[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Message podcast of High Ridge Church, Longview, where our vision is to help you know God, find freedom, discover purpose, and ultimately make a difference. We are so glad that you're here and we pray that this message impacts your life as you apply the spiritual truths from God's word in practical ways.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's listen in.
We are glad that you're here. We're glad you're watching online. We're glad you tuned in. Grab your Bibles, follow along John chapter 21. We're going to spend all of our time there. John, chapter 21 is returning there. I want to tell you thank you for your generosity. Many of you have chosen to stand behind us financially and there is, there is no way we can do what God has called us to do without a lot of people standing behind us financially. And it means the world to me. One of the things we say is that your generosity is making a massive difference. And I want to just show you one of the ways that it made a difference. This past week through unite, we were able to put on an amazing staff collab lunch. This means 120 staff people that work at churches all across Longview, all meeting together in the same room, breaking bread together, sharing ideas. If you believe that church unity is a big deal, then you just need to know that, hey, this is not cheap. This is something that costs money to get churches to work together. But we believe that God has called us to stand against that spirit of competition between churches. We're here to work together and that is a big deal. Your generosity made a massive difference this past week by being a part of what God is doing, getting churches to work together. If you think that that's important to you, if you believe that churches ought to be part of the body of Christ and not in competition with one another, then this is one of the ways that your tithe dollars, one of the ways that your generosity has gone to support that. And that was just one of the many things we were able to do this week. Isn't that pretty cool, everybody? That's pretty cool. I love that.
I like being a part of a church that's not here to say, let me build my church bigger and better and we're better than you and bigger than. Let me. Like, that's not what this is about. Like, this is the body of Christ. We need to be working together. And that spirit of competition is gross in East Texas. And so we have determined that we are gonna do something about it. And churches working together, staff, people working Together. It's a big deal when you're at a church and working there and giving all that you can to the Lord and for someone else to say, hey, you're not alone. And if you need help, you can call me. If I need help, I'm gonna call you. Like, that's a huge deal. And your generosity makes that happen, and I'm very thankful for that. Thank you so much.
Also, guys. Friday night, this week. This Friday is Beast Feast night. Where you at, gentlemen? Come on, ladies. You have no idea how loud we're gonna get on Friday night. This is the tame version of what we do, but this place is going to be loud. This place is.
It's gonna smell bad when we're done.
Deal with it. Because, guys, we're about to take over. God's got a word to speak to the men of this church, and I cannot wait for what's going to happen. We have over $10,000 in prizes, things that have been donated to give away to guys. And so you want to be there. Please do not wait till the last minute to get your tickets to that. Guys, it's going to sell out. There'll be no space left. And you're going to show up, like, why can't I get in? Because I told you, that's why. Now you know, like, please get your tickets now. It's all over social media. Get it on our website as well. But that's the Beast Feast this Friday night for all men. You don't have to be a member here of our church to come to that event, but you do. We need to have the ticket. So that's how you. We make sure that we can get you involved into the prize giveaways and stuff like that. But it's going to be awesome. We're going to watch a lot of men say yes to Jesus. We're going to watch a lot of guys get saved. It's going to be powerful. So do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, when you think about it, pray for that event.
Pray that God's power would be there. His presence would be there.
It's much needed. So we need your prayers. Would you do that? Is that okay?
Let me ask it again. Would you. Would you do that? Would that be all right? Would you pray for us? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Not asking for much. Just. Just. Just pray for your boy. Pray for our. For our boys. It's going to be awesome. First. First Watch is our new series. That's John chapter 21. We're talking about the week after Jesus gets up out of the grave and he begins to deal with his disciples in specific ways. Now remind yourself of what they have been through. They love Jesus. They're full of the Holy Spirit. They've been called, they've been commissioned, they've seen miracles. They. But they get to this place in this particular week where they are walking.
Call them back to the potential that's inside each of them.
And it helps us to see such a vivid picture of how Jesus still does that with people like you and me today. When we deal with things like anxiety and doubt and fear and regret and shame, guilt, the incredible amazing grace of God, his wonderful love that he loves us too much to leave us in that same space forever. He comes back. And so this is the story in John, chapter 21, of Jesus making another appearance, of him trying to work on these disciples that were having a rough season, reminding them of their purpose, calling them back to potential. And now we get to Peter.
Peter was the leader of his disciples, one that he had chosen for ministry. And Peter had one of the biggest public falls of all time.
Peter denies Christ after telling him to his face. Even if all these other posers that you call disciples walk away, I will. I'm ride or die. I am 100% in. No one could pull me away from you, Jesus. These guys are all going to flake out. And Jesus, like, you're not even going to make dessert, bro. You're going to deny me, like, tonight, you're going to fall to pieces.
It's exactly what happened. And here we find that even though.
