A Walk That Glorifies Christ - Leaders' Talks

It's time now for the road.

If you're gonna have an extraordinary walk that truly glorifies God, you're gonna have to determine which circle you run.

You've got to determine, am I gonna be in the group that gets dismissed, or am I gonna be in the very few that actually get dismissed?

Welcome to another edition of The Road.

It's our vision to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ and to see you grow in the grace and knowledge of his love.

If you're in the area, we meet at Chapel Hill Church, located at 2025 Arlith Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80920.

You can go to our website at theroad.org for service time.

That's thheroad.org.

Well tonight I'm not speaking.

Um I spoke to Christmas East.

I and I was excited to ask Bobby Sanders to speak, and Bobby is the pastor of Chapel Hill Church.

And I just felt like it was appropriate with our relationship growing as it has.

We meet uh together with my son Daniel, who's our youth director, and then uh with Ryan, our associate pastor.

So we have kind of a time together where we're just sharing our hearts together and studying stuff together.

And so I asked if he would speak.

So he's very familiar with this area right up here, though he's not familiar with this particular podium.

But Bobby uh is from North Carolina, which is my the whole site of my family, Bobby, is from a little tiny town called Whipsit, North Carolina, which hardly any of you.

Have you ever even heard of Whipsit?

You have, okay.

Just to show you how egotistical my family of origin is, my great-grandfather was Whitit.

That was his last name.

And he rode a horse to Washington, D.C.

at the turn of the century because he felt like that his town needed a post office.

And back then you could meet with the postmaster.

So he met with the postmaster.

He said, We need a post office in this area of North Carolina.

And the guy said, Well, what uh what's the name?

He said, Well, we don't have a name.

He said, Well, you need a name.

So he named it after himself.

So that's with the North Carolina, that's a little bit of the history of it.

But then Bobby uh he went on to Nashville and he was a rap artist and did rapping for a while, and then God called him into pastoral ministry.

He's been here for just about a year here at Chapel Hills Church, navigating this the congregation here.

So let's welcome with a good road welcome, Bobby Sanders.

And uh Bobby, I'm gonna pray for you.

So would y'all all extend your hands up to Bobby?

So, Father, in the name in the blood of Jesus, we anoint Bobby with your Holy Spirit, with your presence and your power.

I pray, Lord, as he opens the word, that it would be living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword to our hearts.

I pray, Lord, that he'd have joy.

The joy of the Lord would be a strength.

Thank you for him.

Thank you for Heather.

Thank you for his family.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Well, my wife wanted to be here tonight.

My son, my youngest son, woke up sounding like a frog.

And she was really disappointed because we actually love this body.

When my wife and I were praying about whether or not we should come on board and uh pastor Chapel Hills Church, uh, it was your church that gathered around us and prayed over us as we were trying to discern what God's will was and if we should take the step.

And it it branded us.

I mean, our connection to the road is is is pretty strong.

Uh, we we really do love you guys.

And so uh it's it's it was really hard for Heather.

In fact, as I was leaving, she said, you know, you should just take the van, and then if I change my mind, I can just show up.

And I said, No, I'm gonna take your car because you're not bringing sick kids to church.

So um we're gonna be talking tonight about a very familiar passage in Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

So if you have your Bibles, if you have the uh road app, just pull that up and it should be in Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

And we're actually talking about a really, really, really familiar passage starting in verse 22.

It's so familiar that I I almost hesitated to even talk about it.

I really did wrestle with this scripture, and I wrestled with, is this the right thing for the road?

Is this the right thing for this church?

And and it's so familiar that if you're not careful, you can be like, oh yeah, I know that passage.

And so he did say that right.

You didn't hear it wrong.

I I I did.

I used to be a rapper, and it doesn't sound like it at all.

Um, but I did, and so when you're in the south, you can even get away with talking like this and being a rapper.

Um, but another thing that we do a lot in the south is eat ribs.

Uh we love ribs and we eat a lot of them, and we don't take people that we don't know out to eat ribs.

And it's not because we're trying to not be messy, it's actually because it is offensive to us to eat with people that don't know how to eat ribs.

So there's a throwaway basket, right?

So you eat the rib and then you throw it in this basket.

