You know, we need the Lord every moment, every moment. And I don't know about you. Have you ever noticed how there are certain things that are just innate to human nature? Now, for years we did not have pets. I mean, when you travel, having a pet is kind of, you know, it's just kind of challenging, you know, to bring a pet to a different place, particularly pets that run around and whatever. But back a couple of years ago, My daughter, of course, my youngest daughter, was going to be on the road alone. And she, with those puppy eyes, asked me if we could have a rabbit. Well, I figured, what's harm is a rabbit? Okay, rabbits, they don't bark and they don't make noise. And I figured, what could be the harm of a rabbit? So we're two years into rabbit. The first one died after a year. Now we're into number two. But anyway, you know, I've learned about rabbits. You can study from people that know them well, and you can predict their behavior because they live by instinct. In other words, animals, God gives them instinct. That's how they survive. They just know what to do. They don't go to school. That'd be kind of nice, wouldn't it? They don't go to school. They just know it. Instinct. Now, human beings, we don't have that kind of instinct, but we do have what we might call, what sometimes people call it, intuition. In other words, can I put it this way? The Bible is counterintuitive. You know what I mean by that, don't you? The Bible goes counter to the way we do it if we didn't have the Bible. And so what we have a tendency to do, human nature, is almost always wrong. And I'm gonna deal with one of those tonight that's huge. Because innate within man is, how do I put this, the desire to be self-dependent. How many of you men love to ask directions? Okay, I just proved my point. Okay, I don't know about you if you're a typical male. If you're like me, I don't want to ask for directions. I mean, I'd rather be lost. You know, our poor wives, we just drive them into the ground on that thing. But, you know, the point is, that's human nature. We just want to do it. We're self-dependent. So tonight, would you join me in going to Colossians 1, Colossians 1. And every message from God's Word is important, but I would put this truth way up there. I want to preach a message on the secret is out, the mystery has been solved. The secret is out, the mystery has been solved. You can just shorten it, the secret's out. But I want to just give you a simple message, a simple truth. One of which if you learn this truth, I will tell you it'll save you a lot of trouble in the Christian life now I'm gonna start with a little premise before we give it again the message and And I hope it'll be a help to you. I mentioned this to the pastors this morning So somewhere there this will be a repeat to you. Did you know the Christian life is not hard? The Christian life is not difficult It's impossible is impossible now if you think the christian life is hard and difficult what you mean by that is if i just try a little bit harder i can do it and may i tell you you can try harder but if you try harder to do the impossible guess what you will still fail One of the best premises you can ever take to the Christian life is you have just been asked to do something impossible. But God loves to do that. Remember what he did to the guy who never walked in 38 years? Guy's born lame, and I just don't you love the Lord Jesus. He says, rise up and walk. So he just asked a guy who's never taken a step in his life, who probably had toothpicks for legs with skin over them, over the bones. He says, rise up and walk. Something not just difficult, and it wasn't just hard, It was impossible. Do you remember Peter? Here it is, Peter's in a boat, Jesus is walking on the water, and Peter says, if it be thou, we're going to deal with this later on in the message, bid me come into thee on the water. And the Lord Jesus said, come. He just commanded Peter to do something that was not difficult, it was not hard, it was impossible. If you've given up on the Christian life because you found it hard and difficult, you were right with that premise, but giving up was the wrong premise. because god has another solution and that's the solution we'll see here and that is god wants you to tap into the impossible now friends if you can get a hold of this it will change your life back just a couple like just last week over in westchester no actually just couple weeks ago i'd be a little further back than this but i was uh... in edmonton alberta had to get the right church here and a few weeks back and uh... a lady wrote me after those that the uh... week and she said this She said, I have never been one to give the gospel. But she said, I just want you to know, when I realized it was not difficult, it was not hard, it was impossible, she said, that changed everything. And she said, I want you to know that multiple times, I've had remarkable opportunities to give the gospel and to help people that is a complete new step in my life. Why? She got a hold of the fact, it wasn't hard, it wasn't difficult, it was impossible. Getting a hold of that in just a moment, there's a truth we need to learn that is essential. When you get a hold of this thing, you are tapping in to the wonderful possibility of doing the impossible. Got a question for you. Would you like to do the impossible? I remember hearing a message by a man, this is not original with me, I was struck by the illustration. There was a pastor in Tennessee and some mom and a dad of the church came to the pastor and said, could you talk some sense into our daughter? She's gone crazy. Well, the pastor said, well, she wants to be a missionary and she wants to go to a tribe of cannibals that have never been penetrated from the outside. Anybody who's ever tried to get in has been eaten. said, could you talk sense into our daughter? Well, the pastor says, send her over. So this little girl comes in. She's a graduate of Bible college. She's just a little thing, and just petite, blonde hair, just a cute little thing. And she comes in there and sits down. And the pastor starts to talk to her. And the pastor became remarkably convinced that God had called her to do that. And yet he knew he couldn't shake her out of it. It was God's call. She was going to have to do it. And he, of course, encouraged her, you're going to have to follow the Lord. If this is what God's calling you to do, you're going to have to do. Well, to make a long story short, she began to make preparations, and I think made some language preparations best she could. And then she packed a backpack, but she was just a petite little thing. She wasn't a camper, you know. She would, you know, you would just not view her as an outdoors girl at all. So she gets a backpack and she contracts a helicopter that's going to take her to this part of the jungle. And they're not even going to land. They're too afraid to land. If they land, they could die. So they're just going to drop her off. Literally have to come down a rope. She's going to have to rappel down a rope into the jungle. Then they agreed two months later