You Thought You Knew — Signs & Wonders — LT Lucas

We are in week two of a collection of talks that he kicked off last week, titled Signs and Wonders. Signs and Wonders, I love that. And the foundation of what this collection is, it's found in John 20, verses 30 and 31. It says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. I like what we just read because this passage, it clearly defines for us the purpose behind John's gospel. He is telling us that he did not put miracles in this book just to show us that the impossible is possible. He put miracles in this book to show us the God of the impossible. See, John, he uses this word, sign, in place of miracles, and we learned it last week. A sign is a pointer, a sign is a signal, a sign is a director. See, John is not just trying to show us the miracle, he's trying to show us and point us to the miracle worker, and his name is Jesus, that we might believe in Jesus, and through belief in Christ, we may have eternal life. The heart behind what we're talking about is that we serve an ever-present God, a God that since the beginning of time has been moving in a miraculous,

and still to this day, he's moving in a miraculous way. Does anybody believe that today? Come on, give him some praise if you believe he's still moving. Give him some praise if you believe he's still stepping in, he's still doing the impossible. That's the God we serve, the same God that shows up in the Old Testament and tells a man to stand in front of the sea and open his hands so that the waters will be divided and his people will walk through on dry land. It's the same God we see in the New Testament tell a man to see, even though he was blind. It's the same God, it's the same God. We see the miraculous throughout the entire Bible, but if the God of the Bible is the God that we serve, that means if he did it back then, he's still doing it now. He's consistent, he hasn't changed. If miracles were his MO, they're still his MO. God is still working, he's a miracle-working God, and I want us to take a look at something, a miracle where Jesus, he does something that ain't nobody supposed to be able to do. Jesus does something natural, but in a supernatural way. Mark 6, verse 45 is where we start. Immediately, he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, to Bethsaida. While he dismissed the crowd, and after he had taken leave of them,

he went up on the mountain to pray. And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately, he spoke to them and said, take heart, it is I, do not be afraid. Today, I wanna speak from this title. If you're taking notes, write this down. Title of this message is You Thought You Knew. You thought you knew. Tap your neighbor and say, you thought you knew. Yeah, you thought you knew. I like that right there, you thought you knew. Some of y'all gotta start telling people that. You thought you knew. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they tryna tell you about your stuff. You thought you knew. Somebody tried to remind you of your past. You thought you knew. Somebody try to tell you who you are. You thought you knew. Somebody try to tell you what you capable of.

They try to put limits on you. You better say, you thought you knew. Come on, anybody got a you thought you knew attitude in this place? Better let somebody know about you. That might be who I used to be, it ain't who I am anymore. You thought you knew. Somebody tryna talk about your God, you thought you knew. Somebody tryna tell you about the God you served, you thought you knew. Somebody put limits on your God, handcuffed your God, say God ain't moving, you thought you knew. Somebody say he ain't still doing miracles, you thought you knew. Come on, somebody. Thought you knew about this. Man, they thought they knew about Jesus too. They thought they knew what a miracle looked like. Then Jesus went and flipped what they thought they knew and showed them something brand new. Ooh, I love that Bible, boy. Ain't nobody ever walked on water before. He walking, stop playing. He walking on water. He walking on what we sink in. He's walking on what some of us drown in.

And if you know where this is at, in the book of Mark, this miracle, it comes on the heels of another great miracle. Right on the heels of it. And it's a miracle some of us, we might be familiar with. You read just a little bit earlier in this chapter. You read the miracle of the feeding of the multitude. Feeding of the 5,000. Y'all know about that? Okay. Jesus, he took five loaves. He took two fish. He fed 5,000. 5,000 plus people. 5,000 plus, let me be clear. Scripture, it only accounts for the men that were there that day. It don't tell us how much women and children was there. So it was much more than 5,000 people that day. And what this shows us is God don't need much to do a miracle. See, God does not need much from you to do a lot through you. I need you to get it today. See, God is capable of multiplying what it is that we minimize. God don't put limits on us, we do. God can do a lot with what you have

