You’re glad to be in God’s house today? Can we welcome all the locations joining us? Believe God’s going to speak to us.
Let’s pray right now, all locations. God, we just invite, we invite your Holy Spirit today to speak to us, to change us, to convict us. God, I’m asking right now for the Holy Spirit. I’ve been in Yakima. I’m so excited about their new building. Let your Holy Spirit sweep through that building today.
Bellevue, I’ve stood there, worshiped there, prayed there, spoke there. Flow through Bellevue today. DuPont, Tacoma, our online church, our online family. God, do great things today. I promise. I promise. I will give you all the glory. You are such a good God. I give you the glory today. We pray these things in Jesus’ name.
And everyone said amen. You can be seated today. I want to publicly say how grateful I am for the Gerald family. They really are like family to Angel and I, and they came into our world, we came into their world a little over 15 years ago. And little did I know when our church was about 100 or 200 people and struggling, and I probably wanted to quit more days and I wanted to keep going.
that they would be such a breath of fresh holy air to our family and ministry. Now multi-site, the last couple weeks we’ve water baptized about 200 people and just so many wins, so many stories. I love the Gerald’s, the Cameron’s, and I’m forever indebted and grateful to them. My wife is here with me today.
Angel and I have been married for 29 years. They say that a good wife, a good wife will always be by your side during bad times, mainly to remind you that none of this would have happened if you would have just listened to her. But I’m very thankful. I’m very thankful for my wife, Angel, 29 years and counting.
She wanted me to take her to one of those restaurants today where they cook right in front of you. So I’m taking her to Subway. No, that’s not funny. I also have three of my daughters, my son, three of my daughters, the two oldest married. My son-in-law is Corbin and Trey. So thankful for my family.
You know, initially with Angel and my three daughters, you know, you’re just surrounded by women in your world, surrounded by women in the house. There’s probably a thousand things that we could share today about the differences, men and women. But one thing that always stood out to me is how women could have so many kinds of shampoo.
They can have shampoo for dry hair, shampoo for damaged hair, shampoo with oils for curls, for color, for clarifying, for volumizing, moisturizing, strengthening. And then men, they sell us shampoo that’s like six-in-one shampoo. You can use this shampoo on your face, your hair, your body, your car, your carpet, your dishes.
It’s all in one bottle, men. Come on, men, where you at? You just get one bottle, men. I’m so thankful for my family, and I’m a grandpa now of three grandsons. I’m going to share a little bit about that today. I want to talk to you on the subject, save me. Everyone say, save me. The Bible says in Acts 2.
21, the Lord will save, there’s the word, the Lord will save everyone who asks him to help them. In other words, even today, if you were just to say, God save me, Lord save me, the Bible tells us here, the Lord will save everyone who asks him to help them. for hell. Romans 10, 13 says, for, here’s the word everyone again, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
A couple of weeks ago, I believe you see a picture on the screen today of my three grandsons. Lennox John, who is unbelievable. You see him there in the life jacket. You see Landry, my ginger, my redhead, Landry Lee, Landry Lee. And then you see Remy David, who was just born. My middle name is David, and they wanted to name Remy with my middle name David.
You see my three grandsons. My oldest grandson, Lennox, is he loves anything tractors and side-by-sides, and he’ll sit on the mower with me, and he loves the water. He loves to be outdoors, outside. And so my daughter Brooklyn was telling me a couple of weeks ago that she is going to put Lennox into swim lessons.
And she’s sending me several of the text and the information that would revolve around Lennox going to swim lessons because on their property they have a couple of ponds. On our property we have a pond. And so she’s wanting Lennox to make sure that he knows how to swim. And this message today is really going to come out of those texts.
the beginning stages of Lennox learning how to swim and how I felt the Holy Spirit has spoke to me the last couple of weeks on the dangers of drowning and how we all need to know how to navigate those seasons and moments in our lives when storms show up. One of the things that stood out to me when my daughter Brooklyn sent me the information about Lennox and his swim lessons.
There was a lot, but one of the things was this. She texted me the information, and as I’m reading this statement, this is really what jumped out to me. It said, drowning is the second leading cause of death in kids ages 2 to 14. and 60%, notice this, 60% of drownings happen within just 10 feet, 10 feet, 10 feet of safety.
