Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 635 | The Perils of Planning without Jesus

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635 | The Perils of Planning without Jesus · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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Hello, friends, and welcome back to another podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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Where we believe that all of us have to come to Jesus like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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Our highest priority is making God real in your life. Whether you are listening
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in our app, in your favorite podcasting app, or on our website at watwm.org,
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we invite you to sit down with us as we look to the scriptures to learn more
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about God and to strengthen your daily walk with Jesus Christ.
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Most of us make many plans for our lives. Most of those plans are made without even consulting Jesus.
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The Bible says in Jeremiah 29.11 that God has an expected end for us.
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He tells us in John 14.6 that He is the way. Yet time and again we leave Him out of our plans.
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Join us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim discusses the
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importance of including Jesus in all our plans.
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Hello and thank you for joining us in this broadcast of Woman at the Well Ministries
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And we're going to talk about leaving God out of our plans, or perhaps a better
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way of making that point is the benefits of putting God in the very center of our plans.
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We're going to take our lesson out of John chapter 21, beginning in the second verse.
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There was together Simon, Peter, and Thomas, called Didymus,
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and Nathaniel of Canaan.
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In galilee and the sons of zebedee and two other of his disciples simon peter
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saith unto them i go a fishing,
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they say unto him we also go with thee they went forth and entered into a ship
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immediately and that night they caught nothing but when the morning was now
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come jesus stood on the shore but the disciples knew not that it was jesus,
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then jesus saith unto him children have you any meat,
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they answered him no and he said unto them cast the net on the right side of
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the ship and you shall find they cast therefore and now they were not able to
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draw it for the multitude of fishes,
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as we look at this particular passage of scripture i want us to point out a
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few things the first thing i want you to see is that peter had an idea to go
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fishing there isn't anything wrong with fishing,
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and when peter went fishing though he did not include jesus,
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and peter goes and he goes fishing and he has some friends that are around him
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and they decide they're going to go fishing too and neither of those other fellows,
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included jesus in their plans,
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so they go fishing and they fish all night long and they catch nothing.
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And then when morning has come they see jesus but they don't recognize jesus
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even though he's right in the middle of it and then jesus says unto them children,
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and then he gives them a commandment to cast the net on the other side of the
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ship and the fellows cast the net.
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As we look at those sequence events i want you to see that there was a problem
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in the plan that peter had,
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there wasn't anything wrong with peter fishing it was the fact that peter went
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fishing without including jesus,
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there wasn't anything wrong with the other guys going fishing with him,
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but peter and the other guys went fishing and what they left out was jesus.
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And then Jesus, having been left out, having been totally ignored,
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and still, even though he was in their presence unrecognized, he calls them children.
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Now, let's parallel that to things in our own lives.
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All of us have made some sort of plan, some sort of idea. Maybe you have an
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idea for how your life should be or plans on who you're going to be or what you're going to be.
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Plans for what you're going to have five years from now plans on how people
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are going to know you and what they're going to call you,
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and if you haven't included jesus in those plans you are headed for a perilous
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doom you'll never be all that you can be unless you are exactly what christ has intended you to be,
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in jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11 he explains to us that he hasn't expected
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in for us and that he thinks about us,
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he has a plan for each of us and he speaks to us and he said that he came to
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give us life that we might have it more abundantly,
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so making our plans centered around his plan for us will be the life that gives
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us the most benefits the most pleasing to god and will bring us reward that
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we can't even fathom or imagine,
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and in a few moments when we continue through this passage of scripture,
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you're going to see the reward of including Jesus in your life.
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But let's speak about it for a little moment. Their plans were okay. Peter was a fisherman.
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There was nothing inherently evil or wrong or sinful about the boys going fishing.
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The problem with the plan was that it was their plan.
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And something seemingly innocent and seemingly okay suddenly turned out to be
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unprofitable for both Peter and the rest of the boys.
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Because they didn't include Jesus in their plan and they were not doing what Jesus wanted them to do.
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But even while they are outside the perfect will, he refers to them as children.
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He still maintains that relationship. He still speaks of them as someone they
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love and he cares for and that he has responsibility and accountability to and for.
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Their indiscretion their neglect did not break their fellowship it didn't break
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their relationship it cost them their profit.
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Now let's look at our lives you may have chosen a noble career but down deep
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in your heart you know that it's not what god wants you to do,
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You may have chosen a noble plan for the day. But you know that that's not the
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place he wants you to be because he's tugged at your heart's door and asked
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you to be somewhere else.
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And it seems that all that you do is futile.
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And even though it may look profitable and it may look good to other people,
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something is just not satisfying about it and something is just wrong.
