The Lord Establishes Their Steps | Proverbs 16:9

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Well, good morning friends. It is so good to see you all. So good to be back. I love and have missed deeply the thing we get to do together on a Sunday morning. We get to talk about the way of Jesus. We get to walk past this huge sign that literally says living in the way of Jesus with the heart of Jesus. And we get to figure out how people like you and me do that together in 2026 in the world that we live in with all of those complexities, all of those things happening. I got back to the office this week on Wednesday as Teresa said, so I only had a couple of days to throw something together and so because I knew that was kind of coming, I was away on a retreat the week before.

And so I started to note down some of the things that I’d like to say, kind of building some of those ideas out. And then in the first meeting I had back Aaron said well just so you know the kids will all be in the room this week and I said who came up with that idea and he said well if you remember you and then it kind of died for a while and then someone brought it back and you definitely signed off on it before you left and I said that sounds like a brilliant idea. I’m so excited for this Sunday. This a sermon, but but it’s got some elements of an update. It it feels on some level that you can’t go away for 3 months without talking a little bit about what 3 months was like.

We’re talking about a quarter of a year and however many days that is that just ticks by. And and so a few different things that I’d love to share. and so the first is kind of like where were, what we got up to.

We were here on the 24th of May and then for the next 4 days we rage cleananed the house. We had house sitters coming in to stay and for some reason the feeling is that house sitters can’t live with the level of like quality of life you had. So if it’s good enough for us that doesn’t mean it’s good enough for them. And so we’re cleaning things that have never been cleaned before and then finally able to get out of town and we got to do something that Laura and I hadn’t done for about 15 years. We went on a trip just the two of us ditched the kids on the grandparents and went off to Chicago. this the Langham overlooking the river to try and remind ourselves that we’re still young and cool.

And I discovered that I am 40. So I’m neither young nor cool. I’m into things like birding and woodwork and like weird things that people that are cool and young aren’t into. So I I discovered really quickly that I’m quite happy with the life I live.

We got to hang out here for a couple of days. and then went off to beautiful Lake Michigan and spent a few days just the two of us there reading a lot of books, just taking some walks, just some really great beautiful conversations. I got to play golf in one of my favorite courses ever. It’s so beautiful that even when you hit a terrible shot, you just look to your right and you instantly feel good again because it’s just beyond gorgeous. And I think that drive I remember went straight down the fairway couple of 300 yards, something like that or into the woods on the right. I one of the two.

We picked the kids up from their grandparents and we took them over to England to spend some time with family. This Trevone Bay. The kids were here for this. they just didn’t want to be photographed. They were too busy having fun with cousins, getting out into the ocean. This the ocean just towards the evening. And it just was an amazing place to reconnect with family. Those slow rhythms that just feel like they are just easy to recover. And and so because England was literally boiling, and I mean that in a nonliteral sense, it wasn’t actually boiling. It was very hot. We we spent a lot of time sitting in the shade just chatting and it was just beautiful to be there.

And then we did kind of like the centerpiece of our time away. We took all of us over to Italy for a week. This us. The moment we knew that the trip would actually be okay. The first day was a disaster. we got there late. I took the scenic route up the coast. By the time we got to stop for lunch, everything was closed. So, we got pizza from a supermarket, which felt far more American than Italian. And and then when went out for dinner, we stopped at the first place we found. And they sneakily after serving us wine said, “Well, we’re not really a restaurant. We do meat boards.” And and it turns out that at a meat board in Italy has no food that kids from America want to eat.

And so all through the rest of the trip, I would just say, “Hey, we’re getting meat boards tonight.” And they got fed up of it. And I wore a Titleist hat to let them know I wasn’t Italian. in case anyone talked to me in Italian or anything like that, I just told them I’d been around Americans at least. I wanted to give you a little piece, a little like sounds, views of Italy, just in case you’ve never been and like, oh, I’m curious. And this will be the thing that I hope sends you off on a trip at some point. So, here we go. just a magical, soulful place that just is just a delight. So, if you ever get a chance to go visit, we finished it off with a trip to Minnesota.

