Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Walking in obedience to God is not always easy, but it's so worth it. Here's Pastor James.

James Kaddis: When God asks me to do something, oftentimes it feels like, seems like, and almost always is the harder thing to do. It feels like it's insurmountable. It is very, very much overwhelming at times. But the moment I step into it by choosing to walk in obedience, I find an incredible benefit that comes as a result of my obedience and I realize because of the supernatural intervention that I receive as a result of the step of faith that I take, the task or the process is a lot easier than if I chose to do something on my own, thus creating a path of destruction for me. You understand what I'm saying? And this is something that's really important.

Guest (Male): Imagine being out in the middle of a lake in a rowboat late at night with the wind working against you and making it hard to go anywhere. All of a sudden, you see someone passing by walking on the water. Do you think you might be terrified by that? That's exactly what's about to happen to the disciples in Mark chapter six. There are some noteworthy lessons from it all, as you'll soon hear. Here's Pastor James Kaddis on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: I rarely ever go through the Bible, read it, and I'm not inspired in one way or another. I think that the Bible is oftentimes one of those places that I can go to that every single time I open the book, I know I'm going to get something out of it that's going to build me up, that's going to enrich me, that's going to cause me to grow. But man, in a passage like this, this type of passage can become very, very motivating, especially if you're in the midst of a time that feels very overwhelming.

One of the things that I like doing when I teach through the Bible is looking for patterns or identifying certain points or dare I even say metaphorical inflection points that you can find in the storyline that really demonstrate a turn or a change. When you just go through any of the gospels, you find them everywhere. It's so uniquely encouraging and powerful. This is one of those passages. I know that people who tend to go through this story or these series of stories relatively slowly will take them apart and go through them piece by piece.

But I just feel like in order to be able to see the pattern, you have to go through at least a couple of these stories bunched together at the same time. Obviously, last week I wanted to spend some time talking about the thousands of people that were fed on the loaves and the fish because I thought that it was worthwhile to talk about the truth that God wants us to meet Him where we are at, or rather He wants us to give Him an effort and He meets us where we're at, and He extends Himself to do amazing things.

He takes the little bit that we have if we're willing to give it to Him, give it all to Him, and He'll take it and multiply it, and He'll do a miraculous work as a result. But there's something about this understanding that should also teach us that not only is God there for us during the most difficult times where we most visibly need Him, but He's also there for us during the times where we don't think we need Him. He's also there for us in the times where we feel like we don't have Him anywhere near us. He's with us through and through and He's in it in the long term for us.

Looking at some of these patterns in the Bible stories that we're going to read today, you can find some pretty amazing stuff. So let's jump right into this. They just finished feeding the thousands of people. We know that that's just finished happening. Look at this in verse 45. It says, "And straightway he constrained his disciples to get into the ship and to go to the other side before unto Bethsaida, where he sent away all the people." Now they're basically going right back. There's a bit of a U-turn here and they're going back to where they came from.

Again, this is important because when God guides us, there's always something that He has in store for us that He wants us to go through or that He wants to teach us and something that He wants to give us. It's something that I think is really interesting because when we are asked by the Lord to do something, we oftentimes meet God's questioning or God's commands with resistance because it appears to us to be overwhelming. It appears to us to be difficult. It appears to us to be something that isn't going to be a good thing. It's not going to feel all that good. To us, it almost feels like painful or a hardship.

Yet God is saying, if you'll just listen to Me and ignore your emotion, ignore what you think is your experience based on what's happened in the past and you just trust Me, then obeying Me is going to bring a result that you will all be blessed with. Obeying Me will bring a result that will strengthen you and cause you to grow. It's funny because I'm reliving this right now in my own heart as a father as I see my little children resisting doing the things that we ask them to do because they think that the things that we ask them to do is not going to be convenient or it's not going to be easy because to them, in their limited perspective with their limited capacities, they don't understand the overall picture.

So you go to them and you say, "Whatever you do, don't do this," or "Whatever you do, do this." They think, "No, I just want to have a lot of fun." They don't listen to you, and as a result, they get hurt or something happens and they realize that the harder way was the way that they chose. Even then, with their limited capacity, their limited maturity, they still don't make the connection that we want them to have fun, that we want them to enjoy their lives, that we want them to experience something wonderful and blessed. But we don't oftentimes seem to be the people that they want to trust immediately because they think they know better.

Just like our children, we are the same way when it comes to the Lord. I just think it's really hilarious. The other day I was playing with my children in the driveway, and it's sort of a "catch me if you can." Right now I've got two of them that are just absolute speed demons, my two youngest. They just go so fast it's sickening how fast they can go in their little scooter and their bike or whatever. So I put up these little rules and I say, "Listen, whatever you do, make sure you don't do this. Just do this way, you don't do this."

