Category: Sermons

What Shall I Give God?

Micah 6:6-8

Pastor Barry Kerner

Everyone knew Albert was a hypocrite. He never went to see what he could do for his ailing mother, he never paid his bills, his language was deplorable, and his adultery broke up two homes. Yet, he worked for the church – He taught Bible classes, he served the Lord’s Supper, and he gave liberally of his means. Albert thought as long as he gave God good works, he could live however he wanted.

The Israelites really thought the same thing – They thought if they brought the right kind of sacrifices God wouldn’t care how they lived.

In Micah chapter 6 God brings a lawsuit against Israel. The imagery of God’s bringing a case against a nation and the mountains and hills being called upon to serve as judges is common in the Old Testament as well as the ancient world. The Lord first pleads his case before the mountains and hills, and he tells what good things he has done for Israel. He redeemed them from Egypt. He gave them spiritual leaders. He protected them against Balak.

God kept his part of the covenant, but the Israelites had not. God will always keep his end of the bargain, for he is faithful and true. If it seems as though God is far away, that he is not fulfilling his promises, it is because we are unfaithful, not because he is.

In our text this morning, the Israelites answer God. In verses 6 and 7, the nation attempts to placate God. In verse 8, Micah tells the nation what they really need to do.

In verses 6 and 7 the people ask God what they should bring him. The people are really bargaining with God. They basically say, “God, we do this or that, will that make you happy?”

Did God want sacrifices? They would give him burnt offerings – these offerings were totally consumed and no part was eaten. They would give yearlings. Although calves could be sacrifices from the eighth day, yearlings were considered the best calves. The Israelites were willing to give God the best sacrifices they could.

They would give thousands of rams. This sacrifice would take much wealth. In 1 Kings 3 verse 4 we find Solomon, a wealthy king, making this sacrifice. The Israelites were willing to spend much money to appease God’s wrath. They would give ten thousand rivers of oil. Oil was used in connection with many sacrifices. The amount of oil here is greatly exaggerated, but the point is that the Israelites were willing to give a great deal if God would just quit being so angry.

They would even give their firstborn. Although occasionally practiced in Israel, we find in Ezekiel 16:20-21 that child sacrifices received God’s condemnation. These Israelites were even willing to give their children if God would forgive. Imagine that! These Israelites will even kill their children if it will make God happy. They basically want God to quit being angry and bless them again and if that takes the death of their firstborn, so be it.

These Israelites wanted to earn God’s favor through their worship. They simply wanted to sacrifice to God and continue in sin.

Worship without the lifestyle to go with it is useless. In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”  Although God had told Saul to destroy everything when he went against the Amalekites, Saul did not do so. Saul told Samuel that he had spared the best animals to sacrifice to God – Saul must have thought this would make God happy. But, Samuel says that Saul should have obeyed rather than sacrifice – Worship without obedience is meaningless. Amos 5;21-24 reminds usn that God does not want worship without pure lives.

We can do exactly the same thing as these Jews. We can go through the motions on Sunday and live the way we want the rest of the week. We can give liberally of our means, yet not love our neighbor. We can take the Lord’s Supper, but harbor bitterness against a neighbor.

Micah tells the people that true religion is nothing but the enjoyment of a personal relationship with God through faith and sincere prayer. This truth is emphasized over and over again in the Bible. It is taught in many different ways: It is taught by precept in the commandment, Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the LORD thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”

True religion is taught by example in the life of Enoch who “walked with God” (Genesis 5:22), and in the life Abraham who was called the “Friend of God” (James 2:23), and also in the life of King David who was known as the “Man after God’s own heart” (Acts 13:22). It is also taught through the recorded praises and prayers of people who had fellowshipped with God. As King David wrote in Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.”

And yet, despite such an abundance of clear teaching from God about what true religion is all about, it is this point that always seems to be missed by many! Time and time again people miss this important truth completely in all their religious efforts and activities. They reduce religion to nothing more than the holding of certain beliefs, following a set of rules and regulations, or performing certain rituals, or observing certain days for fasting, or chanting certain prayers. Now, they may feel that they are being most spiritual when they devote their time in doing all these activities. But what they still lack is the very essence of all spirituality, which is to enjoy a personal relationship with God.

Often even Christians who may already know this truth and understand it well, will go astray from it after some time and begin to concentrate instead on the outward forms of their devotion, including church attendance, singing, praying and participation in church activities. They become content with a veneer or outer shell of godliness, without experiencing the real substance and power thereof.

Some may even become so fanatical about these outward forms, that the forms are more important to them than God Himself! In Romans 10:2, the apostle Paul testified that the Jews of his day were like that. They had a tremendous “zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”

And we all need to be constantly reminded against committing this error, because anyone can easily fall into it. In all things that you do as a Christian, your primary focus must always be on this one thing: the building of your personal relationship or your walk with the Lord. That is where your spiritual life really is. Without it, your weekly attendance of worship services will be a waste of time. Without it, your singing of hymns will be lifeless. Without it, your tithes and offerings will be given out of duty rather than out of love. Without it, your listening to sermons, or your participation in Sunday school or in any Bible study will not profit your soul at all.

If you are already experiencing any of these things now, it may be time for you to regain your focus on building your personal relationship with God. I’ll ask you, “Have you somehow been neglecting your walk with the Lord? Have you become so busy with church activities and the outward forms of devotion that you have lost your primary focus on building your relationship with God?” If you have, then listen carefully once again to what the Lord has to say to you now through His Word in Micah 6:8, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

In order to understand these words well, let us first consider the historical background behind them. The words of this scripture text were given by God through a prophet of Judah by the name of Micah, who lived around the year 735 BC. It was a time of great material prosperity in Judah. Unfortunately it was also a time of great moral and spiritual decline. No class of people was free from the corrupting influences of sin. The princes, the priests and the people – all alike were deeply affected by it. And so Micah was appointed by God to speak out against these sins. He spoke against the rich who oppressed the poor. He also spoke against false prophets who were making empty promises of sure deliverance from foreign invasion. At that time the Assyrians were about to launch a series of military campaigns into Palestine. Through Micah, God warned the people that if they did not repent of their sins, He would bring the Assyrian forces to destroy Jerusalem and reduce it to rubble.

But the people could not understand why God would ever allow His people to experience the horrors of foreign invasion and occupation. They could not comprehend what wrong they had done that God would take such drastic action against them.At the beginning of Micah chapter 6 God is pictured as one who brings a lawsuit against His people for the sin of ignoring Him. In verses 1 and 2 He calls on the mountains and hills to witness His charges against the people. Then, in verses 3 and 4, He reminds them of the ways He had helped them: “O my people, what have I done to you? and how have I wearied you? Testify against me. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servants; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” The Exodus of Israel from Egypt represents the first great act of God in which He showed His love for the people. In verse 5 the inability of Balaam to curse God’s people is mentioned as an evidence of God’s protection for them.

Then in verses 6 and 7 God’s people are pictured as a man who realizes all his sins against God and he is now so conscience-stricken that he wants to know what he could do to remedy the situation. But as you read these verses you will see that what he thinks God requires from him are merely outward acts of devotion. “How shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
We often have mistaken ideas of what God really wants.

