Steps along Life’s Journey
A Step of Faith – Sermon 2
Matthew 14:22-33
Taking a Step of Faith requires
Courage (14:27)
Desire (14:28)
Obedience (14:29)
Obedience to Jesus’ Commands appears Risky
Dependence on our own wisdom actually is Risky
Succeeding in a Step of Faith requires Perseverance (14:30-31)
Intro
Slide
Good morning,
I am so glad that you returned if you were with us last week.
Last Week’s Message
If you missed last week, I would encourage you to check out last week’s message on our website. We started a new series last week called “Steps along Life’s Journey” and last week we talked about a “Step into Hope.”
We talked about how God loves us and when we put our hope in Him, He does not disappoint us like we have been disappointed by so many others. We saw how Jesus is willing to meet us right where we are at, even in the midst of our hopelessness and sin to lay before us a step of hope that he offers us when He meets us.
When we put our hope in Jesus Christ, by entering into relationship with Him receiving Him as Savior, it is then that our life’s journey takes a turn to truly be able to experience a life that is full and abundant.
Believe and Receive Jesus Christ
I want to recap this morning what it means to receive and believe in Jesus, because this is essential to understand if we want to step into real hope and real living.
To receive Christ, it is imperative that we first recognize our need for Him.
You need to recognize and know that you are a sinner. You have done things that are wrong and because of that, because of sin, you are separated from God.
You, being a sinner, are completely unable to do anything to restore yourself or anyone else back into relationship with God.
But God loved you because He created you. And because of His love for you and desire to restore you into relationship, the Father sent His own Son, of His own free will, to be born into this world and become a man while never ceasing to be God.
Jesus was born of a virgin, by the power of the Holy Spirit, lived a perfect, sinless life, and through the sacrifice of His life, paid for your sins.
Now through this Sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God has made a way for all of mankind to be restored back into relationship with Him. And He has shown us that this sacrifice is acceptable through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There is no other way to be in a relationship with God, but through Jesus Christ, believing that He is God, that He paid for your sins through His death, and that He rose again.
When we believe that, believing in who He is and what He has done, we receive Him and step into hope, hope that gives us eternal life and a hope that allows us to live a full and abundant life now!
Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
Have you received Him as your Savior?
The Bible tells us that “if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
If you believe in Him and have never really repented of your sin and turned to Christ receiving Him as Savior and confessing that belief to Him, then I want to take a moment and lead in a prayer of confession so that you can confess your belief to the Lord and step into hope and be saved.
Pray.
Now I am sure that many of you know people who have professed belief in Christ who don’t always seem to be living a life of hope or that truly fulfilling life that I talk about often.
What is up with that? Well, I will tell you.
While our eternal life is guaranteed at the point of receiving Jesus as our Savior, the full and abundant life that we can experience on earth is not. To live that life requires us not only to take a step into hope, but it also requires steps of faith.
Every one of us has a Step of Faith
Everyone in this room today, no matter where you are on your Life’s Journey, has a step of faith to take.
Baptism
Maybe you have just recently received Jesus as Savior, and you need to be baptized.
That would be your next step of faith.
Tithing
Or maybe a step of faith that is before you is in the area of generosity.
Maybe the Lord has placed in front of you a step of faith to be moving toward tithing or more sacrificial giving versus selfish spending.
Other area of Trust
Or maybe, the step of faith that is before you is in an area that you need to be trusting the Lord more in a different area of your life.
Whatever it is, that step of faith may be quite challenging for you to take. This morning, I want to see if we can see what the Bible has to say to help us in taking the steps of faith the Lord has placed before us.
Turn with me to Matthew 14:22-33
Slide
We are going to look at a story regarding the disciples and especially Peter, and see how God helped Peter to take a step of faith and what we can learn through Peter’s step of faith so we can take steps of faith in our Life’s Journey.
Now, in the text we are going to read, Jesus has just done a miracle in the feeding of 5000 men from 5 loaves and 2 small fish. And it goes on and says
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."
Let’s Pray
Now it would be very cool to walk on water, and I would love nothing more than after today’s message, we would all get up and go out back and walk on Hickory Creek that runs behind the church, but unless it gets much, much colder for a long period of time, there is little chance of that happening.
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.
I want us to learn a few things from this Scripture that enabled Peter to at least begin to walk on water so we might be able to take a step of faith in our Life’s Journey
One of the first things we learn is that
Taking a Step of Faith requires Courage
Slide
Matthew 14:27 - But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid."
Do you ever find yourself in circumstances that are scary?
Maybe awaiting medical results from your doctor
Or Bullying from others in your school
Or facing the possibility of being downsized
Or maybe you are facing the possibility of or actuality being foreclosed on
Those can be very scary circumstances.
The disciples are facing a circumstance that is scary and uncertain.
They have been in a boat for about 7 or 8 hours on a journey that should have taken a couple hours and it is now at least 3 in the morning and they are continuing to battle against a storm with winds and waves and they are in the middle of the sea of Galilee and then, in their exhaustion, not knowing if they are going to make it, they think they see a ghost walking on the water.
Maybe going through their minds is this is the end for us. We are never going to make it and now a ghost or the grim reaper is coming to get us. They are completely terrified crying out in fear.