No fish were hurt in the making of this picture. he was simply put back in the water and survived. But it was a place that we often spend time with family. And so, so many wonderful moments. A really, I think what I want to make sure I start with is just is gratitude. Just so thankful to the community for giving that space for allowing me to take some time away to the people, those of you in the room that came up and said, “We feel like God has called you called us to give you this gift towards it.” That was just an a difference maker. The elders that put all this together and made it happen. the staff who led so well and preached so well and cleaned up sewage so well and did everything that you might imagine might come up during, you know, 12 weeks.

They were amazing. I’d love us to give them a round of applause and just just amazing.

It was a gift to go. It’s a gift to be back.

Which brings us to the proverb. and the proverb I picked for this week is a curious one. This proverb 16:9, “In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” I sent this proverb to the staff to say, “This what I’d be preaching on this week.” When I was back, I realize now it was a mistake to send it with no data around it. Turns out this a proverb that looks like it could be preached on by someone who’s been away on sabbatical, thinks they’re coming back, and God has redirected their steps. Now, that isn’t what happened. I’m glad to say it’s good to be back, to stay, to be back, but it just seems like it can stir up some of those suspicions when you just send it without any data whatsoever.

But it’s a proverb that fits for me perfectly with the experience of going away on sabbatical because while I got to tell you the highlights while I got to show you some of the peaks and there were so many of those more than I can describe there’s a dark side to sabbatical a thing that comes up unexpected and it’s really connected to what I assumed sabbatical was for how I had planned it out. how I assumed I was feeling and what would come next.

You see, I think I went away on sabbatical with this sense of weight, this sense of the last six years had felt heavy on my soul. I felt like a different person than the person who got here six years ago who was completely optimistic about anything. I’d felt the weight of being a lead pastor in a church with so many staff, with so many things going on. I’d felt tired, exhausted. But I felt that coming here in COVID and then going through transitions, it felt like I’d have to kind of pull this community through something. So I think if you could have asked me if I could have been honest in that time, and I suspect I couldn’t, I think I might have said something like this.

While many of the good things in my life were because of South, most of the difficult things in my life were because of South. The weight that I felt, the aging that I felt, the shifts that I felt in me, the negative emotions, the way that I would sometimes act, my attitudes towards my family at times, just some of my resentments that were under the surface. I felt like they were all the fault of this community. Guess what I’m saying really is it was all your fault, everyone in the room. And then I went away assuming that the time away would just be free from all of those things that I’d walk into this different period feeling like everything’s amazing and skipping along.

You know those visions you have in your head.

And then I discovered something. 90% 95% of those things they just stayed with me. I essentially went away from a community and got to spend the next three months with me, which is as terrible as it sounds. And just all of the different things that were under the surface, well, they stayed. They didn’t go anywhere.

Somewhere in that sabbatical, the gift was this that once I got away and there was no one to blame, no community to say, “It’s the weight of this”, it’s all these different things. All those things were gone. Well, then actually in those moments, I got to be honest about who I was, what had developed in me, some of the ways I was reacting to different things. Turns out that it’s not necessarily a community problem. Sometimes it’s a you problem. And here’s the thing, friends. When you are in that place, when you can be honest with the God of the universe about some of the things that you feel, it’s quite surprising what is able to shift in you. what he’s able to change what movement happens.

I had a certain plan and God had a better plan. It turns out and that I think is the heartbeat behind this proverb. The writer of this proverb is convinced that somewhere our preferred future, the thing we dream out collides with God’s preferred future. And that is a gift. It’s a gift. Maybe the layman’s way of saying that would be this. It would be God has plans for our plans. Though we think we’ve got everything figured out and God says, “Oh, I actually have some different ideas for you there.” Let’s let’s go back to the beginning just a second. In their hearts, in in the workings, the soul place maybe in the place where we have those ongoing conversations with ourselves, the place we figure things out, the place where when we sit just churns over and over.

In that place in in that interior voice that a huge percentage of us have the wandering zone. In that place we figure out what’s next in in their hearts. Humans plan their course. They set out the destination they imagine years distant into the future. You’ve done this right? You know, whether it’s the person who’s young and imagining their future career, their future wedding, their future moment, their future house, their any of those things. It’s that space, all of the ways we figured out exactly what life is going to be like for us. All of those things, it begins early. The the planning begins early.

