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You did very well.
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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, to him who loves us and has washed us clean from our sins with his own blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father.
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To him be all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever.
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Amen.
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We live in a troubled time.
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Conflicting messages come at us from every angle about what it means to be human.
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Our culture attempts to tell us who we are by focusing on an over-emphasis about self.
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We are a what about me-driven culture.
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When we let the culture tell us who we are, we stop hearing who God says we are.
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We stop hearing what the Word of God has to say about us.
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The culture says you're good just any way that you are.
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The Word of God says, you were born sinful, natural enemies of God.
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The culture says you can be anything you want, be it a man, a woman, gender neutral, anything in between.
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The Word of God says he made them male and female in his own image.
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If we take our eyes off Jesus, if we stop listening to who he says we are, if we stop listening to his voice, we will gaze drift somewhere else and depend on something other than Christ crucified for the forgiveness of our sins.
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And when we do, our eyes will deceive us that there's nothing to worry about in this world.
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And if our faith, our belief, is found on the world or what is in the world around us, well then our mouth will naturally confess what we believe in.
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That's how it works.
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And if what we believe is based on today's culture, well then we're surely going to sink into it, just like Peter.
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Confessing with our mouths what we believe in our hearts is what St.
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Paul is speaking about in Romans chapter 10 this morning.
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This is faith talk.
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Thus, when we confess that Jesus is Lord, this is faith talking.
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But faith talk is not the result of us, but that which is given to us.
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As we've been clearly told from Scripture, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.
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So let's talk about faith for a moment.
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A couple of facts about faith.
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In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the words faith and to believe come from the same root.
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They're related.
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Faith is the noun version of the verb to believe.
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That's why when we believe in something, we say we have faith in it.
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And for this reason, one cannot really have faith in faith.
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Faith actually must have an object to attach itself to.
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This is why you can't simply bid somebody to just have faith.
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Have faith in what?
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In other words, for you, dear Christians, Jesus is the object of your faith.
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We have faith in Jesus.
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And it is Jesus who creates faith in us.
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This is why the author of the book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is both the author and perfecter of our faith.
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He is and remains the creator of our faith and the sustainer of our faith through the work of his Holy Spirit.
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No Jesus, no faith.
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So, why all this talk about faith?
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Let's take a look at our gospel text this morning.
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Last week we left off with Jesus having fed over five thousand people from five loaves and two fish, and everybody was satisfied.
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Today's gospel lesson is a continuation of that text.
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It reads, Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds.
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Notice, Jesus sent the disciples away while he dismissed the crowds.
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Our Lord is deliberate.
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Nothing he does is by accident.
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He sent the disciples out on the water, and he remained behind.
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And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
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When evening came, he was there alone.
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But the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.
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So here's the setting.
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Jesus is on the land.
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He's up on the mountain praying.
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And Jesus' disciples are a long way off on the Sea of Galilee.
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They couldn't be farther apart in this moment.
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Daylight's far gone, it's dark out.
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And this is the setting our Lord places himself in, in order to do what only the Lord can do, and that is create faith in the heart of his believers.
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And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.
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But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, It is a ghost.
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And they cried out in fear.
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They thought, It must be a ghost.
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What else?
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What else could it be?
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What else could appear on the water walking and looking like a man walking towards them?
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Not only did they not recognize who Jesus, but they still hadn't recognized who Jesus was.
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But it's Jesus' response that tells us everything.
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But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take heart, it is I, do not be afraid.
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Now understand this.
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Our Lord doesn't merely tell his disciples, it is I.
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In fact, unfortunately, our English translations of the Greek don't do this statement justice.
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When our Lord calls out to his disciples, he announces who he is.
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He says, Egoe me in the Greek, which directly translated sounds like I am.
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Why is this so important?
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Because it tells us why Peter responds the way he does.
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This tells us that in these words, Peter not only believes that it is Jesus, but who Jesus is.
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Dear Baptized, there is only one person in Scripture who identifies himself this way.
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It is the same person who called out to Moses from the burning bush and said, I am who I am.
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And here Jesus is identifying himself as I am.
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In these words, Jesus creates faith in the heart of his hearers.
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He announces to them that he is none other than God in the flesh.
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And because he identifies himself as such, Peter cannot help but respond, Lord, if it is you, command me to come out to you on the water.
