The Me Too Boat | Elevation YTH | Ryan Leak

come on anybody in the building love Jesus tonight [Applause] come on I said does anybody love Jesus tonight you can go ahead and be seated Oh elevation Youth X in the building it is such an honor I mean an incredible honor to be with you I hope you know that you are in one of the greatest churches in the world and the songs the messages that have come from this place that have given hope to so many people I hope you're taking good notes while you can because you have a front row seat to something truly special I want to take a moment to honors pastor Stephen and Holly Furtick who are just some of the most incredible pastors and leaders on the planet I know I am grateful for every sacrifice that they have made to make this place what it is and I realized that you are elevation Church and there are many people that your leadership team could have called on the share with you today and I'm honored to to be one of them and I want us to look in Matthew chapter 14 I like Matthew because in case you came here today your friend tricks you into coming to you that extra day paid for you if they pay for you that's a good friend keep them I like Matthew because Matthew he didn't start off as a church person he was a tax collector if you don't know anything about tax collectors in the Bible tax collectors were not good people don't don't just think IRS or government think IRS meets gangsters okay they used to bully people out of money and they were social outcasts they didn't have any friends tax collectors were so bad that the Bible axis says that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors okay they got their own category a murderer would say at least I'm not a tax collector okay like these were not good people yep Matthew was that and Jesus gave him an invitation he could not refuse and he signed up for three and a half year internship that absolutely changed his life and he writes this story he says immediately after this speaking of Jesus feeding 5,000 Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake while he sent the people home after sending them home he went up to the hills by himself to pray night fell while he was there alone meanwhile the disciples were in trouble far away from land for a strong wind had risen and they were fighting heavy waves somebody say heavy waves about three o'clock in the morning Jesus came toward them walking on the water when the disciples saw him walking on the water they were terrified in their fear they cried out this 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 to the other side of the boat walked on the water toward Jesus but when he saw the strong wind in the waves he was terrified and began to sink save me Lord he showed Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him you have so little faith Jesus said why did you doubt me tonight I want to speak to you on the subject of the me2 boat the me2 boat can we pray together father I thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity to speak to your people god I pray that there would be a moment tonight where I get out of the way and you speak loud and clear to each and every person under the sound of my voice and Jesus name I pray everybody said I grew up in an African Methodist Episcopal Church what that means is church is black okay that's this is what it means okay my dad was the pastor I loved my dad's church it was small it was intimate up and I loved the rules of engagement of my - church the sign outside of our church said service is going to start at 9:15 service usually started whenever we got there that could be 925 945 it really didn't matter all that much when our church would actually start because it was more about when it was in we used to be there probably like two three four or five hours you should bring a snack at my dad's Church okay because you can be there for a while okay that that was what it was like another rule at my parents church was you couldn't say that you were sick it was a way of like you you're speaking something wrong over your life and so you could be throwing up in the bathroom and they'd be like the devil is a liar like nah I think I just ate some bad okay nevertheless of like mom I'm throwing up like I'm clearly sick she goes now you getting sent out your life that's what you're doing I'm like no I really think I'm kind of sick I've been in fifth grade my father unfortunately suffered a stroke where the left side of his body was shut down completely and he was forced out you have to give up his church and I was attending a school that was connected to a predominantly Caucasian large Church and so my my parents that hey want you to just go to church with your friends and so uh at that point in 6th grade um I had never been to white church in my life y'all listen white church experience for the first time yo was crazy okay listen when they say 9:15 they're not bluffing okay I'm telling you drummer starts click track beat going right away I messed around the showed up at 9:30 big time I only got one song live I'm like in my church we would just be warming up like what do we do it they had snacks in the lobby you had to fast and pray at my daddy Church they had no kind of snacks we had don't I said listen white church got it going oh okay then um they had this thing I've never seen it before in my life it said children's ministry and I was like children's ministry what's that they're like oh this whole section for kids to play while adults are in church children's ministry for me was the front row with my momma okay and if you started talking in the middle of church you got a pinch and a twist okay you had a mint service pinch and a post service but whooping okay like that's just how it was okay so I'm like I'm really I'm really liking this church