GET OUT OF THE BOAT! Matthew 14:22-33 By faith we can stand outside our comfort zone. A sermon preached by Dr. William O. (Bud) Reeves First United Methodist Church Fort Smith, Arkansas October 2, 2016
I confessed a few weeks ago that I am not much of a fisherman, but that does not mean I never went fishing. In fact, I did go quite a bit as a child, to the local fishing pond or with my dad. One of our most memorable excursions was a fishing trip to Millwood Lake near Hope. My dad, my brother and I got there at the crack of dawn and had slowly motored quite a distance from the boat ramp. We had a 14-foot aluminum boat and a 5-horsepower motor; it was easier than paddling, but not much faster. We had fished for a while, when suddenly we felt the wind come up. We looked around and saw a thunderstorm moving in. Millwood is a shallow lake, and even the slightest breeze will make it whitecap. So we headed back to the boat ramp just as fast as our 5-horsepower motor would take us. The waves began to beat against the boat. We were heading against the wind, and riding that little fishing boat was like riding a bucking bronco. My little brother and I were having a great time! We had no fear because Dad was in the boat with us. But later he confessed that he had never been so scared in his life. This from a man who was a gunner on a landing craft in WWII! That experience helps me understand what the disciples were feeling that night on the Sea of Galilee. That lake, too, is prone to sudden storms, and the shallow boats that were used by the fishermen could easily be swamped. In the middle of the night, in the middle of a storm, that is a scary prospect. Almost as scary as seeing a figure walking toward them on top of the water! The disciples had toiled all night trying to make headway against the wind and not sink, and now this a ghost on the water! But in the misty light of the dawn, as the figure drew closer, they could see it was Jesus. In fact, he called out to them and said, Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid. 1 Isn t that the way Jesus does? He comes to us in the middle of the storm and calms our fears. He reassures us. Scripture says 365 times, Do not be afraid or Have no fear. Once for each day of the year! This is one of the most important things Christ does. He calms our
nerves and soothes our spirits right in the midst of our difficulty. He gives us peace and security in the storm. Then something happened that is unique to the Gospel of Matthew. Peter decided to step out of the boat. He said, Lord, if that is you, command me to come to you on the water. 2 What was he thinking? Was he just testing to see if it was really Jesus? He could have picked something a lot easier than that asking his mother s maiden name, maybe. But Jesus immediately said, Come on out. Peter got out of the boat; he stepped on the water; and it held! He took a couple of tentative steps toward Jesus, then all of a sudden he remembered he was standing on 150 feet of water, and the wind was blowing, and the boat was now out of his reach. Down he went. He sputtered to the top and cried, Lord, save me! Jesus reached out his hand, caught Peter before he went under again, and pulled him up. Then he said, You of little faith, why did you doubt? 3 I would just as soon have drowned as answer that question. Peter didn t answer. Jesus set him in the boat, stepped in, and suddenly the wind stood still. The wide-eyed, open-mouthed disciples fell down on their knees in the boat and worshipped Jesus. This story of Peter s walking on the water is so interesting because it models a pattern we all know well. We live between fear and faith, moving from one to the other, but not making much real progress with our discipleship. Here s how it works: we get ourselves in a fearful spot of some sort. We get convicted of our sin, experience a relational problem, go through divorce or grief or illness, and we realize how much we need Jesus. So we make a commitment of faith. We begin or renew a relationship with him. And it s wonderful! We are saved; we are delivered; we are in love with God. That s tremendous! With our newfound faith, we want to step out and do something significant for God, to serve God in a meaningful way. Like Peter, we want to step out of the boat. So we step out, but after a little while we begin to lose focus. We slack off. Other activities take priority. Sacrificial Christian
discipleship doesn t turn out to be as much fun as we thought it would be. So we begin to sink. Realizing that we re sinking, the old fear grips our heart again, and we cry out to Jesus, Lord, save me! And he does, time and time again, as often as we cry out to him. Isn t God good? Isn t God patient? Isn t it good that God is so patient? This cycle of living between fear and faith can repeat itself over and over again: fear, deliverance, faithfulness, backsliding, fear, recommitment. The unfortunate thing is, in a cycle like this, we never grow much beyond the childish stage of faith. Our spiritual attention span is too short. We don t accomplish much for the Kingdom. We want to do more, and we re capable of more, but we can t seem to break out of the cycle. Today I want to share with you three ideas to help you break out of the fear-faith-fear-faith cycle. First, STEP OUT OF THE BOAT. To grow as a disciple, you have to get out of your comfort zone. Do something that forces you to depend on God to get you through. That s when you find out how trustworthy God really is. Growth happens on the edge of our existence, in new situations, in challenges that cause us to stretch our minds and our hearts. Sometimes we are quite comfortable where we are, but God calls us out of the boat into a new experience of faith. There are many ways to get out of your comfort zone. Take a class. Go on a mission trip. Volunteer for something you ve never done before. Get involved with a different generation or ethnic group from your own. You can leave your comfort zone right where you live by serving God and witnessing through your words and actions. Sometimes churches need to get out of their comfort zones, too. We get comfortable with the way things have always been, seeing the people we like to see, and relaxing in the comfortable confines of the place we have always been. That s a key characteristic of a dying church. J. I. Packer, the Christian scholar, once wrote, It needs to be said loud and clear that in the kingdom of God there ain't no comfort zone and never will be." 4 To grow in faith, individually or as a church, get out of your comfort zone. Step out of the boat.
