The Church of Eleven22 - Why Do You Doubt? - When He Asks - Wk 4

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

The enemy wants you to believe your doubts and doubt your beliefs. Don't let those doubts from the enemy prevent you from doing what God is telling you to do. Just as Mary told the servants at the Wedding at Cana- we must do whatever Jesus tells us to. - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen and amen and amen. Well, it is official. You can finally now say it not be a weirdo. Merry Christmas. I know Pastor Brits been celebrating since June 4th or whatever he picks, but for our normal people, it is finally Christmas. How many of you are finished with the Christmas shopping?

Anybody? God bless you in your ministry, all right? How many of you still need lots to do? All right? How many of you have the person that it's impossible to shop for? You got that person? Great. I've got the perfect gift idea for you.

Ready? Shane and Shane Christmas concert right here. Sunday at 7 p.m. Do it. Get the gift, all right? Because you're actually, I mean, come on, man. This is the greatest gift ever. What I am giving to you is worship unto the Lord. If you need to buy a ticket, which you do, you can text, I think this is hilarious, the word chains to 44, 1122, okay, because there's two of them. Text that, be here. Trust me, it is going to be awesome. Now, what we're celebrating at Christmas is this, it's the landed invasion of Christ. And in our time together today, what we're going to do is there's kind of, what I hope to accomplish in this sermon is celebration and challenge.

Got it? Celebration and challenge. And we're going to do the celebration part first. We have decided today that we're going to celebrate the 10-10 life that we have been chasing after over the last two years. I heard you cheering and applauding for the video that we showed. but just so you know, we have been in this two-year journey. Seems like 10 years, doesn't it? Seems like we've been doing this forever, all right?

And I loved in that video that we showed where the guy said, Jesus didn't come to give us an abundant two years. He came to give us an abundant life. And so two years ago, we challenged our whole church. The goal was that 100% of people that consider 1122 to be their church, which with our online folks now, there's people literally in 127 different countries, plus all the people that go to all of our campuses.

We were asking 100% of people to ask this fundamental question, am I living the abundant life that Christ has for me, or is my life defined by an abundance of possessions that would never fully and finally satisfy? And we felt like God gave us a vision for a whole bunch of things, and it's pretty amazing what God has decided to do in us and through us. And so it's kind of crazy, and you don't know this, but in church world, only about 20% of people participate,

financially at the church. I know that sounds crazy, but that's other churches. At our churches, church, we had 54,852 people individuals give to the 10-10 life. We had a total of 20,353 commitments. We had 25,225 first-time givers. These are people that for the first time in their life, they trusted God with their finances. We had a secondary goal, and I stood up here a couple years ago and said, we are believing God to accomplish all the things that he's called us to accomplish, that we are believing God will deliver $110 million over two years to accomplish all these things. And it looks like, I mean, we've still got December, so you better keep going. But it looks like that we will exceed that goal by somewhere between

$26 and $27 million. Okay. So praise God. Praise God. Praise God. And you're like, what are we going to do with all that. We're going to do all the things we said we're going to do. We're just able to do it faster. We'll just be able to plant more churches and more missionaries, put more campuses all over the place. God has done some amazing stuff. This is hard to get your mind around. Since the time we started the 10-10 life two years ago, the in-person average attendance at all of our campuses has increased, ready, by 7,000 people. That's three megachurches and a half. That's what that is. There have been 5,457 people proclaim Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior for the very first time.

Amen. And we baptized 3,900 people. In addition to that, there's about 50,000 people. It's 49,979. That many people, every single week, worship live with us online all over the country and all over the world. So you online people, praise God for you. We love you. And stay tuned.

We've got some stuff specifically for you coming up in January, so be plugged in for that. And from our online community, we've had 406 people surrender their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Praise God for that. Some people in my circles, my like reform pastor circles, they're not the funnest people to hang out with. And they like to fight about online church. I'm like, okay, you guys fight about it. If you want to be disciples by 1122 and you can get the internet cord to your house, then we will disciple you. That's where I'm at on that.

We planted 216 churches around the world in the last two years. We sent 25 long-term missionaries. Almost 1,300 of you went on short-term mission trips, and we launched four more campuses during this 10-10 lifetime. That's North Jacks, Duvall Women's Correctional, Ponavitra campus, and Wild Light. I was at Wildlight last week, and it is wild. It is going awesome.

Way to go. In addition to this, remember, we said that we felt like God was calling us to not just be a church that was like pro-life as a political stance up to the point of birth, but to be pro-life from womb to two. And here's some things that happen. I'm going to say my favorite one for last. It gets me all choked up every time. We've got 105 families licensed to foster children. We've sponsored 8,022 children. That includes the 1,748 that we sponsored last weekend. Praise God. Way to go. Way to go. So we were already in first place at 21,000.

Now we're at 23,000 in some change. We're lapping the other churches. So take that the people that listen to me, okay? I dare you to try to catch up. What else? Our prison ministry, there's this thing called a Pando app. If you were in prison, you have like a tablet that you can search certain apps.

And through our government, they've allowed 1122 to be one of those apps. We've had at, at, in, prisons all over the country just during the 1010 life, 1,920 prisoners have come to Christ by worshiping with us online. Seven of our campuses are stop stations for our police officers. We have 64 chaplains commissioned to serve first responders. We have 15 senior adult worship gatherings that happen every single week.

It's just incredible. And maybe my favorite one of all. Okay. this is reported to us from the Christian crisis pregnancy centers that we work with. The biggest one is First Ghost Women's Services, but also down in St. Augustine and a few other places. Ready for this? This is what they reported from our involvement through finances and volunteers with those organizations. 2,672 babies have been saved through the 1010 life.

