Help, I’ve Fallen & I Can’t Get Up

Bible Passage - Matthew 14:22-34

Intro

Welcome & good to be back

Thanks to the speakers

Bishop Wellington

Pastor Rodney

Pastor Ben

Pastor Kary

Pastor Durean

Bishop Hughes

Everyone who shared testimonies

Our team

Dez for leading

The Collins & Carthews

To you the church for allowing us to take some time

This morning, I’d like to dive into the scripture where we see Jesus walk on water and Peter step out to follow.

READ MATTHEW 14

A scriptural lesson today that I think is important to look at is failure.

Failure as a believer. Failure even when you’re following Jesus.

Some of you here today believe that since you’ve failed, you’ve been disqualified from God’s mercy and grace that saved you in the first place.

But we all fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

That means that we could be standing in front of God in all of His glory and still fall short.

That means that you holding out because you just need more proof, more evidence, need to have a sign, a feeling, a confirmation of who He says He is… you’d still fall short.

Think about this: even the people walking closest to Jesus fell short of the glory. Even they sinned. Even they turned their back on God.

We’re Just Human - Just Like Peter

We might talk about Peter as the leader of the church. As Jesus gave him a high position in the church.

We might also see Peter as the one who turned his back on Jesus and denied Him when they were going to crucify Him.

Imagine the mistakes that Peter has made and apply them as if all of this was happening today. If news broke that Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples denied even knowing Jesus - imagine what the FB comment section would be!

As Jesus was being led to crucifixion, one of His closest disciples turned their back on Him.

History tells us… not scripture… that Peter was crucified for his faith. He didn’t deny Jesus then.

Why do we pretend to be without failure in our lives when we see someone else fall?

In the same way, we idolize people who we think do amazing things -

Imagine hearing that Peter walked on water and the way it would be presented to the world. Every news outlet, every social media scroll… “man walks on water - then drowns.”

Don’t be naive enough to think that we can define someone by their failures. The same goes for success. Failing doesn’t make someone a failure. Success doesn’t make someone successful.

You wouldn’t have guessed that Peter held to his faith to the point of dying on a cross when some time before that, he wouldn’t admit that he knew Jesus.

Peter is not a saint. He’s like you and me. He has flaws. He has fears. Despite his mistakes and failures, he had a desire to follow Jesus.

Peter was not someone Jesus was putting up with and hoping that he would one day accept Him. He had given up his life to follow Jesus… but still didn’t get it. He still messed up. He still had bad days.

Did you know that after I accepted Jesus, after I was baptized, after all the things that Jesus did for me, I’ve still turned my back on Him.

Peter is given the same grace and mercy by a loving God that we are given today.

Someone recently told me this and its been stuck in my head - “its not the grace and mercy that I received when I got saved that humbles me as much as the grace and mercy I’m given after… when I’m following Him.”

Can I tell you something that really dug deep into my soul? about 11 years ago is when I decided to really follow Jesus, to chase after Him and give my life to Him.

I was doing something stupid things. The people around me saw the change, but they also saw the flaws. They assumed that since I was going to church, I was to be without failure.

Well guess what? I failed. Again and again. And in the middle of one of my failures, someone close to me looked at me and said, “I thought you were supposed to be all godly.”

Feels Like Walking on Water

The truth is, there are times in my life where I feel like I’m walking on water.

And other times where I’m sinking.

What went wrong?

Did I not spend enough time praying?

Did I not raise my hands high enough during worship?

Did I disobey God?

Did I not give enough time or money to the church?

Did that one choice I made put me outside the grace and mercy of God?

Where did it go wrong and is this it for me?

You might be asking yourself these same questions today? I accepted it, but is God’s grace and mercy still for me?

“I’m drowning and I’m supposed to have enough faith to get through the next day, but I just don’t.”

Think about the disciples the night they were in the boat: They were terrified!

It doesn’t say they cried out in worship, or prayer, or thanksgiving, or hope… It says, “they cried out in fear.”

Jesus responds immediately “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

Maybe you’re in a situation where the guilt, the shame, the defeat, or fear is setting in.

Jesus reminds us that same thing: “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

He’s not telling you to muster up some courage in your strength. He’s saying, because of who I am, I will give you courage.