And if you're the one paying for the food, you keep looking at those ribs like there's still meat.

You gotta eat the whole thing, man.

You gotta eat all of that.

I paid for that.

If you're not careful, that is this scripture.

You can say, Oh, I've already eaten this.

I know what this is, and you throw it away.

And so it's gonna be a real challenge tonight not to just say, Oh, I know this scripture and throw it away.

So I wanted to talk just for a few minutes about why.

Why this passage.

One is because the new year is coming.

The new year is coming, I don't know about you guys, but for me, I mean, right after we get through wrapping presents, like I'm all in on Christmas.

I'm all in.

But I'm literally sitting there while my kids are opening their gifts.

I have a trash bag.

And I'm like, okay, put it in here, put it in here.

And then they're all excited, they open their gifts, everyone's happy, and then I tie the bag up and I'm like, all right, let's start putting stuff in the trash.

Let's start.

New year's coming.

Let's get going, folks.

Let's get going.

And they're saying, can, does this thing have batteries?

Can we just take a minute?

The new year is coming, and I think it's really important for this church to begin to think about where you're going in the new year, not as a church, but as an individual.

And so Steve and I, I think we both believe that a church, it's not our kingdom.

We're not building our kingdom.

So it's really not about just what happens in this room.

It's really not about, even though Christmas Eve was awesome, and being able to get as many chairs in here as you possibly can, that's great.

But to Steve and I, it falls short if people don't leave transformed.

We view church as a huddle, as a timeout, as a minute when the team can get together and call a play, but we know that games aren't won in a huddle.

You're actually discussing how you're going to win.

And then once you break the huddle, then you go out, and if you execute, then you have a chance to win.

We view Saturday night, Sunday morning as a huddle, as a chance to say, here's what we're going to do, here's what we're going to be, here's how we're going to live, and then we break.

And then we're at the mercy of hoping that the church got it, and then they go and execute.

And so this passage really is about having an extraordinary walk that glorifies God outside of this church on an individual level.

And so before we dive in and before we begin to look at this incredible piece of scripture, let's pray and ask the Lord to bless it.

Father, we pray for your time here.

Lord, we pray that your words would penetrate the hearts of all of us.

Father, I pray that you begin to do a work even in my heart.

God, as I communicate this scripture, Lord, that it would be your words, your desires.

Father, I pray that I not say anything that would embarrass you or that would be inaccurate or misleading towards your character.

But God, that you would shine through in this.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

So we're going to go verse by verse, starting in verse 22, and we're going to talk about what does it take for you and I to have an extraordinary walk that glorifies the Lord?

What's it take for me and you to walk in such a way that glorifies God?

Now, if you're not careful, when you hear glorifies God, you could hear behavior modification.

And that's not what we're talking about.

We're not talking about how you talk and how you walk and what you say and the impression that you leave with the server that was serving at your table.

All those things are great, but that really doesn't glorify God.

Glorifying God is just showing God for who He really is.

Letting people see the real God.

And that only happens through faith.

That doesn't happen just through our behavior modification.

If we're not careful, we can think that we're being light to the world by saying thank you and being polite as we check out at the grocery store.

Nothing wrong with that.

That's good, but that is not the level of faith that God called us to walk, and it certainly does not give God glory for who he actually is.

God spoke the world into existence.

His glory is not shown through by us saying thank you as we leave the grocery store.

That's not the magnitude of the God we serve.

God is magnified by our faith walk when the Spirit leads us, we walk in that in such a way that people will say, God has to be real.

Look at so-and-so's life.

If God's not real, then explain John's life.

If God's not real, then explain Sally's life.

It's actually people looking and seeing God for who He is by how you walk by faith.

That's why in 1 Corinthians, Paul, one of his greatest insults of the church was now you're acting like mere humans.

I mean, wrap your head around that.

He did not excel in mama jokes.

In the South, we had mama jokes, and we would get around in a circle and we would just go at it.

He would not have been good at that.

That was his greatest insult, was now you're acting like mere humans.

But if you take time and let that actually soak in, it's really convicting.

Is our Christian life a reflection of God's glory?

Or are we just living like mere humans?

So let's dive in.

Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd.

After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

Later that night he was there alone.