if you trust it in his hands. Verse 45, it says, immediately. Somebody say immediately. After this miraculous feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sent his disciples away. It says he made them get into the boat and cross to the other side. Now let me ask you, does it say he asked them to do it? Respond to me, let me hear you. Does it say he suggested they do it? No, it says he made them. He told them to do it. See, because this wasn't an option, this was a command. So many of us want to serve a God that give us options. See, we want that optional God, we want that Burger King God, we want that have it your way type of God, but that is not the God we serve. It's your way, not your way. Let's be clear in this place. It's not an optional type of thing. When God speaks, it's a command, and when he speaks, creation responds. And you're his creation, so you must respond. It's not optional when God says what he says, because God knows when we have options, we always choose the option that we know. We always choose the option that is familiar to us. Mark doesn't tell us why he commanded them away from the scene of this miracle, but John does.

In John 6, 14, it says when the people, this is the multitude that Jesus just fed, this crowd saw the sign that he had done. They said, this is indeed the prophet who was to come into the world, perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king. Jesus withdrew again into the mountain by himself. See, the disciples knew this prophecy that this crowd was referring to, right? These were Jewish people. They would have grown up hearing this prophecy. It's found in Deuteronomy 18 where the Lord promises that he will raise up a great prophet like Moses. Disciples, they would have grown up hearing this. They would have grown up believing this. They would have grown up expecting this to come to pass. So Jesus, he sends them away to keep them from following the crowd. See, don't miss that. Jesus knew what the crowd was thinking. He could see in their hearts. He could discern what it is they were saying amongst each other. He knew what they were thinking. He knew that these people were getting ready to promote him to a position, to promote him to a place, to promote him to a platform that was not yet ready for him. Because before he put on a crown of glory, he had to put on a crown of thorns.

Before he was lifted high on a throne, he had to be lifted up on a cross. Somebody say you thought you knew. You thought you knew. They weren't wrong in saying he was a great prophet because he was, but they were wrong in thinking that's all he was. He wasn't a prophet like Moses. How many of us know he was greater than Moses? Yeah, yeah, yeah, and he wasn't just a prophet. He was more than that. He was more than a prophet, and it's not that they were wrong. Maybe you've been with us the past couple weeks. Maybe you've heard this before. They weren't wrong, but they were almost right. They were almost right. They almost got it. They thought they knew. Jesus, knowing what they thought they knew, commands his disciples to leave. He commands them to leave to protect them from this crowd. He knows the crowd is not full of the spirit, but they are full of the flesh, and when you hang around flesh long enough, how many of us know? You fall into flesh. You give into it. So Jesus is actually protecting his people. He's protecting his followers

by telling them get up out of there, get in the boat. Somebody say get in the boat. Come on now, get in the boat where they thought they knew. Scripture, it tells us that Jesus, he flees to a mountain by himself. Mark 6, 46, after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray. This is Jesus. This is God in the flesh. He'd been teaching all day. He just performed a mass miracle, and what do we see him do? He retreats to prayer. If God gotta retreat to prayer, how much more do we? Like, you gotta see it. It's like Jesus is showing us something in the text here, and I don't want us to miss this. He's coming out of a miracle. So perhaps right now he's thanking his Father for what he just did. He's thanking Father God for what just took place, but he's also resetting, refreshing, and refocusing. That's what we need. We need to reset, refresh, and refocus, because what God did is not all God will do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some of us, we get caught up in what God did, so we think we know all he will do. Somebody say you thought you knew. No, you gotta reset your expectation.