I'm just telling you, man. Mark my words. and about 15 years we're going to start hear more and more stories, you know what I mean? Because these kids are going to be in our student ministry and being sent out as missionaries and things like that. And so you may be asking, part of the reason I bring all this up, okay?

A lot of it is to celebrate, many, many, many of you were involved in that, praise God. And a lot of you were a part of the 7,000 people that weren't here when we started. You're like, well, what about me? Well, get involved, okay? One of the things that's cool about the way we do things around here is we do what's called a one fund project.

So every time you bring your first and best, your ties and offerings to the Lord, everything that you bring goes to everything that we're doing, if that makes sense. And so, and we're not going to stop doing any of these things. But the entire 10-10 life journey, if you really boil it down, it was all about this. I mean, John chapter 10, verse 10 says, the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus says, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. And then we know what the abundant life is. He tells us, I am the good shepherd. Then he goes on to say, my sheep, hear my voice, a stranger they will not listen to. And so when we his sheep hear the voice of the good shepherd and we take a step of obedience in the direction of the good shepherd,

that always leads to abundant life. And every single time we stiff-arm that voice and we say, no, no, no, no, I've got a different idea. it always leads to the enemy killing and stealing and destroying. So for some of you, praise God, man, way to go. You did the thing. God challenged you to do a thing and you did it. For some of you, I would ask this, what is he telling you to do now? Some of you are doing it, way to go.

Some of you heard it for the first time as a part of the 10-10 journey and you started on the journey and you've kind of fallen off the journey. Well, get back on. And some of you are, for the very first sign, going to hear the voice of the good shepherd in some area. So I want to talk about what do you do when you feel like Jesus has called you to do something that may scare you a little? If you got your Bible, I want you to go to Matthew Chapter 14. We are in the fourth week of this series called When He Asks.

Jesus asked about 307 questions in the Bible. He only answers three, but he asks these questions of us all the time. we've been dealing with the questions that God ask us. And the question that we're going to deal with today is this. Jesus looks at one of his disciples and says, why did you doubt? Why did you doubt? Let me ask you this.

Any of you ever struggle with doubts? Anybody? Anybody? All right. I don't know if this messes you up. Me too. Me too. And it's not just why do you doubt,

but maybe a legit question is this. What do you doubt? anybody ever doubt God? I mean, you're praying and you're praying and you're praying? Listen, I know this is maybe sacrilegious and I apologize, but there are times in my life where I'm like, God, I've got it all figured out. I've got the whole thing figured out, okay?

If you will just say yes to my prayer request, I promise this going to go good for you and me and everybody. I mean, once I'm in the Bible, you healed a lady accidentally. You didn't even mean to. It doesn't even look like the plan. You're walking through Copernum. The crowd is pressing around you. you felt power leave you

who touched me and you accidentally healed this lady so surely if you can accidentally heal somebody maybe you could heal the person that I'm praying for specifically what you think come on and then he doesn't maybe maybe you don't doubt God sometimes you ever doubt you

there's a new word for this you ever have imposter syndrome I mean it could be at work and you're sitting in a seat and you've got responsibility and everybody thinks you're awesome and you want to to continue to think that. You just know the truth?

You ever doubt that he sees you or is listening to you? You ever doubtly answer your prayer? You ever read the Bible? And you're like, that's hard to believe. You ever do that? You ever notice how sometimes you believe and you believe and you believe and then your circumstances begin to change and as they do, your level of belief goes from

not as much belief to a lot more questions. That ever happened to you? You ever notice that our doubts can ebb and flow with the highs and lows of our life? Well, I'd love for you to look at Matthew chapter 14. We're going to look at this very famous event. It's not a story. I hate when people call it Bible stories.

Because this is not like a long time ago in a galaxy far away. This is an actual event, okay? Like if the news was around back then, you could watch this on Channel 4. This happened. And a lot of times when we do Bible study, we just kind of pick up right in the middle of an event, but it's often a really good idea to see what was going on in the events around it.

And what we'll find out here is that Jesus also experienced really high highs and really low lows. And his disciples experience the same kind of ebbs and flows in their life that we do. And so what we're going to be looking at is eventually we're going to get to verse 22, where Jesus walks up. own water. That's pretty awesome. Seems like a high moment. But it comes after some pretty serious lows. At the very beginning of Matthew chapter 14, Jesus finds out that John the Baptist, his cousin, has been beheaded and is dead. Okay? So if you've ever heard some preacher say the safest place you could be is in the will of God. Well, don't tell John the Baptist, because it got his head cut off, all right? Jesus is sad, man, obviously. And, and

And, you know, we talk about it all the time. We don't follow Jesus because he makes life better. We follow Jesus because he is better than life. And so Jesus gets his news, and he's very sad. And you know what his first instinct is? His first instinct is to go find somewhere so that he can pray alone. Well, the problem is, is while he's on his way to find his prayer place, there's a whole bunch of people that begin to gather around him,

like thousands and thousands and thousands of people, begin to gather around him. And the Bible says that he has compassion on them and they're hungry, they're without food. The disciples come up to them and say, hey, boss, we got, you know, 5,000 men, the only count of the men. So if everybody's got a date and a kid, we've got 15,000 people.

So preacher numbers, well, there's like 38,000 people there, you understand? And the disciples are like, well, how are we going to feed them? And Jesus looks at the disciples and says, why don't you feed them? And they're like, we don't have, all we got is these two little fish and these five loaves of bread

and one crying kid. That's all we got. We got nothing to do. And then Jesus blesses the food, hands it to the disciples, and the disciples feed 5,000 people. That'd be a high. Can you imagine if you're a disciple? Bad news.

