Speaker 1: Matthew, Chapter fourteen, verse twenty two. Immediately Jesus made the
Speaker 1: disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of
Speaker 1: him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd.
Speaker 1: And after he had dismissed them, he went up on
Speaker 1: a mountain side by himself to pray. Later that night,
Speaker 1: he was there alone and the boat was already a
Speaker 1: considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the
Speaker 1: wind was against him. Shortly before dawn, in the Last
Speaker 1: Watch of the night, the King James talks about the
Speaker 1: last watch of the night, Jesus went out to them
Speaker 1: walking on the lake, and when the disciples saw him
Speaker 1: walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost,
Speaker 1: they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately
Speaker 1: said to them, take courage it is I. Don't be afraid.
Speaker 1: This is irrational because I don't care if it is you, Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's weird that you're walking on water, so I'm still
Speaker 1: freaked out, even if you are the son of God.
Speaker 1: But Peter watched this. This is the part of story
Speaker 1: that usually gets preached about, and it's the part I'm
Speaker 1: gonna preach about too, because good Lord, if it's you,
Speaker 1: Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water.
Speaker 1: Come me, he said. When Peter got down out of
Speaker 1: the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
Speaker 1: But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and
Speaker 1: beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus
Speaker 1: reached out his hand and caught him, You of little faith,
Speaker 1: he said, why did you doubt? And when they climbed
Speaker 1: into the boat, the wind died down. I'm going to
Speaker 1: give this message tonight a one word title. I'm calling
Speaker 1: this man it's winded. Win did help us Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: penetrate through the surface, get deep inside where you can
Speaker 1: do your work in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, I know
Speaker 1: you're tired. You could be seen to take a seat,
Speaker 1: take a rest. Y'all tire? I mean generally in life?
Speaker 1: Are you tired? How many of y'all work out so
Speaker 1: you can have extra energy? How many y'all work out consistently?
Speaker 1: How many y'all work out semi consistently. How many y'all
Speaker 1: going to start in January with the workout plan and
Speaker 1: enjoy the rest. I have a confession to make, all right,
Speaker 1: here's my confession. I work out a lot. I don't
Speaker 1: believe in cardio, believe in it. I'm believe in it.
Speaker 1: I like lifting weights, heavyweights too. Man. I was in
Speaker 1: there squatting big weights the other day, proud of myself.
Speaker 1: Nobody was in there to see it but me. But
Speaker 1: I promise you I was squatting a lot of weight
Speaker 1: the other day. Good form too, going down real deep.
Speaker 1: I can bingch press pretty good. I can move some
Speaker 1: pretty good weights. I'm not saying I could enter a
Speaker 1: competition or anything like that. I'm forty two and I
Speaker 1: do have a lot of injuries going on, and I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna be on celebrates for the next seventeen years.
Speaker 1: The point I'm trying to make is that I like
Speaker 1: lifting heavy stuff. But when I went out to play
Speaker 1: pickleball with Elijah the other night, because he's got me
Speaker 1: on pickleball. Now y'all play pickleball, he figured out real
Speaker 1: quick how to beat me, make me run. Because no
Speaker 1: amount of biceps, triceeps, trapezoids, what's some other muscles, None
Speaker 1: of it matters. Quadriceps, none of it matters when it
Speaker 1: comes to lung capacity. It's the fact of the matter
Speaker 1: is that when I got out there on the court,
Speaker 1: even though I work out four days a week, five
Speaker 1: days or six days, that we sometimes I work out
Speaker 1: every day, I mean just every day I'll get in
Speaker 1: there and do something. So why am I out of breath?
Speaker 1: Why am I huffing and puffing around this court like
Speaker 1: I weigh eight hundred and twenty pounds, like I'm on
Speaker 1: one of those intervention shows that you see where that
Speaker 1: person can't get out of the bed. Why am I
Speaker 1: huffing and puffing like it's my last breath? Yeah? No cardio, right, thanks.
Speaker 1: It's an illustration, lady supposed to be the volunteers tonight,
Speaker 1: I got hecklers. I'm out there for five minutes. All
Speaker 1: the string training in the world isn't doing anything for me.
Speaker 1: I'm winded, and once he figured that out, bam, bam bam.
Speaker 1: If he can make me move enough, I'm out now.
Speaker 1: I'm probably exaggerating the point, but it's kind of hilarious
Speaker 1: that I invest so much time into what I call
Speaker 1: exercise and I got seventeen year old wearing me out
Speaker 1: on a pickleball court. This isn't even a full tennis court.
Speaker 1: This isn't like the US Open or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's pickleball. How many I don't even know what pickleball is.
Speaker 1: I'm out there playing pickleball, just huffing and puffing and
Speaker 1: blowing stuff down. Anyway, That's not the kind of winded
Speaker 1: that I want to talk about. But I want you
Speaker 1: to get the feel about it today, because you came
Speaker 1: in like that, some of you. The devil figured you out.
