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When God is Big... is a sermon series examining what happens when you have a bigger vision of who God is. Fears are Quieted — What do we do when we are afraid? When God is small, when we lose sight of him or are distracted from him, fear is only natural but can be overwhelming. But when God is big, when we focus on Jesus and learn to walk by faith and not sight, then our fears are quieted. And we find a life of courage is possible. Recorded on Oct 10, 2021, on Matthew 14:22-33, by Pastor David Parks. Sermon Transcript All year, we’re focusing on The Greatness of God. And today, we’re continuing a sermon series called When God is Big… In this series, we’re considering how a bigger view of God changes everything, including how we live out our values and deal with our struggles. If you missed any of the messages on our values from the last 4 weeks, you can go back and watch those on YouTube or listen to our audio podcast. But today, we get to start working on how a bigger view of God can impact/transform our struggles as well, including struggles with fear, identity, and addiction. So today, we get to address the ever-present issue of fear. Fear is powerful and fear is everywhere. Whether your struggle is more of generalized anxiety or a specific situation that you’re worried about or you’re in a full-blown fight-or-flight mode type of fear, fear is something that every single one of us will face in life. So what do we do when our fears become big? Is the voice of fear loud in your inner world today? I know it can seem like our fears are screaming at us at times. Well, my goal today is that you would see that when God is big, when you walk by faith and not sight…our fears are quieted. In Christ, a life of courage is possible. Is this something you’d like to learn? Then, please open your Bible/app to Mt 14, starting with v.22. Matthew 14:22-33, “22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” So Matthew was also known as Levi. And Matthew was a tax collector before he started following Jesus. Eventually, he was commissioned by Jesus to be one of the twelve Apostles. The book of Matthew is the longest account of the life/ministry of Jesus in the NT. Let’s jump back into our text for today. Look back at v.22. Matthew 14:22-23a, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Let’s pause here. So Matthew records that immediately after the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side. The other side of what? The other side of the Sea of Galilee. This northern region of Galilee is where Jesus grew up and where he spent most of his time early on in his ministry.