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I'll tell you what's wrong. You left Jesus out of the plan.
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As a child, I was much like everyone else. I had big dreams and big aspirations.
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I loved the Lord, and I would have told you that I loved him with my whole heart,
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my soul, my mind, and my whole being.
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And on the outside, I looked wonderful. And on the inside, I was fine.
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But there was something that I wanted more than I wanted to be in the will of God.
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I wanted to be a tennis star. There's nothing wrong with that.
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There's nothing wrong with the game.
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I could continue to do all the things that I wanted to do and I could be on
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the church quiz teams and I could study and I could do all these things and
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still continue to play and play competitively and play at high levels,
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but in my heart what I wanted everybody to know,
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was that I was a tennis player and it began to be something that I placed in
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front of anyone knowing that I knew God it began more important for me to talk
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to you about tennis than it was for me to talk to you about god and what he
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could do for you in his grace and his mercy,
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and before i knew it inside my heart through no fault of my parents or anyone
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who was teaching me or upbringing me or modeling their life in front of me i
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had suddenly left god out of the plan.
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And began to think about things my own way and in his still small sweet voice,
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he would beckon me home back to him and he would beckon to be the number one thing in my life,
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but I would continue to place that in front of him.
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He still loved me. He still called me his child.
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He still spoke to me in ways that were different than others.
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He still revealed his meaning and purpose of his scriptures to me.
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But all of that just wasn't as important to me as the ability to hit that optic
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yellow tennis ball in places other people couldn't reach.
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And so, like Peter, I began to make plans.
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And I would place God where I wanted him, but I wouldn't let him have full reign.
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He loved me so much, cared for me so deeply, had such important plans for me,
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to walk close to him, that when I couldn't make the decision, he made it for me.
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You see unlike peter who when they saw the man across the shore and heard him
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speak peter answered he didn't recognize jesus i don't think that i recognized
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jesus in my life to the point.
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That i could see that this was god talking to me and i needed to listen because
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he had a better plan for me no i just thought that was jesus and we loved each
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other and he loved me and my plan was equally as important,
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so when jesus spoke to me and he told me what to do i ignored him,
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and he still called me child and he still loved me and he still talked to me
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and he still walked with me and
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he still revealed his scriptures to me but when he said go and do for him,
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i said fine lord but only after i've gone and done what i want to do for me,
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like peter i was doing nothing in the horseweeds i wasn't doing anything inherently
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wrong i wasn't doing anything that was evil those who were looking at me and
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looking at my life thought i was an exemplary little christian girl,
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but in my heart just like peter,
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i made my own plans and i left him out unlike peter when jesus spoke and peter listened,
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and he obeyed i didn't for you see in verse 8 he says I love you.
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And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land,
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but as it were, 200 cubits, dragging the net with fishes. That was the reward.
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Because, you see, he said in verse 6, he says to cast the net on the right side of the ship.
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And then it says they cast it. Peter gave up his plan for himself.
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And when the Lord was there and
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he recognized him as God, and he told him what to do, then Peter did it.
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When I heard what he wanted, I said, fine, I love you, Lord,
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but we're going to do it my way first.
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Did I say that audibly to him? No. I've got guts, but I don't have that kind of guts.
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But my life proved it out, and I didn't stop and cast the net on the other side
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where Jesus said it was, to be put.
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I straddled the fence. I read my Bible. I memorized my verses. I studied.
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I was on the quiz team. The outside was clean and pretty.
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All the feet were in the right place. All the steps taken that looked so good.
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But in my heart, I'd left Jesus out of the plan. And I guess I thought I could placate him.
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But one day, he loved me so much that he took the choice away.
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Just like Peter, I had seen him.
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Not physically, as Peter had, but I knew what he wanted.
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And I'd had many conversations with him, and I'd heard him say, Kim, place me first.
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Kim, love me with all your whole heart, soul, and mind. Kim,
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you can't devise a better plan than I have for you.
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Kimmy, you can't have an abundant life on your way like I can give you with my purpose for you.
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And unlike Peter, who picked his net up and changed his direction,
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and went completely opposite of what he'd been doing before and followed Christ
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completely, I continued to be the captain of my ship.
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One night doing something that was completely innocent and completely fine playing
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girls basketball I tore my knee to pieces,
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and this is the truth the best that I know how to tell you as I went down in
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what was the freakest out accident probably ever to happen in girls basketball
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in the state of West Virginia and as I was laying down on that ground,
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waiting for someone to come and help me and the referee and my father to come
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down the stands and everybody because it was obvious that I was hurt badly. I knew something.
