Jesus Walks On Water | Comfort Will Kill Your Calling | Pastor Kyle Alison

This message dives into the story of Jesus walking on water and what it really means to follow Him. Comfort will keep you in the boat, but your calling, your mission, and your miracle are found when you step out in faith. And once you’re out there, the real challenge begins—keeping your focus on Jesus when the waves start rising. This is a message about courage, distraction, and learning to fix your eyes on Him no matter what comes your way.

Transcript

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Well, for those that I haven't met yet, my name is Kyle. I'm the executive pastor here at Powerhouse. Pastor Ty is on the other side of Idaho right now in Reagan's, and he is able to bless another church and another community. He's bringing his word yee ha to them because how many people know we need more cowboys in Idaho? Amen. That's right. Well, Chelsea and I, back in 2015, we got married and we stepped right into ministry. And how many people know ministry can be really tough at times? And we found ourselves kind of at odds a couple years in with our with the lead pastor, and we just decided to do the the honoring thing and we stepped out of ministry and we moved to a town called Clement Falls, Oregon. How many people know where that is? Anybody? Yeah, several. We moved to Clement Falls, Oregon. It's down in Southern Ida, uh, Southern Oregon, that is, and uh we we lived there uh for the next oh like six or seven years of our life, uh basically since 2024. And um during that time, you know, I remember when we first got to Climate Falls, it was it was tough because we had just exited our first time in ministry and I didn't really have a ministry position, and we were like trying to figure out like what's going on, what's the plan? Like, God, what are you doing now? We we were dealing with some hurt, we were dealing with some mourning. We're like, God, what's going on? And he he brought us to this amazing church called Refuge City Church with Pastor Jim Boyd. They are to this day the people and the pastors that I have met there are friends, they're family. I love them dearly. And during this time, they helped us out in ways that uh I can't even describe today. They became my family, they became my friends, they brought me back into ministry. They got me and my family back on my feet, our feet. Our kids got into youth group and they got super involved in the youth group. My wife was involved in the church, I was helping with the live stream, and I was also running the young adult ministry at the time, and things were getting to a point that they were just so amazing. I was like, Man, can life get any better? Anyone ever had something like that where you're like, Man, this is a good season, right? And I found myself one Sunday, this was probably about 2022, 23, it was something, somewhere in there. And after the message, man, the Holy Spirit was moving in a crazy way that morning, and I had been live streaming everything, so I was in this back little like closet in the back of the sanctuary, and I told my boss, I'm like, hey, we're good, I'm shutting down the live stream, and I just it felt like a magnet was pulling me to the altar, and I just quickly, as quickly as possible, stopped the live stream, got down to the altar, and I was just down there. I was praying for people, people were prophesying. There were words of wisdom and words of knowledge, and it was this incredible, incredible just time with God, like you could just feel Him tangibly down at the altar. I remember praying for someone, and I heard God say, Hey, I got something for you too. So I said, Okay, so I remember taking a step back from the altar and I put my hands up and just to just receive whatever God's got for me. I said, Lord, what do you have? And he told me this. He told me one word, he said, go. I said, Lord, I don't want to go. This place feels good. I love this church, I love the area that I live in. I don't want to, I don't want to go. He told me, go. Here's my main point today. Following Jesus requires us to step out of our comfort zone and keep our eyes focused on him. Because here's the bottom line: when you're following Jesus, and I'm in really following Jesus, there will always come a moment where you have to step out. We have to step out of what feels comfortable, with what feels convenient, with what's consistent in your life, or eventually you'll lose it. See, following Jesus requires us to step out of our comfort zone and keep our eyes focused on him. For those who are new to the church, new to God, and I tell you, you're you're in for one heck of a journey. See, following God means stepping into this unknown. It means going places that you never planned on going, doing things that you never thought you would ever do, and trusting Him in ways that right now seem impossible. And if we're honest, stepping into the unknown, going places that you don't have a plan can sometimes be scary. And it probably will be scary, I'll be honest. But here's the thing: Jesus never promised it wouldn't be, he just promised that he would never what? Leave you. He'd always stay right there by your side. And how many people will agree that no matter you're if you're following Jesus or not, life's gonna throw some crap at you, right? It's gonna get hard at times. But I, for one, have followed Jesus long enough that I know I would much rather follow him in the tough times than deal with the tough times without him. You know, when you follow Jesus, you step into this life where all of a sudden the impossible becomes possible, where lives start being transformed, where hearts that you never thought would be healed starts getting healed. Where things that you thought was dead, relationships, dreams, passions you thought was dead, they start coming back to life and begin to walk with God in a new level of faith that you never