Faith in the Storm

Well, what an amazing day the disciples had had. They kept looking at each other going, did that really happen? Did we dream this or did this really happen? No, no, it happened. Andrew gave Jesus that boy's lunch. He gave him those five loaves and those two fishes, and Jesus fed everybody. He fed thousands and thousands and thousands of people with just the five loaves and the two fish.

But then the crowd got really riled up and things are getting weird. Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist, the one who's been telling everybody, this is the Messiah, Herod beheaded him. And everyone's mad at Herod and they want Jesus to get back at Herod. They want Jesus to get rid of Herod. They want Jesus to get rid of Rome. And Jesus knows it's time to get away. And so he puts the disciples in a boat and Jesus goes up to the mountain because he's gotta spend some time with his heavenly father and he prays.

The disciples are sailing, Jesus is praying, night has come. It's three in the morning. And this lake, we call it the Sea of Galilee, but this lake, notorious for its storms, is delivering a whopper right down on the disciples. The disciples, many of them were fishermen before Jesus called them. So they know what to do. They spring into action and they start trying everything they know, doing everything they know. But the wind is just coming right at them and they cannot get anywhere.

And I don't know who saw it first, but suddenly they're looking, can it be? Someone or something is coming towards them. And this is scary. People don't walk on water. Things that come to you on water, not a good thing. And these disciples, these grown men, they freak out and there is bedlam in the boat. And then they hear a voice, a voice that is so powerful, that voice can be heard over the wind, over the waves, over their own screams of terror. And that voice confirms what their eyes are just starting to focus on. It's Jesus. And Jesus says to them, take courage, it is I. Don't be afraid.

And then they hear another voice and it's Peter. Oh Peter, why is it always Peter? And Peter says, Lord, it's you. You tell me to get out of this boat and I'll come to you right now. And with one word, and this is the same word that Jesus utters to all of us at some point in our lives. He simply says, come. What's he gonna do? His Peter's first leg swings outside the boat and he sets his foot in that stormy water. Water that's colder than he thought it would be. And suddenly the other 11 disciples have completely forgotten about the storm and they're looking at Peter thinking, okay, is he really gonna do this?

And then that second leg went over the boat and Peter standing there like a toddler, learning how to walk, bobbing, weaving, getting his strength, and then he starts walking, eyes fixed on Jesus. Eyes fixed on Jesus and he starts walking right towards Jesus. And suddenly a gust of wind comes right between he and Jesus. And Peter's reminded of the storm. He looks around him and he realizes the boat is back there. And he's out here and Jesus is over there and he starts to sink. And immediately in that moment he calls out, Jesus, save me. And that strong arm reaches down and pulls Peter right up out of the water.

And as they walk back to the boat, Jesus has his arm around Peter. And with that smile of love and that love that brings exhortation, he just says, what happened back there, Peter? What happened? And they get back in that boat. Peter falls to his knees at Jesus' feet in worship and suddenly it's over. The wind is over. The waves are over. It's over. But it's really just beginning because the disciples realize God just got in our boat. God just got in our boat. And they fall down and they worship and they say truly, you are the son of God.

From where we sit today, this seems remote. We think, well, okay, Jesus walking on water, we'll give him that. He's Jesus. He can walk on water. But Peter, Peter, the guy in the Bible that kind of represents all of us, he's walking on water? Come on. That just doesn't fit in our general experience of God and what happens in life. How do we even apply this story? I was out on a boat on Thursday night. Am I supposed every time on a boat, try to get out of that boat and walk to prove that I have faith in Jesus? What do we even do with all of this?

Well, let's talk about it today. Let's talk about faith in life's storms. Go ahead and open your Bibles up to Matthew Chapter 14. If you've got them with you, you can pull out the sermon notes that were in your bulletin you were handed as we continue our series, Small Faith, Big God. By the way, my name is Valerie. I'm one of the pastors here on staff and I am thrilled to be with you today to talk about what do we do when storms come up in life? Because here's the truth. Storms come up in life. If you're much past the age of four, you have realized this truth.

You have also realized the corollary truth that storms come up suddenly like they do on the lake of Galilee. They come up suddenly while we're living our regularly scheduled life. And all of a sudden, we're in a storm. You might be facing a storm today. You might be facing a storm of newness. Maybe you're starting a new job or going to a new school or something's different in your life and it's a storm raging around you. Maybe you're facing a storm that's just taken you by surprise because it's a storm of loss. It's a storm of disappointment. And you feel like Jesus is calling you out of the boat.