You gotta refresh your faith, and you gotta refocus your attention back to him. God did a miracle, but guess what? He about to do another one. Somebody say another one. Shout out DJ Khaled, stop playing. Man, Jesus, he making it real clear. We can't see a supernatural move of God without prayer. Prayer is our preparation for the miracle. We can't just pray for a miracle. Some of us, we better start praying in between miracles. That's how you go from glory to glory. That's how you go from miracle to miracle. Start praying after he did it because of what he did, but then expecting what he about to do. Expecting that he could do it again, but maybe he could do it a little different. If he did it that way before, he might do it this way now. If he did that in the past, he might do this now, but if he did it before, it means he could do it again. Somebody say, you thought you knew. The disciples, man, they went on that lake because Jesus said so. Y'all know that? Did y'all realize that? They went on that lake because Jesus told them to go, and then they find themselves in a storm. This is where this passage make me pause a little bit. My wife, she over there. My family, they here too.

They can tell you, born and raised, county of Dade. I'm from Miami. I'm repping this thing to death. Stop playing with you, boy. They know me, man. They know I'm from Miami, but I'm one of those few people from Miami that don't mess with that water. I don't mess with that, y'all. I don't mess with that water, y'all. I don't mess with that ocean, man. I don't mess with large bodies of water. I really just mess with the pool. I don't want none of that other stuff. I don't, man. I don't even want to go in the water if it's a nice day. Don't invite me to your beach day. Don't invite me to your boat day. I don't care. I don't want to know. I'm not coming. I ain't getting on that boat. And it's not because I can't swim. Y'all stop. I know some of y'all thought that. Stereotypical. No, I can swim. I've been swimming for some time now. I don't want to get in that water because I was made for this land. I want to be clear real quick.

God made me fit for the land. If he wanted me in the water, he would have gave me fins and flippers. He ain't give me not one of them. You see, I don't got either. So I'm staying on this land. I don't mess with that water. And I'm for sure not getting in the water. Getting on a boat in the middle of the night. What are we? What is that? You ever been on a boat at night? Well, you can't see nothing. When you go to the beach at night, you can't see nothing. I'm not getting on a boat in the middle of the night. I'm for sure, for sure, for sure, for sure, a thousand and 10% not getting on a boat in a storm. Ain't no way. And this ain't no big boat they on now. This is a little boat. This ain't no big cruise ship. This is a little boat. You gotta be kidding me. I wouldn't even get on a cruise ship in a storm. I ain't even gonna do that. I ain't testing that. God himself, and I mean, hear me. God himself gonna have to descend, look me in my eyes and tell me, get on this boat. I ain't doing it.

He gonna have to be face to face. We was just face to face, face to face, telling me to get on a boat like this, but this is what the disciples is going through. This is what we see in the text. Jesus, who is God, told the disciples to get in the boat and cross to the other side. He is God. That means he's omniscient. That means he's all knowing. Just jacked me up. He knew full well that he was sending them into a storm. Messed me up when I read it because he sent them, but he sent them alone. Did y'all realize that? He sent them into this. God knew it was a storm, right? Y'all think God didn't know that they were going in? God knew where he was sending them. He knew what they would encounter along the way. He knew it, and he sent them alone. He was on the mountain praying. He was on dry land, but they were in the middle of the lake, in the middle of a storm, and the only reason they was there is because he told them to go. I gotta ask, would you remain obedient if where God sent you actually led you to shaky waters? Would you remain obedient if the rock, the solid rock, the foundation,

actually sent you into something that had no foundation? Would you remain obedient to God then? It seems like he didn't just send them into a storm, but he sent them into a storm alone. That's what it seemed like to me, but then God says something. He told me, he said, LT, you thought you knew. See, he reminded me, this is not the first time the disciples had been in a storm since following Jesus. Mark 4 actually shows us a similar situation where the disciples are in a storm, but Jesus isn't on land, Jesus is on the boat. Jesus was in the boat, but Jesus was sleeping. What? Jesus was sleeping, and they woke him up. They woke him up, and he speaks to the storm. I'm about to jack y'all up with it. He spoke to the storm, and the storm listened. Did y'all hear what I just said? Did y'all hear what I just said? I'm gonna repeat it, I don't think they heard me. He spoke to the storm. And the storm, listen. Y'all think I'm playing, we gonna read it, put it up. Mark 4, verse 39, it says, He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And this is what the Lord spoke to me. If I was with them in that, I'm with them in this.

