← ArchiveSunday, June 7, 2015DateJune 7, 2015Speaker—TextMatthewPassages in this sermonPsalms 231:12Matthew 142:26Romans 10:1723:05Matthew 823:50TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Amen. Thank you. I really think she means that. Amen. Amen. If you brought your Bible, I hope you did. Turn with me to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 14. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 14,0:24a very, very familiar passage of Scripture for those of you that have been around church at any length of time. You've probably heard this text preached, taught, vacation Bible school. It's an amazing, amazing miracle. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 15, beginning with the 25th verse. We'll go back and look at a few other verses prior to that as well. Breaking out of the comfort zones. As I began0:51to prepare my thoughts for the summer as I work a six-month preaching schedule, and usually I like to do a full year, but I don't know if I'm going to be here for a full year, so I'm just kind of lazy, so I'm not going to give you a full year's worth. But I try to do a six-month preaching schedule, and I was coming up, finishing up the Psalms 23 series. And by the way, thank you so much for those kind words and remarks that y'all sent me. A lot of people, I really appreciate that. I got as1:18much out of the study in Psalms 23 as I did. I hope you got out of listening to it. It's just a thick, thick passage of Scripture, and I thank you so much for all those encouraging words. But I knew I was coming into the summer months, and a lot of people in and out. Instead of doing a text or a book series or a, you know, block of Scripture type series, I thought, well, we'll just do some one-offs, and then what can we do under a banner? I like to have a theme, so I came up with what God says about,1:47and we're going to talk about breaking out of the comfort zones today. Many of us are faced in those comfort zones. Now, let me kind of give you the message truth before I read the text to you. All of us are surrounded. All of us are surrounded by comfort zones, those invisible barriers that make us feel cozy and secure. Comfort zones are developed after we've done things in a particular way for a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, they make us feel so comfortable, we may never want to change2:17the way we do things. Comfort zones, breaking out of those comfort zones. Matthew chapter 14, beginning in the 25th verse and following down to the 33rd verse, and the fourth watch of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. Y'all underline that because that's an interesting event that took place.2:41Verse 26, and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were frightened, saying, it's a ghost. And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, take courage. It is I. Do not be afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it's you, command me to come3:01out, come to you on the water. And he, Jesus said, come. And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became afraid and began in beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him3:28and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when he got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, you are certainly God's son. Let's pray. Father, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight today. Lord, we ask you to remove any obstacle standing in the way from us here and from you.3:58It would be easy for us that have been around church work, have been around worship gatherings like this and small groups and Sunday schools and life groups. And Father, we've heard this lesson over and over and over and over again. It'd be easy for us to just take a deep breath and take a little snooze and not really pay attention today. And God, I pray that you will speak precisely to us today. And I pray, Father, that the words that are in this message from your word today will speak4:25to us that we all, every one of us in this room have found ourselves in those cozy, secure spots, very comfortable with doing life. And Father, I pray that you break us out of that trap. Break us out of those comfort zones. And Lord, do something uniquely different in our lives today. And we give you all the praise and4:48all the glory and all the honor. In Jesus' name we pray. And the church said, amen. On this occasion, in Matthew chapter 14, there are several demonstrations are proof positives that Christ's deity, of Christ's deity, and that led to the disciples' confession. Now, I want you to notice these before I give you the five breakthrough comfort zone principles. I think there are five affirmations. The first one is his5:17demonstration of his divine authority. He commanded the disciples and made them get into the boat. Now, pack up to verse 22. Immediately, he made the disciples. Now, the word made, he said he forced them. He told them and they responded. He made the disciples get into the boat and go out before him5:40to the other side while he dismissed the crowds. So, he, his authority, he spoke and they did exactly what they said, what he said to do. The second divine knowledge, is that, that of it, is, is that what the word is? He shows his divine knowledge. He commanded them and the boat, to get into the boat and they followed his command and headed to the6:06other side of the Sea of Galilee. The storms erupted, taking them away from the shoreline. Fact of the matter is, they normally just went a few yards off, not many feet, not many yards off the shoreline, going from one point to the other on the Sea of Galilee. Same body of water, Sea of Galilee, Sea of Tiberias, and Lake Genesarea, same body of water, depending on where you were is what they called it. And so,6:32they would not get too far out. And so, this mighty storm erupted and it pushed them away from the land. In fact, the matter is, it got so bad, they couldn't even see the shoreline. The storms erupted. They couldn't set sail, but only they could