He's asking you to trust him more than your boat, more than your boat that maybe looks like a bank account or your boat that looks like maybe a substance or your boat that looks like a relationship. And Jesus is asking you to step out of the boat. Maybe you're thinking, "Hey, Val, I'd love to step out of the boat. I'd be happy to go to Jesus if I had that choice. Life actually threw me out of this boat and now I'm in this water and I don't know what's going on right now." The way we live our lives, the way we face the storms that come to us in life is directly related to how we see God.

If we decide and craft in our minds that this God is just a slightly more aware version of ourselves, then we're toast. When the storms come, the slightest fear, real or imagined, is going to take us out just like that. So let's put ourselves in this story today. Let's look at three truths when we go through life's storms. And first of all, I want you to notice that when we go through life's storms, even when we follow Jesus, there will be storms. Even when I obey, you could follow every word of this book, the Bible, perfectly. And guess what? There would still be storms that come up in life.

I was talking on the phone this week to a woman who called the church. Just an aside, nobody calls the church to say hi. Whatever anybody calls a church. It's usually because they're up on two wheels or the wheels are coming off or they can't even see the wheels anymore. And so I was talking on the phone with a woman who was understandably distraught over the brokenness of her marriage. But one of the things that was distressing her the most in the moment is she said, "I know I was supposed to marry him. We love Jesus. Jesus is in our marriage. I am following God. So maybe I don't know God after all. This isn't making any sense." And I reassured her as part of our conversation, just because the storm has come up doesn't mean Jesus isn't in there. Doesn't mean that he wasn't in it from the beginning.

Here's the deal. Following Jesus does not give us a pass from the storms of life. Look at verse 22 in chapter 14. Basically Jesus made the disciples, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. Jesus put the disciples in the boat. They did not have to pray, "Oh dear Lord, what is your will?" Jesus put them in the boat and probably kicked it off the shore to get them out there on the lake. And there they are. And it went okay for a little while. But verse 24 says, "They were a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it." The storms always come a considerable distance from land, don't they?

We can't see the shore anymore. The storm is raging. They obeyed. They followed Jesus. And they are smack dab in the middle of a storm. And these are not men who are unaware of the Sea of Galilee. I mean look at the waves that come on this thing. They're surfing. That's a lake people. This is not like Pinto Lake, okay? This is a big lake. And there's storms up there, rage. Storms like this come up. Some of these guys, these are hard workers. These are 12 blue collar guys. And they know what's going on, but this storm is not letting up. But then there's verse 25. And I'm thank God for verse 25. "Shortly before dawn, Jesus went to them walking on the lake. Jesus went to them. Jesus knew they were powerless. Jesus knew they were stuck. Jesus knew they couldn't get through this storm.

He wasn't standing on the other side of the lake, you know, tapping his eye sundial or whatever, going, "How come these guys can't keep a schedule? What's going on here?" No, Jesus went to them. They were powerless. Jesus was not. But his presence wasn't what they expected. You know, it's dark. It's stormy. It's late. They're tired. And when Jesus comes for rescue, they just see fear. They just see terror. And that's how it is for us. In the middle of the night, we can't sleep. It's dark. It's stormy. And the things that go bump in the storm of our lives make us think great. Here we go. Other shoe's about to drop. I knew this was coming. And then we start to doubt ourselves. We start to doubt God. We start to doubt his goodness in the storm. And then we panic. We panic. And we cry out.

And here's the great news. Because when we cry out, the second truth is so important to remember. And that is, no matter what that storm is, Jesus is with you. No matter what the storm is in your life, Jesus is with you. It doesn't matter, again, if you're in a storm that you had nothing to do with. Maybe somebody else made a decision, and you are smack dab in the middle of a storm. Maybe it's a storm that you made some decisions, and now you're in the middle of it. I don't know. You're probably all better than me. But I know I've brewed up a few good storms in my past for myself to get into. Maybe you're in one of the storms that simply happens because we live in a broken world.

And here's something that's important to remember, because no matter what the storm is, and no matter why there is a storm, even if you have brewed up your own humdinger of a storm with your own choices, Jesus is with you. He is with you. Verse 27 says, he says to those terrified disciples, take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid. There's eight words we should all memorize. Take courage. It is I. Don't be afraid. Now, I will say in that middle phrase, it is I. There's a little something lost in translation, as can sometimes happen. That actually is more accurately translated from the Greek, I am. I am. This is the same I am that Jesus declares himself to be in John chapter 8 when he says, before Abraham was, I am. This is a declaration of his deity.