First we’re often mistaken as to how we should come before the Lord. The two questions of verse 6 speak about what man thinks he must do in order to come before God. He wants to know, “With what shall I come before the Lord?” He thinks that as long as he comes before God with the right gift to offer Him, God will surely accept him. Now, there is nothing wrong with the bringing of gifts and offerings to the Lord’s house when we come for the worship service each week. 2 Corinthians 9:7 tells us that, “God loves a cheerful giver.” The problem is not with the act of giving itself but with the motive for giving. We ought to do it because we believe that all that we have is rightfully His, and that the Lord deserves to receive the best from us. We should bring offerings and gifts to Him out of love and gratitude.

But gifts must never be used as an attempt to gain favor or approval from God. And this was exactly what the man in verse 6 was attempting to do when he said, “How shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?” He thought that the gift he brings along will enable him to gain God’s favor. Perhaps some of us too may have done this at times. You thought that you can purchase God’s favor and love with your gifts, and that the Lord will then be obligated to grant you whatever you request from Him. This mistaken idea actually comes from using our own human wisdom on how to gain favors from the people we know.

God’s love and favor cannot be purchased whether with money or with acts of faithful service and devotion. Don’t ever think that the Lord will certainly bless you with good health and wealth just because you have given Him so much and served Him well. No matter how well you have served Him and how much you have given to Him, always remember that Luke 17:10 says, “We are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do.” It is only by undeserved grace alone that we can receive any favor from God. And that grace is shown to us only because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us.

Second, we’re often mistaken as to what pleases our Lord.

Another mistaken idea of what God really wants can be found in the things that the man proposed to bring before God. In verse  he asks whether the Lord would be pleased with them. The first thing he mentioned was burnt offerings. Burnt offerings were prescribed in the book of Leviticus. They are meant to be an act of consecration. In all other kinds of offerings only part of the animal was burnt on the altar while the rest could be consumed by the priest or the person who made the offering. In the burnt offering the whole animal was burnt on the altar leaving nothing behind for human consumption. It was completely devoted to God, and in that manner, it honored God. Now, different kinds of animals could be used for burnt offerings, but the offering of calves that were a year old was considered by the Jews to be the most costly because of their economic value. And so the man in our text was proposing to offer the most costly offerings he could give to God.

That’s not all. In the next verse he proposed to multiply his offerings lavishly, by giving thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oil to God. I think we can recognize what he was trying to do. He was essentially saying ‘I will give you whatever it takes to please you. Just name your price!’ And he even goes to the extent of offering to God his most precious possession, his own firstborn child. We remember how Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah when God commanded him to do so. But this man is willing to do that even without being asked!

From our own human perspective, all that the man proposed may seem to be commendable acts of devotion. Surely God would surely be pleased with them, would He not? Who will not appreciate such generous gifts? But what God sees is not the gifts but the heart. Beyond the multitude of costly offerings God sees a heart that is not right with Him – a heart that is far from Him and that is still tolerant toward sin. And this makes all the offerings worthless in His sight.

You must understand that the very best offerings and service that you can render to God are useless as long as you are not right with Him because of your sin. They are merely an empty form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Man is always trying to get back to the good graces of God with some outward religious service or some material gifts. But the Word of God, in Psalm 51:17, tells us that “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart.” This is what God really wants from us.

In order to be right with God your attitude toward sin must change. You cannot love God and love sin at the same time. You must hate your sins the same way that God hates them. The biblical word that is used to describe this change is repentance. Repentance is a change of attitude toward sin which leads to a change of conduct.
Are you giving God just the externals? Or, are you trying to give God the best?

Now in verse 8 we find that what God wants is us! God had shown Israel what is good. God’s law did not stand as something new – there wasn’t any need to bargain with God. He had already told them what he wanted. God’s law is good. Nehemiah 9:13 tells us that God gave the Israelites “good statutes” at Sinai. God’s law is good in that it lays down good moral instruction. As we follow God’s instructions, we are raised to a higher standard of living.

God has shown men what he expects.

First, we are to do justly. “Justice” means to see that the rights of others are protected. In Isaiah 1:17, the prophet equates justice with rebuking the oppressor, defending the fatherless, and pleading for the widow. Justice basically means that we help those who cannot help themselves.

We need to do justice. In James 1:7 we’re told that, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Pure and undefiled religion, is, in part, caring for widows and orphans. We have so many opportunities to do justice. We can take meals to the sick and shut-in as some may be doing. We can support our local Community Outreach Food Bank as Delphi Falls is doing.

The second thing God wants us to do is to love mercy.

“Mercy” literally means loving kindness. “Loving kindness” in this context refers to “brotherly love.” Micah is telling these Jews to love one another. God expects us to love one another as well. In Matthew 22:39 Jesus told us that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Romans 12:9 reminds us that our love is to be without hypocrisy. We have opportunities to show love to our brothers and sisters. We can pray for those facing difficulties, and we can listen when they need to talk. We can visit the funeral home when our friends and loved ones experience loss.

The ancients said of the early Christians, “They love each other without knowing each other,” and “Behold, how these Christians love one another.” The world ought to see us loving one another. Do you love your brethren?

The third thing that God wants us to do is to walk humbly with Him.

“Humbly” here is probably best understood meaning “wisely” – we need to know how to walk with God. We must walk with God. 2 Kings 23:3 teaches us that, walking with God means that we keep his instructions with our whole heart. Walking with God means that he is first in my life, and I make every decision based on his Word.

As you come to understand what God really wants of you, your daily walk with God will then become your source of spiritual life and strength to live your life fully for the Lord – and even to do justly and to love mercy as Micah 6:8 says. I would therefore urge you not to be satisfied with your devotional life until you are enjoying your walk with God. I would ask all of you to make a firm commitment right now, to keep not just doing the external things but spend quality time with the Lord, enjoying a personal and meaningful relationship with Him all the days of your life.

A Stronghold In The Day Of Trouble

Nahum 1

Pastor Barry Kerner

Hollywood loves sequels. That’s why there are 14 Batman films, 26 James Bond movies, and 21 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sometimes those sequels are really good, like Toy Story 2, 3 and 4. Other times, those sequels are really lousy, like “Jaws: The Revenge”.

            But there’s something satisfying about sequels, because whenever a movie ends, we wonder where the story will go next. Maybe you watch a romantic-comedy where the couple falls in love at the end, but as the credits roll, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. Will they get married and eventually celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary together, or do they spend the rest of their lives fussing and fighting with either other, eventually getting a divorce? The only way to know is to watch a sequel.

            Well, if you like sequels, you may like my lesson this morning because it’s a sequel to the book of Jonah. If you look at the name of this book in your Bible, you will see the word “Nahum”. But this morning, we’re not going to call it Nahum.  Instead, we’re going to call it “Jonah: The Sequel, the Wrath of God”.

            You remember the story of Jonah, how God called Jonah to go preach to the wicked city of Nineveh. He told them they were going to be destroyed in 40 days, but they repented, everyone from the king all the way down to the lowliest people in the city. And because they repented, God did not destroy Nineveh, which made Jonah extremely angry. So, when the book of Jonah ends, Nineveh appeared to be a righteous city that had God’s blessing.