John the Baptist got his head cut off. Good news. I just physically, tangibly, with my own hands, participated in a miracle, and I have made a very good career decision to drop my nets at the Sea of Galilee and follow after Jesus, because I'm in the miracle business.

Very high. after this happens John lets us know that the crowd is so enamored with Jesus they want to make him king but he didn't want to be the king of Israel he was going to be the king of kings and his path was not a throne the way he was going to get to the throne was through a cross

and so he's got to avoid the crowd he sends them away I don't know how you disperse 15,000 people but he could do what he wants to Jesus and then he tells the disciples I want you to get in the boat and get out of here ready break go and then he why so that he can go to a desolate place to pray so you know when jesus prayed

he prayed in the lows and he prayed in the highs how about you we i was talking to some friends today some staff members today about our prayer life and i i pray real good in the moments of desperation and i don't have a tendency to pray so hard when everything's going well like if i just fed 5,000 people I'm like, high-five God. But when I'm desperate for him to do a thing, I tend to pray. Jesus always thought it was the right time to pray. So that's the context that we pick up, Matthew 14, beginning in verse 22. It says this, immediately.

So after feeding the 5,000, after dispersing the crowd, pay attention to this. He made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side. You might want to jot this down, too, especially if you're real young. Sometimes Jesus makes you do stuff. You know, this is not a democracy in the kingdom of God. You don't get a vote. Sometimes he just makes you do stuff. That's what it means when he's your Lord.

And here's what, just in case you knew the Bible study, he made them get into the boat and go before him to the other side. Jesus is going to send them into the storm. He knows how this night's going to go. He knows the weather at the Sea of Galilee is about to turn bad. It's the lowest freshwater lake on the planet. There's big high mountains on the side. A northeastern wind can come through, and hurricane-type waves can all of a sudden out of nowhere stir up on the Sea of Yally.

It happens a few times in the New Testament. And Jesus, knowing that they're about to go into a storm, directs them into this storm. Why do I bring that up? Because sometimes when bad things happen to you, you'll begin to wonder why, why, why, why? Man, I don't know, man, because he's the, the answer is always this. glory of God. That is the answer. And then you might have to like reverse engineer to figure out how this is going to glorify God. I got a real, I got a real close friend of it. Uncle Josh, you know, Josh Turner preaches here sometimes, says inappropriate things. You know that guy? Yeah.

I love him. They found out at birth that their daughter Riley was born with severe special needs. And one of, and we would talk to this a lot and a question that he would often ask me is Did God cause this or allow it? And I'm like, dude, I don't know. The only thing I do know is that he's sovereign over it all. And if he isn't, then there's no hope for any of us. I know that no matter what, Romans 828 is true that God is at work in all things for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. And I know somehow when we step out of this broken earth into heaven with him, now we see dimly and one day we will know and see fully.

and somehow you're going to see God glorified like crazy. And his only resolution, Josh comes down, this, I love this so much. He goes, the only thing I can figure out in this is this, man, I love Jesus. Even though my circumstances are not the way I would have dictated him, man, I love Jesus. I would also point this out to you. Sometimes he'll change your circumstances. And sometimes he's using those circumstances to change you. I mean, I told you a couple weeks ago, me yelling at the football team.

Everybody wants to be strong, nobody wants to be sore. Be careful. Sometimes the thing that you're asking God to deliver you from is the very tool that he's using in your life to conform you to the image and likeness of Jesus. I mean, we're all called to take up our cross and follow Jesus. That ain't easy, man. That is painful. It is brutal. and so he sends them to the other side while he dismissed the crowds verse 23 and after he had dismissed

the crowds he went up on the mountain side by himself to pray he prayed in good times he prayed in the bad times he just prayed all the time and when evening came he was there alone but the boat by this time was already a long way from the land beaten by the waves for the wind was against them So here's a problem. The boys are in trouble. So if you go from where they are to where they were told to go, it's a four-mile boat ride and you stay along the seashore. And these boys have probably done this a million times.

And it should only take maybe at most a couple of hours. But now they're not along the seashore. The wind has pushed them out. We find out from the Gospel of Mark that they're four miles out into the middle of the ocean, or the middle of the sea here. And the wind and the waves are swamping them. And we're going to find out in a minute the time that Jesus shows up. And so if they left in the evening and he's going to show up during the fourth watch

about five o'clock in the morning, then they've been out there battling the wind and the waves in the dark for about eight or nine hours. And they obviously don't have control over the boat is going because you're supposed to come out of here and hang a right and stay by the seashore and go that way. But if they're out in the middle, then they're halfway. there's Hiberius, which is that way. And things seem like they're out of control. This is something to pay attention to.

Resistance does not mean that you're not going in the right direction. Let me say it again. Resistance does not mean that you're not going in the right direction. There is this kind of, everything's going to work out easy as long as you're in line with the will of God, kind of ideology that people have, and it couldn't be further from the truth. Sometimes God caused you to do a thing, and you're, you know, people are like, well, I was just waiting for the door to open.

Where did you get that? I don't know about you, but sometimes, like, the easiest thing to do is to obey the voice of the stranger and go the world's way because you just go with the flow. Sometimes the very thing that God calls you to do creates all the hard words. and all the resistance and all the pain. And for a while it seems like nothing's going right. Listen, man, God may be pruning some things out of you so that you'll be ready to do what he has for you

when you get to the other side where he's called you to be. So don't avoid the hard, man. God's called may be very, very, very hard and not smooth sailing whatsoever. And in the fourth watch of the night. This is between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. How many of you know that God's timing is not our timing? You don't think these boys have been praying?

