Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message
Speaker 1: Elevation Church every location. Can we put our hands together
Speaker 1: and give Jesus the best praise we got? Yeah? Hey,
Speaker 1: let's pray together. I believe preaching should lead from and
Speaker 1: to prayer. Father, we are grateful. The fact that we're
Speaker 1: able to worship you this week is evidence of your faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Your faithfulness is not ordinary. It's been great. Today. We're
Speaker 1: reminded of the testimony of the scriptures that when we
Speaker 1: were faithless, you were faithful. And even when we walked
Speaker 1: away from you, you never walked away from us. We
Speaker 1: thank you for that today, thank you for your goodness
Speaker 1: that's been demonstrated all around us. We pause for this
Speaker 1: cause of expressing thanksgiving for things that we've taken for
Speaker 1: granted this week, things we've looked over, and we declare
Speaker 1: that no matter what it is, it doesn't change who
Speaker 1: you are. We declare your goodness to our souls this week,
Speaker 1: and we pray your your blessing on this gathering. You're
Speaker 1: the only one that could say something to all of us,
Speaker 1: but say something different to each of us at the
Speaker 1: same time. So locate us through your word, find us
Speaker 1: wherever we are, speak to us in a way that
Speaker 1: lets us know that we are seen by you, known
Speaker 1: by you, cared about by you. I thank you for this,
Speaker 1: and I pray for the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: You are annoying and to equip me to teach your
Speaker 1: word to your people, and knowing you like we know
Speaker 1: you we already have. Well we've asked you for So
Speaker 1: we thank you for these things in the name of
Speaker 1: the one that saved our life. His name is Jesus.
Speaker 1: If your lover one more time, putting your hands together,
Speaker 1: well listen. If you're in the rooms physical locations, you
Speaker 1: can be seated. So glad to be with you today,
Speaker 1: always an honor. I feel like I'm yall cousin now
Speaker 1: we family, and so it's so good to be here.
Speaker 1: As always. I just want to give a major shout
Speaker 1: out to my friend and my brother. He I got
Speaker 1: a Wednesday morning appointment with him every Wednesday via YouTube.
Speaker 1: Every Wednesday while I'm working out today, I listen to sermons.
Speaker 1: I don't listen to a lot of them, but I
Speaker 1: listen to him each week, and he just adds such
Speaker 1: tremendous value to my life as a person, as a leader,
Speaker 1: and also as one of the greatest communicators of God's
Speaker 1: word around the world. We celebrate him today the incredible
Speaker 1: leadership he provides. And to his amazing wife Holly, the
Speaker 1: kids love the natural family and this spiritual family. This
Speaker 1: this incredible team you got here. And you know, I've
Speaker 1: been trying to do this church thing for a while,
Speaker 1: doing the best I can. I've learned though, you don't
Speaker 1: go as far as your dream, you go as far
Speaker 1: as your team. So shout out to this incredible team
Speaker 1: that God has sent to this house, and it's using
Speaker 1: the change lives around the world. So something I want
Speaker 1: to share today. As I was thinking through and praying
Speaker 1: about what direction to go, I was reminded of a
Speaker 1: concept that really started stirring in my heart several years ago,
Speaker 1: and I did some teachings on it then, but it's
Speaker 1: reemerged because I'm in the process process now write my
Speaker 1: next book and it's kind of going to be birthed
Speaker 1: from this concept, and so it's just it's all in me.
Speaker 1: I can't get away from it. So now you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to suffer for it today, because I want to
Speaker 1: share and unload this. I want to read a small
Speaker 1: part of a scripture found in the Gospel of Matthew,
Speaker 1: chapter number fourteen. I want to look at verse twenty eight,
Speaker 1: and I want to read just a couple of verses there,
Speaker 1: and I want to use that text as a launching
Speaker 1: pad to leap into our lesson. Y'all ready for the
Speaker 1: word today? Yes, Matthew chapter fourteen, Verse twenty eight says,
Speaker 1: this is Peter talking. He says, Lord, if it's you,
Speaker 1: tell me to come to you on the water, come,
Speaker 1: Jesus said. Then Peter got down out of the boat,
Speaker 1: walked on water and came toward Jesus. Then Peter got
Speaker 1: down out of the boat, walked on water and came
Speaker 1: toward Jesus. Then Peter got down out of the boat,
Speaker 1: walked on water and came toward Jesus. Then Peter got
Speaker 1: down out of the boat, walked on water, and came
Speaker 1: toward Jesus. Then Peter got down out of the boat.
Speaker 1: He walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus.