to come back and pick her up if she was still there. You can imagine this. The pastor said, I've never prayed so hard in my life. Just praying, God, you've got to do something. If you call this girl, you're going to have to do something. Well, my friend, God had called her to do something impossible, and that's what happened. So she's, as I understand the story, she, they take her in there, and of course I'm leaving out details, because I don't know them all, but they take her in there, and she doesn't know how to rappel, okay? So she's like Batman down the rope, you know what I'm talking about? Right down the rope, and she lands with a thud on the jungle floor with her and her backpack. And the helicopter pulls up the rope and pulls off, and they say to each other, we will never see that girl again. Two months later, true to the word, of course, curious themselves, they come back. And when they come back, that little blonde haired girl walks into the clearing with all kinds of native, these cannibals, these headhunters right behind her, all these big men right behind her. And so she comes right into the clearing and they're amazed, of course, and they have some kind of basket or something. They pick her up and they draw her up into the helicopter. And their very first question is, what happened? What happened? And the girl says, well, I got down there in the jungle, and it took me a little while to learn the language. She said, learn the basics of the language. And then I found out something, that although they're cannibals, they only eat men. They don't eat ladies. They just eat men. She said, the second thing I found out is they have a legend. And the legend is there's going to be this goddess fall from the sky and come and give them the truth. She said, I tried to explain to him, I'm not a goddess, but I am a representative of the one true God. They were wide open. They got saved. She led them to the Lord. May I say this, that God didn't ask her to do something that was hard and difficult. He asked her to do something that was impossible. And the truth is, for everybody in this room, That's exactly the same assignment we all have. It may not be headhunters, it could be your next door neighbor. These days, that might be worse. But the point is, we have impossible tasks. So what's the answer? Go to Colossians 1, we'll read quickly. It says, Whereof I am made a minister, Colossians 1, verse 25, Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery, there it is, which has been hid from ages and from generations. And let me just stop for a moment. Do you like unsolved mysteries? I was talking last week and a lady came up to me and she said, you know, she said, one time I went to a doctor's office and she said, I started reading a mystery novel. And she said, I got right up to where, you know, you knew, knew everything, you know, the crime and the potential suspects. And then she had to go. And I'd give an illustration, just hypothetical, what would you do if you came to a situation like that? And my solution was, before you went to the doctor, you go to the last page and find out whodunit. You know what I'm talking about? Because I don't like unsolved mysteries. She said, you know, it's funny you said that, because that's exactly what I did. I went to the very end of the book, and I found out whodunit. OK, so we don't like unsolved mysteries. You've ever been in a situation where something just wasn't right? I don't know about you, I just can't let it, especially the laws of nature when they're not quite right. i were out years ago in month in new brunswick they have a hill that's called magnetic hill anybody ever been the month in new brunswick and magnetic hill anybody at all ok i'll explain it to you what you do is you drive in it's kind of a state parker problem i guess provincial park there in canada and so on you drive in and you drive to the bottom this hill then you instructed you put your car in neutral and your car rolls uphill so they call magnetic hill I mean, it was really freaky. You're in this car and thinking, we are going uphill. Then you look out of the window and on either side, or at least on one side, excuse me, there's a stream and it's going uphill. Now that's a tip-off. The stream is going uphill. Now, I'm not the kind of person who can just, oh, that's really neat, drive out of there, wonder how that happens. No, I gotta get out and find out how it happens. So I got out, got different angles, and then I saw it. It was nature's optical illusion. You were actually not going uphill, you're actually going downhill. It's a unique place and the way the scenery is that God designed somehow is an ultimate optical illusion. Well friends, I don't know about you, I couldn't leave until I solved that in my brain. I think we all understand what a mystery is, but this is a mystery, and I don't know about you, maybe, how many have three or more kids? Three or more kids, can I see your hands please? Okay, how many, we're in a family of three or more kids, okay? Okay, here's, I don't know if this ever happened with you, it certainly happened, I have three girls, and when they were growing up, they would do this. One of them, two of them would get together, and they'd have a secret. And they would leave one of them out. You know what I'm talking about, yeah? And the one that got left out, Mommy, Daddy, you know, so-and-so, they've got a secret, and et cetera. And we don't like to be left out of a secret. Now, you dear women, I'm sure you torment your husbands like this, as my wife means well. She certainly doesn't want to torment me, but she'll occasionally do this. She'll come to me and she'll start telling me something, and then she'll stop halfway through. Oh, no, I better not tell you. I better not tell you. I shouldn't have started. I'm thinking, why did you even start? Okay, well if you said nothing, I wouldn't have bothered me, but now I'm trying to figure out what the secret is. None of us like an unsolved mystery. None of us like a secret that we don't know. Okay, so that's the picture here. So notice what it says. