Water Walking 101
Matthew 14:22-33
Walking on Water requires
Courage (14:27)
Obedience (14:28-29)
Obedience to Jesus’ Commands appears Risky
Dependence on our own wisdom actually is Risky
Perseverance (14:30-31)
Intro
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Good day.
We are about 2/3 of the way done with the New Testament Challenge. Just 1/3 left, so I want to encourage you to keep going.
As we have been reading through the New Testament, we have also been talking about some of the major themes of the New Testament as well.
We have talked about faith, grace, serving, hope, love, prayer and living for eternity.
Over the next several weeks we are going to be talking about applications of some of the teachings of the New Testament.
James 1:22 says
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“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
Learning the word and actually doing it are not the same thing. How can we actually do some of the things we talked about, especially those things that seem impossible to us?
Turn with me to Matthew 14:22-33
Slide
Today, we are going to look at the example of Peter in the New Testament and an absolutely humanly impossible act that Jesus told Peter to do, and we are going to see what it takes to actually do it.
Now, Just to give a little context to what 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 in
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, I have titled this message, Water Walking 101, and even though it would be very cool to walk on water, I am not sure that any of us are going to actually walk on top of the water unless it is ice covered.
I can tell you though, that when we follow what the Lord calls us to do, even if it seems like we would never be able to do it, it can feel like you are walking on water!
Let’s see what we can learn from this Scripture that enabled Peter to at least begin to walk on water so we too, might be able to follow Christ’s call in our lives.
One of the first things we learn is that
Walking on Water requires Courage
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Matthew 14:27 - But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
We are going to repeatedly find ourselves in circumstances that are scary and that require courage.
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
Or facing uncertainties of relationship challenges
Those circumstances can be scary and uncertain.
The disciples at this point 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 step out in faith in what the Lord is calling us to
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
Financial storm
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 give and sacrifice!
It can’t be done.
Relational Storm
Maybe you are facing a relational storm. Your marriage seems to be falling apart
One of your kids isn’t talking with you and you are just completely frustrated and want to give up on this relationship.
Stresses of life and schedule storm
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 of life will help us have the courage
to walk on Water,
to step out into the uncertainties of life and
do the things that seem impossible.
Maybe you need courage to learn to live on less or find another job
Maybe you need courage be the one who takes the first step of reconciliation
Maybe you need courage to make some decisions to cut back on some activities even if some of your family doesn’t like it.
The Disciples needed this courage.
Peter needed this courage.
You and I need this courage
But we don’t need only courage to walk on Water.
Walking on Water requires Obedience
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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.
But, why is it so hard?
It is hard because
Obeying Jesus’ Commands Appears Risky
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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 into what looked like not very solid or stable waters?
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 boss’s 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 ever 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 obedience onto what only appeared as choppy water, was really a safer decision than stepping on cement that I could see!
Because the reality is that
Obeying Our Wisdom Actually is Risky
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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 walking on the waters of faith requires not only courage and obedience, but
Walking on Water requires Perseverance
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Matthew 14:30-31 - 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 dependent 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.
Many of us here have stepped out of the boat onto the waters of faith, trusting in the Lord, but if we are going to maintain our footing and be successful in accomplishing what the Lord wants to do through us, we must persevere in trusting Him to work!
We cannot rely on our past acts of faith, our past water walking, to keep us moving closer. We need to be taking new steps on the waters of faith that require continued trust in Him and an ever growing relationship with the Lord!
If we rely on our past steps of faith to carry us forward on the waters of this life, we are going to end up sinking. We need to persevere in the faith.
James 1:2-4
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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 often fail as well!
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
from his 1st time meeting Jesus,
to this experience of walking on water,
to the eventual great leader among the apostles that he would become
all because He continued to keep his eyes on the Lord and was empowered by Him to do things that seemed impossible!
To actually do those things means that we exercise the faith we have been given so that our faith becomes even stronger and God will empower us to do things for His glory that only seem impossible to us today.
Application
Are you willing to step out of the boat and walk on the waters of faith for the glory of the Lord?
It is only through the courage you find in trusting Him completely.
It will only come as you obey His voice and take that first step
It will only continue as you keep your eyes on Him and not on the scary circumstances around you,
that you will not only be able to do what is impossible, but you will be able to continue to walk upon the waters of faith, with the Lord accomplishing His mighty work through you.
Conclusion
What is the choppy and scary waters that the Lord is asking you to step out onto?
Salvation
Maybe it is to stop trusting yourself and to put your trust in Jesus for your salvation.
Maybe you have trusted Jesus, but you are afraid to take a step of obedience in baptism. We have a baptism opportunity next weekend. Seize the moment and step out into the water, literally!
Maybe it is in a step of faith in generosity
Have you been trusting in your money? Take a step toward tithing, giving 10% of what you make. If it is too scary to step out into that right now, start with something smaller. Sometimes you have to get to the edge of the boat before you can step onto the waters of faith.
What are the waters of faith that the Lord is calling you to step out onto?
Slide
Write it down
On your inserts today, on the back is an empty line.
Write down that thing in your head that the Lord is calling you to stop out onto.
If it is trusting him for salvation, write it down
If it is baptism, write it down,
If it is financial sacrifice,
If it is serving in the church
If it is serving a neighbor, wirte down the neighbor’s name
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