Speaker 1: He figured out if he can gets you running bam
Speaker 1: boom boom. That although you're really, really, really really good
Speaker 1: at Sundays, that sometimes your lack of cardio Christian cardio,
Speaker 1: it tells on you. You know, it never crossed my
Speaker 1: mind all the times I preached on Peter getting up
Speaker 1: and walking to Jesus on the water, because let me
Speaker 1: tell you something right now, I have given Peter a
Speaker 1: thorough investigation this incident in his life. I never I
Speaker 1: don't know why I never thought of this, but I
Speaker 1: never really stopped to think about how tired the disciples
Speaker 1: were at the moment that Jesus finally showed up. First
Speaker 1: of all, they rode all night by not with any
Speaker 1: kind of motor But secondly, this is not quite as obvious,
Speaker 1: but I think it's worth pointing out they just finished
Speaker 1: feeding twenty thousand people. I was five thousand, five thousand
Speaker 1: men and women and children. Twenty thousand is conservative. If
Speaker 1: Larry Brye was counting that, he'd call it fifty thousand.
Speaker 1: He has no integrity with numbers. Every other area I
Speaker 1: trust him, but with a number, uh uh, cut it
Speaker 1: in half, divide it by three. That's the number. When
Speaker 1: he tells your number, I would never let him do
Speaker 1: my budget ever, love your skinner. When they finished this miracle,
Speaker 1: now think about how much energy this would take. First
Speaker 1: of all, there is the fact that they weren't really
Speaker 1: planning to feed twenty thousand people. Imagine the mental stress
Speaker 1: of having to feed five thousand men and women and
Speaker 1: children when you really didn't know where it was coming
Speaker 1: from to begin with. And even though what God did.
Speaker 1: I want to stay here too long because it's not
Speaker 1: the real message, but I want to I want to
Speaker 1: bring you into the I want to bring you into
Speaker 1: the miracle, honestly, because even though it was amazing what
Speaker 1: Jesus did by feeding this hungry crowd, it was still exhausting.
Speaker 1: It was exciting. We just saw the most incredible thing
Speaker 1: that Jesus did. I mean, he just kept breaking off pieces,
Speaker 1: and every time we thought we would run out, we
Speaker 1: would come back to him and he would give us more,
Speaker 1: and we would take it to them and come back
Speaker 1: to him. And it was amazing, but it had to
Speaker 1: be exhausting. When Easter, we had about eight or nine
Speaker 1: worship services just at the campus where I was preaching live.
Speaker 1: The day after Easter, I couldn't get out of bed.
Speaker 1: The next I couldn't get out of bed because I
Speaker 1: back then before I had any good sense to play
Speaker 1: a video so I can be around past age forty five.
Speaker 1: I preached all of them live, one after another, and
Speaker 1: about Tuesday or Wednesday, when I still couldn't get my
Speaker 1: energy up, I started to feel like I wasn't honoring
Speaker 1: God because he had done such an amazing thing. I
Speaker 1: think we had two thousand people give their lives to
Speaker 1: Christ that Easter. And I was excite, exhausted. I was
Speaker 1: exhaust excited, exhausted. I was so happy what God did.
Speaker 1: I was so thankful that he let us see it.
Speaker 1: I was so amazed that I got to be a
Speaker 1: part of something of that magnitude. I mean, that was
Speaker 1: absolutely incredible and I was absolutely exhausted. I thought it
Speaker 1: was a sin, but I was just winded. I thought
Speaker 1: I wasn't grateful. I thought, man, I should be running
Speaker 1: around giving God a shabbakh praise. I should be running
Speaker 1: around clapping my hands all you people. I should be
Speaker 1: giving God praise for what he did. And all I
Speaker 1: want to do is just lay here because I gave
Speaker 1: everything that I had to give, and I'm winded. And
Speaker 1: it was wonderful. But I'm winded because guess what I
Speaker 1: had to preach the next Sunday and the next Sunday,
Speaker 1: and back then it was Saturday and Sunday. Any of
Speaker 1: y'all remember Saturday night church? See y'all do that with excitement.
Speaker 1: I'm having PTSD. I'm having PTSD from running from the
Speaker 1: ball field over to the church's Saturday night. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to be a good dad, but I need to be
Speaker 1: a good pastor. And the people need a word from
Speaker 1: the Lord. But the kids need a dad on the silence.
Speaker 1: And I just told you everything I know about God
Speaker 1: last Saturday night, and now you want me to say
Speaker 1: something else. I get winded. I get winded. It's the
Speaker 1: worst thing in the world to have a job that
Speaker 1: you have to do when you yourself are winded, especially
Speaker 1: when you don't want to show anybody how bad your
Speaker 1: cardiovascular conditioning really is. Yeah, winded, I said, Lord, that's
Speaker 1: a weird thing to call a message winded. You know
Speaker 1: why Why would I call it winded? He said, because
Speaker 1: in the text it says that the wind was against
Speaker 1: the disciples. But even before the wind started blowing against
Speaker 1: their boat, they were already exhausted. And that is a picture.
Speaker 1: This is people here in church tonight. The people who
Speaker 1: are in here tonight are people who understand what it's
Speaker 1: like to try to worship God when you're winded and
Speaker 1: work for God yourself. I mean, it's not like you
Speaker 1: get to just sit around all week waiting for Sunday
Speaker 1: and praying. I came out here one Sunday to preach. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm preaching hard to boom boom boom. I'm going for it.
Speaker 1: I feel no response from the people, no love from
Speaker 1: the people. I go backstage. I'm like, God, what was
Speaker 1: the problem. Did I use the wrong text? Did I
Speaker 1: exegete it wrong? Did I dishonor you? Did I not
Speaker 1: put enough attention? And the Lord said, they're tired they're tired.
