And I'll talk more about this with Mount of Beatitudes, I don't want to give too many talks of the same thing, but what you find is that without traveling a long distance, because of how he invested his time,

he made a tremendous impact.

Sometimes we think we have to travel over land and sea, which by the way Jesus said about the Pharisees, they traveled over land and sea to try to make one convert.

Jesus basically spent his time around about an 80 mile area and changed the world.

So we have to have perspective sometimes on these matters.

There's a lot of things that can be said about what occurred here, and I'll just talk about a little bit.

Let me point out something to you, and I just actually brought this up here where I could have a reference point.

You may want to pick up one of these.

When I started coming to Israel at first, they have several of these kinds of placemats.

And you can turn this one up like this, and you can see where we're actually at.

But Arbel, that is…

Now right back there, okay, they show right here, and so we're going to actually concentrate — you got it, let's see here, no it's the other way I think.

Yeah, yeah, okay there we go.

Because Arbel's — because they had to fit a lot of things on here, not everything is exactly where it would be — it's a little too high.

But Arbel's here, you were up there, and Jesus spent his time on this western sea area.

And he went one time or the other that we know of.

And we're going to be going to a place called Capernaum.

They have it pretty high here.

I don't think it's quite that high.

But we're going to be going up here later on today.

And you have several miracles that occurred here.

Now they have Jesus walking on the water.

Now we can't say he walked right here.

But somewhere out here he did walk, and also another time he was in the boat, late at night, right here, this is being depicted here.

These, by the way, are great to get.

I get this one because it gives you perspective of the Sea of Galilee and the events that occurred at the Sea of Galilee.

I bought this one and also I bought several others so that when we sit around the table and we have placemats, you can actually have a reference point to Israel and even talk a family conversation.

You can talk about your trip and also talk about the Bible.

And it's sort of a nice way to have a conversation started.

You may want to think about this.

But for right now, let me just go ahead and take this.

We're going to talk about a couple of stories that occurred out here.

Thank you very much, Hal.

Chapter 14 of Matthew.

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away.

And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up in the mountain by himself to pray.

Now when the evening came, he was alone there.

But the boat was now in the middle of the sea.

So you have about the idea about where we are, about the middle of the sea.

Tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

Now in the fourth watch of the night, what would that be?

It depends on how long the watches are.

What kind of watch you have, digital?

If you're using like John's, I'd have to figure it out, but like John's you have about three hour periods during the night, four watches.

Yeah.

So now 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 is a ghost.

And they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer.

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 so he said, come.

And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked in 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, saying, Lord, save me.

Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?

And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped him.

You have to see this word.

We're talking about Jewish people here.

And they worshipped him, truly you are the Son of God.

And then they crossed over to the land of Gennesaret.

By the way, this sea comes by different names.

Anybody know some names?

Sea of Tiberias.

Sea of Tiberias.

Yes, Tiberias.

Lake Kinneret.

Kinneret.

Kinneret.

Kinneret.

The Sea of Galilee.

The fourth watch of the night is 3 a.m. until 6 a.m.

Yeah, because you have a 12-hour period you're working with, yeah.

But also the Sea of Galilee, obviously.

So the sea has identified those several things around here.

Tiberias, a city.

Galilee, the location of the area up north.

But then you have the idea of the harp, the shape of the harp, which is why you get the word Kinneret.

And you have these…

These variations.

Somebody saw it?

It could be mine.

But you have these variations of names.

So that's what you'll find, by the way, in Israel — you have to pay close attention to this — is that a lot of places, because of lengthy history

and a lot of other factors, have name changes, different names.

And so you have to, sometimes you'll be reading the Bible and not realize that you're reading the same place that actually is another place by a different name.

So you have to be aware of these things.

But notice it says they worshipped him.

Now there's another occasion that we have with Jesus and that's when the storm arose.

And something else happened.

Remember what the response was?

Jesus is lying in the boat, and he's at peace and asleep.

And the storm arose, and the people in the boat, the disciples, said, don't you care about us?

We're going to perish.

And he stood up and said, man, you just don't have the faith.

And he stood up and said, be still.

And it stopped.

What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the seas obey him?

And again they worshiped him.

There's a lesson to be learned out here on the sea.

Life seems calm sometimes and there's no need for fear, but sometimes it seems that things go awry and we are apt to have fear.

Remember, God has not given to us — that's not a gift — God has not given to us fear.

Fear comes from somewhere else.

And yet when there is fear, God has given to us a response.

He's given to us an answer to take away our fear.

He said we don't have faith, and yet if we understand who Jesus is, then that doesn't become the issue anymore.

See, when they recognize who is this, it's a ghost, they were afraid.

When finally they figured out it was Jesus, then the fear goes away.

When they're in the boat and he's asleep and now they say he doesn't care, he cared all the time.

He just wasn't worried about it and they were.

Isn't that how it is with us?

If we're really thinking the mind of Christ, a lot of things that bring us into a sense of despondency or fear, anxiety, all these kinds of emotions that arise,

they go away when we realize who we serve.

Because there's no reason to fear when you have the Lord of creation on your side.

These guys had a personal contact with Jesus.

They knew exactly what was going on.

At least they had the person that would provide that information, but they couldn't seem to tap it because they let their inner fears and despondencies and anxieties come to the fore.

So, I guess when I'm sitting here now, we don't have the time of the day, we might have some waves.

That would be interesting.

Because we're really at calm.

If that's really what we need to be in Jesus, we need to be at calm.

Don't you feel just, don't you live with me on the sea?

It's just very calming and relaxing.

And you ever read the biblical passages that talk about where to rest in him?

That's what we're talking about.

In other words, things can go around us.

Yeah, yeah, that's going around us.

Life seems that way, but we can rest in him because we have our hands in the hands of the one that controls it all.

Peter is doing okay as long as he kept his focus.

And we'll do okay in our lives as long as we keep our focus.

And that's why Paul talks about pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

It's keeping the focus.

Who's our eyes on?

That's why they always teach you in football.

You don't be looking around you as you're running.

You need to have focus.

Where's the focus?

The goal.

If you keep looking at the guys that are running at you, they're going to catch you.

But if you keep your focus, then you're okay.

That's how it is in life, I think.

I've had times in life when I've got my mind off realizing who the Lord is, and started thinking about my circumstances and thinking about me.

And then I trip.

But as long as I keep my focus, I'm okay.

So I think that's what we have here in the text.

And there's so many other stories about the fish, and lots of fishing going on.

Jesus was a fisherman, but he was also concerned being a fisher of men, as you well know.

So I'd encourage you to look at one of these.

Any comments here?

I just want to give an opportunity since we're here on the boat and it's very calming, and our guests, we're guests of our hosts here, they say they're not in a big hurry.

So anything in your thoughts so far in Israel or thoughts here on the sea?

One short summary is that the storm is outside and got inside the disciples, and they panic, and they even get frustrated that Jesus is sleeping.

And then he stands up and the calm is inside, he projects outside.

And there we've got an example for family and work and school situations, whether we're going to be a part of the turmoil or we're going to be a part of the solution.

Yeah, that's good, thank you.