This still might not mean much. The only way it would is if you find comfort in knowing that He’s with you because you know who He is! Because if someone I didn’t know said not to be afraid because they were there, I wouldn’t care.

Jesus is telling them and us, “I am with you, don’t be afraid because of the courage that I will give you… in your mistakes, your fear, our defeat…”

vs 28 - Peter responds to Jesus’ “it is I” with “if its you”…. IF it is you command me to come to You on the water.

Jesus simply responds - “come.”

Peter then got out of the boat and started to walk on water.

Imagine the adrenalin. Imagine the feeling of actually walking on water.

Have you ever walked on water? Thats where the sensation comes from!

Soccer - girl looking at me because I was doing so well - only one on that side

I used to be in a band - while everyone was being a teenager, I was gigging every weekend

Talent show in 7th grade - that was awful

Falling off the stage at Battle of The Bands

Won Somerfest - no one showed up

Danced with girl during my prom - got rejected

Nightclub in Africa - kicked off the stage

I was so confident in myself only to sink after my first few steps. It made me realize that maybe I’m not as cool as I thought.

What about when you are trying to walk out your faith in Jesus thinking that you have to do it in your own strength?

If you’re more confident in yourself than Jesus because you feel like you’re walking on water, what happens when you start to sink?

Peter starts to sink after doing the unimaginable. Feeling defeat, feeling hopeless, feeling fear, knowing that everyone is watching. The disciples… Jesus! Letting them down.

What could happen? He could die. He could lose everything. He’s sinking. No longer walking on water, but drowning in the very thing that he believed was giving him confidence.

“BUT he was walking toward Jesus!” you might say…

Seeing The Wind He Began To Sink

Vs 30

Peter looked to Jesus when he got off the boat.

When he took his focus off of Jesus and put it on the wind, he began to sink.

“seeing the wind.”

Did anyone see the wind last night?

Nope.

I can look back at my life when I have begun to sink and realize now that though I might have been feeling the wind, seeing the destruction of the wind, being moved by the wind… I couldn’t see it. Not because it wasn’t there, but because I was frightened by it so much that I took my eyes of Jesus to look at something that wasn’t there: Failure, defeat, hopelessness. All the things the enemy wants us to believe, he wants us to also put our focus on and fix our eyes on.

There will be moments we will be “walking on water.” When we try to do it in our own strength, we will sink. Is it because we didn’t have enough faith to take the next step? Or was it because when we stepped out of the boat, we didn’t trust in God? Did what peter did - Asked if He was really who He said He was?

When we sink, what do we do? Try to tread water or call out to God? Call out for help? You might not have known if He was God when you stepped out of the boat, but when you called out to Him, IMMEDIATELY He answered.

Vs 31 -33

You Can Follow Jesus and Still Fall

Notice that Jesus didn’t say, “you of no faith, you did not know me.” He said “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Don’t mishear this! Because if you believe that the drowning was the bad part, you’ll believe that it was a consequence of his doubt. If that’s how you frame it!

But if you see that even a follower of Christ had doubts, and when you doubt you’re not punished, but brought to a place of vulnerability.

His drowning wasn’t a punishment. Jesus’s words wasn’t a scolding.

His doubt didn’t disqualify him from the rescue! When he sank, it was because of his doubt in Christ and in that moment he became desperate enough to call out to Him for rescue.

He stepped out to test Him, but cried out to Him for rescue.

That doubt brought him into a closer dependency on Christ with a deeper knowledge of who He is.

When you accept Jesus you are also accepting His mercy and grace. Those things rescue us from sin and spare us from punishment. The moment we are saved, we receive grace & mercy in full. And thank God because I need it. When I’m walking on water and when I’m sinking.

Is it possible that we receive the mercy and grace that Christ gives and then question its supply or its effectiveness? - How do we learn? By receiving it. When do we need it? When we fall and we can’t get up.

My grandmother has one of those buttons.

As a Christian, what does it look like to fall? We all throw around phrases like, “we’re all human.” But there seems to be an assumption toward those who are Christians and fall, that they weren’t Christian. We think things like “I thought they were supposed to be a Christian.”

