Jordan Ames (00:01.068)
What fears do you face? What fears must you face? See, I believe fear exists for faith to be revealed. I mean, if you think about it, there's heaven and there's earth. The Bible says in, I believe it's First Corinthians thirteen, that there's love, hope, and faith, and the greatest of those is love.
And as I thought about that, I think the greatest is love because in heaven, we don't really need to have hope or faith. Because we're with God. We have everything we need. There's nothing more to hope for. There's nothing more that we need that we cannot see that we have to have faith in. We are fully in the presence of God. But here on earth, though we can have God's presence.
We also have the presence of the enemy. We have the spiritual warfare. We have the spiritual realm. And we have the natural realm. And so we have that back and forth. And through all those really those spiritual battles, those tugs at our heart, God calling us one direction, and the enemy trying to put up roadblocks or oppose it. And he does that through fear. And when we lack faith.
Our fear takes over. And so I really think that fear exists for us to trust God, to have faith in Him, that He's going to show up and do something incredible in our lives that only He can do.
In today's passage, we're gonna dig into a great story, a great example that happened between Jesus and his disciples, where they were terrified, but he showed up in a big way. So I'm gonna read out of Matthew chapter 14, starting at verse 22, and this is a passage of Jesus walking on the water. It's also covered in Mark 6 and in John 6.
Jordan Ames (02:20.054)
but this passage is unique because it's the only gospel that talks about Peter's actions. All right, so in verse 22, immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side while he dismissed the crowd. So I'll stop right there. A little context is he just fed the five thousand. And John's the only gospel that makes mention that after Jesus fed the five thousand.
They wanted to forcibly crown him king. And so he had to escape to a mountainside. He had to get out of there. And when he does that, he tells the disciples to go on ahead of him. All right, now verse 23. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. But the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. Now the fourth watch is between three in the morning and six in the morning. So 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, don't be afraid. Lord, if it is you, Peter replied, tell me to cut.
Come to you on the water. Come, Jesus said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, Lord save me. Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You have little faith, he said, why do you doubt? And 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 there's so much encouragement in this passage, but also really conviction, because you know, put yourself in Peter's shoes. He's afraid. He waits for Jesus to command him to step out.
Jordan Ames (04:49.004)
before he's willing to step out. But then he actually is willing to step out. But then even after he steps out and starts walking towards Jesus, fear starts to grip him yet again. See, I'm gonna bring Eric in in in a second, and we're gonna talk about
Talk about that fear and how even when we get drawn out of our comfort zone, we face that fear. But even at times, we're going to face it again. But it's awesome because God is so gracious. And even when we lack faith, He's there to pick us back up.
I want to share with share with you all a quote from a Marine Corps doctrinal publication that I know Eric is very familiar with. The title of the publication is Warfighting. It's like the foundational doctrine of the Marine Corps. And there's a quote that I took out of it years ago whenever we were whenever we were putting this red letter leadership book together. And it says this courage is not the absence of fear.
Rather, it is the strength to overcome it. So when you think about having courage, don't think about, only people who don't fear things have courage. No, everybody has different fears. Again, that's how we can make our faith relevant. It's those that step out and courage, like Joshua, like Gideon, like Peter.
that face their fears. And when we talk about leadership,
Jordan Ames (06:32.214)
Leadership isn't about ignoring our fears, acting like we don't have them, but it's about being real with our fears, preparing for those fears, preparing to face those, and leading others through those fears. So I wanna I wanna bring Eric in and Eric, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna ask any specific question with you right now, but I just want to hear your
Hear your take on
This passage.
Eric Albright (00:02.658)
Yeah, I appreciate that, Jordan. and just it's good to be back on here again. I know you've been putting out the the podcasts and the episodes, and so it's really good to be back on here and riff with you about leadership and about Christ Center leadership. And I I think this is probably when you talk about
Jordan Ames (00:15.202)
Yeah, man, good to have you. Always.