Do you know what's already happened in the Gospels already? One time Jesus was in probably the same boat with the same guys who were all professional fishermen and a big old storm comes up and they all freak out. And what's Jesus doing, gifted class? He's sleeping. He's in the bow of the boat. He's asleep, all right? And see, here's what will happen though.

What the disciples in that moment, they're doing it in this moment, too, we'll find out in a second, is they've got trust. Faith is a gift from God, but what you do with it is you're an agent of what you do with that trust. And in that moment, they take their trust and they put it in the wind and the waves. They put it in their circumstances. And so they go and wake up Jesus and they say, we are perishing, we are about to die. Do you not even care? Which can tend to happen, right?

When you look around at your circumstances and you find your circumstances, and you find your in the storm and it's not going the way you think it should go, you can have a tendency to believe the lies because fear is a liar. And fear can begin to try to convince you that God doesn't care about you because if he did care about you, then he'd wake up from the boat and he'd do something and answer your prayer that a way you wanted it to be answered. By the way, you know who had that attitude with Jesus? The thief on the cross that railed against him.

You ever think about that? When Jesus is crucified, he's crucified between two thousand. thieves. One in humility says, will you do me a favor? Will you remember me when you go before your father in heaven? That guy goes to heaven. The other guy comes to Jesus on the cross with this attitude. If you are who you say you are, then this is what I need you to do for me. How many times do we walk into church with that kind of attitude? If you are who you say you are, then this is what you owe me. And so Jesus gets up, in the boat with them. I think he looks at them but speaks to the waves and says,

Peace, be still, and the whole place calms down. So now they're out in the boat again. But this time, what's the problem? Jesus didn't win them. Don't you think they're crying out and crying out and crying out? If you want to do a little extra homework, you gifted people, go to Psalm 77 or Psalm 107. Those are two descriptions about being in place of trouble

and crying out to God and him calming the seas. And so they're crying out and they're crying out. This is interesting, though. It's 5 o'clock in the morning. They've been out there for probably eight hours. God's timing. Man, listen, he's timeless. So maybe that's why he's not on our timeline.

And they think they're in a mess, and little do they know that God is going to use this that one day they could share the message of hope. Mark chapter 6 says that even though Jesus is on, the mountain praying and they're four miles off the shore. Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus sees them. One of the biggest lies the enemy wants you to see when you find yourself in a mess is the enemy wants you to think that God doesn't see you.

Man, I learned this this week from a pastor named Renaud down in Orlando, one of the smartest guys I've ever met. The first time a human in the Bible ever names God, I think is Genesis chapter 13. Hagar is being cast out of Abraham's family and protection. And the name that she calls God is she calls him the God who sees. The person that is rejected calls God the God who sees. Here's what I want you to hear. God sees you.

No matter how you walked in here, whether you're listening online or if you're listening three months from now driving in your car, I'm just telling you, God sees you. God knows. He knows exactly what. You're going through, and he still has the whole world in his hands. And in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus came to them walking on the sea. The very thing that the disciples think are their biggest problem is the pathway that Jesus is going to use to come walk upon the disciples. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified.

Here's the key to understanding this passage. They were terrified. You see, fear is. and doubt are first cousins. As your fear increases, your doubts will increase. And one of the things the enemy wants you to do is he wants you to believe your doubts and doubt your beliefs. What Jesus wants you to do is to believe your beliefs

and doubt your doubts. And they are terrified. Again, fear is a liar, and fear can cause faith amnesia. Do you know what I mean by that? Like when fear begins to increase, it can make you forget everything God's ever done for you in your life. These guys are less than 24 hours away from doing a miracle with their own hands. That's why I pointed it out earlier. The disciples come to Jesus. These people need food and he says, you feed them. And so the Bible doesn't say

that Jesus fed the 5,000. Of course, it was his power that made it happen, but it was done through the hands of the disciples. Do you realize this? You can't read by this. You've got to think about this. They're talking to Jesus. He says a prayer and he hands them. one twelfth of a fish, and it's not like a delicious striped bass like this. The fish in the first century, it was like, it was a condiment to the bread is what it was. It's a little sardine thing that's real salty, and you rub it on the bread, and it kind of and it makes it more flavorful. I know that doesn't sound flavorful right now, but it was then, okay?

And so they hand you one twelfth of that, and then you turn around. You're like, okay. Did Jesus ever tell you to do something? Doesn't make sense? He's going to do it again here in a minute in this episode, and there you are, man. He's blessed a little, I mean, you've got two biscuits and the head of a sardine. There's 15,000 people. And at some point, you've got to start doing what he says.

You feed them. And so in the hands of the disciples, I mean, how much do you hand to the first guy? He don't take much, okay? I don't think we're going to make it three in. And then at some point, have you ever thought about it? At some point, they're handing it out, and they're like, oh, my gosh. Like, the more I give away, the more I have to give away. I can't stop giving it away.

And then you go to the bigger people first, but like, hey, you want some more? Hey, man, I got here, you want some more? And they're eating and eating. And the Bible says they eat until they have their fill. And then somebody has to go along back and be like, hey, we're going to collect all the extras here, all right? And at the end of it all, they got 12 baskets left over. and they've got to be thinking, I'm special. God has anointed me and appointed me and he's called be my name and I'm one of his disciples

and I can do miracles with my hands. And less than 24 hours, that night, that same night, they're filled with fear. See, fear can cause fate amnesia. And they are fresh off of feeding 15,000 people. with their own hands. And here's what they say, it's a ghost. Here's why this matters. There was like a cultural folklore in the first century.