            But that wasn’t the end of the story. Fast forward about 100 years and we learn that Nineveh and the Assyrians turned back to the wicked, violent lifestyle that they were living before the days of Jonah. And so, 100 years later, God says, “I’ve had enough. I’m going to destroy the Assyrians.” And after this point, there’s not going to be another sequel because there won’t be a nation left to have a sequel with.

            The theme of Nahum is God’s wrath against Assyria.  After allowing approximately two hundred years of powerful Assyrian kings and rulers, God announced through Nahum his plans to judge the city of Nineveh. This book shows God’s concern about sin, his intention to punish those who are guilty of wickedness, and his power to carry out his desire for judgment.

            In chapter 1, verse 2, we read:

“The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.”

            And in verse 6:

“Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.”

            As I was preparing this lesson, the first thing that struck me is that the word “Nahum” is a Hebrew word that means “comfort” or “consolation”. And I thought about how ironic it is that this book that describes in great detail the destruction of Assyria is written by a guy named “comfort”.

            But that’s not really as strange as it may seem, when you realize that Nahum did not deliver this message to the Assyrians. He delivered this message to the Jews.  Those Jews who had been conquered by the Assyrians. Those Jews who had been mistreated and abused by the Assyrians. Those Jews who had been killed by Assyria and carried away into captivity.

            God says to those Jews, “I know what your enemies have done, and I will make sure that they are punished for the sins they have committed against you. In the end, I will make everything right. The righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished.” And I’m here to tell you this morning that there is great comfort in that message.

            In that regard, I think the message of Nahum is very similar to the message of the book of Revelation, where God says to the Christians who are being persecuted by the Roman Empire, “I want you to know how things are going to turn out in the end.  I know that things don’t look so good right now.  But I want you to know that the Roman Empire will be destroyed. I want you to see that in the end, I will make everything right.  The righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished.” And there is great comfort in that message.

            Now, it’s important for us to see that God didn’t say to the Jews of Nahum’s day, or to the persecuted Christians in the first century, “I will take away all of your suffering.  I will make life easy for you.” God never promised that.  But he did say, “I will be with you. I will be your comfort. I will be your strength. And I will make everything right in the end.”

            With that in mind, I want us to focus our thoughts this morning on Nahum 1:7,

“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.”

            It is important for us to see that as God’s people we are not promised immunity from trouble. In fact, in John 16;33, Jesus told his disciples, “In the world, you will have tribulation.”  Or, as the New Living Translation translates it, “you will have many trials and sorrows.”

            God never promised us that life would always be easy. He never said that if we love people, they will always love us back. He never promised that we would never experience loss, or failure, or death, or pain. He never said that things will always go our way and that our path will be smooth.

            But what God did promise is that he will never leave us, that he will forever be standing by our side, strengthening us, comforting us, carrying us through the tough patches. God has promised to be our stronghold, a place of refuge. Someone to whom we can go, and someone in whom we can hide. And once we realize that, it gives us great comfort and peace when things get tough.

            But it so often happens in the church that we sing these great hymns about God’s wonderful providence – “God will take care of me, through every day, o’er all the way” — but then our lives are often characterized by nervousness, worry, and fear.

            The problem comes when we put our faith in the things we can see. If I put my faith in the money I’ve got in the bank, then I begin to worry when that money gets a bit low. If I put my faith in people, then I begin to worry when people let me down. If I put my faith in all the things that I can do on my own, then I begin to worry when I fail or when I come to a situation that I have no control over.

            This world was never meant to be our spiritual refuge. So, when we run to the things of this world for comfort, we only end up with more concern. Because we’re asking creation to do for us what only the Creator can do.

            You may have sung the hymn, “A Shelter in the Time of Storm”.

Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a weary land, a weary land.

Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, a shelter in the time of storm.

            There are many scriptures, especially in the psalms, that point to the fact that God is indeed our shelter, our refuge in the time of storm.

            Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

            Jeremiah 16:19, “Lord, you are my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble.”

            Psalm 18:2, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

            Psalm 61:1-3, “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.  Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.”

            As I said, many of these references to God being our refuge appear in the psalms.  And most of them were written by David. A man who lived his life with trouble for many years. He was physically worn out from what he went through. As he was running from King Saul, David needed a shelter in the mountains where he could hide.  But, more than that, David needed the shelter that only God could provide.  He was going through dark times. He was in distress, and he needed God.

            David needed a shelter in the time of storm when he was surrounded by his enemies, when his neighbors wanted nothing to do with him, and when his former friends all turned their backs on him.

            And, as you read these psalms of David, maybe you can relate to David.  Because you know what it’s like to struggle with the pain and the sorrows of life. You know what it’s like to be rejected by the people around you. Criticized, gossiped about, and maybe even people against you to the point of threatening to do you harm.

            This morning, I want you to see that God is our shelter in the time of storm. He is the one we can turn to. He is the one who will never let us down.  He is the one who will be our comfort and our strength.

            There are many mysteries in life that we will never be able to solve. One of the questions we ask more than any other is, “Why?” Why, Lord, did my mother have to suffer with that disease? Why did that person have to die so young? Why did I lose my job? Why is my relationship falling apart?

            There are many mysteries in life that we will never be able to solve. But there are a few things that we know for sure. We know that we live in a broken world. And we haven’t been given a ticket out of the brokenness of this world simply because we are the children of God. What happens to us and to those we love sometimes involves pain and hurt and shock and despair. The world we live in simply is not operating the way God intended.

            But there’s a second thing that we know for sure. That there is a God of grace who meets his children in those moments of darkness and difficulty. He is worth running to. He is worth waiting for.  He brings rest when it seems like there is no rest to be found. God has always cared about those who need a refuge, those who need a shelter in the time of storm in their lives. And he is a God of great comfort.

            But I want to build on that thought to make a third point – God gives us comfort not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of those around us.  Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

            Our God is the God of all comfort. Our God is the father of mercies and he comforts us in our times of trouble. When we walk through the trials of life, God is not far from us. God is with us. And he comforts us in all our troubles.

            But God’s comfort is not an end in and of itself.  It’s a means to an end.  Paul says that any comfort that you have received from God isn’t just for you – it’s also for you to share with others.

            The beauty here is that as we are comforted by God, then we can be a reflection of his comfort to others. So that we may be able to comfort those who are going through any time of trouble with the comfort which we ourselves have received from God. I think about how gracious God has been in the tough moments of my life. When I see someone else going through a similar difficult time, I want to be a reflection of that comfort from God to them. And that’s the way the body of Christ works. God intends that we care for one another with the same comfort that we have received from God.

            To illustrate this, I want to go back for a few minutes to the Law of Moses where God instructed the Jewish leaders to set apart six cities to be a place of refuge for a person who had accidentally killed someone. This was necessary because relatives of a murdered person often took justice into their own hands. The city of refuge made it possible for a person to be safe from losing their own life if they had accidentally taken the life of someone else.

            I have heard that, in order to assist the fugitive, it was the responsibility of the Sanhedrin to keep the roads leading up to those cities in good repair.  Hills were made smooth, rivers were bridged, and low spots were filled in. And, at every turn, there were guide posts which directed the fugitive bearing the word “Refuge.” 

            In Joshua 20:4 God directed, “He shall flee to one of these cities and shall stand at the entrance of the gate of the city and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they shall take him into the city and give him a place, and he shall remain with them.”