Well, one of mine just insists that she can go so much faster if she just doesn't the way that she wants to do it. You know what? She can. She can go exorbitantly fast. The problem is within the course of about 15 minutes, she fell like five times. The thing is, well, you can do that really hard and fast, fall five times, and then go inside because you're really hurt, or you could go slightly slower, have double the amount of fun, and last way longer so that you don't have to get injured and hurt yourself.

But little kids don't think that way, and we're the same way as children of the Lord. We don't think on that level because we don't have the foreseeability to understand. We look at the smaller picture and we think that's the biggest picture. God, who sees everything, says, "No, I want you to listen to Me." So I want you guys to tune into this because this is not something that should be hard for us, but by our nature it is.

Here's the thing that I'm learning. When God asks me to do something, oftentimes it feels like, seems like, and almost always is the harder thing to do. It feels like it's insurmountable. It is very, very much overwhelming at times. But the moment I step into it by choosing to walk in obedience, I find an incredible benefit that comes as a result of my obedience and I realize because of the supernatural intervention that I receive as a result of the step of faith that I take, the task or the process is a lot easier than if I chose to do something on my own, thus creating a path of destruction for me.

So when you hear situations or you know of a circumstance or you're aware of a moment in your life where you are sensing an exhortation from the Lord, or you simply understand the principle of right or wrong applied to the area that you are actually converging upon, always choose what you know is the righteous position, no matter how hard it may feel or no matter how difficult it is. I want to remind you of a couple of things and they're very important.

The first thing I want to remind you of is when they first got back in the boat to come to the side where they were in, where they ended up confronting the Gadarenes and going through all the stuff that they did, they ran into a pretty substantial storm. Remember that? They were on the boat. It was a very stormy situation. It was uncomfortable, it was scary, the disciples were freaked out. And what does Jesus do? He's in the middle of the boat. He stands up and what does He do? He rebukes the weather.

Clearly, the time and the season that they're in right now while they're on this boat, it is that time when the Galilee can become very rocky. That's why it was oftentimes called the Sea of Galilee. So if I am the disciples, I just went through all of that and now I know that Jesus isn't going to be with me because He's not physically with me, yet I'm told to get in the boat and go back to the other side where the big crowd was and everything was. To me, I would just think I don't know that I would really want to do it to be honest with you.

Here's the perspective you have to have. This is really important. The crowd that was on one side of the Galilee is not a different crowd than was on the other. The crowd that was on one side of the Galilee was the same crowd that simply followed Jesus's boat by going all the way around. By the way, that's not a small trip and that's not an easy trip, especially back in those days. You could go around the Galilee in Israel now in just a matter of moments. You can't do that back then. It was very, very difficult to do.

So no matter where you go, the crowd's going to be following you, things are going to be difficult. But Jesus is basically telling them to go back onto the boat and go to the other side. The problem is this: the problem is Jesus isn't with them. There's going to be a little bit of an insecurity there. They're already tired. There's already been a massive amount of things that have happened. Jesus's popularity has just increased way more than anybody thought possible.

Look what happens. I'll read the first verse again that I just read to you, verse 45. "And straightway," what did He do? "He constrained." That's the word. He basically told them, "You're going to do this. Go into the ship and go to the other side." He puts them in the boat, they go. Obviously, there's got to be some reluctance. Then He tells the people, "On your merry way," and He sends the crowd away. Where do you think the crowd's going? In what direction do you think the crowd is going to move in? There's a lot to say about that. I'm going to leave that alone because we'll get into that discussion next week or actually the week after next.

Look what happens here in verse 46. "And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray." This is such an interesting thing for me to reflect upon a little bit. Obviously, there's a part of me that's missing something here and I know I'm missing something because what I'm missing is a personal perspective based on being the creator of the universe. I'm not the creator of the universe, so my personal perspective is not going to be the same as the creator of the universe when He goes off to pray.

But I do want to point something out when it comes to prayer, and that is this: a lot of people don't like doing it. Christians who know they have to do it in order to sustain their walk with God and their well-being oftentimes don't make it a practice to pray with a certain level of vigor or regularity. Why? Because prayer is not an easy activity. Prayer is a spiritual activity. It's met with literally an insane amount of exertion.

Why? Because you're involving yourself in something that's spiritual and when you involve yourself in the very crux of that which is the most difficult and extenuating function of the things that you face every single day, of course it's going to be draining. Prayer is not some easy thing. You're entering and engaging into something that can be very exhausting at times. You're entering into something that can be very difficult. It's not like you just sit down and go, "Okay, we're going to pray," and it's as leisurely as grabbing a soda and turning on the TV.