And water in the Bible, like the sea in the Bible, often represented chaos. And so there was kind of this folklore around there that the ghost would roam around the sea and the sea of Galilee at night. And in one second, when fear rises up, they forget the word of God. and they adopt the culture that they live in. Yeah, good thing, that never happens in church anymore, right? In one second, they take their eyes off the truth of Jesus, that he can calm the storm, that he is with them,

that he said, I will never leave you and forsake you, and in one second they forget the truth of the doctrine that Jesus is preaching, and they adopt the folklore of the day. And they cry out in fear. It's a ghost. verse 27 but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying take heart it is I don't be afraid now if you are a first century Jewish person which you're not all the lights on your dashboard would go off right here okay when Jesus says it is I this is the Greek version of what God tells Moses in Hebrew

in Exodus chapter 3 when Moses encounters a burning bush and he hears a voice saying, you go and tell Pharaoh let my people go, and he says, who should I say sent me? And God Almighty says, you tell him my name is, I am that I am. This is the Greek version of this. Jesus says, take heart, I am.

Part of what Matthew, Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience, Matthew wants everybody that reads the gospel of Matthew to understand that all of the Old Testament was pointing to the serpent crush, who would come named Jesus. That Jesus is the greater Moses. So if you think about it, think about some of the things that are happening right now. There's three things that point to this already.

If you read about the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus sits everybody down orderly to hand out bread. This is almost verbatim of what Moses did when the people of Israel were crying out for manna, and he would sit them down orderly and deliver them to bread. And then the people of God, they walk on dry ground through the Red Sea. And Jesus, one-ups it, he does better, that he walks on top of the water.

And when he shows up and they're all freaking out and they say, who are you? They're terrified. Are you a ghost? He's like, no, no, no, no. Take heart. I am. And then right on the heels of that, he says, do not be afraid. You have to link these two things together.

I've told you this a million times. But the most commanded thing in the Bible is some version of don't be afraid. King James Version says 366 times of be anxious for nothing, don't worry, don't be afraid, fear not. And the thing that is most often associated with why you don't fear or why not to be afraid, because I am with you. The Bible says that perfect love drives out fear, and God loves you, and Jesus is the proof. So he says it here, just like when he commands Joshua, before Joshua goes in to fight the armies and crosses the Jordan, and he looks at Joshua and he says, be strong and courageous, strong and courageous, strong and courageous.

Why? Because Joshua is weak and afraid, weak and afraid, weak and afraid. And he doesn't give him a pep talk. How many of you know a pep talk at church won't work? It'll work until you get to the parking lot. Then it's over, right? He says, he doesn't look at him and be like, Josh, I've been training you your whole life and you're good enough, you're smart enough, don't want to people like you.

That's not what he does. He says, be strong and courageous for I am with you. Man, when my kids were little, Ray, and was afraid of the dark, and I'd be tucking her into bed and she was like, I'm scared of the dark. I'm like, why? She's like, because what if there's monsters? And I go, there might be. Don't ever tell you kids there's not monsters, man. I'm serious.

You know why? You don't watch the news? There's monsters. There's monsters. But when your daddy is with you, you don't have anything to worry about. And so we would get out and we would shine light in dark places and say, see, see, see. and I am one call away, and if something sneaks into your room, I promise I will throw it out of your room, okay?

Or when you're walking with your kid, and they're little, and it's dark, and they're scared. When they hold your hand, you ain't scared no more. You have a perfect heavenly father who perfectly loves you, and perfect love drives out fear. So what's going on in the heart of the disciples right now is that they're afraid. And who's going to talk first, who's going to talk most? Peter. And take heart, it is I, don't be afraid. And Peter's like, all right, I'll see you're not afraid, and I'm going to raise you right here. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to

come to you on the water. And you think, why in the world would you ask that? Well, there's a lot of reasons. One, I think Peter understands that it's safer to be with Jesus on the water in the storm than it is to be in the boat without Jesus. That's part of it. But the real reason, you have to understand Middle Eastern thought versus Western thought. This is a big deal. Westerners like us, we use the word, well, I believe in a very different way than a Middle Easterner would use the word, I believe. The word is Pistuo. We have a tendency to say, when you say, I believe, you mean I agree with. Like you say, I believe in Jesus.

What do you mean? That means that you agree with the theological reality that God sent his son to die on a cross for my sin. You're like, I concur. That's not what they mean. When they would say, I believe, they would mean that not only do I think it, but my thoughts leads to action that align with what I say, I believe.

This is different, okay? So Peter, just like every little good Jewish boy and girl, when they were like kindergarten age, they would all go to school. I've told you this before. The first kind of like elementary age was called Bet Shafar. And you would show it to Bet Shafar and you would get a tablet, not like to play Candy Crush, but like a chalk kind of thing. And it probably had the Shama written on it, Shama Israel, the Lord, I God, the Lord is one.

And for many of these kids, you know, all over Jerusalem and that kind of area, many of them had heard of honey and never had honey and oftentimes what a rabbi would do is he would douse honey all over this tablet and on the first day of school imagine a little first graders and you get this tablet and it's got honey on it and the rabbi would say something like

now eat your fill and these little kids would begin to lick the honey off of the tablet and you can imagine what a mess it would be right I mean there's honey everywhere and then your neighbor's hair and on your elbow and these little kids they're thinking I love school

this is so much better than milking a goat at home i love school so much and then the rabbi would say some version of and as your tongue craves the sweetness of this honey may your heart crave the word of god and then they would start memorizing the bible the first five books of the bible and the psalms and this is what they would do oh i mean for years and years and years like four or five years every day they go to school and they would memorize the bible they didn't have Netflix or social media, so what else you're going to do? They would memorize the Bible. They would sing songs, they would do all the things. And then, if you were like in the gifted class, if you were like in the best of the best of the best, you remember the gifted class? Yeah, okay, yeah, me too.