Speaker 1: I want to use this scripture as a foundation for
Speaker 1: this lesson in our time together day. I want to
Speaker 1: talk from this subject. I am number twelve. I am
Speaker 1: number twelve. Family. There are a number of words that
Speaker 1: can be used to describe those of us who have
Speaker 1: accepted Jesus as the leader of our life and the
Speaker 1: forgiver of our sin. Number of words the Bible uses.
Speaker 1: None of those words imply or suggest normal. All through
Speaker 1: our scripture we see an array of adjectives that the
Speaker 1: authors of Scripture use to describe and depict the nature
Speaker 1: and character of God's people, and none of those adjectives
Speaker 1: in any way suggests normal. The Bible uses words like salt, light, special, chosen, royal, blessed, beloved, anointed, peculiar, chosen, head,
Speaker 1: not tell above, only, not beneath. All of these words
Speaker 1: are used by the authors of scripture to articulate to
Speaker 1: us who we are. My question is why, if I
Speaker 1: am that, why do you have to tell me that?
Speaker 1: And maybe it's because just because something is a spiritual
Speaker 1: truth doesn't mean it's my personal experience that The question
Speaker 1: that we need to. I believe ask an answer is
Speaker 1: really a question that can be answered by this sage
Speaker 1: named Solomon when he says in his collection of Thoughts
Speaker 1: and Axioms, a book of the Bible called Proverbs, when
Speaker 1: he says this, as a man or woman thinks in
Speaker 1: their heart, so is he, which means maybe one of
Speaker 1: the reasons God reiterates and regularly repeats to us who
Speaker 1: we are from his perspective is because God knows we
Speaker 1: will always live in a way that's consistent with the
Speaker 1: way you see yourself. Am I'm making sense here? Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe he's trying to do some holy and healthy brain washing.
Speaker 1: Paul would call it. I know that was the harsh one.
Speaker 1: Paul would call it. Then mind renewal. That's better if Yeah,
Speaker 1: he would mind renewal. He wants to retrain the brain
Speaker 1: because he knows you're gonna behave in a way that's
Speaker 1: consistent with the way you see. So, like in number thirteen,
Speaker 1: when I tell you you can defeat the enemy and
Speaker 1: occupy canaanland, you're going to see the giants and look
Speaker 1: at yourself and see yourself as a grasshopper. So you're
Speaker 1: not going to fight a fixed fight not because of
Speaker 1: who you are, but because of how you see yourself.
Speaker 1: And what I what if I told you that in
Speaker 1: this season of many of our lives, what God's trying
Speaker 1: to do is not just trying to change your mind
Speaker 1: about the world or change our mind about external and
Speaker 1: existential things. Maybe what God's trying to do is to
Speaker 1: change your mind about you. Maybe what God's trying to
Speaker 1: do is to get you to see yourself the way
Speaker 1: He sees you, so that you can behave in a
Speaker 1: way that's consistent with the way He sees you and
Speaker 1: not the way you see your All throughout Scripture we
Speaker 1: see this, and I believe this pattern in Scripture is
Speaker 1: a picture of a principle I've affectionately entitled the principle
Speaker 1: of exception. I think last time we were here we
Speaker 1: talked about the principle of perspective. But this principle is
Speaker 1: the principle of exception. What's an exception? Thearius? An exception
Speaker 1: is an anomaly, it's a deviation, it's an abnormality. It's
Speaker 1: a rule breaker. You do know your God is a
Speaker 1: rule breaker. You do know? Last week we celebrated God
Speaker 1: breaking the ultimate rule because nobody goes in a tomb
Speaker 1: and stays there three days and then gets up. But God,
Speaker 1: who's the god of the exception, knows how to break
Speaker 1: a rule. Is there anybody watching, anybody that can look
Speaker 1: back over your life and remind yourself that he broke
Speaker 1: some rules for me. That the only reason I'm saying
Speaker 1: in the membrane is because he broke some rules for me.
Speaker 1: He's a rule breaker. You know what Grace does, breaks rules.
Speaker 1: Theologian Sli Marker calls it scandalous when he describes Grace.
Speaker 1: He used the word scandalous. He said that that's just
Speaker 1: not right for God to give me what I don't deserve. Scandalous.
Speaker 1: This principle of exception, here's a principal family. What happens
Speaker 1: with them does not dictate and determine what happens with me.
Speaker 1: What happens with them does not dictate and determine what
Speaker 1: happens with me. It suggests that previous patterns are not
Speaker 1: accurate indicators of future possibilities. It means that you can't
Speaker 1: just lump me into some statistical category and then tell me,
Speaker 1: because I fit certain criteria and certain statistics, that that's
Speaker 1: gonna dictate my destiny. I can't say what happened with
Speaker 1: everybody else, but I do know that I serve the
Speaker 1: God who breaks rule. He's the God of the exception,
Speaker 1: and what happens with them does not dictate and determine
Speaker 1: what happens with me. I know there may be people
Speaker 1: who went through what you're going through and who didn't recover.
