March 1, 2026 Walk On Water: Stepping out to trust our faithful God | Deuteronomy 7:6-10

Today, we are celebrating GEMS Sunday. The GEMS theme this year comes from Deuteronomy 7:6-10, Walk on Water. Girls everywhere are battling the storm of life and are tossed and turned by waves of lies, doubt, and fear. Many girls are simply treading water, looking to culture, social media, or peers to determine their identity and define truth. In Deuteronomy 7:6-10, we discover God’s faithful character and learn that God is always with us. God invites ordinary people to step out in faith to be part of his awesome plan 

Transcript

Walk on Water-GEMS Sunday

Deuteronomy 7:6–10

Thank you GEMS for leading us in worship this morning, it’s good to have you so involved in our worship service. Your GEMS theme for the year is really challenging, in a good way. Your theme Walk on Water calls us to trust deeply in God, during the good and the hard times. When I first read your theme of walking on water, I first thought of Peter walking on the water, so I was really surprised when I saw that the Bible passage was from Deuteronomy when Israel’s in the wilderness because there’s not a look of water in the wilderness. 

Deuteronomy was written by Moses near the end of his life, after leading Israel through the wilderness for 40 years. Moses remembers how God guided, protected, and provided for Israel during those years. Often, we only see where God was when we stop and look back in order to see how God was with us, protected us, and guided us. When we remember, it helps us trust God because we’re reminded that he’s more powerful than any of the things that scare us, that he can heal us from the things that hurt us, that he can protect our hearts and souls from people and situations that might cause us to doubt God’s goodness, grace, and presence.

These verses from your GEMS theme remind Israel of who they are to God, “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord has chosen you out of all the people on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” Israel’s special to God; he chose them from all the nations in the world. They’re ordinary people, they didn’t do anything special to deserve being chosen by God, but God chose them to show the world who he is. It’s like when you’re playing a game that involves picking teams. Now you can pick a team made up of all the best players so you can win, or you can pick your best friends and have fun, and hopefully still win, but you pick the girls who are special to you, even if they aren’t any good because you are friends. God picks Israel because he wants to have a special friendship with them. 

Moses reminds Israel how God saved them from Pharoah king of Egypt, how he brought them out of slavery but defeating Egypt’s gods through the plagues. Then when Pharoah came after them with his mighty army to bring them back to Egypt as his slaves again, God saved them in a powerful way, he led them through the sea by pushing the water in the sea back so they could walk through the sea on dry ground. When Pharoah comes after them, God lets the water go back over the Egyptian armies, drowning them, saving Israel again. This would have been impossible for any other god to do, only our God is strong enough to defeat any enemy out there. 

That’s who our God is, and “he’s the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” Do you know how long a thousand generations is? A generation is normally about 20-30 years, so God’s covenant of love is going to last for 20-30,000 years! That’s a long time! The oldest person in our church is less than 100 years old, so 20,000 years is really hard to imagine. God’s saying that he’ll always keep his covenant of love with them; that’s a big promise that includes you and all of us here this morning, and all the people who love God and follow his commandments. God wants us to follow him out of love; Jesus later tells his disciples in John 14:15 that “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” It’s kind of like your relationship with your parents and your GEMS counsellors. When they tell you something, you do it because you love them because they’re here for you; they’re here to help you, guide you, even protect you when things get hard. God is not saying that he’ll only love them if they love him back; he’s inviting them to love him because he’s committed himself to loving them, even when they sin and mess up. 

Throughout Israel’s history, especially during the hard times, God shows that he has their backs, as we heard in your litany, and it’s the same today when times are hard, God’s with you and he’ll help you through them. It’s hard being a girl today, or even an adult because it often feels like we’re in a storm and are being tossed and turned by waves of lies, doubts, and fear. Just like when you’re on a ship at sea during a storm and the waves come crashing over the side of the ship and you can feel it tipping over, it can feel like everything’s too much. Having daughters and granddaughters, they’ve mentioned how it sometimes feels hard to keep their heads above water as they try to figure out what it true, who they are, and why they’re here. 

Many turn to our culture, or social media, or friends to figure these things out. The problem is when you turn to our culture or social media, all they do is tell you that you’re not happy enough or pretty enough, that you don’t have enough, but if you trust them, they can make you popular, pretty, and fill all your dreams if you follow them or send them money. They don’t love you, they only love your money and clicks, and they’re willing to tell you anything to get you to follow them. They won’t be there for you when times are hard, when you’re being teased, when other people tell stories about you that hurt, when friends turn away, or there’s hard times at home. Your friends care about you, but they’re just trying to figure things out like you are.

Peter writes to people who are struggling and reminds them in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Peter encourages them to stand strong because God loves them as his special people. God has guided them out of darkness and dark times into his light, his truth, to Jesus who loves so much he took our sin to the cross. 

God promises a long-term relationship with us; he won’t give up on us even when we might want to give up on him. This covenant flows out of his relationship with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when he promises to be their God and they will be his people. Your litany picks up on God’s love for you, his willingness to be there with you during times when you’re confused or uncertain like Joshua, afraid like Peter, hurt or betrayed like Joseph, facing danger like Daniel, or when he’s calling you to do something you’re not ready for yet like Moses, in times of excitement like the Samaritan woman, or when you need forgiveness in a deeper way like Peter who is then called to live for Jesus. 

Each of these people in the Bible learned how powerful and faithful God is. He knows how confusing and hard things can be at times because Jesus came to earth to be with us and live with us, experiencing the same things we do. When times come when it feels like we’re living in a storm, when the winds are blowing against us and the waves are beating against us, we remember Jesus in the boat with his disciples during a storm, and when fear over whelmed the disciples and they woke Jesus up from his sleep, how Jesus stood up and rebuked the storm and it calmed down. The disciples marveled at how Jesus had power over the storm; and it’s a reminder to us when the storms of life come, that we can turn to Jesus and he can bring calm and safety into our lives too. We hear again those words from Moses, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” My prayer is that the GEMS and counsellors, and each of you here this morning, will confidently face life’s storms head-on, guided by God’s Word, and knowing and believing God is with you. God’s faithful, he can be trusted! He’s with us, and through his presence and with his strength, we can answer his call to be his children in our world, helping others to put their trust in God who can help them through their own storms of life. 

I’d like to close with a few lyrics from the song Even If, 

They say sometimes you win some

Sometimes you lose some

And right now I'm losing bad

It's easy to sing

When there's nothing to bring me down

But what will I say

When I'm held to the flame

Like I am right now?

Oh, give me the strength

To be able to sing

It is well with my soul

I know the sorrow

And I know the hurt

Would all go away

If You'd just say the word

But even if You don't

My hope is You alone

You've been faithful

You've been good

All of my days

Jesus, I will cling to You

Come what may

'Cause I know You're able

I know You can

It is well with my soul

It is well

It is well with my soul