            Those cities of refuge were places where people could run to when they had made a tragic mistake, or some unforeseen event caused them to be guilty of the taking of human life. Axe heads have been known to come off of their handles at a bad time.  Walls have been known to collapse as they were being built. Objects have been dropped from heights. Sometimes fatal accidents simply happen.

            And when they do, those who were responsible were often emotionally distraught. They would have liked to have erased the memories.  They were frightened as they faced the possibility of harsh consequences over what happened. And so, they need a place of refuge, a place where someone would welcome them in and make them feel safe.

            So, I wonder.  Who is willing to provide that place of refuge to others today?  Who will be there for the person who has had the bottom drop out of their life?  Who will care enough to listen while someone cries?  Who will be there when someone is feeling awful about life? Who will care when someone is hurting?  Who will try to understand?  A place of refuge is needed. A shelter in the time of their storm.

            As Christians who have been the recipient of God’s comfort so many times in our own lives, we need to stand ready to be that place of refuge. What if it was your wife who was an alcoholic? What if it was your husband who just walked out?  What if you were the one who just lost their job? What if it was your unmarried daughter who just announced she was pregnant? What if it was your house that was being foreclosed?  What if it was you who just had an autistic child?  What if it was you who just buried a spouse or child?  What if it was you who was fighting identity theft? What if you were the one who was being abused physically, sexually, or emotionally? What if it was your car that got stolen?  What if it was your child who was placed in prison?

            Every church and every Christian ought to be a storm shelter. We ought to all be willing to help that person who is hurting and in trouble. We should all have loving compassion for the needy, and be available to help in a practical way.

            Those cities of refuge have much to teach us about what is needed when the storms of life come. The cities of refuge were located close to everyone.  Those cities were arranged so that no matter where you were in the land, a city of refuge could be reached by traveling half of a day. We need to be easily accessible to those who are in need.

            The cities of refuge were all cities where Levites lived.  That means the community was made up of those who served God. That community was able to teach the things of God to those who joined up with them. We are all priests according to the Bible, and we should all be able to share God’s Word when people come to us with different needs.

            Keep in mind that the cities of refuge weren’t man’s idea. That was God’s idea.  God said to the Jews, “When somebody has had something terrible happen in their life and there is nowhere else they can go and be safe, I want you to provide them a safe place.

            Why?  Because, as Nahum 1:7 says,“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.”

            And as 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 reminds us, because he is “the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

            This morning, even as I speak, there are some of you listening who are walking through affliction, of all kinds. I wouldn’t begin to presume to know all the ways that people are experiencing troubles right now.  But we serve a God who knows all those ways. He knows every one of them. And not only does he know the affliction you’re walking through, but he is the God of all comfort.  He is the Father of mercy. So, I pray that God would shower his mercy down, that he would bring comfort to you in the time of your affliction.

            But it is also my desire that God would help those of us who have been comforted by him to show his comfort to others, to be there for others in their time of affliction, to care for others, to uphold one another, to pray for one another, to be with one another, to provide for one another in ways that would show the comfort of God.

            And we are so very thankful that God sent Jesus into a world of suffering and sin, to pay the price for our sin that we might have eternal life. That we might have the hope that one day there will be no more affliction. Because that is our greatest comfort. We know that suffering will not have the last word.  As Nahum made clear, the day is coming when God will make all things right. The righteous will be rewarded and the wicked will be punished.  And there is great comfort in knowing that.

            We are so very thankful for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Because of that resurrection, we have hope.  We may live in a world where we have tribulation and affliction. But there is coming a day when it will be over, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. This is our greatest comfort and we praise him for it.  We praise God for the hope we have in Jesus Christ, not just in the future, for the comfort we have from him even today.

Put First Things First

Haggai 1:1-12

Pastor Barry Kerner

E.M. Gray spent his life searching for the one trait all successful people share. His essay entitled “The Common Denominator of Success” revealed successful people’s common characteristic was not simply hard work, good luck, or astute human relations. Although those traits were important, the one factor that seemed to transcend all the rest was the habit of putting first things first. Gray wrote, “The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do. They don’t necessarily like doing them either, but their dislike is overcome by their purpose to succeed.”

The Book of Haggai, the second shortest in the Old Testament, communicates this same message: Put first things first. It was written to people like us, who would say that God must be first. But they had drifted away from this truth. They lived with misplaced priorities. Haggai was sent to help God’s people get their priorities in line with what they knew they should be. My question for you today is, “In your life and in your relationship with God,  are you putting the first things first?”

Haggai’s prophetic message was to the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem after living in captivity in Babylon. If you recall, Babylon had destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple some 70 years earlier. When the Jews returned from exile they faced the daunting task of rebuilding. The ones who had first returned made preliminary attempts to clear the debris and lay the foundation for a second temple. Their Samaritan neighbors offered to join in the work, but the Jews refused them. The Samaritans, in turn, threatened and harassed the workers and sent men to Persia to lobby against the Jews, bringing the work to a halt.

As years passed, slowly but surely, Jerusalem came to life again. Homes were built, stores opened, and commerce was reestablished. Fields were planted, crops were harvested, and life began to resemble normalcy. Israel, however, had gotten used to life without the Temple. The foundations were overgrown with weeds. The remnants of the walls and foundation lay in jumbled piles. They stood as a silent reminder of the Jews’ failure to take care of God’s house. Fourteen to 16 years had passed, and then Haggai appeared on the scene with one prevailing message: It’s time to finish rebuilding the Temple.

It was a message of priority: Put first things first. The Temple was the center for worshiping God. It represented the heart and soul of the Old Testament religion. Although God is everywhere, the Temple was the place on earth where God dwelled in a special sense. For the Temple to lie in ruins was to neglect the worship of God. It was a testimony of misplaced priorities. It was an embarrassment to God and a blemish on his reputation.

Haggai’s message was blunt. He pulled no punches and wasted no words. Haggai spoke like a foreman on a construction project. With a hardhat and tool belt, walking around the construction site, he bellowed out orders. From the Book of Haggai we can gleam a few practical steps about putting first things first.

First, we need to stop making excuses. The first thing Haggai did was to confront the excuses the Jews had for the Temple to remain lying in ruins. Haggai prophesied, “The LORD of Hosts says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt” (Haggai 1:2). The Jews who had returned intended to rebuild God’s house, but just hadn’t got around to it yet. If you were to ask them about it, they would probably say, “I’m all for building the Temple. It is a great cause. But God wants us to take care of our own families first. Times are hard. Jobs are scarce. We need to pray about it some more. We will eventually build it, but not now.” They made a myriad of excuses.

Billy Sunday defined an excuse as “the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.” Benjamin Franklin wrote, “I never knew a man who was good at making excuses who was good at anything else.”

It is always easy to make excuses when you don’t want to obey God. We can always find rational justification for not doing what God wants us to do. We say, “The time is not right. I’ve got family responsibilities. My kids need me now. When things settle down at work, then I can do something.” The first step to putting first things first is to admit our responsibility.

Second, we need to cease being selfish. Closely aligned with excuse making is a selfish mindset that permeates everything. Haggai challenged the people’s selfish behavior. He told them, “The word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet: Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” (Haggai 1:34). Paneled houses can mean “covered” or “roofed,” but the point was that it represented the finishing touches. Their homes were not “in process.” No weeds were growing around their unfinished foundations. Their homes were complete while the Temple remained nonexistent.

