Matthew 14:22-33 on August 9th, 2026
Above is audio of the sermon pulled from the video and amplified.
Below is transcript pulled from the video and formatted by artificial intelligence. There may be inconsistencies or errors.
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The Gospel Message: Jesus Will Catch You When You Sink
Peter. This is kind of what we expect of him, isn't it? Him going with his gut impulse? Master, if it is you, call me to come to you on the water. I like to think that Peter jumps out of the boat, hurtling over the edge of the excitement. He is totally going to do this. His faith is strong, his confidence is high, and he does the impossible. He is walking on water. Unbelievable.
And then he notices what is going on around. The giddiness is gone and long with it his faith. Waves take the wind out of Peter's sails and he realizes he is about to be in over his head. Peter sinks like a rock. And that doesn't really surprise us either, doesn't. We know Peter pretty well.
The Common Lesson: Keep Your Eyes on Jesus
And the problem, as it is usually put, is that he takes his eyes off Jesus. While Peter's focus was on Jesus, he walked just fine. When he took his eyes away, even for a second, he began to sink. And sometimes that lesson gets expanded to make it a little more applicable to our own lives. Be courageous like Peter. Get out of the boat. Do what is difficult. If you focus on Jesus, it will all be okay. Or no matter the storms in your life, no matter what is happening around you, keep your focus on Jesus.
See, that's what happened with Peter. He noticed the waves instead of Jesus. He became aware of the winds instead of staying in that moment. To the encouragement from this story, regardless of what prefaces it, usually is keep your eyes on Jesus. And I don't disagree with that at all. It's not bad advice. And in fact, it's actually pretty good advice. As far as mantras for life go, you could pick worse. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
Good Advice Versus Gospel
Except I already know I should keep my eyes on Jesus. It isn't anything new. And no matter how hard I try, no matter how many times someone reminds me, the storms in life still distract me. I still get stressed out. I get worried. Our world is sometimes, oftentimes, scary. Things are not the picture of calm around us. I start to sink. And you all know this already in your own lives. You know the thunderstorms that you're caught in. You know the worries and the fears and the surprises that are causing you to sink. You know that you should take another faithful step no matter what is going on around you.
And to be honest, me telling you to keep your eyes on Jesus isn't going to help that all that much. And he's saying, take a risk. Step out of your boat disregard the storms. Isn't much comfort. It's good advice for sure. But good advice is not the gospel message. Good advice is not the gospel message.
The gospel message is that when Peter loses confidence and begins to sink, when he gets distracted by the chaos all around him, when he essentially fails the test and proves to be one of little faith, Jesus immediately reaches out and grabs him. Jesus reaches out and pulls him up even when Peter can't do it. And that is good news.
Jesus is the Hero
Now, I commend Peter for even trying. I'm not sure that I'd have the guts to try the impossible, but he did try. He had the courage to step out of the boat. However, Peter is not the hero of the story. No one congratulates him on giving it his best shot. Instead, Jesus saves. Jesus brings him back. Jesus is worshipped as the Son of God. And that too is gospel.
Today's story doesn't try to teach us a lesson about the storms of our life, but instead tells us that Jesus is there in the midst of them. Our story isn't trying to instruct us on having enough faith so that we can walk on water, but rather points us to our savior when we are sinking. This isn't even teaching us to keep our eyes on Jesus. It's telling you about how Jesus has his eyes on you.
The gospel message that Jesus is the master of the waves and the wind, the king of life and death, and he comes to us for us to pull us up to be safe with him forever.
The Difference Between Advice and Grace
Good advice tells us that we should do something, but I don't necessarily mean it's going to happen. When it's dependent on us, it's not grace, it's not love, it's not hope, because we fail our lessons. We know what we should do, but we cannot fully live it out. We come up short. When it is up to us, we sink.
The gospel message, however, tells us something and then God makes it so. Jesus immediately reached his hand out and caught him. What else could Peter do at that point, but fix his eyes on Jesus? The story is meant to relay God's will, God's love, God's grace for us, that Jesus will reach out and grab ahold of us even when we falter, even when we fail, even when we lose sight of that truth. Jesus will get us. God won't let us go that. That is gospel. That is good news that gives us hope and comfort and life, because we aren't just in a storm. We aren't just left to sink. We aren't just told what to do.
On the contrary, Jesus yanks us out of there. He grabs us, holds us and raises us up.
Faith in Action: Our Community's Journey
And as a community of faith, we've had our step out of the boat moments. We've had to take that scary step, looking forward together, a capital campaign and renovation. So many transitions in the midst of storms and waves. And in those moments, over the past several years where it felt like too much, when the storms were raging and all we could do was look around and worry, Jesus grabbed us. Jesus helped us walk, because Jesus was right there the whole time.
And one of the cool things about walking on water is that we're going to get splashed. We're going to get wet. And maybe that's not such a bad thing. Because the water reminds us that God has already brought us through. God has brought us through the waters of baptism, claimed us as God's own and promised to be with us forever. So even when we sink, even when the water rises around us, the water reminds us of God's promises. That Jesus has already reached out and caught us. And that changes how we walk forward.
Courage Comes From Trust
Our courage doesn't come from knowing that we won't sink. It comes from knowing who will be there when we falter. We can step out of the boat. We can take the risk. We can dare to do great things in faith. Not because we're certain we can do the impossible, but because we trust the one who will catch us when we cannot.
So yeah, there is good advice hidden in this story about what to do when you're caught in a storm or what to do if you want to walk on water. But the real message is so much better. God has you in Jesus Christ. God will do what we can hunt. And when we falter, when we sink, when our faith is small, Jesus reaches out and grabs a hold of us. And Jesus will never let us go.
Amen.