I remember the day, maybe 5 years old, I wandered into my dad’s office and saw his architectural drawings and thought what he did seemed to be so creative, so wonderful. Thought I could do that. I remember when it shifted.

I remember the day I noticed my uncle seemed to live the best life a person could live. He drove incredible cars. He wore incredible suits. He owned a fantastic house. Turned out he sold packaging supplies. And so if you could have asked 8-year-old me, “What are the coolest jobs you could have?” I would have said astronaut. Obviously, it’s a given. But then probably packaging supply salesman seems like a pretty good option. Somewhere I started to dream like how I could create a life.

But I’m a child of the 80s, 90s. I have some brothers, some sisters in the room as well. And so the career path just kept turning over. There was Top Gun when I decided surely I’d be a fighter pilot. Then apparently there was a 500% increase in applications to the US Navy that the year Top Gun came out. I saw Backdraft and decided I’d be a fireman. And then, as hard as it might be to believe, I watched Michael Jordan play basketball and decided I would be a basketball player.

I remember the day I went to my mom, maybe 11, 12 years old, and said to her with a straight face, “Mom, I want to play basketball.” And she looked at me, this wonderful woman that she is. And she looked at me and said these words or something like, “If that’s what you want to be, do it with all your heart. Chase the dream. Chase after the thing that you long to be.” And if you’re a kid in the room, chase after the thing you want to be.

There’s nothing about this proverb that says, “Don’t want things. Don’t chase after a preferred future. Don’t try and create a life that feels good and that honors God.” There’s nothing that says that here. All of that is permissive in the text. You can create the life you want to create. We are made to do that. The way we design the future, it’s what makes us unique.

Think about it this way. Animals live in the now. There’s all these other species that even when they’re planning for the next winter, it’s a now thing, a now moment. Uniquely, as a species, we as humans live in a not yet. A thing we are curating, the thing that we are building, designing for ourselves, chasing after all of those wonderfully good things. We’re made to do that. Dream about a perfect marriage. Dream about a career that brings you joy. Dream about retirement. Dream, plan the thing and follow it through.

But there’s a thing lurking behind the statement, this first line, a thing that lurks behind it that maybe some of you have seen already. And it’s our nature to assume that everything is going to be good. Everything will be wonderful.

This came up recently in a poll. Maybe some of you in the room participated. I don’t know. It was a poll by YouGov for they called 20,000 Americans and they asked them a couple of questions. One question was this. Could you with no experience whatsoever with help from air traffic control and if the pilots were incapacitated could you land a commercial jet plane on a runway safely? Just want to take a poll here. Who anyone hand up? Can you do do anyone think they can do this? Air traffic control can help you guide you. Carter, I love it. Anyone else? Someone at the back. Phil, I like it. Some honesty in the room. There’s more of you. I know just by the data there’s more of you.

This good. Okay, now we’re getting honest with each other. I love it. Bob at the back. Brilliant.

Apparently, according to the data, around 50% of men believe they can safely land a commercial passenger airplane in an emergency with air traffic control guidance. 50% of men in this moment of crisis, both pilots out say, “It’s my time to shine. Lead me to the cockpit. I’m taking us down. We’re headed for the Hudson guy.” Something like that. 50% of men. Perhaps more embarrassingly, I was one of the 50% of men that said they could land a commercial jet plane. About 20% of women said the same thing. And then they asked pilots the same question. Experienced jet commercial engine pilots, could anybody do this? What percentage of Americans do you think with no experience could land this plane safely?

And they answered zero. Zero. It is impossible without just ridiculous luck for you to successfully land a plane.

We assume things by nature to be true because we’re involved in the situation. We feel if only we could control it, everything would turn out fine. During the first world war when all these young men went off to war they knew statistically that 65 even 70% of them would die and all of these men went off to war and looked to their left and to their right and said I can’t believe the two next to me will die. No one assumed it was them. It’s one of the weird quirks of our nature that 80% of us have a thing called optimism bias that’s defined perfectly by this picture. an assumption right before the task that everything will go perfectly well and a realization in the moment of crashing in to the canyon that perhaps it wouldn’t.