Speaker 1: It's an eight thirty am service. They're tired. Some of
Speaker 1: them are sleeping good anyway because they're worried about their job.
Speaker 1: Some of them are sleeping good anyway because they're sleeping
Speaker 1: in a separate bed from their spouse and they don't
Speaker 1: know how to get the marriage working again. Some of
Speaker 1: them are sleeping that good anyway because they're staying up
Speaker 1: all night, playing out things that in their life, reliving
Speaker 1: things from their past, worrying about things in their future.
Speaker 1: They are tired. And at that point, the Lord told
Speaker 1: me that I would need to stand up in my
Speaker 1: pulpit every week, and no matter how winded I was
Speaker 1: from my own life, that I would have to learn
Speaker 1: how to depend on Him, to depend on his wind,
Speaker 1: to depend on his spirit, not to need from the
Speaker 1: people a response in order for me to preach God's word.
Speaker 1: I'm appreaching a minute when I'm winded. When I'm winded,
Speaker 1: I am susceptible to forms of discouragement that I don't
Speaker 1: even pay any attention to when I'm full of energy.
Speaker 1: When I'm winded, I am vulnerable to temptations that don't
Speaker 1: even incite or arouse my craving when I've got my
Speaker 1: full strength. When I'm winded, I start trying to give
Speaker 1: up on stuff that I fought the devil to get
Speaker 1: in the first place. When I'm winded. When I'm winded,
Speaker 1: I start thinking crazy stuff. When I'm winded, I don't
Speaker 1: even know if I can sit here with my family,
Speaker 1: even though I know I love them, but I don't
Speaker 1: know how to be present because I'm in three places
Speaker 1: once I'm winded. And what's this. It's not that everything
Speaker 1: that's happening in my life is bad. What they just
Speaker 1: saw Jesus do was amazing and they're not complaining, but
Speaker 1: they are human. I want you to write something down.
Speaker 1: You had written anything else down tonight, and if you
Speaker 1: don't write anything else down, you write this now, so
Speaker 1: you have some notes from tonight to prove that you
Speaker 1: came here. The Holy Spirit does not consult human schedules.
Speaker 1: I know you don't want to hear that again, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it again. The Holy Spirit does not
Speaker 1: consult human schedules. Jesus did not turn to the disciples
Speaker 1: after the Feeding of the five thousand and say, y'all
Speaker 1: feel like ah, make a little trip. It wasn't any RSVP,
Speaker 1: it wasn't any kind of it was Look how the
Speaker 1: Bible says that in verse twenty two, I'm gonna show
Speaker 1: you this because y'all got Jesus in your head way
Speaker 1: too soft, I'll show you verse twenty two. Put on screen, y'all.
Speaker 1: Immediately Jesus made the disciples, no church vote, no sabbatical.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, get in the boat. I see you on
Speaker 1: the other side, and that's it. That's it. So famously
Speaker 1: he sends them into a storm and they have to
Speaker 1: deal with the struggle of going through something that they
Speaker 1: did not foresee. What's interesting about this room is that
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've just been so in this
Speaker 1: church for two weeks or somebody was over here. We
Speaker 1: were celebrating ten years. What an amazing thing. What do
Speaker 1: you do again, Clemson? I don't remember what they said production.
Speaker 1: That's really cool. Who was it back here that was
Speaker 1: doing the data entry? Yes, Cindy, Cindy. Has it ever
Speaker 1: been Wendy Cindy? And what I mean by that, let
Speaker 1: me clarify, Let me do this for the whole rom.
Speaker 1: I don't want to pick on Sindy, but well use
Speaker 1: Cindy for an example, because it works really well fanatically, Wendy, Cindy, all,
Speaker 1: how many of y'all are greeters in the church. Isn't
Speaker 1: it fun to greet people? When is fun to greet people?
Speaker 1: Isn't it fun to greet people when you got a
Speaker 1: good eight hours? Isn't it fun to greet people when
Speaker 1: God just answered your prayer? And it fun to say
Speaker 1: welcome to elevation when you're happy to be there too.
Speaker 1: And Yet the measure of discipleship is not the enthusiasm
Speaker 1: that you bring to a task. When the waters are
Speaker 1: still and the lake is calm, and the stomachs are full.
Speaker 1: Watch this. Everybody in the crowd is leaving with a
Speaker 1: full stomach. The disciples are exhausted having to take the
Speaker 1: bread individually to five thousand family units. Do you know
Speaker 1: how much cardio that involves? And then pick up all
Speaker 1: the basketfulls of broken pieces that were left over. You
Speaker 1: know how big and heavy the baskets were. This is
Speaker 1: a picture of why some people leave church on Sunday
Speaker 1: big smiles, Oh, that was wonderful. The ones who leave
Speaker 1: early before the invitation even happens, so they don't have
Speaker 1: to fight traffic with four cars in the parking lot
Speaker 1: while somebody's being snatched. There's just us tonight, Chris. Is
Speaker 1: why I'm not putting this a lot because some people
Speaker 1: leave going, ah, that's wonderful. But sometimes you gotta leave
Speaker 1: saying I'm Sto'm success, I'm fired, I'm tired, I'm fired.
