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I like the story of our text where Peter walks on the water. It was one of my favorites even as a child when in the pool, we would try to walk across the water by running real fast. We would back way up to the fence to get a good running start, yell to the top of our lungs "I have faith" and then hold our nose before we attempted to "be like Peter." We never got very far before we belly flopped into the depths. I guess our faith wasn't strong enough; the holding the nose might have indicated a little doubt. As I got older, I realized that it was probably not working because there was one big difference between us and Peter, and that was Jesus was not standing out on the water bidding us to come!

About a year ago, I read a news story with interest that some guy has invented a way to walk on water. For a couple of hundred dollars, you can order these huge, ten-foot long foam "skis" that are attached together by a chain and that have places for your feet to be secured to them. It apparently takes some practice to perfect, and you really sort of slide your feet a few inches, one at a time, but you are standing up right and the foam skis sink into the water until it does seem that you are walking across the surface of the water. Once you master it, instead of going for a stroll around the lake, you can take a stroll across the lake! The guy that invented it says that there is nothing quite like walking across water. I imagine so, but his invention wouldn't have been much use to Peter because the inventor says that they don't work too well in rough water. I guess if you are going to stroll across the lake in a major storm, then you'd better have a little more help than some big, foam shoes!

As impossible as it is to duplicate with human methods, I believe wholeheartedly that Jesus and Peter walked on the water that day. The scriptures say that Jesus had sent the disciples afloat ahead of Him in a boat and told them to go to the other side while He went to pray. He parted from them on the shoreline with a "I'll catch up." Being experienced fishermen, the disciples pushed the boat from shore and although they may have wondered how Jesus could catch up to them, they began to make for the opposite side. The Sea of Galilee is really a freshwater lake that is only six miles wide and about sixteen miles long. It should have been a quick trip of only a few hours, but the scripture says that somewhere along the way after the boat was a long way from land, a storm hit the lake that rocked the boat and frightened even the most experienced fishermen. What should have been a quick trip, became a fight of bailing water to save their lives. And it went on for several hours, because the Bible says that it was not until the "fourth watch of the night" -- to us what would be the hours between 3 and 6 a.m. -- that Jesus finally came to them in the middle of the lake.

At first in their frightened state and in the turmoil and exhaustion of their plight, the disciples thought that Jesus was a ghost or a spirit apparition. Don't laugh at them, because you and I in their circumstances, miles from shore and in the middle of a storm fighting for your lives, if someone were to come walking across the water -- particularly many years before the foam noodles were invented -- we would have been thinking "ghost" too!

When Jesus saw their fear, He told them as only God can, "be of good cheer, it is I!" That's a lesson in itself and to grasp it you must have the mental image: there are waves almost capsizing their boat, they are afraid of dying, they just had the "heebiejeebies" scared out of them, and the first words that God has for them is "be happy, it is me!" God has a way in your worst days and worst circumstances of looking at you and saying "smile a while!" Have you ever been in a middle of a project going wrong, or the worst day of your life, and be telling someone about it or have someone looking on that with a cheery grin they just say "oh cheer up and it will be all better?" I know none of you perfect people ever feel this way, but in those times, my flesh wants to slap the grin off of those people's faces! You just hit your thumb with the hammer and they smile this goofy smile and say "oh be of good cheer," and you want to take that same hammer and do their nose what you just did to your throbbing thumb! I know none of you ever feel that way, but I do.

And some people get mad at God when in their darkest night, He just shows up and says -- without fixing anything or causing the situation to get better -- "be of good cheer, it is I!" That aggravates some people. You are facing the hardest test of your life, and you come to church, and rather than come minister to your needs, God shows up and says "here I am, you worship me and -- oh yeah -- do so cheerfully!" You are so broke that you can't pay attention, and when you go to Church's chicken, you have to lick somebody else's fingers, and then you come to church and the preacher quotes the scripture "God loves a cheerful giver." In other words, God is saying "give your last dime and do it with a smile on your face." "Be of good cheer it is I!" There is something about such a way that irks our fleshly human nature.

