Rooted - Eyes on Jesus: Keep Looking Up

Welcome to South Sub Church. We are so glad that you've decided to worship with us today. Whether you're in the room right now or watching from home, wherever it is, we're just so glad that we get to spend this time together and worship the Lord together as one. Here at South Sub Church, we believe we are one church with two expressions of worship. But we have one mission to bring people to Jesus Christ and together become passionate followers of him. Another way that we worship is through our ti offerings. And here at South Church, we believe that we give the Lord back what he gives us. And there's a couple ways that I want to invite you to do that this morning. One is giving online at south.urch/give. Another way is by texting the number that's on the screen right now. Or there's an envelope in your seatback pocket. And here's what I want to invite you to do. No matter what gift you give, big or small, we believe that whatever we give, the Lord multiplies that and we are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we are right now. If you're new, we invite you to fill out a connect card. We would love to get to know you, pray for you, and find a way for you to get more connected with our church. And if you're watching us online, make sure you leave a comment wherever you are. Maybe you're going to the mountains, maybe you have a soccer game to go to. Whatever it is, we're just so glad that you've decided to join us for worship. You picked a great week to be here. Let's jump into God's word together. Let's worship him today.

Listen,

I need to make a quick correction to something Daniel said. This is his first year to do trunk or treat with us and he said we're looking for 10,000 pieces of candy. We're actually hoping and praying for 10,100 pieces of candy because as your pastor, I feel it's my sacrificial duty to sample the candy you bring in to make sure it's okay for the kids. So, we're looking for 10,100 pieces of candy to come in for that. Listen, I heard a story this past week about a little boy whose birthday was coming up and so he went to his bedroom one night and he prayed in a really, really, really loud voice, like almost a yelling prayer. and he's like, "Dear God, please bring me a red bicycle for my birthday." And his mom was walking down the hallway and she heard him screaming, yelling this prayer. So, she opened the door and said, "Honey, God is not hard of hearing." And he said, "Yes, but grandma's next door and she's hard of hearing. So, I want to make sure she heard my prayer." You know, as you think about prayer in your life, um, we all have some kind of idea about what is prayer. And and maybe that idea came from when you were just a child and things that you learned. Maybe it came from some other season of your life. But we all have a perspective of prayer. And here's what I've realized for many many people. While it is it is a perspective of prayer, many times it's not a full perspective of prayer. That from whatever background you came from, whatever family, whatever church environment, it gave you this one perspective. But it could be that we're still missing part of what prayer is really supposed to be. And so we began a new series a couple of weeks ago called Rooted. And the whole idea of this series is for all of our faith to become more rooted and grounded in what God wants us to be and what God wants how he wants us to live. And one of the areas that we can all become more rooted in is in our prayer life. And so today I want to take you to a story, a story about the Apostle Peter. And it's really a story in scripture that you don't normally associate with prayer. But I think as we dig into it, it's going to bring us to a perspective of prayer that we might not normally think of. And my purpose is not to discount your perspective of prayer. My purpose is not to discount how you pray, but my purpose is for all of us to open our minds and hearts a little bit today and going, God, is there something new you want me to learn about prayer? And I think we can learn through the apostle Paul or through the apostle Peter and his walking on the water. So if you have your Bibles or we'll have it up here on the screen or the scriptur is going to be in the handout that you gave. We'll be looking at Matthew chapter 14. And let me just begin reading this for us. Matthew chapter 14 and I'll be starting in verse 22. And here's what it says. Immediately after this, well that makes us pause for just a second. asked the question immediately after what? If you go back and read the chapter before this account in scripture, you'll find out it was the feeding of the 5000. It was probably at this point in their life one of the biggest miracles that the disciples had ever seen. Do you remember how the story went that Jesus was teaching this multitude of people and we say 5,000, but theologians believe it was probably more because back in those days they usually just counted the men and didn't numerically count the women and children, but at least 5,000 people. And as Jesus taught and taught and taught, it was obvious the people were growing hungry. The disciples said, "Hey, Jesus, you ought to send everybody home because they're going to