Jim Van Gelderen: Okay, thank you, Colossians chapter number one, Colossians chapter number one.

And I know a lot's been going on.

I'd like to spend, I'm gonna actually take a message.

Some of you have heard, I'm gonna shorten it as a reminder for some.

And for some that have never heard this truth, this will be something that I hope will stir you.

And so we're gonna go to Colossians chapter one and verse number 29.

And so if you have your Bibles, go there.

And certainly been an exciting week.

Boy, I appreciate you throwing yourself into the week.

And I hope God has already given you something.

But I trust as you go home, you'll take something with you.

And I trust each one of you.

If God does something, by the way, we do have a venue on Thee Generation.

How many have been to theegeneration.org?

Can I see your hands?

You've at least been once to theegeneration.org.

If you've never been there, let me encourage you to go there.

We do have a place where you can give a testimony or tell us what's going on in your life.

And there's several ways to do it.

You can do it just by just talking into the phone, or you can do it by typing something out.

And so I would encourage you to let us know what God's doing in your life.

Just send those in.

And we'd like to keep up with what God's doing and some of the things you see God doing in your life or through your life that would be encouraging.

And we want to certainly continue to see what God wants to do.

I believe God wants to take a generation, your generation, and use your generation to impact the world.

And I hope that your desire to be a part of Thee Generation.

And I'm talking to Thee Generation.

It's not something we created.

It's something God created.

What do you say?

What do you mean by that?

It's a generation of young people that is totally committed to two things, total surrender and total dependence.

I'm going to deal with those here this morning, or this afternoon, and I hardly ever preach in the afternoon, you probably figure that out.

And so, if I say this morning, you know I mean this afternoon.

If I say this evening, I mean this afternoon, okay?

And if I say midnight, I mean this afternoon, okay?

So, you got that down.

Okay, let's look at verse number 29.

The Apostle Paul is talking about his philosophy of ministry.

He says, whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, talking about God, which worketh in me mightily.

Now, most of you know I'm an evangelist, and many Saturday mornings, including tomorrow, I'll get in my pickup truck, and we'll head down the road.

I've already got it worked out.

Our team is going to stop at Dunkin' Donuts, get a bunch of pumpkin munchkins and some pumpkin coffee, and we'll talk about what God's doing in our lives.

And so many mornings we get up, get in the truck, and many times I hook up to my RV, which happens to be about 14,000 pounds.

And when I'm out west with that RV, sometimes I have to go over mountain ranges, And every once in a while, I have to go over the big one.

You say, what's the big one?

Well, you kind of, it's probably a seven or eight mile incline.

And when you hit that thing, you want to hit it running, probably about 70, whatever the speed limit is.

And it doesn't take very long.

I have a five on the floor.

I have a stick.

Anybody know what I'm talking about when I say a stick?

Because your kids will have no clue what that is.

Okay.

But so I'm in overdrive and I hit that hill, and boom, I'm down to fourth pretty fast, and then I'm into third, and I'm hoping I can keep in third for as long as I can, but normally some stupid semi is going five miles an hour, you know what I'm talking about, and I have to drop down into second, what a bummer, and I'm down there in second creeping up that hill, you can't make it up, you're stuck now in second gear, and you climb

that thing, you know, 10 miles an hour, and somewhere near the top, your R's start going up, and all you stick guys know what I'm talking about, man, those R's start going up, and you get the up a third, you know, and you're starting to hit the top of that mountain.

And when you do, sometimes above the tree line or close, and you look over and there's a big brown sign put up by the United States, the highway department, and here's what it says.

United States Western Continental Divide.

Now, what is the significance of the Continental Divide?

Well, if you're a human being, not much.

But if you're a raindrop, it's cataclysmic.

Yeah, see, if you fall on the eastern side of the Continental Divide, guess what?

You're going to the Mississippi River, you're going to go down the Mississippi River, go into the Gulf of Mexico, and if you're lucky, you might get to Florida.

You know what I'm talking about?

Yeah.

But, if you fall on the western side of the continental divide, you're going to the Pacific Ocean.

In a horror of horrors, you might have to go through California.

What a bummer.

Okay, yeah, wow.

Just hope you don't get taxed on the way over there.

Okay, but yeah.