I have to say here that nothing is wrong with having a nice home. This statement is not an attack on riches or big houses. What’s wrong is to own a nice home while God’s house lies in ruins. What’s wrong is spend all your money on selfish needs while ignoring the things of God. What’s wrong is to spend one’s time, one’s best hours, and one’s talents on selfish pursuits while the things of God are left undone. That selfishness is an indictment of misplaced priorities.

It is easy to drift away from God’s agenda to our own. It is easy to pursue selfish desires while ignoring God’s. In fact, it is the default mode of our lives. If we give no thought to how we are living, we will naturally live for ourselves. When a heart isn’t fully for God it always tends toward selfishness. This is what happened to the Jews Haggai addressed.

William Cowper, the hymn writer and pastor, penned these words: “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” That is what happens when we don’t persistently and consistently seek God first, we turn from the God we love and tend to ourselves.

Third, we need to make sure that we don’t miss God’s blessings. As a consequence of their excuse-making and selfish living, the people in Haggai’s day experienced hardship. Haggai continues in his message: “Now, the LORD of Hosts says this: Think carefully about your ways: You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to become drunk. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner puts his wages into a bag with a hole in it” (Haggai 1:5-6). They sowed plenty of seed, but there was a drought and the crops didn’t yield as much as they had hoped. They had active lifestyles but were not experiencing fulfillment or satisfaction. They were laboring but showing no profit. No matter how hard they tried, they seemed to be spinning their wheels. No matter how much money they made, they could not keep it. They couldn’t get ahead. Does anyone here know how that feels?

Because of their selfishness the people missed God’s blessings. Haggai points out a sobering reminder: What happens in your heart affects every other part of your life. Because the people had pushed God out of the center, they suffered in every area.

What they did not see was that God caused their predicament. They hadn’t stopped to consider that God was trying to tell them something. Haggai screamed: “Hey! It’s God who controls the rain and the harvest. He is withholding his blessing because your priorities are not right. Put his house first and he will bless you.” Jesus said the same thing when He told His followers, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you” (Matthew 6:33).

Blessings come through obedience. If we want to experience God’s blessings we will put him first in our lives.

Fourth, we need to take time to perform an evaluation. With Haggai’s strong indictment and devastating predicament, the people realized that they had caused their own calamities. The people were ready to evaluate their situation. Twice Haggai instructed the people, “Consider your ways” (1:5, 7.). The word consider means to give careful thought to. It was time for the people to do some serious self-examination before the Lord. Haggai wanted the people to stop long enough in their busy schedules to evaluate their life in light of God’s Word. He wanted them to measure the consequences of their actions.

Evaluation is a good thing. That is why teachers give tests and employers hold job reviews. In 2 Corinthians 13:5 the Apostle John warns us, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” Socrates wrote: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Each day we need to evaluate how we spend our time and our money, and how we use our talents. We should examine who we choose as friends, what we set as goals, and where we are going. If God is not first, guess who removed him from his rightful place?

The failure to make constant corrections each day is like a pilot who does not make slight course adjustments in flight. The plane will eventually end up hundreds of miles off course. The failure to take the proper precautions today will result in severe consequences tomorrow.

When we stop making excuses, cease being selfish, seek God’s blessings, and take time to evaluate, we can see God work in powerful ways. This is what happens when first things are first, when God is first in our hearts. How will we know that we have put first things first? How will we know that God is first place? Here are three indications.

First, we find ourselves active in the right things. Haggai told the people, “Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it and be glorified, says the LORD” (Haggai 1:8). In all of life there is a time to talk and a time to act, a time to consider and a time to do. Those who put first things first are up and doing the right things: spending time with God daily, serving people, honoring him with their time, talents, and financial resources. For the Jews living in Jerusalem, it meant cutting down trees to build God’s house.

Second, our lives strive to see that God is glorified. Some of the people may have asked, “Why should the Temple be built?” The answer: that God may be glorified. When God is not first we are indifferent to his glory. We care little that his fame and his reputation are being spread. But when God is first revealing his glory is first on our minds. In fact, everything we think, say, and do should be to honor God and bring credit to him. Whatever your pastime or occupation, the chief business of every Christian is to bring glory to God.

Third, we find that God blesses us. When the people obeyed, God sent word: “I am with you” (1:13). When God is first, he blesses us. And the sure sign of his blessing was and is his manifested presence in our lives. If God seems distant in your life, perhaps your priorities have gotten mixed up. When you put God first, you experience a new awareness of his presence. That is true blessing.

I’ll close with this short story: An instructor at a time-management seminar told the participants to prepare for a quiz. He reached under the table and took out a wide-mouthed gallon jar and set it on the table. Next to the jar were a number of fist-sized rocks. He asked the group, “How many of these rocks do you think we can get inside this jar?” The participants made their guesses. The instructor said, “Let’s find out.” One by one he began to put as many fist-sized rocks as he could into the jar until the rocks inside were level with the top of the jar.

The instructor then asked, “Is the jar full?” All the participants looked at the jar filled with rocks and said it was. But then he reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar. The gravel filled the spaces between the big rocks. He grinned and asked again, “Is the jar full?”

The participants were not about to be fooled a second time. They said that the jar was probably not full. The instructor nodded and said, “Good. You are catching on.” He next took out a bucket of sand and poured it into the jar. Slowly the sand filled the gaps between the rocks and gravel. After the sand settled, the instructor once again asked, “Now, is the jar full?” The audience responded, “No!”

He said, “Good.” He was pleased that they understood an important principle. The instructor poured a pitcher of water into the jar until it was full to the brim. At this point he stopped and asked the group, “What’s the point of this?”

Somebody said, “Well, there are always gaps, and if you work at it, you can always fit more into your life.” But the instructor said, “No, the point is this: If I hadn’t put in those big rocks first, I would never have gotten them in at all.”

What should be your big rocks? God and his house. Put them into your life first.

Faith In Every Season Of Life

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Habakkuk

Pastor Barry Kerner

This morning we are going to consider what it means to have faith in every season of life. The natural seasons are winter, spring, summer and autumn; there are also spiritual seasons in our lives.

The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that every season of life has a purpose. Ecclesiastes 3:8 reads, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.”

We will face times of great difficulty and times of great joy. We will experience seasons of hard work and seasons of plenty. God can use each of these seasons of life to teach us something about who He is and how much He loves us. We may never fully understand what God has planned for us, but our attitude toward life changes when we learn to see good times and bad times as opportunities to grow closer to our Heavenly Father.

As we journey through the seasons of life, we will experience many ups and downs. Perhaps in your own life you have experienced the highs and the lows, maybe right now you are going through something that feels like a ride on a roller coaster.

Have you ever gone for a ride on a real roller coaster? Did you enjoy it? Roller coasters go up, down, twist, turn, loop and plummet. A ride on a roller coaster is probably over in a couple of minutes; and maybe, for those two minutes, you hold on so tight your knuckles turn white. You laugh, you scream, you cry, maybe you struggle to get your breath. Then it’s over. You are safe. You disembark from the roller coaster and stand on solid ground again. Then one of two things usually happen, either you head back to the end of the queue so that you can do it again. Or you retch, vow never to be so stupid again and move on.