And it used to irk me too, so much that when I would read this verse, I would ask to myself, "now God why would you walk up and without doing anything to help them, say something so crazy?" But then I got the revelation of why He said it. Here what He said: "be of good cheer, it is I." In other words, not just be happy. Not put a fake grin on your face and act goofy and light of your situation. But rather be happy because "it is I" who is now here. Catch this: when you get a revelation of who Jesus Christ really is and of how powerful He really is, then you can be gladdened and even worship and praise exuberantly even before He has done anything to help you, because if you realize who He is, then when He shows up on the scene, you know that something is about to happen! Even the stranger rejoices after the miraculous, but it is a mark of those who know Him that they rejoice and are gladdened in their circumstances before the miraculous occurs simply because they know it's coming because they know who it is that just arrived! "Be of good cheer, it is I" was Jesus' way of saying "If you really know who I am, then you can be glad just to see me even though nothing has changed yet, because if you know who I am, then you know it won't be long until something changes in your situation!" You can cheer up in the storm, when God shows up, only when we know Him as the Master of the storm! If you know who He is, then you can smile as you give your last dime in the offering plate because you know that God will give it back to you a hundred fold. You can worship God in your darkest situation of your life, because you know that the weeping may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning! Because that's just who God is! With Him, nothing is impossible! Something is going to happen!

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Can I preach a bit? There are a lot of applications to our lives that have nothing to do with our subject, but are too powerful to pass up! To everyone who has ever been faced with a trial and thrown the question "why do I have to go through this" upward, let me point out to you why God brought the storm in the disciples lives.

One point is that the storm was obviously there so that the disciples could get the revelation of who Jesus is. That's a reason that we often have stormy situations and go through things today, because God is trying to reveal His identity to us. You'll never really know that He is the healer, until you have been sick and felt His touch. You'll never really know that He is strong tower of refuge, until you have an enemy rising up trying to destroy you. You'll never know that He is the provider, until you need provision. As one preacher said: "you'll never know that He is 'all you need' until He's 'all you've got'!" Oftentimes the storms come so that we will get a revelation of who He really is! And remember, Jesus said "be of good cheer, it is I!" You can tell those in the storm who have a true revelation of who He is, from those who don't, by their attitude and disposition in the storm! Those who know that He is a healer, even when sick, can smile and say "blessed be the name of the Lord." Those who know that He is "Lord of All" even with their life topsy-turvy, can "be of good cheer" and point out that everything is going to be alright, so I think I'll praise Him anyway! Those that stay despondent and depressed and have a lack of cheer in their life because of their circumstances obviously are lacking a complete revelation of who it is that standing by the boat!

Another point is that the storm came to emphatically remind them of what they already knew that God could do. This was not the first time that they had been in a storm from following Jesus' command. Our text is found in the 14th chapter of Matthew. It had been just six chapters earlier in the 8th chapter that they had crossed the Sea of Galilee in a boat with Jesus aboard and found themselves in a treacherous sea and woke Jesus up only to see Him simply speak to the storm and cause it to be still. They knew that Jesus could calm the storm and yet just a few weeks later, they are in the middle of the storm and I don't find one of them praying, but rather all are panicking and spazzing out and seeing ghosts instead of answers and fears instead of faith! They had learned the lesson of the storm but forgotten it and so God sent another just to remind them that He has not changed.

Sometimes God sends the same test again not because you failed the first test, but because you passed it. He sends it again as an example to others of how they should act. I've known Christians to go through a storm, and pass it and completely trust in Him through it, only to have it come again and then they get frustrated and quit when the missed the point: God was sending the same test again, so that as you faced it with the determination and faith that you acquired through going through it the first time, you would shine as a beacon of light of God's power and faith to onlookers. Never forget that, like Job, you may have a storm come in your life simply because you were doing everything right, and God wanted to use your faith and determination as an example to encourage others who haven't quite got there yet. Instead of whining and getting down on yourself, trust God just as you did before and when someone asks you, smile and say "God will come through -- I know because He's done it before and He is faithful!" Sometimes the most effective witnessing that you can ever do is to be faithful through the storm again. Because somebody is watching you that needs to go through it for the first time!