It has absolutely everything to do with what is the exact opposite of that. It's a labor-intensive thing. It's something that requires a certain amount of ability to be able to communicate and navigate. It's something that's pretty critical. If you've ever had a guest come over to your house that you were really, really excited to have come over, or maybe you went to dinner with somebody that you thought was a VIP that you were really excited to meet, or maybe you have this opportunity to sit down and be face-to-face with somebody that you would normally not be face-to-face to, there's a lot of pomp and circumstance associated with it.

You might take some time to figure out what you're going to dress in. You might consider the things you're going to say. You might make a list in your head about what I'm going to say if I have an opportunity to say this or what's going to happen when this happens. There's all kinds of things you go through to prepare for the moment. When the moment comes, you're really excited, you jump into it full force. But the time you get out of the moment and it's all done, you find yourself at the end of the day getting on your pajamas and going, "Man, thank God that was over," right?

It's a tiring process. Imagine going before the creator of the universe, going before the One who created all of it, everything that you have and everything that you are. You go to Him and you labor in your communication with Him. That's going to be a process. So the Lord says to His disciples to get back on the boat and go to the other side. He sends the people away so He has time to Himself. But what does He do? He goes and He gets away to pray. There's something to be said about that.

Look what happens. Verse 47: "And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land." You can picture this, right? This is midday that all of this happened. Jesus sends the people away, or maybe a little after midday, late afternoon. He sends the people away. He sends His disciples out first on the boat, then He sends the people away and He goes and He sort of hides out on a hill and He spends some time praying to the Lord.

Now we find ourselves in the evening time, so some time has gone by. He is still in this position. The boat is there at night. By the way, just so that you understand, I have had the privilege of being on the Galilee when it was late at night. This is an interesting thing. The last time, as a matter of fact, I think when I took Nicole to Israel, we got to do that. We got on the Galilee late at night and the ship captain did us a favor because I asked him to do it.

When we got to the middle of the Galilee, we stopped in the middle of the Galilee. We normally do this during the day, but not at night. We stopped in the middle of the Galilee and we just had a Bible study. It was pretty late, pretty cold because the temperature of the water is pretty cold and there's a very mild soft breeze blowing, so it sort of has this cooling effect kind of like you're in sitting in the middle of a swamp cooler basically and some very pleasant time.

This was not one of the rocky experiences. This is literally where you're on glass and it just really feels like a very interesting moment. But I'm going to just tell you something about this: it's a bit eerie. The reason why it's a bit eerie is if you're there super late at night in the Galilee, you're not talking about a bunch of nightlife people. You're surrounded by a bunch of kibbutzes. There's a couple of hotels that are on the shores of the Galilee there, but for the most part, if you're in the middle of the Galilee and you ask the captain to turn off all the lights in the boat and you look out and the moon is not up yet and all you see is the stars and you look around, you can see the silhouettes of the mountainside, but it's dark, folks. It's dark.

I can guarantee that the apostles as they are sitting in this boat on the Galilee when it's late at night, they can't see anything. They don't know if something is coming towards them. They might be hearing lots of mysterious sounds. It's interesting because I always would tell people, and I think I did it on this trip where I took Nicole, we tell everybody just don't say a word and nobody laugh, cough, nobody say anything and just listen to the sounds.

It's wild how clearly you can hear things. You can be in the middle of the Galilee and you can hear the sound of brush moving when maybe an animal walks by or the wind going through reeds. It's a very unique sound. If you're in the right part of the Galilee, there'll be times where it's so quiet that you'll hear an oncoming car on the top of the hill on the other side near the area where the Mount of Beatitudes was. It's just very interesting how stark it is.

If you think about it, it's almost an eerie feeling because you're in the middle of the ocean and you're in a small little tiny boat that's probably easily capsizable and it's the middle of the night basically. Imagine what that would feel like if a storm starts. Isn't it funny how that works? But look what takes place because this gets interesting, even more interesting than it already has become.

Verse 48: "And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them." Can you imagine how fearful of a moment this must be for them? They start off on the Sea of Galilee and I'm assuming this, but I think it's a safe assumption, relatively calm. Almost guaranteed they are on very smooth water. How do I know that? Nobody gets in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when the storm is raging. No way that's happening. It's not happening, there's no way that could possibly happen. That would be a suicide run. It's just crazy, nobody does that.

So things get really bad really fast and you can see that the disciples are beginning to frantically get themselves or seek for a way to get themselves out of trouble. By the way, if they're panicking and I want you to think this through, if they're panicking, then it has to be super, super bad. How do we know that it has to be super, super bad? Because several of them are fishermen. Several of them know how to navigate boats. Several of them know exactly what to do and how to handle the situation, how to deal with the circumstance as it arise.