We all experience ups and downs in our lives. But, as Christians, as disciples of Jesus we do not face them on our own – God is with us. His promise to us is that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

What spiritual season are you experiencing now? Do you feel like you are on roller coaster right now? Are you trusting God to help you in the season you are in? If we put our trust in God, then whatever we are going through, whatever circumstance or situation we are in, whether we feel like we are deep in a valley of despair or on top of a mountain, in good times or bad times, we know that God is with us.

This morning I want us to consider two passages from the book of Habakkuk. Let me give you a little background to put what we are about to read in context. Habakkuk was the last of the minor prophets to preach in the land of Judah. He prophesied during the fall of the Assyrian Empire in 610 BC and the final Babylonian invasion of Judah in 588 BC.

Judah was the southern kingdom of Israel, during the reign of king Josiah it had experienced a time of peace, prosperity, reform and restoration. During the 31 years that Josiah was King, there was prosperity, stability and spiritual revival. Then Josiah died and his sons took over the throne, and everything changed in Judah. Judah was a nation in chaos, instead of peace there was violence, people turned against each other and perversion and wickedness spread throughout Judah.

Listen to the words of Habakkuk chapter 1:1-4, “This is the message that the prophet Habakkuk received in a vision. How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed, and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, so that justice has become perverted.”

These words were written over 2,500 years but they sound like they could have been written today. Remember the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter 1, “Generations come and generations go, but the earth never changes. The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again. History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.”

Since Habakkuk wrote these words, days, weeks, months, years, centuries and millennia have gone by. Seasons have come and gone and come again, yet his words seem to accurately describe our world as it is today. The book of Habakkuk is a record of a one to one conversation between the prophet and God. How often do you take the time for a real conversation with God? Not just a quick prayer asking God to do something for you, or praying for someone else, a real conversation between you and your Heavenly Father.

1 Peter 5:7 tells us “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” It reminds us that we can bring all of our cares, all of our worries, all of our hopes and fears and dreams to God because He cares about us. Each and every one of us. Whatever season it feels like you are in, whatever circumstance or situation you are in right now, have you made the time to really pray about it? And, if you have prayed about it, were you just on transmit, or did you take the time to pause, to listen to God, to receive His guidance.

That is the type of conversation that Habakkuk is having here, he prays, then he waits and listens for God’s answer to his prayer. In this conversation, in this prayer, Habakkuk is questioning God. The words he uses here seem a little angry, maybe a little frustrated. Habakkuk is, in effect, complaining to God, because of all the violence and wickedness he sees in the land.

Maybe at some time or another we have all asked God a similar question in our prayers.

Lord, why do is there so much injustice in this world? Why is there so much pain? Why do the evil and the wicked seem to prosper so much? Why are victims often treated worse than the criminals? Why do the innocent suffer?

Have you ever asked a question like that? Maybe you read a newspaper or watch the news and questions like those run through your mind. Habakkuk is in a season where everything seemed to be going wrong and nothing was going right. Habakkuk looked at the situation around him and it upset him, it frustrated him and he questions God.

Then God answers Habakkuk. God tells Habakkuk what He is going to do. In Habakkuk 1:5, The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.

Now, that sounds like a great answer to Habakkuk’s question. God says He is going to do something so amazing that it would be beyond belief. Can you imagine the smile on Habakkuk’s face as those words sink in? But, God has not finished His response to Habakkuk, God continues in verses 6 and 7, The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it. I am raising up the Babylonians, a cruel and violent people. They will march across the world and conquer other lands. They are notorious for their cruelty and do whatever they like.”

Habakkuk asked for help and God says He is going to solve the problem in Judah by sending the Babylonians to wipe out everyone and everything. That is not the answer Habakkuk was expecting, Habakkuk does not understand God’s answer and he questions God again: Why are you going send a group of people who are more wicked, more violent, more perverted than we are to destroy us? Why are you sending the wicked to destroy the righteous?

Habakkuk does not understand God’s answer. Maybe there have been times in your own life when you have prayed and you have found it difficult to understand God’s answer to your own prayer. There are times when we pray, when we have an idea fixed in our mind about how God will answer our prayer. We think it through, we reason it out, we convince ourselves of the answer we think God will give us. We expect a specific answer, we expect a specific outcome, yet God’s answer is far from what we expected to happen.

Have you been where Habakkuk has been? I know I have! There were many times when I prayed to God and expected the answer that I wanted and I expected the answer to come quickly. Often God had other plans. He made me wait or gave me an answer that was completely opposite to what I wanted

Back to Habakkuk… He prays the second time and again waits for the Lord to answer. In Habakkuk 2:2-4, Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.

Listen to verse 4 again. “But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.” Three times in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul quotes Habakkuk 2 verse 4, in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38.

Romans 1:17, This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Galatians 3:11, So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Hebrews 10:38, “And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.”

Faithfulness to God, what does that mean, it means trusting God in whatever season we are in. Trusting who God is, trusting in His perfect plan, trusting in His provision, trusting in His presence, trusting in His pre-eminence, and trusting in His power.

In the springtime of life, trust God.

In the summer of life, trust God.

In the autumn of life, trust God.

In the winter of life, trust God.

In the good times, trust God.

In the bad times, trust God.

In the calm before the storm, trust God.

When the storm comes, trust God.

In the midst of the storm, trust God.

After the storm, trust God.

Be faithful to God.

Be steadfast in your faith.

What ever season you are in have faith.

Time does not allow us to read further in chapter 2, but, God continues His second response to Habakkuk by admonishing the people of Judah for their pride, greed, dishonesty, violence, sexual immorality and idolatry. God speaks and Habakkuk begins to understand. Habakkuk realizes He can not argue with God’s plan and purpose.

The questions stop as Habakkuk realizes he can not control God’s plan, or change God’s purpose. Habakkuk is still perplexed, he still does not fully understand, he is still a little frustrated but in faith he chooses to trust God.

There are seasons when we will question what God is doing. There are seasons when we will not understand what God is doing. But in every season, we must have faith in God, we must trust Him, in every circumstance, in every situation, in every difficulty and in every blessing – trust God.

Faith, such a small word for something so important, so essential. My faith in God is not dependent on your faith in God. Your faith in God is not dependent on my faith in God. Each of us needs to have our own personal faith in God for every season of life. A living active faith, a strong faith in God despite the circumstances, despite what the world is experiencing, despite what our country is experiencing, despite what you and I are experiencing right now, we choose to trust and believe in God. Romans 8:28 says, “we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.”

The book of Habakkuk is only three chapters long, and in the final chapter Habakkuk concludes his conversation with God with another prayer. Listen to  Habakkuk 3:1,2 & 17-19, This prayer was sung by the prophet Habakkuk: “I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy… Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as sure footed as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.”

In this final chapter there is a shift of emotion in Habakkuk. The questions are gone, Habakkuk rejoices in God’s goodness. He has moved from a place of anger and confusion to a place of faith and trust. Perplexity has been replaced with praise. Confusion has been replaced with confidence in God. Worry has been replaced with worship. Fear has been replaced with faith. Habakkuk’s strength is renewed, there is a joy in his heart and his faith is increased.