A final point is that the storm was there to show them a greater level of the power of God. The first time across the lake, they learned that Jesus could calm the storm when He was on board the boat, but now they were about to learn that even when it seemed that He was far away and not visible, He would still show up and do the miraculous. It's one thing to have faith when you can see that Jesus is with you, but another when all you have is His Word that He's coming and you don't see how and any possible way that He can come through. This second storm came to reveal to them a greater level of God. It's one thing to see your deliverer wake up and do the miracle from the boat. It's quite another to see Him walking on the very waves of the storm itself. Remember that movies and paintings are poor commentators on the Bible, and every painting or drawing that I've ever seen of this scene always has a relatively smooth water surface with Jesus standing there. We forget that the scriptures say that this was a storm that had the most experienced fishermen scared. Jesus wasn't calmly gliding across a flat plain, but rather stepping up and onto and over waves and troughs and whitecaps. And was probably doing so in a blinding rain! This, I think, makes the miracle more powerful, for the sea was raging and yet Jesus was able to traverse across it's wildest turmoil.

Understand that God specializes in walking through the worst possible scenarios to get to us! There is not a storm so great in all of the earth or in any of our lives that Jesus cannot traverse! This storm came to reveal to the disciples a greater level of power that they did not even know was possible. That this story is true, is evidenced by just how remarkable it is. No one in their wildest dreams could of ever imagined it -- it goes beyond anything that we can conceive or comprehend. And yet we would not know that God can do it, if He hadn't caused the storm to first come up and then walk on it! Sometimes storms come so that you can witness a greater level of the power of God. Don't be surprised if your prayer for a "deeper and stronger" revelation of God's power leads you into a storm. For Him to be revealed in a mightier way than you have ever known, requires you first seeing a circumstance worst than you have ever known. For us to have a deeper level of faith, requires us to experience a greater trial, but even when the storm is beyond your wildest dreams, remember that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think! There is not a storm on earth that is greater than the God who created it!

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All of that was for free, and now let me get to what I feel like God wanted to be the main point. Most of you know the rest of the story of our text; Peter said "Lord if it is you, then bid me to come," and Jesus said "come on." Peter climbed out of the boat and started walking to Jesus. We always tend to preach this story from the standpoint of "Peter's getting out of the boat" and walking in faith to Jesus while the other disciples refused to take the step of faith.

It is important to take the first step of faith and be willing to get out of the boat. You can say that you believe, believe, believe, all you want to, but if you refuse to get out of the boat and obey what Jesus has bidden you to do, then you really don't believe. And for the most part, I am preaching to people tonight, that you have gotten out of the boat. You've made the commitment to answer the Lord's bidding and commands even if it meant leaving the crowds and doing something that not everybody else is doing. Most of you came to this thing with very little experience as to the power and miraculous Spirit of God moving in your life, and so you are here because you overcame your fears and heard the command of the Word of God and stepped out of the boat of your tradition and found out that you could experience the seemingly impossible! You stepped out of the boat and found out that God would forgive you and wash those sins away. You stepped out of the boat and found out that God would respond to your praise and fill you with His Spirit! You stepped out of the boat of your comfort zone and found out that you could survive walking the steps of faith and moving toward Jesus! You've done that! You're out of the boat!

But getting out of the boat, is not what I feel the main point of this story is. The main thing that God was trying to show us, is the need to remain confident "in the middle" of your journey. The disciples weren't afraid when they were beginning their journey and waving goodbye to Jesus and pushing the boat from shore. They would not be afraid when they finally docked on the other shore. But rather, it was in the middle of their journey that the storm hit and that their faith was tried. They were tested most severely "in the middle" of the lake.