Few bits of data on this. This Daniel Kahneman one of the experts in the field. We focus on our goal anchor on our plan and neglect relevant base rates exposing ourselves to the planning fallacy. We focus on what we want to do and can do neglecting the plans and skills of others. How how to say that in other ways? We spend more time imagining the future than doing what it takes to get there or figuring out if we can. It’s the same reason as kids maybe we want to play baseball and we look at the moment where this baseball player shines in glory and don’t see the years of training, the years of work, everything that went into that. Tali Sharot, another expert, we are more optimistic than realistic.

We are oblivious to the fact so many of us live our lives with this as our heartbeat. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. If I am involved, I can make the thing happen.

Now, why does this matter? There’s nothing wrong with that. Actually, when it comes to career paths, when it comes to things that you want to achieve in life, none of that actually matters. It might predict some failure, but it doesn’t matter really. But it matters when it comes to following Jesus. And let me show you why.

We are for the most part born with what you might call an assumption of good. Good things are coming my way. Life is mostly good stuff. An insurance company in 2010 asked this very question to a whole bunch of people. They brought them in and asked them to describe what had happened to them in the past. They gave them red and green cards and said, “Write the bad things on the red cards and the good things on the green cards.” And when they put them up on the board, it was about 50/50, good and bad. And then they said, “Imagine what’s going to happen the happen in the future. Write it on a green card if it’s good and a red card if it’s bad.” Almost 100% green.

People know that the past is 50/50. Assume the future is always good, always green.

And of all people in the world most prone to this, it’s us guys. Those of us in the room that call ourselves followers of Jesus. Just by the data, Christians, this true. Christians are more prone to assuming life will be easy. Do you ever have that moment? Maybe you started following Jesus. You said, “Wow, I mean, everything’s going to be great now. I’m definitely going to get married to someone who really loves me and I really love them back. That marriage is going to be perfect. We’re going to continue together happily. I’m going to live rich in old age, retire well. All of those different things, everything planned out in front of us. Christians easily assume it turns out by the data that all the bad things will happen to somebody else.

And, and this perhaps even more important, Christians are more prone to assuming life will be easy and more prone to feeling abandoned by God when it isn’t. Most of the rest of the world looks at the data and says, “Well, by the odds, some bad stuff might happen to me.” Christians say, “Life will be easy because God loves me.” As soon as life’s hard, they said, “God isn’t present.” That’s us. Now, maybe not as much in this room. Maybe we’ve talked about this kind of stuff a fair amount and we’ve grown. But as a whole, as a group of people living in America today, that’s who we are. We assume life will be good. and we risk losing our faith when it isn’t.

And yet, just by looking at this proverb, we see something else is in play. It’s not simply dream it and it happens. There’s another clause, a second piece. But the Lord establishes, the Lord directs their steps. There’s a plan that God is following through that isn’t entirely centered on you and I being successful, being full of achievements, rich, all those different things we might describe.

And I think this matters. I think it matters because if we’re honest, we would still choose to make ourselves a life that is easy, where little transformation happens. I want to ask the kids in a room the a question. And kids, I want you to focus. I want you to give me an honest answer. I see some of you still looking down, but you’ll get this. How many of you, if you could be honest in this moment, would say your parents should give you everything you ask for? Hand up. There’s some over there. I like it. I mean, you’re being honest now. You’re in church. You have to be honest. Some very honest answers over there. I love it. I think that’s a real answer.

And I think when we’re parents, we start to look back and say, “Well, of course you can’t have everything you want.” But here’s the thing. I think it’s very easy in a relationship with God to say, “I want him to give me everything I want.” Very few of us, if we’re honest, would design a life in which transformation was possible because most of our transformation, those who have followed Jesus year after year would say, “Oh, you know, when I changed the most, when life was hard, very few people I’ve come across, very few people who’ve sat in my office over the years have said, “This year was crazy good and I changed a lot.” That doesn’t happen.

And yet the number of you that have sat in my office and said, “This year has been nuts. It’s been hard.” And God has met me in the middle of it. If were to create life for ourselves, we’d make it too easy. Would roll the dice in our favor. Everything would work out great. And yet the transformation happens in the hard places. Is for this reason, I think, that Jesus says things like, “This how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. your will be done on earth, in heaven, in my life, everything I do. It’s that reason that we play these things.

