I remember someone once saying to me, "ahhh ... you're not one of those 'born again' Christians are you?" Huh, the tone in her voice said it all. I was driving a car at the time so I couldn't turn and look her in the eye, I just smiled and replied, "well actually it's the only sort of Christian there is".

As societies around the world become more and more secular they're inventing more stereotypes to marginalise Christians. You see and I can tell you this first hand, if you don't believe in Jesus the message of Christianity makes you feel incredibly uncomfortable. Why? Because whether you realise it or not and at the time I didn't realise it, deep down there's something in your make up that knows that these Christians are right.

Man, you Christians used to offend me and annoy me and make me squirm so I did what any self respecting atheist would do, I lashed out at you, I persecuted you, it's why today I so relate to the Apostle Paul who was a Pharisee did exactly the same.

With the same sneer in their voice people these days use terms like 'evangelical Christians', 'conservative Christians', 'hard liners', 'fundamentalists'. To paint a picture of what Jesus said, what I believe with all my heart, as being wholly undesirable and unreasonable and irrelevant and downright dangerous. Never mind that any half decent legal system, any half decent system of justice around the world is modelled on the Word of God.

There are some countries where it's not and those countries are inevitably brutal and unjust, not the sorts of places you and I would want to live in. Nevertheless as people in democracies exercise their freedom of speech many do so that marginalise the very faith and belief system that gave them this freedom in the first place.

So what happens is that many Christians withdraw back into their shells, they stop living out their faith because they feel marginalised; persecution can do that to you especially if you love a comfortable lifestyle. "Why don't I just blend in with all the rest, maybe no one will notice I'm a Christian'. Then the storm hits, it blows the boat you're in and it's pitching and you think to yourself 'how am I ever going to survive this?"

Do you see how many good reasons there are just to sit there and pretend that you're really not a Jesus follower? Whether it's the subtle marginalisation of an increasingly secular society that stops you from living out and speaking out your faith or whether it's the excuse of some great and mighty storm that seems to be sweeping through your life, there's an endless array of excuses not to live your life for Jesus.

I guess by now, we've been talking about a storm, you might have a sense of which passage of Scripture I'm heading towards so let's take a look already, Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 to 33:

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into a boat and go ahead to the other side while He dismissed the crowds and after He dismissed the crowds He went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came He was there alone but by this time the boat battered by the waves was far from land for the wind was against them.

And early in the morning Jesus came walking towards them on the sea. When the disciples saw Him walking on the sea they were terrified saying 'it's a ghost' and they cried out in fear but immediately Jesus spoke to them and said 'take heart it is I, don't be afraid.

Peter answered Him, 'Lord if it's you command me to come out to you on the water'. And He said 'come' so Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water and came towards Jesus but when he noticed the strong wind he became frightened and beginning to sink he cried out 'Lord save me.

Jesus immediately reached out His hand and caught him saying 'you of little faith, why do you doubt?' When they got into the boat the wind ceased and those in the boat worshipped Him again saying 'Truly you are the Son of God.

There are three things that really hit me between the eyes about this amazing story, right now I just want to take a look at the first one of those. You see when the storm strikes in our lives we find ourselves wondering what in the blazes is going on here? Have I failed God, have I made a mistake, have I somehow stepped outside His will and His favour, maybe God's given up on me?

And with all those questions swirling around inside of us the self pity wells up and we find ourselves with more than ample justification for not stepping out of the boat. But when you read the account of this event again you have to come to a somewhat confronting realisation that putting those disciples in that boat in harm’s way on that stormy ocean is something Jesus did quite deliberately.

They had just had a powerful time of ministry, Jesus fed five thousand men and not to mention the women and children with two fish and five loaves. And immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while He dismissed the crowds and went off alone to pray.

Putting the disciples in harm’s way, putting them on that stormy ocean, putting them in a place where they would perish if God didn't intervene was, wait for this, the sovereign choice of the sovereign God. Of course a storm is nothing to Him but to a bunch of immature disciples it was horrendous, they were cowering, their lives were threatened.

This series is called 'Overboard With Jesus' and we're going to take a look at the rest of the story tomorrow on the program but right now I want to focus this situation of the disciples in the boat back onto your life, onto the tiny boat on the big ocean that you're sailing on.

When was the last time that a storm hit? When was the last time your little boat was battered by waves far from the land with the wind against you? Do you remember that time? Perhaps you're going through one of those times right now, perhaps your situation, your circumstances, your relationships seem completely impossible.

Well I want you to know something, where you're at right at the moment is no accident, it's no mistake, in fact it is the sovereign choice of God for you. Now just process that for a minute, what things does that change for you? I have to tell you I've been in that boat many times, in fact I started out my walk with Jesus in that boat far from the land with the waves crashing over the bow and the wind against me. Fully the first three years of my faith walk with Jesus was spent in that rotten little boat.

Seriously some days I couldn't imagine how I was going to make it to the next day, had no idea. Maybe that's hard for you to believe, you know the guy with the smooth voice on the radio who seems to have his life all together, get a revelation today, no one, NO ONE is immune from the stormy boat time as I call it, not you, not me, not even Jesus. Go visit Him in Gethsemane, go visit Him on Golgotha, no not even Jesus is immune.

Those very same people who want to marginalise your Christian faith, who want to shout down the faith that Jesus has put in your heart are the ones who purport to tell you what success looks like. And so intoxicated has the average Christian become these days with the allure of worldly success that we've lost sight of the reality of suffering in the Christian walk.

Of uncertainty, of losing everything which is what Jesus promised it's just that we've replaced His truth with the lies of this world as though it's all about success. Give me a break! How many successful people have been so miserable they've taken their own lives or overdosed on drugs or work themselves into an early grave, huh?

If you remember one thing out of our time together today remember this, suffering is a normal part of walking with Jesus and your stormy boat experiences are no accident nor should they be a surprise because in the middle of your storms your God is up to something good, something amazing, getting you ready for the next step.