And Jesus does not ridicule Peter, he restores him.
He does the same thing for me and you today.
So here's where we find our disciples, including Peter, is that they're sitting around. And we can obviously tell from John's writing that Peter's struggling with probably some depression stuff. He's. He's reminded of his guilt and his shame. And Jesus has now come back from the grave and has appeared. And it seems like everybody's happy and they're all excited. And he's like, yeah, but all I can think about is how I failed him, how I messed up.
And now I've got to face him. I got to look at him in his face. And. And.
And I don't know how to process that. I don't know how to deal with that. So Peter says, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go fishing. Remind yourself where. Where Peter was when Jesus called him. In. Into ministry. He was a fisherman. His dad was a fisherman. He. He had his own business.
And Jesus was walking along a beach one day, and he calls him and his brother, and he calls James and his brother John. He says, y' all come follow me.
And they leave their business and they just start following after Jesus.
And now in this season of trauma, three years later, Peter says, I'm going back to my old life because there, at least I have some expertise. I. I can. I can do what I'm. What I'm good at doing.
But Jesus loves him too much to leave him there. And here's something that we were reminded of that you. There's. There's no going back. Once you've had a true encounter with Jesus, you are. You are wrecked for normal. You can't go back to your old life. And the more that you try, the more that you'll experience exactly what Peter experienced. It says they fished all night. Professional fishermen fished all night in waters that they had grown up on their whole life and caught nothing. It produced nothing.
And then in the exact same mirror, three years later, Jesus shows up again, only they don't recognize him. And he asked them the question, friends, have you got any fish?
Now this is a perfect opportunity for somebody that is struggling, especially a fisherman, to do what fishermen do, lie.
Oh, yeah, we caught a lot, but, you know, we're catching release today. We're just fishing for fun. You know, we have some monsters over there, man. Monsters. Huge, you would not believe. Like, size of a Volkswagen Beetle, huge.
But I love the humility and the honesty in this moment. They. Professional fishermen having to admit we've caught nothing.
And then Jesus does what he did three years ago when he called him. He says, throw your net on the other side of the boat.
And they do it. And it says, now there are. There's a massive hall of fish. So much fish that it says they can't even bring the net into the boat, so they have to tow it back to the beach.
What's interesting is that the very first time that Jesus called them, the same thing happened. He tells them, throw your net on the other side. And it says when they. When they tried to pull in the fish, that the net broke from the massive weight of the fish.
But here it says they couldn't haul it in. But. But the. The net was strong.
And it shows us that in. In your own strength, in your own expertise like that, that's going to break underneath the weight of what God has called you to do. But now that Jesus has Gotten up out of the grave. There's. There's supernatural strength there.
And so we see Peter reminded of the calling that God had given him three years before.
Jesus takes him back to the beginning of his calling into ministry and says, let's deal with your shame, let's deal with your regret, let's deal with your issues, because you've got a job to do.
Your calling is too great to leave. You stuck here reminding yourself of how you let me down.
And so as these guys are on the boat, let's pick it up in verse seven.
So they're struggling with a load of fish.
And it's in this moment that John says, wait a minute. That reminds me of something that happened three years ago. This must be Jesus. This is a miracle. That. That has to be the Lord.
And John, by the way, who is notorious for referring to himself as the disciple that Jesus loved, which is interesting, right?
Reminds us of that one more time. Verse 7. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said, said to Peter, it's the Lord. And notice this. Notice that in the depths of Peter's struggle, as soon as he is told that this is Jesus, he responds immediately by jumping out of that boat and getting to Jesus. I love that. There's something special about his response. As soon as he hears the words, it's the Lord.
He wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and he jumps into the water. And then the other disciples, they followed in the boat towing that net full of fish. For they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. And when they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread. And Jesus said, hey, bring some of the fish that you've just caught. And so Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish. 153. I want to pause there for just a moment because remind yourself of the amount of fish that they could not bring into the boat.
But Peter, as soon as he knows that it's Jesus, he jumps into the water, gets immediately to Jesus presence, and then Jesus tells him to do something. Hey, bring some of those fish. And it says this, that Peter goes back by himself and drags this net full of fish back onto the shore. The same net that they couldn't get up out of the water with. Three or four or five of them, however many was in the boat.
Peter does the supernatural strength.
And it shows that when we respond immediately to Jesus, even when we don't understand, there are things that happen that you may Never understand.
But there are supernatural things that begin to order our steps and show us that obedience to Jesus unlocks things that are, that are supernatural.
He jumps back into that boat, grabs that net full of fish, brings them in. It says 153. I always thought it was, it was interesting how John records the exact number, but, but fishermen are notorious for lying. Let's just be honest. Once caught a fish, this, hold it up this close to the camera like, then put your head way back like that's it. Looks mad, like this is how it's done. No, I understand, but he records the exact number of fish.