row their boat, straining with every stroke. The disciples were confused. They were frustrated. They were disillusioned. They were disappointed that Jesus had sent them out6:57into this disaster. They were like, what in the world is he trying to do to us? He equally knew that the storm was there and exactly where the disciples were headed through the storm. So, he knew that. Why? Because he's omnipresent. He's everywhere and he's omniscient. He's all knowledge. So, Christ knew that the storm, he knew that he was going to send these disciples into the thick of this storm. So,7:24his authority was he commanded them and they responded. His knowledge was that he knew that there was a storm and the disciples needed to go through this to break them out of their comfort zones. The third proof is that his divine knowledge was manifested in his protection of the disciples. As he approached them, they cried out. Now, notice with me, notice with me,7:48Jesus spoke to them saying, take courage. It is I. He was walking on the water. He knew that the storms were out there and as he was walking on the water, they saw that. They thought it was a ghost. They were terrified and he says, take courage. It is I. Command me to come to you on the water. He said,8:10I am here. I have got my hedge of protection around him. As he approached, they cried out. However, they thought they were seeing a ghost, a phantom, as it were, is the ghost word in the Greek language, frightened them even more. So, they, first of all, they saw his authority. First of all, the affirmation of his knowledge. The third affirmation is his protection. And the fourth8:40is how much he deeply loved him. His divine knowledge demonstrated his love towards them. Peter was the object lesson of this particular exercise. Peter is the object lesson. Now, Peter had foot and mouth disease, did he not? He was constantly putting his foot into his mouth. He was constantly saying things he really didn't mean to say, but he went ahead and said them anyway.9:06Peter was brash. He was outspoken. He was overconfident. I can't relate to Peter. I have a hard time relating to him. My mild-mannered humility just will not let me relate to Peter. I can totally relate to Peter. Sometimes I open my mouth before my brain engages. Don't say amen to that, Debbie. I know you're in the room. I see you. She's nodding her head in the affirmative right now, and she's not going9:35to get lunch bought for her if she keeps on. But anyway, I want you to know that sometimes Peter would open his mouth, and he would say things. He was overconfident. But I can tell you that Jesus went on to say, upon this rock, meaning Peter, the guy, Peter, I'll build my church. So, before we bash old Peter, remember, he was one of the disciples. He was a bold witness for Jesus Christ. So, Jesus commanded10:01that Peter, come. And Peter did what? He got up, and he got out of the boat. Some of us need to follow suit with Peter. Some of us need to say, I will be like Peter. Some of us won't even put our toe in the water, must lest get up and get out of the boat. So, I see this fourth proof of his divine knowledge,10:28his demonstrating of his love. He loved Peter, and he loved these disciples, but he needed to teach them a lesson. And the fifth, and finally, which might be just the most spectacular of all the miracles, and sometimes we overlook it in this particular passage, the divine knowledge of his accomplished without Jesus saying a word or raising his hand. And it was as if the winds just completely,10:50in fact, the matter is, they just stopped. This horrific storm was a brewing and tossing that boat to and fro. They could not see. And it's as if without saying a word or without raising his hand, he stepped inside the boat, and the storm immediately stopped. I was thinking about that passage early this11:15morning when I reread the text this morning. He got into the boat, and the winds stopped. He commands us to step out of the boat, and then he says, let's get back in, and I'm getting in with you. And when that happens, when we are in the boat with Jesus, the storms will pass us by. Many of us are trying to11:40row against the tide. Many of us are trying to do things in our own will. And he said, he got in, and the winds simply went away. It stopped. All of these events led the disciples to do what they needed to do. And what was that? They worshiped him. You see, some of us are going through storms of life,12:08and we find ourselves in our plight. We find ourselves in our difficult situations, and we're terrified, and God's calling us to step out of the boat, and we put our toe in the water, and we, oh my goodness, things are going against us. We're rowing against the current. Yet we fail to do what the disciples did gladly. In verse 33, those who were in the boat, they worshiped him, saying, you are12:35certainly God's son. Now, that for a setup, I want to talk to you about change. Change is the greatest enemy to comfort zones. The fact of the matter is, the only people that like change are babies with dirty diapers. They, and we love to change them. Not really actually change them, but we like the13:04after effect. Amen? I mean, there's nothing worse than changing a dirty diaper, is it? I mean, it's just, those of you that have never changed one, we, you just need to try it. It is just not a pretty thing. I know some of you are just grossed out like now, but it's a fact of the life, is it not? It's a fact of the life. Dirty diapers are nasty, and the child, they don't, they can't wait to get,13:28once they get clean there, once they get a new diaper on, they're thrilled to death to go make it again. Right? It says, this holds up to 12 pounds, and some of your kids, and mine included, would use all 12 pounds, amen? You see, the only people that like change is kids with dirty diapers. Sometimes it's easier to do the same things over and over and over again than to make the adjustments in our own13:58personal life to be able to row with the current instead