Catch this: Peter didn't falter or doubt when he first climbed out of the boat. His faith was fine when he slid over the side and found the water holding his weight! His first few steps were no problem and were probably exhilarating as Peter realized that "I'm doing something that no other ordinary human has ever done." It also wasn't the end of the walk when he was side by side with Jesus strolling back towards the boat that he had trouble. Rather it was in the middle of the journey, after the newness of the first steps had worn off and yet he still had a ways to go to get to the goal that Jesus had set for him. In the middle, is where we find that his faith wavered. It was in the middle of the journey that we find Peter's eyes changing from being focused on Jesus to glancing with trepidation at the size of the waves and the force of the wind. It was in the middle that he began to sink and had to cry "Lord, save me!" It was not the beginning and the end of his walk of faith, but rather the middle where Peter began to doubt and became fearful.

If there is a word for God for those under the sound of my voice tonight, then I feel strongly that it is this: We need our greatest confidence and faith in God in the middle of the journey! Our greatest chance of failure comes not in the beginning or ending but somewhere in between.

I preached this morning how that God gives us a taste at first of what is to come when we begin our journey. When you first get out of the boat, is not the time that most people begin to sink or fail. When you first get the Holy Ghost and you are excited and pumped up and first begin to get the revelations of truth, is a time where your faith is high and confidence is the greatest! After you have received the Holy Ghost you so believe God's Word that you are ready to charge hell with a water pistol, if that's what God asks! It is not a chore to come to church or to serve and you are just excited to be around others who have had God work in their life as you have received! The first steps out of the boat are not the danger zone for a lack of confidence toward God.

Likewise the greatest danger does not come when you are getting to the goals and receiving the end of the promises of God. When you have been faithful and then finally receive what God has promised you is a period of the journey where you often more excited than you were when you first climbed out of the boat and first tasted of the miraculous. The prophet Haggai talked about how that the glory of the latter would exceed the glory of the former and so it is: with God the ending of the journey is more inspiring and exciting than the beginning because now you are reaping the fruits of a journey of faithfulness. No, the end of the journey is not the danger point of a spiritual walk.

The danger point is the middle. When you have progressed far enough from the boat that the newness of the supernatural is abating, and yet you still have a ways to go until you reach the goal that Jesus has set for you. It is in that middle place that we are more easily distracted. It is in that middle place that the possibility of fear overcoming our faith arises. It is in the middle of the journey that most people sink on their journey of faith.

When you have prayed for healing and felt God touch you initially and yet have to endure the journey for a while. When you have stepped out in faith on the promise of God, and taken the first steps and yet still have some time before you reach where you can hold onto that promise as truly yours. When you are in that point between having believed God for it, and actually seeing it come to pass. In the middle is where we are the most susceptible to failure.

It was in the middle of his journey, that Abraham messed up the plan of God with Ishmael. It was after he had believed God for a son, and yet the years had gone by without any sign of the promise, it was in the middle that Abraham got impatient.

It was not at the beginning of Jesus' ministry where the freshness of the supernatural and the newness of the teachings were exciting and His call seemed fresh and a new adventure, it was not there that Jesus lost the greatest number of disciples. It was not even after a cross ended that ministry and a resurrection and a change from being bodily with His disciples and then only in Spirit, it was not at the end of the ministry that Jesus lost the most disciples. But rather it was almost exactly in the perfect middle of His ministry where it is recorded in John's Gospel under the ominous numerals of the sixty-sixth verse of the sixth chapter :

In the middle was when the greatest number of disciple walked away. And so I would preach to you that it is in the middle where the deepest commitment is made. Not at the beginning, but after you have been faithful for a while, and the storm is still raging and distractions are all around, that is when the greatest commitment is made to see it through.

It has been said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and that may be true, but the greater amount of people who give up a race, don't give up on the first mile, but somewhere in between the start and the finish. When the climb becomes uphill and you are already wearied from the journey, and there are still some miles to plod, it is then that desperation often turns to despair and then to hopelessness and the thoughts of just giving in to the tiredness begin to drift through the Christian's mind. Like Peter, on his walk of faith, we most often begin to sink in the middle of the journey.