Very specifically.
Doing my research this past week, it says in the, in the known world at that time, they believe that John writes down this specific number because in that culture there was 153 known species of fish. Like, it's one for every known species. And so when Jesus is saying, bring up all these fish, you're no longer a fisherman because I'm going to make you a fisher of men.
He's saying, it represents every person, every tribe, every tongue, every nationality that holds up underneath the weight of the calling that I've given you. Now that the resurrection of Jesus has happened, it's not going to break your net. This is a, there's a lot of powerful theological principles that are happening in this moment.
And so Peter walks up onto the beach and Jesus begins to have a real heart to heart conversation with him about where he really is.
It's an interesting conversation.
And the way that John captures it, I think brings a lot of light to what Jesus does for somebody that's walking through some dark trauma.
So it says this, pick it up with me. When they had finished eating, Jesus says to Simon Peter, look at this question. Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
Yes, Lord. He says, you know that I love you.
And Jesus said, feed my lambs.
Again, Jesus said, simon, son of John, do you love me?
He answers, why do you keep pushing me, Jesus? You know I'm struggling here.
Yes, Lord, I.
I love you.
Then Jesus says, take care of my sheep.
And a third time Jesus said to him, simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him a third time, do you love me?
And Peter says this, lord, you know all things.
You know that I love you. You know whether I love you or not. You know I don't have to tell you. You know, you know my heart.
You know you saw my failure. You see what I'm struggling with. You know all things.
I know that you saw it.
Nothing's hidden from you.
And Jesus says to him a third time, feed my sheep. You're not. You're not a fisherman anymore. You're a fisher of men. And now you're. You're a shepherd of my. Of my people. Feed my sheep. This is a new calling to you, a reinstatement of your purpose.
There's some wonderful insights that we see into the character of Jesus and into the way that he handles people that are broken, that are struggling, that are dealing with shame and guilt and regret.
And Jesus, in his infinite love and in his wisdom, goes right to the heart of the issue.
First of all, he does it with the most important meal of the day, breakfast.
So he doesn't do it on an empty stomach. I'm thankful for that. Come on, somebody. There's multiple times in scripture that people were like, I'm just going to die. God, he's like, hey, take a nap. Get something to eat. You're gonna be fine.
And in this moment, Jesus. Jesus feeds him in more ways than. Than one.
So growing up in church like I did, you've. You've no doubt heard this story of the restoration of, Of. Of Peter, and you've. You've heard it emphasized with the word love here, because that's a. That's a big part of this story, the word love. And if you have any pastor that's worth his salt, he'll tell you that there's two different kinds of love that are featured in this particular passage. He'll tell you about the word phileo love and about the word agape love. You remember that anybody grew up in church, remember the difference between phileo and. And agape.
And so phileo love is. Is. Is a brotherly love. It's where we get our city, Philadelphia's name. It's the city of. Come on, somebody.
Brotherly love, right?
And then agape love is a selfless love. It's a. It's an unconditional love. And it's important that you understand those terms, or you'll just read this story of Jesus asking Peter, do you love me? And he says, yeah, you know, I love you. Like, that's not really what's going on here. Because Jesus is asking Peter, do you agape me? Do you love me with that selfless.
Do you love me with that deep kind of love that's unconditional? I, like, you swore to me that you would love me with. Is that the kind of love that you have for me? Is that back? And Peter says, I phileo You.
I love you like a brother from another mother. Like we're fam.
And Jesus said, that's not what I asked.
Do you. He asked him a second time, do you agape me?
Do you.
Do you love me with that love that you. That you. That you thought you had?
He says, I phileo you.
We're boys.
And finally, Jesus switches it up on the third question. He says, do you phileo me? Which is interesting because at this point, you see that Jesus meets Peter where he's at.
And Peter was hurt because he's like, I can't.
I can't tell you that I love you with that unconditional love. Because I've proven that my words don't match my actions. I've proven that what I say and what I actually do. When you put pressure on my life, I. I fold like a $2 chair. I can't live up to what I'm proclaiming that I can do. And I love that. The gospel doesn't hide that from us because we see ourselves. How many times have we made promises to God, Lord, I'll never do that again. I'll never go down that direction. I'll never speak that way again. I'll never hurt that. That way again. I'll never hurt that person that same way. I'll never go here or do that or look at this or experience it. I'll never, ever, ever. And then two days later, you're like, I'm thankful for grace because I did it again.
Thank you, Lord, for second chances. Like, that's not second chances. That's 412 today.
Like, that's not grace. That's God's patience.
I'm thankful that Jesus, he meets him where he is and says, let me just take you as you are, but you're called.
There's potential inside of you that's greater than the shame that you're walking in.