So, yeah, you see, a raindrop is random on where it falls, which you're not.

You make a decision of where you fall on what I'm going to call God's theological continental divide.

Did you know there's a continental divide in theology?

There's a continental divide of salvation.

And you make the decision which side you're going to fall on.

If you fall on one side, saved on your way to heaven, sins forgiven, spend eternity with Jesus, wow.

If you fall on the other side of the continental divide, lost in your sins, you die, you spend eternity away from the Lord in an awful place Jesus talked about called hell.

There could be no two more different destinations in the universe than heaven and hell.

And you make the decision which side of the theological continental divide you fall on, hopefully you're tracking with me.

But there's also, since most of you are saved, there is also a continental divide in the Christian life.

If you fall on one side of the continental divide, a lot of defeat, a lot of discouragement, not a lot of answers to prayer.

I mean, you know you're saved, but you know there's a lot of discouragement.

there's not a lot of blessing and a lot of pessimism.

If you fall on the correct side of the continental divide, a lot of divine optimism, a lot of blessing answers to prayer, and a lot of sense of God's got a plan for your life, a sense of destiny.

So what makes the difference between what side of the continental divide in the Christian life you fall on?

You've got to make the decision.

Well, that's a good question.

We're going to try to answer it here quickly.

Several years ago, I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at a church preaching.

I think it was Wednesday, could have been Tuesday, I don't know.

And I finished the service, walked out in the lobby, a young lady, I'm guessing about 22.

She didn't go to college, but she kind of gave me the impression she was the age of those who had just graduated from college.

And she comes up to me and she said, Brother Van Gelderen, and I've got to be honest with you, I have never heard what you preach tonight.

She said, I always thought, well, before that, she said, I grew up at, and she named an independent Baptist church, that if you know anything about the Independent Baptist Church movement, you would have recognized the name of it.

Very significant church.

She said, I grew up at, she named that church.

She said, a year ago I moved out here to Wyoming.

I have never heard what you preach tonight.

She said, I always thought the Christian life was 50-50.

50% me and 50% God.

Now I want to ask you, friend, how much of the Christian life is you and how much of the Christian life is God?

Because the answer to that question, practically speaking, not just in your head.

The answer to that question will determine whether or not you fall on the slopes of defeat and discouragement, or whether you fall on the slopes of blessing and optimism and answers to prayer, etc.

You say, okay, preacher, so what do you think it is?

Well, is it 50-50?

Maybe 60-40?

Maybe 70-30?

How about 80-20?

90-10?

95-5?

Maybe 99-1?

How much of the Christian life is you, and how much is God?

Now, notice what Paul says.

He said, I also labor, striving.

Sounds doesn't it?

Sounds like it's something he's doing.

But then he says, according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.

So clearly God's in the factor, and clearly Paul is.

So how much is Paul, and how much is God?

Because the answer to that question will determine whether you're defeated or victorious.

It's okay, preacher, I'm following with you.

So what we're going to do is take out a spiritual looking glass here this afternoon, and I want you, if I could, to become spiritual Sherlock Holmes.

And I'm going to lead you with three clues here in the Bible to determine how much of the Christian life is you and how much of the Christian life is God.

Because I want to tell you, if you get a hold of this truth, it's freeing.

Some of you know where I'm going because you've heard the message.

Some of you don't know where I'm going, so hang with me.

But even if you know where I'm going, listen because we all need our hearts renewed with Bible truth because it frees us.

The very first clue is found just a few verses down in verse 6 of chapter number 2 of the book of Colossians.

A familiar verse, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord.

And that's those verses ahead are wonderful verses.

I don't have time to right now lay them out.

But let's just cut to the chase.

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord.

Here it is.

So walk ye in Him.

Now, there's two verbs.

You probably noticed that.

I know many of you looked at the verse and immediately say, oh, there's two verbs.

I know that's what you thought.

But anyway, the first verb is the verb received.

And then the verb walk.

Received is talking about the moment you got saved.

You received Christ Jesus the Lord.

The tense is called the aorist tense.

It's kind of the main tense in the New Testament.

It often views the action as a whole.

But it's talking about salvation.

Before you got saved, you were headed to hell and you received Jesus Christ to be the one who would wash your sins away and save you.