there's some crazy I promise I never I couldn't believe what would happen next at 10:15 the pastor comes to the edge of the stage and he says Amen have a great week and all of a sudden everybody got up and started leaving I said hey uh where y'all going he said service is over I said y'all doing intermission at y'all Church everybody go take a bathroom break why what's going on so like we're leaving I was like well what do you do with like I've never every time I've gotten out of church it was dark outside okay so I'm sitting there trying to figure out where everybody's going they said we're going to brunch I said what is brunch I've never heard of this thing they're like bro you've never heard of brunch I said is it like breakfast and lunch I'm smart I can figure it out like yeah man you can get chicken or walk or you can get boat I said I think I'm get my life to Jesus right now okay this is amazing I said man I know if I'm ever gonna leave white church this is awesome so my parents I need to get it together okay cuz they kill it y'all right now okay then in college I went to a multicultural Church and then at 18 years old I saw something I'd never seen before in my life I saw African Americans Caucasians Hispanics Asians a whole conglomerate of people worshiping together singing the same song I said this must be what heaven is gonna be like if you know what I love about that is sometimes worship can bring us together when we live in a divided world there's something about the presence of the Lord that makes us leave our labels behind and all of a sudden you just say it's all phase two the distance you just focus on Jesus I said man could this be what heaven would look like I noticed two things at all three churches that I love in the small black church in the large white church and in the large multicultural Church that looks a lot like this each of them gave people an opportunity to surrender their life to Jesus despite their theological differences they had that one thing in common and that was the moment that I began to fall in love with the church the second thing that I noticed about all three churches despite their theological differences if they all had the same phrase that they use usually towards the beginning of their service come just as you are I believe the two right you know you come just as you are and it made sense for that the first time visitor but the longer I started saying it myself I didn't know if we really meant it because the longer you're in the church space it goes from come just as you are to fake it till you make I mean just think about it for a second how real can you really be here I mean like let's say somebody sees you in the lobby hey Antoine how's it going oh man my dad can't stand my mom so he left and my life is horrible how about you like you can't say that like you can't be like hey my parents broke they both lost a job but we still trying to impress our neighbors pretending to be rich so how's your life like you can't say yeah my boyfriend just broke up with me I'm probably gonna be alone for the rest of my life but God's faithful like you can't say that so it's so on some level we decide to wear masks we just decide to use spiritual phrases to cover who we really are because I think we're all searching for a place where we can be the real us and it can be very very difficult to do that we can sometimes make it difficult for one another to do that and sometimes you can even be a church and be the loneliest person in the room surrounded by thousands but still alone proximity to a person doesn't somehow solve our loneliness issue and so often times whether we're in school or in church we will settle for the mass because life experiences have taught us sometimes the only way we'll ever get accepted I think there's three issues with the mass the first problem with the mass is you might actually succeed at fooling people you might actually get people to fall in love with your maths but all of a sudden it it's not you so you got followers you like I did it I got Pete I got popularity I did it but now they're going but it ain't really me you got them to date you and you're deathly afraid that they're gonna find out you you you got fake off lights you got fake Jordans you got them from China and you waited six weeks to get a compliment because that's how long it takes to get it from Chuck black like you're sitting there trying to wear this mask but the problem is when you get a compliment on something that's fake it makes the compliment feel just as fake as the shoes so now you're going man thank you for the compliment but you you don't know the real story the second problem with the mask is it's exhausting oh it's so exhausting because I was cool last week but I'm not now I got to change who I listen to now I got a I got to change my outfit now I got to change my shoes wait we're not listening to them anymore okay oh we're watching them on YouTube now okay like that this is and I got a feeling there's somebody under sound of my voice you're just tired and if you're honest you wish you could just call the timeout and say can I just be me for a minute can I just be the real man and still have the admiration and still have the acceptance the third problem with the mask is you will always live in fear that somebody's gonna find out who you really are you're walking around like a superhero hoping that nobody finds out your true identity hoping that your followers don't find out that you are indeed a fraud and you've been tricking them this whole time can you imagine what would happen in your life if you truly believed that God loved you would use you just as you are without the upgrades without the alterations without the popular like like just as you are hey you're not for me to use you out one of my favorite authors is