You can remember in Dylan, we didn't have enough for a class, so once a week, the gifted teacher would come into our class, and she'd say, all the gifted kids come with us. And then all these nerds would get up and leave, and there'd be the rest of us. I'd be like, hey, what about us? And they'd just, you know, give us crayons and say, don't worry. about it. So anyway, so if you were in the best of the best, if you were in the gifted, like if you showed real talent, then you got to go to the next level, which was called Betmadrash. And in Bet, Midrash, you would memorize all of the Old Testament. And you would do like this biblical juditsu. Like I would quote a verse, and you would quote the one in front of it and behind it,

those kind of things. I would say a word, and you would be able to give me the first place that word was ever used in the old covenant. And at the end of Betmadrash, if you would be able to give me the if you didn't quite make it I mean everybody's pretty good I mean they memorized the whole Bible now I know some of you that grew up Southern Baptist you know you know the whole Romans road okay neat

they memorized everything from Genesis to Malachi all right every verse and if you were if you didn't quite make it they would come to you and they'd say something like hey good job good job God's very pleased with you but you should go learn the trade of your father

which by the way do you remember who the fisherman and worked for when Jesus came and called him. He didn't call them out of the synagogue. He called him out of the seashore because they worked for their dad. And so I hope you know this, okay? Exhibit A, God loves to use the JV, the B team, they're not good enough, the people that aren't quite as sharp as the rest of us, all right? And then the rest of them, though, if you were really elite, like, then you got invited to Ivy League. You know, it'd be like Harvard, Yale, Georgia, like that level of excellence. I didn't go there. I couldn't get in there. So anyway.

and you would follow a rabbi. Jesus was in the very few rabbis that invited people to follow him. Most of the time the way it happened is you would apply to follow after a rabbi. And here's what's key. The phrase in the first century would be this, that your teacher at school would say, now may you go and be covered in the dust of your rabbi? That you are going to follow every footstep where your rabbi goes.

And you're going to follow him so closely. you're going to do whatever he does, you're going to say whatever he says, you're going to learn whatever he learns, that all of his dust that kicks up will cover you so that you will be indistinguishable from him. To be a disciple of a rabbi in the first century was not simply I'm going to learn the things that you teach, you believed I'm going to become who you are and do the things that you do. Now go back to the boat, and Peter's there, and he screams out, ha, it's a ghost. and Jesus says fear not it is I and Peter's saying all right boss if it's really you I did not simply sign up to to attend your class but your invitation to me was to follow

you so does it count now does it count can I follow you out there and so Jesus simply says he said come which reminds me the way I talk to my dog, you know? It's like, come on, that's it. It's not a sweet invitation, you know? It's like, here, that's all he says. He just commands him. Now let me ask you this.

Have you ever been called to step out of the boat? Have you ever been called to step out of the boat? Have you ever been called by Jesus to do something that doesn't make any sense? That's uncomfortable. That if God doesn't show up in a miraculous way, There's no way this thing's going to happen. This is what Jesus calls Peter to do. So what's Peter going to do?

Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. Here's something that I just noticed. You know, the Bible does not say how many steps. Well, at first, they don't recognize Jesus, so apparently he's over there somewhere. It's not like he's, you know, you can touch him right out of the boat. And apparently Peter walks long enough to get close enough to Jesus. We'll find out in just a second that Jesus can grab on to him. So when Peter does the thing that Jesus tells him to do,

Peter is able to do exceedingly more than Peter ever hoped or imagined. Part of the reason obedience matters so much is you have no idea what hangs in the balance. You have no idea what God has in store for you for his glory. And so we'll get to the next part real quick. But before you get to the part where Peter screws it up, By faith, Peter steps out of the boat, and the only two human beings who have ever walked on water are Peter and Jesus. And can you imagine? Peter's like, oh my gosh, I've been on this water my whole life, but every time I've stuck my foot to this part, it goes to the bottom. And now, because he does what Jesus tells him to do, he walks on water and he comes to Jesus.

And it goes good for several seconds. but when he saw the wind. So what happens, man? He's going to take his focus and he's going to take his eyes and he's going to set him on the storm. He's going to set it on the situation instead of setting his focus

on the sovereign king over the storm in the situation. And it tells us why? Because he was afraid. I've told you this 100 million times, man, the opposite of faith it's not doubts and unanswered questions. If you've got doubts and unanswered questions, I've got great news for you.

You could be a great disciple. Just pick up your doubts, pick up your unanswered questions, and follow after Jesus. One day, one day, when we get to see him face-to-face, it'll all make sense. The opposite of faith is fear,

because faith produces action. Fear paralyzes. And there's a difference between fear and scared. When I went skydiving, like I showed you a couple weeks ago, I was scared all the way. There's totally another word that goes right there, and you know what it is.

I was terrified, but I wasn't afraid. I was able, I wasn't frozen going, I can't go. One step at a time, threw myself out of that plane. I'm not saying it was smart, scared's fine. Taking steps of faith in the direction of the good shepherd. That's called courage, and we need men and women of courage. But he's not. He's afraid.

And what begins to happen is he becomes parallel. and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. I got really good news. That's a prayer that Jesus answers 100% of the time. Notice what Jesus does, 31. Jesus immediately reached out his hand. He didn't scold him. He didn't let him kind of under the water for a little while, teach him a lesson.

He could have let him drown and bring him back from the dead, right? We know this to be true. He lets Lazarus die for four days. That's not what he does. The moment Peter turns his focus back on his savior, because here's what we do. Listen, man, we all have a tendency to do this. If God's ever called you to do a thing and you have the guts to step out of the boat and for a minute you're walking by faith, not by fear.