Speaker 1: But God's the God or the exception. I know, maybe
Speaker 1: the likelihood of us overcoming some of the obstacles that
Speaker 1: we are facing, maybe that likelihood is low. But just
Speaker 1: because something is unlikely doesn't mean it's impossible. God is
Speaker 1: the God of the exception. What happens with them does
Speaker 1: not dictate and determine what happens with me. It means
Speaker 1: that you can't look at them and then tell me,
Speaker 1: based on what happened with them, what God wants to
Speaker 1: do with me. I shouldn't even be here today. I'm
Speaker 1: from kill Michael, Mississippi, population six hundred and thirty people.
Speaker 1: Your pass us from Monks Corner, South Carolina. I don't
Speaker 1: even know where that is, but I know God is
Speaker 1: able to look at your history and say that has
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing to do with your destiny. See, I want
Speaker 1: you to catch this. Exceptionism is not the same as exceptionalism.
Speaker 1: I want to be clear on that this what we're
Speaker 1: saying from a not cultural, but from a Christian perspective
Speaker 1: of this. We're not saying we're better than we're saying
Speaker 1: we're different from. This is not a declaration of superiority.
Speaker 1: This is a declaration of distinction. And what we're saying
Speaker 1: is our distinction is not always in our experiences, is
Speaker 1: oftentimes in our outcomes. What does that mean. It means
Speaker 1: that we may go through some of the exact same
Speaker 1: things that other people go through, but our distinction is
Speaker 1: not in that we don't go through. Our distinction is
Speaker 1: the way we come out. We may go in the
Speaker 1: same thing, but we're not gonna come out the same way.
Speaker 1: I may go into fire refurnace, but I'm gonna come
Speaker 1: out not smelling like smock. I may go in the
Speaker 1: lions then, but I'm gonna come out not being consumed.
Speaker 1: We go through what of us go through, but we
Speaker 1: don't have to come out the way others come out.
Speaker 1: This is not a denial of norms, but rather a
Speaker 1: belief that we don't have to be limited by them,
Speaker 1: governed by them. Or imprisoned by them, or defined by them.
Speaker 1: They are always exceptions. Why can't you be one of them?
Speaker 1: If you do research, most people that go in lions
Speaker 1: dens don't come out. But with Daniel, God made an exception.
Speaker 1: If you were to do a focused group, you discover
Speaker 1: women in their nineties don't have babies. But with Sarah,
Speaker 1: God made an exception. If you would do a survey
Speaker 1: regarding whether or not screaming at walls will make walls
Speaker 1: fall down, But when Joshua instructed Israel to do that
Speaker 1: with the walls of Jericho, God made an exception. Teenagers
Speaker 1: don't defeat giants who've been trained in military warfare their
Speaker 1: entire life with a fleeing shot and a rock. But
Speaker 1: with a dude named David, God made an exception. And
Speaker 1: watch this, Watch this. Dead men don't go in a grave,
Speaker 1: stay there three days and then get up early Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: But with Jesus, God made an exception. And the same
Speaker 1: God that did it for Daniel, that did it for
Speaker 1: the Hebrew Boys, that did it for Joshuas that did
Speaker 1: it for David, that did it for Jesus, is the
Speaker 1: same God that's doing it right now. I've seen you move,
Speaker 1: you move the mountains, and I believe I'll see you
Speaker 1: do it again. He's the God of exceptions. I said,
Speaker 1: He's the God of exceptions. And there's a word that's
Speaker 1: often used to describe those that understand and embrace this principle.
Speaker 1: Now recently recently been exploring if you're in the room,
Speaker 1: you can please. I've recently been exploring this, uh, this
Speaker 1: concept because right now even I've been recently working on
Speaker 1: these messages, and I'm working on this message around grace.
Speaker 1: And one of the things I've been struggling with is, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I think most Christians understand grace conceptually. I
Speaker 1: just think I don't think most Christians actually receive it, right.
