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Andy Stanley - Ninety Part 3 Fish Tricks · Andy Stanley Sermons

0:03
Speaker 1: Now, when you begin reading the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
0:05
Speaker 1: and John, the four Accounts of jesus life. When you
0:07
Speaker 1: begin reading the Gospels, one thing it becomes abundantly, abundantly clear,
0:11
Speaker 1: which is really good news for all of us. And
0:13
Speaker 1: what is abundantly clear when you read the accounts of
0:16
Speaker 1: Jesus' life is this that being a sinner does not
0:20
Speaker 1: disqualify you from following Jesus. In fact, it is a prerequisite.
0:26
Speaker 1: Can I get an amen on that? Okay, yeah, we
0:28
Speaker 1: don't usually do that. Yeah, exactly. So if you're going
0:31
Speaker 1: to be a Jesus follower and you're thinking, yeah, but
0:33
Speaker 1: my past and what I've done and what I think
0:35
Speaker 1: about and where I've been, the good news is this
0:36
Speaker 1: when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and you
0:38
Speaker 1: meet his followers and we're going to meet a couple today.
0:41
Speaker 1: When you meet his followers, you realize that being a
0:43
Speaker 1: sinner and having a past and stuff you're embarrassed about
0:47
Speaker 1: and hope nobody ever finds out and wonder if you'll
0:49
Speaker 1: ever be in a meaningful relationship because of your baggage
0:52
Speaker 1: or whatever, it doesn't disqualify you. It's actually a prerequisite,
0:56
Speaker 1: and it even gets any better. It gets better because
0:58
Speaker 1: being an unbeliever are not believing or not knowing what
1:01
Speaker 1: to believe, or not sure you believe what everybody is
1:03
Speaker 1: saying about Jesus. Being an unbeliever doesn't disqualify you from
1:07
Speaker 1: following Jesus either, because all of his followers, all of
1:11
Speaker 1: his followers, and will see this in a few weeks,
1:13
Speaker 1: all of his followers unbelieved. In the end, they believe
1:17
Speaker 1: and they disbelieve. And there's a scene in John chapter
1:19
Speaker 1: six where they decide, I don't think we can do
1:21
Speaker 1: this anymore, and Jesus called them on it. They're like,
1:23
Speaker 1: all right, you know, we'll give it one more shot.
1:25
Speaker 1: So they're in and they're out, and they're questioning and
1:27
Speaker 1: they're doubting. In the end, they all press unfollow, every
1:31
Speaker 1: single one of them. So as yet, seriously, you're gonna
1:34
Speaker 1: see as you're deciding where you stand with Jesus, and
1:37
Speaker 1: as you're deciding, you know, what do I believe? But
1:38
Speaker 1: what do I not believe? The good news is this,
1:40
Speaker 1: with your doubts, with your questions, you can begin following Jesus.
1:45
Speaker 1: That's great news. Now in terms of Jesus, first century followers.
1:49
Speaker 1: It was quite an assortment of people as we're going
1:51
Speaker 1: to see today. There were small business owners, a couple
1:54
Speaker 1: of irs agents, some patriots, some people that just were
1:58
Speaker 1: all for Israel and all against Rome and wanted Rome
2:01
Speaker 1: to be gone and thought, maybe Jesus is going to
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Speaker 1: help us, you know, kind of get a movement going
2:05
Speaker 1: that expels Rome. There were men, there were women. There
2:08
Speaker 1: were a blue collar, there were a white collar. They
2:10
Speaker 1: were not so educated. And then I highlighted this, there
2:13
Speaker 1: were some very very educated people that follow Jesus. And
2:16
Speaker 1: the reason this is a big deal is because in
2:18
Speaker 1: college you were told. One of the reasons that we
2:20
Speaker 1: know for certain that the apostles and eyewitnesses did not
2:24
Speaker 1: write Matthew, Martin, Luke, and John is because it's written
2:27
Speaker 1: in Greek. These were poor, ignorant fishermen who wrote Who's
2:30
Speaker 1: spoken Aramaic. They couldn't even write in their own language.
2:33
Speaker 1: They couldn't even write in the language of their people, Hebrews.
2:35
Speaker 1: So how in the world did they write these sophisticated
2:38
Speaker 1: texts in Greek? Therefore we know they didn't actually write them.
2:41
Speaker 1: And this is not information that can be trusted, and
2:43
Speaker 1: it wasn't written till many, many generations after the events.
2:46
Speaker 1: The problem is, when you actually read the Gospels, you
2:49
Speaker 1: discover some very educated people follow Jesus. In fact, in Matthew,
2:53
Speaker 1: here's something we just completely get so overlooked. One day
2:55
Speaker 1: a guy comes to Matthew. The guy sees me. One
2:57
Speaker 1: day a guy comes to Jesus. Matthew records this, and
3:00
Speaker 1: he says to Jesus, I'm a scribe. I will follow
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Speaker 1: you everywhere you go. Well, a scribe was an educated
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Speaker 1: person that actually could read and write and generally knew
3:09
Speaker 1: at least two languages, in maybe three. So this whole
3:12
Speaker 1: idea is just a bunch of ignorant people following Jesus.