And the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by waves because the wind was against it.

I'm gonna just go a verse at a time and see if we can just extract one thing out of that verse that will we can use in our walk for 2016.

I want to look at verse 22 specifically right now.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd.

If you're gonna have an extraordinary walk that truly glorifies God, you're gonna have to determine which circle you run in.

And what I mean by that is if you look at the picture, Jesus dismissed the crowd and sent the disciples.

If you look in John, particularly even after Jesus had already walked on water, after he had fed the 5,000, the crowd came back to him, the crowd that he dismissed.

And he essentially says to them, Why are you still here?

You are only following me because I fed you.

You should go home now.

If you truly want to have a walk that glorifies the Lord, you've got to determine: Am I going to be in the group that gets dismissed, or am I going to be in the very few that actually gets sent?

Those two are complete different things.

An illustration.

I used to have, when I was first started in youth ministry, student ministry is kind of my thing.

And when I first started in student ministry, my lead youth pastor that was my coach and mentor, we used to go to his house at night and we'd hang out until his wife did this.

She would get up and she would say, Well, I'm gonna go to bed so y'all can go home now.

And that was our cue.

Turn off the TV, grab your coat, everyone just you leave.

Unless you're in the family.

If you're in the family, then you stay in the house.

And you knew immediately, these are my lines.

That was my cue to move on.

And it was because there were certain things that we did not share.

We did not share a home, we did not share food, we did not share family.

We had some intimacy, but we weren't family.

And so she would dismiss us so that the family could continue to do what they do, which is settle in for the night.

For the disciples, Jesus never dismissed them.

He sent them.

There was intentionality.

There was a place where they were going.

There was something he had for them to do.

But for this large group, he said, okay, you guys, you should go home now.

You don't have to go home, but you got to get up out of here.

You got to go.

And you have to ask yourself, which group am I in?

You actually have some control over that.

It's not just whether Jesus Christ has chosen you, but it's actually your heart.

Because look at what Jesus says later on.

Look at what Jesus says in John.

He says, You're only here because of the food.

That's all you're here for.

You should go now.

And they all said, Your teaching is too hard for me.

And he said, Yeah, that's why you should go.

And he looked at the disciples and he said, Are you gonna go too?

And they said, Where would we go?

You hold the very words, the very key to life.

Where will we go?

And so it was actually a matter that they settled in their heart.

That there's nowhere for us to go.

And so you have to settle that matter in your heart, or you're never gonna get to experience the walk that the scent gets to experience.

But let's go to verse 23.

In verse 23, after he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.

And later that night he was there alone.

And I wonder how how much do you have to humble yourself as Jesus Christ in order to pray?

I mean, he's just talking to himself.

You wrap your head around it.

He's just talking to himself, but he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.

And if you look at almost every single time he did anything significant, he went somewhere to pray.

Almost every single time he did it, he went away to pray.

But you and I, man, we can fall into a trap of seeing God do something great in our life.

And the last thing we think about is we need to fill up in prayer.

We need to not let this moment escape us.

See, he sent the disciples, he dismissed the crowd, and then he went away to pray.

And if you and I are gonna have an extraordinary walk, we need to be able to get to a place where we give ourselves to the Lord in prayer.

If you could just take for a second and go to Mark.

Mark chapter 9.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Look in verse 14.

I'm gonna read for you something that is convicting to me.

The disciples have the ability to cast out demons.

They have the power that God has given them.

And they're beginning to do it, and they're beginning to operate in it.

But then in verse 14, when they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them.

As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

What are you arguing with them about?

He asked.

A man in the crowd answered, Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech.

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground.

He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.

I ask your disciples to drive them out, but they could not, you unbelieving generation, Jesus replied, How long will I stay with you?

How long will I put up with you?

Bring the boy to me.

So they brought him to him.

And when the Spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions.

He fell to the ground and rolled around foaming at the mouth.

Jesus asked the boy's father, How long has he been like this?

From childhood, he answered, It has often thrown him into the fire or water to kill him.

I love this.

But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.

Look at Jesus.

If you can, Jesus said, Jesus, everything is possible for one who believes.

If you can, it's almost like an insult to him to hear you to hear him say that.

If you can.