I went and bought this life jacket, and even when you are reading the tags on the life jacket, the information, It is repeatedly telling you things that I just shared with you about proximity and safety and what they would, I mean, there’s three tags, three on this one little item. And then if that’s not enough, you would open it up in the entire back of the life jacket.
is going to continue to tell you at the very start, drowning hazard, if not worn tightly, fastened properly. And for the duration, top to bottom, it’s going to continue to tell you and I the things that we need to do if we want to stay safe. Just as a gentle reminder that it’s possible, 10 feet. 10 feet is not really that far.
That you could be 10 feet away from safety. Safety in your marriage, safety in your business, safety in your soul. You could be 10 feet. A ministry moment, a prayer time, a new relationship. Just 10 feet away from safety. There’s over a million incidents or accidents related to water annually. Most people have that number annually at 1.8 million.
According to the World Health Organization, there are 372,000 drowning deaths annually. I want you to see some correlations or connections today with just some simple perspectives of what could you and I, what can we learn from lifeguards? I would like you to maybe see some of those correlations and connections in asking yourself, what can we learn about the dangers of drowning? Psalm 69, verse 1 and 2, says, God, save me.
Everyone say, save me. God, save me from all my troubles. The rising water has reached my neck. I have nothing. If you’ve ever been in water, I noticed that even with the river baptisms recently, we’re doing them in a river and these 200 people, when they would begin to walk out in the water of the river, knee deep and then waist deep, and they would say, several would say, I’m okay as long as I can, as long as I can touch.
Maybe you’ve been in a pool or you’ve been in water before and there’s something about being able Being able to touch. The psalmist here says, I’m getting to the point where I have nothing to stand on. I am sinking down, down into the mud. I’m in deep water. The waves are about to cover me. I want you to notice as the psalmist describes the details of his dilemma.
He’s given, if you would, those that are business owners, he’s given some metrics or measurables, if you would, for what he is going through. And he starts to say words that maybe if we were to fast forward to 2026, we would say things like, I’ve had it up to here. Or we may say something like, enough is enough.
He begins to say, it’s rising, and while it’s rising, I’m sinking. It’s getting higher and harder. I have nothing to stand on. He says, I’m in deep water. You might say you’re in deep something else. He said, I’m in deep water in the waves. And in the middle of all of it, he just, he prays this prayer, God, would you save me? There are currently an estimated 113,500 lifeguards just in the United States.
A lifeguard is a person who supervises the safety and rescue of swimmers, surfers, other water sports that they’re participating in, swimming pools or parks or beaches. They will tell you on all of these swim sites, if you were to study, if you were to search, They will tell you to select swimming sites that have lifeguards when possible because, and I’m quoting, lives are at risk when there is a lack of lifeguards.
Maybe you recently watched or witnessed, it was on all of the news and social media, the rescue of a 10-year-old boy by the name of Nathaniel. He was rescued just in the last few weeks by a lifeguard who was 16. The lifeguard’s name was Ryder. Was in Santa Cruz and there was a rip current. And if you watch it, the waves are going different directions and pulling them back in.
And this lifeguard continually, repeatedly is trying to rescue this one little boy. Now if we stopped right here in this point. of the passage and the message. And we just talked about the importance of one. I’m grateful for crowds and conferences. Jesus had compassion on them. But I think we also should remind ourselves that it’s worth it for one.
And Jesus also repeatedly in Scripture would seek and search out the one. And when you watch this 16-year-old in the clip, when you watch him really jeopardize his life, risk his life to save this 10-year-old boy. He’s now being invited to the White House. If you have watched it, he’s being invited to the White House.
He’s going to receive the high civilian honor. And everything that revolves around the subject that I’m sharing with you right now, I reference a life jacket, but have you ever noticed before that all of the words life guards, life jackets, life vests, life rings, life rescue tubes, life preservers, what’s at stake in all of it is life. Lives are at stake.
They say that life guards learn to identify hazards, rip currents, changing weather. swimmer fatigue, unsafe behavior before, before, before, before, before, before they become life-threatening. You think you’re just doing the chicken fights and the whistle. You think you’re just like working your way out as far as you can get to the edge.
And all of a sudden a shout, hey, the whistle’s blowing. They begin to wave. Why? Why? Why is a lifeguard doing that? Because they are trained to see it before you start sinking. They never assume safety. One site, and I’m quoting, said even on calm days, they will remain alert. Everyone okay? How about Yakima? Right there.
Yeah, your marriage okay? DuPont, you all right? Used to sit in the front row. Now you’re in the back row. Used to be engaged in serving. But I haven’t seen you. You all right? Lifeguards are trained. Do we see it? Because I know the drowning. I know the catastrophe. I know what that looks like. But there are steps before we get there.