Once you re out of the boat, you want to remain on top of the water. To do that, you have to STAY FOCUSED. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Focus on your faith. Eliminate, as much as you can, the distractions of the world. Center your attention on the Master of your life. Peter got started fine, but then he started worrying about the storm and the wind and the waves lapping up around his feet. He looked between his toes, and all he saw was water, and the thought flashed through his mind, I can t stand on water! From that second on, he couldn t, because he had lost his focus. To break the cycle of living between fear and faith, you have to maintain your focus. In 1993, the Dallas Cowboys were in their heyday as America s football team, and head coach Jimmy Johnson was leading them into the Super Bowl. A reporter asked Johnson what he told his players before the game. He said, I told them that if I laid a two-by-four across the floor, everybody there would walk across it and not fall, because our focus would be on walking the length of that board. But if I put that same board 10 stories high between two buildings, only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling. Then Johnson went on to tell his players not to focus on the crowd, the media, or the possibility of losing, but to focus on each play of the game as if it were a good practice session. The Cowboys won the 1993 Super Bowl 52-17. 5 Focus works. Focus wins. Keeping our spiritual focus allows us to develop a habitually Christian view of the world that does not fall back into fear and have to be renewed over and over again. Instead of our spiritual lives looking like a circle round and round or an ocean wave up and down our walk can look more like a straight line onward and upward to Christian maturity. Father John Powell, a Jesuit priest, teacher, and author, put it this way: Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw mud, one saw stars. In the pursuit of the fullness of human life, everything depends on this frame of reference, this habitual outlook, this basic vision which I have of myself, others, life, the world and God. What you see
is what you get. 6 What we get if we keep our focus on Christ is straighter, more productive, more effective discipleship. Finally, when the waves of life threaten to overwhelm you, HANG ON. Don t let go of Jesus. Hang on, and start again. We won t succeed every time. Sometimes the storms will come from somewhere beyond our control. But Jesus is always there if we will just reach out to him. I don t know what would have happened if Peter could have kept his focus. The fact is, he didn t. But Jesus still redeemed the moment. He put the sputtering, wet Peter in the boat and climbed in. Suddenly the wind ceased, and the dawn broke, and it was a brand new day. The disciples fell to their knees in the boat and worshipped him, and for the first time they verbalized the difference between Jesus Christ and anybody else who has ever taught or led anyone on the planet earth: Truly you are the Son of God! 7 This is the same recognition that Peter made on the road to Ceasarea Philippi a few days later and the same realization voiced by the centurion at the cross: Truly this man was God s Son. 8 Ultimately that is the identification that every disciple has to make. Jesus is God with us. He is our life and salvation. Don t ever let him go. In the late 1940 s, there were two up-and-coming evangelists on the American religious scene. One was Billy Graham. The other was his friend Charles Templeton. Like Billy Graham, Charles Templeton held great rallies in arenas and stadiums across the country, including 50,000 people at an Easter service in the Rose Bowl. He brought thousands to Christ. But then Charles Templeton began to be plagued by doubts and questions. He questioned the authority of the Bible in light of modern scholarship and science. He questioned most of all the presence of evil and suffering in the world. If God was supposed to be both powerful and good, why were there diseases and disasters everywhere? Gradually Charles Templeton lost his focus and let go of his faith. He quit preaching and became an outspoken agnostic and
critic of Christian beliefs. His last book was entitled Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith. He couldn t hang on. Pastor Lee Strobel interviewed Charles Templeton for a book Strobel was writing dealing with the hard questions of faith. At the time, Templeton was 83 years old, suffering the early symptoms of Alzheimer s, and was still an agnostic. He claimed that not only do we not know if there is a God, but we cannot know. Faith to him was an impossibility. Finally Strobel worked the conversation around to Jesus. What the agnostic said about the subject of so many of his sermons was very surprising: He was the greatest human being who has ever lived. He was a moral genius. His ethical sense was unique. He was the intrinsically wisest person that I've ever encountered in my life or in my readings. He's the most important thing in my life. I know it may sound strange, but I have to say I adore him! Tears came to Templeton s eyes as he continued, Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know, I learned from Jesus. He is the most important human being who has ever existed. And if I may put it this way, I miss him. 9 And with that, Templeton began to weep. After several minutes, he regained his composure, but he refused to talk any more about Jesus. Charles Templeton died June 7, 2001, from Alzheimer s Disease. He died an agnostic. But now he knows. Do you miss Jesus? Has it been a while since you had a personal encounter with him? Did you know him well at one time, but you ve lost that focus? Or have you never met him personally? Do you find yourself sitting in the boat today afraid of the storms that swirl around you, wishing he were here? I have Good News. You don t have to be afraid. Take heart. Christ is here. He comes to us in the bread and wine of Communion. He will pick you up if you re sinking. He will still the storm. He will save your soul, if you will only worship him. Get out of the boat, and be a hero of faith.
1 Matthew 14:27. 2 Matthew 14:28. 3 Matthew 14:31. 4 J. I. Packer, "We Can Overcome," Christianity Today, October 2, 2000. 5 Steve Chandler, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself, on PreachingToday.com. 6 Fr. John Powell, Through Seasons of the Heart, cited in Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no.14. 7 Matthew 14:33. 8 Matthew 27:54. 9 Lee Strobel, The Case For Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), pp. 7-23.