It turns out God doesn’t just have plans for our plans. He has plans for our plans and plans for us. Plans to transform us into his image to make us more like him. Now, if you’re kind of on the fence about following Jesus, you’re like, “I’m not sure.” Just know that’s what you’re signing up for. and that that’s like a good thing to know when you enter into it. And if you’re someone who’s already said yes to following Jesus, know that that’s what you signed up for that when you became his follower, he said, “I am going to surprisingly shape you to look like me.” This the way CS Lewis explains this. Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house.

At first, perhaps you can understand what he’s doing. He’s getting the drains right, stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing, and so you’re not surprised, but presently, he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of. throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards you thought you would be made into a decent little cottage, but he’s building a palace he intends to come and live in himself.

The levels to which God will go to make you like him and make me like him always end up being quite surprising.

Now, what I’m not saying here, I don’t want you to hear, is this, is that God has a load of bad things planned for you. That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m saying that life by its nature comes with things that catch us off guard. And that some of our assumptions that life will be easy, that our marriage will be perfect, that our kids will be good-looking, that they’ll be smart, that they’ll go to college, that we’ll have the perfect career, that we’ll live happily until retirement with a healthy body. Some of those assumptions will disappoint us. Some of them won’t be true. And not only has God not abandoned you in that moment, he might do some of the greatest work he’ll ever do.

We’re going to take a look really quickly at this other story. This the precursor story. If you want to stand with me for a moment, we’re going to read a passage because I think this will illuminate it a lot better than me talking for a lot longer. The passage, if you want to open your own copy of the scriptures, is Matthew 14:22-33.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side. While he would dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up to a mountain by himself to pray.

Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from the land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake.

When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Lord, if it’s you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me.” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand caught him. “You have little faith,” he said. “Why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down and those who who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God.” This the word of the Lord.

And be seated.

The story before this a story that doesn’t seem to fit with the story we just read. It’s the ultimate success story. It’s one of the high points in scripture, one of the only miracles of Jesus that’s in all four of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And it’s this one. Taking the loaves, five loaves and two fish, and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. The disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was about 5,000 men besides women and children. Jesus takes a few loaves, few fish, breaks them, hands them to thousands of people, and everybody is fed.

The disciples get to play a key role. They are taking the actual bread and actual fish from Jesus’ hand, and they’re depositing it to all sorts of men, women, and children. Everybody eats. Disciples get to play a part in an actual miracle. And this story, this moment is so great, so successful. This what John in his gospel says about it. Afterwards, after the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this the prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

Imagine this moment as a disciple. You followed Jesus around for maybe a couple of years. You’ve always eaten. There’s always been enough food, but it’s not exactly a luxurious life. You’re sleeping in people’s houses, maybe in fields. And then this miracle happens. This big supernatural thing, and you hear people whispering, “Let’s make him king. We’ve got enough people here to start an uprising. We’ll all get together. We’ll overthrow the bad guys. And we’ll live a good, healthy life forever.” Imagine that feeling as a disciple. If Jesus is king, what does that make you? Minister, secretary of state, some kind of thing that gives you a lot of power, a lot of say in what happens, certainly a lot of wealth, certainly a lot of like future opportunities in life.

Maybe in this moment, you start to think of all the things that you hope this might turn into. And and just for a moment, it feels like you’re on the cusp of everything that this could be. Romans gone, Jesus ruling, you close by, everything exactly as the dream was. In a moment in this story, the disciples experience a success. It’s exactly what they wanted. Everything’s going well.

Then Jesus does something curious. One, he says no to the crown. Guess most of us would have made a different decision, but he knows exactly who he is and where he’s going. And so he says no. Then he sends the disciples away.

Verse 22, immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat. There’s a potential coronation, a potential crowning moment, a potential uprising, and Jesus pushes them away, puts them onto the boat, and sends them out into the lake. The Greek word there behind the word made is a strong word. It’s like this word forced, compelled. He removes them from danger. Perhaps he knows that they can’t handle the temptation of this kingship thing, this rule thing, but he sends them off into safety and off they go.