get really grumpy if they keep getting hungry like this." And he said, "No, you feed them." Remember the story? And he sent them out and they came back and said, "Listen, all we found is one little boy sacked lunch, some bread and some fish, and this is all we have." And Jesus looked at him and said, "Then feed the people." And he prayed and blessed the people. Fed the entire 5,000 plus people with a few loaves and the fish that he had. And how many baskets were left over? 12. And so when when Matthew is writing this account, it is immediately after the 5,000 people that this next sequence of events takes place. So immediately after this, Jesus insisted that his disciples go back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home. And after sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. And night fell while he was there all alone. And so Jesus sent all the people home, specifically got all his disciples on a boat and said, 'You guys go across the lake and I'll meet you over there later because I'm going to spend the night in prayer with my father. And we have no idea what Jesus prayed about. And in this moment, we really have no idea how he prayed to his father. I often wonder what was Jesus's conversation like when he talked to his father in heaven. Was it very conversational like we're talking now? Was it a little bit more official, a little bit more righteous feeling? What did he pray about? I wonder on this night, did he take the template or the model of what he later taught his disciples how to pray the Lord's Prayer? And did it go something like this? Hey, Dad, I sure miss being with you. My work here is going well, but still miss being right there with you in heaven. Your people definitely got the bread and some fish they had been hungry for. I'm not sure what was bigger, their bellies after eating or the disciples eyes when they picked up all the baskets of leftovers. They listened, but I hope they really heard everything you wanted me to tell them about your kingdom and about forgiveness. The work here is difficult, Dad, but I am committed to seeing it through to the end so that everybody will be known. So that you will be known by everybody. Now, was that how he prayed? I don't know. But we do know that he prayed, went up on the mountaintop, and he prayed. And then here's what the Bible says next. And I encourage you to go home and actually read it in scripture. But the Bible says, while Jesus was up on praying, the disciples are going across the lake and it turned up this humongous store, just a a store that came out of nowhere. The boat was being tossed, the wind was blowing, and it was actually about 3:00 a.m. in the morning. And as you read the scripture, you get this idea that the disciples, who several of them were experienced fishermen, it was a big enough storm, they really got nervous for their own lives. And about 3:00 a.m. 3:00 a.m., they looked up and here comes a figure walking on the water across the lake. And the Bible says they looked and thought it was a ghost and they became very fearful. But as the individual got closer and closer to the boat, they realized it was Jesus himself. Now, you can imagine the emotions that went through their mind at that point because they knew Jesus the last time they saw him as they were pushing the boat off the shore and and he's heading up to the mountains. But here he is walking on the water. And in their fearfulness, in their exclamation of is that a ghost they're seeing, Peter yells out, "Hey Jesus, is that you?" and if it's really you, prove it. Let me walk out there on the water with you. At that moment, Jesus invites Peter to walk out on the water. You can imagine the disciples are looking around at each other wondering what's going on, but Peter actually steps out of the boat into the water instead of sinking like any other person would have because Jesus is right there with him. The Bible says that he actually begins walking on the water. And remember, the water that he's walking on is not a still just a a placid serene water. It is a storm that's going on right now. I mean, the wind is blowing. The boat is still being tossed back and forth. You wonder even if he had a difficult time getting out of the boat because the boat was rocking so much. But he begins walking on the water. And the Bible says at a moment once he gets in the water, rather than looking at Jesus, Peter looks at the water. He begins to see the bo the boat rock back and forth. He took his eyes off the savior and what happened? He began to sink and that moment he cried out, "Jesus, Jesus, rescue me." And the Bible says Jesus reached out his hand and grabbed him. And the moment he did, the Peter no longer began to sink in the water. And they walked over to the boat and the storm is still going on. The wind is still blowing. The waves are tossing them back and forth. And they get in the boat. And as they get in the boat, Peter and the disciples look at Jesus and says that say this, "You really are the son of God." In fact, the Bible describes it this way. They worshiped Jesus and they exclaim, "Jesus, you really are the son of God." Now, if you're like me, I've heard and read this story a hundred times. I've heard it since I was a little boy, and