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints. Wow. to whom God would make known." That's the saints, that's us. What is the riches? Okay, now we have a mystery that is value, kind of reminds me of a treasure map. Obviously, this is spiritual value. Riches of the glory, now we got glory in this thing. Wow, this is quite a mystery. Of this mystery among the Gentiles, that's a key thing, we'll come back to that. Which is, here it is, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, I know exactly what you're thinking. Oh, come on, I knew that. You know, the problem is we know it in our brains. But I'm going to say this. If it has not changed our lives, then I'm not sure we really know it. I'm going to tell you, friend, that you probably know this, but you have problems. Did you know that? You and I both, we have problems. As we go through this Christian life, we begin to realize, boy, we've got some issues we've got to work through. May I say this carefully? Every problem you have and every issue you face, there is a solution, and the solution lives inside of you, and His name is Jesus. See, God is telling us that Christ lives in us. The answer to our problems is not distant, it is near. And if we're saved, it's inside of us. So beginning to understand this. Now, let's stop for a moment. Lost my little sponge thing here. Let's stop for a moment and let's think about how Jews viewed the presence of God. I think I got it on here. Okay, how did Jews view the presence of God? If you think about Old Testament stories, you know what you find? Jews feared the presence of God. Remember at Mount Sinai? Basically they said, you know, we can't keep doing this. You, Moses, you go up there and take care of this. They feared the presence of God. You remember when Manoah, Samson's father, thought he had seen God, he'd seen an angel of the Lord? He basically said, we're going to die. How can we live? That was the concept of the Jew. Now, where did they get that from? I'll tell you where they got it from. The presence of God, of course, was in the Holy of Holies. Now, could anybody walk into the Holy of Holies anytime they wanted? And the answer is no. So if some guy just walks into the Holy of Holies, what happens? He dies. In fact, there's only one person who can go in. Do you know who that is? It is the high priest. Can he go in anytime he wants? No, once a year. And even he, when he goes in, they had bells on his garment, on the bottom of his garment, and they tied a rope around his ankle. Why? Because if he died, they had to have a way to get him out. Now I'm sure the high priest was a little nervous on the Day of Atonement, don't you think? I'm sure he wanted to make sure he did this thing right. So this, certainly for a Jew, the presence of God was a very awesome thing. For understanding a New Testament believer, even a Jewish believer, to now realize the deity tabernacled in men, the new tabernacle is us, was an unthinkable thought. But not just would it be a thought that God now tabernacles in men, the greater thought was, don't miss this, He tabernacles in Gentiles? Unthinkable. So what the Apostle is presenting here for us is old hat. But for the people reading it, it was revolutionary. Can I submit something to you tonight? It really should be revolutionary to us, too. And what I'd like us to do real quickly is now answer the question, why? Why is that revolutionary that Jesus lives in us? Of course, he's seated at the right hand. He sent forth his spirit into our hearts. Why should that be revolutionary? Let's keep reading. Verse 28, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Now this truth is absolutely essential if we're going to come to Christian maturity. The word perfect there comes from the verb teleo, which is the verb that was used in an infinitive form when Jesus was on the cross and he said, it is finished. So perfect here is not the idea of sinless. It's the idea of complete or mature. So what this passage of Scripture is telling us is the truth that Jesus lives in us. We've got to warn people and we've got to teach people because this particular truth is essential if we'll reach Christian maturity, completion, in a sense of, you say, what is Christian maturity? It's not perfection in the sense of not sinning. It's perfection in the sense of, I put it this way, mature Christians know how to counsel themselves out of their problems. They understand the truth. They have an understanding of it. Okay. Now, then the last verse of the chapter is where we find a little insight that I believe opens our eyes to the significance of Christ living in us. Here's what it says. Where unto, now Paul here is going to be now giving you a philosophy of his life and ministry. Where unto I also labor, striving according to, could you tell me the next word? His working. which worketh in me mightily." Now, friends, here's what I want you to see. When you got saved, Jesus moved in. And that Lord Jesus, as He lives in us, we, of course, in our Christian life and ministry and everything we have, we, of course, labor, striving, but here's the key. According to His working, not us. Now, let me just stop for a moment, and I'm going to give a little parenthesis that's going to seem unrelated. In a moment, you'll see that it's not. Several years ago, I was in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in a wonderful church there. I preached on this truth, and I remember after I did, I went out to the lobby, and a girl, I'm guessing 22, she kind of impressed me as a girl that was just out of college, although I'm not sure she went. She said, Brother Van Gelder, what you preached tonight, I have never heard in my entire life. She said, a year ago, we moved to this church. She said, we moved, and she named the name of an independent Baptist church that is probably one of the most significant independent Baptist churches in America. At least you would know of it. It's controversial in some ways, but you would know of it. If you knew anything about the independent Baptist movement, you would have heard of this church. So she names the church. She said, I moved here from that church. I grew up in that church, moved here, been here a year. She said, I always thought the Christian life was 50-50. 50% me and 50% God. Okay, so I got to ask you a question. When you think about the Christian life, how much of it is you and how much of it is God? Is it 50-50? How about 60-40? How about 70-30? How about 80-20? How about 90-10? How about 95-5? How much of the Christian life is us and how much of the Christian life is God? Now, I know some of you now are kind of wrestling with that. Okay, yeah, how does that work? Okay, how much of it is us and how much of it is God? Okay, now we're going somewhere, and you want to be there when we go there. Okay, let's just stop for a moment. And there's a clue that we find in Colossians chapter 2, just six verses down. There's a little principle of interpretation given. God gives us, He teaches us how to interpret the Bible, so He's going to give us a principle in verse number 6. Here's what He says. Has ye therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord? so walking in him." Now he's telling us this, there's something that occurs the moment you get saved, when you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, there's something that occurs that needs to be duplicated in the Christian walk. Now the word received there is called the aorist tense. Often the aorist tense views an action as a whole. Okay, so this particular sense is kind of helping us recognize that the reception is kind of an event. It's a crisis. You must be born again. For you dear ladies out here, I want you to understand you know that birth was an event. Thank the Lord it wasn't a nine-month process. Now pregnancy was, but the birth wasn't. Okay, it was at the end of the pregnancy. Okay, there's a crisis. That's the idea of being born again. So as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord. So what happened when you receive Christ Jesus the Lord? I'll tell you what happened. You came to realize there was nothing you could do to