"Water Walker or Boat Potato?”  WOW#2

February 28, 2010

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Ah, this is the life.

What are you all looking at?  Isn’t this what you pay me for?  By the way- anybody from the SPRC out there?  This reminds me I was going to ask for a more comfortable backrest here.  When I take my nap, I kind of slide down and it hurts right across there.  Oh well, I guess it’s better than working for a living.

What’s wrong with you people?  Haven’t you ever seen your pastor ready to take on the world for Jesus Christ?  I’ve always told you if you have a crisis, just leave a note under my pillow and I’ll get to it.

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You mean that’s not what you expect of your pastor?  You expect something more?  Like what?  <<<   >>>  But I’d have to get out of my boat to do that!!  You can’t be serious!  You want me to get out my boat?

Let’s think this through together.

The Disciples are all on the sea and the storm comes up.  The boat is rocked back and forth, up and down.  Waves bigger than they have ever seen.  Even with the most experienced sailors on board, the boat will surely sink . . .  but then. .. HOPE appears.  JESUS HIMSELF  is suddenly available walking toward them on the water!

At this point, the story turns to focuses on Simon Peter who gets up to walk on the water. Let’s think about the other 11 disciples though.  John Ortberg says, “You think Simon Peter was a failure because he started to sink?  I think there were 11 bigger failures sitting in the boat.”

Why didn’t all the disciples get up and walk on the water.  As someone asked in the study last Wednesday, why didn’t the others get up and say, “I want some of that waterwalking too!”

1.      One reason might be Skepticism -Let’s not get too excited here.  That can’t really be Jesus.  We all know the water is at least 30 feet deep there is no way that’s him.

2.      Fear Perhaps.  Let’s not all jump out at once.  You know he just might drown out there.  We really should let Peter take a test walk here.  If he survives then you can try it.  I’ll wait here in my nice safe boat until 3 or 4 of you have escaped this way, then I’ll think about following.

3.      Perhaps they were good Delegators.  “Peter you walk on out there and Get Jesus.  There’s no use all of us ruining our shoes or maybe even dying.  You go get Jesus and bring him to the rest of us.”

4.      Perhaps they were like the Israelites who said, “It would have been better to be slaves in Egypt than to die of thirst in the desert.”  Maybe the 11 were saying, “it is better to be shipwrecked here than to drown out there!"

5.      Maybe there was someone who said, I was the one that got my feet wet pushing us away from shore.  It’s someone else’s turn now.

6.      Maybe there was even someone who said, “You know what?  It’s 4am and this is my only day to sleep in.  I’m not getting up to walk on the water.

7.      Maybe there was a disciple who said I can be just as good a sailor staying in the boat as he can walking around on the water.

8.      Maybe there was a disciple who said, don’t we hire someone or have a committee to do that so we don’t have to?

Oh, Oh, I think I just crossed the line from preaching to meddling didn’t I, and I’ve barely started this morning.

There were 11 boat potatoes sitting in the boat watching Peter walk on the water.  There were probably 20 different and excuses they didn’t get out themselves.  And that’s all they were, excuses.

xxxxx

Today’s message is really pretty simple.  Our statistics are about the same as most other churches.

First a couple of provisos:

1)      Worship attendance is not the only measure of a person’s faith or even their level of activity in the church.  I know that.  But it is generally a pretty good indicator.

2)      Not everyone who is here signs in on the fellowship pads.  I know that too, but most do.

3)      Finally I do not see veging out or being a couch potato as a bad thing.  It is merely descriptive.  If you end up feeling as if I am calling you some kind of potato, please don’t be offended.  Accept it as a loving challenge to move one step closer to Jesus.

Ok ARE YOU READY?

 Of 360 members in the congregation, 150 or roughly half signed in to worship at least once last year.  The rest sat at home and we might lovingly refer to them as Sunday morning couch potatoes.slide 1

Of the 150 that signed in to worship, 75 came at least once a month.  The other half well we can’t call them couch potatoes because they came . . .  we might call pew potatoes.  slide 2

Of the 75--- 40 or again about half, came twice a month or more, the other half made a good effort and maybe we call them boat potatoes slide 3

No matter how you look at it, in any organization-- and the church is no different 90% of the work, 90% of the ideas, 90 % of the risk, 90% of the funding, 90% of the success can be attributed to 10% of the people.  In other words 90% of the water walking is done by 10% of the Christians.  Hmm.. 11 in the boat one on the water.  Roughly speaking that was even true back in Jesus day wasn’t it.  And you know what?  There was no condemnation no judgment.  Notice- when Jesus got into the boat he didn’t scold the 11 for not getting out of the boat.  He calmed the storm and let them worship him.

I think the 11 in the boat did the best they could at that time.  Given another opportunity the next day, I am pretty sure there would be more takers.  And I am sure that today’s couch potatoes and pew potatoes and boat potatoes have done the best they can so far.  So far.  But today is a new day and I want to challenge them to take one step closer to Jesus.  One step closer to water walking.

You can break down statistics any way you want.  You might use giving, or participation in service and outreach, or any other number you want to use.  We can spend all day talking about why we are, where we are.  But the numbers and excuses are really not important.  The important thing is not the statistics, not the excuses, not the mistakes you have made, not the problems you have had, but where you are today personally in the continuum between couch potato to water walker.  slide 4

Don’t just look at your attendance.  Don’t just look at whether you are on a committee or not.  Don’t measure it by whether you pray do your morning devotions.  Those are all external things.  Look into your heart.  Look at your relationship with Jesus.  Look at your trust in Jesus.  Look at your faith.  Where are you between couch potato and water walker?  Where are you between sofa sailor and water walker?  Don’t think about anyone else.  Where are you in your faith walk with Jesus? 

Where are you today and do you want to move one step closer to Jesus?

Where are you on the continuum and are you willing to move one step closer to Jesus?

slide 5Last week I had you get up and move one pew closer to the front.  I’m not going to do that this week.  In part because I value my job.  But mostly because it isn’t what happens on the outside that matters.  Today, instead of moving your body closer to the front of the church, I am going to ask you to move your heart one step closer to Jesus.

Decide on something simple right now.  Something simple you can do this week that might bring you closer to Jesus.  It might be regular prayer; it might be devotions or scripture reading.  It might be showing God’s love to someone who is sick or grieving, it might be forgiving someone or asking forgiveness. .  It might be participating in the study when you hadn’t planned to.  It might be inviting someone to church.  It might be fasting, or practicing silence, or reading an inspirational book.  It might be anything you think is going to bring you a little closer to Jesus.  Don’t worry about making it hard yet.  We’ll get there.  Just decide on something that will help you to take one step closer to Jesus this week.  And then do it.  You’ll never walk on water if you don’t start with the small steps.

Amen