Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:08] Church. We are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes.newlife gillette.com Here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:27] Hey, let me say welcome to those of you who are watching online, to the guys over at the prison, to our friends at the jail, and those of you who are here in the room. We're continuing a series where we're talking about Peter and we're learning a lot of lessons about how we follow by looking at the life of Peter.
[00:00:42] Did you know that a goldfish. Anybody see my little goldfish friend in here?
[00:00:47] He's freaking out. He's very confused. But we need to give him a nickname because that makes it easier. We'll call him Billy Bob.
[00:00:56] Is that what you said? Okay, this is Billy Bob, everyone.
[00:01:00] Billy Bob here is in a fishbowl, as you'll notice. I asked ChatGPT is it true that a fish in a fishbowl cannot grow as large as a fish in the ocean? And obviously you got the saltwater question and all that stuff, but yes, there is some truth to the fact that in a fishbowl, this goldfish cannot grow as large as it would if it were in a lake.
[00:01:25] There are limiting factors in this fishbowl. It's things like it can't move as much and so it doesn't get as much oxygen and the, the water can't get. I don't know what it is, but for some reason, it. In the fishbowl, it's limited in its growth. Now you also have to say, but if it was in a lake, it would. There'd be a lot more danger, right? Like its odds of growing to its full potential size that it could potentially grow to would be more difficult. Right? There's predators in the lake, so you got to pick your battles. Do you want to be in the safe fishbowl or do you want to be in the dangerous lake and reach your full potential? Don't fall over the stool on the stage. That's danger up here on the stage.
[00:02:07] My, my family and I have had a few goldfish over the years, mostly because I like to use goldfish in my sermon illustrations. I don't know if you've noticed, but we end up with these goldfish at our house. They become pets for a little while until we determine that we want to allow that fish to reach its full potential by releasing it into the ocean by way of our drains in our homes because we care about these fish, and we want them to reach their full potential. So we all drains lead to the ocean, Nemo says.
[00:02:42] And so we have released fish into the ocean so that they can reach their full potential. And so sometimes we think about our pet fish and where they are and what they're doing today. And in our imaginations, they are all like this. They have reached their full size and their full potential in the ocean because this is who they were created to be.
[00:03:05] The fishbowl is the fish's comfort zone, but the fishbowl is limiting.
[00:03:14] What's your comfort zone?
[00:03:18] What is limiting you? What is holding you back?
[00:03:22] Are you an introvert and you just have developed a system in life where you don't have to talk to people?
[00:03:28] Are you too scared to try new things? Are you too scared to join a life group or to volunteer at your church? Or maybe you need to ask the girl out, but you're just too terrified.
[00:03:41] What's the comfort zone that is keeping you from doing something difficult that would make your life better or stretch you in good ways or help you learn something? But you've just tried. You've just decided to stay where you are.
[00:03:53] You know, you should ask for the promotion.
[00:03:56] You know, you should try hard things, but you just don't want to.
[00:04:00] The truth is, and you know this, growth begins at the end of your comfort zone. You need to be stressed.
[00:04:10] Growth begins at the end of your comfort zone, unless your comfort zone is the couch. And then a lot of growth happens just in the wrong direction.
[00:04:18] That's just the reality of my life. Sometimes, though, our comfort zone can be a mental comfort zone.
[00:04:26] Like, I've developed certain opinions and certain ideas, and I like to watch certain news stations that have reinforced my opinions, and I just kind of stay in that loop. Or the social media algorithm just keeps telling me the things that I want to hear. And so I just get stuck in this loop of.
[00:04:42] Of believing what I believe. And I'm not going to listen to anybody else. And if anybody challenges me, they're wrong, right?
[00:04:49] And we get into a mental comfort zone. The problem is, then my ideas aren't challenged, and I don't grow, I don't learn, I don't mature.
[00:04:57] The truth is, comfort stagnates.
[00:05:02] Now, comfort. Comfort zones are not always a bad thing.
[00:05:06] But a comfort zone becomes a bad thing when I spend too much time in it, when I get set in my ways.
