Sermon Tone Analysis

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O THOU OF LITTLE FAITH
It was Helen Keller who said, “Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all.”
Those words would ring true no matter who said them, but coming from someone who lived a life like Helen Keller, they merit special consideration.
Born blind, deaf and unable to speak, she somehow found a way out of the darkness and into the world around her. Her story is one of the great miracles of the twentieth century.
Millions of people have drawn inspiration from her example.
Then the rabbi has to go, so he walks across the water, does business and walks back to the boat.
The Catholic has to go, but when he gets out of the boat, and sinks into the water, and swims back to the boat.
He said, “God, let me walk across the water.”
He tries again and started to sink again into the water, swims back, tries again and sinks again.
The Baptist leans over to the rabbi and asks, “Do you think we should tell him where the stepping stones are?”
Matthew 14:
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A. So, I ask you to consider her words a second time: “Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all.”When you bring this observation over into the spiritual realm it looks something like this: The life of faith is inherently a life of risk.
—“And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”
Go back to the Bible and take a look at the men and women who did great things for God.
Almost without exception, they were risk-takers who weren’t afraid to lay it all on the line for God.
Consider these examples . . .
“Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all.”
So I ask you to consider her words a second time: “Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all.”When you bring this observation over into the spiritual realm it looks something like this: The life of faith is inherently a life of risk.
Go back to the Bible and take a look at the men and women who did great things for God.
Almost without exception, they were risk-takers who weren’t afraid to lay it all on the line for God.
Consider these examples . . .
“Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all.”
Noah built an ark.
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees to go to the Promised Land.
Moses led the people of God out of Egypt.
Joshua marched around the walls of Jericho.
David defeated Goliath.
Elijah faced down the prophets of Baal.
Esther risked everything to save her people.
Daniel refused to defile himself with the king’s food.
Nehemiah led the Jews to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.When you read the Bible, again and again you discover that the men and women who accomplished great things for God weren’t content to accept the status quo.
They thought that more could be done if only someone would lead the way.
And when no one else stepped forward, they themselves volunteered.
When our little children come to Sunday School, what stories do we tell them?
The very stories I have just mentioned to you.
We tell them about the great heroes of the faith–Noah and Abraham and Moses and David and Daniel and all the rest.
We talk about those brave souls who laid it all on the line for God.
These are the people we hold up before our children.
These are the models we want them to follow.If you are unwilling to take a chance, you can never discover what living by faith is all about.
That is only right and proper because the life of faith is inherently a life of risk.
If you are unwilling to take a chance, you can never discover what living by faith is all about.
If you have to have all the answers before you make a decision, if you’re afraid to take a step unless you know things will work out to your advantage, faith will always be a mystery to you.
“Let’s Go Sailing”Of all the stories in the New Testament that teach this truth, I know of none more beloved than the story of Peter walking on water in .
No doubt you’ve heard this story before, and our children know it by heart, but somehow we never grow tired of it.
The background of the story is very simple.
Jesus is on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee.
It is late in the day and Jesus has just performed the great miracle of feeding 5000 men with five loaves and two fish (vv.
14-21).
Understandably amazed and enthralled by this miracle, the people want to make him king.
But Jesus, knowing that their enthusiasm is shallow, refuses them and instead goes off to pray by himself.
After dismissing the crowd, he sends the disciples on ahead to the other side of the lake, telling them that he would meet them later.
Matthew tells the story this way: “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.
After he dismissed them, he went up on the mountainside by himself to pray” (vv.
22-23).So far, so good.
As the disciples begin to sail across the lake, an enormous storm blows up.
From the way the gospel writers tell the story, it seems as if the storm began around 8:00 P.M. and continued all night long.
Given the fact that the Sea of Galilee is nestled against the mountains, this would not be unusual, except for the fact that most storms come and go rather quickly.The disciples are in the boat struggling against the wind and the rain.
9 p.m. . . . 10 p.m. . . .
11 p.m. . . .
12 Midnight  . . . 1 a.m. . . . 2 a.m. . . . 3 a.m. . . .
Still the storm continues with no sign of letting up.
After eight or nine exhausting hours, the disciples were stuck in the middle of the lake, dirty, drenched, chilled to the bone, weary to the point that they began to wonder if they would ever make it to shore alive.
“Shut Up and Keep Rowing”We pick up Matthew’s story in verse 25: “During the fourth watch of the night 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.”
By Roman reckoning, the “fourth watch” occurred between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.
It was sometime during that three-hour period that Jesus began walking on the water.
(I hardly need to comment that this is a literal miracle-not a symbol or a parable or a vision.
Jesus the man-not a vision or an apparition-was literally walking on top of the rolling waves.
I don’t know how he did it, but that he did it I have no doubt.
After all, he is the Lord of earth and heaven, the Lord of the natural and the supernatural.
Walking on water would not be difficult for the Son of God.)  It’s not every day that you see someone taking a midnight stroll across a lake in the middle of a storm.
When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified.
Someone cried out, “It’s a ghost.”
They were wrong, but it’s wasn’t a bad guess.
After all, it’s not every day that you see someone taking a midnight stroll across a lake in the middle of a storm.
We can understand their fear, can’t we? They’ve been rowing and rowing and rowing and getting nowhere.
And they can’t seem to make it to shore.
It’s 4 or 4:30 in the morning.
They are dead tired.
Every muscle aches.
The wind howls around them.
Rain pelts them from every angle.
They are cold and tired and waterlogged.
Plus they are grumpy and hungry and frustrated.
Suddenly someone sees a figure walking across the water.
I think in that situation I would say exactly what they said, “It’s a ghost.”
My first thought would not be, “Here comes Jesus.
He’s decided to walk on the water in the middle of this storm.”
I think I’d be one of the fellows saying, “Shut up and keep rowing."
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 (vv.
27-29).In preparing this message I had a chance to go back and read a number of commentaries written at the end of the 19th century.
Many of them react very negatively to what Peter did, calling him impulsive and headstrong and foolish for even wanting to walk on water.
Some even suggested that Peter thought he was better than the others.
That completely misses the point.
There is nothing in the text that even remotely suggests that Peter was wrong for wanting to walk on water.
Everything points in the other direction.
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