Anchored in Troubled Waters

Season 9, Episode 37

You Have to Let Him Wash You

Podcast Title: You Have to Let Him Wash You | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 37

Podcast Description:

Peter knew how to follow Jesus.

He knew how to sacrifice.

He knew how to speak up.

He even believed he was willing to die for Christ.

But when Jesus knelt in front of him with a basin and towel, Peter resisted.

“Thou shalt never wash my feet.”

In Season 9, Episode 37 of Anchored in Troubled Waters, we look at one of the quieter but most revealing moments in Peter’s journey.

Sometimes we are comfortable doing something for God but uncomfortable receiving something from God.

We know how to work.

Serve.

Carry.

Help.

Fix.

And say, “I’ve got it.”

But grace begins when we admit that there are some things we cannot clean, repair, or carry ourselves.

Jesus knew exactly how dirty Peter’s feet were.

He knelt anyway.

That is the picture of grace.

Christ does not wait for us to become clean enough to approach Him.

He approaches us because we need cleansing.

We will also see why forgiveness and salvation cannot be earned, why believers still need ongoing honesty and cleansing as they walk through a dirty world, and why people who have been washed by Christ should become willing to pick up the towel and serve others.

Sometimes surrender means laying something down for Jesus.

But sometimes surrender means finally sitting still and letting Jesus do something for us.

Jesus is not embarrassed by the dirt you are trying to hide from Him. He is already kneeling beside it with a towel.

Anchored in Troubled Waters

Season 9, Episode 36

Was It Worth It?

Podcast Title: Was It Worth It? | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 36

Podcast Description:

Peter had left his nets, his boat, and the familiar life he once knew.

Then one day he looked at Jesus and asked:

“Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?”

It is one of Peter’s most honest questions.

In one form or another, many faithful people eventually ask the same thing.

“I obeyed.”

“I sacrificed.”

“I stayed faithful.”

“So was it worth it?”

In Season 9, Episode 36 of Anchored in Troubled Waters, we look at the cost of following Christ and what happens when obedience begins to feel expensive.

We will explore why it is okay to acknowledge that faithfulness costs something, why sacrifice becomes dangerous when we start keeping spiritual receipts, and why God never overlooks the quiet acts of obedience that everybody else may miss.

Jesus does not shame Peter for remembering what he left behind.

Instead, He changes Peter’s perspective.

Because God’s reward does not always arrive in the form we expected, and heaven measures success differently than the world does.

Peter began by saying:

“Look what we lost.”

Paul eventually learned to say:

“Look what I gained.”

And the greatest gain was Christ Himself.

Faith gets shaky when we measure what we surrendered more often than we remember who we followed.

So was it worth it?

When the journey is finished and eternity has changed the math, I believe the answer will be simple:

Jesus was worth it.

Anchored in Troubled Waters

Season 9, Episode 35

How Many Times, Lord?

Podcast Title: How Many Times, Lord? | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 35

Podcast Description:

Peter came to Jesus with a question every one of us has probably asked in one form or another:

“How many times do I have to forgive?”

Peter thought seven times sounded generous.

Jesus answered, “seventy times seven,” and then told the story of a servant who had been forgiven an impossible debt but refused to show mercy to someone who owed him far less.

The problem was not that the second debt was imaginary.

It was real.

The problem was that a man who had received extraordinary mercy allowed himself to forget it.

In this episode of Anchored in Troubled Waters, we look honestly at biblical forgiveness.

Forgiveness does not mean pretending nothing happened.

It does not automatically restore broken trust.

It does not eliminate healthy boundaries or require us to remain in situations where we continue to be harmed.

Forgiveness means releasing our personal claim to vengeance and placing the debt into God’s hands.

We will also look at how unforgiveness can become its own prison, why bitterness often spreads far beyond the original wound, and why Christians sometimes struggle to forgive themselves for sins God has already forgiven.

Peter wanted Jesus to give him a number.

Jesus gave him something much more important:

A reminder of mercy.

Because people who remember the size of their own mercy become much slower to measure somebody else’s debt.

Forgiveness does not say what happened was okay. Forgiveness says what happened will not own me anymore.

Anchored in Troubled Waters

Season 9, Episode 34

When the Mountain Isn’t Home

Peter had just heard Jesus speak about suffering, surrender, and the cross.

Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the top of a mountain and allowed them to witness something extraordinary.

Christ was transfigured before them.

His face shone like the sun.

Moses and Elijah appeared.

Heaven spoke.

And Peter responded exactly the way many of us would:

“Lord, it is good for us to be here.”

Peter wanted to stay.

He even offered to build three tabernacles and preserve the moment.

But God had not brought Peter to the mountain so he could live there.

He was preparing him for what was waiting below.

In Season 9, Episode 34 of Anchored in Troubled Waters, we look at the Transfiguration and discover why God sometimes gives us mountaintop moments of clarity, encouragement, and spiritual strength.

We will see why spiritual experiences are meant to prepare us rather than become places we hide, why we must learn to listen when God speaks, and why the fading of an experience never means the absence of Christ.

Immediately after Peter comes down the mountain, he encounters a hurting father, a suffering child, and ministry that still needs to be done.

The lesson is simple:

God does not take us to the mountain so we can escape the valley.

He takes us there so we can return to the valley knowing who walks down with us.

Experiences fade.

Circumstances change.

Feelings come and go.

But when Peter lifted his eyes after everything else disappeared, Scripture says:

“They saw no man, save Jesus only.”

The mountaintop was never Peter’s destination.

Jesus was.

Anchored in Troubled Waters

Season 9, Episode 33

Take Up Your Cross

Jesus never described discipleship as a life of convenience.

