You want to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 14 where I go over a familiar passage the Last time we were here in Matthew 14 we learned about the feeding of the 5,000 and one of the points we tried to focus on there was that divinity Overcomes humanity as Jesus fed the multitudes and used his disciples to distribute the loaves and the fishes. And they had gone over across the Sea of Galilee to get a loan because the crowds were pressing in. But when they got over there, there were all the people and Jesus had compassion on them and taught them and healed and then fed them. So we're picking up right after that. And we're going to start reading in verse 22 and go down through the verse 33. And it says, 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. 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, but the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I. Be not afraid. Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. And then, excuse me, then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him, saying, a truth thou art the Son of God We're gonna end our reading right there I want us to go back through this and just make sure we understand what we just read So there was this large crowd it was 5,000 men plus women and children Some folks have estimated this could have been over 20,000 people that were gathered in this desert place a place without any other food and other resources around. After they were all fed, Jesus dispatched the disciples, the apostles, into a boat to go back across the Sea of Galilee to go back to where they had come from. And the crowds were dispersed to their home, and here Jesus was left all alone. And He wanted to be alone because what He did was He went and He sought solitude with His Father upon a mountain in prayer. And when He finished that time of prayer, it was night. And so it was late at night. In fact, it was a windy night. at least out on the Sea of Galilee. And it was probably likely, the way things go, that the wind was also whipping up in the mountains where Jesus was at. And the seas were so bad that they were not able to progress. They made it, if you look at John's Gospel, which also records this incident, they made it about three to four miles across an eight-mile stretch. The Sea of Galilee is about eight miles wide. So they were about halfway across. and they couldn't make it any farther. And Jesus was able to see, possibly because he was up on the hills or the mountains and may be able to see them in the distance, he was able to see they were making no progress. In fact, Mark's gospel says, he saw them toiling in rowing for the wind was contrary unto them. So it tells us he came at the fourth watch in the night. That's somewhere between three and six a.m. So this is right before dawn and he was walking on the water. The disciples, when they saw him, they initially thought it was a ghost and they were afraid, but Jesus calmed them by announcing his identity. It's me, Christ, Jesus, and he's telling them to be at peace. So calm down, it's me. And it's then that Peter asks Jesus, can I go out on the water with you? And Jesus says, come. He allows Peter to step out of the boat and Peter begins to walk on water. And of course, we understand that when he was starting to near Jesus, he started to pay attention to the waves, all the things that were going on, and he started to sink. And he cried out for help, and it was there that Jesus reached down and caught him, and he chastised Peter for his unbelief. He said, why did you doubt? And they got into the boat, and immediately the apostles began to worship him. The wind stopped when Jesus got on the boat. and they worshipped and they confessed that Jesus is God's Son. And so, there's a lot of things going on there, and this is a well-worn text because there's a lot of very powerful illustrations that you can find here. A lot of good preaching fodder, if you will. You could look at the first part of this, you could talk about the importance of solitude, the importance of getting alone with the Father and spending time in prayer. And if Jesus saw that as being important, shouldn't we? See that as being important to go and spend time with the Father. You could talk about the importance of having Jesus in your boat because by themselves, if we were just to look at what happened when they were on their own, they were unable to make any progress. But when Christ was there, the storms calmed and they were able to get to the other side. In fact, a couple of the Gospels said immediately they found themselves at the other side. Which is interesting. Matthew's gospel doesn't focus on that. We also could talk about, of course, that you need to keep your eyes on Christ in the middle of the storm. It's because he's very, very clear when Peter's eyes came off of Christ, he began to sink. When he started thinking about the situations and the scenarios all around him. He was unable to continue walking on water. And of course, this final one, we see the divinity of Jesus Christ again. This is so clear. He just multitude the loaves and the fishes. He fed 5,000 from just a little bit in a basket that a little boy had brought for his lunch. He feeds a multitude of people, more than 5,000 people, and here is Jesus walking on the water. And that's got divinity written all over it. Right? Because you read about creation, the Spirit of God hovered upon the face of the waters, right? And you read Job 9.8, it talks about God alone spreads out the heavens and treads upon the waves of the sea. And so, I mean, this is a clear statement about Jesus' divinity. And what did the apostles do when He got on the boat? They worshipped