Speaker 1: I don't know how I feel, but I want to
Speaker 1: do what you want me to do. Jesus am I
Speaker 1: right about this. Don't trust the Christian who never breathes heavy.
Speaker 1: Don't trust the Christian who never cries tears. Don't trust
Speaker 1: the Christian who never comes in looking like they've been
Speaker 1: through hell, smelling like smoke. Was said, there was a
Speaker 1: fourth man in the fire. I said it. There's some
Speaker 1: cardio for him. This is what it really feels like
Speaker 1: to do ministry. It's like, oh, that was amazing. I'm exhausted.
Speaker 1: I feel used by God. I feel used, I feel
Speaker 1: taken for granted. Pastor, you got that camera put in
Speaker 1: my house again? Yeah, I got one. Watch this. I
Speaker 1: got a camera that's way better than one in your kitchen.
Speaker 1: The Lord, show me what you've been dealing with in
Speaker 1: your spirit. So I'm gonna give you something that he
Speaker 1: gave me from my private stash. I don't let just
Speaker 1: anybody have this in any What do you think. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the Word of God and this is our volunteers.
Speaker 1: I love this church man. There is no place in
Speaker 1: the world like elevation. I don't care. I don't care.
Speaker 1: Tell the devils senate, there's no place. So when they
Speaker 1: take you for granted, when they take you for granted
Speaker 1: in what you do, you know what that means. You're good.
Speaker 1: It means that you have gotten so good at what
Speaker 1: you do that you are on par with oxygen. People
Speaker 1: don't even think to thank the air. They just breathe in.
Speaker 1: When you get really good, Nobody says you showed up
Speaker 1: on time. They just assume that if you signed up
Speaker 1: to do it when you set you would do it.
Speaker 1: You meant come hell, come high water, come storm, come
Speaker 1: win come. If I set I would, I will. So
Speaker 1: that's one of my biggest goals in pressing. I want
Speaker 1: to be good enough to be taken for granted. I
Speaker 1: want to get to the point where I told somebody
Speaker 1: the other day, the proof that you are really preaching
Speaker 1: is they stopped thinking about preaching and started thinking about
Speaker 1: Jesus in the middle of your preaching, that the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit was speaking to them so much that you just
Speaker 1: became a ghost in a black hoodie. Nobody even cared
Speaker 1: who you were. At the end of the night. It
Speaker 1: was the Holy Spirit speaking to their soul. And Yet
Speaker 1: the challenge of this that if we're honest, a lot
Speaker 1: of the times, as we are moving and maneuvering through
Speaker 1: the demands of our life, it is very difficult for
Speaker 1: us between breaths to see the big picture of all
Speaker 1: that God is doing. But I'm going to help us
Speaker 1: with that. If you came in winded spiritually, and this
Speaker 1: could be from the long marathon, many of you aren't
Speaker 1: winded because of your role in the church. I understand
Speaker 1: that many of you that's your that's your happy place,
Speaker 1: that's the one time in the week where you feel like, man,
Speaker 1: this matters and I love this. Not very convincing. I
Speaker 1: kind of floated that out there, all right. See, I
Speaker 1: know what you're thinking, because you're like, yeah, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: happy to be here, very glad to be here. No
Speaker 1: sooner do they get in the bow than they feel
Speaker 1: the wind is against them. For all of you Christians
Speaker 1: who try to prove that you are in the will
Speaker 1: of God by the absence of contrary wind. In other words,
Speaker 1: we think that everything God gives us to do the
Speaker 1: proof that he called us to do it, it is
Speaker 1: that it's easy. It said from the moment they set out,
Speaker 1: the wind was against them. The crazy thing is if
Speaker 1: they would have turned around and went back, the wind
Speaker 1: would have been blowing for him. But I can't go
Speaker 1: back because I had a word from God that he
Speaker 1: said he expected to see me on the other side.
Speaker 1: What we've been out here an hour and this wind
Speaker 1: keeps saying, we've been out here two hours. It's already late.
Speaker 1: The whole reason that the disciples wanted to send the
Speaker 1: crowds away in Matthew fourteen when the hunger arose is
Speaker 1: because it was already late. So now imagine it was
Speaker 1: already late when they started feeding people. Do the math
Speaker 1: on how long it takes to get food distributed to
Speaker 1: five thousand family units. And now we got to go
Speaker 1: three more miles and they do against the wind. Well,
Speaker 1: here comes Jesus, And did you notice the Bible said
Speaker 1: he came about dawn, or more specifically verse twenty five,
Speaker 1: shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ask a question, and it's not rhetorical. Why did he
Speaker 1: wait so long? You're like he didn't know they were
Speaker 1: in trouble. It's Jesus, and he was on a mountain
Speaker 1: so he could see them in the sea. Why did
Speaker 1: he wait? Well, he was up there on the mountain
Speaker 1: praying for them. Maybe was, But at this point I
Speaker 1: could use Jesus as a thirteenth rower, because y'all know
Speaker 1: Judas wasn't rowing anything in the boat. Judas back there
Speaker 1: the other way, so when he show up at the
Speaker 1: last possible moment before the darkness goes away, so that
Speaker 1: they can have trouble recognizing him because the sky is
Speaker 1: not illuminated, so that they would have to trust him
Speaker 1: by faith, based on not what they saw with their eyes,
Speaker 1: but what they heard with their ears. And Peter, Peter goes,
Speaker 1: I want to do that. Peter just has to be different.
