Matthew 14:22-31 And straightway "Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side", while he sent the multitudes away. [23] And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. [24] But "the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary." [25] And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. [26] And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. [27] But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. [28] And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. [29] And "he said, Come". And when Peter was come down out of the ship, "he walked on the water, to go to Jesus". [30] But "when he saw the wind boisterous," he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. [31] And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of "little faith," wherefore didst thou doubt?
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, d I have kept the faith:
Hebrews 10:38 "Now the just shall live by faith:" but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
This verse here in Hebrews is very powerful, and it's quoted in 3 other places in almost exactly the same words.
It must become an established fact in your life and mine, that faith is not an option.
You may be a person with a great imagination, and you may imagine yourself in the most blessed and prosperous of circumstances, but without faith in God, you are on your own.
The whole Christian life is birthed and sustained, and multiplied through faith.
We are...
Saved by faith
Kept by faith
Healed by faith
Filled by faith
Sanctified by faith
Justified by faith
Delivered by faith
We over come by faith
1 Jn 5:4 Whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
The Bible says, Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
Let me say something very elementary here... If you don't please God, you're not going to heaven.
Most people judge each other in life by their stuff. Most people think if you have a lot of stuff, then you must really being doing it right, and you must be really close to God. Nope! Sorry! wrong answer.
God doesn't look at any of that to validate relationship with him. He only looks for one thing... True heaven approved Bible faith.
True heaven approved, faith is not optional. Positive thinking, creative thinking, active imagination. These are all great things of themselves... but they won't save you, deliver you, sanctify you or justify you.
Let me make as plain as I can... Without a true Biblical Holy Spirit approved faith, you aren't going to heaven. You may be the great great grand daughter of Kathryn Khulman, or you might be the great great grandson of Oral Roberts, but if you don't have a personal living, active, working faith, you aren't going to heaven.
You may be the most faithful attender and the largest tithe payer in the church. And you may shout louder than any one else in the church, but if your faith is not online, all you have is a shout with no clout.
If faith is so necessary, it has to be available to every one of us. God will not require something from us without first assuring that we can get what he is requiring.
Where do we go to get the faith that we can live by that pleases God, and will ultimately take us to heaven?
The answer is... The Bible Ro 10:17... So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Our first scripture says, the just shall live by faith. The only life that pleases God is the life that is lived in the faith of what God has said.
You may have high and lofty thoughts about many things in your life, but those thoughts won't bring you into good standing with God.
You may be a morally good person who tries to live a kind and considerate life, but that also will not put you in good standing with God.
The only way to stand upright in the sight of God is by faith in what he has said, and what his word is still saying.
If faith can come, faith can also go. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, but faith leaves by hearing the wrong words, negative words. Words of fear, doubt and unbelif.
Faith is like a fire that requires wood to burn. It is our resposibility to keep the fire burning. In other words, we have to feed the flame of faith in our lives. If we don't feed the flame, it will go out.
So faith can weaken, disappate, and evaporate, not just from hearing the wrong words, but also from just plain ole simple neglect.
Hebrews 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
You can either feed your faith, and fuel the fire of your faith with the word of God, or you can overwhelm your faith, and bury your faith with negativity, fear, doubt, worry, anxiety, worldly input, and just neglect.
It's a dangerous thing to lose your faith. On that great judgement day Jesus is not going to ask us what our possessions are, or what our accomplishments are. He's just going to ask one thing... Where's your faith.
This is going to sound very elementary but I have to say it. Your Faith in God is under attack like never before. The devil knows that the only people on this planet that he has to worry about at all, are people of faith.
When I say people of faith, I'm not referring to anyone believes anything... I mean true Bible believing, Holy Spirit approved saints of God.
You can't just choose to believe anything and call yourself a believer.
Well let me back up on that a little bit... You can just choose to believe anything and call yourself a believer, but if what you're believing isn't proceeding out of the mouth of God, you're deceived, you're believing a lie and you will die in your sin.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Matthew 14:22-31 And straightway "Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side", while he sent the multitudes away. [23] And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. [24] But "the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary." [25] And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. [26] And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. [27] But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. [28] And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. [29] And "he said, Come". And when Peter was come down out of the ship, "he walked on the water, to go to Jesus". [30] But "when he saw the wind boisterous," he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. [31] And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of "little faith," wherefore didst thou doubt?
What happened to Peter? The plain simple truth is he ran out of gas, he ran out of faith.