I've never associated prayer with this story. But here's what I'd propose to you. There was a conversation going on. There's a conversation going on between Peter and Jesus and Jesus and Peter and back and forth. And if there's a conversation, isn't that what prayer really is? It's a conversation. And so, I think there's a few things that we can learn about prayer from this particular story. Three characteristics about prayer. And here's my challenge to you. As we look at each of these three characteristics, take some time to say, "God, how are those characteristics exemplified in my own life when it comes to prayer? And so if you're taking notes, here's the first characteristic I see about prayer as I read this story. Prayer is raw. Okay? We often think of prayer as this this formal language that you say it in the right tone. You say it in the right voice. You use the right words and you're almost just like trying to just impress people as you pray. But true prayer is raw. Think back to the story of the different emotions, the raw emotions that were taking place in this moment of prayer. There was the the emotion of fear because the Bible says when they saw him when the disciples saw Jesus walking on water they were terrified and they went from fear to react and because in fear they cried out is it a ghost then they went to confidence and Peter said Jesus is it you'll step out with you skepticism Peter said is it you so confidence skepticism fear you got reaction you got more excitement when Jesus really began to walk on water and then fear returned when and Peter began to sink in the water again. So he had this whole just four, five, six minutes. We don't know how long it lasted, but there's just raw emotions going on everywhere. Yet reality, so many times when you and I live our lives, we make sure we don't live it raw. We just try to look good in the process. We dress up a certain way when we come to church. Chances are if we all kind of put our last three or four days out for everyone to see, it might not be as pretty as what we look sitting in this seat. Because when we come to church, for some reason we want to make everybody think everything is good in our life. When's the last time you scrolled on social media, Instagram or Facebook or whatever social media you use, and you see something where somebody says, "I've had a really bad day." And they show themselves with no makeup. They show themselves their hair. No, no, no, no. today's world when you take a selfie to put on social media, they take about 10 to 15 selfies to make sure they can pick out the right one where they look the best. But it's social media. It's when we come to church. Take a moment that you're kind of crying in silence and somebody walks up to you. What do you do first? You try to dry your tears and wipe your face so they don't even know that you're upset about something. And here's what happens to us. that same image that we're trying to keep up in society so people think everything is okay. Too many times we take that same image and try to keep it up for God to think everything's okay. And so our prayers don't really resemble what's going on on the inside of us. But true prayer is about raw honesty. True prayer true prayer is coming to God just as we are. But you see, when we put on a mask before God, trying to sound more spiritual, more together, or more deserving than we truly are, we accidentally on purpose distance oursel from God. Because God is never impressed with our outside. He's always looking at the heart. In fact, in the book of 1st Samuel, chapter 16, this is this is what was written. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. God doesn't yearn for some pristine, polished version of oursel. He's after the real unfiltered hearts of our lives. And so when it comes to prayer, one of the characteristics that we saw in this whole story that we need to have in our own lives is to be okay with our prayer being raw. You see, authentic prayer breaks the mold of pretense. Instead of approaching God with carefully crafted phrases or pretending to have it all together, we need to come to him in our broken and bruised selves and say, "God, here I am." There's a moment in the story if you go home and read it today later that we just read about in Peter and walking on the water that said when Jesus reached out to him and he pulled him up out of the sinking water. Jesus actually looked at Peter and said, "Oh, you of little faith." Now, we don't know all the non-verbal was going on. I don't think Jesus was trying to shame him because that was never Jesus's character when he talked to people. I think Jesus simply observed Peter going, "Oh, your faith is just not all yet there." But what I love about that, if he was shaming him, he would have taken his hand back. But when he observed that his his his faith was little, he still reached out his hand to Peter and said, "But come go with me. I'll grow your faith in your rawness of life, Peter. in your rawness of emotions, in your rawness and even immaturity of your faith, I will reach out to you and I will take you as you are. And so in our lives when we think about prayer, we need think about it being raw. Several weeks ago, many of you met my friend Kevin