Getting Out of the Boat - Tim Conway

Matthew 14:21

"And those who ate were about 5,000 men

besides women and children.

Immediately..."

You're going to find that word

three times in this section.

Immediately.

Matthew and Mark love to use that word.

"Immediately, He made the disciples

get into the boat and go before Him

to the other side

while He dismissed the crowds.

And after He had dismissed the crowds,

He went up on the mountain

by Himself to pray.

When evening came,

He was there alone,

but the boat by this time

was a long way from the land,

beaten by the waves,

for the wind was against them.

And in the fourth watch of the night,

He came to them walking on the sea.

But when the disciples saw
Him walking on the sea,

they were terrified
and said, 'It is a ghost!'

They cried out in fear.

Immediately, Jesus spoke to them, saying,

'Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid.'

Peter answered Him, 'Lord, if it is You,

command me to come to You on the water.'

He said, 'Come.'

So Peter got out of the boat
and walked on the water

and came to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind,

he was afraid, and beginning to sink,

he cried out, 'Lord, save me!'

Jesus immediately reached out His hand

and took hold of him, saying to him,

'O you of little faith,

why did you doubt?'

And when they got into the boat,

the wind ceased,

and those in the boat worshiped Him,

saying, 'Truly, You are the Son of God.'"

Let's pray.

Father, I would just ask You

to give us that power to comprehend

the love of Christ,
and the glory of Christ,

and the beauty of Christ

that's to be found in this passage.

Help us, Lord.

Help us.

I pray in Christ's name,

Amen.

The question I want to pose
to you this morning is this:

Why is this here?

Not why is it right here?

Not why is this account in Matthew 14
instead of somewhere else?

But why would God
record this for us at all?

Is this here just so we can say,

yep, there's Peter again,

bumbling;

impetuous as ever,

acting without thinking,

sinking without believing.

Listen, if that's all you get,

may God help you to think again.

Think, Christian! Think!

Think!

Why? Why does God preserve for us

what He preserves for us?

Why does God freeze events

that happened 2,000 years ago -

He freezes them in time.

And He saved them for us. Why?

Well, all you have to
do is start thinking.

What does Scripture say?

Like you might go to 1 Corinthians 10

and say, ah, Exodus,

Leviticus, Numbers... remember?

The Hebrew children out
there in the wilderness?

The Apostle Paul says guess what that is?

That is an example.

That is for us.

Those were written down
for our instruction.

Those people - they came
out through the sea.

They were with Moses.

They went out into that wilderness.

And they mumbled, they complained,

they grumbled, there were serpents,

there was judgment.

Why all of that?

For our instruction upon whom the ends

of the world have come;

or the end of this age,

the end of this time.

We are the people that the
end of the ages has come upon.

Whatever was written in former times,

Paul says in another place,

what is it there for?

Whatever was written in former times

is for us; it's for our instruction.

That what? Through the Scriptures,

there would be endurance, encouragement,

in the Scriptures that we might have hope.

Or you think about Luke.

What did he say?
"O excellent Theophilus..."

I am going to record some things for you

so that you might know with a certainty.

That's why these things have
been recorded for us.

Certainty. Hope.

Or you think of the Apostle John.

What did he say?

He said, well, you know what?

There's a whole lot that Jesus Christ did,

but there are some very specific things

that I have recorded for you, why?

So that you might know
that Jesus is the Christ.

That you might know who He is,

and knowing, you might have eternal life.

That's what we find.

Scripture.

This is Scripture.

And why is it here?

Well, it's inspired. It's breathed of God.

It's profitable.

And you know what it's here for?

It's to make the man of
God complete or perfect.

That's why these things
are recorded for us.

So we can't just say,

well, you know, Jesus walking on water;

Peter walking on water,

that's a neat story,

but it really doesn't
have much implication

in my own life.

That's not true.

It's an example.

It is to give us certainty.

It is to give us hope.

It is to give us an idea

about who this Christ is

that we're dealing with.

Certainty about Christ.

So, let's get a feel,

just walk through the account,

and get a feel.