3:15
Speaker 1: And so consequently the literature we have in the New
3:17
Speaker 1: Testament can't be trusted. I'm telling you that is old, old, old,
3:20
Speaker 1: and there's really nothing to substantiate that. We'll talk about
3:22
Speaker 1: that at a different day. So you have all kinds
3:24
Speaker 1: of people following Jesus, and so today we're going to
3:28
Speaker 1: meet some of his earliest followers, and we're gonna meet
3:31
Speaker 1: some of his most famous followers. Now, if this is
3:34
Speaker 1: your first time to tune in or to watch this series,
3:37
Speaker 1: let me catch you up real quick. Previously on ninety
3:39
Speaker 1: John the Baptist shows up on the banks of the
3:42
Speaker 1: Jordan River. He draws a big crowd, and then he
3:45
Speaker 1: draws that big crowd's attention to Jesus. And just when
3:48
Speaker 1: we think Jesus is going to start this big public
3:51
Speaker 1: ministry with this big crowd, Jesus disappears into the wilderness
3:54
Speaker 1: and wrestles with the tempter, with the accuser, with Satan,
3:58
Speaker 1: and basically wrestles with something he would wrestle with his
4:01
Speaker 1: entire ministry. And that's this Whose kingdom? Is this about?
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Speaker 1: Am I going to truly embrace the values of the
4:07
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God? Or am I going to embrace the
4:09
Speaker 1: values of the kingdoms of this world? And then after
4:13
Speaker 1: that season of being tempted that would continue throughout his
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Speaker 1: time on planet Earth. The text tells us that he
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Speaker 1: went back up north to Galilee, closer to where he
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Speaker 1: was from, and news about him spread through the whole countryside,
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Speaker 1: and he was teaching in their synagogues and everyone praised him.
4:30
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody came out to see Jesus. Because everybody
4:34
Speaker 1: had come out to see John the Baptist, and John
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Speaker 1: the Baptist said here he is. So everybody that thought
4:39
Speaker 1: John the Baptist was a big deal, now they're like,
4:42
Speaker 1: this is the one that John the Baptist told us about.
4:44
Speaker 1: So now Jesus is a really, really, really big deal.
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Speaker 1: So one day after church or after synagogue, a guy
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Speaker 1: named Simon Peter, who's not famous at the time, he's
4:53
Speaker 1: just a guy in the community, invites Jesus of Nazareth
4:56
Speaker 1: home for lunch, and on their way home for lunch,
4:59
Speaker 1: he said, Jesus, oh, yeah, I have a little bit
5:01
Speaker 1: of an agenda. My mother in law has a fever
5:03
Speaker 1: and it just won't go away. We're wondering if you could,
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Speaker 1: you know, could you address that. And Jesus goes to
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Speaker 1: Simon Peter's house and heals his mother in law on
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Speaker 1: the Sabbath. But it's a big secret because you're not
5:14
Speaker 1: supposed to do work on the Sabbath. Well, news begins
5:17
Speaker 1: to leak out in the community, and that night, when
5:19
Speaker 1: the sun went down and Sabbath was officially over, the
5:22
Speaker 1: text tells us at sunset, the people brought Jesus all
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Speaker 1: who had various kinds of sicknesses, and laying his hands
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Speaker 1: on each one, and again we read right past this.
5:32
Speaker 1: But this was so significant because in this day and age,
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Speaker 1: in this generation, in this faith system, you were not
5:38
Speaker 1: supposed to touch sick, especially dying people, especially people who had
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Speaker 1: physical manifestations of an illness. You were not supposed to
5:46
Speaker 1: touch them because the idea was you would be contaminated. Now,
5:49
Speaker 1: they didn't understand germs, but there was a little bit
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Speaker 1: of truth to that. Jesus, on the other hand, would
5:54
Speaker 1: intentionally touch sick people and instead of him receiving the
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Speaker 1: ill illness, they would receive healing. This was overwhelming and
6:02
Speaker 1: the reason we'll talk about this later if we have time.
6:05
Speaker 1: The reason Jesus healed people wasn't just to make people well.
6:09
Speaker 1: The reason that Jesus healed people is because in that culture,
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Speaker 1: as is the case in our culture, people associated sin
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Speaker 1: with sickness, sin with sickness. How can you tell if
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Speaker 1: a person has the power to forgive sin, You can't tell.
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Speaker 1: But if someone can touch a person who is sick
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Speaker 1: and sin is related to sickness, if you can heal
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Speaker 1: someone and make them physically well, then you have just
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Speaker 1: given me a big clue that you might have the
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Speaker 1: power to heal my relationship with my heavenly Father, because
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Speaker 1: sin and sickness all went together. So Jesus begins healing people,
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Speaker 1: laying his hands on each one of them, and this
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Speaker 1: sets the stage for what's next. Okay, now there's two
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Speaker 1: versions of what comes next. Matthew gives us a version
6:51
Speaker 1: and Luke gives us a version, and they both tell
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Speaker 1: us the truth. But Luke gives us a little bit
6:57
Speaker 1: more detail about how Jesus called his very first followers,
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Speaker 1: the four guys that you know, were, you know, the
7:03
Speaker 1: sort of the top of the rank and ranking in
7:05
Speaker 1: terms of Jesus' early followers. Matthew's version goes kind of
7:09
Speaker 1: like this. One day, Jesus is walking beside the Sea
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Speaker 1: of Galilee. He sees a guy named Peter and Andrew
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Speaker 1: who are fishing, and he says to Peter and Andrew,
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Speaker 1: come follow me, and all at once, with you know,
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Speaker 1: no further kind of invitation or inclination that he was
7:23
Speaker 1: going to make this call at once, they left their
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Speaker 1: nets and they followed him. So they're walking along and
7:28
Speaker 1: then they see James and John and they're out in
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Speaker 1: a boat fishing with their father, and Jesus says, follow me,
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Speaker 1: and Matthew says, and immediately they left the boat and
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Speaker 1: their father and followed him, like, hey, dad'd have fun
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Speaker 1: storm in the castle. You know, we're leaving. Good luck
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Speaker 1: with the fishing business. I know you raised us to
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Speaker 1: take the business over one day, but we're actually leaving.
