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I want to welcome you to day four of our look through Matthew chapter 14. This
is a great week of increasing our faith as we look at Jesus' miracle of feeding
the five thousand and now his miracle of walking on water. In looking at this
miracle, Jesus teaches us how do we live a walk on water life.

Because Peter is going to walk on water. He's going to get out of the boat and
walk on water. The story of Peter's life with Jesus is an interesting story.

At the beginning, Jesus works to get into Peter's boat. He says, "Let me into
the boat. Let's go out.

We'll fish together. " But from that moment on, he starts to work to get Peter
out of his boat. Jesus says to Peter, "Come, follow me.

I'll make you a fisherman. " Sometimes you and I face this same circumstance
that Peter had to face of getting out of the boat. We would love this life of,
"Hey, it's just me and Jesus in the boat.

" This is great. We're on this cruise together. But life is not a cruise.

So he's going to be working to get you out of your boat, the boat of the way
you've always done things, the boat of your pride, the boat of your selfishness,
the boat of your lack of faith, the boat of your loss of dream, the boat of your
comfort. It's comfortable here. He works to get us out to that place of faith.

Look at how he worked in verses 22 to 24. "Immediately, after the feeding of the
five thousand," this is immediately, "Jesus made the disciples get into the boat
and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After he
had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat was already a considerable
distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. " I
want you to notice from the very beginning that Jesus put the disciples in this
situation. He's the one who said, "Get in the boat.

" He's the one who said, "Go ahead of me. " He put them in this situation where
now they're being buffeted by the waves and the wind is against them because
Jesus had a miracle that he wanted to work. In verse 25, "During the fourth
watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.

" This is one of Jesus' most famous miracles. It impresses people. It's an
impressive miracle.

It'd be cool to walk on the pool, everybody thinks. Everybody thinks, "If I
could be an Olympian or on the swim team at my high school and just one race,
get this miracle where instead of swimming I could run the lap, that would be
awesome. " But this is not just a trick.

Miracles aren't tricks. In fact, every miracle is a teaching. Every teaching is
a miracle and every miracle is a teaching.

So what does God want to teach us through this miracle? How do you live a
walk-on water life? This is a teaching about faith.

And as you look at what happened in the life of Peter here, you see three
specific choices about faith that you and I have to make to live the life of
faith. You have to have the faith to get out of the boat, you have to have the
faith to step out on the water, and then you have to have the faith to cry out
when you're sinking. Three kinds of faith.

First, the faith to get out of the boat. That's the one we're going to focus on
today. In verse 26 to 29, "When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they
were terrified.

It's a ghost they cried and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said
to them, 'Take courage. It is I.

Don't be afraid. For if it's you,' Peter replied, 'Tell me to come to you on the
water. ' 'Come,' he said.

And then Peter got down out of the boat and he walked on the water and came
towards Jesus. Peter starts this whole thing by getting down out of the boat.
Before he could walk on water, he had to get out of the boat.

Now, Peter is a fisherman and he's in the midst of this storm on the lake. Every
bone in his body tells him to stay with the boat in the storm. So he's going
against everything he knows because he trusts Jesus.

That's what it means to get out of the boat. When every emotion that you have
tells you not to ask for forgiveness or not to forgive the other person, but you
trust Jesus and you forgive or you ask for forgiveness, that's getting out of
the boat. And every way that you've done business up to this point tells you,
'My business is going to fail if I don't cut corners here.

If I don't do something, I know it's wrong, but if I don't do this, I'm going to
fail. ' But you decide, 'I'm not going to do it. I'm going to trust God.

' Even if the business fails, that's getting out of the boat. When everything
that you've ever heard about yourself, maybe everything your parents said to you
or teachers said to you, tells you that God can't use you, but you decide to get
involved in a ministry, you decide to get involved in serving God, that's
trusting Jesus and getting out of the boat. The question here is, do you have
faith to get out of the boat?

And you think, 'Well, I don't know how. How would I? I mean, I'm in this
comfortable place.

That's a hard decision. How do I get that kind of faith? ' Well, you do what
Peter did.

What did Peter do in order to get out of the boat? You do the two things that
Peter did. You listen to Jesus' voice and you do what he says.

You listen to Jesus' voice through his word and then you act on it. First you
listen. Now, that's where we were last week as we talked about the parables of
Jesus.

Again and again we're going to hear that listening is the key to living the life
that God wants us to live. Listening in a way that I act upon what God wants me
to do. You have to start by listening.

Instead of just cowering in fear, Peter listens. Is it you, Jesus? That's where
daily time in God's Word comes in.

That's where drive time devotions comes in. That's where letting God's Word come
into your life comes in. You're listening to God's Word right now.

You're choosing to do that. So you listen and then you act upon it. You do what
he tells you to do.

Now I have to tell you, in what he tells you to do, it often seems more routine
than miraculous. Now Peter, get out of the boat. Walk on the water.

That's pretty miraculous. That's pretty awesome. And many times that's the kind
of thing we want God to tell us to do.

Get out of the boat. Walk on the water. Do this ministry.

Impress all these people. Invest this money. Make millions.

Whatever it is, we want some great, great miracle. But I found in my life, most
of the time, when I listen, what he tells me to do seems very routine, very
simple. Be kind to your family.

Give to that hurting person over there. Care about that person enough to pray
for them. Call this person.

They need a call to get some encouragement. When I listen, the thing that he
asks me to do is often very small. Now we would rather do the big thing,
honestly, because it's more impressive.

So we would rather walk on water. It's a lot cooler and more impressive. But we
start to listen and God says to us, not walk on water, but wash the dishes.

Some small act of service. And we say, maybe I misheard this somehow. I mean,
I'm looking for the big impressive thing.

Most of the time when he talks, when you start to listen, it's the small act of
service that he asks you to do. So you do that. Okay, pray for that person.

Okay, give to that person. Okay, serve that person. Okay, call that person.

That small act of service is actually doing more for eternity than the great
miracle that you think about. It's changing eternity, the encouragement you give
that person. It's bringing that person to Christ the way that you prayed for
them.

It's changing everything. I want you to understand something very important
about what happened here. When Peter walked on the water, when Peter walked on
the water, he walked on the water because Jesus was walking on the water.

So when you and I think about following Jesus, doing what he's called us to do,
what you do is not think about what great impressive thing could I do. You think
about what is Jesus doing in the world and how can I be part of it? What's Jesus
doing in your world and how can you be part of it?

In your office today, in your school today, at your house today, how can you be
part of what Jesus is doing in the world? Jesus is loving people, he's serving
people, he's encouraging people, he's bringing people to faith, he's helping
them to have hope, he's having compassion on people. What's Jesus doing in the
world today?

How can I be part of it? Let's pray together. Jesus, that's what we ask.

If you're walking on water, we want to be walking on water. If you're having
compassion on somebody, we want to have compassion on that person. If you're
forgiving, we want to forgive.

If you're serving that person that no one else notices, we want to serve that
person that no one else notices. What are you doing in the world and how can we
be part of it? Using the gifts you've given us, the calling you've given us, how
can we be part of what you're doing in the world?

Guide us and lead us in that today, we pray. Help us to hear your voice and then
do what you say. We pray it in your name, Jesus.

Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to see two more lessons of faith from this
experience of walking on the water.