Join us this week in our new series "Different" For any other information you can visit our website coastlinensb.com or email us at hello@coastlinensb.com
Coastline Church NSB Podcast
Different Week 2
Welcome to the coastline podcast. We exist as a church to help connect you to God and the people around you, to help you grow in your faith, and to challenge you to go into your community sharing the love of Christ. Three things - connect, grow, go. If you'd like information on what is going on at Coastline, follow us on Instagram and Facebook, or email us at hello@coastlinensb.com Hey, we are in part two of a series. We started just last week finishing up today, actually, in a series called Different. And we started about last week talking about how, you know, as followers of Christ, as humans, I think it's easy for us to get into just the flow of life and what's happening all around us and to adapt to our culture and kind of conform to how the world just says, "Let's go through it together." But as I look into the Word, as I read the Bible, as I read the words of Jesus, as I read the words of the disciples that were around Him, you realize quickly that the idea of conformity, the idea of just living in what's comfortable is outside of what Jesus wants for us. That He very much wants to see us live life different than the world around us. And so we basically titled this series off of this idea of being different. I think as a Christian, we're supposed to be different. Now, a lot of people confuse that with weird, okay? I don't think you've got to be a weird Christian to be different. But I think that we are called to live different than the world around us. And so today we pull this message, basing this off of the Apostle Paul's words in Romans 12 verse 2 that says this. He says, "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world." But he says clearly, he says, "When it comes to this world, don't copy what you see. There's a different and better way." He says, "Choose to be different." He says, "But let God transform you, adjust you, mold you, change you, coach you, transform you into a new person by changing the way that you think." But what happens up here? He says, "Then if you do this, the promise is this. We will then learn to know God's will for you, which is good, pleasing and perfect." Man, in your life as we finish up the summer together, as we prepare for what's next in this new season, man, I hope my prayer is for your family that you would know God's will for you. And you would experience it, understand that it is good and pleasing and perfect. Amen? Here's a second I'm going to pray for this part in the series, but I want to celebrate something beforehand. This Sunday, this morning at Sunrise Service right before, actually a couple weeks ago, I had a buddy call me who's been coming to coastline for a while now. As he started to take steps and follow in Jesus, he said, he said, "Man, I think the times come, I'm ready to get baptized." And Brad Kay home captain, Brad, I met him, I think we got some pictures. I met him years ago when I was a youth pastor. He's one of the great fishing guides here in the mosquito lagoon. Super solid dude. As I experienced him going through life and seeing some of the struggles that he was having and some losses that he faced in losing his dad, as we were praying for him, as they were talking to him, as we were encouraging him, he's connected his life to Jesus in this morning and I got the great pleasure of being able to baptize him and celebrating with him as he's living this out, saying, "I'm not going to conform to this world, I'm going to be transformed. I'm going to let God continue to change me and use me." I think this is a big deal, it's definitely something we're celebrating. Amen? So let me pray for us as we celebrate this, as we can prepare for this part in the series. Heavenly Father, thank you for being the good father that you are. I pray that this morning as we look into these words, as we hear from your disciples, I pray that your Holy Spirit would use it as an opportunity to let us hear from you, that you would show us the things in our own lives that need to be adjusted, that we wouldn't hear this in a legalistic form or that we would just think that Christianity is a bunch of rules that we need to follow, but that we would see that you are the loving father that you are. And you want what's best for us, and you want to encourage us, you want to coach us. Sometimes that means taking some things away. Sometimes that means adding to some things. I pray that in this moment that you would show us, with all clarity, all honesty and all peace, how to be different in the world that you've called us to. I believe that as we do that, the best is still yet to go. Geez, name me pray. Amen, and amen. Yeah. Real quick, I want to do two things as we jump into this. I want to welcome all the people that are tuning in, doing church online. As we finish up this summer break, I know we've still got some people that are out on vacation. Some people are watching, even out of the country, we've heard some stories from people watching from out of the country. Maybe you're out of state. Thanks for tuning in and watching online. Leave us a little note in the comments section where you're watching from, who you're watching with. You guys feel free to connect and chat with each other on YouTube or Facebook wherever you're watching from. I also want to take a quick second and dismiss all the middle school