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Speaker 1: We hope that works out for you. And when you
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Speaker 1: read Matthew's account, not only is it unrealistic, it's actually
7:56
Speaker 1: it seems kind of irresponsible. And yet I grew up
7:59
Speaker 1: some here and preachers kind of make a big deal
8:01
Speaker 1: out of this. You just need to follow Jesus and
8:03
Speaker 1: just give up everything and just follow Jesus. And if
8:06
Speaker 1: he's not Lord of all, he's not lord at all.
8:09
Speaker 1: And there was kind of always this guilt trip. You know,
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Speaker 1: you just need to give up everything and follow Jesus.
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Speaker 1: And look what these guys did. They just gave up
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Speaker 1: everything and follow Jesus. But honestly, who would do that?
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Speaker 1: And Luke, who wrote to us more of a non
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Speaker 1: Jewish audience, realized we may have some questions. And so Luke,
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Speaker 1: who gives us extraordinary detail, Luke is a historian's dream.
8:33
Speaker 1: Luke gives us the backstory as to why this happened
8:37
Speaker 1: and how it happened, and he confirms Matthew's story, but
8:40
Speaker 1: again he gives us a little bit of the backstory.
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Speaker 1: So here's Luke's account of what Matthew just told us.
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Speaker 1: One day, as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,
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Speaker 1: which is the Sea of Galilee, just a different name.
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Speaker 1: One day, is he standing there by the lake, people
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Speaker 1: were crowding around him, because everywhere Jesus went there was
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Speaker 1: a crowd crowding around him listening to the Word of God.
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Speaker 1: And we stumble upon something that's very, very very important,
9:05
Speaker 1: especially if you're new to faith, considering faith, or aren't
9:08
Speaker 1: sure you ever want to consider faith. And that's simply
9:11
Speaker 1: this that Christian faith not all religious faith and not
9:14
Speaker 1: all religions. But when it comes to Christianity, Christian faith
9:18
Speaker 1: begins with information. It does not begin with faith. It
9:23
Speaker 1: doesn't begin with faith. Christianity is an informed, evidence based faith.
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Speaker 1: In fact, I would say to this, and I realize
9:31
Speaker 1: I'm kind of meddling, But if you're in any kind
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Speaker 1: of church or any kind of religious system, maybe another religion,
9:36
Speaker 1: but even in a Christian church, if you can't question it,
9:40
Speaker 1: you should probably consider leaving it. If you can't question it.
9:45
Speaker 1: You should probably consider leaving it, even if it's a
9:48
Speaker 1: Christian church, because the authentic version of Christianity can be
9:52
Speaker 1: questioned because it began with information. It didn't begin with faith.
9:57
Speaker 1: You become a Christian by faith. Do not become a
10:01
Speaker 1: Christian because of faith. Following Jesus does not begin with faith.
10:06
Speaker 1: It does not begin with belief. Remember John the Baptist.
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Speaker 1: Week one, John the Baptist is teaching and preaching, and
10:12
Speaker 1: Jesus shows up. And remember what John the Baptist said.
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Speaker 1: I've gone over this twice. This will be the third time.
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Speaker 1: He doesn't say believe, he says, what did he say?
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Speaker 1: Come on, start to the now, look, thank you? He said, Look,
10:24
Speaker 1: here comes Jesus. I just want you to look. I
10:27
Speaker 1: want you to look, and I want you to begin
10:30
Speaker 1: to follow. And if you look, and if you follow,
10:32
Speaker 1: and if you pay attention, perhaps one day it will
10:36
Speaker 1: dawn on you that this is something you can believe.
10:40
Speaker 1: So Jesus is teaching, people are getting information, but they're crowding,
10:44
Speaker 1: crowd and crowding. He's stepping back. He's stepping back. The
10:47
Speaker 1: crowd is closer, closer, closer. Next thing, you know, he's
10:50
Speaker 1: standing in the edge of the lake and he's thinking,
10:52
Speaker 1: this isn't gonna work too well. I'm not ready to
10:53
Speaker 1: do that walk on water thing yet, so we need
10:55
Speaker 1: to make an adjustment. So he saw at the water's
10:59
Speaker 1: edge two boats left there by fishermen who were washing
11:02
Speaker 1: their nets. The reason they're washing their nets is because
11:04
Speaker 1: they'd already been fishing. This was mid morning, maybe late morning.
11:08
Speaker 1: You fish at night because the water's cool, the fish
11:10
Speaker 1: come to the surface to feed on the surface. When
11:11
Speaker 1: the sun rises, that water gets warm and the fish
11:14
Speaker 1: go deeper. So you fish with nets at night. So
11:16
Speaker 1: they have already been fishing. They are, you know, pulling
11:19
Speaker 1: out their nets. They're taking out on the beer cans
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Speaker 1: and all the junk out of the nets, stretching them out,
11:23
Speaker 1: drying the nets. Then they roll them up. They've been
11:25
Speaker 1: out fishing all night. Then they take a break cleaning
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Speaker 1: and drying the net. So he got into one of
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Speaker 1: the boats, the one belonging to Simon Simon Peter, and
11:32
Speaker 1: he asked him to put out a little from the shore. Hey,
11:34
Speaker 1: let's just you know, eight ten, twelve yards from the shore.
11:37
Speaker 1: And he sat down and he taught the people from
11:39
Speaker 1: the boat, so now they can come right to the
11:41
Speaker 1: water's edge. He's got a little distance. You know. They're
11:44
Speaker 1: on the bank of the Sea of Galilee, and it's
11:46
Speaker 1: kind of a cool teaching environment. And Luke gives us
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Speaker 1: all these details. And it's not just Peter who's listening.