thought you could as you watch God do things you never thought could ever happen. My passage today, if you have your Bibles, you can turn with me to Matthew chapter 14. Matthew 14, and we're gonna start in verse 23. Says this after sending them home, Jesus went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land because a strong wind had risen and they were fighting heavy waves. Quick context: the the disciples they were on the Sea of Galilee. And the problem with the Sea of Galilee is it's 8,000 feet below sea level. So what you get is you get this strong desert wind coming from one area, and then on the other side there's a mountain range going up 7,000 feet. So you get this cold air. I mean, people know when hot and cold mixes, it makes pretty bad storms. So they're in one of these storms right now, and it says about three o'clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. Three o'clock in the morning, the fourth watch of the night. In other words, Jesus had probably been praying six to eight hours. They might have been fighting the storm for five, six hours. I wonder what he was praying about. Going on, it says, When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, It's a ghost. But Jesus spoke to them at once. Don't be afraid, he said, Take courage, I am here. Then Peter called to him, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come to you walking on the water. Yes, come, Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. And when he saw the strong winds and the waves, he was terrified and began to seek. You have so little faith, Jesus said. Why did you doubt me? Let's pray. Lord, I just pray for this message right here. And I pray for every person that we may have ears open, pray against distractions. And Lord, just hearts ready to receive whatever you have for us. Challenge us, Lord, encourage us, convict us. But no matter what, may we leave difference than how we came in Jesus' name. Amen. My first of two points is this if you stay in the boat, you will keep your comfort, but you will miss Jesus. You will keep your comfort, but you will miss Jesus. Peter says, Hey, Jesus, if it's you, call me to come to you, and I will come walking on water. And Jesus answered with one word. He said, Come. You know, I thought it was interesting that this word is very similar to the word that God gave me a few years ago when he said, Go. See, the two things have a lot in common. They require action and they require movement. And with this command, Peter has a choice. First choice, he can stay in the boat. He can stay where it's somewhat safe, where it feels familiar. He knows the boat. He used to be a fisherman. He's surrounded by the other 12 disciples, or he can step out and he can step into the storm. And he can step into the waves, into the unknown, not having any idea what was about to happen. Remember, before Jesus did it, no one had walked on water before. God had parted the waters a bunch, but no one had walked over them into the unknown and towards Jesus. Peter had a choice. Do I choose comfort or do I go where Jesus is? Today, we each of us have a same choice. We can stay in our comfort zones, stay in the place that the world says this is natural, or trust Jesus enough to say, I will follow you wherever you take me, even to my death. You know, can I tell you today that each person here, after you have accepted Jesus as Lord, you have been given a calling on your life. You've been given a calling to serve, you've been given a calling to love, you've been given a calling to share the gospel message and to follow Jesus with all your heart. And hear me, your calling is not in the boat. Your future that you want is not in the boat. The things you're praying about is not in the boat. They're where Jesus at, and he's on the water. You know, I talked about movement a minute ago. Faith will always require movement. Someone say movement. See, faith requires us to step out of what we can control and trust where Jesus is leading us. Paul reinforces this in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7, where he says, We live by believing and not by seeing. See, following Jesus will always be about surrendering our will and our calling for his will, his purpose, him at the wheel, not us. See, everything happens on the water. Why? Because Jesus is on the water. Let me ask you today, what's waiting for you on the water? I ask this because I think a lot of people will spend their entire lives too afraid to step out of the boat, yet praying for miracles, praying for answers to prayer, praying for new purpose, visions, dreams. All the while God's answered them. But they're just right outside of the boat. Are you willing to step out today? God called me and my wife to go. Fast forward about two years. How many people know that sometimes God gives you the plan, but he doesn't give you the timeline, right? Isn't that just amazing when God's like, yeah, I want you to do this, but I'm not gonna tell you when you're gonna do it? So fast forward about a year and a half or so, and I'm feeling this calling that God says, now I want you to go now. I said, Okay, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to be an associate pastor? And I started looking at the ways that I could be an associate pastor, and God said, No, I'm not calling you to be an associate pastor. I want you to be a lead pastor. That's it. Well, here's the thing, God. Anybody ever explained something to God? Like, I'm here and the lead pastor is there. There's like three steps that I should be doing first before I get there. How many people know that God doesn't call the qualified? He qualifies the called, right? And so God says, Hey, if I tell you to do this, I'm gonna give you what you need to do this. So I say, okay. So I step into this season where I'm applying for churches and I apply for six churches altogether. A couple of them don't even respond. They probably saw my resume