Speaker 1: I think conceptually they could say, yes, I get God
Speaker 1: doesn't judge me that I get God's going to respond
Speaker 1: to me according to the finished work of Jesus, and
Speaker 1: everything that I do is simply in response to that
Speaker 1: finished work. It's not a substitute to that finished work,
Speaker 1: because if it's finished, it's finished. So I think most
Speaker 1: Christians would agree with that conceptually. But if I were
Speaker 1: to say, do you struggle with condemnation, they'd probably say yes,
Speaker 1: I do because you understand, but understanding it and embracing
Speaker 1: it is something different. So there's a word that we
Speaker 1: can use to describe those that not only understand this
Speaker 1: principle of exception, but embrace it. And I think our
Speaker 1: foundational passage here in Matthew gives us an amazing example
Speaker 1: of this adjective. This word, and the word is water
Speaker 1: Walker's what's that because that's that's an exception. Water walkers
Speaker 1: those that walk on what other people drown in. One writer.
Speaker 1: One writer noted that the Bible is inundated with examples
Speaker 1: of people who do walking. God walk in the garden
Speaker 1: of Eden in the cool of day, Enoch walk with God.
Speaker 1: Abraham walked to Mount Mariah. Moses walked through the Red
Speaker 1: Sea on dry ground. Joshua walked around the walls of Jericho,
Speaker 1: the Disciples walked on Amaeas Road. Jesus walked the Via
Speaker 1: della Rossa. All throughout scripture we see examples of people walking.
Speaker 1: But here in Matthew chapter fourteen, we see something different
Speaker 1: because in all the other examples I mentioned, people are
Speaker 1: walking on the ground. In Matthew chapter fourteen we see
Speaker 1: an exception. We see two people. This is important two
Speaker 1: people walking on water. Yeah, it's really interesting. The contextually
Speaker 1: what happens here. I think we picked up in the
Speaker 1: latter part of the story, but contextually this instance this
Speaker 1: story transpires right after Jesus has Matthew records Jesus performing
Speaker 1: a miracle with two fish and five blows of bread
Speaker 1: so powerful. Verse twenty two actually begins with the word immediately, saying,
Speaker 1: as soon as Jesus is finished performing this miracle, he
Speaker 1: tells his disciples, now I want you to get on
Speaker 1: the boat. I want you to go to the other side,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna pull up on you later. That's what
Speaker 1: it says. Get in this boat, you go to the
Speaker 1: other side'a pull up on you later. The disciples do
Speaker 1: exactly what he said. They get in the boat, and
Speaker 1: the Bible says that Jesus does this, he goes off
Speaker 1: to a solitary place to pray. This is so interesting
Speaker 1: in me family, So he puts them on the boat,
Speaker 1: sends them ahead of him. He goes off to a
Speaker 1: solitary place to pray, which means they have a head start.
Speaker 1: The Bible says they have a head start of hours.
Speaker 1: They have a head start of hours. They're rowing or
Speaker 1: sailing for hours and then all of a sudden, in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night, they see Jesus walking. They've
Speaker 1: been rowing, but he's walking. I want you to catch this.
Speaker 1: They had to invest some sweat to get to where
Speaker 1: they were. They probably had to do some straining. Even
Speaker 1: if they had to put up a cell, they had
Speaker 1: to strain. If they had to row, they had to strain.
Speaker 1: They're straining, but Jesus is stepping. They have a head start,
Speaker 1: but he catches up because while they are exerting energy
Speaker 1: and effort, he's praying. And so because he reset himself spiritually,
Speaker 1: he was able to accelerate himself naturally. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: that one more time. Because he reset himself spiritually, he
Speaker 1: was able to accelerate himself naturally. See some places we're
Speaker 1: trying to get to by straining and rowing and grinding,
Speaker 1: not realizing that to get to some places, you can
Speaker 1: get there quicker if you got spiritual stammin out. So
Speaker 1: it's okay to take a moment and say I got
Speaker 1: to pause for the cause and reset myself spiritually. Because
Speaker 1: while you are rowing your way there, and while you
Speaker 1: have a head start, God knows how to get me
Speaker 1: there another way, right on schedule. And I want to
Speaker 1: encourage somebody right now, Who's who's standing on the shore
Speaker 1: and you see people ahead of you. They're ahead of
Speaker 1: you professionally, they're ahead of you. Relationally, you waiting to
Speaker 1: walk the isle, they've already walked the aisle, they're ahead
Speaker 1: of you spiritually. I want to let you know that
Speaker 1: God is the god of exception, so this means he's
Speaker 1: a god of acceleration. He'll help you make up for
Speaker 1: lost time. This is interesting. Listen to this family. They
Speaker 1: see this silhouette walking on the water and Peter asks, Lord,
Speaker 1: is it you? Here's my question. If you've been walking
Speaker 1: with me, eating with me, learning from me, being mentored
Speaker 1: by me for three years, how do you not know
Speaker 1: what I look like? And maybe it's because, before we
Speaker 1: judge Peter, maybe it's because God doesn't always show up
Speaker 1: looking like God in a Stormy tex says they were
Speaker 1: dealing with some turbulent sea and wrestling with the storm
Speaker 1: and Jesus shows up and Peter's like, who is that?