Eric Albright (00:22.848)
One of the biggest hurdles, roadblocks, mountains, stumbling blocks, whatever you want to call it, fear in leadership. Fear has to be at the top of that list. Okay. And I don't think fear necessarily needs to be defined as like a big bully that's gonna pummel me into oblivion, right? Or I don't have to fear for my life. It it could be a it could be a lot of hey, there's anxiety and
In the unknown. Okay. I'm not sure what's going to happen or how this is supposed to look.
And so I don't have a reference to provide comfort. Because I think if we've seen something before and we understand it, it provides a level of familiarity that lends itself to comfort and understanding. And fears the opposite of that. Fears I don't know what's gonna happen, or I'm concerned about or there's other types of I'm concerned about the consequences of what will happen. But I think the fear that we're discussing here is the fear of
I'm not really sure what's gonna happen the unknown and not really comfortable anxiety-wise of going out and overcoming those. And so for the story that you mentioned, and again, let's just make sure we continue to beat this drum. It's not a parable. Jesus isn't giving us a broad perspective of how to understand a c a complex problem. That's not it. This is what happened.
Jordan Ames (01:57.504)
Right. Yeah.
Eric Albright (01:59.001)
You know who's telling this story? Matthew. I'm pretty confident he was in the boat. He says, this guy named Pete. Okay. He might have been still called Simon. I'm not sure if they No, they called him Peter in this gospel. you know what we call him on our other podcast? Because he's a little bit all over the place? Squirrely Pete. Yep.
Jordan Ames (02:05.279)
Right. Exactly. Yeah.
Jordan Ames (02:15.02)
Yeah.
Jordan Ames (02:21.579)
What do you call Squirrelly Pete? All right.
Eric Albright (02:25.41)
Th our Catholic friends may not appreciate us calling Saint Peter Squirrell Pete, but that's but we love him nonetheless. Alright. SNO! He's and he ain't even denied him yet. He hasn't denied him, been restored. Squirrely Pete in the boat. By the way, did you mention have in a previous podcast what these boats look like? Have you described
Jordan Ames (02:32.119)
That's right. He w he wasn't a saint at this time.
Jordan Ames (02:38.155)
Yeah, yeah. He hadn't he hadn't entered saint status, so you're good. You squirr it's still squirrely Pete.
Jordan Ames (02:52.856)
I don't think I did. I think I put it in the book a little bit, but yeah.
Eric Albright (02:54.444)
Let me just read this. So I'm reading from the ESV version study Bible. And it has a little note, and I don't know if you're watching, but if you are watching, there's a picture of the boat. See it? So I'm gonna read you about this boat, because it matters. Context matters, right? It's good to paint the picture. So when you're like, man, a boat, what are they like? Talk about oars? Or they talk about like, is it a dinghy? Nah. This sucker was
Jordan Ames (03:08.194)
Yeah.
Eric Albright (03:22.818)
The it's a common fishing type boat and at the time, based on the remains of an approximately two thousand year old fishing boat found on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It could hold fifteen men. That's not a small boat, Jordan. fifteen
Jordan Ames (03:38.177)
like a that's like a cruise ship lifeboat, right? Like one of them bigger
Eric Albright (03:41.887)
y dude, yeah, or bigger. Like serious boat. And I'll tell you why that matters in a second. Could hold fifteen men, I'd imagine fifteen women too. It didn't matter. You know?
Either one. and was twenty-six point five feet long. So now for reference folks, if you're not a duck hunter and you sh number one you should be, but actually no don't be because then there'll be just more competition for ducks hunting spots. So don't go h dunk ducks. I'll handle it for you. But twenty-six point five feet long. Your average bass boat or like your hunting boat is probably sixteen or eighteen feet. So this is about one and a half bass boats long.
Jordan Ames (04:12.319)
Eric Albright (04:24.566)
Alright, for the normal person. Seven point five feet wide, and so your normal bat how many inches is that, Jordan? Seven times ninety six plus n a hundred over a hundred inches. Hundred and three. Something like that. So your
Jordan Ames (04:36.759)
Seven times twelve is eighty four.