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But I have a word from the throne of heaven to those of you who are in the midst of your walk! I have a word from God for those of you who find yourself weary somewhere between the point of first believing, and the point of receiving the blessing. The Word is a "more sure Word" that is written into the book that will never pass away even though heaven and earth may burn up. The Word is from the Bible and it is from the pen of the Apostle Paul to the church in Philippi:

Somebody needs to be confident in the middle! And you need to gain your confidence from the fact that the God who was faithful and instrumental in working in your life to begin your walk of faith, will be faithful to perform what He has promised! The same God who beckoned you when you were in the boat, and enabled you to walk on the water in the first place, is the same God that is still standing there while you are languishing in the middle! But you can be confident that "he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it!" How many people fall simply because they forget that the God who got them started, can also miraculously see them through? He has not deserted you! He knows exactly where you are. He has not changed. And He will finish what He started!

Paul wrote the church in Corinth and said:

Disciples, if you find yourself in a storm in the middle of doing the will of God, then you need to hold onto the last thing that you heard the Master say: "go on ahead of me to the other side." If the Master spoke in the beginning that you were going to the other side, then it does not matter what tempest or hurricane or earthquake or even if the end of the world should come, if the One whose Word is inerrant has spoken that you are going to make it, then you are going to make it! Peter lost His confidence when he began to think upon the surroundings and stopped dwelling that Jesus had told him to "Come!" God will not command you into failure. If He said "Come" then your walk can be completed. If God has said that you are going to make it, then it is no time to let doubt creep in, even in the middle of the journey. If you are still heading towards Jesus, then there is no time to calculate the severe ness of the storm or the heights of the waves. I've often wondered what it was that caused Peter's attention to waver; could it be that the storm worsened after he got out of the boat? Could it be that after he was out walking on it, that the waves grew larger? Could that be what caused him to doubt in the middle?

How often have Christians taken a step of faith and yet the more faithful you were, the worse the storm seemed to get? How many have -- like me -- ever prayed for a specific request only to find that in the coming weeks, the situation seemed to worsen rather than improve? The danger of getting your eyes on the storm as it grows, is that you have ceased to gaze at the Master of the storm! And that doubt, can cause us to grow weary of keeping the faith, and cause us to sink. But I have yet another word for you, this one from Paul to the church in Galatia:

With God nothing is impossible! He will be faithful to perform what He has started. Don't grow weary in the middle! Because the law of God is unchanged: you will reap what you have sown -- if you do not give up! We must be encouraged and confident even if the storm seems to be growing!

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This altar call is a special one tonight. If you have not yet embarked on your journey of faith with God, then by all means come tonight and join us. If you have never taken the step of faith and repented of your sins where you confessed to God directly that you are a sinner and that you want a new start in your life, and that you need Him to forgive you of those sins, then by all means come find a place of repentance. If you have never received the gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, then you should know that it is for you, if you will repent and then ask God for it praising Him for doing it! If you are still in the boat, then by all means take the step of faith because every day that you stay in the boat, means another day without experiencing the miraculous hand of God in your life! God is real, and He is calling, and you can walk toward Him and see Him work miracles in your life, tonight.

But this altar call is also directed towards those for whom it has been a while since you made that first step. You've had the Holy Ghost for some time now. It's been a while since you were baptized and first stepped out on faith on the promises of God. I'm giving this altar call to those who are in the middle of your journey. You've stepped out in faith, and yet have not quite seen God do and give you everything that you are praying before. You are somewhere in between, and if you were honest, it has not been the easiest part of your journey. This altar call is for you. Come and cry out to Jesus and see that He will not be there speedily. If you feel that your attention has been distracted and you feel yourself beginning to sink, then cry out to Jesus "save me" and see if you will not immediately feel a hand take yours and pull you out of the deep. He'll not only save you and restore you, but will walk the rest of the way with you! He will be faithful to finish what He started. Come and have your confidence restored in Him! Come receive confidence in the middle!