Latest / The Daily Word / August 19 – Run Back to Jesus
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Well, welcome once again to the Daily Word podcast. My name is Brandon, and I am one of the pastors here at our church. And again, on behalf of our senior pastor, Pastor Gill, and all of our pastors and leaders and our church family, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. our audience may not be vast as of yet, but it is growing, and we're so thankful for your support. In helping us to continue to get the word out and help us to reach more people with this podcast. in case you're just joining us, I'll give you a little bit of a how do I say, a overview of why we're doing this and what we do. On the Daily Word Podcast, our number one goal is to give you an encouraging word for the day, to put something in your pocket that's gonna help you, whether it's encouraging you, inspiring you, maybe correcting you, sharpening something in your life. But but But apart from that, our our goal, I said primary, you know, with with encouraging you, but our goal really is it is to encourage you, but primarily, secondarily, I don't know what the order is. It's also to help equip you and remind you that God really does want to spend time with you on a daily basis. One of the most important things that we can do is to every single day open our Bible and spend time with God, letting God speak to us, change us, transform us from the inside out through his word. And so hopefully today this encourages you, but also it reminds you that the Holy Spirit through the scripture wants to speak to you. And this is a tool and a resource to maybe give you a little bit of a guide on how to think about your Bible reading. So what we're doing is every day in the Daily Word Podcast, we're opening our Bible and we are using the life journal. It's the reading plan we use as a church, and we're using the New Testament portion of that reading plan and simply highlighting the scripture that we've got for the day. And we're verbally journaling scripture, observation, application, prayer. That's our method of writing down what God is saying to us each day. And so without further ado, today is August the 18th. And today's New Testament reading in the life journals, John chapter 21. And I want to read to you from verses three to verse verse six. We'll we'll go verse six. Here's what it says Simon Peter said to them, them being the other disciples, I'm going fishing. I'm I'm going fishing. I don't know if you're a fisherman. I would love to fish, but I'm not very good at it. And so I've never really enjoyed it. But maybe one day. But Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. And they said to him, We're going with you. So they went out immediately and got into the boat. And that night they caught absolutely nothing. Verse 4: But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples didn't know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, Children, Have have you any food? They answered, No. In other words, it's been a bad night of fishing. We haven't caught anything. And he said to them, Cast your net on the other side, or the right side of the boat, rather, and you'll find some. So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. So let me give you the scenario here, my observation. This is post-resurrection. That's important because you got to remember. That when Jesus was arrested and was going to be crucified, that a lot of his disciples fled. In particular, Peter. Peter, the main character in this story, Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times. They fled and denied even knowing the man. And the Bible says that Peter was filled with you know regret and guilt and condemnation and shame for doing that. And And so here we find Peter, he's discouraged. He's like, you know what, guys? I know I felt called to the ministry. We chose to follow Jesus, but I denied him and I messed that up. And now he's gone. And I'm I'm just I'm gonna go fishing. Now, this isn't recreational for him. This is his business. In other words, he's saying, I'm going back to my old way of living. I'm I'm giving up on this whole Jesus dream, and I'm going back to my old way of living. Maybe I was wrong. And here's Peter discouraged. Disappointed and going back to to his old life. And here comes Jesus. What's interesting is the way that Peter and Jesus met is similar to this. Jesus was teaching and he asked to use Peter's boat so he could get out on the water and use the water for amplification, teaching the multitudes. And when he was out there, he told Peter to put his net out for a catch. And Peter goes, Nah, we haven't caught anything. And just trust me. And and he caught so many fish that they couldn't even bring all the fish in. And here is Jesus meeting Peter again, the way he met him the first time. Jesus shows up at the sh the shore. Hey guys, have you caught anything? No. He goes, try try to cast on the right side. The Bible says that they they do and they bring in a catch that's bigger than bigger. Then bigger, then bigger, then bigger. They're able, they're even able to draw in and handle it. The catches so big. Now, verse 7, we didn't read it. It says this, therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, said to Peter, Peter, it's the Lord. Now listen to this. Now, when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he took off his outer garment, he plunged into the sea, and he runs to to Jesus. Now I here here's my My observation and application. God is so faithful. Here we see Peter had walked away, had denied Jesus, had made some, and yet here's Jesus again meeting Peter in the place that he met him the first time. And my observation is that God is so faithful to find us time and time again. I don't know about you, but but I have strayed. I've walked away. I have made mistakes. I have grown weary in my faith. I have Not s followed through with the things I said I would follow. And I like Peter have felt ashamed and disappointed and frustrated. And yet time and time again, God keeps showing up. And I just want to remind you today that God will not stop showing up in your life. Maybe you're discouraged, maybe you feel far from God. God is going to continue to show up and meet you in the place that He met you before. He's going to keep on knocking on your door. The Bible says that. Behold, he stands at the door of our heart and he knocks. And anyone who would hear him and open the door, he would come in and die. Jesus will continue to knock on the door of your heart. So the application is verse 7. When Peter realizes that it's Jesus, he jumps into the water and goes after Jesus. He swims to the shore and finds himself huffing and puffing from a long swim at the feet of Jesus, as if to say, I'm here. I don't even know what to do, but I'm here. And And my application for you is that if you feel like you're far from God, if you feel like you've drifted from God, if you feel like you've even taken steps backwards, can I tell you Jesus is calling you back? And like Peter, even right now in this moment, jump in that water and swim to Jesus. Go after him. Receive his love. Receive his forgiveness. Open the door that he's knocking on in your heart. Because here's what happens. The Bible says we draw near to God, God will draw near to us. In other words, he's knocking, he's going to keep on showing up. But we have to draw near. And as he does, as we do, he draws even more near. And so my encouragement for you today is that wherever you are, that you would remember that Jesus will not leave you nor forsake you. But like he did for Peter, he's going to keep on showing up. Today, if you feel far from God, today if you feel like there's areas of your life, you just, I'm, I'm not doing good here. I've been disobedient here. Hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit showing up again with love and grace and mercy. Confess what you need to confess and run to the arms of a loving Savior. My prayer is that wherever you are today, that you would, you would do that. And maybe even, maybe even you're not there, but but this is something you can put in your pocket because God's going to prepare you for the day that you will be there. With that being said, I want to pray for you and pray specifically for anybody who's listening who feels like that today and maybe lead you in a prayer to run back to Jesus. As I'm praying, maybe you could even just agree with this prayer or take this prayer and make it your own. But let's pray together and just say this: God, we're thanking you that you never leave us or forsake us. God, we're thanking you that you're so faithful to continue to show up and knock at the door of our heart and meet us where we are. Lord, I'm asking for anybody who's out there who's feeling far from you, that God, you would help them today to sense your nearness, your presence, your love. And would they would what whatever they they they're they're holding, would they confess that? Would they bring it to you? Would they, would they throw that to the side? And would they go back to following and serving you? Thank you, God, that you're faithful to meet us where we are. And as we draw near to you, you're faithful to draw near unto us. So we choose to do that today, God. And we thank you that as we do, you will meet us where we are. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, thank you once again for listening. We're so happy that you did. And we'll see you back tomorrow on another episode of the Daily Word Podcast.