And God says the same way you receive Christ Jesus the Lord is the same way you walk.

Now walk is linear.

It's present tense.

And so walk is a process.

So it's like this, friends.

that the same way you got saved at a moment in time is the same way you live a step-by-step process of the Christian life.

Now, the Christian walk is from the moment you get saved to the moment you die and faith becomes sight.

That's the Christian walk.

Probably most of you are at the very beginning of that.

Some in this room might be midway and some might be near the end.

Who knows?

But our Christian walk, God says, here's the key to the Christian walk.

You do it the same way you receive Christ Jesus the Lord.

Now there's a whole message I preach on this, which I cannot preach right now, but I want to just pull one simple point from it.

When you got saved, how much of the saving did Jesus do?

And the answer is, He did all of it.

I think every once in a while it's good for a Christian to say, you know if one one hundredth of one percent depended on me to be saved, I'd go to hell.

And you would.

I don't care how small you make the percentage, if it depended on you, you wouldn't make it.

See when you get saved you come to the realization, "Nothing I can do to get to Heaven, nothing.

All I can do is trust Jesus to do everything because I can't do anything." And the moment you trust Jesus, and some of you may not have done this, trusted Jesus to do everything, at that moment you trusted Him to wash your sins away, you can't do that.

Trusting Him to make you righteous in the sight of God, you can't do that.

Trusting Him to satisfy the wrath of God, you can't do that.

Trusting you to keep you out of hell, you can't do that.

Trusting Him to eventually get you to Heaven, you can't do that.

Trusting Him right now to give you eternal life, His name is Jesus Christ, you can't do that.

And you may not see it in all those ways, but the moment you trust Jesus to wash your sins away and save you, He does it.

Okay?

It's 100, 0-100.

Okay, now don't miss this.

The Bible says that's the way you live the Christian life.

So, I was preaching to the men this morning, talking about the evangelist, and I won't go into all that, but I asked them a question I'm going to ask you.

How much self-dependence can a seeking sinner have before he can't get saved?

Just too much.

Here's a guy who wants to get saved, doesn't want to go to hell.

How much self-dependence can a seeking sinner have before man he can't get saved?

And the answer is, he can't have any.

So how much self-dependence can a seeking saint have?

Here's a kid who's defeated.

He's sick of defeat.

He wants victory.

How much self-dependence can a seeking saint have before he will not have victory, he will be defeated?

And the answer is, any amount.

Any And any amount of self-dependence puts you on the slopes of defeat.

So our first clue helps us out.

The same way you got saved is the same dynamic that occurs in every step of the Christian life.

Just like you trusted Jesus to do everything, every step of your Christian life is a total dependence on Jesus to enable you to do what you could not do.

Unless he enabled you to do it.

Now I'm getting out of myself, but that's our first clue.

Now our second clue, don't turn for time, you probably know the verse.

John 15, 5, Jesus said something stunning.

Without me, ye can do, do you know what the next word is?

Nothing.

Several years ago I was preaching in a camp that is in between LA and the desert.

Has anybody ever flown into LAX in Los Angeles?

Okay, anybody?

Okay, several of you have.

When you're flying into LAX, if it's a clear day, which it normally is, if you see anything that looks like a cloud, it's not, it's smog.

But anyway, and as you're flying into LAX, into the Los Angeles basin there, to the north you'll see the San Bernardino Mountains.

On the other side of that is the high desert.

And as you're coming in, you come across all the golf courses.

You see all the green golf courses down there.

And then you come over some mountains, and then you come into the L.A.

Basin.

You can see the Pacific Ocean off in the distance.

And several years ago in that mountain range there, it's a beautiful mountain range, there's a camp, and I had the privilege of preaching to about 150 kids.

And I remember, I think it was a Tuesday, could have been a Wednesday, I can't remember, a young pastor from Los Angeles, I'm guessing 24, I'm pretty sure it was his age, He got up to give a testimony before the message, and here's what he said.

Oh, young people, I know the Christian life is hard.

I know the Christian life is difficult.

That's what he said.

And as soon as he said it, I don't know how to explain this.

He was sincere.

I know he didn't mean harm.

But I thought to myself, man, that's not true.

And I was burdened about it, because truth matters.