students. We think it's important that our kids understand what worship really is, and so we invite them into worship, but then we let them go to do class on their own with their own peers, and so we're going to do that now. And then if at any point, if you're here today with a small child and you, at some point, this is a great opportunity to take them into the kids ministry and let them, you don't have to, but it's one of those things that, man, we've got some fantastic veterans. We've got some ladies that are grandmas and moms, and they've been there for a long time and they will put the love right on your kids in a safe way, teach them about Jesus. If you've got any questions or need some help with that, Michelle E. and Ms. Marscher and the kids ministry, they'd love to help you in whichever way they came. Today, I've got a title in this series today. If it were to have a title, would be this. It's time for a power move. Look at your neighbor and say it's time for a power move. Time for a power move. Now, immediately when I think of a power move, the first thing that comes in my brain is like something out of WWE and someone getting choked, slammed. That's not what I'm talking about. It's not what we're talking about today. Today specifically, power move, I think is something that happens in us. It happens spiritually in us where we get to such a moment in our lives where we're tired of what's comfortable. We're tired of being on the plateau that we are, that we will change and move things so much to give us the opportunity to continue to grow in our pursuit of Jesus. Anybody down for that this morning? A couple people? Okay. This past week, my family and I went on a little summer vacation. Because of the other job that we have, right now we're bivarocational, we help out with some stuff in the tourism industry here in New Samaritan. So the beginning of summer, we don't get to go on any summer trips or anything like that because life is very busy for us. So as the summer is starting to kind of wean down a little bit and things are going a little bit more calm. Eric and I planned our summer vacation. We're really excited about this year because after the past couple years dealing with what we've had to deal with with Olivia's ear surgeries and stuff, we've not been able to do anything that has to do with water. And we're big water people. We like going on the boat, we like fish and we like snorkeling, we like swimming, we like going to the beach. Past two years we haven't been able to do that because Olivia's had to go through something like seven ear surgeries. It's been really tough on our family. So this coming up this summer we finally get the report that we need to from the doctor. He says I'm going to clear you she can go in the water. And so Erica and I sit down and we plan out the the Nichols summer vacation and we're going to go over to the west coast of Florida and spend some time scalloping. How many of you guys have been scalloping before? A couple of people you know what it is. If you don't know what it is, imagine this. Imagine Easter egg hunting in the water with a snorkel mask. You're in like three to six foot of water swimming around pulling these little scallops out of the grass and out of the little sand pits putting them in a little bag and then you throw them in the boat sometime hours and hours later you get to clean enough scallops where you might have like this much meat not enough to suffice any type of hunger whatsoever but sure is a lot of fun with your family. So we've done this a handful of years had to take a pause because of Olivia's ear surgeries and stuff but this year we're excited because we get to go do it. So we drive over this little town called Newport Richie which isn't known for much except for currently they had some amazing scalloping going on. So we got a little we got a good deal on a little Airbnb. Airbnb's got a dock. Airbnb's got a little boat lift and so we pull our little tiny boat all the way over to Newport Richie to get ready for the Nichols summer vacation. And as we get there on the way we hear that FWC has shut down scalloping in Newport Richie and Pasco County where we're going. So we're already off to a fantastic start right. So I'm like okay it's no big deal it's no big deal it's a little hitch in the giddy up it's all right we're gonna go we'll lease you know we got the dock we've got the boat and on the water we can go do some fish in we can go we can still do some snorkeling and stuff like that they shut it down because of some type of toxins in the shellfish or whatever so it's probably a good reason they shut it down. When we get to the Airbnb and we get ready and we look out on the dock and the dock's broken and we look out on the boat lift and the boat lift's broken. Now the scalloping's gone the boat lift's gone and it's like dear Jesus help us please we're about ready to lose it. So we feel a little bit defeated but we're already over here we've driven two and a half almost three hours. Like you know what in the morning we're gonna wake up we're gonna get in the car and we're gonna drive just one hour north that's not what we're telling it's not that big a deal an hour north to the little town called Homassassa Homassassa is also known for scalloping. So we wake up early the next day on vacation which is zero fun to wake up early on vacation that's not of God whatsoever. We drive an hour we get to Homassassa and after fishing 15 spots all day with sunburns and we caught