11:52
Speaker 1: We know that Andrew, James, and John are also listening.
11:56
Speaker 1: And when Jesus finishes his sermon, he gives an invitation,
12:00
Speaker 1: but he doesn't give a come forward invitation. He gives
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Speaker 1: a let's go fishing invitation, and he says this. The
12:06
Speaker 1: text says this when he had finished speaking, so they've
12:08
Speaker 1: heard and heard. There's all this information. When he had
12:11
Speaker 1: finished speaking, he said to Simon and he makes a
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Speaker 1: very unexpected, somewhat irrational, but doable request, something that Simon
12:21
Speaker 1: was absolutely capable of doing, even though it was a
12:24
Speaker 1: little odd. And he doesn't say, I want you to
12:27
Speaker 1: abandon your family and abandon the family business and follow me.
12:30
Speaker 1: He gives Simon Peter a baby step. He says, hey,
12:35
Speaker 1: since we're already out here, let's put out into the
12:38
Speaker 1: deep water and let's let down the nets for catch,
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Speaker 1: which is simple. I mean, this is something he can do,
12:46
Speaker 1: except that we just cleaned and are drying the nets.
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Speaker 1: And Simon answered him, probably like we would, and he
12:53
Speaker 1: uses this very interesting term. And Luke is the only
12:55
Speaker 1: one that uses this term I think to refer to Jesus.
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Speaker 1: It's not Rabbi, it's not Lord. We get to that later.
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Speaker 1: It's a sign of respect. Okay, master, master, We just
13:06
Speaker 1: you know, so you know, we've worked hard all night.
13:08
Speaker 1: In other words, we're tired. We're at the end, we're
13:10
Speaker 1: not at the beginning. And you notice we have washed
13:12
Speaker 1: our nets. If we drop them into the water, we're
13:15
Speaker 1: gonna have to re wash them and start all over,
13:16
Speaker 1: and it kind of interrupts the whole thing. And besides that,
13:20
Speaker 1: just say, you know, we've worked hard all night and
13:21
Speaker 1: we haven't caught anything. We haven't caught anything when you're
13:25
Speaker 1: supposed to fish. What are the odds of us catching
13:28
Speaker 1: anything when you're not supposed to fish? And if my
13:32
Speaker 1: recollection is correct, you're a carpenter, right, so I'm sure
13:37
Speaker 1: you know all about being a carpenter. And it's okay,
13:41
Speaker 1: I'm not being critical that you don't know anything about fishing.
13:44
Speaker 1: And besides that, Jesus, you've drawn quite a crowd people
13:50
Speaker 1: are watching. They're going to watch me fish in the
13:54
Speaker 1: middle of the day and catch nothing. And then here's
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Speaker 1: the transit point. And if I could invite all of
14:03
Speaker 1: you on the edge, all of you who've walked away
14:05
Speaker 1: but are considering coming back, all of you, your christianity's
14:08
Speaker 1: gotten a little flat, a little boring. You know the songs,
14:11
Speaker 1: and everything's going fine, but there's no there's no grit anymore.
14:16
Speaker 1: This is this is the this is the tension. This
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Speaker 1: is the transition point. This would change everything for Peter.
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Speaker 1: It's inconvenient. I don't understand. There's no guarantee this is
14:30
Speaker 1: gonna work out. But because you say so, I mean,
14:35
Speaker 1: you healed my mother in law, I probably owe you this.
14:40
Speaker 1: Because you say so, this doesn't make any sense. But
14:43
Speaker 1: because you say so, it's gonna cost me. It's probably
14:46
Speaker 1: gonna cost me a day, which means it's gonna probably
14:48
Speaker 1: cost me some money. It's gonna cost me a little reputation.
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Speaker 1: But because you say so, okay, I will let down
14:58
Speaker 1: the nets. Now this is the big pause in the story. Okay,
15:02
Speaker 1: so look up here if you haven't paid attention, but
15:03
Speaker 1: come back. Okay, look this is amazing. Okay, think of
15:07
Speaker 1: what they didn't know. They had no idea. And I
15:10
Speaker 1: know I say this all the time, I'm gonna continue
15:12
Speaker 1: saying it all the time. They had no idea what
15:15
Speaker 1: hung in the balance of this decision. Right if they
15:19
Speaker 1: had not met and decided to follow Jesus, these guys
15:22
Speaker 1: would just be forgotten, nameless first century fishermen that amounted
15:27
Speaker 1: to nothing other than they just you know now, and
15:29
Speaker 1: I say nothing, I mean, nobody would know their name,
15:31
Speaker 1: They wouldn't be remembered. They would just be somebody else
15:34
Speaker 1: who came and went in the first century. Peter didn't
15:39
Speaker 1: know about this. Check this out. Peter didn't know about this.
15:42
Speaker 1: Have you been to this the Basilica of Saint Peter
15:45
Speaker 1: in Rome? Okay, let me just tell you. I've been
15:47
Speaker 1: three times every time I go there. Let's go to
15:50
Speaker 1: that next picture. I literally, I literally, when I can,
15:53
Speaker 1: I lay down on the floor and look up. And
15:55
Speaker 1: they don't like you to do that, Like, sir, you're
15:56
Speaker 1: gonna have to get off the floor. And I know
15:58
Speaker 1: I can't speak, you know I it's I'm telling you.