I didn't want to embarrass the guy.

I didn't mention it that night.

But the next night in my preaching, I just embedded it into the message.

And I said, now listen to me, young people.

The Christian life's not hard.

The Christian life's not difficult.

It's impossible.

And I will tell you, friend, when I thought that thought, which I obviously came from preaching and studied the Word, when I began to think that thought, it was freeing.

Some of you think, oh, the Christian life's so hard, so difficult.

No, it's not.

It's not hard.

It's not difficult.

It's impossible.

Since it's impossible, I want every one of you young people to understand something.

If you ever live effectively the Christian life, you will need divine intervention every moment of every day.

Wow, isn't that freeing?

Yes, see, friends, that's an important second truth.

And every single one of us in this room, if you have tried to live the Christian life in any measure of self-dependence, you realize one thing, it didn't work.

You know why?

Because it's impossible.

Now let me prove it.

How much effective praying can you do without the Holy Spirit?

None.

Okay, how much effective Bible study where the Bible spiritually is being ministered to your heart can you do without the Holy Spirit?

None.

Oh wow, yeah.

How much, how much, many people can you win to Jesus without the Holy Spirit?

None.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Okay, how many other Christians can you spiritually impact without the Holy Spirit?

None.

Yeah, okay, how about this one?

How much true victory can you have?

You say, preacher, what do you mean true victory?

Well, there's something I would call false victory, and false victory would be this.

It's certainly better than defeat, but it would be you go to your youth pastor and say, Mr.

Youth Pastor, my kid brother did it to me again.

He hit my buttons.

He pulled my lever.

I had the lava coming up my esophagus.

I thought of a million sarcastic, provocative things I could say, but I clenched my teeth, and I said nothing.

I had victory.

Well, certainly not saying anything is better than grievous words which stir up anger, right?

But I'm going to just tell you this.

You know what true victory is?

When your younger brother hits your buttons, pulls your lever, and you don't even want to say anything you shouldn't.

You say, preacher, that's impossible.

That was kind of my point.

So how much true victory can you have without the Holy Spirit and the answer is?

None.

I want every one of you to understand if you feel like you're a failure and defeat as a Christian, I'm going to tell you why.

Self-dependence.

In some measure you thought you could do it, or at least you tried to.

And God was trying to bring you to the realization, you can't do this.

So clue number two, the Christian life's not hard, the Christian life's not difficult, it's impossible.

So when I come into a church to do ministry, you know what I start with a premise?

I can't do this.

But I didn't call me to do this.

God did.

and faithful is he that calleth you who also will?

There it is.

I have to trust God to do it.

Now I take steps of obedience as we're going to talk about in a moment but I'm trusting God to divinely intervene and enable.

Now that brings us to, we're going quickly through this and if you want a full presentation of it you can get the book 0-100.

I know many have read that but some have not.

But that brings me to a third point.

And one of the things that hinders us with this truth is American culture.

Many of you in this room have grown up in this culture, and in our culture, you probably know this, we value strength.

We really value strength.

I remember back when I used to, I used to watch Monday Night Football a lot, and when I was a kid, and a lot of times they would talk about the strength, particularly of the linemen, that these linemen could bench 600-something pounds.

Now, to me, that's just an unthinkable thought.

For some of you, and maybe I should included me in this.

We can barely bench press the bar.

You know, I'm talking about let them own 600 pounds.

That's crazy.

It really is crazy.

But in our culture, we do value strength, no doubt about it.

And so as a result, when we're reading our Bible, we come across three words quite often in the Bible, strength, might, and power.

And because we're Americans, we just kind of assume that it's physical strength, might, and power.

But it depends on context.

But most of the time in the Bible, it's not talking about physical strength and might and power.

It's talking about spiritual.

It's not talking about physical.

It's talking about spiritual strength, might, and power.

Okay, so how much spiritual strength do you have right now in and of yourself without Jesus?

So how much?

How much spiritual power, might, and strength do you have right now without Jesus?

And the answer is, you don't have any.

Remember what Jesus told the Apostle Paul after he prayed three times for the thorn in the flesh to be removed?

He said, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in, anybody know the next word?

I love that word weakness.

You know what the root word is?

It's the word strength with an alpha.

