Getting Out of the Boat

Matthew 14:24-29

Theme: Getting out of the boat; getting out of your comfort zones.
Main Idea: Courage is one way of showing faith in God and what we need to do great things for
God.
Focus: Peter’s faith demonstrated through courage.
Text: Matthew 14:24-29

..”and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves
because the wind was against it.
Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake.  When the disciples
saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out
in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came
toward Jesus. 

Among the 12 in the boat that time in the midst of storm, Peter was the only one who took the
Lord’s command seriously. This was evident by his response.

What made Peter get out of the boat that is caught in a stormy condition? What made him
attempt to do something unusual and uncommon? It is Courage.

Courage which the Lord commanded them all to have. Courage is what the Lord is teaching
them. He wants them to show their faith in Him by practicing courage. How was Peter able to
show courage in the situation? Let’s look at four ways how he did it.

Outline:

1. Courage to face the storm.

Let us not forget that most of the disciples who were in the boat were fishermen. Most
of their life they spent in the sea. Scenarios like this is not new to them. Strong waves,
strong winds, and some rains; they are used to it. They’ve already encountered storms
and winds because this are familiar conditions if you are a fisherman. And because they
have a lot of fishermen in the boat they possibly shared with one another how to get
through the storm while in the middle of the sea. They may have chosen to deal with it
in their own ways based on experience. They are confident in spite of the condition
because they know and have personally the solution. They most likely think of dealing
the storm in their own comfortable way.

This passage caused me to think about the storms that come to each of us in this life.
You see, like the disciples who were aware of storms as part of life in the sea, we are
also aware of hardships as part of daily lives. We cannot avoid the storms that life
brings. We can avoid the storms that we bring on ourselves, but we cannot avoid the
storms that life brings to us. We all know this. We all know that storms are part of life.
We are familiar with them. And most of the time we deal with our storms in our own
way. Our own strategy and our own thinking. Most of the time we chose to deal with
our storm not in God’s way. Why? Because most of time we think that God’s solution is
harder than the solution we have. Which leads us to always consider our own way. We
chose to deal our problems in our own comfortable way.

What is the Lord teaching his disciples in this situation? He is teaching them that storms
in life should be faced with courage. Courage here means not being afraid of
confronting the actual storm/problem face to face. Courage here also means not being
afraid to do something out of your own comfortable ways.

Of all the disciples in that boat, there was this man who stood up. Simon Peter. He just
like the others is an experienced fisherman. He himself knew how to deal with stormy
conditions. He definitely knew that it’s a suicide to come against the storm. But unlike
the 11 disciples he took his action to the next level. He not only deal with the effects of
the storm but also he showed courage in dealing with the storm face to face.

All of us have storms in life. Hardships we call it. But not all of us have the courage to
face them. Not all of us have the courage to deal with them in God’s way. Jesus showed
his disciples how to do it. He courageously walked on water and faced the storm. He is
telling us that our problems cannot be our limitations. We can go beyond our problems
if only we have the courage to face them. Peter realized that the solution for storms is
not limited only in the boat. It is not only limited with what they think is comfortable to
do. We must learn to get out from our own comfortable ways of dealing with storms
and have the courage to deal and face them in God’s way. “Take courage” Jesus said.

Have the courage to face your challenges as Christians. Face them not in the way you
think it should be faced but face them in God’s way. If your faith is being questioned and
challenged by the people around you, that doesn’t mean you will be silent about it. If
your faith is greatly challenged, that doesn’t mean you stop serving God. In these
particular situations God wants you to show courage. Courage to stand for Him. Courage
to live for Him.
2. Courage to do be close to Jesus.

In this situation also, Peter showed courage to be close to Jesus. Here he showed that
he is willing to be where Jesus is and where Jesus wants him to be.

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

Jesus was in the middle of the water standing. He already informed the disciples that it
is Him who is walking and now standing on the water with the violent winds and waves
around. Among the 12 disciples that time it was Peter who showed courage to be close
to Jesus. Even if Jesus was in the middle of the water surrounded by violent winds and
waves he still want to be where Jesus is.

It is interesting to note that Peter never did ask to walk on water, he simply asked Jesus
that he be allowed to "come to Him." Peter as a fisherman certainly knew how to swim
well, perhaps he simply thought of swimming over to where Jesus was! Peter's desire
was simply to be with Christ, he wasn't thinking of how to get there, just to get there!
Do we have the same attitude like Peter?