Eric Albright (04:41.144)
so like ninety. Your average bass boat's around fifty-six, fifty-four, or sixty. So I'm just giving you perspective. This is about one and a half bass boats. Alright?
four and a half feet high and it has a big sail on it. So it's powered by both ore like oars, people power, and wind power. So when when this happens, like so they had just by the way, they had just fed the five thousand Jordan before this. Jesus has just fed, and I think it said five thousand men, which and it says besides women and children. So this that's a rabbit hole tangent for you. But if you're gonna read, and he does this a few times, there's more.
Than one feeds the 5,000. There's like two feeds the 5,000 and feeds the 3,000. But this one particular one in Matthew's gospel in chapter 14, 5,000 men and it says, besides women and children. So he actually, if every man has a woman, that's 10,000. And if you talk about every family has even just two, that's 20,000. So he feeds a lot of people there. And then he's like, okay, listen, that was a big deal.
Jordan Ames (05:37.965)
Mm.
Eric Albright (05:53.345)
I need to go take a break. I'm gonna go pray. You boys take the boat. All right? Plus I probably don't wanna do any of that rowing stuff. I'll meet you halfway across. You don't know the shit.
Jordan Ames (06:01.409)
Yeah, but I even I haven't maybe maybe you had cut out before we edited that per portion out of it. but I mentioned in John, John's the only gospel that talks about Jesus feeding the 5,000 right before this passage of him walking on the water, where the crowds wanted to forcibly make him king. So he's he's sending the disciples out on the lake.
Eric Albright (06:25.656)
good point.
Jordan Ames (06:28.513)
And he's going to the mountainside to pray. He's getting away from these crowds that arguably are trying to pull him towards something that's not his purpose, which is completely different leadership lesson. But but yeah, so that's a context of
Eric Albright (06:37.976)
Yes.
Well that's back in
Yeah, exactly right. You were right, exact great point. that's back in Matthew four and five, right before the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about I didn't come here to be a ruler. I came here to be a servant. and you know, the the his followers were still thinking the Messiah was gonna come like and just absolutely smash Roman occupation because their entire Old Testament history was taking land back that was once theirs, right? Or fighting for what they what they had. I mean, the whole way from the beginning. Anyways
Jordan Ames (07:10.625)
And that that crowd he just fed, which was well over five thousand, like you just mentioned, they're they're wanting to make him king. They're wanting to make him king and he's like, No, I'm getting away. 'Cause back then it was like
Eric Albright (07:15.19)
Well over. It was probably twenty thousand. Yes.
Twenty thousand people? That's a formidable forest, son.
Jordan Ames (07:26.392)
Yeah.
Eric Albright (07:27.746)
That's how many Marine Corps divisions? Probably a single. That's probably a size of a Marine Corps division.
Jordan Ames (07:35.745)
Yeah, yeah. Put it put it that way.
Eric Albright (07:38.401)
It's a significant force. Alright. Anyways, we we rabbit hold that one.
But probably. But anyway, so Pete so Peter, and his boys are in this giant one and a half sized bass boat boat with wooden sides, five feet deep, with a sail, middle of the night. talk about a storm, and then all of a sudden out of nowhere, Jesus comes, he's like ch he's like, Alright, I'm like they're pretty f they're a they're fearful, right? fourth watch of the night, which I think is three to six AM. I think it goes is that right?
Jordan Ames (08:08.225)
Yeah. Yeah, I think you cut out when I was reading that portion. But yeah, three to six in the morning. Yep.
Eric Albright (08:12.546)
Yeah, three to six in the morning.
Walking on the sea. And so they're afraid right now. They and first of they thought it was a ghost. They didn't recognize it for who he was. And so we're talking fear here and how to overcome it and the relationship to the story. So the first thing is if you're if you're in the middle of this boat, storms raging, waves, wind, middle of the night, late at night, and in your lifeline, in this case, Jesus is coming out to save you or to handle it.
Are you gonna recognize that buoy?
You know, and so like if you s like is and and is it and then here's the thing, and in j in the disciples' case, it most certainly wasn't what they th I listen, I don't think he's like, hey, I'm gonna come calm the seas, walk on water, hang tight one. I gotta go pray first. They didn't know what was coming. And so when they didn't know that the answer to their problems was gonna be Jesus and what he could they didn't know he could do any of this yet. Like he has power over wind and waves. And so the question for us practically
Jordan Ames (09:15.391)
yeah. Yep.