You ever notice how in English an alpha, what it does or an A, what it does to a noun, negates it.

You ever heard of the word amuse?

You know what amuse means?

It means you're not thinking.

That's what it means.

Yeah, a muse, okay?

Without muse, without thought.

Okay, so that's kind of one of them.

How about the word theist?

You know what a theist is?

Somebody who believes in deity.

Doesn't mean they're saved.

You could have polytheists.

You could have all kinds of theists.

But you know, monotheist could be a Muslim.

But the point is a theist is somebody who believes in deity.

Now, if you put an A before the word theist, does it change the definition?

An A, theist.

So how much does an atheist believe in deity?

And the answer is, not at all.

You know, I like what one commentator said about that root word.

My strength is made perfect in strengthlessness.

Can I say this, friend?

You know what God's trying to tell us?

You and I, when it comes to spiritual strength, we don't have any spiritual strength.

We're completely bankrupt.

Doesn't that get you encouraged?

Say, preacher, what do you mean get me encouraged?

Next verse, here's what Paul said.

mostly gladly.

Well therefore glory in my infirmities.

Same word as weakness but in the plural.

My strengthlessness is the idea.

Infirmities.

That the power of Christ may rest upon me.

You know what happened when the Apostle Paul heard the Lord Jesus say my grace is sufficient for thee.

For my strength is made perfect in weakness.

I imagine him going outside his tent, peeling off his sandals, flipping them in the air saying hallelujah I'm weak.

Hallelujah Why?

Because He knew that's the beginning.

Can I say this?

The end of self is the beginning of God.

When you come to the end of yourself and you're sick of yourself and you say, I can't do this, preacher.

I can't live it.

You know, God's not shocked by that.

He's kind of saying, well, about time you figured that out.

I remember when I was in college, I was seeking the Lord.

I had a sense my parents were not healthy.

I knew they weren't going to live long and I knew, man, they knew God, but I didn't.

And I began my imperfect quest of the pursuit of God, which I hope every one of you starts.

And I remember being out on an athletic field, I think it was my junior year, could have been sophomore year, and spending time with God.

Remember one day looking up at the starlit sky, and I said, God, I can't do this.

I can't do it.

I'm failing everything in the Christian life.

I can't do it.

And I probably, if I would have thought about it, imagined God wringing His hands, thinking, oh, I'm about to lose another preacher boy.

But I guarantee you this, God was not wringing His hands.

If God was doing anything in Heaven, you know what He was doing?

About time you learned this, now we can get somewhere.

You know what God's trying to show you?

You can't do it.

In your own strength, you can't.

You can't do it.

And so understand that we don't have any spiritual strength.

We are absolutely bankrupt.

Now understanding that we're absolutely bankrupt is so helpful, because you know what that means?

I don't have any spiritual strength.

It's zero.

But Jesus has more spiritual strength than I'd ever need.

Have you ever heard of this verse before?

I can do all things through?

Ah.

Which?

So whose strength is it?

It is His.

How about this one?

Be strong in the Lord and the power of?

Oh.

So whose might is it?

It's His.

Look at our text.

Wherefore our labor is striving according to His working which worketh in me mightily.

Here's the point, friends.

When it comes to spiritual strength, we don't have any, but He's got more than enough.

That's why I call it 0-100.

0% my strength, because I don't have spiritual strength.

100% His strength, because He's got more than I'll ever need.

It's 0% my will, as Sidney just gave testimony, but 100% God's will.

You see, those two go together.

You can't have one without the other.

Man, God, I want Your will.

Whatever it is, I want it, and I'm going to need your strength to do it.

If you miss one, you're in trouble.

See, some people say this, okay, God, whatever you want me to do, I'll do it.

100% your will, and once you show me what to do, I'll try real hard to do it.

Do you think that'll work?

Nope, won't work.

Or the other one is this.

Hey, God, I got some great plans.

I got my life figured out.

All I need for you is to bless me and to give me the strength to do what I want to do.

Will that work?

Nope, you got to have them both.

0% my will, 100% his.

0% dependence on my strength, because I don't have spiritual strength.

I've got physical, but I don't have spiritual.

And 100% dependence on his strength, because he got more than I need.

Now, some of you say, okay, preacher, I think I'm getting this now.