And then the moment you begin to shift your eyes off of your Lord and onto your circumstances, what do you do? When it doesn't go good, you shift your eyes right back to your Lord. You could skip the whole drowning part. if we stay focused on him and by faith do what he calls us to do. Beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me, and Jesus immediately reached out his hand, and he took hold of him. And he says to him, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?

And we know why, because he was afraid. Here's the key question, though. You ever think about this? What was Peter doubting? Was he doubting Jesus? Was Jesus thinking? Was he doubting that by the power of Jesus he could walk on water? He's already covered the distance from the boat to where Jesus is.

Peter began to doubt Peter. Peter began to doubt that Peter could do what Jesus told him to do. This is a crisis in the church. So many people believe in God. Do you realize? You can't take this too far. But God believes in you? Peter later will write these.

words, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. What does that mean, Peter? That means that if God tells you to get out the boat and he wants you to walk on water, then he has given you everything you need to accomplish everything that he has called you to accomplish. That's what that means. And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him saying, truly, you are the son of God.

By the way, can I tell you something I love about this? The next stop, like the next verse, by the way, it says, and immediately the boat was ashore, said, there's another miracle. They're four miles out, and then as soon as they get in, and Peter does that like shaggy dog, and they're chunk, they're at the shore. How do we get here? Don't worry about it. The next thing that happens, because it's about 6 o'clock in the morning now,

they get off the boat, they're in the area of town where there's a bunch of sick people, and immediately Jesus begins to heal people. And you know what he doesn't tell Peter? Hey, you stay here in the boat. until you can dry off and get your act together, and then maybe you can come be a part of the ministry. I think Peter's not even dried off from sinking in the water, and immediately he is restored and back in the game.

All right, so let's make this personal. We're in the culmination of this 10-10 life. Some of you are new. Welcome. You're sitting in the boat, and you can have a tendency to be filled with fear. and Jesus, just like the guy in the video said, speaks to you louder than you can hear me right now. But deep down in those inside places and you know he's calling you to do something

and he's calling you to step out of the boat and you're looking at it going, it doesn't make sense. And he's like, yeah, I know, I know, I know, but I'm the God of the impossible. And I'll give you everything you need to accomplish everything that I have called you to do. But I'm calling you to step out of the boat. where has he called you to step out of the boat? Or maybe you did, but now lately you've taken your eyes off of him and you put it on your circumstances and you're letting your circumstances rule your life

instead of walking obedience to your sovereign savior. Maybe it's your 10-10 commitment. Maybe it's be generous for the very first time. Maybe when we first started 10-10 life, you know he told you to foster kids. You know that. And yet by fear, you made up some excuses why you weren't going to. Maybe it's give your life to Christ.

Maybe it's forgive or reconcile that relationship. For some of you, it's change your major. And you're so afraid of the approval of your mom and dad. Or maybe start that ministry or lead that disciple group or go on that mission trip. The reality is, man, I can't tell you what it is. I can't. But if you'll lean in, the Bible says in John 10, And Jesus says, I speak to my sheep and my sheep hear my voice.

So what does he call you to do? When I was 19 years old, so way back in the 1900s, I was in college. I had just preached my first sermon that summer at camp. And then I was volunteering at my local church. There was a big old downtown Baptist church. And I helped lead high school guys. And we were doing a Disciple Now weekend. And there was a guy that preached the sermon for our disciple now weekend.

And his name was Wade Morris. He used to do you stuff. He's going to be with the Lord at this point. He actually helped disciple Pastor Britt. He was a dynamic communicator. And one night he was preaching and he tells this story. And I'm going to tell you the punchline of it. He tells the story about bungee jumping and he got this shirt that says shut up and jump.

later that summer, while he was preaching that sermon, that's the night I surrendered to a call to ministry. It was a Baptist church, so you've got to walk down the aisle. You can't do it. Nothing works back there. You've got to come down front until the pastor. It doesn't count. And so it was at that sermon, I walked the aisle as a, like a junior in college, and I felt like God was calling me into ministry. So that summer, I'm serving at a little church outside of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

And in Myrtle Beach, there was the same bungee jump company as this guy with his story. And so I went and did it, partly so I could get the same shirt. Okay? And so this is kind of an amalgamation of his story and my reality when I went bungee jumping one time. I'd run these little Bible studies and we'd have about 15 kids or something. But once a month, we would go to the pavilion in Myrtle Beach. Anybody ever been to Myrtle Beach? if show I'd make sure your tetanus is up to date, but it's a thing, man, dirty myrtle, it's something.

But anyway, the pavilion is like, like we wouldn't go, you wouldn't go there. It's kind of like a state fair that never ends. That's what it's like, all right? And so we'd take kids in the van, and we'd drive down there and get the tickets and do the stuff, and we'd go through the little Haunted Mansion, and it's like me and maybe 15 high schoolers, and we walk out of the Honing Mansion, and there it is. Bungy Adventure America. And I was like, ooh, and all the kids are like, ooh,

Let's do it, let's do it. I want to do it. And I didn't want to do it. But as you saw two weeks ago, I'm not a fan of heights. I don't love it, I'm not. But you'd never want to look like a wuss in front of your high school kids if you're a youth pastor. Jop that down, youth pastors. You got to be awesome.

So I was like, oh, I'd totally do it. I'd do it like a canyon. I'd do it off a bridge. Yeah, let's go. Well, we get up there and I'm the only one old enough to go. And I'm like, well, sorry, guys. Don't worry about it. And they're like, no, pastor, we heard how much, how passionate you were about doing this.