save yourself. Do you know that if you're trusting yourself at all to get to heaven, you can't get heaven? You only get to heaven when you realize there's nothing I can do to get to heaven. I can't save myself. So you realize, I can't save myself. And then somewhere along the line, you completely trust Jesus to do for you what you can't do for yourself. You with me? And in that moment, what do you do? OK, so the moment you get saved, how much are you trusting yourself to get to heaven? And the answer is none, zero. And how much are you trusting Jesus to do all the saving? And the answer is, how much of it is how much? 100. So salvation is simple. It's 0% us and it's 100% God. All we're doing is trusting Jesus to do everything that we can't do, which is everything. Now the Bible says that's how you receive Him. As you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Now walk is in a different tense. They call it the present tense. So the idea is from the moment you get saved to the moment you go home to heaven, you take a lot of steps in your Christian life. And God is saying every step in your Christian life needs to have the same dynamic. Well, how did you receive Jesus? Okay, trusting Jesus to do it all. And not trusting yourself at all. So how do you live the Christian life? And my contention is, the same way. Now let me take another step, a couple steps back, and let's imagine you were talking to a next-door neighbor about getting saved. So you say to your next-door neighbor, hey, you know, Jesus died on the cross, shed His blood, He loves you, died, and you go through the gospel. And at the very end, your neighbor says, OK, he said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to try as hard as I can to get to heaven. I'm going to try as hard as I can to get rid of my sins. And I don't know, I think I might be able to do 5%, 10%, maybe 50% of the saving, and then I'm going to trust Jesus to do the rest. Would you be excited about that decision? And the answer is no. Why? Because you can't get saved until you realize you can't do any of it. OK, so we see that in salvation. Oh, we got that one down. But what about the Christian life? How many Christians go, OK, God, this Christian life thing's hard. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. God, I'm going to try as hard as I can to live the Christian life. Maybe I can do 5%, 10%, maybe 15%. God, I'm going to trust you to do the rest. Just like in salvation, if you trust yourself at all to get to heaven, you will end up being lost. Just like that, in the Christian life, if you trust yourself at all, you will be defeated. Any percentage of trusting yourself, you will be defeated. Now, I know what you're thinking. Oh, wait a second, preacher. I mean, we got to do stuff. The Bible tells us to do stuff. Tells us to study, show thyself approved under God. The Bible tells us pray without ceasing. There's a lot of stuff God tells us to do. So how can it be 0-100? That is a really good question. And it's what I call theological tension. Now I'm going to be honest with you, I love theological tension. You say, why? Because there's always a truth in theological tension. Sometimes you've got to dig a little bit, and you've got to meditate, and you've got to plead with God to open your eyes. And you know, I really had struggled with this for a while. Okay, now how can it be zero, a hundred? Because clearly that's what Colossians 2, 6 is telling us. And yeah, we gotta do stuff. And then it hit me, friends. Have you ever thought about this? Often in the Bible, the Bible uses the words power, strength, might, and we almost automatically assume that those words are talking about physical strength. Have you ever noticed that our culture has gone bananas over physical strength? It's like crazy. You know, athletes shorten their life, take steroids, you know, just so they can be the strongest guy in the field, you know, pump themselves up, all that kind of stuff. And we just live in a world that just, you just love strength. And these linemen can throw 600 pounds around like it's nothing, like it's styrofoam. And we're thinking, this is unbelievable. I can barely bench press the bar. And just strength. This world just really honors physical strength. It's really into it. So we have a tendency when we read the Bible to just assume, oh, it's talking about physical strength. I want to point out real quickly, and then hopefully this will help us. Jesus is speaking to the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, 9. Last time I was here, I think I preached a message on this passage, and here's what it says. My grace is sufficient for thee, for, hear me now, my strength is made perfect in, anybody know? Weakness. Perfect, by the way, is that same taleo word. You know what the word weakness means? The word weakness is the word strength with an alpha or an A. In the English language, we use that phenomena. Do you know what a theist is? A theist is somebody who believes in, help me out now, believes in God. If you put an A before the word theist, does it change its definition? And the answer is, yeah, it kind of does. So how much, dictionary-wise, does an atheist believe in God? And the answer is none. See, an alpha in the Greek does the same thing it does in English. It negates the noun. So an alpha before the word strength means how much strength? And the answer is none. I like when one commentator calls the word weakness, strengthlessness. So Christ's strength is made perfect in our complete lack of strength. Now, this is unbelievable. So hit me one day. I want you to get this, friends. You can't miss this. In fact, if you miss anything tonight, don't miss this. Hit me one day that when it comes to spiritual strength, I am 100% absolutely, in and of myself, I am 100% completely bankrupt of spiritual strength. Isn't that great? You see, the truth is, friends, that's why the Christian life is impossible. See, here's my point. How much can you, now you can read the Bible in your own physical strength, but I want to ask you a question. Can you read the Bible and get spiritual truth from it that will change your life without God being in the mix? And the answer is, no, it's impossible. Can't do it. Can you pray effectively without God? And the answer is, no, impossible. Can't do it. Can you win somebody to Jesus without God? And the answer is, no. Can you minister to somebody and meet their spiritual needs, touch their heart, comfort their heart? We're talking about in the spiritual realm. Can you do it without God? And the answer is, no. You're tracking with me. See, when it comes to spiritual strength, we're absolutely 100% bankrupt. That's why the Bible says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Not mine, because I don't have any. I can do all things through. Which? So whose strength is it? It's Christ and His strength is spiritual. See, I know we've meant well, and I certainly don't want to, I know people are sincere, so please don't take this, this is one of my soap boxes, but working with Christian schools, I've seen Christian school soccer teams get out there in the