You might have noticed

that I started reading in verse 21.

Now, here's what I want you to do.

Not just go through the account again,

but I want you to put yourself

in the disciples' place.

Think with me here.

What are these guys thinking?

What have they seen?

What's going through their minds?

They just witnessed

one of our Lord's greatest miracles -

thousands and thousands of people -

He fed them all.

And then you read it,

"Immediately, He made the disciples..."

- He made -

"...the disciples go down into the boat."

Now, think what's going on in their mind.

They're walking down to the boat.

They've just been witness to this miracle.

There was a power.

There was a glory in all of that.

But you know what?

It ended so strangely.

And Matthew doesn't
really pick up on this.

John picks up on it.

And so if you've got your
finger there in John 6,

I want you to see something.

John 6:14,

"When the people saw the sign

that Jesus had done..." -

the feeding 5,000 men
plus women and children.

That's the miracle
that's being talked about.

That's the sign.

"...They said,

'This is indeed the Prophet.'"

Now do you see what happened?

All these thousands and
thousands, they've been fed.

And the crowd, they're saying,

"Hey, this is the One!"

"This is the Prophet!"

"This is the One Moses spoke about!"

Now, you know, doesn't it seem like
that would be a good thing?

The crowd began to recognize that?

Isn't it amazing?

It's mystifying how many times

Jesus would say to people,

"Don't tell anybody about Me."

"Don't tell people what I've done."

I mean, this is kind of similar.

The people are recognizing something,

and we look at it and we say,

well, certainly that seems
like it's a good thing.

"This is indeed the Prophet

who is to come into the world."

But here's Jesus,

"perceiving then that they were about

to come and take Him by force

to make Him King,

Jesus withdrew again to the mountain

by Himself."

Now, here's the thing,

I want us to imagine
being those disciples.

They're watching all this.

They knew.

They knew - you know,
those disciples were asked:

"Who do men say that I am?"

But, "Who do you say that I am?"

They say, "You're the Christ."

You see, they knew this.

And you can imagine them looking.

Yes! The crowd is jumping on board.

The crowd sees who He is.

The people are finally getting it.

They're beginning to understand
what we already understood.

You can imagine them,

they're getting in the boat,

and there's such a mystery about Christ.

There's a power.

There's a beauty.

There's a glory.

But something just so perplexing.

The people are saying,

"It's time to make Jesus King!"

And that's what they were waiting for.

That's what the
disciples were waiting for.

They kept asking Him,
"When? "When's the Kingdom?"

"Is it now, Lord? It's now, right?"

"You're going to take the throne now

and we're going to sit on
these thrones with you

and that's all going to happen."

So they're seeing that.
You can imagine them.

This is the moment we've been waiting for.

It's all coming together.

And Israel's lining up.

The people are lining up.

But the problem is

Jesus doesn't cooperate.

He doesn't take His throne.

He shuts the whole thing down.

Immediately,

He dismisses the disciples.

He dismissed the crowds.

And He goes up on a mountain to pray.

You know, they're getting in the boat,

and they begin to head out.

And they're thinking...

I mean, how would you be thinking

if you saw this sort of miracle happen?

But then everything you
thought about the Messiah

and His coming and being King -

and Jesus shut it down.

He's so supernatural.

He's so powerful and pure.

But He just doesn't do
what He's supposed to do.

If He's the King of Israel, then why?

Why this?

And so they're going out there.

And what we see from the account,

darkness settles around them.

Of course, there's got to be this wind.

A buddy and I rowed out in a row boat

out onto Three Mile Lake

up there in Paw Paw, Michigan.

It was beautiful.

We had our fishing poles.

We rowed out on this lake pretty far

and while we were out there,

a cold front blew in.

Wind - and it was not so nice going back.

It was cold. It was windy.

Not waves like we find here,

but that was difficult,
rowing against that.

I remember what that was like.

Here are these guys.

Darkness settles in,

and this wind whips up.

And my understanding is
their boats had a sail.

But what's happening is that wind
is blowing directly at them.