Eric Albright (09:19.434)
is if you're like don't it doesn't the lifeline you get isn't necessarily always the lifeline you should expect. Always be looking for an out that you that you may or not have other that and that goes back to the outside the box, right? And the trust factor. do you have something to add there, Jordan?
Jordan Ames (09:41.417)
no, no, keep going. I like where you're going at with this.
Eric Albright (09:42.819)
Yeah, and so the other part of this, as you yeah, as you were reading this, he's like, Look, and they thought it was a ghost, and they're There's and they're they cried out in fear. They had no idea what was going on. But immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, Take hearted as I do not be afraid, which you read a minute ago. And Peter's like, and back to Squirrely Pete. He's like, Okay, I think I got it, but let me just make sure you who you are. I I'm not gonna fully trust. Right? He's still a little bit little bit
Hesitant. He's like, Lord, if it is you, see, Lord said, Don't be afraid. And Peter said, Well, hold on. If it is you. So he didn't fully trust there. He's not, he's not St. Pete yet. I like that. Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, Come. Alright. Now, right there.
If some if if the if Jesus is speaking to you, Jordan, and he's about to have you do something you've never done before, in fact, in this case you didn't even think it was possible, and he said one word, four letters, come. What are you gonna do?
Jordan Ames (10:47.159)
Man, I would I would if if I could see him in front of me like Peter was seeing him, I sure hope that I would step out of the boat.
Eric Albright (10:57.836)
Right, but what you just said was something that didn't exude a hundred percent airtight confidence.
Jordan Ames (11:03.851)
Yeah, exactly.
Eric Albright (11:05.58)
So if Jesus is standing in front of you and says, come to me, or just come, and meaning like he's out in the middle of the lake and you're in the boat, are you gonna get up and go? Right? Like we've heard the story, we've been told what happens. Again, not a parable, a real-life account from Matthew. He's like, this is what happened. We're ch we are shown what is what can happen or what will happen, and we're still gonna be hesitant to some degree.
Holy cow, Jordan. And so
Jordan Ames (11:36.205)
Yeah, like I've been in a lot of water. I've been in pools, lakes, oceans, streams. Whenever I step into the water, I have to start swimming. I don't walk. So that whole that whole experience would be completely new, right?
Eric Albright (11:39.458)
Great point. Yeah, you're a Marsaw guy.
Eric Albright (11:47.854)
Hehehe
Eric Albright (11:53.455)
Yes. Right. So that's what I'm saying. So, like, this is big stuff. So, but you know, to Peter's credit, Simon Peter, he Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. Holy cow. So here's another thing about that verse, Jordan. People always talk about Jesus walking on water. Okay? Everyone says that. Got it. People forget.
Peter walked on water too. Okay?
Now you're like, Peter must have some mystical special powers. Okay, not so fast, Lee Corso. Go go to the next verse. Okay, so Jesus wasn't the only one who walked on water. He will allow you to do things you thought were impossible for yourself as well. And here's the next verse. So I'm talking about Peter going out and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when Peter, he, when Peter saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, sink.
Saved me. So here's the here's that takeaway. To do something you thought impossible or Peter thought impossible, all he had to do was put his eyes on Jesus, trust he was gonna do what he do, and he kept his eyes on him. The second doubt entered, fear, was the winds and waves in this case. Fear entered his mind and he took his eyes off the focus, which was Jesus coming and walking towards him and bringing him over. And there's a a very famous like Jesus reaching out his hand, you know, type of painting, I think.
picture. but the second the doubt or fear creeped in, what happened to Peter Jordan?
Jordan Ames (13:27.287)
Yeah.
Eric Albright (13:34.127)
Started sinking, bro. He started sinking. And Jesus immediately, this is verse 31, immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God. So it's like, bro.
