The Journey of Life – The Next Step
Taking steps of Faith Requires
Courage (14:27)
Desire (14:28)
Obedience (14:29)
Dependence on Jesus appears Risky
Dependence on ourselves actually is Risky
Perseverance (14:30-31)
Good morning,
Last week we were going to show a video of some of the transformation and the volunteers that put their heart and soul into this building expansion.
They did it not so we could just have a nice facility. The real legacy of all the work that went into this building is the people whom we will be able to minister to.
While we had a General contractor do most of our work, we did the remodel of our old “Sanctuary, the demolition of the foyer, and all the painting ourselves.
We had a number of people who put in a great deal of hours helping this and we are so grateful for their help.
Video.
After video 1st slide
Well, we are in our new building and besides a few minor things to take care of, we now have a fresh start in the journey of this church and the ministry ahead of us.
Last week, we began a new series called the Journey of Life and talked about how sometimes a fresh start in our lives would be great and that we have been given the opportunity to have a fresh start through entering into relationship with Jesus Christ by receiving Him as our Savior.
We do that by
recognizing that we are sinners and
believing that Jesus is the Savior, the Christ, the Messiah, God in the flesh,
who came and died for your sins and rose again 3 days later.
It is at that point that the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us and we are a new creation with a Fresh start.
But what next?
What is the next step we need to take?
Slide
So often when we have been given a fresh start in our circumstances,
we do nothing and it leads no where.
This fresh start leads to eternal life. We have that eternal life the moment we enter into relationship with Jesus Christ.
But to live the full and abundant life that Jesus came to give in addition to the eternal life we receive, is obtained through a series of next steps that make up the journey of life.
There is a next step for everyone in this room today, no matter where you are on the journey of life.
Maybe you just received a Fresh start last week by receiving Jesus as your Savior.
Baptism
Then your next step might be baptism.
We have a girl today, Kara Bouck, after the service will be taking that next step as she gets baptized.
Maybe you have been a Christian for a while and your next step is some step of faith that the Lord has placed in front of you.
TIthing
Perhaps it is in the area of giving. Maybe you need to take a step of faith and start tithing.
Trust
Perhaps it is in an area of trust. You need to step out in trusting the Lord in a particular area in your life.
Now, while the next step may be different for everyone in this room, there are certain things that enable us to take the next step that are the same for all of us.
That is what we are going to look at today.
How can we take the next step on this journey of life so that we experience the full and abundant life that Christ desires for us?
Turn with me to Matthew 14:22-33(p. 692)
Slide
We are going to take a look at Peter and some amazing steps that he took and see what we can learn from the Scriptures that helps each of us here take our next step on this journey of life.
In this passage we are about to read, Jesus has just finished performing the miracle of the feeding of the 5000. He fed 5000 men, not even including the women and children with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Everyone had finished eating and the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of leftovers.
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. When evening came, he was there alone,
24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 During the fourth watch of the night 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."
Imagine being able to experience walking on water.
Now while I would love to tell you that after today’s message, you too can walk on water, I am not so sure that is the case.
However, I can tell you that you can experience a joy and fulfillment on this journey of life that makes it feel like you are walking on water as you exercise the faith that the Lord has given you.
Let’s learn from the Scripture what enabled Peter to at least begin to walk on water so we might be able to take our next step in the Journey of Life.
One of the first things we learn is that
Taking the Next Step requires Courage
Slide
Matthew 14:27
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid."
We find ourselves often in the midst of circumstances that can be quite scary.
Bad news from the Doctor
Uncertainty about our job
Difficulties in our relationships
Financial hardships
We don’t always know how we are going to make it.
The disciples are in that same situation and Jesus says, “take courage.”
But notice, he doesn’t just tell them to be courageous. Look at the reason He gives.
It is I.
Ego eimi (ego amee)
I am
Those same words that God used to declare His name, I am.
Jesus is saying, take courage because it is Me, God in the flesh. There is no reason to be afraid when you trust in me.
Now think about this a second.
Jesus told them to not be afraid because He is God.
Wasn’t it Jesus who sent them out into this lake?
These disciples have probably been out struggling against this storm for close to 8 hours and they are only half way done on a trip that should have taken them only a couple of hours altogether.
Didn’t Jesus know that a storm was coming?
Couldn’t Jesus have saved them from having to face this storm at all?
Why did Jesus even send them into a storm He knew would cost them so much energy, and exhaust them, and bring about this great fear?
It is so they could grow in their faith and be courageous
There are times in our life when the Lord is going to send us into some storm
so we can grow in our faith and courage
so we can take the next step of faith that the Lord has for us s
o we can better experience the full and abundant life.
Maybe you feel like you are in one of these storms of life right now
Maybe in your life you are struggling just to keep the bills paid and gas in the car.
And now you have bills rolling in
One kid needs braces
The other needs science fair materials
And another needs to go to the doctor.
This is on top of the mortgage and utilities and your prescriptions and food.
And in the midst of all of this, God wants me to tithe to the church?
It can’t be done.
Or
Maybe it seems like you have one medical condition after another in your home.
One kid is sick and gives it to another.
You get sick
It just doesn’t seem to end
Or maybe
You are just exhausted from life
The kids activities
The pressures of the job
The pressures of being a wife or husband
Straining just to survive, feeling exhausted, and then something so out of the blue brings in uncertainty that you think you might die right on the spot?
You need courage.
“I am not courageous”, you say.
It is not courage in yourself that you need.
You need the courage from knowing who God is
He is good, He loves you, He sacrificed greatly for you.