[00:05:14] Ultimately, too much time in my comfort zone will keep me from becoming the person that I was created.
[00:05:22] Today, we're Going to reflect on a story from the life of Peter. You've probably heard this before when Peter walks on water. I love this story. I love to watch how Peter's like successes and failures kind of help him to grow and mature and become the person that would go on to lead the church to become what it is today. So let's read the story. It's in Matthew, chapter 14. And it goes like this.
[00:05:46] About three o' clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them. So the disciples are on a boat and Jesus comes toward them walking on the water.
[00:05:55] When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water, they were terrified in their fear. They cried out, it's a ghost.
[00:06:02] Only a ghost could walk on water. Right?
[00:06:05] But Jesus spoke to them at once.
[00:06:08] Don't be afraid.
[00:06:10] He said, take courage. Why?
[00:06:13] Why should I take courage? Because I. Jesus am here.
[00:06:17] Jesus presence should be comforting to us.
[00:06:21] And when Peter realized that the ghost or person walking to them on the water was actually Jesus, his mind was changed. Right? Why?
[00:06:30] Because he had put his faith in Jesus, because he trusted Jesus.
[00:06:37] In fact, Peter's faith in Jesus was so great that it gave him this really crazy idea.
[00:06:45] He thought, well, what if I could walk on water?
[00:06:50] If Jesus is walking on water, what if I walk on water?
[00:06:56] Why do you think Peter had this idea? Why do you think Peter wanted to walk on the water?
[00:07:02] Well, we talked last week about the fact that Peter followed Jesus and Jesus was like his rabbi, his teacher.
[00:07:10] So Jesus or Peter followed Jesus. That was Peter's job, to follow Jesus, to become like Jesus. This is the difference between their educational system and our educational system. Our educational system puts us in these roads and we sit there and we listen to somebody to talk. And you just kind of hope that you remember some of it, right? And how many of us remember the things that we learned sitting in rows at school?
[00:07:35] Not much, right? Like the real lessons you've learned, you've learned by doing things, by working. And this was Jesus's model. It was like an apprenticeship model. You pick a, you pick a rabbi, you pick a leader and you follow them and you learn as you do the things that they do.
[00:07:55] This is a better model, don't you think?
[00:07:58] Don't you think we can learn some lessons by looking at the way Jesus taught? Now we can learn some things in rows. Like today, I hope that there's one thing that you can remember out of a sermon that I preach. And maybe you can apply one thing, but the reality is, most of it, you're going to go on and you're just going to forget about it. What you actually need is to take the things that we learn here and do them, put them into practice.
[00:08:22] And Peter knows this. And Peter sees his rabbi doing something, and he says, okay, if I'm going to learn from my rabbi, I need to do what my rabbi does.
[00:08:34] I'm going to walk on water.
[00:08:36] Then Jesus said something crazy.
[00:08:39] Actually, this is towards the end of Jesus ministry. By this time, people have kind of understood Jesus ways, like of demonstration of teaching. And Jesus says this. He says, I tell you the truth. Now remember this word. You. We're going to come back to it. I tell you the truth. Anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done. Jesus says, and even greater, because I am going, why? Because I am going to be with the Father.
[00:09:07] You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.
[00:09:16] We have been empowered by the Holy Spirit because Jesus died on the cross, removed the barrier between us and the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit lives in us. And we have been given the gifts to do the things that God did, that Jesus did when he walked in this world. But then he says, you'll even do greater things.
[00:09:40] How do we do greater things?
[00:09:43] I mean, Jesus the most influential person in all of history.
[00:09:48] Nobody. We tell time. Our calendar, like, centers on the life of Jesus.
[00:09:54] He's the most influential person in history by far. How am I going to do greater things than Jesus?
[00:10:04] I hate that the English language does not have a plural form of the word. You notice this?
[00:10:11] Like, I can say you, and you can either think that that means just you individually, or I could say you. And you could assume that I'm talking about you, as in everybody. But we got one word, unless you count y'. All. Right, so maybe this verse, if we're going to correctly translate this verse, what it should have said is, y' all can ask. We need a Southern bible, don't we?