Speaker 1: Because God doesn't always look like God in a storm,
Speaker 1: And so we got to be careful because the text
Speaker 1: says they said it's a ghost. They said, we got
Speaker 1: to be careful because in a storm, you will prematurely
Speaker 1: label something one thing, and then when the storm is over,
Speaker 1: you'll look back and say, oh, that was God. I'm
Speaker 1: telling somebody. The thing you're calling pain in this season,
Speaker 1: you're gonna look back in another season and say that
Speaker 1: was God. The thing you're saying is a closed door
Speaker 1: in this season, you're gonna look back in another season
Speaker 1: and say that was God. Let me help my singles
Speaker 1: who ready to mingle. The thing you're calling a breakup
Speaker 1: in this season, you're gonna look back in the next
Speaker 1: season and say that was God. Because God doesn't always
Speaker 1: show up looking like God in a storm. Their doors
Speaker 1: that close in my face in certain seasons of my
Speaker 1: life that caused me pain and feelings of rejection and inadequacy.
Speaker 1: And now I look back at some of those seasons
Speaker 1: and say, that wasn't rejection, that was God. That was protection.
Speaker 1: He was protecting me in a season where I didn't
Speaker 1: have the discernment to avoid walking through the wrong door.
Speaker 1: So Peter says this. He says, Okay, Lord, if it's
Speaker 1: really you, tell me to come to you on the
Speaker 1: water and the Bible says, we read it together. Jesus said, come.
Speaker 1: Peter said, if it's you tell me to come to
Speaker 1: you on the water, and the Bible says Jesus said, come.
Speaker 1: Peter said, if it's you tell me to come to
Speaker 1: you on the water, and the Bible says that Jesus says, come.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we don't walk on water because come is not enough.
Speaker 1: Jesus didn't say, come. Then I'm gonna suspend gravity and
Speaker 1: then you're gonna walk on water. Jesus didn't say come.
Speaker 1: I want you to take twelve steps to the left
Speaker 1: and twelve steps to the right. Because some of us
Speaker 1: are wired like me and we're very detail oriented. I
Speaker 1: don't want to just come. I won't know where we're going,
Speaker 1: which router would take in how long is it gonna
Speaker 1: take for us to get there. But sometimes in dealing
Speaker 1: with God, sometimes if we're gonna walk on water, sometimes
Speaker 1: if we're gonna be the exception, we've got to learn
Speaker 1: how to go on a come. So you got to
Speaker 1: learn how to be able to move with the information
Speaker 1: that I give you at the pace that I give
Speaker 1: it to you. Because God will never inform us incompletely,
Speaker 1: but he will inform us incrementally. He says, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you more information on the way. He says, I
Speaker 1: give you the information that you need, not the information
Speaker 1: you prefer. And the Bible says this. Peter steps down
Speaker 1: out of the boat, walks on water. But Matthew tells
Speaker 1: us he does that to come toward Jesus. So he's
Speaker 1: not trying to walk on water simply to walk on water.
Speaker 1: He's not trying to spiritualize his ego and his ambition.
Speaker 1: He's not trying to do something major just to do
Speaker 1: something major. He's not trying to blow up just to
Speaker 1: blow up. He's trying to get to Jesus. But I
Speaker 1: saw something. It's interesting me. The text only says that
Speaker 1: Peter does it. But all the disciples were in the boat,
Speaker 1: but only Peter had enough whatever, And there are number
Speaker 1: words we can put in there, faith, naivety, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but only Peter stepped out. Are you all ready for this?
Speaker 1: There are eleven others in the boat. Peter looks at
Speaker 1: the eleven and said, I'm number twelve. I'm not built
Speaker 1: for the boat, I'm wired for the water. I'm not
Speaker 1: better than you, but I'm different and if you're okay
Speaker 1: in the boat, that's okay, but I'm not. But I
Speaker 1: can't make my personal decision based on whether majority is sitting.
Speaker 1: So Peter says, I see what the eleven are doing,
Speaker 1: but what I'm doing is I'm looking at Jesus, and
Speaker 1: I gotta make a decision. Who's gonna influence what I
Speaker 1: do more, the one walking on the water or the
Speaker 1: eleven sitting in the boat. I'm gonna tell you, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna be a water walker, there are times where
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to make a decision to say, I'd
Speaker 1: rather be like Jesus than the eleven sitting in the boat.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine the pressure he felt? Can you imagine
Speaker 1: that the pressure he felt the eleven bringing to themselves.