Immediately after Peter struggled to understand why Jesus would have to suffer, Christ turned to His disciples and gave them one of His clearest invitations:

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

In this episode of Anchored in Troubled Waters, we explore what it really means to take up our cross.

The cross is more than life’s ordinary hardships. It represents the places where following Christ costs us something: pride, comfort, control, approval, opportunity, or our own plans.

We will look at why true discipleship begins with surrender, why Jesus calls us to take up our cross daily, how Peter eventually learned the lesson he once resisted, and why nothing surrendered to God in obedience is ever wasted.

The world tells us to protect our lives at all costs.

Jesus tells us that when we place our lives in His hands, we finally discover what life was meant to be.

And when the road is difficult, we remember something Peter had to learn:

Friday does not get the final word.

The cross is temporary.

Glory is forever.

Join us for Season 9, Episode 33: Take Up Your Cross.

Podcast Title:

When Heaven Doesn’t Make Sense | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 32

Podcast Description:

Just after Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, he found himself resisting the very plan of the Savior he had confessed. When Jesus spoke of suffering, death, and resurrection, Peter could not understand why the cross was necessary. In this message, we explore what happens when God’s plan does not match our expectations, why sincere love can still misunderstand His will, and how faith continues trusting when heaven does not yet make sense.

Alternate Podcast Description 2:

Peter loved Jesus, but he could not accept a plan that included suffering and death. Yet the cross Peter wanted removed was the very cross through which Jesus would save him. This message examines the difference between human perspective and heaven’s purpose, and reminds us that faith is not believing everything makes sense. Faith is trusting Jesus when it does not.

Alternate Podcast Description 3:

What do we do when God’s plan looks painful, confusing, or completely different from what we expected? In Matthew 16, Peter tries to correct Jesus because he cannot understand the cross. Through this passage, we discover that God is not confused when we are, His silence is not His absence, and Friday never gets the final word when Sunday is coming.

Podcast Title:

Who Do You Say That I Am? | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 31

Podcast Description:

Jesus asked His disciples what the crowds were saying about Him, but then He made the question personal: “Whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In this message, we explore the difference between public opinion and personal faith, why borrowed answers are never enough, and how everything in the Christian life rests on knowing who Jesus truly is.

Alternate Podcast Description 2:

The world has always had opinions about Jesus, but Jesus is not looking for the opinion of the crowd. He asks each of us personally, “Who do you say that I am?” Join us as we discover why Peter’s confession remains the foundation of every believer’s faith and why that question still demands an answer today.

Alternate Podcast Description 3:

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked the most important question ever posed: “Whom say ye that I am?” Peter answered with one of the greatest confessions in Scripture: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This message examines the difference between borrowed faith and personal conviction, and why your answer to Jesus changes everything.

Podcast Title:

When You Start to Sink | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 30

Podcast Description:

Peter stepped out of the boat at the word of Jesus and began walking on the water. But when the wind captured his attention, fear took over and he began to sink. In this message, we look at faith, distraction, desperate prayer, and the hand of Christ that reaches us when our courage begins to fail. What is over our heads is still under His feet.

Alternate Podcast Description 2:

Peter had enough faith to step out of the boat, but the storm eventually became louder than the Savior. In Matthew 14, we see that even bold faith can struggle, short prayers can reach a strong Savior, and Jesus corrects us after He catches us, not instead of catching us.

Alternate Podcast Description 3:

What do you do when you obeyed Jesus, stepped out in faith, and still began to sink? This message from Matthew 14 follows Peter onto the water and reminds us that struggling faith is not abandoned faith. When the wind is loud and courage grows thin, the hand of Jesus is still within reach.

Podcast Title:

Empty Nets | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 29

Podcast Description:

After fishing all night and catching nothing, Peter was ready to wash his nets and call it a day. But Jesus stepped into his boat and asked him to try one more time. In this message, we discover how God often works after our strength is gone, why “nevertheless” is one of the greatest words of faith, and how simple obedience can become the doorway to extraordinary blessing.

Alternate Podcast Description 2:

Peter knew the lake, knew the nets, and knew there were no fish. Then Jesus told him to launch out one more time. This message explores weary faith, trusting God’s Word above our own experience, and the miracle that waited on the other side of obedience.

Alternate Podcast Description 3:

Have you ever felt like you’ve worked all night and come up empty? Peter did. Yet one word from Jesus changed everything. Join us as we explore what it means to trust God when the nets are empty and discover that faith chooses His Word over our weariness.

Podcast Title:

After the Rooster Crowed | Anchored in Troubled Waters | Season 9 Episode 28

Podcast Description:

Peter promised he would stand with Jesus, but when fear pressed hard, he denied the Lord three times. Then the rooster crowed, Jesus looked at him, and Peter went out weeping bitterly. In this message, we look at failure, conviction, repentance, and the grace of Christ that does not abandon broken disciples. The rooster crowed, but Peter’s story was not over.

Alternate Podcast Description 2:

Peter loved Jesus, but he overestimated his own strength. In Luke 22, fear pressures his faith, and Peter denies the Lord three times. When the rooster crows and Jesus looks at him, Peter remembers the word of the Lord and weeps bitterly. This message reminds us that failure is painful, but repentance is possible and Jesus still restores broken disciples.

Alternate Podcast Description 3:

What happens after the rooster crows? Peter’s denial was real, and his sorrow was bitter, but his story did not end in failure. This message looks at Peter’s fall, the look of Jesus, the pain of conviction, and the restoring grace of Christ. Failure may break your heart, but Jesus can still restore your life.