brené Brown and she says it like this there is a massive difference between fitting in and belonging fitting in means I will make as many adjustments as I need to to make you like me and admire me and follow me which means my fans my followers my family and my friends are the governors of my life and they get to dictate the direction my life is headed so I got to do whatever I can to fit in belonging on the other hand says I'm willing to be the real me even if it means I have to stand even if it means that I do know what listen you may not like the real me but you know what at least whoever does love me whoever does accept me it is actually me what have you ever done the fit end what what what have you ever sacrificed to to fit in what shout out to to my homie that laughs at jokes that aren't funny to fit in because life experience is often teachers it doesn't feel as bad if we make fun of ourselves before somebody else can even if you're punching yourself it still hurts shout out to my friends of color who have had to laugh at racist jokes just to survive it wasn't even funny but she thought if I if I don't laugh I'll be isolated and I won't have any friends so you ha ha and he he'd your way into the circle but you don't even feel comfortable because you feel like they can't even see the real you what I I felt compelled to tell you tonight is you have to choose belonging over fitting in you have to choose belonging over fitting in I believe that the cure for loneliness has two components to it and the first one is this it's accepting yourself for who you really are just as God made you other people can't like the real you until you like the real you until you have accepted the real you how's anybody else gonna accept the real you just as God made you you know who I think felt this tension a lot Peter Peter is somewhat of a misfit in the group of disciples he you know he don't really belong with that but he's older than all of disciples the disciples scholars tell us he got a little bit of anger problems they tried to arrest Jesus he pulled out a sword cut off somebody ear Peter will you get a sore from we was just praying for people blind eyes deaf ear we were feeding fish to people where you get a sword from brah I like Peter I think he gives hopes to hope for thugs you know what I mean like you love Jesus but you still have cuts somebody get on I'm saying light that fast Peter he's he's trying to figure some things out if I don't know if I belong at everybody else but but this group of disciples they are at the Sea of Galilee I got a picture of the Sea of Galilee I got a chance to go visit the Sea of Galilee a couple years ago it is really a beautiful place in fact we got to have a worship service on the Sea of Galilee ladies and gentlemen if you ever get an opportunity to go to the Sea of Galilee you gonna be acting way more spiritual that you really are you gonna be like I think I can walk on water no you can't you gonna drown okay you're going down stay your butt on the shore and put your air pods in and listen to oceans that's all you can do okay but you'll be thinking all the types of crazy stuff about to see you got like man this is this is where it happened and in the photo it looks calm but in this story it is the very opposite and you know what [Music] I love that the disciples found themselves in a storm by obeying Jesus what do you something to do go they was just going home and they found themselves in a storm some people believe that following Jesus means I shouldn't have any problems following Jesus means I shouldn't have any storms that my life should be storm free but following Jesus doesn't mean you won't have any storms following Jesus simply means you will have an anchor for every storm that you go through that is what Jesus is communicated to his disciples and it's an interesting story to me there's a few lines that Peter says that I'm just going Peter I don't know I kind of put myself on the boat as one of the other disciples kind of listening to this conversation that he's having with Jesus we are scared we're on the boat we're like hey we bout to die I don't know what's about to happen it looks like a ghost is coming to us and it don't look like Casper like like something is about to happen and all of a sudden Jesus says hey it's me JC don't worry about it I got y'all then Peter says something crazy he says uh-uh if it's you call me out on the water hey Peter is a couple of other ways to figure out if it's Jesus asking what your favorite color is yellow see told you like there's so many other ways to find out if it's Jesus well and here's what you must understand about Matthew chapter 14 is we've already seen this movie before in Matthew chapter 8 the disciples were on the boat with Jesus this time and there was a storm and he calmed it so most of us will go oh jesus watch it if it's you just call him star but for Peter he's going I need something a little bit more this time for the sequel I don't need you to do what you did last time I need you to do something new in my life what would compel Peter to actually have Jesus invite him to walk on the water in the Jewish context there were three levels of education at the highest level a rabbi would say follow me this was one of the greatest invitations in society if you got if a rabbi said follow me it was like being drafted into the NBA okay this is why you see in scripture so many people dropping everything going on in their life to follow Jesus because they're going i eivol I never got this opportunity in fact at that third level if you weren't good enough which was most people the rabbi would tell you you're not good enough to be a rabbi go home and just do the family trade you'll never be more than a fisherman you'll never be more than a carpenter you'll never be more than