You you one I came here and I said look it's me and you're like if it's you is it really tell me to come on out there and he's like come on out and Peter's like all right I'm coming and I'm picturing Pete and I don't think you can see if you're listening but like I'm picturing Pete you ever see like a cartoon feet scramble like you know like trying to like run out of this boat he's like I'm coming I'm coming you know he's you know trying to hustle his way out of there he gets in there is like bro this is amazing I don't know why this is happening I'm walking on water and he's got
Jordan Ames (14:18.252)
Yeah, yeah.
Eric Albright (14:27.044)
Focus on Jesus. And I don't know how far away he was, but it doesn't say that. But I'm picturing like twenty feet. That's where my mind's eyes has it. Something where you don't have to go for a long, long way. But far enough where you ain't just taking a step to get there. It's a few steps. Right? and anyways, and so he's going out and he's doing the thing and he's like, crap. Like you see like the light bulb. It's like Wiley Coyote runs off the cliff. Okay? And so you think all these cartoons are just people making things up. This is biblical.
Jordan Ames (14:32.769)
Right, it doesn't say.
Sure.
Eric Albright (14:56.944)
When old Coyote Man runs off the cliff, Jordan, it's like he just when he it's that's Matthew 14. He takes his eyes off Jesus or he realizes he's a he's doing something he can't do on his own and poo down he goes. Just like old Pete, he takes his eyes off off Jesus in this case and starts sinking. So that so I'm gonna I have another point to make, but I probably said a lot there, and I'll take a breath and let you kind of riff for a second.
Jordan Ames (14:59.104)
Right.
Jordan Ames (15:12.471)
Yes.
Jordan Ames (15:25.141)
Yeah, let me as you were as you were talking about just that that experience of Peter stepping out of the boat, starting to walk towards Jesus, then letting his fear consume the faith that he has and starting to sink. I I was thinking about because you even mentioned it, but in verse thirty it says, But when he saw the wind, and I started thinking.
He saw the wind when he was in the boat, too. It's not like he didn't realize that it was windy, and then he gets out of the boat and all of a sudden he realizes it's windy, right? Like they're in the middle of this storm. Well, at least a lot of wind, however, you want to really call it a storm. It just says wind and the waves are kicking up and everything. So he he recognizes that while he's in the boat. So that that situation is.
doesn't change. The wind doesn't pick up or die down or anything. It's windy when they're in the boat. Jesus calls him come. He steps out. It's still windy. And then it says he he saw the wind. So basically he focused more on the problem. He focused more on what's going to hurt him. He focused more on things he can't control rather than on the one who has all the control.
Eric Albright (16:27.502)
That's good point.
Eric Albright (16:34.242)
When did it stop?
Eric Albright (16:51.022)
That's good. That'll preach.
Jordan Ames (16:53.037)
Yeah, yeah. It just gets me thinking of like the boat is the comfort zone. It's still being suppressed by the wind. Of course, I haven't really been on many sailboats, but they're powered by the wind. However, if it gets too windy, it could be a really bad situation for Right? So they need the wind, but it can't be too windy. In this case, I don't know, maybe it was I'm sure they
They were it wasn't as bad as when Jesus calmed the storm. That that story, which again is not a parable, really happened. But nonetheless, it was still windy, and they became really afraid whenever they saw Jesus walking because they thought he was a ghost. so they're in their comfort zone of this boat. They're being they're they're experiencing these elements. They see Jesus walking, and Peter
You know, Jesus identifies himself and Peter's like, well, I'm not too sure, but if it's you, Lord, I just watched you feed well over five thousand, like right, ten, fifteen, twenty thousand people. If it's you and you are now walking on the water, I want to come to you.
Eric Albright (18:14.658)
Yes, and
Jordan Ames (18:14.805)
So Jesus calls him to come.
Eric Albright (18:17.364)
And what's the point of this story? Here's the thing about it, Jordan. The only reason the story existed was to show them and like who he was and how they could trust him, right? Like he didn't Jesus didn't need Peter to come out of that boat. He could have just kept walking, hopped in the boat, calmed the storm. What is the point? I don't know, like none of these are accidents, right? What I mean, what is the reason? He's there to show us, look, you can trust me, keep your eyes on me. Because he knew.