three scallops all day it was zero fun we came kids are like mad Erica's like I don't know what are we gonna do I said you know what it's time for a power move we gotta adjust some things and so we got together and we had a little family meeting and said okay you know I know we drove a long way I know we came a long way but we're gonna leave here like this is I mean the house is nice that we're in and it'd be just comfortable just kind of like hang out and let the rest of our vacation go through this you know we'll figure something else out but I said no we gotta make a power move it's time we're it's time to adjust the plan we gotta do something differently and so we canceled there maybe we're in and Erica found one just as good up in a little town almost three hours north of us called Steenhachie and so we moved our whole family packed everything back up so far the first three days of our vacation was just packing and unpacking into our little car we went to Steenhachie and that morning we went out scalloping and we got more scallops than we had ever had of any scalloping trip we'd ever been on combined it was a fantastic turned into a fantastic trip after spending a day of scalloping and getting gallons of scallops on the way home we're driving down in the boat and we see this beautiful school of about 60 to 70 redfish tailing on a little grass flat and we were able to pull off and make some fantastic memories catching some redfish as a family it was a it was a fantastically beautiful vacation at the end of it at the beginning of it it sucked okay I can say that because the middle schoolers are gone they're not going to repeat after me okay your husband said worst things already it's all right it was terrible at the end of it we reflected and it really worked out in the midst of things being kind of comfortable but being kind of defeated to stop and say you know what got to make a move we got to do something different we can't keep doing what we're doing now because we did we were able to experience a fantastic adventure this week as I went through this I felt like God was telling me that many times this is how we are spiritually spiritually we get to the point where we've got a plan to get somewhere we've we said we know this is where God wants us to be but we get comfortable we get where things are just okay we get to the point where we start to feel a little bit defeated things aren't working out the way that we want to but rather than making a move rather than doing something different rather than picking up shop and saying you know what might take a little bit of effort to move down the line and do something drastic do something different than what we've been doing in the past we stay where we are we stay in our comfort zone we continue to live and defeat and I don't think that's what Jesus has for us I think Jesus gives us the opportunity to be different to change things up when they need to be changed up and I want to challenge you today that if you're here and you feel like you plateaued you feel like you're at a point in life where you've just been getting by and everything's been okay and you're living in a life that is just comfortable that God's got something better for you and I believe that today it's an opportunity for you to experience something different it might take a little bit of a power move for you it might take a little bit of an effort that you got to put in today we're going to be in the book of John chapter 5 we're starting verse 1 this is written by the apostle John John was the disciple of Jesus and John calls himself the disciple that Jesus loved so him and Jesus had this very close-knit relationship and so he is writing this he's communicating based off of what he saw and what he heard Jesus say directly so after as they're going through different parts of the cities around Jerusalem as Jesus healing people and ministering to people he comes up to the city of Jerusalem and this is what happens next this is afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days inside the city near the sheep gate was the pull of Bethesda with five covered porches crowds of sick people blind, lame and paralyzed lay on the porches so Jesus comes into Jerusalem and he finds this way into this pool of Bethesda look at your neighbor say Bethesda now look at your other neighbor and say spell Bethesda you get a gold star if you do two Z's no Bethesda translate this house of mercy house of grace in verse 5 it goes on it says one of the men laying there had been sick for 38 years so here's this house of mercy mercy where these these pools are this pool of Bethesda and there's many sick people there's many lame people there's many blind people that are around there hoping for something to happen so that they may be healed so Jesus as he approaches he finds this man that has been sick for 38 years that's a long time to be sick man right now we're in a time in the world where in the middle of summer like you hear people are getting colds and stuff like that normally you think that would happen later on in the year or something I got sick just a couple weeks ago I was down for like six or seven days it was tough it wasn't no 38 years that's a long time to be sick by the way yesterday Erica was her birthday she did not turn 38 she turned 29 for like the 8th time or something like that good job happy birthday so when Jesus saw him this man had been sick for 38 years he knew he had been ill for a long time he asked him would you like