Christian Podcast Should you try to do what Jesus did when He was here?

Welcome to episode 270.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I am continuing on talking about spiritual audacity, chutzpah, if you will, and I have had some issues with my video. And I know if you've been on my podcast, my audio podcast, I've been challenged by my son to do a video podcast. And I thought, you know, why not? So I started doing video. Well, now my computer is jacked up and my camera, my computer. It is a long sad story, but there's never going to be a time where you're not going to have challenges in your life. And I am just here to tell you that action trumps fear and frustration. And I just want to tell you, get after it. Whatever God's speaking to you, get after it. And my wife said, "Why don't you use your phone?" And I'm thinking, "I don't know. I've got a camera on my computer, but it lags. It's horrible." And she said, "Just use your phone." You've used your phone before on videos and Facebook Lives and stuff. Everybody uses their phone, use their phone. And so I'm coachable and trainable, just here to tell you I am on my phone and I am gonna do my best to bring this podcast together on my phone and we may do something a little different next time. I think I'm gonna be spiritually audacious in my next video and I'm gonna use that on my podcast It is going to be something else. I am going to attempt to walk on water. You heard it here first. I am going to— back in 2007, I'm going to post the picture, but in 2007, I wrote down on my Bible notes, "I will walk on water." It's a long story. I guess I got time to tell it, but I was reading John 14:12. God reminded me of that scripture, and so I've been meditating on that scripture again, and that And that's kind of trouble. When you start looking at a scripture and you start asking the Holy Spirit for a little input, God's going to start challenging you. And I'm just here to tell you that when God starts telling you and tapping you on the shoulder, it's time to answer. And so what I'm doing, I've talked about this multiple times, I've threatened to do this forever, and I'm going to do the Water Walking Wednesday. I think I'm going to do a live YouTube broadcast. I don't even know how to do that. But I'm going to go and I'm going to find a body of water and I'm going to take myself out there and I'm going to walk on the water, or I'm at least going to attempt to walk on the water. And I just want to encourage you by this, because when we learn things— and I just want to tell you, the way I learn things is by messing up and by using my phone and listening to other people's input I try to listen and I try to make adjustments when I start having challenges. And my wife said, "Use your phone." So I'm using my phone. And part of the thing, when you make mistakes and you see stuff that's not working, you've got to make correction or you just keep going in the same direction and keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. And that was Albert Einstein's quote, "The definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results." Well, I believe, and I've talked about this last few episodes, I believe the church has been doing the same thing over and over and over again and expect different results. And I think part of the problem, and I've told you this before, we're just too careful. God is a dangerous God, and he loves to put people out there. If you look at a fruit tree, most of the fruit is out on the limb. You cannot hang on to the trunk of a tree and pick apples. If you gotta get up high, if you don't have a tall enough ladder and you gotta climb up into the tree to pick the apples, you cannot hold on to the trunk of the tree and pick the apples. So what we gotta do is you just gotta get out there on the limb, and it's a little shaky out there on the limb. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna encourage you to just do something audacious. And by doing my audacious act This is going to be my shot from half court or my full court shot. I'm looking at John 14:12 where it says, Jesus said, Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do because I'm going to my Father. And I believe that Jesus has gone to the right hand of the Father. He's making intercession for us. And I've talked about this multiple times, but you and I have to display our faith. And faith is not something that you can just work up. Faith is not something that you can just do because you feel like it. Faith, the real Christian faith, is by hearing the word of God. And so that's why every episode I've got the word of God on my episode. I've challenged you to find an episode where I don't talk about the Bible, some verse in the Bible. And I want to encourage you that God doesn't get mad when we mess up. When his kids fall, he gets excited because we're trying to take a step. When we learn to walk— nobody learns to walk and then starts being a world-class sprinter on the same day. You have got to learn to walk, you learn to fall, you get up, you pick yourself up. I watched my little son take his first step and He fell, busted his backside, and I called my mom first thing and I said, "Mom, Seth's walking." And I'm telling you, I'm an imperfect father. I did the best I could rearing my kids, but I'm imperfect. But Father God is perfect. And when we can do something on our own, God's going to allow us to do it. And I believe the faith walk, I think the first step we can't do on our own. We cannot, without the Holy Spirit's help, we cannot save ourselves. Save ourselves. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. If you confess the Lord Jesus with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead, you shall be saved. Just that simple, that we have got to speak it out. That's why I like the podcast, because you've got to speak it into the air. You've got to talk this thing through. And the video, I'm still challenged with the video, but I'm doing this because I think It's important to have a video representation. People are watching stuff all the time on their phones and TVs and stuff. So I'm gonna be on YouTube and I'm gonna try my best to walk on water. I've attempted multiple times to do it and I failed every time. And so why not show the world that it's okay to fail and get up and try it again? Or even better, show the world that the Word of God is true and that you really can do what Jesus says you can do. So I just want to encourage you. I'm excited about it. I know I'm out there. I know I'm a fanatic, and I know you're probably shaking your head, and a lot of y'all may just quit listening to this podcast after this, but I just want you to just pray about what is God telling you to do? What is God challenging you to do? I've talked about this multiple times. Where I see on Facebook the little praying hands and the little praying emojis and how when somebody is in trouble or somebody needs prayer, the, the last thing they need is an emoji. They need you to pick up the phone or go— better yet, even go by their house and pray with them out loud on purpose. Give them a hug. Love comes one to another, and that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get this love into the world, God's love. And I believe, in all honesty, when you kind of boil it down, there— it's really just love and service. If you are going to do two things that are going to make an impact on the body of Christ or on this world that we're living in, it's to act in love and to act out of service, and not for your own self-interest, but for those of the people that are around you or your loved ones.— and that's, I believe, that's why God gave us the family unit. We are to love our family. It's easier to love our family than it is somebody we don't know. And so we start with the family unit and God teaches us how to love. Even when people disappoint you and even when things don't go exactly like you think they ought to go, here's the news flash: they're never gonna go the way you think they're gonna go. But I just want to encourage you that we're gonna start taking some chances here on this podcast. We're gonna start getting excited and we're gonna start doing some things that are spiritually audacious. And one of them is every Wednesday, I'm gonna call it Water Walking Wednesday. And I haven't decided if I'm just gonna make a podcast episode of it and make the audio available Thursday, but I think I'm gonna go— I know I'm going live this Wednesday and I am gonna walk out on a body of water. I've got a little pond here. I was gonna try to video tape me walking to that pond and giving you a little preview, but selfie stick or whatever was broke. So I've got to get something else, try to work on that. But you don't care. What I'm going to do Wednesday is I'm going to walk to the pond and I'm going to find a spot where I can step off there and I'm going to see if I sink or if I walk on water. And I am going to pray and I am going to ask God and I'm going to speak the word and I'm gonna do everything I know to do, and I've talked to God about it, and I think he's okay with it. And if I go through the water and I get wet, what difference does it make? I haven't hurt anybody. I've got wet shoes, I've got a wet sock and wet pants, but did it hurt you? Is it gonna hurt me? No, it's not. So I wanna encourage you to start looking at the Bible and start believing. Quit reading the Bible, and I'm gonna get passionate real quick. Stop reading your Bible only. You need to start believing what you read. And I'm the worst one in the whole group here that if I truly believed everything I read, my life would be totally different. And I come on this podcast to just kind of encourage you and me to just stay in this word, because when you get that word of God in you, it does something to you. It has changed my life. Since 1993, January 10th, 1993, I have stayed as best I could into the Word of God, and it is changing. It is growing in me. It is making me a completely different person than I was back in '93.