Lifeguards are trained not just to respond to emergencies. They are trained to prevent. Emergencies. You know, one thing that’s so interesting, those of you that are lifeguards or maybe you have been certified or over your lifetime, maybe you filled one of these roles. So intriguing to me when they say that lifeguards are taught that the person drowning often panics and will fight the rescuer.
They will teach lifeguards. You gotta come up from behind. You’ve got to hold them a certain way. Because if not, they’ll start fighting you. The person trying to save your life, and you’re going to knock them out. The person trying to help you, and you’re going to take them down too. It almost is hard to believe until you start thinking about pastoring, parenting, counseling.
And you start thinking about the amount of times that you’ve tried to help your friends and they unfriended and unfollowed you. You tried to have the hard conversation with them and they broke your heart. You were like, I was just trying to help. I was just trying to save you from seeking. You’re mad at the sermon.
You’re mad at the counseling. You’re mad because mom and dad said, who’s going to be there? What time are you going to be home? Lifeguards watch for subtle signs of distress. I would love today in our time together, just for a moment, to think about lifeguards in your life. You know, many lifeguards maybe would come to mind for me.
One of the predominant lifeguards would be Pastor Kevin, Pastor Sheila. That my wife Angel, our family would say when we first met them in our own way, we are sinking. I wrote seven or eight resignation letters. I still have a few of them that I keep for memories. Utilities have been shut off. Staff let go.
Thinking there’s no way our church is going to make it. But somebody was looking. And all of a sudden the conversations, the saving, even right now today, maybe some of you. You could think of a parent or a grandparent, a student leader. You could think of a spouse. Maybe someone right now is coming to mind where you would say, I would not be here today, Micah.
I wouldn’t be sitting in Bellevue or DuPont or Yakima, wouldn’t be sitting in Tacoma if it wasn’t for the fact that when I started going down, when I started slipping, they text, they emailed, they met me for coffee, they reached out. Could we take time today and celebrate every lifeguard? Come on, every person who’s ever watched out for you.
You may want to message them even today. And just tell them, thank you for the times that you saw the subtle signs. It’s not my word that’s on the website. The subtle signs. It wasn’t even really noticeable to everyone else. They would have just said, oh, he’s one in the crowd. He’s one in the room. But you saw it.
You noticed it. You said something. Thank you for taking time to watch over me. In a world that’s drowning. Hello? In a world that’s drowning. What if God is calling some of you to be lifeguards? Maybe your neighborhood, your business. Maybe you need to be on the school board. Community leader, an official.
Maybe you’re not just at the gym for muscles. My son-in-law, he competes competitively in CrossFit, was recently in Miami, and yesterday was in another large competition. Not long ago, I’m baptizing a man in our church. This guy’s ripped and I’m baptizing him. And his name is Jay. And his wife is weeping.
And as I’m baptizing Jay, I just pause and I ask his wife, Shonda, I said, you know, what’s your story? And she begins to tell me my husband was an atheist. He wanted nothing. She said, I’ve prayed for years and years for him. And I said, so what happened to bring Jay to baptism? And she said, your son-in-law, first I’ve heard of it.
The baptism in tears, she said, your son-in-law, Trey. At the gym, Jay would ask him, what about this? And what about this? And my son-in-law, Trey’s an introvert. She said, Trey began to share with him and talk to him and Jay opened up and now I’m baptizing Jay. What if God was calling some of you to be lifeguards at the gym, in the locker room? On your team, someone’s drowning.
You’re within 10 feet. Come on, Champion Center. You’re within 10 feet of them drowning. Maybe God is calling you to be a lifeguard. Why are lifeguards so important with 372,000 drowning deaths annually? They say that a drowning person doesn’t lose their life all at once. They lose the ability to get the next breath.
Think of the people in your life. Maybe you’ve even said it. Think of the people in your life that have actually said to you, I can’t even seem to catch my breath. Or someone who might say, I just wish I could breathe. Life and pressure and stress and anxiety and schedules and sports. Mike, I just wish I could breathe.
What if I were to submit to you today that right now, if I get out that measuring tape again 10 feet, what if I were to submit to you today that someone could be drowning on your row? I wonder if you would sit like you’re sitting right now if someone was really drowning within 10 feet of you. I think they are. I think there could be someone in the room right now drowning.
Drowning in discouragement or anxiety. Drowning with the health, the doctor’s report, the chemotherapy. Drowning with their age and their mind telling them who would want to marry me at whatever age you put in the, could God really use me at the age and whatever age you’re choosing. Drowning others in sin or stress or addiction or loneliness.