I’ll close with this final thought. In Habakkuk we have a great example of how we can trust God in every season of life. Despite how you feel, despite your circumstances, your faith in God will sustain you. God is sovereign, God is in control and He is a God who listens and responds to His people.

May God help us to have faith in every season of life.

You Can’t Walk On Water! You’ve Got To Stay In The Boat!

Matthew 14:22-33

Pastor Barry Kerner

If you have your Bibles open we’ll be looking at Matthew 14:22-33 this morning.

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

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

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

We live in a world where so much of American Christianity is screaming at us weekly to step out in faith. “You’ve got to get out of the boat like Peter did!!!” they say, If we’re not doing that, then we’re “failing” at being a “true believer” in this life. They say, “If you don’t get out of the boat then you don’t trust Jesus, you don’t have faith.” But I will come right out and tell you point blank, “You can’t walk on water! You’ve got to stay in the boat!”

Our story starts out with Jesus sending his disciples on ahead of him. It is the kind of comment you hear in any shopping mall: ‘You go on ahead: I’ll catch up with you later.’ But in this case it was different. These were the words of Jesus and he was sending his disciples off across the Sea of Galilee in a boat. ‘You go on ahead: I’ll catch up with you later.’ They did what he said, but there must have been questions running through their minds: Exactly how and when was Jesus going to catch up with them later? After all it was getting late, and a storm seemed to be brewing over the horizon. It was a strange experience for those disciples that night: crowded together in a flimsy boat, in the dark with an adverse wind that defied all their straining efforts. It was a kind of time of pointless human effort, of chaos, when that combination of water and wind was raging at its most.

In contrast to their exertions, Jesus, like Moses on Mount Sinai, had gone up the mountain by himself to pray. He was on his own, praying to God, his Heavenly Father, all through the night into the early hours of the morning. The evangelist Matthew only mentions Jesus praying at really critical moments: here on this stormy night and in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his death. It is at moments such as these that Jesus draws strength from God, sheltering in the divine intimacy of the Father’s love.

With the storm raging the disciples were afraid. Fear is an unpleasant emotion.  It is caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous.  Fear is caused from the anticipation that something will cause pain to an individual and potentially put an end to the individual resulting in death. 

More specifically, there are indeed a lot of things that can cause fear to you and me.  Terrorist attacks, spiders, death, being a failure, or being alone, Fear of the future, of flying, of heights, of clowns, snakes, public speaking, hospitals, and funerals are several examples that most certainly create fear in some lives. 

When fear happens though, we may get an Adrenaline rush. Our breathing rate accelerates, our heart rate increases, our muscles constrict, goose bumps may form; there is also an increase in our alertness and our tolerance to pain is increased.  And don’t forget that fear can bring about screaming, that is, loud shrieking cries. 

This fear may then visibly manifest itself by you and me adapting to fearful things or running away from fearful things.  We may also have anxiety attacks or we can pretend that the danger does not exist.  Some use drug treatments to eliminate fear or go to psychologists for cognitive behavioral therapy in order to process their fears. 

Regardless of the tactics one uses to respond to fearful things and the emotion of fear itself, the fact remains that there are things in life that are dangerous and bring about calamity in our lives.  No matter how much therapy, no matter how much avoidance, and no matter how much adaptation we implement, there are things in our lives that indeed threaten us and will most certainly destroy us and may even kill us. It frightens us because last time I checked, no one had found a medical cure for death; death that is a result of this world tainted and perverted by sin; death that is birthed from your sin and my sin.  Yes, when it all comes down to it, beneath the fear of terrorist attacks, spiders, flying, snakes, and possibly clowns is the sting of death and the finality of life as we know it.  Yes, death, which is birthed from sin, drives us to fear because it is a grave threat that is out of our control. 

But back to that stormy night on the Sea of Galilee. The disciples in our narrative were in a boat while a storm raged on in the Sea of Galilee. There is no doubt that they were battling the wind, the waves, and the rain; however, it was not primarily these things that incited the greatest fear among the disciples. 

Exactly what happens next is lost in the mists of time, but we know that something remarkable happened. As the disciples’ boat is buffeted by the wind, in the early hours of the morning, that is between 3am and 6am, the disciples see Jesus walking on the water towards them. ‘He came towards them walking on the sea.’ Human beings can perform many extraordinary feats in, on, and under water. You may be an excellent swimmer; in these summer months you may revel in the pleasures of water-skiing; you might even find yourself on a beach and have the nerve and skill to catch a huge wave and surf it. You may dive from a great height and plunge into the water far below; you can snorkel or go scuba-diving under water. But you can’t walk on water. Your body weight and the law of gravity make walking on water a physical impossibility. Human beings know this.

We talk about ‘walking on air’ as a metaphor of triumph and success; and when we see a ballerina like the Russian Natalia Osipova, move through the air with such graceful, extraordinary beauty, we glimpse possibilities of human movement that we never thought possible. But as for walking on water, we know that that is beyond us–beyond our human capabilities. The disciples, most of whom were experienced fishermen, knew this too.  Little wonder that they were terrified at what they saw and cried out in fear. The sea, after all, in their culture could be a place of demons and diabolical monsters–like a screaming nightmare that wakes you up, trembling and fearful.

As Jesus came closer to them though, the disciples were deeply troubled.  As scripture tells us, they spoke a weird mystical response. “It is a ghost!”  they whispered. They also cried out in fear.  They assumed that whatever being was hovering over the water and coming closer to them could not be bringing good news for them.  They realized that they were in the presence of something beyond their understanding, and they were afraid of such power and mystery.  They did not know who or what it was.

Although today’s Gospel reading is certainly not a parable, but a real historical event, we can still identify with the disciple’s fear.  In other words, it is worth noting in today’s Gospel reading that it was Jesus walking on water who was responsible for inciting fear in the disciples.  Sure they were battling the wind, waves, and rain, but it was Jesus that drove them to utter fear as He walked towards them on the water.  Therefore, what do we do when it is the Lord that brings about fear in us?  Sure death, the devil, the world, and sin all have a way of inciting fear in us, but what happens when the Lord himself insights fear in us? 

Because we are simultaneously sinners and saints, our sinful nature is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; truly, it cannot.  In fact, when we encounter God’s perfect Holiness, we confess like Isaiah, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Because we are sinners, the presence of God is a terrifying thing. In other words, according to our sinful nature, when we encounter the Lord in His Word, we come to realize that we are not the Lord who walks on the water, we come to realize that we are not the Lord who is in control, and we come to realize that we are not the Lord who is authoritative.  We operate in a completely different paradigm than the Lord?  Surely, as we encounter the Lord of the Holy Scriptures we quickly come to learn that He does not operate according to our rules of nature and according to the way we believe things need to be.  Yes, when things do not happen according to our strategies and when things happen out of our control, it can most certainly incite fear in us, especially when we have set certain expectations on the Lord.  In a word, when our expectations of the Lord are not met and when it appears that the Lord does not function according to our agendas, according to our rules, and according to our ideas, it can actually inflame terror in us. 