and was like, nope. And I never heard anything. Another church has called and said, Thanks, we kind of found someone. And then a couple churches started reaching out. One in particular reached out really, really quickly. They said, Hey, can we interview? Yes, we go through the interview. It was a great interview. Then we start talking the next few days and the next week. And every time we're talking, like everything just seems to line up. They're really interested in us, we're interested in them. And they get to a point that they're like, Hey, we want you to come out and we want you to preach so we can vote on you. Because we want you to be our next lead pastor. Said, Are you sure? Like, yeah, okay. So I say yes, and fast forward a couple weeks, me and my wife we head up to Northwest uh Oregon. It's about an hour outside of Astoria, and I preach my message. It's actually a very similar message, same passage as what I'm preaching here. It's just the second point's very different. And I preach and I get done. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go in this other room because it'd be awkward if you're like voting on me and I'm in the room, right? So I go in this other room and I wait, and I remember asking the Lord, He said, Lord, you have opened up every single door. This makes sense. We open one more door. Will you make it a unanimous vote if you want it to be a yes? And in Oregon, that doesn't happen very, very often. You know, for for those in Idaho, I Oregon's like a third world country, okay? So it doesn't happen very often to get a unanimous vote. But I'm like, Lord, if you could do this one thing for me, I don't want to be testing you. I I'm just like, can you I'm putting out one more fleece? And the vote comes back, and the woman comes into the room and she's got tears in her eyes, and she said, they voted you yes. And before I said another word, she says it was unanimous. Okay, Lord, we're doing this together. We're walking through this together. So the next two weeks was terrifying because we have to go home and pack everything. And I'm like waiting for the phone call, like, hey, we changed our mind. You know, this was a bad idea. And but the phone call never came. So I get there to this church, and I'm like, God, what do I do? What now? And he tells me, Can you trust me on Monday? Yes. So I trust him for Monday. And I said, What about Tuesday? He said, Eh, that's another day, another problem. So I trust him on Monday. Tuesday comes along. I say, God, what do you want me to do? And he said, Will you trust me today? I said, Yes. And every day, God didn't give me more than I needed. He gave me just enough. And he said, Every day, would you trust me? And we did things that the church had never done. We got unconventional, we got weird, and we started doing stuff that God told me to do. Like we ended up, the word traditional ended up becoming a curse word in the church because we just started doing stuff that God wanted us to do and we started growing. And it wasn't because of me and it wasn't because of Chelsea, because we're just a couple dumb pastors just doing stuff, but God started growing us. And we went in 15 months from 80 people to over 220 people. We went from seven kids to 45 kids. We went from just a handful in youth group to over 25 kids in youth group. We got to the point that the community knew us so well that they would reach out to us constantly. We had the superintendents of the entire like school district of the area calling me when there was like a death in the faculty to have me come hang out in their library and pray for kids on the campus who needed consoling and needed counseling. How many people know in Oregon that doesn't happen? God was moving, He was moving in mighty and powerful waves. And can I tell you, we were walking on the water with him. See, those things didn't happen because my wife and I played it safe, or we were just really smart. They happened because we trusted God enough to step out one step at a time. See, here's what I learned over the last 15 months. I've learned many things, but here's one of them. God does not do his greatest work in the places where we are the most comfortable. He does his greatest work in the places where we have to trust him the most. Here's the thing about stepping out, though. A lot of people think that's the big climax of the story, but it's just the beginning. Brings me to my second point, my last point today. Staying focused on Jesus is what sustains your story on the water. Verse 29 says, So Peter went over the side of the boat and he walked on water toward Jesus. So can we just pause there for a second? Because a lot of times we look at this story and we see Peter and we want to throw some crap on Peter because oh, he took his eyes off of Jesus, he started sinking, and he was like, Oh, help me, help me. And we're like, man, he just messed up. He could have kept just walking on water all day long. But how many people know that when Jesus called 12 disciples in the boat, he said, Come, how many showed up? One. 12 heard the call, one responded to it. Peter, let me tell you this there will always be people who will criticize you for trusting God and stepping into your calling. They'll be quick to point out when you stumble, when you make a mistake, but they're always going to be criticizing you from the safety of the boats. So don't let someone who's never stepped out of the boat judge you for walking on water. Verse 30 says, But when he, Peter, saw the strong wind in the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. Here's the thing it's not the waves that took Peter out, it was his focus. Because we see that for hours the storm was there. It's not like the environments didn't change. The waves were there, the wind was there. He knew what he was stepping into. The difference was where Peter was looking. Here's the key: as long as his eyes were focused on Jesus, he