When The Waves Are Winning (Matthew 8) Series

WHEN THE WAVES ARE WINNING

(Matthew 4:22)

Bob Marcaurelle

Peter’s walk has little to do with walking on water. It has to do with facing the storms of life, like the disciples who were delivered at the last minute. . It has to do with Simon, trying to obey Jesus, and failing. The Psalms use drowning as a picture of life’s slippery footings\. Psalm 69:1-2 says,

“Save me O God! For the waters have come up to my neck ... I have come into deep waters and the flood sweeps over me."

We can identify with the Psalmist. There are a lot of drowning folk here today who feel they are going down for the count.. There are all kinds of waves, but I want to speak on the tidal wave is the apparent loss of God, in your troubles. We can face anything as long as we know God is with us, but the disciples rowing until all strength was gone and Simon going down had to wonder if God was with them.

A. THE CAUSES

God has promised never to forsake us. He said, “I am with you always.” (Matt. 28:18-20). But we sometimes feel like the old farmer who refused to fly, and when asked why, said, “The Lord said, low I am with you always. He didn’t say anything about high.”

We a like my secretary’s mother in law. She fell down some stairs and when she wasn’t seriously hurt, my secretary said, “Mama, the Lord was really with you.” Her reply was, “If so, why did He let me fall?” One reason we think God is gone is that we believe lies.

1) The Lie Concerning Disobedience

We almost always think troubles come because we are outside of God’s will and He is somehow punishing us. Remember this, the disciples were in that storm because Jesus sent them there. Matthew (14:22) and Mark (6:45), tell us Jesus “made His disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him.” Jesus let them be afraid in this storm so they could develop bravery in storms. Jesus let Peter tackle something too tough for him so he would learn to keep his eyes on Him when the going gets rough. Troubles do not mean God has abandoned us, they often mean God is teaching us.

2) The Lie Concerning Doubts

When we doubt God’s presence, some see this as proof that God has left us because a Christian is not supposed to have doubts. The perfectionists and victorious Christian life crowd tell us we can have a life without doubts. We can, they say, walk in victory on top of life’s trials and always be at peace. We who have our ups and downs wonder if we are really Christians. No more harmful lie ever came out of hell than this. It is not true to life. Peter had his ups and downs. Jeremiah lived on a perpetual down. David, in the Psalms was up on the Mountain Top in one Psalm, and down in the valley of despair in another.

3) The Lie of Concerning Deliverance

The third false belief is the wrong use of this text, saying God always delivers us if we cry to Him in faith. You are going down today because you have prayed and your depression still rages; you husband or wife is still dying; your kids still what nothing to do with you. Just say the right words to God, in faith, some say, and Peter’s experience will be yours.

The prayer of faith, they say, always delivers. Well, about 30 years later, in the greatest storm of his life, God did not deliver Peter from being crucified upside down by Emperor Nero. Sometimes God delivers us, sometimes he leaves the burden on us to develop us and sometimes God delays his deliverances until we have learned the lessons He has for us in the storm. If God does not deliver you, you are in good company. Jesus’ cross and Paul’s thorn were not removed even though both begged God three times to do it.

B. THE CURE

1) We Need to Look for a Purpose.

Jesus was not teaching Peter and the Twelve about storms at sea, He was using nature to teach them about the storms they would face in the years ahead as they served Him in a hostile world.

The biggest difference between us and God is that we want to be happy and He want is to be holy. Happiness to us is the absence of storms. Holiness, however, comes by developing strength as we row through storms and developing faith, as we try to walk on water.

On the bow of our battered boats, like Joseph, in the OT, we must write Romans 8:28, “For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” We must say when we are struggling against the wind, or sinking in the waves,