[00:10:35] C.J. where's C.J. c.J. Write a Southern Bible. C.J. is from the South.
[00:10:41] Y' all can do more than I can do. In other words, Jesus saying, in my limited human body, I can be in one place at one time, ministering to one group or one person at a time.
[00:10:54] He's like, but when we become the body of Christ together, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we together can do more.
[00:11:04] Because God can work through us. He can work in us. Why? To bring glory to the Father, to grow the kingdom of God. This is our purpose. This is what we have been empowered, so we are supposed to do the things that Jesus does.
[00:11:21] So if you see Jesus doing it, do it, obey him, follow him, and I'll just warn you. Jesus did some crazy stuff.
[00:11:32] Jesus was very strange. Jesus was very countercultural. Jesus fought against the religious leaders of his day. Jesus said very unpopular things. Jesus did things that nobody else was doing.
[00:11:45] So if Jesus is doing it, we do it, we follow.
[00:11:50] So if Jesus is walking on water, Peter says, okay, I follow, I obey.
[00:11:58] Then Peter called to Jesus, lord, if it's really you, tell me to come out to you. Walking on the water.
[00:12:07] Yes, come.
[00:12:09] Jesus says, you need to come so that you can become.
[00:12:16] Throughout history, Jesus has searched for people who have the courage to step out of the boat, to walk on water, the faith to get out of our comfort zones, to do hard things and follow Jesus no matter where he leads us.
[00:12:36] John Ortberg famously said, if you want to walk on water, you got to get out of the boat.
[00:12:40] You got to take a step.
[00:12:43] But Jesus, it's safe in the boat. Remember, Peter's a fisherman. He spends a lot of time in the boat, right? He's good at being in the boat. This is his comfort zone. This is what I'm good at, Jesus. I think I'll just stay in the boat.
[00:12:59] I think I'll just stay in the fishbowl. It's safe in here. I know I'm not gonna grow much.
[00:13:04] I know I'm limited in here, but I like the safety.
[00:13:07] I like the comfort in the boat.
[00:13:13] And Jesus says, yes, but you're going to have to do something dangerous to really become the person that I created you to be.
[00:13:22] So come so that you can become.
[00:13:26] So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.
[00:13:33] Jesus was on the water.
[00:13:35] And if you want to be where Jesus is, you're going to have to get out of your comfort zone. You're going to have to get out of the boat and get on the water.
[00:13:43] And can you imagine? Oh, dude. Think about Peter walking on water. I sometimes I just wonder, like, was it solid? Was it squishy?
[00:13:52] Did his feet get wet? Or did he just become, like, impervious? I don't know. Did he get really light?
[00:13:59] Just imagine what Peter, because he's willing to step out of the water, is experiencing something that nobody else in history has ever experienced. Like, you want to talk about a mountaintop breakthrough experience? That sounds pretty glorious to me, walking with Jesus on water.
[00:14:15] I want to try it. I want to get there.
[00:14:18] Some of Us are missing out on incredible blessings because we are scared to take a difficult step.
[00:14:28] Yes, it's risky, but that's where God is.
[00:14:32] That's where God. And this is where God does his best work.
[00:14:36] Scripture tells us that when we are weak, he is strong.
[00:14:40] Well, when are you weak?
[00:14:43] When you're not in your comfort zone, when you're doing things that you're not fully equipped to do.
[00:14:50] Like, sometimes you need to challenge yourself and try something that you don't know that you can accomplish. And only if God is with you will you be able to do the things that he created you to be.
[00:15:00] Peter couldn't walk on water. He had no skill that allowed him to walk on water.
[00:15:06] But Jesus in him, the Holy Spirit in him, empowered him.
[00:15:12] The problem is, inevitably, this happens when there's a mountaintop, a valley is coming, and Peter's walking on the water, on the mountaintop, and inevitably, fear creeps in.
[00:15:26] You know, the older I get, the more nervous I get.