Jesus is using the same name that God gave himself when he was talking to Moses in Exodus chapter 3. We studied that a few weeks ago. And Moses was wondering, who do I say sent me? And Jesus-- and God said to Moses, tell them I am has sent you. So Jesus isn't just saying, take courage. I'm here. Jesus is saying, take courage. I am God, and I am here. He is here. You know, I don't know. You probably all, at some point in time, found yourself out of the boat, either because you were making a step of faith or because life just tossed you right on out into the sea. And it is humbling to be out of the boat.

There's 11 other people watching you back there while you're out of the boat. And they're all looking, going, you know, the boat's a way better place to be. I don't know what you're doing out there right now. And it's humbling. And it's scary. And it's a place where we need to know we are not alone. And Jesus says to us, I am with you. When you feel like you're starting to sink, Jesus says, I am with you. This week, a friend of mine-- a friend, actually, to many people in this church-- passed away. He was killed in a car accident while he was on vacation. Vacation, of all things, where you're supposed to be safe. And everything's supposed to be great because you're finally on vacation.

If you have been at this church for any length of time and taken communion, you've been impacted by Gary because Gary was the one who organized all the communion servers so that we would have a chance to partake in communion together. Gary's on our board. Gary weekly comes into the office and helps us with our benevolence team. When people come in and they need financial assistance, Gary was one of the people who met with them. If you've ever gone to the beach baptism and eaten a hot dog, Gary was on the hot dog crew. So he helped you out there, too. Gary was behind the scenes helping in so many ways, helping widows, helping people not searching for attention. Of course, Gary's a husband, father, the grandfather. He's a Vietnam vet. He served our county for so many years as the assessor and the recorder. And in a moment, like that, Gary's gone.

And his family is left with this crushing, shocking grief. We, his friends, are left just stunned, not just stunned that Gary's gone. It's just you can't hardly think it. You can't hardly take it in. And we get to these moments in life, and it feels like our faith has been put in a vice grip, and God is just turning and turning and turning, and our faith is getting flatter and flatter and smaller and smaller and smaller. And we're staring up into heaven, and sometimes we're just staring in silence. And sometimes we are shaking our fist and screaming, and we're just stuck. And I know there are people who feel like that here today, people maybe because of the situation with Gary you feel like that. Or maybe it's people who just feel flattened because they're just distressed over what they see in our country and the scourge of racism that's just causing horrible things to happen in our country. And you're just flattened. You're thinking, God, I'm doing the right stuff. I'm following your word, and I feel like my faith is like this, God.

Guess what? Even when your faith is as flat as faith can be, Jesus is with you. Whether you believe it or not, and frankly, whether you even want him there or not, he is with you. Because here's one of the great truths about God. His presence with us in life's storms is not dependent on our faith. His presence with us in life's storms is guaranteed by his power and backed up by his love. His presence in our life is not dependent upon us and our faith. It's guaranteed by who he is, who his power is, what his love is about. But even when the disciples hear his voice and they hear this great declaration, I am, they wonder still. Or at least Peter still wonders. And he says, Lord, if it's you, tell me to come out on the water. Come, Jesus said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus. One more confirmation, it's Jesus. And Peter is all in, literally all in, or all on initially. He was all on the water. Peter's faith drew him to Jesus. Peter's faith got him outside of that boat, and he chose Jesus. And we all come to those moments in life where we have to choose Jesus, where we have to choose Jesus over safety, where we have to choose Jesus over the patterns that we've developed in life, where we have to choose Jesus over our habits. So Peter's walking on this water. He's walking, and he's focused on Jesus, eyes on Jesus. This is a really great principle for going through life storms, folks, eyes on Jesus, eyes on Jesus.

The Bible tells us this again and again in verses like, I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will never be shaken. Look to the Lord and his strength. Seek his face always. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, not on the wind and the waves and the storms, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen, our Savior, our hope, our eternal life is eternal. So we fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and the perfecter of our faith, eyes on Jesus. But you say, Val, I can't see Jesus. The disciples had an unfair advantage. I'd get out of the boat too if I could see Jesus. You're right. We can't see Jesus with our eyes like the disciples could, but I'm telling you that these words found in the Bible are how we can see Jesus.