He said, if you can.

And immediately the boy's father exclaimed, and this is what we should all exclaim, I do believe.

Help me overcome my unbelief.

I believe, but there's a limit to my belief.

Move the cap, remove the cap.

I want unlimited belief.

I want to believe that you're capable of this.

And you got to hear me.

As I'm talking to you tonight, and we begin to talk about hard things, it could be easy for us to just shut down and say, hey, I'm not there yet.

I would say, take that to the Lord and say, Lord, I'm not there yet.

Help my unbelief.

I'm not out, I'm just not to the full like I need to be.

So help my unbelief.

And then in verse 25, when Jesus saw the crowd was running to the scene, he he rebuked the impure spirit.

You deaf and mute spirit, he said.

I command you to come out.

Out of him, and never enter again.

The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out.

The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said he is dead.

But Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, I love this.

I would have done the same thing.

His disciples asked him privately, why couldn't we drive it out?

Why couldn't we drive this out?

And then he replied, This kind can come out only by prayer.

Now the amazing thing was Jesus didn't pray.

He says this kind can only come out by prayer, but he didn't pray.

He just commanded that the Spirit come out.

And the reason why he didn't pray is because he's saying this kind can only come out by prayers stored up.

Prayer and fasting, having a life of prayer, will allow you to do these kind of things.

But if you haven't already stored up prayers, you probably should just move on because you're not going to win this one.

It's like being rusty.

It's like being out in an injury.

And then your injury begins to heal up, and you think you can just come right in and play the sport at the level that you used to play it.

No, you have to remove some of that rust, man.

You gotta train, you gotta prepare, you gotta be ready for this.

And I've always thought it was amazing that right after Jesus feeds 5,000 people, his first thought is, I'm empty.

I need to go fill up.

So if you are going to be who the Lord wants you to be in 2016, you better learn to be committed to prayer.

Well, let's move on now.

Verse 22.

I'm sorry, verse 25.

In verse 25 of Matthew 14 again, it says, shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake.

His disciples saw him walking on the lake, and they were terrified.

It is a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear.

The reason why they did this is the same reason why you and I don't reach our full potential to do what God wants us to do and what God has called us to do, and it is a lack of expectation.

We actually don't expect God to show up in certain ways, and we automatically shut it off as if he would never show up that way.

And so when he does show up that way, it's terrifying.

We tend to wrap our head around how we think God is going to move and we lock into this mode, and when we show up in an environment that's not churchy, it throws us off.

We really don't know what to do.

We really don't know how to handle that.

We don't see God in that situation.

I remember I was a rapper and I was in Chicago and I was doing an event in the inner city on the south side of Chicago, and this guy comes up to me while I'm rapping, and I'm gonna rap again that night in the middle of the street.

And uh and he starts talking smack, and he's just he's just a street guy, and uh he said, we're passing out flyers.

Hey, he's gonna be at this event, and you should come to this event.

He's like, You gonna be here?

That's my street, that's my hood.

He said, I'm gonna be there too.

And I'm gonna bust joke when I get there.

And I'm like, oh gosh.

Yeah, I can't, I mean, fear just seizes me.

And I'm I get there, I do the event, and I'm thinking, Lord, please don't let this guy show up.

You know, please don't let this guy show up.

And I'm I'm on stage and I'm kind of doing my thing in the middle of the street, and here he comes, and I'm thinking, that's all, like the Christian rapper pastor guy is gonna fight somebody in the middle of the street after I've invited everybody to come hear about the love of Jesus.

And he comes and he sits there and he's listening to me, and then he just starts kind of bobbing his head, kind of starts shaking his head, and he's like, you're all right, man, and he drive, he drives off.

And I'm like, I'm not dead.

Thank you, Lord, I'm not dead.

Yeah, listen.

The day after we left that place, the day after we left that place, someone was killed in a drive-by.

The day after.

But the Lord puts you in situations and you have to be confident that He has you there, that He's there, that He's there in that moment.

I remember being in another place in Detroit, and in Detroit, this pastor comes to me.

We're all on a mission trip, and this pastor comes to me and he says, You, and just you, no one else, you can come with me.

And we went to uh the stretch in Detroit called Eight Mile.

