Beyond the Boat - Pastor Preston Whiteman - August 09, 2026

Pastor Preston Whiteman message for Sunday August 09, 2026. 

Welcome to the Northwest Church of the Nazarene podcast, where we share the heart of our church’s mission: discovering and engaging in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ through inspired worship and intentional ministry. Each episode brings you sermons, insights, and messages that challenge and encourage spiritual growth. Whether you are part of our diverse, multicultural church family, or listening in for the first time, you’ll find a community that loves Jesus and welcomes everyone with open arms. Join us online at nwnaz.org or in person in Columbus Ohio, as we journey together toward a deeper, more meaningful relationship with Jesus and each other. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Every Sunday at Northwest Church of the Desert West Ohio, our congregation is challenged to grow spiritually. This podcast shares discernment, insights, and messages that encourage our congregation to mature spiritually.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

You know, moving can be a very, very exhausting thing and can take your focus off other things as well. I can tell you that because I just moved yesterday again to Canal Winchester. But busyness in life is everywhere, and we can lose focus of what's in front of us. And it's interesting how the human brain works with focus. If you look at how we focus and become selective with our focus, uh it's crazy what we can miss. There's a study that was done, I believe it was 1999. These two guys filmed the video with six people in a room. Uh and the video itself wasn't the study. What the study was was the reaction to the video itself. But these people in this room, there were three people with white shirts and two people with black shirts. They were in front of these elevators, and in between the elevators there were S's marked in the walls. It's kind of a weird room. But what the goal of the video was is to have these people count how many times the people in the white shirts pass basketballs back and forth to each other. Now the thing is they're moving around, they're dribbling, they'll pick up the basketball, they'll throw it to each other, they pass it back and forth, and the people in the back shirts are doing the same thing. This goes on for about like a minute at most. And so your goal when watching the video is to count how many times it's passed, and it's passed 15 times. But afterwards, they revealed that 50% of people missed something that went on during the video. Now I said that there were six people in the video, and there are. There's three people in white shirts, two people in black shirts, but in the middle of the video, there's a person who walks through in a gorilla costume and pounds their chest in the middle of the group, and 50% of people could not see that gorilla costume, or could not see the person in the gorilla costume, because they were so selectively focused on this one task they were given that everything else disappeared from their mind, basically. They were so focused on those 15 passes that the gorilla costume never registered in their mind in the first place. So it's amazing what the human mind can drown out to a degree. And I I've used this to my own amusement at points on mission trips and other trips that I've gone on with churches and that kind of stuff, where I'll sometimes take clothespins, and I call it the clothespin game, and I'm sure other people have played it. But I take clothespins and I find people with loose clothing in my group and try to stick it on their clothes on that loose clothing, and hopefully they'd never notice until someone points it out that they have a clothespin sticker on them. Because they're so focused on whatever they're doing at that time. They're maybe walking somewhere and I'll just clip it on. Usually looser garments of clothing are the best, uh, but it's funnier when it's on a hat or something like that, when it's right in front of them and they still don't notice. Because sometimes in that game, the better placement is more obvious. Uh but it's it's sort of a fun game that points out that humans aren't always as observant as we like to think we are. We're not these multitaskers who can notice everything. We are very usually one-task oriented, and when we spread our mind out to multiple different tasks, it usually diminishes the return in value. There's not always the best return in value sometimes when we always focus on one thing. There's sometimes when we focus on something negative when we are living in a lot of good. Like sometimes when something goes sour in an event, say you are upset at your spouse or upset at a friend whenever they say a comment or say something, and you just let that ruin the whole day. It could be a wonderful day, it could be a birthday party, it could be a celebration, but you focus so heavily on that one thing, it ruins everything else in your mind. Though it could be a joyous and wonderful occasion, it could ruin that one thing for you. The thing is, we as Christians, I feel that we do that often. I feel like we do that at points in which we let things be ruined or we don't focus on what we should. Because of course, sometimes we focus and hyperfocus on something that is an excellent choice. Sometimes there's a project you just need to get done around the house or done somewhere, and you just focus directly on it. You don't think about anything else, you don't multitask, and that task gets done pretty quickly, or the task gets done efficiently and well, and you can be proud of the work that you've done. Now, I feel like similar to Matthew 14, 22 through 33, it's a story about Peter stepping out of the boat. Peter stepped out of the boat to meet Jesus in the water, but he doesn't fully keep his eyes on Jesus in that moment. And we're gonna go ahead and read about that right now. So, in this story, it starts out immediately, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. After he dismissed them, he went up to a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from the land, buffed by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them, Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid. Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he saw the water the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You of little faith, he said, why did you doubt? When they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. And I'd like to bring it back to the boat itself. Now, most of the disciples, not most, but a good chunk of the disciples were fishermen. So they probably were not afraid of a little bit of wind on a boat. This is their profession. They may have been a little bit more afraid because they had twelve people in a boat. I couldn't imagine how I'd feel with twelve people crammed in a boat like that on turbulent water, but this wasn't like a whole sea, like you would think of the ocean. This is a smaller lake-ish size body of water, because the sea of Galilee is Galilee is closer to a lake than an actual full sea. Because you could see across it. And so Peter and the rest of the disciples probably were not too afraid to be on some bumpy water as they were crossing across. And Peter, we know, could also swim. Peter, uh, in the book of John, it talks about how Peter takes off his outer garments when they see Jesus on the beach. He takes off his outer garments, wraps it around him, and swims into the water and swims across. So when we talk about Jesus falling into the water, it's probably because he's terrified to tread this bumpy of water. That kind of tells us how scary it might be. Because we know that Peter can swim. We know that he can swim well because he reaches Jesus on the shore, hopping out of a boat. Instead of choosing to return the boat, he hops out and gets to it. So he can get in and out of boats, he can swim well. So this is a terrifying bit of wind and water. It's probably more of a thrashing of a boat than just a simple bump in the boat. And so one thing that I think is a little bit of foreshadowing for how the disciples sort of believe in Jesus, possibly, is when you look at them reacting to Jesus in the water, they think it's a ghost. I don't know if they necessarily register in their minds that it's Jesus, but to see a person, a being walking on water, it's a miracle in the first place, obviously, but they cannot register in their minds at the immediate moment that it is possibly an alive Jesus walking on water. They think it's a ghost in the first place, which could foreshadow, as I say, you know, to the crucifixion and the lack of belief in that of a resurrection to a degree. But with that being beside the point, you've got to look at how the situation was. Peter was in this boat, he's a fisherman himself, he probably isn't afraid to swim in water, but this is rough water. And so, even in this circumstances, they see Jesus, he says, Don't be afraid. He speaks into existence, don't be afraid. They relax. And so Peter then says, Lord, if you tell me to come out into this water, I will join you. And the Lord says, Peter, come on to the water. And Peter, of course, walks on water, much as Jesus was. Now, Jesus obviously covered a large, much larger distance of water if he walked from the shore all the way up to their boat, because they've been floating in water for a bit at that point. But Peter gets on the water and he is distracted by the water eventually as he's getting closer to Jesus, which I find kind of amazing because you're that close to Jesus in this miracle in which you're walking in water, Jesus is walking in water. But the thing he's focusing on when he gets closer to Jesus is the fact that the winds and waves are thrashing around a little bit. If you're doing this miraculous thing and the miracle is happening right in front of you, I feel like you'd be, and you're participating in the miracle, I feel like you'd be much more focused on that. Your attention would be much more on what's happening right in front of you, what's happening with you, what's happening with Jesus. But his mind still went to some fear. And that's natural. Fear is not something that we should eliminate entirely in our minds at points. Not saying that we should never, I mean, I'm saying there should be some fear because like I have a healthy fear of not touching a hot stove. There's healthy fear, but then there's also a fear that is a doubtful fear of Jesus in that moment, which Peter had. Which is a contradiction in itself too a little bit. He was contradicting himself in his own mind because whenever Peter started to sink in that water, whenever he was afraid of being protected from the winds and the waves, when he was afraid that it was going to hurt him, he started to sink. So he was afraid that Jesus wasn't going to protect him in that moment. But whenever he starts to sink, he calls out to Jesus to save him. In that moment where he was safe, he got fearful of not being safe. And then when he starts to sink, he asks the Lord to save him and keep him safe. So Jesus brings it back to the boat. So there's a fear, and there's use