Here's some wonderful things that we see through this powerful chapter.
Here's number one. If you're a note taker, write this down. Failure is never final, so don't quit.
Failure is never final. And Jesus proves that by his reinstate, reinstating of Peter. It's. It's not final, what you did, your failure. Let's not say it wasn't failure. It was, but it's not final, so don't quit.
Here's what I found out about failure. Failure is a great teacher. Sometimes failure is the greatest teacher. There are lessons that you can't learn unless you admit, that was bad. I did not do well.
And that honesty, by the way, helps you to learn the lessons that failure teaches you.
It's only true failure, by the way, when you either refuse to learn or. Or if we quit.
And Jesus loved Peter too much to let him quit.
And that lesson was teaching him something. Peter, do you phileo me? Yep, that's pretty much the end of my love for you. I've proven I don't agape you.
I've learned something about myself. My words don't match my actions. I need Jesus to help me do what I cannot do. I think I can.
But without you, Lord, I find myself just a lot of talk.
Here's the good news with Jesus, our worst moments don't get the last word. He gets the final say of who we are and what we're capable of doing. And failure is not final. So don't quit.
I've had some embarrassing moments, like many of you have. I was reminded of one of those this week. I was getting my annual blood work done and the lady that was drawing my blood, you know, I said, if you've been doing this a long time, we're having a conversation. I.
And she says, yeah, of course. I said, you see a lot of people pass out. She goes, you're not gonna pass out on me. I said, no, but you know, funny story.
I said, several years ago, I was doing a blood draw and they told me, we need you to be fasting for 24 hours before you do this. And I'm like, okay, this also counts as my fast for the year. I'm just saying.
And so I end up showing up at 8 o' clock in the morning. And they tell me, oh, I'm sorry, the doctor has, you know, had this emergency. He won't be in until like 4:30. I'm like, God, it's a long time to not eat. And so I finally sit down there and she's like, well, we've got a lot of blood to draw today. Are you going to be okay? I'm like, just get it over with. She's like, you're not one of those kind of people that passes out, are you? I'm like, lady, I don't think so. I'm not one of those people that just, you know, does this.
And that's the last thing I remember saying.
And if you've ever lost consciousness, you know this, that when you, when you wake up from passing out or from fainting, you don't know where you are. You're completely like, confused. Like there's, there's Nothing that makes sense. It takes a while before you get your bearings back. And I remember, like, I. I woke up and I'm laying on the floor, and I open my eyes, and there's this beautiful, older African American woman that's laying face to face with me, and she's rubbing my face.
Baby, how you doing? You doing okay, baby? You okay, baby? And I look at her, and I'm smiling, and she's smiling, and she's calling me baby. I'm like.
And in my mind, she drugged me.
And I started screaming at her, you drugged me.
And I thought I was waking up next to some woman that I didn't know. I'm like, I have thrown away my marriage. I've thrown away my ministry, and no one's gonna believe this woman drugged me. I didn't have anything to do with this. I'm innocent. And then I stand up, she goes, oh, baby, don't do that. And then I pass out again.
True story. Next thing, I wake up in a hospital bed, and the nurses that are around me, that lifted me up onto the bed are laughing so hard like they can't control themselves. I'm like, ha, ha ha. Thanks a lot. You know, they're like, no, we're never going to forget this. This will be the greatest highlight of our day.
I'm like, I don't know where. Like, it's okay. It happens. I get it. And I'm thankful that they were able to not put that on their website and there were no cameras in that room. You cannot look that up on YouTube today. You know, watch this pastor talk about he's not going to pass out just before he does, right? I'm thankful.
I'm thankful that. That some of my worst moments are not for everybody to see. And I. I had those moments where you. You mess up.
But I'm thankful that with God, failure is never final.
And real mistakes, real issues, they're not final.
And that may be the. All the encouragement that somebody needs to hear today.
God loves you too much to leave you there.
And he calls us up out of our shame and out of our guilt and back into purpose. Here's the second thing that we see from this incredible story is that love is the foundation.
Love is the foundation, so stay connected.
Love is the foundation, so stay connected. So Peter's obviously a leader. Jesus says, on this rock, you're gonna build my church. He changes his name from Simon to the rock or Peter. And then he says, you know, this is pretty much. He's. He's he's my number one right hand man.
And so when Peter decides I'm struggling, I'm gonna go back to fishing. Here's, here's what I love about it. Even though he's, he's struggling, he, he doesn't struggle alone.
And this is something I think a lot of us could learn lessons from because when we're, if we're honest, when we struggle, we want to just isolate, pull ourself back from everybody. Like, I, I, I need to just process through this stuff. Let me just encourage you. Not everybody needs to know your business, but somebody does.