When Jesus said... O ye of little faith, he didn't mean small faith. It must of taken a strong faith to do what Peter did. But Jesus meant short termed. In other words when you put gas in your tank if you only put $5 in it, you are going to have little faith. That doesn't mean that the gas you got was weak, it just means you didn't get very much so you won't go very far.
So Peter ran out of gas. He ran out of faith. The faith he had was strong, but he only had about $5 bucks worth. So he ran out.
How do you run out of faith? The same way you run out of gas. You don't go to the filling station.
If your car still runs on gasoline, it doesn't matter how good your mileage is, eventually you will have to go to the filling station, or you are going to run out of gas.
You can gripe about it, whine about it. You can talk about what a pain in the neck and inconvenience it is to go to the gas station, but if you don't go to the gas station and put gas in your car, you are going to run out of gas.
Your unwillingness to deal with the inconvenience of putting gas in your car, could leave you stranded in the middle of nowhere.
It's an interesting thought to me that Jesus is the author of our faith, but he makes us responsible for getting faith and staying full of faith.
If I go out to my car tomorrow and it's out of gas, it's not the gas stations fault, or the gas pump. It will be my fault. I know where the gas is, and I know how to get it in my tank, so if I get lazy and don't take care of my business, and I run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, I'm not going to curse the gas station, or kick the car, I'm going to kick myself. Because that's my responsibility.
The reality is, life is not always easy, and then you add the demonic into the equation and it's really hard.
There is a real devil, who hates Jesus, and he hates you if you're a follower of Jesus. The devils power is real. Don't underestimate the devil.
Some people say the only power the devil has is deception. I beg to differ with that. The devil steals, kills, and destroys. He is the author of sickness and disease, perversity, lust, hate and murder, bondage, oppression, and addiction.
So we are told in the Bible to fight the good fight of faith. There are some faith battles that are small and short lived. Then there are other battles that are intense, and long lasting.
It takes more gas to go uphill than flat level driving. There are some things in life that take more faith than others. And it can drain your faith tank very quickly. You may think you have plenty in the tank, then you hit those hard places, and it just sucks the tank dry.
That's what happened to Peter. He thought he had plenty of faith in the tank. But when he got on that water and he saw the wind, and the waves, suddenly he realized his tank was empty.
What happened to Peter? Why did he almost drown with Jesus right there?
The answer is the same for us as it was for Peter. He let his tank go empty. He ran out of gas.
The Bible says... But "when he saw the wind boisterous," he was afraid.
That phrase is really saying more than what meets the eye. it says when Peter "saw" the wind boisterous he was afraid.
That word "saw" really embraces all the senses. He heard, he saw, he felt.
He heard the wind blowing violently. He saw the waves rise and crash. He felt the wind blowing and the water hitting his face.
Now we can understand how real this situation was. His faith was under strong attack.
That may be you today. You might feel just like Peter. You feel, you hear, you see, and every thing is negative. There's not one single positive encouraging thing presenting itself to your senses.
That's where Peter was. He was on the water, He was in that middle place between faith and the senses.
Peter's senses were overwhelming his faith. Do You know why? Because he got his eyes off the word and he got them on the world.
You can't look two directions at the same time.
When Peter saw all that was happening in the natural realm of his senses. He ran out of gas. He ran out of faith.
As long as Peter had his eyes on Jesus "The word" He was able to walk on the water. He was able to put what was over his head under his feet.
But when his focus shifted from the word, the world rushed in. The winds, the waves, the noise. And he started to sink.
He started to run out of gas, he was running on faith fumes, but he was almost empty.
Several years ago, we were pastoring in Muskogee Oklahoma. We were on the turn pike on our way to Muskogee, about 15 miles from town. And I noticed I was almost out of gas. We started saying, Jesus, Jesus, help us get to a gas station.
We went about 12 miles and I knew we were on fumes. Finally I saw a gas station, but my fumes were going fast. It started sputtering and jerking.
But I could see the station. I came off the freeway as fast as I could go, no braking. Please Lord let me get to that station.
I'm coasting now, but I'm starting to slow down. Oh man there's a stop sign before I can cross over to the other side where the station is.
What do I do? If I stop, I'll have to push it from the stop sign across the road.
Oh Lord please forgive me, I'm sorry I let my car run out of gas. I don't want to run this stop sign, but I don't want to push this car either.
So here I go... I looked both ways, and it was clear for a long ways, so I just coasted through, across the road right up to the gas pump.
So what's the point of that story? I don't know. I guess it's just that confession is good for the soul.