for fear, but there's also a fear that you can sometimes get when you focus on the wrong thing. Now, one of my favorite books that I've read of recent is John Mark Comer's Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. And it's a fantastic book. It's talking about how we should be focusing more on Jesus by eliminating all the extra things that we put in our lives to make us busy. And I think a fantastic quote from the book is Corey Tennenbaum once said that if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy. There's truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the same exact effect. They cut you off from connection to God. They cut you off from other people, and they cut you off from your very own soul. See, when you're busy and you focus on everything around you, and you focus on the next task that isn't Jesus related, when you focus and don't put Jesus in that focus when you're going to the next thing. Sometimes you're just focused on the task rather than you. Sometimes you're just going and being busy to fill the void. Sometimes you're just being busy to push everything else out. I know in my own life that I've made myself so busy to not confront things that I need to in my own life, to avoid that, to go around it. I've put those pla things in place as a roadblock to not confront the thing that I need to. So I've gone around them using busyness. And it's not so much a purposeful, I'm cutting off Jesus, but it's I need to focus on this first before I get to Jesus. Whereas we could focus on that and Jesus. I know I said we're not great multitaskers, but still, Jesus can help guide us if we focus towards him. If we put our minds to Jesus, then he will redirect us. He will get us to where we need to go. And Jesus doesn't say, you have no faith. You have no faith at all. He says you have little faith, which I'd like to point out, with little faith, Peter managed to walk on water. I think that's an impressive thing. Just with a little faith, he was still able to walk on water. And it talks, of course, in the Bible how a mustard seed of faith can move a mountain. But in that moment, with little faith, Peter's able to walk on water, but little faith also in Jesus and his ability to protect him is able to get him on that water. But busyness gets us to forget about Christ or forget about thinking about Christ. Not so much forget about him entirely, but when I'm super busy, when I'm preoccupied with a task, I'm thinking about that task. I'm not thinking about what would Jesus do to do in this task. I'm not sitting back, thinking, relaxing, thinking about the next thing. I'm thinking about that task. And when you no longer think about Jesus or how Jesus would want us to act, then we're much more susceptible or susceptible to sinning. Because if we aren't reflecting on what Jesus would do, then we aren't worshiping him. When we're not thinking about Jesus, how he would act in this situation, then we're not going to follow his will. What God wants for us is to follow his will. But when we're following our own will, when we're following busyness and we're not following his will for his kingdom, which is a much more reflective, quiet, and contemplative thinking, it's not fast to act. It's not quick to make an action. And that's shown even in this passage. When you look at Jesus, when he dismisses the crowds, he doesn't go to go teach another lesson immediately. What he does is he goes up to a mountain by himself. He secludes himself. Which is interesting because busyness itself can be isolating, but self-isolating can be refreshing, it can be renewing, it can be recharging, and it can bring new life. Whereas isolation and busyness can tear you down because maybe you haven't done enough. Maybe you haven't gotten to the point you want to be. Maybe you can look at somebody else's busyness and say, that person is achieving more than me. I need to be more busy to get towards them. And I think one of the most common answers, other than good, for the question of, Have you been recently? is I've been busy. I think that's the second most common answer that I've heard. So it's a busyness epidemic that happens in America today, or at least an American society that I've received. So busyness will draw us away from God. So what can we do about it? I think the best remedy for it is to slow down. When we look at Jesus, when we look at God, when we look at what he wants for us, he doesn't want us to fill our lives with everything all the time. He doesn't want us to do one thing after another after another after another. He wants us to take time by ourselves to focus on God. He took 40 days in the wilderness fasting to focus directly on God right before his ministry. Before his ministry, he had to recharge, he had to be by himself, he had to focus solely on God before doing the ministry itself. He didn't do the ministry, then focus on God afterwards after realizing I forgot to focus on God. He intentionally set aside time, he intentionally made time, he made it so it was separate from the rest of it. He made it holy, he separated it. And so I think God would want us to absolutely separate time every single time we are about to do something for him, whether that's time in the morning to pray about what do I need to do when I'm at work, what do I need to do when I'm meeting with this person for lunch? What do I need to do at dinner time with this person? Or what do I need to do while I'm out gardening? Jesus, I feel like, would want us to separate that time. Because Jesus role modeled that every single time. He pretty much did something big