The only thing that we base that assumption off of is what we can see and what we hear. You might see the fall or hear about the fall, but do you know what lead up to it? Do you know why it happened or don’t you care? All the disciples saw was Peter sink.

If you see a kid fall off his bike and get hurt and scuffed up and bloody… do you run up and say,““you idiot! I thought you rode a bike. You should’ve wore a helmet, you should’ve wore knee pads. you should’ve been better at this.” What if he can’t get up? Do you put him down?

No, if you’re close to the kid, you pick them up immediately, give them the healing they need, and then teach them how to ride a bike. Otherwise, they’ll continue to fall trying to ride a bike…or never try to ride a bike again.

Maybe you’ve fallen. Maybe because of what you’ve done, you’ve been cast out, ridiculed, shown judgement,

When we fall… we’re humbled. Not because of punishment but because we’re under grace and mercy.. and those things remind us that its not our strength or power, but His.

If we set out in our own strength, we’re lacking humility and vulnerability. If we call out to Him, we become more humble and vulnerable.

Peter - we can relate to him. The ups and downs.

He was not confident in who Jesus was and still set out to walk on water. What power did he think would carry him across the water if Jesus wasn’t who he said He was? Did he think that he could do it because Jesus did it? or did he think that if he just had enough confidence in himself, he could walk out on water?

How many times as a pastor have I set out to walk on water with my own power…. sooo many times.

Any time I feel like I’m walking on water, I need that reminder that I’m weak and need the strength of Christ to pull me up and out.

I’ve tried to avoid the fall. But the truth is, the moment I try to do it on my own, thats the part where it goes wrong and the fall becomes the most beautiful part. Because its the part where I cry out to Him to be rescued.

Why do we avoid the fall? Why do we all focus on the fall? We always focus on the fact that Peter started to sink and that He was frightened and we should have less fear and more faith.

With that, I’d take away that we need to just be stronger and more focused so we can walk on water more. Wouldn’t you want that? To just keep walking on water would prove that you have the capacity. You have it in you.

When we see the fall, we assume that something happened in that moment that made them fall, sink, fail.

I submit to you today that it wasn’t when he fell, but when he was still on the boat and set out lacking confidence in who Jesus said He was. It was when Peter challenged Jesus.

You might not intentionally challenge Him… but we do it when we try to do things on our own:

Let me tell you something from personal experience - When you’ve stepped out with a lack of humility and a lack or reverence for who God is. When you think its all on you and everyone is watching you and if you fall, its the end of the world. That if you fall, you were die, you will suffocate, it becomes hard to breathe it becomes hard to focus and you don’t have what it takes…. the enemy will attack. EVEN when you’re moving toward Jesus…. can I tell you that you can move toward Jesus and still when you take your eyes off, you can still fall…. because we say things to ourselves, “well I did the right things… I prayed, I tithed, I served, I showed up to church… I STEPPED OUT OF THE BOAT.” But the enemy will distract you and you will see the wind. Guess what? No one else sees it. Its wind, you don’t see it. You can feel it. But you can’t see it.

Peter was so fixated on the substance that couldn’t be seen, that he gave more power to seeing the wind than to the fact the the Creator & Savior was standing in front of him allowing him to walk on water…

The drowning wasn’t the part that went wrong. The fall wasn’t the problem. Its actually the best part. Because after you’ve looked at the wind, after that, you try to take the next step you’ll fall…

In that fall, we desperately tread water, we desperately gasp for breathe, we’re not walking on water anymore, we’re literally drowning.

Imagine going from walking on water to drowning in water.

If you’re drowning, the solution is not to tread. Its not to blame the wind because if you say, “man did you see that wind?” People will say… no.

The solution is to say, “Lord, save me!” because Jesus immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of him… and He said, “Peter, you of little faith, why did you drown?”

No - he said “why were you frightened?” Right because he was frightened and then sank… but thats not where it went wrong… He said “why did you doubt?” because it was about the lack of faith in knowing who Jesus was.

Jesus answered that by allowing Peter to be tested on the water. Jesus wasn’t drowning Peter, He was teaching out a dependency on Him.

Peter, the rock. Peter, the same one who denied Jesus also was crucified on a cross for the sake of Christ.

There will be moments where you drown and sink… but theres always a Jesus who’s there when you say “Lord save me.”