And he said, Are you afraid to come in here?

And I said, Not afraid to come in here.

I lied through my teeth.

I'm like, nah, I'm not afraid, man.

I'm totally good.

Let's do it.

And he brings, and there's no one in the street.

No one is in the street except for this old lady sweeping her stoop and these two young guys.

And so I just start rapping, and my DJ's playing, and I'm rapping, and then before you know it, there's probably 250 people in the street.

And the street is just going nuts.

And I look at the pastor and I'm like, what happened here?

And he said, as you were rapping, the two guys called the drug lord and they said, he's totally good.

It's okay.

And then the drug lord let everyone else come out.

And he said, You see that guy over there?

Yeah.

He said, That's the drug lord.

No one thinks about God working in that way.

No one writes those things out.

No one plans those things out.

But I'm telling you, working in the Spirit is a daily act of listening.

It's a daily act of God.

Do you want me to turn right or turn left?

Do you want me to do this or do that?

What do you want me to do?

And as God begins to lead you, his word does not return void, and you begin to experience an incredible walk.

Why?

Because you didn't put God in a boat.

And we do that.

We put the Lord in a boat and we say, This is how you will always operate.

And when he chooses to operate another way, we don't see it.

We don't see it.

But God operates daily in ways that we won't see.

And those that are willing to see him come and live with their eyes open, they don't miss those opportunities.

But very few people do that.

The disciples were all terrified.

Look in verse 25 again.

They were all terrified.

Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake.

When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified.

It is a ghost, they said, and they cried out in fear.

Fear of the actual Christ that was discipling them, and they were terrified of it.

Listen, if you aren't at least a little bit afraid of the things that God calls you to, you probably have a closed ear and a closed mind to the magnitude of what he actually wants you to do.

It's not until verse 27 that you should be getting some peace.

Verse 27, but Jesus immediately said to them, Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid.

It's actually at the hearing of his voice that you should begin to settle down.

Whoa, wait a minute.

I'm getting killed.

I'm sitting here in the streets of Chicago, I'm going to get killed.

And then the Spirit of God is saying, No, calm down.

Calm down.

I got you.

You're okay.

Or when God calls me to be the pastor of this church, and Steve knows how hard I struggled over there.

I didn't want to do it.

And then as you guys begin to get around us and pray over us, and as we begin to see the Lord move, it's like, no, no, this is oftentimes in the faith we don't make decisions, we hear decisions.

And too many times we think we're in the business of making decisions when it's really about hearing.

Because if God says, do this, it doesn't matter what the risks are, does it?

If God says do it, you should do it.

He sees the whole picture.

The risk no longer matters.

You can throw that out of the window.

And so it doesn't matter the location, it doesn't matter the time, it doesn't matter the place.

What matters is your ability to walk in the Spirit and produce fruit.

In John chapter 10, verse 3 through 5, he says, My sheep hear my voice.

John 10:3–5

They will not listen to another.

So when you hear my voice, you should be able to be filled with courage, filled with faith, and oh, upon the Lord's word, we're going.

And we don't do that much anymore.

We all seem to have pastors seem to have this formula of success.

It drives me nuts.

Partly because I'm not as smart as most of those guys.

And so I can't quite figure out what they're doing.

But it's also like, man, what about when the Lord just wants to do something for his glory that was not predictable?

Do we not do that anymore?

Are we not able to do that anymore?

And so it drives me nuts.

But look at verse 28, what happens?

Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you and walk on the water.

So there's this process that Peter has, which is called hearing the word.

And then he is empowered by faith to do the extraordinary.

Okay, my most influential person in my spiritual life, bar none, there's not even a close second, is named Polly McDuffie.

Polly McDuffie was my bus driver in a public school system.

She would tape Bible verses above the seats.

And I used to tell her, I say, you're going to lose your job.

I'm going to turn you in.

Because you couldn't sit in that seat unless you memorized that verse.

If you wanted to change seats, you had to memorize a new verse.

You could sit anywhere you wanted to sit on that entire bus as much as you want to move around, but you have to know that verse.

So if you're sitting in a seat and you don't know the verse, you're in trouble.

And I used to tell her, you're going to get in trouble.

Like this is a public school.