16:01
Speaker 1: If you ever go there, I promise, if you've been there,
16:03
Speaker 1: you know what I'm talking about. You want to lay
16:05
Speaker 1: down on the floor and you look up at this
16:06
Speaker 1: magnificent building and you think to yourself, I don't know
16:10
Speaker 1: how they could construct such a building. Now, I can't
16:13
Speaker 1: imagine how they did it at the beginning of the
16:15
Speaker 1: sixteenth century. It took one hundred and twenty years to
16:17
Speaker 1: build this building. This is over supposedly the tomb of
16:21
Speaker 1: Saint Peter. There was already a little basilica, a little
16:23
Speaker 1: kind of cathedral, really more of a little church there,
16:26
Speaker 1: and then they came along the sixteenth century and they
16:28
Speaker 1: built this. I mean, it's just beyond the word magnificent.
16:32
Speaker 1: And the other cool thing about this it's built right
16:35
Speaker 1: over Nero's circus. Nero's circus was the arena where Nero
16:40
Speaker 1: fed Christians the lions, wrapped them in animal clothes and
16:42
Speaker 1: fed them to wild beasts, and paled them on steaks,
16:46
Speaker 1: put tar in their hair, lit them on fire. I mean,
16:49
Speaker 1: this was sort of the first almost official persecution of Christians.
16:53
Speaker 1: And this building is built on that side, probably in
16:56
Speaker 1: the vicinity where both Peter and possibly all we're executed. Now,
17:02
Speaker 1: Peter didn't know anything about that. Peter's like, oh man,
17:06
Speaker 1: I'm gonna lose a day of wages. People are gonna
17:10
Speaker 1: think I'm crazy. He had no idea what hung in
17:13
Speaker 1: the balance to take not follow me, leave everything. Just
17:17
Speaker 1: take me fishing. That's all I'm asking. Just take me fishing.
17:19
Speaker 1: I know it didn't make a lot of sense, it's weird,
17:21
Speaker 1: but just trust me. Will you trust me with this, Peter?
17:24
Speaker 1: Will you take me fishing? You've heard me teach you know,
17:26
Speaker 1: I'm you know, probably from God. I'm at least a prophet.
17:29
Speaker 1: Would you trust me with this little iddy bitty thing.
17:33
Speaker 1: Now here's what I would say to you, And then
17:34
Speaker 1: we're gonna get back to the story. Here's what I
17:36
Speaker 1: know for sure about you and for me. We we
17:42
Speaker 1: we have no idea what hangs in the balance of
17:45
Speaker 1: our decision to say yes to whatever it is that
17:48
Speaker 1: God wants us to do next. Not only do we
17:51
Speaker 1: not know what hangs in the balance, we don't know
17:54
Speaker 1: who hangs in the balance. We don't know what relationship
17:59
Speaker 1: you will never have. You don't know what relationship you
18:03
Speaker 1: will miss. You don't know what joy that you'll never
18:07
Speaker 1: participate in by saying no to a simple invitation to
18:14
Speaker 1: take the next step. And that's true for all of us.
18:18
Speaker 1: And that's true for all of us, our entire lives.
18:22
Speaker 1: In fact, some of you come on your Christianity is
18:24
Speaker 1: a little flat. It's a little boring. You got it
18:27
Speaker 1: all under control, you know, you got it all work
18:29
Speaker 1: and everything's fine, but it's a little boring. And every
18:33
Speaker 1: once in a while you're challenged to get out of
18:35
Speaker 1: your comfort zone and you talk yourself out of it.
18:37
Speaker 1: You have no idea what hangs in the balance of
18:40
Speaker 1: your decision to do something uncomfortable that you feel prompted
18:44
Speaker 1: in your heart to do. Okay, back to the story.
18:47
Speaker 1: When they had done so, so they do this, it's like, okay,
18:50
Speaker 1: we'll go fishing. They get out there, it's like, hey, y'all, ya, Jesus,
18:54
Speaker 1: could you at least dismiss the crowd before we do?
18:56
Speaker 1: This is just embarrassing. Okay, everybody in this community, this
18:59
Speaker 1: is a fishing community, they know this is crazy. They
19:02
Speaker 1: dropped the nets. And when they had done so, when
19:05
Speaker 1: they had done so, not when they had believed so,
19:08
Speaker 1: not when they had considered, not when they thought, not
19:10
Speaker 1: when they felt guilty about, not when they prayed about it,
19:13
Speaker 1: when they acted on what Jesus asked them to do.
19:16
Speaker 1: Because through out his teaching ministry. Jesus says, it's not
19:19
Speaker 1: enough to listen. It's not enough to listen. It's not
19:21
Speaker 1: enough to listen listen. Listening makes no difference. Doing makes
19:24
Speaker 1: all the difference. Listening is like unapplied paint. It doesn't
19:28
Speaker 1: help anything. It's the application. It's applying the paint that
19:31
Speaker 1: makes the difference. It's applying the teaching that makes the difference.
19:35
Speaker 1: And Jesus says, and the text says, when they had
19:38
Speaker 1: done so, when their faith, okay, we're going to give
19:41
Speaker 1: this a shot. When their faith intersected with the character
19:44
Speaker 1: and the faithfulness of Jesus, everything changed. The text says,
19:48
Speaker 1: they caught you heard this story. They cast such a
19:51
Speaker 1: large number of fish that their nets begin to break.
19:53
Speaker 1: So they signaled for their partners, the other two guys.