There’s this moment of success, this moment of potential glory, and Jesus puts his disciples out the way and sends them ahead of him to the other side while he dismisses the crowd.

And then in this moment, Jesus goes up onto the mountainside and begins to pray. Remember this for a moment. He sent his disciples off into the lake. He knows exactly where they are, knows exactly what’s happening with them. And he goes to the mountain and prays, quiet, stillness.

Later that night, he was there alone. And where are these disciples? remember just this moment of glory, this moment of success, this moment of everything they ever wanted, just like the moments perhaps we plan for all ourselves. And then we find the disciples in the boat a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

The disciples find themselves in a storm above all storms. The the Sea of Galilee, this lake he sends them out onto is a mill pond in the morning. quiet, calm. In the afternoon, the wind begins to pick up and you start to see those ripples upon it. Maybe mid-afternoon, you see some white caps out there. But in the right condition, the right weather, the cold winds come over the mountains in the east. They drop down 700 feet to where the lake is 700 feet below sea level. sea level, hit the warm water and the storms come out of nowhere. Brilliantly, this wind in particular is called the sharkia. You can imagine all these kids. The sharkia is coming.

Everybody watch out. This wind descends into the lake and suddenly it’s chaos. It can go from flat to 12-foot waves in 30 minutes. And you imagine the feeling of these disciples out of everything they’ve just experienced, every after everything they know Jesus is able to do. And now because he sent them, they find themselves in a boat with waves coming every 3 seconds, every 5 seconds, rolling up 12 feet, dropping down 12 feet, rolling up 12 feet, dropping down 12 feet. Some of the scholars that write on this passage say that because of the direction of the wind and the direction of their going, they probably had to row in the opposite direction to the way they wanted to go.

They’re just standing still all night long just to keep the boat afloat.

Imagine the feelings that are circling around in those kind of moments. already a considerable distance from the land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. From one moment to the next, the whiplash, feel it, of success, and now suddenly in the middle of a storm beyond all storms. I just jotted down some points of maybe their experience. They’ve been rowing all night, hour after hour after hour, they are a long way from the land. The wind is against them and Jesus is nowhere to be seen. Maybe that’s one of the questions they have. Where is he? What is he doing? He promised to keep us safe. He’s supposed to be here with us now.

And they’re alone, waiting, waiting.

We get the next verse, verse 25. Shortly before dawn, this verse whole like hides a whole bunch of details. In the Greek language, like translated literally, it would say at the fourth watch, 3:00 in the morning till 6:00 in the morning, those late late hours. Fourth watch is the crazy watch. The watch when everyone’s the most tired. When it’s the coldest, the temperature drops the lowest. when the danger was the greatest, when almost all hope has gone. That’s the fourth watch, the last one. So those moments where everyone everything feels like it just might get a little crazy.

Some years ago, I was driving through Europe with some friends. We were were the crew that was moving the stuff. Everyone else was flying and were driving all the baby equipment and I was doing this drive in the middle of the night and I remember my brain just starting to play tricks on myself. That feeling of just this endless and it goes on forever. I remember one distinct moment where I’m driving along and my eyelids start to feel heavy and the line in the middle of the road in my imagination jumps up off the road turns around to me and cackles with laughter and disappears off into the field next to me. It was that moment I decided to wake someone else up and have them drive.

But in this story, there’s no one to wake up. They’re all in this together.

There’s a reason we say things like, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” It’s not true. It’s literally not true. It’s darkest in the middle of the night, but it feels darkest when you’ve been waiting for the dawn forever.

And maybe you’ve experienced those high points in life where everything feels good. And maybe you’re someone who’s experienced the low points in life as well where you’re like, “Where is Jesus in this moment?” And maybe just like these people, it came out of nowhere. Marriage felt great and now it feels hard. Business feels great. Finances, money everywhere and now it feels hard. Health feels great and now it feels hard. Emotions, everything like mentally good and now it feels hard. And in that moment, according to the data, we as followers of Jesus are likely to go from expecting life to be easy to wondering just exactly what he thinks he’s doing.

And where exactly is he?