This book, I'm telling you, folks, if you've not read the Bible, it's good to have it to start. These words tell you who Jesus is. You see Jesus in this book. This book is the arc of God's plan for every single one of us. This book tells you how much God loves you. This book tells you what is in store for you. It's really good at the end, actually. It gets really ugly first, but then it's really good at the end. Please read the Bible. I told you last time I preached that I would tell you every time I preach, read the Bible, because I'm telling you I know no better way to get to know Jesus than through his word. Please. This is not like propaganda pastors are paid to say. Read your Bible. Pull up that app on your phone. Listen to that audio book and pour these words into your life.

And you know another really interesting way that we see Jesus, and it's not one that comes to mind super often, is to stay in community. Now, I realize you're all doing a pretty good job of that right now, because you're here in church. But we need each other in this body. We need to be in community together, because here's the cool thing. When maybe I'm struggling and my faith feels flat, I look at your life and I see God working and my faith is encouraged. And the opposite happens. Maybe you're struggling and you look and you go, well, God's working in her life. God's doing a miracle and your faith is encouraged in a very unique way. We see Jesus when we are in community together. Get into community. Dan talked about hosting a small group. Form your own small group, but get in community together.

Because when we keep our eyes on Jesus, we can walk on that water. But when we shift our eyes from Jesus, when we shift our eyes from the storm, like Peter, we look around and we think, oh, hey, I don't walk on water, actually, normally. I think I would rather go back to the boat back there. Oh, this is not working out so well for me. And we start to sink. We start to go down. But I love Peter's example to us here. He just immediately shouts, Lord, save me. Just tell you a little something about how I'm wired. If I had been in this scene knowing myself, I probably would have first tried to swim. 'Cause I'd like to make sure I can take care of things myself. So I would have probably tried to swim or stand back up and go, oh, Jesus didn't notice. Did the disciples see me? No, I would have tried to handle it myself.

But Peter, even in the smallness of his faith, still knows the right words to say. And those words are, Lord, save me. You know, we're so tempted to let our guilt, we're tempted to let our pride prevent us from calling out to the God who is there, who is with us. Don't shrink in embarrassment. Don't shrink in guilt. Just call out to him. He is there. And then as we go to verse 31, I always chuckle a little bit when I read the beginning of verse 31, because it says, immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. Now I'm thinking that this is how it looked to Matthew back in the boat. It looked immediate. I think if you're Peter, this doesn't feel immediate. I think if you're Peter, this feels like a few minutes are going by. This feels like you're starting to take on water more than you want to. It doesn't feel immediate. But Jesus' rescue is never late.

We get in those moments in life and we think, okay, God, you said to call on your name. You said you're here. That lady on stage said you're with me all the time. This is not feeling very immediate, Lord. You know what's interesting? I was reading some of the words that Peter, this walking on water and sinking Peter, wrote in his own epistle to the church. And he used terms like this. He said, "The Lord is not slow as some understand slowness." He wrote things, "A day is to the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as a day." In other words, what we think of as time, what we think of as immediate, God is not bound by. God is never slow. He's never late. He's always there. He's always there.

But honestly, you know, that's comforting. I'm greatly comforted to know that Jesus is always there, that he is with me, but that comfort takes on a whole new layer of dimension when you realize that he's also God. And that's the third truth about faith in life's storms. It's not about the size of my faith. It's about the size of my Savior. It's not about the size of my faith. It's about the size of my Savior. Paul talked about this last week as we studied Isaiah 40, but it's kind of the point of the sermon series, so this will in some way be a point every weekend.

You know, every time I read the second half of verse 31, excuse me, I try to imagine how this played out. Matthew says that after Jesus reaches out his hand to save Peter, he pulls him up and he says to him in the second half of that verse, "You have little faith," he said. "Why did you doubt?" And I read this and I think, come on, Jesus. There's 11 other yahoos back in the boat, probably taking bets on how quickly Peter's gonna sink. You know, who had 10 steps? All right, pay up. You know, and what about them? You're yelling at the guy who got out of the boat? What about those guys back there?

Getting ready for this weekend, I read a lot, a lot of commentaries, asked a lot of people how they thought this whole scene went down. And the truth is nobody actually really knows how this went down, but everybody has an opinion. I've got the mic, so you're gonna get my opinion now. And here's how it goes. This is what I actually think happened. I think that this exchange in reality was much gentler and kinder. To me, this feels like what can happen when you send a text message or an email and there's a lot of room for misinterpretation of tone that can happen. Because here's the deal, when I look at the life of Jesus, when I see how Jesus interacted with other people who were struggling, how Jesus interacted with other people who had small faith, they are met with compassion.