a farmer that's your that's your lane save the rabbi stuff for maybe somebody in your kids but maybe one of your kids will become a rabbi someday but this isn't in the cards for you the common denominator of every disciple that Jesus had is they had already been told no this is why Peter had dropped his nets and said wait a minute me you're picking me a disciple following a rabbi in jesus's time they followed their rabbi with everything of their but they wanted to do everything like the rabbit they wanted to spend money like the rabbi they wanted to treat other people like the rabbi they wanted to reach scripture like the rabbi in fact historians would say that a disciple wanted to follow a rabbi so bad that if that rabbi had had in a a war injury and he had a cane and walked with a limp that a young disciple would actually break a branch off of a tree and pretend to walk with a limp just to be like the rabbi understand ladies and gentlemen Peters logic is if my rabbi is walking on water I'm walking on what okay like yes Jesus if it's you then yes pull me out now he's kind of looking back at the other disciples going I don't know if y'all want to go for a walk but I can't let your opinion keep me from getting there Jesus like I don't know what y'all left but for me I got it I gotta get on boat you got a crazy friend of your life that just be doing crazy stuff all the time man I got some crazy y'all listen I'm not an outdoorsy person people are always trying to take me camping with lions tigers and bears and stuff I'd like for what why why while we doing this okay I don't want to die today why do I want to get eaten by a bear I was speaking at a camp about a month ago and I checked into the hotel I promise I can't make this up the lady handed me a piece of paper it said the following don't feed the Bears I said ma'am the paper you just handed me it says don't feed the Bears is this like a euphemistic is this a joke like what who's feeding bears they said oh sometimes the Bears come into the parking lot and if you leave food in your car they don't eat it man let me talk to you for a second listen um you trying to tell me the Bears gonna come about the world they're gonna unlock my car and grab my subway because and you telling me make sure I don't feed the bear like so if I see a bear you want me to just not feed it that's what you're trying to tell me right now like you telling a grown man don't feed the bear she's like yeah if you see a bear call me ma'am I'm really not trying to be offensive right now but let me just tell you something about five feet okay if it's the bear versus you I got my money on the bear okay what do you have back there just gonna fight it back okay my buddy with me is like dude this is off no it's not we bout to die okay we leave it okay they don't need to get somebody else this is Peter he didn't he's that crazy for you like Peter are you sure there's there's some other ways that we can follow Jesus when he get back on the boat he's gonna know y'all don't understand we might be on the same boat but why do I feel like we're going through different storms why is it that I'm here with my other Jesus followers but I feel all alone I feel all by myself you might have came to the same conference singing the same song but you can't look at your neighbor like we ain't going through the same thing I got it I got it more to get you don't know what I'm going home to listen I gotta get everything that I possibly can out of this conference I didn't got time for your approval I ain't got time for your opinion because I got to get to Jesus and he starts walking on water he can't even believe his own oh mama oh hold on he's got his eyes on Jesus he's getting he's like manis this is amazing and then he got his eyes on the winds and the waves and the Bible says he began to sink I've Tim come up here I want to illustrate this I really want them to get this picture you want to be Jesus you want to be Peter I'll be Jesus black Jesus go ahead you go over there I got this I got this that's another sermon for another date ain't ready for that okay all right so y'all so silly okay listen I'm so Peter he gets out of the boat I get out the boat ah now you can walk towards me walk - hey hey hey now look at the winds and waves now drown I got you I got you I got you I got you I got you and then Jesus with his arm around them this is Scripture he says why did you doubt me you got such little faith now watch watch this the next verse says this you may never have caught this in the text it's very interesting he says when they climb back into the boat the wind stopped all right let's realist rate this one more time get back in the boat go ahead okay I'm good leg jeans it's over here I got this okay this is how Matthew tells the story okay Peter gets out the boat bank comes over back but Bob wins the waves break drown drown come on I got a bet okay why did you have such little hey why'd you doubt me and then the next part of the story it says come back over if fast-forwards guys the fast-forwards back to the boat and it says when they got back in the boat let's get back in the boat okay now we back in the boat it says now the wind stopped therefore this is what we must conclude from what the Bible doesn't tell us come back over here come on come on come on come on come on come on come on come on we must conclude that Jesus and Peter walked back through the storm together hey I got a feeling that there's somebody in here who has been making a prayer and you've been saying God stop the storm when your real prayer should be Jesus walk with me for every trial there every situation through every circumstance in my life I got a feeling there's somebody under the sound of my voice and give they're walking through a storm alone I felt compelled to come from Dallas