Speaker 1: He got out of there anyway. Can you imagine his
Speaker 1: struggling emotionally. But he got out of there anyway, because
Speaker 1: I don't know how big this boat was. But Matthew says,
Speaker 1: we read this that Peter got down out of the
Speaker 1: boat because that's the only way we're able to exemplify
Speaker 1: this principle of exception. Because to get over the ego,
Speaker 1: to get over the insecurity, to get over the potential embassment.
Speaker 1: You gotta go down humility, because all wrestling with the
Speaker 1: ego is is wrestling with pride. He got down out
Speaker 1: of the boat, walked on water, and came toward Jesus.
Speaker 1: And I believe on today that I'm preaching in a
Speaker 1: number twelve church, preaching for a number twelve pastor, preaching
Speaker 1: too some number twelve people. God would not put you
Speaker 1: under the leadership of a number twelve pastor and call
Speaker 1: you to be a part of a number twelve church
Speaker 1: if He intended for you to live a number eleven life.
Speaker 1: You got a number twelve destiny on you. You You are
Speaker 1: a rule breaker, you are a deviator, You are a
Speaker 1: testament of the miraculous, miracle working power of God. Your
Speaker 1: number twelve, So that means you got to be okay
Speaker 1: sometimes being the only one that's not in the boat.
Speaker 1: Listen to me. I know it's just weird math, but
Speaker 1: you can't be number twelve if you're not okay being
Speaker 1: the only one. Because sometimes number twelves are the only
Speaker 1: one in the room, only one on the board, only
Speaker 1: one taking that approach, only one that says I'm not
Speaker 1: going to allow my age to defy and dictate what
Speaker 1: I can and cannot do. That God is sovereign. If
Speaker 1: he's sovereign, he can do anything for any reason and
Speaker 1: any season. And so culture may try to limit you
Speaker 1: because of your age, or because of your gender, or
Speaker 1: because of your socioeconomic status. But God is a God
Speaker 1: that will blow up the cultural categories and the social
Speaker 1: norms and perform exceptions. You're number twelve, and the struggles
Speaker 1: the number twelve have is they don't want to leave
Speaker 1: the eleven in the boat, but they can't live with
Speaker 1: themselves if they don't go towards Jesus. It's tension because
Speaker 1: there's the pressure to fit in and stand out at
Speaker 1: the same time. It's not wanting to be weird for
Speaker 1: weird sake. It's not wanting to be different for different sakes.
Speaker 1: It's not wanting to be to be an anomaly just
Speaker 1: to be an anomaly. It's an authentic internal tension that
Speaker 1: I feel the connection with the eleven and I want
Speaker 1: to be okay with the boat. I want to be
Speaker 1: okay with the boat. I just can't. And I believe
Speaker 1: I'm talking to people. God burned my heart with this message.
Speaker 1: I believe that God is talking to people through the scriptures,
Speaker 1: affirming and reaffirming this is who you are. And sometimes
Speaker 1: number twelve doesn't mean just doing different things. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: means doing the same things different ways. Because everybody walks,
Speaker 1: that's the same thing. But what Peter did is he
Speaker 1: walked on water. He did the same thing a different way.
Speaker 1: Am I'm making sense? So I want to share really
Speaker 1: quickly three things here that I see in this text
Speaker 1: that I think are incredibly important for those of us
Speaker 1: who want to walk out what we see portrayed in
Speaker 1: this passage. Here's number on. The first thing we gotta
Speaker 1: do is this, We got to embrace our uniqueness. Now,
Speaker 1: notice I didn't say understand your uniqueness. I said embrace
Speaker 1: it because your uniqueness will always feel like awkwardness until
Speaker 1: you get to a season where God shows you its relevance.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that one more time. Your uniqueness will
Speaker 1: feel like awkwardness until God gets you to a season
Speaker 1: where he shows you its relevance. Your uniqueness will feel
Speaker 1: like awkwardness until God gets you to a season where
Speaker 1: He shows you its relevance. So when we look at Peter,
Speaker 1: he was impulsive. He's always been that way, temperamental, unpredictable,
Speaker 1: at times borderline volatile, but he was that wiring was
Speaker 1: redeemed by God, and that same uniqueness and that same
Speaker 1: weirdness was something that God used to cause him to
Speaker 1: step out of the boat and to walk on water
Speaker 1: because he had to get to a season where he
Speaker 1: saw its relevance. And there are some things that feel
Speaker 1: weird about you that are one of the most valuable
Speaker 1: things about you. But God's got to get you to
Speaker 1: a season where he shows you. This is why I
Speaker 1: wired you this way. Embrace your uniqueness. Number two, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have to brace when heat number two gonna have
Speaker 1: to walk in the wind. See y'all stopped reading the
Speaker 1: story with Peter getting out of that boat walking on water.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's an amazing place to end, But it's
Speaker 1: not the end of the story. The Bible says Peter
Speaker 1: gets out of the boat and he walks on water,
Speaker 1: and the text says, as long as he keeps his
Speaker 1: eyes on Jesus, he's able to walk on the water.