field and they'll go, I can do all things through Christ who has strengthened me. And I'm thinking to myself, this is not what it's talking about. It's not talking about physical strength. Because if it was talking about physical strength, the most spiritual people in the congregation would be the greatest athletes. My grandmother's probably one of the most spiritual women I have ever known. She couldn't have beat anybody in this room in an arm wrestling contest. And she certainly couldn't have played soccer. See, my point is that verse is used wrong often. It's not talking about physical strength. It's not talking about playing soccer, baseball, or whatever else. It's not talking about that. It's talking about spiritual strength. I can do all things through Christ means I can do anything that is spiritual that God wants me to do. I can do it through Christ's enablement. Can you, through Christ's enablement, read the Bible and have spiritual truth that will transform your life? Can you? And the answer is, you better believe it. Can you pray? And can the Holy Spirit tell you what to pray for and then enable you to pray and see effective answers to prayer? Can that happen? And the answer is, you better believe it. My point is, every single thing God asks us to do, His will for our lives, is spiritual in nature. And when we realize that in and of ourself we're bankrupt. Oh, I'm bankrupt. I see that. I'm not a little bit bankrupt. I'm totally bankrupt. So what did the Apostle Paul do? When Jesus said to him, my strength is made perfect in your complete lack of strength. You know, that's how he responded. Most gladly, therefore. Will I rather glory in mine infirmities. Do you know what the word infirmities is in the original? It's the same word weakness in the plural. Strengthlessnesses. Will I glory in my strengthlessnesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me. So you know what Paul did? I'm using my sanctified imagination. He went outside back his tent, and man, he threw his sandals up in the air, and he says, hallelujah, I'm bankrupt. Hallelujah, I don't have any strength. That's great. Why? Because he knew that when you embrace your bankruptcy and look to God, he will always strengthen you. I want to tell you something, friends. The Christian life is not some mysterious thing meant only for the brilliant. It's actually quite simple. It just needs to be apprehended on a spiritual plane. This truth to me is so revolutionary that there's nothing you can do. The Christian life's not just hard and difficult. It's impossible. To me, when it hit me that the Christian life's impossible, that was freeing. Because you know what happens when it's hard and difficult? Oh, just try harder, man. Just grit your teeth, man. Go after it a little bit harder. I was talking to the men this afternoon, and I talked about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Maybe afterwards, when we're doing the fellowship out there, some of you need to grab your shoelaces. And we'll get the whole church around you, and we'll say, come on, try harder, buddy. Yeah, pull yourself up. You know, I've never known anybody in the physical realm that was able to pull themselves up by their bootstraps Wouldn't it be neat if pastor was up banging off the ceiling grabbing his shoelaces? Whoa, look at pastor. He pulled himself up by his shoelaces You're laughing cuz can't do that preacher well if you can't do it in the physical realm What makes us think we can do it in the spiritual realm And I will tell you, it's freeing when you realize, I can't do this. I can't do this. See, some of you have given up on certain aspects of the Christian life, and I'm gonna tell you why. Because you thought it was up to you. And you soon came to a conclusion, can't do this. The reason some of you have even struggled with prayer, you know why it is? Preacher, I've tried. I tried, I can't do it. I tried. Well, the reason you tried and can't do it is because you tried. She said, oh, I can't get anything out of the Bible. It's a closed book to me. I can't. And you've given up? Or I can't win people to Jesus. I just am not good at that. Other people are good in evangelism. That's just not. I'll be the one who gives. You see, many Christians are defeated. I'm going to tell you why they're defeated. Because there's a certain aspect of the Christian life they tried to get victory in, and they soon came to realize, I can't. But instead of going to the right solution, they gave up. And I'm saying there are dear Christians all across this room who know exactly what I'm talking about. The truth is for everybody in this room, I don't care who you are, it does not matter what your area of defeat is, we're not talking about you anymore, we're talking about Him and He lives in you. And the Bible says, I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. In other words, you embrace your bankruptcy. I can't do this, but Jesus can strengthen me to do everything He wants me to do. You say, okay preacher, I think I'm getting it, but how, I mean, we gotta, you know, gotta use muscles. I mean, you gotta open the Bible and you gotta hand out a track and open your mouth to invite them to church. So how does this work? What does it look like? Boots on the ground. You know, that is a great, great question. And that's what I love about the Bible. God doesn't leave us in the dark. He gives us illustrations. And one of my favorite, I've already alluded to, Peter walking on the water. I got a question for you. Walking on the water. Walking on the water. Is that something that's hard, difficult, or impossible? It's impossible. Walking on water. Have you noticed that the Olympics do not have a walking on water competition? Have you noticed that? In fact, friend, you could go down to the Olympic Training Center and you could train for years on walking on water, but you couldn't do it. See? You see, great athletes Even ones we revere in our country, they can't walk on water. Hey, Tom Brady cannot walk on water. He can deflate footballs, but he cannot walk on water. You know what I'm talking about? Hopefully there are no Patriot fans in the room. Okay, but... Cam Newton. He can't walk on water. He can fumble the football several times in the Super Bowl, but he cannot walk on water. Okay, see, the point is, great athletes can't walk on the water. Hey, hockey players. They can skate on ice, but they can't walk on the liquid stuff. Now, my point, friend, is simply this. Peter's in a boat, and the Bible says it's the fourth watch of the night. That's between three o'clock and six o'clock in the morning. And Peter's in this boat, and the Bible says that they're in the midst of the sea. Now, the Sea of Galilee is seven miles wide and 14 miles long. So, if they're in the midst of the Sea of Galilee, what's the shortest amount of space they are from the shore? And the answer is three and a half miles. three and a half miles will lose shortest way. And the Bible says the wind was contrary, which means they had no way to go forward. Because the wind would go this way, then it would go this way, then it would go this way. And