Speaker 1: It's not enough just to fall in line and road.
Speaker 1: Peter does good. He starts walking to Jesus in the
Speaker 1: direction of Jesus. I don't know what kind of encouragement
Speaker 1: is going on. Jesus tells him to come. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he reinforced that over and over again. The
Speaker 1: text doesn't say it could be that this is all
Speaker 1: Jesus said, and that Peter had to go off of
Speaker 1: that for the entire journey. I do know that Jesus
Speaker 1: wasn't exactly close to the boat, because if he had
Speaker 1: been close enough to the boat, they would have recognized
Speaker 1: him as Jesus, and they wouldn't have said, if it's you.
Speaker 1: So I know it's some distance and Jesus is coming
Speaker 1: up from some distance, and Peter's moving toward him for
Speaker 1: a long time. We don't really know how many steps
Speaker 1: he took, but he famously fell. And that's what the
Speaker 1: Lord wants to speak to us about tonight. Is right
Speaker 1: there in verse twenty nine, where Peter got down out
Speaker 1: of the boat, walked on water, came toward Jesus. But
Speaker 1: when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning
Speaker 1: to sink. Cried out, Lord saved me. Immediately Jesus reached
Speaker 1: out his hand and caught him. Oh you have little faith,
Speaker 1: he said, why did you doubt? Now that's a complicated question.
Speaker 1: Why did you doubt? It's not easy to explain the
Speaker 1: reasons that we begin to doubt what God has called
Speaker 1: us to do. It's not as easy. You know, people
Speaker 1: will give you simplified solutions for spiritual struggles, Just trust
Speaker 1: the Lord and stuff like that. What about the trauma
Speaker 1: that makes it hard for me to trust anybody, especially
Speaker 1: of God that I can't even see. And when you
Speaker 1: tell me to trust the Lord, how do I know
Speaker 1: that it's Him that I'm trusting and not just my
Speaker 1: idea that I had when I stepped out in faith?
Speaker 1: That is a very complicated question. Why did you doubt?
Speaker 1: Did somebody else's voice get in his head? It's a
Speaker 1: very complient. It's a complicated thing to describe your insecurities
Speaker 1: to somebody. A lot of people look at you, how
Speaker 1: handsome you are, how beautiful you are, how strong you are,
Speaker 1: how gifted you are, how talented you are? How uh,
Speaker 1: what's the word it means? Like bubbly? Your personality is
Speaker 1: what's the technical word? Effervescent? Is that right? Effervescent? And
Speaker 1: they look at you and they're like, she's so effervescent.
Speaker 1: If I had her effervescence, Oh, man, Cindy, she's just
Speaker 1: so strong. Cindy is so steady and so consistent. But
Speaker 1: it gets it gets Wendy for Cindy too. Why did
Speaker 1: you doubt? Why were you having a conversation with yourself
Speaker 1: this week? Does it even really matter what I do?
Speaker 1: And does anybody really care that I do it? And
Speaker 1: am I even really good at it? You can get quiet.
Speaker 1: The Holy Ghost told me this message, so I'm not
Speaker 1: confused about it. I know. And meanwhile the devil tells
Speaker 1: me the same stuff, So I know what that feels like.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what that feels like. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you exactly why I get in that place. I can't
Speaker 1: tell you exactly all of the psychological and neurological factors.
Speaker 1: I don't know all the things that accumulate in one's
Speaker 1: life to bring you to a point where you begin
Speaker 1: to doubt. When you're doing so good, you know, really
Speaker 1: staying on top of it, really doing good with the diet,
Speaker 1: really doing good, stay and clean, really doing good. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna confess the word. I'm gonna think positive, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have a Bible reading streak. I'm gonna do it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. It's really hard to understand what goes
Speaker 1: wrong in those moments when you sink so rather than
Speaker 1: answer that question, which is never explicitly answered in the
Speaker 1: text why did you doubt, probably because it's far too
Speaker 1: complicated to be included in this simple story. I want
Speaker 1: to answer a simpler question, and instead of asking why
Speaker 1: did he doubt? I want to ask the question when
Speaker 1: did he doubt? The answer is in verse thirty. But
Speaker 1: when he saw the wind. There is nothing in this
Speaker 1: text that indicates that the wind got stronger at this
Speaker 1: moment and knocked Peter off of his balance. From all appearances,
Speaker 1: the wind was blowing at the same velocity as it
Speaker 1: had been blowing the whole time he stepped toward Jesus,
Speaker 1: and he's walked a long way against the wind. It
Speaker 1: doesn't say when the wind picked up Peter fell. It
Speaker 1: doesn't say when the wind gained and started to gust
Speaker 1: and thrust with momentum. Peter fell because the wind got
Speaker 1: so bad. It doesn't say when the circumstances got worse
Speaker 1: Peter's faith weakened. You know, actually a lot of times
Speaker 1: when the circumstances get worse, that's when our faith actually
Speaker 1: locks in and gets stronger. Because now I know I
Speaker 1: need God and I can't play around. Now I'm getting
Speaker 1: to the place of realizing that if I don't have Jesus,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sink out here. No, no, no. It wasn't
Speaker 1: when the wind got stronger that Peter fell, It said,
Speaker 1: when he saw the wind, the same wind that had
Speaker 1: been blowing against him the whole time. It was blowing,
Speaker 1: but for so many steps, he wasn't paying any attention
Speaker 1: because he was locked on Jesus. For so many steps,
Speaker 1: he wasn't paying attention to how the waters moving to
Speaker 1: so many friends. He wasn't paying attention to how it
Speaker 1: was rocking this way or that way, or the waves.