[00:15:31] When you're at a higher place, you have a greater distance to fall to the bottom.
[00:15:39] When you're leading people, when you take a risk, you're also taking a risk for the people you lead.
[00:15:47] Now that I have kids, when I make a decision for our family, I recognize it's not just impacting me, it's impacting my whole family.
[00:15:55] So what happens?
[00:15:57] I get nervous more.
[00:15:59] Each step that I take is a little bit more scary because I recognize the consequences are greater if it doesn't go well.
[00:16:07] So what do I need?
[00:16:10] I need more faith.
[00:16:13] Where people fall is when they climb to great heights under their own strength.
[00:16:22] They've climbed to great heights because they're using the gifts that God gave them and they're taking credit for what they're doing, and they think that they can just keep doing it. I'm this good.
[00:16:30] You can trust me. I'll carry it all. I'll carry the burden. And when we climb to the top in our own strength, what happens is we fall and we fall hard.
[00:16:40] But when God empowers us, then we can reach greater heights.
[00:16:47] So, yeah, we might get nervous. And what we need when we get nervous is to have more faith in Jesus, like Peter.
[00:16:54] Watch this. But when Peter saw the strong wind in the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.
[00:17:02] I would have been, too.
[00:17:05] And Jesus sees Peter sinking and he says, peter, what are you doing?
[00:17:13] Okay, get it? Water. Water. Are you doing? No, thanks.
[00:17:22] The faith journey is not just all up and to the right.
[00:17:27] Wouldn't that be nice if it's just I pursue Jesus and everything goes good all the time, and I never have to worry or bad things, hard things never happen. That's just not how it works.
[00:17:38] The truth is, if you follow Jesus, you will stumble, you will struggle, you will fall short. You'll experience pain in your life. And what you have to learn is what Peter knew in this moment is that when you stumble, when you fall short, rather than looking back to your comfort zone, you look to Jesus.
[00:17:57] You keep your eyes on Jesus. You fix your eyes on Jesus.
[00:18:01] The good news about Peter is that when he fell into trouble, when he started to sink, he knew where to turn.
[00:18:08] And when Peter fell, he knew to turn to God.
[00:18:11] Save me, Lord. Peter shouted. He could have looked back to the boat. Remember, the boat is the comfort zone. He could have swam back to the boat, right? Get in the boat.
[00:18:21] When Peter experienced a setback, he didn't look back to his friends in the boat. He looked to the only one who was powerful enough to do something in his circumstance.
[00:18:32] Where do you look when you're sinking?
[00:18:38] Where do you look when the enemy attacks?
[00:18:42] Where do you look when you fall short? When you screw up, shame will tempt you to turn away from God.
[00:18:49] When you sin, you'll start thinking, well, God doesn't want me anymore. I better. I can't pray anymore.
[00:18:56] This is a trap the prodigal son fell into.
[00:19:01] Jesus says, no. When you fall short, you look to me.
[00:19:05] I will rescue you.
[00:19:07] That's faith, that even when I screw up, even when I am experiencing pain, so many people turn their back on God because bad things happen and they blame God.
[00:19:19] Bad things happen. We need to run to God.
[00:19:23] Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed paper. Peter so we've been using a lot of metaphorical language to talk about how this looks in our lives. I think we need to get practical.
[00:19:38] Because when you experience pain in your life or you experience struggles or maybe just you stagnate, what inevitably happens is you need some direction. You. You need some guidance to say, not just get out of your comfort zone, but where do I go when I get out of my comfort zone? What do I need to do? What step do I need to take?
[00:20:00] So if you're in debt and the weight of that debt is just crushing you and it's just this cycle and you feel like it's paycheck to paycheck and you don't know what to do, here's what you need to do. You get out of the comfort zone of spending.
[00:20:14] You stop it. You sell the car that you like you get rid of the hobby that you just love.
[00:20:21] Whatever it is, you do something hard, you create a budget.
[00:20:25] Scripture tells us to do something really countercultural and get generous.
[00:20:30] And then you'll realize what it takes to live healthy financially.