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Peter, now knowing the identity of who is speaking, believes that the one walking on the water can make it so that he can do the same thing.
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Peter knows that only the great I am could command such a thing.
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It's not Peter who created faith in his heart at that moment, but Jesus.
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He didn't one day wake up and go, you know what?
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I think I'm just going to believe Jesus as my personal Savior.
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Jesus is doing all the doing here.
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It's Jesus who identifies himself, and it's Jesus who commands Peter to walk on the water.
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He said, Come.
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So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
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Had Jesus not commanded it, it would not be so.
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Nor could Peter have, quote, taken a leap of faith and jumped out of the boat if our Lord had not commanded it.
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Peter didn't say to himself, Well, if I just believe hard enough, the Lord will grant this to me.
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Rather, it was Jesus who created faith in Peter by his word.
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And it is Jesus who made Peter walk on the water.
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And at that moment, Peter simply believed as the Lord had given it to him.
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So then what happened?
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What happened?
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But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out.
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Saint Peter's just as much a man as you and I.
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He was just as much a sinner as you and I.
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And as both man and sinner, we respond to God the same way Saint Peter does here in the text.
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We doubt the word given to us.
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When we take our eyes off Jesus, we stop hearing what his word tells us, and we begin to doubt its authority and its power.
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This is no different than not trusting Jesus' own words when he says, This is my body, this is my blood.
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If the Lord of the universe says it's so, then it's so.
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Now we we might chide Peter in our hearts for doubting because we know he saw Jesus walking on the water with his own two eyes.
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But I'm pretty confident that we'd probably do the same thing if we were in Peter's sandals.
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However, the miracle here is not simply that Peter walked on water.
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But because Christ had created faith in Peter, Peter knows exactly where to turn when he finds himself in trouble and sinking.
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Lord, save me.
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Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
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Although Peter's doubt may appear to be the point of the story, it is not.
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But like the Greek language actually reveals, Jesus identifies Peter as a little faithful one.
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Remember when you heard me say that faith must have an object to attach itself to?
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Otherwise, it's faith in nothing.
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This is what happened to Peter.
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He stopped looking at the object of his faith, the source of his identity, and began focusing on the turmoil around him.
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He stopped believing our Lord's word, spoken
into his heart and into his ears when he said, Come.
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The point of this miracle story is who Jesus reveals himself to be.
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Listen closely to the confession of faith at the end of this reading.
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And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.
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That's the point of the story.
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There is no doubt who Jesus is in their minds and their hearts now.
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At the very word of faith, at the very word of Jesus, faith is created in the heart of his hearers.
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And this is you, dear little faithful ones.
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This is the identity you have because you have faith in Jesus.
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But know this, we too are a lot, a lot like Peter.
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When the difficulties of life and temptations come and the turmoil of the world, we will take our eyes off Jesus.
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So fix your eyes on Jesus.
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Because where your Jesus is, there your faith is also.
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Just as Jesus was there for St.
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Peter, he's here for you today, creating faith in your hearts.
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He is here for you, in the word preached, in the sacraments given.
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Remember, you do not create your own faith.
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You cannot grow your own faith.
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You cannot muster up enough faith to believe in Jesus all the more.
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It is a gift.
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Only your Lord does that in you.
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And it is our Lord's Holy Spirit who continues to create and grow faith in you by pointing to Jesus and what he has done for you on that cross.
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It is the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus to you in water and word and body and blood.
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We believe because the faithful one has filled us, his little faithful ones, with faith.
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So then let's conclude this way.
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How does our Lord fill us with faith?
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Just like he did with the disciples, he comes into the boat and brings peace and faith.
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So also he comes here to this place, to this boat, to this ark of the church.
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It's not a mistake that this is called the knave.
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And he fills our hearts by delivering to our ears and our mouths his own word and his own body and blood.
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In the holy ark of the church, our Lord promises to create faith in us.
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And this is where his water and spirit-born little faithful ones gather.
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So, like Peter and the disciples, we're little faith-filled ones.
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We confess Christ and Him crucified with our mouths because we believe Him to be the true Lord and God in our hearts.
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This is our faith talking.
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Therefore, I tell all of you go in peace.
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Your faith, who is Jesus, has saved you.
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Amen.
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Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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Amen.