It’s for this reason Psalms like this were written. I wait for the Lord. More than watchmen wait for the morning. More than watchmen wait for the morning. I love the repeat on the line. You feel the longing in it. The hope. This where he turns up. They feel abandoned. They feel like he’s left them. And that’s so hard. It’s like a line from from Macbeth the Scottish play for thespians out there. Did heaven look on and not take their part? Is he just not doing anything? No, nothing happening.

But here’s the thing. This the hope hidden in the story. And this why I love the way these gospel writers write because even when they’re in these places, they write these little clues for us to see the light coming out of nowhere. It always catches us off guard.

The fourth watch has a backstory. And so these disciples waiting that know all of the scriptures before them, if they can think back just in this moment to the story behind suddenly get the flicker of hope coming forward. This the Exodus story, their big story, the historical narrative, the people’s story, the moment of escape, moment of freedom.

There’s this moment where they begin to complain and say, “Let’s just go back. We can die just as easily in Egypt.” And Moses says, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm. You will see the deliverance of the Lord will bring today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. Just be still. Just wait. Trust that in this moment, God is going to turn up exactly when you didn’t expect. And for future generations, everyone will know this the kind of time that God turns up when you’ve lost that hope. When you don’t expect it. This going to be a hopeful story to cling on to in those moments. Verse 24. During the last watch of the night, the fourth watch, hopeless time, the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion.

They are rescued in this moment in the fourth watch. This the moment where Jesus chooses to come walking across the lake. Imagine that moment. That moment where you first see a glimpse of him wandering towards you. You begin to wonder what’s going on in this story.

In the last watch, let’s change it. Let’s make it right.

In the last watch, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake.

But Matthew’s not done with us yet. He’s still got more to teach us. And so, he’s going to play on some of our soul notes just a little bit. You’re going to feel with this story, it’s going to feel like the storm. The waves go up, waves go down. Waves go up, waves go down, it feels good, feels bad, feels good, feels bad. He’s a brilliant story writer. And we’re going to feel every single one of those waves.

It begins with the good. Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. But the disciples don’t see him to begin with.

When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It’s a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear. The good is Jesus is coming. The negative is they don’t see him for who he is. This a group of people that were afraid of the ocean. They never went out into the deepest parts. Even the fishermen would fish the surrounds. They would drop in on all the shallow points and they would do it because there was more money there than anything else they could do. But they would never go to the deeps. And the hard part of their story is that slowly these waves are pushing them back into the deepest part of the lake like they can’t avoid it.

And there’s all these questions rising up as to just what is going on here. They may be worried that there’s some kind of spirit of the water that’s coming to attack them. That’s their instant reaction.

But then there’s the good. Jesus speaks. Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid. This moment lands in the exact middle of the story. The words I am are like the center of the center. It’s the same words that God used when he introduced himself to Moses. It’s the Greek language for Yahweh. Jesus in this moment doesn’t just say it’s me. Doesn’t say I’m here. Says to a group of people troubled by a storm, I am. I am the one that created this. I am the one that made everything that you see. I am the one that loves you. I am the one that protects you. It’s good Jesus is coming. It’s bad they don’t see him. It’s good Jesus speaks for the first time.

And then Peter does the most Peter thing that you can imagine him doing. All the other disciples celebrating Jesus’ arrival and Peter says, “Let me get out of the boat and come to you. Let me do what no one else has done except you, Jesus. Let me step on the water and walk toward you. It’s interesting that none of the writers say that this good. No one says Peter should be copied. No one says it’s bad. No one says it’s Peter just being foolish. If you’re a kid in the room and you’re interested in walking on water, can I suggest you start in somewhere like the Platte River adult downstream just to make sure that everything goes as it should. And if it doesn’t work, don’t feel bad.

It hasn’t worked for anybody else since Peter. And so I’m not sure what else to say other than that. There’s nothing prescriptive here. Nothing to do. I would lean to Peter doing something particularly brave and Jesus rewarding him for his bravery.

Peter walks toward Jesus and everything is good. It’s a good moment until Peter can’t take his eyes off everything around him.

And then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. It’s a moment that throws us back to Psalms like this, passages like this. Isaiah 43. Do not fear. I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Jesus meets Peter in the middle of the lake, walking on water. The one who created the seas now treads upon them. But this Peter’s down moment. So we descend down the wave once again. We read, “And when he saw the wind, he was afraid. Everything is good.” Well, he keeps his eyes on Jesus. And when he doesn’t, everything starts to go downhill fast.