And I—

the only thing different, I believe, is the Word of God and the way I've treated it. And I am not perfect by any means. I'm telling you, I make mistakes, but I am trying to make the Word of God come to life. And when Jesus said in Matthew, and I don't remember exactly, I think it was in 18, where he was talking about the unjust judge, where he was talking about this woman that just kept, this widow that just kept pestering him. And Jesus was using that example, and it's the last part of that parable where it says, "When the Son of Man returns, will he find faith here on earth?" And I'm paraphrasing that, but it is, it is an important scripture, and it just kind of lit me up to to where if God came back yesterday, would he have found me living in faith? And I want to say yes. I mean, I went to church and I did my thing, and I want to say, yeah, I was in faith. But was I? I mean, what did I do? And I think faith is an action where faith without works is dead. And I think that's in James, I think 2, and I will look it up and post it. I want to just encourage you that we are gonna start getting audacious. We are gonna start taking chances here on this podcast. We're gonna start— I'm threatening to interview some people, but I don't know, I'm just— this old dog can only learn so many tricks at once. But I want to encourage you, there's a difference between failing and sinning. And I talked about that in a previous episode, and I know I told you I was gonna talk about David and Goliath, and I apologize for that. I just feel the need to tell you where— what I'm fixing to do. I really believe that God is calling me out there on the limb to where it's a little bit shaky, where you've got to have faith. There's no way in the world— I can tell you from failed attempt after failed attempt since 2007, I have never walked on water. And it is from It's Mark 11:22-24, one of my anchor scriptures for this podcast, where Jesus said, "Have faith in God that if you say unto this mountain, 'Be thou removed and cast in the sea,' and do not doubt in your heart but believe those things you say, you shall have whatever it is that you say." And then he said, "So then I say, whatever you pray, believe you have received, and you will you will have them. And I paraphrased, I probably just chopped that all up, but it's Mark 11:22-24. And it is what I'm anchoring that scripture with John 14:12. And we're going to combine those two Wednesday. And we're going to say, look, I saw Jesus in the Bible walk on water. Heck, I saw Peter walk on water. So I'm looking at, why not Greg? Why not Greg walk on water? And I wrote it down and I've spoke it out loud.. And so I want to encourage you to come on by Wednesday. I think it's going to be probably about 10 o'clock in the morning on Central Time. I think that's when I'm going to bust it into the water and just see if I get on top or if I go— if I sink down. But I just want to encourage you. It says if you say on the mountain your problem or what you're trying to accomplish, be thou removed and cast down, and do not doubt in your heart. And the last thing I want to say before I sign off on this episode is that when you— right before every time that I've ever walked before, tried to walk on water before, the thing that floods me before the water is my doubt and unbelief. And it just talks to me, and it's my, it's my physical mind telling me 100 times out of 100, you failed. And so it's just, it's just constantly condemning, and it's constantly telling me I can't do it. And I just want to encourage you, if you've never listened to "The Voice of Truth" from Casting Crowns, I want to tell you, just go listen to that song. It is a great song. It's talking about David against Goliath, and it's talking about Peter walking on water. It is a great song. I love that song. So I just want to encourage you, hey, I'm going to take some chances. I told you I was a Jesus fanatic, and you should have known it by now, but I love God, and God loves me. So he's not going to be mad. I've asked permission to fail. I think he's fired up, to be honest with you. I think he's fired up that somebody's going to try to do something. Even if they fail, at least I can learn something from it. Well, that's enough. I've rambled on enough. I'm excited about this. I'm— thank you. I hope this works out because I'm changing up how I'm doing my podcast. I hope this audio sounds good. Let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for this listener. God, I I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would just encourage them to not think that I'm a complete idiot, but Lord, just to think that maybe this guy is trying to do something for the kingdom. I am not trying to build my kingdom, Lord Jesus. I'm trying to help build yours and try to show your word to be true and every man a liar. And Lord, I thank you for this listener. I thank you for my life, and I thank you for your word. And Holy Spirit, thank you for never leaving us. Nor forsaken us. We ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.