Christ Church Sermon, Questions Jesus Asked: Why Do You Doubt? April 26 2026

Good morning.

Today's scripture is Matthew 14

29-33.

Come, he said. Then Peter got down out

of the boat and walked on the water and

came towards Jesus.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid

and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord,

save me.

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand

and caught him.

You of little faith, he said, why did

you doubt?

And when they climbed into the boat, the

wind died down. Then those who were in

the boat worshiped him saying

truly you are the son of God. Hear what

the spirit is saying to the church.

Thank you.

>> Thanks be to God. Thanks for good

morning everyone.

>> Morning.

>> So a few weeks ago I was sitting at a

stoplight right in front of South Hills

Village. You know looking at the mall.

You know, it's one of those long South

Hills stoplights where you're just

sitting there waiting and watching,

thinking, "This light should change by

now, right?" And then I noticed

something. The car in front of me

started to inch forward. Not all at

once, just a little, you know, break,

release, roll, stop. And we've all seen

this before. They're actually not going

anywhere yet cuz the light's still red.

But they were anticipating movement.

They were preparing for the moment that

the light would turn. And then the light

changed. And in spite of all that

anticipation, they just sat there when

the light turned green because it was no

longer about anticipation anymore. It

was actually about going. And it

reminded me that there are two types of

drivers in the South Hills. I'll let you

figure out which one you are. One is the

confident one that goes when the light

turns green. And the other ones are the

ones that treat every intersection like

it is life-changing decision.

But instead of getting angry, I found

myself thinking, "Isn't that exactly how

we live a lot of our lives? We inch

forward when it feels safe. We prepare

ourselves. We think about what might be.

We talk about it. We even pray about it.

But then the moment comes to move and

when the light turns green, we pause. We

hesitate. the it's the moment that fear

begins to show up and says, "Are are you

sure? Is this really gonna work? What if

this doesn't go the way you think it

will and suddenly what was easy to

anticipate feels hard to do when the

time comes, right? So, we hesitate."

Now, here's the truth. Most of us don't

struggle with thinking about faith. We

struggle with stepping out in faith. We

don't struggle with believing that Jesus

can do something. We struggle with

believing that it's time for us to

actually move. Now, there are moments in

our life that come down to just a single

step. Not 10 steps, not a long-term

plan, just one step. The next step,

maybe it's a conversation we know we

need to have. Maybe it's a decision that

we've been avoiding. Maybe it's an

invitation that God is placing in front

of us. And in that moment, we feel two

things at the exact same time. We feel

faith and we feel fear. And that's

exactly where Peter finds himself in our

story this morning that Marnell read for

us. Because in in Matthew 14, Jesus

doesn't give Peter a full plan. He

doesn't explain how it's all going to

work. He simply says one word, come. And

everything in Peter's world comes down

to one question. Will he stay where it

is safe in the boat or will he step out

into something that only works if Jesus

is who he says he is?

Now, see, the story in Matthew 14 tells

us the disciples are out in a boat on

the water in the middle of the night and

the wind is strong and the waves are

pushing against the boat and Jesus comes

walking towards them on the water, which

just to be clear, that's not something

that they expected to see, right? They

think Jesus is a ghost. They're

terrified. And then Jesus says, "Take

courage. Don't be afraid. It is I." And

Peter, you know, good old Peter,

impulsive, bold, and sometimes reckless

Peter says, 'Lord, if it's you, tell me

to come to you on the water. And Jesus

responds with one word, come.

You see, we need to remember that faith

steps out before it feels safe. Peter

gets out of the boat and starts walking

on water. Now, I don't want to rush past

that because he actually does it. For a

moment, Peter is living what most of us

only talk about. Because faith is not

about just believing something

internally. It's about stepping into

something externally. Faith looks like

movement. It looks like saying yes

before we have all the details. It looks

like trusting Jesus more than our

circumstances. It looks like moving when

the light turns green. Notice Peter

doesn't wait for the storm to calm down.

He stepped out in the middle of the

storm. You know, some of us are waiting

for clarity before we obey. We're

waiting for everything to settle down

before we move forward. And most of the

time, Jesus calls us while the wind is

still moving. The text says, "But when

he saw the wind, meaning Peter, he was

afraid and beginning to sink, cried out,

Lord, save me." Now, notice the shift.

At first, Peter's focusing on Jesus, but

then his attention moves. It moves from

Jesus to the wind. It moves from Jesus

calling to the conditions that are all

around him. It moves from trust in Jesus

to fear. And the moment the focus

shifts, his faith starts to sink and

Peter starts to sink with it. Well,

that's still how it works today. We can

be walking in obedience and then

something happens. A setback, a

diagnosis, a conflict, a financial

pressure, a voice in our head that says

this isn't going to work. And suddenly

our focus moves. And when our focus

moves, our fear grows because fear feeds

off of what we stare at. How many of you

have ever gone golfing?