Right now they are just completely flailing trying to navigate themselves out of what appears to be a very ugly situation. Only to see what would appear to be a silhouette of some guy walking on the water. Can you imagine how spooky that would be? How absolutely just heart-wrenching that would be? Look what it goes on to say. By the way, this isn't giving us the account that we are so familiar with respect to what happened with Peter. That's another story. But it is interesting to look at the perspective that Mark shares with us. It's very interesting.

Imagine being on the boat as well where you're panicking and then a guy passes by you like you're on a sidewalk. I just want to add to that picture, outside the boat. You have to think at that point that's the Grim Reaper coming, right? You're about to die and now you're hallucinating. I don't know, but that's kind of a scary picture.

Guest (Male): This is Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis, and we're currently going through the Gospel of Mark. Listen to this study and more at lightonthehillradio.com. Pastor James's teachings are also available through the Light on the Hill app and at oneplace.com. You can listen to us wherever you get your podcasts as well.

When you have a moment sometime today, send us an email. We'd love it. It's encouraging to hear what the Lord is doing in our listeners' lives and it's an opportunity to thank the Lord for what He's doing. There's a place to contact us at our website, lightonthehillradio.com.

We've been blessed by the feedback we've received thus far regarding Pastor James's new book, The Last Book. If you haven't ordered a copy yet, we'd encourage you to do so. This guide to Revelation covers the first half of the book, giving you what you need to know about the rapture and the end times in a clear and concise manner. Request your copy today at lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

If God is leading you to support this radio outreach, there's also a place to make a donation at lightonthehillradio.com. Throughout the week, you can watch our live shows and short videos, many of which relate to Bible prophecy and help you to see current events with a biblical worldview. Look for these at jameskaddis.com. We return now to Mark chapter six and Pastor James Kaddis's study as he focuses on the disciples' reaction to Jesus walking on the water.

James Kaddis: So look at this: "But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and they cried out." I don't know if I would not find myself in the same situation or be in the same mistake. I remember this was probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made because I paid the price for doing it.

I remember when I first became a chaplain at the police department, there was a guy who was probably one of the most gifted policemen I'd probably ever worked with. He was a great, great detective. He had been assigned to gangs for a long time. If he was ever in trouble, we knew he was in trouble because when he would ever get into a fight or something kind of aggressive would happen, he would get on the radio and the way we always described it was he would cry like a little girl. He would literally go, "Whack whack whack, we need help!"

And we knew it. We didn't even have to listen to his voice. If we heard on the radio somebody talking like that, then we knew our buddy Tommy was in trouble. So sure enough, we would always get there, he'd be in the middle of some gnarly fight, guy with a gun or someone's got dope or something like that, really crazy situation. He always had a good eye for that kind of stuff. You'd get the situation under control, suspect would be in custody. Every now and then some guy'd get away, that didn't happen a lot.

It'd be all over with, and then the guys would give him a hard time. So one time, he cried exceptionally well in this fight that he had got into. Turns out it was a pretty ugly fight. So at the end of the whole thing, no one really said anything, so I took it upon myself as a chaplain to say something like, "Bro, you really cried like a little girl this time." Everybody's laughing and we're all making fun of him and it was just funny. And he goes, "Oh yeah? You wait and see. Wait until you get in the middle of that situation. We'll see how you handle yourself on the radio." And everybody's laughing at him, "He's a chaplain, that's never going to happen." Back and forth.

I think it must have been maybe a week and a half later. It had to have been that little of a time. A week and a half later, we get into a situation where my partner is beginning to not win the fight that is happening right now, so I have to get involved. I'm not going to get in all the details of what happened, but I remember finding myself in a situation where I knew I needed to get on the radio because my partner's microphone was ripped out of his radio and it was this ugly situation.

So I remembered grabbing my radio and not even being aware that I didn't take it off the swivel, so I'm pulling it up with my pants. One of those situations. And I just remembered, "Help! Help!" I mean I said the things I was supposed to say, but it was like, "Blue units, a current in this station!" The dispatcher had to ask me on multiple occasions, 10-9 the address, what's the address? "Whack whack whack!" You'd hear the guys, "I think he said this, I think he said that." You realize very quickly, oh yeah, hm.

All the guys would not let that one go for a very, very long time. It was the last time I cried on the radio, but I will tell you it was one of those unique situations. So when I look at this situation here, I don't ever think in my mind anymore, oh yeah, I wouldn't cry like they were doing. I probably would. If I saw something like this and I didn't even think it was Jesus, I just saw a spirit, I would. I probably would. Honestly, they're filled with fear. There's a reaction. I can relate to this.

Guest (Male): If we're honest, we'd probably have the same reaction given the circumstances. Next time on Light on the Hill, we'll finish up this miraculous story of Jesus walking on the water and the lessons that come from it. Read ahead and join us then. Light on the Hill is presented by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.