But what does it look like, boots on the ground?

And that is the issue.

Because theologically, you can understand something, but it not be impacting in your Christian life.

So what does it look like, boots on the ground?

Now, Mr.

Bosler, a moment ago, mentioned getting out of the boat.

And I do like the example of getting out of the boat, because it certainly is a great example, and that, of course, is walking on water.

Now, most of you know that walking on water is not hard.

Walking on water is not difficult.

It's impossible.

There is no walking on water in the Olympics.

Have you ever noticed that?

And there is no…

We have great athletes.

I'm telling you, we have great athletes in this country.

And sometimes they do some amazing things on the football field or the baseball field or the hockey rink, and you're just amazed by it.

But there's one thing I've noticed no American or any athlete can do.

That's walk on water.

They can't do it.

They'll disappoint you on that one.

Down they're going.

Okay, so since walking on water is impossible, nobody's ever done it, right?

I mean, nobody's ever done it.

I mean, it's impossible.

You can't walk on water.

So nobody's ever done it, right?

Oh, no, wrong.

Two people in human history have done it.

Anybody know who they are?

Jesus and Peter.

Oh, you say, well, Jesus doesn't count.

He's God.

Well, that's true.

I don't have time to preach a wonderful message on the hypostatic union, which that would be a great way to preach it through walking on water, but that's not my point right now.

So let's talk about Peter.

I do love Peter because we can all relate Peter.

You know what Peter did?

Open mouth, insert foot.

That's what I think of when I think of Peter.

It's something that some people do all their life, but mostly it's a junior high technique.

But anyway, so open mouth, insert foot.

But anyway, so that's Peter.

When I get to Heaven, here's my question.

Peter, what were you thinking?

And I'm pretty sure here's what Peter's answer is going to be.

I don't know, I wasn't.

Okay, you get the idea?

Yeah, son, why were you going 75 in a 25?

And they just look at you blankly.

I don't know, okay.

I'm thinking, okay, that's Peter.

Okay, but anyway, so one day Peter's out fishing with his friends, you know the story.

It's late at night.

They get out there in the Sea of Galilee.

Scholars believe it was a five mile trip.

And the Bible says they were in the midst of the sea, which do the math, two and a half miles from shore.

Have you ever been two and a half miles from shore?

It's a long way.

And it's kind of freaky, actually, particularly if a storm comes up.

And so a storm comes up, we know that because the wind was contrary, which probably meant the wind was headwinds.

It could have been that it was back and forth.

But in either case, probably sail would have been difficult, rowing would have been difficult, and plus the fact, every light in their boat was probably blew out because it was an oil lamp.

And of course, if a storm, guess what, how much light you're getting from the stars and the moon?

How much?

None.

And two and a half miles, you're not getting anything from shore, and there wouldn't have been much anyway.

And they're out there.

I don't know if you've ever even, I've been on the seashore in total darkness.

It is freaky.

It just freaks you out.

They're out in the ocean, or the sea there, and the wind's contrary.

And it's totally dark, I would think, unless they're somehow able to keep one of those oil lamps lit.

And they're seasoned fishermen.

They get this.

They know how to do this.

And the Bible says it was the fourth watch of the night.

Now some scholars say that's between three and six.

I believe it had to be closer to six.

You say, why?

Because they could see Jesus.

Which means there had to be that gray dawning of the day.

Whenever we've been on a stormy day and the cloudy the next day and you can't see the sun doesn't come up, it just gets the gray dawning.

And probably the gray dawning, probably a mist was coming off the ocean or the sea there.

I imagine the sea heaving up maybe about three feet.

I don't know if you've ever been on a small craft.

even with three-foot waves.

I remember several years ago, I had a wave runner, had my daughter Stephanie with me.

We got on the gumball of Mexico with that thing.

Man, just three-foot waves freaked you out.

You had to kind of die, and you couldn't go like this, and you couldn't go like this, because if you went parallel, it would knock you over, and if you went against them, I mean, it was, so you had to kind of ride them like that, and finally get back into the intercoastal areas.

But anyway, that's kind of the situation they were in.

And all of a sudden they see a being on the water.

I imagine the mist coming off, you know, the sea heaving up and down.

And the Bible says that they freaked out.