Don't struggle alone. There's, there's a, there's a part of our design. We, we were designed and created to be connected. You need people. There is, there is no separate appendage of the body of Christ. No thumb floating out there, like, this is me over here. That's the part of the body of Christ. I am not really connected to people because I don't like them. Like, that's not a thing.
Like you're part of the body of Christ.
We belong together. We need you, you need us, you need to be connected because in times like Peter experienced where you're not doing well, you're going to need people like John to say, look, that's the Lord, help you recognize Jesus, somebody that handles some details while you do your, your soul searching.
I love that Peter stays connected.
And the whole response from Jesus doesn't go back to Peter's failure.
It goes back to his love.
Love's the foundation. And everything that you do for Christ, everything you're going to accomplish in this life, it has to be built on the foundation of love. Not shame, not guilt. True restoration is never built on shame or guilt. It's built on love.
By the way, religion, religion is built on a foundation of shame and guilt. This is how you get people to sit down and behave, to act right. You put shame, you put guilt on top of them. This is how you get people to give you a ton of money. You make them feel guilty.
But a true relationship with Jesus Christ is built on love.
We serve because we love him. We give because we love him, not because we feel guilty. He's taken away my shame. He's taken away my guilt.
He's removed it.
And the foundation is love.
So before he ever gives Peter an assignment, he talks about affection. Before assignment comes affection.
Because if we don't build this on a foundation of love, true love for one another and a love for Jesus, then everything you do is going to become really burdensome.
So Jesus, he doesn't start with Peter's failure. He starts with his love. This is essentially, you know, God speaking to each of us. He's not saying, are you perfect? He's saying, do you love me?
Now, in this moment, if I were Jesus and I was talking to someone that did exactly what they said that they would never do, I would have a hard time not being super sarcastic because I'm petty like that.
I know. Hey, I know me.
God knows me.
But don't you believe that if you're sitting with Peter, that you would have said something to just at least get one good shot in there?
I would have be like, hey, Peter, do you remember the other night when we were having what is now known as the Last Supper? And who was it?
Who was it that said they would be the only one that would stay with me when everybody else left? Do you remember? Was that.
Was that Judas? That wasn't. It was Andrew. Was that your brother? No, I can't remember who that was.
It's right here.
I would have had a hard time not doing it, but. But Jesus doesn't do it. I'm thankful that Jesus doesn't do it. He just says, hey, come here.
Do you love me?
Do you. Do you really have that, that love?
Is that love back? Have you worked through that stuff? Do you need some help? And I love that Jesus. It's not that Jesus doesn't know the answer. He needs Peter to come to an understanding of what the answer really is. He needs him to have this light bulb moment where he recognized that I'm not enough. I'm not as strong as I need you. I need Jesus. I need your strength.
Love is the foundation and your walk with Christ. Love has to be the foundation. Not guilt, not shame, not failure. I love that Jesus doesn't ignore his failure, but he goes. He goes right to the center of it, says, let me help with that, what you're dealing with. Let me meet you there.
It's interesting that Jesus asked him three questions and Peter had denied him three times.
It's interesting that when Peter walks up on the beach and he finds himself having this breakfast with Jesus, it says, jesus is cooking over a charcoal fire. And I love breakfast. That's great.
Normally, though, when you have breakfast, you're gonna cook it on a Blackstone, right? Come on. Like griddle.
But Jesus cooks over charcoal fire, which I like because I love the smell of the charcoal fire. It just adds a new flavor to it, and that's a big deal. But when it says, the charcoal fire that Jesus was cooking on. When it mentions those words that John captures here, you'll only find that word for charcoal fire used twice, two times, and they're both in the Gospels, and they're both around Peter.
And the first time that we see this word mentioned is very different than the second time, but they're related.
You see here, Jesus is restoring Peter over a charcoal fire. The first time that you find it used is the. The fire that Peter is warming himself by when he denies Christ.
And Jesus, in his infinite wisdom and love and in his mercy and his grace, takes him right back to that same moment with just the smell and says, I was there. This is why Peter says, lord, you know all things. You know, you were there. You saw it. You know how I felt when I said it. Like, I told you I wouldn't and I did.
And Jesus takes him back to that moment, not by saying, I told you so. What's wrong with you?
Takes him right back to that moment, says, hey, let's talk about your love.
I know that you love me. I know it's in there somewhere, and it may not be like you thought it was, but let me help you to get there. What are you asking me to do? Get back to work.
Feed my sheep.
With Jesus, we don't ignore failure. We face it. And let Jesus help us overcome failure isn't final, but only if Jesus is involved.
Here. The calling that Christ has for you is only sustained by your connection to Him. You cannot do what God has called you to do. Apart from him, his word says, apart from you, I can do nothing.
And Peter's reminded of that. I'm not as strong as I thought I was.