walked in the impossible. Someone say impossible. See that the moment that his focus shifted from Jesus to what he perceived as a threat, he began to sink. And that's a tension that we live in every single day when we're walking with Jesus. Because stepping out of the boat is sometimes not the hardest part. Sometimes staying out on the water is. They become saved and they're fired up for Jesus, and they're like, I'm gonna stop smoking and stop drinking. I'm gonna shift my life around. I'm gonna do all this stuff, and I'm going to make myself holy and sanctify before the Lord. But the problem is they're doing it themselves. They're relying on their own ability, their own might, their own willpower. But how many people know we're not supposed to do it by ourselves? We're not sustained. By our own willpower, we're sustained by our focus on Jesus. It's through his strength that we are able to overcome. See, when our eyes are on Jesus, that's when our faith grows because he's in control. But when our eyes shift to the fear, that's when doubt starts to take over. And the enemy knows this. That's why 1 Peter 5.8 talks about him as a roaring lion who's prowling looking for someone to devour. You know, sometimes he can't stop you from stepping out of the boat, but he can throw some waves at you to try to back get you back into it. Another way he attacks is turning our loved ones into waves. You know, I said that it was about 15 months at the church, everything was going amazing. And 15 months led us to this last November where I actually came and visited this church. And uh I was here with Pastor Jeremy. He was preaching, and that weekend we were going to Texas for a pastor's retreat. And the pastor's retreat was awesome. It's in Texas, so we're having like brisket, break, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you know what I'm talking about. And it was just a good, good time. And then the second day hits, and I start getting these text messages from board members and another pastor who was on staff. And these text messages are coming back and they're out of nowhere and they're rude and they're inflammatory. And I'm like, where are these coming from? They're like, how dare you? And I'm like, how dare I? What? Like, I'm in Texas. I don't know what you want from me. And I would try to call them, and guess what they do? Dodging my calls, right? You can text, but you can't pick up the phone. And I'm like, at this point, there's nothing I can do. So let me just wait. I'm just gonna get home and we'll talk it out. So I get home on a Wednesday night. It all started on Monday. Get home on Wednesday and try to meet with some people on Thursday, but they don't want to meet. It's like, oh, you really wanted to respond on Monday, but you don't want to talk on Thursday. Now I'm here. What's going on? And they don't want to meet. I'm like, okay, well, you know what? Let's put it off. I need to focus on my sermon, make sure everything's ready for the weekend. Maybe they just got emotional and we'll just we'll talk as soon as I see them. So I remember spending some time in prayer over Friday and Saturday, and I was working on my sermon, finishing stuff up like I usually do. And I get this text from a board member, one of the board members that had originally texted me, and he texted the entire board, with me included, and he said, Hey, there's some stuff that seemed really serious. We as a board need to get together and talk about this. Oh, well, clearly this is more important, probably important enough to have had a face-to-face. But again, he didn't want to talk to me. So fast forward to the to the following week. And I remember coming into the meeting, having no idea what was happening, what was going on. And they show up with this stack of papers that was like seven, eight pages deep, and like they're written. I'm talking like no double spaced, single spaced, and it's just a lot of stuff. And they start going down this list of stuff that supposedly I'd done, supposedly things that I had said, and I'm listening to it, and I'm like, this is not only false, but like it's so false that I could use my our church's Facebook account to show pictures proving how wrong you are. Like it was just so blatant lies. And then there was stuff in there that was like things you did this, and we think you actually did it for this reason. And it was like the worst case scenario. And it's like, why would I be this vindictive? And it was just stuff that I couldn't logically defend because it didn't logically make sense. You guys ever been there in life? I got to this point that I'm like, I feel like they just want me gone. And it wasn't the whole board, it was two people. But they were able to convince the rest of the board. And it got to the few weeks later, the district tried to get involved, and the district just came back and said, honestly, we just we think this is just a coup. We we don't have another word to explain it. We think they've just got to a point that they decided they were losing control, and they're trying to put this other person in charge instead so they can hold on to control. How many people know that that control is something that's destroying the American Church Day? So I had a choice. Do I stay and fight it? Do I let the church decide and it come to a boat that I probably would have won? But then at what cost do I divide the church? Do I let the momentum be absolutely destroyed and killed with all this stuff coming out? People, you know how rumors start spreading. I just got to a point and I said, you know what? For the sake of the church, for the sake, more importantly, of my family and my two daughters, we're just gonna leave. We'll let you take it over. Knowing that the church would collapse. I hoped it wouldn't, but looking at it now, just a few months later, it has. It's completely collapsed. There's no momentum, there's no influence. Frankly, it's I don't even