If I was with them in that storm, I'm with them in this storm, because I'm the same God. Whether I'm there physically or not, I'm the same God. See, they had God in the flesh, we have God in the spirit, but we gotta get this today, he's the same God. Just because we can't see him, don't mean he ain't here. He's the same God. Come on, I need you to feel me what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he ascended, but he also sent someone. He's the same God. I think that Jesus was actually preparing his disciples for his ascension, because he would no longer be there physically, but he would be there in spirit. He said, I must go, so the helper, referring to the Holy Spirit, can come. And it's funny, they say, it says in the scripture, they saw Jesus and they thought he was a ghost. I don't know what type of culture or church y'all grew up in, but in some cultures, they don't really call the Holy Spirit the spirit, they call him the Holy Ghost. Mess me up, but I love the Bible. Try to tell y'all, y'all gotta read this more. He's not in the boat, but that doesn't mean he's not with them. He's not speaking to the storm, but that doesn't mean he won't come. Just because we can't see him,

it doesn't mean the storm won't obey him. Gotta get it today. Notice this storm has the exact same reaction as the last one. He got into the boat with them and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded. He's trying to show his disciples, he's trying to show us. He might've did it that way before, but that doesn't mean he gonna do it that way again. You thought you knew. Mark 6, 48. Jesus, he saw that they were making headway painfully. That just means they were struggling. They was going through it. For the wind was against them, and at about the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them. It says he meant to pass by them. He saw the struggle they was in. He saw them. He said, look at them struggling. He saw them. But it still say, and this ain't a scripture, it's incorruptible, I want you to know that. This ain't a mistake. Mark ain't mess up when he wrote this. It still says he meant to pass by them. He was passing by because he was going where he told them to go.

Jesus gave him his word. He said, go before him to the other side. So he fully expected them to make it to the other side. Because God's word is final. God's word supersedes your reality. Just because it might not look like you gonna make it, if God said you gonna make it, best believe you gonna make it. God's word is actually greater than your circumstance. God's word is actually greater than your situation. If you ain't got nothing to ride on, if you ain't got nothing to hold on to, you better hold on to God's word. Because if everything else fail, God's word gonna keep you up. God's word gonna keep you going. God's word gonna keep you moving. His word is final. He said it, that mean it's done. But when the storm came on the lake, the word of God was drowned out. Let me ask you, where has God's word been drowned out of your life because of the wind and the waves? Where have you lost expectation of the miraculous because of the storm you find yourself in? Because the winds are strong and the waves are heavy. They left before Jesus and they were in a boat. That's crazy. But Jesus caught up to them.

That mean that Jesus, when he stepped on the water, that mean he ain't struggle. That mean that he wasn't shifty or shaky. He was walking real smooth. He was walking real calm and collected. He wasn't in no rush. He was just like that. Vibes. Vibes. Probably turned around like that too. Chillin'. Jesus, he wasn't trippin' on the water. But he saw them strugglin'. And because they were strugglin', what they were strugglin' with began to slow them down. But what they were strugglin' with, Jesus was walkin' on. Wow. And maybe today, what you're strugglin' with has been slowing you down. The pain, the trauma, the heartbreak in your life, it has been slowing you down. The wind has been slowing you down. The waves have been weighing you down. And it feels like you're sinking. Maybe it feels like you on a. verge of drowning, like you walked in here and you're barely keeping your head above water. Maybe that's where you are today. Listen to the words of Jesus.