Jordan Ames (18:19.436)
Peter steps out.
Eric Albright (18:47.248)
2,000 years later, we'd be still telling this, talking about this, and it would speak to us just as much as it did to them. You know? It's like Jesus didn't need to have Peter come out and walk out to the boat to get to him. He did it for a reason. He did it to show us that we could trust him, and as long as we keep our eyes and our faith in him, he's got it. You know? And I would say this.
as we're finishing up here in a few minutes, is that I don't f this has it been a significant emotional event for these guys, right? And so we're talking practicalities 'cause this podcast isn't just a Bible study, it's a leadership podcast. Like how do we take these lessons and then apply them? In this case we're focusing on Peter, as told by the story by Matthew, who was in the boat. Middle of the night, big storm, okay, and we've talked before about how you've got
Your triangle, I use the triangle of tasks or ability or whatever. And your comfort zone is defined by a triangle that's dashed in the middle called F-E-A-R-Fear. You mentioned it a little bit ago, right? This boat, you said it, and I got me thinking. This boat is their comfort zone. The only thing between them, the wind and the waves, is this 26 and a half foot, four foot deep, whatever, inches ninety, seven.
and a half foot wide boat. Wooden boat. But is there anything stopping them from going over the edge of this boat if they choose to? No. But they you we just talked about that. Just like that dashed line.
There's nothing stopping us from moving outside and expanding our comfort zone and our reach and our abilities except us. The only thing keeps Peter from the water and the unknown is him. He did it on his own. The boat didn't throw him out. He got out. He stepped out, right? It's similar. And they were going through a storm, man. It's like, for us, the practical takeaway here is what's our storm and what's our boat?
Jordan Ames (20:34.091)
Right, except ourselves.
Eric Albright (20:55.704)
What I mean by that is what are we going through right now and it doesn't have to be a life crisis. It could be a tough decision at in the office, it could be
Child related, if you're parents, you know, what storm are you going through and what is your your comfort zone or your whoobie that you're clinging to? Like these boys thought that if it wasn't for this boat, okay, we're done. We're toast. Turns out if it wasn't for Jesus, they were toast. Because he had the whole time. But you know, if you're a parent, and and I'm kind of going off the cuff, Jordan, here, wasn't pre-p wasn't prepped but on this, but if you're a parent, your comfort zone that you're dealing with.
Jordan Ames (21:24.235)
Right.
Eric Albright (21:35.401)
With a a child with struggles with a with a teenager. That's that's what we're going through, teenager stuff. not specific stuff, but like it's just teenagerisms, you know. and our comfort zone as parents is probably rules and restrictions. Like once what, you know, and we think more rules and restrictions make us more comfortable and we'll stop the storm. We'll build the walls higher, we'll build the boat bigger. Those are rules and restrictions. We make more of these things, more of these things for our kids. And it's like, yep.
Jordan Ames (21:43.627)
Yeah, just T Up.
Eric Albright (22:05.324)
The more roles and restrictions to have, the less I'll worry about the storm because it won't affect us as much. Storm is that it's that teenager experience that you're doing dealing with as a parent. But in reality, maybe if we use Peter's example, maybe the answer isn't to build a bigger boat, to make more rules and restrictions. Maybe the answer is to walk hand in hand and pr pray with your kids through it, right? And keep Christ at the center of that relationship. And so let's go through here one thing we were doing as a family in the month of June here.
Jordan Ames (22:29.111)
Yep, so good.
Eric Albright (22:35.224)
with the men at our church is going through proverbs one day. One proverb a day. So maybe it's not more rules and restrictions to get over you know overcome the the teenagisms. Maybe it's thoughtful prayer and faith.
Go through some scripture together. Proverbs is a good one. It's a book of wisdom. It's great for kids, great for adults. There's certainly some adult themes in there, so be ready for that. But yeah, and so point being, and if you're like, whoa, I don't read scripture, I don't know how to pray, bless that, or whatever. That's the fear that you need to overcome. Because just this is the last thing I'll say, I'll hand it back over to you. Because just like
Just like Peter, the only thing standing between you and a and a and a deliberate Bible study prayer life with your teenage child is yourself.