Isn’t it interesting? Don’t you find this intriguing? That when people begin to excessively drink or taking on certain addictions and behaviors and habits, don’t you find it intriguing that they will literally say, I’m drowning, drowning, drowning. I’m drowning my sorrows or drowning the pain. They’ll use the word drowning it.
The opioids, and it’s the only way I can sleep, Micah. I feel the Holy Spirit right now for someone just, I think, drowning, even though we can’t see it. They’re not sitting there with a life jacket on today. But in their own way, they’re flailing. They call it silent sinking. You could study this. They call it silent sinking.
They say many times drowning victims cannot yell for help because they’re struggling to breathe. They call it the gulp and the gasp. And they’ll say some people drown within a few feet of you and I because the drowning is so quiet that it goes unnoticed.
If you were to look at the sites that share about swimming and safety that my grandson Lennox swimming lessons took me down all of these trails. They will tell you, and I don’t have time to share all of them with you, but with drowning, if you want to guard against drowning, here’s a few of the key things they will tell you. Most people drown because there’s a lack of barriers or boundaries.
Boundaries that they thought were so bad. But somebody had said, hey, you shouldn’t go here. You don’t want to jump off of that. Because you and I don’t want any boundaries. We don’t want no absolute truth. We don’t want no caution. Who’s gonna tell me what to do, Micah? I’ll do what I want, when I want.
People drown, drown. We look back and be like, where is she? Where is he? Where’d that family go? It’s a lack of boundaries. They say that drowning is often from a lack of supervision or a lack of support. Another site that I read said that a lot of drowning is able to be prevented And it sounds so simple.
I’m serious with this. We’re talking life and death. It’s as if you just don’t swim alone. You say, why, pastor, is it so prevalent? You’re always saying you should be in church, you should be in community. Why don’t you get your kids, your students connected? Or a life group? Why is it always so important? Friendships and rooted.
I went to Bible college in 1990, so this is year 36 of some form of ministry. And one thing I have observed is a lot of times people drown spiritually because they just wanted to swim alone. If I would have been within 10 feet of you, I wouldn’t have let you quit. I wouldn’t have let you get bitter like that. I wouldn’t have let you go off the deep end.
Would you take a moment today and just look at the person beside you and just tell them don’t swim alone? Come on, Yakima, just look. DuPont, Bellevue, Tacoma, just look at the person beside you. Don’t swim alone. They say drowning can be impacted by one’s attire. I’m quoting, drowning can be impacted by one’s attire or things that may weigh them down.
In other words, what takes me down, there’s some things I can guard against. If I was to ask you today, what brings you down? And maybe, as importantly, who? Is it the news? The psalmist said, why are you cast down, oh my soul? That’s what he said, why? Why? I’m recognizing, I’m going down. Why am I cast down? Some of you could be one decision away from a wrong relationship.
It’s dragging you down. Other people, the guilt, the shame, the worry, the fear, the anxiety, your feelings. In our final few moments, there’s so many things we could share. Let me give you just a couple more. They say people who drown, it’s often because of drifting. They say a person will often drift.
Everyone say drift. A person will often drift before they drown. People seldom drown because they intended to. They drown because they drifted further than they realized. I went snorkeling just a couple of weeks ago with my two youngest. They take us out and at one point, I’ve snorkeled in water that wasn’t really deep.
At one point they said this was a couple of hundred feet deep and then they find their way closer to an area that was probably 20 or 30 feet deep. We get off the boat. And within 10 minutes, three people had to be rescued. One was an older gentleman. They’re coming to rescue them, take them back to the boat, realize the waves, the currents, this is just a little bit stronger than what they had thought.
When you think about drifting, you could drift from something, you could drift to something. The devil is often satisfied if he can just get you to drift. Some people right now, like today, Some people right now are distant today because they drifted yesterday. You’re like, how did she get so far? How did he get so far? They used to worship.
They used to serve. They used to pray. How in the world did that marriage, that family? Well, at some point, they started drifting. The current will carry you and I away. There’s a lot of things that can have current. Culture can have a current. Society can have a current. Your school can have a current.
College, university, sports, work, a neighborhood, a city. Social media can have a current. Criticism can have a current. Oh yes it can. I’ve watched and witnessed people. They were doing fine until they got in the current of criticism. Discouragement, offense. Division, they have a current. They’ll take you away from God and away from truth and away from absolutes and away from community and away from student nights and away from time in his presence and away from prayer and away from right relationships and away from the Bible.