Speaker 1: He wasn't paying any attention to that. The wind didn't
Speaker 1: pick up. His focus changed, His eyes shifted, He started
Speaker 1: looking past the one he was walking toward, and when
Speaker 1: he did, he saw the win Wind? Did Peter fall? Wind?
Speaker 1: Did wind? Did winded? You start focusing on all the
Speaker 1: things that are going wrong so much that you forgot
Speaker 1: that God brought you from a mighty long way? Whin
Speaker 1: did you'll forget that his blood prevailed that Calvary, that
Speaker 1: one drop was enough to come? When did you? When's
Speaker 1: did you become one of these? Hand in my pocket? Christian?
Speaker 1: You used to be wild, You used to be a worshiper.
Speaker 1: You used to be like David. You used to be undignified.
Speaker 1: You used to try when we say about the goodness
Speaker 1: of God. When did Maybe he got tired out. There
Speaker 1: is hard walking on the water. It's hard keeping your focus.
Speaker 1: I've been rowing all night. I've been feeding people at him,
Speaker 1: planning to have come over. I've been smiling at people
Speaker 1: who came in grumpy. I've been trying to be nice.
Speaker 1: I've been trying to be guydd Win did your feelings.
Speaker 1: I'm not picking on Peter Man. It's hard enough for
Speaker 1: me some weeks to get a haircut and pick out
Speaker 1: a shirt and get up and grab a microphone and preach.
Speaker 1: So God knows. I love him for trying. But when
Speaker 1: he saw the wind, it what it wasn't like it
Speaker 1: just started at that moment. Aha, that would make sense.
Speaker 1: But you've been doing this the whole time. We'll walk
Speaker 1: you through it sometime. We'll walk you through those moments
Speaker 1: where you quit caring. We'll walk you through those moments
Speaker 1: where you started believing. I was writing in my journal
Speaker 1: one day and the Lord gave me something very powerful
Speaker 1: and painful to hear. He said, you stopped believing that
Speaker 1: your faith can change situations. Now you use it as
Speaker 1: a coping mechanism. You don't put your faith on stuff
Speaker 1: like you used to. When did when did? Why did
Speaker 1: he doubt? I don't know. I'm not Peter. Only he
Speaker 1: can answer that. I don't know when did? I don't
Speaker 1: know why did Peter die? I know when he did
Speaker 1: when he started looking at what was against him? Am
Speaker 1: I talking about Peter? Or am I talking about you?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it? He foolish for you to get fixated on
Speaker 1: all of those who didn't love you and not receive
Speaker 1: from those who do. When did you get hard hearted?
Speaker 1: You used to be open. You used to pray for
Speaker 1: other people. You used to do that, And you know what,
Speaker 1: when you prayed, you expected something to happen from it.
Speaker 1: You checked up on it. You were texting them ten
Speaker 1: minutes later. Did it happy yet? Okay, I'm gonna pray more. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm a brand tongues. Did it happy yet? When did
Speaker 1: you stop being that little girl you used to sing
Speaker 1: to Jesus. You used to sit in your room and
Speaker 1: sing to Jesus. Devil stole your song because you went
Speaker 1: in a storm. When did It's just a question. When
Speaker 1: did you take your eyes off of what Jesus was
Speaker 1: moving you toward and start only thinking about what was
Speaker 1: coming against you? Hey? Reality check? When did Jesus know
Speaker 1: there was going to be a storm when he told
Speaker 1: them to go? He knew exactly what these fools were
Speaker 1: about to face. Nah, he's not shocked. Hey, hey, everybody
Speaker 1: in here is struggling with well, I don't know if
Speaker 1: God can use me because I've been struggling with some
Speaker 1: stuff in your life. Well, let's get that figured out.
Speaker 1: Let's don't just have you wallowing around and sin just
Speaker 1: wrecking your life and all that. But hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: when did God set you apart before you were born?
Speaker 1: So one Bible verse I would like you to learn
Speaker 1: is in the Coromans the New Testam Balgromans that says,
Speaker 1: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So
Speaker 1: if he called me Jeremiah one six and set me
Speaker 1: apart from my mother's womb, and then he saved me
Speaker 1: while I was still a sinner, why would he stop
Speaker 1: using me now just because I struggled with something? You
Speaker 1: know what else? I never really realized I love the Bible.
Speaker 1: I think I think I'd probably like preach this Bible
Speaker 1: story once a year and see if God will show
Speaker 1: me something new in it, because I never thought about
Speaker 1: how far Peter came before he fell. How did I
Speaker 1: miss this? How could I? Really? It's in the text, y'all,
Speaker 1: in verse thirty one. Immediately Jesus reached out his hand
Speaker 1: and caught him. We have already established that Jesus was
Speaker 1: at a far enough distance where they could not see
Speaker 1: him except through his silhouette. You mean to tell me
Speaker 1: Peter got all that way? The Bible didn't say. When
Speaker 1: he cried out, Jesus ran over and picked him up.
