch TV all day.

The Christian road calls you to travel. You know all of the facts, but do you realize all of the rewards and the consequences?

Won’t you respond today to the calling of Jesus? As you stand to sing, you are going to feel Jesus touching your heart. He is gently calling you forth. Will you come?