I mean, they cried out for fear, and they said, it is a phantos.

That's the Greek word.

It is a spirit.

It's an apparition.

It's a ghost.

That's what they thought anyway.

It's a spirit.

And then the Lord cries out.

He says, be not afraid.

It is I.

And then I love Peter's words.

He said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

And Jesus said one word.

Come.

Now at that point, Peter was where some of you are right now.

Disobey Jesus.

Stay in the boat in your comfort zone.

Or obey Jesus.

get out of the boat and trust Jesus to do a miracle.

He didn't just need one miracle, he needed multiple miracles.

Every step he took, he needed another miracle.

Now I've got a question for you.

When Peter got out of the boat, did he use physical strength?

And the answer is?

Well, sure he did.

No, I don't mind your wrong answer, but yeah, he had to use muscles.

He had to get over the boat.

Jesus didn't throw him out of the boat.

He had to use muscles to get out of the boat.

Now, that brings me to the second question.

When he got out of the boat, was he trusting his physical strength to walk on water?

And the answer is, not at all.

So here's the Christian life.

You know what the Christian life is?

Moving muscles, obeying Jesus, but trusting Jesus to enable you to do what you can never do unless He enabled you to do it.

You're trusting Jesus for the miraculous, divine intervention.

See, that's why when you move, if you move in self-dependence, you're gonna fall on your face.

But if you move, like Paul says, I'm laboring, I'm striving, that's not passivity.

I like what one writer said.

The Christian life is not passivity, it's his activity through me.

And the Christian life is getting out of the boat, trusting Jesus to enable you to do what you could never do unless he enabled you to do it.

And when he enables you, you know, that was God.

Some of you are gonna lead somebody to the Lord, so I'll be within days.

Some of you may be close, next week maybe lead a bunch of people to the Lord.

And you're going to know, wow, that was God.

Look what God just did.

Why did that happen?

Because you got out of the boat and you trusted Jesus to enable you to do what you know you could not do unless He enabled you to do it.

And then guess what happens when God does it?

You know, you're not tempted.

Well, at least sometimes we are, but we're hopefully not tempted to take the credit.

We know God did that.

See friends, that's the Christian life.

Now you say, okay preacher, I got that.

But you're not being fair because when Peter got out of that boat, he took a few steps, and then the storm kind of got worse.

He took his eyes off Jesus.

He freaked out.

Down he went.

He said, man, it's going to be me.

I'll get out of the boat, take two or three steps.

I'm going to freak out, and down I go.

Okay, let me just tell you this if you get out of the boat.

I want to promise you this.

It's not a matter if you will sink.

It's a matter of when.

Oh, you say, preacher, thanks for being honest.

I think I'm staying in the boat.

Well, don't stop there.

So what did Peter do when he began to sink?

And the answer is, he got a hold of what we call a flare prayer.

You guys know how to pray flare prayers?

Notice what he did not do.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.

We know the wind comes out of your treasuries.

Bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop.

No, I don't think so.

Real quick prayer.

Here's what he said.

Lord, okay, we know who he's talking to.

Save, okay, now we know who he wants to do.

Me, three words.

Now, this is going to shock you.

I mean, some of you is going to blow you away.

Do you know what Jesus did?

Hang on.

He saved him.

That's what he did.

Yeah, you think, grabbed Peter, and then he dragged him half-submerged back to the boat.

Is that what happened?

Yeah, exactly.

That's not what happened.

Peter walked on water back to that boat.

I'm going to tell you something, friend.

It's not a matter of when you're going to sink.

It's a matter of when.

And when you sink, don't worry about it.

You know why?

Because you have a personal Savior.

Have you ever heard the terminology, accepting Jesus Christ as your personal.

Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lifeguard?

Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal fireman?

Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal EMT?

Have you ever accepted Jesus Christ as your personal rescue worker?

You say, preacher, what are you talking about?

I wanted to give you concrete examples in our world of a Savior.

You know what a Savior is?

A rescuer.

And when you got saved, Jesus' rescue work didn't stop, it started.

And the rest of your Christian life, guess what?

You need a personal rescuer.

And I want to tell you something, friends, and I say this as kindly as I know how, or as strongly as I know how, I keep my personal rescuer really busy.