Christ Jesus in our Gospel reading certainly shatters the expectations and worldview of the disciples by walking on water. But, He quickly grants them comfort.  Jesus Christ is indeed ‘Lord’ and not some sissy savior.  He does bring about a Holy awe, as He should.  Yet, in our Gospel reading, He didn’t leave the disciples in their fear, but immediately spoke to them the sure and comforting words, “It is I; do not be afraid.”  Because they were troubled, Jesus calmed them with the words, “Take heart.”  Because they did not know who He was, Jesus responded with the words, “It is I.”  Because they were fearful, Jesus responded with the words, “Do not be afraid.”  In these reassuring words, He reveals Himself to them giving them all that they need for blessed assurance. 

Is it any different for you and me today?  In the midst of our fears of: terrorist attacks, spiders, death, being a failure, the future, the devil, or whatever it may be including the Holy-Righteous Lord Himself—the words of Christ are spoken into our ears, “Take heart; it is I.  Do not be afraid.”  Yes, these words are true and should bring us comfort, for Jesus Christ certainly came to mankind by being born into the crashing waves of this world.  He walked through the midst of the blowing winds of sin, temptation, and the devil towards the cross where all the calamity of life was conquered. The Christ conquered death, sin, the devil and satisfied the wrath of God—for you.  Through His death on a wooden cross you were saved. 

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit called you by the Gospel, sanctified you, and has placed you in a holy boat, the ark of the church.  You have been baptized into the name of Jesus and placed in the church where you are daily and richly forgiven of all your sins and kept in the true faith.  The church, Christ’s church, is a safe haven and a place of salvation and certainty in the midst of a world of chaos and uncertainty.  Here in the Lord’s holy church you are in the living presence of Christ where you are clothed, fed, sustained, and given peace with the words, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

It is not helpful at this point to try to figure out how Jesus walked on water. Nor is it useful to dismiss this incident as a fabrication or illusion on the part of the disciples. What the evangelist Matthew is inviting us to do is to ask the question: Who is it that can walk on water particularly during a raging storm? This invites us to turn to scripture and there some answers begin to emerge. In scripture, it is God who commands the sea and stills the storm. It is God alone who can walk on water. Psalm 77 is a psalm pleading for help from God which calls to mind the awesome power of God in the crossing of the Israelites through the Sea of Reeds.

‘When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled…Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.’

So on this storm tossed night on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus reveals himself uniquely as the one endowed with the power of the creator God, the one to whom he has prayed all night, and in whose strength he now walks on water. This is none other than the divine power of God who overcomes the chaos of the deep, turbulent waters and is totally unafraid of the raging of the sea. The disciples find themselves in the divine presence, encountering the divine power in all its strength and protection.

On one level, the words of Jesus, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid’ are the words of a leader taking command. But on another level, the words invoke the divine name of God, the great ‘I am’ creator of the heavens and earth. It is little wonder that the disciples, like the wise men at his birth, respond to Jesus, the one who walks on water, by worshiping him. Exhausted by the storm and overwhelmed by what they have witnessed, they make the first profession of faith in Matthew’s gospel: ‘You are the Son of God.’

These powerful words of Jesus were enough for most of the disciples; however, as is typical, they were not enough for the Apostle Peter.  The Apostle Peter, not being sure that it was Jesus walking on water said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  Yes, Peter doubted if it really was Jesus on the water and then he made this silly request of wanting to walk on the water towards Jesus.  It was not enough for Peter to stay in the boat and worship Jesus with the other disciples. Peter required additional proof beyond Jesus’ comforting words. 

This is where we see Jesus do something that is quite consistent with the actions of God throughout the Bible.  Sometimes, when God’s people ask for something stupid, God gives it to them in order to give them a learning experience.  Jesus said, “Come.” So Peter, being the impulsive guy he was, got out of the boat and began to walk to Jesus on the water.”

Now, instead of just standing there with Jesus, Peter began to look at his surroundings.  The raging wind and waves were very threatening to him.  He took his eyes off of Jesus and Peter sank into the water.  The terror returned.  Peter cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ Thankfully though, Jesus ‘reached out’ His hand and took hold of Peter and brought him back to the boat. 

I want you to understand, “Peter’s faith is not being held up as an example to emulate.  His weakness is being showcased, in order that, in direct contrast, Jesus’ identity and power and grace might be seen more fully.  There is nothing admirable in Peter’s example, nothing bold about his impetuous desire to get out of the boat.” It’s sad but many Christians, like Peter, are prone to leave the boat, the church, and venture off.  The Lord indeed speaks words of comfort to us in the boat, that is, the church; however, like Peter we are often times not content with the simple word of God within the church and want some sort of personal sign and validation. 

Tragically, we find ourselves wanting more than the clear and comforting Word of God within His church. We want bigger experiences, we want something spectacular, and we want to walk on water ourselves.  And, like Peter, we are easily distracted by the waves, the winds, and the storms of life, thus becoming easily terrified resulting in us sinking below the water.  Frankly, we don’t belong outside of the boat, for we cannot endure the waves and winds, and we most certainly can’t walk on water. 

Thankfully though, the Lord is patient with us.  When we do find ourselves sinking in these situations that we have created ourselves by leaving the boat, crying out in fear, “Lord save me!” the Lord indeed does save us by reaching out to us and dragging us back to the boat, the place where He graciously restores us and comforts us with His love. 

If we flounder, help is at hand. As Jesus stretches out his hand to rescue Peter, we are reminded of God’s action as recorded in Psalm 18:16-19: ‘God reached down from on high and took me; he drew me out of mighty waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity; but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a broad place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.’

There are times in your life when you may feel overwhelmed, when you have stepped out of where God wants you and you find yourself out of your depth. When you have strayed from God’s Word and now you feel you are drowning under a multitude of problems. Don’t lose heart. For it is at times like these that Christ will draw you out of your turbulence and calm the storms of your life. As we near the end of our lives, you and I will have to step out from family and friends and walk through the waters of death. It is then that we are invited to fix our eyes on Jesus, to trust in Him, and to know that he will draw us safely back home to our Heavenly Father.

The virtuoso pianist and composer, Franz Lizst, for the most part was not religious. But towards the end of his life, that changed. Lizst was particularly drawn to the story of St Francis of Paolo–a story which in turn was inspired by Jesus walking on the water. St Francis had hoped to get a boat across the Straits of Messina from the coast of Italy to Sicily. But he had no money, and the boatman refused to grant him any favors. Indeed he taunted him and told him to make his own way across the strait. And so as the story goes, Francis put his cloak on the water and stepping onto it, began to walk. In 1863, Lizst composed his piano piece, St Francis Walking on the Water–a piece of music that remains a great challenge to any emerging classical pianist. It is a profoundly spiritual work: a strong melodic hymn begins the piece; but then the whole piano is gradually and frighteningly caught up in a ferocious storm, through rushing scales and tremolos. Gradually, tentatively, the hymn of faith fights back, resolutely walking on the waters of this terrible storm and finally emerges in a glorious fortissimo of victory. Faith, justice and love have triumphed over the infernal elements unleashed against them.

Walking on water? A human impossibility. When the storms of life rage around us we must learn to stay in the boat, worship Jesus and trust the Word of God.

Let us pray. Help us, O Lord, when the storms of life assail us, to entrust ourselves to your mercy and your power. For the times when we strike out on our own and begin to flounder draw us out of the waters that engulf us, and place us in the safe harbor of your love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.