I'm sure they had to have their sails down if they had sails. And they were using oars and even that. They were going nowhere. They were at the mercy of the storm, and their lives were in danger. The Sea of Galilee, although it's not that big, is deep, and it's surrounded by mountains, like Pennsylvania mountains. It kind of reminds you of that. Not like Rockies, but if you're in Colorado, they'd be hills. But here in Pennsylvania, we call them mountains. And they're completely around it like a horseshoe, and the southern end is where the Jordan River goes out. It goes, of course, right down to the Dead Sea. And so these storms come in and they just tear the thing up. I mean, just like, you know, huge waves, just like you'd be out on the ocean. And that's evidently the kind of storm they were in. Three to six, which means, I personally think it was probably toward the dawning of the day, probably at six. And you say, Preacher, I always thought when Peter walked on the water, it was daytime. I'm going to tell you why. Because flannel graph has it at daytime, OK? For those of you that grew up in church, OK? But it wasn't daytime. I think there was enough sight, because they saw Jesus walking on the water. And the Bible says they thought it was a spirit. And they cried out for fear. And the Lord says, be not afraid. It is I. And that's when Peter, good old Peter, Peter the guy who talks before he thinks, said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee in the water. Now, I don't know Peter's motive, but I can imagine, I kind of see Peter as kind of looking over his shoulder at the 11. Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee in the water. Kind of like, hey guys, I'm leading the charge. And then I just love the Lord's answer. Come. I don't know this, we can ask Peter when we get to heaven, but I think his thought in his heart was, you big idiot, what did you just say? So here he is confronted with something he knows is impossible. Jesus has just commanded him to do what is impossible. Now I've got a question for you. When Peter got down out of the boat, did he use physical muscles? And the answer is, yeah, he did. Do you think he was depending on those muscles to walk on water? And the answer is, no way. Here is the key. When we live the Christian life, do we use physical strength? And the answer is yes. But just like Peter, if we're going to live it biblically, we're not depending on it at all. See, Peter got down out of the boat, and he began to step on that water, and he began to walk on water. And although using physical strength, he's not depending on it because he knows that the only one that's keeping him up is Jesus. Now again, working with teenagers is maybe my problem, but do you have a sanctified imagination? I think when we get to heaven, I'm gonna say, okay, Peter, when you were walking on the water, what did it feel like? Like, was it pavement? Was it like stones? Was it like hard? Or was it like a bouncy house? And I know what Peter's gonna say. What's a bouncy house? That's what he's gonna say. I would say, well, how do you describe someone in the first century? You know, it's like a bouncy. I don't know. But I kind of think it had a little give to it, you know, like the water bugs, you know, how they have a little give, a little water suspension there. And he's walking on the water, using physical strength, but not depending on it at all. And you're saying, oh, yeah, preacher, that's a great illustration. But you can't stop there, because exactly what's going to happen to me is what happened to Peter. I'm going to get my eyes off Jesus, and down I go. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know, a lot of Christians, that's why they never get out of the boat, because they're afraid they're going to sink. And I'm going to just tell you this. Do you know what Faith Chapel is all about? I guarantee you this is what Faith Chapel is all about. It is a church that is teaching you to walk on water. And many people fear to get out of the boat. You know why? I'm going to sink, Preacher. Now, hear me. Don't miss this. It's not a matter of if you're going to sink. It's a matter of when. You know why? Because we're human beings. You say, ah, you proved the preacher. I'm not getting out of the boat. No, I'm proving the exact opposite. Because what happened when Peter began to sink? And the answer is, he looks back at somebody. And he says, Lord, save me! And I got a question for you. Did he? Yes. You remember that phrase, you probably heard it, accepting Jesus Christ as your personal, help me out now, maybe. Could I change that for a moment? Accepting Jesus Christ as your personal EMT. Accepting Jesus Christ as your personal lifeguard. Accepting Jesus Christ as your personal fireman. Accepting Jesus Christ as your personal rescue worker. Did you just get that? See, we forget what a Savior is. Every word I just use as a synonym is a synonym of the word Savior. He's a rescuer. And may I say this, when you got saved, this is great, his rescue work didn't stop, it started. And I don't know about you, I keep my personal rescuer really busy. Now you might be a whole lot better Christian than I am, but I need him all the time. And here's the great thing about walking on water. When you sink, you have a personal rescuer. and he lives inside of you. And he's just waiting for you to say, Jesus, rescue me. That's what save means. My friend, he will rescue you just like he rescued Peter. You know what the Christian life is? This is so great. The Christian life is a constant dependence on Jesus, either to enable us to walk on water or to rescue us when we look away. But however you put it, it's a constant need of Jesus Christ. And the great thing about walking on water, friend, is Jesus enables you to do what you could never do unless he enabled you to do it. So I'm going to say it again. This is the culmination of the message. Walking on water is when Jesus enables you to do what you could never do unless he enabled you to do it. And do you know everybody in this room? Everybody. I'm talking everybody. God wants you to enable you to do what you can never do unless he enables you to do it. There are people in this room that God literally has scores of people he wants you to win to Jesus. And when you embrace your bankruptcy and realize it's not hard, it's not difficult, it's impossible, but that Jesus is ready to enable you, all he's waiting for you to do is get out of the boat. and trust him to enable you. You move muscles. You go to that next-door neighbor's house. You might be scared half to death. But you're saying, Jesus, rescue me. Rescue me. And friends, it's like this. The songwriter really had it well when the songwriter wrote, trust and obey. For there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. You see this, if we totally believe we're bankrupt and we believe that we can trust Jesus to enable us to do it, if we really believe this, what will we do? We will obey. We will get out of the boat just like Peter did, but we will not depend on human strength. We will depend on a miracle. Years ago we were