Some of you may be better Christians than I am not keeping them that busy.

I need my personal rescuer all the time.

I bet you you do too.

He's our personal rescuer, our very personal rescuer.

And as you walk the Christian life, get out of the boat, and trust Jesus to enable you to do what you can never do, He will enable you to do things you never thought you could do.

I'm talking to some of you within days, maybe even within hours.

If you will get out of the boat and trust Jesus, He's going to enable you to do what you never thought you could do.

Some of you need to go home and say, Mom, Dad, we need to talk.

I've been sneaking stuff on the internet behind your back, and I just need to tell you about it.

You say, Preacher, I couldn't do that.

Well, you could do all things through Christ with strength, and you couldn't do that.

I remember years ago in the early years here I think we had a teen revival conference here and a couple of brothers came they didn't want to come parents put them on a plane sent them here and both of them testified later we heard things we never heard one of the things we heard is the Christian life you can't live at your own strength you need Jesus both of them ended up making decisions we're going to get right with our parents and both of them

gave me independent testimonies and basically was this one said I knocked on my parents bedroom door said mom dad I need to talked to you as soon as he got home.

He said, I sat on that bed with my mom and dad.

I knew I, his dad was a pastor.

He said, I knew I'd done things behind my parents' back.

I scared to death.

He said, when I opened my mouth and started telling my parents everything, he said, God was there.

The other one said, I took my dad on a walk.

We sat down on a bench in a park, in a city park.

He said, as soon as I opened my mouth, he said, God was there.

You see, some of you are going to go home and you're going to have to make some decisions.

You're going to have to sit down with mom and dad and you're going to say, hey mom and dad, there's stuff going on and you need to know about it.

You say, preacher, I couldn't do that.

Well, yeah, if you trust him, you can zero, one hundred.

Somebody out here, I mean, God's already laid on your heart in the last couple of sessions.

God's laid on your heart.

Yeah, there's a next door neighbor you need to talk to or, you know, next time you have that soccer team, ask your coach if I can invite him to church or ask your coach if I can say a word.

I remember several years ago, I was preaching at a camp out west and I remember it was about, I don't know, 24 I get a phone call.

And he said, "Hey Brother Van Gelderen, I'm so and so." I remembered him from camp, "Yeah, I remember you." He said, "What's up?" He said, "Well, I talked, you remember how you told us that we need to go out there and follow Jesus and tell people about Jesus?" He said, "I just want to ask you if I did the right thing." He said, "We were driving home and we stopped at a fast food restaurant." He said, "I thought to myself there's somebody here I'm supposed

to talk to." He said, "I came into the fast food restaurant and as I came in," he said, "two or three boys walked out the other door.

I followed them." He said, "They walked across the parking lot and there was the hotel right next door.

He said they walked into a room.

See, I walked up to the room, knocked on the door, they came and opened the door, and he said that the room was packed with teenagers.

So I asked him if I could come in and tell him what God had done for me.

And he said I went there and told him how to be saved.

He said, Preacher, did I do the right thing?

He said, Preacher, I don't know if I could do that.

You know what he was doing?

Walking on water.

Yeah, that could happen to some of you on the way home.

You don't have to wait until you get home.

And some of you say, oh, preacher, I can never do that.

Well, you can't in your own strength, but we're not talking about you.

Yeah, 0-100 means in my own strength I can, but I'm going to trust Jesus.

I'm going to move physical muscles, but I'm trusting Jesus to enable me with supernatural spiritual strength to do what I can never do unless He enabled me to do it.

That's the Christian life, friend.

And every single one of you in the room, that is your privilege as a Christian.

If you live in self-dependence, you will be defeated.

But if you live the 0-100 life, which none of us live it perfectly, you will begin to see supernatural things happen in your life.

And I will tell you, friend, I say this just as clearly as I know how to say, I need Jesus every second of every day.

I bet you you do too.

I need Him.

I can't do it without Him.

And when you get Jesus, divine intervention, then supernatural things start happening.

God starts doing miracles in your life, through your life, And you realize, wow.

And you know, friend, every night we should go to bed and say, man, look what God did today.

And every morning we should wake up.

I wonder what God's going to do today.

That, I believe, is the privilege of the Christian life.

If you live 0-100.