want to call it a church. It's a country club. This is one thing that I've thought about through all of this that's going on. Some of the greatest opposition you will ever face will come after you obey God. See, sometimes the story, sometimes the storm is confirmation. Someone say confirmation for me that you've stepped exactly where he called you to step. You know, I spent weeks when I got here in December and January wondering why God allowed that to happen. Why did he let the storm? Like he saw the momentum, he saw lives being changed. Why would he let something that had no foundation in truth derail everything good that was coming? Because yeah, me and my family were victims in the situation, but what about the other 140, 180 people that no longer call that church home because they had to leave because of the toxicity? They're all victims too. Why would you let that happen? Why would you let them win? God, why would you allow them to destroy all everything that was being built? Was it me? Did I mess up? Did I take my eyes off of you even for a second? And tell you, I don't have all the answers, but I do have one thing that God has confirmed to me. At one point, me and those other three men that betrayed me, we were walking on water, and we were seeing lives transformed, and we were walking towards Jesus. And at some point, they got distracted by a wave. They got distracted by lies of the enemy and they lost their footing and they found themselves back in the boat. They wanted me back in the boat, but I wasn't there. Verse 31 says, as Peter began to sink, that immediately Jesus reached out and caught Peter. I love that word immediately. Because it shows that Jesus was watching him. It shows that Jesus knew him, knew that he'd probably mess up. And he was there ready. Ready to make sure Peter didn't drown, that he wouldn't disappear beneath the waves. Why? Because Jesus will never leave you. I don't care how bad the storm is, I don't care how bad your footing gets, I don't care how scared you get, Jesus will never leave you. And I know in this season more than any, he's actually drawn closer to me. I've had more God moments in the last three months than I think I have my entire life. Because he's drawing me close because of the storm. I say today, if you're going through a storm, if you're having a hard time, whatever it is, whether you're here or online, same can be true for you today. You know what I love about Jesus? I love that no matter if we stumble, no matter if we lose sight of him, no matter if we mess up, he's not seeking our perfection. He's not there to condemn us, make fun of us, or say, well, you had a shot and walk away. Because the goal is never perfection, the goal is staying on the water with Jesus. Today I have two questions for you to close. Maybe you're here and you're like, man, this Jesus sounds amazing. But I've never stepped on the water with Jesus, and maybe you've never even gone on the boat because you don't have a relationship with him. You've never trusted him in that way. Maybe this is your first time even hearing the name of Jesus. Or maybe you grew up in the church and you knew Jesus, but you didn't know Jesus. And now you want to change your life around. I say this is going to be that moment. With every head bowed and eyes closed, no one's looking around. I just want this between you and him. Maybe you've never truly surrendered to him. Maybe you've drifted. Maybe your focus has been on everything else but him. I'll tell you today, Jesus is calling you back. He's calling you out on the water today. And if that's you, and if you're ready to put your trust in him, to surrender your life to him, to fix your eyes and your focus on Jesus today and accept Jesus as Lord, whether it be the first time or to renew that confirmation. If that's you today, will you just raise your hands and say, Yes, Lord, I accept you. Will everyone repeat this prayer with me today? Jesus, I give you my life. I believe you died for me and that you rose again. Forgive me my sin. Make me new. I choose to follow you. I trust you as my savior and I make you my Lord. From this day forward, I follow you. Jesus' name, amen. Lastly, here's the reality for the rest of us. At some point, you chose to follow him. You chose to step out of the boat out into the scary unknown. But the world has gotten the best of you. And the waves have been distracting you, and you find yourself in a place where you've taken your focus off of Jesus. Here's my last question: Where has your focus drifted today? Where is your attention right now? Did the world throw work at you? And you're stressed out about everything that's going on, that you're so focused on that? Is it finances and money? Is it your health and some kind of diagnosis that you've been praying about and you're worried about? Is it a relationship that's broken down? Where are your eyes focused on? Are you ready to fix your eyes back on Jesus? If that's you today. And if you know your focus has drifted, you feel like you're sinking and you're ready to realign yourself back with Him, will you just raise your hand so I can pray for you today? Lord, I just thank you. Pray you see every person here, every hand raised. Lord, I just pray against the storm. Lord, I pray that you remind us and encourage us that you are in control of all things, that the winds and the waves had no power over you. Lord, I just pray that we trust in you, that we follow you, Lord, that we keep our eyes focused on you, that the enemy will no longer have control over us, that though the ways will continue to come, may they not be distracting. And Lord, we just thank you that no matter what, no matter if we stumble, no matter what we're going through today, you stay by our side. And you're there to walk with us and guide us through the storm. Lord, we give you praise and we thank you for the word, and we thank you for your example in Jesus' name. Amen.