19:56
Speaker 1: They signal for their partners in the other boat to
19:58
Speaker 1: come and help them, and they came and filled both boats,
20:01
Speaker 1: both boats so full of fish that both boats began
20:04
Speaker 1: to sink with all the weight. And when Simon Peter
20:09
Speaker 1: saw this, he cried out, we are rich. We won't
20:14
Speaker 1: have to work for weeks. And immediately immediately Peter offered
20:21
Speaker 1: Jesus a seven year contract thirty percent ownership of the company,
20:27
Speaker 1: with a seven year non compete upon termination of the
20:29
Speaker 1: contract by either party. Peter's only concern, Peter's only concern
20:38
Speaker 1: would was will this model? Scale? Get it? You got
20:45
Speaker 1: it scale? Okay? I just want to keep everybody. You're like,
20:49
Speaker 1: I should read the Bible. No, I made all that up.
20:50
Speaker 1: It's not in the Bible. Some of you are like, wow,
20:57
Speaker 1: come on, before we look at this, what would you do?
21:03
Speaker 1: Peter does exactly what I would do. Peter does exactly
21:05
Speaker 1: what I think what you would do. When Simon Peter
21:10
Speaker 1: saw this, he fell Jesus needs Suddenly. Fish is the
21:17
Speaker 1: furthest thing from his mind. That's like he fell at
21:21
Speaker 1: Jesus needs and he said And he didn't say, Oh
21:23
Speaker 1: that's so cool. You know who's going to clean all
21:26
Speaker 1: these now? He didn't say that. He said, go away
21:31
Speaker 1: from me. New title? Lord? Why a new title? Did
21:37
Speaker 1: Jesus become something that Jesus wasn't before? And one sense no,
21:41
Speaker 1: and one sence yes, Suddenly it's a title of authority.
21:46
Speaker 1: Suddenly it's it's a title of ownership. And why would
21:51
Speaker 1: he say go away from me? Lord? Well, Peter tells us,
21:54
Speaker 1: He says, because I am a sinful man. I mean,
21:58
Speaker 1: we may be inches apart, but we're nowhere close. Because
22:03
Speaker 1: his assumption was the assumption of the community. His assumption
22:06
Speaker 1: was the assumption of first century Judaism. His assumption was
22:10
Speaker 1: that God distances himself and keeps himself distant from sinners.
22:15
Speaker 1: And Peter is suddenly confronted with this. Isn't just a
22:18
Speaker 1: great teacher, He's not even just a great miracle worker.
22:21
Speaker 1: This person, whoever this is, is somehow from God, and
22:24
Speaker 1: he's way closer to God than he is to me.
22:27
Speaker 1: And I have no business even being in the presence,
22:29
Speaker 1: much less in the boat with this man. Because God
22:34
Speaker 1: distances himself from sinners, the religious leaders of that day
22:38
Speaker 1: and age certainly distance themselves from sinners. Jesus had come
22:45
Speaker 1: to reverse all of that. This was brand new, because
22:50
Speaker 1: Jesus had come to establish a brand new kind of
22:53
Speaker 1: relationship between God and mankind, and being a sinner was
22:58
Speaker 1: a pre requisite. And little did Peter know that Jesus
23:04
Speaker 1: had come to establish a brand new covenant, governed by
23:07
Speaker 1: a brand new ethic that would be part of this
23:10
Speaker 1: brand new movement, and Peter himself would actually be the
23:15
Speaker 1: first person in history to speak the definition, the rallying point,
23:22
Speaker 1: the thing that everyone would have in common in this
23:24
Speaker 1: brand new movement that would eventually be called the Church.
23:30
Speaker 1: I'm not even worthy to be in your presence. For
23:35
Speaker 1: he and all of his companions, Duh were astonished at
23:39
Speaker 1: the catcherfish. They take it, and so were James and John,
23:41
Speaker 1: the sons of Zebedees, Simon's partners. And then Jesus said
23:45
Speaker 1: to Simon was something he would say to these guys
23:47
Speaker 1: over and over and over and over, and they would
23:50
Speaker 1: usually be on the water when he said it. Do
23:52
Speaker 1: not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Now that you've
23:56
Speaker 1: seen me heal. Now that you have seen me control nature.
24:00
Speaker 1: There is nothing to be afraid of if you are
24:03
Speaker 1: with me. And then Jesus, I think, he breaks out
24:07
Speaker 1: into this giant grin and he says, from now on,
24:12
Speaker 1: from now on, I've got plans for you. Boys. You
24:17
Speaker 1: have no idea, but from now on you will fish
24:22
Speaker 1: for people. Let's go change the world together. So they
24:32
Speaker 1: pulled up their boats to shore, and they left everything,
24:39
Speaker 1: and these four guys would die with nothing including regret. Wow.
24:50
Speaker 1: And they followed him, and they followed him and you
24:54
Speaker 1: would have to and I would have to, and your
24:58
Speaker 1: mom and dad would have said, no, serious, We'll go
25:02
Speaker 1: go follow him and according and the tenent for us is, well, yeah,
25:10
Speaker 1: if if God or Jesus would do something like that
25:13
Speaker 1: for me, I would follow him. And here's what Peter
25:16
Speaker 1: would say to us today, I'm sure of it. Peter
25:18
Speaker 1: would say what we say, No, Peter, see if Peter,
25:20
Speaker 1: if Jesus did something like that for me or for us,
25:24
Speaker 1: we would follow him too. And Peter would be like, seriously, wait,
25:29
Speaker 1: wait what Yeah, Peter, if if we experienced something like that,
25:33
Speaker 1: we would follow Jesus. Peter would look at us and say,
25:38
Speaker 1: what he did a fish trick for me? That's all
25:42
Speaker 1: he did. He did a fish trick for me. Do
25:45
Speaker 1: you know what he did for you? You should know
25:50
Speaker 1: what he did for you. I dictated a letter to you.