And that fear is you is the fear of the unknown. I had never done this before, how they receive it, and I don't know what to do. Let me tell you, reach out, find a friend, have a walk you through it, or just pray through the situation, and he'll lead you through it himself. It's that simple. But but so the point here is this situation isn't dissimilar to things we deal with every day. There's always there's always a storm. That's life. It's called the flesh, it's the fall. This is the devil's domain here, Jordan, on this planet.
Jordan Ames (23:54.411)
Yep, Prince of Prince of this world.
Eric Albright (23:56.675)
Yep. and by the way, now I'm not gonna in the earlier in Matthew I was just reading this morning, but like when a Jesus is tempted, like the G he's the devil calls it or the Jesus acknowledges it as his domain, right? He's like, I will give you all of this. Like he owns it. Jesus acknowledges that. the point is there's a storm for there's all kinds of storms, and there's all kind of comfort zones and and gnomes, things that you're familiar with. We talked about unfamiliarity in the beginning, things that you're familiar with that are gonna keep you comfortable that you don't want to leave.
Jordan Ames (24:08.855)
Mm-hmm.
Eric Albright (24:26.608)
But maybe just maybe the answer to your problem or the solution to your problem is outside the walls of those boats that you call your comfort zone. I rest my case for now. Yeah.
Jordan Ames (24:39.553)
So good. That was a great case. so just a few, we're we're talking about, you know, maybe the you're just saying maybe the problem is yourself, right? Just a few chapters later in Matthew, Matthew 16, 24, Jesus is right after he mentions he he predicts his death, Jesus is telling his disciples, if anyone would come after me.
If anyone would follow him, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. I mean, I think that's that's a great picture of what Peter was doing. Like Peter's like, I cannot walk on water. I know this. I understand how this works. I can't do it. But by him stepping out of the boat, he was denying his own capabilities for what Jesus could provide.
Eric Albright (25:20.482)
Nay out of it. Yep.
Eric Albright (25:26.262)
Hmm.
Jordan Ames (25:38.264)
And he starts walking towards Jesus. And even then, even seeing, even trusting Jesus and experiencing that miracle, like at his feet, even then, he still loses some trust, takes his eyes off Jesus, and focuses elsewhere and recognizes that, I'm still Peter, I'm still human, this shouldn't be possible. And he starts sinking.
I want share again my own life, kind of kind of bringing this back around to the the practicality of it today in leadership, in our personal life, our personal walk with God. So I I may have shared this story on a podcast, on this podcast before, but so last summer, I well, a couple of years ago, I took on this counter trafficking mission. I was asked to manage it by.
A another organization. I started managing it. It was doing it was starting to take off. This is a mission over in East Africa. And the organization that asked me to manage it, they weren't really getting anything else going, so they decided to dissolve. So I was like, Well, it's irresponsible to just get ready this mission. So you know what? I'll take it on, I'll figure it out. And I've I've very much just with other experiences, mainly in military experiences.
I I've really gathered the, I don't know, the the willpower and the tr the the belief that I can I can figure it out. I'm gonna I know there's gonna be issues, I know there's gonna be setbacks, but I can figure anything out. and so I'm like, look, I'll just figure this out. And last year, as we're trying to ramp up some fundraising, I was very didn't really have any vision for it.
And I was just very worried, doubtful that the funding would come through. And so I wasn't setting any vision, I wasn't casting any vision for the future of this because I was like, Well, if we can't provide for it, there isn't going to be a future, and we'll have to turn it off anyway. So why waste my time doing the whole strategic planning stuff? And Lord really convicted me in a strong way.
Jordan Ames (28:03.243)
And this is also a testament that when you're when you're letting fear and worry and doubt consume you, it can have physical effects on your body. I I went to the doctors for a like a routine shoulder appointment with the ortho, and they did their typical, you know, take my blood pressure. This was last July. My blood pressure was 181 over 100. I felt fine. Like I was exercising, I felt fine.