That sail does no good.

They have to grab the oars.

We're told it's the
fourth watch of the night.

That's between 3 and 4 a.m.

They started in evening.

They've been rowing 3 to 4
miles is what we're told.

Wind, storm.

Can you imagine that?

And you hear one of them.

Maybe it was Thomas back there.

"What is that?"

I don't know if it was like that.

This unearthly fear grabs them.

Someone or something is moving

across the top of the water.

It's dark. It's stormy.

This is not good.

I mean they literally cry out,
"It's a phantasm!"

It says they screamed with terror!

These are men's men.

These are sailors, fisherman.

These guys are gripped with fear.

The thing I love about this

is one of those immediately's
comes in right here.

"Immediately..."

Everything changes.

Immediately, this sweet, familiar voice.

Steady voice.

It comes to their ears

over the howl of the wind.

"Take heart; it is I. Don't be afraid."

And there's Peter.

I mean, put yourself in there,

among these 12 guys.

And there's Peter.

And I'll tell you what,

it all registers with him right away.

Bang bang!

It's the Lord!

I know that voice.

"Lord, if it's You,

command me to come to You."

And that answer that comes back

across those waters,

above the howl of that wind,

it's not: "That's silly, Peter."

"Come."

And the thing about it is,

Matthew tells us what happens next.

Look at Matthew 14:29.

What happens next?

"So Peter got out of the boat."

Now just stop right there.

Peter expected to walk, not swim.

You know what? John 21?

There's another time Peter's in the boat.

And the Lord comes to the shore.

And you remember John says,

"Hey Peter, that's the Lord."

Do you remember what he did?

He threw himself into the water.

You throw yourself into the sea

when you plan to swim.

But you know, that's not what
it says here in Matthew 14.

It's different.

Peter got out of the boat and walked.

He didn't throw himself into the sea.

He wasn't thinking,

"Lord, command me to come to You

and I'll swim to You."

That's not what he was thinking.

Peter walked on water.

The truth is we half expect
Jesus to walk on water.

Why? Because He can
take loaves and fish...

He did stuff like this. We expect it.

We expect it, not if we were there,

and we were beholding it first hand.

I'm just saying 2,000 years removed,

we expect Jesus to be able to do this.

But the thing is Peter is doing it.

And if you were actually there,

imagine you're one of the other 11.

This thing is getting more
surreal by the moment.

And the thing is,

we're so used to the story,

that we miss the ridiculousness of it all.

The fact is the supernatural
is mounting up here.

Jesus walks across the water.

Peter gets out of the boat.

He walks across the water.

He sinks.

He comes back up.

He and Jesus walk on the water again

back to the boat.

They get in the boat.

The wind stops.

And then the thing that
Matthew doesn't tell us

that John tells us

is that then they were
immediately at the shore.

I mean, the miracles are stacking up here.

They're coming at us in a hurry.

And here's the thing,

you know when you go to John's account,

you know what happened.

They're back at the land.

And those people that
were on the other side

that ate of the fish and the bread,

they were trying to figure all this out.

Now, wait a second,

the disciples went in the last boat.

Jesus didn't get in the boat with them.

How did He get here?

These aren't the disciples.

These aren't the ones that know.

This is the crowd that ate the bread

and the fish the day before.

And specifically in John's Gospel,

they ask Him.

They say, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"

"When did You come here?"

What they're really looking
for is an explanation.

How did you get here?

When?

This doesn't make sense

that You could be here already.

Now, again, put yourself
in the disciples' spot.

Imagine if you're Peter.

You know what's happened the night before.

And the crowd's asking.

And you're like, "Yeah, yeah! Tell them!

That was exciting! Jesus, tell them!"

You could imagine they're ready

to jump out of their shoes to say,

"Let me tell you how He got here!

And when He got here!"

But, silence.

Not a word of explanation.

"Jesus answered them,
'Truly, truly, I say to you,

you're seeking Me not
because you saw signs,

but because you ate
your fill of the loaves.'"