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I knew something that no one else in that room knew. At age 17,
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laying flat on the floor of Hurricane High School gym, I knew that the Lord
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loved me too much to let me leave him behind.
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So he was going to let me stand and be still and know that he was God.
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And for the next several months of my life, I laid flat on my back in traction.
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Couldn't get up, couldn't get out, couldn't do anything, could do nothing but look up.
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And I got to know God very well. I ran from him like Jonah.
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I was angry at him like Sarah.
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I was protected by him like Noah. I learned to depend on him like Daniel.
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I learned to let him fight my battles like David.
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And I began to learn to walk again, not just physically, but spiritually.
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I learned to listen when he spoke.
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I learned to follow when he commanded.
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I learned something that night that I don't know that I can put into words other
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than to tell you I knew he was God.
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And I wish I could tell you that I was noble enough that instantaneously I was
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grateful for the lesson I was going to learn and that I had learned. But I wasn't.
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See, Peter immediately picked up his net and threw on the other side when he
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recognized it was Jesus and Jesus spoke to him.
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And look what happens to Peter. Peter comes out with a lot of fish.
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Too many to number. As they were bringing it up, but then it comes to the net
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and he pulls up the whole multitude and there's 153 big fish.
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Net wasn't broken he said well kim what's so big about that see peter had a
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plan and peter's plan was to go fishing and in peter's plan he expected to get him some fish,
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but it's an important point that the scripture lays out to us when he says that
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he drugged the fish with a multitude and he counted 153 yet the net was not broken,
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that's to show you that peter could not believe that there was that many fish
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in the net and the net did not break,
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that's to lead you to the correct conclusion that peter had never fished and
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caught that many fish in that net.
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If peter had done it his way,
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he wasn't going to get anything but even following his plan to his biggest and
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greatest expectation it would have fallen way short,
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of what took place when peter included christ in his plan let christ be in the event,
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followed what christ said and reap the rewards of the abundant life,
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i was short-sighted kid i guess because i would have thought that the greatest
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thing that ever could have happened in my life would have been to have won wimbledon,
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and i remember even practicing my acceptance speech and i can remember even,
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making sure that i said the mandatory thank you god and i remember even telling
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him can you imagine And Lord,
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how much money I can give you in tithes and offerings if I could just win this award.
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And then as I laid there in that bed for those many months, getting a whole
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new identity because I was no longer Kim the tennis player, and I wasn't going to be Kim the lame,
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and I was learning to walk again both physically and spiritually,
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I realized that the commitment that it was going to take Thank you.
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Achieve my plan would have surely kept me from being that committed to the lord,
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and just like peter what i've come to find in my life is that the reward of doing it his way,
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far exceeds what i could have even ever thought or imagined no i don't have
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the bank account on earth,
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that i would have had had i actually even had the talent and the ability and
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the opportunity to have carried out my plan,
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but i'm sure that i have greater joy and i'm sure that i have a more abundant
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life and i'm sure that this walk that i have with christ this relationship that i have with him,
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far exceeds what i could have even thought about having as a child,
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and far exceeds what I would have had if I'd have continued fishing on the left side of the boat.
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I hope that you'll be more like Peter than like me.
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I hope that if you find yourself making a plan and he's standing on the shore
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that you recognize him, which Peter and I neither one could,
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you'll be more like Peter than like me.
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Do figure out it's him and he tells you to fish on the right-hand side of the
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boat and he changes your plans upside down inside out and all the way around,
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that you immediately cast,
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your net on that side and bask in the reward of obedience.
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But what i'm really hoping through this lesson that we see of peter fishing,
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and kimmy stumbling is that you see that he's a god of second chances if we
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confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
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us from all unrighteousness,
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and he loved me enough to give me a second chance probably if the truth be known
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a third and a fourth and a fifth and a sixth but he didn't give up on me and
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even though i ignored him and even though i placed something in front of him
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i was still his child just like peter was,
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and he still revealed himself to me in ways that were so personal,
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and i've learned to include him at the very beginning i've learned to consult
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him right up front i've learned to walk with him and i've learned that he said,
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if you follow me i'll make you fishers of men,
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and i may never hit a top spin forehand again.
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But you know what i can give you the love of jesus and when I get to heaven,
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I don't imagine anybody there will ever care about my topspin forehead.
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But I am praying from the depths of my heart that as I cast this net out on
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the right side of the boat, that somewhere, somehow, somebody says to me,
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you're a fisher of men because you caught me on the right-hand side.
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For joining us in today's podcast. You can visit the show notes for quotes from
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today's podcast and scripture references.
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