Him as the Son of God. So there's a lot of really important things, but my heart tonight, I want to focus on one aspect of this. I want to talk about stepping out of the boat. And as I was reading this and thinking about it, the question that kept coming to my mind is, what in the world possessed Peter to say, can I walk out there with you? I mean, have you ever stopped to think about, I mean, is that gonna be your first response? You see Jesus, you know, walking out there, you think it's a ghost, you're terrified, there's a horrible storm, and it's Jesus and he's standing out there, he says, calm down, peace, be still, it's me. I have a hard time thinking that my next response is gonna be, can I walk on water too? And so I was trying to think about what is going on here because this is such an unusual circumstance, at least it is to me, because what Peter's asking to do, I mean, it's unnatural. Right? That's the whole point. That this is not natural. This is not something we can do. And plus, it's not just walking on water. It's walking on chaotic water, stormy water. There are winds. They're unable to make progress across the Sea of Galilee. This is dangerous. It is uncontrollable. And Peter's saying, Lord, can I step out there with you on this water? What would possess Peter to want to do that? Well, I think one thing is, well, that's where Jesus was at. That's where Jesus was walking. And if you think about what had been going on in all of their time with Jesus, the whole time with Jesus was about learning to be like Jesus, and not just to be like Jesus, but to do what Jesus did, right? I mean, Jesus preached. They were sent to preach, right? He had sent some of them to go out and preach. Now, Jesus didn't baptize, but he had them baptizing. Jesus worked miracles and he sent them out to work miracles, right? And so this whole time that they were with Jesus, it was not just about learning what he had to say, but it was learning to replicate what he was doing because that was going to be their work. That was going to be their calling in life. And so he had just divided the loaves and the fishes, but he used the apostles to go and distribute it to all the people. And so there's a very real sense in which Jesus, and this is a great thing for us to think about in church and ministry, you want to raise up the next generation. It's not just telling them what to do, it's involving them in what they're supposed to be doing. That's exactly what Jesus did with these apostles. He was engaging them. And so here is Peter really in a sense, he's the prize student because here's Jesus doing this and we're supposed to be replicating what Jesus does. Jesus, I'll be the first one to say, can I walk on water too? I mean, he was ready to go out there. This was just the next step, if you will, in their discipleship to be like the master. And so he asked, if you would, bid me come out of the water. If it would be your will, tell me to come. I mean, he said, bid me, ask me, tell me. And we see that there's a lot loaded in that statement. And yeah, he's gonna get chided for his little faith, but he's also the guy who said, if you tell me to come out to you on water, I'll take the step. I mean, that shows faith, doesn't it? He had enough faith in Christ that Christ's power was communicable. We all know about communicable, right? That's why we're using the hand sanitizer out there, right? Christ's power was communicable. They saw that. He did miracles and he gave them power to do miracles. They knew they could never do that before until Jesus said, now I want you to go do this. I'm going to give you power to cast out demons and do all these things. I want you to do it. Well, they knew they never could do that. They knew where it came from. And so Peter understood he had enough faith in Christ that if you would tell me, if you tell me to do this, if you would tell me to step out, I'll step. I'm ready to go. And so he knew he needed a word from Christ, not just presumption. He wouldn't just jump out of the boat because he saw Jesus there. He said, I need you to tell me. And if you tell me, I will step. And he did. And he walked on water until his senses began to conflict. with Jesus' invitation, and he started to focus on that. So here's a question I want us to think about. What does it mean for me to step out on the water? What does it mean for me, for you? We can look at this with Peter, and it's a very nice concrete illustration walking on water, but we know and understand that's not God's calling in our life, literally, to go do this. But this is recorded for our instruction. There's something here. Because I think that in a sense, it can represent stepping out of our comfort zone into a challenging place or position of service. Stepping out on the water means stepping out of our comfort zone, the boat, into a challenging place or position of service to Christ. These positions or places can have all the attributes of the stormy seas, meaning it's not something that's natural to me. It's not something that I can control. It's dangerous in some way. Maybe not even physically dangerous, but maybe I'm worried about messing up. Maybe I'm worried about being an embarrassment. Maybe I'm worried about this or that or the other. It's unpredictable. We don't know how it's all gonna go, right? I can't control it. I think I already mentioned that. But just like the storm he sees when we step out of our comfort zone into what Christ is calling us into, where we see him is, where we see him at, where we see him working, and he bids us to step out, that's really what we need, is to know that He's calling us to step out, to go out and to walk where He's