See, when love grows cold, purpose becomes real heavy.
When your love for your church grows cold, the purpose that God has for you will get really, really heavy. Feel like a lot of work.
It all starts with your heart.
When your divine assignments feel super heavy, like, go back to your heart.
Why are you doing this in the first place? Is it for you or for Him? Is it some sense of duty or purpose? Or could it be like, let's talk about my love for him.
It has to be done on a foundation of love.
Your purpose gets real heavy.
Here's the third and final thing I'll share with you about this story.
We'll finish up here.
Purpose is still yours, so step into it.
And this is essentially what Jesus is telling Peter. You still have a purpose, and your purpose hadn't changed.
I love that. I love that in this story, Jesus doesn't replace Peter. He recommissions him.
Remember that. The disciples, they replaced Judas.
Judas hangs himself. He ends his own life. And they said, okay, Lord, let's you know, who do you want to replace him? That doesn't happen with Peter. Peter had a massive failure. I denied Christ not once, not twice, but thrice massive public failure.
And Jesus restores him publicly.
But Jesus doesn't replace him.
I love that Jesus doesn't tell Peter, you know what, Peter? It's going to be a while. Because you've been through a lot. I know there's a restoration process and there's some things that you need to. To process. Jesus doesn't do that. He says, get up.
You're called.
There's grace for you. There's forgiveness for you. I'm meeting you where you're at.
Feed my sheep. Essentially, what he's telling Peter in this moment is it ain't about you anymore.
It's about what I've called you to do. Get up and do what I've called you to do.
And I love that Peter doesn't say, lord Jesus. Just, you know, I'm going to need a while. I'm going to need some. Some understanding. I'm going to need a few. Let me take a few months off and just kind of get my. That's not what happens here.
Because he already responded immediately when he said, it's the Lord. He jumps in the water. When Jesus says, go get some fish, he drags the net on shore. He responds immediately and finds supernatural strength. I wonder, what could we be missing out on.
That's on the other side of obedience?
Remind yourself of this simple principle. You don't drift into purpose.
You step in with trust and a relationship.
You're not going to drift into God's purpose for your life. It's a step of faith.
And then Jesus in this moment, doesn't replace Peter. He invites him to take a step of faith.
He invites him to believe that you are restored and it's time to get up and move. It's time to do what I've called you to do. That's a powerful step. It shows that Jesus doesn't throw away people that are hurt. He doesn't throw away people that are broken. He doesn't throw away people that have made mistakes.
Romans 11:29 says this for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. That means that before you ever said yes to Jesus, he factored in our stupidity.
He factored in our mistakes.
He knew we were going to Mess it up. That takes a lot of pressure off me.
He knows that his gifts and his calling are not dependent on you.
They're dependent upon him. Our job is just to trust him, to stay in relationship with him, to love him, to obey when he says, go get those fish, feed my sheep.
Our job is to obey.
And I think for many of us, we're waiting on clarity before we.
Before we ever step out in faith. This is. This is perhaps the number one, the number one most difficult thing I deal with as a pastor.
It's the most theologically backwards and wrong mindset of American Christianity because we have this. We have this issue within the church that says, help me understand, and then I'll take a step of faith.
Some of us are waiting on clarity. It's all about clarity. That's the best. The buzzword, clarity. Give me clarity. I need clarity, Pastor. I need some clarity. Just give me some clarity.
Hmm.
You're not going to find a lot of that. By the way, when Jesus is asked questions for clarity, most of the time he gives other questions.
Have you noticed that very few times do you ever see Jesus responding very plainly and very clear, like, hey, I've told you this seven times. You just don't get it. Okay, let me give you a hint.
The problem is, you like Je. Jesus doesn't do that.
Let me just remind you this. If you. If you have clarity, you don't need faith.
And we have this mindset of, I'll believe it when I see it. You will never get that in your relationship with Jesus. Matter of fact, you'll believe before you see it.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things. I don't see, I don't understand, I don't get it. Here's what we know. Clarity is the reward for faith. Clarity happens on the other side. When you take a step of faith, you say, lord, I don't understand how you see in me what I can't see in myself. You won't see it until you take a step of faith.
We get locked in our own mind. Let me just remind you, his ways are higher than your ways. His thoughts are higher than your thoughts. You will never understand what God is asking you to do in the breadth and the width and the depth of it until you actually do it. And then you look back, you're like, wow, you were there all the time.
I didn't see it. I didn't understand.
I didn't. I didn't feel it.
But I trusted you and I obeyed when I didn't have clarity.
Clarity is the reward for faith. On the backside of your step of faith, it's never on the front. You will never understand on the front end of a step of faith. And this is what keeps the majority of believers today stuck in the same old, same old, wandering around the same mountain.