25:54
Speaker 1: Have you read my letter? In fact, I dictated two
25:59
Speaker 1: letters to you. Have have you read my letters? Not
26:03
Speaker 1: the Bible that's three hundred years later, the letters that
26:07
Speaker 1: Peter who decided to follow Jesus not because Jesus had
26:11
Speaker 1: followed me and they had nothing better to do. Who
26:13
Speaker 1: followed Jesus because Jesus did something so amazing. Who wouldn't
26:16
Speaker 1: follow him? The Jesus who said, let me give you
26:19
Speaker 1: some evidence. Look, look, look, look, look, watch watch watch, watch, listen, listen, listen.
26:23
Speaker 1: You got enough evidence, then take a baby step and
26:25
Speaker 1: take me fishing. Okay, you got a little bit more evidence.
26:28
Speaker 1: Follow me. That very Saint Peter wrote a letter to
26:32
Speaker 1: first century Christians, and the first century Christians thought it
26:35
Speaker 1: was so valuable. Guess what they did with it. They
26:38
Speaker 1: meticulously use their name and password, carefully copied it down.
26:44
Speaker 1: And if you have a Bible, you have a letter
26:47
Speaker 1: from this guy. And he would look at you and
26:50
Speaker 1: look at me and say, seriously, you're not following Jesus.
26:53
Speaker 1: Are you kidding? He did a fish trip for me.
26:56
Speaker 1: Do you know what he has done for you? Let
27:00
Speaker 1: me tell you, and he maybe he would read from
27:02
Speaker 1: to us from his letter, so I will. When when
27:06
Speaker 1: they had hurled their insults at him, he Jesus did
27:10
Speaker 1: not retaliate. Peter would say, I saw this with my
27:13
Speaker 1: own eyes. I saw this with my own eyes. I
27:16
Speaker 1: saw him taken, I saw him arrested, I saw him beaten,
27:19
Speaker 1: I saw him crucified. And maybe Peter would say, have
27:22
Speaker 1: you ever seen a crucifixion, to which we would say no,
27:24
Speaker 1: have you ever smelled a crucifixion, to which we would
27:27
Speaker 1: say to have you ever heard the screaming of a
27:30
Speaker 1: fully grown man who knows that it's gonna take hours
27:33
Speaker 1: for him to hang here and die? Have you ever
27:35
Speaker 1: seen that? Have you ever experienced that? To which we
27:37
Speaker 1: would say no, We're not even sure. We want to
27:39
Speaker 1: know the details. Peter say, look at me. I've been
27:41
Speaker 1: there and I've seen it. I saw my friend Jesus crucified,
27:47
Speaker 1: and when he suffered, he made no threats. I'm telling you,
27:51
Speaker 1: you would say this is unbelievable. Nobody did this. They
27:56
Speaker 1: screamed to die, They screamed, they hurled insults at every
28:00
Speaker 1: the vicinity, they called for their mothers. And my friend
28:04
Speaker 1: Jesus hung there and did none of that. I saw this. Instead,
28:11
Speaker 1: he entrusted himself. He entrusted himself to him who judges justly,
28:15
Speaker 1: and to us. It was the most unjust act imaginable.
28:20
Speaker 1: But it was as if he just somehow knew this
28:24
Speaker 1: was part of some master plan. And then later not
28:28
Speaker 1: in the moment, because it was too emotional and we
28:30
Speaker 1: were so embarrassed and Peter would say it does. And
28:32
Speaker 1: I was the most embarrassed of all because I ran
28:35
Speaker 1: when he was arrested. I ran, And when somebody thought
28:38
Speaker 1: I might be one of his followers, I denied that
28:41
Speaker 1: I even knew his name. And now I'm on the
28:43
Speaker 1: edge of the crowd with my hoodie up, watching, hoping
28:46
Speaker 1: I'm not recognized, and I'm watching this man that was
28:49
Speaker 1: no mere man die. And later it dawned on us
28:55
Speaker 1: that he bore our sins in his body on that
29:01
Speaker 1: cross so that we might die. We, as in all
29:10
Speaker 1: of us, would have the opportunity to die to sins.
29:14
Speaker 1: What does that mean? It means this, This is so powerful.
29:16
Speaker 1: It means instead of being dead to, instead of being
29:19
Speaker 1: dead to, instead of being separated from God. Like we'd
29:22
Speaker 1: always been told that sin separates from from God. It
29:24
Speaker 1: forever separates from God. That God is so holy. We're
29:26
Speaker 1: so not holy. And you know, we can pray to
29:28
Speaker 1: God and hope the best, but we can never we
29:30
Speaker 1: can never have actual intimacy or relationship with God. He said,
29:34
Speaker 1: because of Jesus, because he took our sin, we died
29:37
Speaker 1: to separation from God. We are now dead to the
29:41
Speaker 1: being separated. We're dead to the separating power of sin.
29:45
Speaker 1: And so now we have an opportunity not only to
29:48
Speaker 1: have a relationship with God. Peter takes it one step further,
29:50
Speaker 1: and he says this and to live for righteousness. That
29:55
Speaker 1: we now have the invitation and permission to live fear
29:59
Speaker 1: lef lee, because when your best friend, when your savior
30:04
Speaker 1: has harnessed the power of nature and has overcome the
30:07
Speaker 1: power of disease, what is there to fear? And now
30:11
Speaker 1: with fearless living, facing life with no fear, we can
30:15
Speaker 1: live right, We can live good, We can live others. First,
30:20
Speaker 1: we can live out and embrace the values of the
30:22
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God, he says. And that's not all. Since
30:28
Speaker 1: you didn't read it, let me read it to you.
30:29
Speaker 1: By his wounds, by his wounds, by his physical wounds.