who sits on the front row. We baptized him. I think we have a picture of him that we'll put up there. But Kevin's gone through a rough time recently because he lost his job. And so here he is, new in faith, trying to trust in Jesus, but he lost his job. And so one day he came by and we were talking and um as we were talking, I said, 'Well, Kevin, can I just give you something? And I reached into my pocket and I pulled out a little Jesus. Have y'all seen these before? Yeah, there he is right there. Me and Kevin, the little Jesus. And just knew in his faith, I said, Kevin, this sometimes helps me. I said, I just put Jesus in my pocket and when I lose faith or I'm doubting he's there or taking care of me, I just reach in and I can feel and know Jesus is there. Now, you and I know this is not Jesus, but it's just a concrete way to remind us, right? And Kevin smiled and he said, "Thank you, Keith." And he put Jesus in his pocket. And then I got a text later from Kevin and this is what his text said. He said, "Keith, thank you for little Jesus. When I hold him, he reminds me that he's with me." And then he said this, "But sometimes I wish little Jesus would talk back to me." And I love that because you know what? Here was somebody in the faith as raw as raw could be. Didn't have it all figured out, but he's going, "I got little Jesus and he's got me and I'll be raw in it." That's the kind of prayer life that God wants us to have. Let me give you the second thing. If if prayer is supposed to be raw, it's also prayer is also supposed to be transformative. Prayer is transformative. I think back in my own life that as I came to know Jesus and grew closer to him in high school, I started prayer journals way back in high school. In fact, if you go to my office in my home, I've got every prayer journal that I've had since nth grade in high school. Now, there is a difference in what they look like now than what they looked like back then. In high school, my prayer journals were nothing more than prayer lists. God helped me pass English. God, help me pass algebra. God, help this girl to say yes when I asked her to prom. I mean, the important things in life, right? I had it all listed down there in high school, but it was a prayer list. But it's interesting as I grew in my own faith with God and I kept writing my prayers down. When they when I got to college, those prayers began to change. For you see, it was in college that all of a sudden God became more than a list takeaker carer. He became my friend. And it's interesting, my journals move from prayer list to almost like prayer diaries. They move from list to conversations. And to look back and just written conversations that I've had with God all these years, here's what I've learned about this. That in my prayer life, God was transforming me. He was transforming me to be more than just always asking for things. He was transforming me to converse with him. And here's what I've understand about prayer both in my life and other people as well is prayer is is about more than just changing our circumstances. Prayer is about changing us. And so our prayer should be transformative.

Every conversation and you can replace the word conversation with the word prayer. Every prayer or conversation that we have with God invites us to grow, to understand ourselves, and to know our heavenly father in a deeper way. We're just not tick checking off or ticking off a checklist. We're letting God's presence permeate our lives in such a way that we're no longer the same person. Think about this for a second. Peter, there's that moment that Jesus said, "Okay, guys, y'all go ahead and go across the lake. I'm going to go up on the mountain." So Peter might have been on the shore and he's one of the guys pushing the boat off going, "Okay guys, I'll I'll jump in the boat in just a few minutes. Let's kind of get it out in the shallow a little bit and I'll jump it, but I'm pushing this boat off." And he pushes the boat off and he runs in the shallow. He jumps in the in the in the boat and they take off for their journey over the night. The big storm comes. They're afraid for their lives. Jesus walks on water. Peter says, "Hey, Peter." Jesus, if that's really you, let me step out that with you. Jesus steps out on the water and he is like gliding on water until he looks down and he begins to sink. And Jesus reaches out and pulls him up and lets him walk on water and get back in the boat. Here's the part of the story that we don't read about. The boat sails for the rest of the night. They get to the other side of the lake. There's no storm. It's now 12 plus 1 because Jesus in the boat with them. Peter says, "Hey, I'll push it out. I'll pull us in." So, he jumps out and he's tugging the boat to the shore. Here's the question I have for us. Is Peter the same man on that side of the lake as the man he was when he got in the boat for the first time? No. That whole event, that whole conversation with Jesus, that whole experience with Jesus, that whole prayer with Jesus transformed him. He was no longer the same person. And so when you and I pray and as we talk to God, as we converse with God, our lives should never ever be the same. Let me read what I just spoke to you. Let me read it to you. Matthew chapter 14. This is the actual words. But Jesus spoke to them at once. Don't be afraid. He said, "Take courage. I'm here." Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water. Jesus says, "Yes, it's yes, come." Jesus said. Now remember, are they having a conversation? Yeah. One's saying something, the other saying something. One's saying something, the other saying something. If they're having a conversation, it is prayer. "Yes, come," Jesus said. So Peter went over to the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. "Save me, Lord!" he shouted. And Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. Here's what you need to see. Peter was transformed. The conversation, the experience with Jesus transformed his life. he would never ever be the same again. I wonder I wonder years later, 30 years later, when Peter is writing the letters that we referred to as first and second Peter, I wonder if he was thinking back to that specific incident on the boat and is sinking and Jesus grabbing him. I wonder if he was thinking about this when he wrote, "So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God." And at the right time, meaning at the right time when you're about to sink, at the right time, he will lift you up in honor and give all your worries and all your cares to God for he cares about you. Peter's going, I had a conversation with Jesus. He was in a storm and it was a big deal and I was walking on water, then I was sinking on water, but this is what I remember. Cast all my cares on him and he will lift me up. Every conversation with God, every prayer moment with God is an invitation for him to shape our hearts in his image. Thinking about conversation, imagine church finishes here in about 15, 20 minutes. You're hungry. It's been all morning long. You've stole a couple of donuts or cookies, but you're hungry. And so as you're leaving, you notice the church, pretend this for a moment, has a couple of vending machines. Like you are starving. So you put your quarter, your dollar, whatever it takes for the vending machine in there. You push the button and you pull out a candy bar. And then you put another dollar in there and you pull out a soda. So like, okay, this will take care of me. Just kind of reaction. I got my soda. I got my candy bar. And this was fill my belly. That's one way to have lunch. Let me give you another way to fill your belly. You're walking out the door and look at somebody going, "Hey, do you have lunch plans?" like no. You look at each other going, "Well, let's go to lunch together." So, you go to the local coffee shop and you sit down and order your bacon and eggs and your toast. And not only do you have lunch, you have conversation and you share about your past week and you share about what's coming up this week. And just just by the time you finish, one of you just have big tears coming down your eyes because you just needed this time to sit down and just have conversation as long as the same time as you're filling your belly. So, let me ask you a question. If all talk about eating is making your belly rumble right now, you want a vending machine or you want a coffee shop with your best friend. One of them just fills your belly, the other fills your soul. Now watch this. That's prayer. When all we do is make a list, it's the vending machine. Let me put my dollar in. I'll get out what I want. But when I sit down and have the conversation, then my soul is being filled. My soul is being transformed in the relationship. So, here's my challenge to you this week. Go to the coffee shop and have some jaba with Jesus. Go to the coffee shop this week and sit down and put your phone up going, "I'm not going to look at my phone. I'm not going to be distracted by something." Take your rooted book if you're doing the study with us. Take your Bible if you want to read that. Whatever you're using to study and just going, God, I'm going to sit here for 15 or 20 minutes and it's just Java in Jesus. My purpose here is not just to fill me with caffeine. It is fill me also with Christ himself. Wouldn't that type of prayer be more transformative than just God, here's the three things I need today. Can you hurry up and get them for me? Let me give you the last characteristic that I see about prayer in this story. The last characteristic um prayer is raw. Prayer is transformative, but prayer is also grounding. Have you ever felt like you're not grounded? Have you ever felt like like life is tossing you back and forth? Like you're one of the disciples. You're on the boat and the winds are blowing and the waves are rocking. Now, it may not be water that's happening. And it may not be wind, but it's the trials of life. It's bills piling up. It's relationships fraying. Maybe health, your health or someone else's health is declining or just the responsibilities of life are just overwhelming. And literally you're like, I know what the disciples felt on that boat. It's just rocking back and forth and back and forth. I want you to notice what Peter did in that moment. In Matthew 14:32 and 33, this is how the scripture describes it. Jesus takes him by the hand. He starts walking back on water. Then it says, "Then they," meaning Peter and Jesus, "then they climbed