The Other Side

Mark 4:35–41 (NLT) — 35 As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” 36 So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind.

You need to know that if you follow God’s leading in your life it will cause you to go places that others are not willing to go. You may feel alone but you gotta understand that when you go where Jesus calls you to go, do what Jesus calls you to do, you need to know that you may be alone physically but Jesus is with you.

And the danger today in modern Christianity is that we want Jesus and we want the crowd. Like I wanna follow Jesus, I want heaven, and I want forgiveness, and a cross necklace, but I also wanna go with the crowds. Cause that seems fun. cause I don’t want to be looked at as weird.

We are called to be different. We are called to follow Jesus. Not because it’s popular but because it’s better. And in a time where it’s acceptable to call yourself a christian but also do whatever you want we have to make a decision. Is it Jesus? Or the crowds? Because I don’t know if you’ve noticed but following Jesus is not getting any more popular.

John 15:18–19 (NLT) — 18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.

And usually this is how it happens. When you stand up for your beliefs or when you hear that a certain section of culture or a group of people don’t like that you stood up for your beliefs or don’t like that you are a Christian or you hear someone had a bad experience with someone who claims to follow Jesus the gut reaction for you or the world is “well then what they believe must be wrong”. Or if my beliefs upset someone then there is something wrong with the Bible, it must be wrong, or I’ve read it wrong. And what we do is we start to seek mans approval rather than God’s approval.

No where in the Bible does it say to beat people down, to hate people, or to treat people who don’t agree with you badly. But there is also no where in the Bible that says “if the world doesn’t like what God’s word says then change what God’s word says.

Jesus made a promise here that if you follow Him the natural flow of things is that the World will not like it because you deciding to go a different way. Follow a higher way.

Jesus routinely would call His disciples to leave the crowds to go somewhere and in this case He is telling them hey it’s time to go let’s go to the other side. And while the other side is literal here there is also a metaphorical other side that you and I are called to. We are called to be different, to leave the crowds, to leave what culture says is popular and unpopular and pursue Jesus. So Jesus calls them to head to the other side of the lake.

No other direction. No specific destination. No telling of a plan for what is going to happen when they get there or why they are heading to the other side just a clear direction from Jesus “Hey it’s time we leave and go to the other side”. This almost feels like a callback to God telling Abram to go to the land he would show him. Hey i’m gonna make you a great nation, your going to be a father. And I need you to leave your family and everything you know and start walking. And one day you will be exactly where you are supposed to be.

In a lot of ways starting New Purpose felt this way. Hey get in the boat. Im gonna be with you. There is where we are going. But no clue what is in store in between the calling and the destination.

Hey a life giving church that is reaching the community. Seeing whole families come to know Jesus. Making a difference in this area. A place that cannot keep up with everything God is doing. We know the start that’s starting the church. We know the destination. But whats in between, how everything plays out that get’s us there it’s unknown. The Bible says “many are the plans a man has in his heart but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.

Our responsibility is just to get in the boat and trust. If he says ROW we ROW. SLEEP we SLEEP. TURN we TURN. WAIT we WAIT.

THINK BACK TO MARY. I mean she is visited by and angel and told hey you are going to be the one to bring the savior into the world. I know your a virgin. I know you have a million questions. I know you are not sure how this is all going to happen. I need you to trust and know that this is the plan. Then fast forward to Mary seeing her son, Jesus, dying on a cross. This baby that was supposed to be the savior of the world and she just has to trust and know that God has a purpose and it always prevails. The start is your going to be the one to bring Jesus into the world the end is he’s going to make a way for all to be forgiven. How we get there, and what happens along the way? Only God knows.

And it’s in between where you started, and the other side where you have to option to continue to trust and follow. Because often it’s in between that the unexpected happens. It’s in between that faith is needed. It’s in between that trust is needed. It’s in between where things happen in a way that we wouldn’t have chose. But we have the option, trust God to get us to the other side, or jump ship.

37 But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. 38 Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”

This is a very real problem right? This isn’t like a cruise ship this is a small wooden boat that is now getting rocked and hit by waves. And Jesus is taking a beauty nap. Come on one of those Sunday after church and the buffet naps. Turn football on and fall asleep kind of naps. You know what i’m talking about.

And meanwhile the disciples are like.... YO. You told us to go this way.... there’s trouble… and you’re sleeping? Like we are about to die, and Jesus it seems like you don’t care at all!