to get well now this is kind of one of the times when I read what Jesus says sometimes I think that Jesus likes to throw a little bit of shade you know he gets a little snarky like in his talking with somebody because here's the guy's been in the play he's been near this pool for 38 years he's been sick and Jesus says do you even want to get better do you want to get better but when I read that this past week I thought to myself like man how many times does God asking us that with what we're dealing with he says hey like I know you're going through that do you want to do you want to get through it do you want to be healed from it do you want to push on and get past what you're going through it's not one of these things it's happened and you're being said out of anything but love and mercy but there is this respect there's just understanding that hey there's a part that you've got to play in this do you want to get better do you want to get through what you're going through the man who replied he says I can't serve for I have no one to put me into the pool when the waters bubble up someone always gets there ahead of me. Now this didn't make any sense to me and so as I studied back and looked on I realized that this is one chapter in the book of the Bible that is kind of put together a little strange because John chapter 5 verse 1 through 3 and then there's no 4 there's just chapter 3 or verse 3 and they go straight to verse 5. So I started doing some research and I'm like man there's part missing here I thought I was going to have to call the new international version people and tell them like hey this poor little pastor from New Summer Beach found your grammatical error in the Bible you're going to have to print some revisions I was going to call up my 10th grade English teacher and say look what I found here who's editing now it's not the case in some manuscripts this verse 4 is written this it says for from time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters the first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had I'm not sure what exactly is happening here but there's part where this guy he's here because he's hoping to experience a healing but whenever the opportunity comes up something gets in his way and so he tells Jesus as Jesus asks him he's like do you want to be healed he gives Jesus an excuse there's something always in my way this is something that always comes up I think it's funny because sometimes I feel like I do the same thing to God oh my God will you help me out with this and he's like yeah do you want to be helped out and then I'll make some exchange well you know it hasn't happened because of this and I'm not able to God's like okay the way Jesus responds is funny he says then Jesus said to him if you want to get up he says get up pick up your mat and walk and at once the man was cured he picked up his mat and he walked Jesus asked the guy he said do you want to be healed? I want to be healed and he gave some excuses and he said no no get up and move make a move adjust something change from the get get up and do something I earned my dad telling me this phrase years ago when I was a kid he said it's a Brian if you keep doing what you're doing you're going to keep getting what you got how many guys have ever heard that before? I tried to find who quoted it or who was quoted from and it's pretty much like every dad for the past 50 years it's like a dad-dadism okay you keep doing what you're doing you're going to keep getting what you got I'm going to tell you spiritually that is true for you today if you're at a point where you feel like man I need something move I need something to change get up and move and change do something different don't go through tomorrow the same way that you went through yesterday adjust yourself take a step take some effort when Jesus tells him to get up he got the man knows and Jesus knows then in order for this to happen it's going to require some effort from you first you're going to have to meet me half way you're going to have to start moving spiritually many of us we need to start moving we need to experience a power move in our spiritual lives but it happens first from us deciding to step out what's comfortable and step towards what God has for us Albert Einstein says the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results spiritually we can't be doing that you can't go through the same thing day after day after day and expect something different to happen Jesus wants to see you grow in your relationship with him he wants to see you move and cultivate your and do something different he wants to see you bust out of the defeat that you're in and experience some of his favor but you got to be the one that moves first John chapter 5 verse 8 to 9 I want to say it again then Jesus said him get up pick up your mat and walk at once the man was cured he picked up his mat and he walked for you what does this mean to move to change to make a power move man I think it comes from it's many different things for many different people for all of us it's probably something different I think for some of us when it comes to the time that we spend in the word the time that we spend studying it means we got to take the next step for some of you that means that you got to start spending some time reading the Bible maybe you don't do any of it at all today this isn't about I'm not telling you this is rules that you got to live by or these are things that you got to follow I'm just