And you know what's interesting,

He freely then speaks about the feeding

of the 5,000.

He speaks about the feeding.

He speaks about the
spiritual implications of this

and how all this works out.

He's the Bread of Life.

John 6 is full of that.

He has no problem
talking about the miracle

that happened the day before.

But you know, all that happened
on the sea that night,

He's absolutely silent.

And we might just say, why?

Well, the obvious reason is
that the miracles at sea

were not for the crowd.

Who were they for?

They were for the disciples.

And for us.

For all of this, what is the lesson?

What's the lesson in all of this?

I'm going to use this word "impetuous."

Impetuous.

Oftentimes, we hear Peter - impetuous.

What does that mean?

Acting without thinking.

But you see, here's the thing,

is this teaching us that we should
not be impetuous like Peter,

and that we ought to be much slower

to jump out of the safety of our boats?

Is that what this is teaching?

I doubt it.

The emphasis is not on Peter sinking.

The emphasis is to be
found in these words:

"Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid."

Now see, here's the thing.

This account is found in Matthew's Gospel,

Mark's Gospel, and John's Gospel.

And you know what's interesting?

The Peter incident is only preserved once.

But in all three of them,

God wants us to know;

He wants us to hear
what Jesus said to them.

"It is I. Be of good cheer."

"Take courage. I have come."

That's the heart of this.

It's not: Lose heart when it comes
to getting out of the boat

or you'll end up sinking like Peter.

That's not the issue.

It isn't primarily about Peter's failure

or Peter's faith.

It's primarily about Jesus' presence.

Jesus has come.

He is on the scene.

That's the issue.

Take heart. Take courage.

You can be of good courage
if you've got the Lord

and the Lord has come
and the Lord is there.

And didn't He say,

"Lo, I am with you always..."

"I'll never leave you or forsake you."

This is what this is all about.

His presence.

These three accounts hit us all

with this reality.

The emphasis is that when Jesus shows up

things happen. What happens?

A believer walks on water.

Not just any place, any time,

but at that place and
time where Jesus comes;

where Jesus is.

That's what this is all about.

And if anybody says,

"No, no... it's not that.

This can't be teaching that
when Jesus is with me,

I can do impossible things
like walk on the water."

If that's what you're thinking,

you're missing the whole point.

When Jesus came on the scene,

the water obeyed Him.

It held Him up. It held Peter up.

The wind obeyed Him.

The boat obeyed Him.

That's what happens when Jesus comes.

Take heart. Take courage.

Be of good cheer.

It is I. Do not be afraid.

Jesus is saying that when I've arrived,

when I'm with you, you're good.

What we don't want to do is attack Peter.

I mean, look, this whole account

was not lost on Peter.

Peter saw the Lord. It's the Lord!

"Command me to come to You."

He got out of that boat and he walked.

It was not lost on him.

Look, we can attack Peter,

and that's oftentimes what
happens when we read this.

Oh, there's Peter again...

he's sinking over there.

No, Peter walked on water.

Yes, he sank.

Yes, we can say, well,

he tried to keep Jesus
from going to the cross.

That's true. Yes, he
denied him three times.

That's true. Yes, he fell
asleep in the garden.

But I'll tell you this,

he's the only one
that trusted the Lord

enough to get out of that
boat and walk on water.

That's a reality.

He wasn't showing off.

He wasn't being presumptuous.

Why? Because Peter heard the Lord's voice.

Some kind of confidence
grabbed hold of him

and he got out and he walked.

And I'll tell you this,

Jesus never faulted him for
getting out of the boat.

Jesus never faulted him for saying,

"Lord, command me to come."

He never faulted him

for getting out of the boat.

He never faulted him

for walking on the water.

He only faulted him for one thing.

Only one thing -

for doubting Christ

once he was out of the boat.

Listen.

Presumption was never the problem here.

I get the feeling sometimes,
especially among those

who bear this name
"reformed" or "Calvinistic."

It's almost like I get this feel

that caution is the word of the day.

That was not the case in Scripture.

That is not the case.