[00:20:38] If you want to lose weight, you have to get off the couch. You're going to have to go to the gym.
[00:20:43] If you want to get the promotion at work, you're going to have to work harder or maybe go back to school.
[00:20:49] If you want to break a bad habit, you're going to have to set up some boundaries and figure out how to stop yourself from doing what you need to stop doing.
[00:21:02] You're going to have to confess to a friend and ask your friend to hold you accountable to stop doing whatever it is you're doing. Maybe you need to switch from a smartphone to a flip phone. You got to take the hard step of making it harder to do the thing that you've fallen into. Temptation, created a bad habit.
[00:21:23] Maybe you want to have a healthy family. So you decide, I'm going to.
[00:21:27] We're going to set a schedule. We're going to have dinner together every night and we're going to do devotions together at the dinner table every day.
[00:21:33] Maybe you feel lonely and you realize, I need more friends, so you decide, I don't feel like it, but I'm going to join a life group anyway.
[00:21:41] Maybe you want to have a healthy marriage, so you decide, we're going to pray together every night, even when we're mad at each other.
[00:21:50] Get out of your comfort zone.
[00:21:52] Do hard things.
[00:21:57] My family and I actually at this point, just my wife And I, pre kids 15 years ago, lived in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and we were working at Oklahoma Wesleyan University down there. We were involved at a church just across the street from Oklahoma Wesleyan University called First Wesleyan Church. And it's where I did my internship after college.
[00:22:21] The pastor there, Joe Colaw, has been a mentor of mine for many years and has reached out to me. And sometimes when I really needed him and I relied on him for strength.
[00:22:34] While we're down there working, my older brother Billy, who was the previous pastor here, called me and said, hey, Mike, I'm gonna go become the lead pastor at New Life Church in Gillette, Wyoming. You want to come with me?
[00:22:46] And I said, where's Gillette? I don't like the razors.
[00:22:50] And so we came up for a visit and we flew into. Actually we flew into Sheridan because Delta Airlines, we used to have Delta Airlines. Delta Airlines canceled our trip into Gillette So we flew on the tiniest little jet I've ever seen in my life to Sheridan, Wyoming. And our pilot was our flight attendant. It was an experience.
[00:23:13] So we drive to Gillette and we go to Humphrey's Restaurant.
[00:23:18] And we sit down at a table to meet these two 20 year old brothers named Mitch and Grant.
[00:23:27] We started talking to them. They didn't talk like people I was used to. I come from the Bible Belt. These guys are rough.
[00:23:35] We're sitting there and Billy pointed at a picture on the wall and it was Mike Smith in a Speedo. I don't know if you guys seen that picture in Humphreys. It's kind of fun.
[00:23:45] Our server had a hump hard shirt on.
[00:23:50] I was like, we are not, not in the Bible Belt anymore.
[00:23:57] And then I came over to the church. We drove over here because Mitch and Grant had to get here because they were leading worship for VBS in this room. And they called their band for VBS the PB and Jam Band. That was their creative name.
[00:24:13] And I walked in this room and I had more thoughts than I could wrestle with in that moment.
[00:24:19] It's like the Holy Spirit began to speak to me when I walked in this room.
[00:24:24] And I thought, why? First of all, I thought, why is everything pink peach walls and purple carpets and pink pews?
[00:24:35] I thought, this is either the smallest VBS I've ever seen or this room is giant.
[00:24:43] And I thought, this church needs to feel what it's like for this room to be full.
[00:24:49] What would it look like for this room to be full? How awesome would it be if the church could grow to the point that this room is full?
[00:24:58] So we started working to paint the walls black and fill the room.
[00:25:04] And I was wearing a suit that day. I went up and did my interview with the board after vbs and Jim Land was on the board and he said, you know, I didn't want him to hire you because you were wearing a suit and I didn't think you would work hard because he knew a lot of hard work was coming.
[00:25:23] And since then, God has done amazing things.
[00:25:26] A lot has changed.
[00:25:29] Four building projects, two kids.