Help me find clarity. Help me understand.
Help me figure it out.
And then when I do, then I'll start living like what God has called me to do. Good luck with that.
Clarity is the reward for faith. He's asking us to take a step. He asked Peter to take a step. He meets him where he's at and he says, feed my sheep.
Your calling is still intact. I'm not rejecting you.
Get up and do what I've called you to do.
This entire story with Peter shows us what happened. When someone responds without having clarity, He throws the net on the other side of the boat. No clarity until John says, it's the Lord. Then he doesn't verify. He just jumps in the water.
Jesus says, go get those fish. Oh, the fish that even all of us couldn't grab together. He just obeys.
I don't understand how it's going to happen, but he did it.
And then he sits down and Jesus asks him the same question multiple ways. Do you love me? Do you love me? Like, stop asking me the same question. I don't understand.
I don't get it.
There's no clarity.
Let me just remind you a couple of chapters later, he's preaching the house down. He's feeding sheep. He takes a step of faith. His life would never be the same. My question to you is, what's your step of faith?
Clarity you're not going to have on this side.
God has a step of faith for you, and there's more potential inside of you than you could possibly know. I wonder how many of us are waiting on clarity.
When the Lord gives you faith, clarity is not going to help you. When God says, get out and walk on water, that doesn't help.
It's a step of faith. The miracle happens outside the boat.
Clarity happens when they start writing down the story a couple days later, like, wow, Peter needed that moment faith. They had clarity in that moment in the storm. No, they didn't.
You get clarity afterwards.
The clarity I think that God has for you is on the other side of your step of faith.
On the other side of your obedience to his word. What's your step of faith? For some of us in this place, you've never been baptized. Or maybe baptism wasn't your Decision. You need to take that step of faith. That's going to happen, by the way, today we have a lot of people. It's going to happen right after our third service, our 12 o' clock service.
If you've never seen people take that step of faith, I want to invite you. Go grab yourself something to eat, grab some juicy tacos. Come back and watch people take that step of faith. You need this. It's good for you, for others in this place. You need to serve.
You've been stuck in isolation and Jesus is reminding you it's. It's not about you.
It's time for you to start serving.
We're going to help you do that. By the way, be a part of the dream team. We want you serving someplace. Don't just come to church. Serve the church, be a part of the church. Connect to the church. Some of you, that's your faith step. You need to connect. You don't need to just come to church every Sunday and try to be anonymous.
The Lord sees you. He's spotlighting you and saying, take a step of faith. I will when I have clarity. You just heard a message about that.
There is no clarity. There's a step of faith.
And then you'll look back and say, that was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
You need to serve.
God's given you gifts and those gifts are to be used for his glory, not for yours.
For some of you, it's finances. You've never trusted God to be the Lord of your finances. You've never given to support the work that God is doing. Lord is saying, that's your step of faith.
Well, Lord, I just need clarity on how you're going to meet my bills.
Clarity.
He's given his word. He's saying, Trust me. Malachi 3 Test me in this, says the Lord. I invite you to trust me. This is one of the few times that you're ever going to see in scripture. God says, I dare you.
Trust me. Stand behind the work of what I'm doing.
Lord invites you to take a step of faith.
Trust me with your finances. See if he's not Jehovah Jireh, if he's not the one that can't see and provide for all of your needs. That's your step of faith.
Don't wait on clarity. Take a step and put God to the test.
Either he's God or he's a liar.
But you can't deny that he's speaking to you, inviting you to step deeper.
For some of us Your step is to let somebody pray for you. That's gonna happen at the end of this service. We have our elders and their wives up here that are gonna lay hands on you. We can anoint you with enough oil to slide you in the next room if you want to.
But if you need prayer, that's your step of faith.
But for many. I wish somebody would pray for me. I could really use your prayers like. Then take a step.
Let us help you.
For others, you need to connect me. Say, at the end of this service today, I'm going to walk across on to Rockwell Avenue to our. To our youth building. I'll be waiting there to connect with you. I'd love to shake your hand and meet you. I'm not going to ask you for money. I'm not going to make you do anything. We're not going to ask you to draw blood. I'm just going to say, can. Can we meet? Can I get to know who? Can I get to know you? It's that simple. But do not come to church every week and choose to remain anonymous. God is calling you out today and saying, don't ask for clarity. Take a step of faith.
Clarity happens on the back end. It's a reward for faith.
And yet for some of us in this place, your step of faith is you need a relationship with Jesus. You might have been walking with God for years. You've gone to Sunday school, done all the things. But you know, and God knows that you've been far from him. You've been running from Him. It is time to come home.
And today is going to be your step of faith. And I'm not here to embarrass you in any way. I'm not going to call you out or single you out or making you stand in front of the church and confess your sins. We don't do that here. That's another church down the street.