Okay, for those of you that have it, if

you are on the golf course and you come

to a hole and there's water on the hole,

never look at the water. You know why?

You're going to hit your ball in the

water. It's automatic. Your ball goes

where you look. So, if you look at the

water, you hit the water. If you look at

what's around you, you look at fear and

you lose faith. Peter's focus moved off

of Jesus and he began to sink. Scripture

tells us he cried out, "Lord, save me."

And immediately, we're told, Jesus

reached out his hand and caught him. I

love that word, immediately. Not after a

lecture, not after Peter figured it all

out, not after Peter promised to do

better. Immediately. And that's so

important for us to hear because Jesus

does not wait for perfect faith to

respond. He responds to honest faith, to

desperate faith, to messy faith. He even

responds to, "I thought I could do this,

but now I'm sinking kind of faith." And

maybe that's where some of us are right

now. We stepped out. We trusted. We said

yes. And now it feels like we're

sinking. And the question is, will we

keep pretending like we're fine or will

we cry out? Because the miracle here is

not just walking on the water. The

miracle is that Jesus meets us when we

start sinking.

Then comes the question, question four

in our questions Jesus asked sermon

series. After Jesus pulls Peter up, he

says, "You of little faith. Why did you

doubt?" Now, it's important that we

realize here that that question is not

harsh. Although it might sound like it

is, it's not harsh. It's not condemning.

It's an invitation. Jesus is not shaming

Peter. He's helping Peter to see

something.

Why did you doubt? In other words, what

shifted in you? Why did you like start

believing something else instead?

What voice got louder than mine? You

see, we need to realize that doubt is

not the absence of faith. It is a

divided trust. Peter had faith. I want

to be very clear about that. He got out

of the boat. That's further than most

people will ever get. So this is not

about Peter not having faith. It's about

his faith being divided. Part of him

trusted Jesus and part of him trusted

what he saw. And that's what doubt

really is. Doubt isn't always just

disbelief. It's divided belief. It's

when our trust is split between what

Jesus is saying and what our

circumstances are shouting at us. And if

we're being honest, that's where a lot

of us live a lot of our lives. We

believe God is faithful, but we also

believe that the situation we are in

might be too much. We believe God is

good, but we also believe that we might

be on our own. We believe that God is

present, but we also feel overwhelmed

with what's right in front of us. I

mean, let me ask it this way. What has

where has our focus shifted lately? What

wind have we been staring at? Is it fear

about the future? Is it something in our

family? Is it fear with all the violence

that's happening in this world all

around us? Is it something with our

health? Is it something in our

leadership or in our calling or or or or

in our church? Because when that

happens, we don't decide to stop

trusting Jesus. We just start paying

more attention to something else. And

over time, what we focus on becomes what

we trust. Now, here's what I love about

the story. Jesus doesn't say, "Peter,

get back in the boat and stay there." He

doesn't say, "You failed, so you're

done." He reaches out to him and they

walk back to the boat together.

Which means that the invitation doesn't

disappear when we struggle. The calling

doesn't go away because we doubt it. The

relationship doesn't break because our

faith wavered. Jesus is still saying,

"Come."

Now, this is how this connects to us

individually and as a church. We're in a

season where God is calling us to

continue to step out of the boat. Not

everything is calm. Not when we know how

everything is going to go. Not when

everything makes sense. Not when we've

eliminated every risk. But right in the

middle of the uncertainty, right in the

middle of faith, right in the middle of

this feels bigger than us. Because

that's where God does God's best work.

That's where God meets his people.

That's where God says, "Come."

Now, let's be honest. There are moments

when it feels like we're walking on

water. Moments where everything feels

like it's going smoothly. Moments when

our faith feels strong. moments when

when generosity flows, like when we were

able to raise $65,000 from our Easter

offering to help pay off unpaid medical

debt. Moments when the vision is crystal

clear. Moments when we can see what God

is doing and we think, "Yep, that's it.

I want to be part of that." But then

there are also moments when the wind

picks up. When the doubts creep in. When

the questions get louder than the

calling. Moments when we look around

instead of looking at Jesus. Moments

when we start calculating instead of

trusting. Moments when we think, "What

if this doesn't work? What if I can't do

this? What if this is too much?" And

then suddenly what once felt like

walking on water starts to feel like

we're sinking under it. And here's the

truth that we don't like to say out

loud. We can be doing exactly what Jesus

is calling us to do. and still feel

afraid.

We can be at the center of God's will

and still feel overwhelmed.

We can step out in obedience and still

have moments where our faith waivers.