Speaker 1: I'm coming, Peter, No, the Bible said, immediately, Peter was
Speaker 1: within arm's reach of Jesus. And you want to fall now.
Speaker 1: You are this close to your breakthrough. You are this
Speaker 1: close to being the person God. You are this close
Speaker 1: to your free You are this close to your kids
Speaker 1: turning around and coming back to God. You are this
Speaker 1: close to your miracle. Ah. No, I didn't columb this
Speaker 1: farm to fall down now. So it taught me a lesson.
Speaker 1: It taught me the times when I'm tempted to look
Speaker 1: away are going to be the times when I'm closest
Speaker 1: to where God is bringing me. The spirit says, you're close.
Speaker 1: Keep coming, You're close, Keep coming. You're closer than you
Speaker 1: think you are. You're closer than you've been before. You're
Speaker 1: closer than my having me three orders. You're closer than
Speaker 1: you've ever been. You can't go down now, you can't
Speaker 1: tap out, now, you can't die now, you can't turn
Speaker 1: around now. That's nothing that does there too. I'm close, baby,
Speaker 1: That's why this witness rowing sous. The enemy knows I'm close.
Speaker 1: You're close. I don't know who this is for, but
Speaker 1: you're close. Ah, You're so close. You are so close.
Speaker 1: See the Bible says that they worshiped him when he
Speaker 1: got in the boat and the wind died down. And
Speaker 1: that's one way to do it. Oh God, I'll worship
Speaker 1: you when this battle is over. Oh God, all worship
Speaker 1: you when I'm done with this situation. Oh God, I'll
Speaker 1: worship you when you restore the relationship. But why not
Speaker 1: worship him? Why you're still in it? Did your grace
Speaker 1: him in the middle of the store. When did your
Speaker 1: rasion in the sealing of the night? When did paul
Speaker 1: that silence start to see that? Did night I'm preaching.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching. When did you start shrinking down your God
Speaker 1: to the size of your problems? When did you start
Speaker 1: telling you're you're all of your problems. When did you
Speaker 1: stop telling your problems how big your God is? Just
Speaker 1: telling God all the time, Oh my problems are so big.
Speaker 1: Oh my bills are so bad. Oh my cholesterol. Oh God.
Speaker 1: You can list that all day, or you can shift
Speaker 1: your attention back on Jesus. I feel a shift happening
Speaker 1: in this room tonight. It's a subtle shift, but it's
Speaker 1: a saving shift. It's a small shift, but it's like
Speaker 1: a rudder. It's gonna turn the shift back in the
Speaker 1: right direction. Hallelujah. So so, so Jesus gets in the boat.
Speaker 1: How many want them in your boat tonight? Come on,
Speaker 1: I want him in my boat. I want him in
Speaker 1: my bom. I want him in my boat. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna come at your golf claft. You gotta really really
Speaker 1: want him in your bo You got to want him
Speaker 1: in your boat. You got to want him in your boat.
Speaker 1: Oh God, oh God. So all right, all right, So
Speaker 1: if this word is for you received this next part,
Speaker 1: when did the disciples know why Jesus sent them into
Speaker 1: a storm. When they got to the other side, let
Speaker 1: me be your pastor for a moment. It won't make
Speaker 1: sense until the other side. I'm almost done, give me
Speaker 1: Verse thirty four. When they had crossed over, they landed
Speaker 1: at Gannessaret. And when the men of that place recognized Jesus,
Speaker 1: they send word to all the surrounding country. People brought
Speaker 1: all their sick to him, and tim to let the
Speaker 1: sick just touch the edge of his gloak. And all
Speaker 1: who touched were here. When did they know why it
Speaker 1: was important to get through the storm? You reckon? It
Speaker 1: took about three healings. It says the whole city started
Speaker 1: coming to Jesus when they got there. Did it take five?
Speaker 1: Did it take ten? Do I hear twelve? Fifteen? Do
Speaker 1: I have a fifteen? Do I have a turn? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, certain disciples probably saw it real quick. Oh
Speaker 1: that's why we had to get here. Some of us
Speaker 1: are a little slower. How many ways is God going
Speaker 1: to have to show you that everything he takes you through,
Speaker 1: he takes you through for a purpose. Let everything that
Speaker 1: has led, everything that has If I'm still alive, if
Speaker 1: I'm still breathing, if I'm still standing, there's a reason
Speaker 1: he didn't let me go down. He's not through with
Speaker 1: you yet. If he said on to the other side,
Speaker 1: he'll meet you there. You've got to get through it.
Speaker 1: You have got to get through it. I don't know
Speaker 1: who this is for or what you've been contemplating, but
Speaker 1: you have got to get through it. You have got
Speaker 1: to press through the doubt. You have got to get
Speaker 1: through the unbelief. You have got to get through the crowd.
Speaker 1: You have got to process the trauma. You have got
Speaker 1: to move through the emotions. You have got to get
Speaker 1: through it. It will make sense on the other side.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's on the other side of your storm.
Speaker 1: Only he does. You don't know what's on the other
Speaker 1: side of your obedience. Only he does. You don't know
Speaker 1: who you told welcome to Elevation Church when they walked
Speaker 1: in someday, Only he does. You don't know who you
Speaker 1: gave a smile to. Only he does. Only he knows
Speaker 1: what's on the other side. Only he knows what he's
Speaker 1: taking you to. You don't know, You don't have to know.