back into the boat and the wind stopped. And then the disciples worshiped him. You really are the son of God," they exclaimed. Do you see what Peter did in those few moments? First of all, he stayed with Jesus. He didn't give up and go try to find his own way to the dry shore. He stayed with Jesus. That's what we call trust. And then he talked to Jesus. That's what we call prayer. And then the Bible says he worshiped Jesus. Now, here's where people get a little confused sometimes. Somehow in our mind, we think of worship is that thing that you do on Sunday morning. When Stuart gets up here and leads us in songs, we think that's worship. It is a form of worship, but that is not wall of worship. Worship is when we declare our dependence on God. And so, the disciples were in the boat. Peter steps in the boat with Jesus and the Bible says this and they worshiped Jesus and or Peter and the disciples said Jesus you really are the son of God they worshiped and the Bible says this when they got in the boat the calm the the storm calmed here's a question I have to ask or I've asked as I studied this week so what if they got in the boat and the storm didn't calm, right? I mean, what if Jesus and Peter, they're walking, they step into the boat and the wind's blowing, the rock, the boat's rocking, it's moving back and forth, they're still fearful of their life, and they get in there and the storm never calmed. The question to ask is, would they have worshiped then? Would they have declared their dependence on Jesus then? Now, we'll never know the answer to that question because scripture doesn't tell us. But maybe there's a better question we can ask. Maybe the question shouldn't be, "And would they have worshiped if the storm wouldn't have calmed?" Maybe the question should be, "And will we choose to worship when the storm doesn't calm?" He said, "It's really easy going, "Oh Jesus, you're great. Oh Jesus, we love you. Let's sing some more songs. You really are the son of God." When all our health is good, when we have enough money in the bank account, when all of our relationships are peaceful, and when all of our kids and our family around us are walking with Jesus, it's really easy going, "God, you are so good." But when those things don't happen, and we don't have enough money and our health is not what we want it to be, and the people around us are fighting and all the people we love aren't walking and loving Jesus the way we want them them to, it's difficult then to worship. But worship is depending completely on the authority of God. So God, when my child doesn't go to church like I want them to, I will still depend on you. When the doctor gave me that report that I didn't want, I will still depend on you and your authority, God. when I don't have enough money to pay this bill this month and I don't know where it's going to come from. God, I will still depend on your authority in my life and I will worship you even when the winds are blowing and the boats are rocking. That's what prayer is. And prayer has this ability to ground us. Ground us in the authority of God.

You see the confession for most of us is this. We often come to God questioning his authority more than we do declaring his authority. Can I say that one more time to make sure it sinks in? We spend more time, too many times questioning God's authority than declaring his authority. Now, is it okay in a rawness to going, "God, I don't agree with what you're doing." I think that's a good prayer because it's raw. I think it's an okay prayer to say, "God, I don't really like your timing. Can we negotiate this? That's okay. But at the end of the day, God, no matter what I think or no matter what I feel, God, you are in authority and I declare you are the son of God and I will follow you. That's how we worship. That's how we worship when we're even it's raw in our prayers. You see, our worship and our expression of dependence on God in our prayers should never be based on our circumstances. But it should always be based on knowing that Jesus is in the boat with his authority.

You know, I said as I begin this one today, it really is just an opportunity to reook at our perspective of prayer. Prayer is so much more than what we talked about today. Okay. So, it's not to discount your own experience, your own background of prayer, but so many times we can get so locked in going and this is what prayer looks like and we draw the box. But I think Peter today, he takes us to another level. Is our prayer raw? Is our prayer transformative?

And is our prayer grounding? Those will add that we will experience God in his fullness to who he really is. Will you pray with me?

Father, as we're trying to determine what prayer is and we're trying to figure out what prayer is, here's what we do know. We're a long ways from knowing what it is. And so thank you in your words from your scripture today that you gave us more understanding of prayer, more understanding of you who we pray to. And so Jesus, this is what I pray.

Would you just root us? Take our faith deeper. Help our help our understanding to be more and our faith to be greater in all of our lives and specifically in our prayer life. And we will thank you for that. And we pray this in your name. Amen.