This story reminds us that Peter was not

sinking because he disobeyed. He was

sinking while he was obeying. And that

matters because at some point in our

life, we all begin to doubt. At some

point, we've all probably asked the

question, if this is really God, why

does it feel so hard? Anybody ever feel

like that? Right? If this is really God,

why is it so hard? And the answer is

faith has always required trust in the

middle of tension. So, when Jesus asks,

"Why did you doubt?" He's not scolding

Peter. He's not disappointed

uh in Peter. He's doing something

deeper. He's inviting Peter to see what

actually happened. Jesus is saying to

Peter, you were doing it. You were

actually walking on water. You were

doing something that was what beyond

what you thought you could possibly do.

And then Jesus is saying, "What

changed?" Jesus is saying, "I didn't

change. My call didn't change. My

presence didn't change." He reminds

Peter, you just took your eyes off of

me.

And as a church, that's a reminder for

us today. When God asked that question,

why do you doubt? It's not about shame.

It's not about guilt. It's not about

pretending like we never struggle. It is

a gentle, loving reminder to refocus

ourselves on Jesus and not the wind and

the waves.

That's what we need to be reminded of

because the same Jesus that called Peter

out of the boat is the same Jesus that

is standing with us now. The same Jesus

who held Peter up is the same Jesus

holding us up. The same Jesus who spoke

over the storm is the same Jesus

speaking over this season we're living

in in our life and in our church. So

when we feel like we're sinking, when

the vision may feel heavy, when our next

steps may feel uncertain, we don't need

to fake stronger faith, we just need to

fix our eyes on Jesus again. Because

this has never been about how strong we

are. It is about how steady Jesus is.

And the question, why did you doubt?

Well, that's going to continue to be

asked of us, not to shame us, but to

center us. In other words, Jesus is

saying, will you focus and trust me

instead of all the wind? Because Jesus,

trusting Jesus isn't just a feeling,

it's a practice. And one of the primary

ways that we can refocus our hearts. One

of the primary ways we can fix our eyes

back to Jesus is through prayer. Prayer

is how we take our eyes off of the wind

and place them back on the one who walks

on the water. Prayer is how a divided

trust becomes a surrendered trust.

Because when we pray, we're not

informing God of something that he

doesn't already know. We're aligning our

hearts with something that God is

already doing.

So when we look back at Peter from our

story, we see that he didn't give this

long polished prayer. He didn't quote

scripture perfectly. He didn't wait

until he had it all together. He simply

cried out, "Lord, save me." And that was

enough. So the next time you're in a

small group and the pastor ask if

anybody wants to pray, don't just look

at the floor and pretend like he's not

looking at you. Just volunteer and say,

"Lord, save me." That's it. That's

enough. We can all remember that one

because prayer is not about perfection.

Prayer is about dependence.

So in a season where we continue to step

out, as we continue to follow where

Jesus is leading, and as we face moments

that feel bigger than we are, we don't

need more control. We need deeper

prayer. And it's not just prayers when

things go wrong. It's prayers that keep

our focus right before things go wrong.

Prayers like Jesus, I trust you. Jesus,

I need you. Jesus, help me keep my eyes

on you. Jesus, how can I best serve you?

Because here's the truth.

We don't sink because Jesus moves. We

sink because our focus moves. And prayer

is how we come back.

So when the wind picks up, pray. When

fear gets loud, pray.

When the steps feel uncertain, pray.

When we don't know what else to do,

pray. We need to pray not as a last

resort, but as a first response. Because

the same Jesus who reached out to Peter

is still reaching out to every single

one of us today. The same Jesus who

steadied Peter in the storm is steady

steady steadying us. The same voice that

said come is still calling us forward.

So my prayer is that we are a people

that step out in faith and stay grounded

in prayer.

Let's not just be a people that

anticipate what God might do. You know,

like the people who were in front of me

at the stoplight, but let's actually

move when God gives us the green light

and says go. Let's be people that when

we feel like we're sinking, we don't shy

away from that. We don't hide it. We

don't fake it. We don't try to fight it

alone, but instead we cry out. We cry

out and trust God who is already

reaching for us. Because in the end,

this was never about how strong Peter

was. It was about how faithful Jesus is.

So, we continue to step out of the boat.

We continue to trust. We continue to

pray. And when the light turns green,

we go and we follow the one who says,

"Come."

Let's pray. Lord, we are grateful. We're

grateful for who you are. We're grateful

for what you have done. We are grateful

that you are right there with us in the

middle of the storms, in the middle of

the wind, in the middle of our doubts.

It's not wrong to doubt as long as when

that happens, we know we need to refocus

our attention back to you. Help us to

not focus on the stuff around us, but

help us to keep our focus on you. And

when we do that, just like Peter, we can

walk on water because it isn't about us.

It's about you.

Help us to keep our focus where it

matters, which is on you all the time.

>> Amen.