[00:25:34] A lot of change.
[00:25:36] But thousands of people have come to know Jesus for the first time.
[00:25:42] This room has been filled many, many times. And God has done awesome things.
[00:25:49] About a year ago, that church I was talking about, First Wesleyan Church, called me and said, joe Cola is retiring and we are wondering if you'd be interested in becoming the lead pastor at First Wesleyan Church.
[00:26:04] So we began a long process of praying about it.
[00:26:10] A wrestling match with God to determine if this was the right thing or not.
[00:26:16] And we've come to the conclusion that if we are going to be kingdom minded, that we need to say yes to this call.
[00:26:24] And we believe that God is calling us to First West Lane Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
[00:26:30] We believe that's what's best for First Wesleyan. We believe that's what's best for our family.
[00:26:36] We believe that's what's best for new life.
[00:26:38] If God is calling us there, then God has something else planned that is greater than my plan.
[00:26:45] And we're beginning to see the beginnings of that land.
[00:26:49] We're beginning to see how God is bringing everything together to create an amazing scenario for everybody, everybody involved.
[00:26:57] Because most of all, we believe this is what's best for the kingdom.
[00:27:02] So even though we honestly hate the idea of leaving this church, we've built relationships here. I did not think it was possible to have friendships as deep as the friendships that we have here.
[00:27:17] I did not think it was possible to love a church as much as I love this church.
[00:27:23] And leaving it is the most scary thing I've ever done in my life.
[00:27:35] But a little bit of you, after this long starts to wonder, is this my comfort zone?
[00:27:41] Do I need to do something hard?
[00:27:45] And we believe that this is the step, that if I want to be where Jesus is leading me, it's time to go.
[00:27:55] So we, we hope that all of this is like, no bad news. This is all good news. If God is leading, that means God is in it. If the Spirit is leading us and we get to follow him, that's a good thing. We celebrate that. And what I really don't want is for this to be about me or about our family.
[00:28:15] The reason why I preached this sermon today is because what I believe this means for us as the church is that we all have to decide. All right, if this is the plan, then what does it mean for me, you, to step up, to step out of the boat?
[00:28:33] Maybe there's. Maybe rather than waiting till somebody asks you to step up and volunteer or step up into a leader position, leadership position, you say, okay, if there's a void of leadership, I will step up and I'll be the leader.
[00:28:46] If there's an empty classroom downstairs that needs to be filled, I'll step up, I'll volunteer.
[00:28:52] I'll do my part to help us, the church, become the people that God created us to be.
[00:28:59] Because that's the calling, and it's a never ending calling. God did not rapture us as soon as we got saved, as soon as we got saved, God said, great, here's the mission.
[00:29:11] And we got to do it together. But it means all of us getting out of our comfort zone and doing our part. So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to sing a song.
[00:29:19] My ask for you today is that you will pray about what this means for you, what next step you need to take. If this is your first time visiting today, welcome.
[00:29:29] Weird one for you to be visiting today, but there's opportunity here for you. And I'm gonna pray, then we're gonna sing a song, and then the chairman of our board, vice chairman of our board, is gonna be up here to talk about next steps and what that means for new life moving forward.
[00:29:45] God, I am so thankful for these people.
[00:29:48] I am so thankful for this church and how you have so faithfully led us, how you have changed us, how you have turned us into the people that you created us to be time and time again. God, I pray for courage to do hard things, to take big steps.
[00:30:07] God, for all the people that you are drawing to yourself, let us be your hands and feet.
[00:30:12] That we will together all combine the gifts that you've given us to lead this incredible church, this kingdom, to become what you created it to be.
[00:30:25] God, you are so faithful to us time and time again.
[00:30:29] God, I pray if there's anybody here today who's sinking, who's in the valley, that they would reach out to you, that you would comfort them and guide them and give them hope and peace.
[00:30:44] You are good, God.
[00:30:46] We follow you. You are our rabbi.
[00:30:54] We want to be where you lead us, And we thank you for the opportunity. In Jesus name, amen.