of against the current. Comfort zones are not completely bad, though. They're better than, security is better than being insecure, is it not? However, security is like money. It's a wonderful servant, but a horrible master. Security is a wonderful servant, but it is a horrible master. If you're securing your walk with God, if you're securing and you're not in the rub, just14:28a little bit rubbing against it, some of us need to step out of the boat. We need to get a little insecure so we can totally trust Christ. That's why I love Peter, Brad. He said, you know what, Lord, if it's you, command me, and Peter stepped out of the boat. Praise God we got Peter to point us to, some of us in this room. You've been riding on the jet ski of Jesus forever, and some of us need to step out of the boat14:57just a little bit to see what God has for us on the other side. I want to give you five quick principles, comfort zone principles, breakthrough principles. Number one, we break through our comfort zones when we do something that makes us feel uncomfortable. When we do something that makes us feel a bit uncomfortable, that's when we break through. Look what verse 28 says. Peter answered him, said, Lord,15:26if it's you, command me to come on to the water. Come on to you in the water. Jesus knew that the crowd was, their motives was to make him king. Before he sent the disciples off, he heard the disciples and put them in the boat. The disciples would have fallen right along with the rest of them, making him king. So he decided, I got to break them through. I got to get them out of their comfort zone. God places many15:51of his blessings outside our comfort zones. Then he asked us to come and get them. Sometimes we got to do some things that we've never done before to experience some things we will never ever receive unless we step outside of the boat. If we ever want to receive something we've never had before, we've got to do something we've never done before. Peter forgot his seventh grade science class when it taught us that16:19body mass is heavier than water mass. And so Peter just said, I'm getting out. I'm going to do something something I've never done before so that I can break through over onto the other side. Contrary to popular belief, the football coach that used to coach down at University of Alabama did not walk on16:48water. He was a great football coach. I don't deny that. Amazing. Probably in all history, he probably goes down to all college coaches on the planet. He was probably one of the best, if not the best, but he never walked on water. He was a football coach. Peter got up, stepped out, and walked on water. He forgot his science class that body mass was heavier than water mass. So if we're going to17:16break through the comfort zones, we must do something that makes us feel uncomfortable. Number two, if we break through the comfort zones, we break through the comfort zones by refusing to listen to our fears. Refusing to listen to our fears. And so I started thinking about that, refusing to listen to our fears. Why in the world do we stay in the boat? Zig Ziglar, the great Christian motivational17:42speaker, said this, fear, the acrostic of, is false evidence appearing real. False evidence appearing real. F-E-A-R. We have a fear of criticism. That's why we don't get out. We're not going to step out because I don't want to be criticized. We have a fear of criticism. We have a fear of failure. That is a disaster in itself. If you have a fear of failure, guess what, folks? Stay in the boat. You're still going to fail some. Amen? We are imperfect people. We're going to make mistakes. Every one of18:12us, the best person in this room has made mistakes. If you come up to me and say, I've never made a mistake in my life. You just did. You lied. Amen? Because every one of us have. Fear of criticism. I'd rather do something for Jesus and be criticized for it than to do nothing and not get criticized. Amen? Fear of criticism. Fear of failure. Fear of the unknown. We don't have any idea. My goodness18:39gracious, if I step out into the storm, step out of the boat, I have no idea. I don't know if this is going to hold me. I don't know where it's going to happen. I am terrified. I don't know the unknown. Do something that you've never done before to receive something you never had before. So, we got to break through by refusing our fear. Fear of criticism. Fear of failure. Fear of the unknown. Here's the best one. Fear of what God might require of us. We're terrified. We're scared that19:06God might call us to do something unusual. I ask for permission to use his name. He's a close friend of mine. He's a former CEO of Motion Industries here in Birmingham. He's retired now. He's been a couple of times with us to Honduras. The first time this retired executive of a six billion dollar19:29corporation. He's going with us in October to share at our business development and leadership development conference down in October in San Pedro Sula. And Wayne Law had been a Christ follower for many, many years. And he signed up. He and Miss Jones signed up with their small group at our church to go to Honduras to do some ministry work and do vacation Bible school. Now, here's a CEO of a major19:57corporation in the United States based in Birmingham, Alabama. And he signs up to go. He's never done VBS in his life. He's never taught in VBS. And we're going to put him outside of his comfort zone. Now, putting him into that business conference, he's in his wheelhouse. He's right in his mix. He's in that comfort zone there. But we're going to push the envelope a little bit. And we're going to ask him to do something he's never done20:23before so he can receive something he's never had before or never received before. So, Wayne Law comes up to me. And I always ask people to write their testimony when they go on a trip with us. And we want to know who they are in Christ Jesus. We'd rather have a Christ follower on our trip than non-Christ followers. It's usually better for that