They took my blood pressure and that's where it was at. And they said, my goodness, like what's going on? We need to have you back to check you out. This needs to come. Like, do you have any idea on what this could be? I I said immediately, I was like, it's stressed. I know exactly what it is. Not only I did I know it was stress, but I knew that it was stress because of my lack of faith, my fear and worry that this mission wasn't going to be provided for. So the Lord convicted me of that and he started walking me through that and he really
Eric Albright (28:42.456)
Yeah.
Eric Albright (28:51.574)
Right.
Jordan Ames (29:01.535)
Impress me to say, look, you need to trust me for the provisions. Like, as much as I'm the the leader of this, like I'm a steward of what he's doing. It's his mission. The success of it is his. It's all his. If he wants to shut it down, he'll shut it down. And whenever I gave that to him, within days, my blood pressure was back to, I don't know, 124 over 80 or whatever it was.
Eric Albright (29:30.021)
imagine that.
Jordan Ames (29:31.116)
Yeah, yeah. Amazing, right? and so I I started doing what I believe was the right thing as far as casting that vision and working towards that. And an incredible fundraiser led by led by a woman that's been helping us for for several years was helping the organization before that one dissolved and then started fully helping us. She leads a a fundraiser every November.
And this one last November brought in thirty five thousand dollars for this counter track. If it wasn't for that fundraiser, this this mission would have been would have been done probably last winter. but God was really just showing me again. It w that fundraiser, I had nothing absolutely to deal with it. I went up there because I knew they did a good job the year before and I I thought it was important for me to to be up there since it was all all to to fundraise for the
Work I was doing, but God showed me, like, look, I can I can make coins appear in the mouth of a fish to pay mine and Peter's temple tax, right? That's Matthew 17, I think. yeah, Matthew 17. And and so he really just showed me, like, look, I'm the one who provides. You have to trust me. So
Although it wasn't out of my comfort zone to be like, look, yeah, I'll take this on, I'll figure it out. I know what the right way to do this leadership stuff is. And and of course it's a whole it's if you know me, if you've been listening to this podcast, we are not experts. We're just constant students of leadership and trying to take a few minutes to share that stuff with you all. yeah, he's really been he's really been working on me through that. And I I've
Been thinking a lot with this topic of facing our fears and this lesson of Peter stepping out of the boat. Sometimes it might seem easy with that first step out of the boat, but continuing to walk on those waves could cause new fears to pop up. And so as we close, I think the biggest thing is know that.
Jordan Ames (31:51.275)
You can't do it alone. Have an accountability, you know, whether there's just one close man in your life, if you're a man, a woman, if you're a woman, have at least some sort of accountability structure. It was about two weeks ago I was interviewing Robert Cross, and he talked about several close friends he has and how he has accountability systems on him to where they can walk into his house anytime.
They can call him. They I think he said even as one of them that has access to his bank account so they can actually see where he's spending his money. Like full transparent accountability. Pretty impressive. Not saying you have to go that far, but I think it's such a great example of what it looks like to be held accountable. that's what we need when we step out of our comfort zone into the truly the unknown, an area, a space that we haven't been at.
And we're going in God's direction. We're going in the direction that He is calling us, just like Jesus said, Come, He He called Peter out of the boat. Like we will face opposition. The enemy is alive and well. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy you. You will face that opposition. But we need to keep our eyes on Jesus. And we need people that are going to help us do that. So enough of me talking. Any last words there, Eric?
Eric Albright (33:20.076)
No, you hit it right on the head. And I would say in addition, you know, to keep your eyes on Jesus, and I think what, you know, broadly it's use your faith to calm the storm. Use your faith or use your faith to overcome that storm. Because he will provide. He will get you through in a way you may not have recognized initially. All right. Use that faith. Even when it doesn't look like it'll work for you, 'cause it never worked like that before, walking on water. That's it, man.
Jordan Ames (33:50.217)
Awesome. Thanks, brother.
Eric Albright (33:51.126)
And be encouraged. Be encouraged.
Jordan Ames (33:53.39)
Yeah, for yep, be encouraged. Absolutely. All right, we'll see you all on the next episode.