Speaker 1: But the story says he sees the wind, and when
Speaker 1: he sees the wind, he takes his eyes off of
Speaker 1: Jesus and begins to sink notice this now. The text says,
Speaker 1: he sees the wind. Listen to me, family. You can't
Speaker 1: see wind. You can feel wind, you can hear wind.
Speaker 1: You can't see wind. You can only see what the
Speaker 1: wind is affecting. And when Peter starts looking at what
Speaker 1: the wind is affecting, what does that do? It takes
Speaker 1: his focus. And when he lost this focus, he lost
Speaker 1: this balance. And when he lost this balance, he began
Speaker 1: to sink. Peter didn't lose vision, he lost focus. So
Speaker 1: he was able to walk a little while and begin
Speaker 1: to sink. I want to tell you, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: be number twelve, if I'm gonna be number twelve, we
Speaker 1: got to walk with the wind. If we're waiting for
Speaker 1: the wind to stop blowing, that's not gonna happen. You
Speaker 1: might be in a season where the wind's not blowing
Speaker 1: right now, but keep living. Something's gonna blow in your direction.
Speaker 1: And if it doesn't blow on you, it's gonna blow
Speaker 1: on something around you. It might blow in the home,
Speaker 1: It might blow with this on the spouse, might blow
Speaker 1: with the children, might blow in the workplace. And the
Speaker 1: question is can I keep on walking when the wind
Speaker 1: is blowing because the wind can't destroy you, but your
Speaker 1: being distracted can cause you to destroy yourself. Walking in
Speaker 1: the wind means I have to do more than have
Speaker 1: strong faith. Walking in the wind means I need to
Speaker 1: have long faith. The question isn't just how strong is
Speaker 1: my belief? Is how long can I believe? Can I
Speaker 1: keep walking when the wind is blowing? And I want
Speaker 1: to tell somebody who's dealing with some wind right now,
Speaker 1: to keep on walking with tears in your eyes, keep
Speaker 1: on walking with confusion in your mind, keep on walking
Speaker 1: with despondency and discouragement in your heart. Keep on walking.
Speaker 1: You got to walk in the wind, and pray in
Speaker 1: the wind, and believe in the wind. Embrace your uniqueness,
Speaker 1: walk in the wind. Last point number three, Scream for
Speaker 1: the Savior. It's in the text. The Bible says that
Speaker 1: as Peter took his eyes off Jesus, he began to sink,
Speaker 1: but he didn't allow the sinking to cause him to
Speaker 1: go silent. Listen to me, Every water walker will sink,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to drown. Peter sank, but he
Speaker 1: didn't drown because he knew to scream for the Savior.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says that Jesus not only picked him up,
Speaker 1: but he walked him back to safety on the boat.
Speaker 1: What am I saying, see watch this. Water walkers may sink,
Speaker 1: but they don't have to allow their pride to cause
Speaker 1: them to drown. He said, you know what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna scream for the Savior and all throughout scripture,
Speaker 1: Old Testament and New test And I see this. I
Speaker 1: seen this, and I'm so like, I think God's helping
Speaker 1: me be more balanced, but I'm so like analytical that
Speaker 1: I would see like this pattern of these exuberant outbursts
Speaker 1: in the Bible. And then I grew up in church.
Speaker 1: I've been in church my whole life forty one years
Speaker 1: and nine months, so I would see that. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's that's cool. You know, I didn't quite get it,
Speaker 1: Jerry ko Wahle. They shouted blind bottom mass Mark ten.
Speaker 1: Jesus walking by, screamed, Jesus on the David, have mercy
Speaker 1: on me. The syrol Phoenician woman who wanted Jesus to
Speaker 1: intervene with her daughter. She was persistent, so persistent the
Speaker 1: disciples said, send her away. She cries after us. Nobody
Speaker 1: coming for them. They came for Jesus. She's bothering us.