Speaker 1: You just have to get through it. When did you
Speaker 1: stop believing that God can get you through this. Touch
Speaker 1: three people. God can get you through this. Tell them
Speaker 1: God can get you through this. And you may not
Speaker 1: even know why. You may not even know why. You
Speaker 1: may not even know why I came all the way
Speaker 1: back here. Because this is Jody. Y'all, everybody say, hey, Jody,
Speaker 1: come on, this is Jody. This is his wife, Emily.
Speaker 1: If you can see her on the camera, she looks
Speaker 1: a lot like Holly because they're sisters. Not only is
Speaker 1: Jody a David Crowder impersonator by day, he loves singing Joey,
Speaker 1: but he is also the instrument that God used after
Speaker 1: my mom taking me to church every single week as
Speaker 1: a little boy. Some plant, some water. D So when
Speaker 1: did I meet this bald beauty? When did I meet him?
Speaker 1: My junior year of high school? When did I When
Speaker 1: did I give my life to Christ? After he sat
Speaker 1: down with me for three hours at Alex's Restaurant in
Speaker 1: Monk's Corner, South Carolina? When am I gonna hey? When
Speaker 1: am I gonna take my hand off his head? When
Speaker 1: I'm dang well ready? This is my volunteer night. I
Speaker 1: only get one a year, and after answering three thousand
Speaker 1: of my questions, I asked this man everything I could
Speaker 1: think of, because I wasn't sure that the God my
Speaker 1: mom had raised me to believe in was real. But
Speaker 1: that didn't stop her from taking me to church. Then
Speaker 1: so here comes Jody boom Put. My man was on
Speaker 1: a traveling revival team Life Action Ministries. He was a
Speaker 1: singer on the Life Action Ministry's revival team, traveling with
Speaker 1: a revival called America You're Too Young to Die Truth
Speaker 1: under God? And then you know this whole story. He
Speaker 1: pulled me out of church the next night. The preacher
Speaker 1: wasn't even started his sermon yet. He grabbed me. He
Speaker 1: said let's go. And he sat in a room with
Speaker 1: me till two in the morning, and I told him
Speaker 1: I what to give my life to God? I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to miss out on my high school experience,
Speaker 1: all the girls I would have been, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: But he sat with me. He sat with me. He said,
Speaker 1: all right, well, I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna just pray
Speaker 1: that you change your mind. I come back to him
Speaker 1: the next night, I say, what did you do to me?
Speaker 1: I think it worked. I think it were When did
Speaker 1: let me ask this question? Elevation Church began two thousand
Speaker 1: and six when we had our first service nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: when Faith ferdiict well beautiful baby boy into the world,
Speaker 1: took him to church, dedicated my grandfather, dedicated me, and
Speaker 1: baptized me to the Lord in the Methodist Church. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's one answer. When did when did this church, this
Speaker 1: ministry begin? When a boy from one of Robins, Georgia
Speaker 1: sat down in a restaurant in Monks Corner, South Carolina
Speaker 1: and answered me when I said, well, where did the
Speaker 1: dinosaurs come from? Who asks this stuff? I did? And
Speaker 1: then I think about my mom's up there, and I
Speaker 1: think about JODI's right here, and I think about Lj's
Speaker 1: playing softly so I can start closing this sermon, and
Speaker 1: I think about me being in the middle of y'all,
Speaker 1: even just how this feels right now. And I think
Speaker 1: about when you walked in the doors of our church
Speaker 1: for the first time, and I think about when God
Speaker 1: grabbed a hold of you and you said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of something bigger than
Speaker 1: me and God, don't let me fall in front of
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred people help me day. When did when did
Speaker 1: I know you? I know you feel sometimes like man,
Speaker 1: at least I do. Maybe you're just more mature than me.
Speaker 1: I know you feel like sometimes I can't keep doing
Speaker 1: all this. It's too much. I can't keep fighting this, man.
Speaker 1: I just I don't. I don't feel like trying today.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like being me today. I don't feel
Speaker 1: like going into somebody else today. But I want you
Speaker 1: to take comfort in this that Jesus not only saw
Speaker 1: the storm before he sent them into it, he saw
Speaker 1: what was on the other side received that. I want
Speaker 1: you to just breathe as deep as you can, all right,
Speaker 1: I promise I won't turn it into yoga, but just
Speaker 1: breathe as deep as you can. God said he wanted
Speaker 1: you to catch your breath before you leave here tonight.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it just knocks the wind right out of you.
Speaker 1: You can get one text knock the wind right out
Speaker 1: of you. But the moment that he fell, Jesus was
Speaker 1: right there, and he still is. There are miracles on
Speaker 1: the other side of this, you know that, right They
Speaker 1: got to take Jesus to Ganesseret so he could heal
Speaker 1: an entire city. You are carrying the presence of Christ,
Speaker 1: and it's exciting and it's exhausting. But I promise you
Speaker 1: one thing. It's worth it. Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast,
Speaker 1: there are a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. He
Speaker 1: can also help us reach others by investing today at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church dot org, slash gift and thanks again for
Speaker 1: joining us on the Elevation Podcast.