like this, an American, and other times. He is very purposeful about that separation, that self-isolation that brought life. And I think that it is extremely interesting when we look at what we can do in self-isolation, such as reading the Bible. Reading the Bible can bring life and give us direction. And I also think one important thing that we should do is some deep breathing in it. I think it is fascinating that the God of the universe, who sculpted us out of the dirt, out of mud, that He gave us life through breathing breath into our nostrils. And that when we take deep breaths, when we bring in more oxygen, when we bring in what God gave us to give us life, that it helps remedy some of the things that we're struggling with. When we take that breath in, when we get more oxygen, like how we were born into this world, is through the breath of God, that it helps solve some of our problems. Deep breathing itself, breathing in like we breathe in into this universe, it helps with body relaxation. It lowers blood pressure. It lowers our heart rate. It reduces stress hormones. It delivers more oxygen to our organs, and it's free as well. So it's a nice remedy to all of these things that we have because busyness can bring stress. Busyness can bring a higher heart rate, obviously, higher blood pressure, uh, and it can tense up our bodies because we don't feel like we have enough time. Could I get a hand or a raise of hands for anybody who doesn't feel like they have enough time for things at points? Because busyness makes us feel like we don't have that time. Busyness is an encroaching disease that takes away the peace that we have in those free moments. And so when we tend to focus on that next thing and that busyness during our relaxation, then it hurts that time. So we need to take that time to breathe in, to take in that oxygen that God gave us to live. Breathe out and seek Jesus in that moment because he'll build up our day. He'll build up the next thing. He'll build up the peace that we need. See, God wants us to have a relationship in that way. He wants us to have a relationship in which we seek him in every moment. Because we are not we are a good creation, but we have restrained away because of sin. And when we listen to that busyness that causes us to sin. We need to seek his will because our will and busyness is not a productive will that will return good fruit. We need to lean into that every single moment of every day. When we have the time to relax, take a deep breath in the morning and seek him, is when God will redirect us back towards him and what to do. It'll help us to walk on water. Not probably not today, we're not walking on water on a lake, probably. But with that little faith that Peter had, he was walking on that water. He was able to live in a comfortable space in which the wind was thrashing, the boat was rocking, the uncertainties were everywhere, but he was still walking on the water itself. And Jesus, even though he had the little faith, even though his mind was occupied by the busyness of the waves around him, the busyness and the stress and the anxiety of around him, he was still able to recognize that Jesus was there. And so we can't live our lives running to a degree. I thought of this analogy at NYC and I liked it enough to bring it here. But when we are running in our lives, when we're going from one thing to another, it's like we're running. Because you would never do a meeting with somebody when running. Why would you run while trying to run with Jesus? Or talk while running with Jesus? Because it'd be an awful meeting if you were sprinting and trying to talk out business plans with another person who's also sprinting. You can't live life like that. And you can't have a meeting like that. So what we should often do is take that time to walk with Jesus. Don't sprint away from him. He'll meet you where you're at. He'll meet you for that walk. Jesus met them on the water at the boat. It wasn't like Jesus was like, hey, paddle over here, meet me over here at this destination. Jesus met them where they were at. And that turbulent water and that busyness even sought them out. But you have to reach out for him. You have to take that initiative to say, let's walk together. Like Peter was saying, Lord, if you want me with you right now in this water, call out to me to come. He was asking for confirmation. You have a confirmation right now that the Lord wants to walk with you on that water. By me saying this and him saying it to Peter, come. Step out of the safety of that boat, the safety of busyness that you always know, what you've known day to day. Step into taking a deep breath, step into relaxing, step into walking and not sprinting all the time. Relax. And be with Jesus outside of the boat. It may seem strange, it may seem unnatural, but Jesus will have you. Even if you slip a little bit, Jesus will catch you. Jesus will not let you sink. He will not let you drown in the water. He will be there for you in that moment. So relax and let Jesus hold on to you in that water. Even in the turbulence, Jesus will be there. I'm going to go ahead and ask the band to come on up.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

As it is known in our community, Northwest Church is committed to discovering and engaging in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ with inspired worship and intentional ministry. People from all walks of life are welcome and received as family members. Our family is diverse, multicultural, and also not perfect in love with Jesus. Join us online at WNAC.org. God bless you.