Speaker 1: The metaphor here is not literal screaming. That's not what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get across. That's what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get across here. It's so important that his screaming for
Speaker 1: the Savior was a revelation of his reliance on God
Speaker 1: and not just his own steps. I'm just telling you,
Speaker 1: no matter how good a stepper you are, you're going
Speaker 1: to hit a space where you sink that no matter
Speaker 1: what you do, God's not gonna let you do it
Speaker 1: without God. And so these pleas that you see in
Speaker 1: scripture where people are raising their voices, they are expressions
Speaker 1: of faith, because you don't call on people to help
Speaker 1: that you don't believe can help. And you don't call
Speaker 1: on people to help that you don't believe will help.
Speaker 1: And he's screaming for the Savior. And this didn't quite
Speaker 1: make sense to me till I was reading the Psalms.
Speaker 1: I'm done. I was reading the Psalms, and that's what
Speaker 1: the Psalmer says. He says, through the praise of youth,
Speaker 1: you have established a stronghold around my enemies. So I said,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, praise a stronghold. A stronghold in the
Speaker 1: Bible is like a fence. I say, oh, this isn't
Speaker 1: just spiritual, this is mental that when I begin to
Speaker 1: remind God of who he is, I'm not really reminding
Speaker 1: him because he hadn't forgotten. My praise reminds me of
Speaker 1: who God is. And when I'm reminded of who God is,
Speaker 1: that produces a fits and a stronghold, and some negative
Speaker 1: thoughts that were getting through can't get through, and doubt
Speaker 1: that was getting through can't get through, and hopelessness that
Speaker 1: was getting through can't get through. Because my praise doesn't
Speaker 1: just remind God of who he is, it reminds me
Speaker 1: of who he is. And I want someone who's watching,
Speaker 1: someone who's in this room, every location, every home, in
Speaker 1: your own way, will you just take a moment and
Speaker 1: remind yourself of who your God is. You're not number eleven,
Speaker 1: You're number twelve. And a message a message, this message,
Speaker 1: I think it's more than just a message. I think
Speaker 1: it is the testimony of Jesus different anomaly and the
Speaker 1: destiny of those who are courageous enough listen to me
Speaker 1: to make a decision to be like the one walking
Speaker 1: on the water and not the eleven sitting in the boat.
Speaker 1: You don't want to pray for. I want to pray
Speaker 1: for you, but you don't want to pray for I
Speaker 1: don't pray for two things. I know I needed these
Speaker 1: in my journey. I'm sure your pastors these and his.
Speaker 1: I don't know of another pastor that preaches as good
Speaker 1: as him and then write songs and then leads. How
Speaker 1: you do that? It's different, isn't it. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you two things it takes to do that. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna pray for this for us. It takes courage. Number one,
Speaker 1: because this is one thing to have clarity. It's another
Speaker 1: thing to have the courage to actually step out of
Speaker 1: that boat and to be who you feel like you've
Speaker 1: been called to be. Sometimes it's not just courage to
Speaker 1: do something. Sometimes it's courage just to be. It takes courage.
Speaker 1: And then two, it's gonna take resilience because the wind's
Speaker 1: going to blow and you're gonna be tempted to get
Speaker 1: back in the boat because it feels easier in there.
Speaker 1: But every time you're tempted to do that, this is
Speaker 1: my prayer. I don't know if a preacher's ever prayed
Speaker 1: this for you. I'm gonna pray that God gets on
Speaker 1: your nerves. I'm gonna pray that he agitates you where
Speaker 1: they infects you with a holy discontent, so that every
Speaker 1: time you start going back to that boat, there's an
Speaker 1: internal alarm that goes off on the inside of you
Speaker 1: that says to you, you're not built for this. So Father,
Speaker 1: I pray right now for people all over the world
Speaker 1: that are watching this, and you're speaking to them, affirming
Speaker 1: to them who they are and who they've been called
Speaker 1: to be. I pray that you would grant us two things.
Speaker 1: I pray for courage. I pray for courage to step
Speaker 1: out of that boat, even if our feet are trembling,
Speaker 1: to walk on water, if our legs are shaking, I
Speaker 1: pray for courage to do it anyway. I thank you
Speaker 1: for this. And Lord, I pray for resilience. I pray
Speaker 1: for long faith. I pray for faith to finish, to
Speaker 1: walk in the midst of the wind. And I just
Speaker 1: thank you that you're releasing this today, that you're adding
Speaker 1: value to your people in this way, and that you
Speaker 1: are loosing number twelves all over the world to be
Speaker 1: who they've been called and created to be. And may
Speaker 1: it be said of us as it was said of
Speaker 1: the early Church, These are they that have turned the
Speaker 1: world upside down in Jesus' name. Amen, Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give
Speaker 1: generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this
Speaker 1: ministry is possible. You can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description to give now or visit Elevation Church dot org
Speaker 1: slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.