You can't do this.

And she would say, son, look at me.

I'm a bus driver.

I'm not the president.

I'm not a CEO.

I'm driving a bus.

If you want to turn me in, then I'll sweep floors.

I'll do whatever I have to do, but don't sit down until you memorize that verse.

She totally transformed my life.

Because one day she asked me, she said, son, do you talk to God?

I said, I talk to God all the time.

Does God talk to you?

And I had no response to that.

I didn't know what to tell her.

Because I didn't know it worked like that.

And I said, What do you mean?

And she said, Well, when you read the word of God, he should speak to you.

You should hear him talking.

And if you're just the one doing the talking, there's no faith growing here.

You're just talking.

You should hear him.

And she said, This is how it works, son.

You go home today and you say, God, I just want you to speak.

You pray first and ask him to speak.

Then you get in the word and you let him talk.

And so I did.

No one was home.

I got off the bus.

I ran home.

I said, God.

My bus driver said, you can talk.

If you can really talk, I want to hear you talk.

I don't care what you say.

I just want to hear you talk.

And so I began reading the word.

And I read forever.

And I thought, well, nothing's happening here.

But in my spirit, I felt like, no, you should continue to read.

You should continue to dig.

And I can't tell you anywhere where it is in Scripture.

The reason why I can't tell you where it is is God spoke to me that day.

He said, get your life in order and keep it in order because I'm going to return soon.

And the reason why I can't tell you where it is is I literally threw the Bible.

Because I heard him talk.

It scared the life out of me.

And I threw the Bible.

And then I couldn't be in the house because it was freaking me out.

He talked.

And I didn't want to be in the house with that.

So I ran out of the house.

And then when I ran out of the house, I got so excited that he talked that I just started literally, I'm just a kid.

I'm running circles around my house because I have so much energy.

I don't know what to do with it because God just spoke.

And this, I'm not making this up.

In that moment, a pastor comes to my house to visit our family.

And I told him, You will never believe what just happened to me.

And it freaked him out and he left.

Why can we not accept the fact that God is living?

He's alive.

His word is active.

It's sharper than any two-edged sword.

And when he says something to you, he's living.

And based on God's word, we step out.

So look at this.

In verse 28, let me find my place again.

In verse 28, he does something, Peter does something pretty incredible.

The rest of the disciples become muted.

They're no longer in this story, which is what happens, by the way.

This was never Peter's story.

This was not, God didn't intend to come out and just have a moment with Peter.

Any of the disciples that could have heard his voice and said, Lord, this could have been their story.

But they didn't say that.

They shrunk back.

And Peter was the one person that said, Lord, if it's you, let me come out.

Now notice Jesus doesn't come out and say, Peter, come here.

He just comes out walking on the water.

And when he says, take courage, don't be afraid, Peter says, Lord, if it's you, let me come.

We don't take initiative enough to walk the type of walk that would glorify the Lord.

The Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God.

You can't please him without faith.

Because God honors those that seek Him and believe that God is there to reward them.

And without faith, it's impossible to do it.

And faith really does come in the form of initiative.

See, we tend to say, well, why aren't you doing this?

Or why aren't you doing that?

Or why, well, God hasn't called me to it yet.

Well, why's God got to call you to it?

Can't you just ask?

Can't you first ask to be a part of that?

Now there's wisdom in the next verse because he waits.

He does wait.

And Jesus says, come, and then he comes.

So that we don't get confused on that.

Let's read it.

Let's look at it.

Verse 29.

Come, he says.

Then Peter got down.

See, it's a fine balance of taking initiative and overriding God's will.

It's a really, really, really fine balance.

Because you say, Lord, I want to come, but I'm not coming until you say come.

Because my hope is in you.

And I'm not going to get ahead of myself and I'm not going to do things I shouldn't do because I want to go based on your word, because your word doesn't return void.

I want to go based on your word.

That's where my blessing is.

That's where my comfort is.

That's where my assurance is.

But when you say come, I'm coming.

And in verse 29, he says it.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus.

And then verse 30.

Verse 30 is where Peter becomes my hero.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

If you're going to do anything extraordinary, you're going to have to come to grips with the fact that failing is not as bad as you think it is.