But it is not a ghost. It is Jesus and He says to them “take courage.”
But notice, he doesn’t just tell them to be courageous. Look at the reason He gives.
The Reason for Courage
He says, “It is I.”
That is translated from the Greek “Ego eimi” (eggo I mee)
Those are the same words that God used to declare His name to Moses, “I am”
Jesus is saying, take courage because it is Me, the Great I AM, God in the flesh.
There is no reason be fear when you trust in me and willingly walk with me.
When the Lord is with us, or He is behind our circumstance, we can trust and take courage that He will work things out for His glory and our eternal good which will enable us to walk through any situation.
No matter what we are facing, the circumstance we are facing is not catching God by surprise. In fact, sometimes the things we face are the very thing He is going to use to grow us.
In this situation with the disciples, it was Jesus who in fact sent them into it.
Jesus knew there was a storm that was going to come.
He knew they would be out there for a while.
He knew that they were going to be battling the sea that night.
Why did Jesus send them out into a situation that He knew would be difficult and would cost them so much energy 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 our next step of faith that the Lord has for us
so 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 more bills rolling in
For the doctor or Orthodontist, for College or for some school project.
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
You are just feeling exhausted from life
It is one thing after the other
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
That even in your current situation, that
He is good, He loves you, He sacrificed greatly for you and He will be with you.
Knowing those things in the midst of the storms on this journey of life will help us have the courage to take that next step of faith
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 of faith.
Taking a Step of Faith 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 being obedient 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 God speaks from heaven and says, “This is God. I’ll help you. Let go of the branch and I’ll catch you.”
The man looks down and then up and doesn’t see anything.
Then he cries out,” is there anybody with a rope?”
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
Obeying Jesus’ Commands 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.
But God’s word tells us to “live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
Merc job
As many of you know, I was not always in pastoral ministry. I used to work as a broker trading interest rate futures at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. After I sensed the Lord’s call into ministry and began pursuing my seminary education, I continued to work there during that time.
But when I was in the midst of my seminary there came a point when I sensed God telling me it was time to leave my job at the CME and begin serving God full time in ministry.
Now, I was not yet finished with school. I did not have some ministry offering to bring me on staff. But I remember clearly God asking if I was going to trust Him or a paycheck.
Was I going to walk in obedience to what I believed He was clearly telling me, and step out in faith, even if I didn’t see where that next step was going to land?
You would think that when God speaks so clearly that it would be easy to be obedient.
But I have to tell you that walking into my bosses office to resign from a job that was providing a 6 figure income, with no other paying position lined up, was one of the hardest things I had to do.
Why was it so hard if I believed this is what the Lord clearly wanted me to do?
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.
That step of faith, that step of obedience, was really the safest thing I could do.
Because the reality is that
Depending on Our own Wisdom 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 without a job in the next few years anyway, because of how the environment has changed.
The real risky move was depending upon myself and my wisdom.
Depending on yourself rather than God is always 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.
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 steps of faith require not only courage and obedience, but
Succeeding in a Step of Faith 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
Slide
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 even in our lack of faith and failure, the Lord doesn’t just let us sink. 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 grew Peter from the steps of faith he placed in front of Peter as Peter exercised his faith and took those steps, and He did a powerful work in Peter’s life.
God is interested in doing a powerful work in your life through the steps of faith he has placed in front of you.
Conclusion
What is the next step that the Lord has placed in front of you?
Is it a step of Baptism?
For those of you who have been raised in traditions that baptize infants, understand that when the Bible talks about baptism, it is always for those who have received Jesus Christ as Savior. It is not something done to infants, but something that believers of Jesus Christ do as an act of obedience. It does not save you or complete your salvation, but it is an important act of obedience, a step of faith, in fact, I would argue a first step of faith, for those who have received Jesus as Savior.
We are baptizing on February 26th after the second service. If you have received Jesus Christ as Savior and have never been immersed baptized as a believer in Him, then I will tell you that this is the next step of faith that you should be taking.
Is it a Step toward tithing?
When I was growing up, throwing a few bucks in the offering plate seemed generous.
But our giving to the Lord is not so much just another financial decision we make about what to do with our resources. Our giving back to the church is a declaration of our trust in Him to be caring for us. His word, we believe, teaches a form of giving called tithing, that is giving back to God 10% of what He gives to us.
Our giving is an active step of faith that declares, “God, I trust you.”
Is it a step of toward serving?
Is it a step to full time ministry or mission work?
Is it a step of repentance of some sin that you are in bondage to?
We are only truly going to be free and living fully when we trust the Lord and find courage in Him, and obey His voice, and take that step of faith and persevere in that step of faith.
What is your step of faith?
Write it down
On your inserts today, on the back is a list of possible steps of faith and a place to write down what it is that the Lord is calling you to step out in faith toward.
We are going to pray as we close and let your prayer be that the Lord would help you to have the courage to be obedient and persevere in our next step of faith.
Pray
When we take steps of faith, we are living for the glory of God. When we are living for His glory, then we are able to truly experience the full life.
We are going to close in “Glory in the Highest” this morning.
Stand with us and give God glory through worshiping Him in song and through your next step of faith.