at a Christian school A girl got up, I think junior or senior, the final day, and she said, I've been getting nothing out of my devotions, nothing. I have them every day, but I haven't been getting anything out of them. She said, I wondered why, and I asked God why. She said, this week God showed me why. I've been trying to get something out of my devotions. She said, yesterday I read a passage, I didn't get anything from it. This morning I picked up my Bible and went to that same passage. She said, oh God, I can't understand this book, but you wrote it, and you can teach me. So God, I'm gonna read that same passage I read yesterday, and I'm asking you to teach me. She began to cry. She said, yesterday I didn't get anything out of it. Oh today, God showed me so many things. Isn't that good? I'm talking to some of you defeated in your prayer life, maybe even with a prayer emphasis, you might even be saying, I've tried, I can't do it. Could it be that you've tried? You know what the Bible says, praying in the Holy Ghost, you know what that means? It means you look to Jesus, not only to show you what to pray for, but to even do it. I encourage you to get out of that time, open your Bible, and get ready for that time of prayer. Say, God, I need you to show me what to pray for. God, I need you to enable me to do it." You see, that's the great thing about the Christian life, friend, all these things. But sometimes we say, I know I'm supposed to do it. I know a prayer emphasis in my life is right. I know a Bible spending time in God's Word is right. I know how to reach my next-door neighbors. I know that's right. I know how to speak up for Jesus. I know that's all right. But it seems so impossible. Friends, tonight, I hope your eyes are illumined. The answer is inside of you. The answer isn't try harder. You say, what about those verses that say God's a help? Well, when the Bible's telling that God's a help, it means, just like it talks about salvation, He's a help. What does that mean? He does it all. That's what it means. That it's ours to trust. See, in salvation, we trust and receive. I call that expectation. We trust Jesus saved me, and then we expect Him to do it. That's reception. But in the Christian life, we trust and obey. Our faith is manifested by a walk, by action, by movement, by obedience. Independence totally on Him to enable us to do what we can never do unless He enabled us to do it. I know it was just three short years ago when I gave this illustration. Please pardon the repetition, but hopefully in conclusion it will help. I remember when I was 16 years old, I was in a service, and I was in absolute misery. For years I had known God had called me to preach. I had known it, but I fought it tooth and nail. Now don't miss this. Not because I didn't want to do it, but because I didn't think I could. I was extremely shy in high school, extremely shy. So I remember, I think it was my sophomore year, could have been freshman, my uncle was preaching. He was a paraplegic and he's in the wheelchair and he says, Jimmy, read such and such a passage. It was a long passage. 250 kids, Christian school chapel. Whoa. One of the disadvantages of being blonde is when you get embarrassed, everybody knows. Red, just like a thermometer. Big, huge apple, long in my throat, and tears brimmed up in my eyes. I thought I was going to cry. I really did. I choked out that passage of scripture, sat down, dropped my Bible next to me. I said, that was terrible. I hope that never happens again. Now, I don't know about you. I didn't think that was a very good candidate to be a preacher. You know what I'm talking about? Well, God looks at things differently. He really does. I knew I was called to preach. I'd known it for years. I sat in the service, 16 years old, and I couldn't take it any longer. I got out of my seat, came down, grabbed my dad's hand, and I said, Dad, I think God's called me to preach. I will never forget my dad's answer, because it's He said, son, you and your mother have known it for a long time. We've been praying for you. Stunned me. You said, well, preacher, was the burden lifted? Were you excited? Were you thrilled? No, I was miserable. How would you like to yield to something you can't do? And do it publicly. Now you're shamed. So I'm back in the lobby and I remember this exact thought process going through my head. Okay, I'm at the end of my junior year, I've got a senior year. Freshman year of college, sophomore year of college, junior year of college, senior year of college. Five years, maybe something will happen before I have to preach. That's what I thought. I thought I had five years to my first sermon. My dad had a different philosophy. He believed if you're called to preach, you did it. And my dad, being a pastor in Chicago, everybody knew him. He was like, been there for 20-some years. And people would call him up and say, Brother Van Gelderen, it's going to be gone on Sunday. Could you send a staff member over? And my dad started saying, oh, my 16-year-old boy, I'll send them over. Just call the bridge. I'll send them over. Oh, I remember the very first time I had my message, had my Bible, went over to this church. My dad gave me directions. Not MapQuest, we're talking now. A literally hand-drawn map, okay. You young kids, we used to draw our maps. Unbelievable. So my dad gives me this hand-drawn map. I go over to the church, you know. in my Plymouth Duster. Totally cool car for a teenager. You know, that little tornado on the back. How many remember the Plymouth Duster? Yeah, cardboard cars. Yeah, the old day of cardboard cars. Chrysler, OK. So I drive over there in my Plymouth Duster. I get out of that thing scared half to death, my patent leather shoes, you know what I'm talking about. And I walk in there. And I am telling you, folks, it was, I know many of you are senior citizens, that's what it was. It was completely senior citizens. And I'm a kid. So I get up there, and I preach for 25, 30 minutes, and I am sure those dear people, I bored them to tears. I am sure. You see, how can you be sure? Well, I've got this philosophy. If you're bored preaching, I think the people listening to you are probably bored, too. When you're thinking, when is this guy going to be done, that's probably what they're thinking, OK? You know what I'm talking about. I finish the message, and I'm telling you, I'm thinking, this was a disaster. When you grow up in a preacher's home, you know good preaching. and you know bad preaching. So I'm thinking, that was bad. If I could have snuck out of there, I would, but I knew I couldn't. So I had to make my way through, you know, sit at the end, have the people come by and lie to me. You know what I'm talking about? Dear ladies would pat my hand, say, oh sonny boy, that was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful message. I'm thinking to myself, you didn't have your hearing aids or not. That's what I'm thinking. It's bad. I mean, it's bad. I'm just, oh, I'm thinking this is terrible. So last person out's the treasurer. And he was younger in the church. And he hands me a check. He says, this is your honorary. I said, honorary? You mean you're paying me for that? I didn't say that. But I'm thinking, oh, I'm a thief. It's one thing to preach a terrible message. It's another thing to take money for it. I knew I couldn't give it back. So I go outside. I'm really curious. I open it up. It was a hunk of money. I'm telling you, for a 16-year-old kid, it was an enormous amount of money. You say, how much? 50 bucks. You say, Preacher, that's not that much money. 