Failing is not as big of a deal as you and I think it is.

I've cued up a video from a, well, let me ask you this.

Who's the greatest basketball player to ever touch a basketball?

See, no one even no one ever hesitates on that.

Ever.

But there's a video that Michael Jordan did.

I wanted us to take a minute and look at it.

So if you have, Ben, you good?

I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.

I've lost almost 300 games.

26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot.

And missed.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life.

That is why I succeed.

See it, guys.

We have to take comfort in the fact that Christ is our Lord, that He's already won the victory, He's already won the battle, and we get to come alongside Abba and work with Him.

And we have to be willing to step out and do things that others aren't willing to do.

And when that happens, Christ gets glory.

It is in those moments that people say, man, look at that person's life.

You can't tell me God's not real.

You can't tell.

It is in that moment when Christ gets glory.

The faith is not being so faithful that you cannot fall.

The faith is this.

This is actually his truest act of faith.

You have eleven men and a flotation device right here.

And then you have one man with a pair of sandals.

And beginning to sink, he says, Jesus.

My bad.

Can I get a rope?

He says, no, no, no, no, no.

I'm still focused on where I'm trying to go.

And the temptation would be, I gotta go back to comfort.

I gotta go back to safety.

And he said, No, I failed.

I took my eyes off him, but I'm I'm focused.

I'm still going.

That's where I'm going.

And I love this because at the very end, the scripture says that Jesus not only helped him up, but they both got into the boat.

And what happens when they both get into the boat is all the other disciples say, surely, surely you're the Son of God.

Well, just like.

12 hours ago he fed 5,000 people with a happy meal.

That didn't tell you something?

Like that didn't clue you in.

What happened was when they saw one of their brothers walk with him, that's when it became real to them.

Was they saw Peter do it alongside Christ.

And I'm telling you, there's it's easy to lose faith in the church because the church can become this religious institute, man, that's just like, you know, what are we doing?

But the road is not one of those churches for me.

It's not.

And you don't cast your pearls to swine.

So when you have good stuff, you make sure it doesn't get trampled on before you throw it out there.

And I'm telling you, I believe that there are people in this church that have the ability to transform the world around us.

If we will just learn to listen, get into God's word, get into the PB and J, become discipled, get into a D group, and determine that we're going to do scary stuff this year.

Lord, if you'll call me to it, I'll do it.

I don't care what it is.

Don't matter to me.

I'll do whatever it is.

And when we do it, the world around us, even the believers around us, will look and say, no, God is bigger than we gave him credit for.

Look at that.

He has to be bigger.

So as we pray and we begin to worship the Lord, my only request for you, my only offer to you, is just to ask the Lord, Lord, would you call me out?

Would you call me to something that I would not do on my own?

And if you'll do it, I'll come.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for calling us to really great stuff that you have already had the victory over.

Really great stuff that you've already won.

Lord, as we worship you, I pray that we can worship you not just with our mouths, not just with our hearts, but God, with our expectations of what you have in front of us, Lord.

Give us a heart that says, if you're not in the boat, we don't want to be in the boat.

We want to be wherever you are.

And we're willing to step out and do that, Father.

Give us a heart of courage that would step out and would do things that would inevitably show you for who you are and give you the glory.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You've been listening to the road.

We pray that you've been blessed by the message today.

Our hope is to make wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

And that's why we teach the Word of God verse by verse, scripture by scripture, and precepts upon precept.

We're excited about all the things God is doing in the lives of our faithful listeners.

We understand that there are many trials and tribulations in this world, and we'd love to be able to pray for you as you encounter difficult times.

Please drop us a note and let us know how we can pray for you.

Write us at The Road.

PO Box 88485 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

If you've been blessed by this message, please let us know as well.

Again, the address is The ROAD.

PO Box 88485 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908.

If you're in the area, please stop on by and join us at The Road.

We meet at Chapel Hills Church, located at 2025 Parliament Drive, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920.

You can find out about our service times and more about the road by going to our website at theroad.org.

That's theroad.org.

Make sure you follow us on Facebook as well.

That's facebook.com slash the roadcs.

As always, we covet your prayers.

Thanks again for tuning in today.

And be sure to catch us again next time for another edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Hope.