No, No, There's a point. As soon as I realized I was close to empty I started thinking about being out of gas on the turn pike, having to call a tow truck, waiting on the tow truck, and being late for church.
But what I really thought about and I know Pam was thinking about, was how dumb I was for passing up all those gas stations before I got on the turn pike.
I can tell you, we had some intense fellowship on our way to church that morning.
What I'm saying is, it was my fault I ran out of gas. Not the stations, not the car, not the turn pike. It was my negligence.
I could say, my laziness. I could say, my foolishness for deliberately knowingly passing up those other stations.
You can say well Pastor, it probably just snuck up on you and you didn't notice it.
Well even if that was true, there's no excuse for it.
Pro 27:23 says... Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks. And look well to thy herds.
In other words, pay attention to your gas gauge it's there for a reason.
The point is, you don't have to run out of gas. God wants you to finish strong. God has provided everything we need to keep a full tank.
Peter feared: When faith ran out, fear rushed in. And the Bible says, he beginning to sink.
You see it was his faith in the Word, that was holding him up. But when he got his eyes off of the word, his faith ran out. But what did Peter do?
He got to the station as quick as he could. He got his eyes back on Jesus. He cried out... Lord save me. Which is essentially saying... your word is my savior.
Thats why Ps 107:20 says... He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.
I know it's going to sound elementary, and over simplified, but if you feel like you're sinking, you're struggeling, you're running out of gas. You have to get to the filling station as fast as you can. You have to get back to the word.
You need to start building up a reserve. Faith can grow. Faith should grow. Your faith and my faith shouldn't be running out, it should be growing and multiplying.
Praise God, Peter didn't sink, but he learned a lesson about faith.
Sometimes we're a little stubborn and we have to learn things the hard way.
Peter learned a powerful lesson on how to protect your faith. And how to protect your focus. And Peter became a great apostle with Signs wonders, and miracles, so that even as his shadow passed over the sick and the diseased and demon possessed and oppressed, they were healed and delivered.
Peter had a shakey start on his faith journey but he finished strong.
Paul the apostle finished strong.
Jesus finished strong.
It doesn't matter how many times you have fallen down, or started to sink, you can get back up. You can get back on the word and finish strong.
Even Samson, as crazy and turbulent and chaotic as his life was, he finished strong.
Proverbs 24:16 says... For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
I love this scripture because it tells me, no matter how many times you have blown it, or you have fallen down you can get back up and finish strong.
You may feel like Peter and like you have fallen down, you've had a faith failure, you've run out of gas... Well you can get back up.
Failure is an event not who you are.
Micah 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
Have I ever fallen? Just as surely as I have gotten up, I have fallen. But the difference between falling, and being a failure is... Getting up one more time than you fall down.
I'm not giving up, I'm getting up, and I'm going to finish strong.
My best days are yet to come.
He has saved the best for last.
You haven't seen anything yet.
I'm smarter than I used to be.
I've been through some stuff.
I've learned how to walk by faith and not by sight.
I have some faith victories under my belt.
You know we can get so focused on Peter and Jesus here that we can completely forget that there were 11 other disciples, who never left the boat.
They never put their faith to work. They heard the same word Peter heard, but Peter personalized it. Bid me come.
They never got a water walking testimony, but they had a testimony, it went like this... we know a water walker. We saw him walk on water.
Friend you may be in the midst of a storm, and you may think that people are just watching you fight, and struggle, and falter, and you may feel like your faith is so weak that you're barely making it, and that you could never hope to help anyone else.
But I promise you, you have an audience. Somebody is watching you, and they're learning, they're taking notes, not because you're perfect, and not because you got everything just right, but because you finish strong. And because you finish strong, somebody that would never have even tried to leave the boat, is going to leave the boat, and they are going to become water walkers too, and they too will finish strong.
Pam and I had a very difficult heart breaking situation that we went through many years ago. And it was disheartning. It really shook us up. And we had great opportunity to become offended and resentful and bitter, but God helped us and we stayed the course, and we didn't sink into that pit.
A couple of years later a very respected gentleman, a man of God that we knew and loved went through something of similar nature, and he told us... We watched how you went through the fiery trial in your life, and it really helped us to get through ours, and to not get bitter, but to get back up and finish strong.
Friend, it's not all about you, somebody else is going to make it, because you finished strong.
Friend, it doesn't matter how shakey your start has been, or how many times you have blown it. What matters is that you get back up and finish strong.
God is for you, God is with you, you can do this in Jesus name.