The writer in Hebrews said this in chapter two, verse one. So we must listen very, come on, hear me, Champion Center, carefully, carefully, carefully, carefully to the truths we have heard. Or we may what? We may drift away from them. The devil would love for you to drift away from God’s truths. Some of you, God would be calling you even today, saying, hey, be careful you don’t drift away from the identity I created you with, the purpose I created you with, the plan I created.
Don’t drift from that. Matthew chapter 14, verse 28, and Jesus answered him. Peter answered him, you have this interaction between Jesus and Peter. Peter wants to walk on water. Peter says, Lord, if it’s you, command me to come to you. Jesus said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
When he saw the wind, he was afraid, beginning to sink, sink, sink, sink. Here it goes, sink. Beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Beginning to sink. Not trying to minimize it. I’m just saying with Simon Peter, like, I can’t touch right now. That child, that son, that daughter, that situation, that circumstance I’m trying to navigate.
The business decision, the choice, like I can’t, I’m trying to touch God. I can’t touch. I can’t touch. Beginning to sink, he cries out, Lord, can you save me? I think most people would agree that with the disciples in the early church, the guy who would exhibit the strength, strong, I got it, I’m good.
The guy who could like chop an ear off. This is the guy, Simon Peter. Say, Micah, why would you want me to think that the toughest, strongest is the guy sinking? Because I think sometimes we forget that even strong people sink and even strong people struggle. Sometimes we could see someone and be like, oh, they’ve had it so tough. They’ve had it so, and they have.
But sometimes if you’re not careful, You see the person who has so much or has it all together, you would assume there’s no sink in Simon. Sometimes they cover it up better than others, but on the inside. They say that fear, everyone say fear. They say that fear will make someone sink even faster. Because you panic, you start to flail.
And in the flail, they say the shock will make you sink quicker. And Peter cries out. The last couple of days I sat in the hotel lobby and I actually had tears coming down my face just praying for someone who could sit today. One of the locations, whether people realize it or not, whether they see it or not, but you know there’s some sink going on.
And I prayed that maybe you could just muster up enough strength. to just pray this short prayer, save me, save me, save me. The Bible says in verse 31 that Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. If we had time today at all of the locations, if we had time today to think about all of the times that God has grabbed you and I.
All of the times that maybe we were a little sideways or sidetracked or we weren’t sure, can I keep going? All the times that God grabbed us. The old hymn said this, I was sinking, sinking, sinking. I was sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within. And the truth of the matter is, I was sinking to rise no more.
But, but. The master of the sea, he heard my despairing cry. And from the waters, he lifted me. The song Firm Foundation will reference the fact that in the midst of the storm, we hold on. I won’t be going under, but it’s not because of my own strength. Come on, Simon. The reason that you’re not going under.
is because the Lord, who is the greatest lifeguard, Bible says he immediately grabbed him. I want to pray with you today. I want you to think about two things. I want you to think about two things. I want you to think about your life right now. I want you to think about at the movies coming up. It’s going to be awesome.
I want you to think about what if God has spiritually and strategically positioned you to be 10 feet. Here we are. Here’s 10 feet. I could be that close to the cubicle, that close to the coworker, that close to the person I’m playing sports with. Fist bump, good hit, good job, good game. This close to someone who’s drowning.
What if God was challenging you over the next few weeks to ask for the anointing of a lifeguard? To say, you know what? Would you join me? Would you come with me? Would you sit with me? Ten feet. Ten feet. And as I pray today, I would be remiss if I didn’t pray for every single person that could be within ten feet of a turnaround right now.
You could be going one direction and God is saying, if you’ll hear the Holy Spirit right now, like right, you’re within 10 feet of a turnaround. I want to pray at all locations, Father, in the name of Jesus Christ. God, I pray over Yakima and DuPont and Bellevue and Tacoma, online church.
God, if there’s someone who’s drowning, if there is a Simon Peter that needs you to grab them today, someone who needs to know there is a firm foundation, God, this entire message could be for them today. Would you save them? Whether it’s salvation from sin, the greatest decision they’ll ever make, to say, God, save me, forgive me. Or if there’s someone today who has been saved, but they’ve been drifting, and the current has caught them up.
And today, you want to put them back on a firm foundation. I pray these prayers in Jesus’ name. Would you say it with me? Save me, God. Come on, at all locations, can we shout it out? Save me, God. I pray these prayers in Jesus’ name. Can we celebrate every person who made a decision today to say, save me, God. Save me, God.