Texas to tell every single person you don't have to walk through it alone ladies and gentlemen I don't I don't know when you're gonna get to the other side I do believe breakthrough is coming I believe that I do but I don't know where but I do know that in the meantime your prayers shouldn't be lower peace be still stop the storms Lord when bring my parents back together Lord ease the pain Godwin am I not gonna be insecure when am I gonna get over this depression when am I gonna get over this anxiety witness my heart going to be whole I don't know when you're gonna make it to the other side but don't fast forward the story you ought to walk with the lawyer young person [Applause] walk with the Lord and Peter don't gotta get back in the boat and go I told y'all I don't know what y'all was saying I told y'all Jesus got me no no no he he got something out in the water he would have never gotten a boat I walk to remember I never forget it I believe that there's there's something in us that wants Jesus to take our pain away but I think he wants to meet you right where you are just as you are I think our go to prayer is God would you change my circumstance I don't know when that's gonna happen but this I know your God has never forsaken him and his promise to you is that he will be with you let the storm come as long as I got Jesus and here's the funny thing a life that has been consistently walking with the Lord through every season through every trial through every circumstance eventually your breakthrough will come get it one day you will look back and go my God was with me all along and this is what I know when you are walking with the Lord you do not look like what you've been through makeup like a up a manna I could've sworn you you don't look like you was a beaut you don't look like your heart was broken you don't look like your parents went through the book you don't look but I know I went through some things but I had some help I had somebody on my side I had somebody with me that was for me come on is there anybody in the building that's grateful for the presence of the Lord in their life come on let's see one time was the Lord is in [Music] bloody drei [Applause] and love [Music] good [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] I want you to grab the hand of the person on your right and all your left I believe the second component was a cure for loneliness it's not just accepting yourself for who God has really made you to be it's also accepting others for who God made them to be sometimes it's about extending grace to the person on our left and our right giving them permission to be themselves you don't want to be the person that's making people jump through hoops to prove their worth in your friendship so now I'm gonna let you be you I'm gonna let you be in pain I'm gonna let you be vulnerable let you go through some things because the thing that we have in common is that Jesus is with us and I realize he made you different than me and that's okay we might see things differently on politics we might see things different in sports we might be into different music you may not dress like me you you may not follow the people that I follow but guess what you don't I'm gonna be the type of person says anyway I want you to come she comes to me you imagine if we became people that looks for lonely people and said hey I don't want anybody in my lunch room to sit by themselves that's my rule so nobody sits by themselves at my school nobody sits by themselves at my Park and mic on my Jim the mock court no nobody does and so what I want you to do is I want you to look at the person on your right I want you to say sometimes I make mistakes all right now this is what I want you to do I want you to look back at that person and say me too all right let's do another one I want you to look at the person your neighbor the other one that you might like a little bit better I want you to say sometimes I try to impress people what you do you be trying to impress people stop what now look back at him and save me - all right I got one more for you sometimes I'm not okay that's all right you want to know why cuz we're gonna look back at each other and say me too do you realize we just made the world a little bit less lonely of a place in 60 seconds [Applause] I mean you imagine can you imagine if you eat groups look like this ki machen if you eat group was a place where people could come and go hey man sometimes I'm not okay hey man I made some mistakes this week and things aren't okay alone I got I got some issues you imagine if that wasn't a place of well you wanna get it together man fake it till you make it pretend your way into a reality wear a mask until it becomes who you are no what would you do if I told you that God could give you real joy you don't got to do the fake stuff [Applause] because what I know about each and every one of us is that all of us are in the me to bow we've all found ourselves in need of the same grace that we give to somebody when they first walk in come just as you are can I encourage you to keep coming just as you are don't worry mess choose belonging over-fitting [Music]

Channel: Elevation YTH

Views: 8,443

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: elevation, elevation church youth, elevation church yth, elevation yth, elevation youth, student ministries, student camp, summer camp, church camp, yth, youth, youth sermons, ryan leak, ryan leak wedding, surprise wedding, phoenix suns tryouts, covenant church, young adults, venue young adults, dallas texas, chasing failure, ythx19, ythx 2019, middle school, high school, youth ministry, college ministry, ryan leak surprise wedding, me too boat, me too movement

Id: wVmEvoas1Jk

Length: 36min 13sec (2173 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 25 2019