You cannot show me

verse after verse after verse

where Jesus was saying,

"Guys, be very careful,
lest you trust Me too much."

Never did that come across.

Nothing like that.

You know what you find?

You find that there in the
Sermon on the Mount,

we heard about it last night.

God so clothes this

and He takes care of that,

and what does He say?

"O you of little faith.... trust Me."

You remember they were out there one
day and they were in a boat again.

They were with Jesus.

And He said, "Beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees."

And they say, "Oh! We
forgot to bring bread!"

And He said,

"O you of little faith."

Or you remember another day.

"Lord, why could we not cast that demon

out of that young man?"

"Because you didn't have faith."

Isn't this what we get hit with

over and over again?

Or you remember another time

that there was wind out there
on the Sea of Galilee.

And Jesus fell asleep in the boat.

He didn't come walking
on the water that time.

But He woke up and same thing.

"Why do you not trust Me?"

You know, the thing is,

we typically tend to fear presumption.

Oh, I find that so often!

We want to be so careful

lest we be presumptuous,

when in fact, Scripture seems to suggest

that just the opposite is the issue.

"Peter, why didn't you trust Me?"

Not: "Peter, you idiot!"

"Why were you so overconfident

to step out of that boat?"

It's not that.

That's not what you find in Scripture.

Constantly, Jesus is saying,

"Do you not yet perceive?"

"I fed the 5,000. I fed the 4,000.

Is that not resonating in your head?

That when I'm with you, you're good?

When I'm with you, I supply your needs.

When I'm with you,
impossible things happen.

So trust Me!

And get out of the boat!

Don't stay in the boat!"

Oh, I am so convinced,

we've got all these reformed people.

You'll carry your Jonathan
Edwards out of here,

but all the time, you're in the boat.

And Jesus has no
hesitation to call us out.

Let me ask you this,

as you and I sit in our little boats

looking over the side.

Based on verses like this,

do you get the feeling that
God's more concerned

that we're going to just
rashly spring out of the boat

and foolishly trust Him to help us

and protect us in some crazy endeavor

done in His name?

Or is God more concerned
(incomplete thought)

He wants us to step out.

He wants us to do crazy endeavors

in His names' sake.

Those 120 came down from that upper room.

That was a totally crazy endeavor
they were about totally.

Is God more concerned

that lacking faith,

we be too timid to ever
get out of that boat?

That's what it seems like here.

Do you know what the boat is?

Do you know what a boat is?

The boat is where you don't walk on water.

It's the place of safety, of security.

In fact, do you know what it is?

I'm going to show you something here.

Look with me at how
Matthew's account ended.

What does it say?

They worshiped.

Do you see that?

If you look there, Matthew 14.

Verse 33,

"Those in the boat worshiped Him saying,

'Truly, You are the Son of God.'"

You know what John 6:21 says?

John 6:21 says they were glad

to take Him into the boat.

Now think with me.

Gladness. Worship.

Do you know what Mark says?

Listen to this.

We haven't looked at Mark's text yet.

Mark 6:51-52 - same account.

Let me read it to you.

You don't have to turn there.

"He got into the boat with them,

and the wind ceased,

and they were utterly astounded."

They worshiped.

They were glad.

They were astounded.

Listen to this.

"They were utterly astounded,

for they did not understand

about the loaves,

but their hearts were hardened."

Do you know that that is a reality?

You can be glad in the Lord.

You can sing the hymns

and you can worship Him,

and yet, there is a hardness to trust Him

how He would be trusted.

Because all three - same account.

And under inspiration they tell us

that despite the worship and the gladness,

there was yet a hardness
in these people of God.

They weren't perceiving.

They weren't getting what
these things really meant.

There's probably somebody ready to say,

"Hey, look. What do you
want us to believe?

Do you want us to believe that we can

go down to the water here

and walk on the water?"

"Listen, preacher, you and I can
walk down there afterwards

and you're not going to walk on it

and I'm not going to walk on it.

So what do you have to say to that?"

I would say this.