walking, where He's working, what He's doing. Let me ask you this question. Have you ever asked the Lord to bid you to come out on the water? Have you ever asked the Lord, if you tell me to, I'll go out on the water? What does that even mean? I don't think it even has to be specific. I think it can be general. How many of you have ever prayed and asked the Lord, use me. Lord, use me. Whatever you want, Lord, use me. Isn't that kind of the same thing? Isn't that kind of the same prayer? Lord, however, whenever, wherever, whatever, You want, Lord, use me. I remember. When the Lord saved me. I got baptized on a Sunday morning service and we had Sunday night service, and I remember that evening service just we used to meet in nursing home. It was a nursing home as a senior citizen center. And we used folding chairs, metal folding chairs, and set them all up every time, tear them down each time. All that stuff was before they had a building. And I just remember getting down on that floor that night, and I was just so thankful to have all that lostness behind me. And I was just like, whatever you want, whatever you want, And the call didn't come immediately. And even when the call came, I didn't know what it meant. There were things to do. And God made it clear to move to Alaska. God made it clear to come here. Not what we expected. Very scary. Very scary. But I never asked. I want to do something unnatural, dangerous in a place that's uncontrollable. You know, I just said, Lord, I want you to use me. And I'm sure I'm not the only person in this place who's prayed like that. And so maybe you've also asked for the Lord to bid you to come out on the water, and if you've prayed, and ask the Lord to use you, I think you have to understand that this is what this is about. There will be points and times in your life where if you're gonna be where Christ is, you're gonna have to get up. It's not gonna all be easy. It's not all gonna come natural to you. There will be reasons that you can justify in your head and that other people will tell you. Oh man, that's dangerous. That's hard. I mean, what if this, what if that? And you know what? They'll be right. But they'll also be wrong on the most crucial point. Because if it is what the Lord has bid you to do, if you have said, Lord, I want to be used by you, and then He calls you to step out, Being a true disciple of Jesus is not just being like Him, but doing what He would do. Doing what He would have us to do. It's not just about me learning things and just about me trying to be holy, because those are very, very, very, very, very important things, and oftentimes neglected. But it's also about, with that growth, to be the hands and feet of our Savior. To go and be and do what He would have us to do. As Jesus said in Matthew 10.25, it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord. As I was thinking about this, there was a couple of illustrations that came to my mind. One was Abraham when he interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah. And you recall that the Lord came with a couple of angels to visit Abraham and all the different things that transpired as he prophesied about the birth of Isaac. But he also has this little conversation that's recorded in scripture. I think it's so interesting. In Genesis 18, I'm just going to read a couple of verses of it, where the Lord has this little conversation with himself and he records it for our benefit because he did not just come to visit Abraham, but he also came because he was about to bring judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. And indeed, those two angels would go on. They would be the angels that would go visit Sodom and Gomorrah. and all the things would follow that with Lot and his daughters and what happened there. But the Lord, when he visits Abraham, it says in verse 17 of Genesis 18, the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do? seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him, because I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, that they'll keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him." So the Lord is saying, should I let Abraham in on my plan? I know what kind of guy he is. I know he's one of mine. I'm going to let him know what I'm doing. And so the Lord discloses to Abraham about the judgment he's about to bring on Sodom and Gomorrah. And then we see Abraham, all of a sudden, step out on the water. And I think he stepped out on the water because the Lord gave him the opportunity to come out on the water. Because Abraham then starts to talk to the Lord. He says, well, Lord, what if there's righteous people there in Sodom and Gomorrah? You know, you're the judge of all the earth do wickedly. I mean, what if there's 50 righteous people there, Lord? You wouldn't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there's 50 righteous people there, would you? The Lord says, no, I won't do it for 50. And Abraham says, oh, Lord, what if just five lacking? What if there's 45? Will you save it, spare it for 45? And the Lord says, I won't destroy it for 45. And Abraham says, oh, Lord, I'm going to speak again. What about 30? I mean, here he is bargaining with the Lord. And it's back and forth. And he bargains them all the way down to 10. I don't think we should walk away from that scenario saying, man, you know, Abraham really did a wonderful thing there because God was going to just swipe him out and not even give him a chance. You know why those thoughts came into Abraham's head? Because the Lord inspired that. The Lord was allowing Abraham to come in there and be a part of what he was doing and to demonstrate his mercy and compassion. To let