They are met, yes, with a call to go forward, too, to the woman caught in adultery. Jesus says, "Neither do I condemn you." But then he also says, "Leave your life of sin." And so I think this exchange was more tender. I think this looked a little bit more like a parent putting their arm around a child who they know has a little bit more in them. And they know it, too, and they just said, he just said, "Oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt?" But do you notice that's all he said? And then they walked back to the boat. Jesus didn't leave Peter out there. He didn't say, "Oh, sorry, Peter, you blew it. I'm leaving you in the storm and I'm going over to the boat." No, he walked Peter out of the storm.

And Jesus does the same thing for us because here's the deal. Not only is God's power big, but his grace is big. His grace matches his power. And we need that in the storms of life. We need not just God's power, but we need his grace. Peter's faith was little, but his savior was big. His savior who made the Sea of Galilee, who controlled the Sea of Galilee, who walked on the Sea of Galilee like it was a paved road, and who could still the storm just with his presence was big. And verse 32 says, "And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down." And I always picture this in my mind's eye as Jesus is very gracefully climbing in the boat.

And then Peter looks more like I do, trying to get into a large truck or a small car or something, and he's all arms and all legs and he just kind of falls into the boat. But they get in the boat, silence. The waves are silent, no more crashing. The wind is silent. And I think the disciples are in stunned silence. In one of the great moments in C.S. Lewis's book, Prince Caspian, one of the children coming to Aslan, and Aslan's the Christ figure in the Chronicle of Narnia, she hasn't seen Aslan in a long time. And she says, "Aslan, you're bigger." And Aslan replies, "That's because you're older, little one." "Not because you are?" she asks. "I am not," he said. "But every year you grow, you will find me bigger." "Every year you grow, you will find me bigger." That is like a summary statement of what I have learned about God in the storms of life.

Every year I grow, I find him bigger. I find him bigger than the storm. I find him bigger than I ever imagined. John Ortberg wrote a great book about this scene in The Disciple in Jesus's Life. And he says in that book, and I love this, "Every time you get out of the boat, God gets a little bigger." Every time you get out of the boat, God gets a little bigger. And what's our response to this bigness? Well, what was the disciples' response? Verse 33, "Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.' Because ultimately, faith in Jesus does not produce my way. Faith in Jesus produces worship.

Faith in Jesus does not produce my way as if God is somehow obligated because I made this glorious step of faith. Faith in Jesus produces worship. It's not about the boat, it's not about the storm, it's about the Savior who is with us. And we simply worship. That Savior's with us whether we walk or sink, whether we fix our eyes or freak out. He is with us and he is God. One of my all-time favorite first lines of a book is The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren. And the first line simply says, "It's not about you." Love it. "It's not about you." And that's pretty much a summary statement of what worship is. It's not about us, it's about God. It's about realizing how big our God is.

And sometimes when I hear that phrase, it's not about you, I panic just a little 'cause I think, well, if it's not about me, then who's gonna take care of me? Or if it's not about me, who's gonna provide for me? Or who's gonna keep me safe? And I think, can it just be a little bit about me? Just a little bit, Jesus. But here's the great exchange that takes place in life. No, it's not about us. But it is about a savior who loves us. It's about a savior who cares for us. It's about a savior who reaches out his arm and his nail-scarred hand and pulls us up out of the storm. It's about a savior who walks with us back to the boat. And who, when we worship him, reminds us that ultimately we are more safe than we ever imagined because he is bigger than we can ever imagine.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, the great I am, we come before you this morning grateful. Even in the storms, God, we're grateful. We're grateful for your bigness, we're grateful for your presence, we're grateful for your grace, God. But we also come before you this morning as people in a country that needs healing right now, Lord. We come before you as people who wanna reflect you. We wanna reflect your love and your welcome of everyone, Lord. But we need your courage. God, give us wisdom on how to move forward in justice and equality and peace and respect and love.

God, help us to remember that every single person, no matter the color of their skin, is an image-bearer of you, our savior. God, heal us, please, God. We need you in the storm that our nation's in, God. And I know there are many in this room in their personal storms, storms of health, storms of loss, storms of disappointment, God, and we need you. Lord, I pray for a person who's right in the middle of that storm right now, who feels like they're about to sink. God, I pray that today in some special way, they would know that you are present with them, that they would know that you love them, that you are God. Lord, for those of us who may not be right in the middle of a storm right now, may we be beacons of light and beacons of hope to those who are flailing.

May the way you are working in our life give us love and mercy to share with other people, Lord. Please use us as a community together to encourage and lift each other up. In Jesus' name, amen.