We know you want to do it. So we'll wait. All right. So I go to the desk and they're like, well, it'll be $90. And I'm like, oh, I know. It's first and only time in my life I prayed and thank God for not having enough money to do something. So I came back to him. I'm like, hey, kids, I'm out.

$90. I don't have $90. So let's go. And they huddled together. In about a minute, they're like, here's $90. And I'm like, dude, I'm a youth pastor. I can't pay you back $90. We don't care.

It's our parents' money. Here, go. So you get up to the little thing. they weigh you, that's not a fun situation. You sign this piece of paper that says, you know, if you die, it's not my fault. And then they march you with this atomic wedgy suit thing on. And you're supposed to go to an elevator,

go up 100 feet to jump back down, all right? And then I get there and the elevator's broken. Yeah, and I'm like, I don't want to hear the words broken right now, you know? Like, this ain't good. So you're kind of huffing your way up. Dude, it's 10 flights. That's what you do. Just up and up and up.

And every step, it's like more fray, more afraid, more. afraid, more afraid, more afraid. I mean, you know, 100 feet from here looks high, but at 100 feet, you're looking like seagulls are going under you. I ask Jesus to come into my heart again, just in case I'd messed it up somewhere along the way. It is not okay. And then finally, I get to the top. I am not pumped about this. And there's like a 17-year-old kid eating a half a slice of people on pizza, and he's like, what's up? And I'm like, hey man, I don't know. And then immediately he goes into instruction. He's like, I'm going to hook you up, and I'm going to open this door, and you're going to step out, and he goes, do you want to go head first or feet first?

I'm like, I'm going head first, man, okay? I ain't limping my way into heaven. I'm just going to smash my brains there if that's what I got to do. So I lean out over that thing, and they had this little air mattress that was supposed to, and it was broken. So they moved it out of the way, and somebody had sprayed a target on the cement down there. And so I'm the worst, man. I'm the He was a little skinny kid too. And so I'm holding on to the things. And he's like, all right, I'm going to count three, two, one jump. And I was like, all right.

He goes, three, two, one. And I just, I can't go, man. I can't make it. Meanwhile, my kids that I've been loving and preaching the Bible to and caring for and praying for, they are not loving me back. They are just hurling insults at me. And so I'm like, well, I'm the second time, he goes, three, two, one. And I pause again.

And then he goes, dude, just shut up and jump. And so I stepped off that little thing, who, and I'm telling you, if you ever seen anybody do it, it happens quick. Like gravity is fast, bro. And you don't say a word on the way down, because you think this is over, what have I done? But when that little rubber band catches you, all of a sudden you're brave. You're like, woo, you know, you bounce up and down on the thing. So they let us down.

We're leaving. Let me down. The kids are laughing at me. And when you do this, you get a shirt that simply says, shut up and jump. And the only size they had was medium. I was never able to wear that because it didn't. If it was the 80s, I could have wore the halter top, but you can't do that in the 90s. So anyway, and we were talking to the guy, and he basically said the reason we came up with

this shirt is because wimps like you show up all the time here. And they pay the money and they climb the steps and they get to the top. Then all of a sudden, they've got all these excuses of why they can't go. You know? Like, well, listen, I'm going to need to walk back down. I got to take these kids home. or, hey, listen, I'm a pastor in the Bible sales. I'm not bungee jump with.

If you push me, you go to hell, right? Or I'm in my 50s, and I pee a little when I jump a jack. I think about bungee, I'm going to pee on everybody, all right? Anybody? Thank you. So they just developed this shirt, like quit with excuses and just shut up and jump. Matthew 14. You're sitting in the boat.

Whatever it is, man. Your life is comfortable, maybe. You've been doing the same thing over and over and over and over. You come to church. You like the songs. fairly entertained. We just laughed for three minutes. And you know, I mean, you know that the same Jesus that was standing on that water is speaking deep down here in your soul. And you know, he's like, come on, get out of the boat. And you're like, whatever that is, be generous.

Start the ministry. Share the gospel. Offer forgiveness. I can't tell you what it is. Keep the baby. do whatever he tells you to do. And I'm not trying to be sacrilegious or put words in God's mouth. But he sent me here to tell you tonight. Whatever it is that he has called you to do, just shut up and jump. Just do what it is that he has called you to do. And obedience is the abundant life. Amen.

Amen. Would you stand? Let me pray for you. Our good and gracious heavenly, Father, Lord, I pray that you, through the power of the Holy Spirit would simply give us the faith and the courage to do whatever it is that you've called us to do. God, for some men and women is to come down to the altar for the very first time. They have felt compelled to come down here in front of everybody and pray, but they always got scared. They had an excuse. Lord, I pray they would just shut up and jump. God, for the men and

women that you have called to live a life of an extraordinary generosity, Lord, I pray they would just shut up and jump. God, for those of us that have a one more and we quit praying for them, and we quit inviting and we quit sharing our faith, or maybe we've never done it for the first time, Lord, I pray through the power of the Spirit of God, we would shut up and jump. Lord, whatever it is, the thing is that you have called us to do, may we trust you more than we trust the circumstances around us. And God, may we know it'll be the greatest jump we ever take in our life because we will jump into the faithful, ever-loving hands of our loving Heavenly Father. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Church, we respond. We're going to sing. And we're going to sing a song that has everything to do with what we just talked about, that I am no longer a slave of fear. Some of you are a slave to fear, and the chains need to be broken tonight. And the only thing that will break that is the presence of God. And we're going to bring our ties in our orphans, our first and our best. and we're going to pray.

And we know that we need the power of prayer to accomplish what God has called us to accomplish. So let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond.