Sermon Tone Analysis

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By Pastor Glenn Pease
Most of us probably have some money in a saving account where it is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation, or FDIC for short.
This brilliant idea which saved the banks after the depression, and saves all savers a lot of anxiety is a gift God gave to the American people through a Christian banker in Philadelphia.
His name was Leon H. Sullivan.
When black Monday hit on March 4, 1933, and closed the banks, he went to prayer and labored long over a plan to reopen the banks.
He thanked God for the idea which led to the banks being able to open.
It was the FDIC idea.
He came to Christ as a boy of nine, and by twenty five he was the youngest bank cashier in the U.S. Banking was his life.
But like all successful Christians he had a struggle with pride.
He began to crave more power, prominence, and possessions.
He began to have social parties in his large house with champagne.
He stopped going to church, for his new goal kept him too busy for the God who had saved him.
He got so greedy that he went into partnership with a non-Christian.
His wife warned him, but he would not listen, for there was a fortune to be made.
The entire real estate deal collapsed, however, and he lost everything.
He was one hundred and fifty thousand in debt, and had no reputation and no friends.
He was sinking fast, but unlike Peter who cried out immediately, "Lord save me," he held on for twelve days in pride.
After twelve days of living on corn flakes he finally cried out to God in brokenness, "Lord save me!"
It took years, but he was saved and restored and became a successful investment broker who helped Christian colleges and other Christian causes raise millions.
By his fall and failure he learned to be successful as a Christian in the world of business.
Successful Christians often have to fail so they can be saved for success as Christians.
Their success becomes an idol and leads them away from God, and only by means of failure can they be brought back to God to succeed for him.
Christians only need to be saved once for eternity by putting their faith in Christ, but they need to be saved many times in time, as they begin to sink because of their lack of faith.
Peter was a saved man as a hand picked disciple of Christ.
If he would have drowned in the storm, he would have been welcomed into heaven.
He was a saved man, yet, we see him here crying out, "Lord save me."
It was not the sinners prayer.
He was not crying out to be forgiven and reconciled with God.
That was not his problem.
He was already saved that way, and you never need to be saved that way again.
When Jesus is trusted as Savior you are saved for eternity.
But here is Peter still calling out, "Lord save me."
A saved man can still use some saving when he is sinking.
Balzac, the Sir Walter Scott of France, wrote a famous short story called Jesus Christ in Flanders.
A ferry-boat is carrying a mixed crowd of passengers when a furious gale strikes and throws everyone into a panic.
A stranger with a glow on his face is calm and serene as if he knew he would not die.
As the boat begins to sink the stranger speaks, "Those who have faith shall be saved!
Let them follow me."
He then stepped out upon the waves and walked on the water.
A young mother took her child up in her arms and followed him.
A soldier and two cousins also followed and walked upon the sea, and they came safely to the shore.
The stranger vanishes, but they recognize he is Christ.
Balzac's story is obviously an adaptation of our text.
But it is a focus on the fact that even saved people; people who already have faith in Jesus, still need to be saved from storms, and all kinds of threats to life and health.
Jesus could say, "How do I save thee, let me count the ways."
And they would mount up to a high number.
The point is, this prayer of Peter as he began to sink is a prayer that needs praying often because even saved people need perpetual saving in this storm tossed world.
Let's look at just some of the ways we need saving as suggested by Peter's experience.
First of all we all need to be saved-
I. FROM LITTLE FAITH.
Whenever a Christian begins to sink, you can trace the trouble back to little faith.
The negative realities of life begin to overwhelm you.
You take your eyes off Jesus and look to the wind and waves, and fear takes over and reduces the power of your faith.
You can't get far walking on water, or even on land for that matter, when your faith gauge is pointing to empty.
Peter had enough faith to get him into the middle of a miracle, but then it began to run out.
There are few things more embarrassing than half a miracle.
To walk on water for a few feet and then drown is not all that impressive as a whole.
Peter needed to be saved from his half a miracle due to his little faith.
To sink in the middle of a miracle, and make this his terminal trip was not what Peter had in mind.
We all need to be saved from the half way projects we get ourselves into.
We make a commitment to go all out for Jesus, and then after awhile we lose our enthusiasm and our faith falters.
We find ourselves half way through a commitment beginning to sink.
I see it in Christian marriages all the time.
People make a commitment to be loving and loyal through sunshine and shadow; for better or for worse, but like Peter, they get out into the sea of matrimony and discover it is more frightening than they realized from the boat.
Their resolve begins to weaken, and they begin to sink.
They need to cry out, "Lord save me."
Christians need to be saved and restored to their marriage vows.
Christians say, "I'm going to read my Bible through this year," and they take the leap.
But after they get through Genesis and struggle through Exodus they come to Leviticus, and their faith wavers.
I wonder how many have sunk in their resolve in Leviticus?
They had no idea how hard some parts of the Bible are.
They need to be saved from this little faith that lets them sink in the midst of their new adventure for Christ.
Christians also resolve to witness, and then they come up against a skeptic who is clever, and they begin to sink back from their commitment.
We could go on and on dealing with areas of life where Christians need to be saved because their little faith lets them down before they complete their commitment.
The good news is that Jesus will hear the prayer for salvation even when our faith is so weak we are sinking.
Peter's prayer, "Lord save me!" is the shortest prayer in the New Testament, but it was just as effective as a 20 minute prayer, for Jesus reached out and saved him from drowning.
A 3 word prayer, and all 3 words of only one syllable.
Thank God he does not evaluate prayer by its length, but rather by its earnestness.
Peter never prayed a more earnest prayer than this.
His faith was little in his own ability to stay on top of the water, but his faith in Jesus was still strong, and he cried out for Jesus to save him.
There was no time for praise, adoration, or intercession.
This was a purely self-centered prayer, yet it was answered instantly, for Jesus chose to save Peter from a watery grave.
He saw, even in Peter's failure, the seeds of success.
Peter's prayer was a confession of his own inadequacy, and of his awareness of Christ's all sufficiency.
Lord you can save me, and so do so, for I cannot save myself.
Spurgeon points out that little faith tends to get Christians in trouble because it is always seeking for signs and wonders.
He feels that Peter may have leaped out of the boat in the first place because of his little faith that he needed to bolster up by this awesome act of walking on water.
Some people need to do the remarkable thing to keep their faith from collapsing.
This moves them to attempt great things, but they do it in their own power, and they end up collapsing anyway.
But even there failure can be good if it leads them to stop trusting in themselves, and to trust in Jesus only.
Peter did it here and was saved from his little faith in himself by his adequate faith in Jesus.
John Hodges was the number one Pontiac dealer in the world.
He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis.
But he let his success go to his head and began to throw parties with booze and gambling.
He began to cut back on church life, for it was interfering with his business life.
Besides, you can't serve 2 masters, and his business became his god.
He bought 5 used car lots and poured a lot of money into advertising.
He got caught in a squeeze and lost half a million in 2 years.
He started to drink and life began to fall apart.
He had many Christian friends praying for him, and he was finally persuaded to go to a Graham crusade.
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