Knowing those things in the midst of the storms on this journey of life will help us have the courage to take the next step
The Disciples needed this courage.
Peter needed this courage.
You need this courage
But we don’t need only courage to take the next step.
Taking the next step requires Obedience
Slide
Matthew 14:28-29
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.
Obeying God sounds so simple
God said do it, so that is what you do.
The reality is that it is so hard sometimes.
Rock climbing man
The story is told of a man who is rock climbing and slips and is able to grab on to a branch that is sticking out of the side of the cliff.
It is 100 feet up and 100 feet below him and there seems to be no way out.
He cries out for help, “is there Anyone who can help me?”
All of the sudden a great voice from heaven cries out, “I’ll help. Let go, I’ve got you.”
The man looks down and then up and doesn’t see anything.
Then he cries out, is there anybody else?
It sounds so easy to be obedient to the Lord, but it requires courage and desire to be obedient.
Why is it so hard?
It is hard because
Dependence on Jesus Appears Risky
Slide
We like to see what we are depending on.
We are a people who want to walk by sight and not by faith.
2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us to “live faith, not by sight.”
Merc job
When it was time for me to leave my job at the CME and begin serving God full time in ministry, I remember clearly Him asking if I was going to trust Him or a paycheck.
You would think it would be easy to do, but walking into my bosses office and resign from a job that was providing a 6 figure income to at that time was nothing because I didn’t have a job lined up and I wasn’t even done with school yet, was one of the hardest things I ever had to do.
Why?
Because, to my human sight, it appeared like I was risking the support of my family, to this decision.
So, here I was, no job, no income, not done with school. Volunteering full time at the church I was at.
It looked like I was taking a huge risk.
But it only looked that way.
It was really the safest thing I could do.
The reality is
Dependence on Ourselves Actually is Risky
Slide
As I look back now, God’s call into ministry not withstanding, I see His impeccable timing of things.
The industry I served in has changed so much that if I would have stayed, I would probably been with out a job in the next 2 years anyway, because of how the system has changed. I know people that continued doing what I was doing and where looking for different jobs over the next several years.
The reality was that depending upon myself and my wisdom was really the risky move.
Depending on yourself is the risky move.
The disciples were in a boat that appeared to keep them afloat, but the fact was that the boat was being buffeted all night by the waves and wind. Relying on their boat, really relying on what they knew, was not really that safe.
It is always, 100% of the time, better and safer to depend on the Lord and follow Him.
It may appear risky, but the fact is that it is far more risky to depend on ourselves than on the Lord.
Obeying God is always the safe way to go.
Now notice something here.
Peter trusted who Jesus was and had the courage to obey and he goes and walks on water, but then he begins to sink.
That is because he did not persevere in his faith in the Lord at that moment.
Succeeding in the Next step requires Perseverance
Slide
Matthew 14:30-31
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?"
Things were going well for Peter.
He was experiencing God’s power working through Him to accomplish the impossible
But then he took his eyes off of the Lord and put them on the circumstances and his faith waivered and he doubted what was happening could really be happening.
Notice a couple of things.
Peter was not walking on water by his own strength. That is impossible
But Peter’s walking on water was dependant on his faith.
It did not take much faith to do it
But it required that the faith he did have was exercised
He needed to act on that faith
Once we begin to doubt the things the Lord is doing through us, we are going to begin to waiver and stumble and sink
All of us, at points have taken steps of faith, but we need to persevere in that faith if we are going to be successful in maintaining our footing and moving on with the Lord.
We can never rely on our past steps of faith to move us forward to a closer relationship with the Lord.
For me to rely on past steps of faith to grow now, is going to cause me to sink.
We need to persevere in the faith.
James 1:2-4
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
If we are going to be mature and complete not lacking anything, living the full and abundant life, then we need to persevere
This is where Peter failed.
This is where we all fail at points.
But the great part is, is that the Lord doesn’t just let us fail.
He rescues us and gives us more opportunities to grow.
Peter cries out, “Lord, Save me.”
And Jesus does.
While Peter did not persevere here, he goes on to be a great leader walking in faith and persevering.
Later we see him rejoicing in being flogged for preaching the name of Jesus. (Acts 5)
Peter came a long way on his journey
from the impulsive man of little faith
to a faithful leader among the apostles.
God is interested in doing a mighty work in your life.
What is the next step that the Lord has placed in front of you?
Is it being baptized?
I want to tell you when the Lord has placed a step in front of us, it is impossible to move forward in our faith without first taking that step.
There are some of you who need to be baptized in obedience to the Lord’s command.
If you have never been baptized, come and see Kara as she gets baptized today and talk to me. We will be having another opportunity to get baptized on February 10th.
Perhaps it is a step of faith to start tithing. Trusting God to provide for you as you are obedient to Him.
Perhaps it is a step of faith in trusting Him to give up some sin in your life.
Trust God that living life according to His directives is really the best way to live.
Maybe it is trusting God to take a step of service
We think sometimes we don’t have the time to serve the Lord in a ministry.
When we don’t make time to serve the Lord, we are really hurting ourselves.
If the Lord has been laying on your heart to take a step by serving Him, the do that.
Try out some ministry. If it turns out that it is not for you try another one.
It is through taking those next steps that God grows us.
Maybe today you are feeling weak and weary and truly unable to take that next step.
That is exactly the point you need to be to do it.
Paul says that when I am weak, then I am strong.
Worship team come up
We are going to sing a song and then I am going to come up and pray.
Make this song your prayer as the worship team comes up.
Ask the Lord for the courage to follow Him
Ask for the strength to be obedient
Let’s sing together and make this our prayer.
Sing
Pray