Have you ever felt like that? You stepped out in faith, you believed, you trusted, you made a decision that was based on faith and believing God for something and now it seems like He’s indifferent.

But what the disciples got wrong and what we so often get wrong is that Jesus never left. Jesus is there. But he’s wanting to build their faith. And when things start to go wrong you can either view it as a brick wall that God has left, that everything is over and there is no hope, or as an opportunity to build your faith. Because faith can only be built when it’s tested. And when things start to go wrong we have that choice that we need to make .

And I want to call us to choose faith today. To call on God and ask him to move in our lives. To ask him to show us the way to go. Because without him, without trusting Him we will never see our lives in line with His will.

Check out what happens with the rest of this story:

39 When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 40 Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” 41 The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

You see the storm served a purpose and it was to build their faith. because unless the storm comes, then jesus cant calm the storm and they never know that Jesus can calm the storm. Unless the wind blows they can never know that the wind obeys him. unless the waves rise they cannot know that the waves obey him.

If Jesus isn’t born, and if Jesus is never crucified then we would have never known that he could rise. Come on the storm is there for a reason.

What if the storm is there to build you not to break you. Imagine being Mary and watching your baby, God’s only son the savior grow up. Seeing first hand what He can do and then seeing him become the sacrifice for everyone. You would never question again what God could do.

You know some of the Story of New Purpose. We shared a lot on our Vision Sunday and 2 Year anniversary not too long ago. We believe god can do great things. We want to see Him move in a powerful way.

We jumped in the boat in January of 2020 to see what God could do when people say “Hey i’m in. Let’s go to the other side”.

My wife from the beginning always said “We are never going to have to rent a school or anything like that God is going to provide a place for us to meet. Every time. We are going to be different” So from Day one we have just walked through whatever door was in front of us. That led us to the warehouse. Back in October of 2020.

From there we knew we needed to meet on Sundays. Prayed and God opened the door to Ridenour. And we’ve been here for 2 years now.

69 People saved in this room. 19 people baptized just outside this room. 7 Children dedicated to the Lord inside this room. A lot has happened in this room.

And for about the past year Emily and I have been looking for new places to meet. Every Sunday we run out of Chairs to put out and even if there were more there’s not much more room. We tried 2 services at one point but with the way the hours we had worked it was hard to put those services at the right times and still be out of here by noon. And so we have constantly been praying for and looking for that new space.

Many of you in the room have sent us places or been with us to go look at places. You’ve seen conversations we’ve had. You’ve prayed or given so that one day we could have a place. And while we are running out of room we also desire to do more. To be able to meet during the week or hold special events and so we’ve prayed and looked. Pastor Kevin talked about this when he was here. We are out of room but be thankful for these small beginnings because you will look back on them one day and love those times

THIS WEEK Emily and I recieved a call. Monday actually. And the call we got was from Ridenours main office in Florida and it was to tell us that This building will be closing down effective immediately. And so as of 11am today we no longer have a space to meet in. This is the last time we will ever meet in this building. And that’s completely our of our control.

No doubt this feels like a storm. But we jumped in the boat a while back. And Jesus has called us to the other side.

Like I said we have been looking for a while for the next place for New Purpose to call home. And about 2 years ago some people started coming to New Purpose. And not too long after they gave my info to someone that was having an event and said hey I think my pastor and His wife would be interested in this event. So they called us and we went to the event. While we were there I went to the restroom and women just so you know when men are at the urinal there is a strict no talking rule. But the guy next to me apparently had never heard of this rule and started talking to me. And told me there was someone he wanted to introduce me to. So I met this guy and we started meeting and talking regularly. Along the way he introduced me to several others in the area. And about 5 months ago he introduced me to another guy. And this guy has access to a potential home for New Purpose.

Now like I said, for 5 months me and this guy have been talking and it hasn’t really moved forward at all. But last Saturday I met with this guy again and keep in mind 2 days after this meeting we get the call that Ridenour is closed for good. While I cannot tell you all the details right now here’s what you need to know. Today, right after this service, Emily and I will be heading to a meeting where there will be a decision made on if we are able to meet in this new location starting next Sunday.

And this new location would allow us to of course meet in Sundays but also throughout the week. We would be able to Baptized people inside the building. Grow NPC kids, do more throughout the week things that we have not been able to do because of our current limitations.

Call to pray

We will be announcing Monday what the plan is.