Worship
Please worship the Lord through the words of this song, in the way that you feel to be the most appropriate.

Faithful One, so unchanging,
Ageless One, You’re my rock of peace.
Lord of all, I depend on You,
I call out to You again & again,
I call out to You again & again.
You are my rock in times of trouble,
You lift me up when I fall down;
All through the storm
Your love is the anchor –
My hope is in You alone.

Sermon on the Mat: Sink or Stand
Matthew 14:22-33
‘But when he saw the wind, he was afraid & beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me!’ v 30.

Credit where credit is due. Peter did actually walk on water. The second man in the whole of human history to have ever done that! We forget that don’t we when our focus moves away from what he got so wonderfully right to what, in the end, he got so hopelessly wrong. Which was to pay more attention to what was going on around him than the One, whose calm & reassuring presence was the inspiration to get him out of the boat & on the path to ‘success,’ in the first place.

Nb. Success as it relates to God’s purposes for us & for His world, not ours! Where faith, living, real & robust is key to everything. I.e. Key not only to knowing who God is but also to realising in whom true peace & happiness ultimately lies. As Psalm 144:15 puts it –

‘Happy are the people who are in such a state. Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.’ NKJV.

On a scale of nought to ten how happy are we right now, given the intensity & immensity of the storm that surrounds us. A storm that has us so paralysed with fear, disillusionment & mistrust that we’d sooner rather remain in the sinking boat of the known & familiar, than step out in faith towards the One who is never more near, never more able to save us, than when, in a moment of unguarded weakness, having come so far, we succumb to the power & allure of the wind & the waves. Here’s how one commentator helpfully expresses it –

‘We all have our days where we feel we can’t survive. Sometimes dreams are shattered. Friendships may fall apart. Loved ones may hurt us. Sickness may overtake us. We may even lose people we love. But God will ALWAYS be there to guide us through, even the toughest times. Never lose FAITH. Hold on to HOPE. TRUST IN GOD ALWAYS!’

Peter had his fair share of setbacks in his quest to follow Jesus’ lead, didn’t he? Setbacks in which fear, more often than not, overshadowed & overruled the need for bold & unwavering faith. Case in point being the night of Jesus’ arrest. An event which proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that when the pressure was really on, Peter was no more capable of rising to the challenge of the hour, than any of the other of Jesus’ disciples. Much as he liked to believe, come the time for decisive & positive action, he could & he would –

‘And the Lord turned & looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times. And he went out & wept bitterly (deeply grieved & distressed).’ Luke 22:61-62.

Thankfully Peter’s story doesn’t end where it might so easily have done. I.e. At a point of self-loathing, guilt & despair! (John 21:15-19). That’s because, dear friends, as time & again scripture bears witness to, the grace of God, which looks beyond our natural limitations to the very heart of who we really are & all that we can be in Him, will always be so much greater than the sum of all our failures, weaknesses & fears. Remember that the next time the waves of difficulty, testing & affliction threaten to overwhelm you!!

Prayer

Lord strengthen us in all our ways of service to You.
Keep faith strong & alive in our hearts, always.
And when we stumble & fall let that not be the end of us
But the rather the beginning of ‘all things’ new in You.
In Jesus’ name.   Amen

Please pray –

• For Christians in government as they seek to be God’s voice in this current climate of fear & uncertainty. That their voices will be heard.
• That many will turn to Jesus & welcome Him into their lives as their Lord & Saviour, not in-spite of but as a direct consequence of this global pandemic.