He says, take heart, don't be afraid. Jesus is walking on the water and he's not just walking up to you. He plans to walk past you because he fully expects you to make it to the other side. And I like how God was walking on what was painful for them. I like how he was walking on what they were struggling with because God will place that thing that's been beating you up, that thing that's been holding you back, that thing that's been hurting, he'll place that thing beneath his feet to get to you. See, what's a struggle for you is not a struggle for him. He was not moved by the storm. He was not moved by the wind. He was not moved by the waves. He was not moved by the water. You drown in it, he walks on it. He was walking, he is walking right now in somebody's life. He's walking on that bad doctor's report you got this week. He's walking on that broken relationship. He's walking on that marriage that you think is too far gone, that you think there's no way. He's walking on it. He's actually walking on your kid's future right now. He's actually walking on your daughter. He's walking on your son's life right now. You think they too far gone to get to Jesus? Well, keep praying, keep believing, keep expecting. And it's gonna be a miracle when they say,

I gave my life to Jesus. It's gonna be a miracle when they say, I've surrendered. But because you prayed, I told you, you gotta pray in between miracles. Because you expected it. Because you went to God in prayer when nobody else could see it, when nobody else could hear it but him. And then he's walked up to him. He's walking up to him right now. And he's bringing him close. He's bringing him in. I need you to hear me. Maybe you on your last dollar today. And you in a financial storm. Well, he's walking on that last dollar. If the last dollar is all you got, but you got him. A miracle can still take place. I need you to believe it. I need you to expect it. He is walking on the water. He is walking through the storm. There is not a single thing in hell, heaven, or in between that can stop him from getting to his people. God is still walking on the water. He's walking on the water of your life. He's walking on your pain. He's walking on your struggle. The same God who walks on water is the God who walked up out of that grave.

And the same God who walked up out of that grave, he also walked throughout hell and made sure there was not a room with your name on it. He's the same God. What I'm trying to show you, Jesus is not walking on the water. He's walking over everything that is between you and him. Everything is beneath his feet to get to you. You thought you knew. You've been looking for a miracle. Go look in the mirror. Go look in the mirror. You thought a miracle looked like all that? No, a miracle looks like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a miracle that the church even exists. It's a miracle that we're here today. It's a miracle you got breath in your lungs. Did you do that or did God? It's a miracle that you're breathing today. It's a miracle that you have salvation in Christ Jesus. It's a miracle that you have a place in eternity with the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. It's a miracle. It's a miracle that when you fall, he picks you up. It's a miracle that when we failed, when we messed up, God created a plan to bring us back to him. It's a miracle to be in relationship with the King of Kings, the creator of all things. It's a miracle.

It's a miracle. You're a miracle. Somebody say, I'm a miracle. We are standing in the miracle. Jesus, he says it, man. He says, take heart. It is I. Don't be afraid. I like how it says it in the New Living Translation. He says, take courage. I am here. Jesus, he says, I am here. This is not just an announcement of his arrival. I was reading it in my Bible. Y'all gotta read your Bible, physical Bible too. Gotta have one, praise God. You gotta have a physical Bible. Because I was reading this in my Bible and the Lord, he said, look at the footnotes. I look at the footnotes and the word, the phrase that he used in the original Greek is this phrase, ego, I am me. And this literally translates to I am. If y'all been reading your Bible for some time, maybe you've seen that before. But if you know, this is not the first time we see God identify himself in this way. Exodus 3.14, God is speaking to Moses through the burning bush. And Moses, he asked him, what is your name?

What do I say when the people ask who sent me? And God tells Moses, I am who I am. and he said say this to the people of israel i am has sent me to you fast forward jesus is walking on that boat i mean walking up to that boat in the middle of a storm he's not just saying i'm here he's revealing his identity he's revealing his divinity he's saying the i am is here the ones who live in god just stepped on the scene the same god that parted the sea for their ancestors so they could be free just walked up to them in the middle of a lake in the middle of a storm the same god who showed up for moses just showed up for them the same god who let their ancestors walk through on dry land just walked up on them where there was no land and the same god who walked on water back then is walking on water today you thought you knew him walking on water it's a sign it's much more than just a miracle it shows us and it points us to who he is he is god and he's the god who's willing to walk on anything in heaven here and below to save his people