1976, pre-Jimmy Carter. It was a lot of money, okay? Fill your gas tank up five times. And go to McDonald's 50 times, order a hamburger, french fries, and a large Coke. I remember the commercial. Get change back. OK, but anyway. So I drive home, and I'm thinking, whoa, this is terrible. I'm thinking to myself, you know, I think you're supposed to like it. That's what I thought. So I get home. Long story short, I started to grow. Don't get me wrong. But went to college. I went senior year, then college. And there were different times I preached, but I'd never seen full victory yet. I was a crisis coming and it was the end of my freshman year summer. My dad gets up at the Marquette Manor Baptist Church, which in those days would, oh, I don't know, probably eight, 900 a Sunday morning and five, 600 a Sunday evening. They were some of the glory days of that church, at least numerically. And my dad would get up and he got up and said, now my son Jim is gonna, since it's Sunday night, he's gonna preach before he goes back to college. Now, I'll be honest with you. I'd grown enough. I was starting to get excited about the possibility. And so I started studying a passage of scripture. And the day came and my dad on Sunday morning said, now, remember, tonight my son's preaching. And as my dad could do, he would just urge people to come. And so I went home, we ate dinner, and I told the whole family I got the basement. Nobody come down to the basement. All afternoon, I got the basement. I went down to that basement and I was in panic mode. Hey, it's one thing to bore people that you'll never see till you get to heaven, and by that time they'll forgiven you. It's another thing to bore the hometown crowd. Are you tracking with? So I went down to that basement. I was desperate. Because God seemed a million miles away. I said, God, what are you? God, you got to do something. God, I can't do this. God, don't you know I can't do this? I remember getting my message out. And there was hardly anything there. I'd studied, but I didn't know how to study. I had a few words on a sheet of paper, a few sentences, and he said, well, preacher, why didn't you work on your message? I will tell you, the message was on life support. Three hours could not have resuscitated it. I said, if God doesn't show up, I'm done. And I spent three hours, and it was not a sophisticated prayer meeting. It was largely, God, you've got to do something. God, don't you know I can't do this? I pled with God. I said, God, I can't do this. God, don't you understand? I can't do this. I pled with God. And I will tell you, friend, there were a couple of themes. The first theme was, clearly, I can't do this. The second theme is, God, if you don't show up, I'm done. I did not know that I was supposed to expect him to show up. God's merciful. I just knew he was my only hope. About five o'clock somebody yells down the stairs. Hey, it's time to come to church I've never been executed, but I do know how it feels to go to your execution. At least I think I'm walking up those wooden stairs and I'm thinking this is awful So I get in the Plymouth duster we drive over to the church We get out, a few things. I come in, sit on the platform, or come up with my dad on the platform. I'm telling you, the auditorium is jammed. There's not a seat open. Everybody showed up to see the preacher's kid go down in flames. They're all there, man. They want to chronicle this thing, man. We got to see it happen. The shy kid's going down tonight. I mean, they're packed. There's not a seat open. I'm telling you the honest truth. It's packed. I'm up on the platform saying, God, what in the world? If there was a trap door, I'd hit the button. But I knew I couldn't. I knew I couldn't. Finally, my dad gets up. He announces me. I walk to the pulpit. I open my Bible. I put my outline next to it. I put my hands right where dad put his hands, as I thought you did. My dad didn't move around like I do. And he just stayed there the whole time. And I started preaching. I want to tell you, friend, I don't know how to explain this. I really don't. But it wasn't moments. All of a sudden, I realized somebody was with me in that pulpit. I knew it. It was all of a sudden like I was free. I walked over to this side of the church. Looked like a bunch of sinners on this side of her. And I started preaching. And I remember, I started preaching. And all of a sudden, I'd say something, thinking, whoa, that was really good. Where did that come from? That was great. And I remember coming over. I said, I've got to remember that next time. I come over here, bunch of sinners on this side, and I started going after this side, and I was loving every minute of it. Almost like an out-of-body experience, except I was in the body. It's like I'm carried along. I preached about 45 minutes, loved every minute of it, came to the very end, gave an invitation, and I am telling you, Something happened that's never happened in my life, or at least up to that point, it never happened. The altar was packed. People, I've known all my life, some of them with tears streaming down their face. And I will tell you something, friend, I wish I could tell you I learned it and never had to relearn it. I've had to relearn it a lot, because I've got a thicker head than a lot of people. But I will tell you, I began to open my eyes. You know what I began to open my eyes? You are absolutely bankrupt. But I am willing to show up if you trust me. in complete awareness of your need and obey. You know, if I'd never gotten the pulpit that night, God would never have met me. You know when He met me? When I got out of the boat. Do you know when you get out of the boat, you sometimes will be scared half to death? When you open your mouth to start to give the gospel to a friend that you've never given the gospel to, sure you'll be scared half to death. Getting out of the boat is not easy, but getting out of the boat is saying, God, I believe that I'm bankrupt and that you want me to do this, and I believe that you will strengthen me to do something I can never do unless you strengthen me to do it. And if you believe that God will enable you to walk on water, you will always get out of the boat. Always. I don't care who you are in this room, friends. You can get something out of God's Word. It does not matter who you are in this room. You can have a very powerful, effective prayer life. It does not matter who you are in this room. You can win people to Jesus Christ. You can give the gospel. You can be effective. But it all comes when you embrace your bankruptcy and depend on Jesus to enable you to do what He wants you to do and obey.