You'd love it. It's great.
I'm not going to do that. But you need to take this step of faith for others. You've never had a relationship with Jesus.
My friend, you're here for a reason. Today God led you here for this moment.
He's calling you into a relationship with Him.
So would you bow your head and would you close your eyes with me?
If you came here today and you're saying, pastor, I need a relationship with Jesus, you're talking to me then, my friend. What I'm going to do is I'm going to lead you in a prayer. I'm going to say the prayer, I'm going to invite you to say it with me.
As a matter of fact, all of us are going to pray it out loud so you don't feel embarrassed in any way.
But you need to take this step of faith.
For those of you that have been running from God, you're like, pastor, I need to come home.
Yes, you do. Pray this prayer with all of us. So come on, High Ridge family, let's pray this out loud together. Just say, jesus, I believe you're the son of God, and I believe that you lived and died.
And I believe you rose from the grave so that I can have life and forgiveness for my sins.
Please forgive me.
I've messed up.
I need your grace, And I'll give you the rest of my life.
Now say this, my friend. Thank you, Lord, for loving me.
With heads bowed and with eyes closed. If that was you and you say, pastor, that was me. I prayed that prayer.
Just those of you who prayed that prayer, would you do me a favor? Would you lift up your hands all across this place, say, that was me. I prayed that prayer. I meant that prayer. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Good for you. I'll see you up in the balcony. Yes, ma'. Am. Yes, sir.
You guys can put your hands down. Many of you across this place, I'm so proud of you in the decision that you just made.
The worst mistake you can make in this moment is by letting this moment pass you by and not taking a step of faith.
So I want to invite you. If you raised your hand, I'm not going to single you out, not going to embarrass you. I'm going to ask you to do something simple. Text me. There's a phone number that's going to appear on the screen behind me. That number is for you.
Text the words I prayed to that number.
I'm going to send you back some video links that will help you understand what happened and what to do next. That's it. Simple ask.
Perhaps you're watching online. This is for you as well. Text me. Text the words I prayed to that number.
High rich family, go ahead and look up at me if you would, and let's stand to our feet together. There's 12 people responding to that gospel today. I think that's a pretty big deal.
God is good.
God's good. I'm going to invite our elders and their wives forward, and they're going to be available to pray with you. And if you need prayer, that's your step of faith. If you want to meet us, if you want to hang out with some of the staff, Just get to know who we are and ask questions. We're gonna be across the street in the youth building in the next few minutes. If you wanna see people get baptized, if you want to get baptized, if that's your step of faith, it's happening today after our 12 o' clock service. Go grab something to eat. We've got shorts, we've got T shirts, we've got towels. Whatever you may need to make this as easy as possible for you to take that step of faith, we're gonna help you. And we believe if you need to take a step of faith, then it's our job to help you. My job is to equip you to do the work that God's called you to do.
And so we're gonna try to make it as easy as possible.
Those T shirts, those shorts, those towels, those are all our gift to you. It's a complete free gift because most of this church is really, really generous. They stand behind us so that we can provide those things to make it easy for you. That's where a lot of your generosity goes, to help people to take a step of faith.
It matters. It's making a massive difference.
And also if you do us a huge favor.
This service is being recorded as it is every week. And if you feel like the word the world needs to hear this message, click the share button. If you're watching online, click the share button. It always makes a massive difference when you do that. We have people receiving Jesus from places that have never even heard of Longview, Texas. And every single week, people are tuning in from all over the world. Lots of people that don't have a church home that just need to be fed the truth of God's word. And it's an honor. It's a joy to be able to do that. Your generosity has made that possible for us to do it. So if you wouldn't mind, like, click the share button. You'd be shocked at what God can do through some people that are just willing to. To click a button on his behalf. It matters for everybody else. Let me pray for you. Let me bless you. Let me remind you also that Beast feast is coming up this Friday night. Men cannot wait.
Father, I pray that you bless my friends. I pray that you would strengthen them. I pray that they would walk in the light of your word.
Lead them, oh, God, I pray. Would you bless their families? Bless their friendships? Would you bless their finances? Would you bless their children, their grandchildren? Would you bless their walk with you. I pray all this in the mighty and the matchless name of Jesus, and all of us said together. Amen. God bless you as you go. Have an awesome week.
[00:47:35] Speaker A: Thank you so much for listening in today. Our prayer is that you are encouraged and strengthened by the message. If you haven't done so yet, be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you want to be a part of our online community, connect with us through Facebook or Instagram with the handle hyridgelv.
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[email protected] lastly, if this ministry has impacted your life and you'd like to support its work, visit highridgelv.com give we appreciate your support and we're believing with you today for God's best in your life. Have an incredible week and we will
[00:48:12] Speaker B: see you next time.