telling you that if you want to grow if you want to bust out of what you're dealing with right now you've got to do something different and it's got to start today so if you don't read the Bible I want to challenge you to start reading the Bible if you read the Bible periodically here and there I want to challenge you to take your next step and start reading the Bible regularly if you read the Bible regularly take the next step and start studying the Bible go in deep start googling some of the things that you're reading start looking pull some stuff down from from you version pull some stuff down from right now media and start getting in deeper to what God has for you some of it might be getting together with some friends and starting studying it together do something different for some of you when it comes to how you pray or when you pray I want to challenge you to take the next step to get up to move to do life differently for some of you means to start praying for some of you means to start praying to start praying regularly for some of you it means that you need to expound on what you've been doing that the same thing some type of prayer in the same ways of praying aren't going to cut it today like they did yesterday for some of us when it comes to prayer that time is to adjust and spend time in fasting what Jesus said is still connected is also connected to prayer there's multitude of other ways that we can continue to change continue to be different serving one another some of us come to church and we attend church and I think it's great that you're here but if you want to challenge yourself spiritually if you want to change what who you are and what you're going through if you want to make a power move and see God show up in a big way if you want to experience adventure in your life spiritually take the next step do something different serve on a team serve the people around you in your neighborhood go serve it bridging the gap or serve on it go down to frog and help fold clothes and sort clothes serve the community that God has put you in serve it even sacrificially take take the next step make make a move as I finish up in John chapter 5 verse 9 you see something happen to the man after he's healed as the band is going to come up and start playing you see the after the man's been healed the people that were the leaders in the religious world start to give him a hard time in spite of him living in the freedom that Jesus just healed him from the thing that has been holding him back as he's getting up and he's walking with his mat says this says the day on which this took place was a Sabbath during the Sabbath you weren't supposed to work you weren't supposed to do anything and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed it is the Sabbath the law forbids you to carry your mat the Jewish leaders they were just they were just being haters I'm reminded that in the midst of making a move in the midst of being different not everyone around you is going to see what you're doing for what it really is so you're just taking a step you're just growing in a relationship with Jesus you're going beyond what you were doing yesterday in hopes that Jesus shows up in a big way and adjusts you and allows you to live in a better way than what you were before but some people look at that and they say who are you trying to be what are you trying to do the man's responsible with this I think his beautiful voices but he replied the man who made me well told me to pick up my mat and walk and that's what he did when it comes to the move that you need to make don't let anybody hold you back don't let anybody keep you from what God's calling you to don't let anything or any job any person any relationship keep you from taking the step that you need to take any relationship with Jesus and at any point if you feel any resistance you remind yourself man I'm just doing what Jesus told me to do my faith's in him I'm just going to do you know what I'm tired of being stuck where I'm at I'm tired of things not working out it's time for a power move I'm going to adjust and do what God what Jesus tells me to do I'm going to pick up and remove I'm going to take a step and read my Bible I'm going to take a step in my prayer life I'm going to spend some time fasting I'm going to spend some time in the day in worship I'm going to connect with some other believers and we're going to encourage one another and we're going to grow beyond where I'm at right now I promise you if you do that life will be far better for you than what it is today for many of us I'm with you I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us to make a power move in our relationship with Jesus to go past what's comfortable to live in an adventurous way as we follow him let me pray for us Heavenly Father you know what we're dealing with you know what we're struggling with I pray that you would give us the courage and the energy to step in to step out to pursue you in a way that is beyond what we're just comfortable with yesterday gotta pray that this is something this is not something we will put off till tomorrow or the beginning of this week or Monday or Tuesday or beyond but that today we would make the decision that we're going to adjust some things in our life spiritually we're going to pick up who we are and we're going to move in our faith of you trust you I thank you for what's to come just name me pray amen as always coastline know that you are loved and that the best is yet to come