Now, I don't know if out there
on the horizon somewhere

you can see a mountain

like the folks that come from Denver.

You can see those great
big mountains on that range.

But what are you going to say?
You can't move that mountain?

Our Lord says you can move that mountain.

The reality is we can move mountains

looking to Christ in faith;

looking to God in faith.

Water can hold us up just as certainly

as mountains can be moved.

That is the reality.

When Jesus is with me,

I can just as confidently
expect that water

to do miraculous things

as I can expect a mountain to move.

We need to have faith
to look at these things

the way the Lord meant for
us to look at these things.

Listen, what did He say?

What did He say when He walked here?

He looked at some people one day

and He said, "Which is
easier for Me to say?

Your sins be forgiven
or rise up and walk?"

What's easier to say?

Walk on water?

Peter, come to Me?

Or walk on scorpions and serpents

and crush Satan shortly under your heel?

Or to walk on your sins -

to walk above your sins, your problems,

your doubts, your fears, your unbeliefs?

Which is easier to say?

To step out in faith.

Presumption is not the problem.

The point is that we worship.

I know we worship.

We're interested in the character of God.

We want to see God big.

But let us not be the kind of people

that worship and even are glad,

but there is this hardness of unbelief.

We worship, but...

You don't want that "but" there.

And the thing is, isn't it amazing?

Jesus is willing.

"Lord, command me to come to You."

"Come."

And you know what?

Something that I find remarkable

in Mark's Gospel account of this is this:

Mark 6:48 says,

"About the fourth watch of the night,

He came to them..."

Now listen to this.

"...He came to them walking on the sea.

He meant to pass them by."

Do you ever read things like that

and it's like what?

"He meant to pass them by."

What does that sound like?

Luke's Gospel - you remember the two

on the road to Emmaus?

It sounds remotely similar to that.

That He acted as if He
was going to go further.

He intended to pass them by.

Does anybody ever get tired
of those doubtful prayers?

"Thy will be done..."

Now, I know that's a biblical prayer,

and I know it's got a right place,

but Christians who
hesitatingly look at life

and are always in doubt

about whether they
should ever do anything -

oh yes, they admit that
God is able to do things

at least in theory.

But the feeling I get is that Jesus

might intend to pass by,

and He will pass by

if we don't need Him.

But you notice He always stops

for those who need Him.

You find that all through the Scriptures.

Always stopping for those who need Him.

Oh, there are ten thousand reasons

why we don't get out of the boat.

Why?

It's dark out there.

The waves are big.

There's likely an undertow

and I'll be pulled under.

We don't have enough money

to get out of this boat.

So we just sit there.

"Well, the Lord's will be done."

"If He wants me to get out of the boat

then He'll take me out of the boat."

But it's all so doubtful.

I mean, after all, liquid molecules -

they cannot support the weight

of a human being.

That doesn't work.

It just can't work.

The lake is deep

and the side of the boat is high.

This whole endeavor is doubtful.

Let us hear Peter.

"Lord, command me to come."

Here's a question.

If you had been in the boat that night,

would it have occurred to you

to ask the Lord to command you to come?

Think about it.

Seemingly, it did not occur to eleven.

But would it have occurred to you?

And if you say I hope it would have,

well then, I would say,

let it occur to you now.

I want to point something out.

Difficulties do not mean

that something is not God's will.

I find Christians who want to interpret

God's dealings with us that way.

Oh, there's a problem.

There's a roadblock. There's a bump.

There's difficulty there.

(Incomplete thought)

Think of Abraham.

Was there difficulty set
in the way of his faith?

Like, maybe he's old, and his wife is old.

That's a difficulty.

Joseph - there were
some difficulties there.

He's finding himself in the prison.

That is a difficulty.

Lazarus - that was a difficulty.

He was four days dead in the grave.

Peter - dark, stormy, water.

Have you ever noticed?

God likes to put obstacles in our way.

Why? That tests our faith.

That tests what we think of Him.

Bunyan had it, right? Did he not?

Pilgrim came to the Hill of Difficulty

and he went up that hill.