us see that. To let us see that he let Abraham come out onto the water where he was at. You know what Abraham was called? He was called a friend of God. What about David and Goliath? Right? The whole scenario where David goes to the battlefield and he sees the battle at Estalemate and hears about the challenge of Goliath and all the things back and forth. He's asking questions, trying to understand. And he spoke to the men that stood by him saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God, this is dangerous territory, right? Dangerous territory. But the Lord had been bringing this young man along, right? Had rescued him from the bear, had rescued him from the lion, done all these things in his life to lead him up to this point so that this young man was willing to step out on the water because he didn't just see it as his people against the Philistines, he saw it as God's people. What God was trying to accomplish. The promise that God gave the people of the land. These were the army's living God that he was fighting with. And who was this uncircumcised Philistine to stand against him? This is what God's trying to accomplish. And here David goes into dangerous territory and he steps out of the water. And what the Lord was trying to do and accomplish. And of course we know how this turned out. Everything David sought ultimately was about honoring the holiness of the Lord, much akin to our Savior when He flipped over the tables of the money changers in the temple, right? I mean, it was about the holiness of God, about God's people. And as David stepped out there on the water into the Lord's work, he was empowered to enter the work of the Lord. You know what David was called? He was called a man after God's own heart. What about Jesus and you? What about this commission that we spent a whole lot of time talking about? To take the gospel to the world, a world that is wicked and opposed to what we're trying to preach and teach. Even recognizing at times we face an uphill battle just around us when people who have been raised with some truth all their lives. Situations are scary. Relationships, talking to somebody can be uncomfortable. What are they gonna think? I don't know, I can't control it. It can be dangerous, right? Unpredictable, all the different things. stepping out into some new service of ministry. That's not natural to me to do this or to do that. But yet there's a calling for us to serve Him. If we lay ourselves down to serve Him, there are times He's gonna say, I want you to come out on the water. This is where I'm at, this is where I'm working, and I want you to step out. This is the heart of the... world that the world would be reached by the gospel and it's the work of the church and not just the collective body but us individually to step out into the storms where Jesus walks and what is it that Jesus calls us in John 15 15 it says henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth but I have called you friends For all the things I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. You see, Jesus's intention and all that he's trying to pour into us through his word and saving us and calling us to serve and being part of his church is that we would be his friends. his friends and be able to join in him and the work that he is seeking to accomplish, that we would be the people who would be willing to step out of the boat and onto the water, keep our eyes focused on him and what he's doing, do those things that are unnatural to us in places that are chaotic or dangerous, uncontrollable, unpredictable, but yet by his power, amazing things can be accomplished. amazing things can be accomplished. So I want to close with the question I asked you earlier. Have you ever asked the Lord to bid you to come out on the water? I know we spend a lot of time focused on Peter sinking when he took his eyes off of Christ and there's definitely a lesson to learn from that but I don't want us to lose that first lesson that he stepped out. And there's an important reason that he asked to come out on the water. And there's an important reason the Lord said, yes, come out here. Do you see the chaotic seas around you? What are the situations around you right now that need the righteous calming of Christ? People who need to be saved. where there needs to be growth, places around you where there needs to be righteousness and peace and justice, then do you sense that Christ is out there and that there's a calling and a place for you? And would you step out? I mean, why pray a prayer like this if we're not willing to do what it means? I mean, you've been given every opportunity. You've been given the greatest thing in the world if you've got God's Spirit living inside you. I mean, you have all you need. We just need to be willing to really be His friend, to really have His heart, and to be engaged in what He is trying to do as our first and primary thing. That's what a friend is, right? You know, when I got something that I need, A friend is somebody you can call on that'll come over and help you with it. You know who your people are. You know who you can call that'll come and help you with that thing. God doesn't need us, but he's called us friends and he invites us to step out on the water in the work that he's trying to accomplish in this world. I hope that somehow the Lord is speaking to you tonight and you get a little bit more encouragement to follow through on that prayer that I think probably every one of us here who's saved, I hope and pray you've prayed that in some way in your life. Lord, use me. I hope you meant it, and I hope that you can see the fruit of what God can do with you, because all glory be to him.