way. And so, we ask him to write their testimony so we know who he got on the team. He wrote his testimony, but he has never shared that publicly. Never shared that publicly. He lived the life of Christ in front of people. He tithed in the local20:53church. He was involved in other things in the community. He was a good man to his wife. Didn't beat his kids too much? He was a good guy. But he never shared his faith. And all of a sudden, about halfway through the week, Wayne comes up to me and says, I understand you might need somebody to share their testimony. Just put me down. Tell me when you want me to. And I said, well, you came to me. I didn't ask you. You said, yes, that's right. That's what I always do. I don't ever, ever, ever put somebody's21:19name on the list to share their testimony on our trip or share the gospel on our trip. I let the Lord Jesus do that. And if I don't feel like that they're listening to the Lord Jesus, then I tell them. Amen. This is kind of, you know, I persuade them heavily to do that. And so he comes up to me, Brad, and he says, I want to share. I said, great. And Wayne shares his testimony and gives a public invitation. And 20 or so people indicate praying to receive Christ as their personal Savior, Lord.21:49The first time Wayne ever shared his testimony with a gospel presentation, folks' lives were changed. I asked him, you're the, just recently you just retired as the CEO of Motion in Israel. How could you be, why, what, what provoked you? He said, I was terrified. I was terrified of the unknown.22:14I was terrified that I might make a mistake. I was terrified of what God might require him. Now we can't stop him from shutting up. He won't shut up. He's telling it all the time. I ran into him at the golf course recently, and he's sitting there with three guys, and I went over and introduced myself to the guys. He said, these are the guys that I'm pouring life into. That's all he said, pouring life into. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was sharing the gospel with these guys. Over the golf course22:44of all places. Amen. See, sometimes we will break through the comfort zone because we refuse to listen to our fears. Number three, we break through the comfort zones by taking a step of faith. Taking a step of faith. Romans chapter 10, verse 17. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Fear and faith cannot live in the same heart. Faith in action will always shatter the23:11stronghold of fear. Fear is not believing, is not believing in spite of the evidence, but obeying in spite of the consequences. I'm going to do what God says do. We break through our comfort zones when we do something we do something we've never done or makes us feel uncomfortable by refusing our fears, by taking a step of faith. We must never judge our security based on our circumstances alone. You see, these disciples had23:39already experienced this storm thing before in Matthew chapter 8. They understood this storm stuff. They understood who they were with who they were with. We break through our comfort zones by taking a step of faith. Number four, we break through our comfort zones in order to fulfill God's will in our lives. In order to fulfill God's24:06will in our lives. Jesus walked on the water showing them the sea was the only staircase for him to come to them. The sea was only a staircase. I want you to notice with me in verse 29 again. And he said, come. And Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became afraid. He began24:31beginning to sink. He cried out saying, Lord, save me. Now, here's what we do sometimes. And I know that you're just like me because I've done it. And you have too. Is that we say, yeah, see there, old Peter, he started sinking. Took his eyes off Jesus, started sinking. Bless God. Thank God for Peter. At least he got out of the boat. Most of us in this room, I'm going to just be straight with you. Most of us in this room are going to go through our entire life25:00never experiencing what Peter did. I'm not talking about walking on the water. I'm talking about having the guts to step out of the boat. Some of us in this room will go through our entire, entire lives without once putting our toe in the water, much less have making a commitment to step out. We break through the comfort zones in order to fulfill God's will.25:28We don't get out of the boat so that we can break out of the comfort zone. We get out of the boat so we can do what God calls us to do, to fulfill his perfect plan. The word come has an intended purpose. It was the Holy Spirit when he calls us. He says, come unto me. Take up your cross and follow me.25:55We break out of the comfort zones in order to fulfill God's will. Number five, we break out of the comfort zones to experience freedom on the other side. Freedom on the other side. Verse 30, he says, Lord, save me at the end. And then verse 31, immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got in the boat, the wind stopped.26:24It didn't slow down. It didn't simmer off. It didn't break a little bit. The wind stopped. You see, we break out of the comfort zone to experience the freedom. Freedom on the other side. One small step for man, but one giant leap through our comfort zones.26:49You see, when we start doing what God says do, we will experience the freedom on the other side. We break through comfort zones when we do something that makes us feel a bit uncomfortable. By refusing to listen to the fears.27:19By taking that step of faith in order that we can fulfill God's purpose and will for our lives. And to experience the freedom on the other side. I put a question at the end of our sermon today. What comfort zone do you need to break through? What is it? What is it in your personal life?27:49What is it that you need to break through to experience the freedom on the other side? Let's pray. What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life? What is it in your personal life?28:18What is it in your personal life?More sermons on Matthew →