He didn't go around.

In fact, going around was exactly

the thing that he shouldn't do.

And if we get out of the boat,

are we ever going to sink like Peter?

Yes, that's going to happen.

But you know the thing is,

we're still okay. Why?

Because the Lord is there
and He cares for His people.

Look at something.

Look at Matthew 14:30.

"When Peter saw the wind,

he was afraid."

Now notice these words:

"...beginning to sink,

he cried out,

'Lord, save me!'"

Don't you love that?

Just several weeks back,

one of my daughters brought up some show,

and I hope there's not something about it

where you all want to
crucify me if I say it,

but there's some outdoorsman thing.

Some guy name Bear Grylls.

Some Englishman.

Some outdoorsman.

He's a nut.

And he went to Scotland in a blizzard

and he wants to show you how to survive.

And of all things, he wants to show you

how to really survive.

So he comes up to a peat bog,

and he's saying I'm going to go in here

and it's blizzard and the snow's coming,

and he says I'm going to show you

how if you fall into a
peat bog in a blizzard,

how you survive.

And so he builds this whole story

and you're ready for him

to jump in this peat bog

and go up to his waist or something.

He says, look, now that I've
told you all about this,

I'm probably going to step in here

and find this thing shallow,

and I'm just going to walk right
across to the other side.

So now you've kind of got the picture
in mind that maybe it's not that deep.

He's going to take a step in there

and he may actually
be able to walk across.

He takes a step in there

and he disappeared, like that.

He was gone.

Like (gasp!)

And I was thinking that image,

if Peter - bang!

It would have just come
out from under him.

Boom! He's gone.

Isn't that amazing?

"Beginning to sink..."

I thought, look, if the same thing

happened to Peter that
happened to Bear Grylls,

he wouldn't have got three
words out of his mouth.

What I see in that

is even in Peter's unbelief,

the Lord is with him.

And he is not allowed to just go "woosh."

"Beginning to sink..."

That is encouraging.

Because what the Lord was doing

was He's allowing Peter
to sink gradually enough

so that he can cry out,

"Lord, save me!"

Peter began to sink.

Every time you read that from now on,

but notice the next thing.

"Jesus immediately," - I love that!

It doesn't say that Peter immediately sank

and Jesus began to put out His hand.

It's the opposite.

Beginning... Jesus immediate.

Guess what?

You get out of the boat,

we're like Peter.

Don't look at Peter like
he's some ridiculous case.

Go look at yourself in the mirror

and say I'm just like him.

Because if you get out of the boat,

you're going to have times you sink too.

Like all those biographies I was showing
you yesterday that I've read?

Those guys - they sink too.

And here's the thing.

I love this too.

Because I remember 28 years ago,

at the depth in the bog,

in that peat bog of my own sin,

the miry clay...

Do you know that night the Lord saved me

just three words and I don't think
they came out of my mouth.

I think I just thought them.

"Lord, help me."

I've heard sister Connie
say the same thing.

Three words.

Lord, help me.

Lord, save me.

I've heard of people under demonic attack

waking up in the night -

something has them by the neck:

"Lord, help me."

And it's gone.

And the thing is,

Jesus did not say,

"Peter, I wish you would
get more sophisticated,

more intellectual, more professional,

more polished, if you think

you are going to get My attention."

What a prayer!

"Peter, you insult Me
with your simplicity."

None of that.

What a prayer for God's people

who venture out of the boat.

You can imagine our
brother serving overseas,

"God, help me."

He stepped out of the boat.

What keeps us from daring
to trust Christ more?

You think about your own life.

We've got our boats.

Every one of us do.

These places that if we
trusted the Lord more

we would get out of them.

And the Lord's out there.

"Come."

It's like He was going to walk by them,

but what?

They needed Him. They cried out.

He saw they were in terror.

He came to them.

What keeps us from
daring to trust Christ more?

Is it hardness?

This hardness.

We don't perceive really what

those 4,000 and those 5,000 that were fed

were meant to show us.