30:34
Speaker 1: You you, you me, Peter says, you should know by
30:41
Speaker 1: his wounds you have been healed. That is, you've been restored,
30:47
Speaker 1: you have been made right with God. Fish tricks, that's nothing.
30:54
Speaker 1: Surrendering to crucifixion for the sins of other people. Massive
31:02
Speaker 1: and you on the other side of all that, aren't following.
31:08
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, no, mere mortal, I'm telling you
31:11
Speaker 1: would say I was there when Judas showed up with
31:14
Speaker 1: the temple guard. We knew it was a big deal.
31:16
Speaker 1: We knew it was trouble. We knew for sure, maybe
31:18
Speaker 1: we're gonna run for our lives. And I watched Jesus
31:21
Speaker 1: walk up to his betrayer and turn himself in, knowing
31:27
Speaker 1: where it would lead. No mere mortal would do that,
31:32
Speaker 1: fish tricks nothing. He gave his life for you. You
31:40
Speaker 1: should follow him. When Peter, when Peter made that simple
31:50
Speaker 1: I can do this baby step decision to put his
31:53
Speaker 1: to get in the boat and say, okay, we're gonna
31:55
Speaker 1: drop the next This is this is this is the
31:56
Speaker 1: Jesus way. What I'm about to explain, This is the Gospels,
31:59
Speaker 1: this is throughout. It was a baby step. His faith Okay,
32:02
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a chance, intersected with God's faithfulness, with
32:05
Speaker 1: Jesus faithfulness, and everything changed. That is the way it works.
32:09
Speaker 1: It is small steps, small steps, baby steps. And so
32:14
Speaker 1: I have to ask you. I think Peter would ask you.
32:17
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Peter would be like, what I mean,
32:19
Speaker 1: You're on the other side of the resurrection and you're
32:22
Speaker 1: still not following this guy? Who are you following? I
32:25
Speaker 1: mean Come on, who's made you a better offer? Jesus
32:28
Speaker 1: Peter would say. One day I was about to leave
32:30
Speaker 1: and I realized, like, who's offering me eternal life? That
32:32
Speaker 1: would be no one? And yeah, this is difficult and challenging.
32:37
Speaker 1: So what's your next step? For some of you, it's
32:43
Speaker 1: just coming back to faith. You've just been putting it
32:46
Speaker 1: off and putting it off, and you're embarrassed. What are
32:48
Speaker 1: you gonna tell your friends? Come on, you know your
32:49
Speaker 1: next step? You just need to come back to faith.
32:51
Speaker 1: For some of you, you got you. There's somebody out
32:53
Speaker 1: there and there's a broken relationship, and you know it's
32:56
Speaker 1: enough of your fault. That's your time. You gotta deal
32:58
Speaker 1: with that. You gotta confess all your fault. It's never
33:01
Speaker 1: all our fault. But every time you pray and every
33:03
Speaker 1: time you kind of do the God thing, it's like,
33:05
Speaker 1: oh yeah, her, oh yeah, Heim, you just need to
33:07
Speaker 1: go do that. You need to go take care of that.
33:09
Speaker 1: For some of you is reconciling a relationship. You just
33:11
Speaker 1: need to take care of it, quit putting it off.
33:14
Speaker 1: For some of you, it's moral purity. You have so
33:16
Speaker 1: embraced that the sexual ethic of this culture and it
33:19
Speaker 1: is eating you alive. Come on, you are not happy.
33:22
Speaker 1: I mean you're having fun, but you are not happy,
33:24
Speaker 1: and it is eating away on the inside. And your
33:26
Speaker 1: heavenly father who loves you saying, come on, I want
33:29
Speaker 1: you to follow me, and I want you to walk
33:30
Speaker 1: away from all that. You need to take a year
33:34
Speaker 1: off of dating. You just need to not date for
33:36
Speaker 1: a year. You've been thinking about that anyway. You've heard
33:38
Speaker 1: us talk about that, and it's like, okay that Jesus think.
33:40
Speaker 1: Come on, I'm not asking you to leave the family business.
33:44
Speaker 1: I'm just asking you to take a year off and
33:47
Speaker 1: get your heart and your mind recentered what I want
33:51
Speaker 1: for you. For some of you, it's serving because life
33:55
Speaker 1: is so comfortable for you, and it's kind of Christian.
33:57
Speaker 1: Life's kind of got boring for you, and you need
33:59
Speaker 1: to get out of your comfort zone and to do
34:01
Speaker 1: something unusual that's gonna stretch you and make you pray hard.
34:06
Speaker 1: And for some of you, your life is stuff and
34:09
Speaker 1: you have such a hard time letting go of your stuff,
34:13
Speaker 1: and you felt it for a long time. It's time
34:15
Speaker 1: for me to figure out how to be more of
34:17
Speaker 1: a giver, not necessarily to a local church, just in
34:19
Speaker 1: my life. I've got everything I need, I've got more
34:22
Speaker 1: than I need, and I'm so afraid something bad's gonna happen.
34:24
Speaker 1: And you're having Father's going You're afraid something's bad is
34:27
Speaker 1: gonna happen. You know who has control over bad things happening? Okay,
34:30
Speaker 1: come on, what are you afraid of? What are you afraid?
34:33
Speaker 1: Are You're gonna live your whole life afraid or something
34:36
Speaker 1: you have no control over? Jesus is come on, come
34:40
Speaker 1: on follow me. Because you don't know. You don't know
34:50
Speaker 1: what hangs in the balance of your decision to say yes.
34:55
Speaker 1: You don't know what hangs in the balance of your
34:58
Speaker 1: decision to say yes to the next thing your heavenly
35:01
Speaker 1: Father is prompting you to do.