In the midst of our storms in life, Jesus is teaching us to always have the desire to be
close to Him. What usually happen is when Christian life gets tough and challenging the
solution we think of is to withdraw from Christ. How do you expect to win your battles if
you will withdraw yourself from God? There is no battle that God cannot win, no
sickness He cannot heal, no need He cannot provide and no struggles He cannot
overcome. If we face our problems with God, we are sure of victory.

Another thing is this, often times God is taking us into some areas of life which we
personally don’t want to be in to. You are here this afternoon and you keep telling God
about your situation. You say, “Lord I don’t want to be here”, “Lord I don’t want to be in
this situation” and so on. But let me tell you something, you are exactly where God
wants you to be.

If we really love Jesus and say we have faith in Him, we will desire to be where He is and
where He is wants us to be. We will get out from our own boats and desire to be close
to Him. The more we desire to be close to Him, the more we will see ourselves away
from our comfort zones. Let us have the same confidence of David in the Lord as his
shepherd.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are
with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.”- Ps. 23:4 NASB
3. Courage to get out from the Majority.

Another way Peter showed his courage was when he learned to get out of the majority.
Remember that there are 11 people with him in the boat. For some of them, they may
have thought that it is safer if they go along with what the majority has decided.

Illustration: If you ever go to a marathon race, there are so many people at the starting line, and
many of them look like they could win the race. After the gun goes off, they all take off together,
and you have a whole group of people bunched together in the race. But as the race goes on,
you notice that a few people start to step out from the crowd and begin to get noticed.  

The further away you get from the crowd, the more you are noticed as potential winner.

I’m not saying that it is wrong to follow what others says because sometimes they are
helpful for us. But listen to this, we should not base our success and growth in life on
what the majority has decided. It is you who is living your life and not them.

When God called us out, God had a specific reason for doing so. God says I am calling
you not only to save you, but to mold, make, shape, and break you, so that you look
more and more like my Son Jesus Christ. 

Therefore we should not be defined by what the majority thinks or say but with what
God says about us. We are His children and to each one He has a plan. Our success is not
based on what others says but it is based on what God says about us.

If Peter just rely on what the majority in the boat says or think, he would not have done
such great act of faith. But because he was able to get out from the majority, he was
recognized.

I can see a lot of potentials in the youth in this church. Develop those potentials as the
Lord leads you. They may be small in your eyes but they all matter to God. You are not
here because of someone or something. You are not serving God because of someone
or something. You are here because of the Lord. You are here because the Lord has a
plan in your life and he wants each and every one of you to shine for him. Have the
courage to get out from the majority. Don’t let them dictate you what to do or where to
go or what to be. If you do, you will be the person of majority. But if you learn to trust
the Lord and His plans for you, you will be able to get out of your own boats and start
shining and be recognized for Him.
 4. Courage to trust Jesus.

This act sum up the acts of courage that Peter showed in the situation. He simply just
courageously trust Jesus.

 
“Come,” He said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came
toward Jesus.

He trusted Jesus by obeying what the Lord told him. The Lord said come and he come.

We cannot fully obey the Lord if we don’t trust Him. We cannot be where God wants us
to be if we do not trust His plan for us. We cannot get out of our boats if we don’t trust
Jesus to make us walk on water. We cannot advance and grow in life if we do not trust
God’s great plan for us. Trust here is demonstrated through obedience.

Do you have the courage enough to trust the Lord about your life? Do you trust God
that He can save you? Have the courage to trust God in your life and you will never be
the same again.

Conclusion:

 Only courageous faith will keep us going when we are puzzled by our circumstances,
when we are suffering for our choices, and when we are going through difficult
circumstance. Following God’s plan will not always be easy, but we can trust that the all-
powerful God will continue to equip us and guide us and strengthen us in our battles.

 God may not be calling you to a dangerous battle or a life-threatening situation, but
eventually we will all face calls to step out of our comfort zones. At some point, if we are
acting in courageous faith, we will experience big challenges.

 Will you continue to follow God in obedience when your social standing is threatened?
Will you follow God’s plan when your friends and family refuse their support?

 If your faith became weak in the face of fear, confess this to God. Seek His help in
developing a faith so firm in Him that you will find powerful courage to do His work.

 Take Courage! It’s time to get out of the boat.