Have you ever found

that when you've stepped out of the boat,

that Jesus let you sink

right to the bottom of the sea?

It doesn't happen.

You answer this question.

I want to answer this question.

Where do you want to live your life?

Do you want to dwell in that
calculated safety of the boat?

If we're to significantly advance,

we need to step out.

Out where?

Out there.

Beyond the side of the boat.

Beyond.

Beyond the boat.

God calls us to a life

where we can't walk

where He wants us to walk,

unless He holds us up.

Tozer said this:

One of the greatest proofs of our weakness

is when there's no longer anything

terrible or mysterious about us.

When it can all be explained.

Stepping out of the boat

is stepping out into that realm

of the supernatural.

It's stepping out into the realm of God

where you don't survive
unless God is for you

and undergirds you;

unless God holds you up.

I think we need more crazy Christianity.

We need more people like Peter.

They step out of the boat.

And they step out with that confidence.

Because not a confidence in self -

it's a confidence in what
Christ is going to do for us.

Should we not intentionally
take our churches

and our families and ourselves down paths

that demand more than our spiritual gifts?

More than our logic?

More than the current funds

in the checking account?

Why?

Because Christ is with us

and He says, "Take courage."

Why? Because by nature, we're timid.

We're faint.

"Take courage."

Why? "I am with you."

Don't ever be quick to say,

"Oh, we can't do that.

It's too big. It's too expensive.

It's too far.

It's too outrageous.

It's just overall too impossible."

We should fear that talk.

We should fear staying in the boat

and not putting our great God to the test.

And I don't know what this
means for all of our lives.

I've been thinking about
this message for weeks,

and I've been thinking

what does this mean for me?

I want to get out of the boat.
I don't want to live in the boat.

I don't want to get to
the end and just find

I lived in the boat all the time.

I should have been saying,

"Lord, command me to come."

"Command me to come."

Because I find that He says, "Come."

Can you imagine Peter

reminiscing in the years that followed?

I imagine him sitting there,

looking into the fire,

thinking...

thinking back to that night.

Remembering.

Reminiscing.

Those words.

He can hear them.

He can hear that voice.

"O you of little faith,

why did you doubt?"

And you know Peter didn't answer.

Why?

Because he never had a good answer

to that question.

He never did.

It's really difficult to have an answer

when you've just been walking on water

to have the Lord say, "Why did you doubt?"

What are you going to say?

Think about this.

Peter - seasoned fisherman.

Sailor.

Something happened in
that wind right there.

And it says it caused him to fear.

What would it have taken to cause

a man like Peter to suddenly fear?

A great big gust

that took him off his feat?

But still, why?

He'd been walking on water.

"Why did you doubt?"

In other words, you never need to.

Peter thought about water.

You can imagine.

"I felt a firmness under my feet.

It was like walking on land,

and yet it wasn't like walking on dry land

because there was no ground there.

There was some unseen reality

that held me up.

And I felt it.

I felt it give way

when my eyes came off of Christ.

I felt it.

I felt it.

It caused that knee-jerk prayer:

'Lord, save me!'

I felt it give way.

And I know it was not
faith that held me up.

It was God that held me up.

And He held me up

and there was a firmness

as long as I was looking to Christ."

And he could remember.

There was a confidence.

Peter had a confidence.

A tremendous sense of safety,

of security.

A tremendous freedom.

"Peter, why did you fear?"

Him just thinking, you know,

I never did have a good
answer to that question.

Father, I pray

that some boats would be stepped out of.

Father, please,

help us to trust Your Son.

Help us to bring You more glory.

We see that it is a glory;

it's a worship issue,

as we see Abraham there in Romans 4,

and we know that trusting You

brings You glory.

And I pray Lord, I want this.

I want this.

I want to trust You more.

Help us.

Help us to go forth from this place

resting, trusting.

I pray that this account may help us

to be more certain, more confident,

more established on this Person of Christ

willing to help;

would have walked past,

but He came immediately.

"It is I."

"It is I."

"Be of courage."

Lord, we want that courage.

I pray in Christ's name, Amen.