When he saw the wind, he was afraid and began to sink and cried out, “Lord, save me.” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand caught him. “You of little faith,” he said. Why did you doubt? It’s the question that lurks across all of these storm narratives, and there’s about five of them. Question is always similar. Why did you doubt? Why were you afraid? Essentially, why didn’t you keep your eyes on me? It’s not that Jesus doesn’t rescue Peter. I have this beautiful picture somewhere around the house of like the Peter view of the whole thing. He’s looking up at the water and he sees the hand coming through the water as Jesus makes this final rescue moment.

But Jesus has this question that ends the text.

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand caught him. You of little faith. He said, “Why did you doubt?” Think about that question in the context of the story. It seems like Jesus has taken these disciples from success and he’s put them in a place where their faith is challenged and where Jesus seems invisible. And the question that seems to hold behind all of the different things happening is this. Can you trust me when you can’t see me? Can you trust me when life is really hard? Can you believe from the mountaintop I see you out on the boat rowing, rowing, rowing and your life like your life depends on it? Can you believe that my power to help you is just as real from a distance as it is when I’m next to the boat?

Can you believe that I love you just as much in the storm as I did in the success? Can you trust that somewhere in this very difficult moment, some transformation will happen?

What do you notice about this story? That’s what happens. It’s it’s transformation. Jesus’ goal is for our transformation. And however hard it might be for us to read at times, the overarching narrative is this. The disciples pictured a certain type of life and they are given something better. They picture a moment when Jesus is king and they rule alongside him and they’re given this revelation not of a king not even just of a savior but God in human flesh alongside them transforming them working in them that’s the final moment right after this right after Peter’s pulled from the water we read and they climbed into the boat the wind died down all the storm narrative ends.

No more ups and downs. They finally see, finally trust perhaps in that moment. This their final like I understand moment. And then those who were in the boat worshiped him saying truly you are the Son of God.

Because of the storm they get to see something they would never have seen in the success.

The transformation isn’t easy. It’s hard work. and have no idea what life looks like for you right now. Some of you walked in leaping. It’s language I use a lot. You walked in with a skip in your step. Everything feels wonderful. And I love those seasons. I’m so glad for you. Some of you walked in with a limp. It’s a hard season. You’re not sure what to think of what’s going on. And you are loved. and Jesus is with you and he’s teaching you and you’ll come out the other side transformed.

Somewhere this story asks us to ask this question. Is Jesus present when I can’t see him? Is he working when I can’t see him?

That was my sabbatical question. My honest uncertainty of what are you doing in me? This feels painful. It feels like surgery. and I feel like I keep asking for certain things to shift and nothing seems to shift. And it wasn’t until the point that I was able to get to say, “Oh, there is still transformation that needs to happen in me. Do what you need to do.” Somewhere that’s the story. If you’re a Jesus follower, that’s what you signed up for. If you’re figuring it out, that’s what you might sign up for. It doesn’t seem the most compelling pitch, but that’s what Jesus does. He doesn’t hide the cost. He simply says things like, “In this world, you will have trouble.” Jesus doesn’t know anything about advertising.

He simply invites people into real life transformation.

What do you think about that? Do you want to step out of the boat? Do you want to journey with him through the storm? Or does the safe place feel better? You get to decide. That’s always how it’s been. We have a song that we’re going to sing at the end. I’m going to invite the team to come up. They’re lurking behind somewhere. Changed a couple of things to make sure I finished on time, which I didn’t for the first service. So, this song is about Peter, but maybe also about us. It’s the invitation to step out of the water. I’m going to ask you to stand. It’s invitation to decide what you think about Jesus. Does the land of success and safety feel good?

Does the place of following Jesus and no matter through what, no matter what it seems like, does that seem like something you want to do? Maybe you’re expecting life to be easy and you’re finding out that it’s not always. But the beautiful news behind it all, the beautiful secret that Jesus has for us is that even in the midst of the storm, he’s still present, still with you, you are not abandoned, you are not alone.

Thank you, Jesus, that for each of us, you care for us, you love us, you journey with us. Amen.